The T List: What to read, wear and try this week

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October 30, 2019

Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we're sharing five things we are eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. We hope you'll join us for the ride. (Sign up here, if you haven't already, and you can reach us at tlist@nytimes.com.)

Read This

Shakespeare, for Art Lovers

The cover and a spread from "William Shakespeare x Chris Ofili: Othello," published by David Zwirner Books.Photo by Kyle Knodell. Courtesy of David Zwirner

By Kate Guadagnino

With my college days firmly behind me and my dull brain wrought with things forgotten, I'm planning to replace my scribble-filled copy of "The Norton Shakespeare" with volumes of "Seeing Shakespeare," a new series from David Zwirner Books featuring original art by contemporary names. The first installment, "Othello," has etchings by the British artist Chris Ofili, who took on the loaded challenge of depicting the title character, confronting what the poet and scholar Fred Moten describes in his introduction as "white fantasies of blackness." The results include 11 portraits of Othello's face, tears streaming from his eyes and various starlit scenes unfolding upon his forehead, a stage for the images he holds in his mind. "Every time you make new work, it's a recalibration and it offers a new coordinate," Ofili wrote to me in an email. "I think I reached a time in my life when I suddenly felt like I understood Othello on my own terms and was able to accept imaginative expansion — not be tethered to the text but engaged in my own understanding of it." $30, davidzwirnerbooks.com.

Wear This

A Beloved Designer Returns With Work-Appropriate (and Lower-Priced) Pieces

Courtesy of Thakoon

By Isabel Wilkinson

Friends often ask me for advice on where to find good clothes to wear to work — pieces that look professional but not prim, and that don't cost an arm and a leg. My new answer is Thakoon, a direct-to-consumer brand just launched by Thakoon Panichgul, whose namesake high-fashion line went on hiatus two years ago. The designer has returned with 22 inviting pieces (at more affordable prices) that feel perfect for the office. There are chunky navy and camel turtlenecks, high-waisted trousers in khaki and black and a sculptural, round-neck blouse. And New York-based shoppers who'd like to try pieces on can visit the yearlong pop-up shop that Panichgul opened on Bleecker Street earlier this month. For a designer used to dreaming up red-carpet hits (and dressing Michelle Obama), the rebranding is a welcome departure. The runway shows he staged for his old line, Panichgul says, were like "putting together a story, or a movie." Now, by contrast, "we focus on clothing. These are great pieces that are well designed, with great materials, and have longevity in your closet." From $75, thakoon.com.

Try This

The Floral Tonics One Designer Relies on to Stay Balanced

The designer Behnaz Sarafpour's aromatic floral tonics, from left: an energizing blend of orange blossom, melon and mint; a calming jasmine, apple and honey elixir; a soothing drink of rosewater, cherry and lime.Julie Bidwell

By Kari Molvar

T Contributor

Flowers aren't merely ornamental for Behnaz Sarafpour, the New York-based fashion designer and perfume maker. Instead, "they're like produce," she told me. "You have your vegetable garden and your flower garden." Growing up in Tehran, Sarafpour was raised on traditional Persian elixirs made with flower waters — floral infusions created by steam-distilling fresh petals — that are said to have medicinal properties: rosewater to settle a stomach, jasmine to relax and calm nerves, orange blossom for energy. These days, she whips up her own versions at her country home, an 18th-century Federal-style house in Pound Ridge, N.Y. Depending on her mood, she'll mix jasmine with hydrating crushed cucumber, orange blossom with anti-inflammatory mint or rose with vitamin-C-packed melon. This month, she has been making her tonics in batches to prepare for a busy fall. In November, she will expand her namesake perfume line to include three new essences, which can be layered on the skin for a customized result. For Sarafpour's tonic recipes, visit tmagazine.com.

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See This

The Story of Four Ancient Stone Slabs

"Orthostat Relief: Seated Figure Holding a Lotus Flower," ca. 9th century B.C.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1943

By M.H. Miller

The provenance and ownership of ancient artifacts is an ongoing dilemma for museums, given that conflict zones are often the source of the world's greatest antiquities. In its new exhibition "Rayyane Tabet/Alien Property," the Metropolitan Museum of Art explores the circuitous route that old pieces sometimes travel to wind up on display in a hallowed institution, if they aren't first destroyed or lost. For the show, four stone reliefs dating back to the ninth century B.C., which were discovered in the early 1900s at the Tell Halaf excavation site in Syria, will be on view, and the museum's Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art helps explain how these works came into the Met's possession. Additionally, the Beirut-based artist Rayyane Tabet has made rubbings of the reliefs and collected ephemera that tells a family history of his great-grandfather, who worked for Baron Max von Oppenheim, the original excavator of Tell Halaf. The stone slabs are quite remarkable in and of themselves: One features an image of a horse-drawn chariot hunting a lion, and most likely graced the walls of a Neo-Hittite palace. "Rayyane Tabet/Alien Property" will be on view through Jan. 18, 2021, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, metmuseum.org.

Visit This

In South Africa, a New Hotel With a Homey Feel

Left: the swimming pool at Dorp. Right: a view of the hotel's cozy interior.Stephanie Veldman

By Mary Holland

T Contributor

Cape Town, in the shadow of Table Mountain on the South African coast, has become a buzzed-about travel destination in recent years, but the city's lodging options have remained limited. The opening of Dorp, a new hotel in the historic Bo-Kaap neighborhood, is set to change that. Conceived by the hotelier and clothing designer Gail Behr, the intimate 30-room property is more of a club than a traditional hotel. The interior was decorated by Behr herself and is filled with antique cabinets, old books, wood-burning fireplaces and claw-foot bathtubs; a light-filled cafe on the ground floor serves unfussy dishes like homemade scones, grilled cheese sandwiches and slow-roasted local lamb. Behr's favorite space is the salon, a great homey living room brimming with couches covered in pink velvet and a playful dinosaur-printed toile by the British interiors brand House of Hackney, where she encourages guests to mingle. Already, she says, it is "filled with interesting people collaborating — and playing a poker game at the same time." dorp.co.za

From T's Instagram

Super Soakers

Simon Watson

#TEyeCandy, to inspire relaxation: a collection of sumptuous marble tubs. From a Joseph Dirand-designed tub in Paris — cut from a single block of white Estremoz marble — to a 200-year-old Carrara marble bath in a Canadian farmhouse, check out a series of stone soakers that make a case for taking bath time seriously, and follow us on Instagram.

And if you read one thing on tmagazine.com this week, make it: