It’s high time we ventured out and enjoyed ourselves. As we gradually return to our cosmopolitan way of life, in style, Auckland has two highly-anticipated openings to add further to our already exciting dining scene — the exceptional new eatery Milenta and its exclusive club The Shy Guy.
Nestled under the historical Pōhutukawa trees in Victoria Park Market, Milenta draws on the elements of land and sea within what feels like an outdoor space, that seamlessly transitions to indoor should the situation require it. Under the deft design guidance of Izzard Design, Milenta emits an authentically cool South American air with hardwood floors and organic woven chairs softened by floor rugs and hanging plants — there’s definitely a sense of being in foreign lands when you’re here.
After gaining experience at a number of leading Auckland restaurants, Executive Chef Elie Assaf is at the helm of the modern kitchen, where many of the dishes are cooked traditionally over the wood coal fires, emitting a comforting and delicious waft into the dining area. Influenced by the flavours and traditional South American cuisine, and incorporating only the best local, seasonal produce, Milenta’s ever-changing menu is intuitive, and the restaurants service as attentive.
Bringing energy and excitement back into Auckland city, Milenta’s neighbouring cocktail bar and club The Shy Guy is set to open next month with an international membership. Designed for indulgence to the highest degree, the stunning interior — also the work of Izzard Design — includes velvet booths, graphic tiling and a custom light display over the dance floor.
The Shy Guy.
Denizen Reader’s Exclusive First Look This week, Milenta will open exclusively for Denizen readers only to discover the magic of Milenta with a chef tasting menu or à la carte from Thursday to Saturday — before opening its doors to the general public next week.
Denizen readers who book this week will also have the one-off exclusive opportunity to experience the private club, The Shy Guy, which will be open for cocktails pre-and-post the dinner bookings — before it officially becomes the members-only bar it is destined to be.
Milenta is opening exclusively for Denizen on Thursday the 17th of March from 6pm to 8pm, and on Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th for lunch (at 12 or 1.30pm) and dinner (6 to 8pm). For Bookings, please email hereand note Denizen in your booking request.
Milenta
Victoria Park Market,
210-218 Victoria Street West,
Auckland
Widely thought of as the first person to meld the practicality of opticals with the glamorous worlds of fashion and culture, Cutler and Gross co-founder Tony Gross was a tastemaker with a finely-focused aesthetic eye.
“I’m fashion and flair,” said Gross, who passed away at the age of 78 in 2018. And, of his business partner Graham Cutler, “he’s the expert”. Both opticians and good friends, they established their eyewear company in 1969, starting out as a small but innovative bespoke service that operated from Knightsbridge, London.
Cutler and Gross co-founder, Tony Gross, with Grace Jones wearing his favourite 0101.
It was founded on the principle that when it comes to eyewear, it’s not just about how we see the world, it’s about how others see us. This led it to attract the likes of Grace Jones, David Hockney, Princess Diana and perhaps the most iconic glasses-wearer in entertainment, Elton John, as well as countless other high-and-low-profile customers who have loved Cutler and Gross glasses for over 50 years now.
This year, the brand celebrates the 40th anniversary of one of Tony’s favourite pieces — the 0101 — with the launch of the limited edition 9101 glasses. The 9101 also commemorates Cutler and Gross’ first factory-produced product, which was in 1982 when its founders signed on to work with an atelier in the Italian Dolomites. Each individual frame is still handmade there, by experienced craftspeople.
Exceedingly exclusive, the 9101 is limited to just 101 units globally — each uniquely numbered. Here in New Zealand, Parker & Co is the only stockist to have gotten its hands on a concise number of these very special glasses.
Crafted with gold-plated hardware and encased in translucent crystal acetate, the 9101 has integrated photo-chromatic Zeiss lenses, which darken when exposed to light.
According to the brand, “Mr. Gross wore the now archived 0101 frame throughout the 80s during his frequent trips to New York and London’s elite clubs. Hopping from one exclusive haunt to the next, he’d often call at several spots in one night, handing out sunglasses amongst his lofty friends and acquaintances.”
Melding tradition and innovation, taste and technicality, this special release will have you seeing in style — and looking utterly chic as you do so.
Those who have rolled past 282 Ponsonby Road lately would have noticed there’s something afoot in the courtyard at the back of the boutiques. Gurume, as it transpires, is the light and bright stop offering a fresh take on takeaway sushi.
Owner and chef Chul Han Lee first moved to Japan to learn the cuisine, which led to a stint working for Japanese restaurants in the UK and Korea. On arriving to New Zealand, he worked for a leading Japanese restaurant here, before opening his own place in the cult-followed Mercury Plaza Food Court.
While his next opening seems at first to be an unassuming takeaway stop, Gurume offers premium sushi, nigiri and katsu donburi in the style and quality you would expect of a sit-down restaurant. Lee only selects the best ingredients, including fresh whole salmon (as opposed to fillets), halal chicken, hand-picked Seeka avocados, award-winning Olliff Farm eggs, and premium vinegar and rice.
“For us, customer satisfaction is more important than making extra margins on each dish,” he says. “For this reason, we try to put in more ingredients, and try to make bigger dishes for our customers.”
Some of the more unique items on the menu include the Mango Sushi Roll (with salmon, prawn tempura, crab meat and avocado with a slice of mango circling it) and the Soba Sushi (which has soba noodles instead of rice, and is filled with salmon, eggs, prawn tempura, avocado and capsicum).
There’s plenty to explore in the cabinet, with new rolls and bowls being developed all the time. With some room to sit inside, past the cabinet, or outside, in the paved courtyard, it’s a pleasant, tucked-away spot to enjoy this hidden gem.
With her striking photographic work, artist Mickey Smith reflects the times we live in. For around two decades, her focus has been on finding and documenting bound periodicals and journals in public libraries, whereby the well-chosen titles speak to the viewer from the frame, provoking contemplation often with a single word. Originally from Minnesota in the States, Smith has been living and working in Auckland for several years, and explorations of the worlds she dually inhabits also thread through her exhibitions.
Her latest, New Outlook, is showing now at Sanderson Contemporary. Exploring the current atmosphere of post-pandemic New Zealand, the books she photographs are not touched, artificially lit or manipulated, and include titles like LIFE, FORTUNE, TODAY, TRANS TASMAN and the book for which the exhibition is named, NEW OUTLOOK.
Here, Smith talks about the evolution of her practice, the role of art in a crisis and what she has coming up next.
How would you say your practicehas evolved from the beginning until now? My practice has been engaged with a longstanding inquiry into libraries, books and archives. When I started photographing book spines nearly two decades ago, the work was intended for a one-off exhibition.
Over the course of time, this body of work has evolved into an ongoing documentary. Initially, I was interested in language and wordplay, which led to an exploration of the social significance of books and libraries. Over time, my practice has expanded to focus on their physical existence or disappearance.
Typically magazines and journals are not collected. We consume them on a weekly or monthly basis and, more often than not, toss issues into the recycling bin without thinking twice. Libraries too are pressed for space, they have to make space-saving decisions and often these collections are the first to go. Many of my subjects have been discarded, with no digital record of their existence left behind, except my own.
MANA, 2022.
What would you say is art’s role in a time of crisis? And specifically your own? We are looking toward the end of the global pandemic and now watching the beginning of a world war. Art brings comfort, reflection and solace in unexpected ways. After experiencing unthinkable personal tragedy four years ago I made the work LIFE (Redux). It helped me recognise life does not always follow the course we set out upon.
New Outlook is the title for my new exhibition at Sanderson and I feel we could all use a new outlook right now. With thousands of people returning from overseas and immigrating to the country, that new outlook is no doubt New Zealand. Despite the fact I have lived here for a decade, the title represents how I see the future as well.
And how has all this upheaval affected you as an artist? Working as an artist through a crisis can be difficult, but it is relative. A lockdown is nothing compared to a bombing raid. That said, after two years of a global pandemic you can feel ground down. Some artists have been productive, some paralysed. Recently I’ve been mentoring a group of 10 photographers who are exploring the concept “after the storm”. One of them had Covid at the start of the project, another at the end. Clearly, the storm is not over.
It can be difficult to keep motivated when working alone, uncertain if exhibitions will carry on or be postponed, and not having a fortnightly paycheck to fall back on. We’re lucky to be living here in New Zealand where creatives have been financially supported through the pandemic and long beach walks are readily available.
Form, 2022.
When you are setting out to photograph the volumes that you find, is it a case of letting the titles reflect an idea or feeling already present within you, or is the overall concept sometimes guided by the books that turn up? When I scout a collection, I can’t help but be drawn to titles within, as well as those which speak to the moment. Some titles just scream from the shelf. FORTUNE looking a bit ragged and dark, stamped in fake gold foil —
TRANS TASMAN, bound in ocean blue, was beautiful when I photographed it, but sat in my archive for a few years. The words themselves weren’t terribly inspiring, I didn’t think of it again until it became the almighty “Trans-Tasman Bubble” landed on our shores in 2021, representing the first chance to break free from the pandemic. Discovering MANA felt the same as finding POWER seventeen years ago. In an instant, I knew the title had to become a larger-than-life installation.
As a result of the pandemic, it seems as though the world has become more digitised than ever as we crave connection but often cannot be together in person. What do you think this means for the subject matter of your photographs? Access to libraries has been limited and the benefit of the pandemic has been being able to access online content. The world has got smaller. With the titles I photograph, I know they’ll be gone soon enough. Perhaps not thrown out, but shipped out to a storage facility somewhere until someone forgets about them, to eventually be deaccessioned. If one can consider the library as a metaphor for grief, my works may play a role in preserving our collective memory of a time passed and creating a visual monument to acknowledge the titles’ existence.
New Outlook, 2022; Mickey Smith.
Part of New Outlook is a reflection of your ongoing investigation into New Zealand culture as an American living here for over a decade. What are your general reflections on this dichotomy now? As a child of divorce, I was always moving between houses. Between cities. Now between countries. As a Gemini, this should come to me naturally! With two passports in hand, I used to be comforted by the fact that I could get to my mother’s front door in 24 hours. Post pandemic (are we?) it is difficult to reflect that I have not been able to visit the U.S. for over two years. U.S. culture has changed significantly in that time, and the distance between the two worlds is surely greater.
What’s coming up next for you? I’m one of five international artists that have been selected for the first Obscura Foundry Commission. I’ve created twenty-five 1/1 NFTs with the library again in mind, formally and conceptually. Instead of having years to work on a project, I’ve had a few months — an exciting and liberating creative process. The collection, Time & Again, sold out sight unseen and will be revealed to collectors and the public later this week. Later this year I’ll get back into the stacks, hoping to access the Hocken Collections in Dunedin and the National Library of New Zealand.
Most importantly, my son and I will be boarding a plane to the U.S. in a few weeks to spend time with friends and family. We have babies to meet, bodies to bury, meals to share, bottles of wine to drink — new chapters to begin.
It’s rare to find a newly constructed home that captures the true essence of Melbourne’s Armadale. With tree-lined streets and period architecture, it’s a bold decision to walk away from tradition, and one that can only be executed so beautifully by the collaborating minds of Mim Design & Conrad Architects.
The kitchen features Wolf cooking appliances and Sub-Zero refrigeration, available from Kouzina.
What remains the same is the essence of grandeur found in Armadale Residence. While the build is a modern take on the street’s history, it is simultaneously striking, and comfortably at home.
“The project is driven by a shared reverence for timeless design, tactile materials and quality, addressing the client’s brief for an elegant and comfortable home of generous proportions, befitting its prestigious location,” explain the team.
The translation from brief to reality is grand, open and elegant, and uses colonnades to accentuate verticality and define the house’s overall look. Inside, the residence is luxurious, but not ostentatious. There is a sense of calm captured in the pared-back opulence. Clean lines and minimalist surfaces have been softened by the use of linens and curtains that can be drawn to filter the light. Key features such as the sculptural curved staircase add to the ethereal feel of the home, where luxury meets fantasy.
Left: PH 3/2 Table Light by Louis Poulsen, available from Cult Design.
Not a detail has been left unconsidered; something to be expected when two of Melbourne’s most desired names in architecture and design come together.
The end result is two beautiful homes, side-by-side, that grace the street with limestone forms and vertical openings with bronze French doors. The simple, symmetrical exterior is finished with balustrades, planter boxes and louvred screens for complete flexibility with privacy and shading, allowing for a life of your own in a space that could have been otherwise shared.
In a unique juxtaposition of light and shade, precise details and soft finishes, Armadale Residence is deserving of a postcode of its own. But for now, the Horsburgh Grove address will do just fine.
Why lament the end of summer when you can carry the sun in your pocket? The latest in ‘dopamine dressing’, these vibrant designs are all the boost your wardrobe needs as the weather starts to cool. From Prada’s vitamin C inducing leather slingback pumps to Louis Vuitton’s lemon Monogram handbag, they’ll brighten any day.
While Euphoria fever has got us all applying rhinestones and arty eyeliner to our faces like never before, let’s not forget the ego boost that comes with a beautifully done no-makeup-makeup look. Everybody knows what it is — the glowing, your-own-face-but-better look — but it’s harder to nail than one would think. Here, we outline the best way to achieve glossy skin, perfectly arched eyebrows, pillowy lips and just the right pinch of natural blush without looking as though you have spent much time in front of the mirror.
Lay the groundwork It’s important to remember that all good makeup starts with a clean palette, as your beauty looks will only ever be as good as the skin underneath. Treat yourself with regular facials, once every month or so, to keep skin in optimum condition. Spring Spa has an array of glorious treatments — our favourite is the 60-minute Spring Spa x Augustinus Bader Methode facial, which utilises the luxurious (and very effective) Bader products as well as LED light therapy and gua sha.
All about that base Similarly, you need to make sure your skin is exfoliated and moisturised before any makeup touches it, as if you have any dead skin cells sitting on your face then it will look gloomy and dry regardless of what foundation you use. If you’re just about to leave the house, you don’t necessarily want to be scrubbing your face with a manual face scrub, so we prefer to go for something like the Biological Peel from Sothys. Gentle yet highly effective, this peel is designed to remove the outer layer of dead skin cells and excess sebum/oil deposits, refining, brightening and smoothing the complexion.
Be sure to use a brightening, glow-inducing moisturiser each morning (Emma Lewisham’s Illuminating Brighten Your Day Crème is one such product) and, if your face is extra dehydrated, try applying a glow-boosting serum that contains potent ingredients. The new Charlotte’s Magic Serum Crystal Elixir by Charlotte Tilbury is enriched with vitamin C and polyglutamic acid, and provides a silky smooth canvas for makeup application.
Sothys Biological Peel, Emma Lewisham Illuminating Brighten Your Day Crème, Charlotte Tilbury Charlotte’s Magic Serum Crystal Elixir.
Makeup Cream products are key for a natural makeup look — anything too powdery won’t melt into the skin as nicely. Once the skin is prepped and ready, apply a brightening primer, like the wonderful, complexion revitalising Radiance Primer from Nars. Should you wish to even out your skin tone, a CC cream like the Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream SPF 50 from IT Cosmetics is seamless (and the added SPF is key).
For any extra coverage, dab spots of concealer under the eyes and around the nose to cover any redness, making sure to use a light hand while not forgetting any other blemishes that may need extra coverage. Chanel Le Correcteur de Longwear Concealer has a moisturising formula that blurs imperfections, diminishes the appearance of dark circles and brightens up the eyes while being supple and comfortable for long wear.
To fluff up the brows, opt for a tinted brow gel that gives a full yet soft look, like Hourglass’ Arch Brow Volumising Fiber Gel. Infuse the cheeks with soft, natural colour by using a versatile product like one of Aleph’s Cheek/Lip Tint pots. The shade Grounded is a great everyday nude for lighter skin tones, while something like Crush or Pixie would be beautiful on deeper skin tones. You can apply these with (clean) fingers to both your face and your lips for a cohesive, romantic flush.
To enhance your eyes just the right amount, brown mascara is far more subtle than black. Curl your lashes, and swipe on a coat or two of a defining mascara that gives wispy length rather than clumping. The Milk Chocolate shade of the Ellis Faas mascara has a creamy, buildable formula that glides on easily and can be doubly applied for when you’re going day-to-night.
Nars Radiance Primer, IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream, Aleph Cheek/Lip tint, Hourglass Arch Brow Volumising Fiber Gel, Chanel Le Correcteur de Longwear Concealer, Ellis Faas Mascara.
If you’re stuck isolating home there’s another great way to support hospitality businesses that are certainly struggling right now — gift vouchers. Restaurant vouchers make for fantastic presents, too, and if you’re anything like us you’ll know a few poor souls who had to celebrate their birthday in isolation this year, yet again. So, why not feed two birds with one scone, so to speak, and give someone the treat of a delicious meal to look forward to while giving a much-needed boost to a local eatery?
From the chefs at Savor Group’s stable of acclaimed restaurants, comes your latest staying-at-home saviour — ready-to-go meals. The heat and eat range of frozen meals, soups, and pasta sauces, take the pressure off getting to the supermarket and cooking, while ensuring everyone can enjoy a nutritious dinner, delivered to your door.
Wagyu Beef & cheese lasagne, Tomato Pomodoro pasta sauce.
Available from Wednesday, the 16th of March, there is a nourishing Wagyu beef and cheese lasagne, Wagyu beef and pork bolognese and a pomodoro pasta sauce — as well as a traditional basil pesto and a salsa verde from the likes of Amano, which you can order ahead of time.
Chicken noodle soup, Wagyu Beef & Pork bolognese, Roasted tomato and red pepper soup.
For those with sore throats, there’s a restaurant-quality yellow banana prawn curry, spiced chickpea curry, roasted tomato and red pepper soup and chicken noodle soup.
To keep things interesting, there will be a range of new meals to try each week, including pumpkin soup, green chicken curry and vegetarian lasagne.
Whether you’re stocking up for yourself or sending a care package, Savor’s ready meal orders need to be in by Sunday night, and will be delivered on Wednesdays between 12 and 5pm.
Around the world, February is one of the biggest months in the sartorial calendar and we’ve been taking notes. Kicking off fashion month with Copenhagen and London followed by New York, Milan and Paris fashion weeks, the street style set came out strong all month long with head-turning looks, many of which have made their way onto our never-ending wardrobe wishlists.
From midriffs and micro minis at Miu Miu to silk-trained skirts at Prada and crisp tailoring at Dior, here are some of the best looks from fashion month.
Bold and bright colours were in abundance throughout the month. Colours were either paired back with neutrals like grey or white or worn head to toe for a monochromatic look.
Lisa Aiken wears Proenza Schouler, Eva Chen wears coat by MARIAM AL SIBAI and Zendaya wears Valentino.
Spotted on the streets of Paris and Copenhagen, fresh neutral tailoring took shape in both structured and relaxed silhouettes.
Claire Rose Cliteur wears Dior. The DiorSignature B1U sunglasses are available locally at Parker & Co.
Alex Rivière and Ikram Abdi Omar wear Dior. Darja Barannik wears Acne Studios, available locally Workshop.
Grab the hair gel! Slick ‘do’s with statement earrings were a popular choice across the month.
Caro Daur wears the Tiffany HardWear Graduated Link Earrings by Tiffany & Co. Leonie Hanne wears the Valentino Vlogo Signature Earrings, available from FWRD.
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