Ape’s Top 10 Of The Month: December 2025
Welcome to Ape to Gentleman’s Top 10 of the Month feature, where we round up the trends, insights and clever little upgrades that make modern life run smoother. Think of it as your monthly cheat sheet for living well, dressing better and staying ahead of the cultural curve.
In this instalment, we’ve handpicked 10 essential topics spanning the latest winter fashion drops that will shake up your wardrobe, grooming moves worth adopting before the year wraps up, and the tech, entertainment and lifestyle releases creating noise right now. Whether you’re plotting a subtle style refresh, fine-tuning your self-care routine or simply want to know what’s worth your time and money this month, you’re in the right place.
Let’s explore how to make December your most stylish, successful and satisfying month of 2025.
Blake Mill Midnight Garden Shirt
The festive season is the perfect excuse to loosen the reins and have a little fun with your wardrobe, which is why this bold, unapologetic print from British shirtmakers Blake Mill deserves a spot on your radar. The Midnight Garden design is one of the brand’s standout patterns this winter — vibrant without tipping into novelty, and sharp enough to carry you from office drinks to full-blown party mode.
Cut from 100% premium organic cotton sateen, it has a smooth handle, a flattering tailored fit and a clean, cutaway collar that works just as well under a blazer as it does on its own. Pair it with monochrome trousers and simple leather shoes and you’ve got a confident, conversation-starting outfit that still feels grown-up.
Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 Headphones
Bowers & Wilkins returns with its most impressive wireless headphones to date: the Px8 S2. A refined evolution of the much-loved Px8, this second-generation flagship pushes things further with upgraded 40mm Carbon Cone drivers, redesigned acoustic architecture and a dedicated headphone amplifier that gives the sound a cleaner, more expansive character.
Support for aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless ensures high-resolution audio wherever your playlist comes from, while the internal DSP has been subtly re-tuned for greater precision.
The exterior has had a thoughtful update, too. Wrapped in soft Nappa leather and engineered with a slimmer, more comfortable profile, they’re built for long days of travel or deep-focus work sessions. You still get 30 hours of battery life, fast charging and B&W’s class-leading noise cancellation, now refined to cope even better with low-frequency rumble on trains and flights.
Add in the meticulously milled aluminium detailing and you’re looking at a truly premium pair of headphones that fully earn their place in the brand’s audiophile lineage.
Lululemon Outerwear Collection
It’s not too late to invest in outerwear that will carry you comfortably through the coldest stretch of the year. Lululemon — true to its seasonal ethos of ‘when winter does its worst, we do our best’ — has stepped up with a range designed for real-world weather rather than picture-perfect conditions.
The standout is the Always Down Puffer, a reliably warm 600-fill goose down jacket that balances serious insulation with a lightweight, technical shell that shrugs off wind and winter showers.
Crucially, it’s been engineered with movement in mind. The relaxed drape, articulated sleeves and gently contoured construction mean you can layer up, run errands or commute without feeling trussed up like a sleeping bag.
Add in thoughtful touches such as fleece-lined pockets and an adjustable hood, and you’ve got an everyday winter layer that feels as practical as it does polished.
Oakley Flow Scape Ski Goggles
Oakley has made your view of the mountain roughly 60% larger with its innovative new Flow Scape ski goggles — a significant jump that stems directly from research carried out by the brand’s Visual Performance Lab (VPL). The breakthrough comes from a new conical lens and frame design that brings the lens noticeably closer to the face, reducing visual obstruction and unlocking a far wider field of view when you’re carving through variable terrain.
Comfort has been upgraded, too. Oakley’s Vision Rapt Face Foam provides a snug, pressure-free seal that stays comfortable over long sessions, while the adaptable Switchlock system makes swapping lenses quick and glove-friendly.
Pair that with the brand’s Prizm Technology — still one of the best for boosting contrast and picking out definition in flat or changing light — and you’ve got a high-performance goggle built for serious days on the slopes.
Marty Supreme
December’s film of the month is the second notable Safdie-directed biopic of the year — following Benny Safdie’s bruising The Smashing Machine — though this time it’s Josh in the director’s chair. Marty Supreme casts Timothée Chalamet as Marty Reisman, the charismatic, self-styled showman of American table tennis whose quest for table-top greatness in 1950s New York was as chaotic as it was compelling.
Reisman was a genuine cultural oddity: part hustler, part sportsman, and wholly obsessed with turning ping pong into high entertainment, making him prime material for the Safdies’ off-kilter, high-energy storytelling.
A24 has leaned hard into the film’s eccentric charm — expect merch drops to fly almost as fast as Chalamet’s on-screen spin shots — and early festival chatter suggests this could be one of the season’s surprise hits.
In cinemas 26 December
Soho House Manchester
It’s taken a while, but Soho House Manchester is now officially open — a milestone for the private members’ club empire and its first foothold in the North of England. The new outpost occupies five floors of the former Granada Television building in the St John’s neighbourhood, a site with plenty of cultural pedigree and just the right amount of industrial charm.
Inside, you’ll find three floors of club space alongside a dedicated lounge, restaurant and club bar, all dressed in the brand’s familiar blend of mid-century warmth and contemporary comfort.
A rooftop pool and a two-floor Soho Health Club are set to follow in the coming months, rounding out the offering. The opening programme has already made its intentions clear, with sets from Primal Scream, Loyle Carner and other high-profile guests helping cement the new House’s place on the city’s cultural map.
Membership starts from £287.50. Naturally, there’s already a waiting list.
Articles of Interest podcast
The latest series of Avery Trufelman’s excellent Articles of Interest — the cult fashion podcast that dissects the building blocks of modern clothing, pocket by pocket and cuff by cuff — turns its attention to outdoor gear. It’s a timely deep dive, arriving in an era of full-blown gorp, where functional clothing has shifted from niche obsession to everyday uniform.
This new run traces the lineage of outdoor wear from indigenous hunting traditions through to mid-century military innovation, unpicking how fabrics like Gore-Tex, patterns like camouflage and the wider language of performance clothing became so embedded in what we wear today. As always with Trufelman, the reporting is meticulous, the storytelling sharp, and the historical context surprisingly gripping.
And if you’re new to the show, the archive is a genuine treasure trove — a rich, rabbit-hole-friendly catalogue of fashion history, subcultures and textile trivia you never realised you needed.
Listen now at articlesofinterest.co
Diptyque Sapin (Pine Tree) Advent Candle
Choose a moment of daily luxury scent over chocolate this festive season with Diptyque’s limited-edition Sapin (Pine Tree) advent candle. It’s a small ritual with big impact: each day reveals another hand-painted number, the candle itself finished with a golden seal pressed into the base — a reminder of the brand’s long-standing dedication to craftsmanship.
Once lit, it fills the room with the aroma of freshly cut pine layered with cedar, moss and resin, capturing that crisp, wintry forest note Diptyque does so well. It’s an elegant way to bring a little atmosphere to the darker December nights, and a far more grown-up alternative to the usual advent fare.
Tekla Store, London
Danish homewear and textiles brand Tekla has opened a new store in Marylebone — its first flagship outside Copenhagen — and it’s every bit as inviting as fans of the brand would hope. The space has been designed to evoke the feeling of returning to a warm, familiar home, blending clean Danish minimalism with softer British design cues to create a calm, tactile environment.
Shelves of bath linens, robes, bedding and lounge pieces are laid out with the same quiet precision that’s made Tekla a favourite of design-conscious households, while the palette and materials subtly nod to the cosy rituals of the gifting season.
It’s a flagship that feels more like a living space than a shop, and a fitting stage for the brand’s focus on comfort, craft and modern simplicity.
10 Marylebone High St, London W1U 4BT; teklafabrics.com
Bodum x MOMA Bistro Programmable Coffee Maker
At a time when the price of a flat white seems to be inching ever closer to that of a pint, an aesthetically pleasing home coffee maker feels like a very sensible investment. Enter the Bodum x MOMA Bistro coffee maker — a colourful, design-forward machine that brings museum-shop charm to your kitchen counter.
It’s refreshingly simple to use and features a programmable 24-hour timer, so your morning brew can be ready the moment you are. The fine-mesh stainless steel filter eliminates the need for wasteful paper filters, while the built-in heating plate keeps your coffee warm for up to 25 minutes — ideal for slow starts, distracted mornings, or anyone who refuses to gulp their caffeine in a rush.
It’s practical, playful and far cheaper than your daily barista habit in the long run.
