Editor’s Word: Seeing the Unseen

When Michelangelo famously declared, over 500 years ago, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free,” he left us more than an artist’s credo, he opened a way of seeing the world. His words remind us that beauty is not something to be invented, but to be discovered.

When we begin to cultivate this way of seeing, the hidden wonders of life emerge. Spaces become more than rigid structures; they begin to breathe: in the gentle settling of light across a room, or in the soft flow of a fresh breeze. Fabric takes on a new presence, not just in its appearance, but in the delicate, unseen space where it moves between body and cloth.

In this edition, we invited a select group of acclaimed designers and connoisseurs to share their reflections on the art of perception and what it truly means to see beyond the obvious. From the intimacy of our living spaces to the subtle allure of a well-tailored dress, they reveal how genuine beauty often hides in the details we tend to overlook. Join us as they lift the veil on how they conjure magic, transforming the unseen into moments of wonder and meaning.

​​Kengo Kuma, one of the world’s most revered architects, has long been celebrated for creating architecture that breathes. Central to his philosophy is the Japanese concept of ma (間), not simply negative space, but the charged interval between elements. For Kuma, the void is never an unseen absence; it is a reimagined presence through which light flows, air circulates, and senses are awakened. It is in these intentional voids that the architecture finds its spirit.

With an eye that fuses understated European sophistication with the quiet drama of Asian aesthetics, Marie France Van Damme, a true connoisseur of life and style, designs garments that move with the body, not bind it. Her dresses introduce a fluid elegance that is both feminine and powerful, where confidence is not declared through structured tailoring, but revealed in the invisible space between body and fabric, in the moments between each step, each breath, and each shift in tempo. In her world, elegance is not imposed, but embodied.

Tucked away in the verdant stillness of Umbria’s countryside lies Castello di Reschio, a 1,000-year-old fortress forgotten in the depths of a remote wilderness. But in 1984, everything changed. When Count Antonio and Countess Angelika Bolza first came upon the forsaken relic, they saw not ruin, but a hidden jewel waiting to be revealed. Over the decades that followed, the Bolza family gradually acquired the surrounding 3,700-acre estate and embarked on a painstaking, near-mythical transformation, breathing life back into the decaying walls and restoring the castle as a modern-day fairy-tale escape.

Within the pages that follow, more carefully curated stories invite you to explore a richer world, one that exists in the space between the seen and the felt. From the architectural brilliance of a home designed to thrive amid the harsh extremes of Nevada’s Mojave Desert to the immersive experience of Louis Vuitton’s exhibition at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, each narrative, image, and reflection becomes a journey of discovery, offering not just information, but presence.

These are stories not meant to overwhelm, but to open. They offer a quiet unfolding of ideas, spaces, and emotions that encourage us to reconsider how we observe, what we overlook, and where we find meaning. May this edition rekindle your sense of wonder and bring to light the beauty unseen.