Go see the FORMAFANTASMA show at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum. Called ‘Oltre Terra’ – a continuation of a project the Italian design studio showed in Oslo in 2023 – it’s a sweeping research into the production of wool and the animals that grow it. ■ Quite shocking facts… We’re so picky with our wool (we only want merino) that most raw wool is just burned after the sheep are shorn. Labs are now trying to breed hairless sheep, since it’s a hassle to shave them if the only things useful are the animals’ milk and meat. ■ So while the actual content of ‘Oltre Terra’ doesn’t always lift you up (well, what information has the power to cheer us up these days?), many of the photos, paintings, scale-models, and artefacts in the show are just beautiful. ■ It’s on until 13 July. (Above, the FORMAFANTASMA founders Andrea and Simone at the pre-opening.)

Basically next door, at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, there’s a long-anticipated photo show that just opened, ‘American Photography’. Tricky timing, now that “American” is becoming quite an unpopular term in Europe. ■ I’ve not seen the actual show just yet, but I had a preview a few months ago and was intrigued by this rarity: a hand-coloured daguerreotype of a fireman in San Francisco, made before 1860. ■ The subject was singled out as a certain WALTER VAN ERVEN DORENS, an immigrant who just happens to be a great-great-great-great-ancestor of a popular talkshow host here in the Netherlands named BEAU.

‘A Complete Unknown’ has hit Dutch cinemas, and we went to a screening courtesy of LEVI’S (thanks). The film is great, TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET is fantastic in it. His nasal, mumbly voice & the singing & every facial expression! ■ And one of the fun secondary characters in the film is country star JOHNNY CASH, played by BOYD HOLBROOK. Now, that name rings a big bell. We featured the (then young) actor, artist, playwright, and former DIOR HOMME model in the first issue of COS MAGAZINE that we made 15 years ago, when TIM BLANKS interviewed him and ANDREAS LARSSON took the portrait – look above. Unrecognisable!

If you dream of purchasing a work by WOLFGANG TILLMANS, have a look at this current auction at Christie’s, which has only great pieces – all but one dating from before 2000. Choose for yourself, but I think ‘Concorde’ is a classic.

On 11 March 2014 we test-drove this Smart car designed by JEREMY SCOTT. What a hoot! And doesn’t it look so much jauntier than Tesla’s very hate-able blocky horror tank? ■ Maybe JEREMY’s name should be mentioned a bit more in the current musical chair game of creative directors.