In 2019 we put down the deposit on an apartment that was being built in Palma, buying off plan. We had been coming to the island for years, had made good friends, felt at ease in the city and had long wondered how we might make the leap. In the end, the generosity of a couple of dead aunts with no offspring gave us the necessary rocket fuel to set off on our mission.

In March 2020 we came to check on the project’s progress. While in town I went to see my friend Roberto, a potter, in his studio. As we chatted he helped me to make a cup on his potters’ wheel. I assured him that I would return to glaze my masterpiece in three weeks’ time. Then came coronavirus.

We finally made it back in June 2021 and by then I – unlike the wiser, calmer other half – was wondering whether we had made a terrible decision. Coming here suddenly involved five coronavirus tests and a week of home isolation in London. How would this be the gateway to an easier life? 

That first day I walked over to see Roberto and there on a shelf was my now white-glazed cup, which had been matched with a saucer in my absence. Placed on our kitchen counter, it was the first real sign that our apartment would become home – not an escape but still a place where life was often just different, renewing. Magical at times.

Everyone has their edit of a place and ours is beyond eclectic. But if you are coming to Mallorca, here are a few places that you might want to add to your to-visit list.

1. 
For starters, you could go to see Roberto’s work. He has a courtyard shop, PK Studio, at 17 Calle Sant Feliu. It’s open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings. There are non-wobbly cups, plates and works inspired by everything from island myths to ikebana.
paparkone.com

2. 
Mallorca was once one of the great production centres for footwear but much of this industry vanished in the 1980s as outsourcing to China took hold. But Carmina is a thriving exception and makes formal shoes for men and women. The front door has a shoe last as its handle; push it open and discover a gem of a store.
carminashoemaker.com

3. 
There’s a good furniture and design shop called La Pecera that produces its wares on the island (we are the proud owners of its lounge chairs). Nextdoor you’ll find its sister business, Medina Mallorca, which sells vintage furniture. On the same strip is a shop for Gordiola, a maker of hand-blown glass – but I would visit its factory.
lapeceramallorca.com; gordiola.com

4. 
We drove up to Sóller this week, hound in tow, for dinner with friends at a new restaurant called Pueblo, from the folk behind the popular Patiki Beach. It’s just opposite the tiny train station, which has the cutest museum of Picasso ceramics. We sat in the courtyard, eating honey-soaked cheese and peppers shawled with anchovies, while making easy work of the rosé. I also like driving up to Hotel Corazón in the Tramuntana Mountains, between Deià and Sóller, and having drinks at the Grand Hotel Son Net in Puigpunyent.
pueblosoller.com; sonnet.es 

5. 
Also new is the Lobster Club in Portals Nous. It’s from the family that owns the successful Cappuccino chain of restaurants. The sea view is perfection; you pay more to secure a prime spot when making a booking. Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of lobster on the menu (a touch more sun and I could have been mistakenly served up with a side salad). It’s a yachty, moneyed crowd but fun to observe. And fun is what we all need.
lobsterclub.es 

In the July/August issue, we profile five brands that are slowing down and decamping to the Med for collaborations with beach clubs and hotels. Born and raised in the south of France, designer Simon Porte Jacquemus is always in favour of breezy linens and dance parties that end at sunrise. Over time, he has perfected the seasonal uniform with signature striped shirts, lightweight dresses and raffia handbags. Welcome to his beach club.

Jacquemus’s Casa Jondal beach club, Ibiza 
To celebrate the arrival of warmer days, Paris-based brand Jacquemus has upped sticks and headed to Casa Jondal on Ibiza’s rocky southern coast. As part of a new, hospitality-focused collaboration, the brand is fitting out the chic beach club with banana-yellow parasols and sunloungers that have playful polka-dot details, echoing Jacquemus’s spring/summer 2025 collection. Our favourite addition? An area reserved for pétanque, the French summer ball game par excellence. 

Since founding his business in 2009, the French designer has been cleverly channelling the appeal of sunny locations for his runway shows, inviting guests to Provençal lavender fields, modernist houses in Capri or art museums in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. At Casa Jondal, he extends this celebration of Mediterranean charm into the realm of hospitality. You can spend the day under the club’s bright-yellow parasols, settle in for a sundowner with a tequila-based cocktail or enjoy dishes such as fried squid, prawn carpaccio or caviar. 

You can also visit the temporary boutique on the beach and browse an exclusive resort collection of menswear, womenswear and accessories, including raffia hats and shirts featuring the same banana-yellow shade as the sunloungers. Novelty items, including caps, keyrings and mugs, make for perfect souvenirs of a beach holiday well spent.
jacquemus.com

We recently scoured the globe in search of newsstands stocking a compelling roster of print publications and serving as valuable community hubs. Here’s one that’s worthy of making headlines.

Aedicola Lambrate, Milan
A trip to the neighbourhood edicola (newsstand) to catch up on events is a ritual that’s close to the heart of many Milanese. Two years ago a group of friends living in the city’s Lambrate district saw a “for sale” sign attached to their local news kiosk. After discussing their concerns about losing their source of print media, they quickly decided to buy the space. “The location, on a corner with a wide pavement, was a gathering place for the community,” says Michele Lupi, a former editor in chief of the Italian editions of GQ and Rolling Stone, who now works for fashion group Tod’s. “A newsagent had been there in one form or another since the early 1900s. It would have been a pity to lose it.”

Within a year, Lupi and his partners – Paolo Iabichino, Martina Pomponio and Alioscia Bisceglia (frontman of Italian band Casino Royale) – refurbished the stand, complete with bright-yellow signage. It now stocks national and foreign publications, as well as books. Talks with writers and live radio events are hosted on-site. “We’ve had a great response,” says Lupi. “When we opened, neighbours came by with prosecco and plates of pasta to celebrate.”

For more on our favourite kiosks across the world, pick up a copy of Monocle’s July/August issue.

For many years I lived on the second floor of a building in Istanbul, where my view of the sky was blocked by some of the city’s sludgy-coloured tower blocks (writes Hannah Lucinda Smith). But I’ve since gained a new perspective. I moved house, not to a different city or neighbourhood and not even another building – just upwards, in search of a roof terrace with a view of the Bosphorus. Up here, I’ve discovered an urban pastime: birdwatching.

This city between two continents is not only a crucial waterway for the world’s sea traffic. It is also a departure lounge for migrating birds where flocks trace the strait due north or south. There are the seagulls that soar across the water and occupy the highest vantage points; then there are the crows, the bad boys on the block. But alongside them are the laughing doves, small mauve and brown creatures with a distinctive coo, and the tiny finches that dart between the balconies. I’ve watched a pigeon taking a bath in a rain-filled pot on a fifth-floor window ledge, splashing water onto confused passersby on the pavement, and a pure-white dove that perches at the same spot every morning. Best of all are the storks that come twice a year and pass overhead as they venture on to Europe or Africa. 
 
Istanbul can feel like an urban sprawl, where concrete and ground-dwellers overcrowd an ever-swelling metropolis. But from my new vantage point, I see my city anew. It’s a reminder that, whatever gripes I might have at street level – bad landlords, crowded transport and rising prices – there’s another world higher up, where a different species owns the city.

Atsushi Hasegawa, the head of creative at The Newt in Somerset, can be spotted wandering around the luxury hotel’s verdant grounds in a straw boater, linen shirt and a kimono-inspired work jacket that he designed for UK gardening brand Niwaki (writes Grace Charlton). Hasegawa was born in Japan and became fascinated with fashion in the late 1980s, when he worked at Vivienne Westwood’s Tokyo shop. A passion for fly-fishing brought him to Paris, where he worked at La Maison de la Mouche, a shop that caters to the outdoor hobby. After about 10 years in the French capital’s textile-design industry, Hasegawa crossed the Channel to become the head of creative concept at footwear brand Clarks. Today he oversees The Newt’s visual identity, marketing activities and cultural partnerships. He tells Monocle about his spontaneous approach to getting dressed and his many sartorial obsessions.

How has your style evolved?
In the 1980s I went to the same university in Tokyo that Kenzō Takada [the founder of Kenzo] and Yohji Yamamoto went to. I read magazines such as The Face and i-D. These things weren’t mainstream in Japan at the time. Since then, I have been addicted to fashion. In Tokyo at the time, there were rigid codes: you were either a Yohji man or a Comme des Garçons lady. Nowadays, fusion is completely normal but it wasn’t allowed back then. When I moved to Paris I loved the freedom. Parisians wear anything naturally. Now I dress according to how I feel, so my colleagues would probably describe me as a peacock.

How would you describe your everyday style?
I’m a chameleon. I’m drawn to the unexpected. Yesterday I wore an all-pink jumpsuit to the beach and my daughters said that it was cool. When I left Japan I began to understand that there’s unique craftsmanship there and I’ve since become obsessed with it. I mig