Find out what’s heating up (and cooling down) in our weekly barometer of trends from fashion to pop culture.
Hundred-cover restaurants with gargantuan chandeliers, step aside: there’s a cosy, homely breed muscling in, attracting the most discerning diners. Indeed, it’s like popping round to your mate’s absurdly good-looking house, only to find that they cook like a dream. At the Hart in Marylebone (from the same team behind west London’s trifecta of gourmet boozers the Fat Badger, the Hero and the Pelican), walls are limewashed and wrapped in wood panelling, creating plenty of nooks and candlelit corners.
Meanwhile, Cycene in Shoreditch, with only 16 seats, is the intimate townhouse you wished you owned, with soft lighting dissolving the formality you’d expect from a Michelin-starred spot. Frank Auerbachs and Lucian Freuds are hung on rough-plastered walls and underfoot, timber floors are padded by Persian rugs.
In a Somerset coaching inn, Osip 2.0 takes a similar approach: there are no printed menus and you’ll eat ingredients from the land you can see from the glass‑walled kitchen. Looking for something more hedonistic? Immerse yourself in homecore dining at Ynyshir in Ceredigion, Wales, which, thanks to glitterballs and a vinyl-spinning DJ, feels more like a house party than fine dining. Raise the roof, if the 30-course tasting menu allows.
• Osip is the restaurant of the year. Now try the head chef’s recipes
Revenge of the old-fashioned diary
From left: Mark+Fold’s notebook set; Takafa’s luxury Italian-leather journal
With “journalling” now a wellness buzzword, the old-fashioned diary is taking its revenge with a flurry of projects reminding us that a good one is a page-turner. David Nicholls is writing a new adaptation of Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾, which is both a specific record of 1980s Britain and a timeless snapshot of adolescent angst. In January, Jess Robinson publishes Life Is Rosi: Grandma, Me and Our Diaries at 23, comparing her grandmother’s diary of Nazi Germany (being deported by the Gestapo; stolen conversations with her first love) with her own at 23 (ranting about her mum; tracking calories).
Alan Bennett also has much anticipated diaries coming out in March (take note: this kind of journalling is not about mindfulness but your juiciest gossip, most fascinating experiences and rudest opinions). You could, of course, channel your diary into a writing career, like the humorist David Sedaris, whose method is outlined in the creative-writing guide In Writing: Conversations on Inspiration, Perspiration and Creative Desperation. “I exploit everyone and everything I come into contact with,” Sedaris says. “Everything is possible material. I carry a notebook and I’m constantly on the hunt for something strange or funny or tragic.”
If your material deserves special stationery, try Mark+Fold’s notebook set (£45, markandfold.com, including brass page markers) or Takafa’s luxury Italian-leather journal (£65, takafa.co.uk). For the time being, mark it “Top secret: Keep out!”
ALAMY, GETTY IMAGES, NETFLIX, PRESS HANDOUT
Going upThe Beast in Me’s interiors
Aggie Wiggs, aka Claire Danes, in the Netflix thriller, is giving us study envyMr Tumnus trousers
Wear to a party, or to roam Narnia‘They didn’t allow phones’
Upcoming phone-free club nights from Annie Mac, Peckham Palais and more give the perfect excuse for going off-radarThe very late checkout
New from Ritz-Carlton. Thanks for validating our lazinessGoing downDoing the laundry
Unwworn’s L’eaundry spray “refreshes” your clothes. Febreze, but make it fashionPrincess-lifting your hems
Fine in a ballgown; embarrassing when your trousers are in slushChristmas mood boards
Don’t be that person. See also: asking family to engage with a spreadsheetThe little black dress
This year is all about the other LBD — brown
GETTY IMAGES, PRESS HANDOUT
Say what?
Words of the week, decoded
‘The ghost of Christmas present”
Your mate who hates the festive season and will be hibernating until January
Everyone’s talking about … Miriam Petche
Miriam Petche stars in the fourth series of Industry
CRAIG GIBSON. BBC
Dust off your Pierpoint merch and scale back your social life, because Industry, the BBC drama set in the brutal world of finance, returns in January. The show’s third series introduced us to Miriam Petche as the new graduate Sweetpea Golightly — a supporting role with all the main-character energy her name suggests. As Petche tells Style, Sweetpea was described to her by the show’s writers as “Gen Z on steroids”, and indeed we first meet her as she films trading-floor content for her “corporate girlie” followers.
“You’re thinking, how on earth does this woman have this job? ” Petche says. “And then, as it progresses, you realise, oh, she’s one of the most capable people here.” Happily, we’ll see more from her in the show’s fourth season, though Petche can’t reveal details: “I’d say she’s pushed to the extreme of her perfectionism and her intelligence and drive.”
• Industry season 3 review: the bonking bankers saga is more ambitious than ever
If you recognised Petche, 24, it might be from CBBC’s The Worst Witch, in which she played Esmerelda Hallow from the age of 15. A few years later, she was studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama when she was invited to tape an audition for Industry. Getting the role has been a game-changer. “I feel very lucky to be a part of it because it keeps its finger on the pulse of what’s going on.”
We’ll also be seeing a different shade of her abilities in the second half of 2026: she recently filmed the forthcoming ITV show Believe Me. As a true story, it’s a very different prospect from Industry. The “black-cab rapist” John Worboys was first convicted in 2009, and is thought by police to have committed 105 sexual offences against women. “We meet my character at 19, just before her encounter with him, and then the story follows the aftermath of that night,” Petche says. “It’s such sensitive material, and everyone on set understood that these are real events that affected women. It’s not about pushing for emotional drama, but just letting the truth of it sit with us.”
As for future projects, “I like doing things that scare me,” she says, adding: “I’d love to be in a musical one day.” It’s a far cry from Sweetpea, but we know she’d appreciate the hustle.
Trend mapper
This week: walk of shame chic
• Eclectic, bohemian dressing — somewhere between Almost Famous and dressing in the dark — was all over the autumn/winter catwalks. From Marni and Nina Ricci to Chloé (pictured above), the stumble home from sleepover vibe was on the mood board of many: mix’n’match styles with a touch of bedhead; hangover-hiding sunglasses optional.
• “I woke up like this” accessories are the finishing touch: chunky, around-the-globe jewellery (left on from the night before) and slipperlike ballet pumps or flat mary-janes. Staying out late never looked so good.
• Nightwear can be daywear, whether it’s short or long. Just grab what you find on the bedroom floor and add a throwback coat: think 1970s faux fur or your grandmother’s quilted housecoat.
• The PJs too hot to keep under the covers
One more thing…
Breeze knit gloves, £160, Issey Miyake
PHOTOGRAPH: SAM NICKLIN. STYLING: FLOSSIE SAUNDERS
Warm hands have never been cooler — see the Breeze knit gloves/handwarmers by Issey Miyake, which come in a dreamy shade of grass green. They are ideal for long waits at the bus stop, but we won’t blame you if you want to leave them on to eat dinner. isseymiyake.com
Additional words: Helen Atkin and Phoebe McDowell