A good few hours’ hike from the sprawling Marines Corps Base Quantico in rural Virginia, US president Donald Trump and his secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, addressed the military’s top brass on Tuesday. It was a highly unusual gathering of US generals, who had flown in from command posts all over the world to be told by Hegseth that their troops should shave properly – “no more beardos” – and endure training that is “scary, tough and disciplined.” 
 
None of this would be news to the recruits being put through their paces at The Basic School, a gruelling 29-week program at Quantico that gives the men and women selected as Marine Corps officers the fundamental grounding to lead troops into battle. “If they’re not tough, they’re going to get tough after being out here, that’s for sure,” said Captain Oliver McKellips just before three companies of Marines launched their deafening assault on Mout Town, a series of eerily empty structures deep in the Virginia woods built to replicate a small urban settlement. 

The commander-in-chief’s Virginia visit came as the Marines are undergoing a 10-year modernisation drive that’s aimed at getting up to speed with adversaries such as China. However, with Trump finding new threats on both foreign and domestic soil, the elite force is not just having to contend with a changing world but also with shifting political sands at home.
 
Monocle was among a group of foreign journalists invited to visit Quantico’s almost 24,000-hectare base to observe tactical training. A company of Marines crept through the woods before smoke grenades flew, gunfire cracked and the soldiers stormed the windowless concrete structures, clearing rooms with enthusiastic cries.
 
The mocked-up city is a curious place, reflecting the Marines’ changing priorities. It was built during the Cold War and its structures roughly resemble a European town. But the signs above the doors are in Dari, the language of Afghanistan, a key 21st-century battleground for this elite military branch known as the tip of the spear in foreign operations.
 
This moniker makes some of their recent deployments rather unusual. In June the Pentagon deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles to assist in quelling protests – the first such domestic deployment of Marines in 33 years. On Saturday, Trump declared that he would be deploying soldiers to “war ravaged” Portland, Oregon, where they were authorised to use “full force”. Speaking at Quantico, Trump made clear that the military would have a greater role in the domestic theatre. “What they’ve done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they’re very unsafe places and we’re going to straighten them out, one by one,” he said. “That’s a war. It’s a war from within.” What is more, Trump has also deployed Marines to the Caribbean, where they’re supposedly targeting alleged drug-running cartels from Venezuela and the US-Mexico border. 
 
What exactly will change at The Basic School remains unclear. As is to be expected from serving military officers, the trainers declined to be drawn into a political discussion. “We’re focused on giving the Marines, the leaders, the skills to succeed and then trust that our leadership will point us in the right direction,” said Lt Col Michael Breslin, the school’s war-fighting director. 
 
But the edicts from the top will have an inevitable effect. If the Marines continue to deploy domestically, there needs to be training in law enforcement, crowd control and an understanding of the legal limits and rules of engagement on home terrain, where they can’t in most circumstances make arrests or search individuals. 
 
The Marines are primarily trained in lethal force, rather than quelling civil unrest, and clear parameters would need to be set about their role in US cities. Working with different law-enforcement agencies presents other challenges, with different codes of conduct and communications standards. Hegseth might obsess about sending clean shaven “war fighters” into combat zones but most Americans probably didn’t expect the next war on their doorstep. 
 
Charlotte McDonald-Gibson is a frequent Monocle contributor. To read about how militaries the world over are recruiting Gen Z, click here. 

Paris Fashion Week has only just started but the delivery of optimistic collections and fresh ideas, along with a series of anticipated designer debuts, is already keeping the industry on its toes (writes Natalie Theodosi). One of yesterday’s most memorable moments was Jonathan Anderson’s womenswear debut for Dior at the Jardin des Tuileries. For the first time, there was a strong connection to the house’s menswear collection, with a stronger dose of androgyny and eccentric historical references – both Anderson signatures. But the question remains: how will loyal customers, used to purchasing Maria Grazia Chiuri’s romantic creations, react? 
 
There’s plenty to take in beyond the world of heritage houses and designer switchovers in Paris. Balenciaga alumnus and Belgian designer Marie-Adam Leenaerdt has become one of the week’s rising stars thanks to her ability to marry conceptual and classic design. London’s Torishéju Dumi is another such talent, with her sophisticated take on tailoring visible during her Wednesday show on Rue Cambon. “We need new blood,” says Sarah Andelman, consultant and co-founder of beloved concept shop Colette, while namechecking Alain Paul and Cecilie Bahnsen among her favourite independent designers. “They’re always so poetic.”

There’s also plenty to look out for outside the invitation-only runways. Here are three places to visit.
 
1.
Le Monde Béryl’s residency in a two-floor gallery space on 24 Rue Saint-Roch is open until November. Alongside the brand’s autumn/winter 2025 collection, you’ll find a selection of books and a new in-house publication dubbed Beauty in Movement. There is also a series of events to coincide with the city’s autumn cultural calendar, which includes both fashion week and Art Basel.

2.
Virgil Abloh: The Codes is an exhibition of the late designer’s multi-disciplinary body of work at the Grand Palais. A pop-up of Abloh’s favourite shop, Colette, also features, with limited-edition T-shirts, books and other memorabilia curated by Sarah Andelman. 

3.
Le Castiglione: the fashion crowd’s favourite haunt returns to the Place de la Madeleine. Make sure to order the popular Le Casti burger.

A new intellectual haven in Amsterdam opened this last month, housed in a lovingly converted 19th-century hospital complex (writes Stefan de Vries). Walking through the University Library, you feel an almost irresistible urge to enrol and, after six years of careful construction, the space now stirs envy among visiting scholars.

Following the recent debut of the nearby Rosewood hotel in the former Palace of Justice, this €140m project exemplifies the city’s confident approach to adaptive reuse. Architecture firms MVSA Architects and J van Stigt have balanced national-heritage constraints with contemporary needs, concealing from street view a glass canopy that floods the atrium with daylight. At its centre rises a striking “tree of knowledge”, with steel “roots” that gather rainwater for the building and terraces that double as study decks. Elsewhere, a surgical theatre from 1900 is now a stage for conferences where scalpels once gleamed.

With 300,000 books, 1,000 study spots and underground parking for 900 bicycles, the library already hums with activity. As Amsterdam wrestles with a merciless housing market and strict rules on new builds, the city’s intellectuals are at least handsomely housed.

Further reading? Check out Rosewood Amsterdam here or take a peek inside the group’s new brutalist outpost in London.

Monocle’s Grace Charlton and Natalie Theodosi discuss Demna’s Gucci d