How to spend it in June

EAT

The launch of The River Cafe Cafe

The River Cafe has been serving simple, elegant Italian food from Thames Wharf since 1987; this month sees it expand its remit for the first time since it opened. The River Cafe Cafe will sit next to the restaurant in what was once the office of the architect Richard Rogers (the late husband of the Cafe’s co-founder, Ruthie Rogers). They will offer a lower-key menu of coffee and brioche in the morning, prosciutto, mozzarella and seasonal vegetables at lunch, and aperitivo deep into the evening. Baya Simons

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Orlebar Brown joins forces with La DoubleJ

British brand Orlebar Brown joins forces with JJ Martin’s maximalist label La DoubleJ for its first women’s fashion collaboration. The 34-piece summer capsule includes swimwear, dresses, shorts and scarves, all in a mood-boosting colour palette with motifs inspired by Italian summertime. Kira Richards

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Louise Bourgeois in Rome

Rome’s Galleria Borghese will open its first exhibition dedicated to a contemporary female artist this month. Twenty sculptures by Louise Bourgeois, including disembodied marble limbs and one of her famous spiders, will be shown throughout the 17th-century villa and its gardens, which enchanted the artist when she first visited the city in 1967. Marion Willingham

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An illustrated edition of Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion’s 1968 book, famously explores hippie counter-culture in San Francisco, the failure of the dream promised by California and what John Wayne meant to America. An illustrated edition is now being published by The Folio Society, with paintings, posters and photographs from the era curated by Didion’s friend, the writer Hilton Als. BS

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A Secret Sea Cove dinner on the Californian coast

Outstanding in the Field was founded in 1999 with the idea of holding dinners at the source of the central ingredients. Their long, winding outdoor table spreads have since popped up on beaches, vineyards and meadows around the world. They will be touring the Californian coast this summer, with one particularly delicious stop-off in the small beach town of Pescadero, featuring a menu of sungold tomatoes, sea kelp and stone fruit, alongside a wine pairing from family-owned vineyard Lola. Dinner entertainment could come in the form of pelican- or whale-watching. Inès Cross

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A Cos x Kazuki Tabata collaboration

Shibori, which involves binding, stitching, folding and twisting cloth to create intricate indigo patterns, is one of the oldest dyeing techniques in Japan. Now one of Kyoto’s last artisans dedicated to the ancient craft is collaborating with Swedish retailer Cos on a limited-edition capsule collection. The 14-piece edit, which spans womenswear and menswear, sees Kazuki Tabata’s vibrant whorls of blue, orange and brown transposed onto pieces such as silk scarves, recycled polyester shorts and pleated midi dresses. Sara Semic

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Fashion photography old and new at Fotografie-Forum  

A new group exhibition at the Fotografie-Forum in the German town of Monschau explores the history of fashion photography, spanning the earliest images of noblewomen in the 19th century to experimental contemporary work. The show features work by Martin Parr, whose new book Fashion Faux Parr collects his fashion imagery; Isabelle Wenzel, best known for her surrealist self-timer images; and reportage scenes from Alex Webb. IC

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The technicolour world of Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas’s mixed-media portraits of Black women, 12ft technicolour paintings and nude prints glittering with rhinestones, are a highlight of a retrospective covering the past 20 years of the American artist’s work, which opened at LA’s The Broad museum last month. The show, which will then travel to Philadelphia and then London, is titled All About Love in reference to bell hooks’ seminal book on the subject, seeks to celebrate a life lived with love. IC

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Ancient history, courtesy of Pharrell and Tiffany & Co

Musician, producer and Louis Vuitton men’s creative director Pharrell Williams looked to ancient Greece when designing his Titan collaboration with Tiffany & Co. “The name draws inspiration from Poseidon, ruler of the sea, king of Atlantis,” he says – and the collection pays tribute to the god’s trident with black-titanium necklaces and bracelets that menace with spikes, and gold earrings with diamonds set with the points facing outwards. Alexander Tyndall

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Eileen Agar’s long out-of-print memoir

The surrealist painter Eileen Agar was one of the few women to show alongside artists such as Dalí, Magritte, Miró and Klee. She also became a friend of André Breton, spent a summer in the south of France with Picasso, dated Paul Nash and studied with Henry Moore. Aged 89, she committed her story to paper – and it’s now being republished after 30 years out of print, coinciding with an exhibition of unseen Agar works at the Redfern Gallery on Cork Street. BS

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Proenza Schouler’s reimagination of a Vans classic

When New York label Proenza Schouler first collaborated with Birkenstock in 2020, they turned the prosaic sandal into a cult fashion item. Now the duo have turned their minds to Vans, reimagining the skate brand’s classic slip-on sneaker into a minimalist leather shoe. The style features an inflated collar and comes in black, ecru and resin. Jessica Beresford

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A Parakeet x Bouchon Racine supper club

Kentish Town’s The Parakeet, known for its flame-cooked, modern European menu, will be joined by the team behind cult French bistro Bouchon Racine for one night to co-host a supper club in aid of two charities. The menu includes both fresh co-creations, such as flame-grilled rabbit thigh and mustard sauce, and classic dishes like The Parakeet’s confit trout with sea herbs and butter sauce. Profits from the food will be split evenly between suicide prevention charity Papyrus and MAP, which provides medical aid to Palestinians. BS

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Collectible art in London, from Lucian Freud to Bridget Riley

Eye of the Collector, the annual art and design fair, opens this summer in a new home, the Grade II-listed Garrison Chapel at Chelsea Barracks. The fair will display works from notable artists such as Lucian Freud and Bridget Riley as well as rediscovered figures like the 20th-century avant-garde painter Mildred Bendall and the Belgian painter and watercolourist Alice Frey. KR

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Artist-designed skateboards in Olympic Paris

This July will see skateboarders compete for Olympic gold inside a giant bowl set up on Paris’s Place de la Concorde. Overlooking the events is the Hôtel de Crillon, where guests can find a tribute to the sport in the form of skateboard installations by artists including Cindy Sherman, Jurgen Teller, Jenny Holzer, Ai Weiwei, Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol. A special edition designed by French artist Inès Longevial will also be on sale, with 10 per cent of sales benefitting charity projects. BS

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The Dover kicks off its Sunday Lunch Club 

The Dover, the Italian-American-style restaurant in Mayfair, is introducing a new monthly Sunday lunch club. Intended as a relaxed, home-style service, the lunch will begin with an aperitif and green olives, grissini and 36-month aged parmesan at the bar. Lunch can be served in individual portions or family-style: tortellini in Brodo, beef arrosto – The Dover’s twist on an English roast – or spaghetti and meatballs. Dessert is a huge silver platter of vanilla gelato wheeled into the dining room, to be served with hot chocolate sauce and Borsci liqueur. IC

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A 190th-anniversary ballet box

Wolf, makers of fine British jewellery boxes, are celebrating 190 years of production with a new edition of the Ballet Box, first imagined in the 1950s by Philip Wolf III. Crafted from walnut with an embroidered blue lining, the box comes with two interchangeable ballerinas who twirl to the tune of Swan Lake. MW

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Bella Freud’s tableware makes things personal

Are you an Angel or an Art Dealer? Bella Freud’s new collection of china tableware, featuring six dinner and side plates and a jug, invites you to label your dinner guests via their place settings. Sets of plates also include her famous mantra “Ginsburg is God”, “Situation”, “Postmodern” and “Love is the Drug”. BS

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Nancy Cadogan’s ode to Como

Nancy Cadogan has been drawing around Lake Como for more than 20 years. “It doesn’t surprise me that the Romantics were so moved by the lake,” the British painter  says of the area, which was also beloved of Percy and Mary Shelley and Lord Bryon in the early 19th century. “It has the capacity to relieve the individual of themselves.” In her latest works, which can be seen in situ at the Torre delle Arti Bellagio cultural centre, she considers not only the dramatic scenery of Como but its historic role as a muse. MW

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