AIR Magazine - Empire Aviation - October'22

Thirty Eight Do The Right Thing

Having shot to fame in Slumdog Millionaire, Freida Pinto is back and starring again on her own terms.

Forty Four Round The Houses

LVMH may well be a vast luxury empire, but at its heart is a collection of small, historic ateliers, reveals Lisa Grainger.

Fifty Two A New Man

The legendary Paul Newman, as seen through the lenses of some of the world’s most famous photographers.

Credit: Paul Newman, by Al Satterwhite

REGULARS

Fourteen Radar

Sixteen Objects of Desire

Eighteen Critique

Twenty Art & Design

Twenty Six Timepieces

Thirty Jewellery

Sixty Two Gastronomy

Sixty Six Ultimate Stays

Sixty Eight What I Know Now

EDITORIAL

Editor-in-Chief

John Thatcher

john@hotmedia.me

ART

Art Director

Kerri Bennett

Illustration Leona Beth

COMMERCIAL

Managing Director

Victoria Thatcher

General Manager

David Wade

david@hotmedia.me

PRODUCTION

Digital Media Manager Muthu Kumar

Fifty Eight Motoring

Meet the Pininfarina Battista, a storming, collectable Italian hypercar that just happens to be an EV.

Tel: 00971 4 364 2880 hotmedia.me

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

Welcome Onboard

Welcome to this issue of AIR — our private aviation luxury lifestyle magazine for aircraft owners, partners and charter clients. For those reading this onboard an Empire-operated flight, we wish you a comfortable and relaxing journey in the expert hands of our experienced team.

As we enter the final quarter of 2022, we are already looking ahead to the end of the year and beyond into 2023. Between now and the year-end, we will be very active as private aviation — and aviation more generally — steps up a gear, following a strong summer period in which business and leisure travellers had more opportunities to fly.

In the Middle East, we can already see rising demand as the region prepares to host one of the world’s biggest and greatest sporting spectacles — the FIFA World Cup 2022 — in Doha, Qatar. This will certainly attract huge numbers of football fans to the region and demand for flights will no doubt outstrip supply.

Our own business pipeline remains very strong with growing interest in private aviation — from prospective new aircraft owners, who may have already experienced all the benefits and advantages as charter clients. We now face the serious challenge of finding high quality preowned aircraft for buyers especially in the super midsize business jet category, which is often the preference for buyers in the region.

Our aim is to ensure we can maintain a good balance of managed business jets across all categories and with some of these aircraft available for charter, as part of an appropriate owner business model for their managed aircraft. The midsize jet market is more active and there are still good buying opportunities. These aircraft offer excellent value for owners and are popular among charter clients. Our managed Hawker XP900 is a great example of a very popular midsize aircraft and we feature the business jet in this issue.

Charter demand is generally strong and we are very active with our own managed aircraft that are available to charter. Through our broker partners, we can of course charter different types of aircraft operating to and from anywhere in the world. Given the level of sustained demand, we are likely to see a continuing shortage of charter aircraft and rates will inevitably reflect this.

Jumping ahead to the end of the year, we are already preparing for the major private aviation business event — MEBAA, hosted in Dubai — where we will be highlighting and celebrating our 15th anniversary in the private aviation business. I look forward to sharing much more on this in later issues.

Meanwhile, enjoy the read.

Paras P. Dhamecha Founder & Managing Director

Contact Details: info@empire.aero empireaviation.com

Cover : Freida Pinto Alamy

OCTOBER 2022

One Size May Not Fit All

Many business jets may look quite similar but there’s a world of difference between the various categories of aircraft. Whether you’re buying or chartering a business jet, one of the first considerations is the size and type of aircraft you may need for your typical mission. The range of business jets is segmented into several categories, which helps buyers and charter clients to narrow the choice quickly and easily. Once the category is defined, then the choice of aircraft model and type becomes more a matter of the finer details.

All private business jets fit into one of the industry’s main categories — Very Light Jet, Light Jet, Midsize jet, Super Midsize Jet, Heavy Jet — generally defined by aircraft size and weight, flying range and cabin space. The midsize and super midsize business Jets are the most popular in some regions like the Middle East but each of them offers a range of options, based mainly on range and cabin size and there are many more details to consider according to personal preference.

Generally, a midsize business jet has 5 to 10 seats and a maximum flying range of around 4,700km which equates to around 4 to 5 hours’ non-stop flying time, for example Dubai to Istanbul, Maldives or

Mumbai can be accessed directly.

Range is a key factor and so is the cabin size. On average, a midsize business jet will have a cabin height of between 1.5m — 1.73m — a critical factor as a fully stand-up cabin can be very influential in a buying (or chartering) decision.

Luggage capacity is also important and the compartment size could be as large as 2.5 cubic metres.

This category really developed to meet the demand for transcontinental travel with a comfortable cabin and good workspace, onboard washroom, and two pilots and a cabin crew if required.

The typical cruise speed is around 430-480 miles per hour and these business jets are able to land on shorter runways. The midsize jet offers a good balance and combination of space and range for shorter and medium range trips — and cabin space for a flight attendant offering onboard service.

A typical super midsize business jet will have 12 to 14 seats but there are many variations on the number of seats and layouts depending on the configuration of the cabin, which will generally be tall enough (1.70m-1.90m) to allow most passengers to stand up and with space for a flight attendant, offering onboard service to passengers.

The super midsize will also take

you further and you can expect a maximum non-stop flying range of around 6,200 km, or 5-6 hours of flying time depending on passenger load, as well as good fuel efficiency. Luggage compartments typically offer 3.5 cubic metres of space. Super midsize jets are a good option for larger groups on longer trips with high cabin ceiling, large windows, more sleeping options, well-equipped galley and a washroom all making passengers more comfortable on longer non-stop flights.

Ultimately, the decision between midsize or super midsize categories comes down to a range of practical factors and personal preferences, and of course budget. All the major business jet manufacturers offer very attractive aircraft across both categories and the range of choice can be bewildering, which is why a trusted expert advisor is the first and most important decision.

Why there’s a world of difference between the various categories of aircraft

Meet The Hawker 900XP Midsize Business Jet

The 900XP offers improvements to its predecessor, with better fuel efficiency, aerodynamics, and performance

The Hawker 900XP is a popular midsize business jet among buyers for private and commercial charter clients and Empire Aviation also manages one of these outstanding aircraft on behalf of the owner.

The Hawker 900XP midsize business jet is an aircraft model developed from the Hawker 850XP and manufactured by Hawker Beechcraft Corp for several years.

The 900XP’s spacious cabin makes it comfortable for 8 passengers, with the maximum configuration seating 10, and two pilots. The baggage compartment can hold up to 7 bags, assuming the average piece of luggage is less than 5 cubic feet. The Hawker 900XP has a maximum range (subject to headwinds, high altitude, hot temperatures, or higher capacity) of 2,733 nautical miles and a maximum speed of 516 mph. The 900XP offers improvements to its predecessor with better fuel efficiency, aerodynamics, and performance

— including high temperature and altitude, range and take-off distance. In addition to its advanced avionics, the 900XP’s interior has an array of features such as LCD lighting, touch-screen seat controls, spacious cabin and storage, and stand-up headroom in the cabin. Around 180 of these aircraft were built

and most were delivered to owners in the US, as well as Asia and Europe.

The Hawker 900XP is a very attractive package of performance, comfort and economy and for charter clients, a value option for short-medium flights when compared to larger super midsize business jets.

RARE, INDIGENOUS, CAPTIVATING

Experience the alluring, golden desert landscape, the captivating silence of nature, the free-roaming wildlife in the reserve, all enjoyed from your private suite and pool. Indulge in a luxurious desert adventure with camel treks, horseback riding, falconry, archery, dune drives and more.

HOTELS THAT DEFINE THE DESTINATION

CALL +971 4 832 9900 OR VISIT AL-MAHA.COM

Blinged-out jewellery is synonymous with hip hop, a style statement that has endured from pioneers like Eric B. & Rakim and Run DMC, through to Pharrell Williams and Cardi B. Spanning that history of diamond-encrusted grills, oversized chains, and bust-down Rolex watches, Ice Cold. A Hip-Hop Jewelry History maps the evolution of this style across hundreds of images shot by some of the world’s foremost photographers. Authored by Vikki Tobak, it also features written contributions from the likes of LL Cool J.

Ice Cold. A Hip-Hop Jewelry History, published by Taschen, is out now

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

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

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

BOUCHERON SERPENT BOHÈME SOLARITÉ

The Serpent Bohème collection has been in Boucheron’s creative canon since 1968, its pieces characterised by diamond droplets and honeycomb latticework. New for 2022, its reinterpretation is the boldest iteration to date, particularly when it comes to

earrings. Along with huge, multi-motif hoops are these striking asymmetrical pieces. Reminiscent of a peacock’s fan, its micro-beaded spindles, closedset diamonds and droplets hug the caricature of the ear, while a diamondstudded teardrop decorates the lobe.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

BRETT JOHNSON DEERSKIN DUFFLE WEEKENDER BAG

“I started the brand in search of the best craftsmanship, the best quality, and the best materials that resonate with today’s modern travelling man,” said premium menswear designer Brett Johnson of his eponymous brand, which will celebrate its first decade

next year. That search has seen him spend much of those ten years in Italy, from where he’s sourced the finest textiles and leathers from the country’s premier mills and tanneries. This weekender bag is a prime example of that quality.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

BREGUET CLASSIQUE 7337 CALENDAR

It’s the intricate details that help elevate Breguet’s timepieces, with this latest addition to the Classique collection another fine example of the brand’s signature artistry. You’ll see it on the off-centre dial, brought to life by a hand-engraved hobnail

pattern, and on the moon phase, its sky coated with a blue lacquer composed of spangles to subtly reveal the stars depending on the angle from which the timepiece is viewed. It’s available in 18k white or rose gold.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

OMEGA SPEEDMASTER ’57

Few timepieces can boast a history as colourful as that of the Speedmaster, a watch that launched its first iteration in 1957 – designed for racing car drivers and engineers track side – and went all the way to the moon. To mark the 65th anniversary of the Speedmaster

line, Omega has launched eight new, slimmer-designed models, notable for their coloured dials (blue, black, green, and burgundy), signature detailing (broad arrow hands), and the precision of the Co-Axial Master Chronometer 9906 movement.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

FRAME X RITZ PARIS DROP TWO

It’s a tale of two cities as New York’s Frame partners with storied hotel Ritz Paris for a forty-four-piece, limitededition capsule. The second occasion the pair have collaborated, this time their offering of Ritz Paris-branded varsity style outerwear, hotel stay

essentials, classic tees and unisex cashmere sweaters extends to the whole family – kids through to four-legged friends, for whom there is a puffer jacket. Accessories feature everything from caps and cashmere beanies, to snug slippers and high-top sneakers.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

CHANEL CAMÉLIA DE CHANEL

Strikingly feminine, Chanel’s elegant long necklace – characterised by its artfully crafted camellia buds – has bloomed into a new variation for 2022. Resplendent in 18-carat yellow gold and diamonds, the refined beauty of this piece extends to its

transformative nature, which allows for it to be worn in multiple ways – in its original long version, as a doublerow or Y-shaped necklace, and even as a bracelet, thanks to two movable clasps that can be attached along the length of the chain.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

VHERNIER BLUE VELVET NECKLACE

Vhernier has always walked its own path when it comes to jewellery design, placing emphasis on bold, contemporary dimensions and ergonomic construction. For its latest suite, Blue Velvet, the Italian jeweller undertook two years of research to

determine its use of titanium, the result of which are designs inspired by the three-dimensional form of a wave. This necklace took more than two hundred hours’ work to create, as master craftsmen painstakingly set diamonds before colouring and polishing.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

LOUIS VUITTON TAMBOUR

To mark the 20th anniversary of the brand’s celebrated Tambour collection, Louis Vuitton’s watchmakers have developed the limited-edition Tambour Twenty. Its design takes its cues from the very first Tambour timepiece, and houses a high-frequency chronograph

movement based on the Zenith El Primero, the world’s first automatic chronograph caliber – this one customised with a 22K pink gold rotor.

Just 200 pieces have been made, each one presented in a special trunk case in Monogram canvas.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Critique

Film

The Good House

Dir. Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky

A woman’s compartmentalised life begins to unravel once she rekindles a romance with her old high-school flame and her past reveals itself.

AT BEST: ‘In the film’s sharp comic observations... something real and messy sparks to life.’ — Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

AT WORST: ‘Sporadically effective with a highly predictable dramatic arc.’ — Brandon Judell

Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon

Dir. Ana Lily Amirpour

A struggling single-mother sees an opportunity to make some fast cash when she befriends a mysterious mental institute escapee with supernatural powers.

AT BEST: ‘It’s super watchable and bound to collect ardent fans.’ — Nathaniel Rogers, The Film Experience

AT WORST: ‘An occasionally amusing but mostly treadless fantasy.’ — Deborah Young, The Film Verdict

Triangle Of Sadness

Dir. Ruben Östlund

Social hierarchy is turned upside down when a luxury cruise for the uberrich ends up stranded on a desert island.

AT BEST: ‘It’s frequently gross, blunt as a battering ram, and very, very 2022.’ — Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

AT WORST: ‘There are subtle little gags scattered between the more obvious ones... but overall the satire is scattershot.’ — Raphael Abraham, Financial Times God’s Creatures

Dir. Saela Davis, Anna Rose Holmer

In a remote fishing village, a mother is torn between protecting her beloved son and her own sense of right and wrong.

AT BEST: ‘A beautifully made, precisely acted masterclass in rural gothic.’ — Donald Clarke, Irish Times

AT WORST: ‘A disappointing and familiar offering adhering to obvious narrative choices.’ — Nicholas Bell, ioncinema.com

Susan Conley’s Landslide takes us inside a modern family at odds with itself, as one disaster gives way to the next for a devoted mother. “Enveloping and warm… [Susan Conley] has a gift for writing tiny, meaningful interactions,” says Hillary Kelly, writing for The New York Times Book Review. “In spare, incisive prose, Conley captures the beauty and might of nature, a mother’s awesome drive to protect her children, and the fraught trial and error inherent in navigating the complexities of multigenerational family relationships,” says Booklist. While Library Journal hails what it calls “An invigorating, informative read.”

Wise Gals, by New York Times bestselling author Nathalia Holt, tells the never-before-told story of a small set of influential female spies in the early days of the CIA. “Throughout the Cold War, Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier gathered intelligence, built allegiances, developed technology,

Critique

Books and demanded they get the respect they deserve. Historian Nathalia Holt weaves together first-hand accounts and declassified government documents to show how these spies changed the game,” says Book Riot. “Spies are not supposed to be remembered but we can all thank Nathalia Holt for returning a handful of unsung, trail blazing women to the centre of CIA history — where they belong,” writes fellow author Sarah Rose. “Tracing the end of WW2 through the Cold War to the crisis in Ukraine today, Wise Gals is fast paced, encyclopedic in scope, and packed with women on the rise, Nazi art dealers on the run, Soviet spy satellites, Middle Eastern military coups, and the unending, ceilingcracking fight for equality.” The Los Angeles Times also hailed the importance of Holt’s research. “What they [the five women] accomplished, in a full moral accounting, might be up for debate, but in the annals of espionage that is too often focused on men, understanding how these women not only contributed to

but also contravened the nascent world order is vital.”

A botched Antarctic expedition has far-reaching consequences for the explores and their families in Jon McGregor’s thriller Lean Fall Stand It’s a novel that had a deep effect on Yiyun, writing for New York Review of Books. “McGregor’s carefully composed dialogue, filled with the repetition of so few words, had an eerie effect on me: for several days my own inner dialogue was often composed of the same words, as though I, too, was discovering how they could express drastically different emotions yet remain unreadable to the world.” McGregor also won praise from The Guardian’s Alexandra Harris: “A novel of complex feeling and beautiful restraint from one of the finest writers around.” Said the Financial Times: “Above all, this is a novel about language: how we fail it as much as it fails us… McGregor’s precise, well-judged prose attests to both the power of language and to the havoc created by its loss.”

Moving With The Times

A new exhibition of 100 Van Cleef & Arpels’ designs celebrates the house’s enduring fascination with movement

WORDS: CHRIS ANDERSON

If there’s one thing to know about Van Cleef & Arpels, it’s that it has a long and fascinating history. Founded in Paris in 1906 by a Dutch diamond cutter, Alfred Van Cleef, and his brother-in-law, Charles Arpels, its universe of jewellery and watches continue to captivate. Everyone from Grace Kelly and Ava Gardner, to Elizabeth Taylor and the British royal family have all owned pieces characterised by precious stones and materials, often featuring tiny, intricate renderings of flowers, animals and fairies.

Acknowledging the heritage and achievements of the maison falls very much in the jurisdiction of Lise Macdonald, its head of patrimony. She has been working on a new exhibition, taking place at the Design Museum in London, entitled The Art of Movement, Van Cleef & Arpels. It brings together rare

and exotic items from the brand’s historic archives, as well as some borrowed from private collections, to showcase its history and expertise under a common theme.

“Van Cleef & Arpels has been able to capture this notion of movement in its creations since its very foundation,” Macdonald explains. “On show, we have around 100 original pieces, as well as historical documents, gouache illustrations, and more, covering high jewellery, objets d’art and watches. Each item encapsulates movement in some way, in terms of the inspiration behind it or the jewellery-making techniques involved, with the sections of the show themed around nature, elegance, dance and abstraction.

“Capturing a sense of movement is not easy, but these pieces seem somehow alive, with a bird taking flight, or a

bouquet of flowers with petals that seem to be shifting in the wind. There’s something in the composition, the colours and the materials, and the way the piece captures the light that conveys movement. And it’s interesting in the sense that these creations are representing something that is fleeting, like a photograph a movement is just a moment, an instant, but somehow you capture it for eternity.”

Macdonald adds that the stone combinations, the reflections of the precious metals, and the mastery of the techniques used by the house’s artisans, make their own unique contributions. Much of this is explained in the exhibition, with visitors greeted at the entrance by a floating matte ribbon in the shape of an ethereal flower, inspired by a motif used by Van Cleef & Arpels in the 1930s, followed by short video clips explaining the craftsmanship involved. From there, they move into the main exhibition, with floor-to-ceiling fabric used to display the creations.

Included are pieces that have never featured in exhibitions before. “We’ve just acquired a bracelet from 1924 with an Egyptian motif,” Macdonald reveals. “When the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in the early 1920s, the world became mesmerised by Egyptian culture, so this would have been popular at the time.

“And we have some quite iconic creations, such as the Zip necklace, created in 1950, inspired by the zip, and either worn open as a necklace, or closed as a bracelet. It saw the zip fastener, which was invented in the late 1930s, as its inspiration, but took 12 years to perfect, as it’s so complex. The idea was patented in 1978, and is a good example of the ingenuity of Van Cleef & Arpels.

“Also, we have an extraordinary piece

on loan from a private collection, which is a necklace from 1949 that belonged to the Maharani of Baroda Indian royalty, and a regular client of the house. It’s very extravagant, portraying a lotus flower blooming in the centre, surrounded by diamonds, and emeralds from her own collection. And of course, we have ballerina clips dating back to the 1940s, with rose-cut diamond faces and headdresses, and tutus of precious coloured stones that seem to flow with the dance. Some of the ballerina poses were even based on those found in famous paintings.”

One of the techniques that Van Cleef & Arpels is famous for is the Mystery Setting. Are there any examples of this in the exhibition? “Yes, of course,” Macdonald adds. “It’s a very complicated gem setting style, where the prongs are invisible, and each stone is faceted onto gold rails less than two-tenths of a millimetre thick. There’s a lovely clip of two bellflowers from 1969, with sapphires and diamonds, that demonstrates the Mystery Setting. The technique was patented in 2003. It’s very timeconsuming, and can require around 300 hours of work per piece. Only a handful of people know how to do it.”

Van Cleef & Arpels continues to be popular in the Middle East, with boutiques across the region, including an outlet in Dubai Opera that celebrates the house’s links to dance. A trip to London might be in order to learn more, where this exploration of history and craftsmanship will certainly move all who visit.

The Art of Movement, Van Cleef & Arpels runs at the Design Museum, London, until October 20. Free guided tours are available

‘ The Mystery Setting requires around 300 hours of work per piece. Only a handful of people know how to do it’

PARK LIFE

An abundance of parkland sets the scene at Mudon by Dubai Properties, a pristine gated community for those who love the great outdoors

ART DIRECTOR: KERRI BENNETT PHOTOGRAPHER: SAM RAWADI LOCATION: MUDON BY DUBAI PROPERTIES

Stylist Chloe Bosher

Hair and Make-up Elena, Bareface Model

Larissa Kuhn and Adriana Benicio, Wow Talent Group

Clothing

As pictured from left to right

Pages 1

Skirt and blazer: Sportmax Boots: YOOX Jacket and shorts: Noon by Noor Shoes: YOOX

Page 2

Top and skirt: & Other Stories Bag: BY FAR Earrings: Swarovski Shoes: Malone Souliers

Page 3 Dress: Cos Earrings: Swarovski Boots: Tommy Hilfiger

Page 4-5 Dress: YOOX Earrings: Swarovski Trainers: Cole Haan

Blazer and trousers: Elisabetta Franchi Cap: Marella Sport, Earrings: Swarvorski Trainers: Cole Haan Bag: Christian Louboutin

Page 6

Jeans: Elisabetta Franchi Top, bag and shoes: Tommy Hilfiger Earrings and watch: Swarovski

Page 7 Dress: Marella Boots: Tommy Hilfiger

Page 8

Swimsuit and headscarf: ERES Earrings: Elisabetta Franchi Ring: Swarovski Sunglasses: Isabel Marant Swimsuit and shorts: ERES, Earrings: Swarovski Sunglasses: Isabel Marant Hat: Stylist’s own

Moving The Goalposts

How Hublot’s innovations have seen it become a big-name player

A nalysts predict that the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off in Qatar next month — the first time the planet’s biggest sporting spectacle will have been staged in the Middle East — is likely to be watched by some 5 billion people. It’s a staggering claim, with the world’s population currently listed at 7.97 billion and, if true, will be an increase of over one billion on the number that watched the last World Cup in Russia.

Imagine, then, your brand as a key sponsor. The sole watch sponsor, in fact.

That’s exactly what Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot, did way back in 2004, summarily deciding to go where no other luxury brand had dared to tread — onto the football pitch. “Mr Guadalupe was looking for a platform where we would be the only watch brand present,” recalls David Tedeschi, Hublot’s Regional Director for Latin America & Caribbean, Middle East & Africa. “Golf was already being used, as was tennis, but football was a clean territory for a watch brand, and we were not only the first watch brand, but the first luxury brand to sponsor a sport that would be considered less

WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

those billions of people can afford to buy an Hublot watch, but we believe that people knowing that Hublot is a watch brand is important enough.”

‘elitist’ than other ones, such as golf or polo. But it was, and still is today, very positive for Hublot, as it allows us to grow our brand awareness and be present during football events that are viewed on a very large scale worldwide. Other luxury brands followed Hublot in this approach.”

Hublot’s strategy was as unconventional as it was rewarding.

“The creativity in our approach was to brand the referee’s board — that was a first in football’s history,” says Tedeschi of the digital board held up by the fourth official to communicate substitutions and allotted injury time.

“For the 2014 World Cup we changed the shape of the board into the shape of a Hublot watch, so that there was a link between the product and the brand. It really was a game changer, because we had this brand awareness reaching the billions watching the World Cup on TV. Of course, not all

Football also played a part in Hublot developing its first ever smart watch — the Hublot Big Bang Referee, a watch developed for and worn by referees during matches to meet a specific need expressed by FIFA, chiefly to determine whether the ball has crossed the goal line, which the watch does by emitting a pulse.

Perhaps emboldened by their success on the football field, Hublot has sought other areas ripe for collaboration, seeking new audiences to nurture. “We believe that we must find new sources of inspiration and new platforms of communication,” details Tedeschi. To that end, Hublot has branched out into areas as diverse as Michelin-starred kitchens and tattoo studios, DJ booths and art galleries. “We are collaborating with Sang Bleu, a tattoo studio founded by Maxime Plescia-Büchi, a designer and tattoo artist whose art has inspired us,” says Tedeschi. “We are also working with the sculptor Richard Orlinski, taking inspiration from the facets of his sculptures

for our Classic Fusion model. More recently, we have partnered with the artist Takashi Murakami to create two different limited editions that are among the most in-demand watches in our collection.”

Kylian Mbappé, DJ Snake, and Yannick Alléno are all part of Hublot’s ever widening galaxy of stars, a miscellaneous list which begs the question of what characteristics Hublot looks for in its ambassadors? “We always look for an ambassador that can represent the values of our brand and have a story to tell around our brand to make people dream about us through his or her personality and words,” outlines Tedeschi. “We look for people who, first of all, like our brand — often people who already own a Hublot watch. We want to have the right alchemy otherwise it doesn’t work. We believe our brand ambassadors share our values and they can connect us with people who are looking at what they are wearing. Kylian Mbappé is a young footballer with an incredible following and, while not all of his followers can buy a Hublot watch, he can tell a story and it becomes aspirational. Indirectly, we’re also shaping the consumer of tomorrow.”

That belief that they are helping to shape the consumer of tomorrow informs another area of Hublot’s efforts — social responsibility. “Hublot’s Xplorations programme has three pillars: Space, Earth and Sea,” states Tedeschi. Speaking

of the latter, “We recently joined Jean-Louis Etienne and the Polar Pod expedition, a project in which Hublot intends to get fully involved.”

The expedition’s goal is to generate a greater understanding of the Southern Ocean which surrounds Antarctica.

It’s the planet’s main oceanic carbon sink and a gigantic reservoir of marine biodiversity that is still poorly understood. Then there is SORAI, with whom Hublot has been involved for the past three years, a foundation that protects rhinoceroses in Africa and India. “We are proud to support research through a human, scientific and societal project, and to aid in the protection of endangered species.”

Such an innovative approach to its operations is firmly reflected in Hublot’s timepieces, which celebrate the ‘art of fusion.’ “In 1980, when we first started making watches, Hublot was the first watch brand to combine rubber and 18-carat gold together. Gold is an ancient material and rubber is a modern material, and when you combine tradition and innovation, that’s what we call the art of fusion.

We also democratised ceramics in the watch industry with a lot of coloured ceramics, including some that are exclusive to Hublot, such as vivid red or vivid yellow, as well as all the different types of sapphire. Quite a lot of the watches were world firsts.

We also invented Magic Gold, our 18-carat, un-scratchable gold, a fusion between gold and ceramic and, I must

Previous page: Big Bang Referee

This page, from left to right: Big Bang

Unico Sang Bleu II Magic Gold; Classic_ Fusion Takashi Murakami; Classic Fusion Chronograph Concrete Sand

Right: Hublot Ambassador Kylian Mbappé, by Ezra Petronio

say, the biggest innovation in material we have ever made, so far. Innovation and creativity are very important for Hublot, and to be able to come up with never-seen-before products is a real satisfaction for us and for our clients.”

That feeds into Hublot producing market-exclusive pieces, such as last year’s special edition Classic Fusion to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UAE. “It was a concept we have never done before; a case made from concrete, a dial with sand from the Emirati desert, and a leather strap made from camel leather,” recalls Tedeschi proudly. Not surprisingly, all 100 watches sold almost immediately.

Ricardo Guadalupe scored big back in 2004 when he imagined Hublot as a supporter of the beautiful game. It’s since proved to be not only a game changer for the brand — now a big-name player in every sense — but for the watch industry as a whole.

‘

Innovation and creativity are very important for Hublot. To come up with never-seen-before products is a real satisfaction for us and for our clients’

Love Story

As Beyoncé fronts Tiffany & Co.’s latest campaign, AIR looks at how the connection between the two powerhouses runs deep

WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

It’s fitting in more ways than one that Beyoncé has partnered with Tiffany & Co. to launch the brand’s latest campaign, Lose Yourself In Love. This summer witnessed her Renaissance, Beyoncé’s seventh solo outing and a thumping tour de force of an album, a magnificent, swirling statement of who, and where, she is right now. At the same time, Tiffany & Co. was busy making a creative statement of its own, taking over London’s Saatchi Gallery for three months with the blockbuster show Vision & Virtuosity, for which 400 objects from the Tiffany archives were put on show, showcasing creations by everyone from Louis Comfort Tiffany and Gene Moore to Jean Schlumberger and Elsa Peretti. The culmination of what was a fabulously orchestrated tour through myriad archival hits led guests

past video screens of Audrey Hepburn performing her iconic role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and towards a glimpse of the equally legendary 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond.

This was Tiffany & Co. stating what it is and where it is right now, which is a house blooming in its own renaissance after its acquisition by LVMH last year for a reported $15.8 billion.

In the print campaign shot by Mason Poole, Beyoncé is styled in a couple of pieces from that storied Tiffany archive, one designed by Elsa Peretti, and the other — a Tiffany & Co. Schlumberger Fleurage Stitches bracelet in platinum and 18k yellow gold — created by gifted French artist Jean Schlumberger. But it’s modern era Tiffany that takes top billing.

Magnificently dressed in outfits from a wardrobe directed by Emmy-

nominated celebrity fashion stylist Marni Senofonte, Beyoncé wears items from the Tiffany T, Tiffany Knot, Tiffany HardWear, and Tiffany Lock collections, the latter the latest line from the house, its lock inspired by the power of togetherness and inclusivity, much like a theme from Beyoncé’s latest album. There’s the Tiffany Setting engagement ring in platinum with a diamond of over 6 carats; a Tiffany Victoria alternating graduated necklace and earrings in platinum with diamonds; and a Tiffany T1 ring and wide diamond-hinged bangle in 18k yellow gold with diamonds.

Most notable of all, however, is a custom Tiffany HardWear necklace, created specifically for the campaign. It took over 40 hours to assemble and polish by hand, and features 18k gold links three times the scale of the existing Tiffany HardWear graduated link necklaces. A limited quantity of these large-scale necklaces will be made available for purchase.

The choice of 28-time Grammy Award-winner Beyoncé, seller of 118 million records worldwide, to front the campaign undoubtedly appears to be less a desire to cash in on the artist’s stratospheric fame and more a genuine meeting of minds. Described as a ‘fiercely elegant homage to the joy of being one’s unapologetic self — a call to embrace the power of possibility,’ the campaign is also, “An exploration of fearless creativity,” hails Alexandre Arnault, Tiffany & Co.’s Executive Vice President of Product & Communications. “Beyoncé is an inspiration to so many because she embodies these qualities.”

To deepen this shared vision, last year Tiffany initiated its About Love Scholarship Program in collaboration

with BeyGOOD and the Shawn Carter Foundation. In doing so, Tiffany & Co. pledged $2M in scholarship funding for students in the arts and creative fields at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. So far, the scholarship has benefited over 60 qualifying students. It’s not the first time Beyoncé has featured as the face (and spirit) of a Tiffany & Co. campaign. Last year, alongside her husband Jay Z, the pair fronted the About Love campaign, notable not only for Beyoncé sporting that aforementioned Tiffany Diamond in a dress that channelled Audrey Hepburn, but for her posing in front of the rarely seen Jean-Michel Basquiat painting Equals Pi. It was bought by LVMH from a private collector (to be displayed in Tiffany & Co.’s refurbished flagship store in New York) on account of its colour. Whether by accident or design, there’s no doubt that Basquiat’s blue is very much Tiffany Blue. “We don’t have any literature that says [Basquiat] made the painting for Tiffany… But we know he loved New York and that he loved luxury and loved jewellery,” Alexandre Arnault told WWD at the time of the campaign launch. “My guess is that is that the painting is not by chance. The colour is so specific that it has to be some kind of homage.”

Tiffany Blue deserves its own chapter in the story of American luxury and it spearheaded the brand’s campaigns from as far back as the nineteenth century, when it was selected as the cover of the brand’s annual direct-mail catalogue — now known as The Blue Book. Today, it is Beyoncé driving Tiffany & Co. in its new era of promotional campaigns, the renaissance of both icons truly something to love.

Previous pages: Beyoncé wears Tiffany Lock bangle in 18k yellow gold with full pavé diamonds; Tiffany Lock bangle in 18k yellow and white gold with half pavé diamonds; Tiffany & Co. Schlumberger™ Fleurage Stitches bracelet in platinum and 18k yellow gold; Tiffany & Co. Schlumberger™ diamond stitches bracelet in platinum and 18k yellow gold; marquise diamond cluster necklace in platinum; earrings in platinum with diamonds

Right: Beyoncé wears Tiffany HardWear bold graduated necklace in 18k yellow gold; Tiffany HardWear large link bracelet in 18k yellow gold with diamonds; Tiffany Embrace™ band ring in platinum with diamonds, 3.7 mm

‘ This campaign is an exploration of fearless creativity’

The Family Jewels

Messika’s latest high jewellery collection is not only an homage to Ancient Egypt but a spectacular tribute to the family values that underpin the house

WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

Family is the very fabric of Messika. It runs through the story of the house, founded in Paris in 2005, a tale that begins with a young Valérie Messika listening intently to the anecdotes of her diamond merchant father, and later joining him as he travelled far and wide in search of exceptional diamonds. Inspired by those they found, Valérie embarked on a mission to highlight the unique character of each sparkling stone she held, drawing on her innate sense of creativity to design feminine, versatile jewellery that has seen the house flourish into a Parisian heavyweight. The latest chapter in the Messika story is its most engrossing, and it begins in a diamond mine in Botswana. Some of the world’s most extraordinary diamonds originate from this mine, and one such stone was brought to the attention of Valérie’s younger brother Ilan, a fledgling diamond dealer and company CEO following in the footsteps of his father. The magnificent 110-carat diamond he eyed — along with many others who saw it — was the subject of a diamond tender, an auction hosted by major mining companies to sell their rough and polished diamonds directly. “A great deal of expertise, passion, credibility, and a degree of risk-taking are required in order to succeed in the likes of this very special and competitive sale,” says Valérie, whose subsequent joy at Ilan’s

successful bid was an historic moment for the house. “It was the first time that he won a rough diamond of such a large size and of this quality.”

Stone secured, Ilan’s next task was to determine the number of single stones that could be cut from the original, and of what shape and quality. To do so, he performed a general scan using a highly sophisticated machine that enabled him to meticulously map the internal structure of the gem in its entirety, which led him to cut 15 diamonds in all, some conceived in more classic, and others in less conventional, inventive shapes.

T he story arc of the diamond continues with Valérie as the central character. “I wanted to take a new step forward with my high jewellery creations and create a collection featuring exceptional stones. I fell in love with the story and beauty of the family of 15 diamonds almost immediately, and although it is rare for jewellery houses to buy an entire family of stones, I wanted to use them all in the same set.

“ This was a real jewellery challenge,” states Valérie. “Not all the stones had the same cut; some were very original with surprising intricate shapes. But sometimes the most beautiful creations are born from the unexpected.”

A beautiful creation is a fitting description of what Valérie crafted from one of the 15 stones in particular,

Left: André, Valérie, and Ilan Messika © Gil Hayon

This page, from top to bottom: Akh-Ba-Ka set © Chris Colls; the family of 15 diamonds cut from the 110-carat diamond

Next pages, from left to right: making of Akh-Ba-Ka set, by Pierre Verez; Akh-BaKa set © Chris Colls

a jaw-dropping necklace boasting a 33-carat diamond classified D for its colour and FI for its clarity. It took more than 1,000 hours and the skills and know-how of no less than four (often five) full-time jewellers working across six months to create what is the masterpiece of the three-part Akh-BaKa, a set comprised of all 15 stones. The necklace alone has 2,550 diamonds, amounting to a total of 71.49 carats.

“ The most difficult aspect of my jewellery creation process is to transcribe my ideas into a drawing,” reveals Valérie. “I always have a lot of ideas, but sometimes it’s quite difficult to get the result I have imagined. But thankfully, we always manage somehow to make it possible.”

A s its moniker hints, Valérie’s ideas for Akh-Ba-Ka are rooted in Ancient Egypt, an enduring muse that has for decades fascinated everyone from fashion designers to film makers.

“One of the first trips I remember as a child was with my family to Egypt.

I have vague memories of a day we spent visiting the pyramids of Giza

that left a lasting, lingering feeling in me; a fascination with ancient Egypt civilisation and hypnotic mythology.

Ancient Egypt emanates a mystery, an almost magical aura that evokes eternity. It is also a world that instils a powerful and inspiring spirituality that I have always been drawn to.

“ When I saw the 15 cuts from this same rough diamond, I thought that there were atypical shapes, such as half-moon cut, pear step-cut, or shield cut. The stones inspired my drawing and thanks to the emotion I had with them, I drew the shape of a beetle head.

A bit like a puzzle that took shape in my head, it was though the stones had spoken for themselves on the theme.”

Yellow gold was omnipresent in Ancient Egypt, but, ever keen to break from the norm, Valérie’s ideas for Akh-Ba-Ka included the use of only white gold as a cohort to the diamonds.

“I'm on a mission to make different creations, which break the codes,” says Valérie. “I wanted to go somewhere unexpected, to pay homage to this period [Ancient Egypt], while creating

something modern and new. And in this case by using white gold.”

Another nod to the modern is the technical innovation that allows the structure that supports the 33-carat diamond to be detached from the necklace and be worn as a brooch.

T he spectacular result is “a magical feeling!” beams Valérie. “We’ve all put so much energy and hope into this.”

A mix of Ilan’s daring and Valérie’s vision, Akh-Ba-Ka is also a stunning tribute to the power of the family thread that ties the house of Messika together. “I have been working closely with my father for many years and I draw a great deal of strength from my family. I wanted to return the same energy to my brother [Ilan] and give him the courage to go further in asserting his passion and his professional projects. The fact that he was able to see the emotion of his sister transformed into a real and complete piece was a great experience.”

A great experience for Messika, a greater moment for world of high jewellery.

‘ Ancient Egypt instils a powerful and inspiring spirituality that I have always been drawn to’

Having shot to fame in Slumdog Millionaire, Freida Pinto was subsequently offered only onedimensional roles based on her beauty. Now she’s back, and starring again on her own terms

WORDS: MICHAEL ODELL

You might be forgiven an ‘eye-roll’ when a beautiful Hollywood actress tells you her good looks have proved both a blessing and a curse. Freida Pinto reckons they almost ended her career.

“It took me a while to realise it but I was just seen by agents and directors as this exotic doll from India,” she says. “And once that reputation takes hold it’s hard to stop it. So, when I wasn’t being offered any role that wasn’t about the pretty doll searching for a husband I thought to myself, ‘I’ll quit acting if I have to. Maybe this is the end of my career.’”

It’s 12 years since the Los Angelesbased Pinto, now 37, shot to fame in Slumdog Millionaire, opposite the English actor Dev Patel. The Danny Boyle-directed film made her a household name, the Mumbai-born former model having learnt to act during the gruelling six-month audition process.

When the film won eight Academy awards, Pinto thought she’d arrived.

“I was belle of the ball and, to be honest, I fell for all the adulation,” she says. “I said yes to every role I was offered but it’s only after a while the artist in you thinks, ‘Is this actually feeding my soul?’ When I decided to stop and accept that maybe my career was over, that was the lowest two years of my life.” Until that point, in 2016, Pinto was being offered only onedimensional roles, more often than not

as the pretty ingenue desperately in need of saving by a husband.

“And the rule was, he’d have to be Caucasian,” she adds with a chuckle. “You couldn’t have two black or brown leads or the fear was audiences wouldn’t watch it.” What followed was two years of anxiety and low mood, she tells me, before she then, in 2018, formed her film production company, Freebird, and began finding her own scripts to make into films.

The emergence of Pinto version 2.0 tells us quite a lot about how the world has changed since then. She soon met the aspiring film director Emma Holly Jones, who’d seen a production of the hit musical Hamilton in New York and decided that colour-blind casting would soon open up a whole new world of TV and cinema. Jones hadn’t actually directed a film before, but she’d read a script about a Regency drama called Mr Malcolm’s List that she thought might work. She approached Pinto, who was at first baffled.

“My first response was, ‘I love Jane Austen as much as anyone, but what’s this got to do with me?’ You just didn’t see brown heroines in Regency period pieces,” Pinto says.

She was won over but, although they first made a well-received short version to prove it could work, film industry bigwigs were nervous. However, with the arrival of the colour-blind sensation Bridgerton on Netflix in 2020, the project took off.

“That’s the way confidence in films works. At first financiers find it all a bit scary but then someone like Shonda Rhimes [the creator of Bridgerton] breaks the mould and it’s, ‘Hey guys! Let’s make a diversely cast Regency drama!’”

The result is Mr Malcolm’s List, a deft and hilarious homage to Austen, executive produced by and starring Pinto. She plays the smart, prim Selina Dalton who becomes embroiled in a society plot to humiliate the stuffy but eligible Mr Malcolm (played by the British-Nigerian actor Sope Dirisu).

Strictly the film is ‘diversely cast’, because Mr Malcolm’s Nigerian heritage is part of his character (‘colour-blind’ means racial heritage plays no part in cast characterisation).

“You’re never going to please everyone,” Pinto says. “Some people ask me, ‘So can Caucasians play black roles then?’ and in my own south Asian community they ask, ‘Why does an Indian woman fall in love with a man from another race?’ They want to see more south Indian love on screen. My feeling is, ‘Please, just suspend your reality for two hours. It’s a bit of fun, just stop complaining!’”

Mr Malcolm’s titular ‘list’ relates to the many attributes and accomplishments this eligible gent requires from a future bride. ‘Handsome of countenance and figure’, ‘graceful and well-mannered’, ‘charitable’, ‘guileless’, ‘eventempered’... it goes on.

‘

I was just seen by agents and directors as this exotic doll from India’

Being so picky about a partner smacks of arrogance or even sexism — yet it is not so different from modern dating, Pinto believes. Despite the top hats and carriages, she tells me, this gives the film a very modern resonance. “When we are arranging marriages back home in India, what are we actually doing if not compiling lists of eligibility criteria? And I don’t really know how Tinder or Bumble [the dating apps] work, so if I’m chatting nonsense please stop me, but I imagine they are about ‘Wanna hook up tonight?’ or ‘Do you like coffee?’ or ‘What’s your favourite movie?’ We might not write a list but we are all looking for something.”

After a six-year relationship with her Slumdog co-star Dev Patel, Pinto had a few dates but was mostly single. She has described this period as like moving from girlhood into womanhood and being “born again”. Then in 2017 her friend Aaron Paul (who played Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad ) introduced her to the photographer and content producer Cory Tran. They married in 2020 and now have a baby son, Rumi-Ray. Tran is AmericanVietnamese, Pinto tells me. “Just like I approach films, I’m in a diversely cast marriage,” she says, chuckling. “I think it’s great to share a different culture in life too.”

There’s a scene in the film where childhood friends Selina and Julia Thistlewaite express hopes they will one day marry for love. Is that what Pinto was holding out for?

“Well, my requirements changed as they do for many women. I grew up thinking, ‘I want to marry my dad’,

because he was my hero. Then I grew up and realised marrying your dad is quite an obnoxious idea but... I met Cory, who isn’t actually like my dad but definitely has some of his best qualities.”

I wonder which parts of Mr Malcolm’s list Pinto would have struggled with in real life. He’s a stickler for musical proficiency on the piano, I joke.

“I can’t play the piano and those formal Regency dances are beyond me, but I like to throw myself around on the dancefloor.”

He also wants his wife to be conversant in current affairs and asks one date her opinion of the 1815 Corn Laws. “These days I think that would be a question about Brexit, wouldn’t it?

I think I’d say, ‘No need for debate. You can see what’s happening.’”

Pinto is easygoing and selfdeprecating. When I mention that I thought she lived in London (after Slumdog Millionaire, she lived between London and Mumbai until she moved to Los Angeles in 2011) and that the UK has claimed her as one of its own, she says: “Oh please, do continue to claim me as one of your own!”

But LA is where films get made and she has created a good life for herself there. She, Tran and their baby live in a bungalow designed by Bobby Berk, the interior designer who some will remember from the Netflix show Queer Eye. While weekdays can start with a 7.30am meeting, weekends are sacred. They begin with brunch, just her and Rumi-Ray, in a local deli.

“He likes a particular spot where he can watch other kids and dogs. He’d

love a dog but I only have head space for one dependant in my life,” she says.

On Sunday she insists on two hours for herself. “I might see a friend or more probably get a massage. I’m very much into meditating and yoga too. I absolutely insist on that alone time because life can be all-consuming.”

Neither she nor Tran can cook so they have a chef. “Well, I cook for the baby because it’s so easy but I’m not good at balancing flavours in grown-up cooking so we have someone who does it for us,” Pinto says. “Believe me, I know how lucky we are to have what amounts to restaurant food at home.”

Things are good, yet sometimes life can take two steps forward then three back. Pinto has her eyes on more film adaptations. One is Salman Rushdie’s 1990 children’s book Haroun and the Sea of Stories and she had recently been speaking to Rushdie. Her shock about his recent stabbing is still evident. “People have been trying to suppress Salman for so long but he won’t stop, which is so bold, but also so scary for him.”

She is still determined to make Rushdie’s book a film. But she has learnt tough lessons since that first flush of fame.

“The biggest lesson I’ve learnt is don’t be fazed by a lack of enthusiasm. When I was trying to find interesting roles for myself most agents were baffled — why would we cast a brown girl in a role involving issues of sexuality or identity? Now, 50 per cent enthusiasm is fine for me. I’ve learnt to be the loudest person in the room to get a project over the line.”

‘ The biggest lesson I’ve learnt is don’t be fazed by a lack of enthusiasm’

LVMH may well be a vast luxury empire but at its heart are a series of small, historic ateliers which this month will open to the public. Lisa Grainger gets a preview with the festival’s creator, Antoine Arnault

WORDS: LISA GRAINGER

AIR

It’s a sweltering summer’s day in Paris, but in his fitted ink-blue suit, open-necked shirt and highly polished shoes, Antoine Arnault looks remarkably fresh. Bounding into the bespoke shoe-atelier of Berluti, which he has run since 2011, the lithe 45-year-old is in his element among the rooms of cobblers chipping away at shoe lasts, embroidering boots with waxed cotton thread, and chamfering, layering and buffing fine leathers. “To me, this is like entering the studio of Geppetto in Pinocchio,” he says. “It’s a window into our savoir faire.”

S avoir faire is a phrase that Arnault is particularly keen on. Since 2002 when, at the age of 25, he joined his father at LVMH, Bernard Arnault’s oldest son has led the way in letting fans in on the know-how of the world’s biggest luxury-goods group; particularly with Les Journées Particulières, a free, three-day worldwide festival (this year from October 14-16) during which LVMH ateliers open to introduce visitors to what Arnault calls “the magic of making”.

H is idea of allowing the public to go behind the scenes occurred to him when the Élysée Palace had an open day. “There were six-hour queues to get in and look around for about five minutes. I thought, ‘You know what — without being immodest, we have national treasures too. We have the atelier of couture of Monsieur Dior and the atelier of Monsieur Givenchy.

We have these incredible vineyards in Champagne and near Bordeaux that people want to see.’” At first he wasn’t sure his father would like his idea.

“Obviously you want to keep some of the mystery and, to be honest, we had this tradition of being secretive which came from the top, from my father who has always been like that — it’s his mindset and his way of doing business. But he could see we needed new ideas, and he said yes right away.”

T hat was partly because, he says, at that time their attempted takeover of Hermès had failed. “In the press, people were representing LVMH as this sort of predator: as a group without values, as a group that was obsessed only with growing outside. But everything I saw was precisely the opposite: 99 per cent of the work we did was maintaining the savoir faire, employing artisans, understanding how the skills of these artisans were preserved and transmitted… And that wasn’t being shown.”

W hen in 2011 they opened the doors of 20 maisons across their design and accessories houses, he was slightly nervous. “We didn’t sell tickets, so I didn’t know if people would turn up. But when I went out on the first day at 7.45am, there was a line of like 200 people. So I thought, ‘It’s going to be OK.’”

It was more than just OK. This year’s event will include 57 LVMH maisons in 96 locations across 15 countries,

from tanneries in Paris and perfumers in Tokyo to jewellers in New York.

At Broderies Vermont, designated in France as a Living Heritage Company, embroiderers will demonstrate techniques used to embellish couture.

At Rimowa, in Germany, visitors will see suitcases being assembled by hand, as they have been since 1898, and in Champagne take tours of the (normally closed) Krug cellars.

W hile a few maisons have occasionally welcomed key clients in the past, others have never allowed anyone to enter but their employees. Some, like the design studio at Tiffany in New York, Arnault says, “even I have never seen — unless you work there, you can’t get inside”. And not all of them are big. “Some of the smaller ones are really magical,” he says proudly, “like Loewe or Buly or Berluti.”

T he LVMH group has 75 brands, so it is not such a surprise that Arnault, who is also head of image, has yet to visit them all. When we meet, he is about to make his first tour of Château d’Esclans, the makers of the wildly successful Whispering Angel rosé and one of 16 wine and spirits maisons, from Glenmorangie to Château d’Yquem, that will open during the festival.

For first-timers, he says, Dior is probably the most impressive maison to visit. “Walk inside the atelier of couture and you feel the weight of history; it’s probably the same if you

‘ The music and the ballet of the artisans hitting with the nails to make the hard-sided luggage is like a beautiful symphony ’

Previous page and these pages, from left to right: craftspeople at work in the Louis Vuitton workshop, by Piotr Stoklosa

go into the office at Buckingham Palace.” He also enjoys visiting the factory where Louis Vuitton luggage is made. “The music and the ballet of the artisans hitting with the nails to make the hard-sided luggage is something too; it’s like a beautiful symphony.”

Walking into the original Louis Vuitton factory in Asnières in northwest Paris, I find that he is right. Alongside a wall of Crittallstyle windows with views over the Vuitton family’s handsome art nouveau house, an orchestra of artisans bang and sew, cut and hammer, with instruments that might have been used 200 years ago: sharp woodenhandled awls to make holes, mallets to knock in the trademark brass tacks, chisels to craft the poplar, beech and okoumé frames that make up the backbone of any Vuitton trunk.

W hile the tools haven’t changed much, the style of products they turn out certainly have. Alongside traditional trunks covered in the company’s iconic monogrammed leather, there are watch boxes in powder-pink suede; pale grey leather trainer wardrobes with Perspex fronts; a lime green tea-set box crafted to fit Chinese porcelain; a DJ trunk fitted with a turntable and even a bespoke dog-carrier with polished brass air vents. Each is a one-off, handcrafted in the finest snakeskin and calfskin, suede and leather, for clients around the world.

M any of the 300 artisans here had not made luggage before they arrived; some were butchers or hairdressers.

Teaching artisans new skills, Arnault says, makes him proud. “People say that old skills are dying out but I disagree. We have a list of 280 different savoir faires that are being preserved. And as long as we are here, they won’t die. Machines and new materials are fine if they help artisans. But nothing can replace the human hand.”

W hich is why the company developed the Institut des Métiers d’Excellence to help apprentices to develop skills from embroidering couture and building trunks to growing wine. Or why Loro Piana started a craft academy. LVMH is also in partnership with the NGO La Fabrique Nomade to help refugees to find ways of using their skills.

It is an approach that the entire family are invested in – whether

that’s at Louis Vuitton (headed by his older sister Delphine, 47), suitcases at Rimowa (whose chief executive was his half-brother Alexandre, 30, until he moved to Tiffany last year) or watches at Tag Heuer (run by his half-brother Frédéric, 27). “This group is our life and our future; it is a big responsibility,” he says. “So we spend time talking about the future, with my father and without my father. It is important we know each other and get along with each other.” Not that any of them expect their father to retire any time soon. The 73-year-old bought the company that owned Christian Dior in 1984 for $80 million and, through progressive buy-outs, has turned LVMH into the world’s biggest luxury goods company with revenue of €36.7 billion in the first half of 2022. He still pops into his Paris shops every Saturday morning.

W hile Arnault Jr tries to follow his father’s example, since he became a father himself — to two boys with his wife, the Russian philanthropist and model Natalia Vodianova, and a stepfather to her three children — his weekends have become a lot busier. Long Saturday lunches with Arnault Sr are less frequent. His wardrobe too has had to adapt. “When you have been

‘ Walk inside the atelier of couture and you feel the weight of history’

These pages, from left to right: traditional shoemaking skills and techniques at the Berluti workshop

vomited on by little children, you stop wearing your most precious silk or vicuna Loro Piana sweater,” he says.

Vodianova, who he married in a register office ceremony in September 2020, has had an influence on the way he dresses. “She is my personal stylist and I am hers,” he says. “I don’t know if she says it because she loves me or because she really, truly believes it, but for that last touch — shoes, bag and a little jewellery — she always asks what I think.”

S ince he became chief executive of Berluti and then chairman of Loro Piana, his wardrobe has become more “nonchalantly elegant”, he says. Which translates to wearing well-fitted suits — but definitely no tie. That, he says, is “an accessory of the past”. Even for meetings of the LVMH board, of which he and Delphine are members, “I see older men with no tie, which you would have never seen ten years ago”. Today, he says, he can think of only three occasions at which he’d wear one: “to a funeral. Or a wedding”. Or, he

quickly adds, “if I met King Charles III. He is lovely and always has a tie on.”

But then, he says, English and Italian men are more elegant than the French.

“They have this culture of the suit that we don’t have in France. I don’t want to speak badly of the French, but they don’t really have it in their genes. The women do. But the men in England or Italy are more elegant.” His most prized bits of clothing, he says, are a pair of Berluti ankle boots he was given for his baccalaureate, “but never wore because as a 17-year-old I was so impressed by them”, a Louis Vuitton watch given to him by Yves Carcelle at the launch 20 years ago, and two old Christian Dior Monsieur suits. Unlike his father, whose contemporary art collection is housed in the Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton, art, he says, “is not really my passion. I love it, but one must have his own passions.”

But then, he claims, his family “are not very materialistic, to be honest. We don’t collect watches. We are not really collectors… Of course, I enjoy

beautiful things. And I like a nice car and holiday. But I am more into experiences, and travelling in beautiful places and discovering new people.”

W ith that, he lifts his lean 6ft 3in frame from the battered leather armchair and, as he leaves, urges me to visit some of the maisons. Which I happily do, spending hours within the Buly apothecary’s theatrical 19th-century-style candlelit interiors, learning about natural remedies (from baobab oil to chalk powders), smelling exquisite botanically scented candles created by its co-founders

Victoire de Taillac and Ramdane Touhami, and then watching an in-house calligrapher pen labels for my purchases with brown ink, as the 19th-century pharmacist after whom the brand was named might have done.

A s Arnault predicted when he created Les Journées Particulières, the experiences of smelling, feeling, touching and learning about crafts can quickly convert visitors into fans and then, hopefully, into regulars.

This page: Antoine Arnault

‘ Machines and new materials are fine if they help artisans. But nothing can replace the human hand’

Ol’ Blue Eyes is back. No, not that one – the late actor Paul Newman, as seen through the lenses of some of the world’s most famous photographers

WORDS: CHRIS ANDERSON

This page: Newman at home, by Milton Greene (around 1965)

AIR

Paul Newman was never your typical movie star. His body of work may be well known, with The Hustler (1961), Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) among his standout films, but he only embraced the limelight as much as he needed to, preferring the quiet family life of his home in Westport, Connecticut, to the parties and excesses of Hollywood. Known for his good nature and work ethic, he pursued his other interests with the same determination as his film career, becoming a successful racing driver in the 1970s, and a philanthropist and entrepreneur with his Newman’s Own food brand, which donates its profits to charitable causes, raising more than $550 million to date.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio perhaps summed it up best when paying tribute to Newman upon his death in 2008, aged 83. “He was the benchmark of what you want to become as a professional in this industry,” said DiCaprio. “He led a normal life, he did great work. His philanthropic work, beyond being an actor… has a legacy that’s going to live on.”

As well as his peers, Newman impressed the photographers he worked with, both on and off the movie set. His rugged good looks and piercing blue eyes made him an ideal subject, and he accepted photography as necessary to celebrity life, so always made time, and was punctual, gracious and fun to be around. The Newman images from a number of photographers began to stack up, with the work of six in particular

collected for a new book, Paul Newman: Blue-Eyed Cool by James Clarke, published by ACC Art Books.

The oldest images are in black and white, taken by Lawrence Fried in 1964, with Newman starring in a New York stage play, Baby Want a Kiss , alongside his wife, actress Joanne Woodward. Fried took photos of Newman handling one of his cameras, and also during a scene with Woodward. Having met in 1953, and married in 1958 — the same year that Newman starred in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Elizabeth Taylor — the pair remained together for the rest of Newman’s life as one of stardom’s most enduring couples.

It is no surprise, then, that Woodward is seen in other images in the book, such as those by Milton H Greene, who photographed her and Newman in 1964 for a magazine cover. The images are accompanied by text from Greene’s son, Joshua, who describes a friendship between Newman and his father, with the two living near each other in Connecticut, and their families meeting regularly for fishing trips, swimming and barbecues, and Greene often taking his camera along.

Joshua recalls Newman’s impressive car collection, as well as the actor’s skills on the pool table. “There were stories about Paul, when on location filming, finding himself at a small-town pool hall, challenging the locals,” he adds.

Legendary celebrity photographer Terry O’Neill also has his work featured, with photos from the sets of four Newman films — romantic comedy-drama Lady L (1965); two cult

‘ There were stories about Paul, when on location filming, finding himself at a small-town pool hall, challenging the locals’

These pages, clockwise from above: Newman on a magazine cover with his wife, actress Joanne Woodward, by Milton Greene (1964); Newman with Clint Eastwood, by Terry O'Neill (1972); Newman with Joanne Woodward, performing in the play Baby Want a Kiss, by Lawrence Fried (1964)

These pages, clockwise from left: Newman wearing his Rolex Daytona, by Douglas Kirkland (1980); Newman filming Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, by Douglas Kirkland (1969); Newman filming Absence of Malice, by Eva Sereny (1981); Newman racing, by Al Satterwhite (1977)

Westerns, Pocket Money and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (both 1972); and thriller The Mackintosh Man (1973). Each role offered something different, and O’Neill became impressed by Newman’s versatility, snapping him wearing a cowboy hat alongside co-star Lee Marvin on the set of Pocket Money, or on the chilly London streets for The Mackintosh Man. To O’Neill, Newman was one of a kind. “There aren’t really any great stars anymore, not like Paul Newman,” he once stated in an interview.

But one of O’Neill’s favourite Newman images was not from a movie set at all, although it did come about while The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean was filming in Arizona, with Clint Eastwood shooting nearby. “I was staying in the same hotel as Clint, and we’d meet up, listen to music and talk about jazz,” O’Neill revealed shortly before his death in 2019. “I said, you know, there’s no great photo of you and Newman, so we arranged for it to happen.”

Photographer Douglas Kirkland was lucky enough to work on the set of 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , taking photos of Newman with co-stars Robert Redford and Katharine Ross. He tells stories of Newman and Redford both owning red Porsches, racing against each other in the desert, and how he was commissioned in 1980 to shoot a portrait of Newman, where he happened to be wearing a famous watch. “In 1968, Joanne had bought Paul a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona watch, and had it engraved on the back with ‘Drive Carefully’,” Kirkland recalls. “That particular image is now being collected. We have sold a number of

limited-edition prints to collectors.”

The style of Rolex shown, with its white face, black sub-dials and Art Deco font, became highly sought after by watch collectors, and was nicknamed ‘the Paul Newman’, as it was known the actor owned one. But when Paul Newman’s actual Paul Newman, as seen in Kirkland’s photo, complete with engraving, went up for auction in 2017, it fetched $17.8 million — at the time the highest amount ever paid for a watch at auction.

Other images featured in the book include those by Al Satterthwaite, who captured Newman at the racing circuit during the 1970s. Using the name ‘PL Newman’ to keep his driving endeavours separate to his acting, the star proved very capable on the track, racing Ferraris and Porsches, and even coming second in his class at the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Photographer Eve Sereny, who passed away last year, rounds out the book, with images from the Florida set of Absence of Malic e (1981), which also starred Sally Field, and a followup shoot of Newman relaxing at his Connecticut home. It was here that Sereny realised this was not such a typical star. “It was an enjoyable shoot,” she concluded. “Very relaxed and friendly. He had such a wonderful life in Connecticut, a place where he, Joanne Woodward and their children lived, far away from Hollywood. I think that was his real secret — he chose to come and go as he pleased, away from the cameras.”

Paul Newman: Blue-Eyed Cool is available now from ACC Art Books

‘ There aren’t really any great stars anymore, not like Paul Newman ’

Electric Storm

Meet the Pininfarina Battista, a storming, collectable Italian hypercar that just happens to be an EV

WORDS: JAMES FOSSDYKE

If the Pininfarina name sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the design house behind some of the world’s most recognisable and beautiful cars. The Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona was a Pininfarina job, as was the Maserati GranTurismo and the Alfa Romeo Spider. No wonder the name is well known among aficionados.

Now the company has struck out on its own, building electric cars for discerning collectors. Eventually, Pininfarina plans an entire range of zero-emission vehicles, but it’s starting off at the top with the Battista hypercar.

Named after the company’s founder Battista Farina, the ultra-exclusive hypercar is here to make this corner of the market its own, offering customers almost 1,900bhp and a top speed of more than 320km/h. Few cars can compete with that — or its basic price tag of well north of $3 million — and even fewer can do it while looking this good.

Pininfarina has promised that all its cars will be beautiful, and the brand is certainly fulfilling that brief with the Battista. No matter where you care to stand, the Battista is a stunning, striking piece of automotive design that looks every bit as fast as the figures suggest. There’s

an old adage among pilots that says, ‘if it looks right, it is right’, and the Battista definitely looks right. From the low, sharp nose to the vents in the bonnet and from the contoured doors to the massive rear spoiler, it looks incredible. And it’s even better when you open the doors.

As with the outside, customers can configure the interior to their liking, but the specification of our test car was pretty much perfect. The carbon-fibre tub showed through under the quilted carpets and around the doors, while the seats were trimmed in tan leather and the fixtures and fittings were picked out in machined aluminium.

The front-seat passenger doesn’t get much to play with, aside from an air vent, but the driver gets a simple three-screen array comprising two touchscreens — to control vehicle settings and the infotainment — plus a tiny central screen showing speed and trip computer data, as well as the current drive mode.

The company says there’s enough space to pack for a weekend away, and it’s designing bespoke luggage that fits the compartment, but this is a collector’s item, rather than a useful everyday driver. Passenger space isn’t bad, mind, with ample legroom and seat

adjustability, although headroom can be a little bit tight for taller occupants when you shut those dramatic doors.

When we talk about technology, we usually spend ages droning on about touchscreens and climate control systems, but the Battista puts the focus elsewhere. And we don’t just mean the electric motors. A case in point is the rear-view ‘mirror’ that can be used to limited effect as a conventional mirror, but works best in camera mode, which displays the view of a camera on the rear bumper on a high-definition display. Supercars and hypercars have poor rearward visibility — not any more.

Then there’s the expertise involved in the spoiler at the back, which not only produces enormous amounts of downforce but also operates as an air brake to help slow the car

down in an emergency or during a big stop on a track. Perhaps more importantly, it looks really cool when it extends out of the rear bumper.

For a small-scale manufacturer, it would be easy to forgive issues with the touchscreens, but there’s no need with the Battista. Clear displays, responsive operating systems and logical menus make the infotainment systems in the Pininfarina superior to those of plenty of mainstream manufacturers.

The Battista’s performance is as other-worldly as the data suggests. The sprint from 0-100km/h takes less than two seconds, and 0-300km/h takes less than 12 seconds. The top speed is limited to 350km/h, but Pininfarina reckons the car could do faster with some choice modifications.

All that sounds great when you’re

bragging to your mates, and that’s part of the appeal of owning a hypercar, of course, but experiencing the effects of those numbers is astonishing and uncomfortable in equal measure.

We’ve become used to electric cars’ instant acceleration, but this is something else. Even when you’re toddling around at everyday speeds, the car simply leaps forwards at the merest press of the accelerator pedal, leaving your internal organs pressed against the seat back. It isn’t especially pleasant.

However, you can dial the Battista back by selecting one of the more mundane driving modes that limit the power available and blunt the throttle response. But when Pura mode — Pininfarina’s idea of ‘normal’ — still offers 999bhp, the Battista is never going to feel slow. Just a dab of the accelerator

produces ballistic performance.

A lack of soundproofing and isolation is immediately apparent. The Battista doesn’t protect its driver from the mechanical operation, preferring to let you hear the clunks and clonks as the motors, gearboxes and suspension go about their business.

And then there’s the motor noise, which is artificially created and spoonfed to the driver via the Naim speaker system. The sound is decidedly odd, ranging from a futuristic throb at low speeds to a jet-like howl at higher speeds. It’s intriguing for a little while, but it’ll be turned off eventually.

Regardless, driving the Battista is fairly easy, and driving it quickly is an absolute revelation. With the stiff ride and light but incredibly responsive steering, as well as a dismissive attitude

to soundproofing, the Battista feels like a lightweight sports car. Which is why we were stunned to learn it weighs more than two tonnes. It hides that bulk brilliantly, with the low centre of gravity allowing extraordinarily little roll in corners and the seemingly infinite grip permitting rapid responses to steering inputs and equally rapid cornering speeds.

Anyone who thought electric cars were necessarily soulless clearly hasn’t driven the Battista. It’s gorgeous to look at and the way it drives backs up the design. But most of the customers buying such a thing aren’t really interested in driving it very much. They want a collector’s item to show off on high days and holidays. They want something beautiful and exclusive, and the Battista delivers that in spades. It just so happens to be a very capable sports car, too.

‘ Anyone who thought electric cars were necessarily soulless clearly hasn’t driven the Battista ’

Written In The Stars

After globetrotting his culinary skills to widen his experience, the hard work paid off for Giovanni Papi when Michelin came calling to Armani/Ristorante

WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

Speak to an Italian chef about their influences and it’s almost inevitable that their grandmother will be cited as an inspiration, so intrinsic is the link between food and family in the country. Skills are passed on, recipes handed down, passion a chief ingredient.

And so it was for Giovanni Papi, Chef De Cuisine at Armani/Ristorante in Dubai, save for one important variance. “Rather than a secret family recipe, the secret ingredient that my grandmother passed down to me is respect: respect for the food, respect for people,” says Papi, who since being promoted to his current role in 2020 has won his restaurant a raft of awards, including its first Michelin star earlier this year. “When I was growing up, I was surrounded by food. As early as seven-years old, I remember sitting and watching my grandma cook on a Sunday morning. These memories from an early age grew my passion immensely, though the kitchen definitely chose me.”

Papi’s calling to his craft took root in 2002, starting out as an intern at a kitchen on his home island of Sardinia before relocating three years later to the Cote d’Azur to broaden his experience. That desire to seek out inspiration from further afield, to learn from a broader range of influences, swelled the number of stamps in Papi’s passport. From France to Luxembourg [where he placed third at the Luxembourg Culinary World Cup], Australia to China, as his travels widened across the globe, so too did the skills and knowledge he acquired. “My personal motto is to live my life in constant search of global aromas and flavours.”

Dubai is home for now, though Papi continues his quest for stimuli. “I love exploring the local culinary traditions and discovering the essence of authentic Arabic food and culture,” he enthuses. “I’ve even been able to learn a culinary secret or two!

As a chef, I believe you are always learning and taking inspiration from the things you see around you and the different food you eat. I am still learning now, and every person that I speak to about food has a different ideology, so I always bring these

memories with me, and they have helped me to develop to where I am today. The Armani/Ristorante kitchen is an international community. I love that I work with colleagues from so many different countries and culinary backgrounds, and enjoy being able to share opinions, ideas and feedback. This is how we grow and how we improve every single day.”

While new places, people, and cultures have added their own ingredients to Papi’s philosophy of food, Sardinia is a staple. “I always draw on influences from my origins in every country and kitchen I work in,” he says, believing that the Italian way is to “deliver emotions through our food.”

Papi describes his practiced philosophy as “simple” and based on a principal of “zero waste food using seasonal ingredients to create new unique flavours and presentations. Of course, over my time in the industry my style has changed and developed, but I have always stuck true to this philosophy. By using seasonal ingredients you are guaranteed the freshest produce, leading to the tastiest dishes.”

The process by which Michelin selects its restaurants for particular acclaim – even any details [gender, age, ethnicity] of its reviewers – remains shrouded in mystery. As is also the case with World’s 50 Best. And it was

interesting to note that, with both now present in Dubai, their opinions were diverse. Only two (Trèsind Studio and Hakkasan) of the eleven restaurants awarded stars by Michelin also featured in MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants.

What therefore ticked the boxes for team Michelin at Armani/Ristorante is knowledge they’ll never share. Yes there is invention [one starter is based on an egg that’s cooked for one hour and fifteen minutes at 52 degrees] and each plate is never less than artfully arranged. Yet, to our mind, it must have had much to do with Papi’s green planet risotto, a magnificently flavoured signature

dish that was the one standout we ate on our recent visit to the restaurant.

“It is a fully sustainable dish that has zero food waste,” says Papi. “At its heart is a vibrant green pesto crafted from 10 different aromatic seasonal herbs, specially blended to preserve taste, colour and all the nutrients. I cook the risotto with a broth made from excess vegetables and complete it using Sicilian red prawns – I use their heads to make an iodised powder, which replaces salt. The tail is freshly marinated with extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, powder and flowers that come from local Dubai farms. I love the green natural colour because it reminds

me of a clean, beautifully green planet. It is a great representation of what we do at Armani/Ristorante, being sustainable without sacrificing flavour.”

It’s a dish that certainly sets the bar high at the restaurant, a level that despite the acclaim (“I think I went through every single emotion under the sun when I heard the news of the Michelin star. It’s a memory I will hold close for the rest of my life.”) Papi is determined to regularly hit. “My ambition is to bring Armani/Ristorante to a consistently high level. To make it a special place where our customers can experience the unique Italian taste.”

Just as grandma would have wanted.

‘ We deliver emotions through our food.’

ULTIMATE

Hotel Café Royal London

Café Royal is immensely proud of its history. It’s printed in the amusingly informative newspaperstyle Café Royal Times, available to read in every guest room, and it hangs on walls throughout the hotel, from where the famous faces of the building’s illustrious patrons of yesteryear peer down, a long list of rock stars (Jagger), poets (Wilde), actors (Taylor), novelists (Woolf), and The Greatest of them all (Ali). Yet this is a place that should be equally proud of what it is today, which is unquestionably one of London’s finest hotels.

That billing is immediately apparent at check in, when a glass of Champagne is offered while the formalities are attended to in the most welcoming of ways – here, the smiles that greet you are genuine.

Before you’re shown to your room, however, we suggest taking afternoon tea, another service at which Café Royal truly excels. The Oscar Wilde room, which currently hosts the autumnal afternoon tea (all impeccably dressed vol-au-vents, precision-cut sandwiches, and high design sweet things) is a sight to behold. Magnificent in its opulence, the Grade II-listed lounge glimmers with its ornate gold detailing, mirrored walls, and painted ceilings. A more modern – but no less decadent – take on afternoon tea is offered at Cakes & Bubbles by the peerless Albert Adrià, a recent holder of the ‘World’s Best Pastry Chef’ award and a master of the extraordinary. As its name hints, Cakes & Bubbles offers up a fine selection of both.

Another Michelin alumnus has recently joined Adrià at Café Royal – Alex Dilling having opened his eponymous restaurant in September, an intimate, 34-seat venue which overlooks the curve of Regent Street and across to Piccadilly Circus and serves Dilling’s beautifully plated contemporary French dishes.

Equally eye grabbing are the hotel’s six Signature Suites, which range in size from one- to three-bedrooms. Those seduced by a sense of history will enjoy the Elizabethanera style Tudor Suite, while the city’s storied rooftops set the scene at the three-bedroom Dome Penthouse, where wrap-around terraces look out to London’s landmarks. It can also be booked as part of an entire wing of the hotel, to provide guests with 12 bedrooms in all.

Beneath it all lies 13,000sqft of Akasha Holistic Wellbeing, more of an urban retreat than hotel spa, it houses nine treatment rooms, a private Hammam, and London’s first Watsu pool for tailored hydro-treatments.

This a hotel that doesn’t do luxury in half measures.

Mauro Colagreco

THREE MICHELIN-STARRED CHEF

The best piece of advice I’ve ever received was to always inject passion into whatever it is you do. My parents supported and encouraged me with this advice when I decided I wanted to leave my university studies [economics] and learn gastronomy instead.

I make sure to go out into the garden every day, observing the plants, smelling the aromas, and touching and tasting the herbs, I also take note of the sea and the sky that surrounds me. I always give thanks for the enormous luxury of being in direct contact with the beauty of nature, each and every day.

My definition of personal success is to be able to enjoy the freedom to create, and have the will to accomplish my dreams.

My children are my inspiration. They embody hope in the future and are a precious reminder of the fact that life

always advances. They inspire my will to act for a better world in what I do.

A lesson I learned the hard way was that unexpected things happen and, as such, the time we spend with the people we love is precious. The covid pandemic has taught us how everything can change from one moment to the next, and that we have to be resilient to face whatever challenges we’re presented with. The death of my mother during the pandemic made me feel and appreciate the real value of the moments we spent together.

If I could go back in time to tell my younger self something it would be to embrace life with great tenderness and love.

I wish to contribute to make the world more harmonious, and hope the beauty of biodiversity continues to dazzle us and be accessible to all.

Illustration: Leona Beth