NewsBite

Life and Leisure

Featured

This week’s pick of luxuries: a $17k wrist cuff and a posh dog harness

Who needs a sculpture by a top American artist when you can get a mini version for your wrist? Or another artwork for your walls when your pooch can wear one?

  • Eugenie Kelly
Singer-songwriter Dan Sultan.

Shows you must see for NAIDOC Week

From a trans-Tasman tour de force for Bangarra Dance Theatre, to a Vincent Namatjira retrospective featuring ‘that’ portrait of Gina Rinehart, there are plenty of shows to get you into the spirit of the week.

  • Michael Bailey
Generic weighted armored vest exercise

Supercharge your workouts with a weighted vest

They’re suddenly everywhere and no wonder. It’s the one piece of gym kit that will get you fit faster while making you feel like an action hero,

  • Luke Benedictus
Porsche 911 GT3 RS

Is this race-bred Porsche with driver harness too much for the road?

Some believe the turbocharged Porsche 911 GT3 RS is lucky to be road legal. After driving it, this is what we think.

  • Tony Davis
Wandering Emu dilang gin

This berry-infused gin is about so much more than the botanicals

In his day job, Sam Kirby works in disaster recovery. But he wasn’t going to let just anyone make a spirit with the native fruit long picked his family.

  • Max Allen
Advertisement

This Month

Kensington House by Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler.

Stop ‘chopping’: What your cushions say about you

Do yours have the right filling and requisite roundness? Or do they have ‘bunny’s ears’ and unspeakable foam? Here is a purist’s guide.

  • Serena Fokschaner

This is LG’s best OLED TV ever, despite the dumb AI

In an unfair fight, the Digital Life Labs has pitted LG’s new OLED G4 TV against an old Samsung TV we often couldn’t even switch on.

  • John Davidson

Noosa gears up to show off some of the world’s most collectable cars

From Ferrari to Porsche, ultra-luxury and rare cars will take over the main drag next Saturday for its Concours d’Elegance.

  • Tony Davis
Le Gainsbarre (detail, 1980 cover of Rock & Folk shot by Jean-Baptiste Mondino).

Escape the crowds with an intimate tour of a pop legend’s Paris home

For the first time since his death, the unchanged abode of musician Serge Gainsbourg is open to the public, with his daughter as your guide.

  • Kate Hennessy

June

MUN Paris

Experts reveal the best places in Paris to eat, drink, shop and unwind

In the City of Lights, there’s no shortage of places to surround yourself with beauty, and do a little credit card damage, too. But where to begin?

  • Lauren Sams
Advertisement
Melissa on the Joondalup parkrun.

Founder takes coastal path to fitness, friends and freedom

Runner Melissa Jolly, founder of Pinnacle Insurance Brokers, has her eye on the Kokoda Track and a marathon next.

  • Life & Leisure
Brie Leon

Is vegan leather just plastic with a fancy name?

An eco-conscious reader wants to wear what’s right for the planet – and wonders if ‘vegan leather’ is just good marketing

  • Lauren Sams
  • Drinks With Max Allen

How a blend of prosecco and limoncello proved a smash hit for winery

Fuelled by memories of European summers and sipping limoncello, a zesty new spritz from the Yarra Valley has become a top seller.

  • Max Allen
Blunt has made these chic dog raincoats in two colours and three sizes.

This week’s pick of luxuries: a beast of a barbecue and canine couture

For cooks who love an open fire to pet lovers, we have inspired suggestions for you.

  • Eugenie Kelly
Hyundai Ioniq 5 N

Hyundai amps up engine noise for electrifying EV drive

The carmaker’s most expensive model, the all-electric Ioniq 5 N from its performance division, is track-ready.

  • Tony Davis

Back from the dead, the Windows laptop is better than ever

Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 11 marks the beginning of a new era in portable computers, where Windows computers are at least as good as their MacBook rivals, and in many ways better.

  • John Davidson
Interior designer Shona McElroy steps into a robe she designed for a Sydney client.

How the million-dollar wardrobe became the new luxury must-have

Got the wine cellar and the infrared sauna? Maybe it’s time to rethink the closet.

  • Lauren Sams
 **DIGITALLY ALTERED** Zahra Newman is starring in Dracula, the third in Sydney Theatre Companys gothic trilogy. Photographed on June 17, 2024. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

Seven shows you must see in July

From Dracula to Hamilton, to a gallery tour led by a cat – yes, a cat – here is Life & Leisure’s monthly selection of unmissable shows around the country.

  • Michael Bailey
A floral bustier at the showroom of Cadolle, a company that has been making custom lingerie for almost 140 years, in Paris

Custom-made lingerie is an investment, that’s why the rich buy it

Six generations of a Parisian family have been crafting undergarments that make everything else their clients wear look good.

  • Christina Cacouris
Just 250 Bugatti Tourbillons will be made.

An electric Bugatti? The Tourbillon has landed

In fact, it’s not all-electric. This supercar also has an 8.3-litre V16 engine capable of producing 1000 horsepower.

  • Tony Davis
Advertisement
Lexus NX450h+ F Sport

Is Lexus’ plug-in hybrid the best NX on the market?

A PHEV is either the perfect compromise or an expensive and unnecessary one, depending on your situation.

  • Tony Davis
French art collective Inook has made giant, AI-assisted karaoke singers of the portraits from the Art Gallery Of South Australia’s Reimagining The Renaissance exhibition.

Renaissance renditions of Bee Gees? Only at one festival

With portraits ‘singing’ Aussie pop classics, fires in the botanic gardens and dinosaurs at the zoo, Adelaide’s Illuminate Festival wants to lure you out this winter.

  • Michael Bailey
AFR, Greg Taylor, CEO and founder of Step One, for Time Out in Life & Leisure.

The workout that requires total mind-body focus

Greg Taylor, founder of online underwear retailer Step One, reckons that after one hour of boxing with his trainer Liam Paro his whole body hurts. “And that’s a great feeling.”

  • Life & Leisure

A $220 pair of thongs – and seven other luxurious items to consider

From pieces that will make your home pop to fun Euro-summer fashion accessories, we have ways to make you spend.

  • Eugenie Kelly

‘This is an exceptional pinot noir’

John Nagorcky moved to biodynamic viticulture in 1999 and these three wines from his Hochkirch label in southwest Victoria are a testament to his methods.

  • Max Allen

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/life-and-leisure