Sunday 4 June 2023

The Faster Lane / Tyler Brûlé

Today, I’m taking the long way home: Tokyo Narita, a short jump over the north Pacific, across Alaska, over Canada and Greenland, and down the coast of Norway on a track to Zürich. Thankfully, I had the good sense to take my colleagues Emma and Dave out for a taste of Nakameguro into the near sunny hours (there's still a certain thrill about introducing the uninitiated to Japan), so I slept for most of the flight, attempted to watch the NBC series American Auto (how? why?) and have now found a couple of hours to catch up on correspondence by emptying the Monocle mail sack and sifting through some of your most pressing queries. For the sake of efficiency and clarity, I’ve done a bit of editing and polishing to keep the tone sunny and breezy for a Sunday morning.

We’re working with a design firm who are suggesting that we have more greenery in our offices to encourage people to feel more relaxed and get them back into the office. Some of what they’re proposing is plastic mixed with real plants and shrubs. Do you think this is OK and will anyone really notice?If you invite me over, I’ll notice. The first thing I’ll ask is, how does the plastic bamboo forest square with your company's fight against petroleum-based products? Who's going to dust the bamboo? And who the hell is the design firm you commissioned? More importantly, who gave them the gig? If you’re going to do plants and flowers, do the real thing or don't bother. I was recently at a hotel in Hong Kong and, in order to create privacy, they had gone crazy with fake ivy everywhere. Why? Pretty much anything grows in sultry Hong Kong, so just whack something in the planters and you’ll have real, fluffy, flowering privacy in no time.

I’ve noticed that you’re publishing more magazines and special editions than ever before but sometimes I find it difficult to track down everything at my local kiosk. Is there a place where you announce new projects and where I can get them?You’re quite correct. It seems that more new print projects spawn more titles to fill your tote and coffee table. It's an excellent idea for us to add a "coming soon" component to this newsletter and monocle.com, as well as making it easy for you to find our products in your local market. Please consider this project kicked-off. To get things rolling, I can tell you that the summer edition of Konfekt is on newsstands imminently; we have another Monocle Companion coming out for summer (you can buy the last one here); we’re launching a new series dubbed Monocle in…, starting in Paris; there's a juicy edition of Mediterraneo under way; and our new book on bathing, beach and bronzing culture is at the printers. All of these will be available via monocle.com and at a summer season of launch events.

I’ve noticed that the hotel slipper seems to be acceptable footwear at pretty much all five-star establishments? In the absence of clear house rules, is it OK to follow the lead of the other guests?Are you seriously asking this question in this forum? Seriously? The answer is no. The problem starts with too many hotel staff greeting guests these days by saying, "Welcome home." This needs to stop. Unless you’re the owner of the property and have a wing for your family, it's not your home; it's a public space and demands that people treat it as such. If you give people the impression that it's their home, you open a pandora's box of all kinds of behaviours: boxer shorts in the breakfast room, tablets propped up on the bar for video calls, prams parked everywhere – on it goes. Hotels need to start reining it in and get back to the business of creating an atmosphere that befits the reputation that they might have built for a century, rather than encouraging a free-for-all.

I noticed that you’re back in the air quite a bit these days. What is your favourite airline at the moment?As my home hub is Zürich, I fly Swiss a lot (currently in 1K on one of their 777s). They do a solid job and there is some ambition. With a batch of new A350s joining their fleet, you can watch for some new routes out of Zürich shortly. I was also happy to be flying Cathay Pacific again and I’m keen to see some of their forthcoming product upgrades. Finally, Air France do a very, very good job in First Class.

One of your regular delegates told me that at your forthcoming Quality of Life Conference in Munich, it will be a requirement to wear lederhosen and dirndls. True?I think this is wishful thinking on the part of this very regular delegate but it's an excellent idea: everyone looks good in Tracht. That said, people will be expected to look their elegant best and traditional Bavarian attire does make packing quite easy. You’ll want to go to Lodenfrey or Ludwig Beck and have them sort you out. It should come as no surprise that a few Monocle editors will be kitted out head to toe. If you would like to join us for our annual summit on cities and better living, you can find out more here. Tschuss!