Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we’re eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday, along with monthly travel and beauty guides, and the latest stories from our print issues. And you can always reach us at tmagazine@nytimes.com. STAY HERE A Pair of Secluded New Hotels in Cartagena, Colombia
Travelers to Cartagena, Colombia, who can’t decide whether to stay in the historic center or by the beach can now split the difference by combining nights at two new hotels that open next month. Both can be rented in their entirety or as single rooms and are run by Portia Hart, a British Trinidadian hotelier who also owns Cartagena’s Townhouse Art Hotel and Blue Apple Beach on Isla Tierra Bomba, a 20-minute boat ride southwest of the city. The six-bedroom Ancalá Casa de la Renta lies within Cartagena’s old city walls and was originally built in the 16th century as a tax office where tobacco traders paid their dues; in the middle is a courtyard pool surrounded by potted palms. Inside, the Swiss interior designer Diana Posen, who renovated both Ancalá properties, has introduced bespoke furniture inspired by vintage Spanish designs alongside antiques, including 18th-century desks. On tropical Isla Barú, a 45-minute boat ride or about an hour’s drive south of Cartagena, Ancalá Casas Altas sits on rolling hills overlooking the Rosario Islands. It sleeps 12 people between one- and two-bedroom thatched casitas and a three-bedroom villa, each with its own private pool. A barbecue restaurant serves fresh seafood a short walk away in a vaulted bamboo structure by the lauded Colombian architect Simón Velez, who also designed the casitas and villa. From $550 a night including breakfast; ancala.co. CONSIDER THIS In Indonesia, a New Wave of Ceremonial Leaf Weaving
Since at least the 15th century, artisans across Java and Bali have folded, shaped and woven janur, the young leaf of the coconut palm tree, creating shapes that are used in weddings and other ceremonies. Now the practice, known as menjanur, is finding fans among a new generation of Indonesian florists and designers. The co-founders of the studio Dijanuri, Dian Ariyani and Rizqy Mulya Alfiyanti, established their space in Yogyakarta, on Java, last year with the goal of preserving traditional crafts like menjanur. Using little more than a carving knife and stapler, the master weaver Sardjono Siswoyo teaches participants to create items such as tiered pastry stands and hanging lanterns. “The material is smooth, slippery, yet remarkably flexible,” says Ariyani. In Jakarta, the florist Ineke Turangan, a former floral decorator for Indonesia’s State Palace, pairs the leaf with tropical blooms such as heliconia, palm lily and aster. And on Bali, the multidisciplinary design studio Make a Scene works with both young and mature palm leaf to construct imaginative sculptures and sets for weddings, luxury retail installations and public artworks. “Every commission demands a different technique, structure or response,” says Chloe Rose Quinn, a theater designer who runs the studio with the Balinese master weaver Gus Ari. “The leaf continually asks and allows us to invent.” IN SEASON The Crustaceans Gaining Ground in U.S. Restaurants
The gooseneck barnacle, an ancient crustacean whose muscular stalk anchors it to rocks, is a popular delicacy in Spain and Portugal (where it’s called a percebe), but remains rare in the United States — partly because of its look (scaly, wrinkled and leathery on the outside, with sunset-colored flesh) and partly because it’s dangerous to harvest, growing only on rocky shorelines pounded by heavy waves. That’s changing thanks to the Sitka, Alaska-based fisherman Evan O’Brien, who, for the past five years, has been hand-harvesting the barnacles from May through September, supplying restaurants like Crudo e Nudo in Santa Monica, Calif., where they’re boiled in extrasalty water and served with smoked olive oil, shiro shoyu and fennel pollen for dipping. At the market-driven bistro Marigold in Lyons, Colo., they’re dressed in brown butter or a wine-based vinaigrette, and at the Basque chophouse Asador Bastian in Chicago, simply steamed with lemon. “The abundance around Sitka and southeast Alaska in general is really stunning,” O’Brien says, “especially compared to Portugal and Spain, where they’re really overharvested.” Crudo e Nudo’s chef-owner, Brian Bornemann, says that after years of educating guests about the peculiar-looking crustacean, he sold out of percebes two days after they landed on the menu this past May. “Some folks are like, ‘Oh, that looks funny,’” he says, “and my response is always, ‘Well, if you’d never seen a chicken before in your life, that would look pretty funny too.’” WEAR THIS Akris Clothes Made With the Fiber Artist Olga de Amaral
Last fall, the fashion designer Albert Kriemler traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, to meet the 94-year-old fiber artist Olga de Amaral in her studio. Kriemler, who’s the creative director of the Swiss luxury house Akris, has long been drawn to Amaral’s work, in which she weaves natural fibers such as horsehair, wool and linen, reimagining textile as sculpture. Both de Amaral and Kriemler let their materials lead the way. “I try to understand a fabric’s qualities and let the form emerge from them,” Kriemler says. The pair ultimately decided to collaborate on Akris’s fall 2026 collection. Amaral’s signature use of gesso and gold leaf inspired reflective fabrics, including a fragmented jacquard used in a cocoon coat and on the top handle of a tote; lamé nappa leather, which appears in several looks such as an asymmetrical skirt and bustier gown; and antique-gold sequin fringe that decorates a dress and midiskirt. Amaral’s sculptural works also informed new silhouettes like a velvet knit tube poncho. Akris’s fall 2026 collection is scheduled to launch online Sept. 18, us.akris.com. EAT THIS Ready-to-Mix Salad Dressings by an Artist Turned Chef
The Brooklyn-based chef and writer Julia Sherman started her project Salad for President — first a Tumblr, later a blog and cookbooks — during a self-described identity crisis. She’d gotten an M.F.A. in 2011 from Columbia University but was ambivalent about an art career. “My work was becoming more conceptual, less object oriented, until eventually I had nothing to sell,” she says. The most satisfying parts of her practice had been the unusual encounters along the way, so she settled on an unlikely framework: making salads with artists. Radishes were the star of Joan Jonas’s salad; the painter Dike Blair, who had been a teacher of Sherman’s at the Rhode Island School of Design, made his in liquid form, as a Bloody Mary. Salad for President’s latest iteration — a trio of dressing mixes launching this week — brings this spirit of improvisation into a wider network of kitchens. Updating a 1980s-kitsch format (“Everyone’s mom made that powdered Italian dressing,” Sherman says), these versions are designed as a creative kick-start. Each of the three, like the Lemon Poppy, can be made with olive oil and lemon juice. She also recommends lime and toasted sesame oil with the Miso Ginger, while the Umami Caesar is best with lemon alongside something creamy, like mayo or labneh. “Before this, I’d have a crate of ingredients to take to a vacation rental,” says Sherman, who envisions the dressings easing the midweek, or midwinter, salad rut. They can even double as seasoning for fish or popcorn, she adds. “It’s going to be fun to see how people go off script.” $15 for a set of 3, saladforpresident.com. FROM T’S INSTAGRAM
Any good ophthalmologist will remind you that sunglasses have a job to do, but their function goes beyond protection. A well-chosen pair can serve as a character sketch in miniature: Aviators summon the hotshot confidence of an action-movie star, while oversize tortoise frames might bring to mind a bicoastal literary figure (Joan Didion’s Celine pair sold for $27,000 at auction in 2022). So which ones best suit your personality? Take T’s quiz at the link here and follow us on Instagram.
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