Luxury London Magazine Autumn 2022 by Luxury London Media

Autumn 2022 £8.00 MAGAZINE “Human beings are messy and there’s beauty in that” PLUS: INSIDE AMAN NEW YORK, ON BOARD THE FERRARI CAVALCADE, OUT TO LUNCH AT MAGGIE JONES’S AND HOW BEST TO EXPERIENCE THE LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL DohertyERIN On complex characters and confronting her own demons ELLEN (*and that’s OK!) VON UNWERTH Apple of his EYE INSIDE TATE MODERN’S NEW EXHIBITIONCÉZANNE A FAMILY AFFAIR MARILYN MONROE AND THE KENNEDYOTHERBROTHER is cooler than you*SOPÉDìrísù ON THE POPULARITY OF GANGS OF LONDON & HIS NEW PERIOD DRAMA .. .

13UPCONTENTS30FRONTTHEBRIEFING The latest news from the world of luxury 34 ON LONDON TIME Gangs of London actor Sọpẹ́ Dìrísù on moving from crime drama to period drama 36 BY APPOINTMENTROYAL Star of The Crown Erin Doherty on complex characters and confronting her demons 46CULTURETHEAGENDA Culture in the capital 52 THE APPLE OF HIS EYE How Cézanne overcame detractors and astonished Paris 58 A FAMILY AFFAIR What role did Marilyn Monroe’s rumoured relationship with JFK’s brother play in her final days? 64CONNOISSEURDESTINATIONDINING The culinary openings to know about this autumn 66 C OMING OF AGE The story of the original ‘Champagne Charlie’ 70 MA GGIE JONES’S The British pub beloved by royalty 76COUTURESTYLEHER Gothic fashion pieces in leather and lace to see in this season 78 ELLEN VON UNWERTH The legendary photographer on not taking life too seriously 84 JEWELLERY NEW S Recent collections from the likes of Cartier, De Beers and Harry Winston 88 THE BEAUTY EDIT Brightening, waterproof and moisturising products for the incoming autumn 90 WATCH NEWS Calendar watches to keep you on time, year after year 36 96

Autumn 2022 £8.00 MAGAZINE “Human beings are messy and there’s beauty in that” DohertyERIN On complex characters and confronting her own demons ELLEN (*and that’s OK!) VON UNWERTH Apple of his EYE NEW CÉZANNE A FAMILY AFFAIR MARILYN MONROE AND THE OTHER is cooler than you SOPÉDìrísù ON THE POPULARITY OF COVER Erin Doherty photographed by Joseph Sinclair, josephsinclair.com Interview by Anna Solomon on page 36. 96DRIVEONTHE WING Only around 1,400 Mercedes ‘Gullwing’ coupés were created. Now, a rare model is up for sale 102 ONE HORSE RACE Inside Ferrari’s annual invitation-only road rally HOMES 116INTERIORS&MIDDLEMEN Funky yet functional furniture for your mid-century interiors 118 SURREALISM AT HOME Whimsical furniture to make your home more fun 125 SECRET GARDENS On the market homes with terraces primed for an Indian summer 13O HO T PROPERTY A home exhibiting the austere beauty of the Bauhaus movement 64 78 127

Sopé Dìrísù was on the ascendency even before his role in horror film His House saw him nominated for the Rising Star Award at last year’s BAFTAs. As undercover policeman Elliot Finch in the wildly popular crime series Gangs of London, Dìrísù can lay claim to helping make the programme one of the top five most-watched series on Sky Atlantic ever. Except he wouldn’t do that, as he’s far too humble, which you’ll discover on page 34.

Actress, model, singer, sex symbol. Marilyn Monroe was perhaps the greatest movie star of the 20th century – her death inspiring some of the most speculated conspiracy theories of all time. As new biopic Blonde (Netflix, again) re-tells Monroe’s doomed trajectory, we explore the role played by the rumoured relationship between her and the other Kennedy brother in her tragic final days. (Clue: she and Bobby weren’t exactly star-crossed lovers.)

Editorial Director LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK 6 SALEM ROAD, LONDON, W2 4BU T: 020 7537 WWW.LUXURYLONDONMEDIA.CO.UK6565PUBLISHEDBY EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Richard Brown DIGITAL EDITOR Zoe Gunn ASSISTANT EDITOR Anna Solomon DIGITAL WRITER Ellie Goodman EDITOR-AT-LARGE Annabel Harrison CONTRIBUTING EDITORS RobJoshCrossanSims HEAD OF DESIGN Laddawan Juhong DESIGNER & PRODUCTION Georgia Evans ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Fiona Smith MANAGING DIRECTOR Rachel Gilfillan BUSINESSMANAGERDEVELOPMENT Asleen Mauthoor CLIENTMANAGERRELATIONSHIP Alice Ford CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Eren Ellwood S

FROM THE EDITOR ometimes a star bursts onto the scene and shines so brightly that everyone around them appears as though they’re cast in shadow. If you’ve watched series three and four of Netflix’s The Crown, you’ll recognise Erin Doherty as one such light (and if you’ve yet to commit to the streaming service’s sumptuous, star-studded, award-winning (and, yes, largely made-up) stately production, then you’ve got at least one thing to look forward to now that the evenings are drawing in). So visceral was Doherty’s turn as Princess Anne that series’ creator, Peter Morgan, was continually pressed to feature more scenes starring the sharp-witted 16-year-old royal. Since The Crown, Doherty has lit up BBC One’s psychological thriller Chloe, and is about to set the stage ablaze when she begins her run as Abigail Williams in The Crucible, showing at the National Theatre from 14 September. Doherty is on fire. Though, as she explains on page 36, sometimes the heat of the spotlight can be scalding.

AUTUMN 2022 Issue 29

Some other stars in this issue: the new Range Rover (p.14), the old Mercedes Gullwing (p.96), Canada’s best new hotel (p.18), Tate Modern’s new Cézanne exhibition (p.52) and the Kensington institution that is (and, coincidentally, was Princess Margaret’s favourite hangout) Maggie Jones’s. Autumn’s here. An Indian summer’s supposedly on the way. Count your lucky stars. RICHARD BROWN

Ellen von Unwerth’s highly-charged shots of fashion stars and rock stars meant that she became a star in her own right. Five years on from the publication of her provocative coffee-table tome Heimat, the German photographer explains why she’s never seen her work as political on page 78.

BY APPOINTMENT TO HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES MANUFACTURER AND SUPPLIER OF FOOTWEAR CROCKETT & JONES LIMITED, NORTHAMPTON MADE IN ENGLAND | SINCE 1879 CROCKETTANDJONES.COM M n Black Rough-Out Suede A world-renowned Chukka boot Made using a tough, uncompromised waxed suede with water resistant properties.

The Briefing 14 The Car What to expect from the brand new Range Rover 18 The Hotel The 1 Hotel group’s first Canadian outpost opens in Toronto 22 The Restaurant Will Soho’s new Firebird take off? 24 The Spa The Lanesborough Club & Spa now welcomes day guests 26 The Eco Lodge Nature rules at Malaysia’s The Datai 30 The Opening Aman’s first bite of the Big Apple THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF LUXURY After extensive maintenance work, The Els Club at The Datai hotel in Malaysia reopened in August 2022. Instead of traditional bunkers, the 18-hole course features less conventional golfing ‘hazards’, including tropical vegetation and streams (p26).

L ighter, faster, more economical and now available with seven seats for the first time, the new-generation Range Rover sets the benchmark for go-anywhere, luxury SUVs. A British motoring icon, the fifthgeneration version oozes class-leading dynamics and refinement on an epic scale.

THE CAR 01 The New Range

On a first drive around the Cotswolds, I found the latest Land Rover comfortable, composed and equipped with allconquering ability. This new model is certain to retain its crown as the ultimate SUV, equally at home in Knightsbridge as it will be scrabbling up a mountainside. An evolution rather than a revolutionary overhaul of the current model, the latest design boasts breath-taking modernity. It has a presence and formality that will excite existing owners –customers who urged Land Rover to ensure that the new version was ‘the same, but better’. Unsurprisingly, that means prices have headed north. The entry model costs just under £100,000. The most expensive SV version starts at a hefty £178,000. But while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge may already have their new Range Rover, many frustrated buyers have been told they will have to wait almost a year to receive their cars due to a global shortage of semi-conductor chips. I say it’s worth the wait. Despite weighing more than 2.5 tonnes, the new model feels more agile and balanced than any of its luxury SUV rivals. On a motorway, you float along in utter comfort. Equipped with power-assisted and plug-in hybrid technology, as well as petrol and diesel engines, some versions will offer an Rover ITS UPGRADES.

PREDECESSOR, BUT THE ALL-NEW FIFTH-GENERATION RANGE ROVER IS THE PRODUCT OF 125 PATENTS, A SUITE OF SUBTLE DESIGN CHANGES AND A RAFT OF TECHNOLOGICAL

IT MAY LOOK SIMILAR TO

HERE’S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE WORLD’S MOST COVETED 4X4 – IF YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON ONE Words: Jeremy Taylor

Designer Gerry McGovern’s sleek and uncluttered design sits on a new, stiffer ‘MLA-Flex’ chassis, which underpins the car’s incredible off-road ability and on-road agility. Up to 50 per cent stiffer, it promises class-leading, off-road competence. Like the all-conquering Defender, the new Range Rover features a suite of technologies that will take this Land Rover to places that other SUVs fear to tread. All-wheel steering adds to manoeuvrability, while next-generation air suspensions takes the rough out of off-road driving. Sat inside, the cabin is pure Range Rover, just with improved technology and a more modern design. Central to the dashboard is a curved 13.1-inch touchscreen display controlling the majority of driver functions. And it’s no standard screen either, with ‘haptic’ technology that anticipates movement before a finger even touches the monitor.

The new Range Rover is available in four-, five- or seven-seat configurations, in standard or long-wheelbase form. Choose between SE, SV HSE and Autobiography versions. A ‘First Edition’ model will be available during the first year of production, with the first-ever all-electric version due in 2024.

A new, twin-turbo petrol model will be the flagship of the range, providing sensational performance with the raucous rumble of a V8 engine.

The front seating position has also been improved, with Land Rover’s Command Driving Position, aided by a lower dashboard fascia, improving for ward visibility. The main instrument cluster appears as a stylish, semi-floating glass panel in front of me.

Best of all, Land Rover has pulled out the stops to ensure the interior materials are as environmentally-friendly as possible.

electric-only range of up to 62 miles. It means many owners will now be able to make their London commute on battery power alone, with CO2 emissions as low as 30 g/km.

The first-ever seven seat version promises class-leading head and legroom for third-row occupants, while the Range Rover’s famous split-opening, two-piece tailgate has been improved with an ‘Event Suite’, offering bespoke leather cushions.

A remixed wool-blend fabric called Kvadrat is a leather-free option. It’s super plush. The first-ever seven seat version promises class-leading head and legroom for third-row occupants

In the rear, it’s first-class travel all the way, especially in the four-seat version that treats passengers to aircraft-style armchairs. There’s an array of charging sockets, with the options of multimedia screens, too.

2012 L405

The challenge of how to make a successful model even better pushed Land Rover to launch the fourth generation Range Rover in 2012. This was achieved using a lightweight, all-aluminium body and a new version of Land Rover’s Terrain Response System, for serious mud-plugging ability. The L405 shed an incredible 900lbs from the previous generation, dramatically improving its on-road performance.

LOADSPACE 1,050 LITRES ELECTRICRANGE 70 MILES CONSUMPTIONFUEL 36.7 MPG MAX POWER 300 HP MAX SPEED 135 MPH 0-60MPH 6.5 SECONDS THE GENERATION GAME

Range Rover has evolved from a simple, utilitarian vehicle into the ultimate SUV. Fifty-two years ago – long before other luxury brands had considered making a 4x4 – Land Rover launched a car that proved to be as popular with royalty and country estate owners as it did with footballers and media types. Here are the four generations that went before... 1970 CLASSIC The original Range Rover didn’t have a walnut dash and carpeted interior like Rover cars of the period. Instead, the 4x4 featured rubber mats that could be hosed down and a four-speed manual gearbox. Perhaps most surprising, it was only a three-door. Remarkably, a five-door of the Classic wasn’t offered until 1981. 1996 P38 The Classic endured until 1996, by which time Range Rover had achieved a loyal following. The second generation P38a model was launched two years earlier, as the Classic was gradually phased out. P38a was a giant step forward, more luxurious and comfortable but still instantly recognisable as a Range Rover. It was also the first time rectangular headlights were used on the car. 2001 L332 With Land Rover now under BMW ownership, the Range Rover was given a complete redesign for the third-generation, new-millennium model. The design inspiration was said to be taken from the hull of an Italian Riva speedboat. L322 was the first version to be built with a monocoque, single shell body, instead of a body-on-frame, offering greater rigidity and driving dynamics.

THE STATS, based on the entry-level Range Rover SE

Land Rover has also used Econyl yarns, which are produced using 40 per cent recycled industrial plastic, fabric offcuts and reclaimed ocean plastics. Of course, customers can still opt for leather. There’s a new aniline choice, which is softer, requires fewer treatments in production and features less artificial pigmentation. Even the 12 paint options – including ‘Belgravia Green’ and ‘Charente Grey’ – have been created to minimise environmental impact, using new mixing technologies and raw materials. Designed, engineered and built in the UK, the new Range Rover may look similar to the outgoing model, but it’s a huge step forward for Land Rover. The company filed 125 patents for the latest design, stretching from everything from pioneering chassis technology to the latest in batteries. After tens of thousands of miles of testing – plus 140,000 miles of computer simulations – the new Range Rover is ready for the road. It’s a design masterclass from McGovern, retaining all the best elements of the car branded the world’s original SUV, and adding a suite of technological additions that improve comfort and capability. Form an orderly queue now. From £94,400 for the entry-level petrol SE, rising to £131,000 for the long wheelbase V8 edition, landrover.co.uk

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UKLUXURY17LONDON THE BRIEFING

THE HOTEL 02 1 TorontoHotel THE FIRST CANADIAN OUTPOST FROM THIS AMERICAN ECO-LUXURY HOTEL CHAIN IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN THE CONTINENT’S FOURTH LARGEST CITY Words: Richard Brown

Cheap-looking glass towers are hot in Toronto. Of course, they’re called condominiums here, but you already knew that from all those Botox-and-sunset-filtered American TV shows. The nasty glass buildings trudge all along the Queen Elizabeth Way. They peter out around Humber Bay, but not before making you wonder whether it’s all some sort of racket; whether a group of window-cleaning wise-guys, in cahoots with a bunch of Mobaffiliated developers, have muscled into the city’s planning

R emember near the start of the pandemic when the Government launched its national retraining scheme and everyone had a right old giggle because waiters were being told to retrain as boxers, and classical music conductors were being asked if they’d ever considered a career as a chimney sweep? Brilliant bit of trolling from the sadistic civil servant behind that particular algorithm.

Well, if I lived in Toronto and my life suddenly went down the Swanee, I know what I’d retrain as. I’d retrain as a window cleaner. Just think about it...

The weather would be great, for half the year (apparently things can get a little chilly come winter, but I figure the blizzards will do the hard work once things get properly Arctic). You’d be plying your trade at the edge of Lake Ontario, three times the size of Devon, so ocean vistas (basically) and an enlivening sea breeze. It’d keep you fit. The views would be top. And you’d get to work by yourself – the dream! Mostly, though, I’d retrain as a window cleaner because in Toronto you’d never go out of work. If you thought the march of the soul-crushing high-rise apartment block was purely a London phenomenon, think again.

As well as a forest of salvaged wood and a reception-desk carved from a chunk of polished white stone, upon the hotel’s August 2021 opening guests were welcomed to a lobby littered with giant granite boulders, shelves made from a dismantled barn (now bowing under a jungle of crotons, dracaenas and Madagascar dragon trees), and a stunning wall installation made from (what looks like) massive potpourri (I’ve undersold it there).

Last year, 1 Hotel Toronto was named on Condé Nast Traveller’s Hot List of the world’s best new hotels – the only digs in Canada to make the cut. The celebs are back, too. Without being so uncouth as to drop names, we had breakfast next to a genuine Game-of-Thrones A-lister (clue: House of Lannister).

Back to my window cleaning ambitions. While we were in Toronto, a video of a construction worker went viral after the unlucky soul ended up dangling from a crane several hundred feet in the air. His screams somewhat put me off my career in glass maintenance. Nope, thinking about it, I’d get into house plants. They’re big business in Toronto.

David Rockwell was employed to turn the ageing Thompson Hotel... into the first Canadian outpost of the US-based eco-luxury hospitality group, 1 Hotels

In what can be a heavy, suffocating city, 1 Hotel Toronto is –cliché klaxon this time – a breath of fresh air (sorry, still thinking about cleaning windows). And not just because of all those snake plants. Flora, its ground-floor cocktail bar, is as sophisticated as any drinking spot in Toronto’s Financial District; the food served in its 1 Kitchen is as accomplished as it is IMMENSE; and it’s not hard to see why the hotel’s rooftop pool became the place to be among ballers.

From approx. £425 per night, 1hotels.com

‘Sustainable luxury’ – buzzword klaxon – is 1 Hotels’ shtick. So, an internal courtyard that doubles as a herb and vegetable garden; an on-site composting programme; and a promise to divert at least 85 per cent of waste away from landfill. The luxury bit? Stylishly-dressed staff, bottles of Clase Azul tequila in the lobby bar and bedrooms that offer filtered water on tap and Veuve Clicquot in the minibar. I don’t need to scroll through photos on my phone to tell you what the bedrooms were like. The photos on my wife’s phone have become the mood-board for our impending topto-bottom home renovation. To wit, and to all things JapaneseScandi-mid-century-modern-rustic-chic: bleached woods, taupe walls, potted plants, stone tops, marble floor-tiles, potted plants, wicker lampshades, beige sofas, potted plants, pattern rugs, hefty black taps, potted plants, pops of duck-egg blue and greyer-than-green sage and more potted plants.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UKLUXURY21LONDON THE BRIEFING department and given everyone inside the shakedown with the threat of a squeegee up the jacksie. How else to explain how these canyons of doom-towers get built? No one ever asks for them. I dunno know, maybe it was just us. But it’s not the sort of thing you expect to see in Canada. For whatever reason, you expect Canada to be better than that. Anyway... You can see just how filthy rich I’d be from Harriet’s. The view from the ritzy rooftop bar of the new 1 Hotel Toronto is one big construction site of towering green glass and how’d-theyget-those-up-there cranes. Peer beyond and you can just about make out Toronto’s lower-rise Entertainment District and historic Old Town, where buildings are made of brick and stone and those that aren’t aimed their architectural ambitions a little higher than the bottom line. It will cost you tens of thousand pounds to stay in the hotel below. It’s not that rooms at 1 Hotel Toronto are astronomically expensive. It’s just that once you’re home, the wife will want to redecorate the entire house in a palette of greys and beiges. Those polished floor tiles in the hall will have to be ripped up and replaced with bleached floorboards; the living room furniture traded for tables and chairs made of reclaimed wood and carved stone; a living wall will have to be installed somewhere in the kitchen. And house plants. You’ll need to get used to watering a lot more house plants. For all of this, you can blame David Rockwell.

At the beginning of 2020, the New York-headquartered biggest-name-in-interior-design was employed to turn the ageing Thompson Hotel, famous for throwing MBA after-parties, into the first Canadian outpost of the US-based eco-luxury hospitality group, 1 Hotels.

A ccording to Slavic folklore, the Firebird is a mystical glowing bird with magical feathers and jewel-like eyes. Representing a rare and complex treasure, the mythical creature is considered both a blessing and a harbinger of doom to whomever is in its possession. Let’s hope then that it’s the former for Anna Dolgushina and Madina Kazhimova, the St Petersburg restaurateurs behind Soho’s newly-launched open-flame restaurant and wine bar. Inspired by his Greek heritage, head chef Nikos Kontongiannatos (previously of Caravan) has devised a small, accomplished menu of Mediterranean-influenced dishes, from charred peaches with ricotta and coriander, to scallops accompanied by truffle mashed potatoes, and flame-roasted duck breast with an apricot mostarda and granola.

Intimate counter seating offers views of the hustle and bustle of the kitchen, while a rustic Mediterranean terrace, with terracotta floor tiles, amber beams and stripped-back

Behind the bar, sommelier Anna Dolgushina has curated a fine selection of wines that champions small producers from around Europe – including an impressive array of skin-contact bottles (that’s white wine that’s turned a golden-amber colour due to a much longer maceration process).

A RED-HOT NEWLY-OPENED SOHO GRILL IS ADDING FLAME-FUELLED FLAVOUR TO MODERN MEDITERRANEAN CLASSICS Words: Ellie Goodman PolandFirebird,Street THE RESTAURANT 03

THE BRIEFING concrete walls, is illuminated by soft candlelight. The scent of a wood fire hangs in the air. Staff, dressed in white lab coats embroidered at the breast with the Firebird emblem, are polite and attentive, without being over-familiar. We kicked things off with the sweet-but-smoky strawberry mezcal Negroni and refreshing bergamot spritz, both of which packed a heavyweight punch. You’ll find no heaping portions here, but therein lies the beauty. Guests are encouraged to choose a selection of small plates for each course – of which there are four in total if you count the snacks (I do) – in order to enjoy the full scope of what open-flame cooking can accomplish. Our meal began with a modest serving of sourdough focaccia with tomatoes, warmed gently on the grill, and spicy Bloody Mary corn ribs, both of which hinted at what would follow. The hero of the sharing ‘snack’ course was the chicken liver paté choux buns. Served with crunchy hazelnuts and sweet raisins, these smoky, savoury pastries stayed with me long after I’d boarded the tube home. For starters, it was flame-grilled halloumi, decadently topped with sliced plum, truffle and Greek honey – intoxicating in its simplicity and expertly executed. Whole tiger prawns in a buttery white-wine sauce were delightfully light, leaving behind the tang of the flames that cooked them. If you go for the focaccia to begin your meal, I’d recommend saving a piece with which to mop up the rich butter sauce. The main event: blackened pork belly, imbued with the rich smokiness of the grill, served with a sweet plum jam and tangy potato and onion salad. Surprisingly acerbic, completely delectable. The charred chicken breast was another hit. Served with a sticky bacon jam (which I would happily eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner), delicate oyster mushrooms and a thricecooked garlic reduction with port, the dish was light and rich, erupting with a hazy smokiness that you simply don’t get through other means of cooking. Dessert was an airy éclair filled with whipped honeycomb cream and fresh strawberries, sprinkled with chopped pistachios and drizzled with more Greek honey. Fluffy and sweet, I could have eaten it twice. Despite the swaths of similarly-ambitious open-fire restaurants that now litter London, Firebird feels novel. Its considered fusion of Mediterranean and central European cuisine speaks to the diversity of Greece, while the restaurant’s simple concept and fire-fuelled flavours showcase the talents of its team. The Firebird has worked its magic, let’s see if it flies.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UKLUXURY23LONDON

29 Poland Street, W1F 8QR, firebirdlondon.co.uk

THE SPA EXPERIENCE 04

I needn’t have worried. Irfan Ahmed is a delight. He’s friendly, relaxed and great at small talk which distracts (a bit) from the various strenuous exercises in my highly-tailored workout. He chooses stretches to help with a running niggle and kits me out after seeing me eyeing up the gloves and pads; boxing is hard, is my verdict, but brilliant for cardio and very satisfying.

The Lanesborough Club & Spa

If you prefer facials, a new partnership with the Luxury Aesthetics Group means you can also book in for a number of HydraFacials; the bespoke 90-minute version ends with an intriguing liquid 24-carat gold face mask, which I am most definitely going back to try. Based on the above, I have exceedingly high expectations. Rates for The Lanesborough Club & Spa’s HIIT & Healthy package start from £510 per person, oetkercollection.com

A scan by the high-tech Boditrax machine supplies plenty of stats about my body make-up – ‘what gets measured gets improved,’ says the company. I question a metabolic rate 15 years younger than I actually am but Irfan promises it is pretty accurate. I finish the session hot, proud and just the right level of post-PT Thankfully,wobbly.my day is not getting any more energetic. For lunch I choose the Asian salad; an immense (in both senses of the word) mound of vibrantly-coloured veg and lemongrass chicken, jazzed up with crunchy cashews, ginger, chilli and wasabi dressing, and followed by a well-earned brownie. Next, after a blissful hour of steam and sauna, is my treatment. When it comes to judging a spa, the massage is crucial; I’ve had hundreds (many of these in the name of work, I’m fortunate to admit) and there is a big difference between high street and five-star.

To continue the analogy, a massage like this needs to feel couture, not off-the-rack – perfectly relaxing, completely tailored and, basically, exactly what Aneta did for me.

To be frank, I expected nothing less. Awarded Best Urban Spa at the Good Spa Awards 2021, the Lanesborough Club & Spa’s mindfulness, fitness, beauty and wellness offering sprawls over 18,000 sq ft. Ceilings feel lofty, gold-framed mirrors create yet more space and the décor involves expanses of cream-marble flooring and dark-wood panelling. It is serene, and so quiet; encountering very few people on a spa day is ideal and it’s a genuinely calming antidote to the heat and sound of central London.

The package includes breakfast, an hour-long PT session, lunch, R&R in the spa and a 60-minute treatment

I am booked in to test the new HIIT & Healthy package, which allows day guests like me to use the gym for the first time. It also includes breakfast, an hour-long PT session in the highspec gym, lunch, R&R in the spa and a 60-minute treatment. After breakfast, I float around in the beautiful (and empty) hydrotherapy pool, psyching myself up for the next item on my agenda. I’m apprehensive about being put through my paces by a PT who also happens to be Olympic medallist Amir Khan’s former strength coach. I am a runner and despite one HIIT class a week still hate burpees and push-ups.

Words: Annabel Harrison E verything about my breakfast is just right. I feel like Goldilocks. The two oven-warm mini-banana loaves that come with my pot of tea, the pristine china, the ambient music that’s spot on for 10am, and a smiling waiter who seems absolutely delighted to be delivering my ginger-and-turmeric shot and avocado toast with a neatly-poached egg and fresh chilli. It’s my job to look for flaws, and, believe me, I did try, but they were non-existent.

A NEW HIIT & HEALTHY PACKAGE FROM THE HYDE PARK HOTEL OPENS UP A SUITE OF SERVICES FOR DAY GUESTS FOR THE FIRST TIME

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK25

THE ECO RESORT 05 The Datai, Langkawi HOW DOES A HOTEL SUCCESSFULLY NURTURE A RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE THAT IS MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL? A BEACH RETREAT IN MALAYSIA HAS DEDICATED MORE THAN 25 YEARS TO THE CHALLENGE Words: Anna Prendergast

Fortunately, despite my ungainly pose, nobody asks me to leave – the staff here are used to guests becoming enraptured by the nature that surrounds The Datai.

Temporarily stunned into stillness by the joy of witnessing this small-but-staggering process, I’m reminded why it’s so crucial to leave shells on the beach to fulfil their role as mobile homes rather than souvenirs. I can’t help but think that there are other lessons to be learned: every crab goes away with a new home, even the little guys; I later learn that they coexist in harmony with other organisms like sea anemone. This is mutualism, upcycling and distribution of resources at its smartest.

S quatting over a depression in the sand, it strikes me that should my pose be misinterpreted, I may well be asked to vacate the premises of The Datai. I’m observing a hermit crab house swap, whereby a cluster of the curious crustaceans gathers around a large empty shell. When a crab arrives that’s large enough to inhabit it, it sets off a vacancy chain, and each crab upsizes by occupying its larger neighbour’s now-discarded shell.

Located in the north-western corner of Langkawi, an hour’s flight from Kuala Lumpur, the rainforest hotel sits on Datai Bay (one of National Geographic’s Top 10 Beaches in the World) and looks out over the Andaman Ocean. After check-in, I’m in the sea in a matter of minutes, my shoulders unclenching from around my ears and jet lag rinsing off in the water. A few strokes in I look back – and do a double take. The entire resort is invisible, hidden behind a verdant canopy. When the original architect, Didier LeFort, returned in 2017, after 25 years to guide the restoration, he was pleased to note that ‘nature has taken over’. Overhead, a white-bellied sea eagle swoops, and not a single sun-lounging guest can keep their eyes off it. Even the beach bar’s waiters pause to allow the spectacle the attention it deserves before serving trays of cold towels, ice cream and fresh fruit. Over the next few days, it becomes clear that this is how The Datai does luxury: nature first, and then everything (and anything) you could possibly need. ‘There is no Datai without nature,’ general manager Arnaud Girodon shrugs over dinner at The Gulai House, where menus are hand-written on giant dried macaranga leaves and there is a pre-dinner hand-washing ceremony that may be less of a blessing and more of a necessity post-Covid. Girodon describes grand plans to launch eco-friendly day cruises to the Andaman Islands and Koh Phi Phi, but I’m somewhat distracted by a nutty, golden dahl. ‘It’s our duty of care to look after the rainforest, the beach, the reefs, and renovating the hotel gave us the chance to start over with sustainability.’ Originally built in 1993, the hotel closed for renovations in 2017, and while little was changed in terms of the infrastructure, one key step taken was the opening of a Nature Centre. It’s headed up by Malaysia’s top naturalist, Irshad Mobarak, who has been with The Datai since the beginning, and his niece Shakira, who describes her job as ‘being able to ask questions and find answers’.

At breakfast, I watch freshly made Malaysian murtabak being kneaded and spun and fried by a chef, just as enchanted as the sixyear-old waiting beside me. ‘I’m bribing him to try local food with the promise of Marmite toast,’ his dad whispers. The next day, the kid and I queue up for the flaky flatbread once more, marmite well and truly forgotten. We meet again on a nature walk with the mischievous marine biologist Jonathan Chandrasakaran, whose passion for wildlife is entirely infectious, igniting interest in apathetic adults and jetlagged kids. He leads us through the buttress roots of the mangrove and points out the low-slung trunks of sea hibiscus, which grow horizontally towards the shore and help protect the beach from erosion. Coastal attrition is mostly natural, but Langkawi’s mangroves, which are essential to the survival of the rainforests, are vulnerable to man-made pollution – rubbish chokes the roots of the trees; oil from tour boats suffocates plants; litter poisons wildlife. Educating locals and providing improved waste disposal remains high-priority.

From RM2,500 (approx. £463) per room per night based on two adults sharing a Canopy Deluxe, inclusive of breakfast, thedatai.com. Malaysia Airlines offers the only non-stop service from London Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur with return flights starting from approx. £689, malaysiaairlines.com

Here, fishermen are only allowed to line fish and most often cast off in the bay to provide for their families, but some will bring a fresh catch directly to the hotel to sell to the kitchen. It’s one of many ways the hotel has succeeded in involving locals. ‘We realised that we were throwing away half-burnt candles from the restaurant that were too small to reuse,’ says Shakira. ‘So we decided to train local women in a technique that melts the candle down and re-uses the wax: they buy the stubs from us, then sell them back at a profit, cutting out waste and providing income without a middle man.’ The beach bar’s communal bottle of SPF has also been replaced with reef-safe sunscreen created by local business Noosh Naturals. ‘We can’t force guests to use it, but we can provide and educate them about it as an alternative,’ says Shakira. Candles and skincare might sound small-fry, but The Datai attends to the tiniest of details with as much care as the big stuff. In the villas, everything from toothbrushes (made from bamboo) to tea bags (made by a French brand that – at The Datai’s request – pivoted to recyclable paper sachets) has been addressed.

Langkawi itself is historically home to orang laut, or ‘sea peoples’, and traditional longtail boats are visible in the waters of Datai Bay.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UKLUXURY29LONDON THE BRIEFING

During my stay, the resort received EarthCheck certification, verifying the success of its efforts to send zero waste to landfill, as well as for its permaculture garden (complete with worm farm to tackle food waste) and its on-site water bottling plant. ‘We want to be a benchmark in transparency so that the rest of the industry can join us at this level,’ says Shakira, outlining initiatives such as Fish for the Future, which supports sustainable fishing and local fishermen, and Pure Lab, which will turn glass waste into ecoblocks for construction work. Beyond the resort, protective measures are carried out for the 10 million-year-old rainforest in which it’s built, and marine conservation has been crucial from the beginning; motorised water sports are prohibited and five aggregation devices have successfully encouraged coral growth in the surrounding reefs.

Immersed in the rainforest, it is in one of these villas that I tune into the frequency of the very nature these practises intend to protect. By night, the white noise of rolling thunder and rainfall has a surprisingly sedative effect, and at dawn a troop of dusky langur monkeys drop onto my veranda, an informal wake-up call. Their presence politely reminds me that I am, in fact, the intruder here – this is their rainforest, after all – so I make coffee and simply observe their playful rituals through the window. I settle into the schedule that Langkawi’s wildlife has set, and notice more guests carrying round binoculars than smartphones. There’s no need for clock-watching when an orchestra of cicadas acts as an unofficial dinner bell, skittish bats take flight at dusk signalling cocktail hour, and night lilies unfold after sunset.

Just like its resident hermit crabs, The Datai demonstrates a mutualistic relationship with the environment on which it depends and the creatures that call it home – the resort has become an essential part of the ecosystem, and one simply can’t survive without the other.

A troop of dusky langur monkeys drops onto my verandah... Their presence politely reminds me that I am, in fact, the intruder here

THE OPENING 06

W hen it opened in August 2022, the Aman New York represented a new chapter for both the hospitality group and Manhattan’s landmark Crown Building. Designed in partnership with esteemed architect Jean-Michel Gathy of Denniston (the creative mind behind the Four Seasons Bangkok and Cheval Blanc Randheli), the opening of Aman New York marked the hospitality group’s third state-side location and only its second city retreat (the other is located in Tokyo).

Spanning floors 7 to 25 – and featuring a wraparound garden terrace on the 14th floor (pictured above) – the hotel opened with 83 guest suites and 22 private residences, each boasting a functioning fireplace – a first for the city. Alongside an extensive wine library, dining options include Italian eatery Arva, as well as Nama, Aman’s take on gourmet Japanese dining – complete with a Hinoki wood counter for omakase-style dishes. From approx. £2,700 per night, aman.com Words: Ellie Goodman

THE BIG APPLE’S FAMOUS CROWN BUILDING WELCOMES A FETED NEW TENANT of the Museum of Modern Art, the Beaux-Arts building was designed by architectural behemoths Warren & Wetmore – the influential designers behind Grand Central Station and the city’s iconic Helmsley Building.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK30

Set on the corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, and overlooking Central Park, the opening of Aman’s latest urban sanctuary is the culmination of a large-scale transformation for the Crown Building. Finished in 1921 as the original home

Aman New York

AfricaSouthBabylonstoren,

When you travel with Carrier, each experience we create is itself a work of art. Whether it’s embarking on a family adventure to South Africa to spot the Big 5 on a game drive, teaching your children the art of gelato making in the city of Rome or protecting endangered sea turtles together in the Caribbean, everything is planned to perfection.

Some people travel just to see the rest of the world.

Visit: carrier.co.uk Call: 0161 826 1914Carrier Holidays

Carrier clients travel to experience the best of the world.

One of the greatest gifts we can give to our families is to explore the world together; visiting destinations that open our eyes to new experiences and help us to reconnect in a way that nothing else does.

CLOS19 BRINGS THE WORLD’S FINEST CHAMPAGNES, WINES AND SPIRITS TO YOUR FINGERTIPS.

Shop online Clos19.comon

What’s your favourite London neighbourhood? Right now, it’s the janky square between Upper Street and Kingsland Road, below the Overground but above the canal. Which law would you introduce to make London a better place to live? I’m sure it’d be mad unpopular, but I’d pedestrianise the majority of Zone One between 8am and 8pm.

If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be? With my grandma back in Nigeria.

THE BRITISH-NIGERIAN STAR OF GANGS OF LONDON TALKS

SOPÉ... DÌRÍSÙ

I’ve lived most of my life North and love it for a variety of reasons, but my friends will rush me if I don’t say South. So South, South-East specifically!

35 LUXURY LONDON INTERVIEW LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK ON LONDON TIME

Favourite film of all time? This is a question I always refuse to answer because I can’t pick just one. There are far too many. Maybe the original Lion King? It’s the first film I ever loved You studied Economics and played American football at university. If you weren’t an actor, what job would you like to do? I love working with my body, so probably an athlete of some description – either a footballer or an American footballer, but I probably wasn’t good enough which is why I became an actor.

What is your favourite genre of film/television? Science fantasy. What is your go-to television series to binge? Rick and Morty.

BLOODTHIRSTY SCENES, DISNEY MOVIES, AND SWAPPING FICTIONAL GANG VIOLENCE FOR THE REGENCY ERA IN HIS LATEST ROLE H eroin, torture, assassination… just some of the things you’ll see in a typical episode of Gangs of London , the gritty story of London’s criminal underbelly and one of the top five mostwatched series ever on Sky Atlantic. SopéẹDìrísù plays Elliot Finch, an undercover policeman who infiltrates the most powerful crime syndicate in the capital, and who will return in the upcoming second series of the bloody action-thriller. But Dìrísù, who was born in Edgware, is no one-trick pony; he speaks to Luxury London ahead of playing the titular role in Mr. Malcolm’s List , a frothy Jane Austen-inspired comedy of errors. Talk about range… Why do you think season one of Gangs of London was such a huge hit? I don’t think UK audiences have ever seen anything like Gangs before. The cinematography, the scale… it’s on another level. I also think we’ve always been good, as a culture, at crime and ‘gangster’ stories, but Gangs of London offers an entirely new perspective on that, which is refreshing. It’s pretty dark at times. How was filming the more violent scenes? Funnily enough, some of those ‘dark’ or ‘violent’ scenes were the most enjoyable to shoot. The atmosphere on set is so upbeat and positive, despite the work we’re creating – it’s often easy to forget that we’re making something so terrifying. What can we expect from season two? The atmosphere of London has changed and our characters have to find a way to navigate that. There are some really incredible story arcs that even I can’t wait to watch. Your next project, Mr. Malcolm’s List, couldn’t be further from GoL. What attracted you to the period drama? The fact that it couldn’t be further from GoL! I wanted to ensure I have diversity in the work I do. But more importantly, historically, leading and nuanced roles in period film haven’t been so inclusively cast, and I had kind of resigned myself to that. So when Emma [Holly Jones, the director] came to me with this role, I leaped at the opportunity. I’m excited to be a part of the change so that others don’t have the same resignations that I had when I was younger. North, South, East or West – which area of London is your favourite?

ERIN DOHERTY , STAR OF THE CROWN AND THE CRUCIBLE , IS HAVING A MOMENT. HERE, THE PECKHAM-BASED ACTOR DISCUSSES THE ATTRACTION OF COMPLEX CHARACTERS AND CONFRONTING HER OWN DEMONS Words: Anna Solomon Photography: Joseph Sinclair BY APPOINTMENTROYAL

“I fully connect to [Becky] because I feel like there’s never been more of a disconnect in terms of being ‘with people’ online, but actually being sat in your room at home alone,” she says. As for Abigail, she is both an antagonist and a victim, which makes her Doherty’s favourite role to date: “On a day-to-day basis I’m confused by her. She really is walking that line.”

So I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that the 30-year-old found an unlikely counterpart in Anne, Princess Royal, who she played in series three and four of Netflix blockbuster The Crown. And I don’t mean it was an odd casting choice; critics were unanimous in their praise of Doherty’s performance – the series creator was put under pressure to add in more scenes with the Princess because people loved her so much, and he credits Doherty with single-handedly revamping Anne’s popularity. But the accent? There’s no trace of it. So how did Doherty get Anne’s low received pronunciation down to a T? She would walk around London listening to interviews with the young royal to prepare, she says. No, Doherty was the only woman for the job. What I was referencing was not the fact that she played the Princess, but that she found something of a kindred spirit in her. “I’m not a royalist,” says Doherty. “But [Anne] as a person? I love her. I can’t get enough.” We’re sitting in a poky press room in the bowels of the National Theatre. The actor, who is on her lunch break from rehearsing her new play (more on that later), is smaller than I imagined; her hand feels super-dainty when I shake it. Perhaps I thought she’d be bigger because of her imposing presence in The Crown Doherty. has described the Princess Royal as a “rock star”, citing the 1974 incident during which she was nearly kidnapped from her Rolls-Royce. Anne’s retort when the assailant told her to get out of the car? “Not bloody likely!”

“The longer that I am alive on this planet, the more I realise that people are not simple. There is no right or wrong, black or “I feel like there’s never been more of a disconnect in terms of being ‘with people’ online, but actually being sat in your room at home alone”

The actor also sympathises with her character, arguing that, although “many things are easier for [the Royals]”, she “wouldn’t wish being born into that family on anyone”.

What does social media culture have to do with Arthur Miller’s 1953 play about the Salem Witch Trials? Well, The Crucible was originally an allegory of McCarthyism – the US strategy of weeding out communists with often baseless accusations during the Cold War. Lyndsey Turner, who is directing the National Theatre production, takes these themes of abuse of power, and the repercussions of blindly following doctrine and abandoning common sense, and applies them to one of the modern age’s most hysterical phenomenon: cancel culture.

“Lyndsey is going, ‘right, why does this story need to be told now? What messages can we ping out while remaining loyal and respectful to the text?’ Which I think is why art is so glorious,” says Doherty. “The way that people are nervous to put their beliefs out there because of what may happen to them – that really rings through in this play.”

Doherty heard the pressure of being a princess in Anne’s tightly-controlled voice: “Listening to her speak I was like, ‘Oh, she’s resisting, she feels contained’. You can learn a lot about where someone is at mentally from the way they use theirAftervoice.”

rin Doherty has a high cockney inflection and speaks quickly –words fall over each other in an ago.50underamongfellcouldI‘crikey’jumble.enthusiasticShesaysalot,whichthought,andIbewrong,outoffavourpeopletheageofquiteawhileHerheritage

The Crown, Doherty landed the lead role in the BBC One psychological thriller Chloe. Doherty portrays Becky, a young woman in a dead-end job, living with a mother with earlyonset dementia, whose only hobby appears to be stalking an old friend, Chloe, on social media. When said friend mysteriously dies, Becky takes on a new identity and infiltrates Chloe’s circle; a move that seems partially motivated by a desire to find out what happened to her, and partially as an obsessive outlet for her own mourning.Theisolating effect of social media is a major theme in Chloe, and this is also taken up in Doherty’s next project: a new production of The Crucible at the National Theatre, where she’ll play Abigail Williams (hence the reason I find myself on the South Bank watching Doherty eat a satsuma in rehearsalwear – a baggy white T-shirt, gilet and pair of jeans).

is Irish, but she grew up in Crawley (near Gatwick Airport), where she attended a local comprehensive.

Anne, Becky and Abigail all have something in common: they are complex characters who are not explicitly ‘good’. This is important to Doherty – she says she can’t relate to themPrincessotherwise.Anne, as a royal, has her detractors, of course, but Doherty empathised with her inner conflict and managed to “give [Anne] a heartbeat”. Becky is a duplicitous individual, but the actor felt it was important to understand where her “questionable decisions… came from”.

“The way that people are nervous to put their beliefs out there because of what may happen to them –that really rings through in this play”

“It’s okay to have qualities youyourselfaboutthatdon’tlike”

“I’ve experienced a lot of anxiety around being a good person,” says Doherty, and, indeed, that rhetoric comes up multiple times during our interview. “It’s okay to have qualities about yourself that you don’t like… There’s something about not judging yourself and just going, ‘okay, this is where I’m at’. I don’t think I’m a bad person.” I get on the Circle Line feeling strangely protective over Doherty, who describes herself as a “simple person” who loves nature, and is never happier than when she’s sitting on a bench or under a tree reading, writing or listening to music. Her idea of the perfect day is walking the dog with her sister and mum, before coming home, watching a film and eating chocolate.

In an interview with The New York Times, she admitted that she finds being in the public eye “jarring”, and considers red carpet appearances “unner ving”. She has discussed feeling star-struck when meeting co-star Helena Bonham Carter, who portrayed Princess Margaret in The Crown, and recalls the moment she plucked up the courage to tell Bonham Carter how much she loved her in Harry Potter. The Bellatrix Lestrange actor pointed her finger at Doherty as if it were a wand and shouted “AvadaDohertyKedavra!”also reminisces about visiting Olivia Colman’s cabin when they were filming the show (Colman played Queen Elizabeth), and how they would play games to keep themselves entertained. I can picture it – I can’t imagine anyone not getting along with Doherty. During our interview, she is working overtime to make me feel comfortable, nodding coaxingly when I ask my questions, agreeing enthusiastically with my commentary and laughing at my jokes. When we’re finished, she gives me a hug. “That was awesome!” she says.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK43

‘The Crucible’ runs at the National Theatre from 14 September to 5 November, tickets from £20, nationaltheatre.org.uk

Although it’s fair to say that Doherty is fast on her way to becoming acting royalty, she suffers no delusions of grandeur.

The actor’s masterful portrayal of complex characters battling internal demons stems, she hints, from her own darkness. But to me, Doherty is light. Buoyant. Radiant. She brightens the proverbial room with her earnestness, which is a rather rare commodity these days.

white. Everything is grey. Human beings are messy, and there’s beauty in that,” Doherty continues. “That’s what leads me from character to character – I’m like, well, what’s the flaw within this person? What are they running from?” Anne, Becky and Abigail all have light and dark in them – like the actress herself. Doherty has been open about her mental health, stating in an Instagram post that she sometimes “struggles to leave the apartment”. But she’s also, it seems, proactive about dealing with it. She has been in therapy for six years, and her favourite book is The Body Keeps the Score , a work about the effects of trauma. She says that, in a parallel universe, she would have liked to work in the field of psychology: “I just love people. I love trying to figure out why they do what they do.” This acute understanding of her own mind, however, seems accompanied by a hyper-awareness of her perceived shortcomings – she’s a little hard on herself, I feel, and it makes me sad.

@pullmaneditionsposters

Priced

Our

Private

@pullmaneditionsposters

ORIGINAL, LIMITED-EDITION ART DECO POSTERS

All images and text Pullman Editions Ltd. 2022 central London gallery x 65 cm. Priced at £420 each (inc. UK sales tax). commissions are also welcome.

View and buy online at www.pullmaneditions.com

Our

Private

46 The Agenda Your curated guide to culture in the capital 52 Cézanne’s Legacy Believe it or not, painting fruit was once groundbreaking 58 A Family Affair Everyone knows about the JFK affair, but what role did Marilyn Monroe’s relationship with Bobby Kennedy play in her tragic final days?

A new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum dissects the West’s growing fascination with South Korean culture (p.46). The Saekdong dress by Korean fashion label Darcygom. Photo Jihoon Jung, courtesy Darcygom

MUSIC, MUSEUMS AND MASTERPIECES Culture

YOUR CURATED GUIDE TO CULTURE IN THE CAPITAL

Edited by: Anna Solomon

The 14NationalCrucible,TheatreSeptember–5November 20221 Salem, 1692: women in colonial Massachusetts are being accused of witchcraft. It is against this backdrop of terror that Arthur Miller’s The Crucible takes place. He tells a parable of power and its abuse, using this notorious case of mass hysteria – and the attendant lapses in due process – as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the US government obsessively hunted those suspected of being communists. In this new staging by Lyndsey Turner, Erin Doherty (The Crown and BBC drama Chloe) takes to the stage as a young woman raised in submission who suddenly finds that her voice has terrible power. Tickets from £20, nationaltheatre.org.uk

THE AGENDA

– 26 February 2023 EFG London Jazz 11-20VariousFestival,locationsNovember2022

efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK47 2 3

Since its inception, the EFG London Jazz Festival has hosted the likes of Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and the Gipsy Kings. The 10-day event sees hundreds of performances at both major venues like Royal Festival Hall and iconic jazz clubs like Ronnie Scott’s; there is also a bill of online shows. This year is the EFG London Jazz Festival’s 30th birthday, so expect an extra-special program of talent both established and up-and-coming.

Back in 2020, Lynette YiadomBoakye’s Tate Britain exhibition was cut short by lockdown; now, her enigmatic portraits are back in Millbank. The interesting thing about these portraits is that they are not of real people – they are the product of found materials and Yiadom-Boakye’s own imagination, often painted in spontaneous, impulsive bursts. The fictitious figures are all black; critic Hilton Als has written that the artist is “interested in black society, not as it was affected or shaped by the white world, but as it exist[s] unto itself”. £16, tate.org.uk 2022

A PASSION LIKE NO OTHER, 2012 CAMILLA GEORGE, HENRY CHARLESANDAMYTHYSTTHREADGILL,KIAHMELANIE Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly in League with the Light Tate Britain 24 November

4TheDesign,SurrealismDesire:and1924-Today,DesignMuseum,From14October2022

When you think of Modernism, you think of Van Gogh and Picasso. You think of Dalí’s melting clocks, Pollock’s messy compositions, and Warhol’s soup cans. But these men did not represent the whole story of late 19th and early 20th century art. There was a whole contingent of artists – women – that have been hidden from history. Making Modernism is devoted to pioneering female artists in the early 1900s: Paula ModersohnBecker, Kӓthe Kollwitz, Gabriele Münter and Marianne Werefkin. From £17, royalacademy.org.uk

From mid-October, the Design Museum will be loaning some very special objects from its German counterpart; these objects were inspired by the cultural movement that emerged in the early-20th century to reflect a growing fascination with the unconscious. This exhibition – featuring works by Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi, Man Ray and others – will show what happens when ordinary objects are combined and reinvented to create something extraordinary, illogical, or unsettling (For more on the exhibition see page 118). £16.80, designmuseum.org

Much is made of Surrealim in art, but what about surrealist design?

FROM TOP TO BOTTOM HAND CHAIR, ABOUT 1962, PEDRO FRIEDEBERG, C. 1965, CARVED MAHOGANY; SOFA (BOCCA), 1970, GUFRAM; HORSE LAMP, 2006, FRONT DESIGN, MANUFACTURED BY MOOOI BV, BREDA / NIEDERLANDE, PLASTIC, METAL of

PAULA MODERSOHN-BECKER, GIRL WITH CHILD, 1902 5

Objects

Making Modernism: The Royal Academy of Arts 12 November 2022 – 12 February 2023

MOON JAR DRESS, BLUE BY

PHOTO SANGMI AN, MODEL LEEHYUN KIM Hallyu! The Korean Wave, Victoria and Albert Museum From 24 September 2022 6

From the enduring obsession with K-pop to screen hits like Squid Game and Parasite, South Korea is really having a moment. Actually, it’s not really a moment, because the country’s cultural popularity has been snowballing since the 1990s. This – the global fascination with South Korean film, music and beauty – has become known as the ‘Korean wave’, or ‘hallyu’, and will be debated and dissected at the V&A this autumn. The exhibition will look at the defining moments of the last decades, from BTS to Gangnam Style (remember that?). It promises to be visually impeccable, culturally informative, and a lot of fun. £20, vam.ac.uk MINJU KIM. SEOUL, 2021 © MINJU KIM,

The Procession is an explosion of stories and themes, ranging from colonialism to monarchy and global warming. The work is ambitious, all-encompassing and, at times, overwhelming – it is also free, so don’t miss out! Free, tate.org.uk

The Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries have been transformed into a cavalcade of momentos from Hew Locke’s long and illustrious career. The 2022 Commission comes courtesy of the BritishGuyanese sculptor, whose largescale art invites audiences to “reflect on the cycles of history, and the ebb and flow of cultures, people, finance and power”.

7HewLocke: The Procession, Tate UntilBritain,22January 2023 TATE PHOTOGRAPHY (JOE HUMPHRIES)

SELF-PORTRAIT, 1941, OIL ON CANVAS AND SEATED GIRL WITH DOG, 1944, OIL ON CANVAS

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UKLUXURY51LONDON CULTURE

Most people know Mark Rothko, but not so many have heard of his idol, Milton Avery. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the 20th century. According to The New York Times, “only Matisse... produced a greater achievement”. Avery’s career fell between the Impressionist and Abstract Expressionist movements, leaving him to forge his own path of works that rely on harmonious colour to depict simplified scenes. This exhibition marks the first time that the painter’s work has been displayed on this side of the Atlantic. £17, royalacademy.org.uk 16 October 2022

8 Milton Avery, The Royal Academy Until

THE BASKET OF APPLES, C. 1893, THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, HELEN BIRCH BARTLETT MEMORIAL COLLECTION

Apple of his Eye EVER WONDERED WHY EVERY SCHOOL ART STUDENT IS DESTINED TO DRAW A BOWL OF FRUIT? YOU CAN BLAME CÉZANNE FOR THAT. AHEAD OF TATE MODERN’S NEW FLAGSHIP EXHIBITION, LUXURY LONDON LOOKS AT HOW THE GREAT POST-IMPRESSIONIST CHANGED THE WORLD WITH THE WAY HE PAINTED AN APPLE Words: Rob Crossan

So why has the bowl of fruit come to be regarded as the ultimate ‘starter for 10’ when it comes to teaching children about the technicalities of art? You can put it down in part to a chronic shortage of inspiration and imagination on behalf of the British school curriculum. But also, we’ve become dulled by familiarity. Just as it is no longer shocking to see a rock ‘n’ roll band spit on the stage (or into the audience) since the Sex Pistols, or to see men wearing makeup since Ziggy Stardust, so the audacity of painting an apple has long since lost any vestige of anti-establishment lustre. Many would be surprised that depicting a bowl of fruit was ever considered controversial. “With an apple, I want to astonish Paris.” An unlikelysounding manifesto. But with the Provençal apples and Beurreé Diel pears grown in the vicinity of his family’s estate near Aix, Cézanne dispensed with the traditional one-point perspective and examined the fruit, as well and plates and tables, from various viewpoints: straight on, above and sideways. This made him one of the most mocked, derided, and ultimately revered painters of the 19th Borncentury.inAix-en-Provence in 1839, Paul Cézanne was always regarded by Parisian artists as something of an uncouth provincial from the south, despite coming from a wealthy family. It was an impression that probably wasn’t helped by his personal shyness, which many mistook for arrogance. For Cézanne, the mundane had the potential to be monumental; a phenomenon that he described as ‘little sensations’. With this mentality, it was all but inevitable that, in his early 20s, he would fall in with the erstwhile seditionaries of the Paris art scene. With anything outside of the neo-classical or romantic tradition being banned from the prestigious Académie des Beaux-Arts, Cézanne became part of a louche group of painters, among them Monet, Renoir and Degas, who would become known as the Impressionists. Then, Cézanne was forced to flee Paris to avoid being drafted into the Franco-German War; his move back to Provence saw his work shift from swirling, violent-looking scenes of torpor to more faithful, demure depictions of landscapes. His colour palette lightened, and he became increasingly interested in the tissue and membrane of the things he painted, rather than the lighting. Yet, nobody was interested in buying his works, and rows with his father – a man with a personality every bit as pugnacious as his

S ome artists have greater needs than others. Gauguin needed an expensive and extremely lengthy trip to Polynesia to paint his primitive nudes. Da Vinci needed a willing friend to hurl himself off the top of a mountain outside Florence in order to demonstrate (without success) that his designs would enable man to fly. But Paul Cézanne needed nothing more than a bowl of fruit to revolutionise the French art scene. “With an apple, I want to astonish Paris,” he once declared. Yet, his legacy most clearly survives in the paint-splattered, anarchic world of school art classes, where reluctant teenagers are forced to paint bowls of fruit in preparation for their GCSE exams. These pieces are fated to spend their short lives pinned onto their parents’ fridge doors, or to be forgotten in an A4 folder; the result of many an adolescent yawn stifled as they dream of emulating Jackson Pollock, or Banksy.

SEATED MAN, 1905-6, © MUSEO THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA,NACIONAL MADRID

For Cézanne, the mundane had the potential to be monumental; a phenomenon that he described as ‘little sensations’

UNCLE DOMINIQUE IN SMOCK AND BLUE CAP, 1866, (NOT PART OF THE TATE MODERN EXHIBITION)

STILL LIFE WITH PLASTER CUPID, 1895, THE COURTAULD, LONDON (SAMUEL COURTAULD TRUST). PHOTO © THE COURTAULD

son’s – resulted in Cézanne Junior becoming more and more detached from his wife, his friends and the Parisian art scene. In this self-imposed, grumpy solitude his best works emerged, just as the man himself seemed to have vanished.

The art world was genuinely shocked and bemused at the results, with many of the Beaux-Arts acolytes back in Paris explaining away Cézanne’s audacity with theories that he was out of his mind on hashish, or heroin, down in the deep south of the country; a rumour Cézanne did nothing to dispel by continuing to shun the chattering classes in the capital. His raw (many would interpret as crude) brushstrokes were the ultimate rebellion against the sensibilities of the Paris art world. At a time when painters of still lives were considered the lowest of the low in the capital’s salons, Cézanne embraced this most derided of forms with breath-taking ferocity. His obsession with the apple reached its climax in 1882’s SelfPortrait and Apple. Here, Cézanne suspends an apple next to his own head, as if to compare the two; this is the point where the artist has so firmly wedged his subject matter into his soul that he sees virtually no difference between himself and the humble fruit. From this point on, when painting portraits, Cézanne would demand, doubtless to the bafflement of his sitters, that he wanted them to “be an apple!” There is still speculation as to from where Cézanne’s fruity obsession stemmed. Was it from a belief in the universal appeal of the apple? Did he see something in the Christian symbolism of the apple eaten by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? Or did he simply like the idea of painting something rustic, ordinary and as far from the subject matters of the Parisian salons as possible? Either way, his intransigence and disregard for the conventions of the time made him a genuine revolutionary. Today, Cézanne is a permanent resident in the pantheon of all-time great artists. By capturing the likeness of a simple apple, he took art in a new direction which challenged everything that was understood to be ‘right’ about form, perspective and colour. Not for nothing did Picasso once describe Cézanne as ‘the father of all of us’.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UKLUXURY57LONDON CULTURE

The way he painted the most ordinary of fruits may seem benign now, but it was completely new in the late 1800s. His brush strokes are short, clear and parallel; the paint incredibly thick, almost carved into the canvas. Within one stroke the colours alter radically – one moment malodorous dark, the next an iridescent white. To show technique in such a revealing way simply was not the done thing. The established protocol at that time was for an artist to make his movements as subtle and smooth as possible. It was a premise utterly junked by Cézanne. He propped apples in strange places; there was no order to their display, as if he’d simply emptied them out of a bag onto a rough Provence table.

The EY Exhibition: Cézanne runs at the Tate Modern from 5 October 2022 to 12 March 2023, tickets from £22, tate.org.uk

Many of the Beaux-Arts acolytes back in Paris explained away Cézanne’s audacity with theories that he was out of his mind on hashish, or heroin

THE CARD PLAYERS, 1892–93, PURCHASED BY QATAR FOR ROUGHLY £220 MILLION IN 2011 (NOT PART OF THE TATE MODERN EXHIBITION) BATHERS, 1874-5, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, BEQUEST OF JOAN WHITNEY PAYSON, 1975

It was at this time, towards the end of the 19th century, that apples began to dominate his work. Convinced that the art world needed to radically rethink how simple objects could be captured in paint beyond a simple one-point perspective, Cézanne drew packs of cards, rum bottles and, eventually, apples.

A FAMILY EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT THE ALLEGED JFK AFFAIR, BUT AS THE NEW NETFLIX FILM, BLONDE , RE-TELLS THE DOOMED STORY OF MARILYN MONROE, WHAT ROLE DID THE ACTRESS’ RUMOURED RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHER KENNEDY BROTHER PLAY IN HER TRAGIC FINAL DAYS? Words: Rob Crossan

AFFAIR

FROM LEFT PRESIDENT JOHN F KENNEDY, PICTURED IN 1962, ONE YEAR BEFORE HE WAS ASSASSINATED; MARILYN MONROE PORTRAIT FROM THE MAKING OF ‘THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH’, 1954; ROBERT F. KENNEDY, 1965, WHEN HE WAS SERVING AS A U.S. SENATOR

“I can now retire from politics after having had ‘Happy Birthday’ sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way,” JFK stated with, one must assume, an eyebrow raised somewhere near the very top of his hairline.

Bobby Kennedy, however, had either been advised by his most trusted confidents that an affair with the actor and sex symbol was a serious breach of convention, or he had, of his own accord,

Kennedy, married with children, was due to watch an atomic bomb test that day and, according to friends, Marilyn was convinced, despite her rumoured affair with his brother, that it was Bobby with whom she would one day marry and settle down.

The FBI had long been keeping a scrutinous eye on Marilyn CLOCKWISE FROM THIS IMAGE THE ONLY KNOWN PHOTOGRAPH TO EXIST OF JFK, MARILYN MONROE AND BOBBY KENNEDY, TAKEN AT A PARTY AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN IN 1962; MONROE ARRIVING AT A PARTY AT CIRO’S NIGHTCLUB, WEST HOLLYWOOD, 1953; U.S PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY NEXT TO HIS BROTHERS, ATTORNEY GENERAL ROBERT KENNEDY, LEFT, AND SENATOR TED KENNEDY, 1963

I t remains the sexiest, most alluring rendition of the world’s most familiar song. In Madison Square Garden, Manhattan, on the evening of 19 May 1962, Marilyn Monroe appeared at a Democrat Party fundraising event in an ermine coat. Walking across the stage she dropped the fur to reveal a skin-tight, flesh-coloured dress covered in 2,500 rhinestones. She had nothing on underneath. Marilyn sang ‘Happy Birthday Mr. President’ to John F. Kennedy with a sexual potency that couldn’t fail to be lost on the 15,000-strong audience, the words pouring out of her mouth like slow-melting chocolate. Kennedy himself was sardonic about the performance, which set the tongues that were already wagging about the duo’s possible affair into overdrive.

Three months later, Monroe would be dead at the age of just 36 from what official accounts have long claimed to be an accidental overdose. Yet, much as the alleged affair between the US President and the most famous woman on earth continues to intrigue, there is far more concrete information regarding the affair Monroe had with his younger brother, Bobby Kennedy, who, at that time, was serving as the Attorney General of the United States. A man whose behaviour plays a far more significant role in the last day of Marilyn’s life, and her untimely death. Saturday 4 August 1962 was a more than unusually difficult day for Marilyn. Holed up in a hacienda in Southern California, she had planned to rendezvous with Bobby later that evening.

During raucous and highly indiscreet beach parties at Peter and Patricia’s Malibu beach house, Marilyn was, at first, drawn to the President-to-be before turning her attention to Bobby after his brother entered the White House. Yet the beach house, far from being a discreet hideaway, had been bugged. Bobby’s attempts to take down mafia associate and head of the Teamsters Union, Jimmy Hoffa, led to the Mob hiring private detective Fred Otash and his team to secretly install recording equipment which captured much of the riotous excess of the Lawford parties.

More than 60 years on from Monroe’s death, the bugged tapes are yet to be heard. It’s possible they were destroyed when Bobby was in the midst of running for President himself, an ambition snuffed out when he himself was assassinated in a hotel kitchen in 1968. But what’s certain is that Bobby’s rejection of Marilyn is a far more significant factor in her death than the fling she may have had with his older brother.

George Cukor, who had directed Monroe in two of her films, put it bluntly when he said the passing of the 20th century’s leading sexual icon was “a nasty business. Her worst rejection.

Monroe, devastated, alone and long an abuser of barbiturates, downers and sleeping pills, began frantically calling her few trusted friends, including newspaper columnist Sidney Skolsky, to whom she had previously revealed her affair with JFK. According to Sidney, Marilyn “had calls that morning and by the time I saw her she was in a rage.” He went on to attest that Monroe “expressed considerable dissatisfaction with the fact that here she was, the most beautiful woman in the world, and she did not have a date for Saturday night.” Alone and now snubbed not only by the President but also by his brother, Marilyn’s already highly-fragile coping mechanisms seemed to go into meltdown. Timelines and versions of events vary radically with regard to who discovered her that night but by the following day the world had learned of the sudden death of a woman who, more than simply a movie star, seemed to encapsulate the youth, ambition, confidence and sexual allure of 1960s America.

‘Blonde’ premieres on Netflix on 26 September

Bobby, perhaps coerced or perhaps convinced in his own mind that the affair could not continue, skipped his date with Marilyn on that August Saturday night.

What is certain is that the FBI had long been keeping a scrutinous eye on Marilyn. Previously married to the playwright Arthur Miller, a man viewed as a potential Communist during the McCarthy investigations into ‘Un-American’ activities during the 50s, Marilyn’s intimate relationship with the Kennedys, plus her own opinions against the USA’s stockpiling of nuclear weapons, conspired to worry the Bureau enough to create a “105” file on her – a number defined as alluding to anyone who had political views which might not align with those of the FBI. The files have since been released, but in a severely redacted form, with entire pages blacked out by censors. Although there has never been any proven evidence that Bobby or John ever revealed state secrets to Marilyn, the relationship and her premature death were more than enough to titillate conspiracy theorists for decades to come.

Yet the murkiness around who was watching Marilyn and the suddenness of her death appear to be almost custom-designed to trigger people to continue to ask questions.

A true smoking gun will almost certainly never emerge.

Power and money. In the end, she was too innocent.”

LUXURY61LONDON FEATURE LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

The notion of the President’s brother, the Attorney General, cavorting with movie stars and very possibly discussing sensitive matters of state would have been of more than passing interest to the Soviet Union at a time of increased hostility; the Cuban Missile Crisis was just two months away at the time of Marilyn’s death.

simply lost interest in a woman who was by this point frustrating Hollywood moguls with her on-set tardiness and her demands about only working with certain directors. Both Marilyn and the Kennedys were long-time friends with Peter Lawford, a short-lived member of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack who was married to Patricia, one of the Kennedys’ many sisters.

Part of our “Extremely Scarce” range. The Glenturret 30 Years Old has been shaped by three distinct distillery visionaries from both Scottish and French influence. This release, limited to only 750 bottles is drawn from eight casks: American Oak refills sweet and fruity evolving over time, European Oak first fill adds depth, vibrancy, and texture. These cask influences brought together create this luxuriant single malt.

T: + 44 (0)1764 656565 E: www.theglenturret.comenquiries@theglenturret.com

BY HAND & HEART SINCE 1763

A WHISKY CREATED BY PEOPLE, PLACE, SPIRIT AND TIME.

Please enjoy The Glenturret responsibly. For further health information visit drinkaware.co.uk

Connoisseur

64 Top Tables The hottest restaurants to reserve in London right now 66 The Real Champagne Charlie A historical exploration of the man behind the legend 70 Out to Lunch How Kensington’s uppercrust gastro-pub Maggie Jones’s became the ultimate social leveller

TASTING NOTES FOR THE URBANE EPICUREAN

Trevor Gulliver (left) and Fergus Henderson OBE, who cofounded Smithfield institution St John in 1994, prepare to bring their unique brand of nose-to-tail eating to Marylebone (p.64).

26 Paddington Street, W1U, chotto-matte.com

ALEX DILLING AT HOTEL CAFÉ ROYAL

Chotto Matte’s second London site was designed by the awardwinning Andy Martin architecture and sits easy among the highend boutiques and art galleries of Marylebone. The restaurant features natural lava stone and striking ceiling sculptures. The menu is the work of executive chef, and Gordon Ramsay protégé, Jordan Sclare. Particular highlights include the Pato Crujiente Con Salsa Peruana – a crispy duck served with honey orange ponzu and piquant jalapeño – and the Dragon Roll of prawn tempura, salmon, avocado and unagi sauce.

Possibly the most exciting fine-dining destinations to launch this autumn, Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal represents Dilling’s first standalone restaurant, following the success of his time at the helm of a brace of two-Michelin-starred kitchens, The Greenhouse in Mayfair and Helene Darroze at The Connaught. This elegant and intimate dining space, which overlooks the iconic cur ve of Regent Street and across to Piccadilly Circus, seats just 34 guests. Be sure to get your reser vations in early.

Words: Nick Savage, Innerplace Concierge CHOTTO MARYLEBONEMATTE

LOOKING TO IMPRESS A DINNER DATE THIS AUTUMN? ARE THE HOTTEST RESTAURANTS IN LONDON RIGHT NOW

DESTINATIONDINING

THESE

68 Regent Street, W1B, hotelcaferoyal.com

9 Knightsbridge Green, SW1X

46 Golborne Road, W10, caia.london

Innerplace is London’s personal lifestyle concierge. Membership provides complimentary access to the finest nightclubs, the best restaurants and top private members’ clubs. Innerplace also offe rs priority bookings, updates on the latest openings and hosts its own regular parties. Membership starts from £100 a month innerplace.co.uk

ISIBANI West African food has been growing in popularity as a highend dining option for years. The latest acolyte is Isibani, launched by Anthony Douglas Chuka and Abdul Malik Abubakar, which landed in the heart of Knightsbridge Green, just behind the Bulgari hotel, in June. Expect elevated interpretations of recipes originally from Nigeria.

Fergus Henderson is easily one of Britain’s most important chefs and his restaurants St JOHN in Farringdon and St JOHN Bread & Wine in Spitalfields blazed a trail for a new kind of cooking. So news that the group would be opening a fresh branch in Marylebone was met with much excitement. The resto offers excellent sharing-style plates and, as you’d expect from a name known for championing nose-to-tail dining, plenty of holistic dishes.

NW1, stjohnrestaurant.com

56B S Molton Street, W1K, ro-ji.co.uk

ST JOHN MARYLEBONE

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK65

CAIA Contemporary wine bar, music venue and open-fire restaurant, Caia was opened on Golborne Road by Notting Hill locals Rishabh Vir and Tim Lang in August and has already created a stir among both foodies and oenophiles. It offers an extensive list of wines from storied producers and young upstarts alongside a seasonally changing menu of winefriendly fare cooked on a custom-made grill. Head downstairs for a post-dinner house party.

ROJI There’s plenty of great Japanese joints in London, but top-class sushi isn’t quite so ubiquitous. Exciting news, then, that the team behind Sushi Atelier and Chisou have opened a 10-seater sushi counter called Roji on South Moulton Street. The intimate wooden counter is as easy on the eye as Roji’s sushi is on the tongue.

“He was a man of two sides. He was a true salesman and away from home much of his life, which, his letters to his wife reveal, made him feel sad and lonely. Yet he was also a socialite who knew how to use his charm and good looks to work the star system and made some truly visionary moves in business. And, as the pomp that greeted him every time he sailed to New York suggests, he was always sure to make an entrance.”

Words: Josh Sims A s the Victorian music hall performer, George Leybourne, sang in a popular song of the late 1800s, he was “good for any game at night, my boys”. Around a century later, in the 1970s, he would inspire the standards – and debonair style – of jazz singer Leon Redbone.

Charles-Camille took after his father, Charles-Henri, a champagne merchant who, in 1811, rode into Moscow on a white stallion ahead of Napoleon’s army ready to sell his sparkling wine to whichever side ended up winning the impending battle. Willing to take similar risks, Charles-Camille was the man who, on touring America, was arrested on suspicion of being a spy for the French government (he was carrying a diplomatic pouch for a friend, the documents in which spoke of making uniforms for the Confederate army). He declined to be released until he got an

Two decades after that, Hugh Grant would play him in a miniseries – the third time he’d been portrayed on screen. Such were the adventures of Charles-Camille Heidsieck, born 200 years ago this year, that they won him a soubriquet that remains in the popular vernacular today. They called him ‘Champagne Charlie’. And yet the term, used to describe someone who lives a life of luxury and excess, somewhat overlooks the pioneering exploits that defined the life of Charles-Camille Heidsieck.

GENTLEMAN-ADVENTURER, US CIVIL WAR SPY (MAYBE), RIDER OF WHITE STALLIONS AND INSPIRER OF JAZZ STANDARDS – AS CHARLES HEIDSIECK MARKS 200 YEARS SINCE THE BIRTH OF ITS FOUNDER WITH ITS FIRST CUVÉE IN ALMOST FOUR DECADES, WHO REALLY WAS THE ORIGINAL ‘CHAMPAGNE CHARLIE’?

“‘Champagne Charlie’ is not just an expression, it’s the name of a man who has been forgotten over recent decades,” says Stephen Leroux, managing director of Charles Heidsieck Champagne.

COMING OF AGE

CHARLES-CAMILLE HEIDSIECK WAS BORN 16 JUNE 1822 IN FRANCE TO CHAMPAGNE MERCHANT CHARLES-HENRI HEIDSIECK

THE CHARLES HEIDSIECK III, SKIPPERED BY ALAIN GABBAY, CROSSES THE FINISH LINE OF THE FOURTH LEG OF THE WHITBREAD RACE OFF SOUTHSEA, PORTSMOUTH, 3 APRIL 1982

CONNOISSEUR apology, ending up spending an additional four months behind bars even after he was set free. The episode prompted something of an international diplomatic crisis, which became known in the corridors of power as ‘The Heidsieck Incident’. Here, too, was a man who once took payment in bales of cotton and tried to run a wartime blockade only to see his two ships sunk. And who, on another occasion, was paid with deeds to land that would turn out to account for a third of Denver (then just a village). Here was the man who built a fortune, lost it, and built it back again. No wonder Hugh Grant jumped at the role.

Heidsieck was as bold in business as he was his personal life. A grand-nephew of the founder of what would through marriage become the Piper-Heidsieck champagne house, Heidsieck decided to rebuff a career in the family firm and set up a champagne house of his own. Having spent the first three decades of life as a well-to-do man-about-town – specifically the champagne capital, Reims – in 1851 he launched his own business with big ambitions. The following year – the year he turned 30 – he became one of the first sparkling wine-makers to sell into the US, the bottles he landed there, after an arduous trans-Atlantic crossing by sail, helping to establish the country as the world’s biggest champagne market (as of 2021). With foresight, Heidsieck recognised that champagne should be positioned as a luxury commodity as much as an experiential drink. He labelled his product ‘Cosmopolitan Champagne’ and won the attention of high society. Back in France, he had the prudence to purchase outright 47 enormous, 30m-deep chalk cellars – dug out by the Romans – which offered the perfect temperature, humidity and darkness in which to mature his product. Charles Heidsieck, the firm he established for his own family (he had five sons, all of whom were named Charles) would be passed down through generations until the 1980s. During the decade, five special ‘Charlie’ cuvées were created in his honour – the first in 1979, the last in 1986. And then, well, nothing much. “The company was prominent internationally when CharlesCamille managed it, as it was under five more generations, including being a market leader in the USA through prohibition. But through the post-war period up until the late 1980s, the company slowly lost a lot of business,” says Leroux. “Sales began falling, dramatically. Almost 90 per cent of the company just went. It was part of a spirits company [Rémy Cointreau] that had three Champagne houses, had other priorities and just really took the focus off Heidsieck. Distribution for the brand went, and with that, memory of it too.

Champagne Charlie 2022, cellared in 2017, £550, charlesheidsieck.com

The new, limited-edition ‘Charlie’ cuvée uses around 80 per cent reserve wines. That, in part, explains why it costs more than your typical wedding fizz: around £550 a bottle, or £70 a glass.

“Typically, champagne houses use maybe 15 or 20 per cent reserve wines,” explains Leroux. “When you produce a wine every year from the new harvest the challenge [for a champagne brand] is to create something that has a consistent style and taste, so when you use reserve wines you can do that more easily.

I think that’s why there’s such a disconnect now between the name ‘Champagne Charlie’ and its origins.”

The brand sets itself apart by being both a blended champagne – made from up to 60 crus, selected from different winegrowers across the Champagne region – and by using an unusually high percentage – around 50 per cent – of reserve wines, which are cellared for up to 25 years.

A decade ago, the Heidsieck brand was acquired by Francebased investment fund, the EPI Group. During the 2010s, the brand, long forgotten by all but connoisseurs, re-established itself in 75 markets around the world. “We’d been given the ammunition to rebuild a strong name for Charles Heidsieck, but it was difficult to start with,” says Leroux. “The brand is historic but, essentially, we had to start from scratch. I remember being at wine events with sommeliers and wine shops and many people had no idea what Charles Heidsieck was. The problem we have now is that we don’t have enough stock to meet demand – we can only sell what we planned for five years ago, because time really is of the essence when it comes to making champagne. “ Now, 37 years after the last, Charles Heidsieck has launched a new ‘Charlie’ cuvée – and it’s fair to say that the company has gone all out.

There’s only one or two champagne houses that can do that.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UKLUXURY69LONDON

“We’ve really put all our treasures into these new bottles. From a wine perspective, we like to think we’ve really pushed the boundaries. Wine connoisseurs might have been expecting us to produce a vintage wine because some previous ‘Charlie’ wines were vintages, but in increasing the reserve content the result is something very distinctive.”

Just a few hundred cases will be produced each year, meaning that anyone hoping to secure a case for their own collection will have to move quick – but then Charles Heidsieck fans have always been the tenacious type. Following Heidsieck’s imprisonment in America, it was none other than Napoleon III who pushed for his release. It was President Lincoln who personally authorised it. No doubt there were cheers all around.

Maggie RESTAURANT REVIEW: KENSINGTON Jones’s,IT MAY HAVE BEEN BELOVED BY PRINCESS MARGARET AND LORD SNOWDON, BUT THIS BASTION OF BRITISH PUB GRUB HAS BECOME THE ULTIMATE SOCIAL LEVELLER Words: Rob Crossan

6 Old Court Place, W8, maggie-jones.co.uk

The food is an entirely unpretentious collection of old-timer dishes that exude ‘nothing to prove’ comforting bombast.

The storied history of this restaurant seems, on my most recent visit at least, to be of absolutely no interest at all to the lunchtime book group of Lebanese women sitting opposite. Nor to the plumber and his mate ploughing through the £27 two-course set lunch. Nor the handsome newlyweds up for the day and now laden with John Lewis shopping bags. And nor to the very discreetly canoodling couple who I could only tell were landed gentry when I just about overheard the lady make a reference to Trieste in a way that made me feel she was as familiar with the Italian port city as she was her own horse stable in Oxfordshire.Alllifeishere at Maggie Jones’s. Mainly because, if you have a spare 30 quid in your pocket, you can eat here and stay full and fulfilled until lunchtime the next day. For a former bastion of poshness, Maggie Jones’s has evolved into what might just be one of the most egalitarian restaurants in London. And there’s not an ounce of caviar in sight.

t took me a good few years of living in London before I began to get at least a modicum of understanding as to what it means to be in the class bracket that we who are au fait with bus timetables and frozen oven chips define as ‘posh’.Perhaps the confusion, snobbishness and paroxysms of guilt and affectation that I now realise plague almost every strata of the class system are the reason why I feel simultaneously selfaggrandising and oddly bullish when I write that I am a disabled, state-schooleducated northerner. Please don’t get the violins out. I bought them and have subsequently broken them over the years. But there’s always something slightly phoney about anyone who feels the need to declare in writing that they’re working class more thanTheonce.main reason for this is that the revisionist dilettantes who claim to be working class can consistently get away with claiming their souls are purer by virtue of the fact that there are barely any genuinely working class northerners left in the media arena of London who can contradict them. And so, like an army of grammarschool, Home-County locusts, these oped writers and cultural commentators are given free rein to clamp their jointed antennae to a self-proclaimed ‘identity’ that any true comprehensive school survivor would not deem to be anything other than an extraneous backstory. Caitlin Moran is, perhaps, the worst offender; a writer genuinely unable to complete a sentence in public without bringing forth the caveat that she is working class. Let me be the bringer of truth. Caitlin Moran is not working class. She is a home-schooled member of a family of middle-class bohemians who were slightly on their uppers during her childhood.Listento Caitlin and you’d be forgiven for thinking that we are living in the most binary nation on earth. One where, like one of Jeremy Corbyn’s more visceral wet dreams, we are a nation in a rictus-stiff psychological identity divide – shored up by brick walls, gun turrets and chicken dippers – between the working classes and the posh.

LUXURY71LONDON CONNOISSEUR LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

Portions are gargantuan and include a perfectly-browned and cheddardrenched cauliflower cheese, a creamy slab of glistening sea bream and a canyondeep tub of fish pie where you don’t mind the slight overflow of honey-yellow mash potato in the slightest. And, in an effortless piece of Anglophone passive aggression, the vast pot of crème brûlée is here described as simply ‘burnt cream’.

So why, I hear you ask, would I want to sit around and be thoroughly intimidated by what must be a collection of fellow diners who are only there because Whites and Boodle’s are currently being renovated?Well,because Maggie Jones’s is the perfect symbol of how class identity has wobbled, staggered and then collapsed in this city (perhaps, I’d argue, more than any other in the Western world).

It’s nonsense, of course. And if you need proof that we now live on an island where financial disparities may be as firm as ever but personal identity has become as free and messy as any Thatcherite free-market policy, I invite you to step into a small restaurant just off the chain retail juggernaut that is High Street Kensington.Maggie Jones’s has no truck with spinning us such nauseating falsehoods about its background. This is the restaurant, where, until recently, Kensington Palace would order in their lunches on Thursdays, when the royal cook had a day off. This is the restaurant, opened in 1964, where a wheelchairbound Lord Snowdon would sit by the French windows in his latter days and eat chicken-and-artichoke pie while archly asking the waiters again and again why the place is called Maggie Jones’s. He knew all along, of course. For Maggie Jones was the non de plume that Princess Margaret, Snowdon’s first wife, would use when booking a table here, invariably on the ground floor in one of the high-backed booth seats. Is Maggie Jones posh? You betcha. But not in the ostentatious, Maldivian honeymoon, hair transplant sense. If your definition of posh is mountains of caviar and magnums of Krug then allow this three-storied space to educate you. Because those who have lived their lives entirely in the cocoon of privilege don’t feel the need to state it with every ingredient they consume. If you’re truly posh then you’ll always opt for roast chicken over truffles; Barbour jackets over Alexander McQueen; Range Rovers over Ferraris; country rambles over private helicopter tours; and wrinkles over Harley Street surgeons’ knives. As for possessions, well, Maggie Jones’s’ interior is the equivalent of a potting shed in the grounds of an Inigo Jones-designed Palladian country home. Milk pails, Welsh dressers, redundant Thomas Hardy-esque trowels and rakes, mismatched china, empty bird cages, bundles of dried flowers and wicker baskets from Sebastian Flyte’s last Brideshead Revisited picnic are all hung, draped, piled up, bundled, buried and hidden amid the scattering of tables and booths and hideaways. The result is a sepia-toned, amber-lit retreat cast in what seems to be a perpetually bucolic Norfolk summer dusk.

The Now Building Rooftop, Outernet, Denmark Street, WC2H 0LA. Book your table for the next Sunday Sunsets event at tattu.co.uk

At some clubstaurants, food may be secondary. Not so at Tattu. The ‘Taste of Tattu’ menu, available during Sunday Sunsets and throughout the week, features mouth-watering dim sum and contemporary Chinese dishes – think pearly king crab dumplings and yellowtail and kiwi sashimi. Grade-5 Wagyu beef and Chilean seabass pack a punch, while desserts like the signature Cherry Blossom (white chocolate, cherry sorbet and candyfloss) are just begging to be added to your Instagram feed. At present, the restaurant’s partnership with House of Suntory sees each ‘wave’ of the menu accompanied by a different cocktail: the Roku Sunrise pairs Roku gin with watermelon and apricot; the Golden Hour is a blend of Haku vodka, pineapple vermouth and passion fruit; while the Sunset Collins mixes Suntory whiskey with coconut soda and lemon. Sunday Sunsets are an example of the clubstaurant done right. What better way to wind down into the week, while banishing the Sunday blues? It’s a gourmet experience every bit as stylish and satisfying as the soundtrack accompanying it.

MERGING CLUBBING WITH CUISINE, TATTU LONDON’S SUNDAY SUNSETS MIGHT JUST BE THE BEST WAY TO END THE WEEK IN THE CAPITAL or some years now, London’s restaurant scene has been aping the fashion world, in that the capital’s culinary space is increasingly defined by trends. There was the explosion of sharing plates, the rise of all things fusion, and then the street-food fad. Next, everything vegan and plant-based went bananas (see what we did there?), while the brunch explosion has been popping off for the best part of a decade. Now, allow us to introduce you to the latest trend in the world of food and drink: the ‘clubstaurant’.

LUXURY LONDON PROMOTION

FSundayBest

A club-restaurant hybrid can mean anything from sticking some decks in the corner of a dining room, to table-top dancing and 4am finishes. Sunday Sunsets, the monthly dancing, drinking and dining experience at premium Chinese restaurant Tattu London, opts for a happy medium: vibey music and a laid-back ambience in a stylish roof-terrace setting. From 12pm one Sunday each month, Tattu patrons dine on the top floor of Tottenham Court Road’s Outernet building to a soundtrack of pulsating sets from DJs flown in from Ibiza, while drinks are from world-renowned brands such as LaurentPerrier, House of Suntory and Crystal Head Vodka, who are sponsoring the final Sunday Sunset of the year – the Halloween closing party. Tattu has hosted the likes of producer Duke Boara, veteran house DJ Lost Desert, and Themba, whose dance beats have their origin in his native South Africa. Headline slots begin at 6pm and finish at 9pm – meaning there’s no need to worry about the morning after the night before.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK72

LunaJets UK (Ltd) is a flight broker and as such arranges carriage by air by simply chartering aircraft from third-party aircraft operators, acting as agent, in the name and on behalf of its customers. LunaJets UK (Ltd) only acts as an intermediary, does not itself operate aircraft and is not a contracting or an indirect carrier. LEADING PRIVATE JET CHARTER LONDON +44 2074 095 095 | GENEVA +41 22 782 12 12 | PARIS +33 1 89 16 40 70 LUNAJETS.COM

www.lalique.com A Glass Collection For Everyday Luxury

CUT FROM A DIFFERENT CLOTH Couture 76 Style Her This autumn find inspiration in leather and lace 78 Ellen von Unwerth Why the German photographer refuses to politicised her work 84 Jewellery News Colourful gems to make an autumn statement 90 Up to Date Calendar watches to keep you on time, year after year CLAUDIA SCHIFFER SHOT FOR GUESS BY ELLEN VON MOROCCO,UNWERTH,1989(P.78)

STYLE HER Edited by: Anna Solomon LEATHER AND LACE Paco Rabanne SS23, Yannis Vlamos NAMIKA LEATHERPATENTCOAT The Namika coat features balloon sleeves, an oversized collar and cinching tie-belt. The vibrant vinyl aesthetic is reminiscent of the fashion of Mod culture in the 1960s. £1,595, 16arlington.co.uk MILA BOOTIE Is there anything more elegant than a lace shoe? This classic pointed-toe ankle boot is given a gothy upgrade. £413, lagence.com PEPLUM BIKER JACKET Punky leather plus frock detailing equals AlexanderquintessentialMcQueen. £3,990, selfridges.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK77

LINDSAY SHOULDER BAG

CUT OUT BAG High-shine monogramming, a silver-finish chain and a unique shape – this is the perfect statement bag for a statement trend. £2,345, givenchy.com

GiambattistaCarlottiPierre-AngeforValli

The lace overlay, velvet collar and bell-flared sleeves on this dress are perfect for Halloween season. Pair with a leather jacket and heeled boots and voilà £950, annefontaine.co.uk

The North Face x Gucci was the collaboation we didn’t know we needed. This shirt features Gucci’s bold colouring and vintage aura –we particularly enjoy the ruffle details on the placket and cuffs: it’s giving off Victorian governness on hallucinogenics. £1,550, gucci.com

RESONANCE DRESS

LACE SHIRT

LIDO SHOE Bottega Veneta’s woven-leather sandal is the perfect pop of colour in an otherwise muted outfit. £1,150, bottegaveneta.com

There are few accessories more chic than a quality calfskin handbag. The Lindsay, with its matte shine, aged-silver hardware and preppy shade, is giving us noughties’ vibes. £1,290, balenciaga.com

von Unwerth see what all the fuss is about

Words: Anna Solomon Ellen

doesn’t

Rihanna aims a showerhead into her crotch. There are boobs, lingerie, corsets, whips, harnesses – you name it. To the point where, while researching this article, I got a bit worried about what a colleague passing my desk might think I was up to.

Since she’s been in the driver’s seat, she’s done things a little differently, asking her models to “live and laugh and move in front of the camera”. “I know what it’s like when you feel really uncomfortable, so I do everything in my power to make them feel at ease,” she says.

Ellen von Unwerth is cooler than you. Don’t worry, that’s not an insult. It’s like saying, ‘Usain Bolt is faster than you’. It doesn’t mean you’re not cool, it just means you’re not Ellen von Unwerth-cool. I mean, von Unwerth, originally from Frankfurt, once worked as a magician’s assistant. Cool, right? She then modelled all over the world for 10 years before getting into photography, and has since snapped an inimitable roster of stars that ranges from Kylie Minogue and Beyoncé, to Gisele Bündchen, Naomi Campbell and Kim Kardashian. She even got David Bowie to straddle Kate Moss for a magazine cover. It doesn’t get much cooler than that. Now, at 68, von Unwerth still loves a glass of champagne and a boogie. “Why not?” she asks. “I have a lot of energy.” We’re on a Zoom call; me, in my London living room midheatwave; her, on a month-long break in Saint Tropez with her husband. Von Unwerth’s flyaway curls are a Germanic blonde, even nearing 70, and her accent has softened from what was presumably once a guttural cadence to the pan-European lilt of someone who’s spent their life travelling. “It was so incredible to get those two stars together at the same time,” she says of her dalliance with Bowie and Moss. “And of course, I discovered Claudia Schiffer.”

When I see a super-sexualised image of a woman, I often feel suspicious. Was she comfortable taking her clothes off? Posing like that? Is there a man behind the camera getting his rocks off and calling it ‘art’?

“I photograph women who love to be free and show their sensuality. I think women who do that are very strong –they are not victims”

Of course she did. Von Unwerth shot the budding model back in 1989, but didn’t immediately see her potential. “I thought she was really cute, but when I looked at the pictures, I saw that she looked like Brigitte Bardot,” the photographer recalls. She called Schiffer back, styled her like the French sex symbol, and created the shot that would propel the model into the mainstream. “I also remember the first time I saw Drew Barrymore – she was standing in line for the bathroom at the Met Gala or something,” von Unwerth continues. “I was totally fascinated and approached her and asked her [for a shoot]. So we shot for American Vogue –we made her like a Coney Island girl, you know? And the pictures came out really great.” When von Unwerth was a model, she always hated taking instruction from the photographer: “I was frustrated because I always had ideas and I wanted to show those ideas,” she says. “But it was like, ‘no, no, just look to the left and look to the right’. I thought that was boring.”

Von Unwerth’s experience as a magician’s assistant coloured her later work, too. That’s right, before embarking on a career in fashion, she literally ran away to join the circus: “I visited one in Munich and I loved it so much that I went to the director and asked him if I could join,” she says. “And he looked at me and said, ‘you can start tomorrow’.” The “glitter, glamour and performance” of the circus permeates von Unwerth’s images – they are luscious, lustrous and over-the-top; they scream at you from every pixel. But, moreover, and let’s be honest here, they’re sexual. Overtly so. In a shoot with Madonna, the suspender-clad Queen of Pop straddles a chair, legs open. Naomi Campbell appears wearing not much more than patent leather boots, brandishing a whip.

It’s not like that with von Unwerth’s photos. Even though they are so sexual – her most recent book, Heimat , which was published back in 2017, appears to chronicle some mad Bavarian orgy: ample bosoms spilling out of dirndls, nudes frolicking in Alpine meadows, suggestive acts being performed with bratwurst… But the images are joyful. It looks like everyone on set is having a blast. Is that because I know that they were taken by a woman? If I saw, without context, an image of a 20-year-old Drew Barrymore in her underwear, would I furrow my brow in ‘woke’ concern? Possibly. Although, that context is important, right? The models probably were more comfortable being photographed nude by a woman. That said, the upshot is still the same: yet more images of women that cater to the male gaze. Does intent matter? I could do mental gymnastics all day trying to determine the implications of von Unwerth’s work. And for what? Because I’ll tell you one thing, von Unwerth certainly isn’t worried about any of that. “Being political? I prefer to look at life with a bit of humour,” she says. To von Unwerth, the objective of her work is not complicated: “I like to photograph girls enjoying life,” she once told The Guardian She seems quietly bemused that any further explanation would be necessary, but elaborates for me anyway: “I photograph women who love to be free and show their sensuality. I think

DREW BARRYMORE FOR PLAYBOY, 1994 ELSA DOLL, 2014

BAVARIA, 2015 (HEIMAT)

So, at the root of it, it’s a sort of third-wave feminist argument –that women owning their sexuality is empowering? “I don’t think about it too much,” she says. Yet surely this conversation is pertinent in the wake of #MeToo, and in light of claims of abuse against a number of high-profile photographers, including Mario Testino, Bruce Weber and Terry Richardson? Of course it is, says von Unwerth, but “you cannot characterise all men and all women”. In fact, she goes further Von Unwerth believes that the ‘cancellation’ of such names has set a damaging precedent in the industry: “Things have changed, and it’s great that people have the courage to speak out. But now everything is a bit more like walking on eggshells. You can’t be as free-spirited anymore, especially men.” This seems all the more surprising considering that von Unwerth experienced predatory behaviour herself when she was modelling in the 80s. “But I was never traumatised by it,” she says. “I was just like ‘OK, I’m leaving’ – I wasn’t waiting behind because some photographer wanted to do something other than take pictures of me. You have to keep control of the situation.”

women who do that are very strong – they are not victims.”

Some of these sentiments make me bristle, to be sure, but I’m grateful that von Unwerth isn’t giving me some boring PRapproved BS. She’s challenging like that; never letting me rest easy in my opinion of her.

As our interview draws to a close, von Unwerth says something that helps me make peace with my inability to pin her (or her work) down: “A photograph doesn’t need to be beautiful. Because otherwise, it’s just pretty – and you just click through or turn the page. It should be provocative. It should evoke things. It should reveal a certain beauty that one might not seeVoninitially.”Unwerth has never been interested in being ‘pretty’ – not when she was a model, executing someone else’s watered-down ideas. Not in her answers – nothing that she’s said to me is polished, primed or preened. And not in her work; it’s not about sexiness, it’s about personality, vivaciousness, loving life – whatever that might look like. She’s not a proponent of the male gaze or the female gaze – she’s a proponent of the Ellen von Unwerth gaze. And I like that. It’s a relief to know that not everything has to be rigidly categorised: liberal and traditional; ‘woke’ and problematic; men and women. Sometimes, things can just be

It’s not about sexiness, it’s about vivaciousness,personality,lovinglife

LUXURY83LONDON COUTURE LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

MATERIAL GIRL: MADONNA, NEW YORK, 2014 MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: NAOMI CAMPBELL FOR AGENT PROVOCATEUR, 2015

This collection celebrates aesthetics from all over the world. The Nouchali necklace (right), for example, imitates a lotus native to southern and eastern Asia. Elsewhere, a capsule of rings takes inspiration from biology, geography and mythology: a chimera, an ammonite fossil, a constellation. The result is exotic yet traditional, historic yet timeless. cartier.com

Cartier: Beautés du Monde

De TheBeers:Alchemist of Light

The latest high-jewellery offering from De Beers celebrates the power of light, pushing technical boundaries to create pieces that harness refraction to mesmerising effect. Sometimes they are dramatic – the Frozen Capture collection, for example, replicates ice, while Atomique interprets diamond at a molecular level. Sometimes the jewels are soft – inspired by stardust, twilight or the brilliant yellow of a sunny day. debeers.co.uk

Words: Anna Solomon

JEWELLERY NEWS

Harry MajesticWinston:Escapes

bracelets, earrings and pendants. It’s a joyful collection – a medley of coloured stones revolving around Louis Vuitton’s iconic flower monogram, which are made to be mixed and matched according to your personality. uk.louisvuitton.com

Summer may be over, but our dreams of escaping to exotic lands are not. Harry Winston’s latest collection transports you to sparkling seas and golden beaches with collections inspired by Santorini, Fiji, Marrakech and elsewhere. The vivid pieces take inspiration from the Amalfi Coast’s signature bougainvillaea, the limpid waters of St. Barts, and the emerald hues of the rainforest… because a little escapism never hurt anyone. harr ywinston.com

The Vitamin C Booster is particularly cvlever, delivering more than 20 per cent pure L-ascorbic acid (a type of pure vitamin C), which enables micro-dosed delivery throughout the day. In a nut shell, this formula helps to protect skin against natural aggressors, resulting in an incomparably bright and radiant glow. So, how does it work? The Vitamin C Booster contains active ingredients with scientifically-researched properties mullein flower, for example, absorbs UV radiation and transforms it into visible light. Kakadu plums have one of the highest natural known concentrations of vitamin C content of any fruit, reducing pigmentation and helping create a luminous

NOBLE PANACEA’S NEW SKINCARE FORMULA IS A GAME CHANGER FOR THOSE SUFFERING FROM A COMPLEXION DULLED BY RAIN OR SHINE

A LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK86

LUXURY LONDON PROMOTION

appearance. The treatment also contains white pine bark extract, which, boasting bark’s protective qualities, improves skin translucency. Extracted from a byproduct of the lumber industry, it also contributes to a circular economy.

s the days get darker, there is one brightening product that everyone should have in their arsenal: Noble Panacea’s brand new Vitamin C Booster from its Exceptional Collection. Noble Panacea is the skincare expert utilising science for unbeatable results.

UPGLOW

Mix this potent antioxidant formula with your serum, apply it to cleansed skin, and then leave to penetrate. Follow with moisturiser and, if applied during the day, SPF. It’s a routine designed to reverse the effect of environmental stressors, and the results are dazzling.

Why not swing by Noble Panacea’s new counter at Harrods, open from 20 September, for a consultation? The brand’s skincare experts will be able to tell you all about what the Vitamin C Booster can do for your skin, whether you’re looking for protection against photoaging, to reduce pigmentation, or simply create an all-round radiant glow to defy even the gloomiest of autumn days.

Vitamin C Booster, £149, noblepanacea.com; harrods.com

WWW.LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK YOUR CURATED GUIDE TO CULTURE IN THE CAPITAL, AND BEYOND INTRODUCING THE NEW-LOOK

Edited by: Anna Solomon

REVITALISINGSCALPMASK

For many of us, colder temperatures means dry skin. Combat that with this oil-free gel cream with hyaluronic acid. £39, clinique.co.uk

You’ve heard about seasonal dry skin, but what about dry hair and scalp? This preshampoo treatment can help. £57, lookfantastic.com

CREAMHAND Cracked hands? No thanks. This Neal’s Yard nourishessoftenscreamandskinandsmellsamazing. £10, remedies.comnealsyard

STUNNA LIP PAINT

THE BEAUTY

You have to be pretty confident in a product to call it, definitively, ‘The Cream’. Augustinus Bader promises that its rejuvenating formula will give skin a cushiony ‘bounce’. £215, cultbeauty.co.uk

EDIT

THE CREAM

Everything you need to weather the colder, uh, weather, and the dry skin, running makeup and dull complexion that comes with it

Yes, this is ‘paint’, not ‘gloss’, meaning it has sticking power. This colour will cling to your lips come wind, rain, hurricane, tsunami... you get the picture. £22, fentybeauty.com

MOISTUREHYDRATORSURGE

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK88LUXURYLONDON COUTURE

THE MULTIPLE This three-in-one highlighter, contour and blush will give you that golden-hour glow, even when it’s distinctly grey outside. £30, narscosmetics.co.uk

BORED OF HAVING TO WIND THAT DATE WINDOW EVERY SECOND MONTH? TAXING, RIGHT? TIME TO INVEST IN A CALENDAR WATCH. LUCKILY, WHEN IT COMES TO WATCHES THAT CAN AUTOMATICALLY ACCOUNT FOR MONTHS OF DIFFERENT LENGTHS, 2022 HAS BEEN A VERY GOOD YEAR

Oh, and that moon-phase. That only needs correcting once every 122 years. You never actually own a Patek Philippe… etc. etc.

PATEK PHILIPPE ANNUAL CALENDAR REFERENCE 5205R

A little more about that complication. The annual calendar was conceived by Patek Philippe in 1996, the first movement capable of automatically taking into account months of 30 and 31 days. Wear it daily, and the date will only need correcting once every year on 1 March – forward by two days in leap years, and by three days in non-leap years.

£44,760, 43-44 Wempe New Bond Street, wempe.com

Words: Richard Brown

You’ve seen this watch before. You’ll recognise the day, date and month apertures at 10, 12 and two o’clock. You’re familiar with that 24-hour indicator, and the moon-phase display within it. You’re au fait with all of this because since its 2010 launch, the Annual Calendar 5205 has become a mainstay within the Patek Philippe portfolio, already bolstered by an array of white, grey and blue dial options. You’ve not seen this olive green version, though, have you?

YEAR IN, YEAR OUT

Actually, you might have. The watch dropped during Watches and Wonders Geneva at the end March. So perhaps you clocked the timepiece in a Patek Philippe showroom this summer. In which case, you’ll know this picture doesn’t really do the watch justice. The latest 5205, you see, features a fumé, or gradient, dial. Meaning that its smoky face pitches from radiant jade at its centre to almost black at its edge. Upshot being, the watch looks completely different depending on the amount and type of light bouncing off of it.

Until 2020, Vacheron Constantin had never paired a blue-lacquered dial with a pink-gold case. The first time it did so was on the Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin of that year. The big-hitting colour combo makes a return this year on the same watch, although with significantly less blue – the timepiece having been almost completely skeletonised. As a perpetual calendar, the Ultra-Thin will indicate the date, day, week, month and whether or not it’s a leap year. It won’t need correcting until 2100 – the next secular year that’s divisible by four but not by 400, and hence a leap year. Approx. £117,500, vacheron-constantin.com

We’ve seen Saxon-based watchmaker Glashütte Original demonstrate its horologic brawn in recent years with some rather clever chronographs, plenty of elegant moon-phase watches and a couple of tourbillions. Yet no calendar watches… until now. The German brand’s first annual calendar features a brand new in-house calibre, which, on this limitededition version, can be viewed through a semi-skeletonised dial. Good things come to those who wait. Just don’t wait too long. Only 150 examples of this stealthy black edition are being made. £34,100, glashuette-original.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK91

As with the Patek Philippe Annual Calendar opposite, the green dial of IWC’s latest Perpetual Calendar will take on a different appearance in different light, thanks to a radial sunray finish. Like Vacheron Constantin’s Perpetual Calendar (right), it too won’t need correcting until 2100. Where this IWC trumps both the Patek and the VC is with its moon-phase indicator, which, says the brand, will only need correcting one day in every 577.5 years. I guess we’ll have to take their word for that. £21,600, iwc.com

VACHERON CONSTANTIN OVERSEAS PERPETUAL CALENDAR ULTRA-THIN SKELETON

IWC PORTUGIESER PERPETUAL CALENDAR 42

GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL PANOMATICCALENDAR

very six months, online trading provider IG invites its leverage trader clients to partake in an investor sentiment survey. The most recent survey*, conducted between 20 June and 1 July 2022, shows that while traders may be concerned about a number of headwinds, the majority are optimistic when it comes to the performance of their own portfolios over the next six months.

Nine per cent of IG client’s said they were unconcerned about any factor effecting the performance of their portfolios. Interestingly, more than a quarter of the leverage traders questioned revealed they planned to mitigate the risk of inflation in the same way. When asked how they’d be altering their investment strategies to navigate rising inflation, 26 per cent said they’d be short selling markets. The next most popular strategy was holding more cash to protect against stock market falls (23 per cent), followed by investing in value stocks (21 per cent). Only nine per cent said they’d be investing more in renewable/green energy, while just six per cent said they’d be looking towards cryptocurrencies.

*IG’s second investor sentiment survey was conducted between 20 June – 1 July 2022. The survey collected responses from around 1,000 leverage traders: c.650 from the UK; c.150 from Australia; c.200 from Singapore; and c.50 from South Africa

LUXURY LONDON PROMOTION LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK92

THE

INFLATION and INVESTING: IG CLIENT VIEW DESPITE INFLATIONARY PRESSURES AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL HEADWINDS, IG ’S LEVERAGE TRADERS PREDICT THEIR OWN PORTFOLIOS WILL OUTPERFORM STOCK MARKETS OVER THE NEXT SIX MONTHS

So, which sectors did investors believe would perform best over the next six months? Perhaps unsurprisingly, 42 per cent of those questioned said energy, while 21 per cent highlighted banking; 19 per cent pointed towards pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and life sciences; and 18 per cent said utilities. Only seven per cent expected real estate to experience the highest growth. Maybe most noteworthy of all was the fact that the majority of IG’s clients anticipated their own portfolios outperforming the local stock market over the next six months. In the UK, 58 per cent of those questioned expected to beat the FTSE100; in Australia, 65 per cent estimated beating the ASX 200; 69 per cent of clients based in Singapore expected to outperform the STI; while that number climbed to 84 per cent of traders based in South Africa (JSE). Despite considerable headwinds, it seems IG’s leverage traders are in sanguine spirits. ig.com

The survey explored the sentiment of around 1,000 IG traders, 650 of which are based in the UK. From the responses gathered, the major concern among clients was inflation, with 62 per cent of those surveyed saying they were concerned about how inflationary pressures would impact the performance of their investments. The next biggest concern was geopolitical conflicts and wars, with 55 per cent of responders expressing anxiety, followed by political uncertainty with 37 per cent.

Life feels better behind the wheel of a classic. Specialist insurance for classics, moderns, collections, homes and marine. 0330 162 footmanjames.co.uk4377 All cover is subject to insurer’s terms and conditions, which are available upon request.Footman James is a trading name of Advisory Insurance Brokers Limited. Registered in England No. 4043759 Registered Address: 2 Minster Court, Mincing Lane, London, EC3R 7PD. Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. FP: ADGE.2287.08.21

london.mclaren.com AVAILABLE NOW McLaren London 020 3199 Estimated3519fuelconsumption combined: 4.5l/100km | Estimated CO2 emissions combined: 104g/km. These figures will be updated once final testing figures have been confirmed. For our emissions statement please go to cars.mclaren.com THE FULL FORCE OF McLAREN ARTURA

HYPERCARS, HOT HATCHES & SUPER SUV s Drive 96 Hitting the road with the Ferrari Cavalcade The £30,000-per-head road rally you’ve probably never heard of 102 The Mercedes ‘Gullwing’ Only around 1,400 Mercedes 300SL ‘Gullwing’ coupés were ever made. Now, one of the rarest is up for sale The Ferrari Cavalcade is the invitation-only road rally that takes place somewhere in southern Europe every summer – and to be invited, you have to have bought something rather special (p.96)

ON THE WING

IT’S REGARDED AS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SILHOUETTES IN AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY, YET, DESPITE DEMAND, ONLY AROUND 1,400 MERCEDES 300SL ‘GULLWING’ COUPÉS WERE EVER MADE. NOW, A RARE 1956 ‘FIRE ENGINE RED’ MODEL IS UP FOR SALE Words: Rory FH Smith

M ax Hoffman knew a thing or two when it came to spotting potential. Born in Austria, the New York-based importer of luxury European cars didn’t just have an eye for all that was elegant in automotive circles. He also had the ear of the most important carmakers of the 1950s. With a penchant for lobbying the likes of BMW and Porsche to make special cars for the US market, his greatest success was undoubtedly the Mercedes 300SL – otherwise known as the legendary ‘Gullwing.’ Bending the ear of the Mercedes-Benz board back in the early 50s, the businessman from the Big Apple suggested it make a toned-down version of its W194 racer for sale in the US. Taking him up on the idea, Mercedes fulfilled his immediate order of more than 500 models – the result debuting at the New York International Auto Show in 1954. Hoffman’s idea struck a chord with America’s well-heeled postwar population, who craved exotic cars from continental Europe. Picked up by celebrities like racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio, Sophia Loren, Clark Gable and Frank Lloyd Wright, the Gullwing was an instant hit and has gone on to grace the collections of serial car collectors, including Ralph Lauren and Bernie Ecclestone. Of the total 1,400 Gullwing coupés produced, around 80 per cent were sold to the US. While he must have known he was onto a winner, it’s impossible that Hoffman could have predicted the sort of status the 300SL would go on to achieve. Recently, its super-rare sibling, the 300SLR, fetched a whopping £115m at auction, clearing the record price for a classic car by a country mile. While regular 300SLs are more affordable, by comparison, good condition examples regularly fetch more than £1 million – a far cry from the car’s original £6,000 ticket Unsurprisingly,price.the key to what makes the 300SL so special lies in the car’s nickname, which references its gull-like doors that gracefully rise upward, rather than outward. While novel door openings have become a way for supercar-makers to set their cars apart in recent times, the 300SL’s unique form was determined purely by performance. Sporting a cutting-edge tubular spaceframe, which was previously reserved only for high-end racing cars, the 300SL’s structure made it incompatible with conventional doors, giving way to a pair of upswinging ones instead. More than just aesthetics, the structure meant the car’s frame weighed just 50kg, giving way to the SL acronym, meaning ‘Super Light.’ Together, this rich mix of engineering ingenuity and streamline design created one of the most iconic profiles in automotive history – one that still proves irresistible nearly 70 years on. While there’s no shortage of literature extolling the virtues of the 300SL, there’s no substitute for experiencing the real deal, and although the popular saying warns against meeting your heroes, the 300SL is surely the exception to that rule.

Recently, a 300SLR fetched a whopping £115m at auction, clearing the record price for a classic car by a country mile

The Gullwing was also the first road car to offer direct fuel injection. Indeed, the road-going SL had close to 50 more bhp than the grand prix racing version upon which it was based.

Climbing into the Gullwing is as difficult in reality as you’d expect it to be. With wide and high sills, it’s an exercise in contortion to just get behind the wheel. It has a slender, two-spoke, hinged steering wheel that neatly clips into place once seated. A red lacquer dashboard, sporting silver details, contrasts beautifully with the aged, white leather. Pull the doors down and the full extent of the Gullwing’s glasshouse becomes apparent. Slim pillars and a wraparound windscreen keep the car’s cabin light and airy –something that’s seldom found on modern supercars.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK101

Grabbing hold of the elegant gear stick and shifting down as the road straightens, the pitch of the engine sharpens dramatically as the Gullwing transitions from a leisurely grand tourer to a thoroughbred 1950s supercar. It’s easy to get carried away as the addictive sound of the straight six reverberates through the streamlined body, but do so at your peril. While so much of the 300SL’s engineering was well ahead of its time, the Gullwing’s brakes are not. Drum brakes all-round make stopping slightly frightening, so it’s worth keeping an eye on stopping distances. Double what you’d usually leave and you’ll be close to stopping in time, just.

The ignition is centrally mounted and with a crisp click to the right, the 3.0-litre straight six sparks into life. Edging out, the visibility comes in handy when staring down the long bonnet and navigating narrow country lanes. The Gullwing boasts 222 bhp, which might be modest by modern standards, but propels the car to 155 mph – this was the world’s fastest road model back in the day.

Greeted by a bright ‘Fire Engine Red’ 300SL, basking in the midday sun outside the Hertfordshire showroom of specialist Mercedes restorers Hilton & Moss, my first close-up encounter with a Gullwing is everything I wanted it to be, and more. The car before me is still largely original, with every crack and scuff harbouring a story from its 66 years of service. First imported to the US in 1956, this particular Gullwing was destined for New York, where a Dr Moffett of Denver, Colorado, took ownership of it. Holding on to it for 16 years, the car sold to a second owner in the USA before being brought to the UK in 1989. After that, the car was used for road rallies – the dash-mounted Halda Speed Pilot rally clock a tell-tale sign of its racing past. The car was then sold to overseas royalty, who kept it in the UK. It’s now found its way to Hilton & Moss, through whom it’s currently for sale.

£1.7 million, including a full restoration by Hilton & Moss, hiltonandmoss.com

Drifting down the sleepy backroads behind the wheel of the Gullwing is an enchanting experience. Despite its age, it’s easy to drive, whether you’re cruising at a leisurely pace or dialling it up on a B-road. Passers-by crane their necks to get a closer look at the gleaming red monument to the golden age of the motorcar.

Of the 2,700 300SLs that were made, more than half took the form of the later roadster model, which sported more conventional doors and a drop-top roof. It is, however, the coupébodied Gullwing that will forever be remembered as a design classic, with its novel doors, innovative engineering and racingcar pedigree. Of the many great cars in the world, some have the power to make people stop and stare. Only the Gullwing can charm complete strangers into an irrepressible smile.

The road-going SL had close to 50 more bhp more than the grand prix racing version upon which it was based

Everything about the 300SL makes it worthy of its place in the automotive hall of fame. Born in the heady age of post-war America, when optimism was rife and prosperity was on the up, the Gullwing is the embodiment of automotive elegance. A stark contrast to the loud and gaudy design of so many modern supercars.

RACEHORSEONE

ARE

CHANCES YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF THE A NO-EXPENSE-SPARED, ROAD RALLY THAT TAKES SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE EACH YEAR –THERE’S A VERY GOOD REASON FOR THAT

AND

Words: Charlie Thomas

FERRARI CAVALCADE,

CROSS-COUNTRY

PLACE

LUXURY105LONDON DRIVE LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

work you find yourself spending upwards of 12 hours a day huddled over a laptop, drinking endless cups of coffee in order to keep an editor off your back. Other times, you’re driving a Ferrari Roma through the French Riviera, eating steak tartare in Monte Carlo’s Café de Paris, and the only thing on your back is the sun. Life as a magazine journalist can be cruel. But it can also be exceptionally kind. And so to the Ferrari Cavalcade, a road rally that the Italian marque puts on each year for its top international clientele.

In all, 144 vehicles took part, and while it’s not technically a race, things do get pretty spirited

Customers fly in from all over the world to take part. This year, life (and the Ferrari PR team) being extra kind, I was offered a press spot. I met people from Mexico City, New York, Dubai and Iran. Despite living very different types of lives, they all had one thing in common: a ridiculous collection of Ferraris.Regular, run-of-the-mill models don’t count for much here. Indeed, to get invited to the Cavalcade you need to have bought something special. A 488 Pista, perhaps, or a Monza SP1, or maybe a LaFerrari. Needless to say, I didn’t exactly fit in. I have one car and it’s green, Japanese and very much not a Ferrari. So, then, what exactly is the Cavalcade? Essentially, it is an organised road rally that takes place in a certain part of Italy or France, costing, roughly, around £30,000 perThishead.year, the theme was ‘the Riviera’, with the drive beginning in Sanremo, northwest Italy, before travelling down the coast to Monaco, taking in the mountain passes near Saint-Tropez, continuing into the Piedmont countryside and the Col de Turini pass, and finishing in Monte Carlo.

s far as invites go, it wasn’t a bad inSometimesone.thislineof

In all, 144 vehicles (plus my ‘media’ car) took part, and while it’s not technically a race, things do get pretty spirited. Think part Gumball Rally, part Forza Horizon and you wouldn’t be far off. Of course, the event is also an opportunity to show off your latest wheels, with cars being shipped in from everywhere you could imagine (the Montana-plated black Ferrari Enzo might have won in that respect). The Ferrari logistics team arrange things so that owners can park their cars between sprints at postcard locations, including the Place du Casino in Monaco and Genoa’s Forte di Santa Tecla. People stare, crowds form and owners look on with pride from the comfort of a lunch spot booked by Ferrari. Owners can meet up with old friends from previous Cavalcade events, trade news on recent car acquisitions and, I’m reliably

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK107 It’s one entirely.somethingtheappreciatingthingbeautyofaFerrariatastandstill,butseeingoneonthemoveiselseDrivingintandemwithfiveorsixisjustridiculous

LUXURY109LONDON DRIVE LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

informed, strike important business deals. In that sense, the Cavalcade is a sort of roving, ultra-exclusive members’ club that you have to earn (buy) your way into. Once in, you’re part of the Ferrari ‘family’ and will likely get invited to future events. More importantly, you’ll also be invited to buy new, limited-edition models. The lunches are semi-serious affairs and only act as short, if fairly luxurious, pit-stops between driving legs. The dinners are where things get dialled to max. I went to two. The first was at the Monte Carlo Beach hotel, a restored 1930s beach club that looks like it’s straight out of a Slim Aarons photograph. A red-carpet entrance opened to an Olympic-sized pool, which was lined with white-clothed tables and overlooked by a jazz band playing Rat Pack hits. The second night’s 70s-themed dinner was about as over the top as you can imagine. It transformed Monte Carlo’s Salle des Etoiles concert hall into a Studio 54-like disco, complete with illuminated dance floor, giant disco ball, mirrored walls and sequinned dancers. This year, there was more to celebrate than usual. As well as Scuderia Ferrari returning to the top spot in Formula 1 (temporarily), the brand is marking its 75th anniversary. And from 275 GTBs to Daytonas, and from F40s to F50s, there was plenty on show to demonstrate just how far Ferrari has pushed the needle, both in terms of automotive design and performance, in that three-quarters of a century. Ferrari has always been about racing. Indeed, Enzo Ferrari never wanted to build road cars. He only began producing them to help fund his race team, Scuderia Ferrari. “I have, in fact, no interest outside of racing cars,” he once said in his typically abrupt manner. Maybe that’s why Ferrari road cars have always had a special kind of soul. Something intangible, a feeling you don’t always get when you’re behind the wheel of a supercar from one of itsYourivals.certainly feel as though you are part of something special when in convoy during the Cavalcade. It’s one thing appreciating the beauty of a Ferrari when at a standstill, but seeing one on the move is something else entirely. Driving in tandem with five or six is just ridiculous. I was driving a humble Roma. It’s Ferrari’s ‘entry-level’ model and one that’s proved hugely successful. It’s not hard to see why, with its classic lines and sculptural bodywork referencing vintage models from the 60s and contrasting sharply with the aggressive, aerodynamic styling of other new There’sFerraris.alsothe way the Roma drives.

This is especially important when flanked by a LaFerrari and an Enzo, two multi-million pound Ferrari hypercars that defined their respective generations; the Enzo with its early 2000s tech derived from the Scuderia’s Schumacherwinning F1 cars, and the LaFerrari with its futuristic looks and ground-breaking hybrid powertrain generating nearly 1,000 bhp. Seeing the two side-by-side, weaving through twisting mountain passes, you get a sense of just how quickly cars develop. Only 10 years apart, they are hugely different machines. But best of all is the fact that they’re both being driven. They could very well be sitting in a heated garage somewhere, increasing in value. Instead, they’re being pushed hard along Route Napoléon. And that might just be the point of the Cavalcade. It clearly encourages owners to forget appreciation and mileage and get out and drive their cars the way they were designed to be driven.

The car is ferociously fast, thanks to it its 611 bhp, twin-turbo V8 engine. And yet it’s also accessible. Anyone can jump in, tease the right pedal and feel like they know what they’re doing, such is the car’s predictable handling, smooth power delivery and clever computer systems.

This year, there was more to celebrate than usual. As well as Scuderia Ferrari returning to the top spot in Formula 1, the brand is marking its 75th anniversary

And in a world where electrification is slowly killing off the combustion engine, the Cavalcade will only become an increasingly special event. You just need to nab yourself an invite. ferrari.com

* Terms and conditions apply.

AD221001_LuxLon_USAS_DPS

UNRIVALLED SPACE AT SEA™

The luxury of personal space is central to the promise of An Unrivalled Experience™ with Regent Seven Seas Cruises®. It provides the extravagant freedom you need to explore and relax to the fullest. As the pre-eminent luxury cruise line on the ocean, we pride ourselves in o ering some of the largest balconies and most spacious suites at sea. Our wide range of speciality restaurants, al fresco and in-suite dining options, exquisite lounges, bars and expansive spaces are perfect to rest and celebrate in, knowing there is never a queue or a crowd and that every detail is taken care of and every luxury is included. Join us and discover how – with our Unrivalled Space at Sea™ – we will exceed your loftiest expectations of comfort and personalised service for a truly unforgettable experience aboard The World’s Most Luxurious Fleet™. LEARN MORE ABOUT REGENT SEVEN SEAS CRUISES® VISIT RSSC.COM/ORDER-BROCHURE OR CONTACT YOUR TRAVEL ADVISOR OF UNRIVALLED EXPERIENCES

Likewise, if you feel that your employer has exercised its discretion in relation to the bonus award in an arbitrary, irrational or capricious way, you may have good grounds for contesting the failure to make an award of a bonus (or the size of the award if its lower than it ought to be ).

In partnership with litigation specialists Stewarts herever you are in your career, it can be a difficult situation to navigate. You’ve just discovered the bonus you will (or won’t) be paid, and despite performing well throughout the bonus year, the figure is far lower than you had expected. What now? Firstly, take a deep breath. Regain your composure. You don’t want to ruin your relationship with your employer or come across as being unreasonably aggressive.

Even if there’s nothing in your contract about bonuses, or your contract says the bonus scheme is discretionary, but you’ve received one on a regular basis in the past and you reasonably expected to receive a bonus this time around, you may be entitled to a bonus by reason of custom and practice.

To discover how Stewarts can help assist you with bonus disputes, or any other employment matter, please call 020 7822 8000 or visit stewartslaw.com

Begin by rationalising the grounds on which you can challenge your bonus – if your grievance is that you want more money because you think you deserve it, your complaint probably won’t get very far. When should I challenge my bonus?

HOW SHOULD YOU REACT IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY WITH YOUR BONUS AND WHAT ARE YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS IF YOU BELIEVE YOU’VE BEEN TREATED UNFAIRLY?

If your employer has failed to comply with the terms of your employment contract (or separate bonus policy), you may have grounds for challenging the sum offered by your employer.

LUXURY LONDON PROMOTION

Your lawyer will be able to advise you on the steps you should take (which will depend on your objectives and the terms of the bonus scheme). That might involve raising a formal grievance or evenAtlitigating.Stewarts, we often resolve disputes arising from the nonpayment or amount of a bonus by negotiating with our clients’ employers on their behalf. When the situation calls for it, we will bring legal proceedings in the High Court and Employment Tribunal to recover bonuses owed.

Start by checking your employment contract. Does it say anything about the payment of a bonus and how it should be calculated? Some bonus schemes say that the employer has absolute or partial discretion to award a bonus. Alternatively, it might say you are contractually entitled to participate in a bonus scheme. It might even go further than that and say you are entitled to a certain amount of bonus in accordance with a specific bonus formula – for example, company financial per formance or sales or per formance targets specific to you.

In most cases, the best course of action is to approach your line manager or HR team first. Speak to them informally. Do not blame anyone specifically or use aggressive language.

Explain that you have been left feeling disappointed by the bonus offered and point to the alleged breach of your bonus terms. Your employer might have good reasons for its decision, which may have resulted from a matter affecting the entire company, not just you. If your employer’s response remains unsatisfactory, you should speak to a lawyer and take advice on what you can do next.

Talking’s not working. What now?

WHEN SPEAKTO UP

If you suspect you’ve been treated unfavourably or less favourably than a colleague on the basis of a protected characteristic, for example because of your age, sex, or race, you might assert that the employer’s conduct in relation to the bonus award is discriminatory.

How do I contest a disappointing bonus?

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK113

christoﬂe.com NEW FLATWARE COLLECTION THEDISCOVERMOVIE

The terrace on top of King’s Cross’s renovated telescopic Gasholders development. Originally built in 1824, the private space now sits above a three-bedroom penthouse that’s currently up for sale (p.125).

IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE THAT COUNTS InteriorsHomes& 116 Interior Trend How to go back to the future 118 Surrealism in the Home Sensational homeware inspired by the fantastical movement 125 On the Market Indoor-outdoor living in the heart of the capital 130 Hot Property A Bauhaus-inspired home by Richmond Park

INTERIOR TREND Edited by: Anna Solomon

Greta sofa bed £799, urbanoutfitters.comMIDDLE MEN Vitra Eames lounge chair and ottoman £8,645, johnlewis.com Italian mid-century modern irregular ceramic vase £448, 1stdibs.com Set of vases, mid-20th century £222 per set of 5, vinterior.com

Interiors are so 1945 (to 1969)... The design of the post-WW2 period was bold and experimental; it rebelled against all the bleakness and austerity that had come before. That said, it also retained some of wartime’s frugality – embellishments were minimal and materials honest. Now, mid-century design is back in a big way. Anyone who’s anyone has a teak sideboard, Eames lounger and Noguchi coffee table –here’s how to go back to the future.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK117 Solid teak bookcase £719, tikamoon.co.uk Pleated column table lamp £22, habitat.co.uk Vitra Noguchi coffee table, £1,900, johnlewis.com Embroidered geo cushion £16, argos.co.uk Janeiro mango wood sideboard £844, maisonsdumonde.com Cylindrical ceramic jug, 1960s £181, 1stdibs.com Louis Poulsen Panthella light £235, arredare.co.uk

SALVADOR DALÍ’S MAE WEST LIPS SOFA (1938) EXHIBITED AT TE PAPA, THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND IN WELLINGTON, 12 JUNE 2021

SURREALISMHOMEINTHE A NEW EXHIBITION AT THE DESIGN MUSEUM EXPLORES HOW ONE OF THE 20 TH CENTURY’S MOST INFLUENTIAL MOVEMENTS IMPACTED FURNITURE, FASHION AND FANTASTICAL HOMEWARE Words: Rob Crossan

The pink satin and red velvet ‘lips’ sofa, named ‘Mae West’ after the sexually provocative movie star, sat alongside a white grand piano that rose from a pond and gushed water from its keyboard, and chairs whose backs were shaped as arms and hands entwined together.

“I do not understand why, when I ask for grilled lobster in a restaurant, I am never served cooked telephone,” he once remarked; the comments of a man who had long since decided that art and everyday life were one and the same thing.

Created for Edward James, a self-confessed eccentric who inherited the immense West Dean Park estate in Sussex, Dalí set about turning his wealthy customer’s Edwin-Lutyens-designed shooting lodge (known as Monktons) into a temple of surrealist art that could actually be switched on and sat on.

Yet the Lobster Telephone, as funny, blunt and incongruous now as it was 86 years ago, was never destined to be seen in anywhere other than an art gallery. Indeed, if early viewers of the work were shocked, they were actually being let off lightly.

The word itself had only been invented in 1917 by the French poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire, but, by 1924, the avant-garde were already losing the battle for artistic purity.

At around the same time, Man Ray was creating a laundry iron with large nails poking out of it and Méret Oppenheim made a cup and saucer covered in gazelle hair. So far, so surreal and defiantly and definitely unusable in an ‘everyday’ environment. Yet Dalí’s surrealist experiments, it should be stressed, did use something approaching ‘ordinary’ items conjoined together for the first time –presuming, that is, you count lobster as a standard item on your shopping list.

James may have been one of Dalí’s most loyal customers but even he decided not to take up the Catalonian on his offer to create a table made of egg whites and walls that would move in and out in a manner designed to be reminiscent of a dog’s stomach.

By the 1940s, fashion and advertising was already using avantgarde surrealism in commercial campaigns, with Dalí, naturally, at the forefront. After making chinaware for Royal Crown Derby,

chair may serve many uses, though not necessarily that of sitting down”, wrote Salvador Dalí. Critics of the master of Surrealism could have easily subverted this famous quotation to read ‘art may serve many uses, though not necessarily that of losing money’.

From the battlefields of artistic authenticity, surrealism, surprisingly, went home and had a lie down on a particularly original looking sofa – also on display at the Design Museum show. This creation by Dalí has since become one of the most recognisable pieces of art created in the entire 20th century.

Twelve years before Dalí made his Lobster Telephone, opprobrium was already in motion about the supposed commercialisation of Surrealism.

The Paris premiere of Max Ernst and Joan Miró’s surrealist-influenced stage designs for a production of Romeo and Juliet performed by Serge Diaghilev’s ballet company, Ballets Russes, was ruined by André Breton and other Surrealist founders blowing whistles and invading the stage during the performance to proclaim their disgust with what they considered a radical avant-garde movement selling out to crass commerce in a mainstream theatre.

But their efforts were in vain; particularly when someone as money- and fame-obsessed as Dalí entered the scene. For it was he who, more than any other Surrealist artist, understood that no art form can remain in purist aspic without it swiftly becoming stagnant. By taking surrealist art out of the revolutionary arms race, his work for commercial clients took the form in a new direction.

WALL PLATES NO. 116 FROM THE SERIES TEMA E VARIAZIONI [THEME AND VARIATIONS], AFTER 1950, PIERO FORNASETTI

The man nicknamed ‘Avida Dollars’ (‘Greedy Dollars’) by André Breton, one of the founders of the Surrealism movement, was something of an expert in earning the chagrin of his fellow artists in the fulcrum of the movement that confused, shocked and entertained the art world in equal measure from its inception in theBut1920s.whatDalí lost in respect from his fellow artists, he gained in commercial revenue, paving the way for surrealist art forms to be taken out of galleries and into people’s homes.

“A

This autumn’s new Design Museum exhibition, Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 - Today, features, in a move that is almost obligatory in order to draw the crowds, one of the four extant Lobster Telephones created by Salvador Dalí.

Dalí’s original intentions were to create a telephone placed on top of a live turtle or to have a phone covered in dogs’ noses with the extra delight of a dead rat stuffed inside the receiver.

SALVADOR DALÍ’S MAE WEST LIPS SOFA AT A PREVIEW OF CHRISTIE’S MODERN BRITISH ART AND IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART 13 JUNE 2019 From the battlefields of artistic originaldownwentSurrealism,authenticity,surprisingly,homeandhadalieonaparticularlylookingsofa

SALVADOR DALÍ, METAMORPHOSIS OF NARCISSUS, 1937 © SALVADOR DALÍ, FUNDACIÓ GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ, DACS 2022 LEONORA CARRINGTON, THE OLD MAIDS, 1947 © ESTATE OF LEONORA CARRINGTON / ARS, NY AND DACS, LONDON 2022

Pop Art in the 1960s took plenty of inspiration from Surrealism and the 1980s saw a kitschier revival with the postmodern take on Surrealism. Both eras were defined by playful excess and a deep wealth of underlying anxieties; exactly the social and political atmosphere in which the movement’s ideas Yet, fast forward to 2022 – to an environment infinitely more serious, woke and traumatised – and the surrealist legacy lives on, most strongly, perhaps, in the works of the star-chitect

At the planned Maison Heler hotel in the French town of Metz, Starck’s 14-storey, out-of-scale phantasmagoric hotel promises to create a ‘habitable, surreal and poetic work of art’. His transparent Perspex remake of a Louis XVI armchair, or the leggy Juicy Salif lemon squeezer he designed for Alessi, are both utterly confusing and amusing designs.

Derided by the true believers of the movement, it was, ultimately, the Spaniard with the waxed moustache who came to understand the limitations of Surrealism and the potential it still has to allure both the radical and the reactionary in every form of “Surrealismart. is destructive,” Dali once said. “But it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.”

he created a window display for the vast New York department store, Bonwit Teller.

You don’t have to look hard to see the leaf that Starck is continuing to take from the original Breton-penned Surrealist manifesto, which laid out the foundations for a desire to access a deeper reality by trying to bypass the intellect, tapping into dream states and the irrational part of the psyche.

BLESS BEAUTY

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK123

/NIEDERLANDE, VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM

Dalí declared the death of the movement at a New York gallery show of his own in 1941 HAIRBRUSH,

2019 EDITION OF 1999 DESIGN, BLESS, BEECH; HUMAN HAIR. VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM HAND CHAIR, ABOUT 1962, PEDRO COPY:PRODUCTIONFRIEDEBERG,OFTHISC.1965,CARVEDMAHOGANY.VITRADESIGNMUSEUMHORSELAMP,2006,MANUFACTURED

As scorn for Dalí from the ‘purists’ of Surrealism reached apoplectic levels, other artists ventured into commercial collaborations without damaging their reputations among the zealots of Surrealism. Man Ray, for one, became a highly successful fashion photographer, directing shoots for Vanity Fair, French Vogue and Harper’s Bazar , while Breton, the man who started the whole shebang, seemed to forget his Romeo and Juliet ballet performance protests when he considered (and then aborted) a desire to set up a surrealist brand to rival Paramount Pictures. Though, for Dalí at least, taking Surrealism into the mainstream worlds of advertising and home furniture wasn’t entirely a seamless journey into an ocean of lucrative paydays.

When Dalí discovered that Bonwit Teller had “respectabilized” his display in the Manhattan department store window, he smashed his way through the glass in rage, getting himself arrested for his troubles. Almost a century on from its creative high-water mark, Surrealism has had a bumpy ride in what have become sporadic forays into popular culture.

‘Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design’ runs at the Design Museum from 14 October 2022 to 19 February 2023, designmuseum.org

As for Surrealism’s most famous exponent, Dalí declared the death of the movement at a New York gallery show of his own in 1941, before going on to embrace Catholicism and battle increasing bouts of depression.

BY MOOOI BV, BREDA

SECRET GARDENS WITH FORECASTERS PREDICTING THAT WE’RE IN FOR AN INDIAN SUMMER, LUXURY LONDON HAS ROUNDED UP THE BEST PROPERTIES WITH TERRACES CURRENTLY F OR SALE IN THE CAPITAL Words: Anna Solomon 80 HOLLAND PARK, W11, PAGE 129

MONTPELIER TERRACE, SW7

This picture-postcard home is full of unexpected quirks thanks to a thorough refurbishment – the cream façade and wrought-iron balustrades contrast with touches like sliding doors and a spiral staircase lined with wine storage. There’s not one, but two outdoor spaces: a tranquil roof terrace with whitewashed walls and artificial grass, and a very chic patio bordered by floor-to-ceiling windows for seamless indoor/outdoor living. It’s a clever configuration and adds to the sense of modernity in a property that possesses traditional charm in spades. £5,950,000, residential.jll.co.uk

From one refurbishment to a rather more ambitious one. Gasholders resides in King’s Cross’s renovated telescopic gasholder, built in 1824 to provide the storage needed to meet the demand of an ever-expanding London. Our focus is the three-bedroom penthouse, where Suna Interior Design has treated each outdoor space as a room in its own right. The 1,009 sq ft private roof terrace is a triumph; with the gasholder’s iconic structure towering overhead, residents enjoy sandy decking and atmospheric strip lighting, although the star of the show is the expansive views of King’s Cross and beyond.

£7,400,000, gasholderslondon.co.uk

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

101 ON CLEVELAND, W1 101 on Cleveland is the latest development to make waves in Fitzrovia. All one-, two- and three-bedroom homes have private outside space, but the recently-unveiled three-bedroom penthouse is the cheery on top (literally). Its terrace is accessed via a narrow staircase, where you emerge to an expansive London cityscape and the BT Tower soaring overhead. The rest of the apartment, designed by Bergman & Mar, is pretty special too, informed by an understanding of 18th-century Fitzrovia – the bohemian Fitzrovia, that is, of Charles Dickens and Thomas Chippendale. £1,390,000-£4,000,000, residential.jll.co.uk

GASHOLDERS LONDON, N1

CULROSS HOUSE, W1

This home has that covetable combination of being a new construction situated in a time-honoured address (just off Park Lane). And we do list ‘new-build’ as a pro in this case, because the specification is impeccable. Interiors are luxurious and bespoke; you enter into an entrance hall that provides a vista right through to the huge, south-facing terrace. The space is breathtakingly modern, with marble paving and manicured landscaping. £29,950,000, beauchamp.com

REGENT’S CRESCENT, W1

Originally built in 1820 for the Prince Regent and designed by famed architect John Nash, a significant portion of Regent’s Crescent has now been transformed into one of London’s most rarefied addresses, and, we don’t mean to cause a stampede, but the penthouse is still available. This duplex residence, situated within London’s only Grade I-listed new-build, spans 4,144 sq ft and comprises five bedrooms and six bathrooms – but we’re here to talk about the terrace. The 915 sq ft outdoor space is not only vast, it’s also beautiful – with paving that matches the stone façades of the surrounding buildings – and offers panoramic views across Park Crescent Gardens. £15,450,000, regentscrescent.com

LUXURY129LONDONHOMES & INTERIORS LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

OLD QUEEN STREET, SW1

80 HOLLAND PARK, W11 Christian Candy’s 80 Holland Park is the first fully-serviced residential development in the W11 postcode. Set across five ‘villas’, its 25 homes include lateral apartments, townhouse-style residences and four penthouses; but there are now only three homes remaining. Pictured are the terrace spaces of the final penthouse and one apartment – as you can see, the aesthetic is clean, chic, and manicured, with pops of green giving things a fresh feel. Plus, London’s prettiest park is just a stone’s throw away.

Remaining residences star t from £7,250,000, 80hollandpark.com

Here’s one for the traditionalists: this property is a Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse (built c. 1775) on Old Queen Street, which runs parallel to Birdcage Walk and St James’s Park. The interior, like the provenance, is spectacular, arranged over seven floors and retaining many period details, as well as incorporating modern amenities. In addition to a landscaped rear garden, the Old Queen Street apartment also has a terrace overlooking St James’s Park and a roof terrace with views across Whitehall and the London Eye – so you’ll understand why it had to make this list. £11,450,000, beauchamp.com

This idiosyncratic home may take cues from the restraint of the Bauhaus philosophy, but that doesn’t mean the property is without a cornucopia of creature comforts. Those concrete floors? They’re under-heated. The bi-fold doors open to views of Richmond Park, and the house itself is vast, boasting, on top of the five bedrooms, a study, music room, gym with leisure pool and a large double garage and studio.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK130

And it is from the Bauhaus movement that this issue’s striking, five-bedroom ‘Hot Property’ takes inspiration. The school’s minimal yet holistic design is traceable in the home’s concrete floors, vaulted ceilings and sweeping atrium staircase.

Guide

auhaus refers to the German art school that gained popularity in the first half of the 20th century, changing the design world by combining form with function.

The property is stacked with quirks that recall Bauhaus’ desire to merge form and artistic vision; an egg-shaped swing, for example, hangs suspended in the stairwell. Beyond the copious glass is an oasis of green – the mature trees that shield the property, and the verdant surroundings of Kingston Vale beyond, create the impression that you’re sequestered in a leafy wilderness.

The 2009-designed home has a geometric structure and impressive glass façade. Interiors are whitewashed, punctuated by smart black lines and illuminated by strategic translucent dividers. A colour scheme of icey white and steely grey is disrupted in the kitchen, where modern units are in a rich burgundy.

KINGSTON VALE, SW15 A BAUHAUS-INFLUENCED CONTEMPORARY HOME OPENS ONTO VIEWS OF RICHMOND PARK HOT PROPERTY

The less-is-more architectural style features utilitarian shapes, simple colours and industrial materials like concrete, steel and glass, through which an austere beauty emerges.

It’s a statement, to be sure, but one that won’t lose any of its purport with the passing of time. price £3,000,000, hamptons.co.uk

savills savills.co.uk Nazaneen Sharif Associate (+44) 7977 046 167 nazaneen.sharif@savills.com One Bishopsgate Plaza, 80 Houndsditch, London, EC3A 7AB • Luxuriously appointed, new 1, 2 and 3 bed branded residences with services provided by the 5-star Pan Pacific London hotel • Central location set back from Bishopsgate, opposite Liverpool Street Station • Above the Pan Pacific London Hotel with a vast array of services and amenities • Wellness floor with 18.5m infinity swimming pool, gym, spa and treatment rooms • Business suites, bars and restaurant available for all residents • Perfect for ‘lock and leave’ with homes set between 21st – 41st floors • 24/7 concierge Leasehold 998 years remaining | Prices from £1.3 million Branded residences in London’s famous Square Mile

Luxury London Magazine Autumn 2022

Articles inside

BY ROYAL

ON LONDON TIME

THE BRIEFING

COMING OF AGE

A FAMILY AFFAIR

THE APPLE OF HIS EYE

DESTINATION DINING