Marylebone Journal issue 98

MARYLEBONE JOURNAL

P.20

HOW TRACKSMITH WORKS TO FEED THE OBSESSION OF COMMITTED RUNNERS

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ALEXANDER GIFFORD OF MARYLEBONE THEATRE ON OPENING A SIGNIFICANT NEW VENUE IN THE HEART OF LONDON

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TRACEY NEULS ON CHANNELLING EMOTION INTO SHOE DESIGN

ISSUE NO.98

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE HOWARD DE WALDEN ESTATE AND THE PORTMAN ESTATE

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Twitter: @MaryleboneVllge

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Publisher LSC Publishing lscpublishing.com

Editor

Mark Riddaway mark@lscpublishing.com

Advertising sales

Donna Earrey 020 7401 2772 donna@lscpublishing.com

Contributers

Jean-Paul Aubin-Parvu

Ellie Costigan

Clare Finney

Orlando Gili

Viel Richardson

Janet Tyler

Design and art direction Em-Project Limited mike@em-project.com

Owned and supported by The Howard de Walden Estate 23 Queen Anne Street, W1G 9DL 020 7580 3163 hdwe.co.uk annette.shiel@hdwe.co.uk

The Portman Estate 40 Portman Square, W1H 6LT 020 7563 1400 portmanestate.co.uk rebecca.eckles@portmanestate.co.uk

MARYLEBONE JOURNAL ISSUE NO.98

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE HOWARD DE WALDEN ESTATE AND THE PORTMAN ESTATE

HAPPENINGS

3 IN MARYLEBONE

Events, exhibitions, film, music, shopping, talks, theatre and walks

IN PROFILE: 14 ALEXANDER GIFFORD

The artistic director of the Marylebone Theatre on modelling for Gaultier, seeking spirituality, and opening a significant new venue in the heart of London

BORN TO RUN 20

Matt Taylor of the US sportswear brand Tracksmith on feeding the obsession of committed amateur runners

THE DIFFERENCE 31 MAKERS

Lena Choudary-Salter, founder and CEO of The Mosaic Community Trust

A CLOSER 34 LOOK Food, style, home, wellbeing and healthcare

Q&A: 34

YASMINE LARIZADEH

The co-founder of The Good Life Eatery on learning on the job, becoming part of a community, and selling London’s best coconut water

Q&A: 42

TRACEY NEULS

The owner of the eponymous footwear brand on moving across the road, channelling emotion into design, and enjoying the ageless scent of plasticene

ANATOMY OF 52 A DESIGN

Jake Hobson, co-founder of Niwaki, on the work that went into creating the company’s signature secateurs

Cover: Tracksmith running apparel in action

HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE EVENTS EXHIBITIONS FILM MUSIC SHOPPING TALKS THEATRE WALKS

MUSIC

Violinist Rachel Podger, who in 2015 became the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Music Kohn Foundation Bach Prize, is renowned for her skilled interpretations of Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Purcell and more. For this intimate performance, she presents a typically compelling programme of Baroque and Classical music.

23 FEBRUARY, 7.30pm

RACHEL PODGER

Marylebone Theatre

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

TALK

22 FEBRUARY

JOSEPH O’CONNOR IN CONVERSATION

Daunt Books

83-84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW dauntbooks.co.uk

The acclaimed author of Shadowplay and Star of the Sea discusses his latest work, My Father’s House, a powerful novel of resistance and rescue during the Second World War, as an Irish priest prepares a daring mission in the Vatican City.

WALK

23 FEBRUARY, 12pm

PUBLIC ART WALK IN MARYLEBONE

Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk

This free guided walk, led by a professional guide, takes in the many monuments, statues, fountains and modern art installations hidden in plain sight around the Baker Street Quarter. The walk sets off from 55 Baker Street at midday. Booking is required.

FILM

23 FEBRUARY, 7PM

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: OTHELLO

Everyman Baker Street

96-98 Baker Street, W1U 6TJ everymancinema.com

Streaming live from the National Theatre, this extraordinary new production of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy is directed by Clint Dyer, with a cast that includes Giles Terera (Hamilton), Rosy McEwan (The Alienist) and Paul Hilton (The Inheritance).

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1. Rachel Podger, Marylebone Theatre

2. Joseph O’Conner, Daunt Books

3. National Theatre Live: Othello, Everyman Baker Street

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MUSIC

23 FEBRUARY, 7.30pm

ANGELA HEWITT & ANNA BONITATIBUS

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Pianist Angela Hewitt, Wigmore Hall’s current artist in residence, collaborates with mezzo-soprano Anna Bonitatibus, one of the most remarkable singers of our day, on a striking set of songs from Berlioz, Liszt, Rossini and Viardot.

THEATRE

UNTIL 25 FEBRUARY

MACBETH: A GOLDEN COUPLE, DESTINED FOR GLORY

The Cockpit

Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.org.uk

Admired and feted by all, Macbeth leads King Duncan’s forces to a huge military success. The witches, however, can smell his ambition and mendacity. In this provocative treatment of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, they intervene to test his character and loyalty.

1. Angela Hewitt, Wigmore Hall

2. A Kaleidoscopic Chamber Celebration, Royal Academy of Music

3. Phil Wang, Marylebone Theatre

4. Steinwerk, Marylebone Theatre

5. Lorenza Borrani, Royal Academy of Music

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MUSIC

COMEDY

27 FEBRUARY, 8pm

QUIP SHED COMEDY Marylebone Theatre

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

The Marylebone Theatre plays host to monthly comedy shows featuring some of the brightest talents on the stand-up circuit. Hosted by Lyle Barke, February’s line-up includes Russell Hicks, Ivo Graham and Helen Bauer, with a headline appearance by Phil Wang.

This year’s visiting professors curate three programmes reflecting their passion for creative and innovative chamber playing. Academy students perform alongside musicians from the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, including pianist Tom Poster and violinist Elena Urioste.

28 FEBRUARY, 2 MARCH, 3 MARCH, 1pm A KALEIDOSCOPIC CHAMBER CELEBRATION

Royal Academy of Music

Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

MUSIC

1 MARCH, 7.30pm

TRISH CLOWES & MY IRIS Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Saxophonist Trish Clowes and her My Iris ensemble are joined on the Wigmore Hall stage by a rollcall of guest musicians to perform a programme of music created in England by artists as diverse as Henry Purcell and Jimi Hendrix, adapted to their own unique style of performance.

MUSIC

2 MARCH, 7pm QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME

The Hellenic Centre 16-18 Paddington Street, W1U 5AS helleniccentre.org

The Waldstein Piano Trio and clarinettist Benjamin Mason perform Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, written by the French composer while he was interned at the Stalag VIIIA prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany.

THEATRE

2 – 8 MARCH

STEINWERK

Marylebone Theatre

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

This experiential artwork from performance/sound artist Steve Boyland and poet Sean Borodale unfolds across six standalone evening performances and two daytime workshops, for which a staged rock acts as a prompt for a discussion on the nature of animacy.

MUSIC

10 MARCH, 1pm

LORENZA BORRANI DIRECTS THE ACADEMY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

In this free lunchtime performance, Lorenza Borrani directs a programme featuring excerpts from Ottaviano Petrucci’s Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, followed by Haydn’s Symphony No 56.

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MUSIC

11 MARCH, 7:30pm

WILL LIVERMAN: EL CIMARRÓN

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Accompanied by Adam Walker (flute), Sean Shibe (guitar) and Owen Gunnell (percussion), the extraordinary American baritone Will Liverman sings Hans Werner Henze’s El Cimarrón (1970), a “recital for four musicians” which tells the true story of the runaway Cuban slave Esteban Montejo.

MUSIC

16 MARCH, 7.30pm

NOVUS STRING QUARTET

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

One of Korea’s leading chamber ensembles performs Janácek’s Kreutzer Sonata (a work inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s novella of the same name and by the composer’s passionate love for the much younger, and married, Kamila Stösslová), alongside pieces by Britten and Shostakovich.

NEW

The Brown Collection

MUSIC

17 MARCH, 6.30pm

ACADEMY MANSON

ENSEMBLE: VERDALA

Royal Academy of Music

Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

This free concert features ensemble works by the Academy’s composer in residence Hannah Kendall and a new work by student Oran Johnson, together with Thomas Adès’s Living Toys and his reimagining of Couperin’s Les baricades mistérieuses.

Glenn Brown, a contemporary British artist famed for technically exquisite paintings that plunder the images and language of art history and use them to create something new, rich and strange, has opened a gallery in Marylebone. The space, which was originally two mews buildings and had been used as a furniture workshop and showroom, took four years to restore. It is now open to the public, without the need for appointments. The gallery will display a collection of Brown’s own paintings, sculptures and drawings that he has held on to throughout his storied career, alongside which he will gradually begin to hang paintings, drawings and prints by historic artists from his private collection, but in a way that mixes them in rather than setting them apart as discrete shows.

MUSIC

A highly regarded saxophonist and composer, Josephine Davies blends classical, jazz and folk music, creating an intensely dynamic sound infused with influences from her Shetland roots. This concert is her debut project with the Academy Jazz Orchestra.

10 MARCH, 7.30pm

ACADEMY JAZZ ORCHESTRA: JOSEPHINE DAVIES

Royal Academy of Music

Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

The gallery’s proximity to the Wallace Collection has particular resonance, as the rococo masterpieces in Hertford House have been the source of inspiration for many of Brown’s best-known works. These include Searched Hard for You and Your Special Ways, in which Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s A Boy as Pierrot is turned upside down.

The Brown Collection

1 Bentinck Mews, W1U 2AF glenn-brown.co.uk

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EXHIBITION

24 FEBRUARY – 17 MARCH

NOT BLACK OR WHITE

SoShiro

23 Welbeck Street, W1G 8DZ soshiro.co

This exhibition features over 60 works, including paintings, textiles, sculptures and design pieces in glass, metal and wood, created by artists in London, South Africa, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, and other African countries. What unites them is a sense of raw storytelling and palpable emotion.

1. Will Liverman, Wigmore Hall

2. Josephine Davies, Royal Academy of Music

3. Let There Be Calm, by Lesego Seoketsa, SoShiro

4. Le Nozze Di Figaro, Royal Academy of Music

5. We’ll Keep On Dancing Till We Pay The Rent, by Glenn Brown, The Brown Collection

EXHIBITION

2 – 18 MARCH

NEWMHAIRI MCGREGOR: ACROSS THE POND

Thompson’s Gallery

3 Seymour Place, W1H 5AZ thompsonsgallery.co.uk

Mhairi McGregor has gained acclaim for her highly abstracted, contemporary Colourist landscape paintings, captured ‘en plein air’. This exhibition, which follows in the wake of a trip to the United States, includes images of Midwestern barns and Lake Michigan lighthouses.

MUSIC

21 – 24 MARCH, 6pm

ROYAL ACADEMY OPERA: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

Royal Academy of Music

Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

Mozart’s genius was to portray the innermost desires and anxieties of human beings, regardless of their gender or social class. His extraordinary gift for characterisation through music makes The Marriage of Figaro the ideal vehicle for opera students to hone their craft.

THEATRE

14 – 26 MARCH

GRENFELL: SYSTEM FAILURE

Marylebone Theatre

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

Reconstructing the final phase of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, this hard-hitting performance, interrogates why manufacturers promoted flammable cladding, why the testing regime failed to warn of the danger and why government regulations were either insufficient or ignored.

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Q&A: ANDREA HARARI

The co-founder of jaggedart on her gallery’s 21st anniversary

Interview: Mark Riddaway

Images: Alun Callender

You’re celebrating a special anniversary this year. Tell us about that.

It is 21 years since we started jaggedart. We opened our first space in Westbourne Studios in 2002. It was like a storeroom that people could come and browse, not a gallery. We were there for three years, but it naturally evolved that we needed a space to have shows. I came here with a friend one Sunday, because I loved Marylebone. I saw these premises to let, peeked through the window, then called the following day. We’ve been here ever since. This is our home.

How did you come to start the business?

I’m originally from Argentina. I used to curate shows there and run an art fair called Arteba. When I was 29, I decided to take a year off and come to London for an ‘abroad experience’. I studied contemporary art at Christie’s, and it was there that I met Janeen, who’s the other half of jaggedart. My year away never ended. I worked in a gallery on Cork Street, then went to work as the art editor of a dot com. It was really a great idea, but as with most of those dot coms, it didn’t last. When that finished, I said: “Okay, I’m going to start my own business.” After managing the Cork Street gallery for four years, I really didn’t want to run my own gallery. You become a slave to

a gallery. You have to be there all the time. Now here I am, 21 years later, a slave of a gallery. But I love it.

When you started, did you always have a clear idea of the art that you wanted to show?

No, not at all. It evolved organically. Janeen and I are from very different backgrounds – she’s English, I’m from Argentina – but we both like the same things. We look at something and we both say: “Yes!” It’s amazing. There are lots of things that make a good partnership: it’s our way of working, it’s our ethos, it’s a moral thing, but we also just love the same art.

So, is the primary condition for showing work that it resonates with you on a personal level?

Yes, that’s basic. If it doesn’t resonate with me, I won’t show it. I would never, ever show something that I don’t like, because I wouldn’t be able to sell it. Most of the things in the gallery, I would love to have in my home. Of course, there are some that you like more than others, but I love all the works I show.

Do you need to feel an affinity for the artist as well?

When you start showing an artist, there has to be a good understanding and a lot of trust. It’s a bit like a marriage. You’re going to be representing that person. You’re going to be telling their story. The artist needs to feel comfortable with you and with the way that you’ll put their work into conversation with that of other artists – that’s what the galleries do. You have to work with people that you like. We’re too old to deal with people we don’t like.

What is the role of a physical gallery in this online era?

The kind of work that we show, you need to see it in the flesh. There is something about the textures, the volumes, the three-dimensionality. Nothing replaces that experience of coming and looking at a show

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and making the connections and seeing the work in dialogue. Nothing replaces that. Having a gallery is also about making a relationship with the client, telling them about the artists, about the art. There’s no one who walks through that door that we don’t go out and talk to and that’s what makes it very special. If they buy a work at the end of that conversation, that is, for me, quite magical. The cycle is complete.

Who are your clients?

It’s very broad. At the beginning, when we first started selling threedimensional works, the British public was more used to buying paintings and landscapes and still lifes, so our work seemed very different. But I think people’s tastes have evolved. A lot of young people buy art here for the first time and that’s really nice. We also work a lot with interior designers.

Do you still get excited at seeing pieces for the first time?

Yes. When the works arrive in the gallery, it’s like Christmas. I really never know exactly what’s going to come for the show. I have an idea. You plan, obviously, but it’s never quite the same as when you have them there in front of you and you’re going to put them together and see for the first time how they’re going to dialogue with the other pieces. It’s a lot of physical work, but it’s fun. I’m like a kid in a candy store when I’m putting a show up.

So, what are you doing to celebrate your gallery’s coming of age?

We are producing a very beautiful publication to reflect what jaggedart is and celebrate many of our artists. In April, we’re having an anniversary show and this special book. That’s very exciting. A headache too, but very exciting!

JAGGEDART

28A Devonshire Street, W1G 6PS jaggedart.com

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FOOD

The Baker Street Quarter’s fortnightly food market in the covered atrium of 55 Baker Street gathers together a small but diverse range of independent street-food stalls, offering a mouthwatering alternative to the usual workday lunch.

23 FEBRUARY, 9 MARCH, 23 MARCH FOOD MARKET AT 55 BAKER STREET Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk

MUSIC

26 MARCH, 7.30pm

AVI AVITAL & KSENIJA SIDOROVA

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Two gifted exponents of unusual instruments – Avi Avital’s mandolin and Ksenija Sidorova’s accordion – come together for a programme of arrangements ranging from the 18th to the 20th centuries, visiting France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Romania and Brazil along the way.

MUSIC

30 MARCH, 7.30pm

DUNEDIN CONSORT: HANDEL IN ROME

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Between 1706 and 1709 Handel travelled around Italy, imbibing the latest musical fashions. Directed by Benjamin Bayl with Nardus Williams singing soprano, the Dunedin’s programme concentrates on the Italian-inspired compositions he created in Rome.

1. Janeen Haythornthwaite and Andrea Harari, jaggedart

Food Market at 55 Baker Street, Baker Street Quarter Partnership

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FOOD

The Marylebone Food Festival returns to cast a spotlight on the area’s diverse and ever-changing food scene. Visit the website for updates on dozens of culinary events taking place across the neighbourhood throughout the festival, which is organised and funded by The Howard de Walden Estate and The Portman Estate. Highlights include a gala dinner hosted by Jay Rayner, with each course cooked by a different chef from the area’s best restaurants.

25 – 30 APRIL

MARYLEBONE FOOD FESTIVAL marylebonefoodfestival.com

THEATRE

30 MARCH – 1 APRIL

TROLLS ONLINE

The Cockpit Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.org.uk

Tim Thomas’s sparky, satirical musical tells of the blossoming romance between a young coder who is trying to save the planet’s wildlife and an asylum-seeker who has been to hell and back. An unusual bond grows as they try to negotiate their way through the many pitfalls of social media.

EXHIBITION 24 FEBRUARY – 8 APRIL

HAROON MIRZA: |||

Lisson Gallery

67 Lisson Street, NW1 5DA lissongallery.com

Haroon Mirza presents a collection of new works, entitled |||, based around the so-called ‘holy’ or ‘divine’ frequency of 111 Hz, which permeates the gallery spaces creating a sonic bathing experience. Individual pieces incorporate light, moving image, sound and sculpture.

EXHIBITION 3 MARCH – 8 APRIL

JULIAN OPIE: OP.VR@LISSON

Lisson Gallery

52-54 Bell Street, NW1 5DA lissongallery.com

Julian Opie introduces a new series of works including a ground-breaking virtual reality experience that invites visitors to journey through a new dimension wearing portable headsets. The presentation also includes a dance sequence, large-scale portraits, landscapes and architectural works.

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EXHIBITION

21 MARCH – 8 APRIL

ANDREW TOZER

Thompson’s Gallery

3 Seymour Place, W1H 5AZ thompsonsgallery.co.uk

Thompson’s Gallery presents an exhibition of new and unseen paintings by the esteemed artist Andrew Tozer, who comes from a Cornish farming family and is inspired by the county’s roaming cliffs, beaches, woodlands and creeks, which he remembers as being the backdrop to his childhood.

THEATRE

13 – 16 APRIL

WIZARD OF OZ: THE PANTO

The Cockpit

Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.org.uk

Written by Tom Whalley and presented by Starcatcher Productions, this lively, allsinging, all-dancing Easter pantomime is based on L Frank Baum’s much-loved fairy tale and the familiar film it inspired. Join Dorothy and her pet dog Toto on a magical adventure for all the family.

EXHIBITION

The Gloucester Room gallery presents a richly varied selection of works from four very different artists: oil paintings by Dragica Carlin showcasing her signature swirl motifs; lithographs from Jean Cocteau’s plays and David Hockney’s 1991 Alphabet project; and new pastel and oil works by Sam Wood inspired by Kew Gardens and Chiltern Firehouse.

UNTIL 30 APRIL

DRAGICA CARLIN, JEAN COCTEAU, DAVID HOCKNEY, SAM WOOD

Gloucester Room

5 New Cavendish Street, W1G 8UT gloucesterroom.com

THEATRE

31 MARCH – 6 MAY

THE DRY HOUSE

Marylebone Theatre

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

In the Irish border town of Newry, Chrissy promises her sister Claire that after one final drink she will go to the Dry House to get sober. Does she mean it this time? An all-female cast perform this powerful new play by Eugene O’Hare about love, loss and the potential for hope.

1. Marylebone Food Festival

2. Julia Opie, Lisson Gallery

3. Wizard of Oz: The Panto, The Cockpit

4. Two Swirls, Series 8, by Dragica Carlin, Gloucester Room

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EXHIBITION

Through carefully selected paintings, sculptures, drawings, works of art and even taxidermy, this exhibition highlights the unique bond between humans and their canine companions across many centuries. Dog portraiture, which emerged as far back as the earliest cave paintings, flourished in Britain from the 17th century onwards. Bringing together over 50 works of art at Hertford House, the Portraits of Dogs exhibition presents a broad range of artworks showing dogs in all their different shapes and sizes.

29 MARCH – 15 OCTOBER

PORTRAITS OF DOGS: FROM GAINSBOROUGH TO HOCKNEY

The Wallace Collection

Manchester Square W1U 3BN wallacecollection.org

EXHIBITION

25 APRIL – 8 MAY

THEMBALETHU MANQUNYANA

Thompson’s Gallery

3 Seymour Place, W1H 5AZ thompsonsgallery.co.uk

A vibrant collection of works by Thembalethu Manqunyana, who hails from Gqeberha, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and has a distinctive, highly colourful approach to portraiture. His paintings take inspiration from the boundary-breaking approach of artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Blessing Ngobeni.

EXHIBITION

UNTIL SEPTEMBER 2023

WIGMORE HALL: PORTRAYING OUR PEOPLE

Wigmore Hall

36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

Photographer Christopher Jonas spent several months behind the scenes at Wigmore Hall, capturing candid shots of everyday life at one of the country’s most important musical venues. His fascinating exhibition shows a side of the Hall usually hidden from the public.

1. Dog Painting 30, by David Hockney, The Wallace Collection

2. The Green Man, by Thembalethu Manqunyana, Thompson’s Gallery

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ALEXANDER GIFFORD IN PROFILE

The artistic director of the Marylebone Theatre on modelling for Gaultier, seeking spirituality, and opening a significant new venue in the heart of London

Words: Janet Tyler

Images: Orlando Gili

The Marylebone Theatre auditorium

A confession. When I first heard last year that a new theatre, the Marylebone Theatre, was opening its doors, I had two overwhelming thoughts. My first was to ask what mad hubris this was, to launch an off-West End theatre in the wake of a pandemic that had wreaked such havoc on small performance venues the world over. The second thought, which quickly followed, was that I’d better book tickets to the opening play, Dmitry, in support of “local theatre”. It was – and this is my confession – an act of patronising patronage. As a regular theatregoer to the behemoths of London – the National, the Almeida, the Donmar – I had embarrassingly low expectations. What I encountered blew me away.

In the elegantly designed theatre space, embraced by natural wood, Dmitry was a spectacle of scale and power. Adapted by award-winning playwright Peter Oswald from Friedrich Schiller’s last and unfinished play, this propulsive political thriller catapulted the audience into the world of a ruthless regime and its powerful young opponent who may or may not be who he thinks he is. The play’s political

deception and manipulation roared large in this intimate space – as did the performances from an impressive cast, which included established actors such as Poppy Miller (Line of Duty, The Second Best Marigold Hotel) and relative newcomers like the brilliant Tom Byrne (The House of the Dragon, The Crown). The night I was there, the performance ended with a standing ovation. I needed to know who was behind this bold new venture.

One month later, I’m meeting the theatre’s artistic director, Alexander Gifford. He greets me exuberantly at the theatre’s friendly box office with a warm handshake, his dark foppish hair swept absent-mindedly off his forehead, his stylish thick-knit cream cardigan looking for all its worth a little like a comfort blanket – which might well be needed given the frenetic year he’s spent getting a new theatre up and running.

The ambition of the theatre has been writ large. Alexander has pulled together a heavyweight team, from Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance as patron to ex-Young Vic artistic director Tim Supple as associate director. From the big-stage spectacle of Dmitry to an intimate evening with novelist Ben Okri reciting TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, to the successful run of a new Christmas play, A Sherlock Carol, Alexander has transformed a small, moth-gathering space in the (beautiful) Rudolf Steiner building into a vital, public-facing theatre that is clearly going to make its mark on London’s cultural scene. How? Well, he answered a job advertisement.

Let’s rewind 20 years, because Alexander’s story is an extraordinary journey that makes this end point at the Marylebone Theatre (which also feels like a starting point) seem both improbably and entirely inevitable. It begins (in my condensed version) when Alexander is 17, wandering High Street Kensington market when he feels a tap on his shoulder. He doesn’t recognise the gentleman at first, until he leans in closer. “Are you… Jean Paul Gaultier?” It is. Two weeks later, literally, Alexander is in Paris in a sequined shirt on a catwalk with the top models of the day – Helena Christensen, Carla Bruni... “It was a bit overwhelming to be honest. I couldn’t believe what was going on, but I did my stuff,” he says, laughing. “I strutted up and down.”

His photograph from the Gaultier show appeared in GQ magazine, which of course sent his profile at school through the roof. He signed to a modelling agent, was photographed by fashion photographer Mario Testino, and was subsequently cast in a major Indian feature film. “It was funny because I got this script and I thought… I don’t want to do this. But there were loads of famous actors in it, including this actor called Naseeruddin Shah – the Robert de Niro of India – and Naveen Andrews,

“Steiner fully acknowledged the deep richness of Eastern mystical culture but he said the really important thing was that we in the West discover our own mystical religious tradition. And in a way, that is the journey that I myself went on.”

who’d just been at the Oscars for The English Patient, and Roshan Seth who played Nehru in the film Gandhi. So I thought, okay well, I’d better do it.” He went to India, stayed with family (he’s of Indian-Zoroastrian heritage on his mother’s side), and filmed Bombay Boys, all the while continuing to study for his A-levels. “I had my 18th birthday when I was there – it was fabulous. I was having a whale of a time.”

When I ask if he worried that he’d hit his peak at too early an age, Alexander laughs. “Poetry and literature were also a big thing. I was reading a lot of poetry and novels, so I went back and did my A-levels and then went to Oxford to read English.” It was while at university, following “the usual emotional struggles, ups and downs”, that he had a “kind of breakdown and spiritual awakening”. It saw him give up meat and alcohol, become celibate for a time, and intently focus on spiritual development. While completing his studies and embarking on his career, he regularly went back to India to live in an ashram, rising at four in the morning and meditating for six or seven hours a day. He was, as he calls it, “a classic seeker”.

It was around this time that he heard about “this place called Rudolf Steiner House” in Marylebone. He ventured to its bookshop and was “completely blown away”. “In Steiner, I found someone who I felt bridged East and West. Steiner fully acknowledged the deep richness of Eastern mystical culture but he said the really important thing was that we in the West discover our own mystical religious tradition. And in a way, that is the journey that I myself went on.”

Alongside his career as an actor, and inspired by Steiner’s expansive but inclusive, non-dogmatic philosophy, Alexander trained as a Steiner teacher. It was while he was teaching part-time at a Steiner school in Gloucestershire that he became involved with the ASHA Centre, a nearby interfaith cultural and educational organisation. Through the centre, he and his friend Adrian Locher founded a programme that involved them travelling first to Israel and then South Africa to work on theatre projects with teenagers. On the back of that work, Alexander and Adrian were invited to take over the management of a theatre in Gloucester, from which they founded the Gloucester Theatre Company. “That was it. We were suddenly up and rolling. We were doing big shows, we were getting Arts Council Funding. That’s where I cut my teeth in theatre directing, theatre producing, running a venue.”

“So Adrian and I have sort of travelled as colleagues right from the beginning,” Alexander explains. “We’ve had these three big metamorphoses – the ASHA Centre, the Gloucester Theatre Company and now the

Marylebone Theatre, which is the biggest and the best by far,” he says. “In my opinion,” he hastens to add, laughing.

Which brings us full circle, back to the job advertisement for the artistic director role for a forgotten theatre in Rudolf Steiner House. “I was one of the few people who worked professionally in theatre who had a connection to Steiner,” Alexander says. “It was a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity for me, because I’d been living with this sense of a split in my life, between my love of and grounding in Steiner and spirituality, and then the mainstream world of work, feeling that I wasn’t connecting the two as fully as I would have liked. This was just the perfect opportunity to blend the two.”

His pitch to the board was that they could do this on a grand scale: open the space out into a public, professional venue, producing high quality work that could be recognised and enjoyed by large audiences. “If we continue to invest a little bit, if we get this right, there’s no reason that this shouldn’t be a really significant new venue for London and also a major producing house.” A big part of his vision – because the stage is so large – is for the theatre to be a powerhouse for new writing and a place to incubate shows that can go to the West End.

The job to date has involved a number of indelible moments – from Mark Rylance’s enthusiasm to be the theatre’s patron (“of course that super-charged the whole thing”), to attaching theatre luminary Tim Supple (“I thought it was a bit of a bold move! My hand was slightly shaking as I called his agent up”), to the point during the opening season when they knew that the venue could sell out. “So, there has been a sequence of moments where we’ve realised: this is working, we’ve done it.”

Following that successful first season, the second season is even more packed. The theatre programme includes Grenfell: System Failure, a sequel to Nick Kent’s critically acclaimed play Grenfell: Value Engineering. Using transcripts from the Grenfell Tower inquiry, powerfully edited for dramatic effect, the sequel focuses on the inquiry’s later stages – the testimonies of the victims, government ministers and the company responsible for installing the cladding. “It’s an incredibly potent mixture of testimonies that you get on stage and I think it’s – oh my god – it’s sort of a laser point into the dysfunctional heart of our political system. The Daily Telegraph said about the first one, this is state of the nation stuff – and it really is, it gets to the heart of things.”

The second play for the new season is The Dry House by Irish writer Eugene O’Hare. “Eugene erupted onto the scene a couple of years ago,” Alexander tells me. “He had two plays produced at the Park Theatre in one year and was rightly hailed at that moment as being a powerful and

important new writer who is also growing and evolving. And I think now he has written a truly great play.”

Set in modern Ireland, The Dry House is about two sisters, one of whom is promising, after one last drink, to go to a clinic to overcome her addiction. “The beauty is it absolutely head-on confronts the trauma of our times. It goes to this incredible rock-bottom, and then it goes through it to a hope and a transformation. For me, that’s what I want theatre to do – to get so honest and deep but to come through it.”

Alexander’s personal belief is that audiences are tired of the “Beckettian-Pinterish” mode of theatre – of isolated individuals trapped in a world where they can’t communicate with each other and where no redemption ever comes from the outside. He believes that we want to feel that we can move through that. We want hope, I say. “Yes,” Alexander replies. “And not only that we want hope but that there is hope.”

The second season also includes more spoken word events, stand-up comedy and film screenings, and –importantly – music programmed by Grammy Awardwinning Robin Tyson. “Robin announced the programme and there were gasps from the audience – they’re really top names.” Those names include Rachel Podger, described by The Times as “the unsurpassed glory of the baroque violin”; and baritone Benjamin Appl, a BBC New Generation Artist.

When, as Alexander is walking me back out, I ask about the trials and tribulations of transforming this small forgotten space into the Marylebone Theatre, he tells me, with a humble and slightly dazed pride: “Change takes commitment and force and investment of many kinds. The thrill has been to see it work.”

MARYLEBONE THEATRE

Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, NW1 6XT marylebonetheatre.com

“Eugene O’Hare erupted onto the scene a couple of years ago. He was rightly hailed at that moment as being a powerful and important new writer who is also growing and evolving. And I think now he has written a truly great play.”

Fixtures and fittings in the striking new Marylebone Theatre

BORN TO RUN

By focusing solely on the needs of serious but non-professional runners, the American sportswear brand Tracksmith has chosen a narrow track – but one along which many people stride. The Journal meets its co-founder, Matt Taylor

Words: Clare Finney

I didn’t intend to interview Matt Taylor in running kit. I certainly didn’t intend to interview him in kit that comes from a combination of almost every sportswear brand other than his own. But I’d been for my regular morning run, come back to a prolonged interaction with a BT engineer, and then found myself with no time to shower and change. Well, I thought as I grabbed my coat and flew out the door, if anyone is going to look kindly on someone meeting them in their running gear, it is surely Matt: a lifelong runner and former head of ‘running category marketing’ at Puma who eight years ago founded Tracksmith, the ‘pure’ running brand that, after garnering a cult following in the United States, has recently opened its first international store in Marylebone.

The brand was born in Boston, Massachusetts: Matt’s home city, and the location of the Boston Marathon, an event so beloved by its citizens they’ve made the race day a public holiday. Tracksmith is as lean, thoughtful and laser-focused in its mission as its founder is in person: to design clothing specifically for non-professional yet competitive runners, who run for the pure joy of running as much as they do for the more mundane benefits of regular exercise.

It’s not for elite athletes. Nor is it for couch-to5K-ers, or people who hate running but do it because they don’t want to shell out for gym membership. It’s for people who are not making their living from running, but who do have to run in order to feel alive. These people – and I am one, so feel entitled to write freely – can be fanatical to the point of evangelism about the power of running outdoors to transform your immediate mood and your long-term mentality. “It’s so cliched to say: ‘for runners, by runners’ –but we live and breathe running every day,” Matt explains over coffee. “We identify with running more strongly than someone who goes out for a run now and then. We speak to people who have gone past that stage, who from a mindset perspective would say: ‘Yeah, I’m a runner,’ as opposed to being someone who runs.”

Once you self-identify as a runner, you tend to feel a deeper connection to the sport, Matt continues – even if you don’t run particularly fast or for particularly long distances. You might look for clubs, compete in marathons, or seek out

films or podcasts about running. That’s why, as well as producing running kit, Tracksmith offers community in the form of twice-weekly runs, in-store events, and short films and stories exploring runners and running culture online. As with the kit, the focus of these is not professional athletes, but committed runners with interesting stories about the endurance, elation and emotional turbulence encapsulated by running.

Unlike most sportswear brands, Tracksmith eschews the idea of sponsoring professional athletes too, in favour of supporting aspiring amateurs, or runners with artistic ambitions. Their most famous collaborator is Malcolm Gladwell, the beloved Canadian intellectual and author. Having been spotted running in Tracksmith gear in New York, the brand invited him to do their first TV commercial and then their podcast, Speed City, telling the previously little-known story of two African American sprinters, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, bowing their heads and raising their fists on the podium at the 1968 Olympic Games in an antiracist protest.

Like Sweaty Betty, the activewear brand that has worked wonders for getting more women into sport, Tracksmith aims to be accessible; yet their approach to accessibility is noticeably different. They do not seek to straddle the gap between

Above: Matt Taylor

“Together with football, running is the only sport that is truly global, open to people on every continent.”

“All the running brands were either going for athletes on the Olympic podium, or the ‘get off the couch’ crowd. And left in the middle were millions of committed runners.”

sportswear and fashion, nor are they interested in designing for other activities. Where Sweaty Betty and similar brands blur the boundaries between leisurewear and sportswear, tapping into trends and designing for everything from swimming to dancing, skiing and sleeping, Tracksmith has stuck resolutely to its running lane. Of course, diversifying has its merits, as the success of his competitors proves; but when Matt established Tracksmith eight years ago that general drift towards diversification had left a gap in the market. “What happened in running 10 to 15 years ago is that all the running brands were either going for athletes on the Olympic podium, or the ‘get off the couch’ health-and-wellness crowd. And left in the middle were millions of committed runners,” he explains. These were runners who will never be professional, but wanted specialised, quality kit. “Those brands are so big. They’re involved in so many different sports. It’s not that they’re not focused, but if you’re a runner, they’re not focused enough on running. They’re under pressure to focus on different things.”

Tracksmith’s approach is more like that of Patagonia, says Matt. “I hope that Tracksmith is a running brand, and only a running brand,

forever. Patagonia have been able to walk that fine line of being able to grow and expand their now billion-dollar business, while staying really true to the original vision of the brand decades after the founding.”

This purist approach takes longer, he acknowledges. “It’s much easier to chase trends.” But in running, Tracksmith has a sport that is by definition accessible. The investment required is minimal, as are the restraints imposed by location and geography, and the timing is flexible. You can run almost anywhere, almost any time. Legs and motivation are the only requirement. “Together with football, running is the only sport that is truly global, open to people on every continent,” says Matt – and it’s unusually egalitarian, too. “We all start on a starting line, however long the run is.”

Nevertheless, clothes can still be a barrier to entry. Not at first, when any t-shirt will do, but for longer, tougher runs which demand more of you, and more of your kit by extension. I could spend 1,000 words just discussing the problem of pockets, for example – and Matt and I do, for a long time. “Here at Tracksmith, we talk about pockets more than any other brand, I assure you,” he laughs when I raise the issue. “There’s a lot of internal debate about this. It’s hard because – well, not so long ago we didn’t run with phones at all, and now everyone does.

Ready to run Tracksmith’s permanent store at 25 Chiltern Street will be arriving in late March. In the meantime the brand’s pop-up shop is open just a few strides away at 2 Chiltern Street.

“We speak to people who from a mindset perspective would say: ‘Yeah, I’m a runner,’ as opposed to being someone who runs.”

But the size of phones keeps changing. They get bigger, and then they don’t fit, so then brands are designing for technology that changes every year,” he sighs – and that’s before you’ve factored in energy gels and house keys.

Tracksmith’s approach is to be “as specific as possible for the intended use. If it’s a short race, we’re going to focus on gel storage. If we’re designing a training short, we’ll focus on where your phone is going to go, if you need a phone. We’re not putting tonnes of pockets in everything. I know people love pockets, but it dilutes the use of the product,” he explains. I suddenly feel very conscious of the four pockets in my running leggings, filled – at that moment – with phone, bank cards, keys and bike lights. The problem with pockets is that it’s so easy to fill them.

But pockets are not Tracksmith’s USP. The main point of difference is the materials and the design which, together with the brand’s purity of focus, promise durability. “I think there are a couple of things that make our approach unique. One is certainly the product itself – we aim for a really high level of quality. We really have invested in the raw materials and we use the highest quality fabrics. We use a lot of merino, and we use a lot of really technical fabrics out of Switzerland and Italy.” Unlike many brands you could name, Tracksmith’s marketers lay no claim to these fabrics; nor do they make their technicality explicit. “Innovation on the material side actually doesn’t happen at the brand level, it happens at the textile mill level. They’re the ones in the labs, creating new ideas, and that’s why we work with some of the most innovative and technical fabric mills,” he says. Tracksmith’s Bislett long-legged pants, for example, are made from “one of the most technical fabrics that’s being used in running… but it just looks like a pair of pants. It’s an incredible experience to run in.”

Like many of us, Tracksmith is conscious of its responsibilities toward the environment – particularly as creators of activewear, one of the fastest of all fast fashions. Setting up Tracksmith eight years ago, Matt was “at a point in my life where I looked carefully at everything else that I was buying and consuming, especially on the clothing side, and felt such a disconnect between my running stuff and

then everything else. For most of my running career to that point, nothing had been very durable. You’d get tops at races or at your local running store, you’d wear them once and have to throw them in the washer” – then in the bin, after they fell apart from the constant washing. “But if you use materials that don’t stink, you can wear the same top multiple times a week, without washing,” he points out. “That product is going to last you five years or more, and while it may be a little bit more expensive upfront, that’s better than going through three or four versions of something else.”

“The real innovation right now is happening on the sustainability side. That is happening in mills, with recycled fabrics and so on,” says Matt – but design is also key to sustainability. “We have a much more understated, classic look. When we launched eight years ago, everything in running was very bright and sort of futuristic. That has changed now,” he says – yet Tracksmith’s more timeless styles and colours have remained.

Reflecting on this and all Matt has said, Tracksmith’s location on Chiltern Street feels somewhat inevitable. Not only is Marylebone halfway between the best royal parks in London, but it’s also renowned for its many independent, specialist stores. “This street specifically has all independent brands, with a high level of attention to detail and craftsmanship – and of course it has good running access,” Matt says. He and his family have relocated to St John’s Wood to oversee the new opening, and Matt has spent every morning since moving here exploring Hampstead Heath, Hyde Park and Regent’s Park. “My son goes to school like a half mile from here, down York Street, so I drop him off in the mornings, then run down into Hyde Park, come up here, get into Regent’s Park, and then go home. So I get to hit both,” he says. “City running can be tough, but there’s some beautiful running in London.”

His enthusiasm is infectious. Looking down at my kit, lightly mud-spattered from this morning’s run, I’m almost tempted to start running again.

TRACKSMITH

25 Chiltern Street, W1U 7PW tracksmith.com

World-class medical treatment. Truly personal care.

123 years of patient centred care in the heart of London.

Treatment centred around you

At King Edward VII’s Hospital, modern medicine and traditional values are combined to provide the very best individualised care. From the warm welcome patients receive at reception to the reassurance we give them as they leave, we aim to make every patient feel like our only patient.

Experts in Men’s Health

Our multi-disciplined teams include world-leading experts and clinicians in:

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THE DIFFERENCE MAKERS

My background is in international development. I have over 30 years’ experience working in Africa and Asia, heading up international programmes for leading British NGOs including Oxfam, Water Aid, International Childcare Trust and Marie Stopes International. Every time I returned to my home in Maida Vale, I would see people from those same African and Asian communities living just around the corner from me, in the Church Street area – and yet here they seemed even more disadvantaged, especially the women. They also face discrimination and inequality.

Whenever I’d go to pick up my daughter from her primary school, I would see Bengali, Sudanese and Moroccan mothers congregating in separate groups. I would say to them: “You don’t mix. What’s the problem? You’re all Muslims, but you don’t talk to each other.” I gradually discovered that there’s a lot of suspicion and fear. The more I interacted with them, the more I discovered that most of the problems are to do with broken relationships within the families, between the families, within the communities and between the communities.

That is why in 2005 I founded The Mosaic Community Trust. A mosaic is broken pieces of different shapes, colours, forms and sizes, which come together to form a beautiful image. Our mission is to empower a diversity of socially and economically marginalised and disadvantaged communities and bring them together in that same way.

Introducing the people behind Marylebone’s vital charities and community organisations: Lena Choudary-Salter, founder and CEO of The Mosaic Community Trust

Interview: Jean-Paul Aubin-Parvu

Portraits: Orlando Gili

The problems are the result of deep-rooted deprivation. People are being deprived of opportunities and deprived of access to appropriate, culturally accessible, high-quality services. Policy makers and strategy bodies are often dismissive of social issues, particularly in BAME communities who form the majority in the Church Street and Paddington Green areas. There are all sorts of damaging stereotypes – for example, that culturally they aren’t interested in improving and that their aspirations aren’t very high. That’s simply not true.

Right now, the major problems that directly affect these communities are postcode gangs, drugs, knife crime and county lines. County lines, particularly, target vulnerable households – for example, single mothers with young girls, whose social and economic vulnerability has made them depressed, mentally at high risk. They are full of fear, anxiety and stress, so they can’t think clearly. But nobody is systematically addressing these common problems. The authorities aren’t adequately equipped to respond.

We see young girls being befriended by drug dealers, sexually exploited and used for drug dealing. The police ask for evidence, but it’s difficult to provide. The mothers know this is happening, but because of the risk of stigma and discrimination, parents don’t want to openly acknowledge these problems. We have a lot of communitylevel intelligence, but the mothers say to us: “Please don’t tell this to social services or our child might be taken away.”

The language barrier is another problem. Women who cannot articulate well in English often don’t say what they >

want to say, and what they mean. They’re misunderstood and so are misrepresented. Even when they use interpreters, they don’t have confidence that they are being fully heard and understood.

There are many reasons why women who’ve been in this country for many years still don’t speak English. One is that their husbands and their husbands’ families don’t want their wives and daughters to attend English classes, because of the fear that they might become too independent, too emancipated or too westernised.

Another major problem that we deal with is the parenting gap, which is where The Portman Estate is supporting us so strongly. For many of our mothers, there’s a huge gap in the kind of parenting that they know and the kind of parenting that is needed by their children. Their children are born and brought up in this country and so their needs are different, and the mothers who are uneducated, illiterate and can’t speak English, are unable to communicate effectively with them. As a result, a gap opens up in their relationship.

The problem is particularly acute if a school identifies that a child may have learning difficulties. Parents often don’t want to accept that diagnosis, due to the stigma and discrimination within their own community – for example, the idea that God has cursed this woman and that’s why she’s produced such a child. This inhibits our mothers from sharing. Eventually the parents may even remove their child from school and put them into another because they don’t want to accept that the child has any problems.

We receive funding from The Portman Estate to help educate parents about their children’s additional needs. What are they? How do you identify them? What are the signs? Why is early intervention so critical? We are now creating safe platforms, safe spaces, where mothers can come and talk, knowing that everything will remain confidential. We also challenge the mothers who use religion as a barrier to dealing with social issues.

We divide our services and activities into several areas. Mosaic is a rights-based organisation, which means we focus on assets that exist within the communities. We want everyone to recognise that we are dealing with communities that are rich in knowledge, skills and ability. The women want to be valued as individuals who can contribute to their own development. The Mosaic Community Trust empowers them by giving them additional skills and knowledge, enables them through training, workshops and events, and builds their assets in the community so that they can take control over their lives. They can be active partners in finding and developing solutions to the issues that I’ve just identified.

Patient empowerment activities are another key area. People from ethnic minority backgrounds often feel like they don’t get the same access to public health services. Take access to GPs, for example. The majority of our people feel that they’re unable to make face-to-face

appointments to see the doctors, and even when they are able to see one, the doctors often don’t know how to communicate with them. So we work very closely with the GP practices and other local NHS health providers. We bring them to the community, holding regular events where GPs, practice managers, nurses and consultants meet with the patients to listen to their concerns. We want to improve access and reduce these health inequalities.

Community engagement is our flagship. We believe that the communities themselves need to actively engage in providing care, support and befriending. The existing public services will never have the resources to be able to meet all the needs of the community. We work in partnership with these service providers and enable communities to actively engage in the provision of care and support for their families and neighbours. This happens through training, through giving people the necessary skills to provide care, knowledge and information. For example, our trained community wellbeing advocates will take care of a patient after they’ve been discharged from hospital, including shopping and cooking for them, even providing therapeutic head massage for pain relief, relaxation and to reduce stress and anxiety. This reduces the burden on the NHS and the council, and improves health and wellbeing.

Creating social awareness is another key area. We have to continually challenge stigma and discrimination within our communities, while also tackling inequality and discrimination among service providers and policy makers. We also focus on crime and safety, especially the protection of young people, making sure that parents are aware of the dangers of drugs and gangs. We bring in external resources from the council and the police, who run regular workshops for the community.

Mosaic is a very small organisation. We can’t provide all the services ourselves, so we value collaborations and partnerships. We bring resources to the community, because otherwise they won’t access them. When we provide services within their own safe space, their own communities, the uptake is so high. We also provide practical support in the form of advice, information, befriending services, signposting, referral services and so on.

The thing I love most about my job is having huge opportunities to inspire, motivate and enable others to engage in community work and make a difference to the lives of deprived communities. I can’t tell you how grateful and privileged I feel that every day I have a new opportunity to make a difference, to tackle a new problem, to bring a new solution and to mobilise a new resource. The Mosaic Community Trust has made a huge difference to these local communities.

THE MOSAIC COMMUNITY TRUST mosaiccommunitytrust.org.uk

“We are dealing with communities that are rich in knowledge, skills and ability. The women want to be valued as individuals who can contribute to their own development.”

A CLOSER LOOK

FOOD » 34

STYLE » 42

HOME » 52

WELLBEING » 54

HEALTHCARE » 56

FOOD » 36

FOOD PHILOSOPHY

Diego Jacquet, chef-patron of Zoilo, on the passions that have fuelled his Argentinian restaurant’s first decade of service

STYLE »42

Q&A

Shoe designer Tracey Neuls on moving across the road, channelling emotion into design, and enjoying the ageless scent of plasticene

HOME » 52

ANATOMY OF A DESIGN

Jake Hobson of Niwaki on the work that went into creating the brand’s signature secateurs

Q&A: YASMINE LARIZADEH

The co-founder of The Good Life Eatery on learning on the job, becoming part of a community, and selling London’s best coconut water

Interview: Ellie Costigan

How did The Good Life Eatery come about?

After university, I did an internship in Mayfair. At the time, the only place you could eat lunch for under £30 was Pret A Manger, and the tuna baguette was pretty much the only health-conscious thing on the menu. I grew up in the States and spent a lot of time in California – my brothers went to university there and I’d visit them a lot. The choice there was much more abundant; lots of different concepts and more focus on what’s going into your body. There was definitely a massive gap in the market in London. I’ve always been obsessed with food. My mum is an incredible cook and would make us fresh meals, every day. I’m so grateful that was the experience I had growing up. So I thought, what about opening a small cafe? That’s where the story began.

As I had just finished university, I hadn’t had much experience – it was very much a scratch and itch scenario – so I went and did a bit of training in a Lebanese restaurant to understand what it means to run a restaurant. I worked in every section, from the kitchen to front of house. Otherwise, I’ve learned on the job. We opened our first restaurant in August 2013 and just hit the ground running.

That’s quite a learning curve! What’s been the biggest challenge? Managing people is the trickiest part of the business, but also just understanding the ebbs and flows of the economy. It wasn’t something I really understood before owning a business. There have been a lot of external pressures. Having to trade through the pandemic was insanity. Brexit was also difficult, especially in terms of labour shortages. In the first six months of the restaurant, a mains pipe burst, and the restaurant was flooded. But those challenges brought us closer together. You just switch on survival mode and keep going.

What brought you to Marylebone Lane?

It’s beautiful. A lot of my favourite restaurants were in Marylebone, so I’d spent a lot of time here. It also just fit with our concept, as there are a lot of private medical care providers in the area, which was the market we were trying to penetrate. Awareness of the brand was difficult in the beginning, but people here understood it. That was very much a draw.

Something else that was very important to us was community and being somewhere that was more of a neighbourhood. I think Marylebone really encompasses that. It’s got a very friendly and cosy atmosphere, but you do also get a lot of businesspeople. The site came up and it was a great spot for us. I’m so happy that we’re still here, 10 years down the line.

Having a healthy food offer is clearly central to Good Life Eatery. What does ‘healthy’ mean to you?

It means unprocessed – that’s something I am very adamant about. I don’t believe in counting calories. I find it crazy that they’ve made it a legal requirement on some menus. I went to an all-girls school and so many girls had eating disorders and would calorie count obsessively.

I don’t think it’s a positive way of measuring your nutrient intake and it’s unhealthy mentally.

To me, healthy also means good provenance: we really do focus on where the food is coming from, who makes it, what farming techniques are used, and so on. In general, we believe in choosing local over organic. The organic certification system is super flawed. It inundates producers with paperwork and there are a lot of grey areas. On the flip side, a lot of local producers practise organic farming methods, but they’re not able to get the certification because they can’t afford to pay for it. I really believe in supporting local growers and the local economy.

FOOD PHILOSOPHY

How do you go about putting together your menu?

Most importantly, we want to make sure our food is for everyone. I didn’t want it to be a solely vegan or glutenfree restaurant, I wanted there to be one place you could go and feel safe and included and not judged. Not faddy, diet crap, but good, real food.

Seasonality is also important: we have a winter menu and a summer menu. One of the things I’m eating pretty much every day at the moment is the daaly wood. I love it: it’s a red lentil and turmeric, gingery dahl, that comes on a bed of brown rice or quinoa. You can have it with either

ZOILO

sweet potato or jerk chicken. My other favourite thing is the cocoa butter smoothie, with peanut butter, banana, dates and coconut milk. It’s super filling – quite calorific, but delicious, non-processed and keeps me fuelled throughout the day.

There are some dishes we’ve had on the menu since day one, like the sunset chopped salad, which is just a really easy chopped salad with baby gem, tomato, edamame, bacon, egg and chicken.

What about drinks?

Having a lot of hydrating options is also super important. We were

Diego Jacquet, chef-patron of Zoilo, on the passions that have fuelled his Argentinian restaurant’s first decade of service

Interview: Ellie Costigan Images: Lateef Photography

I’m not one of those guys who can say I was cooking with my mother and grandmother. I didn’t have any interest in cooking when I was a kid or teenager: I wanted to be a footballer, but I was in an accident and lost vision in my left eye. I ended up doing a hotel management course, and one of the classes was cooking. As soon as I walked into that kitchen – saw the craziness and the pressure, how skilful they were – I fell in love with it.

We use the best produce we can get our hands on. That is nonnegotiable. The only thing we buy that isn’t British or European is the Argentine beef. We are super proud of the beautiful produce we have here.

Why is Argentine beef so good? It’s a combination of things. It’s very natural. The cows can roam freely on very good grass. They move a lot, which makes the meat very tender. Not all beef from Argentina is good, though – it has to be from somewhere central, La Pampa or Buenos Aires. That’s where you have the weather. People in Argentina love to eat meat. It’s something sacred.

When I arrived to work at El Bulli in 1998, it was one of the best restaurants in the world. That restaurant taught me to be a tough cookie: to work long hours, to be disciplined, to

get organised. I will always be grateful for that.

Every Thursday, I clear my agenda – no emails, no phone calls, nothing. I go into the kitchen with the guys, cooking, taking deliveries, getting to know the junior staff, teaching them. For me that’s very important. They might think, he’s the chef-patron, he’s in his 50s, he probably doesn’t remember how to cook. Then I jump on the grill and do it faster, cleaner and better than them. That sends a very strong message. Show respect for this profession. And you don’t play with this guy!

After 10 years, there are some dishes that are classics. If we take them out of the menu, people will complain. One of them is a starter, the provolone cheese with almonds and oregano honey. That has been on the menu since day one, we can’t take it away.

We are always asking ourselves, how can we do this differently? We challenge everything we do all the time, otherwise we become too comfortable.

In the beginning, it was very difficult to fight the perception that when you go to an Argentine restaurant, you have steak and malbec. That’s what people expect, so when we were serving lamb or wild sea bass, people were amazed.

When I moved to New York, I worked in a Swedish restaurant, Aquavit. I loved the minimalism of the Scandinavian food and the precision of the techniques – and that the head chef was cooking. Often the head chef just stands at the pass. Aquavit taught me to have that passion for cooking.

We make absolutely everything in-house. We don’t buy anything pre-prepared, down to the dough for our empanadas.

We take our wine very seriously. We have around 100 labels, exclusively from Argentina. We love sourcing from small producers – the way the wine industry in Argentina has improved in the last 25 years is astonishing.

Argentina is a big country, and each region is completely different. In Patagonia, in the south, you have octopus, scallops, a lot of fish. Some of the best king crab in the world comes from Argentina. In the mountains, you’ve got the best lamb, all the berries. If you go to the north, you have a lot of tropical fruits. On the border of Peru, you have quinoa, ceviche. The thing that I’m most proud of in the restaurant is that we serve food that people wouldn’t necessarily associate with Argentina.

ZOILO

9 Duke Street, W1U 3EG zoilo.co.uk

probably one of the first outlets in the UK to serve cold-pressed juices, which is juice that’s been made with a hydraulic press. It extracts all of the vitamins and minerals and removes the pulp, leaving you with the best juice ever. Our coconut water is also excellent. People are obsessed with it. Hand over heart, we have the best coconut water in London. I’m not just saying that, we’ve done blind tastings. Recently we bought every brand and bottle we could find in London and did a test – everyone chose ours, so I was super happy about that.

You mentioned that ‘community’ is also a big part of Good Life. How do you engender that in your cafes? Do you feel like you’ve created a community in Marylebone?

One hundred per cent. Being part of a supportive community comes into every decision we make. It’s becoming increasingly common to go into a shop and not interact with a single person. Everything is about making money, fast turnarounds. Someone I really admire is a New York restauranteur called Daniel Meyer, whose hospitality style is very much about human interaction. That’s something I very much believe in –greeting people with a smile, making them feel welcome and that they’re part of something.

We have genuinely created such strong friendships with our customers, and within our teams. One of our best customers passed away a couple of weeks ago and we all went to her funeral. She was 92 and we’d seen her almost every day for 10 years. She would come in with her husband each morning, have coffee together and read the newspaper, or she’d come in for a cappuccino with her girlfriends. It was very sad when she died, of course, but beautiful for us to acknowledge that we had impacted someone’s life. It’s the most inspiring part of the job.

THE GOOD LIFE EATERY

69 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2PH

goodlifeeatery.com

A GLASS APART

Laurent

Faure, owner

ANATOMY OF A DISH VENISON STEAK ON MUSHROOMS WITH FRUITS OF THE SEASON

Jurek Wasio, head chef of Japanese Omakase restaurant Mayha, on his signature dish

of Le Vieux

Comptoir,

on how global warming is influencing the production of a new kind of champagne

Interview: Viel Richardson

The last few years have seen a real boom in no-sugar champagne – a wine known as ‘zero dosage’ champagne. Champagne is essentially wine with bubbles, and in order to create those bubbles, you need very acidic juice. This means that historically champagne was made with very acidic grapes. While this acidity is a key element in both making the wine and balancing the flavours, it is not the most enjoyable sensation for the palate. So traditionally during the winemaking process, producers added what is called ‘liqueur de dosage’, a mix of sugar and wine, to increase the sweetness and mask some of the wine’s acidity.

Global warming is having a major impact on the wine world and in the case of champagne, it is driving this boom in zero dosage wines. Warmer summer temperatures mean growers can produce better grapes with higher levels of natural sugar. Truly gifted winemakers are now able to really explore the grapes’ possibilities and make some fantastic champagnes without adding any extra sugar.

After two centuries, we have the possibility to taste a ‘true’ champagne – a drink where only the taste of the grapes comes through in the wines. These are very expressive wines, because you have the real flavour both of the terroir and the grapes. The chardonnay is a real chardonnay flavour and the pinot is a real pinot. As a rule, these wines are drier than other champagnes, with the mineral flavours

coming more to the fore. The thing to remember is that the added sugar was covering different flavours and nuances in the wine, some of which are very pleasurable and which you are now tasting for the first time. Another benefit is that these champagnes are less calorific as there is no added sugar. However, the sugar was also masking some not-so-pleasant flavours, and it takes great skill from the winemaker for these not to be apparent once you remove that sweetening. This is why only really gifted winemakers, from both global names and small producers, make this style of champagne. For example, we sell some from a producer called Ayala, whose wonderful Brut Nature zero dosage champagne sells at a very reasonable price. I have found that once they have tried these wines, very few customers go back to the traditional style.

LE VIEUX COMPTOIR

26-28 Moxon Street, W1U 4EU levieuxcomptoir.co.uk

In a nutshell

This dish represents the life of the animal. Everything else on the plate is from the environment in which the deer lives: the wild mushrooms, the forest fruits, even the kinome leaf, which is an edible leaf from Japan and reminds me of the ferns which grow in the forest.

The inspiration

This dish reminds me of my childhood. I was born in Warsaw, but I spent my childhood in the countryside. When I was young, my dad took me hunting and skiing; I am a boy from the woods. My grandfather, father and uncle all hunted. I don’t have time now, because I’m always abroad and working a lot, but I have this dish, and it connects me to the family’s hunting traditions.

The purpose

Thirteen years ago, I started working in a Japanese restaurant in Warsaw – purely by chance. It turned out I loved cooking, and they believed in me, and that’s why I am here. This dish brings together Japan and Warsaw. In the countryside, in the mountains in Japan, there is a long tradition of chargrilling wild animals. I like the connection between the cultures.

The technique

The venison is taken out of the fridge an hour before service to come up to room temperature. We cook it in a skillet with a bit of butter and some Maldon salt for one minute and 15 seconds on each side, then cut it into three pieces and assemble them on the plate with a bit of salt and black pepper. The mushrooms are sauteed in butter and miso. They aren’t Japanese mushrooms – they’re British hen of the woods – but the mushrooms here are just as good.

The secret

You need a little bit of knowledge about the environment and the nature of this animal, and where it lives. Then you need passion for food, and some love. You know those dishes you cook at a home, the ones you love so much that you know everything off by heart? For me, this is that dish. That’s what makes it good.

MAYHA

43 Chiltern Street, W1U 6LS mayhalondon.com

Q&A: TRACEY NEULS

The owner of the eponymous footwear brand on moving across the road, channelling emotion into design, and enjoying the ageless scent of plasticene

Interview: Clare Finney

Portrait: Holly Whittaker

After 22 years in the same tiny shop on Marylebone Lane, you’ve moved… just over the road. How big does the move feel?

It’s funny, even though we’re just opposite the old shop, you do look out the window and see people looking at the old, closed shop and assuming we’re closed. I think ‘turn around! We’re just here!’ and sometimes they do – but sometimes people just accept what’s in front of them. I love being here, though. I feel invigorated, being on the other side of the street. I love the newness of it. Our hands were a bit tied in the old space. We weren’t able to do all the artist collaborations and events we wanted, but now we’ve got a small bit of space to play with and crisp clean walls. When we opened here we had a party: my daughter’s 18, and she played with her band, there were people spilling out onto the street and after two years of pandemics and closures it did feel brilliant. I feel positive about the place, and I feel positive about Marylebone

How has business changed in the two decades you’ve been here?

From a supply chain point of view, everything is more difficult. With Brexit, the pandemic, the war and so on – it’s really difficult. We have six-month lead times, and at the

moment suppliers are coming back four months in and saying, “We can’t produce this.” You have to be really agile, and keep your eyes open. What hasn’t changed is our lovely customers. The charm of Marylebone, of Marylebone women hasn’t changed; in fact, I think finding things more difficult maybe makes us all more open.

How have all these seismic events on the national and international stage influenced your design and collection – if at all?

Whenever I design a collection, it’s emotive. It’s got nothing to do with

the trends of the season, though it may tap into or explain how we feel. This winter, I felt like there really had to be a visible handmade touch to our collection. I wanted to reiterate that what we’re doing is personal and tangible; that it involves blood, sweat and tears. When you have big companies constantly taking over smaller companies, it’s hard sometimes to know who is honest about their craft. It’s rare to have a designer still making with their own hands – so I torched all the heels, personally, to darken them. It felt personal, for me and the customer. The summer collection is different,

KIMAÏ

Jessica Warch and Sidney Neuhaus, the duo behind Kimaï, on lab-grown diamonds and speaking directly to women

Interview: Ellie Costigan

Portrait: Adam Kang

Jess: We wanted to bring a modern touch to the fine jewellery market. We wanted transparency and sustainability, but without trading off on quality or design. That is the foundation of Kimaï.

Jess: The fine jewellery industry is still talking to us in the exact same way as they were talking to our greatgrandparents. It makes a product for women but still targets men to buy it. We talk to women directly. You don’t need anybody else to buy you jewellery.

Sid: We would always prioritise the beauty of the stone rather than the carat. For us, beauty matters much more than size.

Jess: Our diamonds are all lab-grown. We often compare lab-grown diamonds to water in a freezer: it’s the same result as you find in nature but created in a completely different environment. They grow in the

STYLE PHILOSOPHY

Tracey Neuls

though still emotional. It’s bright and colourful – three colours at least on a single shoe, like loafers with lavender, green and black running through them. I thought we should take every opportunity we could to be bright and cheery, because things are heavy right now.

How do you stay relevant, as a fashion designer? How do you stay in it for the long haul? What is relevant? Is it making sure we provide shoes that are timeless? Is it designing something individual and wearable, with the personality of our customers in mind? A lot of

the trends right now are for gigantic heels or platforms which, even if they are vegan and sustainable, will be thrown out in a year or less. I love people walking into our shop wearing the same shoes they were wearing 10 years ago. I think what comes out of drilling into the zeitgeist of women, and really seeking to understand them, has to be more relevant than riffing off the latest exhibition or catwalk. To be original, I think you need to think inwards, about the interior, not out at trends; not being a machine dictating what people should wear in what colours at what height and shape. I like that in my

shop, my customers dictate what they wear. You have to try my shoes on, see if they take on the curve of your legs, see if they complement your skin tone. That’s so much a part of it. It’s not off the shelf.

Has your method of designing changed at all?

No, I am fairly old school. If I’m creating a new shape, I still use plasticene. There’s something about the smell of it; smells don’t age, do they? It feels so familiar. I still start by sketching. I always have three Moleskins on the go – I’m even taking them on holiday with me. There’s

was really important for us to cut them out and be in direct contact with our suppliers.

Sid: A lot of couples come into the store together to choose an engagement ring, or the woman will come in on her own. Things have evolved: it’s no longer the case that the man is the one who can afford to buy a piece of jewellery: women are independent and part of every decision. It’s also a significant purchase, and women really know what they want. She wants something that lets her personality come through.

Sid: Everything we do is based on organic shapes. Our style isn’t geometrical. Our jewellery is delicate and refined. It feels like part of your own skin.

something that’s very emotional and sentimental, but it should be worn, not left sleeping in a jewellery box forever.

Jess: We never say we are 100 per cent sustainable or recycled. We’re really just trying to do better and take a step forward.

Sid: We grew up within the diamond industry, so we already had a good network of craftsmen in the diamond district in Antwerp. In the jewellery business, you build those relationships by word of mouth. You make business with a handshake.

exact same way as they’d grow under the earth, but in a more controlled way.

Jess: Lab-grown diamonds are chemically and physically identical to mined ones. Even a diamond trader can’t tell them apart. But they come without all the issues around blood diamonds, child labour, mining impact, and shipping from all over the world. The problem is, it’s often very hard to track where diamonds come from, because there are so many middlemen. It

Sid: Bespoke engagement rings are a big part of our business, and we work very closely with the client to make sure it’s a ring that’s unique to them. Although we have a small range of engagement rings that are readily available, you can still pick your stone, colour, gold and so on.

Sid: We believe in circularity. Jewellery should last a lifetime and be passed down to the next generation. If somebody inherits a piece of jewellery or gets divorced, for example, we can reuse the gold or stones and build a new ring to bring it back to life. Jewellery should be

Sid: Jess and I really complement each other. She looks after the supplier side of things, and I look after the creative.

Jess: The education side of what we do is really important. When we launched four years ago, lab-grown diamonds were a very new concept. Even today, there are people who haven’t heard about them, so it’s our role to educate the customers on the impact, on what it means and what it is – it’s not a fake diamond. That’s why we wanted a physical store, so people can come in, ask questions, and really see that it’s legit.

KIMAÏ

24 Chiltern Street, W1U 7QE kimai.com

Sidney (left) and Jessica

something so luxurious about sitting with your sketch book and allowing yourself the freedom to use it. After that, the ideas go onto the computer, and I’ll use Illustrator and Photoshop and the full gamut. But the original inspiration is still fingertip design. With clothing accounting for about 8-10 per cent of global carbon emissions, and nearly 20 per cent of wastewater, the environment has become a key area of concern for anyone in the industry with a conscience. Of course, Tracey Neuls has always had durability and ethical craftsmanship as cornerstones, but how do these concerns continue to shape you? The amount of landfill fashion creates is horrific – particularly shoes. I’m not naming and shaming, but some brands just never break down. I am not saying we are the perfect sustainable company by any means, but I think creating shoes that you will have an emotional attachment to and can wear for years is important. You aren’t going to wear my shoes one year and then the next year think they are so last season, because you will connect with them on a different level. It might sound basic, but there aren’t many people making clothes like this; shaping the moulds by hand, sourcing leather soles from

small tanneries, creating something that, by befriending your cobbler, you can look after for decades. My daughter loves vintage shops – not for the brands, but because she can’t believe the quality of the clothes that she finds in them. I’d be so happy to find my shoes in a vintage shop eventually. I think sustainable fashion isn’t just about materials. It’s about choosing well and representing yourself originally. We need to buy less and buy better, we know that, and I think that means making emotional purchases that have a lasting feeling – not buying something because it’s on social media, or because a Kardashian wore it. If you love something, truly, you will still love it in 10 years’ time.

TRACEY NEULS

74-78 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2PW traceyneuls.com

BLAZE OF GLORY

Max Halton, general manager of Grey Flannel, on a jacket inspired by Harrison Ford

For almost 50 years, Grey Flannel has informed and inspired men. We’ve been on Chiltern Street since 1974, making us the street’s longest-standing independent menswear shop. We were one of the first stores to introduce brands like Stone Island, C.P. Company and Armani to London, thanks to our founder Richard Froomberg, who was one of London’s independent retail pioneers and scoured the globe for clothes that would excite his customers. Now retired, Richard has passed the torch to renowned tailor Timothy Everest to continue that legacy.

The Ford blazer has become one of our recent staples. For the past eight months it has been proven really popular among both new and regular customers. Inspired by – and named for –the iconic travel jacket worn by Harrison Ford in Paris in the late 1970s – just after the first Star Wars and just before he became Indiana Jones – it is a two-button regular-fitting jacket made from a robust virgin wool. The paisley lining and relaxed style make it the perfect all-rounder, which can be worn from a board meeting during the day through to sipping a cocktail at the Chiltern Firehouse, without ever looking out of place.

It can be worn casually with a pair of jeans, polo shirt and trainers, or dressed up with a pair of flannel trousers, roll-neck sweater and pair of loafers. I own this blazer myself, and I can confirm that it’s a very versatile piece!

GREY FLANNEL

7 Chiltern Street, W1U 7PE greyflannel.co.uk

MEN’S TRAINERS

Long gone are the days when men wore trainers to train in, loafers to loaf in, slippers to snooze in and smart shoes for everything else. Now it’s the trainer for all of the above and more. Even a suit with trainers, once a sartorially criminal combination, has become acceptable – even de rigeur. And you can see why. Not only are trainers fundamentally more comfortable to walk in and wear than other shoes, they now boast an infinite variety. There are smart trainers, sports trainers, slim trainers, statement trainers, perennial trainers, and trainers for each season. All you have to do is choose them. Here are three of our Marylebone favourites.

1.

3. 2.

A classically designed tennis shoe which is probably best worn off the court, given the swishy suede material. Indeed, Sunspel describes it as a “versatile everyday sneaker that makes a relaxed shoe for travelling”, and one could easily imagine wearing these on a train from St Pancras down to the sun-dappled banks of the Seine. The sole is lightweight, the insole is cushioned and the upper is 100 per cent suede, beautifully crafted in Portugal.

Bryceland’s & Co

Founded by Hong Kong businessman Kenji Cheung and Australian-born, Tokyo-based designer Ethan Newton, Bryceland’s & Co is the latest high-quality menswear brand to arrive on Chiltern Street. With typical self-deprecation, the Bryceland’s look was described by Ethan in an interview with The Rake, as an “Australian’s interpretation of British, Continental and American clothing, presented with an attempt to match the Japanese refinement of retail presentation!” The clothes are classical in construction but distinctive in look; robust and unfussy but not without a touch of elegance.

BRYCELAND’S & CO 48 Chiltern Street, W1U 7QS brycelandsco.com

Spring is coming. No really, it is – making white trainers a less foolish and more viable option. These are some of the best: designed by Cheaney in collaboration with Goral, an 80-year-old shoe manufacturers based in Sheffield. Now in the hands of a fourth generation, Goral’s attention to detail is unchanged – even when crafting a trainer which in style and use is the height of modernity.

When spring does come, so alas will the rain. Indeed, in Britain it never really stops. That’s why sustainable shoe brand Allbirds made the Mizzle especially for the UK market. The Merino wool is both comfortable and – thanks to its puddle guard technology – waterproof. They grip well even when London’s streets are slippery and wet. They come in a jolly array of colours, and without a guilty conscience, being carbon neutral and made from materials that are either recycled, sustainably sourced or plant based.

1. MEN’S SUEDE TENNIS SHOE SUNSPEL, £196 sunspel.com

2. KELHAM TRAINER BY CHEANEY X GORAL JOSEPH CHEANEY & SONS, £245 cheaney.co.uk

3. RUNNER UP MIZZLES ALLBIRDS, £135 allbirds.co.uk

EARLY SPRING COOL

THE EDIT

WOOL & CASHMERE HOODED TANK BRORA, £395 broraonline.com

DRY ORGANIC COTTON JERSEY SHIRT TOAST, £90 toa.st

LONDON TOTE ASPINAL OF LONDON, £650 aspinaloflondon.com

TWEED TROMPE L’ŒIL DRESS SANDRO, £359 uk.sandro-paris.com

THALASSA FACETED MEDIUM HOOPS DINNY HALL, £250 dinnyhall.com

ISABEL CAOBA LOAFER LA PORTEGNA, £200 laportegna.co.uk

SILK RABBIT SCARF PAUL SMITH, £145 paulsmith.com

GR PRO SECATEURS

Jake Hobson, co-founder of Niwaki, on the work that went into creating the brand’s signature secateurs

Interview: Viel Richardson

Requirement

For most gardeners, their secateurs are likely to be the single most important tool they have in their toolbox. This is because they’re such a useful all-round pruner. You can use them for cutting anything from slender flower stalks, right up to finger-thick stems or wooden branches. You would use them for pruning your roses or for cutting back bushes such as lavender. You would also use them for harvesting fruit and vegetables. They’re a hugely versatile tool. The key thing is that they have to cut cleanly and consistently, and this is not just a matter of them being sharp – the design has to be good as well.

Inspiration

I initially got deeply into pruning while spending time in Japan, where I became a professional pruner, specifically a topiary specialist. In Japan, most gardening tools are used by landscape professionals, because Japanese gardening tends to be a very professional business. Recreational domestic gardening, which is such a popular activity in the UK, does exist in Japan but on a much smaller scale. So Japanese secateurs are made for professionals, which is why they’re so good. The problem when we started selling them was that their strong spring and heavy-duty construction could make them quite hard to use for long periods by a home gardener. Our idea was to create a set of secateurs that maintained the high quality of the professional tools but were more suited to a domestic setting.

Process

We work closely with a blacksmith in Yamagata in the north of Japan. The area specialises in secateurs, which are traditionally made for the orchard industry. The family we work with has been doing this for generations, so before asking them to change any element of their design you’ve got to show a real understanding of the tool and earn their respect. The key change we asked for was a lighter spring with a softer feel that you didn’t need such strong hands to use. Secateurs have a sharp blade on the top and a thick blade called the bypass on the bottom. The sharp blade cuts into the twig and effectively pushes it over the bypass to complete the cut. The intersection at that point is key. If it’s done well, it’s effortless; if it’s set badly, it will catch or be too tight, and it won’t cut properly. Getting this right involves the interplay of the nut and bolts and the tension of the spring. Making any changes without degrading the performance takes a great deal of knowledge and skill on the blacksmith’s part.

Materials

These secateurs are made from a type of carbon steel called KA70. Different steels have different properties which can affect things like edge retention, toughness and rust resistance. Our blacksmiths believe that KA70 hits the sweet spot. The tool is made using a process called drop forging, where a single bar of steel is cut in half, heated up and forced into a mould, which gives you the basic shape. This is then refined by hand. The finished tool is

very strong, as each blade and handle is a single piece of steel, rather than being an assembly of parts. After that, each half is heated to a precise temperature and then cooled rapidly in oil, which sets the hardness of the steel. This whole process means they’re stronger than non-forged secateurs and keep an excellent edge. The handles are covered in bright yellow vinyl. Lot of makers leave the black steel handles bare, which looks lovely but is slightly impractical, because if you put them down in the garden you lose them instantly. Ours are easy to spot. The final piece is the bolt that holds the two halves together, which is made from brass.

Philosophy

For me, the fundamental point of any tool is that it works. That it does the job it is meant to and does it well. That it helps bring a deeper enjoyment to any task. You can ignore what it looks like, how expensive it was, who made it – if it works, it’s a good tool; if it doesn’t, it isn’t. A lot of people, myself included, also enjoy knowing the history behind a tool, its story, who made it, where it was made, who the blacksmith trained under. In Japan, the heritage of a blacksmith is very important. Understanding and appreciating the generations of knowledge that have gone into crafting the tool in your hand is part of the joy of using it. But that feeling of appreciation won’t last for very long if the tool doesn’t actually work!

NIWAKI 38 Chiltern Street, W1U 7QL niwaki.com

RUGS & THROWS

THE EDIT

YELLOW

FLORIO COTTON VELVET COMFORTER CARAVANE, £265 caravane.co.uk

THROW DASHING TWEEDS, £316 dashingtweeds.co.uk

KANTHA VELVET QUILTED THROW THE CONRAN SHOP, £225 conranshop.co.uk

MERINO AND CASHMERE HERRINGBONE THROW COLOGNE AND COTTON, £165 cologneandcotton.com

NAGA THROW EVOKE LONDON, £187 evokelondon.com

BARCHECK BLANKET LABOUR AND WAIT, £150 labourandwait.co.uk

PERFECT FIT

As January’s cast-iron resolutions evolve into February’s slightly less solid aspirations, it is worth reminding ourselves that the options for feeling fit and healthy in Marylebone are of such breadth and quality that using them is more treat than trial. Here’s our brief roundup of some of the options.

SWEAT IT OUT

In Marylebone, the places for working up a sweat on a treadmill or building muscle in a weights area are many and varied. Third Space offers everything you want from a large modern gym, including a dedicated strength area, functional training, watt bikes, a full-service spa with an 18m pool, and a huge range of classes. Fitness First in the 55 Baker Street complex is similarly well equipped, as is the highly affordable Seymour Leisure Centre on Seymour Place, which has a large sports hall for basketball, badminton and volleyball, as well as a pool and gym.

WORK IT UP

All of the area’s big gyms offer personal training, but there are some more boutique, specialist training spaces available too. BXR on Paddington Street brings the energy and rigour of professional boxing training to a public gym, including individual coaching and group-based classes. AMP is a personal training gym offering small-group sessions or oneto-one training, as well as group fitness classes. Or for a coaching experience that drills into your sleep quality, diet and personal goals as well as fitness and strength, Jon Denoris’s boutique Club 51 offers intelligently designed programmes that will put you on the right path for years to come.

STRETCH IT OUT

The flexibility, stability and core strength earned through yoga and pilates can make a huge difference to physical and mental wellbeing, especially as the natural elasticity of youth gives way to the creakiness of later life. Total Chi on Baker

Street, with its four tranquil studio spaces, offers a wide range of yoga and pilates, as does The Light Centre at the top of Marylebone High Street. To stretch things out in the most stylish of settings, Nobu Hotel on Portman Square is home to a beautiful studio offering Nobu’s signature style of pilates: a hybrid of classical pilates and high-intensity training. Pilates is also among the services on offer at Wellthy Clinic on New Cavendish Street, along with osteopathy and nutritional therapy.

SWING IT ROUND

Dance has the benefit of being a fairly vigorous form of aerobic exercise that never really feels like exercising. The famous Arthur Murray Dance Studio on Baker Street can get you moving to ballroom & Latin or Argentine tango, whether you’re a beginner or seasoned dancer. Capital Dance School on Blandford Street offers group classes and private lessons in a wide range of dancing styles, from cha chas to waltzes.

Where to go in Marylebone to work up a sweat

RUB IT DOWN

To complement all that relentless activity, there’s nothing better than a massage. Getting a massage won’t make you fitter, but it will ease the aches that stop you from wanting to try.

Lemongrass Boutique Spa on Seymour Place specialises in the traditional Thai style of massage, as does Marylebone Thai Spa on Paddington Street. All About Eve, in the same high street building as The Light Centre (which also offers massage), can provide a full range of massage therapies, extending to specialist services such as palliative massages, and oncology massages for people undergoing cancer treatments.

SLEEP THERAPY

THE EDIT

ROSE HANDBLOWN CANDLE PERFUMER H, £140 perfumerh.com

SLEEP DIFFUSER THE WHITE COMPANY, £38 thewhitecompany.com

JAPANESE SEAWEED ESSENTIAL OIL ANATOME, £38 anatome.co

SAKE BATH FRESH, £74 fresh.com

AROMATHERAPY ASSOCIATES DEEP RELAX PURE ESSENTIAL OIL BLEND SPACE NK, £28 spacenk.com

TISSERAND SLEEP BETTER PILLOW MIST JOHN BELL & CROYDEN, £12 johnbellcroyden.co.uk

ZODIAC EYE MASK KOIBIRD, £50 koibird.com

ON THE FLOOR

Mr Alexander Bader of the Bader Medical Institute of London on pelvic floor issues and why women shouldn’t suffer in silence

Interview: Viel Richardson

Portrait: Christopher L Proctor

What is the pelvic floor?

The pelvis is a basin-shaped structure which supports the spinal column and protects the abdominal organs. The pelvic floor is a complex series of muscles and connective tissue in the pelvic area that has two main functions. One is to provide support and protection to the organs in the area. In the case of women, it protects the uterus and ovaries, as well as the bladder, bowel and rectum. The other function is to keep the continence mechanisms working properly. Both sexes have a pelvic floor, but we deal exclusively with female pelvic floor issues at the clinic.

The pelvic floor can be too loose or too tight. What causes these situations to develop?

The more common issue is a loose pelvic floor, where the muscles have lost their condition, been damaged or become stretched. This can happen through traumatic injury or though some of the normal functions of a woman’s everyday life. It may be the result of an invasive delivery, where there has been an issue during the birth of a child, but sometimes a normal delivery can cause some damage. A patient losing a significant amount of weight quickly can cause

a pelvic floor collapse. Patients suffering from a long-term chronic cough which constantly puts pressure on the lower abdominal wall can develop muscle looseness. Also, patients who drink or smoke heavily have an increased risk.

What symptoms will pelvic floor looseness cause?

The first is urine incontinence where the patient is unable to control or hold their urine. When they cough, sneeze, exercise or do other daily activities they can leak a small or significant amount of urine. The other major issue is organ prolapse, where an organ falls or is forced out of its proper position. For example, patients could suffer a rectocele prolapse which is a prolapse of the rectum, a cystocele prolapse which involves the bladder, or a uterine prolapse where the uterus slips into the vaginal canal, sometimes protruding out past the cervix. As you can imagine these can be very uncomfortable and distressing. They can also cause multiple and recurrent infections, putting the patient at risk of more serious illness.

What about pelvic floor tightness?

This is far less common and almost always a secondary symptom caused

by a separate problem. Unfortunately, it is often the result of poor corrective surgery – at our clinic around 2025% of our patients are coming to correct complications caused by previous surgeries. Possibly a woman encountered difficulties during delivery, meaning that afterwards the surgeon placed some stitches in the pelvic floor or the vaginal canal, which were done incorrectly. Primary pelvic floor tightness might be caused by an anatomical deformation that someone was born with, or by physical or psychological trauma. In the last case you are looking at a very different treatment path.

What are the symptoms here?

The impact is more severe for the patient as these women are not able to have sexual intercourse. This can be catastrophic for a couple, particularly one that wants to start a family or have more children. With tightness, the severity doesn’t matter – the woman will always suffer from significant pain. The muscles and other tissue can be stretched, distorted and can develop fibrosis, which is excessive accumulation of fibrous connective tissue. The patient won’t have suffered from incontinence, but the pain can make other everyday functions difficult.

How do you characterise the seriousness of a pelvic floor issue?

We characterise the situation in three stages: mild, moderate or severe. The determining factor is the seriousness of the impact on the woman’s life. Pelvic floor issues are not fatal, but left untreated they can have a disastrous impact on the patient’s quality of life and mental health. When it’s mild, we can treat the situation in minimally invasive ways, but with a moderate or severe diagnosis you are looking at a surgical intervention.

What are the different treatments available to you?

It is key not just to classify the severity but also to understand where the patient is in her life’s journey. For

example, if she is looking to have more children, we rule out surgical treatments. With mild cases we start with Kegel exercises, which target and strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. The problem is that these can be tricky to do correctly at home. At the clinic, we have a specially designed chair, the EMSELLA chair, which can produce 11,000 contractions of the pelvic floor muscle within half an hour. It requires very little effort from the patient, is pain free and targets the muscles correctly, so is very effective. After this we might move on to laser treatment or radiofrequency. Other treatments available are biological treatments such as using the body’s own stem cells, growth factors and exosomes – which are central to communication between the cells. The aim is to improve the quality of the tissue and strengthen the muscles.

What about when symptoms are more severe?

We may have no solution other than surgery. This might involve correcting the anatomy if organs are in the wrong position, repairing things that have been damaged, or working to improve the quality of the tissue in the area. As a surgeon, your primary aim is to restore the best possible function. There are occasions where the patient says that everything is now working, but aesthetically she’s not happy. Improving the appearance is possible once the body has completely healed from the initial surgery, but our primary goal is always to correct the function, to make sure that everything is working well and positioned as close as possible to where it should be.

Are pelvic floor procedures difficult?

All surgery is difficult because you’re dealing with a living human body. But yes, pelvic floor procedures can be complex and difficult. The area contains several sensitive organs, muscles and connective tissues, all in very close proximity. There is a risk you might correct one organ but damage another. However, in the hands of a

skilled surgeon who is experienced in such work, it should be fine.

Are there patients who are not suitable for pelvic floor surgery? I would advise strongly against any kind of surgical intervention for a woman planning to have children, because giving birth would destroy whatever correction the surgeon has done. Not only that, the damage would be more severe because of the previous surgery. If a patient is suffering from vaginal dryness, we need to correct that in parallel to or even before any surgical intervention. Also, very obese patients are not really suitable and if a patient has a chronic long-term cough you need to address that before moving forward.

Aside from traumatic causes, is a particular demographic more likely to have pelvic floor issues? Statistics shows that the number of people suffering from prolapse, incontinence and pelvic floor looseness increases with age and is much higher in women over the age of 80. However, that number is moving in the wrong direction. In our clinic we are treating an increasing number of people in their fifties and even forties. I believe this trend is related to lifestyle. Many patients are not well exercised, are overweight and are heavy smokers or drinkers, all of which increase your risk of developing pelvic floor issues.

What usually brings patients to the clinic?

Often, it is some level of organ prolapse, ranging from mild where things just don’t feel right to severe where an organ is protruding. After that, it’s incontinence. Unfortunately, incontinence can be a taboo subject. There is this idea that it comes naturally with age and that women just have to live with it. We are doing our best to inform them that they do not have to keep suffering, as there are ways we can help. We also get patients who come seeking aesthetic improvements.

Are there some issues that should be dealt with quickly?

In cases of severe prolapse where the organs are protruding, or severe incontinence where the patient has little or no control over urination, I need to deal with this very fast. If a patient arrives with an over-tightened pelvic floor or vaginal canal and is not able to have any kind of normal sexual intercourse, it needs to be dealt with immediately because this is a lifechanging condition. None of these will kill the patients if left untreated, but they bring an increased risk of other infections and the impacts on their life and mental health can be very serious.

Is addressing the mental health side something you do?

We think it is very important to do so. Alongside the clinical psychology department at Oxford University, we are developing questionnaires that help to detect patients who may be struggling as a result of pelvic floor issues. There will be questionnaires for both the clinicians and patients. The idea is to detect at-risk patients early so we can intervene in the appropriate way. Also, we want to follow people after a surgical correction to see how they are doing. At the moment, we are running a clinical study which will be published next year. Questionnaires will then be available to all professionals involved in this field.

What do you like most about your job?

I love my job. In training I saw many issues where the response from older surgeons was that this was entirely natural and there was nothing to be done. I thought, no. I know the anatomy and have the surgical skills, I want to see what I can do to to help. When I see patients who arrive in pain and distress coming back to my clinic, smiling, laughing, living a full life, it brings me great satisfaction.

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