Paradox J

Gisela Helfer, a professor in physiology and metabolism at the University of Bradford in the UK, says naked mole-rats are also the ''perfect model'' for learning about human puberty.

Alongside the Damaraland mole rat, naked mole-rats are one of only two examples of eusocial mammals that live in colonies of overlapping generations where only one female is responsible for breeding and the rest work together to raise the brood.

Much like bees, a high-ranking queen rules over the mole-rat colony, breeding with one to three males at a time. Other individuals play different roles, such as workers who dig the colony's burrows with their tusk-like teeth and forage for food, providing the queen with roots and bulbs to eat.

Usually, there is one fertile pair per colony and the rest of the animals don't go through puberty, Helfer explains. However, if a naked mole-rat is removed from its colony, it will promptly start making s*x steroids and the animal experiences puberty.

Boho-luxe furniture, redolent of Saint Laurent's 1970s lifestyle, is currently in demand. Danish brand Gubi recently reproduced the Bohemian 72 collection of the late Milanese designer Gabriella Crespi in collaboration with her daughter Elisabetta Crespi, which includes rattan seating with plump cushions. "1970s furniture was characterised by an emphasis on cosiness and comfort – low-slung seating with soft, cloud-like cushioning – and by a leaning towards organic materials, evocative of the natural world," says Marie Kristine Schmidt, chief brand officer at Gubi. "A legacy of a late-1960s bohemian sensibility, this rejected convention in favour of freedom and self-expression. It was designed for socialising and entertaining without fussiness or formality."

Look back in languor

Each room of the boho-chic apartment had a distinctive mood: a vast wood-panelled 1920s salon, a white-walled, book-lined library, a rich red hallway, a mirrored den. Saint Laurent adored Chinese artefacts and Chinoiserie. This also found expression in his 1977 haute-couture collection with an "Imperial China" theme – lamé jackets with pagoda-inspired shoulders and lacquered red "coolie" hats – that presaged the launch of his perfume O***m. The scent's ad campaign featured 70s supermodel Jerry Hall shot alongside white orchids in the apartment's dark, atmospheric "Oriental Room".