Cercle n11

ECONOMICS | A R T S | C A R S | T R A V E L | F A S H I O N

A NEW EXPER IENCE BEYOND LUXURY

I S S U E N .11

CINEMA

MOTOR

73rd Golden Globes Awards

Geneva International Motor Show 2016

ESSAY Belle Époque

PHOTOGR APHY

HYÈRES - Photo Competition

ART EVENT

Art Basel - Miami/ Hong Kong

INSIDE

Princess Camilla of

Bourbon Two Sicilies Duchess of castro

SOUTH AFR ICA

EDITOR’S LE T TER

Getting back to George Clooney, apart from his status as a mega film star, he has a number of charitable interests and a general concern about important issues in our world. In 2015, Clooney was voted by Time Magazine as one of the hundred most influential people in the world.

Dear Cercle friends, Our hearts go out to all those caught up and affected by the recent bombs in Brussels.

This appalling event has implications for the UK referendum in June as anxieties increase about security and cross-border sharing of information.

Indeed the forthcoming referendum is causing tempers to flare around Europe – a Europe that is already in crisis on account of the pressure of refugees and the fractured response by different member countries. It takes only a small typo to change united Europe into untied Europe.

Recently the French Minister for the Economy, Emmanuel Macron, has announced that post-Brexit, Paris will welcome the mass exodus of bankers hedge fund managers seeking sanctuary in Europe. Hopefully, it won’t come to this. The British have a tradition of pragmatism and probably will at the eleventh hour pull back from the brink.

In this our eleventh edition, we have assembled an interesting assortment of contrasting views and articles. Naturally, as a magazine closely associated with glamour and luxury, we’ve reported on the recent film festivals with their parade of stars and the movies that enshrine them.

First up, the 73rd Golden Globes in Los Angeles. As usual this was a wonderfully glitzy affair where the stars showed off their amazing couture and jewellery: Rose Huntingdon-Whitely, sporting a 350K engagement ring or Jennifer Lopez in a breathtaking marigold-caped Giambattista Valli haute couture gown.

We’ve also written about this year’s Berlinale. ‘Hail Caesar’, the opening film starred George Clooney, the natural successor to Carey Grant and - as Grant was - now regarded as probably the world’s most glamourous man.

Unfortunately, today there is no shortage of causes to be concerned about.

The overshadowing event – perhaps the most threatening of any since the Second World War – is the refugee disaster. This was one of the other main themes of the Berlinale film festival which screened a number of entries based on this catastrophic event. Not surprisingly the winner of the Golden Bear was the film, Fire At Sea, set on the island of Lampedusa, the European entry point for tens of thousands of refugees from North Africa.

In South Africa something we have looked into is the ongoing debate about conservation issues in private safari big game reserves. Of particular concern is finding the delicate balance between attracting tourists for the sport of hunting with the need to sustain and preserve local wildlife.

Sticking to the theme of South Africa, we’ve also examined the country’s flourishing wine industry. Not only is there a lot of choice but South African wine is renowned for its ecological credentials. If you want to experience the wide range of first-class vintages, I recommend the Cape Wine Auction held in February.

Not to be missed is Maite Plimmer’s article on The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.You’ll also find a piece inspired by a major exhibition of the art of La Belle Epoque in Italy. There turns out to be an interesting comparison between that most glamourous and luxurious interlude in Paris between 1871 and 1914, and the period in Britain a hundred years later. It turns out that in some respects history is repeating itself. Meanwhile, Caroline von Krokow-Lahame, who has just written a book inspired by the period, sets the art of the period in its social context.

For millennia, spring has traditionally been the period of Carnival, an explosion of counter-cultural mayhem – a sexy and sacrilegious swipe at authority. Our article looks at Carnival’s history and how it has lampooned convention down the centuries, and the accompanying festivities and masked balls.

I wish all of you an enjoyable Spring and Summer season.

In the same vein we’ve taken a look at some of the cutting edge hotels and resorts that cater to the tastes of such luminaries - Cristallo Hotel in Cortina, The Belrose in St Tropez and The Fairmont in Monaco. The latter’s general manager, Xavier Rugeroni, tells a wonderful story about how he was hired to manage Forte Hotels in Tunisia. We won’t spoil it for you. Read it – it’s a gas!

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Gabriele Salvadori Founder & Editor-in-Chief

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M Y FAV O U R I T E S | HRH PRINCESS CA MILL A

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E C O N O M I C S | AT L A N T I C D O M I N AT I O N

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C I N E M A | 73 R D G O L D E N G LO B ES AWA R D S

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E S S AY | BELLE ÉPOQUE

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P L A C E | C R I S TA L LO H OT EL

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W A T C H E S | B A S E LW O R L D - C H O PA R D

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P R O F I L E | X AV I E R R U G E R O N I

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A R T E V E N T | A RT BAS EL M I A M I/ H O N G KO N G

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C A R S | G E N E VA M O T O R S H O W 2 016

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A R O U N D T H E W O R L D | WO R L D C A R N I VA L

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C O U N T R Y | INSIDE SOUTH AFRICA

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L O C A L A R T | ZEITZ MUSEUM

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P H I L A N T H R O P Y | W I N E & R OYA LT Y

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C U LT U R E | BERLINALE

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D E S T I N A T I O N | VI LL A BELROSE H OTEL

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A R T F O C U S | PI ER R E KO U K J I A N

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P H O T O G R A P H Y | HYÈRES - PH OTO COM PETI O N

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B I O G R A P H Y | MY S T. T R O P E Z

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I N C O N V E R S A T I O N W I T H | CARON BERNSTEIN

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T R AV E L | ARGENTINA

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MY FAVOURITES

Princess Camilla of

Bourbon Two Sicilies Duchess of castro

“When life gives you a lot, it also asks you a lot.”

Photography: Jean-Daniel Lorieux

Cover Rings: Chopard Solitaire ring in 18ct white gold set with a brilliant-cut diamond (5.01 ct) and 394 diamonds (1.07ct) / Chopard Solitaire ring in 18ct white gold set with a square emerald-cut diamond (3.01 cts) and 30 brilliant-cut diamonds. (0.10 ct).

Earings: Chopard Earrings from the High Jewellery collection in 18ct white gold set with 130 rose-cut diamonds (60.06 cts) and 190 diamonds (2.63 cts).

Watch: Chopard Watch from L’Heure du Diamant collection in 18ct white gold set with diamonds, quartz movement, satin strap.

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Necklace: Chopard from the High Jewellery collection in 18ct white gold set with 5674 diamonds Earings: Chopard from the Temptations collection in 18ct white gold set with 2 oval-cut amethysts (18.98 cts), 32 round-cut amethysts (14.16 cts), 2 pear-cut amethysts (2.47 cts), 565 diamonds (2.41 cts), 24 rose-cut diamonds (0.80 ct) Watch: Chopard Imperiale in 18ct white gold set with diamonds and rubies, self-winding movement, alligator leather strap.

Dress: Yanina Couture Maxi dress with hand made appliquĂŠ on the veil

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A

lthough I was born in Rome, my family moved to Geneva when I was five. Later on, I carried out my studies in the United States where I attended first the Marymount High School, and then – New York University. I believe I received what some might call a strict education.

My mother was much stricter than I am with my daughters but I am deeply grateful to her because the lessons she taught me are still so precious and relevant today. She was my rock and my protector then as she is now.

I always mingled in international circles and I guess this taught me – even without being aware of it – how to live among people of different backgrounds, religions and creeds. I think it also has helped me better understand people and as a result becoming more tolerant in the process. It’s an outlook on life that I try to pass onto my own children.

DO YOU RE ALIZE THAT YOU EMBODY THE DRE AM OF MANY YOUNG GIRL S? When life gives you a lot, it also asks of you a lot. The direction of my life took a decisive turn when my family moved permanently to Monaco in 1992. H.S.H. Prince Albert II was a good friend of H.R.H Prince Charles of Bourbon Two Sicilies and he introduced me to my future husband. We got married in 1998 and Prince Albert II and H.R.H Prince Laurent of Belgium were our witnesses. Being married of course transforms anybody’s life. In my case it has meant becoming very involved with the many philanthropic and charitable causes of my husband - whether these are abroad or at home..

HOW DO YOU RECONCILE BEING A MOTHER, A PRINCESS, AND A CHARIT Y AMBA SSADOR? As every woman knows, being a mother is a full time occupation that requires non-stop attention.The way we educate our children determines their future when they become adults. My daughters (11 and 12) need to learn to live in their era with the rapid changes that are taking place around us – especially in the domain of technology, science and the internet. At the same time, I try to teach them the fundamental values of our respective families, perpetuating the ones passed on from generation to generation.

There is a hidden part to every public figure. Although I’m the same person, I know I sometimes have a duty to represent the image of a Royal House with a history that stretches back across the centuries. I accepted this role without being able to test it and I had to learn a lot from my husband. His example became my model and I must say this happened much more easily than I feared. My royal responsibilities obviously provide many opportunities to meet new people and from there to forge numerous personal and business relationships – all of which is very fulfilling.

Each parent is subject to the same conflict between being good parents and the need to impose rules. My husband and I want our daughters to learn the meaning of honesty, sincerity, faith, loyalty, compassion and tradition.

Moving onto the subject of humanitarian action, I operate around clear principles. Humanitarian action for me, means showing solidarity and, above all, taking action to protect and help those who are the most vulnerable and in need of help. Many international organisations and charities exist for this purpose. In my case, I am a proud ambassador of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, of which my husband, is the current Grand Master. The main purpose of the Order is the propagation of the Catholic Faith and the glorification of the Holy Cross and the illustration of this through charitable and humanitarian acts. In the last few years, we’ve directed more of our energies to ensuring that the message of what we do

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resonates: our two key focuses are on the provision of hospital care and funding a variety of charities globally.

“I am very engaged in life and I have a great sense of responsibility in terms of my role.�

Charity has always been something that I take seriously. I think that marrying the Duke of Castro made this part of me expand and crystalize. However that side is obviously only one part of my personality. A contrasting part is that I am very active and sporty. Like a lot of other people, I try and follow a daily exercise routine. Apart from that, my life is very simple with some very exciting elements. I think that after getting married, I realized that it is not about acting like a Princess, it is just being who you are and being true to oneself.

In the end, I would say my life is both fulfilling and busy. I do not have much time to get bored; I juggle between institutional activities, worldwide humanitarian activities, social activities, managing and taking care of the family business, and my beloved family. Life is fascinating and days are short but, easy or not, each one etches itself and leaves its mark for good and for bad on my memory.

WHAT IS, AMONG YOUR ACTIVITIES, THE MOST TIME CONSUMING? My life alternates between my official commitments (which usually take place in Italy) with the less formal aspects of family life.

The role of women has changed in recent years. In the last century, the woman was mainly a mother, giving birth to her children and educating them. She was the centerpiece of the family. Today, the mother is also a woman. I think, we are finally seeing women everywhere express their desire to juggle all parts of their lives: the professional element; the emotional element and the family element.

So yes, I am pretty pre-occupied. If I were to express one wish, I would certainly like to spend a little more time with my husband and my daughters.

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Earings: Chopard from the High Jewellery collection in 18ct white gold set with 118 brilliant-cut diamonds (1.38ct) and 2 triangle-shaped diamonds (5.06 cts / 5.36 cts) Dress: Yanina Couture SS16 cotton-velvet jacket hand embroidered with satin stitch and crystals

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“Fashion can be bought, style must be possessed; the name is not enough to be attractive.”

DO YOU THINK THAT YOU HAVE A SPECIAL ROLE LINKED TO WOMEN’S RIGHTS? I must admit that I’m still getting my head around this gigantic issue. When I was young it seems to me that the equality debate between the rights of men and women was over. History is full of example of the disparity between genders, but I was meeting a lot of incredible women, free to make their choices and proud of their success. I was personally pushed to develop my talents and to assume responsibility for my actions. I know now that life is not the same for all women on earth. I believe that example is the best demonstration. I hope this involvement will be positive at the end of the day, and that my daughters, and maybe their daughters and their granddaughters, will experience a better world, more equal and more peaceful. Our actions in general, and in favour of women and children in particular has just been underlined by the United Nations Women for Peace Association, which together with H.E. Ban KI-MOON, we were recognised last month at a ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE PL ACES? I have been spending time in Monaco for the last twenty years; the Principality has been the place where I experienced those wonderful firstlived moments of love that ultimately led to my marriage, it is also where my daughters grow up. Today it is the place where I founded my “family office” in order to manage my business better, even if it is primary based in Italy, it spreads around the world: my interests encompass financial activities with investments in the main markets to industrial activities mainly connected to a group active in the ICT and system integration businesses for the Defence, Homeland Security, Space & Transport.

Monaco is also, a place of entertainment – offering as it does so many cultural events, media, theatre, sports and recreation. Frankly I love it all. I try to go to as much as possible whether it be the Grimaldi Forum which has staged numerous exhibitions from Top Marques to Picasso, the concerts at the Summer Sporting, the Circus Festival, the Tennis Open, the Formula One Grand Prix. Equally, I love to visit the Yacht Club de Monaco, the Musée

Océanographique, the Jumping Championship held by our friend Jan Tops.

Finally, the Principality is a place where I have many international friends.

However, I have a few places dear to my heart as well where I live and spend part of the year, which are Paris, Rome, Naples, and New York. Of course, there are also much more locations I adore, and I try to visit them as much as possible. But time is a rare luxury for me!

HOW IMPORTANT ARE FA SHION AND LUXURY FOR YOU? I happen to love beauty wherever it stands, so I do not go after a specific brand or objects. I just look for things I like, and I try to keep an open mind and always look for something new or original. I am very much a fan of creativity in every aspect, but I have to admit that clothing and accessories are of great interest to me. Fashion passes; style remains, but in the end, I strongly believe ‘elegance’ is the only beauty that never fades..

WHAT ARE YOU FAVOURITE BR ANDS? Fashion can be bought, style must be possessed; the name is not enough to be attractive. I am always looking for something original and trendy to wear which sometimes leads me to young designers, completely unknown. .

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN FUTURE? You never know what the future holds for you. I will be probably taking care of my family the best I can, trying to help as much as possible the ones in need, and sharing my love for beauty in art, fashion, jewelry and other wonderful experiences such as travelling. What I am certain is that I will always have the same values; I will be more and more involved in social relations and finally I hope that my daughters will have been able to absorb our teachings and be enriched with knowledge to build a life in their own image.

Necklace: Chopard from the High Jewellery collection in 18ct white gold set with 126 diamonds (120.16 cts).

Ring: Chopard Happy Diamonds watch in 18ct white gold fully set with brilliant-cut diamonds and 5 mobile brilliant-cut

16diamonds, | Issue Nquartz 11 movement, satin strap. Dress: Black Velvet Yanina Couture slim silhouette Dress with chiffon drapery and hand embroidery on decolette

ECONOMICS

Atlantic domination

S

etting specifics aside for just a moment, there is something seriously worrying, when an unelected European delegation negotiates trade agreements with the United States. It is even more worrying still when these negotiations happen behind closed doors with lobbyists and representatives being handed the power to speak on behalf of the whole European Union. Remember, too, how this happens in secrecy and with no other stakeholders in attendance.

Not only do the very basic leaked documents show that the TTIP agreement - as it stands - is cause for serious concern, but it reveals something else too: namely that the European delegation is failing to make the United States realize that we have no interest in deals that by current European standards are illegal and whose terms and conditions will also negatively impact the living standards of individuals around Europe.

This irrespective of their opinions on the matter in the short term and the long term.

The T.T.I.P, an acronym for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, aims to emulate a European-styled no tariff trading system between the United States and the European Union. The hope driving it is to boost much needed economic growth across both regions of the world. As this article heads to publication, The European Union are also negotiating and reaching the final stages of a similar free trade agreement between Canada.

This is built on the same basic principles as the

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By Maite Plimmer

T.T.I.P – namely that economic growth is good period. My question is this: Is it IF it comes at the cost of lowering our higher standards?

Combined, the United States and the European Union amount to 60% of the worlds GDP. Should the trade agreement come to pass, then this trading activity would amount to 43% of the worlds GDP and generate an estimated boost of about 50%. Unfortunately, as with most things, the fine print is what should cause most concern as it comes with massive ramifications for Europe and its nation states. From what we can gather from leaked documents, the TTIP aims to force European governments against protectionism and promote agendas that open up all aspects of the economy for private investment – the problematic aspect of which is that this is being proposed without universally secured standards between what are two very different economies. For instance, the T.T.I.P is against the nationalization of any industries and aims to remove barriers to investments in public services by the insertion of clauses that impose penalties and interest loaded compensation packages if governments take actions that in their view have negative impact on their investment stake.

This principle however does not go both ways, if investments go south, especially when dealing with our public services there are no safeguards to ensure governments are entitled to the same compensation packages and assurances. A further shocking fact revealed from these leaked reports is the revelation that

the United States have tried time and time again to remove European clauses safe guarding food products from entering the E.U that have certain strands of pesticides. In the case of fruits and vegetables, the U.S states it does not recognize precautionary criteria (based on potential risk) rather than a criteria that is based on results and findings. Shocking.

The Economist recently published reports concluding that if the European Union were to accept the following conditions, Europe would be facing a tsunami of live stock imports that hold hormones and chlorine, something the European Union has traditionally been critically against; it would open up our market to cheap subsidized dairy products from the United States putting our agricultural sectors in harm’s way and would precipitate a situation where some of the most traditional sectors of the European economy would be at risk of imminent death.

What’s made abundantly clear with the proposed TTIP in its current form is that it is a direct attack on national sovereignty and elevates corporations to a national level with the power to curb and influence policy like never before. Considering the fact that the United States has not ratified 6 of the 8 core European labour standards, a study done

by Jeronim Capaldo at the Global Development and Environmental Institute has shown that the deal not only threatens European job security, but also attacks government revenue. This in turn will engender financial instability across Europe To take another example: A demand issues by the U.S delegation was the removal of tariffs for U.S produced automobiles, that do not comply with most standards across the European Union and risk the job security of our own automobile industries in Europe. Not only does the current deal allow companies to sue governments if their policy hinders investment returns through

Investor Dispute Schemes, but it also removes the need for the dispute to be communicated through diplomatic channels. There are also no clauses that guarantee that individuals and governments can take investors and companies to court with the same simplicity as the IDP essentially elevating companies to a national level. The University of Helsinki has published a report stating they are concerned about the implications the TTIP has towards democracy and an elected government in being able to carry out functions of governments and policy without interference of company backed lawyers scrutinizing harmful clauses.

Another concept that has come under lots of attack in recent months are the provisions it carries in being able to effectively consume parts of National Health Services around Europe and implement their own “visions” for the drug pharmacy made available for patients. Health specialists are concerned that this would invite cheaper quality medicines, as well as turn health care into a profit machine instead of a public institution.

In all honestly, little is known about this deal which in itself should cause serious cause for concern. Its been repeated again and again that the deal can pave a path for explosive economic growth; but so far we have been let down by the European Union who have failed to secure a trade deal that sets our standards in stone. What’s really needed is to insert clauses that show a little more backbone so that we stand up to the might of the United States and its corporations.We can not, and should not, allow

in any circumstance, corporations to dictate the manner in which our governments are run.

Nor should we allow corporations to dictate the economic policy of democratically elected governments and their distribution of public services. Finally, it is completely inappropriate that an army of corporate lawyers dream up clauses that ensure each policy fits their agendas and no one else’s.

Sure, the T.T.I.P comes with advantages: Advantages such as an expected 120 Billion dollar European GDP growth forecast; but is the growth really worth the negative impacts we could face with the implementation? I agree, we should be striving for an increase in trade opportunities and moving towards more lucrative economic growth, but it must not be pushed through at all costs.

We cannot let our standards drop in the name of a deal that has been negotiated behind closed doors, elevates corporations to national status, and degrades European labour and health and safety standards.

To conclude: In what seems to be a very onesided deal, we must not allow the T.T.I.P to pass in it current form. Instead, we must seek to preserve the authority and the dignity of our elected governments and democratic institutions and make very clear that if the United States wants to do business with us , it will be on par with our standards.

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CINEMA

73rd Golden Globe Awards

by Lucia Hwong Gordon

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he buzz was electric on the beautiful sunny blue day in Los Angeles on January 11th.

So many people had flown in for the 73rd Golden Globes and all the parties surrounding the awards event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Security was tight. Our car was swooshed over by bomb detector guys who looked like they descended out of “Men in Black” complete with black suits and ties topped off by cool dark sunglasses. My Mom, Lisa Lu, knew all the ropes how to get in quickly, she has been attending the Golden Globes for the last 20 years. Lisa is a renowned leading actress unforgettable as the Empress Dowager in the “Last Emperor” and as one of the intrepid mothers in the “Joy Luck Club,” also winning numerous Golden Horse Awards for her acting. As a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press, Lisa Lu supported many up and coming Chinese directors and actors and introduced them to Hollywood.

Attending the Golden Globes has always been thrilling for me. I wanted to give my twin daughters, Sabrina & Sofia, the experience of the glitz and glamour of the Golden Globes. Lisa led us through the security check points towards the red carpet. From the last security gate we saw the cheering crowd welcoming the actors and us.The sparkling stars and actors began their posing for the camera, stopping and starting as they walked up the red carpet through the flashing light-bulbs.There were also a number of side diversions at Entertainment Tonight and Extra who were filming and interviewing live.

I spotted the gorgeous Rose Huntington-Whitely, sporting a $350,000. round-cut diamond engagement ring designed by Neil Lane. It was a toss up which was more radiant, Rose in her shimmering Atelier Versace dress or her engagement ring! The actress who is in “Mad Max: Fury Road” was escorted by her fiancé, action star, Jason Statham. His tough guy stare gave away to a few red carpet flashing grins. Jason knows how to steal a girl’s heart with that macho hunk energy, loved him in “Spy.”

We also had hellos with Leslie Mann who is so charming and lovely. David Hasselhoff greeted the international camera crews and we spoke about his amazing international recognition for both television and music. The always ethereally beautiful Lily James floated down the red carpet in a rainbow pastel Marchesa gown and classic Harry Winston diamonds. Judith Light nominated for “Transparent,” elegant in her white pantsuit, the Maggie Norris Couture tuxedo was tailored perfectly. Jane Wu, an actress in the upcoming “Captain America” film made the Best Dressed List in a silver gown. Jennifer Lopez stunned everyone in a breathtaking marigold caped Giambattista Valli Haute Couture gown and 200 carats of Harry Winston diamonds.

At the Golden Globes, the red carpet is a Hollywood style red carpet, not a 50 feet red carpet, but a red carpet which is a city block long. By the end of the long red carpet stroll the party goers needed sustenance. Small bottles of Moet were distributed on silver platters to anyone with an outstretched hand and a swishing gown and black tie. The champagne bubbles lifted any hesitation to pull out all the stops.

Entering the ballroom, the camera cranes were ready to swoop in on any fun exchanges at the tables with splendid Cate Blanchett, nominated for “Carol” in a Givenchy gown, fascinating Matt Damon, winner for “The Martian” in Versace black tie, and outrageous Melissa McCarthy nominated for “Spy”.

The banter became more animated with magnums of Moet champagne Rose and Imperial fueling the dinner laughter.

The Golden Globes Awards show was hosted by the always hilarious inappropriate Ricky Gervais.We got the full effect of his punctuated humour peppered with naughty curse words while swirling his glass of liquor without hearing the television censor’s bleeps.

Ricky Gervais insulted Caitlyn Jenner, Mel Gibson, Ben Affleck and many, more with aplomb sending the audience into peals of guilty laughter.

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During the pauses everyone would be running up to different tables to say hello. I went to congratulate Ryuichi Sakamoto who was nominated for best score for the film, the “Revenant.” Ryuichi graced one of my new age music CDs for Private Music with his lyrical piano melodies. His music is always haunting and poignant.

When Jennifer Lawrence, winner for her moving performance in “Joy,” took the stage in a perfectly cut stunning red Dior Haute Couture dress, sparkling with Chopard jewels, it was definitely a Golden Globes moment of glamour.

At another pause, I spotted Alan Cummings nominated for “The Good Wife.” I had to go greet a fellow New Yorker, he is such a multi-talented actor. His performance in “Cabaret” on Broadway was show stopping. We had a selfie moment where Alan took us making kissy lips with my daughter Sabrina laughing at us.

Lady Gaga came up to receive her award brushing by a surprised Leonardo DiCaprio in excitement. She adorned herself in classic Hollywood glamour in a black hourglass curved Atelier Versace gown and Marilyn Monroe hair.

In her acceptance speech you could see she was truly moved by winning a Best Actress Award for “American Horror Story: Hotel” and being recognized as a stellar actress by the Hollywood Foreign Press.

As the evening continued on, when needing to take a break from the ballroom dinner activity, there was the outside terrace looking over the courtyard which was beautifully set for the HBO after-party. Off to the side of the ballroom there was a dining buffet with salad, pasta and meats if you didn’t get a chance to have the plated dinner at your table before the start of the show.

If your sweet tooth was beckoning, it could be fulfilled with the Lindt melted chocolate bar serving up enough treats for all. My sister, Loretta, reminded me to stop by the smoking section on the terrace for raucous fun where the stars smoke and take selfies.

Within the three hour show, there is always a ladies room break, and the Golden Globes has the ladies lounge set it up like a salon ready for primping.

L’Oreal had hair and make up stations with stylists who will smooth, fluff and spray your hair. On each vanity table were huge bowls of L’Oreal lip gloss in fabulous colours of red and pink for all guests to take with them and use to pucker up for the camera.

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After the awards show the guests began to stroll to all the party sites created surrounding the Hilton hotel. Jacqueline Murphy, an actress and producer looking splendid in a cream coloured Sue Wong gown came from the NBC party to join us. The first after-party we dashed to was at Twentieth Century Fox party at the Fox Pavilion with the winners first congregating there. Ridley Scott was holding court. Then there was a surge of party goers towards the entrance… Lady Gaga was making an appearance and the excitement and flashbulb level was palatable. The guests began spreading out again through the festive room FOX created with plush lounges and food stations spread out around the perimeter of he room. Another rush of bodies to the dance floor, winner Leonardo DiCaprio was greeting his well wishers and photographers were chasing him in tow.

Now it was off to the InStyle after-party at the Oasis Courtyard complete with a fabulous dance floor and virtual reality bar. As we entered, Taraji P. Henson of “Empire” waved an energetic goodbye to us as she exited swishing her white caped Stella McCartney train off to her next event.Tatum Channing danced up a storm. Jennifer Lopez changing into a body tight white dress and stopped by InStyle for photos. Thirst was quenched by the Moet champagne bar, passed pasta and sweet bon bon buffet keeping everyone’s energy up.

Jacqueline and I congratulated indie actor darling, Gael Garcia Bernal for his acting award in “Mozart in the Jungle.”

We continued the red carpet trek to the HBO after-party at Circa 55 Restaurant rested our feet for a moment under the palm trees and then moved towards the dance floor over the swimming pool.The sad news David Bowie had just passed away was announced.The DJ honoured his memory by playing Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and everyone danced to the moonlight. I was delighted to see my New York/Los Angeles friends celebrating at the party, gorgeous Lisa Gastineau and her beautiful daughter Brittany. We swayed in dance moves around our cosy table. We stopped to give hello kisses to Kathy and Rick Hilton and entertainment icon Nikki Haskell. She was stunning in a low cut green gown.

It was 1:00am and time to float our sore red carpet high heels feet over to the Weinstein/Netflix after-party. It was still in full swing with great loungey music over the dance floor and welcoming cocktail couches to rest on, I reclined cuddled in my Zang Toi fox shrug. At this hour a relaxed flow from the bar to the lounge was a perfect way to wind down an amazing night celebrating stars, film, television, fashion and music. The Hollywood Golden Globes will always live up to the fantasy of Hollywood, no matter how many times you do it.

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ESSAY

Belle Époque

By Caroline Von Krowckow

Cercle Friend, Caroline von Krockow explores the enduring fascination of La Belle Epoque with a must-see exhibition in Rome and a whistlestop tour around the Parisian Belle Epoque.

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major exhibition devoted to Toulouse-Lautrec, the quintessential bohemian painter of fin-de-siècle Paris, has just finished at the Museo dell’Ara Pacis in Rome. The show features around 170 works from the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition ran 4 December 2015 to 8 May 2016.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is considered the most celebrated master of the print and poster in the Parisian Belle Époque period. One of the most distinguishing features of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrece art is his portrayal of the most diverse aspects of humanity in everyday or entertaining situations.

He drew most of his inspiration from Montmartre in Paris, and the majority of his works depict the nightlife and popular haunts in this quarter. “...novelty is seldom the essential. This has to do with one thing only; making a subject better from its intrinsic nature.” Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec The show is intended to give visitors a complete picture of ToulouseLautrec’s graphic output through posters, illustrations, sheet music covers and playbills, some of which are absolute rarities, since they were printed in signed and numbered limited editions with a dedication by the artist.

Curated by Zsuzsa Gonda and Kata Bodor, the show displays around 170 lithographs from the Budapest collection. It includes eight large-format posters and two covers of albums, each composed of about 10 lithographs, devoted to the French singer, actress and writer Yvette Guilbert. In addition to the works of Toulouse-Lautrec, the exhibition includes rare photos and film clips from the beginning of the 20th century which evoke the Parisian Belle Époque.

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CAROLINE VON KROCKOW has a very personal connection to the Belle Époque. She has writen a novel called The White Rose, which soon coming out. The story jumps between the heroine’s experiences of today’s London and her fascination with her colourful great-grandmother whose youth coincided with the Belle Époque. Let her now tell you more 19thcentury bohemian demi-monde, with its actresses and prostitutes, and artists.

It’s sparkling like diamonds in the sky and illuminating the city of light -clear and bright. I am standing in front of the gigantic gem and looking up at the impressive iron structure, now hosting Le Jules Verne, a Michelin star restaurant, which is part of the Ducasse empire. Only yesterday Natalie Portmann was having dinner here with Benjamin Millepied, the new artistic director of the Paris Opera, or was it Laeticia Casta with her new beau?

I start thinking back to the Belle Époque, when this landmark of Paris was described as a horrific giraffe and the Parisians could not wait until it would be taken down. The International Exhibition of 1889 showed achievements across a number of fronts – covering art, electricity, the telephone, horseless carriages. And then, of course, there was the Eiffel tower that was designed to commemorate the event. When it breached the skyline, public opinion was divided. Charles Garnier, Guy de Maupassant, and Alexandre Dumas wrote a protest letter to the government denouncing the structure. He was not alone. Leon Bloy, slated the iron structure for looking like “a truly tragic street lamp.”

resplendent new bridge, Pont Alexandre III, made of a single arch of steel and trimmed in stone rising above the Seine and linking the left and the right bank.

The Grand Palais, with its heavy stone on the outside and a light iron and glass structure on the inside was also built for the 1900 International Exhibition. At the time it was filled with sculptures, horse shows, and the first motor cars. Now Karl Lagerfeld transforms the space in order to mount the Chanel fashion show twice a year. At other times, Hermes hosts its equestrian competition here; while, during the FIAC and the Paris Photo the palace is filled with contemporary art lovers.

The Belle Époque was a period full of contrast where bohemians and high society mingled in Le Chat Noir and Le Moulin Rouge. In these establishments the seats were uncomfortable and the wine was bad, but the shadow plays organized by Henri Rivière amazed the guests. He had several assistants and used a large oxy-hydrogen back-lit performance area.

Movement, color, and voices brought life to the shadow plays, and a lot

France during the Belle Époque was moving from a tumultuous nineteenth century fraught with revolution and industrialization to a twentieth century marked by war, social strife, cultural upheaval and a redefining of class and gender categories. The period started with the consolidation of the Third Republic (1870 –1914) and ended with the outbreak of the first World War. The International Exhibition of 1900 outshone the one in 1889 with the

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of the images were influenced by Japanese art. Then a line of pretty girls appeared on the stage, kicking their legs in the air, dancing the French cancan. They were followed by the dancers Cléo de Mérode and La Belle Otero, who overtook the stage with their exotic and erotic moves. During the performance many drank absinthe, a green substance made with wormwood.

The procedure for drinking this spirit was most peculiar. First, one poured a bit into a glass, then one put a flat perforated spoon across the rim of the glass, placing a single cube of sugar upon it. Then one poured ice cold water from a small pitcher over the sugar cube, the liquid dripping into the glass and clouding the absinthe. The paintings of the aristocratic midget Henri Toulouse Lautrec, who particularly enjoyed absinth, show the singers and can can dancers bringing to life this long lost time.

On the other hand elegant women ruled the famous French salons. Countess Greffule, for example, exerted her influence by introducig the Russian Ballett to Paris with Diaghilev, Chaliapin, Caruso and Debussy. Equally at home in the highest reaches of Parisian society and in the princely courts of Europe--kings, grand-dukes and ministers would mingle in her drawing room with scientists, scholars, poets and musicians. She also organized public concerts. She rented Paris’s biggest concert halls and performed works such as Handel’s Messiah. Her salon gave writers, like Anatole France, painters like Rodin, Manet and Renoir and musicians the pleasant opportunity to meet in elegant surroundings as though in a club. Marcel Proust immortilized her by basing the duchesse de Guermantes in his In Search of Lost Time on the Countess. In these salons women wore elegant Charles Worth robes, which were opulent, exquisitely designed dresses, giving women the famous hourglass figure. At the same time Chanel was slowly entering the scene, starting to revolutionize female fashion by creating a simple, classic and elegant style.

She would come to spend most of her time at the Ritz, which Cesar Ritz founded in 1898 in collaboration with the chef Auguste Escoffier. The Ritz is another iconic landmark, which embellishes the Place Vendome to this day and housed many celebrities. Chanel made the hotel her home for over thirty years. In fact, most of the architectural highlights of Paris, and Parisian female style as we know it today, are from the turn of the century, the period that came to be known as the Belle Époque.

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PLUS CA CHANGE, PLUS C’EST LA MEME CHOSE. La Belle Époque is the name given to the period in France between 1871 and 1914. It was only named as such after the First World War, whose unprecedented horror made the prewar period appear as a golden age. As such, the picture presented was essentially nostalgic, and it is this nostalgia that to some extent masks the realities of life as experienced by the bulk of the population. Behind the glittering manoeuvres of fashionable society and their artist acolytes, brilliantly portrayed in Maupassant’s novel, Bel Ami, there lurked a much more unsettling reality.

Officially, La Belle Époque ended with the outbreak of the 1914-18 war, almost exactly one hundred years ago, although, with hindsight it’s clear that some of its illusions were beginning to look threadbare some time before that. Looking back it is extraordinary how, in this respect and many others, the period 1871 to 1914 mirrors events during the same span of time in own era. Apart from the acknowledgement that artistically the period between 1970 and 2014 cannot be compared to the era of Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and several other important ‘isms’, there seems to be an astonishing cultural and political overlap of the two eras.

Both periods witnessed nothing less than a technological revolution. As the contemporary French writer and intellectual, Charles Peguy remarked, there had been more change during those thirty years than at any time since the crucifixion of Christ; a hundred years on, exactly the same thing can be said about our own scientific and technical advances.

At the time of the World Fair held in Paris in 1889, France was a country more or less at the cutting edge of progress in almost every field. In the years leading up to the First world War France was a leader in both motor cars and aviation. Bleriot made the first flight across the Channel in1908; similarly, Roland Garros made the first air crossing of the Mediterranian in 1913. France had 600 car manufacturers and was the biggest exporter of cars in the world. Edouard Michelin had invented dismountable pneumatic tyres.

In science, Henri Becquerel had discovered radio activity in 1896. Louis Pasteur had invented the eponymously named process of pasteurisation and produced a rabies vaccine. Marie Curie had won not one but two Nobel Prizes – physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911.

In entertainment, Auguste and Louis Lumiere invented the cinematograph and made the first successful film projections in 1895. By the mid-1890’s France had two film producing companies, Gaumont and Pathe, and within ten years was producing about a thousand films a year. – almost as many as Hollywood.

France’s artistic output in the period needs no elaboration. But it is worth mentioning that in the opinion of the art critic, Robert Hughes, the experiments by Braque and Picasso in what came to be called Cubism, were as revolutionary as Einstein’s work on relativity.

Like today, this was a time of modernity, of destabilizing change whether in the endlessly succeeding avant-gardes in the art world, or the flood of new inventions and discoveries in science and technology. It was a time characterized by a frenetic, almost neurotic obsession with the new – one for which the new, ‘shocking’ dance of the Can-Can seemed an appropriate metaphor.

A century later, our own age shares many of the same characteristics. The digital revolution that has led on to the internet and the mapping of the human genome is an equivalent quantum leap into an uncertain future as was the new age of radio, the telephone, the internal combustion engine and the aeroplane back at the turn of the 20th century. In the same way it is producing doubts and fears alongside the hope of benefits to come.

Politically too, there are some interesting parallels between these two periods a hundred years apart. Following the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war, an uneasy peace existed between the two dominant European powers.

Throughout the period there were innumerable international conferences attempting maintain the balance of power. The instabilities that led to the

formation of the European Union were already present in the Europe of a century ago. France had lost the war and naturally felt threatened; society at large was nervous, a nervousness that even the glittering image of La Belle Époque could not entirely disguise.

Today France is threatened again - by international terrorism that seems to be particularly concentrating its anger against the French. Add to that the machinations of Russian manoeuvres to the east, and Europe’s current anxieties about being able to hold the European Union together in the face of these threats has parallels with a hundred years ago.

It is the same story with regard to internal politics. For all the glitz and glamour of La Belle Époque, the realities of life for the bulk of the French population were very different. France, particularly Paris, had a huge underclass living in dire straits. Near the Gare D’Austerlitz entire families lived on the street, or in filthy, crowded tenements with no sanitation. Further out there were horrifying slums made from cardboard and tarpaulin from where the unemployed would walk into town looking for junk they could fashion into something they could sell. These were the people who would soon be swept up into the maelstrom of the First World War and slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands. Some, like Jean Jaures, the famous French socialist foresaw what was likely to happen, and did his best to forestall it.

But high society danced on, trying to hide their disquiet at the failure of the revolution that had led to a Third Republic, now mired in the scandal of the Dreyfus Affair and increasingly marred by corruption.

Today, we live in a world which is beginning to look alarmingly as if history is once again repeating itself. The world of fashion and celebrity today resembles in many ways the ‘Beau Monde’ of Paris in the 1890’s. There is the same underlying disillusionment with the political establishment, the same widening gap between rich and poor; the same lurking fear of international catastrophe. The same neurotic obsession with the new, accompanied by a growing nostalgia for a past that can never be recovered. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

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PL ACE

Cristallo Hotel Spa & Golf

Nestled in the exclusive UNESCO World Natural Heritage Dolomites, the Cristallo Hotel and Spa stands proudly, overlooking the historical town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, as the premier mountain resort in the region.

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ortina is the jewel in the crown of the Dolomites and embodies all of the elegance and style that is associated with the Italian way of life. Whether it is the middle of summer or the depths of winter, Cortina is home to the most stunning mountain scenery in Italy.

Established in 1901, The Cristallo Hotel and Spa has become a central part of Cortina’s landscape. Each of the hotel’s 74 rooms, of which 22 are suites, is individually decorated and in keeping with the sophisticated and refined décor that runs throughout the hotel. Despite its imposing silhouette, the hotel creates an instantly inviting and warm feel for its guest as soon as they are welcomed through its doors. Famed for hosting a wealth of prestigious clients and international events, the Cristallo considers some of the most significant personalities from the 1900’s amongst its loyal guests.

Now coming into its 115th year of service, times are changing for the revered establishment.

Giampaolo Padula has recently taken over the reins of the historical 5*hotel, having been appointed General Manager in May 2015. His appointment is

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the culmination of a career that has collected a vast amount of experience for its years. A graduate from Nottingham Trent University with a major in International Hospitality, his 16 years of experience, drawn on his time at luxury Topflight hotels throughout Europe and across the US. “I want to be the perfect Ambassador of the house, who knows how to embody the values of the property, to transfer them to the whole staff and support efficiency and maximum personalization for the customer.” Said Padula at the time of his appointment.

He takes over at an exciting time for the resort as they aim to increase their interest from abroad but also enhance their appeal to internal visitors. “We think this is finally the best time to invest,” says Michele Gualandi, Managing Director of the hotel, who is already looking ahead to 2021 when Cortina will host the World Skiing Championships. “We have already begun preparations, with a new strong and close-knit team and a young director with significant experience of luxury hospitality.”

The hotel has announced plans to revive their onsite catering and improve their already exemplary spa facilities with new surprises promised for their guests. They will also be lengthening their summer season for the first time; remaining open from June until the beginning of October when guests can enjoy Cortina’s beautiful mountainous surroundings in the glorious Italian sunshine. The extended summer season will give guests further opportunity to enjoy adrenaline filled adventures. They can hire bikes or follow hiking routes that can take them through the Dolomite passes of the Giro d’Italia and alongside crystal clear alpine lakes. They can also take helicopter sightseeing tours that provide unforgettable views of Cortina d’Ampezzo and the surrounding areas. For guests who are keen to keep their feet on the ground, they can enjoy a round of golf against the most stunning of backdrops or explore the local cultural sites and exclusive shopping areas.

The Cristallo’s extensive summer activities perfectly complement its world renowned winter programme.The resort comes alive when the air is cold and the snow is falling turning the resort into a picturesque winter wonderland.

Its flawless beauty makes it easy to see why the most exclusive clientele spend their winter holidays at the resort. It was awarded “Italy’s Best Ski Hotel” for the third year in a row this November, while Cortina d’Ampezzo has won Best Ski Resort of Italy & Europe in 2013.

Reputation is key to the Cristallo’s success and is something the new general manager is keen to maintain and, where possible, improve. Remaining true to the hotel’s imperious history is extremely important to Padula who says making changes will be “like writing new pages for a book”.

His appointment as manager signals the start of the resorts revitalisation that has been building in recent years. With his expertise and true passion for the hotel and its history, his leadership will ensure the Cristallo continues to stand proudly for many years to come.

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WATCHES

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BaselWorld

By Gabriele Salvadori

hopard like many jewellery companies has always drawn its inspiration from nature. From this beautiful inspiring concept of observing the falling water in a waterfall Ronald Kurowski’s idea for the Happy Diamond’s Collection was born.

In his mind’s eye the studded diamonds represent the thousands of tiny water droplets that are released by the energy of the waterfall. What particularly excited him was the direction of sunlight and the way in which this in turn ‘coloured’ the water.

Another important aspect that has acted as a guiding principle is the notion of free and untrammelled movement. Just as the water particles bounce consequentially Chopard‘s different designers (including Karin Scheufele and now Caroline Scheufele) have attempted to find ingenious ways to ‘set the diamonds free.’

In fact it’s not too fanciful to see freedom as a running meme that informs the whole collection - whether the point of focus is the extraction of the stones and metals used, the setting process or the design process.

Chopard is one of the few jewellery firms that remains independent.This gives it a unique aura that enables it to stay a step ahead of luxury brands who are under the shadow of a corporate umbrella. However, self-evidently, the most freedom-loving move adopted by the company is to begin sourcing their gold from mines that have earned a Fairmined certification and diamonds that meet the standards of the Responsible Jewellery Council.

Probe a little deeper and it is clear that Caroline Scheufele wants to be at the forefront of luxury with a conscience. Working closely with the consultancy co-founded by Livia Firth, she is a passionate advocate of what she terms ‘The Journey towards Sustainable Luxury.’ Over time she hopes to issue all the high jewellery pieces and other lines in Fairmined gold.

At Baselworld 2016 there was a special anniversary to celebrate – namely the fortieth anniversary of the Happy Diamonds collection. Poppy Delevingne and Amber Le Bon were two of the more prominent women spreading the word. Chopard decided to celebrate in style throwing a cocktail party on the first day of the show - welcoming guests for a youthful and “Happy” cocktail reception. Other guests of honour were socialite and blogger Alice Naylor Leyland, as well as fashion blogger Negin Mirsalehi. To add to the celebratory mood there was a Happy Diamonds photo booth. Upon leaving, each guest was invited to choose a fortune cookie: one of the Happy Messages was a chance to win a Happy Diamonds pendant.

THE MALE IMPUL SE Chopard has also been busy creating new models and designs for those with higher testosterone levels than the beautiful, dreamy models mentioned above.

The L.U.C collection is central to the lexicon of Chopard. Out of the 80,000 creations that come out of the maison around 4000 belong to this collection.

In fact, insiders know that this is the collection into which the designers often pour their greatest effort. The clue lines in the name: the initials L.U.C are a tribute to the maison’s founder Louis Ulysses Chopard.

At this year’s Basel world (amongst several other pieces shown,) there were two notable additions to the line – each of them in their own way referencing the company’s history. The year 1860 (distinguished by the additional letters XPS) is very covetable – recalling unambiguously the line of ultra-thin Chopard watches that have long since been associated with the L.U.C editions.

‘DIAMONDS FREE’ WATCH

‘DIAMONDS FREE’ PENDANTS

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CAROLINE SCHEUFELE CHOPARD CO-PRESIDENT

It comes in a choice of versions with an 18-carat rose gold or stainless steel case. As is common with its earlier predecessor, it has a very distinctive dial – in this case featuring a central part bearing a sophisticated hand-guilloché motif on the rose gold version and a sunburst satin-brushed pattern on the stainless steel version. Both finishes radiate from the logo at 12 o’clock.

Another notable feature is that it is chronometer-certified by the COSC.

The rating precision of the Calibre 03.10-L has been certified by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC) in its entirety, providing an excellent guarantee of superlative craftsmanship and expertise.

A THOROUGHBRED The other - the L.U.C Perpetual Chrono - celebrates another important milestone in the history of the company – namely the momentous decision to start in-house manufacturing 20 years ago at Fleurier.

The L.U.C Calibre 03.10-L, is formed out of nickel silver. The tolerance for mistakes is nil. Any mistake made in executing the Côtes de Genève motif, circular-graining, satin-brushing and polishing operation is irretrievable.

This alone guarantees the highest level of craftsmanship that goes into every detail.

In the world of horology – the pairing of complications always sets pulses racing. The L.U.C Perpetual Chrono is planned and executed as a collector’s masterpiece just 20 pieces. No more, no less.

The strap of the L.U.C Perpetual Chrono is made from hand-sewn largescaled vegetal tanned alligator leather and its lining from chestnut brown small-scaled alligator leather.

It is the third L.U.C watch to be produced in Fairmiend gold. «Fairmined» white gold by Chopard, it bears the stamp and crest of the Poinçon de Genève. The latter has exhaustively tested every movement and function on the watch thereby guaranteeing its calibre, its water resistance, precision, chronograph and perpetual calendar functions as well as the power reserve performance.

The moon-phase has a mere one-day deviation in 122 years.

The dial of the L.U.C Perpetual Chrono is coated with grey ruthenium.

It is adorned with a hand-guilloché motif that creates subtle light effects radiating from the large twin-aperture date display.

L.U.C PERPETUAL CHRONO L.U.C XPS 1860

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PROFILE

Xavier F Rugeroni

– RV P & GENER A L M A NAGER AT FA IR MON T HOT EL S A ND R E SORTS – HOW DO YOU DEFINE LUXURY?

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uxury is a question of money… Elegance is a question of education.

Class is in-bred!

YOUR NAME HA S BECOME LEGENDARY IN HOTEL CIRCLES. WHAT DOES LE ADERSHIP ME AN TO YOU? In the film Master and Commander Jack Aubrey, the lead character played

by Russell Crowe depicts the signs of a great leader under pressure, cool head, respect for his men, clarity of thought and a clear vision which he communicates effectively to his crew… they in turn respond with great commitment and loyalty to their cause… simply a winning formula.

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We must walk the talk and deliver on all of our promises and when sometimes we simply cannot for whatever reason, we simply explain it! Everything we do communicates, whether the way we talk, the way we address people, the way we walk, and the way we dress… we must always remember that as a leader you must lead by example and with respect. It’s what makes one stand out as a defined brand such as Fairmont.

WHAT ABOUT THE DEPICTION OF THE HOTEL DE MAITRE IN THE GR AND BUDAPEST HOTEL? The film shows the ideal image of an hotelier. I liked the film and its emphasis of the General Manager playing the “mein host”.You certainly get the feeling that he knows the name of every guest and notices everything. He’s also a brilliant and witty ability to communicate with his guests.

Today a General Manager spends less time than ever before and desired being a hotelier in the true sense of the word. A great deal of the time we are involved in commercial issues, product development and strategies… we must never forget our “raison d’être” that of being hoteliers!

His interactions with people depicted the man and his values .. for example when I arrived to be interviewed by him for a role in his team in Tunisia his pa was surprised to find me dressed up with suit and tie at her office when Alfonso was in fact waiting for me at the tennis court for a game... Silly me not to have thought about it!

DO YOU THINK THE ROLE OF GM IS SOME THING SOMEONE CAN LE ARN OR IS IT MORE INSTINCTIVE?

After quickly fitting me out at the pro shop I proceeded to meet the man on the court and after the usual niceties I attempted to stand up to what proved to be an outstandingly fit and excellent tennis player… who of course beat me well and truly.

You will always learn and evolve as in any walk of life but you must have the basic instincts of wanting to look after people and ensuring that they enjoy the experience. Every day is a school day as my son Lawrence would say.

YOU TALK WITH PA SSION ABOUT MENTORSHIP. ARE THERE ANY PARTICUL AR PEOPLE WHO INSPIRED YOU AND HELPED YOU UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS OF LUXURY? I’m fascinated for example by the likes of Churchill and Margaret Thatcher whom in their own way stood out as great leaders at various times of conflict and how they were able to stay steadfast and succeed against the odds.

As a young manager I learnt a lot from Alfonso Giannuzzi who was at the time was the CEO of the Forte hotels in the UK. His mantra was what he termed the principle of the 3 Ps; Product, People and Profit and his focus was always around those three key elements.

He always knew how to push us to the edge of our abilities and by being adamant that you must never think you’ve made it as that is when things start to go downhill.

When we finally sat down to enjoy a nice glass of orange juice and I asked him the obvious question as to when we will hold the interview... he simply turned to me and said “I liked your determination in defeat... When can you start?” I believe that moment marked my style of management today and without which I would not be here speaking to you in my present role if it had not been for that moment I’m sure!

HA S THE VISION OF WHAT CONSTITUTES LUXURY CHANGED? IF SO – HOW? Rather like the Patek Philippe advert, loyalty of old was passed on from generation to generation and our guests would return year after year. Today that sense of continuity and family tradition loyalty is less certain.

Our guests have more choices today so loyalty is something you have to earn and certainly it doesn’t just happen.

The internet has been a big player in the changes and the market has become very savvy at using it of course. We need to be very aware of guest’s desires and needs and find ways in which to deliver it whilst staying ahead of our competitors.

HORIZON

NOBU

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NIKKI BEACH

It’s vital to look at current trends and if you can even try and predict them before they go mainstream. If you don’t evolve you are out of the race.

You also have to accept the new generations coming through with their new expressions of luxury… For example body art was taboo not long ago at the front line of staff until recently but it has now become a very acceptable expression of fashion taste for guest or staff alike, as long as it is discreet it will stay trendy.

WHAT INNOVATIONS HAVE YOU RECENTLY IMPLEMENTED TO KEEP UP WITH CHANGING E XPECTATIONS? There are some things that are unique to the Fairmont Monte Carlo, like for instance the panoramic sea views we enjoy on our unique location overlooking the Mediterranean, but that is not enough in itself.

Then the experience has to be exciting and evolving and that is why today we have introduced experiences such as Nobu and Nikki Beach to further enhance our existing offer of the Saphir24 and our exceptionally located Horizon Champagne Bar and Top Deck restaurant, overlooking three countries.

Also during the year we offer a great range of dining experiences with some linked to events such as fashions shows of well-known designers, Sunday Jazz Brunches in the winter and wonderful Pink Sundays in the spring and summer.

We have launched following the Royal Wedding for which we catered a new concept we have called Private Dining bringing the skills and knowhow of FMC and our executive chef Philippe Joannès to a wider clientele

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outside our resort and within the Principality and the entire Cote d’Azur.

Today in addition of having become the outside caterer of choice in the Principality we are also the official caterers of the Monaco Yacht Show, the Tennis Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, and the Circus Dinner Show… some amongst other exclusive events...

IN MONACO – ALL HOTEL S ARE LUXURIOUS. WHAT SORT OF THINGS MAKE THE FAIRMONT STAND OUT? Its staff... we are extremely lucky at FMC as we have an incredibly engaged team of people that look after our guests with total commitment and professionalism. It shows that it is not all about physical luxury but interaction with guests which makes them feel unique and welcome. In other words turning moments into memories… I am truly lucky and proud to be part of this team and is what makes FMC stand out of the crowd when it comes to delivering luxury.

HOW MUCH DOES SE A SONALIT Y PL AY A PART IN THE WAY THE HOTEL IS MANAGED? An immense amount... Whether it is winter, spring or summer it all comes down to what we extend to our guests. That is why it is important to recognize the various season in terms of offer and pricing. Of course each of our guests is an individual looking for their own experience with their own expectations and we must make sure that we deliver each time and on each guest at any time of the year. We cannot operate or offer a winter experience in the summer and that is why our Food & Beverage offer evolves according to the season as I previously said.

FAIRMONT SPA

FAIRMONT SPA

FAIRMONT SPA

OF ALL THE INITIATIVES THAT YOU’ VE DESIGNED AND IMPLEMENTED WHICH HA S GIVEN YOU THE MOST SATISFACTION? AND WHY? Apart from repositioning Fairmont Monte Carlo as the leading hotel of choice in the Principality of Monaco if you are looking for a destination experience… also one that stands out in my mind is the creation of a total children product in one of the Golf Resorts I managed in Portugal some time ago. We called it the Penguin Village: it totally re-positioned the hotel in the summer, doubled its room occupancy and still lives today!

FINALLY DO YOU HAVE FAVOURITE PERIODS OF THE YE AR? Yes… September. The light is stunning at that time of year and the Principality calms down after a hectic summer season... And it’s the time when I am most likely to be able to sail, read and spend time with the family, in other words some ME time.

Thank you very much.

FAIRMONT SPA

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ART E VENT

Art Basel

– FROM MI A MI BE ACH TO HONG KONG –

The world’s most exclusive and comprehensive Contemporary Art Exhibition

By Andreea Belba

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ight at the junction of the two Americas, the emblematic skyline of Miami is a phenomenal backdrop to what is widely acknowledged to be one the art world’s most enjoyable gatherings. Personally, I love it.

This refined metropolis, with its fizz and postmodern mentality, has always beguiled locals and visitors with its growing cultural and economic clout.

During Art Basel Miami, which officially runs from December 3rd through December 6th, sophisticated galleries and vibrant art exhibitions transform the city.

Every December reinforces Miami’s reputation as an artistic hub in which talented artists, top collectors, curators, enthusiastic art lovers, and celebrities show up to exhibit and take delight in the finest modern and contemporary art masterpieces. Paintings, sculptures, installations, photography, films, are all exhibited in the main hall. Additionally, each sector of the fair highlights the latest achievements in visual arts, offering spectators inspirational ideas, and new connections to the art world.

Since its inauguration in 2002 as America’s answer to Art Basel in Switzerland, Art Basel Miami has proved its worth many times over. It now attracts the best and most brilliant of Latin America’s avant-garde - connecting established artists and emerging creators from Latin America with one another. It is also a space renowned for its social approach to business. At the countless gala

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parties, vernissages, concerts, private and invitation-based events, it’s possible to speak with many top names.

This year, the number of major international and first-time collectors who attended the fair was remarkable. People came from far and wide – including from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Romania, Zimbabwe, etc.

Though more conservative than some years in the choice of exhibits the overall organization was impressive emphasizing the organizers’ concern to invest in their existing programs by displaying and selling high quality art for record highs. The omens for this aspect were good from the beginning – when Damien Hirst’s sculpture “The Incomplete Truth” was sold for $3.5M. The 14th edition brought together 267 international galleries from 32 countries with over 75,000 participant visitors.Those who made the journey included managers, curators, custodians, and financiers too. On the other hand, Miami Beach is not just for the established. It’s a place where first timers are welcome too. There were 29 first-time participants from young European, Asian and American galleries: Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Plan B Gallery (Cluj, Berlin), Gregor Staiger Gallery (Zurich), KOW (Berlin), Beijing Art Now Gallery (Beijing), Tokyo Gallery & BTAP (Tokyo, Beijing), White Space Beijing (Beijing), George Adams Gallery (New York), Castelli Gallery (New York), Essex Street (New York), François Ghebaly Gallery (Los Angeles) and Jenkins Johnson Gallery (San Francisco, New York).

Its huge exhibition space with multiple sectors, permit visitors to stroll around the fair and experience in quick succession distinctive curatorial zones.These zones are by tradition divided into the following categories: Galleries; Nova (a section dedicated to artworks that bring together the avant-garde; Positions; Edition; Kabinett (dedicated to single or group exhibitions), Public; Survey; Film and, finally, Magazines. For people who haven’t yet visited, this needs a lot more explanation.

Galleries: This is always the most extensive sector.This year brought together a constellation of over 4,000 artists from North and Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. All media was embraced from straightforward paintings, drawings, through to sculptures, installations, photos, films, video and digital art.

Nova: Many think this is the most stylish sector. It focuses on a limited number of outstanding artists. Nova presented 34 galleries, from Tobias Madison and Matthew Lutz-Kinoy at Freedman Fitzpatrick (Los Angeles) to Elias Hansen, Shinro Ohtake and Aki Sasamoto at Take Ninagawa (Tokyo).

Positions. This is by far the most risqué sector. It brings together recently discovered talent from all the way around the world; show-casing the work of single artists whose work is very cutting-edge. 12 out of the 16 exhibitors this year were first-time participants. New names worth paying attention to included artists such as Dan Bayles, Pauline Boudry, Renate Lorenz, Daniel Keller, Sean Paul, Thomas Wachholz, He Xiangyu,.

Magazines: the greatest art publications worldwide with actual and past subjects.

Conversations sector: This with its daily talks program. This was attended by over 2,000 visitors. It began with Jenny Holzer and Trevor Paglen’s Premiere Artist Talk. Other titles like ‘Should Art Schools Prepare Artists for the Art World?’ by András Szántó debated the role of art school education.

Other topics considered the importance of the archive, art advising ethics, collecting as a political act, recent hybrid art spaces.

Further to their joint initiative, BMW and Art Basel released on December 3rd the list of artists designated for the second BMW Art Journey. Such a prize enables young emerging artists to choose their own destination for creative purposes. The selected artists were Henning Fehr and Philipp Rühr at Gallery Max Mayer (Dusseldorf), Dan Bayles at François Ghebaly Gallery (Los Angeles) and Fritzia Irizar at Arredondo (Mexico City).

Henning Fehr and Philipp Rühr, Gallery Max Mayer, Dusseldorf The German artists’ shamanistic conception of the cinema is highly provocative. Henning Fehr and Philipp Rühr screened a three-part film entitled ‘Polyrhythm Technoir’ that discloses the actual nature of electronic music. Each section tackles a different theme – Polyrhythm, Phasing and Synchronicity.

Dan Bayles, François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles

Edition: An unusual sector in which leading publishers present their latest collaborations with famous artists.

Kabinett: Here anything goes. A space and place in which different curators present themed exhibitions, art-historical showcases, and solo presentations.

It displayed 27 curated exhibitions installed within booths and featured an installation by Isa Melsheimer, early paintings by Richard Pettibone and Ana Sacerdote, vintage photographs by Agnès Varda and Chris Burden.

Public: I found this the most impressive sector. Located at Collins Park, it’s where you find outdoor sculptures, interventions, and shows. Highlights included the work of Olaf Breuning, Katharina Grosse, Matt Johnson, Sterling Ruby, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Francisco Ugarte and Yan Xing, Film: the most dynamic program with outdoor screenings. This year you could see over 50 films and video works by artists including Cauleen Smith, Catherine Sullivan, James Crump and others.

Survey: the most complex sector that reveals precise art historical projects with individual presentations, juxtapositions or thematic exhibits from a diversity of artistic cultures. It includes 14 projects and a platform highlighting special works with a single-artist display of nine videos by Peter Campus but also photographs by Roy DeCarava or works by Dorothy Iannone, Charles Burchfield, Gianni Colombo, Miguel Ángel Rojas, Peter Saul.

In 2008, the American Dan Bayles’s mastery won him a scholarship from the California Community Foundation for Emerging Artists. Bayles’work, an amalgam of photography, drawing, architecture, collage, and abstraction investigates the symbolism of politically deprived locations. Bayles’ installation exhibited at Art Basel Miami Beach examines the state of the ex-Black Mountain College from Ashville, North Carolina. Dan Bayles takes into account the history of the place pursuing a track beyond fixed accounts, citing an alternative history hardly known.

Fritzia Irizar, Gallery Arredondo \ Arozarena, Mexico City The Mexican Fritzia Irizar is a graduate of La Esmralda National Arts Centre, Mexico City. Her work, rooted in the history of Latin America, deals with contemporary subjects such as labor, wealth disparities, and political inequality.

Fritzia was awarded several distinctions as of 2004. At Art Basel vernissage, Irizar presented a survey about the Mexican symbols and the way in which they’ve changed over the past 105 years.The project tackles the vanishing of an international emblem of liberty as part of the national symbolism during the Mexican revolution.

I look forward to this fair more than any other. This was no exception. Hope to see many of you next year.Vive L’Art

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– A N T IC I PAT I NG A SI A –

rt Basel in creativity and artistic expression seals Hong Kong’s reputation for being a cultural hub in which the Occident and the Orient get to meet and understand one another. It also helps Hong Kong to marry its obsession with money with its fascination with culture and art.

Art Basel Hong Kong, like its artistic cousins, is generationally agnostic.

Here you’ll find not just established creators but also emerging young talent.

More than 3,000 artists will exhibit their paintings, installations, drawings, sculptures, photos, videos in parallel with discussions, presentations and a platform for cross-cultural exchange.

Standing as a bridge between Asia and the West, Art Basel Hong Kong now attracts some of the finest names of modern Asian and Western art. Clearly, though, it sets itself apart from the partner fairs of Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach, by being ‘the place’ to gain insight into the exciting world of Asian. For this reason, most of the galleries participating come from the Asia-Pacific region.

239 galleries have signed up to exhibit at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong.

They come from 35 countries and between them span modern art from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. Collectively they bear witness to the different trends that have taken hold of the wider Asian market.

In less than six years, The Hong Kong Art Fair has become the main event in the region for catching sight of new trends and emerging artists. For art lovers and collectors alike, Art Basel Hong Kong offers a wide range of exquisite paintings, sculptures, and photos from a variety of cultural standpoints and geographical regions. Every country in this vast region is present .

The fair, which emerged in Hong Kong in 2013, embodies the way in which Asia is influencing the global art arena. Art Basel Hong Kong’s fourth edition, scheduled for March 24-26, 2016 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, will start with an invitationbased preview for VIPs on March 22 and 23 followed by vernissages.

ARTISTIC ENCOUNTERS Since its debut, Art Basel has aimed at attracting the international art community. No matter if it’s Hong Kong, Basel or Miami Beach, the show for Art Basel week offers a meeting place that enables galleries, curators, artists and collectors to meet face to face.

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In addition to the well-established galleries, this edition will also see 28 first-time participants/ This includes 18 outstanding art exhibitors from Europe and North America such as Cardi Gallery (Milan, London), David Kordansky Gallery (Los Angeles), Galerie 1900 – 2000 (Paris), Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi (Berlin), Galerie Nagel Draxler (Berlin, Cologne), Metro Pictures (New York), among others. The newcomers are Antenna Space (Shanghai), Galerie Nichido (Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Karuizawa, Kasama, Paris), Gallery 100 (Taipei), Ink Studio (Beijing), Lawrie Shabibi (Dubai), Longmen Art Projects (Shanghai), MEM (Tokyo),Vanguard Gallery (Shanghai) and Yeo Workshop (Singapore). Some participants own exhibition spaces in Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, besides those with spaces in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

There will be 5 sectors in this year’s edition: Galleries, Insights, Discovery, Encounters and Film.

“Galleries”, the main section of the fair is dedicated to top artworks belonging to established galleries. It comprises 187 modern and contemporary art galleries displaying valuable paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photography, videos and editioned works. Among them, there are 14 galleries which moved here from other sectors: Athr (Jeddah), Blindspot Gallery

(Hong Kong), Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde (Dubai, Brussels), Project Fulfill Art Space (Taipei), Taro Nasu (Tokyo), TKG+ (Taipei, Beijing), Yavuz Gallery (Singapore).

“Insights”, as the name suggests, is an umbrella platform which stages a diverse range of events: This includes group exhibitions organized around specific themes; curatorial projects on Asian or Asia-Pacific artists; individual performances and material that illuminates the history of Art The presence of galleries outside of Asia is a new addition to the event. The hope being that as a result young Asian talents will become better known in other parts of the world. Representative artists come from Australia, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Japan, Mainland China, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Turkey. Highlights include creations by Michael Cook (Australia), Guan Xiao, Yu Honglei and Stella Zhang (Mainland China), Kimiyo Mishimo (Japan), Tadasu Takamine ( Japan), Tayeba Begum Lipi (Bangladesh).

“Discoveries” presents creations of 24 new galleries that concentrate solely on the work of one or two emerging artists. For this edition, five of the galleries are newcomers to the fair, while another six are back after a short break. This sector also encourages galleries focused on new artistic themes and talents.

The main artists are represented by the Pakistani artist Waqas Khan (Pakistan), Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi (Berlin), Jess Johnson (New Zealand), Yusuke Saito ( Japan), Ayesha Sultana (Bangladesh), Rathin Barman (India), Sean Raspet and Ned Vena and Joel Kyack’s (United States).

“Film” is an exciting section (back for the second time). It deals with 38 works by 36 creators engaging with diverse themes.The Chinese multimedia artist and producer Li Zhenhua drew up the final selection. The program includes feature-length film screenings that will be shown at the Hong Kong Arts Centre during the fair.

“Conversations” is a program focused on talks and panel discussions that analyse the trans-pacific collecting networks and the way in which the artist’s’ ability to travel is changing the ball game. It will allow direct access to notable cultural speakers from the international art world with the Chinese artist Cao Fei delivering the inaugural talk.

The “Salon” program will present afternoon talks and discussions with artists, curators, professors, museum directors, and researchers. It will complement the Conversations program, serving as a platform for briefer presentations, including talks, panel discussions, readings and book launches.

Art Basel works closely with several key cultural organizations including Asia Art Archive (AAA), the Asia Society, Para/Site Art Space, Spring Workshop, and M+, Hong Kong’s museum for visual culture so as to offer innovative events during the show week. The Asia Contemporary Art Show, the leading satellite to Art Basel Hong Kong, is also worth visiting.

In its second year it will play host to more than 100 art galleries between March 24 to 27, 2016.

“Encounters” comprises those galleries not included in the other three sectors. This sector will display sculptural artwork, large-scale pieces and performances of 16 artists from 12 countries.

Issue N11 | 39

GENEVA CARS

INTERNATIONAL

MOTOR SHOW 2016

By Simon Piggott

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upposedly, the supercar is now an endangered species. However, events seem to tell a different story: “The supercar is dead, long live the supercar!”

At this year’s Geneva Motor Show, the new breed of sleek monsters seem to sit purring on their podiums like prize winning cats about to receive a bowl of cream. Despite alarming reports of looming ecological catastrophe, there still seems to be an inexhaustible appetite (among those who can afford the astronomical prices) for vehicles that will project them at over two hundred miles per hour.

BUGATTI CHIRON

For example, Bugatti are displaying their much anticipated Chiron. This blunt-nosed behemoth more than lives up to expectations. For £1.9 million, the lucky purchaser will receive a vehicle with a W16 engine delivering an awesome 1,479 bhp and 1,600 Nm of torque. Slightly less expensive at £1.7 million, is the Lamborghini Centenario delivering 760 bhp from a V12 engine. As if to wind up the appetite and create irresistible levels of demand, only 40 will be built. Prospective buyers may well get killed in the rush!

BUGATTI CHIRON

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Such is the stratospheric level of prices in the sector that £155,000 for the Aston Martin DB11 seems cheap! Even so, this beautiful vehicle generates the standard 600bhp from a twin turbocharged V12 engine.

AUDI Q2

AUDI Q2

As the design and performance of luxury vehicles continues to escalate, so it has dragged levels of hyperbole with it. Forget the supercar: increasingly, the new term is the hypercar. No other description better fits the amazing Regera

by Koenigsweg, designed to rival the McLaren P1 and the Porshe 918 Spider.

Its 1,500 bhp derives from the combined power of a V8 engine plus electric motors. Strictly for those with £1.2 million to spare and an overwhelming urge to find a stretch of road long enough on which to pretend you are driving in a Formula One Grand Prix.

Another miracle of invention is the Citroen E-Tense GT, a carbon-fibre bodied electric sports car promising exceptionally high speeds.The high tech twist is the replacement of the rear window by a camera and a crystal clear display inside.

Even so, manufacturers are struggling to meet the challenges of environmental damage and to do so without loss of face. Accompanied by a marketing campaign best described as ‘thrills without bills’, vehicles are coming on the market that increasingly rival the established fossil fuel favourites. For example, the Italdesign GTZero looks like a supercar, but features no less than three electric motors capable of producing 483 bhp and a range of 311 miles before recharge.

Even more impressive is the Concept by Rimac, an all electric vehicle of extraordinary high performance. Its 82 Wh lithium-ion battery pack and two electric motors develop a whopping 1,068bhp. Thanks to 1600Nm of torque, it rockets from 0 to 62mph in just 2.6 seconds. This miracle is fully fledged – 8 models are due to be manufactured and sold.

JAGUAR F-type SVR

Performance of terrestrial vehicles may well be reaching the outer limits of feasibility. To maintain momentum, the challenge now seems to be push technology in the wake of speed. Distinctly whacky ideas are increasingly common. Best example is Peugeot’s Traveller I-lab concept. Business tycoons today are coming to be regarded as almost the modern equivalent of medieval monarchs, a fact reflected in the hi-tech toys they get to play with.

For example, the Traveller I-Lab hints at a future luxury office on wheels.

An enormous 32 inch touch screen display in the back that divides into four individual screens, one for each of the four backseat occupants. Another stride in the trend towards a 24 hour working day.

KOENIGSEGG REGERA

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ASTON MARTIN DB11

A FE W OF THE ‘BEST OF THE REST’.

Maserati Levante, Maserati’s first venture into SUV’s. Comes in two versions – a 350 and a 430 hp, powered by a twin turbo V6 engine with 8 speed auto transmission.

Ferrari GTC 4 Lusso. This year’s Geneva show is a debut for this magnificent machine - a new go-to Ferrari. 690 bph 6.3 liter V12 engine; 514 torque lb ft; 0-62 in 3.4 seconds and top speed of 208 mph.

McLaren 570GT, a car specializing in roomy comfort and space. It has a side hinged glass hatch revealing new leather-lined touring deck allowing for 220 liters of space in addition to 150 liters in the nose. All this provides more space than the entire interior of a Ford Focus. 562 bhp; 3.8 liter twin turbo V8 engine; 7 speed dual clutch transmission; 0-62 in 3.4 seconds.

ASTON MARTIN DB11

Jaguar F type SVR a monster with a 567 bhp 5 liter supercharged V8 engine.

700 Nm of torque, 8 speed gear box and all-wheel drive.Yours for £110,00.

Maserati Levante, first venture into SUV’s. Comes in two versions – a 350 and 430bhp, powered by a twin turbo V6 engine with 8 speed auto transmission.

Audi Q2 a compact SUV, receives its world premier at Geneva 2016. Engine 85 KW (116 PS) to 140 KW (190 PS) Quatro drive. Numerous optional features including Audi virtual cockpit, adaptive cruise control and traffic jam assist.

ASTON MARTIN DB11

RIMAC CONCEPT S

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AROUND THE WORLD

By Margharita Wailes-Farbairn “Carnival is the natural theatre in which animals and animal-like beings take over the power and become the masters. In carnival, even the kings act like populace. […] The upside-down world has become the norm.” Umberto Eco

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lmost all cultures, no matter how varied, have reserved some part of their calendar - usually the spring - as a period of carnival, one that projects an image of riot and debauchery.

From the rump-rolling rollercoaster of Rio to the flagrant genderbending of Sitges in Spain, the aim is to turn the world upside down: to offend convention, satirize the powerful and to run wild. But however lewd the antics and extravagant the posturing of masked revelers, the real interest is in what lurks behind the mask and beneath the make-believe.

Some trace carnival back to the Saturnalia of Roman times. For up to seven days the Roman world was turned on its head: almost anything was accepted, even the songs of Roman legionaries crudely alluding to the sexual proclivities of their leader, Julius Caesar. But carnival is even older than that.

Societies around the world have tended to mark the passing from the dark of winter to the dawn of the New Year. Hence the celebratory mood: itís an orgiastic celebration of survival, a multi-coloured motley - fast, furious and funny.

But there was more to carnival than a heralding of better times.. As the social anthropologist Mikhail Bakhtin points out, carnivals in their earlier incarnations were effectively mini-dramas in which the whole community took part: a release valve in which the different layers of society acted out scenarios satirising their leaders Given that ancient societies were often so forbiddingly rigid, the phenomenon of a carnival tradition precisely designed to offend authority seems almost incomprehensible. But allowing violent inversions of status, lewd mockery of authority by cross dressing and satirical masks sucks the pressure out of the system. As such, it appears to emphasize and reinforces social cohesion rather than the opposite. It acted as a sort of cultural condom, allowing the pleasure of lampooning authority but preventing the seeds of discontent spreading and putting down roots.This apparent paradox is what fascinated sociologists like Emile Durkheim and Mikhail Bakhtin.

So what of today? Carnival still exist - at least in name. Indeed they are infinitely more elaborate and in your face than they ever were. But they bear about as much relation to the original function and purpose of carnival as a moth to a mammoth. However elaborately garish, however self-consciously outrageous, modern carnivals have been drained of everything they originally stood for except the spectacle.

Significantly, many modern carnivals describe themselves as Mardis Gras.

Translated that means Fat Tuesday, a name particularly appropriate in the western society where chronic obesity is common. The results, however entertaining, are garishly painted husks bereft of social content. This is not surprising. The tourist industry is not going to forego the opportunities offered by blockbuster events like the carnivals of Rio de Janeiro or Venice which, like their equivalents in movies, are concerned to provide thrills rather than drama. But, as Victor Hugo remarked, where everything is carnival, there is no carnival.

Obviously, it would be absurd to claim that early societies were champions of liberty. Forelock-tugging obeisance to some superior authority was often a way of life. But unlike us, these societies were aware that the safety of their system required some moment of relief - a period of riotous carousal, a volley of satire and ridicule and the license to rib those who lorded it over them without risking retribution.

Today’s carnivals have become organized mayhem, drained of meaning, spectacles with no purpose other than to be spectacular. The Roman legionaries may have marched through Rome singing salacious songs speculating about Julius Caesarís sex life, but it would be difficult to imagine a battalion of the Grenadier Guards marching down Whitehall singing something similar about someone like David Cameron.

Carnival’s origins may be lost in the mists of time, but quite possibly it still has something to teach us.

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Venice Carnival is ‘dress-up’ time squared. “The entire city is dressed up: vice and virtuousness hide as well as ever.” – Maximilian Misson –

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he masks and costumes that for hire in the back alleys, hark back to stories passed down the different generations all the way from Plotinus and earlier.

Carnival in Venice probably began in the 15th century. It wasn’t for the faint-hearted. In those days private clubs organised masked balls, and popular entertainment that were sometimes brutally cruel.To the hilarity and excitement of the crowd, live dogs were fired from cannons.

By the eighteenth century, carnival was an excuse to party for months at a time, with supplementary entertainment provided through the comedies of men like Pietro Chiari and Carlo Gozzi and operas by composers like Vivaldi.

Its central importance in this regard can be seen by Goldoni’s promise in 1749 to deliver 16 new comedies for carnival.

The masks have a direct connection to another Italian tradition - namely Commedia dell’Arte - a mixture of comedy and buffoonery that has retained its unique spirit of frivolity up to this day. Its heyday, however, was between the 16th and18th centuries.

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The performances were improvised around a repertory of domestic situations, adultery, jealousy, old age, frustrated love – typically a young couple having to do battle with the older generation. In between acts there would suddenly be a break for further ad lib improvisation and acrobatics.

The dialogue and action could easily be made topical, and adjusted to satirize local scandals and current events. For the historically minded, some of the plots are obvious hand-me-downs from Roman playwrights, like Plautus and Terence. In addition, storylines were also borrowed frin ancient Greek mythology.

Masks were also a direct borrowing from ancient Roman comedies, so there is a direct lineage from Rome through to the masked figures that turn up at Piazzo San Marco today.

The stock carnival characters have their own insignia. Il Dottore is mocked for his habit of speaking in non sequiturs, often quoting Latin inappropriately.

He wears black academic robes and a black mask that covers only the forehead and nose. Then there’s the miser character in a costume of red vest, breeches, and hose, a black cassock, and a mask with hooked nose. When I was there the city was city was flooded and he was on stilts. it was a surreal moment.

He’s morphed into being a poor man – hence his diamond-speckled costume. His mask is either ugly with warts, or the face of a monkey, cat, or pig. Traditionally, he’s often paired with a maidservant called Columbina.

At the other end of the social scale, come the masquerade balls. These were initially popular in Venice in the fifteenth century. These are events where everyone wears costumes and beautiful decorative masks. The mascareri ( the maskmakers) have an endless repetoire to draw on. The quintessential Venetian disguise is referred to as the Bauta and consists in a cloak, tricorn hat and a smooth white mask referred to as a Volto.

The enigmatic white Volto (or larva, from the Latin meaning “mask” or “ghost”) and worn by both men and women is typicallyVenetian.Traditionally, it is made of light waxed cloth that made them easy to wear while dancing or dining.Variants on the Volto include decorative paint and jewels or elaborate Baroque gilding. Famously. Casanova, appropriately masked for the occasion, met his mistress at one such ball.

Another favourite is Arlecchino, or Harlequin. One of his likely origins is from Dante’s Inferno – a demon. Today, however, he’s somewhat less frightening.

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he first European settlers of America were mainly English Puritans escaping religious persecution in a country soon to be torn apart by sectarian feuding between an Anglican establishment and a new wave of protestant fundamentalists, with fixated notions about the damnation of souls. Compared to Catholic countries like Italy or Spain, England in the late 16th century seems to have had a relatively weaker carnival tradition. In any case, the Puritan settlers of the New World, while being less ‘kill-joy’ than they are sometimes represented, would have taken a dim view of the lewd frolics and vulgarity displayed at Carnival.

No surprise therefore that Carnival was a French importation. On March 2nd 1699, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville established a settlement some 60 miles south of what is now New Orleans, and named it Pointe de Mardi Gras. The first known celebration of Carnival itself occurred three years later at the French settlement of Mobile. From there it migrated to what became New Orleans. Here, Carnival was well established by the 1730’s.

From the start, the New Orleans Mardi Gras seems to have been a pretty lively affair. In 1836, James R Creecy published his ‘Scenes From The South’, complete with a graphic description of Mardi Gras. ‘…men and boys, women and girls, white and black, bond and free, yellow and brown, exert themselves to appear in grotesque, quizzical, diabolic, horrible strange masks and disguises. Human bodies are seen with the heads of beasts and birds; beasts and

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birds with heads of humans…mermaids, satyrs, beggars, monks and robbers march on feet or horseback in rich confusion…wildly shouting, singing and dancing…’ Discretely, he avoids mentioning the common practice of women, caught up in the excitement, baring their breasts in order to attract attention – a habit that the invention of mobile phones with built-in cameras has done little to diminish.

From the mid-19th century, Mardi Gras was increasingly organized around a growing number of secret societies or social clubs which jealously preserved the anonymity of their members: to become one it was usually necessary to buy association – sometimes at a cost of hundreds of dollars. The best known of these is the exotically named The Mystic King Of Comus, but there are dozens of others: Krewe of Proteus, Knights of Momus, Knights of Babylon, Mystic Knights of Adonis, Rex, Zulu Social Aid And Pleasure Club and many more. The two best-known clubs, Rex and Comus have created a mock royal status for themselves complete with King, Queen and ladies in waiting.

The end of Mardi Gras is marked by a solemn meeting between the court of ‘King’ Comus and Rex. Each parade is preceded by a Krewe - a float, themed and often very elaborately decorated, which carries the organizers of the club, special invitees and sundry others who often have to purchase their place at considerable cost. Those lucky enough to get a place on a float throw gifts of beads and

other trinkets to the crowd, a practice that can provoke an increase in the number of breasts on display.

Initially, Mardi Gras was a largely Creole affair, freely mixing French, Spanish, Indian and black influences. Inevitably, over time, it has become ‘Americanized’, a fact that has sometimes produced an element of racial tension. In 1909, the Zulu Social Aid And Pleasure Club was formed partly as a reaction by blacks to the increasingly Caucasian domination of Mardi Gras.

From a relatively humble beginning, Zulu has grown to be among the most important clubs in the carnival. In 1949 it became known nationally when it elected Louis Armstrong, probably the single most important figure in the development of 20th century popular music, as its ‘King’. Louis was born in New Orleans and he has left his own description of Mardi Gras.

“It’s a great day for all New Orleans, and particularly for the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. Every member of the club masquerades in a costume burlesquing some famous person. The King of the Zulus, also in masquerade costume, rides with six other Zulus on a float .giving away coconuts as souvenirs. The members march to the good jumping music of the brass bands while the King on his throne scrapes and bows to the cheering crowds”.

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“It was not Brazil that invented Carnaval; on the contrary, it was Carnaval that invented Brazil” Roberto da Matta

Photos by: Alexandre Vidal

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n the eyes of virtually everyone, Rio Janeiro is the carnival that beats all carnivals. According to the Rio mayor, in 2013, five million revellers poured into the streets, divided into 450 groups of paraders, many called “blocks” and others “bands.”

Across our screens we are provided with endless spectacle and performance: drum queens and passistas drenched in sweat and dripping with plumage and garish jewels smash through the streets, beating out the samba.

The short mini-skirts and scantily-clad women bear witness to the contradictions of carnival. For this is a country in which in 2009, a female student was expelled from the conservative university of San Paolo on the grounds of indecency when she wore a mini-skirt. (After a world outcry on twitter, she was reinstated)

Photos by: Alexandre Vidal

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Rio Janeiro began hosting its pre-Lenten Festival in 1723. The Portugese brought over to Brazil their religion and accompanying celebrations – including that of Carnival. Compared to now it was also surprisingly sedate.

Mostly, it was an indoors affair in the spirit of grand Parisian balls.

Photos by: Alexandre Vidal

However, over the centuries, the Portugese influence has been whittled down to be replaced by the other cultures within Brazil. In this regard, the musical and religious traditions of the Africans – fused with some traditions from the local Brazilian populaton - proved seminal.

For example, the Samba rhythms which have percolated almost every element of carnival, can be traced back to the musical accompaniment to Candomblé – a religious observance that was practiced by the original slave population and seems to have originated in Bahia. Spectacle was already integral to the experience: early celebrants of African background dressed in American India War bonnets and Yoruban toques.

Specific dates are difficult; but, gradually, the traditions from both lineages in Carnival folded into one another. When the freed slaves remained off the invitation list, their response was to celebrate out on the street rather than within the grand colonial houses. Gradually, the young, in particular, attracted by the outrageous costumes and dance rhythms started to take to the street too.

One of the most interesting aspects of this carnival is that at specific stages it seems to have acted as a rallying point for political resistance and then reform – with ultimate control moving back and forward between the elite and the wider population. Even today, the battle for the soul of the carnival continues.

Photos by: Alexandre Vidal

In the mid nineteenth century for example, the elite in Brazil made one last and futile attempt to gain control over the carnival, trying – in vain – to ensure that it was a civilized affair which had the ruling class very clearly placed in the centre of things. The explanation given by historians was that they wanted to model the Rio carnival after the carnival revelries of Paris and Nice and thereby to “civilize” the Brazilian public. In practice, they therefore put themselves at the centre of the tableaux and floats, The sheer pressure of public feeling and the natural exuberance put paid to this desire for good. Effectively the population wrested back control, simply by staging their own floats and performances in other parts of the city. In this way the festival became a glorious fusion of all of Brazil’s constituent parts rather than the showcase of the rich. In fact, some would say the balance has tipped the other way with the African rhythms of Samba leaving a lasting imprint on the fiesta.

Some see the construction of a purpose built stadium and parade the Sambadrome, as the beginning of the end. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer it consists of 700 m stretch of the Marques de Sapucai.

Photos by: Alexandre Vidal

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Photos by: Jesus d’Souza

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part from Rio de Janeiro, Spain enjoys the world’s liveliest carnivals. The Carnival Queen from Tenerife is chosen from 14 young hopefuls. Two days later, the winner, is paraded through town with a large cast of bridesmaids, costumed performers, musical groups, comedy artists and dance troupes.

The carnival in the Canary Islands began at the end of the 15th century, after Spaniards colonized them. People of all nationalities started coming to these unique islands, amongst them Italians who started a small masked carnival in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. From then on, the festivities progressively grew in size until they reached their current splendour.

This masked carnival tradition eventually spread from Gran Canaria to the other islands nearby. Santa Cruz de Tenerife became another location where this celebration flourished. Nowadays, these two cities provide the most popular group of activities during the carnival, to make for an unforgettable experience. Every year a different theme is chosen.

Photos by: Jesus d’Souza

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Photos by: Jesus d’Souza

Photos by: Jesus d’Souza

This year’s theme was Bollywood. There have also been themes about the Roman Empire, The Middle Ages, Circus, Thousand and One Nights and Space Odyssey. Comic. Whatever year you look at, the costumes are nothing short of spectacular. For example, in 2012, the winning costume called ‘Imperio’, was a stunning interpretation of the splendour of the Roman Empire was designed by Santi Castro.

It conjured an image of a Roman chariot and centurion helmets fashioned in luxuriant feathers of the palest blue. The crowned Queen had to ride ‘her chariot’ from the epicentre of the dress - no mean feat given that the costume weighed a frightening 300 kilos.

Given their huge weight, costumes have to be virtual architectural constructions. The ability to ‘wear’ a costume as if it weighed nothing at all is therefore one of the most important aspects of being a candidate for Carneval Queen. After a girl is chosen, there’s a frantic rush to prepare for the opening parade. Festivities at Santa Cruz basically start on the Friday before Shrove Tuesday and continue through the weekend until Tuesday.

Then on Wednesday there is one final last gasp. The Burial of the Sardine is the most irreverent and lighthearted show of the whole Carnival. The streets of Santa Cruz are draped in mourning. A giant sardine made of paper is carried in a funeral procession, followed by wailing widows. The Catholic Church is mocked, with participants dressed as popes, bishops and nuns imitating blessings and other religious rites.

Photos by: Jesus d’Souza

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hroughout January to March, every Saturday and Sunday at 11:00, 16:30 and 22:00 hours and on Mardi Gras the arcades of the Place de la République resonate to the sound of traditional music preceded by bands.

The Festival in Limoux dates back to 1604. It is the longest carnival in the world in that it carries on every weekend from January through to March.

This being France and even more the South of France the period has always contained the potential for conflict between the rich and poor. In eighteenth century documents report a rumbustious carnival. The trades confronted each other – for example textile workers against the merchants.

By tradition, different trade bodies used to march in different bands - the violin of the rich as opposed to the tambour of the poor. At the end of January, 1787 of young people of good family and the working class youth.

Events escalated to such a degree that officals found themselves pelted with stones and doused with water. A rotting horse’s head accompanied by a

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threatening notice was also placed outside the door of the local lawyer. Who was also the consul of the town.

Interestingly this year was unlike any other – in that for the first time in all the carnival’s history the sub-prefecture clamped down on several of the city’s parades and traditions. The reason given – one that sparked off a huge amount of debate – was that the festivities would be a possible target for terrorists. In addition, officials were fearful that pictures of carnival during a state of emergency might be disrespectful so close to the tragedy of the Paris shootings.

The French have always been steeped in their history. Perhaps the action of the sous-prefect was not so surprising. Possibly he is remembering the events that occurred in 1848. As was normal in the month of February carnival was being prepared, but this year the atmosphere was one of political turmoil.

”While parliament was discussing a bill to ban a banquet organised by the opposition, the bourgeois enjoy their exclusive masked balls , the working class parade in the street. Some, improvised skits poke fun at the country’s rulers. On February 23rd, in the evening , a donkey wearing a red hood is led under the windows of a minister. At the same time a large procession marches towards the Ministry of foreign affairs. Revellers then confront the police.

The police return fire and 16 people are killed. Their bodies are loaded on a horse-drawn truck which is driven around the town like a carnival float to the cry of vengeance: the people are being slaughtered. The sight arouses the anger of Parisians. Barricades were built. They Royal Palace of the Tuillerie is invaded. The throne is set alight. The carnival turns into a revolution, and the second Republic takes over from the last French King, Louis Philippe.”

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n Koln, Carnival is embedded into the soul of the town. An enormous amount of effort goes into the construction and decoration of the floats.

There are at least 105 carnival associations and it is a great honour to be invited to be a member of the Dreigestirn ( three Stars) – who are respectively kitted out to become the Carnival Prince (known as Seine Tollität, ‘His Craziness’), the Bauer (peasant) and the Jungfrau (damsel).

Carnival and the rollicking songs and ditties that ring out around the streets and squares are centuries old. Almost, indeed, as old as the city itself.

“Carnival” in fact comes from the Latin “carne” and “vale” which means “meat” and “good bye”. So good-bye meat as fasting takes hold of all good souls. Fastnacht also has a well-known etymology. It hails from the medieval German language “vase”, meaning “to turn things into trash” or “lay to waste.”

As so often, the traditions incarnated in places like Cologne and Munich are a happy blend of pagan and religion. The Old Germans didn’t just believe in

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God; they feared the malevolence of Satan’s marauding armies.The grotesque masks and cacophony of noise from drums, bells and rattles are a response to this. Supposedly, the bedlam and mayhem would inspire all the undesirable elements to put their hands over their ears and run away Medieval elements have also left their mark. Here in the Rhineland area, many countries were under the rule of harsh potentates. At carnival, the frustrated population were allowed a brief moment of rebellion. .

The clearest expression of this call “ die umgestuelpte Welt” is person of humble social origins of Carnival king or some other or pope.

topsy-turvy world – what the Germans provided by the customary crowning of a who is elevated for a day or so to the role figure of authority such as a priest, bishop

Nor is it just the poor who were given a short taste of “power”.. Women, too, were traditionally given their head on a day called “Weiberfastnacht” – in which they preside over proceedings rather than men. The transfer of

power is symbolised by a rather kinder cut than that sometimes envisaged in revenge literature: Throughout the day, the women hunt down the men and triumphantly cut off their ties.

For carnival fanatics, it’s important to realize that the lead up to carnival starts in November. With great precision in fact – beginning on the 11th day of November at exactly 11minutes after 11am.

In the now famous Heinrich Boll novel, The Lost Honour of Katharine Blum, the carnival plays is both the incitin g incident and a metaphor for the lies that are told by those in power. Everybody is playing charades and masquerading as something they either are not or should not be.

During Carnival in Germany, Katharina attends a private dance at her godmother’s residence and meets a man by the name of Ludwig Göten who has been under police surveillance for robbery.

Everything follows from there. Apart from the shock of revelation, Heinrich Boll uses the device of carnival to explore the intrusive and sometimes unscrupulous practices of the media.

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COUNTRY

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Inside

South A frica – SA FA R I –

S

GORE AND GLORY afari, a Swahili word, first appeared in English around 1890, probably the moment of tipping point in the history of the British Empire.

It means a journey undertaken with a specific objective: expedition, pilgrimage, trek, or voyage.

My own declaration of pre-conceived notions is this. My great-grandfather spent many years in East Africa at the turn of the century, charging through the bush with a retinue of local tribesmen. He braved fetid swamps, marched across barren deserts, survived flesh-eating bugs and ate whatever crossed his path. His diaries catalogue the magnificence and abundance of the wildlife that he stalked and killed.

Back in Yorkshire, the taxidermist was kept busy. His house was decorated with all manner of totemic trophies. Heads of animals adorned the walls, hides were thrown across sofas and floors .

However, when my great grandfather was rampaging across the killing fields of Africa at the turn of the twentieth century, he was following in the footsteps of men with quite different preoccupations: exploration, cartography and the Darwinian fascination of the Victorians with the study and cataloguing of species. Over the previous hundred years a number of intrepid explorers – at great risk to themselves – were slowly investigating a dark continent that had remained a mystery since the days of the ancient Egyptians. Explorers like Cornwallis Harris in the 1830’s, Charles Baldwin in the 1850’s, Frank Seleous and Richard Burton in the 1880’s were men of almost superhuman courage

and endurance. Slave traders were the opposite of welcoming. Fearful diseases threatened like yellow fever and black water fever - from which my maternal grandfather ultimately died.Distances were vast and much of the terrain almost impenetrable, some, like the Scottish explorer, Mungo Park, set out only to vanish without trace.

By comparison, the modern ‘safari’ has nothing in common with this. In contrast to the almost unimaginable hardships and peorivations experienced by the early explorers, safari is now associated with ultimate luxury, one available only to the wealthy and privileged. Over a century after Richard Burton finally discovered the source of the Nile and Mungo Park searched for the ‘golden city’ of Timbuctu, vast tracts of Africa have been turned into playgrounds for hunters in search of Big Game, whose interest in the wildlife is sporting rather than scientific. Their passion for the pursuit of increasingly rare species of animals has raised questions of profound importance to the world in general with regard to sustainable development, land management, ecology and the uneasy relationship between commercial exploitation and the interests of local communities.

STUFFED SAFARI Most westerners’ only contact with Big Game is on trips to Natural History museums. Many who undertake these ‘stuffed safaris’ would be astonished to learn that the long dead trophies on display are now enjoying a new lease of life. They have become a laboratory for DNA researchers eager to map and possibly even recreate breeds that have become extinct. In this way, despite having been trampled on by colonial interlopers and torn

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apart by its own civil wars, Africa continues to repay the heroic efforts of nineteenth century naturalists like William John Burchell, Thomas Ayres and Gustav Adolph Fischer.

CALL TO THE WILD As the twentieth century dawned, radio and telephone communication, the steam ship and new railways in previously remote parts of the world were revolutionizing travel – nowhere more so than in Africa. As communications, and the colonial administrations that introduced them, expanded, Africa increasingly stood revealed – at least to those wealthy and well connected enough to protect themselves - as a sort of Garden of Eden preserved in a state of Arcadian innocence for the delight of the visitors. One hunter and explorer, Gordon Cumming wrote in his diary: “ Throughout all this country, and vast tracts beyond, I had the satisfaction to reflect that a never-ending succession of herds of every species of noble game which the hunter need desire pastured there, in undisturbed security; and as I gazed I felt that it was all my own, and that I at length possessed the undisputed sway over a forest, in comparison with which the tame and herded narrow bounds of the wealthiest European sportsman sink into utter insignificance.”

PROMISED L AND Another complication in the history of safaris, game-hunting and land management is the overlapping tensions between landed interest and local communities. Factually, it was the colonists and, then settlers, under different European flags who implanted the notion of private ownership across the broad tracts of land that have now morphed into private reserves and ranches.

In the 18th C for instance, employees of the Eastern Trading Company, then the largest trading company in the world, were allocated 6000 hectares of land apiece. For their part, the British were keen proponents of enclosures and private ownership. Some of their number went further still: flirting with what is now called the “ tragedy of the commons” – namely the belief that if everyone had access to common land, the land would suffer.

Throughout the tussle of ownership, however, the wonder of the land struck

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generation after generation with awe. Something of this awe comes through in a diary entry from Mr Gordon Cumming – an explorer and lion hunter. In his summary, one can hear the counterpoint between competing emotions.

However, by the turn of the twentieth century, the lure of travel became more a symbol of privilege and adventure than exploration and mapping. As a result safaris were increasingly associated with luxury, wealth and privilege.

You can trace this change of attitude in the reported experiences of two very influential leaders – Roosevelt and Randolph Churchill. Each man when they departed from office, decided to lick their wounds and regain perspective by heading off to Africa. They were neither the first nor the last to see the wilderness of the veld as a means of regaining focus. The question is can Africa cope with so many Westerners wishing to discover their lost souls?

Not to be outdone by the rival across the pond, Roosevelt also organised a long safari when he declined to run for president in 1909. He later documented his experiences in a book called The African Game Trails.

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“SOFARI SO GOODIE”

(SIC) TELEGRAM FROM CHURCHILL.

Lord Randolph Churchill,Winston’s father, was one of the first real ‘safaristas’.

With his political career in ruins, Churchill hoped to rebuild his reputation by recounting through the newspapers his daring exploits in the African bush. Foreshadowing the luxury industry of today, he set off on his travels, determined not only to see some of the most amazing creatures on earth, but also to ensure he did so at the level of creature comfort to which he was accustomed. To the amusement of his detractors, he brought with him eight wagons replete with grooms, cooks and servants and A PIANO. An even more successful pioneer of ‘safarism’ was Theodore Rooseveldt.

In 1909, after completing a full term as President of the United States, he organised a highly publicised trip to Africa. As he threaded his way up country, first through British East Africa, then the Belgian Congo, the American press faithfully recorded his exploits and an admiring nation prayed for his safe return. Return he did, with no less than 1,100 specimens, including the most noteworthy collection of Big Game ever, and the material for a best selling book.

So often happens, success bred excess. Once the book was published, numerous organisations and facilitators jumped on the ‘huifcar’, keen to set up camp too. Since then – apart from the interruption of two World Wars – this led on to the bewildering variety of safaris available today, from the ‘champagne safari’ complete with air-conditioned suites with outdoor pools, thatched gazebos and canopied king-size beds, to ones for hardier types, less interested in creature comforts than the creatures themselves.

Fashion too, found the savage beauty of Africa an irresistible source of inspiration. Pierre Mourgue’s front cover for Vogue depicts a woman fashionably if inappropriately dressed, seated on a camel gazing across the desert; inside, a full page photoshoot features Madame Edouard Carniglion, knee deep in a river, one elegant hand tilting the brim of her pith helmet to better watch her car being pushed across on a raft by semi-naked Africans.

The caption announces this setback as the reason she was late for her anticipated arrival at Xissidougou.

ROOSE VELTIAN ECHOES Roosevelt’s travels, in particular, fuelled the nascent safari industry.Threading his way up country through first British East Africa, into the Belgian Congo and back into the Nile Delta, he inspired a generation.

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Throughout his absence, newspapers drip fed information about his whereabouts , setbacks and successes - including the fact that he carried a rabbit’s foot in his pocked tor good luck. Congregations back home prayed for his safety from the time he set off on the Uganda Railway at Mombasa to his final arrival at Khartoum.

Their curiosity was satisfied when He returned to America with his booty: 1,100 specimens including 500 big game were in the hold. The most noteworthy collection of big animals that has ever come out of Africa, he proclaimed. Meanwhile, a constant flow of news was strategically released But the larger picture was that his trip effectively helped seed the aspiration to go there too. It equally gave a boost to a new profession - namely the vital role of trackers and on-the-spot logistical planners. In Roosevelt’s case all this was handled by two friends, Newline and Tarlton.

SAFARI MANIA You could say it was they who set a precedent for what would later become the safari tourism industry. They provided visiting sportsmen and naturalists with everything that was needed - organizing headmen, guides, porters, tents, food and guards. What’s more they made sure that they felt, well, important. No detail was too small. The porters were all kitted out with navy sweaters emblazoned with N & T on the front. The guards (known as ‘askaris’) , wore a uniform of white knickerbockers and blue shirts.

Success breeds success. Once Roosevelt’s book was published, other hunting organisations and outfitters were keen to set up tent too. As a result, a number of options opened up ranging from the “champagnesafari” (complete with gramophone) through to rougher safaris for hardier types who weren’t so much interested in creature comfort as the creatures themselves.

The vogue for the romance and adventure of Africa in the popular mind is brilliantly evoked in a Paris Vogue Front Cover. He cover illustration, by Pierre Mourgue, depicts a woman in a white dress and a graceful sunhat seated on a camel with sand dunes extending far into the distance.

Inside the cover there were other tributes to the African continent. A fullpage photoshoot features Madame Edouard Carnigilion standing knee-deep in a river (probably one in Senegal). Her hand tilts the pith helmet on her head. Meanwhile back of shot, you see a car floating on a raft which is being

pushed by men and naked boys. Kitted out in canvas pants, we are given a vivid picture of what constituted at the time “ safari” time. The caption gives further details. We see her here in her colonial attire, not hesitating to wade into the Niaudan, a tributary of the Niger, where the ferry loaded with her car was stuck all day, making her late for her anticipated arrival at Xissidougou.

THE SAFARI DEBATE In 2008, an apple-pie American teenager caused a furore on Facebook, posing beside the carcass of a lion she had just shot: as once prolific species decline, such sights provoke outrage. Accordingly, the new words in use to suit our more squeamish tastes are conservation and eco-tourism. Arguments rage as to how best to promote these articles of faith with the dogmatic ferocity of Europe’s seventeenth century wars of religion. At the extreme end of the spectrum, the hunting lobby swears blind that they are preserving the wild life by massacring it. To the fury of the animal rights lobby, they point to examples like the 1977 Kenyan ban on shooting Big Game, where, depending on the particular species, the result was apparently a further decline of between 40 and 90 percent in their number. The government then decided the best protection of the animals from poaching and mass slaughter was to increase concessions, private reserves and wildlife parks.

South Africa on the other hand, went the opposite way, supporting licensed hunting and the Big Game Hunting Experience. Nelson Mandela himself was persuaded, even posing for a photograph with a slain animal after he visited the Mthethomusha Game Reserve.

In his book Let’s Not Beat About The Bush, Dereck Joubert, one of the world’s best wildlife photographers, and a five-times Emmy winner, furiously denies this. He writes: “A photographed lion yawns at the dawn repeatedly for photographs for over ten years, attracting fees and lodging costs and also, importantly, distributing value down the chain to airlines, wages, curios, communities and food purchases. However, one bullet ends those yawns in the sunrise forever for that lion.”

Behind all these debates lies a much bigger one – nothing less than the issue of opposing cultures and the extent to which one can threaten or even overturn another. It would be difficult to find a more fundamental difference than the one separating tribal African culture from the acquisitional motivations of the ‘developed’ world. Before the arrival of western colonialism, African tribal society had very little concept of individual rights to hold property: property necessary to sustain life was held in common by the social group concerned.

Today, many African states are strapped for cash. Profiting from this, China has paid huge sums to purchase arable land on which to grow food for their population back home. For the same reason, African governments have allowed the sale of startling quantities of land to private investors in the luxury safari business. A transcript has recently come to light that presents a stark picture of relations between the Masai people and one such luxury investor.

The investors had called a meeting to discuss what they called ‘irregularities’ - a meeting that did not go well. The irregularities in question were that the Masai were herding their cattle in same way they have always done and on which their living depends. Armed with official backing and an almost divine right of entitlement, the luxury corporation wrote:

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INVESTOR “We have brought tourists from all over the world. I don’t know much about your culture and land (sic) but I know about my colleagues… They don’t want to see cows; they come to Kenya to see wildlife… We need you to respect the rules – let the cattle go and respect the contract…”

MASSAI ELDER “We don’t want the cattle to be stopped from grazing. Like the money you have in your wallet, cattle are our money. Cattle will be here for ever… You are to cope with cattle”…

In the general scheme of things, this incident may seem relatively trivial. But it is symptomatic of a shift in the balance of power that threatens not only the survival of rare species of animals, but also whole ways of life that are equally fragile. No matter how much rich people, comfortably ensconced in New York, London or Beijing, proclaim their attachment to fragile eco-systems and agrarian lives lived close to nature - lives they could not themselves sustain for even five minutes - their own demands for an ever increasingly luxurious lifestyle put even the best intentions in jeopardy.

There is still the hope that, properly managed, safari tourism can be a benefit to all sectors in African society wherever that activity exists. Increasing the number of safari parks also grows the demand for the skills of local Africans as trackers and guides; expanding tourism creates employment in lodges, hotels, spas and restauration; better and better communications will require more and better training in computer skills; construction will also expand. Even so, the western way has a remorseless appetite for feeding on itself – one that seems difficult to satisfy. It’s a condition that is contagious!

The task is to hold this tendency in check and, if possible, reverse it. To this end, there are many examples of new safari ventures based around the principles of conservatism, sustainability and sensitivity.

CELEBRIT Y STALK

An early pioneer in this approach was Anton Ruperts, a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund. Calling on his vast network of business colleagues and associates he was behind the setting up of trans-frontier conservation areas or ‘peace parks’ designed to ensure the long term survival of the land.

The groundwork and infrastructure set up by Ruperts remains at the heart of South Africa’s conservation efforts.

From this, other initiatives have sprung up.There are now safaris where guests pay to actually participate in anti-poaching efforts. For example, in Phinda – a 23,000 hectare private reserve well known for its rhinos. Guests are able to help temporarily immobilize rhinos so that they can have microchips for tracking their movements inserted into their horns. South Africa contains 75% of the world’s rhino population. Sadly, paleontologists believe there were once 60 species of rhino in the world; today there are six, including the white rhino!

The Swedish entrepreneur, Dan Olofsson helped to create the Thanda Safari in South Africa, regularly named “the world’s leading luxury lodge. However, he is probably prouder of an award he received in 2012 – namely the Veckans Affärer’s Social Capitalist Award for conservation.

South Africa attracts a lot of showbiz celebrities. Beyonce and Jay-Z stayed at Mateya Safari Lodge in the Madikwe Game Reserve when they went on safari. Miranda Kerr stayed at Kruger National Park’s Singita Lodges, Sweni and Lebombo.

Meanwhile in 2013, Katie Holmes and daughter Suri Cruise stayed at the Aquila Private Game Reserve. Paris Hilton and Rihanna are also great enthusiasts.

The Lion Sands Ivory Lodge in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve are favourites of George Michael,Vanessa Williams, Ethan Hawke, and Ivanka Trump.

Finally, Richard Branson, prefers the Ulsaba Cliff Lodge in the same reserve.

This reserve has an illustrious history. After a persuasive presentation of the explorer-conservationist Albe Chapman, the go ahead was given to set aside over a quarter of a million hectares of land for the project. The park was such a success that a second reserve – the Shingwedzi – was opened later that year.

South Africa is renowned for its up-market safari lodges, but the Royal Malewane probably tops them all. Set in the private Thornybush reserve within the Kruger national park it offers superlative Big Five game viewing. Elephant, rhino, Cape buffalo, lion and the elusive leopard – all are resident here.

The Reserve is administered jointly by KaNowane Parks and a tribal trust company representing the interests of the Mpakeni people. Profits are split between the two, although the community sometimes receives 60 per cent of the revenue generated by tourism. This is channeled into the building of schools, clinics and other social services in consultation with the community.

The money is also used for literacy projects, childrens’ crèches and welfare programmes.

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WINES

A nthonij Rupert Wyne

By: Anthonij Rupert Wyne

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’Ormarins, home of Anthonij Rupert Wyne, has now become one of South Africa’s prime attractions to wine aficionados.

This immaculately kept estate with its contours, plateaus, gorges, cliffs and ravines, is jealously guarded by The Groot Drakenstein Mountains with its own ancient secrets buried in its stone.

This Huguenot farm was granted to one Jean Roi by the Dutch East India Company in 1692. L’Ormarins was one of the first properties acquired by the Rupert family in 1969. A neighbouring property, formerly owned by the late Graham Beck, was integrated with L’Ormarins in 2011.

This acquisition heralded a new dynamic phase in the long history of this exquisite property with its kaleidoscopic views. This 452 ha of land includes 72 ha of vineyards and other state-of-the-art facilities. At the end of 2012 the new Anthonij Rupert Wyne welcomed its first visitors to this spectacular venue when the Terra del Capo Tasting Room was completed.

The Terra del Capo range, described as “food-friendly” was developed by the late Anthonij Rupert, who believed that South African soils were ideal for growing Italian grape varieties. Because of his love for all things Italian, he expressed the natural synergy between good food and wine.

The Anthonij Rupert portfolio consists of five ranges, with Anthonij Rupert as the flagship. L’Ormarins is the home of our MCC wine, Terra del Capo houses the Italian varietals, Protea is designed for earlier enjoyment and Cape of Good Hope is an exciting range made from South Africa’s most exceptional vineyards. It comprises terroir-specific wines created in recognition of South Africa’s 300 year vinous heritage. The greatest portion of old vines were tracked down by renowned viticulturist, Rosa Kruger.

More than 100 vineyards older than 40 years have been tracked down over the years. Chris Loubser and Johan Nel, farm managers at L’Ormarins and Riebeeksrivier, also sourced some of these vines. These vines, the oldest

dating back from 1882 survived, among other tempestuous times, the outbreak of Phylloxera in 1886, the establishment of the powerful KWV in 1918, the development of Pinotage in the late 1920’s and last, but not least the emergence of Wine of Origin in legislation in the 1970’s.

Presently the Anthonij Rupert flagship range is bottled under the name of Anthonij Rupert. The first vintage was released in 2007 with the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet franc, Merlot and Syrah.

In contrast to the modern architectural style the Terra del Capo tastingvenue conjures up visions of the legendary Zimbabwe Ruins.The restoration of the Anthonij Rupert Tasting Room was done in exquisite style by the late Johan Wessels, who incidentally also took care of the design of the Graham Beck property. These two adjoining properties are now connected by an instant synergy.

Informal tastings are presented by the Terra del Capo tasting venue. Delightful Italian-style antipasti lunches with menu options designed to accompany and enhance the Terra del Capo wines can be enjoyed here.

At the Anthonij Rupert tasting room - the pinnacle of the Anthonij Rupert series; tastings of a few Old Vine wines bottles under the Cape of Good Hope range is offered. Wine tastings are presented in a highly professional and informative style. In addition, a Cape style “high tea” presenting teas and confectionery of consummate excellence can be savoured on a verandah overlooking the rolling lawns and panoramic mountains.

A concerted effort was made to conserve plant- and animal life on L’Ormarins. The gardens were planted extensively by primarily indigenous foliage and alien plants were removed systematically. Thus hectares of enchanting garden was created, a botanical miracle of note.This is a must-see which will enhance the enjoyment of your Anthonij Rupert wines!

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INSIDE OUT M I C H E L L E H A M B LY- G R O B L E R Michelle Hambly-Grobler is a Porsche car enthusiast and supporter of her daughter’s collective, LOKOH, her interpretation of the sober rave movement based in Cape Town and hosting alternative gatherings in Michelle’s warehouse in Woodstock.

BEST PL ACE FOR BUBBLY If you like smart dressing then head down to the Planet bar at the Mount Nelson for - a hidden gem overlooking the Company Gardens. Next door, there’s the Company Gardens restaurant, great food and home to 300 year old tree!

BEST BAR Hank’s Olde Irish Whiskey Bar on Bree street – A dark intimate atmosphere.

Drams of unusual Scotch, Irish and Japanese whiskey to sample.

TALKING ABOUT COFFEE Everyone is obsessed with COFFEE in Cape Town. If you make a bad coffee you sure as hell will know about it. For great caffeine shots try out Jason’s Bakery. Jason’s a family friend and a biker baker! Possibly the best croissants and pastries you have ever eaten - honestly! Look him up on instagram: Address 185 Bree St, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

A L ICE H EUSSER

GOURME T CUISINE

Alice Heusser is the co-designer and director of African fashion and lifestyle brand Lalesso. Lalesso encapsulates a luxury contemporary African feeling and can be found in leading retailers around the world including Saks Fifth Avenue and The One & Only hotels.

Test Kitchen – very experimental and very TASTY. Luke Dale-Roberts is a true food artist. Recently he was seen speeding off in a new Mercedes – Benz C class after winning restaurant of the year! Address: The Biscuit Mill, 375 Albert Rd, Woodstock/Salt River Contact: 00 27 21 447 233

Alice lives in Cape Town in her studio loft in central Cape Town. (let me know if you need more bio??)

Pot Luck Club. Owned by the same owner as Test Kitchen. The restaurant is experimental in the best possible way & has spectacular views.

FAVOURITE THINGS TO DO IN CAPE TOWN

RESTOR ATIVE SPA S AND HOTEL S

Mid week dinner and drinks on Bree Street: Bree Street is a bustling trendy mecca for artisanal bars, cafe’s and restaurants.There is an abundance of small independent chic little spots to choose from.

Babylonstoren - the BEST boutique hotel. It’s our favourite getaway as a couple. Address: R45, Simondium, 7670, South Africa.

Dinner at Test Kitchen: Test Kitchen has once again won ‘Best Resturant in South Africa’.Their tasting menus are the stuff made of dreams, the restaurant is situated at The Biscuit Mill in Woodstock and takes on a industrial no frills approach which adds to the allure.

Shopping: Give the V&A Waterfront a skip and head to Merchants on Long, 34 Long Street. This beautifully curated concept store stocks all the top luxury brands from Africa. A shopping dream!

Lunch in Franschoek: Franschoek is undoubtably one of the most beautiful places on earth. It’s a mere 45 min drive from Cape Town and is an absolute must. My current favourite lunch spot is La Motte. They also offer wine tasting in their impressive cellar.

Paragliding off Lions Head: This a such fun and you get to see the city from a birds eye point of view, You cannot leave Cape Town with out doing the spectacular drive along Chapmans Peak. These views will literally take you breath away.

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SATURDAY

7 JANUARY 2017

KENILWORTH RACECOURSE CAPE TOWN

www.lqp.co.za

LOCAL ART

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary A rt A frica

– THE BIRTH OF A NEW MUSEUM IN SOUTH AFR ICA –

By Tudor Caradoc-Davies

T

he history of Cape Town harbour has been one of a beating heart, pumping tools, people and imports into the arteries of South Africa and in turn sending produce off onto the rest of the world.

Traditionally one of South Africa’s biggest, or most consistent industries, has been agriculture, with vast tracts of country dedicated to farming. In the 1920s, huge grain silos were built at Cape Town harbour as part of a project to stimulate economic growth in post-World War 1 South Africa.

To facilitate the storing, handling and exporting of grain, a 57-metre grain elevator attached to the silos, was South Africa’s tallest building. It was part of a greater countrywide grain project with 34 country elevators at the railways stations of important towns in grain-producing areas and two ports, Durban and Cape Town, equipped with grain elevators. When it arrived in Cape Town, the grain would be put into the innovative grain elevator, which sorted and stored it in a suitable storage bin or silo. Then when it needed to

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be moved to a specific ship for export, the grain from the bottom of the silo was scooped up to the top of the silos where gravity did its job, feeding the grain from spouts into the containers destined for ships and foreign ports.

To anyone with an appreciation of aesthetics, the grain silo complex, while it may have been good for the Cape’s economy, was a blight on the landscape.

Grey, industrial, and functional, there was little to love about them, especially since after decades of service, by 2001 they lay derelict.

Art, agriculture and industrial architecture are not what you would call natural bedfellows, but with what the V&A has in store for the grain Grain Silo Complex, the area is undergoing dramatic changes as a revolutionary museum finds a home there. What the Pompidou is to Paris and the Tate is to London, in much the same way the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) will be to Cape Town - a cutting-edge, design-conscious museum of contemporary art from Africa. The development, which involves

“A groundbreaking building, an invaluable art collection and a distinctive new landmark in the city...”

leading architectural and design brains , is expected to cost R500 million and is a partnership between the V&A and former Puma CEO and chairman Jochen Zeitz. Set to open in 2017, once completed it will be a remarkable addition to the city of Cape Town.

For internationally acclaimed designer Thomas Heatherwick and his team of architects at London-based Heatherwick Studio, the project provided a unique challenge. For starters, the canvas is highly unusual – forty-two 33-metre high concrete tubes each with a diameter of 5.5 metres. The brief was also challenging - to reimagine this industrial relic as a beautiful yet functional space that will become a significant not-for-profit cultural institution housing the continent’s most significant collection of contemporary art all while retaining the design and soul of the original building as a tribute.

The art collection will be showcased in 9,500m2 of custom-designed space spread over nine floors, of which 6,000m2 will be dedicated exhibition space.

Whether you believe form follows function or vice versa - as exciting as the look of the new development is - the Zeitz Collection itself is the jewel in the crown. Considered the most extensive and representative collection of contemporary art from across Africa, it is a priceless cultural resource.

All the more remarkable is that it forms the founding collection of this non-profit institution.

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Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz MOCAA, Mark Coetzee, says “Zeitz MOCAA will constitute a re-imagining of a museum within an African context: celebrate Africa preserving its own cultural legacy, writing its own history and defining itself on its own terms. The vision of the V&A Waterfront and Jochen Zeitz will have a major impact for the visual art world and for Cape Town.”

Zeitz MOCAA is the first major museum in Africa dedicated to contemporary art, and also the first African institute to acknowledge new mediums through the establishment of different institutes within the overall museum. Joining the Costume Institute announced last year are Institutes for Photography, Curatorial Studies, Moving Image, Performance and Education, all to be housed within Zeitz MOCAA. The role of Zeitz MOCAA as a public museum is to create a platform for the dialogue shaped by artists and the view they take.

With physical construction underway, the process to setting up Museum structures is underway, as is the fundraising, which is critical to building the necessary endowments that will fund not only operations but also Museum advancement. Money raised for the Zeitz MOCAA Endowment Fund will be used to ensure that the entrance to the museum remains free, and that this vast, culturally valuable art collection is accessible to anyone who wishes to see it.

A groundbreaking building, an invaluable art collection and a distinctive new landmark in the city… never has the term “watch this space” been more relevant.

Opening 2017.

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PHIL ANTHROPY

Wine & Royalty With thanks to Liam Du Preez Paterson

M

andela’s last wife has recently been speaking out on the way in which African philanthropy does not need indeed should not be – a carbon copy of Western notions of philanthropy.

“Be particularly wary of the idea that African philanthropy is only about giving grants. Instead, consider ‘working and walking with Africans’ by cultivating humility that seeks to understand and prioritise the needs of the communities, so that [we] can adequately elevate these experiences to national and international levels.”

Today there are fortunately very few organisations which illustrate the dumb “We are superior to you philosophy.” Instead, while the socializing may be as upmarket as ever, a great deal of thought is now going to how the money is distributed and who, in particular, is involved at grassroots level.

Entrepreneurs and wealthy business men are also increasingly deciding to give away large percentages of their wealth. In South Africa, mining magnate Patrice Motsepe announced earlier this year that his family would give away half the money generated by their assets in mining.

PLE A SE TAKE YOUR WALLE T OUT...

The AfrAsia Bank Cape Wine Auction was has grown to become one of South Africa’s biggest and most exclusive social gatherings of the year. It is of no fixed abode – meaning that different wine estates may host the event.This year it was held at Klein Constantia Estate.

With much sniffing, whirling and twirling of glasses, the partying and celebrations go on for two days. Those who supply lots or bid up the prices are immediately feted and cheered. Indeed your street credibility soars, the higher you bid prices up

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This year there were 40 extraordinary Auction Lots on offer - including the 1800 Jaubert Family Muscat vintage, the first and only 99 Parker rated wine in South Africa, as well an expansive six vintage vertical 18 magnum collection from Kanonkop Estate. Others were eager to bid up a signed collection of the Ouwingerdreeks collaboration between Eben Sadie,, one of South Africa’s top blender’s, and William Kentridge.

At night the lights came down and some of South Africa’s top performers and DYs played to the crowd. But did you know that today the epithet rockstar also applies to wine. I didn’t! Joking apart, a great deal of excitement was generated around these so-called rockstar collections and collectibles to tantalize the discerning wine palette.

One of the most sought after lots was the the Seven South African Icons at Ellerman House. This was ( rather is) an extraordinary collection of 10 vintages from seven of South Africa’s greatest wineries. The successful bidder also bagged a three-night stay at Ellerman House in Bantry Bay, alongside a seven-course gourmet dinner for 30 people. Presumably the winner has suddenly garnered a lot of friends.

Aside from the straight offerings of what Homer called ‘the nectar of the gods’, organizers also had clearly been hitting the phones and calling in every favour they could think of. Popular propositions were the option to travel with Meerlust on Rovos Rail, stay at Raymond Blanc’s Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons with Vilafonté and a number of trips to Portofino with Port2Port, the quintessential Stellenbosch Experience. Going further afield still - some donors had even rustled up an enviable trip for 8 people to Paris and St Tropez.

Some of the other deluxe standout offers of the Auction Lots included business class tickets to Mauritius, Paris and the UK; and stays at the Red

Carnation Hotel in London, a luxury apartment in Paris, a French boutique hotel in Burgundy, villas in Tuscany and a chateau in France. Other highlights included 225-litre wine barrels; weekend stays featuring seven course dinners and wine tastings; and an Ernie Els Wine cross-country golf trip.

However, when the event draws to a close and the bacchanal environment is over for another year, the most important question is the money raised. Since its inception the results have been spectacular. Last year the auction raised R 10.2 m. This year a third again – topping R 15 million So now it’s a matter of spreading this wealth around. The Mad Charity, the Click Foundation and the Pebbles project are all beneficiaries as are around 15 other charities in the region. Their common denominator tends to be – education. For example the Mad Charity helps build schools.

FOLLOW MY LE ADER. Princess Diana was a fervent supporter of several charities in the region. By inclination and proclamation, Prince Harry is now following in her footsteps and that of other Royal family members – all of whom are strong supporters of conservation.

In a recent book, Safari, Geoffrey Kent the founder of one of the country’s most pre-eniment travel companies - reveals his long-standing relationship with the Royal Family and their undying love for Africa.

He is not here speaking here as a travel agent. Quite the contrary. He and Prince Charles attended Sandhurst together and often play polo together .

The point of course being that Prince Harry has given signals to the press and locals that Africa is a place he feels drawn to. More and more we are seeing this love translate into action. As he moves into his thirties, for example, he is increasingly lending his name, presence and ideas to a number of South African charities.

“He has developed a lifelong passion for Africa and that passion has developed into leadership” says Kent. Two causes in particular seem at the moment to be fuelling him - first anti-poaching and, secondly, better lifestyles for the indigenous populations.

The extent of his commitment can be seen by the fact that he was already working with vulnerable children of Lesotho - an area that suffered enormously from Aids over 10 years ago. In his summer holidays, he was seen helping build a special –needs school for disabled children.

Whether in or out of the public eye it is clear that his desire to help is completely genuinely.This year the 31 year old has been back and forth several times. First of all, drawing attention to the over-shooting and poaching of wild life and then in the autumn, returned for a week-long tour of Lesotho and the surrounding area.

It was in this week that he and his friend competed in the Royal tournament in aid of his own charity called Sentebale. This is his personal charity that he founded with the country’s Prince Seeiso in memory of their mothers.

Further more, it appears that over time, he became like a second father to both princes - even taking Prince Harry on a safari trip shortly after his mother died in 1977. From which it was more than evident that the young prince was captivated by the wildlife and the country itself.

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Cape Town’s Unmissable Day

By James Trotter

J

anuary, days of sixteen hour sunshine, azure blue waters lapping onto white sand beaches and bronze tanned bodies. It is a time of fashion, festivities, and drinking champagne watching thoroughbreds in the middle of the day, under the mountainous landscape of one of the

world’s most topographically famous cities. No, we are not in Europe.

We are in Africa’s summer playground: Cape Town, beautiful Cape Town.

Home to Africa’s oldest and most exclusive horse racing event: the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate.

Held since 1861, next year’s edition will take place on the 7th January 2017 at Kenilworth Racecourse in Cape Town, regularly voted the world’s most popular travel destination. While the raceday itself is undeniably Africa’s most gorgeous and exclusive on the fashion and social fronts, respectively; the race is considered one of the world’s great races: a showdown of South Africa’s best horses. It is a rare day where the rich and famous, the young and sexy, the fashionistas and sport-crazy all converge to create a cacophony of elegance, panache and sexiness.

All dressed in blues and whites, to the theme set by title sponsor L’Ormarins Wine Estate, this colour standard sets the sophisticated standard for the day.

It is no wonder that luxury brands Cartier and BMW are the supporting sponsors in making this the unmissable day of the Cape Town social calendar.

Experience a summer in Cape Town, and a day at the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate. Don’t be one of those who lives in regret.

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CULTURE

The Berlinale 2016

By Christopher Goddard

T

he Germans have always taken their politics seriously, sometimes with benign results…and sometimes less so. From Bertold Brecht to the Baader- Meinhof gang there has always been a fiercely radical tendency in German politics, one that has been a regular feature in the annual Berlinale film festival. Indeed, the festival was in some ways set up in 1949 to promote just that. Post war, Berlin was a landlocked enclave in a hostile East Germany controlled by the Soviet Union. In a deliberate move to taunt The Red Army that controlled half the city and give the border guards something to see with their binoculars, the US military officials encouraged Hollywood’s A-list to walk the red carpet. Actors like Jayne Mansfield, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Sophia Loren and Gene Kelly dutifully obliged.

Given the traumas of its recent past and the proximity of the hostile Soviet Empire, it’s not surprising that, as the 1960’s and 1970’s rolled on, German cinema underwent something of a political revolution.Typical of the spats that occurred was the furore over the antiwar film, OK, by the director Michael Verhoeven, a film based on a story of four American GIs in Vietnam, who raped and shot a young Vietnamese girl. George Stevens, The American jury president, walked out, enraged that a German should make a film accusing the Americans of war crimes.

LIVING ON THE EDGE Cut to 2016. No one could possibly mistake what is the dominant political threat currently hanging over us, and Dieter Kosslick, director of the festival, has ordained it to be one of its main themes. Most of the Middle East, half the Mediterranean litoral and large areas of Sub-Saharan Africa are a raging inferno of political and religious violence. Hundreds of thousands of refugees trek thousands of miles in search of sanctuary, and thousands die in the attempt.

What we are witnessing here is a new diaspora, potentially similar in scale and effect to the Jewish diaspora that ensued after the Roman defeat of the Jews

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at Masada in 73 AD, but one with important differences too - differences highlighted by many of the films shown at the Berlinale.

The sad fact is that a fundamental fault line runs through Arab society: the often poisonous disputes between Shia and Sunni. Societies with this degree of difference are inherently unstable. Add to this,Western meddling in Middle Eastern internal affairs in cynical pursuit of its own interests, and its support for regimes that routinely oppressed their own people, and a situation arises whose only surprise is that it took so long to erupt.

This takes us neatly to Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary film, ‘Fire At Sea’, the entry that won the Golden Bear award for best film. Lampadusa is a small island of 20 square miles and (in normal times) a population of about 6000, located just off the coast of Sicily. Only 70 miles from Tunisia, it has been one of the main points of entry for migrants from all over the Middle East and Africa. In 2014 alone 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy by sea – a 296% increase on 2013. 141,000 were from Libya.

This is the setting for Rosi’s film. The chief characters followed are a doctor, Pietro Bartolo, and a twelve year old boy, Samuele. Their testimony is stark evidence of the dilemma facing the West. As Bartolo says, “The countries of Europe all seem to be going their own way. Some are setting up walls and putting people in pens within fences. You shouldn’t treat animals like that”. Rosi agrees: “What (the film) does is bear witness to a tragedy that is happening in front of your eyes. I think we are all responsible for that tragedy.”.

© Universal Pictures

So what lessons can we draw from this catastrophe? On the face of it, the element lacking is tolerance – tolerance of divergent opinions, of doctrinal differences and opposing political persuasions. too long politicians have avoided their responsibilities, preaching the need for tolerance in the hope that some sort of intrinsic good will on the part of individuals will be sufficient to solve the problems they have created in the first place. The sad fact is that tolerance alone will never be a founding principle unless there is a democratic constitutional framework that regards it as an a priori principle.

Stood on a great plain in the falling snow Ten thousand soldiers marched to an fro Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.

Rachid Bouchareb’s fim ‘The Road To Istanbul’ looks at diaspora from the opposite point of view. Elizabeth (Astrid Whittnail) learns of her daughter’s secret conversion to Islam. Alarmed by her sudden disappearance, finds out that she has set out with her boyfriend to Turkey, and fears she has gone to join ISIS.

Among the 400 films entered for the Berlinale, are many that either imply or directly address these issues. Up first is Refugee Blues, a short by Tristan Daw. The film is set in ‘The Jungle’ refugee camp outside Calais. Spartan huts line the highway leading to the port. Between them hang lines of washing; below, the ground is muddy. Water boils on an open fire; a shopping trolley holds all of someone’s remaining possessions. The camp is the clearest testament to Europe’s panic at the situation and its inability to deal with it. As W H Auden wrote in his poem Refugee Blues, which gives the film its name.

Determined to get her back, she sets out alone to find her. Both Wittnail as the intrepid mother and Pauline Burlet, who plays Elodie, the taciturn, introverted daughter, give performances that brilliantly evoke in microcosm the cultural and political turmoil of this moment in history. On the one hand, a mother’s unconditional love for her child; on the other, the alienation many young people feel at the failed initiatives and bland hypocrisies of politicians and governments. Auden, one final time:

Came to a public meeting.The speaker got up and said “If we let them in, they’ll steal our daily bread”.

He was talking of you and me my dear, he was talking of you and me.

Say this city has ten million souls.

Some live in mansions, some are living in holes.

Yet there is no place for us, my dear.There is no place for us.

The shadow of diaspora hangs over film after film. In ‘Last Days Of The City’

by Tamer El Said, Khalid, an independent filmmaker, watches hopelessly as his native city of Cairo collapses in chaos. A policeman beats a demonstrator senseless; a husband, in full view of the neighbours, savagely attacks his wife.

As the city is torn apart by the contending factions of revolutionaries, The Army and The Muslim Brotherhood, Khalid’s own inability to make either creative decisions about the film he has shot, or to organize even the most basic elements of his own domestic life, seems to be a metaphor for the plight of individuals caught in a world where intolerance triumphantly overtakes reason, and authorities renege on their responsibilities. The film ends with a moving scene on a bridge where his friends, Bassem from Beirut and Hassan and Tarek from Iraq, discuss how their lives have been torn apart by war and their now distant memories of their homelands. Auden again:

All these films have the burning intensity of that comes from witnessing death and destruction at first hand. The final selection of films that were eventually considered by the Grand Jury are rather more disappointing when considered from the standpoint of The Berlinale’s ambition to present a radical view of the world. Apart from the shining example of Fire At Sea, only two possible exceptions stand out.

Once we had a country and thought it fair.

Look at the atlas – you’ll find it there.

We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.

Avo Kaprealian’s film,‘Houses Without Doors’, is even more straightforwardly linked to the theme of diaspora. From the balcony of his apartment in the Midan district of Aleppo, Kaprealian has chronicled life on the street, as the situation in the city deteriorates. As armed conflict engulfs the area, and flight seems more and more inevitable, Kaprealian turns his attention inwards to watch how the family copes with shelling, snipers and power cuts. For Armenian Syrians like this family, steeped in the memory the Armenian massacre by Turkish soldiers almost exactly a hundred years ago, it seems as if history is repeating itself. Once again, Auden:

‘Death In Sarajevo’, directed by Danis Tanovic, won the Silver Bear Grand Jury prize. The scene is a hotel that is being prepared for a gathering of important representatives of the EU to mark the centenary of the murder of the Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, the event that provoked the outbreak of the 1914/18 War. It is a metaphor for the tortured history of ethnic enmities that have so often scarred the history of The Balkans: the hotel is bankrupt and in chaos, the staff are threatening a strike because they have not been paid and the banks are refusing credit. Director Tanovic handles the large cast and complicated plotting with cool control, helped by peerless performances from his cast of actors. The result is a caustic but expertly modulated study of Bosnia’s paralyzing discord.

The Danish film, The Commune, directed by Thomas Vinterberg is a curious throwback to the post-hippie days of the counter-cultural pretensions of the 1970’s. Eric, an architect, inherits a large house in a fashionable part of Copenhagen. He is seen together with his wife Anna, a TV presenter, and teenage daughter Freja, as they are shown round the place. Anna (Trini Dyrholm) is apparently a prey to middle class ennui, caught in a marriage she is becoming bored with: “I need a change. I want to hear someone else speak”. The house is far too large just for the three of them, so she

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proposes they invite their friends to move in with them in an experiment in communal living. Eric (Ulrich Thomsen) a man whose normal response to events appears to be a sort of benign bewilderment, reluctantly comes round to the idea, and the stage is set for what risks becoming a predictable romp of skinny dipping, bed-hopping and emotional rites of passage.

Fortunately, this is avoided by Vinterberg’s carefully controlled direction and excellent casting of the three leading actors (Trini Dyrholm won the Grand Jury Silver Bear Award for best actress). But aside from this, the interest of the film in the current context of the refugee crisis and its long-term causes, lies in the fact that, although only on a domestic scale,The Commune reflects the inevitable tensions between freedom, self-determination and shared responsibility.In the press conference after the prize giving,Vinterberg referred directly to the refugee crisis, in particular to Denmark’s less than sympathetic reaction to it. “ I am ashamed about our political life... If there’s anything that can be brought from this film to inspire people to share and not humiliate other people, I would be happy”.

So far, so admirable. Sadly, that is no longer enough.Tolerance and respect for others are not infinite resources: people battered by insupportable conditions, threats to their very survival or even just ground down by years of poverty and oppression, cannot for ever be relied upon for a humane response. In the end, despite their best efforts, people are as good or as bad as the systems they live under. It is these systems that need a fundamantal reorientation in their thinking and purpose.

HAIL, CAESAR Finally, to the bizarre choice of the Festival’s opening film, ‘Hail, Caesar’. The selection of this film to start the proceedings is so at variance with most of the rest of the material on show, and basic stance of the Berlinale, it is almost comic. And comedy is the aim of this film by the much renowned Ethan and Joel Coen.

The particular trademark of the Coen Brothers is to create parody and make you believe it. Their latest offering, Hail, Caesar, continues in this tradition.

The background to the story of a Hollywood fixer stuck with a problem he can’t fix, is a spoof about Julius Caesar, the famous Roman general and conqueror of Britain. Accordingly, Roman legionaries, attempting to look enthusiastic, tramp round the studio lot in imitation of Hollywood’s classic Roman epics of the 1950’s such as Quo Vadis or The Robe.

The lead character is Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), portrayed as so clueless he would be better named Baird Whitless. Clooney himself has wryly

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joked in interview, “ This is probably the dumbest character I’ve played for them. He’s just a clueless movie star – which couldn’t happen in real life could it?” He grins. Clooney is surrounded by other movie stars we’ve all heard of – Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin, Tilda Swinton, among others – but as they wrestle with a storyline featuring improbabilities rare even for the Coen Brothers, the look on their faces sometimes suggests they hoped we hadn’t.

The bare bones of the story (sic) are that Whitlock is kidnapped while drunk by a group calling themselves The Future, who demand 100,000 dollars for his return; it is the job of Eddie Mannix, the fixer, to come up with the money and get him back before Thora Thacker (Tilda Swinton), a gossip columnist for a Hollywood scandal sheet rumbles the story and prints it.

Taste for films by the Coen Brothers are rather like a taste for oysters or snails – you love them or you don’t.Their films play so fast and loose with the conventions of plot and structure and the parody is so broad, that reviewing them sensibly becomes almost impossible. This is dangerous territory for a reviewer to get into. However, there are interesting things to point out about George Clooney, the star of this film, as of several other Coen Brothers’ epics.

In many ways, Clooney has inherited the mantle of Cary Grant. Both are men who flawlessly fulfil all the definitions of what it means to be handsome.

– the square jaw, the chiselled features, the perfectly coiffed crown of iron grey hair. Grant was still being routinely voted the world’s sexiest man when well into his fifties; today, at exactly the same age, Clooney is similarly feted.

But there are significant differences too - ones indicated by Hail, Caesar.

Undoubtedly Clooney has had a distinguished career. His portrayals in films like ‘Good Night And Good Luck’, ‘Michael Clayton’ and ‘Up In The Air prove he is a first class actor. These films also show him as a man concerned about the state of the world. ‘Good Night And Good Luck’ treats the career of the famous journalist, Ed Murrow, as a scathing attack on the McCarthy witch hunt and a defense of press freedom; ‘Michael Clayton’ attacks corporate corruption; ‘Up In The Air’ deals with the cynical mistreatment

of employees by corporate departments daring to describe themselves as ‘human resources’. Off-screen, his activities fit perfectly with the politically concerned stance traditionally adopted by the Berlinale. The causes he has supported include genocide in Darfur, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Armenian genocide, the 2004 Tsunami and victims of 9/11. Soon after the screening of his documentary, The Sand And The Sorrow, about the tragic situation in Darfur, he was voted in Time Magasine’s ‘Time 100’ as ‘one of the most influential people in the world’.

So far, so remarkable. But if Clooney has a flaw, it is as a comic actor – despite having played in several comedies.This was the field in which Cary Grant has had few equals. Starting as young as six years old, Grant spent twenty years in the tough school of vaudeville and the circus, a training where he learned his superb timing and in which he developed his considerable athletic ability. As his career took off, Grant emerged as not only the best looking man of the time, but - in contrast to the tousled turbulence of other stars like Marlon Brando or James Dean - as an actor of flawless elegance and perfect good manners. Grant made the middle class look sexy. According to biographer Jerry Vermilye, when Mae West asked a Paramount office boy about Grant, and he replied ‘Oh, that’s Cary Grant. He’s making Madame Butterfly with Silvia Sidney’, she retorted, “I don’t care if he’s making Nell Gwynn. If he can talk, I’ll take him’.

Grant’s comedy worked through understatement. Even when in the presence of a supremely beautiful woman, Grant would project a preoccupied air, one of appearing not to notice that Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn could hardly wait to bed him (via marriage of course). The Duke of Wellington once remarked that a good general is one who knows when to retreat. Grant had absorbed this lesson perfectly. Faced with advancing female passion, he would execute a masterpiece of tactical withdrawal - one that somehow hinted that the bedroom door might still be ajar. Meanwhile, along the way, the Grant mannerisms consistently delight: the look of baffled surprise or a twitch of an eyebrow that conveys more meaning than a page of dialogue.

Unfortunately, Clooney can’t do this, and his role in Hail, Caesar proves it.

Like Cary Grant, Clooney, too, comes across as a product of a middle class background. Once Grant had perfected his magic formula, many of his most famous roles simply repeated it. Commendably, Clooney’s output covers much more territory, sometimes putting him in roles that do not particularly flatter him. Clooney has a well deserved reputation for this. But possibly his frequent associations with the Coen Brothers has not served him particularly well. (He has himself wryly admitted that, this is maybe the dumbest character I’ve played for them. He’s just a clueless movie star, which of course could never happen in real life, now could it? Too many films have cast him, not only in unflattering roles, but in movies that that do not always deserve to be flattered.

© Universal Pictures

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DESTINATION

Villa Belrose Hotel – S T.T R O P E Z –

W

hen dealing with the reality of running a hotel in St Tropez, and when dealing with luxury in general, the character, the soul of space and a place is rooted in its history and the profound understanding of a vast variety

of things.

The hills of Gassin, where the Villa Belrose, is a 5-star hotel, on the Côte d’Azur, five minutes away from the well-known small village of Saint Tropez.

As you drive up the hill, the Florentine building is both dazzling and enticing.

You may be running a commercial venture but somehow it’s necessary to make guests feel that the experience they are having is not a touristic affair.

It needs at every stage to be a sensory experience so wonderful and life affirming that the business of paying seems painless, supplanted by the much more exciting memory of having experienced something that cannot be replicated elsewhere.

FINE ROOMS. The design Studio Fine Rooms based in Berlin, headed up by Isabella Hamann and Markus Hilzinger, have a clear design philosophy. For them, the Villa and, indeed any hotel, is like an empty theatre building: a space that can be transformed into a place that is utterly unique.

Or to switch the metaphor, as Isabella said in one recent interview: “Good interior design is like good couture: when it is not seated correctly, then it pinches”, says Markus. In other words, there is all the difference in the world between a five star hotel based on a soulless template (in which when you turn up in Russia, you might as well be in the USA and vice versa) and the individual vision that imbues luxury hotels with their character and aura.

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As far as Markus and Isabella are concerned, the result of their involvement is that a luxury hotel becomes more like a grand home. They achieve this by devoting a huge amount of time to acquiring the right piece of art and the right sculpture. Sometimes they commission artists directly. Other times separately or together they scour famous flea and local art markets to help move a concept off the design board to something that feels original.

“We love Alberto Pinto and his porcelain products and furniture. A sofa from Promemoria or an armchair by Romero Sozzi are already design classics.

A glass vase of Guax is today in each building a decorative object.”

Their style is contemporary fusion. As you pass from room to room, one is immediately struck by the crisp, yet lavish décor – a perfect foil to the Florentine Villa’s classic proportions. A trademark touch is filling the public rooms with contemporary art and black and white photography. With much love for detail the newly created upstairs rooms are decorated with graphical portraits, oil paintings, photographs and sculptures, providing each room with its own unique character. The textiles many of them from Hermes are also of an extremely high quality lending a sense of tranquillity to the 40 bedrooms and suites.

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FINE DINING. The restaurants of the Althoff Hotels combine the largest number of Michelin stars worldwide, making Althoff a truly global Fine Dining Destination.

The guests after all have the pick of sumptuous dining around the globe – for this is a hotel that greets and receives statesmen, governments and famous people every day of the week. And yet, judging from the comments around the web and more importantly stated privately, the kitchen is regarded as one of the best in the world.

Until recently, the chef in charge was Thierry Therein. He liked to say that he began his journey into the high realms of gastronomy because he was saving for a motorbike. He got his motorbike and the guests at Belrose flocked to experience his imaginative cuisine. He was at the Le Belrose for twenty four years.

But recently there’s been a change of guard. Now the restaurant is being reshaped by the vision of a rising superstars: Pietro Volontè. Enormously young still - and all the more exciting for that - he cut his teeth and knives alongside Gordon Ramsay working at the Royal Hospital, a three-starred Michelin property in London.

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Meanwhile, waiters are never far away: ready to pick up the napkins of those diners who leave their places for a moment or wheeling along the trolley laden with greenery with consummate skill.

SHOW TIME. From June through to September, Brigitte Bardot look-alikes rub shoulders with today’s film stars and other celebrities from the world of politics, sports and business.

Not surprising then that luxurious companies are keen to attract their attention whenever and however they can. Especially when everybody is in partying time.

Chopard is just one of several luxury companies who has staged spectacular shows and galas at the hotel. Caroline Scheufele invited 180 guests to view a catwalk display organized by Ali Karoui. The collection in question was appropriately enough called: “The Red Carpet” collection.

The evening was also a way of introducing, Simone Zanoni et Pietro Volontè to St Tropez. They came up with a daring and beautifully executed menu.

GM: VAN STR A ATEN Volonte has lost no time in establishing his own line up of signature dishes Here’s a behind the scenes look at what to expect. For the first course, you will find a wonderful pate of foie gras, veal rice and glazed almonds. Or, possibly, a risotto created out of artichokes, black truffles and lobster. Other favourites are raviole of langoustines or lobster steamed with Riesling. The white plates are suitably large – announcing in no uncertain terms the grandeur of your surroundings.

As for the wine, you’ll be in the hands of, Sophie Ribra from Alsace. She has around 500 wines on her list. Prices start at 30 euros and go up to 2000 for 1996 La Tâche.

And then of course there is the irrepressible and very noticeable Van Straaten, the impresario of the hotel who has confessed to having a secret desire to either captain a ship or work at the Crazy Horse in Paris. It is he as much as anyone who ensures that everything is ship shape.

Rather charmingly he is a man who still has boundless energy and a very optimistic side to him. Apart from travelling the world, he has said that he hopes one day to have lunch with Friede Springer. Perhaps she’ll act on the information, hop on a yacht and ask herself to lunch!

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PL ACES TO STAY

HOTEL DE VENDOME

HOTEL R APHAEL

HOT EL H YAT T PA R IS

PERSHING HALL HOTEL

Paris

Paris

MADELEINE | Paris

Paris

LE ROYA L MONCE AU

HOTEL LE MEURICE

HOTEL BELLES RIVES

HOTEL JUANA

R AFFLES HOTEL | Paris

Paris

Juan Les Pins

Juan Les Pins

JW MARRIOTT

LE GR AND HOTEL

L A R ESERV E DE BE AULIEU

HOTEL ROYA L R IV IER A

Cannes

Cannes

& SPA | B e a u l i e u

St Jean Cap Ferrat

LES MAS DE CHASTELAS

BYBLOS

HOT EL DE PA R IS

CH ATE AU DE L A

S t Tr o p ez

S t Tr o p e x

S t . Tr o p e x

M E SS A R DI E R E | S t . Tr o p e x

HOTEL LA BASTIDE

HOTEL VILLA BELROSE

FA IR MONT

MONTE CARLO BAY

S t . Tr o p e x

S t . Tr o p e x

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo

MONTE CAR LO BEACH

H O T E L S O F I T E L S T. J A M E S

THE ROSEWOOD HOTEL

BAGLIONI HOTEL

Monte Carlo

London

London

London

BULGARI HOTEL

PA R K L A NE HILTON

W ESTBURY M AY FA IR

HO T E L T H E S AVOY

London

London

London

London

C A PR I PA L ACE

BELMONTE HOTEL

CERVO

CAL A DI VOLPE

HOT EL & SPA | C a p r i

SPLENDIDO | Portof ino

Porto Cervo

Porto Cervo

PITRIZZA

ROMAZZINO

COLONNA RESORT

COLONNA PEVERO HOTEL

Porto Cervo

Porto Cervo

Porto Cervo

Porto Cervo

G R A N D HO T E L S AVO I A

C R I S TA L L O HO T E L S PA &

GS TA A D PA L ACE HOT EL

LE GR AND BELLEVUE

C o r t i n a d ’A m p ez zo

GOLF | C o r t i n a d ’A m p e z z o

Gstaad

Gstaad

GR A ND HOT EL PA R K

HOTEL LE GR AND CHALET

HOTEL DE ROUGEMONT

GR AND HOTEL

Gstaad

Gstaad

Rougemont

KRONENHOF | St. Mortiz

GR AND KRONENHOF HOTEL

THE CHEDI

W HOTEL

MON T CERV I N PA L ACE

St. Mortiz

Andermatt

Verbier

Zermatt

CR ANS AMBASSADOR

GR AND HOTEL KEMPINSKI

INTERCONTINENTA L

M ANDAR IN OR IENTA L

Crans Montana

Geneva

Geneva

Geneva

LE RICHEMOND

L A R ESERV E

BE AU R I VAG E

HOTEL DES BERGUE

Geneva

Geneva

Geneva

Geneva

PL ACES TO STAY

HYATT R EGENCY LONDON

THE COURTHOUSE

CHEWTON GLEN HOTEL &

CLIVEDEN HOUSE &

THE CHURCHILL | L ondon

London

SPA | N e w M i l t o n

PAV I L L IO N S PA | Ta p l o w

HOTEL FOUR SEASONS

BULGARI HOTEL

CH ATE AU MONFORT

EXCELSIOR HOTEL

Milan

Milan

Milan

GALLIA | Milan

GR AND HOTEL ET

HOTEL FOUR SEASONS

THE WESTIN EXCELSIOR

H E LV E T I A & BR I S TOL

DE MILAN | Milan

Florence

Florence

HOTEL | Florence

VILL A MANGIACANE

A L DROVA N DI V I L L A

PA RCO DEI PR I NCIPI

BELMOND HOTEL

San Casciano

BORGHESE | Rome

Rome

C I P R I A N I |V e n i c e

HILTON MOL I NO ST UCK Y

MONACO & GR AND CANAL

SA N CL E M EN T E PA L ACE

AMAN

Venice

Venice

K E M P I N S K I H O T E L|V e n i c e

Venice

HOTEL PRINCIPE FORTE dei

AUGUSTUS HOTEL &

H O T E L I L P E L L I C A N O P.

IL SAN PIETRO

MARMI | Forte dei Marmi

RESORT | Forte dei Marmi

E R C O L E| M o n t e A r g e n t a r i o

Positano

LE SIRENUSE

J.K. PL ACE

PU N TA T R AG A R A & SPA

C A PR I T IBER IO PA L ACE

Positano

Capri

Capri

Capri

THE ALPINA

KEMPINSKI GR AND HOTEL

THE M AY FA IR HOTEL

Gstaad

DES BAINS | St. Mortiz

London

BAUER

PA R K H YAT T

RO M E C AVA L I E R I , WA L D O R F

Venice

Milan

ASTORIA HOTELS & RESORTS

GR AND HOTEL QUISISANA

HOTEL DU CAP EDEN ROC

GR AND HYATT CANNES

Capri

C a p d ’A n t i be s

HOTEL MARTINEZ | Cannes

A private paradise that knows no bounds

Issue N11 | 89

ART FOCUS

Pierre Koukjian – THE DOOR TO IM AGINATION –

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“Travelling and living in different places makes an artist more vibrant, more alive.”

L

ON LEBANON ebanon to me as a child was just a beautiful part of the Mediterranean. Even now I never cease to marvel at the richness of this geographical territory that was in its time the birthplace of so much of Western culture and religion.

Because of my age, I have experienced Lebanon as a flourishing, cultural hub. But I have also seen it destroyed. This heritage and legacy explains my artistic personality and consciousness; even - dare I say it - my conscience.

If as a child you see the full capacity of man to destroy, it is bound to leave an impression. Sadly, we’re now seeing this at play in Syria.

MY FAMILY I was extremely lucky to have parents who were tremendous art lovers. In fact I grew up surrounded by beauty, I think this fact influenced me a great deal. From the beginning the whole family has always been very supportive.

The family has a long tradition in jewellery. My two sisters, for instance, have one of the best jewellery studios and stores in Lebanon.

Returning to Lebanon is bitter-sweet. The reality of the past now resides principally in your head. It is only rarely visible in the bricks and mortars of today’s Beirut. As a result, you can find yourself living in your imagination as you wander the streets. Both the nation and the city is condemned to the contradictory impulses of remembering and forgetting, erasure and recovery.

Now I like to concentrate on the recovery and the future.

I think my art reflects the early experience of being forced into exile. I have a way of seeing and coming to terms with life and death that is all the stronger on account of my personal sense of loss. Equally, I’m intensely aware of the polarities and internal contradictions that lie within us all.

APPRENTICESHIP Professionally, my first bid for independence and experience was in Germany in Idar-Oberstein. I stayed and trained with the Krieger family who were incredible mentors to me. They were very influential in the art world and introduced me to the art scene across Germany and in various other places – including Paris. I learnt a mass of skills from them and also had the opportunity to meet collectors from around the world particularly, as it happens in London.

BEING COSMOPOLITAN Travelling and living in different places makes an artist more vibrant, more alive. Getting to see detail rather than superficiality is important. That is why I shy away from being just a tourist or traveller, choosing to stay and embed myself in different countries and traditions.

In the days of globalisation and the internet it has become a truism to say that we have to keep an open outlook on the world. In their own ways, regardless of where we originate, creative people are borrowing from different cultures, or at the very least referencing them.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, it was enough for people to do the European Tour. Now that seems a very parochial perspective. Today you have to be cosmopolitan as early as possible. That’s why I decided to travel and live in Asia as well. Now I move between Madrid, Geneva and Thailand. Human beings have in a sense always been global. Think of the great immigrations across whole continents in earlier times. In other words mankind’s “wanderlust” and curiosity is nothing new. You see it throughout history as evidenced by all the different empires that have risen and fallen.

Now, however, this mentality has been given a specific label.We use the word because we have erected borders and allocated names to specific locations and communities. In a deeper sense we have always been global in so far as we’ve had trade and relationships with people around the world for generations.

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In the same way, every generation will refer to itself as modern.That’s just the way it seems to be living in any age. As the latest generation they are modern.

As for myself, I happen to have aligned myself with the community of people who want to stimulate people to have a reaction to our surroundings and to think about life and death through the language of “art”. Again, “art” is not a new concept. It’s been in existence since prehistoric time.

THE FR AGILIT Y OF LIFE AND NATURE The health of the oceans and the state of nature mean a great deal to me.

When we were teenagers we used to wander along the sea shore and gather up all sorts of shell fish for a free barbecue on the beach. Many years later, I visited the same place. In fact I went snorkelling at the very same place that had effectively been my childhood playground and teenage retreat. I was horrified by the lack of marine life. The sea bed was effectively desecrated and full of litter. All the beauty, vitality and promise had been erased by human vandalism. The experience made me determined to create some time- pieces that enables specialists to dive and bring back evidence of what humans are missing.

PEOPLE AND MY PROJECT “Impressive People” At school I used to doodle a lot. For example I loved to create caricatures of my professors. The habit has stayed with me. I love to sketch in freehand.

Taking well-known faces and leaders and transforming them into a piece of art is an intriguing process; not just artistically but also psychologically.When I immerse myself in portraying them, I feel they are in front of me even although they have never sat in front of my easel.

This reflects a new reality that particularly now with the arrival of social media is very present. It means that we know people whom we ourselves have never met. Modern life actually enables us to be familiar with people without being physically present. When you think about this – it is extraordinary.

Before we could only access the thoughts of famous people if they wrote them down. But that knowledge presupposed a certain amount of education.

Now, we can see and hear all sorts of people. I’m trying to express this relationship and understand manufacturing of a person’s image.

Incidentally, it is not only famous people who are impressive. People, whom most of us have never heard of, can also have something very memorable and strong about them. Some people naturally stand out.

Artistically, I’m a born agnostic. Any media can be used. I like to paint in oil because it’s a technique that helps me to be very flexible. However, I use all kind of materials and metals. Quite recently I crafted a pieces using feathers.

WATCHES AND DESIGN I don’t believe you can tell a great deal by the name. Really it is just a signature that we are, by convention, supposed to put on our work - whether it is high art or on a pair of socks or even, in fact, underwear.

I’d like to think that my work is distinctive enough for it to be clear that I am the person behind the design or work of art. I want my work to be beautiful and SEXY.

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THE ARTISTIC PROCESS Frankly It’s hard to talk about the process of creation – a process that for me is often unconscious. When I’m working on a concept, suddenly something just springs to mind. It’s pretty well a spontaneous creation and is probably based on years of living, thinking and seeing.

I am however drawn to natural products and processes. Quite frequently I want to work with materials like tobacco leaves, rare wood species, leather, asphalt, feathers and so forth.

I have recently founded a second watch company called Hedera. Right now I’m involved in looking at new approaches, new designs and new experiments.

I’m fascinated by the potential of very hard stones such as agate and jade.

LUXURY Today luxury is used on any product that the people behind its production would like to slap a high price upon. Very often socalled luxury goods are the bear the imprint and name of someone who died as much as three hundred years ago. I look in the opposite direction.

What’s more three or four large companies have swallowed up most of the famous names that are typically associated with luxury. Because so many fall under the same management, there is room for new, independent voices.

I like to think in metaphors and similes. Take a deep look at what these mega companies are doling out; and quickly you will come to understand that they are dishing out the equivalent of fast food wrapped up in fancy and expensive labels.

Yes, companies like mine are microscopic dots in the larger scheme of things. We are extremely rare and have very little infrastructure behind us. However we are original and for that reason really appreciated. It’s like the very little restaurant where the owner is the cook and come out to cheer you and have a digestive with you.

THE FUTURE My tag-line and slogan is: Since tomorrow. It challenges me to think of fresh perspectives, all the time.

I am doing what I love. More importantly I’m having fun. If other people refer to me as “a revolutionary spirit” or my work as “a revolution”. I’m not going to object. But, honestly, my work and approach is instinctive.

Above all, I want to keep enjoying myself. Po-faced artists who take themselves seriously are usually very boring people. I like to laugh and be in the company of people with a sense of humour.

MOST PRECIOUS OBJECT Luxury is TIME. In a 24/7 world, this has become the most precious undefined thing of our age.You can never reproduce or brand IT.

DE ATH BED THOUGHT I want all who come into contact with me to have enormous fun. If I have any control over the matter I will be laughing right up to my last breath!

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PHOTOGR APHY

©JOJAKIM CORTIS & ADRIAN SONDEREGGER - GERMANY & SWITZERLAND

Hyères

– PHOTO COMPETITION –

A

By Nadya Arsekina

ppropriately, spring is the season when Hyeres in southern France holds its annual competition at the Villa Noailles, the purpose of which is to discover and reward the flowering of youthful talent in the fields of fashion and photography. Hundreds enter, but a prestigious international jury will select a shortlist of only ten contestants; individual winners in each category will emerge 15000 euros richer, and with offers of their own fashion shows and exhibitions where they can showcase their work.

The Villa Noailles itself is the perfect choice as a venue for competitions specifically constituted to search for whatever may be ‘new’ in fashion and photography. Purpose built in 1923 for Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, the villa was constructed in a style that was almost aggressively ‘modernist’.

There is little that is seductive about the design – no sinuous curves or rounded contours here. Instead, the eye is everywhere challenged by harsh angles and unrelentingly straight lines seemingly constructed as a defiant challenge to the more sensuous aesthetic of earlier styles. Somewhat arrogantly, the design of the building, with its proliferating squares and triangles has been described as ‘a purification of decorative features’. In keeping with all this, the guests who frequented the Villa Noailles and whose art decorated the walls of such famous ‘modernist saloniers’ as Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles Mondrian, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, Giacometti, Man Ray and others – were all A-list avant-gardistes.

The spirit of all this lives on in the high-minded way that the Hyeres competition promotes itself. ‘Hyeres defends and praises photographic works that stand for sense, singularity, innovation and uncompromising artistic standards… the articulateness of (the contestants) aesthetic stances confidently allows us to bet on their projection into the future’… So far, so French.

There is nothing unworthy in these aims: it’s just that the terms used are as imprecise as they are predictable. What exactly constitute ‘uncompromising artistic standards’. Most progress in art has been precisely to ‘compromise’ previous artistic standards, not least the ‘modernist’ movement so favoured by Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles.

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One of the best examples of an art that has been compromised is photography.

More has changed in photography in the last fifteen years than in the previous 150.

In 1977, in her book ‘On Photography’, Susan Sontag wrote ‘Photography is not practiced by most people as an art. It is mainly a social rite’… At the time of writing photography was something of a mystery to most people.The cameras were complicated to operate, manually focused and film stocks were notoriously intolerant of tricky shooting conditions. It took considerable practice and skill to overcome these difficulties. Considering the problems, the fact that so much great photographic work was done is a remarkable tribute to the photographers concerned.

We now live in a different world: courtesy of digital and broadband, photography is certainly practiced by most people - and increasingly as an art, even on mobile phones. Photo technology, for those who wish to take it seriously, has been revolutionised by cameras and lenses that perform miracles at the press of a button. And almost everybody has them. As a result, the status and purpose of photography will never be the same again.

Along with these advances come new challenges. At the personal level, given what can now be done, even on a mobile phone, and the extraordinary postproduction applications that exist, taking a picture that would have provoked admiring comment even a few years ago, is well within the reach of any amateur. As far as public spaces are concerned, the sheer proliferation of imagery has its own deadening effect. Images hundreds of feet wide that cover the entire side of a building, video projections that dominate every shopping mall, create a situation that is, in the literal sense of the word, overwhelming.

At the same time, the primary function of any artistic medium remains the same: to jerk the viewer out of his or her comfort zone. Until relatively recently, it was enough for a beautiful photographic image to be… well, beautiful. The message was that simple. Now, even with all the magical capacities of modern cameras and lenses, that is probably not enough to compete with sheer size and quantity of what is presented everywhere you look.

© LOUISE DESNOS

©MAJA DANIELS - SWEDEN

This is not to say that earlier photographers did not produce images that expressed complex ideas or had different layers of meaning. Hundreds of them have done so and done so brilliantly. But they did it alongside more conventional material that was nevertheless considered to be of quality. For instance, it is only relatively recently that adding motion blur as a way of enhancing the image became more than an occasional eccentricity. It is hard to escape the fact that there has been a sea change – and one that has taken not much more than ten years. Great images now have to transcend reality as never before. A great photograph now must not only carry a message or tell a story – that was always the case – but it has to be done in new ways, stretching the medium and the latest techniques to their limits in order not to be swallowed in the tidal wave of media increasingly sweeping the world.

And the problems don’t end there. The great advantage of photography, one denied to every other medium, has been its capacity to capture action at the moment it happens, to freeze what Henri Cartier-Bresson described as ‘the decisive moment’. Images that do so reveal something about the human condition, something about human beings’ relationships to each other.

(Cinema and theatre attempt the same thing but only with surrogates). But, as a discoverer of truth, photography has become suspect. Photoshop and other digital applications can change anything – figures can be added or subtracted from the action, or moved within the frame so as to completely falsify what was actually going on.

And there are more difficulties even than this. In her book,‘On Photography’, Susan Sontag wrote ‘ the sheer volume of images has desensitized us to the point where we have become passive voyeurs’. Today, imagery is even more pervasive than in 1977 when her book first appeared. To this we have to add the deadening effect of the systemic violence portrayed in video games. Don McCullen, one of the truly great photo journalists of the twentieth century, when asked if he believed his graphic coverage of wars, tribal massacres, starvation, ethnic cleansing among other barbarities had made a difference, sadly admitted that it had not. Photojournalism will

© ANAÏS BOILEAU - FRANCE

no doubt continue; photographers brave enough to do so will continue to cover wars, and many will be killed in the process. But what if Susan Sontag is right; what if we are losing our capacity to react appropriately to what photography portrays?

Finally, there is the question of censorship. This is not the crude censorship of Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany, although there are still parts of the world where that persists. There is now another censorship, one that is never acknowledged as such, and is thereby insidious and hypocritical. This is censorship that hides behind political correctness and behind the power of corporations that buy up public spaces and pretend they then have the right to declare that taking photographs is illegal. Except in very specific or unusual circumstances, it is rare that western countries have passed laws legitimizing these claims; on the contrary, most civilized societies support the principles of freedom of speech and the right of assembly. Unfortunately, these rights are being progressively infringed and eroded by those with the power and money to do so. When challenged, corporations invoke ‘health and safety’almost invariably in places where there is no risk to either, or - with brazen cynicism - terrorism.

This is among the many challenges that the young photographers presenting their work at Hyeres will face in their future careers. New artistic realities will have to be found. These may have to be subtle and insinuating, but they must be no less compelling. Perhaps the reference in the Hyeres competition’s publicity blurb to ‘innovative and uncompromisingly artistic standards’ is more than the kind of high-flown rhetoric so beloved by the French, but something that gets pretty close to the nub of the matter.

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BIOGR APHY

My St Tropez Dreamy Times

ST TROPEZ VILLE

T

By Monique Hollinger

he door was already closed when I got driven over the tarmac to board the airplane. I had made what an impetuous decision – namely to surprise my boyfriend in St. Tropez.

I’ve always enjoyed waking up in the morning; walking down bare foot to the Pinede private beach; and then taking my first sips of coffee. Later I like to either water-ski or maybe catch a water plane across the bay.

The welcome by the stewardess was frozen.­As for the rest of the passengers, you could see they were thinking - “what the hell is she doing? I had to walk down the aisle to get to the last seat, passing their accusing eyes. But, really, I didn’t care. I just had one thing going through my mind. I just had to catch that plane! And I did!

Of course, my experience of St Tropez has changed down the years. After two summers at La Pinede, the new hotel Chateau de la Messardiere first threw open its doors. It’s a wonderful hotel with superlative service, a lot of space a big pool and, more recently a beautiful spa.

Arriving in Nice, there was a new immediate problem to solve. How to get to St. Tropez? As most of you will know it ‘s a 90-minute drive from the airport. Luckily for me there was a bus with a big sign marked St. Tropez emblazoned across its front. I approached the driver and asked whether I might sneak in. However when at the Hotel de Pinede, where my boyfriend was staying, there was no sight or sound of him. It turned out that someone had alerted him so he was down at the airport looking for me! Quite funny, really…

It wasn’t exactly the beginning of a love affair, but I like to think it helped seal it. Before we were married, we stayed a lot at the Hotel de la Pinede. To this day, it’s in a perfect location, the only luxury hotel with a gourmet restaurant that directly fronts the beach. In terms of location, it’s unbeatable.

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For two summers we hired the presidential suite and it became my second home. I find it sad that that suite no longer exists as it holds so many exquisite memories. Apparently they divided it in three smaller suites. However I still recommend the hotel to my friends.

My next experience of St Tropez was as a young bride. Our wedding took place inside the church of St Tropez, and we hired the Hotel Belrose to accommodate our guests who were coming from all over the world. It’s a very nice hotel with the most romantic view overlooking the bay, the harbour and the old town of St Tropez.

The big investment was yet to come. After all these magical summers together, our commitment to St Tropez deepened. We started to think about buying a property ourselves rather than being summer visitors. However before doing

ALEXANDRE DURAND-VIEL LA MESSARDIERE HOTEL GM

BYBLOS HOTEL

STEPHANE PERSONENI BYBLOS HOTEL GM

LA MESSARDIERE HOTEL

so, we decided to rent out a villa that belonged to the nephew of President Mitterand in the Park de St Tropez.

It was around this time that I first set my eyes on the Chateau Borelli. I wandered around it, often wondering who the inhabitants of this beautiful place were. And then - well then we got the opportunity to buy it. It’s one of the happiest purchases we’ve ever been involved in. A dream come true.

As soon as we moved here as more regular residents, we started a new phase in our life - getting access to private dinners and lunches and experiencing a more intimate side of St Tropez. During this time I met a lot of new people from all parts of the world, especially in the summer. However my favourite time in St Tropez is between Easter and October when the weekend of the Marathon de St Tropez and the Braderie take place.

A WE ALTH OF THINGS TO DO. For lunch there is a huge amount of possibilities and options. There are as many as 40 different beach restaurants – dotted along the beach of Pampellone, Ramatuelle. Some of which offer lunch and a few of them dinner.We used to go a lot to La Voile Rouge, Club 55, Thaiti Beach, Les Palmiers…

I think everyone of us likes to help perpetuate the myth of what is quintessentially ‘St Tropez’. The story behind Club 55 is for instance just part of the town’s aura. 1955 was the year that Brigitte Bardot was filming And God Created Woman on Pampelonne Beach.You’ll know the rest. The director asked a fisherman who had a bar there if the could provide the crew with food. He agreed and the word spread rapidly. Suddenly, the bar run by Monsieur de Colmont was a mecca for film stars!

Fame begets fame. A variety of the beau monde (and the not so ‘beau’) have made their own pilgrimage to Club 55. Joan Collins, for example, has said that the best meal she ever participated in was at Club 55. And its lure continues with newer A- listers. Kate Moss, Bono, Paris Hilton, all drop in whenever they are down in St Tropez or moored up across the bay.

However, of course, Club 55 is far from being the only ‘game in town’.

A particular favourite of mine is La Voile Rouge. Once discovered, never forgotten. I’ve had some wonderful times – indeed the best time of my life here: a la minute fresh food and amazing parties. I think I may have become their most constant visitor! I tend to have lunch there on a daily basis. You find the craziest people there and you can throw wild, wild parties. How sad I was when I got the news that this place no longer exists. I’m sure I don’t need to spell my reasons for saying this out.

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THE PORT AT ST TROPEZ

LES CAVES DU ROY CLUB

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PATRICE DE COLMONT LE CLUB 55 OWNER

LE CLUB 55

Other haunts of mine are Brasserie Des Artes, Opera, Rivea at Byblos Hotel and Salama is a fun Morrocan place which is well worth a visit. The former has Les Caves des Roy which has been popular since at least the seventies.

They have a weird habit of interrupting the music whenever someone buys a $15,000 Magnum of Dom Perignon or Crystal – announcing the city from which the buyer originates. Christophe Chauvin was the GM until March 2016. He’s a fund of ideas. For instance, last year the hotel put on a number of art exhibitions including one about ‘The Stars’ featuring people like James Dean and Steve McQueen.

However, earlier in the day, when you need a coffee pick up, then I like to take a cappuccino at Senequier. Senequier is another institution in St Tropez, and its location in the port means that it has no rival. You watch all the beautiful yachts in front of you and you start dreaming... (Or calling your friends , the yacht owners to make plans.

PARTIES AND SPORT. This leads me onto to the subjects of parties. I guess I had the best time ever on one of those yacht parties or, even better, on a cruise. St.Tropez would not be St Tropez if there were not all this glamour and high society people from all over the world, all coming back to their villas and yachts celebrating the summer and the get together.

The variety of soirées in July are unique and amazing. Every host wants to top the other. There are special party themes such as Soirée Blanche, Hippy Party, 1001 Nights, lack and leather, Soirée Pink or Love and Peace.

To keep up with the party vibe, you need to stay fit, very fit. St Tropez offers not only day and night life, parties, music, clubs, good food.

I live in the “PARC DE ST TROPEZ and there is a very exclusive tennis club with six courts.I share my teachers with Bernard Arnault , Mittal Family Albert Frère family and other famous neighbours.... Of course, the French tennis teachers are themselves an incentive, but over and above that the tuition is ‘superbe’.

Besides tennis, the possibilities are endless. At the sailing school at Canoubier – which is close to my home – there’s sailing, wind surfing, and paddling.

I used to book in the kids and the nanny for sailing courses and later for windsurfing. One time something quite funny happened. Their nanny was ill so I went in her place.The teacher asked if I was their sister! You can imagine that made my day. The kids, on the other hand, were rather less amused.

What I love to do at the end of the day is to walk or run the sentier littoral.

It’s a small path at the edge of the sea and you can see the most beautiful sunsets from there.The light in the sky, the sound from the sea, the smell from the eucalyptus trees, that makes the end of the day perfect.

DANIELLE LAGRANGE HOTEL DE PARIS GM

Issue N11 | 99

IN CONVERSATION WITH

Caron Bernstein

– T H E N E X T I N S TA L M E N T - T H E E R A OF A N DY WA R HOL –

By Caron Bernstein

T

his was the era of salad bowls of cocaine on low, mirrored night club tables and when smoking grass was more acceptable than a fag. Andy and his ‘crew’ were years older than me, but they basically looked after me, gently escorting anyone showing unwelcome interest in me out of the velvet roped off area where Andy held court.

Andy had a Midas touch: So long as you subscribed to the role he prescribed for you, you were made. Andy decided that my then best friend, Stephen Sprouse should stop trying to be an artist and become a fashion designer.

He ended up being the designers’ designer, with bigger names waiting and watching to see what they could plagiarize. I was the author of some of these ideas… I just had ideas that were daring and fun. Stephen adored me for being that way in the ‘Oh so serious fashion world’.

One day I went over to Stephen’s apartment. The floor was littered with models’ comp cards. I had gone over to help him find the ‘edgiest’models for his latest show. This was to be staged on a giant catwalk than ran a couple of blocks on the West Side piers. Suddenly it come to me. I said, “Dude” – (his nickname was Dude and he called me Dude-woman) – lets not use models at all!”

I suggested instead that we use a group of about 60 punk rock kids calling themselves The Downtown Death Squad - all of whom were in different punk bands.They wore insane outfits that they themselves had made in all the colours of the rainbow. (This was years before it become a vogue to have blue hair like Katy Parry.) I remember Stephen staring at me: “Dude-woman, you are awesome!”

Looking back it was all a bit chaotic – getting somewhere and nowhere.

Seymour insisted I was to be a solo artist, claiming I’d upstage any equal band mates, so I was thrown in studios with different musicians from different highly established bands. In fact, I was honored to work with most of my idols, all helping me stretch my fledgling wings in helping me write, record even perform my own music, however as far as touring went, I’d have to rely on hired gun’s, mercenaries or musicians for hire. I longed for a band of my own, to be one of the boys, brothers in crime. Seymour, against his better judgement, finally said, “Go find a band. If I like it I’ll sign it”.

This proved way more difficult now that I had run out of money and the label wasn’t paying for studio time unless I agreed to Seymour’s terms and while my celebrity friends would always help out they couldn’t leave their giant bands to start all over plus I was a bit spoiled by musical giants I had only ever worked with. All modeling and film money had been spent when I was contacted by a person in one of the ‘alphabets’ of government agencies.

I’m not going to disclose which one, but needless to say, they rather creepily seemed to know all about me. They offered me a job or, as they put it a mission. Three days in London then back to New York for a fee of ten grand.

While this appealed to the thrill seeker in me, it also terrified me to have to associate with people that could kill me without batting an eye. And those are just the criminals especially if anyone wanted to find me, I wasn’t exactly completely anonymous.

It was quite a shock to see The Downtown Death Squad parading down the catwalk instead of Vogue cover girls. Stephen cast me in the finale. That was amazing too. I dressed up in Stephen’s wedding gown – a micro miniskirt in neon camouflage, black work boots, no top and a matching cape accompanied by 60 punk rockers in similar attire. Next to me was a naked man covered in tattoos with long black hair to his waist. Some sight.

Around the same time, I started getting noticed in other ways too. Seymour Stein offered me my first record deal.. Then, along with Cindy Crawford, I was offered a makeup contract. Keen to get away from modeling, I actually turned it down. I listened to my creative heart rather than my head. It’s just that no one had explained to me that money didn’t grow on trees.

100 | Issue N11 Stephen Sprouse wedding finale dress shot by Francesco Scavullo

One of my bands promoshot appering in many magazines.

Again somebody up there seemed to be watching my back. Before I could sign the documents, I got offered my third film deal to star in a movie, mostly filmed in Austria and L.A. The figures were pretty enticing too still considering a three month job versus three days. I still rate this as one of the best experiences in my career.

After the film I shot in Vienna, I went right back to music, writing and recording, Finally, I started a band with an amazing musician called Chris Feinstein. We would spend days and nights writing and recording on a four- track cassette player so a fine hiss could be heard throughout the song.

I remember we imitated the sound of African drums by the body of an acoustic guitar and drumming on it with our finger tips. We practically lived in the studio.

1997 was when life suddenly threw me three giant curve balls. Up to that point life had proceeded in a pretty exciting way. Hardship finally hit me in the form of a spurned ex-boyfriend, who raped me. I couldn’t breathe during the attack, as his whole body weight was on my neck. I remember the most perverse thought crossing my mind when I had managed to wrangle my right arm free. Part of me said, rip his balls off, scratch his eyes out – and then came a perverse thought that said: don’t hit him, you may hurt him. It took ten days to even have a word for what had happened to me. When I finally did report it to the police, and any bruising or DNA had been removed, they explained that it was sixty/forty in his favor. I just did not have it in me at that point to go through with a year of hell.

A year later, when I was feeling almost human again, my little brother decided to kill himself in a most violent manner. One of his favorite songs, the Beatles’ “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” suddenly had a whole new meaning. That was in 1998 -June second. The anniversary of his death remains a very dark day for me.

A year later I met a very well known musician who I had heard wanted to use me as a writer. His name was Richard Kruspe, a German rock-star, from a band called Rammstein. He proposed on our second meeting, but our first actual date, which was his thirty-second birthday. I thought he was my knight in shining armor. We got married a few months later in Montauk on October 29th 1999. Like many men, he wanted us to share the same last name, but as

“Jessica’s Law” - painting oil on canvas

I refused to give up my birth last name and in a sense, my identity, I told him that it would be fine with me for him to take on my last name, which he did and was then Richard Bernstein, much to my father’s delight.

This would complete the trilogy of tragedies that had befallen me. It seemed like a fairy tale; but some fairy tales are quite dark and twisted, and so was this one.

He was a pioneer of a man- escaped Communist East Germany six months before the wall came down and created a rock band of enormous success, even though rock music was illegal and one could be jailed just for listening to it. On top of that he refused to sing in English, but rather his native tongue, German. As every other non- English speaking bands sang in English, it was quite a challenge to compete in international arenas, but arenas are what he filled with his strange new heavy sound, with English speaking kids chanting, “Du hast mich” without having any idea of the meaning or play on words, as directly translated it means either “you have me” or “you hate me” depending on context. The title of one of their hits.

He also did everything he could to get me pregnant. I knew that that this would stop me leaving if I needed to. So I made certain that this wish was thwarted. He cheated relentlessly, even with my friends. He also toured for months at a time, yet wouldn’t let me work. So here was this enormously wealthy man going on tour without leaving me a penny to survive on, even though I lived in a five story townhouse in Soho, no less.

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Stephen Sprouse and Me shot by Arthur Elgort for Vogue

After majoring in painting at the Johannesburg School of the Arts, before I moved to NYC, I’d put this part of my creativity on the back burner – focusing on other things such as modeling, music and acting. However art relaxes me and with Richard away on tour so much of each year, I picked it back up. I started showing at galleries and going to many of the international art fairs like Art Basel.

In some regards painting and sculpting are easier as it’s a solo experience.

Sometimes I would spend 18 hours at a time on a piece. I started getting commissions from private collectors and organizations like hotels. My work is a little dark at times but always reflects my sardonic sense of humor. ( I once sculpted a nude man who had such severe penis envy, I changed his ‘unit’ into a realistic elephant trunk, curling up and bending forward around his pectoral muscles but everything else realistic to scale.

My subject matter is very reflective of the person I’m painting or sculpting portraying elements of their specific nature so each piece has a story. I also find beauty in places where most wouldn’t and some of my muses have certain oddities or are victims of things like Alopecia, addictions, suicide or Anorexia among others. This makes people respond in a very forceful way - either loving or hating it. The idea of someone thinking my work is ‘nice’ would horrify me and to date my work was never accused of being so.

Finally, Richard and I decided to write music for a project all in English called ‘Emigrate’. Richard sang lead vocals, and I sang back up and wrote all the lyrics, which were basically about my life, my experiences, my views.

The first song we sold was called ‘My World’ which was the theme track of a movie called ‘Resident Evil 3’, I used the money to buy my first apartment in Williamsburg.

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Wedding dress designed for me by Alexander McQueen

In around 2005, I did manage to divorce Richard. The final straw was he had been having an affair with my best friend and bass player. Rather perversely, while she was the prettiest girl on two legs, we looked quite similar. When he gave her a photo of my naked breasts and told her to surgically alter herself to look like me- and she did it! I guess the unequivocal hurt at her betrayal turned more to pity and finally forgiveness. I expected no better from him though, even when he tried to take my writing credits from me regardingEmigrate.

Several years later, I met a man who was unlike any other person I had ever met. His name is Andrew Schupak. It was May 2008. I am not sure whether it was his eyes or the intensity he emanated, but I was instantly drawn to him.

He wore handmade Tom Ford suits. I never thought I would be attracted to someone who wore suits on a day- to- day basis. Yet he was stunning. This man was a grown-up. Not a man-boy, like the previous men in my life, and yet he was still able to keep up with the folk that made partying their lifestyle without missing a beat or an obligation.

We got married on July 17th 2009 at his weekend estate in Stone Ridge, in upstate New York, in an open field with a Midsummer Nights Dream feel to it. My dear friend Patricia Field helped get my perfect Alexander Mcqueen couture wedding dress, that was more like a Grecian goddess dress in layers of transparent flesh colored fabric, with a hand embroidered dragon down the one side, like a giant tattoo. The wedding itself was almost immediately blown up by five separate electrical storms, but it somehow made it even more magical.

Unbeknownst to either of us, I was already pregnant with our son, Jett, which made our honeymoon in Bali a little challenging with my ever-increasing

morning sickness. We sort of hoped that a child would join us after enjoying each other for a bit, as newly-weds. However that was not on the cards. Nine months later on the exact due date, I pushed an almost eight pound baby boy into the world in about twenty minutes. He was born twelve years after my baby brother Pete’s suicide. Pete died in 1998, the ‘year of the tiger’, and Jett Peter Schupak was born exactly twelve years after.

Daniel Cartier and I performing with my band Kill 5.

It’s almost eerie the similarity in physical form with Pete; as Jett grows older, it’s as though it’s the same person. My parents went quite white when they met Jett for the first time, years after burying their baby at 26 years old.

Imagine what it felt like to see his doppelganger again in their lifetime!

Children do not necessarily come without some pain too. One day a school psychologist informed us that this precious little piece of God was autistic. I sobbed and sobbed in disbelief - Rain Man came to mind. Autistic people cannot be affectionate or be touched, let alone give physical affection.Yet Jett loves to hug and kiss and get tickled .

Kid Rock, Gavin Rossdale and Gina Gershon back up vocals, Duff McKagan on base, Mobby and Billy Duffy on rhythm guitar, lead guitar Slash and Dave Navarro, Matt Sorum drums.

At two, or maybe a bit before, Jett had an obsession with the alphabet. He could do his A,B,C’s quicker than any average adult and then would repeat the exercise backwards, starting from Z to A. He can write a word far beyond his age and then decide to spell it backwards at the same speed. His computer abilities are unfathomable. But he still hasn’t mastered basic speech, so the things he learns at the speed of light are from inside his little baby brain, not from being taught by someone who was taught by someone else. But, astonishing as it is to be the mother of a little Einstein, I long for him to ask me a question, or to say “I love you, mommy” in a clear audible voice.

I am now 44 years old, and a mom. I didn’t even realize I had given up on my musical aspirations. In December of last year, Andrew invited me to a Christmas party of prominent, (Jewish I might add) P.R. agent. I went outside for a smoke and started chatting with three guys, two of which had an indie label under Sony. We exchanged cards, and the next day the president of this rap label called me up after doing some research on me. He came over for a listening session of sorts. After talking about where I would be interested in going musically, I gave some examples of alternative rock bands whose sounds I admired, and he was totally on the same page as me. He said he always dreamed of having a rock label as well as rap, so before we finished our idea-popping conversation, he straight up asked me if I would be willing to be the first rock artist on this brand new label, but with the power behind it of the Sony machine. I couldn’t believe it! My almost forgotten dreams were opening their doors again! This was unheard of. The next few months I started work on the first two singles, the first being the love song that was then so pertinent to my life called “Killa”, and the second, a beautiful ballad called “Seed” about the love for Jett I have only come to know during the last five years.

Kid Rock, Gavin Rossdale and Gina Gershon, Dave Navarro lead guitar and myself lead vocals.

Slash on guitar and myself on lead vocals

So here I am, a woman who still has a world of possibilities spread out before me. Painting, music and acting continue to be my passions, maybe I’ll even write a book some day. Who knows what adventures are in store for me, but my eyes are wide open and I will never forget my dreams, or that anything is possible at any time in life. Never forget: take the gifts life offers you and run with them. Dreams never die, only people do. www.caronbernstein.com

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TR AVEL

A rgentina

By Ksenia Mezentseva

“Suppose I was to tell you that it’s just beauty that’s calling me, the beauty of the far off and unknown, the mystery and spell which lures me, the need of freedom of great wide spaces, the joy of wandering on and on in quest of the secret which is hidden over there beyond the horizon?”

Eugene O’Neill, Beyond the Horizon

W

here do I start writing about the country that comes joint top on the list of my all time favourites? The country where I would, without hesitation,buy a second home?

I associate Argentina with romance. I first visited Argentina in January 2011..

My husband and I got married the summer before and this trip was our 2nd honeymoon – we spent 3 weeks in Buenos Aires, Patagonia and the lake region That was when I first and forever fell in love with Argentina.

It is hard to say what it is about the country that attracts me most. Is it the beautiful landscapes, the vibrant cities, the warm-hearted people, the great infrastructure, the delicious food? You get the picture: Argentina is the sum of all these constituent parts. That is what makes it such a wonderful country to explore.

Argentina is a country of superlatives. Each region is worth visiting and each experience would fit into a separate article and call for a separate trip! First, you have Patagonia with the Perito Moreno glaciers and its extraordinary trekking routes, the Bariloce region for fishing, golf and polo and then there’s Mendoza - the heart of Argentinian wine country where you find fabulous Malbecs and scores of beautiful vineyards.

Unbelievably, I’m not yet half way through my whirlwind tour. Don’t leave Argentina without travelling to Ushuaia famed for its unique penguin colonies.When you stand here, you have the unbelievable sensation of having reached the edge or end of the world. And, all this comes before any mention of Buenos Aires – the metropolitan, fun, urban capital of the country.

However, time presses. As the editor only gives me four pages of text I am going to write about Buenos Aires – “good airs” or “ fair winds” in Spanish.

It makes for a fun, tasty. Memorable urban trip. No matter what part of

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Argentina you decide to visit in the future Buenos Aires will surely be your first port of arrival!

DINE,WINE, DANCE! If you are looking for a fun urban trip, full of culture, fashion, night-life and great food, Buenos Aires is absolutely the place to visit. It is usually referred to as the Paris of South America, for its atmosphere and charm as well as for its diverse architecture.

Unlike many other South American cities Buenos Aires has a few colonial style buildings. After declaring the independence from Spain in 1816 the city’s architects started adapting French, Italian, Greek techniques to build glorious buildings. That’s why today Buenos Aires has no one architectural spirit – you can find yourself in Italian renaissance, art-nouveau or art decor neighbourhoods bordering with contemporary hi-rises and monuments.

If you are visiting the city for the first time make sure to spend a few days walking around and exploring the neighbourhoods with its little cafes, shops, museums and its own unique “l’arte de vivre”. My absolute favourite ones are:

PUERTO MADERO Built as a port 1897, it was a fully-functioning port for just 15 years of its existence. Thereafter the Puerto Madero area hosted rusting ships and decaying warehouses. Things started to change in the late 90’s when the port was cleaned up and a huge new development project was launched. Today it is probably the most “international” looking district in Buenos Aires as well as one of the most expensive ones. Contemporary hi-rises, funky lofts, art galleries, design hotel and hi-end restaurants populate the area.

Stay at Faena Hotel – the glamorous contemporary hot spot, designed by Philip Starck. Situated in the heart of Puerto Madeira it has a happening restaurant and a bar. The one thing not-to-miss at the Faena is the Rojo Tango. The show is a glamorous performance and goes out live. The show is well rehearsed and contains several themed acts. It will be a long time before I forget the dancers who are both expressive and impressive.

Atmospherically, you feel you have been transported onto the set of an old glamorous Hollywood movie…

During the day, check out the two on-ship museums – Uruguay and Sarmiento; and, of course, make sure to take a long walk in the ecological reserve situated between Puerto Madero and Rio de la Plata. It is a 900 acre park, great for cycling, birdwatching and simply for a romantic walk. I also love to look at the beautiful Puerto Madero real estate and every time I am in the area. I start dreaming of purchasing a weekend pad.

You can have a three-course dinner prior to the show or arrive just prior to its start for drinks. The latter have wonderful names and kick a real punch.

Other restaurant recommendations in Puerto Madero are:

The neighborhood of wealthy homes, fancy hotels, designer shops and trendy restaurants, beautiful people - not forgetting the famous cemetery either!

OSsaka A Peruvian-Japanese restaurant that originates in Lima. It’s just one of seven across South America. It’s very definitely not another “Nobu-copycat”.

Instead it is a great happening restaurant with both cevice and sushi, great ambiance and an impressive cocktail list.

Cabana las Lilas One of the most famous steak houses in Buenos Aires. Filled with tourists and wealthy locals, the place has a simple yet pleasant atmosphere. Get a table on the terrace and enjoy the world’s best meats and an impeccable wine list.

Sotto Voce If you miss fine Italian food while in Argentina, go to Sottovoce - one of the famous restaurants in Buenos Aires. There you will enjoy some great classics with a local twist in a nice atmosphere.

Chila If you are in the mood for a fine quiet dining with a breathtaking menu, visit Chila. It’s definitely worth a detour and I rate it as one of Buenos Aires best.

In fact, it just got onto the list of Latin America’s 50 best restaurants. A good choice is to order a pre-fix dinner of locally grown, fusion inspired dishes.

RICOLETA

If you are more comfortable staying at international luxury hotel chains, Ricoleta is a great neighborhood for you. My three favorite hotels in the area are The Four Seasons, the Park Hyatt and the Alvear Palace. Although the latter does not belong to an international chain, it assuredly meets every criterion. Each has its unique personality and style and they all offer what every discerning traveler looks for.

The Ricoleta Cemetery is definitely a “must”. Not at all gloomy: It has a unique and enchanted atmosphere. A mini village of tombs, most beautifully decorated and sculptured, all with its own history and a story to tell. Every time I visit, I find myself getting lost on the “streets” of the cemetery for hours.

It has a unique calmness to it - the 55,000 square meter cemetery lets you forget that you are in the middle of a busy city and dive into the mysterious past of the local inhabitants. If you visit the cemetery on Sunday you can then walk along the Feria de Artesanos de Plaza Francia– the artisanal street fair that takes place just outside the cemetery walls. Don’t expect to find either top antiques or valuables; this fair is mostly local arts and crafts and various souvenirs.

While in the area make sure to visit the Museum of Fine Arts – it is not big but contains some beautiful works by Goya and Rembrandt. After fulfilling your cultural crave checkout Ricoletta’s luxury shopping – all the main local and international designers have stores along Avenida Alvear.

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For dinner go to Grand Bar Danzon– the menu is international so is the scene. You will find a great wine and cocktail list at the bar and a restaurant full of trendy beautiful people.

SAN TELMO The oldest area in Buenos Aires has probably the most charm and flavour.

Initially a poor area of the city and home to dockworkers and brick makers it began attracting the local artist in the middle of 20th century. Today it is a very bohemian district. I would not recommend staying here as this neighborhood is not about fancy hotels. Instead, spend your Sunday there.

Feria de San Telmo – a huge outdoor street market takes place every Sunday. There’s a lot of antiques - from jewelry to cutlery, from fine china to ornamented drapery, from furniture to unique souvenirs, as well as local performers, food stands and much more. Another DO NOT MISS, in my book. Start your spree on Plaza Dorrego and stop by for a coffee at Bar Plaza Dorrego. The bar was established in 1881 and has a unique old-school Argentine atmosphere. Don’t eat there and continue down Defensa street, buy some souvenirs and make sure to bargain! Stop by Brasserie Petanque on La Defensa and Mexico for lunch or a nice drink. The place is a French bistro, and reminds me of the famous Pastis in New York.

The owner is a chatty man who will serve you nice mimosas at the bar and tell you all about his time living in Manhattan.

PALERMO A district with great restaurants, stores, parks, art galleries, movie studios and expensive real estate. It is a big neighborhood thus separated into Palermo Soho,Viejo, Hollywood, Alto, Chico and Las Canitas.

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Las Canitas is very popular area among expats. Apart from eating there make sure to go to Campo Hipico Militar and watch a polo match. The season is from November to April and, given the standing of polo in the country, you won’t regret it.

The best restaurants, bars and nightlife are probably in Palermo Soho and Hollywood. Soho has its name because of resemblance with the New York Soho area – cobblestone streets and low buildings with lots of cafes and designer stores. This neighborhood has a very international feel. Hollywood has many TV studios and radio stations. If you are acquainted with the local celebrity scene you will definitely see some in the area.

Shop, stroll, have drinks and snacks, tea and coffee – Palermo is a great for no to sightseeing and yes to leisure approach. As per recommendations: Stop by Olaya for lunch. It’s a restaurant started by the owner of Osaka in which Chinese, Indonesian and French flavors are added to the traditional Peruvian cuisine. The result is effortlessly trendy with spectacular food and atmosphere.

If you are a wine lover make sure to go to Bar du Marche. You can try over 50 different wines in the French styled bistro and have some fresh fois gras and cheese platters to go with it.

For dinner, the restaurants that I love are:

Tegui Another restaurant that has made it into Latin America’s Best 50 restaurants.

The entrance is hidden in the middle of a massive graffiti wall. Don’t let it scare you – inside you will find a very nicely set room with a lovely terrace and an impeccable seven course tasting menu. Come hungry!

Hernan Gipponi Restaurante This restaurant is owned by one of Argentina’s most renowned chefs who specializes in multi-course tasting menus.The menu is a modern take on classic Argentinian food. Don’t feel like having a long dinner? Come here for brunch!

WHILE YOU ARE IN THE AREA… While you are staying in Buenos Aires there are two short trips that I highly recommend you take.

The first trip is to see the famous Iguazu waterfalls. The name in Guarani (the South American language still spoken by many locals) means “big water” and it surely deserves it. Named the fourth largest waterfall in the world by the Conservation Institute, Iguazu is an exceptional spectacle.

The waterfall is located on the border of Brazil and Argentina and divides Iguazu river into the upper and the lower. The major part of the river flows through Brazil, however the most of the waterfalls are on the Argentinian side. There is always an ongoing debate among the locals – which view is the better – from Brazilian or from Argentinian side. There is only one way for you to find out!

The visit of Iguazu is an easy one day trip from Buenos Aires with or without a potential overnight stay. Take one of the many 1.5 hour long morning flights from Buenos Aires to Iguazu or alternatively take a private flight which is easy enough to arrange.

The tour of the waterfall will take a few hours.You will most probably start with taking the small Iguazu train and hear the story of the falls, walk the footbridge to admire its beauty, then walk the Lower Circuit and take the Power Boat into the base of the waterfall. I highly recommend getting a room at the Sheraton Hotel that is located right by the waterfall. It is simple but is very conveniently located right by the falls. I believe it is the only hotel that is right there. You will be able to have a nice place to change, rest, take shower after the tour (as you will get wet) and have nice drinks by the pool.

You can have dinner at the hotel and hop on a late flight back to Buenos Aires or stay and spend a night.

art galleries and private parties at celebrities’ chacras (unbelievable farm properties with acres of parks, swimming pools and beautiful mansions) are the places to be.

Stay at one of the Vik Hotels - Estancia Vik, Playa Vik or Bahia Vik. They are all different - while one is located at the beach the other is hidden in the beautiful hills of Uruguayan countryside just minutes outside Jose Ignacio. What unites all of them is the stunning contemporary design and attention to detail in every little thing from furniture to beautiful swimming pools, from little designer soaps in the rooms to the relaxing and serene spa facilities.

Alternatively you can stay at Posada del Faro just in Jose Ignacio. A small hotel with just 12 rooms it is built in Mediterranean style and has a nice view of the of the bay.

While in Jose Ignacio checkout the old lighthouse and go to the Plaza – if you like contemporary art you will be positively surprised by the little galleries that represent local Latin American artist. Make sure to go to La Huella for lunch – the place to be during the day is a wooden deck house located right on the beach in Jose Ignacio. Make sure to book in advance and don’t come before 3 pm – that’s when the actual happening time starts. The music, the food and the people are all beautiful.

Next day spend walking around La Barra. Do some shopping – there are many great surf shops, furniture and design stores and beach fashion boutiques.

Have lunch at the casual but stylish Fish Market or at Cactus y Pescados and then work on your tan and dance to a beach DJ at Playa Bikini.

For dinner make sure to book restaurants in advance. The area is hot, fancy and busy, so are the restaurants. My favorite ones are:

Marismo

The second trip is a little different from the one-day sightseeing adventure. It is a weekend getaway to Punta del Este – the hottest Latin American resort located in Uruguay, a 40 minute flight away from Buenos Aires.

A very romantic place – the tables are set on the sand and the place is lit with multiple bonfires. It is very simple and yet classy. Located literally in the middle of nowhere make sure to get good directions of how to find it.

Take a flight to Punta del Este and then a car ride to Barra and Jose Ignacio – two little chic villages that took all the spotlight away from Punta and are now the hottest places to be. The two villages are probably best described as something in between Malibu, St Tropez and the Hamptons – its where the chic meets low key, where the beaches are full of relaxed yet super trendy people, where during the day the beach shacks, surf cabins and ice cream stands are the most happening places and at night trendy restaurants, hot

A trendy Peruvian fusion restaurant has great pisco sours, mouthwatering food and a hot crowd.

Sipan

Namm Set in the middle of the forest and referred by locals as the “treehouse” this restaurant serves great sushi and meats. A must go.

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SOCIAL SE A SON

Patrick Hampel Party Gstaad

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Private Preview Dubai

of Louis

XIII

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SOCIAL SE A SON

EFFECT358 Opening Reception Party Tokyo

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The Collector - Designer Yara Bashoor Miami

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SOCIAL SE A SON

Zeitz Museum Gala Cape Town

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SOCIAL SE A SON

LQP – Kenilworth Racecourse Cape Town

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SOCIAL SE A SON

Mona Khashoggi Birthday Party London

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