Would you like your pasta … fried? Plus more trends to know

, The Sunday Times

Find out what’s heating up (and cooling down) in our weekly barometer of trends from fashion to pop culture.

You’d like your pasta … fried? Two people eating breaded cutlets topped with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese at a table with colorful patterned plates and drinks.

Fried spaghetti squares with tomato and spicy basil pesto at the freshly opened, Sorrento-inspired trattoria Patatino in Edinburgh

Hear us out — deep-fried pasta is alla moda. Admittedly not the most health-conscious of treats, but you can thank the new wave of Italian-American restaurants currently sweeping the UK for dishing up these crispy delights. In Edinburgh dine on fried spaghetti squares with tomato and spicy basil pesto at the freshly opened, Sorrento-inspired trattoria Patatino, or kick off a meal with morsels of deep-fried lasagne at Celentano’s in Glasgow (which comes porcini-filled and oozing with Corra Linn cheese). The frittatina di lasagna at the Big Mamma Group’s bombastic Covent Garden outpost, Ave Mario, is stuffed with pork sausage ragu, while the nearby Neapolitan pizza joint Crust Bros proffers a deep-fried fusilli coated in pizza-dough panko on its nibbles menu. Want more? Deep-fried mac and cheese balls at Louis in Manchester arrive with Cajun mayo. Fried pasta, it’s a thing — capiche?

Born to be wild? Biker waistcoats are back Collage of four people wearing denim vests.

Clockwise from top left: the Korean singer Heeseung of Enhypen; and street style denim in Paris and Berlin

GETTY IMAGES

Is it va-va-voom or va-va-vulgar? Whatever you think of fashion’s great biker revival, you can’t get away from it this summer. No sooner had we got used to the return of moto-inspired boots than the biker waistcoat — one part Springsteen, another 911 (we’re referring to the Nineties boy band, though this is an emergency of sorts) — makes its fast and furious return. A new street-style favourite, the waistcoat (often seen in that unmistakably of its time shade of bleached denim) has been everywhere of late. The way to wear it now is oversized with nothing underneath à la influencers, although we prefer it with a white vest and biceps. There are some to be found on the high street — see Asos for starters — though the best are inevitably lurking in your favourite vintage store.

Surprise! Mystery boxes get a makeover NINTCHDBPICT001011647975

The first batch by the sustainable e-tailer Quinn Says, which supports small makers, sold out in 24 hours

If you’re not familiar with the concept of the “mystery box” — a box of products you open with trepidation only to discover that you’ve paid for three face serums you will never use — then get ready, because the retail concept has hit the homeware world. The first batch by the sustainable e-tailer Quinn Says, which supports small makers, sold out in 24 hours (lucky shoppers enjoyed plenty of bang for their buck, with contents worth twice the £30 price). Meanwhile, Heather Riches Home’s vintage mystery boxes (£25) are a thoughtful alternative to a bog-standard gift card; the founder will curate treasures tailored to the recipient’s favourite colours. For those suffering from tablescape-option paralysis, Avalon Home dispatches random selections of tablecloths and napkins (from £25). Good taste just became an unknown entity.

Heating up▲ Rock grrls
Jehnny Beth and US Girls are bringing post-Wet Leg guitar music back. Rawk!▲ Luxury corkscrews
Get the party started with arty ones from Addison Ross▲ Giulio Bertelli
Who knew? Miuccia Prada’s son is a sought-after film-maker — check out his latest project, Agon▲ Handheld video cameras
First Gen Z did digi cams; now it’s the return of the camcorder Collage of a CD, corkscrews, playing cards, a man, and a camcorder. Collage of outdoor kitchen, weighted vest, vodka bottles, and shoes. Cooling down▼ Outdoor kitchens
Two kitchens to clean up?▼ Weighted running vests
The current scourge of middle England running hobbyists▼ Von Dutch drinks
Caps? Yes. Boozy beverages? No▼ Mesh ballet flats
Not so chic in the August rain showers, eh?Surrealism comes home Collage of four interior design images: a bed with a patterned headboard, a bronze apple sculpture, an eye-themed bathroom, and a chair in front of a hand-patterned wall.

Clockwise from top left: Forest Bed and Apple of My Eye by Nicola Cox; Manos wallpaper from Schumacher; and fearless Eye tiles by JP Demeyer & Co

Are you ready to enter interiors’ uncanny valley? As we count down to the Lee Miller retrospective at Tate Britain (from October 2), there’s a dreamscape full of extraordinary homewares around right now. Take Nicola Cox’s Apple of My Eye — a cast-bronze sculpture of a life-size apple, featuring the sleeping eye of the artist (Dalí would be proud). See also her Lip Service: spoons with gobs on (obviously), and the dark and mysterious Forest Bed that could be straight out of a David Lynch film (all prices on application, from Cox London). Fancy something a little less stark? We recommend the Manos hand wallpaper from Schumacher or the Fearless Eye tiles by the Belgian interior designer Jean-Philippe Demeyer (from £30 each, balineum.co.uk). “Surrealism encourages us to engage with our interiors on an emotional or intellectual level,” Cox believes. Le freak, then — c’est chic.

Brace yourself for the MIL thriller Cover art and author photo for *The Hole* by Hye-Young Pyun.

Right: Robin Wright as Laura in The Girlfriend

Mother-in-law jokes? Please — this autumn there’s a raft of references to the “special relationship” coming to pop culture. Prime Video’s new series The Girlfriend (from September 10) is a twisted take on the ultimate power struggle, with Robin Wright as Laura, an alpha mum who is convinced her son’s new lover, Cherry (Olivia Cooke), isn’t who she says she is. Or how about indulging your worst nightmares with The Hole by the Korean author Hye-young Pyun (out now) — a claustrophobic thriller about a man who awakes in hospital paralysed after an accident that killed his wife and is now under the control of his mother-in-law. It’s set to become a film starring Theo James (The White Lotus) and Hoyeon (Squid Game). In a similar twist of fate, Laura Dern and Margaret Qualley will face off in Netflix’s adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Forever, Interrupted, due out later this year. Elsie (Qualley) finds herself navigating a tense relationship with her late husband’s grief-stricken mother, Susan (Dern), who — plot twist — didn’t even know she existed. Talk about the mother of all problems.

Hot slushie summer Two frozen drinks and a smoothie.

From left: flat white slushies at Pinch, near Saxmundham; and a frozen fragola at Forza Wine in Peckham, London

This summer’s heatwave has prompted slushie sommeliers to go rogue with weird flavours. Take the oat flat white slushie (Oatly plus Climpson & Son’s coffee concentrate) at Pinch, near Saxmundham, Suffolk. Alternatively try the tequila-based frozen picante (with scotch bonnet and agave syrup, lime syrup and lime juice) or frozen fragola (with strawberry and basil cordial and lime juice) at Forza Wine in Peckham. Meanwhile the Smoking Goat in Shoreditch offers the All the Woo in the World (rum, pineapple and coconut slush). “It’s fun and nostalgic,” says Alice Norman, the owner and chef of Pinch. “We all remember those Tango Ice Blasts at the cinema — but ours are made with great, natural ingredients. It’s an instant cool-down and customers get so excited by it.” N-ice!

One more thing NINTCHDBPICT001010593203

EDDIE NELSON; EDIT FLOSSIE SAUNDERS; SET DESIGN GEORGIA CURRELL

A pale shade of yellow, known as “butter” in fashion circles, remains the top choice this summer. What better time, then, to invest in a handbag in the colour? Fendi’s squishy new Spy bag (think a marshmallow you can put your phone in) is a reworking of a Fendi classic and comes in other colours, including powdery pink and pastel green. Wear now with your summer whites, and with denim when autumn hits. £2,650, fendi.com

Additional words: Karen Dacre, Tracy Ramsden, Victoria Brzezinski

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