When the Moroccan financier Aziz Nahas decided to buy and regenerate a farm outside Marrakesh about two decades ago, he underestimated how much would grow there. Now, the 10-acre plot produces organic vegetables and fruits as well as hosting an artist residency program and a ceramic studio, all under the name Sanctuary Slimane. In 2021, Nahas’s friend the French restaurateur Benjamin Pastor suggested they partner up to start a cafe and farm shop in the busy Marrakesh neighborhood of Gueliz. Last spring, they opened the coffee shop Blue Ribbon, with offerings including fresh salads served with halloumi or beets and almonds and a bánh mí sandwich on fresh sourdough. In the fall, they added a seating area next door and the Slimane Farm Shop, which sells vegetables and products like honey and dried herbs that are grown and produced on the farm. Up next: Farmers, a restaurant headed by Blue Ribbon’s chef and located in the same building. The 46-seat space, lined with colorful Popham tiles, is scheduled to open at the end of February. blueribbonmarrakech.com.
Wear This
A Beribboned Ballet Flat From Brooklyn’s Salter House
Salter House, a home goods and clothing store-slash-cafe that opened on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn in 2018, is largely credited for bringing the French Plasticana gardening shoe to the streets of New York. Acolytes have been known to style the recycled-plastic-and-hemp slip-ons with the brand’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock”-esque nightdresses and bloomers, inspired by a mix of Indian and English period styles. Now, the shop’s co-founder Sandeep Salter is adding her own shoe design to the mix. This week, she released a collaboration with the New York-based footwear brand Loeffler Randall, adding her signature bows to its Leonie ballet flat. “I often wear ballet flats with my clothes because they’re the right shape and tone,” Salter explains, alluding to the soft, off-duty nature of the look. For inspiration, she turned to her favorite children’s book, “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” specifically the hand-drawn ribbons throughout. “I like the way that fabric is rendered in this book,” Salter says. “It’s crinkly and disheveled and a little bit off, like it’s just been scrunched up.” Although the shoes coincide with a peak moment for bows, Salter has been drawing them for years. The flats, which have an elastic strap you can tuck in, currently come in ballet pink and black moire embroidered with Salter’s illustrations. On the day we met, the designer was wearing loafers, patiently awaiting the arrival of her creation. “Then I’ll wear them all day, every day,” she says. $275, salter.house.
Since its opening over two decades ago in San Francisco (first in the Pacific Heights neighborhood before moving to its current Jackson Square location), the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Quince has come to set the standard for fine dining in the city. But its owners, the chef Michael Tusk and his wife, Lindsay, aren’t ones to coast on reputation. The couple — who also run the more casual Cotogna, next door — spent the majority of last year renovating Quince’s interiors for its 20th anniversary, giving the space a brighter, lighter atmosphere, and commissioned new artwork that includes a large-scale botanical mural from the Parisian painter Galatée Martin. Another upgrade? A new set of custom steak knives with curved brass handles, designed in collaboration with the artisan knife-maker Everett Noel, who’s based in the Sierra Foothills in rural Northern California. “Everett knew exactly what we were looking for,” says Michael. “The handle plays off the brass elements of our tables and dining room, and the feel is wonderfully heavy.” Brass, unlike wood, will also patina with age. Quince guests who wish to take the knives home with them need not resort to thievery: They’re available to purchase, along with a larger chef’s knife, also designed by Noel. $470 for a steak knife, $990 for a chef’s knife; everettnoelknives.com.
See This
A Brian Buczak Retrospective Across Two New York Galleries
In the mid-1970s and ’80s, the Detroit-born artist Brian Buczak was among a group of New York-based conceptual artists whose work interrogated the symbols, language and systems of contemporary American life. In 1986, he was diagnosed with AIDS, and he died from related complications the following year at the age of 32. Now, his work has been assembled for “Man Looks at the World,” a retrospective across two galleries and the artist’s first solo show since 1989.
The exhibition occupies the two ninth-floor office suites just west of Union Square that make up Gordon Robichaux gallery. The first includes a series of Buczak’s painted diptychs and triptychs from the early ’80s, which combine allusive imagery like Buddhist flames, Communist stars and re-creations of canonical works like Caspar David Friedrich’s 1818 painting “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog.” Such graphic and stylistically varied juxtapositions were likely informed by Buczak’s work making commercial slide shows, which involved hours of cropping and editing varied imagery. At Tribeca’s Ortuzar Projects, larger-scale canvases are on view from later in the artist’s career, when spiritual and metaphysical themes entered into his work. In 1986’s “Untitled (Winter Trees Triptych),” a mass of snow-blanketed branches are rendered in shades of pink, purple and teal that give the painting a sense of pulsing psychic energy. “Flags I,” painted the same year, depicts a jumble of stars and stripes waving in the wind. A patriotic tribute at first glance, the flags feel more somber in the context of Buczak’s exploration of his identity as a gay American at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Both galleries complement the artist’s works with ephemera from throughout his career, including photographs, letters, stencils and designs for posters and fliers. The second suite at Gordon Robichaux plays a recording of the Kronos Quartet performing Philip Glass’s 1989 piece “String Quartet No. 4,” alternately titled “Buczak” in memory of the artist. “Man Looks at the World” is on view until Feb. 17, ortuzarprojects.com; gordonrobichaux.com.
After weeks of holiday festivities, taking special care of the delicate skin around your eyes is a worthy New Year’s resolution. These new formulas, which promise to brighten your under-eye area, decrease its puffiness and guard it against environmental aggressors, can cover a multitude of sins. For daytime, EltaMD has launched a hydrating mineral SPF that protects against the premature aging caused by sun exposure. The formula is slightly tinted, so it helps hide dark circles at the same time. Much like a cup of coffee, using a cream that contains caffeine, like Current State’s Firming Eye Cream, can help make eyes appear more awake. The cold metal applicator on Ustawi’s lightweight 5-in-1 Eye Serum Perfector will do a similar job of perking up skin, while the antioxidant licorice root and vitamin C formula serves to reduce dark circles over time. To smooth out fine lines, the Icelandic skin care brand BL+ uses mineral-rich water sourced from the country’s famous Blue Lagoon along with bakuchiol, a plant-derived retinol alternative that stimulates collagen production, in its Eye Cream. The Ayurvedic beauty brand Ranavat also uses bakuchiol in its Brightening Retinol Eye Creme, along with saffron, a spice derived from the crocus sativus flower, which helps reduce inflammation and hyperpigmentation. Full Orbit, the latest release from Glossier, includes hydrating hyaluronic acid and depuffing microalgae alongside Niacinamide, which helps soften lines over time.
Covet This
Loro Piana Showcases Its Latest Home Collection in Paris
For this January’s Paris Déco Off, the annual fair in which more than 150 showrooms across the French capital open their doors to share their latest wallpapers, home fabrics, trimmings and decorative art, the Italian textile and luxury goods producer Loro Piana will present its new interiors collection. Under the name “Impeccable Service,” the house’s offerings were developed with customization in mind. In addition to bespoke throws, blankets and cushions, the house’s clientele can now choose from an array of made-to-measure categories including bedsheets, table settings and towels.
Loro Piana is known for its cashmere — combed from longhaired goats in the steppes of Mongolia and northern China — and this season’s fabrics include Khanghai, a cashmere wool blend that comes in 10 natural tones, including a smoky tobacco and a soft ocean blue. Hebrides, the house’s take on a classic Harris tweed, is rendered in pure cashmere with a herringbone pattern. Also new is a suite of outdoor fabrics that are made with recycled scraps, as well as Tusco, an upholstery that includes, in its first appearance at Loro Piana, hemp. The collection will be on view from January 17 to 21 at the brand’s store and showroom on Rue de Furstemberg and by appointment at its temporary exhibition space on Rue des Saints Pères. loropiana.com.
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