Hope your summer break is/was nice! We just finished a whole new issue of Fantastic Man (printing as we speak, out on 18 September) ■ Before that I enjoyed two weeks on a great little quiet Greek island: sea, beach, food and not much else. Although…as we stepped off the boat, we spotted a former Fantastic Man cover star on the jetty. Also, an author who just filed an incredible piece for our upcoming issue. ■ One night, we bumped into two designers (and their dog) who we featured earlier this year in an online project. Then we ran into a favourite Parisian fashion designer who I interviewed for Fantastic Man last year, and finally, a photographer who contributed to the issue we made about Greece five years ago and who runs his own magazine and wine bar in Athens. ■ Work is everywhere!

You’d be wise to plan a visit to ‘Unbound’, a big show currently at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum about the work of Dutch graphic design master KAREL MARTENS. ■ The delirious show features a whole universe of modern design, from books and phone cards (remember those?) to intriguing clocks, screen savers and even a superb metal table – who knew Mr. MARTENS made furniture? ■ A documentary film that was made especially for the show features Fantastic Man’s JOP VAN BENNEKOM, who was one of KAREL’s students. ■ Hint: a visit to ‘Unbound’ will also prepare you nicely for our upcoming print issue… Until 26 October.

Here’s a new book from the hand of VINCE ALETTI, the amazing photo critic and collector from New York who’s already made our bookshelves such a happy place – we did a little overview of our collection of ALETTI’s on our Instagram. ■ ‘Physique’ (published by SPBH Editions) contains 198 crispy reproductions from VINCE’s collection of vintage bodybuilding and body-admiration photographs (’30s-’60s). Who thought the gym is a contemporary obsession? ■ What’s especially endearing about ‘Physique’ is to see images that used to circulate in the secret corners of society so lavishly presented in all their perfection. And you want to marry them all! ■ According to the SPBH webshop, a special ‘Naughty Edition’ of the book is also available…

Thanks to the ‘Financial Times’ from last weekend I’ll be off to Den Haag, a 45-minute trip from Amsterdam, as soon as ‘LOIS DODD: Framing the Ephemeral’ opens at the Kunstmuseum. DODD was part of New York’s post-war art scene but, as is often the case, overshadowed in fame by her male colleagues. Still to this day, at the age of 98, she continues to paint. ■ The show in Den Haag will have about 100 of her works on display, and from what I’ve seen so far, they’re amazing. 30 August until 4 January 2026.

A brand new season is ahead of us! What to wish for: first and foremost, an end to the heartbreaking disaster that’s happening in Gaza and the hope that Ukraine won’t be given away just like that, and fingers crossed, that a fresh round of elections in The Netherlands come October, give the mindful a win over the curse of toxic populism. ■ What else? There’s the exciting pending launch of Fantastic Man China – more about that soon. I’ll be involved a little bit in a highly anticipated show of MICHELANGELO’s admiration of the male body at Teylers Museum, Haarlem (15 October - 25 January). And we hope to write about this look from Italian label MAGLIANO, above, here in this newsletter some time in the near future. ■ For now, thank you for reading.