Issue seventy tHRee JUNE 2017
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Contents junE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Editorial Editorial director
John Thatcher Editor air
Chris Ujma christopher@hotmediapublishing.com
art art director
Kerri Bennett designer
Jamie Pudsey Contributing designer
Richard Lee illustrations
Vanessa Arnaud
CommErCial managing director
Victoria Thatcher Group Commercial director
David Wade
david@hotmediapublishing.com Commercial director
Rawan Chehab
rawan@hotmediapublishing.com Sales manager
Noorain Jehan noorain@hotmediapublishing.com
ProduCtion Production manager
Muthu Kumar 8
Forty Two
Fifty Six
Butterfly lighting with bold personality: the sultry rise and box office demise of Marlene Dietrich
Noomi Rapace returns with an action-packed slice of heroine heroics. But who is the actress off camera?
Forty Eight
Sixty Two
Take a stroll through Marvin E Newman’s New York, expertly captured on six decades of film
Welcome to the rock and roll world of Anna Sui, whose feminine fashion captures the technicolour spectrum
The Blue Angel
Apple of His Eye
Unlocked and Loaded
Detroit Lioness
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Contents
AIR
SEPTEMBER june 2017 2015 : ISSUE : ISSUE 73 52
Eighteen
Seventy
Discover Chaumet’s imperial treasures, through a truly splendorous showcase at Beijing’s Palace Museum
At Bentley’s Mulliner workshop, the motoring universe is your oyster. Dream it, and they’ll build it
Twenty Eight
Seventy Four
A flourishing art fair with fresh perspective: how Photo Basel is dedicated to creativity through a lens
Folly by Nick & Scott may be laid back, but don’t take this restaurant lightly – it’s for guests with impeccable taste
Thirty Four
Seventy Eight
Dolce&Gabbana channels the drama and poise of Verdian operas into four Alta Orologeria classics
Connect with culture, nature and community at Fogo Island Inn, in blissfully remote Newfoundland
Radar
Art & Design
Timepieces
Motoring
Gastronomy
Travel
Thirty Eight
Jewellery
Diamond and Pearl: ‘The London Jeweller’ David Morris makes its mark on the Qatari capital
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Tel: 00971 4 364 2876 Fax: 00971 4 369 7494 Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from HOT Media Publishing is strictly prohibited. HOT Media Publishing does not accept liability for omissions or errors in AIR.
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Gama Aviation JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Welcome Onboard JUNE 2017
Welcome to the June edition of AIR, Gama Aviation’s in-flight magazine. As you browse through these pages, I hope you’ll enjoy learning more about our global business aviation group and the services we provide. Gama Aviation is one of the world’s largest business aviation service providers – we now manage more than 250 business jets which operate around the globe. Established in the United Kingdom in 1983, we’ve bases throughout the Middle and Far East, Europe, the Americas and Africa. We maintain commercial operating licences issued by the UAE, UK Swiss and US Authorities, and offer a wide variety of private registry approvals. Our growth trajectory has been accelerated since becoming a UK Public listed company (LSE AIM: GMAA) in 2015 and this has been paved the way for organic growth as well as complementary acquisitions. Please visit our website – gamaaviation.com – or follow us on social media for information on our latest developments. In addition to the Air business which provides aircraft management, charter and leasing services, our Ground division provides aircraft maintenance, executive handling FBO’s, avionics design and installation and aircraft valeting to a range of clients. Gama’s Middle Eastern presence has been expanding steadily since commencing operations in 2008 – our regional fleet has grown significantly over the past 12 months with the arrival of a number of aircraft, along with the continued development of our regional footprint and Ground services. Our award-winning FBO at Sharjah International Airport has continued to gain market share, and this facility has proved to be a very popular facility for Sharjah and the Northern Emirates, as well as a practical alternative to Dubai’s airports. This has prompted the Group to embark on a significant investment into constructing a full-service Business Aviation Facility at Sharjah International Airport. Projected for completion in 2018, the bespoke facility has been designed to set a new global standard for VIP passenger and aircraft handling, maintenance and VIP catering services. Business aviation remains the best tool available to corporations and individuals who want to create time – the most valuable commodity – and we will continue to play our role in as an industry leader and innovator. Thank you for choosing to fly with Gama, and for being part of our continuing success.
Richard Lineveldt General Manager Gama Aviation
Contact Details: charter.mena@gamaaviation.com gamaaviation.com 13
Gama Aviation JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Gama Aviation Named Top Part 135 Operator in the US LEadiNg aviatioN compaNy pERfoRms ovER 54,000 fLight hoURs thRoUghoUt 2016 It was announced on 1 March 2017 that as a global aviation services company, Gama Aviation has been ranked the number one US Part 135 operator, based upon all flight activity and data collected throughout 2016. According to ARGUS TRAQPak, Gama Aviation performed 54,533 flight hours in 2016, over 5,000 more hours than second ranked operator; was the only operator to see a significant 55 per cent increase in flight activity compared to 2015; and saw one of the highest increases in fleet size, from 2015 to 2016, compared to all 25 ranked operators. Thomas Connelly, president and CEO of Gama Aviation LLC, commented, 14
“We are excited to see the steady growth in both size and flight hours year after year. In 2016 Gama Aviation was the top US Part 135 operator by number of hours, in 2017 we will be the top US operator by fleet size. We continue to work very hard to ensure our clients get not only the economies of scale that our size can provide, but also the bespoke concierge service that they expect and deserve.” With the acquisition of Landmark Aviation’s aircraft management and charter business in January 2017, Gama Aviation has once again significantly increased their fleet size. The combined entity now operates a fleet of over 200 aircraft, making Gama Aviation LLC the largest aircraft management business in the United States.
Gama Aviation JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Gama Aviation Adds Further Depth to its European Management Team gama aviatioN aNNoUNcEs fURthER maNagEmENt tEam additioNs to its EURopEaN aiR aNd gRoUNd divisioNs, to sUppoRt its gRowth ambitioNs Mark Gascoigne joins the Air division as general manager having enjoyed a successful career at BAE Systems and more recently De La Rue, where he was sales operations director. Mark is tasked to continue to build the Air business in Europe, bringing fresh perspective to the division given his extensive experience of working with complex, high value clients. Scott McVicar joins the Ground division as general manager having
enjoyed a successful career at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, growing the MOD Special Projects business from scratch. A passionate aviation enthusiast – owning a part share of a light aircraft and holding a Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering – Scott will bring his management and business development talents to the division as it builds from its strong platform. Peter Rutherford joins as head of sales, Europe Ground, with a long and distinguished career in aviation. As a licensed engineer and from crew chief with GE corporate air transport, Peter has held positions with Bombardier and Innotech Aviation. Peter will be focused on selling the division’s considerable
base, line and AOG capabilities as well as specialisms such as design engineering. Marwan Khalek, group chief executive, Gama Aviation Plc commented, “I am delighted with the extremely high level of management experience that we are attracting to the business. The depth and breadth of the skills, knowledge and experience that these appointments bring to our business adds significant strength to our leadership team, enhancing our ability to deliver on our strategic growth objectives whilst we continue to improve our operational performance and maintain our focus on surpassing our client’s expectations.”
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Gama Aviation JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
UK Turbo-Prop Offer Strengthened gama aviatioN adds fURthER dEpth to oUR UK tURbo-pRop offER with pRatt & witNEy pt6a agREEmENt, bEEchcRaft KiNg aiR aNd cEssNa caRavaN sERvicE cENtRE statUs At Farnborough on 9 May 2017, Gama Aviation Plc, was pleased to announce the signing of a premium service provider agreement with Pratt & Witney to support its popular PT6A engine across Europe; the agreement of a new Cessna Caravan service centre in Glasgow and the renewal of its Beechcraft Authorised Service Facility status at Farnborough. The PT6A agreement comes at a time of apparent growth in the engine’s use with 7,089 Pilatus PC-12 and 15,001 King Air 200 / 350 movements 16
in the last quarter1 across Europe. In addition to the current departure volumes, changes in UK air operations regulations are predicted to see a further increase as single engine commercial operations begin. Paul Bristow, head of engineering, Europe Ground commented: “With Single Engine Operations (SEO) a regulatory reality, we are ideally placed to assist operators of PC-12s, the Cessna Caravans and the Daher TBM 930s, with engine related AOGs across Europe. This will be particularly important to new operators who are establishing their reputations and business models in a new and dynamic sector.” Additionally, the business has also confirmed that the company’s Glasgow facility is to become a recognised Cessna facility for SETOps favourite, the Cessna Caravan. Bristow continues: “We are positioning Glasgow as a centre of excellence for the Cessna Caravan, extending this in due course to other
Cessna single engine models. With Fairoaks and Farnborough in the south and Glasgow in the north, we are providing a breadth of capability and depth of experience to this sector that few others can provide at scale.” In a busy period for the company, its Farnborough facility has once again achieved authorised service centre status for the Beechcraft series of aircraft. The facility has recently completed the acceptance (through its delivery centre in Wichita), delivery and extensive modifications to a King Air 350ER including the installation of the Raisbeck Performance System. Paul Bristow added that, “Our Beechcraft clients have for years benefitted from a highly skilled team. Our service centre status only reconfirms this. When combined with our new Pratt & Witney agreement, our Rockwell-Collins, Garmin and Raisbeck expertise we provide a class leading solution, whatever our clients’ needs.”
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Radar
AIR
JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
‘Imperial Splendours’ is the name of a Chaumet exhibition being shown at The Palace Museum, Beijing, until 2 July – and splendorous is merely one word for this august collection. The body of works comprise 300 historic jewels and drawings from their archives of patrimonial wealth, including commissions by Napoleon I – who chose the founder of Chaumet, Marie-Etienne Nitot, to magnify his symbols of power. These examples of savoir faire bring to life a story of jewellery heritage that dates back to the 18th century, and while a number of the works belong to The Palace Museum itself, the exhibition represents an exchange between Chinese and French jewellery arts. Guests can browse the fruits of reciprocal cultural influences, created to a truly royal standard by the Place Vendôme-based maison. chaumet.com/imperial-splendours/
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Critique JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Film Baby Driver Dir: Edgar Wright A talented getaway driver is considered one of the best. But then a doomed heist threatens his life… At Best: “Like blasting your coolest friend’s record collection in your car at 100mph on the freeway, while cops close in on all sides…” Vulture At WoRst: “Equal parts slapstick and visceral thrills, but never too far from a reality check.” indieWire
I, Daniel Blake AIR
Dir: Ken Loach After a heart attack leaves a widowed woodworker unable to work, he must stand up for his dignity when the state welfare system fails him At Best: “A film of empathy, grace and wit that goes a long way to explaining the populist anger so emblematic of these times.” Toronto Star At WoRst: “Ultimately this political film’s sentimentality and transparency detract from its power.” Globe and Mail
Harmonium (Fuchi Ni Tatsu) Dir: Kôji Fukada An explosive domestic drama, which charts the demise of a seemingly normal Japanese family relationship At Best: “A quietly combustible tale of punishment and crime [that] makes the viewer question neat causal equations of sin, retribution, and atonement.” Variety At WoRst: “The softness and straightness of the performances obscure the monstrous melodrama underneath.” Irish Times
It Comes At Night Dir: Trey Edward Shults A horror movie of paranoia and mistrust: imagine the end of the world. Now imagine something worse. At Best: “An unnerving, masterful piece of horror filmmaking.” Uproxx At WoRst: “Not every shocking detail adds up, and the payoff isn’t as exciting or original as the taut showdown leading up to it. But Shults excels at the slow accumulation of details.” indieWire 20
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Critique JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
AIR
Books
W
ho keeps US presidents’ in check? A fascinating new book by Chris Whipple explores the unseen. In The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs Of Staff Define Every Presidency, “Whipple… has interviewed all 17 living chiefs of staff as well as numerous people who served with them. His prose is clear, crisp and often evocative, and for the most part his observations ring true as he tracks the development of the office,” expresses John R Coyne Jr in Washington Times. “The confident and fast-paced narrative is enhanced by having actual historical players contribute wellrounded (and sometimes surprising) characterisations of presidents and other Washington luminaries. In this page-turner of history, readers will discover new facets of historical events that they felt they already knew,” reports Publishers Weekly. The brain trust at Kirkus Reviews write, “The author discusses subsequent administrations and their chiefs in chronological order. James A Baker III, Ronald Reagan’s first chief of staff, is seen as the gold standard. Also successful were Gerald Ford’s 22
two chiefs, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney… Throughout the book, Whipple identifies several variables that affect performance: presidential access and support; management style; and whether the chief serves as an honest broker, allowing all arguments on issues to be presented, or as a strict advocate… [It’s a] wellwritten review of a unique government position – informative for the general public and an insightful blueprint for the new administration.” “Almost everything non-factual you’ve ever read about F Scott Fitzgerald is wrong, or at best skewed,” reveals Todd McEwen in his Herald Scotland review of Paradise Lost: A Life of F Scott Fitzgerald (by David S Brown). “He comes down to us as the ‘chronicler of the Jazz Age’, the dreamer of a particularly glamorous iteration of the American Dream, something of a dandy, the anti-type to his friend Ernest Hemingway’s sleeves-up machismo and minimalism. Almost nothing could be further from reality… Most Fitzgerald biography up to now has been nonfiction of that sort. Brown gets closer to a real Fitzgerald than anyone else.”
John Carey begins his Sunday Times piece by saying, “Scott Fitzgerald hated the wealthy, but coveted the things wealth can buy. That is a quite normal predicament. Less normal was his ability to convert his resentment into masterworks… Brown starts his biography on an unexpected note by saying that he intends to treat Fitzgerald as a ‘cultural historian’”… Alas, “The trouble with Brown’s cultural-historian angle is that it edges out any prolonged attention to Fitzgerald as a writer, which in the end is what matters. By focusing on the historical background and the real-life tie-ups, he short-changes Fitzgerald’s complex and beautiful art.” Paul Alexander penned in The Washington Post, “Brown relies on archival material, and some chapters read more like expository essays than biography, but [the book] succeeds in depicting Fitzgerald, whose life was as full of pathos as any of the sad young men about whom he wrote, as ‘an artist immersed in his times.’” To fiction: Haruki Murakami returns with Men Without Women, a collection of short stories. Confesses Lucy Scholes in The Independent, “My faith [is] restored in the recognition of how utterly perfect the [short story] medium can be – in the right hands… The prose is clear and refined – not to mention seamlessly translated from the original Japanese – the unassuming quietness of these stories doesn’t mean they don’t hit home with when they need to.” Notes M John Harrison in The Guardian, “Tale by tale... the men apologise for themselves and are content to drift, remaining puzzled as much by their own behaviour as anyone else’s. Their stories are never less than readable, comic, amiably fantastic, human, yet with an entertainingly sarcastic edge, but verge on the bland.” Jay Fielden’s The New York Times review says, “[This is a] slim but beguilingly irresistible book. Like a lost lover, it holds on tight long after the affair is over.”
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Critique JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Art
AIR
H
enri Cartier-Bresson’s India In Full Frame puts the subcontinent in focus (as seen through the late photographer’s lens) at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, until 4 September. Writes William Meyers in The Wall Street Journal, “Bresson chose Asia as his area of interest in 1947 when the five founding members of the Magnum Photos cooperative agency divvied up the world… The ‘full frame’ in the title refers to both his comprehensive coverage and his insistence on having his negatives printed full frame – that is, without cropping.” Holland Cotter wrote in The New York Times, “In addition to being exhaustively mobile, he was widely connected. Good-looking, urbane, the rebellious child of French haute bourgeois privilege, he networked effortlessly, and had ready access to, and friendships with, the political and culture beau monde of his time.” Of this newest showing, Nick Leech (from the UAE’s The National) says, “As well as featuring 69 images selected by the photographer, [it] also includes his camera, some letters and other personal ephemera… It captures a decisive moment in [his] career and in history, when photojournalists and magazines still had the power to define how we see and understand other cultures and globally-significant events.” Fahrelnissa Zeid, “Is the best abstract artist you’ve probably never heard of,” thinks Time Out London of the Turkish painter, whose showcase opens 6 June at the Tate Modern (until October). “Mixing western abstraction with Islamic art influences [she] created an undulating visual vocabulary that’s as beautiful as it is unique… Part of the Tate’s ongoing shift towards showcasing artists from outside the well-trodden West, this is a retrospective of an artist who lived across 90 years of the twentieth century… [Her] dazzling, jewel-like paintings were influenced by art of the Islamic world and Western avantgarde abstraction.” When Zeid’s Towards A Sky was being auctioned, 24
Mahatma Gandhi dictates a message, just after breaking his fast. Birla House, Delhi, India (1948). ©Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos
Sotheby’s wrote, “[Her] earlier works are difficult to be classified within a single movement or style. In the first few decades of her career, she’d draw from the styles of various European movements from Expressionism to Fauvism, Realism to Cubism as they suited her needs.” Later she, “[Became] more immersed in even more vibrant and progressively more complex compositions comprising of varying sizes of colour planes harmoniously woven together like a beautifully laid out carpet.” Wrote Bel Trew in The Sunday Times, “[Zeid], a Hashemite princess who greeted art critics with glasses of bubbles and lobster platters, challenged the maleorientated western-centric art world of her time… The Tate show includes paintings, drawings and sculptures from more than 40 years, such as... her last big abstract work, Break of the Atom and Vegetal Life (1962), which came out of the period after the [1958 Iraqi] coup.”
Pink Floyd aficionados can immerse in Their Mortal Remains at the V&A until 1 October. Time Out London says, “The retrospective of those psychedelic pioneers [comes] fifty years since their first single. Set and construction pieces from The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall join instruments, designs, lyrics and prints – and, yes, a laser show.” A curious Drowned In Sound wrote, “They have always trod a delicate line between self-concealment and perceived arrogance... [but] if Pink Floyd did choose to hide, they did so behind some of the most imaginative lenses they could – be it literary, artistic, architectural, or musicological.” Wrote a comfortably un-numb Ben Luke in the Evening Standard, “Can these archive-raiding audio-visual spectaculars appeal to agnostics as well as to fans? The answer: partly. It’s a deftly curated, enjoyable romp exploring Floyd’s intricate fusion of sound and vision.”
Critique JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Theatre “G
alileo changed the way people understood their place in the universe… He unlocked doors. He unlocked minds,” says Natasha Tripney in The Stage. Observe the Life of Galileo at the Young Vic in London, until 1 July. “[Producer Joe] Wright conveys the thrill of scientific discovery... It’s invigorating and suitably awe-inducing…” continues Tripney. “[It’s] is a long play – complete with lengthy, intricate speeches – but Wright’s production… is more than just planetariumBrecht with a cool soundtrack; it’s richer, weirder and more potent – theatre that fires the mind.” Writes Sarah Hemming for Financial Times, “Rough-and-ready, buzzing with invention and driven by a throbbing soundtrack from Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers, this is a staging that vividly communicates the thrill of knowledge. Equipped with John Willett’s colloquial translation, it shifts nippily through the story of the Italian polymath who scrutinised the heavens.” Wright’s take on Brecht’s drama, “An allegory for the spread of the socialist dream – is given a giddy momentum that compensates somewhat for the production’s comparative lightness… It’s too fizzing with life to feel like it’s selling the writing short. This is a trip, and a good one at that”, says Andrzej Lukowski for Time Out London. War Paint is glamming it up on an open run at the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway. Marilyn Stasio at Variety writes, “[It’s] a musical about Catherine Zuber’s fabulous costumes and magnificent hats… modelled by the great Patti LuPone as Helena Rubinstein, and her Highness, Christine Ebersole as Elizabeth Arden. In helmer Michael Greif’s worshipful production, they are also monumental clothes horses… It really is hard to concentrate on the plot when Ebersole is swanning around in a gorgeous rose-petal-pink silk suit. Or when LuPone steps out in a billowing taffeta number dripping with thick strands of faux gems. 26
Patti LuPone (as Helena Rubinstein) with Douglas Sills, in War Paint
Luckily, there’s not much plot to distract from these carefully nuanced characters, their amazing careers and dazzling wardrobes.” Explains Ben Brantley in The New York Times, “The [actresses] performing signatures are as well known to Broadway audiences as the stylised brand names were to buyers of cosmetics. [They] are not coasting on the market value of their star appeal. They’re deploying the knowledge and craft of a combined eight decades in musicals to make us believe that the show in which they appear is moving forward, instead of running in place in high heels.” Praises David Rooney for Hollywood Reporter, “[It’s] an admiring feminist salute to two trailblazing entrepreneurs – the first women to head American corporations that bore their names – whose success was fuelled in part by their rivalry… The indelible takeaway is the poignancy of all that these women had in common.” “Political shockwaves knock spending. A small business teeters. Shareholders look to profit margins.
Costs, counted in employee hours, must be cut. The price paid by the many for the decisions of the few is the subject of Lizzie Nunnery’s new play with music (composed by Vidar Norheim). It follows the misfortunes of a group of shop workers… Brexit, zero-hours contracts, lack of care for the elderly, a draconian benefit system and anxiety about education all contribute to a downward spiral,” writes Claire Brennan in The Guardian of The Sum, at Liverpool’s Everyman until 1 July. In The Stage, Nigel Smith explains of the homegrown play, “As Eve, Laura Dos Santos gives a breathlessly intense performance. At work she has to deliver news of cuts to her colleagues. At home she tries to support a mother, a teenage daughter who’s being bullied at school and a partner who has just been fired. Nunnery’s play… illustrates the cumulative pressures that can build up... living under austerity. As postBrexit uncertainty affects business and jobs are on the line, people approach breaking point.”
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Art & Design
AIR
JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Mars Desert Research Station #6 Mars Society, San Rafael Swell, Utah, U.S.A, 2008, by Vincent Fournier. Courtesy the artist and La Galerie Paris 1839
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In Focus Photo Basel, the first international art fair dedicated to photographybased art, runs concurrent to the prestigious Swiss summit of Art Basel. But while complementary, this is no mere side show – it’s a satellite fair with its own flair and distinct DNA
T
he Klein-Basel district beside the river Rhine is an eminent locale in which to absorb art and culture. This Swiss district pulses with vibrant squares, lively streets, and epicurean highlights – add in Pritzker Prize-worthy contemporary architecture plus a diverse swirl of stylish characters, and the inspiring area is an opportunism dream for a photographer. One of its squares, Volkshaus Basel, was renovated by city-based architects Herzog & de Meuron, sits only 700m away from the location of the main Art Basel fair, and from 14-18 June plays host to an event where photography can truly shine. Photo Basel first appeared in 2015 and grew, “Out of a deep passion and love for photography. Although Switzerland has the prestigious Art Basel, we wanted to give a platform to solely the photographic medium,” explains Sven Eisenhut, director and one of its founders. “From the very beginning we wanted photography to have its own space,” he elaborates. “A photography-only art fair is a very different experience to a mixed media art fair – particularly for photography
enthusiasts. It’s a much more accessible platform for people who may not necessarily be all-encompassing art lovers, but appreciate the medium.” Perusing a selection of teaser pictures from the third edition of the fair will undoubtedly evoke such appreciation. Some of the artists have zeroed in on the everyday – Alfred Drago Rens’ The Grand Bouquet series and Manuel Franquelo Giner’s The Artificial Being Is A Reality Of Perfect Simulacrum being two examples of new perspectives on the everyday. Others, though, have ventured into alternate realms, and you’d wonder if the artists would find capturing Klein-Basel a slightly blasé experience, despite its charm. You pinch yourself sometimes to remember the art was achieved with a camera – prime examples are the desolate Mars Desert Research Station snapped by Vincent Fournier, Ching-Hui Chou’s mesmerically complex Animal Farm collection (set in fantastical twilight), and a visually dominant series of stark blue, white and orange fanciful images by Reine Paradis, bestowed with otherworldly titles such as Moongolf, Crocodyle, Starlake, Mars and such.
AIR
Paradis’ work can be considered among the most aesthetically arresting of this year’s participants, with the LA-based artist’s photographs having been described as, “The surreal holiday you never took” by Plus Paper, and by Flaunt Magazine as, “Uncanny worlds of bright colours, sharp geometries… [with] intricate details lurking beneath the intensity”. Paradis says, “I believe photography is the only way to create this world that exists in between reality and imagination and this is what I think sets it apart from any other medium. I don’t use it in a conventional way, 30
it’s more a tool to create a new place.” Of this ‘new place’ for photography, she finds being involved, “An honour. Both being part of such a community of artists, and for the opportunity to share my work with a new audience.” Eisenhut says of this year’s line-up overall, “It is more political than in the past. In addition, we once again see a lot of unique pieces, meaning artists not only take shots with polaroid cameras but might paint on the photography like Radenko Milak & Roman Uranjek from Galerija Fotografja, or even stitch over them like Iris Hutegger from Esther Woedehoff.”
Out of a deep passion and love for photography we wanted the medium to have its own space Above: Flamengus, 2017, by Reine Paradis. Courtesy Catherine and André Hug Gallery Right: Les fantômes de Bassam - ancienne école régionale, 2016, by Edith Roux. Courtesy Galerie Dix9 Hélène Lacharmoise; The Grand Bouquet series, 20142015, by Alfred Drago Rens. courtesy Galleria L’Affiche
Excellence is the name of the game, and to achieve a common shared vision for Photo Basel, a Venn diagram of experts is engaged – with management, advisory and curatorial circles. Galleries are ‘the centrepiece of any art showing, their inputs, suggestions and feedback’, says the Photo Basel literature, while curators will be in charge of ‘reviewing and selecting all the content, with each stakeholder an extended family member that contributes to the sustainable success.’ Details Eisenhut, “We do not strive to make ‘yet another art fair’ – Photo Basel’s sustainable success will only be guaranteed if the quality of the art you see and buy is of very high quality. In order to constantly meet those standards, that is where our ‘experts’ come into play.” So what’s new for 2017? “Foremost, we are expecting around 34 galleries to attend,” the director discloses. There’s a dedicated showcase for digital, video, time and Net-based art, too: “We’re especially excited for the new Tape/ Basel section. It provides a platform for another lens-based medium, giving an incredible opportunity for these artists to exhibit works that are fresh and dynamic. This year, we will feature several single channel videos on screens in the main hall – on the fairgrounds balcony – again, giving time-based art its own space.” There’s little doubt that the idea is still emerging – as is photography itself. Eisenhut shares that the medium is, “Absolutely gaining momentum, and I have personally visited dozens of art fairs in the past few months, even the most established galleries have shown a few photography positions.” Thus Photo Basel is gradually establishing a foothold, as a gateway for the exhibiting galleries and artists to build new audiences, as well as the possibility for mutual gallery and museum connections to emerge. “That’s the role we want our fair to have,” he outlines. “It continues to thrive from the synergies and the encounters of photography enthusiasts, and our vision from the beginning was that each exhibitor, collector, aficionado and visitor can create a unique Photo Basel experience, together.” Photo Basel runs from 14-18 June. For tickets, visit photo-basel.com 31
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
Va c h e r o n c o n s ta n t i n
OvERSE aS, Small mODEl
When it comes to timekeeping, the Overseas collection has become the discerning traveller’s trusted ally – and Vacheron is adept at reimagining its sophistication. The beating heart of this iteration – the Overseas Small Model 2305V/OOOR-BO77 – is a 5300 Calibre
that assures two days of autonomy. The case and dial catch the attention, in 18k 5N pink gold, bestowed with 84 round-cut diamonds on its 37mm bezel, and there’s a transparent sapphire crystal caseback to peer at the movement. It’s a graceful addition to this collection – and your own. 1
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Koen igseg g
REgER a
A hybrid with twin-turbo V8 and three electric motors, that harnesses 1500HP to propel occupants to 300km/h in 10secs, from standstill. Drink in the intimidation and believe your eyes (plus all of the other senses this car can stir): the highperformance hypercar is an absolute
blast, as the first road car to use Formula 1 battery technology. Being produced in limited numbers from Koenigsegg’s Angelholm bolthole, it’s supremely coveted – in fact, the boutique company has only ever built 120 cars, in-house. ‘Object’ of desire? More a motoring masterpiece. 3
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chanel
m é T I E R S D ’a R T C O l l E C T I O n
Chanel’s annual Métiers d’Art showcase honours the fine craftsmanship that its artisan partners bring to the house’s collections – and the sumptuous creations from the ateliers now grace its boutiques, ready to acquire. This pink grosgrain and suede high boot is among a plethora of
stunning style pieces which encompass runway creations, leather goods, custom jewellery, and complementary accessories. In terms of clientele, the maison represents the finest fabric of French culture – and this boot is a beautiful, wearable manifestation of that elegant notion. 4
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B o t t e g a V e n e ta
CIT y KnOT
It’s compact, classy and harks back to the signature closure of the atelier’s iconic Knot clutch (a bag that achieved effortless chic for evening occasions). The maison has gone urban and functional, with a clean silhouette accentuated by the smooth, soft French Calf leather of the
main body, outlined by black hand-painted edges. Aavailable in Nero French calf/ leopard print and in Calvados Capra Lissata with embossed butterfly details, here are three creations which pay homage to original materials and textures from Bottega Veneta 1970’s archive. 5
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a z i m u t Ya c h t s
gR anDE 35m
From the French Riviera to the glittering Arabian Gulf, the have-yachts are out in force upon azure waters, come June. In the battle for notoriety, churn up in the Italianmade 35m to make a suitably Grande entrance. The carbon fibre superstructure vessel packs innovation galore, while
boasting a host of highlights – from a huge flybridge with optional tri-deck design to a master cabin with panoramic windows, spacious entertaining area on the bow, plus four additional cabins on lower deck (with curated interiors by renowned architect Achille Salvagni). A commanding flagship. 7
OB JECTS OF DESIRE
u lY s s e n a r d i n
m a R I n E R E g aT Ta
Unveiled just in time to wear when setting sail upon summer waters, the 44mm Marine Regatta is at home worn casually on-deck... but harbours enough mechanical aplomb should competition-mode strike, having being developed with leaders of the Artemis Racing team. The Chronograph is
equipped with a sweep countdown timer that can be set from 1 to 10 minutes – and its other timer functions also flourish when every second counts. Sporty, rugged yet refined (just look at those polished surfaces), this is both function and finesse. Smile and wave, boys, smile and wave. 8
Timepieces JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
To The Highest Bidder TARIq MALIk
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t is always a stimulating experience to attend the annual Geneva watch auctions. It has become a regular excursion for me, and besides being able to take home one or two vintage rarities, there’s always drama when it comes to those ultra-high-end lots. The world’s most serious (and wealthiest) watch collectors are usually gunning for one or two special watches in particular. Paddles in hand, they wait. Each knows what he is willing to bid, but cannot guess the strategy of other buyers. There’s always electricity in the air – how far will the price climb? This year the Christie’s and Phillips auctions lived up to expectations – and more than one world record sales price was achieved. Here’s my pick of the crop. White Gold Submariner Prototype The hammer fell at USD628,572, making this the most expensive Submariner ever publicly sold. It’s an interesting twist, considering that this piece didn’t have what most connoisseurs would call the typical Rolex auction pedigree. But it’s the watch’s uniqueness that counted in the end. Lot 271, the white gold sub reference 1680, has a unique bezel with knurling on two opposing sections, plus a faded blue nipple dial with yellow gold markers and hands. All very unusual for a Rolex. In addition, the President bracelet has strange bark-finished centre links, adding a dressy quirk to the diver’s watch. There is only one other example exactly like it, and one more
with a black dial. All three were prototypes from the 1970s, and never sold before. The “B ả oĐ ạ i” Rolex Ref 6062 Everyone expected something big to happen with lot number 93 at the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: Five. The watch, a ref 6062 with a black dial and diamond indexes, originally belonged to B ả oĐ ại, the last emperor of Vietnam, of the Nguyễn Dynasty. Legend has it that Đ ại acquired the watch back in 1954. There was no disappointment. After an eight minute bidding war, specialist Aurel Bacs was delighted to see it climb to a staggering USD5,060,427, making it the most expensive Rolex ever sold at auction. The timepiece is the only known example of its kind. ‘The Emperor’ Haile Selassie’s Patek Philippe Ref. 2497 The Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues was the setting for the sale that captured the imagination at this year’s Geneva auctions. Although the selling price of USD2,898,000 33
can’t compete with the USD5 million Emperor Dai Rolex, this bidding session provided all the drama. The 18kt gold Patek Philippe reference 2497 with black gilt dial originally belonged to Emperor HaileSelassie. It was supposed to go on auction in November at Christie’s but was pulled at the last minute. The controversy involved a “dispute of title.” Two prominent African families were involved in a battle of ownership over the watch for more than half a century. According to certain accounts, the watch was stolen from the Imperial Palace by soldiers during the 1974 coup, and disappeared from the scene for a while. Shortly before the auctions, the Geneva prosecutor’s office lifted a sequestration order on the watch, allowing Christie’s to legally put the watch back up for auction. What followed was a tense bidding war among three decorated veterans of the collecting world. In the end the watch went home with Davide Parmegiani – referred to by many as ‘big boss’– and who Benjamin Clymer from Hodinkee calls, “the most important vintage watch dealer in the world.” Hats off to those who leave victorious with the spoils of war, and may the battle continue with as much vigour and excitement next year. Find Momentum – Tariq’s co-founded vintage watch boutique – in Dubai’s DIFC; momentum-dubai.com
Timepieces JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Decadent & Grand
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With four finely crafted Alta Orologeria marvels for men, Dolce&Gabbana evokes the drama and skill of a finely tuned Verdi opera. Here’s an overture to this exquisite collection
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The Alta Orologeria timepieces (on models) in the the grand setting of La Scala – where many of Verdi’s operas first took flight
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ne hallmark underpinning the exalted works of the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi is his ‘pulse’ – a beat behind the beat, from opening to stunning finale. Verdi’s compositions are the inspiration for Dolce&Gabbana’s archetypal Alta Orologeria timepieces, and they’re an an apt muse; this is a design house with its own distinct ‘pulse’, beating within every element of design they master. “The passion for mechanical watches has been part of us for a long time, even before we started the Alta Orologeria project in the watch sector at Dolce&Gabbana eight years ago,” explains Domenico Dolce of their ambitious horology quartet. “All that is in some ways related to handicraft really fascinates us.” This very fascination takes shape in skilful friezes, bas-reliefs and embellishments which soar within an ornate collection; these four unique men’s watches are splendour for the wrist – solid gold and crafted in Italy. Carefully selected gemstones complement precious metals, and behind the aesthetics is yet more technical accomplishment, with Swissmade mechanisms. Channelling the best watchmaking expertise has
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resulted in a self-winding mechanical tourbillon, a tourbillon with monopusher chronograph and the star – a tourbillon with minute repeater. “Men historically love engines and appreciate manual processing techniques,” Dolce elaborates. “In this case we have tried to combine the best of Swiss ‘engines’ with the best of Italian goldsmith tradition.” Each timepiece has its own unmistakable characteristics, drawn from its respective Verdian opera. Otello took Milanese high society by storm when first recited at La Scala in 1887. The timepiece-tribute has a grandiose Venetian Baroque bezel and the watch features lavish handengraved details, with its mother-ofpearl dial supported by a winged lion and a torch, visible from both sides. Nabucco pays homage to the 1841 opera of the same name. The watchcase required over six months of painstaking work. Its dial shines, with enamel markers meticulously made by hand – an approach taken across the collection. The handmade and fully engraved dial of the Macbeth-inspired piece has a window at six o’clock to reveal the tourbillon, where the bridge is engraved with a DG logo. The case and bracelet
are milled and decorated to form an abstract design, while glass on the reverse allows the wearer to admire the delicate embellishments on the bridges. Meanwhile, elegant openwork on the Don Carlos homage reveals the heart of the watch, complemented by eyecatching green cushion-cut emeralds. Once open it reveals markers and gold decorations which float on a dial that has been patiently carved from a single piece of lustrous jade. Should a client wish a different gem to be used or – for example – a different beast to support the Otello bezel, their wish can be accommodated – each timepiece is uniquely created. Be it opera or horology, the pursuit of perfection echoes through the ages. Confessed Verdi, when alive, “I adore art… when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.” A century later, mankind’s love of excellence will never cede; says Stefano Gabbana, “Men today want to be stylish and elegant just like women. They are attracted to what is beautiful and the lucky ones who can afford a piece of art, as one of these watches, it’s like they see a dream come true.”
Opposite, left to right: Self-winding mechanical wristwatch with tourbillon and micro-rotor, inspired by Nabucco opera; 46mm Macbeth opera -inspired piece; 38mm x 44mm Otello-inspired manual mechanical wristwatch This page: The 18ct gold engraved timepiece inspired by Don Carlos opera – shown with closed case
Jewellery JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Made For The Moment By unveiling a boutique on the blossoming Pearl-Qatar, David Morris has a standalone Doha presence. It’s a celebratory home for a resounding array of fine jewellery – including those created in honour of the grand opening
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WORDS: CHRIS UJMA
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here’s a resplendent white diamond and blue sapphire medallion by David Morris that is a spectacular statement of finery; a power-piece that evokes the glamorous and sophisticated flair of the 1970s. Exuding composure within it is the incandescent Paraiba Tourmaline – one of the rarest stones in the world. Given the carefully considered introduction of this house into new regions, a David Morris boutique itself can be as rare to unearth as the Brazilian gem. Only select cities are distinguished with the brand’s presence, and the latest milestone addition was recently unveiled in the Qatari capital of Doha. Jeremy Morris – principal designer and the managing director at the helm of the family company – is suitably enthused about this latest foray. “We are fortunate to have a longstanding relationship with Qatar which spans decades, so it is a privilege for us to be able to open a standalone store in the Arabian Peninsula. We have an extremely positive partnership with Ali Bin Ali Luxury, and the Qatari capital is experiencing tremendous development in its infrastructure – making it an exciting time to be present and grow with the country,” he says. “We hope that local clients
will embrace our new store and will delight in having us on their doorstep.” Opening in Qatar is a natural evolution, in multiple senses. David Morris is a headline brand at the annual Doha Jewellery & Watches Exhibition (DJWE), and Jeremy shares that, “We have always loved attending this event as it is an opportunity to see some of our most loyal clients. Suffice to say, we are thrilled to now be able to engage with them at any time of the year.” Specifically, the boutique is nestled within Porto Arabia, home to the main marina of The Pearl. The look of the outlet was masterminded by British interior design agency David Collins Studio, who also created the setting of David Morris’ flagship store on London’s famed Bond Street. Of the Doha habitat, Jeremy explains, “The intimate yet luxurious space exudes sophistication, with a contemporary design that is beautifully styled in a colour palette of cool silvers and greys, juxtaposed with warming hues of gold and bronze. With bespoke furnishings of dark wood and metal accents, the setting perfectly reflects the glamour that defines David Morris’ fine jewellery.” The beauty of this setting creates an appropriate aura for a stellar line-
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up of high jewellery. “We have an exquisite selection of both Prestige fine jewellery pieces and Collection items being showcased as part of the launch,” Jeremy outlines. In particular, he especially created, “A striking pear shaped blue sapphire necklace, comprised of 70.12cts of sapphires with white diamond microset motifs set in 18ct white gold. The total diamond weight is 31.09cts. To complement the necklace, I designed a stunning pair of pear shape blue sapphire chandelier earrings with white diamond set in 18ct white gold. Total sapphire weight: 58.62cts with a total diamond weight of 5.93cts.” Among the many treats, of course, is also the showstopper mentioned in the opening of this article (and pictured right), which was first revealed at DJWE 2017. It’s a piece with 14.67cts of Paraiba Tourmaline, a beautiful Burma blue sapphire medallion featuring 118.38cts of blue sapphires (with a large central 46.10ct Cushion sapphire), and 49.59cts of white diamonds, all handset in 18ct white gold. “I acquired a scintillating 55ct round Burmese sapphire that I polished and cut into a 46.10ct cushion to achieve its full brilliance,” details Jeremy of the necklace’s inception. “I wanted to play with the main stone’s intense colour and therefore integrated Paraiba Tourmaline and white diamonds, which creates an effect that needs to be seen to be believed. We have had a lot of success with our Tassel collection so I wanted to replicate this style in a Prestige piece of jewellery and thus, the medallion was born.” Treasures such as these should be worn, not merely observed, and they glitter into life on the grandest occasions. While the brand prefers to be discreet about the clients and personalities whom they’ve dressed, it 40
is no secret that the most glamorous (and revered) women in the world have worn David Morris jewels. It’s a level of excellence that bodes well for the Doha demographic. “The local clientele are some of the most discerning in the world,” he acknowledges. “They have an appreciation of quality composition and a love for intricate design that transcends trends. The attraction to David Morris lies not only in the flawless and original designs of our creations, but also in the very gems that are handpicked for every piece. Our inspiration comes from all over the world and focuses on the beauty of the stones retaining their inherent character – this resonates with our Qatar-based guests who seek unique and exclusive pieces of finer jewellery.” David Morris is synonymous with refined British luxury, and is internationally recognised for creating breathtaking, flawless adornments. “Our legacy is truly compelling, and our current direction is a daring and pioneering move to redefine what fine jewellery means to a modern luxury society,” confesses Jeremy. “Established over 50 years ago and family-owned for two generations, we are have a proud heritage,” he says. “We’ve stayed true to our origins of creating fine craftsmanship with a creative design ‘twist’, while utilising only the finest, most valuable gemstones in a glorious array of colours. The aim is to bring our British jewellery house and its heritage to our clients in their own environment.” Desirable David Morris signatures – like rose cut diamonds and ethereal centre stones – are an arresting design focal point. Similarly, the brand’s exclusive boutiques attract prestigious attention, too, in every city they’ve been chosen to grace.
The attraction to David Morris lies not only in the flawless and original designs of our creations, but also in the very gems that are handpicked for every piece
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In the 1930s, Paramount signed sultry Marlene Dietrich to break America – their answer to MGM’s Greta Garbo. The German sensation formed a dream team with director Josef von Sternberg, but their relationship would fizzle out – along with her box office success WoRDs: Chris Ujma
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une 1937. Marlene Dietrich has just played the lead in Knight Without Armour – a lavish Russian love story based on the James Hilton novel, where she starred opposite Robert Donat. It nets her USD450,000, making her one of the world’s highest paid movie stars in the process. But she’s professionally forlorn. Dietrich’s second colour on-screen outing marked another step away from her tenure with Paramount Pictures and – moreover – from her creative soulmate Josef von Sternberg. Such was the immensity of her seven majestic collaborations with the director, that the shadows of their success loomed large, and, “She was the canvas on which he painted his feminine ideal: complicated and beautifully lit, a hatchwork of shadows and desire,” wrote culture writer Anne Helen Peterson of their sanguine 1930-1935 spell. “Dietrich was otherworldly, her face a mask across which emotion flitted and fought. Her every move seemed an exercise in control, a sort of beautifully molded artifice. But Dietrich was no confection: she was a masterpiece.” In 1938, this masterpiece was under assault. Like many of her esteemed peers, Dietrich’s filmography would come to carry an asterisk – all thanks to a pesky article written by an industry insider, whose words have been affixed to many a legend’s legacy. Harry Brandt penned an advertisement piece for the Independent Film Journal called ‘Box Office Poison’, written on behalf of an Independent Theatre Owners of America collective who were tired of losing money. 43
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It comprised a scathing list of several well-known stars and Brandt’s opening throat clearing was thus: “Wake up! Practically all of the major studios are burdened with stars – whose public appeal is negligible – and receiving tremendous salaries necessitated by contractual obligations... Among those players whose dramatical ability is unquestioned, but whose box-office draw is nil…” He then spouted a collection of names and Dietrich was included – though in hindsight she was among fine company on the list, alongside Mae West, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, with Katharine Hepburn and Kay Francis also among the inclusions. Louella O Parsons, motion picture editor of International News Service, wrote, “Harry Brandt, New York Exhibitor, threw a bombshell into peaceful Hollywood when he named Marlene Dietrich, Kay Francis, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Edward Arnold and several other top-notchers as poison at the box office.” To his credit, John Mannheimer – executive secretary of the Independent Theatre Owners’ of America – offered up a clarification. He outlined that his organisation was, “Not attacking the stars personally… Pictures are being ground out regularly on the same old big scale under a system of long term contracts with stars who eventually become obsolete, and we have to foot the bill.” But the horse had already bolted, his justification garnered 1/100th of the coverage of the initial article, and the ramifications of those three damning words – ‘box office poison’ – never did find an antidote for those who made the hit list. While the accusation rankled a cluster of stars (who threatened legal action) and continues to dog Dietrich’s bio, she would never be torpedoed by mere words. It’s evident that she paid little attention to literary critics or praise. She met the fanfare of being heralded as a style icon, for example, with remarks such as, “I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men. If I dressed for myself I wouldn’t bother at all... I dress for the profession.” No, Dietrich was a robust, fierce, femme fatale, with the driving force in her world being an appetite for relationships and passion, not critical 44
appeasement – “Love affairs are the only real education in life,” she once mused. And it was the breakdown of her connection with Von Sternberg that prompted a dip in quality of her movie output and popularity. Together, they hit professional heights that, apart, neither would ever again eclipse. Dietrich was a self-made woman, never solely reliant on her alabaster visage and shock-value androgyny; her narrative is injected with stories of bullish, defiant, unyielding runins with the Nazi regime ruling her homeland, and incisive musings on the complextities of co-existence. Despite being married, separated, and never divorced from Rudolf Sieber, a string of high profile partners entangle with her tale. They straddled the line of deep-rooted friendships and romantic conquests, including Frank Sinatra,
Jean Gabin, Mercedes de Acosta, Edith Piaf, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Yul Brynner, and assorted generals. Ernest Hemingway – her confidant and never her lover – wrote to his ‘Dearest Kraut’ frequently, with tender, hilarious yet raunchy letters. She even caught the eye of two Kennedys. But for classic-cinema aficionados, one relationship matters most: the simmering tête-à-tête with AustrianAmerican Von Sternberg, where personal and professional spheres interlaced, with lucrative and legendary filmmaking being the consequence. She was a raw talent, and he unlocked the box. In their seven movies together, the director and actress created lightning in a bottle. He was, “The man who made Marlene sparkle – genius, bully, Svengali… film director Josef von Sternberg dominated opening pages: marlene Dietrich as shanghai Lily in the film Shanghai Express, directed by josef von sternberg Left: The effortless ‘street style’ of Dietrich, from 1935 Right: Dietrich as amy jolly, in Morocco
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Left: a later-career Dietrich publicity portrait, from 1948 Right: marlene Dietrich and joseph von sternberg are shown arriving at the ruben manoulian Party
Love affairs are the only real education in life Hollywood’s Golden Age,” being one assessment by The Guardian. Film critic Tim Robey is another of many to lavish praise, saying, “He built his career, and Marlene Dietrich’s too, on what could be achieved with the perfect combination of lenses and lighting in a close-up. Her cheekbones became world-famous, but only because Von Sternberg, the premier cameraartist of his age, knew how to sink the cheeks below them in ravishing shadow… Von Sternberg’s seven films with Dietrich … are like sittings for the most besotted set of portraits cinema could license. We owe to them the classic idea of Thirties glamour, the tragic and sultry allure, the feathers and sequins, and all those hats.” The director plucked her from relative obscurity after she caught his eye on the Berlin cabaret circuit, and sold the idea to the studio that she could be their Greta Garbo, the Swedish sensation headlining for MGM studio. Once her tenacity was fused with his artistic expertise under the Paramount roof, an overnight star was born. Their first effort was Germany’s first talking picture Der Blaue Engel, and once re-filmed and renamed for America, The Blue Angel (1930) thrust Dietrich into the spotlight. Capitalising on her success as nightclub dancer Lola Lola, Paramount released Morocco, which garnered Dietrich
and Von Sternberg Academy Award nominations, and cemented her newfound stardom. Acting chops aside, she would use her physical assets to full impact – and learning from the complimentary lighting techniques of Von Sternberg, she too would become clinical in perfecting visual greatness: “She learnt to position a full length mirror just to the side of the camera, so that she could hold her head in the right way to catch the all-important light,” revealed author David Stuart Ryan in his book The Blue Angel - The Life and Films of Marlene Dietrich. “It always had to come from high above, to catch her face’s bone structure in the right way… It was a very studied art… [plus] the essential attraction for Von Sternberg, as for everyone else, was her legs… and Paramount’s enormous publicity campaign also concentrated on her legs, creating just as much sexual intrigue and excitement in America as they had in Berlin,” he said. So successful were Dietrich’s portrayals, that her on-screen image became her – much to the chagrin of real life suitors, who could not separate the ‘two’ and usually found out far too late. “Some of the admirers she subsequently collected came to me to state bitterly that they had sought in vain the image of her that flashed on the screen. Amusingly enough, a
famous writer who should have known better went so far as to say that I had done him considerable harm by endowing her with a personality not her own. I did not endow her with a personality that was not her own; one sees what one wants to see, and I gave her nothing that she did not already have,” wrote Von Sternberg in his vivid autobiography Fun In A Chinese Laundry. It was he who would instigate the separation, though. Despite the national success of their third picture together, Shanghai Express, “Von Sternberg wanted to end [the] association, it had gone as far as it could go, he judged, and the artist in him wanted to move on,” wrote Ryan. “The love affair had cooled to a close working relationship, where Marlene depended [on him] to bring out whatever aspect of her character he had divined necessary for the part.” Three more abstract, exotic and artsy films followed, placing malleable Dietrich in differing contexts –from an ordinary middle-class mother in Blonde Venus (1932), to a monarch in The Scarlet Empress (1934), and a final hurrah as a beguiling temptress in The Devil Is A Woman (1935). And with that the brilliant, doomed, role-reversing chess game ended. He claimed of his once-muse, after filming, “[Dietrich] and I have progressed as far as possible together, and my being with her will help neither her nor me.” She would go on to have a late-career mini-revival with some world-class directors (such as Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and Orson Welles), while he would vanish somewhat, into the directorial wilderness. But they’ll always be lauded for that dazzling run of seven magnificent movies together. For Dietrich, her latter career output perhaps only pales in comparison because of his tactful cinematography, which captured the immense natural magnetism people gleaned from her. Playing devil’s advocate, let’s say Brandt’s claim of Dietrich as “box office poison” is true. Well she’s proven too darn tempting. Fans – besotted with this heroine’s acting time capsules that show her glamour, grace, spirit and panache – have ignored the warning label, and sip her irresistible silver screen elixir like a fine glass of bubbles. She’d have surely toasted such defiance. 47
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Left: Broadway, 1954
ris UJMa
WORDS: Ch
Newman is of Marvin E h p ra through og on tiently seen was onth, a m a m p , is rk th Yo d se ew Relea a naive N 950-1980 hic tribute to ment technology from 1 rtist explains, it a photograp a op n a el ic Amer film dev ge his lens. But me, and as the esteemed ty of his images to emer u ga ea ll b a g b t in e underly a differen ecades for th would take d
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e don’t see in black and white,” says Marvin E Newman. The observation by the 89-year-old is a simple one, but succinct enough that, had he not applied it to his career over 60 years ago, would have left a fascinating side of New York City undocumented in its glorious hues. “Back then, people were not photographing in colour,” he points out. “I was very involved in the art world when I came out of undergraduate school and during a curated show at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), I noticed that most people were working in black and white because it wasn’t possible to give colour work to the museums, as we had no archivalquality museums. At that time, all they thought about with submissions was, ‘how long can it last?’. I photographed in colour, however, because I felt it was very important to do so, even though people were not paying attention to the medium,” he explains, in his measured New York drawl.
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His pioneering spirit is evident in his most defining works. Another vital ingredient was his ability to think ahead of his time. Much like the iconic structures he would hunker among, Newman had grand designs – to push the boundaries of photography. “When you’re young you think on very large terms, and I went into my neighbourhood and saw things in a completely different way. I was very cognizant of photographic history and I thought that some of the things that I was seeing should be captured for posterity,” he contextualises. Despite having permanent collections at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA and Art Institute of Chicago, Newman has remained largely undiscovered by the mainstrean. His renaissance is simply down to advancements in photography development, which have unlocked the brilliance of his colourful images for the first time – visual gateways to a bygone era. The emergence, finally, of these works from that period (1950-
1980) are compiled in new coffee table book by Taschen. It’s an, “original tableaux [that] offers fresh perspectives on familiar New York landmarks but, above all, a unique sense for life in the city and for the drama, extremities, and complexities that weld New York to so many hearts,” as described by the influential publisher. Newman’s life through a lens began at undergraduate school. He enrolled in a sculpture class with post-Mondrian painter Burgoyne Diller – the teacher who would set him on his career path by showing him the invaluable importance of composition. He had never photographed before his senior year at Brooklyn College, when he took a course with former US Army combat photographer Walter Rosenblum. One of Newman’s first assignments was to venture into his local neighbourhood and see what he could photograph, and he says, “It set me up for documentation which, when I went back to New York became the crux of my photography.”
He’d certainly got the knack; “When I came back to my teacher, he thought that I’d done very well on the assignment, even with what was a basic point-and-shoot camera, and he recommended that I continue with it. There’s a photograph from very early in my process of the street that I lived on in The Bronx. My family was in the bakery business so we had an apartment above the store. I pictured the street, which had trams running on it at that time, and it shows the people, the storefronts, the uncleaned sidewalks, and mothers with children in strollers – it contained every component. That picture took on a lot of significance, looking back.” Having studied in Chicago, where he was one of the first recipients of the Master of Science in Photography from Chicago’s Institute of Design, his return to New York kickstarted a seminal period photographing the city streets. Newman returned having worked with National Medal of Arts recipient Harry Callahan – an experience Newman says was, “such a complete departure from my time with
Rosenblum, because design elements and thinking about light, as well as how to use it in my photographs, came to the forefront. I started to combine all the elements I had been shown.” His interpretation made him one of the most accomplished photographers of his time. As to many eyes over the years, New York proved too tempting not to chronicle. Of his metropolis muse, he says such things as, “I saw that in Wall Street you have these shafts of light coming in through very tall buildings, and they spotlight things I wanted to see – I call them sun-shadows.” He further explains, “I’ve a group of photos where you see the person and everything else around them is shrouded in black. I spent a lot of time knowing that this was a special capture, photographically, and I went back a number of times seeking exactly that. People are so small in relation to the buildings in the financial district – and I was intrigued by that.” Newman’s technique would be a mixture of meticulously sitting in one spot, with following his nose to
Left: Feast Of San Gennaro, Little Italy, New York, 1952 Above: Circus, New York, 1954, one of Newman’s black and white efforts
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Winter Boardwalk, 1953, by Marvin E Newman
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After 70 years of photography I see everything through a rectangle – whether it’s vertical or horizontal wherever the day would take him. “I tried very hard to see beyond, to what people were thinking. What was behind the photographic image that I was clicking the shutter for? Sometimes you absolutely achieve it, and for that result I worked very hard.” Although he is a champion of colour, Newman also embraced the black and white medium with impressive results. He worked with microfilm – which at that time, people were only using in the newspaper industry to record what they had written in order to take home a printed page. Newman took that 35mm film and used it in his 35mm camera. It had never been done before. “It was a new medium and the result was that it did not photograph any of the grey areas – it was pure black and white – and the depth depended upon the design and how big or small the elements were. There was an immense balance in those pictures.” 54
It takes a degree of understanding to truly appreciate Newman’s works, as he was equally limited (and, he admits, liberated) by the technology of the time. The film used was slow and the operator had to focus the camera, also grappling with slow shutter speeds. “This is evident in some of my handheld pictures of the San Gennaro Festival on Mulberry Street. I was very strong at the time – much younger, of course – and I could hold the camera still for what you would consider a long time, close to half a second. But still, you see in the photographs just a fractional blur, and it’s because even though I was steady, there was movement – such as the singer moving just a little bit,” he recounts. He recalls another example: “The New York Stock Exchange asked to be a client of mine, and there’s this photograph of the trading floor from 1957. I built a platform for the camera
over a hole in the ceiling, and I had one of the fastest available wide-angle lenses for that time but even then, the exposure was six to eight seconds. Only because of that could I achieve the image that I wanted – covering the whole floor and the movement of the traders, capturing a moment that shows what the Stock Exchange is all about.” He spent a summer during his grad school days working in the laboratory of LIFE magazine, and upgraded his technique in dealing with film, going through the whole educational process of working out what colour could achieve, as well as how to how to develop – and manipulate it. A corner of New York he feels the latter worked best is a picture set taken on Coney Island during winter. “You have all these amusement rides and the venues on the boardwalk are closed, but as a background it’s fascinating and only recently when
I went back to the collection, all of the elements – the design, the natural light, and the mood – combined.” It’s one of many sets in his portfolio that – abetted by modern technology – Newman was able to revisit and apply modern techniques to. What emerged were colours that he had seen with his eyes and tried to grasp 50 years prior, and he’s delighted that despite the years, “My material – captured in Kodachrome – held up perfectly.” He had to be patient for the true resplendence to show, allowing colourdeveloping technology to progress. “I had photographed in colour throughout my commercial career for magazines, but in my personal sphere it didn’t matter to me that my work wasn’t ever used – I had just felt it was important to do. Then technological change came, and I revisited the images that I had taken back in the 1950s. Not only was I able to bring out the colour, they now had historical significance; scenes that seemed ordinary at that time get better and better as years pass. Those images, you see in the book.” He has a wealth of technical knowledge to share but there’s a philosophy to every capture to. What is his perfect New York picture? Newman ponders his response carefully. “It’s complicated to choose
one that embodies my work, the city and my photography style,” he carefully treads. “But the picture I think does that is one of Times Square, that you find in the book. You see what New York is about: the coloured lights, the people walking in the street… all of this action melding and saying everything about the city, about the population, how large it is, how much is going on all at once. To be able to take all of those elements and put it in one photograph – if you can succeed – then you have accomplished something special.” He never stopped revisiting scenes he cherished, aided with new technology and freshly-acquired techniques to gain a new perspective. Newman embraced electronic flash in its infancy to help with the lighting, yet went back to the same locations in the 1980s, “To do so much more, technologically, with balancing the light. In so many of the things that I have done, I saw what I thought was very interesting but I hadn’t put all the photographic knowledge into what I was doing so I would go back. It’s like sculpture. You work on something and can make it better and better.” “After 70 years of photography, I see everything through a rectangle – whether it’s vertical or horizontal,” he admits. As a lifelong New Yorker,
Newman has seen the tides of cultural change with the most significant shift being in Times Square. He says, “Disney took over in the early 1990s but before that, I don’t think tourists knew how dangerous it was. I toured the city a couple of nights with the police, and there was always someone running around with a gun who they were looking for. Tourists were strolling around, oblivious. After Disney cleaned up it’s a whole different aura: you don’t see all the violent movie titles, for example. I tried to show that in my second series of the square.” The book serves as a time capsule of what New York – and the United States, in a sense – looked like at the time. “To many people it may be an eyeopener and will hopefully advance their knowledge, presenting visual evidence to make real an area they might have only known about historically. In my pictures I am saying, here, you may not have had the memory but I have, so take a look and process it your own way. If I enlarge anyone’s thoughts along those lines, then the book has been a success.” The Marvin E Newman book, published by Taschen, is available now. Four special Art Editions are limited to 75 signed copies and accompanied by a signed print. taschen.com
Left: Bird’s Eye View, New York Stock Exchange, 1957 Right: Wall Street, 1958
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UNSTOPPABLE Before she was the Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, Swedish actress Noomi Rapace was a bar-fighting teenage tearaway. Now she’s an action star and a West London mum with a love for fashion – a thoroughly modern heroine WORDS: Giles Hattersley
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People are always surprised I’m girly... Most films I’ve done I have a scar. They’re marks, like kisses
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orget Tom Hiddleston and Idris Elba — could the 37-year-old Swedish actress Noomi Rapace be the outside bet to be the next James Bond? I wouldn’t have asked, but in her latest film, Unlocked, she plays this fearsome spy dashing around London being endlessly double-crossed in her attempts to thwart a biological weapons attack. Orlando Bloom plays a former marine who joins her on the run, she goes for power cocktails with Michael Douglas, and almost manages to make jumping a fence in 4in heels look like a credible character choice. In short, it is the perfect audition tape for 007. So what do you reckon, Noomi? Are you up for Bond? “Yes, I think the world is ready for a female Bond,” she says firmly. And you would do it, I ask, excited. Let’s call the Bond producer Barbara Broccoli this instant. “Actually, Barbara is a friend of mine, I should tell her,” Rapace says, nestled into a booth at a Notting Hill members’ club. It turns out that despite her signature Scandi twang and alien bleach job, Rapace, whose Alien: Covenant was in cinemas of late, doesn’t live in some conceptual ice bunker by the Arctic Circle but in west London, and she knows everybody. How odd, I think, sizing up her otherworldly presence. But then everything about Rapace’s life story is fascinating, from her flamenco-singing father to her teenage years spent as a fighting tearaway. Even today, she’s a single mum who has quietly become the world’s foremost female action star. “What can I say? My dreams are endless.” Her voice fizzes with irony and cool. Back to Bond. “I definitely think the audience is ready for new flavours,” she says. “Of course, Bond is a classic, and always has its audience. But girls today are feminists, they have equal thinking. My sister is 22 and she doesn’t like films with a strong, sexy man and a girlfriend with a big chest and plastic surgery. Things are changing.” In fact, Rapace has already played her part in this. Her perfect Lisbeth Salander in the 2009 original Swedishlanguage Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movies made her an international star, and changed overnight what it meant to be an ingénue. Armpit
hair, psychological complexity and motorbike skills were in; simpering action starlets were out. She simply won’t countenance doing the latter, despite now being Hollywood’s go-to for big-budget action and violent indie dramas. Sigourney Weaver mark II, if you will. (No surprise when she says: “Sigourney was my hero aged 14.”) Though I’m not sure Sigourney ever turned up for an interview like this. Rapace is giving her hot take on Bond, swaddled up to her neck in fashion. Where to begin? The vintage goldand-black Versace T-shirt, featuring life-size Medusa heads backlit in electric turquoise? The accompanying fluffball collared Burberry bomber jacket in vivid raspberry? There are also sky-high 1990s-style platform trainers and a tiny black skirt from the Swedish label House of Dagmar. But my favourite has to be the jewellery, of which she is wearing at least a dozen pieces. Half of it is thugstyle gangsta gold you buy on street corners in LA, the rest glittering ear studs and necklaces from Chanel and Hermès. Honestly, she looks like the love child of Snoop Dogg and Elizabeth Taylor. But it works. In fact, it all does. I interview a lot of actresses who are essentially feigning an interest in fashion to boost their profile and bank balance, but Rapace is the real deal. She’s good pals with Riccardo Tisci; she shops at Chanel. “People are always surprised I’m girly,” she says, pleased, then she tells a story about how Orlando Bloom fractured her nose on the set of Unlocked, but she just ploughed on with the day’s filming. She points to the very noticeable bump on the bridge of her nose, but for a woman who makes millions in closeup, she seems cheerful about it. “Most films I’ve done I have a scar. This is from Tom Hardy,” she says pointing to a doozy on her arm from when they made Child 44. “They’re marks, like kisses,” she says. You have real-life bar-fighting scars from when you were a teen, too, don’t you? “Yeah,” she says, her laughter suddenly less assured. “That’s a different life.” At 16, Rapace was an unhappy, violent, semiliterate teen from a broken home, with addiction issues and a short
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If we as actresses could push for something that’s a little bit more real, it might have a bit of a snowball effect fuse. These days, she’s practically a yummy mummy (though she would balk at the label). After splitting from her ex, Ola Rapace (the handsome sidekick in the Swedish Wallanders), she moved with her son, Lev, 13, to London four years ago and set up a glamorous mini-commune with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend. They all wear ‘Unit 2’ gold necklaces she designed (it’s their house number), listen to hip-hop, throw boho dinner parties and – having grown up with “no money… like for real” – are unashamedly house proud. Out comes the smartphone. “Do you want to see my bedroom? It’s on the edge of tacky,” she warns. Cue a video roam over leopard-print cushions, bedding, rugs, sleeping mask and headboard. 60
Sensibly, Rapace doesn’t discuss her love life with a teenage son still at home, but when it comes to parenting, she wants to break up the hothouse atmosphere surrounding teens. “A lot of kids have anxiety because there’s so much pressure,” she says. “We are all supposed to be perfect: mothers, kids, fathers. We are supposed to look good, to do well. You become really self-centred, and it’s destructive.” So she added a house rule: “No phones at the dinner table.” But she concedes that she recently found herself saying limply to Lev: “Even if I’m shooting in LA, stick with the rules,” and gives a hopeless laugh. Her own parents, an actress and a flamenco singer, split when Rapace was a baby; aged five, she moved with her mother and stepfather to
an isolated community in Iceland, populated almost entirely by people with Down’s syndrome. Her mother taught drama, but there was no money, even when the family moved back to Sweden and Rapace was enrolled at a hippie-tastic Steiner school (“It was free”) that taught her how to build tables, but not to read or write. Her teenage years sound miserable, actually. She left home for Stockholm at 15, was briefly reunited with her father before he died of cancer, then fell in with a “dodgy” crowd where she got into fights and drank every day, before going sober at 16. That was a different chapter — almost a different book,” she says. At 20, she met and married Ola Norell (they chose the surname Rapace together), and was a mother by 23. By this point, she had learnt to read properly and was making a name for herself in Swedish cinema, while discovering the upside to a peripatetic youth. “For many years I thought I was stupid. Now I realise that I’m not. I just have a different way. I’ve always been an outsider, but I turned being an outsider into a strength I could use.” I reckon she still loves a fight, saying yes to all those brutal brawls with Bloom and Hardy with glee. Off camera, she fights her corner, too. “**** that!” she says when I ask whether she minds looking so rough on camera sometimes. “I’m not here to be beautiful. I’m not here to sell seduction. I’m here to act.” Did they try to tart you up when you first went to Hollywood? “Well, they still try a little bit,” she whispers thespily. “Films have a huge impact on people, and I do think that if we as actresses could push for something that’s a little bit more real, it might have a little bit of a snowball effect.” I’m sure you could. “I’m unstoppable,” she laughs. “I’m very stubborn. I’m scared of a lot of things, but I don’t avoid it just because I’m scared.” What does scare you? She goes quiet. “Being left. I didn’t have a dad, then all that comes with that. You start life knowing that someone you want didn’t want you,” she says, and for a moment a heavy sadness hangs over her. Then she smiles. “And I’m scared of heights.” She really would make a fascinating Bond.
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Kick Out The Jams A UK-based exhibition dedicated to the fashion of Anna Sui shows her eclectic, technicolour style. With inspirations ranging from femininity, surfers and schoolgirls to hippies, mods and punks, welcome to her rock ‘n’ roll world
WORDS : CHRIS UJMA
All images: Berluti master tailor Karim Rebahi, at work 62
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mid a squeal of opening guitar feedback, MC5 lead singer Rob Tyner roars into the mic, “It’s time… to… kick out the jams!” What follows on their 1969 track, of the same name, is a maelstrom of pure rock from the Detroit band to blitz the listener’s ears. They’re one of the first bands that Anna Sui ever saw live as a youngster; fast-forward to the 2010s, and the Shazam-worthy playlists that accompany the fashion designer’s runway collections are chosen to impart a similar adrenaline buzz. Songs like I Wanna Be Sedated by The Ramones (SS13 collection); Mambo Sun by T-Rex (SS15); Jefferson Airplane’s Young Girl Sunday Blues (SS14). She’s said of Jethro Tull (whose Cross Eyed Mary found a place on her SS15 season tracklist), “I saw them instead of going to my senior prom!” Yep, she’s definitely a designer with a lust for sound. Though it might seem upside down to approach the story of a fashion icon with music chatter, for the legendary Sui it was the spunk of 1960s rock ‘n’ roll rebellion that lit her creative fire. And rather than creating kickass tunes with an electric guitar, she picked up the needle and fabric, creating awesome garments for scenesters: “When I started my own business, my main reason for designing clothes was that I wanted to dress rock stars and the people who went to rock concerts. It didn’t go beyond that aspiration at that point,” she confessed to Indigo Clarke in Lula Magazine. Tyner is one of the many influencers who served-up the soundtrack to Sui’s youth. “I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit dreaming about the British invasion, The Beatles and The Stones,” she told The Look. “My first concert was MC5 and The Stooges in a park, then along came Glam Rock and I was smitten. It wasn’t just the band that dressed up, but the audience too.” To hear her idolise the style and aura of music legends is endearing in a way, because it’s a reaction she doubtless ignites in others. In the style world, Sui herself is the adulated ‘rock star’ – the ‘on stage’ presence that a generation of creatives are dying to emulate. She’s a tour de force of chic; said Hilary Alexander OBE, former fashion director at The Daily Telegraph, “She’s the Janis Joplin of fashion.” 64
Sui provided an apt pulse-check of her design method in an interview with Superdrug (when promoting her cosmetics venture), saying, “When I’m creating... I refer to my universe. There’s so many things that I love, and you see it over and over again in my work – the 60s, rock and roll music, street fashion and very feminine styles. But I think it’s always filtered through this crazy brain that I have, and it becomes Anna Sui.” Sui’s fashion has been a focal point for 30 years, but a new exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London
It is a beauty that can exist in any era – past, present or future – a beauty that does not fall prey to the wrath of novelty
has curated works of the Detroit-born designer, accumulating the majesty to have emerged from Sui’s selfconfessed craziness. The World of Anna Sui marks the first retrospective of an American designer on UK shores as, “the American emphasis on ready-to-wear and everyday clothing has had insufficient attention”, believes Celia Joicey, head of the museum. This show compiles 125 of Sui’s outfits, thematically arranged to fully explore, ‘her dizzying array of… motifs that are featured in all her work’. The exhibition highlights, “How Sui fuses a range of historical and cultural reference points in her work,” Joicey reveals. “The outfits are arranged into 12 groups, including Mod, Punk, Grunge, Hippie, Rockstar and Surfer. Unlike many American designers, Anna Sui works in a strong narrative mode and we want to celebrate the intelligence of this approach. Her initial ideas often lead the designer into meticulous research that she then weaves into a storyline.” The three-month show highlights Sui’s own distinctively graphic textiles (as well as those created with highprofile partners such as Ascher Studio, Zandra Rhodes, Jeffrey Fulvimari and Barbara Hulanicki), and allows visitors to experience a recreation of Anna’s sensational New York shop. There’s an insight into her design processes through moodboards. “She’s some mysterious designer from days of yore; she lives in the era of viral clips and photographs, sketches, runway shots, and cultural ephemera,” explains Joicey. While the exhibition whisks back the cloak of her inspiration, mercifully, little guesswork is required. Sui is not some mystery-shrouded designer but flourishies in a time of online content and repeated soundbites. She duly provides the first-hand insight into her own methods: “When designing, I make a selection of music that will be the inspiration behind the whole collection... I will be blasting that music – it becomes a journey I take in my brain to transfer that sound to the clothing,” she told Lisa Marie Presely (of all people) in Interview, about her Guardians Of The Galaxy Star-Lord approach. But by linking the music and the madness, it’s easy to misgive Sui as
Left: Gigi Hadid models the Polynesian Collection, SS2016. The print on the dress was commissioned from Zandra Rhodes, highlighting Sui’s ability to make strategic partnerships with kindred designers and manufacturers. Image © Jennifer Graylock Right: Pop-sydelic Collection, AW2016, featuring Jamie Bochert and Justin Gossman. Photo © Thomas Lau; Close-up details of an Anna Sui look, from New York Fashion Week, February 2017
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Previous page: SS 2012 Isetan Mitsukoshi promotion. Image © Sofia Sanchez and Mauro Mongiello. Below: Backstage at the SS 2014 Collection, which was inspired in part by the PreRaphaelites. Image © Raoul Gatchalian
being caught on a nostalgia trip. She’s merely mystified and energised by the past, not marooned there, and her collections are distinctly ‘of the now’. Her designs revel in the limelight, and her star alliance knows no bounds – you name the A-lister, and they’re almost certain to have expressed their mood with an Anna Sui garment. She attracts the coolest of the incrowd. “After working in the industry for many years before her first runway show, I think the original supermodels saw her as a friend. It’s testament to Anna’s creative force and personality that so many high profile models and stars have associated with her over the years,” says Joicey. Naomi Campbell has opened no less than nine of Sui’s runway shows (including her debut in the Meatpacking District), thanks to Sui’s longtime friendship with Campbell confidante and photographer Steven Meisel. Madonna rocked her clothes as far back as 1991. When Sui introduced her menswear line, Mick Jagger appeared on Saturday Night Live in one of her suits. And The White Stripes’ Jack White penned the foreword to Anna Sui (a 2010 book that covers the scope of her career), writing, “It’s not retro or emulation or re-creation or even false modernity. It is a beauty that can exist in any era – past, present or future – a beauty that does not fall prey to the wrath of novelty.” Sui’s creations tread the line of pop culture and design funk with poise. The broader appeal is that hers is not merely style for the elite. Sui shared in an interview with Rita Braver of CBS News, “When people talk of Anna Sui fashion, they’re not talking about an age group: they’re talking about a spirit. My mom wears my clothes; my nieces wear my designs too.” 68
Joicey explains Sui’s everywoman appeal, saying, “There is femininity but it is very layered. Anna describes herself as a storyteller so perhaps it is more helpful to explore her work through the idea of folk and fairytales, and the idea of transformation. Magic is never far away in her work. The fantasies that she spins out through her designs reflect both the princess in the tower as well as the wicked witch, and for Sui, the light is always counterbalanced by the dark, a twist that she loves to inject.” Her empire has expanded, making her a household name in style but also fragrances and cosmetics. “She follows a succession of extremely talented American women innovators from Claire McCardell and Clare Potter to Donna Karan but also the beauty innovators,” Joicey outlines. “She is a talented businesswoman and by diversifying her brand, has maintained an independent vision.” Sui’s commercial awareness is apparent, and this ‘people’s designer’, creates art that the public can connect with. Her lookbooks are full of wearable wares and she recognised in the New York Times, “I don’t have the luxury of making clothes just to make an effect. It can’t be totally frivolous, because my distributors have to have a successful season, too.” In the CBS interview she also said, “I think whenever people talk about the ‘Anna Sui woman’ ... there’s always this ambiguity: is she a good girl or a bad girl?” Be they angelic or unhaloed, one thing is for certain: Sui liberates her cross generational audience with fashion that allows them to ‘kick out the jams’, to their very own beat. The World of Anna Sui shows at the Fashion and Textile Museum until 1 October. ftmlondon.org
The fantasies that she spins out reflect both the princess in the tower as well as the wicked witch. For Sui, the light is always counterbalanced by the dark
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Motoring JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
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For Your Eyes Only Accustomed to getting precisely what you want? Time to bespoke your own Bentley. Mulliner – the marque’s customisation division – enables clients to conceive limitless personalised vehicle details. Simply put: you dream it, they’ll build it
WORDS: ChrIS Ujma
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resting over the dunes while navigating the windswept sands of the Empty Quarter – the largest contiguous desert in the world – with a prized falcon perched atop the armrest storage box. To the Emirati driver partaking in the heritage-soaked sport of falconry, so far this may simply explain a spot of usual weekend off-roading. But compared to city life and Salik-toll highways, this feels like Lawrence of Arabia meets Inception, with the surrealist element being that the above scene transpired in a Bentley. Now that detail is not usual. Adeptly swishing up and over swathes of sand out beyond Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort, I was nestled in handstitched, diamond quilted leather seats, with feet planted upon a deep pile carpet, checking the timing of a dipping sun against a USD200,000 dashboardmounted Breitling tourbillon clock. This is not a boast of opulence, you’ll understand, but a reminder of expectations – because the definition of just what a Bentley can accomplish has been redefined, of late. Since launching its terrainconquering Bentagya last year, they’ve remarkably married the ability to venture off-road in an SUV, top 300km/h in a 2.6-ton crossover (that frankly drives much lighter), travel 1,000km on one full tank of fuel, and not surrender a single morsel of luxury in the process. The reason for this desert foray was to sample Bentley’s Bentagya Mulliner Falconry edition, its latest mainstream themed effort with Mulliner, the Crewebased coachbuilder’s bespoke division. Even with Bentley’s wealth of intrigue, Mulliner is its most tantalising secret and Uday Senapati, the head of technical operations, sets the scene as to why. “Before talking about bespoking, if you use our car configurator simply in relation to our foundation line, the minimum permutations for colour and customisation are 1.3 million. Exclusively selling 10,000 cars a year, in a sense each Bentley is unique.” That’s the baseline. Therefore, commissioning Mulliner to handle your customisation opens the door to anything – and we may as well be talking a wardrobe door to Narnia. Senapati and his team push the boundaries of technology and design 72
Mulliner brings to life an emotional engagement, to encapsulate your lifestyle in a Bentley. We don’t work with a catalogue to create the impossible – and what drives them is the challenge of making the wildest dreams of those with limitless wealth a drivable reality. While this involves fun, they are mindful of history, heritage – and pricelessness, too. “A Bentley is a luxury object, yet a decision could be between buying a yacht, a house, a piece of jewellery… or our car,” he says. Senapati bursts with tales yet – due to confidentiality agreements – also guards a vault of high-profile secrets. With the ‘Winged B’-world at their feet, what are the desires of those given a blank canvas? “There’s not a typical segmentation, because anyone could want anything. One type of client we get are those who are very traditional, who would care to go for something very subtle – a small signature somewhere, something to make the car more personal,” he says. The next level is, “Those who would want to celebrate their success and express themselves in that slightly grander way, so we delve into matching
colours and specific materials.” The Mulliner team draws its inspiration from everywhere, and Senapati’s mind is sponge-like – in his presence you can see him silently soaking up curious textures, visual cues and details, for future inspiration. Tangibly, the team turns ideas into amazement, and cars from the Limited Edition line-up provide fascinating insight, and it’s a universe of Alcantara throw cushions, quartzite slate stone veneer panels, English Elm from the private estate of a British aristocrat, picnic hampers with Robbe & Berking silver-plated cutlery, 23.9ct gold plate Bentley Flying ‘B’s, and more. An exquisite offering is artistry upon the fascia. This shown in the Mulliner Falconry, yet other examples of the resplendent technique are a depiction of the legendary ‘Blue Train’ in the Mulsanne Speed, and a Gran Canaria mountain vista homage in another Bentayga. Hours of painstaking manual skill go into the process, where 32 layers of different wood from six
species of tree are meticulously layered to add depth – and the scene can be anything, such as the visage of the driver’s own bird of prey, for example. They’ve colour options galore. Hidden Delights is the name reserved for striking flashes of Savile Row-inspired linings secreted throughout a Bentley, while their overarching spectrum of hide-upholstery hues puts a Pantone guide to shame. Be it a favourite suit, preferred lipstick or the coat of a prized racehorse, Mulliner experts can recreate any shade and reproduce it anywhere in the car. Crave more? How about LED approach lamps stowed discreetly in the wing mirror which, when triggered, project the iconic Bentley wings – or an image of your choice – onto the ground in front of you. An owner can make the car their own in every sense. The Bentayga Mulliner Falconry is merely the tip of an iceberg (or in this instance, dune), affording a glimpse into the philosophy poured into tiny details of design and function. Equipment in the boot makes for a successful day of falconry, with tracking bracelets and rugged flasks, right through to cork containers (innovatively a vegan material, by the way) that contain the kit. Senapati hooks onto this –“Why cork? We came to the desert and the feedback was that the box material had to be rugged, and cork worked with the scenery here. Falconry is lovely sport and we wanted to blend in and not overpower.” Even the box interiors are leather laser-embossed, with patterns evoking Arabian carpet. It’s indicative of Mulliner’s unquenchable thirst for understanding: they’ll learn your preferences and idiosyncrasies – pieces of art in your home or fragrances that waft through your living space – just to create a Bentley that is ‘you’, from its tailored interior accents to elaborate vehicle body modifications. “It’s comprehending ‘what is someone after?’ because we don’t work with a catalogue,” Senapati impassions. “Mulliner brings to life an emotional engagement to encapsulate your lifestyle. In some instances it’s taken two years for the client to settle on what they desire, and that’s fine. This is a sensory experience where the journey is just as important as the destination.”
All pictures: Bentley Bentayga, mulliner Falconry edition 73
Gastronomy JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
A Folly Good Time AIR
Forget the rules of fine dining and dare to have a little fun with your fare at the newly-launched folly by Nick & Scott in Dubai WORDS : FAYE BARTLE
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rom the hand-tended vertical herb garden, to the eight-seat kitchen area that provides a prime view of the chefs at work, folly by Nick & Scott dispels the sense of formality that often goes hand-in-hand with modern fine dining. “Folly means ‘a silly thing to do’ and, as the name suggests, we want the restaurant to be a place where people can come to let their hair down,” said chef Scott Price who, along with fellow restaurateurs Nick Alvis and Viktorija Paplauskiene, partnered with Gates Hospitality to launch the homegrown dining concept in Dubai back in March of this year.
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It’s a bold move for the trio, who have been working together since 2011 when they teamed up to take the helm of Table 9 by nick & scott after Gordon Ramsay parted ways with the venue. It went on to earn a number of top accolades. Two years later, they launched the successful Taste Kitchen chain of contemporary, casual restaurants in the emirate. The opportunity to pursue their latest passion project was spurred by finding a great space. “We had been thinking for a while about the kind of restaurant we wanted to open so when the location at Souk Madinat Jumeirah popped up we knew
it was the right timing,” said Nick. “We started working on the project full time in August 2016 but, as the venue wasn’t fully kitted out, we had to beg a test kitchen of sorts off a friend in Dubai Investment Park. It was a bit like a portacabin with an electric stove and portable oven, which wasn’t ideal, but we spent months there trying to nail down the concept.” The overriding goal was to move away from the traditional three-course menu and to add a fun element to fine dining. “The idea is that guests can have as much or as little as they like,” explains Nick. “Whether you feel like a couple of smaller courses, or a larger meal, you
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can have a different experience each time you visit.” The power of three is a key theme that has translated to the dining experience. “Each dish is made of three f lavour profiles – one strong and two complementary,” explains Scott. Dishes such as monkfish cheeks with paprika and salted lemon sit alongside butterhead lettuce with crème fraiche and mustard as well as lamb saddle with whipped pine nuts and salsa, providing guests with an opportunity to create their own tasting menu. “The monkfish cheeks are very popular, as is the cuttlefish dumpling and the sage eggy bread,” says Scott. “The food is simply executed but there’s a huge amount of work that goes into the preparation.” Ingredients are sourced from all over the world, including locally from trusted suppliers. These include fresh herbs from Fujairah and fish like red mullet and Sultan Ibrahim from Deira Fish Market. The butterhead lettuce, grown hydroponically, is sourced from Abu Dhabi. While the dishes may seem surprising, a closer look reveals that there is plenty to suit most tastes. “These days you can’t just write a menu from your own perspective,” 76
We want it to be a place where people can come to let their hair down
says Nick. “You have to think about what people want, which is why there are also a lot of classic items available, such as liver and clams.” The front of house staff has been expertly trained to guide diners through the various options and to offer suggestions, if needed, depending on how safe or adventurous they want to be. The veal tongue with capers and Parmesan, for instance, is an example of a braver choice. The eryngi mushroom with curry and roasted cashew nuts is another f lavourful option that is also completely gluten free. “We put a lot of thought into creating some gluten free and vegan dishes as we want to take the stigma away from asking for these sorts of dishes. People really do appreciate it,” says Scott.
Providing a point of difference is key to the entire concept at folly. The venue itself is unconventional, with its labyrinth style layout that is comprised of an indoor dining area with an open, interactive kitchen, a spacious outdoor terrace and lounge area with a secret garden feel, and a relaxing rooftop space with stunning views across picturesque Madinat Jumeirah. For those who prefer to dine in privacy, the restaurant has two intimate spaces. Set on its own terrace, The Communal Table accommodates up to 12 guests, with favourites from the menu presented on boards for sharing.For special occasions, The Windtower is a hidden gem, with its two-seat table, fabulous views and bespoke dinner menu tailored to suit each individual guest; two
marriage proposals have already been made there. “It is a great feeling seeing our vision come to life,” says Scott. “I remember drawing how I wanted the bar area to look on a piece of scrap paper. Seeing it finally built was even better than I could have imagined.” Gary Rhodes and two-star Michelin chef Michel Roux visited on the second night, while acclaimed pastry chef Dominique Ansel has also stopped by – that occasion was the launchpad for a busy and successful time. “They loved it,” confirms Scott of the VIP reaction. Nick adds, “With the thousands of restaurants in Dubai, you have to lure people back with something different. It’s nice when people think us worth a visit, and we don’t take anything for granted.” 77
17 journeys by jet
AIR
Fogo Island Inn, Newfoundland
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oth literally and figuratively, remote Newfoundland is a gulp of cool air – a refreshing escape from being enveloped in sweltering Middle Eastern humidity. Fogo Island is an evergreen escape, though, and is not merely reserved for balmy June escapism. This is a year-round destination of wonder, where migrating whales and icebergs visit in spring, and the fall berry season carpets the land in greenery and a variety of the edible fruit. It’s home to caribou, beavers, foxes and wildflowers, warmed by age-old tales of travellers and traditions passed down through generations. Situated in the Labrador Current along ‘Iceberg Alley’, the island is bounded by the shores of the wild North Atlantic ocean. The property is in stark contrast to its rugged natural surrounds – an ultra-modern piece of art perched on stilts atop jagged rocks. Norway-based architect Todd Saunders designed a space, based around thoughtful, humanistic contemporary design. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer visual wedges of the sea and sky. Local handcrafted furniture makes this ‘home’. Outdoors places you in the middle of nowhere, but nestled in the hotel you’ll feel distinctly somewhere – somewhere exceptional. This awardwinning Inn assures ‘wows’. A glass-walled dining room offering four-storey views of the churning, moody sea; the heritage library contains literary works pertaining to Newfoundland; a 37-seat cinema was developed in partnership with the National Film Board of Canada; the rooftop terrace relaxation area boasts outdoor hot tubs, from which to gaze spellbound at a clear night sky. When the great outdoors tempts, take a lodge bicycle out to explore the fishing village of Joe Batt’s Arm, or don snowshoes and hike to stunning artist studios hidden along the coast. Any visit here is culturally immersive, imparting the richness of the island locality. For the explorer, luxury meets isolation in this untamed wilderness – it’s the definition of ‘getting away from it all’, offering community and solitude in one of the very corners of the Earth. With it’s own 914m airstrip operated by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, charter jets can fly direct. fogoislandinn.ca/
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What I Know Now
AIR
JUNE 2017 : ISSUE 73
Charley Boorman
TV PresenTer, TraVel WriTer & MoTorbike enThusiasT My childhood was a fortunate one, growing up around the film industry as I swung between Ireland and wherever my director dad, John Boorman, was making movies. I was thrown in as it meant cheap labour for him, but it’s where I honed certain skills and became an actor. My mother influenced the entertainment factor too, as she’d always put on a big spread for the film crew. Their combined influence is why I love presenting. My father was also influential in helping develop my sense of adventure – which was always present, but he supported my passion. One of the biggest tips I’ve had about travelling was to have patience. Things 80
don’t always go your way when you’re on the road and you’ve got to be willing to adapt; life can turn on a sixpence. I met my biggest challenge last year when I broke both my legs in a major motorcycle crash. That’s what made me want to share my recovery in a book, as it provided a chance to dig deeper and reflect on what I care about in life – the accident gave me perspective. It was my overarching passion for motorcycles that motivated me to get back on my bike, as there’s nothing to beat being on a motorbike when the day is young and the world still pulling its boots on. There’s a freshness to the air that you can almost taste – it was my favourite time of day when riding through Africa with Ewan McGregor.
I’d say that the most important thing about adventure is the planning that precedes it. I like going to Stanfords map shop in London, opening up the maps and figuring out what I would like to do in each country. If you can survive the detailed prep, by the time you get to the starting line it all pays off. All of my bikes are important to me as they each have a speciality: take my Triumph 1200 for example – it’s perfect for when I’m in the mood for a long ride. Things happen fast on a motorbike, so you have to be in harmony with it – in an instant, something may change your life forever. Boorman’s new biography, Long Way Back, is available from AA Publishing
Aaron Basha Boutique Paris • Dubai
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