The Revue, November 2020

It’s officially big jumper season. Time to dust off those thermals and somehow find a way to embrace the long dark evenings. For this month’s Revue we’ve pulled together plenty of fascinating reading material to keep you occupied, including a weighty retrospective of a German design great and the story of a legendary New Yorker’s travelling ashes, as well as music from a leading light of the London jazz scene. Get comfy and tune in.

Listen: Shabaka Hutchings & Britten Sinfonia, Barbican, November 18th

Saxophonist, clarinettist, bandleader and composer Shabaka Hutchings joins Cambridge-based chamber orchestra Britten Sinfonia for a night at the Barbican. Hutchings – a central figure of the London Jazz scene best known as the frontman of four-piece Sons of Kemet – taps into his classical training to perform Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, originally written for the ‘King of Swing,’ Benny Goodman.  Part of the Barbican’s autumn concert series, Hutchings will follow with Igor Stravinsky’s 3 Pieces For Clarinet Solo and a full clarinet improvisation, the multi-instrumentalist’s incredible skill and versatility on full show. Catch it in person or online.

read: The Improbable Story of Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, The New Yorker

Raised on the Upper West Side, writer, critic, satirist and playwright Dorothy Parker returned to Manhattan this year, her ashes finally laid to rest in the city she called home for 73 years. The legendary literary figure hopped from Vogue, to Vanity Fair to The New Yorker across the course of her impressive career, founding the legendary Algonquin Round Table along the way, a crew of boozy lunch enthusiasts that included Harpo Marx and Irving Berlin. Writer Laurie Gwen Shapiro uncovers Parker’s little known involvement in the civil rights movement and the fascinating journey of her estate, via Martin Luther King Jr. and the NAACP. 

view: after image, MAMOTH

Bloomsbury-based MAMOTH gallery host a new group show, after image, bringing together twelve UK-based artist who have made painting their chosen medium. Inspired by master of appropriation Elaine Sturtevant’s 2014 MOMA exhibition Double Trouble, the show explores work that is “informed by and in some cases visually examines the circulation of images in painting.” Curated by Robert Spragg, look out for contributions from new and established artists including Alvaro Barrington, Lydia Blakeley and Gina Fischli, as well as friend of Drake’s, Sherman Mern Tat Sam.

read: Dieter Rams: The Complete Works, Phaidon

One of the 20th century’s most influential product designers, Dieter Rams’ impressive body of work has been collected across 300 pages in this latest volume from Phaidon. Produced by Klaus Kemp, professor of design theory and history at the HfG Offenbach in Germany, the book has been created in partnership with the man himself. Charting his rise up the ranks at Braun during its most prolific, design-focused years, to his legendary ‘ten principles for good design' and stripped back Vitsoe system, every single Rams product goes under the spotlight in this thorough catalogue of the great man’s work.

read: Kissa by Kissa, Craig Mod

A writer and photographer based in Japan, Craig Mod has spent an extraordinary amount of time walking the rural countryside of his adopted home, covering over 2,500km in seven years. Taking a slow approach to these mammoth journeys, his leisurely walks are often punctuated by a stop at a kissaten, the traditional Japanese coffee shop set-up found across the country. His sell-out first edition of Kissa by Kissa gets a second run, described as “a book about walking 1,000+km of the countryside of Japan along the ancient Nakasendō highway, the culture of toast… and mid-twentieth century Japanese cafés called kissaten.” Self-published, produced with incredible care and attention in Japan, this cloth-bound limited edition contains essays, photographs and short stories from his journey, one for the travel-heads and toast aficionados. 

product focus: Taupe Glen Check Casentino Wool Raglan Sleeve Overcoat

A timeless cut, the Raglan Overcoat returns just in time for a drop in temperature. A generous fit with a soft shoulder emphasised by raglan sleeves, this season we've opted for an oversized glen check, using a dense wool woven in the Casentino region of Northern Tuscany. The perfect finishing layer over a suit, or a simple jeans and jumper combination, this classic piece of cold weather outerwear will only get better with age.