Treading gently

More of us than ever are turning to a cruelty-free way of living, and it’s not just about what we eat, it’s about the clothes we wear and the items we buy to enhance our spaces. Meet the ethical pioneers who are working hard to make your home and wardrobe a plant-based paradise, without compromising on style nsurprisingly, many vegan brands are started because their founders love animals and do not wish to exploit them. This is certainly the case with Companion Candles’ Loren Lewin, a long-time fan of all things scented, waxy, and wicky. When COVID-19 struck and she was forced to spend “99.9% of my time in my small city apartment with my dog, Mylo,” she started wondering what was really in the candles she so loved—and how safe they were for both her and her companion. “Our candles were created out of a love for animals and also a frustration with the candle industry,” says Lewin. “We were disturbed to find out that most candles are made with petroleum, paraffins, phthalates, and other harmful chemicals. Not only are these ingredients toxic when burned, they’re also terrible for the environment. So, we set out to create a line of cruelty-free candles that are safe for you and your pets, and also give back.” That giving back means the company donates $1 to animal rescue organizations for every candle sold.

Sparking joy

Companion Candles have dog-themed names and taglines. “I love you, I love you! I am fur-ever yours” adorns the pot of a santal-scented offering, while a hydrangea and vanilla candle declares “Anywhere with you. Completely mutts about you.” Mylo and other furry friends regularly appear on Lewin’s marketing materials.

All Companion Candles are made in the United States and are free of paraffins, phthalates, preservatives, and many common toxins. There are no additives or dyes and their wooden wicks are eco-friendly, clean-burning, and made from FSCcertified wood. They are also cruelty-free—while many other candles contain beeswax, tallow, or stearic acid derived from animal fats, Lewin’s are entirely plant-based: “There is a growing awareness of animal welfare and the ethical concerns surrounding the treatment of animals used for food, clothing, and other products,” Lewin believes. “As a result, more people are choosing to purchase vegan and cruelty-free products as a way to align their values with their purchasing decisions.”

More pragmatic reasoning was behind the move into the vegan arena by the U.K.’s Cottonsafe Natural Mattresses. Concerned about the risks associated with fire-retardant chemicals used in mattress-making “to our team, customers, and the environment,” the company developed its first entirely natural and chemical-free mattresses, which it launched in 2013. Director Rebecca Willis picks up the story. “There has been a significant consumer movement towards more sustainable purchasing over the past few years, as well as a growth in environmental veganism. While our products have always been sustainable, meeting the Stockholm Convention for safe disposal and being chemical-free as well as recyclable and biodegradable, we were conscious that we didn’t meet the expectations of vegan consumers because [mattresses] were largely made from animal fibers such as wool.” The company set about creating its vegan mattresses, made with polyester, “which is inherently fire retardant, fully recyclable.”

Friends of the earth Companion Candles (bottom of image) are scented without causing harm; the WEEK/END bag by Frida Rome (right) is made of apple leather, and is available from Immaculate Vegan.

Launched in 2018 the mattresses (and pillows) were the U.K.’s first to be entirely vegan and Vegan Society accredited.

“We are different from any other mattress manufacturer because we don’t use any harmful glues and chemicals to make any of our products. While still meeting all the U.K. fire regulations, our mattresses remain safe and chemical-free up to and beyond their end of life.” And, of course, they don’t use any of the cashmere, camel hair, or horse hair found in traditional mattresses or any animalderived adhesives or lubricants. Willis says that the vegan mattresses are increasingly popular, accounting for close to half of the company’s sales.

Environmental concerns were a key driver for Vicki von Holzhausen, a former car designer whose eponymous company has developed vegan leathers that are used on fashion accessories and in cars. “I’m a problem solver by nature and I’ve always loved design,” she explains. “In the car industry, I was very interested in environmentalism… about the impact people had on the environment.”

Concerned by how much wastage there was when using animal hides to upholster vehicles, von Holzhausen “saw a huge opportunity for something different, not just for cars but for fashion. I thought, ‘There has to be another way, there’s no need to use animal skins any more.’”

In 2016, von Holzhausen and her team began working on what would become Technik-Leather, made from post-consumer plastic and plants and used on bags and accessories. This was followed by “buttery soft” Banbū Leather and Struktur Leather, engineered “for extreme wear” such as car interiors. Updates and new leathers are in the works. “We are an innovation company, we’re constantly leapfrogging our own work,” says von Holzhausen.

Style and substance

A long-time vegetarian and latterly vegan, von Holzhausen has strong views on livestock production, “the massive amount of resources it takes to grow a cow,” and on our dependence on plastics. To address the latter she has created leathers that are “based on plant chemistry, not petroleum chemistry,” and a backing component that actively accelerates biodegradation in a zero-oxygen environment should a bag be discarded.

Not that this is likely to be a common occurrence. Von Holzhausen believes shoppers choose her bags, backpacks, laptop cases, and accessories “because they actually care about style more than anything. Our clients love the look and function of our bags. So many people think our bags are leather, not just because of the material but the old artisan techniques we use, the stitching, the painted edges. The fact that they are sustainable is an added bonus.”

To find the vegan clothing, accessories, and homewares for her portal Immaculate Vegan, Annick Ireland spends “a lot of time searching the world for brands that share our values, that really are about living ethically and sustainably, without the greenwashing.”

Immaculate Vegan launched with around 60 brands in 2019, originally as an Instagram blog, and today offers products from more than 100 designers and companies. “We launched pre-COVID, and four months later we were in a lockdown,” says Ireland. “Not surprisingly, we saw a radical shift away from smarter clothing and accessories, such as highheeled shoes and smart work bags, to more sneakers and casual wear. And while we’ve recently seen an increase in people investing in more dressy items again, sneakers are still our best-selling category.”

Every item on Ireland’s site has to “pass our test of both aesthetics and ethics” complying with stringent conditions with regard to materials (must be 100 percent vegan and as sustainable as possible), manufacturing, and use of ethical labor.

Ireland believes that increased interest in vegan products and lifestyle is down to several factors coming together: “The increasing urgency of climate-change issues, which we know animal agriculture is a major contributor to; an increasing awareness of the harm and suffering caused by industrial factory farming; and people’s awareness of how much healthier plant-based diets can be.”

She also notes that the fashion industry is a major environmental polluter, one of biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, and a heavy contributor to deforestation, habitat loss, and loss of biodiversity. “Customers are understanding the impact of fashion on the environment, and demanding ethical and sustainable alternatives. Just as in food, vegan has become the benchmark to aim for when choosing more consciously.” b

Steven Short is editor of Christie’s International Real Estate magazine

companioncandles.com cottonsafenaturalmattress.co.uk vonholzhausen.com immaculatevegan.com

Words: Xenia Taliotis

Modern fairy tales

Whether fortress or folly, a castle is many people’s ultimate dream property. Here designers and castle owners recount how they turned fantasy into reality

Italian beauty

“We fell in love with it the second we saw it,” says Harvey B-Brown of Castle Elvira. “Or rather we fell in love with our vision of what it could be. Sometimes what you see in your mind’s eye is not what’s staring you in the face.”

What was staring B-Brown and his husband, Steve Riseley, in the face was a graffiti-covered shell that had been abandoned for nearly a century. Built in the late 1800s, Castle Elvira in Puglia, Italy, had been given as a birthday present to a 17-year-old called Elvira. To thank her parents for her gift, the teenager prepared a feast using mushrooms she’d picked in the grounds. She died that night after eating one that was poisonous. Her grief-stricken parents sealed up the castle and left Puglia forever.

“When we went to view it in 2018,” says Riseley, “we had to hack a path through 37 acres (15 ha) of wilderness and inside was total dereliction.”

Elvira’s interiors—its frescoed ceilings, cast-iron filigree window grates, parquet floors—had been looted, vandalized, or ravaged by the elements. The stairs had rotted away. Winds howled through its pane-less windows, birds nested in its pink turrets.

Turning the castle into a residence and hotel was a far bigger undertaking than the couple had anticipated. “We were bewitched by Elvira, obsessed, blinded by love—and our decisions were driven by the desire to recapture and honor its intrinsic character,” says B-Brown. “We wanted to preserve what was there, such as the murals on the ceilings, and to restore what we could salvage or, if we couldn’t do that, to find craftsmen who could build traditional stone walls, work iron, and make banisters and stairs from bare wood, which proved a painful process. We were swept up by the dream, but when reality bit, it bit hard—the sheer scale of what we had to do caused many sleepless nights.

“Renovating a castle is not for the faint hearted. It takes stamina, tenacity, and huge emotional and financial resources. It takes imagination—how are you going to install heating and air conditioning

Fit for a king Castle Elvira (previous page and above left) has been brought back to life; there is a traditional 16th-century layout at Forter Castle (above), except for in the Laird’s Room (right), which now extends to the full expanse of the building.

James Risdon / Floodgate Films

and all the necessities and luxuries of 21st-century living in a 19th-century building without disrupting its appearance? Our smart televisions are integrated into retro-style mirrors and we used the most advanced under-floor heating and air cooling system. And then there are the regulations and the red tape, and the fact that different restrictions can apply to different parts of the estate, depending on its age. But when we see how much our guests love Elvira, we’re so glad we didn’t take any shortcuts.” castleelvira.com

Into tomorrow

“Good castle refurbishment is about preserving the property’s ancient soul while giving it new life as a luxurious family residence. Baronial architecture demands opulence, a home demands comfort. The key is to balance the two,” says Katharine Pooley, founder of Katharine Pooley Design Studio, who did the interiors for Forter Castle, her family’s 16th-century property in Perthshire, Scotland.

“People who buy a castle—my father, Robert Pooley, included—are drawn to the history, to the fact that they are preserving something unique for the future. When my father acquired Forter in 1988, it was a roofless ruin. It could easily have been lost, but he transformed it into one of the great houses of Perthshire. It is his legacy, and now an important part of my family’s narrative: taking on the interior design was a deeply personal project for me.

“My foundational points were the building and its proportions, and the landscape. You have to give a property of this size, with its high roofs, grandeur. You layer, adding color and texture and light to create a space for entertaining, or relaxing, or partying. The Great Hall is still what it was all those centuries ago—a place for banquets. We wanted to make its Great Hall one of the main attractions, so we commissioned the artist

“To renovate a castle, you need talented craftspeople who share your vision. That’s the best route to getting the results that you desire.” katharinepooley.com

Stage struck

Award-winning architect and interior artist Alex Kravetz has transformed many historically important properties into exquisite residences. A non-disclosure agreement means he cannot name the castle he renovated for a client, nor even give its location, but he says that when he found out his proposals had been accepted, his “heart leapt both with excitement and trepidation.”

“A castle provides the perfect stage for drama, which means there is scope to let the imagination run wild. To an extent it’s a theatrical experience. It’s the design and architecture team’s job to fulfill as many of the clients’ fantasies as possible, but also to advise what heritage and conservation bodies will allow. You need to be forensic in your research. Delving deep into the archives, or finding a scrap of newspaper that proves that modifications occurred much later than believed can make the difference between getting your plans approved or not.

“Research is also at the heart of finding people with the necessary skills to recreate the past. Depending on where the castle is, you might well need to bring in people from other countries. If you want the best, you will have to wait for them, so build this into your time frame.

“Integrating and sometimes concealing modern living—heating systems, lifts, and ramps—into the fabric of an ancient building is technically difficult. You choreograph, you set-build. Where can the full-screen cinema room go, or the bowling alley? It’s your job to make all this happen while ensuring you never lose sight of the property’s heritage.” alexkravetzdesign.com

Military minded

A good knight’s sleep

The opulent Chapel Bar in a castle renovated by Alex Kravetz (above); Ashford Castle (above right) is now a beautiful hotel housing sumptuous rooms including the Reagan Suite (right).

Now part of Red Carnation Hotels, Ashford Castle in County Mayo, Ireland, has been a part of its community for more than eight centuries. Its renovation, says Jonathan Raggett, CEO, Red Carnation Hotels, “left no tile, window, or brick untouched.” When he first visited, there was a gale blowing through it. “I thought, ‘How on earth are we going to keep the weather out, how are we going to make this a cozy and inviting place to stay?’”

Raggett says the project was managed like a military operation. “We had strategies, phases of what had to happen when. The infrastructure had to be overhauled completely—800 windows were replaced, as were 10,764 square feet (1,000 sq m) of lead roofing, with each tile being cut by hand.” Toni Tollman, the director of design and projects, had teams of people sourcing materials and artifacts from all over the world. The marble in the Prince of Wales Bar and in many of the bathrooms is from Connemara, the double-tiered Val Saint Lambert chandelier in the Great Hall is from Belgium. Tollman hired furniture makers and restorers who salvaged, mended, recreated. They even found a way of strengthening the original Oak Hall gallery, which had been thought too unstable to keep, so that it could remain in use.

“The transformation of the castle has been so amazing that sometimes when I visit, I think, ‘Was it really in as ruinous a state as I remember?’” says Raggett. “I check the photos and I think, ‘Oh my goodness, it was even worse…’” b ashfordcastle.com

Xenia Taliotis has written for the Daily Telegraph , The Times , and The Independent

Words: Xenia Taliotis

History lesson

You won’t find a home with more heritage than Blackwater Castle in Cork, Ireland, a property whose storied past is only matched by its exquisite beauty tanding on a high, forested promontory, 12th-century Blackwater Castle in the picturesque village of Castletownroche in Cork— Ireland’s southernmost county—is all a medieval fortress should be. There are the ancient, battlescarred towers, the murder hole through which unwelcome visitors were pelted with rocks, and the trip steps to send them tumbling on their way.

Take a different perspective, however, and you’ll embark on an architectural journey through time, with 14th-, 15th-, 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century additions that indicate its real purpose as a family residence. Remarkably, Blackwater has survived as a home for almost 1,000 years, making it among the oldest continuously occupied houses in Ireland.

Built as the fortress of Dún Crúadha in 1100, it was first the home of the powerful Roche family for nearly 600 years, and then of the Widenhams for three centuries. In between, it was besieged by two of England’s most notable statesmen—Walter Raleigh in 1580 and Oliver Cromwell in 1650.

“Raleigh’s siege, on behalf of the Crown, diminished the power of the Roche family, but it was Cromwell, 70 years later, who destroyed them,” says Roseanne de Vere Hunt, director at Sherry FitzGerald—an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate—who is marketing the grand property.

The estate was handed over to Colonel John Widenham in 1666. His descendants remained until the 1960s, and did considerable work on the home.

The castle is, says de Vere Hunt, “architecturally, historically, and spiritually significant.” Among its treasures are St. Patrick’s Holy Well, which not only provides residents with pure water but which might also have been visited by St. Patrick himself.

Since 1991, it has been owned by Sheila and Patrick Nordstrom, who have cherished it as their own home while also developing it as an events venue and hotel: Ireland’s president, Michael D. Higgins, and Michael Jackson are among the many VIPs who have stayed here.

The elegant interiors, impeccably designed for gracious living, relaxation, and entertaining, comprise six reception areas on the first floor, and nine en suite bedrooms, sleeping up to 23 people, on the second and third floors. “The ground floor has been so beautifully renovated,” says de Vere Hunt. “The whole building is bathed with light flooding in from those huge windows, which give the most spectacular long views of the landscape. When you first enter the house, the hall, with its columns and magnificent oak double staircase, takes your breath away. It’s transportive—immediately the weight lifts from people’s shoulders, and they visibly ease into a different way of being, if only for the duration of their stay.”

Straight on from the hall is the tea room, while a right turn leads to the original 14th-century medieval hall—now housing the bar, the drawing room, and the piano bar and library. To the right of the entrance is the dining hall and breakfast room. From here, residents can step out onto a south-facing terrace with life-enriching panoramas of the River Awbeg.

Outside, there is a wonderful stone courtyard and a beautifully maintained walled garden with abundant fruit and vegetables. Peaches, pears, blackberries, apples, and cherries thrive in the fertile soils, and much of the produce grown in the garden finds its way into the commercial kitchen, which often provides the catering for the banquets, weddings, and other celebrations held here.

The estate provides a wealth of opportunities for outdoor activities—walking, hiking, cycling— through 60 acres (24 ha) of mature woodland, but of course, it is the fast-flowing river, packed with brown trout and double-bank fishing rights for 0.62 miles (1 km) that is the key attraction for many. And beyond the confines of Blackwater? Well, guests will find all the services and amenities they could possibly ever wish for. “Everything is within such easy reach,” continues de Vere Hunt. “Cork International Airport is only an hour away, Shannon Airport a little over that, and Castletownroche is minutes away on foot. For more restaurants and larger shops, we have Fermoy and Mallow just 10 miles (16 km) away, and those wishing to be granted the ‘gift of the gab’—of chatter, in other words—can make their way to the world-famous Blarney to kiss the stone. That’s only 35 minutes away.” b