Link list #79: The identity crisis of the furniture industry, Cape Town’s new masculinity, and the story of a modern-day publisher - Friends of Friends / Freunde von Freunden (FvF)

Link list #79: The identity crisis of the furniture industry, Cape Town’s new masculinity, and the story of a modern-day publisher

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This week, following our visit to Salone del Mobile, we began to wonder if technology determines the future of the furniture industry, and learn how a burgeoning community of queer and gender-nonconforming citizens challenge Cape Town’s fashion identity. We also discovered a new magazine highlighting stories on consequence and follow the story of publisher and editor Ricarda Messner.

Links

    • 1 When this year’s Milan Design Week and its anchor event Salone del Mobile came to a close, critics and design aficionados reluctantly sang the fairs’ praises as one question occupied the mood: With the frontrunners of the tech industry presenting at the fair, is tech the future of furniture? The Furniture Industry Has An Identity Crisis may just be the answer.
    • 2 Despite its position as one of its continent’s most progressive and liberal countries, many of South Africa’s metropolitan areas still boast the suit-and-tie-type uniform reflecting colonialism-related influences. Cape Town’s New Masculinity features queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming young communities eagerly exploring their identity through style and favoring local designers, many of whom have caught the spirit of the moment.
    • 3 Being a publisher, curator, writer, and editor at the same time certainly keeps you busy. In an interview with The Creative Independent, all-round woman and co-founder of Flaneur Magazine, Ricarda Messner, gives her insight on the importance of energy and enthusiasm, and how she turned states of desperation into life-changing projects.
    • 4 One of our most recent internet discoveries, The Topic brilliantly unites visual, audio and written formats to highlight stories on consequence, brought together by monthly themes such as spring awakenings or state of play. The current issue’s favorites include Cuban Revolutions and The Pleasure Principles.
    • 5 Do you binge-watch Netflix shows? Passionately follow other people’s lives on Instagram and enjoy late-night snacks? If so, Reasons I can’t sleep by The New Yorker is for you.

Hopefully you enjoyed the reads from this week’s Link List, but if you’ve still got an internet itch to scratch, you can find more here.

Also be sure to check out the FvF Mixtapes to check out some tunes mixed by our friends and favorite artists, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with FvF stories.

Text: Ann-Christin Schubert

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