Florian Fangohr waffled for about a year over whether to buy an Apple Watch SE as a gift. The smart watch cost $279, and he worried that its recipient would immediately break or lose it. In May, he decided the benefits outweighed the costs and bought the gadget. The beneficiary: his 8-year-old son, Felix. Mr.…
On Feb. 9, 2020, the Seattle Asian Art Museum reopened after a three-year, $56 million dollar renovation and expansion that transformed the look, feel and reach of the venerable institution. Five weeks later, the first round of statewide Covid lockdowns shuttered the place. “It was heartbreaking for me and my colleagues,” said Foong Ping, the…
This article is part of our Design special section on how looks, materials and even creators evolve. MILAN — Across the street from the medieval Sforzesco Castle, up an iron cage elevator and through a dark-paneled foyer, sits a showroom that is a shrine to the bespoke with a particularly Italian attitude. L’Artigianato is a…
This article is part of our Design special section on how looks, materials and even creators evolve. The way Ana Holschneider explained it, everything Caralarga makes is jewelry. It all depends on how you wear it. You could dangle it from your ears, like the design firm’s signature “plume” earrings that resemble upside-down versions of…
The couple sat in silence as they drove home from Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines. Their 5-month-old seemed dwarfed by the baby carrier strapped into the back seat. He was tiny. He hadn’t grown since he turned 2 months old. He weighed just 10 pounds — barely three pounds more than when he was…
This article is part of our Design special section on how looks, materials and even creators evolve. The artist and designer Rogan Gregory often has a spasm of creativity after midnight, shaking off slumber at 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. to take notes or sketch ideas for his furniture and objects. The habit is his…
TOKYO — Cooing, giggling and the patter of tiny feet mix with the sound of walkers and wheelchairs at a nursing home in southern Japan. In this graying nation, one home has been recruiting an unusual class of workers to enliven its residents’ days. These are “baby workers,” as the nursing home’s head calls them:…