Dr Karen Doherty
Courtesy of Dr Karen Doherty
HURS CURATORS
DR KAREN DOHERTY
The DR KD founder shares her favorite London restaurant, antique dealer in Paris and DR KD treatment
Dr Karen Doherty knows good skin starts well below the surface. The founder of DR KD, her London clinic, she built the place around a conviction that aesthetics should be treated as a question of overall health, factoring in sleep, movement, and nutrition alongside anything applied to the face. A background in cosmetic dentistry gave her an exacting eye for facial anatomy and millimetre precision. It shows in the clinic itself, which looks nothing like the sterile white boxes the industry defaults to. Hers is brutalist and beautiful, filled with carefully selected design objects, and full of the sort of faces you'd recognise from London's cultural scene. She pairs cutting-edge regenerative science with a genuinely holistic approach, and a warmth that makes you feel at ease. She is, in short, setting a standard the rest will have to catch up to.
THE SURREALIST WHO TURNED CLOTHES INTO ART
Elsa Schiaparelli made clothes designed to make you look twice: a hat shaped like an upside-down shoe, a dress that resembled an inside-out body, jackets embroidered with zodiac signs and vegetables. Rising to fame in Paris between the wars, she treated fashion as a playground for wit and illusion, and ran with the Surrealists, roping in Dalí, Man Ray, and Cocteau along the way. The V&A's Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art is the first British exhibition devoted to her, spanning the 1920s to the house's present under Daniel Roseberry. With over 400 objects, including the only surviving example of the 1938 skeleton dress, it makes a persuasive case that she was decades ahead of everyone else. Runs through 8 November at V&A South Kensington.
“Elsa Schiaparelli is the ultimate proof that fashion isn't just about dressing the body — she used the body as a canvas for the SURREAL, the witty, and the subversive. The exhibition highlight for me was the legendary Skeleton Dress from 1938, her radical collaboration with Salvador Dalí, it feels timeless and wouldn’t look out of place in today’s couture shows. The craftsmanship, the refinement and artistry of the entire exhibition is not to be missed, seeing how Daniel Roseberry continues to shape and honour the brand’s legacy is incredibly inspiring.”
“My beautiful friend and long-time CHAMPION of DR KD, Isamaya Ffrench recently launched her new design platform, Studio Iron, with a pop-up gallery opening at Saatchi Yates, now in its permanent home at The Painting Rooms in Soho. Isamaya has such incredible vision and eye for art, design and beauty – curating both established and emerging designers and artists from Marina Abramović, Kouros Maghsoudi, Atelier Moore and Camila Cabanes, that blur the boundaries between art, furniture, and functional objects”.
ISAMAYA FFRENCH'S NEW HOME FOR SERIOUS OBJECTS
Studio Iron sits somewhere between a shop and a gallery, and it wears that ambiguity well. Founded by Isamaya Ffrench, the British creative director and makeup artist famous for work that ignores the borders between fashion, beauty, and music, it gathers artists and designers who share a serious relationship to craft and material. The idea is that a chair or a vessel can carry as much intent as a sculpture, and that using something beautiful only deepens the point of it. Everything on show bears the imprint of the hand and the mind behind it. The inaugural outing at Saatchi Yates brought together Marina Abramović, Kelly Wearstler, Anne Imhof, and Paul McCarthy, which tells you exactly how high Ffrench is aiming.
THE NINE COURSES WORTH CLEARING AN EVENING FOR
Ring the bell at Cycene and you are welcomed into something closer to a dinner party than a restaurant. From Blue Mountain School and named after the Old English word for kitchen, it is one of the best tables in London. The evening opens at the ground-floor bar with an aperitif, house-made bread, and a seasonal broth served in clay beakers by the potter Steve Harrison, before you head upstairs to an intimate sixteen-cover room. The nine-course menu leans on seasonal British produce and time-honoured technique, coaxing surprising depth from simple ingredients. Desserts, as well as the wine list, are a particular thrill. Just all-round excellence.
“Just a stone's throw from our Redchurch Street flagship clinic, Cycene (from Blue Mountain School), is the most INTIMATE and thoughtfully curated dining experience I’ve had in a long time. It’s mindfully built with long-term intention and reflects a dedication to quality and craftsmanship. The menu is sourced with British ingredients by the incredible Head Chef, Taz Sarhane that really emphasises seasonality, every dish feels so considered and balanced, and the same goes for the interiors too with upholstery curated from Raf Simons and ceramics hand made by Steve Harrison.”
“Designing the DR KD clinic has always been about creating a space with SOUL – one that feels collected rather than curated. Whenever I’m in Paris, you'll often find me wandering the flea markets in search of pieces with character. We have some really beautiful pieces from Max Keys, who can be found at Stand 55 in the renowned Marché Paul Bert Serpette, he has an incredible eye. I love a long afternoon spent hunting for treasures, followed by dinner at Early June, where the ever-changing roster of guest chefs means no two visits are quite the same, before retreating to either Hotel Balzac or Château Voltaire, two of my favourite places to stay in the city.”
THE ANTIQUES DEALER WORTH A TRIP TO PARIS
Marché Paul Bert Serpette, on the northern edge of Paris, is always a good idea, and Max Keys is one of the many reasons to make the trip. A dealer in antiques, art, and furniture, he has an excellent eye for form, proportion, and the kind of timeless modernist pieces that pull a whole room together: 1930s bentwood and chrome stools, a chromed metal coiffeuse, an Amsterdam School floor lamp. Previously based in London, his collections are prized for their harmony and quality, and they disappear fast. A new preview lands with mailing-list subscribers every other Friday at noon, with the pieces going live online the following Monday. He is Dr Doherty's dealer of choice, so we'll let her tell you more.
THE INTELLIGENT ROUTE TO BETTER SKIN
Rexonage 3 does its work with no heat, no needles, and no downtime, which sounds too good until you see the results. Using Quantum Molecular Resonance technology, it delivers gentle, bio-compatible energy at a cellular level, nudging the skin to repair and regenerate from the inside. That makes it a rare fit for even sensitive or reactive complexions: it targets fine lines, laxity, dullness, and uneven tone, calms inflammatory concerns like rosacea, redness, and acne, and helps with stretch marks, including post-pregnancy. No trauma, no recovery to plan your week around, just skin quietly getting on with the job of renewing itself. But we'll let the expert do the talking.