chanel | reach for the stars

MAM’s latest project finds the Barcelona-based jewellery label in conversation with an unlikely collaborator: a dragon. Or rather, the tiled rooftop of Casa Batlló, whose curving, scale-like tiles inspired a new collection that brings Antoni Gaudí’s architecture into direct contact with the human body.

The starting point was instinctive. Both MAM and Casa Batlló draw on nature as more than just a reference: they work with it, letting irregular forms, movement and texture guide the outcome. At Gaudí’s landmark building, nothing stands still. Surfaces bend, walls ripple, and even the rooftop seems to breathe. MAM’s jewellery follows a similar logic: pieces are made to shift with the body, not sit stiffly on it. Shapes wrap, coil and flow. Nothing is static.

But the connection runs deeper than these shared aesthetics. MAM’s home base, MAM House, is a 19th-century building in the Gothic Quarter designed by Elies Rogent, who once taught the Catalan architect. It’s now a space for the brand’s creative experiments, and a quiet mirror to Casa Batlló’s show-stopping curves. Bringing the two together wasn’t about staging a contrast but rather continuing a conversation already happening across time, space and form.

The tiled roof became the collection’s centre. It suggests a spine, a creature mid-motion, and MAM leaned into that reading. The way the colourful tiles rise and settle informed pieces that wrap and respond to the body, as if in mid-shift. However, the collection also includes staples like bangles, earcuffs, earrings, rings, and even a bejewelled mask that’s otherworldly to say the least. 

One of the standout pieces in the project is a large-scale silver tile, designed as a kind of anchor between Gaudí’s legacy and MAM’s own language. It reflects the same curved surface of the roof, scaled up and recast in metal. The intention was to capture the historic significance of Gaudí’s work and project it into the future using MAM’s jewellery pieces. And the results speak for themselves.

To mark the launch, MAM invited the Torres brothers to host a dinner inside MAM House. Known for their meticulous, ingredient-first approach to cooking, the three Michelin-starred chefs put together a multi-course experience that reflected the themes of the collection: fluidity, surprise, and transformation. Guests were given another way to experience the ideas behind the project, this time through scent, taste, and texture.

Find more information about the collection here.

photography. Monica Herede
words. Gennaro Costanzo

Primavera Sound 2025 brought its usual mix of chaos and catharsis to the Parc del Fòrum, in Barcelona, with a lineup spanning the extremes of experimental electronics, millennial pop melodrama, and gritty live performance. With the Mediterranean sun as a backdrop and a crowd ready to sweat, scream, and self-reflect, Schön! was there to witness it all — and capture all the standout moments.

At the opening night, FKA twigs needed little more than minimal scenography to conjure an entire cosmos. Her Thursday night set on the Estrella Damm stage bent pop performance into something sinewy and spellbinding — and she only needed a pole, a sword, and some scaffolding. Across contortions (yes, including pole dance) and sparse-but-precise costume changes, FKA twigs danced her way through EUSEXUA, then dialled the energy down to deliver liquid intimacy with Home With You, Two Weeks, and a devastating Cellophane rendition. Her set followed lively and fun openers with Japanese duo YOASOBI and emerging star BEABADOOBEE, who initiated the day of music celebration. 

On Friday, queer icons Charli XCX and Troye Sivan brought the heat with SWEAT, their only European joint show. A relentless club sprint through their respective eras, BRAT and Something to Give Each Other, with Sivan leaning into twink villainy as he marked his 30th birthday, and Charli XCX tearing through the brat club canon like a woman possessed. The set, however, hit its peak fan-fuelled delirium when Chappell Roan appeared on screen mid-routine, delivering her “Apple Girl choreo” in full drag-pageant mode. Camp? Of course.

Sabrina Carpenter followed, bringing her new-age Barbie energy and extra heat to the festival. On a stage somewhere between a TV studio and an oversized dollhouse, she leaned into ’80s tropes and bubblegum bravado, teasing the audience with one-liners and hits, from Espresso to the just-dropped Manchild.

But if anyone came to claim the crown, it was Chappell Roan. Dressed like a prom queen from a gothic fever dream, she turned the Estrella Damm stage into her own neon-lit fortress. She opened with Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl, read out text messages from exes (for public shaming, naturally), paid tribute to the trailblazing women before her with a belting cover of Barracuda, and closed with the queer anthem Pink Pony Club. 

And through all of this pop chaos and sonic euphoria, CUPRA returned as festival partner for the fourth year, bringing with it a new highlight: CUPRA Pulse. The mirrored installation became a hub for rave realness and sonic experimentation, with sets from Crystallmess, Lolahol, and LSDXOXO transforming the space into a chrome-lit playground. The CUPRA Stage hosted influential artists like Amelie Lens, TV On The Radio, and Amaia, while the brand’s digital platform, CUPRA Music Hub, streamed the action globally.

“Music has been a part of CUPRA since our foundation. It inspires us and enables us to convey the values we stand for: boldness, creativity, and celebrating the talent of the future,” said Patrick Sievers, CUPRA’s Global Head of Marketing. “We have designed the space to amplify the connection with the audience and turn each performance into something more immersive.”

From scaffold to strobe light, from mascara tears to euphoric drops, Primavera Sound 2025 was a fantasy you could dance inside. And this year, it had a heartbeat of chrome.

photography. Àlex Grimà, CUPRA, Christian Bertrand, Clara Orozco, Henry Redcliffe, Gisela Jané, Silvia Villar, Sharon Lopez
words. Gennaro Costanzo

It’s not every day a new store opens on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, let alone one that feels like both a love letter and a provocation. But Casablanca’s first-ever flagship, unveiled this June, does just that. It’s not shy, not demure, and certainly not just another luxury boutique squeezed between marble facades.

For Charaf Tajer, Casablanca’s founder and creative director, the opening marks a personal full circle. Born in Paris to Moroccan parents and raised in the vibrant neighbourhood of Belleville, Tajer has never shied away from blending identities. “I want a corner on that street,” he told himself years ago — a seemingly impossible ambition in a neighbourhood stitched together by legacy brands. And yet, here it is: a three-storey monochromatic monument to both past and future.

“Opening our first store in Paris is a bit surreal, but I’m not a dreamer – I’m a man of projects, and I’m driven by a pursuit to manifest the things I believe in,” says Tajer. “This is a real milestone: it stands for the fact that anything is possible. In gratitude for this.”

Set in the city’s 8th arrondissement, the flagship takes over a Haussmann-era corner building with an interior that’s anything but traditional. Designed in collaboration with brand art director Steve Grimes, the interior reads like a cinematic set, where Japanese minimalism, retro-futurism, and the precision of Stanley Kubrick converge. 

On the ground floor, Carrara Bianco marble tiles nod to ancient Greece, while a glowing, stretched lightbox ceiling suggests something more otherworldly. The centrepiece, a stunning blend of marble, velvet, and high-gloss lacquer, ties the space together with architectural drama. It pays homage to the work of one of Tajer’s favourite architects, Carlo Scarpa.

Colour, as ever in Casablanca’s world, plays a leading role. Arched niches and mouldings bring in classic Parisian codes, but they’re spliced with a bold palette of red, green, and electric blue. Downstairs, the experience goes tactile: plush green carpet rises up the walls, wrapping around transparent sculptural displays like some surrealist clubhouse for the brand’s inner circle.

But for all its design references and polished surfaces, the store feels deeply personal. Tajer doesn’t position himself as a luxury disruptor, but as someone deeply motivated by change. “It’s a sign of progress,” he says. “And it goes back to our purpose, which is always to inspire people.”

Casablanca Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré opened on 5 June, with a second store opening on 469 North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, later this summer.

photography. Benoit Florençon
words. Gennaro Costanzo