AIR Magazine - Nasjet - February'21

FEBRUARY 2021

CHLOË SEVIGNY

The new S-Class.

Not just bought. Earned.

In nature, the falcon is a fierce fighter. In business, the Falcon 8X is just as powerful and agile. Every inch reflects its military DNA, with lean and mean aerodynamics and advanced Digital Flight Controls to get you to places others can’t. Nothing flies like a Falcon because no other jet is built like one.

Fierce. Fast. Agile. Falcon 8X.

Contents

AIR

FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

FEATURES Thirty Two

Forty

Ford Focused

The History Books

Forty Six

Fifty Two

Forever the epitome of New York City cool, Chloë Sevigny talks career choices with Lynette Nylander.

Despite a tough year, Tom Ford, fashion’s most fabulous man, is still as entertaining as ever, finds Laura Craik.

Eilidh Hargreaves heads to London to discover why rare and first edition books are flying off the shelves.

How Elizabeth Taylor diva antics set the tone for today’s tell-all celebrities.

The New Yorker

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The Child Star Who Never Grew Up

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Contents

FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

REGULARS Fourteen

Radar

Sixteen

Objects of Desire Eighteen

Critique Twenty

Art & Design EDITORIAL

Twenty Four

Timepieces

Chief Creative Officer

Fifty Eight

john@hotmedia.me

John Thatcher

Motoring

ART

Sixty Two

Art Director

Gastronomy

Kerri Bennett

AIR

Sixty Six

Illustration

Journeys

by Jet

Leona Beth

COMMERCIAL

Sixty Eight

Managing Director

What I Know Now

Victoria Thatcher General Manager

David Wade

david@hotmedia.me

PRODUCTION Digital Media Manager

Muthu Kumar Twenty Eight

Jewellery

Author Vivienne Becker on how Aldo Cipullo became the most glamorous jewellery designer of the 1970s.

Tel: 00971 4 364 2876 Fax: 00971 4 369 7494 Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from HOT Media is strictly prohibited.

HOT Media does not accept liability for any omissions or errors in AIR.

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PRAETOR 600: CERTIFIED OUTPERFORMANCE. The Praetor 600 — the world’s most disruptive and technologically advanced super-midsize aircraft that leads the way in performance, comfort and technology.

Unveiled at NBAA in October 2018 and now certified by ANAC, FAA and EASA, the Praetor 600 did not just meet initial expectations, it exceeded them. Named for the Latin root that means “lead the way,” the Praetor 600 is a jet of firsts. It is the first super-midsize jet certified since 2014. The first to fly beyond 3,700 nm at M0.80. The first with over 4,000 nm range at LRC. The first with full fly-by-wire. The first with Active Turbulence Reduction. The first with a cabin altitude as low as 5,800 feet.

The first with high-capacity, ultra-high-speed connectivity from Viasat’s Ka-band. And all of this, backed by a first-placed Customer Support network.

Learn more at executive.embraer.com/praetor600.

L E A DING T H E WAY

NasJet FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

NasJet is the first private charter company in Saudi Arabia, providing bespoke aviation services for discerning clients and institutions since 1999. Currently, the company manages and supports in excess of 18 fixed-wing aircraft, making us the largest and most experienced private jet operator in the region with a fleet insured value exceeding $2 billion.

NasJet, part of NAS Holding, employs 1,400 in-house aviation industry experts, operating 24/7 from our state-of-the-art flight centre in Riyadh and across the world, delivering a superior level of safety, service and value. At NasJet we have the expertise and international experience to operate corporate aircraft worldwide. Every hour of every day, we are moving planes, crews and inventory across continents. We give you peace of mind when it comes to our commercial operations. As a Saudi company we are backed by some of the most prominent shareholders in the world. We are established.

On our Air Operator Certificate (AOC), NasJet currently operates:

Welcome Onboard FEBRUARY 2021

• Cessna Citation Excel, which can seat 6 passengers and fly for up to 3 hours non-stop • Embraer Legacy 600, which can seat 10 passengers and fly for up to 6 hours non-stop • Gulfstream GIV-SP and G450 Aircraft, which can seat 13-14 passengers and fly for up to 8 hours non-stop • Gulfstream G650, which can seat 15 passengers and fly for up to 15 hours non-stop • Airbus 318ACJ, which can seat 19-23 passengers and fly for up to 8 hours non-stop • Boeing Business Jet (B737-900), which can seat 38 passengers and fly for up to 9 hours non-stop • Boeing 767, which can seat up to 44 passengers and fly for up to 14 hours non-stop • Airbus A319, which can seat up to 32 passengers and fly for up to 8 hours non-stop • Falcon 900, which can seat up to 12 passengers and fly for up to 9 hours non-stop NasJet is pleased to offer the following services: • Aircraft Purchase and Sales. We have aircraft available for sale and management, or we can manage the purchase or sale of other aircraft.

• Aircraft Acquisition, Acceptance, Completion and Delivery. We can find you the new aircraft that suits your needs, customise it to your liking, monitor the build of the aircraft at the manufacturer, and supervise the final delivery process to ensure a smooth and rewarding private aircraft experience.

• Aircraft Management. In this role we are responsible for your aircraft from all aspects to grant you the highest safety standards, the best service, and the most economical management solutions.

• Block Charter. We provide you with charter solutions sold in bulk at discounted rates.

• Ad-Hoc Charter. We can serve your charter needs on demand, where and when you need us.

NasJet has established itself as the first to market our Private and Commercial AOC Services. We welcome the opportunity to serve you, and look forward to seeing you aboard one of our private jets.

Captain Mohammed Al Gabbas Chief Commercial Officer Cover: Chloë Sevigny Austin Hargrave AUGUST

Contact Details: nasjet.com.sa / +966 11 261 1199 / sales@nasjet.com 9

NasJet FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

NasJet Adds To Fleet Company adds an Airbus A319 and the Falcon 900 NasJet has added two new aircraft models to its fleet - the Airbus A319 and the Falcon 900.

Chief Commercial Officer of NasJet, Captain Mohammed Alqabbas, said this step complements the operational expansion strategy adopted by NasJet seeking to promote and enhance its offerings to clients from both the public and private sectors.

Alqabbas outlined the features of the newly acquired aircraft models, where the Airbus A319 boasts a high operational efficiency with eight hours of flight time and a spacious cabin with capacity for 30 people, while the Falcon 900 enjoys advanced capabilities and features, a flight time of nine hours, an array of entertainment and comfort features, and a capacity for 12 passengers.

Furthermore, Alqabbas reiterated NasJet’s aspirations and efforts to enhance its position within the Middle East’s private aviation sector through offering updated and comprehensive aviation services that include aircraft sales and preparations, consultations, aircraft management, operational support for flights, technical support, and private jet maintenance.

Knowledge Exchange

Image: NasJet has added new aircrafts to its luxury fleet.

NasJet updates leading industry influencers on its operations, plus KSA market developments

NasJet was once again honoured to partake in Corporate Jet Investor Dubai: a conference which attracts a prestigious cross-section of industry movers, shakers and decisionmakers.

The fourth iteration of the event, hosted by The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai, was an opportunity to examine the realities of managing and operating aircraft in the Middle East – while time was also dedicated to discussing matters affecting neighbouring markets.

The midday session served as an opportunity for speakers Captain Mohammed Al Gabbas (NasJet’s CCO ) and Yosef Hafiz (NasJet VP) to take to the stage and provide delegates with a pulse check of 10

both NasJet’s business focus, and of the wider Saudi Arabian private jet landscape – including a timely update on GACA’s newlyimplemented rules and regulations.

“It’s safe to say that, this time last year, people were sceptical of the new GACA Rules and Regulations,” said Hafiz.

“Observers openly wondered how GACA was going to regulate other aircraft that are not registered in Saudi Arabia.”

Said rules came into full effect as of 1 January 2019, and require all aircraft owners – regardless of where they are registered – to be on a Private Operators Certificate (under Part 125) or on a commercial Air Operator

Certificate (under 121 Special Unscheduled).

“GACA has taken a strong stance against aircraft owners and operators, they put their foot down, and did not offer an extension beyond the 1st January deadline,” admits Hafiz. “But they needed to regulate the market, as there were a lot of savvy owners managing an aircraft on their own, with the pilot, and they weren’t doing a good job. There’s been a pushback from some of the aircraft owners but eventually, they are all going to have to comply. They will all have to find an AOC holder, an OC holder, who can maintain their aircraft for them.

It’s predominantly about safety.”

A positive impact is that the ‘grey market’ (where private aircraft owners

NasJet JANUARY 2021: ISSUE 112

For us – as with other operators in Saudi Arabia – aircraft management is where the future lies

conduct illegal charter flights without an AOC), is almost eliminated in Saudi Arabia,” says Hafiz. “It’s almost nil.

We are seeing less and less grey market charter, which was a big issue for management companies in KSA. Cabotage [the transport of cargo or passengers from one destination to another, for a fee, within the same country] has been eliminated completely. Anybody who wants to fly domestically has to be with a Saudi company that has an AOC or an OC in Saudi Arabia.”

From a NasJet-centric aspect, Captain Al Gabbas spoke of the previous 12 months as being, “The best year since we started the business – and there’s a couple of reasons behind that. We merged some services with our sister company FlyNas – so maintenance and operations became one department – and we also decided to 12

remove five Fokker aircraft, which were not needed because there was not enough demand in Saudi Arabia.”

The selling is no surprise, being in line with NasJet’s shift of focus to aircraft management.

Says Hafiz, “For us – as with other operators in Saudi Arabia – aircraft management is where the future lies. As a company we used to do fractional ownership; we used to do ad hoc charter; we used to own the assets. That doesn’t work. It’s not about owning the asset; we’ve learned that over the last 20 years of business. The changes that we have made have shown positive results for us as a company. Our future lies in consolidating all the efforts we have to manage aircraft in Saudi Arabia.”

The captain added, “There are good margins for us there and it’s our core business – we do supplement that

with charter, and a lot of the aircraft that we operate are on a Commercial AOC, so there’s a high demand for charter flights, especially from the government sector. That helps our aircraft owners offset some of the cost.”

Casting an eye to the future, Captain Al Gabbas was direct about his optimism for NasJet operations. Hafiz provided the colour commentary, saying, “The need for jet owners to have an AOC or OC registration has meant that competition among aircraft management companies in Saudi Arabia has continued to rise. This demand has led to aircraft owners seeking providers who can provide them with a better level of service – which has led ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI) directly to NasJet’s doorstep.”

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Radar FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

AIR

To celebrate a decade in Dubai, during which time their combined talents have helped shape Dubai’s gastronomic landscape by ushering in much-needed homegrown restaurant concepts, British chefs Colin Clague, Nick Alvis and Scott Price have devised a six-course menu for a one-nightonly dinner at folly on February 2.

Comprising signature dishes from their restaurants past and present (the likes of Zuma and Table 9 through to RĂźya and folly by Nick & Scott), the menu will be backed by live entertainment.

Visit folly.ae for more information.

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Master craftsmanship, effortless style and timeless appeal; this month’s must-haves and collectibles

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

CHANEL

CAMÉLIA VÉNITIEN EARRINGS Chanel’s new high jewellery collection totals 70 individual treasures, each one a dazzling interpretation of elements associated with The Floating City of Venice, a place much loved and much visited by Gabrielle Chanel during her lifetime. Telling a story over four chapters,

these earrings in yellow gold, diamonds and rock crystal – part of a four-piece set which also includes a spectacular necklace – are a celebration of Chanel’s favourite flower, the camellia. Here its displayed in homage to the world-renowned glasswork of Murano.

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

GIVENCHY

ANTIGONA After celebrating its tenth birthday last year, Givenchy’s signature handbag has treated itself to a makeover, courtesy of new creative director Matthew M. Williams. His Spring/Summer ’21 interpretations reveal a more futuristic edge, with his fondness for

industrial hardware to the fore. It includes the distinctive 4G padlock, custom-designed

by Williams for Givenchy and inspired by the ‘love locks’ that adorn the Pont des Arts in Paris. Other enhancements include elongated handles, anchored lower on the bag’s body.

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

RICHARD MILLE

RM 65-01

The culmination of five years of planning and development, the RM 65-01 is being billed by Richard Mille as the most complex timepiece ever to leave its workshop. One notable nod to this is the addition of a split-second hand to calculate intermediate times, a first for

Richard Mille on an automatic movement.

In another milestone, Richard Mille has developed its first in-house patented rapidwinding mechanism. In all, the RM 65-01 has over 600 components, an amount that translates to immense technical expertise.

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

C H O PA R D

MINI-FROUFROU RING A shining example of the mastery involved in the creation of a collection that’s inspired by the lightness and whiteness of lace, this ring is crafted from ethical gold – as is now a signature of the house – and set with pear-shaped and brilliant-cut diamonds,

totalling 1.04ct. The inspiration of lace was deliberate – its lightness reimagined in jewellery which sees diamonds and gold weaved together to produce pieces that can be worn daily. And who doesn’t want an excuse to wear diamonds every day?

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

T I F FA N Y & C O .

T I F FA N Y T R U E E N G A G E M E N T R I N G Nothing says ‘I Love You’ quite like the gift of a ribbon-wrapped Tiffany blue box, particularly if you open it to find a sparkling diamond nesting inside – as many will do come Valentine’s Day this month. If you’re intent on being on one

knee come February 14, you can be sure to seal the deal with this Tiffany True engagement ring. Crafted from platinum, the diamond sits atop The Tiffany® Setting on a narrow band that’s just 3mm wide.

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

R M SOTHEBY’S

1 9 5 5 J A G U A R D -T Y P E packed with advanced technology. This particular model – offered in its rare, factory-correct red with red interior – was once owned and sold by Bernie Ecclestone for £3,500 ($4,766). Now up for auction, it’s expected to fetch $5.7-$7.5 million.

At the time of its release, the Jaguar D-Type was a radical leap into the future of performance. With its round haunches and small, oval grille, the D-Type presented a friendly face to the world; behind it, however, lurked a fierce competition car 7

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

R I M O WA

THE WEEKENDER Travelling in a new direction, Rimowa has debuted a five-product line of soft-structure bags labelled Never Still, a reference to the always-mobile modern traveller and their need for functional, flexible carriers. Made in Italy and unisex by design, the three

backpacks (small through to large), one tote, and this weekender each feature hallmarks of the brand’s 120-year heritage. Crafted from premium canvas and leather, the weekender can accommodate a 15� laptop and mobile phone in two internal pockets.

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OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Critique FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

Books

AIR

I

n Chatter, author Ethan Kross, an award-winning psychologist, considers the impact of our inner voice; how it’s power can be harnessed for good, while warning of the dangers in conceding to its negativity.

“Stimulating,” says Publisher’s Weekly, while Kirkus Reviews hails it as a “fascinating narrative, fluidly written and packed with insight… [Kross] shows us how we might have better chats with ourselves, ones that make us happier, healthier, and more productive... A book that will truly change minds.”

Fellow author Dan Pink was also full of praise: “I talk to myself. And so do you. Yet this remarkable capacity for introspection can sometimes lead us astray. Ethan Kross has written the definitive work on how to redirect our inner voices away from rumination and self-criticism and toward reflection and self-improvement. Chatter is a profound and practical book – one that will leave you with both a fresh understanding of yourself and new strategies to live a fuller life.”

Another author, Susan Cain, says: “Ethan Kross isn’t just a world-

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renowned scientist, he’s an expert storyteller too. In Chatter, he shows why our inner voice is indispensable, and reveals how we can master it. Urgent, lucid, and compelling, Chatter is the groundbreaking and transformative book the world needs now.”

If you’ve binged on Bridgerton, here’s a book that will sate your appetite before season two airs. A Rogue of One’s Own tells the story of Lady Lucie, who must pit her wits against irresistible rouge and London’s so-called Lord of Sin, Lord Ballentine. “Dunmore creates pure magic with this charming, romantic novel featuring a strong, stubborn heroine and a sexy, slightly-broken hero. Full of romance, humour, and heart, all revolving around the fascinating dynamics of the suffragist movement,” recommends Jennifer Probst in the New York Times.

The Historical Novel Society calls it, “A truly delightful historical romance, with oodles of period detail and lots of laugh out loud moments. Evie Dunmore is an author to watch, and

this book will delight fans of Tessa Dare, Eva Leigh and Julia Quinn.”

Writing in USA Today, Stephanie Marie Thornton is full of praise: “With a whip-smart suffragist heroine and a charming scoundrel of a leading man, this fresh take on historical romance is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year!”

New York Times’ bestselling author Tana French has returned with The Likeness, a novel that tells the story of detective Cassie Maddox, who transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad but is forced to return after an urgent phone call brings her back to an eerie crime scene.

“When you read Ms. French – and she has become required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting – make only one assumption: all of your initial assumptions are wrong,” says the New York Times.

The Wall Street Journal also hailed author French, billing her as, “One of the most distinct and exciting new voices in crime writing.”

Critique FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

Art

About Time: Fashion and Duration. Gallery View, Clock Two. Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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o continue once the gallery exits the current lockdown in the UK, Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace, at the Queen’s Gallery, is a display of the artworks that usually hang in the palace, which is currently undergoing refurbishment. Cue Rubens, Van Dyck, and an entire wall of Rembrandts.

“With no obvious structure to guide us – other than the display of one masterpiece after another – the show makes no demands on theory or understanding. It’s just you and the pictures. And without the glare of Buckingham Palace’s ornate interiors to distract from its impact, most of the art here seems to grow in stature,” suggests Waldemar Januszczak, writing for The Times.

“Stripped of their ornate surroundings, the palace’s pictures are free to be great art again, rather than great furnishings.

Distributed around the clear and logical spaces of the Queen’s Gallery, they can be intimately examined. It’s a significant difference. And its overall effect is to pile-drive home that these monarchical holdings are of a notably high quality… “…Maybe it’s just me, but I had a recurring sense that the pictures that stood out in this new arrangement

were not the ones I was expecting.

Rubens is copiously represented in the royal corridors, and the magnificent self-portrait he painted for the future Charles I in 1623 is a regular visitor to the Queen’s Gallery. But in this show the picture that is presented as a pair to it, the unhelpfully entitled Portrait of Woman from c 1630, is the one that felt revelatory.

“The only time I’ve seen it before was high on the wall in Buckingham Palace, where it was difficult to enjoy or examine. Here it yanks your attention.”

Reviewing for The Evening Standard, Nancy Durrant found favour in how the paintings are displayed. “It’s not just the sheer volume of knockout paintings in these three rooms, though that is pretty extraordinary – it’s also the way they’ve been hung. It’s a simple thing but, unlike in their usual home where they’re packed in, some way up on the wall – imposing, but remote – these have been hung unconventionally low, without any kind of barriers and the ability to get up close without craning is a delight.”

At New York’s the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the pandemic-delayed About Time: Fashion and Duration examines the relationship between

fashion and time through dress designs spanning the past 150 years and designers from Givenchy through to Off-White.

One big takeaway for Refinery 29’s Irina Grechko was how it put in mind how brands have had to think differently due to the pandemic. “This seems to be the conclusion that ‘About Time’ wants you to arrive at, with the exhibition ending with one of the few non-black looks in the exhibit: a white patchwork gown from Victor&Rolf’s spring/summer 2020 haute couture collection. Made from leftover fabric swatches, the strapless gown – shown suspended above ground in its own mini-room – is, according to the museum notes, a metaphor for the future of fashion, one that includes collaboration and sustainability.”

It’s a feeling shared by Steff Yotka, writing for US Vogue. “The industry is markedly aware of overproduction and over consumption, and yet staying in business means soldiering on down the path of more, more, more. It’s an idea that is illustrated, perhaps unintentionally, with the inclusion of designers that history has forgotten due in part to their unwillingness to play fashion’s more-is-more game.”

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Art & Design

AIR

FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

Crystal Clear Blurring the boundaries between nature and civilisation, the colourful work of Crystal Fischetti lights up London’s hottest new gallery this month WORDS CARU SANDERS

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AIR

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rtist Crystal Fischetti is in her central London warehouse apartment preparing for her first solo show in London’s Grove Square Galleries, an exciting new gallery space that opened in autumn 2020.

The artist is writing out her Christmas cards and reading books, thanks to a fractured toe which has slowed down the breakneck speed that comes with pre-show preparation. “It was a lesson from the spirits,” she smiles knowingly, “telling me I need to slow down and do things at a steadier pace. I’m feeling bizarrely grateful and blissful that I’ve received the message.”

Thanking the universe for a broken bone, in the way only a true mystic can, the tone is set for our two-hour pow wow on the metaphysical and the alchemical. Some painting talk cuts through an abundance of cosmic chatter and, given our current state of global upheaval and a new receptiveness to spirituality, Crystal Fischetti feels exhilaratingly of-the-moment.

Of dual heritage, the offspring of an Italian father and Colombian mother, Fischetti’s childhood was spent living between London and Rome. She trained as a dancer and performed professionally until her teens. Meanwhile, her formal education was suitably bohemian. At a wacky independent London school that Ab Fab’s Edina Monsoon might have fancied for Saffy, Fischetti practiced transcendental meditation and daily yoga alongside Latin and Ancient Greek.

After graduating with a degree in Fine Art from Leeds University and an MA from Chelsea College of Art, she made her solo show debut in New York, before moving to L.A., where she would take to the streets, interacting with the public as she painted. During her years in the City of Angels, she made art, painted murals and saw much of Hollywood’s glitz, also glimpsing its more sinister underbelly. Then Covid struck. She decided to leave the US for Mexico the day before America closed its borders and remained there until she returned to London in the autumn. Once she did, Serena Dunn of Grove Square Galleries asked to represent her in a solo show, Fischetti’s silver lining to 2020.

Defined by her intrigue and place within the mystical, Fischetti is a healer as well as an artist. These two arguably intuitive and ultimately – in her case – entwined practices represent the 22

Opening pages, from left to right: Happiness is Transient, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Grove Square Galleries; Crystal Fischetti in the studio. Photo © Paul Aitchison Above: Vision Quest, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Grove Square Galleries Opposite: The Moon, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Grove Square Galleries

connection to humanity as a cosmic whole. Fluent in four languages, thanks to her parents, in addition to making art, she teaches it as therapy to students all over the world via one-to-one tuition, as well as a subscription-based workshop and tutorial service. She calls this her ancestral responsibility, “to be a light shower,” steering clear of the dark arts. “It’s important that a shaman performs their healing work as a second job, not the first,” she explains.

In her practice of abstract painting to

performance art, she follows in the path of other female troubadours such as Judy Chicago, Hilma af Klint and Marina Abramovic who have explored ideas of ritual and mysticism in their art. During her lifetime (1862-1944), Hilma af Klint alleged to have communicated with spirits through séances, further claiming to be under their influence at times.

The bridge between art and spirituality forms the common thread in Fischetti’s work and ancestral background. As a descendent of a long line of shamans

dating back 500 years on her mother’s side, Fischetti explains that healing is part of her DNA, but it wasn’t immediately apparent how to take this out of the context of her own painting.

Her grandmother was a fully indigenous shaman who spoke in Quecha, the surviving language of the Inca empire. Her mother is clairvoyant, though “she will not thank me for saying this,” says Fischetti.

Beginning this month and running until the end of March, the London gallery will present her solo exhibition. Entitled Hello Again, it will feature three dozen new paintings. Symbolic of Fischetti’s 36 years, each work is a visual journal of the past year. She’s excited about transforming the white cube into an immersive colour scape, with canvasses on the walls and hanging loosely from structures.

The works have been created through

a process of staining, soaking and dripping paint onto fabric, representing visible and invisible narratives.

The finished pieces will be presented as an immersive canopy aimed at blurring the boundaries between nature and civilisation, culture and environment.

Inspired by some of her insights gleaned from communicating beyond the veil, she says that she wants to draw people in. “Paintings that aren’t in frames bring in community,” she notes.

All artworks are created from Fischetti’s own bedsheets. She makes paint from her own botanical dyes and is currently drying flowers in her kitchen so she can turn them into paint. “I want to start making my own,” she says. “Our environment is planet Earth. In the first lockdown, we saw how the Earth regenerated when pollution reduced.

We need to coordinate and collaborate with Gaia.”

As one of the most exciting new artists to arrive on the scene, with the intellect, talent and personal story to back-up the hype, Fischetti has found herself in a great place. “Things have come full circle. I’ve signed to a gallery that really sees me and the work.”

As for the current global situation, she acknowledges that historically and artistically, now will be a fascinating period to look back on.

She is pragmatic in her reasoning, “Well, you either make lemons from lemonade or leave them on the floor.”

Hello Again shows at Grove Square Galleries from February 11-April 9 grovesquaregalleries.com

Paintings that aren’t in frames bring in community

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Timepieces

FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

Ticking the Ox Chinese New Year sees the world’s finest watchmakers shine the spotlight on the hardworking ox

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AIR

ne of the biggest celebrations in southeast Asia, Chinese New Year centres around the traditional lunar calendar and marks the end of winter and the start of spring. Celebrations begin on the day of the first new moon between 21 January and 20 February and continue for 15 days.

The Chinese zodiac, or shengxiao (roughly translated as ‘born resembling’), is based on a repeating cycle of 12 years, with each year, and those born during it, being represented by an animal and its reputed attributes.

For 2021, the Lunar New Year will begin on 12 February and will welcome in the Year of the Ox. A symbol of diligence, persistence, and honesty, the ox is the second of the Chinese zodiac animals (following the rat who, according to legend, cheekily jumped into first place with a little help from the generous ox) and those born under the sign are valued for being intelligent, reliable and known for their ability to attain goals without the constant need for congratulations or praise.

Although, traditionally, watches and clocks are never given as gifts during Chinese New Year, they are often created to mark the year itself

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and bought to be worn as memories of events that took place in that time.

That, in turn, has allowed watchmakers to flex their creative muscles, with each Chinese New Year now marked by everdaring pieces.

Choosing to focus on the significance of colour in Chinese culture, rather than the strength of the ox itself, Bulgari is celebrating 12 February with two Lvcea models. The red accents on the watches symbolise luck and happiness, while the hue is also said to ward off evil. One model has a simple mother-of-pearl dial and bordeaux alligator-leather strap, the second has an intricate, openworked dial that incorporates the letters of the brand name in gold and diamonds. Housed in a 33mm, gem-set, rose-gold case, the watch is presented on a bright-red, alligator-leather strap.

With the L.U.C XP watch for Chinese New Year, Chopard once again showcases the rare Japanese Urushi technique combining lacquer and gold powder. A symbol of nature uniting with agriculture, the hard-working, golden ox has been created in the Yamada Heiando workshop by master lacquer artist Minori Koizumi. Housed in a 39.5mm case of ethical rose-gold is a self-winding L.U.C 96.17-L in-house

Credit: @Tracey Llewellyn / Telegraph Media Group Limited 2021

WORDS: TRACEY LLEWELLYN

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Previous page: Vacheron Constantin Right, clockwise from top: Bulgari; artisans in the workshop at Chopard create the L.U.C XP watch

AIR

Chopard’s celebratory golden ox has been created in the Yamada Heiando workshop by master lacquer artist Minori Koizumi

calibre with 65 hours of power reserve.

As is now standard with Chinese zodiac watches, it is made in a limited edition of 88-pieces – eight being a lucky number in Chinese culture.

A new addition to Dior’s Grand Bal family, the Grand Bal Jardin Fleuri takes a more esoteric approach to Chinese New Year by focusing on the return of spring rather than the zodiac itself. Featuring Dior’s unique self-winding movement with dial-side oscillating weight, the Grand Bal Jardin Fleuri portrays the arrival of spring through a mystical garden brought to life in gold, diamonds, pink sapphires and rubies set on the rotor. The 36mm steel and pink-gold case houses an embossed, red, mother-of-pearl dial that is adorned with delicate flecks of gold. The watch is available in a limited edition of 88 pieces.

Also a limited edition (of just eight pieces), Harry Winston’s tribute to the Chinese Year of the Ox, the Premier Chinese New Year Ox Automatic, combines red and gold representing good fortune and prosperity. The 36mm, mother-of-pearl dial is coloured red and engraved with a stylised mountain scene against which is an applied, rose-gold and diamond ox, his hoof raised, ready for action. The off-centred, diamond-set hours-andminutes dial sits just below a large 26

emerald-cut diamond at 12 o’clock, while more gems adorn the watch’s lugs and bezel. Inside the case is a self-winding movement with rosegold, skeletonised rotor visible through the exhibition caseback.

The philosophy at Jacob and Co. is ‘why celebrate one symbol when you can honour all 12 at once’?

The 50mm Astronomia Tourbillon Chinese Zodiac has a rose-gold and sapphire crystal case, housing Jacob & Co.’s famed four-armed, vertical, triple-axis tourbillon movement, which is suspended above a gold and aventurine base that showcases the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. Hours and minutes are read from a subdial at three o’clock. The tourbillon cage, containing the balance wheel, hairspring and escape wheel, is balanced out by a 1ct, 288-facet, ‘Jacob-cut’ diamond and a magnesium lacquered globe, both of which rotate in 30 seconds on two axes. The watch is limited to 12 examples.

Jaquet Droz’ connections to China stretch back to the 18th century and, nearly 250 years later, the house continues to celebrate the Spring Festival with limited-edition timepieces. This year’s selection includes a 41mm red-gold Petite Heure Minute watch with off-centred dial featuring an ivory grand feu

enamel finish with miniature painting of an ox grazing in front of mistcovered mountains (there is also a gem-set 35mm version). The watch has been created in a limited series of eight pieces.

Just 12 examples of Vacheron Constantin’s tribute to Chinese New Year – the Legend of the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Ox – will be made in a 40mm platinum case (a further 12 will be available in pink gold).

The surface of the generous dial is etched with a leaf design before the grand feu enamel technique is employed to create an intense blue colour. A sculpted and hand-engraved, platinum ox sits at the dial centre. The Calibre 2460 G4 movement inside the case provides a hands-free display that provides a dragging hours and minutes indication and a jumping day and date.

Lastly, Piaget has given its ultrathin Altiplano a Chinese New Year makeover with a grand-feu cloisonné dial designed by enamel maestro Anita Porchet. The 38mm, diamondset, white-gold watch holds a dial with an image created by a 4,000-year-old decorative technique where gold wire is used to segment areas that are then filled with enamel before being fired multiple times in temperatures of more than 800°C.

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Jewellery FEBRUARY 2021 : ISSUE 113

Love Story

Why the seminal designs of the late Aldo Cipullo are more timely than ever WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

T

he greatest love stories always feature a chapter of heartache.

Aldo Cipullo’s chapter opens with him wide awake in his New York apartment at 3am, unable to sleep for thoughts of a broken love affair. “I felt very sad. I wanted something no one could take away from me. I was searching for a permanent symbol of love,” he is quoted as saying in the new book Cipullo: Making Jewelry Modern, published this month by Assouline.

His search would have the happy ending he craved, when his desire to find a way to hold onto love, to make it everlasting, resulted in his design of the Love bracelet for Cartier, an overnight success that remains a truly iconic piece of jewellery, one that belongs to Aldo as much as Cartier – to this day, he remains the only Cartier designer to have his signature engraved on 0ne of their designs.

“I think he would be extremely proud [of that fact],” says the book’s author, jewellery historian Vivienne Becker. “It was important to him to be a named designer, because he felt so strongly about his jewellery. But also because, instinctively, he understood the cult of individuality that was becoming so important at the time. He had a real gift for knowing what people wanted, needed. He understood that jewellery is intensely personal and that it was important for clients to know there was a strong, personal point of view behind the design, a human imprint.”

Aldo’s follow up design for Cartier,

the Nail, has proved equally timeless, with the designs for both pieces rooted in the appeal of the typical American hardware store. “Jewellery was so much more, he believed, than drawing pretty pictures: structure, craftsmanship, the relationship between art and craft were absolutely essential,” says Becker, who suggests that the hardware store transcended its purpose. “I think it was very much part of New York culture in the 70s. New York was an industrial city, even if that was beginning to disappear as the city descended into bankruptcy.

It was also linked to machines, to the cars that Aldo loved – a true Italian – and he was entranced by hardware stores, which I understand; there is something deeply appealing about the gleaming brass hardware parts, their abundance, intriguing shapes. Hardware represented the essence of urban life, and the hard-edged, toughness of life in New York in the late 60s and 70s. It was a way of subverting the formality and preciousness and authority of fine jewellery, making it younger, breaking down age-old associations of jewellery with status and wealth.”

Aldo Cipullo was born in Rome in 1942, one of four siblings. His passion for jewellery design was ignited by his father, Giuseppe, himself a costumejewellery manufacturer. But Aldo’s talents weren’t long for The Eternal City.

“Growing up in Rome, in the 40s and 50s, Aldo was enmeshed in Italy’s deep traditions, in the past, in history, which must have felt suffocating, insular and

These pages, from left to right: Aldo wearing a Scorpio pendant and a Nail bracelet, c. 1977. Photo Oscar Buitrago, courtesy of Renato Cipullo; one of the very first Love bracelets, formerly belonging to Cartier president Michael Thomas, who engaged Aldo Cipullo as a designer in 1969. Photo Nils Herrmann, Collection Cartier © Cartier 29

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Structure, craftsmanship, the relationship “ between art and craft were absolutely essential ” out of touch with the modern world; particularly suffocating for Aldo’s strong creative impulse, his curiosity, his energy. America represented a whole new world, a world of modernity, of fast cars, but also romance, the romance of the movies, the glamour of Hollywood and New York – we know that Aldo was entranced by Westerns, and by the cowboy culture, clothes, the blue jeans, and hat that he loved to wear. This all played into his febrile imagination.”

In New York, Aldo found a culture and circle of friends that would routinely fire his creative spark. Such friends included the most famous artist of the time, Andy Warhol. “They were friends in the 60s and 70s, both regular visitors to Studio 54,” says Becker. “Aldo was impressed

by Warhol’s perception of advertising as a modern art form, by his mastery of advertising, and the way in which Warhol turned everyday, mundane objects into art – there’s a parallel here with Aldo’s interpretation of hardware, the screwhead, nail, bolt, wrench, his transformation of these industrial objects into gold jewels. I think too he must have been influenced by Warhol’s understanding of popular American culture and what a huge influence it was exerting on art and design at that particular time.”

Aldo’s New York journey began at David Webb, before he moved onto a coveted role at Tiffany & Co. where his creativity came to the fore. “Talent and ingenuity were particularly highly prized in New York at the time. A time of newness and fresh creative energy, which Aldo had in abundance,“ says Becker of Aldo’s transfer 30

to Tiffany. “I love the jewels he designed for Tiffany – especially the African Mask brooches. They show Aldo’s intellect, the depth of his understanding of art forms, and in particular his understanding of the meanings and rituals of jewels in all cultures.”

As Becker suggests, Aldo’s work was born of intense study. “I think this depth of research and Aldo’s cultivated approach to design has been overlooked.

It’s a very important part of his work – this detailed research, his understanding of influences and inspirations allowed him to create jewels that seem simple, but are in fact layered with meaning; the seeming simplicity is, in fact, true design excellence.”

Aldo died in 1984 while only 42, the result of two heart attacks suffered on the same day. Yet it’s not just those iconic Cartier designs that furnish his legacy.

“I think we are only just beginning to appreciate Aldo’s huge influence on modern jewellery,” suggests Becker. “He was instrumental in turning the tide of jewellery design in the 60s and 70s, away from formality, from outdated conventions and the associations of the jewel – which he would have understood from his upbringing in Italy, as in Europe, jewellery was linked to royalty, nobility, to authority. And Aldo loved the fact that America was democratic, unhindered in its approach to jewellery, in its appreciation of adornment.

“He saw that the new generation – rebellious, dynamic, barrier-breaking socially, culturally and sexually – wanted to say something different through their jewellery; that jewellery had the power

to share their ideas, the changes they were bringing about. In the same way he understood New York’s meeting of high and low culture in the 70s, and he was able to interpret that in his designs – it is a philosophy that is still hugely important and influential. Aldo Cipullo made jewellery modern.”

It doesn’t take the greatest leap of one’s imagination to think that Aldo would have excelled were he still designing jewellery today.

“Part of Aldo’s gift was having his finger firmly on the social and cultural pulse and then having the talent, creativity and understanding of design to be able to translate that, encapsulate and distil it into a jewel,” agrees Becker.

“He would certainly have been inspired by the Millennial generation and their very new, fresh attitude to jewellery, to possessions in general – he would have been able to tap into their quest for experience above material possessions, and in turn they would have responded to his drive, his modernity and most of all to his authenticity. He would also have understood, and felt very acutely, the heightened emotions generated by the pandemic, and the need for jewels that celebrate relationships in new ways; jewels worn to make us feel safe, and loved. This is the year we need to celebrate and invoke Love.”

Aldo’s gift to jewellery design was also a gift to all. The gift of love. A gift that’s as timeless, as cherished, as Aldo’s creations.

Cipullo: Making Jewelry Moden, by Vivienne Becker, is out now, published

by Assouline.

These pages, from left to right: bracelet in 18-karat yellow gold set with carnelian, designed by Aldo Cipullo for Cartier, 1972.

Courtesy Sotheby’s, Inc. © September 23, 2014; Love brooch in yellow gold with a screwhead for the letter O, designed by Aldo Cipullo for Cartier, 1973. Photo Steven DeVilbiss © Assouline

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Forever the epitome of New York City cool, ChloĂŤ Sevigny talks to Lynette Nylander

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he day after the US presidential election and with a final verdict still some way off, uncertainty looms in the New York air.

Joe Biden’s win will be announced a few days later, bringing with it an atmosphere of jubilation. But for now a usually bustling street in Soho is mostly boarded up, save for a few outdoor dining spots.

Waiting outside one of these, conspicuously dressed in a black jacket and shades, is Chloë Sevigny.

And if from a distance she is a vision of slightly intimidating, nonchalant NYC cool, in reality she is – thankfully – sweet and affable, with the hearty chuckle of someone who doesn’t take herself half as seriously as the rest of the world does. She greets the Supreme skaters who sit at a nearby table just as warmly as the maître d’, is happy to trade tips for securing vintage finds and says she’s more likely to be binge watching The Criterion Collection than anything else these days.

“Last time [in 2016] I was in Florida filming Bloodline, and I watched it with the ADs,” she explains of her election-night experience, as we nestle into a two-top and an enthusiastic waitress, clearly a little starstruck, takes an order of a kale salad and eggs. “This time, there were just four of us. We were having Martinis and pizza and just watching the news.

But then nothing happened.”

I ask if the recent birth of her son Vanja (who arrived last May) has changed her perspective on the severity of what is at stake. “I am more hopeful in another four years there’ll be some shifts. We still have the Supreme Court and all that to be stressed about.

It’s terrifying, but maybe four years of the Democrats will mean more 34

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I always struggle with having low self-esteem. I have struggled with my confidence. I feel like that’s a problem of mine

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liberal judges,” she says hopefully.

Clearly, it’s been a year of monumental change for Sevigny. “I was worried about the pregnancy. I was filming when I was pregnant and I’d had a few situations before when I was younger [with previous partners] when it didn’t work out. I didn’t tell anyone on the cast so it was hard to be alone and not really be able to confide in anyone except a few people on production and PAs who had to know for insurance purposes. I just didn’t want to create any unnecessary drama.

“Then with Covid, I had planned for Sinisa [Mackovic, her fiancé and the director of New York’s Karma Art Gallery] and my doula to attend, but then the rules changed and people weren’t allowed in the delivery room.

We didn’t know what was going to happen. It was very stressful. I had like one whole day of really feeling sorry for myself, crying all day and having a super heightened anxiety attack at the thought of being alone in the room. I posted something about how I was thinking about all the other mothers out there. All these women were like, ‘The father of my child wasn’t there: he was at war.’ So many women and all these stories of women put into perspective how privileged I was. So I had to get myself in check

and be like, “Right, I am gonna be okay!” And then thankfully they changed the rules on delivery room guests the day before I gave birth.

“I did have certain expectations of how I wanted to deliver him and they didn’t come true,” she continues.

“He had to be induced because he was late and my fluids were low and my blood pressure was up, but really he’s been a really easy baby. So we’re really lucky. Like no colic, which I think can really wear on relationships.

He’s barely ever cried,” she says proudly as she shares iPhone snaps of a smiley and wide-eyed Vanja.

Sevigny, now 46, remains as synonymous with New York City as a yellow cab, the Chrysler Building and Lady Liberty. Perhaps because she’s been documented most days of her life with the city as a backdrop.

Nineties East Village, Noughties Brooklyn (she’s a loyal Manhattanite though there was a short stint in Park Slope) and now in Soho with a stroller in tow: the paparazzi pictures of her through the years serve both as a document of the changes in the city just as much as in her own life.

Her story is a part of New York folklore as well. Originally from Darien, Connecticut, she would skip school to thrift and roam in the city.

She was subsequently discovered by Andrea Lee Linett, the fashion editor at Sassy magazine, who was drawn to her offbeat styling. Later made an intern, she regularly modelled for the magazine and reached cult-like status thanks to The New Yorker’s Jay McInerney, whose 6,000-word profile cemented her as the It thing of 1994.

Quickly dubbed the coolest girl in the world, she went on to appear in music videos for Sonic Youth and the

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Credit: Lynette Nylander/The Evening Standard/The Interview People

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I think because of my It girl persona, a lot is projected on to me from people in the industry and perhaps that gets in the way of considering me for roles

Lemonheads and was working at the now-legendary Liquid Sky boutique on Lafayette Street when her first film, Larry Clark’s Kids, became a cult hit.

Beloved by film heavyweights Jim Jarmusch and Whit Stillman as well as moonlighting as the face of some of fashion’s taste-maker brands such as Miu Miu, Vivienne Westwood, Simone Rocha and JW Anderson, her appeal is expansive and enduring.

And so it continues. Her latest role – the one she was filming while pregnant – is in We Are Who We Are, an HBO series in which she plays Sarah Wilson, an army colonel who moves to an American military base with her wife and her 14-year-old son [played by Jack Dylan Grazer] in a temperamental time for the family. It’s directed by Luca Call Me By Your Name Guadagnino. “I met him in Cannes two years ago. We had a meeting, a sit-down. I think my agent pitched me to him. He was looking at older actresses for the role and she pitched me and we sat down and just really got on. We met in the Hôtel Martinez. It was packed and he had a whole team of assistants or producers and whatnot. And we just sat at another table and had chicken fingers.”

As her character was one of the few female colonels on the army base, Sevigny spent her time trying to understand the nuances of the character as well as the men around her. “I studied Jack [Dylan Grazer] and even asked for a military advisor on set every time that I had a scene, so he could hold my hand through everything and make sure I was

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doing everything correctly. Girls I knew. I am a girly-girl at heart,” she says through bites of salad.

“I think the biggest challenge personally was being away from home for so long and convincing myself that I would be convincing in the performance, which is always a little tricky for me,” she continues. “I always struggle with having low self-esteem.

I have struggled with my confidence.

Like, am I going to be convincing?

Am I going to really be able to own it?

I feel like that’s a problem of mine. I think because of my It girl persona, a lot is projected on to me from people in the industry and perhaps that gets in the way of considering me for roles.

They want to just be able to project whatever they want on to you.”

With all that success in the indie world (she has scooped a Golden Globe for Big Love and Academy Award nomination for Boys Don’t Cry), I ask if there is a desire to take on more mainstream roles. Is a J-Lo-style romcom in the offing? ‘I’d probably be like the sidekick. I wouldn’t be the star.

Right? Like I was in conversation to be in Legally Blonde (as Selma Blair’s character Vivian Kensington) all those years ago. I don’t know if I necessarily had the offer but I think we did have a talk about it. I should have been in that movie, it’s a great movie! I should have been in Never Been Kissed, too! Leelee Sobieski’s part was an option — but see, I am the sidekick!”

Carving out a space behind the camera, Sevigny has in recent times moved into directing. She has made

interested in, but they are always on option. I’d like to make something like an ET,” she grins, describing her love of supernatural film.

She notes her profile has helped her swerve hurdles that other female directors may encounter. “No doubt [my profile has] helped me, and people are interested in me because of my shorts. I think now because of Covid, who knows? I don’t know how many indie features were getting made but I hope it’s feasible if it was a good script.

People respond to the material first.”

For the immediate future, with the filming of season two of Russian Doll, her Netflix series created by best friend Natasha Lyonne, on hold due to the pandemic, Sevigny finds herself, like the rest of the world, on hold. But unlike the rest of the world, she is quite happy about that fact. “There’s just this pressure now in interviews…like, ‘What are you doing now?’ or ‘What’s coming out?’ she says. “I feel like there’s so much content always. And people working all the time means that there’s like this pressure that I always have to be making something. Is it okay to not be right now? And to just be with the kid, you know? I am lucky my fiancé is very supportive of what I choose to do. My biggest concern is I don’t want him to not find me attractive because I’m not driven. Or being perceived as being driven enough right now, like I am not trying to write something or direct something or act in something… if I’m just, like, at home with the kid.”

She smiles. “I mean, I’ve been working since I was 19!

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N E X T L E V E L LU X U RY Legendary engineering expertise and a heritage of craftsmanship characterise the iconic Mercedes S-Class, but now it’s artificial intelligence that has taken it to the top of the class.

Myriad innovations in MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience) in areas such as driver assistance, protection and interaction, make this a model unlike any other on the road, a model that redefines the modern luxury sedan while taking a giant leap towards autonomous driving.

This is the car of the future. The car of right now.

ART DIRECTOR: KERRI BENNETT PHOTOGRAPHER: GREG ADAMSKI, MMG ARTIST

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Page 3 Suit: Berluti Top: Berluti Page 4 & 5 Coat: Mr P Suit: Loro Piana Shoes: Santoni Glasses: Brioni Page 8 Suit: Brunello Cucinelli Shirt: Brunello Cucinelli Shoes: Mr P

Stylist Gemma Jones Model Jasmin MMG Models Location ME Dubai melia.com

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Ford Focused Despite a year of personal grief and tough business decisions, Tom Ford, fashion’s most fabulous man, is still as entertaining as ever WORDS: LAURA CRAIK

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iven his notorious penchant for perfection — this is a man who rearranges the lights, flowers and even other peoples’ clothes if they fall short of his exacting eye – I’m relieved to be talking to the fashion designer Tom Ford over the phone, thus sparing him the pain of my less than immaculately curated Zoom background. “I do a lot of Zoom calls,” he says, speaking from his Los Angeles home. “Actually they have helped with my vanity. At the beginning of lockdown I was concerned about how I looked. But everyone looks like hell on Zoom. Who cares?” He pauses.

“OK, I haven’t given up completely. I do have a ring light that goes around my computer and throws semi-perfect light so I look like a newscaster. I also have a little stand that makes my computer slightly above eye level.”

So far, so Tom. Does he have a lockdown uniform? A three-piece suit, perhaps? “I’m wearing it right now,” he says. “White T-shirt, jeans shirt, jeans and black boots.” Dare I ask whether he has ever worn a pair of sweatpants? “I have. I don’t find them particularly flattering.

Knitwear is a big part of my collection and has sold really well throughout this pandemic. I don’t feel well in knitwear, it’s a little too soft for me. I feel better in something a bit harder.

I feel too vulnerable in sweatpants.”

It’s a reassuringly fitting image: the man who redefined both sex and luxury as head of Gucci (1994-2004) and Yves Saint Laurent (1999-2004) and directed two films (A Single Man, 2009, and Nocturnal Animals, 2016) as his side hustle still feels vulnerable sometimes, just like the rest of us.

The Texan-born 59-year-old designer, who founded his own label in 2006 and has won countless awards for his endeavours in both fashion and film, has most of Hollywood on speed dial.

At his most recent show in Los Angeles, Jennifer Lopez, Miley Cyrus and Renée Zellweger jostled on the front row alongside Anna Wintour. Being locked down in Los Angeles with his partner of more than 30 years and their eight-year-old son, Jack, is a far cry from his usual all-gloss lifestyle, which sees him flit between London and LA. Like every fashion designer Ford has had to adapt his business radically. That his brand is so big – 42

his eponymous clothing label turns over $2 billion a year, while Tom Ford Beauty turns over $1 billion – has its own particular challenges. Business, he says, has been incredibly tough.

“I’ve had to furlough and let so many people go. It has been brutal. As a non-essential business I’m not allowed to work in my office. I’m not allowed to have an atelier. Our sewing people are sewing from home. When the clothes are ready we set up a tent in our parking lot, because we have to be outside. We have a nurse on site who tests everyone before we even have the fittings. And it has not let up. Jack has only seen another child three times in the past eight months.

But I get to see him all the time. We have lunch together every day. So there are great things too. I’ve learnt that, as a company, we don’t need to travel quite as much as we did. I don’t have to go to any of these social red carpet events. Personally I hate them.”

My clothes are not ‘meant to be thrown

away. If you stay thin you can wear them your whole life

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Opening page: Tom Ford wearing the Ocean Plastic Watch, shot by Simon Perry All other images: images from Tom Ford SS21 Women’s Collection lookbook

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Ford’s father died in March last year, aged 88. “I was and still am deeply sad, but I didn’t cry until I had to get on the phone and give a talk to everyone in the company to let a lot of them know they were going to have to be furloughed,” he says. “I burst into tears. That part has been incredibly hard. And I’m one of the lucky ones. It has been so hard on so many people. Everyone has had to look inward, evaluate their lives and reassess what’s important.”

I wonder whether Ford, forced into remaining at home, has become a sourdough-baking cliché like the rest of us. “I’m a terrible cook,” he laughs. “But Richard is really good. I can microwave some frozen doughnuts, always one of my main food groups, and I’m afraid it has become even more so. Luckily I haven’t gained any Covid weight.”

Extremely lucky, given his love of Percy Pigs. “Someone sent me a huge box for my birthday. I have to say I ate them so quickly. But I eat the vegan ones now. I can’t have porcine gelatine. The texture is not quite as good, but that’s life.”

Tom Ford the vegan has also become Tom Ford the sustainable, banning single-use plastics from his home and offices. For a fashion colossus who reinvented luxury during his tenures at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, reinventing sustainability is a cinch, as his first sustainable watch, which launched in November, attests. “The band, the buckle, the case and the box are made of ocean plastic,” he says proudly. Being Ford, he has secured exclusive rights to a specific type of ocean plastic that has been heat-treated to look chic as well as being durable.

And while he would be the first to admit that Tom Ford isn’t immediately thought of as an ethical luxury brand – his close friend Stella McCartney would lay first claim to that – he insists its ethos is, at heart, sustainable.

“Most of the things I create are made of natural fibres, and my clothes are not meant to be thrown away. If you stay thin you can wear them your whole life. If you don’t you can give them to your kids or auction them, sometimes for more than you paid for them. So they’re not disposable, hopefully. They’re beautifully made and if you take care of them they will last for multiple generations.”

Even before the pandemic hit,

fatherhood had caused him to think more about the sort of world he would be leaving behind. “Jack goes to a very liberal school and this [sustainability] is something that is drilled into their heads. He’s very conscious. ‘Dad, turn the lights off.’ ‘Don’t run the water.’ That’s all very, very important to the younger generation.”

While our inability to travel has at least been good for the planet, like everyone else Ford misses it,

both personally and professionally.

As chairman of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) he is currently working on making American fashion great again after the decimation caused by the pandemic. “I think the first real fashion-show season will be in fall 2021,” he says. “I just hope that with the vaccine, the pandemic is under control by then. I’m hopeful that it will be.”

It has been so hard on so many people.

‘Everyone has had to look inward, evaluate their lives and reassess what’s important ’

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The history books Why rare and first edition books are flying off the shelves WORDS: EILIDH HARGREAVES

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etreating into your own library, surrounded by legions of your favourite books, is one of the few activities not to hit the chopping block this past year.

Delving into fantasy worlds from Manderley to Mordor under a warming cashmere throw will surely help distract you from the tribulations of the past few twelve months.

Antiquarian book entrepreneur Peter Harrington, 45, who goes professionally and personally by the nickname Pom, has found such risk-free enjoyments are in high demand. “We have been counting our lucky stars,” he says.

“Books have always sold very well over the internet, and now the second-hand market has doubled. This period has been very kind to our industry.”

Harrington is the owner of a London-based family business, the first- and limited-edition bookseller Peter Harrington Rare Books, and its accompanying The Chelsea Bindery. He is a collector himself, and among his prized possessions is the actor Christopher Lee’s own copy of The Wicker Man (the 1978 novel of the horror film Lee starred in), which sits on his desk.

Peter Harrington Rare Books was founded by Harrington’s late father (also Peter) in 1969 on King’s Road.

In 1997 they moved to the Fulham Road store where Harrington now sits, surrounded by tens of millions of pounds-worth of rare books and artworks. Here, he leafs through a 15th-century Greek first edition of Homer’s The Odyssey. There’s a first edition of The Elvis Presley Story, edited by James Gregory (signed by the star, naturally), next to a Klimt print, and a first-edition advance copy of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, which is on sale for £175,000 ($238,000).

(Engels would not have approved.)

Not even the oldest of these books is in a crumbly state, thanks to the work of The Chelsea Bindery, which specialises in one-of-a-kind bindings to protect the rarest of books. The company restores books and makes boxes to house them. “The bulk of the Bindery’s work revolves around rebinding first and special editions of 20th-century titles that we acquire [generally at auction], to give them a

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The inside cover of every book is branded ‘The Chelsea Bindery’ in gold

fresh lease of life,” says Harrington.

And these touch-ups can in fact increase, not decrease, the value of certain books. “We only rebind [those] that are lacking the original dust jacket, or on which the cloth is faded and tatty,” says The Chelsea Bindery manager Emma Doyle, 46.

“However, the pages are all nice and clean, so we are giving a battered copy of a first edition a refresh.”

“We occasionally accept commissions for special bindings – usually of books that have sentimental value,” Harrington adds. And working with the bookshop, clients can commission entire libraries. A 1,000-piece collection charting the history of Hawaii is nearing completion and stacked neatly to my left, awaiting the Bindery’s museum-grade, acid-free boxes before it is shipped out to become the centrepiece of a big Hawaiian mansion – a seven-figure proposition.

Tucked away in a redbrick building

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a short drive away in Battersea, The Chelsea Bindery is a 2,000 sq ft woodbeamed workshop that’s teeming with books, stacked on workbenches and bookshelves. At work are five artisans, who together bind 150 books a year. Every nook is filled with spindly tools on hotplates, colourful sheets of leather, and a bounty of old trade-specific machines, among them a 90-year-old Intertype typesetter that once belonged to the Zaehnsdorf bindery in Bermondsey, London.

In celebration of its 20th year, The Chelsea Bindery’s latest catalogue offers a selection of greatest hits. A first edition of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) has been rebound with a candy-pink leather cover featuring a black onlay (a decorative element attached to the surface) of Holly Golightly, with real diamonds pressed into her tiara and necklace.

This will set its reader back £2,750 ($3,735), and the design has proven to

Opening pages: shelves inside Peter Harrington’s Dover Street store in London These pages, from left to right: an artisan at work; equipment at The Chelsea Bindery; a 90-year-old Intertype typesetter

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‘

Comparing what we do with another binder is like comparing a RollsRoyce to a Ford. It’s just not the same

’

Opposite: Peter ‘Pom’ Harrington This page: selection of tools used at The Chelsea Bindery

be particularly popular, says Doyle.

Also in the catalogue is a first edition Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone with an elaborate onlay of the Hogwarts Express (£12,500, $17,000); a limited edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with playing cards darting across its cover (£5,000, $6,792); and a first edition of Tarzan of the Apes with an onlay of the protagonist sitting in the trees, carved out in the rust red, forest green, pink and yellow of Africa (£4,000, $5,434).

London was once a hub for bookbinding, which head binder Tony Smith, 51, remembers, having started his apprenticeship at Zaehnsdorf fine bindery in 1985. But now such skill is perhaps even more rare than the books. “Comparing what we do with another binder is like comparing a Rolls-Royce to a Ford. It’s just not the same,” says Smith. In his hands, the average binding from start to finish takes six to eight weeks, including drying time, but in some cases it is a months-long project.

The craftsmen and women of The Chelsea Bindery clean the books and their original spines with brushes and

paste before they are rounded with a small hammer. New cover boards are trimmed in a guillotine-like machine, and they give the volumes raised leather ridges, where historically there would have been thick stitching holding the book together. The leather (top-grade calf, cow and goat) is thinned, primed and stretched on to the book before being finished with artistic onlays or marbled coverings, and 24ct gold-leaf gilding. The inside cover of every book is branded ‘The Chelsea Bindery’ in gold.

“Books make the perfect gift, and they can have a big impact,” says Harrington. “When you open one that really resonates with you, it is a happy moment. A lot of the year we work with hardcore collectors who are so dedicated it’s like their job.

That’s how we sell our most valuable books. When Christmas comes along, it’s time to buy presents for other people rather than themselves. So our average sale value drops by half, but we sell twice as much. There are couples who come in every year to buy a book for Christmas – and that’s the lovely thing about tradition.”

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child star who never grew up

The

From champagne with Lassie to diva antics on Cleopatra – Elizabeth Taylor prefigured today’s tell-all celebrities WORDS: ROGER LEWIS

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as Elizabeth Taylor ill all the time to remind herself she was human? Year in and year out, she was prone to food poisoning, pharyngitis, cystitis, slipped discs, bronchitis, appendicitis, the odd car crash, piles, suicide attempts and bee stings. Compared with Taylor, St Therese of Lisieux had it easy.

Perhaps the gods required payment for what one of Taylor’s biographers listed as her “sexiness, rebellion, honesty and sheer life-force.” Certainly, the actress could never remember a time when she wasn’t famous or glamorous, and in her 80 years on Earth, she never once cooked her own breakfast. “I don’t pretend to be an ordinary housewife,” Taylor admitted.

She never had an ordinary childhood, either. The “champagne and revelry” began when she was making National Velvet, at the age of 12. Taylor played the girl who masquerades as a boy to ride her horse to victory.

Taylor was a pampered child star at MGM, her first consort being Lassie. Louis B Mayer treated her as a “miniature adult” and studio photographers were soon telling her, “You have bosoms! Stick them out!”

An alliterative press release in 1949 described the 17-year-old Taylor as “the luscious, long-lashed lass of love”. Orson Welles was heard to murmur, “Remind me to be around when she grows up.”

Taylor’s first marriage, at the age of 19, was a lavish, studio-managed affair. Unfortunately, Nicky Hilton, the millionaire hotelier, was also a gambler and a drunk, “who got a kick out of beating the s--- out of me,” according to his bride. When they returned from honeymoon, Taylor divorced him. In 1952, she married mild-mannered English actor Michael Wilding. Finding him boring, Taylor was seen in the 54

company of bombastic impresario Mike Todd. He’d already declared bankruptcy twice, and it’s a wonder he didn’t go bust yet again. “To keep Elizabeth happy,” he realised, “you had to give her a diamond before breakfast every morning.”

Todd married Taylor in 1957. He was killed in a plane crash a year later. “Well, Mike is dead and I’m alive,” said his widow, pragmatically.

She comforted herself with the wellendowed singer Eddie Fisher.

For having “stolen Eddie away from sweet little Debbie Reynolds,” as the newspapers saw it, Taylor was attacked in the press as “a detestable little tramp”. Nevertheless, she married Fisher in Las Vegas in 1959. Soon enough, tedium set in. Fisher became addicted to amphetamines, Taylor fell into a cycle of pills and drink, and in Rome in 1961, when playing the Queen of the Nile, Taylor dumped Fisher for Richard Burton, another married man with two children.

The studio encouraged the liaison, as the epic about Antony and Cleopatra now had additional resonance – “an adulterous couple flaunting their lovemaking on the screen.” The publicity for Fox was priceless, especially when the Pope castigated Taylor and Burton for their “erotic vagrancy.” As Joseph L Mankiewicz, the director, announced: “Liz and Burton are not just playing Antony and Cleopatra!”

The history of Cleopatra is a history of record statistics: 142 miles of tubular steel were used for the sets, which also required 20,000 cubic feet of timber and 300 gallons of paint. Palm tree fronds were flown to Pinewood every morning from Africa. Such were overtime and union costs, by 1963 the $6 million budget had grown to $62 million. After Taylor went down with viral pneumonia and failed to

Of her 228 ‘designated

shooting days at Cinecittà Studios, Taylor turned up on only 12

’

Opening page: 12-year-old Taylor on the set of National Velvet These pages: Taylor in 1951; headshot to promote 1967’s Refelctions in a Golden Eye Next pages, from left to right: Tayor and Burton boarding a jet in 1965; the pair pose for a photoshoot, date unknown

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Credit: © Roger Lewis, Telegraph Media Group 2021

When Taylor went to her villa she was accompanied by three ‘lorries for her pets, six lorries for her furnishings, and three Rolls-Royce limos for herself and her entourage ’ leave her suite at the Dorchester, production was finally abandoned in England entirely, and everything started from scratch in Rome. Leftover costumes were worn by Sid James and Kenneth Williams in Carry On Cleo.

Of her 228 designated shooting days at Cinecittà Studios, Taylor turned up on only 12. She was completely absent on 57 occasions and late 99 times, adding seven months to the schedule. Nevertheless, Mankiewicz managed to shoot 26 hours of footage, and though it is axiomatic to scorn the four-hour film eventually released, I personally love it, from the vodka bloat of the stars to seeing the likes of George Cole and Michael Hordern in minor roles. Everything is marble and gold – golden palaces, golden clothes, golden facial make-up: Cleopatra is like a travel agent’s poster of an impossibly exotic foreign country.

The whole thing is also flat-out 1960s, with the Burtons (interchangeable on-screen and off) not doing the sensible thing, but instead enjoying all the turbulence, anarchy, money,

tastelessness and shamelessness. “Why do the Burtons have to be so filthily ostentatious,” barked Rex Harrison, the film’s Julius Caesar, seeing 14 pieces of monogrammed luggage in a hotel foyer. When Taylor, at the conclusion of the epic shoot, went to her villa in Switzerland, she was accompanied by three lorries for her pets, six lorries for her furnishings, and three Rolls-Royce limos for herself and her entourage.

Taylor and Burton were married in Quebec in 1964, and after many separations and battles, remarried each other in Botswana in 1975. This was Taylor’s prime, when she commanded million-dollar fees and a percentage of the gross. Out of the noise and mess came Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Zeffirelli’s The Taming of the Shrew and Joseph Losey’s underrated Boom!

Taylor’s blowsy, fretful, boastful, pathologically impatient and easily distracted personality got a full airing, and she swanned about on private jets and yachts, swathed in mink. She dripped with jewels. “Big girls need big diamonds,” she stated – and her

weight waxed more than it waned.

Taylor loved the vulgar trappings, the palatial dressing rooms, the colourcoded cigarette holders that must never “clash with the tablecloths,” the paparazzi, the reporters, the crowds of adoring fans waiting outside nightclubs. As Burton sighed, “Elizabeth liked a good chase scene,” with gossip columnists in hot pursuit.

You ought not to be able to remain a child star all your life, but Taylor did. Her idea of love was egotistical, possessive – involving a childlike intensity. She liked material things, shiny objects, such as her famous gems. She was always aware of the impression she was making on others, and if the Burtons left one legacy it was that, after their riotous public courtship and marriage, people had to think about morality, respectability, in a new way. For here suddenly were celebrity lives openly revealed. With Taylor, we were given an excess of personal information – her operations, her medical bulletins. It was all a premonition of today’s social media.

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Motoring FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

Prowling Menace Four-wheel drive hasn’t made this facelifted F-Type any less of a monster; with 567bhp on tap, it demands respect whatever the weather

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WORDS: ALEX ROBBINS

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Above: VLN Endurance Championship. © Jan-Brucke

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So if you’d rather stick with rearwheel drive you’ll need to plump for the less potent P450 V8 engine, though with 444bhp this is hardly a slouch; it’s available with two- or four-wheel drive. And, of course, there’s still the entry-level, 296bhp four-cylinder turbo with rear-wheel drive, the P300, which remains largely unchanged beneath the skin.

Both of these engines are available either as a base model or in R-Dynamic form, which gets sportier looks, bigger wheels, a switchable exhaust and, in the P450, an electronic limited slip differential. The P575, however, is only available in the R, and so adds a beefier bodykit, adaptive LED headlights, keyless entry and leather seats, in addition to the sportier suspension setup and larger brakes with red calipers.

This is actually not an enormous car, sitting half-way between a Porsche Cayman and a Porsche 911 – the cars the F-Type counts as its chief rivals – in length, and inside it feels as tight as the smaller of those two. There’s enough space to move around, of course, but the F-Type undoubtedly feels snug, and with no luggage room behind the seats and a boot that’s quite flat, you’d better not bring too much stuff.

Functionally, there are a few glitches with the interior – the infotainment system isn’t the most intuitive in the world, for example, and you may well find the way the headlight and electric mirror switches aren’t lit up at night to be irksome. But this is a nice place in which to be cocooned, the whole lot slathered in lovely, high-quality materials with those rather neat pop-up

air vents adding a little visual pomp.

Having said that, the R’s price tag puts it in esteemed company, and you might argue it doesn’t feel quite as special inside as some of the cars it’s going up against. For while it might be around the size of a Cayman, the F-Type’s price tag is in fact more or less in line with the 911’s, and not far off those of some serious junior supercars like the Mercedes-AMG GT and Audi R8.

Is this too much to pay for an F-Type?

Jaguar says not – indeed, it’d have you believe the R is a junior supercar itself. But it’s hard to escape the feeling it’s just a little out of its depth in such company.

Mind you, it certainly punches above its weight aurally. Even at low speeds the V8 burbles lavishly, and then when you ask for more, it bares its lungs with a furious, fearsome roar that fills the cockpit, punctuated only by the rapidfire crackle of the exhaust each time you pull one of the paddles for another gear.

That engine is pretty special in other ways, too. Even a moderate prod of the throttle results in a hefty wallop up the backside, the supercharger reacting with an immediacy that even modern turbos can’t quite match. Mash your right foot fully into the carpet, and the F-Type takes off like a scalded cat, the power coming thick and fast right the way to the red line.

Trouble is, on a night like this, actually deploying all that grunt is proving to be tricky. Yes, it’s all-wheel drive, but the F-Type in fact sends all of its power to the rear wheels under normal circumstances, and even when they start to slip the maximum amount that gets sent to the front is a relatively meagre 30 per cent.

No surprise, then, that this allwheel-drive F-Type R still feels just as intimidating as the rear-drive version.

With the car switched to ‘Dynamic’ mode and the road surface sodden, grip is not exactly plentiful, and when the back end steps out it does so suddenly and without much warning.

Not only that, but the steering isn’t all that communicative, and the nose feels heavy, as though it’d wash out wide if you entered a corner too quickly, so you get neither the crisp turn-in you might be hoping for, nor

Credit: @Alex Robbins/The Telegraph Media Group 2021

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t’s a dark night towards the end of November in England. The wind is howling, the rain is coming down in visible waves, and the roads are strewn with leaves and puddles.

Tonight, of all nights, it’s the job of your humble correspondent to put this new, V8-powered and supercharged Jaguar F-Type through its paces.

The F-Type, you see, was always a bit of an animal before – at least, the V8 version was. Which was one reason why the V6-engined versions were our preferred models, their sweeter handling balance combining with fewer psychopathic tendencies to make them both more usable and more accessible.

Now, though, the V6 F-Types are no more. Along with a mid-life facelift that’s brought a more scowling snout, Jaguar has axed the V6 engine, leaving only four-cylinder and V8 options.

The version I’ve got is the fullfat F-Type R. It’s the version that’s been most changed by the facelift; first of all, there’s the supercharged V8’s 25bhp boost in power, to 567bhp – hence the P575 badging, reflecting its metric horsepower. More significantly, though, the chassis has been comprehensively revamped, with everything from the dampers to the ball joints adjusted and stiffened.

There are new 20-inch wheels, too, which are wider than before to increase grip, and the gearbox has been re-calibrated to speed upshift times. Oh, and the R is now only available with four-wheel drive; the rear-wheel-drive option is no longer an option.

Mash your right foot fully into the carpet, and the F-Type takes off like a scalded cat, the power coming thick and fast right the way to the red line the confidence to fully understand or exploit the limits of grip. Consequently, you find yourself tip-toeing through corners, daring not to tread too hard on the loud pedal lest you exit stage right, rapidly and through the nearest hedge.

Even on the straights, the nervy steering is caught by tramlines and potholes – and in this weather, puddles – so you rarely get the chance to deploy all that power in one hit, and when you do, you cling on to the wheel to make sure the nose doesn’t get knocked off line.

Granted, a dry road would bring more grip and, therefore, less of the lairy behaviour – but it wouldn’t solve the slightly aloof steering, nor the viciousness with which the car steps

out of line when the grip runs out. In the end, I switch back into ‘Normal’ mode, which in actual fact feels far more appropriate for the conditions. Power is then fed more readily to the front wheels, grip and traction both improve, and the car seems far less keen to swap ends.

Even so, the tail will occasionally step out to surprise you. No matter which mode you’re in, the F-Type R demands respect; the thought that it’ll maul you if you tease it too much is ever present in the back of your mind.

It’s a fact of which this car is all too keen to remind you even when you aren’t driving fast. In Dynamic mode, the dampers are rock-hard, picking up every little imperfection in the road, and this

of course doesn’t help as you can feel the car skipping and bucking over bumps as you corner.

But even in Normal mode, the ride is pretty firm, and while this is to be expected in a hard-edged, focussed sports car like this, the R lacks the velvet edge that you get with some of its tautlysprung rivals.

The problem with the F-Type R is that it’s just a bit too much. Too powerful, too costly, comparatively, and frankly, too tricky to handle if the conditions aren’t perfect. And yet, having come to this conclusion, you let that engine sing just one last time, and think that maybe, just maybe, you can let all that slide for its huge helping of sheer soul.

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Gastronomy

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FEBRUARY 2021 : ISSUE 113

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Fire The Imagination How Netsu’s perfectionist chef Ross Shonhan put a positive spin on the pandemic WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

R

oss Shonhan is a self-proclaimed perfectionist. You’ll see that facet of his personality manifest not only in the dishes he presents at Japanese steakhouse, Netsu – precise, pretty, faultless – but in how they are cooked: instead of using coal on the grill, Shonhan uses straw, a time-honoured Japanese technique known as warayaki, which makes for a higher burning temperature (900 degrees Celsius) so that the food can be seared to perfection. Of course.

Australian-born Shonhan is also someone who likes to take control, as he did when leaving his former business partners at the London-based restaurant group Bone Daddies – for whom he proved instrumental in their spearheading of the city’s now bourgeoning Japanese casual dining scene – to devote time to Netsu, his first international restaurant, which is close to celebrating the end of its second year at Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai.

Lockdowns, and the uncertainty they shepherd in, must therefore be anathema to Shonhan. When this interview was conducted, he had just entered lockdown number three in London. And yet, perhaps on account of it being something of a

“

I wanted to show that in Japan food is also evolving and taking inspiration from other countries

”

recurring nightmare, Shonhan seems accepting of the situation, choosing to grasp the positives, rather than reflect on the negatives, which for the restaurant industry globally have been in plentiful supply.

“I think we have all had to deal with a variety of circumstances beyond our control, and to stay positive while rolling with the punches is hard,” says Shonhan.

“But that’s the only way we can really deal with it. It helps that the team in Netsu has really been performing very well, and that most of them have been there since we opened almost two years ago. That makes it much easier.”

That team has certainly been busy of late, working with Shonhan to introduce five new dishes to the Netsu menu. “We, as a team, are very creative, so coming up with new dishes to evolve the menu is one

of the joys of the job,” enthuses Shonhan.

“However, we also have a lot of regular guests, and if we remove their favourite dishes to make space for new ones we run the risk of losing them. So it’s a bit of a juggling act between old and new.

“This time, however, I wanted to add a couple more dishes to our warayaki section – our straw-fired grill, which is one of the unique selling points of the restaurant. So, we’ve added a few tataki dishes which are burnt in the warayaki and dressed very simply, more traditionally Japanese, in fact, because we like to keep a balance of traditional and new things. We are also doing an incredible new truffle butter beef sando, which is great. Then I have brought over one of our more playful dishes from London, the prawn toast – okonomiyaki style, which has proved popular.”

Introducing new tastes, flavours, and cooking styles to Dubai’s dining scene tends to elicit a favourable response, which is one thing Shonhan has learned about restaurant goers here. “The Dubai audience definitely wants quality, both in experience and ingredients. But they are not afraid to be adventurous diners, if they are in a place where they feel comfortable.”

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Perhaps that’s why Shonhan involved himself in the striking décor of Netsu, which is inspired by Japanese kabuki theatre, echoing the drama in the kitchen where the flames from the burning straw rise high to lick the air.

Dubai’s diners, and their lust for a rewarding experience, also provide a hint of what awaits the restaurant industry following the pandemic, suggests Shonhan.

“I think we will see a period that’s similar to the Roaring Twenties. When people are allowed to go out without restraint they will go out in a big way. I think we now see that in Dubai, to some extent, and during the periods of re-openings here in London it has been the same. Humans want to be social and have fun, and those that can afford it will do so, which will be the best way to kickstart global economies. Fingers crossed.”

Prior to introducing the intricacies of Japanese cuisine to London, and more

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Opening page: Shonhan in Netsu These pages, clockwise from top left: hamachi tacos; beef tataki; prawn toast; Shonhan at Netsu’s warayaki section

latterly Dubai, Shonhan worked as head chef at Nobu Dallas and was trained by Nobu Matsuhisa in the art of providing, “the genuine spirit of hospitality.” He has since devoted himself to teaching his myriad learnings.

“Most people outside of Japan think of quite a few very stereotypical things when asked ‘what is Japanese food?’ Everyone knows sushi, and now ramen, and black cod miso. So, in all my menus I wanted to show lots of the things I have experienced in Japan beyond these foods and show that in Japan food is also evolving and taking inspiration from other countries, blending their traditional ingredients with the foreign. That’s why (at Netsu) we focus on beef dishes as a Japanese steakhouse, and the warayaki, which is even quite unknown in Japan because it’s from one specific region called Kochi.”

This restless desire to let others share his love of Japanese cuisine may, conversely, have found favourable conditions during the listlessness of lockdown, in so far as plotting Shonhan’s next steps. “It feels, weirdly, like lockdown gives you back time, and when there is nothing to do socially it has allowed time to channel some energy in other ways. Yes I’ve had to mothball immediate plans, but also the whole world seems to be moving in slow motion at times, which has given me some time to be creative and develop the framework for a variety of new concepts I hope to do in years to come.”

Which sounds perfect, just as Shonhan would have it.

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Travel

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FEBRUARY 2021: ISSUE 113

JOURNEYS BY JET

Ithaafushi – The Private Island Maldives

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Travel OCTOBER 2020:ISSUE 109

H

ow to improve on perfection?

How to better the experience of standing on powder-soft sand, the warm, pellucid waters of the Indian Ocean lapping gently at your toes, your eyes drawn to a pod of dolphins, playfully leaping on the horizon. How to take a brush to Mother Nature’s already mesmerizing masterpiece?

It’s a question Waldorf Astoria posed when considering adding to the allure of their award-winning Maldives Ithaafushi resort. And answered last month when unveiling Ithaafushi – The Private Island.

To make paradise private for a select few, the island – a sprawling estate housing just three villas – sits apart from the main resort, to offer its guests unparalleled levels of privacy and personalized service, as devised by a dedicated concierge team.

A two-bedroom overwater villa comprises two spacious master bedrooms, double dressing rooms, indoor and outdoor rain showers, living room,

infinity pool and Jacuzzi. While the three-bedroom villa stands on its own stretch of white sand, set within lush gardens and coconut palm canopies that shade its two swimming pools.

The four-bedroom residence contains two king bedrooms, two queen bedrooms, Jacuzzies and a living area – all with direct access to the beach.

In all, the island – the largest of its type in the Maldives – can accommodate up to 24 guests, who can explore the bountiful beauty of their spectacular surrounds by bicycle or buggy.

At the heart of the island is Haali, – meaning ‘nest’ in Dhivehi, the local language of the Maldives – an indoorto-outdoor space set within a botanical sanctuary where heart-stealing views of the ocean are unbroken and entertainment and dining options are offered bespoke – from setting up a cinema under the stars to having a celebration menu crafted by the island’s dedicated culinary team, who

are also devoted to in-villa dining.

Such personalization extends to the overwater spa, where a dedicated wellness concierge will tailor therapies for each guest and industry-leading practitioners visit monthly, offering acupuncture, Pilates, traditional herbal medicine and individual healing therapies. Personal training and classes can be scheduled upon request.

This is an island that redefines personalised service, that places no boundaries in the way of your imagination when designing your experiences. An island that has considered every detail in its pursuit of progressing perfection to deliver the ultimate luxury – paradise, just as you imagined it.

Fly your jet into Malé, from where Ithaafushi – The Private Island can be accessed via a 40-minute ride on one of the resort’s six luxury yachts, or a 15-minute seaplane flight.

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What I Know Now

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FEBRUARY 2021:ISSUE 113

Maria Tash INNOVATOR, DESIGNER, AND FOUNDER OF MARIA TASH The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is that you are capable of ten times more than you think you are.

One thing I do every day is intermittent fasting. I eat for eight hours and don’t eat for 16. I then control the types of food I eat during those eight hours.

It has enabled me to lose weight, really be careful about what I eat, and in turn has positively affected my stamina and outlook.

I am very lucky to live in one of the most interesting places in the world, Manhattan. As a result, I can travel quickly, and on a whim, when I want to see the world’s most impressive and beautiful art, apparel and jewellery, in person. I am inspired by the beauty of the best of what mankind has created in the world. After that, I can walk in Central Park to see some of the most beautiful flowers nature has created, and relax.

A lesson I learned the hard way was how important it is to treat people well and how important it is to cherish those you are close to. My mother passed in 2019, and it was the most life changing event. I realised the importance of enjoying, validating, and making time for people who are close to you, and of our connection with source.

I feel a need to actualize design ideas in my head, and make them a physical reality. If I can create, and make people happy as a result, while at the same time growing my business globally, I am quite happy. I do think it is very important to strike a balance between work, family, and spiritual life. I am happiest when these three

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departments are in a balance, and life unfolds with joy and ease.

I’d tell my younger self to not get so stressed out about disappointments and learn to control your nerves. Do not let others, especially romantic interests, derail you from your dreams or shake your confidence. As I got older, I became more confident. Looking back, I was better than I gave myself credit for.

Following that analogy, I think the same concepts apply to the question of how my older self should advise present-day me.

The older I get the more I want to do.

I want to open Maria Tash stores in more cities and countries, and I want to release more designs in a timely fashion.

I also have other related business ideas I would like to realise. And there are always more ways to grow personally.

CALIBER RM 72-01

RICHARD MILLE BOUTIQUE DUBAI | ABU DHABI | RIYADH | KUWAIT | DOHA | ISTANBUL | MOSCOW

www.richardmille.com