What is it with those Brits? Everyone wants a piece of them these days.They’ve got the whole heritage thing going on, and then for the past fifteen years or so, they’ve re-emerged as a center of hip, smart, ironic and fine design. They’ve also got the whole high/low thing down pat, so that you can feel just as good buying a luxurious and fun Vivienne Westwood rug (a whimsical take on the Union Jack)

Vivienne Westwood for the Rug Company

to buying a candle in the shape of Big Ben,

Candles from BlissLiving Home, T-shirt from the London Underground shop

or a Union Jack throw pillow that can be found at every stand on Portobello Road. This is apart from their ongoing infuence in the world of architecture, fashion design, food (hello, Jamie Oliver), literature, publishing and photography. You get the picture. I don’t see this trend going away very soon, so stock up on your tea and biscuits, set your ipod to Lily Allen, and crack open your coffee table book on Sir Norman Foster. Cheers!

Cover image collage from the NY Times

The unveiling of Margaret Russell’s new Architectural Digest is bound to be both evolutionary and revolutionary. AD has a large male readership, unlike the other remaining shelter magazines, as well as a traditionally older demographic. The magazine needs a serious shake-up in order to be relevent to a younger, design-savvy audience, and Miss Russell is determined to do just that. The March issue cover line is “The Age of Elegance,” a claim that would have been made on the cover and the pages of Elle Décor under Russell’s direction. Let’s see how things – ahem – unfold – as we watch how she differentiates AD from the magazine she headed up for 10 years