The Want List: What caught the Esquire team's eye this week

A day out at The Biennale of Sydney

The 25th Biennale of Sydney opens this weekend, taking over the city with more than 140 works across multiple venues. Titled Rememory, the 2026 edition explores memory, identity and shared histories through large-scale installations and site-specific works.

It’s free, wide-ranging and spread well beyond the CBD, making it one of the most accessible ways to engage with contemporary art right now. Get out and engage with some art.

Sogni d’Oro by Fendi

Leather? Iris? Bergamot? Quentin Bisch is hitting all the high notes with this new fragrance for Roman house Fendi.

According to the brand, Sogni D’Oro is inspired by the Italian capital captured in the signature Fendi shade of yellow. Which sums up the olfactive experience – warm, sunny yet with a surprising depth to it. Slather it on for Sunday aperitivo.

As they say, when in Rome.

This Batten polo by Orlebar Brown

Suffering through the recent (Sydney) humidity, the Esquire team took a dive into finding the best transeasonal shirt. Something that still had some protection in case things turned, but wouldn’t have you overheating. Enter, Orlebar Brown’s Batten polo…

What we loved about this was the loose weave of the crochet. Perfectly breathable, but the thickness of the knit ensured a decent amount of chill protection. All in all, the perfect hot-day, cool nights shirt.

These Saltwind sneakers by Dior

The move away from the bulky dad sneaker into preppy streamlined silhouettes has been a refreshing change. Much easier to style and as office-friendly as it is for the weekend.

Trust Jonathan Anderson to add a specific Dior twist to them, though. The new Saltwind sneaker arrived in Australia earlier this year but it hasn’t left our minds since we spotted it on the runway.

Minimalist sneaker revival? Yes please.

A night at the movies to watch Project Hail Mary

Streaming is great, but how good is it to sit in a dark room where phones are banned and actually watch a movie?

This weekend, we’ll be catching a session at the local to watch Ryan Gosling’s latest sci-fi adventure Project Hail Mary.

From the sounds of early reviews, Gosling is back in form. It helps that, rather than resorting to a film made entirely of CGI, they opted for puppetry to bring to life the alien characters.

This Vitamin C from Augustinus Bader

In 2026, taking care of your skin is a no-brainer. You should be pedantic about your cleansers and moisturisers as you are your macros.

German skincare brand Augustinus Bader is held in high regard at the Esquire offices and their latest product, a Vitamin C serum, got us very excited.

The new serum pairs a stable form of vitamin C with its TFC8 delivery system, designed to get ingredients where they need to go, faster. In practice, that means brighter, more even skin without the usual irritation. Time to get your skin in order.

A pizza at Mary’s Hot Pizza

They’ve finally done it – decent food to be had at Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter courtesy of the Mary’s boys.

Mary’s Hot Pizza opened up in February of this year and so far, reviews have been glowing.

Expect to find us gorging on an 8-inch Roni.