Cheek2Chic Issue 16 - The Spring Issue

www.cheektochic.co.za

THE CHAMPAGNE LIFESTYLE

ISSUE 16

THE SPRING ISSUE 1

CONTENTS

EDITOR’S LETTER In this Spring Issue, we travel to one of the most well marketed wine regions of the world to explore the different regions and most famous houses, and take a look at the grower champagnes.

Johannesburg has its own champagne lifestyle in the form of the annual Absa Champagne Festival, and we chat to the head of Absa Wealth Management Winston Monale.

On the home front celebrate summer in some of South Africa’s gorgeous, mouthwatering gardens and meet top winemaker Bruce Jack of Drift’s Farm.

Spring is a time of new promise and reawakenings, so what better time to feature the most gorgeous lingerie on the market as well as some really decadent shopping?

Anti-aging is at the forefront of the beauty industry and South Africa’s Dr Gobac has developed a range of astonishing cosmeceuticals that work on a cellular level while being gentle on the skin.

Explore the most enticing summer smells and exciting new male fragrances on the market.

Cheek2Chic talks to famous New York jeweller Bruno Scarselli, renowned for his love of mesmerising bright gems, and find out about the most famous jewelled eggs in history.

Independent watchmakers have been making waves at the world’s top watch shows and avant garde brands such as MB&F have expanded into the realm of kinetic sculptures in their M.A.D Gallery.

Our motoring maestro Richard Webb takes you for a spin in some exciting convertibles guaranteed to blow your hair back!

On the social scene the Venice Film Festival sees Catherine Deneuve honoured by Jaeger-LeCoultre and Ndebele artist Esther Mahlangu takes the world by storm.

EDITOR

FOOD WRITER

SARAH CANGLEY

Anna Trapido

High end South African influencer Sarah Cangley turned her social column, Cheek2Chic, into a luxury digi-magazine four years ago, all issues https://issuu. com/cheek2chic

Award winning food writer Anna Trapido is trained as both a chef and an anthropologist and uses both disciplines in her work.

@cheek2chic

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

KIMBERLEY REID Kimberley Reid is a creative director whose quick eye for illustration or photography transforms a page from mildly interesting to arresting.

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cheek2chic2

MOTORING writer

BEAUTY EDITOR

RICHARD WEBB

LIZ FERRET

Richard Webb travels globally to unearth and share cool content for brands on social media and print. Follow him on instagram

Dubbed “The Fragrance Queen”, Liz Ferrett is a high powered member of the South African beauty industry who conducts fragrance and beauty workshops

Picture supplied by ANGELINA LITVIN AND CONTRIBUTORS

Cheek2Chic’s PeoplePlacesParties

Is imagination really just for children?

Embark on a DeLaneau made-to-measure journey to the timepiece of your dreams.

3 delaneau.com

CONTENTS

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THE SPRING ISSUE

ON THE COVER

To celebrate the lushness of spring we star Kendall Jenner on our cover. She is the new face of La Perla’s 2017 Romance campaign which draws from the chaos and form of the English garden and the beauty of botanicals.

Picture by La Perla

4. CHAMPAGNE LIFESTYLE: Nothing says spring and summer more eloquently than bubbles.

Cheek2Chic travels to the epicentre of the civilised world, the incomparable Champagne region in France where heritage and hedonism vie for top spot, and chats to Winston Monale, Managing Executive of Absa Wealth Management and Investment Solutions, the “champagne of banks” which

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sponsors the annual Absa Champagne Festival In Johannesburg.

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RENAISSANCE MAN: The wine world’s incomparable wordsmith, farmer, poet and winemaker, Bruce Jack

16. SHINE BRIGHT LIKE A

DIAMOND: A colourful history

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20. FABULOUS FABERGE: The story behind the world’s most famous jewelled eggs

22. WATCH CLOSELY: Some

world class watch brands are independently owned and producing some fascinating horological models while kinetic sculpture reveals the trend towards animated robotics

30. Hanging gardens OF

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BABYLORENSTOREN: Anna Trapido looks at some of South Africa’s beautiful and productive gardens

36. BEAUTY WITHOUT

CRUELTY: The “Botox without the tox” at Dr Gobac’s Apothecary; layer on the sizzling summer scents

42. UNDER WRAPS: Get billboard-ready

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48. SHOPPING: The must-have list

52. MOTORING:

The best convertibles

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BY INVITATION: The Venice Film Festival; Esther Mahlangu

CHAMPAGNE

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Harvest time Every year the process of making the greatest sparkling wine in the world starts at dawn in the fields of Champagne the heavily laden vines.

It’s hard work, and pretty unglamorous. Clad in rubber boots and rubber gloves, marching down the serried rows of vines which stretch on over the horizon, the workers endure the beat of the rain or the scowl of the hot sun for hours, but in their hearts they know they are helping to capture the promise of the summer in a bottle, and that their labours will produce sublime champagne.

Backs break, arms ache, and rivers of sweat pour off the pickers and carriers. But the bonds of humanity hold, and even strengthen, in this time honoured of all French activities.

Each bunch of grape is handpicked and the

It’s six am and the grapes in the vineyards are moistly touched by the morning dew. Despite this year’s severe frost the leaves shining translucently in the sun bear the slight scorch of autumn.

Vendange, that most magical word in the most magical of all languages, is France’s grape harvest and signals the promise of the annual vintage.

In Champagne there is a timeless tradition of volunteer grape harvesting, due to the sheer volumes of labour required. Although some wineries rely heavily on hired labour for many it is about the excitement of the harvest.

Young and old, men and women, flood in from all the surrounding areas to help pick the grapes from

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CHAMPAGNE

Vendange, that most magical word in a magical language, is France’s grape harvest and signals the promise of the annual vintage. It usually takes place over two to three weeks

experience always speaks loudest.

Cape Town’s “mystery shopper”, only known as The Champagne Chick, recounts her personal experiences of some of the great houses.

“In June I was excited to visit Tresors de Champagne in Reims. If you’re visiting the region this should definitely be on your list. They’re situated in the heart of Reims and offer tastings of a huge selection of grower champagnes that you just would not be able to get your hands on anywhere else. You could spend quite a few hours here. The décor is beautiful and original, including a huge map of the region and a ceiling adorned with champagne bottles for lights.

“In Reims most of the champagne houses are within walking distance to the town centre and we chose to walk to them, in an attempt to burn off some of the calories.

“The Taittinger visit starts with an informational video after which you descend down a beautiful spiral staircase into the cellar.

“Standing where the Abbey of Saint Nicaise, built in the 13th century, used to be, the caves were a place of refuge during wartime. I could have spent the entire day underground walking the kilometres of tunnels but upstairs champagne was waiting ...”

Artist, writer, and publisher specialising in fine wine, David S Eley, who is currently with The

picker troughs are lined up along the vines as trailers come alongside the rows to fetch the filled troughs.

Whether the labourers are paid or unpaid it is about the passion of champagne making and the camaraderie. And of course there is always a hearty meal, free flowing champagne and a place to lay their heads on their return.

Respect for the grape is paramount in this part of the world from the great champagne estates to the smaller grower champagnes. All are united in a common goal, getting the grapes in, and then starting the whole process of making champagne.

The harvest lasts between two to three weeks and includes grape picking, pressing and juice fermentation.

It’s an activity that people sitting at a restaurant ordering the finest label that the house has will never feel connected to.

It’s a connection to the soil, its products, the effect of the seasons and the human effort that it takes to bring the product to fruition, a process which goes back hundreds of years.

However, this being the most well marketed wine region in the world, there are harvest tours of the area so that champagne lovers and visitors to the area can join in the physical rigours of harvesting.

When it comes to visiting Champagne, personal

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ABOVE: The underground caves and the burgeoning vineyards.

THIS PIC: To celebrate the harvest David Eley photographs one of Benoit Marguet’s biodynamic roll-ups

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CHAMPAGNE

It’s a connection to the soil, its products, the seasons and the human effort that it takes to bring the product to fruition, a process which goes back hundreds of years

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mistakes in the vineyard can be very costly.

“When I first came to live and work in Champagne, this was my first realisation, just how challenging the work is. It increased my respect for the Champenoise and enhanced my appreciation of Champagne as a truly fine wine.

“By rigorously controlling every aspect in the vineyard and adhering to strict regulation, somehow, the vigneron arrives in September with a hillside full of glorious, perfectly ripening grapes … well, that is the idea.

“After a tumultuous summer with sporadic severe weather and the loss of some grapes to unexpected hail; we are now underway.

“This is my 20th vendange, having lived in three of the world’s most famous wine regions. No two are the same and each region has its own special characteristics.

“Champagne as a luxury wine really does live up to the hype. I will not disappoint you by saying it is mundane, dull and nothing much happens here …. after all, how many wine regions have Jay-Z and Beyoncé lining up for stamps in the village post office, or James Bond dropping in … sometimes

Original Map Company in Champagne and author of The New Illustrated Map of the Douro, lives in Moussy and has been chronicling the 2017 vendange through his photographs.

He says: “As an artist, writer and publisher working in the field of fine wine, I am lucky to be afforded the privilege of becoming a ‘local’ in any wine region I visit, seeing the wine world from the inside, not as a tourist or casual visitor. After so many grape harvests or ‘vintages’, I am now more interested in the nuanced details and subtle variations in the winemaker’s world.

“Our business is the finest wine, we don’t make it, but we observe and try to capture it through published images, text, and most especially, our watercolour illustrated maps with The Original Map Company in London.

“Making fine wine is hard work, it requires discipline, attention to detail and infinite amounts of patience. Making fine Champagne is at the apex of all wine making as it takes place in the most northerly major wine region in the world.

“The farther north one is, the narrower the margins for error – where sunshine is at a premium,

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celebrities shipped in and shipped out by the Grande Marques… everyone united in a common aim, to gather the green-gold and blue-black bounty of twelve months’ hard labour.

“Champagne is changing rapidly and rediscovering its identity. There is a rip-tide of new dynamic, small-scale producers, people whose work can be intimate and finely crafted… similar to the neighbouring Burgundian model.

“They sit alongside the great and famous ‘Grande Marques’ and offer a contrasting perspective to the Belle Epoque school of marketing Champagne.

They talk mainly of terroir and integrity, they answer questions, explain their principles and lend a narrative to their wines, no smoke and mirrors, just honest winemaking full of character and quality.

“There is nothing casual about making the greatest sparkling wine in the world, it is a business of precision and leaves nothing to chance. It sparkles in your glass because the people who create it have strived throughout any given year, it is not Prosecco, it is not Cava and it is not mere bubbles.

“It is the greatest example of winemaking skill there is. It can be complex, nuanced and extremely subtle; quite simply, there is nothing in the world like Champagne.”

I feel like I inhabit a parallel universe of farming juxtaposed with infinite glamour.

“But that is the way it will continue, Champagne will forever spell luxury to the world, while beneath this marketing veneer lies the beating heart of “local” wine-making reality, the muddy boots, frozen fingers, ruddy cheeks and mindnumbing cold of January mornings, the condensed breath of the heavy horses in the early morning mist, the sheer hard work of it all, the lines of imported foreign labour, every nationality imaginable, queuing for groceries each evening in my local supermarket during the harvest, stranger’s voices echoing outside my door at the dead of night as if I have woken from a dream…tired and happy faces and the smell of ripening grapes on the cool autumn air, this is the stuff of vendange…

Respect for the grape is paramount in this part of the world from the great champagne estates to the smaller grower champagnes 10

pictures supplied

CHAMPAGNE

Happy Every Day Club Champagne, where celebrations are never required—popping Champagne already feels like one. We call it Happy Every Day! We’ll change your perception of Champagne as an exorbitant delicacy to an exciting celebration everyday.

Join the Club Champagne and receive 6 shipments of Champagne per year (either 2, 3 or 6 bottles) hand selected and delivered right to your door. No sign-up fees and you can upgrade, downgrade or pause your deliveries at any time.

Join Club Champagne, pay for year in advance and

receive 2 Free Riedel Champagne Glasses

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CHAMPAGNE

Sense of celebration The 16th annual Absa Champagne Festival will be hosted this November in Johannesburg. The only one of its kind in South Africa, the festival promotes some of the most premium French Champagnes available 12

Champagne houses. These include the likes of Drappier, Billecart-Salmon, Laurent Perrier, GH Mumm, Taittinger, Piper Heidsieck, Bollinger and Lanson to name a few.

A stunning selection of premium French Champagne will also be available for sale exclusively on the night.

Tickets are available for R 795 each. For more information about the festival and a full list of Champagne houses visit absa.co.za/champagne

pictures supplied

The 16th annual Absa Champagne Festival, the only one of its kind in South Africa, is set to take place in Johannesburg on 1,2 and 3 November 2017, with 3 November being open to the public and the other two days exclusive to Absa Wealth Management and CIB clients.

The festival provides guests with the opportunity to mingle with the world’s leading champagne makers, and allows them the opportunity to sample champagne from an exclusive range of French

Winston Monale, Managing Executive of Absa Wealth Management and Investment Solutions, talks about Absa’s 16 years of involvement in the Absa Champagne Festival and the festival’s benefits to his clients: “For us the Absa Champagne Festival is a good alignment between our clients and a high end product delivered in partnership with our colleagues.

Champagne is a celebratory drink typically positioned at the high end but even though it is high quality there are cost effective options available which makes it accessible to the non traditional champagne market.

“The dedication to art and detail surrounding the champagne making process is very similar to how we think about our clients’ needs and objectives.

“It is a wonderful event and some clients come in year in and year out, which shows you the quality of the festival and the networking opportunities it presents.

“One always looks at the alignment and the original reason for partaking and for us it is very important that clients enjoy this thank you we put together for them for trusting us with their financial affairs.

“In terms of benefits for the clients the festival sees a number of champagne makers attending which presents opportunities for our clients to venture out of the norm of mainstream brands and see what else is available. They are getting an education on the breadth, scope and options of champagne.”

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Watches/Jewellery

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Picture SUPPLIED BY MB&F M.A.D. Gallery

Watchmaking brands are pushing the envelope with daring new designs and a transition into artificial intelligence, while jewellery gets some colour in its cheeks

Time machines 15

JEWELLERY

Coloured diamonds 16

The rarest gems in the world, in full glorious eyepopping technicolour, and their provenance

Think intense blue, glowing green and deep pink, a spectrum of stained glass colours associated with sapphires, emeralds, rubies and other intensely hued gemstones.

A rainbow of fancy-coloured diamonds is just as eye-poppingly brilliant and their colour range extends to oranges, browns and champagne colours and even dips into gray.

FABLED STONES Some of the most fabled coloured diamonds have included the Hope Diamond, a 45.52-carat blue diamond believed to have originated in India in the 17th century and the 41-carat Dresden Green Diamond, also from India, both in the Smithsonian Institution.

According to GIA (Gemological Institute of America), which is the world’s foremost authority in gemology, the increased popularity in coloured diamonds can be illustrated by the surge of requests for grading of these gemstones.

“Although coloured diamonds have been around for decades, the dramatic increase in their place in the consumer market in the last decade is unprecedented,” said Tom Moses, senior vice president of GIA Laboratory and Research.

Although coloured diamonds have been around for decades, the dramatic increase in their place in the consumer market in the last decade is unprecedented,” said Tom Moses, senior vice president of GIA Laboratory and Research.

The GIA website states: “In 1953, GIA created the International Diamond Grading System™, which is recognised today worldwide by virtually every professional jeweller in the industry. This system rates diamonds based on the 4Cs – colour, clarity,

LEFT: The Olympia Collection from Bruno Scarselli Jewellers in New York.

RIGHT: The Tiffany Yellow Diamond, in “Bird on a Rock”, discovered at the Kimberley Mine in South Africa.

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JEWELLERY

cut, and carat weight.

“The GIA colour scale ranges from D, which is absolutely colourless, all the way to Z, which includes diamonds that are light yellow and brown in colour.”

So what gives a diamond its colour? While flawless colourless diamonds, those which are made up of pure carbon, are considered the most desirable and expensive, coloured diamonds are the exception to this rule.

In fact, it’s the impurities and defects within the diamond’s structure that imparts the colour.

DIFFERENT COLOURS If a little bit of boron is trapped within the forming crystal structure, a diamond will be blue, a colouration which is extremely rare. If nitrogen replaces carbon within the diamond then it will be yellowish to brown and natural radiation will form green diamonds, also very unusual. Pink diamonds sometimes result from tectonic forces working on rocks after they come to the surface, but this seldom results in a rich red colour.

Whatever the cause, only a handful of coloured diamonds make it to the diamond cutter’s bench every year. There is a standing demand for them, so they fetch a great deal on auction, selling for the highest price per carat of any gemstone.

A jeweller’s dream is to get their hands on one of these beauties.

RAREST GEMS Bruno Scarselli Jewellers in New York began to be interested in coloured diamonds in the 50s and 60s, and soon realised these were the rarest gems in the world and they needed to be dressed up in novel ways.

Scarselli Jewellers wanted to create a collection of the best champions in their field so put together The Olympia

TOP RIGHT: The Graff Hallucination watch which contains 110 carats of really rare and really big colored diamonds with many different cuts set into a bracelet of platinum.

LEFT: The Aurora Green diamond which was acquired

by Bruno Scarselli Jewellers was sold at auction at Christies in May last year.

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It seems somehow, that after such a romantic lustre cast by rare and rainbow-hued diamonds a colourless diamond seems to lose its sparkle and appeal.

Collection, which today lives in the US Museum of Natural History.

Today the company specialises manufacturing coloured diamond pieces in very large sizes and travels to remote parts of the world to get the very best, creating pieces of art to be worn by their best customers like a fashion statement.

So where are the most fantastic record-shattering stones to be found?

The Cullinan Mine in South Africa has been producing some of the best coloured diamonds for the past few years, ranging from The Cullinan Dream, a 24.18 carat, fancy intense blue diamond recovered from Cullinan to the 12.03-carat Blue Moon to the 23.16 carat pink Williamson diamond which was recovered in December 2015.

Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia annually holds the Argyle Pink Diamond Tender which offers the best pink diamonds. The mine has also produced the Argyle Violet.

FAMOUS DIAMONDS Some of the most famous coloured diamonds have included The Moussaieff Red Diamond, the Tiffany Yellow Diamond, the Wittelsbach Graff 31.06-carat blue diamond, the Lesotho Diamond, the Star of the South Diamond and the Noor-ul-Ain diamond tiara which was given to Empress Farah Diba when she married the last Shah of Iran.

It seems somehow, after such a romantic lustre cast by fancy diamonds a colourless diamond seems to lose its sparkle and appeal.

Pictures supplied by brands; Petra Mines

TOP: The Cullinan Dream, a 24.18 carat, fancy intense blue diamond recovered from Cullinan RIGHT: 23.16 carat pink Williamson diamond, December 2015

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High Jewellery

Faberge The story of how Russian jeweller Gustav Fabergé created the most opulent and captivating Easter gifts the world has ever seen

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VIRTUOSO WORK The imperial Easter eggs are the most celebrated and awe inspiring of all Fabergé works of “...art, inextricably bound up with the Faberge name and legend. This series of lavish Easter eggs was created for the Russian Imperial family between 1885 and 1916, against an extraordinary historical background.

The story began when Tzar Alexander III decided to give a jewelled Easter egg to his wife, the Empress Maria Federovna, possibly to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their betrothal.

The Tzar, who had become acquainted with Gustav Fabergé’s virtuoso work at the Moscow Pan-Russian exhibition in 1882, was inspired by an 18th century egg belonging to the Empress’s aunt Princess Wilhemine Marie of Denmark, which had captivated the imagination of his wife during her childhood in Denmark.

INTRIGUING GIFT Easter was the most important occasion of the year in the Russian Orthodox Church and the custom developed among the highest echelons of St Petersburg society of presenting valuable jewelled Easter gifts.

And so it was that the Tzar had the idea of commissioning Fabergé to create a precious

A JEWELLERY LOVE AFFAIR

Pictures provided by Fabergé

The love story between Rihanna and

LEFT: AChopard perfect miniature has been developing on global replica of the Coronation red carpets for the past few years. Now, carriage that took this bedazzling duo has partnered to push 15 months to make, Haute Joaillerie beyond conventional limits working 16-hour days

to create a modern collection inspired by

RIGHT: The very island roots – the lush gardens Rihanna’s first Fabergé Easter egg, of Barbados and the electricity of Carnival the Hen Egg, the opaque time. white enamelled “shell” As a style icon known for her bold and of which opens to reveal a matt yellow gold yolk the RIHANNA ♥ CHOPARD modern choices,

collections capture Rihanna’s unique vision

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Easter egg as a surprise for the Empress.

Known as the Hen Egg it is crafted from gold, its opaque white enamelled “shell” opening to reveal its first surprise, a matt yellow gold yolk. This in turn opens to reveal a multi-coloured, superbly chased gold hen that also opens.

This intriguing gift was the starting point for the yearly imperial tradition that continued for 32 years until 1917 and produced the most opulent and captivating Easter gifts the world has ever seen.

ARTISTIC TOUR DE FORCE Each egg, an artistic tour de force, took a year or more to make. Fabergé was given complete freedom in the design and execution, with the only prerequisite being that there had to be surprise within each creation.

The surprises ranged from a perfect miniature replica of the Coronation carriage to a heart-shaped frame on an easel with 11 miniature portraits of members of the Imperial family.

The most expensive was the 1913 Winter Egg which was invoiced at 24 600 roubles, around £1,87-million in today’s money.

Of the 50 eggs made for the Imperial Family between 1855 and 1916, 43 have survived.

HOROLOGY

FIONA KRUGER Scottish watchmaker Fiona Kruger’s iconic Skull collection launched the brand in 2013 and set Fiona apart from the status quo. Her avant-garde attitude to watch design has allowed her to create pieces which truly stand out, whilst working with the most well-respected artisans and manufacturers in Switzerland today.

WATCH HERE

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MB&F After decades conforming to the rules of corporate watchmaking, Maximilian Büsser started a rebellion in 2005 called MB&F – Maximilian Büsser & Friends.

Conceived by MB&F and built by L’Epée 1839, Destination Moon is the quintessential torpedo-shaped rocket of childhood dreams.

WATCH HERE

Niche pieces

Pictures supplied by the various brands

Some call them avant garde, niche or even mavericks but the world of watches always need the fabled few that break the mould, says watch writer John Galt

ALEXANDRE MEERSON Combining British luxury with French design this oneof-a-kind brand is devoted to creating beautiful bespoke, modern classic watches and accessories, like the bespoke Mutiny Chronograph.

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KINETIC SCULPTURES

Kinetic sculptures

Sculptures from artist Hervé Stadelmann appeal to the inner child in everyone, making them a perfect fit for the MB&F M.A.D.Gallery

Each composition comprises a complex architecture of handcrafted bends and folds exuding a distinctive origami vibe.

“My inspiration is guided by the graphics, typography, and textures on the sheets of metal I find. The main point is to find a sheet metal plate that inspires me,” the artist explains.

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Kinetic art is a sculptural construction with movable parts which are activated by motor, wind, hand pressure, or other direct means. Kinetic art wasn’t established as a major artistic movement until the 1950s but fell out of fashion as artists began to experiment with computers.

In 2017 it is back in vogue and enthusiasts can find a captivating universe of kinetic art where Horological Machines and Mechanical Art Devices reign supreme at the MB&F M.A.D.Gallery which has branches in Geneva, Taipei and Dubai.

Brought to life in his Swiss studio, each composition comprises a complex architecture of handcrafted bends and folds exuding a distinctive origami vibe.

Each robot is unique: for example, one may have an antenna or what appears to be a classically Egyptian-style headdress, while another sets itself apart with vibrant colour patterns flaunted across the chest or a monochromatic copper tone. No two of his robots are alike.

CAREFULLY CURATED

COOL FACTOR

Inside the galleries is the complete range of MB&F Horological Machines and Legacy Machines, and carefullycurated pieces – or, as they like to call them, Mechanical Art Devices – from around the world.

The latest talent at the MB&F M.A.D. Gallery is artist Hervé Stadelmann, who presents his army of Robotyps, which are likely to trigger fantasies of coveted superpowers.

The colourful collection of 16 individually numbered robotic sculptures merges Stadelmann’s keen eye for graphic design with his professional tinsmith training.

Now cue the cool and green factor: Stadelmann’s constructions also proudly display their repurposed origins, whether these come from what may appear to be a patriotic American Pepsi or Dutch Heineken service tray, or the tin of an exotic batch of Asian teas.

These familiar materials, often with bold patterns, set the stage for the unique blueprint, and imaginary superpower, of each intricate composition.

The constructions proudly display their repurposed origins, whether these come from Pepsi or Heineken, or the tin of a batch of tea.

Text and pictures: www.madgallery.net

Each sculpture has an unmistakable personality fulfilled by meticulously placing the cuts and folds of the metal to express the robot’s charisma.

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STYLE ICON

Founder of Flagstone Wines Bruce Jack is a farmer-poet along the lines of Cicero, with an unsurpassed passion for his craft

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Founder of Flagstone Wines Bruce Jack is a brilliant writer whose words blaze across a page. His Drift Farm blog is a brilliantly poetic and sensuous journal of his winemaking journey.

Phrases such as the “torque of tannin, the grip of climate” reveal someone with a deep and abiding love for the winemaker’s craft.

“Crafting beer and gin is nothing compared to the craft that goes into wine. You have to make wine once a year, the grapes ripen once a year and they go vrot very quickly. It is not a continuous process but a seasonal thing. A winemaker only has one production moment annually, which is very ancient and intense and this involves the full batch. It is about quality rather than quantity.

BLENDING IS CRUCIAL “Another thing about crafting when making wine on a small scale is that you are able to pick grapes and then blend wine. Blending is a crucial part of crafting wines.”

Bruce works very closely with the chief winemaker of Flagstone Wines, Gerhard Swart, and has a profound respect for him.

“Gerard to my mind is the unsung hero of Flagstone; in fact, the wines are better now than when it was just me making them. I still sign them off but a lot of the hard work is done by Gerard. He is an exceptional talent, if not the best in South Africa.

Founder of Flagstone Wines Bruce Jack is a brilliant writer whose words blaze across a page, revealing a deep and abiding love for the winemaker’s craft.

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STYLE ICON

When you grow grapes on the edge of their comfort zone you are able to make better wine. A vine reacts to its environment, focusing its energy on making grapes, like a pearl inside an oyster

“Gerard is fastidious, obsessive, and organised, and has an amazing ability to blend.”

When he founded Flagstone Wines in 1998 Bruce owned a “virtual vineyard”, a proper working winery at the Waterfront in Cape Town. He rented land and sourced the grapes to make his wines.

NOVEL APPROACH Although this was an approach adopted around the world, such as in Alsace with urban wineries, it was a novel approach in South Africa.

Even though it was tough in the beginning and he was an outsider, having studied overseas, he was in the right place at the right time when a change in legislation allowed him to buy grapes from all over the

Western Cape.

He was able to go to the best areas for particular varieties around the country which gave him a lot of flexibility and allowed him to make wines across the range.

Today Flagstone is a small but frequently awarded winery, owned by Accolade Wines and its core, long-term supplying vineyards “stretch from the southern-most wine growing area in South Africa, Elim, to easterly vineyard sites high in the Ashton Mountains to the Breede River valley north of Cape Town”.

Their wines range from Dark Horse Shiraz to the Pinotage Writer’s Block, beautiful Chenin Blancs and Chardonnay, and a selection of port.

LOVES THE CHALLENGE After selling Flagstone, Bruce continued to lavish love and attention on the wines and added to his stable with his own estate wine, a complex Pinot Noir from his farm, The Drift Farm.

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LEFT: Flagstone is a small but frequently awarded winery, with longterm, core supplying vineyards stretching from Elim to one of the most easterly vineyard sites high in the Ashton Mountains and to the Breede River valley north of Cape Town.

RIGHT: The tasting room at Flagstone’s Winery where connoisseurs can sample wines ranging from the award-winning Dark Horse Shiraz to the Pinotage Writer’s Block, beautiful Chenin Blancs and Chardonnay, and a selection of port.

Obviously he loved the challenge of this cold, windswept place, situated in a pocket of the Overberg previously virgin to winemaking.

“It is cold and tough, but the thing what I have experienced is that when you are growing grapes on the edge of their comfort zone you are able to make better wine. A vine reacts to its environment, and focuses its energy on making grapes, like a pearl being formed in an oyster.”

He has a deep and abiding love for his beautiful farm and has delved deep into its story lore like a Lawrence Green novel.

Pictures supplied by Flagstone Wines

AMAZING HISTORY “It is a very beautiful place and has so much amazing history. My mother was an historian and wrote a book on African history, so I grew up with this interest which developed more and more as I got older.

“I spoke to my neighbours, and read up about the area. There is evidence of stone axes, rock painting, and ancient human habitation on the farm, including graves, and a 12 000-year-old stone wall used to hunt ostriches.”

A renaissance man, winemaker, surfer, poet

and philosopher, Bruce is one of the wine world’s most interesting characters.

STRIVING FOR BALANCE “Everyone needs to have balance and I am striving for it.

You will become a much better person if you are open to the influence of other people and philosophies.

“I am currently reading a book by Sir Edmund Hillary written after he conquered Everest. In it he goes back and builds schools for the Sherpas in the Himalayas, after seeing that their community was so isolated that they needed education. What he didn’t want to do was to bring Western corruption to bear on a society that had other good things going for it.

“He talks about the toughness and enlightment of a community that is so much more in tune with their environment than the Western world.”

Within his home context, Bruce says that money goes so far but the only way to uplift a society is through goodwill, especially in the wine industry which is the biggest employer of people in the Western Cape.

“The Cape Winemakers Guild does a lot of upliftment projects, including a protégé programme. Uplifting your community is a very complex, complicated and collaborative process.

“In the wine industry you have to be passionate about the product, it’s not the sort of industry that is about making money.”

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FOOD

Green Cuisine Anna Trapido explores the concept of farm-to-table in South Africa and how sustainable it is

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FOOD

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The “farm-to-table”a eco-epicurean restaurant movement offers chefs and diners a way to please their stomachs and consciences in equal measure.

“Farm-to-table” is a phrase that can mean different things to different people (and is open to all sorts of alimentary abuse) but, when honestly applied, it emphasises a sustainable, direct buy and supply relationship between a farm and a restaurant.

Without a middle man distributor agriculturalists reap more of the profit and chefs relish the quality and freshness of ingredients directly delivered within hours of harvest.

Diners also enjoy spadesful of social, political and economic inspiration from knowing where their food came from and how it was treated prior to cooking.

At Coobs in Parkhurst, Johannesburg (www. coobs.co.za) 75% of Chef James Diack’s ingredients come from his Magaliesburg organic family farm, Brightside.

Such culinary care comes in hearty portions at this

ABOVE: A light luncheon in the Greenhouse Restaurant shows the bounty produced from the magnificent Babylonstoren gardens.

LEFT: A pear growing in a bottle is an ingenious way to keep stinging insects at bay.

bustling bistro where meltingly magnificent main courses of confit Brightside pork belly with honey glazed carrots compete for customer attention with free-range, pan fried liver in a leek and sherry jus.

Save space for the exquisite elderflower ice cream.

The flourishing organic, urban agriculture sector can provide locally grown, low carbon mile produce to those without the luxury of a family farm.

Siyakhana Food Garden (www.siyakhana.org) in Johannesburg’s super central Bezhuidenhout Valley Park services an ever growing group of gourmet restaurants. This It is a truth universally acknowledged sustainable self-help project offers everything from peppery mustard that the Garden of Eden at greens and vibrant kales to ruby red Babylonstoren, Franschhoek is beyond radishes and delicate fennel fronds.

Eat it to save it is central to the Slow beautiful. Diners at Babel restaurant Food philosophy. look out onto over 300 varieties of At Enaleni farm chef/farmer Richard edible plants Haigh provides KZN conservation

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FOOD

and his epic lamb, leek and farmhouse cheese pie is a legend in its own lunchtime.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the Garden of Eden at Babylonstoren, Franschhoek is beyond beautiful (www.babylonstore.com).

Diners at the onsite, multi-award winning Babel restaurant look out through contemporary glass walls onto over 300 varieties of edible plants.

deluxe at his bi-monthly pop-up restaurant events (www.enaleni.co.za).

He was recently awarded the international Slow Food Movement Presidium Projects Prize for breeding endangered, heritage Zulu sheep.

Haigh also grows traditional, drought-resistant maize varieties, imifino greens and ibhece melons

SIMPLE YET STYLISH

“Farm-to-table”can mean different things to different people but, when honestly applied, emphasises a direct buy and supply relationship between a farm and a restaurant

Housed in the world’s most glamorous converted cow shed, Babel restaurant provides a simple yet stylish space in which to eat the likes of marinated artichoke terrine with farm honey caviar and quince vinaigrette.

Those seeking a less posh nosh variation on the theme adore Babylonstoren’s Greenhouse where seasonal soups and sandwiches are the order of the

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PICTURE supplied BY Babylonstoren and Coobs

LEFT: The colourful interior of Chef James Diack’s farm-to-table restaurant Coobs, in Parkhurst, Johannesburg, where 75% of the ingredients come from his Magaliesburg organic family farm, Brightside.

ABOVE: A delectable plate of the freshest greenest ingredients in town. The bistro is so popular that fellow chefs pay it the greatest compliment by eating there regularly.

day. Customers are encouraged to create their own tea infusion with fresh herbs from the garden.

Every little bit helps and elderflower ice cream tastes great but is all this ‘sustainability’ sustainable?

Probably not. The problem lies not with the chefs or the farmers but rather with eater expectations.

For such a system to be truly sustainable chefs should cook and serve only what the local farmers

can provide.

Therein lies the rub. Customers generally associate dining out with luxury and luxury with choice. We want to be able to order whatever we like whenever we feel like it.

Hands up who thinks that cups of coffee and unseasonal strawberries will be with us for a while yet…

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BEAUTY

Dr Gobac

Cheek2Chic editor Sarah Cangley visits a new concept “medi-salon” run by Dr Robert Gobac which offers awardwinning, sophisticated and holistic therapies for both skin and body

The focus on both invasive and non invasive procedures to combat anti-aging is intense and those who want to turn the clock back will try just about anything.

Botox and plastic surgery is not for everyone, however, and some people seek more alternative sophisticated holistic therapies.

Cheek2Chic editor Sarah Cangley decided to try out an excellent South African range, DR. GOBAC® COSMECEUTICALS, which won Marie Claire’s Best Local product in the Prix d’Excellence de la Beauté Awards 2017.

Dr Robert Gobac has spent many years of intense research on skin rejuvenation developing his own

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range, and applied to it his expert knowledge of the histology of the skin, his experience and involvement in cosmetic chemistry.

He claims his sophisticated line of products works synergistically to stimulate the skin’s own rejuvenation and repair mechanisms for a healthier, more ageless complexion.

SKIN ANALYSIS I had an appointment for a facial at the Dr Gobac Skin Body Apothecary in Morningside where my therapist Elzanne did a Derma-Dynamic analysis of my skin. The assessment checked for moisture, oil, elastin and collagen levels and then tweaked the treatment accordingly.

Based on the results Elzanne opted for the Supertransforming

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BEAUTY

Anti-Ageing Facial Preparation for me.

Because the Dr Gobac products are cosmeceuticals with botanical ingredients, the products work on a cellular level and I was keen to try them out.

The sequence of my treatment went as follows: 1. Double cleanse - antiinflammatory, anti-bacterial while moisturising the skin.

2. Exfoliation – The DR. GOBAC ® exfoliation was an effective yet gentle treatment that soothed and nurtured my skin while allowing the fruit enzymes to gently dissolve and lift off dead cells, leaving my skin more even, radiant and healthy.

3. Dr Gobac Treatment gel – this is a star product of the treatment for areas showing visible signs of ageing, such as the throat and neck. The After two weeks of using the products my skin gel had an effect on my facial expression was plump, happy and shining, proof that the muscles, resulting ingredients actively work. I found the serums a in well-toned facial necessary and integral step in my skincare regime muscles, as well as reduced and relaxed expression lines. protection.

4. Vitamin A Serum – the complex One of the key ingredients of DR. GOBAC‘s range is the clusters of ingredients in the biotechnologically advanced 10-Hexapeptide. serum helped treat my winter “In the first place hexapeptide stimulates the synthesis dehydration, redness as well as of Laminin-5, precursor of collagen. Laminin-5 synthesis fine lines. has been proved to decrease in aged skin. This causes 5. Biorestore – this is targeted a loss of contact between the dermis and epidermis, at diminishing deep wrinkles, reduced collagen production, and results in the skin losing expression lines, and dark rings, elasticity and becoming saggy.” and uplifting facial features. My I was rewarded with visible results directly after the face was redefined for a more facial and then got to take a starter kit home containing youthful look. a cleaner, day and night creams and a vitamin A serum.

6. Day Balance cream – This After two weeks of using them my skin was plump, happy was a botanical complex of and shining, proof that the ingredients actively work. dermointelligent clusters I found the DR. GOBAC® serums in particular a of active ingredients which necessary and integral step in my skincare regime. synergistically maintained my Dr Gobac Vitamin A serum contains a form of Vitamin skin’s hydration, slowed down A called Retinyl Palmitate which is very strong so only water evaporation and improved one drop is needed and patted carefully into the skin. It skin microcirculation and nutrition. is UV resistant and can therefore easily be absorbed into 7. F acial Sunscreen SPF25 – the deeper layers of the epidermis, where it is converted Something I never leave the house to retinol, which controls and stimulates the growth without! And this was a potent of epidermal cells, improves stability among the cells, non-toxic sunscreen that contains therefore restoring epidermal architecture and protects a cocktail of enzymes that provide skin against infections. complete and total free radical

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Pictures SUPPLIED

IN SEQUENCE

The GOBAC® COSMECEUTICALS range, plus a range of nail care products, are available in Dr Gobac’s Skin Body Apothecary in Morningside.

The new concept “medi-salon” is a one-of-a-kind apothecary-type service whereby products will be mixed on-site according to the client’s specific requirements and concerns.

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BEAUTY

Summer scents

South Africa’s “fragrance queen” Liz Ferrett explores the best scents for those beautiful warm days of an African spring and summer we wear less clothing and an uplifting fragrance is what is needed during this season.

I like to describe summer fragrances as happy uplifting scents to compliment your summer wardrobe so purchase a fresh, breezy fragrance with citrus, flower filled garden, juicy, airy, fresh type fragrances. Remember fragrance is so personal it reflects style and taste.

My suggestion is a refreshing, breezy scent by day and a bright, airy fragrance by night.

The notes to consider in a spring/summer fragrance should include jasmine, honeysuckle, white musk, mandarin, freesia, citrus, floral bouquet, powdery floral, musk and cedar, to name a few.

It’s time to put away your winter wardrobe and heavy winter scents away. Spring and summer always makes me think of fun in the sun, wearing flipflops and a sunhat on a beautiful beach.

Spring fragrance is all about the beautiful colours and smells in African gardens like lemon, pink, orange and peach flowers and gorgeous green grass. The sunshine and warmth bring happy thoughts like seaside dreaming and drinking chilled cocktails.

We also play uplifting music during the summer time and do a large amount of outdoor activities and outdoor eating. We live life to the fullest during this bright and sparkling season.

The same goes for choosing a summer fragrance:

Here are my suggestions for this summer:

Mens

Davidoff Coolwater Wave Eau de Toilette. A woody aquatic fragrance. It’s fresh and energising and gives the impression that you are plunging into the ocean. Top notes of grapefruit, pepper and sea notes, heart birch leaf and juniper and base notes of patchouli and sandalwood.

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PICTURES SUPPLIED BY VARIOUS BRANDS

Paco Rabanne Pure EX Eau de Toilette. An untamed oriental on fire and fresh with mouthwatering ginger and hot vanilla. Top notes of ginger, green accord and thyme, heart has vanilla, cinnamon, leather & liquor & the base has cedar wood, myrrh & sugar.

ladies

Dior Jadore in Joy Eau de Toilette A fruity floral. It has a unexpected salty twist and is really feminine. Top note is sea salt, the heart is jasmine sambac, ylangylang, tuberose and neroli and the base note ripe juicy peach.

Giorgio Armani Sky di Gioia Eau de Parfum. A fruity floral. It brings life, energy and optimism to a new day. Top notes of litchi and pear, heart of the fragrance is pink pepper and rose & the base is cedar, white musk and black current.

Mugler Alien Eau Sublime Eau De Toilette A powdery floral which can only be described as a sunkissed fragrance. It’s softer than the EDP which is great in warm weather. Top notes of lemon, orange, mandarin, galbanum and solar notes, the heart is jasmine, heliotrope, tiare flower, cherry and orange blossom and the base notes casjeran, vetiver, white amber and vanilla.

Stella McCartney POP Bluebell Eau de Parfum. A floral woody, it’s bright & dewy just like the English Bluebell which is used in a fragrance for the first time. Top notes tomato leaf, violet leaf, tuberose and frangipani & base notes sandalwood, cedar and musk.

FASHION

Second skin Flaunt that summer body in the world’s most seductive new underwear collections

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LA PERLAÂ 2017 Romance Campaign, starring Kendall Jenner, draws from the chaos and form of the English garden and the beauty of botanicals. A romantic secret garden of draped ivy, forgotten possessions and lush flora comes to life in a world of fantasy and seduction. www.laperla.com Kendall Jenner in a plunging white maxi dress with a lingerie aspect.

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FASHION

FRÉOLIC LONDON The Fréolic bridal collection is part of the modern day bridal trousseau, flattering the feminine form with elegant, sophisticated and romantic pieces. www.freolic.com

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Catherine semi-padded blush bra

HUGO BOSS Hugo Boss’s credo is: “The closest layer of your outfit each day, bodywear should get the same attention as the rest of your ensemble.

Featuring modern shapes and soft, high-quality fabrics, underwear and T-shirts from BOSS Bodywear always ensure ultimate comfort.” www. hugoboss. com Look like a Greek god in these Hugo Boss regular rise boxed briefs in stretch cotton.

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FASHION

EMPORIO ARMANI If there is one item a man should have in his wardrobe it’s a pair of beautifully crafted and fitting Emporio Armani briefs, guaranteed to make him feel as billboardready as any gorgeous male model. A pair of these is the perfect underpinning for a man who wants style, comfort and fit. www.armani.com A pair of stylish and distinctive Emporio Armani briefs.

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PICTURES SUPPLIED

AUBADE Aubade has been making innuendos, stimulating the senses and titillating the public since 1992. The photos of their “Lessons in Seduction” – designed like a faceless portrait gallery – invite onlookers to read between the lines. Aubade introduces a new way to see lingerie, its seduction and the pleasure that it offers. www.aubade.com Aubade’s lush and sensual underwear.

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SHOPPING

Clair Obscur ring, collection. Platinum, one 2.73-carat pear-shaped fancy black diamond, one 2.05-carat E IF pearshaped diamond, black lacquer, brilliant-cut diamond.

Price on request, available through Cartier boutiques worldwide Picture: Ben Hasset ©

On the list The new MINI John Cooper Works Clubman, available in South Africa. Pricing starts at R552 000 for a 6-speed manual.

XXIO Golf Clubs deliver the luxury experience of superb craftsmanship and technical innovation in golf clubs of the very highest quality.

To order your set of XXIO golf clubs, visit jdvsport.com

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PICTURES: supplied; Quick Pic; Vincent Wulverick © Cartier; omega

Here are just a few covetable items for connoisseurs of good things …

Bracelet Eurythmie Price on request, available through Cartier boutiques worldwide

Part of the new Cartier Homeware Collection: Box in burgundy wood, high-gloss lacquer, lid in polished metal engraved with double C motif, onyx cabochon. Available at Sandton City Cartier boutique, R5 750

The newly released Seamaster Diver 300M “Commander’s Watch” Limited Edition, R 650 000, limited to 57 pieces. www.omega.com

Awardwinning Musgrave handcrafted pink gin infused with rose water.

Romain Jerome’s new Steampunk Urban Safari collection, limited to 25 pieces. Order www. romainjerome.ch

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SHOPPING

New male fragrances

Missoni Parfum Pour Homme.

Top notes lemon, grapefrit and lavender, middle notes ginger, jasmine and apple and base notes sandalwood, oak, patchouli, birch and musk.

Cartier’s newest male fragrance L’Envol is inspired by ambrosia, the wine of the gods. It is an eau de parfum of dualities with resins set against musk. amber and vanilla.

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All pictures provided by African Sales Company and quick pic

Uomo Salvatore Ferragamo Casual Life. A woody aromatic fragrance for men with top notes lemon, violet, cardamon.

Middle notes coffee and geranium.Base notes cashmere wood and white cedar extract and musk.

The drop-top Ferrari Portofino, named after one of Italy’s most beautiful towns, is the new V8 GT set to dominate its segment thanks to a perfect combination of sportiness, elegance and on board comfort. It makes its world debut at the Frankfurt International Motor Show this month. www.ferrari.com

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MOTORING

Richard Webb takes a look at the Jaguar F-Type V8 R Coupe AWD. How does this car handle on one of the world's most beautiful mountain passes. Does it drive as brilliantly as it sounds and as impressively as it looks on paper?

WATCH HERE

It’s a bit of a looker, the F-Type.

Jaguar’s convertibles have long been big, comfortable cruisers, but this car changed it all. It’s a focused sports car, born to take the fight to Porsche’s 911.

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Topless treasure

Automotive lifestyle journalist Richard Webb’s best memories were made on balmy summer nights in open top cars. He relives his heydays with a pick of the most covetable luxury convertibles on the market.

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MOTORING

One place you’d never tire of sitting in is the Bentley Continental, but this car is equally about the performance: 328km/h top speed from its 6.0-litre, W12, twin-turbo engine.

WATCH HERE unseemly shouting. This is a superb long-distance tourer that’ll take in South Africa’s best and worst roads this summer.

When it comes to covetable convertibles, modern or classic, my heart leads me directly to the impossibly beautiful E-Type. The firm’s follow-up Jaguar F-Type took its own sweet time to arrive, but wow, it was worth the wait! As I slide into the cockpit of their SVR All Wheel Drive version, it feels like summer has wrapped its arms around me in a welcome hug.

In a return to the company’s heartland, this two-seat convertible sports car is focused on performance, agility and driver involvement – and I love it. The F-Type is a continuation of a sporting bloodline that stretches back nearly 80 years, and it exudes defined, athletic elegance. The almost sensual sounds, feelings and looks entice me. Sharp handling, unimpeachable body control and the uncanny turn-in make “Sometimes, absolute comfort doesn’t matter. When you for an intimate drive.

Smothered in want to be freakin’ fabulous, opt for the keys with the lashings of leather, Raging Bull on the fob. As for style, the Bentley never wood and chrome, the Rolls-Royce speaks, but somehow is always saying something.”

There is something incredibly nostalgic about driving a convertible car. It’s about the tradition of planning a journey as an act of celebration and discovery, or even that spontaneous road trip for no particular reason.

Tradition and convertible cars are steadfast bedfellows, of course. For example, early Bentleys were mostly open topped. I tried their Continental GT Speed, the one that rockets to 100km/h in just 4.4 seconds.

Being four-wheel drive means this is a luxury car you can use in all seasons, despite its outrageous power. Lots of grip, coupled with plenty of torque is a recipe for fun, but it’s at its best as a cruiser, rather than a sports car. Enjoy the perfectly tuned exhaust note and surge of adrenaline every time you tinker with the accelerator. Roof down, it’s a supremely quiet cruiser, and perfectly possible to hold a conversation with your passenger without

An automotive masterpiece from any angle, the Lamborghini Huracán is pure theatre to drive, to look at and to listen to. One can’t be ambivalent about the car – everything screams at you to have an opinion about it. I loved it.

WATCH HERE 55

MOTORING

“Orson Welles once said “Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” I think he was talking about the Rolls-Royce Dawn.”

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WATCH HERE 57

MOTORING

Ask many people about the one sports open-top car that they’d like to own, and chances are it will be a Mercedes-Benz SL. Few cars embrace heritage and modernity like the SL does.

WATCH HERE

Dawn is the most opulent drop-head on the planet. Dawn’s alluring presence is unmistakable, right from the very first encounter. Striking and assertive, its charm and charisma draw you in. With the top up, the mood is powerful. With one touch, its sensuous appeal is unveiled: the roof silently folds away, revealing a seductive interior.

Entry is via front-opening, theatrical ‘coach’ doors, hinged in the centre of the car - showcasing the occupants as glamorously as possible. The 6.6-litre twin turbo V12 engine is all part of its stand-out dynamics – rocketing you towards the horizon from 0 to 100km in 4.9 seconds. The Dawn is a full four-seater, so whatever party you’re off to, this will get it started.

But the Brits certainly don’t have it all their way.

The first-ever Sports Leicht, a Mercedes-Benz lightweight sports car called the 300SL, was designed by legendary engineer Rudi Uhlenhaut to add its name to the winners’ roll call alongside that of Alfa-Romeo, Bentley and Jaguar at the Le Mans

24 Hours race. Mercedes-Benz are not known for half measures, and their 1952 win with this SL set the stage for a continually endearing and elegant high-performance roadster.

The current Mercedes SL has been around in facelifted format since early 2016 and continues to be an evergreen two-seater on the wish-lists of many. It offers a perpetual promise of summer with its metal-folding convertible roof. I slump into the sumptuous interior after a tough day, and then… ah, everything changes. I find the ride-quality to be sublime - the car goes exactly where I want it, with no discernible body roll. Seasons may change, but the car still gives that sense-of-occasion every time I climb aboard. The SL has always been a statement of where one believes one stands in the world.

The rear wheel drive Lamborghini Huracán LP 580-2 Spyder is everything the Dawn is not.

Visceral, unpredictable, a little dangerous, maybe - it feels radical. Unapologetically brash, with its gaping air vents. flattened roofline and chiselled

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“If Practice means to perform, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have learned by practice. In the performance of a series of dedicated and a precise set of acts, these cars are a manifest achievement.”

Pictures supplied Narrative Media; Jaguar UK; Bentley UK; BMW UK

WATCH HERE

rear haunches, the V10 engine delivers the kind of ballsy braggadocio that makes this car feel otherworldly.

There are three drive modes – all highly entertaining: Strada for city driving, Sport for when you want to oversteer and Corsa for when you are feeling very talented.

Zero to 100kpm/h takes 3.6 seconds of mechanical howling, but unlike some hyper-cars, it’s not beastly to drive under more mundane conditions. As I drove the car back to the company’s Cape Town showroom, I cling to the quote “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” The car has gone back, but the smile still endures.

At the ‘affordable’ end of these featured luxury convertible cars, the hugely potent BMW M4 is a comfortable, classy and desirable choice. Roof-up, you barely know that it’s a convertible. Even more impressive is the lack of wind buffeting in the car

BMW make cars that ‘just feel right’. The materials, ergonomics and dynamics come together to make the journey pleasurable. The 4-series convertible is no exception.

with the roof down, windows up and wind deflector in place. Front seat conversation is entirely possible, even at motorway speeds.

Classy materials and the usual crisply presented instruments are a triumph of logical control layout. It’s the yin to Bentley’s yang. And in it, I experienced freshness and beauty in watching the clouds float across the sky. And to do it in a BMW is always ‘a good thing’.

For me, open-top motoring in South Africa reminds me that although all days are equally long regardless of the season, some of those days are long not only because of the season - but also by the rewards they offer.

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BY INVITATION

Andrea Pezzi and Cristiana Capotondi at the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gala Dinner.

Venice dinner

Ana Brenda Contreras at the Arsenal in Venice where the dinner was held.

ABOVE LEFT: Coco Rocha wearing a Jaeger-LeCoultre RendezVous Moon in pink gold. ABOVE RIGHT: Diane Kruger and Catherine Deneuve at the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gala Dinner.

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PICTURES SUPPLIED BY GETTY IMAGES

Official sponsor of the Venice International Film Festival JaegerLeCoultre celebrated its commitment with a gala dinner recently.

Jaeger-LeCoultre honoured Catherine Deneuve for her unparalleled contribution to the art of filmmaking.

A long-time friend of the Brand actress Diane Kruger presented her with the award.

LEFT: Actor Ethan Hawke with his son Levon Roan Thurman-Hawke during the First Reformed premiere at Sala Grande.

RIGHT: Rebecca Hall, a member of the “Venezia 74” jury.

ABOVE: Alexander Payne, the director of Downsizing.

BELOW: Eva Riccobono wearing a Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Sonatina Amour.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Ivy Secret watch in white gold.

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BY INVITATION

Ndebele chic

Ndebele artist Esther Mahlangu was the first woman to create artwork on a BMW 525i Sedan 26 years ago, turning it into a unique and colourful BMW Art Car. In 2016, Esther was once again commissioned by the BMW Group to refine a BMW 7 Series. The vehicle was on display at the Frieze Art Fair in London in 2016. She returned to South Africa this year and exhibited at the FNB Johannesburg Art Fair, held in Sandton.

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South African artist Esther Mahlangu in her traditional Ndebele dress.

Unique designs of the interior of the BMW luxury sedan on the dashboard, car doors and trimmings.

Pictures SUPPLIED BY www.press.bmwgroup.com

Esther at work creating the symmetrical patterned strips that are her signature.

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