Life & Culture

The Another Man Culture Guide: Things to Do in December

Encompassing film, fashion, furniture and photography: the best things to do with the rest of 2019

Vive Le Punk: Redressed at the Horse Hospital 

At number 430 King’s Road, London, you can find Vivienne Westwood’s store World’s End, which has existed in various iterations since 1970: as Let it Rock, Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die, Sex, and Seditionaries. Westwood and her then-partner Malcolm McLaren would design clothes to sell in the shop, outfitting the city’s burgeoning punk community. A newly opened exhibition at the Horse Hospital in collaboration with Contemporary Wardrobe Collection, Vive Le Punk: Redressed, presents original clothing from the pre-World’s End editions of the shop, highlighting how Westwood and McLaren revolutionised the landscape of British fashion during the 1970s.

London Film Week at Regent Street cinema

Central London’s Regent Street cinema presents London Film Week, in which new releases are screened each evening until Sunday December 8. From Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as a divorcing couple, to the acclaimed drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic The Irishman, the historic cinema – which was the first in the country to screen moving pictures in 1896 – is showing the very best in new film.

Jermaine Gallacher and Naomi Smart's afternoon of interior shopping

For an afternoon of festive drinks and furniture shopping, head to Lant Street where design dealer Jermaine Gallacher and British Vogue’s shopping editor Naomi Smart invite guests to “deck the halls with bowls of jolly”. Lant Street – which doubles as Gallacher’s showroom and a wine bar, with all furniture available to buy – will be filled with decorative homewares (excellent for Christmas presents) sourced by Gallacher and Smart, and rugs by the interior designer Sussy Cazalet from 2pm until 7pm this Sunday, December 8.

Miami Design Week

Should you find yourself in Miami, there are plenty of things to catch this week as Design Miami arrives and furniture dealers, galleries and fashion houses gather in the Florida city. Kim Jones will present his Pre-Fall 2020 collection for Dior Men – and launch a newly announced collaboration with Shawn Stüssy – this evening (the show will be streamed live on Instagram stories for those not in Miami too); Berluti launches a collaboration with Galerie Downtown François Laffanour, which sees the house’s creative director Kris Van Assche upholster a series of restored Pierre Jeanneret pieces in Berluti’s signature Venezia leather; Fendi has commissioned a selection of furniture by design studio Kueng Caputo, which have been rendered in terracotta brick and leather and will be housed at the Fendi headquarters in Rome; and Louis Vuitton brings its ‘Objets Nomades’ series to the fair, with collaborative designs by the likes of India Mahdavi, Barber and Osgerby and Patricia Urquiola launching.

Theaster Gates: Amalgam at Tate Liverpool

American artist and curator Theaster Gates’ Amalgam opens at Tate Liverpool on December 13, marking his first major UK exhibition. The Chicago-based artist features sculpture, installation, film and dance in the exhibition, the premise of which is a history of the island of Malaga, a small settlement off the USA’s West coast. In his film Dance of Malaga, screened during the exhibition, dancer and choreographer Kyle Abraham is soundtracked by Gates’ musical collective The Black Monks (who also provide music throughout the immersive exhibition).

Claire de Rouen’s Xmas Bonanza 

“Lots of bargains”, “rare finds” and “gift wrapping” are all promised at Claire de Rouen’s Xmas Bonanza, opening on December 14 and 15 in east London – an unmissable shopping experience for fans of photography books. 

The Hoodie exhibition at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam

Unpacking the hoodie – an item steeped in cultural, sartorial and political significance – via a multimedia exhibition, curator Lou Stoppard seeks to contextualise the garment in the modern world. “Lots of contemporary artists have engaged with the hoodie as a theme within their work, including David Hammons, John Edmonds, or Prem Sahib,” she told Another Man recently, “but there’s also a lot of historical fashion within the show, because it’s interesting to look at how some of the associations we have around the hood today, such as secrecy or privacy, have their roots in the symbolism of hooded garments from the past.”