Featured: Fashion designer Oliver Spencer on the power of print magazines

Fashion designer Oliver Spencer has made a career out of knowing how things should feel.

Not just look – but feel.

Whether it’s the dry handle of a summer linen shirt or the drape of a sharply tailored jacket, his work has always been rooted in tactility.

So, it makes perfect sense that in the screen-glazed digital age, Spencer’s latest creative venture is a print magazine called Secret Trips. It’s a tangible, hold-it-in-your-hands publication about travel that’s as much about texture as it is about text.

‘We’re all going back to paper,’ Spencer says, sitting in his London studio and flicking through the matt, high-GSM, FSC- and PEFC-certified pages of his magazine’s second issue.

‘The feeling of paper is very important at the moment,’ he says. ‘The digital age has peaked!’

Secret Trips: The Return Of The Tangible

Secret Trips is not your average travel magazine.

It doesn’t peddle five-star resorts or “top 10” lists based on freebies for journalists. Instead, it’s a curated collection of real recommendations from a trusted collective of writers, stylists and photographers – most of whom, like Spencer himself, spent their younger years with ‘dog-eared guidebooks stuffed into our backpacks’.

Spencer describes the magazine as ‘education, adventure and experience’, distilled into print.

‘We’ve got over 30,000 subscribers to our Sunday newsletter,’ he says of the digital side. (There is still a digital side, including a handsome-looking website.)

‘But it was important to me that there was something people could hold. A tactile experience. You’d rather read it on paper. Much better for you.’

There’s something wonderfully contrarian about launching a magazine right now.

Even Spencer admits, ‘It is pretty brave to go into publishing. Some would say stupid. But there’s no good time to start a business. You’ve just got to do it.’

The magazine’s mission is clear: to encourage slow, purposeful travel. Not luxury for the sake of it, but adventure with depth.

‘We’re not after that all-inclusive luxury vacation,’ he says. ‘Instead, we’re interested in all-inclusive adventure that’s going to fry your body and clear your head.’

That sensibility carries over into the Secret Trips design.

‘That’s part of my job,’ Spencer says simply, but meaningfully. ‘I wanted to make sure we had a certain footprint and a certain language to our magazine.’

With a host of contributors whose CVs include Esquire, Mr Porter, The Times LUXX, The Financial Times and The Rake, the design and editorial pedigree of Secret Trips is as assured as its philosophy. In just two issues, the title won big at The Travel Marketing Awards.

The Designer And The Watch

As we talk, Spencer glances at his wrist. ‘I’ve got the Blackbird,’ he says, referring to Aera’s M-1 Blackbird, a Swiss-made watch from the young British brand founded in 2022.

‘It feels – unlike a lot of other watches – tactilely as good as it looks, which is unusual.

The M-1 Blackbird takes inspiration from classic mid-century military field watches, perfect for globetrotters and adventurers like Spencer.

But while inspired by the famous WWII “Dirty Dozen”, Aera’s design philosophy brings fresh sculptural boldness to the category.

The watch features a rounded, domed sapphire crystal, a brushed black PVD-coated 904L steel case and a sleek integrated suede strap (many other strap options are available). It’s 39mm across – the perfect contemporary size for many – and comes powered by a mechanical Sellita SW216-1 movement, with a 42-hour power reserve, designed to keep on ticking wherever your travels take you.

Spencer isn’t a diehard watch geek – he admits as much.

But the M-1 Blackbird resonates with him for the same reason he cares about print and fabric: how it makes him feel.

‘It’s the most comfortable watch I’ve ever worn,’ he says.

‘Lots of watches you can look at and go “Wow”, but then when you put them on, you’re disappointed. But put this watch on, and you just think it’s a really great thing.

This, in Spencer’s world, is a high compliment. 

He even compares the M-1 Blackbird’s wearability favourably to another famous, household-name Swiss watch brand.

‘I always like the way they look, but they’ve never felt right when I wear them,’ he says. ‘You go, “Hmm, that’s quite a commitment”. Whereas this [M-1 Blackbird] looks amazing – but it also feels amazing on the wrist. It’s an ideal timepiece. You can just put it on and wander off on your adventures.’

The Tactile Thread

If there’s a unifying theme in Spencer’s life right now, it’s this: people want to feel things again. Whether it’s the rough grain of a good travel magazine, the brushed steel and suede of a beautifully made watch, or the hand-cut texture of a linen jacket – tactility is back.

‘If you’re going to wear something, you need to hold something,’ Spencer says. ‘Do you know what I mean?’

We really do.

In an era of endless swiping, the physicality of both Secret Trips and the Aera M-1 Blackbird represents a subtle act of rebellion – a desire for tangible things that last, that connect, that leave a sensory impression.

Spencer’s own design background – he’s the founder and CEO of both Oliver Spencer and Favourbrook, two of Britain’s most respected menswear labels – grounds this ethos in reality.

His clothes are known for combining craftsmanship with comfort, texture with tailoring.

With Secret Trips, he’s expanding that philosophy from the wardrobe to the world.

And with the Aera M-1 Blackbird on his wrist, he’s found a timepiece that complements this worldview.

Not flashy, not obvious – but smart, precise and, above all, felt.

In an increasingly digital world, Oliver Spencer is doubling down on the analogue. Not out of nostalgia, but out of instinct.

Whether it’s a great shirt, a slow-travel guide or a perfectly balanced mechanical watch – some things are simply better when you can feel them.