The Gloss

beautiful brows / how lagerfeld’s style moves fashion on / summer food and wine

maGaZine june 2011 / t4.50

h month wit y r e v e w o n Es risH Tim

THE i

summer’s Elegance the poweR of white

at Odds with the World Why Polly Devlin rates Contrarians

End of Term

Mary O’ DOnnell’ s Days at the schOOl gate are Over

terminal

madness tRavel in style

DATES

For Your Diary June 2011

ON THE COVER: White silk dress, HalSTON. White cashmere scarf, BuRBERRy. Gold sandals, GiuSEppE ZaNOTTi. Photographed by OliVia GRaHam. Styled by luiS ROdRiGuEZ. See page 38 for fashion.

THiS paGE: Leather jacket, aCNE. Jacquard dress, CaRVEN. Duffel bag, alExaNdER WaNG. Photographed by RENaTO GHiaZZa. See page 58 for This Glossy Life.

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observer 4 Gloss-ip the foibles of foreign dignataries and chefs on the move 6 Off The Record soundbites from radio-head clare duignan shopping 7 Hunting

Gathering perennially perfect 10 A Midsummer Night’s Dream allout romantic dressing 12 Wardrobe Update sunnies side up: what shapes to choose beauty 15 Sunshine and Shade great blushers 16 Beauty Buffet whet your appetite for gorgeous new products 22 The e12 facelift raising eyebrows can do more than you think for your features features 24 A Fairytale That Failed a not-so-glamorous upbringing in iran 27 Look The Business work-appropriate style 28 Life Lessons For Girls mary o’donnell’s daughter leaves school 30 The Rise of The Contrarian polly devlin belongs to the narky set 34 The Inner Circle godfrey deeny sees karl lagerfeld’s impossible standards up close fashion 38 White Sprit the power of white home 47 In Bloom get fresh, get decorating food & wine 52 A Light Supper clodagh mc kenna’s low-carb menu 53 Wine smart casual italians: mary dowey knows a few plus Restaurant katy mc guinness rates guilbaud’s 54 This Entertaining Life supper with photographer hugh chaloner plus This Glossy Lifestyle good ideas from irish designers travel 55 Man In A Suitcase tim magee explores bologna this glossy life 58 Escape and Aspire how travel should be, in an ideal world 64 A View From The Jeep connie hothouses molly She Does, She Doesn’t why cameron diaz is a man’s woman gardener chic 8

2 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

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juan algari n, Si ob han byrn e, Sarah doyle, n ei l gav i n, renaTo ghi azza, ol i v i a graham, n ei l hurley, l iSa l of Tu S, barry mc cal l, joan n e murP hy, l i am murP hy, ameli a ST ei n, Suki ST ua rT THe GLOSS welcomes letters from readers, emailed to letters@thegloss.ie.

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Mouth-watering moisture, a hint of soft shine. Sweet.

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Rich in moisture, yes. But heavy? Fat chance.

Sometimes it’s good to be chubby. See why at clinique.co.uk

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april

Time for a documentary about LucratIvE but compromIsEd appointments …

Reputations and reinventions ... and a drEssIng-down for Irish ambassadors …

T

he Oscar-winning

lift and have the pleasure of being ready and

documentary about

waiting to greet their sweaty and red-faced

the origins of the

pals whenever they make it to the top.

global financial

  

crisis – Inside Job – is

There can be little doubt that the Dublin

a must-see, not least

Docklands Development Authority

for its superb narration by MATT DAMON.

will be one of the quangos to bite the

Director CHARLES FERGUSON began his

dust under the new regime. The really

acceptance speech with a reminder that

interesting question is whether PHIL

will be as familiar to Irish citizen-victims

HOGAN, the Minister under whose aegis

as it is to those in the US – as yet not a

the authority now falls – and whose

single one of those responsible has been sent to jail. One of the most shocking (and dispiriting) of Inside Job’s revelations was in relation to the extent to which leading

pursuit of shenanigans there when in

NEXT STOP TRIBECA: Young irish director alexandra McGuinness on the set of her last film.

opposition defines the meaning of the word dogged – will initiate a full enquiry into the who, what, when and where of what happened, something his predecessor

US academics have been compromised by the handsomely remunerated roles they have accepted

Reputation Inc, who has worked with several Middle

JOHN GORMLEY was inexplicably reluctant to do. Now,

– sitting on the boards of financial institutions, writing

East regimes in need of image-re-building, might be

of course, Hogan has access to all the files that he wasn’t

just the man for the job.

allowed to see when Gormley was in charge. Plenty of

investment analysis reports – in addition to their work at

  

people, including former board members, will no doubt

and Harvard. Let’s hope that it’s only a matter of time

Talking of make-overs, after nine years in business, the

be hoping that it all goes away quietly, like a bad dream.

before some uncompromising and tenacious Irish

indomitable ANN CORCORAN of Limetree decided

the business schools of universities including Columbia

  

filmmaker takes up the challenge here and explores the

to make a point of thanking her clients – not with a

One interesting job advertised recently was for

cosy relationships that existed between government,

gift or lunch but with a recession-appropriate evening

a professional forager – that’s for nuts, berries,

financial institutions and the ostensibly impartial

with a purpose. At 9 Bond Street on March 9 (Ann is a

mushrooms, wild herbs and the like – at the BrookLodge

economists. Does anyone have a number for ALAN

great observer of signs and suchlike), guests, including

Hotel in Co Wicklow. (Makes a change from the

GILSENAN?

MARY DAVIS, who heads up Special Olympics Europe/

dispiriting bags of pre-peeled onions and potatoes

Eurasia, were treated to a fashion trends talk and show

that we saw being delivered to the kitchens of another

   In other film news, ALEXANDRA MC GUINNESS’

with cocktails and canapés. On a rain-lashed night,

hotel that really should have higher standards.)

debut feature film, Lotus Eaters, has been selected for

the turnout revealed the strength of her style of doing

BrookLodge’s Good Friday package – a private gig

the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival – founded by

business – thank and you will be thanked.

featuring REPUBLIC OF LOOSE and BIPOLAR EMPIRE

ROBERT DE NIRO – in New York later this month.

  

(tipped as the next band most likely to and managed

Shot on the proverbial shoestring in London, the black

Reinvention is the name of the game these days, with

by Dalkey resident SUZANNE DOYLE, who used to

and white movie is a contemporary tale of bright young

all sorts of interesting people making radical career

work for U2), bed, breakfast, a barbecue and that

things living life too fast and falling apart at the seams.

changes. DEE AHEARN, erstwhile Director of Sales and

all-important residents’ bar – is upping the ante for lock-

The cast includes ANTONIA CAMPBELL-HUGHES

Marketing at Treasury Holdings, has hit the ground

ins countrywide. Those who are committed to a less

and CYNTHIA FORTUNE-RAINEY, previously better

running in her new role as CEO at Barretstown. Savvy

indulgent Good Friday might consider joining in the

known for her fabulous Sumfortune shoes.

charities know that bringing in commercial smarts

Jack and Jill Run Up the Hill charity event in Kenmare.

  

from the outside world is the best way of improving

  

Interesting to hear that one of the first under-the-

their chances of survival and growth in tough times.

2011 is the Year of Craft in Ireland, and so knitwear

radar decisions by Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign

Already she has signed up RONAN O’GARA to launch

designer JOAN MILLAR has decided to promote the

Affairs, EAMON GILMORE, has been to recall Ireland’s

the charity’s Avonmore Big Picnic. Today, Ahearn is

work of Irish craftspeople, at an Art and Craft Bazaar

ambassadors and consuls from around the world

in London for a fundraising event run in conjunction

in Fitzpatrick’s Castle Hotel, Killiney. The line-up of

for a comprehensive dressing-down. The previous

with the ELLEN MAC ARTHUR Cancer Trust which,

artists, craftspeople and designers is looking too good

government was too busy trying to save its own skin

like Barretstown, is focused on therapeutic recreation.

to miss: a specially commissioned painting by BRETT

to give the question of Ireland’s image abroad the

The day starts with breakfast at the BT Tower, at which

MC ENTEGART RHA will be auctioned. The Bazaar,

attention it needed and the diplomats are said to be in

MacArthur will speak, after which 240 fit folk will climb

on Sunday April 17 from 12 noon, coincides with Cystic

for a tongue-lashing. Sounds as if they need to call in

the stairs of the 177m building to raise money for the two

Fibrosis National Awareness Week: proceeds will go to

the professionals – London-based JOHN MAHONY of

charities. Certain others have paid a premium to take the

the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland. n

4 | april 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

off the record What is your mother’s name, and are you like her?

am not going to some social event.

Mary Rose Glynn. I like to think I share her ability

Is home a place or a state of mind?

to get on with things. She is a great woman for

A place, the slightly ramshackle redbrick house

seeing life’s positives.

where we have lived for more than 25 years. Not

What’s on your desk at the moment that has no place there?

the bricks and mortar, but my husband’s toolbox

Several cold cups of skinny latte, an enormous

of our hyper kitten as I enter the kitchen, the

pile of old newspapers, a clutter of photographs of

chatter, the music, the arguments and the cooking

my kids during their more embarrassing teenage

smells. They make it home.

years.

What is your oldest piece of clothing?

What did you want to be when you grew up?

A great pair of leather cowboy boots I bought in

If I could go back again I would train as a barrister.

the seventies.

When were your halcyon days?

Probably right now.

What music would you like played at your funeral?

Is your radio always tuned to RTÉ?

I have always loved ‘The Long and Winding Road’

Almost always, though to different stations

by the Beatles.

depending on my mood. For example, I wake to

What is your favourite street?

Radio 1, and Morning Ireland plays in our kitchen,

Broadway!

but I bring Hector on 2fm into the shower to cheer

What would surprise people about your job?

me up for the day.

How passionately I still feel about making sure

Do you create order or chaos?

RTÉ Radio is the very, very best radio service in

Order – or so I like to think.

Ireland and beyond.

What’s been the most significant change in radio during your career?

What surprised you about it when you started?

The growth in domestic competition, which is

how much they love radio than ever happened

people listen to radio is also a change: now you can listen to all 11 RTÉ Radio stations with our Pocket Player iPhone app.

Do you have a refuge?

My husband and I rent a ramshackle house in the Languedoc with a group of friends for a few weeks

When I started in this job, far more people told

clare

Duignan

each summer, and fill our days with cooking, swims, walking and late-night, wine-fuelled debates.

What sight would never bore you?

The view from the end of the East Pier back towards Dun Laoghaire, and on south to Dalkey and Killiney Hill. It’s beautiful, it’s home, it’s where my children grew up and where I have walked with family and friends for what seems like for ever!

Are you ever extravagant?

Occasionally. I was brought up to be careful with money. But my ultimate treat is a blow-dry when I

Dubliner Clare Duignan studied History and Politics at UCD. She has three grown-up children and lives in Dun Laoghaire with her husband Eugene. She has worked in RTÉ since the 1970s, and has been Managing Director of RTÉ Radio for the last two years.

with television.

What achievement did you think you might not pull off?

Giving up smoking, five years ago.

What turn of events could have knocked you down with a feather?

The London Tube bombings. Our daughter was working in London working and was only five minutes off the Tube when it happened. The first we were aware of the bombing was when Jenny called us to say that she was okay.

What is always with you, no matter how small your handbag?

My iPhone. My Jo Malone Lime Basil and Mandarin cologne.

By nature, are you town or country?

City, but I would hate to be too far from the sea. antonia hart

Samantha Browne, created for THE GLoSS by Annie West

6 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

photog raph by siobhan byrne

a good thing – it keeps us on our toes. The way

that I trip over on my way in, the attempted escape

huNTiNG

end s p o tt i n g a t r a h e a d f o r f lo w e r s

groovy gardeners Gardeners aren’t always known for their dress sense, with a few notable exceptions, like Edwardian visionary Vita Sackville-West, who wore natty jodhs and laced boots to the knee, and our contemporary favourite, elegant exballerina, Rachel de Thame, who makes a utility jacket and jackboots look immeasurably cool. Dolce & Gabbana sent leggy gardeners down the catwalk, making us almost long to grapple with the bindweed of a summer evening, if that was the uniform prescribed. Never worry, if all you have is a sorry pot on the kitchen windowsill, you are not precluded from sporting khaki shorts, neat knee-high boots and an oversize hydrangea print bag.

P h otog ra Ph by jas o n lloyd - evans

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | June 2011 | 7

gathering

channel the t

2

re n d

3

1 D& g

4

9

5

JaSO n L LOYD- e VanS

8

7

protect and soften

from the Pivoine

cultivated

collection, which

Main picture: Gardening heaven, at D&G. 1. Green wellies, Hunter, d120, at

hands with l’Occitane’s luscious hand cream,

Flora fragrance

contains peony extract and is rich in shea butter. t9.95.

perennially perfect

fitzpatricks shoes. 2. cream Victorian wire pagoda, d379, at Marks & spencer. 3. Sakura cherry Blossom scent, Jo Malone, d68, at Brown thoMas

4. Gingham pinny top, £14.99stg, at internaçionale. 5. Stone linen shorts, White Stuff, d39.99, at 53 Degrees north. 6. Hydrangea fabric in cotton, d35 a metre, at laura ashley. 7. Gardening gloves, d12, at cath kiDston.

8. Diamond Strength instant nail hardener, Sally Hansen, d9.95, at selected pharmacies. 9. red louisiane steel bench, the conran Shop, d619, at arnotts.

For stockists, www.thegloss.ie.

8 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

6

shopping

Zebra ring, d4.95, at h&m.

Pearlised acrylic clutch bag, Jimmy Choo, d395, at Brown Thomas.

Ivory lace detail dress, Concious, d39.95, at h&m.

er d e m

JASON LLOYD -EVANS

Bianca floral print silk dress, erdem, d3,849; www. mytheresa.com.

Green silk jersey maxi dress, d780; www.suzannah.Com.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Pearl and diamante necklace, tom Binns, to order, at

Harvey Nichols.

Show your feminine side in romantic floor-sweeping chiffons or go bold with a short hemline, but soften up with delicate draping. One step up from cocktail and one notch down from red carpet dressing, flowing silhouettes in delicate shades give off an airy yet elegant vibe.

Green Kelis suede sandals, GuCCi, d595, at Brown Thomas.

Pink Gina silk-satin dress, Katharine hamnett, d255; www. net-a-porter.com.

Frog Decor diamond and peridot brooch, from a selection, at Cartier.

10 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Gold-plate Lucky Chyc clover earrings, ysL, d512; www.net-a-porter.com.

For stockists, www.thegloss.ie.

WEAR IT AND BLOOM A ROSE IS NOT JUST A ROSE. OUR NEW R ING

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fashion wardrobe

my little pretties

By AiSLiNN COFFey

fen d i

FAShiON

Dilemma

i want to update my sunnies but don’t want to make an expensive mistake …

From top: cat-eye frames, dVf, d115, anotts. coloured frames, marc by marc Jacobs, d144; www. littlewoodsireland.com. square frames, Victoria beckham, d417; www.net-a-porter.com. raquel frames, Tom ford, d260, harvey nichols. round frames, prada, d244, brown Thomas.

Retro-shaped acetates (ie non-metal), square frames, aviator styles, cat eyes, embellished arms … statement-making, brightly coloured shades were all over the S/S11 catwalks. Cat-eye frames were de rigueur at Christian Dior (the colourful Les Marquises collection) and Tom Ford (try the Astrid or Nikita), a nod to 1950s nostalgia with their subtle wingtipped frames. Aviators and metal-framed sunglasses (including round ones), with their whiff of rock and roll, were seen at Gucci, Victoria Beckham and DVF. The most wearable of all styles are oversize, slightly wraparound frames; functional fashion at its best since they are stylish while protecting the whole area around the eyes. Our favourites? The Row’s (by the Olsen twins) new collection for Linda Farrow.

The biggest eyewear trend? Colour, especially jewelhued at Marni, Dries Van Noten, Stella McCartney and Missoni. For most of us, a shopping experience entails standing in front of an enormous array of designer frames in a department store with a friend, sniggering at each other while acting like front-row-at-Fashion-Week invitees.

Or you can visit a specialist, your local optician, who can analyse your face shape within seconds. There are no steadfast rules to finding a pair that suits.

“Sunglasses are quite a substantial investment,” says optician Amelia Stein, “so it’s worth taking time out to find the right pair. We can tell what shape will suit your face. The rest is personal preference. Most importantly, they should fit like a glove which means you’re unlikely to lose them. And, always, always, ensure you pick a style which covers your eyebrows - they should never peep out over the top.” stein Opticians, 4 Camden market, Grantham street, Dublin 8, 01 475 1275.

Q&a

Bex Manners of Bex rox Jewellery

Ph otograPh by Marco Walker

WHAT kInD Of WOMAn DO YOu DeSIgn fOr? “A woman

who isn’t afraid of her own style,” says Bex Manners, designer and creator of hip jewellery label Bex rox, newly arrived at Seagreen, Dublin. “Style is … feeling 100 per cent confident when you walk out the door in the morning; you’ll just exude it.

Don’t take age into account when accessorising,” she adds, “an 85-year-old woman recently bought one of my fluoro cuff bracelets – she said it made her feel nostalgic and 30 years younger!” WHere DID YOu DrAW YOur InSpIrATIOn frOM fOr THe SuMMer cOLLecTIOn? “It was inspired by my upbringing in the Balearic islands which was full of colour and fun. It was about being carefree. I love the 1950s rock chick look – cropped trousers, sleeveless shirts and bold jewellery.

My designs are free-spirited, they are bold, colourful and, hopefully, timeless.

The jewellery industry is exciting right now as young designers are focusing on using different (new) textures, colours and materials”. Bex Rox is at Seagreen, 11-13 Monkstown Cresent, Monkstown, Co Dublin, 01 202 0130.

12 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

We really, really want Dorothee schumacher’s shoes.

Check out the DeleCtable butter-soft leather sporty numbers we spotted baCkstaGe at her berlin show. From €319, schumacher shoes are exclusively at khan, blackrock, 01 278 1646; www.khan.ie.

let your hair down When you can’t afford a new outfit, look to accessories for an instant uplift. the latest trend among the fashion flock involves bows and bobbins; revive your old-school favourite hairdos (without having to relive your bad hair days) by donning a pretty (but cool) leather alice band, or try coloured bobbles to dress up a glossy ponytail. leather alice bands and bobbins, from a selection at loewe at www. loewe.com; for similar try cherry chau at harvey Nichols. note to self: freshly blow-dried hair is essential ...

“ This Month

I’ll wear ...”

annabel Tollman has many sTrings To her bow; ex-fashion ediTor (Wallpaper and IntervIeW magazines), brand consulTanT (Theory, moschino, chloe, alberTa ferreTTi and now rockporT) and sTylisT (To scarleTT Johansson, The olsen Twins and america ferrara). she shares her sTyle Tips

I

’ve been on a shopping binge recently – the trends for this summer (white eyelet embroidery, the colour nude, pyjama dressing) are the sort of things that I always wear so I’ve loved everything. I’ve bought a nude Alaïa belt, Marc Jacobs’ high-waisted trousers, a L’Wren Scott cream pencil skirt and a Derek Lam linen jumpsuit. Of course I love vintage finds the most – they’re so much easier to wear in the summer; lots of layered silk slips, belted, with sandals. I like to get dressed from the feet up. Weather and agenda play the biggest role in my choices. I think style is dancing to your own tune and modern style is dancing to the mash-up of your tune. You have to embrace your strengths and your faults and make the best of what you have. There’s absolutely no point getting all worked up, hating your thighs/bottom/tummy/arms; nobody looks good in everything. I’m not a massive fan of trends – they’re the antithesis of personal style. However, beauty trends can be great for inspiring a new look. I always find good things at Topshop and when I’m travelling, I always buy something local. My style advice?

Try everything in your wardrobe on at the start of a new season – wearing things in different ways is only going to happen if you’ve tried it out in advance. And, don’t worry about what other people think. Annabel Tollman is the style ambassador for Rockport shoes. Rockport, 33 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2. Watch out for Tollman’s collaboration with the brand next year; www.rockport.com.

W A T C H E S

WWW.THOMASSABO.COM

CONTACT: +44 (0) 20 77 20 97 25 UK@THOMASSABO.COM

Beauty Strap

Here Comes Summer ...

With the first rays of sunshine comes a fresh wave of summery bronzers ...

Clockwise from above right: Guerlain Terra Indigo 4-Shade Eyeshadow, d51.

MAC Surf, Baby! Cheek Powder in My Paradise, d25.

Chanel 4 Facettes Bronzing Powder in Bronze Rosé, d49.

Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess Sea Star Bronzing Blush, d36.

Clarins Summer Bronzing Compact SPF10, d31.

Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess Island Oasis limited edition palette, d39.

P h OTOG RA P h By n eil h urley

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | June 2011 | 15

beauty

..

elf . s r u o y e Gorg

y t u bea

t e f f bu IwE H HaLL

by Sara

LL

At the key launches I’ve been to this month, make-up supremos from MAC’s Terry Barber to François Nars have stressed the vital importance of flawless skin. Since most of us don’t wake up with it, we were all ears on how

The ySL summer collection (now available nationwide) is zinging with colour: our pick is the nail varnish in utopian Turquoise (d24), a modern look for summer. and from June 23 you can get your hands on the VolupTÉ shEEr Candy collection, a fruity, glossy cross between a lipstick and a balm to create a “bitten lip” effect, in six candy shades (d30). while you’re at the counter, check out ySL’s radianCE CompaCT powdEr (d40, six shades), which adds glamour to your handbag and radiance to your skin. TouChE ÉClaT needs no introduction – it’s the ultimate concealer that’s an essential for so many of us. Good news then that two new shades to suit darker skintones are now at brown Thomas stores, and nationwide from July 14, d35.

“when temperatures rise, experiment with bright hues and lighter textures. I love the way bold colours pop against bronzed skin,” says françois Nars. from modest beginnings – a range of twelve lipsticks in barneys – NarS has become america’s fastest-growing make-up brand. at the summer collection launch, it was easy to see why. The standout item is the limited edition cap Ferrat palette (below left, d42), featuring sea shades from turquoise to silvery green; and we’re also sold on Queen, a glittery gold pencil for eyes. as for that bronzed skin, you need to get in store quick to nab laguna BoDy illuminator (d41), which smells amazing and gives skin a natural golden sheen; the laguna BluSh/Bronzer trio (left, d55) includes cult Orgasm blush as well as Laguna Bronzing Powder. Both in store until July only, and they're flying off the

to create it. With the high-performing primers around now, perhaps the perfect canvas is more attainable than we thought. “If make-up is like a wardrobe, these are the basics, the undergarments, which you’d never go without,” says NARS lead trainer, Jason Hoffman. NARS SKin Smoothing Face prep (d29) is a make-up artists’

If you have dry skin, you’ll be constantly on the lookout for ways to hydrate it – particularly if your skin is easily irritated.vichy aqualia thermal maSK, new this month, is rich in minerals and thermal water plus hyaluronic acid for plumping and really hydrating the skin – and it’s soothing even for sensitive skin. d13.

favourite: a silicon-based mattifying lotion that fills in lines and pores, and stops make-up from smudging or

Dish of the Day

shifting. Meanwhile, Terry Barber was raving about MAC’s StuDio Sculpt FounDation SPF15 (d35.50) – the backstage choice at numerous shows this season. I swear

by Clinique city BlocK Sheer SPF25 (d20.50) – it sits lightly on the skin without dulling it. To top it all off, new bareMinerals pretty amazing lipcolour has the long-lasting coverage of lipstick but the shine of a gloss (d15, at Debenhams). And we’re trying out L’Oréal laSh architect (d16.49) for longer, lustrous lashes – first indications suggest it will be a winner ...

SHapE ShifterS Anti-cellulite creAms And lotions clAim to bAnish lumpy, bumpy skin. cAn they reAlly mAke A difference?

1. Uspa Organic Contour Scrub literally a case of wake up and smell the coffee: this is like smearing a frappuccino over your skin, as it’s packed with ground coffee beans. i like the exfoliating and smoothing action, but think it’s on the pricey side. SH For stockists, call 01 832 1412, d39.40.

2. Nuxe Body-Contouring Serum A rich cream which is easily absorbed and has a lovely cocoa scent. After two weeks of daily application on thighs and tummy, i was amazed to see a visible difference in my skin. highly recommended. LM d27.50.

3. Sisley Phyto-Svelt sisley is the goto brand for results-driven skin and body care. having tried (and liked) the previous incarnation of this product, i was glad to see this one absorbs even quicker, smoothing a dimply tum. An investment, but it works. PT d140 at brown thomas.

16 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

This neat little self-tan 3 Step DiScovery Kit is by He-Shi, an Irish brand that's become a bestseller at Harvey Nichols, and is creating a real buzz among the beauty press. This kit includes a tanning mitt, plus travel-size exfoliating body wash and two self-tanning options. Our tester found the Express Liquid Tan quick and easy to use (with the mitt), creating an instant natural colour which develops a shade darker. The Day to Day Gradual Tan has a “lovely perfumed scent and a moisturising quality – a pleasure to apply.” Stores and salons nationwide, d21.25. www.euro-products.co.uk.

I have a weakness for jasmine scents, and Guerlain JaSminora is a heady floral that transports us from the office to a sun-warmed terrace on a Greek island at dusk. pretty gold-latticed bottle, too. Nationwide from June 5, d49.

Here’s the perfect little designer touch for your make-up bag: the chanel preciSion eyelaSh curler, d30. It seems ridiculous that an eyelash curler should be covetable, but somehow this one is. Once lashes are beautifully curled, zig-zag on chanel’s newest mascara, Sublime (d29), which goes on smoothly and doesn’t clog.

first created in 1969, Ô de Lancome may be hitting middle age, but there’s certainly no sign of a midlife crisis: it’s as fresh and summery as ever. The light mix of citrus and bergamot now comes in a sleek new bottle by design guru fabien baron. New this month are two classy variations on the original: Ô d’Azur, a floral with a heart of damask rose, peony and pink pepper, and – our favourite – Ô De l’orangerie, zesty with orange blossom and softened by jasmine and woody accents. d35 each.

June fOcuS Uriage: Sophisticated French skincare We’ll be honest – at the first mention of uriage, we were a little put off by the unsexy name. in fact, this french pharmacy brand is named for the village in the french alps where the family-run company, hotel and spa is based. turns out it’s an impressively comprehensive range that specialises in sensitive, intolerant and problem skin: and with prices from d8.50-d32, it’s an accessible way of tapping into some dermatological know-how. those in the know have been loading up their suitcases with it on trips to france – but now uriage is available in ireland. if you have any skin condition at all there is a full range to treat it, from acne to dermatitis; ask the pharmacist for advice. key is the thermal water, the “richest in the world”: as well as its high concentration of minerals, the water has isotonic properties, which means it locks in water

without stretching the skin. use Eau ThErmalE d’uriagE (d11.85) spray as a toner, after shaving or to calm redness or inflammation – it soothes skin without dehydrating it. later in the year uriage will introduce products to use before and after treatments such as laser, dermabrasion and botox. for summer, try KÉraTosanE 30, d14, known in france as “the flip-flop cream” for its ability to zap dry skin on heels. the suncreams (from d15) are suitable for even the most sensitive skins, and dEpidErm is an anti- brown spots cream with spf50 to prevent further pigmentation. in pharmacies nationwide; www.uniphar.ie.

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PARABEN-FREE SUITABLE FOR SENSITIVE SKIN

VICHY. HEAL TH I S B E A U TI F UL

Professionals test

Beauty

“ This Month I’ll Use ...” marcelle kelly, translator,

on ageing gracefully

“I love three perfumes: Red Roses

by Jo Malone, Le Jasmin by Annick P HOTOGRA P H BY JOA n n E M URP HY

Goutal and Sisley’s Eau Du Soir for the evening – it is the feistiest perfume I know. I have always worn them. Over the past 30 years I have got into skincare recommended to me by Rosemary Evans at Renaissance in Howth (01 832

Sun-protection is key. “Up to 80 per cent of the negative signs of skin ageing can be accounted for by photodamage – ie skin damage purely related to sun exposure,” explains dermatologist Dr Katherine Mulrooney of Sandymount Clinic. “Irish skin is particularly susceptible, as we are pale-skinned. It's vital to apply suncream evenly and generously, allow time for it to soak into the skin, and re-apply it every four hours. If you wear foundation, reapplication of sunscreen becomes a conundrum. The simplest way to get around this is to reapply a mineral-based powder every four hours.” We asked Dr Mulrooney to road-test the best new formulations on the market – here's the top ten (in no particular order): 1. URIAGE MInERAL CREAM SPF50+/UVA d18.50 “I really liked this as it contains no chemical filters, which minimises the risk of skin irritation in people who have reactive skin or history of eczema or rosacea, and it provides both UVA and UVB coverage. The slight tint offsets uneven skintone. Only downside – it’s slightly thick, but this is the pay-off for mineral-based sunscreen. I'd recommend this to patients with sensitive skin and would use it myself.”

1412): I stick to Yon-Ka and an American range called Image Skincare: it is very refreshing and really life-giving to your skin. I use their Ageless range. I also like Yon-Ka’s wonderful facial oils – sometimes I mix the oil with concealer. Since I stopped dyeing my hair, it seems to be very healthy. I use Aveda Blue Malva Shampoo, which keeps it a nice white. And Jake Malone (087 235 0902) cuts my hair – I really think she’s the best cutter in Ireland; she always knows what suits you. My lipstick is virtually always a matte by MAC. I think red is bad at my age, so I go for a deep pink, which I sometimes make darker with a pencil. And occasionally I’ll wear a bit of blush, by Bobbi Brown. For base, I use light products like Shu Uemura and Chanel Lift Lumière. I’ve always kept out of the sun. I was born in Mauritius and my mother was terrified of the sun, so we always avoided it. I’m also trying a Lancôme mascara for shorter lashes. Looking after

ty Bill

marcelle’s Beau

less The Max Crème

Image Skincare Age

t99.50

eing Serum t59 care Total Anti-Ag

Image Skin

.50

Yon-Ka Serum t43

Chanel Lift Lumière

cream such as Crabtree & Evelyn in rose or lavender, plus an oil on my nails at night. I love nail varnish and always wear red: I wear dark

t46

colours and I also like accessories, and red .36

Shampoo t33 Aveda Blue Malva Jo Malone

hands is important at my age, so I use a rich

works well with a dark palette.”

e t42 Red Roses Cologn t83.50

Sisley Eau Du Soir

am Lavender Hand Cre

Crabtree & Evelyn

t7.50

h t26

Bobbi Brown blus

MAC lipstick t17.50

Total: t493.50

Clockwise from left: MAC lipstick; Yon-Ka Serum; Sisley's Eau Du Soir.

how to do: Blushers After a few pale seasons, the spring/summer catwalks saw blusher bounce

back, setting off polished clean skin at Ralph Lauren (left), Armani and Christopher Kane. Peachy tones are flattering for most complexions, creating that sensuous flush famously perfected by NARS with their

r alp h l auren

Orgasm Blush. Their New Order Blush (d29) is an excellent multi-tasker – press onto on lips and eyes as well as cheeks for the perfect summer shimmer. We are also smitten by the pretty case and peachy tones of L’Occitane Facecolour Cream Duo in Arabesque Abricot – a matte blush plus a pearly, light-reflecting shade (d19.50, Dublin, Cork and Limerick stores only). And BeneFit, creators of best-selling BeneTint, have come up with a new peachy shade, ChachaTint lip and cheek stain (d33.50, from June 25). Also blending in nicely with this season’s coral lipsticks is YSL’s newest Crème de Blush in Audacious Orange (d42). Finally, get your

colour rising with Armani Blushing Fabric

(d35, at Brown Thomas), a neat little tube of colour that can be dabbed on lips too.

Bourjois Blush d9.99

18 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

2. URIAGE TInTED CREAM SPF50/UVA+ d19.50 “An oil-free, lightweight and hydrating cream. Has a lovely light texture that absorbs quickly, and the tint provides adequate coverage. It’s enriched with antioxidants which help combat free radicals generated as a result of sun exposure, and also thermal spring water, which has a soothing effect on the skin. A convenient sunscreen and foundation in one, which you can reapply throughout the day.”

3. HISSYFIT SAVInG FACE SPF50+ d37 “I would use this product myself as it’s an anti-ageing foundation and SPF 50+ in one handy tube. The nicest texture and tone that I’ve used, and it gives good coverage too. An ideal product for natural Irish skin tones (no orange tinge!). Plus it’s enriched with antioxidants that help combat the negative effects of free radicals and environmental stressors.”

4. LA ROCHE-POSAY AnTHELIOS XL MELT-In CREAM SPF50 d17.50 “An excellent sunscreen for sun-intolerant skins that are dry and sensitive (it’s fragrance- and paraben-free), with excellent UVA/B protection. Its rich formulation delivers continued hydration for up to four hours.”

5. OLAY REGEnERIST SPF30 d39.99 “A convenient two-in-one SPF and anti-ageing moisturiser for those who don’t want the hassle of two separate layers. Has an easily-absorbed, lightweight texture. However it is a largely chemical-based sunscreen, combining anti-ageing and other ingredients in a perfumed vehicle, which limits who can successfully use this product.

Suitable for unreactive, tougher skins but not sensitive ones.”

6. nUXE ECRAn PRODIGIEUX HIGH-PROTECTIOn SCREEn SPF30 d17.50 “An ultra-lightweight formulation that absorbs instantly and is ideal as a make-up base, and provides good protection against sun and cellular damage. The only problem is re-application for those who wear foundation; a subsequent layer of mineral make-up would solve this.”

7. VICHY CAPITAL SOLEIL SUn PROTECTIOn OIL SPF 40 d17.50 “This product is quite unique: until now, oil formulas offered low levels of sun protection and were not suitable for sensitive skin. This oil-based broad-spectrum sunscreen was formulated with sensitive skin in mind. It has a beautiful light texture, and is paraben-free. It’s perfumed; but the fragrance is hypoallergenic and well-tested.”

8. ROC SOLEIL PROTEXIOn+ HIGH TOLERAnCE FACE CREAM d9.94 “RoC’s High Tolerance range is paraben- and perfume-free so it's suitable for sensitive skins. Blocks both UVA and UVB rays, is appealingly non-greasy and absorbs quickly into the skin.”

9. SUPERGOOP SUnSTICK SPF 30 d14.95 “A good broad-spectrum sunscreen to protect smaller areas of the face or body. Ideal on-the-go SPF. Combines physical and chemical sunscreens along with moisturising avocado oil and vitamin E.” 10. CLARInS UV PLUS DAY SCREEn SPF40 d36 “This is a 100 per cent mineral-based sunscreen which allows the most sensitive-skinned to use it, and fortified with antioxidants and free radical scavengers, further enhancing protection. Neat, portable and well-priced for a facial sunscreen.”

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The €12 Facelift Eyebrow-shaping is one grooming trick that has a huge impact – and it doesn't cost the earth, says Sarah halliwEll

T

here aren’t many facelifts you can buy for

there's no instant fix. And remember, brows don’t

d12. But with a little tending, eyebrows

have to be identical to each other – they should be

not only frame your face – they can also

sisters, not twins."

give it a lift. As Tom Ford declared at

“I’m a huge fan of pencils and powders for

the launch of his forthcoming beauty

when you need to fill in certain areas,” agrees

collection, "Eyebrows are so important – they can make a

Aisling Powell. “Use a shade lighter than your

world of difference."

hair colour to create the impression of fullness.

Strong brows make a statement. Think Elizabeth Taylor

If you have blonde or very light hair, use MAC

in her heyday – her striking beauty set off by those strong,

powder in Omega (d15); Concrete is the darkest

dark arches. And the same goes for beauty icons ever

shade I use. Make sure you get the right shade for your

since, from Audrey Hepburn to Keira Knightley. Strong

skin tone. The thing with brows is to make them look

brows were a key feature of spring/summer catwalks,

like they’re yours.”

from Christopher Kane to Hermès, Versace to Ralph Lauren. At Stella McCartney, strong dark arches stood

Overgrown arches

out against natural skin and a nude lip, while Prada’s look

Some of us have the opposite problem, and struggle

was dominated by straight, masculine brows. “Brows can

to control thick brows: so what’s the best method of

change your face completely,” says make-up artist Aisling

keeping them in check? Waxing is a no-no. If you think

Powell, who’s known as “the brow girl” by her queue of

even for a second about how sensitive the eye area is,

regulars at MAC at Brown Thomas Dublin. “They were

it seems crazy to put hot wax anywhere near it. “We

getting very thin there for a while, but now we’ve gone

are very anti-wax,” says Ryan. “Some people think

back to a fuller brow. And generally, the higher the arch,

it’s a quick fix, but it’s really not good for the delicate

the more you look like your face is ‘lifted’.”

skin around the eye. It causes sagging and bagging. Plus,

In the past, it’s been just us armed with a pair of tweezers.

repeatedly waxed brows don’t always grow back.”

But, unless you really know what you’re doing, it’s easy to

Threading, on the other hand, “is a very precise method,

make a mess of your brows. And the high street is full of

good for a clean finish, defined shape and longevity,” says

places to do them for you. The Body Shop recently opened

Ryan. Cotton thread is ‘lassoed’ around each hair and

eyebrow-threading bars in all its Dublin stores, and beauty

then twisted very quickly to pull the hair. “Threading is

halls from Arnotts to Harvey Nichols offer brow bars.

a very natural way to pluck hair. It’s an age-old technique

“Everyone wants big brows at the moment – and good

that originated in the Middle East, but is also popular in

arches,” confirms Siobhan Boyle at the BeneFit brow bar

India, where you start from a very young age,” explains

in House of Fraser.

Shraik. “It’s very fast and clean, and it lasts longer than

Browbeaten

plucking, because it lifts hair directly from the follicle, whereas waxing only pulls it from the root. Also threading

Eyebrows get thinner and patchier as we get older, adding

gets any kind of hair (unlike waxing), even all that downy

years – especially if you’ve been heavy-handed with the

hair above your eye that can show up under eye make-up.”

tweezers. “For thin brows, I would shave the very thin bits

But does it hurt? The skin around the eye is very thin

and then new hair will grow. Tinting also helps, in a shade

and extremely sensitive: ripping out hairs from the follicle

to suit your hair colour,” says Bushra Shraik, who has two

is not an enticing prospect. It can be painful if not done

eponymous salons in Dublin and is the expert behind The

by an expert, agrees Shraik. Submitting to her lightning-

Body Shop’s threading bars. She advises putting almond oil

quick cotton thread, I felt no more than a sweeping

on your brows to encourage growth, and taking cod liver

movement around the eye area. It’s an alarming

oil. “We see a lot of over-plucking,” says Aisling Powell.

sensation – as if you’re losing your entire eyebrow – but

“There’s this amazing product in Boots – RapidLash

it leaves an incredibly clean shape. How often do you

(d49.99). It's designed for lashes, but stimulates growth

need to thread? “When you start, you should get them

in brows, too. If you don’t have that budget, work Vaseline

done every two to three weeks; after that it will last for

into the area every night – honestly, it really works.” Libby

a month.”

Ryan of Dublin’s Elysian Brows recommends Anastasia

So can we all achieve Ingrid Bergman-esque sweeping

New Brow Serum (d45) to stimulate the hair follicle and

arches? “It’s a cop-out if someone tells you that you

speed up downy hair growth. “If overplucked, use powder

can’t get the perfect brow,” says Aisling Powell firmly.

to fill them out a bit but keep them natural-looking,” says

“It might take a little longer if you don’t have the natural

Ryan. “It can take a long time to get the shape you want –

shape – say two months – but it can be done. It’s an art.”

22 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

PraDa

v E r sacE

Bright Eyes Keep the focus on eyes with these dazzling new shadows and pencils.

1. Armani EyEs to Kill intEnsE (above) in 12 shades, d26; we love Silver Fire. Exclusively at Brown Thomas.

2. Estée Lauder DoublE WEar stay-in-PlacE shaDoW crèmE, d22, new this month, for intense colour that stays the distance.

3. Estée Lauder's new DoublE WEar stayin-PlacE GEl EyElinEr comes in five shades, including limited edition Stay Bronze and Stay Violet, d22 each.

4. MAC biG bouncE shaDoWs for eyes (limited edition) look like they’ve been mined from some magical quarry, with shades from rich copper to dirty silver: we love Black Diamond, d19.

5. Chanel WatErProof EyE PEncil in Rose Platine, d21, for a subtle sweep of silvery rose.

et h the high stre h brows on blin, from d20. own Thomas, Du

l at MAC, Br use of Fraser, aisling Powel h beneFit at Ho rtistsdublin.com n, pa eu ak ajm w. au be ty salo ww 4 h bushra’s 9 1465, from d1 rock ck Bla in o als Dundrum, 01 29 01 874 8018; ry Street, Dublin, res, www.

56 Mary Mall, Ma n Body Shop sto bli Du all at is g din rea Th Dawson h Bushra’s ian brows, 21 from d12 h elys , om g.c din d20 h rea m bushrasth sianbrows.ie, fro 8 8260, www.ely 67 01 2, n mable bli ee Du red Street, 1146, from d20, ow bar, 01 617 br er 0 ud 48 1 la 02 e rk, esté own Thomas Co e. nails inc., Br as n, 01 rch bli pu Du t, st ain ree ag tts, 12 Henry St h neelu at Arno , ols ch Ni y rve 5555, from d20 Ha h shavata at 207), from d18 805 0400 (ext 0.

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A Fairytale ThAT FAiled Writer Ashley Dartnell was born in Iran to glamorous parents seeking romance and fortune away from their countries of birth. Living in Tehran in the 1960s, when their business interests collapsed, was not easy, and Dartnell's journey into adulthood, in the sway of her volatile mother, and in the grip of real poverty, was more difficult than most. Farangi Girl is her compelling memoir of a unique childhood and a fairytale gone wrong

“

T

he past,” L P Hartley wrote, “is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” His haunting

a heat-soaked summer in Esfahan, to the ultimate treat

novel, The Go-Between – whose opening sentence this is – is set in England before the First

when my brothers and I would career down the river on

World War, the drama unfolding through the eyes of a visiting schoolboy who doesn’t fit in.

an inner tube from one of my father’s trucks, while women

My own childhood in Iran – in the years preceding the revolution of 1979 which saw the Shah

pounded their clothes on the bank oblivious to the antics of

ousted by the Ayatollah Khomeini – though much closer in time, was in many ways even more

crazy farangi, or foreign, children.

distant and strange, and my story too is about dislocation.

My family was culturally adrift. We were not part of the

Iranian world that my father worked in, nor the ex-pat, Embassy-centric world that my mother aspired to. As for me, I was bookish, solitary – hardly surprising given that for several years school was a luxury we couldn’t afford so I had no regular playfellows beyond my two younger brothers. (Not that playing was encouraged; while there were jobs to be done around the house, as there always were, our mother saw no reason for us to enjoy ourselves.)

People ask me, “But how can you remember all this about your childhood? I can’t remember a thing … ” Maybe when you’ve had a happy childhood it all merges into

I was born in Tehran – my

But traumatic experiences act as a spotlight, illuminating everything around them, and we had no shortage of traumatic experiences.

a blur and you remember nothing in particular. But traumatic experiences act as a

parents having moved back there immediately after their wedding in New York, as my father was working there, and until I was seven we led a predictable ex-pat life. In the early sixties the Shah had initiated the White (ie bloodless) Revolution in an attempt to drag the country

spotlight, illuminating everything around them, and we had no shortage of traumatic experiences. Though I haven’t been

into the 20th century. As a consequence, Iran – at least

back to Iran in over 30 years, everything about our life there – from the honks and cries of Tehran’s teeming streets, with

for farangi – was booming. My dashing father was a

blue-garlanded donkeys competing for space with diesel trucks, to the kettledrum rumble of dynamite, and spit-roasted

Cambridge graduate – a grammar-school boy from

sweetcorn basted in salt water from the Caspian Sea – is as fresh to me now as if it was last week. The merest bump in

South Wales – employed by an American construction

the road takes me back to the terrifying journeys we would make in my father’s old Rover, rattling at breakneck speed

company as a civil engineer, building roads and canals

along the mountain road that led to his construction camp. Whenever I see an abandoned tyre, my mind goes back to

and bridges. We lived in expensive company-owned

24 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Cheryl

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E

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“NOTHING HOLDS ME LIKE IT.”

G

RA EL E B T I N

S OF S T

first person housing with the lifestyle that went with it: cocktail parties

looks mattered to her, excessively and obsessively. Even in

end, I willingly took my place on the corporate treadmill.

and swimming pools, and dancing with lesser members of

old age she didn’t let up. If we sent her a photograph she

But 25 years is a long time to be doing something that

the royal family – everything my mother had ever desired.

would inspect it under a magnifying glass, searching for

you hate. Eventually, in that clichéd way, the death of my

She was American, born and raised on the wrong side of

imperfections. She was hard on all of us, and God forbid if

parents forced me to take stock and face my own mortality.

the tracks in blue-collar Connecticut in an atmosphere of

we failed to meet her expectations.

I was 45 and a grown-up, I told myself, and it was time I

casual cruelty. It was a hard-scrabble existence, and when

In spite of all this, I was never in any doubt that she

did something with my life. Also my children were 13,

barely out of her teens she escaped, travelling to India in

loved us. Given the circumstances, she could easily have

twelve and six and had begun to ask questions, and I had

search of romance and fortune, based on nothing more

abandoned us, or had us fostered. She didn’t. On the

always promised myself that they would not be misled by

than a remembered photograph in a National Geographic

contrary, she fought for us tooth and nail. But it was an

obfuscation and calculated deceit as we had been. They

magazine which she had glimpsed when she was

would never find out that their religion was not

twelve. In fact she ended up in Pakistan and,

their religion, their family not their family, their

by the time she met my father, Joan – as she had

father not their mother’s first, second, or even third

been known at home – had transformed herself

choice. They would never have to ask themselves,

into “Genie”, an impetuous, vibrant young woman

Who am I? And so I sat down at my computer and

with movie star looks who could charm the birds

began my odyssey into that foreign country that was

off the trees.

my past.

Her story lies at heart of my book, not least

I had been “such a good girl” so successfully

because we – her three children – had no option

for all of my adult life, that when I started writing I

but to follow where she chose to go, while her

imagined it would be an adventuresome, glamorous,

jealously-guarded secrets hung over us like a sword

witty story. The reality is rather different, and, as

of Damocles. When I was still quite small divorce

Graham Greene put it, “a lot of bitterness leaked from

was a word that floated untethered between my

my pen”. I also imagined that, once having written

mother and her friends, and which I picked at as if

the book, I would come to understand my parents

it were a hangnail or scab.

better. Having spent so much time away from my

Emboldened by the chance of making real

father during our five years in Florida, there were

money in the US-financed boom, my father left the

many more letters than would normally be the case

safety of his company job and set up in business with two Iranian entrepreneurs. The scale of that first project – blasting out a tunnel near the Caspian Sea – was terrifying, and it wasn’t long before things went badly wrong. Never again would there be servants or drivers or party frocks, and there were times – when my father was in prison or on the run, living in the back of that old Rover – when we survived on handouts from former friends of my mother’s who would drop off groceries outside our door.

As for the fun that she craved like a drug, it was replaced by fear: of smashed windows and worse, as creditors

The truth is that I find my parents just as incomprehensible now as I did when I began. I still don’t comprehend the choices they made.

attempted to take what they were owed.

between husband and wife, and my mother, being a total hoarder, had kept everything. As a result, over the five years since I began writing, I have read thousands of words that they wrote to each other and looked at thousands of photographs, but the truth is that I find my parents just as incomprehensible now as I did when I began. But while I don’t have a better understanding, I probably do have a higher level of sympathy and empathy, though I still don’t comprehend the choices they made.

Maybe the reason I find my mother in particular so hard to fathom is because she was an impetuous and passionate person who followed her heart, the polar opposite of her

Five pregnancies in four years had left her physically

animalistic she-wolf kind of love, a don’t-touch-my-

bookish, contemplative daughter. She didn’t step back. She

and emotionally exhausted, not least because two of her

children-or-I’ll-kill-you kind of mothering. Although

would just plough right in, and sometimes she would enter

babies had died at birth, something she never got over.

extremely hard on us, it was a direct consequence of her

into something that she couldn’t control. Her recklessness

When, courtesy of a rich Iranian friend, my mother went

own childhood, when a life of chores and beatings was all

still gives me goosebumps.

away for an extended stay in Europe – probably to avert a

that she had known.

As for my father, how could someone with his kind of

total breakdown – my brother Cameron and I were packed

Many children grow up with untold secrets, but when

background and qualifications abandon his family for five

off with our father. Flopping off our platform beds every

you grow up with no community, no culture, your sense

years? How could he allow his wife to go through intolerable

morning to pee in the dust, my hair unbrushed for weeks,

of identity is fragile. We were literally rootless, we had no

hardships, living on the margin, while his children collected

we spoke Farsi to the workers and took our weekly bath in

school that we went to for any length of time, no friendships

empty bottles simply to get enough to eat?

the local hammam, the mud and clay of the construction

that endured, so we built our identity on the few certainties

I am sometimes asked if writing Farangi Girl has proved

site sluiced away by ladles of spring-cool water. It was the

we did have. On the fact that our mother was our mother,

cathartic. Once you write something, it’s like taking a

first time I had ever seen a woman naked.

and our father was our father, and our grandparents –

photograph, I think. As soon as you’ve taken the photograph,

My mother was breathtakingly, achingly beautiful and

regardless of how horrendous they were to us kids – were

that image supersedes all the dynamic memories, and that’s

like many such women in the 1950s, she believed that her

our grandparents. But who was I? What was I? In the end

what has happened with this book. And it seems that in the

currency lay in her looks and her charm, and as she was

the only thing I could be sure of was my name. Much to

relentless repetition, the re-writing, the various versions I

bringing these assets to the table, she expected to be repaid.

my in-laws’ chagrin I kept it when I married, and even my

went through before arriving at the definitive one, the living

The fact that she never was made her bitter and aggrieved,

children are double-barrelled. God forbid that my precious

memories have coalesced to words on a page. And now I’ve

yet she continued to turn on the charm, ever hopeful that

name should be lost.

been able to read the words and say, “OK I can leave it now.

this time she’d land someone who’d value her. “Why,” I

Even as a child, it had always been my ambition to

It’s over.” From that perspective – in fact, from almost any

would ask myself, “are you so nice to everybody else and so

become a writer so why did it take me so long to pick up

perspective – I feel happy that I did it. Happy that I’ve been

awful to us?” Yet I accept now that she was only looking for

my pen? The obvious answer is that I couldn’t have written

able to deal with these things and hopefully move on and

love and security.

this book while either of my parents were alive. But also I

lay them to rest. n In conversation with Penelope Dening.

As for her men, all except the first were tall and very

determined that my own children would never go through

Farangi Girl, by Ashley Dartnell, is published June 9 by Hodder

handsome, a small recompense you might think. But

that we had endured. They would have security and, to this

& Stoughton, £16.99stg.

26 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

IRISH buSIneSSwomen

Working Life

LOOK THE

BUSINESS

For imeLda HurLey, Group Finance Director at Greencore Group plc, the economic environment means driving a low-cost culture is key ...

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“The best stress buster of all is a long run ...”

fiLe aWay ... what is on your desk?

My laptop, BlackBerry, iPhone, files and my first (and only!) half marathon medal, reminding me that i can always go the distance.

your favourite gadget?

slingbox. it allows me watch my own tv over the internet anywhere in the world. i can literally turn my laptop into my home tv. fantastic for the business traveller.

working wardroBe?

first impressions last. it is really important to create a working wardrobe which looks professional and is comfortable to wear: i opt for formal suits with some distinctive jewellery or a colourful scarf.

favourite designers / laBel / shoPs?

i like a wide range of labels including Paule ka, Quin & donnelly, John rocha, dkny, hobbs and linea and i love Brown thomas, house of fraser, arnotts, kilkenny, fran & Jane, Zara and Cocobelle. two years ago i did a course on colour and style with stylefish; not only was the course great fun but i really learned the art of dressing for my shape and knowing what colours suit me.

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i consider these investments. i buy contemporary jewellery for work and some useful ‘bling’ for a day to evening look. i have also invested in a selection of briefcases and travel bags.

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while travelling on Business?

for a long haul flight, i wear smart casuals for the plane and do a quick change into a suit on arrival, usually a dress and jacket. if i am heading to a greencore plant i wear a trouser suit as i will probably have to wear wellingtons (plus a hairnet and factory coat) for a factory tour!

Describe your role? in a nutshell, to make sure what needs to happen, happens within the finance function at greencore.

Career path? i did a Business studies degree at the university of limerick before starting at the Clonakilty food Company where i got a real ‘taste’ for business; then worked for glen dimplex, Bank of ireland and arthur andersen, where i trained as a Chartered accountant while working on audit and consulting engagements. i joined greencore group plc in 2001, initially to sell off a number of non-core businesses, then became involved in the day-to-day running of the group. i have held a variety of roles at greencore – group financial Controller, finance director of Convenience foods (the largest division within the group), head of investor relations and currently group finance director. i am also a board member of Bord gáis Éireann. Typical day? the breadth of my role means no two days are the same. i usually have meetings and conference calls which typically involve business unit management, the finance team, shareholders, analysts and advisers. i have learned the value of management by walking around and spend time every day connecting with colleagues on an informal basis. How do you deal with stress? the best ‘stress buster’ of all is a long run. if i am not in the humour for exercise, i enjoy cooking, it takes my mind off everything. Downtime? trying out new restaurants and long walks in the countryside, particularly in west Cork where i grew up. i am on a ‘buy irish’ mission so am checking out some of the truly outstanding hotels / spas which ireland has to offer, Monart is my current favourite ... Has the economic climate affected how you do business in a positive way? over ten years with greencore, we have implemented a ‘total lowest cost’ model so the group is well positioned to deal with the challenges of the current economic climate. we always have costcutting initiatives on the go with some of the best ideas coming directly from the factory floor. Business thought for the day? Buy irish, it will make a difference. Role models? the most inspiring person i know is ronan tynan (founding member of the irish tenors). at 20, ronan had both his lower legs amputated. not many years later, he was a trainee Physical education teacher in my secondary school. try jogging after a guy who is running on two prosthetic limbs and you will definitely know what inspirational means ... his book, “Halfway Home” is a reminder of what one individual can achieve.

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T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | June 2011 | 27

end of term

Life Lessons for GirLs the

Leaving

Certificate

exams. I am happy about this, and yet not quite. We have come to an ending, or at least a juncture where decisions have to be made

yet again. She, who in First Year was a gangly twelveyear-old, bursting with pride in a burgundy uniform with matching socks and the requisite Dubes footwear, has emerged as a woman. Back then, she was into Girl Power and Harry Potter, had some grannyish television tastes, a love of drama, and (back then) a hatred of the hairbrush.

As her daughter prepares to leave secondary school this month after six years of learning the hard way the lessons of early life, Mary O’DOnnell feels both relief and anxiety for her. Is she ready, and is she equipped for the next phase?

surviving it; another girl dying suddenly from an aneurism; some parents also died, others split up; either way, many daughters experienced so many difficult and what we call ‘adult’ decisions and challenges that I often pitied them for the weight they had to shoulder.

Early on, girls learn about justice and truth. They discover it at the age of 13 or 14 especially, when parents grudgingly release their darlings – their innocent, unsullied angels – like live bait to the monthly disco in the GAA hall, or wherever the local crocodile pond is. At the discos, all is not fair in love and war, drunk or sober. Our daughter came home from her first two such outings with slight physical injuries – a suspected broken nose after (she told

At school concerts, at the mega-energising

us) she closed her eyes when the strobes came on and

X-Factor-style annual fund-raiser, or the slick fashion

a smaller boy banged into her face. (Yeah. Right).

shows; or Music Night at which Irish, Lithuanian,

The next time it was a chipped elbow-joint (Hmmm

Russian, Polish and Nigerian girls performed, or the

. . .). It was a kaleidoscopic yet uneasy time as we

Transition Year finale, the girls displayed their projects

observed some of the thinly-clad and definitely-not-

and put on a show for parents. I remembered not only

sober little pale girls emerging from the hall (which

my daughter but other people’s daughters during

was supervised), like waifs wandering out into the

their very first term. How quivering and tearful some

dark. There was supposed to be no alcohol, but when

of them were in those first weeks, how frantic to fit in,

it had already been consumed in advance in people’s

how aware of the older, more confident girls, and of

homes, what difference did the no-alcohol ban make?

the inevitable clusters of potentially Mean Girls and

Not all children – because that’s what they were – were

precocious Queen Bees that prowled the corridors.

collected, and some tottered along the poorly-lit road

The community girls’ school she attended aimed

back into the village on their fragile stilettos.

to turn out competent, educated young women at the

Yet throughout all the fumbling, rumbling,

end of six years. It was the most ordinary and yet most

girlie, sometimes angry, sometimes fearful phases,

extraordinary of educations – ordinary in its clear-

throughout the negotiating to be let stay out for one

cut, solid ideals of the encouragement of potential

more hour at night, you would have to be blind not

and achievement, but extraordinary too in its lessons

to notice how gradually, something solidifies in

that came not exclusively from classroom instruction,

these girls, how by Sixth Year those with an idealistic

but equally from life on the corridors, from outings,

thread in their souls have not had this stamped out

from the annual school walk, from so many extra-

by the experience of school. If anything, idealism

curricular events made possible by the willingness

blossoms in the school environment, and this is what

of teachers. And teachers delivered in sometimes

I appreciate most of all. Along with that, they are now

less orthodox ways too, occasionally leaking personal

knowledgeable human beings who have benefited

preferences and interests in the course of a lesson.

from a system which seems generally superior to that

Religious education often struck me as in reality a

of a generation or so ago. They are informed, they

philosophy class, which pleased me mightily, because

have facts at their disposal, and now move through the

the girls were taught to discuss, analyse and reassess

lampless darkness of our economically disembowelled

– in other words they absorbed the idea of a dialectic

Like corals on a reef, they soak up every particle of their

society, on the brink of gaining experience to go with

and discovered that few issues are black and white.

surrounding environment, good and bad, sieving it through

facts, which – if they are lucky – will deepen to something

Feminism has always been to the fore in this school,

their consciousness, and are so well-versed and mentally

substantial and enhancing as they move through life. It’s an

if by feminism one means the presence on the staff of

astringent in their views of inequality that it shames adults

exciting time, but slightly unsettling too. My girl is leaving.

positive role models, plus the encouragement of a sense

who complacently believe they have the inside track on

Yes – so soon! – she is leaving us, as the other girls are

of fair play and equality regardless of gender, race, colour

how things today actually are.

departing their parents, as we all knew they would from the

or economic bracket. It was not perceived as a shrivelled

In six years my daughter has, along with her group,

day they were born. That was our contract, the knowledge

legacy from another era, but something directly linked

been made aware of the critical themes that shape daily

that we had the pleasure and privilege of them for 18 years,

to human rights and to the girls’ rights on this planet.

experience – things like a girl in her year having cancer and

and that our next job is to let them go. n

28 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

ph otograph by getty

M

y daughter is beginning

“After a few hours, I could not believe the difference around my eyes.”

“The cream feels so smooth on your skin when you apply it.

I could actually see the lines around my eyes were not as deep as they normally are and my skin just felt so smooth.”

Lorraine Griffin, Dublin.

The featured customers received a gratuity from J&J for their time in making this advertorial. Their testimonials relate to their experience after one day of testing RoC Sublime Energy Eye. *From RoC. **Consumer in Use study, 146 women, 81% saw visible improvements in the appearance of wrinkles around the eyes.

polly devlin

The Rise of the

ContRaRian If you have always dismissed the negative people you know as narky naysayers, perhaps you should be elevating their status to revered contrarian, says Polly DevlIn, who has noticed a fresh wave of them emerge …

M

y sister Claire was

minds, going against the normal grain of thought and

crossing

O’Connell

behaviour from what you would expect and taking a

Bridge when she saw

position opposed to that of the majority. Contrarians

walking ahead of her

can be pests or prophets, thick-witted or radically

a smartly dressed woman,

her

clever, maddening gadflies in our public and private George Orwell: told us what we didn’t want to hear.

skirt

tucked neatly into

the cleavage of her bum. Claire was all of a dither.

Prince Charles: royal curmudgeon.

Should she tell the lady of her inadvertent knickers

lives. Some seek out arguments and disputation for the sake of it, others because they believe in their truth. It’s a personality trait that is impossible to hide. Actually contrarians don’t even try to hide it.

exposure or not? She thought: well I’d be glad

The best of them are what might be called

if someone told me that I was walking about

Delinquent Intellectuals, among whom must be

looking like a pillock; (on second thoughts

counted the great George Orwell. He argued that the

though, knowing our Claire, she’d put it

prime responsibility lay in being able to

more delicately). Anyways she alerted the

tell people what they did not wish to hear.

unfortunate as to what was going on in the

And he added that even if we all agree to an

nether regions. The woman turned on her,

essential proposition we must listen to the

nostrils flaring. “And what is it to you?” she

one who does not, “lest people forget how

asked crossly. Ever since, “what is it to you?”

to justify their original argument”.

has become a byword for any contrariness evinced in our family’s collective hearing.

Galileo: refuted the Church’s thinking.

Your woman on O’Connell Street was a born

Coco Chanel: feisty, disagreeable, dogged.

contrarian and I don’t envy her home life since I’m

In science the term contrarian applies to those who reject a general scientific consensus on some particular issue, as well as those who pursue research strategies

a bit of a contrarian myself and we’re difficult

rejected by most other researchers in the

sods. Contrarians are not a new phenomenon,

field – and though some make amazing

this breed who can inspire, impress, confound

cognitive leaps, others can do real harm.

and infuriate all at the same time: the bible

Think of that Dr Wakefield who put all our

and history is littered with people sticking

children at risk by insisting that the MMR

their head above the parapet, shouting no

vaccine was linked to autism. His research

and having those same heads chopped off

turned many parents away from immunising

to put manners on them, and when we were

their children, which some experts now link

in the playground chanting “Mary Mary

to recent outbreaks of illnesses that were well under

Quite Contrary How Does Your Garden

control, besides harming those children who got sick

Grow”, we had nary a thought that it might

after not receiving a vaccine. But then think too of

commemorate poor Mary Queen of Scots who (come to think of it) had her head chopped

John Baldessari: challenged the traditional view of art.

off too. Nowadays, though there seem to be more and more people joining the herd of independent

30 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Galileo, brave revolutionary intellectual, who defied dogma and ignorance and said No, this is not the way astronomy works. He was forced to recant his stellar

Amy Winehouse: Belligerence in a beehive.

findings and to agree with the Vatican that the earth

Enjoy CORK DRY GIN Sensibly. Visit

PROMOTION

Picking your way through the minefield of manners:

This month ... garden party

G

arden party. The very phrase suggests festivity and sunshine china, fork-supper-style. Hands-free boozy bisous are fine when you round and straw cloches trimmed with grosgrain ribbon. All manner the corner of the marquee into someone you know, but saints preserve us of civilised touches bring a garden party to life but even the should you be introduced to someone. You don’t need me to tell you not to most careful of hosts, thoughtful in the placement of deckchairs, lick your fingers and pop your knife and fork into your pocket just to be able generous with the fizz in your flute, cannot control to shake hands – smile, apologise, and be charming cloudbursts or – what is even more irritating – wind. about it (without wittering on).

The wedge heel, as dear The considerate guest will not complain, whatever But you know all this by now, which is why I must KaTe Cambridge Knows, the weather, uttering only compliments on the party turn my attention from guest to host, whose day is far is The and garden itself. Perhaps remark on the prodigious more ulcer-inducing. Not only is it impossible to be of ChoiCe for Those who flowering of the azaleas, or the obviously adorable at one and the same time beaming wide welcomes wish To nature of the sweet free-ranging urban chickens whose on the front doorstep and filching one more pistachio The leg wiThouT impaling nitrogen-rich leavings will sponge off your shoe easily macaroon from the cold buffet, but there is always earThworms enough, you are sure. (And on that very topic: those so much sorting out to be done – someone whose spiky heels do aerate your host’s grass, but it’s not a deckchair has given way, or whose chiffon dress has service you’re expected to perform. The wedge heel, as dear Kate Cambridge been made into ribbons by the rosebush. Or the guest who is so keen to knows, is the lawn shoe of choice for those who wish to elongate the leg demonstrate her girlishness that she gets stuck up the climbing tree. At this without impaling earthworms.) point, you bow to Nature. Fling her up a few chicken legs (making sure they Managing to eat at a garden party does pose the petitest of problèmes. originate from the bain-marie and not the Eglu), tell her if she squints she Unless there are tables and chairs provided (and, hosts, do note, can see Wales, and pour yourself a Cork Dry Gin and Tonic. there are never enough) you’ll be juggling glass, silver and Ultimately, the mark of a truly great host is relaxation.

lawn shoe

IllustratIon by lynn nalty

elongaTe

polly devlin moved around the sun but muttered: “It still moves”.

I’d certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way,

Karl Marx’s favourite epigram was said to be

wouldn’t I?”

“everything must be doubted”, a maxim to which I

My least favourite contrarian is Prince Charles,

subscribe to myself.

famously petulant and mindful of his dignity who is

The worst of them are numpties like Donald Trump

a dab hand at saying no. One of the worst buildings

who, in the face of irrefutable evidence, insists that

in London is the Sainsbury Wing in the National

Barack Obama was not born in the US, or the climate

Gallery. Temporary exhibitions are held in a bunker-

change deniers who, basking in the fiery heat of June,

like basement reached by steep stairs that Mussolini

insist it’s ordinary weather, or the creationists who

might have had built – the result of his saying no

gibber so much that they seem hardly evolved at all

to the original plans. And few are in doubt that it

from the simians they so wildly object to as ancestors.

was he who was behind the extraordinary snub to

There are some heroic contrarians who, when life in

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the Labour ex-prime

general runs counter to morality, take their opposition

ministers, in not inviting them to That Wedding

to such extremes that they become saint-like – think

in April. “This is a private wedding and not a state

of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the beloved pastor who was

occasion so there is no protocol reason to invite

executed for trying to assassinate Hitler, or Saint Maximilian Kolbe who defied the Nazis and took the place of a prisoner who was about to be executed. These are heroes of the human race – their No has perhaps helped to make us better people.

Some

contrarians

of

course

are

malcontents and misfits who just want to annoy for the sake of it but there is a whole boisterous contrarian style of journalism, valuable

and

sometimes

shocking,

epitomised by Christopher Hitchens. He takes nothing for granted and you can rely on him for an idiosyncratic, sometimes

former prime ministers” was the excuse, but

The worst of them are numpties like Donald Trump who, in the face of irrefutable evidence, insists that Barack Obama was not born in the US, or the climate change deniers who, basking in the fiery heaT Of JUne, insist it’s ordinary weather.

maddening and admirable take on sacred

still they found cause to invite Tory ex-prime ministers and sundry horrible public figures (including the North Korean ambassador).

Incidentally, Tony Blair once said, “The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes.”

My favourite and real life – larger-than-life – contrarians include Sir George Sitwell, the father of that famous trio Osbert, Sacheverell and Edith, all of them mad as a box of snakes, who had a plaque in the hall of his house: “I must ask anyone entering the house never to contradict me or differ from me in any way, as it interferes with the functioning of my gastric juices and prevents my sleeping at night.” I

cows and given opinions. As he says himself: “The grave

made to be broken and the counter-intuitive thinker whose

will provide plenty of time for silence.” He is perhaps most

intelligence gives them a different perspective on life.

Others I love are Amy Winehouse (“They tried to make

famous for his book God is Not Great and for what are called

“The more creative a person is, the more contrarian they

me go to rehab, I said, ‘No, no, no’”) and Coco Chanel. She

his attacks on Mother Teresa; ( “a fanatic, a fundamentalist,

are likely to be,” says Sternberg. “There are also, though,

could charm the birds off the trees but her friends remember

and a fraud”) when what he revealed about her and her

contrarians who aren’t creative, they’re just disagreeable.

her as proud, angry, sarcastic, mean and exasperating; and

beliefs and behaviour, in his usual intemperate terms, was

And there are those who get their self-esteem from being

most of all, the renowned artist John Baldessari who for 40

eye opening; and a lot of people don’t like to have their eyes

contrary.” We all know at least one of those.

years has been saying no to boring art and given concepts.

wouldn’t mind having it on my front door.

Catch 22 has in John Yossarian one of the most

Have a look at him on YouTube sitting in a chair (in 1972!)

wonderful fictional contrarians in literature – “Yossarian’s

singing Sol Le Witts 35 seminal “Sentences on Conceptual

Although contrarians may behave in similar ways,

heart sank. Something was terribly wrong if everything

Art” and rejoice that such contrarians live among us.

American psychologist Robert Sternberg points out that

was all right” – and there’s one memorable passage when a

And remember too that it’s a valuable tool to know how

not all contrarians are the same: “There’s a spectrum of

major is trying to get Yossarian to come to heel and to see

to take a stand, to know when to say no. Elizabeth Bishop

behaviour, ranging from the person who’s irritated by

his sense and to stop being so contrary and asks earnestly:

got it right. “I was made at right angles to the world/and I

consensus and bureaucracy, to the type who thinks rules are

“What if everyone felt that way?” Yossarian replies: “Then

see it so. I can only see it so.” n

prised open. His book, Letters to a Young Contrarian, is a juicy, fascinating and provoking read.

32 | March 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

fashion diary

the inner circle Imagine spending time with the most influential man in fashion ...

Godfrey deeny, the Irish former editor of Vogue Hommes International, Paris chief for Women’s Wear daily and now, european editor of fashionwiredaily, has visitedKarl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s creative director, in five of his homes, and dined with him everywhere, from his 17th-century mansion outside Paris to a circus tent on the Côte d’Azur. Struggling to keep up with the impossible schedule (and standards) of fashion’s force of nature, deeny keeps a diary for The Gloss ...

34 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

The chosen few: Karl Largerfeld and Blake Lively host a dinner in Paris

T

here are few things better for the ego than feeling that you are right on the inside, especially when it’s something fabulous in fashion, which is exactly how I, and I’m sure most every other guest, felt sitting down to dinner with Karl Lagerfeld and Blake Lively at an intimate dinner in Chanel’s Paris headquarters on March 6.

Karl gets the city’s hippest chef, the two-star Michelin man Jean François Piège to cater the three-course dinner in a room decorated with hundreds of pink roses.

Florence Welch, of Florence And The Machine, performs a four-song set, as guests sip champagne. “She sings beautifully don’t you think? Especially when accompanied by the classical harp. Rather charming, no?” smiled Karl. I count three other Vogue editors-in-chief, from Italy, Germany, France no less, and a plethora of über models, like Magdalena Frackowiak, the impossibly pretty Polish catwalker, who Karl casts in all his Chanel mini movies and shows, hipster French stars like Lou Doillon and Vanessa Paradis, and several of the chaps whom Karl refers to as “my sons,” like dashing dandy and runway king Baptiste Giabiconi. Giving a brief speech, Lively, the new face of Chanel’s Mademoiselle handbag line, seems a little nervous. Then again, she is being introduced to the leading ladies of fashion media, not the easiest of audiences, so no wonder she grasps her own arms like a teenager. The whole soirée is very chic, but it would be, of course, as everything Karl touches seems so precise and new and cool.

With every new collection, he appears to break the mould and just when we thought we had seen everything, he sets the bar higher and higher, and moves fashion on, in terms of drama and excitement and energy, in a way that no other designer does.

fashion diary October 2010, the summer collection:

spring/

Chanel has all its iconic model ambassadors in the audience – Claudia Schiffer, Keira Knightley, Vanessa Paradis and current favourite, Elisa Sednaoui – but most of the attention is on the setting – the surface of the double football field-size Grand Palais has been remade as a giant garden, modelled on the 17th-century gardens of Versailles, designed by the legendary André Le Nôtre. It is literally breathtakingly beautiful – the box hedges, wrought iron detailing, parterres and gravel walks replaced by Styrofoam lawns and stones, the green grass replaced by signature black and white.

The show opens with lean grey jeans over tunic tops, finished with curlicue embellishments and jagged shards of tulle at the neck. The collection is raggedy and deliberately unfinished. Kohl-eyed models march through the enormous space. White picnic frocks finished in jade with designs by Le Nôtre, classic black Chanel suits with contrasting white embroidery and ever so slightly tattered pink smock dresses all look supremely chic.

Only Lagerfeld could celebrate the anniversary of a feud.

Twenty years ago, he famously fell out with Inès de la Fressange – the Chanel muse of the 1980 – and this show is a very public runway rapprochement. De La Fressange walks down the catwalk in a black tulle hooped gown before returning along the gravel path arm in arm with the designer.

December 2010, Byzance show:

the

Paris-

Paris-Byzance is the last major runway show of 2010, Chanel’s Métiers d’Art Collection, Chanel’s annual focus on the craftsmanship of the specialist ateliers they use.

Empress Theodora is Karl Lagerfeld’s inspiration for this sumptuous collection, staged in an Ottoman boudoir– meets-decayed-chapel setting in Chanel’s headquarters, before an audience that includes Marianne Faithfull, Harry Potter star Clémence Poésy and Diane Kruger.

“Theodora was a circus girl who rose to be an empress and later a saint. Coco Chanel was not a very good showgirl, but rose to be a great fashion empress, so there are some similarities!” says Lagerfeld, during fittings in his studio the evening before the show. The impetus for the collection is the opening of a new 4,000-square-foot Chanel flagship boutique in Istanbul, the city once known as Byzantium.

But instead of visiting Turkey for inspiration, Lagerfeld took off to Ravenna in Italy where he spent a Saturday afternoon photographing the gold-hued mosaics of the church of San Vitale, “the best examples of Byzantine art in the world”.

Then he injected a sense of regal splendour into beautifullycut and utterly modern tunics finished with strands of gold and amber and the burnished red chains of Byzantine iconography. “Inspiration is not a copy but a starting point, taking us somewhere new,” says Lagerfeld. A series of tweed jackets are interwoven with gold, satin, velvet, chiffon, lace and tulle. Buttons are like gemstones.

Guests sit on banquettes scattered with custom-made pillows that mimic the marble mosaic church floors in Ravenna. Before them are tiny tea tables, but everyone sips champagne from gold flutes. Following the Versailles extravaganza in October, the staging is deliberately intimate.

January 2011, the atelier visit:

The smartest introduction to any Chanel collection – though the most difficult to obtain – is a personal tour by

the designer himself of the latest haute couture collection.

Which is why, on a dark, damp mid-January Sunday evening in Paris, I find myself in that most sacred of temples for true fashion lovers, the fourth floor studio in Chanel’s rue Cambon headquarters. An audience with Karl is not easy to come by, as a schedule on his desk indicates. From 4pm to 8pm on Sunday and Monday January 23 and 24, only ten people are granted appointments. It’s a privileged group – US Vogue’s Anna Wintour, Franca Sozzani, editor of Italian Vogue, Hilary Alexander of London’s Daily Telegraph, Virginie Mouzat of Le Figaro – and me.

I watch closely as the couturier puts the finishing touches to the final four looks

Backstage at the Haute Couture show

“Inspiration is not a copy but a starting point, taking us somewhere new,” says Lagerfeld.

of the collection he will present just two days later. “It’s postmodern romanticism,” smiles Karl, as a half-dozen staff scurry around the studio, putting into action his every command, each of them politely issued. “Romanticism, and in very pale colors because there have been far too many bright, flashy things these last few seasons. It was time to create expensive things, but much more faded, and in softer materials. I was not seeing enough pink with green. This collection has those shades.” A model turns in front of him, wearing a white chiffon sleeveless top and long skirt, over a bodice hand-sewn with Swarovski crystals. Throughout the fitting, this mannequin de cabine smiles nervously. One assistant sticks pins into the dress, another ties a black silk ribbon around her neck and a third – with a huge pair of scissors – suddenly snips six inches off the ribbon.“The people who buy couture don’t really need bling bling.

Today top people shouldn’t even look rich. I like the idea that the expensive doesn’t show that it is expensive. That’s right for today.”

Taking his seat underneath an oil portrait of Coco by Marie Laurencin, he says the collection was inspired by Laurencin, an early 20th-century French artist, famed for her Cubist ideas and this subtle painting of Mademoiselle Chanel. Hung on the wall are two other Laurencins, both from Karl’s own private collection, one a sketch of two young ladies in floaty summer skirts. The couture collection plays on light throughout, using crystals, pearls and beads to create clothes that shimmer and dazzle, when the collection is presented on Tuesday morning. “It’s not really meant to express any particular era, but to capture light and

emphasise lightness in a new way. It’s intemporel,” he says, using the French word for timeless.

January 2011, the Haute Couture show:

The show – staged in Chanel’s Pavillon Cambon-Capucines, opposite its historic headquarters – opens quietly with a series of models in sequined leggings and jeans – tie-dyed, faded, in rose or pink, finished at the ankle with cluster of semiprecious stones – all worn with flat ballet slippers tied with black silk ribbons, the same strips used as chokers. Over the jeans, there are sleek tunics and mid-length coats. Each stands out brightly before the dark setting – a series of Coromandel screens, the Chinese lacquered panelling which Coco used to decorate her own Paris apartment. Halfway through the show, a remarkable group of outfits emerge, made completely of embroidery – gauzy fitted jackets woven with crystals, tulle pencil pants made from micro-pearls, and redingotes, or riding jackets, that reflect the light. For the finale, models pose on a staircase with tall mirrors behind them, a reproduction of the same stairway at the top of which Mademoiselle Chanel used to discreetly watch her own runway shows.

“Karl didn’t so much sketch out this collection, as design it in light,” says his muse, Lady Amanda Harlech. The chic audience includes Anna Mouglalis and Vanessa Paradis; actresses Elodie Bouchez, Amira Casar, Lou Doillon, Kirsten Dunst, Ana Girardot and Diane Kruger; as well as Alexa Chung, Inès de la Fressange, Poppy Delevigne, Caroline Sieber and Jerry Hall. Never mind Gaspard Ulliel and Pedro Almodovar.

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | June 2011 | 35

fashion DiaRY “Embroidering a design on to a sleeve or lapel is tricky, but making a whole jacket out of embroidery is incredibly difficult. I drove the atelier mad. Embroidery done pearl by pearl, that is luxury! For they have to repeat and repeat the same pattern, I don’t know how they do it,” says Lagerfeld.

“The skirts are all done in a very special way, made like a cloud. No? But like a layered cloud. While on top, we have a superimposition of different colors, but just on top. It’s the time to make it light, light like a feather. That was the idea.”

Every single model wears ballet flats, some pearly white, others with jet black toes, some tied around the ankle with transparent straps. “I was sick of all those Eiffel Towers, sick of all those violent colours,” mutters Lagerfeld after the show.

outburst, captured on video and watch by millions worldwide.

Karl, who had welcomed Galliano to Paris a decade ago, when the UK rebel had first joined Givenchy, and later Christian Dior, is horrified by his remarks.

“The image has gone around the world.

It’s a horrible image for fashion, because they think that every designer and everything in fashion is like this. We are in a business world where, especially today, with the internet, one has to be more careful than ever, especially if you are a publicly known person. You can’t go in the street and be drunk, there are things you cannot do!”

February 2011, Milan fashion May week: We chat backstage after a Fendi show. The designer brings 2012: me up to speed with all his latest projects outside fashion, like starring on the latest milk-white Coca Cola bottles, his famous profile instantly recognisable.

“First I did Coca Cola only in France, now it’s all over Europe!” he laughs, urging me to attend his next live presentation for the drinks brand. (That turns out to be an absurd moment at George, the rooftop restaurant of the Pompidou Centre, when a phalanx of handsome dandies appear as Karl doppelgangers – with powdered white hair, austere black frock coats, white dress shirts and mini black ties.) Besides doing a new collection of sportswear for Hogan, Karl also shoots campaigns for Chanel and Fendi and Dior Homme. “If I can do one more, why not!”

Karl always shoots the look books of any collection he creates. Most fashion look books are thrown away after the season ends; never those of Chanel. They are too beautiful and valuable and unique. Lagerfeld is a paper aficionado, who frequently rubs a magazine and sniffs it before actually scanning though it. He generously contributes sketches to Sepp, a football/fashion magazine I edit every two years, sending us seven full-page illustrations of the likes of Lionel Messi and Didier Drogba and himself as a virtual goalscorer.

When I asked him what he thought of the South Africa World Cup issue, he responded by asking for 20 copies, before adding, “I really liked your choice of paper this time.”

March 2011, the winter collection:

autumn/

Six months later, in March 2011, the mood at the Grand Palais is entirely different. In a season of runways drenched in colour, Karl stages a coaldust-black collection for Chanel, shown amid huge lumps of coal, crushed slack and intermittent bursts of steam. A palette of crimson, teal and turquoise may be dominating Milan and Paris, but not at Chanel, where four-fifths of the collection comes in a narrow colour range stretching from soot to battleship grey.

“It’s not black, it’s the new grey, with a new anthracite,” says Lagerfeld, backstage after the show. “I felt there had been far too much colour around, for several seasons.

Look around, most of us dress in black,” says Lagerfeld, motioning to the handful of editors who have penetrated the polite backstage security.

By any standards it is a bizarre set – a post-apocalyptic rectangle flanked on both sides by 2,000 coiffed guests, the whole lot oddly dissected by a pristine curving boardwalk.

Yet, somehow it fits the sombre mood of Paris fashion, that week badly shaken by John Galliano’s anti-Semitic

36 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

2011,

cruise

collection

The Cruise 2012 show is staged at the Hotel du Cap-EdenRoc on the French Riviera. There’s a rock concert by Bryan Ferry overlooking the hotel’s famed rock pool, the preferred bathing spot of Hollywood stars at the Cannes film festival, an Italian supper (truffle pizza), a bucolic picnic in the fragrant rose fields in nearby Grasse, where they annually harvest 40 tonnes of Rose de Mai for Chanel scents, and the screening of Karl’s latest movie, The Tale of a Fairy, where model Freja Beha Erichsen appears topless to seduce Chanel ambassador Anna Mouglalis into a memorable kiss.

At the show, 50 models – including Karl’s five model “sons” – stroll towards the pink sunset before an audience that includes Princess Caroline of Monaco, Blake Lively, Clémence Poésy, newcomer actress Marine Vacth, Vanessa Paradis and Rachel Bilson.

Poppy Delevigne and Alexa Chung pose – the former in a steel-grey jacket and hotpants, the latter in a voluminous pink dress.

Lagerfeld boldly opens the show with sleek suits in canary yellow or lavender, paired with some dashing new linen boots with open toes, then segues into ecru and black, in a collection featuring pleated dresses with embroideries, and crystal-encrusted cocktail dresses. Every model wears pieces from the fine jewellery collection. “It makes sense, since seawater tarnishes costume jewellery but has no effect on real diamonds. So if any of the girls fell in the water, well, we’d have nothing to worry about!” Swimsuits embedded with literally millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds, evening columns with pearls peeping through chiffon and brooches that look like small emerald explosions make this possibly the most extravagant fashion show ever.

Yet, the defining moment is the evocative Erichsen and Mouglalis onscreen kiss, probably the most sensual cinema kiss since Elizabeth Taylor famously puckered up to a naïve Montgomery Clift in the 1951 film, A Place in the Sun. “I think, my Irish friend, that perhaps some people are going to be a little shocked,” chuckles Karl.

Shocking, modern, different. In other words, typical Karl. n

Fittings at rue Cambon

Cruise 2012

Finishing touches for the Paris-Byzance show Autumn/winter 2011

Strap

White full-length wrap dress with cap sleeves, Diane Von Furstenberg.

Fashion Note: Diane von Furstenberg is at Brown Thomas, Dublin, 01 605 6666; www.brownthomas.ie, and www.matchesfashion.com.

For stockists, www.thegloss.ie.

14 | September 2009 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Strap Ivory crepe satin dress, ChloĂ&#x2030;.

Cream leather sandals, guiseppe zanotti.

Fashion Note: Guiseppe Zanotti is at Brown Thomas, Dublin, 01 605 6666; www.brownthomas.ie.

Flowing bias-cut silhouettes and the simplicity of pure white ... Witness a return to elegance with an undercurrent of sensuality Photographed by olivia graham Styled by luis rodriguez

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | September 2009 | 15

Oyster silk beaded tunic dress with rope detail, 3.1 PhilliP lim.

Fashion Note: Shades of white are an elegant alternative to this season's brights. In an age of accessories overload, some looks call for a return to simple, flattering silhouettes with a less is more approach. Focus on a mix of textures and detail to give interest instead.

black art Black wool coat, John Rocha. Champagne wool trousers, LK Bennett. White leather shoes, Simone Rocha. Belt, stylist's own.

Fashion note: John Rocha is at www.johnrocha.ie.

Ivory jersey dress with floral trim, chLoĂ&#x2030;. White cotton scarf (worn in hair), h&m.

Strap

White sleeveless silk chemise, AlexAnder WAng. Rope belt, diAne Von Furstenberg.

Fashion Note: Alexander Wang is at Brown Thomas, Dublin, 01 605 6666; www.brownthomas.ie and www.alexanderwang.com.

Beauty Note: “Matte hair gives that “undone” look – it’s about looking on trend, but not trying too hard.

This cut is about a textured finish with attitude and a rawness: to get this slightly messy, dishevelled texture, try L’Oréal Play Ball Beach Fizz, dry shampoos and texturising dusts. Colour continues the matte feel – it’s raw yet groomed. Hair is pre-lightened and toned using a pearlescent rinse, creating a white, slightly silver-grey hue. Adapt the shade, depending on skin tone.

The overall look is what we call a ‘polished grunge’.”

Stephen Boyle, stylist, Davey Davey

14 | September 2009 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Strap

Ivory wide-leg wool trousers with pin tuck front; ivory sheer tulle blouse with organza bow; both Jason Wu. Beige canvas wedge sandals, Miu Miu. Fashion Note: Jason Wu is at www.net-a-porter.com.

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | September 2009 | 15

White one-shoulder silk dress, Zac Posen.

Fashion Note: Zac Posen is at www.net-a-porter.com and www.bloomingdales.com.

White Myra crystal-embellished silk top, Temperley london.

Fashion Note: Temperley London is at Costume, Castle Market Street, Dublin 2, 01 679 4188 and www.net-a-porter.com

Photographed by Olivia Graham.

Styled by Luis Rodriguez.

Make-up by Robin Schoen.

Hair by Miok for Judy Casey Inc.

New Eau de Parfum

Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin 16. T: 01.296.3388 | Wicklow Street, Dublin 2. T: 01.679.7223 | Blackrock Shopping Centre, Co. Dublin. T: 01.210.8884 14 Upper Liffey Street, Dublin 1. T: 01.889.2576 | 111 Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork. T: 021.427.2892 | 1 Thomas Street, Limerick. T: 061.481.755 Market Cross Shopping Centre, Kilkenny. T: 056.778.6514 | 24 Ann Street, Belfast. T: 048.903.214.22 | 12 Eglington Street, Galway. T: 091.565.791

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InBloom Embrace the arrival of summer: get decorating with this fresh crop of floral fabrics neil hurley aislinn coffey

PhotograPhs by stylEd by

Midsummer Rose cotton mix in lilac/rose, sanDerson, d64 a metre, at Yours Personally.

Oversize Bloom HTP12 linen mix in natural, d35 a metre, at Helen TurkingTon. Cushions from top: Rosanna J628F-02 silk in pink/green, d97.20 a metre; Fairhaven J592F-02 linen cotton mix in pink/green, d60 a metre; both Jane CHurCHill at Brian S Nolan.

Champeigne Broderie from Braquenié collection, linen mix, pierre frey, d192 a metre, at Lost Weekend. Cushion: Douceur 305 03 19 silk mix in vert rose, CasamanCe, d147 a metre, at Yours Personally. Wood Trug, d25, at Eden Home & Garden.

Topiary sHears, Burgen & Ball, d34; ComposTable bin liners, d7.50 for three; all at Formality at The Cowshed.

DireCTor’s CHairs, d129 for set of two plus table, at Marks & Spencer. Director’s CHair Covers, d60 each plus fabric; cushion covers, d16 plus fabric; all made to order at Yours Personally. On wall: Water hyacinth sHelf baskeTs, from d20 each; watering can, d37.50; all at Formality at The Cowshed. Right: Vintage planTers, d120 each, at Avoca at Mount Usher.

Left: Herb mini CraTe, d30; retro mulTi ColoureD wooDen boTTle CraTes, d75 each; all at Eden Home & Garden.

Hardwood DeCking Tiles, d24.99 for nine, at IKEA. walls painted in Milk Teeth Luxury Matt emulsion paint, Historic collection

by Colortrend,, d39.95 for 2.5 litres; for stockists see www.colortrend.ie..

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | June 2011 | 47

home

On window: metal sign ‘I’m Pottering In The Garden’, d6.50, at Formality At The Cowshed. garden tools (trowel, fork), from d7.50 each, at Avoca. coat stand, stylist’s own. On coat stand: plant pots in wire carrier, d24, at Eden Home & Garden. Green felt bag, d135, at Formality At The Cowshed.

On wall: botanical print, d29, at Eden Home & Garden.

On floor: driftwood crate, d30; wooden door stop, d65; both at Eden Home & Garden.

Metal flower stand, d95, at Avoca. Hardwood decking tiles, d24.99 for nine, at IKEA.

Postage stamp pouffe, d129, at Eden Home & Garden.

Vintage silver teapot, d39.95; vintage silver sugar bowl, d18; vintage trio tea set, d17.95; botanical print tray, d39.95; wool blanket, d79.95; all at Avoca. Stainless steel flask, Thermos, d27.99, at Argos.

Upholstered arm chair cover, d350 plus fabric (five metres); cushion covers, d16 plus fabric; all made to order at Yours Personally. Armchair seat and arms upholstered in: Porcelain Garden DCAVPO103 linen mix in aqua, sanderson, d64 a metre, at Yours Personally. Back of chair upholstered in: Bird in the Bush linen mix in duck egg, anna french, d88 a metre, at Lucan Fabrics. Cushions from top: Balata 3061/02 in piment, manuel canovas, d101 a metre, at Brian S Nolan. Douceur 305 04 93 silk mix in aqua, casamance, d147 a metre, at Yours Personally.

48 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

home Hammocks made in (from left to right): Japanese Tree JAPT/LU/01/AR linen in autumn red, £72stg a metre]; Large Floral LRG/LU/01/RED linen in red and pinks; £125stg; Tree of Life TOL/LU/03/OLV linen in olive, £123stg; all at Timorous BeasTies. Hardwood decking Tiles, d24.99 for nine, at IKEA.

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | June 2011 | 49

home

Directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chairs, d129 for set of two plus table, at Marks & Spencer.

Umbrella covered with (clockwise from bottom panel): Rossana J628F-01 silk in yellow, Jane churchill, d97.20 a metre, at Brian S Nolan. Oversize Bloom HTA78 cotton mix in yellow, d25 a metre, at helen turkington Fabrics.

Isla J581F-02 linen mix in yellow/leaf, Jane churchill, d112.80 metre; Fairhaven J592F-04 linen/cotton mix in yellow, Jane Churchill, d60 a metre; both at Brian S Nolan. On floor: Fairhaven J592F-04 linen/cotton mix in yellow, Jane churchill, d60 metre, at Brian S Nolan. Vintage planter, d120, at Avoca at Mount Usher. black Fan, stylistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own. Hardwood Decking tiles, d24.99 for nine, at IKEA. For stockists, www.thegloss.ie

50 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

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Come for a Light Supper ...

At this time of year we all start to become so conscious of how we look and feel about our bodies. Clodagh McKenna is just back from a week in the South of France – a jolt into bikini season for which she was not prepared! So, a super-light supper for her girlfriends is on the menu

beetroots and a twist of ground black pepper – serve with seasonal vegetable crudités.

Girlfriends supper party Menu Appletinis h Watermelon, Feta and Mint Salad h Spanish Fish Stew with Almonds and Saffron h Lemon Sorbet WaterMelon, Feta and Mint Salad ingredientS: (serves 4) 1 red onion, quartered and thinly sliced 100g feta 1kg watermelon, cut from rind and de-seeded 8 black kalamata olives bunch of fresh mint, stalks removed extra virgin olive oil juice of 2 limes freshly ground black pepper Method: Cut the watermelon into small chunks and place in a large bowl and crumble the feta on top. Then add the leaves of the fresh mint, black kalamata olives, the juice of 2 limes, the thinly sliced red onion, a good dollop of extra virgin olive oil and season with freshly ground black pepper.

Toss all the ingredients gently and serve.

SpaniSh FiSh SteW With alMondS and SaFFron This is so easy to prepare and so healthy.

You can use any of these types of fish: monkfish, ling, haddock, hake or whiting.

I would suggest that you cook ahead right up to step 4. Then add in the fish

just as you are about to sit down for supper. While you eat the starter, the fish will be gently cooking. ingredientS: (serves 4) 800g whitefish, cut into small pieces 1 onion, finely diced 500ml white wine 3 cloves of garlic, crushed 2 tbsps fresh flat parsley, finely chopped 2 tbsps almonds, finely chopped a few threads of saffron 200ml good quality tinned pomodorini (cherry tomatoes) olive oil freshly ground black pepper Method: 1. Place a casserole dish over a medium heat and pour in a dollop of olive oil.

Then stir in the finely diced onion and crushed garlic – cover and allow to sweat for a couple of minutes.

2. Pour the tinned tomatoes, 1 glass of water (100ml) and the white wine on top of the onions and leave to simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

3. Stir in the chopped almonds, saffron and chopped flat leaf parsley and leave

52 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

to cook for 5 minutes.

4. Stir the pieces of fish into the tomato base, season with freshly ground black pepper and place in a pre-heated oven at 180˚C for 15 minutes.

5. Serve with brown rice.

TIP FOR A TIPPLE: A Pinot Noir from Burgundy is a good match for the almonds and saffron.

and allow to cool. Once cooled, place in a freezer for 2 hours, stirring the sorbet every 30 minutes so that no large crystals form. 4. While the sorbet is setting, scoop out the fibres in the halved lemons and slice off just enough off the bottoms of the lemons so that they can stand upright. Pop in the freezer.

5. Once the sorbet is set, scoop into the frozen lemon cups and serve straight away.

leMon Sorbet ingredientS: (serves 4) juice of 4 lemons (cut the lemons in half through the centre, so that you can use the lemon skins as little bowls for the sorbet) zest of 2 lemons 200g caster sugar 300ml water Method: 1. Pour the sugar and water into a saucepan and place over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, stirring every few minutes until all the sugar has dissolved.

2. Take off the heat and stir in the lemon juice and zest.

3. Pour into a large plastic container

Spanish fish stew with almonds and saffron

PhOTOgRAPh By jOA N N E m uRP hy

W

hen planning my menu, I think low-carb, high-protein and fibre. We need to avoid the white stuff.

That’s anything made with white flour: pastry, bread, biscuits, sugar, and also white rice. I substitute a lemon sorbet for ice cream. You could also opt for a frozen summer berry yogurt, whizzing together 500g mixed frozen berries (blackberries, raspberries, strawberries) with 600ml natural yogurt (chilled), 1 tablespoon of honey and the leaves from 1 sprig of fresh mint, blending until smooth. Place in a freezer for 2 hours, taking it out every 30 minutes to stir. Scoop into a bowl and garnish with a sprig of mint – guilt free! Avoid putting any foods on the menu that cause bloating. For me, and many women, that means cutting out wheat. You can get fibre from other sources – brown rice (which I would suggest you serve with my Spanish fish stew below), oats, sweet potatoes. Salt is off the menu too. If you want flavour, use pepper, garlic, saffron, chilli, lime or lemon instead.

Serve fresh peppermint tea in pretty glasses to finish, it is great for the digestive system.

Strategic Shopping ... When planning my supper parties, I always start by writing out the menu about one week before the event. I then gather the recipes for each dish and make a shopping list — separated into two lists, actually. The first list is comprised of ingredients that I can pick up a few days before the dinner party. The second list includes ingredients like fish and bread that need to be bought on the day.

Stick With What’s Simple ... Don’t be too hard on yourself when planning the menu. Make a simple starter that doesn’t take too much effort! In my menu below, the salad just involves assembling the ingredients. The lemon sorbet can be made and potted in the lemon cups up to four days beforehand. And for the main course, you can cook the fish stew ahead (up to step 4) an hour before guests arrive.

Kickstart The Party ... with a refreshing Appletini, mix 4floz of gin or vodka with 8floz of Irish fresh apple juice.

(I love David Llewellyn’s apple juice, check out www.fruitandvine.com for stockists). Try my pink hummous by blending 60ml olive oil, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 400g cooked chickpeas, juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of paprika, 2 small cooked

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‘ A

ITalIaN WINES aRE MORE VaRIED aND INTERESTING ThaN yOu MIGhT haVE ThOuGhT, SayS MaRy dowey, WhO haS BEEN ExPERIMENTING

merica’s love affair with Italy’ trumpets the cover of a recent issue of Decanter, an influential wine magazine which usually speaks in a sober tone rather than shouting in large type. Loud or not, the message is important. More in love with Italian food than ever, the US is having a serious dalliance with Italian wine. And, as fashions flit across the Atlantic superfast (think of Sideways and the overnight craze for Pinot Noir), we’re seeing signs of an Italian wine renaissance here.

What lies behind the latest figures linking over 30 per cent of US wine imports to Italy? It seems that, after decades of embracing rich, oaky blockbusters, Americans are finally seeking out more elegant styles.

Traditionally, many Italian wines are high in acidity, giving them a refreshing, juicy edge. They perk up the palate – an attribute that’s particularly welcome around this time of year.

They’re refreshingly different, too. No other country produces wines made from such a welter of unusual grape varieties – for, just as Italy has proudly clung to an array of local food traditions, it has continued to cherish a spectacular assortment of indigenous grapes. In a world that’s oh-so-weary of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot and the rest, exotic alternatives like Arneis, Catarratto, Cortese, Fiano, Grechetto (whites) or Corvina, Negroamaro, Nero d’Avola, Refosco, Schioppettino (reds) make a tantalising change – especially when there are about another 200 odd varieties left to try.

Italian wines also suit the way we live now, slipping into smart-casual mode as effortlessly as Armani jeans or a pair of Tod’s loafers. They’re the perfect match for those easy, Mediterreanean-style foods that we like to pick at through the summer – melon with Parma ham; seafood salad; tomato salad with fresh basil; even just a hunk of bruschetta with chargrilled peppers and parmesan heaped on top. And, as they’re less familiar than many other wine styles, you can dress them up or down without risking a raised eyebrow: up to dinner party; down to picnic lunch.

What about colour? No question about it, Italy’s majestic reds have built its reputation as a serious wine-producing country: big spenders still swoon over top Amarones, Barbarescos, Brunellos, Chiantis and the like.

But, luckily for the rest of us, there are heaps of terrific wines at much saner prices. These days more and more of them are white.

italian flair Villa Reale Vino nobile de Montepulciano, conteMassi 2008. While most multiples are following the cheap and cheerless route, Spar owners BWG have sourced some smart new Italian wines. Bravo! This mellow, earthy red oozes true Tuscan personality.

From selected Eurospar, Spar and Mace outlets nationwide, d11.99.

GaVi del coMune di GaVi, aRaldica 2010. It’s not every day that you come across a tasty version of Piedmont’s famous white at an easy price. This fresh young Gavi is perfect for salads and other light summer dishes. Soft apple and pear flavours emerge after an initial burst of yeasty zest. From Marks & Spencer, d12.79.

MastRobeRaRdino GReco di tufo, caMpania 2009.

Fascinating that an ancient grape in the warm south can produce such a crisp, citrussy white with an underlying mineral tang. From Corkscrew, Chatham Street, Dublin 2; Donnybrook Fair, Dublin 4; Vintry, Rathgar, Dublin 6; On the Grapevine, Dalkey, Co Dublin; O’Donovans, Cork; Next Door, Kilkee, Co Clare; usually d17.99.

An ElEgAnt SufficiEncy

The charm of Guilbaud’s hasn’t faded over time, thinks KaTy MC GuinneSS

I

t’s Thursday lunchtime and there’s a birthday to be celebrated – where better, we think, than Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, Ireland’s only two-star Michelin restaurant?

For a while I’ve been hearing that there have been subtle changes at RPG, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary. I’ve eaten there perhaps a dozen times over the years, both in the original Arthur Gibney-designed premises on James Place East and more recently in the incarnation adjacent to The Merrion. The food has never disappointed but, on occasion, the ambience has been stiff, the service po-faced and the whole experience just a little too much.

Without a drop in standards, RPG has loosened up, got over itself and become somewhere you might (whisper it) have the craic. Patrick himself is still very much in evidence (we suspect a picture in the attic), while the über-charming Stephane Robin, in an Hermès tie with crustacean motif, works the room with humour and a light touch.

It’s a sophisticated, high-ceilinged space with very good art on the walls. The carpet is thick, the tables well-spaced for discreet conversation about important matters. (Try as we did, we failed to glean anything of the chat being had by John Delaney and Denis O’Brien, to whom RPG’s stated ‘no mobile phones’ policy seems not to apply. Then again, would you be prepared to tell DO’B to put his phone away?) On the the terrace outside, with its fire, post-lunch drinks have been known to segue into dinner with no one batting an eyelid.

Eating in Michelin-starred restaurants that aren’t too up themselves is fun, what with the fabulous breads and all the little extras that arrive unbidden, even for cheapskates like us on the table d’hôte menu. (The á la carte is eye-wateringly expensive).

An amuse-bouche of cauliflower pannacotta and lobster topped with Campari foam was a good start.

Between the four of us, we covered the three starters on offer. A Contemporary Crab Cocktail served in a retro chic martini glass saw the white meat tossed with an Asian dressing and topped with lychee foam flecked with coriander, ultrathin slivers of radish and tiny drops of wasabi. The flavours zinged on the palate. Heirloom Tomato Terrine was intensely tomato-y, the fruits in aspic and accompanied by whipped goat’s cheese and black olive tapenade. Carrot Soup with Vadouvan Spice (a trendy French spin on curry) came with one of RPG’s signature Crispy Langoustines. Truth be told, we could have done without the soup (ever so

slightly dull) and been very happy with a few more of the langoustines.

On the day of our visit, the fish option was John Dory – grilled fillets served with fresh peas, tiny artichokes and tubetti (outsize rigatoni) pasta. This was a subtle, pleasing dish: quite delicious. Calf liver came with caramelised onion, potato puree and sauce diable – a lip-smacking butter and stockbased sauce with minced shallots and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper – that was big on flavour. Side plates of green beans and potatoes of a size that none of us ever thought to see in RPG accompanied the mains.

RPG has a new pastry chef who trained at the three star Pic in Valence – puddings are now quite spectacular. Almond Financier with Guanaja Chocolate Jelly and Passion ice cream – was as dramatic as a Philip Treacy hat – some might think it would have made a more stylish choice for Princess Beatrice than the fright she chose. A Vacherin of Green Apple with Pistachio looked like an exquisite miniature handbag; its tiny meringues burst on the tongue.

The cheese selection is abundant and those we tried – Tomme de Savoie, Langres and Mont d’Or were in fabulous condition, while the handkerchiefthin seeded melba toast that accompanied them was a delight. Petits fours comprised a black cherry lollipop, a violet macaroon, pistachio sponge, a mini chocolate tart and a raspberry jelly. I thought the coffee a mite under-powered but the others disagreed.

We drank house champagne – a Moncuit Grand Cru NV, 100 per cent chardonnay – and the bill for this spectacular lunch worked out at around d100 per head. For the pleasure of sitting in a beautiful room surrounded by wonderful art, breathing the same air as the great and the good and flirting with handsome French men, this seems like a fair price.

Compare and contrast with a dispiriting experience the following day at Alexis in Dun Laoghaire.

There, the menu was dull and heavy despite the beautiful spring weather. Neither of us could find a starter that appealed and so went straight to mains.

A plate of scallops each, a shared cheese plate (the cheese appeared to have come straight from the fridge) and a modest bottle of white wine worked out at d50 a head. Half the price of Guilbaud’s, yes, but there wasn’t an ounce of glamour about the place. I know which of these establishments I’ll be excited about returning to.

Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, Merrion Street, Dublin 2, 01 676 0192.

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | June 2011 | 53

This Glossy

entertaining

lifestyle get crafty

The famous Ottolenghi salad; Hugh has mastered the aga’s foibles; the piano is beside the dining table, should anyone feel inspired.

pHOTOGRapHS By SIOBHaN ByRNE

“M

orton’s is our kitchen cupboard,” says film editor and photographer Hugh Chaloner, as he despatches daughter Kaytlin (15) to pick up an organic orange for the OttOlenghi salad that he’s assembling in the kitchen.

With the Dublin 6 institution a handy minute’s walk

from his front door, there are no excuses for not shopping locally. The Best of

This month, to celebrate the Year of Craft, the Irish Design Shop is collaborating with the National Gallery of Ireland to launch a pop-up shop within its Gallery shop. Expect great designs from upcoming craftspeople: pretty embroidered linen tableware, throws and cushions (left) from Jennifer Slattery and contemporary jewellery by Theresa Burger. The National Gallery will also host a series of talks and leCtures; how to start your own craft business, and Tadhg and Simon O’Driscoll (O’Driscoll Furniture) on the design, creation and conservation future Plans ... simple clever, buyer-friendly of modern furniture. improvements on your home can help achieve Meanwhile, Dublin City a good selling price – we need all the help we Enterprise Board has put can get in this economic climate. PreP.ie is together Designer Dublin, another the brainchild of a group of architects (all Riai collaborative initiative highlighting members) aimed at helping vendors get their craft and design in the capital. house ready to sell by showing a prospective There will be workshops buyer the Potential which exists in a (ceramics, wood turning, printing), property – and entice buyers – without making fashion talks (Liz Quin, Jennifer costly renovations or carrying out any physical Rothwell). Best of all, the Studio work. How does it work? Following a site Craft Trail on June 10, is a chance survey, you receive a professionally produced for a sneakY peek behind the brochure with photorealistic visuals and sCenes and access to favourite architectural drawings that uncover and illustrate designers and artisans. For further the Potential of your property, all illustrated information, contact the National clearly in a ‘before and after’ format. the beauty?

Gallery, www.nationalgallery.ie, the With just a small initial deposit, the (modest) Crafts Council of Ireland, www. balance is not payable until completion of the sale. ccoi.ie and www.designerdublin.ie. www.prep.ie

Italy (“great for cold meats and gelato”) and boutique wine merchants Brechin Watchorn (“it’s Albarino and Ribera del Duero at the moment”) are both a stone’s throw away, so Hugh and his wife, Shona O’Neill, a communications consultant, are spoilt for choice when it comes to putting a menu together for their casual suppers. Hugh does most of the cooking while Shona handles drinks and presentation. Evenings kick off with champagne in the kitchen before moving to the dining room for a starter that might feature copious quantities of chilli and garlic with enormous prawns sourced at the Asia Market, cooked on a cast-iron skillet that was a present from friend Linda Reid and is Hugh’s “absolute favourite bit of kit”. Since moving in nine years ago, Hugh has come to love the house’s old cream Aga, which “is terrific for slow-roasting big hunks of meat. I experiment with marinades and lots of spices.” A current favourite is the berberé spice blend picked up in Ethiopia on one of Hugh’s trips to Africa documenting the work of Self Help Africa. Hugh credits his mother, Enid, who also spent time in Africa, with getting him started in the kitchen. “Back in the 1960s in Rathfarnham, she was the only person in the neighbourhood cooking with red peppers and making groundnut stew. She’s an amazing baker too.” When Hugh and Shona entertain, Kaytlin is drafted in to make mixed berry crumble, with younger brothers Ben and Hugo on dressing detail.

Hugh produces a batch of tomato chutney each summer, using his late father’s recipe, and preserved lemons which “add a zing to just about anything.” Plans to grown his own vegetables have been scuppered by the recent arrival of Archie – a charming mutt who has taken it upon himself to dig up everything in the family’s previously lovely garden. Katy Mc Guinness

54 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

intelligent DESIGN DESIGNErS REBECCa yaFFE aND LauRa MayS OF yaFFE MayS

Buying furniture is a personal affair – perhaps not as momentous as buying a house, but more significant than buying a new dress.

The objective? To find that perfect piece that, on one hand, nestles comfortably in your home without a fanfare and on the other, excites you enough to make you believe it’s a future heirloom, something you just have to have. High-end, home-grown furniture designers/makers are in short supply due to our ongoing battle with exorbitant labour and manufacturing costs. In 2005, Rebecca Yaffe and Laura Mays set up Yaffe Mays. Based in Connemara, in a village consisting of four houses, the duo design and make sophisticated, on-theright-side-of-restrained, contemporary furniture that involves great skill and respect for the materials they use. They often draw on traditional techniques: “The past provides methods that have evolved as practical and lasting,” says Yaffe.

“For us, craft means keeping it small, keeping it local, using skill and knowledge of materials and referencing archetypes from the past, but avoiding nostalgia or pastiche.” Fine lines and restrained sensibilities set Yaffe Mays apart from the rest. Recently, they designed a series of display cabinets for artist Dorothy Cross. These masters of understatement knew the cabinets had to be as slender and ‘quiet’ a form as possible while ensuring they had the necessary strength to hold Cross’s objets d’arts. We saw tables, desks and chairs, beds, boxes and cabinets, but it was an elegant cane armchair that stopped us in our tracks. You can’t look at it without wanting to run your hand over the smooth, seemingly flawless jarrah wood. This is real, thoughtful design.

See the Yaffe Mays collection of work at the Modern Languages exhibition at the Galway Arts Festival, July 11-24 or log on to www.nationalcraftgallery.ie.

(

TrAvel

MAN in A SUITCASe

Bologna is a magnet for gourmands, a bustling, beautiful city dedicated to the enjoyment of food.

If you’re that way inclined, a few days spent there will be filled with eating, punctuated by sleeping and sunbathing. It’s heaven for Tim magee ...

D

riving up the autostrada from Bologna to Parma feels like a trolley dash around a decent deli. The beautiful and bountiful Emilia-Romagna, Italy’s garter belt, is more than a tease for someone that spends as much time as I do thinking about, reading about, cooking and eating food. It’s torture.

Every second or third exit is a worthy pilgrimage in its own right: Exit 21 for culatello and proper Parmesan, 14 for balsamic from its home in Modena, Exit 8 is to the culinary capital of Italy, Bologna, and all roads lead to wine. Like shopping, it’s not a brilliant idea to take this road on an empty stomach. But unfortunately I did just that while on my way to the World Pizza Championships in the quaint little spa town that the noughties forgot, Salsomaggiore Terme. It wouldn’t have been the worst way to spend a couple of days. Unless you were leaving Bologna.

La Grassa, La Rossa, whatever you call Bologna, my love affair with this northern Italian stunner started at the airport. This part of the peninsula isn’t shy of airport options from Ireland but it’s a lost opportunity to fly in and out of the same one when there’s a half-dozen, very different, ex-city states worth checking out. Bologna Airport is small, clean and easy, and it’s all of ten minutes from the city centre, the hearth of cucina Italia. My Aer Lingus flight dropped me off on a Saturday afternoon – Saturdays are the best days here – in the hottest April in 45 years. It took me just ten minutes to get from my gate to my rental and not much longer to the door of my hotel.

La Rossa is a city that understands the benefits of looking through rose-tinted glasses. The endless stone, marble and terrazzo arcades and piazzas all glow, from the famous red roofs down. Add some serious sunshine and everything seems even better, and it wasn’t bad to begin with. Not that the city’s citizens nor the students of the western world’s oldest university will even notice you beaming like an eejit. Bologna is too busy being busy, in a way that makes the region’s claim about its high standards of living worth envying. On Saturday afternoons the ancient centre is teeming with couples and families coasting about on foot and bicycle from shop front to market stall, in one big relaxed, glowing, traffic-free zone.

If they’re not shopping, chatting or making out on stoops and statues, the jammy inhabitants are eating. And sometimes for free. You can’t walk more than a couple of minutes without being tempted by the tasty little wine bars and their all’aperto tables that line the car-less cobbled streets. With the world of wine options by the glass they do a sort of five-hour happy hour. You order a glass of vino and you graze for free. Not the Irish or American version of happy hour soakage – deep-fried brown things – but bar counters of seasonal salads, pasta, cheeses, and platters of

charcuterie that include this town’s edible badge of honour, mortadella.

We all need a bit of Cockaigne every now and again. Maybe just at the weekends, or for one night, definitely when on holiday. The Land of Cockaigne, a mythical, medieval place of plenty where peasants dreamed of escaping their lot to limitless luxuries, was a temptation on a Bolognese board game created in the late 1600s. The masochist that devised this torture based it on regional treasures – food treasures – with three dice and a board with rows of Bruegel-ish characters from Naples, Ferrara, Modena, Venice, Genoa, Turin, Pisa, Verona and others, all parading their edible trophies.

Arcade in Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore The pig is king in Bologna and the game’s jackpot – three sixes – takes you straight to the centre, to Bologna, and to mortadella.

Not the most appealing to Irish eyes, on the shelf mortadella looks like Peppa Pig in a too tight Pac-a-Mac but once you get past those luncheon meat looks, the taste of real mortadella with a crisp Italian white will be as visceral a memory as La Rossa’s toasty red hue.

Three hundred years later and Cockaigne is no longer a fantasy land – it’s Saturday night in Bologna.

At the end of the day this is still Italy which means being seen, and being seen outdoors. And, at the end of the day, the back streets and squares are stuffed with chatty, thirsty thirtysomethings tongue rolling Fiano while sharing delicate wafers of piggy heaven and its cheesy partners from tactile wooden platters. It’s civilisation.

The Cathedral of Bologna There’s no better place to let the surprisingly appetising olfactory cocktail of talc, ham and Suite at the Hotel Metropolitan decent soap and the last of the evening heat wash over on via dell’Orso you than at the barrel tables outside Tamburini on the cosy Via Caprarie.

Bologna can get pretty warm. It needs a noon-till-tworetreat to chill, tan and read. The Hotel Metropolitan on Via dell’Orso is the perfect base. It couldn’t be more central, it’s boutiquey but it’s big on breakfast. Insist on one of the rooms in the courtyard, a quaint Moorish sun sanctuary with quality loungers just feet away from your room, and room service that whispers collapse, snooze and sunbathe.

If you’re lucky enough to be going anywhere near EmiliaRomagna or Tuscany this summer and want a taste of how city life could be, should be, then stop in for a one night stand to the capital of Cockaigne. n

T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e | June 2011 | 55

travel

the gloss Hotel Spy 24 hours in ...

A late Sunday lunch with food writer Clodagh McKenna at the Village at Lyons in Celbridge in county Kildare (where she has her cookery school) last summer segued into an overnight stay in the Shackleton House (a gorgeous two-bedroom house in the courtyard with drawing room, country kitchen and deep slipper bath with a view of the Grand Canal). A little picnic from Clodagh’s cafe served as supper, before a blissful eight hours’ in the four-poster. The following morning, driving back to Dublin at the crack of dawn, we resolved to return – just 25 minutes’ from town, we had found a retreat which felt a hundred miles away. A stroll along the canal at sunset had us marvelling at this estate, with its French stone village (transported piece by piece from a derelict village in the South of France), the manicured lawns and impressive (to the gardener at least) planting, beautifully lit at nightfall. The next time we visited, it was to try one of the newly-opened Village Suites. With no television and no housekeeping until 11am, the suites are designed for guests who really want to switch off – even the mobile phone signal is weak. A brisk trade in weddings means these suites are often booked out by overnight guests. The suites consist of very elegant bedrooms and bathrooms supplied with Hermès products (no drawing room, despite the name) beautifully appointed and decorated with a few well-chosen French antiques (an enormous mirror, speckled with age, made us look wonderful as we dressed for dinner and the duvets were made of some wondrous stuff, encased in knockout linen). Dinner at La Serre, the conservatory restaurant (which was full to capacity) was surprisingly good, surprising only because we hadn’t heard a great deal about it. The delicious food (Chicken Liver Terrine, with Chutney and Toasted Brioche, Loin of Veal, Potato Soufflé & Violet Artichokes) was served in one of the prettiest dining room. The wine list harks back to the jollier times – an extremely short list of modest wines turns into a sort of catalogue of headily-priced bottles. If there was one small drawback, it’s that the breakfast room is a little odd – a sort of ante room to the restaurant – we’d have rather eaten in the airy conservatory itself. The decoration of the Mill House, which houses the reception rooms and bar, is cosy but a little dated, and unless you venture outside the estate, the diversions are limited – though the foodie element draws plenty of keen cooks – but this is a supremely comfortable, rather glamorous overnight spot.

Twenty-four hours here does a body very good indeed. From s200 a night. The Village at Lyons, Celbridge, Co Kildare, 01 630 3500; www.villageatlyons.com

THE LODGINGS: The Presidential Suite, no less, at

Mount Wolseley in Carlow. The hotel’s most luxurious bedroom has a rather grand living room, spacious dressing room and vast bathroom. THE fOOD: A predinner drink in The Aaron lounge preceded an impressive dinner in Frederick’s – good service, fresh, locally-sourced produce, and a vast selection of wines. THE ExTraS: The Sanctuary Spa at the hotel has an extensive list of treatments all using Elemis products. The spa also has a rasul chamber, thermal spa, hydrotherapy room, pool and relaxation room, all candle lit. While one of us had a 60-minute full body hot stone massage, the other played the 18-hole championship golf course; equally we could have done some fly-fishing or joined an organised trip to local craft and design spots. The Mount Wolseley Hotel, Spa & Country Club, Tullow, Co Carlow, 059 918 0100; www.mountwolseley.ie

THE LODGINGS: An enormous room with large bathroom and jacuzzi at Knockranny House Hotel. THE fOOD: At breakfast we sat at a table overlooking pretty Westport town. Staff were friendly, no-trouble-spared types so we lingered over coffee and the papers. Dinner in La Fougère Restaurant was one of the best meals we have ever eaten: no wonder La Fougère was awarded the best hotel restaurant in Ireland 2010 at the Irish Restaurant Awards. THE ExTraS: An amazing Kerstin Florian Correcting skincare treatment in Spa Salve – luxurious foot wash, natural enzyme peel, acupressure point and aculift facial massage – was the best possible way to spend a rainy afternoon. The spa is designed around a vitality pool and has an aromatherapy grotto, herbal sauna, scented steam room and monsoon shower. Another plus: the hotel is just a five-minute stroll into the centre of bustling Wesport. The Knockranny House Hotel & Spa, Westport, Co Mayo, 098 28 600; www.khh.ie

Smack bang in the middle of Cork city, the Asian-inspired spa is attached to the grand old dame, The Imperial Hotel.

THE fOOD: A simple selection of fresh fruit, juices and herbal teas are offered while you fill in the obligatory consultation form. THE ExTraS: The Signature treatment begins with an hour-long visit to the Vitality Suite (Evian hydrotherapy pool, salt grotto and aroma grotto) which gets you into optimum Zen mood. Then, while we sipped some herbal tea, therapists performed a very pleasant foot cleansing ritual. A stress-relieving back, neck and shoulder massage (the highlight of the whole experience) was followed by a rehydrating Aveda facial (including mask) and deeply-soothing scalp massage. Perfect for giving skin a revitalising boost and radiant glow before the long summer ahead. We left restored and recharged.

The Signature package, d129, at Escape Salon & Spa, Morgan Street, Cork, 021 730 6622; www.flynnhotels.com

®

Bar Essentials

Surprisingly tasty Nature Valley and associated words and designs are trademarks of General Mills © 2011.

GMUK10590_Gloss_Qtr_horizontal_ad_277x87.indd 1

18/05/2011 16:16

PROMOTION

Models Tom Connolly, Carl Shaaban, Nikki Bonass, Yomiko Chen, Sam Homan and Martha Christie

Sean Munsanje

Cristíona Aston and Laura Scanlon

Luke Slott

Model Martha Christie

PREPPY PARTY Tommy Hilfiger, in association with THE GLOSS Magazine, hosted a Summer Fashion Event on Thursday, May 5 in the flagship store on Grafton Street

Kamal Ibrahim

The evening, hosted by TV presenter SONYA LENNON, featured two fashion shows showcasing the Tommy Hilfiger summer collection including the new Prep World capsule collection, the Runway and Tailored collections and the limited edition Tommy Hilfiger Breast Health International bag, which has arrived in store and retails for d299 with d100 from each sale donated to Fund For Living – a campaign Mo Kelly and Sonya Lennon

initiated by Breast Health International. This year’s ambassador is Oscar winner Renée Zellweger. Guests enjoyed tunes from DJ MO KELLY, Hamptons-style canapés, a wine reception by Jacob’s Creek and one lucky guest won a surprise weekend away to

a European fashion city with d1,000 to spend while Pamela Halton and Shane O’Neill each received a d500 spend

Kamal Ibrahim and Sonya Lennon with prize winner Pamela Halton

in the store! Guests included BRIAN ORMOND and PIPPA O’ CONNOR, current Mr World KAMAL IBRAHIM (who topped a poll recently naming him Ireland’s most eligible man), Kamal’s manager DONNA MC GARRY, designer VIRGINIA MACARI, stylists MARIA FUSCO and CATHY O’ CONNOR, movie

critic SEAN MUNSANJE, agency bosses JOHN COMPTON, BRENDAN Grace Fox and Cathy O’Connor

SCULLY and SEAN MONTAGUE, Radio Nova DJ PAT COURTENAY and

Kitchen Club manager PAUL SMITH.

Sonya Lennon and Claire Nolan (of Tommy Hilfiger) present holiday winner Tom Blake with his prize

Prize winner Shane O’Neill and Sonya Lennon

Fabio Menezes and Ken Boylan

Grainne Curran and Orla McDermott

Model Sam Homan

THE FAMILY Much like the appearance of her family in general, Pamela Jetson’s cream Céline bag gives the impression of chic, luxurious harmony, while concealing a world of chaos behind its spotless exterior. Not that she’s not tried to be organised; having meticulously arranged items in a series of clear zip pouches bought at Muji, her efforts are derailed at Departures where they confiscate the children’s juice pouches and her indispensable Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse (whoever heard of a shimmering bronze, frangipani-scented security threat?). Thankfully L’Oréal’s Oilixir with argan oil – a lifesaver for sun-parched hair – is spared, along with her Nelson’s Homeopathic Jet-lag Mix, another airport godsend. She thought she might take a leaf out of Inès de La Fressange’s (latest) book, and travel in velour sweatpants from Zara, but then couldn’t resist the thrill of arriving at Nice airport wearing Isabel Marant.

Mr Jetson was all for a beachside resort in Montenegro, but in the end they opted for the BCBG comforts of a villa in Antibes. Mr Jetson disappears off to cookery school on arrival, while Pamela enjoys the market at Cours Masséna for fresh fruit and people-spotting. At first the swimming pool and marina are enough excitement for Junior Jetsons, Keelan and Kester, then a visit to the Musée Picasso inspires Kester to take a Crayola to the villa’s white living room wall. By the end of their two-week stay Mr J has lost his taste for lobster, while the usually unflappable Mrs Jetson is quite frazzled and ecrasée. Luckily she took the precaution of booking herself in for a post-holiday hair assessment and treatment at Brown Sugar, where she is returned to her sleek and polished self in no time.

For stockists, www.thegloss.ie.

Kester wears quilted jacket; red print T-shirt; both Little Joules; trousers, Kester’s own.

Pamela wears quilted beaded jacket, Isabel Marant; polka dot shift dress, Paul & Joe; cream leather bowling bag, Céline; cream patent leather shoes, Prada.

58 | June 2011 | T h e G l o s s M A G A Z I N e

Strap

This Glossy Life If only travel could look this cool ... As we hump our bags through the airport this summer, we promise ourselves that, next time, with better planning and smarter clothes, the reality will match the aspiration. We can dream ...

PhotograPhs by Renato Ghiazza styling and words by RÓisÍn KibeRd

Keelan wears printed lace-edge dress, Mim-Pi; printed raincoat; purple leggings; both Little Joules.

Shoes, Keelan’s own.

Alex wears lavender suede loafers, Tod’s; plum sweater; shorts; patterned shirt; all Paul Smith; blue polka dot scarf, Hartford; silk lavender-filled eye mask, Otis Batterbee; leather holdall; leather suitcase; both The Bridge.

T h eTTG h hle eoG G sl slo oMssA ss GM M AA A ZG G IN A AeZZII|N NSeptember e e || June June 2009 2011 2011 ||| 59 xx 15

THIS GLOSSY LIFE

Danielle wears leather jacket, Acne; jacquard dress, Carven; Stefania suede lace-up booties, Opening Ceremony.

THE GLOSSY GIRL Danielle’s take on the J1 holiday is a party in Miami, on the advice of trend-hounding travel series A Hedonist’s Guide, a must-read for any bright sunseeking young thing: ‘Despite what The Hills and Made in Chelsea would have you believe, the best place to go for young, fashionable and super-hip types is Miami. The days of drug-fuelled gang warfare and shoot-outs are long gone, and the fabulously fickle Floridian city is now the USA’s undisputed party capital’. She plans to eventually join friends around San Francisco, a few in student co-ops in Berkeley, but it’s hard to trade the cabanas and cocktails for campus, especially since she’s paid for it all year with two jobs squeezed into her economics degree schedule: spritzing perfume at customers in a department store in the afternoon and serving beer to inebriated stags at a dodgy Mexican restaurant by night. She does the beachside boutiques and gets a trashy-fabulous manicure at Lace Nail Lab in their signature Barbie pink. Then she relaxes with a burger at Le Tub, a holiday guilty pleasure, before meeting friends at Fontainebleau.

Danielle’s Miami style is simple, easy and chic; James Perse and American Apparel for slouchy basics that’ll hold up in the heat, and little dresses by Alice + Olivia or Opening Ceremony by night, paired with her beloved Alexander Wang duffel bag.

Easygoing, polished and cool beyond her years, this eternal Summer Girl just doesn’t do ‘resort wear’.

60 | June 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

THIS GLOSSY LIFE

Peter wears blue cotton sweatshirt, Our Legacy; grey plaid cotton shirt, Wrangler; red cotton chinos, Oliver Spencer; white leather deck shoes, Folk.

Danielle wears stripe cotton sweater; pink denim cut-off shorts; both Isabel Marant; grey suede boots, Acne.

Men’s black holdall, Prada.

Black zipped suitcase, The Bridge.

THE PRACTICAL JETSET Remember a great holiday starts with careful packing; as Diane von Furstenberg once remarked, “when you figure out your suitcase, you figure out your life”. And it helps to invest in some stylish and dependable bags; we like the old-fashioned charm of these cases in brown leather by The Bridge, from Weirs, that will stand discreetly apart from the black nylon masses on the luggage carousel. Virtual help is free at www. butlerbureau.com, where instructional videos offer tips on flawless folding and suitcase packing. In a perfect world, we’d all enlist the help of the nearest well-dressed boy toy to help with luggage, or take advantage of services like Luggage Forward (www.luggageforward.com) or Carry My Luggage (www.carrymyluggage. com), who send your bags ahead, and check in carrying only the lightest of in-flight essentials. If you are feeling flush, make air travel less of an ear-popping nightmare by calling on Quintessentially’s Dublin branch (www.quintessentially.com): the concierge service will happily help create a VIP experience, beginning with a chauffeured drive to the airport. Lastly, in the worst, um, case, scenario of your luggage getting lost, take solace in the fact that 85 per cent of all lost bags are found within 48 hours. Invest in Tag’n’Traq (www. calluma.com), a baggage locator service which provides a 24-hour helpline for about ¤12 annually.

T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E | June 2011 | 61

THIS GLOSSY LIFE THE BUSINESSMAN Henry agreed with his girlfriend when she said that he needed a break; having spent the last three months surgically attached to his BlackBerry, he could use some time for peace and reflection. Unfortunately they disagree on their definitions of ‘taking stock’; a planned mountain retreat at the Manchurian Hunting Lodge is only an excuse for a sojourn in Beijing, safe haven of internet access and lucrative investment opportunities. Safely aboard the plane, the iPad2 is out like a flash, loaded with Paul Theroux’s latest, The Tao of Travel, a few back issues of Monocle and a list of conference calls waiting to be made over Skype. The guide books recommend the Peking Opera, but he skips it in favour of peking duck and beers with his ex-pat buddies at the Ritz-Carlton on Financial Street. After a week of partying and daytime business meetings in the Forbidden City, Henry hides his un-detoxed dark circles behind a pair of Burberry Explorers, deflates the alligator and jets back to the rat race.

Wall Street wool jacket; matching Wall Street wool trousers; both Acne; black leather slip-ons, Santoni; leather briefcase, The Bridge.

Photographed on location at T2, Dublin Airport, by Renato Ghiazza, assisted by Peter Fingleton. Styled by Roisin Kiberd, assisted by Liza Cox, Aoife Byrne, Aisling Deng, Eimear O’Sullivan and Gemma Harvey. Hair and make-up by Nicole McEvoy at Morgan The Agency.

62 | June 2011 | T H E G L O S S M A G A Z I N E

competition

TAKE ME AWAY rs) (I’m you

Win a fabulous summer wardrobe worth d2,ooo

Sun hat, d30, Linea.

Aviator sunglasses, d150, Ray-Ban.

White linen shift dress, d240, Helen McAlinden.

Stripe cotton bag, d78, Timney.

Black suitcase, d210, Kenneth Cole Reaction.

Red bandeau bikini, d47, Lepel.

Red Loren espadrilles, d110, Kurt Geiger.

Luxe organic seaweed products for face, hair and body, d200, Voya.

Gold ring, d54, Lucas Jack.

Gold feather necklace, d30, Untold.

Black leather Lily handbag, d540; Mulberry.

Red polka dot wrap dress, d145, Helen McAlinden.

A

Summer essential kit, d200, Bobbi Brown.

ll you need to arrive in style and looking great is a fashionable and functional travel wardrobe. Whether heading off for a couple of days, for business or pleasure, or taking a longhaul trip or a two-week summer holiday, smart travellers appreciate that a well-considered wardrobe can make the impending departure much less stressful, even thrilling. To celebrate the arrival in-store of lots of great holiday ideas, House of Fraser and THe Gloss have got together to offer one lucky reader the chance to win over d2,000 worth of fabulous holiday kit that, in true THe Gloss style, can do double-duty with pieces that also fit into your “normal” life at home. Take the fabulous designer lily bag from Mulberry worth d540 – so smart when worn with Helen Mc AlInden’s linen shift dress and KurT GeIGer’s red espadrille wedges. For the beach (or poolside) lIneA’s super sun hat and a pair of Aviators by rAy-bAn are great to hide behind when you don that classic red lepel bikini (or its equivalent swimsuit if you don’t dare to bare) and towel, book, sunscreen can be packed in the great new TIMney rope-handled stripe beachbag, exclusive to House of Fraser. Helen Mc AlInden’s red spot wrap dress (no creases and so comfortable) will literally take you anywhere (though it comes in other versions; if you win, you choose!) and, to help you pack light and dress sharp, KenneTH cole’s reaction suitcase (worth d210), just new to House of Fraser, has to be the best. Holidays wouldn’t be fun without some gorgeous cosmetics from bobbI broWn: you get to choose an entire summer beauty kit for eyes and lips, totalling d200, and enjoy a brilliant make-up lesson free of charge. Finally, to ensure your summer face, hair and body get the pamperng they deserve, the divine Irish brand VoyA has put together a seaweed-based skincare and shower collection worth d200 – use before you go to get skin in tip-top condition and take away with you for post-sun luxury. lucky you. now all you have to do is ... email register@thegloss.ie with your name, address and contact number and the answer to the following question: Q: What store has lots of great new holiday ideas?

For terms and conditions, see www.thegloss.ie

your coMpleTe suMMer WArdrobe courTesy oF

over and out numbers, a total bore. She nonetheless has arranged

activities of recent weeks and

for Molly to have her uniform beautifully and subtly

is quite looking forward to the

tweaked and tightened and the top BT Bobbi Brown

month of June with fewer pressing

artiste will do her make-up in that artless ‘I’m not

engagements of an international

wearing any make-up’ way that takes an hour and a

and diplomatic flavour. She can

half to achieve.Connie is determined that Molly will

mercifully retreat from the public glare and spend

know the value of effective deceit at an early age.

some quality time with her precious darlings before

Then it’s straight off to Irish college for Molly.

she departs on a spa week to rejuvenate herself in

Connie has already visited the house in the countryside

preparation for the family holiday at Quinta do

where her sweet Molly will be roughing it for three

Lago’s Four Seasons, where she has managed to rent

weeks and has had a detailed meeting with the Bee An

an enormous fully-staffed villa at a rock bottom price.

Tea regarding Molly’s specific dietary requirements.

Truth to tell, there was an abundance of choice, the

Which bizarrely seems to raise eyebrows – honestly,

vendors were squabbling among themselves in their

there appears to be a little confusion regarding the

eagerness to offload their burgeoning shared ownership

Dukan Diet. God forbid that Molly would gain an ounce

A VIEW FROM THE JEEP

weeks. She is rather panicky though, in case there will be insufficient A-list gals around to impress or hopefully depress with her lithe limbs and designer wardrobe.

Indeed she fears that her spying and subsequent FAMA

or indeed sprout an unsightly spot.

Molly’s clothes and accessories for her sojourn have to be pitch perfect, displaying the right mixture of cute

it really should be a most interesting tableau down at

Connie is prepping for the summer break. With a bit of luck it will be filled with the vacuous activity she thrives on.

Honora Quinn checks in

Julia’s and Gigi’s.

of grinds she has received from the homework coach

strong-arming last year may have put the fat cat among the piggies. Even still it will be soo worth brazening it out just to see who has managed to survive or indeed who has the brass neck to make it out there this year;

innocence, less Topshop and more Ralph Lauren, which should hopefully steer the child away from her vaguely rebellious inclination towards miniscule minis and hotpants and soon to be seen on DNS, the ubiquitous A&F. Honestly, anybody might think she was just an average SoCoDu gal rather than a Duchess of Cambridge in the making!

In the meantime she really must focus on Fionn and

Connie employs five days a week, not to mention Connie’s

Connie takes her daughter’s career path very seriously,

Molly for at least two whole days before she packs them off

constant harassment of the school staff, her far-reaching

always craftily coaching her little darling towards the

to their respective camps. It’s rather a seminal summer for

powers influencing them somewhat (well, actually, a lot)

ultimate aim of snaring the right man, be that a prince

Connie as Molly is graduating from junior school. There

into making the right awards! It’s a bit tragic that the girls

or a billionaire. She is deadly determined that Molly will

will be a ceremony and Molly has won several prizes

must wear their school uniforms to the graduation, just

not make the same ghastly mistakes she made herself, by

which is in no small part due to the relentless rounds

when Molly was beginning to fit into Connie’s Versace

marrying for lust, love or convenience.

I l lu st r at Io n by n atal I e C ass Idy

C

onnie is exhausted after the social

Born in 1972 in San Diego, CAMERON DIAZ, a former model and now one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses, has four Golden Globe nominations and a string of films, from comedy to drama and even animation, under her enviably tiny belt. In her latest film, Bad Teacher, in cinemas this month, Diaz takes on the role of a foul-mouthed junior high teacher

She Does

She Doesn’t Like wearing make-up. “Whenever I don’t have to wear

Consider jeans her default dress code: “Don't even

make-up, it’s a good day” l believe in marriage. “I don’t

ask me how many pairs I have” l take care of her

think we should live our lives in relationships based

body. “Exercise for me is like eating, sleeping and

on old traditions that don’t suit our world any longer”

breathing” l find going on the red carpet hard. "It's

understand Twitter. “I can barely return emails” l

hard out there, man, we're all choosing dresses from

l

the same places" l have a best friend and ‘sister’ in

when receiving a script she doesn’t look solely at the character she is going to play, but at the script as a

Drew Barrymore. Barrymore says “I always know she

whole l like wearing bras. “People think I’m trying

is game”l feel attractive as a mature woman. “I feel so

to make a fashion statement because I never wear

much more attractive now, I’m appreciating my skin

a bra. It’s really that I’m a tomboy at heart” l like

and my wrinkles and all those things because you cannot

Mariah Carey’s records. “If you really want to torture

stop ageing” l want to be a big, fleshy voluptuous

Carey’s records on” l mind working with her ex-boyfriend

one” l have a unique relationship with men. “I’ve always

Justin Timberlake. “Working on Bad Teacher wasn’t difficult.

loved men and boys, and I don’t get hung up on what boys

“We’re good at being funny together, we know how to do

do. I don’t have a nagging nature. I feel like I can be my own

that”l make excuses for seeing a shrink. “I’ve seen a therapist for

woman but also relate to a man” l want to settle down for at least a year. "I'd love to spend a whole year in one place, on a farm, raising my own crops and livestock”

64 | June 2011 | T h e G L o s s M A G A Z I N e

This month: CAMERON DIAZ

ages. Go some place that’s safe, where you can talk to somebody who has no agenda ... that’s what they’re there for.”

p h oto gr a p h by wI r eI mage

me, sit me in a room strapped to a chair and put Mariah

woman with curves. “I want a big bum, but I don’t have

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