SEPTEMBER 2022 FERRARI 296 GTB
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AIR Forty Six Persons Of Interest British photographer Chris Floyd is as proud of the stories surrounding his celebrity portraits as he is of the images. Fifty Two Modern Man How Nino Cerruti became one of the most influential names in luxury fashion by modernising men’s clothing. Forty All About Eve Behind Her Eyes star Eve Hewson on her new comedy drama and living out of a suitcase with her cat. Contents SEPTEMBER 2022: ISSUE 132 4 FEATURES Credit: FloydChris©BourdainAnthony
7 Contents REGULARS Fourteen Radar Sixteen Objects of Desire Eighteen Critique Twenty Art & Design Twenty Eight Timepieces Fifty Eight Motoring Sixty Two Gastronomy Sixty Six StaysUltimate Sixty Eight What I Know Now Tel: 00971 4 364 2876 Fax: 00971 4 369 7494 Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from HOT Media is strictly prohibited. HOT Media does not accept liability for any omissions or errors in AIR Thirty Two Jewellery For Hermès’ latest high jewellery collection, Creative Director Pierre Hardy found beauty in the shadows. Editor-in-ChiefEDITORIAL John Thatcher john@hotmedia.me ArtARTDirector Kerri Bennett Illustration Leona Beth ManagingCOMMERCIALDirector Victoria Thatcher General Manager David Wade david@hotmedia.me DigitalPRODUCTIONMediaManager Muthu Kumar SEPTEMBER 2022: ISwSUE 132
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As we look ahead to the rest of the year, we are quietly confident that international travel will continue to increase in activity. With so many significant events planned — including those in the Middle East region — we are gearing up for a very busy period ahead. Enjoy the read.
We also feature a strong and growing relationship with one of our luxury travel partners — Raffles Seychelles — which attracts guests from across the world, including India. The luxury island resorts of the Indian Ocean remain very popular leisure destinations for affluent travellers. We recognised this appeal when we tied-in with luxury property Raffles Seychelles, with a view to combining luxury hotel stays with private jet charter. It’s an attractive package, especially for those who wish to travel by air privately, having all the associated luxury comforts and complete flexibility with their travel schedules. There are also some additional guest treats available when booking stays through Empire Aviation.
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9 Empire Aviation Group SEPTEMBER 2022:ISSUE 132 WelcomeOnboard Contact Details: empireaviation.cominfo@empire.aeroWelcometothisissue of AIR — our onboard lifestyle magazine for aircraft owners and charter clients. If you are reading this onboard one of our Empire Aviation-managed flights, thank you for flying with us and we wish you a pleasant flight.
Paras P. Dhamecha Founder & Managing Director Ferrari
India is an incredibly exciting prospect for private aviation with the scale, economic dynamism and wealth to become a significant market for services, including new and pre-owned aircraft sales, acquisitions, business jet charters and charter management. Our one-stop shop approach to providing a range of integrated private aviation services is attracting existing aircraft owners based in theToday,country.India is already one of our most important charter markets, with business and leisure travellers flying to destinations worldwide. In this issue, we profile our brand partners in India, Empire Aircraft Management Services Pvt Ltd (EAMSPL).
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The company has an experienced team of international aviation professionals, which has been developing all aspects of the business for several years in response to the unique private aviation opportunities that India represents. The team is headed by Nirav Kotak, Country Head, an experienced corporate jet pilot and training manager with over a decade of international business aviation expertise.
10 Empire Aviation Group SEPTEMBER 2022:ISSUE 132
Why optimism runs high for the business aviation market in India meet the demand for professional aircraft management services to assist aircraft owners and customers in managing all aspects of their aviation assets to enjoy all the benefits of owning and operating their aircraft.
As Nirav Kotak says: "Empire Aviation is very optimistic about the prospects for the business aviation market in India as more companies expand their operations domestically and internationally. We believe we can help fill a gap and
Certification as a Continuing Airworthiness Management Organization (CAMO) is an important area of the company's growing business in India. It is an integral part of the aircraft management service provided to aircraft owners. CAMO is awarded by various aviation regulatory authorities (including San Marino, Cayman Islands, United Arab Emirates, Isle of Man and India) to aviation companies responsible for managing aircraft maintenance and keeping them airworthy. Empire Aircraft Management has developed its CAMO experience to the point where this substantial expertise is now offered as a stand-alone service to third-party aircraft owners and operators in India.
Today, Empire Aircraft Management has several business jets operating in India, including aircraft under charter management and available to the charter market. In 2016, Empire Aircraft Management opened a dedicated CAMO and Compliance facility that operates from a subbranch at the Aerocity in Delhi and has a corporate office in Bangalore.
Developing Personalised Private Aviation Services In India
"Since launching in 2012, Empire Aviation Management has grown and developed their offerings and tailored services in a personalised approach, working closely with customers on aircraft management services or acquiring new or pre-owned aircraft. Our philosophy has always been to share openly with our clients our full range of expertise as a trusted partner and advisor in business aviation, which is a complex and highly regulated sector. We believe the future for this sector looks very positive as the market evolves and develops quickly."
Nirav Kotak, Country Head, EAMSPL
When the Civil Aviation Department in India awarded Empire Aircraft Management a Non-Scheduled Operator's Permit (NSOP) in November 2017, it enabled the company to provide its aviation management support to privately-owned aircraft in the country. The NSOP allows the company to offer a comprehensive range of business aviation services for private aircraft owners in India with a one-stop shop approach.
Our brand partner — Empire Aircraft Management Services Pvt Ltd — is a private aviation specialist operating in the subcontinent since 2012. Empire Aircraft Management provides a complete range of integrated business aviation services, including aircraft management, flight operations, aircraft brokerage and charter management services, and CAMO (Continuing Airworthiness Management Organization) to the fast-developing market.
The Indian Ocean's luxury island resorts retain an enduring appeal for affluent travellers looking for a unique combination of luxury, privacy and security. The beautiful and unspoiled tropical surroundings, wildlife and beaches of the Seychelles ensure it continues to be one of the favourite Surroundeddestinations.bypristinewhite sandy beaches and crystal clear waters, Raffles Seychelles is a luxury pool villa resort located in the heart of the Seychelles. Situated on the northeast tip of Praslin island, it's around 40km from the main island of Mahé and just a 15-minute plane or helicopter ride (the resort has its own helipad). Praslin is the second largest granite island in the Seychelles with a small population of over 7,000 people. It's a heavenly paradise imbued with some of the most impressive and unspoiled natural beaches and all the beauty of white powdered sands, opal-hued oceans and lush green hills, with very spacious and contemporary-designed villas with private plunge pools and open spaces.
Guests booking through Empire Aviation can benefit from special offers on accommodation and privileged Spa services.
Raffles Seychelles – Partners In Luxury
The Seychelles remains a popular destination for leisure travellers
12 Empire Aviation Group SEPTEMBER 2022:ISSUE 132 tropical landscapes in the world. Praslin is also home to a range of unique natural attractions such as the Vallée de Mai, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where you can spot the Coco de Mer — the world's heaviest nut, from trees almost 400 years old — and the black parrot, the world's rarest bird, only found in the Seychelles. Just a few minutes from the resort, you can experience the world renowned Anse Lazio beach, with its idyllic setting of white sand and turquoise water framed by lush vegetation and dramatic granite formations. The island is ideally located for excursions to neighbouring islands, some of which are sanctuaries for rare endemic flora and fauna, such as Aride island, the finest seabird island in the western Indian Ocean; Curieuse island, home to hundreds of giant tortoises; or La Digue island, praised for its stunning beaches. Raffles Seychelles combines
Leisure Travel
The villas take full advantage of the tropical paradise, spread across gently sloping hills and offering privacy with breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean and the island's lush greenery. Whether you are looking for relaxation, wellness, sports and adventure, or a romantic escape (wedding ceremonies on the beach are popular), Raffles Seychelles is the perfect location with a range of world-class facilities — and the kids will enjoy it too. The concierge service will ensure you never miss an opportunity to get the most from your stay.
London’s V&A Museum puts South Korea in the spotlight this month, exploring the makings of the Korean Wave and its global impact on the creative industries of cinema, drama, music, fandom, beauty and fashion. That wave has delivered the likes of Oscarwinning Parasite and Squid Games to global shores, alongside highly acclaimed fashion designers Ji Won Cho and Sohee Park. On the downside, PSY rode the same wave to bring us Gangnam Style Hallyu! The Korean Wave at the V&A, London, September 24, 2022–June 25, 2023 Sotheby’s, Monterey, August 18-20. 14 AIR Radar SEPTEMBER 2022: ISSUE 132 Credit: AdidascourtesyAllen,FrancescaPhotoAdidas.xChoiWonJi
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OBJECTS OF DESIRE OBJECTS OF DESIRE Master craftsmanship, effortless style and timeless appeal; this month’s must-haves and collectibles
WINTER
Stella by Stella was how McCartney billed a collection that’s a glorious celebration of the work of American artist Frank Stella, whose stellar career spanned minimalist to maximalist abstractionism and various forms of expression. His graphic prints are given a fitting platform on McCartney’s signature Saville Row tailoring, while the gunmetal chain fringe on silk dresses is a subtle nod to Frank Stella’s metallic sculptures. 67% of the collection was made from conscious materials, with a particular pair of sneakers featuring a grape leather alternative.
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STELLA MCCARTNEY 2022
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS PERLÉE
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Characterised by its golden beads, Van Cleef & Arpels’ playful Perlée collection takes its design cues from creations debuted by the house in the 1920s. Still as characterful in the modern age, the beads are used across multiple pieces, which team yellow, rose, or white gold with precious or ornamental stones, mother-of-pearl, or coral. For the first time since the collection launched in 2008, colourful precious stones are introduced to a trio of rings, with sapphire and emerald versions adding to this resplendent ruby piece.
OBJECTS OF DESIRE MINI BRILLIANT
DELVAUX
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Closing in on a double century since its founding, the world’s oldest fine leather luxury goods house has released an AW22 collection of bags featuring updates of its signature styles. The Brilliant debuted in 1958, and for 2022 the Mini Brilliant (pictured here) features a newly developed leatherwork technique, by which small leather Ds are hand-sewn onto an openwork panel to provide increased flexibility. Other versions of the Brilliant feature handles adorned with leather spiralling or embellished with gemstones.
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Designed to signify an unbroken bond, the Tiffany Lock is a modern interpretation of the padlock from the brand’s storied archive – its use dates to the 1950s, and the mechanism has since been adapted to feature on everything from key rings and money clips, to brooches and necklaces. Available in four styles – 18k yellow, rose, or white gold, and with or without diamonds – the bracelet’s clasp features an innovative swivelling mechanism, designed to keep the design lines clean.feature
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TIFFANY & CO. LOCK
The late Virgil Abloh conceived this Pre-Spring 2023 capsule prior to his trusted colleagues seeing it through to completion. It takes its design cues from New York’s rich DJ culture, in particular David Mancuso, whose private parties in his New York loft apartment are often sighted as seminal. He viewed the dancefloor as an egalitarian utopia, an idea Abloh overtly references in a collection that takes in luxury workwear, casual activewear, and, of course, streetwear, with wearability as the cornerstone.
OBJECTS OF DESIRE
5 LOUIS VUITTON FALL IN LOVE
OBJECTS OF DESIRE 6 US kitchen entrepreneur Gene Ponder is selling off his 120-strong collection of European sports cars this month – and it features this iconic Porsche. The brand introduced its beloved Speedster as a 1955 model, with this one dating to the following year. Its original incarnation has been adapted with the addition of a new, more powerful engine, while its once white body is now coloured ruby red. Furthermore, the car is supplied with a tan canvas folding top, a pair of side curtains, and storage bag. RM SOTHEBY’S 1956 PORSCHE 356 A 1600 SPEEDSTER
OBJECTS OF DESIRE CHOPARD MY HAPPY HEARTS
Sharing the love once more, Chopard’s latest My Happy Hearts collection is thoughtfully designed to be adaptable, and comprises rings, earrings, necklaces, and chain bracelets, all of which are crafted from ethical 18-carat rose or white gold to emphasise the beauty and symbolism of the iconic heart motif.
The heart itself comes in various forms – carnelian, mother-of-pearl, or diamond-set (as is the case with this sparkling ring), with additional rings and earrings also available with Chopard’s signature dancing diamond.
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FilmCritique
God’s Country Dir. Julian Higgins
United Press International SEPTEMBER 2022 : ISSUE 132
A psychological drama in which a woman embarks on an emotionally dangerous journey after meeting a charismatic stranger.
True Things Dir. Harry Wootliff
AT BEST: ‘Poised performances from two leads give this drama real intensity.’ — Tara Brady, Irish Times AT WORST: ‘A frustratingly ordinary and annoyingly clunky display.’ — Chris Wasser, Sunday Independent Speak No Evil Dir. Christian Tafdrup
AT WORST: ‘The overall tone and outcome of the film leave much to be desired.’ — Bailey Jo Josie, Film Inquiry
AT BEST: ‘This is an engrossing, well-acted story — disturbing but also tender and sad.’ — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
AT BEST: ‘A gruelling, challenging and provocative piece of work that will haunt you.’ — Harris Dang , The AU Review
AT WORST: ‘Eventually feels like any number of psych ward subgenre melodramas.’ — Nicholas Bell , Ioncinema.com
The true story of twin sisters who only communicated with one another, creating their own world to escape the reality of their lives.
The Silent Twins Dir. Agnieszka Smoczynska
AT BEST: ‘Grips you the minute it starts and never lets go until the credits roll.’ — Matthew St. Clair, The Film Experience
A former police officer turned professor gets drawn into an escalating battle of wills that tests her most deeply held values.
Couples who befriended each other on holiday meet up for a reunion months later. However, their shared joy soon takes a turn to the sinister.
AT WORST: ‘ Makes a convincing case that things really are that bad in the world, but not a case for watching another two hours of it.’ — Fred Topel ,
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“Who needs a standard plot when you can write as exquisitely as Brenda Lozano?” says Cat Auer for The A.V. Club. “The women reveal themselves, through stories of mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers — men are essential but peripheral, often dangerous — in a rhythm that enchants and floats the story forward, confirming the capacity of words to cast a powerful spell.”
“The story of a bright young woman ensnared by an older man is a familiar one. Poet Daisy Lafarge tells it well, in hypnotic prose, laced with the buzzing of insects, the burning of hot sun, the intensity of the man. It is a sensuous pleasure to read as this gaslit woman first loses, then slowly regains, her voice,” praises the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Said fellow author Aja Gabel: “This book had me spellbound. In Lafarge’s confident, gauzy prose, a seductive narrative emerges, one that is absolutely absorbing and transporting. Paul is an essential portrait of the toxic power dynamics in romantic relationships, and a beautiful, immersive story about a young woman finding her voice. I inhaled this book.” It’s a book that Booklist found “unsettling” and “nuanced”, and further describes as “quietly transporting novel of opposing forces — masculine and feminine, disgust and attraction, youth and ruin.” In a mountain village in Mexico, a young journalist finds that her murder during World War I and the first women accepted into the U.S. Naval Academy.
In agreement was Publishers Weekly: “Lozano does a wonderful job distinguishing the disparate characters and their fluid identities, and Cleary’s translation strikes the perfect balance of immersion and clarity. Powerful and complex, this marks a new turn from an intriguing writer.”
The War Librarian by Addison Armstrong is a historical novel inspired by the first female volunteer librarians Daisy Lafarge’s debut novel, Paul , tells of a young British graduate in a foreign land, where she becomes involved in a toxic relationship with an older man.
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19 Books investigation involves the most legendary healer in all the country, so sets the scene for Witches by Brenda Lozano. “Lozano eschews traditional narrative for the discursive pleasures of voice… A fascinating immersion into a little-known world, written with tenderness and humanity,” says Kirkus Reviews in its starred review.
“If one can measure a novel’s success by the emotions it draws from readers, the sophomore work by Armstrong is very effective indeed. Romance and long-held secrets provide additional intrigue in this increasingly powerful story. The values of intellectual freedom, antiracist activism, and female friendship are illustrated within their historical contexts, yet these themes couldn’t be timelier,” hails Booklist Also a fan of Armstrong’s second novel is Fresh Fiction. “Beautifully told… As their stories progress, readers become totally immersed in their lives. Their fears, accomplishments, and growth are realistic. The horrors of WWI are skillfully brought forward, as is what it was like for women to be part of their first class at the Academy… Highly recommended.”
Meanwhile, Publishers Weekly praises how the novel’s “Dual story lines masterfully reflect how nominal moves toward institutional inclusion can belie the persistence of cultures of exclusion. Historical fans will devour this intimate story about fighting for dignity and respect during trying times.”
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21 SEPTEMBER 2022: ISSUE 132 Art & Design
Near the entrance to the building, which comprises three wings — covered in a facade of white strands evoking woven tweed — is a gallery and events space. Since opening at the beginning of the year, Le19M has hosted a programme of workshops and cultural events, with a cafe and even a shop selling tote bags cut from leftover fabrics. Earlier this year, schoolchildren and community groups gathered in the gallery spaces to try embroidery, under the eye of specialists from the legendary Chanel-owned embroidery house Lesage.
WeavingTime
WORDS: SUSIE RUSHTON
Why the future of Parisian couture has been assured by Chanel’s super atelier
I f luxury boutiques can sometimes intimidate passers-by, the new headquarters for ten of the artisanal workshops owned by Chanel is designed to draw them in. Maybe it helps that the location isn’t obviously glamorous, nor even very central. Situated in a no man’s land between northern Paris and the suburb of Aubervilliers, Le19M is already attracting architecture spotters (it was designed by award-winning French architect Rudy Ricciotti). President Macron and his wife, Brigitte, may have attended its inauguration, but it has some decidedly inclusive ambitions.
“We want Le19M to be a space for encounters and exchanges, a nerve centre where artisans, the public, schools and art lovers can come together,” is how Chanel’s president of fashion, Bruno Pavlovsky, puts it.
A sample of those sunflowers is kept in what Barrère, who has led the company since 2012, calls, “my treasure room, a Swiss bank”, or, in other words, the maison’s archive. Here is an entire history of fashion, from 1858 until the present day. At its previous headquarters, in Pantin, a nearby suburb, much had to be kept “in the cellar, but here it’s one third bigger. And we are adding to it. Every day we find Lesage embroidery for sale [online], we are buying it up.”
AIR 22 ‘ Billionaire women today are not statues, they walk, they move, they get on and off planes’ Chanel has self-preservation in mind, too. Since 1985, the company has been gradually buying up the best workshops in Paris, some of them dating back to the 19th century, in an effort to conserve their traditional know-how. Its stable, a subsidiary of the main company, includes not only the embroiderers Lesage and Montex, but Maison Michel (hats), Massaro (boots), Lemarié (feathers and flowers), Lognon (pleats), Goossens (goldsmithing), Paloma (couture construction) and Eres (swimwear). Every year, Chanel’s Métiers d’art show is a demi-couture tribute to their specialist talents. The latest was presented in December last year in the cloistered walkways of Le19M. Under the direction of Virginie Viard, it took inspiration from the architecture of the building and — returning to a neighbourhood theme — graffiti. The letters CHA- and -NEL, styled after street artists’ tags, are picked out on two pockets of a black jacket, in perfectionist crystal and pearls by Lesage embroiderers. It’s this kind of handiwork one can see everywhere in the spacious workrooms of Lesage, which now occupies almost half a floor of Le19M, an upgrade from past decades in a cramped atelier in suburban Paris. But as Lesage’s artistic director, Hubert Barrère, shows me, while the demands on his 80-plus workers may have increased, the techniques they use remain unchanged since the glory days of the 1970s and ‘80s, when Yves Saint Laurent would ask François Lesage to embroider him replica Van Gogh sunflowers for a jacket. “It’s not basic,” says Barrère of the exquisite work here, with understatement.
The archive is also the only room not illuminated by full-height windows, an architectural feature that Barrère, and other artistic directors at Le19M, believe has immeasurably improved their work. “The light, c’est magnifique,” he says, gesturing to the Parisian morning outside.
Each Métiers d’art collection takes two months to complete; those graffiti pockets alone require 32 hours of toil, from the first steps of marking out where each tiny coloured pearl should be stitched, to embroidering on the frame, and final checks to ensure a faultless finish. He believes that clients are once again in the mood for gold thread and glittering details. “People want the wow factor right now,” he says. “Although that may not last.” Yet certain types of embellishment belong to history and can’t be replicated: “We wouldn’t make the YSL sunflowers now. Nobody would wear it. Billionaire women today are not statues, they walk, they move, they get on and off planes,” he says, referring to the 1988 jacket, which sold at auction at Christie’s for €382,000 in 2019.
23 Opening pages: woven threads, ribbons and braids, forming a tweed at Lesage These pages: materials and craftmanship at Lesage. Photos by Anne Combaz and Alix Marnat
‘ We feel like a reunited family. Together, we are stronger’ 2022LimitedGroupMediaTelegraph©
AIR 24 Schopenhauer said, ‘With no light you don’t have colours.”’ It may be modern and fresh, but does it have the same creative energy as the previous, smaller home? On this, he’s more ambivalent. “It’s something we ask ourselves, how can we create an atmosphere? It’s a work in progress.”
More pressing for Lesage are changes in global trade after the pandemic, and ever-shortening deadlines in fashion production. But what Barrère is certain of is that Chanel has been its saviour. Could Lesage have survived if it had not been purchased in 2002? “No. Absolutely not.” It’s just a short zip up in an elevator to the studios of the couture milliner Maison Michel, another prized possession of the group. The 86-year-old company creates handmade styles for Chanel and other clients, along with its own line. Just how recherché its methods are is apparent in the hat-making room, home to Shariff Hisaud, who has been working with lindenwood blocks for 30 years. “I’ve always made hats like this, and I’ve made thousands for Chanel,” says Hisaud, demonstrating how to make a boater. First, the soft white felt — actually rabbit fur — is prepared with gum arabic and steam, making it malleable. Hisaud then forms it on a boater-shaped mould in two pieces: the brim and the flat crown, caressing the silhouette into being with nothing more than a piece of cord. These techniques date from the 14th century. The most hi-tech piece of kit on Hisaud’s bench is a hairdryer. Even the iron that he uses to smooth out any bumps is a flat iron, as used by Victorian laundresses.
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The crisp white hat then passes into the milliners’ room, where Florence Astra, a spotlight poised over her work, deftly stretches creamy Chanel tweed over both pieces; in total, each spotless boater takes three hours to make. The new location on the second floor of Le19M has transformed these centuriesold vocations, according to Maison Michel’s creative director, Priscilla Royer. She too appreciates having more room: “We used to be fighting for space,” she says. This is particularly perilous if you’re surrounded by boiling steam and ovens in the hatmaking room. Grander quarters have also allowed the company to have its own ‘sculptor’ on site — that is, a woodcarver who makes hat blocks. This master craftsman, who is in his 70s, now has two apprentices learning a skill that must surely be on any list of endangered manual vocations. But the biggest benefit to a new building Royer describes as “like being in a spaceship” is proximity to the other maisons d’art: “We feel like a reunited family. Together, we are stronger.” At lunchtime on an early summer’s day the employees from all ten workshops mingle in the swish staff canteen (five types of kombucha, and desserts that would grace a Rue Saint-Honoré patisserie window). “All the different maisons had such different requirements,” says Royer, of the way Le19M has assembled the best of French fashion’s savoir-faire. “It seemed like a crazy idea. But it works.”
25 These pages: materials and craftmanship at Maison Michel. Photos by Alix Marnat 25 These pages: materials and craftmanship at Maison Michel. Photos by Alix Marnat
FIND YOUR STABLEMATE
The perfect companion, its Prancing Horse stablemate, Ferrari’s first-ever production V6, the more compact 2-seater Ferrari 296 GTB, just wants to entertain, to bring the fun back to driving (right down to its terrific sound). Boasting advanced hybrid technology, it is the supercar of the future available today, an adrenaline-pumping feat of technical genius that demands to be driven with a smile on yourTwoface.models of incredible performance. One very good reason to update your collection.
ART DIRECTOR: KERRI BENNETT PHOTOGRAPHER: AUSRA OSI LOCATION: JA HATTA FORT HOTEL Sleek, stylish and striking in its beauty, the Ferrari Roma is a car that’s equally satisfying, whether driven at leisure on a weekend escape or at pace on open roads. The Roma is a grand tourer in the glorious tradition of Ferrari GTs of old. While this 2+2 coupe is reliably brilliant to drive and practical to boot, it is also a car that has timeless elegance and evokes a pleasurable way of life.
Two supercars, two clearly different personalities, one reason to update your Ferrari collection — the drive of your life
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“Next was a Cartier Tank. I bet on our family horse, which won the race, and I bought the watch, which is now part of the OAK Collection — the first one you see as you walk in. And as I began to earn money, I bought more watches, and then I discovered Patek Philippe. I was in Paris and saw a 3970 chronograph perpetual calendar. It was magnificent. I paid for that one over 18 months.”
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There’s a focus on its Calatrava signature dress watch, featuring models from the 1930s (“I have one of the most exceptional collections of Calatravas in the world,” Getreide adds); the Nautilus; the World Time; complications; enamelleddialled pieces from the 1950s; and many other notable examples. But then it does seem that Getreide enjoys special access. “I met Thierry Stern [president of Patek Philippe] at a cocktail party in Paris, and he invited me to their headquarters in Geneva,”
Meet Patrick Getreide, a watch collector with around 600 of the world’s most precious, rarest and exquisite timepieces –and he’s bringing them to the Middle East
WORDS: CHRIS ANDERSON L et’s hope Patrick Getreide has travel insurance. Lots of it. His incredible watch collection is embarking on a world tour, and earlier this year was displayed at the Design Museum in London, with more planned stops in the Middle East, the US, and Asia. But hearing the French businessman talk about his passion, and his encyclopaedic knowledge of each model, at least he’ll be sure to spot immediately if one happens to go amiss. Getreide owns more than 600 watches, bought via retail, auctions and through trusted contacts over the last 40 years, valued at more than $300 million. His collection skews heavily towards Patek Philippe and Rolex, with rarities, limited editions and private commissions, but other luxury brands, such as FP Journe, Kari Voutilanien, and Akrivia, are also featured. And as Getreide is said to be the most prolific bidder to date of Only Watch models — those oneoff timepieces from the top brands, auctioned every year in Geneva for charitable causes — there are examples here from Chanel, Roger Dubuis, Montblanc, Hublot and Fabergé. But let’s be clear — not all 600 watches are on tour. Getreide has selected just 162 examples, dubbed the OAK (one-of-a-kind) Collection. All that’s missing is the first watch he ever bought. “My interest in watches started at age 10, when I saw an Omega in a shop in Switzerland: it was love,” Getreide recalls. “With some help from my parents, I saved money and bought it. Sadly, it was lost.
It was Patek Philippe that resonated with Getreide the most — looking at the OAK Collection, which is arranged into 11 sections, or chapters, seven are dedicated to the brand.
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It seems that these are the qualities important to Getreide. “I only buy rare watches, produced in small numbers, in excellent condition,” he says. “There are so many watches I’ve never bought because they were damaged, restored or overpolished. I once passed on a pocket watch at auction owned by Winston Churchill, as it was so scratched. And I like all materials and price points — a Patek Philippe Reference 130 Sector I actually found in a flea market! I’m guided by passion.”
There are many highlights in the OAK Collection — for example, the five Patek Philippe pocket watch commissions that belonged to famed American collector Henry Graves Jr in the 1930s. Some watches were once owned by Andy Warhol and Eric Clapton, and there is Getreide’s own custom Patek Philippe 5320 QP in steel. “It’s normally in gold,” he adds. “This is only the second time in 20 years they have made one in steel for a customer. Also, I love the 1579, a two-dial chronograph introduced by Patek Philippe in 1943. When I bought the steel one and the platinum one, I broke the world records for those two watches. But I had to have them!”
Clearly, Getreide is a man of means, and while no date or venue has been set for the arrival of the OAK Collection in the Middle East, he is a man who means business when it comes to watches. “It’s a passion,” he concludes. “At my age, I’m 67, I now want to share this passion with others.”
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‘I like all materials and price points — a Patek Philippe Reference 130 Sector I actually found in a flea market’ the collector reveals. “We still meet regularly, and have established an excellent relationship. I love Patek Philippe. They make the best watches and the people are fantastic.”
But while he appreciates the aesthetic qualities, Getreide also believes that watches should be worn. “This is essential to me,” he adds. “My watches are all in perfect condition and functioning — I have a professional horologist who inspects and repairs them, three or four times a year.”
Of the remaining chapters in the OAK Collection, three are dedicated to Rolex, covering its sports watches, GMT-Masters and chronographs, while the final category covers all remaining brands. In terms of Rolex, Getreide has examples of early Daytona models, and a Paul Newman design that belonged to a NASA astronaut. These are fascinating, museum-grade, truly historic timepieces, and thought of by Getreide as works of art. “I used to collect paintings, but nothing gave me the pleasure and emotion that I have found as a watch collector,” he says. “There are private collections of paintings in museum, but not watches. I always found that very strange.”
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33 Jewellery SEPTEMBER 2022 : ISSUE 132 For Hermès' latest high jewellery collection, Creative Director Pierre Hardy found beauty in the shadows Striking Contrast WORDS: JOHN THATCHER
That belief has led Hardy to create treasures of his own, Les Jeux De L’ombre, the seventh and latest high jewellery collection from the house. “We always talk about light and sparkle in jewellery, so I wanted to take the opposite approach,“ explains Hardy. “In the performing arts, I’ve always loved the incandescent effect of the spotlights, as well as the shadows they cast onto the stage floor. I find this distortion of light very appealing. The collection is a response to this desire: to poeticise the form taken by shadows.”
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AIR 34 O ur minds are trained to be fearful of what exists in the shadows, but shadows also cradle fascination. Indeed, for Pierre Hardy, Creative Director of Hermès, “Shadow is the light’s treasure.”
In this case, the shadows are formed from the likes of jade [worked by hand to effect a satin finish] and titanium, into which various stones are set, isolating the two parts yet maintaining a rich interplay. “Any object is beautiful when placed against a dark background," enthuses Hardy. "The contrast effect heightens its power.”
It is the use of jade, used on the Lueurs Du Jour rings, earrings, and necklace, that throws up the question of a colourful shadow. “I didn’t invent them — shadows are coloured by the hue they reflect or the vibrations they express,” says Hardy. “Shadows have an inner light. I had this intuition one day when looking at Caravaggio’s painting and his chiaroscuros. When you look at them closely, the gemstones filter the light; this marvellous phenomenon is the subject of the collection. Shadows are intangible, and high jewellery craftsmanship has given them a material form.”
This is particularly enchanting in the form of the statement Chaîne d’Ombre necklace, for which flat-cut white diamonds are juxtaposed with dégradés of black spinels and blue sapphires, adding volume and taking almost 2,000 hours to perfect and position each stone. The natural plays an integral role in Hardy’s designs, a fact encapsulated by rings made from rough gemstones. “It’s been a dream of mine: to leave the stones as they are. It came from
Shadows are intangible, and high jewellery craftsmanship has given them material form’
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Hardy sought a soft colour palette when selecting stones — the intensity would be provided by the contrasts. “I chose half-tones,” he explains. “I sought to express preciousness in another way, by expanding the palette of colours.
On one of the necklaces, moonstone cabochons in ultrasoft velvety tones sit alongside brown diamonds that, by way of contrast, highlight their exceptional dimensions.”
Colours are a cornerstone of the Couleurs Du Jour necklace — a triptych with popping panels of peridots, amethysts, diamonds, tourmalines, aquamarines, spessartite garnets, and moonstone, which Hardy describes as a “I“lightbox.”designed them [the triptychs in the collection] to be like altarpieces, with sliding mother-of-pearl panels that open up to reveal a hidden medallion,” says Hardy. “They can be worn open or closed, depending on whether you want to keep their sunlight to yourself or share it with others. I wanted to convey the idea that shadows contain light and that they conceal it like a secret, so I designed these pieces to be tiny theatres that could both hide and show off this light. I always wonder how women will wear my jewellery and how they will see themselves through these lights and shadows.”
something I experienced when visiting a gem-cutter, who showed me diamonds and tourmalines. When I shined my phone’s flashlight on them, the light cast shapes around each of them. I have simply highlighted the shadow projected by the stone. I have invented as little as possible, even in terms of how the colours are distributed over the pavé settings. I worked almost like a geologist, as close to the mineral as possible. Projecting light onto a rough stone is a revelation, a wondrous experience.”
Elsewhere across the 53-piece collection, Hardy turns to his storied house for a creative catalyst. The whiplike Fouet Ombré necklace is an artful nod to a piece from Hermès’ first high jewellery collection and, of course, the equestrian world. “I reimagined it as a necklace divided in two by its shadow. Wearing it gives you a sensation of fluidity.”
When Hardy talks of Caravaggio paintings and of Hermès collections passed, you get the sense that he is meticulous in his planning, always with an eye open to inspiration. “My research deepens with every new collection,” he outlines. “So I don’t get caught up in a kind of classicism imposed by the stones, I always start with form. I sketch, and then I look how to shape the material to the sketches. Over time I’ve noticed that, in design, if you respect the materials, anything is possible. While normally everything is a matter of intensity, radiance, and reflection, I went in search of the opposite by giving form to the shadows theyThecast.”result is a collection that is as alluring as it is distinctive. A collection that deserves its moment in the spotlight — and in the shadows.
‘I worked almost like a geologist, as close to the mineral as possible’ AIR 36
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ROOMS WITH A VIEW Savour the daily taste of jaw-dropping Burj Al Arab views at Madinat Jumeirah Living by Meraas ART DIRECTOR: KERRI BENNETT PHOTOGRAPHER: SAM RAWADI LOCATION: MADINAT JUMEIRAH LIVING BY MERAAS FURNITURE: BLOOMINGDALE’S HOME
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AIR 40 Behind Her Eyes star Eve Hewson on her new comedy and living out of a suitcase with her cat WORDS: AMANDA WHITING
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W elcome to my bed,” Eve Hewson says by way of hello, her back arched into a preposterous abundance of cloud-white pillows. The 31-year-old actor simply cannot resist a good line. When I ask if anyone happened to misbehave at the flashy premiere party for their new series about a scheming clan of Irish sisters? “Yeah!” A pause. “Me.” Hewson does look alluringly dishevelled over Zoom. She’s chicly/ slovenly attired in a fluffy hotel robe, enormous silver hoops, and yesterday’s blowout. She’s also lounging exactly how you’d think a movie star would lounge the morning after a debauched night out — a Hollywood fantasy of a hangover.Inreality, Hewson just doesn’t have any clothes. She flew in to New York yesterday, but her luggage is languishing at the airport in Dublin, along with her pet cat. (Don’t worry, Luna is scheduled to come later on a special pet flight.) But it’s this robe or the flimsy trousers she wore to the party for Bad Sisters, a black comedy about four sisters who maybe — or maybe not? — successfully conspire to murder a fifth sister’s oppressive husband. Based on a 2012 Belgian thriller, the 10-episode whodunnit from Apple TV Plus picks up just after the gaslighting tyrant’s mysterious death, and ends — as Hewson puts it — with some truly “wackadoodle s***”.
‘ Bono’s my dad but when I see him do something great I am sort of in awe of him ’
In the starry ensemble cast, Hewson plays baby sister Becka Garvey, and Sharon Horgan, the show’s creator, is the family matriarch. The rest of the Garvey girls are played by Irish actors Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful ) and Eva Birthistle (The Last Kingdom) and by Anne-Marie Duff, the technically English daughter of two Irish immigrants. Flicking through her phone this morning, though, Hewson can’t be sure exactly which of them was involved in last night’s mischief. “I was wearing these sequin pants, and there’s just a video of me bending over and someone’s slo-mo smacking me,” she tells me. “I have no idea which sister it was.”
The actor’s choicest roles so far have been in imposing period pieces, like the 2014 turn-of-the-century American medical drama The Knick and the 2020 New Zealand gold rush miniseries The Luminaries But her wild breakthrough was Behind Her Eyes, the deranged Netflix psychological thriller that dominated conversation during whichever phase of lockdown consumed February 2021. Hewson played Adele, an unhinged housewife with an impeccable bob and a dicey grip on reality. “But in my daily life,” she assures me, “I’m much more of a clown than I have played in my work.”
Becka — a prodigiously flirty Dublin masseuse — is a total hoot. “I know Beckas, I grew up with Beckas,” says Hewson, whose family home is a 10-minute drive from the Forty Foot, the ice-cold slice of the Irish Sea in Dublin Bay where the Garvey sisters swim. “It was just like that kind of banter, that kind of mischief and sexuality, and then also not giving a damn That’s just such a quintessential IrishAndchick.”Hewson would know. She’s lived in Dublin most of her life (although she trained at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts), managing to hide behind one of the most seldom-used superstar surnames in rock’n’roll. Her dad is Paul Hewson — aka Bono. When she was younger, the U2 frontman discouraged his little Eve from following him into showbiz for all the usual reasons parents object to showbiz — the rejection, the uncertainty, the heartbreak. Now, though, Hewson says he’s “so buzzed” for his daughter,
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Given Hewson’s preternatural timing and penchant for zingers, it’s surprising that Bad Sisters is her first comedy.
‘ I have a secret Twitter account where I go no-holds-barred’
But until her travel companions make it over from Dublin, a robed Hewson tells me she’s determined to sleep as much as possible — or maybe the quintessential Irish chick just can’t leave a quip on the table: “I think I’ll just stay like this for the next week.”
Acting isn’t a career, it seems, that’s super-compatible with romance. When she’s on set, Hewson wakes up early and spends her nights learning lines. When she’s not on set, she’s hunting for the next gig. She’s got no fixed address at this point. Her furniture is in storage. Fortunately, shooting parts of Bad Sisters in Dublin gave Hewson the opportunity to spend time at home, where she’s long had a reputation for audaciously committed role-play. In the Hewson family’s most-told tale, little Eve cut off all her hair and, for two years, answered only to the 44
PeopleInterviewIndependent/TheCredit:The name Elliott — the upshot of an outof-control ET obsession. “I was so in love with that movie that I connected to the idea of him sort of feeling like an outsider,” she remembers. “But everybody talks about Elliott, like on my birthday they’ll chant ‘Elliott’. Everyone knew Elliott.”
AIR who in the past year graduated from a struggling actor to a knife-wielding internet meme. “This never happened to me before Behind Her Eyes,” she says enthusiastically. “Now, I’ll go for a walk and someone will be like, ‘Oh my God, you’re the crazy bitch from that show.’” Hewson’s still relishing all the congratulatory phone calls from friends and old colleagues. It’s refreshing and endearing to watch an actor embrace her early brushes with stardom, just like it’s refreshing to hear rock-star progeny own the fact that if you know what the inside of a tour bus looks like, your childhood wasn’t the same as everyone else’s. “My life definitely wasn’t normal,” she tells me. “It was normal half the time, and...” — she stops herself, laughing — “No, none of it was normal.” Instead, she compares life as U2’s daughter to a scene from Postcards from the Edge, the 1990 film based on Carrie Fisher’s auto-fictional novel about growing up with Debbie Reynolds for a mom. In the scene, the Carrie character, played by Meryl Streep, watches her famous mother — played by Shirley MacLaine — sing at a party. “And the way that Meryl looks at Shirley MacLaine when she’s performing, it’s just this look of admiration and love, which I totally have with my dad, too. He’s my dad, but then when I see him do something great, I become even more sort of in awe of him.” Because when your dad is Bono, he’s never just dad. She’s conscious of how her proximity to her father’s fame and her parents’ public activism (Ali Hewson, Eve’s mother, has been involved in anti-nuclear campaigning for decades) shaped her. “I guess I am secretly a political person,” says Hewson, who evidently can’t keep a secret. In the past few months, she’s used Twitter to comment on the US abortion ruling, the war in Ukraine, and even the Will Smith Oscars slap: “The world is ending I just wanted to see the beautiful people accept their awards instead I got violence.” She sees a future in activism as inevitable. “I haven’t found that right thing yet, or the moment to do it,” she tells me. “I’m not afraid of it. I feel like when the moment is right, I’ll pick something.” For now, though, she’s just as likely to use social media to complain about dating — another arena in which her parents have set sky-high expectations by example. Paul Hewson met Ali Stewart on the school playground at age 12. Eve Hewson’s grandparents met at age 11. “It’s a lot of pressure,” she says, without getting into the details. “I haven’t figured out why messed me up, but it’s definitely messed me up.” She also confesses that what fans can see is only the tip of the iceberg: “I actually have a secret Twitter account where I go no-holds-barred. I really let it rip up on the dating thing. The apps are s***.”
And her follow-up to Bad Sisters allowed her to extend the stay at home. Hewson’s just finished filming Flora and Son opposite Joseph GordonLevitt, a new musical comedy from Sing Street director John Carney that she’s absolutely forbidden from discussing in anyFordetail.now, her tentative plan is to crash at a friend’s place in New York, catching up with classmates and hoping to book the next job, which will give Hewson her latest home address. “I just float around in a suitcase and bring my cat with me everywhere.”
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AIR 46 Celebrity photographer Chris Floyd is as proud of the stories surrounding his celebrity portraits as he is of the images he creates WORDS: CHRIS ANDERSON
47 These pages. from to right: Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara; Bill Murray
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After Attenborough and Bailey, the other David Floyd has fond memories of is Bowie, meeting him in 1999. “I
E very picture tells a story, and for London-based photographer Chris Floyd, best known for his celebrity portraits, it’s an essential part of the process. “When you put people in front of a camera, they always, always tell you things that they would never tell a journalist, or maybe even their mother,” he laughs. “If you know how to do what I do, you can make anyone forget why they’re there, and when you reach that moment when all kinds of secrets reveal themselves.”
There has also been the chance to meet his personal heroes. “Blondie, a colossus of my teen years, around the time in the late ’90s when they had a hit song called Maria ,” he says. “What struck me about them all was how hip they were. They come from that punk generation that wasn’t consumed by the idea of fame or brand partnerships. They were consumed by the act of creativity — music, art, photography, that was their reward. I thanked Debbie Harry afterwards, and she replied, ‘Anytime baby, anytime.’”
Becoming prominent in the UK in the 1990s, alongside the rise of Britpop, much of Floyd’s early portfolio focuses on bands such as Oasis, The Verve and Radiohead, but then branches out to include major cultural icons, such as David Bowie and Robert De Niro. With his work appearing in high-profile magazines, London’s National Portrait Gallery, and winning countless awards and industry prizes, he continues to work now, with recent subjects including Kate Middleton and footballer Marcus Rashford. That’s a lot of images, and just as many stories, with 200 collected for a new book, Chris Floyd: Not Just Pictures , published by Reel Art Press. As the title suggests, this is not just about the images but Floyd’s various stories and interactions.
Floyd recounts endless stories, although his first-ever celebrity shoot with Milla Jovovich in the mid-’90s at her shared New York apartment remains an enigma. “Her magnetism is intoxicating,” he recalls. “It was transcendent, she was impossible not to look at. Examining the images today, they seem loose, confident and fluid. Also slightly deranged. I mean, what’s going on with that huge kitchen knife?”
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The photographer laughs when he recalls a portrait session with Sir David Attenborough in 2014. “He came in with a walking stick, a crumpled jacket and a slight scowl, not in a good mood,” says Floyd. “I’d been told that he doesn’t relish having his photo taken, and I shouldn’t take it personally. “He’d just made a series in 3D, so I’d got some 3D glasses for him to wear, but I wasn’t confident about offering them to him. While I’m thinking about it, he’s rummaging in his jacket pockets, and out comes all this stuff — tissues, coins, fluff, a packet of sweets, a CD… He was looking for a comb, and there he is, running it through his silver hair. Then his head comes up, and he reaches out to me with one hand, ‘Right, give me those glasses.’” Having taken up photography at age 12, Floyd has since crossed paths with a long list of famous people. “I’ve argued with David Hockney over the merits of photography versus drawing, snapped Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara ‘ When you put people in front of a camera, they always tell you things that they would never tell a journalist, or maybe even their mother ’ together at the Cannes Film Festival, and eaten in half a dozen street food joints with Anthony Bourdain,” he says. He’s even photographed a photographer, capturing the legendary David Bailey in 2011. “I photographed him in his skylight-flooded studio, with all the timely grime of his 30-odd year occupancy,” says Floyd. “Polaroids, bits of weird equipment, postcards, a cage of exotic birds, skulls, photos of himself with celebrities... When I arrived, he was having a haircut, with Bob Dylan playing in the background. We talked about photography, and I explained that the appeal for me was that it allowed me to meet and talk to interesting people. ‘Yeah? You’re in the wrong job then, mate,’ he told me. ‘You should’ve been a hotel receptionist.’”
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Chris Floyd: Not Just Pictures is available now from Reel Art Press, reelartpress.com
And there was the time spent with Bill Murray at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. “I got caught up in the moment with a scrum of Italian press photographers in a hotel garden, and I was even speaking with their accent, it just seemed easier that way, trying to direct Bill Murray into a kids’ playhouse,” he says. “He was talking to us in the style of someone whose first language is not English, it was all very surreal. When we finished, I thanked him in my normal accent, and he said, ‘Wait a minute. You’re not Italian...’”
And what of meeting Robert De Niro, photographing him with Japanese chef and business partner Nobu Matsuhisa in 2015, ahead of their launching a new London restaurant? “I remember debating what I should call him — Robert? Bob? Bobby?” laughs Floyd. “I decided on a ‘Hey Bob!’ He looked back at me and snapped to attention, responding, ‘Yes, Sir!’ with a salute, and the picture becomes clear.”
As well as working for magazines, Floyd has found the celebrities themselves becoming clients. “I photographed Yoko Ono in 2003, and went to her studio in New York to collect the cheque,” he concludes. “I’d have loved to have kept it, as it was signed with ‘Yoko Ono Lennon’, but, you know, needs must.”
Surgically sharp observations on the nature of fame and ego. He noticed me humming his song, The Laughing Gnome , ever so quietly to myself as I was photographing him, and said, ‘I’ve got better ones than that, y’know.’”
Previous pages, from left to right: Robert De Niro and Nobu Matsuhisa; Tina Fey These pages, clockwise from top left: Milla Jovovich; Yoko Ono; Blondie; Aisling Bea; David Bowie
‘ What struck me about Blondie was how hip they were. They come from that punk generation that wasn’t consumed by the idea of fame or brand partnerships ’
51 was told I’d have about five minutes to do a sit-down portrait with him in the lobby of the studio in New York,” he recalls. “But his assistant said afterwards that I could watch him at work. He was funny, he laughed a lot, he sounded like he was doing an impression of himself, he smoked constantly, and he told really indiscreet tales about other famous people.
WORDS: CHRIS ANDERSON How Nino Cerruti became one of the most influential names in luxury fashion by modernising men’s clothing — and giving Giorgio Armani his big break MAN AIR 52 MODERN
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The story, of course, begins long before Cerruti’s actual birth. His grandfather had established the family business, Lanificio Fratelli Cerruti, a textile mill in Biella, in 1881, and its reputation for AIR wool and other materials had become well known. As the eldest of six siblings, Cerruti inherited the business in 1950 at age 20, following the sudden death of his father, and quickly assumed the role of both manager and designer, running the company alongside his brothers. But the 1950s were also a time when attitudes towards fashion were changing, and it was becoming acceptable to break with tradition, with ready-to-wear a growing market, rather than tailor-made. Cerruti saw an opportunity to take the materials he was producing, and design and manufacture actual clothing. It took several years, but his first ready-to-wear men’s collection, Hitman, launched in 1957, noted for its atypical shapes and relaxed fits. The
A new book, Nino Cerruti: Fashion Icon, written by Cindi Cook and published by teNeues, reveals more about this legendary innovator, with images from the family archives, recollecting his greatest achievements.
54 T he term ‘fashion icon’ should never be used lightly, but there are perhaps none more deserving of the accolade than the legendary Nino Cerruti.
Born in Biella, Italy, around 80km west of Milan, on September 25, 1930, he became one of the most influential designers of the 20th century, known in particular for the Cerruti 1881 fashion house and his men’s ready-to-wear collections and for discovering none other than Giorgio Armani. Upon Cerruti’s death earlier this year, on January 15, aged 91, Armani himself released a tribute to his former mentor, and outlined how influential he had been. Armani described Cerruti as “the one who forged my taste for soft tailoring, just as much as he taught me the importance of an all-round vision, as a designer and an entrepreneur”, adding that he “had a sharp gaze, was genuinely curious, and daring” and that his “gentlemanly way of being authoritative and even authoritarian will be greatly missed.” He revealed, “Although over the years we lost contact, I have always considered him as one of the people who had a real and positive impact on my life.”
As the author explains of how she pieced the book together, “Two trips were taken to Biella, Italy, Cerruti’s birthplace and the place of his death; his family, including his son, Julian Cerruti, maintain residences there. “Julian was instrumental in the making of this book and in letting this author into the warehouse that is a true treasure trove of all things Cerruti: books of fabric swatches dating to 1881; patterns and plans from the same era; samples of wool from years gone by, all neatly stacked in boxes; sketches and photographs from the 1960s through to the 1990s, and even a few after Cerruti sold his company in 2000; and reams of press clippings from every magazine and newspaper imaginable.”
‘ I would like these clothes to continue to live, to be imbued with life, because that’s how I experienced them ’ 55
This and previous pages: all images © Gianmarco Maraviglia / Courtesy of Cerruti family archive Right: unknown (the publisher made every effort to find the copyright owner of the image and invites them to contact teNeues)
By the 1980s and 1990s, Cerruti was dressing major Hollywood and French stars on and off screen. Richard Gere’s suits in Pretty Woman? Cerruti. Tom Hanks in Philadelphia? Same again. Christian Bale in American Psycho? Ditto. But perhaps there was no bigger fan than Michael Douglas, who wore Cerruti suits in Jewel in the Nile, War of the Roses and Basic Instinct. Cerruti also developed a meaningful friendship with actor Pete Coyote. The first of many iconic fragrances from Cerruti launched in 1978, and after dipping into sportswear the designer found himself working with the Ferrari Formula 1 team, creating the jumpsuits for its drivers in 1994. Cook, the author of the teNeues book, recalls her own memories of Cerruti growing up. “Cerruti’s business was in full bloom in the 1980s and he had established himself as a major player,” she says. “His ads were plastered all over every fashion magazine. Every season was fresh, and focused on renewing what felt right and good with each collection.”
AIR 56 highlight was the deconstructed jacket, ushering in the age of ‘casual chic’. A second brand, Flying Cross, followed in 1962, and was one of the first labels considered ‘designer’, noted for its offbeat, unconventional patterns. Armani was hired by Cerruti in 1964 to work on the Hitman collection, and was deeply influenced by the designer’s ease of dressing, boldness, and love of quality materials. The two would work together for a decade, with Armani leaving to launch his own company inT1974.heyear 1967 was also important for Cerruti. He met Chantal Dumont, a young model on a plane flying to New York, who would later become his wife, and he also established his first boutique, Cerruti 1881 named after the year of the family mill’s founding — on the Place de la Madeleine in Paris, along with the company headquarters. Cerruti saw Paris as the epicentre of global fashion, and intended to make his mark, showcasing his fine fabrics and Italian tailoring, with menswear launching first, and womenswear following a year later. It was a move that would take Cerruti into the stratosphere. He now enjoyed a jetset lifestyle, spending time between Biella and Paris, and frequently flying to New York to promote the business. Celebrities such as Faye Dunaway, Orson Welles and French film star JeanPaul Belmondo became repeat clients; Christmas was spent each year with director Roman Polanski; and Marlon Brando became a close friend, ordering custom-made capes in his later years.
Nino Cerruti: Fashion Icon by Cindi Cook, published by teNeues, is available now from accartbooks.com ‘ Every season was fresh, and focused on renewing what felt right and good with each collection ’
In 2000, aged 70, Cerruti sold his fashion business to an Italian industrial group, and the brand still continues to this day. He spent the time until his death overseeing the running of the family mill, and even now his influence and reputation as “one of Italy’s chicest men” as one industry heavyweight called him remains. As the book proves, and as a pioneer of casual suiting and ready-to-wear, Cerruti’s impact is likely to endure. He would have been pleased by this, as it was how he viewed the fashions he created. Cerruti himself once said, “A garment only exists from the moment someone puts it on. I would like these clothes to continue to live, to be imbued with life, because that’s how I experienced them.”
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Motoring SEPTEMBER 2022 : ISSUE 132 A new British coachbuilder has painstakingly restored and subtly improved the Austin-Healey 100 from the early 1950s as its first offering — making it twice as powerful in the process Austin Powers 59 WORDS: CHRIS ANDERSON
The interior has undergone the same respectful transformation. It retains the 1950s styling, but modern materials have been used, from the Bridge of Weir leather to the milled aluminium gear knob, with a subtle resizing and a new AP Racing pedal box to help seat taller drivers. There’s no modern audio system, but Caton has included two USB ports for device charging, and pockets in the door panels to store water bottles. Some parts have been formed by hand on a classic English Wheel metalworking tool, others on a modern CNC machine, with each car spending two weeks in the paint shop. The result is smooth, subtly different, and the same overall kerb weight as the original at 920kg.
Having made its public debut at the prestigious Salon Privé car show in the UK back in April, and later featured at the inaugural Concours on Savile Row, and the London Concours in the heart of the city, its track debut came at the Supercar Driver Meet at Donnington Park in July. With this kind of approach, applying it to other classics in the future, it looks like Caton could catch on.
A modern five-speed manual gearbox replaces the standard three-speed, with upgraded driveshafts, bigger brakes, and an uprated suspension package that retains the original set-up — featuring double wishbones at the front, semielliptic leaf springs at the back — can also be found within. JME Healeys, an independent specialist actually based in the workshops of Donald Healey’s original company, was consulted to work on the engine and running gear.
As the saying goes, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But you can take an old car, faithfully restore it using modern techniques, and even find ways to make it better than before. Caton is a new British company doing just that, and has chosen the Austin-Healey 100, built from 1953 until 1958, as a way to showcase its skills. Based in Coventry in the UK, Caton has specifically turned its attentions to the BN1 model, the earliest in the run, which is said to be more readily upgradeable. The resulting car, known as the Healey by Caton, is still recognisable as the 100 of old, but appears smoother and more streamlined, with more power, and is as much fun to drive on the track as the road. Caton director David Bagley calls it “a purification and modernisation,” and is clearly pleased with what his team of artisans and technicians has achieved. “This really is the return of a legend, held in high esteem by enthusiasts around the world,” he says. “But at the same time, it’s a new car, conceived, engineered and built in the UK.” It’s also worth noting that the 100 was the first Austin-Healey ever produced.
And Caton has support in other ways, set up in strategic partnership with Envisage Group, also based in Coventry, with a footprint in the US and India, working directly with a number of largescale motoring companies on a range of different projects. Caton is Envisage’s new coachbuilding arm, drawing on the same contacts and expertise, as well as its milling, 3D printing and paint laboratories.
60 AIR ‘ This really is the return of a legend, held in high esteem by aroundenthusiaststheworld’
For this newer version, an AustinHealey 100 from the 1950s is sourced as the donor car. Bespoke aluminium panels are fitted in place of the originals, subtly reformed to add strength, remove the beading and panel gaps, and create a smooth, seamless look, with large integrated vents along the sides. The nose, deeper than before, blends into the front wings, with a new grille and modern LED headlights, while at the rear, period features, such as the hinges and handles, are no more, with the bootlid opening via a modern electronic release, operated by the keyfob. There are no bumpers, with a speedster-type windscreen and period-style aluminium wire wheels completing the look.
Expect just 25 of the Healey by Caton to be built, with each starting at £375,000 ($451,000), which includes the donor vehicle, but not local taxes or shipping.
Donald Healey, a successful car designer and rally driver, set up his own small manufacturing company in Warwick, England, in 1945, specialising in high-quality, high-performance — and ultimately expensive — vehicles, such as the Elliott saloon and the Silverstone roadster. To help his company survive, Healey needed something more affordable, so he built a prototype twoseater roadster using low-cost, massproduced Austin components, which he called the Healey Hundred — named after its ability to reach 100mph (160km/h). Making its debut at the 1952 Earls Court Motor Show, the managing director of Austin, Leonard Lord, was so impressed, he offered to build the car in his factories, calling it the AustinHealey 100. It was to become a lasting partnership, with 14,634 Austin-Healey 100s built, followed by the 3.0-litre Austin-Healey 3000 and the smaller 950cc Austin-Healey Sprite. Caton’s modern factory is actually just 10 miles north of Healey’s old headquarters, where the original Hundred prototype was built.
Modern technology, such as ABS, has not been included to retain the classic feel. The original 100 had just 90hp of horsepower, but this version is 185hp — more than twice as much — with 264Nm of torque. This is due to the 3.0-litre four-cylinder engine, a modified Austin-Healey block, lightened and balanced, with high-compression pistons, a more aggressive camshaft and larger H8 carburettors, channelled through an uprated exhaust system that exits from the side of the vehicle. Expect it to far exceed the 100mph (160km/h) top speed of the original as well.
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62 AIR Gastronomy SEPTEMBER 2022: ISSUE 132 Changing Course Andrew Wong’s London restaurant touts two Michelin stars and his food has helped change the perception of Chinese cuisine. Not bad for a man whose childhood ambition was simply to not work in a restaurant WORDS: JOHN THATCHER
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“I don’t think what we do is any better, but we live differently from my parents and grandparents in the 70s and 80s,” says Wong. “The perception of Chinese food and culture has changed. It wasn’t Chinese, which I don’t speak. It’s very different from Cantonese. Most of my time was spent watching them and copying them. Watching them at work was amazing. I tried my best to understand the fundamentals of their cuisine, their skills, and how they ran their kitchens. Spending time in Sichuan taught me that it is so much more than chilli and pepper.
64 AIR something we set out to do when we first opened A.Wong, if I’m honest. But it’s incredibly important, and I’m proud to be a small part of this change, along with the thousands and thousands of restaurants that have come before us.” Wong was able to affect this change by marrying his interests in anthropology and study to his love of food, with a year-long working trip to China when aged 22, affording him the opportunity to indulge both passions. It proved pivotal. “I started off in Sichuan at the Sichuanese Institute. Funnily enough, I didn’t know what they were saying to me most of the time as they all spoke Sichuanese ‘ I can have an idea for basedcombinationsflavouronpoetry.’
“Qingdao is one of my favourite stories. It was unlike anywhere else I had been in China — culturally, architecturally, and gastronomically it was very different to the other places on my travels. To start with, the staple carb in Qingdao isn’t rice, it is noodles or buns. So that was a surprise. The cuisine is also seafood-heavy, and I love seafood, so this was a major treat.
A swift glance at Andrew Wong’s potted biography details that his parents owned and ran a Cantonese restaurant in London. They were the second generation of the family to make their mark in the city. The first, Wong’s grandfather, who arrived in London as a refugee, also had a restaurant, in Chinatown, so it doesn’t take the longest leap of imagination to think that Wong grew up with an innate love for food and restaurants. “I did everything I could to get out of helping in the family restaurant. I even took extra maths classes to avoid it,” he once said, declaring that his childhood ambition was simply to not work in a restaurant. Academia was the route he chose, studying chemistry at Oxford, then social a nthropology at the London School of Economics. Yet, as is its habit, fate intervened to determine he walked a different path. His father’s passing in 2013 left his mother running their restaurant alone, Wong returning to help out and supplementing his will to assist by enrolling in a cookery course. By 2017 the renamed, reimagined, and redesigned restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star. “It’s true I went to university to have fun and escape work for a while,” says Wong. “But I was drawn back in, and over the years it has become something I love.” And so it appears. Step into any chefowned Michelin-starred establishment and it’s highly unlikely you’ll see the chef in the building, let alone hard at work in the kitchen. Yet the first thing you notice at A.Wong is Andrew at the pass. The second thing to steal your attention is the quite extraordinary flavour he infuses into his dishes. A .Wong stands in the exact location of his parents’ former restaurant, though their offering is very different. Despite the country’s vastness and regional variety of dishes, China’s food in the UK was, during the 70s and 80s, simply labelled ‘Chinese’, and typified by deep-fried dishes swimming in luminous, sugary sauces, served up in tin foil trays at counter-top takeaways.
“ The hotel I worked in at the time was incredibly hospitable, and all of the chefs took the time to help teach me. They allowed me to get stuck into every aspect of the kitchen and just took their time to hang out with me. There was a roasting chef that I mainly got on with,
T hat particular trip informs A.Wong’s signature Taste of China tasting menu, a multi-course run through of extraordinary regional tastes and cooking techniques. “I wanted to give our guests insight into these diverse, regional flavour profiles, from flashfrying to steaming, the amount of pickle, preservatives, and the type of fermented product. All these things are integral parts of a region’s identity and its role in China as a whole.” Travel is only the tip of Wong’s research. For the past five years he has worked with Dr Mukta Das, a food anthropologist whom he met at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), where Wong is now a research 65 a specific region of China. I want people to take an interest in the flavours of that particular dish. This obviously opens us up to criticism, too, if what we are serving isn’t deemed ‘authentic’, and, actually, that’s fine, because it’s not supposed to be.” W hat it is, is highly acclaimed — A.Wong gained a second Michelin star last year, while Wong also won Chef of the Year at the National Restaurant Awards. W hile such stature would likely encourage other chefs to expand their footprint, don’t expect Wong to embark on building a restaurant empire. “Life is too short,” he states. “There are so many beautiful places to experience in the world — why would you want to open more than one restaurant in a city? I’ll get much more fulfilment from travelling the world with my family than from opening a chain of Chinese restaurants.”
associate. Together, the pair delve deep into China’s rich history and culture for inspiration. “Mukta’s approach is from a historical point of view, looking at all sorts of economic and social aspects behind whatever dish we are researching. I look at it from a chef’s perspective; what it will taste like, what the texture would be, and how I can logistically make this happen. Sometimes I’ll ask Mukta to look into something specific, like pastry, or she will share a poem or new research that interests me. We don’t attempt to replicate dishes exactly; it’s more of an inspiration and springboard for coming up with new ideas. These can be flavour combinations that are sometimes based on poetry we’ve read, Chinese traditional medicine, or anecdotes from historical figures throughout history. It’s a seam from which our dishes grow. “ I don’t just want people to come here and eat my interpretation from and we had a tight bond; I learnt an awful lot from him. The missing five per cent that the other chefs wouldn’t tell you, he was very open to share. In fact, most chefs were pretty open with me. There were no secrets.”
Yet this is a hotel that also indulges the active. Here you can strap on a snorkel to explore the underwater world, slip into a kayak or balance on a paddleboard to enjoy the ocean at leisure, or cast a line to catch a netful. Back on dry land, golfers can swing and putt their way around the manicured fairways and pristine greens of the 18-hole beachfront course at Al Hamra Golf Club, while the resort’s sublime STAYS
If you still require a little nudge to succumb to total relaxation, The RitzCarlton Spa will oblige. Its setting alone — treatment ‘rooms’ are rather wonderful waterside pavilions, which can be opened to allow for a gentle ocean breeze — is the very definition of tranquil, but don’t forgo the opportunity for further gratification by cherry picking from a menu that offers massage styles aplenty for both women and men, and experiences that fuse native spices and natural ingredients with luxury products from the likes of ESPA and Natura Bissé.
Ras Al Khaimah’s rise up the ranks of top-rated tourist destinations owes much to resorts like The Ritz-Carlton, Ras Al Khaimah, Al Hamra Beach, a beautiful, secluded retreat nestled beneath swaying palms on the fringes of the Arabian Gulf. Located on a private slip of petal-soft sand, this islandinspired retreat comprises just thirty-two villas, abetting its air of exclusivity. These modern-meets-traditional style villas (tented roofs are a nod to Bedouin roots) come in three guises, all housing pools in expansive private grounds that also offer up a direct walkway to the beach. The largest of the three, Al Shamal Ocean View Villa, makes the most of its sequestered setting by granting guests myriad vantage points — including a raised sundeck that elevates you above gently lapping waves — from which to drink-in blissful views of the ocean. Do so while sipping your way through the complimentary bottle of Champagne that this villa bestows on its guests.
AIR 66 Travel SEPTEMBER 2022: ISSUE 132
ULTIMATE
The Ritz-Carlton, Ras Al Khaimah, Al Hamra Beach
UAE sister property, The Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, Al Wadi Desert, grants guests access to its impressive nature reserve. Come sunset, it’s all about the resort’s delivery of fine food with a side order of soul-stirring views. The sophisticated Shore House restaurant leans on prime ingredients to serve up a great range of dishes that cater to all — a flavour-filled vegan lasagne offered alongside a butter-soft beef tenderloin and locally-sourced seafood. The open-air Beach Deck is a new and exciting venue built to maximise the lure of unbroken ocean views. A laid-back design beckons guests to pull up a beanbag and enjoy a classic sundowner, before taking their pick from a locally-sourced seafood menu big on regional flavours and speciality grills. Whether with your partner or with a young family in tow, The RitzCarlton, Ras Al Khaimah, Al Hamra Beach is to everyone’s taste.
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Coming from an artistic family, with my grandfather an architect and my father a sculptor, I was trained, from a young age, to see the world in a three dimensional way; considering each angle, form, and expression of what I observe. My father and grandfather imprinted an idea in me - true art must be able to stand the trial of time, and only true art can transcend time and be passed on from generation to generation. When journalists ask me, ‘Which creation are you most proud of?’ I always like to say, ‘The next one.’
Illustration: BethLeona
My first ‘dream’ career was to become an architect, like my grandfather. However, my family knew how difficult such a vocation can be, and they strongly suggested that I choose a less stressful profession — so began my journey. Their suggestion redirected me onto the path to becoming a jewellery artist. One thing I do every day is read, especially books not about jewelry, including literature, history, and architecture. It is extremely important for an artist to experience various cultures and art forms, and to be stimulated. Reading gives me more inspirations and expands my imagination. A lesson I learned the hard way came in 2016.I was finally invited to exhibit at the Paris Biennale des Antiquaires, and the Winter Leaves Necklace was my highlight, which I thought would garner tremendous feedback. It didn’t, and I was quite disappointed because I thought this piece best represented me. It wasn’t until 2019 that it became the first ever piece of jewellery to be awarded the Masterpiece Highlight at Masterpiece London. I realised then that the vision and creative mindset of an artist must be more advanced and ahead of their time.
What I Know Now 68 SEPTEMBER 2022 : ISSUE 132
AIR Cindy Chao ART JEWELLER
I feel that in my creation process, whenever I’m coming up with a new piece, I already know the improvements I want to make for the next one. My definition of personal success is to keep surpassing myself. There is no limit. If we can strive for perfection, what is the reason for us to settle for less?
Two years after my brand was established, the concept of artistic jewellery was very new in the market at the time. As a young artist, I was not certain if I was heading in the right direction. I almost gave up, but I told myself to instead give it my all. So, I would give my younger self a pat on the back and tell her, ‘You’re doing the right thing,’ and, ‘Good job!’
My vision for the brand is for it to grow without the limitations of time and space. I want to establish a hundred-year-old brand, so I’m building and safeguarding this legacy.
