Prestige Hong Kong _ September 2019 by Prestige Hong Kong

HONG KONG SEPTEMBER 2019 HK$50

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TANG HE FASHION FORWARD

ALL ABOUT AW19 WOMENSWEAR | AMERICA’S UNSUNG WINE REGIONS HAUTE STUFF IN HIGH JEWELLERY | THE WORLD’S SEXIEST SUPERYACHT PLUS DARA HUANG | NICK JONES | RACHEL LEHMANN 00 COVER_final_no barcode.indd 1

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THE PENINSULA HONG KONG +852 2301 2131 MANDARIN ORIENTAL HONG KONG +852 2868 6877 GALAXY MACAU +853 2882 3516 NEW YORK LONDON PARIS TOKYO BEIJING SHANGHAI TAIPEI SINGAPORE HARRYWINSTON.COM

CLASSIC WINSTON COLLECTION

Discover the

UNDERCOVER

ROLE MODEL

CHASEK

Despite only an hour’s sleep due to flight delays that pushed her shoot the night before into the early hours of the morning, Tang He arrived for our cover shoot ready and raring to go. While photographer ChaseK and his crew set up for the first shot, she familiarised herself with the mood boards – replete with shots of Brigitte Lin from Wong Kar Wai’s Chungking Express – and soon everyone on set understood why designers the world over are falling for the 18-year-old beauty. Even in the gritty and crowded corridors of Chungking Mansions, He moved and posed so effortlessly there was only one thing to say at the end of the day: “We never want to shoot with anybody other than supermodels ever again.”

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CONTENTS 14 UNDERCOVER 22

EDITOR’S LETTER

24 DIGITAL 26 DIARY 30

EDITOR’S PICKS 200 BACKSTORY

AGENDA

STYLE Rock your wardrobe

DISCOVERY Ones to watch

JEWELLERY A cornucopia of stone and metal

WATCHES Fine art for the wrist

BEAUTY Shades, salves and scents

TRAVEL Goss for globetrotters

TOYS Cool kit to covet

DINING Tickling the taste buds

ART Masters old and new

AUCTIONS Going, going…

RSVP 52

EVENTS The month’s top parties

PEOPLE 58

NICK JONES King of Clubs

DARA HUANG Urban Nomad

COVER 62

TANG HE Who’s That Girl?

WOMENSWEAR Autumn/Winter 2019

WOMENSWEAR Legends of the Fall

112

BRUNO SIALELLI Leading the charge at Lanvin

114

BERTRAND MAK R. Sanderson’s golden boy

116 DIOR ATELIER

The Human Factor

62 Who’s That Girl?

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120 ASIAN MILLINERS Head Space

CHASEK

FASHION

CONTENTS JEWELLERY 126 VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Perfect Pairings

132 CHANEL

A Russian Romance

136 CHAUMET

Shimmering Skies

WATCHES 140 MÉTIERS D’ART Call of the Wild

146 JAEGER-LECOULTRE Cultural Appreciation

152 MEN’S WATCHES FOR WOMEN Gender Benders

BEAUTY

154 AW19 MAKE-UP TRENDS About Face

158 FENTY BEAUTY

Don’t Stop the Make-Up

CULTURE 160 ART

Chiharu Shiota

166 ART STORAGE Out of the Box

170 ART COLLECTING

Gallerist Rachel Lehmann

TOYS 174 CAR

McLaren 720S Spider

178 BOAT

Riva 50 Metri

LIVING

174 DIOR MAISON Savoir Faire

INDULGENCE 186 WINE

America’s Wine Revolution

190 TRAVEL

Moroccan Roll

194 TRAVEL

Year-round in Niseko

174 McLaren 720S Spider

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198 RESORT

Mauna Kea Beach Hotel

HONG KONG

Tama Miyake Lung EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Gigi Lee

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Jon Wall

Zaneta Cheng

SENIOR EDITOR

FASHION & FEATURES EDITOR

Stephen Reels

Tiffany Poon

COPY EDITOR

Michael Alan Connelly

SOCIETY EDITOR

Dara Chau

HEAD OF DIGITAL CONTENT

Fontaine Cheng

DIGITAL EDITOR

Sepfry Ng

ART DIRECTOR

Jing Zhang

EDITOR AT LARGE

Aydee Tie

DIGITAL WRITER

Philip Chan

SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER

HEAD OF MARKETING

Janet Ho

CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Kavita Daswani, Andrew Dembina, Alvin Goh, Nick Goodyer, Mark Graham, Divia Harilela, Theresa Harold, Gary Jones, Elle Kwan, Gerrie Lim, Tasha Ling, Stephen McCarty, Joanne Ooi, Mathew Scott, Stephen Short, Payal Uttam, Joe Yogerst CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Dino Busch, Until Chan, Lionel Deluy, Christiaan Hart, Chun Ho, Joe Kwong, Ruby Law, Ricky Lo, Gordon Lund, Marco Ponti, Mike Ruiz, Laurent Segretier, Samantha Sin, Calvin Sit, Giovanni Squatriti, Olivier Yoan

PRESTIGE ASIA

Grace Tay

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, SINGAPORE

Chris Hanrahan

MANAGING EDITOR, INDONESIA

Steve Chen

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, TAIWAN

Julie Yim

EDITOR, MALAYSIA

Reena Hallberg

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, THAILAND

The Hong Kong edition of Prestige is published under licence from Burda Singapore Pte Ltd. Copyright Â© 2019 Hubert Burda Media Hong Kong Ltd. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the written permission of Hubert Burda Media Hong Kong Ltd. All opinions expressed in Prestige Hong Kong are those of the writers and are not necessarily endorsed by Hubert Burda Media Hong Kong Ltd. Rights reserved. Prestige is a trademark of Burda Singapore Pte Ltd. Hubert Burda Media Hong Kong Ltd accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, transparencies or other materials lost or damaged in the mail. Address all editorial and business correspondence to: Prestige Hong Kong, Unit 1401-04, 14/F, Universal Trade Centre, 3 Arbuthnot Road, Central, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 3192 7010. Advertising and Marketing: salesandmarketing@burda.hk | Editorial: editor@burda.hk Prestige Hong Kong is printed by C. A. Printing Co. Ltd, 9/F, Cheung Wei Industrial Building, 42 Lee Chung Street, Chai Wan, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2866 8733. Prestige Hong Kong is published monthly. Single copy price is HK$50. For local and overseas subscription information, please email: subscription@burda.hk. Tel: (852) 3192 7020.

ICONICA RINGS COLLECTION IN ROSE GOLD WITH DIAMONDS AND COLOURED STONES POMELLATO

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HONG KONG

Sven Friedrichs

MANAGING DIRECTOR & PUBLISHER

Tony Cheong HEAD OF SALES

Janet Wong

ASSOCIATE SALES DIRECTOR

Wendy Cheung

ASSOCIATE SALES DIRECTOR

Astor Chan

CREATIVE SERVICES MANAGER

Talia Jackson

HEAD OF CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

Brian Bailey

PARTNERSHIPS DIRECTOR

Linda Mak

CLIENT SERVICES MANAGER

Prudence Ng

Georgia Parungao CONTENT LEAD

Annie Yung

OFFICE MANAGER

Daisy Wan

ACCOUNTANT

ACCOUNT OFFICER

PRESTIGE ASIA

Lena Kwek

Ronald Liem

MANAGING DIRECTOR, SINGAPORE

PUBLISHER, INDONESIA

Steve Chen

Steven Chan

PUBLISHER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, MALAYSIA

Waraporn Siriboonma

PUBLISHER, TAIWAN

PUBLISHER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, THAILAND

INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVES BURDA COMMUNITY NETWORK

Michael Neuwirth Senior Client Service Manager International Media Kseniia Komarova Client Service Manager International Media

France/Benelux Marion Badolle-Feick T: +33 (1) 72 71 25 24 Head of Sales Region France & Benelux Email: marion.badolle-feick@burda.com

Tel: +49 (89) 9250 3629 Email: michael.neuwirth@burda.com Tel: +49 (89) 9250 3035 Email: kseniia.komarova@burda.com

Switzerland/Austria Christina Bresler Tel: +49 (89) 9250 2232 Head of Sales Region Austria & Switzerland Email: christina.bresler@burda.com Switzerland Regina Essig Tel: +41 (44) 810 21 46 Senior Client Service Manager Sales Region Switzerland Email: regina.essig@burda.com UK/Ireland Jeannine Soeldner Tel: +44 (20) 7607 7979 Head of Sales Regions UK&Ireland Email: jeannine.soeldner@burda.com

Italy/Scandinavia/Spain/Netherlands (Fashion)/Greece/others Lena Kรถlle Tel: +49 (89) 9250 3197 Client Service Manager Email: lena.koelle@burda.com

Martin Weiss

EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER

Sven Friedrichs

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ASIA

Chua Siew Gek

FINANCIAL DIRECTOR

FLEURS DE JARDIN TIMEPIECE WITH BUTTERFLY-SHAPED FLYING TOURBILLON AND 11 GEMSTONE-SET FLOWERS JACOB & CO.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

SEASON’S GREETINGS

The new fashion season kicks off with a bang this month. And while new clothes and handbags may not be the most pressing concern among us Hongkongers these days, it doesn’t hurt to support our local retailers with a few thoughtfully chosen purchases. To aid you in your search, fashion and features editor Zaneta Cheng breaks down the highlights from the autumn/winter shows (after an exhausting month earlier this year visiting all four fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris), and shares her take on the trends we’ll all soon be flaunting. Zaneta also styled our incredible Chungking Express-meets-Rive Gauche cover shoot this month starring a major model on the rise, Tang He. When we heard He, who at only 18 is already appearing in her first international campaign for Miu Miu, was coming to Hong Kong, we jumped at the chance to work with her. And she didn’t disappoint, posing like a true professional amid the chaos that’s Chungking Mansions. You can read more about our new favourite supermodel on page 71. Elsewhere in this issue, we showcase some of this year’s most stunning high-jewellery launches. Whether inspired by starry nights, Russian dukes, or Romeo and Juliet, each unique piece reveals the amazing level of craftsmanship that continues to thrive in the industry’s workshops. And, not to be outdone, we also present a menagerie of métiers d’art watches that bring lions, sharks and even wolves to intricately detailed life. On the arts and culture front, Payal Uttam speaks to Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota about her breakout career and largest-ever exhibition, showing now at Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum. And I share my conversation with gallerist Rachel Lehmann of Lehmann Maupin about her career, her personal collection and her tips for aspiring art collectors. Senior editor Jon Wall, meanwhile, reports back from his European adventures – beating up the English and Welsh countryside in a McLaren 720S Spider, and celebrating Riva’s unveiling of its first-ever superyacht on the beautiful waterways of Venice. For his monthly column, resident wine critic James Suckling takes us on a road less travelled with the best wines from “alternative” American states, such as New York and Virginia. And we close with a selection of travel features to the wildly different but equally exciting destinations of Morocco, Niseko and the Big Island of Hawaii. Enjoy!

Tama Miyake Lung | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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HONG KONG SEPTEMBER 2019 HK$50

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TANG HE FASHION FORWARD

23/8/2019 7:20 PM

PHOTOGRAPHY CHASEK CREATIVE DIRECTION AND STYLING ZANETA CHENG TOP, SKIRT AND EARRINGS LOUIS VUITTON BAG DELVAUX

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DIGITAL LE LABO GIVES HONG KONG ITS VERY OWN SCENT

New York perfumer Le Labo’s newest line, City Exclusives, introduces 13 destination-inspired fragrances, including one dedicated to the Fragrant Harbour. Find out more about Hong Kong’s scent, Bigarade 18, which features the classical aromas of citruses and white ﬂorals with contrasting notes of dark woods and ambergris. prestigeonline.com/hk/beauty-wellness/

MEGHAN MARKLE TO LAUNCH A FASHION COLLECTION FOR CHARITY

The Duchess of Sussex will launch a capsule collection later this year to beneﬁt Smart Works, a charity of her royal patronage that helps disadvantaged women to enter the workforce. We go behind the curtain to ﬁnd out everything there is to know so far. prestigeonline.com/hk/style/

MOONCAKES THAT ARE WORTH THE CALORIES

It’s the time for moon gazing and mooncakes (Mid-Autumn Festival this year is on September 13), but why eat just calories when you can indulge in the best? We do the feasting so you can enjoy the 10 mooncakes in Hong Kong that really are worth trying. prestigeonline.com/hk/wine-dine/

DIVE INTO THE WORLD’S COOLEST POOLS

In the heat of summer, there’s nothing quite like a dip in a cool water. So for inspiration, we’ve searched the globe to ﬁnd the world’s best pools. Pack your suit and let’s go swimming together in Singapore, Santorini or even the Swiss Alps. prestigeonline.com/hk/travel/destinations/

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DIARY HONG KONG

September 16-22

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL ROADSHOW For a week the Fringe Club hosts a line-up of the funniest acts from Australia’s biggest comedy festival, led by multi-award-winning Sydneysider Aaron Chen. He’s supported by Twitter-banned Becky Lucas (she joked about chopping off the Australian prime minister’s head), Queenslander Ben Knight, Brit Brennan Reece and Singaporean Fakkah Fuzz.

EUROPE & THE AMERICAS

Until January 5

THE MASK IN PRESENT-DAY ART Held at the Aargauer Kunsthaus in Switzerland, this exhibition explores the social, cultural and political symbolism of masks through 160 artworks — including videos, paintings, photographs, sculptures and installations — by 36 artists from 12 countries.

September 14November 10

16TH ISTANBUL BIENNIAL Pera Museum and Büyükada Island are among the locations that form the backdrop for the 16th Istanbul Biennial. Titled The Seventh Continent, the biennial features 57 artists from 26 countries and their interpretations of the complexities of a new world that mankind has inadvertently created.

September 27-October 13 September 20October 20

MATILDA THE MUSICAL Roald Dahl’s tale of a book-loving five-year-old girl spurned by her TV-obsessed parents, Matilda is one of the most successful musicals of the 21st century, having bagged 23 Best Musical awards internationally to date. From Tim Minchin’s score to Matthew Warchus’s direction and Peter Darling’s choreography, the West End production this autumn brings its pedigree to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts’ Lyric Theatre.

September 21-22

IRIS If all that sitting around in theatres has left you feeling feeble, fear not. The IRIS well-being jamboree is just around the corner. Recharge your holistic health and wellness batteries at Central Harbourfront with an allstar cast of instructors leading you through a host of vigorous workouts, strenuous dance sessions, re-energising Zen meditations and personalgrowth forums. Don’t miss the Silent Disco!

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57TH NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL There’s a bold and edgy line-up at this year’s festival at Lincoln Center. The 29 Main Slate films from 17 countries include the Cannes Palme d’Or winner Parasite, directed by South Korean Bong Joon Ho, and Martin Scorsese’s Netflix drama The Irishman, which makes its world premiere on opening night.

ASIA-PACIFIC

September 5-October 20

DESERT MOB EXHIBITION This selection of contemporary works from aboriginal‑owned art centres in Central Australia is held at the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs. It’s part of Desert Mob 2019, an event that includes a symposium that brings the indigenous artists and audiences together in an interactive forum as well as an art market that allows buyers to connect directly with the artists.

September 14-15

ULTRA JAPAN The hottest names in electronic dance music descend on Tokyo Odaiba Ultra Park II for the sixth Ultra Music Festival in Japan. Headliners include Afrojack, Steve Aoki and DJ Snake.

Reconnect.

Montblanc StarWalker montblanc.com

AGENDA editor’s picks

LOUIS VUITTON HAS CREATED A CAPSULE COLLECTION USING RECLAIMED FABRICS. THIS BRACELET (PRICE ON REQUEST) WILL BE A GOOD REMINDER FOR ME TO ALSO LEAD A MORE SUSTAINABLE LIFE

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF TAMA LUNG SHARES HER CURE FOR THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL BLUES SO MANY MEETINGS, SO LITTLE TIME. AT LEAST CHANEL’S J12 PHANTOM (HK$45,900) CAN HELP ME MANAGE THE WORK DAY IN STYLE

IT’S NICE TO HAVE PRETTY THINGS TO ENJOY AND USE. ENTER SISLEY’S LIMITEDEDITION ECOLOGICAL COMPOUND (HK$1,580)

AN HERMÈS SCARF (HK$3,800) IS THE PERFECT TRANSITIONAL PIECE AS TEMPERATURES DROP

THANK GOODNESS OUR BACKPACK DAYS ARE OVER. THIS AUTUMN I’LL BE TOTING A BVLGARI SERPENTI SHOULDER BAG (HK$26,000) INSTEAD

NEWLY LAUNCHED IN HONG KONG, KLIPSCH T5 TRUE WIRELESS EARPHONES (HK$1,999) ARE JUST WHAT I NEED FOR COMMUTING — AND TRANSCRIBING

A BEAUTIFUL WAY TO MAKE THE GRADE? SUNDAY RILEY’S A+ RETINOID SERUM (HK$665), EXCLUSIVE TO THE NEW SEPHORA AT IFC

A NEW PAIR OF SHOES IS A SURE WAY TO START THE YEAR OFF RIGHT. I LOVE THE CHIC COMFORT OF THESE LORO PIANA “JULIET” MOCCASINS (HK$7,700)

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Class Act

As soon as September rolls around, I can’t resist the urge to tidy my desk, pick up a few essentials and get prepared for the year ahead

HAVE NEW SUITCASE, WILL HAPPILY TRAVEL. MY PICK IS THE TUMI 19 DEGREE ALUMINUM IN SILVER (HK$11,600)

AGENDA style

BAG OF TRICKS

The Chanel 19 (HK$33,400) is special, not only because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in a new style that pays tribute to its revered 2.55 predecessor, but also as itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the last bag to emerge from the 32-year design partnership of Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard. Available in three sizes and extremely supple, the bag features large diamond leather or tweed quilting with a rectangular flap. It also comes in seven shades of leather and eight variations in tweed. chanel.com

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Walk This Way

SQUARE DANCE

To toe the line in Daniel Lee’s new Bottega Veneta universe, one must wear square-toed heels. The new designer has single-handedly made this seemingly fuddy-duddy trend sleek, modern and contemporary again. Be they netted or quilted, the Italian leather brand’s new boxtoed footwear has been seen on editors and the fashion-savvy alike and it’s almost certain the trend is here to stay in seasons to come. bottegaveneta.com

If you’re a part of the Loro Piana set, you’ll know that we’re approaching the end of the Summer Walk season. As the brisker weather of autumn blows in, it’s time for the label’s new 360LP Walk trainers (HK$5,900–$6,000). Exclusive to this region, the limited-edition shoes sport a distinct touch of red and weigh only 360 grams, with an upper of knitted Merino wool and a cushioned technical sole to keep you up to speed. loropiana.com

THE BEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

Hong Kong women have long bemoaned the great weight of their limited-edition, highly sought-after designer bags. Finally, Hermès has heard their plea and created a Birkin bag in wool felt paired with Swift calfskin. The bag (HK$86,600) comes plain or ﬂecked but all are united by exceptional craftsmanship and minimal weight. hermes.hk

HAPPY TOGETHER This month marks the unveiling of Alber Elbaz’s Tod’s Happy Moments capsule collection, his second drop for the Italian shoe brand. Here the designer reinterprets Tod’s classic driving shoe, transforming it for today’s generation by adding neoprene and metallic touches for that joyful spark. tods.com

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AGENDA discovery

AROMATIC ART

PERFUMER JULIAN BEDEL’S EXCLUSIVE FUEGUIA 1833 LINE CELEBRATES THE EXOTIC SCENTS OF SOUTH AMERICA

I discovered the exclusive boutique perfume brand Fueguia 1833 while browsing Harrod’s new beauty floor in London. The young founder was adjusting the finer details on a monumental display; the set-up alone — rows and rows of crystal bottles with globular stoppers — was a head-turner. Founded by Julian Bedel in 2010, Fueguia 1833 is an utterly unique concept in the perfume world, while being rooted in the vibrancy and mystique of South America. “I was born and raised in South America,” says Bedel. “We travelled around the continent and worked on our own lands. Each had their own particularity and came with their own fascination. Growing up visiting and discovering the rich landscapes [the continent] has to offer, I was taken by the sheer diversity of the region.

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“A few years ago, I began experimenting with perfumery. I’ve always had a distinct fascination with the natural world, and the potency of plant life. This curiosity led me to discover that scentmaking was just another medium of art.” Bedel, who’s an artist and musician, comes from a family of artists. “Just as a painter has a palette of colours to work from, with perfumes you have an infinite palette to choose from — the natural world,” he says. “And unlike the art I’d previously explored, these exceptional creations have a distinct power to alter our bodies and minds — a therapeutic potency to change our state of mind, to soothe, to excite, to relax, to energise.” Each fragrance is limited to a maximum of 400 bottles, made from the rarest and finest natural botanical ingredients from South America. On each crystal bottle is written the name of the

fragrance, as well as the year and the lot number enclosed (from 1 to 400), and each comes encased in a wonderful wooden box. Bedel has devoted himself personally to formulating each scent, blending unusual and unexpected essences that make for a vast range of intriguing perfumes — from musky, citrusy, floral and woody to way, way beyond. The entire range is vertically integrated, Bedel explains, with the essence of Fueguia being centred on ingredients harvested from the most fruitful virgin wildlife, forests and wild nature of Patagonia, Argentina and Uruguay. Having created a sort of scent laboratory, Bedel makes sure that sustainability is central to each step of the brand, from the ingredients, processing, bottling and communities it employs and affects. “The fragrances are unusual for perfumes, because they’re made from exceptional and unexpected ingredients, many of which have never been used before in the industry … In this sense, our creations don’t reflect the industry, or even the traditional concept of what a perfume is.” And what of its name? Fueguia 1883 is a rather obscure nod to a meeting between naturalist Charles Darwin, navigator Robert FitzRoy and Fueguia Basket, a native girl from Tierra del Fuego who was abducted by FitzRoy and then returned to Patagonia one year later. This journey in 1833 would be crucial in developing Darwin’s ideas for On the Origin of Species. With just a handful of stores around the world — New York, Zurich, Milan, Tokyo and Buenos Aires — Fueguia 1883 is a rare find, though Bedel did work with Hong Kong designer André Fu on the brand’s first scent. As for his favourite scents of the collection, Bedel says Cactus Azul is “the world’s first to celebrate cactus in perfumery … The scent is fresh and masculine, perfect for the summer … At night I wear Oud Tabaco, a pure essence, which is a hero in the collection.” Jing Zhang

AGENDA jewellery

WHEREFORE ART THOU?

The timeless tale of Romeo and Juliet is the inspiration for Van Cleef & Arpelsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lastest high-jewellery collection, with more than 100 unique pieces evoking the characters and scenes from Shakespeareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s masterpiece. The red and blue hues that dominate the collection symbolise the coats of arms of the Capulet and Montague families, while the use of varied stones, cuts and settings brings their stories to life. vancleefarpels.com

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ROLLING STONES

Piaget’s newest high-jewellery collection celebrates “the mysterious curves of a breathtaking desert landscape”. Golden Oasis comprises three subcollections — Play of Lights, Desert Minerals and Native Bloom — that capture the beauty of the desert sky, the rugged landscape, and the ﬂowers and plants that thrive under its harsh conditions. piaget.com.hk

JEWEL BOX

Continuing founder Kokichi Mikimoto’s mission to “adorn the necks of all women around the world with pearls”, Mikimoto recently celebrated the grand opening of its ﬂagship store at Lee Garden Two. In addition to pearls and high jewellery, the 1,500-square-foot boutique is the ﬁrst store outside of Japan to offer the brand’s luxury gift collection. mikimoto.com.hk

STAR POWER Tiffany & Co. has been busy, joining forces with celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Kendall Jenner (pictured), and launching its Blue Book collection. And it’s not done yet. This autumn the brand opens its largest ﬂagship store in Asia at One Peking Road. tiffany.com

Chain Reaction

Milanese jewellery house Pomellato reinvents the classic chain with its new Brera collection of rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces. The nearly weightless gold links come in a variety of styles, including polished on one side and matt on the other, or adorned with white diamond pavé. pomellato.com

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AGENDA watches THAT’S HU Corum’s new advertising campaign features actor, model and inﬂuencer Hu Bing, and was shot by celebrity photographer Jumbo Choi, founder of the Sans Titre menswear brand. For the campaign, Hu interprets the masculine modernity of Corum’s latest watch collections: this image depicts him wearing the Admiral AC-One 45 Chronograph (HK$83,000) in titanium with grenadier fendu panda dial.

GREEN MACHINE

First revealed at Baselworld in March and now in stores, Patek Philippe’s new 5168G-010 is a beautifully wearable and sporty version of the full-size, 42.2mm “Jumbo” Aquanaut in white gold and olive green. Powered by the self-winding calibre 324 SC and water resistant to 12 bar, it carries a HK$297,100 price tag.

UP, UP AND AWAY

Among the crowd gathered at Goodwood Park in England last month to wish bon voyage to the IWC Silver Spitﬁre and pilots Steve Boultbee Brooks and Matt Jones on their epic round-theworld “Longest Flight” were actors Finn Cole, Taryn Egerton and Rosamund Pike, former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard and the 11th Duke of Richmond, Charles Gordon-Lennox.

TO MATCH THE ULTRATECHNICAL CHARACTER OF THE RM 07-01 LADIES WATCH, RICHARD MILLE HAS PRODUCED THIS NEW LIGHTWEIGHT BRACELET IN TITANIUM AND CARBON TPT 38 PRESTIGE

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PERFECT PAIR

Made in limited editions of just 10 pieces each to mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong retailer Global Timepieces, Franck Muller’s Vanguard Yachting watches for men (44x57.3x12.7mm; HK$93,000) and women (35x46.3x10.4mm; HK$88,000) combine rarity with an extrovert but sporty elegance.

GASTRONOMICALLY GALACTIC

BUILT FOR SPEED Thoroughly updated this year with a new line of Isograph watches, TAG Heuer’s Autavia collection has bridged the worlds of motorsport and aviation since the 1930s. Along with a selection of classic vintage examples, the new timepieces were unveiled in Hong Kong at a luncheon in Duecento Otto restaurant in July. With three hands and designs that combine aviation and dive elements, the 42.5mm Isographs (priced from HK$28,800) plough their own distinct furrow; all, however, feature a COSC-certiﬁed Calibre 5 with carbon-composite hairspring.

Now under the creative direction of CEO Marco Tedeschi (below right), Romain Jerome brought its new RJ Space Collection to Hong Kong, presenting the timepieces to local enthusiasts at the three-Michelin-star Bo Innovation. The Arraw 6919 watches pay homage to the 1969 Moon landing, so their unveiling was accompanied by a galactic three-course meal by “demon chef” Alvin Leung (left).

Time Traveller

An exact recreation of 1950s Type 20 pilot’s chronograph, this unique Breguet’s Type 20 Only Watch 2019 will be offered for sale at a Christie’s charity auction in Geneva on November 9. It comes in a wingshaped presentation box — highly appropriate, given the Breguet family’s achievements in both horology and aviation.

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AGENDA beauty BRUSH WITH GREATNESS

The ﬁrst skincare device to combine gentle cleansing and a variety of targeted ﬁrming massage routines (controlled via app), Luna 3 is the latest innovation from Swedish brand Foreo. It retails for HK$1,530 at Lane Crawford and online at foreo.com/zh-hant

BROWS OF THE HOUR

Thanks to Hourglass Cosmetics’ Unrestricted Brows collection, there’s no excuse for less-than-perfect eyebrows. Start with the Arch Brow Micro Sculpting Pencil (HK$250) to create natural, hair-like and smudge-proof strokes with its 1.4mm tip. Top it off with the Arch Brow Volumizing Fiber Gel (HK$250) for a boost of colour and volume. Both are available in shades from platinum blonde to natural black. hourglasscosmetics.com

The Golden Key

Shop ’Til You Drop

The wait is over. Sephora Hong Kong celebrates the grand opening of its new ﬂagship store at ifc mall early this month. The one-stop beauty destination features more than 40 new and exclusive brands, including Drunk Elephant, Huda Beauty and Sunday Riley. To kick off the celebrations, Sephora is offering free ferry rides between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui on opening day, and goody bags for the ﬁrst 300 customers. sephora.hk

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Leave it to the experts at Clé de Peau Beauté to create a glow-enhancing skincare ritual. The new Key Radiance Care collection comprises a serum, lotion and moisturiser — all powered by the SkinEmpowering Illuminator complex and designed to unlock skin’s radiance day by day. Choose from two versions of the lotion and moisturiser to complement the serum. cledepeau-beaute.com

TO BEE OR NOT TO BEE

French cosmetics house Guerlain has long researched and touted the skincare beneﬁts of honey. Now it’s adding four new products to its honey-based Abeille Royale range, including the Mattifying Day Cream (HK$1,190) and Night Cream (HK$1,400), to complement existing favourites such as the Youth Watery Oil (pictured, HK$1,130/50ml). guerlain.com/hk/zh-hk

SCREEN TEST

Worried that staring at screens is ageing your skin? The experts at Chantecaille are providing damage control in the form of the new Blue Light Protection Hyaluronic Serum (HK$1,400). The lightweight ﬂuid absorbs quickly and works with all skincare routines. chantecaille.com.hk

TOM FORD IS A MAN WHO DEMANDS PERFECTION. SO FOR HIS FIRST SKINCARE LINE, TOM FORD RESEARCH, HE ASSEMBLED HIS OWN TEAM OF SCIENTISTS TO CREATE THE ULTIMATE SERUM AND CREAM. TOMFORD.COM

Luxury perfumer Miller Harris has opened its ﬁrst international store in Hong Kong, bringing its unique London vibe to Gateway at Harbour City. We caught up with CEO Sarah Rotheram to learn more. What makes Miller Harris unique? We were founded about 20 years ago by Lyn Harris. I always describe her as doing rock ‘n’ roll perfumery. She’s no longer with the company but there’s still this amazing commitment to explore the fragrance palette. We use very high levels of natural oils, and we sell urban stories and dreams for the modern bohemian. We’re not Buckingham Palace, red phone boxes or black cabs; we’re the kind of London you see down the side street. Storytelling is a big part of the brand. What else? We care deeply about the planet. So all of our raw materials are from a sustainable source, but we also have a mantra which is recycle, reuse, reusable. For example, the base of our boxes is made from plastic that’s collected from the kerbside. Which scents do you think will resonate with local customers? I think L’Air de Rien will sell quite well. Also Rose Silence and Tea Tonique, all of the foraging ones. I’m hoping to be surprised, though.

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AGENDA travel NAMED FOR THE LOVER OF THE WRITER KAREN BLIXEN, FINCH HATTONS LUXURY TENTED CAMP IN KENYA’S TSAVA NATIONAL PARK OFFERS PLENTIFUL WILDLIFE AND VIEWS TOWARDS MOUNT KILIMANJARO, AND PROMISES THE FULL OUT OF AFRICA EXPERIENCE BYE BYE, AIRPORT QUEUES A new XO service offered by private-aviation specialist Vista Global enables the group’s premium On Demand clients to fly at “anytime, anywhere, at a moment’s notice”. By using either an app or going online, customers can enjoy charter access to more than 1,500 private jets around the world or book seats on shared flights, as well as enlist the services of a dedicated Aviation Advisor.

MEALS ON WHEELS

Leaving Dublin on September 28, a two-night journey aboard the Belmond Grand Hibernian luxury train enables 40 extremely fortunate passengers to experience a true Taste of Ireland. Hosted by chef and cookery expert Clodagh McKenna, the itinerary includes visits to a gin distillery in Cork and the Galway International Oyster Festival, as well as featuring meals prepared by McKenna herself and the train’s executive chef, Mark Bodie.

PARADISE ON PAROS

While the entire planet and its dog are beating a path to the Greek island of Santorini, there to Instagram themselves into oblivion, smarter types are seeking out quieter and less narcissistic corners of the Aegean. Greece’s poet laureate George Seferis once declared Paros to be the loveliest of all his homeland’s islands, which is certainly one reason to visit. Another is surely the recent opening of the beautiful, 33-suite Parīlio resort on Naoussa Bay, whose exquisite architectural simplicity perfectly mirrors the isle’s white-painted villages.

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AGENDA toys

SMOOTH CRUISER

Revealed at the Ferretti Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s superyacht yard in Ancona, Italy, the new 32.3-metre-long Custom Line 106 is designed in collaboration with Francesco Paszkowski and offers unrivalled room and luxury for up to 12 guests in five cabins. With power from a range of MTU diesels offering a maximum speed of up to 26 knots, the 106 is also equipped with electro-hydraulic stabilisers and gyroscopes, so that whether travelling at full speed or riding at anchor, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smooth sailing for everyone on board.

TECHNICOLOUR SOUND High-end sound specialist KEF is bringing audiophile standards to bookshelf speakers with its new LSX wireless system. Available in four colours, plus white, the twin speakers can connect to almost almost any source and also boast Apple AirPlay 2 functionality.

Brand Signatures

Last, Not Least

Unusually, Porsche has left it almost till last to unveil the entry-level Carrera Coupe and Cabriolet versions of the 992-generation 911. With 380bhp, an eight-speed PDK and classic rear-drive configuration, however, the pair are well worth the wait and, even better, all-wheeldrive and seven-speed-manual options are on the way.

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Posh German pen-maker Graf von Faber-Castell has teamed up with Brit luxury auto builder Bentley on a range of exclusive writing instruments and accessories that incorporate design elements of the cars themselves. Shown here: a matching ballpoint and fountain-pen set in ultramasculine anthracite tungsten.

AGENDA dining

FIT FOR A QUEEN

French bistro Dalloyau, hailed as “the only maison de gastronomie to serve the Palace of Versailles royal court since 1682”, first landed in Hong Kong in 2014. Its fifth and latest outlet, in Central’s Entertainment Building, takes classic bistro fare to a new level with exclusive menu items as well as dairy-free options. Don’t miss the indulgent pastries and desserts, such as homemade macarons, freshly baked apple turnover and mascarpone-topped Rum Baba (pictured). dalloyau.hk

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ALL FOUR ONE In celebration of the hotel’s 10th anniversary, Whisk at The Mira Hong Kong presents an exclusive four-hands dinner with chefs Vanessa Huang of Taipei’s Ephernité and Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn of Bangkok’s Le Du on September 20 and 21. The eight-course dinner (HK$1,788) pays homage to the passing of time. themirahotel.com

FULL MOON

Swiss chef Jean-Marc Soldati has created four luxurious mooncake flavours for Reign Abalone: Abalone Egg Custard, Bird’s Nest Soft Egg Custard, Moutai Chocolate and Egg Lava Custard. The mini cakes come in sets of two or four (from HK$298), in containers adorned with work by Picasso and other great artists. reignabalone.com

CATCH OF THE DAY

Tai Kwun welcomes another world-class eatery with the opening of Sushi Zo. The omakase restaurant, conceived by renowned chef Keizo Seki and helmed in Hong Kong by chef Fumio Azumi, offers an 18-course seasonal menu (HK$2,500/per person) for a maximum of 12 diners per sitting. Guests can also enjoy pre- or post-dinner drinks at the adjoining Gishiki Lounge. facebook.com/sushizohongkong

Tea Party

Hong Kong bar specialist Sandeep Hathiramani and award-winning bartender Gagan Gurung have joined forces on a new cocktail bar at Central’s H Code that aims to “encapsulate the soul of the curious explorer forever in pursuit of a road less travelled”. Tell Camellia serves teas and cocktails blended using experimental techniques for utterly unique flavours. tellcamellia.com

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AGENDA art STREET LEVEL South Korean artist Kim Woo Young presents his first exhibition in Hong Kong and at Soluna Fine Art. Urban Odyssey, a series of 12 photographs, explores his unique interpretation of urban landscapes and nature scenes through his signature method of seamlessly connecting colours within a work. September 20–October 19

PHOTO FINISH

David Zwirner kicks off a wide-ranging exhibition of work by American photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia this month, including early images from the 1980s that are seemingly candid but in fact carefully staged. Also on display are pieces from his Hustlers series shot in Los Angeles in the early ’90s. September 10–October 12

RYOTARO MURAMATSU, CEO OF NAKED INC, MAKES HIS HONG KONG SOLO DEBUT AT WHITESTONE GALLERY WITH NEW INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA PIECES AND PROJECTION MAPPING. UNTIL SEPTEMBER 22

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TALKING POINTS

Don’t miss the last few weeks to see Tenzing Rigdol’s masterful works, which draw from traditional Buddhist imagery while being neither traditional nor Buddhist. Instead, the paintings and collages often delve into political topics such as the Chinese presence in Tibet. Dialogue is the artist’s fourth solo show with Rossi & Rossi. Until September 21

AGENDA auctions

AMONG THE WATCHES OFFERED AT BONHAMS’ LONDON SALE ON SEPTEMBER 10 IS THIS BREGUET AUTOMATIC PERPETUAL CALENDAR AND MOONPHASE IN GOLD, CIRCA 1990 (ESTIMATE £12,000-£18,000)

1962 TROJAN 200 September 21 At RM Sotheby’s sale of the Ricardo Sáragga collection in Alcácer do Sal in Portugal, auto exotica rubs shoulders with historic micro cars. Among the latter is this rare Trojan-branded left-hand-drive version of the Heinkel Kabine three-wheel bubble car, which was built under licence in Ireland. Offered without reserve, it’s estimated at €15,000-€20,000.

ANDY WARHOL’S LENIN

September 26-October 4 Phillips’ selling exhibition at Berkeley Square in London brings together nine original Warhol Lenin works, on canvas, collages and paper, from the archives of the artist’s gallerist and publisher, Galerie Klüser. The works are among the last series by Warhol before his death. Shown here is a silkscreen on paper (violett Monoprint) Lenin, dated 1986/7.

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SEL ECT

RIGHT: CENTRESTAGE 2018 BELOW: CELEBRITY ASHLEY LAM (SECOND FROM LEFT), SINGER HEIDI LEE, EMCEE RIKKO LEE AND MODELS PRESENTED COLLECTIONS FROM CENTRESTAGE ELITES DESIGNERS AT THE MEDIA PREVIEW BOTTOM: ANAIS MAK AND JOSEPH ALTUZARRA

DISCOVER CENTRESTAGE 2019 Asia’s leading fashion event returns to Hong Kong this month

HONG KONG welcomes the best in Asian fashion at this year’s CENTRESTAGE showcase. On September 4-7 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, explore an incredible line-up of runway shows, presentations and lively debates that celebrate Asian style on an international stage. Top designers, industry leaders, media and fashionistas come together in Asia’s premier fashion spectacle – and you can be a part of it too. The immersive CENTRESTAGE ELITES Opening Gala Show kicks off the celebrations, culminating with 2020 Pre-Spring Collection first-time previews on runway from internationally renowned designers Anais Mak and Joseph Altuzarra. Join the sustainable style conversation at this year’s Fashion Summit talk – titled Achieving the Objectives – in which the industry’s key movers and shakers aim to find new ways to engage the industry in sustainable fashion practices, both at home and overseas. Moreover, the Redress Design Awards grand final on September 5 is guaranteed to be a packed-out presentation showcasing the best in home-grown eco-conscious fashion. And to finish, there’s the Hong Kong Young Designers’ Contest on September 7, during which VIP judge and renowned fashion designer Mihara Yasuhiro shares his expert insights with the 16 shortlisted finalists. With a plethora of booths, showcases and special events, there’s more to explore at CENTRESTAGE 2019 than ever before, so mark your diaries and get ready to join the stylish celebrations. centrestage.com.hk

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RS VP TSUBASA HONDA

CHAUMET

ONCE UPON A TIME What? It seemed to be a fairy tale like no other at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, in July when A-list celebrities and a prince attended Chaumet’s dazzling exhibition Jewels of Sovereigns Since 1780. Fans of the maison, including supermodel Natalia Vodianova, actresses Natalie Portman, Bérénice Bejo and Song Hye-Kyo – and, of course, Prince Albert of Monaco – were among the sea of glitterati in attendance. Surreal: The jeweller showcased exclusive and rare pieces – some being exhibited publicly for the ﬁrst time – drawn from museums and private lenders, and even from Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II.

BÉRÉNICE BEJO AND JEAN-MARC MANSVELT SONG HYE-KYO

NATALIE PORTMAN

NATALIA VODIANOVA

RYM SAIDI

SALMA ABU DEIF

GALA GONZALEZ

XIANG ZUO AND GUO BITING

WU JINYAN

LI YITONG

LI CHUN

DIOR

ANGELABABY

LA VIE EN ROSE

GUAN HONG AND SUN YIHAN

What? The house of Dior’s Miss Dior: Love ’n’ Roses exhibition in Shanghai was a joyful meeting of Miss Dior’s rich history with contemporary art. The VIPs: Dior ambassador Natalie Portman was there, of course, as well as local celebrities such as Angelababy, Wu Jinyan and Jacky Heung. Touchy feely: The guests weren’t merely in awe of Urs Fischer’s imposing modelling-clay sculpture The Kiss – inspired by the Rodin masterpiece – but they were also encouraged to climb on to it, and even make alterations as they thought ﬁt. LI SHIYING

MIAO MIAO

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RS VP LIL GHOST

FENDI

ICE

JACKSON WANG

ONE NIGHT IN CHENGDU What? Jackson Wang performing? Huge. Jackson Wang performing alongside ICE and Miss Vava? Mega huge. To celebrate the launch of the Fendi x Jackson Wang Capsule Collection, Wang and other famous rap singers hit the stage at the F is for … Fun party in Chengdu, making sure the millennials danced away an evening like no other. Strictly hip hop: Wang performed his hits, including “Fendiman”, “Bimmer Ride”, “Made It” and “Red” together with ICE. They were joined in the musical celebration by Lil Ghost, After Journey, Miss Vava and other rappers and music producers, who lit up the party.

AFTER JOURNEY

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MISS VAVA

LIANG TAO

NICOLAS BARETZKI AND YANG YANG JI LIANG

MONTBLANC

QUALITY TIME QIN LAN WU JINYAN

ZOLA ZHANG

What? To launch its Bohème Lady and Star Legacy Moonphase & Date women’s timepieces, Montblanc transformed the MIFA 1862 arts centre in Shanghai into a chic urban space. Stars aligned: Montblanc CEO Nicolas Baretzki was joined by friends of the brand Wu Jinyan and Qin Lan. VIP guests at the event included writer Jiang Fangzhou, artist Li Xiaoling and inﬂuencer Zola Zhang. Art appeal: To align with the “modern women” theme, guests were entertained with a live performance by a female dancer and a demonstration from a craftswoman. LI XIAOLING

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RS VP HEDWIG TAM

CHLOE SO

ANGEL CHU AND ZELIA ZHONG ANTONIA LI

ZING

NARS

JUBILEE JAMBOREE FEIPING CHANG

ASHLEY LAM QI QI

MAYAO

What? To celebrate NARS’s 25th anniversary, legions of the fashionable turned out in force at Ocean Terminal, checking out the beauty brand’s 72 new lipsticks and its latest formulas and packaging, including the limitededition Original Lipstick collection. Faces in the crowd: We glimpsed Qi Qi, Ashley Lam, Feiping Chang, Antonia Li, Mayao, Zing, Chloe So, Angel Chu and Zelia Zhong among the throng. Themed “No Rules. Just Lips”, the event incorporated a host of digital elements, including a novel make-up trial zone.

CHRISTINE FOK AND VINCY YEUNG

NATALIE KWAN

SISLEY

FOREVER YOUNG What? A bevy of beauties showed up for the launch of Sisley’s latest skincare product, Sisleÿa L’Intégral Anti-Âge. Guests, including Michelle Saram, Feiping Chang, Vincy Yeung, Christine Fok, Nicola Cheung Young and Steph Shek, indulged in the ethereal Sisleÿa experience, and emerged ﬂaunting an unbelievable natural glow for the exclusive dinner that followed. FEIPING CHANG AMANDA STRANG

ANGIE NG PEARL SHEK

STEPH SHEK

MICHELLE SARAM AND NICOLA CHEUNG

SALVATORE FERRAGAMO

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL What? The launch of Salvatore Ferragamo’s latest bag – Boxyz – brought a retinue of fashionistas to the brand’s pop-up store at Paciﬁc Place. Guests such as Amanda Strang, Angie Ng, Christine Fok, Natalie Kwan and Pearl Shek put their creative muscle to the test, folding origami paper into mini, true-to-life Boxyz bag accessories.

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PE OP L E

KING OF CLUBS

As the new Soho House prepares to open in Hong Kong, jing zhang talks to the founder of the ever-expanding, pan-global chain of private members’ establishments, NICK JONES

lmost 25 years ago, a young Nick Jones founded his first Soho House in London with a compelling proposition: a private members’ club that would be a home away from home for a community of like-minded people, often with a creative leaning. Since starting the journey in 1995, Soho House has gradually expanded to a current grand total of 25 Houses across the UK, Europe, North America and Asia. Simultaneously Jones has built an impressive portfolio of restaurants, screening rooms, spas, workspaces and hotels. The latest to open: the much-anticipated Soho House Hong Kong. This month, Jones is inaugurating the space, set in a 28-storey skyscraper in Sheung Wan, with epic views over the city skyline, Victoria Harbour and green swathes of The Peak. “We’re all nervously excited,” he says. “It’s getting there, it’s been a process.” The Hong Kong Soho House he says, has been a project 10 years in the making, so why did it take so long? “Initially it was focus, then it was trying to find the right partner and the right space and the right lease that goes with it. Everyone gets quite short leases in Hong Kong. You do it all up and then have to take it all down – so there were some delays. What we have now, it’s been worth the wait.” What the new House has is a warmly lit Brasserie with old-world charm and dark leather chairs. There’s also a three-floor gym and great drinking and dining, along with the event spaces, a stage and music venue and a screening room. In a bid to become “a cultural and creative focal point within the city”, an events programme under development includes fashion, film, music, art, design and wellness. The Hong Kong House, which opens hot on the tail of a new Soho House in Mumbai, is the first in East Asia. Was this part of the world always part of Jones’s grand plans? “Without Asia as part of our network or community, it would be lacking, so I think yes, Asia was always part of the plan,” he says. “We obviously want to see how things go in Hong Kong, but Shanghai is very much part of our list, Tokyo too, as are many other cities in Asia.” Jones hopes that the region will take to his concept, which has proved so popular in Europe (Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin) and the US (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles). His empire is growing: “We have Paris to come, Rome, Milan and Lisbon – we have a really interesting

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INTERIORS AT SOHO HOUSE HONG KONG REFERENCE LOCAL FILMS AND CULTURE, AND EMBRACE AN OLD-WORLD GLAMOUR

pipeline in Europe, a nice pipeline in the Americas. Asia is definitely an area where we want to be much more active.” “What people want is the global-ness of the club. You join one and you get access to all of them,” he says. It all fits neatly into the new lifestyles of the creative elite: nomadic for work and for pleasure. Whether fashionistas, music producers, artists or entrepreneurs there’s constant travel, and building a community this way is partly what makes a multi-continental club like Soho House so appealing. He’s also built brands such the Cowshed spa and beauty products line, and the homeware range Soho Home. But with an ever-expanding portfolio of spaces, how does Jones keep things intimate and relevant – in line with this original ethos of being a home away from home? “I think within the clubs we’re always evolving – and luckily all our members are at the forefront of anything creative, so they help us move in the right direction.” As each Soho House is designed as a local club within a global network, Jones is quick to point out that Soho House isn’t coming into Asia as a London club. The key person it wants to please is the local member: “It means we have to adjust culturally to the area and the location, and we do this in each city, as the cultures are very different,” he says. “I’d like to think that in some way, we’re helping to build a global community that’s in every major city. We’re also doing more and more experiences and resorts, and we’ve been lucky there’s a certain sort of person that likes the way we do things.” Although Hong Kong is best known as an Asian financial capital, Jones has been watching the development of the arts and creative scene with curious fascination since his first visit. “In the 10 years that I’ve been coming here, I’ve definitely seen that

change. You see the people who’ve applied for membership and the people on our committee – many of them have that creative soul and a like-mindedness about them, which very much fits into Soho House. “We’re obviously aware that the city is a centre for business and finance, but also aware that it’s one of the creative hubs of Asia. I think it’s progressive and moving quickly,” he adds. To reflect this, the permanent art collection curated by Kate Bryan, Soho House’s head of collections, focuses entirely on artists born or based in Hong Kong. This is a comprehensive and timely celebration of the local art scene, which has flourished since the arrival of Art Basel, Tai Kwun and M+. The collection features more than 100 works by the likes of Lee Kit, Tsang Kin-Wah or Firenze Lai, as well as work by historic figures such as Ho Fan, Yau Leung, Wong Wo-Bik and Choi Yan-Chi. And amid a wave of more minimalist interiors being built around the city, Soho House Hong Kong interiors embrace more retro and oldworld glamour, designed by an in-house team that’s referenced famous local films and the work of directors such as Wong Kar-Wai. Patterns, colour palettes, furnishings and fabrics echo jewel tones and the city’s rich landscape, but are mixed with design elements from other Houses around the world. Menus will include the locally inspired (siu mai and dim sum) as well as introducing House favourites such as brick chicken and the Dirty Burger. An elaborate, petite indoor pool sits snug on one floor – more for lounging beside with cocktail in hand than doing laps. Jones’s members are very vocal about the direction in which they like the Houses to go. There’s a symbiosis there – a natural process in which members feed the ideas to the House and vice versa. In Hong Kong, where identity, politics and creativity are clashing and evolving at unprecedented pace and intensity, that might be extra critical for the club. “Hong Kong is a big city but it’s also a village,” says Jones. “There’s such an evolution on the creative scene here, there’s a lot of young interesting creative people, locals who haven’t been provided a place where they can work, hang out, have fun, watch movies, meet. I hope we’re finding lots of these people and that lots more will appear.”

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PE OP L E

URBAN NOMAD

HAVING LIVED IN VARIOUS CITIES AROUND THE PLANET, CHINESE-AMERICAN ARCHITECT DARA HUANG IS THE ARCHETYPAL GLOBAL CITIZEN. SHE TELLS JING ZHANG ABOUT HER WORK WITH DESIGN HAUS LIBERTY AND THE FLEXIBLE-LIVING CONCEPT, VIVAHOUSE

y dream project would be if someone told me they needed a new museum in Hong Kong with tons of public space around it that included an outdoor area for children and adults,” says Dara Huang, the glamorous founder and principle architect at Design Haus Liberty. “I just love the idea of designing public spaces that engage a community and really get people interacting.” Huang, who turns 38 this month, has lived around the world and has been growing her architecture firm since its 2013 inception in London. The idea behind the company was simple: to recruit young talents who’ve worked in the most renowned architectural practices and give them freedom and room to exercise their imaginations. “I think we do have a certain ambition with design that we adhere to, and we attract the most talented people,” she explains. “Most are already attracted to our style, and so our office becomes a think tank for the expression of ideas – and somehow it all turns into a collaboration where we pick the best and mould them with our clients.” After leaving Harvard with a BA and an MA in Architecture, then cutting her teeth at Herzog & de Meuron in Switzerland, Asymptote

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Architecture in New York and Foster + Partners in London, Huang started out on her own in the British capital. She soon began picking up work in China from Hong Kong clients visiting her London offices. “Before we knew it, we were flying into Hong Kong once a month and meeting a lot of new people who were interested in exporting our talents,” she explains. “It seemed to make sense to us to get more ingrained with the Asian scene, since there was so much interest in high design.” The latest milestone of opening a Hong Kong office in Two Exchange Square illustrates the rapid momentum that Design Haus Liberty has picked up in the last few years. She’s now starting retail-space projects with LVMH and doing a series of new multistorey fashion-brand offices in China that feature bold sweeping lines and stairways. In the past, the company has taken on a wide range of projects, such as private homes on London’s Hampstead Heath, an 8,000-piece crystal installation in a Kate Spade boutique in London, interiors for the stunning 10,000-square-foot Villa Mosca Bianca beside Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, and a luminescent mirror-and-chrome interior design and fit-out for the Medispa in Chelsea, London. There was also a

collaboration with Zaha Hadid Architects on the Urban Square London concept, as well as with businessman Rajdeep Gahir on a modular coliving space in London called Vivahouse. The goal there, says Huang, “is to create something that offers more of a home and community feel than a serviced apartment, yet also provides a few amenities of a hotel.” Hong Kong’s wealthy client demographic has meant that Huang’s business is taking in a lot of exciting commissions and private residential work for the city’s elite. But she adds that “most of our clients in Hong Kong are building out in China, and there we have projects that include a 50-storey tower and 12,000 retail shops, sculpture gardens and office communal spaces. I actually find them all very exciting and different.” Today the multicultural architect and designer divides her time between London and Hong Kong – she believes her peripatetic lifestyle and love of contemporary art, pop culture and tech (her Taiwan-born father worked as a Nasa scientist) informs much of the appeal and aesthetics at her firm. Despite being young, Huang and her business both seem to be on a speedy upward trajectory. “I don’t think I even really knew what architecture was when I was younger,” she says. “I was always passionate about art and drawing and somehow turned that into a profession.

“And, goodness, I think I evolve every year, if not every day!” Huang says, laughing, with an infectious energy and positivity. “There are no rules and no schools to teach you how to run a business successfully. I do buffer myself with the right people surrounding me and guiding my business, which has made a big difference in growing up very quickly.” Together they’ve developed a characteristic process and style within the firm that hinges on getting to know the issue, the brief and the client really deeply, so that they can understand exactly what’s required. After analysing the site and context, they start with a few design concepts that match the brief and let the client decide which concept they like the best. The chosen concept “will be the backbone for all of the decisionmaking going forward,” says Huang. “Throughout the process and as we get more and more detailed, we always have the client closely on board and make sure there’s a strong idea tying the project together.” When she’s not making it as bi-continential design powerhouse, Huang manages to travel around the world for both work and pleasure, navigating picturesque Italian villages, enjoying the sun in the South of France or taking in the urban jungle of Shanghai. “Whether on holiday or for work, most of my trips have been to places that are absolutely stunning and beautiful – when you travel, you’re immersing yourself into another culture and context, and that’s incredibly inspiring … Ultimately I want to see the Northern Lights, or Cambodia, or climb Machu Picchu.” There’s the dream of developing Vivahouse, which currently has two London sites, and expanding to cities around the world, Hong Kong being the next logical step. “Seventy-five percent of the world will live in cities in the next 30 years, so it’s inevitable that we’ll need to create more elasticity in alreadyexisting spaces,” she adds. Vivahouse is thus tailored towards the more office-free, nomadic, millennial lifestyles of the future. “Technology will allow us to create democratic, flexible and on-demand services,” says Huang. “Housing is a particular sector that currently has very little optionality for medium-term nomadic lifestyles.”

RECENT DESIGN HAUS LIBERTY PROJECTS INCLUDE VIVAHOUSE (LEFT) AND URBAN SQUARE, BOTH IN LONDON

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COVE R

PHOTOGRAPHY CHASEK AT PLANET X CREATIVE DIRECTION AND STYLING ZANETA CHENG MAKE-UP KIDD SUN HAIR BILLY HAI AT HAIR CULTURE PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT RYAN AU AT PLANET X STYLING ASSISTANT LAU BO MODEL TANG HE AT ELITE OUTFIT CELINE

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Who’s That Girl?

ASIA’S HOTTEST NEW SUPERMODEL STRUTS HER STUFF AT CHUNGKING MANSIONS IN THE SEASON’S BEST BOURGEOIS LOOKS

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OUTFIT BOTTEGA VENETA

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DRESS GUCCI SHOES VERSACE

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OUTFIT GIORGIO ARMANI

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JACKET LOEWE DRESS FENDI BAG VERSACE BOOTS AQUAZZURA

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TOP AND SKIRT GIVENCHY BELT LOEWE

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TOP DRIES VAN NOTEN SKIRT, HAT AND BAG DIOR SHOES LOEWE

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TOP LOEWE SKIRT DIOR JACKET DRIES VAN NOTEN BAG GUCCI

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“I never thought I’d be a model because when I was young, I never thought I’d grow to be this tall, but I did think I wanted to be an actress or a singer,” says Tang He, who was discovered at a performing-arts school in her hometown in Jilin province, China. Since being signed to Elite in Shanghai almost three years ago, the 18-year-old is fast becoming one of fashion’s most talked-about faces. This season she opened Miu Miu’s resort show and joined what she calls “my Miu Miu family”, featuring in the brand’s autumn/winter advertising campaign. “It’s my first international campaign,” He says, “and I’m very excited and very happy. It makes me feel like the last couple of years have been worth it.” Indeed, it’s been a very fast rise to the top for the Chinese teen. Her first show outside her home country was for Tom Ford. “It’s a show that

so many models wanted to be in and I got it on my first try, so I’m very grateful,” she says. “I love modelling. It gives me the chance to wear so many beautiful clothes and I’m so grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given.” Besides Miu Miu and Tom Ford, He can now be seen in most high-profile shows, appearing at Valentino and Fendi haute couture just this season. And it’s clear after working with her on just one shoot that, despite her natural talent, He is wholly dedicated to her craft. “I don’t mind posing more,” she tells us. “Make sure you tell me what you want me to do if I’m not delivering, so we can get the shot. I really don’t mind.” Of course, making it as a model on the international stage is not without its share of criticism and hardship. When she signed to Next, her global agency, brands told He she had to slim down in order to walk in the European collections

and haute couture shows. She did it, she got the jobs and somehow kept her youthful spirit. “I think I’m a bit too slim now,” she says, when asked about her weight. “I don’t think you need to be super-skinny to be a model, to be honest. As long as you can fit into the clothes and your body is healthy, that’s all you really need. I want to put a bit of weight back on so we have to eat some good food for lunch later.” And with that, we bring He to a bakery between shots, pointing out our favourite local sweet buns, and she squeals with the glee of a happy teenager. “I’d like to try that one,” she says, pointing to a sugary bun stuffed with shredded coconut. As she eats in the taxi on our way to the next location, still decked out in Loewe, Dior and Jimmy Choos, she smiles and says, “There’s probably nothing better in the world than a sugary bun, don’t you think?”

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TOP, SKIRT, EARRINGS AND RING LOUIS VUITTON BAG DELVAUX

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THE WOMAN IS BACK The autumn/winter 2019 collections are just hitting the stores. zaneta cheng gives a prognosis on what we can expect from fashion labels this season

hank God for the return of femininity,” remarked the owner of an eyewear brand sitting next to me at dinner in Paris. “Yes, but it was trop bourgeois,” replied a creative director with something of a grimace. “At least the fashions are no longer only made for the young,” said the owner, with everyone nodding in agreement. Although this season the pendulum has swung from extravagance to simplicity, one thing stands out – grown-up femininity has returned. It’s arrived in the form of slinky dresses like those from Daniel Lee’s Bottega Veneta, in suits from Dion Lee and in the uniform of the French bourgeoisie, highlighted by houses such as Celine, Balenciaga and Hermès. Missing are the trainers and look-at-me pieces made for the Instagram set – and that makes sense, as it was somewhat unbelievable that they were buying the clothes anyway. Perhaps Phoebe Philo’s departure from Céline occasioned the loose scrum of designers hoping to fill the void in the wardrobe of intelligent working women everywhere. Perhaps the fraught political climate and childish antics of world leaders prompted a more mature response from design houses. But for whatever reason, the woman is back. In New York, womanhood manifested itself in suits, which came in velvet, houndstooth, Prince of Wales check and pinstripe, to name just a few. From Tom Ford’s bold jewel tones to Helmut Lang’s austere white satin set, brands delved deep into their archives for whatever it is that they do best. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen created a new kind of shirting at The Row in the form of a funnel neck that was worn under collarless suit jackets. Australian Dion Lee layered translucent corsets under his suits, alluding to a work-hard, play-hard mantra by which women can have it all – a nice reminder of women’s freedoms and what’s left of the American dream. Marc Jacobs ended New York Fashion Week with a show of decadence – voluminous A-line coats and dresses from mint green to canary yellow replete with taffeta and crystal sashes. Christy Turlington Burns closed the proceedings in an off-the-shoulder dress made entirely of black feathers and without a trace of make-up on her face, a sharp contrast that pivoted perfectly into London Fashion Week.

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Across the pond, designers looked to couture for inspiration. Femininity has been something of a national subject in Britain recently, with the contemporary brand The Vampire’s Wife successfully reviving the girlishness of Laura Ashley prints and reworking prim Victorian womanhood into the modern wardrobe. And then there was the second season of Killing Eve, which in fashion terms is most memorable for its young star Jodie Comer, who plays the villainous Villanelle, jumping gleefully on a bed in a pink tulle Molly Goddard confection. Every woman has a little girl inside her – and London designer Simone Rocha explored the tension between the public persona and private reality of what it means to be female, enlisting Chloë Sevigny and Lily Cole to walk in her shows. The Italians, on the other hand, might all have received a memo suggesting they tone everything down. Perhaps occasioned by a certain Italian fashion house’s Chinese catastrophe earlier in the year, many Milan designers came up with what some considered to be “commercially friendly” pieces this season. From Tod’s and Max Mara to Marni and MSGM, looks could reliably be classified as “classic”, “cool” and “timeless”. That is, except for Miuccia Prada, who drew on Frankenstein in her otherwise romantic, floral collection. Of course, all eyes were on Céline alum Daniel Lee’s first collection for Bottega Veneta, not only because of Phoebe Philo’s swift exit but also because the Italian leathers label has been defined by Thomas Maier’s

vision for 17 years. One fashion editor commented that the collection was “hopeful of better things to come”. Lee definitely took a step away from artsy sophistication towards a tougher, cooler persona, unburdened by tight-fitting, clavicle-baring knitted dresses or a quilted skirt. He also reinterpreted the logo, with a V that can be spotted on the closures of coats and in chains on jumpers. The house’s signature woven intrecciato was boldly and unabashedly blown up and manipulated into something heretofore unseen – and that’s a good thing. These various interpretations of womanhood culminated in Paris with a fierce revival of the bon chic, bon genre wardrobe of the bourgeoisie, an inward-looking trend that’s possibly spurred by increasing global protectionism – or perhaps it’s also a reaction to the messy landscape of trends in which tropes such as power dressing and eras such as the ’40s or the ’90s have been rendered incoherent, their meanings buried in an unending Instagram scroll that celebrates the individuality of all, so that designers are now embracing clear boundaries. And what better trend to

land on than that of the bourgeois woman – the wardrobe of a class who thrived on boundaries and signifiers with designated meaning. Hedi Slimane’s Celine was most emblematic of this trend, with a mock-up mirrored dressing room descending from the ceiling (pictured below) for the first look. What followed were pussy-bow blouses, tweed culottes, grey jackets and a revival of the vintage Celine double-C print. Nicholas Ghesquière went back in time to a ’70s tableau that referenced the wardrobes of women who still subscribed to subcultures in their original form, before such uniforms were diluted by mass appropriation and mixed up with other “trends”. There wasn’t much do with technology this season, after year upon year of chasing the Instagram and Facebook small-screen fashion-show experience. That designers had too much to think about came across in a cacophony, a jumble of opinions and a tangle of directions – but perhaps that’s a good sign. Fashion works best when it tussles with society as it is, with its fears, its tensions, with the whimsical and the ridiculous, with glamour and with the prim and proper. This season, designers threw ideas of femininity against the wall and let them land where they may. Although messy, the collections also freed femininity from its constraints, giving us more breadth and freedom than ever before to think and decide to be whatever woman we choose.

Fashion works best when it tussles with society as it is, with its fears, its tensions, the whimsical and the ridiculous

FASH I ON

RALPH LAUREN

A TALE OF FOUR CITIES ZANETA CHENG REFLECTS ON THE BOLD, THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE BOUNDARY-BREAKING FROM FASHION’S QUARTET OF CAPITALS LONGCHAMP

MICHAEL KORS

NEW YORK

Those who hold that fashion has nothing to do with society or the mood of a nation might pause to take a look at the somewhat bipolar nature of collections at this season’s New York shows, where labels such as Dion Lee, Zadig & Voltaire and Tom Ford simultaneously embraced and subverted sober tailoring. The first two paired checked and pinstripe suits with corsets or translucent tops, while the latter referenced traditional shapes of tailoring but added colourful flourishes and fabrics such as velvet and satin, and then topped off the looks with extravagant furs as a way of straddling both the spartan and the opulent – two diametric moods that are prevalent this season. Firmly at the opposite end of the spectrum are Michael Kors and Oscar de la Renta, both of which brought feathers and fake fur to their shows. Kors seemed keen to focus on optimism, looking back to his partying days by liberally sprinkling the Studio 54 logo across his

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RALPH LAUREN

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collection. Wrapping up the Kors extravaganza was Barry Manilow crooning “Copacabana”. Perhaps a reﬂection of sombre times is the fact that black, yet again, is the new black. Longchamp kicked oﬀ the season with a Bohemian-inspired collection, beginning with 11 consecutive looks of ebony with toes dipped into blousy whites overlaid with black leather, before gradually diving into the deep end with heavy shearling jackets in the same dark shade. And while Ralph Lauren largely stayed within a palette of black, the emperor of American fashion played with fabrics, embellishments, feathers and shapes, and presented a collection that was simultaneously pilgrim and party girl.

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MOLLY GODDARD

LONDON

Maximalism most aptly sums up the London collections, with the usual suspects offering on-the-money examples of how more is more. Molly Goddard, Richard Quinn and even Bethany Williams, whose socially and sustainably correct autumn/winter 2019 collection won her the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design, all opted to show a riot of colour, shapes and textures. One of the most anticipated shows was, once again, Burberry. Named “Tempest”, Riccardo Tisci’s second collection comprised 101 looks and saw the Italian designer expanding the original definitions of British style to incorporate the edginess of the 1990s music and club scene that Tisci himself was a part of when studying at Central Saint Martins. The first half of the collection was an homage to youth cultures with variations on the rugby shirt. There were Vivienne Westwoodesque corset tops with nods to British grunge – and who could miss the Union Jack quilt cape that billowed behind one puffer-wearing gentleman? The second half turned the typical Burberry gentleman and -woman on their heads, with pearl embellishment and oyster motifs running across the looks.

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BETHANY WILLIAMS

BURBERRY RICHARD QUINN

RICHARD QUINN

BURBERRY

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FENDI

ROBERTO CAVALLI

MILAN

In contrast to London’s predilection for excess, Milan was all about pared-back discipline, perhaps most memorably at Fendi, where starched collars, sharp shoulders and contrasts between translucency and layers recalled Karl Lagerfeld, who died just weeks before the collection’s unveiling. At Anteprima, Izumi Ogino presented a thoroughly ladylike collection, interpreting oft-seen silhouettes through colour and print, while Paul Sturridge – a menswear designer by training – appeared more comfortable with sharp, tailored silhouettes upon which he then imposed the Roberto Cavalli hallmarks of myriad exotic prints and colours. And though Giorgio Armani may now be a venerable 84 years old, this didn’t prevent him from merging street style into an otherwise ﬁery-hued collection for the young woman on the go at Emporio Armani.

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FENDI

ANTEPRIMA

EMPORIO ARMANI

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MARNIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S COLLECTION PLAYED WITH THE DUALITY OF WOMANHOOD MARNI

MARNI

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PRADA

Milan also embraced an alternative take on femininity. At Prada, designer Miuccia Prada appears to have been affected by the prevailing mood by commenting on mankind’s hubris and making ample references to Mary Shelley’s fictional Frankenstein’s monster. The set was dark with scowling girls in Wednesday Addamsesque pigtails marching on a runway of spiky foam. Romantic floral concoctions were juxtaposed with utilitarian or gothic details – like a military jacket – and lace dresses with puffers, and there were clomping climbing boots and backpacks galore. Especially memorable were the label’s musical reinventions, such as the The Sound of Music’s “My Favourite Things” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” played on the violin. Marni also played with the duality of womanhood by mixing soft handkerchief dresses with chain harnesses and leather coats. Creative director Francisco Risso’s Neuroerotik collection highlighted the tensions between a woman’s cerebral drive and her hormones.

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Daniel Lee’s ﬁrst collection for Bottega Veneta was possibly the most anticipated show of Milan Fashion Week and proved that the 32-year-old Céline alumnus is carving out his own path at the Italian leather house. After blowing up Bottega Veneta’s signature intrecciato leatherweaving technique in pre-autumn, the quilting that dominates the autumn/winter collection was much in evidence, from puﬀer coats and skirts to shoes. Leathers were laser-cut and linked together on outerwear. The designer also brought back the square toe, and a sexy knitwear proposition in the form of a twisted, layered dress and a sweater dress with a neckline that framed the entire clavicle.

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At Armani Silos, Giorgio Armani delivered a languid and sultry collection called “Rhapsody in Blue”. Satin and velvets in black and blue were twisted and cut into slim and sharp silhouettes, as well as shapes that billowed and fanned out. Crushed velvet was juxtaposed against glinting satin and ornamentation alternated between fabric swirls and mirrored enamel set against purple beads. While Armani’s signature suiting remained key, the one-shouldered tops evinced most excitement.

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This season at Gucci, Alessandro Michele was preoccupied with masks and masked identity – even the show invitations came in a wooden crate containing a papier-mâché mask, apparently no two being exactly alike. A focus on the duality of the public and the private and the tension between the seen and the unseen prompted a collection that focused on layers, with hard shells hiding soft, lacy interiors. The accessories were particularly on point, with hats and ear cuﬀs, and gold metallic necklaces that resembled armour especially capturing attention.

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Donatella Versace mixed signature Versace iconography with grunge, yet still managed to create a collection that retains much of the sex appeal for which the Italian house is renowned. Safety pins were a key motif and they shone against cashmere knits with destroyed, raw-cut edges. Faux furs were paired with gold chains and slip dresses with stockings and bodysuits underneath.

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GIVENCHY

CELINE

PARIS

The ’70s and ’80s Rive Gauche bourgeoisie served as the prevailing inspiration for many of the Paris collections, with Celine, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton presenting their interpretations of upper- and middle-class style in diﬀerent time periods, featuring tailoring, skirts in midi and maxi lengths, and bows and pleats. Louis Vuitton recreated Paris’s Centre Georges Pompidou within Le Louvre’s Cour Carrée, with Nicholas Ghesquière imagining how women from various tribes and subcultures might have looked like as they strolled around the Beaubourg in the ’80s. Other maisons, such as Valentino and Loewe, took a diﬀerent approach by exploring avenues both artistic and lyrical. At Valentino, Pierpaolo Piccioli paired up with Undercover’s Jun Takahashi to create a 19th-century neoclassical sculpture of lovers kissing, which was set against poppunk rose graphics. Piccioli also worked with three young writers – Greta Bellamacina, Mustafa The Poet and Yrsa Daley-Ward – as well as the Scottish poet and artist Robert Montgomery to produce a small compendium of love poems called Valentino on Love, a copy of which was left on each seat for guests to take away. At the end of the runway was an illuminated sign by Robert Montgomery, which read, “The people you love become ghosts

GIVENCHY

BRANDS LIKE VALENTINO AND LOEWE TOOK A DIFFERENT APPROACH, EXPLORING ARTISTIC AND LYRICAL AVENUES FOR THEIR COLLECTIONS CELINE

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LOUIS VUITTON

VALENTINO

LOUIS VUITTON

inside of you and like this you keep them alive.” Lines from the anthology were printed or embroidered on the dresses, coats, bags and boots of the collection – a small detail known to the wearer and the wearer only. Loewe’s show drew inspiration from 15th-, 16th- and 17th-century English portrait miniatures, which hung discreetly on the wall by the entrance – the only embellishment in an otherwise stark set with black tiled ﬂoor and white walls. An English inﬂuence could also be seen in the lace sleeves, Puritan collars, blouses with generous poet’s sleeves and severe – though perfectly tailored – sharp black coats. Perhaps most breathtaking was a jumper completely sewn with pearls whose clever juxtaposition with denim took an otherwise conceptual piece into the modern day.

LOEWE

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Everyone attending the Chanel show appreciated what a privilege it was to witness the final act in Karl Lagerfeld’s long tenure at the Paris maison. The German designer’s parting flourish gave as good as it gets, transforming the Grand Palais into a Swiss ski resort replete with wooden chalets against a backdrop of soaring snowy peaks. Twinkling music played as chimneys smoked and guests traipsed across fake snowdrifts. Cara Delevingne led the parade as, one by one, voluminous tweed coats and widelegged trouser suits in check and houndstooth made their way down the runway. These gave way to Nordic patterned sweater dresses followed by puffer jackets in primary colours. There were also light, white chiffon dresses and snowflake-embroidered tops. Penelope Cruz walked down the runway delicately holding a white rose. Tears were shed as models strode out arm in arm to David Bowie’s “Heroes” for a final procession. Amid the applause, there was a sense both of finality and gratitude among the audience.

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The Dior show, again at the Musée Rodin, began with a feminist poetry reading. Italian artist Tomaso Binga stood at the end of the runway surrounded by nude photographs of herself contorted to form the shape of the alphabet and pieced together to spell out one of her poems. Then came the ﬁrst look, with a full grey skirt and T-shirt declaring “Sisterhood is Global”, the title of a book by Robin Morgan. Maria Grazia Chiuri has made feminism and women’s rights a key tenet of her tenure at Dior. This season she looked to the rebellious Teddy Girls of post-war Britain – working-class, rock ’n’ roll-crazy vixens whose lacquered beehives inspired Amy Winehouse’s own ’do. Checks formed the basis of the collection against denim, leather, velvet and thick black eyeliner. Dior’s signature Bar jackets were paired with tutus and the romper was celebrated, styled with buﬀalo-check lumber jackets and anoraks. This collection is as powerful as it’s elegant – a potent combination of qualities that most women would be happy to possess.

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Hermès’s Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski sought guidance from the stars this season and though some pieces appear literally inspired by the constellations, much of the collection is in line with the season’s bourgeois sentiment (and arguably no house is more emblematic of the French bourgeoisie than this). Appropriately for a maison famed for its expertise with hide, there were textile-like, knee-length leather pencil skirts and a butter-soft shift dress. The outerwear stood out, too, with black suede jackets and blanket coats in cashmere, and leather coats with goose-down linings. In other words, less a proposition for noveltyseeking youth than the real deal that can stand the test of time.

This season, Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia and her team at Shiatzy Chen drew inspiration from the Miao, a southern Chinese ethnic group. Motifs that referenced the minority’s mythological imagery, such as a creature with a dragon’s head and the body of a ﬁsh, a phoenix and nine suns, were embroidered, printed or woven into the autumn/winter 2019 collection. Wang also reinterpreted the traditional baby carrier worn by Miao women, transforming the signature straps through the lens of street culture for a touch of athleisure and modernity.

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BUY AND HOLD

TIFFANY HSU, fashion buying director of the online womenswear retailer Mytheresa, talks to zaneta cheng about the corsets and exotic prints that have taken over the runways this season, and how changing consumer attitudes affect Mytheresa’s selections

What caught your attention in autumn/winter 2019? From New York, I loved The Row for their oversized rollneck in iterations such as silk and shearling, and Gabriela Hearst for her elegant and feminine statement coats and floor-length looks. I was also excited by Khaite’s debut runway show, where Cate Holstein presented an array of wearable looks that felt feminine and modern in a new and fresh way, from the incorporation of hand-painted zebra prints, to silk dresses and whipstitch-detailed outerwear. In terms of emerging talent, Deveaux New York was also very much on our radar for its chic tailoring. From London, Victoria Beckham’s show was made for the modern woman – the skintight thigh-high boots in electric blue, leopard print and nude were so refreshing against the formal tailored looks. I loved the open-toe styles and pumps in bright colours, too. Combined with a comfortable heel height, they make a great statement even when worn with the most casual workwear look. Simone Rocha also had some beautiful eveningwear styles, proving the corset trend is back and more statement than ever. Bottega Veneta had to be the most hotly anticipated collection in Milan, and new creative director Daniel Lee didn’t disappoint. The collection provided the perfect balance of androgynous styles and powerful silhouettes, particularly with the use of leather across full looks and accessories; the cube-effect shoulder bag is going to be another coveted item after the success of the pouch so far this season. The Attico also had a refreshing presentation, which offered some of the best partywear in the brand’s cult sequin dresses. I loved Paco Rabanne’s collection in Paris for its mash-up

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of floral on floral in different exotic prints, combined with over-the-top statement bling. Jonathan Anderson presented another stand-out show at Loewe with his chic checked outerwear and glamorous, understated evening bags. At Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello took the collection to new levels; the outerwear was better than ever with oversized shoulders and straight cuts, finished in classic shades of black and cream. What key trends did you notice? Black is the new black; the shade dominated the runways in a fresh, revived way – Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta did this especially well in a subtle yet chic way. Dramatic oversized shoulders were key from the likes of Isabel Marant,

who offered classic shearling and tweed styles with extra padding to elevate the looks. Chain mail was prominent across accessories as earrings, mini-bags and belts, which were more glamorous and statement than in previous seasons with a “more is more” approach. Finally, midi-boots are the key style to watch in footwear. What categories/new designers are you most excited about? Marine Serre is one of the most promising new talents that we already offer on Mytheresa. Our fashion-savvy customers love her bold designs and all-over prints that are meant to be worn in several layers. The T-shirts and dresses as well as the printed tights and long-sleeve tops were an instant sell-out. For the new season we’re also bringing on Kwaidan Editions by the London-based designers Léa Dickely and Hung La. I fell in love with their leather suiting and ’40s tailoring in bold colours, which are very on trend but at the same time wearable for everyone. Some key themes – sustainability, emerging talent, diversity – have captured the industry. What are your thoughts on them and do these new concerns within the industry affect the way you buy? These new themes are great as they offer room for fresh new ideas and approaches. As we see that the customer is also starting to pay more attention to these topics, we try and expand our buy accordingly to reflect this newfound engagement with these important issues. Which consumer attitudes of spring/summer ’19 did you take into consideration when buying for autumn/winter? I think there’s a focus on our planet more than ever. Designers are inspired to raise awareness of various eco topics through this, but also to look to nature as a key source of design inspiration because of its beauty. For many designers it’s not a trend, but rather a brand identity that their collections are based on. We picked up Nanushka last year, which offers some incredible vegan leather pieces that don’t compromise on style and are also practical. How is buying for online retail different from or similar to buying for bricks-and-mortar stores? For online we need to make sure the product is visual and that all the details translate well online. We really focus on depth rather than just width – we have one of the largest offerings in terms of runway looks and pieces compared to our competitors.

FROM TOP RIGHT: AUTUMN/WINTER LOOKS FROM BOTTEGA VENETA, ISABEL MARANT AND LOEWE

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LEGENDS OF THE

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The definitive AW19 looks to add to your newâ&#x20AC;&#x2018;season hit list

PHOTOGRAPHY CHER HIM FASHION DIRECTION JOHNNY KHOO STYLING JACQUIE ANG HAIR EDWARD CHONG AT EVOLVE USING KEVIN.MURPHY MAKE-UP WEE MING USING DIOR BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT YANG SHIHUI FASHION ASSISTANT NICHOLAS CHAN MODELS PENELOPE TERNE AT AVE AND VARYA B AT LOOQUE

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SUIT AND TOP ISSEY MIYAKE BAG BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE BOOTS JIMMY CHOO

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BRUNO SIALELLI’S FIRST WOMEN’S COLLECTION FOR LANVIN, AUTUMN/WINTER 2019, CELEBRATED “MYSTIC PILGRIMS”

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ONE FOR ALL

AFTER A PARTICULARLY TURBULENT FEW YEARS, LANVIN HAS ENLISTED BRUNO SIALELLI TO LEAD THE CHARGE FOR THE FRENCH FASHION LABEL’S LINES IN BOTH WOMENSWEAR AND MENSWEAR. MELISSA TWIGG MEETS THE DESIGNER TO FIND OUT HOW HE PLANS TO BRING THE LABEL BACK TO PEACE AND PROSPERITY

n a ripped canary-yellow shirt with ruler-sized strips torn out of it, bulbous rings on each finger and scuffed trainers on his feet, Bruno Sialelli looks like the aesthetic opposite of the eveningwearfocused Parisian maison he’s been tasked with saving. Aged just 31, this previously unknown designer took the reins of Lanvin earlier this year and now oversees both the womenswear and menswear collections for the storied brand. We meet in Lanvin’s plush showroom on Rue de Boissy d’Anglas in Paris, steps away from the old-world grandeur of Place de la Concorde, the Hotel Crillon and the archives where Jeanne Lanvin once worked. Sialelli is dressed for the ultra-hip districts in the north and east of the city rather than these expensive surroundings. But the moment he starts speaking in his heavily accented, almost poetic English, it becomes clear that he not only carries the weight of his new role comfortably, but relishes the task ahead. “Being young is an asset,” he says. “It brings you optimism and an open mindset – I don’t think you should ever be rigid in your creativity, as creativity means being experimental and taking new directions. To be honest, I think the brand needed to become a bit younger. It was important for me to connect with my generation and move away from the stereotype that Lanvin is all about formal eveningwear.” Under Sialelli, Lanvin is emerging from the most difficult time in its 130-year history. In a series of events that might leave even the characters of Game of Thrones perturbed, we saw Alber Elbaz leave acrimoniously in 2015 after 14 years at the helm. Bouchra Jarrar came next, but resigned after 16 months, and her successor, Olivier Lapidus, lasted half that time. Lucas Ossendrijver, who headed up the menswear division for 14 years, left last November – and not of his own free will. Enter Sialelli, the trainer-clad guardian angel from Marseilles on whom everyone’s pinning their hopes. Previously in the men’s division at Loewe, his career is impressive for one so recently out of their 20s, with a CV that includes Acne Studios, Paco Rabanne and Balenciaga. And while taking over a famous but flailing brand is the kind of make-or-

break career move that would have most people dialling their therapist, Sialelli seems remarkably sanguine. “The challenge is big, of course – that’s what everyone thinks, it’s factual, so I’m happy to say it,” he says. “My task is to recontextualise this entire house, taking into account the very difficult last four years. Nobody around me is putting more pressure on myself than myself, but the pressure is very positive, and I’m calm. I mostly feel excited about what I can do. It’s fair to say that over the last four years this house stagnated and waited to be reinserted in the game. That’s what I’m here for.” His confidence isn’t misplaced. The response to his ready-to-wear women’s collection in February and his menswear in June have both been overwhelmingly positive, with critics applauding the way he intertwined the life and travels of Jeanne Lanvin with a modern-luxe aesthetic. The womenswear collection included wool jackets with sailor collars and leather ties, double-hemmed kilts in mismatched checks, checked blanket ponchos, uni-gender jumpers and minidresses, and shirts featuring Babar the elephant, the cartoon character who was much loved by Lanvin herself. In the menswear collection, we saw tapestry-like knitwear and beaded embellishment that also referenced Jeanne Lanvin’s work. Like many people of his generation, Sialelli is breaking down strict divides between menswear and womenswear: models of both genders have walked in all his collections and fronted all his campaigns to date. “Gender isn’t at the forefront of my thinking,” he says. “My focus is on the DNA of the brand and the meeting between me and the house. Gender fluidity is a fact. Personally, I don’t ask myself the question, ‘Is this for men or women?’ I often wear pieces from womenswear. Everyone around me dresses this way, it’s the modern way.” Which proves that while the exact direction of the brand still hasn’t been fully established, Sialelli has injected a major dose of youthful cool and sex appeal back into the maison. Does he believe he’s made Lanvin – a brand that lost its way for a dangerously long time – relevant again? “Relevance? Who can possibly define that?” he replies, with a particularly heavy Gallic shrug. “It takes decades to post-rationalise what’s been done and decide if it’s been relevant. What sounds relevant now can be really disgusting in a closer or longer timeline. But I feel my work so far has been understood, which is very encouraging.” And with that, he kisses me goodbye and walks out into a white-hot midsummer afternoon in Paris, the strips of his canary-yellow shirt fluttering in the hot wind. Lanvin’s relevance, branding and future stability are all resting in the hands of this immensely talented millennial; what exactly he does with that power will be worth paying attention to.

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GOLD STANDARD SINCE FOUNDING R. SANDERSON IN 2016, BERTRAND MAK HAS BUILT HIS SHOE BRAND AROUND A UNIQUE AND EXACTING TAKE ON LUXURY AND FINE ART. HE TALKS TO ZANETA CHENG AT THE UNVEILING OF HIS LATEST COLLECTION

ertrand Mak is giving all the shoes displayed in the presentation of Alke, his new athletically inspired shoe collection, the once-over with an air pump. No shoe goes uninspected, whether it’s on a high shelf or artfully perched on one of the pillars placed around the exhibition space. To say Mak is an aesthete is to only acknowledge a fraction of what compels him – from his appreciation for art and craft to his unrelenting quest for perfection. Having pivoted from a career in watches to setting up R. Sanderson, originally an Asian offshoot of English shoe brand Rupert Sanderson, but now owned outright by the

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Hong Kong-based entrepreneur, he attributes the journey to his attention to detail. “I’ve never imagined myself as someone who could do this,” says Mak. “My obsession is watches. The cogs and screws are so minuscule, and you have to strive for perfection because otherwise the mechanism won’t be able to last. So I think I’ve brought that mentality into what I’m creating here. It’s that obsession with detail and trying not to overlook the smallest of details.” Reception to R. Sanderson has been enthusiastic and the brand now has stores in Beijing and Taipei alongside two locations in Hong Kong. At the Landmark boutique, it’s normal to see groups of women begin trickling in at around quarter past noon and then, within 30 minutes, it’s at full capacity with crowd control in place. As some customers wait outside, those inside are looking for new styles, new colours and, more often than not, R. Sanderson’s greatest draw, new pebbles (pieces of smooth, rounded nickel that adorn the vamp) to ornament their existing pairs of shoes. “Hong Kong people are very open minded and they’re very open to new brands and new designs, but in the beginning we didn’t really have a signature, so I fastened on to that,” Mak says. “It’s something that’s so essential to a luxury brand, having uniqueness, and by chance I met a number of artists who did gold-leaf painting and I really pushed this idea of using gold leaf as a signature on the heel, because for heels the heel is really the soul of the shoe. So I pushed that through and it became the backbone of our business.” Having established the signature heel, another characteristic element of the shoes is the pebble, which as well as coming with each pair are also sold separately (as a pair). Mak has invited artisans and craftsmen from countries such as Japan and Germany to turn each set into works of art, inspired perhaps by Chinese brushwork or Andy Warhol’s Shadow series (of which Mak just happens to own one set). “The way I look at our creations, they’re not really shoes,” he says. “They’re objects of art. I hope I can better demonstrate that through our new charms and boxes, which seem more like art pieces than the shoes. But ultimately it’s about a jewel, the placement of the pebble, which I always have to underscore is not flat, so it takes a lot of skill to lacquer or work on the surface. Then there’s the heel and how we work with artisans.” For his different pebble collections, Mak has scoured the world for artisans, recruiting German glass makers to provide the “diamond dust” that’s unique to the Shadow collection and replicating Warhol’s own technique to achieve the glitter effect. “Every Tom, Dick and Harry uses

“OUR CREATIONS ARE NOT REALLY SHOES. THEY’RE OBJECTS OF ART” Swarovski crystals and strass because that’s the easiest answer to bling,” says Mak, “but I’ve always wanted to stay away from it because it’s tiring and it’s not innovative.” Thanks to what he describes as “a long and passionate email”, Mak also secured a long-term partnership with craftsmen in Japan, whose gold-leafing technique stretches back to 1661. It also transpires that some of the best goldleafing craftsmen are right here in Hong Kong, all of whom, Mak says, are working on his shoes. “I want to be able to provide a platform for this and I want to be a part of preserving this craft so that it doesn’t get lost,” Mak says. “A lot of techniques have been lost and I’m not talking about gold leafing alone. I’m talking about, for example, watchmaking, the way we make bags, doing etch stains. I could go on, but my vision is to create something that can bring together artisans and unsung heroes and not only respect the elements and heritage of the craft but to innovate from it as well.” The gold-leafing technique used by the brand, for example, was invented in-house. “Gold leaf is thinner than paper, you know,” Mak says. “And if you polish it, it will tear. So the question was, how to polish it to a stage where we achieve that mirror effect without tearing the gold leaf. That’s something that we invented in-house by trial and error, and discovering techniques with constant failure along the way.” This is especially impressive when looking at the progression of the pebbles in the Ink collection. The Japanese artisans that Mak persuaded to work with him have elevated their technique from the first series, where they lacquered and gilded the pebble to mimic brushstrokes. A bicolour gold and gloss finish was used for the second series, while the third Ink series introduces even more depth – and now, the pebbles of the fourth series contain more than 30 layers of lacquer and gold leaf. “You have to really admire it in the flesh, to see the incredible depth

and diﬀerent layers of ink, gold leaf and lacquer,” Mak says. Even the craftsmen are impressed with what they’ve been able to achieve, thanks to Mak’s insistence. “The layering technique that our Japanese craftsmen are doing for us is something that they’ve never done in 300 years. What we’ve created here is lacquer that contains a translucent red hue,” Mak says. “It’s almost like enamel and they only did it through a mistake that we’ve now learnt to control.” From the moment he asked his Italian manufacturer to add an inbuilt rubber sole into each pair of heels, Mak has been told time and again that realising his vision was an impossibility. “Many people have told me no,” he says. “They’ve told me, ‘You can’t do it as someone from Hong Kong,’ ‘You can’t be in Landmark,’ and ‘You can’t work with artisans from Japan who’ve been in the business for three centuries, they wouldn’t entertain your request.’” Even the Alke collection can be seen as a response to naysayers. “The collection is, of course, shoes but in a design language of sports and athletics. Everyone told me that this wasn’t the answer. The answer instead was an ugly, faddy sneaker,” Mak says. “But you know, I found that really repulsive and something I honestly couldn’t force myself to make, so that’s how the slogans [for customers to personalise their laces with] came to be – ‘Be Brave’, ‘Trust Yourself ’, and ‘Believe in the Extraordinary’. They really ring true in my mind and they’ve guided me throughout my journey.”

CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE PAGE: THE RS ALPHABET COLLECTION; A ZOHIKO LACQUERWARE ARTIST WORKS ON A PEBBLE; THE ALKE FLAT WITH CUSTOMISABLE LACES AND TONGUES; BERTRAND MAK

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THE HUMAN FACTOR

There may be machines in the Dior atelier, but craftsmanship and creativity remain strictly the preserve of the dextrous petite mains and the expert eye of the fabric cutters. zaneta cheng enters the maison’s hallowed space to find out exactly what modern luxury is all about

SOPHIE CARRE

t’s the afternoon before Dior reveals its autumn/winter 2019 womenswear collection, and while most of the staff in the ready-to-wear atelier above the presentation space on Paris’s Rue Jean Goujon are working hard on the commercial pieces that will follow the runway presentation, some preparations for the show are still under way. In tailleur, the tailoring division of the maison’s atelier, a petite mains sits at his gleaming white work station peering at the stitching on a grey Bar jacket. “It’s this whole front panel that I have to take off and redo,” he says. “It’s the front left-hand panel that’s affecting the closing of the jacket. [Creative director] Maria Grazia doesn’t like it, so we’ll have to recut that half of the jacket and redo it.” By when? “Six-thirty this evening,” he says, glancing at the time. It’s now almost 3.15. The curious thing about watching this garment being pulled apart and put together again is that tomorrow, eyes all around the world will see it as one of a handful of signature Dior Bar jackets put together into a jaunty ensemble with trousers, a bucket hat, a grey pussy-bow blouse and kitten heels with socks. The beauty of what will ultimately be number 10 in a show of 89 looks underlines the expertise and labour that go into each

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piece. The jacket is finished when I see it on my tour of the atelier but even so, taking apart the left panel at the front will have taken the petite mains more than three hours to fix, in addition to the time it took to translate the piece from sketch to garment. The Dior atelier, which is renowned for its craftsmanship, retains an air of intimacy, but it’s no cottage industry. In this temple of modern-day commercial artisanship, turning one of Chiuri’s sketches into first a pattern and finally a finished garment is an art in and of itself. First, tissue is pinned to a bust and arranged to replicate Chiuri’s design. Each fold and crease from the tissue is then marked on the toile, a white fabric used as a sample to ensure that each of the marks give the garment proper drape. The atmosphere is calm, in spite of the fact that everyone’s concentrating on some task or other and one staff member is working on what looks like a particularly complicated ruched bustier dress. As points are plotted before the toile is passed over to digitisation, the room is silent and pregnant with focus. Even though the runway collection is largely complete, attention to each and every detail remains absolute. Flou (skirts) and tailleur both share the pattern-making departments, with each team representing a sizeable and complicated operation. A large printer and massive rolls of paper greet us as we walk into digitisation. The team here is at least 15 strong, with each member responsible for translating every cross and demarcation on the toiles that come in. Pieces are laid flat on the table as a designer’s equivalent of a laser gun is zapped over them, to transpose the physical marks into the design software. Because different marks are still programmed by the hand that holds the laser pointer, one piece can take anywhere from three hours to a full day and

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each dress size made available for sale requires its own, separate digitisation process. The resulting print-out, or patronage (pattern), is then taken to the cutting room, where high-tech digital mapping gives way to craft skills and artisanship. Rolls of the season’s checked fabric in red and black, green and black, and white and black are neatly stacked on top of myriad piles of other material. A cutter’s role is to accurately manage the relationship between pattern and fabric so as to best serve the design. “You have to respect the weave of the fabric,” Dior’s head cutter tells me. “You have to be very precise when you put your patronage on the fabric. This is the difference between

fast fashion and Dior.” His tone is reverential. There’s a sense that it’s the cutting of the cloth that lies at the heart of what constitutes luxury at Dior. “Sometimes when we start, the sketches and everything, we don’t know what the final fabric will be. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes the fabrics can be the factor that makes the final decision. The patronage will not always be correct, perhaps for example if there’s an animal, as is the case for our toile du jouy. At Dior, the final design must show the full animal in continuity even between parts of the front and back, so we have to see where best to put the patronage so that the full design can be shown. “This is also where we make corrections to the patronage and the design before it’s passed to the seamstresses, who put all the pieces together.” Some 30 seamstresses are in the next room, a hive of activity where fabrics are pinned to mannequins and needles pulled in and out through tulles and various checked wools. For each show, one seamstress is usually responsible for all the looks of a single model. Right now, they’re busy preparing commercial and runway looks for production. “Everything is possible in the atelier,” I’m told. “Sometimes what we do here is too expensive to do at the factory, but we can do everything in here. Nothing’s impossible. What happens afterwards is that we must figure out how to adjust techniques and designs to make them suitable for production in our factories within France.” From sketch to garment, an entire collection takes roughly six weeks to produce, with each design needing around four days to reach the patronage stage and a further half day in the cutting room. With another two days required for assembly, a Dior garment thus takes around one week to produce. Suddenly a rack of closely packed dresses is shifted out of the room and up to the studio for approval. “We’re in the final stages of the show,” says a member of the supervisory team, “and there may still be a few pieces that are being worked on. We create more, just in case we drop some of the looks for the runway during this final process.” And that process, I learn, only ends the minute the show begins. “It’s about the details. You change what you need to change until it’s really, really perfect. This is our way.”

There’s a sense that it’s the cutting of the cloth that lies at the heart of what constitutes luxury at Dior

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A VISOR FROM HEADS OF STATE MILLINERY’S KYU — BEAUTIFUL BOW COLLECTION

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HEAD SPACE

SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP CHECKS OUT FOUR MILLINERS WHO ARE MAKING A SPLASH WITH HEADWEAR INSPIRED BY ASIAN SENSIBILITIES

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HEADS OF STATE MILLINERY

Self-taught Singaporean milliner Chee Sau Fen launched Heads of State Millinery in 2011 with the aim of reviving traditional Asian handicrafts while uplifting marginalised groups. After talking to various communities in Southeast Asia about how they made their indigenous crafts and textiles, Chee soon realised “that in order to preserve these traditions, they need to evolve”. That’s the reason she uses innovative techniques to apply these crafts to hat-making. Most of her designs use abaca fibre, made on handlooms by communities living on the Philippine island of Mindanao. “This wasn’t traditionally used to make hats,” says Chee, “so I developed a number of new techniques to create millinery from it, such as using bands of twine and Japanese washi paper to make the boning that gives the hats in our Kyu – Beautiful Bow collection their sharp yet flexible structures.” Chee adds that her hats display the beauty and utility of these materials. She’s also begun to incorporate sustainable principles in her work. Besides working with recycled aluminium, she’s also weaved biodegradable 3D printing filaments – made of polycaprolactone – into her recent AirLoom collection. She prefers using a 3D printing pen to a 3D printing machine, as the former allows her to draw freehand with the filaments to create the forms. “I follow weave patterns inspired by traditional handwoven baskets to stabilise the printed structures of the hats,” she explains. “There’s a special kind of magic when unassuming raw materials are brought together by imaginative and skilled human hands – a philosophy I call ‘nature nurtured’. There’ll always be a trace of the raw beauty of natural materials or indigenous craft techniques – or both – in our designs.”

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YOONEY CHOI MILLINERY

Yooney Choi still remembers her first hat – it was yellow, to match her kindergarten uniform. “I was a little fashionista,” she recalls. “Wearing hats in South Korea is not common, but my mum loved to match nice hats to my outfits.” As Choi grew older, she continued to wear hats – “I’ve always thought that, like icing on a cake, a hat completes an outfit,” she says – but the difficulty of finding ones that complement her outfits led to her deciding to make her own. The Seoul-based milliner loves unstructured curves, and swirls of flowers and petals frequently adorn her creations. But she also pays homage to her heritage, seeking inspiration in traditional Korean hat shapes such as the gat, a cylindrical

black hat with a wide brim made of horsehair on a bamboo frame, which was worn by men during the Joseon period (1392–1910), as well as hairstyles, such as the extravagant looks of the gisaeng (Korean geisha). Choi is also partial to Korean materials such as hanji, a type of paper made from the inner bark of mulberry trees, and uses traditional knots and daenggi (ribbons) to embellish her creations. She’s also used cold porcelain to create her flowers, rolling out the paste thinly before cutting out petals and shaping them with her fingers. “Sketching doesn’t work for me,” she says, “because I always end up with something different, so my designs always come from the materials.”

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EUN YOUNG LEE MILLINERY

Inspired by elements from East and West, South Korean-born Eun Young Lee fuses unconventional materials with exquisite hatmaking techniques. In a nod to her heritage, the Beijing-based milliner often uses hanji in her creations. “To use hanji is a craft in itself (known as jiseung), which boils down to rolling up pieces of thick paper to make thread. These threads can then be woven into beautiful patterns. I use this craft to make my signature hats,” she explains. Lee, who studied fashion management at the famed Bunka Fashion Graduate University in Tokyo, worked for several years in Shanghai for a large Japanese fashion retailer. In 2015, a short millinery course in London during a summer break inspired a switch in careers.

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“The experience of making a hat, from design to final product, inspired me to live a new dream and embark on a professional millinery course at the Kensington and Chelsea College in London,” she recalls. “Making a hat is a process without limit. Whatever I imagine, I can transform into a hat, and I simply love working without limits.” For each collection, the designer chooses a theme to “structure” her imagination. “Every hat starts with an idea taken from an experience, a feeling or an image. I make sketches and experiment with materials to see what fits the design best. Then the design changes into something tangible.” Lee believes her multicultural experiences infuse her creations, giving them unique character: “This is something I’m very proud of.”

AWON GOLDING MILLINERY

“A great hat should lift your spirits and make you feel like a million bucks,” says Awon Golding. It’s a sentiment Lady Gaga can probably relate to. A few years ago, the star posted on social media that Golding’s Viola boater made her “feel like Isabella Blow”, the late British magazine editor and muse of hat designer Philip Treacy. A modern twist on the classic boater shape, the royal purple velour felt Viola has a veil studded with candy-pink crystals that add a touch of whimsy. Golding’s twist on a stylish shape has helped her attract a diverse clientele, including members of the British royal family. On Christmas Day 2018, the Duchess of Sussex stepped out in Golding’s Vika wool-felt pillbox, which has a crinoline bow and two striking goose feathers. “I’d describe my hats as modern, fresh and fun,” says the designer. “But a lot of my clients say that my hats put a smile on their faces, so I’m happy to go with that.” For her, versatility is key when she chooses which materials to work with – she admits to a particular weakness for feathers. “There’s huge variety and you can do so many things with them. They can look like sumptuous ice cream cones or fireworks.” Although her hats are handmade in her atelier in East London, Golding says her multicultural background – she’s of AngloIndian descent, and was born and raised in Hong Kong – informs her work. “English millinery is typically in pastel shades and quite subdued, but I love to mix and match punchy tones,” she says. “Perhaps that’s my Indian heritage speaking.”

JEWE L L E RY

GENTLE NIGHT CLIP (DETACHED FROM GENTLE NIGHT TRANSFORMABLE LONG NECKLACE) IN WHITE GOLD WITH A 32.35-CARAT SUGARLOAF SAPPHIRE, SAPPHIRES AND DIAMONDS VAN CLEEF & ARPELS BODYSUIT JACKET SAINT LAURENT

PERFECT PAIRINGS

IT’S EASY TO FALL TWICE AS HARD FOR VAN CLEEF & ARPELS’ LOVE STORY OF TRANSFORMABLE DAZZLERS — THE ROMEO & JULIET HIGH-JEWELLERY COLLECTION PHOTOGRAPHY WEE KHIM | STYLING JOHNNY KHOO | HAIR EDWARD CHONG AT EVOLVE USING KEVIN.MURPHY | MAKE-UP CLARENCE LEE USING GUERLAIN | PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT ALWIN OH | FASHION ASSISTANTS FELIX WOEI AND BONNIE CHOU | MODEL YULIA M AT SUPREME

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AMPLESSO TRANSFORMABLE BRACELET IN WHITE GOLD AND ROSE GOLD WITH DIAMONDS, AND AMPLESSO TRANSFORMABLE RING IN WHITE GOLD WITH DIAMONDS AND A 5.25-CARAT CUSHION-CUT DIAMOND; THE CENTRAL STONES OF BOTH ARE INTERCHANGEABLE VAN CLEEF & ARPELS DRESS DIOR

JEWE L L E RY

BALLO VESTITO TRANSFORMABLE LONG NECKLACE IN WHITE GOLD WITH SPESSARTITE GARNET BEADS, PEARLS AND DIAMONDS VAN CLEEF & ARPELS DRESS CELINE BY HEDI SLIMANE

RETICELLA TRANSFORMABLE NECKLACE WITH TWO DETACHABLE PENDANTS (THAT CAN BE WORN AS EARRINGS) IN WHITE GOLD WITH DIAMONDS, A 6.60-CARAT PEAR-SHAPED DIAMOND AND A 6.31-CARAT PEAR-SHAPED DIAMOND VAN CLEEF & ARPELS COAT AND DRESS BOTTEGA VENETA

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ALLEANZA TRANSFORMABLE NECKLACE IN WHITE GOLD WITH A 15.53-CARAT PEAR-SHAPED DIAMOND, DIAMONDS AND RUBIES VAN CLEEF & ARPELS DRESS ROCHAS

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GENTLE NIGHT TRANSFORMABLE NECKLACE IN WHITE GOLD WITH A 32.35-CARAT SUGARLOAF SAPPHIRE, SAPPHIRES AND DIAMONDS VAN CLEEF & ARPELS DRESS TOM FORD

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A CRAFTSMAN ADJUSTS THE SARAFANE HIGH-JEWELLERY NECKLACE BEFORE SETTING IT WITH STONES

A RUSSIAN ROMANCE CHANEL’s new high-jewellery collection recalls a love affair that inspired the life and work of the young Coco Chanel. pin lee reports

abrielle “Coco” Chanel’s love life has long been a rich source of inspiration for the jewellery lines of her namesake fashion house, and this year’s offering is no exception. Called Le Paris Russe de Chanel, the high-jewellery collection is an ode to a chapter in Chanel’s life during which Russia inspired her and her work, even though she never set foot in the country. A notable mention goes to Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, a cousin of Tsar Nicholas II, with whom Chanel had an affair and subsequently fell in love with all things Russian. The romance was well documented because the dashing duke had a chequered past and was known to be quite a ladies’ man. But what made the liaison intriguing was that Pavlovich had been involved in the assassination of Grigori Rasputin, the infamous mystical advisor to the Russian Imperial Court. When the Russian Revolution broke out, Pavlovich fled to France, like many others from the Imperial Court, including aristocrats, artists, musicians and dancers. Many of them ended up in Paris, where the arrondissements in which they congregated became known as Le Paris Russe, or the Russian Paris. The duke was penniless when Chanel met him. But that didn’t deter the designer because the handsome nobleman embodied all the splendour of Imperial Russia, something which captivated her. The short-lived affair lasted from 1921 to 1922, but it was intense. Through Pavlovich, Chanel began associating with many other Russians and soon formed close friendships with a number of newly stateless exiles from the former empire. The composer Igor Stravinsky, who had a scandalous affair with Chanel, and Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Ballets Russes, who asked her to design costumes for his dancers, were among the Russian cultural icons of the interwar years who benefited from a close relationship with the designer, and in turn influenced her life and career.

GABRIELLE “COCO” CHANEL WAS CAPTIVATED BY IMPERIAL RUSSIA

Chanel was deeply impressed by the country and its people. “The Russians fascinate me,” she remarked. “It’s the Russians who have taught women that it’s not dishonourable to work.’’ Like every high-jewellery collection since 2009, Le Paris Russe de Chanel was designed by Patrice Leguéreau, director of the house’s jewellery studio, Chanel Joaillerie. The collection is inspired by a “fantasy” vision of Imperial Russia that Chanel could have imagined based on what her Russian lover and friends told her. Le Paris Russe de Chanel loosely covers two decades of Chanel’s life, from the 1920s through the ’30s, which were a particularly creative time for the designer. During this period, she liberated women from their corsets. Her famous little black dress – a simple sheath in crêpe-de-chine, with long, closely fitting sleeves – was becoming a staple of the nouveauchic wardrobe. She also introduced her now-legendary Chanel Nº5 perfume with the help of another Russian émigré, Ernest Beaux, the czar’s and Imperial Court’s perfumer, who helped her with the formula. Chanel’s fashion creations also took on a Russian aesthetic. Long tunics, robes, fur-lined coats and large blouses modelled with belts soon appeared in her collections, which also incorporated Russian embroidery. The latter came by way of the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, the sister of Pavlovich, whom Chanel had convinced to open an embroidery workshop named Kitmir, hence securing an exclusive supply for her fashion house.

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Recognising the huge role Russia had played in Chanel’s life, the 69-piece Le Paris Russe de Chanel is presented in 11 sets and celebrates the designer’s fascination with the country in two acts: Russian Splendour, a period when the designer was first introduced to the grandiose life of refined Russia by her paramour, and Russian Folklore, which she came to know more through her association with the exiles – an atmosphere rich in colours, patterns and intricate embroideries. To add cohesion, Leguéreau peppered the collection with signature Chanel motifs, such as sheaves of wheat or the camellia, which appear in figurative and abstracted forms. The double-headed eagle, an historic Russian symbol signifying empire and found on a Baroque mirror in Chanel’s apartment on Rue Cambon, also features prominently in the collection as bold outlines or as accents. The Aigle Cambon ensemble, for instance, manifested in white and yellow gold, quartz, and diamonds, is perhaps the most emblematic homage to the Russian Empire. The yellow cuff bracelet is especially bold with diamonds set to form an insignia-like pattern. The Médaille Solaire set alludes to the sun and military orders with

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diamonds and pearls blazing. A ring featuring a majestic yellow diamond in the centre, with rows of smaller yellow and white diamonds radiating out, is especially captivating in its brilliance and detailed craftsmanship. Other Slavic-inspired statement pieces come from the Sarafane suite, which is inspired by Russian needlework. A noteworthy piece is the Sarafane headpiece that resembles a kokoshnik, a traditional Russian headdress that became popular as a style of tiara in Western Europe in the late 19th century. Etched with camellias that resemble lace and set in white gold, cultured pearls and diamonds, the headpiece can be transformed into a necklace if so desired. The openwork Sarafane necklace, meanwhile, showcases an exquisite diamond weighing 10.18 carats, which is surrounded by no fewer than 1,347 diamonds as well as 10 cultured pearls. Colourful gems – diamonds, sapphires, spinels and tourmalines – take centre stage in the Blé Maria category, which recalls Russian decorative arts. A stately yet romantic brooch set with softly-coloured sapphires and tourmalines is dedicated to the grand duke. The Blé Maria tiara – delicately embellished with pink spinels, mandarin garnets, coloured tourmaline and diamonds – is again another modern-day reimagining of the traditional kokoshnik. The Byzantine era is celebrated in the Broderie Byzantine ensemble, in which white gold, cultured pearls and diamonds form exquisite ornamental pieces, again featuring the camellia motif.

The Blé Maria tiara is a modern-day reimagining of a traditional Russian headdress In the Folklore set, deep-ruby terracotta enamel forms the backdrop for camellia-shaped diamond petals. Vibrant pearls and precious stones of various hues and shapes glitter through ornaments in the set. A statement piece is the bracelet cuff, which is garnished with colourful garnets of spinels, sapphires, tsavorites and cultured pearls. The bracelet appeals with its baroque-meets-folksy Russian charm. Harking back to the glorious days of Russian nobility, the Motif Russe parure features diamonds exquisitely set in white gold. Strings of sparkling stones cascade in tassel-like formation from an ornamental pendant in a necklace or come in rows to form a bracelet. For folk-inspired pieces, the remarkable Roubachka collar necklace, made from yellow gold and platinum and adorned with colourless and yellow diamonds, stands out. The Roubachka ring, meanwhile, cleverly layers precious stones to give the silhouette of the Russian folk dress after which the set is named. Many pieces in the Le Paris Russe de Chanel collection are transformable, illustrating the jewellery house’s highly inventive skills in producing pieces that could magically be taken apart and then reassembled differently. Chanel was known for breaking the rules, whether in her personal life or her work. When she started designing jewellery, it was considered a revolutionary and daring move because few fashion designers of the time dared to venture into the conservative milieu of Place Vendôme’s jewellers, but Chanel did it anyway. A century later, Chanel Joaillerie has become a pillar among France’s grand jewellery houses. And today, Le Paris Russe de Chanel lives up to the late designer’s reputation, showing how irreverent aspects of Chanel’s personality and lifestyle continue to mesmerise, captivate and enrich the world of high jewellery.

JEWELLERY FROM OPPOSITE LEFT: BLÉ MARIA BROOCH; MÉDAILLE SOLAIRE RING; FOLKLORE EARRINGS; DETAIL OF THE BLÉ MARIA TIARA BELOW: CHANEL AND DIMITRI PAVLOVICH; THE DESIGNER’S BAROQUE MIRROR WITH DOUBLEHEADED EAGLE

JEWE L L E RY

SHIMMERING SKIES Parisian jewellery house Chaumet pays tribute to all things celestial in its latest high-jewellery collection, writes PIN LEE

rom Van Gogh’s twirling sun, through ﬂocks of wading birds on Japanese prints, to Turner’s swirling skies, the celestial world and its wild inhabitants have always inspired the most beautiful works of art. Following the example of the great masters, Parisian jewellery house Chaumet also reached up to the heavens for inspiration for its new highjewellery collection, Les Ciels de Chaumet (Skies of Chaumet), extending a journey that has celebrated nature since the maison’s inception in 1780. Les Ciels de Chaumet comprises four lines, all featuring a pictorial and poetic theme, which come complete with tiaras, head jewellery, brooches, body ornaments, necklaces, pendant earrings and watches. According to Chaumet’s CEO Jean-Marc Mansvelt, the new collection shows how the jewellery house is moving forward with more contemporary styles by experimenting with new materials and techniques, while still adhering to house codes and trusted formulas. “Elements of nature – the sky, the sun, the birds – have always been part of the creative DNA of Chaumet,” he says. “What we’re doing is to reinvent some aspects of ﬁnejewellery making by adding new perspectives and dimensions. We don’t try to adapt or twist or squeeze just to be trendy. Chaumet is what it is. This pleases our customers, even the younger ones, because they understand our heritage.” The new collection starts with Les Caprices du Ciel (Capricious Sky), a suite of jewellery that attempts to capture the delicacy of clouds and the power of lightning. Illustrating the theme best is a stunning necklace featuring a

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CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: PASSAGES RING; SOLEIL DE MINUIT BROOCH; LUEURS D’ORAGE NECKLACE; SOLEIL DE MINUIT BRACELET OPPOSITE, FROM TOP: LES CIELS DE CHAUMET ENVOL EARRINGS; HANDCRAFTING THE STAR MOTIF FOR LES FULGURANCES DU CIEL

host of glorious sapphires, amethysts and tanzanites and an exceptional 37.68-carat imperial topaz that serves as a detachable pendant. Another showstopper is the Soleil Glorieux tiara. The colour palette may be simple, but this piece is still opulent and regal – set in white and yellow gold, a huge fancy-intense yellow diamond is the focal point, surrounded by clouds of cabochon-cut rock crystals and an array of diamonds. Meanwhile, Les Couleurs du Ciel (Colours of the Sky) captures the magical allure of the sun in all its guises. Whether it’s the soft light of dawn, the uncompromising brilliance of midday or the Technicolor vibrancy of sunset, Les Couleurs du Ciel bursts with ﬁery hues. Colourful spinels from Tanzania and Vietnam, ranging from blue and red to green and yellow, run through to compose a richly hued parure. A stunning piece is the Soleil de Minuit bracelet in white gold, which is set with ﬁve pearshaped absinthe-green chrysoberyls totalling 6.29 carats. Twinkling stars light up Les Fulgurances du Ciel (Dazzling Sky). The star motif is a favourite of Chaumet, having existed in its library of works for the past 200 years.

And what better way to show off a star-spangled night than crisp white diamonds floating like a galaxy of stars on the Étoiles Étoiles tiara? Complementary earrings feature strands of brilliant-cut diamonds cascading down like a starry waterfall. There’s still plenty of colour elsewhere in this line. The Passages range of rings features large black Australian opals mixed with ice-blue and purple tourmalines. Exotic birds are placed in the spotlight in Les Habitants du Ciel (Inhabitants of the Sky), ably demonstrating the craftsmanship, virtuosity and creativity of Chaumet’s artisans. The Envol suite of bejewelled swallows – bodies encrusted by garnets of green African tsavorite, while diamond wings are tipped with orangey-yellow gems – shows the birds dipping and diving across a necklace, rings, earrings and brooches. And in a joyous ode to the majestic crane, the Parade suite features the elegant bird in innovative designs. Standout pieces include a brooch in which a pair of birds with entwined necks dangle a large yellow diamond, and earrings that depict two separate avians clutching pink and blue sapphires. The Les Ciels de Chaumet collection has already received rave reviews. With everything right going for it, it’s bound to become a coveted investment for those who can afford it.

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BEST IN SHOW

Fabulous automobiles, sporting and artistic excellence and high fashion all came together at The Chantilly Arts & Élegance Richard Mille 2019 ONE OF THE world’s leading concours d’élégance – a competition in which the condition and appearance of classic automobiles are judged – the fifth Chantilly Arts & Élégance Richard Mille brought together some 850 cars and thousands of visitors against the backdrop of the beautiful Château de Chantilly, north of Paris, on June 30. Among the partners and friends of the Swiss watchmaking maison Richard Mille in attendance were the supercar manufacturer McLaren Automotive and talented individuals such as sprinter Yohan Blake, skier Alexis Pinturault, equestrian Jessica von BredowWerndl and actress Margot Robbie.

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Events began on the previous morning with a supercar rally at the nearby Mortfontaine circuit, where Pinturault tried his hand in the slalom, braking and speedbowl areas. Meanwhile, at a Rallye des Collectionneurs, members of the public admired a display of rare cars – McLarens, Ferraris, Porsches and Mercedes – which culminated with a lunch at the Palais de Compiègne attended by the Olympic gold-medallist Blake. A glamorous gala dinner for 500 at the Grandes Écuries de Chantilly concluded that day, preceded by a display of exquisite dressage by von Bredow-Werndl. During the following day’s concours, guests admired a stunning array of automotive masterpieces, as well as a display of

Matra cars driven by the three-time Formula 1 World Champion Jackie Stewart. Other diversions included a Bonhams auction, a Grand Canal boat ride, a Nude Mona Lisa exhibition at the Musée Condé and, at the Richard Mille lounge, a neo-futurist tableau with the DeLorean car from Back to the Future as its centrepiece. At the concours itself, which included 16 automobile brands and was attended by Indianapolis 500 winners and Indycar champions Simon Pagenaud and Scott Dixon, concept cars were paired with a fashion designer, such as the Honda E Prototype with Yohji Yamamoto and the sensational McLaren Speedtail, which won the Best in Show award, with Paule Ka. Indeed, as it brings together the ultimates in technology, high style and sporting and artistic achievement in a gorgeous classical setting, the Chantilly Arts & Élegance Richard Mille could hardly be a more perfect expression of the philosophy that guides this most individual and innovative of watch manufactures. richardmille.com

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: MATRA CARS DRIVEN BY THREE-TIME FORMULA 1 WORLD CHAMPION JACKIE STEWART; THE GALA DINNER IN THE GRANDES ÉCURIES DE CHANTILLY; SUN, SAILS AND SPEEDTAIL AT THE CHANTILLY ARTS & ÉLEGANCE RICHARD MILLE 2019; A DRESSAGE DISPLAY BY JESSICA VON BREDOW-WERNDL; RICHARD MILLE (LEFT) AND GUESTS AT THE GALA DINNER

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CALL

IN THESE HIGHLIGHTS FROM SIHH 2019, MAJESTIC BEASTS ARE BROUGHT VIVIDLY TO

OF THE LIFE THROUGH THE MAGIC OF EXQUISITE MÉTIERS D’ART CRAFTSMANSHIP

WILD

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ROTONDE DE CARTIER WOOD MARQUETRY WATCH IN PINK GOLD WITH ALLIGATOR STRAP CARTIER

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THIS PAGE CLASSICO MANARA IN STEEL WITH ALLIGATOR STRAP ULYSSE NARDIN OPPOSITE PAGE AMADÃ&#x2030;O FLEURIER 43 IN WHITE GOLD WITH ALLIGATOR STRAP BOVET

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THIS PAGE ARCEAU AWOOOOO IN WHITE GOLD WITH ALLIGATOR STRAP HERMÃ&#x2C6;S OPPOSITE PAGE LES CABINOTIERS IMPERIAL TIGER IN PINK GOLD WITH ALLIGATOR STRAP VACHERON CONSTANTIN

PHOTOS: HIROAKI FUKUDA; JAEGER-LECOULTRE (WATCHES); GRACE TAY (DIALS, LACQUERWARE)

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CULTURAL APPRECIATION GRACE TAY TRAVELS TO KYOTO FOR AN IMMERSION IN TRADITIONAL JAPANESE KOGEI AND SWISS WATCHMAKING MÉTIERS, WHICH FIND AFFINITY IN THEIR DEEP VALUE OF PRECISION

oto music pierced the crisp night air as we walked up a black carpet overlaid on the shifting gravel of Shinnyo-do Temple’s outer grounds. This sacred space had an especially ethereal feel, as spotlights dotting the space illuminated beautiful ancient trees from below. The full moon hung high overhead; Jaeger-LeCoultre had apparently timed its event precisely for this lunar appearance. For this spring evening, the activity hall of the 1,035-year-old temple housed a one-night-only Art of Precision exhibition. This unique showcase celebrated the art of three Japanese Living National Treasures – embroidery master Kiju Fukuda, lacquerware artist Kazuo Yamagishi and marquetry expert Kenji Suda – whose traditional kogei, or artisanal crafts, parallel Jaeger-LeCoultre’s own watchmaking and decorating savoir faire. Hailing from Vallée de Joux were two veterans from the Swiss maison: master watchmaker Christian Laurent and enamel artist Sophie Quenaon. Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan and the nation’s cultural heart, boasts 17 Unesco World Heritage Sites – among the highest number in a single city. Dotted with old temples, castles, ceremonial theatres and

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centuries-old teahouses and restaurants, this heritage city lends itself well to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s homage to the art of precision, “an expression of its relentless pursuit of technical precision and aesthetic artistry”, which it introduced last December. Japan aligns itself quite naturally to the ethos of a high-horology brand from Switzerland, for which other nation comes close to the Swiss penchant for precision? An example that epitomises how seriously the Japanese take punctuality was a May 2018 incident that made headlines across the world. Japan’s rail timetable, famous for running on to-the-minute accuracy, scandalised the nation when a train scheduled for a 7.12am departure left Notogawa Station at 7.11.35am – a whole (gasp!) 25 seconds ahead of schedule. A flurry of official apologies and reformative action ensued. In Switzerland, a 2017 nationwide survey of almost 8,000 (7,958, since we’re being precise) found that 96 percent of its citizens had low to zero tolerance for lateness. While 20 percent of respondents gave a 15-minute grace period, 27 percent would be broiling after 10 minutes; 33 percent indicated a five-minute upper limit; and 15 percent denounced any lateness at all as unacceptable. Accuracy in timekeeping is the cornerstone of Swiss watchmaking. The upper echelons of watchmakers vaunt the precision of their mechanical timepieces, and across the board, many resources and much effort are poured into technical advances that improve this aspect – be it a new silicon oscillator or a hairspring. Few achieve the holy grail of a watch’s time deviation of plus or minus one second a day, or even the COSC standard of plus or minus six seconds. FROM TOP: JAEGERLECOULTRE MASTER GRANDE TRADITION RÉPÉTITION MINUTES PERPÉTUELLE IN BLUE GUILLOCHÉ ENAMEL; MASTER WATCHMAKER CHRISTIAN LAURENT; TRADITIONAL KIMONO FABRIC

Stepping back in time, the quest for chronometry led to the invention of the tourbillon in 1795, based on the theory of a rotating escapement averaging out gravitational positioning errors from pocket watches being stowed upright in wearers’ pockets. While some have questioned the tourbillon’s relevance in a modern wristwatch, Jaeger-LeCoultre has repeatedly upped the game with its multi-axis Gyrotourbillon, this year in its fifth incarnation. Introduced in 2004, the Gyrotourbillon and its successors kept accuracy to plus or minus one second a day. Unveiled this January, the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel (aka the “Gyro 5”) boasts a markedly smaller tourbillon – an endeavour that tightened error tolerance and necessitated even more precise engineering – as well as a one-minute constant-force mechanism that feeds packets of constant energy to the tourbillon. This enables unprecedented accuracy in the jumping-minute-hand display and, in turn, eliminates the risk of the minute chime ever lagging behind by a minute. Jaeger-LeCoultre saved its next high-complication watch for a global debut four months later in May, alongside its Art of Precision showcase in Japan. Select international clients were invited to the Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto, both thoroughly modern and rich in traditional influences, to view – and hear – the new Master Grande Tradition Répétition

HIROAKI FUKUDA; JAEGER-LECOULTRE (WATCHES); GRACE TAY (DIALS & LACQUERWARE)

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: A MASTER GRANDE TRADITION RÉPÉTITION MINUTES PERPÉTUELLE DISPLAYED AGAINST KIMONO FABRIC; LACQUER BOX BY KAZUO YAMAGISHI; ENAMEL ARTIST SOPHIE QUENAON

THE SONNERIE WATCH BOASTS AN AUDACIOUSLY CLEVER NEW GONG DESIGN Minutes Perpétuelle. This sonnerie watch boasts an audaciously clever new gong design that uses the full volume of the case to amplify volume and enrich acoustic tonality. The minute repeater is married with a perpetual calendar, the rarefied combo taken yet a step further with an automatic wind. Laurent, who’s been with Jaeger-LeCoultre for 48 years and “should have retired two years ago”, heads the brand’s Atelier Grandes Complications, which produced the new watch. He said that this year’s line of watches with new blue enamelled guilloché dials speaks the most to him: “The dial is engraved with a century-old rose engine and given a beautiful deep-blue translucent guilloché enamel, and expresses the perfect fusion of high watchmaking and aesthetic know-how that embody the maison’s art of precision. “We’ve always had all the different handcrafts. In the past, watchmaking and the more aesthetic work were separated. But over the

years, we saw value in bringing both together – with the aesthetic craft enhancing the beauty of the mechanical work. This year, we’re highlighting these handcrafts by putting them in this frame of high complications.” Jaeger-LeCoultre displayed its Master Grande Tradition Répétition Minutes Perpétuelle with the blue dial alongside a vintage kimono by embroidery master Fukuda at its Art of Precision exhibition. The precise, repetitive engraving work on the watch dial was mirrored in the meticulous stitch work that brought outlines of flowers to life, demonstrated live by Fukuda’s daughter-in-law, who’s part of the family studio that continues his life’s work. Laurent called attention to the work of his colleague Quenaon, who’s been with the house for half the time he has – but still a long 24 years. Sitting behind a bench at this temple-hall set, she peered into a microscope as she detailed a miniature Oriental painting, with a fine

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paintbrush of a mere few strands of hair, on a dial not much wider than an inch across. “It’s wonderful how you can express so much in so little space,” Laurent exclaimed. Quenaon, an enamel artist at the manufacture’s Métiers Rares (rare crafts) Atelier, had left out a tray of various other dials with scaled-down portraits, scenery or reproductions of famous artworks – all painstakingly hand-painted on canvases smaller than a Snapple bottle cap. Working with enamel, a “capricious material”, necessitates “the greatest rigour, quality and exactitude”, she added. “The pursuit of precision is an everyday job for us, and we strive to reproduce as faithfully and accurately as possible the paintings and motifs on which we work.” Next to Quenaon’s desk were lacquer boxes by Yamagishi. The craftsman hails from Wajima, a small town that’s been producing lacquerware since the 16th century. Pieces displayed included a box in the red-and-black Wajima-nuri style and a colourful detailed centrepiece

CHARM OF THE CHIME First on the list of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s top three most important milestones in its nearly 150 years of creating sonnerie watches is, for the brand’s director of product marketing Matthieu Sauret, the Minute Repeater Perpetual Calendar and Chronograph grand complication “that equipped the greatest watches in 1880-1930”. Next, says Sauret, are this year’s Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel, as this is the first time Jaeger-LeCoultre has put the Westminster chime in a wristwatch, and the Master Grande Tradition Répétition Minutes Perpétuelle, with its new Calibre 950 with a patented gong. Acoustics of the new minute repeater, unveiled in May, are modelled after the brand’s antique pocket watches and made possible by helix-shaped gongs tuned in a “very precise, complex and very secret craft that we master at Jaeger-LeCoultre”.

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FROM LEFT: CIRCA 1895 POCKET WATCH; ARTISANAL TOOLS FOR MARQUETRY; KENJI SUDA AT WORK; ATMOS MARQUETERIE PAILLE CLOCK

A PATENTED HELICAL GONG SYSTEM BREAKS A NEW SOUND BARRIER FOR JAEGER‑LECOULTRE’S SONNERIE WATCHES Of course, any comparison between the aural quality of pocket watches and wristwatch minute repeaters is “unsound”: old pocket watches are large and not watertight, allowing better reverberation and sound transmission, whereas the smaller case of a wristwatch limits this. Nonetheless, the sound quality of the Répétition Minutes Perpétuelle — at 43mm across and 13.72mm high, the white-gold case is remarkably compact — rings true. It’s testament to the brand’s unrivalled expertise in chiming watches. It counts more than 200 different sonnerie calibres in its catalogue. “By 1900, with only 67 years of existence, Jaeger-LeCoultre had already created 100 different minute repeaters, so we had plenty to choose from. If I had to pick one that stands out, it would be a Grande Complication Circa 1895 — LeCoultre Calibre 19-20RMS,” says Sauret.

JAEGERLECOULTRE MASTER GRANDE TRADITION RÉPÉTITION MINUTES PERPÉTUELLE WITH SILVERY GRAINED DIAL

created with the centuries-old chinkin technique, where gold leaf or powder is inlaid into etchings and dots finely chiselled or cut into a lacquered surface. Artisan Suda, meanwhile, showcased seemingly simple boxes with beautiful wood grain, but there was more than what met the eye. Suda uses sashimono wood joinery techniques to craft boxes or furniture. This entails the cutting and carving of wood so precisely that the pieces fit perfectly together without the use of nails, hardware or glue. Alongside these was a Jaeger-LeCoultre Atmos Marqueterie Paille clock, a fine specimen of wood and straw marquetry. Squares with a multidirectional spread of lines in gleaming ebony, formed with inlaid straw, show the exacting handwork on the cabinet; the Atmos clock, a horological legend itself that seemingly runs on air, is engineered to power itself for up to 48 hours just with a 1°C change in temperature. Hailing precision as the common denominator between the city of Kyoto and Jaeger-LeCoultre, the watch manufacture’s chief executive Catherine Rénier summed up the evening thus: “It was a perfect opportunity to immerse our guests in the Art of Precision, highlighting the attention to detail and traditional gestures accomplished to create pieces of art, as well as our collection of watches.”

Today, a minute repeater function that chimes out the hours and minutes is but a nice-to-have. There’s a thrill to having a plaything with a manifestly difficult-to-produce complication, but striking watches are otherwise redundant in the modern day — a relic of an age before electric lighting when, instead of waiting in the dark of night for the next hourly dongs of the town clock bell, the (well-to-do) owner of a minute repeater could have the watch ding out the time on demand. On a more pragmatic note, the Répétition Minutes Perpétuelle incorporates an automatic winding system that facilitates, with regular wear or the help of a watch winder, its running perpetuity. After all, a watch’s powering down defeats entirely the perpetual-calendar function’s benefit of requiring a date reset only in year 2100 (or, if you have a newer timepiece, 2200), especially as

resetting it to the right date again is hardly the easiest of tasks. “We wanted to associate two of the signature complications of Jaeger-LeCoultre: the perpetual calendar and the minute repeater, which are also two of the most classical complications of fine watchmaking. The use of the automatic for the perpetual calendar is a must — the person wearing the watch can use a winder and the perpetual is always up to date,” says Sauret. “The challenge was to keep the calibre pure and refined, to see the perpetual calendar on the front and the repeater mechanism on the back — made possible due to an ingenious ultra-thin platinum oscillating weight that’s concealed in the core of the calibre. When anyone says, ‘No, that’s impossible,’ at Jaeger-LeCoultre it gets very exciting and we say, ‘Let’s do it!’”

THE CALIBRE AND CHIMING MECHANISM OF THE MASTER GRANDE TRADITION RÉPÉTITION MINUTES PERPÉTUELLE

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GENDER BENDERS Oversized isn’t the only way to go for women who want to strap on a man’s watch. jamie tan argues that other aesthetics are worth exploring

ike the oversized boyfriend shirt, men’s watches are a popular women’s style statement – and for several reasons. For some, a bigger watch is simply more visually arresting. Others might prefer the mechanical movement of a men’s watch over the quartz calibre that’s often found in the ladies’ equivalent. And as some of the most iconic timepieces today – from the Submersible to the Speedmaster – are strictly men’s only, there’s simply no choice in the matter. But for whatever reason, the act of strapping a large men’s watch on to a feminine wrist doesn’t just call attention to the watch itself; it also speaks volumes about the confidence of the woman who’s wearing it. Nonetheless, a chunky timepiece isn’t necessarily the be-all and end-all for women, and with that notion in mind, here’s a trio of slimmer and more elegant options – masculine, yes, but projecting a different sort of vibe for a female.

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TOUCH OF CLASS

Although sports and tool watches are normally associated with a confident masculinity, the same can also apply to a well-thought-out dress watch. Appropriating such an item for a black-tie event instead of yet another diamond-pavé women’s watch could be an interesting styling exercise that opens up other sartorial possibilities. Our choice for this is a new model from Grand Seiko’s Elegance collection, specifically the SBGK002 in rose gold with a red urushi (Japanese lacquer) dial. Fitted with the new manually wound Calibre 9S63, the watch, which is available in a limited edition of just 50 pieces, has a somewhat symmetrical layout with its power-reserve indicator at 3 o’clock and the small-seconds dial at 9. The dial’s urushi surface displays a texture that radiates outwards from the centre, in what Grand Seiko calls the Mount Iwate pattern, which contrasts with the polished hands set against it. Meanwhile, the domed dial surface is matched by bent minute and power-reserve-indicator hands that follow its contour. At 39mm wide but just under 12mm high, the watch has presence without significant heft, making it a classy choice that’s equally at home on the wrist of a man or a woman.

STEALTH MODE

RECORD BREAKER

When it comes to world firsts in watchmaking, these almost always apply to men’s timepieces. Partly this is due to the perception that women simply aren’t interested in such aspects of horology, and partly it’s due to size: as men’s watches are bigger, that means more internal volume into which complications can be built. Considerations such as those, however, don’t really apply to ultra-thin timepieces, which is why the new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT looks so compelling for women. The watch’s 42mm case may seem large, but the Octo’s short lugs make the watch wear smaller than its dimensions suggest. Moreover, at just 6.9mm it’s currently the world’s thinnest mechanical chronograph. A piece of watchmaking history and a world record on the wrist, anyone? Horological significance aside, the sandblasted titanium surfaces of the Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT embody a stark industrial aesthetic. For the modern woman who wants something different, this could well be it.

Introduced in 2016 to much fanfare, the Monsieur de Chanel marked a watershed moment as enthusiasts began to take the maison’s watchmaking ambitions seriously. It was conceived as a men’s watch from the outset – hence the 42mm case – and combines a strikingly symmetrical design with an unconventional in-house movement that displays the time with jumping hours and retrograde minutes. Originally offered in either beige or white gold with an off-white grained dial, the Monsieur was overtly masculine. However, the recently unveiled Monsieur de Chanel Édition Noire mixes things up with matt-black steel-and-ceramic case, dial and alligator strap. This treatment doesn’t just minimise the perceived size of the timepiece, but also gives it a mysterious air, albeit at a slight cost to legibility. This isn’t just a quietly self-assured timepiece whose strong design is complemented by a technical movement. It’s also an accessory that instantly adds a touch of cool to any outfit. CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE PAGE: BVLGARI OCTO FINISSIMO CHRONOGRAPH GMT; GRAND SEIKO ELEGANCE SBGK002; MONSIEUR DE CHANEL ÉDITION NOIRE

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ABOUT FACE

New clothes and accessories weren’t the only things capturing our attention on the autumn/winter runways. TAMA LUNG selects the four make-up and beauty looks that dominated the season

THE MOD SQUAD

YSL BEAUTÉ Sequin Crush Mono N10 (HK$280). yslbeauty.com.hk NARS High-Pigment Longwear Eyeliner in Night Porter (HK$250). narscosmetics.com.hk

DIORSHOW Pump’N’Volume Mascara #090 (HK$300). dior.com

DIORSHOW On Stage Liner #091 (HK$275). dior.com

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It wouldn’t be Fashion Week without a few retro references. This year’s smokey eye got a graphic update at Dior (pictured), where creative director Peter Philips smudged matt black liner around the eyes and drew Twiggy-like lower lashes for what he called a “sixties Mod/ Teddy Girl-inspired look”. At Anna Sui, make-up artist Pat McGrath blended graphic black lines with colours from the collection to create “a nod to the ’60s with a little edge, a little rebellion”. M.A.C’s Val Garland went one step further for Giambattista Valli, using a combination of black, white and silver for a futuristic take on mod, complete with foil lashes placed slightly below the lower lash line.

CHANEL Eye Campaign 2019 Eyelash Curler (HK$235). chanel.com

URBAN DECAY Stay Naked Weightless Liquid Foundation in 10CP (HK$320). urbandecay.com.hk

NARS Orgasm Afterglow Lip Balm (HK$250). narscosmetics. com.hk

DIOR Diorskin Mineral Nude Matte #03 (HK$440. dior.com

CHANTECAILLE Cheek Gelée in Vibrant (HK$410). chantecaille. com.hk

CHARLOTTE TILBURY Airbrush Flawless Foundation in Neutral (HK$400). charlottetilbury.com

IT COSMETICS Your Skin But Better CC+ in Fair (HK$270). sephora.hk

THE FRESH FACE

LA PRAIRIE Skin Caviar Loose Powder (HK$1,800). laprairie.com.hk

While we typically associate soft pastels and barely-there make-up with spring/summer, this season saw a number of make-up artists choosing the look to complement the array of elegant clothes ﬂoating down the runway. At Chanel, global make-up creative director Lucia Pica played up the “masculine-feminine” vibe of the collection with velvety skin, manicured brows and cheeks so rosy the models looked like they just came in from the cold. At Fendi (pictured) and Salvatore Ferragamo, meanwhile, ﬂawless skin met just a hint of colour. Fortunately, this is one of the easiest looks to recreate with the range of new complexion products in this season’s beauty launches.

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CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN Loubiglittergloss, available in six colours (HK$755). asia.christianlouboutin.com

BURBERRY Kisses Lip Lacquer in Oxblood (HK$260). hk.burberry.com

YSL BEAUTÉ Tatouage Couture in N30 (HK$310). yslbeauty.com.hk

THE LOUD LIP

GUERLAIN KissKiss MetallicFinish Diamond Lipstick in Red Jewel (HK$280). guerlain. com/hk/en-hk

DIOR Addict Lacquer Plump #886 (HK$300). dior.com

MAKE UP FOREVER Artist Rouge Cream #C407 (HK$185). makeupforever.com/hk SHU UEMURA Rouge Unlimited Matte RD163 (HK$230). shuuemura.com.hk

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Whether bright and bold at Helmut Lang, deep and dark at Paco Rabanne or fierce and fiery at Louis Vuitton (pictured), the statement lip made a major comeback for autumn/ winter. Pat McGrath veered towards ’80s glam at Louis Vuitton, pairing red lips with dramatic winged eyeliner, while the look at Helmut Lang was far more pared-back and minimalist. Whatever style you go for, there are more texture and colour combinations than ever to choose from this season, with every make-up brand offering lipstick variations from sparkling hot pink to matt plum. The ones shown here are just a few of our favourites.

NARS Precision Lip Liner in Halong Bay (HK$220). narscosmetics.com.hk HUDA BEAUTY Liquid Matte Lipstick in Girlfriend (HK$205). sephora.hk

YSL All Hours Cushion Foundation in N20 (HK$480). yslbeauty.com.hk

THE NEW GRUNGE

CHANEL Le Gel Pailleté (HK$360). chanel.com

“A little bit of imperfection is the new perfection,” according to former high priestess of glam herself, Donatella Versace. Apparently our modern obsession with perfectly curated social-media feeds led the designer to delve into the world of early-’90s grunge in creating her autumn/winter collection (pictured). The result is still high fashion but a bit rough around the edges, which in beauty terms means smudged smokey eyes, a casual swipe of lipstick and perfectly imperfect tousled hair. A similar vibe emerged at Dries Van Noten, where Peter Philips described the sparkling touches of glitter across the eyelids and an otherwise bare face as “leftover make-up” from a night out.

CHANTECAILLE Luminescent Eye Shade in Elephant (HK$480). chantecaille.com.hk

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DON’T STOP THE MAKE-UP

Musician-turned-mogul Rihanna continues her world-domination tour, bringing Fenty Beauty and its “beauty for all” philosophy to Hong Kong. tama lung reports 158 PRESTIGE

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hether she’s topping the charts as a recording artist, raising millions in support of impoverished youth for her charity foundation, or becoming the first black woman to launch and lead a luxury label for LVMH, Robyn Rihanna Fenty is a force to be reckoned with. The Barbados-born singer released the first of many best-selling albums in 2005 and has since tried her hand at everything from acting to lingerie design. But one of her biggest passions has always been make-up, a fact that resulted in her creation of Fenty Beauty by Rihanna in 2017. Developed in partnership with LVMH-owned Kendo Brands, Fenty Beauty was initially launched in 17 countries with a vision of inclusivity that went beyond skin tone to embrace people of all races, cultures, values and belief systems. This month, the make-up brand brings its “beauty for all” mantra to Asia with retail launches in Hong Kong, Macau, Seoul and Jeju. One of Rihanna’s most trusted make-up artists, Priscilla Ono, was in town recently to introduce the Fenty brand and its products. “Rihanna is so excited to be launching in Hong Kong, and just broadening our brand and bringing it over here,” Ono says over a wide-ranging display of complexion and colour products. “I think one of the unique things about Fenty Beauty is that we actually launched with complexion. The very first make-up product she ever used was foundation, so it’s something that’s really close to her.” Indeed, Rihanna’s beauty memories go back to childhood and watching her mother apply make-up. She decided to launch her own foundation range with 40 shades, later extending to 50 and adding another 50 shades of concealer. “When it comes to foundation, she doesn’t like when it looks like you’re wearing make-up,” Ono says. “So the products that she wanted to develop were those that would look like skin but also withstand humidity, because she’s from Barbados.” What Rihanna ended up developing is what’s now known as the Fenty Face (see prestigeonline.com for step-by-step instructions). “This is your base, your go-to,” Ono explains. “No matter what look we’re doing with Rihanna, we’re always starting off with the Fenty Face.” The canvas in place, Rihanna went on to create a number of signature products inspired by her life as a performing artist and a die-hard make-up fanatic. Favourites include the 3D jelly-powder Diamond Bomb (“We can’t keep it on the shelves,” Ono says), the scented luminiser Body Lava (“If you want to smell like Rihanna, use Body Lava”) and the founder’s personal must-haves,

“Make-up has no rules. Make-up has no boundaries. If you feel inspired, go for it, because that’s exactly what Rihanna does” — Priscilla Ono, make-up artist and brand ambassador

Invisimatte blotting powder and Gloss Bomb lip luminiser (“These are the two things Rihanna always has on hand”). The brand has also just introduced new additions to its complexion range, including a hydrating primer and foundation, which goes to show the close bond Rihanna has with her customers. “People feel very close to the brand, because it’s not forced,” Ono says. “Make-up has no rules. Make-up has no boundaries. If you feel inspired, go for it, because that’s exactly what Rihanna does. She loves to hear feedback and she loves to give people what they want and what they need.” Fenty Beauty by Rihanna is available in Hong Kong and Macau at T Galleria by DFS, Sephora, Harvey Nichols, Beauty Bazaar and Beauty Avenue. fentybeauty.com

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DREAM WEAVER

Japanese artist CHIHARU SHIOTA lays bare her soul in a chills-inducing retrospective at Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum. She tells PAYAL UTTAM about surviving cancer, studying under Marina Abramović and stepping outside her body 160 PRESTIGE

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KIOKU KEIZO/MORI ART MUSEUM, TOKYO (ACCUMULATION â&#x20AC;&#x201D; SEARCHING FOR THE DESTINATION); SUNHI MANG/MORI ART MUSEUM, TOKYO (THE REST)

UNCERTAIN JOURNEY, 2016/2019

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T LEFT: CHIHARU SHIOTA. ABOVE: OUT OF MY BODY, 2019

o stand before Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota’s work is to be embraced by a maelstrom. Engulfing interiors with a whirlwind of yarn, she creates installations that cocoon and transport viewers to another reality. “It’s not so much a physical interaction as it’s a spatial, immersive and emotional experience,” says Mami Kataoka, deputy director and chief curator at Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum. Shiota’s installations have appeared everywhere, from the Parisian department store Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche to Dubai’s swanky new contemporary arts institution, the Jameel Arts Centre. This summer, the Mori Art Museum mounts the artist’s largest exhibition to date. Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles, which runs until October 27, is a comprehensive retrospective tracing the arc of her extraordinary 25-year career. The 47-year-old artist, who’s based in Berlin, shot to international prominence at the Venice Biennale in 2015, when she entangled 180,000 keys in a vast web of scarlet string above Venetian boats. Exploring the notion of memory, the installation, titled The Key in the Hand, was the most talked-about piece that year and swiftly established her place in the global contemporary art circuit. Since then, art fairs, galleries and museums have been clamouring to show her work.

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RIGHT: ACCUMULATION — SEARCHING FOR THE DESTINATION, 2014/2019. OPPOSITE PAGE: REFLECTION OF TIME AND SPACE, 2018, AT THE MORI ART MUSEUM

The Tokyo exhibition has already attracted a spate of social-media posts, but it’s more than just an impressive backdrop for selfie-takers. Visitors are spending hours losing themselves in the labyrinthine works charged with emotion. “It’s a dialogue with my unveiled, naked soul,” Shiota says of the show, which lays bare her artistic journey and personal struggles. After Kataoka offered her the chance to showcase her work, Shiota suffered a cancer relapse in 2017 having been in remission for 12 years. “It struck me that perhaps the painful treatment, along with the confrontation with death, is a tribulation [that aids in the creation of ] honest works,” she says, confessing that the only reason she survived is because she could create art. Shiota’s parents ran a factory in Osaka that produced wooden boxes used to transport fish, but she couldn’t imagine going down a similar path: “I decided that I wanted to be an artist when I was 12. I wanted to do something that was spiritually fulfilling ... to give me meaning and a purpose in life.” Shiota started off as a painting student, but had a crisis while studying in Australia in the early ’90s. “I was feeling restless and suddenly had this dream,” she says. “I was moving inside of a painting, there was no colour and it was difficult to breathe.” This eventually became the basis for a 1994 performance titled Becoming Painting. Among the most striking works at the Tokyo exhibition are images of this performance, showing her writhing in toxic red paint in what looks like a bloodbath, illustrating her urgent need to escape from the medium. In 1996, Shiota moved to Germany and studied under famed performance artist Marina Abramović, who pushed her to extremes. For the work Try and Go Home, 1997, also on display, she fasted for four days and buried herself naked in a hole in the ground. “It felt liberating creating art with my own body,” she says. “But at some point,

I also realised that the presence of my body can also be depicted through objects.” Shiota had a breakthrough when she began to extend lines from paintings into space using string. “This allowed me to draw in the air, on a limitless canvas,” she explains. “The material itself can be stretched, tangled and torn apart, much like human relationships.” She began entangling everyday objects in thread, infusing her installations with memories of absent people. In Silence, 2002/2019, for instance, shows a burned piano and chairs enveloped in a sea of black string, almost swallowing a room at the Mori. The haunting work was inspired by a childhood memory of seeing her neighbour’s house burn down. Her newest works draw on similar ideas of recollection and loss, but assume a different guise. Out of My Body, 2019, features bronze limbs strewn across the floor. Dangling overhead are what look like pieces of intricately shredded clothing that evoke fragments of freshly shed snakeskin. Created after her relapse, the work touches on her realisation that her body and soul are separate, and illustrates her confrontation with death. Other works such as Uncertain Journey, 2016/2019, also touch on mortality. Composed of boats erupting with webs of crimson yarn reaching up to the ceiling, the installation explores the unknown destination towards which life is moving. Shiota says the red refers to blood as well as the “red thread of fate”. By creating a thicket of thread, the artist ensnares viewers in her story; it’s as if the thread represents her consciousness that is defying death and reaching out to cling to the world. “I always thought that when death takes my body, then I would be gone,” she muses, “but I’ve realised that my mind and my body act separately from each another. I am not only my body, but also my consciousness. And my mind will always be connected to the universe.”

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OUT OF THE BOX

AS ART MUSEUMS AROUND THE WORLD GRAPPLE WITH STORAGE ISSUES, SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP DISCOVERS AN INNOVATIVE SOLUTION IN ROTTERDAM

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DEPOT BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN, SET TO OPEN IN 2021, WILL BE A “JEWEL BOX” FOR MUSEUM BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN’S 151,000 ARTWORKS

pace constraints may not come to mind when walking through the Louvre in Paris or the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York. Yet, most museums around the world share a common problem: their collections are far too big to be fully displayed within their walls. As a result, the majority of most museums’ artworks languish away from the public eye, often accessible only to art professionals, historians and researchers. A new art-storage project currently under construction in Rotterdam aims to change that. Due to open in the second half of 2021, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen will be the first museum-storage facility in the world to offer not only public access to a museum’s entire collection – specifically, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s 151,000 works of art – but also give non-guided access to its restoration and conservation work. Located a two-minute walk from the actual museum, the new €85-million Depot will highlight “the role of the museum as a place that does, in addition to being a place that has”, says the museum’s director, Sjarel Ex. He adds

that visitors will be able to gain valuable insights into the various facets of a museum’s inner workings. At the Depot, visitors will be able to see many of the works displayed in large glass vitrines across five of the seven floors. Access to the various climate-controlled storage facilities, however, will require a guide and visits will be timed. “You’ll be able to have a group of 13 people for exactly 11 minutes in each depot room, before the humidity and temperature are disturbed too much. Then the room will have to rest for an hour, before the next group can enter,” explains Arjen Ketting, one of the two architects at Rotterdam-based architectural firm MVRDV who are leading the Depot’s construction. In comparison, the Louvre displays about 9 percent of the 380,000 works of art in its collection, while, at last count in 2015, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London shows about 24 percent of its Display Collection spread across the V&A galleries and the V&A Museum of Childhood. Although some museums keep their “spare” artworks on‑site, many have temperature-controlled warehouses in

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secure, sometimes secret, locations. These storage spaces are often inaccessible to the public, though several museums are trying to offer some form of viewing opportunities. The Met, for example, has some storage facilities incorporated into its American, Egyptian, and Greek and Roman wings that can be viewed by the public during normal museum visiting hours, and the Henry R Luce Center for the Study of American Art presents objects in its storage spaces arranged by material (oil paintings, woodwork, ceramics, etc), then further organised by form and chronology, all with minimal labelling. Ex, who commissioned the Depot, says the decision was taken to create a new storage facility after the museum’s current space “became completely obsolete” – a result of the growth of the collection as well as rising concerns about the impact of climate change on the underground facility, which has sections that are 3 metres below sea level. “The collection needed care and urgent protection,” he says.

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Ex also notes that the museum could have built a Fort Knox-like complex on the outskirts of the city, “with a gate, guards and mean dogs” that would have been very private and available for access only to museum staff, but instead opted to create a “jewel box” for its collection in the middle of the city, opening its doors to all. “Our depot will be 99 percent available to everyone, no appointment necessary, which I think is very new. Of course, many museums already have open storage and depots, but I think not to the same extent that we are opening up.” The 39.5-metre-high building will have a total floor area of 15,541 square metres, enabling it also to have a commercial role, with storage areas available for rent to private collectors. “Our initiative is being very closely followed by other museums all over the world that think this typology is the way forward,” Ex says, noting that a South Korean institution has been in touch to understand the new art-

DEPOT BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN WILL GIVE THE PUBLIC ALMOST FULL ACCESS TO ITS OPEN STORAGE AREAS

OSSIP (MAIN & RENDERINGS OF DEPOT BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN); RSHP MUTABILIS (THE LOUVRE’S NEW DEPOT)

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The Science Museum Group has started construction of a new facility in Wiltshire that will house more than 300,000 objects, while the British Museum has partnered with the University of Reading to develop the British Museum Archaeological Research Collection, a £27-million storage and research facility in Berkshire to house much of its collection of around 2 million artefacts. Other museums are also exploring new dynamics for their storage and conservation facilities. A new conservation and storage facility for the Louvre’s collection is scheduled for completion this year in Liévin, a town in northern France. It will consolidate in one place the 250,000 works currently being stored in more than 60 locations, though the new research and study facility will only be open to professionals such as museum specialists, restorers and academics. In Beijing, a third underground storage facility is being built below the Palace Museum, and is scheduled for completion next year. This new space will be connected to the other two facilities as well as to the Palace’s conservation space that was completed in 2016, but it will remain private, open to staff and officials only. Ex is confident his art depot will offer a very different experience to art lovers. “Museum depots are intimate spaces where art is slumbering and treasures hidden. We’re developing a new typology that allows the audience to intermingle with this precious world behind the scenes.”

“WE’RE DEVELOPING A NEW TYPOLOGY THAT ALLOWS THE AUDIENCE TO INTERMINGLE WITH THIS PRECIOUS WORLD BEHIND THE SCENES” — SJAREL EX, DIRECTOR OF MUSEUM BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN

depot model better. “We’ve also met four times with the V&A here, because they’re building a new art depot in the east (of London) and they’re about two years behind us, and would like to learn from our experience.” V&A East, on the former Olympic site in Stratford, will incorporate a waterfront museum, which includes one large gallery co-curated with the Smithsonian Institution, as well as a collection and research storage centre that will house 250,000 objects. The new storage facility is one of three currently planned by major British art institutions in anticipation of the closure of Blythe House in west London in 2023, where the collections of the V&A, the Science Museum Group and the British Museum are currently held.

THE LOUVRE’S NEW ART DEPOT IN LIÉVIN, READY THIS YEAR, WILL CONSOLIDATE ARTWORKS FROM MORE THAN 60 LOCATIONS INTO ONE

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One half of the powerhouse Lehmann Maupin, gallerist RACHEL LEHMANN explains her passion for collecting to TAMA LUNG – and oﬀers some tips on how to get started

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o call Rachel Lehmann an art enthusiast would be putting it mildly. “I’m obsessed. I have art in the bathrooms, I have art in the kitchen, I have art everywhere,” she says, laughing, when we meet on the sidelines of this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong. “My kids say I’d rather get rid of them than the art, which is obviously exaggerated, but I’m very passionate about my art work.” Lehmann, an exhibitor at the fair, is one half of powerhouse contemporary-art gallery Lehmann Maupin. She and David Maupin opened their first gallery in New York’s SoHo district in 1996 and have since established a second space in the city, as well as galleries in Seoul and Hong Kong. But it’s clear that for Lehmann, art is much more than a business – it’s a way of life. Lehmann was born in the then-Ethiopian city of Asmara (now the capital of Eritrea) in the Horn of Africa, where she lived until she was six and a half. She grew up speaking Italian, attended an Italian kindergarten and can still recall the beauty of the Red Sea and surrounding landscape. “I remember the light,” she says. “It’s unique in many African countries, including Eritrea, and the transparency of the sea water. Basically, I grew up with a certain sensitivity to what was around me: colours, light, height. There were mountains and the port was down at the coast. I remember very clearly the water.” Lehmann also remembers being surrounded by a multitude of other languages, religions and cultures, thanks to Asmara’s former status as the capital of Italian Eritrea. From there, she spent time in Italy, Germany (where she finished secondary school) and eventually Switzerland (where she attended university). While her parents, and father in particular, were avid collectors of books and Meissen porcelain – “which I found horrible at the time, but later on discovered that [Jeff] Koons was taking imagery from” – it was a secondary-school class that compelled Lehmann to make her first purchase as an art collector. “You have to imagine this was a time that was still suﬃciently near World War II. History books in Germany, at least at the school I went to, stopped at a certain moment because I think they hadn’t yet found a way to talk about the horror,” she recalls. “We had a very young teacher, so I think she felt there was something else she needed to share with us, rather than just create or talk about history that she couldn’t talk about. So she took us to artist studios and it was fabulous – I saw for the first time working artists (mostly it was painting and drawing at the time).” Lehmann, an only child, promptly told her parents she wanted to buy a drawing. “They thought that was nuts and they didn’t understand. They’d been through the war and created a comfortable life and they thought I should become a banker or maybe a lawyer,” she says. “So I sold shoes over the summer and I’ll always remember one pair I sold. They were black with a black ribbon, very fancy. And the shoes were more or less the price of the drawing.”

THE RACHEL AND JEAN-PIERRE LEHMANN COLLECTION

ART AND SOUL T

DO HO SUH, BLUE GREEN BRIDGE, 2000; PLASTIC FIGURES, STEEL STRUCTURE, POLYCARBONATE SHEETS; 1137.9 X 129.5 X 61 CM

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LEFT: MATTHEW BARNEY, CREMASTER 4, 1994/95; PROSTHETIC PLASTIC, BRIDAL SATIN BANNER, MANX TARTAN, SILKSCREEN LASER DISK IN ONIONSKIN SLEEVE; VITRINE: 91 X 122 X 104 CM

Among the multitude of artworks that Rachel Lehmann has collected over the years, the three shown on these pages have each had a profound impact. “Blue Green Bridge is a contradiction between something solid like a bridge and as fragile as the tiny humans carrying it. It’s transparent, representing connections, modern infrastructure, architecture, the power of individuals that’s necessary for the success of a large group or society, and the passage from a dream to real life. It was a quite brilliant, political work. I’ve worked with the artist at Lehmann Maupin for over 20 years, and I also collect, love and own his work. The colour green has meaning in Korea. At the time, it pushed my curiosity button, to want to know more about a different culture. The Guggenheim in New York bought the AP of this work around at the same time as I did.” “Matthew Barney is one of the most fascinating living artists, and this is one of the best examples of my extraordinary adventure in contemporary art. In the Cremaster series, we get to explore the cycle of creation. The dedication here in his artistic endeavour and development is difficult to comprehend today. Over eight years and five films, he reinvented the cycle of creation and life. It goes beyond biology, connecting past ideas of mythology and classical portraiture, to very contemporary questions about connections of the self, sexuality and athletics. All five Cremaster films, as well as the connecting drawings and photographs, push the boundary of the use of the body as well as new materials and technology. Matthew himself participates personally in all these films. Many years later, these works for me remain a guiding explanation of life, desire and hope.” “I saw the Banality show at Sonnabend gallery in New York and Galerie Max Hetzler in Cologne. The Winter Bears were produced in Germany, as well as the porcelain pieces in the same body of work. So many ideas connected me to these works. The value of craft and tradition (wood, porcelain), with the details pushed to a level I had never imagined. The references to children’s toys, pure joy, as well as the distinct twisted ironic message behind what looks so simple and sweet. The large sizes inflated my imagination as if I were again a child, experiencing a toy for the first time, rather than a woman who had her own children. It made me experience something no other contemporary artist has given me before.”

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Once she bought the drawing, Lehmann says, she was “hooked”. She went on to study economics and political science at university but continued travelling, working and looking at art. She found a mentor in Romanian-American art dealer Ileana Sonnabend and discovered her passion for contemporary art – a passion the 67-year-old attributes to growing up a stranger in strange lands: “I speak with an accent. I speak many languages. No one knows where I come from. At the time it was very strange. I didn’t grow up feeling I was normal. I think there was a rebellious side in me or maybe it was just my temperament, a need to live an adventure in a way.” When Lehmann started exploring the world of contemporary art in the 1970s and ’80s, it was really only New York and Cologne, Germany. “Cologne is not so big but it’s a very ugly city. It’s in an area of Germany where there’s a lot of industry,” she explains. “The story that was told was that Cologne had such bad weather and there was no countryside around, so people had nothing else to do but look at art. I see it a little differently. After World War II, there was really a vacuum in Germany because a lot of the intelligentsia were dead or had left. And that vacuum needed to be filled. So it was a fantastic platform for new ideas, and that included contemporary art.” Soon Lehmann was travelling frequently to Cologne, then New York and Paris with her husband who also collected. She opened her first gallery in Switzerland in 1988, “when the latest technology was a fax machine. Antonio Homem, Ileana Sonnabend’s adopted son, was telling me there’s something new and you must get it,” Lehmann recalls, laughing. “He said it’s fabulous because you can get messages while you sleep!”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: THE RACHEL AND JEAN-PIERRE LEHMANN COLLECTION; JEFF KOONS; COURTESY THE ARTIST, GLADSTONE GALLERY, NEW YORK AND BRUSSELS

BELOW: JEFF KOONS, WINTER BEARS, 1988; POLYCHROMED WOOD; 121.9 X 111.8 X 39.4 CM

RACHEL LEHMANN’S TOP TIPS FOR ASPIRING ART COLLECTORS 1 Decide how much you’re willing to spend without thinking about it. Just have that number in mind and if you see something that’s more expensive, start asking questions. 2 Set some parameters, based on your interests. It could be artists of a certain generation who’ve had several museum shows or who haven’t been discovered for many years. 3 Find a way of controlling what you look at — as there’s so much out there, you’re going to get lost. 4 Give yourself two years to learn and explore as much as possible. 5 Do it alone or find a trusted advisor, such as a curator. Or build a trusted relationship with two or three galleries who can help you build your focus.

It was, she says, a far different world from the contemporary-art scene we know today. There was very little choice, hardly any market and hardly anyone buying. “I remember very clearly discussing with Miss Sonnabend about how many collectors there were in the world. This was after I opened my first gallery and nobody was coming and nobody was buying,” Lehmann says. “She said, ‘In the whole world?’ She started counting and said, ‘Maybe 50?’ I thought 50 was a huge number. So she said, ‘Maybe 30?’” Indeed, up until the mid-’90s, collectors were largely alone. It wasn’t until communication improved and the access to artists around the world opened up that the market took off. The Berlin Wall fell, the Japanese started bidding up Renaissance paintings, collectors started buying up entire exhibitions and contemporary art became a massive trend. All the while, Lehmann was steadily acquiring works of art and representing more and more artists. She bought her first Brice Marden piece in Paris, her first Bruce Nauman from gallerist Leo Castelli, her first Jeff Koons at Galerie Max Hetzler in Germany. She amassed collections of Kara Walker, Lari Pittman, Do Ho Suh, Marisa Merz, Barbara Kruger and many more. “I like to collect in-depth. You can’t just go and collect – or you can but you’re probably not going to be pleased if you look back 10 years later. You need to give yourself some parameters,” she says. “I look for works that engage me, that have historical roots, the rigour of reference. Something that’s well produced and something that brings something new.” Lehmann’s personal collection is so large that it now fills her two main

6 Rather than buying a brand or a name, you might be better off buying a great artwork by a lesser-known artist. But if the artist doesn’t have gallery representation, you’re taking a big risk. 7 Remember that things don’t only go up, they also go down. That’s why it’s important for an artist to be in a museum collection. Museums are the pillars that preserve and maintain value, history and legacy. 8 Collect with passion.

homes in New York and Switzerland, as well as storage rooms, with pieces frequently going out on loan. It is, in some ways, a part of the family. “I was very surprised several years ago when an artwork was on loan to a museum and one of my daughters, who at the time was not at all interested in art, said ‘Where’s the artwork? Did you sell it? What happened?’ She went wild,” Lehmann recalls. “I told her, ‘You always said you hated it and your friends made fun of it.’ “So I talked to a friend who’s a professor in Cologne and he said he’d seen it many times in children. He said, ‘We’re living in a world where the object is taking a bigger and bigger place. As parents, including mothers, work more the children get attached to objects. It’s like a child hugging a teddy bear. We’re living in a period where the object is being valued the same way we value human connections.’ And that’s why collecting exists in an even bigger way now.”

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t’s not often that someone tosses you the key to what’s very possibly the world’s best supercar, tells you to knock yourself out for the next five days and then sends you off with a wave. OK, so that’s not exactly how it happens when I pick up my 720S Spider at the McLaren factory in southern England, but it’s near enough as dammit. In fact, as the key to my 720S loaner has already been tucked away in its seat-front pocket, McLaren’s genial PR Paul Chadderton confines himself to demonstrating how I can dim and lighten the electrochromic glass in the retractable roof and operate the vehicle lift (a must-tick option in a country where speed bumps are almost as common as street lights), before injecting a necessary shot of reality into the proceedings by suggesting – in the nicest possible way, of course – that I might try not to damage the car’s stunning 10-spoke lightweight alloys. That done, Chadderton really does send me off with the instruction to “put some miles on the car – that’s what it’s for – and we’ll see you Monday. Enjoy!” Enjoy, the man says. So I ease myself into the low-slung, snug-fitting sports seat – left leg into the footwell first, then backside gently over the carbon-fibre sill and on to the cushion, and finally in with the right leg – then reach up to swing the butterfly door down to the closed position and, foot firmly lodged on brake pedal, press the starter button that’s prominently located on the slim centre console. Just centimetres behind me, four litres, eight pistons, four camshafts, 32 valves, a flat-plane crankshaft and a pair of rapidly spooling Mitsubishi turbochargers burst into noisy activity. Oh. My. God. If merely getting into and starting up a McLaren 720S is an event in itself, then driving one is rarely less than epic. It’s not merely a case of having the wallop of 710bhp and 770Nm available beneath your right foot, though that certainly helps. There’s also the carbon-fibre monocell, which marries lightness with incredible strength and rigidity (and thus, not so incidentally, rendered the task of slicing off the roof for the droptop Spider version a relative cinch), as well as the adaptive hydraulic Proactive Chassis Control, a complex cross-linked system that’s been progressively honed since the 2011 launch of the McLaren 12C to provide that elusive combination of class-leading handling and superb ride quality. All of which, in layman’s terms, means the 720S Spider is about as advanced as road-car technology circa 2019 can get.

7.9 SECONDS JON WALL

… IS HOW LONG A MCLAREN 720S SPIDER NEEDS TO REACH 200KM/H. IT’S ALSO ROUGHLY THE TIME IT TOOK JON WALL TO FALL IN LOVE WITH THE SUPERCAR

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And then there’s its styling, for which the word “sensational” seems barely an adequate description. McLaren’s former design chief Frank Stephenson, who was key to the 720’s conception, drew inspiration from the natural world (he’s said to have shipped an enormous stuffed sailfish to the factory after a Caribbean vacation), and there’s something almost animate about the Spider’s sweepingly curvaceous body and the profusion of gaping nostrils and slender slats that force the air flow into, out of and over it, not only to cool engine, transmission and brakes but also to minimise wind resistance, as well as plant the machine more firmly on the tarmac. The headlamp clusters resemble blankly staring eye sockets, which is hardly surprising as they also incorporate large air intakes, as do the 720’s ingeniously designed double-skin doors, which when opened rise up like the wings of a bird taking flight. So yes, it looks other-worldly – I’m sure I’m getting more attention driving this Aztec Gold Spider than if I were skimming above the motorway aboard a UFO – but everything’s there for a reason: that active tail wing, for example, not only extends automatically at speed for greater rear-end stability but also assists during heavy braking by flipping up almost vertically, much like the spoilers on an airliner as it touches down. If all of that, plus the facts that the 720S will reach 100km/h from a standstill in a hypercar-quick 2.9 seconds, double that speed in slightly less than eight and max out at around 340 (that’s with the roof up; with

the top down you’ll be travelling some 16 klicks slower), sounds intimidating then worry not. This may be one of the most fearsomely fast and focused automobiles you can buy today – a car that, technologically speaking, is far more racetrack than road – yet it’s also incredibly civilised and unbelievably easy to drive. Touch the D and Active buttons, and set the chassis and powertrain modes to Comfort, and the Spider wafts on its hydraulic underpinnings as smoothly as an S-class, happy to dawdle at 40 in fifth or sixth, or even just 30. Whether the roof is up or down (it raises and retracts electrically in just 11 seconds, slotting in neatly behind the seats and above the engine) and partly thanks to the glass flying buttresses behind the Spider’s cabin, all-round visibility is superb, too – or at least compared with every other supercar I’ve driven. As with all its cars, McLaren has kept the interior simple. It’s snug, comfortable and, of course, classy, with plenty of carbon to savour on wheel, paddles and around the instruments – as with the Coupe, the display rotates to show either a full digital suite or a minimalist linear version that’s automatically employed when Track mode is engaged. Unadorned with switchgear, the small wheel is absolutely perfect, as are

MAKING MUSIC

NO PRIZES FOR GUESSING THAT, WHEN IT COMES TO SUPERCAR SYMPHONICS, THE ITALIANS HAVE ALL THE BEST TUNES

LAMBORGHINI HURACÀN PERFORMANTE SPYDER If both the 720 and the 488 have a slight dynamic edge, neither can claim the aural majesty of the Huracàn’s glorious, naturally aspirated V10. Choose the Spyder so you can savour its howling racket even more.

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FERRARI 488 PISTA SPIDER Until a Trofeo Spider arrives, this is Fezza’s ultimate open-top road car, with a chassis almost as good as the McLaren’s and what may well be the world’s best — and sweetest-sounding — turbo engine.

MCLAREN 720S SPIDER

engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8 transmission: seven-speed dual-clutch max power: 710bhp max torque: 770Nm @ 6,500 max speed: 341km/h acceleration: 0-100km/h in 2.9 seconds kerb weight: 1,468kg price: from HK$5,137,000

THE 720S SPIDER’S ABILITIES ARE SO MUCH GREATER THAN YOURS ARE EVER LIKELY TO BE the long gearshift paddles that turn with it; in fact, my only complaint concerns the fiddly electric adjusters for the otherwise excellent seats, hit-or-miss affairs that are tucked down at one corner and, as you can’t see them, utterly impossible to fathom. Although the portrait-format infotainment screen looks familiar it seems to work far better than I remember, probably due to updated software – and, ah yes, there’s a bespoke B&W 12-speaker sound system that I assume can rupture my eardrums, but I have to confess that I hardly ever turn it on. And that omission, of course, is down wholly to the fact that the 720S Spider is so intoxicating that I really don’t have the inclination to do anything other than drop the roof and drive. It’s an astonishing motor car, so crazily fast, so agile and so alert in its responses that the human brain of advanced age (i.e., mine) can barely keep up with it. There is, to be absolutely honest, a spot low down in the 4-litre V8’s rev band when in a higher gear you might find yourself momentarily waiting for the compressors to kick in, but at anything north of 2,500 (and it’ll rev beyond 8,000) you’re riding a category-10 typhoon of twist and horsepower, thrust back in the seat by the relentless momentum while laughing at the insanity of it all. In my five days with the 720S Spider, I find myself avoiding motorways, just so I can power up towards roundabouts and then brake ridiculously late, the fat Pirellis compressing against the road surface as the brake pads bite on the huge carbon-ceramic rotors and the rear spoiler flips up vertically, slicing off speed as if I’m being pulled back by a

huge invisible hand. And then back on the accelerator through the junction and, punching forward as I snap up through the gears of the seven-speed dual-clutch box, I realise I’ve left four or five cars in my wake that might as well have been standing still. It’s only on the backroads of South Wales that I proceed with some caution, mainly because the army trucks and tractors coming at me around blind corners are even wider than I am. There’s so much to savour here, from the beautifully calibrated electro-hydraulic steering that’s race-car quick, precise and superbly feelsome, as well as the fabulous suppleness of the McLaren’s underpinnings, to the reassurance that (unless your name is Senna, Hamilton or suchlike) its abilities are so much greater than yours are ever likely to be. It covers so many bases, too, effortlessly slipping from leisurely boulevardier to rip-snorting racer and, thanks to the torsional stiffness of its carbon construction, emphatically giving the lie to the notion that droptops are “soft”. Short of loading it up with people and stuff – there are only two seats and storage space is by definition limited, though there’s room for my medium-size suitcase in the front – there’s really nothing that this incredibly talented machine can’t do. As instructed, I do put miles on the McLaren 720S Spider – around 800 (which, in real money, works out at about 1,300km), to be more or less exact – and there isn’t a moment when I’m not enthralled. Because if there really is a supercar out there that can match its extraordinary capabilities, I’d be very much surprised.

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FLYING THE FLAG Best known for the ’60s wood-hulled Aquarama runabout, Italian yacht brand Riva has a new flagship in a 50-metre-long superyacht. jon wall attends the vessel’s spectacular unveiling in Venice

t’s a sultry June evening in Venice, almost unbearably warm and close for black-tie garb as we mingle, sweltering, on the dockside. Only minutes ago we’d been sailing along wide waterways sparkling in the sunlight, passing domes, campaniles, piazze and palazzi, and jostling with the vaporetti, gondolas and water taxis before plunging into the shadows down narrow canals. But now those enticing glimpses of the fabled Serenissima have been replaced by what looks like an industrial landscape of warehouses and a single crane – until, that is, we’re reminded that this very spot forms part of the great Venetian Arsenale, a complex of naval docks and armouries whose origins go back to the 12th century. At one time the largest single industrial undertaking in Europe, the shipyards and foundries that lined these nowquiet quaysides provided the military muscle behind Venice’s commercial domination of the Mediterranean in the 15th and 16th centuries, placing the republic at the

centre of a trading empire of vast wealth, and in the process making the city one of the most fabulous on Earth. And it’s for that very reason that Ferretti, the Italian-based builder of luxury yachts, has chosen this location – freighted as it is with a history of maritime power and achievement – as a backdrop for the unveiling of the first in a new generation of bold and very beautiful superyachts. Of all the brands in the Ferretti Group portfolio, surely no name resonates with greater frisson than Riva. Founded in the mid-19th century in the northern Italian lakeside community of Sarnico, the company began to gain international attention through its powerboat-racing successes in the 1920s and ’30s, but it was the ’50s innovations spearheaded by Carlo Riva, engineer and great-grandson of the founder, that made its name synonymous with glamour, sophistication and hedonism, and as much a symbol of la dolce vita as Anita Ekberg, a strapless ball gown and the Trevi Fountain. Shifting the corporate focus from racing to pleasure craft,

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Riva introduced a series of wood-hulled vessels that culminated with the 1962 launch of the gorgeous and exquisitely crafted Aquarama, a twin-engine luxury runabout whose rear deck quickly became a favoured sunbathing spot for the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren, the aforementioned Ekberg having already bought herself a Tritone, the Aquarama’s predecessor. In production for almost a quarter of a century, this genuinely iconic vessel was replaced in the mid-’90s by the Aquariva, which though built upon a fibreglass hull still features the gleaming polished woodwork that’s the signature of its forebears. While the lakeshore yard in Sarnico continues to produce vessels of 8 up to 20 metres in length, Riva’s acquisition in 2000 by the Ferretti Group – which today also builds ships in five other facilities around Italy – has enabled the further realisation of a dream of Carlo Riva: namely, to build bigger and ever more beautiful yachts. And that, to cut a long story short, is what’s brought me, along with hundreds of other guests from around the world, to this historic haven at the head of the Adriatic Sea, where in anticipation of the arrival of the first-ever superyacht to bear the Riva name and a five-course dinner prepared for us by superstar chef Massimo Bottura and the entire team from his threeMichelin-star Osteria Francescana (they’ve been driven up

The Riva 50 Metri turns gentle circles on the water as an orchestra plays and fireworks detonate

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to Venice from Modena especially for the evening), we’re broiling in the near-tropical heat, cooled only by an apparently bottomless supply of Veuve Clicquot Cuvée Saint-Pétersbourg. Finally, though, it’s time to eat – and Bottura, who’s everpresent during the entire evening, chatting and posing for snapshots with friends old and new just as willingly as he takes to the stage to explain exactly what’s coming up next, doesn’t disappoint. We’re treated to four established hits from his repertoire – Spring in Modena (a sort of salad, if such an exquisite assemblage of fresh vegetables can be referred to so prosaically); The Crunchy Part of the Lasagna; Historical Compromise: Modenese Tortellini in Parmigiano Reggiano Sauce; and Beautiful, Psychedelic, Spin-Painted Veal, Not Flame Grilled – each dish as delicious as the next, crazily reinvented and yet permeated

CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE LEFT: RACE ARRIVES IN A SHOWER OF FIREWORKS; DINNER AT THE VENICE ARSENALE; ALBERTO GALASSI, CEO OF FERRETTI (LEFT) AND CHEF MASSIMO BOTTURA

with an intensity and familiarity of flavour that we’d feared had all but disappeared from contemporary cuisine. And to finish he’s prepared an homage to the evening’s main event: inspired by works of art, such as Andy Warhol’s camouflage paintings of the ’80s, La Dolce Riva also riffs on the yacht brand’s familiar baby blue with an elaborate confection of dried cherries and berries on a base of cheesecake. The only way to top that, of course, is to bring on the star

of the show and, with music swelling and searchlights piercing the night sky, the very first vessel of its size to sail out of Riva’s superyacht yard just along the coast in Ancona glides regally into the Arsenale. Named Race – of which more later – and built from lightweight aluminium alloy, this new 50-metre-long flagship is so sleek and raked that even when nudging into the dock at night it looks as if it ought to be aquaplaning a foaming white gash across a vivid blue sea. Utterly contemporary in design and so brightly lit from within that the entire vessel appears to be translucent, it clearly takes inspiration from Carlo Riva’s classic protosuperyachts of the ’60s and ’70s, such as the steel-hulled Caravelle and Vespucci, both at the time coveted by the rich and famous and still worth fortunes today. The Riva 50 Metri, to use its proper name, turns gentle circles on the water as an orchestra plays and fireworks detonate, and the Ferretti Group’s CEO Alberto Galassi explains the significance both of the boat itself and the location we’re in. “The largest Riva,” he says, “the dream of Carlo Riva that came true, a boat of immense beauty, could only make its debut at the Arsenale, which for centuries was the largest naval factory in the world. “This yacht and her unique magnificence, amplified by her impressive size, also represents a remarkable achievement for the Riva Superyachts Division, which has built the biggest Riva ever made while meeting and enhancing the brand’s signature stylistic excellence. From the tiniest details to the breathtaking design, this 50-metre yacht is a treasure of beauty, illuminated by a 177-year history and accompanied by an ultra-contemporary vision of yacht building.” Next afternoon – the boat now moored alongside Venice’s Riva San Biasio and ourselves more suitably attired in summer shirts and shorts – we get the opportunity to step aboard and admire its four decks of luxury, uniquely customised by the owner. But first, there’s the small matter of whom that fortunate individual might be. Although the Riva people aren’t exactly volunteering the answer, we have plenty of clues to work on. First is the Maltese-registered vessel’s bow pennant, which bears the not-unfamiliar image of a black prancing horse. Second is the vessel’s name, Race, which is identical to the Nasdaq ticker of a certain Italian builder of high-performance automobiles. And if you still can’t work it out, there’s also the plentiful quantity of Ferrari memorabilia with which the yacht’s living and sleeping areas are festooned. Need I continue? As for the interiors, the decor and ambience are contemporary, masculine and extraordinarily tasteful, with everything marked by the most minute attention to detail. With a beam of 9 metres, there’s an impression of vast

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space, with room for 12 guests in five VIP cabins that include a master suite on the main deck (though Race’s owner is said to prefer leaving his guests ashore after a day’s cruising before spending the night on board alone with his wife). Other features include a stern garage with Williams Dieseljet tender, as well as an additional forward storage area, a beach club, a circular Jacuzzi on the upper sun deck, a lower-deck galley with dumb-waiter system, and open-air dining and lounge areas – and naturally the control and navigation systems are among the most advanced available.

Flawless in line and proportion, the vessel marks the beginning of a new chapter for Riva

Flawless in line and proportion, the 50 Metri is not only the first of a new class of Riva superyachts that will eventually reach 90 metres in length, but it also marks the beginning of a new chapter for the brand. Although, unlike the glorious Aquarama, it may never come to exemplify an era or embody quite such carefree style and sexiness as did that wooden wonder, it nonetheless represents a perfect coda to Carlo Riva’s achievements and ambitions. When presented with renderings of the vessel in 2014, less than three years before his death, the 92-year-old boatbuilder said, “I’d like to try and sail on her.” Now that this magnificent yacht is finally a reality, we can be sure that he’d be delighted to do just that.

THE WORLD’S SEXIEST BOAT

WHEN IT COMES TO ’60S GLAMOUR, NOTHING BEATS THE RIVA AQUARAMA

JON WALL (OPPOSITE)

There’s really only one way to approach the Riva boatyard, which lies in the foothills of the Italian Alps on the shore of Lago d’Iseo, and that, of course, is by water. Built in the 1950s, the low, white-painted complex still looks futuristic, so as we arc round towards the dock, the engines throttling back and the planing bow easing down to touch the surface of the lake, our arrival feels like a scene from an early Bond movie. Naturally we aren’t travelling aboard any old boat. After lunch in Lovere at the northern end of the lake, our party has boarded a pair of immaculate Aquarama runabouts — one built in 1968 and the other four years later — for an exhilarating ride south to Sarnico and an immersive snapshot of la dolce vita. Churning up the placid blue water as we race past picturesque villages, cliffs and tree-clad hillsides, the boats’ mahogany surfaces gleaming in the sun and with four ageing American V8 engines (two to each Aquarama) rumbling lazily, we only need a couple of bikini-clad Bardots aboard to complete a perfect ’60s tableau. It’s late afternoon when we step back on to dry land and the Riva craftsman are already starting to pack up for the day. But once we climb up to the late Carlo Riva’s office — the modernist structure is cantilevered out above the frontage of the main building, much like a ship’s bridge, and remains pretty much as it was when he left it — it’s easy to grasp the vision that led to the Aquarama’s creation and still guides the brand today. As just 769 Aquaramas were built in a 24-year production run, its status verges on the mythic. It is, without doubt, one of the most glamorous boats ever built, but for a final word on the subject, let’s leave it to a man who’s rarely short of them: Jeremy Clarkson. The Aquarama, opined Jezza with characteristic overstatement, is “the most beautiful machine in the world”. For once, we’re inclined to agree with him.

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SAVOIR FAIRE THE HOUSE OF DIOR TURNS ITS ATTENTION TO TABLEWARE AND HOME ACCESSORIES WITH A NEW BOUTIQUE IN PARIS. TAMA LUNG CHECKS OUT THE OFFERINGS

hristian Dior was one of five children who grew up splitting their time between Paris and the family home on the coast of Normandy, a boy who loved art and would go on to establish one of the most famous French fashion houses in history. His keen sense of style wasn’t limited to women’s clothing, however, as evidenced by the recent launch of the Dior Maison tableware collection and opening of the Dior Maison boutique at 28 Avenue Montaigne in the French capital. “To an impeccably decorated interior, I will always prefer one that’s more sensitive and spirited, which has gradually developed over time according to the existence and whims of its inhabitant,” Dior wrote in his 1947 autobiography, Dior by Dior. In the designer’s case, those whims extended to plants, flowers, animals and unique 18th-century architecture. The new collection of table settings, in three styles dubbed Cannage, Muguet and Monsieur Dior, features ginkgo leaves, lily of the valley sprigs and other flowers from the garden of Dior’s country home in Milly-la-Forêt in a sophisticated palette of gold, beige, white and blue. The cannage, or rattan, motif takes centre stage on porcelain plates and glass stemware created by the house’s current artistic director Cordelia de Castellane. The signature Dior toile de jouy is also reinterpreted with the addition of animals, much like those seen on recent accessories by creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri. The new Paris boutique offers these items and much more, suggesting this is Christian Dior’s world and we’re just living in it.

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AMERICA’S WINE REVOLUTION

hen Asian wine collectors ‒ and, indeed, those in the rest of the world ‒ think about American wine, the focus is almost entirely on the West Coast. Producers from Napa Valley, mainly, but also the states of Oregon and Washington dominate not just the thinking, but the buying too. Collectors and wine lovers battle for big names like Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Colgin, Schrader, Dominus Estate (California/Napa Valley), Nicolas Jay (Oregon), and B.Leighton (Washington), neglecting other high-quality wineries around the country. The truth is that wine is produced in all the states of the Union. For example, Colorado may seem like an extremely unlikely place to make wine, but the state has 198 wineries and many outstanding quality wines exist. The JamesSuckling.com tasting team looked at wines from top producers in the west (Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas), the east (North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and New

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Jersey) and the centre (Ohio, Michigan and Missouri) while tasting nearly 900 bottles, documenting not just quality but also the remarkable stylistic and varietal diversity that’s emerging across America. Many of these wineries are revolutionising their winemaking to make truly excellent bottles that are often a fraction of the price of the bigger names from the West Coast. Our top-scoring dry white was the 2016 The Knoll, a rich and highly structured dry Riesling from Red Newt on the east bank of Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York that we rated 96 points. We compare it to the legendary white of Alsace, Trimbach Clos Ste Hune. The difference is that Clos Ste Hune retails for about US$175 and The Knoll costs just US$40. And to give a sense of the pioneering creativity going on in these wineries, Red Newt owns no vines. The Knoll comes from a single block at Lahoma Vineyards on Seneca Lake planted in 2008. “The dedication of grape growers like Harlan and

RDV VINEYARDS

Beyond Napa, Washington and Oregon, an undiscovered world is emerging from the fine wine corners of the United States that until now have been hidden in the shadows, writes james suckling

INSIDE THE FERMENTATION ROOM AT VIRGINIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S RDV VINEYARDS

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FROM LEFT: THE RDV WINERY IN DELAPLANE, VIRGINIA; A BLIND-TASTING SESSION; THE ROAD TO BARBOURSVILLE VINEYARDS IN VIRGINIA

Kenny Fulkerson of Lahoma Vineyards is the foundation of everything we do,” says Kelby Russell, winemaker at Red Newt. “Whether from working harvests in Tasmania and the Barossa Valley in Australia or from visits to colleagues in Germany and Alsace, the joy for me is in connecting the winemaking ideas to meet the high standards we have for each vineyard site.” That combination enabled him to develop a radically new style of dry Riesling in the Finger Lakes. Our top red wine, the 2016 Lost Mountain from RdV in Delaplane, Virginia, also rated 96. It’s much more expensive, at US$150, but this Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend has a stunning combination of concentration and fine-grained tannins. If you find some cult California Cabernets a bit too heavy, then you should find Lost Mountain more than exciting. It has the fruit purity of Napa with the finesse and structure of Bordeaux. Rutger de Vink, owner at RdV, was a platoon commander in the US Marines until 1996. “The Marine Corps wasn’t a job for me but a way of life, and I wanted to find that feeling again,” he says. “So in 2001 I worked the harvest at Linden Vineyards in Northern Virginia and I fell in love with working in the vineyard. After a three-year search I bought the land in Delaplane and started RdV in 2004.” Beyond these magical bottles, we found dozens of other outstanding white, sparkling and red wines with outstanding quality and most sell for between US$15 and US$40 a

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bottle. Tasting the American wine revolution doesn’t have to cost a fortune. The idea of American wine from places other than California, Washington State and Oregon is exciting. It illustrates America’s pioneering spirit as well as the trend for authentic food and gastronomic experiences from heirloom vegetables to craft beer. Not coincidentally, our tasting also showed the power of terroir. The highest ratings went to wines from producers who let their vineyards speak. This represents a sea change in American regional wines over the last few decades. Gone are the days of modest goals, no longer are “standard” and recognisable varietal flavours – sometimes created rather than grown from haphazardly selected sites – de rigueur. The best producers across America know their sites and plant genetics as never before. And they don’t limit themselves to conventional wisdom about what to grow. The diversity of these American wines reflects the vast climatic and geological range across America. It’s a wine continent, just like Australia or Europe. On top of that, dozens of grape varieties are cultivated, many of which have a great significance in just a couple of locations. For example, Dr Konstantin Frank made a striking dry

white in the Finger Lakes in 2017 from the Rkatsiteli grape, a native of Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains, that rated 93 points. In the same year, Galen Glen made a dry Grüner Veltliner – the signature grape of Austria – in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania that’s brimming with yellow melon and peach aromas and that rated 92. We also loved the vibrant red that Red Fox made in the Grand Valley, Colorado from the Teroldego grape of northeastern Italy in 2016. It has a ton of wild berry character and rated 91 points. This complex picture is another reason why these wines are underreported. So yes, the wines of the American West Coast are great and will command attention. But the adventurous spirit and collegiate camaraderie of winemakers elsewhere is seeing them emerge from the shadows, with bottles exploring new ideas and priced attractively. See JamesSuckling.com for more reviews and tasting notes

OUTLANDISH AMERICANS

JAMES SUCKLING’S FIVE RECOMMENDED “ALTERNATIVE” AMERICAN WINES

RDV VINEYARDS VIRGINIA LOST MOUNTAIN 2016 SCORE: 96 This is a tight and linear red with very fine tannins and beautiful subtlety and finesse. Full-bodied and very sophisticated. Energetic acidity. Precise and focused. Extremely finely crafted and subtle. A blend of 97 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 3 percent Merlot.

RED NEWT CELLARS RIESLING FINGER LAKES THE KNOLL 2016 SCORE: 96

Intense aromas of honey, white peaches, green mangoes and limes, leading to a palate that has a succulent, deeply ﬂavoursome core of limes and grapefruit. The acidity balance is scintillatingly precise and the overall impression is seamless. Amazing fruit intensity here. Drink now.

ANTHONY ROAD RIESLING FINGER LAKES DRY 2017 SCORE: 95 Very impressive limes, grapefruit and tangerines with a pristine, fragrant edge. The palate has exceptional length and balance with terriﬁc concentration of lime and lemon ﬂavour. Explosive mineral depth. Wow! Drink now.

BARBOURSVILLE VINEYARDS VIRGINIA OCTAGON 2016 SCORE: 95

A linear and tight red with currant, spice, walnut and sweet-tobacco character. Full-bodied, reﬁned and polished. Very driven and pretty. Lovely length. Excellent potential. Wait until 2021.

ROANOKE VINEYARDS CABERNET SAUVIGNON NORTH FORK OF LONG ISLAND STRIKING DISTANCE 2015 SCORE: 95

A seriously elegant Cabernet Sauvignon that proves this grape is capable of greatness on Long Island, given the right vintage and an uncompromising commitment to quality. Stunning concentration and seamless balance through the very long, poised ﬁnish. Drink or hold.

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MOROCCAN ROLL IROSHINI CHUA takes a journey through North Africa’s Maghreb, from the souks of Marrakech to the High Atlas Mountains and the desert landscapes of Skoura

e’re seated on velvet cushions, our feet dipping into the cool water flowing along an irrigation channel beneath our picnic table. Overhead, olive trees soar, forming a perfect arch that provides respite from the desert heat. We’re at Dar Ahlam, a restored 19th‑century kasbah (citadel) overlooking the Atlas Mountains that’s roughly a four-hour drive south from Marrakech. I note how perfectly the colours of our meal complement the surroundings, from the mint-green crockery to the olive oil made here, the zucchini soup and the sprinkling of pistachios on our tomato salad. It’s clear that every detail has been meticulously considered. Our waiter, Ahmad, walks towards us, bearing dessert on a silver tray. “Are those apricots?” I ask him. Almost apologetically, he tells us they’re peaches before disappearing beyond the olive grove. Moments later, a rustle of leaves signals his return. With a wide grin and a flourish, he produces freshly plucked apricots. Let’s rewind for a moment to our arrival in Marrakech, where on checking in at the impossibly beautiful Amanjena we discover that our rose-hued pavilion – inspired by the fabled reds of the city itself – has been personalised with framed photos of our family. Our elegant dwelling is sprawling, with an outdoor minzha (gazebo) that could easily seat a dozen, a glittering emerald heated pool and a soothing petalstrewn fountain. With snow-capped mountains as a backdrop and surrounded by date palms, Amanjena is a blissful retreat where, after our long journey, unwinding is the order of the day. I’m slathered in therapeutic argan oil and herbs at the spa, then settle into an oversize outdoor bed overlooking an ancient-style reflecting pool to enjoy live Moroccan music. When the mercury level drops, we retreat indoors to feast on tagine and tangia under vaulted ceilings and Moorish arches. Magical though Amanjena is, we nonetheless venture beyond its confines and into the heart of Marrakech, whose red-walled medieval medina is crisscrossed by narrow lanes. A former imperial city, it’s a melting pot of Berber, Roman, French, Spanish and Arab cultures. The legendary souk is chaotic but compelling: we’re charmed by the heady aroma of spices, the stalls piled high with colourful fabrics and ceramics, leather babouches (heelless slippers) and brass lamps strung from ceilings,

CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE PAGE: AMANJENA; SOUK IN MARRAKECH; TEA-MAKING AT KASBAH TAMADOT

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CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: DESERT DINING AT DAR AHLAM’S NOMAD CAMP; BAHIA PALACE IN MARRAKECH; THE KSAR OF AIT-BEN-HADDOU, A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE; AMANJENA; SUITE AT KASBAH TAMADOT

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pedestrians sidestepping motorcyclists and vendors peddling an assortment of wares. Our guide introduces us to the 19th-century Moorish Bahia Palace. Richly decorated with marble, stucco, cedarwood carvings and stainedglass windows, the buildings are organised around lush gardens and shady courtyards. Next, we proceed to a historic walled quarter known as mellah, which was once home to the city’s Jewish community. The next chapter of our journey takes us up into the awe-inspiring High Atlas, where we’re headed for Kasbah Tamadot, Richard Branson’s luxurious mountain retreat. Nestled in a valley, it offers views of Toubkal, which at more than 4,000 metres is the highest peak in the Arab world. Immediately, I understand why Branson fell so much in love with the property that he bought it almost at once, eclectic contents and all. Pleasant surprises await at every corner, from intricately carved doors to unique art pieces and tapestries, and a cobalt-blue pool filled with rose petals. The garden is equally alluring, but my favourite place to enjoy the fresh mountain air over a pot of mint tea is in a crisp white tent decorated with tasselled cushions and kilim rugs by a stunning infinity pool. Our master suite is a private mini kasbah with a glorious terrace, and a view of the valley and river below. As expected, the service is impeccable. The staff cosset us with blankets, an allergy menu and an amazing tagine, then lead us to the bar in an opulent Berber tent for a nightcap. But there’s more to do at Kasbah Tamadot than just relaxing. We shop at the Berber Boutique, which works with the Eve Branson Foundation to support local artisans, and there’s croquet on the lawn. The area is also a paradise for hikers, with ample opportunities to discover nearby Berber villages, where the culture hasn’t changed for centuries. To the east at the edge of the Sahara lies the city of Ouarzazate, whose rugged surrounds have featured in countless movies and TV series. We could fly there but, feeling adventurous, decide instead to get there by road via the dizzying hairpin bends of the Tizi n’Tichka pass. As the mountains retreat behind us, the landscape changes from green meadows to a rocky desert. To the north of the city lies the fortified,

“Anything is possible,” says the manager. “You can have dinner in your bathrobe if you wish”

earth-built village at Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou, a Unesco World Heritage Site that’s a perfect example of southern Moroccan architecture. Here, we navigate narrow streets flanked by souvenir shops and climb up steps for sweeping views of the spot that served as the city of Yunkai in Game of Thrones. Leaving Ouarzazate behind, we’re driven to Skoura, an oasis town that was once an important trading post. Crumbling kasbah dot the sunbaked land, the most famous being Kasbah Amridil, which is now a museum with a fascinating collection of artefacts and tools. A dusty road takes us through a dry riverbed before we arrive at Dar Ahlam (“house of dreams”), a 200-year-old kasbah that’s our home for several nights. The rooms are all unique, except for the absence of locks and TVs. Ours has an outdoor courtyard, a fireplace and a reading nook, complete with its own library. Getting lost is part of the fantasy. You never quite know what to expect when you duck through tiny hidden doors, walk through moody passages or climb mysterious stairways. There are salons (separate ones for men and women), a library and – my favourite find – a rooftop bathed in the glow of the setting sun. We look forward to mealtimes, an experience that’s always private,

theatrical and wholly indulgent. There are no restaurants or menus – and no rules either. “Anything is possible,” says the manager. “You can have dinner in your bathrobe if you wish.” So we have a picnic on the lawn, with colourful sashes draped on trees and birdsong as an accompaniment. We also indulge in a dreamy, whitethemed dinner in a garden softly lit by candle lanterns and floating tea lights, and with flowers dangling in mid-air. We’re left completely alone – until, that is, the staff magically appear whenever we need something, as though they’ve read our minds. One evening, we’re driven to Dar Ahlam’s Nomad Camp through mud-brick villages perched above the Valley of Roses, where we glimpse farmers, hidden rivers and rose plantations. Our arrival is perfectly timed for sunset and the staff, who’ve already erected a tent complete with a bedroom, dining area and bathroom, have prepared an evening meal. We start with tea, then move on to canapés and cocktails before enjoying a Moroccan dinner in the great outdoors surrounded by lamps. With the stars twinkling above us and no other souls in sight, I savour the moment in this special corner of the world that feels as if it had been carved out just for us.

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NOT JUST SNOW COUNTRY WITH ARCHITECTURE, ADVENTURE AND FINE DINING, THE MILLIONAIRES’ PLAYGROUND OF NISEKO ISN’T ONLY FOR FROLICKING IN THE WHITE STUFF, WRITES JING ZHANG

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AARON JAMIESON (OPPOSITE PAGE)

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OPPOSITE PAGE: THE PAVILIONS KATSURA VILLA IN WINTER. THIS PAGE: KAYAKING AROUND THE CAVES OF THE SHAKOTAN PENINSULA

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Although there are lots of lovely hotels, four-star establishments are most common in Niseko. However, a recent spate of luxury developments and five-star hotels and resorts have upped the ante. Many, like the Park Hyatt and Ritz-Carlton, are imminent arrivals, and there are strong rumours of an Aman finally landing. The Pavilions group has finished some private residences for sale (such as the Keyaki villa I’m staying in) but is also developing a hotel and “Ginto Village” (tailored towards dining and shopping) on the same plot, due for completion in spring 2020. “Niseko is extreme,” says Vincent McIlduff, founding partner of architectural firm ALT-254 and lead architect on the Pavilions project. “When building there you have to keep two aspects of function at the forefront of design: snow clearing and thermal insulation. “There were two main concepts to the villas. Firstly, a Japanese style embedded in Western luxury. This formed the concept for Katsura Villa and Hinoki Villa, which were then split by price point. Katsura is very spacious and opulent, while Hinoki is a lot smaller,” he explains. “And then, Keyaki was a separate concept. It follows the designs of Western chalets – high pitched roof, high vaulted ceilings – creating an atmosphere of grandeur as opposed to the sleek and refined Japanese feel of the two other properties.” Floor-to-ceiling windows clad the houses, giving residents gorgeous green views of the forest. Each spectacular villa is outfitted in local woods, designed with a nod to Japanese minimalism and art, yet with homey, contemporary, super-comfortable interiors perfect for hibernating

AARON JAMIESON

’m sinking into a steaming private onsen in Keyaki, an enormous six-bedroom private residence built by the Hong Kong-based Pavilions Hotels + Resorts group at Niseko in western Hokkaido. Chilled glass of Chablis in my hand, I’m looking out over an unobstructed view of the lush green woodlands of Hirafu, a resort village in the Niseko area. Friends wax lyrical about the beauty of Niseko during the winter months when Mount Yotei – a mighty but dormant volcano – presides over miles of pristine white slopes and powder. But spring, summer and autumn here and in the surrounding areas can be just as compelling, whether you’re relaxing in luxury in the beautiful Hokkaido countryside, sampling the finest local cuisine or breaking a sweat with outdoor sports. The next day, sunlight glitters off a crystal-clear sea reflecting 50 shades of blue, the heat is intense and there’s a sparse smattering of clouds in an otherwise clear sky. Our neon-coloured kayaks (guided by Toyru expeditions) glide through the calm waters around the craggy coastline of the Shakotan Peninsula in the far west of the island. We explore caves, clamber over dramatic geological formations and swim in rock pools dotted with the region’s famous spiky sea urchins. “The most surprising thing for people in summer and autumn is all the amazing things you can do,” says Aaron Jamieson, an Australian photographer, adventurer and gallery owner based in Hirafu. “People think that it’s this sleepy town, but there’s rafting and kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, cycling, mountain biking and hiking. Niseko comes to life in a whole new way.” Jamieson has been living in Niseko for 14 years and runs photography workshops and trips all year round. “The beauty of getting out in good weather, on the land, lakes and ocean in these seasons is amazing. It’s just so pristine: the water, the surroundings, it’s all absolutely beautiful.” We head out to stunning Lake Toya for a morning of stand-up paddle boarding around the islands, breaking to take dips in the clear waters whenever it gets too hot. After a late lunch, we head back for rest and enjoy a glass of Champagne while watching the sunset from Keyaki villa.

with the family or hosting summer parties. Beautiful family onsens are a highlight of each property. “Growing up as an architect, you’re drenched with Japanese influence,” adds McIlduff. “Simple yet striking is our company’s design identity, something very evident in Japanese modernist design. The synergy between the Japanese and European styles is what captured our imagination for this project.” But no trip to Japan is complete without a significant amount of time dedicated to epicurean delights, and accordingly we take the 90-minute road trip north from Hirafu to the famous Nikka Whisky’s Yoichi Distillery near the coastal settlement of Otaru and its warren of izakayas, eateries and historic buildings lining the old canals. The increasing flow of well-heeled visitors to the island has fuelled the appearance of the many delicious indulgences Hokkaido has to offer.

IN SUMMER AND AUTUMN, HOKKAIDO’S RICH AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE FLOURISHES

Demand for fine dining is high, pure ingredients are abundant and the competition is intense. Back in Hirafu, the one-Michelin-star Kamimura by Hokkaido-born chef Yuichi Kamimura lies right in the centre of the high street. A sampling of the summer menu on our first night in Niseko set the culinary bar very high, peaking with the chargrilled wagyu beef. In summer and autumn, Hokkaido’s wonderfully rich agricultural produce flourishes. Just take the fare at Maccarina, an auberge in Makkari village not far from Niseko. The summer tasting menu offers refreshing, mouth-watering bite-size morsels such as ama-ebi shrimp poach, foie-gras terrine and flavoursome vegetables from the restaurant’s own garden. “Just as it’s snowy and white in winter,” Jamieson says, “it’s lush and green in the summer. A lot of that is farming and all the local produce is just so delicious and fresh.” An experience for those willing to get a little more involved in the story of local cuisine is Hokkaidian Homestead, an intimate seafood and farmto-table venue that seats and serves one group at a time. We dine on fresh scallop and uni, taste seared local flounder with vegetables all grown on farms a stone’s throw away, and sip delicious orange-tinged Italian biodynamic wine while nibbling on thin slices of locally cured prosciutto (the region is famous for its pork) draped over the sweetest Hokkaido honeydew melons. Opened in 2018 by former Hong Kong financier Ian Hong and his Japanese wife Noriko Matsushita, the operation is run by the duo with the help of locally based French chef Bastian out of a cottage in the rolling green hills of Date near Lake Toya. Guests are served lunch or dinner, but help out cooking some of the dishes while learning about the best nature can offer, a refreshingly intimate and magical experience and one that exemplifies the joys of these warmer, snow-free Hokkaido seasons.

CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE PAGE: THE SHAKOTAN PENINSULA; HOKKAIDO FARMLAND; FRESH UNI AND SCALLOP AT THE HOKKAIDIAN HOMESTEAD; THE ONSEN AT KEYAKI VILLA

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THE W LUXURY OF PLACE

After more than half a century, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii still dazzles with its understated architecture and a relentless focus on its beautiful surroundings, writes jon wall

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hen in 1960 the American businessman and financier Laurance S Rockefeller visited Kaunaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;oa Bay on the beautiful, wild and, in those days, empty northwest coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, he fell in love with the place almost immediately. He swam in the impossibly blue water, which was fringed by a perfect arc of sand; in the opposite direction, the land sloped inexorably upwards towards the summit of the dormant volcano Mauna Kea, more than 4,200 metres above the sea. And being a man of means as well as considerable influence and imagination, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s said to have told himself, right there and then, that he was going to build an exclusive tropical resort on that very spot. To realise his vision, Rockefeller sought out the best names he could find. For the design of an 18-hole, linksstyle golf course facing the Pacific and blown by trade

winds, the great Robert Trent Jones was the obvious choice. And for his beachfront hotel, which would be the first of its kind on the island, he turned to one of the most successful architectural practices in the United States. Already famous for designing some of the most admired modernist buildings in the country, such as the Manhattan House apartments on New York’s East 66th Street and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, the Chicago-based partnership of Louis Skidmore, Nathaniel Owings and John O Merrill were avowed followers of Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. Brought on board by Rockefeller, they applied similar principles to what he decided to call the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, elevating much of the main structure from the ground and building it from industrially produced materials that would be devoid of any ornamentation and thus focus all attention on the surroundings. The problems involved in landscaping and building upon such a challenging site were tremendous. Enormous quantities of solid lava needed to be excavated and removed from an area that lacked even the most basic infrastructure; as for the construction materials, these were brought in by barge. Eventually, in 1964, the golf course was ready. One year later and at a total cost of US$15 million (which at the time made it the most expensive hotel development ever), the Mauna Kea Beach opened – well, one can hardly say “its doors”, because aside from those on the guest rooms, storerooms and offices, this remarkable building doesn’t really have any. So that half a century later, when guests first arrive after driving up from the island’s Kona-Kohala airport, the view straight through the shaded lobby, which

lies beneath a glass-roofed atrium and four tiered layers of accommodation, to the waving palm trees, the ocean and a cloudless sky beyond is enough to take their breath away. Today the coastline is gradually being overwhelmed by hotels, golf courses and gated residential colonies populated by Hollywood stars and tech moguls. But none of these are as ingenious or innovative as was the Mauna Kea Beach. Simple to the point of severity and in stark contrast to the brilliant blues and greens outside, it’s open almost everywhere to the sky, sun, breeze and (very rarely) rain, and an object lesson in how to bring the outside in. No wonder this masterpiece of what’s now called tropical modernism is included on the American Institute of Architects’ list of the 150 favourite buildings and structures in the country, alongside such icons as the Empire State Building, the White House and the Jefferson Memorial. The guest rooms are airy, spacious and pleasant; they don’t blow you away with opulence, but then that’s the whole point, for your attention is always drawn to what’s beyond the sliding glass windows. Each room has its own lanai, which, if you’re not in the gardens, on the beach or out exploring the island, is an ideal spot for an afternoon laze. At night it’s cool enough to turn off the air conditioning, open the doors, close the mosquito screens and sleep to the sea’s soothing susurrus. Here, you aren’t pampered by absurdly unnecessary butler services, offers to “draw” your bath and strew the water with frangipani petals, or set up a private-dining “experience” on the beach for you and your loved one. At the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel the most sublime luxury is the very spot you’re staying in.

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BACKSTORY

TOYS FOR BOYS

One of the coolest private aircraft ever designed, the rear-engine, five-seat Centauri Valkyrie is inspired by fighter jets and supercars. It’s also among the many incredible items of kit – from Formula 1 cars to cuttingedge apparel – offered by TheArsenale, an online global marketplace that also calls itself “the most insane garage in the world”. Alongside regional showrooms in Paris, Miami and Dubai, TheArsenale just opened its flagship store in Asia at City of Dreams’ White Gallery in Macau. So fellas, whether you’re after the baddest bike on the block or perhaps a military-style mini-submarine – or if you’re simply desperate to waste some wedge on something – this is the place for you. cityofdreamsmacau.com

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