A Magazine, Issue 70

No. 70 FEB/MAR 2014 LL10,000

Rev up my engine Breaking through the passion barrier Fashion An early spring bloom Celebrity Cozying up to Anna Wintour Art Taymour Grahne takes New York Gifts Your Valentine’s Day dream list Photography Under Gian Paolo Barbieri’s spell Restaurant Beirut’s La Petite Maison Travel In love with Washington, DC

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Inside No. 70 FEB/MAR 2014

Cityscape

42 Beirut Food at Epicery, art at KA 46 London Hermès’ jewelry boutique 48 Paris Fab fragrances at Welton London 50 Milan Sleeping at Hotel Manin 52 Copenhagen Eating at The Standard 54 New York Les Misérables on Broadway 56 Los Angeles The new Tory Burch flagship 58 Washington, DC Dancing the dream 60 Montreal An exhibit by Jules de Balincourt 62 Dubai Up all night at Iris

Playground

74 Movies Sex on your small screen 76 Music Tunes that titillate 78 Book About architecture and time

Fashion

80 Floral flair For men and women 84 The ‘90s Back in fashion 86 From Italy Luxe label Altea 88 Lingerie Heat up Valentine’s Day 90 Accessories Style stars 96 Hot stuff Spring’s hottest trends 104 Heartbreaker Garrard’s fiery earrings 106 Steamy rider The lady is a vamp 118 Sultry afternoon Seductive styles

Beauty

146 Hair The pixie cut 148 Skincare Around your eyes 150 Must-haves The way of Etro

Celebrity

152 Anna Wintour A chat with the Vogue editor 154 Bruno Frisoni Roger Vivier’s leading man 156 Jean-Michel Gathy Dreamscape architect 158 Nayef Francis Hot Lebanese designer

Design

162 Rene Gonzalez Great Florida architect 166 Peter Zumthor His spiritual structures 168 PAMM A new art museum for Miami 170 Design trend Botanical beauties 172 Design update What’s new, what’s cool

Inside High Art

174 Taymour Grahne His New York gallery 178 Gian Paolo Barbieri Famed photographer 184 Toulouse-Lautrec His museum in Albi 186 Peggy Wong The lithograph and the stone 188 Art galleries Shows worth viewing

Gourmet

192 Restaurant Mamnoon’s fusion cuisine 194 Beirut In love with La Petite Maison 196 Desserts Decadence in three cities 198 Tea The luxurious Jing tea selection

Lifestyle

200 Fragrances For a seductive Valentine’s 202 Romance A perfect Beirut day for two 204 Dating New tools, invented in London

Spotlight: Washington 206 Sights Top DC attractions 210 Museums Washington’s best 214 Hotel The Mandarin Oriental in DC 218 Shopping DC’s retail scene 222 Restaurant Osteria Morini’s Italian fare 224 Living A dream home in Washington

No. 70 FEB/MAR 2014 LL10,000

Journey

226 Vienna Europe’s grande dame 230 Palais Hansen Vienna’s Kempinski 232 L’Apogée New hotel in Courchevel 234 Toronto City for lovers 236 Bogotá Colombia’s super-trendy capital 238 Broummana Lebanon’s mountain resort

Last Word

240 Goodbye Dudley World’s best pup

Rev up my engine Breaking through the passion barrier Fashion An early spring bloom Celebrity Cozying up to Anna Wintour Art Taymour Grahne takes New York Gifts Your Valentine’s Day dream list Photography Under Gian Paolo Barbieri’s spell Restaurant Beirut’s La Petite Maison Travel In love with Washington, DC

Cover She’s in a Pucci jumpsuit, Dsquared2 shoes, Maison Martin Margiela necklace, Cartier earrings and Nach Bijoux ring.

Photographer David Bellemère. Stylist Amelianna Loiacono.

Hair Bruno Silvani. Makeup Megumi Itano from MAC Cosmetics. Model Isabelle Nicolay from Women Management.

Publisher

Tony Salamé Group TSG SAL

Editor-in-chief Marwan Naaman

Creative director Malak Beydoun

Editors

Associate editor MacKenzie Lewis Assistant editor Celine Omeira Contributing editors May Farah, Leslie Jirsa, Serena Makofsky, Savitha Varadan Canada editor James Alexander Dunphy France editor Brent Gregston Italy editor Renata Fontanelli UK editor Grace Banks US editor Robert Landon Beauty editor Charlotte Colquhoun

Art directors

Art and production director Maria Maalouf Guest art director Raya Farhat

Writers

Salma Abdelnour, John Burns, Stephanie Epiro, Anthony Klatt, Marie Le Fort, Anna Leach, Sabina Llewellyn-Davies Serena Lott, Shirine Saad, Pip Usher, Dorothy Weiner, J. Michael Welton, Marianne Wisenthal

Photographers

Fashion photographers David Bellemère, Tony Elieh, Alice Rosati Contributing photographers Paul Clemence, Ieva Saudargaite

Stylist

Amelianna Loiacono

Illustrator Mélanie Dagher

James Alexander Dunphy James Alexander Dunphy is a writer, designer and content producer living and working in Montreal.

While his professional focus is on business and leisure travel markets, his unprofessional focus drifts into space, time, life and all things beautiful.

He’s the new Canada editor for A magazine.

John Burns John Burns is a British writer currently based in Dubai. After spending a year reviewing restaurants for Time Out Beirut, he now joins the breadline every day at DIFC. In this issue, he tells us about his favorite Dubai sandwich shop, 1762, and its decadent dessert offerings.

Leslie Jirsa Leslie Jirsa lives in New York with her daughter and husband, writing about education, art and literature. A contributor to various travel and entertainment publications, she can usually be found – when missing – in Washington’s San Juan Islands or at the movies.

Isabelle Nicolay Isabelle Nicolay was born in New York and grew up in a FrenchAmerican household.

She was scouted at age 13 and has been modeling ever since. She loves traveling for her work.

In this issue, she stars in the “Steamy riders” shoot, photographed by David Bellemère.

Giulio Panciera Born in Venice, Giulio Panciera got his makeup training in London before moving to New York, where he assisted makeup artist Linda Cantello for clients like Vogue, Lancôme and Karl Lagerfeld. The makeup artist now lives in Paris, where he works for Interview, GQ and more.

Bruno Silvani Hairstylist Bruno Silvani hails from Marseille. He enrolled in hairstyling school at 16 and began working soon after. He lives in Paris and focuses on beauty and fashion photography, working with photographers Serge Leblon, Gilles Bensimon, Jean Baptiste Mondino and others.

Advertising

Melhem Moussallem, Karine Abou Arraj, Stephanie Missirian

Production and printing

Senior photo producer Fadi Maalouf Printing Dots: The Art of Printing

Responsible director Nasser Bitar

140 El Moutrane St., Fourth Floor, Downtown Beirut, Lebanon, tel. 961.1.974.444, a@aishti.com, aishtiblog.com

last dance So this is it. After 12 years as editor-in-chief of A magazine, and after overseeing the creative development of 70 issues of this Beirut-based publication, I am saying goodbye to Aïshti and leaving the company that I called home for over a decade. Even though change is always good, and even though I am thrilled at the prospect of what the future might hold, I have a heavy heart – after all, A magazine has been such an integral part of my existence for so long that life without this publication will certainly never be the same. In this final editor’s letter, I want to thank everyone who worked with me over the years, from writers and editors to creative directors, photographers and stylists. It was a privilege to work with each and every one of you: creative director Malak Beydoun, who was my partner in crime for eight years, and art director Maria Maalouf, with whom I worked closely for even longer than that. I also want to thank former editors who have now moved far away from Lebanon, like Natasha Tohme and Tala Habbal: spending every weekday with you was always a great pleasure. And I want to extend a special consideration to my most recent colleagues, Celine Omeira and MacKenzie Lewis, who are staying on at Aïshti and are now tasked with caring for this great magazine.

Finally, I want to extend a special acknowledgment to my boss, Aïshti’s owner and CEO Tony Salamé, who gave me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to imagine and create one of the most beautiful publications in the world. A magazine, I miss you already.

Marwan Naaman

WATCH THE FILM AT JIMMYCHOO.COM BEIRUT SOUKS, FAKHRY BEY STREET 01 99 11 11 EXT 595

A cityscape

Just in Beirut O1NE (left)

Beirut’s hottest new club skirts the Mediterranean, as it pulsates inside a standalone structure covered with colorful works by international graffiti artists. Inside, O1NE features 360-degree mapping to transport revelers all the way to outer space.

BIEL, tel. 70.939.191, facebook.com/o1nebeirut

Lebanese fashion designer Sandra Mansour has introduced a glamorous spring/summer 2014 collection that includes embroidered tops, printed silk pants and lace dresses in bright summer colors.

Gouraud St., Gemmayze, tel. 01.444.155, sandramansour.com

Moschino (above)

Chloé (above)

Clare Waight Keller named the latest musthave Chloé bag after herself. The dazzling Clare chain shoulder bag has a pocket for your phone and a sleek bar in front. This is the third of Chloé’s alphabet bags, following the Alice and the Baylee.

Available at Chloé and Aïshti stores.

Lancaster Plaza (right)

Beirut’s former Royal Plaza Hotel has undergone major renovations and is now open again under the name Lancaster Plaza. The rejuvenated hotel offers 151 luxurious rooms and suites, and stunning sea and city views.

General de Gaulle Ave., Raouche, tel.

01.791.000, lancaster.com.lb/plaza A 42

In celebration of Moschino’s 30th anniversary, creative director Rossella Jardini pays tribute to founder Franco Moschino by reinterpreting his most iconic themes. Her mise-en-scène plays on the modern’s woman dual identity: naughty and nice.

Available at Aïshti stores.

Ladurée (above)

French patisserie Ladurée is offering a special Valentine’s box of macarons. The pink case is adorned with a red heart and includes eight assorted macarons.

Two locations: Foch St., Downtown Beirut, tel. 01.992.922, and ABC Ashrafieh, tel.

01.217.308, laduree.com

©Chanel, Chloé, Dior, Raya Farhat, KA, Ladurée, Lancaster Plaza, Maison de la Gaufre, Sandra Mansour, Moschino, Mike Ossman, Yvan Tufenkjian

Sandra Mansour (below)

Dior (above)

KA (above)

Raf Simons created a dreamy 2014 cruise collection for Dior. Highlights include floaty sundresses and lace dresses with angular graphics. The bags and bracelets explode like a French Riviera sunset.

Available at Dior and Aïshti stores.

Lebanon’s KA Modern & Contemporary Art Space is a new private art gallery that showcases about 100 pieces from local and international artists. The gallery is open on Saturdays by appointment only and is free of charge.

Residence Marina Bay, Dbayeh, tel.

76.924.431.

Chanel (below)

Le Lift from Chanel is a new firming and antiwrinkle cream that comes in three textures: ultra-light Crème Fine, soft Crème and opulent, nourishing Crème Riche.

Available at Aïshti stores.

Yvan Tufenkjian (above)

Jeweler Yvan Tufenkjian is opening his first flagship boutique this February. The luxury store will carry the designer’s avant-garde and meticulously crafted jewelry pieces.

Foch St., Downtown Beirut, tel. 01.999.051, yvantufenkjian.com

Maison de la Gaufre (above)

Get your waffle fix at the newly opened Maison de la Gaufre. The intimate spot offers freshly prepared waffles, made in Lebanon with secret ingredients, and served with a variety of toppings.

Zaitunay Bay, tel. 76.567.012.

CinemaCity (left)

Lebanon’s newest multiplex, CinemaCity, is now open at the Beirut Souks. Designed by Dada & Associates, the 12,000-square-meter, cutting-edge space holds 12 theaters plus two VIP screening rooms.

Beirut Souks, tel. 01.995.195, cinemacitybeirut.com A 43

A cityscape

Just in Beirut

Jimmy Choo (below)

Rani Zakhem (below)

Nicole Kidman stars in Jimmy Choo’s latest cruise campaign. Shot on a beach, complete with retro styling for the lovely Kidman, the campaign highlights key shoes and bags from the 2014 cruise collection.

Available at Jimmy Choo and Aïshti stores.

Lebanese designer Rani Zakhem’s luscious spring/summer 2014 collection is inspired by old Hollywood glamour, with plunging necklines and cinched waists.

Visit ranizakhem.com

Pommery (above)

Pommery’s Brut Royal is a fine champagne made from a blend of 40 carefully selected crus from the Champagne region. Fresh and vivacious, it’s perfect for Valentine’s and for any other special occasion.

Visit vrankenpommery.fr

People at Faqra (below)

Movie lovers, there are two hot new TV sets for you. Samsung just unveiled the 105-inch U9500 Curved Ultra High Definition (UHD) TV and the 85-inch U9B Bendable UHD TV, both of which will be released during the second half of 2014.

Visit samsung.com

Epicery (left)

Epicery is Beirut’s hottest new pub and restaurant. Housed inside a glorious old Lebanese home, the place serves specialty cocktails and a variety of international dishes.

Patriarche Arida St., Mar Mikhael, tel.

76.046.556.

A 44

©Jimmy Choo, Epicery, Raya Farhat, Pommery, Samsung, Rani Zakhem

Samsung (right)

Aïshti’s People restaurant in Faqra is open for the winter season. Drop by for a steak saignant accompanied by a glass of Segla Margaux red. Finish off your meal with the delectable chocolate tart.

Faqra, tel. 09.301.777.

A誰shti, Downtown Beirut 01. 99 11 11

A cityscape

Just in London

Hackett (right)

The clean lines and heritage cuts of Hackett are now available at the brand’s new flagship store. Hackett’s largest retail space in the world carries the label’s modern updates on true British classics.

193-197 Regent St., W1B, tel.

44.020.7494.4927, hackett.com

Hermès jewelry (left)

As if Harrods wasn’t enough of a destination, the Kensington department store now houses the one and only Hermès jewelry boutique. The new space showcases pieces that fuse the brand’s history with its contemporary persona.

Harrods, 85-137 Brompton Rd., SW1, uk.hermes.com

Canvas (below)

At new concept restaurant Canvas, Michael Riemenschneider modernizes the tasting menu with a “create your own” experience.

Expect haute cuisine with a contemporary twist, an e-sommelier and plenty of glamour.

69 Marylebone Lane, W1U, michaelriemenschneider.com

Chanel and Josh Wood (below)

Stay ahead of cool with the savvy pop-up bar from hairstylist Josh Wood and Chanel at Sketch. Get a manicure, blow your hair out or simply knock back a glass of champagne.

Sketch, 9 Conduit St., W1S, tel.

44.020.7659.4500, sketch.uk.com

Kino/Film (above)

Paul Smith No. 9 (left)

New concept store Paul Smith No. 9, masterminded by architects 6a and located in Mayfair, is a testament to this innovative, quintessentially British label.

9 Albermarle St., W1S, tel. 44.020.7493.4565, paulsmith.co.uk A 46

©Canvas, Chanel/Josh Wood, Grad, Hackett, Hermès, Paul Smith

The striking graphics of Soviet Russia continue to inspire today. “Kino/Film: Soviet Posters of the Silent Screen” exhibits littleknown works from the era.

On view until March 29 at Grad, 3-4a Little Portland St., W1W, tel. 44.020.7637.7274, grad-london.com

A cityscape

Just in Paris

Christophe Michalak (above)

Famed pastry chef Christophe Michalak has just introduced Masterclass, a series of classes for amateur chefs and dessert lovers. The classes take place inside a former gallery converted into two studios with open kitchens.

60 Rue du Faubourg Poissonière, 10th arrondissement, christophemichalak.com

Guerlain (right)

Welton London (above)

Newly renovated by Peter Marino, the Guerlain flagship on the Champs-Elysées now features a stunning installation by Gérard Cholot. “Le Vol des Abeilles” pays tribute to the imperial cologne designed by Guerlain for Empress Eugénie in 1853.

68 Avenue des Champs-Elysées, eighth arrondissement, tel. 33.1.4562.5257, guerlain.com

The first flagship store by Welton London carries the label’s bespoke eaux de toilette, including Secret Amber, Cuir Insolite and Bel Iris, plus scented candles and home fragrance diffusers.

48 Rue de Grenelle, seventh arrondissement, tel. 33.1.4222.8186, weltonlondon.com

Moynat (below)

Le B.O. (left)

Luc Besson’s new restaurant concept Le B.O., which opened in October, follows a successful pop-up venture set up during the Cannes Film Festival. The 80-seat venue was created by interior designer Richard Luc Morel as a cinematic fantasy.

Cité du Cinéma, 20 Rue Ampère, St. Denis, tel. 33.1.5599.8850, facebook.com/ bociteducinema.fr A 48

©Guillaume Benoît, Guerlain, Irfé, Christophe Michalak, Moynat, Welton London

Irfé (left)

One of France’s oldest couture houses has been revived and relaunched by new owner and creative director Olga Sorokina. Irfé offers high-end ready-to-wear clothing and accessories crafted in the finest French and Italian ateliers.

4 Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré, eighth arrondissement, tel. 33.1.4312.9781, irfe.com

Back in 1880, Pauline Moynat became friends with Réjane, a star actress from the Belle Epoque. Inspired by her elegance, fashion house Moynat created the Réjane clutch, which can be worn with a long shoulder strap or with an unusual double strap.

348 Rue St. Honoré, first arrondissement, tel.

33.1.4703.8390, moynat.com

A cityscape

Just in Milan

Diptyque (left)

French parfumeur Diptyque recently opened its first Milan boutique. The label’s famed scented candles and intoxicating fragrances are all available here.

23 Via Brera, tel. 39.02.7200.4400, diptyqueparis.com

Hotel Manin (left)

Milan’s family-owned Hotel Manin has been completely renovated, resulting in revived, reinvented guestrooms complete with state-of-the-art technological touches. The property overlooks Parco Venezia, one of the most beautiful parks in the city.

7 Via Daniele Manin, tel. 39.02.659.6511, hotelmanin.it

Björk (right)

Swedish food market Björk, which opened in November, specializes in Nordic cuisine and ingredients. Smoked salmon, pickled fish, Scandinavian cheeses as well as Nordic kitchen accessories are available here.

20 Via Panfilo Castaldi, tel. 39.02.4945.7424, bjork.it

Daniela Gerini (above)

Milan-based designer Daniela Gerini creates iconic fashion pieces made from thick cotton fabrics or hand-painted silk. Her lightdrenched workshop is open to the public.

8 Via Sant’Andrea, tel. 39.02.7600.1535, danielagerini.it

Fabiana Piantieri cooks up traditional dishes from her native Naples at new restaurant Non è Peccato. Specials include pacchieri pasta al dente, arancini (rice croquettes) and scrumptious flat fish patties. Have the ricotta pie for dessert.

4 Via Dell’Orso, tel. 39.02.8424.1855, trattorianonepeccato.it

Etro (right)

Etro pays tribute to the immortal Zorro characterΩin its spring/summer 2014 menswear collection, refreshing the label’s trademark look with chaps detailing on pants, Western pockets on shirts and leather touches throughout.

5 Via Montenapoleone, tel. 39.02.7600.5049, etro.com A 50

©Björk, Diptyque, Etro, Daniela Gerini, Hotel Manin, Non è Peccato

Non è Peccato (below)

A cityscape

Just in Copenhagen

The Standard (left)

Food entrepreneur Claus Meyer is always ahead of the game. The co-founder of Noma restaurant recently opened The Standard, a waterfront jazz club and dining venue set in an Art Deco building and housing three restaurants under the same roof.

44 Havnegade, tel. 45.7214.8808, thestandardcph.dk

“Revolutionary Roads,” a landmark exhibit focusing on Asger Jorn and Jackson Pollock, examines the common threads linking the work of both artists.

On view until February 23 at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 13 Gammel Strandvej, Humlebaek, tel. 45.4919.0719, louisiana.dk

Amass (above)

Leather Projects (below)

Noma’s former head chef Matt Orlando opened Amass in the hip Christiana neighborhood. His Nordic-inspired cuisine includes changing specials like fermented flat bread, dry-aged beef and Arctic char with buckwheat and watercress.

153 Refshalevej, tel. 45.4358.4330, amassrestaurant.com

Former IT consultant Jeppe Dencker left the tech world behind to devote himself to his one passion: leather. In his Copenhagen atelier, he creates handmade pieces under the Leather Projects label, including bags, belts and other leather accessories.

7 Nansensgade, tel. 45.3118.4942, leatherprojects.com

Griegst (below)

One of Copenhagen’s most celebrated jewelers, Griegst has been making unique, visually striking, museum-quality pieces for over half a century.

Visit griegstjewelry.com

Atelier September (above)

Chef Frederik Bille Brahe’s new restaurant is housed inside a former antique furniture store. Atelier September serves sophisticated, seasonal vegetarian dishes with an Asian twist.

30 Gothersgade, tel. 45.2681.9602, atelierseptember.dk A 52

©Atelier September, Griegst, Leather Projects, Jackson Pollock/Metropolitan Museum of Art/Scala Archives, Tim Spreadbury, The Standard

Jorn & Pollock (right)

A cityscape

Les Misérables (left)

Dream a dream: wondrous musical Les Misérables is returning to Broadway this season. The first preview is on March 1, and opening night is March 23.

Imperial Theater, 245 W. 45th St., newyorkcitytheatre.com

Jewels by JAR (above)

This is the first US retrospective of the work of Joel A. Rosenthal, the contemporary jewelry designer who works in Paris under the name JAR. On view until March 9 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave., tel.

1.212.535.7710, metmuseum.org

Rôtisserie Georgette (below)

Geogette Farkas teamed up with chef David Malbequi to launch Rôtisserie Georgette on the Upper East Side. The restaurant specializes in spit-roasted meats as well as superior chicken dishes like poulet roti and poule de luxe, served with foie gras.

14 E. 60th St., tel. 1.212.390.8060, rotisserieg.com

Italian Futurism (below)

“Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe” examines the historical sweep of the movement from its inception in 1909 through its demise at the end of World War II. This is the first show of its kind in the United States.

On view from February 21-September 1 at the Guggenheim, 1071 Fifth Ave., tel.

1.212.423.3500, guggenheim.org

Laura Prouvost (above)

In “Laura Prouvost: For Forgetting,” the French-born, UK-based artist presents a new, immersive multichannel video installation.

This is the first solo museum show of Prouvost’s work in the United States.

On view from February 12-April 13 at the New Museum, 235 Bowery, tel. 1.212.219.1222, newmuseum.org A 54

©Artists Rights Society/ARS/New York/SIAE, Balenciaga, Estate of Roy Lichtenstein, The Heath, Les Misérables, Laura Prouvost/Motinternational, Rôtisserie Georgette, Hernan Rivera/Iván Navarro/Paul Kasmin Gallery, Lee Quiñones, The Skylark, Jozsef Tari/JAR Paris

Just in New York

City as Canvas (left)

“City as Canvas: New York City Graffiti from the Martin Wong Collection” provides a visual account of graffiti and street art in New York during the ‘70s and ‘80s, showcasing works from Wong’s pioneering collection.

On view from February 4-July 27 at the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave., tel. 1.212.534.1672, mcny.org

Balenciaga (left)

Couture and 21st-century technology beautifully fuse together in Alexander Wang’s spring/summer 2014 women’s collection for Balenciaga. Highlights include molded leather pieces embroidered with thread and printed with a swirling floral motif.

148 Mercer St., tel. 1.212.206.0872, balenciaga.com

Ileana Sonnabend (right)

The Skylark (above)

Titled “Ileana Sonnabend: Ambassador for the New,” this exhibit features works reflecting the activities of the collector’s galleries in Paris and New York, from the ‘60s to the ‘80s. Featured artists include Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist.

On view until April 21 at the MoMA, 11 W. 53rd St., tel. 1.212.708.9400, moma.org

Open on weekdays only, The Skylark is set atop a 30-story building in the Garment District. Artisan cocktails and tapas-inspired dishes combine beautifully with the dramatic Hudson River and Empire State views.

200 W. 39th St., 30th Floor, tel.

1.212.257.4577, theskylarknyc.com

The Heath (below)

The Heath is like an enticing film noir. This new restaurant comes from the creators of interactive play Sleep No More and offers classic British dishes, including rabbit toast, Fisherman’s pie and fish ‘n’ chips.

McKittrick Hotel, 542 W. 27th St., tel.

1.212.564.1662, mckittrickhotel.com/theheath

Iván Navarro (right)

Madison Square Park Conservancy’s Mad. Sq. Art announced a new sculptural installation: “This Land Is Your Land” by artist Iván Navarro.

The piece presents three water towers inside which neon reflections repeat infinitely.

On view from February 20-April 13 at Madison Square Park, madisonsquarepark.org 55 A

A cityscape

Just in Los Angeles Connecting Seas (left)

“Connecting Seas: A Visual History of Discoveries and Encounters” reveals how other cultures were perceived, represented and transmitted when ocean travel was the primary means by which people and knowledge circulated.

On view until April 13 at the Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Dr., tel. 1.310.440.7300, getty.edu

Fútbol (right)

Celebrating the sport on the eve of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, “Fútbol: The Beautiful Game” includes approximately 30 artists from around the world, working in video, photography, painting and sculpture.

On view from February 2-July 20 at LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., tel. 1.323.857.6000, lacma.org

Gratus (above)

Meredith Kaplan’s elegant new womenswear boutique carries skillfully selected fashion pieces by the likes of Marni, Dsquared2, Band of Outsiders and more.

427 N. Canon Dr., Beverly Hills, tel.

1.310.276.8200, gratus.com

Rao’s (below)

Tory Burch (above) Etro (above)

Iconic Italian label Etro has opened a magnificent new space in LA. The luxe boutique carries menswear, womenswear, accessories and fragrances.

461 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, tel.

1.310.248.2855, etro.com A 56

Tory Burch recently opened her first West Coast flagship in the City of Angels. The three-level store carries the label’s entire womenswear collection, including clothes and accessories, and houses a luxurious VIP room inspired by Burch’s Hamptons getaway.

366 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, tel.

1.310.274.2394, toryburch.com

©Tory Burch, Etro, Getty Research Institute, Gratus, Lyle Ashton Harris, Rao’s

New York’s legendary, 117-year-old restaurant Rao’s (Madonna’s favorite) opened in LA. Chef Nicole Grimes offers traditional Italian fare like spaghetti with meatballs, lemon chicken and fried mozzarella.

1006 Seward St., Hollywood, tel.

1.323.962.7267, raosla.com

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BANKMED, one of Lebanon’s ďŹ nancial leaders and its pioneer in environmental actions and CSR commitments.

Because we believe that nature is Man’s greatest wealth, we have been pioneers in investing in it. Our determination for long-term goals, coupled with our passion and drive to achieve our financial, social and environmental objective, have placed us in the lead. And it is our firm belief that every contribution today yields a better future for our children tomorrow.

01 - 70 80 70 www.bankmed.com.lb

A cityscape

Just in Washington, DC

Dancing the Dream (left)

Barcelona Wine Bar (above)

Set in stylish Logan Circle, Barcelona Wine Bar offers a carefully selected wine list, with vintages from Spain, France, the United States, Uruguay and more, plus an elaborate tapas menu.

1622 14th St. NW, tel. 1.202.588.5500, barcelonawinebar.com

Tory Burch (below)

For her spring/summer 2014 collection, Tory Burch looked to the easy glamour of the French Riviera in the late ‘60s, and specifically to the iconic Romy Schneider as she appeared in the classic flick La Piscine.

Green, white and coral hues reign supreme.

1211 Wisconsin Ave. NW, tel. 1.202.337.1410, toryburch.com

Damage Control (below)

“Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950” examines the theme of destruction in art post World War II, and how artists have used it to comment on pressing cultural and social issues.

On view until May 26 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Seventh St. at Independence Ave. NW, tel.

1.202.633.4674, hirshhorn.si.edu

Jaleo (above)

Chef José Andrés’ visually dazzling Jaleo restaurant offers a wide selection of delectable Spanish tapas. Menu items include gazpacho, chicken fritters, potato omelet, shrimp sautéed with garlic and Serrano ham.

480 Seventh St. NW, tel. 1.202.628.7949, jaleo.com/dc A 58

©Barcelona Wine Bar, Burberry, Tory Burch, Oscar R. Castillo, Estate of George Platt Lynes, Ara Güler/Free Sackler, Jaleo, Scott Suchman, Sugar Daddy’s, Steve Tanner, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects

A tribute to the art of dance, the “Dancing the Dream” exhibit showcases magnificent images of performers like Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Michael Jackson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.

On view until July 13 at the National Portrait Gallery, Eighth St. at F St. NW, tel.

1.202.633.1000, npg.si.edu

Our America (left)

Highlighting over 90 works of art across all media, “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art” explores how Latino artists expressed key themes in American art and culture.

On view until March 2 at the American Art Museum, Eighth St. at F St. NW, tel.

1.202.633.1000, americanart.si.edu

Brief Encounter (below)

Based on the 1945 movie of the same name and Noël Coward’s play Still Life, the play Brief Encounter switches between live theater and projected film footage, taking audiences to a bygone age of romance and the silver screen.

On view from March 29-April 13 at the Lansburgh Theater, 450 Seventh St. NW, tel.

1.202.547.1122, shakespearetheatre.org

Ara Güler (above)

Burberry (above)

Throughout his career, Ara Güler, Turkey’s most well-known photographer, took over 800,000 photographs documenting Turkish culture and historical sites. “In Focus: Ara Güler’s Anatolia” features his never-beforeshown works of Anatolian monuments On view until May 4 at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave., tel.

1.202.633.1000, asia.si.edu

Christopher Bailey went back to his British roots for Burberry’s spring/summer 2014 men’s collection. Named “Writers and Painters,” the line is inspired by writer Alan Bennett and painter David Hockney (both Brits) and explodes with bright colors.

1155 Connecticut Ave., tel. 1.202.463.3000, burberry.com

Osteria Morini (below)

Operating under the helm of executive chef Matt Adler, new Italian restaurant Osteria Morini is set at the Yards Waterfront. Try specials like bucatini with crab, sea urchin and basil, and gramigna with pork sausage, tomato, cream and black pepper.

301 Water St. SE, tel. 1.202.484.0660, osteriamorini.com

Sugar Daddy’s Bakery (right)

After successful ventures in Amman, Dubai and Beirut, Sugar Daddy’s Bakery has opened an outpost in the US capital. The new spot carries the famed red velvet and carrot cupcakes.

2006 18th St. NW, tel. 1.202.450.4462, sugardaddysbakery.com 59 A

A cityscape

Just in Montreal

Boutique Jérôme (above)

Nestled on “antique alley” in trendy Griffintown, Boutique Jérôme features beautiful creations by the artisans of Quebec. From handmade jewelry to stylish housewares, the store is perfect for picking out a local souvenir for friends or for yourself.

1520 Notre Dame St. West, tel.

1.514.419.9123.

Claire Beaugrand-Champagne (above)

Jules de Balincourt (below)

“Claire Beaugrand-Champagne: Touching Reality” features snapshots of daily life from Quebec and Canada. The famed documentary photographer has spent much of her life capturing the candid emotional expressions of her surroundings.

On view until April 13 at the McCord Museum, 690 Sherbrooke St. West, tel. 1.514.

398.7100, mccord-museum.qc.ca

Jules de Balincourt has been creating politically laced and thought-provoking art for decades. This latest exhibit focuses on his work from 2004 to 2013, showcasing his eclectic mix of media and styles.

On view until March 23 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1380 Sherbrooke St. West, tel. 1.514.285.2000, mbam.qc.ca

Hotel Gault (below)

For winter and until April 30, the luxurious Hotel Gault is partnering with Bota Bota (spa on a boat), which is floating just minutes away. With your Gault room, you’ll receive water circuit access to the spa, two Gault breakfasts and two films with popcorn.

449 St. Hélène St., tel. 1.514.904.1616, hotelgault.com

Every year when the maple syrup starts pouring from the trees, the chef at La Cabane in Montreal’s Old Port dreams up new ways to include the liquid gold in innovative culinary creations. The pop-up restaurant brings a modern twist to the “sugar shack” tradition.

March 6-April 20, 400 de la Commune St. West, tel. 1.514.285.0558, lacabane.ca

Reborn (above)

Reborn is a stylish, intimate boutique filled with wearable art meticulously curated from the edgiest designers. Find fashion from Thomas Tait, Rad Hourani, Jeremy Laing and Raquel Allegra, among others.

231 St. Paul St. West, tel. 1.514.499.8549, reborn.ws A 60

©Claire Beaugrand-Champagne, Boutique Jérôme, Jules de Balincourt, Hotel Gault, La Cabane, Reborn

La Cabane (left)

A cityscape

Just in Dubai The Odd Piece (left)

Brainchild of design enthusiast Arwa Hafiz, The Odd Piece carries an eclectic collection of refurbished mid-century modern pieces with revamped vintage finds and restored arabesque antiques.

Al Hadiqa St., Al Wasl Square, Shop 53, tel.

971.4.388.3733, the-oddpiece.com

La Maison du Chocolat (right)

Clinton St. Baking Co. (above)

Chocolate lovers rejoice as this luxury Parisian chocolatier finally reaches the Middle East.

Dubai Mall’s Fashion Avenue is now truly the answer to every girl’s dream: nip into cocoa heaven to refuel mid-shopping spree.

Ground Floor, Fashion Ave., Dubai Mall, tel.

971.50.424.3638, lamaisonduchocolat.com

Clinton St. Baking Co., a New York institution offering a delectable brunch, is opening imminently in Dubai. Get in early before the hordes catch on. The blueberry pancakes have twice been voted “Best in the City” by New York Magazine. The place also offers a nice selection of sandwiches.

Burj Views, Downtown, clintonstreetbaking.com

Iconic boutique S*uce celebrates its 10-year anniversary at The Village Mall with the launch of Micaroon makeup. Lip-glosses, eye shadows and blushes in pretty pastels come in pocket-sized, mini-macaroon packaging.

Village Mall, Jumeirah Rd., tel.

971.4.344.7270, shopatsauce.com

Black Rainbow (above)

“Black Rainbow” is an intriguing exhibition of the work of artists Rui Chafes and Ralf Ziervogel that cleverly marries the former’s nebulous, matte black sculptures with the latter’s meticulous geometric drawings.

On view until March 10 at Carbon 12, Alserkal Ave., tel. 971.4.340.6016, carbon12dubai.com A 62

Iris (left)

This legendary Beirut nightspot opens its latest outpost in the environs of the flawless Oberoi hotel, boasting a delicious cocktail menu to be quaffed while enjoying sunset views of Burj Khalifa and the city’s stunning skyline. The menu offers contemporary cuisine, and drinks are made with fresh fruit.

The Oberoi, Sheikh Zayed Rd., oberoihotels.com

©Carbon 12, Clinton St. Baking Co., Iris, La Maison du Chocolat, Micaroon, The Odd Piece

Micaroon (right)

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A playground _ movies

Steaming up the screen

By Leslie Jirsa

New and classic flicks to titillate your senses When the film 9½ Weeks was test screened, whole audiences walked out. Those who stayed screamed furiously at the screen. To watch a sadist whittle a woman down to the teary, naked nub she willingly became was evidently too much; to watch her succumb to cunning grins, blindfolds, dark alleys, street sex and violence was just too animal for some. Director Adrian Lyne took the reel back to the cutting room and tried to tame it, but even when it was widely released in 1986, we slid right down in our seats, breathing heavily, cringing, sweating, throbbing all at the same time, right there in the same theater where we watched Star Wars when things were gentle.

Take 9 Songs. The cast for the film includes Matt, Lisa and eight bands. The eight bands do not have sex, but Matt and Lisa certainly do. To earn its stripes, 9 Songs received a lot of controversy thanks to graphic sex scenes, which include real intercourse, real ejaculation and a few other unsimulated sex feats. The film is set in England and voyeuristically follows Matt, a British climatologist and Lisa, an uninhibited American student, for a short, powerful sex affair. “When I remember Lisa,” says Matt in retrospect, “I don’t think about her clothes, or her work, or where she was from, or even what she said. I think about her smell, her taste, her skin touching A 74

©Rue des Archives/RDA

But 9½ Weeks, along with a fistful of other films (below), thrill us because feelings – potentially love, but definitely a unique brand of romance – are involved. The truth is we cringe because it’s in us. We know it’s partly because we never let go of such films. We’ve expanded on them.

This page Secretary (below), 9 Songs (right) and Blue Is the Warmest Color (bottom right) Opposite page Lie with Me (top) and 9 1/2 Weeks (bottom)

mine.” The sex ends abruptly when Lisa returns to the United States.

red pens and wide-paddle hairbrushes have never been the same since.

In Blue Is the Warmest Color, released last year, it’s “love at first sight” for Adele, a high school student ripe for the taking. Fresh off her first unsatisfying sex encounter with a boy her age, Adele shifts over the moment she lays eyes on blue-haired, college-aged Emma. Adele walks directly into a lesbian bar shortly after the sighting, then right into a two-year, happy sex tryst with Emma. It’s all lust and love until Adele gets jealous and things go awry.

The woman has the upper hand in Lie with Me. In fact, the opening shot is Leila, her occupied “upper hand” and a porn tape. Leila is the sadist here, and David (played by Eric Balfour), the man she meets in a club after the porn tape, is the submissive. While Leila uses her sex to control David, he falls in love with her. As the two face real life outside their encounters, their lives depart and meet again in relatively humdrum, unsexy contexts that become arousing for them.

Secretary is a classic. Granted, the actual sex shots are softer than the other less inhibited films on this list, but its plot – namely a vulnerable young woman fresh out of the mental ward finding her way as a new submissive – aims to carve a mainstream for sexual deviation. James Spader, always a great sex creep, plays her new boss, and it turns out he’s the dominant she’s been seeking. The two follow a tawdry winding road and come to a fairly traditional end, but worms, typos,

The sexy movie we’re all eagerly waiting for at this moment is the film adaptation of EL James’ bestselling novel Fifty Shades of Grey, starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dorman. Ana and Christian, hotel rooms, helicopters, uncountable BDSM toys, and of course: The Contract. How she gets there – how anybody gets there – is as mysterious as it is natural, as deviant as it is visceral. Millions of copies sold to literally every nook and cranny of civilization, and now we finally get to submissively watch. Sweet release.

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A playground _ music

Is There Anybody Out There? by A Great Big World

With “This is the New Year” being featured on Glee and Christina Aguilera singing on “Say Something,” this debut full-length album has generated some buzz. The duo – comprised of Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino – formed when the artists met in NYU’s music program.

They describe Xtina’s desire to collaborate as a “rocket launch.”

Mood music

Foreverly by Billie Joe + Norah Jones January marks the vinyl release of this subtle, lo-fi homage to the Everly Brothers, performed by chanteuse Norah Jones and, providing surprisingly spot-on harmonies, Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong. Another twist: the artists stay relatively faithful to the originals, yet somehow manage to showcase the darker side of the lyrics.

Beautiful Life by Dianne Reeves

Four Grammy Awards mean this jazz vocalist has nothing to prove, yet still she pushes boundaries.

She dips into reggae with a cover of Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain,” dabbles in pop on Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” and spins some soul with Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You.”

Wanderlust by Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Fans of the one-time disco diva who expect another murder on the dance floor will have to think again. This time out, the songs are stripped down, sans DJ superstars and with less synthesizer tracks. It allows the vocals to shine, with lush melodies that chronicle the rush of new love and the melancholy of yearning.

Unconditional Love by Ruben Studdard Love Marriage & Divorce

by Toni Braxton and Kenneth Ò BabyfaceÓ Edmonds

The longtime friends who have been through romantic and professional ups and downs come together in this fresh duet album.

Their voices and performances betray a singular chemistry.

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A directive from producer David Foster (“From now on, everything you do has to be sexy!”) has prompted a heartfelt, yet smooth delivery from this American Idol alum. Renditions of love songs through the ages include standards by The Beatles and The Carpenters.

WWW.AISHTIBLOG.COM

A playground _ book

All in time ŠPaul Clemence

By Serena Lott

A 78

A gorgeous new book highlights architecture’s relationship with time

Amid the pretty tumult of this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach/DesignMiami, I made sure I got to the launch of a new book by two regular A magazine contributors – award-winning photographer Paul Clemence and writer Robert Landon.

Called Here/After: Structures in Time, their groundbreaking new work takes readers on a whirlwind tour of architecture’s hidden fourth dimension: time.

“Paul Clemence’s photography and Robert Landon’s essays remind us of the essential relationship between architecture, photography and time,” writes Terence Riley, celebrated architect and MoMA’s former chief curator of architecture and design, in the book’s introduction.

The authors nearly sold out their special first printing during the packed opening of the DesignMiami show entitled “Inventory 04: Time.” Curated by Thais Fontenelle, the show attracted equal parts New York literati and Miami glitterati. I had to push my way through a dense crowd of PYTs and their

patrons in order to get to the book’s authors.

Not that I am complaining!

may be still, but his images are dynamic and alive – dancing in time.

When I finally reached Clemence, he explained that the 38 photographs in this book grew out of his restless search for new architectural encounters, which have taken him from Rio de Janeiro to New York, from Barcelona to Cologne.

Inspired by Clemence’s photos, Landon’s highly personal and poetic essays take the reader on a similar journey. Even the shapes of his words on the page echo Clemence’s images. But instead of beautiful buildings, the authors explores the mysteries of time itself, elegantly expressing the way time shapes not just architecture, but all our beliefs and perceptions.

Just flipping through the book, I began to witness the aesthetic fruits of his journeys.

His highly original – and often hauntingly beautiful – works encompass some of the world’s most celebrated buildings, from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum to Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao. Other architects featured in the book include Zaha Hadid, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Oscar Niemeyer, Marcel Breuer, IM Pei, Studio Glavovic and Jean Nouvel.

However, Clemence’s camera also discovers hidden beauty in unexpected places – an anonymous back alley, a construction site, even a graveyard. The buildings themselves

“Paul’s photos inspire me to open my eyes to the built environment – to remain awake to those poetic moments that lurk just at the edge of visual perception,” writes Landon.

“In response, my texts seek to explore the way time, an invisible force, is always lurking within the ‘built environment’ of the mind.”

The initial preview edition of 100 copies is printed on beautiful Mohauk eggshell paper in New York, where the book was conceived, written and designed.

For more info, visit hereafterbook.com A 79

A fashion _ runways

First bloom

By Stephanie Epiro

A sneak peek at spring’s dazzling floral trend

Marc Jacobs

Etro

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Fashion’s sure bet for spring is in bloom again next season.

Lush floral prints blossomed all over women’s collections on runways from New York to Paris. That great symbol of femininity enhanced dresses and skirts with a strong, artistic look. But designers proved pretty f lowers could be masculine too, adding contemporary and fresh f loral embellishments to the men’s collections. A magazine invites you to frolic through the flowers.

Femme flora The flurry of flower-embellished looks designers sent out for spring are divided into two style camps. For those who like florals with plenty of feminine flair, Oscar de la Renta’s structured, full-skirted dresses are printed

©Tory Burch, Oscar de la Renta, Dior, Etro, Marc Jacobs, Moschino

Dior

Oscar de la Renta

Moschino

Tory Burch

with fields of sunny flowers, as are Tory Burch’s retro sundresses. Adorned with red roses, Moschino’s high-waisted shorts, blouses and jackets are playful and romantic, while Etro’s bold black and red floral prints cut into fluid wrap dresses and skirts to create a sultry silhouette. These looks veered into floral’s other theme for spring, where romance and whimsy were replaced with modern shapes cut with plenty of attitude. For Dior, Raf Simons sent models down a toxic primrose path. Bright acid florals turned up as plisse inserts on cut-out and asymmetrical black dresses. Marc Jacobs trailed clean and crisp bi-color foliage patterns down column dresses, with black overembroidery on the shoulders injecting a dose of cool.

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A fashion _ runways

Saint Laurent

Marc Jacobs

Prada

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Botanical boys A floral print on spring’s womenswear lineup proved so irresistible to designers, they also doused their men’s collections with a botanical treatment. Novel interpretations in sophisticated prints and color gave otherwise strictly feminine florals a masculine edge – especially when designers put them into relaxed tailoring. Frida Giannini used a moody floral print all over T-shirts, jackets and pants for Gucci, with a washed out look providing a romantic take on the summer suit. Marc Jacobs used painterly flowers cast over pale yellow, black and turquoise hues on quirky blousons, short-sleeved shirts and matching ties. Hedi Slimane gave florals a rock ‘n’ roll image for Saint Laurent: his slinky flora and foliage printed shirts paired with glossy leather pants, tuxedo jackets and bandanas are sure to be seen on brooding musicians from London to LA next spring. The Hawaiian shirt, an iconic style statement for men decades ago, got an image overhaul at Prada. Worn with generously tailored jackets and slouchy pants, the Hawaiian shirt infused a tired old idea with a new languid beauty.

©Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Prada, Saint Laurent

Gucci

zagliani.it

A誰shti Downtown Beirut 01. 99 II II

A fashion _ trends

Christopher Kane

Gucci

Dressed to the ‘90s

By MacKenzie Lewis

The new spring collections take us back to the late 20th century

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It was a decade defined by pagers and Beanie Babies, scrunchies and culottes.

And when the ‘90s went out with a bang (or a Y2K sputter), the era’s fashion trends followed. They lay dormant for 20 years before sweeping back into spring fashion, without so much as a second thought.

It started with a slip dress. Surrounded by gowns and body-con dresses, Nicole Richie made jaws drop in a bronze Marc Jacobs number at the 2013 CFDA Awards. Though certainly more opaque than the original, it was a near-replica of the infamous dress

Kate Moss wore in 1993 – a shockingly sheer slip dress that sparked endless copycats. The decade-defining frock was a casualty of the post-‘90s minimalist backlash, but by the middle of New York Fashion Week, the front row was heralding the return of barely there formalwear.

Stella McCartney showed a low-cut version of the slip dress in a burnout floral print, while Christopher Kane strayed from the understated with embellished straps and a draped neckline.

The slip dress may be the most elegant

©Balenciaga, Gucci, Christopher Kane, Stella McCartney, Pucci, Vera Wang

Balenciaga

Pucci

Stella McCartney

Vera Wang

‘90s trend to resurface for spring, but other once-dated looks are quite literally cropping up everywhere. Crop tops last appeared on the red carpet en masse when Gwen Stefani was just a girl in a half-shirt.

Though the six pack-flaunting singer would argue that they never went out of style, the rest of the world held out on agreeing until now. At Vera Wang, long-sleeve crewneck sweaters got the chop, a risqué addition to the midi-skirts they topped.

shirts appeared again at Pucci, where they were worn over bandeau bras. Balenciaga blurred generational lines with textured court shorts cut in the thigh-revealing ‘70s style paired with structured tops.

lengths and materials, but always loose and full of movement.

Meanwhile, at Gucci, athletic-style mesh shirts gave more than a glimpse of the triangle tops underneath. Rihanna would no doubt approve. Taking a cue from ‘90s girl group TLC, the style chameleon was an early adopter of gymwear as streetwear, recently sporting a basketball jersey as a dress. Mesh

The ‘70s are also responsible for the culotte, the skirt/short hybrid that saw its first revival in the ‘90s. Though it didn’t go far in fashion circles the second time around, the “skort” did find converts on television, most notably the perky casts of Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills, 90210. Attempting yet another comeback, culottes reappeared on catwalks at Proenza Schouler and Alexander Wang this spring. They were grown up at Proenza Schouler, with a midi-hemline and sometimes with a peplum. Wang showed a more relaxed side of the skort, in varying

The saying goes, “If you were old enough to wear it the first time around, you’re too old to wear it the second.” The one exception may be Mary-Kate Olsen, who could barely write her name the last time a scrunchie sat squarely atop her head, a fountain of baby blonde hair flowing from it. When she recently attended the Hampton Classic Horse Show, it was coiffure déjà vu; there, above a white dress and polished blazer, 27-year-old Olsen’s hair spilled from a scrunchie. But hey, fashion rules are made to be broken, and who better at egging us on than Marc Jacobs? The designer’s Marc by Marc Jacobs collection now offers scrunchies in enough patterns for almost every day of the week.

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A fashion _ brand

Fashion universal

By Renata Fontanelli

Italian label Altea wants to conquer the world

Altea is one fashion brand with its head turned resolutely to the future. Offering clothing and accessories for both men and women, the Italian label traces its roots back to the late 19th century, when Giuseppe Sartori, great-grandfather of the two current managing directors, Luca and Michele Sartori, opened a store that specialized in socks, ties and knitwear.

That initial store did well, but was closed temporarily during World War II, when massive allied bombings devastated Milan and razed the business to the ground.

Brothers Luca and Michele, the fourth generation of the Sartori family, gradually increased and diversified production, and Altea clothing and accessories are now made in a massive factory located outside Milan. The company also has a spectacular showroom in one of Milan’s oldest and most evocative neighborhoods.

Of the two, Michele is the creative spirit, designing the collection with Elena Frigerio and a carefully selected team of creatives.

©Altea

In 1946, after the end of the war, the Sartori family reopened their tie store, renaming it Altea. “It’s a medicinal plant with great power, and it’s also extremely lush and

able to grow quickly and to branch out extensively,” says Luca Sartori, explaining why the family chose this particular name.

And growth has been tremendous for the brand, especially from the ‘70s to the present day.

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Together, they come up with unexpected color combinations and geometric patterns, designing clothes that are out of the ordinary yet still hark back to Altea’s roots.

“The character of our brand is determined by our history and passion for accessories, and it’s from there that the creative process begins,” says Luca Sartori. “We have an extremely solid archive of materials and drawings from which we still seek inspiration today.”

The brand’s Milan showroom is anything but traditional. Set in a former industrial space, with ultra-high ceilings and enormous windows, the spacious showroom provides a striking backdrop for the clothes on display: exhibited in rustic wooden cabinets and hanging from perfectly spaced racks, the clothes look as if they’re about to glamorously step out on their own.

An adjoining space houses Altea + galleria nicolaquadri, a gallery that carries breathtaking 20th-century furniture and home accessories. Overseen by architect Nicola Quadri, the gallery aims to become a space for cultural events, hosting conferences and exhibits related to art and design. “The gallery mixes original pieces from top 20th-century designers, especially from Northern Europe, with lesser-known objects,” says Luca Sartori. “We have an understanding and very strong common objectives with Nicola Quadri. We share the same passion.”

For the imminent future, the Sartori brothers plan to strengthen Altea’s womenswear collection and to conquer new international markets. There are also plans to open the first Altea boutique, pushing the Italian brand to the forefront of luxury retail.

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A fashion _ lingerie

That little something extra

By Grace Banks

Make your Valentine’s Day sexier than ever

An expert in the world of bespoke paddles and pin-up style undergarments, Agent Provocateur offers lingerie that’s guaranteed to put a swagger in your step this Valentine’s Day. The brand’s pieces gleam with a shameless sensuality as well as touch on the season’s obsession with lingerie dressing. Electric blue fuses with trademark pink, and black is sexed up with peekaboo cut outs and blush inducing silhouettes.

If your Valentine’s Day calls for something bold, look no further than Agent A 88

©Agent Provocateur, Coco de Mer, Andrew Lamb

Sexy, sensual lingerie is a must on Valentine’s Day. Nothing puts you and your loved one in the mood quite like a set of lace undergarments or provocative garter belts.

Provocateur’s Birthday playsuit, featuring bows and, well, little else. If chic and mysterious is more your thing, then opt for the baby doll in the same range. Decorated with strategically placed hearts, this one piece is gifting at its most erotic. Pair ‘40s seem stockings with fluffy pink marabou heels, and indulge in a playful mood that’s pure Betty Grable.

As founder Serena Rees says, the beauty of Agent Provocateur is that it’s based on female domination. If you’re a woman who calls the shots, then Rees’ tantalizing bedroom toys are your dream accessory: just picture yourself enjoying a Valentine’s Day clad in a 22-karat gold choker or a multicolored crystal-handled whip.

You could also opt for ‘80s club fabrics, such

as latex, to produce a dramatic bedroom effect. Beloved by stylists as well as Rita Ora, Naomi Campbell and Sky Ferreira, Atsuko Kudo is the priestess of bespoke PVC. Devoted to the fabric because “it’s a bit naughty,” Kudo has turned latex into a boudoir revelation. An outstanding piece is the knicker and bra set inspired by the mermaid costumes that Kudo created for Pirates of the Caribbean. This latex, discemblazoned two-piece is the perfect way to make your Valentine’s Day extra special.

This page Atsuko Kudo (left) and Coco de Mer (right) Opposite page Agent Provocateur

Accessories have long been the forte of Sam Roddick, who describes her brand Coco de Mer as ideal for erotica lovers and adventure seekers. As well as offering beautiful handcrafted lingerie, Roddick also makes pieces such as corsets with horsetails to add a naughty new dynamic to Valentine’s Day. 89 A

A fashion _ accessories

A stylish affair Photographer Tony Elieh Stylist MĂŠlanie Dagher

Clockwise from the left Prada ballerinas, LL1,080,000; CĂŠline bag, LL4,042,500; Dior heels, LL1,725,000; Prada clutch, LL2,377,500; Marc Jacobs bag, LL2,640,000; Roberto Cavalli heels, LL2,242,500

A 90

Clockwise from the left Gianvito Rossi heels, LL1,342,500; Jimmy Choo bag, LL1,492,500; Jimmy Choo heels, LL1,192,500; Prada bag, LL3,592,500; Saint Laurent shoes, LL1,027,500; Saint Laurent clutch, LL1,755,000

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A fashion _ accessories

Clockwise from the left Fendi bag, LL7,665,000; Charlotte Olympia bag, LL24,222,500; Charlotte Olympia clutch, LL1,815,000; Delfina Delettrez ring, LL703,500; Delfina Delettrez bracelet, LL1,251,000; Stella McCartney shoes, LL742,500; Charlotte Olympia bag, LL1,732,500; Charlotte Olympia shoes, LL1,275,000

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Clockwise from the left Moschino bag, LL1,897,500; Burberry shoes, LL1,380,000; Prada bag, LL2,377,500; Stella McCartney bag, LL1,582,500; Dior heels, LL1,447,500

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A fashion _ accessories

Clockwise from the left Marni bag, LL2,115,000; Saint Laurent cardholder, LL285,000; Mikita sunglasses, LL862,500; Delfina Delettrez bracelet, LL1,240,500; Stella McCartney clutch, LL3,420,000; Gucci clutch, LL2,182,500; Marni sandals, LL1,072,500; Gianvito Rossi heels, LL2,220,000; Saint Laurent bag, LL2,092,500; Dior heels, LL1,087,500

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Clockwise from the left Céline bag, LL6,292,500; Jimmy Choo heels, LL1,320,000; Jimmy Choo sunglasses, LL585,000; Pucci bag, LL3,412,500; Saint Laurent bracelet, LL1,095,000; Prada heels, LL1,177,500; Fendi heels, LL1,867,500. Available at Aïshti stores.

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A fashion _ hot stuff

You’ve got the look A glimpse of spring styles

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Fendi

Dior

Dior

Oscar de la Renta

Chloé Antonio Berardi

Marni Moschino

Burberry

Balenciaga

Great white light

y

Stella McCartney

Fendi

Burberry

Antonio Berardi

Moschino

Balenciaga

Saint Laurent

Stella McCartney

ChloĂŠ

CĂŠline

Fendi

Dior

Trending the blues

Nude fantasy

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Dior

Stella McCartney

Antonio Berardi

Roberto Cavalli

Saint Laurent

Dolce & Gabbana

Mistress of metals

Saint Laurent

Pucci

Dolce & Gabbana

Diane von Furstenberg

Dior

A fashion _ hot stuff

Saint Laurent

Bottega Veneta

Fendi

Dior

Balenciaga

Saint Laurent

Dries Van Noten

Dior

Bottega Veneta

Michael Kors

CĂŠline

Dries Van Noten

A fashion _ hot stuff

Pleated to please

One shoulder bare

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Saint Laurent

Dries Van Noten

ChloĂŠ

Bottega Veneta

Marni

Moschino

Marc Jacobs

Roberto Cavalli

Burberry

Bottega Veneta

Antonio Berardi

Marni

A fashion _ hot stuff

Embellished with love

Queen of ruffles

Dior

Saint Laurent

Stella McCartney

Marc Jacobs

ChloĂŠ

Giambattista Valli

Fendi

Burberry

Dolce & Gabbana

Antonio Berardi

Sheer style

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Oscar de la Renta

Fendi

Balenciaga

Marc by Marc Jacobs

Antonio Berardi

Dior

Burberry

Antonio Berardi

A fashion _ hot stuff

Hard candy

Vera Wang

Prada

Marc Jacobs

Marni

Marc by Marc Jacobs

Pucci

Balenciaga

Stella McCartney

Pucci

Gucci

Sporty lady

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A fashion _ heartbreaker

Set the world on fire

ŠTsar

A flaming fantasy of rubies, black diamonds and white diamonds, the Fire of London earrings from Garrard are certain to set all hearts ablaze. Price available upon request. Available at Sylvie Saliba, Quantum Tower Bldg., Charles Malek Ave., Ashrafieh, Beirut, tel. 01.330.500.

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Fashion Steamy rider Sultry afternoon

Steamy rider Photographer David Bellemère Stylist Amelianna Loiacono

She’s wearing a Gucci top, Dsquared 2 swimsuit, Dolce & Gabbana shoes and a vintage belt

This page She’s wearing a Dolce & Gabbana cape, Jimmy Choo shoes and vintage bodysuit. Her earrings, ring and bracelet are all by Dsquared 2 Opposite page She’s wearing a Fendi dress, Dsquared 2 bracelet and Nach Bijoux necklace

She’s wearing an Agent provocateur bra, Maison Martin Margiela leggings, Dsquared2 shoes, vintage belt, Roberto Cavalli earrings and Maison Martin Margiela rings

This page She’s in a Chloé bodysuit, vintage belt, vintage Versace earrings, Prada bracelet, Dolce & Gabbana heels and Maison Martin Margiela ring Opposite page She’s in a Pucci jumpsuit, Dsquared2 shoes, Maison Martin Margiela necklace and Nach Bijoux ring

She’s in an Agent provocateur swimsuit, Gucci shoes and vintage jewelry. Her bag is by Dsquared 2

This page She’s in a Maison Martin Margiela jacket, Diesel underwear, Gucci sandals, Dsquared 2 necklace, vintage sunglasses and Maison Martin Margiela ring Opposite page She’s in a jacket, swimsuit and earrings, all by Versace. Her necklace is by Gucci. Available at Aïshti stores.

Hair Bruno Silvani Makeup Megumi Itano from MAC Cosmetics Model Isabelle Nicolay from Women Management

Sultry afternoon Photographer Alice Rosati Stylist Amelianna Loiacono Location Hotel Pavillon Opera, Paris

She’s wearing a Marni skirt, Agent Provocateur bra and Dolce & Gabbana heels

This page She’s in a Chloé top Opposite page She’s wearing a top and shorts, both by Moschino

She’s wearing a top and shorts, both by Dolce & Gabbana

She’s wearing a bra, shorts and jacket, all by Dsquared 2

This page She’s in a Tory Burch dress Opposite page She’s in a Dolce & Gabbana dress

She’s in a Prada dress and Dolce & Gabbana heels

This page She’s in a Chloé top and Moschino shorts Opposite page She’s wearing a Jo No Fui dress and miu miu heels.

Her bag is by Dolce & Gabbana

She’s wearing a dress and sandals, both by Gucci. Her clutch is by Roberto Cavalli. Available at Aïshti stores.

Hair Nori Takabayashi Makeup Giulio Panciera Model Masha Novoselova from IMG

W W W. A I S H T I B L O G . C O M

Available at A誰zone stores 01 99 11 11

A beauty _ hairstyle

Magic pixie dust

By MacKenzie Lewis

Take your cue from Pamela Anderson, and chop off your locks

For such a small amount of hair, the pixie is one complex cut. It exudes elegance on gamines like Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Portman. It shows off the low-key charm of “it” girls like Jean Seberg and Jennifer Lawrence. And when model muses like Twiggy and Coco Rocha make the cut, it instantly adds edge to unconventional beauty.

For better or worse, model/actress Pamela Anderson has never been lumped into the same category as Hepburn or Twiggy. She’s sexy, full stop. Whether she’s running in slow motion in a red Baywatch swimsuit or posing on the cover of Playboy – an unprecedented 13 times, mind you – Anderson’s sun-kissed legs, pink frosted lips and curled, breast-grazing locks stack up to a caricature of the every-male fantasy.

So what happens when the blonde goddess shears the very symbol of her femininity and shocks the world with a pixie cut? Well, at the time of print, no one’s quite sure. Anderson made the chop toward the end of 2013, and there’s always the possibility that she alone has the power to inject the pixie cut with sex appeal.

Anderson told a US talk show, “I just thought my hair had a life, and I wanted to kind of put that behind me and start fresh.” And it’s not just the bombshell locks she’s shedding. After the jaw-dropping beauty makeover, the 46-year-old sex kitten has adopted a noticeably more demure look. Goodbye, curve-hugging Lycra dresses and sky-high heels; hello, ‘50s-style fitand-flare dresses, cardigans and ballet flats. For the first time ever, words like cute, chic and modest are bookending the pinup’s name – not since Hepburn’s Sabrina have scissors done so much for someone’s image.

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A beauty _ skincare

Eye of the beholder

By Charlotte Colquhoun

Beauty is a maxim dating back to ancient Greece – and perhaps well beyond that too.

Fast forward to the present day, and some magnificently modern serums and creams are nothing short of a gift from the gods.

La Mer Ideal for those with sensitive skin, the Eye Balm Intense is a second-generation eye treatment from La Mer, supplanting their original Eye Balm. Its capability as a thoroughly decent base for concealer means this is a very workable option by day. The functionality is impressive: packed with the Marine De-Puff Ferment and swept on with a silver-tipped applicator, this is the elite A-list of undereye creams.

Clarins So many skincare potions promise so much. Clarins is a beauty editors’ favorite when it comes to specific anti-aging for a darn good reason: it works. The

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Extra-Firming Eye Lift-Perfecting Serum combines albizia extract with green banana and lemon thyme in a recipe for real results.

Estée Lauder Underneath your under-eye cream, apply a dab of Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Eye Serum Infusion. Hyaluronic acid helps skin lock in moisture, while powerful anti-oxidants neutralize free radicals to assist in the fight against future aging.

Chanel The Hydra Beauty Gel Yeux from Chanel has snuck onto this shortlist despite being neither an intense product nor a straightforward serum. It is, however, magically refreshing and truly targets puffiness and dark circles thanks to the incorporation of a secret “eye complex” alongside the Hydra Beauty range’s trademark camellia alba PFA and blue ginger PFA.

©Raya Farhat

Creams and serums to highlight your eyes’ true beauty

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BEIRUT CITY CENTER HAZMIEH, LEVEL 1, 01 287 187

SHANGHAI

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A beauty _ must-haves

Natural glow Etro’s spring look combines soft, seductive colors with a sun-kissed radiance 4.

2.

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1.

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1. Saint Laurent Radiant Blush No. 9 2. Lanc™ me Teint Idole Ultra 24h, Wear & Comfort Retouch-Free Divine Perfection No. 3 A 150

3. Dior Diorshow Fusion Mono No. 521, Comète

5. Chanel Les Beiges, Healthy Glow Sheer Powder No. 40

7. Chanel Le Crayon Khôl, Intense Eye Pencil No. 69, Clair

4. Chanel Le Vernis, Nail Color No. 605, Tapage

6. Bobbi Brown Sparkle Eye Shadow No. 29, Baby Peach

8. Giorgio Armani Rouge Ecstasy, Excess Moisture Rich Lipcolor No.105, Ambiguous

©Etro, Raya Farhat

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7forallmankind.com

A celebrity _ editor

Nuclear Wintour

By Renata Fontanelli

A magazine chats with the world’s most famous editor-inchief, Anna Wintour

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Anna Wintour has finally made her peace with Milan. The powerful editor-in-chief of Vogue America reconciled with the city in September 2013, during Fashion Week.

After years of controversy tied to the “diktat” that she laid down for the Milanese fashion show calendar, which led Mario Boselli, the equally powerful president of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion to declare that “Wintour is simply an editorin-chief of an important publication who attempts to influence what happens outside of her editorial realm,” it seems that the most feared blond bob of designers and fashion industry workers has softened up.

Wintour never tolerated having to stay an entire week in Milan to see the fashion shows, a fact that set off a no-holdsbarred competition between designers for Wintour’s attention during her Milanese sojourns. Among discontent and quarrels, those who have suffered most from Wintour’s snub were the small and newly emerging designers: they never had the pleasure to have her at their shows.

Due to the major economic crisis hitting Italy, and the resultant dramatic drop in advertising expenditures, Wintour appeared in Milan in the role of fashion’s patron saint,

both patient and tolerant. She flew to the city with the editors of other Condé Nast publications, most notably GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and W, and with Condé Nast CEO Charles H. Townsend, to hand out five scholarships to five Italian students.

This is how Wintour explained the noble gesture: “Italy represents excellence.

We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to meet students who represent the future of this country, and I in particular am happy for everything they will create.” The perennially aloof Wintour, assisted by a bevy of press offices with stopwatches in hand, went on to add, “We’re very excited about the idea of discovering five students that represent the future of this nation.”

for all Condé Nast publications. Wintour’s career famously began when she was 16, in a job interview with the then editor-in-chief of Vogue America, Grace Mirabella, who asked her, “What position would you like to have in our magazine?” Wintour’s now legendary answer: “Yours.” And in 1988 she did achieve that goal, becoming editor-inchief of Vogue, a career depicted with evil relish in the film The Devil Wears Prada and glorified in the captivating documentary The September Issue.

An iron will, that of Wintour, who told A magazine that “Fashion by now is global, and we can’t stop that, but Milan still remains fundamental. With these scholarships, we want to encourage Italian talent to move forward. It’s necessary to support the industry that created and produced many of the most important business partners of our publication.”

But who’s the real Anna Wintour? A woman who can’t stand fat, and who says without hesitation that “In America it’s obesity that’s the social problem, not anorexia.” Wintour married child psychiatrist David Shaffer in 1984, had two children and then divorced 15 years later to devote herself completely to a career that made her the icon of global fashion. Methodical up to the point of boredom, she concedes herself no vices, excluding clothes, for which Condé Nast has granted her an allowance of $200,000 per year. A staunch lover of fur, she’s hired two bodyguards to defend her from attacks by animal rights activists.

Last year, Wintour received her umpteenth – and perhaps final – career promotion, with her appointment as artistic director

And if you ask her what the most important thing in her life is, even today, at the age of 64, she replies, “My career.”

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A celebrity _ designer

Prince of heels

By MacKenzie Lewis

Roger Vivier’s Bruno Frisoni muses about his artful footwear

It’s a surprising admission for someone who seems incapable of being stagnant. Since Frisoni joined Roger Vivier 10 years ago, he’s been credited with singlehandedly reviving a brand that established its legacy in the ‘60s.

While honored to have access to the creativity and history locked in Vivier’s archives – home to the original stiletto, comma heel and pilgrim buckle – Frisoni was determined to do things his way.

This season, he’s giving the comma-shaped Virgule a makeover. Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner and Cate Blanchett have all slipped on the pointed pump, establishing its association with bombshells and icy blondes; Frisoni has a different, fresher A 154

vision. He appointed 21-yearold DJ Atlanta de Cadenet as the new face of the shoe, and for the campaign, he put 19-year-old photographer Olivia Bee behind the camera. “I wanted these young girls to show how stylish the shoe is, and it was great to have new energy,” the designer explains. The photographer gives the collaboration her own seal of approval: “Working with an iconic brand like Roger Vivier and giving it a new twist was so good for my brain,” says Bee. “The brand is totally legendary.”

The Palais de Tokyo in Paris hosted a Roger Vivier retrospective last fall, which showcased 140 of Vivier’s designs, interspersed with those by Frisoni. So what one piece or collection would the designer choose to represent his contribution to the house? “It’s a bit too soon for this question, no?” he asks with a laugh. The multifaceted Prismick is a contender, with its contemporary nod to the brand’s history, though there will likely be many more. He may have paused for now, but Frisoni shows no sign of slowing down.

©Bruno Frisoni, Roger Vivier

Bruno Frisoni wanted nothing more than to attend the opening of the Roger Vivier boutique in Lebanon. The 100-squaremeter, gallery-like shop officially opened last December in Downtown Beirut. But after two months of travel, the holidays and then preparation for the January presentations, the brand’s creative director was beat: “I cannot move anymore.”

A celebrity _ architect

Closer to earth

By Grace Banks

Jean-Michel Gathy is concerned. Amid the international appetite for truly great design, it seems a trend is emerging for the over-the-top skyscraper. “It’s not that I’m a classicist. If people want these big buildings and like them, then fine. But the way I work with space is in complete contrast to the bold high-rises.”

It’s somewhat of an understatement.

During Gathy’s 33-year career, he’s earned a reputation as the go-to man for undercut luxury design. As the founder of architecture firm Denniston, the architect has carved resorts out of remote private islands, masterminded The Chedi Muscat in Oman

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and reinjected grandeur into the historic Aman Canal Grande Palazzo in Venice.

Cheval Blanc Randheli is Gathy’s latest project, and one of his most ambitious to date. Complete with floating water villas, alchemists and fine dining, the resort offers true five-star treatment on a private island off the coast of the Maldives. The location of the resort was the designer’s vision. “You simply cannot have a five-star hotel in a 100-room building surrounded by traffic.

And if you do, there is no way that resort will be five-star.”

With this in mind Gathy began work on

©Jean-Michel Gathy

Jean-Michel Gathy shares his take on modern architecture

The new Cheval Blanc Randheli in the Maldives (right and below), and the plush Chedi in Muscat, Oman (bottom right)

Randheli, a destination hotel where guests experience modern luxury.

make you want to dress up for dinner, not wear flip-flops.”

surroundings. “I see that hotel as the Jaguar car of the design world.”

Gathy’s design has a narrative of glamour witnessed through labyrinths of grand yet minimalist rooms, private chalets and personalized butlers. “The two characteristics of a luxury establishment are refinement of service and an exclusive location. I wanted Randheli to be decidedly non-beachy. The design should

With a self-defined aesthetic that is “silky, smooth, refined and elegant,” Oman’s Chedi Muscat is the embodiment of Gathy’s style. “I don’t like the word ethnic, or the phrase ‘blending in.’ I aim for modern lines in historical settings.” His aim for the Chedi Muscat was to create a feeling of sophistication and calm in dramatic

The future is bright for this Belgian-born entrepreneur. Unconsciously inspired by his travels, Gathy is now keen to work in the contrasting environments of the country and the metropolis. Morocco, New Zealand and Japan are all on his hit list. With such a definitive take on contemporary luxury, it’s hard to see a couple of skyscrapers getting in the way.

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A celebrity _ designer

New tales of the Orient

By Shirine Saad

Then the slow and painful process of production begins.

From his Mar Mikhael boutique and studio, Lebanon-born Francis works with a network of artisans and technicians to slowly build the object he has in mind.

Once a prototype is ready, he lives with it for several months until he decides to produce it.

“Objects are a solution more than anything,” says the 38-year old designer, who initially wanted to pursue a career in architecture and admires the work of Peter Zumthor and Ettore Sottsas.

“Design needs to cater to the needs of people. I’m not into decorative items. I need to find a solution for something. When I design, it’s all about the simplicity of production, creating a twist that translates into an added value. And it has to be discreet as well. Design is not about luxury.”

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Traditional Middle Eastern materials, like straw, copper and wood, take on new life under Francis’ hands, and they’re reborn with minimalist, whimsical forms that make everyday life just a little bit more fun.

His objects are also ingenuous, often allowing owners to use them in different ways. His Weaved lamp, a lantern made of straw, can be placed on the floor, table or suspended to create different lighting moods.

The Side Up Stool is a cube of folded aluminum that comes in a variety of bright colors and can be used in myriad ways. The Derbakeh stool is a fresh take on the Arabic drum. And his series of cups and bowls are made of

the traditional brass that’s so familiar to most Lebanese.

Francis says he likes to reuse the materials of his childhood.

“I don’t like throwing things away,” he says. “I like using old materials. It’s all about putting them in a different context and redefining their identity. It’s nice to have a bit of nostalgia, just to keep track of your past.”

He also loves seeing the way his customers relate to objects and adapt them to their lifestyles.

“Most our clients get nostalgic when they see the weaved lamp.

Design has to be organic, urban, not too imposing. You have to relate to the item. You can’t just buy something expensive and put it in a corner, you have to use it.”

©Nayef Francis

Nayef Francis breathes new life into traditional Middle Eastern materials

Designer Nayef Francis is stricken with flashes of creativity during unexpected moments – while contemplating trees or admiring a car’s design or during an interesting conversation. He immediately sketches his vision on his smartphone, a scribble of colorful and rudimentary lines, laying out the skeleton of a new table, lamp or chair.

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A design _ interview

A Florida modernist

By J. Michael Welton

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Architect Rene Gonzalez looks at the total environment to reveal the essence of place

Rene Gonzalez is a Florida modernist informed by site, culture and geography. He calls it the total environment, as he seeks to integrate his architecture into it, whether for a courtyard in Saudi Arabia, a high-rise in Miami or an island in South Florida. “We want to create something special, something that feels intrinsic to that place,” says the native of Cuba, raised in Fort Lauderdale and educated at the University of Florida and UCLA. In 2011, Gonzalez piqued more than a little interest when a home he designed in midrecession sold for $47 million, breaking all prior records for Miami residential sales. It was a stripped-down residence on an island in Indian Creek, between mainland Miami and Miami Beach. Sited for maximum views of the bay, the home is a series of cinematic, processional pavilions linked by pools and waterfalls.

His firm, established in 1997, designed the 10-bedroom, 10-bath home to align with the natural light of the vast South Florida sky and the constantly changing colors of Biscayne Bay. “Our practice is about creating impactful, memorable spaces and moments, in a holistic way that integrates the architecture and the landscape,” he says. “It’s also a practice that responds to place and the environmental qualities of wherever it’s built.”

The sale of the Indian Creek residence resulted in a heightened awareness of his ability to link his architectural designs to the ethereal atmosphere of Miami. “They reflect the beautiful qualities of the bay, the sky and the ocean,” he says. “They tend to reflect those environmental qualities that make Miami so special.”

Glass

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A design _ interview

He strives to include local culture as well. The Alchemist, a retail store he designed for an established mall on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach offers shoppers a quiet haven from the hustle and bustle of the street outside. “I’m very interested in culture, and in creating spaces that people will feel comfortable in, and responding to place in that way,” he says.

His projects are getting bigger. Late last year, the firm broke ground on its first residential high-rise project in Miami. With it, they’re delivering new meaning to the word transparency. The condominiums are called, appropriately enough, Glass. “The building is very much about connection to the environment – sometimes it uses clear and sometimes reflective glass,” he says. “The glass railings have a pattern that dissipates as they go up to sky, so as the building ascends, it becomes more and more at one with the environment.

Its site at the ocean’s edge influenced the design, with an entrance that’s immersive, evoking the beachfront setting. Porous Coquina stone containing fragments of shell and coral is interspersed gradually with small rectangles of blue Macauba coral, mimicking the transition between sand and sea. “The stone becomes A 164

©Rene Gonzalez

Glass is composed of 10 full-floor units, with a three-floor penthouse atop. They range in size from 3,500 to 9,000 square feet. Owners will have a 360-degree view of the Atlantic Ocean, Miami Beach and the Miami skyline.

This page Various aspects of Miami Beach boutique The Alchemist Opposite page A 10-bedroom home in Miami’s Indian Creek that sold for $47 million in 2011 Previous pages The Glass condominium tower, now under construction on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach

more repetitive as you get to the elevator wall, which is mirrored,” he says. “It tends to make you feel the qualities of action, retraction and receding waves on the beach.”

In the condominiums themselves, entry foyers feature ceilings with lighting effects evocative of different night skies, from stars in rural regions to those in urban areas. The supply is limited, and prices at Glass reflect that.

The smallest unit is listed at $9 million; the penthouse is tagged at $35 million.

Though the firm is also working on the first raw food restaurant in Miami and a 20,000-squarefoot home in Golden Beach, it’s by no means limited geographically to South Florida. Two other homes are under way, in the Hamptons and in Bloomfield Hills. And then there’s the garden courtyard in Saudi Arabia. “I was thinking about water as a main source of inspiration,” he says. “In the garden, the water level can be altered depending on how one wishes to use the space. It can be brought down to expose seating and a courtyard, or be raised to serve as a reflecting pool.”

A meditation on scarcity and abundance, it’s literally a man-made oasis. “We’re trying to achieve an architecture that’s tactile, that’s very experiential, and that implicitly captures the quality of the place it’s in,” he says.

It’s called finding and revealing the essence of space. And more often than not, Gonzalez is successful at it.

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A design _ wall of fame

Mystical landmarks

By Robert Landon

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I hold open the strange, triangular door as the old man, just managing to shuffle on two canes, stops at the threshold. He is leaving Peter Zumthor’s Bruder Klaus Field Chapel. I am about to enter. But before we trade places, he turns toward me with his rheumy blue eyes and an exalting smile, and offers a long, guttural benediction. In my ears, the words are just a series of warm, rough noises. Two younger men, a son and grandson probably, see I don’t speak German but remain silent. We stand all together for a moment in the wet, green Rhineland landscape. This is some of Europe’s most contested ground – a day’s march from Belgium, Liechtenstein and Holland, a few hours by tank from the French border.

to focus solely on the subjective experience of shape, texture and color that, in his work, together form dense, evocative architectural “atmospheres.” His goal: to bring us in direct, unmediated relationship with our surroundings and, therefore, our own “being-in-the-world.”

Like the old man, I am a kind of pilgrim. But I have come to venerate not a 15th-century Swiss hermit, but the strange, arresting architecture Zumthor has built in his honor. Zumthor first won global attention for the thermal baths he designed in Vals, Switzerland. Like so much of his work, the baths are informed by the phenomenology of German philosopher Martin Heidegger.

Zumthor rejects the notion of architecture that tries to express abstract concepts with rationally determined forms. Rather, he tries

While starchitects tend to haunt megalopolises, Zumthor chooses Haldenstein, a remote Swiss village. There he can pursue his uncompromising vision with something akin to a monk’s devotion. He turns down most commissions offered him, signing on only when he feels a deep connection. Not surprisingly, many of his most celebrated works have a spiritual, or at least meditative, mission, including: the baths in Vals; the ethereal galleries in Cologne’s Kolumba Museum; a rough, humble chapel devoted

“His buildings masterfully assert their presence, engaging many of our senses, not just our sight but also our senses of touch, hearing and smell,” wrote the Pritzker jury when conferring their prize on Zumthor in 2009. Most recently, he was named mentor for the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protegé Arts Initiative.

©Paul Clemence

Architect Peter Zumthor infuses the spiritual into his work

This page The Kolumba Museum in Cologne, Germany Opposite page The Bruder Klaus Field Chapel near Wachendorf, Germany

this case an oculus, the only source of light and completely open to the elements).

As I move around and through the chapel, shapes reveal themselves as stranger and more mysterious than I first guess – another Zumthor hallmark. Outside, what looks from a distance like concrete monolith morphs into a highly quirky pentagon as I circumnavigate the chapel. Inside, flat concrete planes give way to something rougher and stranger than I could have imagined. After the kind of curving, womblike foyer, I emerge into a bright, expansive, upward-reaching space.

Light enters from above, via the imperfect oval of the oculus. Contact with the heavens is raw and unmediated. Rain hits my face as I look up into the gray sky. This is not the language of openness. It is openness, with all the consequences. to St. Benedict in Graubünden, Switzerland; a luminous, starkly minimalist museum in Bregenz, Austria.

Inside his tiny Bruder Klaus chapel, I am brought into intimate – and totalizing – contact with Zumthor’s practice. There are the strong but humble materials, the highly tactile surfaces (rough concrete walls, wavy lead floor) and the connection to nature (in

I light a candle, think of the old man, his sturdy determination to cross a muddy field, the pain that no doubt wracks his gnarled limbs, the untranslatable warmth of his welcome. Then I think of my parents, both recently lost; this man will soon share their fate. So, eventually, will I, and all of us. And in this strange timeless space, I have a good solid cry. When I step outside again, I find myself wonderfully, unaccountably cheered.

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A design _ museum

Non-stick PAMM

By Robert Landon

ŠPaul Clemence

Miami has a new landmark: the Perez Art Museum

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I am standing with Christine Binswanger, senior partner of Herzog & de Meuron, a few hours before the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) opens it doors to the public for the first time. All around us, construction workers are making last-minute adjustments, while troublesome clusters of VIPs take their first peek into the museum’s airy, austere galleries. The excitement is palpable.

And yet I can’t unpeel my eyes from the huge, hurricane-proof windows before us.

They offer enormous views of resplendent Biscayne Bay and the six-lane, 5.6km Macarthur Causeway that crosses it.

Throbbing with traffic, the causeway is the kind of thing that, I imagine, people come to museums to forget. So I ask Binswanger, the museum’s project architect, how her team approached this design problem.

“Problem? What problem?” asks Binswanger. “That is what Miami is about.

Anyway, I find it beautiful. Don’t you?”

Suddenly I do. Or at least I find beautiful the building’s wide-open embrace of Miami, causeways and all. And I suspect that this visual (and programmatic) permeability to the city’s realities – natural and man-made – will define PAMM’s institutional success.

Attracting museumgoers is no simple task in this semitropical city where, as museum director Thom Collins frankly admits, art must compete with sun, surf and sand. PAMM neutralizes this problem by opening itself up to these very elements. It invites passersby up from a bayside promenade with steps as wide as the museum itself. Enormous overhangs provide unticketed visitors shelter, whether from sun or a sudden afternoon squall. Lush gardens and unbroken views of city and sea encourage them to linger.

And for those who decide to move inside the museum itself, the connection with the city is never cut. Great expanses of glass, like the one Binswanger and I stand before, dissolve the traditional barriers between jewel-box museums and the world at large.

Remarkably, PAMM’s views of the city do not intrude on one’s experience of the art. Rigorously simple shapes, colors and materials endow the galleries with a meditative quality. Except for the white of the gallery walls, virtually all of the building materials are left to assume their natural shade. “Artists should bring the color,” Jacques Herzog tells me during a pre-opening walkthrough.

And yet you never feel like you’re trapped in a maze of white cubes. Sight lines orient you without defining your course. Airy galleries with large windows, white walls and polished cement floors alternate with more intimate spaces with narrow windows, wood floors and walls of pale gray.

In Miami, a city built on real estate speculation, architecture tends toward shiny, look-at-me forms. So when I first approached the PAMM, I found its overall design – simple Modernist planes and muted colors – underwhelming. But as I take leave of Binswanger and head outside, I begin to understand. Just as the glass walls open the museum to the city, the unadorned planes provide a dispassionate platform of maximal flexibility.

And that is exactly what Miami requires.

A multilingual, multicultural portal between North America, South America and the Caribbean, Miami is a hybrid city in a perpetual state of self-invention. In response, the museum competes as little as possible with future forms it may take.

Rather, it serves as a kind a tabula rasa, or better yet a tabula aperta – a kind of open platform – on which Miami and its artists can imagine more beautiful futures.

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A design _ trend

Botanical power

By Marie Le Fort

Add a touch of evergreen to your interiors with natureinspired pieces Lebanese roots (left)

Cactus light (left)

Resembling a giant cactus, the Standing Light, from the São Paulo Collection by Studio Swine, is made from recycled materials collected from the city streets of São Paulo, Brazil. Inspired by the tropical modernism movement of ‘50s, the piece reinvents scrap materials with new and innovative methods of recycling.

The cactus-shaped lamp boasts a handcrafted structure of branches made of pine cut-offs, with bulbs made from recycled beverage bottles.

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Superbly natural (above)

A collection that experiments with plastic materials made from natural resins, rubbers, shellac, wood and even animal products, Studio Formafantasma’s Botanica was commissioned by Italy’s Plart foundation. The Botanica pieces, which include furniture, lighting, vases and bowls, make use of traditional materials like wood, ceramic and metal and are shaped like pine cones, seed pods and other products of nature.

Visit formafantasma.com

©Baccarat, Khaled el Mays, Secondome, Studio Formafantasma, Studio Swine, Who Did That

Lebanon-based architect Khaled el Mays launched his debut collection, Rhizomes, in 2013.

The line includes benches, consoles, tables and stools, all made from handcrafted wood and available in a variety of colors. Rhizome is a botanical term that refers to the underground stem of a plant.

Perfect for a collection that’s a tribute to nature.

Visit atelierkhaledelmays.com

Crystal loves bamboo (left)

Bamboo is the newest source of inspiration for the Brazilianborn Campana brothers. For Baccarat, the prolific designers created a series of light fixtures, each adorned with some type of bamboo design. “We refused to limit ourselves to crystal for their lights. We wanted to create a shock,” the brothers said. The Fusion collection for Baccarat includes Amuleto, a bamboo-andcrystal table lamp, as well as the Cosmo chandelier, which looks like a red fruit glowing through a woven bamboo structure.

Visit baccarat.com

All in the family (right)

Designed by Fabrica with Dean Brown for Secondome, La Famiglia is a playful take on vases and glass containers, featuring a strong botanical identity.

The hand-blown pieces in this “family” include a vase, a fruit bowl and a cake plate that can be flipped upside down. “In this collection I strived for a tension between sameness and individuality, expressed through a common base form and variations of transparent, green and ribbed glass,” says Brown.

Visit secondome.eu

Leather queen (left)

Tasmanian designer Loz Abberton – founder of design studio Who Did That – recently unveiled Pod Luxe and Pod Noir, two handcrafted light fixtures made from Australian leather (available in black, natural and brandy hues). Designed and created on the Australian island of Tasmania, the pieces are made from raw vegetable-tanned material – a by-product of the local agricultural industries.

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A design _ update

Under a design spell New projects to love The falcon’s flight (left)

Generating Berlin (left)

Following the openings of Generator hostels in Barcelona and Venice, the innovative Generator group has opened a sleek new property in Berlin’s Mitte neighborhood. Attractions include a bar, library, café, an engaging central courtyard and a basement event space used to showcase work of local artists and designers.

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Magazine to eat (above)

London’s incredibly beautiful new restaurant The Magazine is Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid’s first designer eatery. The Magazine is located inside the new Serpentine Sackler Gallery in Kensington Gardens, and it’s spearheaded by Berlin-born chef Oliver Lange, one of the world’s most exciting contemporary chefs.

Visit magazine-restaurant.co.uk

©Bespoke Global, Caesarstone, Generator Hostels, The Magazine, Silber Manufactur, Wood&

Designed exclusively for Neiman Marcus, the handcrafted Falconry Companion, created by Bespoke Global, is a magical, engaging universe hidden inside a leatherclad trunk. Open the trunk and you’ll find Richard Wrightman’s campaign chairs, Alexandra Lewellyn’s backgammon board and falconry accessories by Ken Hooke, among other exceptionally crafted goods.

Visit bespokeglobal.com/ neiman_marcus

Ice, ice baby (right)

Designed by Thomas Bastide (who created some of Baccarat’s most memorable pieces), Wiener Silber Manufactur’s Ikra Ice silver set is designed to serve vodka and caviar. The set includes a large ice bucket, a gold inlaid caviar bowl, six silver shot-glasses, a gold spoon and a beautifully faceted water carafe.

The limited edition set comes in a series of 100 pieces.

Visit silbermanufactur.com

Digital bench (left)

Caesarstone teamed up with architect Juergen MayerHermann to create Pipapo, a sculptural bench crafted from natural stone. First displayed at Galerie EIGEN+ART’s booth during Art Basel Miami Beach in December, the lattice-like bench is made from Caesarstone surface, reflecting MayerHermann’s fascination with camouflaged digital design.

Visit caesarstone.com

Artistic wood (right)

Lebanese architect and designer Georges Mohasseb, founder of Wood&, creates limited edition pieces of furniture, like the Art Deco-inspired Bubinga chair (pictured here), featuring curved wooden armrests. Another notable piece is the refined Talon Aiguille table, which can be split into two, allowing you to instantly transform your interiors.

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A high art _ gallery

East rises in the West

ŠTaymour Grahne Gallery

By Leslie Jirsa

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This page “Chasing the Butterfly” by Nicky Nodjoumi Opposite page “Intriguing Gesture” (top) and “Inspector’s Scrutiny” (bottom), both by Nicky Nodjoumi

Taymour Grahne’s new gallery introduces Middle Eastern art to Manhattan audiences As just about everyone involved in Middle Eastern contemporary art will tell you: if you want to know what’s happening in the Middle Eastern art scene, go to the blog.

Thus, regional art aficionado Taymour Grahne established artofthemideast.com. With his blog, Grahne has helped Middle Eastern art find the internationally respected audience it warrants, by creating a thriving online roundtable for connoisseurs and art lovers to keep their fingers on the pulse of the region’s artists.

The blog has then, as Grahne describes, “filled a void,” and as researchers and patrons of the Middle Eastern art world are increasingly able to get their hands and minds on new work thanks to Grahne, the world is utterly hungry for more.

So Grahne is ready once again to feed the need. As his blog continues to thrive, he’s set up a new kind of forum. Last fall, Grahne opened his first gallery, one that hosts the work of artists from all over the Middle East. And he has fittingly set up shop in a quintessential art town: New York.

During the course of his life, Grahne has bounced about noteworthy towns and countries.

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A high art _ gallery

This page “Miriam” by Hassan Hajjaj Opposite page “My Wicked Persian Carpet” (top) and “A Rainbow for Every Life” (bottom), both by Reza Derakshani

both New York and Beirut. He earned a degree in international relations from Boston University and a Master’s in art business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York. He has traveled extensively, always keeping contemporary art at the forefront.

The Taymour Grahne Gallery, located in New York’s Tribeca, opened in September with two levels of recent works by the world-renowned Iranian-American artist Nicky Nodjoumi. “I felt it was important to begin with an established artist,” says Grahne, “and Nicky is a very prominent artist in his early ‘70s, with works in the collections of the British Museum and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. I also wanted to start with a New York-based artist to showcase the fantastic artistic talent to be found in the city where the gallery is located.

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©Reza Derakshani, Hassan Hajjaj, Taymour Grahne Gallery

“My grandfather was a collector of Islamic Metalwork,” says Grahne, “and he built up one of the finest collections of Islamic Art, named after him, the Nuhad Es-Said collection. I inherited this passion for culture. After reading a substantial amount about the booming Middle Eastern art scene and the resurgence of Beirut as an arts center, I decided to do some exploring of my own, and spent a summer in Beirut touring galleries, meeting artists and researching more about the exciting developments that were taking place in the region.”

Wanting to stay in touch with the Middle Eastern art world, he built the blog.

is representative of the gallery’s transnational perspective.”

Asked what he feels Middle Eastern and North African art already have in terms of international appeal and also what he feels they still need, Grahne says, “Middle Eastern and North African artists have generated a lot of exposure and interest from across the globe over the past few years. They have generated exposure as ‘Middle Eastern’ artists; however the goal of [my] gallery is to present Middle Eastern artists as international artists, without the regional label.”

In October and November, Grahne’s gallery featured the work of Iranian painter Reza Derakshani with a show titled “My Wicked Persian Carpet.” Derakshani has shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum, among others. “I have always loved Reza’s works and his ability to combine both Eastern and Western aesthetics,” says Grahne. Currently, and until March 2, the gallery is featuring “Hassan Hajjaj: ‘Kesh Angels,” showcasing work by the Moroccan-born artist.

Among future artists slated for the gallery are Mohammad Kazem (UAE), Tarek al Ghoussein (Kuwait) and Camille Zakharia (Bahrain). Grahne also states that as the gallery begins to diversify beyond the Middle East, he will present shows by Pakistani, Indonesian and other artists.

“I want the gallery to be a meeting point for artists, collectors, institutions and art aficionados from different regions of the world.”

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A high art _ photography

By Renata Fontanelli

ŠGian Paolo Barbieri

Days of glory

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Italian photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri reflects on a spectacular career Gian Paolo Barbieri’s “Dark Memories” exhibit scandalized the city of Milan. For the show, organized by Davide Faccioli, owner of the Photology gallery, Barbieri used all the “discards” from a previous photo exhibition at Sotheby’s. They were referred to as “discards” because they were seen as too audacious for the more bourgeois public of auction houses. It’s Barbieri’s most daring work, carried out in the studio over a lifetime and now enclosed in a beautiful new book published by Skirà. His photos are mainly of gay and straight erotica, with clean, raw, titillating shots.

Barbieri met this reporter in his Milan studio, an enchanting open space overlooking a river and a garden alive with rabbits and turtles. “I took my first camera in hand when I was 12,” says the artist, “and after that I never stopped taking shots. I knew that was my passion.”

The son of a textile merchant, Barbieri used his father’s fabrics for his first photo shoots, with his class companions as models. He dropped out of his Milan high school to move to Rome, supporting himself by shooting 179 A

portraits of aspiring actors and printing them himself in the closet of the boarding house in which he lived.

In 1961 Barbieri got his first big break, when he was offered the job of assistant to Harper’s Bazaar photographer Tom Kublin in Paris. “It was the most intense and tiring month of my A 180

career, but I owe Kublin everything. I learned techniques that I still use today.”

The young Barbieri quickly established himself in the world of fashion, becoming friends with all the big designers, including Yves Saint Laurent, Gianni Versace and Gianfranco Ferré. He also got close to some of the era’s

top Hollywood stars, including the legendary Audrey Hepburn, who was immortalized in one of Barbieri’s photographs. “We were in the studio of Yves [Saint Laurent], and we didn’t know how to dress her,” he says. “I found this black, stiff fabric, and I made her a hood.” The result was a photograph that still takes the viewer’s breath away.

©Gian Paolo Barbieri

A high art _ photography

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A high art _ photography

In the age of technology, Barbieri firmly refuses to use software like Photoshop. “I find it misleading. I use only the lens, because my eye sees things that others don’t see.”

And whenever he can, Barbieri takes photos with the old analog system, still preferring it to digital. He also professes no admiration for women he terms “modern beauties,” preferring a more traditional look. “I must say that beauty standards change every decade, but sometimes the models who come to me are truly scary, thin and shapeless, sad and lacking sex appeal.” His beauty standard is set by iconic and voluptuous Italian siren Monica Bellucci.

But Barbieri’s accomplishments place him in the same league as Avedon. A halfdozen years ago, Palazzo Reale, Milan’s most important museum, dedicated a major exhibit to Barbieri, showcasing an enormous selection of his works.

Back in 1978, Germany’s Stern magazine credited him with being one of the 14 founding fathers of fashion photography.

In addition, Barbieri’s portraits are part of the collections of the V&A Museum and National Portrait Gallery, both in London, and of the Kunstforum in Vienna.

When he’s not working, Barbieri likes to vacation in the Seychelles, where he lived for extended periods of time. A fantasy destination for a fantastic photographer.

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©Gian Paolo Barbieri

Looking back upon his prolific, impressive career, the 75-year-old photographer names Richard Avedon as the greatest 20thcentury photographer and his single most important source of inspiration. “Avedon is the great and one-of-a-kind master,” he says. Barbieri still gets emotional when he tells of a meeting between Avedon and himself, and how the late photographer showered him with compliments as he looked through Barbieri’s portfolio.

A high art _ museum

ToulouseLautrec’s journey home

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In 1901, after his death at 36, no one in Paris showed any interest in collecting ToulouseLautrec’s work. The Louvre rejected it.

Toulouse-Lautrec was too notorious. An alcoholic dwarf who spent much of his time in bars and whorehouses, he died after falling into absinthe and syphilis-induced madness.

In the end, his mother gave everything in his studio to the provincial city where he was born, Albi, which created a museum for him.

Completely refurbished in 2012, the Musée Toulouse-Lautrec displays over 1,000 of his works – drawings, lithographs, paintings and, of course, his poster art. It is here that fin de siècle Paris rushes back to life in his rapid-fire brushstrokes, much of it done on cardboard: the cabaret singers, musicians, circus acts and prostitutes. The dance-hall girls in frothy skirts with names like “La Goulue” (the Glutton), “Grille d’Egout”

(Sewer-grate) and “Nini les-Pattes-en-l’Air” (Nini Legs-Aloft); the gas-lit café paintings like “Au Rat Mort” (At the Dead Rat); and the cabaret posters like “Le Chat Noir” (The Black Cat).

Albi sits on a bend in the River Tarn in the Pyrénées region, 550 kilometers southwest of Paris. The city is dominated by Ste. Cécile, a massive cathedral that resembles a fortress and one of the world’s largest brick buildings. Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa was baptized there in November 24, 1864, the son of a noble family tracing its roots to Charlemagne.

His parents called him Henri for short.

In one of the ironies of art history, his studies of women in brothels hang in the palace of Albi’s medieval bishops where the Inquisition held court in the 13th century.

©Musée Toulouse-Lautrec

To see Paris through the artist’s eyes, you have to travel to a place called Albi

By Brent Gregston

His works are arranged in mostly chronological order, including “Femme Tirant son Bas” (Woman Pulling up Her Stocking), “L’Anglaise du Star” (The Englishwoman of the Star), “La Modiste” (The Dressmaker) and “Le Divan Japonais” (The Japanese Couch).

You can follow his career from “The Viaduct of Castelviel,” painted as a child from his window in Albi, to his last signed and dated work, “An Examination at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris” (1901). His posters are in a room by themselves. A pop artist before pop art, Toulouse-Lautrec had a gift for abstract color that made him a pioneer of mass media.

Posters like “Moulin Rouge: La Goulue” (1891) or “Eldorado: Aristide Bruant” (1892) have become universal icons of popular culture.

When it came to painting prostitutes, or anyone else, Toulouse-Lautrec was as “compassionate as a rattlesnake,” said art critic Robert Hughes. He didn’t cater to male fantasies, though he was a paying client, as addicted to sex as he was to alcohol. When he painted them waiting for health checks, with their skirts gathered up around their waists, the painter Degas complained it “stank of syphilis.” If Toulouse-Lautrec does portray intimacy in a brothel, it is never between a man and woman, but only women, who may or may not be lesbians, in remarkable pictures like “The Two Friends” (1894) and “The Sofa” (1894-95).

We are left with the bleak beauty of these women living between the brothel and the hospital. His friend Maurice Joyant defended this obsession with sex workers, saying Toulouse-Lautrec preferred them as subjects because they were “natural” nudes. “His approach was always to show the reality of a human being,” said the museum’s chief curator, Danièle Devynck, citing the graceful movements of the “Woman Pulling Up Her Stocking.” “That’s something we can understand nowadays.”

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A high art _ lithographs

Images in marble

By J. Michael Welton

Peggy Wong’s black and white photos are lithographed onto fine stone Deborah Osburn, owner of the Sausalito, California tile boutique she calls Clé, knew she’d found something special when she glimpsed through photographer Peggy Wong’s work. “For two or three years, I’d been hoping to stumble onto a photographer with that kind of impact,” Osburn says. She’d been looking for a bold kind of photography that could be lithographed dramatically onto snow-white, Thassos marble from Greece.

And she found it, on Wong’s blog: bluepoolroad.com.

“Stylistically and aesthetically, I knew I had a real draw,” she says. “I called her and said: ‘We’ve been looking for a photographer, and I think it’s you’.” It was a year before the two got together, but in the process, both Clé and Wong’s work began to mature.

When they did meet, Wong shared several images, in both black and white and color, for potential lithography.

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©Clé

Wong studied graphic design and photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology, eventually choosing graphic design as her major. She started her blog to promote the photos she shoots when she travels. It became very popular, very quickly. “As it all unfolded, her work got more recognized,” Osburn says.

on the spot, as only a graphic designer might see it. There’s a framing element that’s personal, but that appeals to all who view it. “It has a lot to do with the moment that I’m there – that instant, that feeling,” Wong says. “It’s like: ‘I must pick up my camera and shoot.’ In Vancouver, I was looking at telephone poles and architecture, and my heart literally skipped a beat.”

The result is photography that transports the viewer to the defining moment of perception between photographer and subject – and often, a familiar image seen in a new and different way.

Clé now offers a collection of Wong’s work: seven black and white photos printed with dream-like luminosity on the 12-inch-square Greek stone.

There are seven distinct images that can be used as a series – in the way a gallery installation might display them, with negative space between. Among them are images of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim in New York, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao, as well as abstractions of buildings in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Wong’s work is about more than simply taking a photograph. It’s designed to evoke an emotion from the viewer. There is a kind of personal preciousness to each image, and it’s enhanced by the nature of the marble that Osburn has provided as a canvas. “They’re breathtaking,” says Wong of her first look at them. “I thought: ‘Is this my artwork, or a puzzle come to life?’ The way the light comes through – it’s just beautiful.”

And the medium only enhances the mood of the photography. “The marble?”

Wong asks. “You have to see it in person – I was literally blown away.” She’s not alone.

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A high art _ exhibits

On and off the canvas Afteratlas A sequel to “Atlas: How to Carry the World on One’s Back,” a 2010 exhibit at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, “Afteratlas” was conceived by French art historian and philosopher Georges Didi-Huberman and Paris-based, Austrian photographer Arno Gisinger.

The walls of the exhibition space are covered with images in poster format from a Gisinger photomontage that includes photos of original artworks, bits of contracts, production images, reflections, surfaces and interactions.

On view until March 22 at Beirut Art Center, Jisr al Wati, tel.

01.397.018, beirutartcenter.org

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©Franz Ackermann/White Cube, Alex Israel/Jean-Baptiste Beranger, Aby Warburg/Beirut Art Center

Art shows to heat up the winter season

Franz Ackermann Franz Ackermann creates cartographic watercolor drawings of urban areas undergoing rapid growth and development. These “mental maps” form the basis of his multifaceted, site-specific artworks. Alongside the maps, his work incorporates brightly painted wall murals, three-dimensional panels that jut-out into space and black and white photographs, in an environment that dissolves traditional boundaries between artistic media.

On view until April 13 at White Cube, 144-152 Bermondsey St., London SE1, tel.

44.020.7930.5373, whitecube.com Kathryn Andrews/Alex Israel This is a two-person exhibition of sculpture by Kathryn Andrews and Alex Israel. The multifaceted nature of Andrews’ work reflects her sensitivity to the decentralized urban sprawl of Los Angeles. Israel similarly engaged Los Angeles in a recent series of video portraits of notable locals, “As It Lays.” In this spin on TV talk shows, Israel quizzed celebrities including Marilyn Manson, Christina Ricci and Melanie Griffith on favorite colors, salad dressings and ice cream flavors, generating spontaneous, unexpected interactions.

On view until March 15 at Gagosian Gallery, 16 Via Francesco Crispi, Rome, tel.

39.06.4208.6498, gagosian.com

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A high art _ exhibits

©Claire Adelfang/Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paige Powell@LOC/The Suzanne Geiss Company, Oscar Tuazon/Galerie Eva Presenhuber

Oscar Tuazon “Oscar Tuazon, A Home” features the famed sculptures of the LA-based artist. His works are constructions in wood, concrete and steel inspired by the tradition of do-it-yourself and survivalist architecture. He strives to link concepts from the Land Art movement with Minimal Art, combining the idea of the abstract with down-to-earth construction.

On view until March 8 at Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Maag Areal, 21 Zahnrastrasse, Zurich, tel.

41.43.444.7050, presenhuber.com

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Paige Powell “Jean-Michel Basquiat, Reclining Nude” is an exhibition of rare candid photographs of JeanMichel Basquiat taken by Paige Powell. This is the first presentation of photos from Powell’s archive, a significant chronicle of ‘80s art and culture in America. On show is a series of black and white 35mm nude portraits of Basquiat, made in 1983, in Powell’s then Upper West Side apartment.

On view until February 22 at The Suzanne Geiss Company, 76 Grand St., New York, tel.

1.212.625.8130, suzannegeiss.com

Claire Adelfang Young French photographer Claire Adelfang stages her first solo show, “Ecrans,” in Salzburg, Austria. Adelfang focuses on precise, surprising elements, not following customary ways of viewing things, but expressing a highly individual visual perception. Observing through dilapidated buildings whose vast dimensions emphasize the absence of human life, she focuses on details of plant life, a stretch of water or a crack in a wall.

On view until April 5 at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Villa Kast, 2A Mirabellplatz, Salzburg, tel.

43.662.881.393, ropac.net

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A gourmet _ restaurant

Oriental waves on the Pacific

By Salma Abdelnour

“We love educating the public about the foods and wines of the Middle East, and about what our culture has to offer besides war,” says Racha Haroun, with a quick laugh followed by a long, pensive pause. Haroun, who recently opened the hit restaurant Mamnoon in Seattle with her husband Wassef, is all too familiar with the horrific impact of war – on its victims first and foremost, on American perceptions of the Middle East and on her own family life.

Haroun grew up in Syria, and her husband is a Syrian who spent his childhood in Lebanon. Passionate food-lovers both, they met at university in the United States, then moved to Seattle because of Wassef’s former job at Microsoft. They’d never dreamed of opening a restaurant – but the situation in Syria inspired them to take a radically different course in their careers.

“There was a point a while ago, with Syria going under, when we weren’t able to travel back home as much as we wanted to. We both decided that we should do something more than just invite our friends over to eat and talk,” says Haroun. Cooking dinner for

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loved ones – fellow Middle Easterners as well as Americans and others – in Seattle turned into a plan to open a restaurant that would bridge the food cultures of Syria, Lebanon and Iran, where Racha’s mother comes from. It would be a place where diners with a Middle Eastern heritage could feel at home, and others could discover the region’s multi-faceted cuisine and culture.

With the help of designer friends, they turned a former car repair shop into an industrial-chic, minimalist dining room embellished with colorful Syrian lanterns and furnished with long, glossy communal counters made by Seattle artist Tina Randolph. They hired Garrett Melkonian, who was formerly a pastry chef working with Seattle star chef Tom Douglas, and who has an Armenian heritage, to head up the kitchen. Melkonian went right to work, creating a menu that blends influences from the region’s various cuisines, using fresh, seasonal products from the Seattle area.

The result is a menu unlike any offered in a Middle Eastern restaurant in the United States – or in Lebanon, Syria or Iran, for that matter.

©Mamnoon

A visionary Middle Eastern restaurant opens in Seattle

A recent dinner menu included the Syrian classic, fatteh hommos (made with chickpeas, grilled bread and garlic-spiked yogurt), alongside familiar Lebanese and mezza dishes like fattoush and shish taouk – and the Persian specialty khoresh, a lamb stew flavored with charred onions, saffron and parsley.

“Iranians and Syrians and Lebanese don’t necessarily cook each others’ food, usually,” says Racha. “What I love about Mamnoon is that we have the ability to unify lots of cultures under one roof, through delicious food. Our chef is absolutely incredible and is able to bring all kinds of people together,” she adds, referring to the diverse clientele of Americans, Iranians, Syrians, Lebanese, Indians and many others who pass through Mamnoon’s doors on any given day. “They’re breaking bread together, even if they don’t know it.”

Even though a big part of the Harouns’ goal was to offer dishes not often seen on Middle Eastern restaurant menus – both in the United States and back home – they wanted to avoid creating what Racha refers to as “nouvelle cuisine” hybrids, which can blur the origins of the various culinary cultures. Instead,

Melkonian tweaks each of the authentic dishes on his menu based mainly on the ingredients that are in season at the time. He has occasional flights of fancy, but he never strays too far from the origins of the cuisines he’s working with, and the individual dishes he represents on the menu.

“For instance, Melkonian came up with the idea of using fresh green chickpeas with the fatteh. They give it an unbelievably vibrant color, so the dish tastes like fatteh hommos, but the flavor is stronger because he uses fresh hommos,” says Haroun.

The Harouns also included some of their own lesser-known favorites on the menu, like khibz bi fleifleh (bread with pepper paste), a Syrian dish from Latakia that’s likely unfamiliar to anyone who hasn’t lived in or visited the city.

As for the cocktails and desserts, Mamnoon’s menu takes a few more liberties. One cocktail is made with fig paste, bourbon and walnut liqueur, another with Turkish coffee, vodka and chocolate bitters. Desserts are particularly inventive, as in the labneh bil seniyeh: a cheesecake-style dessert made with labneh and walnut toffee, and known only to Mamnoon diners.

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A gourmet _ restaurant

A Maison for lovers

By Marwan Naaman

Beirut’s La Petite Maison is a slice of heaven on the Mediterranean As Valentine’s Day approaches, you have to make an all-important decision. What will you offer the person you love most in the world? Jewelry? A stylish accessory? A car?

The choices are so many that it’s hard to settle on just one item. But when it comes to restaurants, there’s really only one ultraromantic and fashionable place in Beirut that’ll do: La Petite Maison.

Located inside the iconic Le Vendôme hotel in Ain el Mreisseh, La Petite Maison has served its trademark brand of southern French cuisine since opening in April 2013. The Beirut outpost of La Petite Maison is an offshoot of the legendary Nice original, where Nicole Rubi refined and reinvented Nice’s traditional dishes.

After its great success in France, the restaurant opened overseas, in London and Dubai, and most recently here in Beirut.

This lack of set order encourages diners to share their dishes, family style. In fact, Chaloyard said that much like Lebanon’s famed mezza, the food at La Petite Maison is made to be shared.

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If you’re heading to La Petite Maison on Valentine’s (or on any other) night, start off with a glass of champagne. Then, choose the hors d’oeuvres mentioned above, plus heartier fare like rigatoni with white truffle and the delicate pan-fried Dover sole, served with grainy mustard dressing. This reporter favored the exquisite entrecôte grillée (grilled rib eye steak), which when served medium rare was tender and tasty, with just the right amount of jus. Have the steak with sides of golden French fries and crispy green broccoli – just so you hit all three food groups at once: protein, carbs and vegetables.

Then, of course, you need to have dessert.

The marinated Agen prunes, served with gingerbread ice cream, are a superbly

complex affair, the sweetness of fruit mingling with the tart, sharp taste of ginger.

You can also opt for the warm chocolate mousse, taken up one heavenly notch with the addition of malt ice cream.

Once the check comes, diners will be surprised at how reasonable the total is. Now La Petite Maison isn’t a budget restaurant by any means, but as far as the quality/price ratio is concerned, the restaurant certainly provides the best bang for your buck. Add to that the elegant simplicity of the cream- and beige-colored décor, and the graciousness of the wait staff, and you’ll have one of the best Valentine’s dates on record.

For reservations, tel. 01.368.300.

©La Petite Maison

Yannick Chaloyard, general manager of Lebanon’s La Petite Maison, explained that the philosophy of the restaurant is to serve dishes as soon as they’re ready, rather than in the usual “first course” and “second course” manner. “Since our dishes are fresh and prepared only once they’re ordered, we serve them right when they’re done,” said Chaloyard. This means that if you order the salade Niçoise (the real thing and one of the most delicious salads you’ll ever have), the simple but delightful marinated beetroot salad and the fragrant escargots de Bourgogne, you’ll be sampling them as soon as they come out of the kitchen and in no specific order.

A gourmet _ desserts

Give me some sugar

By John Burns, MacKenzie Lewis and Marwan Naaman

Three dessert havens to rouse your senses

Winter is the best season to indulge in decadent desserts, whether in sunny climes like Dubai and Lebanon, or in subzero environments like the Canadian city of Montreal.

Here are three places that offer a wide selection of rich, seductive, sugary affairs.

1762 in Dubai

Lunching in Dubai’s DIFC district can often make for an overwhelming experience: the whole work force seemingly descends upon the beautifully landscaped concourses within one half-hour period, as men and women in shiny business suits choose from over 40 restaurants to have their lunch.

For the uninitiated, 1762, a slick gourmet deli located on a quieter stretch of The Balcony, offers terrific food choices. At peak periods, 1762 makes for the perfect grab-and-go; the jolly staff dole out artfully constructed sandwiches straight from the counter, like lemon thyme grilled chicken and brie on rosemary foccacia or peppercrusted beef pastrami and Swiss on rye.

A gloriously self-indulgent assortment of pastries, tarts, cookies and cakes, all freshly baked on-site, are available and proudly on display. The millionaire’s shortbread – crisp shortbread topped with ever-so-slightly salted caramel and chocolate – is divine, as are the carrot and red velvet cakes, both crowned with thick layers of cream cheese frosting. The buttery richness and crisp, puffy texture of the Danish pastries can be ordered with either a blueberry, apricot or apple filling, best enjoyed with 1762’s special blend of coffee.

As one might expect, 1762 – much like most of Dubai – has not been around since 1762. Still, with its gourmand savories, delicious sweet treats and friendly service, the deli has managed to establish a winning formula.

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©1762, Juliette et Chocolat, Sugar Daddy’s

Once the masses are safely tucked back behind their desks, 1762 transcends into an ideal spot for afternoon tea. Beyond the deli counter is a thoughtfully designed seating area, a mix of polished brass, exposed brickwork and heavy wooden furnishings. Sunlight streams in through the large windows, and the lazy voices of the Rat Pack slow the ambience back down and give the space a sense of big-city pizzazz.

©1762, Juliette et Chocolat, Sugar Daddy’s

Sugar DaddyÕ s in Dbayeh

Sugar Daddy’s is growing up. The Koraytem bakery has now expanded to Dbayeh, with what owner Nabil Rabaa promises to be a more mature sweet shop.

The original Beirut Sugar Daddy’s, where on-site bakers top cake stands with iced confections, offers a quick fix for the most sophisticated sweet tooth. But with just three chairs, the candy-coated shop is most suited for a sugar rush. With maturity comes an appreciation for the finer things – mainly, the luxury of sitting back and relaxing. And so at Dbayeh’s Blueberry Square, the new Sugar Daddy’s takes a different approach to its predecessor.

The airy, 170-square-meter space is more restrained, frosted with just the right amount of pastel décor, as envisioned by interior designer Roger Azar. Divided into a bakery and a cheery café with plenty of seats for lingering, the Dbayeh patisserie still serves its specialties, like rich red velvet cupcakes and sinful double-chocolate cupcakes, along with cake pops, mini cheesecakes and what may be the moistest brownies in town.

Juliette et Chocolat in Montreal

There are five Juliette et Chocolat locations in Montreal, attesting to the great success of this luxurious chocolate bar. The place does have lunch and dinner menus, but its greatest offerings are the various and seemingly endless chocolate dessert options.

Here, during Montreal’s infamous, freezing winter, die-hard chocolate lovers can sip thick, decadent hot chocolate (milk, semisweet, dark) from various origins, each with a distinct aroma. In summer, you can opt for chocolate milkshakes or smoothies, enhanced with fruit, spices or alcohol.

Juliette et Chocolat’s liquid chocolate concoctions are sinful affairs, and so are their chocolate-infused desserts. There’s a wide selection of standout brownies (including one made with salted caramel and another with intense dark chocolate and no flour), bite-sized pralines, chocolate fondues and, of course, crepes, served either with melted chocolate or chocolate ice cream and gooey caramel. Other options include a particularly creamy and addictive pot au chocolat, frozen meringue and the rocher praliné, a spherical cake doused in melted chocolate and covered with chopped nuts.

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High tea

By Grace Banks

Hark back to ancient cultures for modern culinary decadence

Eisler’s passion for his trade is palpable.

After spending his 20s traveling in Asia, he decided to study for a degree in Chinese medicine. Through his expert knowledge, Jing offers an experience for tea connoisseurs that is steeped in romantic tradition. “I strongly believed that tea culture in the United Kingdom was missing out on its full potential,” Eisler says. “The desire to change the tea ceremony and to bring the pleasures of ancient Asian tea culture to modern society was my inspiration.”

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experience the historic charm of taking tea. “We go the extra mile, traveling to the hardest to reach corners of China and mountains of Taiwan, to find the best conditions and artistry.”

The brand’s expertise has earned it collaborations with the world’s most cuttingedge chefs, who view Jing as the caviar of the tea world. Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller and Richard Ekkebus are pioneers of Jing’s visionary methods.

The label’s Jasmine Silver Needle tea testifies to Eisler’s unique process. The leaves are scented with fresh downy buds and sun

dried in the mountains of China’s Fujian region. “The tea is laid beneath a bed of fresh jasmine flowers for seven nights, marrying the sweet white tea with fresh, fragrant jasmine aroma.” In a desire to push things forward, Eisler and his team are championing the Oolong leaf, almost unknown in the West.

There’s something distinctively decadent about Jing. Take the Wild Wuyi Gold, one of the world’s most exclusive blends: the tea is produced in tiny batches from leaves of 100-year-old trees and cannot be bought anywhere else. Just begging to be drunk with a daintily outstretched finger, of course.

©Jing

In celebration of the quintessentially British tea party, London has seen a crop of chic tea parlors emerge. The Wolseley, The Langham and The Sanderson – all have been instrumental in the city’s penchant for a glamorous take on the 4pm brew. Recently, a new direction has seen a renaissance of the ancient Chinese tea ceremony. Jing is a pioneer of this movement. Founded and developed by Edward Eisler, this brand, which takes its name from the Mandarin word for essence, is changing the way modern urbanites take their tea.

WWW.AISHTIBLOG.COM

A lifestyle _ fragrances

Love is in the scent

Fragranced elixirs seduce the senses

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Sometimes, the sexiest thing you can slip into is a fragrance. Velvety soaps and creamy lotions drape skin in delicate scents, while a splash of made-to-measure perfume leaves you engulfed in sensuality.

Ideo Parfumeurs Like an old world apothecary, Beirut’s Ideo Parfumeurs mixes intoxicating potions. The Gemmayze boutique offers its own brand of soaps, candles and even lingerie spray, but the real delight is its on-site Bar à Parfum

(perfume bar), where a fragrance expert creates customized scents for discerning clients. Though each perfume is customized using the finest quality ingredients, the process itself is far from intimidating. After a few lifestyle questions – about your ideal weekend, your favorite color or how you’d describe your style – a mixologist gets to work on your personalized formula, adding and removing ingredients until you find your signature scent.

Visit facebook.com/IdeoParfumeurs

©Audi Foundation, Diptyque, Ideo Parfumeurs

By MacKenzie Lewis

Diptyque It’s a symbol of love; it’s a symbol of beauty. And now, the rose is also a symbol of soft, hydrated skin. Diptyque is adding two new skincare products to its Rose Collection – a light Eau Rose hand lotion and a rich Eau Rose body lotion – in honor of the Valentine season. Both moisturizers combine the scent of the Turkish damask rose and the French Rose de Mai, noble elements in perfumery. The lotions join the Eau Rose eau de toilette and roll-on, and the limited edition Rosa Mundi candle.

Diptyque products are available exclusively at Aïshti stores.

Visit aishti.com

Hammam Saida The history of soap can be traced along the walls of the Soap Museum, in Lebanon’s southern city of Sidon, but that timeline arrives magnificently up to date at Hammam Saida, a sweet-smelling shop right next door. The delightful boutique sells rich washing bars made from 100 percent natural ingredients. Scents like laurel, gum arabic and jasmine contain moisturizing, skinnourishing olive oil, and come wrapped in lovely, minimalist packaging. Pair a selection with a loofah sponge and a plush bathrobe from Hammam Saida, and turn basic bathtime into a lavish ritual.

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Beirut for two

Prune restaurant in Mar Mikhael (left), Aïshti’s Ï Day Spa in Downtown Beirut (below) and yoga at Soul Spa in Verdun (bottom)

By Pip Usher

When you’ve been in a relationship for a long time, several things start to happen: you get lazy, and you get boring.

This becomes most apparent on Friday nights. Instead of slipping into a gauzy dress and seductive heels for dinner à deux at one of Beirut’s trendy restaurants, the two of you find yourself in matching pajamas and mismatched socks clutching the latest box-set to your chests like a hot water bottle. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a fervent flag flyer of coziness, but I also realize that my boyfriend and I need to keep the flames of passion alive, so I devised A 202

a day-long date that would incorporate three of life’s greatest pleasures: exercise, relaxation and booze.

Our first destination was Soul Spa in Verdun for a couples’ yoga class. Welcoming us at the door, Randa Makarem, the center’s owner, explained that we’d be working together on a sequence of asanas (poses) that would “help build bonds of trust and encourage sharing.”

I regularly practice yoga alone, but I enjoyed assisting my boyfriend in his stretches, with all the opportunities for prolonged eye contact and flirtatious adjustments.

As the afternoon sun cast a warm glow across the sand-colored buildings of Downtown Beirut, we headed to Aïshti’s luxurious Ï Day Spa for massages. Adlette Nseir, head of the cosmetics division at Aïshti, described the massages as perfect for couples because “the body experiences a sense of well being,

an ease in emotional expression and an increase in the flow of energy.” Yoga had left us loose and limber, but after an hour of being slathered with oils we were like creamy puddles of butter. “That was the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” my boyfriend mumbled as he nearly swooned into a coat rack on his way out the front door.

Our final destination of the day was Prune, the latest addition to Beirut’s burgeoning restaurant scene, and another feather in Mar Mikhael’s increasingly upmarket cap.

A French bistro, Prune glows under soft lighting and attracts businessmen and blowdried beauties, who come here to enjoy beautifully turned out steaks and salads. As we staggered out several hours later, stuffed to the gills with bucket-loads of fries and a bottle of red wine, we agreed with great enthusiasm on one thing: day-long dates are perfect to rekindle a romance.

©Aïshti, Images shutterstock.com, Prune

Enjoy the city with the one you love

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A lifestyle _ dating

Hooking up

By Anna Leach

Three new ways to meet people, all made in London

Doing Something is a British dating website with a difference. Not content with the usual online dating set-up – profiles, flirty messages followed by a real life meet-up – it works on the concept that what you want to do on a date says a lot about your personality.

Date suggestions include a walk through Primrose Hill, a trip to a comedy club or “drawing badly at a life drawing class.” For those lacking imagination, the site has over 300 date suggestions of its own. Matt Janes started the site after finding traditional online dating a chore. When one date suggested they go fly a kite instead of the usual awkward drinks, he had an epiphany.

Two years later over 30,000 people have registered on the site. The tagline is “like dating, but fun.”

For people who believe that chemistry doesn’t transfer well over the Internet, there’s Shhh Dating. This new matchmaking technique takes the awkward small talk out A 204

of speed dating and distills initial connection right down to meaningful eye contact. Single boys and girls are seated opposite each other and not allowed to speak. For the first round, gestures and a bit of mouthing words is permitted, but in the second round daters are encouraged to just look at each other.

The hope is that a spark of chemistry moves beyond language.

Rob Levy, a 33-year-old academic researcher who lives in North London, attended a recent Shhh Dating event. “People find it hard to take the idea of ‘just being’ with someone seriously,” he says. “There’s lots of sniggering and funny-face pulling, which tends to interrupt the sharing of vibes.” But he says that when an opposite number is brave enough to “bare [their] soul without a mask of cool detachment, then the whole thing becomes filled with exciting possibility.”

However, he adds that hearing someone speak can break the spell. “The only disappointment is when your magnetizing beloved finally opens her mouth and showers you with Essex!” he says.

It was Katie Bonham’s disappointing experience with online dating that led to her setting up her own brand of east

London singles’ parties, Monty’s, which have achieved roaring success. Monty’s only rule is that each single girl must be accompanied by a single guy. Thirty-one-year-old civil servant Helen Parnham says that this is the key. “It’s a great way to hang out with friends of your friends you haven’t met before, as the need to bring along a single friend of the opposite sex often means that invitations are extended to a wider circle of people,” she says.

A recent Monty’s party consisted of a bike ride, a stop at a craft beer bar and then onward to a movie showing in a warehouse. Bonham’s approach is not to break awkwardness with games, but let interaction evolve more naturally – with help from alcohol. “The concept is to create an atmosphere that is relaxed, a place where you can come with your single friends and have a fun night out and meet other like-minded single people,” she says. “The more people feel relaxed and are having fun, the better they look and the easier they are to meet.

And if they are with their friends, and they don’t meet the person of their dreams, they have had a good time anyway, right?”

Visit doingsomething.co.uk, shhhdating.com and montyslondon.com

©Mélanie Dagher

In London, where the pace of city life often makes it next to impossible to meet your significant other, three new offbeat dating tools are successfully matching up busy professionals. Could one of these dating tools work for you?

Spotlight

A Washington waltz Washington, DC, America’s capital city, is perhaps one of the most fascinating places you’ll ever visit. Designed by French-born architect and civil engineer Pierre L’Enfant, who envisioned a city that would rival Paris in terms of grandeur and beauty, Washington is a treasure trove of historic mansions, beaux-arts buildings, lush parks and dramatic roundabouts. There are no skyscrapers in this engaging, walkable city, and the highest structure is the iconic Washington Monument. On your next Washington journey, try to imagine what it would be like to actually live in the White House and be the most powerful leader on the globe. Then head out to enjoy the city’s innumerable attractions.

A spotlight _ washington dc

American eagles

Three DC highlights: Georgetown University (top left), the US Capitol (left) and the Lincoln Memorial (above)

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ŠS. Greg Panosian/Getty Images

By Anthony Klatt

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Visit Washington, DC’s illustrious landmarks

The capital of the United States is easy to love.

Unlike America’s other big cities, Washington, DC, which was envisioned by master architect Pierre L’Enfant, has no skyscrapers and no massive, overwhelming structures. Much like Paris, the city that inspired its urban design, Washington is a place where art and geometry co-mingle, resulting in a worldclass destination with landmark buildings, engaging parks and distinct neighborhoods full of old-world charm. As befits any great capital, Washington has fascinating sights that are well worth a visit. Here’s your very own primer.

US Capitol Legal buffs and politics aficionados have to experience the US Capitol. One of America’s most photographed buildings, the US Capitol sits atop Capitol Hill, at the eastern end of the National Mall. Home to the US Congress, the Capitol was begun in 1793, and it’s a stupendous example of 19th-century neoclassical architecture, with designs inspired by ancient Greece and Rome. Large parts of the building are accessible to the public, most notably the magnificent Rotunda and the Crypt beneath it, as well as the Brumidi Corridors, showcasing intricate, brilliantly colored frescoes and murals designed by Italian artist Constantino Brumidi.

Georgetown Many DC visitors say that their favorite neighborhood is Georgetown. Set along

the Potomac River, Georgetown is a treasure trove of 200-year-old restored townhouses, with M Street and Wisconsin Avenue as the main commercial arteries, and the waterfront Washington Harbour housing hip bars and restaurants. Esteemed Georgetown University, which opened in 1789 and is one of the world’s leading institutions of higher learning, keeps the neighborhood young and dynamic, with students patronizing the area’s restaurants, bars, stores and cultural attractions.

John F. Kennedy Center A Washington institution, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1971 and has since become the United States’ busiest arts facility. Yearround, the center hosts plays, musicals, concerts, dance performances and more, including 400 free performances per year.

The Kennedy Center houses three main theaters: a concert hall, an opera house and the Eisenhower Theater, as well as other smaller performance venues, plus two restaurants: the Roof Terrace and the KC Café. Any visitor should take in at least one show at this world-class venue.

Lincoln Memorial A monument and tribute to US president Abraham Lincoln, the Lincoln Memorial has been the site of some of the most memorable moments in American history: this is where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. Architect Henry A 207

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Bacon designed the landmark to resemble a Greek temple, with 36 columns representing the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death. A larger-than-life statue of Lincoln sits in the middle of the structure.

Visit after dark, when the site is less crowded and the lights dazzling.

Place to visit in DC: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (above), the Washington Monument (right) and the White House (below)

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Memorials abound in the US capital, but the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is perhaps the most moving, with the names of the over 58,000 Americans who died during the Vietnam War carved on a black granite wall.

There’s an alphabetical directory to help you locate specific names. Nearby, the women’s memorial depicts two women caring for a male soldier, with a third woman, her back turned to them, kneeling and staring at the ground.

Washington Monument The white obelisk rising above the National Mall is the tallest structure in the city. There are 50 flags surrounding the Washington Monument, in tribute to the 50 states that make up the great nation. Visitors can take the elevator to the top and enjoy a 360-degree view that takes in the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the US Capitol and other DC landmarks. The structure was built as a memorial to US president George Washington.

White House The White House is the residence of the American president, and, of course, Barack Obama currently lives in the spectacular alabaster mansion located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Designed by James Hoban, the house was built at the very end of the 18th century, although it has since changed, especially on the inside, due to fires and major alterations. Jacqueline Kennedy’s redesign, in the early ‘60s, is perhaps the most publicized and best-known of the various restorations.

The White House is open to the public for free, but tour requests must be placed from three weeks to six months prior to your visit, so make sure you book well in advance.

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A spotlight _ washington dc

Magnificent museums

By Anthony Klatt

As the United States capital, Washington, DC is one of the country’s top museum hubs, with various world-renowned institutions celebrating local and international arts and culture. There are also specialized museums, like the Newseum, exploring the history of journalism, and the International Spy Museum, where you can live out all of your James Bond fantasies.

Outer space aficionados can look forward to the upcoming science-fiction museum, scheduled to open in 2017.

National Building Museum Urban design buffs will want to make a beeline to the National Building Museum. Located in downtown Washington, in the former Pension Bureau building that dates back to the late 19th century, the museum highlights American urban planning, architecture and design. There are models of buildings and intriguing photographs to view, plus fascinating information about the history and future of America’s built environment.

Visit nbm.org

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©Kevin Allen, Lee Ewing, National Portrait Gallery

Dig into Washington’s cultural attractions

National Portrait Gallery The National Portrait Gallery, which reopened in 2006 after extensive renovations, shares a landmark building with the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. The gallery’s collection consists of about 20,000 works, including photos, paintings, drawings and sculptures that portray individuals who were crucial in establishing American culture.

Actors, poets, presidents, criminals and other famous and infamous figures are highlighted via six permanent exhibitions with titles like “20th-century Americans.” On-site attractions include the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, an enclosed space with a curving glass roof that’s open year-round.

Visit npg.si.edu National Gallery of Art If you’re an art buff, you simply can’t miss the National Gallery of Art. One of the top art centers in the world, the gallery holds a massive collection of masterpieces that encompasses paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture and more, from the 13th century up to the present day, focusing mostly on European and American artists.

Collection highlights include Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s “Young Girl Reading,” Claude Monet’s “The Japanese Footbridge,” Roy Lichtenstein’s “Look Mickey” and more.

Visit nga.gov

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National Air and Space Museum Are you obsessed with flying?

Then head to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, home to the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. This most visited museum in the world has 22 exhibition galleries, featuring hundreds of space-related items, including the Apollo 11 command module. Other attractions include an IMAX theater that offers a journey through space, and a planetarium featuring a spellbinding 20-minute tour of the universe.

Visit airandspace.si.edu

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©George Washington’s Mount Vernon, National Air and Space Museum/Smithsonian Institution, Newseum, The Phillips Collection

Newseum Since A magazine is a press publication after all, we have to mention Washington’s intriguing Newseum. The high-tech interactive museum traces the history of news and journalism from the 16th century to the present, with theaters, galleries, broadcast studios and even a time-travel experience. Visitors also learn how the media has covered some of our era’s biggest news stories.

Visit newseum.org

The Phillips Collection In Dupont Circle stands one of DC’s most fascinating museums of modern art. The Phillips Collection is a privately owned institution housing work by impressionist and modern European and American artists.

Some of the artists featured include Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Mark Rothko and Georgia O’Keefe. This winter, and until May 4, the gallery is hosting a special show by Maryland-based artist Jean Meisel, bringing together over 50 of the artist’s small watercolors of horizon lines. This show comes on the heels of a spectacular Vincent van Gogh exhibit that closes on February 2.

Visit phillipscollection.org Mount Vernon George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate is actually outside DC, in Virginia, along the shores of the Potomac River. This most visually pleasing of area attractions was the residence of the first president of the United States and his family, and it encompasses 500 acres of land, a 14-room, gloriously restored mansion and an onsite museum. Mount Vernon is about a 20-minute drive south of Washington, DC. From March to October, you can sail to Mount Vernon via a Potomac River cruise, taking in the dramatic scenery along the way.

Visit mountvernon.org

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On the waterfront

By Marwan Naaman

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Like New York, Washington, DC is a city with distinctive bijou hotels, some inspired by the neighborhoods in which they’re located, and others offering subtle nods to American history and high-powered politics.

What sets the Mandarin Oriental apart from other DC hotels is its location on the city’s southwest waterfront.

From this vantage point, the Mandarin Oriental is the only DC property to offer dramatic, unobstructed views of landmarks like the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial, and of the scenic Washington Marina. The hotel’s location also places it within

walking distance of some of the city’s best-known attractions, including the National Mall, the Freer and Sackler galleries of art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the National Museum of African Art, among others.

But you don’t really need to venture outside the hotel, especially on cold winter days, when tearing yourself away from the opulence and comfort of the Mandarin Oriental seems impossible. The hotel was built to reflect Washington’s noble architectural legacy, a unique take on the neoclassical style, functioning as a sort of post-modern Roman temple,

with a grand, inviting circular lobby situated under a domed cupola and glowing with dark, Romanesque columns.

Just beyond the lobby, the Empress Lounge is perhaps one of the hotel’s most engaging spots, offering huge chairs in which to relax and enjoy coffee, tea, cocktails and light fare. In summer, the Empress Lounge spills outward and becomes the Empress Patio, a lush alfresco seating area overlooking the Washington Marina.

Up an easy elevator ride, the guestrooms and suites exude the characteristic Asian finesse of Mandarin Oriental hotels,

©Mandarin Oriental

Washington’s Mandarin Oriental exists in a luxury bubble of its own

enhanced with classical touches like dark wood furnishings, impressive artwork and cascading drapes. The beds are oversized, ensuring a good night’s sleep, particularly for those coming off long-haul flights. The rooms also offer the latest tech amenities, including high-speed Internet access, flat-screen TVs, three dual-line phones and electronic “do not disturb” signs that light up with the touch of a button. The marble bathrooms are spacious, many of them providing views from their oversized tubs so you can gaze at the Washington Memorial while soaking in a fragrant bubble bath.

Find your Muze Muze, the hotel’s signature restaurant, opened in December and offers a superlative Asian

fusion menu, created by executive chef Didier Pouzier and new chef de cuisine Mark McDonnell. Highlights include such small plates as green curry mussels with lemongrass, apples and cilantro, vegetable salad with a lemon poppy vinaigrette and tempura blue prawns served with green papaya, cilantro and peanuts. As a main course, you can opt for the exquisite duck breast with pumpkin pearl barley and huckleberries, best when served medium, or the fluffy Alaskan halibut with celery root, wasabi and spinach.

In addition to the finely crafted dishes, Muze offers a dining experience that’s full of magic and romance, with the lit-up Washington Marina in view from massive, wraparound windows. There’s really no

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Muze also serves as the setting for breakfast, offering a continental option, as well as a variety of egg dishes, waffles, French toast and other morning favorites. As you sip your morning coffee, you’ll find it difficult to peel yourself away from the soothing atmosphere and scenic views of the marina.

Gain inner peace Mandarin Oriental hotels are renowned for their spa and wellness offerings, and the DC outpost is no different. The hotel spa is a haven of luxury, complete with a vast, state-ofthe-art fitness center, a twinlane enclosed swimming pool, sauna, steam room, vitality showers and relaxation rooms.

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The main draw here is the elaborate spa menu, which includes virtually any treatment you could ever need. The Signature Spa Therapies, for example, offer a full-body massage that combines the powerful effects of Oriental meridian massage with the benefits of customblended essential oils. Each treatment starts with a private consultation with a therapist, and the treatment and oils are then tailored to a guest’s needs, in order to leave body and mind in a perfect state of bliss.

In addition to the various massage rituals available, the spa also has treatments designed to combat signs of aging. There’s a face-firming facial, an anti-aging active peel and even a facial for men that relaxes and refreshes tired skin.

If you have an important event to attend, you can easily look

your best thanks to the spa’s manicure, pedicure and makeup application treatments.

Dream away your stay And the list of hotel attractions goes on. The Mandarin Oriental is home to CityZen, Washington’s leading temple to modern American cuisine, helmed by chef Eric Ziebold, who once worked at Napa Valley’s legendary restaurant French Laundry. The hotel also houses various meeting rooms that provide an ideal setting both for business meetings and for that unforgettable wedding reception you always dreamed of having.

No matter what the purpose of your DC visit, the Mandarin Oriental is sure to give you many reasons to return.

For reservations, tel. 1.202.554.8588, mandarinoriental.com/ washington

©Mandarin Oriental

better vantage point in DC from which to enjoy a nighttime têteà-tête, while sharing a signature Muze dessert, like lime mousse or coconut tapioca.

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A spotlight _ washington dc

Shop the District

Dupont Circle’s Connecticut Avenue (left and below) and the neighborhood’s farmers market (bottom left)

By Savitha Varadan

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Dupont Circle All roads lead to Dupont Circle, located in the heart of DC. The major thoroughfares converging onto the circle are Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut avenues. During a mild-weather day, the circle itself makes for an enchanting stroll with grass underfoot, inviting benches and a tinkling fountain. A serene residential neighborhood lined with historic row houses spirals out on P and Q streets, while Embassy Row is located just north on Massachusetts Avenue, and a lively nightlife scene rages on

©Atlantide Phototravel/Corbis, Glowimages

Washington, DC’s top retail destinations

When the weather turns icy in the United States’ eastern seaboard, nothing beats the indoor fun of shopping in the nation’s capital. Here, you’ll find attractive areas brimming with world-class luxuries and authentic American goods. Discover Washington, DC’s diverse retail pleasures, and come in out of the cold.

The ancient streets of Georgetown (left and bottom left) and the upscale shopping malls at Chevy Chase (below)

down south on Connecticut Avenue. There are also several museums and a cathedral nearby.

Shopping in Dupont circle includes an eclectic mix of boutiques offering fashion, art and gifts. Major labels represented here include Brooks Brothers and Burberry, but you’ll also find small, distinctive clothing shops and bookstores.

Don’t miss the Dupont Circle farmers market on the north end of the circle, at 20th Street NW between Q Street and Massachusetts Avenue. Held rain or shine on Sundays from 10am to 1pm in the winter months, the market houses local vendors selling fruits and vegetables, cheeses, bread, fish and flowers. Pick up a few tasty items, then stop by one of the local wine stores to round out your cold-weather collation.

Georgetown This historic district was founded in 1751, before the District of Columbia itself was founded. Originally a port city set on the banks of the Potomac River, Georgetown

is now known for being home to its namesake university and for fashionable and elegant living. As you stroll along Georgetown’s cobblestoned streets and gaze at beautiful row houses of 18th- and 19th-century vintage, you’ll see why visitors love the area.

Georgetown shopping outlets congregate on Wisconsin Avenue NW and M Street and focus on upscale, trendy clothing, antiques and art pieces. Shops here include High Street favorites Zara and H&M, plus specialty retailers like The North Face and Jonathan Adler.

There’s also a fabulous, two-level Barneys New York Co-op carrying brands like Vince, Paul Smith, Stella McCartney, Saint Laurent, Jil Sander and more.

Chevy Chase Chevy Chase is a name shared by both an affluent neighborhood in northwest Washington, DC and a wealthy town just across the border in the state of Maryland. Many visitors make time to take in the upscale shopping available in both of these appealing luxury locations.

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Union Station and its retail opportunities (left and below)

Located on Wisconsin Avenue in DC, Mazza Gallerie mall houses a Neiman Marcus department store, Ann Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue Men’s and Williams Sonoma. Across the street is Chevy Chase Pavilion, which includes a Pottery Barn, J.Crew, Ann Taylor Loft, Talbots and Cost Plus World Market.

Over in Chevy Chase, Maryland, the Shops at Wisconsin Place on Western Avenue is a mall anchored by a Bloomingdales department store and filled out with Cole Haan, BCBGMaxAzria, Eileen Fisher, MAC Cosmetics, Whole Foods Market and several other stores. And at the Collection at Chevy Chase, you’ll delight in designer shops including Dior, Gucci, Cartier, Bulgari, Tiffany & Co. and Jimmy Choo.

Capitol Hill is also home to Eastern Market, a public market hall originally built in 1873. It now hosts a variety of local vendors. Each day, merchants sell flowers, dairy, produce, poultry, seafood and more. On weekends, you’ll find local artisans and craftspeople selling paintings, sculptures, woodworking, jewelry, pottery and photography.

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©Claver Carroll

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill is dominated by the nation’s Capitol Building, home of the two houses of Congress. The surrounding area is occupied by historic homes and fine dining and shopping. Once you’ve completed a tour of the Capitol, you might seek refuge in the warmth of Union Station. This historic train station is not only the departure point for regular rail service and local tours, but the setting for a series of boutiques and well-known stores such as The Body Shop, L’Occitane en Provence, Godiva Chocolatier, Victoria’s Secret, a Smithsonian store and many others. Over 25 million DC visitors a year stop by Union Station’s shops.

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A spotlight _ washington dc

Riverside romance

By Marwan Naaman

Italian fare reaches new heights at DC’s dreamy Osteria Morini

Sitting on the very edge of the Anacostia River, between Nationals Park and Navy Yard, Osteria Morini is part of the Altamarea Group, which encompasses iconic New York restaurants like Ai Fiori, Marea and the original outpost of Osteria Morini, also in Manhattan.

At the new, 130-seat DC locale, executive chef Matt Adler has created a temple to Italian cuisine in a space that seems to have been designed as a stage upon which Adler can present his elaborate dishes. Spacious and rustic, A 222

Osteria Morini, which is managed

by Erich Stumpe, is suffused with a rose light that streams in through oversized windows. The kitchen is set at the back but is open to the restaurant, encouraging diners to watch the chef and his staff at culinary play.

Adler’s menu offers a wide variety of pasta dishes, as well as antipasti, salads, grilled meats and spit roasts, plus a handful of fish and seafood specials like brodetto (seafood soup) and grilled swordfish. On the January day my dining companion and I had lunch at Osteria Morini, Adler prepared some of his favorite dishes for us, beginning with battilardo di affettati, a selection of delicate appetizers that included Parma ham, veal and pork terrine, and duck liver mousse, served with various kinds of toasted bread.

Although we promised ourselves not to eat too much in order to leave room for further courses, the terrine was so flavorful and the

mousse so refined that we found ourselves finishing the entire plate in a matter of minutes.

Next, we had the rucola salad, a delightful mix of wild arugula, crispy speck, pears and parmesan, followed by polpettine – hearty prosciutto and mortadella meatballs in a tomato sauce, topped with shredded parmesan.

Comfort food at its very best, especially on that cold January day when temperatures had dipped well below zero degrees Celsius.

The pasta dishes were delicious.

We had the gramigna, short and curly pasta made with pork sausage, tomato and cream and generously topped with black pepper, and the bucatini, inventively prepared with crab, sea urchin and basil. In both cases, the combination of contrasting ingredients (pork with black pepper and seafood with basil) resulted in complex, novel and pleasurable sensory experiences.

It seemed inconceivable at this point to eat anything else, but we had to try pastry chef Alex Levin’s desserts. First, we had tiramisu.

Chef Levin’s updated version is served like an artful piece of pie, with thin layers of mascarpone mousse, ladyfingers and coffee cream, all exuding the heady fragrance of amaretto. Then we sampled the savarin di pistachio, a pistachio cake accompanied by fresh citrus fruit, Mejdool dates and crème fraiche sorbet. Every bite was an explosion of pleasure, as the taste of pistachio melded with the tartness of citrus fruit and the cool sweetness of the sorbet.

My only regret at the end of our meal was that I would have to wait for my next trip across the Atlantic before I could enjoy another fabulous dinner at Washington DC’s Osteria Morini.

For reservations, tel.

1.202.484.0660, osteriamorini.com/washington-dc

©Scott Suchman

When Osteria Morini opened last November, it injected a strong dose of cool into Washington’s emerging Capitol Riverfront neighborhood. This newest of DC ‘hoods is now of one of the city’s most vibrant, complete with brand-new apartments and condos, offices and, of course, trendy restaurants, of which Osteria Morini is the leading light.

A spotlight _ washington dc

Capital living

By J. Michael Welton

An architect’s light-filled haven in Washington, DC

Now architect Suman Sorg lives there. She acquired Apartment One (there’s only one per floor) in the middle of the recession, and got to work on a modern makeover. “I was in a house, and it was too big, and on too many levels,” Sorg says. “I wanted to move into a flat.”

She tore out walls to open up the spaces with A 224

14-foot-high ceilings, but left the ornate, period windows in place. Then she restored its dining room, living room, bedrooms and master bath. At 4,500 square feet, it’s now three bedrooms and a studio, with four and a half baths.

The entire process took about seven months, but Sorg is pleased with the results. “There are thick, solid-feeling plaster walls, so it has some weight,” she says. “It’s very calming, even though it’s facing Massachusetts Avenue. The windows are double hung, with old wavy glass. Open or closed, I can hear the city – and I like that.”

She used mirrors, strategically placed, to reflect natural light out into the rooms.

The kitchen is open with glass walls, and the closet in the bath has glass walls – all to harvest the light.

Finally, she demolished a number of smaller rooms to create a painting studio.

“I wanted to have a place to show my work, a place to paint and a place to have friends and guests in,” she says.

The flat is situated in the right part of town for that. “It’s a walkable neighborhood, near Dupont Circle and Georgetown,” she says. “It’s accessible to my office at U and Ninth – about a 15-minute bike ride.”

And though it may be located in the capital of the United States, the experience she’s created is decidedly European. “It’s very French – you feel like you’re in Paris,” she says. “All the light illuminates the art, and the furnishings are very modern, so there’s quite a contrast.” Which suits a city like Washington to a T.

©Suman Sorg

In Washington, DC, the Wendell Mansions apartment building is an address with a pedigree. It’s a four-story, Beaux Arts masterpiece designed in 1906 by Edward H. Glidden, protégé to Paul Cret. It’s on Embassy Row, a stone’s throw from Georgetown and Dupont Circle. And at one time, it was a residential hub for the Kennedy administration, with cabinet members, a Supreme Court judge and Letitia Baldrige, Jackie’s social secretary, all tucked away inside.

A journey _ vienna

Under Vienna’s spell

The Austrian capital has it all: rich culture, delectable cuisine and great shops

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Today’s Vienna might be the home of OPEC, the United Nations and more than 100 embassies, but it pales next to its 19th-century incarnation, the one that gave rise to the city’s famed Ringstrasse and such luminaries as Freud, Klimt and Mahler. Fortunately for us tourists, the Vienna of Freud can still be found very much intact, tucked behind the Danube Canal, where the Ringstrasse forms a perimeter around possibly the most cultured Old City in history. Once you see it, you can’t help but be amazed by the scale and splendor of the palaces and churches: they reveal a grand Austria very different from the tiny country of today. In 1910, Vienna was ranked the seventh largest city in the world; today, it’s the 160th.

The rest of the world may have grown up around it, but Austria still occupies an enviable position as one of the 20 wealthiest and most comfortable countries in the world. It has four percent unemployment and more than 1,000 hotels in Vienna alone. Yet, most visitors come to see its past, not its present. The Austria of the 18th and 19th centuries was the seat of the Habsburg Empire, the most powerful nation in the world after Russia, and there is a reason for that. It is said the Habsburg motto was, “Why make war when you can make marriage?” By marrying offspring to the heirs of other royal empires – often hostile or at least politically threatening ones – the Habsburgs allied themselves with Spain, France, England and more, all for its greater glory. In fact, one of their

©SOPA RF/SOPA/Corbis

By Dorothy Weiner

This page Vienna’s Ringstrasse Opposite page Vienna’s famed Graben pedestrianized street (left), a baroque fountain on Neuer Markt square (top right) and Heldenplatz in front of Hofburg Palace (bottom right)

most beloved rulers – Maria Theresa – had 16 children and strategically married off 15 of them for just this purpose (including the infamous Marie Antoinette).

Maria Theresa’s eldest son, Franz Joseph, was the final Habsburg emperor, ruling for 68 years, from 1848 to 1916. And you might recall from history class that his named successor, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was the spark for World War I. (Franz Joseph’s natural heir, his son Rudolph, had earlier committed suicide.) But it was not meant to be; in 1914 Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbian separatists, interrupting the Habsburg succession and plunging Europe into war.

and powerful reign are all over Vienna.

The Imperial Palace, the Hofburg, was the winter home of the royals. Some of its apartments can be toured, or if you’ve seen enough of gilded ceilings and inlaid floors, head for another end of the Imperial complex where the Treasury is open to visitors. There you’ll see centuries of Habsburg crowns, swords, hunting rifles and gold-embroidered coronation wear.

The Imperial Library is also fascinating, with floor to ceiling leather-bound books, frescoes and marble busts of famous Viennese. Built in 1730, it is one of the most important libraries in the world, with more than 8 million volumes (200,000 of them printed between 1500 and 1850).

However, signs of Franz Joseph’s long

The big Imperial courtyard here that

connects all these royal structures, Heroes’ Square, was also the site of more insidious history: rallies by Adolf Hitler.

Although Austrians voted to become part of the Third Reich (the alternative, they’ll tell you, was to be occupied), they are culturally different from Germans and generally resent comparisons.

One of the most recognizable symbols of the city in this predominantly Catholic country is St. Stephen’s Cathedral, situated near the palace and founded in the 12th century in what was, even then, the city center. Its Gothic spire juts up 450 feet. It was the site of Mozart’s funeral and is a masterpiece of stone and wood carvings.

Nearby St. Peter’s, considered the secondoldest church site in Vienna, is a light227 A

A journey _ vienna

Café Landtmann, Freud’s favorite (left), and Demel bakery (bottom)

of legendary intellectual and artistic innovation. Under the auspices of Vienna’s cafés, Expressionist painters like Klimt and Schiele met, alongside Jugendstil architects and political theorists, including Vladimir Lenin.

As you stroll in search of that coffeehouse, be sure to take a close look at the city’s largest public monument, Plague Column on Graben Street, a 59-foot-tall sculpture commissioned in 1679 by Emperor Leopold to remember the victims of the bubonic plague that year. Near the base, the figure of an old woman (symbolizing the plague) is cast out into an abyss. At the top, a golden Holy Trinity sits as a triumph of good versus evil.

flooded Baroque sanctuary with a lavish, highly ornate interior. St. Augustine, as the Imperial church, is part of the Hofburg complex and the site of royal weddings, including that of Napoleon to the Habsburg princess Marie Louise in 1810.

Tourists should not miss the Imperial family’s summer home, Shonbrunn, a few miles from the city center. Its magnificent Neptune fountain was built to give Empress Maria Theresa something lovely to view from her second-story bedroom. This palace was a favorite of hers, and her son and heir Franz Joseph was A 228

born and died here. Some of its 1,441 rooms are open for touring, and its glory extends well beyond the Habsburg days.

Napoleon, who twice attacked Vienna, lived here with Marie Louise and their son, Napoleon François Charles Joseph, his only legitimate offspring.

And when, after World War II, Austria was divided into regions, the British were headquartered in Shonbrunn.

The palace also was the site of more recent history, when John F. Kennedy met Nikita Khrushchev here in 1961 to discuss Berlin, and when Jimmy Carter signed a nuclear

agreement with Leonid Brezhnev 18 years later. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signed an arms treaty here. Why Vienna?

Geography: the city straddles the crossroads between Eastern and Western Europe.

Since Vienna is renowned for its culture, any visit would be incomplete without attending a concert or opera, a coffeehouse and perhaps a display of equestrian prowess by the Spanish Riding School and its Lipizzaner stallions.

Remember, the coffeehouse was born here, part of the fin de siècle culture, a time

Vienna at a glance Eat You can find wonderful food at the coffeehouses here, from schnitzel to goulash (and, of course, display cases filled with pastries). Café Central, on Herrengasse, was the frequent haunt of 19th-century intelligentsia. Café Demel on Kohlmarkt has a delightful window filled with spun sugar folk characters and specializes in tea sandwiches and pastries.

Freud’s reputed favorite, Café Landtmann, has a full menu of salads, sausages, fish and more. Be sure to order a Wiener Melange at least once, espresso with steamed milk and foam. It may sound like a mere cappuccino, but you won’t want to miss its elegant

The legendary Hotel Sacher Wien (below) and Karntner Strasse, one of Vienna’s main shopping arteries (bottom)

presentation on a silver tray with sugar cubes, a glass of water topped by a spoon, its bowl turned down.

Stay Hotel Astoria is in a great location, near St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Hotel Imperial, reputed to be among the most beautiful hotels in the world, is the former home of the Prince of Württemberg. The setting there is brocaded velvet and cherry wood, with prices to match, starting at 700 euros.

Hotel Sacher Wien, known for originating the famous layered chocolate-apricot-chocolate cake, has been a city fixture since 1876. Or choose the Palais Hansen Kempisnki, profiled in the following pages.

Play Vienna has it all: churches, art, music, food. At the top of the list should be Belvedere Palace, which has a gallery room filled with the work of Gustav Klimt, including his iconic “The Kiss.” The Sisi Museum offers a glimpse into the Imperial apartments and the Imperial concert halls that will allow you to hear Mozart, Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner and Schubert played in their home country.

Shop The main shopping areas are on Karntner Strasse and Graben.

Lanz, the well-known Austrian line, specializes in folk clothing like dirndls and boiled wool jackets; Muhlbauer is a renowned milliner. You won’t want to miss Naschmarkt, the grand outdoor food market where you can purchase all things edible from street stalls.

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Sleeping in a Viennese palace

By May Farah

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When Vienna’s Palais Hansen Kempinski opened its doors to its first guests last spring, it was an event 140 years in the making. The Palais, designed by Theophil Edvard von Hansen – the eminent architect of his day – and Heinrich Forster, was originally designed to open as a hotel in 1873 to coincide with the World Exhibition.

However, the subsequent cancelation of the World Exhibition resulted in the postponement of the hotel’s inauguration.

For the next 135 years, Palais Hansen was home to the police headquarters and several different municipalities, until 2008 when plans to redesign, remodel and refurbish the hotel to its initial incarnation began. Five years later, after meticulous attention to

every aspect of the process – design, décor, furnishings – the hotel was finally unveiled.

It was well worth the wait. Palais Hansen Kempinski is a stunningly luxurious and unique hotel that proudly incorporates its grand architectural history into a remarkable contemporary and stylish design. It’s innovative and timeless all at once. Located in the historic heart of the city and part of the glamorous Ringstrasse Boulevard, the hotel is close to many of Vienna’s major sites, including the magnificent St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the upscale Golden Quarter shopping district.

Vienna-based architect Boris Podrecca

©Kempinski

Old-world charm and modern-day glamour collide at Palais Hansen Kempinski

and the firm Atelier Hayde Architekten respected Hansen’s legacy, preserving and renewing the Palais’ façade, the lobby’s monumental columns, the ballroom’s foyer, the 19th-century window frames and the staircases with their delicately wrought castiron banisters. Think Renaissance Revival architecture combined with modern touches.

The result, which I experienced first-hand during my recent stay at the hotel, is a respectful nod to the building’s history and an appreciation for state-of-the-art comfort and functionality.

Interior designer Jean-Claude Laville, who has experience blending historical architecture with modern influences – he worked on the Hotel Kempinski in Slovenia – integrated timelessly classic ‘20s and ‘30s design in muted shades of brown and beige, walnut furniture, subtle colors and fine fabrics. For the hotel’s 152 spacious rooms and suites, Laville used only the finest furnishings and amenities, and Emperador and Calacatta marble and Botticino stone for the oversized bathrooms. With their traditional high ceilings, Nespresso machines and iPads, they embody classic yet contemporary design, and a play with modern Viennese stylistic elements.

That theme extends to the hotel’s open lobby (which is the premier meeting place for Vienna’s rich and beautiful) and other public spaces – including two restaurants, two bars, a

cigar lounge, fitness and spa area (over 8,000 glorious square feet devoted to pampering), a florist, a delicatessen, the main ballroom, six function rooms and 17 private and exclusive residential penthouse apartments with their own private entrance.

Palais Hansen Kempinski’s two main restaurants, Die Küche (The Kitchen) – a gorgeous sun-lit room with three seating areas (each with its own design and atmosphere) – and Edvard (named in honor of the original architect) have also become part of Vienna’s upscale gourmet destinations. While Die Küche is the larger of the two and serves traditional Austrian and German dishes, Edvard is the hotel’s more intimate fine dining spot. Here, however, it’s fine dining “of unpretentious seasonal fare,” as executive chef Phillipp Vogel insists.

In a setting of dark wood floors and fresh shades of lime green and white, contrasted with modern black and gold chandeliers,

prepare to feast on unique dishes made with a fresh twist and using only the finest natural ingredients, such as poached organic veal filet and braised Austrian free-range veal with Oriental spices, raw or baked char with a variety of radishes or wild-caught Swedish cod with cucumber sauce.

After a pre-dinner cocktail at Henri Lou, the hotel’s bar that is a favorite late-night spot for Vienna’s hipsters, and a fabulous dinner at Edvard that lingered for several hours as we sampled different appetizers, main dishes and dessert, we soaked in the ambience of the lobby lounge and bar over a strong espresso and soothing liqueur. It was finally time to call it a day (and night). As we headed to our suite, I noticed four telltale words printed on the keycard, just underneath Palais Hansen Kempinski: “The Key to Happiness.” Indeed.

For reservations, tel. 43.1.236.1000, kempinski.com 231 A

A journey _ courchevel hotel

Glamour in the snow

By Sabina Llewellyn-Davies

Courchevel’s L’Apogée is drenched in luxury

Billed as a billionaire’s playground, L’Apogée, which opened in mid-December, holds massive rooms, state-of-the-art sound systems, huge fireplaces and some of Courchevel’s best dining and nightlife options. “We’re excited to be opening our first masterpiece hotel in the French Alps.

L’Apogée will complement our existing properties and fits perfectly with our portfolio,” says Frank Marrenbach, CEO of the Oetker Collection. “Courchevel, as a new A 232

Oetker Collection destination, will appeal to our loyal city and resort guests.”

Architects and interior designers India Mahdavi and Joseph Dirand have created a contemporary space with supreme comfort in mind. Don’t expect to see any stuffed animals decorating the walls: instead the look is suffused with stylish wool plaid, suede and fur. Each guestroom is a haven, complete with a blazing fire that feels just heavenly after a day of skiing. There are 33 suites and 20 spacious double rooms, ranging from 50 square meters to a lavish 110 square meters, and a spectacular penthouse with its own Jacuzzi and private terrace, all with views over forests or mountains. The resort also offers a super-private chalet with five swanky bedrooms, a spa and its very own home cinema.

Skiers with aching limbs are sure to enjoy Le Spa de L’Apogée, a spa and wellness center featuring luxury Sisley treatments as well as an indoor pool. The resort also houses gourmet restaurant Le Comptoir de LApogée, helmed by executive chef Franck Ferigutti, the very glamorous Champagne Lounge and in-house watering hole Le Bar de L’Apogée.

When the sun is shining, hotel guests can head out onto the huge terrace, champagne glass in hand, and take in the dazzling views of the soaring white slopes. And it’s just as easy to head out for a ski jaunt: L’Apogée offers easy ski-in ski-out options as it’s set right beside a piste. What more could any ski and snow lover want?

For reservations, tel. 33.4.9293.3240, lapogeecourchevel.com

©Adrien Dirand, Equanima/Vincent Castel

L’Apogée is the newest, dreamiest luxury resort to open in Courchevel. Part of the Oetker Collection (the people responsible for Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on the Côte d’Azur and Paris’ magnificent Le Bristol), this glamorous new property in the French Alps is a dream come true for ski and snow enthusiasts.

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A journey _ toronto

The romantic’s guide to Toronto

By Marianne Wisenthal

Four Canadian ways to say I love you

With its bustling Bay Street and looming skyscrapers, Toronto has always had an air of “all business.” Yet underneath the gray pinstripe suit is a warm heart just waiting for someone to love. And while city temperatures may be a touch chilly this time of year, there are still plenty of places to generate heat and invoke a bit of romance.

Herewith, four ways to express those three little words.

Skating at Harbourfront Center

Hot cocoa in the Distillery District

After a few cool turns on the ice, warm things up in the city’s historic Distillery District. Housed in a stunning red brick building, SOMA Chocolatemaker creates small batch goodies lovingly made using fair-trade cocoa beans. The Mayan hot chocolate spiced with ginger, Madagascar vanilla and chili will probably get you to first base. Afterward, take a romantic stroll along the cobbled pathways to visit some of the area’s independent boutiques and art galleries.

32 Tank House Lane, Distillery District, tel.

1.416.815.7662, somachocolate.com

©The Chase, Distillery District, Harbourfront Center, The Ivy at Verity

Tucked away behind York Quay Center, the Natrel Rink at the Harbourfront Center is one of the city’s most scenic skating rinks, where you can take in pretty views of Lake Ontario and passing ferries headed to nearby Toronto Islands. Skates are available for rent and nearby fire-pits are perfect for warming your tootsies between laps. Can’t tell a crossover from a pivot?

Sign up for a private lesson, and you’ll be holding hands and synchronizing to the beat in no time.

235 Queens Quay West, tel. 1.416.973.4000, harbourfrontcentre.com

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Dinner at The Chase

The oyster as aphrodisiac might be up for debate, but taking your date to dinner at The Chase will undoubtedly crank up the heat.

Perfect for those who like their entrances dark and private, The Chase is accessible via a cobbled alleyway that leads to an almosthidden door. From there an elevator takes you to the fifth floor, where cozy curved banquets and sweeping windows practically scream romance. If the roasted chicken with foie gras, Armagnac and brioche don’t do the trick, the flourless chocolate cake layered with mousse, milk chocolate cream and white chocolate feuilletine will certainly seal the deal.

10 Temperance St., tel. 1.647.348.7000, thechasetoronto.com

Sleep (or not) at The Ivy at Verity

Set in a restored 1850s chocolate factory, the Ivy at Verity has only four rooms, so service is both impeccable and discreet. Each plush room boasts an über-comfortable Hästens bed, private terrace and oversized bathtub (perfect for soaking à deux). Best of all, the 24-hour concierge makes sure the marble topped “Honor Bar” outside your door is fully stocked all night and delivers breakfast on a tray in the morning. Cap it off with an in-room Sweetgrass massage, and you can officially declare your love.

111d Queen St. East, tel. 1.416.368.6006, theivyatverity.ca

This page The Chase restaurant (top) and The Ivy at Verity hotel (left and above) Opposite page The historic Distillery District (left) and the Natrel Rink at Harbourfront Center (right)

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A journey _ colombia

Bogotá in a blaze

By Grace Banks

Colombia’s capital is the trendiest destination in South America

Bogotá has transformed itself into one of the Latin America’s safest and most vibrant cities. Not so long ago, Bogotá’s streets were the unwilling host to the most aggressive civil warfare in Colombia. But recent years have seen Bogotá flourish, becoming one of the most sophisticated and modern destinations in South America, thanks to newfound political stability and a clampdown on criminal activity. Traditional Colombian grills are updated in a burgeoning food scene, while history gains contemporary relevance in the museum quarter. There are districts dedicated to molecular dining, and a music scene that attracts The Cure and The Beetles. One of the city’s hippest creatives, director Lina Rodriguez, allies the city’s unique edge with its unpredictability and constant evolution. “Bogotá is a place that feels new and different with every corner you turn,” she says.

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Creativity and culture are important in Bogotá. With its grandiose style, the neighborhood of La Candelaria is the best place to see what’s up in the art world. Located in the oldest part of town, this historic district boasts street upon street of spindly colonial avenues and lanes, home to over 40 museums and galleries, many of them stocking a dynamically curated selection of Colombian and South American contemporary art. Fans of Colombian art should head to the Botero Museum: the gallery is a love song to his post-impressionist curves. Make the most of an afternoon in La Candelaria with a visit to the Museo del Oro (gold museum). Home to aboriginal tribe masks, the museum houses a gift shop that stocks handmade jewelry, including reproduction Inka earrings created with locally mined gold. Another noteworthy stop is the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (Mambo), where you can witness the city’s bourgeoning art scene.

If parts of Colombia are intrinsically political, other parts are unashamedly glamorous. The Zona G district is such a place: part hub of gastronomic science, part hangout of the city’s bright young things, the neighborhood is alive with an experimental food movement. Amid the ‘50s architecture, commissioned to replicate the look of Miami Americana, you’ll find some of Colombia’s best eateries. Criterion is the perfect stop for French mussels and gizzards, while Astrid y Gastón is the best steak joint in town.

Near the city’s restaurant district lies a vintage market that rivals the giant hangers of Los Angeles.

This is where locals go for one-of-a-kind Colombian prints and ‘60s leather handbags. Nearby Antique Dades is the perfect spot for an antique shopping spree. To pick up something truly Colombian, Calle 6 is lined with shops specializing in raw uncut

emeralds from local mines. (Emeralds are a true emblem of the country.)

Pampering is also a big deal in Bogotá. Chairama Spa is one of the most impressive places to relax. Designed by Giancarlo Mazzanti, the landmark has a brutalist glass and metal exterior with intricate laser cut bubble design.

The spa’s innovative Sunroom is the perfect place to deepen your tan in a city that isn’t always sunny.

Evenings are truly indulgent in Bogotá; cocktails are de rigueur. For a truly decadent night, head to Triana bar in the fashionable district of La Macarena: the place is designed to emulate the inside of a ‘60s plane.

After Triana, make a night of it at El Coq, a club that rocks and rumbles until the early morning hours. And then head outside to watch the sun rise over South America’s most dynamic city.

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A journey _ lebanon

Stairway to heaven

By Sabina Llewellyn-Davies

Broummana’s ancient steps provide a window to Lebanon’s past

We’re standing next to a playground in Broummana, the gorgeous town set on the upper reaches of the Metn hills in Mount Lebanon. “Our village dates back to 333 BC,” says local Kamal Abou Samra. “Follow me, I will show you a stone fortress built by the Ethronites, who settled here before the Romans. Now it’s a Greek Orthodox church.”

After navigating several more stairways, we reach a stone wall on which the 18thcentury Abillama emirs used to attach their horses. Beyond the wall stands a grand stone palace, formerly home to the emirs and now transformed into a school.

The next stairway is chilly, and we tread the ancient stones deep into what used to be the palace dungeon. “This is where prisoners were held,” Abou Samra explains. We walk back up, then continue through an alley toward a long stairway that leads to a fountain where the villagers used to come for their water.

Then, it’s back up again. “We’re playing a game of snakes and ladders,” says Abou Samra,

©Ieva Saudargaite

It’s obvious that Abou Samra is proud of his hometown. He calls himself a “Broummanite,” and he created the Broummana Hiking Group to take people on walks through his village and its surrounding forests. He’s done meticulous research about local history, and he has even counted the winding staircases to create the Broummana Stairways Walk. “There are about 61 stairways in Broummana. Today, we will begin our walk at the Precious Hole, named after a massacre of about 400 people, which took place here in the 18th century,” he says, grinning when he sees our smiles recoil in

horror. “This is just a local myth,” he adds, marching us up the first of nearly 800 steps.

As we pass an abandoned hotel he tells us that in the ‘60s, during Lebanon’s golden years, there were around 60 hotels in the village. Now, just a handful remain open.

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obviously enjoying himself as he leads us to the Fabrica Stairway, named after an old electrical power station. For him this is the village’s most beautiful stairway, lined with potted plants and lilac trees, winding down past a stunning heritage house to a road.

We cross over to reach a hidden alleyway,

set on top of a cliff and lined with trees, and are greeted by the stunning sight of the Mediterranean gleaming in the rosy sunset.

“Are you tired?” Abou Samra asks. Yes, our limbs had quite a workout, but the visual and emotional rewards were well worth it.

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A last _ word

A dog’s life

By Marwan Naaman

I lost my 15-year-old peekapoo last November. Dudley had been with me since he was two months old, and he’d come with me to Lebanon from San Francisco, when I moved here in 2000.

When I adopted the feisty little pup, he was so small he fit into the palm of my hand. I used to carry him around like you would a tennis ball. Even at that very young age, he was already very active, running around my San Francisco apartment and taking healthy bites out of the leafy potted palms that adorned it. He loved going for walks and runs in San Francisco’s Buena Vista Park, across the street from my home, where he roamed freely, rolling around in the grass and actively digging holes, always on the lookout for pinecones and tree branches.

But to me he was an invaluable companion, and he taught me a great deal about life.

Dudley taught me to find pleasure in small things, like walks in the park and around the city. He taught me about unconditional friendship when I suffered a great loss several years ago, and he was by my side through it all, resting his head on my foot and never letting me out of his sight, as if sensing my sorrow. Dudley taught me about responsibility, and how important and fulfilling it is to care for someone who depends solely on you.

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shortly after his 13th birthday. He progressively lost his sight and then his hearing. Things got more complicated when he became incontinent. Once very proud of his housebreaking, he would hang his head in shame when he had an accident indoors.

Eventually, it became harder and harder for him to walk, and he started losing control of his hind legs. He lost a lot of weight, and ate less with each passing day. Even though he was almost completely blind, he would still look up at me with his enormous eyes, as if to tell me that he knew I was there, looking out for him.

Dudley stopped eating on November 7, two days before his 15th birthday. On the morning of November 8, he drank a bit of water and then threw up blood. That afternoon, I wrapped him in a towel and drove him to the vet, who told me that Dudley’s kidneys were failing and that he had

jaundice. “Dudley is dying,” he said, adding that the only humane thing to do was to put him to sleep, to spare him further suffering.

I placed Dudley on his towel on the exam table, and kept petting him. The vet shaved part of his front paw and injected him with a clear liquid. Dudley rested his head on the palm of my hand, gave one final breath, just like he’d done every night for the past 15 years before going to sleep, and then he was gone.

And on that day, Dudley taught me the most important lesson of all. Even though losing someone is the most harrowing, heartbreaking experience of all, the love makes it all worth it. When he gave his final breath, it was as if Dudley was thanking me one last time for 15 years of love, and letting me know that even though he was leaving, he was grateful for the ultimately brief but happy times we had had together.

©Mélanie Dagher

Since day one, Dudley was an extremely loyal and protective dog. He slept next to me for 15 years, under the covers on cold winter nights, and on the pillow next to mine during summer. With his light brown coat, furry black muzzle and pronounced under-bite, Dudley bore an uncanny resemblance to a Star Wars Ewok. A face only a mother could love, some of my friends said.

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