There are many things to rejoice at during the turn of the season – sweater weather, bare-legs-and-boots combos, perfect trench coats. Among them is a pastime that is just as feel good, aesthetically pleasing, and on the most discerning of style-fluencer’s radars: a board game.
From Jacquemus hosting a bingo night in Paris a few years back to Balenciaga gifting luxury Monopoly sets to EIPs, the rise in popularity of getting analogue with games shows no sign of slowing down.
Last year, the hotspot in Beverley Hills was not the Chateau Marmont, but Rummiklub, the table-top games club curated by Marnie Wekselblatt and Laura Galvan that comes with martinis and a side of French fries. This year, one of the first things you see walking into the hallowed ground-floor space of Harrods in Knightsbridge is Hermès’s mahogony and leather marquetry chess board (coming in at a cool £15,610) alongside the horsebit bags and scarves.
Hermès isn’t the only one with skin in the game. Right now at Net-a-Porter, a Caretto resin and wood backgammon set by Dolce & Gabbana (£3,500) and a textured leather noughts and crosses set by Smythson (£595) are joined by a wooden backgammon set by Brunello Cucinelli (£7,500). At Ralph Lauren, all bases are covered with its walnut wood and leather set that is five games in one (chess, draughts, backgammon, noughts and crosses, and cards for £4,915.)
ABASK, the luxury home-design retailer that sells beautiful, hand-crafted games sets from the likes of Alexandra Lleweyen, Giobagnara, and Hector Saxe to lots of fashion folk has seen its games revenue grow over 254 per cent since launch in 2022 to the last year.
Buying director Bryony Rae Sheridan says she’s witnessed “a real appetite for analogue entreating, particularly when the object itself is beautiful enough to leave out”, like a sculpture or decoration. “They bring personality and craftsmanship into a room, but they also encourage interaction,” she continues. “The best pieces are both functional and beautiful and hopefully become things that are passed down.”
It’s fair to say that board games are to the early 2020s what Instagram was to the 2010s: a new nerve centre of social interaction that takes a little convincing, but once you’ve tried it you’re hooked. Games, however, increasingly have the edge, with lots of university studies noting the cognitive health benefits they bring as – for better and worse - our work, travel and entertainment increasingly relies on some form of blue screen or battery-operated device.
I can personally attest. What started as an accidental introduction to pass the hours in a hotel room with no TV and biblical rain outside in 2019 ended up with me hosting my own impromptu tournament on NYE 2023 that got so lively we missed midnight.
Now a regular player, like most people I know, I have found that playing chess holds a mirror up to my strengths and weaknesses. For example, I should always take my time – when I rush, I lose something (RIP favourite sunglasses in a taxi during Milan Fashion Week); to keep the faith –getting off to a bad start, doesn’t mean something is doomed (I have won more games as the comeback kid than as the early frontrunner); and that it’s a good thing to change direction when something isn’t working (YOLO, and all that).
The fresh perspective that generational re-discovery brings to old hobbies like these is an enlightening thing, says Lucie Greene, founder of brand and trends consultancy Light Years.
“It's partly an evolution of experience culture post-pandemic – people wanting to spend time together, but also seeing these pursuits through a wellness lens, as meditative and social,” she says, adding that it’s linked to the rise in neo cerebralism. “From BookTok, to literary salons, to architecture influencers, to the surge in philosophy and history podcasts, the new bragging rights are generally shifting towards [the] intellectual.”
If you’re looking to dip your toe in the water, there are options. Sheridan advises dominoes to play with strangers: “you rarely need much common ground to get a game going and it can be over relatively quickly if you decide you don’t like them”– and Monopoly with friends: “I think you need to know someone reasonably well before you discover what they’re really like when property and money are involved,” she laughs.