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LU X U R Y W I T H O U T C O M P R O M I S E
The Transformation Issue The newest science behind boosting performance, attacking aging and staying vital until the day you die (or possibly don’t) AUGUST 2020
august 2020, volume 44, number 7
3 C ON TR IBUT ORS
THE GOODS
7 ED IT OR ’S L E T T E R
14
OBJECTIFIED
9
After uncertainty created by the pandemic, luxury travel is back with an emphasis on private jets and hotel buyouts.
An out-of-this-world desk clock and a glassy submarine that will let you and your friends explore the ocean like never before. 12
18
THE DUEL
THE ANSWERS
24
Artist, fashion designer and serial entrepreneur Ramdane Touhami. 57
FIELD NOTES
26
96
THE DECIDER
What Should You Plan for Your Post-Covid Travel Adventure?
30
P. 66
F E AT U R E S 60
Silicon Valley Takes on Death
Humans have long sought the fountain of youth. Now, as four tech execs bet on anti-aging science to extend their life spans, that dream seems closer than ever. But is it pseudoscience or the real deal? BY MEGAN MILLER 66
You’re So Vain
In the youth-obsessed tech world, some men have turned to plastic surgery to keep their edge—but their Botox and filler appointments remain guarded secrets. BY LUCY ALEXANDER
Running on Empty
The Buchinger Wilhelmi diet, which consists of 200 calories per day from tea, juice, soup and other liquids, seems simple enough. An extreme fasting method, it promises to improve both the quality and the quantity of your life—if you can stomach it. BY MARK ELLWOOD 76
Can Your House Heal You?
Shortly after decorator Lucie McCullough moved into her Boston-area home, she began incorporating furnishings made of natural, nontoxic materials in an effort to create a healthier living environment for her and her family. The result? A home heavy on style cues from around the world: Negroni room, anyone? BY SOPHIE DONELSON The Transformation Issue The newest science behind boosting performance, attacking aging and staying vital until the day you die (or possibly don’t) AUGUST 2020
C OVER I L LUSTR ATI ON BY Frank Morrison
2
AUGUST 2020
84
The Price of Happiness
Most people believe that more money will make them happier. But is wealth really the solution, or does it simply create more problems? BY JULIE BELCOVE
ART & DESIGN
How to make your healthy home tech work for you, and a new cultural space near Los Angeles blends art and wellness. DREAM MACHINES 40
70 LU X U R Y W I T H O U T C O M P R O M I S E
FOOD & DRINK
The bottles to pair with takeout meals, and why South Africa’s arid Swartland region should be on every wine connoisseur’s radar.
THE BUSINESS
What the future holds for Aston Martin’s troubled business as a new CEO takes the reins, designer Aurora James challenges retailers to pledge that 15 percent of their products will be from Black-owned companies and Out of Office with Christophe Caillaud, CEO of Liaigre.
WATCHES
Parmigiani rejoins the sportswatch boom with its new Tonda GT line.
How the Land Rover Defender evolved from a workaday driver without any doors to the luxury auto it is today, why you should spend more of your money on experiences and the Covid-19 pandemic takes a toll on the US horseshow community. 91
STYLE
Wardrobe essentials for the socially distanced summer wedding, and non-invasive aesthetic procedures that will sculpt the face and body.
Jaunt vs. Joby 36
TRAVEL
WHEELS
Behind the wheel of the Fzed in New Zealand, a first look at Robb Report’s annual September Dream Machines event in Las Vegas, Yamaha’s flagship motorcycle gets a major update and five online car-auction lots to watch. 47
WATER
REV Ocean, the world’s largest yacht and research vessel, and a shipyard in Maine re-creates Ernest Hemingway’s fishing boat with modern amenities. 50
TECH
Four expertly crafted turntables that will make vinyl sound sublime. 52
WINGS
The training your pilot should have in order to avoid disaster, and a closer look at Airbus’s new helicopter.
Contributors Jenny Huang Huang’s photography has been featured regularly in The New York Times Magazine’s “Eat” column; she also shoots many of The New York Times’s restaurant reviews. Here, she captured the bare-bones, 200-calorie-a-day “meals” of the Buchinger Wilhelmi fasting method in “Running on Empty” (p. 70). “This was my first full shoot since the pandemic, so it was definitely a strange, new experience,” she says. Huang is an avid cook herself. Born in the Sichuan province of China, she’s always exploring her mother’s native cuisine.
Sophie Donelson
Frank Morrison
Peter Crowther
Urechi Oguguo
A former editor in chief of House Beautiful, Donelson is most interested in the impact of home design on the human experience. For Robb Report, she wrote about interior designer Lucie McCullough’s natural, nontoxic home in Massachusetts (“Can Your House Heal You?” p. 76). “Lucie is way ahead of the curve. She loves—and lives in—style, and she is unwaveringly dedicated to creating a gorgeous vibe at home,” she says. “Everyone who steps foot in there gets it right away. It’s such a memorable place.”
Morrison began his career as a graffiti artist in New Jersey. It wasn’t until later, when he visited the Louvre with his dance group, that he realized painting was his true calling. His work has since been featured at Art Basel, Scope Miami and Red Dot. This is his first cover for Robb Report. “I wanted to depict a physically fit man in a state of meditation that seems almost robotic,” he says. “Micro-scientists gather to study his melodic peace, yet this guru stays cool, calm and collected knowing that his mind, his body and his soul are one.”
A 3-D illustrator, Crowther got his start at one of the first multimedia design companies in London, where he betatested an early version of Photoshop. Since then, he has worked on everything from stamps to BBC title sequences, and his illustrations have appeared in such publications as Bloomberg Businessweek, Esquire and The Sunday Times. In this issue, Crowther illustrated a magic, age-defying pill in an ornate container for “Silicon Valley Takes on Death” (p. 60). “I looked at jewelry boxes for reference, but these didn’t look quite special enough, so I decided to design my own gold one,” he says.
Oguguo is a Lagos-born, New York City–based designer and illustrator. Her work uses bold colors to depict elements of her life and aspirations, as well as notions of empowerment. For this issue, she illustrated the process of undergoing quick, non-invasive procedures to tighten and tone aspects of the body (“Quicker Fixer-Uppers,” p. 22). “My inspiration was the idea of passing through a portal,” she says. “When you emerge from it, you’ve reached your goal state.” Oguguo is currently pursuing a master’s in architecture at Columbia University.
R O B B R E P O R T. C O M
3
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Welcome to something new, a semi-regular collection of luxuries curated by the editors of Robb Report. In this, our inaugural offering, in partnership with Wally’s Wine & Spirits, we present a case of six outstanding wines including some previously unavailable to the public. With select vintages chosen from some of the finest producers around the world, including two Best of the Best 2020 awardwinning bottles, this collection is unavailable anywhere else.
212.230.0215, DANYAG@ROBBREPORT.COM ABBE JACKSON | REAL ESTATE (BROKERAGES) & HOME FURNISHINGS 978.264.7567, ABBEJ@ROBBREPORT.COM SHARI LANG | FASHION DIRECTOR 212.230.0207, SLANG@ROBBREPORT.COM MARION LOWRY | AVIATION, TRAVEL & AUTOMOTIVE/WESTERN REGION 310.589.7732, MARIONL@ROBBREPORT.COM SAURABH WIG | INDIA 647.633.8844, SAURABHW@ROBBREPORT.COM DANIELA SARTORI | ITALY +39.02.77717812, DANIELA@BERNARDINI.IT ALEXANDRA YOUNG | MIDDLE EAST +971.52.688.2622, ALEX@KONEXINTERNATIONAL.COM KAREN KO | ASIA +852.3911.1239, KAREN.KO@NEXUSMEDIAASIA.COM
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This first release includes:
PENFOLDS 2015 GRANGE* MARCIANO ESTATE 2018 BLANC* CHATEAU DE LA TOUR 2015 CLOS VOUGEOT DOMAINE DE CHATEAU DE MEURSAULT 2015 LES CHARMES ORNELLAIA 2016 SHAFER 2015 HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Only 100 cases of this exclusive collection will be available.
Order yours today at robbreport.com/rareandfine
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Robb Report© ISSN – 0279-1447 is published monthly by Robb Report Media, LLC, 11175 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90025. Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, Calif., and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ROBB REPORT SUBSCRIPTION DEPARTMENT, P.O. Box 422554, Palm Coast, FL 32142-2555. Canada Post International Publications Mail (Canadian distribution) Sales Agreement No. 0560502. Copyright © 2020 by ROBB REPORT, a Robb Report Media, LLC, publication. All rights reserved. Volume 44, number 7, June/July, 2020. Reproduction in whole or in part or storage in any data retrieval system or any transmission by any means therefrom without prior written permission is prohibited. ROBB REPORT ® and LUXURY WITHOUT COMPROMISE™ are trademarks of Robb Report Media, LLC.
Editor’s Letter
JOSHUA SCOT T
We always planned to focus this issue of Robb Report on advances in the fields of health and wellness, but clearly over the last several months the urgency to explore all aspects of what it means to be strong, fit and resilient has grown. What directed our thinking, then, was not the search for the very latest, untested theory of what treatment might do what—although who doesn’t love a crackpot story every now and again?—but rather the protocols and ideas that could be adopted with a degree of confidence that they will have a powerful and lasting impact on the remainder of your life. An example: You’ve heard, I’m sure, that many Silicon Valley high rollers have been plowing millions of dollars into anti-aging research over the last few years. This quest of our new masters of the universe for a long—potentially really long— life has led a brave (possibly bonkers) few to experiment on themselves. What’s fascinating is that, as writer Megan Miller says, “for people in middle age right now, a handful of therapies in clinical trials have the potential, for the first time in human history, to radically transform what ‘old age’ looks like.” Are you a believer? Read “Silicon Valley Takes on Death” on page 60 and decide for yourself. Another trend that has been rumbling around a lot recently is fasting. Of course, that rumbling might just be the bellies of famished fasting fanatics crying out in protest, but whatever, there’s been noise enough to pique the interest of our editor at large, Mark Ellwood. It isn’t just the promise of weight loss that appeals, but also studies that suggest fasting causes the body to recycle its cells, potentially at the expense of damaged ones such as cancer. This process could reduce inflammation and, in turn, contribute toward anti-aging. A growing subset of devotees are fit and healthy men who exercise regularly but are now understanding they need to fine-tune their physiology along with their physiques. Fasting seems to appeal to us men, as it’s something very controlled and deliberate that may affect our bodies differently from the way it does women, causing our metabolism to work harder. So Ellwood headed off to a luxury European fasting clinic to discover more. The downside? The 200 calories a day for a week. “Running on Empty” begins on page 70. Elsewhere in this issue, we look at the tech that can turn your house into a sanctuary (page 30). We meet the woman who responded to her unexplained illness by studying Building Biology, an emerging German philosophy of toxin-free construction, and take in the result: her beautifully renovated home full of global design influences, on page 76. If full-on cosmetic surgery is a bit too daunting, we examine the noninvasive “tweakments” that can provide a lift in as little as 30 minutes (page 22). And on page 84 we explore the correlation between happiness and money. Is there one? Yes, but maybe not the one you think. Finally, I want to introduce you to a different sort of wellness opportunity. I’m thrilled to announce that Robb Report has recently launched Rare & Fine: occasional bespoke and limitededition luxuries curated by our staff and aimed squarely at collectors and connoisseurs. To kick things off while promoting
Paul Croughton Editor in Chief @paulcroughton
the sort of good life I know many of you happily ascribe to, the first Rare & Fine offering is a case of six remarkable wines, including some often unavailable to the public. Included is our Wine of the Year from our recent Best of the Best awards, Penfold’s exquisite 2015 Grange, alongside the bottle we named Best Domestic White, the Marciano Estate 2017 Blanc, a sophisticated Sauvignon from Napa Valley. There are two Burgundies—a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay—as well as a Cab Sauv from Napa and an Italian wine by a producer that is increasingly well known among oenophiles, the Ornellaia 2016. We’ve put this collection together in partnership with Wally’s Wine & Spirits, and you can reserve yours at robbreport.com/ rare-and-fine. There are only 100 cases, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. We hope you enjoy them, and enjoy the issue.
R O B B R E P O R T. C O M
7
Experience the Art of Luxury Unmatched selection, unrivaled service, uncompromising quality.
penskeluxury.com
Objectified
The Final Frontier MB&F and L’EpÊe 1839 are boldly going where no man has gone before with their latest collaboration: the Starfleet Explorer desk clock. The timepiece resembles a space station, one with three small, colorful spaceships circling it. Seeming to hover above it all, the hour dial remains motionless as the hand revolves around it; the separate minute disc turns while the hand sits still. Visible at the very bottom is the in-house movement, which has an eight-day power reserve and can be set and wound with a key. $11,309, mbandf.com
R O B B R E P O R T. C O M
9
JUAN CAMILO MORENO
Windows on the Water World It’s time for your own voyage to the depths of the sea. Triton Submarines’ latest, the DeepView 24, has room for you and 23 of your friends to come aboard, plus a pilot and a copilot. The sub can descend to 328 feet and remain submerged for 12 hours at a time, an impressive feat, but it’s the underwater vistas that make a DeepView journey memorable. Massive floor-to-ceiling windows give travelers a frontrow seat to the aquatic life, so you won’t miss a single moment of your undersea adventure. $7.7 million, tritonsubs.com
Objectified
R O B B R E P O R T. C O M
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noisily—and more sustainably—than helicopters do and finally realize the future Doc Brown’s DeLorean promised. While many are still just pie-in-the-sky ideas, Jaunt Air Mobility’s and Joby Aviation’s models stand out as two that aren’t so half-baked. Here’s how their plans for the future compare. Where they’re going we won’t need roads. But we sure could use a better name than eVTOL.
Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles—a.k.a. flying taxis—may finally be gaining wind under their wings. Though not one has won regulatory approval, more than 100 manufacturers have started up in the past 10 years, and the sector could be worth an estimated $17 billion by 2040. If scaled properly, these aircraft could revolutionize public transportation; they would rise above ground traffic less
nt
VS.
Joby
XPE CTE D DE BUT
25 202 R S I N T H E WO R KS
2
11
S PEE D IN MPH
75 200 AS H E AV Y AS T H I S M A N Y W R I G H T B ROT H E R S P L A N E S
11 6 PROTOT YPE N AM E
Journey (inspiration obvious).
Rachel (some of the creators’ former flames were named Rachel).
CAPITAL BACKING
Founded and led by Kaydon Stanzione, an engineer and former test pilot, Jaunt claims to be entirely self-funded, so it’s really anyone’s guess how deep the pockets are.
Founder and energy expert JoeBen Bevirt helped raise $720 million, nearly $400 million of which came from Toyota.
M I L E S P E R C H A RG E
60 150 HOW FAR OUT OF MANHAT TAN WILL I T GET YOU ?
Greenwich
The Hamptons
TIME SAVED FLYING ABOVE RUSH-HOUR TR AFFIC IN LOS ANGELES*
59 minutes
One hour
main rotor and four forward rotors
WRIGHTS' PLANE, X-WING: SHUT TERSTOCK
WE HAVE LIFTOFF
Six tilted rotors
SILVER-SCREEN LOOK-ALIKE
An X-Wing from Star Wars
A Scorpion gunship from Avat
C R E AT U R E C O M F O RT S
n stays level at all times, even during takeoff and landing. You will never spill your martini,” promises CEO Stanzione.
Large windows equal spectacular views. *ACCORDING TO ANALY TICS FROM INRIX
12
AUGUST 2020
THE GOODS THIS MONTH’S WHO, WHAT AND WEAR
Relax... Luxury Travel Is Back And thanks to clever new services and packages, your trip can be cleaner, safer and more streamlined than ever. By MARK ELLWOOD
14
AUGUST 2020
Soaking in the view from the Dunton Hot Springs bathhouse
A
s the Covid-19 pandemic took hold this spring, the number of travelers Stateside plummeted almost 90 percent compared to the same time last year, slumping to levels not seen since the pre-jet age of the 1950s. Danger, fear and uncertainty made a summer trip seem unseemly, out of reach or both. But as summer arrived, the travel industry responded creatively, launching new initiatives that made vacationing both appealing and easy again: Think private jets, buyouts and a new concept known as the bubble charter. There has been a predictable surge of interest in charter flying, especially among new customers. Sentient Jet has sold over 5,000 hours since May, more than 50 percent of those to first-time fractional fliers helped in part by tax reductions, in place through the end of 2020, via the CARES Act. Most firms have introduced stringent hygiene protocols, both on board and on the ground;
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Solitude
MUSTIQUE: ALEX AMENGUAL; GLACIER: SCOT T DICKERSON; EDEN ROCK: EMILY LAB
at Dunton Hot Springs, in Colorado; a bird’seye view of Basil’s Bar, on Mustique; glacier trekking in Alaska with Within the Wild; Eden Rock’s villa rental remains open for business in St. Barts.
see, for example, the Jet Linx partnership with ViaClean Technologies, which offers a cleaning technology that provides antimicrobial protection to surfaces for up to three months. Destinations that rely on charters have made contingency plans, too. The Mustique Company created its own ad hoc airline for the summer, operating nonstop flights from New York to Saint Vincent—at a cost of about $6,000 per person round-trip—while the island of St. Barts has invested millions of dollars in testing machines. (While test results will be released within 24 hours, those who want to avoid any amount of quarantine should provide a negative test result from up to three days prior to arrival.) And though the Eden Rock hotel isn’t opening for the summer, its villa rental arm is operating as usual.
16
AUGUST 2020
T R AV E L | The Goods
Many other luxury hotels have opened, albeit on a buyout basis, effectively allowing a single group to commandeer the property as its own and transform it into an enormous, impromptu villa. Take the 21-room Chebeague Island Inn in Maine, which is offering only buyouts this summer at a rate of $50,000 per week; guests can arrive via helicopter directly onto the main lawn, which doubles as a croquet pitch. In Alaska, Within the Wild’s eco-lodges are now available, from $60,000 for three nights, for up to a dozen guests traveling together and keen for fly-fishing, bear-spotting and dogmushing. And while Africa has remained largely closed to foreign travelers, Mango Safaris has launched self-contained luxury adventures (from $40,000 for six people) focused on wildlife excursions and horseback riding in New Mexico and Yellowstone National Park. If you’d rather decompress than deer-stalk, try the eight-suite buyout at Villa Manzu on Costa Rica’s Peninsula Papagayo, configured for barefoot beach luxury with its own power boat, chef and spa and able to accommodate groups of up to 22 for $18,500 per night, with a three-night minimum. The newest trend, the bubble charter, combines both elements, allowing travelers to book private aviation and hotel buyouts or villas as a single package, streamlining
logistics while minimizing interaction with others en route and in situ. The Brazilian Court in Palm Beach now offers its Private Plane to Paradise, consisting of a charter jet to West Palm, a chauffeured transfer to the hotel and a private suite with its own exterior entrance, meaning you’ll encounter just a handful of people door-to-door (from $28,740 per couple for three nights). Colorado’s Dunton Hot Springs, a ghost town from the 1800s now operated as a luxury lodge, has collaborated with private-jet company XO to offer a bubble charter for its buyout program, with Telluride FBO just over an hour away. Bubble charters are also one of the few easy ways to roam farther at the moment. VistaJet, for example, has created a 14-day journey around Iceland for up to four people, in conjunction with luxury tour operator Based on a True Story, for around $280,000; the trip includes the Retreat at the Blue Lagoon as well as a private camp in the stunning moonscape countryside, with all domestic travel via charter plane. The fractional firm has also introduced its Jet-to-Yacht program, which allows guests to fly from the US to Malta and transit seamlessly through the airport to the marina before boarding a vessel to sail around the Mediterranean, breezing through immigration red tape. The only thing they can’t guarantee is the weather.
ROBB RECOMMENDS...
Summer Camp That Comes to You
Many summer camps across the country have been canceled this year, so one canny company came up with a personalized alternative. Camp Embark, from the namesake luxury-travel specialist, is the first customized, private summer camp. Clients can pick from an assortment of private homes or premium hotels— the Resort at Paws Up in Montana, say, or Utah’s Amangiri—at which point Embark will organize a counselor (tested and pre-quarantined, of course) to live with the family and provide hands-on daily activities for the kids. The hotel, meanwhile, will create a remote office for parents to keep working while away. On weekends and evenings, the program will pivot: local adventures for the whole family, perhaps, or the counselor subbing as a babysitter while parents explore. Customers can book their own commercial flights or opt for a bubble-charter program in partnership with Jet Linx. From $5,600 per week for lodging and counselor for a family of four.
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STYLE
This summer, weddings are occasion to celebrate more than just matrimony. Even with a mask, here’s how to look sharp while getting down. By KAREEM RASHED Photography by JOSHUA SCOTT Senior market editor: LUIS CAMPUZANO Styling by CHARLES W. BUMGARDNER
THE PEAK OF CHIC A lightweight suit can still pack a punch. Here, a sharply peaked lapel with a monochrome shirt-and-tie combo lend seersucker some high-style impact, while snuff-suede loafers keep everything breezy. Isaia seersucker suit ($3,650); Loro Piana cotton-and-silk shirt ($925); Thom Browne satin tie (price upon request); Brunello Cucinelli double-faced pocket square ($225); Ray-Ban RX5382 glasses ($183); Corneliani suede loafers ($750).
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You can find a two-story home anywhere. Here, you’ll find a lifetime of stories.
Enchanting family moments are part of everyday life at Golden Oak at Walt DisneyWorld Resort. Right now, you can live in this luxurious private community with legendary Disney service featuring custom homes from the mid $2 millions. Welcome home to where the magic is endless. Golden Oak Realty | 407.939.5577 | DisneyGoldenOak.com/Inspired of this property. This does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy, real estate to Residents of any state or jurisdiction where prohibited by law, or where prior registration is required but has not yet been fulfilled. For NY Residents: THE COMPLETE OFFERING TERMS FOR THE SALE OF LOTS ARE IN THE CPS-12 APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE FROM OFFEROR, GOLDEN OAK DEVELOPMENT, LLC. FILE NOS. CP16-0107 (Phases 2 and 4) and CP16-0069 (Phase 3). For California Residents: WARNING: THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE HAS NOT INSPECTED, EXAMINED OR QUALIFIED THIS OFFERING. PA REGISTRATION No. OL001147. KY REGISTRATION No. R-176. OKLAHOMA OFFEREES SHOULD OBTAIN AN OKLAHOMA PUBLIC OFFERING STATEMENT FROM THE DEVELOPER AND READ IT BEFORE SIGNING ANY DOCUMENTS. THE OKLAHOMA SECURITIES COMMISSION NEITHER RECOMMENDS THE PURCHASE OF THE PROPERTY NOR APPROVES THE MERITS OF THE OFFERING. Void where prohibited by law. Equal Housing Opportunity. Broker participation welcome. © Disney DGO-19-1156106
The Goods | S T Y L E
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GRAY AREA Summer’s heat calls for evening wear with a sense of laid-back ease. Swap standard black for a tux in a cool shade of charcoal, then dial down the formality with a relaxed band-collar shirt and a killer pair of shades.
AUGUST 2020
Brunello Cucinelli wool-and-silk tuxedo with peak lapel ($4,495); Giorgio Armani shirt ($875); Brioni acetate sunglasses ($675); Thom Browne cotton pocket square ($90) and wallet (price upon request); Tom Ford velvet loafers ($1,680).
NEW CLASSIC The timeless combination of a shawl-collared cream dinner jacket, black tie and tuxedo trousers is a foolproof recipe for any man to look debonair. Best accessorized with patent-leather oxfords and plenty of bubbly.
Paul Stuart wool-serge dinner jacket ($1,695) and bow tie ($90); Ermenegildo Zegna cotton shirt ($395); Louis Vuitton wool-twill tuxedo pants ($1,320); Tom Ford pocket square ($190); Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello acetate glasses ($350); Brooks Brothers Golden Fleece patent-leather shoes ($598).
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The Goods | S T Y L E
somewhere between surgery and a day at the spa lies the “tweakment,” a new breed of non-invasive but effective aesthetic procedures for face and body. A precisely administered laser, needle or electromagnetic pulse can create small but significant changes, like the results of a long holiday or a good rest. (Imagine quarantine spent on a wellness sabbatical rather than staring at a Zoom grid in pajamas.) Best of all, the results, which can be nearly instant, will outlive the very best spa treatments and demand little or even no recuperation. The remarkable efficacy of these quick fixes can be traced to certain medical technologies that migrated from the O.R. to the dermatologist’s office. Many facial tweakments rely on the idea of “controlled
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keep building (in this case for up to three months post-treatment). A considerably less aggressive refresher is Profhilo, an injection of high- and lowmolecular weight hyaluronic acid that hydrates the skin and jump-starts the body’s collagen and elastin production more effectively than any topical product. “It’s best to think of Profhilo as a skin booster or ‘bio-stimulation’ treatment, something that stimulates the body into renewal,” says David Jack, M.D., one of London’s foremost
Profhilo’s subtle airbrushing effect is akin to a real-world Instagram filter. aesthetic doctors. Jack recommends two treatments, totaling around $1,150. “It’s extremely safe, and the results are generally impressive,” he says. In the experience of this writer, Profhilo’s subtle airbrushing effect is akin to a real-world Instagram filter. If isolation has compromised your usual workout routine, then cryolipolysis, or “fat freezing,” can help kick small, stubborn pockets of excess padding. Cooling applicators are placed on the skin’s surface, where they selectively kill a proportion of fat cells, which are naturally flushed out of the body over the coming months. While the final results from machines like CoolSculpting (the only brand currently approved for use in the US) don’t become visible for an average of three months, fat freezing can be done in one hour and has no recovery time to speak of, unlike more invasive procedures such as liposuction. A single session starts around $800, and Jack notes that “one or two sessions can result in around a 30 percent reduction in the number of fat cells in a given area.” With puppy fat gone, abdominal muscles should be more apparent. But if they need a little extra definition, EmSculpt, a non-invasive procedure employing high-intensity focused electromagnetic technology, can make up for time away from the gym. One or two defibrillator-like panels are placed on the stomach, thighs or rear end, where they activate motor neurons and trigger supramaximal contractions: In other words, the device stimulates the muscles used in crunches or squats at a rate that is impossible to achieve on your own. I’ve felt the induced burn and, yes, it’s intense, but nothing you can’t stand for 30 minutes. A pack of four sessions, averaging around $3,500 total and spaced several days apart, is recommended; results can be seen anywhere from two weeks after the last treatment. It won’t miraculously replace a washtub with a washboard, but it could push you over the line from lean to shredded. Ahmed Zambarakji
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QUICKER FIXER-UPPERS
wounding,” which is far more benign than it sounds: By applying minor damage to the skin, the body’s repair mechanisms kick in to create new cells. One example, fractional laser skin resurfacing, promises to reduce wrinkles, iron out fine lines and eradicate hyperpigmentation, all from what’s usually less than an hour of zapping. Treatments start around $1,000, and depending on the strength of laser, the results can surface in as quickly as a week and will last anywhere from three to five years. If skin at the jawline is starting to thin and fall prey to gravity—one of the trickiest signs of aging to treat—then Morpheus8, a new fractional radio-frequency device, could restore your edge. The device pierces the skin with micro-pins while driving radio-frequency energy deep into the dermis, stimulating collagen production and rebuilding cellular scaffolding that resists the pull of time. Following one session, at an average cost of $1,000, some men notice results within a couple of days, and like all good tweakments, the effects
WAT C H E S
Linked In
Parmigiani has made integrated bracelets a calling card of its new Tonda GT line, but the sporty timepieces still come dressed for success.
The Tondagraph GT in steel combines an automatic chronograph and annual calendar.
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WA T C H E S | The Goods
T
he sports-watch boom continues. Parmigiani Fleurier, best known for its well-finished dress watches, has rejoined the fray in a big way with its new Tonda GT line, composed of three new models: the Tondagraph GT annual calendar chronograph plus a pair of Tonda GT variants, one each in 18-karat rose gold and steel, and all available with integrated bracelets. “I was not looking to make a sports watch,” says Davide Traxler, CEO of Parmigiani. “I was looking to get together a watch for daily use, the kind of watch you can enjoy all the time.” Traxler tapped external designer Dino Modolo, one of the pens behind the Vacheron Constantin Overseas, to help create the look of the new collection. The result is a more casual interpretation of the company’s codes that still maintains its rigorous attention to detail, as seen in the dial’s clou triangulaire guilloche and the Côtes de Genève decoration on the movement—the type of finishing you’d expect from a gold-cased perpetual calendar on a crocodile strap. And, indeed, Traxler is banking on value being a selling point. All three watches are sized at 42 mm, have 42 hours of power reserve and are also available on rubber straps. In terms of pricing, the Tonda GT collection starts under $20,000 and tops out with the rose gold model—$49,500 on a bracelet and $24,900 on a strap—placing it just below the Patek Philippe Nautilus, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Vacheron Constantin Overseas. As with some of those iconic sports models, the bracelet is not an add-on but an integral component of the overall design. The Tonda’s bracelet was redesigned multiple times from scratch before the desired weight and fit were achieved.
FROM LEFT:
The Tonda GT in steel and in 18-karat rose gold.
“Here we feel the bracelet is as good as the watch,” says Traxler. “A lot of classic brands, like ourselves, tend to design the watch and then add the bracelet, but you have to design the watch and the bracelet together. I was so satisfied that the integration was seamless. It just looks and feels right.” $13,500 to $49,500 Paige Reddinger
Mountain Time Until recently, downtown Aspen had everything a luxury watch buyer could want—except a refined retail space dedicated to vintage and pre-owned timepieces. “That’s one of the big reasons we saw an opportunity here,” says Elizabeth Smith, boutique director of Oliver Smith Jeweler, whose salon on Aspen’s Hyman Avenue is the new must-see destination for watch obsessives.
Elizabeth’s father, Oliver, founded the business in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 1981. Since 2018, the Smiths have owned and operated Aspen’s six-yearold Panerai boutique. When the second-story space above Panerai became available, they knew it was time to introduce their clients to the thrill of the rare find. The added boutique will showcase timepieces based on
summer and winter themes, with the current focus on “Iconic Sports Models,” which include sought-after pieces such as the Patek Philippe Aquanaut 5167, Rolex Daytona Ref. 116500 and Panerai Marina Militare PAM 202A. For remote clients, Oliver offers one-on-one Zoom appointments and even, in a sign of the times, Zoom-based watch auctions. Victoria Gomelsky
Vintage pieces at Oliver Smith Jeweler
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FOOD & DRINK
Would You Like a ’67 Grand Cru With That? Fine dining to-go is the new normal, but expert wine advice isn’t on the menu. Here, sommelier Rick Arline finds pairings for six of the country’s most coveted take-out items.
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hen Covid abruptly shuttered dine-in service for restaurants across the country, many of our favorites pivoted to offering their dishes as inventive, high-end take-away experiences. And even with restaurants now re-opening, the trend of luxury take-out seems here to stay. There’s just one problem: You can’t bring home the sommelier to suggest the perfect wine pairing. So we called Rick Arline, the dynamic wine director at dearly departed Los Angeles restaurant Auburn—he’s now preparing to open his own establishment in West Hollywood later this year—and asked him to choose the best bottles for six superlative take-out meals from award-winning restaurants across the country. Yolanda Evans
CHIRASHI Kato, Los Angeles ($125) INGREDIENTS: Vinegar rice, toasted nori, uni, chive, pickled daikon, radish, cured sea bream, cured Shima-aji and abalone. PAIRING: Meinklang 2017 Graupert Pinot Gris, Burgenland, Austria ($29) • “Orange wines have been all the rage lately. I’m a huge fan of this skincontact Pinot Gris from an organic, biodynamic estate in Austria. Savory and earthy, with a touch of brininess to match perfectly with seafood.” BOILED SEAFOOD TOWER FOR TWO Ina Mae Tavern, Chicago ($54) INGREDIENTS: Boiled snow crab, Gulf shrimp, clams and mussels served with corn and potatoes. PAIRING: Gaston Chiquet Tradition Brut Champagne NV ($48) • “This menu has a lot going on and looks delicious, so only one thing will do: Champagne. Gaston Chiquet is one of the best grower-producers in the region, and the wine is equal parts delicious, decadent and versatile.”
just enough oak to please both Napa Cab and Bordeaux drinkers.”
BIRD BOX FOR TWO Le Pigeon, Portland ($70) INGREDIENTS: Butter-lettuce salad with artichoke ranch, bread-and-butter zucchini; salt-and-pepper brisket with cheddar corn grits, beans and blistered tomatoes; caramel-matcha latte cups. PAIRING: 00 Wines 2017 EGW Chardonnay, Willamette Valley ($75) • “For Le Pigeon, I wanted an Oregon wine to reflect the unique terroir. This is a newer winery but an absolute showstopper. It’s 100 percent Chardonnay but one with tension, elegance and sensuality.”
THREE-COURSE MEAL KIT Nightbird, San Francisco ($60) INGREDIENTS: Charred peach salad, burrata and focaccia; roasted chicken roulade with romesco and squash; nutty banana bread. PAIRING: Château Carbonnieux 2016 White Bordeaux ($48) • “This meal kit just screams ‘summer’ to me, and that means Sauvignon Blanc. White Bordeaux has the texture, weight and acidity to work with the dishes here. Bonus points if enjoyed outdoors.”
THE ULTIMATE STEAK FEAST AT HOME FOR TWO Cote, New York ($84) INGREDIENTS: Chef’s selection of four premium cuts with two Korean stews and ssam kit. PAIRING: La Rioja Alta 2010 904 Gran Reserva ($60) • “One of Spain’s best and most beloved wineries and a classic producer known around the world. This wine is perfect for steak, with brambly red fruit and
PIRAMIDI D’AGNELLO Rezdôra, New York ($23) INGREDIENTS: Stuffed pasta with braised lamb, spring pea, asparagus puree and black-truffle butter. PAIRING: Petterino 2008 Gattinara Riserva ($40) • “Most wine drinkers are aware of Barolo and Barbaresco, but the wines of Gattinara are as long-lived and beautiful as their more famous cousins. This is Nebbiolo in its purest form: rustic, elegant, finessed.”
Arline has the knack for creating wine lists that keep both the nerds and the neophytes happy.
RICK ARLINE: MARIAH TAUGER /LOS ANGELES TIMES
Luxury Box Jon Yao has applied the same focus to take-out that made him one of America’s youngest Michelin-starred chefs. During normal times, the 28-year-old’s seafoodcentric Los Angeles restaurant, Kato, serves a tasting menu inspired by the Taiwanese dishes he grew up eating. For his
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA PONS
most elevated take-out, he also found inspiration in Japan: Each night, Yao creates 8 to 10 boxes of chirashi, a style of sushi that’s more free-form than maki or nigiri, for $125 each. The labor-intensive process begins with the wooden boxes that Yao had custom-built for takeaway. Atop toasted nori
and sushi rice seasoned with akazu—a sweet and malty red vinegar—Yao curates a selection of delicacies from the sea, such as kombu-cured sea bream and Shima-aji, raw bluefin tuna, abalone cooked between leaves of kelp, lightly poached spot prawns and trout roe marinated in dashi, chives,
radish and pickled daikon. The meal is finished with a generous portion of Japanese uni. “I wanted us to do something detail-oriented,” Yao says. “And I wanted to do something that would keep our restaurant on people’s mind when they had a special occasion.” Jeremy Repanich
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The Goods | F O O D & D R I N K
The Swartland’s harsh climate and au naturel vineyards result in flavorful and distinctly balanced wines. No wonder the locals want to keep the best bottles for themselves.
“We only choose the absolute best barrels for the final wines,” says Chris, who forgoes releasing a vintage at all when the product is not up to his rigorous standards. And many of the independent winemakers in the region are similarly scrupulous about quality and seemingly unconcerned with scale; a few thousand cases per year could be considered a typical release. Eben Sadie, founder of Sadie Family Wines and winner of the 2017 Winemakers’ Winemaker Award from the Institute of Masters of Wine, produces just 6,000 cases annually. The public allocation of his bottles—including the layered and earthy Columella, made with Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan, Tinta Barocca and Cinsault, and the textured Palladius, with notes of apple and pear from a blend of Chenin Blanc, Sémillon, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and several others—sells out within 48 hours, mainly into private cellars. Like much of the South African luxury industry,
at the base of the Paardeberg Mountain some 50 miles north of South Africa’s famed Cape Winelands lies the Swartland, a harsh and arid region home to a number of independent wineries producing some of the country’s most distinctive and sought-after bottles. But with around 40 percent of Swartland wines never traveling beyond the country’s borders, one has to wonder if South Africa is happy to let the rest of the world quaff its more renowned Pinotages and Sauvignon Blancs while keeping the best stuff for itself. Unlike the tidy Cape Winelands vineyards of Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl, lined with rows of pristine vines, the Swartland has unkempt, un-trellised old-bush vines carrying less familiar varietals such as Sémillon Gris, Carignan, Cinsaut and Tinta Barocca. The harsh climate—hot and breezy by day, cool at night— is ideal for Rhône varieties and
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Chenin Blanc. And despite their rugged, unfussy beginnings and general lack of high-dollar marketing offensives, Swartland wines (and winemakers) have racked up numerous awards in recent years. “The combination of extreme climate and an abundance of old vines and ancient viticultural soils gives us healthy grapes that have a natural concentration of flavor and a perfect balance of texture and freshness,” says winemaker Chris Mullineux, of Mullineux & Leeu, the winery he runs with his wife, Andrea. In 2016, Andrea was named the top winemaker in the world by Wine Enthusiast, and if you want to get your hands on one of the duo’s more acclaimed labels, such as the mineralforward Granite Chenin or the spicy, intense Schist Syrah, be prepared to do some legwork: Mullineux & Leeu produces only 100 and 200 cases a year, respectively.
Swartland wines represent a tremendous value at the moment, and in-the-know exporters are beginning to take notice, with sought-after bottles landing Stateside both on shelves and online. Astor Wines & Spirits, in Manhattan, offers both the 2017 Sadie Family Columella ($160) and the Mullineux Family 2017 Granite Old Vines Chenin Blanc ($165). Even priced in dollars, they’re an absolute steal. Mary Holland
SWARTLAND: ALAMY; MAP: PETER OUMANSKI
THE WILD BUNCH
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mericans spend about 90 percent of our time indoors, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, so it’s no wonder an entire industry has cropped up to make our interior spaces smarter, more connected and futuristically convenient. But the cutting edge in smart-home innovation has gone beyond auto-adjusting photochromic glass and music that follows you from room to room: The high-tech home of the present can actually make you healthier. From kitchens that clean using ultra-sanitizing UV light to steam showers with integrated sound-therapy sessions, the result is a home that rebuilds you.
A RT & D E S I G N
If You Lived Here, You'd Be Healthy by Now
Helena Madden
PURIFY A man’s home may be his castle, but it’s one that’s surprisingly bad at defending against air and water pollution, which over time can contribute to respiratory, digestive, endocrine and cardiovascular issues. The Darwin system by Delos uses an array of air- and water-quality sensors, filters and purifiers to reduce or remove airborne particulate matter and volatile organic compounds, like excess carbon dioxide, and remove heavy metals, viruses, bacteria and other contaminants from drinking water. You can track just how clean you’re breathing— and washing and drinking—in real time via the wall-mounted interface or an app.
The newest advances in smarthome technology mean wellness can be a feature of any room.
The high-tech home of the present can actually make you healthier. The result is a home that rebuilds you.
Thermasol’s ThermaTouch shower system lets you have a bona fide spa experience at home, with sound therapy to really help you unwind.
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REJUVENATE Your bathroom should be for more than scrubbing up. Showering enhances blood flow and relaxes muscles (especially with the right hardware, like the massive Rainfinity shower head that took top honors at this year’s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show), and adding a steam bath can improve cardiovascular health. Thermasol’s ThermaTouch interface can orchestrate an entire shower-and-steam experience, allowing you to adjust everything from lighting and music to steam temperature and duration on a crisp 10-inch LCD screen. You can even choose from nine “tranquility scenes” with soothing sounds and images from nature. For the ultimate unwind, ThermaTouch will combine your steam session with sound therapy, which can propel brain waves into a state of deep relaxation. REFUEL Many of life’s healthier choices start in the kitchen, but Vera Iconica, a Wyoming-based
A R T & D E S I G N | The Goods
Gaggenau’s 400 Series Combisteam oven has a built-in vacuuming drawer, which lets you quickly and easily seal away fish, meat and veggies for sousvide cooking, or for extended storage.
LEFT: Vera Iconica’s
hydroponic kitchen gardens use bright LED lights and sound to help improve crop yields. BELOW: The Darwin system tablet lets you monitor the air quality of your home in real time.
architecture firm that specializes in what it calls “wellness architecture,” pushes that notion to the extreme. Innovations include integrated hydroponic window gardens for growing pesticide-free greens at home; cellar-like storage for root vegetables and fall produce; temperature- and humiditycontrolled cabinets with running water to preserve food; and surface sanitization via ultraviolet light, to eradicate any viruses lurking on your countertop. When it comes time to cook, a combisteam oven is the go-to appliance for the wellness set. Researchers have found that steaming helps retain foods’ vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Models like Gagganau’s swanky new 400 Series combine elements of steam and convection cooking to allow the use of steam on a wider range of foods than ever—even steak—for healthier (but still delicious) results. RECOVER Exercise is only half the battle: For optimal health, proper recovery is key. And while plunge pools are all the rage, there’s a far more aggressive (and high-tech) way to get your chill on. Cryotherapy systems expose users to intensely frigid temperatures, down to negative 200 degrees Fahrenheit, for short bursts of two to four minutes; the extreme cold is thought to reduce muscle soreness and inflammation. Manufacturers like Juka, in Poland, now offer these wholebody systems at home for single or multiple occupants. At the other end of the thermometer are infrared saunas, which increase circulation using light to warm the body from within, rather than an external heating unit—a method that’s not only more efficient but far more hygienic (traditional saunas are highrisk for mold). A three-person Clearlight Sanctuary infrared model from Northern Saunas comes in furniture-grade basswood or cedar cabinetry with glass doors, fullspectrum infrared and chromotherapy lighting, for around $6,000.
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The Ritz-Carlton®
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6 Championship Golf Courses
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10 Restaurants
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Sporting Grounds
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350 Miles of Shoreline
A top choice for families looking to retire, relocate or even just change course and reset, Reynolds Lake Oconee is where dreams of living at a truly different pace become reality. Located about 85 miles east of Atlanta, this rare haven doesn’t just offer miles of pristine shoreline, six championship golf courses, a lakefront Ritz-Carlton® and a range of world-class restaurants and amenities. It also offers the chance to meet neighbors who become lifelong friends, savor meals that become memories and enjoy one of today’s most sought after luxuries: a genuine sense of community.
*Excludes holidays and subject to availability; club credit for promotional purposes only. Real estate and other amenities are owned by Oconee Land Development Company LLC and/or other subsidiaries and affiliates of MetLife, Inc. (collectively, "OLDC" or “Sponsor”) and by unrelated third parties. Reynolds Lake Oconee Properties, LLC ("RLOP") is the exclusive Reynolds Lake Oconee by residents of HI, ID, OR, or any other jurisdiction where prohibited by law. As to such states, any offer to sell or solicitation of offers to buy applies only to Resale Properties. Access and rights to recreational amenities may be subject to fees, membership dues, or other limitations. Information provided is believed accurate as of the date print
No Federal agency has judged the merits or value, if any, of this property. Void where prohibited by law. WARNING: THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE HAS NOT INSPECTED, EXAMINED, OR DISQUALIFIED THIS OFFERING. An offering statement has been filed with the Iow chusetts 02118-6100 and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection at 1700 G Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20552. Certain OLDC properties are registered with the Department of Law of the State of New York. THE COMPLETE OFFERING TERMS ARE IN AN OFFERING PLAN AVAILA state of New York or to New York residents by or on behalf of the developer/offeror or anyone acting with the developer/offeror’s knowledge. No such offering, or purchase or sale of real estate by or to residents of the state of New York, shall take place until all registration and filing re
Epic real estate. With a focus on real. 4 Marinas
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21 Miles of Walking Trails
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Tennis Center
Our LIFESTYLE VISIT provides up to three nights at The Ritz-Carlton® or in a Cottage or Condominium, two rounds of golf, two-hour boat rental, breakfast each day, $75 club credit for a two-night stay and private preview of real estate opportunities.
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Homesites from $100k-$2.5m
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Homes from $400k-$5m+
Book your real estate preview, starting at $289* per night. ReynoldsLakeOconee.com/Robb (855) 285.9157
listing agent for OLDC-owned properties in Reynolds Lake Oconee. RLOP also represents buyers and sellers of properties in Reynolds Lake Oconee which OLDC does not own ("Resale Properties"). OLDC is not involved in the marketing or sale of Resale Properties. This is not intended to be an offer to sell nor a solicitation of offers to buy OLDC-owned real estate in ted but may be subject to change from time to time. The Ritz-Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee is a private commercial enterprise and use of the facilities is subject to the applicable fees and policies of the operator. For OLDC properties, obtain the Property Report required by Federal law and read it before signing anything.
wa Real Estate Commission and a copy of such statement is available from OLDC upon request. OLDC properties have been registered with the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Real Estate Brokers and Salesmen at 1000 Washington Street, Suite 710, Boston, MassaABLE FROM SPONSOR. FILE NO. H14-0001. Notice to New York Residents: The developer of Reynolds Lake Oconee and its principals are not incorporated in, located in, or resident in the state of New York. No offering is being made in or directed to any person or entity in the equirements under the Martin Act and the Attorney General’s regulations are complied with, a written exemption is obtained pursuant to an application is granted pursuant to and in accordance with Cooperative Policy Statements #1 or #7, or a “No-Action” request is granted.
The Goods | A R T & D E S I G N
where else but Southern California would you encounter the idea of fusing art with wellness? And while Compound, the new cultural space opening in Long Beach in September, was designed with that very mission, the 15,000-square-foot destination is unlike anything the area has seen before. Philanthropist Megan Tagliaferri, an heir to the Scripps newspaper fortune with a background in hospitality design, has spent five years building a multidisciplinary creative hub that will feature everything from a sculpture garden and yoga classes to hands-on gardening, musical performances and poetry readings—even a farm-to-table Italian deli—all tucked into a retrofitted Art Deco building from the 1930s designed in collaboration with BOA Architecture and CH Design Studio. Tagliaferri, 40, is a Long Beach local who says she wanted “to create a place for people to share their gifts,” calling Compound “a different way to commune around art and education—warm and hospitable.” Indeed, Compound’s central tenet is its Policy of Belonging, intended to bridge social divisions and embrace, quite simply, everyone. But the art—fueled by Tagliaferri’s passion and overseen by Lauri
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FROM TOP: The new
Compound, with a commission by Tavares Strachan, You Belong Here (Blue #1), 2019; Compound founder Megan Tagliaferri; Eamon Ore-Giron's Infinite Regress LXXIV, 2019.
COMPOUND EX TERIOR, MEG AN TAGLIAFERRI: LAURE JOILET
THE HEALING ART
Firstenberg, founder of the nonprofit LAXART—takes center stage. Rotating exhibitions (the first will include works from Billy Al Bengston and Helen Pashgian, among others) will be combined with site-specific works by the likes of Tavares Strachan, whose blue neon artwork You Belong Here will welcome visitors to the space. According to Firstenberg, Compound “has the scale, tone and feel of Ballroom Marfa and the heart of the Underground Museum” in Los Angeles. “A lot of the work has this tranquil, sublime, peaceful tone,” says Firstenberg, a consultant and adviser who has worked with Tagliaferri on her collecting. “Megan has a desire to support artists over time. She’s not just about acquiring the stunning artwork.” The marquee piece for the debut, and the first in a series of Compound commissions, will be Tidepools by LA artist Glenn Kaino. A triptych of sorts, it comprises a cloud chamber, a sound bath and a wishing well with the surprise element of bioluminescence. “Glenn has so much energy and ambition. He was a great fit for the first commission,” says Tagliaferri. “When I was in his studio, we talked about how we both want to create healthy connections.” While Covid predictably delayed the Compound project, it also underlined the crucial need for wellness in all areas. For the opening, Tagliaferri will institute social-distancing measures, like timed entry, where needed, and emphasize Compound’s outdoor aspects, adding more features and ways to gather together as they become feasible. “Humans are hard-wired for connection,” Tagliaferri says. “That is not going to go away.” Ted Loos
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The Answers with . . .
RAMDANE TOUHAMI The son of Moroccan immigrants, Ramdane Touhami created his first brand, the T-shirt line Teuchiland, when he was just 17 years old; a year later, he was homeless on the streets of Paris. Since then, the artist, designer and serial entrepreneur has taken on the worlds of fashion, beauty, art and PR. He created the skate brand King Size and streetwear label Résistance, cofounded the concept store L’Épicerie alongside artist Artus de Lavilléon, co-hosted the French reality television show Strip-Tease, owned a café and donkey polo club in Tangier, Morocco, served as menswear director for Liberty London, revitalized Japanese fashion retail brand And A and resuscitated the storied Parisian candlemaker Maison de Cire Trudon. Today, married to French aristocrat Victoire de Taillac-Touhami, with whom he has three children, Touhami oversees the couple’s growing empire of naturalcosmetic emporiums, L’Officine Universelle Buly. His latest endeavor, creative agency Art, Recherche & Industrie, is targeting apps, hotels, coffeehouses and the fashion industry. CLAIRE COGHLAN
What have you done recently for the first time?
Going on holidays. Seriously, I never take holidays, no more than three days. And for the first time, I did 10 days in the Swiss mountains with my family and friends. We went to the most beautiful little place, Chandolin.
What, apart from more time, would make the biggest difference to your life? No news. A world with no news could be an amazing world.
What apps do you use the most?
Google Translate. People send me messages in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic . . . Every morning, I have to send a message to my Japanese and Hong Kong staff. It’s a lot of languages.
First thing you do in the morning?
I work out. It’s a nine-minute workout, a series of exercises using all the muscle groups.
1
Professor Louis Bretez originally drew up this extremely detailed, isometric map of Paris in 1739. He was granted entry to houses and gardens in order to take measurements and make sketches.
What’s the most recent thing you’ve added to your collection? A Turgot map of Paris, five meters long, done in 1762.1
What advice do you wish you’d followed?
Listen more. Sometimes it’s better to listen than to talk.
What do you do that’s still analog? Drawing, vinyl, calligraphy.
Do you have any pets?
Yes, two dogs—one big, one small. A Braque and a Jack Russell.
If you could learn a new skill, what would it be?
To write kanji. I love the complexity: the fact that it says one word but means something else. I have a passion for Japanese, and I want to be able to read all books in Japanese.2
What in your wardrobe do you wear most often? Birkenstocks. I have 42 pairs.
Do you have a uniform for certain occasions? No. I don’t wear black. Only rule.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARION BERRIN
2
Kanji is a Japanese writing system adopted from Chinese characters in the fifth century, and a single character—there are thousands in total—can have many different readings.
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The Answers with . . . RAMDANE TOUHAMI
How do you find calm?
Listening to strange podcasts, like by ex–Secret Service people. When I drive my car, I love to listen to podcasts. For me, it’s like being Zen. I can stop thinking about work.
Who is your dealer, and what do they source for you?
A guy who sells antiques on rue Jacob in Paris sources my old maps. I always love traveling, and I love the planet, and I love the history of maps. For example, in the 15th century, they knew about Japan. Even if they didn’t do a tour around Japan, they knew the shape, and I love that—the evolution of the shape, the country.
The most recent thing you regret not buying? A 1962 Ferrari 2+2.3
What’s the most impressive dish you cook?
Couscous. It looks simple, but it’s very technical. I learned with the best teacher, who was my grandmother. I love to create strange couscous dishes, like I’ll mix a Moroccan harira with a Japanese udon.
What is your exercise routine, and how often do you do it? Boxing with my favorite coach, Florent Lazare.
3
Ferrari’s first production fourpassenger model, the 2+2 was the automaker’s most commercially successful car at the time. It remains a soughtafter driver among collectors to this day.
What does success look like to you? Strange. I was homeless 25 years ago.
How much do you trust your gut instinct?
One hundred percent confident with a taste of paranoia.
Which are your three favorite stores?
Kapital and Akomeya in Tokyo, Buly in Paris.
Where do you get your clothes?
Only in Japan, due to the sizes. I am short!
What do you most regret?
Not laughing enough per day. I drive, always. I’d rather drive a car than take a train or a plane because I love the ride.
FROM TOP:
Ramdane in his Parisian apartment; the Ferves Ranger; Buly in Paris; a couscous dish served in a tagine; a Turgot map of Paris, done in 1762.
If you could stick at one age, what would it be, and why?
Now! Forty-five is the best—not too old, not too young, not too stupid.
If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
Argentina, I think. Because I like it. It has this kind of European vibe, and the wildness, and the way they eat, the way they live.
What’s always in your hand luggage?
Two simple things: a passport and a credit card. You don’t need more.
What is the car you are most attached to?
My little Ferves Ranger from 1967, because it looks unique and it looks like me—tiny. Some cars look aggressive, some cars look nice and smiley: My car, when you look at the lighting and everything, it looks like a little dumb character.4
Do you still write letters?
Of course, and I’m militant about it. We need to write.
Last Netflix binge?
Not Netflix, but HBO. Succession. Oh my God. Amazing.
What’s your favorite neighborhood in your favorite city? Daikanyama, Tokyo, in spring.
Bowie or Dylan? Bowie!
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4
A quirky, petite car, the Ferves Ranger has a maximum speed of just 45 mph and incorporates elements of the equally stout Fiat 500. It’s believed that there are only 50 Rangers left in the world.
RAMDANE TOUHAMI: MARION BERRIN; FERVES RANGER, BULY STORE, COUSCOUS AND PARIS MAP: SHUT TERSTOCK
Drive or be driven?
Fast Thinking Behind the wheel of Rodin’s Fzed, there’s no room for second-guessing. 40
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DREAM MACHINES A DEVOTION TO MOTION
Dream Machines | W H E E L S
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ormally, only a fortunate few get to experience a Formula 1 machine, but New Zealand–based Rodin Cars is trying to change that. All that’s required, besides a trip to the island nation, are nerves of steel and some very good earplugs. Rodin is the brainchild of Australian entrepreneur David Dicker, who named the company after the famed French sculptor as a tribute to the power of thought. Dicker and his team of engineers have developed the track-only, single-seat Fzed after buying sole rights to the defunct Lotus T125 project a few years back. Unveiled in 2011, the open-wheel T125 was a bid by Lotus to build a vehicle that offered as close to an F1 experience as money could buy, but at a cost that was still substantially less than usual for keeping such a car on the track. A downturn in the global economy, however, resulted in the production of only a handful of examples before the British automaker let it go. Now back as the Fzed, the car has been trimmed in weight, mainly due to ubiquitous titanium parts (like the exhaust and steering wheel) that are 3-D-printed at Rodin’s facilities. Power comes from a 3.8-liter Cosworth V-8 engine producing 675 hp and
This projectile is absolutely ballistic and way beyond my skill set. Nothing I’ve driven has truly readied me for this experience.
9,600 rpm. But a near F1-spec composite car requires someplace suitable to drive it. Not surprisingly, Dicker has created two private racetracks set on 1,360 acres in New Zealand for that very purpose. Serving as mentor for my three-day visit to the testing ground is Blancpain GT World racing driver Mark Williamson. Before anyone is allowed near the Fzed, they first have to prove their mettle in a McLaren 570S GT4 and Dallara F3 single-seater, respectively, during the first two days. Already aching by the time I’m squeezed into the Dallara, I find the latter to be a horrid experience because, in all honesty, it’s a nightmare to steer. I start to question my track abilities, despite once piloting Damon Hill’s Arrows F1 missile and a rash of other automotive exotica. The other major problem is communication. The car is so noisy that I can barely hear Williamson’s go-faster instructions through my headset. As I soon realize, it’s all part of the prep. Only on day three am I deemed ready to experience the Fzed. First, a seat fitting, then instructions on unconventional left-foot braking: Remember, this automobile is almost as fast as a 2011 F1 car and just as unforgiving. As in the Dallara, I’m on my own in the Rodin, with Williamson gently coaxing me through the helmet. The car needs tons of revs to kangaroo forward, but too much right foot and it’s brutal. The Ricardo six-speed sequential gearbox takes no prisoners, causing most people to stall. Instead, I’m hurtling toward a corner with Avon slicks and cold carbon brakes that require at least three laps to warm up. Coming out of the first apex and onto
the straight, I suddenly lose Williamson’s voice in my ear as the deafening roar of the Cosworth directly behind me kicks in. Not only that, the vibration is worse than sticking my head inside Metallica’s speaker stack. The downforce created by all of the aerodynamic considerations keeps the Fzed planted firmly on the track; it’s just my lack of ability and the overwhelming cacophony that are holding me back. Driving with feet on both pedals is not intuitive, and I find myself occasionally braking out of a corner. If I back off the power, the downforce disappears in an instant. This projectile is absolutely ballistic and way beyond my skill set. Nothing I’ve driven has truly readied me for this experience—and that’s the idea. Rodin hopes to sell its stock of Fzeds to track enthusiasts who want one of the fastest contestants on the grid, able to reach 100 mph in 5 seconds and cover more than 3,000 miles—on premium fuel found at gas stations—before the engine needs a rebuild. Compare that to a conventional F1 engine, which requires an immensely expensive overhaul after roughly 620 miles, and it’s clear that Rodin’s $650,000 offering opens the door to F1-level thrills for a fraction of the price. As for Dicker, he’s now focusing on his latest concept, the Fzero, a closedcockpit racer with 1,000 hp from a Rodindesigned 4.0-liter V-10. It’s set to cost in the neighborhood of $1 million and aims to outpace the new generation of F1 cars due in 2021. And even though there’s a street-legal version planned, my guess is that earplugs will come as standard. Jeremy Taylor
VIRTUAL BLOCK PARTY An August staple for motoring’s cognoscenti, Northern California’s revered Monterey Car Week was, understandably, scrapped this year because of the pandemic. Many of its associated auctions, however, have moved online, either as part of the Petersen Automotive Museum’s virtual exhibition, from August 12 to 16, or as stand-alone events. Here are five lots we have our eyes on. Viju Mathew
For its Geared Online event, from August 3 to 7, Gooding & Company will feature one of the more elusive models from Maranello: a 1995 Ferrari F50. The Pininfarina-designed hardtop convertible pairs a six-speed manual gearbox with a naturally aspirated 12-cylinder engine adapted from that of the automaker’s 641 Formula 1 racer. This particular machine kicks exclusivity up a notch. “The F50 is particularly rare in general, with only 349 cars built,” says Gooding specialist Hans Wurl. “But this is one of just 55 examples originally delivered in the United States.” Bidding could top $2.6 million.
1995 FERRARI 50: JOSH HWAY; 1980 BMW M1 PROCAR: TIM SCOT T; 1930 STUTZ MODEL MB MONTE CARLO: ROBIN ADAMS; 1934 ALFA ROMEO 8C: PETER SINGHOF
Leader of the Pack On August 14, Bonhams will host its online Quail Motorcar Auction, headlined by a 1959 Porsche 718 RSK Spyder. One of only 34 examples built, it was raced frequently by early Stateside Porsche dealer Bob Holbert and has been under the same ownership since 1974.
1959 Porsche 718 RSK Spyder
end estimate of $800,000. The car on offer “is arguably the best example to come to auction in recent years, having been continuously maintained,” says Shelby Myers, car specialist and global head of private sales at RM Sotheby’s. “Even 40 years after it first took to the racetrack, it continues to impress.”
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As part of its Online Only: Shift/ Monterey program, RM Sotheby’s will highlight a 1980 BMW M1 Procar that competed in the IMSA GT Championship series. The vehicle stands out not only because it was driven by Al Unser Jr. but also because it’s presented without reserve, despite a high-
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1980 BMW M1 Procar
Racer Without Reserve
Made for America
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1995 Ferrari F50
Geared to Give Back Another classic in the RM Sotheby’s Shift/Monterey catalog is a 1930 Stutz Model MB Monte Carlo with coachwork by Weymann. Previously in the Automobile Driving Museum’s collection, the gallery piece may achieve $375,000 on the high side, with all proceeds going to support its former home. “Few cars from the period have the presence, style and uniqueness that this fabric-bodied sporting saloon showcases,” says RM Sotheby’s representative Ian Kelleher. “The former Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Best in Class winner is one of only three examples of its kind known to exist today.”
An Alfa for the Ages Also presented through Bonhams is a Vittorio Jano–designed 1934 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Figoni Cabriolet Décapotable. Bodied by Carrosserie Joseph Figoni, it’s an extremely scarce variant of a model driven to wins by racing greats such as Luigi Chinetti and Tazio Nuvolari. “Complemented by the sweeping lines of Figoni’s coachwork, the combination of mechanical powerhouse and graceful design makes for a mesmerizing Alfa unlike any other,” says Bonhams’s Greisen. “It’s one of the most collectible prewar motorcars ever produced.” An estimated value is available upon request.
1930 Stutz Model MB Monte Carlo
The car’s origins stem from the 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder, says Jakob Greisen, head of US Motoring at Bonhams. “These were known as ‘Giant Killers’ due to their light and agile construction, high-revving fourcam engines and distinguished aerodynamic looks.” It’s expected to fetch as much as $3.2 million. 1934 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Figoni Cabriolet Décapotable
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Dream Machines | W H E E L S
GIVING IT THE GAS
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the 2020 model year marks the first significant update of Yamaha’s flagship, the YZF-R1M, since its 2015 debut. The bike is already a technological tour de force, but the big news is the arrival of the electronically controlled, gascharged Öhlins NPX-EC fork—a first for any production motorcycle—and TTX36 shock. The new gas-pressurized fork reduces oil cavitation, leading to a more controlled performance. The motor—nestled in a svelte race-inspired chassis and cloaked in carbon-fiber bodywork—gets subtle tweaks that include a new cylinder head, camshafts and throttle bodies. The enhancements are not aimed at increasing output as much as smoothing out what the 998 cc in-line
four-cylinder already produces, and that’s, unofficially, around 200 hp. Already fine-tuned are the traction control and wheelie and slide algorithms, all managed by the Inertial Measurement Unit and giving more predictability at the throttle, which, by the way, is now fully electronic (bye-bye, cables). The bike has always been bewilderingly fast, and this is still the case, but the rider aids, superb electronic suspension and race-spec chassis work together seamlessly to carve corners so easily that it flatters the rider. Sure, there’s more power here than most will ever need, but its supremely controlled delivery makes the $26,099 YZF-R1M one of the finest sportbikes ever built. Peter Jackson
The age of the super-SUV is upon us. As levels of both sport and utility have progressed exponentially, some kid carriers can now make more than 600 hp and perform at a threshold once the realm of Le Mans. Others offer refinement found in the most exclusive limousines— and a few do both. But how do these rarefied vehicles compare head-to-head? Find out firsthand at Robb Report’s third annual Dream Machines event in Las Vegas. The three-day program, hosted by the RR1 club (and in compliance with all the
Participants leave the Aria Resort & Casino (top) for the testing grounds at Ascaya (bottom). A VIP helicopter tour is another highlight (middle).
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DREAM MACHINES EVENT: STEWART COOK
DRIVERS WANTED
latest health protocols), offers a choice of drive sessions between September 9 and 13. Priced at $5,900 per couple ($4,900 for one person), the package includes two nights in a Sky Suite at Aria Resort & Casino, dining experiences with celebrity chefs, a VIP helicopter tour and a hands-on tech exhibition. Time behind the wheel will take place on a closed course at Ascaya, a private residential development located 15 miles outside the Strip. There, participants will compare the power and handling of the Lamborghini Urus, Bentley Bentayga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan, among other premier models—all with interiors sure to cause a more desirable form of cabin fever. RR1.com V.M.
WAT E R
One Yacht, Two Destinies REV Ocean is not only the world’s largest gigayacht but also its biggest research vessel.
Moon-pool area with submarine, autonomous underwater vehicle and remotely operated vehicle
4,300 hp electric motors (2) 3,600 hp diesel engines (4)
10 laboratories
Auditorium for 36 scientists with Dolby sound
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t 600 feet in length, REV Ocean wears the crown of world’s largest yacht, edging out Azzam by 10 feet. Owner Kjell Inge Røkke, who made his fortune from fishing and offshore oil drilling, wanted his jewel to be more than just another placeholder in yachting’s tiara. He decided to build something special: a hybrid vessel combining a yacht interior with an ice-class hull and the laboratories of a polar-research vessel. h
Hull built to Polar Ice Class PC6 standard for navigation in ice-covered water
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Dream Machines | WA T E R
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Ten laboratories, undersea exploration and 54 scientists on board separate REV Ocean from superyacht peers.
The yacht has a novel business model: Charters will offset research costs, so visiting scientists won’t pay a bean.
and be part of the solution,” he says. Currently being outfitted, the vessel will be delivered in 2022. After that comes a 250-day maiden voyage. “Our objective is to find practical answers for the oceans’ problems,” says Rogers. “Our charter guests can combine special experiences around the science elements they’re interested in. We’re eager for them to play a part in the solution.” Michael Verdon
GUILLAUME PLISSON
Unsurprisingly, REV Ocean is also the world’s largest research vessel. “She is bigger than a normal research ship, almost by double,” says Alex Rogers, Ph.D., a marine ecologist who left his teaching position at the University of Oxford to become the superyacht’s science director. “We have the full range of science equipment as well as the world’s deepest-diving submersible that descends to 7,500 feet. She has three wet labs for biology, microbiology and geology, two dry labs and a media lab, as well as equipment for extracting samples at depths of 20,000 feet.” In research mode, the boat can accommodate 54 scientists plus 36 crew, many of whom are specialized technicians. As a charter, the yacht hosts 28 guests in 14 staterooms, along with 54 crew. REV Ocean has three swimming pools, multiple common areas, several dining rooms, observation platforms and, thanks to the research side, a 35-seat auditorium, classrooms and an onboard medical facility. The research will focus on three main issues: overfishing, climate change and plastic pollution. The yacht also has a novel business model: Charters will offset research costs, so visiting scientists won’t pay a bean. Røkke has reportedly invested around $350 million to build REV Ocean, with plans to lease her to the not-for-profit of the same name for $1 per year. He admits his former business activities have contributed to environmental problems. The initiative came from “the desire to use my resources for a good cause I believe in,
WA T E R | Dream Machines
Q&A
Elin Signe Askvik Captain, REV Ocean
Elin Signe Askvik has always been connected to the sea: Her first job was on a cargo carrier, and then came Arctic exploration and finally a decade of salvaging wrecks in pirate-infested waters. A personal favorite: a 2013 expedition, financed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, to recover Apollo 11’s F-1 rocket engine, which had been jettisoned into the sea 44 years earlier. Skippering the world’s largest yacht in 2022 will be a sea change, but Askvik will be using familiar technology to scan and map the oceans down to 20,000 feet in a bid to save them. M.V.
ELIN SIGNE ASKVIK’S ILLUSTRATION BY JOEL KIMMEL
When did you first go to sea? I grew up near Osterfjorden on Norway’s west coast. Dad owned a small cargo carrier, and as kids, my brother and I were on board every chance we got. While our Viking ancestors inspired me subconsciously, Dad inspired us daily. He taught us the value of working and not only dreaming. After merchant-marine school, I worked for Swire Seabed AS, a small company that salvaged shipwrecks around the world. As it grew, we explored for oil, gas and minerals. I learned to use complex equipment like autonomous underwater vehicles. That’s where I found my passion for subsea exploration, specifically for archaeology and wrecks. How will you apply these skills on REV Ocean? I’ve become very aware of the changing state of the oceans and its impact on all of us. I remember the bottom of the Mediterranean last year—6,500 feet below the surface and not a fish in sight, but enormous piles of garbage. The coasts of Africa, the Indian Ocean—everywhere it’s the same. What are your goals? We’ll do subsea exploration to chart undiscovered areas. We’ll have sensors on the vessel to do health checks of the ocean. We’ll have coring equipment and a remotely operated underwater vehicle to inspect and take samples. We’ll also have an autonomous underwater vehicle to survey larger areas and a submarine so we can get close to the magic. We want to understand how our lifestyle impacts the oceans’ health. I honestly believe that this understanding will drive real change. I’m excited to get started.
THE NEW MAN AND THE SEA
in 2012, Hilary Hemingway found herself crawling around the engine compartment of a boat docked outside Havana. “I’d been in many Hemingway homes,” she says, referring to her famous uncle, Ernest, “but I’d never been on Pilar. It was amazing access.” Adopting the nickname of his third wife, Pauline, Pilar was Papa Hemingway’s custom 38-foot Wheeler Playmate, which the author and Nobel Prize winner shuttled between Key West, Bimini and Cuba as he helped pioneer big-game fishing. Hemingway had many adventures on Pilar: hunting for German U-boats, conducting environmental
The new Pilar has the same cold-molded mahogany exterior, along with iPad control and touchscreen navigation. research for the American Museum of Natural History and shooting himself in the leg while trying to land a shark. With Hilary Hemingway that day was Wes Wheeler, whose great-grandfather founded the Wheeler Shipbuilding Corp. in 1910. Wheeler and Hemingway had met a few years earlier, after she and actor Andy Garcia cowrote a script about her uncle and Gregorio Fuentes,
his longtime captain. Wheeler helped restore a 34-foot Playmate that was intended to play Pilar on-screen, and the experience ignited his desire to revive the Wheeler Shipbuilding company, which produced more than 3,500 boats before closing in 1966. This September, a new Pilar, reengineered from the measurements Wheeler and Hemingway took that day in Cuba, will mark the rise of the Wheeler Yacht Company. Built at Brooklin Boat Yard in Brooklin, Me., the reproduction will look like a motor yacht from the 1930s but with modern amenities, including iPad control, a touchscreen nav system, A/C and a stabilizer. The new cold-molded mahogany exterior will match its namesake in looks above the waterline, but since its twin 370 hp Yanmars will push it to 25 knots—the original made about half that—the running surface is flatter, with sharper chines. “The shape of the forefoot and midsections are not much different,” says naval architect Bill Prince. “Any other changes are subtle.” The price, depending on options, will run about $1.5 million. Wheeler hopes for strong interest in the Wheeler 38. After all, as Hilary Hemingway puts it, “It’s probably the most famous fishing boat in the world.” J. George Gorant
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TECH
Masters of Spin
T
homas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, nine years after Patek Philippe created its first wristwatch. And while every turntable will play you a record just as any watch will tell the time, the distinction between the merely functional and the truly fantastic is huge for both. Similar to purchasing a timepiece, you can now spend as much on the audio component as you can a modern supercar. Precision machines of meticulous craftsmanship, the following ’tables turn simple vinyl playback into something sublime. Robert Ross
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Reimagined from a vintage turntable, Woodsong Audio’s Thorens TD124 drives the platter with an idler wheel.
BERGMANN TURNTABLE: ANJA SCHOENWANDT; WOODSONG THORENS: CHRIS HARBAN
For devotees of the turntable, this mix of new and favorite models presents heavenly engineering, fidelity and design.
T E C H | Dream Machines
Priced at $450,000, the TechDAS Air Force Zero weighs 726 pounds.
CONSCIOUS COUPLING •
• Bergmann Galder
During the 1980s, Hideaki Nishikawa’s turntable designs for Micro Seiki handily outperformed the digital technology of the era. In 2010, he founded TechDAS to raise the bar once again, and the new 726-pound Air Force Zero is the most ambitious record player ever made. The belt-drive behemoth employs vacuum-suction to hold an LP to a stack of five platters that levitates on a sheet of air. Priced at $450,000 (with a Graham tonearm), it’s the ultimate turntable, without question.
From Denmark-based Bergmann, the Galder air-bearing turntable accommodates up to four tonearms and floats its platter on an air cushion to reduce friction and eliminate noise. Vacuum hold-down keeps LPs tight to the 26-pound aluminum platter or the optional 88-pound copper version; the separate motor base and belt drive achieve maximum isolation from external vibration. Equipped with Bergmann’s linear-tracking Odin tonearm, the Galder costs $37,000 in black velvet/silver finish or $50,000 when plated in 24-karat gold. •
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Woodsong Audio Thorens TD124
Rare vintage machines from both Thorens and Garrard drive the platter with an idler wheel, giving music a force and foundation that are hard to match by belt and directdrive units. Woodsong’s Chris Harban completely rebuilds each for speed, stability and silent operation, with bearings blueprinted to precision tolerances. Custom automotive finishes and plinths in a variety of rare woods elevate turntables like the Thorens TD124 (starting at $7,000) into works of visual and sonic art.
TechDAS Air Force Zero
Pro-Ject Signature 12
The Signature 12 is Austrian manufacturer Pro-Ject’s finest ’table. The $12,000 model features a dense rectangular base—finished in piano black or mahogany—and an aluminum subframe engineered to negate disturbance. A flywheel belt-drive system employs two motors to rotate the polished aluminum platter, operated via touchscreen controls. And with the $2,000 Superpack Upgrade, the single-pivot 12-inch tonearm is fitted with Sumiko’s flagship Palos Santos Presentation movingcoil cartridge, worth $4,500 separately.
Among the founding fathers of the audio industry, McIntosh Labs is a brand as popular now as it was during the golden age of hi-fi, a time when Dad smoked a pipe, sipped a scotch and listened to Frank on a swank stereo console. Famous for their cool blue meters, tanklike build quality and excellent sound, McIntosh components continue to deliver music on a massive scale. In that vein, the MC901—priced at $35,000 per pair—is a monoblock amplifier that drives a single speaker. What makes it unique is that it’s the first design in audio history to take completely separate vacuum-tube and solid-state systems—making 300 and 600 watts, respectively—and combine them in a single chassis. “It was inspired by our history of starting with vacuum-tube amplification in the 1940s before introducing products with solid-state amplification in the 1960s,” says Charlie Randall, president of McIntosh Labs, on the innovative configuration. “The purpose of the dual topology is to allow the listener to have the best of both worlds: For mid- and high frequencies, they have the classic sound of vacuum tubes, and for low frequencies there’s the fast response and power reserve of solid state.” Sinatra may never sound better. R.R.
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WINGS
Cabin Cruiser
Airbus makes its new copter lighter, faster, quieter.
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rriving in the US later this year, the eagerly awaited ACH160 Exclusive is a step up from Airbus’s previous generation of executive helicopters. The new interior is a game changer, with its improved sound insulation and expansive, double-paned windows that open up the view even as they cut back on engine noise. Co-created by Airbus and yacht designer Harrison Eidsgaard, the ACH160 was designed to provide a large blank canvas for whatever an owner wants in the cabin: lounge chairs arranged for a tête-à-tête, three seats across or any other configuration of seating for up to eight. The obsessive attention to detail continues with as many as eight coats of varnish for the woodwork and grain-matched veneers. Other nice touches include outer steps that lower at the touch of a button and get close to the ground for easier boarding. The Safran turboshaft engines deliver a fast cruise speed of 172.6 mph and a range of 512 miles, while burning 15 percent less fuel. The chopper’s intuitive Helionix flight deck is also a technical assist for the pilots. The ACH160 will have a maximum endurance of four hours and 30 minutes. Michael Verdon
W I N G S | Dream Machines
HOW SAFE IS YOUR PILOT?
AIRPLANE!: AF ARCHIVE /ALAMY; ANTHONY TIVNAN’S ILLUSTRATION BY JOEL KIMMEL
the plane flicks viciously onto its back. Suddenly, I’m staring straight over the nose of the little two-seat aircraft at waves that are zooming closer at an alarming rate. “Recover now,” says flight instructor Mark “Greeners” Greenfield in a voice that’s absurdly calm, considering we are seconds from punching through the rippled surface of the English Channel. I defy my instinct to haul back on the controls and instead push the nose down even further toward the water. That’s enough to get the stalled wings flying again, allowing me to roll them parallel to the horizon, quickly reduce power and then lift the nose of the Slingsby aerobatic plane up into the cloud-dotted sky, increasing thrust along the way. Greenfield is teaching me how to save a plane when all goes wrong—which can easily happen if turbulence, mechanical failure or distraction lead a pilot to wing it. Unfortunately, the demand for airline and corporate aviators has fast-forwarded instruction, defense cuts have slashed the number of seasoned ex-military fliers going into commercial operations and the rise in aircraft automation has curbed opportunities to practice hand-flying skills. All of these factors add up to a potential drop in piloting standards. Regulators are all too aware of this. “Increasingly, you’re seeing pilots who haven’t got a background for building skills in gliders or small planes—skills that tend to make better pilots with more awareness of aerodynamic forces,”
Q&A
Anthony Tivnan The cofounder of Magellan Jets has a new business model for uncertain times.
Beyond the autopilot, it’s critical that the aircrew has specialized training for times that flights unexpectedly go bad.
says a source from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority who wants to remain anonymous. Greenfield, a former UK military flier who also headed Britain’s Empire Test Pilot School, now runs the UK-based Ultimate High Academy. He has been giving hands-on upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) to pilots for two decades. Greenfield also helped frame new European aviation regulatory rules that came into effect in late 2019. These were drafted in response to accidents in which the pilots lost control of perfectly airworthy planes. The updated regs require that newly minted commercial pilots receive UPRT, in real aircraft, before they go into their first corporate or airline job. The situation is different here in the
Magellan Jets built its business around injecting consistency into the often mercurial charter world. In 2008, cofounders Anthony Tivnan and Joshua Hebert introduced the benefits of fractional ownership to the charter world with membership-based jet cards. The Boston-area firm has just launched a plan for new travelers who are navigating the current pandemic. M.V. You started Magellan during the worst financial crisis in recent memory. How is this different? This has its own issues, but we’re approaching it similarly. In 2008, we provided the same benefits that
US, where commercial pilots licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration need a modified version of UPRT, sometimes just on a simulator. “Sims are wonderful for training in the normal flight envelope,” says Randall Brooks of US-based Aviation Performance Solutions. “But even a full-motion sim is not like being in a plane, and there’s less pressure to learn because everyone knows they’re not going to die. When they leave the normal envelope, some things they have been trained to do will be more dangerous.” The course at Ultimate High Academy includes three to four hours in the air and practice of the one rule that, according to Greenfield, can solve any problem. That rule, said out loud while performing the actions, is push, roll, power: Push the control stick forward to get the wings flying again, roll level and use power as necessary. Usually, if the aircraft is out of control because its wings have stalled, adding power helps. While accident statistics, in general, are trending for the better, Brooks notes that rates in corporate aviation are not as good as those for airlines. One reason may be that commercial pilots have more experience and more regular continuing education than some of those operating in the charter and corporate sectors. That said, some larger privateflight departments are now sending their aircrews through UPRT as well. After my own skill-sharpening session, I’m convinced that such specialized aerial courses save lives. Unfortunately, there is no requirement for already licensed business-jet pilots to take the courses. Hopefully, it doesn’t take another tragic headline to make such training mandatory. Rohit Jaggi
fractional companies were giving clients without having to sign up for five years or own part of the jet. We also made sure our clients got the best charter aircraft. Basically, we look for holes and add value.
to get places as quickly, so we moved the time limitations to 24 hours rather than 8 on our jet card. We’re also seeing corporations use this as supplemental lift. It’s a way to keep employees safe when the appetite for risk is lower.
And now? Our cards tend to have an average value of $210,000. In April, we saw a flood of interest from newcomers who weren’t used to that kind of pricing. Now we’re bridging the gap with a pay-as-you-go program with an $8,500 initiation fee and easy-tounderstand terms.
Have there been upsides? While I obviously wouldn’t wish this situation on anyone, we’ve done many flights for highrisk individuals. We handled requests for medical supplies. More recently, there were people traveling for weddings. There was a company tied to an IPO. We felt honored to take part in all that. We had people saying thank you for keeping our loved ones safe. There were a lot of emotions tied to it. It was good to see the business from that different lens.
Has it worked? We’ve seen new business increase massively. These folks, who travel for leisure, don’t need
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Ben Oliver on cars, p. 57
Bill Perkins on wealth, p. 58
Nina Fedrizzi on equine pursuits, p. 59
Fiel BEN OLIVER
What Does the Queen and Steve McQueen Have in Common? More than sharing a name (sort of ), they both drove the Land Rover Defender. You should try the new one.
CARS
F
rom Jay Gatsby’s yellow RollsRoyce to the sultry Jaguar E-Type of the 1960s to current supercars from McLaren and its rivals, the upper echelons of the British car industry have found enthusiastic patrons in America. And the Brits are grateful for your custom. But as the first examples of the new Land Rover Defender are delivered Stateside, I can’t help feeling that you ought to be grateful to us for finally letting you buy our national SUV again after a 23-year absence from the US market. No car—not even the Mini—is as central to the British motoring psyche as the Defender. It helped reboot our economy after the war. It sparked our car industry’s dominance in the 1960s by opening global markets. It has now transported our soliders across nine decades. Many of us learned to drive in an old one, crunching through the gears in a farmer’s field. Even Her Majesty the Queen drives one. At its launch in 1948, few could have imagined such a spartan vehicle being recast as a Robb Report kind of car, but a lot can change in 72 years. The original Land Rover (the Defender name was added in 1990) cost just £450, with doors and passenger seats extra. “There is nothing of the luxury vehicle about its looks,” Britain’s Autocar magazine wrote at
the time. But with the top-spec version of its latest descendant costing upwards of $80,000, the new Defender is now unquestionably a discretionary purchase, and you can spend into six figures if you’re liberal with options like a rooftop tent and portable shower. The good news: Doors and seats are now standard. America was a formative influence on the Land Rover. US forces left thousands of Jeeps behind after World War II, and the Wilks brothers, who ran Rover at the time, used one on their farm in Wales. They had an idea for a car equal to the Jeep’s rugged simplicity but lighter, more efficient and sweeter to steer. They thought they might sell a few hundred each month, mainly to farmers. But orders rolled in: from armies, aid agencies, explorers and anyone who needed to go where roads yet hadn’t. Within six years they’d made 100,000, and by the end of production of the original car in 2016, more than two million had found garages. But the roots of the Land Rover’s shift from farm and military vehicle to luxury car go back to its earliest days. King George VI was presented with the 100th example in ’48. Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren were
all seen in them. Lately a sun-bleached and patinated Defender has become the Instagram-friendly hipster ride of choice, equally at home on a beach, in the backwoods or on an English country estate. The best restored early examples now sell for six figures. No wonder Land Rover felt confident moving the Defender upmarket after a four-year absence caused by modern emissions and safety regulations, which the old car, evolved from the very first, couldn’t hope to meet. This new Defender is based on the Range Rover architecture family, and shares nothing but its name with the original. But in its looks, in details like the exposed screwheads in the cabin, in its extraordinary off-road ability and in that mad range of options, it captures the spirit of the old Defender. Those of us who love that car and were worried about what might replace it have been reassured. We’re delighted to share it with you. But do please remember who else owns a Defender, and dress properly and sit up straight when driving it. Ben Oliver was recently named Columnist of the Year by the UK’s Newspress Awards for his automotive columns published in Robb Report.
Illustrations by CELYN
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Field Notes
BILL PERKINS
You Can’t Take It With You Sure, the trappings of success can be fun, but to optimize your life, make sure you’re spending smart. WEALTH
T
oward the end of my father’s life, when his physical ability was greatly diminished, I gave him a shamelessly sentimental gift: an iPad full of memories. As a college student, he had played football for the University of Iowa in the early 1960s, so I had a highlight reel of his games digitized. As he sat watching the video, he laughed, he cried, he reminisced. Too old to acquire significant new experiences, he could still derive great enjoyment from the video. That’s when I realized that you retire on your memories. When you’re too frail to do much of anything else, you can still look back on the life you’ve lived and feel immense pride joy and
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retirement. As workers in the United States, we’re constantly getting the message that we need to sock money away into a 401(k) or IRA. Our culture tends to overemphasize the virtues of the fabled ant—hard work and delayed gratification—at the cost of other virtues. As a result, we fail to appreciate that the grasshopper was onto something, too. There’s value in earning money but also in spending it. It’s easy to see that adventures take time and money, and that they can bring enjoyment during the days and years you are having them, which makes them worthwhile for that reason alone. But they’re also an investment in your future. Most of us think of investments in strictly monetary terms, but the payoff doesn’t have to be financial. When you teach your daughter to swim or ride a
savings don’t just add up—they snowball. And the same can happen with memory dividends: They’ll compound as you share the memory with others. That’s because whenever you interact with someone and share an experience you’ve had, that becomes an experience in itself. You’re communicating, laughing, bonding, giving advice. You’re doing the stuff of everyday life. By going out of office, you not only live a more engaged and interesting life but also have more of yourself to share with others. It’s like the idea that business begets more business. Whether the activities we pursue are learning, skiing, engaging with our children, traveling, enjoying great meals with friends, attending concerts or any of the trillions of combinations available to us, we acquire money with the goal of having experiences. Plus, because of
When you spend time or money on experiences, not only are they enjoyable in the moment but they also pay an ongoing dividend. bike, it’s not because you think she’ll get a better-paying job. It’s the same with experiences: When you spend time or money on them, not only are they enjoyable in the moment but they also pay an ongoing dividend—call it the memory dividend. Think back to one of the best vacations you ever had and how much time you spent showing pictures of that trip to your friends. Add to that all the times you and the people you traveled with reminisced about the trip, and all the times you’ve thought about it or given advice to other people going on a similar trip. All those residual encounters are the dividends I’m talking about: They’re your memory dividends, and they add up. So buying an experience doesn’t just buy you the experience itself. It also buys the sum of all the dividends that trip or lesson or event will bring for the rest of your life. Over time, the memory dividend can sometimes add up to more enjoyment than the original moment provided—through compounding, just like with money in the bank. Due to compounding, your financial
the memory dividend, those adventures bring a rate of return, just as investments in financial instruments do—sometimes a ridiculously high rate of return. Yes, we all need to save and invest some amount of money for a time when we’re no longer getting a paycheck. Nobody wants to starve in their old age or make their children have to support them. But here’s the rub: The number of experiences available to you diminishes as you age. The earlier you start investing, the more time you have to reap your memory dividends. It’s kind of like what Warren Buffett says: Invest early, and by the time you get to a certain age, look at how much you’ve accumulated. Grow the richest life you can, one that’s rich in experiences, adventures, memories— rich in all the reasons you acquire money in the first place. Bill Perkins earned his fortune as an energy trader and is now consulting. He is the author of the newly released book Die With Zero: Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life, from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Field Notes
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Blue-Ribbon Blues The pandemic has created a chain reaction of hits to the US horse-show community. What can be done to help?
EQUINE PURSUIT S
S
urrounded by the dramatic beauty of the Adirondack Mountains, the Lake Placid Horse Show caters to the best hunter/jumper riders in the country. By the close of competition, the notoriously challenging Grand Prix course is pocked and flattened by hardcharging hooves. But this summer, for the first time in more than 50 years, the grass remained undisturbed. The event is just one of a string of major North American horse-show cancellations in the wake of Covid-19. Among them: all five Spruce Meadows tournaments in Calgary, Alberta; the Hampton Classic; and the prestigious Devon Horse Show in Pennsylvania, which has been canceled just three times (all during W.W. II) in its 124-year history. As restrictions ease, organizers find themselves adrift in a strange new world of social-distancing guidelines. “Our intention is to go forward, but we’ve adopted a wait-and-see strategy,”
Even so, the market s instability cuts both ways, especially when you’re talking about investments in the severalmillion-dollar range. “A couple years ago, I was much more open to buying [horses] at the top of their game. Now, in this economy, I just wouldn’t consider that. I’m looking for the diamond in the rough,” the source says. Even as owners back off sales, the pandemic has opened eyes to the plights of others. “It brings out philanthropists,” our insider says. “There are so many [in] need that you want to give back.” Many of those are employed by
especially hard by cancellations at the Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) Miami Beach and Spruce Meadows. “It’s been hard to find ones I can work at because of Covid restrictions.” One way this community has rallied to help its unemployed bridge the gap is through the Show Jumping Relief Fund (SJRF). Created by US-based Israeli show jumper Daniel Bluman and his wife, Ariel, the fund provides temporary help—grocery money and assistance with pressing bills—to the hardest hit. “A lot of people ended up having to fire grooms because they didn’t have enough to keep paying them. For braiders, if there’s no show, there’s no job,” says Ariel Bluman. To date, the SJRF has raised more than $70,000 for 300 horse-show employees and their families through GoFundMe and Facebook campaigns. Those in need submit applications for funds, which are issued on a sliding scale based on the number of people dependent on the applicant. “In this small world, you know these people by face and that they have kids,” Bluman continues. “They’re taking you from the parking lot to the VIP seating, or braiding your hunter at 2 a.m. if you have a derby class the next day. They are bending over backward for us, and it’s our time to step up for them.” The SJRF will continue its fundraising as long as the need persists. Yet even as limited events return, the
The equestrian competition sector contributes $28.3 billion a year to the US economy. horse shows. According to a 2017 American Horse Council Foundation study, the equestrian competition sector contributes $28.3 billion a year to the US economy, providing more than 415,000 jobs. These include grooms, braiders, judges and stewards, plus photographers, grounds crews and security staff. All are feeling the Covid pinch. “The cancellations have really hurt my business. The shows are the biggest part of my income,” says photographer Kaitlyn Karssen, who was struck
question looming for horse-show workers everywhere remains: How long will the uncertainty last? “Even with the few horse shows that are able to run, there are still many people without work, with no end in sight,” says Karssen, who worries about the consequence of a second wave of Covid cases or smaller outbreaks within the horse community. “The struggle isn’t close to being over yet.” Nina Fedrizzi is a writer and an amateur competitor in upstate New York.
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Silicon Valley Takes on
Tech bigwigs are investing billions in pursuit of longer, disease-free lives. But could there really be a magic pill for immortality? BY MEGAN MILLER ILLUSTRATION BY PETER CROWTHER
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Liz Parrish CEO, BioViva Entrepreneur Dave Asprey’s end-of-life plans are quite simple, really, even if some of his ambitions sound laughably optimistic to most of us. “I want to die at a time and by a method of my own choosing, and keep doing awesome things until that day,” he tells me. “I don’t think it’s outrageous to believe I’ll make it to 180 years old. And if I run out of energy, it’ll just be because I did too much cool shit for my own good.” Asprey is strolling across his lush property in British Columbia, holding up his phone and pointing out the specimens in this year’s garden as we chat over Zoom in the midst of the global pandemic. He’s protecting his skin from the sun with a goofy Outdoor Research hat and wearing a long string of beads that he says are each over a hundred years old, from cultures around the world. Asprey, 48, is the founder of the Bulletproof wellness empire and a vocal champion of the movement to extend human life expectancy beyond 100 years. He’s made millions by experimenting on his own body and packaging his home-brewed discoveries into books, a podcast, consulting services and consumer products (you may have even tried his butter-laced coffee). Asprey, who was a web-security executive before he became the “Bulletproof Executive,” is just one of a cadre of tech elite who have begun directing their attention—and truckloads of money—toward the problem
Sleep routine Wake naturally. Vitamin/supplements Vitamin B12 and occasional multivitamin and mineral. Diet Vegetarian. Mindfulness practice Nightly meditation. Exercise regimen 30 minutes of cardio and 10 minutes of weights, five days a week. Anti-aging Rx “Regenerative gene therapies. I’m certain most people will take them in the next couple decades.” 180th-birthday wish “Solving another critical issue.”
IF THE LIFE EXTENSIONISTS ARE RIGHT, A PERSON WHO’S 40 TODAY MIGHT STILL BE DOWNHILL SKIING, RUNNING A 10K OR PLAYING TENNIS AT 100.
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of life extension. Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Sergey Brin, Larry Ellison—name a Silicon Valley A-lister and he or she is likely funding longevity research, experimenting with anti-aging interventions or both. These are the masters of the universe who see no reason they can’t take the tech industry’s optimization obsession and apply it to the ultimate challenge: conquering death itself. And their efforts appear to be paying off: Thanks to a recent explosion of advances in longevity medicine, Asprey’s vision of living healthfully into his second century might not be so crazy. In fact, for people in middle age right now, a handful of therapies in clinical trials have the potential, for the first time in human history, to radically transform what “old age” looks like. If the life extensionists are right, a person who’s 40 today might reasonably expect to still be downhill skiing, running a 10K or playing singles tennis at 100. “If you do anti-aging right,” Asprey insists, “you’ll have a level of resilience and energy to fight what comes your way. If you get Covid-19, you’re less likely to become very sick. The idea is that at a cellular level, you’re making yourself very hard to kill.” The most extreme of the controversial interventions Asprey has undergone involved having stem cells extracted from his own bone marrow and fat and then injected into hundreds of locations on his body. “Into every joint, between every vertebra and into my cerebrospinal fluid, face and sex organs,” he tells me cheerfully. “For what I spent on that, I could have bought a really nicely appointed Tesla.” He trots up a flight of stairs to his home office, which sits above a million-dollar lab filled with health gadgets, such as a cryochamber, a hypoxic trainer and an AI-enabled stationary bike. “For a wealthy person, investing in your body should be a major part of your ‘I’m rich’ strategy,” he explains. “Personally, I think you should be spending at least 2 to 3 percent of your net worth on health and longevity. Get a personal chef who can cook you the right food. It’s not that hard.”
I
t might be an exaggeration to say BioViva CEO Liz Parrish believes death is optional, but for her, Asprey’s goal of living to 180 shows a distinct lack of ambition. “If you can reach homeostasis in the body,” Parrish says, “where it’s regenerating itself just a little bit faster than it’s degrading, then what do you die of? An
Silicon Valley Takes on Death
accident or natural disaster, probably. There’s no expiration date at 90 or 100 years old.” Tall, blond and fit, Parrish cuts a strikingly youthful figure at 49—one that might convince you to order whatever she’s having. But, like Asprey, she has received criticism from the longevity research community for becoming “patient zero” in her own experimental drug trial, aimed at halting aging at the cellular level. In 2015, Parrish underwent telomerase and follistatin gene therapies in Bogotá, Colombia. The procedures involved receiving around a hundred injections of a cocktail of genes and a virus modified to deliver those new genes into her body’s cells. The objective was to prevent age-related muscle loss and lengthen her telomeres: the “caps” at the end of our chromosomes. Scientists have identified their unraveling as not only a marker of aging but also a potential cause of age-related decline. Parrish told the media about her clandestine experiment and has published periodic updates on her condition in the five years since, and she reports that she has indeed increased her muscle mass and lengthened her telomeres. Parrish’s punk-rock approach stems from her conviction that the medical-research community—both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and researchers who aren’t business-minded—is moving too slowly, with too much red tape, when it comes to advancing aging therapeutics. But gene therapy is a relatively new area of medicine that brings with it a host of new risks, including cancer, severe immune reactions and infections caused by the viral vector used to deliver the drug. Parrish downplays such worries. “There may be risks,” she tells Robb Report. “But the known risk is that you’re 100 percent likely to die. So you have to decide for yourself if the potential benefit outweighs that.”
“H
umans have always aspired to find the fountain of youth, so people might be skeptical about the fact that anti-aging technologies are working now,” says British investor and businessman Jim Mellon. “But the fact is that this is finally happening, and we need to seize the moment.” Mellon cofounded Juvenescence, a three-year-old pharmaceutical company that’s investing in multiple technologies simultaneously to increase
Dave Asprey Founder, Bulletproof Vitamins/supplements/ prescription meds “A carefully crafted stack of 150 capsules a day,” including resveratrol, KetoPrime, Brain Octane and rapamycin. Diet Bulletproof Diet, including intermittent fasting with Bulletproof Coffee; fast 24 to 56 hours once every month or two. Mindfulness exercises “A short gratitude practice, and some light breathing and tai chi” each morning; 40 Years of Zen, a five-day program, once or twice a year. Exercise regimen 90 minutes a week on AI bike and electrical stimulation on muscles. “I spend as little time as humanly possible on exercise, as long as I get the results I want.” Anti-aging Rx “Sleeping with a bite guard to protect your molars from wearing down over time. It changes your brain in a bad way when that happens!” 180th-birthday wish “Either a cruise to Mars or a 1970 Mustang Fastback, which by then will be 210 years old!”
the odds of bringing winning products to market. Mellon, 63, has made his fortune betting on well-timed investment opportunities, and he predicts that a new “stock-market mania” for life extension is just around the corner. “This is like the internet dial-up phase of longevity biotech,” he enthuses. “If you’d invested in the internet in the very early days, you’d be one of the richest people on the planet. We’re at that stage now, so the opportunity for investors is huge.” According to a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, he’s not wrong: The market for technologies to increase human life span is projected to grow sixfold to $610 billion in just the next five years. When I talk to Mellon in the late spring, he’s sequestered on the rugged coast of the Isle of Man, a tiny spit of land in the Irish Sea. Despite being what he describes as “imprisoned” there for 15 weeks—and counting—during the Covid-19 shutdown, he’s jovial and chatty and wants to make it clear that his interest in life extension is much more than financial. “Working to extend life is an ethical cause,” he says. “If we can help people to live healthfully until the end of life, we’ll transform the world completely. We’ll reduce a huge amount of pressure on failing health-care systems, and we’ll have to reimagine pension and life insurance. This should be the number-one tick in anyone’s investment portfolio.” If you’d like to get on board with this social-impact view of longevity, it helps to understand the trajectory of aging today. In America’s most affluent neighborhoods, the average life span is about 88 years. (Meanwhile, in this country’s poorest, it hovers around a meager 66 because of a raft of inequalities, such as diet, stress, smoking, pollution and health care.) For most people, health starts gradually diminishing in the last 15 years of life with the onset of chronic conditions, including arthritis, neurodegeneration and diabetes. If we could eliminate such diseases of aging, experts say, the US could save an estimated $7.1 trillion in health-care costs over the next 50 years. (Quite where all these sprightly centenarians might live on this already densely populated planet remains to be seen.) One of Mellon’s bets is on a class of drugs called senolytics, which destroy senescent cells: the so-called “zombie cells” that, for complex reasons, stop dividing as we age. Senescent cells harm the body by secreting compounds that cause inflammation in surrounding tissues. Many age-related condi-
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tions—arthritis, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cancer—have an inflammatory component, and studies suggest that a buildup of senescent cells is a large part of the problem. A number of biotech start-ups are developing drugs that target cell senescence, but the furthest along is Unity Biotechnology, a company in South San Francisco that has three drugs in clinical trials to address aging conditions, starting with osteoarthritis of the knee. Unity raised more than $200 million from such big names as Thiel and Bezos, who chipped in through their investment firms, before going public in 2018. Since then, Mellon has also bought a small stake. The holy grail of senolytics will be the development of a preventive therapy to wipe out senescent cells in the body before they cause conditions of aging, theoretically extending life span. In June, a team from Sloan Kettering published new breakthrough research showing that CAR T cells—typically used for precision cancer therapy—can also be used to target and kill senescent cells. Prescription senolytics for anti-aging therapy are still years away, but unsurprisingly, there’s an audience of longevity enthusiasts who want to access such anti-aging miracles yesterday—and no shortage of FDA-unapproved ways to chase after them. For instance, after a few studies examined the senolytic effects of a chemotherapy drug called dasatinib, the website FightAging.org published a stepby-step guide to senolytic self-experimentation using chemotherapeutics. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in biochemistry to guess that taking off-label chemo drugs might come with harmful side effects, but that hasn’t stopped a zealous group of body-hackers from trying it themselves and chronicling their efforts online. The internet is littered with novice longevity advice—and sketchy anti-aging companies eager to separate the hopeful and desperate from their money, like the company that charges $8,000 for transfusions of plasma from the blood of teenagers and early-twentysomethings (yes, just like Gavin Belson on HBO’s Silicon Valley). Many of these are at best ineffective and at worst deadly, since the same cellular systems that fuel growth in young people might cause cancer when tipped into overdrive. Imagine the tragic irony of paying tens of thousands for a therapy that promises to help you live longer but actually causes the cancer that kills you. Beyond the obvious red flags of repurposed chemo drugs and the bloodletting of teens, it can be difficult for a layperson
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to separate the world-changing longevity breakthroughs from the terrible ideas. Enter one of the world’s leading experts on longevity to help make sense of things.
Eric Verdin President and CEO, Buck Institute Sleep Routine Avoid: coffee after 2 p.m., heavy workouts after 6 p.m., alcohol during the week and heavy eating in the evening. Vitamins/supplements Vitamin D, omega fatty acids, NMN, citrus bioflavonoid complex, fiber supplement, prebiotic supplement. Diet Fasting-mimicking diet once every four to six months; roughly 16:8 intermittent fasting at other times. Mindfulness practice Daily meditation. Anti-aging Rx “I love cooking and eating, so I do not restrict food on the weekend. Happiness with friends and family is the surest path to longevity.” 100th-birthday wish “A bike tour across the US, from coast to coast.”
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ric Verdin, 63, is president and CEO of the Buck Institute, a globally renowned center for aging research just outside San Francisco in Marin County. Verdin is bullish on the promise of living healthfully to at least 100. Today. But 180? Don’t count on it. “My prediction, based on everything we know today, is that getting to 120 is about the best we can do for the foreseeable future. I’ll bet my house we’re not going to see anyone live to 180 for another 200 years, if ever,” he says. “But making everyone a healthy centenarian, this is something we can do today. And that’s something to be excited about.” Verdin’s own lab at the Buck Institute studies the aging immune system and how it’s affected by lifestyle factors, such as nutrition and exercise. Informed by this research, Verdin follows a time-restricted diet in which he eats all of his meals in an eight-to-nine-hour window (see “Running on Empty,” page xx) and gets plenty of exercise mountain biking in Marin’s steep hills. “The good news is that over 90 percent of what causes diseases of aging is environmental, and that means it’s within your control,” he says. But he emphasizes that responsible management of your health comes with limits, like avoiding experimental therapies. “A group of people have decided to try some expensive and dangerous interventions, but there is zero evidence that any of these are going to help them live longer,” he says. The problem, according to Verdin, is that the results of aging interventions in mouse trials can look very promising but rarely translate to success in humans. “There’s a huge delta between the health of a stressed lab mouse and an optimally healthy mouse,” Verdin says. “So when you treat lab mice with longevity therapeutics, you see an outsized result that doesn’t at all guarantee the same result in humans.”
“THERE MAY BE RISKS. BUT THE KNOWN RISK IS THAT YOU’RE 100 PERCENT LIKELY TO DIE.”
Silicon Valley Takes on Death
On the other hand, Verdin tells Robb Report, there are definitely new protocols worth getting excited about. Take, for instance, rapalogs, a class of drugs that interact with a protein called mTOR, which serves as a linchpin for multiple critical biological processes, including cell growth and metabolism. Rapalog drugs tamp down mTOR, possibly preventing age-related diseases such as diabetes, stroke and some cancers. The drug rapamycin, the most heavily studied formula, was approved in the US in 1999 to help prevent organ-transplant rejection. Last year the medical journal Aging published a rapturous opinion piece by oncologist Mikhail Blagosklonny in which he made the case that rapamycin—in small or intermittent doses—is effective as a preventive treatment to ward off diseases of aging, and that, in the elderly, “not taking rapamycin may be even more ‘dangerous’ than smoking.” Later this year, a biotech firm called resTORbio, which was spun out of the Swiss-based Big Pharma company Novartis in 2017, is expected to seek FDA approval for its rapalog RTB101, which clinical trials have shown to slow age-related decline of the immune system and improve immune response in elderly people by more than 20 percent, a key factor in protecting vulnerable aging populations from disease. (It is currently in trials on elderly patients with Covid-19.) “This is the furthest-along program of anything in the aging field,” Joan Mannick, cofounder and chief medical officer of resTORbio, told MIT Technology Review last year. “If health authorities approve this drug . . . we’ll have a product for people . . . to prevent age-related diseases. Not just in our lifetime, but in, you know, a few years.”
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ne of the many effects of rapamycin is that it mimics the mechanisms of calorie restriction. As Verdin’s lab and others have shown, fasting provides a number of anti-aging benefits, including insulin regulation, reduced inflammation and, to put it colloquially, clearing out the gunky by-products of metabolism—part of the reason Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and other tech titans eat just a few meals per week. For lesser mortals, fasting is extremely hard to commit to and not much fun, hence the huge interest in “calorie-restriction mimetics” like rapamycin, which provide all the benefits without the downer not-eating part.
“THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT OVER 90 PERCENT OF WHAT CAUSES DISEASES OF AGING IS ENVIRONMENTAL, AND THAT MEANS IT’S WITHIN YOUR CONTROL.”
Jim Mellon Cofounder, Juvenescence Sleep routine 7.5 hours plus a 30-minute nap; in bed by 9 p.m. Vitamins/supplements/ prescription meds Vitamins D and B12, metformin. Exercise regimen Walk or run minimum 10,000 steps a day; weights three times week. Anti-aging Rx Green tea. 100th-birthday wish “Another 25 years.”
Of all the calorie-restriction mimetics, the one sparking the most excitement among longevity researchers is already on the market: metformin, a decades-old diabetes drug. Metformin became a part of the Silicon Valley health regimen several years ago after an epidemiological study showed that Type 2 diabetics who took the drug lived longer than non-diabetics who didn’t. “Just about everyone in the longevity industry takes metformin,” Verdin tells me. He takes it himself, and nearly everybody I interviewed is taking or has taken it, too. In April, Nir Barzilai, the renowned endocrinologist who spearheaded research on the anti-aging properties of metformin, announced in an opinion piece he co-authored in the journal Cell Metabolism that his lab is launching a large clinical trial to investigate the anti-aging effects of the drug on non-diabetic populations. Barzilai’s goal is to prove to the FDA that aging itself—rather than conditions associated with it, like Alzheimer’s and arthritis—can be targeted as a disease. If Barzilai is successful and the FDA approves aging as a treatment indication, the process of bringing longevity therapies to market would accelerate rapidly. “Just as the FDA was able to move faster to bring Covid-19 therapies to market this year, we will reach a tipping point when public opinion pushes the FDA to approve aging as an indication, and the longevity-research field will make leaps as a result,” Mellon says. He has contributed funding to Barzilai’s metformin research, which he believes will be instrumental in proving that there are compounds that can extend human life across the board. “The fact of the matter is that the US has the best regulatory system for new drug development in the world,” Mellon says. “We’re in the first era ever when humans can be bioengineered to live longer. And in 10 years, we’ll have solutions that are even better than today. Just wait, it’s coming.”
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You’re So Vain
(I bet you think this piece is about you) OK, maybe not you. But the pressure on men to look young and fit in both boardroom and bedroom is more intense than ever–and it’s only getting worse. So, what’s your secret? BY LUCY ALE X ANDER ILLUSTR ATIONS BY HSAIO RON CHENG
Not long ago, a successful Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur decided to make a risky new investment he’d been toying with for years. “I’d just hit 50 and sold my second company,” he recalls. “I looked at myself and thought, I have another 20 years of work in front of me, so I’m going to go do this now.” Marc paid $25,000 for a lower face-lift and a nose job. (His name and those of the other patients who spoke to Robb Report have been changed at their request.) “One of the best investments I’ve made,” he says. Unlike other investments in Marc’s career, this one was a closely guarded secret, known only to his doctor, wife, brother—and now you. Nine out of 10 cosmetic procedures in the US are performed on women. Yet to Marc and a growing number of high-flying men, nips, tucks and injections have become stealth weapons to deploy in a Darwinian battle for corporate survival. “I play in the high-tech and start-up world, where older individuals will be passed over,” says Marc, who also got his first Botox shots this
year. “The software wars take a lot of energy and commitment. I simply aligned my outer appearance with my inner perspective.” It’s not just about advantage in a youth-oriented workplace. As gender roles evolve, vanity is losing much of its stigma for men in general. The beauty buffet, once ladies-only, is now open to all, with men increasingly moving from the hors d’oeuvres (grooming, beard cultivation, skin care, dieting and exercising) to the appetizers (cosmetic dentistry, hair replacement, hormone therapy) and on to the entrées (Botox, fillers, non-invasive fat reduction) before ordering up the pièce de résistance: plastic surgery. Chanel, Fenty and Tom Ford now also offer a once-unthinkable side dish: makeup for men, leading them into the realm of foundation and eyebrow gel. Men don’t use the word “beauty,” of course. “Women talk about beauty. Men talk about vitality, virility, competitive edge— that’s a masculine way of describing what is essentially vanity,” says William Liu, professor of psychology at the University of
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You’re So Vain
Maryland, who specializes in issues around masculinity. “But what they are really talking about is warding off existential anxiety around death.” “The idea of stigma has changed,” says Marc. “Women should not always have to look made-up, and men can wear makeup. Those mores are changing. There’s still a little bit of raising an eyebrow right now, but it’s becoming much more acceptable. Some people like to spend money on expensive cars. I like to spend money on myself—I consider my body to be the vehicle I drive in.” For some, cosmetic procedures fit smoothly into the narrative of personal empowerment and the growing idea that you can create yourself: your gender, your face, your identity. It’s the old American idea of self-improvement, sliced and diced for the 21st century. Behavior that would once have seemed narcissistic has been reframed as an act of self-care. For starters, technology means there’s no longer any need to tolerate physical imperfection. Plus, while millennials are accepting of “quirky” traits and would be loath to admit to holding a single ideal aesthetic, they also consider the very notion of judging other people’s lifestyle choices so old-fashioned that any taboo surrounding cosmetic enhancements seems like a relic from another era. So let’s all get lip fillers. And they will: Millennials are nearly twice as likely as people over 35 to be considering a cosmetic procedure in the next year, according to a poll last year by RealSelf, a cosmetic-surgery review website. “The trend is toward transparency and removal of stigma for everything to do with self-care and self-love,” says Simon Ourian, M.D., whom Kylie Jenner has credited for her signature pout with Juvéderm, an investment on which Jenner has since built a nine-figure cosmetics business. More cosmetic work is done in the United States than in any other country, according to a study by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. In 2018, the last year for which figures are available, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) reports that Americans spent a record $16.5 billion on plastic surgery and its twin progeny, Botox and fillers. Botox and other botulinum-toxin brands accounted for 42 percent of the 17.7 million procedures performed in the US by plastic surgeons that year. The real number of such injections is far higher, because they are also routinely dispensed by dentists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists and even walk-in beauty bars. More men are being seduced by these speedy pick-me-ups as the barriers to entry, both practical and social, diminish. In the US, male use of fillers and Botox has risen by 101 percent and 381 percent, respectively, since 2000, according to the ASPS, while the number of surgical nose jobs has dropped by 65 percent. Demand for handsome noses has not declined: It’s just that many men now have their noses adjusted with less daunting fillers instead, according to Alan Matarasso, M.D., a plastic surgeon on New York’s Upper East Side. All the leading cosmetic surgeons and dermatologists interviewed for this article say men account for 20 to 35 percent of their clientele, a proportion that is growing while also broadening in scope. As with most style trends, gay men were the first to catch on. Then came “the metrosexual type that would come in for Botox after their manicure,” as David Mabrie, M.D., a facial plastic surgeon in San Francisco, recounts. Now “it’s more mainstream guys. Guys’ guys.” Men who a few years ago would have considered it a
burden to trim a four-inch hair growing out of their ear are now smoothing their fine lines and filling their nasolabial folds. In New York, the male clientele for Gerald Imber, M.D., has changed from largely those in entertainment to “95 percent CEOs” and similarly accomplished professionals. “These guys spend more on jet fuel coming to New York than they do on me,” he says. Fifteen years ago, says Ourian, his Los Angeles patients were “likely to be in entertainment, but the trend has completely changed and they are now from all walks of life.” He adds that his practice includes “ultra-wealthy businessmen, politicians, heads of state, three kings and five queens.” Even so, enough residual stigma remains that most men keep their Botox habits secret. And for some, the thrill of a clandestine hobby is part of the appeal. Marc likens it to membership in “an exclusive club.” One of Imber’s patients, a 67-year-old real-estate developer from New Jersey, whom we’ll call Nick, also relishes being a member of “a secret elite club,” in which the members are unknown even to each other. “No one knows about it,” he says. “That’s just my masculine insecurity—it’s a vanity issue. I work a lot with the construction industry, and no one there goes into work and says, ‘I just had a face-lift.’ ” Nick felt that his “jowly, hangdog” face didn’t match his gymhoned physique. “I thought, ‘If I cut my head off, I would look a lot younger,’ ” he says with a chuckle. “ ‘But before I do that, I’ll see if Dr. Imber can help.’ ” So three years ago, he took his girlfriend, who’s 20 years his junior, for some couple’s liposuction—“that was the test run”—and followed up with a face-lift. “I checked into the Carlyle, stayed three days, took the wrappings off and went home,” Nick recalls. “When I went out, I ran into people I knew at a restaurant. They asked if I’d been on vacation.” He describes with delight how he was asked for ID at a senior citizens’ lockdown shopping hour at a grocery store in the Hamptons. Age has become elastic. On the one hand, Nick does not consider himself old at 67, but in youth-obsessed Silicon Valley, 35 is thought over the hill. There, the surgery is starting younger and younger, as tech-industry executives, who are mostly male, strive to appear relevant to their millennial overlords. Larry Fan, M.D., a San Francisco plastic surgeon, says his clients now describe a work culture where “if they’re over 30 they feel less relevant. Their work involves providing services to younger consumers, and tech luminaries are very young. My patients who are in their 50s say, ‘I’m the old guy in the room, and I don’t want to feel that way.’ Young people have a kind of ‘OK boomer’ mentality.” Fan says his male patients ask to look like Elon Musk: “He’s aspirational for his work and [looks like he] has had some enhancements done, hair transplants and other things. He looks like a normal person but masculine and chiseled.” Some of Fan’s patients, whom he describes as “senior tech billionaires with famous names,” regard cosmetic procedures as a form of bio-hacking (see “Silicon Valley Takes on Death,” page 60). “Their mentality is: ‘I want to live forever if I can find a way,’ ” Fan says. “ ‘I believe in technology, and part of that is new treatments that help me have fewer wrinkles.’ ” Ageism in the tech industry is not confined to Silicon Valley, according to one recruitment executive who worked with software start-ups in New York. “The hiring managers were in their 30s,” he
“My patients who are in their 50s say, ‘I’m the old guy in the room, and I don’t want to feel that way.’ Young people have a kind of ‘OK boomer’ mentality.”
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explains. “There are laws against saying you’re looking for someone young, so instead they would say we need a ‘culture fit.’ That was the number-one most important factor. They’re looking for someone to grab a beer with.” The recruiter put it down to “the hubris that comes with gaining a lot of power at an early age. It means that they don’t think they can learn anything from an older person. They feel they are invincible.” George, 53, the CEO of a large software company in the Bay Area, agrees that a youthful demeanor is a prerequisite in tech. “Whatever HR says, you do look at pictures when you hire someone, and you look at their digital footprint,” he says. “Are they the right cultural fit? Do they take care of themselves? For better or worse, when you hire someone for a high-stress, high-performance job, part of that is their appearance.” In 2010, five years after George’s divorce from his first wife, his daughters took charge of his online dating profile. “Being millennials, they said you have to look great online,” he recalls. “I realized that pictures had become very important, not just from a dating perspective but also on LinkedIn. That was a turning point for me.” He had dabbled in Botox but, with that revelation, became a
devotee. “A dermatologist who I played golf with said, ‘If you want to stay looking like that, come in.’ I kept it up until I was 50, then I added fillers once a year, to keep the volume of my face,” George says. Last year, he went to Sachin Parikh, M.D., a Palo Alto surgeon, for a hair transplant. George keeps the procedures private, partly as a career strategy. “I don’t want to talk about it because it’s still perceived as less manly. Also, men don’t like to share tricks that may make them more competitive in the market. I do cryotherapy, I ride the Peloton every day and I’ve had all the genetic testing to see what [conditions] I am predisposed to have, what foods do I process well. I see it all on the same spectrum as bio-hacking.” The paradox of a man being furtive about a procedure he claims is akin to watching his sugar intake is surprisingly common. “Talking about going to the gym is OK. Talking about getting a haircut is OK,” says Imber. But cosmetic procedures are “something they will do for themselves only, and they do not talk about it.” In a culture of secrecy, it can be hard for surgeons to attract male clients through word of mouth. But once men are through the door, they keep coming back. Parikh describes the typical profile: “The majority have dabbled in teeth whitening and skin care, and they work their way up the ladder from collagen stimulating treatments to fillers and Botox.” Hair-loss consultations can also be a “gateway drug” to other treatments, says Jessie Cheung, M.D., a Chicago-area dermatologist. “A man will typically come in to talk about losing his hair, and we check for hormone deficiencies,” she says. “If their testosterone is not optimized, I will explain the benefits, and of course they want to perform better. Most clients who come for hormone therapy often get cosmetic treatments, too, and vice versa.” Other in-demand body treatments for men include CoolSculpting, a form of nonsurgical fat removal using cryotherapy—“wildly popular,” according to Fan, whose clientele for the procedure is 50 percent male—and skin tightening using ultrasound (Ultherapy) or radio frequency (FaceTite). But injectables are the moneyspinner: “a 12-year bull run of year-on-year double-digit growth,” says Parikh. Paul Nassif, M.D., a facial surgeon famous for his TV appearances fixing bad surgery on the E! News show Botched, believes men are becoming more susceptible to the pressures of Instagram perfection. “They are now on the same track as women,” he says. “Eight years ago, men were using Botox for work. Now I would say they are trying to make themselves look better on social media. With fillers they can look like a filtered photo. We call it selfie dysmorphia.” One of the biggest cosmetic trends of last year was the growth of reversal treatments for faulty fillers and surgical procedures, with liposuction revision up by 183 percent, according to RealSelf. In New York, Matarasso is expecting a flood of business as soon as lockdown restrictions ease, after months of financiers, lawyers and such inspecting their double chins on Zoom. He believes that the “crazy unemployment rate” will lead to more treatments as job applicants grow desperate to gain an edge over their peers. As demand for cosmetic enhancement rises, any remaining stigma, even among the middle-aged, seems likely to die away. “When I talk about it with my close friends, I find a lot of them do it, too,” says George, the software CEO. “It’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ but when you do ask, they do tell.”
“I don’t want to talk about it because it’s still perceived as less manly. Also, men don’t like to share tricks that may make them more competitive in the market.”
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Breakfast: Tea With Honey 65 calories
RUNNING ON EMPTY Periodically depriving yourself of food may add years to your life. But could you commit to a 200-calorie-a-day liquid diet? Mark Ellwood did. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNY HUANG
STYLING BY SOPHIE LENG
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I
I should be miserable. I’d been cautioned: Watch out for day three. That’s when the demons begin to rage. I’m on a medically supervised 10-day fast that promises to help me shed some weight while also futureproofing that newly slimmed-down body against aging. Worth the odd demon or a pang or two, then. Indeed, I’m a bit hungry—but that’s not surprising, given that I’ve consumed little more than tea, juice and soup over the past 48 hours. But I had been anticipating far worse, as several friends, all veterans of the Buchinger Wilhelmi process I am undertaking, had warned me. The real challenges in forgoing food wouldn’t be simple hunger, they said. “Fasting isn’t the hard part,” said one. “It’s the emotional side. I usually spend the third day curled in a ball in my room, weeping. Everything you repress just comes out, all at once.” A second moaned about the physical side effects on day three for her: throbbing headaches, a furry tongue and dry skin, all because the toxins her body was purging began to crest, she said, wide-eyed. The consensus was that I’d feel, generally, dreadful—not just hungry but also sad, aching and exhausted, likely confined to my bed, wakefully toggling between napping and fretting. Yet another confided that it was day three when the risk of cheating peaked. She’d heard that folks usually skulk out the clinic’s back gate and into the nearby town to scarf down a furtive frankfurter or two to offset the gnawing pains. Instead, I feel fine. More than fine. Remarkably, I feel absolutely dandy. I’ve no physical problems whatsoever; in fact, I’m swimming 50 laps in the pool here at the Buchinger Wilhelmi spa every afternoon, and the only reason my eyes are watering is the troublesome pollen. I miss chewing, for sure, and I’m not partial to some of the broth recipes: The mere mention of turnip evokes Dickensian deprivation, though the watery tomato is bright-flavored and delicious. But I haven’t cheated, despite deliberately wandering into town yesterday morning to tempt myself with the smells of fresh-cooked sausages. I took a deep breath—delicious for sure, but I was happy to eat with my eyes. Either I’m too two-dimensional to be troubled by deep thoughts or I’m one of the lucky ones, sailing straight from eating three meals daily to the Zen state of semi-starvation without detouring down a physical and emotional rabbit hole. I’ve arrived, instead, at 200-calorie nirvana, where the body, now short on fuel, is forced into
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overdrive. With my metabolism working harder to produce energy, I experience a new level of strength and mental clarity. I am Superman without the blue tights. In fact, the only challenge for me is my sleep. Usually, I slumber deeply and soundly anywhere, so it’s strange to find myself so fitful, with bouts of deep rest punctuated by an unfamiliar alertness. Otherwise, I nod sympathetically as I try not to gloat when folks mournfully complain in the “feeding salon,” the loungelike area where our non-meals are devoured. It’s inside the salon that I first meet my fellow fasters on day one, at what passes for a welcome party at Buchinger Wilhelmi, on the shores of Lake Constance in Germany, just across the border from Switzerland. My fellow fasters are a motley bunch, drawn from across the world. I’m surprised the room is equally split between men and women. There are several first-timers like me: a Saudi couple, for instance, well-padded fiftysomethings who plan to stay for three weeks. Other newbies include a pair of friends, fit, middle-aged financiers who usually take an adventure vacation together each year, leaving their wives at home. Most of the room, though, consists of starvation pros, folks who’ve followed the Buchinger Wilhelmi method several times before. Typical is the French sculptor who’s back for a seventh stay. He became a devotee when his first stint allowed him to permanently shed the 40 pounds he’d gained after a car accident. Tall and gaunt, he looks to be in his late 60s or older; he’s come again, he explains, as an anti-aging effort. More than the chance to shed pounds, it’s this elusive promise that underpins the work at Buchinger Wilhelmi. For this is no conventional fat farm. Forget face-lifts and fitness classes—it’s bouts of fasting that Buchinger Wilhelmi claims will offer a slimmed-down path to eternal youth, or something close to it, at least. Fasting, the staff preaches, will better safeguard your body against the forces of age. The focus here, though, is not only extending your life span but also improving the quality of whatever life you have, or what’s now known as your health span. The clinic’s practice aims to address a conundrum: How do we ensure our brains and our bodies remain in peak condition for our entire lives, bringing both quantity and quality of life in sync? Slash our daily energy source, Buchinger Wilhelmi posits, and the body’s metabolic switch is triggered. Deprived of easy fuel, our body’s metabolism instead turns to ketones, compounds produced from fats by our liver in a state known as ketosis, achieved by fasting at least 10 to 12 hours. There’s more afoot, too: During ketosis, the body starts to repair and reboot, helping bat away looming bad health. Per the clinic’s owners, eating 200 to 300 daily calories for several days, any time from your 20s to your 60s, isn’t just good for your waistline;
it’s an investment in the well-being of seventysomething you. There’s no hardship here, though. The clinic doesn’t resemble a traditional sanatorium but rather a five-star hotel. Scattered among several buildings on a steep hill, the rooms are decorated in muted tones and filled with tasteful, vaguely modernist furniture. One of the front-of-house staff is an alum of the Ritz Carlton in New York and proudly wears the lapel pin of Les Clefs d’Or, the elite cabal of concierges. There’s a hair salon but no conventional luxury hotel-style spa. Instead, the clinic offers two main medical complexes, where the doctors and nurses on staff perform their examinations, plus numerous treatment rooms discreetly tucked into various buildings, where guests can book everything from osteopathy and shiatsu massage to outré rituals like Chi Nei Tsang, a Chinese abdominal massage, to pass the time between non-meals. And, yes, the food. Other than at the start and end of your stay, when you’ll receive delicious, low-calorie vegetarian meals to help ease your digestive system into and out of hibernation, there’s little to eat. (Don’t confuse fasting-induced ketosis with a ketogenic low-carb, highfat diet.) Breakfast is herbal tea and a tiny saucer of honey; keep it for the day, the nurse advises, and eat it sparingly when you need some energy. Lunch is fresh-squeezed juice, cut with more herbal tea to reduce its calories. Dinner is the aforementioned broth. Such scraps— or drips—of food leave my digestive system effectively fallow, though there are regular enemas from the nurse just to make sure. She also checks my vitals each morning, reminds me to drink at least six liters of water a day (to stay hydrated and prevent gout) and comes to my room every afternoon to wrap my liver, one of the quirks of the Buchinger Wilhelmi process: After what passes for lunch, you’ll spend an hour or more in bed, swaddled like a baby with a hot water bottle pressed to your liver. Per the clinic’s theories, such cosseting helps boost the liver’s ketone production process. The woman who helped formalize many such theories is Françoise Wilhelmi de Toledo, M.D. Trained as a conventional physician, she visited the clinic as a guest in her 20s—and never left. After marrying into the family, she became the medical director. Toledo is now the clinic’s head of medical research and lives in a sleek glass box of a house nearby; one of her two sons, Leo Wilhelmi, handsome with a mane of dark hair, handles day-to-day operations. At 66, she has a gamine energy and a feline intelligence, and could easily pass for a decade younger. Doubtless, she’d attribute her youthful glow to her decadeslong adherence to fasting, both daily (in 16-hour windows) and twice yearly, when she follows the clinic’s regimen for 10 days or more at a stretch.
After what passes for lunch, you’ll spend an hour or more in bed, swaddled like a baby with a hot water bottle pressed to your liver.
Lunch: Freshly Squeezed Juice 50 calories
Dinner: Broth 36 calories
Running on Empty
She invites me over for tea—fresh herbs, thyme picked from her garden—so she can explain the work here in person. Like the clinic’s staff and entire operation, the Swiss-born Toledo slides fluently between French, English and German as she talks; she has an evangelist’s charisma. Think of fasting as metabolic training, she urges, teaching the body how to use different energy sources, much as a hybrid auto switches between electricity and gas for efficiency. Hunger isn’t to be avoided but rather deployed, a forgotten reflex that we need to relearn. Toledo is pleased that the clientele here includes so many men as well as women—that 50:50 ratio is a rarity for conventional spas. “Fasting is not easy, as we take away everything you like at the beginning, so it’s more of a challenge. Men like that,” she says. Indeed, it was a man who founded the clinic, a hundred years ago. His reasons were personal: Otto Buchinger, a physician, was wheelchair-bound from severe rheumatoid arthritis, at least until he fasted for almost three weeks on the suggestion of another doctor. Buchinger followed the most extreme protocols, ingesting only water. As a result, he later claimed, he was able to walk again. Buchinger turned his belief in the healing power of calorie restriction into his life’s work, setting up this clinic, which his descendants, including his great-grandson Leo, still run. But it is only in the last two decades or so that conventional science has turned its attention to the potentials of calorie restriction, and men have increasingly embraced fasting as the final fitness tool—a way to put their insides through as punishing a training regimen as they follow at the gym. Broadly speaking, there are two common approaches that aim to leverage reduced food intake for health and weight benefits. The first, periodic fasting, is the approach followed by the clinic; cut calories for an extended period every year or so, for example. The second is intermittent fasting, which deprives the body of nutrition in a given pattern each day or week: 16 consecutive hours in every 24 is popular (often called 16:8). Proponents claim both systems
EXTREME SPAS Buchinger Wilhelmi may be the granddaddy of hardcore vacation clinics, but it doesn’t have a monopoly on punishing protocols. Here, Ahmed Zambarakji finds a few others worth checking out.
allow the body to shift into that sought-after state of ketosis. Peter Bowes is a longtime BBC journalist who periodically fasts in his role as host of the podcast Live Long and Master Aging. During fasting, he says, the body undergoes autophagy, or spring-cleaning mode, meaning it recycles damaged or old cell machinery. Studies suggest that this process—which derives from Greek words meaning “self” and “to eat”—can even result in new synapses forming in the brain. “When your immune system is challenged like this, it throws out the cells it’s not using, that are maybe a little weather-worn,” Bowes says, “and builds a new immune system, re-growing white blood cells.” A prolonged state of autophagy, then, could be thought of as a real-life counterpart to the serum that transformed scrawny Steve Rogers into super-soldier Captain America. Indeed, the US government has explored how to use intermittent fasting to improve the performance of elite commandos, according to Mark Mattson, a world-renowned expert in fasting and adjunct professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Mattson says officials from NASA and the air force contacted him to discuss how to use his research in just this way. “It’s evolution,” he says. “If you’re food-deprived, you need to be more alert and motivated to find food—that’s why you often feel sleepy after a meal.” He suggested using intermittent fasting as a training tool, spending two days per week, for example, drinking only water. Mattson has focused his studies on such intermittent fasts and has a hunch it’s more effective than the Buchinger Wilhelmi method of one long annual fast, though he recognizes the benefits of calorie-deprivation of any kind. His research includes clinical studies of individuals at risk of cognitive impairment from Alzheimer’s and similar diseases, in which he found that those on a diet that included fasting showed memory and learning improvements within two months. Mattson says intermittent fasting is also a promising component in cancer treatment. “You should hit them in the fasting
state with drugs or radiation because cancer cells cannot use ketones [as fuel], so if the glucose levels in the body are relatively low, it makes them more vulnerable,” he explains. Andrew Jenkinson, a London bariatric surgeon and author of Why We Eat (Too Much), does not recommend long-term fasting but is a proponent of the 16:8 approach. “Ketogenesis is probably the best way to lose weight, but unfortunately, it’s difficult to sustain. Whatever diet you do for weight loss needs to be your new life,” says Jenkinson, who recommends a low-carb diet. “Fasting for a sustained period of time will improve the inflammatory response over the short term, and it will make you think faster and more clearly—it will give you a real buzz.” Experts differ on how long it takes for autophagy to kick in from intermittent fasting—from right away to 12 weeks—but for optimal results, Toledo recommends practicing it five days a week. Jenkinson urges caution, too: Individual metabolisms and default weights vary. Veer from the program and you’ll likely rebound to where you started, he says. Though Toledo has led extensive in situ studies to determine the safety of the protocols used at the clinic, there are no records on the long-term efficacy of stays. The high ratio of repeat visitors could suggest that it is, indeed, hard to maintain such weight loss. Then again, it could be evidence of how effective her evangelical zeal proves in recruiting converts. I’m impressed, if not completely converted, by day 10. At my final morning check-in with the nurse, I’ve lost close to 12 pounds and two inches from my waistline. More than anything, though, the stay here has changed the way I eat. I couldn’t even finish the first meal of solids, postfast, served up with a candle and certificate in celebration. I’m just not as hungry as often anymore, and I’ve adopted that 16:8 system most days. Three months later, even during lockdown with limited exercise, I’ve remained slim. Would I come again? Absolutely. But perhaps the bigger question is: Why should I need to? Check back with me in a year.
SHA, Spain
Bad Ragaz, Switzerland
VivaMayr, Austria
We Care Spa, California
The most unusual offering at SHA has to be the personalized “cognitive empowerment” program. The brain-training course employs EEG technology, neuro-feedback video games and transcranial direct-current stimulation to fire up the sleepier areas of your gray matter to boost professional performance. The Alicante-based clinic also offers a curious but effective blend of Eastern and Western therapies—acupuncture, genetic testing, Watsu aquatic bodywork— and a gourmet JapaneseMediterranean macrobiotic diet that’s designed to strengthen the immune system.
Not a hospital but not exactly a spa, the medical center at Bad Ragaz has become a destination for everything from sleep disorders and weight loss to in-depth exams. The “Business Health Check-Up” leaves no stone unturned, with on-site testing for liver, kidney, lung and thyroid function, blood sugar levels and blood lipids. The setting, a hot spring near a cluster of worldclass hotels, makes the ordeal of a medical exam considerably more appealing than a visit to a traditional clinic. And if you need a little extra persuasion, know that you can always let off some steam in St. Mortiz afterward.
To describe VivaMayr as regimented would be a gross understatement. The prototype for all European medical resorts, VivaMayr is squarely focused on gut rehabilitation and alkalizing powders that purportedly regulate the acid/base balance in our bodies, therefore bolstering immunity. You can distract yourself from hunger pangs with a host of detoxifying rituals that range from daily oil pulling—an Indian folk remedy that involves swishing oil around in your mouth in the hope of eliminating toxins—to colonic irrigation at its high-tech spa. The inevitable weight loss, we are assured, is merely a bonus.
In a world of impersonal medical centers and wellness clinics, We Care offers an intimate 20-room facility. The liquid diet and detoxification rituals are popular among Hollywood’s A-list, who come to purge in peace and make full use of educational classes (cooking, yoga, transitioning back to solids) and “healing installations” with a shamanic vibe, such as the Floating Bed, where you can meditate privately atop a gently rocking outdoor bed, as well as fire ceremonies. There is a strong spiritual bent to the program at We Care but one that doesn’t seem entirely out of place in Desert Hot Springs, Calif.
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The McCulloughs’ poured-concrete and stucco house, built in 1947, in Concord, Mass.
Can Your House Heal You? Decorator Lucie McCullough thinks so. She turned her Massachusetts home into a lab experiment, testing the effects of natural, nontoxic materials on her health problems— while refusing to compromise on style. BY SOPHIE DONELSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY MONICA SPEZIA
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t was a few hours after the arrival of the container—40 feet long, straight from Hong Kong and dense with the McCullough family’s earthly possessions—that the sneezing fits returned. So instead of reveling in unpacking and arranging in the way only a decorator amid a trans-global relocation could, Lucie McCullough embarked down a rabbit hole to find some answers about why her body seemed at odds with her environment. Here in the States, months after not feeling well in Hong Kong, McCullough grew convinced it was her furniture that was making her sick. After a decade in Asia, this peripatetic British former fashion designer and her husband, Ronan, a financier, had planned to settle their family into their home in the leafy Boston suburb of Concord. “I was convinced we’d move into a traditional New England clapboard or saltbox,” says McCullough. But no, they fell for a 1940s stucco that looks as if it had been plucked straight from Kent. It was “the most English house in the area,”
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as McCullough calls it, and seemed especially so during the viewing, when the two open fireplaces were roaring—catnip for a Brit, she claims. “Plus, there was a vintage Bordeaux Jag in the driveway. . . . They really put it on for us!” But for the time being, the family hauled all that crated furniture out to the property’s stables. Mold tests came back positive: The family’s own picturesque moment would have to wait. About 18 months later, while tending to their third baby (of now four) and prepping to renovate, McCullough and her husband met someone at a local restaurant who mentioned a natural
home store in a nearby town. “I showed up at the shop the next morning, and the owner told me all about natural building practices,” she recalls. “I was on a plane to Santa Fe that next Monday!” McCullough jetted to New Mexico to learn about Building Biology, a practice of nontoxic construction and homemaking that originated in Germany as Baubiologie. This set of standards and practices prioritizes both the environment and the health of a building’s occupants, and just maybe promised to be a balm for McCullough, who was born with a vascular condition and developed extreme allergies in Hong Kong.
While Building Biology was designed to be life-enhancing for all, the practice is thought to be especially powerful for environmentally sensitive people who suffer symptoms from triggers such as chemicals, mold and synthetic fragrances at far lower levels than the average person. McCullough counts herself among this population. The last few years have brought increased scrutiny of indoor air quality and an onslaught of literature pinpointing the culprits: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from carpet, paint, engineered wood and cleaning agents are a few. According to
The kitchen, by Kennebec Custom Kitchen Makers in Bath, Maine, was built to Building Biology’s nontoxic specifications. The Lucite and nappaleather bar chairs are of Lucie McCullough Ltd.’s own design. McCullough had the custom dining table finished with highgloss piano lacquer, surrounded it with Eames chairs and found the Muranoglass light fixture in an antiques shop in Turin, Italy.
the Environmental Protection Agency, some pollutants are found in concentrations two to five times higher inside than out. And since Americans spend about 90 percent of their time indoors—a statistic that predates the Covid-19 stay-at-home directives—the importance of nontoxic residential environments becomes even more obvious. Renovation and demolition can exacerbate problems, releasing old toxins (from deteriorating drywall, insulation and such) into the air. It’s no wonder, then, that the Building Biology practices McCullough studied are gaining traction in the mainstream. “If you talk to someone about green home building, they drift off,” McCullough acknowledges. “But when you talk to them about how they feel, their health or their kids’ health, then they’re listening.”
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ack in New England and primed to launch a healthy renovation, McCullough found herself stranded in a curious aesthetic chasm, pitting her lifelong passion for global style against her new commitment to a design vernacular that implied, at best, a well-appointed organic canvas yurt. But could someone whose résumé includes a gap year in Mexico followed by stints in Rome (working for Valentino in college), Milan (Ralph Lauren) and London (British Vogue), as well as forays in design in Italy (women’s shoes and a luxury hotel) and a Hong Kong decorating business, ever concede to a less than fabulous home? Turns out she didn’t have to. The decorator’s decade in Asia is evident in the swankiest rooms, where the influence of the louche China Club reigns. And McCullough’s unshakable homey English decorating is ever-present, softening the drama. It’s a family home, after all. Many of the pieces have such intriguing provenances or attributes that you wouldn’t notice their eco or health benefits. McCullough designed the geometric-pattern goldenrod silk carpet with a print nicked from a detail on the Taj Mahal. The carpet is free of toxic backing, glues, dyes and chemical washes, plus its silk fibers have been spared the formaldehyde typically found in commercially available rugs. And plenty of that once-crated upholstered furniture, stripped to the frame and restuffed, is back home as well. “I learned to consider our house as our third skin,” McCullough says, “and just like with our skin and clothes, we feel better when we’re surrounded by natural materials. Once you realize how good you feel, you don’t go back.” The swank Platner dining chairs—so comfy they encourage dinner parties to drag on well past a commonsense hour—are a vintage score from nearby Lincoln, Mass., known for its midcentury architecture. But the added benefit is that their composition—leather and metal—let McCullough and family breathe easy. Upstairs in the renovated master suite, a pair of 18th-century Shanxi-province screens separate the bathroom from the bedroom. The carved-wood screens underwent an extreme spa treatment before their arrival: They were stripped of their varnish in Hong Kong, slathered in a natural formula containing thyme oil
“I learned to consider our house as our third skin, and just like with our skin and clothes, we feel better when we’re surrounded by natural materials.”
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CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: Lucie and Ronan
McCullough with their oldest three children, Mimi, Otis and Cian; the Negroni Room, with a zebra skin from South Africa, a Chesterfield sofa from London, a lantern lamp from Hong Kong and a Hans Wegner Flag Halyard chair bought in Lincoln, Mass., and adorned with a natural sheepskin from Vermont; a Buddha from Indonesia; the mudroom cabinetry was designed by McCullough and
painted in Middle Kingdom Yellow from Ecos Paints, and the partners desk belonged to her parents; the gold-leaf sleigh bed was custom-made in Hong Kong; the master suite’s wooden screen doors are from Art Treasures gallery in Zhuhai, China, and the Tibetan dragon carpet was bought in Shangri-La, China; a stack of trunks, collected in China, topped by a stupa from Myanmar; a view of the kitchen and patio.
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“Rooms have different needs, so I like to give each space its own character, to let it have its own meaning.”
OPPOSITE: An 18th-
century mahogany dining table from L. A. Landry Antiques in Essex, Mass., with Platner chairs. McCullough found the mirror in an antiques shop in Turin, Italy. BELOW: The living room, with custom brass shelving, a Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chair and a custom silk, wool and hemp carpet McCullough based on tiles in the Taj Mahal.
LIVING INSIDE
(which repels mold), crated, shipped and finally refinished here with a nontoxic lacquer. Several months in a container, as it turns out, is just an invitation for mold spores. (Paris flea-market shoppers, take note.) And for that reason, the human-size reclining carved-wood Indonesian Buddha lounges in the pool loggia, a most stylish exile. It was essential for McCullough, an unrepentant color lover, to find alternatives to potentially toxic commercial paint. Though many homes renovated with attentiveness to health and sustainability embrace concrete, plaster and wood in their natural states—and are in turn awash in neutral shades—the designer wouldn’t have it. The kitchen, basement level and hallways are painted with clay- and lime-based formulas from BioShield, producing the best-case scenario for air quality because they “let the walls breathe,” she says. Even for the more jubilantly colored spaces she was able to select from Ecos Paints’ wide range of environmentally friendly hues, as well as AFM Safecoat and Benjamin Moore Natura, which have zero emissions. “Rooms have different needs, so I like to give each space its
own character, to let it have its own meaning,” she says. The home’s palette draws directly from her trips to mountainous northern-Asia regions, including Mongolia and Bhutan as well as Shangri-La on the Tibetan plateau, where she sought embroidered textiles and rugs. Some of the renovation obstacles had nothing to do with wellness. “I was really struggling with the American idea of a mudroom—a mess of hooks and coats and open shelving,” McCullough says. Her fix was to conceal the storage with a wall of dramatically oversize yellow doors with metal studs and huge handles, inspired by Chinese palaces. The hue is dubbed Middle Kingdom Yellow. “Red would have been the expected idea for Chinese-inspired doors, but when Ronan said yellow, I immediately seized on the reference to the Forbidden City.” And as if by fate, two rooms were already dressed in jewel tones when the McCulloughs arrived and remain the same today: the dining room, with peely, original midnight-blue flocked-velvet wallpaper—so old it’s new again—and the red-painted sitting room with a fireplace, dubbed the Negroni Room. “People gravitate toward spaces that are cozy and warm and fun,” she says. “I’ll light a fire in there and my kids will say, ‘Mum, can we please go into the Negroni Room!’ Even from a young age, you crave that.” But the most rewarding part of the home cannot be seen at all, of course. “Oh, I felt better right away,” McCullough says. “Reduced inflammation—that means less body pain, I stopped the incessant sneezing. Now I can sit with my family and look around the home we’ve made together. It’s like flipping through a photo album of my life.”
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The Price of Happiness Our culture glorifies fortune building while warning that money won’t buy contentment (there’s always going to be someone, somewhere, with more). But must the two be mutually exclusive? BY JULIE BELC OVE ILLUSTR ATIONS BY NATHAN HACKET T
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The late Edgar Bronfman Sr., the billionaire CEO of the Seagram empire, once said he prayed every time he boarded his private jet. Not particularly afraid of flying, he wasn’t imploring God to spare his life in this gravity-defying contraption. Rather, his prayer was an act of gratitude: He was thanking the dear Lord he didn’t have to fly commercial. “If I’m going to be miserable, I’d rather be miserable rich than poor,” he quipped. Wealth, undeniably, has its benefits. It provides not just cool stuff and superior health care but also freedom, control, choices—epitomized by the en masse flight of affluent New Yorkers and other urbanites to their vacation homes when the coronavirus pandemic struck. It’s no coincidence that the number-one thing people think will make them happy is money. They are mistaken. More on that later, but consider that Finland, a nation with just six billionaires (and about that many hours of daylight in winter), has ranked as the happiest country in the world three years in a row. Still, the connection between wealth and happiness is more complex than one might think. The surprising murkiness of money’s emotional impact has led a growing number of academics—psychologists but also economists— to study the subject in depth and many a therapist to specialize in the troubled psyches of the well-to-do. Experts tend to define happiness in two ways: in-themoment joy (“My team just won the World Series!” “This is the best ice cream I’ve ever had!”) and overall life satisfaction (“I love my career, family and home and feel content”). No one disputes that living in poverty is a significant obstacle to achieving either definition, for a host of reasons. But after basic needs such as housing, food, education and health care are met, experts differ on money’s role. Many academics point to research that shows, yes, the richer, the happier, but also that the resources required to jump to each subsequent level of contentment keep increasing. A boost in joy still follows a raise or other windfall, but the climb slows the wealthier you get. In other words, Jeff Bezos most likely no longer feels much of a thrill each time Amazon stock has a good day. Then again, maybe he does. Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and one of the foremost scholars of happiness, says there’s definitely a correlation between money and happiness—“if you make a million dollars a year, you’re generally happier than someone who makes 500,000, and that person is happier than someone who makes 250”—but it’s a two-way street. “Whenever people talk about money and happiness, they’re always assuming that money causes happiness,” she explains. “But the other causal direction is really important. Research shows that if you’re happier, you’re more likely to get a good job and accrue more income over your lifetime.” As she posits, most employers are more likely to hire a smiling, upbeat job applicant than a sullen one.
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Lyubomirsky notes that wealth’s conferred “status and respect,” among other pluses, can be offset by negatives, such as the stress of running a company, the headache of spoiled kids or the failure to appreciate life’s simple pleasures. “You’d still rather the problems of too much money than too little, but certainly there are many problems associated with having a lot of money. They lower the correlation between money and happiness,” she says. “If money didn’t bring its own set of problems, richer people would be a lot happier, but they’re only a little happier.” Indeed, one remarkable study found that lottery winners were hardly more joyful than non-winners and only 33 percent more so than people who had been paralyzed in accidents. Moreover, they derived less enjoyment from quotidian activities—eating breakfast, chatting with a friend—than either of the other groups. Another respected scholar of happiness, Catherine A. Sanderson, professor of psychology at Amherst College, is skeptical of any correlation, noting that income has climbed steeply over the past 60 years but the proportion of people who are “very happy” has held steady. The issue, she says, is what social scientists call the “hedonic treadmill,” meaning, quite simply, that we get used to additional cash all too quickly. The buzz wears off. In addition, she asserts, people with higher earnings tend to spend less time on activities that bring them joy and more time in the pursuit of yet more riches.
“No matter who you are, how much money you have, there’s always an opportunity to compare yourself to someone better.” For some, trying to measure up can be motivating; for others, a cause of despair. One of the biggest reasons money fails to trigger more happiness, many experts agree, is that with a higher net worth come higher aspirations. Sanderson points to what she calls the “wealthy-neighborhood paradox”: Having worked hard and “made it,” you move into that tony neighborhood you’ve fantasized about, only to feel dejected. “ ‘I have a house in the Hamptons, but I wish I had a beach house in the Hamptons,’ ” she says, though the trappings of envy can also be cars, vacations, prep schools. “The challenge with money is that it’s never enough. There’s no end point.” Sanderson cites a quote attributed to Theodore Roosevelt: “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Surprisingly, the solution isn’t to compare “downward,” to those perceived as having less of something, as Lyubomirsky had assumed when she undertook her first research project at Stanford University, where she earned her Ph.D. “I was completely wrong,” she says. Interviewing Stanford undergrads, she discovered that the happiest ones compared neither up nor down, regardless of the qualities they were assessing. “They just didn’t compare. Unhappy people are constantly ruminating and comparing. Convincing yourself that other people are worse off is not a great strategy for happiness. Now, gratitude is.” Judy Ho deals with both ends of the financial spectrum, studying low-income, marginalized and ethnically diverse populations as an associate professor at Pepperdine University and
The Price of Happiness
treating extremely affluent patients, including celebrities and other public figures, as a clinical neuropsychologist in private practice. Depression and other mental illnesses, she says, are the result of biology, environment and life experience. The prosperous, she adds, are no less likely to be depressed than the unemployed. “Some people who are unemployed are not depressed,” Ho says. “Then there are people who have all the money in the world and are depressed because they feel inferior to their brother, who’s the CEO: ‘Everybody thinks I’m an idiot.’ “No matter who you are, how much money you have,” she continues, “there’s always an opportunity to compare yourself to someone better.” For some, trying to measure up can be motivating; for others, a cause of despair.
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he Harvard Study of Adult Development, a oneof-a-kind research project begun in 1938, initially enrolled 268 Harvard sophomores (including President John F. Kennedy) and later signed up 456 adolescent boys from inner-city Boston, then regularly conducted medical tests and in-person interviews with the two cohorts through the decades and into the new millennium (it eventually added spouses and now, with most of the original subjects deceased, has graduated to their children). Over the course of 80 years, and con-
trary to popular assumption, the study found that more than wealth or social class, more than IQ or fame or even genes, the greatest predictor of happiness—and even of physical and mental well-being—was strong relationships, whether with spouses, children or friends. Harvard’s conclusions about relationships could explain why other studies find that one of the most effective ways to extract happiness from dollars is by purchasing shared experiences (such as a family vacation) or shareable objects (like a boat for outings). They also might point to the reason some in the highest financial demographic are melancholy. Though Lyubomirsky says high achievers overall are more confident and secure, some clinical psychologists note that a subset of this cohort are extremely insecure in their personal lives, frequently worrying that their romantic partners, children or friends do not genuinely love them. “Their deepest fear is ‘The minute I stop making money, they’re going to leave me,’ ” Ho says. If it offers any solace to those with such trust issues, Sanderson points to the results of another study: While straight women overwhelmingly preferred wealthy romantic partners, they selected men who’d sold a dot-com rather than won the lottery. Earned wealth, in other words, was seen as an indicator of brains, drive or other qualities they admired.
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With our culture’s reverence for making money, the wealthy who seek help for depression or anxiety can develop a unique brand of shame, especially if they sense they’re living in a bubble and feel they don’t deserve to be sad. “They can be just as emotionally damaged or more,” says Darby Fox, a therapist in private practice in Manhattan as well as in Fairfield County, Conn., and Westchester County, N.Y. “You have the expectation that if you have a lot of things, shouldn’t you be happy?” But Gretchen Rubin, a popular happiness guru with best-selling books (The Happiness Project, The Four Tendencies), a podcast and video courses, cites research that finds happiness is probably 50 percent genetic. “Clearly some people are just more anxious,” regardless of circumstance, she says, but can work to change their mindsets. “Maybe the way worry works is you have 100 worry points total, and you allocate,” says Michael Norton, a professor at Harvard Business School with a Ph.D. in psychology. “When you get money, your worries change and you allocate differently. But you still worry the same amount.” Anyone in doubt of our propensity for misery need look no further than the plethora of high-end in-patient treatment centers specializing in substance abuse and featuring pastoral settings, tasteful furniture and well-equipped gyms. At Milestones Ranch Malibu, where the recommended stay is 90 days, clients generally fall into three categories: CEOs and other accomplished professionals, celebrities and young-adult offspring of the very affluent.
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In addition to the internal demons they’re battling, some patients have to deal with dependent relatives and business associates who are anxious to get them back to work, according to Milestones CEO and executive director Denise Klein. The pressure on musicians or actors, who can feel responsible for the livelihoods of entire casts and crews, can lead them to abbreviate their time in treatment. “With cancer, you’re not going to cut chemotherapy short,” she says. The offspring of the well-to-do, Klein says, tend to be flailing, a result of too much pampering and too little responsible parenting. “At least 80 percent of the time, money is a factor in that they have been protected from consequences,” she says. Some come from families in which the parents are self-made and think they’re doing their kids a favor by absolving them of work. Instead, “they just don’t develop.” Klein offers a case study of one recent success story. Alex (his name and some details have been changed to maintain confidentiality) had amassed three DUIs by the time he was 21. His parents’ solution for the first two: Hire a pricey lawyer to get him off. “He would wreck a Range Rover; he would get a Tesla,” Klein says. “It was replacing vehicles instead of any accountability.” After the third arrest, Alex wound up at Milestones, where he received counseling for over a year. Turned out Alex had a flair for food. He landed a job at a top restaurant—his first employment of any kind—and, having found his element, was promptly promoted.
In the sphere of adolescent issues, such as substance abuse and acting out, Lyubomirsky says, “you have the biggest problems with the very poor and the very rich.” But it’s the latter whose families can afford private therapy, making the problems of moneyed progeny practically a specialty in their own right. Fox says family issues typically boil down to “an inability to communicate and connect.” “People think, ‘I’m giving you everything. Shouldn’t that be enough?’ Well, no, it’s not,” she says, adding that while daily life might be easier, relationships are not. (And on the subject of giving, Lyubomirsky says that parents would be wise to emulate Warren Buffett’s estate-planning philosophy: Leave your kids “enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.”) Fox echoes Klein’s emphasis that young adults find selfworth and resilience in employment. And while some parents are uncomfortable discussing finances at the dinner table, she strongly recommends starting at an early age by telling children what things cost and teaching them the difference between need (they’ve outgrown their old sneakers) and want (the latest sneakers are really cool), as well as demonstrating philanthropy. Most important, she adds, is to focus on character. “Turn the lens on who you are as opposed to what you have,” Fox says.
“You have the expectation that if you have a lot of things, shouldn’t you be happy?” In the same vein, Sanderson, the Amherst professor, advises accomplished parents to consider their kids’ personalities and passions and not push their own hard-charging career paths on them or hold up “wealth as a measure of intelligence.” She recounts a brunch at her eldest child’s elite prep school, where she mentioned to their table that she thought he’d make a great high-school teacher. One parent leaned over and opined, “Oh, he’s so bright. He could do so much better.” Sanderson was appalled. “For me, it was like, being a teacher would be so meaningful,” she says. (Not to mention he’d have summers off.) But, she laments, parents all too often let status and bragging rights get in the way.
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hat remains to be seen is how the psychology of money will change in the post-Covid world. Prior to the pandemic, there was already a yawning gap in the joyful experiences people could afford, but many of life’s daily irritants were equal-opportunity afflicters. Or as author Laura Vanderkam, who specializes in time management, puts it, “Whether you earn half a million a year or $50,000, you’re still stuck in traffic on your way to work.” But the pandemic has cast a glaring spotlight on the stark differences, with the prosperous living what look to the struggling middle and working classes like vacations, in well-appointed homes with multiple freezers, ample outdoor space, swimming pools and live-in help. “When adversity hits—illness, divorce—people with wealth are buffered. That’s always been true,” Lyubomirsky says. “This is just a global example.” Although most in the upper class are cushioned against such
economic downturns, Ho says some could be feeling the heat of business failures. “When there’s a threat that it might go away, it rips into their self-esteem,” she says. “ ‘Who am I if I’m not this person who makes a ton of money?’ ” Rubin, who blasts her followers daily uplifting quotes from Zora Neale Hurston, the Oracle of Delphi and the like, says she has sensed more reflection and gratitude of late. “Some people feel they don’t have the right to experience personal loss given what’s happening,” she explains. “Wealth is like health. When we have it, it’s easy to take for granted and not think about it. These things matter much more in the negative.”
Still Want to Buy Happiness? Here’s How. Michael Norton, a professor at Harvard Business School with a Ph.D. in psychology, likes to quip that if you have a lot of money and are unhappy, you’re not spending it right. Here, a few ways to improve. J.B. PRIORITIZE SHARING Some experts posit that special experiences, including travel and entertainment, give more bang for the buck than material objects—even though experiences are fleeting. Moreover, communal experiences and, similarly, shared objects, such as a fleet of bikes for the whole clan, beat those that are for individual use. “In general, spending money on yourself isn’t bad,” says Norton, who has researched generosity. “It just doesn’t do much for you.” But excessively materialistic people, Catherine A. Sanderson notes in her book The Positive Shift, have higher rates of depression, health complaints and marital strife. BUY TIME Author Laura Vanderkam, a specialist in time management, suggests spending on extra household help or even a home closer to the office to create more opportunities for leisure, whether clocking extra hours with loved ones or just reading a good book. “Time is a non-
renewable resource,” she says. With TaskRabbit-like services widespread, there’s virtually no obnoxious chore that can’t be outsourced these days. GIVE IT AWAY In a blow to the concept of altruism, philanthropy not only helps recipients but also has a well-documented positive emotional impact on the giver. In addition to charitable donations, spending on other people—say, a gift for your mom—also lifts your mood, as do acts of kindness. “Anything that helps you direct your focus off yourself is helpful,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside. TAKE IT SLOWLY If you’re concerned friends or lovers are interested only in your money, says Judy Ho, a clinical neuropsychologist and associate professor at Pepperdine University, then dial it down: Try a coffee date rather than a Michelin-starred restaurant. And if you’re the type who doesn’t leave the house without an entourage, remember that your personal trainer doesn’t have to fly first class just because you do. In general, Ho advises, distinguish between real friends and the paid variety.
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Aston’s New Dawn (Again) THE UK AUTOMAKER’S NEW CEO WILL HAVE TO COMBAT SLOW SALES AND AN ANEMIC SHARE PRICE, PLUS LAUNCH A NEW FACTORY IN THE TIME OF COVID-19. By Ben Oliver
A
ston Martin’s new CEO, Tobias Moers, takes office this month. Even by the turbulent standards of a company that has gone bust seven times in its 107-year history, the crisis he’s parachuting into is possibly existential. Moers arrives from Mercedes’s high-performance wing, AMG, where he spent almost his entire career and became CEO in 2013. An engineer by training and a car guy by instinct, he oversaw a doubling of AMG’s model range, a four-fold increase in sales and a healthy contribution to Merc’s bottom line. The situation he inherits at Aston couldn’t be more different. Moers was reportedly “head and shoulders” above the two other candidates, but it’s hard to imagine three well-qualified industry
Illustration by Israel G. Vargas
leaders risking their careers by volunteering for the toughest job in luxury motoring. Outgoing CEO Andy Palmer’s “Second Century” plan, revealed in 2015, was intended to give Aston the scale and stability it has always lacked. Few questioned the once-heretical notion of Aston building an SUV when even Ferrari and Rolls-Royce are making them, but analysts did query the speed with which Palmer and Aston’s private-equity owners wanted to expand both sales and the model range. By last summer it was apparent the wheels were coming off Palmer’s plan. Aston’s share price—already on the slide since its controversial 2018 IPO—plunged 26 percent in one day in July 2019, when Palmer’s Q2
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profit warning made clear that his DB11 and Vantage sports cars just weren’t selling. And then the Covid-19 crisis hit at exactly the worst moment: just as Aston had built and staffed the new factory in Wales, where it will build the linchpin of its expansion plans, the DBX SUV. The shock may well have killed Aston had the Canadian fashion billionaire Lawrence Stroll not previously led a consortium to invest $238 million, which gave Stroll the executive chairmanship and the group 16.7 percent of the company, with the option of increasing their stake to 20 percent. Stroll dismissed Palmer and brought in Moers, who, despite his good humor in person, had a fearsome reputation at AMG. He once told me that no car got the AMG badge without his driving it and approving it, but his task at Aston is to fix the company rather than the product. He has to restart full production at Aston’s existing Gaydon factory and build a new car at a new factory with a new workforce in Wales—and do it to the standards fine-car customers expect. Then he needs to balance Aston’s supply-and-demand problem, getting closer to Ferrari’s model of always building one car less than the market demands, to avoid discounting. Only then can he turn his attention to the cars. Both the DB11 and the Vantage will need revision, and there are two new supercars waiting in the wings. Likely to be launched in 2022 and 2023, the Valhalla and Vanquish are probably already well advanced, but Moers is sure to put his stamp on them. Although he’s
an enthusiast for high-performance electric motoring, Aston’s expensive plans for an allelectric Lagonda sub-brand with a sedan and an SUV have been postponed until at least 2025—and may not happen at all. It’s hard to see why Moers would risk tarnishing a stellar, lifelong career at Mercedes with a potential public failure at Britain’s most glamorous but dissolute luxury carmaker. But some have questioned whether he’s really leaving Mercedes at all. Aston has used Mercedes’s fabulous M177 twin-turbo V-8 engine since the 2018 DB11 and also borrows its electronics and infotainment systems. Mercedes’s parent, Daimler, has a 5 percent stake in Aston, and Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes’s F1 team, took a personal stake in Aston just weeks before Moers accepted his new job. Rather than maintaining the usual hurt silence at the loss of a valued lieutenant, Daimler CEO Ola Källenius publicly praised Aston’s hire. The two brands seem to be getting closer. Speaking to Robb Report on the condition of anonymity, one industry insider with links to both firms speculated that Moers’s perceived risk in taking on Aston might be tempered by the belief that his former employer won’t let it go to the wall, increasing its stake or even buying out Stroll and Aston’s other shareholders. Bentley and Rolls-Royce have prospered under German ownership. Aston Martin would, too, and the 54-year-old Moers could retire as the man who finally put it on the road to stability.
A Bigger Slice of the Market When you compare luxury automakers’ 2019 revenues, Aston Martin’s share is noticeably thinner than those of its closest competitors.
$4.22 billion
Ferrari
Aston Martin
Lamborghini McLaren
$1.32 billion
$1.97 billion
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Bentley
$2 03 billion
Take the Pledge DESIGNER AURORA JAMES IS PERSUADING CORPORATIONS TO FINANCIALLY SUPPORT BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES.
A
s the culture at large goes through a reckoning sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, questions have arisen about what can be done to achieve racial parity across institutions and industries, beyond vague platitudes. Within the fashion community, Aurora James, creative director and founder of luxury accessories company Brother Vellies, has proposed something appealingly concrete: She’s challenging retailers to vow that 15 percent of the products they carry will be from Black-owned businesses. “I was processing [brands’ Black Lives Matter statements] as two versions of myself: as a Black woman and then as a Black business owner,” James tells Robb Report. “I realized that to appease both elements of who I am, I needed a metric.” That metric became the 15 Percent Pledge. Rounding up from the 13.4 percent of the population that African Americans constitute, she’s calling on retailers to take up her pledge. Companies that do would start with transparency about current diversity levels by performing an audit of their vendors and publishing those findings. They would then commit to a plan to increase offerings from Blackowned businesses to hit the 15 percent benchmark. James has focused her own efforts on signing up Fortune 500 companies because of their projected impact: Target, Whole Foods, Sephora (which has already signed up) and Walmart alone could bring $15 billion to Black-owned businesses if they fulfilled the pledge. Yet smaller luxury labels have also been eager to participate since the project’s launch in late May. “This moment has created momentum in the population and made people think how they can do something to have a more equitable system around us,” says Greg Lellouche of online menswear retailer No Man Walks Alone. “The recognition that every one of us can make a difference economically is a defining characteristic of this particular
The Business
moment, beyond the protests.” For Lellouche, that means adjusting the ordering process so that 15 percent of the company’s buy is from Black designers. While the brand already works with labels such as Glenn’s Denim, PostImperial and Norwegian Rain, he hopes to bring in new designers over the next two seasons to fulfill the pledge. Lellouche says the company will use social media to update followers on the stats after every buying season. “Keeping ourselves accountable to the pledge means reordering priorities and giving more weight to Black-owned brands.” This work will come alongside a mentorship program for burgeoning Black designers and an annual $15,000 donation to five anti-discrimination charities. Mentorship programs beyond
AURORA JAMES: JASON ERIC HARDWICK
James’s Instagram post calling on large retailers to do more has grown into a movement.
the pledge alone will be key to this process, as James points out that a lack of access to gatekeepers is a roadblock for some Black designers. Naked Cashmere is also taking a multipronged approach, from hiring to devoting 15 percent of floor space to Black-owned brands to working with more Black influencers on social. CEO Bruce Gifford says, “This has been challenging, as the apparel business is a very white business.” To counter that, the company is also offering marketing assistance to Black-owned brands. The hoped-for result of these combined steps would mean not only a redistribution of wealth and opportunity but also a new empowerment of Blackowned businesses. Mikelle Street
Out of Office with
CHRISTOPHE CAILLAUD CEO OF LIAIGRE
After months in quarantine, citizens around the globe value home as sanctuary more than ever. Christophe Caillaud understands that and was already positioning his company to capture the zeitgeist. He spent nine years at Jean Paul Gaultier—six as managing director and three as president— before, in 2009, joining interior-design studio Liaigre as its CEO, a post in which he assumed even more responsibility when founder Christian Liaigre stepped away in 2016. Liaigre left his firm—a practice that has garnered 35 years of international acclaim for its simple, elegant aesthetic and use of sumptuous, natural materials—in apt hands. Since Liaigre’s departure, Caillaud has opened showrooms in Shanghai and Seoul in an effort to deepen the brand’s presence in Asia; he has unveiled an airy Manhattan location in NoMad and celebrated a spectacular new fourstory flagship in Paris. “My vision is to have something a little bit softer, a little bit more casual, without changing the brand’s spirit,” he says. “Bringing a little bit more warmth can be a very good match to the time we are living in.” HELENA MADDEN
What is one thing you do to stay sane? Exercise. I do stretches every morning for 10 to 30 minutes. I also run three times a week.
What’s one adjustment everyone can make in their lives to be more successful? It’s very personal, but having the capacity to disconnect from work helps.
What is your biggest annoyance at work? I hate to wait when something is scheduled. There is a well-known quote from Louis XVIII: “Punctuality is the politeness of kings.” I try to be on time, every time.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received? Make sure you’re asking a good question before you try to find the answer. People are very often rushing to find the answer without being sure the problem is well understood.
What do you look for in an employee? Courage to do the best that you can without fear of failure or judgment. I don’t like people who are afraid to do something wrong. You should always dare, even if it’s not perfect or if it’s not a success.
What would you tell your younger self ? Don’t forget to be passionate. Don’t wait to be passionate. Do things by passion, and you will succeed. Whatever it is.
How long should a meeting last? It’s not so much the length, it’s more the efficiency. But I definitely prefer short meetings. Do you prefer e-mail, phone, text or Slack? I like e-mail. You can take your time writing.
What’s one thing you want to improve in your work life? To be more patient. It’s getting better with age, but I’m always trying to go very fast, and I don’t like to wait. What was your first job, and did you learn anything from it that influenced your career? I started in the finance department of a chemical firm in the US. It was a fantastic opportunity for
me to work abroad, but I didn’t have any particular interest in the chemical industry. I realized it was important for me to have an interest in the product and service that I’m working for. What’s your daily driver? A BMW K 1600 GT motorcycle, which is probably far too big to drive in Paris, but I love it. It’s the only way for me to be on time to my meetings. How have you seen priorities shift in interior design as a result of the pandemic? Years ago, we had a lot of clients who placed emphasis on how they would host their friends at home—they would do big dinners, parties. Now more and more people want to focus on their own way of living and their families. What’s one takeaway from working remotely? Months ago, I was not in favor of remote work. I realize now it can actually be very efficient, and it’s helpful for people to avoid the stress of traveling to work and to instead be in their own environment.
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