Air Magazine - Empire Aviation - November'16

Issue sIXTY sIX november 2016

Benedict Cumberbatch Luxury • Culture • People • Style • Heritage

P. 4 0 0 0

P R EC I S I O N, R E L I A B I L I T Y A N D ST R E N GT H. T H E P.4 0 0 0 AU TO M AT I C CA L I B R E , O N LY 3. 9 5 M M T H I C K , W I T H O F F- C E N T R E M I C R O - R OTO R A N D 72 - H O U R P O W E R R ES E R VE ,

EQ U I P S

THE

NEW

LU M I N O R

DUE

3

DAYS

AU TO M AT I C

S I M P L I C I T Y I N T EC H N I CA L E XC E L L E N C E .

ACC I A I O.

3 D AYS A U TO M AT I C ACC I A I O - 4 5 M M ( R E F. 6 74 )

PANERAI BOUTIQUES

DUBAI - THE DUBAI MALL . +971 4 339 8444 ABU DHABI - THE GALLERIA AT SOWWAH SQUARE . AL MARYAH ISLAND . +971 2 491 9748 AHMED SEDDIQI & SONS DUBAI - ATLANTIS . +971 4 422 0233 • MALL OF THE EMIRATES . +971 4 341 1211

Contents noVEmBEr 2016 : ISSUE 66

Editorial Editorial director

John Thatcher Editor

Chris Ujma christopher@hotmediapublishing.com

air

Sub-Editor

Emma Laurence Contributing Editor

Hayley Skirka

art art director

Andy Knappett designer

Emi Dixon illustrations

Vanessa Arnaud

CommErCial managing director

Victoria Thatcher Group Commercial director

David Wade

Forty Eight

Seventy Two

Be it a Shakespearean king or a sci-fi superhero, Benedict Cumberbatch can master any acting moment

Fitness fanatic Karlie Kloss is a hard-working bundle of energy: just how exactly does the model stay in fine fettle?

Sixty Four

Seventy Eight

Peter Lindbergh portrayed models as never before; his adventurous shots marked the dawn of the ‘super’

The scenes that helped Rocky to an Oscar, plus the real-life adversity that inspired the underdog tale

Purple Patch

david@hotmediapublishing.com Commercial director

Rawan Chehab

rawan@hotmediapublishing.com

Special K

Business development manager

Rabih El Turk

Model Maker

rabih@hotmediapublishing.com

ProduCtion Production manager

Muthu Kumar

12

The People’s Champ

Contents NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Twenty Two

Forty Four

Ninety

At regal Royal Bridges, a collective of blue-blooded artists wow the world with their artistic impressions

Abu Dhabi Art is at the core of the city’s aesthetic revolution; here’s what to expect from the boutique fair

Heinz Beck’s La Pergola is a worthy inclusion among the Eternal City’s wonders.

When in Rome... dine here

Thirty Six

Eighty Six

Ninety Four

After an impactful first edition, Dubai Watch Week is back – to reveal the hidden secrets of haute horology

A reinvigorated Mulsanne ensures Bentley’s unrivalled saloon is in an opulent league of its own

Be enticed by Mashpi Lodge, a gateway to biodiversity (and luxury) in Ecuador’s majestic cloudforest

Radar

Timepieces

Art & Design

Gastronomy

Motoring

Travel

Forty

Jewellery

AIR

Parisian creative Charlotte Chesnais uses precious stones in her first foray into the fine-jewellery sphere

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.

14

Unparalleled performance, for all of life’s roads.

Bentayga.

Introducing the extraordinary SUV. Please contact Bentley Emirates on +971 4 305 8999 (Dubai) or +971 2 222 2445 (Abu Dhabi) for more information: www.uae.bentleymotors.com.

BENTLEY EMIRATES The name ‘Bentley’ and the ‘B’ in wings device are registered trademarks. © 2016 Bentley Motors Limited. Model shown: Bentayga.

Empire Aviation NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Welcome Onboard

Welcome to this issue of AIR, Empire Aviation Group’s aviation lifestyle magazine for aircraft owners and charter clients.

We are delighted to share our latest company news and our success at the recent 10th annual Aviation Business Middle East Awards, where we received the Aircraft Management Service Provider of the Year award for the second consecutive year.

A prestigious industry award is always satisfying and we were especially pleased to win the award for our core service of aircraft management.

Since launching in 2007, Empire Aviation Group has created a unique private-aviation business model focusing predominantly on aircraft sales, management and charter services, operating from our Dubai headquarters.

Today, EAG manages a global operation covering India, Africa, the US and – most recently – Europe and the Far East.

We are now the operator of the region’s largest managed fleet of business jets (with over 25 aircraft), supported by a team of more than 150 staff worldwide.

Our unique ‘asset management’ approach focuses on highly personalised aircraft-management services at the core of the company’s operations. EAG helps aircraft owners acquire and optimise their investment by operating and maintaining the aircraft to the manufacturer’s standards required to protect its long-term value.

It’s an approach that our aircraft owners value and this is the real reward for our service commitment.

ISSUE SIXTY SIX

Enjoy the issue.

Steve Hartley

Executive Director

Contact Details: info@empire.aero empireaviation.com 17

Paras Dhamecha

Executive Director

Empire Aviation

Pictures courtesy of ITP Business Publishing

NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Empire Aviation Group wins Aircraft Management Service Provider of the Year award 2016 EAG was the proud recipient of the Aircraft Management Service Provider of the Year award 2016 at the 10th annual Aviation Business Middle East Awards, held in Dubai, in October.

We were delighted to receive this prestigious Aviation Business Award and especially to be recognised for aircraft-management services, which are the core of our business.

Empire Aviation Group operates one of the region’s largest managed fleets of business jets, with more than 25 aircraft based in Dubai, Oman, India,

Hong Kong and Nigeria. The company, which launched in 2007 in Dubai, has a team of 150 aviation specialists, and has expanded operations across the globe with new branches in San Marino and Hong Kong, as well as a dedicated sales office in the USA. Paras Dhamecha, Executive Director of Empire Aviation Group, said that the prestigious award was a “recognition for the entire team, which is dedicated to supporting aircraft owners with a very highly personalised level of service and a unique asset-management approach”.

18

EAG continues to expand and develop with new aircraft coming onto our managed fleet across all our global operations and new services being added to enhance the aircraft ownership experience.

The annual Aviation Business Awards are organised by Dubaibased magazine publisher ITP Publishing Group; in the 2016 iteration they celebrated winners across 15 categories, selected by an independent jury of senior leaders in the industry along with the editor of Aviation Business Middle East.

Empire Aviation NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Selecting the right management company Changing the regional market’s view of the business jet (from luxury to business tool) has been central to EAG’s success, supported by the distinctive, personalised asset-management model.

Each aircraft owner is a unique business model, requiring a tailored solution and a highly personalised level of service from a trusted partner. EAG’s managed aircraft represent a balanced mix of first-time buyers/current owners – and from all the major manufacturers. After successfully building the business

model in the region, EAG is now continuing to scale globally.

Of course, there is a choice of management companies and some will combine management and charter operations but a good management company will always take the time to sit with an aircraft owner to understand the requirements and tailor a personal proposal.

An owner may want to relocate the aircraft from its current base and for it to be managed remotely.

The management company should be able to accommodate this requirement and provide all the necessary professionally qualified personnel and infrastructure, to include everything from maintenance to in-flight services. Every aircraft owner should also enjoy significant 20

economies of scale when working with a management company, with savings on insurance, hangaring, fuel, ground transportation, catering and other expenses that need to be factored into the management agreement.

When it comes to flight operations, owners need not concern themselves with the complexities of the crew, flight planning and permits, and can just sit back and relax and enjoy the personalised flying experience, with the entire process managed for them.

Finally, aviation is a ‘safety first’ business and a private aircraft should be operated as safely as a commercial aircraft – this must always be the priority of the aircraft manager/operator and should be the first consideration for any owner.

CABIN ALTITUDE: 1,003 M* • PASSENGERS: UP TO 19 • PANORAMIC WINDOWS: 16

PHILOSOPHY of COMFORT The Gulfstream G650™ gives you the most comfortable, relaxing and technically advanced cabin offered in an ultralong-range business jet. Panoramic windows, 100 percent fresh-air replenishment and intuitive touch-screen controls enhance your overall travel experience.

Gulfstream’s philosophy of comfort is just a part of making the G650 The World Standard™.

ALLAN STANTON | +971 50 653 5258 | allan.stanton@gulfstream.com | GULFSTREAMG650.COM *At the typical initial cruise altitude of 12,497 m

Radar

AIR

NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

22

This is not just any piece of art; it’s a piece created by a member of society’s most elite. The inaugural edition of Royal Bridges takes place at The Ritz-Carlton DIFC on 29 and 30 November, and the paintings and sculptural works showcased in the exhibition share a common thread – all the artists hail from royal and princely houses across the world (perhaps not such a ‘common’ thread after all).

This first iteration, entitled Convergence, sees a weighty lineup of contributors sharing their diverse narrative and personality set. HE Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Thani of Qatar, HRH Princess Reem Al Faisal of Saudi Arabia, HH Prince Rotislav Rostislavovich Romanov of Russia, HRH The Princess Sophie of Romania, HRH Princess Lelli de Orleans e Bragança of Brazil and HRH The Duchess Diane of Württemberg are among those whose works will be showcased. The exhibition will be followed by an auction of the contemporary portfolio, in collaboration with Christie’s. It’s a new art movement that is certain to rouse the creative spirit, whether your blood runs blue or otherwise. royalbridges.org 23

Critique NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Film Inferno Dir: Ron Howard Symbologist Robert Langdon is back, using clues from Dante’s Divine Comedy to battle a deadly virus AT BEST: “Satisfyingly delivered… arguably the best in the franchise so far.”

Hollywood Reporter AT WORST: “Completely absurd, ultimately pointless, but also gloriously goofy: a Nancy Drew mystery with Scooby-Doo overtones and a thin veneer of bookishness.”

Flick Filosopher

The Eagle Huntress AIR

Dir: Otto Bell A documentary detailing the path of 13-year-old Aisholpan, who’s training to become the first female eagle hunter in 12 generations AT BEST: “A… profoundly inspiring testament to disregard… societal constraints and forge ahead with your passion.” The Film Stage AT WORST: “Even if the story is a little too simple or perhaps a little staged, Aisholpan’s sincerity and joy shines through…

She’s a genuine hero for the 21st century.” Under The Radar

Dog Eat Dog Dir: Paul Schrader Nicolas Cage heads up a group of ex-cons hired to perform a kidnap for an eccentric mob boss – but the operation goes awry AT BEST: “An exploitation movie, and it’s as gleefully, giddily disreputable as it should be.” Flavorwire AT WORST: “You get the impression of a ferociously intelligent director flirting with a veneer of dumbness for the fun of it, but the act never really convinces.” Screen International

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk Dir: Ang lee A soldier’s harrowing memories of war are recounted through flashbacks, as he attends an American football game on Thanksgiving AT BEST: “[Not] simply a technological experiment; it’s also a… heartfelt, and engrossing story. And part of the power of it lies in the way that those two things are connected.” Variety AT WORST: “It’s a war story that should be felt, but instead tells you how to feel.” Consequence Of Sound 24

NBRSDUBAI | NIKKIBEACHHOTELS.COM NIKKIBEACHHOTELDUBAI

A PLACE TO EMBRACE LIFE. OPENING SOON

Nikki Beach Resort & Spa Dubai, a lifestyle destination for those who set the trend. Located on Pearl Jumeira, the resort introduces 132 keys comprising 117 rooms and suites, 15 villas with private pools as well as 63 private residences boasting top-line facilities. Host of unique food and beverage offerings including the world-famed Nikki Beach Restaurant & Beach Club. Relaxation and wellness are key elements of the resort where you can enjoy the choice of pools, sundecks or a more relaxed environment at Nikki Spa.

For reservations or more information please contact reservations.dubai@nikkibeachhotels.com Pearl Jumeira, PO Box 8286, Dubai, United Arab Emirates T: +971 4 376 6000 F: +971 4 376 6333

Critique NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

AIR

Theatre

(From left) Christina Tam, Brian Ferguson, Ellie Haddington, Patrick Kennedy, Sam Swann and Anne-Marie Duff in Oil

“F

or a while now, playwright Ella Hickson has been beyond merely ‘promising’ yet still short of really making her mark. Her latest work… is one of those vast, sprawling epics whose reach is almost doomed to exceed its grasp but which is nevertheless admirable for achieving as much as it does,” says the Financial Times of Oil, at London’s Almeida Theatre until 26 November. Expands Paul Taylor of The Independent, “Hickson connects the dawn of the Oil Age with the advent of female emancipation… Her epic about the global implications of our dependency on the black stuff is presented through the prism of the fraught relationship between a single mother and her daughter who timetravel like Virginia Woolf’s Orlando across a century and a half, ending up in the dystopian, post-oil future of 2051… The conclusion is droll, poetic, thought-provoking and terribly sad. The play will, I suspect, divide audiences but I’m not complaining when I say that I can’t get it out of my mind.” Adds Henry Hitchings at the Evening Standard, “The play’s title is the first of many provocations,

inviting audiences (and critics) to pun about its being crude and slippery – or indeed refined. It’s a gesture typical of this audacious and craftily self-referential piece, which mixes prickly humour with a mischievous intelligence.”

Remaining in the West End, at the Duke of York’s Theatre is recently opened The Dresser. Susannah Clapp at The Guardian unravels this delight: “You might think that 36 years after its first production this tragicomedy would have faded. After all, it features an old ham rolling through the regions during the Second World War, ‘giving’ his Lear and Richard III. It could so easily seem indulgent and limited.

Far from it. Of course, this is a terrific play about the theatre. But you don’t have ever to have sat in the stalls to respond to the central relationship.

Any wife, mistress, self-conscious egotist, overlooked pal will recognise the truth in the co-dependency of ‘Sir’ and his dresser, Norman: supportive, bullying, jealous, encouraging, constantly shifting.” Mark Shenton of The Stage deems it a “beautifully acted production of a classic play of life backstage”, adding, “Ken Stott is 26

magnificent as the crumpled heap of a man that Sir has become… Reece Shearsmith lends his character a sparky, practical determination that contains its own core of sadness – it is a pitiably vulnerable, heartbreaking performance… There are also some lovely turns by the supporting cast, including Simon Rouse as an older actor content with small parts and Adam Jackson-Smith as an actor trying to get Sir to read his play.”

The drama runs until 14 January.

Over on Broadway, The Cherry Orchard (starring Diane Lane) is failing to find the critics’ sweet spot. Marilyn Stasio at Variety mourns, “[This play] normally brings tears and laughter to the coldest of hearts. But there is surprisingly little emotion stirred by this production… Lane takes her shot as Madame Ranevskaya in the Roundabout Theater Company’s Broadway revival of Chekhov’s most beloved play – and proves to be engaging, if not remarkable. Not that anyone really has a chance to shine in director Simon Godwin’s shapeless production.” Ben Brantley at The New York Times concurs: “Though it stars that fine actress [Lane], is staged by the rising British director Simon Godwin and features a new adaptation by the seriously gifted young dramatist Stephen Karam, this frenzied, flashy take on one family’s mortgage crisis may be the most clueless interpretation of Chekhov I have seen. No matter the angles from which you examine Mr Godwin’s production – and I’ve tried so many I have a neck cramp – it’s impossible to discern a coherent point of view.”

Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney is slightly gentler: “Karam lays out the plot fundamentals clearly enough, but the characters lack the shading to locate the play’s emotional richness…

[His] rewrite blows the dust off the language, but along with it, the poetry, and Godwin’s direction too often blurs the distinctions among the characters… [It’s] a poor harvest.”

Judge for yourself, at the American Airlines Theatre until 4 December.

Aaron Basha Boutique Paris Dubai •

•

•

673 Madison Avenue

Hong Kong

Levant Dubai

•

•

Kiev

•

London

Ali Bin Ali Qatar

• •

•

New York Moscow

•

•

212.644.1970

Qatar

•

Tokyo

Asia Jewellers Bahrain

•

•

•

www.aaronbasha.com

Bahrain

•

Riyadh

Harrods London

•

Jeddah

Critique NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Art

AIR

“A

driaen van de Velde’s story is one no self-respecting millennial wants to hear: he was a child prodigy, painted fast and died young aged 35 in 1672. By 22 he was creating pristine beachscapes and was so renowned for his figuredrawing skills that other artists of the Dutch Golden Age roped him in to work on their paintings so they wouldn’t be left with stick men. At one time, his paintings were worth more than Rembrandt’s. If any totally obscure Dutch landscape artist deserves a whole show dedicated to them, it’s him,” says Time Out London of the Dutch Master Of Landscape exhibition, at South London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery until 15 January.

Ben Luke at the Evening Standard is equally complimentary: “[He] was far more than a figure painter: his landscapes were hugely varied and accomplished… His brilliance in these intimately scaled pictures was in evoking the wider vista – figures journey through or look out of the frame. However carefully he composed them, we always feel as if we are present for a decisive moment in an evolving scene… He’s varied, accomplished and sensitive.” Art Fund adds, “It wasn’t until the 18th and 19th centuries that his painterly abilities were truly recognised; a spike in posthumous fame causing collectors across England, Germany and France to desperately seek out his world. His first UK exhibition encompasses 60 works, and reunites his paintings with the accompanying preparatory studies.”

Paul Nash was a pioneer enamoured with English woodlands and also with war; visitors can explore the juxtaposition of beauty and tortured soul at Tate Britain until 5 March.

Lauds Paul Laity of The Guardian, “Nash lost his heart to the English countryside – and his illusions in two world wars. He’s arguably the greatest war artist Britain has produced; the works that first earned him real renown… are iconic images of the trenches: with their

The Beach At Scheveningen by Adriaen van de Velde

splintered tree stumps and lumpy mud seas, they shockingly captured the annihilation of nature at bombblasted Ypres and Passchendaele…

Nash is also one of the most interesting British landscape painters of the 20th century, much loved for his pictures of… English places with which he felt a strong, almost mystical, connection. His pictures found a refreshing, contemporary way to express a deeply felt communion with the English countryside.” Art Fund expands, “The First World War changed Nash’s work irrevocably.

In 1917, from the Allied army headquarters near Passchendaele, he wrote to his wife, ‘I have seen the most frightful nightmare… I am no longer an artist interested and curious, I am a messenger’… Yet his reputation has been haunted by a magazine article in which he noted, ‘Whether it is possible to “Go Modern” and to still “Be British” is a question that is vexing quite a few people today.’ Emphasising his engagement with the interwar international art scene, the curators of this Tate retrospective reveal that this was not his dilemma; Nash believed that it was possible to respond to ideas from abroad and still make distinctively British works of art.”

Over in the Lion City, the National Gallery Singapore is hosting Artist 28

And Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies until 26 March. “It’s said that for every moment in time, there’s a representation of it captured in the form of art. The British Empire is no exception, and [here] you’ll get a contemporary perspective on the rise of modern art in former British colonies,” surmises Time Out Singapore. Michelle Liew at ArtHop critiques, “The collection is diverse: from Tate Britain’s collection of grand history paintings and portraits, to an assortment of indigenous works from the Asia-Pacific region…

[It] initiates sharp conversations, hammers out the different facets of colonialism, and brings into high relief the structures of power in colonialism. To push this inquiry even further, perhaps as visitors, we too are caught in the structures of power. Our experience of particular artworks might be organised according to the curatorial direction – in other words, our knowledge is a… filtered version of the curators’.

Though empires and colonialism may be a thing of the past, power exists in the everyday, perennially…

As new narratives continue to emerge – following our engagement in this exhibition for example – whether through heated discussions or meditative questioning, this conversation does not relent.”

Critique NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Books

AIR

I

n All That Man Is, pens William Skidelsky for the Observer, “[David Szalay’s] true concerns… err more towards the philosophical. It has to be said, [his] verdict is depressing.

Far from celebrating’s man’s infinite variety, the book reveals his endless repetitiveness. The characters we encounter, no matter how ostensibly different, are all caught up in the same narrow set of concerns… There’s a thematic consistency that makes this more than a collection… But a novel?

I don’t think so. As long as readers don’t feel cheated, they will find a great deal to enjoy in these pages.”

Book Riot is more upbeat, describing it as “a unique, challenging book that tells stories from youngest to oldest… a fascinating and sometimes disturbing look at common experiences between different classes and what it means to be a man in the modern world”. Dwight Garner at The New York Times opines, “[Szalay] writes with voluptuous authority… possessing voice rather than merely style, and you climb into his new novel as if into an understated luxury car. The book has a large, hammer-like engine, yet it is content to purr. There’s a sense of enormous power held in reserve…

It is a bummer, and it is beautiful.”

On the history front, A Gentleman In Moscow is, says Constance Grady of Vox, “One of the year’s most relentlessly charming books. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing…

Amor Towles’ new novel concerns Count Alexander Rostov, a suave and elegant Russian aristocrat who, in 1922, is sentenced by a Bolshevik tribunal to house arrest in a luxury hotel… There, he proceeds to make the best of his new life. For the next 32 years… The count’s charm borders on aggressive. ‘Slow down a little,’ you want to say. ‘You don’t have to turn every meal into a meditation on Tolstoy and the unique character of the Russian people! It’s okay to just sit.’” Kirkus Reviews purrs, “Spread across four decades, this is in all ways a great novel, a nonstop pleasure brimming with charm, personal

wisdom, and philosophic insight… It’s a masterly encapsulation of modern Russian history…” Annalisa Quinn for NPR muses, “It aims to charm and the result is a winning, stylish novel that keeps things easy. Flair is always the goal – he never lets anyone merely say goodbye when they could bid adieu, never puts a period where an exclamation point or dramatic ellipsis could stand. In his narratorial guise, he likes to drop in from the sky in dramatic asides, rhetorical questions, and cute self-referential footnotes.”

Lastly, on to Time Travel, which charts an elusive idea that has enraptured mankind throughout the ages. “James Gleick’s exhilarating history of time travel begins by transporting us back to… the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

That period anticipated many of our present concerns, witnessing rapid technological innovation and extensive globalisation. It also saw an unprecedented questioning of customary assumptions in both the sciences and the arts… He values tales of time travel precisely because they capture our own experience of the past as finished, the present as evanescent and the future as unpredictable. We need these stories, he writes, ‘For history. For mystery. For nostalgia.

For hope.’… He is toying with ideas, playing with past and future. He is having fun, and we all know what that does to time,” says Michael Saler in The Wall Street Journal. In The New York Times, Anthony Doerr summarises, “This is a fascinating mashup of philosophy, literary criticism, physics and cultural observation. It’s witty (‘Regret is the time traveller’s energy bar’), pithy (‘What is time? Things change, and time is how we keep track’) and regularly manages to twist its reader’s mind into… Gordian knots…

Gleick’s epigraph to his penultimate chapter comes from Ursula Le Guin: ‘Story is our only boat for sailing on the river of time,’ and she’s right, of course. The shelves of every library in the world brim with time machines.

Step into one, and off you go.”

30

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

D FA B E R G E

MOSAIC PENDANT

The Fabergé egg, first gifted to the wife of a Russian tsar in 1885, remains one of the world’s grandest and most iconic tokens of affection – as synonymous with exemplary design as it is with unbridled luxury. For its latest iteration, the haute jeweller has revisited the Mosaic Imperial Easter Egg

of 1914 to create a trio of pendants studded with single-faceted precious gemstones – from diamonds to Mozambican rubies, sapphires and tzavorites. In signature Fabergé style, every glittering stone is invisibly set, creating a flawless mosaic effect that’s simply dazzling.

1

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

E CHRISTOFLE

G R A N D FAT H E R C L O C K A cornerstone of the quintessential English home, the grandfather clock was the pinnacle of technology when it debuted in 1670. Centuries later, French maison Christofle and Dutch silversmith Marcel Wanders have put this bastion of taste and tradition back in the spotlight with

their Jardin d’Eden edition. Constructed almost entirely from silver, the 2m tall monolith houses a trio of clocks that can be customised to reflect the time in the cities of your choosing. But with just 50 in the world, and only a precious three available to buy in the region, the clock is ticking‌ 2

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

MB&F

HOROLOGICAL MACHINE NO 8

Grade-five titanium roll bars, a sapphirecrystal hood and a 3D engine complete with miniature oil sumps: add in the scent of burning rubber and you’ve almost got a wrist-sized racecar. MB&F’s HM8 is a powerful tribute to Can-Am, the legendary racing series where speed was king and

money was no object. Fifty years on, the concept watchmaker has injected this slick timepiece with that same rebellious spirit. Hand-stitched alligator strap and 18ct white-gold case aside, it’s the perfect motorist’s aide – the angled display means you need never let go of the wheel.

3

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

DE GRISOGONO

FOLIES NECKL ACE

Twenty-three years after championing the black diamond, De Grisogono continues to shape the jewellery sphere; this year, it acquired the world’s most expensive rough diamond, the 813ct Constellation, for the princely sum of USD63 million. You’ll have to wait to get your hands on potentially the

largest flawless diamond in existence – the cutting process won’t be completed until mid 2017 – but a sampling of the maison’s new Folies collection should prove ample distraction. Dripping with over 7,000 black and white diamonds, this necklace boasts a pretty respectable 241.3 carats itself.

4

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

S VA N C L E E F & A R P E L S

ROSE DE NOEL E ARRINGS

Couture’s love affair with the Seventies shows no sign of fading – retro silhouettes and blousy florals in high-chroma shades spilled out of this season’s fashion weeks.

If all-out hippy is a little boho for your tastes, doff your (wide-brimmed) hat to the movement with Van Cleef & Arpels’

emblematic Rose de Noël creations, which reinvigorate the maison’s own 1970 designs with glossy carnelian, onyx and lapis lazuli.

These Brazilian onyx earrings capture the essence of the hellebore flower, which blooms even in the coldest winter – like the enduring promise of love it represents.

5

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

I A S TON M A RT I N

A M 3 7 P O W E R B O AT

The name of the next James Bond remains a mystery, but if there’s a boat chase involved, you can bet he’ll be in the Aston Martin AM37. Bond’s motor of choice for over 50 years, the British mega-marque unveiled its first ever powerboat at this autumn’s prestigious Monaco Yacht Show – and,

predictably, she’s a beauty. Developed in conjunction with Quintessence Yachts, the 37ft day cruiser boasts mood lighting and sports-car styling in addition to the usual superyacht spec, and can be converted into an overnight berth for 007-level spontaneity. What are you waiting for?

6

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

R 7

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

E SOTHEBY’S

GE NE VA S A LE

The title ‘Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels’ gives a pretty fabulous indication of what to expect from Sotheby’s upcoming Geneva auction – although it’s hard to imagine anything will top the mesmerising Sky Blue Diamond. Set in an exquisite diamond-studded Cartier band, the Fancy

Vivid Blue Type IIb stone (a grading only afforded to 0.5% of the world’s diamonds) has an elegant square emerald cut and weighs in at an impressive 8.01 carats.

With a pre-sale estimate of USD15-25 million, it’ll make a sparkling investment for one collector – or one lucky recipient.

8

Timepieces november 2016 : ISSUE 66

Driven To Spend Why many of the world’s foremost watch brands compete to share F1’s spotlight TARIq MALIk

W

ith more than 500 million viewers across five continents every race weekend, F1 is a high-octane sporting spectacle of the highest order: highspeed thrills, drama, courage and technological excellence combine, as man and machine are pushed to their limits. 800hp of sheer automotive fury propels drivers at speeds of over 300km/h, and they endure cornering forces of around 4G. Teams and sponsors spend staggering amounts of money on technology and branding in a race for pole position, with the difference between success and failure often measured in thousandths of a second.

Competition is fierce, both on and off the track, and there are more watch brands in the sport than ever before.

This battle of the brands doesn’t get the same publicity as the one on the track but it’s just as unforgiving, and, as a watch lover, this is the race I’m far more interested in.

The official F1 timekeeper title has changed hands a number of times since the beginning of Formula One in the 1950s. Heuer became the first official timekeeper in 1974, when it introduced the Automatic Car Identification Timing System (ACIT) that’s still the basis of the racetiming system today, though it has advanced tremendously. During the 1970s racing epoch, Heuer continually developed its ‘big three’ racing chronographs – the Autavia, Carrera and Monaco. These days TAG Heuer, which now fully belongs to LVMH, sponsors the Red Bull Racing team.

During the 1980s the name most often associated with the sport was Longines. More recently, Hublot took centre stage, and pulled no punches in terms of marketing during its time at the helm. When F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was mugged for the Hublot on his wrist, the brand got him to pose for a photo with a blackened eye, and created a poster with the slogan: ‘See what people will do for a Hublot.’ Of course there was a tactful disclaimer in small print, but it illustrates just how ruthless the advertising game can be.

In 2013 Rolex muscled out Hublot for the official spot in a 10-year deal believed to be worth USD35m a year.

According to the Financial Times, it was a strategic move designed to keep the brand ahead of Omega, whose market share is encroaching on Rolex’s domination.

33

But others are hungry to reach those 500 million viewers and, as a result, more and more watch brands are joining the F1 sponsorship ranks, whether their brand has a racing legacy or not. Earlier this year Bell & Ross made its first foray into the sport, teaming up with Renault, while Richard Mille signed a 10-year deal with the McLaren-Honda team.

Watchmaking and racing is a partnership that makes sense in many ways, given the prestige, the split-second timing and the technical supremacy involved in both disciplines. But there’s no doubt about it: both on and off the circuit it’s all-out war, and I can’t wait to see which watch the victor of this year’s championship will be wearing.

Find Tariq’s co-founded vintage-watch boutique Momentum in Dubai’s DIFC; momentum-dubai.com

Timepieces Jewellery NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Complete Harmony

AIR

Vacheron Constantin adds to its 260thanniversary collection with a stunning new series, where the sophisticated Complete Calendar is the standout piece of a stellar ensemble

W

ith a storied history ‘depuis 1755’, this is a horology stalwart with a deep well of inspiration to draw from. Aesthetically, the 10 new references in Vacheron Constantin’s Harmony collection hark back to one of its first chronographs from 1928, while also capitalising on a set of watches from a more recent time: the highly successful parade of blue-numbered, limitededition Chronograph, Tourbillon and Dual-Time complications, released for the maison’s 260thanniversary celebration back in 2015. The 2016 encore is a stylish lineup indeed, yet of the magnificent 10, one in particular – the technically loaded Complete Calendar – tantalises our horological sensibilities most.

Visually, the square bezel and round dial gain traction as an instant classic. Its elegant cushion-shaped, 18ct rose-gold case is striking, especially when contrasted with a dark-brown hand-stitched alligator-mississippiensis strap.

It clocks in with a comfortable 40mm case size that’s 11mm thick, too, which gains a resounding ‘bravo’ from us. A first glance also draws attention to the optimal readability of its dial indications – around the rim, the date is illustrated by a central hand that culminates in a burgundy crescent; the day and month, in the same shade of deep red, appear through apertures in the upper half of the dial, while the lower half is devoted to displays of the phases and age of the moon. Moody anthracite numbers indicate the hour marks in a slightly modified modern font (with an Arabic-numeral option), and the iconic Maltese-cross shape sits just below the 12.

Right: Vacheron Constantin Harmony Complete Calendar (front and back) 34

It’s a true beauty: a contemporary novelty that nods to the past In terms of what drives the timepiece, expect immense accuracy – its precise astronomical indications require adjustment only once every 122 years (as opposed to every three years, for a conventional moonphase). The Complete Calendar is powered by a freshly developed, self-winding in-house 308-part movement, the Caliber 2460 QC, which beats at a frequency of 4Hz. For the curious, a transparent sapphire-crystal case back provides a chance to admire the inner workings and high-end finishing, rounded off with a polished, half-Maltese-cross-shaped clasp.

It’s a true beauty: a contemporary novelty that nods to the past, with traditional elements outside and a revolutionary movement within. Deft attention to detail and harmonious craftsmanship are sure to appeal to long-standing Vacheron Constantin admirers and new converts alike, while – moreover – ensuring the timepiece is richly deserving of the prestigious Hallmark of Geneva certification that it bears.

35

Timepieces NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Masters Of Time AIR

After a sensational debut in 2015, Dubai Watch Week returns to much acclaim, as the world unites for a profound horological moment during five days in November WORDS : CHRIS UJMA

W

hen we talk in late September, Dubai Watch Week (DWW) director Melika Yazdjerdi has her eye on the clock: not one of the finely crafted bespoke timepieces whose workings will be delved into at the international show, but the countdown timer on the event’s website homepage. “This year is going to be extremely challenging because people have high expectations.

We created something that exceeded all estimation – both internally, within the business and the family, and also externally, within the entire watch community. It’s far exceeded anyone’s preconceptions, and I know we have all the eyes on us this year,” she enthuses – the picture of serenity, I might add.

The family to whom she refers is Ahmed Seddiqi and Sons – a Dubai-

based entity with a large portfolio of Swiss watch brands, and the driving force behind DWW. The ambition, says Yazdjerdi, was “to create a platform with the objective of educating people about the world of fine watchmaking.

The week is an educational and cultural platform where people can come to network, get to know each other and learn, whether that visitor is an avid collector or a novice with little knowledge. We welcome allcomers who are looking to learn more”.

Is there such a dearth of knowledge in the UAE about timepieces? “It’s not that people need more education – we have collectors and buyers who know much more than we do because they’ve taken the time to research. What we really wanted to focus on was the history and the legacy of the industry: 36

what makes watchmaking unique, and so special,” she explains.

While it is in no way lightweight, part of DWW’s charm is its feeling of intimacy. “One of the most interesting pieces of feedback we received from the media is that when they travel to big watch events like SIHH and Baselworld it’s very overwhelming, and you rarely get to meet the brands directly – be it the brand owner, the CEO or the watchmakers themselves. With DWW, it’s the exact opposite – we’re opening the door and saying, ‘You have access to these amazing individuals,’ because that’s an experience that money cannot buy. It’s rare to walk into a space and get to talk to amazing individuals such as Jean-Claude Biver, Philippe Dufour, Mr Karl Scheufele, or any of the amazing brands and watchmakers.

37

38

AIR

Previous page: The Louis Moinet Memoris Red Eclipse Left: Watchmaker Peter Speake-Marin

This is the community we wanted to create,” Yazdjerdi confides.

The theme for 2016, Masters of Time, marks an evolution of the narrative.

The director reveals, “Last year we focused on independent brands, as we wanted to start with the basics of watchmaking. Historically they always start out as one person with a crazy idea, which transforms into a design or a product that eventually becomes a brand – the vision of one individual that gets translated into what we have today. This next step is to admire the beauty of the product. If you look at one of the nuances we have, horological movement, it’s digging deep into the layers of mechanics, like the five categories of movements.

We’ve also increased the number of watchmaking masterclass sessions from three to six per day, because they were oversubscribed in 2015.

The programme will be almost four times the size of last year’s, because we understand the appetite of the market.”

The masterclasses are one of the stars of the show, says Yazdjerdi: “They spark real appreciation among every generation of admirer. Getting into fine watchmaking is almost like making a decision to be an astronaut or a surgeon – it’s a long road that takes a very keen and passionate artisan to dedicate themselves to this profession forever, as every year there are new innovations that emerge from this industry, which continuously evolves.”

Dedication that one day, perhaps, leads to creating a timepiece that enters the stratosphere of appreciation, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. If your pupils dilated at the mention of this annual award, you’re in for a treat.

“Instead of bringing the 72 preselected watches, we will be presenting the asyet-unannounced winners of GPHG,” 39

explains Yazdjerdi. “We’re also flying in some of the jurors, who will talk about the intensive selection process that begins nine months before the decision by narrowing down 2,000 entries to an eventual 72, then picking one winner from each category.” There’s another element over which to salivate, and it highlights the event’s meteoric rise: “This year a lot of the brands have delayed their global launches for DWW, so during the event we’re going to have limited editions unveiled and global launches of exclusives that have been planned specifically for DWW.” Main events will take place at DIFC, which, says Yazdjerdi, “is the ideal destination because it has a lot of the target audience but also a natural footfall, and it’s easy for guests to go from one venue to the next within a couple of minutes’ walk. We’re thrilled to have The Dubai Mall on board as a partner, too, and the space that’s been dedicated to us is almost 2km long, running from Galeries Lafayette all the way to Bloomingdale’s, with the focus being Masters of Time: a journey of 800 years of watchmaking, with over 100 rare museum pieces”.

It’s setting a benchmark not only for the region, but the industry at large.

Says Yazdjerdi, “The essence of DWW is the chemistry between the people, and there is no other event like this in the world. If you look at all the major watch summits globally, they’re all commercial. Ours is dedicated to networking, exchanging ideas, sharing stories, and about culture, collaboration and education. That’s the beauty of Dubai Watch Week; it’s a dynamic event accessible to all.”

Dubai Watch Week takes place from 15 to 19 November and entry is free.

For the full event schedule and details, visit dubaiwatchweek.com

Jewellery NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

AIR

Charlotte’s Web Of-the-moment accessories designer Charlotte Chesnais makes an indelible mark with her first foray into fine jewellery WORDS : AnnAbEl DAvIDSon

T

he Parisian jeweller Charlotte Chesnais’ CV has become part of fashion lore, what with her nine years as an accessories designer alongside Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga, her stints consulting for Kenzo and Maiyet, and her current consulting gigs at Paco Rabanne and (anonymously) for a major luxury player. But meeting the designer at her showroom in Paris’ trendy Marais district during Haute Couture Fashion Week, it’s hard to imagine her having even five years’ worth of a career under

her belt, let alone twice that and a one-year-old child to boot.

For Chesnais has those enviable features that suggest eternal youth – wide-set eyes, seemingly poreless skin – but it’s all utterly effortless for this 31-year-old wunderkind of the accessories world. In fact, it’s entirely possible that she has no idea just how pretty she is – she’s all about the work. Chesnais started at Balenciaga straight after fashion school in Paris.

“I never studied jewellery design,” she says. “But working at Balenciaga, 40

it didn’t matter what you had studied.

It was like a big laboratory where every season you learnt something new and experimented with different ateliers and materials and craftspeople.

So when Nicolas said he wanted to do jewellery, I just saw it as a design project with different materials.”

Chesnais is arguably the first designer of her generation to put the swoop and swirl back into gold.

Her first collection, of silver and gold-plated pieces, was based on an architectural approach to metalwork;

41

AIR

orbiting hoops and softly undulating hooks to pierce the lobe, bracelets to wind around the wrist and thumb, and multiple rings bound together in a trio to jingle playfully on the hand.

Her work was immediately picked up by the likes of Matchesfashion.com, London’s Dover Street Market and Boutique 1, and swiftly became beloved of fashion editors worldwide. And just one year in, Chesnais is making her first foray into fine jewellery, something that has come about organically.

“My original collections just came in silver and vermeil,” she says. “And

then a Russian store wanted pieces in 18-carat gold. They said their customer wouldn’t wear vermeil.

That was the first step towards fine, so then I thought I would do a little capsule of fine pieces with gemstones.”

For her fine jewellery Chesnais takes designs from her original collections and sprinkles them with stones in a trio of shades; all-white diamonds, varying shades of pink sapphires with amethysts, and dark and pale blue sapphires with pale topaz.

“When I first looked at using stones, the options seemed endless,” she 42

‘People keep asking me why I’m not designing super-delicate pieces, but so many other people are, so why would I? Previous page: Charlotte Chesnais.

These pages, from left: Saturn Medium gold and diamond earrings; Swing gold, white gold and diamond earring; Swing gold, amethyst and topaz earring

admits. “So I’ve started with a really small range, I thought, let’s do it, and if no-one buys it, I’ll keep it all for myself!” It’s this approach to design – and to her brand as a whole – that really singles Chesnais out as a modern designer. She may cite Suzanne Belperron as an inspiration, but she doesn’t mean to compare her work with the great 20th-century jeweller.

“When she was designing, Belperron was doing something truly original for that epoch,” she says. “People keep asking me why I’m not designing superdelicate pieces, but so many other 43

people are, so why would I? I want to always be doing something new.”

So what’s next for Charlotte Chesnais, the brand? Will there be a handbag line in the future? “I think if I move towards something different it will be objects – maybe knives and forks,” she says. “Today I find myself more impressed by a beautiful chair than by a beautiful pair of shoes.” Designing cutlery may not seem the most obvious next step for the Parisian accessories darling, but if it is, you can be sure that Chesnais-designed knives and forks will be the next big thing.

Art & Design NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Painting The Town AIR

Abu Dhabi is fast becoming the creative capital of the Middle East. We get a first look at Abu Dhabi Art, the boutique fair that’s at the core of the city’s aesthetic revolution WORDS : EMMA LAURENCE

W

ith the gargantuan addition of both a Guggenheim and a Louvre to its cultural epicentre, Abu Dhabi’s artistic credentials are about to be set in stone.

But, having made the city’s cuttingedge Saadiyat Cultural District its home some five years ago, Abu Dhabi Art has been at the heart of its evolution, quite literally, from the ground up.

Now in its eighth edition, what began as a boutique art fair has grown in tandem with the capital’s cultural ambitions to become a pacemaker for contemporary art, and an essential

stop on the philotechnic’s world tour.

Its scale this time around, and its scope, befit its status as an integral part of a city’s creative rebirth.

As Alanood Al Hammadi, senior exhibitor relations coordinator for the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, puts it, “Abu Dhabi Art is always evolving because the art market and the art scene are always changing and evolving, so it will continue to evolve with, and complement, the opening of these museums [the aforementioned Guggenheim and Louvre, plus 44

Zayed National Museum]. It’s the international boutique art fair, and a great destination to see modern art.”

A collection of 40 modern-art dealers from around the world forms one of the four pillars of this year’s Abu Dhabi Art, along with Bidaya, devoted to one emerging local gallery; Beyond, a city-wide series of largescale sculptures and installations; and newcomer Gateway, a trio of exhibitions that will be woven through the main gallery space at Manarat Al Saadiyat, the fair’s hub. The latter hinges on a colossal sea of bananas, the brainchild

45

46

AIR

Previous page: Pablo Picasso’s Buste d’Homme (1964) will be shown by New York’s Acquavella Galleries.

Opposite: Gu Dexin will recreate his 2007 banana installation

of Chinese master subversive Gu Dexin and undoubtedly one of Abu Dhabi Art’s most high-profile attractions.

Thousands of the yellow fruits will fill an entire hall for the fair’s four-day run, and, explains Al Hammadi, “It’s an interactive piece so people will actually be able to eat the bananas.

It’ll be amazing.”

Other highlights include works

by Idris Khan, the British artist who’s also behind the emirate’s recently unveiled UAE Martyrs’ Memorial, as part of renowned New York gallery Sean Kelly’s offering – a truly international collaborative crossover that’s typical of the Abu Dhabi Art mix. Says Al Hammadi, “We bring together galleries from all over the world – from the US, Europe, Asia and Africa – in one boutique art fair.”

Crucial to that mix is the fair’s roster of top-level curators – among them, Catherine David (of the Pompidou) and Alexandra Munroe (of the Guggenheim) – who, says Al Hammadi, “play a really big role in transforming the concept of Abu Dhabi Art each year. Through them, we’re basically working with the different corners of the world. And by having them on board, we’re emphasising the importance of the art fair”.

At the other end of the spectrum, Bidaya (from the Arabic for ‘beginning’) will showcase works from Saudi artists Mounirah Mosly and Ibrahim El Dessouki, exhibited by Jeddah’s upand-coming Hafez Gallery. And even closer to home, enthuses Al Hammadi, “We also have a gallery from Dubai joining us for the first time, Cuadro Fine Art, which is great because they’re going to bring a selection of amazing Emirati artists like Zeinab Al Hashemi and Ammar al Attar.”

Supporting home-grown talent is part of the fair’s DNA, as is engaging with the local community as a whole.

So as well as a full supporting programme of performances and talks across Abu Dhabi, there are workshops for children and tailored tours of the exhibition proper. “We want people to really interact with and enjoy the exhibition,” says Al Hammadi. “This is your chance to see museum-standard modern artists and artworks, and hear commentary from top curators, gallerists and art critics.”

47

The hive of activity within the fair’s hub will be mirrored by an external buzz in the shape of “food trucks and beautiful installations and artworks surrounding the whole building”, says Al Hammadi. And indeed, it’s outside the gallery walls where arguably the most extraordinary elements will unfold. As I write, Italian-born, Brussels-based conceptual artist Anna Rispoli is in town setting up a light show of grand proportions, which will see all the buildings in the area switch their lights on and off in tightly choreographed coordination.

And the plethora of installations and sculptures that make up the Beyond portion of proceedings will remain in their urban habitats for a further six

This is your chance to see museum-standard modern artists months, ensuring the reverberations of Abu Dhabi Art are felt long after the lights have gone out.

Each year, this vibrant blend of aesthetic innovation attracts a slew of art collectors and connoisseurs, to whom organisers cater in style: “We have a dedicated VIP programme for collectors and VIP visitors,” explains Al Hammadi. “We arrange bespoke tours of Abu Dhabi and stage special dinners and events around the fair to give VIPs a full experience of the city and the emirate.”

Abu Dhabi Art isn’t just for VIPs, though – far from it. The exhibitions et al are free to enter, and everything on display is for sale, with price tags running the gamut from stuff of dreams to everyday affordable: something that can’t be said for every art fair of this calibre. Ultimately, explains Al Hammadi, “Abu Dhabi Art is for everyone, so we make sure we satisfy everyone’s taste. I believe this is the most amazing challenge, to have an audience of all ages – whether they are in the art world, or have zero knowledge about the arts – and it’s always exciting.”

Abu Dhabi Art runs from 16 to 19 November. For more information, visit abudhabiart.ae

AIR

PUR -PLE PAT -CH Greatness becomes Benedict Cumberbatch, whether he’s channelling Shakespeare’s works as the King of England, crime-solving as Sherlock, or harnessing the mystic arts as a marvellous comicbook superhero WORDS : BENJI WILSON

48

49

50

AIR

E

arlier in 2016, Benedict Cumberbatch and his wife, Sophie Hunter, attended a talk

by President Obama on his visit to the UK. “We were right beside the press pack, and there were people there with telephoto lenses. When they realised that Barack was going to be another five minutes, the whole lot just went ‘wumph’, onto me, onto the side of my face. I was, like, ‘How many times can you take a photograph of a not particularly attractive profile – again and again?’ I mean, thank God Sophie was there, so that kind of drew the eye in the photographs, as it always should.

But it was just embarrassing.”

Afterwards, the actor met the leader of the Free World, one of the few men left who is probably more famous than he is. (In 2014, they both appeared in Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People’ list.) No matter how you slice it, Benedict Cumberbatch, the man with a surname that sounds like a fart in a bath, the man who looks like Sid the Sloth from Ice Age (both his descriptions), has somehow become a whopping great multimedia macromillennial megastar.

A good portion of his fame is that rare thing – deserved. For example, his most recent TV appearance – the first two films of the BBC’s successful Bard-buster, The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses – contained but a few glimpses of Cumberbatch as Richard III. A few were all that were required. Although he was surrounded by pretty much every British acting grandee who didn’t make it into the first Hollow Crown series four years ago – Judi Dench, Hugh Bonneville, Sophie Okonedo, Michael Gambon – it’s Cumberbatch who magnetised. He walks off with scenes like a pickpocket nabbing wallets in a crowd, whistling a ditty. In part, it’s because only Cumberbatch’s Richard got to break the fourth wall, suddenly turning to camera to deliver his soliloquies straight to the viewer, not unlike Francis Urquhart in the original House Of Cards. But his performance across all three films is a masterclass in restraint, showing Richard III as a work-in-progress, drip-feeding subtle modulations that together build up a portrait of how a young man became one of history’s most notorious psychopaths. Then, in

I have a great affinity for people who are struggling to find a voice in a harsh world

Richard III, the final film, Cumberbatch is unleashed, oozing malice and “determined to prove a villain”.

The Henry VI plays are some of Shakespeare’s least-loved works. Yet the trilogy and the ensuing Richard III were his first commercial successes, and arguably they make much more sense repackaged as 21st-century television. “Modern TV audiences are hungry for that… We’ve seen it in every episodic domestic drama, whether it’s The Sopranos – talk about feuding families – or sagas like The Godfather.

You could have spun these three films out to 14 episodes.” Words tumble out of Cumberbatch – he’ll often catch himself and apologise for “rabbiting on”, or mention that he could “talk for hours”, but had better not. The energy you get from him on screen comes with a slight nervous tension in person – born, I suspect, of encounters with telephoto lenses like the one he mentioned before the Obama talk.

We meet at London’s Soho Hotel during a screening of his Richard III where he is the star turn for a group of “opinion-formers”, including MPs and Tony Hall, the director-general of the BBC. When his drink arrives – an elaborate cocktail that looks like a rockery in a glass – he notes the sprinkling of white powder on top and says, “That is icing sugar, I would like 51

to stress.” Then he realises he’s made a joke of the sort that could have the comedy expunged in print and turned into a drug reference. “Oh dear. Next headline. Please don’t think of me like this.” He knows he is constantly under observation and, though he understands why, he’s still not all that comfortable with it.

Well, Ben, it’s not going away any time soon. Our meeting came after he had hotfooted it to London from Wales, where he was shooting the new series of Sherlock. Before that, he was in the USA making Marvel’s Doctor Strange, the first in what could be a pensionworthy never-ending superhero franchise. ‘Strange’ seems apt – later, I ask Sam Mendes, the director whose company is producing the Hollow Crown series, why Cumberbatch was right for Richard. “I think there’s – how can I say this? – a great intelligence, and what I would call a strange sex appeal. He’s not obviously sexy, Benedict, yet he is. I think you can say the same about Richard III. In fact, it’s necessary that he’s sexy – the play asked him to seduce not one but two women, and he talks openly about how much he considers himself to be an outsider physically, with his own appearance and how low his own selfesteem is. I thought he [Cumberbatch] would understand that.”

AIR

Among the current Brit-pack laying siege to Hollywood, Cumberbatch is indeed the odd one out. He does not have the feline beauty of an Eddie Redmayne or the finesse of a Tom Hiddleston, even though he shares their good breeding. (It emerged last year that Cumberbatch is Richard III’s second cousin 16 times removed.)

When you hear him talk of Richard as the black sheep in a family of perfect physical specimens, he could be talking about himself in the front row at the Oscars.

“I’ve had a career that’s not dependent on the way I look – but that is a great liberation for an actor, so I’m not really that vain about it. As myself, of course, I get a little bit of, like, ‘Oh God, I look like s***’, but as an actor, I’ve never, ever cared.” He is too smart not to see where the Richard III analogy is going.

“Oh, I had a terrible childhood and I was desperately left out!” he quips.

“No, I’ve been very lucky. I think, like any teenager or adolescent, you have moments when you feel you don’t belong, but I can’t draw on a well of anxiety and difficulty. I have a great affinity for people who are struggling to find a voice in a harsh world, absolutely, but that’s not born of personal tragedy, I wouldn’t say.

There’s nothing to reveal there!”

Nonetheless, he has played several outsiders in his career: asexual sociopaths, extreme intellectuals, artists and spies. “I’m not going to disown the fact that I’ve played a few outsiders, I’m not going to disown the fact that I’ve played a few intellectuals, but I’m also not going to disown the fact that I’ve played some guys next door, some pretty average Joes, people you would sit down and have a drink with in a pub. People want to do that nice neat thing of drawing a line to join up the dots. I’m just keen for that graph to bounce all over the place, so people start frowning.”

Dominic Cooke, the former artistic director of the Royal Court, says Cumberbatch’s theatre work is easily ignored: “He doesn’t just play outsiders.

I saw Benedict play two shows back to back at the National. One was After The Dance, by Terence Rattigan – he was playing this quite damaged, but very formal, Englishman in 1939, in a play all about language and restraint. Then the next thing I saw him in was Frankenstein. For the first 20 minutes, he was butt naked, doing modern dance. Honestly, I don’t think there’s an actor in this country, or probably in the world, who could do both those things so well. That’s an amazing range of skills.”

Yet Cumberbatch isn’t just cast for his genius. He’s cast because he is Benedict Cumberbatch, the guy from Sherlock who appears on The Graham Norton Show; the guy adored

by Cumberbitches; the guy people compare to an otter in never-ending internet memes. He has become more than just a very good actor. “I think one of the wonderful things about casting somebody like Benedict – hopefully, he brings an audience with him,” Mendes says. “In addition to being a brilliant actor, he’s also quite well known, and he has a large television audience, along with Hiddleston and all the rest. You have to reach for that one person if you feel they’re out there, and hope that they find it.”

This November he’ll reach a new generation perhaps not so well versed with tussles for the crown, or au fait with pipe smoking, Watson sidekicks and tweed. Marvel revealed that they had their sights set on Benedict to fill the titular role of Dr Strange, even delaying filming to ensure it will be Cumberbatch who protects the world in their year-end fantasy jaunt. And by casting the megastar over mortals with less acting superpower, avoided a winter of discontent, you might say.

52

People want to do that nice neat thing of joining up the dots. I’m just keen for that graph to bounce all over the place, so people start frowning

53

AIR

Time

Traveller Time is constantly on the move – and so is the elite traveller. The stunning LANGE 1 Time Zone in honey gold, by A. Lange & Söhne, ensures the astute voyager remains synchronised with the world PHOTOGRAPHY MANBUTTE STYLING HIDEYUKI HAYASHI

A carefully-created A. Lange & Söhne timepiece is momentous, with a prestige that befits both their recent revival and roots that date back to 1845. For the discerning business jetsetter, however, travel is not a landmark event but a lifestyle necessity, and the refined watch that graces his wrist must be functional as well as stylish. Marrying both a sense of occasion and effortless transition is the limited edition LANGE 1 Time Zone. The piece takes the intricate haute horology of the iconic Lange 1, adds

a second time zone complication, and laces into the aesthetic a sophisticated honey gold colouring. This honeyhued alloy is special indeed: it is unique to the brand, is rated as more robust then gold alloy, plus adds a mellow aura and distinct visual identity to what is a rare timepiece – there are only 100 in existence. Deft design touches include homage to Dresden as Central European time; it’s an immaculate horology accomplishment that puts the hours in your command.

54

55

AIR

Opening pages: Jacket, Hackett. Shirt, Lacoste

Opposite page: Coat, Hackett. Knit, Versace.

Bag, Fendi, with vintage travel sticker added

56

57

58

AIR

Opposite page: Knit, Salvatore Ferragamo

59

This page: Coat, Versace.

T-shirt, John Elliott at Harvey Nichols. Trousers, Salvatore Ferragamo.

Luggage, Steamline

AIR

This page: Coat and bag, Fendi

Opposite page: Suit, Salvatore Ferragamo. Shirt, Pal Zileri. Tie, Hackett. Bag, Saint Laurent

60

61

62

AIR

Opposite page: Suit and shirt, Hackett. Luggage, Saint Laurent, with vintage travel sticker added

This page: Vest and shirt, Burnero Cuchinelli at Harvey Nichols. Trousers, John Elliott at Harvey Nichols

63

AIR

MODEL

Maker WORDS : Thierry-MaxiMe LorioT

64

65

AIR

The first supers weren’t born – they were created by one man (and a few white shirts). In an exclusive extract from Peter Lindbergh: A Different Vision On Fashion Photography, the book’s author tells how Lindbergh’s singular view of women launched the era of the supermodel

F

or the legendary January 1990 British Vogue cover, instead of selecting only one model, Lindbergh chose a group of five young models with different personalities – Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford – together for the first time. This image was to become the birth certificate of ‘supermodeldom’, although Lindbergh himself considers the ‘White Shirts’ image shot almost two years earlier to have been its real beginning. The British Vogue cover was the image that defined the ’90s’ new identity: models who do not appear as mere objects, facing the viewer with confidence and pride that many could relate to. Lindbergh describes his inspiration thus: “I was rather uninspired with the way women were photographed in the ’80s. I was trying to photograph them in a different way, but nobody seemed to care back then…

I wanted to move away from the rather formal, quite perfectly styled woman who was very artificial. I was more

concerned about a more outspoken, adventurous woman in control of her life and not too concerned about her social status or emancipated by masculine protection. My ideal was always the young women I met in art school, very independent and who could speak for themselves. The supermodels represented this change.

It explains why they dominated the visual world for many years.”

Pop singer George Michael saw Lindbergh’s famous Vogue cover and immediately booked the five girls for the video of his new single Freedom! ’90, directed by David Fincher, in which they lip-synched the song. The video fast-tracked the supermodels movement. This was later followed by Italian designer Gianni Versace, who was the first couturier to recognise their power. For his Fall 1991 collection, Versace booked them, and for the finale of his fashion show, they all strutted down the catwalk singing along to George Michael’s song. It marked the beginning of the era of celebrity 66

models, which redefined the image f the modern woman and became part of pop culture, connecting high fashion and mass marketing.

In 1991, Lindbergh directed the documentary Models, The Film.

Set in New York City, it featured Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, Linda Evangelista and Tatjana Patitz, the only video document about the supermodels era.

The Illinois-born Crawford, propelled to stardom in the late ’80s with her trademark upper-lip beauty mark, says, “I’ve worked with so many incredible photographers… but certainly Peter has a unique eye.

This was the first thing I noticed with Peter, even in the first picture I saw that he had shot, probably of Linda. You can tell that it is a picture of a real woman, and not a twodimensional model. You want to know what she is thinking and you almost feel you know what she is thinking.

He really sees the beauty in a mature woman through experience, through having children, heartbreaks, through love, through all of that. He adds to your beauty, he really nurtures you.”

Even while overexposing the supermodels by using them for multiple bookings, Lindbergh loved the idea that beyond their unique personalities, they could embody different characters for his stories. Often these played with codes of masculinity and femininity, sometimes using short wigs to portray his own version of them, like Cindy Crawford without her famous wavy curls in a 1988 editorial for Italian Vogue. He explains that “Cindy and Claudia [Schiffer] understood themselves more as a brand. Back in the day, both were less enticed by changing their look, playing characters, in contrast to Christy Turlington, who was totally different, and Linda Evangelista, who became a real chameleon with the help of Steven Meisel”.

The Canadian-born Evangelista, then married to Gérald Marie, president of Elite Model Management, shocked the fashion planet in 1988 by following Lindbergh’s advice to have her hair cut short by French hairstylist Julien d’Ys. Reluctant at first, she agreed, as the photographer felt he had shot her in every possible way since she had started modelling in the mid-1980s.

67

68

AIR

Opening page: Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz, Helena Christensen, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Karen Mulder and Stephanie Seymour, Brooklyn, 1991, Vogue US © Peter Lindbergh (Courtesy of Peter Lindbergh, Paris/Gagosian Gallery). Previous page: Kate Moss, Paris, 2015, Vogue Italia © Peter Lindbergh (Courtesy of Peter Lindbergh, Paris/Gagosian Gallery). Opposite: Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Peter Lindbergh, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista, New York, 1990, behind-the scenes-photograph, Vogue UK cover shoot © Jim Rakete. Above: Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford, New York, 1990 © Peter Lindbergh (Courtesy of Peter Lindbergh, Paris/Gagosian Gallery). Next page: Lionel Vermeil, Helena Christensen and Marie-Sophie Wilson, Paris, 1990, Vogue Paris © Peter Lindbergh (Courtesy of Peter Lindbergh, Paris/Gagosian Gallery)

69

70

AIR

My ideal was always the young women I met in art school, very independent and who could speak for themselves.

The supermodels represented this change. It explains why they dominated the visual world for many years

Evangelista’s new gamine pixie look, already popular in the fashion industry, made her lose a dozen contracts, but she gained many more. Later that year, she was featured on three simultaneous covers of Italian, French and American Vogue, which made her one of the most iconic models of her times.

Lindbergh offered a new interpretation of women post-1980s without paying too much attention to clothing. His use of black-and-white photography was very important in the creation of the image of these women, later labelled supermodels; they were so close to perfection, he felt that the images ended up looking like cosmetics adverts when Peter Lindbergh: A Different Vision On captured in colour. With Fashion Photography, black-and-white, he believed, published by Taschen, is out now; taschen.com you could see more of who they truly were. Whether Lindbergh’s women encounter aliens, dance in a cabaret or become urban angels, wear haute couture or jeans, the photographer never loses sight of the women in his images, bringing soul rather than fashion to the surface.

Around the same time American photographer Herb Ritts also shot an iconic image of the supermodels together. Lindbergh remembers that Ritts once said that he did not even have to see a new model if she had worked with the German photographer.

71

Ritts trusted Lindbergh’s taste because he usually found the most interesting newcomers. Not attracted by the opulent aesthetics of the 1980s, Lindbergh transformed “his” women into heroines of our times: models who became performers, personalities who became supermodels to later be known only by their first names. This change was seen as a politically and socially oriented kind of beauty. It became something much more than fashion, more than a matter of being blonde or not blonde, fat or thin, sporty or intellectual.

Lindbergh always cherished pluralistic beauties who appealed to other men and women, refusing standardised criteria of perfection.

When he started working with German model Tatjana Patitz, some did not understand why: she was considered unfashionably voluptuous.

Lindbergh saw the real woman and mystery in her. He loved working with atypical beauty Kristen McMenamy, of whom Lindbergh shot the first pictures in 1984, because of her extraordinary creativity. Of the British model Kate Moss, he says, “She is just the coolest person on Earth. She’s not tall or amazingly beautiful in terms of mainstream beauty, and why should she be?”

The exhibition Peter Lindbergh, A Different History Of Fashion, runs at Kunsthal Rotterdam until 12 February 2017

Special There’s only one Karlie Kloss. The 24-year-old supermodel and socialmedia entrepreneur talks body image, bullying and why building code is the key to a feminist future

WORDS : GILES HATTERSLEY

72

73

74

AIR

I

t’s quite funny watching Karlie Kloss gingerly traverse the lobby of Le Bristol hotel in Paris, wearing a second-hand sundress and clutching the inevitable fashion latte. Oh bless, I think. It’s a supermodel doing her best impression of a normal person.

And it’s so not working. The 24-yearold from St Louis has been the world’s premier catwalker for eight years now, so perhaps it’s not a shocker to discover that, in the flesh, she’s 6ft 2in and stupidly good-looking. One glimpse and waiters stiffen, businessmen gawp and soon a nervy fan is lurking with hopes of a selfie.

Ah, the Kloss selfie. In darker moments, I panic this will turn out to be the defining artefact of our era, ever since Kloss became BFFs with Taylor Swift and a heavily entrenched member of her ‘squad’ of famous young women who exhibit a kind of digital incontinence when it comes to documenting their shared gorgeousness on the internet. No doubt it has been fabulous business-wise for Kloss, who now shares a manager with Justin Bieber and Kanye West, and earns about USD5m a year shooting campaigns such as the new one for Stella McCartney’s range of Adidas sports kit.

Adidas usually only works with athletes but Kloss is such a noted fitness junkie, it made an exception.

“I treat myself as an athlete in my daily life,” she says. “I challenge myself, try new things in my strength training and cardio. I try to be the

best I can, whether it’s my fitness routine or how I think about food and nutrition. I definitely try to be as…” She pauses in thought. Thin as possible, I tease. “I want to feel strong. That’s when I feel best.”

Yes, yes – all very empowering.

But let’s talk detail. What does it actually take to look like you in a pair of Stella McCartney’s TechFit Tights?

“I just came from Italy,” she says, of her recent day trip to a pal’s superyacht off Capri. “I went for a swim and turned that into my workout of the day! Or hiking, or…” No, Karlie, c’mon. What does it really take? How many hours a week are you breaking into a proper, ugly sweat? “I’d say five to seven hours.

Which is totally doable,” she adds quickly. “I always say the hardest part is putting your gym clothes on. But no matter how long and exhausting your travel or your work was, if you can get yourself there and give it whatever you’ve got, it will be worth it. You will feel better afterwards.”

No doubt – and only seven hours a week to find in the schedule, guys!

Well, at least she’s honest. Surely professional necessity sharpens her fitness focus? “Sure.” And do you feel an element of responsibility, too? That, rather than just starving yourself, it’s good to be visibly active and healthy when your body is a lightning rod for what women are told to consider beautiful?

“That’s an element in a small way,” she says, thoughtfully. “For me, it’s important to use that influence in a

For many years pre-fashion I had bad haircuts and was flat as a board.

I looked like Benjamin Button

75

really positive way, but I think my body has really been more of a journey for myself first and foremost. I mean, I started when I was 15 years old,” she says, with a touch of Joan Collins’ jaded camp. “As a kid, I ate candy bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner and looked like a string bean.” These days she has a YouTube channel called Klossy, where fans can watch her work out. Obviously, the other key ingredient is that she is naturally mega slim. “I looked like an alien,” she says of her childhood years. “It works in my favour now, but for many years prefashion I had bad haircuts and was flat as a board. I looked like Benjamin Button, as my parents never forget to tell me.”

She’s mad on family. Unusually, the Klosses – father Kurt, an emergencyroom doctor, mother Tracy, a graphic designer, and her three sisters – are familiar faces in the fashion industry as, after Karlie was scouted at 14 at a fashion show in Missouri, the family chaperoned her to every single show and shoot without exception. Aunts, uncles, even one of her high-school teachers, were roped in. “One year, for couture,” she beams, “all three of my sisters came with me.”

For a supermodel, Kloss is unusually polite and hard-working. Her mother had cancer when she was a child, which can obviously forge a coper. “But I really think I picked that up from my dad,” she says. “My dad is an ER doctor in the most stressful circumstances. I saw his work ethic and his ability to have a very meaningful personal life, but also a dedicated professional life.” So she just got on with it.

Following her catwalk debut in 2007, she walked an unheard-of 64 shows in a single season, has gone on to shoot 34 Vogue covers and, in a world where one big ad campaign can make a career, has notched up dozens, from McQueen and Dior to Victoria’s Secret and Gap. For anyone who doesn’t speak ‘fashion’, she’s basically the modelling equivalent of Gareth Bale or Kevin Systrom. The latter is the founder of Instagram (where Kloss has 5.5 million followers) and a personal friend of Kloss and her longterm boyfriend, Joshua Kushner, a tech investor who put money into the app.

(FYI, the model/tech guy hook-up scene is so hot right now. Miranda Kerr recently got engaged to one of the co-founders of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel. My advice to any

76

AIR

crafty modelisers reading this is to put down the guitar and start coding.)

No wonder she’s now an internet savant with a clutch of social mediafriendly sidelines: vegan baking (you can buy her own-brand Karlie’s Kookies online), enrolling in classes at NYU or setting up her charity that offers scholarships to teach girls how to code (or Kode, as she calls it).

Annoyingly, she never discusses her fella – whose brother, fascinatingly, is married to Ivanka Trump and is therefore Donald’s son-in-law. But it’s clear he’s a strong influence. “I love to meet entrepreneurs,” she says. “They’re creators in a similar sort of way to fashion designers, but the fabric and thread of their creations are built in code. It’s using technology to create – but the power is democratised because the currency is ideas. It’s amazing.

You don’t just have to go to the best Ivy League school and get the right internship. You can have an idea, learn the skill sets to build it out yourself and create just about anything.”

Lately, though, a lot of this computer code has been directed towards slagging off her dear friend Taylor Swift. The two met a couple of years ago, doubtless drawn to one another by their shared passion for making cupcakes while wearing Americanflag bikinis. Soon their #girlsquad included Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne and a revolving door of other models, singers and actresses who terrorised the world’s smartphones with their perfection. But are they really pals or merely props?

The internet has apparently decided on props – with Swift accused of being a disingenuous marketeer and faux feminist by everyone from Kim Kardashian to Camille Paglia.

So is Kloss implicated? Actually, she was bullied herself at school and takes this stuff seriously: “I feel like I’ve personally grown very thick-skinned in my own life, whether it was back in my middle-school and high-school bullied days, or being in a career in the public eye.” She doesn’t get too much online hate, but sees it flying at her friends, and reckons most people have some experience of that. “In this day and age,” she says, “it’s really easy for people to be bullies from a distance, whether you’re in a small town, 77

with girls in high school who write something mean or malicious on a Facebook wall or an Instagram post…”

Like Kim Kardashian, I interrupt.

The reality TV star recently accused Kloss’ bezzie, Swift, of lying about an online feud with Kardashian’s husband, Kanye West. Is Kim a good

I feel like I’ve personally grown very thick-skinned in my own life person, I can’t resist asking. “Ha… you know… I honestly… I… I…” Kloss says, smiling as she stutters.

Eventually she comes up with, “I think she’s been a lovely person to me in the past,” then drops into a more matterof-fact tone. “Look, I really don’t know her that well.” Perhaps the squad aren’t quite as close as they seem after all.

“My closest friends, really, are my sisters and my mum,” she confesses suddenly, a look of relief escaping across her gorgeous features.

I am in the Another Space gym in Covent Garden, London, about to do a HIIT boxing class, and it is full of Karlie-alikes. Tall, lithe, tanned and with discernible abs and derrieres you could balance things on. I may be apprehensive, but Kloss has more energy than a puppy on speed. “Are you ready?” bellows the instructor.

“Yes, girls, yes!” screams Kloss, with a megawatt smile. While I slowly melt into a sweaty puddle of self-loathing, I watch Kloss in front of me in the class. She never breaks concentration, never loses her enthusiasm and never stops moving. Even the muscly gymbots are crumbling like biscuits in hot tea at this point. But Kloss keeps going. “Wasn’t that great?” she asks me, as we pose for a sweaty selfie afterwards, with her still energetic and faux boxing for the camera.

We say goodbye and I realise she is staying in the sweat prison to do the same session all over again with a different group. This is what it feels like to work out with a supermodel.

This is their 9-to-5, where they earn the bodies that pay their wage. I leave in awe. And in bits. And grateful my job means I can sit down. All. Day.

AIR

THE PEOPLE’S CHAMPION

WORDS : CHRIS UJMA

78

It’s been 40 years since audiences went 15 rounds with Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky. AIR revisits the defining moments of the Oscarwinning emotional slugfest about the ultimate underdog

Round 1 Hunger

“You’re a thug,” he’s shouted out of the ring, after an amateur bout. The early moments of the movie are mild but mournful; Rocky’s lost his locker at the sparring gym, is scuttling around doing debt collection for a local loan shark, and not exactly living the high life. He’s a man with nowhere to go, and all the time in the world to get there. The preamble scenes, like Rocky popping into a pet shop to tell corny jokes to his shy love interest Adrian (Talia Shire), look out of place in the current era of explosiona-minute epics. But he’s shaping up – pure, torn and kind-hearted, in battered packaging. His only companion is a turtle. His inspiration is a poster of Rocky Marciano.

79

This isn’t the Sylvester Stallone we all know.

Decades prior to bash-down-the-door The Expendables territory, with bravado, war scars and a snarl, here, youthful Sly is tender, awkward and apprehensive. Perhaps he was channelling an inner emotion; the first of (what would become) the Rocky franchise was also his first shot at big-screen writing. Says Stallone in a DVD interview, thinking back, “I used to sit in this little apartment – eight feet by nine feet – but the one thing about that room is that there was very little distraction, so I’d sit propped up in bed with my pen and legal pad and start writing these stories.

Most of them very simple stories but I was always brought back to the subject of unrealised dreams; I think it’s one of the most enduring subjects and one of the most difficult passages for people to accept – that they never were realised in their own lifetime and that they never got that shot.”

Stallone had USD100 in the bank, his USD40 car’s engine had exploded, and he was close to selling his dog because he couldn’t afford to feed him.

Having coaxed surly Paulie (Burt Young), the brother of his timid crush, to allow him to take Adrian on a date, they go ice-skating, only to find the rink is closed – it’s Thanksgiving, after all. He pays the rink attendant 10 bucks for 10 minutes, and they clumsily teeter, while confiding in one another. He sees her beauty, she unboxes the enigma… they’re like two jigsaw pieces: her brains and his brawn. He walks her home: “I think we make a real sharp couple of coconuts – I’m dumb, you’re shy” seems a throwaway comment in jest, but he’s a clumsy conversational navigator.

It’s emotion, and we’re seeing the brawler show his tender side to his unpolished social gem.

Stallone met producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler on a casting call for another movie, and in passing told them that he did a bit of writing. When he showed them the script, they loved the idea. However, he says, “They were fairly enthusiastic about it but one thing they were not enthusiastic about was me playing the part and I really can’t blame them; at the time, Ryan O’Neal was a candidate [as were] Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Jimmy Caan… and they were all at the top of their game, but there was something inside of me that was like, ‘This opportunity is never going to come around again.’”

Round 5 Risk

The opponent of heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) bows out of a fight to honour the United States Bicentennial. Creed picks unknown Rocky to replace him – as a novelty. “Apollo Creed versus the Italian Stallion. Sounds like a damn monster movie,” laughs Creed. His trainer pipes up, “He’s a Southpaw.”

“Southpaw nothing. I’ll drop him in three [rounds].”

In the gym, Rocky’s trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith) tells him he’s wanted for sparring – with the friendliness of a brick.

Rocky’s incensed: “For six years ya been stickin’ it to me, an’ I wanna know how come!”

“Ya don’t wanna know!”

“I wanna know how come!”

“Ya wanna know?”

“I WANNA KNOW HOW!” “OK, I’m gonna tell ya! You had the talent to become a good fighter, but instead of that, you become a leg-breaker to some cheap second-rate loan shark!”

“It’s a living.”

“IT’S A WASTE OF LIFE!”

The actor’s inspiration was very real, and was his ticket out of the shadows. He explains, “One night I went to see Muhammad Ali fight Chuck Wepner and what I saw was pretty extraordinary – I saw a man they called the Bayonne Bleeder who didn’t have a chance at all against the greatest fighting machine, supposedly that ever lived. And for one brief moment, this supposed stumblebum turned out to be magnificent in the fact that he lasted and knocked the champion down. And I said, ‘Boy, if this isn’t a metaphor for life.’ His entire life crystallised at that moment – he will be remembered for all eternity… I said, ‘That is probably what I need as a catalyst for an idea.

A man who is going to stand up to life, take one shot, and maybe go the distance.’”

AIR

Round 3 Potential

80

81

Having accepted the fight, Rocky’s getting in shape, running through the streets of Philly, trudging (then powering) up the ‘Rocky Steps’ at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and landing blows on frozen meat – all to Gonna Fly Now, Bill Conti’s rousing theme.

The studio took a chance with a meagre production budget. The simplicity of the cinematography shows (the running scenes were shot on a handheld camera) and the casting net was not thrown far: Stallone’s father rings the bell to signal the start and end of a round, his brother Frank plays a street-corner singer, and his first wife, Sasha, was set photographer – but she only shot 100 pictures because the budget was so tight.

Pet-shop good boy Butkus is Stallone’s actual dog; there were meant to be 300 extras in the ice-rink scene (they didn’t show), and for the movie’s final sequence they could only afford to hire 30. Yet the film went on to secure a USD225m return – the highest earner of the year – and take home the ultimate championship belt: the Academy Award for Best Picture. Says Stallone, “The first time I walked out of that trailer on the cold streets of Philadelphia, I knew this was the moment of truth. They said to me, ‘Sylvester, are you ready?’

And I said, ‘No, but Rocky is.”

Round 10 Fear

Losing confidence the night before the fight, Rocky takes a walk around the arena, then comes home and gently wakes a sleeping Adrian.

“I can’t do it.”

“What?”

“I can’t beat him.”

“Apollo?”

“Yeah. I been out there walkin’ around, thinkin’. I mean, who am I kiddin’? I ain’t even in the guy’s league.”

“What are we gonna do?”

“I don’t know.”

“You worked so hard.”

“Yeah, that don’t matter. ’Cause I was nobody before.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Ah come on, Adrian, it’s true. I was nobody. But that don’t matter either, you know? ’Cause I was thinkin’, it really don’t matter if I lose this fight.

It really don’t matter if this guy opens my head, either. ’Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighbourhood.”

Chartoff and Winkler told Vanity Fair in 2012, “United Artists tried inflating the budget to quash its obligation to make the movie. But we took a gamble, came back with a lower budget, and personally guaranteed the film’s completion. We shot it in 28 days and persuaded UA to release it in time for Academy Award consideration. On opening day we were standing outside a theatre on Second Avenue, reading The New York Times review, by Vincent Canby: a ‘sentimental little slum movie… an unconvincing actor imitating a lug. Be warned’. Our old friend Peter Falk came up to us, and we said, ‘Peter, look at this review.

It’s awful. It’s going to kill the movie.’ And he said, ‘Do me a favour – go inside. The audience is standing and cheering.’ Canby’s review is framed and sits right next to our respective Best Picture Oscars for Rocky.”

AIR

Round 7 Belief

82

83

AIR

Round 12 Ability

On the movie’s home straight, it’s finally fight time in Philly.

Rocky’s being pummelled by Creed but absorbing the blows, getting a couple of haymakers of his own in – the champ incredulous, the pretender immovable. The rounds roll by in real time, not slow motion: they’re cancelling each other out, eyes swollen, sweat pouring. “He doesn’t know it’s a damn show!

He thinks it’s a damn fight!” says Creed’s trainer. “Your nose is broken,” Mickey tells Rocky.

“How does it look?”

“Ah, it’s an improvement.”

Round 15, the bell goes and they’re in each other’s arms. “Ain’t gonna be no rematch,” wheezes Creed. “Don’t want one,” splutters Rocky. “The greatest exhibition of guts and stamina in the history of the ring,” says the announcer.

There’s a cute Stallone interview from 1976, given what we now know of his career, in which he says, “I never thought that this type of acclaim would be bestowed on such a small movie…

I’m so overwhelmed by it.” He’s asked, “Will Sylvester Stallone become a one-film actor?”

“I’m not an Alec Guinness, I’m not a Laurence Olivier, I don’t make any pretences,” says Stallone. “I think I can interpret the common man very well. I had no film history, no real knowledge, I was working off instinct.”

Round 15 Love

The media crowds the hero, peppering him with questions. He doesn’t care.

“Adrian… Adrian,” he calls out, as she pushes through the crowd. “Rocky…

Rocky” – in a moment she rises up with pride. The introvert’s hat has been shed, as have her inhibitions, as she bundles into the bleeding fighter’s arms. Just as in the Wepner moment that inspired Stallone, Rocky’s life crystallises in an apex – at the top of his game, the woman he loves in his arms: validation.

“I love you!” he exclaims. “I love you,” replies a tearful, happy Adrian.

For all the spattered blood and violence in the ring, the theatrical poster for Rocky was tender and tame, not roaring with muscles and bonecrunching punches. Rocky walks glove in hand with Adrian, backs to the camera, the only two people existing in the world. Stallone has said of Talia Shire, who played Adrian, “We just couldn’t find the right person and then she came in, and we just read and I felt the earth move.

I felt a vitality and kinship. I loved her, I mean I really loved how she looked, how her hair fell, this timid, fragile creature.”

It’s more than a fight film, and its strength is not in the punches, but the adoration between its two main protagonists. The fighter brings a ragtag bunch of characters – a bitter best friend, a gnarly ex-boxer-cum-trainer, a shy, undiscovered girl – and makes them more than the sum of their parts: he makes them a family.

Watching Rocky four decades on is like looking through an interstellar tunnel to a bygone era – the movie looks dated in terms of filming techniques, boxing, everyday technology, heck, even in the accepted way men are meant to behave, talk and dress. But the core story at the heart of Rocky is not 40 years old; it endures because the rounds he fought, both inside and outside the ring, are the ebbs and flows of life.

It’s the 40th anniversary of its celebrated release and we’ll keep on counting, as the bell will never ring for Rocky. Not because he spawned a billion-dollar series of seven films. Because his defiance fights within us all.

84

85

Motoring

AIR

NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

86

Motoring NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Express Yourself How could Bentley improve on the exemplary Mulsanne? Unleash its inner beast WORDS : RICHARD BREMNER

87

O

ne glance, and you know the Bentley Mulsanne is all about aristocratic tradition; it’s big, and dignified. It has a radiator grille as expansive as an inglenook fireguard, which glints lavishly. There is the unmissable aura of money here – heaps of it. If you’ve chosen to climb inside this most expensive of Bentleys, it only gets more extravagant.

Exquisitely stitched hides surface the seats, the ceiling, the door panels and more. The wood is endlessly lustrous, the metalwork beautifully crafted: this is a wheeled shrine to

AIR

Give it some overtaking work and you’ll usher in a satisfying silken growl the traditional furnisher’s crafts, and it has plenty of indulgent trinketry inside to complement them.

Did someone say bubbles? Behind a translucent lid you’ll find a modest fridge and a pair of crystal flutes, their bases indulgently moulded in the shape of a Mulsanne alloy wheel. But there’s modernity, too. Settle into an absurdly sumptuous rear seat, and you can summon the 21st century at the touch of a button. It will trigger the release of a 10.2in Android tablet, which will rise from beneath a slender panel in the top of a front seat’s backrest. There’s a pair of them, in fact. You can detach these distant touchscreens, or control them from detachable touchpads found in slots above that optional refrigerator.

Or, you can work. Beneath a slatted veneer lid lies a pair of painstakingly engineered fold-out tables, the 671 mostly hidden components that make up this mechanism providing a surface rigid enough to bear a 40kg weight at its unsupported end.

But what about the car? The Mulsanne is not a new Bentley. It has been around for six years, and company boss Wolfgang Durheimer candidly admits that this model “has been a bit neglected” by its makers, who have been busy engineering the Bentayga SUV, among other things. You might think that Bentley continues to remain guilty as charged at first, its flagship

saloon appearing much the same as before. But there’s now a new, wider, deeper, more rectilinear grille, a pair of resculpted front wings and fresh headlights to go with it, and a new bonnet and bumpers besides. The Mulsanne’s dash is old-fashioned, but slathered in wood and leather. ‘B’ logos are now inset into the rear lights.

To European eyes the Mulsanne probably didn’t need a face still more emphatic, but in America this car has to compete for ‘I’ve made it’ attention with XXXL-scale SUVs and pickup trucks.

The Mulsanne’s engines are unchanged, having been extensively re-engineered 18 months ago. The Mulsanne Speed’s 537bhp motor, which generates a Victorian pumping station’s worth of torque at 811lb-ft, makes it 88

the most potent production saloon on the planet. In automotive terms the engine itself is almost Victorian-era, the so-called six-and-three-quarterlitre V8 having made its debut in 1959.

This engine sports thoroughly modern features such as partial cylinder deactivation to save fuel at a cruise, a noxious emissions count that’s less than a tenth of the original engine’s, twin turbos and throttle response to spill your drink. For the most part it runs as quietly as an electric motor, but give it some overtaking work and you’ll usher in a silken growl as satisfying as the first sip from your crystal flute.

Quiet has been a small obsession for the engineers updating this car.

The Mulsanne’s suspension has been reconfigured, while the insides of its tyres are layered with a remarkably

effective roar-stifling layer of foam.

The result is remarkable calm; even at an Autobahn-tested 273km/h, the only disturbance is the mild gush of wind.

The Mulsanne is about more than wanton luxury, though. It’s hardly a car for assaulting tight turns, but it can certainly get a thrillingly authoritative move on and in faster bends steers with a precision that’s satisfyingly unexpected for a car of such scale. This, the Bentley’s duck down-soft ride, its opulent finish and pin-drop silence make for an experience as beguiling as you’d hope for (and expect) at this price, and in Speed form it’s also relentlessly fast and surprisingly good fun to drive. With Rolls-Royce’s Phantom soon to shuffle off this mortal coil, the Mulsanne comfortably takes the title of the most luxuriant saloon out there.

89

Gastronomy NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

King Of The Hill

Somewhere between the Eternal City and the stars, Heinz Beck has spun La Pergola into the culinary stratosphere.

We meet the enterprising chef who’s on top of the world – in more ways than one

AIR

WORDS : EMMA LAURENCE

90

91

AIR

T

he name Heinz Beck comes charged with some pretty serious subtext. There’s the small matter of Rome’s only threeMichelin-starred restaurant, for starters, not to mention an everexpanding empire of high-end eateries around the world. He’s also a qualified sommelier and the only chef of his calibre to have published extensive nutritional research in addition to the usual shelf of cookbooks. But when I catch him mid-service at his first casual-dining venture, Dubai’s Taste of Italy, Beck’s warmth and easy patter – his native German softened by 23 years of living and working in Italy – belies his super-chef status. Watching him charm his way around the restaurant floor, all the while dipping in and out of the open kitchen – tasting a sauce here, tossing a pan there – he reminds me more of the magnetic proprietor-cumshowman you might find working his magic in some little Italian osteria.

“I love to stay in the kitchen,” he tells me the next morning over coffee at the Waldorf Astoria, home to Social, the fine-dining arm of Brand Beck in Dubai. “It’s like a fish swimming in the water: if you take away the water,

If you take me out of the kitchen, I will not live any more the fish will die; if you take me out of the kitchen, I will not live any more.”

I don’t doubt it. He’s been in the kitchen for over three decades and, despite having a foot in restaurants everywhere from Tokyo to the Algarve, rarely misses a service at one in particular: La Pergola, his culinary HQ since 1994, and the holder of three Michelin stars for the past 11 years.

Perched atop the Monte Mario hill, with unmatched views of the Eternal City from the roof of the five-star Rome Cavalieri hotel, it’s clear La Pergola remains the last word in dining for Beck: “It’s such a beautiful setting, such a beautiful city. It’s a very beautiful experience.” When he was offered the job, he recalls, “I was very much blown away by the view, and when I came up to the rooftop there was nothing – no kitchen, no restaurant – only the big

windows looking over the Eternal City, and that was my decision made.”

Of course, it wasn’t just the view that drew Beck to Italy. His wife and business partner (who, he tells me, does all the cooking at home) is Sicilian, and his food unashamedly Italian in both flavour and spirit. “It’s the colours of the place,” he effuses.

“They change so extremely from the morning to the evening, it’s just incredible. The colours and then the architecture, and the landscapes.”

Colour plays a huge part in the La Pergola experience – from the molten glow of Beck’s bubbling chocolatey Sole dessert to the naturally aquablue tea that, when poured over a delicate assortment of shellfish and herbs, brings his exquisite Mare dish to life. It’s unsurprising his first creative calling was that of a painter (an idea quickly vetoed by his practical father). “I don’t have time for it now, unfortunately,” Beck laments, adjusting his purple and orange Marc by Marc Jacobs glasses as he pulls up an image on his iPad of him at work on a giant canvas – which, he mentions casually, now hangs in a Roman gallery.

He reaches for the iPad more than once during our time together, eager for me to see and better understand (if not taste) his most iconic creations, all of which were inspired by the natural world. Flitting between Google Images and his own Instagram feed, he explains of Sole, “I searched for the sun on the internet and said, okay, what can I do with this? The black around it, the light in the middle…

The powder is freeze-dried carrots, and under that is a passion-fruit gel, and under that, to make it curvy, a chocolate cream and saffron sauce.”

The list of supporting ingredients goes on: “Vanilla cream and fried capers and a chocolate olive-oil biscuit…

“After this,” he continues, “I wasn’t thinking of doing another dish inspired by nature but then I was in Kyoto, in a ryokan, having my breakfast in front of the water garden and there was this peace – nobody was talking, the birds were singing, it was just gorgeous – and so when I came back to Rome I started developing Giardino di Agua.”

As he picks up the iPad again, I think I’m getting the hang of this show-andtell routine and venture, “So you had 92

that image in your mind?” He swiftly counters, “No, I had the emotion in my mind. Food has to be communicative.”

For Beck, the emotional is very much entwined with the physical. He’s spent years studying the effects of food on the human body and is as concerned with the wellbeing of his diners as the taste of his three-Michelin-star dishes.

How does he want people to feel after a meal at La Pergola? “Happy,” he answers, categorically. “And you can only make them feel happy if they’re not tired. When I started nobody believed you could make high-quality food thinking about health; everybody said cooking has to be heavy, difficult to digest. But people sit in your restaurant for two or three hours and they have to talk, they have to laugh – and if they’re not able to do this, you’ve failed.” With a business portfolio as burgeoning as his trophy cabinet, Beck is about as far from failure as you could imagine.

But, he shrugs, “If your work is your passion, then it’s not really work.”

For such an innovator this philosophy is nothing new, but what sets him apart, Beck is certain, is his respect for what came before. “If I make a very modern dish, it has to come from somewhere – it comes from experience, and that experience is based on traditions.

It’s like a skyscraper,” he gestures to the city spiralling up around us, “if I build very deep foundations, I can put a lot of floss on the top.

If I don’t, one day it will collapse.”

That’s the thing about Heinz Beck.

The man is a genius, but he knows exactly how to relate his genius to the real world. And it’s this complete lack of pretension, this focus on the true essence of things, that makes his food so, well, good. “I always say, there are only two dishes,” he smiles. “A well-made dish or a badly made dish, so it doesn’t matter if the dish has a lot of cooking techniques or not; it’s important that it tastes good.” Mission accomplished.

93

Timepieces Travel NOVEMBER JUNE 2016 2016 : ISSUE : ISSUE 61 66

10 journeys by jet

Mashpi Lodge, AIR

Ecuador

S

ometimes, you can whisk yourself away to a setting just by uttering evocative words associated with the destination: ‘cloudforest’, ‘pumas padding through the jungle’, ‘500 species of birds fluttering through the tree canopies’, ‘waterfalls between dramatic, verdant hills’… Daydreams, though, are a disservice to this immersive place; 900m above sea level, the luxury amidst nature must be imbibed to be fully appreciated.

The sustainability-sensitive lodge, located three hours from the capital city of Quito, is a five-star cocoon that is a member of National Geographic’s prestigious Unique Lodges of the World collective.

Foremost, you’ll be be drawn here by the fascinating flora and fauna, and there are copious ways to admire it, both on ground and on high. The latest experiential sensation to be unveiled is the Dragonfly canopy gondola: glide silently along a 2km cable-driven system that affords a captivating bird’s-eye view from 200m above the 1,300 hectare reserve. At the top of the 26m-high Observation Tower, the reward is a breathtaking panorama.

If you can tear yourself away from the wonders of the great outdoors, you’ll retreat to one of 22 handsome abodes that comprise three Yaku suites and 19 Wayra rooms; they’d command centre stage, were it not for the awe-inspiring biodiversity on the doorstep.

Also in-property is a wellness area, where patrons can indulge in specialised treatments that use organic products taken from the natural surrounds. Then, when hunger for exploration is outdone by appetite for fine fare, the dining room harbours an exquisite selection of local cuisine with distinct forest inspiration, as chefs weave dishes with regional ingredients.

Mashpi Lodge delivers a formidable sojourn, and following this enchanting Ecuadorian exploit, every subsequent wisp of cool air upon the skin is certain to bring those mountain memories drifting back.

Quito International Airport hosts arrivals by private jet; Mashpi’s location is remote, and the land inbetween is either rainforest or small villages, which makes for a visually enriching three-hour drive from the airport; mashpilodge.com 94

95

What I Know Now

AIR

NOVEMBER 2016 : ISSUE 66

Nicolas Bos CEO, Van ClEEf & arpEls

I first realised I had a passion for jewellery at a young age, when I discovered the great work of eminent Art Nouveau jewellers such as Vever and Lalique.

I’m constantly inspired by the arts – paintings, photographs, literature, poetry, ballet – and they inform much of my work. This is certainly true of our most recent high-jewellery collection, Noah’s Ark. While at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles I came across Jan Brueghel the Elder’s painting The Entry Of The Animals Into Noah’s Ark, and I remember it

generating this extraordinarily intense emotion inside me. After this, the idea to elaborate a collection around the same theme, particularly with animals being a traditional inspiration of the maison, was sparked.

If there is one piece of advice I have received that I always keep in mind, it is that common sense should always prevail.

I’ve learnt that running a creative process for a maison like Van Cleef & Arpels means having to strike a very fine balance between respecting 96

our original identity and writing new chapters, to tell new stories and to give new interpretations of our identity so that it remains exciting and relevant.

I know it’s a great moment when I feel this objective has been met, when I know that the design studio and the team of craftsmen from the workshops have found a new way to tell a very ancient story. I remember very well 2003’s Midsummer Night’s Dream collection proving the perfect example of this; how it told the story of fairies and their representation in the world of Van Cleef & Arpels.

JW MARRIOT T® MARQUIS DUBAI

Italian Festivities

at the world’s tallest hotel.

Experience authentic tastes of Italy at JW Marriott Marquis Dubai throughout the month of November.

ITALIAN SUMMIT GALA RECEPTION - 12 NOVEMBER MICHELIN STAR GUEST CHEF MARIA GRAZIA SONCINI SATURDAY FAMILY LUNCH AT POSITANO WHITE AND BLACK TRUFFLE MENU AT POSITANO OUTDOOR BBQ AT POSITANO For more information call +971 4 414 3000 or email jwmmrr@marriott.com

Sheikh Zayed Road, Business Bay, PO Box 121000, Dubai, UAE | T +971 4 414 0000, F +971 4 414 0001 | jwmarriottmarquisdubai.com JW Marriott Marquis Dubai | @JWDubaiMarquis | JWMarriottMarquisDubai

TH E E TE RNAL MOVE ME NT Ulysse Nardin, from the movement of the sea to the perpetual innovation of Haute Horlogerie. For over 170 years, the powerful movement of the ocean has inspired Ulysse Nardin in its singular quest: to push back the limits of mechanical watchmaking, time and time again.

Freak Blue Cruiser Flying carrousel-tourbillon 7-day power reserve Silicium technology ulysse-nardin.com

ULYSSE NARDIN BOUTIQUES: The Dubai Mall +971 44341421 & Mall of the Emirates +971 43950577 Dubai Duty Free: Concourse A, B and C www.binhendi.com