Sophie Ellis-Bextor | GIAF 2026 | Heineken Big Top - Galway Arts Festival

the french designer brings his eccentric imagination to a historic building in montparnasse, filling its interiors with hand-painted frescoes, mythological references, bespoke furniture, and a swimming pool. Iñaki Laguardia October 20, 2026 6 min prefer designboom on googleVINCENT DARRÉ BRINGS FANTASY TO PARIS’ LE MAGNIFIQUE HOTELFrench designer Vincent Darré has brought his theatrical imagination to Hôtel Le Magnifique, a hotel on Rue de la Gaîté in Paris’ 14th arrondissement. Located in a neighborhood historically associated with theaters, cabarets, and the artistic life of Montparnasse, the project transforms hospitality into an immersive experience shaped by fantasy, mythology, and the performing arts. The building itself carries an unusual history, having originally housed Les Mille Colonnes, a renowned theater dating back to the early 19th century. Its historic façade now introduces a series of interiors where decorative elements, unexpected colors, and references to Parisian cultural heritage unfold throughout the hotel. The project was initiated in 2024 by hotelier Jacques Blanc, who envisioned a property that would depart from conventional hospitality design.

'It’s a marriage made in heaven,' one dealer said. The post Art Meets Couture in a Dazzling Valentino and Ewa Juszkiewicz Exhibition appeared first on Artnet News .

Earlier this month, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva led a rally in São Paulo, as he aims to be re-elected to a fourth presidential term, and faces serious opposition from right-winger Flávio Bolsonaro. Taking the mic before a crowd on Avenida Paulista that organisers put at more than a million, the former union leader began: “I’m not sure whether to open this speech with ‘comrades’ or ‘fandoms from all over Brazil’.” The rally was organised by Lula’s Workers’ party (PT) and a string of other leftwing groups – but the spark came from pop music fandoms. More than 600 Brazilian fanbase groups for Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Katseye, Demi Lovato, Harry Styles, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, as well as Brazilian stars such as Anitta, Marina Sena and Ludmilla among others, all came together to back Lula, waging an intense online campaign as soon as Lula’s rival, son of imprisoned former president Jair Bolsonaro, came out on top in the first round on 4 October. Neither candidate earned more than 50% of the vote, so a runoff is now scheduled for 25 October to decide between the two.

Hartlepool fisherman Stan Rennie has been called the next Mr Bates. For nearly 50 years Rennie has fished the same stretch of northeast coastline – then in October 2021, thousands of crabs, starfish and lobsters washed up dead and dying on the beaches. “It was like something out of a horror film,” says one local. Rennie and other fishermen suspected industrial pollution, but an investigation by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs concluded that the most likely cause of the die-off was “algal bloom”. For Rennie and the other fisherman, it didn’t add up. So, they crowdfunded their own independent scientific study. This documentary from Jeanie Finlay (Your Fat Friend) tells the story, and it’s maddening. The fishermen are close to bankruptcy, they’ve got mortgages and kids, catches are down 80%. The cost of diesel is higher than the price of a haul, and most put their boats up for sale. “Any jobs in Lidl?” reads one placard as they protest through town. What the fishermen suspect is that toxic sediment dredged from the River Tees and dumped in the sea is to blame. Their investigation finds evidence of a link to the chemical pyridine, a byproduct of steelmaking.