Cabana x Smythson

Introducing Sabbatical 2012.

For nearly 30 years, Miguel Flores-Vianna has diligently kept a Smythson diary. What began as a way to track appointments and tasks soon became a trove of memories, filled with everything from plane ticket stubs to Polaroids.

In 2012, the Argentine photographer and Deputy Editor of Cabana Magazine took a year-long sabbatical, leaving his editorial career in New York City and relocating to a small village in West Sussex, England.

Each day, he chronicled his journey in a Smythson Soho diary, filling its pages with Polaroids and scribbles. Now, that diary has been meticulously reproduced as Sabbatical 2012 – a collaboration between Milan-based publication Cabana Magazine and Smythson.

Bound in custom Nile Blue leather, the book faithfully preserves every handwritten note, photograph, and even the occasional spelling mistake – an authentic tribute to both his transformative year and his enduring connection to Smythson.

“The only chore I gave myself was to take a Polaroid a day. The Polaroids showed the places I visited, the interiors I saw, the travels that I took throughout that whole year, and all that ended up in this original diary.”

Miguel Flores Vianna, Photographer and Deputy Editor of Cabana Magazine