Brown Thomas Menswear Magazine

MENSWEAR

SPRING 2012

WHAT’S THE OCCASION?

AND WHAT TO WEAR

OLYMPIC BODIES

CAN THE AVERAGE JOE ASPIRE? A DATE WITH A DESTINATION

PLACES TO BE, WATCHES TO WEAR, SHOES TO PACK

THE POLITICS OF STYLE MOMENTS IN HISTORY DEFINED

BY FASHION

FROM MY OWN

PLUS ARCHITECTURE FOOD AND WINE SPORT 00 CoverFINALS.indd 2

PERSPECTIVE FOUR BUSINESSMEN DO IT THEIR WAY

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CONTENTS SPRING 2012

24

33

A SHOEIN

▲ 40°C The temperature at which you practise Bikram yoga. So hot it’s manly

MUSIC ICONS INSPIRE

FEATURES // 08 SHAMEFUL BEHAVIOUR Actor Michael Fassbender on movies, McQueen and male frontal nudity

22 THE POLITICS OF STYLE Style statements: moments of history defined by fashion

STYLE //

44

06 SIGNATURE STYLE Men who have a look all their own

PACK MAN

10 DRESS RIGHT FOR THE OCCASION Be a well-dressed man, whatever the occasion

14 TRENDS Summer whites; Italian dressing; great blues and tan shoes

24 STYLE ICONS We look to music icons for inspiration

31 WARDROBE NEWS

34 9

KEEPING BLACK TIE: TIME A GUIDE TO SMARTLY GETTING IT RIGHT

Update and upgrade with a few new pieces

33 BEST FOOT FORWARD Summer shoes shine

34 WATCHES

10

THE RIGHT CLOTHES FOR EVERY OCCASION

04 Contents.indd 4

▲ NCAD GIRL Producer Benny Smiles and singer Ballz Deep sum up the allure of a particular Dublin type in this hilarious tune.

Google it

49 ASK ANN ...

Your style questions answered by Brown Thomas style guru Ann Finn

LOOK RIGHT // 42 FITNESS

How can the average Joe get that Olympic physique?

43 GROOMING

Clothes and shoes aside ... manscaping means looking after hair and skin and smelling great

LIFE // 18 OLDER & WISER

Rich pearls of wisdom from Bob Geldof

▲ DECLAN LOWNEY The Father Ted director is back in a big way – bringing his zany vision to Chris O’Dowd’s sitcom, Moone Boy, and the Rubberbandits' Channel 4 pilot ▲ NOTHING HUMAN LEFT American Psycho comes to Dublin 4 in this new novel.

Expect bloodspattered chinos

46

RIGHT, CHARLEY

▲ THE VICTORINOX 1TB SSD SWISS ARMY KNIFE Think penknives are only for cub scouts?

Think again: this nifty number combines the usual blades with a mini, super-speedy external hard drive

4 TRENDING BEARISH

20 BUSINESS

The business of luxury

42 OMNIVORE

What to eat after a round of golf; the man salad; the mini-cellar

44 TRAVEL

▼ THE SHAME EFFECT Now that your other half has seen Fassbender naked, you’re never going to measure up

Pack the right kit for summer’s fun fixtures, from Brazil to Benicassim

▼ FILLET STEAK Too mainstream. It’s all about the unfashionable cuts – feather and skirt, for example– at Bear, the new Jamie Heaslip/Joe Macken restaurant

46 YOURS ... FOR LIFE

▼ RUBBERNECKING The need to slow down as you pass each filling station has been obliterated with the pumps.ie app, which allows you to find the cheapest petrol in your vicinity using your phone’s GPS

Tough forms, ruthless angles: architecture with macho appeal

What’s making you tick?

48 SPEED DATE …

36 FROM MY OWN PERSEPECTIVE

You are what you eat: Olympian David Gillick has breakfast in Browns Bar & Café

Four men look the business

RISING STOCK

▼ TERRESTRIAL TV You’re going to have to subscribe to Sky Atlantic to catch the long-awaited (it finally aired in the US this month) season five of Mad Men

BROWN THOMAS MENSWEAR magazine is published by GLOSS PUBLICATIONS LTD, in association with Brown Thomas.

PUBLISHER Jane McDonnell EDITOR Sarah McDonnell STYLE EDITOR Aislinn Coffey DESIGN Jane Matthews FOR BROWN THOMAS: MARKETING DIRECTOR Moira Murphy MARKETING MANAGER Edel Kinane BUYING DIRECTOR Paul O’Connor FASHION DIRECTOR Shelly Corkery CREATIVE DIRECTOR John Redmond.

The title and contents of BROWN THOMAS magazine is copyright Gloss Publications Ltd and reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without written permission from the publishers. For details of Brown Thomas stores Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway see www.brownthomas.com or call 01 605 6666.

Brown Thomas has made every effort to ensure prices are correct at time of going to press. All items featured are subject to availability. Cover: Model wears navy cardigan, Lanvin; white shirt, Truzzi; cobalt blue chinos, brown leather shoes, both Gucci; Villeret watch, Blancpain; all at Brown Thomas. Photograph by Neil Gavin. Styled by Aislinn Coffey. Grooming by Ciara Reidy for Aveda at Brown Thomas. Hair by Aideen Shorthall at Fusion Hair Salon using Aveda.

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masters of style

David Collins

gabriel Byrne

Architect, designer, interiors guru: as befits someone whose personal taste defines his profession, David Collins is sure footed on the aesthetic.

His wardrobe is no different: eclectic, contemporary and individual. When you know what looks right, it’s easy.

adam Clayton

For a guy who sported a dust mask and orange boiler suit onstage during the band’s Popmart Tour, U2’s bass player’s personal style is a model of relaxed restraint now. Always limber and fit looking, his years of hard partying have left no trace.

Byrne has always seemed the sort of guy who could wear anything and make it look great. After all, he made a sex symbol out of a Wicklow farmer: say no more. Ireland’s cultural ambassador has a cerebral edge to balance his flinty on-screen machismo.

Dermot Desmond

Sartorially precise and polished, Dermot Desmond cuts a dash at the boardroom table and away from it. Never afraid to make the flamboyant gesture, he’s all alpha. Here’s a guy who knows the devil is always in the detail – whatever the deal.

Signature style Who’S got it?

t

hrough appearance we announce who we are and there’s nothing half-baked about these men. We know exactly who they are because they’ve found their style, their groove, their look. Once that look is found, they appear at least, to have promptly forgotten about it – which of course is the essence of style, that utter confidence. Physically at ease, they wear their clothes (rather than the other way round) and work a signature accessory (great specs, double cuffs, elegant silk ties) by which they are remembered. At this stage in their style evolution, attachment to one or two or three tried and trusted labels and patronising one or two or three stores where their needs are anticipated and met means they never veer into the murky waters of experimentation. They don’t have time to mess around – they’re too busy being who they are. QED.

Dermot Boyd

A high profile, award-winning architectural partnership means an everyday concern with function and structure, space and surface.

Favouring a look which is loose and layered, featuring carefully chosen individual pieces, Boyd’s bohemian style counterpoints the rigour of his buildings’ lines.

allen Leech

Chris o’Dowd

With a career going ballistic after his leap from UK sitcom to the love interest in the planet’s biggest comedy blockbuster, Bridesmaids, O’Dowd keeps it low key and unfussy. At over 6’3”, he can carry off LA polish or indie cas: the charm does the rest.

As the chauffeur and Lady Sybil’s suitor in the phenom that is Downton Abbey, Leech has showcased a rugged intensity to go with the surfer-looks. He lets his acting do the talking, with a chameleon-like ability to wear each part, inhabiting the character and moving on.

Paul Walsh

graham norton

oliver tattan

With a well-cut suit, crisp shirt, French cuffs and silk tie his natural habitat, Tattan wears executive armour with élan. It works, having bagged a substantial payday when the health insurer, VIVAS which he set up, was taken over by Hibernian.

nick Munier

How does the Hell’s Kitchen and Ireland’s Masterchef star still look so lean with all that food to be tasted? Not to mention Pichet.

Munier has the unimpeachable front of house finish that quietly demands authority.

Suits are sharp and fitted.

Glasses big and bold.

Steve Burnett

When your day job is deep in BT’s fashionland, a personal style isn’t so much a statement as a résumé. Burnett knows how to mash it up, with blue-chip tailoring partnering targeted casuals. Of course, knowing what’s ahead of the curve is just part of the job description.

Sometime TV presenter and now lead singer with Irish alt rock outfit, Royseven, Walsh knows the importance of fronting up stylewise for gigs and promos. Staple looks often include braces over white shirts, with a military twist to jackets and coats. Don’t try it unless you’ve the tunes and cheekbones to carry it off.

The unchallenged king of the weekend chat shows, Norton has redefined the formula. And himself. Always buffed, always on trend, always with a signature flourish, the dancing priest of Father Ted is long banished to the box sets.

nick Koumarianos

He’s hung up his hang glider now, but the erstwhile CEO of Cable & Wireless in the Grand Cayman was once the sport’s Irish champion. He’s always had dash: it’s a personal style that has allowed an inveterate player do the mega corporate gig and still have an appetite for the techy start-up.

hugo Jellett

ian Fitzgibbon Dan Kiely

Forward thinking and focused on customer satisfaction, VoxPro, Dan Kiely’s outsource communications company is like the man himself – dynamic. Likes his wardrobe to reflect that energy: favours snappy suits and sharp tailoring.

Since the RADAtrained actor moved behind the camera, the urbane Fitzgibbon’s keen comedic eye is in huge demand for TV and film. The constant air travel and long days on set means formality is eschewed for casual European labels, often signed off with a scarf and slick specs.

Currently running the Éigse Carlow Arts Festival, Jellett’s cultural immersion continues after stints in IMMA and IFI. It informs his style: magpieing, unpretentious, non-conformist.

It’s the same confident, can-do free spirit that sees him freestyle the Salty Dog stage on the side at Electric Picnic.

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Shameful At 12 he wAS AN AltAR boy. Now MIchAel FASSbeNdeR IS hAvING Sex wIth StRANGeRS ANd SPANkING keIRA kNIGhtley IN two oF the hotteSt MovIeS oF the yeAR. IS It tIMe he Put hIS clotheS bAck oN?

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8 SPRING 2012 08 INTERVIEWFass.indd 8

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INTERVIEW When Michael Fassbender’s film Shame, directed by Steve McQueen, previewed in Venice last year, a small part of him was relieved his mother couldn’t make it. The film, about a New York-based sex addict, is, depending on your point of view, a brilliant exposition of loneliness in the city or a pretentious piece of navel-gazing, but either way includes a lot of very slappy sex scenes and clenched-arse shots. “My mum was supposed to be there,” Fassbender says. “And in a way, thank God, her back played up. Maybe in her subconscious she developed a back pain on the eve of the screening.” Even without her, when the lights came up Fassbender was, “a little bit shell-shocked. Everyone in that movie theatre had seen me in some pretty uncomfortable… ahem, wait a minute! Let me get my clothes back on here.”

This is Fassbender’s moment. After years of playing relatively minor roles he has, in quick succession, starred in Jane Eyre, A Dangerous Method, X-Men, Haywire and Shame, and as most women who have seen these films know, he is, at 34, in his leading-man prime: blue-grey eyes, long black lashes, a habit of ducking his chin in a way that acknowledges both how pretty he is and how vaguely embarrassing he finds it, plus there’s the Irish accent and then the hair, which comes up off his forehead in waves of auburn.

When we meet, he has the conscientious air of someone sitting an exam, eyes glazed to the middle-distance, frowning slightly.

I’ve heard he is, or at least was, a big party boy, but his aspect this morning is pure butter-wouldn’t-melt.

His parentage is half-German, halfIrish, and he grew up in Killarney, where his family ran a restaurant. The film that brought him to prominence was McQueen’s brilliant first feature, Hunger, a biopic of the Republican hunger strikers in which Fassbender played Bobby Sands.

It foreshadowed Shame in that there was little dialogue and relied on the actor’s ability to communicate physically – his deadpan expression transmitting a kind of transcendent disappointment – and like the later film was gruelling to shoot. (Fassbender went on an extreme, 600-calorie-a-day diet to drop the necessary weight).

Getting cast in Hunger, he says, was the single greatest stroke of luck of his career, at a time when he was “a 30-year-old unknown male” and it seemed possible that large-scale success would bypass him. “The recession was right around the corner, this industry was going to suffer as much as any other, and just the fact that there were less jobs for less actors; so God, I was so lucky that that happened when it did. Would Hunger have been made the next year? I don’t think so.” Instead, he came to the attention of Hollywood casting agents and now has a sense of being “at the highest point I could ever have imagined arriving at, when I started out at 17”.

Fassbender’s air of surprise at this, his expectations exceeded, makes him likable in a way that seeps into his roles. In Shame, he plays an executive, externally plausible, highly successful, but who is unable for

reasons never fully explained to have a real relationship, as opposed to encounters with strangers, prostitutes and porn. His sister, played by Carey Mulligan, throws herself at any passing male as a kind of mirror pathology. It is beautifully shot, a commentary as much on the city that enables them both as on the characters themselves, and the scarcity of dialogue makes it an acting job of real delicacy.

In a weird coincidence, the film Fassbender made before Shame was David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, in which he plays Carl Jung, with Viggo Mortensen as Freud and Keira Knightley as Jung’s mistress, Sabina. The storyline explores Jung’s pioneering treatment of sexual dysfunction. But no, he says, there were no particular insights to carry over: “It’s funny – once I finish one thing, I dispose of it fairly quickly and then you’re getting stuck into the next one.”

It is too good, given all of these studies in repression, that Fassbender was head altar boy as a child, which he thinks of with a wry nod as his first starring role. He would rotate responsibilities with three other boys, an extraordinary duty he thinks, looking back, and not one he always fulfilled. “I had the keys to the church and had to open it in the morning, and attend all the masses and weddings and funerals and whatever it entailed for that month. And lock the church at night. That’s quite a lot to do at 12. And I remember –” he starts to giggle

were no other Fassbenders in his class at school (“In amongst the Fitzgeralds and the O’Sullivans – the O’Fassbenders?!”), although it was a cosmopolitan enclave; there were other German and Dutch families in the neighbourhood. Fassbender’s CV has it that he’s fluent in German – he spent summer holidays there – but he’s pretty rusty now, he says.

When he was 16, his parents allowed him to move into rooms above their restaurant in town and live a relatively independent existence in return for doing weekend shifts downstairs. It was an arduous life; his parents worked six days a week when he was growing up and he was expected to work, too. But Fassbender appreciated the exchange and had the sense to see what a good deal he was getting. “It was very cool. I didn’t take the piss; I respected the fact that they were letting me live like that. So it was a fair trade-off.

And I’ve always been more inclined to go out to work than carry on with academic studies.” His sister, a neuropsychologist – “Or neuroscientist, I’m not sure” – is “very brainy”, and he bursts out laughing. “She was opposite to me, she loved reading.

Always asking questions. Signs of intelligence at a young age. I was much more interested in my imaginative world. And building things and being more physical.”

The idea to act came from a workshop he did at school run by a local actor who, when he started the group up again in town, invited Fassbender to join. “And I thought

He was right. And it was a good lesson for me: what it was like to not get to do the job you love doing and be forced to do other things – it’s more precious to you when you do get an opportunity to do it. It made me not take things for granted. Not to say that I’ve matured all that much in ten years, but a lot of things that go along with the business would have seduced me more ten years ago.

I’m pretty happy. I mean, Jesus…”

He is keen at this stage to say yes to as many different genres as possible. Haywire, the Steven Soderbergh film in which Fassbender plays a minor role, notable for the fact he gets beaten to death in a hotel room by a woman (Gina Carano). He was fine with it, he says, not least because Carano turned out to be twice the man Fassbender is. “She beat the shit out of me anyway.

There were no body doubles and Gina was like, ‘Drive me into the television harder.’ I was like, ‘You know, we’re acting here, Gina, we’re not in the ring. Let’s establish that before it’s your turn to start hitting me’.”

Apart from Hunger, by far the best of his recent films has been Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold’s feature about a girl on a sink estate in east London and her relationship with her mother’s amoral boyfriend. It was a shockingly good film and you wondered whether Fassbender, playing a cynical, exploitative and by turns generous man, felt disgusting at the end of the day. “It washes away. I think it’s important to go to places that are uncomfortable.”

‘You know, we’re acting here, Gina, we’re not in the ring. Let’s establish

that before it’s your turn to start hitting me.’

– “a couple of times I slept in. And the whole congregation was waiting outside the church. And we had these American priests who’d come to visit, and I’d be running across the fields with the keys. It was so crazy to think it was in my hands. But that was my first experience in a way of being on stage, before an audience, of sorts.”

His experience of the Catholic church generally was benign thanks to his local priest, Father Galvin, who was, he says, “very cool. It’s not all bad and abuse of boys. A lot of people relied on him. He would be there to listen. Obviously the idea of hell and suffering is kind of heavy-duty, but there was a lot of positivity.”

Fassbender had the advantage, perhaps, of seeing his home from a slight angle thanks to his father’s foreignness – his mother is Irish, his father German. There

this feels right and if I worked at it maybe I could make a career out of it.”

It would be a long time before he got anywhere, however. Fassbender went to London and enrolled at drama school, which didn’t appeal to him. He is an intuitive performer, and resented the drills they were put through. “We did a lot of that in drama school: intellectualising and maybe justifying your position. ‘I am a thinking actor and I have thought this through’ – well, just do it. I much prefer the doing aspect. ‘Just do it’ – one of the best slogans ever.”

He lucked out in his first role, getting cast in Steven Spielberg’s Band Of Brothers. He was 24 and sure he was about to hit the big time. Older friends urged caution, one in particular – “‘I believe in you but I reckon it’s going to take another six or seven years’.

He starts laughing again because, of course, taking that kind of risk with ugliness is probably something only the very beautiful can do. “Conor does cross the line in Fish Tank, but on the flipside he is the catalyst for [the heroine] to become her own person. He is the only one who inspires her with confidence to follow her dreams.”

There are more films on the way: a lead in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and a third film with McQueen. It is the kind of professional relationship with a director that Fassbender could only have dreamed of, one he hopes will be career-long. McQueen has informed and amplified his basic philosophy, what he tells himself every time he walks on set.

“The problem is, we feel a lot of pressure about looking silly or appearing weak, whatever that means, or being a failure.

You have to keep in your head: what’s the worst that can happen? I’m trying to tell a story – what’s the worst that can happen?

You fall flat on your face, then hopefully you get back up again and go for it again and try something else. We’re all going to die one day. I’m stealing that off Steve; it’s what he’d say when he ordered me to take my clothes off. ‘WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE ONE DAY!’’ With that in mind he asks if there’s time for a cigarette before his next appointment.

Yes, says the PR. “Woo!” says Fassbender and, grinning, bounces out of the room. n

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TAILORING

DRESS RIGHT FOR THE OCCASION

THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF YOUR LIFE OR JUST A LAZY SUNDAY ... EITHER WAY, YOU NEED SOMETHING OCCASION-APPROPRIATE TO WEAR

#1 THE WEDDING An elegantly tailored, unfussy and quietly sophisticated suit is just what you need on a day when you stand in front of friends and family (and the world, in Sir Paul’s case) and declare your love for your new wife. Navy is a wise choice of colour too; it is suitably serious but can be easily lifted with a pale tie and a flower in the buttonhole. It’s important to complement your bride; if she is doing a streamlined look, then so should you. Observe how Paul McCartney – a man with his fair share of fashion slip-ups under his belt – and his third wife Nancy Shevell put on a show of sartorial togetherness in outfits that echo each other.

NAVY SUIT The classic blue suit is a staple for any wardrobe. Lighter shades work in summer while darker shades are perfect for the winter months. British designer Paul Smith always uses the best of fabrics and his fit tends to be slim as he keeps the shoulders and lapels lean. A classic blue twopiece worn with an understated silk tie, and a crisp, white wellfitting shirt and a single anemone in the buttonhole will pass any style test with flying colours.

Pale blue silk tie, €100, Paul Smith.

Navy suit, €690, Duchamp.

Above Ballon Bleu watch, €7,425, Cartier.

Left Black leather lace-up shoes, €385, Zegna.

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07/03/2012 10:03

#3 THE MID-SUMMER BALL A black-tie invitation doesn’t mean uniformity. Brad Pitt can always be relied on to to make his mark on the red carpet. He goes for a tuxedo with extras – a silk lapel, for example – and chooses his shirt, bow tie and shoes with care. A ruched grosgrain bow tie makes a statement and pair of eye-catching cuff links can transform a dress shirt. Shoes needn’t be dull black leather either; investigate texture – shiny patent leather or matte satin.

Onyx and ivory shirt studs, €125, Gieves & Hawkes.

TUXEDO You can’t go wrong with Tom Ford. His dinner jackets pack a heavy-weight sartorial punch. So when you’re Brad Pitt (he scooped the gong for best dressed at the 2012 Golden Globes), you wear Tom Ford: Mr Ford dominates the red carpet with the perfect slim fit tuxedos with razor sharp peak lapels and really is the standard-bearer for modern black tie. Add decorative studs to your dress shirt, a great bow tie and you’re good to go.

GREY SUIT The one item that gives shape and meaning to any capsule wardrobe? A twobutton light-weight wool suit.

Bear in mind that if you own only a few suits, it’s always better to purchase quality over quantity. Masters of sophisticated Italian tailoring Ermenegildo Zegna always get it right. Zegna suits fit better and feel better; when it comes to quality, they never disappoint.

Right Grey check silk tie, €170, Tom Ford.

Below Grey spot silk pocket square, €110, Tom Ford.

White pleated cotton dress shirt, €220, Canali.

Above Grey wool two-button suit, €1,500, Ermenegildo Zegna.

Left Brown Richard leather brogues, €1,460, Tom Ford.

#2 THE DINNER DATE

Above Black satin evening shoes, €590, Dolce & Gabbana.

Left Black wool evening suit with satin lapels, €3,200, Tom Ford.

Famous for his romantic roles, Colin Firth also knows how to pick a dashing dinner date-appropriate suit for an evening with wife Livia Giuggioli: he knows lapels should be slim and two buttons are best.

Grey is more fashionable than black: keep things simple by choosing

Black grosgrain bow tie, €170, Tom Ford.

a tie and pocket square in accents of the shade.

SPRING 2012 11 10 OccasionJM.indd 11

07/03/2012 10:04

TAILORING

#4 THE ART GALLERY OPENING

Red cotton scarf, €30; navy stripe T-shirt, €60; both Hartford.

A gallery opening is the type of event that requires you to be casual and cool. Make like Fiat heir, Lapo Elkann (he regularly turns up on the international best-dressed lists), and nail the first demand by opting for simple pieces: distressed, worn jeans and brown boots or brogues.

Then take things up a notch by introducing more unusual elements like a check chambray shirt or a pair of statement specs. If you pull off the look successfully, people might even think you know what you’re talking about as you offer your views on the art.

JACKET Fashion guru Marc Psarolis of Duchamp knows a thing or two about styling – Duchamp’s two-button jackets are always styled with the top button, closed, the bottom open. They have a mean line in natty check this season: this classic Glen check looks modern and doesn’t try too hard, especially when worn with a soft chambray shirt.

Jackets should be worn short this season: it’s worth asking a pro to help you get it right.

JEANS Slim, straight, relaxed, bootleg; what to choose? A good option for Mr Average is always the straight leg or boot cut (boot-cut jeans are perfectly respectable, but a straight cut is closer to the cool mark). Replay, the Italian contemporary jean specialist, deliver classic cuts and washes with contemporary detailing.

Try the Billstrong straight-leg jeans in a dark wash.

Left Glen check linen mix jacket, €550, Duchamp.

Below Blue chambray shirt, €125, The Kooples.

Ink Billstrong jeans, €170, Replay.

Left Cream Delcourt trench coat, €410, Tiger of Sweden.

Below Blue suede shoes with tassel, €385, Church’s.

Left Blue Used Dean denim jeans, €350, Dsquared. Below Brown Re York leather zip boots, €350, Paul Smith.

#5 THE SUNDAY BRUNCH Attending to casual appointments isn’t an excuse to look sloppy. Forget about illfitting sportswear even on lazy Sunday mornings and take a leaf out of publisher Alasdhair Willis’ daytime style book (this is a man who nails dressing all day long). Opt for a Breton stripe T-shirt, a double-breasted mac and a pair of jeans.

This look will take you from brunch to the match and on to a low-key dinner.

Navy brogues will finish things off nicely.

MENSWEAR PERSONAL SHOPPING»

Availing of a Brown Thomas personal shopping and styling appointment with Ann Finn (she has over 20 years’ experience) might be the best thing you’ve ever done. Finn will meet you or talk with you over the phone to discuss your needs, likes and dislikes, before

setting up the appointment. When you arrive, a selection of clothes will be ready for you to try on, and Finn will suggest accessories, belts, ties and most importantly, how to put the whole look together. Some pieces may need to be ordered specially or altered; then Brown

Thomas will deliver directly to your home or office. Contact Ann Finn in Dublin: 01 617 1159.

Brown Thomas Cork, 021 480 5555; Brown Thomas Limerick, 061 417 222; Brown Thomas Galway, 091 565 254.

12 SPRING 2012 10 OccasionJM.indd 12

07/03/2012 10:04

TRENDS

5 TOP TRENDS

REAL MEN CAN REALLY WEAR

☛White shirt ☛Skinny tie ☛Rolled-up jeans ☛Deck shoes

#1 BLUE

☛Check shirt ☛Suede shoes

☛Suede shoes ☛Contrast laces ☛Tonal socks

THE FRONT LINE WORE .. . Suede shoes are a solid foundation for any spring wardrobe. Loafers, chukka boots and lace-up Oxfords look as good when worn with white trousers, coloured chinos and jeans as with a suit, blurring nicely the boundaries between work and play. ● Love them or loathe them, deck shoes are a trend that just won’t disappear. Find your sea legs with the latest; tri-colourway leather numbers with edgy shark-tooth soles prove that even well-trodden styles can have a style overhaul. ● The soft button-down check shirt gets an update with a spring palette (look out for greens and blues). Always effortlessly cool, pair with slim-fit jeans, a great jacket and slick gum-soled suede Oxfords. ● You must buy at least one white shirt in good heavy cotton; this season’s update is the very small rounded collar and cuffs which lends a dynamic edge. Great worn with or without a skinny tie or bow tie. ● Plain coloured cotton socks in a shade just darker than your shoes always looks smart. Contrasting laces keeps the look urban. ● Rolled-up jeans and chinos are mainstream now. You don’t have to bare your ankle: you can still wear your jeans full-length with a narrow turn up as a nod to the trend.

THE IN CROWD KEEN SARTORIALISTS KNOW THEY CAN LEARN AS MUCH FROM THE FRONT ROW AS FROM THE RUNWAY ITSELF. AT SWEDISH LABEL ACNE, THE LINEOUT WAS CHANNELLING ALL THE RIGHT TRENDS

From Paul Smith’s gingham summer blazers and linen shirts and Prada’s scuba fabric cocoon-shouldered jackets and check trousers to the light summer suits Kim Jones and Marc Jacobs showed at Louis Vuitton, it’s cool to be blue this season. Navy, cobalt, cerulean or midnight: there’s a shade of blue to suit everyone. A top-to-toe look makes a great statement but add contrast by injecting interesting textures and print.

#2 DOUBLE-BREASTED CARDIGAN

Alber Elbaz at Lanvin gave the cardigan a further fashion update following last season’s revival offering a tasteful departure alternative from the single-breasted knit.Ticking the two most important boxes: slimming and stylish, its best worn in navy with a Smyth & Gibson white cotton shirt or a James Perse cotton T-shirt.

#3 WHITE

White made a strong showing on the spring runways in the form of white trousers, blazers and suits and even the odd pair of shoes. The prize for most wearable goes to Frida Giannini at Gucci whose lightweight summer jackets were classic yet very cool.

#4 COLOURED TROUSERS

Trousers added the real splash of colour this season; chinos, trousers and jeans in vivid shades like red, electric blue, and green. Give your wardrobe a shot of new-season personality; look to labels like Slowear, Paul Smith and Gucci for a slim-cut style.Stalwart labels like Ralph Lauren and Gant always have good classic relaxed-cut options.

#5 UNLINED JACKET

Unlined, unstructured blazers in a variety of fabrics were in abundance on the S/S12 runways. YSL, Dolce & Gabbana and Lanvin’s jackets were among the best examples. Throw one on – you get the benefit of looking pulled-together while feeling totally comfortable.

14 SPRING 2012 14 Runway Trends.indd 12

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S H O P.T I G E R O F S W E D E N . C O M

TIGER OF SWEDEN EST 1903

2012-02-23 16:20

OLDER AND WISER

IF I KNEW THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW

BOB GELDOF, 60 ››

here, really. The sum of my

you’re walking down the road

ambition is to play 2,000-seaters

and see a poster that said,

in the UK. I would love to. But it’s

‘Tonight, Bob Geldof ’, people

the old thing of getting past all the

wouldn’t recoil from that. Then

stuff, to [people] accepting that

ten yards up the road they’d go,

maybe he does music – that’s a

‘Doing what?’ They’ve forgotten

hard ask for an audience to swallow,

that music is what I do.

I guess.”

Everything else is peripheral.

On grieF: “I’ve been around

The spine of my life is entirely

a lot of death, in Africa and

music. I think in terms of it,

personally, seen too much

frame my references to the

dying. All of that stuff, your

world through it, articulate

mum, when you’re a kid, it just

myself through it.”

happens, you get on with it. I

On being heard: “You

don’t remember grief for my

know the John Lennon song,

mum, or bewilderment, so that

Julia: ‘When I cannot sing

surged out with all the Paula

my heart, I can only speak

stuff. Bereavement, absolutely

human being back together again,

of money, it made sure those

hard as you can to get Gleneagles

my mind’? Well, I have every

unbound. It was overwhelming, this

by doing something to its soul. And

people were cared for. Obviously

[Make Poverty History promises]

opportunity to speak my

amorphous mass of loss and pain.”

so at the very late age of 58 and a

each of the sides in the civil war

implemented. The G8 has done

mind. If I want to write about

On LOsing his sister,

half I discovered that John Lennon

used it to their own ends, there’s

maybe 60 per cent, maybe less,

economics, I can write for the

ChLOe: “That was the worst.

probably did get it right – love is

no question about that, that would

of what was promised. We’re still

FT or the Telegraph. I have done!

Because your siblings are rivals,

probably all you need.”

have happened anyway. It’s a little

chasing it. Meanwhile, there’s

If I want to make a speech

you support each other, they are

On Do They Know IT’s

record, that’s all.”

another Africa opening up that’s

about debt reduction, I can

the ones who tell you ruthlessly to

ChrIsTmas?: “When I hear

On grOwth in aFriCa:

entirely part of the new world, and

make a speech to world leaders.

your face who and what you are.

it now, at Morrisons when I’m

“In the 1980s you dealt with the

we’d better fucking get hip to it.

If I want to get on Newsnight

Then that unit is no more, so your

getting my turkey, I’m not really

symptoms of a single, empirical

And the best way I can do it is to

and talk about global poverty,

mortality is really made tangible.

embarrassed. I was – I didn’t

financial problem, called poverty.

illustrate what I mean, and that’s by

I’ll be on. What I’m not allowed

That shocked me.”

think it was a very good song. I’m

The symptoms are hunger, lack

funnelling huge amounts of money

to do is sing my heart. And

On his partner Jeanne

a musician, and from that point

of health, lack of education. The

into investing in dignity and lives

that’s something everyone needs

Marine: “She insisted upon

of view, ‘Oh, God,’ you know?

structures are, as ever, political

and jobs so that they can construct

sometimes.”

loving me. And that insistence

It stopped millions dying. No

and economic. That took 20 years,

their own countries. So that’s the

On tOuring: “I tour, but

ultimately gets reciprocated – it

question. It galvanised politicians to

from Live Aid to Live 8. And then

next and possibly last step that I can

overseas. I can’t get arrested

can’t not. And so you stitch a

stop it. It generated huge volumes

you move on – you have to try as

contribute to.” n

AP

On what he dOes: “If

“At the very late age of 58 and a half I discovered that John Lennon probably did get it right –

love is probably all you need. ”

18 SPRING 2012 18 Older & Wiser.indd 18

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1

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6:02

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BUSINESS

THE BUSINESS OF L U X U R Y W ITH TODAY’S VOLATILE MAR KET, G LO BAL EX PAN S IO N O P P O RT UN IT IE S MEA N R ETA I L E R S M UST B E WI LLING TO MOV E … FAST. AS C O MMAN DE R O F T H E WO R LD’S S E C O N D LA R G E ST LUXURY GR OUP – AND THE BEST D E PART ME N T STO R E IN T H E WO R LD – O N E IR IS H M A N EXPLAINS HOW FI NDING ONE’S PAT H ALWAYS STARTS AT H O ME …

As MD of the Selfridges Group, which includes the iconic Selfridges store in London (and in Manchester and Birmingham); Brown Thomas in Dublin, Cork and Limerick and Galway and three BT2 stores as well as Holt Renfrew in Canada and the newly acquired (2010) de Bijenkorf group of upmarket department stores in Holland, Waterford-born Paul Kelly travels on a regular basis to all four flagships. Not just for flying visits but for down-to-the-nitty-gritty engagement with management and executives, interactions with sales consultants and customers on the floor (he is known for unannounced store visits at weekends.) Balancing the needs of the sprawling £2bn empire (owned and chaired

by W Galen Weston), whilst addressing the characteristics and DNA of each international location is all in a day’s work he says … With new pressures on spending habits in this economy, he acknowledges the challenges but, as an Irish man, wants to see this country back on its feet.

AS A BUSINESS LEADER, WHAT ARE KEY OBJECTIVES NOW? Each market we operate in is different. From an Irish point of view we must steady the ship, continue to improve every aspect of the business and create confidence among the workforce in the strategy for consolidation and growth.

It’s a very good thing that, thanks to the foresight of Galen Weston, we own all our properties and we are extremely profitable – hence no distractions from getting on with running and enhancing the business.

CAN IRELAND REBOUND? HOW? It is great that Ireland is perceived internationally to be the country that’s going to make it. We were the poster boys of Europe when times were good, now we are put in that role once again. Like many, in the Celtic Tiger era, I questioned its foundations – now, we need to remember our mistakes, create internal confidence and focus on job creation. The Government should be careful not to over-penalise taxpayers. It would help if taxpayers could see some people brought to account. But we

Toronto

can’t moan and groan – we will have two more very difficult years. All we can do is control what happens within our four walls – better times will return.

SEEN ANY ENCOURAGING SIGNS OF AN UPTURN? One encouraging sign is the change of thinking, a sense of getting back to what matters. We constantly assess our business, reviewing, revising and questioning. I think if we do this as a country, we will recover some of what was lost in the last decade. I now see that we suffered hugely as a nation in the so-called good times – we must learn from our mistakes and move on.

IRISH BUSINESS PERSON YOU ADMIRE? I respect Ryanair’s Michael O’ Leary for what he has achieved – he cuts through all the nonsense.

IRISH BUSINESS YOU ADMIRE? Over the years I increasingly appreciate businesses that continue to do what they do best, businesses that stick to their core values.

One that springs to mind is The Park Hotel in Kenmare, run by the Brennan brothers.

It’s such an Irish experience, the hotel is graceful and charming, the welcome and service superb and whilst it offers a completely up-to-date experience, it hasn’t been spoiled by mindless change. Kenmare town is very special – one of the places in Ireland that gives visitors that uniquely Irish feeling.

WHEN A CUSTOMER ENTERS ONE OF YOUR STORES, HOW SHOULD THEY FEEL? Our customers have high

London

Amsterdam

‹‹ PAU L K EL LY O N THE 1980s People forget that back then, we had to bang on the doors to get brands in to Brown Thomas. We were laughed at but persistence on our part paid off.

WORK I just love what I do. I’m still learning.

It’s an education all the time. EXCUSES There are none, just make whatever’s not right, right.

TASTE I always wear Tom Ford suits – beyond that, I know what I like when I see it.

LOYALTY PROGRAMMES The best loyalty programme is excellent customer service.

LUXURY There’s always a place for beautiful things. BEING AN IRISH BOSS Who you are matters for a few days, then, when you have mastered the brief, it is irrelevant. ON SPECIAL PRIMARK AND UNIQLO COLLECTIONS IN SELFRIDGES We are high and low, fast and slow – there is something for every customer at every price level, but we make it unique.

expectations – it’s simple: they come into the store to enjoy themselves, to escape for a while; they can have a great time for an hour or more. If the experience fails to meet expectations, we must question why and address it quickly. It’s not about a transaction – it’s about an engagement.

YOU MUST LIKE OR TOLERATE CONSTANT TRAVELLING – ANY TIPS THAT MAKE IT EASIER? My working base is in London, my home in Dublin – I have everything I need in both locations so I can travel light. I have getting through airports down to a fine art and I always enjoy the transition time from airport to work or to home: 30 minutes of relaxed conversation on the M50 gets you up to speed with everything.

IN STYLE TERMS CHARACTERISE DUBLIN, LONDON, TORONTO, AMSTERDAM? In Ireland, we are very fashionable – it is more and more apparent that Irish people have a global outlook, adopting trends quickly. In London, the Selfridges customer is international – the Chinese, Arabs, Russians are dominant.

Amsterdam’s cultural, design and art aspects – and the infrastructure, the cycling, the trams – mean the style is more relaxed in line with the lifestyle. In Canada, Holt Renfrew’s customer reflects Canadians’ great passion for fashion.

DESCRIBE HOW YOU GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR WORKING DAY? Up early, work hard. When I’m in the business, I’m with my teams: things get dealt with straight away. Decisions and resolving situations are best done face to face. When I’m on the move, there’s ample time for the iPhone and iPad. YOUR MOST NOTABLE CHARACTERISTIC? If you were to believe the war stories, I am very tough. But I believe I demand as much of myself as I do of others. I am highly self-critical.

BUSINESS BUZZ? Seeing our people develop and do well.

THE BEST ADVICE YOU GOT? AND GAVE? Deal with the issue, then move on.

I abhor when people don’t get back, or long finger things. If you like, it’s a metaphor for how we must deal with the customer experience: you get one shot at it, make sure it’s done well.

YOU ARE A WALKING ADVERTISEMENT FOR YOUR BUSINESS – IS THIS A STRATEGY? People see me, they see my business.

HOW DOES A BUSINESSMAN TIGHTEN HIS BELT, YET CONTINUE TO LOOK SMART? It’s the little things that make all the difference.

My father was a stickler for shoe-polishing and every morning this is still how I start my day. Represent your business by looking good: buy the best quality you can afford and make sure to take care of the details.

WHEN YOU AREN’T WORKING? Family. Man United (and all things soccer).

Watching rugby. A passion for the garden. n

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BARRY MC CALL

“Our customers have high expectations – it’s simple:

they come into the store to enjoy themselves, to escape for a while” SPRING 2012 21

20 Paul KellyFIN.indd 21

06/03/2012 16:04

FOCUS

THE POLITICS OF STYLE OR VICE VERSA

I

t used to be said that you knew a man by his library. Now it’s probably his i-whatever playlist. Or in the case of American politics, perhaps by his sweater. With an attention that used only be addressed to the style choices of female politicians, now the men’s outfits are being ogled, parsed, sliced and diced for meanings and leanings. Like Rick Santorum, the über right wing candidate seeking the Republican Party nomination to run against Obama. Rick’s down-home style sweater vest, what those of us of a certain vintage here might call a tank top, has taken on a media life of its own, with acres of columnage and analysis. It’s even got its own Twitter feed, @FearRicksVest.

Indeed. As the vest that belongs to the guy who has suggested that pregnancy as a result of rape should be seen as gift from God, perhaps we should fear every accessory Rick can muster.

Still, it’s long been part of the vocabulary of political posturing that how one dressed signalled just where you’re coming from.

George Dubya posed for shots in a man-of-action flight suit after his spectacular arrival to announce “Mission Accomplished” on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Yet delivered the speech in his suit.

After all, his arrival in the White House was marked by a severe smartening up and buttoning down

Clockwise from top George W Bush before his ill-timed “mission accomplished” speech; Burlusconi in a bandana while undergoing hair transplants; Sarkozy in his uniform – a sharp suit; Nehru and Gandhi meeting in Mumbai in 1946.

of the dress code. Out went the morally lax Clinton clobber and in came jackets on, shirts crisp, ties tight. You could add a little local Texan flourish of course, with a cowboy belt and blinged-up buckle.

Style semiotics in search of a vote are usually easily decoded. Rolledup sleeves mean this man’s getting down to work. The dark suit means substance. Stripping to the waist for a photo op means you’re Vladimir Putin.

A wardrobe’s political symbolism often runs deeper than simply formal or casual.

When Winston Churchill described him as “a half-naked, seditious fakir”, Gandhi took it as a badge of honour. His loin cloth had a powerful significance as a manifestation of the

independence struggle. It was the cotton trade that had been central to India’s colonisation; Gandhi wanted his people to weave and wear their own cloth as a symbol of the break with Britain. He took his own spinning wheel with him everywhere, captured so iconically

by Margaret Bourke-White’s famous portraits.

Nehru’s jacket with its standup collar was an extension of this and became popular among post-independence Indian leaders and 1960s pop stars who didn’t want Western dress. Kennedy’s preppiness exuded a healthy youthfulness, yet disguised the debilitating back problems that forced him to work standing up and wear a support corset.

Mandela’s colourful batik shirts welcomed a middle ground between tribal costume and Boer Europeanism. The less said about Berlusconi’s pirate bandana perhaps, the better.

MANY MOMENTS IN HISTORY HAVE BEEN DEFINED BY FASHION. TOM KELLY EXPLORES THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SOME RATHER IDIOSYNCRATIC STYLE STATEMENTS ...

Here, the Oireachtas can’t exactly be regarded as houses of high fashion. There are more pressing matters for the nation, aren’t there? Like recently, when a number of Independents had to stand up and be counted on a matter of some urgency.

Not the arrival of the Ajai Chopra’s overcoat though, it was the proposal that a new dress code be introduced to the Dáil and Seanad. Deputies would have to wear a tailored jacket and collared shirt; ties were to be optional; no denim.

Mick Wallace, Richard Boyd Barrett and Luke “Ming “ Flanagan, the fashion free-spirits of the Dáil never had so much concentrated air time to talk textiles. In fairness, the lads were mainly outraged at the timing of the proposal when most of us were worried about the shirt on our backs rather than the fashion police in the Dáil. It’s been quietly dropped and has faded out of the public consciousness.

If only the same could be said of Bertie’s yellow suit which he sported at the G8 summit in 2004. There’s an outfit hot-branded on the memory of most who saw it, like inadvertently glancing at the Medusa’s face. This was a bloke who allegedly had to have his anorak surgically removed.

There he was, cavorting down the beach with the world’s grown-up leaders, in lightweight canary yellow, like a dodgy uncle just back from the Tropics for a family wedding. The master of St Luke’s never indulged in Charlie’s penchant for the Charvet shirt as far as we know.

Few had heard of Charvet before the story of them being delivered in diplomatic bags emerged, with Haughey spending £16,000 on the handmade shirts in one year alone. Now they’re shorthand for governmental corruption.

Some clothes are deeply permeated with an even more

potent political poison. When one time publisher of Viz and editor of GQ magazine, James Brown suggested that the Nazi tailoring of Field Marshall Rommel made him a style icon, Brown lost his job such was the uproar. Of course, the Nazi leadership understood all about the power of imagery and even, the cut of a suit. Their uniforms often featured a high-belted waist that made troops look longer-legged and more the Aryan hero. Political power can bring with it a sexual attraction, and the more repressive the regime, the darker the allure.

As the satirist PJ Rourke commented, “No one ever had a fantasy ... about being ravished by someone dressed as a liberal.”

Surely Carla Bruni would remain out of Sarkozy’s league despite his sharp suits and shoe risers, if he weren’t President.

As Sacha Baron Cohen’s (aka Borat) new movie, The Dictator, plays up brilliantly, there’s nothing that the man with absolute power likes better than to get himself some overblown uniform and don’t hold back on the gold braid and medals, my good man. Indeed there’s probably some despotic index that can be calculated based on the medal count. The more, the murderer. Though Stalin’s austere look and Mao’s suit somewhat contradicts the thesis. On the other hand Gaddafi knew how to play the clothes game: militarissimo supremo one moment, simple Bedouin the next. Look through his back catalogue and there are more costume changes than a Gaga gig. He understood the power of costume and never let good taste or subtlety get in the way of making the myth.

Prowling the other end of the political fashion catwalk, there is always Enda. Thank goodness. Always smart and conservative, in the politics of style, he’s one of our own. n

22 SPRING 2012 22 Politics Style.indd 22

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221 Fogra39 TAC300 Coated

AVAILABLE AT BROWN THOMAS DUBLIN, CORK, LIMERICK, AND GALWAY.

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2012-03-07 11.11

SHOPPING

Straw hat, €115, Paul Smith.

STYLE ICONS

CAST YOUR MIND BACK TO THE ROCK ’N’ ROLL STARS OF THE 1960S AND 1970S AS YOU GET DRESSED THIS SUMMER. ACCESSORISE WITH ATTITUDE

Indigo linen shirt, €230, Paul Smith.

Microtrend Summer sun may not be here yet but the sunglasses are. Check out the season’s must-have coloured frames and make a bold statement of your own. Always store in their protective case and never, ever wear them perched atop your head.

Blue gingham cotton jacket, €330, Paul Smith.

Stone cotton chinos, €160, Paul Smith.

Capri sunglasses, €239, Persol.

Khaki linen shirt, €120, Hartford.

Sky blue cotton scarf, €30, Hartford.

Taupe suede espadrilles, €310, Prada.

Washed brown leather bag, €510, Dolce & Gabbana.

MICK JAGGER //

Blue cotton trousers, €150, Hartford.

the free spirit

The Rolling Stones merged R&B with rock ’n’ roll to create the soundtrack to the swinging 1960s. There was Buddhism and bustups, free love and misbehaving, and Jagger represents the era perfectly.

Unbutton your shirt, roll up your trousers, go barefoot and gather friends, family, lovers and bandmates for an alfresco party.

24 SPRING 2012 24 Rockthelook 2.indd 24

07/03/2012 10:42

-BrownThomas277x350ukD_SS12.indd 1

16/02/12 08.59

Available at Brown Thomas Dublin, Cork & Galway www.brownthomas.com

SHOPPING Black and white linen mix blazer, €1,230, YSL.

Bradley sunglasses, €295, Tom Ford.

Grey stripe silk tie, €100, Paul Smith.

White cotton shirt, €170, Truzzi.

Master collection watch, €1,430, Longines.

Black leather belt, €120, Paul Smith.

BRYAN FERRY // the king of cool

Grey stripe skinny silk tie, €90, Paul Smith.

Ferry studied art before he became famous with Roxy Music in the early 1970s and has always had a keen aesthetic sense. With his rangy stature, he never looks better than when he is wearing a suit jacket – styled casually with an open-necked white shirt or paired with a slim tie. Just add a roguish smile.

Microtrend Worn properly, white trousers (Great Gatsby-inspired bags were all over the runways) are a great way to set yourself apart but it’s a trend requiring a cautious approach. Fabric should be robust, like gabardine (no call for billowy linen, except on hols) and the cut should suit your figure. White jeans can be smart but avoid a self-conscious look by pairing with a slouchy sweater or wearing a well-cut jacket over your rear.

White tends to amplify one’s assets.

Black Hartley leather shoes, €235, Kurt Geiger.

White gabardine trousers, €385, Alexander McQueen.

26 SPRING 2012 24 Rockthelook 2.indd 26

07/03/2012 10:43

SHOPPING

Microtrend How to wear a hat? With an air of utter nonchalance. Let it sit naturally on top of your head; it should not perch on the side. Classic black felt is always best, worn with a trench coat, its effortlessly film noir. Or, try soft shades of brown or dove grey with black trim à la Don Draper.

Some men just don’t suit hats. Is this you? Recognise this and don’t go there.

Black felt hat, €225, Lock & Co.

Grey Martini silk mix suit, €1,270, Dolce & Gabbana.

Beige Britton cotton trench coat, €1,125, Burberry London.

Red stripe silk tie, €100, Paul Smith.

White slim-fit cotton shirt, €210, Dolce & Gabbana.

Grey Wayfarer sunglasses, €165, Ray-Ban.

Red skull evening scarf, €165, Alexander McQueen.

Black O’Toole leather Chelsea boot, €370, Jeffery West.

DaviD Bowie // ever the original

Bowie burst onto the scene in 1969 when he won an Ivor Novello award for originality for his breakthrough song Space Oddity. One of the most innovative musicians of all time, he is a multi-platinum seller whose stage costumes are as bold and daring as his sound. If we had to plump for one look from this style chameleon, it would be the natty belted macs and slouchy tailoring of the late 1970s.

Black leather bag, €860, Dunhill.

28 Spring 2012 24 Rockthelook 2.indd 28

07/03/2012 10:46

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SHOPPING Black nylon bomber jacket, €710, Alexander McQueen.

Grey Alrick sunglasses, €387, Paul Smith.

Black skull print silk scarf, €180, Alexander McQueen.

White shirt with tie, €325, Neil Barrett.

Microtrend The bomber jacket. Making appearances in the collections of respected labels like Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Marc Jacobs. Best worn with a great T-shirt, a good pair of jeans and suede lace-up Oxfords.

Navy Belgravia mockcroc high top, €525, Jimmy Choo.

Grey skull print T-shirt, €125, Alexander McQueen.

Above Navy wool jacket, €820, Neil Barrett.

Below Black leather jacket, €1,520, Paul Smith.

Ibiza macramé bracelet, €120, Tateossian.

PHIL LYNOTT // a rock ’n’ roll rebel

Thin Lizzy frontman Lynott was a rebel and a romantic who wrote the heartfelt Sarah for his newborn daughter and belted out The Boys Are Back in Town to thousands of devoted fans.

Channel Lynott’s spirit with a narrow tie, neat bomber jacket and skinny-as-you-dare jeans.

Black Grim Tim skinny denim jeans, €115, Nudie.

Black perforated sneakers, €340, Dolce & Gabbana.

30 SPRING 2012 24 Rockthelook 2.indd 30

07/03/2012 10:46

wardrobe

THE rigHT

I

t’s a staple in most wardrobes but just how good are yours? Because a good white shirt or two, carefully laundered and ironed each time they’re worn, can be the items which glue together all parts of your wardrobe. “I call it a basic luxury,” says Richard Gibson from Smyth & GibSon, the Derry-based world-class shirtmaker (now employing 60) whose clients include Michael Fassbender, Gary Barlow and James Corden and several high-end fashion labels and commissions from Savile Row, of which he is rightly proud. Gibson’s business, which he started 17 years ago and runs with his wife, is used to making made-to measure shirts for clients and has had several events at Brown Thomas. A Smyth & Gibson Made-to-Measure shirt specification includes collar and cuff options, body shape and body length, and pocket options. It was in the course of one of these events at Brown Thomas that The White Shirt Collection was conceived when the very well-dressed menswear Buying Director Paul O’Connor, who was having some shirts made, wondered if it was possible to bring a full collection of white shirts to Brown Thomas clients. While they wouldn’t be made-to-measure, having ten styles would ensure there would be a body shape and collar style (the main difference, along with the cloth, between the shirts) to suit most men. And so the idea was born. “Collar styles and body shapes range from classic to edgy,” says Gibson, “and all the cloth is milled in Italy.”

From a basic white shirt (€105) to the Marcella bibbed dress shirt (€145), there should be something to suit you.

“You may not want a shirt quite as slim-fitting as the collar-bar one worn by Michael Fassbender on the cover of GQ,” laughs Gibson, (you wish!) “but there will be a style with your name on it.” The White Shirt Collection, available now at Brown Thomas Dublin. A Made-to-Measure shirt event with Smyth & Gibson will take place on Friday March 30 and Saturday 31. To book your personal appointment, please call Brown Thomas Dublin menswear on 01 617 1159.

The Button Down

The Classic

The Cutaway

The Dress

The Eton

The Micro Penny

Penny Square

two-button cuff with gauntlet button, classic fit, in cotton oxford

two-button cuff, classic cut, in cotton poplin

double-cuff, classic cut, in cotton twill

double-cuff, classic cut with bib, in cotton poplin

one-button cuff, classic cut, in vertical weave cotton

one-button cuff, super-slim, in textured cotton

one-button cuff, super-slim, in cotton poplin

There’s been a growing fondness for the casual Italian look and Slowear has become the brand to turn to. Founded in 1951, the Italian fashion group delivers unique, innovative design across four different labels (they bought the brand leader in every area they were interested in) with Incotex now considered the go-to label for chinos. Constantly experimenting with new fabrics and treatments, they make high quality timeless garments with an urban twist. what is the smart guy snapping up? Flatfront straight-leg cotton chinos in washed-out colours – blues and cream are particularly cool – and slim-fit linen and cotton blend shorts, both under the Incotex label. what else? Linen and cotton slim-fit cotton shirts in chalky colours, under the Glanshirt label.

Chinos, €225; shorts, €180; shirts, €180.

a.P.C. is a french ready-to-wear brand specialising in minimalist designs with good fit, typified by simple patterns and clean lines. The raw-denim selvage jeans have developed an almost obsessional following from the fashion pack around the world. why are they so popular? They are fashionable, comfortable and perfectly mould to your body shape. how to get the look? Channel your inner Frenchman by wearing a striped T-shirt under a denim jacket, teamed with the selvage (clean-edge) jeans. Stores are popping up everywhere: Tokyo, London, New York, Hong Kong – but you can find A.P.C. at Brown Thomas.

Jeans, €140

tiGer of Sweden, aimed at a young customer with the confidence to carve out their own unique style, adds a smart modern twist to classic pieces. their signature look?

White shirt with skinny tie, a fitted blazer and perfectlycut trousers with a tapered leg – or a softly-cut bomber with slouchy fine-knit sweater. what’s a good buy? Knitwear is classic and wearable, and at around €150 for a cardigan, very affordable. Jackets, €370; trousers, €149; knits, €129.

Blue cotton shirt, €89.

☛Caroline Street Style

Sweater, €99.

Navy T-shirt, €39.

31 Wardrobe_2.indd 31

Gant, one of Brown Thomas’ stalwart labels, has changed the way it thinks about chinos and has spent the last season quietly perfecting their newly slim-fit trousers. what is it about the Soho chinos? Everything. From the weight of the twill to the shape of the legs, this chino style ticks all the fashionableyet-classic boxes. the sweetener? They come in great colours like rust and stone, or less obvious ones like sky-blue and pink. True prepster style never grows old, it just reinvents itself.

Soho slim-fit chinos, €150.

At Brown Thomas Cork, a fresh focus on tailoring is drawing clients to the store where inside the Caroline Street entrance, formalwear, business suits and contemporary tailoring by Hugo Boss, Paul Smith, Armani, Canali is paired with great accessories by Duchamp and shoes by Paul Smith, Gucci, Prada, Oliver Sweeney, Prada, Hugo Boss, Barker and Grenson.

spring 2012 31 06/03/2012 11:19

Wardrobe ?????????

q A/

WhAt’s cover guy NoAh huNtley up to ...

over model Noah Huntley is a British actor and model who is currently making waves in Hollywood. In 2002 he starred in 28 Days Later directed by Danny Boyle and starring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris and Christopher Eccleston. He joined the cast of 2005 blockbuster The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe directed by Andrew Adamson and has recently starred alongside Natalie Portman and James Franco in 2011’s Your Highness. He will soon step into the role of King Magnus in Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman directed by Rupert Sanders, with Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Eddie Izzard.

Huntley has also modelled for Mode Magazine, Spectrum Magazine, Fantastic Man, The Observer, Very, The Guardian, Esquire, and many others.

Home is LA and London: how do you adapt your style for each city? In LA it’s worn-thin T-shirts; in London, dressed-down suits, preferably ethically-sourced.

You have a really strong “look” – did this happen naturally or is it contrived? I guess we all have a genetic blueprint and we all have freedom of expression. That expression for me generally stems from practical considerations ... or just plain laziness. Shaving becomes a chore so without becoming defined as “the beardy guy”, I try to limit its interference on my day. I think I’m more about working with what I’ve got rather than trying to fit into a fashion persona.

Being an actor means changing roles all the time – and changing your appearance – what are the three things you hate to have to do? As a vegetarian for 12 years I find it incredibly difficult to bulk up for roles. It becomes a completely exhausting perma-feed situation for me. I have a lot of sisters who can testify to that fact. Work schedules shifting the

speed dial Who’s Who iN store Finn, ANN » heAd of persoNAl shoppiNg, MeNsWeAr At important junctures in their lives – 21st birthdays, weddings, new jobs – men visit head of personal shopping at Brown Thomas menswear, Ann Finn ... And in between times, they try to survive without her. “Ann is a life-changer,” says one client, who prefers not to reveal his identity, given his utter reliance on a woman who is not his wife. “Twice a year, she re-vamps my wardrobe – and even calls me during sales if she knows there’s something I’d like. I wish I’d discovered her sooner.” T 086 385 0595

Thompson, Jeff » persoNAl stylist, MeNsWeAr Resident stylist to the stars (think celebrities and sports personalities) Jeff Thompson has a huge knowledge of brands, fabric and fit particularly in contemporary designer labels, the go-to collections for many of his clients. Those clients, many of whom are based in the UK, return to Brown Thomas when updating their wardrobe. T 086 411 5104

CurTin, Michelle » heAd of persoNAl shoppiNg, WoMeNsWeAr Anyone who has ever booked a personal shopping appointment with Michelle knows they will walk away with some great new pieces, and be charmed at the same time.

What people may not know is that Michelle has many male clients who also trust her judgement when it comes to selecting ready-to-wear and gifts for the women in their lives. T 086 027 9209

whole time drives me round the twist. I often end up with no real down time. Waiting on set can get pretty tedious too.

What labels do you like? I’ve never really been a labels kind of guy but recently I splurged in the RRL store in New York. I also love Paul Smith; Prada takes some beating.

What are your pastimes? When I’m not travelling all over I love to stay home. I love hiking and nature generally, David Attenborough documentaries still fascinate me. Astronomy, astrology, astrophysics. I meditate. And sleep ... I never seem to get as much as I think I need.

What do you drive? I seem to drive hire cars a lot.

Generally small and practical but sometimes the odd convertible Mustang gets thrown at me and I find it hard to say no. I like what Toyota started with the Prius.

Favourite role so far? I should probably say Snow White’s father, King Magnus in Snow White and the Huntsman out June 1. Though it’s probably a tough choice between a pig farmer in Where the Heart Is and playing Aussie explorer, Warren MacDonald, in Boulder – a TV drama documentary about a truly inspirational man.

Ultimate role? So many ... can’t compute. Just keep them coming. Please.

You have friends in Dublin? Have you spent much time in Ireland?

My grandmother is from Cork – I’m told most grandmothers are! Strange but often true. I certainly feel a strange affinity with the Emerald Isle. Maybe it’s the obtuse way of looking at things or the sense of fun.

Whatever it is: I’ve been here many times and I hope many more yet.

Whose style do you love?

Bob Geldof and Johnny Depp.

Noah Huntley is represented by Next Talent.

»

you too cAN JiMMy choo If you have spent a few Saturday mornings hanging around Jimmy Choo while your beloved vacillates between a kitten heel and a court, you will be interested to hear that the men’s collection now nestles alongside the women’s, providing an opportunity for you to look genuinely engaged while browsing.

The Dunraven lace-up chukka boot, right, in luxurious unlined calf offset by this season’s rubber sole is just one of the distractions ... great loafers in leather and suede and really smart trainers are also worth checking out.

m

enswear stylist Jeff Thompson is excited at the ZegnA Sport collection which is having one of its most exciting seasons ever. Known for its technical fabrics (performance outerwear jackets are made from Neoprene and microfibre), Zegna Sport in Thompson’s words, is for the guy who is fashion-conscious and in good shape (the cut is quite lean). Thompson, who counts celebrities and sports stars among his clients, says it’s the go-to label for the smart guy attending a rugby match, for instance. The collection, with its unmistakable Italian handwriting (although the head designer is Milan-based Irishman Murray Scallon), includes six styles of short neoprene or microfibre jackets, very smart neat-cut short leather jackets, polo shirts, chambray shorts and two great chino styles. Zegna Sport shoes and trainers have the same sporty but dressed-up DNA: the navy leather Vulcan sneaker and the perforated leather trainer in both black and white will smarten any narrow black trousers.

32 spring 2012 31 Wardrobe_2.indd 32

07/03/2012 09:45

SHOPPING

BEST FOOT FORWARD

SPRING’S ARRIVAL DOESN’T MEAN JUST A CHANGE IN YOUR CLOTHING; WHAT YOU WEAR ON YOUR FEET DESERVES AN UPDATE TOO

RAINBOW NATION //

Gommini suede loafers, €265, Tod’s.

☛Suede loafers are a summer fashion staple, simply updated each season with a fresh colour palette. Luxury footwear brand Tod’s – specialist in the perfect loafer in every conceivable hue – has the best driving shoe collection out there.

The chassis never changes but the paint job is pleasingly updated each season.

Style Note: Wear with or without a car (and definitely without socks). It’s time to put your foot down and invest in more than one colour.

IN THE NAVY // ☛Navy shoes go with so many things – and you can find a pair to suit any personality or budget.

Classic suede numbers are the ultimate weekend shoes and easy to pair with almost all your jeans and chinos. Style Note: Even the classic wingtip gets a style upgrade in navy thanks to contrasting laces.

Chukka suede boots €250, Grenson.

Caine suede boots, €125, KG Kurt Geiger.

Suede snaffle loafers, €380, Zegna.

William wingtip suede brogues, €280, Grenson.

SOLE MAN // Grey Carby suede boots, €260, Kurt Geiger.

Red Bleeker suede shoes, €135, KG Kurt Geiger.

Multi-colour Forbes leather shoes, €295, Forbes, €295 by Kurt Geiger.

Kurt Geiger

Navy Mayfair suede shoes, €450, Jimmy Choo.

Navy James leather penny loafers, €250, Grenson.

TAN LINES // ☛ If you haven’t already, it’s time to get yourself a great pair of tan leather shoes, the one style of shoe that every man should own.

The classic brogue wingtip is your wing man for any outfit. Chukka boots or unadorned lace-ups are faultless with jeans and chinos. They simply are the most versatile shoe in your wardrobe.

Style Note: Replace laces with a new colour (try caramel or tobacco) or a whole new texture for an instant style update.

Sid Derby wingtip leather brogues, €280, Grenson.

☛ On the runways and on the street, spring is all about white-soled shoes. Everything from leather penny loafers and lace-ups to suede boots and summer espadrilles have been given a fashion upgrade by way of a dazzling white rubber sole. A flash of something different on soles is a welcome seasonal change. Style Note: Without a shred of irony, if you want to make a style statement, do it with these.

London leather penny loafers, €280, Oliver Sweeney.

Burwood wingtip leather brogues, €495, Church’s.

Pearce leather boots, €315, Barker.

Saunders leather wingtip brogues, €315, Oliver Sweeney.

SPRING 2012 33 33 Shoes.indd 33

06/03/2012 15:09

WATCHES

HISTORY /

Cartier’s enduring appeal

A

dinner companion has his phone out on the table, to keep an eye on the time. Our conversation is interrupted by the screen lighting up, with a rather private message, instantly made public as everyone at our table glances at the screen. He quickly realises why wearing a watch is a far more gentlemanly manner (in every respect) of telling the time.

Watches, no matter the dress code, suggest instant dependability and efficiency.

Never mind the marvel of having an independently working piece of engineering on the wrist. Smartphones work through satellite connections and lasers. Watches work through tiny jewels, cogs and springs, working together to define times and dates – some even tick powered by the beats of your own pulse. Powerful stuff – who in their right mind would choose a phone to tell the time over that?

What if you’re (God forbid) away from your phone. As far as this writer is aware, going underwater, driving anywhere (put the phone away), flying to a high altitude or away from any sort of charge source immediately renders a phone useless for anything – including telling the time.

“Why would we deny ourselves a decent watch?” This is the question asked by one big Hong Kong-based diamond dealer, Jordan Abram. “As men, we don’t get anything else – we should at least have a watch to adorn our wrists!” He travels

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER THE THOMAS CROWNE AFFAIR (1968) A debonair, adventuresome bank executive (McQueen as Crowne) believes he has pulled off the perfect multi-million dollar heist, only to match wits with Vickie Anderson (Fay Dunaway) a sexy insurance investigator who will do anything to get her man. Crowne keeps time with a Cartier.

THE CARTIER TIME LINE Santos

The one that started it all, the Santos watch has been released in many forms over the years. The visible screws and raised bezel are staples of this design – as of course are the railroad minute track and everpresent sword-shaped hands. In 1978 it was upgraded, with a new choice of metal strap – the metal architecture a reflection of the industrial design boom.

The Pasha

Tank Louis Cartier

Stainless steel Santos watch with leather strap, €4,650.

Created in 1917 (but first offered for sale in 1922) the Tank Louis Cartier is the model that Louis Cartier himself chose to give to close friends. The Tank is smaller than many other men’s watches, with a quietly refined appearance – but has recently been released in an XL size, the spread of the face bolder, but the width of the case as slim as ever, at only 5.1mm thick.

Gold Tank Louis Cartier with leather strap, from €7,250.

Released to the public in 1943. In a departure from the delicate pieces that had gone before it, the first incarnation of the Pasha had an oversize, round face in gold. It is still one ofjust a few Cartier watches to feature Arabic numerals.

The original also had a military touch, fitted with a grid that protected the glass from shock.

Now, the Pasha comes in over 40 variations, for every type of explorer.

Stainless steel Pasha watch, with bracelet strap, from €4,575.

frequently between Europe, the US and Asia and says “I literally set the time by my Cartier – I wouldn’t trust anything else.” Another frequent flyer, Alberto Santos Dumont clearly thought the same – he approached his good friend Louis Cartier way back in 1904, seeking to be able to keep hold of the controls of his plane whilst reading the time. And so one of the very first wristwatches was born. It was on public release by 1911 – and on Gordon Gekko’s wrist by 1987, in the movie Wall Street.

Ironically, in the 2010 sequel, as Mr Gekko’s possessions are returned to him after a stint in jail, his mobile phone and money clip are comically dated – his gold Santos, however, is as relevant as ever.

Following the Santos, the Tank Louis Cartier was inspired by the caterpillar treads of those first tanks on the battlefields of Europe, and was later embraced by American writer Truman Capote, who gave away one of his Tanks during an interview with a journalist whose birthday was that day. “Take off your terrible watch and put this one on … just take it, I have at least seven at home!” Meanwhile, legend has it that the original Pasha, one of the first ever waterproof wristwatches, was designed

by Cartier for the pasha of Marrakech, who wanted a watch to wear while swimming.

All of these watches are still in production, in expanded collections bought by men and stolen by their girlfriends and wives to wear – Cartier, unlike other brands, doesn’t need to pull the “revisited heritage” card – because their watches have always been emblematic of where they came from. The railroad track minute dial, sword-shaped hands and sapphirecrowned winding piece, all featured on the very first watch, remain on every timepiece produced by Cartier.

Steve McQueen, as the original Thomas Crowne, James Faulkner, the Swiss bank manager in 2011’s X-Men and the time-bending crew from 2010’s Inception are just some of the characters to have chosen Cartier to keep time on their pressing adventures. It is, of course, much harder to track the “real-life” bankers, politicos and consultants who sport the brand.

This is mainly because one of the greatest shifts in watch fashion has been towards discretion, the anti-boast if you will. “Every serious watch collection,” a serious watch collector whispers to me, “begins with a Cartier.”

Research suggests that men (in their infinite wisdom over their fickle female counterparts) disregard celebrity endorsement when it comes to their preferred watch brands. Someone once said that a Cartier watch is “worn out of pleasure rather than under contract” – really, a perfect way to describe a brand that continues to build and improve on its long-standing heritage and relationship with the well-dressed man. Consistently good looking, these watches are both capable of adventure and worn for business. The man who wears Cartier, it seems, wears a watch to actually tell the time. They are for men who choose to keep their phones for phone calls. NS ■ Cartier Boutique, Luxury Hall, Brown Thomas, Dublin, 01 605 6680.

34 SPRING 2012 34 Watches.indd 34

06/03/2012 16:46

WATCHES

COLLECTING / NATASHA SHERLING REPORTS

WHAT’S MAKING YOU TICK?

INEXPENSIVE, FASHIONABLE FUN: TOY WATCH GROWS UP.

FOCUS // TOYWATCH

TAKE TWO ... WATCH NUTS

Stainless steel El Primero Captain Chronograph with alligator strap, Zenith, from €6,518,

GAVIN KILDUFF

So, where does your day take you?

I specialise in creating online video content and direct Facebook’s Livestream content from their European HQ in Dublin. Do you consider it important to wear different watches for different occasions? I am in the terrible habit of relying more and more on my iPhone – I have become accustomed to not putting on a watch first thing in the morning but I do consider it important to wear different watches for different occasions. I have one watch for day to day, something a bit more formal and a proper dress watch for when I am wearing black tie. Do you have a favourite brand of watch? I currently have my eye on a Panerai – it’s a design classic. What are you most interested in when it comes to watch brand - sense of heritage, style or functionality? I always take into account the design of a watch but do place importance on the history of a brand. Watches are family heirlooms and deserve to be passed from generation to generation.

SEAN AND YVETTE

TOM DILLON

So, where does your day take you? I’m a farmer, so have a pretty hands-on job and spend nearly all day outside, whatever the weather.

I need a watch that is hard-wearing and can withstand wear and tear. At the moment I am wearing a Certina Multi-8 – a recent discovery, but a great one – well up to the rigours of my job. Do you consider it important to wear different watches for different occasions?

A smart, no-frills watch with a leather strap is essential with a suit – I really appreciate something with a vintage feel, like the Longines Grand Classique. A smart watch, to me, signals the arrival of the weekend. I am currently chasing the just-launched Rado HyperChrome (rectangular black face, ceramic strap). It’s sleek, has clean lines and is the antithesis of “flashy”, and I appreciate the pioneering use of ceramics. I consider it a modern classic. What are you most interested in when it comes to watch brand – sense of heritage, style or functionality? Style and functionality takes precedence for me. Newer brands can be just as attractive as heritage ones as I’m just not that interested in who else has coveted the brand. I prefer to try new things.

RENEWED REFINEMENT

Steel Luminor 1950 Panerai, €5,700

Rado Hyperchrome automatic, €3,995

If your watch tells the world what type of man you are, try not to spread the message that you’re a Russian gangster. Cool and understated is the order of the day – step away from anything that might be mistaken for a piece of jewellery – and focus on a plain, sturdy and strong appearance.

A move towards thinner cases, cleaner dials (that actually let wearers tell the time) and more simple, often leather, straps mean a more modern version of refinement. Refined also means it will fit underneath (not in the way of) the cuff of a shirt. Choose a timepiece that your son won’t baulk at wearing when it is inevitably passed on – the best watches should literally transcend generations.

Classic brands like Zenith and Panerai have great options. Rado, the kings of angular faces and ceramic futurism, released a vintage inspired timepiece with a round case and leather strap at this year’s Basel Fine Watch Fair.

ToyWatch has won fans for its ironic twist on the heavyweight watches they consciously try to emulate. This young Italian brand has over turned the notions of heritage, luxury and price – all in the space of just six years. Hard and soft plastics, gem-encrusted or not, and in chronograph or plain timepiece format, the neon, metallic and pops of colours continue to prove that coloured watches aren’t just a passing fad. If you’re young and cool but work in an office, keep the brights for the weekend and choose cement grey for the day job. If you’re older rejoice in the newest range, a refreshing and distinct departure from its plastic predecessors: the Mesh collection is crafted from stainless steel, enhanced by bright details within the face and is a much more discreet way to earn street cred. A surefire hit is bound to be the particularly striking gunmetal and yellow colourway.

TOYWATCH: €155

EXTREME SPORTS Certina: In business over 120 years, it is only now that Certina watches are getting the prominence they deserve in the Irish marketplace. As a brand known for

being at the forefront of technological development, Certina was first to develop timepieces to withstand the extreme pressures of altitude and water experienced by the adventurers of the 1960s – whether atop mountains or in submarines. The watches are still known for great innovation and sleek style – at an accessible price – and continue to keep time for countless motocross competitors and Formula 1 drivers. Champion biathletes also trust Certina watches to keep up to speed on their testing adventures. Their DS1 Automatic draws on the heritage of their original “Double Security” concept – designed to absorb shock with reinforced casing and hermetic seals on the stem and crown – but with a look that is throroughly 21st century.

CERTINA: STEEL DS1 AUTOMATIC WITH LEATHER STRAP, from €1,250.

SPRING 2012 35 34 Watches.indd 35

06/03/2012 11:24

‹‹ N ATH AN Mc DONNE LL

In terms of style, Nathan McDonnell knows exactly what he likes.

He gravitates towards really beautifully designed jackets and shoes and whilst the opportunity to wear a Tom Ford suit isn’t a daily occurrence, he would appreciate having one in his wardrobe.

Director of Ballyseedy Home & Gardens (in Tralee, Co Kerry and in Fota, Cork), the business he established with his mother reflects his eye for detail. As well as planting, design and landscaping services, the lifestyle and garden centres sell homewares and clothing, and offer delicious food from local suppliers. He likes classic things with a fashion edge, like the Barker shoes he spotted in the menswear department at Brown Thomas in Dublin and wore on our shoot. “I usually shop in Cork for chinos and shirts and I always keep my eye open for a great slim-fit jacket or blazer – my everyday wear.” A qualified horticulturist, he does have to get his hands dirty occasionally, and most of his job satisfaction comes from advising customers on what to plant and when, assisting with the growing number of people who want to grow their own food and teaching children about gardening. “I’ve worked in horticulture all my life,” he says, “I cannot see myself ever retiring.”

F R O M MY OWN PE R SP ECT I V E / / / / / / / / / STYLED BY AISLINN COFFEY

NATHAN MCDONNELL WEARS Navy slim-fit blazer, €435, The Kooples.

White cotton textured shirt, €170, Truzzi. Silk pocket square, €110, Tom Ford. Grey slim-cut chinos, €255, Prada.

Navy leather brogues, €260, Barker.

Photographed by Neil Gavin at The Gibson Hotel. Hair throughout

by Aideen Shorthall at Fusion Hair Salon using Aveda.

36 SPRING 2012 36 Portraits.indd 36

07/03/2012 10:55

INDIVIDUAL STYLE ‹‹ FR AN K Mc GOV E RN

Dublin born and bred Frank McGovern, a project manager in asset servicing at BNY-Mellon is also an actor (fringe production, short films, commercials, voiceovers) and relishes the contrast each dimension brings to his life. “I emerged from a high-tension meeting recently, lots of heated debate, to an audition where I was handed a script and asked to sing 99 Red Balloons – it was a real release!” Acting infiltrates every aspect of his life, his skills helping him present well, persuade effectively and maintain corporate calm when under pressure. Looking sharp just makes his enjoyment of work – and the acting – all the more pleasurable, he says.

For business: “I don’t mess around; the expectation is that you will look well, wear a good suit. I have learned the hard way – it’s totally pointless not buying quality. Everyone can tell a cheap suit a mile off and although I do mix it up sometimes, I love Paul Smith and a good cut.” He reacts to the seasons, putting away the black now in favour of lighter shades and fabrics. As well as his corporate life and thespian roles he also plays drums in rock band Loose Horse. “If you look good and feel confident, you just like to perform.”

FRANK MCGOVERN WEARS Light grey Birdseye suit, €1,180, Paul Smith. Blue stripe cotton shirt, €200, Gieves & Hawkes. Brown leather lace-up shoes, €325, Jeffery West.

Blue silk tie, €150, Tom Ford. Blue silk pocket square, €110, Tom Ford.

Photographed by Neil Gavin at The Gibson Hotel.

SPRING 2012 37 36 Portraits.indd 37

07/03/2012 10:58

INDIVIDUAL STYLE JOHN RICE WEARS Blue print cotton shirt, €350, Prada. Blue textured linen mix jacket, €770, Etro. Blue straight leg jeans, €140, Diesel. Brown leather belt, €135, Paul Smith.

Brown leather shoes, €550, Prada. Photographed by Neil Gavin at Jam Animation.

‹‹ JO H N RICE

When animation entrepreneur John Rice returned to Ireland in 2001 to take a masters in multimedia in Trinity after eight years stateside at 20th Century Fox and MTV, his style was firmly US-influenced – low-key vintage jacket from Prada, jeans and runners that look a bit worn-in.

Now, as CEO of Jam Animation, the business he established with two friends and which now employs 50 from its Kevin Street premises (he intends it to have a footprint in the UK later this year, with the US soon to follow) he is still firmly a member of the “no suits” brigade when he represents the business at international forums and conferences. “We are a creatively led company – every day is casual Friday.” From Jam’s early success with Pic Me aimed at two-three yearolds, commissioned by RTÉ and sold into 100 territories in 25 languages, it now creates its own intellectual property, mainly in childen’s animation and live action. A recent production, Roy about a cartoon boy, will air on CBBC shortly. Having co-founded the business mid dotcom crash and with friends he says “it was a bit like setting up a band – the plans changed all the time.”

Growth has been organic and fast – the company had two BAFTA nominations and now has a turnover of €9m. The biggest critics of his style, he says, are his three children, Rebecca, Sophie and David.

38 SPRING 2012 36 Portraits.indd 38

07/03/2012 10:58

INDIVIDUAL STYLE OLI VI ER VANDER ELST ››

When the term “electro-mobility” used by Angela Merkel became headline news in 2010, Olivier Vander Elst, co-founder with his wife-to-be of GreenAer, Ireland’s first green transport company, knew his business was on the map. Having met while studying at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, the couple were ideally positioned to start a business. Belgian-born Olivier imports Reva electric cars from India (bought by consumers all over Ireland including the Swiss ambassador who has named his vehicle Charly) and cool electric bikes from Holland. Reducing CO2 emissions and working to clean up the environment is just one part of the equation – there are massive savings to be made on fuel and tax and if Olivier’s lobbying is successful, there will be incentives for those who go electric – from designated car parking and permission to use the bus lanes. There’s definitely a big swing to electric modes of transport in the city: “We see a lot of people making their second car redundant, and going for an electric bicycle for city commutes.” It’s a no-sweat solution, yet more exercise than you think.

“Thirty kilometres seems like just eight.” He is working with Dublin City Council on the introduction of an electric bike scheme for workers as well as a plan to import bamboo bikes from Ghana: “Bamboo is ecologically sound and as strong as steel; this would be a fantastic opportunity for Africa and for Ireland.” Olivier’s style is as international as his business approach. It’s European and classic in terms of cut, yet all about colour.

OLIVIER VANDER ELST WEARS Navy waffle blazer, €1,130, YSL. Blue cotton shirt, €100, J Lindeberg.

Navy cotton cardigan, €185, APC. Red chinos, €190, 7 For All Mankind.

Photographed by Barry McCall on location in Dublin.

SPRING 2012 39 36 Portraits.indd 39

06/03/2012 15:56

OMNIVORE

CLUB

A CAPSULE WINE WARDROBE, GRUB FOR GOLFERS AND A REAL MAN'S SALAD. KATY MC GUINNESS REPORTS

ZEITGEISTY // MINI CELLAR

A wine for everyday drinking: Reserve de Reverend Corbières €9.99 Such an easy drinking and effortless wine, juicy, spicy and full of brambly fruit. A very versatile wine, Corbières will pair with many foods; excellent with cassoulet, beef and lamb daube, and mushroom paella.

A wine for the rugby: Domaine St Etienne Côtes du Rhône Villages “Les Galets” €14.50 A warm and spicy red that oozes fruit and depth.

Good with Provençal-style cuisine, such as beef and lamb cooked with rosemary, thyme, olives and green lentil dishes.

A wine for a dinner party: Alto Rio Reserva, Rioja €19.50 Rich and round with notes of cherry. Excellent with lamb – roasted, stewed, panfried!

A wine for a romantic dinner: Felsina Chianti Classico €24.99 Superb elegance, class and great with food. Will complement many Italianinfluenced dishes; such as Tuscan veal and pork chops, Gorgonzola cheese, bolognese and carbonara.

A wine to impress your mates: Chapoutier Châteauneuf-duPape “Barbe Rac” 2004 €49.99 From a single vineyard site. This wine has velvety spices and poise; heady and very impressive. Roast lamb and game dishes, Provençal-style vegetables with lashings of olive oil.

One to lay down: Château Beychevelle 2005 €125 From an exceptional vintage in Bordeaux, this wine has everything to impress and more, especially with time in the cellar – drink from 2025. With top-drawer wines, food should always be very simple, so as not to overpower the character of the wine. Compiled by sommelier Olivia Blacque at Mitchell & Son.

GUILTY PLEASURES»

FROM THE SUBLIME TO ....

COOK THIS

THE REAL MAN’S SALAD

☛Ballyknocken Cookery Course: Cooking for camping and boating Planning some wholesome outdoor activity this summer? Book the Cooking For Camping and Boating course at Catherine Fulvio’s Ballyknocken House cookery school. Cooking on a two-ring hob or over an open campfire is a challenge that defeats many – often resulting in dispiriting rations at a time when appetites sharpened by the open air demand big flavours and hearty portions. A handson course, you get to eat what you make.

Saturday May 5 from 2.30 – 6.30pm; €115.

B&B from €59 pps.

Ballyknocken House & Cookery School, Glenealy, Ashford, Co Wicklow, 0404 44627/8; www.ballyknocken.com

F

or a chef who plays golf, running the kitchen at THE LODGE AT DOONBEG has to be one of those dream gigs. Wade Murphy, who produced some seriously good food when he was in charge at Lisloughrey Lodge in Cong, remembers the first time he went to stay at Doonbeg, being so impressed by the whole operation – the accommodation, the location, the Greg Norman-designed links course, one of the top 25 in the world – and thinking, “I could work here.” These days he’s a happy man, commuting from his home in Ennis and sometimes managing to squeeze in a swift nine holes during his break.

Being a golfer, Murphy understands the kind of food that appeals. “I planned the menus by thinking, if I’d just played 18 holes, what would I like to eat? I’m lucky to have fantastic local ingredients. I make the most of them, using local goat’s cheese, fish and oysters. Jack Kelly in Kilrush dry-ages our beef on the bone and in winter, do slow-braised meat using cuts such as featherblade and a posh Irish stew using neck fillet. There was a time in my life when I needed to put 24 ingredients on a plate but not anymore.” Guests at Doonbeg can eat in either Darby’s Bar or more formally in the Long Room, with views over Doughmore Bay. The menu includes plenty of steak

options, akin to an American grill where guests choose their preferred cut and then select a sauce and garnish. Portions are substantial and well-priced, with Murphy saying he puts as much “grá” into a hamburger as he does into a fillet steak. Golfers for whom the food is as important as the golf might also consider LOUGH ERNE RESORT near Enniskillen, Rory McIroy’s home course, where Noel McMeel (Best Chef in Ulster at last year’s Irish Restaurant Awards) is in charge. The Loughside Bar & Grill overlooks the Faldo Championship Course and offers a menu that includes Steak and Guinness Pie with Champ and signature dish Slow Roast Belly of Pork served with Seared Irish Scallops, Black Bacon and Armagh Apple Puree. Perhaps best eaten post-golf. At CARTON HOUSE, Cathal Kavanagh’s food at both the relaxed Coach House and elegant Linden Tree restaurant is as popular with golfers as the resort’s two courses, (a beautiful parkland course designed by Mark O’Meara and the more adventurous Colin Montgomerie-designed course, set to host the Irish Open again in 2013).

The Lodge at Doonbeg, 065 905 5600; www.doonbeglodge.com Lough Erne Resort, 0044 28 6632 3230; www.lougherneresort.com Carton House, 01 505 2000; www.cartonhouse.com

Paul Flynn of The Tannery in Waterford created this salad for his three mates: they have known each other since they were four years old but don't share the same taste in food. Could these devout steak eaters be tempted by a salad?

“I knew the answer was no,” says Flynn, “so I had to use a bit of guile. It has been said that this salad is no more than a full Irish chopped up with a few leaves but it goes down very well.”

Serves 4 1 small black pudding diced into 1cm cubes 8 rashers of streaky bacon diced 2 onions sliced 1 sprig thyme 200mls cream 1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp vegetable oil A good splash of red wine vinegar A splash of olive oil A handful of red chard, spinach and cos lettuce Gently sweat the onions with the butter and thyme without colour until completely softened. ● Add the cream and reduce a little, season and set aside. Fry the chopped bacon and pudding in a pan with the vegetable oil. ● When nice and crispy add a drizzle of red wine vinegar and olive oil to create a dressing. ● Spoon the onion cream into warm bowls, place the leaves in the centre and divide the contents of the pan over the leaves.

The Tannery Restaurant and Cookery School, Dungarvan, Co Waterford, 058 454 20 ●

☛ Hugo Arnold, Food Writer Amadei Italian chocolate. I can eat a whole bar in one go – and frequently do. It’s made on old-fashioned small machines in the quietest factory I’ve ever been to in Tuscany. ☛ Garden Designer Diarmuid Gavin takes part in BBC¹s Celebrity Masterchef in the autumn: Onion rings ... a terribly tasty evil from the chipper, smothered in vinegar with a dusting of salt, to be devoured before I reach home ... ☛Ronan Ryan, Restaurateur Would have to be Cadbury’s Creme Eggs, love them especially the first one of the season with a double espresso! ☛ Loyd Grossman, Television Presenter and Entrepreneur Banana dipped in bitter chocolate, rolled in crushed pistachios and shoved in freezer for an hour. ☛ Kieran Moore, The Firm, Hotel and Restaurant Recruitment Two come to mind: hot sourdough toast and Brittany butter with salt crystals or a cup of Barry’s tea and a Jaffa Cake.

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07/03/2012 11:05

MOVEABlE FEAST_AW:GLOSS AD - TRIUMPH 06/03/2012 12:12 Page 1

A unique culinary experience prepared for you by Ireland's Leading Chefs

GRAHAM NEVILLE

ROSS LEWIS

(Restaurant Forty One at The Residence)

(Chapter One)

DOMINI KEMP (The Restaurant at Brown Thomas)

PAUL FLYNN (The Tannery)

Join us in BROWN THOMAS DUBLIN on Monday 23rd April (Restaurant, level 3) at 7:30pm.

Champagne & canapé reception, followed by a surprise 5 course tasting menu with accompanying wines.

Places are limited. Tickets cost €120 per person.

To book your place, please email: moveablefeast@brownthomas.ie

BROWN THOMAS WWW.BROWNTHOMAS.COM

FITNESS SHOULDERS (OR “DELTOIDS”) ›› USAIN BOLT 100/200 METRES – JAMAICA

STOMACH (OR “ABS”) ›› TOM DALEY DIVER – UK The abdominal muscles, or “abs” as they are referred to on the 24-hour exercise channel I never miss, are the real game changers in a man’s body. While most men aspire to having a “six pack” for a stomach, I am prepared to settle for the whole barrel. Tom Daley, when he burst on the scene at 14, representing the UK at diving in the Beijing Olympics, had a lot of women wanting to hug and mother him. Now he has grown into a hunk, those same women still want to hug him, but for a totally different reason.

The difference is that this boy has “abs” that would make any man proud. He also has a great opportunity to advertise them as his working clothes are a pair of modest Speedos. Eva Berg of www. thesecretpilates.com, the absolute expert on waists in this country, believes there is only one way of getting those stomach muscles in trim. Specialising in honing and sculpting the “Fassbender trunk” she uses “a combination of reformer, arc barrel, tower and extreme mat Pilates to chisel obliques and abdominals”.

Sloped and broken from the burdens of modern life, I envy the shoulders of the modern athlete.

Usain Bolt, the fastest man on this earth, has shoulders that could carry the worries of an Irish economist with ease. “Lightning” Bolt, as he is known, can run faster than a TD after his expenses cheque. At the Bejing Olympics, he became the first man to win all three sprinting events in the same Olympics. According to Patrick Mackeogh, the Head of Training at Yourfitness in Deansgrange, Co Dublin: “Sprinters need big shoulders to develop speed through their upper body, so the rapid arm-raising action builds defined shoulders.” ☛ The exercise that Patrick recommends for me: Shoulder Press – Holding a bar or two dumbbells overhead, with forearms perpendicular to the floor, exhale as you press the weight overhead, inhale down to starting position and continue for 15 repetitions. Perform three times. (Can be performed standing or sitting.)

☛ Eva’s exercise for me was: “Lie on a mat on your back, bend knees, place hands behind your head, and let head relax back into the cradle of hands. Bring legs into a 90-degree angle at knees, keeping elbows open and back, take right shoulder to left knee and extend right leg out to a 45-degree angle. Change shoulders and knees and continue for 30 repetitions exhaling on each leg extension.”

LEGS (OR “QUADS”) ›› MARK CAVENDISH CYCLIST – UNITED KINGDOM Now if it’s legs you want, then you really have to look at the cyclists. They say the legendary British cyclist, Sir Chris Hoy, had thighs with a circumference of 27 inches. That’s some claim to fame – having thighs bigger than your girlfriend’s waist. Cyclists are some of the fittest athletes in the world, although you would never come to that conclusion by observing those participants in the Dublin Corporation free bike scheme.

Mark Cavendish, 27 this year, who rides for Team Sky, has just five per cent body fat and unbelievable strength and endurance. He won gold in the Madison (the team event) in the World Championship in 2005 and 2008 and has had 20 stage wins on the Tour de France.

☛ According to Eva Berg, the best exercises for powerful quads are squats and lunges. You can intensify these moves with a bar weight over your shoulders.

She warns, “When you work on the quads, you must also balance your regime by working the hamstrings.”

REAR (OR “GLUTES”) ›› BRIAN CLAY DECATHLON – USA

MY DREAM BODY MARVELLING AT THOSE OLYMPIC ATHLETES’ BODIES? BUILT FOR POWER, SPEED AND ENDURANCE, JUST WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO COME CLOSE? RORY EGAN SEEKS SOME ADVICE ...

CHEST & PECTORALS ›› DMITRY KLOKOV WEIGHTLIFTING – RUSSIA Contrary to popular opinion, there’s something about the size of a man’s, not a woman’s, chest that gets the testosterone going. In the pubs and clubs of Ireland, it remains the deciding factor in whether one man takes on another in a fight for looking at his girlfriend. It follows that Dmitry Vyacheslavovich Klokov, the Russian weightlifter, can look at anyone’s girlfriend with a fair degree of confidence that he won’t be disturbed unnecessarily. He became World Champion in 2005 at the tender age of 22 with a total lift between the two disciplines, Clean and Jerk and Snatch (I’m not kidding), with 419kg.

He has lifted 243kg; that’s a massive 38 stone, four pounds in old money, in one lift. This guy could lift you, your girlfriend and her chunky best friend over his head on any given night. Jim Jennings, General Secretary of Weightlifting Ireland, would not recommend this but does admit that Dmitry does multiple lifts between 200kg and 230kg three times a day, six days a week: “He eats loads of carbohydrates and lots of protein, mostly steak, to build up power.” We may be in business here. The steak I can do!

TRAIN // LIKE A PRO

The names to know

☛ Eva Berg: The Secret Pilates Studio, Rathmichael, Co Dublin, 087 791 7627, eva@thesecretpilates.com, www.thesecretpilates.com ☛ Patrick Mackeogh: Yourfitness Studio, Cabinteely, 087 614 5063, patrick@yourfitness.com, www.yourfitness.ie ☛ Jim Jennings: Weightlifting Ireland, Co Dublin, 01 454 1750, secretary@weightliftingireland.com, www.weightliftingireland.com

It is essential, in these days of equality, to have a decent rear end to show off.

Having been born with a rear that has served me well in the sitting department, I would reluctantly agree that an upgrade might be necessary if I were a showy sort of fellow. Anna Kournikova would, of course, be my rear of choice but she is disqualified due to gender. Brian Clay, however, is not and he is the current Olympic Champion Decathlete. He has developed a strong gluteus maximus, or “glutes”, as we athletes call them, due to powerful bursts of speed needed for sprinting, long jump and pole vault. Clay, 32, born in Texas to an African-American father and a Japanese mother, is about as good an all-round athlete as you could get. ☛ Exercises that would help me in this department, according to Patrick Mackeogh again, are: Deep Squats – essentially a sitting movement.

Feet shoulder distance apart, keep back straight and sit back as far and low as you can to engage your glutes. Kick through the heels up to standing. Continue for 15 repetitions. Perform three times. Hip extensions – start on all fours on a mat.

Kick one leg straight back and then up high into the air, tensing your stomach to keep from sacrificing your spinal position.

Repeat for 15 on both legs. Perform three times. While I am fine on the sitting movement and have frequently found myself on all fours on a mat, I think I might leave the “glutes” alone this time. ■

42 SPRING 2012 42 Fitness.indd 42

06/03/2012 11:04

HOW TO DO... HOT HAIR //

Most men play it safe. Barbers tend to get a surprise if they’re not asked for a number three on the sides and a bit off the top, thanks. Time for a style spring clean, perhaps? Here are two great haircuts to have now. Michael Lendon, Creative Director Aveda Institute, tells us how:

GROOMING

SPORTS KIT

YOUR GYM WASHBAG SORTED AND STANDOUT SCENTS...

SARAH HALLIWELL REPORTS 2012 IS A MIGHTY YEAR FOR SPORT, from

☛David Beckham has always been adventurous with his barnet, changing styles as often as his pants. He describes his current side-sweep as “very Mad Men”. “Beckham’s style starts with an immaculate cut,” says Lendon. “He has super-short sides with the back blended up to a long length, especially towards the front, which gives it a contemporary retro feel. Try using a volume spray such as Aveda Volumizing Tonic (€19) in damp hair and blow-dry into shape. To finish, use Aveda Men’s Grooming Cream (€24.50). Be careful not to over-style the hair – you want it to look groomed yet effortless.”

rugby to the Olympics kicking off in July. It inspires even the laziest of us to pull on some runners once in a while.

Hopefully you’re still occasionally getting your money’s worth from that extortionate gym membership, or sloping off for the odd game of squash. And even if you’re more of a spectator sportsman, it’s all about having the right kit. Here’s your sports bag sorted…

☛ It’s hard to beat the George Clooney silver fox look when there’s no escaping the grey. Remember Macca and his red hair dye, and stay dignified. “Silver grey hair needs to maintain its silvery steel finish to give it a clean and sparkly look,” says Lendon. “First off, use a colour shampoo and conditioner designed to neutralise any yellow tones. To control thick hair, like Clooney’s, keep hair fairly short and tidy on the sides, but with slightly more length and lots of texture on top. Product is key to this look. Apply a liquid gel into damp hair followed by a blow-dry to smooth the sides, add shine and help add texture on top. For the ultimate oldschool shine, finish off with Aveda Men’s Pomade (€24.50).”

MAKING WAVES

»

SCENTS & SENSIBILITY When everyone from Justin Bieber to Peter André has their name on a scent bottle, it’s time to look for something a bit more unique. It’s all about standing out from the crowd. Here’s our pick of the most interesting scents for the discerning man. Just pick your top note…

1. Clinique M Shave Aloe Gel Soothing oil-free gel for a quick, light shave that doesn’t irritate skin. €15.

2. Sisley All Day All Year is a one-stop wonder, moisturising and protecting skin with built-in SPF. You get what you pay for; skin looks noticeably better for months. €257.

3. Crème de la Mer SPF30 Fluid For just about any sport, 1

you need a protective moisturiser with SPF. Trouble is, many are too thick, leaving white streaks. This light fluid is neither sticky or greasy, and doesn’t clog your skin: especially good if you’re spot-prone. €91.

4. Clarins Active Face Wash Soap-free foaming Gel to detoxify skin and prep it for shaving. €24.91.

3

2

4

DANNY FULLER The face (or rather, abs) of new Chanel juice, Allure Homme Sport Eau Extreme, Danny Fuller is not just a professional surf dude but also a model and photographer, dividing his time between his native Hawaii, LA and New York. That’s what we call having life pretty sussed. Eau Extreme, a mandarin and spearmint cologne with a touch of woodiness, is as fresh as sea spray and hints at free spirit, even if you’re stuck in a suit... Perfect for après-sport. 50ml, €55.90.

Fruit

Citrus

Floral

Leather

CREED AVENTUS is a fruity concoction of bergamot, blackcurrant and pineapple. Yes, it sounds like something you’d drink.

But juniper and a mossy, musky base means it packs an unexpected punch. €95.

ACQUA DI PARMA COLONIA INTENSA. The Cary Grant of fragrances – clean and lemony, with a sexy hint of leather. One whiff and you’re whizzing round Italy in a Spider, wearing a sharp suit. €64.

TOM FORD PRIVATE BLEND LAVENDER PALM. We know, it sounds a bit grannyish. But Lavender Palm is not at all girly, with a rush of fresh bergamot, lemon and lime to render the lavender curiously modern. €155.

ARMANI PRIVÉ CUIR NOIR. The newest addition to the prestige Armani collection, Privé, Cuir Noir is a manly mix of smoke, leather, tobacco and wood. We’re talking old-school smooth. €205 (Brown Thomas Dublin and Cork).

SPRING 2012 43 43 Ask_Grooming.indd 43

06/03/2012 16:54

TRAVEL INTERESTING FIXTURES DEMAND APPROPRIATE DRESS. YOU CAN LOOK GOOD ALL OVER THE WORLD, SAYS TIM MAGEE

IRISHMAN ABROAD

// EVENT PACKING

T

he Irish male can dress better than any nation’s men. When we get it right, we really get it so right.

We look more restrained than our sometimes spivvy neighbours, more grown-up than Frenchmen dressed like secondary schoolboys, more natural than those poodle-preened Italian men. Why then are we hard-wired to throw this unique sense of style out the window the minute we gather in significant numbers for sports, music or culture? Why do we become possessed by that nemesis of style, tribalism? The symptoms of event tribalism – a penchant for dressing for a Sky 1 programme, or wearing children’s summer clothing and fancy dress – means that it isn’t hard to spot pockets of Irish and British males at shows, matches and races around the world. We trek off to music festivals kitted out as a squaddie on R&R in Ibiza, or a Top Gear presenter. Most normal style-conscious males go in one door of the changing room in any golf club with some self-regard for how they look, and come out the other side looking like they’re off to work in the circus. At cultural festivals around Europe we do a bit better but are still typically the most badly drawn boys. We have it wrong – when in Rome we still do and wear as other Irish men do. There hasn’t been a bigger moment for significant events than 2012 for years: the Euros, the Olympics on our doorstep, 30-something music festivals from Reykjavik to Budapest, the Venetian and Brazilian biennials as well as their more serious German quinquennial cousin. Leave the comedy behind this year, and pack to stand out from the pack.

THE BIENAL DE SAO PAULO

T Clockwise from right Print cotton scarf, €180, D&G. Ink Loose Rinse denim jeans, €175, D&G. Camouflage flipflops, €65, D&G. Coral Cliffon cotton shirt, €110, Boss Orange. Red Firelite suitcase, €285, Samsonite.

his is Biennial year but the more cerebral amongst the global artist’s community won’t be in leaky Venice. They have to wait every five years for their show to come around. The dOCUMENTA exhibition should be a celebration of logistics as well as art. Kassel, in the heart of Germany (home to the brothers Grimm and the playground for their imagination) every five years now becomes the focus of the art world’s attention. Thousands of very serious artists and administrators head to toe in nothing but black and lofty brows mill around considering things.

Good luck to them. I’m off to Brazil. The São Paulo Art Bienal is the second oldest in the world.

That isn’t a reason to go, but it is in Brazil, which is. São Paulo is enormous and not the prettiest of South American cities but it is electric, improving daily and just down the road from Rio. If you’re here to see the art you might as well surround yourself with it and stay in an artwork too – the astonishing Unique Hotel, left.

An extraordinary shape, with incredible views from the rooftop pool; night time from the top makes even grubby skyscrapers look like fine art. No better place in the world for undoing all of your cultural insight. If you want to dress like a local just bring some dental floss and flipflops. I’ll be in unskinny jeans and pastel shirts and soft leather sandals, all crowned with a very large smile. ☛ To pack: Havaianas and a pocket umbrella.

THE LONDON OLYMPICS

W

hat Katie does next. If you think female boxing is just for girls then you might speak to the tenderised male sparring partners that our number one athlete and three times World Champion chews up weekly. Outside of the ring Katie Taylor is gentle, professional and looks great. Inside she looks even better. Almost perfect, she is tailor-made for a movie about her story. If she wins gold in London there’ll be one, and plenty of lying about how much we all supported her. I’ll be there, but not actually wearing a green jersey, or any other sportswear for that matter. Instead I will take my lead from a different movie: Skyfall, Bond 23, out in October. Do as Daniel does with casual but crisp tailoring and a jeans-free Games. 007 lives somewhere in London but if he didn’t he’d stay in Claridge’s, the hotel version of his DB5. Unsurpassable.

There’s no more cigar smoking in the Fumoir but it is still an Art Deco boys’ den. Hopefully I will be there or in Irish man David Collins-designed Claridge’s bar next door toasting a Vesper martini to our golden girl. ☛ To pack: a punch.

Navy wool two-button suit, €1,340, Prada. Tan overnight leather bag, €2,450, Tom Ford. How To Be A Man,

by Glenn O’Brien.

44 SPRING 2012 44 Travel.indd 44

07/03/2012 11:08

TRAVEL

THE US MASTERS

I

grew up in a golf club. The Masters weekend marked the beginning of the golf season and summer golfing. The bar in our clubhouse had one wheelie-bin sized television which I remember was permanently surrounded by hordes of members shouting for anyone but Faldo during the late night finishes on the Sunday at Augusta. That old colour set made those famous azaleas look like they were neon, surreal. Augusta was always otherworldly and the US Masters is still the least accessible major.

If you are one of the chosen few to make it to golf ’s most manicured event you might notice that eight out of ten spectators are dressed like Bill Gates. Whether he’s changing the world with technology or scaring the life out of malaria there’s a lot to admire about the Microsoft genius. Not so much on the fashion side. The Masters is the best behaved but worst dressed of the majors. Thin cotton, too-tight golf shirts and summer course wear is rarely flattering.

Even the most coveted piece of fashion clothing in the world of sport is a badly-fitting jacket that would be better suited to the staff at Butlins. It’s April in Georgia which can range from balmy to chilly in the same day. Bar the shoes, leave the branded golf apparel in the bag and don a lambswool v-neck, the best classic-cut cotton shirts you own and a pair of slim-fit chinos or light wool trousers. ☛ To pack: cashmere, cotton shirts, and pack a mac for the odd rainy night in Georgia.

Clockwise from right Coloured cotton polo shirts, €60 each, Lyle & Scott. Brown leather golf shoes, to order, Prada. Blue check wool trousers, €420, Prada.

FORMULA 1 IN MONZA BENICASSIM

F

1 is a religion for its many fans. And for the believers, Autodromo Nazionale Monza is their Jerusalem. This is northern Italy so expect a free stencil kit for facial hair with your race pass.

There are seas and seas of duck-billed peak-capped fans in polo shirts. They’re German. For the Italians it is the sunglasses, watch and shoes that define the man. Monza itself isn’t the place to stay, as you can commute to the race easily from Milan, and the Bulgari, a slick, polished tribute to luxury is perfect for a pit stop. No chintz here, just 300 tons of marble, a spa and pool and gigantic gardens, remarkable for a hotel in this part (or any part) of a major industrial city, and a welcome contrast to the high-octane petrol-headrush of Monza. If you tire of the tyres the Bulgari can tempt you with private hydroplane trips around Lake Como or personal shopping in any of Milan’s lethally tempting temples of fashion. ☛ To pack: your best Italian labels, but leave room in your Samsonite as you’ll be stocking up on home brands when you’re there.

Clockwise from right Certina DS Multi8, €630. Black nylon weekend bag, €510, Dolce & Gabbana. The Golden Age Of Formula 1. Lead grey metal frame sunglasses, €195, Prada Linea Rossa.

I

might be a stick-in-the-mud but I’m too old for playing in it. I’m not sure I was ever into it and shiver when I see neo-hippy mud-caked fans at Glastonbury or Oxegen. If I wasn’t Irish it might be appealing but I want what we don’t have at our festivals: guaranteed sunshine and the beach. Add the music and it’s something worth travelling for. FIB or the Benicàssim International Festival (July 12-15) on the costa south of Barça (run by our own Vince Power) is as foreign to a music festival in the Irish midlands as you’re likely to get, starting with the hot, hot weather. There is a young middle-aged Manchester vibe to this year’s line-up with New Order, The Stone Roses and Noel Gallagher, and Florence and the Machine is there for the nonnostalgics. Although the festival is only four days long, most people who go to Benicassim stay for a week. You can stay free in the campsite for nine days, which might be just enough time to get over David Guetta’s ego. Or you could scoot back to Barcelona and do the grownup thing. But that’s sort of not the point. The first time we saw some of these acts we were only wearing combats and a smile. Time to dress for war again. ☛ To pack: sunscreen, after-sun cream, togs.

Clockwise from right Straw hat, €125, D&G. Red cotton chinos, €225, Slowear. Black leather holdall, €225, Bric’s. Grey Street Climb high-tops, Alexander McQueen for Puma.

Navy vector print swimming shorts, €155, Acne.

SPRING 2012 45 44 Travel.indd 45

06/03/2012 10:52

YO U R S . . .

FOR LIFE

DENNIS GILBERT

HOME

Tom de Paor’s geometric contemporary villa, with spectacular views over Killiney Bay was said by Shane O’Toole to have brought a “hint of aggression” to the hillside location.

Described once as “affable party-animal, conspicuously bespectacled, with a scruffy-chic dress sense and a white-hot precocious talent”, architect Tom de Paor can no longer be considered architecture’s enfant terrible – partly because he is now well into his prime but also because of his large and impressive portfolio of work. A graduate of the UCD School of Architecture, he has won many awards, repesented Ireland at the Venice Biennale and added lustre and interest to the national built environment. Inhabitants of his spaces are inevitably fans, lured initially by his imaginative storyboarding of a concept, then hooked on the process itself which, with de Paor similarly attuned to the client’s likes and dislikes, interests and way of life, is a shared evolution from start to finish. His work is ultimately a response to the user so clients often see clearly their own characteristics reflected in the work. Perhaps this is why men like it? Do they see a mirror of themselves?

De Paor dismisses the idea at first but then admits there might be an element of truth. “I do think some of the forms I make are tough, and the shapes blunt – masculine, if you like.

But the materiality – I love decorative aspect as much as the spatial so the materials I use have lots of life in them.” He becomes very interested in the personalities of clients and can remember all their seemingly superficial remarks – they often later become intrinsic to the design. And, as he believes the success of something to be closely linked to the response it might evoke, he insinuates himself into the mind not just of the client, but also of all users of the space, family, friends, visitors. Is this not something all architects do, you might ask? Yes, perhaps, but rarely are the thoughts so persuasively expressed – verbally as well as visually.

Thinking about the Shipsey house (opposite) and how he might tackle the task of reworking the entrance, he recalled the time he visited Birr Castle where, in the huge solid door, was inserted the tiniest of doorbells which

emitted the loudest of rings. “When you arrive somewhere you haven’t been before,” he says, “there is that moment of self-consciousness, of tension.” The overscaled front door at the top of the meandering flight of steps following the contour of the garden, bears no handle and a tiny bell, and a gap appears at the feet, another unsettling detail making the step across the threshold rather deliberate. But, once inside, it’s all relaxed and sunny – doubly so, once you have experienced the tension. Playing up details like this brings a certain theatricality to the experiencing of a space. “I like to set up the experience,“ he says. “We know that we feel a certain way in some situations. Emphasising those emotions can bring unexpected pleasures – I often find that consciously amplifying or diminishing a detail is effective in provoking a response.”

It is true that when you can hear how a space is conceived, what you experience visually seems to make more sense but in the end the success of a piece of architecture is down to feelings or what is enjoyed, day after day, year after year. As de Paor says,”If a thing is loved, it will last …” n

DENNIS GILBERT

THE HOMES THAT STARCHITECT TOM DE PAOR DESIGNS SEEM TO HAVE GREATER-THAN-AVERAGE MACHO APPEAL – SO WHY DO OTHERWISE DECISIVE MEN FALL SWAY TO HIS POWERS OF PERSUASION AND REVEL IN HIS RUTHLESS GEOMETRY?

THE SCULPTURE FACTORY in Cork, where de Paor was architect-in-residence shortly after he graduated, is in an old tram warehouse. There was no office facility or tea room for the workers so, working to a tight budget, and using lead-plated steel, he designed a carriage-like room hung from the gantry, to fit the purpose.

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06/03/2012 15:27

LUKE WHITE

›› LIGH T STU DY

Montage artist Sean Hillen lives in a Tom de Paor-designed terrace house (above) in Dublin 1. Indeed, it was the architect’s own work space before Hillen moved in and filled the studio upstairs from floor to ceiling with supplies for (and samples of) his famous fullsaturation collages which have a fantastical edge – a bit like the house itself. A tiny space, with barely a cupboard as a kitchen and a small sitting room with a sofa bed from which the stars are viewed each night, it is filled with mad stuff (fairylights, religious statuary, rulers of all shapes and sizes) and an oddly effective yet not quite regulation (according to de Paor) Japanese double-step staircase to the upstairs studio. “Tom warned me it was blatantly non-regulation and recommended a re-design,” says Hillen, who insisted on keeping it.

Hillen’s girlfriend admits she has to escape to her own orderly quarters from time to time. Using a binocular microscope, a surgeon’s scalpel, card and glue, Hillen’s offbeat juxtapositions become satirical images while he works as light streams in from the toplit studio as well as from east and west.

LUKE WHITE

A DUBLIN UNDERGROUND HOUSE (left), one of a pair designed and built speculatively, is now home to a well-known sporting hero: “He loves nice things and is very knowledgeable,” says de Paor.

“It’s all about the environment feeling comfortable.” Appreciative of the loftier than usual ceiling heights, the owner also enjoys the privacy.

LUKE WHITE

ROSS KAVANAGH

BUSINESS INSIGHT (right), The award-winnig concept for Dylan Bradshaw’s former salon in Johnson’s Place, Dublin was a new departure for the genre. A deep window reveals the hairdressing stations and a row of naked bulbs, akin to a theatre dressing room.

‹‹ MAK IN G AN E NTRA NCE Yale graduate

Matthew Shipsey has just returned to Dublin to work with Fighting Words, the creative writing programme in Dublin’s inner city established by Roddy Doyle to encourage students of all ages to develop their writing skills. His return coincided with his parents’ commissioning of Tom de Paor to redesign the entrance to their house (above and left), a process he observed with interest. Perched on an elevated site, the house has been given an imposing approach via a flight of wide steps to a threshold where there is a deliberate gap – you literally step over it – to a lovely light-filled hall with soaring ceiling.

“Everyone who comes in the door has something to say – it creates a very specific response. First impressions register the solidity and scale, then the clever angles and details strike you.”

SPRING 2012 47 46 De Paor.indd 47

06/03/2012 15:28

NEIL HURLEY

SPEED DATE

BREAKFAST AT BROWNS BAR & CAFÉ WITH ... DAVID GILLICK

IT’S A DAY OFF FOR DAVID GILLICK, THE FASTEST MAN IN IRELAND EVER OVER 400 METRES, AND HE’S ALLOWING HIMSELF A SNEAKY INDULGENCE BY WAY OF A LATE BREAKFAST AT BROWN’S CAFÉ, SAFE IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THE NUTRITIONIST BY WHOSE RULES HE LIVES BY 99 PER CENT OF THE TIME IS SEVERAL HUNDRED MILES AWAY AND OBLIVIOUS TO THIS (MINOR) TRANSGRESSION

As a serious athlete in an Olympic year, David’s life is not his own these days, with a rigorous training regime and event schedule planned out for months ahead. Not that David is complaining – much. He eats what, when and how much his nutritionist tells him to and puts in six training days a week, motivated by the overwhelming, career-defining

ambition to achieve a time of 45.3 before July 8 in order to qualify for his event at London 2012. And then, of course, it will be the prospect of a medal and a place on the podium on August 6 that keeps him going. It’s the kind of focus that makes the endless weighing out of food and the drinking of recovery shakes bearable. Plus, says David: “It makes me feel good. I don’t want

to put on weight and I want to give everything I can to this endeavour, so maintaining optimum fitness is part of the deal.”

Last year wasn’t a good one for the Dublin athlete. Having started his running career with Dundrum South Dublin Athletic Club and “got serious about it when [he] was 19 or 20”, he upped sticks and left his established training base

in Loughborough, near Leicester, to fulfill a long-held ambition to move to America, only to suffer a devastating injury in training.“It was definitely the worst day of my career. I heard a pop in my calf muscle, like an elastic band snapping. And then there was excruciating pain.”

He wasn’t able to walk for several weeks and the recuperation took months.

“I run, that’s what I do. So not being able to run was incredibly hard. I tried to be pro-active and stay positive, to do the pool and the gym – the things that I could – but, to be honest, it was depressing, not being able to do what you want to do.”

A bout of chronic fatigue that came on the heels of the injury was enough to convince David that it was time to return to his trainer, Nick Dakin, and his UK base, time to regroup.

He is grateful for the funding and support that he continues to receive from the Sports Council – a big help in getting through what has been a tough time.

Back in Loughborough, David trains six days a week – four days running and two in the gym, plus core work incorporating Pilates and yoga. He trains for

two to three hours in the morning and another one or two in the afternoon. “It’s a full-time job,” says David, “with every moment of every day accounted for, between training, warming up, cooling down, icebaths and food preparation.”

David finds that living offcampus in a “healthy household” that he shares with other athletes is conducive to eating right and steering clear of temptation – just the environment he needs in the run up to this crucial season, which kicks off in late April.

“I have plenty of races in the diary between Europe and the US so that I can meet the qualifying time. It takes a few races to get the legs going at the start of the season; the first big one is the European Championships in Helsinki in June and I’ll be running in Ireland in the National Championships in late June.”

Having been through the Olympic experience before in Beijing, David has a good idea of what it entails. “You can feel the intensity in an Olympic year, it’s as if everybody wakes up to it every four years. I know how to handle the pressure of the media and I’m content with where things stand at the moment.”

When he’s not training, David spends time with his girlfriend, Charlotte Wickham, a former athlete who lives in London, commuting up and down in a VW Touareg that he admits to “liking a lot”.

One of David’s sponsors is Adidas and he is particularly keen on their Originals range, which comes in some “pretty funky colours”. And, although socialising is limited by his training regime, he makes an effort clothes-wise when he does manage to go out. “I enjoy shopping for clothes and I like to think I’m fashionable, although others might disagree! I usually dress fairly casually: jeans, shirt, jumper and nice trainers but then sometimes I’ll go for something smarter. The last suit I bought off the peg but I had it tailored specially for me and I like the way it fits. I wear that with boots. I love my Oakley sunglasses.”

Come Monday August 6 in London, fingers crossed David Gillick’s efforts will pay off and that he’ll be able to come back to Brown’s and eat anything he fancies off the menu. KMcG ■

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06/03/2012 16:59

STYLE ADVICE

AskANN

MAKING TOO MUCH OF A SPLASH ON THE GREENS? WANT TO LOOK GOOD AT THE WEEKEND? STYLE ADVISER ANN FINN HAS THE ANSWERS

Q A

I’m a keen golfer but my dress sense is not as polished as my drive. My wife baulks when I wear my Quintainspired bright colours.

Men love colour on the golf course but a judicious hand is required – super-brights could easily be replaced by softer shades: rose pink, pale blue, forest green, which tend to work better than acid yellow or green with Irish skin tones. I like colour on top or bottom but not both, so I’d favour a pair of stone or beige classic chinos, with as narrow a leg as you can wear (try Ralph Lauren’s slimmer fit). I recently spotted Matthew McConaughey looking gorgeous in grey and black – so slimming and smart, even in summer. There’s a slew of new, very fine knit polo shirts which could easily replace your cotton one – they would mark you out as a man who knows as much about style as he does about golf. While we’re on the subject, dressing for the clubhouse is another concern, simply because it’s become so formulaic – a jacket and tie is required of course but it’s possible to ring the changes within the predictable chinos or flannels and navy-blazer-withbrass-buttons routine. The best jacket for the 19th hole is the YSL cotton unstructured navy jacket, which is half-lined, so you look great but not too buttoned-up. It has little details on the cuff which make it interesting. A keeper.

Stripe knit polo shirts, from €180, John Smedley.

Left Matthew McConaughey bucks the trend for brights while at Prada, anything goes for golfers

THE DETAILS ☛Many of our customers come to us to have their work wardrobe overhauled and smartened – if they’re starting in a new role, for instance.

But we’re pleased to see those customers return, once they have their feet under the desk, to pay some attention to their weekend wear. There’s a big difference between casual wear and good casual wear. Putting together some good formulae for Saturday and Sunday dressing is the first step. Once customers are happy with that, they can freestyle a bit, adding pieces as they go, to build up a weekend wardrobe as reliable and versatile as their working

☛Take Note The Brown Thomas complimentary personal shopping service offers advice and expertise on your professional and weekend wardrobe. Our personal shoppers can also find a perfect gift for a loved one, a business colleague, or for any occasion.

Head of Personal Shopping for Menswear, Ann Finn, will talk through all your requirements and arrange a convenient appointment. To book, please call Ann Finn on 01 617 1159.

Q

I want a nice, decent but not overly fashionable jacket to wear with jeans on a Saturday morning – respectable enough to wear when nipping into town or walking the dog. Any suggestions?

Saturday morning street style in Milan

My favourite shoe colour for your suit is a rich midbrown, which goes with all suits with the exception of black (with which you should wear black). The shade of brown can lighten as the season turns to summer.

Don’t forget to bring it altogether with a toning belt. This season I am thrilled at the selection of navy shoes, which look amazing with a navy suit. Have a look at Stermar and Prada, if you’re brave enough.

A

Music to my ears, as a great many men seem to think a black waterproof from a certain wellknown outdoor label is the answer to everything.

Far smarter would be a classic Barbour cotton waxed jacket in earthy tones; a cool quilted bomber by Marc by Marc Jacobs; or a denim jacket (Maison Martin Margiela) in ink-blue. This last, by the way, is for the younger man, with dare I say, a neat-ish figure. We have a navy trench-style jacket by Ermenegildo Zegna too. A cotton and silk blend, it’s water-resistant as well, and looks great over jeans and a sweater ... a good investment buy.

Q A

Please enlighten me as to what colour shoes I should wear with my suit. Give me all the options so I don’t have to ask again…

Brown Holborn leather monkstrap shoes, €550, Jimmy Choo.

Q

Last year, the It tie was all schoolboy stripes, which I hated (six years in school was enough to put me off). What pattern is right for spring?

A

Navy quilted jacket, €385, Marc by Marc Jacobs.

Check silk tie, €170, Tom Ford.

Tom Ford has done super ties this season – lovely wide plains which give a satisfyingly generous knot – and great fine stripes and checks. Have the confidence to mix pattern, keeping tones the same of course.

Blue straw hat, €125,

Paul Smith.

DRESSING LIKE A GENTLEMAN MEANS PAYING Taupe Bleeker suede shoes, ATTENTION TO THE SMALL THINGS … €135, KG Kurt Geiger.

Blue linen jacket, €520, Duchamp.

Navy cotton cardigan, €200, Paul Smith.

one. ☛I’m delighted men are now paying (almost) as much attention to their accessories as women. It’s so disappointing to see a well-dressed man

carrying a ratty briefcase or trundling a nasty nylon trolley bag through the airport. Ruins the effect. Good luggage is important if you’re travelling for work (at any time really). Even if you're not in a suit, a smart holdall (we carry lots by Paul Smith) makes your jeans and casual jacket combo look good. ☛ Our love affair with hats was re-ignited last season when the trilby was the shape of choice. Now the habit’s been formed and Irish men are wearing their hats with a certain air (confidence is key), customers are looking for a summer alternative. Our classic straw

hats by Paul Smith look smart with one of our unstructured Italians – no, not a man who still lives at home at 44 – but those soft-shouldered, unlined jackets which look great with chinos and jeans. ☛I seem to always bleat on about having the right shoes. That goes for casual wear too – good tan brogues or loafers, a nice pair of trainers, and something fun for your weekends away or sun holiday. If you are wary of the coloured loafer trend, try a cool taupe or grey version. Keep socks plain in a toning colour.

Q

I was alarmed to encounter more than a few bare ankles at a company jolly in Dubai recently – none of them belonging to women, worryingly. Where and when is going sock-less an appropriate option?

A

I love a bare ankle ... but with certain conditions! A light tan is desirable. Shoes must be correct – a Tod’s driving shoe or trainers, like Lanvin’s. Trousers – coloured chinos or jeans or neat linen pants – must be a little shorter than usual or with a rolled-up hem. ■

SPRING 2012 49 IBC AskAnne.indd 49

07/03/2012 11:15