AIR Magazine - Jetex Dubai - March'24

SUPER WOMAN

Sarah Snook heads up our celebration of women at the top of their game

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Contents

It became apparent when looking ahead to this, our 150th edition of AIR, that the date of our anniversary would fall in the same month as International Women’s Day, a day that celebrates the advancement and achievements of women everywhere. Having co-founded AIR at a time when there were no other female publishers in the region, it was important to me that we used this milestone issue to not only celebrate the magazine but also the many female talents now leading the way in our core subject areas of luxury, arts and culture.

In championing both regional and global talents we speak to Michelle Lusby, the female face of Rolls-Royce in the Middle East, and to Tilly Harrison, the new regional MD of Richard Mille. We spend an afternoon in the company of Louis Vuitton’s Francesca Amfitheatrof and her extraordinary high jewellery creations, unearth the rebellious streak in Hermès Nadège Vanhée, learn how Clare Smyth became one of only a handful of women to scoop three Michelin stars, and discover how queen of couture Tamara Ralph battled back from professional heartache to launch her eponymous brand. And fronting it all is Succession star Sarah Snook, whom we spoke to after her deserved success at the Golden Globes. Enjoy the issue. Here’s to the next 150.

Victoria Co-Owner & Managing Director AIR

Thirty Two Succession Planning

Sarah Snook felt ugly and depressed. Now she is a bona fide star. How did ‘Shiv’ smash through the glass ceiling?

Forty French Revolution

As artistic director of Hermès womenswear, Nadège Vanhée is redefining what French luxury means today.

Forty Six Return To The Fold

The rebirth of Tamara Ralph sees a more confident, stronger and daring designer return to the forefront of haute couture.

Credit: backstage at Tamara Ralph Spring-Summer 2024 Couture

The 150th Issue

REGULARS

Fourteen Radar

Sixteen Objects of Desire

Eighteen Art & Design

Twenty Two Jewellery

Twenty Eight Timepieces

Fifty Eight Gastronomy

Sixty Two Travel

Sixty Four What I Know Now

Fifty Four Motoring

How as Bespoke Lead

Designer at the Rolls-Royce Private Office Dubai, Michelle Lusby drives the imagination of her clients.

Jetex

Welcome Onboard

Southeast Asia is one of the key development markets for private aviation.

As the pandemic recedes further into the past, business aviation traffic in Southeast Asia has seen a strong rebound. In Singapore, business aircraft departures from Changi and Seletar airports last year rose to nearly 28% above 2019 levels.

This is also aided by Singapore’s strategic role and location in the AsiaPacific region.

Singapore is flagship destination for Jetex, as we continue to impress and delight the sophisticated clientele in this key market.

Of the two airports in the city-state, Seletar — where Jetex Singapore is located — clearly dominates private aviation traffic. The airport received 93% of the business aviation traffic heading to Singapore in 2023.

For the region in general, infrastructure challenges persist, especially as airports weren’t originally designed for business aviation. This includes limited facilities and bigger jets, leading to parking constraints.

Most of the traffic heading into Singapore originates from the ASEAN region, notably Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. Rising traffic from those areas has offset the continuing malaise seen in mainland China, which has not yet experienced the same rebound.

As always, thank you for choosing Jetex for your global private jet travels. All of us look forward to taking you higher in utmost comfort and luxury — and with complete peace of mind.

Adel Mardini Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Cover : Sarah Snook by Simon Eeles/AUGUST

Contact Details: jetex.com

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Inset: Mandarin Oriental Istanbul

Below: Mandarin Oriental Bodrum

Staged to coincide with this month’s Art Dubai, highly acclaimed Argentinean artist and creative director Pilar Zeta –who received a 2021 Grammy nomination for art directing the Coldplay album, Everyday Life – will showcase newly commissioned work at W Dubai - Mina Seyahi until March 5. The installation, entitled The Garden of Duality , reimagines a traditional chessboard, with sculptures setting the stage for a nuanced exploration of its symbolism. At its core is the king, shaped like a portal to serve as a bridge between the realms of light and darkness. PilarZetaxWDubai-MinaSeyahi,until March5

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

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

CHANEL

SPRING-SUMMER 2024 HAUTE COUTURE

“Chanel brings out emotions in me that I use for inspiration, collection after collection. My mission is to find new ways to tell its most beautiful stories,” wrote Virginie Viard in her notes for Chanel’s latest couture collection. This season’s story begins

a century ago, when Gabrielle Chanel designed her first ballet costumes, and unfolds in designs marked by their lightness – colours of pink and white aquarelle, materials like tulle and lace, and the exquisite embellishment of featherweight couture embroidery.

OBJECTS

CHAUMET UN AIR DE CHAUMET

Joséphine Bonaparte was one of Chaumet’s first clients. The son of the brand’s founder, François-Regnault Nitot, bedazzled the empress with a tiara on the eve of her crowning as Queen of Italy and she has remained a muse throughout the centuries past. It was

“Clothing can help you transcend anxietyprovoking climates and assert your personality without taboos,” enthused Julien Fournié, whose eponymous brand celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.

True to his word, Fournié ensured that the models who walked his runway had

much to flaunt – including a baby bump. The antithesis of ill-fitting maternity wear, Fournié has designed a jersey evening sheath built on a fully embroidered harness over the shoulders. Elsewhere, feather artist Julien Vermeulen adds volume to a standout black tweed suit.

JULIEN FOURNIÉ HAUTE COUTURE SPRING/SUMMER 2024

BOUCHERON THE POWER OF COUTURE

“I decided to explore the theme of couture, without the fuss,” says Claire Choisne, Creative Director of Boucheron, who each year designs a collection that draws inspiration from the brand’s archive. The ‘fuss’ relates to the symbols of power seen on ceremonial uniforms,

which Choisne has deconstructed in her own unique style. A particular highlight are epaulettes. Based on a jewelled crown Boucheron made for the Princes of Wales in 1902 and crafted from white gold and diamonds, these epaulettes also transform into a pair of bracelets.

RVDK WARDROBE 19

Ronald van der Kemp celebrated 10 years as fashion’s first sustainable couture label by doing what he’s done well for the past decade, taking materials deemed unusable elsewhere and turning them –Fairy Godmother-like – into fascinating one-of-a-kind pieces. As always, the

looks that trotted down the runway in Paris were crafted via a raft of processes – collaging, hand-painting, quilting, soldering, embroidering, and handweaving. This look features a cropped jacket with appliqued upcycled handmade brocade blooming flower shoulders.

It’s a little-known fact that the term ‘Martian’ – attributed to supposed lifeform on Mars – was coined by the astronomer uncle of Elsa Schiaparelli, way back in 1877. His love of the cosmos filtered through to the young Schiaparelli and space became an informal code of

the house. “This collection is an homage to that obsession, as well as a study in contradictions – of legacy and the avant-garde, of the beautiful and the provocative, of the earthbound and the heaven-sent,” shared Creative Director Daniel Roseberry.

SCHIAPARELLI

HAUTE COUTURE SPRING/SUMMER 2024

VALENTINO

HAUTE COUTURE SPRING/SUMMER 2024

“People don’t really understand the real difference between ready-to-wear and couture,” stated Valentino’s Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli to the assembled press pack at Place Vendôme, where the brand showcased its spring haute couture collection. Piccioli was,

therefore, determined to show people the difference, doing so with a smattering of typical red-carpet stunners and beautifully cut pieces that detail how the hidden-away talents in Valentino’s Rome atelier devote tens of hours to perfect each unique piece they create for the couture collections.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Imagine Yoko

Why a celebration of Yoko Ono’s avant-garde genius was long overdue

WORDS: CHRIS ANDERSON

This

Entering the Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind exhibition at London’s Tate Modern, visitors are greeted by an unexpected sound: the flushing of a toilet from the speakers above. The show’s curator, Juliet Bingham, smiles, and for a split-second stops talking about Ono’s 1961 piece, Painting to be Stepped On, which literally consists of a dark scrap of canvas stuck to the floor, covered in a morning’s worth of footprints. “That’s one of her interventions,” she explains. “Ono made these playful and irreverent soundbites in the 1960s, and you can hear a different one in almost every room.”

A clear sense of humour. Perhaps one of the reasons that the late Beatle John Lennon was so attracted to her, with the two marrying in 1969, collaborating on music and art, becoming activists for peace, and sharing a son, Sean, born in 1975. Yet despite her fame – with some often blaming her for the Beatles breaking up – her lifetime as a multidisciplinary artist, spanning Japan, the US, and the UK, remains largely underexplored. Lennon even once described his wife as “the world’s most famous unknown artist: everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what she does.”

Music of the Mind seeks to readdress the balance, presenting more than 200 pieces of Ono’s work, from the 1950s to the recent past, comprising installations, film, photography, and more – some shown in the UK for the first time. “The name Music of the Mind is taken from a 1960s series of written instructions by Ono, which make ‘sounds’ in the viewer’s imagination,” Bingham explains.

Many of these instructions are on display, with each individually framed. “Carry a bag of peas. Leave a pea wherever you go,” reads one. Another asks the viewer to think of a note to play. We even see the instructions for Painting to be Stepped On, which reads: “Leave a piece of canvas or finished painting in the street.”

Ono once compiled these messages for a self-published anthology, Grapefruit, released in 1964, while other works demand that the public come to her. “She made these unfinished, interactive pieces, with an open invitation for the public to complete them,” says Bingham. “In the 1964 film Cut Piece, she sits wearing a black suit, with the audience asked one by one to pick up the scissors and cut a piece of her clothing to take away with them.

“Other works include White Chess Set from 1966, with all-white pieces and squares, that visitors can play with. And we have new iterations of 2004’s My Mommy is Beautiful, where visitors post photos and messages related to their mothers on a long canvas, and Add Colour (Refugee Boat) from 2014, where you can write or draw in blue, the colour of the ocean, onto a white boat and walls, making comments about crisis and displacement. These pieces will develop during the exhibition, as more is added to them.”

A recreation of a 1966 work, Painting to Hammer a Nail, is also on display – noted for bringing Lennon and Ono together. The white plasterboard, with visitors invited to hammer a single nail into it – again, growing and changing over time – was enough to capture Lennon’s imagination. He asked Ono personally if he was allowed to hammer in a nail, and the artist jokingly replied that he would have to pay her five shillings. Lennon offered an imaginary five shillings in return for an imaginary nail, and the rest is history. Naturally, Lennon is a feature of the

exhibition. The 1970 films he made with Ono, Fly and Freedom, both a reflection of feminism, are projected on a loop, as is Bed Peace, the 1969 documentary that charts their infamous ‘bed-in’ protests. Elsewhere, viewers can see Ono’s Film No 4 (Bottoms), from the mid 1960s, where she presents footage of fellow artists’ posteriors; her 1966 installation, SKY TV, with its live video feed of the skies above Tate Modern; her 1966 sculpture, Apple, which again changes over time as the fruit itself decays; and her 1967 installation of halved domestic items, Half-a-Room

Will it be enough to raise awareness of Ono’s artistic past? Now aged 91, with son Sean telling the New Yorker magazine in 2021 that his mother had “withdrawn from public life”, if there is to be any growing recognition, Ono herself may not act on it. But at least, for now, we have a chance to revel in her own unique take on the world. As curator Bingham concludes, “Like a wish or a whisper, she touches each of us, with a call to affect change.” Maybe we should all take notice. Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind at Tate Modern, London, runs until September 1

‘Like a wish or a whisper, she touches each of us, with a call to affect change’

This page: Yoko Ono, Half-A Room. Photo by Clay Perry ©Yoko Ono

Left (page 20), clockwise from top: Yoko Ono, Fly, 1970. Courtesy of the artist; Yoko Ono, White Chess Set, 1966, installed in Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, Tate Modern, London, 2024.

Photo © Tate (Reece Straw); Yoko Ono, My Mommy is Beautiful, 2004, installed in Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, Tate Modern, London, 2024.

Photo © Tate (Reece Straw)

Time For The Truth

Art has always harnessed the power to alter our view of the world. To look beyond what our eyes can see. To find the hidden truth. Nabla Yahya knows this well.

A multi-disciplinary artist born and raised in the UAE to Indian parents, Nabla’s thought-provoking work is akin to that of an investigative journalist, her extensive research into topics — which have spanned domestic violence during the pandemic to the disputed region of Kashmir — highlighting realities suppressed by systems of power, making them transparent.

Her work deserves to be championed and last month was; Nabla announced as the winner of the prestigious 2023 Richard Mille Art Prize at a glittering ceremony staged under the magnificent dome at Louvre Abu Dhabi, where her prized work, SoftBank (2023), was displayed as part of Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Art Here exhibition alongside seven other shortlisted finalists, each tasked with positioning their art under the umbrella theme of ‘Transparencies.’

Softbank, an installation comprised of three components, exposes the long-buried truths beneath the building of the Suez Canal (1859-1869), constructed at great cost to the people forced to create it — an estimated 1.5 million people, the vast majority of whom were slave labourers at a time when Egypt was under the colonial rule of Britain and France.

“Nabla’s figurative depiction of this year’s theme demonstrated her passion for architecture and uncovered the history behind the construction of the Suez Canal,” said Peter Harrison, CEO Richard Mille EMEA. “SoftBank is testament to Nabla’s diligent work in research and development towards a concept worthy of the winning title.”

How the work of 2023 Richard Mille Art Prize winner Nabla Yahya sheds light on dark truths

Led by H.H. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, an Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Chairman of UAE Unlimited, an art collector, and a patron of the Centre Pompidou, the British Museum and Sharjah Art Foundation, the six-person jury who judged the artworks also featured Dr Souraya Noujaim, Director of the Islamic Arts department at Musée du Louvre in France; Clare Lilley, a trustee of Art UK; Dr. Guilhem André, a seasoned museum professional, expert archaeologist and art historian; renowned Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem; and Maya El Khalil, curator of Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2023, who said: “Each artist in the exhibition provided a surprising and novel engagement with the theme. The multidimensionality of Nabla Yayha’s work ultimately made the award a unanimous decision. The details

This and opening page: Nabla Yahya and elements from her award-winning work, Softbank

‘

SoftBankis testament to Nabla’s diligent work in research and development towards a concept worthy of the winning title’ Peter Harrison, CEO of Richard Mille EMEA

of Softbank shed light on the invisible currents of finance, trade, and labour that structure the region. It is both a brilliant response to the theme and a significant work with the astute complexity that is a hallmark of Nabla’s practice and thinking – we are all excited to see what she does in future.” As, indeed, we all are.

“I am deeply honoured to receive the 2023 Richard Mille Art Prize,” enthused Nabla. “This recognition is a testament to the power of art to transcend boundaries and illuminate hidden histories. SoftBank is not just an installation; it’s a dialogue between the past and the present, a reflection on the Suez Canal’s transformation. This award fuels my commitment to

exploring untold stories and challenging perspectives through my work.”

Richard Mille’s commitment to the region’s burgeoning art scene is further emphasised by the launch of the second edition of The Richard Mille Art Book Series. Titled Modern Icons – A Richard Mille Art Book and released to coincide with the Art Prize, the beautifully designed book – its cover created in collaboration with Iraqi painter, Dia Azzawi – takes a deep dive into the world of modern art, spanning the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey to highlight the works of iconic artists, with written contributions from the likes of Sultan Saood Al Qassemi and Morad Montazami providing fascinating insight.

Top: pictured from left to right, Manuel Rabaté, Director of Louvre Abu Dhabi; Nabla Yahya; Peter Harrison, CEO of Richard Mille EMEA

Left and below: Modern Icons – A Richard Mille Art Book

In Deep

WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

Louis Vuitton’s Francesca Amfitheatrof on rare stones, the importance of high jewellery looking youthful, and how travel inspires her designs

Francesca Amfitheatrof clearly likes a challenge. The Artistic Director of Watches and Jewellery at Louis Vuitton has just completed Deep Time, one of the most ambitious high jewellery collections ever assembled, near 200 pieces revealed over two chapters that track the vast storyline of Earth’s creation and the birth of life, from supercontinents to ecosystems, each one-of-a-kind piece an extraordinary representation of metamorphosis through time.

Then there’s the not-so-small matter of having designed two new diamond cuts, despite only being at Louis Vuitton for six years.

Amfitheatrof has previously hailed the LV Monogram Star diamond, its 53 facets and pointed ends forming a dazzling interpretation of the starshaped monogram flower created by Georges-Louis Vuitton in 1896, as the “Holy Grail” in the diamond industry on account of its quality, purity and — a factor that is of increasing importance to Louis Vuitton — traceability.

It forms the cornerstone of the new LV Diamonds Collection, which spans earrings, pendants and rings and grants the owner of any piece set with a central stone a blockchain-logged certificate that details the stone’s journey from mine to mounting. In essence, the story of the stone.

And therein lies the bedrock of Amfitheatrof’s designs — storytelling. “I start with a story that I want to tell. With Deep Time we have such knowledge of gemstones that I wanted to be able to talk about it, to create a narrative. The Spirit collection (last year’s high jewellery release) was about the essence of the house and the Vuitton woman. So every time we find a theme that I feel is really relevant to the house, to our clients, and to me, and I explore it.”

Last month we had a chance to explore both the second act of Deep Time (50 singular pieces) and LV Diamonds, as Amfitheatrof flew into Dubai to present them, turning a spectacularly large suite at Atlantis The Royal into Little LV, replete with couture clothing and monogrammed accessories aplenty.

She talks with the authority of an historian as we travel through the

‘High jewellery can be imposing. It’s important to us that we break some rules’

geological timeline, zipping around the room to pluck particular high jewellery pieces from their stands to show us their unique characteristics.

First is a seven-strand necklace inspired by Laurasia, one of the two ancient landmasses referenced in Deep Time. The strands are comprised of white, yellow and pink gold and held together by myriad diamonds, with an encrusted V pointing to a single emerald-cut yellow diamond. We see seismic activity recast as an ‘explosion’ of mandarin garnets and raspberry pink tourmalines on a high collar necklace formed from platinum and yellow gold bars. And then we arrive at a suite called Skin, which symbolises ‘life patterns’ and comprises a quite beautiful necklace, matching bracelet, ring, and earcuffs. Close to 300 orange and pink-hued Umba sapphires were

Opening pages, from left to right: necklace from Seed, Deep Time; Francesca Amfitheatrof

These pages, clockwise from top: LV Diamonds studs and rings; savoir fare, Bones, Deep Time; savoir fare, Plants, Deep Time

‘If we're going to be original, to design something new, we have to experience new things’

used to make it, the stones so rare because the Umba River in Tanzania they came from — and from where they get their name — has long dried up.

“If you look at the stones close up, they're exquisite,” enthuses Amfitheatrof. “It’s this idea that the stones we find are either really connected to the theme (she points to some on a necklace that were formed in lava), or are so exceptionally rare but not really revealing that fact. They don’t show off. It's only if you really know that you'll never be able to get them again.”

All high jewellery dazzles, but a lot of pieces are worked on longer than they are ever worn. Amfitheatrof’s high jewellery is different. No less dazzling but certainly less stiff, less stuffy. Pieces to be worn, not just kept.

“I always like to mix coloured golds, because I think it softens a piece,” she explains. “It’s gentler, in a way. Diamonds and platinum are very hard materials that can be quite cold, so variations of gold make something a bit warmer.

“The type of jewellery that we want to make at Vuitton shouldn’t feel too traditional, or feel as though it ages

you. We want to keep it quite youthful. High jewellery can be imposing, and it’s important to us, because we’re not a traditional jewellery house, that we break some rules.”

Born in Japan to a Russian-American father and Italian mother, worldly Amfitheatrof has a firm grounding in art – including three years as Head Curator of the Gucci Museo in Florence – that is manifest in her designs and personal style. She was Tiffany & Co.’s first ever female Design Director, ensuring that her fresh designs spoke to the modern women. But it’s in her role at Louis Vuitton that Amfitheatrof is truly flourishing.

“I get inspired by learning and researching. And then I always take what we call an ‘inspiration trip’ with the studio to somewhere in the world, and a lot of designs stem from the experiences that we have. We don't take things from books. I don't ever want anyone to go on Pinterest. That's not how we want to do it. If we're going to be original, to design something new, we have to experience new things. I don't always know what I’m going to design, or where inspiration will lead me. But that's the beauty of it.”

Opposite page, clockwise from left: savoir fare, Seeds, Deep Time; necklace from Symbiosis, Deep Time; necklace from Myriad, Deep Time; savoir fare, Symbiosis, Deep Time This page, from top to bottom: LV Diamonds studs and pendant; LV Monogram Star Diamond

Time For Change

WORDS: NICK WATKINS

Richard Mille’s Tilly Harrison is one of the Middle East’s trailblazing female leaders at the forefront of a new time in luxury watchmaking

Anew chapter of empowerment is being written within the Middle East’s watch industry, with the influence of leading women becoming increasingly prevalent. It’s no coincidence that this exciting new era is beginning in tandem with a rising number of ladies’ collections being made available.

Swiss watch brand Richard Mille was one of the first to recognise the importance of a female figurehead overseeing regional operations, having appointed a trailblazing Managing Director in the Middle East. From a young age, Tilly Harrison can recall being around luxury timepieces that her father would bring from work to the family home. Yet, despite developing a deep understanding and appreciation for watches, working within the industry wasn’t the plan.

The Brit’s career began on London’s Bond Street, as part of the PR team for luxury jeweller David Morris — a role she greatly enjoyed thanks to her love of gemstones and high-end pieces. Her passion for the product didn’t go unnoticed, and it wasn’t long before she was moved into the sales team to utilise her knowledge and understanding to build a network of clients, which ultimately led to her current position at Richard Mille. “I never thought I would go into the industry,” Harrison admits as she sits down with us in the Richard Mille boutique at The Dubai Mall. “I wanted to go into events and PR, but in my sales role I started to meet clients, and as my father has always been involved in the luxury watch industry I would introduce clients to the brand. That was the start.”

That was seven years ago, and Harrison has since become firmly integrated into the luxury watch scene. Six months ago she and her partner left her London comfort zone to oversee things at Richard Mille’s Dubai office, where the brand has been steadily attracting new audiences. “Recently we’ve seen an increased appetite for ladies’ pieces,” Harrison says with a smile. “In the last few years we’ve seen huge demand. Traditionally, it may have been a handbag or jewellery that parents bought as a gift for an occasion like their daughter’s graduation. Now it’s a watch.”

Another new trend has also quietly been gathering pace for Richard

‘Women are needed in this industry. We do things differently’

Mille — pre-owned. Young collectors have a penchant for rare, older, pieces and luckily for them Harrison knows the market like the back of her hand.

In 2020, she founded NINETY, the first and only place to officially buy a pre-owned Richard Mille. It’s proved a big success, giving collectors a rare chance to find limited edition pieces that have been exchanged, including a Nadal RM27, a Boucheron RM18, and even an RM06, of which only 25 pieces were ever made. The brand only creates 5,400 pieces annually, with limited editions being made in batches of either 30, 50 or 75. The scarcity has helped drive demand.

NINETY, based in London’s Mayfair, also houses a trained watchmaker and workshop providing official servicing, along with approved authentication documents. Tom, the Richard Mille watchmaker, not only fully services and refurbishes the watches, but he also knows the history of each piece and can trace its sales history. “We also have access to the stolen watch file, so can check where it came from,” explains Harrison, aware that having such knowledge is increasingly important. She uses the story of a friend (who went to buy a pre-owned Richard Mille from someone who wanted to meet at a gas station) to warn against buying from unreputable sources. “It can be very

murky, with Instagram dealers and people that have no business history or industry experience. If you’re buying an expensive second-hand watch, it should be in a luxury environment, it should be from people you trust, and the service you receive should be excellent,” she says, before teasing an opening of NINETY in the Middle East.

Opening a pre-owned luxury boutique in the region would be another string to Harrison’s bow. Her journey in a traditionally male-dominated industry has become a source of inspiration for women looking to follow in her footsteps. However, Harrison remains firmly grounded and says she, “isn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty.” She is also full of praise for the men in her life, especially her father, who when she was a child would tell her daily to remember the ethos of ‘girl power’, a reference to the spirit that drove the Spice Girls to pop culture domination in the 1990s.

Harrison says, “Women are needed in this industry; we do things differently. I think we work well alongside men. I never saw myself in a leadership role, nor do I still see myself as a lead. I’m very much a team player. But I think for women here in the Middle East it’s their moment.” And her advice for anyone thinking of following their dreams?

“Take the risk! Sacrifices are necessary, but always be yourself.”

Credit: Images courtesy of Ninety, Mount Street, London

As a teenager in Australia, Sarah Snook felt ugly and depressed. Now she has scooped her second Golden Globe and is starring on London’s West End. How did ‘Shiv’ smash through the glass ceiling?

WORDS: ADAM WHITE

The Picture of Dorian Gray doesn’t end well for its protagonist, and Sarah Snook understands why.

“I had the experience once where all I wanted to do was be on the cover of a magazine,” she recalls with a rueful smile. “Like, wow, wouldn’t that be amazing? I could say, ‘See, I am beautiful in the eyes of the world.’ But then it came out and I had a real problem with it. Because I thought, ‘That isn’t me. I don’t look like that.’” Her face had been digitally retouched beyond recognition.

“I’d always had the feeling of ‘Oh, I wish I was beautiful, I don’t look like the girls in the magazines’. But when you are the girl in the magazine, and you still don’t look like her — or feel like you do — it’s worse. And you’re, like, ‘I’ve got to really rethink where my values are.’”

She evidently did rethink them, because I later realise I can’t even remember what she is wearing when we meet, except that it is rumpled and scruffy. The only detail I notice is her

worn-out workwear boots with a big hole in one sole — because they’re the same old pair she has worn in every interview for years, and even on her wedding day. In Succession she wore sleek trouser suits and killer eyeliner. In real life, make-up free with tousled bed hair, she is a vision of aesthetic indifference — and it isn’t accidental. “I’ve been quite strongly defensive about not becoming interested in how I look because it would be far too dangerous for my own mental health.”

The Australian is currently starring on London’s West End in a stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s cautionary tale about Dorian Gray, a handsome young gentleman corrupted by the hedonistic values of a louche aristocrat, under whose influence he is inspired to sell his soul in exchange for eternal beauty. A painting of him will wither and age, while his own face retains its boyish perfection.

As Dorian devotes himself to sensual vice, his sins slowly contort his portrait, until at 38 — by then a blackmailer and murderer — he

repents his vanity and takes a knife to the painting. Too late for redemption, it is himself he destroys. Servants discover his decrepit corpse lying beside the portrait, restored by his death to its original youthful charm.

Wilde once said his novel’s eponymous antihero “contains much of me”, but there is no discernible trace of Dorian in the star on the sofa opposite me in a London hotel. On a fleeting visit from Melbourne with her husband and new baby — bleary from jet lag and night feeds, but cheerfully relaxed — Snook seems completely unselfconscious, by turn casual and serious-minded, jokey and thoughtful. To describe an A-list celebrity as down to earth can be an implausible cliché, but she genuinely appears not to realise who she is.

To most of us, ever since Succession’s first series in 2018, she has been Shiv Roy, the daughter of a tyrannical media magnate, Logan Roy. The glossy, cold, manipulative billionairess was so unlike Snook herself, then a little-known actress, she very nearly turned the role down — but the four-series drama won her two Golden Globes and made her a global household name. When the final episode aired last May she wept.

“Don’t think I was watching my acting and going, ‘My God, I’m so brilliant, cry, cry!’” she quickly exclaims. “I was three or four weeks postpartum, the hormones were raging. But it was just the chrysalis of knowing that’s the end of this really important, special part of my life.”

Seeing Snook play Shiv was more like reading a novel than watching television. Like Meryl Streep she has a freakish gift for taking us inside her character’s mind while her face barely moves. But a role that big can be a bittersweet burden, so did part of her wonder if she’d ever play anything as epic again?

“

Well, subconsciously” — and she bursts out laughing — “I think I’ve pretty much solved that with a 26-character role.”

In the adaptation of Dorian Gray Snook plays all 26 parts. The onewoman show from Sydney Theatre Company debuted in Sydney in 2020, where another Australian actress, Eryn Jean Norvill, won rave fivestar reviews. The dizzying theatrical

challenge both thrills and terrifies Snook — but that is not the play’s only appeal. The more she talks, the more its theme of beauty exercises her.

“I very purposefully have tried not to put my worth to myself into how I look because if you do, and one gets celebrated for that, when that goes — which it will — then what’s your worth? Which is why it’s so interesting to play Dorian Gray.”

When she became a mother last year, “I noticed it with my daughter. She’s a very cute baby and people already go, ‘Oh, what a beautiful girl!’ And there’s a sense of protection that kicks in for me, and goes, ‘Whoa, she’s more than that. Or she will be.’ She is genuinely very cute — and I don’t think that’s just a biased mother saying that. But I am wary of that being language that she experiences growing up.”

When Snook was growing up, “no one thought I was attractive. Like, so unattractive in my teenage years, and no boyfriend. And how I interpreted the world was: no one liked me. But what was great about thinking that I was completely abhorrently unattractive was that it was quite useful. I tried to create good character instead.”

The tomboy self-image served her well until her early twenties, when she landed a part in a TV movie as a prisoner of war. “And realistically for the role I had to lose a bunch of weight. And then I remember this guy going, ‘Oh, when did you get hot?’” It was intended as a compliment,

This page: still from Succession (2023)

but what she heard was: “Well, I wasn’t hot before. So I must have been disgusting. Therefore I must maintain this shape at all costs, and I’m only worthwhile as an object in the eyes of another person by being a shape that is appreciable to them.”

Her eyes widen. “That’s f***edup so bad.” Yet self-loathing still wormed its way into her brain. She was both enraged and corrupted at the same time? “Yeah, totally.”

On her next film a casting agent told her: “We don’t really want you because you’re a nobody, but the director and the writer think you’re good for the role. So what we’ll do is change all of you so that you’re marketable: we’ll whiten your teeth, darken your hair, we’ll give you a personal trainer so you can lose weight and look the part.” Snook meekly agreed. She told herself she was being professional. “In order for me to be successful I have to be all the things that aren’t me.”

Anger edges into her tone. “And then one particular day I had the tiniest bit of chocolate cake.” A producer told her off in front of the entire cast and crew. A costume designer intervened indignantly and told her to keep eating it. “And all the while I am dying inside.”

By now she is looking furious.

“The infantilising of women, to not be able to make their own decisions, why would we do that to women?”

When she looks at old photographs of her twentysomething self, the loveliness to which she was blinded

at the time amazes her. “And that’s pretty f***ed-up. And I’d like to hopefully change this for my daughter.

If it’s even at all possible.” But praise for her baby’s beauty feels as dangerous to Snook as the thoughtless compliment on her weight loss.

“It’s better to feel like one looks like sh** but not to think that it matters, than to feel that one looks beautiful and that that’s your value.”

She never applies digital filters to her cameraphone. Are they our modern-day equivalent of the painting of Dorian Gray? “Absolutely.”

I ask if Wilde’s protagonist’s other temptations resonate equally powerfully. Dorian’s hedonistic adventures lead him into an opium den, but Snook says her own vices are more culinary than narcotic. “I’ve never really been into boundarypushing or extremism.” She grins. “But I think I’ve got a real problem with a nice gourmet supermarket. And maybe that’s because I couldn’t afford to eat when I was in my twenties.”

The 36-year-old was born into a middle-class family in Adelaide, the youngest of three daughters to a swimming pool salesman and a carer for the elderly. Past press profiles have all reported a happy-go-lucky childhood, but she tells me that in fact, at the age of 11, divorce fractured it profoundly. Her eldest sister was a decade older and had just moved out when their father left. Her other sister, six years older, moved in with her boyfriend. Practically overnight the family of five shrank to just Snook and her mum.

She spent a lot of time alone, watching TV, making up stories in her head, climbing trees. “It was like, well, shut up and put your head down and deal with what the new paradigm is.” No one realised how unhappy she was. “I think I was quite good at showing the cheerful tomboy on the outside.” Unsurprisingly, before long she took up acting.

“Enormously depressed” in her teens, at 18 she won a place at Sydney’s prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art, but with no financial support from her parents she was broke. “I was making $120 a week, rent was $90 and $12 went on my phone. It was certainly character-building.” She lived off white rice. “No wonder

‘ Money is shaky stock, like beauty. The things that are important are friendships and family ’

I was falling asleep in the history of theatre lessons.” She starts to laugh. “I was always falling asleep in the back row. I was spiking my blood sugar and not eating any protein, I couldn’t afford it. People would take bets on whether I would fall asleep.”

After graduating in 2008 she worked in a café and became “lost”, doubting her own ambition. “Performance and drama and acting have always felt part of my identity. And when the pull to do something is so strong, the fear of not being able to achieve that is also equally strong; the fear that self-worth is not able to be achieved.” Looking back on her twenties now, she thinks she was still depressed. She was down to her last $10 when work began coming in.

Parts in several small Australian films won her awards, and by 2015 she was a moderately established actress, playing the Apple entrepreneur Andrea Cunningham in the Hollywood biopic Steve Jobs. The following year she made her West End debut alongside Ralph Fiennes in The Master Builder — and then landed the role that would change her life.

Everyone I know who didn’t watch Succession said the same thing: why care about a dysfunctional family of horrible rich siblings competing to get even richer? “That was my reaction too!” she says, laughing. But as the tragedy of the flawed billionaires’ loneliness became more and compelling, she found herself internalising Shiv’s ambition to beat her brothers and take over the family business. By the end Snook was rooting for Shiv to become CEO just as fiercely as her character.

“Of course! You have to. I knew that she wasn’t the best choice, realistically. But you’re in that horse race, you’re backing your own horse.” The actors playing her brothers — Jeremy Strong as Kendall, Kieran Culkin as Roman and Alan Ruck as Connor — felt exactly the same way, she adds.

The irony of a show about the loneliness of wealth is that it has made Snook rich. By season three she was

reportedly paid more than $300,000 per episode. “But it’s been really important for me to remember that it could just fade away. Just,” and she flicks a hand, “poof.” She lives with the possibility that she might be poor again? “Oh, 100 per cent.” Regardless of her bank balance? “Yes! Constantly. Which is why my vice is going to expensive supermarkets because it’s completely irrational to spend 20 bucks on a thing of sprouted crackers. It’s so naughty! Sooo transgressive.”

I wonder if she ever worries that fame and wealth could isolate her. “Well, I think that’s up to me to ensure that I am still able to relate to my own life and other people. Money is shaky stock, like beauty. The things that are important are friendships and family.”

In 2020 Snook had been single for two years when the pandemic struck and she got stuck in Australia. Her home by then was in Brooklyn, and she was back visiting her family across Australia when the country closed its borders. For the first few months of lockdown she stayed with a friend and his pregnant wife, but when their baby was due and the borders still closed, another friend suggested she move in with him. Nine months later they were married.

Snook and Dave Lawson, an Australian actor, had been platonic friends for years. For as long as they had known each other, one or both had always been seeing someone else, and Lawson has a 12-year-old son from a previous relationship. As she describes them falling in love, Snook’s expression fills with light. She cannot stop smiling.

“You know what’s really lovely about it? And what was so confirming about it too, is that because we were friends, the stakes were higher, because we didn’t want to mess up the friendship. But also, because we were isolated from everybody, we didn’t have to answer to anybody. ‘Why are they leaving the pub together?’ or ‘How is this going to work? He’s got a son and you’ve got a career overseas.’ We were, like, we can work that out. We’re adults.”

I ask who made the first move, but she goes on: “Then the other thing is that I was, like, ‘Well, if this is going to happen, you’re going to have to know everything about me that you don’t already know as a friend. And

This still from The Dressmaker (2015)

‘ What’s the secret to happiness? Other people matter ’

as a friend I can trust that you’ll be able to hold that safely. Here’s the house, open up every nook and cranny so you can see all that you need to see if this is going to work. Because if it’s not, then we can stop now and you can have seen the house and not want to buy.’ And I think that fosters a deeper trust that fosters a lot of security and love and grace.”

Three months into their romance, Snook proposed.

“For me, marriage was the only way that we could do this. I’ve never felt this with any other relationship, that it needed that sort of hand-onheart commitment, and marriage was suddenly very important to me, to signify that to the world and to the person who I love.” She needed to formalise the transition from friendship? “Exactly. There needed to be a line in the sand of what this feels like for us.”

Because the shops were still closed under lockdown, she couldn’t buy a ring. Over lunch at home with Lawson and his son, she got down on one knee and asked his son for his permission. “And then out came the scissors, which is a very precious memory.” With one metal handle of a pair of hair scissors looped over her ring finger, on her knee she turned to Lawson and asked him to marry her.

“And then I had to leave two days

later to go back into the pandemic in New York to shoot Succession.” He followed a few months later, and in February 2021 the pair married in her Brooklyn backyard. “So, overall,” she laughs, “a pretty tight turnaround.”

With the city still in partial lockdown, she was delighted for the excuse to have a tiny wedding. Their only guests were her housemates and, as a witness, her co-star Ashley Zukerman, who played Succession’s Nate, a political aide with whom Shiv had a brief fling in series one. She made her bouquet that morning, wore her work boots with the hole in the sole and “we had pizza and beer”. When I say it must have been one hell of a year, another grin spreads across her face.

“Oh yeah. Quite huge. You throw everything up like cards and just see how they land.”

At this point Lawson appears at the door with their baby and Snook takes her in her arms. Lawson has been out buying giant bars of Cadbury’s, and a spirited discussion follows about how much nicer it tastes than posh organic chocolate.

Since then Snook has been rehearsing back in Australia. They live in a remote wooden house buried in 35 acres of bush 50 miles from Melbourne, but the family is now back in London for the duration of the play. She will be breastfeeding throughout the run, on

the calculation that this will fortify her daughter’s immune system and make Snook less likely to catch a bug from her. “Don’t get sick, don’t fall over, don’t get sick, don’t get lose your voice,” she murmurs, mantra-like, to herself.

On top of the pressure of being the play’s solitary performer, the absence of energy from any other actors on the stage daunts her. The irony of Succession, a drama about characters incapable of human relationships, was the intense camaraderie of its ensemble cast. “And the irony of doing a oneperson show,” she admits, “is that I don’t enjoy being the focus of attention in a way that is not collaborative.”

What is her strategy? “Well, it’s not about me doing it by myself. It’s the stage manager, it’s the camera people on set, the people changing my costume on set, changing my moustache and my sideburns. If anyone is off, then we all mess up. So the crew will be the cast.”

She tells me about a podcast she heard a few days before we meet featuring a psychologist who had just published a huge piece of research into the key to human happiness. His conclusion would have mystified Shiv Roy or Dorian Gray, but “it really rang true for me. What’s the secret to happiness? What is it? We all want to know, right? And it boiled down to three words. Other people matter.”

French revolution

WORDS: KAREN DACRE

As Artistic Director of Hermès womenswear, Nadège Vanhée is redefining what French luxury means today

All fashion designers are influencers now — except for Nadège Vanhée, the antidote to the fast-paced, algorithm-driven world that is fashion in 2024. The flamehaired Artistic Director of Hermès womenswear doesn’t use Instagram. She hasn’t even seen Succession. “I don’t watch TV very often,” she says. “I always think there’s something more useful I could be doing. Or I’m asleep.”

We are meeting in a small coffee shop in east London, amid a busy day of meetings and gallery viewings for the designer, who is an avid appreciator of art. (After our meeting she heads off to visit the Sarabande foundation, the art initiative funded by the estate of Lee Alexander McQueen). Vanhée, 45, who speaks with a heavy French accent and has the look of a preRaphaelite painting, wears a crisp white shirt and oversized black sweater.

She has a warm, down-to-earth quality that, I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting from the woman in charge of designing clothing for one of the most prominent fashion houses in the world.

With the phrase ‘quiet luxury’ on loop in my head, I bring up the cashmereobsessed Roy family from Succession early on in our interview. Vanhée is turned off by the idea. At Hermès, home of printed scarves, supersize blanket coats and bank-busting accessories, luxury is something of a dirty word. “I think it’s a meaningless term now,” she says. “The idea of luxury has been erased.”

Instead the renowned house prefers to talk about craftsmanship. “Hermès is really a house of objects — clothes are part of that. My job is to make sure those objects are as relevant and as beautiful as they possibly can be. My job is also to make sure those things are pertinent to modern life.”

Indeed, it is her dedication to creating luxury fashion with a function that makes this designer the right woman for the job.

Since its very early days — Hermès was founded as a harness-maker in 1837 — it has followed a different trajectory from Paris’ other big-name houses, favouring a collective approach to design. It has 16 métiers, or specialisms (Vanhée heads women’s ready-to-wear), and an approach that means the ‘objects’ it sells are always the stars of the show.

In the age of celebrity fashion designers — and success measured in Instagram

This pages: Nadège Vanhée

All other pages: Hermès Women’s Ready-to-Wear, SS24

‘ The idea of luxury has been erased ’

followers — Vanhée stands as a figure of authenticity. She doesn’t design for fame or to feed her ego, but rather because she really, truly believes in the clothes she is making, and indeed in the women she is designing them for.

Despite the association with Jane Birkin, who is always the first famous name mentioned in any conversation about Hermès, and never more so than in the weeks following her death last July, the house doesn’t court celebrity followers. And neither does Vanhée. “It doesn’t interest me to think about one particular woman wearing my clothes. The idea is to speak to many personalities,” she says.

Vanhée’s clothes are anonymous, in so far as you wouldn’t be able to pick them out from a line-up and immediately know they had come from Hermès. But they’re anything but dull. Speaking after her latest show in Paris, Vanhée described her designs as archetypes. “They may be the most boring clothes on earth, but

I want to kind of bring this surprising creativity to them,” she told reviewers.

Colour and a precision approach to silhouette bring life to her utilitarian collections. Vanhée, who knows her way around a leather skirt like few others, has a skill for making the most luxurious textiles seem approachable and lived-in. Her method, honed in stints working at Maison Martin Margiela, Celine and The Row (where she was head of womenswear and first port of call for the Olsen sisters), made her something of a dream hire for Axel Dumas, the Hermès CEO, who appointed her to the top job ten years ago.

Following years of living in London and New York, Vanhée returned to Paris to start a new chapter. “It was a dream come true,” she says. “Hermès is part of the history of France.”

Despite the pressures (or responsibilities, as she prefers to call them) of being in charge of a cultural institution that’s as important to France as the Eiffel Tower or Jacques Cousteau,

Vanhée is refreshingly unpretentious about her work. Certainly she’s without the airs and graces I’ve come to expect from fashion designers — and is the only one I’ve ever discussed the merits of a good children’s play park with.

It might be because of where she grew up. Vanhée isn’t a born-and-bred Parisian. She grew up in Seclin, a town near the Belgian border, where she fell for music (and the Britpop bands Pulp and Blur) before she found fashion. One of her first jobs was as a “rock journalist”, interviewing bands touring the area for a small fanzine. A love of clothes followed, and with that, a place at the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.

A rebellious streak, with her since her teenage years, has allowed her to create an aesthetic at Hermès that is gently anarchic. Still with an attention to quality, she has brought a toughness to the Hermès stable — stomping boots

‘ I am always drawn to things that look a bit rough ’

are a regular on her catwalks as are military-inspired coats. “I have never been able to resist a biker jacket and a pair of heavy boots,” she says. “I am always drawn to things that look a bit rough.” She has injected Hermès with a modern femininity. “I want to be sympathetic to women always,” she says. “Sensuality can be created in many ways.”

As a working parent (her daughter is three), she is also attuned to the clothing demands that come with a hectic

schedule: “A modern wardrobe is like an iPhone — it has to do everything. Today our clothes must be chic, comfortable, breathable, packable. In the old days women were changing five times a day, we’re just getting on with it.”

She isn’t the first woman to shake things up at Hermès (that honour belongs to the 1920s designer Lola Prusac), but she is the first to make a real talking point of its clothing. And she has made sure the house is known for more than just handbags — and indeed its silk scarves, which have long been adored by fashion fans, including Queen Elizabeth II. “Hermès has some strong associations with British style,” Vanhée says.

So is it true that French women dress better? “I really don’t buy the idea that there’s a singular French look,” she says, “and certainly not at Hermès. We are a civilisation of hybridisation. We are everything all at once.”

Credit:

The rebirth of Tamara Ralph sees a more confident, stronger and daring designer return to the forefront of haute couture

WORDS:

JOHN THATCHER

There are countless examples one can recall of catwalk ‘moments.’

Perhaps Alexander McQueen’s hologram of Kate Moss, or maybe J. Lo striding down the runway in that green Versace dress. You’d have struggled, though, to summon knowledge of any that could be classed as heartwarming.

That was until August of last year, when Tamara Ralph took her bow at the end of her eponymous brand’s debut couture show in Paris, with her then 2-year-old daughter, Haliya, cradled in her arms. It symbolised much: the working mother, the quest for balance between the office and the home, the need to be supportive. Yet above all else it was Ralph showing the world that times change, that life moves on. That a new Tamara Ralph was back in business.

“Becoming a mother has given me a renewed sense of purpose. Having my first daughter is undoubtedly what gave me the courage to relaunch under my own name and to find an inner strength that I did not know I had. She has been instrumental in me launching again, and I ultimately want to set the example for her that you can pick yourself back up,

‘ I wanted to show that you can pick yourself back up, learn from challenging times, and move on with grace, confidence and unwavering strength’

learn from challenging times, and move on with grace, confidence and unwavering strength.

“I now approach my work with a new mentality, knowing that I want to be a role model and an example for Haliya and my second child [another daughter, due to arrive this summer]. I’ve also tried to establish more boundaries with work, which is incredibly difficult when you have your own brand and it’s something you are truly passionate about. But having quality family time is of the utmost importance.”

Ralph doesn’t wish to speak about the past, when she was one half of the celebrated duo Ralph & Russo (Ralph the creative, Russo the businessman, both of

Right: Tamara Ralph All pages: Tamara Ralph, SpringSummer 2024 Couture

‘My grandmother was known to unpick every stitch I had made, encouraging me to start over again and learn from my mistakes’

them Australian) and you can’t blame her for only wanting to focus on the present day and her plans for the future. But the backstory is important to help frame why Ralph had to ‘pick herself back up’ in the first place.

Ralph & Russo enjoyed numerous highs as a label, such as being the first British-based label in almost 100 years to be invited to show as part of Haute Couture Week in Paris, and designing the $75,000 sheer embroidered bodice that Meghan Markle wore in the official photograph released to mark her engagement to Prince Harry. A decade ago they were listed as one of Fortune magazine’s 40 most successful businesspeople under 40, alongside the likes of Mark Zuckerberg.

But then the pandemic and subsequent store closures seemed to signal a steep decline in fortunes. Russo exited the business, losses multiplied, and by March 2021 it was in administration.

Ralph has spoken in other interviews about how the demise of the brand, her “life’s work,” was “painful.” But two years on and Ralph was gearing up to go it alone as Tamara Ralph. “Launching my eponymous brand has been symbolic of a total rebirth,” she tells us. “I have begun anew with my own vision. I have learnt how instrumental it is to stay true

to yourself, your vision and your values, and to be unapologetically unwavering in seeing this through and listening to your instincts, which rarely lead you astray.

“Equally, starting fresh has given me the opportunity to ensure I am surrounded by the right people in life and in business. People who believe in me and my vision. This sense of mutual respect is absolutely critical.”

The people Ralph refers to include her atelier, made up of former Ralph & Russo staff, whom she describes as “an extension of my family,” and an enviable list of loyal clients and celebrity fans — the likes of Angelina Jolie, Beyoncé, and Gwyneth Paltrow have all worn her designs.

It’s fair to say that Tamara Ralph was born to design, growing up in a family that includes four generations of couturiers. “It was certainly an incredibly unique upbringing in this sense. As a child, I was quite taken by my mother’s fashion sketches and the Vogue library of patterns and fabrics that she had in the house. I started sketching from a very young age, and would often sneak into the room where the fabrics were when my mother and my grandmother left the house to use the sewing machine – I was too young to get their permission.

‘ My new brand is imbued with a bolder sense of femininity’

“My grandmother noticed my love of fashion and gave me my first mannequin to drape styles on, and taught me all the haute couture techniques from her career as a couturier. I was very fortunate to be under her expert guidance because she used to ensure that every last detail was created to perfection. She was even known to unpick every stitch I had made, encouraging me to start over again and learn from my mistakes. I carry this experience with me to this day and am forever grateful for her encouragement and the discipline she instilled in me.”

Does harbouring such knowledge about clothing mean she knows what someone would look best in the moment she meets them? “I think that as a designer, and a woman, there is an innate sense of knowing the female form, and understanding what style, cut and silhouette will best complement a figure. Even how different fabrics and materials will look or drape differently, depending on one’s shape.

“That said, while having this understanding and technical expertise is important, it is also a very collaborative process with each and every client. Some clients are quite clear in their vision, and we work closely to bring it to life, whereas others might simply have an event or an occasion in mind, in which case I design with this in mind as the inspiration. It is

truly so individual, but ultimately I want my clients to look and feel their best, while also designing pieces that will truly stand the test of time; something they will keep and cherish forever.”

January saw Tamara Ralph release her second couture collection, one stitched together by bold femininity and uncompromising strength. A change of tone? “I would say that my own approach to design, and, in turn, my own view on female empowerment, which has impacted my work enormously, have certainly evolved over the past few years, given the journey I have been on both professionally and personally. For instance, previously I became known for romantic, ethereal designs, and while this is certainly still part of my design DNA, my new brand is imbued with a bolder sense of femininity. By way of example, my debut collection revealed soft materials juxtaposed with more of an armour-like, protective quality which is an artistic expression and interpretation of life experience, and my most recent collection for spring-summer 2024 sees a continuation of this. My sense of style and my creative process have certainly matured, and while my brand is still in keeping with my aesthetic, it is more confident, unapologetic, daring, courageous, and overall stronger.”

Just like the lady herself.

Dream Catcher

As

Bespoke Lead Designer at the Rolls-Royce Private Office Dubai, Michelle Lusby drives the imagination of her clients

WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

Abespoke Rolls-Royce is an object of rare beauty. A work of expressive art formed from a combination of the finest materials, the finest craftspeople, and the finest designers, but one ultimately born from the seed of a simple conversation.

“What surprises many is that clients don’t necessarily come into the Private Office with an idea of what they want,” says Michelle Lusby, Bespoke Lead Designer at the Rolls-Royce Private Office Dubai. “I start the whole process of designing the car by asking them questions about their lives. What are their interests? What are their likes, their dislikes? Where do they love to go on holiday? Just a very, very broad conversation, from which I take snippets of information and begin to play with them.”

The word ‘play’ is pertinent here, as it is imagination that underpins the whole process.

“Storytelling is key,” says Michelle, whose office looks every inch like that of an artist’s studio (albeit a very neat one), with colour palettes and materials at every turn. It’s here where the magic happens, where Michelle paints the personalities of clients onto canvases that just so happen to be the world’s most luxurious motor cars.

Every client has a different story to tell and in Michelle they have the perfect storyteller. Consider The Pearl Cullinan, a one-of-one bespoke car commissioned in 2022 through the Private Office Dubai. It was devised as a gift from son to father to mark his 90th birthday and began with Michelle engaging the father in conversation to understand his passions and life story. This fed into the finer design details. It has a unique (and never to be repeated) Pearl Rose paint finish inspired by the colour of a prized pearl from the father’s cherished collection. There’s a colour split between the rear and front seats, with the father’s preferred passenger seat finished in his favourite Cashmere Grey. And at the car’s rear are picnic tables, which feature 1,351 individually selected pieces of mother-of-pearl.

It’s a stunning example of how the Rolls-Royce Private Office Dubai bridges the gap between the client and Rolls-Royce HQ in Goodwood, two

hours south of London, where clients from the Middle and Far East would have previously headed to do anything related to bespoke. Now the artistry of Goodwood is brought to them.

“Everything that’s designed is done here in Dubai,” outlines Michelle. “And even though Goodwood manufactures the cars, I remain very hands on throughout the whole process, often heading to Goodwood to review things like veneer samples, doing the back and forth for the client and engaging them at every step so that they feel immersed in the whole experience.

“I receive messages from my clients all the time and they can just pop in and talk to me about an idea they’ve had. You don’t really get that in Goodwood because there it’s very much about the whole Goodwood experience, as opposed to just having that direct link to a designer.”

Does being so readily available run the risk that a client may row back on their original brief? “Sometimes we’ll do multiple configurations at the same time, because ultimately the client is creating something that they’re going to be living with for a long time. It’s personal to them, so they want to get it absolutely right. We’ve had occasions where clients have ended up with two cars, because they can’t decide on which idea to go with.”

There are other, less obvious benefits of Michelle serving as a conduit between this region and Rolls-Royce HQ. “There are colours that just wouldn’t work in the UK because of the usually murky weather there that make absolute sense when you see them in the sunshine here. It’s a massive difference. Also, understanding the subtleties of the culture here, and of the cultures of the clients that visit us from further afield, means I can pass this knowledge onto the team in Goodwood to further enhance their understanding of our clients across the globe.”

Michelle’s passion for design stems from childhood. Her grandmother was an expert seamstress for luxury leather goods brand Mulberry and she vividly recalls the sound of her grandmother’s sewing machine, the smell of the leather she passed through it. “I was fascinated by how she constructed these beautiful handbags from just a flat piece of leather. So I think it was in my blood to explore materials and how things are actually made.”

After earning a first-class honours degree in interior textiles and surface design, a chance conversation with a

car designer introduced Michelle to the world of automotive design. So when the opportunity to join Rolls-Royce came up in 2014, Michelle jumped at the chance. She has since worked on a raft of notable projects, the one-of-one Phantom Serenity a personal favourite for affording her the opportunity to work with beautiful silk sourced from the Chinese city of Suzhou, which for centuries supplied silk to the country’s ruling dynasties. It was used most magnificently on the Phantom’s signature headliner, where it stunned with its visually rich mix of embroidery and expert hand painting.

“It was a project that really pushed the boundaries of craftsmanship, showcasing a new way of applying textiles,” remembers Michelle. It was also a project from which Michelle gleaned knowledge of how textiles trim onto seats so differently than leather. “You almost had to have a background in tailoring. We now trim

things differently because of what we learned from that project.”

She describes all the cars she’s designed as her “babies” because of how she puts “blood, sweat, and tears into every design,” and experiences the same thrill each time she sees a completed car roll off the production line in Goodwood. “But then to also see the client’s reaction when you show the car to them is absolutely amazing. It just fills you with joy.”

Rolls-Royce often thrills with the unexpected, Michelle included. “People come into the Private Office and expect to see a male standing here. I’ve started from the ground up and worked really hard to be in the position I’m in, so it’s nice that I’m not what they were expecting. Being female and the face of Rolls-Royce feels really nice to say.”

Nice not just for Michelle, but for the many clients who now own the car of their dreams because of her.

Opening pages: Michelle Lusby

This page: The Pearl Cullinan

Opposite page: RollsRoyce Private Office Dubai

‘We’ve had occasions where clients have ended up with two cars, because they can’t decide on which idea to go with ’

Core Values

WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

Clare Smyth is one of only a handful of women chefs to hold three Michelin stars. She tells us why the principles she learned at culinary school helped pave her pathway to success

Gordon Ramsay’s shouty, sweary on screen persona may be hammed-up for the cameras, but you’d still shiver at the thought of spending any longer than five minutes under his tutelage. Well, you would if you were me and your culinary skills largely extend to opening up the Deliveroo app. Which is probably why the decorated chef Clare Smyth –the first and so far only British chef to be awarded three Michelin stars, along with an MBE – relished the prospect of working under Ramsay, doing so for 13 years, including time as chef patron of Ramsay’s own three-star restaurant.

Ramsay would prove somewhat of a launchpad for Smyth. She was 24 when she joined him at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, staying for an initial three years before heading to France to work under Alain Ducasse at his three-Michelin-starred Le Louis XV in Monaco. Lured back to London, by the time she turned 29 Ramsay had made her the first woman in Britain to front a three-Michelin-star restaurant.

“Clare had an undeniable presence and determination, which was immediately obvious when I met her,” Ramsay remembered for an interview. “You can be a talented chef, but those traits are rare – when I see that combination in a young chef it’s incredibly exciting.”

So enamoured was Ramsay with those traits that he made Smyth a partner at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, setting out a pathway that he hoped would see her open her own restaurant under his umbrella restaurant group. But Smyth wanted to go it alone. To test herself. “Even though I left him, he helped me,” she said in an interview. “He loaned me money personally, then he took me to breakfast with his bank manager, because he knew if he told the bank he was lending me money, the bank would match it. So I had my money, Gordon’s money, and the bank’s money!”

It was enough for Smyth to open Core by Clare Smyth in London’s Notting Hill in 2017. A very personal restaurant, Smyth devised and designed every aspect of it; her thumbprint was embossed on the fine china plates, while the wine cellar

was stocked with bottles from her own collection. The critics lapped it up, and by 2021 it had been awarded the third of its Michelin stars, the fabled guide hailing its ‘exceptional cuisine’ and the ‘detailed construction and eye-catching presentation.”

It was the culmination of a dream that began in the less salubrious setting of the perennially windswept farm she grew up on in County Antrim, in the north of Ireland. She left it for England the very next day after finishing school at 16, but the farm has never really left her. “Growing up on a farm has profoundly influenced my way with food in several ways,” she tells us. “Firstly, it instilled in me a deep appreciation for fresh, locallysourced ingredients. I learned to value the importance of quality produce straight from the land. Additionally, being involved in the process of growing and harvesting crops, raising animals, and witnessing the labour and care that goes into producing food gave me a strong connection to the food I eat. This upbringing has shaped my culinary philosophy, emphasising simplicity, seasonality, and respect for the ingredients. The farm provided me with a foundation of understanding and respect for the entire food production process, which continues to influence my approach to cooking and food appreciation.”

This influence is obvious in many of Core’s dishes. Potato and roe is one; heritage potatoes cooked in a bouillon infused with roe, accompanied by herring and trout roe and finished with beurre blanc. “This dish hails our commitment to showcasing humble ingredients in innovative ways, while highlighting the restaurant’s dedication to sustainability and seasonality,” says Smyth. Another, titled lamb carrot, showcases lamb cooked in hay and served with heritage carrots, sheep’s milk yoghurt, and a lamb jus. “This dish not only highlights the restaurant’s focus on quality sourcing, but also its dedication to elevating classic British flavours with modern techniques and presentations.”

The restaurant industry is notoriously

tough and unforgiving, 80-hour weeks of toil sweated in pursuit of recognition. Smyth believes she owes a slice of her success to the principles she learned while training. “Several have proved important throughout my career. Firstly, I learned the importance of mastering the basics. Building a strong foundation in fundamental techniques such as knife skills, cooking methods, and flavour combinations is essential for success in the kitchen. Additionally, I learned the value of attention to detail and consistency. In a professional kitchen, every detail matters, from the seasoning of a dish to the presentation on the plate. Consistently delivering high-quality dishes is crucial for building a reputation and earning the trust of guests.

“Another principle I learned is the importance of teamwork and communication. In a fast-paced kitchen environment, effective communication and collaboration are essential for ensuring smooth service and delivering exceptional dining experiences. I also learned the significance of resilience and perseverance. The culinary industry can be demanding and challenging, but maintaining a positive attitude and pushing through setbacks is key to achieving success.

“Furthermore, I learned the importance of creativity and innovation. While mastering traditional techniques is important, constantly striving to push boundaries, experiment with new ingredients, and innovate in the kitchen is what keeps a restaurant dynamic and exciting.”

It’s also what gives a restaurant its three-star status. Did she feel it was harder to gain a Michelin star or to retain it? “Gaining one is incredibly difficult and requires exceptional culinary skill, creativity, consistency, and attention to detail. However, retaining a Michelin star can be even more challenging, as the pressure to maintain the highest standards and exceed expectations is immense.”

Three years on and counting since Core gained its third star, it’s clear that great expectations bring out the best in Clare Smyth.

‘The pressure to maintain the highest standards and exceed expectations is immense’

Hotel Café Royal London

For over a century London’s Café Royal has been a magnet for bon viveurs.

Winston Churchill was a regular diner, as were celebrated writers Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde. Elizabeth Taylor enjoyed a date with Richard Burton, Muhammed Ali fed his baby daughter in the lobby, and David Bowie’s alter ego Ziggy Stardust was retired in the wake of a star-studded party.

Whatever the reason to visit, Café Royal has long proved an excellent host.

If its enviable location on Regent Street can be called a feather in its cap, its suites must comprise a plumage. There are many great hotels in London with suites to match, but few can compete with Café Royal for variety. Ten categories take you from The Loft, a onebedroom suite high up on the hotel’s top floor that can be configured to include a second bedroom, to the room-with-a-view (over London’s rooftops) Oscar Suite. And from the Two Bedroom Grand Regent Suite that sleeps up to four adults to the Three Bedroom Family Suite that can house up to six.

Additionally there are four Signature Suites, the pinnacle of which is the magnificently opulent Three Bedroom Dome Penthouse, featuring two outsized alfresco terraces (Big Ben in your eyeline) and one DJ booth, guaranteeing a good night for the eight adults it homes. And, indeed, a good day – Signature Suite guests get use of a supercar throughout their stay, taking their pick from the likes of an Aston Martin DB11 and Ferrari 488.

And yet it isn’t the bells and whistles that we like so much about Café Royal, more the nuts and bolts. Those basics of customer service, which it does extremely well, such as the offer of a glass of chilled bubbly while they deal with the formalities of check in and the eagerness to lend a hand wherever one’s required.

That said, Cakes & Bubbles, Café Royal’s dessert and Champagne-led restaurant, is anything but nuts and bolts.

Anyone fortunate enough to have snagged a table at the culinary circus that was Tickets in Barcelona before it fell victim to covid will forever remember their trip to the restaurant’s dessert room. Its decor best resembled Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, a film-set-like secretive spot beneath the main restaurant where Albert Adrià (who together with his brother Ferran ran Tickets and before that the near mythical el Bulli) made the most mind-blowingly brilliant desserts.

Albert, who was head pastry chef at el Bulli, now lends his extraordinary talents to Cake & Bubbles, bringing with him Tickets’ tasteit-to-believe-it cheesecake. We live in an age of hyperbole, but safe to say you won’t taste better desserts anywhere else on Earth.

What I Know Now

Anne-Lise Cremona

CEO, HENRY JACQUES

A quote from my grandmother that resonates in my mind whenever I need reassurance in my decisions (especially professional ones) is “bien faire et laisser dire.” It translates to “do it well and let them talk” and reminds me to always trust myself and my vision, without letting negative opinions influence me. With each new vision, one must push the boundaries of what has already been established. If we let ourselves be sidetracked by the opinions of others we turn away from our own instinct. That is why we must never stop in our tracks and move forward with conviction.

Starting the day for me is like stepping onto a stage, therefore I always try to carve out a moment of tranquility for myself before diving into the whirlwind that are my workdays. I cherish a peaceful breakfast, followed by the comforting gesture of applying my perfume in my dressing room. The choice of my perfume really prepares me for the day ahead. These rituals serve as a foundation for my

day, allowing me to meditate, find clarity, and resolve various matters.

A lesson I learned the hard way was giving the benefit of doubt to others when the signals prove otherwise and finding extenuating circumstances when I shouldn’t. This has cost me a lot of time and energy in the past.

I find inspiration in everything around me, from the mundane to the most sophisticated things. I constantly seek nourishment from my surroundings. These various sources of inspiration are what shape my work today, each holding its unique significance.

I place great value in fostering admiration. In my opinion, admiration is something beautiful, essential in society and the cornerstone of inspiration. I find that more and more often nowadays, admiration takes a back seat to envy, which is truly a shame. I hold deep admiration for individuals who are sensitive, creative, and generous.

Above all, one should never believe that success is solely defined by professional achievement. For me, personal success is also about shaping and living the life that suits you. Being in harmony with oneself and daring enough to make one’s own choices, whatever they may be. This should be the quest, the pursuit of a lifetime.

If I could tell my younger self something, I’d advise her to think more about herself, in order to be able to think better of others and to give more space to creativity.

My personal ambition is simple: to live a string of happy moments with my loved ones. I am a builder at heart; I love to construct things. Professionally, my ambition will always be to prove that haute parfumerie is very much alive. I would like to bring perfume back to the heart of people’s lives, the way it always was in past civilizations, because the power of perfume is infinite.

Illustration: Leona Beth

Reine de Naples 8918

The Queen of Naples, Caroline Bonaparte Murat, owned thirty-four Breguet watches.

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