Sur la Terre Arabia Summer 2014 by Firefly Communications

Editorial "Designers may be the true intellectuals of the future." - Paola Antonelli

We here at SLT consider ourselves to be designers; whether it’s Helen Louise Carter, our Art Director, our photographer Herbert Villadelrey or our Production Coordinator Ron Baron, who lives in a world of PhotoShop and InDesign, we are quite the creative bunch. Even we poor scribes, who frantically arrange and rearrange words in an attempt to amuse, entertain and inform consider ourselves artists. How much of that serves merely to stroke our fragile egos, of course, remains to be seen. Even if you don’t agree with the assertion that we are designers, no one can argue that SLT has always been partial to good design, whether it’s a beautifully-made automobile, like the SUV-cum-sports car that is the Porsche Macan, which erstwhile reporter Lee Winter test drives this issue, or the sumptuous designs of wedding dress magician Monique Lhuillier, who gets the Up Close & Personal treatment. As ever, it is our mission to bring you the best of the best, and with design, there is a whole world to explore! For example, we also delve into the ancestral lineage of Italian artisanal furniture brand Bizzotto, as well as this year’s Art Dubai, an incredible exhibition that regularly shows off the talent of the region. Yet another regional art event we review this issue is Design Days, an unusual and eye-opening festival where I discovered both new and exciting Emirati designers, as well as another side of design, best exemplified in the non-profit Fatema Bint Mohammed Bin Zayed Initiative. Not only does this programme teach Afghani women how to weave, but it also shows that the art world has much to offer developing countries. Not everything has a design slant, however. I review Kuwait’s own Mai Al-Nakib’s book of short stories, The Hidden Light of Objects, which I urge any literature lover to read, while Senior Editor Steven Paugh traipses around California in the new VW Beetle! As Rose Issa, one of the Arab art world’s most prominent curators said to SLT, “everything that is good is art.” So we can only hope that you find this issue of your favourite luxury lifestyle magazine to be nothing short of a masterpiece. Laura Hamilton Deputy Editor

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CONTENTS

arabia 18

the list

the scene

f o r y o u r e y e s o n ly

rev ue

Art, culture, lifestyle

Were you seen on the scene?

The things you need to own

La Serre restaurant in Dubai and The Hidden Light of Objects by Mai Al-Nakib

st y le con fidenti a l

gl obe tro t ter

up close

or igi ns

de sig n days spe ci a l

a rt opi a

The Joys of Summer

Your guide to global luxury

per son a l

Passionate and talented people

Italian furniture maker, Bizzotto

The best of the UAE-based design extravaganza

Rose Issa waxes lyrical on art in the region

. sur la terre . contents .

CONTENTS

arabia

ac c e s s o r i e s

tr en ds con fidenti a l

look book

i n mo tion

104

fe atu r e

111

fa s h i o n

118

hor izons

123

jetset

127

lifestyle

132

m a r k e t p l ac e

Level One shoe district, Dubai

Pins up, girls!

The best look for guys & girls

The Porsche Macan

The best of Art Dubai 2014

Fashion Forward

California's Pacific Highway

DAMAC's latest A-list Dubai development

Istanbul Shopping Festival and Venini Glass

Products available regionally

. sur la terre . contents .

T he M useum of I slamic A rt, D oha , Q atar

the list arts and culture

21-28

oct

Dubai International Dance Festival

Festival of Fantasia

Eid al-Adha

WHEN: 21 - 28 September WHERE: Dubai WHAT: Dance Festival If Gloria Estefan can be trusted (and that’s a pretty big “if”), then the rhythm, as she once warned, “is gonna get you.” As such, we must prepare and be vigilant, ready to face down the song in all our hearts, not with conventional weapons, but rather with the sweet release that can only come ... through dance! Luckily, the United Arab Emirates is ready for the coming rhythmic storm, thanks to the 7th Dubai International Dance Festival! With an armada of the world’s foremost dancers and dance troupes, a cavalcade of fantastic shows and exciting parties all celebrating the art of movement, not to mention a wealth of opportunities to improve your own skills with in-depth workshops led by experienced, international dancers and incredible programmes perfectly catered for the twinkliest of toes, the DIDF has everything you will possibly need to beat that rhythm slowly growing inside you! www.dubaidancefestival.com

WHEN: October WHERE: Morocco WHAT: Equestrian Showcase Despite what you may think, Morocco’s Festival of Fantasia is not a chance to dress up like a cartoon wizard mouse and do battle with anthropomorphised brooms. Do that on your own time! Besides, the real raison d'être behind this great cultural event is even more magical! One of the Moroccan calendar’s most highly-anticipated yearly showcases (which is saying a lot), the Festival of Fantasia is an amazing spectacle wherein 10 well-trained equestrians dressed in gorgeous traditional attire re-enact a classic battle attack charge. It is an impressive marriage of peerless horse riding, attention to historical detail and synchronicity, as the end of each charge is punctuated by the riders firing their guns simultaneously, with the goal of their audience only hearing one unified blast. The commemoration takes place throughout the country with different groups of riders performing in various places, though the most well-known takes place in the city of Meknes. www.visitmorocco.com

WHEN: 4 - 5 October WHERE: International WHAT: Cultural Observance Translated in English as “The Festival of Sacrifice” and counted as the second of two religious holidays under the Eid banner, Eid al-Adha is one of the most important observances on the Islamic calendar. The religious aspect of the holiday celebrates the willingness of Abraham - one of the most highly-regarded prophets in the Muslim faith, as well as others of a monotheistic nature to make the ultimate sacrifice to God; that being, his son. As the story goes, of course, Abraham’s son is spared and switched for the quintessential sacrificial lamb. A day of ardent prayer, remembrance, sacrifice and charity, Eid al-Adha is also a celebration of togetherness, and is often observed by practicing Muslims with family and friends gathered closely around. If you are lucky enough to be invited to a friend or family member’s celebrations, expect great food and a loving environment!

Sept

4-5

oct

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the list ENTERTAINMENT

17-20

sept

Aug

aug

Dubai Music Week

Beirut in Istanbul

Stromae at the Byblos International Festival

WHEN: 17 - 20 September WHERE: Dubai World Trade Centre WHAT: Trade Show / Music Festival At first glance, Dubai Music Week may not be what you think, but that’s kind of a good thing. While it does incorporate a rotating cast of celebrity recording artists, at the heart of this exhibition is the opportunity for the world’s major music labels and brands to come to Dubai and, in the words of its website, “exhibit their products and launch new initiatives in front of key decision makers and purchasers across the world.” Offering audiophiles the chance to attend seminars, conferences, workshops and networking events, Dubai Music Week is a chance for interested parties to peek behind the “music” that makes the heart of this hugely interesting industry tick. Saying that, it’s not all business, as last year’s show proved with special appearances and concerts from Will.I.Am, Timbaland, Selena Gomez and a host of other talents and variety shows. If you love and are interested in every facet of the music game, this is the event for you! www.dubaimusicweek.com

WHEN: 17 August WHERE: Kucukciftlik Park, Macka, Istanbul WHAT: Music Concert They may not be chart-toppers or even get much radio play, but the band known as Beirut (no relation to the swingin’ Lebanese capital) is one of Sur la Terre Arabia’s favourite modern bands. One of the most musically exploratory groups in recent memory, the indie folk band originally from New Mexico in the United States has absolutely wowed with its eclectic approach to songwriting throughout each of its four major albums, the last of which was the incredible Rip Tide in 2011. Over the course of the band’s modest but exceptional career, it has drawn on a bevy of influences to produce its inimitable sound, including everything from the jaunty sound of a traditional Oom-pah band to French chanson to “old-fashioned American pop.” Here is where we would usually list some of our favourite tracks, but when it comes to Beirut, they are all stellar. If you have missed seeing them live - an unforgettable, nigh-full orchestral experience - then don’t miss the opportunity to see them this summer in Istanbul. You will not regret it. Trust us! www.beirutband.com

WHEN: 5 August WHERE: Byblos, Lebanon WHAT: Music Concert Amongst the almost innumerable shows and musical events that occur within Lebanon, the Byblos International Festival remains perhaps the most celebrated. Taking place in what is believed to be the very first Phoenician city, the festival has unquestionably been the biggest in the country since its establishment in 2003. The last few years have been particularly kind to audiences, given the star power the show has been able to attract; a trend that seems to continue with its 2014 iteration. The first official talent to be announced this year is the young and rapidly up-and-coming Belgian hip hop and electronic music superstar, Stromae. First garnering international attention with his hit song “Alors on Danse,” Stromae has risen through the ranks and established himself as a top-tier talent on the European map, and one that shows no sign of waning. His inclusion on this year’s programme bodes big things for the 2014 Byblos International Festival, and if we were you, we wouldn’t miss it for the world! www.byblosfestival.org

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the list Lifestyle

1-6

8-9

21-31 aug

sept

Future Interiors Qatar

Kuwait International Fair Summer Exhibition

New Look Beauty and Fashion Exhibition

WHEN: 8 - 9 September WHERE: Doha WHAT: Trade Exhibition We usually leave business trade shows to our sister publication, The Edge, but what can we say? We’re pretty big suckers for interior design. Not only that, but the new Future Interiors Qatar exhibition taking place this summer in Doha will be the first of a oneof-a-kind opportunity for the Gulf’s growing population of interior designers, architects, consultants and project developers to meet and exchange ideas for the future of design in the region. According to its website, “the GCC interiors and fit-outs market is likely to grow by 15% in 2014 to almost US$ 1.6 billion;” staggering numbers, to be sure, and ones that demand the kind of attention that an event like this will bring. Future Interiors Qatar will, with its diverse programme of events, establish a massive and important platform for all those within the business to meet and plan the evolution and look of the GCC for years to come! Get in on the ground floor of this one! www.futureinteriorsqatar.com

WHEN: 21 - 31 August WHERE: Kuwait International Fair WHAT: Consumer Trade Fair Kuwait has a long and storied modern tradition of fantastic shopping, the like of which, even in the Gulf, is often celebrated. Its vast litany of yearly shopping exhibitions regularly impresses its ever-present audience of international consumers, and the Summer Exhibition planned for this August will be the grand showcase we have all come to know and love in the GCC! It may be sweltering outside, but inside the Kuwait International Fair venue is where things will really heat up, with a veritable cornucopia of household products, home decorations, textiles, travel goods, handbags and leather products, arts & crafts, ceramic, crystal and glassware and fashion accessories. Regardless of what you’re looking for, and whether you are a casual consumer or an industry insider, the 10,600 square metres of storefront at the KIF centre will have something for you to cherish! www.kif.net

WHEN: 1 - 6 September WHERE: Al Ain Convention Centre, Abu Dhabi WHAT: Fashion Trade Show For the past five years, the New Look Beauty and Fashion Exhibition in Abu Dhabi has been educating local and international style-conscious aficionados and fashionistas on all things beautiful, and its sixth annual show is set to be another winner. The full gamut of self expression will be on display this September as designers, manufacturers and other industry reps reveal every aspect of beauty’s best-kept secrets, including products and procedures, surgical and non-surgical treatments, lifestyle and image advice, wellbeing and lifestyle products, and a host of other services that will help you approach life at your most glamorous. The exhibition will also host a daily fashion show and on-stage beauty tips from some of the world’s most well-known names. If, as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then you’re going to want to behold this! www.abudhabievents.ae

sept

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th e scen e

Abu Dhabi celebrates British Polo Day —

The British Polo Day 2014 series, presented by Land Rover, kicked off in style at Abu Dhabi’s Ghantoot Racing & Polo Club.

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th e scen e

Thai “Full Moon” Party —

Revellers headed to the Grand Hyatt beach for splashing good fun and fine Thai cuisine.

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th e scen e

Volkwagen’s Art Car Competition —

VW Qatar asked residents to get creative and design a VW Golf to win an all expenses paid trip to the company’s HQ in Germany.

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th e scen e

Antara Palace Ladies’ Lunch at IDAM —

Antara Palace, a five-star wellness and destination spa in Cyprus, held a ladies’ lunch at IDAM, the Alain Ducasse restaurant at the top of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.

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th e scen e

Boggi Customer Appreciation Event â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Italian tailor, Boggi, invited its valued customers to a reception and dinner at The St. Regis Doha.

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â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

th e scen e

The Queen’s Birthday —

The British Embassy in Doha hosted a reception and British Festival to celebrate the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II.

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u r eyes o

WELCOME To a world where money is no object and Cool comes at a price. FYEO is A millionaire’s shopping list that gives you an iNSIDE track to the things you need to own.

Goldiferous >>> Full disclosure? “Goldiferous” is not a word ... but it really should be, if for no other reason than to accurately describe the Roberto Cavalli Oud Gold Edition perfume. Honestly one of our favourite scents since its launch in 2013, Cavalli’s Oud is a gorgeous homage to the spicy fragrance so uniquely endemic to the Gulf region. With top notes of saffron followed luxuriantly by rich, smokey hints of wood and a bestially-delicious musk, it is quite the singular and stand-out aroma. However, not simply for this reason does the odiferous transmogrify into the goldiferous. That is thanks to a very special run of variant packaging inspired by Cavalli’s quiet obsession with gold. Limited to just three pieces, the Roberto

Cavalli Oud Gold Edition comes in a bottle ensconced entirely in white gold leaf, with a neck similarly festooned in 138 extra-white diamonds and 121 black diamonds: a ring which can be removed and worn to perfume the air in a more visual sense. Alongside this already-precious flask is an equally-flamboyant and arresting gold-plated minaudière case, originally conceived by Cavalli himself. As if this package needed further finery, both goldiferous decanters come enshrined within a striking wooden jewel case, resplendent in the leopard-printed satin so intrinsic to the brand. www.robertocavalli.com

. sur la terre . for your eyes only .

u r eyes o

<<< The Sky-High Life No wonder high-end jet-setters flying in and out of the Gulf have their heads in the clouds; thanks to each carrier seemingly jockeying for your top dollar, it’s been an all-out luxury dogfight up there. It seems, however, that one name has risen above the rest to establish its first-class service as the true Flying Ace! Presenting the Etihad “Residence” - a positively palatial spread housed in the nose of the airline’s line of A380s, which is essentially a luxury threeroom apartment in the sky. Sprawling across 125 square feet, the Residence further luxuriates with a bevy of amenities, including its own dining room (with two tables), a 32-inch flat screen TV, a dedicated bedroom with an Egyptian cotton-swaddled bed and even your own en-suite bathroom with a shower and a small armada of exclusive products just for you. Flanked on either side by your own in-flight butler and a five-star chef to cater to each of your appetites, you and a guest (yes, it’s built to accommodate two) can lift off in the lap of luxury for the nominal price of $43,000! Quite frankly, there is no better way to fly than The Residence. The only problem might be the flight staff trying to remove you from it when you land! www.etihad.com

Empowering Power Ring >>> Here at Sur la Terre Arabia, we are big fans of both Green Lantern and The Lord of the Rings trilogy thanks, in part, to their commitment to power through jewellery. Indeed, it is perhaps because of these “ringleaders” that the diminutive yet powerful device known as The Nod so quickly captivated our collective imagination. A fullyintegrated and seamless tool for controlling your environment, this “ring of power” essentially links up all of your gadgets and environmental controls, and ... well ... rules them all. Feel like surfing the internet or changing the song on your iPad remotelessly from across the room? Simply swipe at the air with the appropriate gestures and the world is at your fingertips from afar. The same thing is true if you need to turn up the AC, but are too busy reading SLT, or if you need to adjust the lighting to read your favourite article. Made from jewellery-grade stainless steel and waterproof up to 169 feet, The Nod has an antennae range of 30 feet, and with all of its capabilities, will make any technophile crave its precious power! www.hellonod.com

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Extrasensor-eats Normally, we reserve For Your Eyes Only for exclusive products, but when a service proves to be unequivocally groundbreaking, exceptions must be made. Such is the case with SubliMotion, a new restaurant concept opening in June at the Hard Rock Hotel in Ibiza, Spain. At $2,000 a head, SubliMotion is slated to become the world’s most expensive restaurant, but that price is not derived solely from the menu, as SubliMotion proffers a meal for all of your senses; a feast not just of taste, but of space. Developed by worldfamous Chef Paco Roncero, whose accolades include two Michelin Stars, three Repsol Suns and the 2006 National Gastronomy Award, SubliMotion welcomes 12 guests at a time for a 20-course “gastro-sensory meal” in a room which sways, undulates and beats thanks to the “virtual light shows” that take place across every surface. Gardens of luminescence curl and grow around saucers and plates while you dine, as above you, stars peek languidly from beneath a canopy of night. And that’s just the beginning. Everything is catered for that specific night’s diners in mind, from the temperature and humidity to the soundscape that orchestrates your experience. These socalled micro environments reshape the very equation of your meal, turning it into a holistic experience, the flavour of which will not soon pale. www.sublimotionibiza.com

Power Suits You A truly international collaborative effort between Australia’s Heritage Bank, Visa and Japanese tailors MJ Bale, the Heritage Power Suit is a modern technological marvel, and possible herald of the apocalypse. Surgicallyimplanted payment devices have officially crept further forward thanks to this custom “wearable technology” suit, which comes replete with a builtin chip that allows those brave enough to don what will inevitably become a terminator to pay for select items at any Visa payWave terminal, simply by swiping the cuff. Hand-made from Australian merino wool by Italian seamsters, the Heritage “smart suit” will be a great boon for businessmen (and presumably women) who want to save time and look great doing it, not to mention getting one step closer to living their James Bondiest of fantasies and illusions of grandeur. Only 11 Power Suits have been made as yet, and are currently being tested amongst a very small set of wearers, while a 12th prototype was recently sold online, with its profits going to charity. The only question that remains is who in the pool had money on the “tech-pocalypse” starting with high-end apparel? You may have just won ... and by “you,” we of course mean “robots.” www.heritage.com.au

. sur la terre . for your eyes only .

r evu e r e stau r a nt

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Sur la Serre On behalf of Sur la Terre Arabia, Deputy Editor, Laura Hamilton, visits the hottest restaurant in Dubai and lunches in style.

ome things are serendipitous. Or just damn good timing. I was rhapsodising about my favourite Dubai restaurant after a colleague mentioned she had recently gone out for a fabulous birthday dinner there. “Did you try the truffle pasta?” she asked. “It’s amazing. You have to try the truffle pasta.” Minutes later, I checked my emails and what had popped up in my inbox? None other than an invite to come and try out the La Serre Boulangerie for lunch. La Serre, I thought wonderingly, might be a faction of the NSA ... but what a delicious faction it is. A couple of days later, I meandered towards downtown Dubai to meet my associate (i.e., La Serre’s number one fan), and taste the treats La Serre had prepared. I had been to La Serre Bistro only once before. Last October, dozens of hungry journalists were bused up to the entrance of Vida Boutique Hotels after various press conferences, where we saw the glass box luminescent against the dark night and clambered up the stairs with growing anticipation. The restaurant was packed, and through my tipsy haze, I noted the brilliant white interiors, the long bar and quirky artwork on the walls. The food was glorious, designed to be a sharing menu

. sur la terre . revue .

Savoury or sweet everything at La Serre is a treat!

Ever since I went to Athens last year and had a salad that changed all my pre-conceived notions on lentils, I had been searching for a contender, and La Serre certainly offers one that is up to scratch. My dinner guest also chose the lentil salad and the “Ratatouille à la Provençale et feta” (Provençale-style ratatouille with feta), of which I had a mouthful; delicious, sweet and juicy. The ceramic pots the salads arrived in were a nice touch and gave the meal an al-fresco Mediterranean feel.

which was a perfect way to break the ice between my work colleagues while sampling a little bit of everything on the menu. Romantic and chic, the vibe is trendy Parisian and you can see why it’s so popular in Dubai. The boulangerie, however, is a different experience entirely. We sat outside on the boulevard, shaded by leafy greens, with a good view for people watching and also of the lovely architectural glass box that gives La Serre its name. Relaxed, bright and cheery, the boulangerie smells divine, and despite my best intentions, I couldn’t help myself from slathering butter on bread. The weather in March was perfect, but now that summer is looming over us, it would be best to stay indoors, which, while not as formal as the restaurant downstairs, maintains a chicness not often seen outside Paris. After perusing the menu and much deliberating, in an attempt to be healthy we chose the option “petite - deux salades avec plat” (two small salads and a main dish). Considering that the cuisine is French Mediterranean, I was expecting great things from the salads and I wasn’t disappointed. I chose the “Courge musquée rôtie et carotte graines de citrouille et coriandre” (roasted butternut squash, carrot, toasted pumpkin seeds and coriander) a soft, rich and crunchy mix of my favourite vegetables and a lentil salad.

For the “plat,” we both chose the “Blanc de volaille grillé,” a dish of succulent roast chicken; soft and tangy, it’s the kind of chicken that when you taste it, you admonish yourself for ever thinking that chicken was boring. In the end, it all proved too much for us. After leisurely munching away at the lentils, butternut squash and chicken, we had to admit defeat (although I physically couldn’t stop spooning the lentils into my mouth). Sadly, the portions were slightly too big even for self-professed foodies such as my dinner date and myself. There is always room for desert, however. We feasted our eyes on the patisserie counter and sized up the goodies. The staff recommended the “Tarte tout chocolat,” a short crust pastry with 55% chocolate ganache, which is one of the most popular choices, but my dining companion had her eye on the “Tarte citron meringuée,” another short crust pastry with pure lemon filling topped with meringue. We chose both, and, armed with a coffee and a tea respectively, we took up our forks and dug in ferociously. While the chocolate tart was rich and creamy, it was the lemon meringue that stole our hearts. Light and fluffy with a layer of tangy lemon underneath, it was the clear winner. Even if you don’t have time for lunch, I would recommend popping into La Serre to taste this delight as an afternoon treat. La Serre is unusual in the respect that it lives up to its hype. Not only is the food delicious, in the way that only Mediterranean cuisine can be, it’s healthy. Relaxing outside on the terrace is the perfect lunchtime escape from work, where the world stands still, time is of no matter and the food just keeps on coming.

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r evu e bo o k s

The Hidden Light of Objects by Mai Al-Nakib Sur la Terre Arabia discovers that the light of Kuwaiti author, Mai Al-Nakib, is anything but hidden. Â&#x201E; Words: Laura Hamilton

. sur la terre . revue .

hen writers bring out a book of short stories, journalists and book reviewers view their work as similar to an appetiser, or a sampler of what’s to come. As writers are rarely known for their short stories, it’s more of a warm-up act for The Novel. However, the short story is a genre difficult to master. It’s short, which means that you have very little time to introduce your topic and hook your reader, and the structure can be quite limiting. Universally-acclaimed novelists often write disappointing short stories, so when you come across a book of stories which is well-written by a previously unpublished or unknown writer, it is especially surprising. Exploring the people, places and cultures of Kuwait, Mai Al-Nakib’s work could have descended into a stereotypical, reactionary and nostalgic pastiche, but instead, it centres around relationships, and hangs on the premise that everything is interconnected. Her language is dreamy, metaphorical but conversational, in a descriptive and colourful way that is deceptive; you don’t realise how much Al-Nakib is revealing to you about her culture, about her country, how she is changing your perceptions. Kuwait is a small country that is very insular; as rich as it is private, the dizzying heights of wealth that it reached in the 80s were brought to a crashing halt when Iraq invaded during the first Gulf War and in some ways, the country has never recovered. As anyone who lives in the Gulf knows, each country has a very different identity, and it would be remiss to assume that the peculiarities of the UAE give you much insight into the culture of Kuwait, although as Al-Nakib suggests time and time again, everything is connected. The characters in her work are intellectuals, dreamers and rebels, in love and well-travelled, secret keepers and truth searchers; fallible and flawed human beings. As a whole, her stories are interlinked; motifs such as writing (not exactly unusual in the work of a writer, but quite understandable), Greece, collecting objects, sadness, identity, relationships and the war flow through all the stories. However, the universality of Al-Nakib’s themes do not mean that those who want an insight into Kuwait’s culture should not pick this book up. Al-Nakib’s strength is that she considers what it means to be Kuwaiti and live in Kuwait from all angles, even if there is a focus on what it’s like to be a young Kuwaiti woman.

In “Echo Twins,” Al-Nakib looks back at the history of Kuwait, her story centring around an illicit relationship between a young Englishman who came to look for oil in 1937 and Hayat, an orphaned coastal Kuwaiti who is shunned by the village and torn apart from her lover. In “Her Straw Hat,” Julie’s personal crisis is played out; a depressed woman who has divorced herself from all things Kuwaiti by changing her language (she speaks French), her name (she was born Ghalia) and her location (Greek islands for the time being), falls into a steep decline when her estranged mother commits suicide. Perhaps Al-Nakib is suggesting that a complete separation from your culture and your family cannot bring happiness, no matter how much you want to escape? Relationships between parents and children are amongst the most interesting aspects of the stories. Even in “Snow Dossiers,” a story about two American expats living in Kuwait who can’t have children, the absence of progeny is strongly felt, especially by Charles, the cheating husband. However, it is the bond between mother and daughters which piques Al-Nakib’s interest. When Mina’s mother reads her eponymous “Diary,” she burns all her journals and only starts recording her feelings again when her mother passes away. “Echo Twins” begins with the death of Mama Hayat, a loss that nevertheless frees the twins to search for their long-lost father and finally learn the truth. It is the importance of objects, as memories rather than status symbols of a celebration of wealth, that floats through the short stories. The collection of short

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Mai Al-Nakib reads from her book, The Hidden Light of Objects

stories begins with “Chinese Apples,” about a Kuwaiti family who live in Japan during the invasion and the comfort they find in being offered a mysterious fruit by an ancient Japanese man. A small gesture, and an unusual fruit merely highlights the fact that objects have deeper meanings than may be obvious. The weight of objects was intensified by the last story, from which the book derives its name. Zaina relates how talking to herself about her possessions, how she came to have them, who gave them to her, were all integral to keeping her sanity and her connection to her loved ones while she spent ten years in prison. It’s both heartbreaking and inspiring. Her three daughters, who are beside themselves with joy and also worry at the thought of her return home from being a POW, have recreated the house exactly as Zaina last saw it, as she

puts it; “curating the museum of my belongings,” which she carefully walks around, remembering all the objects and the light that shines from them in her darkness. If Al-Nakib was a terrible writer, her book of short stories would be interesting as a novelty, merely as a female writer from Kuwait. However, The Hidden Light of Objects elevates her to Promising Young Novelist status, a writer who has emerged, seemingly fully-formed, with a bright future ahead. Oh, and she’s writing a novel.

The characters in her work are intellectuals, rebels and dreamers; in love, fallible and flawed. . sur la terre . revue .

style confidential

The joys of summer Bring on a season of haute highs at home or abroad, come rain or shine.

The black sea

We all know that black flatters, so when it comes to curve-exposing swimwear, black is a sure fire option. Yes print, neon or colour block are all very "on trend," but you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go wrong with timeless black. And for a classic, chic and elegant look, a one piece is the upmost in style and sophistication. But it neednâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean a frumpy full body cover up. For those with a body that demands showing off, a cutaway swimsuit is the perfect choice for parading gym-toned waistline, baring yoga honed backs or flaunting fabulous assets up top. Just watch out for those unwanted tan lines.

Jason Wu..

Emilio Pucci..

Mara Hoffman Gucci

Eres Adidas by Stella McCartney

Agent Provocateur

All swimsuits available from Net-A-Porter.com

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PACK YOUR BAGS

The boho fringing

Channel summer’s bohemian chic vibe with a fringed bag – the epitome of effortless cool for lazy days off. Choose an oversized tanned leather version or a more delicate crocheted version, like this bag from Oliver Bonas, for the haute hippy feel, or for a more dressed up glam rock edge go for black leather and studs. Destination: Europe’s summer festivals

When it comes to jet-setting this summer, leave your beloved Birkin safely at home and whisk away some additional carry on luggage with some of this season’s most holiday ready arm candy…

The new school backpack

Backpacks were all over the SS 14 catwalks, including our favourites at Chanel and Marios Schwab. Celebrities including Rihanna, Daisy Lowe and Ashley Olsen have all been spotted slinging a 90s style rucksack over their shoulder and going hands-free. This leopard print version from Jerome Dreyfuss will perk up holiday separates giving a luxe injection of wild school days. (Available from Net-A-Porter) Destination: A far-flung hedonistic safari

The juicy bite

A fruity clutch is guaranteed to brighten up any suitcase and is the perfect garnish to a sun drenched beach break. For a chic splurge, splash the juice on Edie Parker’s watermelon box clutch (available from Net-A-Porter.com), or for a bargain alternative get your teeth into Accessorize’s juicy lemon bag. If only such delicious fruits added to our five a day! Destination: A tropical beach paradise

The pastel satchel

Satchels are hanging around for another season, but for this one go for a subtle hued pastel version. Powder pinks and mint greens add a more feminine and demure finish to this sturdy sidepiece. We love this soft hued pink satchel from Pied a Terre. The ultimate hands-free arm candy for style driven vacationers. Destination: A luxe city break

. sur la terre . style confidential .

Ciao Havaianas

Falling for print

While ladies have to choose between all kinds of variations of flats for our beach-ready wardrobe, the men have it easy. What goes with shorts, chinos, linen pants and even your swim shorts? Yes, Havaianas! And this season, the effortlessly cool flip flop brand has teamed up with Italian style connoisseur Valentino for more than a beach-ready shoe, and if their outing on the SS 14 Milan catwalk was anything to go by, the perfect accompaniment for slick tailoring. Available from MrPorter.com

For those wanting to be a step ahead, prints are definitely still the way forward. Designers including Marni, Emilio Pucci and Burberry have all dabbled with more than just a splattering of bold print with their pre-fall collections. Colours remain bold (orange is set to burst onto the scene) but designers also delved into more muted and inky autumnal shades with rich bottle greens at the forefront. There is a distinctly decadent approach to prefall dressing, so don’t be afraid of audacious prints (including florals that bite and plaid on plaid), bold tailoring (wide structured gaucho pants, pussy bows and puffy Victorian sleeves) and fierce colour blocking. Furs, wraps and blanket coats were also a big feature and hang onto your skirts for evening, as once the temperature drops, you will be wearing yours with a soft sweater or turtleneck after dark.

Heritage British brand Burberry is determined to firmly make its mark on the Asian market, and with its recent store opening in Shanghai, is certainly doing so in true British style. The largest store in Asia, which spans over three storeys in Shanghai’s glittering Kerry Centre, includes not only endless fashion (this is trench overload), but also a watch room and the first Burberry Beauty Room in China. The official opening event included a star studded show with a performance by Paloma Faith, who descried the event as, “a mixture between a fashion show and the Olympic Opening Ceremony.” Speaking of his latest Asian venture, Burberry’s Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey said, “We are very proud and honored to be here in Shanghai. This is a hugely significant moment for the Burberry brand. Tonight’s event was a celebration of everything we stand for - our Britishness, our belief in creativity and innovation, and our authentic heritage. So many of these themes are shared with this incredible city.”

Image courtesy of Debenhams

Burberry’s re-orient

New man in town Back in the 90s, we saw the birth of the "metrosexual" – the label that allowed style conscious men to wear moisturiser, get a pedicure and don a salmon pink shirt, yet still play footy with the lads on a Saturday. Twenty years on, the metrosexual has a new, slightly tougher more macho mate in town –the metrogeezer. While they both look after their skin and invest in looking good, instead of the pastel shirt, the metrogeezer can most commonly be papped in a duffel coat and baker boy cap or modish bomber and heavy boots, and rather than sipping cocktails in lounge bars, is found polishing off pints with his fellow designer-clad geezers before a kebab on the way home. Think more Freddie Flintoff than David Beckham and more Kanye West than Zac Efron.

. sur la terre . style confidential .

GLOBETROTTER

Where: LONDON What: Wimbledon When: From 23rd June to 6th July www.wimbledon.com The most English of summer pastimes is munching on strawberries & cream and sipping champagne on Centre Court at Wimbledon’s Lawn Tennis Club.

Where: NEVADA What: Burning Man Festival When: From 25th August to 1st September

www.burningman.com Art meets music, meets performance, meets re-claimed pagan ritual. Go all "Hollywood A-lister" by watching at the USA’s most avant garde music and arts festival deep in the Nevada desert.

Global Gatherings Global Gatherings is your at-a-glance

map of magnificence, directing you to all of the culturally essential, entertaining and luxurious events and happenings that will be taking place across the world (or perhaps, we should say, “sur la terre”) over the coming months.

. sur la terre . globetrotter .

Where: BRAZIL What: FIFA World Cup When: From 12th June to 13th July www.fifa.com The soccer-mad South American country is host to the FIFA World Cup, and the party will strech from Rio to São Paulo.

Where: GSTAAD What: Hublot Polo Gold Cup When: From 21st to 24th August 2014 www.polo-gstaad.ch Rub shoulders with the great and good while taking in a chukka or two. Enjoy the game of Kings against the stunning backdrop of the Swiss Alps.

Where: MONACO Monaco Yacht Show From 24th to 27th September

www.monacoyachtshow.com The world’s greatest boat builders will unveil their latest floating palaces at Port Hercules this September at the world’s most prestigious yachting event.

Where: VENICE What: Venice Film Festival When: From 27th August to 6th September www.labiennale.org Expect old school glamour in spades at the Venice Film Festival, with stars of the silver screen hopping from red carpet to red carpet by boat in the famous floating city.

. sur la terre . globetrotter .

GLOBETROTTER

As always, SLT endeavours to bring you the hidden country for the best places to go on your trip to nightlife

SHOPPING

Bar Secreto

Osklen

Where: Sao Paulo, Brazil GPS: 23˚ 33' 47.71" S, 46˚ 41'34.93" W

Where: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil GPS: 23˚ 00' 04.1 0" S, 43˚ 23'09.94" W

Are you tired of mixing with the hoi polloi? Bars filled to the brim with wannabes, chancers and starstruck commoners will simply fatigue the experienced jet-setter, who doesn’t necessarily want to go to the most happening place in town, but rather enjoy themselves behind closed doors. An exclusive nightspot is just what the doctor ordered. In Sao Paulo, there is a bar so exclusive that it’s invite-only, so be prepared to let people know just exactly who you are, or pull a few strings to get the key to Bar Secreto. Inside, Brazilian socialites mix with billionaires in the intimate interiors, decorated by antiques and expensive art. Upstairs, there is a curtained-off area for the VVIPs, where the likes of Madonna and Bono have been known to party. www.barsecreto.com.br

Brazil is known for the plethora of Amazonian models that it has gifted the world; but as for fashion, the stereotype seems to be that apparel is limited to bikinis and flip flops. However, there are several luxury brands that are well-known in their native country but have yet to become household names outside the border. The most popular of these is Osklen. Started a quarter of a century ago by Oskar Metsavaht, the brand quickly evolved from a luxury sports brand into a maison that shows its collections at New York Fashion Week and São Paulo Fashion Week. Metsavaht’s vision is characterised by simple structures and bold colours, making Osklen’s wares a must-have. www. osklen.com

. sur la terre . globetrotter .

gems from around the world. We’ve scoured the the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. HOTEL

restaurant

Fasano

Oro

Where: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil GPS: 22˚ 59' 13.55" S, 43.˚ 11' 46.74" W

Where: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil GPS: 22˚ 57' 45.43" S, 43˚ 12' 15.37" W

Located in the coveted address of Avennida Viera Souto in the heart of Ipanema beach, Fasano Rio de Janeiro is Philippe Starck’s first hotel project. With the glamorous elegance of Braz’s heyday in the 50s and 60s, the hotel is highly regarded as one of the most luxurious in the city. With fantastic views of the Morro Dois Irmãos mountains, the Arpoador rock, which boasts the best surf spots, and Corcovado, upon which the iconic statue that Rio is famous for perches, Fasano is perfectly located. Each suite has an ocean view, evoking an atmosphere of a seaside resort. Despite being an incredibly relaxing stay, Fasano does know how to party, whether it’s at the gourmet restaurants or the DJ by the pool. www.fasano.com.br

What can you expect from Brazilian gastronomy? Celebrated chef, Felipe Bronze’s new restaurant Oro has garnered three prestigious awards within the very year it was opened, so you can only expect great things; perhaps even extraordinary. Collecting its cuisine from organic farmers and deepsea divers, Oro promises to deliver an unforgettable night. With myriad foie gras options on the menu, each with its own Brazilian twist, and dishes like quail egg tempura or slow-cooked cod with a smoked tomato foam and fried fish (ray tempura) served with oyster mayonnaise, you may be tempted to go for the five or nine course menu as chosen by the chef. Haute cuisine, indeed. www.ororestaurante.com

. sur la terre . globetrotter .

L amp Bear b y Ur s Fi s c h e r

. sur la terre . up close and personal .

u p close a n d per so n a l

A Marriage Of Style Monique Lhuillier Interviewed by: Laura Hamilton

If you’re about to get married, there is only one name you need know: Monique Lhuillier.

ow did you become a fashion designer? I left the Philippines when I was 14 to go to boarding school in Switzerland and when I graduated, I went to Los Angeles where I was supposed to go to university, but I always had a passion for fashion. I decided to go to fashion school straight away. I’ve always said that I never looked at this as a job, it’s just something that I love to do. This is what I would do even if it wasn't successful; I’m just a creative person and it’s an outlet for me. After I graduated, I was a young bride looking for a wedding dress and I felt there was a void in the market place. I started the company with my husband seventeen years ago. After six or seven years, I wanted to work with colour; I couldn’t just stick to the whites and ivories, so I started my evening and ready-to-wear collection. Since then, the company has evolved and grown. I also do a home-wear collection, so it’s branched out to become a lifestyle brand. I do multiple collections throughout the year now.

like to shine and not have the dress overpower me! I would choose lace as the material and it would be light as a feather and very sensual, pretty, soft and elegant. So I may just have to renew my vows with my husband!

What was your wedding dress like? My wedding dress wasn’t made by me. It was an off-the-shoulder satin ball gown with some lace at the waist and on the sleeves with rosettes. It was very princess-like! I was 22 years old, so it was very different to what I would choose today!

What’s your creative process like? Does it take a long time to go from conception to realising the design? It varies. The creative process is different each collection. Sometimes I have too many ideas, so I have to break it up and save some ideas for later. Other times it takes a long while for me to get started. Some seasons I start from a piece of fabric or embroidery and others I begin with an abstract concept. I know that the last week is the home stretch where it really comes together.

If you were getting married now, what would you choose? I would wear something closer to the body. I’m quite petite and I would

Is it true that the wedding dress is the most important outfit a woman can wear? I think it’s one of the most important pieces of clothing that she’s ever going to wear. It symbolises so much, it’s the next chapter of her life and it’s important to look back at those pictures and show them to your children. It’s an iconic piece of clothing that you’ll have forever and I always wanted to make the lady who wears my clothes feel special, and that really resonates with the brides. What’s the most iconic wedding dress of the last century? Even before I started my business, the dress I admired was Grace Kelly’s. She was so regal. It was traditional, elegant and timeless. It’s one of my all-time favourites.

. sur la terre . up close and personal .

Are you a very ambitious person? I have to say I am. To have built something from scratch and not to have worked for another fashion house was a really hard thing to do. I never thought about my career in terms of a big master plan, I just followed my gut feeling and my heart. It’s great to be able to talk about it now, but as I was on the journey to get where I am now, I never thought about it. I was just pursuing my dreams. What were your earliest fashion influences? I have a very glamorous mother, as a child I watched her getting dressed. My parents loved to entertain, and my sister and I would watch her transform in front of our eyes. That was my earliest introduction into fashion. She always jokes that when I was little she would dress me and now I tell her what to wear! Do you remember the first thing you ever designed? I never got a pencil and paper and started drawing. I would pick up material; I had to get my hands in it and that’s how I would express how I wanted the dress to look. I made dresses for my dolls and myself. In the Phillipines, it’s customary to go to a tailor and get things made, so I used to do that. When I travelled to the States I would buy dresses and cut them up and redesign them! So I knew it was in my blood. What does it take to stay relevant in the fashion industry? You always have to move forward and push yourself. Fashion is a very

fast-moving industry and if you get too comfortable, you lose your momentum. One thing I do keep in mind is that my customers like my signature style, so if I’m incorporating new silhouettes or new colours, I know not to change too much. What’s your own personal style? Easy, chic elegance. I like to add a little twist and have it a little more edgy during the day, but at night I like it easy and glamorous. I have a career and am a full-time mother so it has to be easy, it has to work immediately; I don’t have hours to experiment. It has to be right so I can zip up and go!

ou always have to move forward and push yourself. Fashion is a very fast-moving industry and if you get too comfortable, you lose your momentum. " You’ve just started a fine jewellery line. How did that come about? We did a lot of research and 75% of the time women make the choice of what kind of engagement ring they want. So it was a natural step for my brand. I also do shoes, because I’ve always wanted to dress my client from head to toe! I want to make things easier for brides. In the future, I would love to launch a fragrance and open more of my own boutiques, I have one in New York and Los Angeles, but I’d love to open one in London and Hong Kong. My hands are quite full right now though; I’m very involved in every collection and every piece. Even though my company has grown, I still hold the reins.

. sur la terre . up close and personal .

origins

Sydney

. sur la terre . origins .

Bizzotto:

This Family Means Business Words: Steven Paugh Pictures: Bizzotto

SLT dives into the rich history of Italian design brand, Bizzotto.

amily is a word that gets bandied about a lot these days in luxury, with well-known surnames cresting the upper echelons of opulence like so many glistening stones betwixt and atop the silvery veins of a royal tiara. They season our sybaritic lifestyle with almost regal recognition, born of humble beginnings and rich traditions, not to mention increasing the values of our cars, our bags, our shoes and our tags. However, there are fair few which, to this day, remain truly loyal to their own lineage, and not just in some nominal fashion. One of these last remaining bastions of ancestral excellence is Bizzotto, perhaps Italy’s finest purveyors of artisanal furniture and home decor. Bizzotto’s story began the better part of a century ago, in the northeastern region of Veneto, an area long-prized for the peerless vintage of its natural bounty. It was in this lush and verdant land that a local craftsman by the name of Giuseppe Bizzotto would first cultivate his idea to produce and distribute his gorgeous, hand-crafted cabinets. Over the next 20 years, Giuseppe cemented his family name’s local standing in the region thanks to his deft experience in fine cabinet making, and in 1973, not only became an architect of dreams, but of industry, officially bringing his Bizzotto brand into existence. Since then, both his business and his family have grown, and like the intricate decorations that adorn Bizotto’s masterpieces, the personal and professional sides of his life have been interwoven into a family-run company that continues the great work Giuseppe began those many years ago. Having learned the trade plied by their father and company namesake, and drawing on the inspiration that led him to create and succeed (even throughout the second World War), Giuseppe’s six sons have now taken the reins of the company business, ensuring that Bizzotto’s intimate family company remains just that. In the words of Deborah Bizzotto, the brand’s marketing manager, “The strength of Bizzotto depends on a family that believes in the future, and in a dream that began more than 40 year ago.” As such, the company is inspired by both its founder and its past, resolute in keeping with the traditions that have made it into a worldwide name, while always striving to be evolutionary. As much as Bizzotto is born of family ties, it is also bound in the styles and collections which themselves have become almost equal members of the family. The oldest of these has to be Fenice (or “Phoenix” in English),

. sur la terre . origins .

Precious

Sydney

a solid walnut collection that dazzles in adaptability, allowing for various combinations and permutations, the bespoke decorative nature of which impresses against conformity and uniformity. There followed a cavalcade of other collections, which combined singular furniture items, from tables to wardrobes to beds. The Composito and Tresor collections are of particular note, as is the solid oak-edged, cherrywood beauty of the Stoccolma line, which included a cornucopia of tables and chairs for the dining room, bookcases and entertainment centre solutions for the living room, study and all parts of the home.

Diamond

Given Bizzotto’s landmark adaptive nature, the styles have developed organically over time, epitomising the prevailing interior design fashions of the day, while setting trends that would soon become industry standards. Take the Taormina collection, resplendent as it is in the same cherry and walnut warmth that put Bizzotto on the map, garnished here with a rainbow of delicious lacquers, like mother of pearl, colonial black, silver and gold. The Diamond and Pandora lines too, with their jewel-shaped and octagonal dance of geometry respectively shining through, give the design which has been honed to perfection by Bizzotto a refined, illuminated feel; each a waltz in the dynamism of modern design. The Sidney collection, meanwhile, taps into Bizzotto’s firm commitment to both style and substance. The entire range of this line - from console tables to bookcases to benches - is built sturdy from briar root wooden boards, carved from trees, which, like Bizzotto itself, have stood through multitudinous tests of time, crafted by nature through centuries of growth, each telling their own unique family story. As a testament to Bizzotto’s commitment not just to the harmony found in family, but also that which exists in nature, none of the rare and precious briar root is taken forcibly, but reclaimed after being felled naturally through events like landslides and floods, rather than the spurious manmade ravages of deforestation. Steadfast is Bizzotto’s unwavering stance on ethical industry and eco-sustainability, the balance between man, earth and luxury.

Montmarte

Bizzotto is that rare thing in interior design, one that incorporates functionality, high-end and ethically-sourced materials and an attention to creating a true and lasting atmosphere, treating furnishing as it should be - as an expression of haute couture fashion for the home, all built on the unshakable traditions of family that makes each purchase truly feel like coming home.

. sur la terre . origins .

d e s i g n l d a y s

Design Days 2014 William Morris once advised that no one should have anything in their household that was not beautiful or practical. With that in Mind, Deputy editor laura hamilton travels to dubai to visit the prestigious design days exhibition. explore her findings within these pages.

d e s i g n l d a y s

In Praise of Hands

wo r k sh o p & e xh i b it

Van Cleef & Arpels was once again the luxury sponsor of Design Days 2014. SLT caught up with Alban Belloir, the Managing Director at Van Cleef & Arpels MEA & India, to talk about the exhibition “In Praise of Hands,” and the Maison’s commitment to opening its doors to the world and showing everyone just how much hard work goes into the design and creation of high jewellery.

. sur la terre . design days . workshop & exhibit .

ow did Van Cleef & Arpels become involved with Design Days? We had a partnership with Art Dubai, but we felt we needed to innovate, to stay in the field of art and culture. Art and design are a part of our territory, an expression of our identity. When the organisers presented the project, it captivated us; we felt it was interesting and in-line with our values. This year was the third time we were the luxury sponsors of Design Days. Tell us about your exhibition “In Praise of Hands.” Design was at the centre of our exhibition. The idea was to take the visitors through the jewellery-making process, from the creative stage, the designs, the drawings to the polishing, until the piece is finished. It’s a very long process! It really enabled people to see that jewellery isn’t just about stones, not just about design and style, it’s also a real process that involves different techniques. We wanted to show people the craftsmanship behind it. It’s quite impressive! It’s interesting to see how traditional it is. In the modern world, things happen so fast and new technology overtakes the old way of doing things, but with jewellery, although we innovate constantly, we remain very traditional.

It’s not quite an Ecole, but the fact that we’re getting so close to the public and bringing this knowledge to Dubai is great. It’s new and never been seen before. For the jewellery enthusiast, what do they get out of experiencing jewellery in this manner? We believe that after studying at our Ecole or taking part in a workshop, people will understand the value of our creation, after they understand the technique that goes into making it. When you look at a finished piece, it’s so pure and beautiful that you don’t realise that there is so much behind the beauty. I think it’s important to give a true representation of what it means to create jewellery, in terms of the hours of work that go into a single piece, in terms of creativity, and the savoir faire. It will open people’s eyes to what goes on behind the scenes and raise awareness of the jewellery business. It’s also part of our role as a Maison to transmit the knowledge, not only to keep the savoir faire, so the techniques and craftsmanship aren’t forgotten, but also to express it to the new generation. We have a role to educate people, which the Ecole is fulfilling. It’s very clear that education is important to Van Cleef & Arpels. Through our Ecole, we are opening up a new direction, not a different, but an additional part of our development, which is towards the creation and transmission of knowledge. Especially in this region, education is key, whether it’s Qatar or the UAE, these countries are growing so fast. They are wealthy with an impressive economic growth, but at the same time, the authorities know that they need to be sustainable, that they need to educate their young generation in order to build the future of their countries. At Van Cleef & Arpels, we also believe that education is part of our sustainability as a Maison; it’s a key aspect of our development.

wo r k sh o p & e xh i b it

How is the newly launched Ecole Van Cleef & Arpels? The Ecole has been a great success since it was started in February 2012. It has a great location, in the heart of Paris, right next to our Place Vendome flagship store. You enter a world of craftsmanship. It’s a unique initiative that really touches people who like beauty and who love jewellery. It’s a different way of looking at jewellery, not from a consumer perspective, but from an aesthetic and passionate perspective. It’s not just in Paris though; at Design Days, we took the first step in bringing this knowledge to the Middle East. At our exhibition, we hosted a series of workshops and we brought over a craftsman from L’Ecole Van Cleef & Arpels to hold master classes. There were 30 minute sessions with four participants, experiencing how to mock up a piece of jewellery, which is an interesting stage because it’s where we go from a one dimensional drawing to a three dimensional aspect, and involves putting it all together; the volume, shape and size.

“B

ringing this to Dubai is new and has never been done before.”

"The source of creativity is observation. It's the ability to capture emotion and culture."

. sur la terre . design days . workshop & exhibit .

wo r k sh o p & e xh i b it

Obviously the Van Cleef & Arpel exhibition “In Praise of Hands” and the workshop was very inspiring for young and old jewellery enthusiasts. Does it go two ways? Does Van Cleef & Arpel take inspiration from this part of the world? Definitely! The source of creativity is observation. It’s the ability to capture emotions and culture, like the Arab culture. We have a long history in the region and we are always sourcing inspiration from the Middle East; this region is very interesting in terms of tradition, habits, culture. There is a strong sense of tradition in this part of the world and we really value that.

In Praise of Hands As Design Days’ luxury sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels held its own exhibition focusing on the oft-forgotten Mains d’Or, the virtuoso craftsmen who breathe life into jewels and metal with their expert hands called “In Praise of Hands”. Black and white photographs by Francesco Cito and videos by Loic Prigent and Willy Papa showed the craftsmen at work, as well as some pieces from Van Cleef & Arpels’ private collection which sparkled around the dramatic display. It was the workshop, however, that really piqued everyone’s interest. The mock-up stage is the first translation of the design into three dimensions, after studying the painting in gouache, the designer then makes an object out of pewter and paste stones. Carefully sawing along the lines, the lucky VIPs who had the chance to take part in the workshop (including yours truly) learned that its not as easy at it looks. It seems to me that a craftsman’s hands have to have the same precision and attention to detail that a surgeon does; as I ungainly wielded the small saw, my lines were not smooth and my hand/eye coordination was very poor. However, as I superglued a small paste stone on the tiny pewter butterfly, I felt an intense feeling of pride at my small offering and a huge amount of respect to the master artisans who work at the Van Cleef & Arpels workshop in Place Vendome.

. sur la terre . design days . workshop & exhibit .

d e s i g n l d a y s

Giles Miller Studio

The Giles Miller studio (gms) is the go-to interior design company for when corporate brands and fashion houses need something a bit more special on the inside.

pro fi le

hat do Bombay Sapphire, Selfridges, Stella McCartney and Level Shoe District in Dubai have in common? The answer is, of course, that all these esteemed sybaritic brands have commissioned work from the interior design company Giles Miller Studio (GMS). Specialising in the oftoverlooked aspect of interior design called "surface concept," GMS is responsible for some of the most innovative and playful feature walls you’ve noticed and admired everywhere from luxury hotels to catwalks. Garnering a reputation for creating structures that are both artistic, luxurious and innovative, GMS’ MO is experimentation, whether it be with light or with material. Known for its penchant for manipulating light in order to use reflection as colour, the studio’s work is typified by its lightness of touch and attention to detail, as well as its aesthetic beauty. With the added benefit of GMS donating to Cancer Research with each commission, the studio is a rising star in the interior design world. At Design Days 2014, GMS unveiled two new lighting sculptures “Castor & Pollux”, named after the mythical non-identical twins. Each three-dimensional sculpture consisted of 8,500 pieces of walnut and brass-suspended circular sheets, which closely resemble pixels. The project, which GMS collaborated on with Capsule Arts, a Dubai-based arts consultancy, was one of a few installations at Design Days 2014 commissioned by the exhibition to celebrate design in the region. Programmed to rotate to create an optical effect, the installation was in constant motion and the shape of the sculpture changed to reveal the “pixels” creating different forms, either revealing or concealing each other. The movement of the pixels caused light to bounce off the brass in a playful and hypnotic manner.

. sur la terre . design days . profile .

d e s i g n l d a y s

india Mahdavi Studio Interior designer, India Mahdavi, creates with a power that transcends architecture.

pro fi le

rchitect, furniture and interior designer, the Iranian-born, Parisian-raised India Mahdavi is a triple threat. Growing up, Mahdavi wanted to be a filmmaker, something that shows in her work as she endeavours to tell a story through her concepts and give identities to spaces. Best known for her “Bishop stool,” Mahdavi’s work is an eclectic mix of materials and colours that are both bold and edgy. Her latest project was Le Cafe Francais, a brasserie in Paris, which takes up almost the entire block from Boulevard Henri IV to rue Saint-Antoine. Designed by Mahdavi in conjunction with Studio M/M, it’s the India Mahdavi is an Iranianborn designer with creative poise, technical know-how and an eye for the dramatic.

latest development from the esteemed Beaumarly Group, and one of the largest establishments of its kind in Paris (where the penchant is for small, intimate spaces), encompassing a brasserie, bar, veranda and terrace. The colours of the tricolore are present in the design in your typical French patriotic manner, but are broken up by the monochromatic marble floor and the hard and reflective materials. The atmosphere is achingly hip, lavish but not stuffy; the kind of venue that creatives and fashionistas would patron. One of the highlights of the design is the whimsical painted-blue sky,

. sur la terre . design days . profile .

which makes the already large rooms seem even more limitless. Another of Mahdavi’s projects for the Beaumarly Group was Germain, a restaurant in the trendy area of Saint Germain in Paris. Again, the space was impressive in size, but this time it was spread across three floors; in the basement there is a cinema, the restaurant is on the ground floor and there is a cosy lounge on the first floor. The ground and first floors are connected by a sculpture, “Sophie” by Xavier Veilhan (a frequent collaborator of Mahdavi’s), and is one you must see to believe.

d e s i g n l d a y s

i ntervi e w

The Carpeteer Jan Kath

Whether it’s a retro wall hanging or an explosion of colour to pad softly over, German artist Jan Kath’s work calls to mind the notable W.B. Yeats quotation, “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” With his New York showroom, his German roots and his production facilities in Nepal and Turkey, Kath admits he mostly lives a plan these days, making him a global jetsetter, and therefore right at home in Dubai. SLT caught up with him at Design Days.

. sur la terre .design days . interview .

d e s i g n l d a y s

Jan Kath is Generation PhotoShop

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ow long does it take to create a Jan Kath carpet? It depends on the size. A normal, living roomsized carpet can take from six to eight months with five people working everyday on it. It’s not just the weaving that takes time, but the finishing process. The carpets may look antique, but they’re brand new. To make them look and feel old, we put them through a special finishing process. It involves fire and water - I can’t tell you more, because it’s a secret! All I can tell you is we actually burn the carpet and then we scratch the ash off, and then we burn it again to create the unusual texture. Where do the patterns come from? The patterns underneath the silk are traditional Oriental carpet patterns, mainly Turkish and Persian. I was born into a family that knew a lot about carpets; my parents and my grandparents were dealers of old, antique carpets and I saw firsthand how business was dying. I wanted to do something to keep the industry surviving;

something new, while using a traditional base. Wherever I work, whether it’s Turkey or Nepal, where I have my productions, I use traditional techniques, raw materials and the local people to weave the carpets. I’m trying to keep the craftsmanship alive, as once the chain breaks, and it’s not passed from father to daughter or mother to son, it’s lost. I’ve been making carpets for about 15 years now. I treat carpet production as fashion designers treat the fashion industry; I have about twenty different collections, which have different characters and different ideas.

How did you come up with your process of burning the carpets? I thought about it, and I knew what I wanted to create, so I searched for a way to achieve it. We did a lot of experimental work, and at the very beginning, I burned and destroyed a lot of carpets! The colours on the carpets start off very fresh and then after we burn them they look very old and faded. Wool doesn’t actually burn, because of all the oils in it; it catches fire, but just glimmers so the fibres aren’t weakened. My process of weaving, while it uses the local techniques, is very technical. The weaver still has a map, where the knots and the colours are indicated. So it would read ten times red, then five times green. It’s like a stitching or knitting instruction. I treat it as a pixel and make it photo-realistic. I develop all my designs on my computer; I’m Generation Photoshop. What do you hope to gain from Design Days? We want to be specified by architects and

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designers in projects. We want to meet people and show them what we can do. My main job is to produce, to order, and so far we have had a very positive response.

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Fatema Bint Mohammed Bin Zayed Initiative SLT talks to Walied Jabarkhl, one of the executive directors of Fatema Bint Mohammed Bin Zayed Initiative, a non-profit organisation which helps the women in Afghanistan by teaching them the skills to weave beautiful carpets.

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ow did you get involved with the Fatema Bint Mohammed Bin Zayed Initiative (FBMI)? My family is originally from Afghanistan. Thirty years ago, we immigrated to the UK, where we were educated. Obviously we wanted to give back to the Afghan people. Now, we have operations around the globe; our production facility is in Afghanistan, the showroom is in Dubai and the warehouse distribution is in London. I’m based between London and Dubai. It’s a family business, and I’m the third generation. How many women in Afghanistan are you helping? We have almost four and a half thousand staff, 90% of which are women in Afghanistan. It’s a public/private partnership between His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, from Abu Dhabi and Tanweer

Investments in Afghanistan. The aim of the initiative is to empower the women of Afghanistan. We want to keep the culture and traditions of Afghanistan alive. They’ve really suffered as they’ve been through almost five decades of war, so the main aim is to provide them with a sustainable income. We have implemented minimum wage, so no worker earns less than $200 US dollars a month, which goes a long way in Afghanistan. We also provide vocational and capacity building. What this means is that a weaver would not remain a weaver for the time she’s working with us, FBMI teaches her new skills all the time and keeps her progressing. We have also stipulated in the contract that their children aged 16 and under must be in education, so they can have better prospects for the future. We provide free healthcare, which includes everything from prenatal and postnatal care to vaccinations, and we’re currently running a scheme where we try and combat polio.

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Do you often go back to Afghanistan? I visit Afghanistan about ten times a year to check on the facilities, to see how the women are coping and to see how we can improve the programme. We operate in the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It’s important to us that it’s an environmentally-friendly process; in terms of the production of carpets, for example, we use vegetable dyes so no chemicals are used. All the products that go in to the process are from Afghanistan, like the indigenous Afghan wool, while the dyeing process is done in our factory in the capital city of Kabul. We also have a factory for cutting and processing in the east of the Nangarhar province in Jalalabad. You collaborate with a lot of designers to produce the designs for the carpets. Who are the upcoming designers you’re working with? Currently we’re collaborating with Norma Kamali, a New York based fashion designer who has a wealth of experience. She provides designs, and we’re trying to work together on a few other projects, mainly on bags and satchels, which are going to be new for us. Michaelian and Kohlberg source and make hand-made decorative carpets from around the world; traditional carpets to ultra contemporary. They recently shut down their factory in China and moved to Afghanistan, which shows the belief and trust they have in the country. We also have something in the pipeline with Zaha Hadid, a famous architect and designer. Some of our collaborators hear about the project and sometimes we approach them, and tell them we’re in the market and would like to reproduce their works of art. At the beginning of 2014, we won the “Carpet Design of the Year” award by Domotex in Hanover, Germany, which is the largest flooring exhibition in the world. We also won “Young Carpet

FBMI's main purpose is to support the women of Afghanistan.

Designer of the Year” as well, out of 85 countries that applied and provided designs. We’re only four years old, so that gives you an idea of the wealth of experience, quality, skill and craftsmanship that we possess. Learning to weave is an amazing skill to have in this day and age. Is it very hard to learn? We employ master craftsmen and craftswomen who are artisans in their own right, and they provide training to the weavers, to increase their skills. It’s an eighteen month course because it takes a long time to master the knotting technique. They learn several different weave types, from the Turkish and Persian to the Tibetan knots, which all give different results. They teach the Afghan knot, too, of course! A three metre by two metre carpet takes about six months to weave, depending on the intricacy and the colours. The looms are set up in homes, as it’s a conservative society in Afghanistan and the weavers can go at their own pace. If they want to work in the factory, they can, but it’s mainly women who are involved in this project and they have children to look after. What are your plans for the future? When we implemented this project in 2010, it started with 500 employees; now we have 4,500. Indirectly, our benefits reach about 20,000 people. It’s a massive project and it affects a lot of people. For the future, we want continuous expansion; better facilities for the staff and expansion into global markets. At the moment we’re in North and South America, and Europe, and we’re hoping to expand into the Far East.

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Wander

through our gallery of design days' most interesting and thoughtprovoking exhibits

Pottery by process Less CPP by gt2P The raison d’etre of Chilean artist group gt2P (Good Things to People) is to explore the relationship between technology and traditional techniques in architecture, art and design. “Less CPP” was a live project at Design Days that saw a completely different approach to pottery. Pottery has the reputation for being seen as a sensual process (SLT blames Ghost) that requires natural talent and intuition, and while that may indeed be true for some of our more dexterous readers, the folks at gt2P like to change, or at very least illuminate, paradigms. What looks like a traditional process, using simple materials like wood and muslin cloth, is actually a very technical enterprise; the artists used analog numerical control to focus on aspects like fluid weight, fabric tensions, anchor points, slipcasting and viscosity, showing that parametric design can be achieved without computers. The end result of the complicated venture was some very beautiful pottery, not to mention a firm, physical and indeed very evocative experience of process.

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the Imploded Star Relief “Etoile” by Pierre Sabatier Pierre Sabatier never ceased exploring different techniques and approaches that painters and sculptors use to integrate their work into an architectural environment, looking at the relationship between the artwork and the environment. During his long career, the French artist's experimentation led to a unique way of working with metal; he treated the material like a living organism that he could manipulate. In Relief “Etoile,” which Galerie Yves Gastou showed at Design Days 2014, Sabatier’s artwork looks like a mirror that has exploded, or a snowflake, or as the name suggests, an imploded star. Made from tin slabs with torn edges that have been welded together, “Etoile” has been worked on with acid, creating an effect not usually seen out of Chemistry classrooms and science labs. The metal has bubbled and disintegrated to create a beautiful and striking piece of art that has a very organic feel to it. In Sabatier’s asymmetrical piece of metalwork, he subverts the idea that art is always about creating, rather than destroying.

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I love lamp

TARAH by Bina Baitel

Lamp XL, Skin Collection by Pepe Heykoop

The Parisian designer and architect, who opened her own studio in 2006, reinterprets an everyday object in TARAH. Inspired by the Oriental lifestyle, in which mats are rolled onto the floor to sit on, TARAH works as a hybrid of a side table and a floor mat. The combination of both is at once very simplistic and minimal, but the table is covered in gold leaf, making it quite luxurious. The nature of TARAH means that you have to roll the mat up and down, which gives the furniture a very ritualistic aspect, also reflected in its name. “Tarah” is an Arabic very which means “to throw down,” and “matrah” is the Arabic word from which the French word for mattress is derived.

Much has been made about up-sizing in the last few years, but it’s still difficult to create something beautiful out of waste materials. So when a designer does it well, her or she should be applauded. Young Dutchman Pepe Heykoop is one such artist. Constantly examining the link between design and art, Heykoop has made a collection called “Skin” using leather remnants and discarded objects. It’s an unusual lamp; the different colors of leather give it a mottled effect, but the small seat at the light shines on gives new meaning to the phrase “hot seat." Using recycled materials is the very essence of practicality, so for the form of Lamp XL to be so whimsical with its very small seat is unexpected.

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Throw Down

Hump Daze Sa’nam by Zeinab Alhashemi A member of Tashkeel, an independent source for artists and designers living and working in the UAE committed to cross-cultural dialogue and creative exchange, Zeinab Alhashemi is a young Emirati artist who has already garnered some international press with her creations, thanks in large part to the way she marries modern art with traditions. For Design Days 2014, she wanted to create something that reflected her background and culture, but served her interest in geometrical design. Working with artisans, she created a multi-functional carpet made out of camel leather, which is referred to in the title of the piece, "Sa'nam," which means “hump” in Arabic.

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Fake Plastic Trees PP Installation By Tom Price Remember back in the 90s, when everybody was complaining about plastic six pack rings being thrown into the ocean where dolphins would get their noses stuck in them? They were generally considered a bad thing. Plastic, in general, despite being a material that we use daily, and has far surpassed metal and wood in our lives, still has a bad rap. Therefore it’s quite unusual when an artist creates an installation using only plastic, in this case polyproplyne pipe, especially if he’s using said plastic to depict a nature scene. Price, however, is one of the UK’s up-and-coming artists, who subverts the traditions of western sculpture and materiality to create something that is progressive in its cultural and conceptual significance. His installation at Design Days was a little corner of zen and meditation, and an exploration of acceptance and understanding of what we consider to be beautiful. In using industrially-manufactured materials, plastic that had to be individually bent, and partially melted to be made into blossom, to recreate cherry blossom trees, Price is opening up new avenues of how we consider plastic, as well as its correlation to nature.

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Chair Waves Victory Chairs by Omar Nakkash Sometimes a piece of furniture just catches your eye. In this case, Omar Nakkash’s “Victory Chairs” are positively waving at you for attention. The series of American Maple Wood chairs are an homage to HH Sheikh

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is known for his special salute. He claims that the V sign stands for victory, triumph and love, but of course, the V sign has other, much cheekier connotations, too. Nakkash’s “Victory Chairs” celebrate the iconic hand gesture as well as the achievements of the Sheikh, and of course, of Nakkash’s adopted hometown of Dubai. It’s quite unusual to

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see patriotic furniture, but Nakkash’s light touch and humour shows through; although the chairs themselves are quite simple and ordinary, the hand protruding from the arm adds a kitsch, comedy aspect. Sometimes furniture is about the technical or conceptual prowess, and other times it's about putting a smile on someone’s face and making them want to take a seat.

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Falcon City of Wonders The uae's new megacity concept will bring the world to your doorstep. Literally!

ubai’s latest real estate mega project is the fantastically named Falcon City of Wonders. It sounds like a sci-fi film set in the distant future, where there are flying cars, robot butlers and all mankind is ruled by majestic talking falcons; but alas, that has yet to come to pass. Instead, it is a world within a city, the kind of microcosmic enterprise for which those who claim residence will never have to leave. And why would you want to?. Those who visit will shed fat teardrops when they have to return to their substandard living spaces. When you tell people you live in Falcon City, they will remark, with bitterness, “Living the dream, eh?” It does have a surreal aspect to it, and it seems that only somewhere with the ambition of the UAE, combined with its deep pockets and desire for glamour, could even envision such a project. What are these “Wonders” you might ask? Well, they are simply the wonders of the world (somewhat revised to reflect our modern tastes). Prepare to have your mind blown! Inspired by Europe, there will be a Dubai Eiffel Tower which

will host a Falcon Elysee, home to every kind of luxury label you can imagine; Town of Venice, a waterfront Venetian style restaurant and cafe complex; and the Tower of Pisa, the combination of which will surely make you feel like you’re wandering round a strangely compressed Europe. From the ancient world and civilisations, there will be The Great Wall, a three-storey high replica of the Chinese structure that will serve as a buffer between the Theme Park and the residential area; Dubai Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which will house eco-friendly apartments as well as cafes and restaurants; and finally, Dubai Lighthouse, a replica of the lighthouse in Alexandria, Egypt, one of the seven wonders of the world that was destroyed by earthquakes thousands of years ago. These amazing structures will make Falcon City the number one destination for tourists and citizens of the UAE alike, as well as the most luxurious and fun place to live. The villas themselves come in various sizes, from the “Townhouse Aegean Villa,” which is the very epitome of Grecian style, to the “Detached Santa Fe Villa,” which opts for a Californian relaxed chic. With 12 different villas to choose from, you really are spoilt for choice.

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All this is the brainchild of Chairman HE Salem Al Moosa, a force for change who is a pioneer of the Emirati real estate boom, a man who interestingly maintains that “sustainability is our number one priority.” An inspiration to his people, Al Moosa has championed the development of the UAE for decades, and Falcon City will be the cherry on top of the UAE’s achievements. Oh, and there is also a very large mall. falconcity.com

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A rto pi a

rose issa

Rose Issa has an eye for spotting talent, a rare skill in this overpopulated, congested world, but one she has honed over the last thirty years. Issa is best known for making artists famous, whether by cataloguing, encouraging galleries or by taking their work to exhibitions; she is on a one-woman mission to champion visual art and film from the Middle East and Iran. SLT sat down with her to pick her brains about scouting; here is what she had to say. Â&#x201E; Words: Laura Hamilton

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O n C ata l o g u e s Recently I went to a conference about young people studying Arab art and I realised that there are so many old Arab artists who are going to die without any of these students ever seeing their libraries. It’s the artists who have the best collection of catalogues. I don’t know to whom I would give my books because there is not a single library that has the right staff and infrastructure. I give books to a lot of institutions, but I know they disappear. It’s problematic. Even if people want to give their collection as a gift to an Arab institution, there is no such institution that could receive them. They don’t deserve them because they don’t have the infrastructure to handle it. No one is collecting the catalogues from the old artists, which PHd students need to do their research. I don’t understand it. Morocco is one of the few countries that has a history of institutionally supporting artists; but it wasn’t the museums, it was the banks. The banks made catalogues in the ‘90s, they had rows and rows of catalogues and named rooms after artists; fantastic meeting rooms lined with artworks. I haven’t seen that in any other country. Banks in Beirut collect art, but it’s mostly foreign work, like Jean Debuffet. Unfortunately, they don’t differentiate between the cheap Orientalist prints from the Debuffets. It’s not lack of education. People don’t buy because there is an essential gap in their collection; they buy from friends.

On Money Commercial galleries don’t make a lot of money. Even if they sell everything, they never recover the real cost. It’s either the father or the husband who owns the gallery and the curator doesn’t get a salary. When I opened the Kufa Gallery, it was rent-free. The patron was Mohammad Makiya and he even paid my salary. I sold everything, but I could barely cover the costs of an editor or the designer. Even today, I have to sell my own personal collection in order to publish catalogues. I believe in what I do and what is money for if you don’t believe in yourself? What I do is what I am. Rumi said what you do is what you love. What you see - the artwork - they are why I am ready to take risks. They represent things I’m interested in. These artists’ concerns are my concerns. These aesthetics are the aesthetics I will defend. There are a lot of good artists that I can’t work with; you have to like the artist and the chemistry has to work.

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ven today, I have to sell my own personal collection in order to publish catologues. I believe in what i do and what is money for if you don't believe in yourself? What I do is what i am” On Agendas I think that agendas change. When I started in ’82, the agenda was to do something about the Israeli occupation in Lebanon. Then I found out no one was promoting art, so the agenda became a platform to give visibility to Arab artists in Europe. Today, I want to promote the people I like. I was 60 when I created my project space, which I did simply because it was taking too long to get an institution to do something; two years to do a small show at the Tate Britain, two to three years to do something at the Barbican. I thought, why not, even if it’s only four walls, I can do something. I can put the artists on the map, then the institutions will come along and see they exist. Now there are so many commercial galleries popping up in London promoting Arab art, so I feel

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less obliged to show people’s work in my gallery. I want to go back and do publications; the physicality of an exhibition can also be in a publication, like a virtual museum. I also want to make documentaries and do more exhibitions in institutions.

he did his own shows; not before. It took him ten years before he started exhibiting. There’s a reason why he teaches at the business school and not at the art school! He’s the best businessman in London. He deserves his success, but is he relevant here?

On Institutions

On Censorship

You have to make concessions with public institutions; this one isn’t British, this one doesn’t have five monographs. They have their own agendas, of course. One institution wanted to include an Israeli artist and I said no, it’s not Arab art. I suggested Raeda Saadeh (a Palestinian artist), but they said no; they didn’t mean a Muslim Palestinian. It’s all about negotiation. They said that they were a public institution, and had to include an Israeli artist because the country is there, geographicallyspeaking. But I’m not going to cater to this kind of thinking. Israeli artists have enough support; they don’t need Rose Issa to champion them.

There is a lot of censorship in Iran, but it doesn’t stop anyone creating. On the contrary! It takes guts to create art, so let them be gutsy! Look at Manal Al Dowayan in Saudi Arabia; she was a businesswoman who worked at Aramco for ten years before becoming an artist. She shows that a woman can create art, and she can’t be censored. You have to have the courage to be free. There is family, social and national pressure, but also you can say, I don’t want your money, I’ll do it by myself! If we all want to comply and stay in our comfort zone, we would never do anything; we have to take risks. If someone doesn’t dare, it means their passion isn’t strong enough.

Institutions ask me if they should acquire work, and there are some works that I think are for museums and some that aren’t. I think, frankly, we make a lot of mistakes. Museums have a lot of works in storage and nobody wants to see those artworks anymore; and yet one day, those Colonialist or Orientalist artworks that are out of fashion will again become fashionable. It’s history, and after all, we have to know the concerns of our time. It has to be relevant to our concerns, aesthetically, socially and politically. It has to have the pulse of the place. This is what I’m interested in. That’s why I came to see the first museums in the Gulf, so I can gauge the atmosphere.

On Damien Hirst In Qatar, the museums aren’t buying from the commercial galleries, and I don’t understand it. Anima Gallery at the Pearl is showing Qatari artists, which I had never seen before! When I go to Dubai, I want to meet Emirati artists, and in Qatar I want to see Qatari artists in Mathaf, in the Museum of Islamic Art. I don’t see them. Eighty percent of the population is foreign, and if the museums here exhibited a good Filipino artist, that would make more sense than showing Damien Hirst. There are some young Qatari artists, I met them at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, and they’re very keen. But they need stimulation and encouragement. Hirst had all these rich and famous friends, had a PR team, a curatorial team, he built up his body of collectors and then

On Art I don’t think that only visual art is Art. Whatever you do that is good is art. I’ve been to hundreds and thousands of exhibitions, and I’m looking for something I’ve never seen before, something that moves me. It took me many years to realise the difference between a painter and an artist. You can be an artist and never do anything, they themselves are an artwork; the way they think is bizarre, different. Marcel Duchamp didn’t create a lot of art, he had a patron and mostly he played chess! It doesn’t mean he wasn’t an artist. My job is to filter; you see hundreds of exhibitions, you like one. A hundred artists email you and you like one’s work. You read hundreds of books and one is good. There is a lot of waste in life. Not every book in a bookshop is good. I was talking to the director of Anima Gallery in Doha and she said she liked a Tracy Emin neon piece and fell in love with it. It’s very important to fall in love, whether it’s with a painting, an object or a human being. Falling in love is an essential thing in life. There is a reason behind every artwork and every film. Knowledge is important. The more you know something or somebody, the more you love them. With Islamic art, the more you understand it, the more you appreciate it. A German Egyptian artist, Susan Hefuna, did a series of artworks called “Knowledge is Sweeter than Honey” and I think that’s true!

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acc e s so r i e s

Inspired by the words of Christian Louboutin, who once famously opined, “There ain’t no heel high enough,” Sur la Terre takes shoe shopping to new heights, with Dubai’s Level Shoe District.”

l On the v e l Words: Laura Hamilton Pictures: Level Shoe District

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re you the sort of person for whom a soft leather sole is the epitome of perfection; who turns her nose up at plastic knockoffs, who knows the difference between Dries Van Noten and Alice&Olivia, and for whom the sight of a red sole is tantamount to a petite morte? Then you will be familiar with Dubai’s number one shoe destination; and by familiar, we mean obsessed. It’s surprising to think that Level Shoe District has only been open since the end of 2012, as it has become such an integral part of the Dubai Mall shopping experience. It’s the place to buy shoes in the UAE. In fact, so stylish is Level Shoe District that walking into the concept store is like entering Carrie Bradshaw’s fantasy world; shoes as far as the eye can see. It’s well done, elevating the worship of shoe wear to the level of artistry. Flats or heels? Brogues or stilettos? Kitten or block heels? Sandals or courts? There are rows of shoes, displayed like art on walls, offering so many different possibilities. Level Shoe District boasts 350 brands, 100 of which are regionally exclusive to the store, making it the go-to destination, not only for the glamorous Dubai fashionistas, but every man and woman in the region who has a penchant for shoes. When you’re sashaying around Paris in a pair of Nicholas Kirkwoods that none of the French have, you are a walking advertisement for Level Shoe District. What other store can boast that?

Dubai's number one shoe destination.

Walking around the store, it’s easy to be overwhelmed, but don’t be. Split into four multi-brand areas - Women’s Designer, Women’s Contemporary, Men’s Designer and Trends - the store has a surprisingly intimate feel, as the ambience changes from a boudoir, complete with gilt birdcages where shoes hang, to a stylish bachelor pad where men can try on their shoes in privacy, and then again to a contemporary urban feel. It’s a place you can easily get lost in, feeling shoe envy and realising you never knew that there were this many shoes in existence. While the women’s sections are open plan, there is a VIP area, where you and your most trusted style gurus can hide away and see if the glamorous outfit you just bought in Dubai Mall goes with the latest pair of shoes that have caught your eye. The gentlemen also have a VIP area, which is darker and more masculine; hidden away with a secret entrance to make the customer feel a little like 007. The dedication to footwear is impressive. There is even an in-house cobbler, who can create ready-to-wear and bespoke footwear, as well as all the usual services such as mirror shine, leather resoling and heel replacement. On view behind glass, you can simply observe the cobblers at work, admiring the skill and craftsmanship that goes into fashioning a single shoe.

Vogue Café

If you get shopping fatigue, then a trip to Vogue Café is in order. Unlike your average shop café, the only Vogue Café in the region is a destination in and of itself. Seamlessly separating the sections, it’s partially secluded on one side by gold railings and by a three dimensional pyramid design on the other. The asymmetric design is slick and chic, with the ambience of a Parisian bistro; minimalist decor, all white leather and gold, feminine and the tables are marble. It’s not the sort of café you would expect to find in a mall; far too classy. The menu is like reading a novel, or indeed, a magazine. Images of monochrome shots of models fill the pages, alongside inspirational quotes. The menu is extensive, and pouring over it is an act of indecision. I choose some sushi, followed by the biggest, and most delicious niçoise salad that I have ever enjoyed. Luckily, you can eat your fill at Vogue Café and still fit into your shoes. Languidly gazing around, sipping my soy latte and nibbling

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One of the things that makes Dubai's Level Shoe District so unique is Sole Lounge by the UK's Margaret Dabbs.

on the selection of deserts the staff kindly brought over to us I contemplated the Manolo Blahniks that I’ve had my eye on for several months, asking myself if I really do need them as much as I think I do.

Sole Lounge by Margaret Dabbs

One of the things that makes the Level Shoe District unique is Sole Lounge by Margaret Dabbs. Proving their dedication to the holistic worship of feet, the good people at Level brought the first Sole Lounge outside of the UK to Dubai. Dabbs coined the phrase “medical pedicure,” bringing together the best chiropody practices with spa treatments to create a holistic experience. After lunch I walked down the bright white corridor to the small and intimate spa. Having beautiful, luxurious shoes is one thing, but you need to take care of your feet. Everyone knows that wearing stilettos or flats all the time can lead to problems, and no one wants to have to wear ugly orthopaedic shoes. The lovely chiropodist examined my feet with care while I waited with bated breath; there was a brief moment when she was concerned about my toenails, but luckily it turned out she was being overcautious. Scrapping off my dead skin, she warned me that a build-up can lead to corns (which no one wants). While we all may get a pedicure from time to time, having our feet checked out by a chiropodist is something we all forget to do, and this dusty climate takes its toll on our soles, as well as the dramatic levels of diabetes that affect a huge proportion of the population. If you’re concerned about diabetes, Sole Lounge can help, as well as with issues such as pronation, and provide tailored insoles. They can also give you a fabulous manicure/pedicure. Multi-talented, indeed.

Exclusives

Forget saving your pennies for when you travel to Paris, London and New York. Level Shoe District often procures exclusive deals with the hottest designers that you can’t find in any fashion capital other than Dubai. Aquazzura produced this gold sandal just in time for the summer season to kick off, a stylish nod to the ever-popular gladiator sandal that would look great with a maxi dress while you’re chilling downtown. If you fancy something to wear with your glad-rags, look no further than Alexa Wagner’s exclusive offering to Level Shoe District; a gold stiletto (gold is the colour of summer, after all) with black suede straps and a gold bow on the heel. Timeless, effortless and stylish; what more do you want?

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tr en ds confidential

Victoria Beckham

Sophie Jones-Cooper is bringing her legs out from under cover this summer and filling her wardrobe with trousers galore!

Mulberry

Pins Up Girls

. sur la terre . trends confidential .

Salvatore Ferragamo

s I tap at my keyboard, tucked away in my cosy cottage hidden from the drizzly grey British skies embarking on this, my latest Trends Confidential episode, I realise that my topic of choice may need a somewhat different approach for the sun-soaked Middle East. Summer 2014 is the season of the trousers. Whatever their guise - wide and billowing, skinny and flared or cropped and hip slung - trousers are everything this season. Over here in Europe (well, the UK - I am sure the women of Provence, Tuscany and Barcelona have been baring their pins for some time), as the spring lambs frolic and the tops are let down on cars, the thought of unwrapping our legs from behind winter tights and boots for the summer season ahead is causing panic and alarm. But over in the Middle East, toned and tanned, salonwaxed legs have been parading their beauty in shorts, skirts and kaftans year-round with no idea of any seasonal changes, unless you count hot and hotter. With pretty much perpetual sunshine, keeping your legs and general body hair under control is second nature, and the worry of the approaching summer does not cause a pandemic dash to the beauty salons for a wax or “glow.” While pale and pasty European winter legs face shame come June, Middle Eastern pins are styleready, whatever fashion demands of them. So will this season’s trouser trend have quite the same appeal as over here in Blighty? Whatever the weather, I think this season’s trousers have the power to translate. With the freeze of the Middle East’s air-conditioned climes, a pair of lightweight trousers is perhaps even more in demand than on a balmy British summer day. Thanks to their figureflattering appeal, I condemn any woman not to desire at least two pairs of new season trousers. Yes, there are the new midi skirts (watch out, not everyone looks as chic and gorgeous as Victoria Beckham in this style), floaty maxi skirts (a summer pre-requisite) and those gorgeous under the knee A-line skirts (perfect for a go-anywhere summer style), but without a doubt, it is this season’s trousers that offer a truly contemporary edge, what a choice there is! Perhaps the most versatile and easy to wear is the cropped trouser. For many, the transition from winter to summer is far less of a wrench if only your ankle is on show. Unless you are really unfortunate to have inherited the dreaded “cankle,” most women have decent enough ankles fit for flaunting, and cropped trousers are flattering for every figure type.

Hobbs

When it comes to cut, look to Salvatore Ferragamo, Isabel Marant and Stella McCartney, who chose sleek and tailored versions, which are equally as wearable by day as they are at night. Take Salvatore Ferragamo’s white, front-pleated pair and Stella McCartney’s silky versions; both flatter the silhouette and give a sophisticated feel to summer dressing day or night, whatever takes your fancy. “We've redefined the silhouette to take on a slightly more slim-line shape,” explains Stella. “I wanted to use fabric in a way that really speaks about the woman wearing it, rather than it wearing her. I want it to work for her." While many designers kept their trousers plain, with white leading the way, print is also an option and equally as wearable. Go for bold graphic florals, checks or stripes and team with a plain silky style T-shirt or feminine blouse, but be sure to tuck your top in this season. Pleated fronts are also a brave choice if you aren’t a skinny rake – the less material around your middle the better. The most flattering cut by far is loose on the thigh and tapered at the ankle, ideally sitting on your hips; belted or plain.

. sur la terre . trends confidential .

DSquared

If you are feeling brave, a shorter crop pretty much a culotte, as modeled by Victoria Beckham as she took her post show bow – is spot-on this season. Go for one designer pair in black and you are bound to get a fab price-perwear ratio this summer. Brogues would work well with these culotte style cropped pants, but for a bit of help in the height department, don a simple stiletto VB style. The designer says she “can’t concentrate in flats.” A pair of classic black stilettos or just a kitten heel for the office will give you the desired skinny legged feeling.

Lanvin’s liquid gold pants teamed with a shimmering black shirt and metallic jacket is an edgy after-dark style. Meanwhile, the uberbrave can even add a luxe sports edge, as seen at Tommy Hilfiger, and team a bright pair with a midriff-exposing sporty top. While wide-legged pants hark back to the days of Marlene Dietrich and Katherine Hepburn in the fabulous 30s and 40s, another decade has seen a revival again this summer and brings with it a trouser shape we haven’t seen in some time – the 70s flare. You may, like me, have a pair or two of flared jeans hiding at the back of your wardrobe from the late 90s, so bring them out once again. Or invest in some new season disco-ready, seventies-inspired bell bottoms. Just make sure you keep the waist high and the flare wide for the most flattering fit.

Tommy Hilfiger

Marc by Marc Jacobs

For those that don’t find concentration an issue, when it comes to footwear and cropped trousers in general, plimsolls or skater shoes are an easy way to keep your look effortless for balmy days. For serious trend followers, this season’s pool sliders or clumpy flats perfect the look.

staples for everyday dressing. For a masculine finish, add a tailored jacket or simply a fringed over-the-shoulder bag to accessorise. Wide-legged trousers and their accompaniments are the perfect alternative to a suit or skirt for the office; Hobbs’ white trousers suit is a great example. For a more quirky style, opt for a billowing bold print. An oversized floral teamed with a simple white tee hits the style nail on the head, or go glitzy for the evening with a pair of metallic trousers.

One trouser style that certainly does require a heel though is this season’s billowing wide legged trousers. Unless you have legs up to your armpits or resemble a six-foot super model, wide legged trousers must be worn with heels. The point of such trousers is the leg lengthening Amazonian goddess effect, so as well as the hidden heel, make sure you opt for high-waisted to extend the flow and give maximum length. As with cropped trousers, tucking in your top is a requirement – whether a t-shirt, blouse or shirt, keep it tight and be sure to define your waist; with such baggy bottoms, a cinched waist will look even more mini. Who doesn’t love trousers that make your legs look longer and your waist smaller? There is also something utterly sophisticated and European about such palazzo pants. Visions of lazy afternoons meandering the cobbled streets of Barcelona stopping for tapas or drinks along the yacht-peppered promenade of St Tropez spring to mind. Michael Kors’ sheer white pants are just the ticket, oozing as they do a breathtaking holiday romance, while his camel varieties are the upmost in chic city elegance. Hermès and Gianfranco Ferré also went oversized and proved that tan and golden shades or even white/cream are versatile

At the other side of the style spectrum for summer are boyfriend jeans, with their baggy and masculine-cut androgyny. Worn with loose tops and blazer jackets, these trousers are a great alternative to summer’s more curve-enhancing cuts. Although this is not my first summer trouser choice, Marc by Marc Jacobs’ powder blue pair worn with a basic white tee and loose blazer are certainly a worthy summer investment. This more manly style takes us back to where trousers for women first began. It wasn’t until the First World War, when land girls wore altered versions of their husbands’ trousers as they went to work, that women ever wore trousers. Coco Chanel went on to encourage the rise of the cigarette pant in the 20s and it was only really after the Second World War that it was acceptable for women to wear trousers out of the work place. Even well into the 80s, wearing them to work was seen as somewhat of a faux pas. And that is only thirty years ago! With trousers playing such a huge part of a woman’s wardrobe today, it is hard to think that less than a hundred years ago, they were really just for men. While we might still think twice about wearing trousers to a wedding or cocktail party, before the first world war, women wouldn’t dream of owning a pair of slacks, let alone choosing the most feminine style.

Lanvin

. sur la terre . trends confidential .

The late, great Whitney Houston once said, “'I like being a woman, even in a man’s world. After all, men can’t wear dresses, but we can wear the pants.” Whether Whitney meant this in the literal sense or just metaphorically, we will never know. While some men may now be dabbling with skirts, namely designer Marc Jacobs and most recently American actor and rapper Omar Epps, I think Whitney was right. I don’t see the social taboo around men in dresses going away anywhere soon, but I do see an awful lots of trousers making their way into women’s summer wardrobes all around the world. Mine. for starters.

LOOK BOOK

denim days

Let denim take over your wardrobe this summer. From dresses and dungarees to shorts and skirts, now is the time for a blue jean revival.

TOP TIP:

JUMPSUIT Next, DUNGAREES House of Fraser, DRESS Phase Eight, DRESS Next, SKIRT Marks And Spencer, coat ASOS.com, SKIRT Oliver Bonas, SHORTS Victoria Beckham Denim at Net-A-Porter.com, JACKET Mary Ling, SHORTS Next, JACKET Monsoon, DRESS ASOS.com, SHOES Pierre Hardy at Net-A-Porter.com.

. sur la terre . look book .

DKNY

Tommy Hilfiger

A shirt dress is a chic and versatile way to wear denim. Team with flats for effortless daytime cool and heels after dark.

CATWALK MOMENT: The catwalks of New York Fashion Week were awash with denim including Tommy Hilfiger and DKNY.

the summer suit Houseoffraser

When the dress code demands summer smarts, think coloured shorts, a preppy shirt and tie, and top it off with a navy blazer for a dapper yet contemporary new season style. SHIRT APC at Mr.Porter.com, JACKET Burberry London at Mr.Porter.com, SHORTS Dolce & Gabbana at Mr.Porter.com, SHORTS Acne Studios at Mr.Porter.com, SHORTS PS by Paul Smith at Mr.Porter.com, SHORTS Gant Rugger at Mr.Porter.com, SHORTS J by Jasper Conran at Debenhams, SHORTS Marks and Spencer, SHORTS Next, SHORTS River Island, SHORTS River Island, SHORTS Superdry, TIE A.P.C. at Mr.Porter.com, BELT Next, SHOES Paul Smith.

TOP TIP:

Choose well-tailored, slim-fitting shorts and a blazer for a slick style, or looser linens and no tie for a casual approach.

. sur la terre . look book .

E ast - W est/ W est - E ast by Richard Serra

i n m oti o n

Off-road 911?

If Anyone can, Porsche Macan... Sur la Terre heads to the UAE to put Porscheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s off-road pocket rocket through its paces.

. sur la terre . in motion .

Words: Lee Winter Pictures: Porsche / Jorge Ferarri

s I stood in awe and gulped in the sumptuous, ashen and orange-laced landscape that I was suddenly enveloped by, it wouldn’t have taken much to convince me that I had just steered my way to newlybroken ground, for the natural and rugged setting that jutted and hacked its way underfoot had led me atop the highest point found in the UAE: Jebel Jais Mountain. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before this majestic view and the tranquility that contrasted so beautifully with the hitherto raucous engines, were both stolen from me: “It’s the first compact SUV that’s also a sports car.” So goes the Macan mantra and, as I hear a Porschefestooned individual spout it for what feels like the eight-thousandth time in just under two days, my brain’s spam-filter kicks-in in the form of semantic satiation and the phrase suddenly loses all meaning. A few minutes pass-by and, with said filter now disabled, I decide to give comprehension another go: “So, it’s a Sports Sports Utility Vehicle, I suppose?” The response I am greeted with is a blank stare. “Sport squared?” I tried. Nothing. Clearly, the confusion only deepens when you try to explore the implications of the phrase, so I abandon all attempts.

. sur la terre . in motion .

For now, we’ll forego the connotative minefield that accompanies pigeonholing this car and concern ourselves merely with the numbers, because they are worth considering. Let’s get the diesel out of the way first, because you probably don’t care about it that much anyway. It is a 254bhp, 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel that will get to 62mph in around six seconds and carry on all the way to 143mph. Then there’s the Macan S, with its 335bhp 3.0-litre V6. That will deliver the 0-62mph sprint in 5.2 seconds (with optional Sport Chrono package) and will get up to a maximum of 158mph. Finally, we have the Turbo. That’s the one you want. The range-topping Turbo is billed as “the most powerful vehicle in the compact SUV segment.” To back this up, Porsche says it hurtles along at a top speed of 165mph, after initially

doing away with 62mph in a mere 4.6 seconds. The reason for the vast improvements over the S? That’ll be the 3.6-litre, 394bhp bi-turbo petrol V6. Porsche is clearly at pains to make sure people consider the Macan to be a big 911 as opposed to a small Cayenne. This car can easily handle the rough-and-ready topography that one would encounter on a desert-safari, whilst simultaneously displaying the handling and grunt that’ll get you home from the desert quicker than you can say “I’m glad I didn’t opt for the Cayenne GTS.” But this, I’m afraid, means it’s wandering into very tricky territory. More often than not, an idea that tries to combine two functions expertly invariably ends up being ridiculous to the point of

. sur la terre . in motion .

open mockery (Joey Tribbiani’s clock-pen, anybody?) or worse, failing spectacularly at both. Now, call me a cynic, but the concept sounds just a little too contrived for it to be borne out of passion. From the outset, it feels too much like an exercise of ticking as many boxes as possible in an attempt to increase the appeal of the Porsche entry-level range. The Stuttgart-based manufacturer has, lest we forget, been guilty of such box-ticking exploits in the past. Recall, if you will, the introduction of the Porsche Cayman in 2005; a car you always felt was produced specifically with the remit of creating an option that sat perfectly in-between the Boxster and the 911. So much so, that one got the

impression that the Cayman could have been a much quicker car, if they so desired, but the engineers were not permitted to tread on the toes of the 911. By creating the Macan, a “911 with off-road capabilities,” are they again guilty of a similar ploy by merely filling a hole in the market? To prove to all in attendance that this was not the case, Porsche had arranged a series of enticing activities - culminating at the aforementioned UAE summit - that would demonstrate the car’s versatility and performance. But first, there was the small matter of a quick jaunt along the coast, from Dubai to Ras Al Khaimah, via a seaplane. Yes, a seaplane. To

. sur la terre . in motion .

clarify, that’s a plane (one that is not very much bigger than the car I was journeying towards) that uses the sea as its runway. Excited, I was not. Surprisingly though (and mercifully), the short plane ride was smooth and truly exhilarating. That coming from a man, who (as you may have gathered), is not particularly fond of taking-off during flights. Or landing. Or the tiniest sign of turbulence. Or the persistent thoughts of dropping out of the sky and careering towards the ground like a dart. Basically, the only part of flying I enjoy is the meals. This flight contained exactly zero meals. So, my appreciation astonished nobody more than me.

introduced to the fleet of Macans that would provide much sturdier forms of transportation from here on in. And just as well, for the Marjan Island “assault course” that Porsche had devised to flaunt the Macan’s off-road capabilities was particularly uncompromising. The Porsche’s features, which include Hill Descent Control, Torque Vectoring and Active Suspension Management, were put through their paces by a variety of obstacles, including the 45 degree Side Slope, the unimaginatively named Sand Hill and the Articulation Run that boasted craters and bumps that would put the facial complexion of the latest teenage social media app millionaire to shame.

Nonetheless, stepping from the rocking aircraft and back onto solid, unmoving land was a relief. With no time to waste, we were quickly whisked off to be

But the centrepiece was the five-metre tall ramp, consisting of a 35-degree incline followed, a few short metres later, by a 40-degree

“I

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was extremely grateful for the Porsche's traction."

. sur la terre . in motion .

decline. When the width of the ramps are mere centimeters wider than the tyres and the ascent is so steep that all you can see is the odd cloud, I don’t feel the need to elaborate on just how tightly my bum-cheeks were gripping the beautiful leather seat. The Macan handled this minor metal mountain with ease - a report I am unable to replicate for the poor Porsche instructor, who had to experience this nerve-wracking demonstration a dozen times with less-than-qualified journos behind the wheel.

refreshments were second-to-none. The specially created (yet tragically named) Macan Turbo cocktail was particularly delightful. I plan to guard the secret recipe, thus ensuring my own air of superiority as I aloofly inform each and every pretentious “mixologist” I now encounter of the best cocktail he’s never heard of. The name, too, is probably subject to change. How does a tall glass of Warm Winter sound? As the evening wound to a rather late dénouement, the general consensus was that a good day had been had by all.

Upon conclusion of these travails, we rejoined our convoy and meandered towards the stunning Waldorf-Astoria hotel, where we were to regroup, freshen-up and conclude the day at the stunning open-air, beachside Al Fayrouz restaurant. The food was sublime. As was the company. And the

When the following morning abruptly arrived, my sleep-cycle and I immediately agreed that something was amiss. The unsympathetic alarm that emanated from my iPhone caused an instantaneous panic and I had to double-check (more with hope than any real conviction) that the clock wasn’t somehow set to the wrong time-zone. It was not. Reluctantly and rather tenderly, I gathered my thoughts, and then my scattered possessions, before ambling downstairs to inhale some much needed fresh air. The sight that greeted me was magnificent and terrifying in equal measure. Parked in the hotel’s forecourt stood a row of five glistening Macan Turbos; champing at the bit and eager to devour the spaghetti-shaped Jebal Jais road. As my thoughts turned towards successfully navigating the car around those challenging strips of tarmac, I began to feel an acute intensification of a hangover that could fell trees. This was followed, a shortly later, by a deep regret for the “one more for the road” mentality I had so vehemently embraced the previous night. My fears were not misplaced. Comprising eight hairpins and countless corners, this band of blacktop would not look out of place were it draped along northern Italy’s Stelvio Pass. Or, for that matter, Romania’s muchlauded Transfgran. The incredible acceleration that the Turbo was capable of almost sent it into the parameters of being too quick for the

environment. Indeed, there were some notable occasions when, given the loose gravel located on some of the corners, one or two compromises were appropriate to ensure all of the Porsche toys made it home via the pre-determined route and not the 1,900m drop. More than once I was extremely grateful for the Porsche’s phenomenal traction and it was only my lack of courage that prevented me keeping the throttle firmly planted during the ridiculously tight corners. Furthermore, the seven-speed PDK double-clutch transmission is the industry leader and a sheer joy; providing gear-changes crispier than a bag of Lays and proving an ideal match for the Porche’s four-wheel drive system.

. sur la terre . in motion .

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“T

he Marjan Island 'assault course' that Porsche had devised was particularly uncompromising.”

For our jaunt up this treacherous terrain, my co-driver and I reached the rather boring and compromise-heavy agreement that the sounds that would accompany us should be provided by the Porsche’s own soundtrack (in the form of the rumbling V6 engine) and Porsche’s own soundtrack (in the form of the natty Macan CD that furnished our sound-system, which was basically a collection of Funky House tracks that some PR bunny deemed appropriate for the drive, which, to be fair, wasn’t all that bad.) When I return to tackle this road on another day, however, I can’t help but feel that the bass-progression found in the outro to Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain (made famous by the BBC’s Formula 1 coverage) played on continuous-loop would accompany the drive perfectly. The slow, melodic beat that steadily rises in pace and decibels, before reaching a frantic crescendo beautifully mirrors the approach and consequential ascent up this fantastic peak.

may argue that the blades are there merely to allow the layman to distinguish the Macan from the very similar-looking Cayenne). As we’ve covered extensively, the Macan is pitched as a sports car, so I had hoped - some may say naively - for a tall(ish), dark (paint-job dependent) and handsome (well, sort of) 911. I didn’t get that. What I got was the best-driving SUV in the world. And though that makes it quite a feat of engineering, it doesn’t make it a sports car. What we’re left with is “the first compact Sports Utility Vehicle that’s also sort of a sports car.” And that is one truly terrible tagline. Despite the fact that the Macan takes a lot of design cues from the 918 Spyder, perhaps hoping for Spidey-like performance would be pushing things a little. Fingers crossed for a Macan GT3 though. But with regards to the performance that the Turbo is capable of putting-down, the road that was chosen to parade its sporty-side was exquisite. It is a meandering, convoluting ribbon of asphalt I hope to return to time and time again.

As far as looks go, the Macan, (meaning tiger in Indonesian), is unmistakably Porsche in its design. From the characteristic Porsche headlamps to the sloping roof and the broad shoulders at the rear, there are visual pointers to the influence of the 911. The 918 Spyder has also inspired a number of elements, including lifting the steeringwheel in its entirety and the door-side blades (though a pessimist

To say that the bar was set astonishingly high by the Jebel Jais backdrop is something of an understatement, but I’m pleased to report that, when necessary, the Macan was able to raise its game and compete admirably with the mountainous landscape for my attentions and affections. That it only missed out by a mere whisker is a true testament to the incredible machine that Porsche has delivered.

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. sur la terre . in motion .

fe at u r e

Images provided by: Pilar Corrias, Art Dubai, The Breeder, Green Art Gallery, Prilla Tania, Galerie Krinzinger, Galerie Hussenot, Galerie Marian Goodman, Gallery Wendi Norris, Galleria Franco Noero, Galerie Kashya Hildebrand

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. sur la terre . feature .

all that Glitters Every year in March, curators from around the world travel to the UAE’s glittering city of Dubai to exhibit their wares, show off the latest Arab contemporary art and dazzle the world. Words: Laura Hamilton Pictures: All Rights Reserved

s it that time of year again? While Doha’s art scene grabs international headlines, and HH Sheikha Al Mayassa, the chairperson of Qatar Museums Authority, has bagged herself a spot on Time’s Most Influential People List, it is Dubai where art dealers continue to bring their goods. In fact, wandering around Art Dubai is an exercise in being overstimulated. Whether it’s the beautiful setting of Madinat Jumeriah, the stylishly arty people meandering about in red lipstick and brogues, the bon mots of the speakers at the Global Art Forum, or indeed, the galleries full of art themselves; there is a lot to take in during Art Dubai. Luckily for you, SLT has narrowed down some of the most extraordinary artworks to bring you our top picks. This year, our theme is art that is not what it seems. Art is an interesting study, and often what seems simple took hours and hours of careful craftsmanship, or what seems like a painting is actually embroidery. Art is many things, including deceptive.

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Palimpsest: Unstable Paintings for Anxious Interiors by Kamrooz Aram 

Is Aram’s painting half finished or is it in the process of being destroyed? A palimpsest is, of course, a manuscript page from which the text has been scraped or washed off so it can be used again, a technique the Iranian artist utilises to create a feeling of instability. The Brooklyn-based artist was inspired by the graffiti in his neighborhood that the authorities constantly paint over, as well as a floral motif he has appropriated from a Persian carpet he once saw in Manhattan; a curious combination that has resulted in a dreamy but turbulent painting.

 The Breeder and Kavati

by Zoi Gaitanidou

Hanging like animal skins on the wall, Zoi Gaitanidou’s work invites a closer look. Emanating a chaotic presence, her work demands a closer inspection to determine whether it’s a painting or a tapestry. Colourful without being garish, the lush jungle scene is depicted as full of faces in the foliage, eyes peeping out at you with curiosity, calling into question whether the viewer or the art is on show. Gaitanidou’s technique is as intriguing as her work; she sketches her scenes in paint onto canvas, and then uses free-form embroidery to embellish it. Although originally a trained painter, Gaitanidou’s embroidery can be so deft, it recalls brushstroke, or so spidery it looks like an illustration, which gives her work an ambiguous and chaotic feel. Of Greek origin, Gaitanidou splits her time between Athens and Berlin, but her work is reminiscent of tribal art, derivative of neo-Expressionist painter Henri Rousseau’s later work. The naive figures and abstract patterns are both playful and ominous, complete with circular cut-outs and hidden faces, making Gaitanidou’s work feel wild and full of movement.

 Legend of the Jungle by Prilla Tania Prilla Tang is an Indonesian sculptor who up-cycles everyday material to create paper sculptures and installations that highlight her concerns about the environment and nature. Her work, Legend of the Jungle, was made specifically for Art Dubai as a critique about Indonesia’s destructive palm tree industry, which sees the jungle cut down to supply other countries with some decorative foliage. Her sculptures, which are delicate and intricate, are made out of cardboard, illustrating that something beautiful can be made from something ordinary.



Beautiful and striking, the vast piece is a painterly meditation, the blurring strokes and rub-outs exploring ornamentation and decorative art, questioning the premise that destruction is the negation of creation. Aram is gathering a lot of interest at the moment as one of the recipients of The Abraaj Group Art Prize presented at Art Dubai, a prize for artists hailing from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. He is definitely one to watch.

Ohne Titel by Waqas Khan

Khan studied printmaking in his native Pakistan, and indeed, from a distance his work looks like a print. Move closer, however, and it becomes obvious that it is much more than that. Khan follows the Bardhakhat procedure, which is used for traditional Persian Mughal miniature paintings. Using a dowel (which is normally wielded by architects for technical drafting), he applies millions of tiny dots, lines and stripes to paper in a meditative process he describes as spiritual. It’s not pre-planned, so the outcome is a ruminative exploration of Khan’s state of mind.

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

ink Splatter by Tala Madani

Madani is an Iranian artist who is subverting art’s long history of objectifying beautiful women by focusing on middle aged men in vulnerable situations. Her work often has a cartoonish quality about it, the deceptive simplicity masking mischievous and subversive suggestions. Her manner is direct, but her matter is ambiguous; her figures are doomed performers in surreal dream compositions. Ink Splatter sees a scantily clad middle aged man, overweight and balding, with his hands behind his back, slowly walking in a circle, shrinking.

Is it an essay on the futility of aging, or on dismantling the respect and authority that men in Iran hold? The ink splatters on the canvas increase and become more violent as he walks in the circle, until the ink completely obscures the man. It could be a critique on censorship; after all, the title pertains to the ink splatters, rather than the figure of the man. Madani’s subject matter is never quite clear, making her art as puzzling as it is captivating. Unsurprisingly, Madani has garnered international press for her work, impressive for the relatively young artist, and will no doubt be a household name within a few years.

Untitled (Patti) by Diana Thater



Thater is a Californian artist known for her hybrid installations, multi-video projections in which she recreates nature with technology. It’s a strange but captivating experience, seeing one of her installations, as the absence of sound and the slow motion makes Untitled (Patti) so hypnotic. At first, you are drawn to the bright colours of the flowers, and then you realise that the petals are slowly moving in the breeze. Reminiscent of still art, the camera hiding behind the flowers reminds the viewer that it’s a video rather than a photograph.

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

Aegyptus Inferior by William Kentridge

Kentridge is a South African artist who originally trained to be an actor, and his subsequent artworks retain a theatrical flair. He is a triple threat, having won awards for his sculpture, videos and paintings, a well-known name in his native land. His large scale Aegyptus Inferior is a mixed media artwork that looks too grand to be a textile. The focus of the piece is the large horse stitched atop a pastiche of a Roman map of Egypt;

horses are a common motif in his work, with particular attention paid to the musculature of the noble beast. Kentridge is playing on the word “mare,” which means sea in Latin but horse in French, a hint that the map is not as authentic as it seems. The title refers to both the Latin name for Egypt and a figure in Greek mythology who was the son of the king of Egypt. With his fake vintage map, Kentridge is creating a new mythology.

Kelly Barrie's complicated artistic technique is a hybrid of drawing and photography. Is it neither or both? 

Dance by Kelly Barrie and Sherin Guirguis

Kelly Barrie’s complicated artistic technique is a hybrid of drawing and photography. He sprinkles photo-luminescent pigment powder onto black seamless paper and documents the light-sensitive powder drawing using a camera; he then digitally collages everything back together to create a photographic print. Is his work then a drawing, or a photograph? Is it neither or both? Barrie’s work has a haunting quality to it, similar to a darkened stained glass window that somehow feels melancholic. Along with his wife, Egyptian artist Sherin Guirguis, made a series of works that add another medium to the mix. Together they recreated Islamic patterns with the photo-luminescent pigment powder and then danced them across the pattern, smudging it and creating something new; a romantic action that merged together their two cultures and approaches.

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Italian artist, Lara Favaretto's work calls into question the very nature of art.  Lay It On Thick by Lara Favaretto There is a school of thought in the art world which professes that art should last forever. Favaretto thinks differently, however, and indeed her pink confetti cube only lasts a few weeks (depending on the environment in which it is displayed). In a gallery full of serious art, Favaretto’s work stands apart as a playful and celebratory exploration of visual language. The Italian artist’s work calls into question the very nature of art; are sculptures meant to last forever?



Bullets Revisited #3 by Lalla Essaydi

"In my art, I wish to present myself through multiple lenses - as an artist, as a Moroccan, as a traditionalist, as a Liberal, as a Muslim,” explains Essaydi. “In short, I invite viewers to resist stereotypes." The Moroccan artist, who now lives in the States, is concerned with portraying women who are confined to spaces. Extremely voyeuristic, her photographs are Oriental in tone, but from a Western painting perspective and at first it’s difficult to

tell what medium her art is in, the photographs are so intricate. Essaydi’s subjects are covered in henna calligraphic writing; an Islamic tradition to which usually only men have access. Although keen to stress that her work is a critique of neither Islamic nor Western traditions, Essaydi nevertheless plays with the fascination that both cultures have with the veil and the harem. Her subjects fade into the background, ornamented but passive.

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fa s h i o n

ashion o r wa r d It’s summer time and, while the living may be easy, staying cool under the sweltering Gulf sun can be hard. You can certainly look cool, though, whether at work, rest or play, with the help of these great looks and the keys to a stunning Ferrari FF in your pocket. Outfit provided by Harvey Nichols Gloves provided by the Ferrari Store Watch provided by Hublot Eyewear provided by Ferrari Store

Photography: Ayad Damouni Styling : Meredith Damouni Models : Aldin Busnov, Pavle Krvopic, Aleksa Maricevic, Luka A nicic Creative Direction: Ghita Mejdi, Ferrari Middle East and Africa Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates With thanks to Ferrari Middle East and Africa, The Els Club, DIFC and Gaucho

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Outfit provided by Harvey Nichols Accessories provided by Harvey NicholsÂ Footwear provided by Ralph Lauren Leather Bag provided by Ralph Lauren Watch provided by Hublot

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Outfit provided by Harvey Nichols Leather Jacket provided by Harvey NicholsÂ Accessories provided by Harvey NicholsÂ Footwear provided by Ralph Lauren Bag provided by the Ferrari Store Watch provided by Hublot

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Outfits provided by PUMA at PROGOLF Eyewear provided by the Ferrari Store Watches provided by Hublot Car provided by Ferrari

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h o r izo n s

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Cali-xy:

From San Francisco to Santa Monica in Two Days Sur la Terre Arabiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s resident East Coast American wordsmith finally discovers the otherworldly appeal of California. Words: Steven Paugh Pictures: Volkswagen / Shutterstock / Steven Paugh

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alifornia is a great place to get lost, not to mention to lose yourself. I say this with a certain amount of experience, though as an American, not as much as you might think. Surprising as it may seem to some, in my 33 years of being a United States national, I’d never once before been to the great, Golden State of California.

Oh sure, I’ve lived my way across five different countries throughout North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, but for some reason or another, this Washington D.C.-born, Virginia-bred Yank had never heretofore been to what some of us Easties call the “Left Coast” ... because it sure ain’t right (ba-dum-bump). Clearly, this was a geographic blind spot that wanted illuminating. In my defense, the United States is a pretty big place, and it takes about as long to get from D.C. to Europe as it does to get out west. So my question

has always been, “Why waste the time, money and effort just to end up in the same country?” As I would soon discover, however, California is its own country; in some ways it may very well be its own planet.

San Francisco There really is no better way to see California than driving through it, and I was fortunate that my first trip there would be sponsored so graciously by the good folks at Volkswagen, who flew myself and a retinue of my fellow Middle East journos to “The Golden State” to test drive the brand new (to the Gulf), 2014 Beetle. Unfortunately, it was a car that lacked the requisite inspiration to forge a lasting impression, but what it did afford was a means of conveyance by which to visit a “Cali-xy” far, far away, and for that, I shall always be grateful to the new Bug. And so, with chariot in check, our story begins, as many have before it: in San Francisco.

San Francisco's Hotel Zetta

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A VROOM with a view

Now, being the jet-setters we are, SLT has, at great length in issues past, covered the absolutely stunning city of San Francisco, but we have not yet done so from what I hold to be one of its finest ports of call in terms of accommodation: Hotel Zetta. The term “ultra-modern” gets bandied about a lot these days, but perhaps to no better place can it be applied than this, the headquarters of our whistle-stop stay in The Golden Gate City. Immediately evoking a sense memory of the chic, uptown environs of an accomplished urban artist, Zetta’s foyer comes replete with the trappings of the stylistically non-sequitur, with its two-storey, pachinko ball game, effervescent corner watering hole and the semi-attached games parlour, which lords over the space like a jester snuck atop a king’s balcony. Zetta’s mash-up mentality doesn’t just transcend its entrance to its wellappointed rooms, which themselves benefit from atmospheric elements like massive and astonishingly-arresting mosaics rendered lovingly from discarded floppy disks, but also encapsulates what makes “The City” so endearingly unique.

Well-placed in its centralised location, Hotel Zetta rides a dividing line in a city rife with them, whereupon one side of a cable-car-swum street crackles the lustre of the high-end, while the other sits and sips at its jam jar-entrapped drinks and tuts at the roving packs of the rather more unsavory element crooning at the night from dark corners. It’s an exciting town, seasoned by the sounds of sidewalk buskers vying for vocal dominance over the gulls, and perfumed by a hazy, lazy scent of the illicit. With its curvaceous wynds and the intimidating swells of its infamous and ubiquitous concrete tsunami streets, San Francisco is both the most European and ethereal place I have ever been to in my homeland, and one that I hope to explore further next time. And there will be a next time.

Coastal Highway Waking to the celebrated canopy of fog that clutters the skies of Frisco (a contentious nickname, and one I use here with the purpose of unsettling the uptight), it was finally time to start my cross-California trek that would take me south, down the spine of the State and along one of the most popular roads in America, if not the entire world: California’s famous Route 1. It would be a difficult thing, indeed, not to fall in love with the stunning south-bound drive along what is called colloquially the coastal highway. When you’re not devouring the oceanfront scenery or lingering over the breathtaking vistas that hang over cliffs like the thin haze of mist that sits nonchalantly above sternly-crashing waves, you’re going to want a car robust enough to carve and slice against the road’s buxom curves. To its credit, the 2014 Beetle did just that, though not without un-cajoled gumption. Almost immediately giving up the unsaid race to contend pace with fartoo lead-footed motoring journalists, I decided to drive the route as it was

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The Cali coast's local flavour

intended to be driven; which is to say, leisurely. In fact, by comparison to my east-coast hometown, California overall offers a much more relaxed American journey. Whether it was in the long, unhurried roadside conversations I had with previously Mexico-traversing, now-local farmers whose interests included hosting homegrown markets and (coincidentally) fixing up classic VW Beetles, or chatting absentmindedly with other travellers and fellow diners at the Nepenthe Restaurant, one of the Big Sur region’s most well-known, nestled gems, the northern Californian lifestyle is luxuriantly ambulatory and enticing in its ease. Of course, this was almost immediately counter-balanced by our next stop, quite possibly the area’s most interesting attraction: Hearst Castle.

Hearst Castle Like an invading phalanx of adorability, our retinue of Beetles were given rare, unfettered access to Hearst Castle, an historically unfinished landmark built between 1919 and 1947 by the father of so-called “yellow journalism” and uncontested 20th Century newspaper magnate, Mr. William Randolph Hearst. Designed by architect Julia Morgan and erected on a sprawling expanse that greatly exceeds 1,000 kilometres, the 90,000 square metres of Hearst’s proposed “summer home” would elicit wonderthrough-opulence from even the most moneyed modern Khaleeji sheikh. Once frequented by stars of screen and stage like Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, James Stewart, and even more politically-prominent figures like Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, the so-named “castle” is the very definition of grand, thanks not just to its sheer size and cathedral-esque stature, but to its collection of austere architectural oddities.

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These extravagant eccentricities include, but are not limited to, the palatial stately home and guest houses, the specially-designed tennis courts, an incredible indoor “Neptune Pool” made all the more august by Italian marble statues and pure gold inlays, a collection of ancient Egyptian icons and sarcophagi, and at one time, a fully-integrated and lavish zoo!

3rd in name, 1st in shopping

Unfortunately, Hearst never realised the final dream of the castle he would call ranch, but it remains a faithfully-maintained folly, and is without question a must-see for anyone traversing California’s northwestern spread, whether it’s just a normal person like you or I, or one of its more recent famous pilgrims, like Lady Gaga, who shot her music video/art-film, G.U.Y. there. After completing our jaunt for the day with a night’s rest at the otherwise unremarkable Cliffs Resort in San Luis Obispo, the most exceptional quality of which was its staggeringly-beautiful sunset view over the seemingly endless Pacific Ocean, we carried onward to what I believe to be California’s most “Californian” city in Santa Monica.

Santa Monica If the “Eureka State” could be described in poles, San Francisco would stand as one, while the other would most definitely be Santa Monica. Put up at the appropriately-named Shore Hotel overlooking Ocean Avenue, which flows parallel to the Pacific, and stands a short few blocks away from the city’s famous pier and neighbouring attractions, there really is no better spot from which the luxurious should explore Santa Monica. Forget the oppressive cluster of Los Angeles’ Hollywood; it’s fine if you’re in the mood for hyper-reality ridiculum, but for the true glitz and glamour of California, Santa Monica has it all, from tiny, hole-in-the-wall blues bars (which I was fortunate enough to frequent), to incredibly chic fusion restaurants like the nearby Blue Plate Taco (try the lobster tacos) and, for the swarthy celebrity shopper, the vehicularly-intraversible Third Street Promenade, which itself was only a few blocks away from our hotel.

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Beneath a seemingly endless shower of sunlight, Santa Monica offers the quintessential beachfront high-life and was the ideal bookend to my brief, yet incredible California sojourn, and I confess to wondering whether I’d been born on the "right" coast. Written in the ever-twisting cursive script of an infinite road flanked on either side by either rocks that meet the sea in a captivating collision, or trees that stand impossibly tall and resolute against an otherwise open countryside, the story of California is one I am glad to have finally experienced, and look forward to revisiting again very soon.

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j e ts e t

planet

hollywood DAMAC TOWERS by Paramount Hotel & Residences is set to be a class act. Â&#x201E; Words: Laura Hamilton Pictures: DAMAC

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h, Hollywood. Even from the Middle East, we are looking at you through a long lens, comparing our lives with celebrities, lusting over “It” bags, wristwatches, holidays and romances. However rich and famous we might be within our respective fields, we can never expect to be as glamorous as the shiny photoshopped A-listers we see on the silver screen and the glossy pages of gossip magazines. Who wouldn’t want to live in Hollywood? It’s a fabulous life, as long as you are prepared to put up with the tedium of the long hours spent filming movies, running away from paparazzi and attending various PR events with your million dollar smile fixed in place. That’s the only reason we here at SLT have put off our long-anticipated venture into stardom; it just looks like too much effort. If only there were a place where you could live cinematically, but without all the fuss. There is no such place, right? Or is there? Dubai has the answer, because if there is an earthly city that can measure up to the streets of gold that pave tinsel town, it is the UAE’s glittering city. Promising to deliver the Hollywood glamour is the up-andcoming newest addition to Dubai’s glittering skyline, DAMAC TOWERS by Paramount Hotels & Resorts, an insanely ambitious four tower

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development. Right now, the first major construction phase has just been completed, a concrete raft, and work on the main floors can begin. Luxurious down to the little details, the project is going to cost $1 billion. Soaring over 250m into the air, the towers are set to become a landmark in the Burj area, a scion of the Paramount family and a sci-fi masterpiece, worthy of Tron. Three of the towers will be luxury serviced hotel apartments (one, two and three bedrooms), which SLT can only assume will be more soughtafter than a sign of commitment from George Clooney. The fourth tower will be the world’s first Paramount Hotel, which is sure to attract as many tourists as Paramount Studios. So if you buy into the Paramount life, what can you expect? The buildings themselves have the wow factor, and are joined by a multi-level plaza, which boasts epicurean adventures in the form of several restaurants including a gourmet grocer and a stylish lounge bar, a retail area that claims to live up to Los Angeles’ famous Rodeo Drive, and a Paramount merchandising store. There is also the usual outdoor swimming pool (complete with a couple of sharks painted on the tiles so you can have the Jaws experience, albeit safely), spa & fitness centre and a meeting and events area, perhaps where the Oscars can take place next year?

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So far, the amenities are par for the course, but DAMAC TOWERS does have a couple of things that might pique your interest. If you know your Fellinis from your Godards, then the private screening room will definitely get your film buff heart a-beating. No longer would you be subject to queues or popcorn crunchers in order to enjoy the silver screen, just luxury chairs to recline in and a full food and beverage service. Enjoying a flute of something fizzy is the only way to appreciate the masters of the cinema. The serviced apartments also offer an on-call private chef, for as celebrities know, it’s all well and good going to Nobu to see and be seen, but eating out is for commoners. Having your own personal private chef tailor a meal just for your specific palate is de rigeur for an aspiring A-lister, as is having your own butler. After all, you’re not expected to unpack your own luggage, are you? Other amenities for those who are disinclined to leaving their perfectly decorated dream apartment include the in-room spa services; perfect for those who need a massage to unwind after a long day or quickly need some grooming before a big night out. Of course, services like private yacht and jet charter are available to those who want to swan off to Monaco at a moment’s notice. Perhaps you can live the dream after all.

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li fe s t yle

Shop 'til you drop the istanbul shopping festival takes place from June 7 - 29. as always, sur la terre was there before the floodgates opened to give you a sneak peek into quite possibly the greatest shopping extravaganza on earth!

hen you think of the shopping capitals of Europe, do you think of Istanbul? You should! The city, which straddles both the European and Asian continents, is an eclectic mix of old and new, but it would be remiss to reduce its shopping offerings to the jewellery in the Grand Bazaar and the tourist knick nacks like the copper Turkish coffee pots. In the last couple of years, Istanbul has been building ambitious and grand malls that rivals the best that the Middle East, who are known for their penchant for air conditioned shopping, has to offer. With stunning architecture and filled with international and local Turkish brands, Istanbul is marking out its own

territory in the fashion world. To prove it, for the fourth year running, Turkey is hosting the Istanbul Shopping Festival (ISF), an extravaganza that lasts for the month of June, an event that any fashionista worth her salt shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss. Last year, ISF lured almost a million people to the capital in three short weeks, and this year, the festival should prove to be even bigger with street festivals, concerts, parties and parades complementing the great deals on brands and designer labels alike. The schedule is packed full of events; on the opening night, at Ortakoy Square, there is going to be a spectacular light and dance show, whereas the Bosphorus, the famous Â&#x201E;

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river that snakes its way through Istanbul, will be hosting a magnificent fireworks event. The opening party will be held at the newly opened Mall of Istanbul, the biggest common use project in Europe, and that’s just the beginning. On the 12th of June, both international and local jewellery brands will be participating in “Gold Day,” an event that would have Smaug howling in delight as the shops practically give away their wares. Then we move on to Osmanbey Weekend on the 14th to the 15th of June, which will be a celebration of Fathers’ Day, followed by Technology Day on the 17th, which will see great deals on the latest technology; this is the day to splurge on the latest Apple offering, or experiment with new Bang & Olufsen sound systems. By the 19th, the focus has shifted back to the ladies, who will enjoy great offers on shoes and bags (Istanbul is renowned for its leather goods) and fantastic deals on make-up and cosmetics on the 24th. The festival ends with a day celebrating jeans, which Istanbul is renowned for and most of the trendiest citizens wear every day. As the festival ends on the 28th, there will be a big party at Vialand (a new mall that also incorporates a huge theme park dedicated to a magical seagull) that will celebrate the end of this consumeristic splurge and welcome in the beginning of Ramadan. With so many options in a big city like Istanbul, it can be hard to narrow down where to go. Istanbul’s latest shopping centre, the Mall of Istanbul, will prove to be the go-to place for tourists (at SLT, we suspect it will become Dubai Mall’s rival), but there are many other Turkish malls from which to choose. Zorlu Centre boasts the hottest designer labels in the most beautiful outdoor setting; this is the perfect place to have a cup of coffee and peruse Chloe. It’s not so big that you’ll get lost in it, but it’s big enough to have everything you need. Istinye Park, on the other hand, is quite spacious and has high street and designer labels under its glass roof and Vialand is another outdoor shopping area that boasts an eclectic array of shops. As for Turkish brands, the department store of choice is Beymen, where you will find all your favourite designers under one roof. Turkish fashion, however, is not to be dismissed merely because the designers have not yet found fame outside their native country. Arzu Kaprol is an up and coming designer, who has

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shown her work at the Paris Fashion Week. With a focus on beautiful materials and craftsmanship, her apparel is subtle and feminine. House of Designers is a new showroom in the popular area of Nisantasi that hosts the designs of six Turkish designers who all work and live in the capital and produce beautiful modern clothes. As for those who want to swathe themselves in something soft, why not visit Silk & Cashmere, a Turkish brand that has combined two of the most luxurious fabrics to create a line of fabulous scarves.

how to get there Is there any other way to fly to Turkey besides Turkish Airlines? Simply recline in their soft red seat and enjoy the chef’s array of delicacies and precariously perched hat as you fly in style in Business Class. Turkish Airlines has often been noted as the airline with the best service, and it has to be said that their attention to detail and truly fabulous food put them (air) miles above the rest. The lounge in Istanbul is truly magnificent; it’s like being lost in a magical forest in which you’re plied with food and drink, entertained with golf and cinema and then led onto an airplane for a relaxing journey. www.turkishairlines.com

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art of glass

For nearly a century, one company has been maintaining the traditions of the Venetian Murano glass furnaces, while still managing to create modern, contemporary objets dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;art. Â&#x201E;

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enini, perhaps the largest and most successful of the famous Venetian Murano glass furnaces, was established in 1921 by Paolo Venini, a man who embraced Modernism trends in art and architecture with new designs in elegant shapes and colours. Venini was also widely known for their use of contemporary designers to bring new ideas to Murano. However, it was the painter Vittorio Zecchin, then artistic director, that laid the foundation on which the company still stands today: reinterpretation of traditional schemes, openness towards new artistic trends and high manufacturing skills. Unfortunately, only a few years later, the company was split asunder. The new company was founded, with Napoleone Martinuzzi at the artistic helm, a man widely considered to be one of the most important and influential people in the world of artistic glass. By 1928, Martinuzzi brought innovation into the glass world with the “pulegoso” glass, characterised by thousands of air bubbles which make it look opaque. He was able to create majestic works thanks to his passion and talent for sculpture, like the fountain for the Quadriennale in Rome. Paolo Venini died on July 22nd, 1959 in Venice. His son-in-law, Ludovico Diaz De Santillan, who had been working at his side for a number of years, became the new CEO of the company. He oversaw collaborations with many of the pre-eminent designers of their day, Tobia Scarpa (son of Carlo), Toni Zuccheri and Tapio Wirkkala. Venini still produces arguably the finest Murano art glass using a blend of traditional and modern methods. Some are classic designs which continue to stand the test of time, while others are new creations and limited collections.

In the 1970s, Laura, Ludovico’s daughter, took over management of the company, which continued its relationship with the art and design world’s elite, such as Owe Thorssen, Brigitta Karlsson and Tina Aufiero. In the decades that followed, the likes of Alessandro Mendini, one of the world’s most important architects at the time, became an alumni of the company’s growing list of contemporary virtuosos. Onward through to the end of the 1990s, names such as Gae Aulenti, Mario Bellini, Timo Sarpaneva and Fulvio Bianconi, together with some rising artists such as Elena Cutolo, Rodolfo Dordoni, Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin, all put their names to Venini’s desirable Murano glasswork designs.

As the new century dawned, Italian Luxury Industries Group bought Venini, with a view to ensuring a focus on luxury and design; maintaining the ethos of the company’s eponymous founder, Paolo Venini. In 2011, the company he founded celebrated its 90th anniversary. and still produces arguably the finest Murano art glass using a blend of traditional and modern methods. Some are classic designs which continue to stand the test of time, while others are new creations and limited collections. Now, for the first time in 93 years, carefully selected Venini pieces are available to the aficionados of fine design and sublime taste right here in the GCC. Marvel at the latest collections at the Venini Space in The Gate Mall, Doha, or by visiting www.venini.com

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M ARKETPLACE

WelcomE

to the SLT Market place.

a go-to guide

of the hot products you should be buying, available in the local market now.

MICHAEL by Michael Kors “Sophie” satchel, available at Michael Kors boutiques region-wide.

Alberto Guardiani shoes, available at the Alberto Guardiani Boutique at The Gate mall.

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Uterque belt, available at Uterque boutiques region-wide.

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“Amazona Bag Brick in Red,” available at Loewe boutiques region-wide.

New “Atelier Cologne Gold Leather Maison de Parfum Paris,” available exclusively in Qatar at Blue Salon.

“Master Compressor Extreme World Chronograph,” available at Jaeger LeCoultre boutiques region-wide.

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Swarovski eyewear collection, available now at Qatar Optics stores.

Longines â&#x20AC;&#x153;Conquest Heritageâ&#x20AC;? watch, available exclusively at all Longines dealers region-wide. Antrium Chair from the new Jacques Garcia Collection for Baker Furniture, available at Living In Interiors showrooms in Doha and Cairo.

Anya Hindmarch Make-Up, designed for the Museum of Islamic Art, available in qatar at the Museum of Islamic Art.

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Canon EOS 1200D camera, available at Salam Stores.

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Van Cleef & Arpels Cosmos between-thefinger ring, available in Qatar through Ali Bin Ali Watches & Jewellery.

De Grisogono Sole Ring, available in Doha through Alfardan Jewellery.

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T H E G AT E M A L L , W E S T B A Y - D O H A . 4 4 0 7 7 1 8 3 TEMPERLEYLONDON.COM

Karl Lagerfeld “for Him,” available at all Salam and 4U retail outlets now and regional Karl Lagerfeld boutiques from July.

“Rhubarb and Rose” hand lotion, available in Doha at the Molton Brown boutique in Lagoona mall.

Boucheron Serpent Boheme ring, available at Fifty One East, located at Al Maha Center and Lagoona Mall.

chaumet Liens Watch, available in Doha through Alfardan Jewellery.

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Graham “Silverstone Vintage 44,” available through Ali Bin Ali Watches & Jewellery.

L’Occitane Roses et Reines, available at L’Occitane boutiques region-wide.

“Jonathan Adler extended trip packing case,” available at TUMI boutiques region-wide.

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Givenchy “Gentlemen Only Intense,” available at Fifty One East at Al Maha Center, City Center Doha and Lagoona Mall.

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DETAILS Director of Publications Mohamed Jaidah m.jaidah@firefly-me.com General Manager Joe Marritt j.marritt@firefly-me.com - Editorial Regional Managing Editor James McCarthy j.mccarthy@firefly-me.com Senior Editor Steven Paugh s.paugh@firefly-me.com Deputy Editor Laura Hamilton l.hamilton@firefly-me.com Fashion & Style Sophie Jones-Cooper s.jones-cooper@firefly-me.com Contributors Lee Winter - Art & Design Art Direction Helen Louise Carter Production Coordinator Ron Baron Photography Herbert Villadelrey Von Wyli Penaranda Jorge Ferrari - Sales & Marketing Area Manager, Doha Chirine Halabi c.halabi@firefly-me.com

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n. 32

ALL THAT GLITTERS All the highlights from Art Dubai

A MARRIAGE OF STYLE SLT meets bridal designer du jour, Monique Lhuillier

DESIGN DAYS 2014

Form meets function at the UAE's festival of creativity

Cover Image by Wellington Tile, Giles Miller Studio

- Publisher Firefly Communications PO Box 11596, Doha, Qatar. Tel: +974 4434 0360 Fax: +974 4434 0359 info@firefly-me.com www.firefly-me.com

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copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of Firefly Communications, is prohibited. All content is believed to be factual at the time of going to print, and contributors’ views are their own derived opinions and not necessarily that of Firefly Communications or SLT. No responsibility or liability is accepted by the publishers or editorial staff for any loss to any individual or company, legally, financially or physically, as a result of any statement, fact, figure or expression of opinion or belief appearing in SLT. The publisher does not officially endorse any advertising or advertorial content for third party products. Photography and image credits, where not otherwise stated, are those of Getty/Gallo Images and/or Shutterstock or iStock Photo and/or Firefly communications, each of which retains their individual copyrights.

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