MAGAZINE
September 2018 £7.00
SAILING INTO THE SUNSET
C HA R L ES G O R DO N - L EN N OX BEHIND THE WHEEL
ON BOA RD THE
WITH THE DUKE OF RICHMOND
WORLD ’S FINEST P LE ASURE C R AFT
J E N N I F ER C HA MA N DI FROM HIG H F IN A N CE TO HIGH HEEL S
JOËL ROBUCHON CEL EB RAT IN G T HE CHEF OF T HE CEN T U RY
YA C H T SPECIAL
THE LATEST CABIN CRUISERS, MEGA-VESSELS AND SUPER-SLOOPS Plus the superyachts of the year, the motorboats of tomorrow & why Montenegro is modern luxury’s newest frontier
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CONTENTS 22 36
100 UP FRONT
34 PRIZE LOTS
59 DIARY DATES
The private art collection of
Anchors aweigh for the world’s
Damien Hirst’s business partner
10 EDITOR’S LETTER 13 OBJECTS OF DESIRE
36 THE WORLD’S MOST
The Porsche 911gets a
BEAUTIFUL LIBRARIES There’s no shame in judging
makeover à la Paul Smith 20 ON LONDON TIME
Clare Smyth’s mission to
42 MATERIAL GAINS
make the capital sustainable
22 THE DUKE OF HAZARD Goodwood’s Duke of
these books by their covers The capital’s innovative creatives
unite for London Design Festival
46 LONDON NIGHTS Photography after hours at the
Richmond on his dream cars
C U LT U R E
Museum of London
YA C H T S
House London
AWARDS 2018
Boat International crowns the winners of its annual awards
66 MAKING WAVES The sky’s the limit for 21st-century yacht design 72 BIG BUOY TOYS Be the envy of the sea with these watertight accessories 74 TIME FOR ACTION Submarine horology with a philanthropic message
30 THE AGENDA Bag your ticket to Open
top yachting events 60 WORLD SUPERYACHT
52 YACHTING NEWS
76 THE RACE IS ON
The Volvo Ocean Race returns
Get the inside sloop
T H E YA C H T I S S U E
52 80 COME HELL OR HIGH WATER Boating with Britain’s round-theworld yachtsman Alex Thomson
72
110 TAYLOR MADE
Hugo Taylor’s suitcase essentials
CONNOISSEUR
86 LIFE ON THE WATER Monaco Boat Service CEO Lia Riva on heritage and high tides
114 CHEF OF THE CENTURY Remembering Joël Robuchon
92 BRAVE NEW WORLD
118 ROUX THE DAY
Montenegro’s mission to
Michel Roux Jr talks family
become luxury’s latest frontier
COUTURE
fortunes and Le Gavroche 122 IN HIGH SPIRITS Raising a glass with Louis XIII’s
Ludovic du Plessis 100 AW18 This season’s top trends
PROPERTY
106 SOLE TRADER Jennifer Chamandi’s transition from banker to Bond Street
127 THE FINEST HOMES IN
THE CAPITAL
COV E R AirBnB for superyachts, new app Ahoy Club aims to take the sting out of chartering with lower fees and an easy to use digital platform (p.52), ahoyclub.com
FROM THE EDITOR September 2018 Issue 04
EDITOR Richard Brown CONTENT DIRECTOR Dawn Alford
Homer thought it flat. Anaximenes believed it rectangular. Both Pythagoras and Aristotle reasoned that the world could only be round. No one knew for sure until the 16th century, when Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan and Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano proved Pythagoras and Aristotle correct. In 1522, they became the first seamen to circumnavigate the Earth. Well, Magellan would have made it, had he not been killed by the bamboo spear of the Filipino tribesman he was attempting to convert to Christianity shortly before his scheduled voyage home. The first person to sail around the world solo was Canadian Joshua Slocum. He set off in 1895 and returned in 1898. The first person to achieve the feat by stopping only once was Briton Sir Francis Chichester, an accomplishment realised between 1966 and 67. The first to do so non-stop was fellow Brit Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. It took him 313 days in 1969. Circumnavigating the world by wind has become the pinnacle not just of sailing, but of almost all human endeavour. Fewer than 100 people have sailed the globe single-handedly without stopping. Around 4,000 people have summited Mount Everest. Today, there’s the annual Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, a stopover event partcrewed by amateurs; the triennial Volvo Ocean Race, another fully-crewed stopover event; and the quadrennial Vendée Globe, the ultimate non-stop solo challenge. When British sailor Alex Thomson won the Clipper Race in 1999, he became the youngest skipper ever to win a round-the-world race. When, last year, he completed the Vendée Globe in 74 days, 19 hours and 35 minutes, he became the fastest Brit ever to lap Earth in a monohull yacht. He was just 16 hours from being the fastest person ever. Now that the Volvo Ocean Race has announced it will permit the 60-foot class of boat that Thomson sails to enter its 2021 edition, the Welshman will be hoping to complete the round-the-world hat-trick. We interviewed the sailor-cum-stuntman for this, our 2018 Yachting issue, dedicated to the seas, the superyachts that cruise them, the sailors who cross them and the companies committed to their preservation.
DEPUTY EDITOR Ellen Millard JEWELLERY EDITOR Mhairi Graham EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Abisha Sritharan EDITOR-AT-LARGE Annabel Harrison HEAD OF DESIGN Laddawan Juhong GENERAL MANAGER Fiona Smith PRODUCTION MANAGER Alice Ford COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Andrew Turner BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORS Rachel Gilfillan Colin Saunders MANAGING DIRECTOR Eren Ellwood
To fair winds and following seas (and all the other splendid nautical jargon we’ve picked up along the way – ‘jackass-barque’ and ‘bunting tosser’? Nope, us neither). Anchors aweigh (apologies, couldn’t resist). PUBLISHED BY
RICH ARD BROWN Ed itor
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OBJECTS OF DESIRE THIS MONTH’S MOST WANTED BULGARI’S ODE TO THE 1980S “I always visit Bulgari because it is the most important museum of contemporary art,” said Andy Warhol of the jewellery designer. Now, in honour of the artist’s love of the brand, Bulgari’s creative director Lucia Silvestri has turned back the clock with a 1980s-inspired collection of Pop Art-themed jewels. Wild Pop pays homage to history’s boldest era with garish gems, emerald cannabis leaf motifs and daring Andy Warholinspired designs. bulgari.com
Pop Flowers bracelet, POA White gold with coloured gemstones, mother of pearl and diamonds A contribution from the collection’s three Andy Warholinspired designs – Pop Flowers, Butterflies and Eggs – will go to The Andy Warhol Foundation
WARDROBE STAPLES FROM SOPHIA WEBSTER Sophia Webster’s shoes aren’t traditionally known for their subtlety – her signature Chiara and Boss Lady pumps are famed for their zany embellishments – but her new collection ticks the wardrobe staple box. The Essentials Collection comprises 42 variations of her Nicole sandal and Rio pump, with two heel heights for each style and a choice of finishes, prints and colours. From £250, sophiawebster.com
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OBJECTS OF DESIRE
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THE PORSCHE 911 EARNS ITS RACING STRIPES Combining his love of Porsche and Paul Smith, Sports Purpose founder and Porsche specialist James Turner redesigned his favourite motor to mark the 70th anniversary of the brand’s first sports car, the 356. In partnership with Tuthill Porsche, Turner decorated both the exterior
and interior of the 1965 Porsche 911 with Smith’s signature rainbow stripe, complete with a green roll cage, blue cushions and a balsa wood gear knob hand-signed by Smith himself. The rainbow racer made its debut at this year’s Le Mans Classic – for which the model holds the event’s historic record of 19 victories – before completing a hill climb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
HAUTE HOLDALLS FROM ASPINAL OF LONDON Skip the luggage carousel with Aspinal of London’s handy Harrison Weekender, a calf leather carry-on case designed for short breaks. With capacity for up to 46 litres, the travel tote boasts a spacious main compartment, an internal zip pocket and a double-ended zip fastening for added security. A nod to equestrian style is made with the antique-style brass hardware, which complements the bag’s adjustable roll-top carry handles and detachable shoulder strap. Choose from tan, chocolate or black leather and get packing. £695, aspinaloflondon.com OFF THE CUFF DESIGNS BY DEAKIN & FRANCIS An experiment with cold cure enamel lead to Deakin & Francis’s latest collection, a selection of cufflinks in neon hues. Something of a departure from the brand’s traditional style, the vibrant discs are finished with a sparkling sapphire centre. £165, deakinandfrancis.co.uk
917-inspired gear knob More than 600 man hours to produce A “2 LTR” numberplate in homage to the motor’s 2.0-litre engine, which is unique to the 1964-1969 models
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OBJECTS OF DESIRE
THE HUMANITARIAN HANDBAGS HELPING SAVE LIVES Giving a new meaning to ‘a bag for life’, accessories brand DeMellier funds lifesaving vaccinations and treatments using the proceeds from its
handbag collection. With every purchase, the label donates a portion of the proceeds to SOS Children’s Village, which runs medical programmes in Somalia and Zambia, where one in six children don’t live to see their sixth birthday. The Oslo
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(pictured) is the latest launch from the brand; handcrafted in the south of Spain, this crescentshaped tote is available in smooth or suede calf leather and six colourways. £335, demellierlondon.com
The Breitling Jet Squad Jacques Bothelin Christophe Deketelaere Paco Wallaert
LAND
NAVITIMER 8
AIR
SEA
#SQUADONAMISSION
BREITLING BOUTIQUE 130 NEW BOND STREET
LONDON
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I
can see why the name Core appealed to Clare Smyth. She possesses a remarkable attention to detail. After half an hour in her company, I find it entirely plausible that she cares just as much about the pips of her portfolio as its shiny surface. We meet at Core, her debut restaurant in Notting Hill that opened last year, on a day hot enough to bake eggs on the tarmac. In rather stark contrast to one of her most well-known bosses – she was chef patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay for four years – Smyth is softly-spoken and considered. And modest, considering she’s had 10/10 in The Good Food Guide, five AA rosettes ON and an MBE for services to the hospitality industry. She also won the Catey Chef of the Year Award 2016 and Michelin Female Chef 2017.
Home is… Wandsworth.
LONDON TIME
CLARE SMYTH
My typical day… starts with emails straightaway and walking the dog – I T H E M I C H E L I N - S TA R R E D C H E F O N OY S T E R S have a West Highland terrier, who’s very AT B E N T L E Y ’ S , W H Y 2 0 1 2 WA S LO N D O N ’ S happy on Wandsworth M O M E N T A N D S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y, O N E P I E C E Common. More emails O F C L I N G F I L M AT A T I M E and anything from meetings to buying art, at the moment, to Words: Annabel Harrison interviews, designing and speaking to suppliers. Then it’s into the food and cooking and service. My days are diverse. I really enjoy designing things – since we opened, I had these tables in my head that I wanted to have made, and [the designer] has gone away to see if they’re possible. All of the art [in Core] is British – that’s important to me. Luxury is… fine wine and art. And fashion, and cars. Jewellery! I like nice things and see lots of things as investments – fine wine and art are great things to own and collect.
FROM TOP CLARE SMYTH MBE; BURLINGTON ARCADE LONDON, @ SPATULETAIL/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM; CORE BY CLARE SMYTH, IMAGE COURTESY OF CORE BY CLARE SMYTH
LUXURY LONDON
INTERVIEW
My favourite London museum… Natural History Museum. My favourite London building… Houses of Parliament. My favourite London park… Hyde Park – all summer long. You come out of the tube and you hear Rod Stewart or The Killers playing. It’s amazing! If I had an unexpected 24 hours to fill in London, I would… There are certain things you just have to do, like going to the ballet or a show. I love shopping in Bond Street and the Burlington Arcade’s boutiques. I’d have lunch at Jean-Georges at The Connaught, cocktails at The American Bar at The Savoy and I love oysters at Bentley’s on Swallow Street. Oysters and champagne, with the piano playing – the perfect end to the evening, particularly in the winter when it’s cold outside and native oysters are in season.
“The real luxury, when I feel comfortable and at home, is being with my closest friends”
My favourite London memory: 2012 – it was just the best year. It was the year I launched a partnership with Gordon [Ramsay] in his flagship restaurant and we had the Olympics and the Jubilee. The atmosphere was amazing. It was so special across the whole city during that time. It was a wonderful year. Film that reminds me of London: Skyfall. Dream dinner party guests: My regular customers and my closest friends, because I never get enough time with them. I am very lucky – I get to meet a lot of people and do lots of special things so the real luxury, when I feel comfortable and at home, is being with my closest friends. If I could jet off to one place right now, I’d go to: Botswana, on safari. Why sustainability matters to me: Chefs are very close to nature so sustainability is something that’s all around us every day. We know what’s wrong, and we need to do something about it. We are constantly trying to find ways of correcting things – I have questions all the time. A couple of months ago, I asked – what do we do about cling film? So we found a company that will collect and recycle it. It’s all these small things we can do. It should be a part of what we do every day. We need to question everything we’re doing.
FROM TOP SAFARI IN BOTSWANA; DISHES AT CORE BY CLARE SMYTH; THE RESTAURANT
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THE DUKE OF HAZARD AHEAD OF THIS MONTH’S G O O D W O O D R E V I VA L F E S T I VA L , T H E E S TAT E ’ S CURRENT PROPRIETOR, C H A R L E S G O R D O N - L E N N OX , 11TH DUKE OF RICHMOND, DISCUSSES EXOTIC CARS AND HIS COLOURFUL HISTORY BEHIND THE WHEEL
Words: Jeremy Taylor
T
he old kitchens behind Goodwood House haven’t seen much culinary activity for years. The buildings were once a working hub for the grand house – the ancestral seat of the Duke of Richmond since 1697. Charles Gordon-Lennox, the 11th Duke of Richmond, is the present incumbent – and perhaps best known for his love of cars. As the driving force behind the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed, he has access to a smorgasbord of the rarest, most exotic vehicles on the planet. A double garage simply wouldn’t be large enough to house his collection, so the Duke, 63, uses the kitchens as the ultimate man cave – although he rarely likes to speak of it. “Honestly, there’s not much in there at all really,” he says. “If the house did go up in smoke, I would probably grab the keys to my Lancia Aurelia. “It dates back to the mid-1950s and was very advanced for the era. I love the architecture – an absolutely fantastic piece of modernist design, so laid back and one of the most beautiful coupés ever made. It’s quite quick with very complicated suspension. The cost of building the Aurelia almost killed off Lancia for good.” The Duke says he rarely gets to drive the Aurelia, which he bought at auction during the 20th anniversary of the Festival of Speed in 2013. His late grandfather also enjoyed a passion for Lancias, designing the world’s first production car featuring Art Deco aero styling. It was later incorporated into the 1934 Lancia Augusta. “My grandfather loved Lancias – they were the best machines of that era,” he explains. “My Aurelia
is black with grey cloth and the first production car with a V6 engine. Perhaps another reason I love it is the Lancia is the same age as me.” The Duke launched the Festival of Speed at Goodwood in 1993, partly to help keep the 12,000acre estate afloat. Held right outside his bedroom window, it has grown to become one of the world’s most popular motoring events. It later spawned the Goodwood Revival – a retro fest of fancy dress and classic cars. “I wanted to bring motorsport back to Goodwood because this place is steeped in motor racing history,” he says. “My grandfather launched the Goodwood Motor Circuit in 1948 and I’ve grown up in or around cars.” What else is parked out the back? Naturally, there’s a Rolls-Royce Ghost as the marque has been based on the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex since 2003. The 42-acre site employs more than 1,700 workers and around 20 cars are hand-built here every day. Designed by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw – who also created the Eden Project – the factory features a roof covered with sedum plants that hides the building from the road. “I’m lent a lot of Rolls-Royces,” the Duke says. “Obviously, they’re a very nice drive. My favourite is a Phantom coupé that was built especially for the Festival of Speed as a course car a few years back. It’s orange inside and has an orange line down the paintwork. It sounds horrible, but it’s dead cool.” In 2010, the Duke visited the famous Bonneville Salt Flats in America to try his hand at speed driving. “I was there with my son, Charles, and we both fell in love with hot rods. I went off the idea of owning super-expensive cars. I liked the idea of creating my own individual vehicle instead. “In the end, I shipped a 1929 Model A Ford back home to England and still have it. That car looks like it has been dredged up from the bottom of a lake. If the devil was a car, that would be it.” The Duke recently bought a Porsche 911 GT2 RS. The supercar was officially launched at the Festival of Speed in 2017 and produces 690 horsepower from a 3.8-litre twin turbo engine. With a lightweight magnesium roof and other body panels made of carbon, it will accelerate to 60mph in 2.7 seconds. He mentions that he has a ‘modest’ fleet of more conventional cars in his garage too, among them an Audi RS6, several old Land Rovers and a Range Rover. He also has a Defender Works V8 70th Edition on order – the most powerful Defender ever built. “I learnt to drive around Goodwood estate when I was a teenager. One day when my parents were
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INTERVIEW
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LUXURY LONDON
INTERVIEW
out, a friend and I borrowed a Land Rover and tore around the fields. We were doing well until my friend accelerated through a gate and stuffed it straight in the side of a bloody horse box. It was totally annihilated but my parents took it very well.” They weren’t so impressed when the 16-year-old Duke ‘borrowed’ his mother’s Morris 1100 and took to the famous Goodwood hill climb, now an integral part of the Festival of Speed. Heading downhill, he hit gravel and crashed into some trees. “It was one of the world’s worst cars and I did myself a lot of damage. I broke the top of my femur. Weirdly, I was so young they decided not to pin the bone, so I spent four months on my back with a leg in the air. It was cruelty to children.” Undeterred, the Duke bought a Morgan three-wheeler: “My parents were dead against motorbikes but they agreed I could drive the Morgan on a motorcycle licence at 16. That was a big mistake. “The Morgan cost £200 in Littlehampton and was absolutely lethal. It was fitted with a horrid Ford 100E engine – not very nice at all. The back wheel also had a tendency to fall off.” The Duke was “furious” when he failed his driving test at the first attempt: “I can’t actually remember what I failed on – it was something stupid like not checking the rear-view mirror. I was unbelievably angry because in those days, all teenagers wanted was the freedom to get around.” He was even less happy when his father
gave him a Datsun Cherry as his first road car. “It wasn’t my finest moment. I was working for the film director Stanley Kubrick at the time and travelling up and down to London.” Although the Datsun lacked street cred, the hatchback survived the Duke’s determination to destroy it: “I thrashed the hell out of it and revved to the red line for every gear change. Fortunately, the cook spilt a flagon of milk on the back seat. The smell was so bad it had to go.” The Duke then indulged in a string of fast cars, including a stripped-out Mini Cooper S and an Austin Healey 3000. He took the latter on honeymoon to France when he married his first wife, Sally Clayton. “It dripped hot oil on her feet and then the bloody thing blew up.” A career in advertising afforded him a Porsche 924 Carrera GT, which he kept for 13 years until the first Festival of Speed in 1993. “I should never have got rid of it but when the engine gave up it went,” he says. “Bad decision.” Porsche became involved in the festival early on and the Duke owned or loaned many of its best cars, including a dark-blue 993 – the last of the air-cooled models – and then, later, a 5.7-litre Carrera GT. “That was a highlight, a quite phenomenal car.” The 924 Carrera GT was also the car the Duke used to make a ‘record’ run from Goodwood
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GUESTS AND CARS AT GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED AND GOODWOOD REVIVAL; GOODWOOD ESTATE & GOODWOOD AERODROME
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F E AT U R E
“Having that car accident when I was 16 really didn’t teach me anything” © MIKE CALDWELL
House to Chelsea in just 54 minutes. “That was a bit naughty and you’d never get away with it now,” he says. “My grandfather wasn’t a fan of bureaucracy either. The day the 70mph national speed limit came in, he drove a Jensen flat out up the Edgware Road in London. “He was promptly caught by the police and had to appear in front of Bow Street Magistrates Court. I have a photograph of him coming out of the building sticking up a V-sign to the camera!” Nowadays the Duke claims he has become tired of expensive supercars and has turned his attention to bespoke, American vehicles: “I like the idea of building your own car, gathering all the pieces together and creating something unique. “Having that accident when I was 16 really didn’t teach me anything. There probably is some oil running through my veins and over the years I’ve loved every minute behind the wheel.” Goodwood Revival, 7-9 September 2018, day tickets from £55, goodwood.com
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ORIGINAL, LIMITED-EDITION ART DECO POSTERS
Limited to editions of 280, our newly-commissioned Art Deco posters feature glamorous holiday destinations around the world, ski resorts in the Austrian, French and Swiss Alps, and the world’s greatest historic automobiles. Over 100 designs to choose from, all printed on 100% cotton fine art paper, measuring 97 x 65 cms.
Priced at £395 each.
Private commissions are also welcome.
Pullman Editions Ltd 94 Pimlico Road Chelsea London SW1W 8PL www.pullmaneditions.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7730 0547 Email: georgina@pullmaneditions.com
Our central London gallery
All images and text copyright © Pullman Editions Ltd. 2018
View and buy online at w w w.pullmaneditions.com
AUDREY HEPBURN GETTING INTO THE PARAMOUNT STUDIOS CAR, 1953, BOB WILLOUGHBY
P.36 PAGE TURNER Inside the world’s most beautiful libraries
P.42 LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL A celebration of the capital’s creative minds
P.46 AFTER HOURS A visual guide to London at night
C U LT U R E MUSIC, MUSEUMS & MASTERPIECES
Bob Willoughby, Terry O’Neill and Douglas Kirkland share their snaps of 1960s pop icon Audrey Hepburn (p.30)
TH E AG E N DA YOUR CURATED GUIDE TO CULTURE IN THE CAPITAL Words: Ellen Millard
VA R I O U S OUR HOUSE
FROM LEFT WHITE COLLAR FACTORY; 1 NEW OXFORD STREET, BOTH © TIMOTHY SOAR; US EMBASSY
Calling all nosy neighbours: Open House London returns this September for another weekend of free tours and talks, offering a
peek at more than 800 of the city’s most interesting buildings, places and spaces. Among the landmark spots are 10 Downing Street, the BT Tower and the Royal Opera House – cameras at the ready… 22-23 September, venues across London, openhouselondon.org.uk
CHELSEA HEAD START The first of its kind in the capital, the Gallery of Everything offers a platform to non-academic and private art makers who flourish beyond the cultural mainstream. Johnson Weree and Abu Bakarr Mansaray are among the artists represented by the gallery, and both will have the opportunity to present their colourful creations to a wider audience at the Saatchi Gallery’s Start Art Fair this September. Pop along to see emerging artists who are making waves in the creative world. From £12.50, 13-16 September, Saatchi Gallery, King’s Road, SW3, startartfair.com
SOUTHBANK ABOVE AND BELOW COURTESY THE ESTATE OF BERENICE SYDNEY
BLURRED LINES In light of current debates surrounding gender identity, the Hayward Gallery presents Drag: Self-Portraits and Body Politics, a new exhibition in the gallery’s Heni Project Space about drag queens, drag kings and bio drags. Focusing on self-portraiture, the show will span from the 1960s to the present day, exploring cultural shifts over the past 50 years and covering a diverse range of topics, including AIDS and feminism. ABOVE ABU BAKARR MANSARAY, EBOLA BOMB INDUSTRY; RIGHT JOHNSON WEREE, UNTITLED
ABOVE SAMUEL FOSSO, SELFPORTRAIT, 2008, PRIVATE JEAN MARC PATRAS, PARIS
Until 14 October, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1, southbankcentre.co.uk
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ELSEWHERE LIFE IN MONOCHROME Elliott Erwitt’s humanist-style photography offers a visual history of the 20th and 21st centuries through a black-and-white lens. Now, to honour his 90th birthday, TeNeues has republished his book
COV E N T G A R D E N MY FAIR LADY To mark the 25th anniversary of Audrey Hepburn’s death, Proud Central presents an exhibition of rare photographic portraits that capture the actress’s playful and captivating personality. Audrey Hepburn: Beyond the Screen features snaps by Terry O’Neill, Norman Parkinson, Eva Sereny and Douglas Kirkland. Until 30 September, 32 John Adam Street, WC2N, proudonline.co.uk
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT NORMAN PARKINSON, AUDREY HEPBURN, 1955, © NORMAN PARKINSON/ICONIC IMAGES; MARK SHAW, AUDREY AT HOME ON THE SUN LOUNGER, 1954, © MARK SHAW/MPTVIMAGES.COM; DOUGLAS KIRKLAND, AUDREY HEPBURN, 1965, © DOUGLAS KIRKLAND/ICONIC IMAGES
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Personal Best, a curated guide to what he believes to be his most remarkable work – including this snap of Marilyn Monroe in a bar in Nevada in 1960. $100, teneues-books.com
MARILYN MONROE, RENO, NEVADA, 1960, PHOTO © 2018 ELLIOTT ERWITT/ MAGNUM PHOTOS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UPCOMING ESTIMATE: £ 20,000-£ 30,000
On the Sands, Harold Harvey Cornish artist Harold Harvey painted the scenes he saw around his hometown Penzance, including this On the Sands oil on canvas that was first exhibited at Barbazon House in London in 1932. The artwork will be part of a larger auction of 19th century European, Victorian and British impressionist paintings. 19th Century European, Victorian and British Impressionist Art, 26 September, bonhams.com
PRIZE LOTS
SOLD BUST OF PEACE, ANTONIO CANOVA UPCOMING, FROM TOP ON THE SANDS, HAROLD HARVEY (BRITISH, 1874-1941); DOLLAR SIGN, ANDY WARHOL, 1982
SOLD
£5.3M DATE : 4 JULY 2 01 8
UPCOMING
Bust of Peace, Antonio Canova
ESTIMATE: £ 200,000-£ 300,000
Dollar Sign, Andy Warhol
Last displayed to the public at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1817, Antonio Canova’s Bust of Peace was at one point thought to be lost. Part of the sculptor’s Ideal Heads series, the marble creation made a rare appearance in the art market, causing a stir thanks to its detailed provenance, which dates back to its creation. Following a telephone bidding war, the bust beat the artist’s previous record of £3.9m. sothebys.com
The art collection of Damien Hirst’s business manager Frank Dunphy and his wife Lorna is set to go under the hammer at Sotheby’s this September. More than 200 works from the 1990s will be sold and exhibited, including this Andy Warhol Dollar Sign, a Tracey Emin creation that was made specifically for Frank and, of course, several pieces by Damien Hirst. Yellow Ball: The Frank and Lorna Dunphy Collection, 20 September, sothebys.com LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
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DISCOVER THE NEW AUTUMN WINTER COLLECTION The new ladies Stanwick tweed fieldcoat with a waterproof, breathable and windproof Sympatex ® drop liner. Pair this with the new high-waisted breeks for an elegant and weatherproof look in the field.
57- 58 SOUTH AUDLEY STREET LONDON W1K 2ED + 4 4 (0) 20 7499 1801 PURDEY.COM
T H E WO R L D ’ S M O S T BEAUTIFUL Words: Ellen Millard
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T H E VAT I C A N APOSTOLIC LIBRARY LOCATION: Vatican City OPENED: 1475 NUMBER OF BOOKS: 1.1m
Commonly known as the Vatican Library or more simply as the Vat, this colourful gallery is the official library of the Holy See and is used for research purposes. Open to anyone who can prove their qualifications and research needs, the space houses texts on history, law, philosophy, science and theology, as well as 75,000 codices (ancient manuscripts) and some 8,500 incunabula (books printed before 1501). vaticanlibrary.va
TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY LOCATION: Dublin OPENED: 1592 NUMBER OF BOOKS: 6m PREVIOUS PAGE REAL GABINETE PORTUGUÊS DE LEITURA, RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL; ALL IMAGES © MASSIMO LISTRI AND TASCHEN, TASCHEN.COM
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The largest library in Ireland serving both
Trinity College and the University of Dublin, this ornate space is the home of the gospel manuscript the Book of Kells, two volumes of which are on permanent display. trin.cam.ac.uk
T H E N AT I O N A L PA L AC E O F MAFRA LOCATION: Portugal OPENED: 1771 NUMBER OF BOOKS: 36,000
KREMSMÜNSTER ABBEY LIBRARY LOCATION: Austria OPENED: 1689 NUMBER OF BOOKS: 160,000
This private library is the oldest and largest of its kind in Austria and was built by Baroque architect Carlo Antonio Carlone. Four rooms are accessible to the public: the hall of the Greeks, the hall of the Latins, the Small Department
and the Benedictine Room. Each room is named after the frescos created by painter Melchior Steidl, who honoured famous historians, scholars and literary figures with his rainbow creations. Among them are Plato, Aristotle and the Queen of Sheba. The most valuable book is the Codex Millenarius, a Gospel volume written in around 800 AD at Mondsee Abbey.
Home to more than just books, this striking space houses a permanent colony of miniature bats, which swoop in at night to eat the bugs that would otherwise damage the library’s collection of books. In addition to its innovative pest control team, the room’s 18th-century Rococo architecture makes it the most exquisite space in the palace. palaciomafra.gov.pt
stift-kremsmuenster.net
This private library is the oldest and largest of its kind in Austria
ALL IMAGES © MASSIMO LISTRI AND TASCHEN; THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL LIBRARIES BY MASSIMO LISTRI, GEORG RUPPELT AND ELISABETH SLADEK, £150, TASCHEN.COM
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M AT E R I A L Words: Annabel Harrison
GAINS
EXPECT TO SEE BRANDS, ARTISTS, ARCHITECTS AND ACADEMICS PRESENTING T H E I R I N N O VAT I V E , G A M E - C H A N G I N G S O L U T I O N S TO S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y AT L O N D O N D E S I G N F E S T I VA L 2 0 1 8
MA-T T-ER Design research studio Ma-tt-er is launching its new book Why Materials Matter and a temporary exhibition featuring a series of commissioned bookends, talks and workshops. Educate yourself about everything material: our existing knowledge; economic, political, social and environmental issues; and some mind-boggling potential.
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ondon and design go hand in hand. It is part of our story.” Designer, and champion of the creative industries, Sir John Sorrell teamed up with fellow dilettante Ben Evans to launch the London Design Festival, 16 years ago. They wanted to set the city’s sparks of talent on fire, drawing the world’s greatest thinkers, practitioners, retailers and educators to the Big Smoke, like moths to a flame, to create a platform for hundreds of design stories to be added to the capital’s rich tapestry. In 2017 these stories were told to 450,000 visitors from 75 countries and 2018 may even eclipse that recordbreaking year. London will come alive with everything from space-themed raves to collectable reissues and celestial light installations, such as Sé’s Collection IV by Ini Archibong, Below the Heavens.
PREVIOUS PAGE MOIRAI CHANDELIER FROM COLLECTION IV BY INI ARCHIBONG FOR SÉ THIS PAGE, FROM TOP WHY MATERIALS MATTER, ROOS MEERMAN, AERA FABRICA; LEMA X OSBORNE & LITTLE
LEMA Collaborating for the first time, this Italian design company tapped into British brand Osborne & Little’s textile expertise for its LDF offering; four projects, four fabrics, four designers. Spaniard David Lopez Quincoces is one of them, and his new collection, launched at the Salone del Mobile 2018 in Milan, will be on show at Lema on the King’s Road, along with exclusive LDF designs.
Brompton Design District The first LDF design quarter has chosen its theme for 2018: Material Consequences. “We need to rethink how we use and abuse materials,” explains programme curator Jane Withers. “We wanted to make a space to explore how designers are looking at and experimenting with materials and thinking about their long-term impact.” Plastic is, unsurprisingly, high on the agenda. “Our addiction to single-use disposable plastics has to stop; it’s killing the planet.”
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT L FURNITURE COLLECTION, © M-L-XL; MONTANA SHELVING AT THE SKANDIUM ECO TOWNHOUSE; CRAFTING PLASTICS, BIOPLASTIC UNIVERSE; REGEN © WENDY ANDREU
Lina Kanafani has curated TRANS-FORM for interior design store Mint, an impressive collection of designers highlighting the transformative power of materials. Studio M-L-XL focuses on research and experiments with languages, techniques and materials; its furniture was inspired by extruded metal L-profiles. Craft designer Wendy Andreu has devised a technique for producing waterproof fabric volumes without sewing or cutting patterns; her double-sided Regen fabric features water-repellent latex on one side and cotton rope on the other. Furniture brand Montana and design company Skagerak will transform Skandium’s townhouse in South Kensington into an eco home filled with ethical Scandinavian design products. “Companies are no longer measured in terms of profit or being the world’s best,” explains Joakim Lassen, CEO of Montana. “They are increasingly being measured as being best for the world. This is our philosophy, too.” 15-23 September, londondesignfestival.com
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WILLIAM ECKERSLEY, TROLLEYS IN EMPTY CAR PARK, 2011
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By 1938, however, Bill Brandt’s photographic book A Night in London was projecting images of a new “electric city”. The introduction hymns Brandt’s photos of “floodlit attics and towers, oiled roadways shining like enamel under the street lights and headlights, the bright lacquer and shining metals of motorcars, illuminated signs….” Of course, his photography would take on a graver tone over the following years, when he documented the city during the Second World War, including East Enders forced to take to the rat-infested tunnels of the London Underground during the Blitz in 1940. Today, modern London imagery tends to focus on the city as a place of fun, riverside restaurants and wine bars, along with West End theatres churning out the same over-priced musical pap they have been showing for the past decade. The Edwardians did it better – among the most familiar neon-lit landmarks to feature in the exhibition is American photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn’s glistening study from 1909 of the Empire theatre in Leicester Square. Today we know it as a nine-screen state-of-theart cinema, but back then it was the Empire Theatre of Varieties, a music hall with seating for 3,000.
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he Museum of London’s London Nights exhibition explores “the ambience, activities and emotions one might encounter after dark”, through contemporary and historic photographs, from the 19th century up to the present day. Anna Sparham, the museum’s curator of photography, says the show “will capture and depict a range of interpretations of this capital city after dark. Using the museum’s broad collection of photography as a starting point, together with fantastic loans, we aim to showcase the city transformed in the glow of the night. Whether it’s central London or suburbia, this exhibition will explore the dark corners of the city, from the magnificent to the mundane”. London Nights begins its nocturnal tale in Victorian times, an era synonymous with the macabre. With photography in its infancy, some of the creepiest after-dark descriptions of London at this time were to be found in the novels of Charles Dickens. He had much in common with the social reformers of the day, who abhorred the city at night and believed that innocent souls were lured to their doom down its dimly-lit streets and alleyways. Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor, written in 1851, contained passages as vividly descriptive as those of Dickens. With the advent of film and the moving image, the enduring idea of the capital as a place where bad things happen after dark was quickly translated to the big screen, perhaps most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in his classic silent film The Lodger (1927), with its shadows, fog and gas lights. (The Lodger also features in a complementary mini-film season at the Barbican, along with Julien Temple’s Absolute Beginners (1986), which shines a spotlight on Notting Hill’s night scene in the late 1950s).
The grimmer side of town is a relentless draw for photographers
THIS PAGE, FROM TOP LEFT MERCIE LACK, GLASS LANTERN SLIDE OF THE EMBANKMENT AT CHELSEA, PHOTOGRAPHED AT NIGHT, © MUSEUM OF LONDON; BILL BRANDT, EAST END UNDERGROUND STATION SHELTER, 1940, DIGTIAL IMAGE © MUSEUM OF LONDON OPPOSITE PAGE TERRY SPENCER, A GROUP OF MALE AND FEMALE SKINHEAD ‘MODS’ 1969, © CARA SPENCER
In the 1960s, London was, for some at least, ‘swinging’, and ex-RAF fighter pilot Terry Spencer was one of several snappers who caught the youthful mood, capturing definitive images of mods and skinheads. The grimmer side of town is a relentless draw for photographers. William Eckersley’s Dark City series of nocturnal studies reflects on London’s empty corners – the unsettling spots away from the 24-hour Tesco, the city-that- never-sleeps clubs and the snug terraces where, whatever time of night it is, there’s always the reassuring sound of a taxi rattling up to drop someone off at their front door. In Eckersley’s photos the lights are often on, but nobody’s home. This is London, the scary ghost city – it’s not the one envisaged by the bland tourist brochures, but it’s infinitely more appealing to the imagination. Until 11 November, Museum of London, London Wall, EC2Y, museumoflondon.org.uk; Film screenings, from £10.50, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y, barbican.org.uk
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AL E X T H OMSON A R O U N D TH E WO R L D W ITH B R ITA IN’S SO LO S P E CIALIST
P.86 L I A R IVA O N T H E E N D U RING A P P E A L OF TH E B OATS T H AT BE AR H E R N AM E
J UMP RIGH T IN
SUPERYACHTS
of the Year
Destinations of tomorrow THE BEST BOATS TO CHARTER RIGHT NOW
W H AT D O E S I T TA K E TO CO M P E T E I N T H E
V O L V O O C E A N R A C E ?
YACHTING NEWS THE CABIN CRUISERS, MEGA-VESSELS & S U P E R - S L O O P S M A K I N G WAV E S I N 2 0 1 8
Words: Ellen Millard & Richard Brown
FOR CHARTER – MOTOR
SKY’S THE LIMIT S PA- E Q U I P P E D C LO U D 9 S E T F O R SA I L
Created by three of the biggest players in the yachting industry – CRN, Zuccon International Project and Winch Design – the 74-metre CLOUD 9 caused a storm when it launched at last year’s Monaco Yacht Show, attracting attention for its combination of engineering and design. Now available for charter, the vessel has space for 12 and boasts a spa and hair salon, beach club with espresso bar, swimming pool, jacuzzi, outdoor cinema, helipad and – most essential of all – a Teppanyaki bar. Winter rates from $875,000 a week, burgessyachts.com
FOR CHARTER – SAIL
SAIL AWAY WITH ME T HE WOR L D ’S L A R G EST KE TC H N OW AVA I L A BL E F OR HI R E Built by Vitters and Oceanco, the spectacular 86m Aquijo is the world’s largest high-performance ketch (a two-mast, foreand-aft rigged sail boat). With naval architecture and exterior design by Tripp Design Naval Architecture, and interior design by Dölker + Voges, Aquijo accommodates 12 people in seven cabins and was delivered in 2016. The yacht’s beach club offers a spa area with steam room and sauna plus a hot tub, an incredibly rare feature in a sailing boat, while its aft deck incorporates an indoor-outdoor bar. Summer rates from €450,000 per week, enquire for winter rates, y.co
C R I T I C A L ACC L A I M
BEAST OF THE SEAS
SUPER SLOOP NGONI RECEIVES JUDGES’ COMMENDATION Royal Huisman’s Ngoni has received a commendation in Boat International’s World Superyacht Awards 2018. Impressing judges in the Sailing Yacht over 50 metre category, the 58m yacht was praised for its design, which was the work
of legendary, late naval architect Ed Dubois and Rick Baker Ltd, who responded to a rather unorthodox commission: “Give me a beast” was the client’s request. Royal Huisman built the vessel in 2017 and it has since been spotted sailing near Palma. The commendation follows two previous gongs at Boat International’s Design & Innovation Awards held earlier this year: one for Best Naval Architecture and the other for Best Exterior Styling Sailing Yachts. royalhuisman.com
SUPERYACHTS ON SPEED DIAL
AHOY THERE
A NEW APP AIMS TO TAKE THE STING OUT OF CHARTERING Ahoy Club, a new digital platform that connects superyacht owners to potential charter clients, is hoping to revolutionise the way people hire yachts. Instead of the typical 20 per cent commission fee that brokers usually charge owners, Ahoy Club will charge seven per cent. Customers, meanwhile, will pay just four per cent and be able to book holidays directly with the owner within 48 hours of making an inquiry. Ahoy Club, set up by Ian Malouf, owner of 54m motoryacht Mischief offers a choice of more than 2,000 yachts in ports across the world. ahoyclub.com
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P L ATI N U M- R ATE D M A R I N A P O R TO M O NT ENEGRO G E TS S E T TO W E LCO M E I TS S E V E N TH RESI D ENCE Having scooped the inaugural Yacht Harbour Association’s 5 Gold Anchor Platinum accreditation last year – a prize given to the world’s most well-equipped superyacht harbours – Porto Montenegro is continuing its pursuit of rapid expansion. Currently boasting six independent luxury residences, the port will become home to a seventh by summer 2019. Claiming to be the most successful real estate project in the Mediterranean, Porto Montenegro grants its residents exclusive privileges, including access to its yacht club, an international boarding school and the marina’s 450 berths. portomontenegro.com
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FOR SALE
DELIVERED: 2017
GO DUTCH
ACCOMMODATES: 30 in 15 cabins SHIPBUILDER: Oceanco ARCHITECT: Lobanov Design
THE LARGEST SUPERYACHT TO BE BUILT IN THE NETHERLANDS
INTERIOR DESIGN: Sam Sorgiovanni
GOES ON SALE WITH BURGESS YACHTS
PRICE: On application
Latest launches
BLACK P E A R L , 106 .7 M
EL A N D ESS , 74 M
TA R G A 4 3 O P E N , 1 4 . 2 M
G 2 , 39 M
O C E A N CO / DYKSTRA
ABE KING & R ASMU SSEN /
FA I R LI N E / A LB ER TO
VI TTER S / B IL L T RI PP
N AVA L A R CH ITECTS
H ARRIS O N EI DSGAA R D
MA N CI N I
Black Pearl is the largest DynaRig sailing yacht in the world. Built from a steel hull and an aluminium superstructure, her 15m beam allows for a total interior volume of 2,700 gross tonnage.
Unique portholes below the waterline give Elandess guests a new perspective of the cruising grounds they explore. Outside, the 8m x 2.25m pool located on the massive sun deck is a standout feature.
The latest Fairline Yachts boat designed by Alberto Mancini, the Targa 43 Open is powered by twin Volvo Penta IPS600 engines offering speeds of up to 34 knots. It’s available from £482,700 (excluding taxes).
Rebuilt by Pendennis, G2 (previously Cinderella IV) now offers an open-plan saloon, oversized portholes and a central skylight over the main deckhouse. She is available to charter from YPI from €85,000 per week.
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Launched in 2017, not only is Jubilee the largest boat ever built by Dutch superyacht builder Oceanco, but it is also the largest vessel ever to be built in The Netherlands. The brand new, 361.2ft motor yacht is in turnkey condition and is now up for sale with Burgess Yachts. The boat’s first owners can take pride in a stunning, award-winning metallic blue superstructure exterior by Lobanov Design. A Sam Sorgiovanni-designed interior is replete with marble, silk carpets and crystal. The capacious 135 sq m main saloon is adorned in gold, white and light-blue details. Balconies on both sides of the main deck – at the dining saloon and lounge bar – connect the expansive interior to the outdoor spaces. Elsewhere, a pool deck features a built-in aquarium, while an inviting beach club – which hosts a gym and hammam – provides access to the water via a fold-down transom. burgessyachts.com
IRISHA, 5 1M
L ATON A , 50 M
110’ DOLCEVITA, 34M
H E E SE N / H ARRIS O N
CRN / Z UCCON
R I VA / OFFI CI N A
FEA DSHI P / RWD
E I DS G AA RD
INTERNAT I ON A L PR OJ ECT
I TA LI A N A DESI GN
Irisha is a full-aluminium, semi-displacement motor yacht. A 5000 Aluminium class platform is delivered with a radical profile and hard-chine hull. Irisha is available for charter in the Mediterranean.
Delivered in May and set to make its world première at the Monaco Yacht Show, Latona draws inspiration from the SuperConero yacht of the ‘60s, featuring four decks, and a bespoke turquoise hull.
The 110’ Dolcevita features a super-sporty profile and a design enhanced by shaped glass windows and chromeplated inserts. The flybridge and bow are interconnected, creating a 34m2 infinity deck.
Developed in close collaboration with British designers RWD and brokerage house Cecil Wright & Partners, expedition-style architecture enables Sherpa to carry a great deal of equipment wherever she sails.
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S H E R PA , 74M
Heesen From day one, Heesen has pursued a consistent mission: to create yachts with exceptional standards of engineering and meticulous attention to detail. To achieve this, skilled hands, driven by passion for perfection, make all the difference. Custom or semi-custom, each yacht is built entirely in-house and renowned for exceptional performance in speed, range and stability. heesenyachts.com
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C A P E TOW N I N T ER N ATI O N A L BOAT S H OW 19 – 21 O C TO B E R 2 01 8 Located on Cape Town’s picturesque V&A Waterfront, the Cape Town International Boat Show is South Africa’s largest event dedicated to the boating industry – and the only one to serve the leisure sector. New for 2018 is The Avenue, a luxury lifestyle exhibition where top designers, jewellers and tech brands will present their latest launches. boatshow.co.za
DIARY DATES
C A N N E S YAC H TI N G F E STI VAL 1 1 – 1 6 S E P TE M B E R The first boating show of the season, Cannes Yachting Festival spans two ports and boasts a display of nearly 600 boats. Visit Vieux Port for the latest from the world’s largest shipyards, and Port Pierre Canto for second-hand yachts presented by esteemed brokers and charter companies. cannesyachtingfestival.com
TH E YAC H TM ARKET.CO M S O U TH A MPTO N B OAT S H OW 1 4 – 2 3 S E PT EM B ER 201 8 Britain’s biggest boat festival will mark its 50th anniversary with more than 100 debuts and 500 exhibitors, including 81 brands that will attending for the first time. southamptonboatshow.com
THE LOW-DOWN ON AUTUMN’S L E A D I N G YA C H T S H O W S
MONACO YAC HT SHOW 2 6 – 2 9 SEP T EM BER 2018 Considered the flagship event for industry aficionados, the Monaco Yacht Show will see more than 120 superyachts moor at Port Hercules this September. For the first time in the event’s 28-year history, yacht designers, brokerage houses and shipyards will also exhibit alongside the yachts they represent. monacoyachtshow.com
A B U DH A B I I N TE R N ATI O NAL B OAT S H OW 1 7 – 2 0 O C TO B E R 2 01 8 The inaugural Abu Dhabi International Boat Show will open the United Arab Emirate’s estimated $60 billion marine industry to a global audience. The show will also host a dedicated fishing zone featuring both traditional dhows and contemporary models – a reflection of the country’s increasing appetite for the sport. adibs.ae
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SUPER B O A T I N T E R N A T I O N A L ’ S W O R L D S U P E R YA C H T A W A R D S A R E T H E O N LY P E E R - R E V I E W E D YA C H T I N G AWA R D S I N T H E W O R L D . W E L C O M E T O T H I S Y E A R ’ S W I N N E R S …
Words: Boat International Media
YACHT AWARDS 2018
J U D G E S ’ S P E CI AL AWARD : AVI VA, 98 .4M ( A B E K I N G & RASM USSEN) One of Aviva’s specially noted features was the padel tennis court located in the centre of the lower deck, which is enjoyed on a daily basis by the owner, crew and guests. The judges were impressed with the modern lines, eye catching hull colour, and beautiful interior, which is a full-time home for the owner.
REBUILT YAC HTS: G EN ESI A , 4 0.3 M (CANT I ER I N AVA L I D I T ER M OL I R EBU I L D : C A N T I ER I N AVA L I C HI OG G I A ) Genesia received a new interior and machinery as well as being taken back to clean steel. Although this yacht started off as a commercial tug, she now has the look and build of an exceptional expedition yacht. The judges deemed this a highly successful rebuild by Cantieri Navali Chioggia that readied her for operations in high and low latitudes.
D I S P L AC E M E N T M OTO R YAC H TS B E LOW 50 0 GT, 4 0 M A N D A B OV E : S E V E N S I N S , 52 M ( SA N LO R E N ZO) The judges were impressed by Seven Sins’ elegant lines, multiple outdoor spaces and glass-bottomed pool that creates a spectacular light effect in the beach club beneath. The exterior and contemporary, open-plan interior were designed by Officina Italiana Design.
SA I L I N G YAC H TS 30 M TO 49. 9M : R I B E L L E , 32 . 6 M ( V I TTE R S /G R E E N MA R I N E ) Class winner of last year’s Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Ribelle is the perfect modern mix of luxury cruiser and thoroughbred racer. Standout features include a glass-topped saloon that provides natural light and modern interior design by Rémi Tessier, alongside exterior design by Malcolm McKeon Yacht Design.
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S E M I - D I S P L AC E M E N T O R P L A N I N G T WO D E C K M OTO R YAC H TS 30 M TO 34 .9M : L E TA N I , 34 . 9 M ( F E A DS H I P ) Letani, a versatile and well-built cruiser, was designed to take on both local cruising and extended journeys as well as entering shallow waters and small ports. The owner was intimately involved in the design, creating a home at sea for his family.
S U P P O R T V E SS E L S : GAM E C H A N G E R , 69. 2 M ( DAM EN) This year’s new Support Vessels category was added as a reflection and celebration of the changes in the superyacht world. Of the three nominations for this new category, Game Changer’s helicopter landing and storage capability, hospital facility and ability to carry or launch four specialist tenders, as well as a submarine, were key to her win.
SA IL-ASSI ST ED MOTOR YAC HTS: SAILING YACHT A, 142 .8M (N OBISK R U G ) Sailing Yacht A was built by Nobiskrug in Germany with interior and exterior design by Philippe Starck. The owner ensured that Sailing Yacht A would be one of the most advanced superyachts on the water. With her attributes in both motor and sailing, Sailing Yacht A was chosen as the winner for her abilities in both fields and her environmentally-friendly innovations.
D I S P L ACEM ENT M OTO R YACHTS B E LOW 5 00GT, 3 0M TO 39. 9 M : DELTA O N E , 36 M ( M ULD ER S H I PYA RD) This bespoke yacht’s features include spacious deck areas with a large spa pool, two shaded dining areas and a garage large enough for a 6.25-metre Williams tender.
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SEMI -D I SP L AC EM EN T OR P LA N I N G T HR EE D EC K MOTOR YAC HTS: T EL L I , 3 3 M (FERR ET T I C U STOM L I N E) With deck spaces on all three levels and seamless flow from the exterior deck to the interior, Telli’s bright and open design impressed the judges. Other features noted by the judges were the “drive-in” tender garage and the contemporary yet classic interior design.
SA I L I N G YAC H TS 50 M A N D A B OVE & SA I L I N G YAC H T O F TH E Y E A R : P I N K G I N , 53. 9 M ( B A LTI C YAC H TS ) When it comes to sailing yachts, one particular vessel shone above the rest, picking up two highly coveted awards. Baltic Yachts’ Pink Gin, a carbon-fibre, high-performance, global cruising yacht, was the worthy winner in both the Sailing Yachts 50m and Above, and Sailing Yacht of the Year categories. The technological advances across her hull and rig and her power-assisted ‘force feedback steering’ system are what sealed her place as winner in both categories.
DISP LACEM EN T M OTOR YAC HTS 2 ,000GT A N D A BOV E & M OTOR YACHT OF T HE YEA R : FA I T H, 9 6 .6 M (FEADSHIP ) Faith, a motor yacht built by Feadship in Makkum, the Netherlands, won the categories of Displacement Motor Yachts 2,000GT and Above and Motor Yacht of the Year. Stunning design and construction, as well as various glass features, such as the three-metre-high domed skylight in the master cabin and curved glass bottom of the nine-metre swimming pool, led Faith to first place.
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF BOATINTERNATIONAL.COM
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ast year, the superyacht brokerage market witnessed the busiest 12 months since the global financial crisis. In 2017, a total of 429 superyachts were sold. Many brokerage houses, from Fraser Yachts and Burgess to IYC and Moran Yacht & Ship, reported record years, with Fraser having its best spell for more than a decade. One-hundredand-eighty new yachts over 30m were sold, and 149 new yachts over 30m were delivered. At the end of the year, a further 443 yachts over 30m remained under construction. The US was the largest market, accounting for 20 per cent of yachts sold in 2017. Middle Eastern and Eastern European customer bases followed closely behind, with a return of Russian buyers helping to sustain the market. European and Latin American sectors played their part, too.
“The primary focus for an increasing number of yacht owners is performance and a closeness to the water”
PREVIOUS PAGE AQUIJO, 86M, AVAILABLE TO CHARTER THROUGH Y.CO BELOWTHE BEACH CLUB ON CLOUD 9, 74M, CRN
One of the more unusual factors driving sales has been the emergence of cryptocurrencies. “We closed a fairly large catamaran to a client that cashed out of bitcoin and are finalising a charter in the Mediterranean to an American client using cryptocurrency,” says Bob Denison, president of Denison Yachting. “Regardless of the fluctuations in cryptocurrency values, I think we’ll continue to see real progress here. I think you’ll hear big news from somebody in 2018 regarding a superyacht purchase [using cryptocurrency].”
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More commissions are resulting in more extravagant designs. Although the 143m Sailing Yacht A, designed by Philippe Starck and delivered to her Russian owner, fertilizer billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, in 2015 for a rumoured £360 million, has yet to be eclipsed in terms of head-turning aesthetics, the likes of 74m Sherpa, built by Dutch yard Feadship (renowned for only building pure custom motor yachts) is a fantastic example of distinctive styling within yachting. Her explorer-like exterior profile is accentuated by an unfaired hull which leaves the plate work and welding exposed. The launch of 107m sailing yacht Black Pearl, built by Dutch shipyard Oceanco, is another significant debut. First unveiled to the world in September 2016, she underwent extensive sea trials, which saw her reach an impressive top speed of 30 knots under sail, before her eventual delivery in March 2018 saw the tri-deck beauty officially join the ranks of the world’s largest superyachts. The longest yacht ever built remains the 180m Azzam, delivered by German shipyard Lürssen Yachts in 2013 for an estimated £400 million. It stole the title from Roman Abramovich’s superyacht Eclipse by 17 metres. Size, however, is not everything. The primary focus for an increasing number of yacht owners is performance and a closeness to the water. “The connection to the sea is a constant request from yacht owners,” says designer Cor D. Rover. “So, too, is the increased amount of glass used on board, from floor-toceiling windows to large expanses of glazing running along the side of the vessel.” In architectural terms, one of the biggest stories of recent years has been increased efforts to improve hull efficiency – aiding performance and bringing down fuel consumption. In 2017, Dutch shipyard Heesen Yachts launched Home, the world’s first superyacht to feature a Fast Displacement Hull Form equipped with hybrid propulsion – this hull form ensures a boat sails efficiently over its entire speed range, not just at top speed. Home is not only ultra-efficient and low fuel-burning, but also one of the quietest yachts on the oceans, offering the ultimate luxury: silent cruising.
FROM TOP NGONI, 58M, ROYAL HUISMAN; SHERPA, 74M, FEADSHIP © TOM-VAN-OOSSANEN; SAILING YACHT A, 143M, NOBISKRUG
In terms of trends, eco yachting is on the up, with people increasingly mindful of plastic pollution. The shocking statistic that there is now a 1:2 ratio of microplastic particles to plankton in our oceans is driving change and has seen brokerages like Fraser partner with non-profit organisations such as Plastic Oceans in an attempt to leverage knowledge and share resources. Wellness voyaging is also gaining popularity. An increasing number of yachts now feature on-board spas, with crew members doubling up as fitness instructors, dieticians, yoga instructors and beauticians. Explorer vessel Legend, a 77.4m icebreaker with a difference, boasts a Balinese spa complete with rain showers, sauna, Jacuzzi with
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An increasing number of yachts now feature on-board spas, with crew doubling up as fitness instructors, dieticians & yoga instructors waterfall, and on-board Thai and Swedish masseurs. A second 26-person Jacuzzi also features on the C-deck, as well as two helipads. Legend is available to charter through Campers & Nicholson for €409,000 per week in high season, and, in a world first, from January 2019, guests are also able to book individual cabins for a one-week Antarctic expedition, rather than charter the whole yacht. In partnership with specialist company EYOS Expeditions, for €25,000 per person per week, guests have the rare opportunity to visit one of the most remote and wildlife-rich areas on Earth. Extreme destinations, such as the Antarctic or Greenland, are proving increasingly attractive. From Asian and Indian Pacific destinations over the winter, to the Arctic, Palau and Burma, a growing demand for exploration is high on both owners’ and charterers’ agendas. Owners are becoming more demanding with their interior design requests, too. From
gold salmon skin to rich, luxurious Macassar ebony to myriad shades of marble, it’s possible to commission interiors that are completely bespoke. Appreciated for his beach-type approach to yachting and prepared to “do anything to make sure guests can spend as much time outside as possible”, Cor D. Rover is a master of both the big and the small. Superyacht Seasense, launched by Benetti in 2017 and designed by Rover, features a vast pool 10 metres in length – the largest on any yacht. Seasense’s lower-deck beach club shows exactly why the demand for beach clubs has risen so significantly in recent years. The sheer breadth of the pool area is emphasised by teak decking that runs athwartships, complemented by teak louvres along the sides of the aft deck that provide shade. With interiors styled by LA-based firm Area,
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FROM TOP LEFT AZZAM, 180M, LÜRSSEN YACHTS; INSIDE AND OUTSIDE CLOUD 9, 74M, CRN
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Seasense features white wood for all the bases, trims, doors and door frames, complemented by lapis lazuli velvets, leather furniture and silky, mottled blue carpets. Elements and Cloud 9, both launched in 2017, also feature show-stopping beach clubs. Cloud 9, with an interior designed by Winch Design, demonstrates another key trend – the desire for a free-flowing layout that allows a relaxed indoor-outdoor living environment. Exceptional open-air areas, such as the private deck forward of the owner’s suite and the large beach club with extended platform at sea level, were conceived to offer maximum scope for both al fresco enjoyment and entertaining, as specified by the experienced owner. When it comes to superyacht design, it seems nothing is now impossible.
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1 FUN A IR Climbing walls have become the latest must-have yacht toy, and they don’t come any bigger than FunAir, which can extend to 12 metres. Designed to accommodate various skill levels, it is height-adjustable, with multiple climbing tracks and an exclusive handhold design. It is often paired with the Hanger extreme yacht slide to make a circuit of non-stop fun. ₏15,800, funair.com
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SEA BOB F 5 S The Seabob F5 S water sled is the essential highperformance craft. Produced in a modern, low-weight construction with a high-powered electric drive, it offers peak performance paired with eco-consciousness. High quality carbon components, special ceramic coatings and seawater-resistant stainless steel result in a weight of just 35kg, which means it can be lifted out of the water by a single person without any extra equipment. Pitched as the world’s fastest water sled, it boasts an impressive propulsive force of 680 newtons, but its easy handling makes it suitable for sportsmen and cruisers alike, giving them the ability to descend to 40 metres. €10,780, seabob.com
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U - B OAT WO R X For those seeking deeper underwater exploration, U-Boat Worx is a specialist manufacturer of high-tech submarines. The Super Yacht Sub 3 is the most compact and lightweight submersible in the world and is the only one especially designed for superyachts. Its key feature is its upgradable depth rating. Customers can begin with a submersible with a depth rating of 100m, and upgrade to 200m or 300m. The awardwinning U-Boat Works C-Explorer 3 features the first integrated dive-by-wire control and monitoring system, meaning complete autonomy for the pilot. €1.25 million, uboatworx.com
N AU TI B U OY Costing around €8,790 for the largest model, NautiBuoy platforms can be streamed off the back of a yacht or anchored off the beach and are ideal for yoga. Available with either a teak or diamond finish, the platform is extremely rigid once inflated due to its drop stitch-core, and is resistant to wear and tear. €8,790, nautibuoymarine.com
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ACTION T H E WATC H B R A N D S C O M M I T T E D TO O C E A N C O N S E R VAT I O N THROUGH THEIR U N D E R WAT E R T I M E P I E C E S
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SUPEROCEAN II 44, A Q U AT I M E R CHRONOGRAPH ‘ G A L A PAG O S I S L A N D S ’ EDITION
£3,250, Breitling
Last year, Breitling restructured its product offering into watches for ‘air’, ‘land’ and ‘sea’. This year, the brand demonstrates its commitment to the latter by partnering with Ocean Conservancy, an organisation dedicated to the global fight for healthy oceans and clean beaches. The brand will be donating part of the proceeds from sales of a limited-edition SuperOcean Héritage watch to the foundation. breitling.com
£8,650, IWC
Around 40 per cent of the wildlife found in the Galapagos Islands is unique to the archipelago. Yet human settlement, the introduction of foreign species and overfishing are posing a serious threat to the fragile ecosystem. IWC’s collaboration with the Charles Darwin Foundation began in 2009, with the watchmaker contributing an annual sum to the charity’s research station on the archipelago. The Aquatimer Chronograph ‘Galapagos Islands’ Edition features a rubber-coated stainlesssteel case and a back engraved with an image of the Galapagos marine iguana. iwc.com
MARINE ALARME MUSICALE 5547 £21,500, Breguet
At Baselworld 2018, Breguet announced a partnership with Race for Water, a foundation dedicated to solutions that transform plastic waste into energy resources. Presently, Race for Water is committed to reducing small islands’ dependency on fossil fuels by promoting sun, water and wind energy. Part of Breguet’s Marine family, the Marine Alarm 5547 is equipped with a striking alarm function and a second time zone. breguet.com
WAT E R M A N £4,395, Bremont
To combat the rubbish accumulating in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’, the largest of five global ocean garbage patches, Bremont has teamed up with free-diving, big-wave-surfing environmentalist Mark Healey and Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii to launch the Waterman dive watch. The timepiece’s open sapphire-backed 500m water-resistant case, helium release valve, anti-shock vibration mount and scratch-resistant sapphire uni-directional bezel have all been tested to the extreme by Healey. The timepiece is limited to just 300 pieces with a percentage of proceeds going to the grassroots, Hawaii-based local non-profit organisation. bremont.com
F I F T Y FAT H O M S G R A N D E D AT E £12,810, Blancpain
A lead sponsor of the World Ocean Summit since 2012, Blancpain’s historical connection with diving goes back to 1953, when it developed the first modern diving watch: the Fifty Fathoms. Today, Blancpain donates proceeds from its Ocean Commitment Bathyscaphe Chronograph to organisations including Pristine Seas Expeditions and Laurent Ballesta’s Project Gombessa. This year, for the first time, Blancpain has brought its signature instant-change large date complication to the Fifty Fathoms, displayed in two windows located at 6 o’clock. blancpain.com
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RACE IS ON I T ’ S T H E L O N G E S T A N D O N E O F T H E T O U G H E S T E V E N T S I N P R O F E S S I O N A L S P O R T, T H E U LT I M AT E T E S T I N P S YC H O L O G I C A L S T R E N G T H A N D T E A M S P I R I T, S O J U S T W H A T D O E S I T T A K E T O C O M P E T E I N T H E V O LV O O C E A N R A C E ? H U G H F R A N C I S A N D E R S O N TA K E S TO WAT E R TO F I N D O U T
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t’s a blustery June morning as I make my way down to the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) village in Cardiff, just days before the start of the penultimate leg of the 11-stage high-performance speed sailing race. Rain clouds blot out the sun. In the distance, I spot the 11 VOR 65 monohull racing yachts moored next to one another, racehorses at the starting gates. ‘Do they really race around the world for eight months in those?’ I think, baffled by the enormity of such a challenge. Since 1973, the VOR (formerly the Whitbread Round the World Race) has been the pinnacle of circumnavigational adventure sailing. Widely considered one of the toughest races on the planet, one that tests the resolve of its participants across 45,000 nautical miles, the VOR holds a hallowed spot for all professional sailors. For most, competing is the greatest honour, and forms one the ‘Big Three’ sailing events alongside the America’s Cup and the Olympics. Even with modern technology and safety equipment, competing in the VOR remains extremely dangerous. In March this year, British sailor John Fisher was swept overboard in 35-knot winds, approximately 1,400 miles west of Cape Horn. He was lost at sea; it was his first VOR. Flora Stewart and Jess Lavery, a pair British Sailing Team members in the International 470 dinghy class, are in Cardiff with Musto, sponsor of the British Sailing Team. They have offered me a place on the Volvo Ocean Race Guest Speed Experience – a programme of events designed to introduce people like myself to high-performance sailing during VOR stopovers.
For Lavery, the VOR has always been part of her life. “My dad sailed the three cold legs [Punta del Este to Perth, Perth to Auckland, Auckland to Punta del Este]as part of the Creighton’s Naturally team in 1989,” she says. “I remember him telling me about surfing an 84ft boat down waves ‘the size of the Cotswolds’ and about the relentlessness of the sailing, the teamwork and the exhaustion. I’ve been fascinated ever since.” For Stewart, who started dinghy sailing at the age of 12 on the Solway Coast in Cumbria, the VOR has long held an immense fascination. “The Volvo Ocean Race is an amazing race and I love the extreme element. To be part of the race in any way is a great honour.” The Guest Speed Experience utilises state-of-theart carbon-fibre M32 racing catamarans. They are half the size of the 65ft cats used in the race proper, but, weighing in at just over 500kg, the 32ft speed machines are capable of lightning-quick acceleration, with the speedo topping out around 27 knots. As we take to the water, the physical fitness required for sailing quickly becomes apparent. You are in constant motion, perpetually moving from port to starboard, grinding jibs, avoiding the pendulum-like boom as it swings towards your head and reading the wind and water for the fastest sections to sail through. After 40 minutes, I can already feel the tension building in my shoulders. My face stings with sea salt. Yet Lavery explains that this, and her own class of dinghy sailing, is nothing compared to competing in the VOR.
“When you’re at sea for so long, you get so exhausted that you don’t care about anything other than sleeping”
PREVIOUS PAGE VESTAS 11TH HOUR RACING © JAMES BLAKE ABOVE ABBY EHLER OF TEAM BRUNEL © RICH EDWARDS TOP RIGHT TEAM BRUNEL © SAM GREENFIELD BOTTOM RIGHT TEAM BRUNEL © YANN RIOU; ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF MUSTO
“One of the big differences is that the International 470 dinghy races are a lot shorter,” she says. “Our events normally last a week and we will normally do two or three races a day that are about 50 minutes long. The VOR sailors race non-stop for weeks on end.” Back on dry land, Musto has granted us access to the Vestas 11th Hour Racing team boat. Each of the 11 identical 65ft yachts takes seven months and over 35,000 man-hours to manufacture, and costs over €1 million. Although these boats are designed for the rigours of ocean racing, I can’t help but tread lightly around the largely carbon-fibre hull. Inside, a minuscule stove takes centre stage, six mesh hammocks adorn both port and starboard sides of the hull and, near the bow, a carbon-fibre bucket with a vacuum hose attached to the bottom forms
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the only toilet onboard for the seven crew members (VOR crews range between seven and nine sailors, depending on their male-female make-up). “It’s basic and designed purely as a racing yacht,” says Stacey Jackson, a Vesta team member. “When you’re at sea for so long, you get so exhausted that you don’t care about anything other than sleeping. The longest leg for us, from Lisbon to Cape Town [7,000 nautical miles], took 19 days. That’s 19 days without showering. While we get used to it, the smell in here gets really bad.” This is something else about VOR that you simply can’t grasp from shore: although the images from the Onboard Reporters – assigned to each boat to document the entirety of the race – demonstrate the magnitude of VOR to an extent, it’s only by clambering into the hull and perching on a carbon-fibre bench that you realise the daily torment of life inside a racing yacht. It’s both terrifying and fascinating. Remember, also, that this is not merely a circumnavigational voyage; each team is racing to win. Dongfeng Race Team, the eventual winners of this year’s VOR, completed the entire race in 126 days, 1 minute and 46 seconds. Team Mapfre, in second place, was just 19 hours behind in overall time. That’s 19 hours over 126 days of racing – a minuscule margin. As I leave Cardiff, I’m left pondering on one final thought: why spend eight months living on top of eight other people in a small boat in dangerous seas? I can, however, already anticipate the answer of any crew member I might ask – “why on earth not?”
COME HELL OR HIGH WAT E R A S B R I TA I N ’ S M O S T P R O M I N E N T R O U N D -T H E - W O R L D YA C H T S M A N , A L E X T H O M S O N HAS SPENT HIS LIFE FIGHTING THE SEAS – AFTER HIS HEROIC PERFORMANCE I N T H E 2 0 1 6 / 1 7 V E N D É E G LO B E , H E S E T S C O U R S E TO WA R D S V I C TO R Y I N 2 0 2 0
Words: David Taylor
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t doesn’t compute in my brain to give up,” says Alex Thomson, solo non-stop round-the-world yachtsman. Thomson has probably been more tempted than most of us to do just that. Perhaps the most critical point came in the 2016/17 edition of yachting’s most prestigious race, the Vendée Globe. Held every four years, the Vendée Globe is the ultimate test of ocean sailing, with only around 50 per cent of competitors finishing the three-month race through mountainous waves, treacherous temperatures, and pitch-black nights. Some haven’t come back at all. Thomson’s boat, the Hugo Boss, was in good shape as the group of 29 skippers set out on their three-month odyssey. There was a very real chance that Thomson would finish as Britain’s first ever Vendée Globe winner. However, just 11 days after setting sail, the boat collided with an unidentified object in the water, breaking the starboard foil, an integral part of any racing yacht. To many others, this would have signalled the end of the race. However, despite sailing for two and a half months with the broken foil, Thomson not only finished second, but also with the second fastest time on record – 74 days, 19 hours, 35 minutes and 15 seconds. He came in only 16 hours behind the winning boat. Thomson’s father was a search and rescue helicopter pilot, and as a boy he hoped to follow the same career. But a visit to the local hospital in Gosport when he was 17 revealed that his eyesight was so poor that he wouldn’t be accepted
“Fewer than 100 people have sailed solo non-stop around the world, compared with nearly 4,000 people who have gone up Mount Everest” into the navy. “My grand plan was gone,” he recalls. However, the sea still beckoned. “Sailing was my hobby, and I managed to turn it into a job. When I did my first offshore race in 1995, I found my vocation. One of the things that is unique about offshore sailing is the humbling moment when you can’t see land, and you realise how small we are. That’s an experience I still love today.” Even for an experienced sailor, says Thomson, sailing single-handed non-stop around the world is an intimidating prospect. “I’d identified that was the direction I wanted to go after I won the Clipper Round the World Race in 1998/99, and I distinctly remember my first Vendée Globe in 2004: the daunting feeling leaving the start, when all the spectator boats turn around. Fewer than 100 people have sailed solo non-stop around the world, compared with nearly 4,000 people who have gone up Mount Everest, so that gives you an idea of the scale of the difficulty.” Mental strength, he explains, is one of the keys to his success. Of the potentially catastrophic damage to his starboard foil in the 2016 Vendée Globe, he simply says: “Stuff happens, and you have to be able to deal with it.” He works with prominent sports psychologist Ken Way. “I’ve learned that everything is relative to goals,” he says. “If your goal is to win and you don’t think you can, you’re not going to be motivated. After that foil broke, I was struggling to see where I could even finish, so I reduced my goals to simple tasks like changing a sail, or eating a bag of horrible food. As human beings, once we’ve achieved a goal, even if it isn’t particularly challenging – although I can tell you, eating a bag of food can be challenging at times – we feel better. If we feel better, we’re going to perform better.”
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“Success doesn’t lead to happiness, but happiness leads to success”
Way had asked him: “If you win the Vendée Globe, do you consider that success, and if you’re successful, would that make you happy?” – and then proceeded to explain that success doesn’t lead to happiness, but happiness leads to success. Thomson took the lesson on board – both figuratively and literally, in this instance. “If I’m in the middle of the ocean and something terrible happens, how am I going to be happy? Ken told me – and it sounds very corny – to look happy. Smile. There’s plenty of scientific evidence that shows that when we physically look happy, it rubs off mentally. I spent the whole of the last race, even when I was completely pissed off, with a massive smile on my face. I do sometimes feel like a bit of a lab rat for Ken’s experiments but it genuinely does work.” Smiling through adversity, however, isn’t always quite enough. “My mood is completely governed by performance,” says Thomson. “When I’m not performing to my expectations, I work harder, so I forgo more sleep, I forgo food. I don’t care – I just want to get the miles back. When I’m high, doing well and feeling great, I can become complacent. It’s all about levelling emotion, staying in a position to be able to make rational, competitive decisions.” His biggest fear, he says, is underperforming, though others might also find the loneliness overwhelming. Thomson has evolved a strategy for spending months alone in his own company. “What I’ve done over time is separate the feelings of loneliness and isolation,” he explains. “I have a lovely family, a great team, and fantastic friends, so no matter where I am I shouldn’t feel lonely – but I could feel isolated. Separating those two emotions makes it easier to deal with. Is three months a long time? If we think about what we’ve done in the past three months, we can probably only remember 10 per cent of it, and it’s gone in a flash. So to me, three months isn’t a long time. I can deal with the isolation.” Isolation aside, has he ever been truly frightened? “I’ve had a couple of hairy moments. I was plucked from a life raft by Mike Golding [another successful British yachtsman] half way between Antarctica and Africa in 2006. Two and a half years ago I capsized 100 miles off the coast of Finisterre and I ended up being airlifted off.” On a sailing boat, he says, when problems start, the situation can escalate very quickly. “You can have one tiny thing go wrong, then that leads to an avalanche of small things that ultimately leads to a catastrophic event. In some ways, I could be described as a risk manager. I manage enormous amounts of risk on a minute-by-minute basis out there. It’s about being in a position to recognise when these things are happening, and being able to divert or stop them.” Solo yachting, he says, is a “relentless” experience. “I have to be a meteorologist, a navigator, and a medic. There are incredible stories, like the guy who bit his tongue off during a race and had to sew it back on. Hopefully that’ll never happen to me.” When danger threatens, there is a strong sense of camaraderie in the yachting community. “We’re all mentally very strong, big characters, all opinionated, we all like the sound of our own voices,” laughs Thomson. “We’re the fiercest competitors you’ll find in sport, but on the other hand, we’re also each other’s rescue service. I know
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that any of those skippers will risk or give up their lives to try and save any of the others. It’s sportsmanship, it’s respect, and it is the law of the sea. If you’re in a position to help somebody at sea and someone needs help, you are obliged. To us, that’s just normal.” There is also the little matter of having the skill to maintain a boat – which is a highly sophisticated piece of kit. “When most people think of sailing they think it’s old-fashioned, a bit old-tech, but I love bringing people from Formula One and the aerospace industry to see the boat, because they are gobsmacked by the level of technology we use. The maximum hull thickness of my current boat is just 2.6mm. From a maintenance point of view, I have to know the boat and be able to communicate with my team when something goes wrong.” As the yacht’s name suggests, there is a long-standing relationship between Thomson and Hugo Boss, which has supported him since before his first Vendée Globe in 2004. “As technology and the ability to communicate improves, what the sport does better and better is inspire people, and Hugo Boss is an aspirational brand,” says Thomson. Boss’s support isn’t confined to racing – Thomson also performs some extraordinary stunts in the yacht. For Skywalk, he chased the boat upwind on a kiteboard, soaring 280ft into the air before detaching from the boat and bringing the board back down to the water – all while immaculately kitted out in a Boss suit. “The stunts are my ideas,” he says. “Hugo Boss must think I’m mad. To be given the all clear to go and do it is a massive responsibility. I feel that responsibility, and the enormous amount of trust that Hugo Boss puts in us to go and deliver.The thing I really like is that through the stunts, we are able to reach nonsailors. The whole heart of our sport is about human endeavour, about man or woman versus the elements. It’s not about technical sailing, and because of that we don’t just reach sailors.” Technical or not, this is surely sailing at the highest level and preparation, says Thomson, is everything. “The race is finished before we start. It’s all to do with the people that you work with, how you manage it, your structure, and ultimately the decisions that we make together as a group. We spend a lot of energy trying to create an environment where we’re able to make the right decisions. In some ways, the race is a holiday compared to what we go through in the build-up.” When he’s on land, he says, he thinks about a million different things. “When I race, I only think about one.” That level of preparation will stand him in good stead for the Vendée Globe 2020/21 – along with his fiercely competitive spirit. “I’m a competitive person,” Thomson admits. “When I play squash or tennis I leave with cuts and bruises. To be in a race for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 12 weeks is the right kind of race for me. And I get millions of euros to build what I consider the best toy in the world. It’s completely custom-made around my height, my weight, my philosophy. It’s such a privilege.” Within an hour of finishing the 2016 Vendée Globe, he told press that he would be competing again in 2020. At the official closing ceremony, he had one question for the predominantly French audience: “Are you ready to see a Brit win the race?” alexthomsonracing.com; hugoboss.com
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W A T E R Words Richard Brown
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R
omanticise the jet-set era of the gilded 1950s and invariably certain images spring to mind: Italian industrialists and Hollywood A-listers hobnobbing it from the Côte d’Azur to Amalfi via Saint-Tropez, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Portofino. Men such as Richard Burton, Peter Sellers and Gianni Agnelli. Women like Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren and Anita Ekberg. You might imagine them driving down the winding roads of the French Riviera in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider or a Pininfarina-designed Ferrari 250 GT cabriolet. He’ll be dressed in a casually cut, wide-lapelled linen suit or a Cuban-collared shirt open to the navel; she’ll be smouldering in an off-the-shoulder little black dress or a billowing wasp-waist skirt. Picture these pleasure-seeking aristocrats cutting through the azure waters of the Mediterranean, however, and your mind’s eye will only ever conjure up one type of boat: a wooden-hulled Riva yacht – so succinctly and emphatically does that polishedmahogany pocket cruiser embody the halcyon heyday of la dolce vita. Riva’s history stretches back to 1842, when a young craftsman by the name of Pietro Riva began repairing boats damaged by a storm on Lake Iseo, Sarnico. The boatbuilder, now owned by the Ferretti Group, has evolved from wood to fibreglass to produce triple-decked superyachts, but its image remains indelibly linked to one boat above all others: the majestic Aquarama. “The elegant design of the Aquarama, the boat my father designed, made it an instant classic,” says Lia Riva, great-great-granddaughter of Pietro Riva, who helms Monaco Boat Service, the exclusive Riva dealer to the principality and to France as a whole. “It became a symbol of glamour. So many icons of that golden era of the 1950s and 60s owned one: Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Ingrid Bergman – the list goes on and on.” Unlike his father Serafino Riva, who built boats for speed – a Riva achieved an impressive 13 knots in 1912 and in 1934 set a world speed record with a 1,500cc BPM engine – Carlo Riva was the first family member to design boats purely for pleasure. Inspired by the products of the American runabout yacht-builder Chris-Craft, for which he had acted as an agent, Carlo Riva’s early leisure
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP INSIDE THE RIVA TUNNEL, 1962; THE AQUARIVA SUPER, LAUNCHED IN 2001 AS THE MODERN TAKE ON THE AQUARAMA; CARLO RIVA; CLAUDIA SCHIFFER AND CARLO RIVA IN MONACO, 1986; CARLO RIVA AND DAUGHTER LIA RIVA
cruisers included the Florida, the Sebino and the Ariston. He described the latter as “strong and pure, like a thoroughbred horse.” Following these dainty water vessels, the Aquarama debuted at the third International Nautical Fair in Milan in November 1962, its hull based on the Tritone, the company’s first twin-engine boat from the decade before. “My father always said his boats were ‘designed with love’,” says Ms Riva. “He was the pioneer who established Riva’s legendary design and reputation for innovation. With the Aquarama, especially, he set the benchmark for all the other boats that came after.” The Aquarama, with its sweeping wrap-around windshield, took its name from the widescreen Cinerama movie format being popularised at the time. Sheathed in varnished mahogany and capable
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“My father always said his boats were ‘designed with love’”
of speeds of 45 or 50 knots, depending on which Cadillac or Chrysler engine was providing the power, the boat was both dazzlingly beautiful and staggeringly quick. It became known as the ‘Ferrari of the boat world’. Years later, it would prompt Alberto Galassi, CEO of Ferretti, to claim that “the yachting world can be divided into two eras: before and after Carlo Riva”. Today, there’s more to Riva than mid-century runabouts. Carlo Riva relinquished control of the company in 1969 when he sold the firm to American fibreglass specialist Whittaker, though he remained chairman and general manager until 1971 (at which point his brother-in-law, Gino Gervasoni, stepped in to steer the company until 1991). Bought by Vickers, one-time owner of Rolls-Royce, in 1988, Riva Yachts was subsequently acquired in 2000 by Ferretti, Italy’s largest boatbuilding group, joining a portfolio that includes Ferretti Yachts, Pershing, Itama, CRN, Custom Line, Apreamare and Mochi Craft. In 2004, Riva opened a 60,000 sqm shipyard in La Spezia, Liguria. Between this state-of-theart plant and the company’s original boatyard on Lake Iseo, Riva’s current product line comprises 15 models that range from the eight-metre Iseo to the 50-metre MT. And yet, while Monaco’s Historic Grand Prix in May saw the launch of the
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company’s new flagship fibreglass flybridge – the 33.5-metre 110’ Dolcevita – it is Riva’s smaller, shinier wooden watercraft that remain its most emotive models. A fact that informed the 2001 launch of the Aquariva Super – “the modern take on the Aquarama,” says Lia. Arriving a year after the company was bought by Ferretti, the 10-metre model’s large mahogany foredeck, inlaid with maple strips for a two-tone effect, harks back to the brand’s elegant vessels from the 50s and 60s. A total of 20 coats of varnish give each deck a glass-like aesthetic, while a pair of 370 HP Yanmar engines provide a top speed of 41.5 knots. The hull may now be comprised of Kevlar composites rather than wood, but the sun pad at the stern of the ship is an authentic throwback to the decks on which Bardot, Ekberg and Loren once lounged. Following in her late father’s footsteps, Lia Riva’s contribution to the family business is to repair, charter and sell new and pre-owned Riva yachts through the Monaco Boat Service. Located at Port Pierre Canto, just a few steps from the Grimaldi Palace, the company is part-housed in the Riva Tunnel – a passage created in 1959 after two years of burrowing through rock beneath the palace. The tunnel is home to some of Riva’s most beautiful and historically significant boats, and it is from here that the business has expanded.
“In the last decade, we have added to our base in Monaco by opening offices in Cannes and SaintTropez,” says Lia. “This has been an important reconnection with our past. We famously had bases in these locations in the 1960s. We have also changed our business model to suit changing tastes and requirements. We now offer engine maintenance, repairs and technical assistance. We work closely with luxury hotels and with large events like the Cannes Film Festival.” For several years, Lia, through Monaco Boat Service, has championed a variety of artistic projects in the principality and across the French Riviera. “Contemporary art for me is a personal passion,” she says. “We support and partner art projects whenever we can. For example, we work with the Le Nouveau Musee National de Monaco, as well as the Art Monte-Carlo and Le Festival Printemps des Arts. Each is a joy to be a part of and together form the highlights of Monaco’s cultural calendar.” Another social highlight is the biennial Riva Trophy, the world’s most prestigious rendezvous for Riva owners. The two-day event takes entrants from Monaco to Saint-Tropez, via a series of races and sunset parties. “There is a special bond created between participants over the event,” says Riva. “We become a tribe, a family. The Trophy is a fitting tribute to my father, someone who placed such a high value on family, friendship and adventure.” As for the timeless attraction of the boats her father designed? “It’s difficult to explain,” she says. “But as soon as you see one of our vintage yachts, the enduring appeal explains itself.”
ABOVE GUNTER SACHS AND FRIENDS ON BOARD AN AQUARAMA RIGHT CARLO AND LIA WITH ALBERT II, PRINCE OF MONACO
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S I N C E I T S S E PA R AT I O N F R O M S E R B I A I N 2 0 1 6 , F O R E I G N D I R E C T I N V E S T M E N T H A S P O U R E D I N T O P O C K E T - S I Z E D M O N T E N E G R O , T U R N I N G T H I S F O R M E R Y U G O S L A V I A N , E X - C O M M U N I S T E N C L AV E I N T O L U X U R Y ’ S L A T E S T F R O N T I E R . B U T A S I T R U S H E S T O C R E A T E R E S O R T S T H A T W I L L R I VA L T H E P L AY G R O U N D S O F T H E M E D I T E R R A N E A N , I S M O N T E N E G R O S E L L I N G I T S S O U L T O T H E D E V I L ?
Words: Richard Brown
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could be in Monaco. Or Porto Cervo. Or Puerto Banus. Which means Porto Montenegro has achieved exactly what it set out to achieve. Below our bedroom balcony, rows of sharpnosed motorboats are sandwiched into a glistening marina like silvery sardines packed into a tin. There are palm trees, people wearing Ralph Lauren polo shirts, and one, two, three Riva yachts – or at least they look like Rivas, it’s difficult to tell from up here. It’s a very pretty picture. And a far cry from the Montenegro that greets you should you arrive in the country by car, as we had done, from neighbouring Croatia. More on that later. On a coffee table inside our suite is a luxury lifestyle magazine supported by advertising from Hublot, Bang & Olufsen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. On the page after the editor’s letter there is an excerpt from a speech made by Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanovi a couple of months previously. “It is with special devotion and respect that we remember the heroes from our past who devoted and sacrificed their lives in order to persevere the luminance of Montenegrin freedom,” it says. “By celebrating Montenegro, its freedom and autonomy, never forget that the independence must be preserved… The independence of Montenegro is our greatest obligation.” It is not the sort of welcome note you expect from a luxury lifestyle magazine. Montenegro is not the sort of country in which you expect to find a marina full of superyachts. Some context: 20 years ago, Montenegro was emerging from a conflict with Croatia, a war it had waged with Serbia, a country with whom Montenegro had announced a state union following the 1992 breakup of Yugoslavia. Following the defeat, Montenegro, under Prime Minister Đukanovi (even then), began politically decentralising itself from its ally. By the time Serbia’s Slobodan Miloševi was overthrown in 2000, Montenegro was effectively a self-governing state, something that became official following a referendum in May 2006. A lot has happened since then. Montenegro struggled with its transition from a communist state to a free-market economy. It remains largely state-controlled. Its government has been described as a kleptocracy; Đukanovi accused of corruption, nepotism, cigarette smuggling, Mafia involvement and money laundering. His people have faced economic misery, rising land prices, poorly executed town planning strategies, and have taken to the streets in protest against a politician that has been in power – either as Prime Minister or President – for 26 years, longer than any other European leader. He was re-elected as President in May 2018.
By 2020, Montenegro has set a goal of joining the EU – an unlikely ambition given the accusations of organised crime and corruption that beset the country’s leaders. Last year, the country did, however, become a member of Nato. It was a decision that divided the nation. Around 29 per cent of Montenegro’s population is made up of Serbs, whose opposition to Nato can be traced to the alliance’s intervention in the Serbia-Kosovo war. Indeed, many Montenegrin Serbs still lament Montenegro’s independence. Only 55.5 per cent of the population voted to leave Serbia in the 2006 referendum. It is this Montenegro, a conflicted country, a country that was bombed by Nato as recently as 1999, a country that has been denied decades of foreign investment, that runs on potholed infrastructure, that had, until last year, lacked a commercial airport, that rejects multinational companies – including, in 2014, McDonald’s – that hits you, a wall of cinderblock towers to the face, as you enter the state from far more charming Croatia.
A decade ago, Montenegro was the world’s second-fastest growing tourism market, trailing only China The communist years were not kind to Montenegro’s ancient cities. Historic centres are now overshadowed by looming grey tower blocks that have already fallen into disrepair. More recently, Montenegro has been at the mercy of large-scale foreign investment, mostly from Russia, that has deformed the country even further. Planning regulation does exist, we were told, but evidently it is not being enforced. Ugly, ill-conceived steel and glass architecture has replaced ugly, ill-conceived communist concrete along much of the coast. Budva is the worst afflicted city. Recently, however, Montenegro has undergone a rebrand. For the past decade-and-a-half, the Montenegrin government has been incentivising tourism. It has sold formerly state-owned land to large-scale developers. It has sought to turn naval bases into sparkling marinas. It has lowered VAT on lodging. By 2008, Montenegro was the world’s second-fastest growing tourism market, trailing only China. Tourism now accounts for around 20 per cent of GDP. Everywhere you go, you get the sense that Montenegro is a country up for sale. So who exactly is buying? And why?
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PORTO MONTENEGRO
L U Š T I C A B AY
P O R TO N OV I
DEVELOPMENT COST:
DEVELOPMENT COST:
DEVELOPMENT COST:
Approx. €200 million
Around €1.1 billon
Approx. €650 million
OWNERS: The InvestmentCorporation of
OWNERS: Cairo-based Orascom
OWNERS: Azmont Investments
Dubai, under the direct control of Sheikh
Development Holding AG (90 per cent)
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime
and the Government of Montenegro
Minister of United Arab Emirates
(10 per cent)
Nowhere embodies the transformation through which Montenegro is going better han Porto Montenegro. In 2006, this former-navy base was purchased at a public auction by Canadian entrepreneur Peter Munk. The founder of Barrick Gold of Toronto – the world’s largest listed goldmining company – Munk had big plans for these derelict docklands. Joined by some seriously heavyweight investors, including a couple of Rothschilds, LVMH supremo Bernard Arnault, and Russia’s Oleg Deripaska, president of the planet’s second largest aluminium company, Munk set out to create a marina that would act as a magnet for the world’s largest privately-owned mega-vessels. He succeeded. The development now boasts the world’s first Platinum-rated marina, comprising 450 berths for yachts from 12-250m in length, but with capacity to accommodate 850. There is also an entire village consisting of seven independent luxury residency complexes and a yacht club.
In order to convey the scale of Luštica Bay, the project’s marketing team whizz members of the press across the sprawling site in a fleet of 4x4s. At 690-hectares, the development is the size of around 850 football pitches. It stretches from two under-construction marinas at the shoreline of the Trašte Bay, to an 18-hole golf course (the country’s first), which climbs from the bay to the top of surrounding mountains. With the larger of the two marinas only capable of accommodating boats of up to 35 metres, Luštica Bay is a different development from Porto Montenegro. Luštica is marketed as an opportunity to invest in a more understated, environmentallyfriendly holiday-home. Luštica Bay will comprise 1,000 apartments, town houses and villas. There will also be seven hotels, the first of which will be the second European The Chedi (currently the brand’s only other European outpost operates in Andermatt, Switzerland).
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Built on land reclaimed from the sea 100 years ago by the Montenegrin navy, Portonovi is a €650 million development by Azmont Investment – a Montenegro-based company owned by Azerbaijan Global Investments (AGI), a consortium of three leading Azerbaijani investment holding companies. The super-premium development will see 24 hectares of land lining Boka Bay transformed into a mixeduse luxury resort and mega-yacht marina. Like Luštica Bay, Portnovi occupies a position between mountain and sea. Minuscule in comparison to Luštica, the development will nonetheless incorporate a 250-berth deepwater marina intended to attract the world’s largest superyachts, as well as 290 luxury homes designed to echo the style vernacular of neighbouring Herceg Novi, Kotor, Perast and Dubrovnik. Perhaps the biggest news here is that Portonovi will include Europe’s first One&Only hotel. With sales of residences having been launched in the Middle East, and with Montenegro offering an open visa policy for UAE citizens, expect Portonovi to become the country’s most exclusive playground.
E X P E R I E N C E
CHARTER • SALES • PURCHASE • BUILD Experts in all things yachting, we are here to meet, discuss and assist you with your yachting interests, whatever the size or type, be it for charter, sales, purchase or build. Two minutes or two hours, we want to meet you and open up a whole new world of fun and adventure or provide a perspective on your current yachting. Come and see us or, alternatively, tell us a time to come and see you.
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P.106 JENNIFER CHAMANDI On her transition from banker to Bond Street
P.110 HUGO TAYLOR The Made in Chelsea star’s travel essentials
COUTURE CUT
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Dig out the animal print: join this season’s sartorial safari with leopard, zebra or snakeskin motifs (p.100)
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FR OM R UN WAY TO RA IL ,
DI SCOVER THE LAT EST T REN DS SET TO TA KE OV ER OU R
WA R DR OB ES THIS SEASON
Words: Ellen Millard
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Piqué and Houndstooth Wool Blazer, £1,455, Sacai, net-a-porter.com
3 Button Classic Jacket, £1,350, hollandandholland.com
DREAM W E AV E R
Milly Tweed Jacket, £1,080, stellamccartney.com
Escape to the country with tweed, checks and heritage prints
Stanwick Tweed Breeks, £395, purdey.com
Tweed skirt, £875, Giambattista Valli, harrods.com
Angela Blazer, £2,450, Gabriela Hearst, net-a-porter.com
Chesler Coat, £2,350, altuzarra.com
The Karen Jacket, £1,400, Giuliva Heritage Collection, net-a-porter.com Web Stripe Tweed Jacket, £2,650, Gucci, harrods.com
Allie Shoes, £515, tabithasimmons.com
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Altair Gown, £6,160, jennypackham.com
Small Amberley Satchel, £795, mulberry.com
Arctic Satin Dress, £2,370, bottegaveneta.com
All that glitters is not gold – this season it’s silver
S I LV E R LINING Velvet Jumpsuit, £1,365, bottegaveneta.com
Twill Blazer, £748, Diane Von Furstenberg, matchesfashion.com
Faye Oxford Brogues, £179, hobbs.co.uk
Sequinned Top, £345, MM6 Maison Margiela, matchesfashion.com
srMilano Flamingo Boots, £1,100, sergiorossi.com
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Jacquard Trench Coat, £2,450, robertocavalli.com
Rule the urban jungle with statement leopard, tiger and zebra prints Tiger Camouflage Jumper, £545, stellamccartney.com
Leopard Haircalf Mini Skirt, £1,699, Alexander Wang, harrods.com
Welcome Bag, POA, dolcegabbana.com
Leopard Print Jumper, £685, stellamccartney.com
ANIMAL CHARM
Dildi Boots, £975, manoloblahnik.com
Nero Wool Coat, £3,095, bottegaveneta.com Mohair Cardigan, £1,100, Loewe, matchesfashion.com Ruby Mules, £630, Gianvito Rossi, matchesfashion.com
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Leather printed skirt, £1,770, marni.com
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PROMOTION
DESIGNER JEWELS A T W O - D AY C E L E B R AT I O N O F J E W E L L E R Y ON OLD BOND STREET
JOIN THE Jewellery Cut for two days of jewels, live talks, champagne and shopping at the heart of London’s Old Bond Street. Jewellery lovers can browse collections, meet designers, mingle with other jewellery fans and purchase jewels on the day. The Jewellery Cut showroom is a showcase of designer jewellery at a range of prices, from fashion jewels starting from £30 right up to bespoke gold and diamond creations. There will also be a series of masterclasses offering insights into diamonds, jewellery design and trends. Tickets include access to a masterclass, a late-night champagne shopping event and private tours of the showroom with The Jewellery Cut founder Rachael Taylor or style-and-confidence coach Loulou Storey. 17-18 September, 10am-6pm, late night champagne shopping event on 18 September, from 5:30pm-8:30pm, 5 Old Bond Street, W1S, jewellerycut.co.uk
EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR LUXURY LONDON MAGAZINE READERS Register for a free entry ticket at eventbrite.co.uk and bring a copy of this magazine to receive a free glass of champagne
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT OLIVIA & PEARL EARRINGS; UNO DE 50 NECKLACE; NATALIE PERRY NECKLACE; OLIVIA & PEARL RING; GFG JEWELLERY EARRINGS; CLOGAU RING; EDEN DIODATI RING AND CUFF; PHINE BRACELET
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SOLE TRADER
F R O M H I G H F I N A N C E TO H I G H H E E L S : H O W B A N K E R -T U R N E D - S H O E - D E S I G N E R J E N N I F E R C H A M A N D I B U I LT H E R B R A N D
Words: Annabel Harrison
L
orenzo, Vittorio, Rolando – these are the Italian artisans who helped make Jennifer Chamandi’s dreams come true. The men are part of the family-run atelier in Milan that manufactures Chamandi’s stunning footwear and, to celebrate these key figures, the designer has named her stiletto heels, pumps and flats after them, offering the styles in a kaleidoscope of pretty pastels, electric blue and animal print. Lorenzo’s a calzolaio – a cobbler – while his dad, Vittorio, is 74 and still making shoes by hand, and Rolando is a pattern designer. Andrea, Lorenzo’s son, and Roberto, Chamandi’s husband, will join the roll call of names next year. She wants “to honour the men who played a big role in my journey”. Plus, her research suggested that most women’s shoes were named after women, and she “likes being different”.
Names are important to Chamandi. So too are numbers and materials, prints and patents – in both senses of the word. She cares about every aspect of her brand and, unusually, is as good at the financials as she is at the creative side. Immaculately presented on a scorching hot day in London, a Tinkerbell figurine in pale pink from head to ankle (toes clad in leopard-print Vittorio), she looks nothing like the numbers “nerd” she proves to be. Chamandi was an academic child with a dilemma – “I loved mathematics but had a creative side too,” she explains. When she was revising, she’d tell her mother that she needed to wear heels to feel more confident, “and I’d then recite history or whatever we were studying”. Her mother, who fanned the flames of Chamandi’s fascination with shoes, gave her a pair of high heels at 16. “She would buy shoes before anything else,” the designer says.
The light bulb moment: “Anyone can do a strap around the heel… I can do a hole in the heel”
Jennifer Chamandi’s USP - her ‘Eye of the Needle’ heel design - has just received its patent in the UK
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“Shoes are the mathematics of fashion – the sizes, half sizes, comfort, stability. And then the aesthetics. They’re so complex”
Her financial education began at the London School of Economics, which led to a seven-year career at Merrill Lynch. “I immersed myself in numbers. I put all my heart into banking because I always put my heart into whatever I do. I learned so much and met such incredible people,” she says. But at the same time, Chamandi knew what she really wanted to do and was making it happen. She took courses at Central Saint Martin’s art school and summer school at speicalist college Cordwainers while still working in banking. Oh, and she learned Italian – her fourth language, after French, Arabic and English – so she could present to the manufacturer herself. “We bonded, and Lorenzo saw the potential [in my idea]”. Chamandi’s light bulb moment came from talon aiguille, which is French for stiletto and translated literally as ‘needle heel’. “I thought: anyone can do a strap around the heel. It has to be more technical. I can do a hole in the heel,” she says. This ‘Eye of the Needle’ design, which features a gold-plated eye through which Chamandi threads a slim, removable strap, is her brand’s USP, and it’s not a stretch to call it an invention. It required specialist craftsmanship skills to redesign the internal nail of a stiletto heel to bypass the canal while maintaining the shoe’s structural strength. Prototyping took almost a year. The day we meet Chamandi has just received the UK patent for her design. It means her shoes have a technical, well-proportioned construction. “Shoes are the mathematics of fashion”, she declares. “They’re so complex! You’ve got the sizes, half sizes, the comfort, the stability. And that’s apart from the aesthetic side.” Her meticulous, mathematical mind “drove Lorenzo crazy – I needed this line to be parallel to that strap”. The result is unusual, in the world of high heels. Her shoes are genuinely comfortable. Try them for yourself at Chamandi’s pop-up on Old Bond Street
this September. “One customer has 16 pairs. I had to tell her – stop! ‘But they’re the most comfortable’, she said. Not pretty – comfortable,” the designer smiles. She doesn’t need to be told her shoes are pretty. She knows it’s the comfort factor that brings customers back; many of her customers own multiple pairs. She can claim Amal Clooney and Bella Hadid as fans, appealing to both trendsetting career-women and millennial supermodels. Not bad for a brand that is the same age as her two-year-old twin daughters. Chamandi’s dream customer is the Duchess of Sussex. “She’s a breath of fresh air – the kind of woman I want my girls to look up to,” she says. If she’s visualising it, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Duchess stepping out in a Jennifer Chamandi-clad at a future royal engagement. Your feet will thank you, Meghan, several hours in. 14 September – 14 October, 45A Old Bond Street, jenniferchamandi.com
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TAY L O R MADE
What is the best place you’ve been to? Namibia is hands down the most incredible place I have ever visited. The landscape is truly extraordinary, as is the &Beyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge. Which is your favourite hotel? The Eden Rock in St Barths because it’s in a league of its own. I also like Jumeirah Al Naseem in Dubai, because I’m always happy when I’m there.
A S S U N G L A S S E S B R A N D TAY L O R M O R R I S L A U N C H E S I T S F I R S T P O P U P AT M A L L O R C A’ S J U M E I R A H P O R T S O L L E R H OT E L & S PA , C O - F O U N D E R H U G O TAY L O R TA L K S H O L I D AY S , S U I T C A S E E S S E N T I A L S A N D H I S T R AV E L B U C K E T L I S T
What are your suitcase essentials? I always pack at least five pairs of Taylor Morris sunglasses and I take loads of swimming trunks, because I detest having lunch sitting in wet clothes. I also love Polo Ralph Lauren T-shirts. What can you not travel without? I have an obsession with leather travel accessories from Aspinal of London. I always take noise cancelling headphones as well.
Words: Ellen Millard
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V personalityturned-accessories designer Hugo Taylor is something of an anomaly in the world of reality star personas, as seen on programmes such as Love Island and The Only Way Is Essex. There is no fake tan, no falling out of cabs and, as yet, no glossy magazine scandal. But his television tenure followed a similar path. Starting out on Made in Chelsea, Taylor has also undergone stints on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Come Dine With Me and Dinner Date. Away from the spotlight, he is an accessories designer – and a successful one at that. Having lost a pair of sunglasses while on holiday in Ibiza – the Amnesia club was to blame – Taylor and his friend and business partner Charlie Morris decided to create their own affordable range of shades. Now the label has its own pop-up shop at Mallorca’s Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa, with sunglasses sold alongside handwoven baskets and espadrilles. In between visits, Taylor reveals his top travel tips, suitcase essentials and his favourite destinations.
What is your top travel tip? Have a superb tour guide. There is nothing worse than doing the same thing as everybody else. How do you relax on holiday? I like to read, sleep, eat well and drink a Martini at around 5pm. What’s been your most adventurous trip to date? I did a one-day 180-mile bike ride in the French Alps. It was a magical mixture of torture and a sense of achievement. What’s the best city for nightlife? It has to be London. I always have the best fun in town with my friends. What’s the best meal you’ve had abroad? I had some pretty life- changing food in Mexico City. But my favourite restaurant is Plage Keller in Antibes. FROM TOP NAMIBIA; HUGO TAYLOR AND CHARLIE MORRIS; ROLLRIGHT, £180, TAYLOR-MORRIS.COM; JUMEIRAH PORT SOLLER; POLO RALPH LAUREN, T-SHIRT, £59, RALPHLAUREN. CO.UK; ASPINAL TRAVEL COLLECTION, £175, ASPINALOFLONDON.COM
What destination is next on your travel bucket list? Japan. I am picturing something similar to Tom Cruise’s experience in The Last Samurai. The Taylor Morris pop-up is at Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa until October, jumeirah.com/mallorca
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MICHEL ROUX JR , PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISSY CROKER
JOËL ROBUCHON Remembering the world’s most decorated chef
P.122 LOUIS XIII Raising a glass to the revered cognac with brand director Ludovic du Plessis
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Michel Roux Jr prepares to take over the Belmond British Pullman’s bijou kitchen as part of the train’s series of pop-up dinners (p.118)
CHEF OF THE CENTURY HE CHANGED FINE DINING BY CHAMPIONING SIMPLE INGREDIENTS AND S O C I A B L E E AT I N G ; H E L D A W O R L D R E C O R D 3 2 M I C H E L I N S TA R S ; A N D B U I LT A N E M P I R E O F R E S TA U R A N T S T H AT S T R E TC H E D F R O M L A S V E G A S TO H O N G KO N G . N I C K S AVA G E PAY S T R I B U T E T O F R E N C H M A S T E R C H E F J O Ë L R O B U C H O N
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t’s a stark juxtaposition: considering a chef’s impact on the culinary world one week; ruminating on his absence the next, but that’s the experience I recently had following a visit to L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Covent Garden. Days after tucking into his legendary pommes purée and caramelised quail, myriad newspapers, blogs and Twitter accounts lit up with tributes to the recently departed chef, who had passed away at 73 following a long battle with cancer. Mr Robuchon’s impact on the world of fine dining cannot be understated. After starting his career at the tender age of 15 in a monastery in Poitiers, he went from strength to strength, taking over Hotel Concorde La Fayette in Paris as head chef at 29, opening his own restaurant Jamin at 36 (which promptly won three Michelin stars), then packing it all in to focus on his global brand. At the time of his passing, Mr Robuchon had earned 32 Michelin stars across his restaurants; more than any chef on the planet. L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon was of particular significance. Inspired by the sushi bars of Japan and the tapas bars of Spain, he launched the counter dining concept concurrently in Tokyo and Paris in 2003. The success of L’Atelier spread like a conflagration, with sites opening in Las Vegas, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and, of course, London. One of the reasons for its prodigious popularity was the
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manner in which Robuchon democratised the rarefied world of nouvelle cuisine, bringing it out of its ivory tower and into a setting where the diner engages directly with the chef. Similarly, he eschewed the subtlety and lightness of nouvelle cuisine in favour of heartier, richer flavours from France and further afield. His contributions have been so deep as to inspire paradigm shifts in the way we experience food. He’s known particularly for his pommes purée, which famously calls for a 2:1 ratio of ratte potatoes to butter. Run through a food mill then cooked over low heat with butter worked in gradually, the potatoes barely hold their form and exude an otherworldly richness. That he can make a quotidian dish like mash his calling card further shows how seriously he wanted to make fine dining less exclusive and more relatable. Similarly, he was one of the first chefs to champion lesser-known cuts and especially game in the 1990s. La Caille – a dish of caramelised quail stuffed with foie gras – is perhaps his second most celebrated dish. There’s a refined
earthiness at play in the poultry, which is poached gently in chicken broth and brushed with soy sauce and honey. In London, it dovetailed with the cooking of Fergus Henderson, who aimed to exhume offal from the ashes. But Robuchon’s influence on the London dining scene isn’t confined to Henderson’s St. John restaurants. Many culinary luminaries have spoken out on social media to pay tribute. Ashley Palmer-Watts, excutive chef at Dinner by Heston, noted that he was lucky to have cooked a private dinner with Robuchon a few years back. Claude Bosi of Bibendum lamented the loss of another legend of French gastronomy. Observer critic Jay Rayner noted on Twitter that “The test of a great chef is the ability to change forever the simplest of things. Robuchon changed the way a certain type of restaurant made mash potato”. His passion for counter dining has inspired a slew of London restaurateurs. Most obviously Barrafina, but recently restaurants ranging from The Palomar and Padella to Kiln, Kricket and Kitchen Table have favoured having their patrons line the bar, where they can watch the action of the kitchens unfold in real time. Just a week after experiencing the same excitement where it all began at L’Atelier, it feels a bit strange to say goodbye to a legend, but at least we can rest assured that his culinary legacy, alive and well, continues to inspire chefs in every corner of the globe.
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Man-about-town, Innerplace’s Nick Savage, gives you the insider lowdown on London’s most hedonistic haunts
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 offers priority bookings, updates on the latest openings and hosts its own regular parties. Membership starts from £75 a month, innerplace.co.uk
MICHEL ROUX JR, PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISSY CROKER
ROUX T H E
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A S M I C H E L R O U X J R P R E PA R E S TO TA K E OV E R T H E B E L M O N D B R I T I S H P U L L M A N ’ S K I T C H E N F O R A O N E - O F F D I N N E R , H E D I S C U S S E S W O R K I N G W I T H F A M I LY, T H E C H A N G I N G FAC E O F LO N D O N ’ S R E S TA U R A N T S C E N E & H O W L E G AV R O C H E H A S S T O O D T H E T E S T O F T I M E
Words: Ellen Millard
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ollowing in a parent’s footsteps is a curse that befalls many a child, but for Michel Roux Jr the pressure must have been more intense than most. The son of Michel Roux Snr and the nephew of Albert Roux, he grew up learning the restaurant ropes in the kitchens of his family’s Mayfair establishment, Le Gavroche. The first British restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star in 1974, the first to win a second in 1977, and the first to win the coveted third in 1982, Le Gavroche is revered by critics and chefs the world over. For Roux Jr, a career behind the stove was always on the cards. “I was always in the kitchen as a child, watching my father and my mother, who is also an absolutely fantastic cook,” he recalls. “My father was always making me try a wine or cheese, so gastronomy is in my blood. I always knew it was what I wanted to do.” Stints at Le Gavroche, Alain Chapel’s eponymous restaurant in Mionnay, France, and Pierre Koffman’s La Tante Claire followed, before he returned to the Roux empire to work at The Waterside Inn in Bray with his uncle and cousin, Alain. He rejoined his father at Le Gavroche in 1985, before taking over full time in 1993. “Le Gavroche is, and always has been, a family restaurant and I think that’s a huge part of the reason for its success,” he says of the Roux flagship,
which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. “There are family values and ideals that you just can’t replicate elsewhere.” Still, the Roux clan has done its best to educate the masses. Its kitchens have trained a tour de force of British chefs who have collaboratively changed the culinary landscape, from potty-mouthed behemoths Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White to Roux Jr’s former MasterChef: The Professionals colleague Monica Galetti and Marcus Wareing, who succeeded him as the face of the long-running television show. Roux Jr, meanwhile, has brought fine dining to people’s front rooms with the aforementioned BBC programme, for which he was a guest judge for six years, before ending his tenure in 2014 following a disagreement about commercial commitments. He is still a regular feature on screen, including a guest spot presenting Saturday Kitchen following James Martin’s departure in 2016, and several gourmet series to his name. He combines his TV career with his unfailing commitment to upholding the reputation of Le Gavroche. “I am looking to create a wonderful experience based on the delivery of fine food, wine and service,” he says. “This is what has made Le Gavroche so successful, and the delivery of excellence is something that I am determined to continue.” It’s certainly a method that has worked thus far.
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Typically, a restaurant is considered a success if it lasts five years. Le Gavroche has achieved that 10 times over – and for more than half of this Roux Jr has been at the helm. How has the nation’s attitude to food changed since he started working in the industry? “It’s changed massively, and in so many wonderful ways,” he says. “I think one of the best changes is that international cuisine can be brought locally to diners. I live and work in London, and there are so many fantastic culinary options to choose from: British, French, Italian, Spanish, Israeli, Lebanese, Ethiopian – pretty much anything goes. It’s making diners more adventurous, more discerning and it stimulates competition in the industry.” Indeed, Roux Jr’s own daughter, Emily Roux, will be opening her debut French-cum-Italian restaurant in October with husband and former Le Gavroche head chef Diego Ferrari. Family ties aside, there must be a bit of Roux rivalry – who’s the best cook in the family? “That’s impossible to answer! We all have very different styles of cooking,” he says, diplomatically. “Emily has a different style of cooking to me, in the same way that my style of cooking differed ever so slightly from my father’s and uncle’s. Hers is lighter and slightly more modern, but still recognisably ‘Roux’”. From table service to train tracks, Roux Jr’s next venture will see him create a one-off dinner from the Belmond British Pullman’s bijou kitchen in September. His will be the third in a series of chef takeovers, with returning favourites Tom Kerridge and Raymond Blanc preceding him. “The Belmond British Pullman is iconic in many ways, and the combination of adventure, luxury and glamour is a huge draw,” he says. “There’s a real sense of elegance and I think there’s a synergy between that and my cooking.” He’s careful not to reveal too much about the menu, but hints at a venison loin and grouse pie, and something with dark chocolate – his guilty pleasure. Swapping the cavernous kitchens of Le Gavroche for the Belmond’s carriages will be something of a novelty, but he won’t be letting it interfere with his work. “It’s a confined space so that will present its own challenges, as well as the fact that the train will be rolling,” he jokes. “I’ve designed the menu to suit the space, but at the same time I won’t be compromising on quality.” Michel, we would expect nothing less.
“Emily has a different style of cooking to me, in the same way that my style of cooking differed ever so slightly from my father’s and uncle’s”
From £561 per person, 28 September, belmond.com
FROM TOP MICHEL ROUX JR, PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISSY CROKER; VENISON PIE FROM LE GAVROCHVE; THE BELMOND BRITISH PULLMAN
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PROMOTION
With few practices in central London able to rival Happy Kids Dental’s combination of technology and experience, it’s no surprise that parents were soon clamouring to be seen alongside their children. The business responded swiftly, expanding both its team and treatment menu to create a truly comprehensive offering for the whole family. The clinical team includes a renowned restorative dentist, who specialises in highly aesthetic, minimally invasive techniques. Bespoke cosmetic solutions, such as teeth whitening, are a major focus, while the orthodontics department includes a consultant and a specialist who can address the most complex cases using advanced, lifestyle-friendly teeth-straightening systems. And with a dedicated sedation suite, the practice can offer both inhalation and IV sedation in relaxing surroundings that don’t feel clinical. Whether you’re an adult or a child, every patient at Happy Kids Dental is treated with individual care and consideration, and given all the time they need to feel relaxed and confident about their dental visits. Because family is so important to the practice, it has worked hard to offer a completely seamless experience that won’t infringe on busy schedules. Evening, weekend and out-of-hours emergency appointments are available year-round; families can be seen in a single block booking; and the practice is developing relationships with additional services, such as stem-cell banking and private concierges. If you thought a dentist couldn’t ever be aligned with the emotive language of families – perhaps the playful, relaxing sanctuary that is Happy Kids Dental will make you think again.
A F A M I LY A F FA I R FOLLOWING THE SUCCESS OF ITS EXCLUSIVE K I D S ’ O F F E R I N G , H A P P Y K I D S D E N TA L N O W OFFERS A COMPREHENSIVE SERVICE FOR T H E W H O L E F A M I LY
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hat do we think of when we hear the word ‘family’? Fun times, sanctuary, fond memories, lifelong bonds – it’s these reponses that siblings Roksolana Mykhalus and Yevhen Hunyak wanted to tap into with their practice, Happy Kids Dental. Their mission was to overturn tired preconceptions about dentistry and create a familyinspired dental surgery that would be associated with fun and happiness. One of a small number of dedicated children’s dentists in the UK, Happy Kids Dental was designed to be child-friendly, without being anathema to frazzled parents. Its age-zoned waiting areas are filled with toys and tech, and the consultant-led team includes paediatric dentists, nurses and therapists who have extensive experience working with children. The practice offers methods and techniques not commonly available from traditional dentists – such as early orthodontics, which prevent the need for invasive treatment in the future. Supported by a suite of state-of-the-art equipment, the team successfully creates fun, positive and fear-free dental visits.
74-78 Seymour Place, W1H, 020 7078 0822, happykidsdental.co.uk
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IN HIGH SPIRITS L U D O V I C D U P L E S S I S M AY B E T H E C H A R M I N G FA C E O F L O U I S X I I I C O G N A C , B U T D O N ’ T L E T H I S FLOW I N G LO C KS A N D R A D I A N T S M I L E FO O L YO U. THIS FERVENT FRENCHMAN MEANS BUSINESS
Words: Hugh Francis Anderson
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s I push open the doors of Chai Wu, the esteemed fine-dining Asian restaurant on the fifth floor of Harrods, it’s not difficult to spot Ludovic du Plessis, global executive director of Louis XIII. His blond, almost shoulderlength hair catches the light as he stands, grips my hand and, in a thick Parisian accent, offers a “welcome”. One of the world’s oldest cognac houses, Louis XIII was established in 1874 and has been high society’s tipple of choice almost ever since. Each bottle is the product of a process that lasts 100 years and many come with prices tags that stretch into thousands of pounds. “With Louis XIII, when you put one drop on your tongue, there’s an explosion on the palate that moves back and forth like a wave,” says du Plessis. “I take one drop of Louis every day at 7pm and just one drop lasts one hour. You have so many flavours that you don’t need more.”
Du Plessis began his career in Provence working with France’s finest rosés; went on to study Cuban and Dominican cigars; spent a decade building Möet & Chandon and Dom Pérignon; before moving to Louis XIII three years ago. “It’s been more or less 17 years in the wine, spirits and cigar industries,” he says. “My passion is my job, and my job is my passion.” So, how about that asking price? “It all comes down to legacy,” says du Plessis. “The process begins when our cellar master tastes the eaux-de-vie [a clear, colourless fruit brandy] that we keep in 1,200 separate oak barrels. Some are no good, but some have the potential for ageing. He puts aside the eaux-de-vie that will make the best Louis XIII in 2117. And as the years go on, he starts to blend. He does so for 25 years. He then retires and passes his 25 years of work – his legacy – on to the next cellar master. It’s all about legacy.” The current cellar master – who’ll never taste his life’s work – is Baptiste
Loiseau, the youngest in history. He was handed the position by Pierrette Trichet, the first ever female cellar master. “It really is a mentorship,” says du Plessis. “They’re chosen partly for their palate and nose, which are very important, but it’s also about the individual’s philosophy. You need to think in the same way to keep the same style of Louis XIII for the next century to come.” The blending process accounts for part of the cost of a bottle of Louis XIII; another part is the bottle itself. “Our bottles are based on a flask found in a field after the Battle of Jarnac, fought between Catholics and Protestants in 1569. Centuries and centuries after, they found this bronze bottle, which is the shape we continue with today.” Only now it’s bottled in the finest mouth-blown Baccarat or Saint-Louis crystal. How many bottles does Louis XIII produce each year? “Of course I cannot tell you that,” smirks du Plessis. “What I can say is that demand is a lot more than we can supply – which is a great problem to have.”
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PHARRELL WILLIAMS AND LUDOVIC DU PLESSIS
A song written by Pharrell Williams has been entombed in a safe until 2117 As much as he likes to talk up Louis XIII’s almost 150-year history, du Plessis realises that to make it in the modern world, a luxury brand must ensure that it stays relevant, and visible. It’s one of the reasons that Louis XIII is the first company in the history of the wine and spirits industry to begin opening its own stand-alone boutiques. The first was a vast 130m2 store in Beijing’s luxury SKP shopping centre. The second is here, on the lower ground floor of Harrods. “The boutique is the priority now because our direct clients are the most important to us. There are some privileges in the boutiques in terms of limited editions. We’ve also created the Louis XIII Society.” There are other innovations that du Plessis is working on. Inspired by the cellar masters’ devotion to their craft, to producing a cognac that won’t be tasted in completion until 2117, he wanted to explore his artistic flair in an innovative way. The first project, titled 100 Years: The Movie You Will Never See, written and directed by John Malkovich, is locked away and won’t be viewed until 2115. His most recent undertaking, 100 Years: If We Care, a song written and performed by Pharrell Williams, has been entombed to a safe until 2117. And it’s not just
marketing. “The disc has been placed in a safe and we have placed the safe in an area underground that in 100 years’ time will be underwater unless we change our way of living. So the song is to be released in 2117, but only if we care enough to save it.” This brings us on to another of du Plessis’s passions: conservation. “There’s nothing more important than our soil at Louis XIII. If there is no more soil, there is no more cognac and there is no more Louis. We need
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to do everything we can to protect the planet.” Du Plessis spends a vast amount of time selecting the correct oaks to plant for the next age of barrels. “I’ve always said that if there’s one sentence to sum up Louis XIII, it’s: ‘We think a century ahead’.” As we make our way through the gleeful shoppers and down to the boutique, I ask what du Plessis does with his time outside of Louis XIII. “It really is wine, spirits and food for me, but I also love tennis and football.” Du Plessis delights in telling me about playing tennis at the Arthur Ashe stadium in New York, which is home to the main court used in the U.S. Open, and about playing football with some of the 1998 French World Cup team when in Paris. When not travelling, playing sport with famous athletes and hanging out with music and movie stars, du Plessis is at home with his three children. Advocate, enthusiast, family man. “When I wake up every morning, I ask myself, ‘What can I do today to make myself better?’,” says the most charming man in cognac. “I think that’s a question we should all ask ourselves.” The Louis XIII boutique is now open at Harrods
NO ONE NEEDS PERSUADING AS TO WHY THEY SERVICE THEIR CAR, YACHT OR PLANE. BUT THERE HASN’T BEEN AN EQUIVALENT FOR THEIR HOME UNTIL BOLD & REEVES
CONVENIENCE. PEACE OF MIND. VALUE. INFO@BOLDANDREEVES.CO.UK | 020 7408 7590 | BOLDANDREEVES.CO.UK
P.132 INSIDER KNOWLEDGE Property news from prime central London
P.136 BOATS FOR SAIL All aboard the best luxury houseboats
P.140 STREETS AHEAD The unique homes hitting the market this month
P R O P E R T Y T H E F I N E S T H O M E S I N T H E C A P I TA L
Snap up Jeremy Lever’s RIBA awardwinning home in Notting Hill (p.140)
The house with the spa. 5
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Lonsdale Road, W11 • A newly refurbished house with private parking, garden and a lift • There is a wellness area with a pool, gym, sauna, shower and cloakroom • Approximately 6,010 sq ft
Our Notting Hill expert, Caroline Foord, looks forward to helping you. caroline.foord@knightfrank.com 020 3551 5156
Located just off the world famous Portobello Road and the ever fashionable and vibrant Westbourne Grove. Well positioned for all Notting Hill amenities and transport connections. knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly. Guide price £14,950,000 Freehold
Connecting people & property, perfectly.
Ebury Square SW1W
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An impressive and stylish duplex apartment with patio in this sought after new development.
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• Valet parking • Harrods concierge
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• Stylish decor • Direct lift access
Guide price £2,350 per week Available furnished wendy.gilchrist@knightfrank.com
• Roof terrace • Approximately 2,282 sq ft
Guide price £3,650 per week Available furnished ryan.stokes@knightfrank.com
West Eaton Place SW1X
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This substantial period home is located just off Belgrave Square.
An elegant white stucco fronted Grade II listed freehold house benefitting from a passenger lift.
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• 4 Reception rooms • Family accommodation
• South facing terrace • Private garage
Guide price £8,950,000 Freehold stuart.bailey@knightfrank.com
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An immaculately presented duplex penthouse apartment.
• Managed • Approximately 1,407 sq ft
Chapel Street SW1X
Eaton Place SW1X
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• Double garage • Approximately 4,568 sq ft
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• Immaculately refurbished • Approximately 5,501 sq ft
Guide price £18,000,000 Freehold stuart.bailey@knightfrank.com
All potential tenants should be advised that, as well as rent, an administration fee of £288 and referencing fees of £48 per person will apply when renting a property. There will also be a £48 charge to register your deposit with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme if applicable. (All fees shown are inclusive of VAT.) Please ask us for more information about other fees that will apply or visit www.knightfrank.co.uk/tenantfees. Knight Frank is a member of the ARLA Client Money Protection Scheme and our redress scheme for consumers is Property Redress Scheme.
The house with the private garden.
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Lansdowne Road, W11 • A spacious and well-proportioned family home • Perfectly positioned with direct access to communal gardens • Approximately 4,541 sq ft Lansdowne Road is a highly sought after address with magnificent architecture and benefits from local amenities.
Our Notting Hill expert, Elizabeth Holder, looks forward to helping you. elizabeth.holder@knightfrank.com 020 3463 0062
knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly. Guide price £9,250 per week Available unfurnished All potential tenants should be advised that, as well as rent, an administration fee of £288 and referencing fees of £48 per person will apply when renting a property. There will also be a £48 charge to register your deposit with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme if applicable. (All fees shown are inclusive of VAT.) Please ask us for more information about other fees that will apply or visit www.knightfrank.co.uk/tenantfees. Knight Frank is a member of the ARLA Client Money Protection Scheme and our redress scheme for consumers is Property Redress Scheme.
London is our city Embassy Gardens is our home Eg: life, captured on Instagram
Prices start from ÂŁ960,000 embassygardens.com
PRICES CURRENT AS OF DATE OF PRINT.
To view the newly released 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments, contact our sales team on +44 (0)20 3733 1023
Claimer: These are real residents, who really do live in Embassy Gardens! Images from Instagram @embassygardens #embassygardens
EG_LuxuryLondon_FP_160818.indd 1
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INSIDER KNOWLEDGE FROM LUXURY PROPERTY JOURNAL PRIMERESI.COM
FIT FOR A KING FENTON WHELAN REVEALS £450M BAYSWATER SCHEME OVERLOOKING KENSINGTON PALACE
Luxury property developer Fenton Whelan has lifted the lid on its latest project: an ambitious super-prime mixed-use scheme overlooking the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new home in Kensington Palace. Park Modern, which is bordered by Queensway, Bayswater Road and Inverness Terrace, is being pitched by the developer as “London’s most prestigious residential development”.
The site is directly opposite Kensington Gardens and less than 400 metres from the palace. With a GDV of around £450m, the 190,000 sq ft scheme is set to deliver 55 spectacular apartments and two mews houses alongside 30,000 sq ft of commercial space, and some statement public realm improvements, including a £2.6m new Royal Gateway into Hyde Park at South Queensway, and a new junction at Bayswater Road. The new building, designed by PLP Architecture, will rise to nine storeys, and will also have three basement levels and a ground floor.
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FOR THE RECORD SHOWSTOPPING BELGRAVIA MANSION GOES FOR £35K PW
STREET ART SUPER-PRIME CONSTRUCTION FIRM COLLABORATES ON STREET ART PROJECT
The Love Kensington & Chelsea Street Art Project, which launched in August as part of the Kensington and Chelsea Art Weekend, is set to spark some imaginations, with a series of creative murals telling the story of the local area. Following a public vote, artist Neboe was picked to create the first of these artworks, and construction company London Projects offered up prime hoarding on Pavilion Road. The resulting piece features the word ‘Chelceth’, meaning landing place in Old English, emblazoned as a nod to Chelsea’s name up until the 16th century and is designed to convey the idea that the area is home “not only for residents, but also for art and culture”. The colour purple represents the borough’s royal status, of course.
A 7,000 sq ft townhouse – once the home of Julie Andrews – on Chester Square has been let for a remarkable £35,000 per week, believed to be a record rent for Belgravia. The Grade-II listed mansion was recently transformed into a super-prime showpiece by Mayfair-based developer Saigol DDC. The showstopping six-bedroom residence includes a mews building to the rear, with a suite of formal reception rooms, a passenger lift, media room, wine cellar and health spa – plus a double garage and three south-facing terraces. The finished article was launched onto the sales market in April with a £24m price tag. Chester Square’s elegant stucco mansions were built in the 1830s by Joseph Cundy to designs by Thomas Cubitt, and have attracted numerous big-name residents over the years, including Margaret Thatcher, Roman Abramovich and Mick Jagger.
TIME IS MONEY BELGRAVIA APARTMENT LET IN ‘RECORD TIME’
Belgravia agency Henry & James has achieved an impressive result on Chesham Place, letting its client’s apartment – from first contact to signed contract – in a lightning-fast four hours. The 68-year-old firm, which is based just around the corner on Motcomb Street, set the new personal best in mid-July, and says the deal demonstrates just how fast the rental market is moving in this part of town. We hear the owner of the two-bed walked into the office at 1pm on 12 August, and had agreed terms and a marketing plan by 2pm. A long-standing H&J tenant was first out of the blocks, and the team managed to get all the paperwork done and dusted by 5pm.
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
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Building with distinction
New Build Loft conversion Basement Refurbishment Search IMKO Belgravia Email contact@imko.co.uk Call 0207 584 2745
Visualisation of a two bedroom apartment at early evening, with 4.1m ceiling height.
G A R D EN V I E W S AT DAW N . PA R K V I E W S AT D U S K . Luma boasts dual-aspect living. Watch the sun rise over Persian-inspired Jellicoe Gardens to the east and set over the serene beauty of Lewis Cubitt Park to the west. A unique collection of contemporary apartments, Luma is imagined by award-winning architects Squire & Partners, and interior designers Conran and Partners. Become part of London’s best-connected creative hub that Central St Martins, Universal Music, Google and Everyman Cinema calls home. 2 & 3 bedroom apartments and penthouses available from £1,325,000*
BOOK YOUR APPOINTMENT 020 7205 4965 lumakingscross.co.uk
Marketing suite 14-15 Stable Street London N1C 4AB
*Prices correct at time of going to print.
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B O AT S F O R S A I L T H E H O U S E B OAT M A R K E T I S A WAT E R T I G H T B U S I N E S S . D I S C OV E R T H E L AT E S T V E S S E L S M A K I N G WAV E S O N T H E R I V E R T H A M E S T H I S M O N T H
2 RIVERSIDE QUARTER MOORINGS, SW18
1
S T K AT H A R I N E DOCKS, E1W
Originally a steel barge from the 1930s, Matrix Island has been converted into a stunning contemporary houseboat. An open-plan upper deck harbours large reception, kitchen and dining areas, while a second reception area can be found on the lower deck with access to a RIB and jet-ski platform. There are five large double bedrooms, three bathrooms and a recently built office space at the rear of the boat. ÂŁ3.5m, 020 7407 8000, riverhomes.co.uk
Launched in 2011, Il Nauti Buoys was built with luxury living in mind. It combines craftsmanship and technology, with cluster oak veneer panelling and limestone and oak flooring throughout, as well as an integrated speaker system, air conditioning and built-in storage solutions. There are three double bedrooms, four bathrooms and a substantial reception room with access to a sun deck. The roof boasts a 54-foot terrace. ÂŁ1.75m, 020 8788 6000, riverhomes.co.uk
LUXURY LONDON
PROPERTY
3
C H E Y N E WA L K , S W 1 0
This 1,760 sq ft vessel was designed by the Chelsea Yacht and Boat Company, which has been building boats since 1935. The ground floor is dedicated to an open-plan kitchen, dining area and drawing room, which leads to a large terrace. Upstairs, the two bedrooms both have en suite bathrooms and the master bedroom also boasts a dressing room. There is underfloor heating throughout, air conditioning in the drawing room and bedrooms, and a zoned alarm system. Named after renowned local painter Walter Greaves, this Chelsea-based boat is less than a mile from Imperial Wharf and Fulham Broadway. £1.75m, 020 3597 7670, knightfrank.com
4
RIVERSIDE QUARTER MOORINGS, SW18
Moored at Riverside Quarter, with a licence until 2063, Penelope was built to its current owners’ designs and was finished in 2008. Spanning 2,405 sq ft, the ship boasts three bedrooms, three bathrooms and two large reception rooms, as well as outdoor space on the front, upper, lower and walkway decks. Residents have access to facilities at the Riverside Quarter development, which include private underground parking, a gym, swimming pool, hot tub and steam room. Offers in excess of £1.75m, 020 8788 6000, riverhomes.co.uk
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Richmond Court, Knightsbridge Richmond Court is situated between the exclusive designer boutiques of Sloane Street and Harrods. Gastronomic delights can be experienced in the renowned eateries of Knightsbridge and Chelsea and the peaceful greenery of Hyde Park is a short walk away.
Pegasi Management Company Limited 207 Sloane Street London SW1X 9QX E: enquiries@pegasi.co.uk | T: +44 (0)207 245 4500 pegasi.co.uk
GIVE YOUR PROPERTY A TRUE GLOBAL EXPOSURE
LIST WITH US THROUGH 115 INTERNATIONAL REAL ESTATE PORTALS INTO 64 COUNTRIES
CURRENT FEATURED PROPERTIES
3 BEDROOMS | NEWLY REFURBISHED FLAT | BELGRAVIA £2,299,000
6 BEDROOMS | HOUSE | CHELSEA £1,950pw
For more information please contact Jonny@nestseekers.com
For more information please contact Jamie@nestseekers.com
3 BEDROOMS | ST GEORGE WHARF TOWER | VAUXHALL £4,400,000
4 BEDROOMS | NEWLY REFURBISHED | CHELSEA £3,500 pw
For more information please contact NickJ@nestseekers.com
For more information please contact Jonny@nestseekers.com
4 BEDROOMS | THE CARLOS OTT PENTHOUSE | MIAMI $41,800,000
5 BEDROOMS | CENTRAL PARK VIEWS | MANHATTAN $13,995,000
For more information please contact JM@nestseekers.com
For more information please contact RyanS@nestseekers.com
One Mayfair Place, London, W1J 8AJ T: +44 20 7268 4845 www.nestseekers.com timob@nestseekers.com | alexd@nestseekers.com
NEW YORK | HAMPTONS | GOLD COAST, LI | NEW JERSEY | MIAMI | SAN FRANCISCO | BEVERLY HILLS | LONDON | SEOUL Nest Seekers International is a Real Estate broker. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only and has been compiled from sources deemed reliable. Though information is believed to be correct, it is presented subject to errors, omissions, changes or withdrawal without notice.
STREETS AHEAD DISTINCTIVE HOMES ON THE PROPERTY MARKET THIS MONTH
L A N S D O W N E C R E S C E N T, W 1 1
This Notting Hill RIBA-award-winning house by architect Jeremy Lever has hit the market. Built in 1973, the skinny three-bed was granted Grade II listed status in 2012. Spanning six floors, with balconies on the first, second and top floors, and double-height windows throughout, the property boasts dramatic views across west London and beyond. The highlight is the splitlevel reception room on the second floor, with a gallery on the upper floor and garden and terrace access on the lower level. The property is in pristine condition and has only ever been lived in by Lever and his family. ÂŁ3.85m, 020 3795 5920, themodernhouse.com
LUXURY LONDON
PROPERTY
E G E R T O N C R E S C E N T, S W 3
The home of one of London’s high-society party planners is on the market for the first time in 50 years. Lady Elizabeth Anson and her mother, Princess Anne of Denmark – first cousin to Her Majesty The Queen – lived in the property in 1958, the year Lady Elizabeth made her society debut, and the socialite went on to organise parties for notable figures such as The Queen, the Clintons and Mick Jagger during her illustrious career. The property spans five floors, with large dining and drawing rooms, three bedrooms and a 60-foot south-facing garden. Residents also gain access and partownership to the crescent’s private garden. £11.5m, 020 7225 0277, russellsimpson.co.uk
U N I O N S T R E E T, S E 1
The Music Box, the new Southwark-based home of the London Centre of Contemporary Music, also offers a series of luxury apartments. An 11th-floor three-bedroom penthouse is currently up for grabs, featuring an open-plan living, dining and kitchen area, three bathrooms and a 498 sq ft roof terrace with views of the London skyline. Residents will have access to secure bike storage and a 24-hour concierge. £2.1m, 020 3918 6987, taylorwimpeycentrallondon.com
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Park Walk, Chelsea SW10 £895,000
Leasehold
Ensor Mews, South Kensington SW7 £2,325,000
Freehold
A delightful one-bedroom flat with the benefit of its own front door and private patio courtyard.
An immaculately presented freehold house in the heart of South Kensington.
632 sq ft (58.7 sq m) Reception room | Dining area | Kitchen | Bedroom | Bathroom | Patio courtyard | EPC rating C
1,005 sq ft (93.4 sq m) Two reception rooms | Two bedrooms | Two bathrooms | EPC rating E
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chesleaSW10@struttandparker.com
South Kensington 020 3504 5901 | southken@struttandparker.com
Limerston Street, Chelsea SW10 £2,650,000
Cranley Gardens, South Kensington SW7 £3,800,000 Share of Freehold
Freehold
A wide and low built four-bedroom house situated on the popular Ten Acre Estate.
A unique opportunity to acquire a truly magnificent first floor three-bedroom property.
1,702 sq ft (158.1 sq m) Drawing room | Large kitchen/dining room | Master bedroom with en suite | Two further double bedrooms (one en suite) | Bathroom | Study/ bedroom four | Cloakroom | Utility room | Patio garden | EPC rating E
1,611 sq ft (149.67 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen/dining room | Three bedrooms | Three bathrooms | Balcony/terrace | Access to Onslow Gardens | Storage | EPC rating C
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chesleaSW10@struttandparker.com
South Kensington 020 3504 5901 | southken@struttandparker.com
*After an offer is accepted by the Landlord, which is subject to contract and acceptable references, the following charges and fees will be payable before the commencement of the tenancy: Preparation of Tenancy Agreement £222 (Inc VAT),
/struttandparker
@struttandparker
struttandparker.com
60 Offices across England and Scotland, including prime Central London.
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Danvers Street, Chelsea SW3 £6,250,000
Freehold
An exceptionally wide and substantial five-bedroom house. 3,716 sq ft (345.2 sq m) Kitchen | Dining/family room | First floor drawing room | Study | Master bedroom suite | Second bedroom suite | Three further bedrooms (one en suite) | Family shower room | Air conditioning to all bedrooms | Utility room | Patio garden | Off street parking | EPC rating D
Phillimore Gardens, Kensington W8 Price Upon Application
Leasehold
A superb three-bedroom maisonette with a wonderful garden and a garage on the Phillimore Estate. 2,769 sq ft (257.2 sq m) Drawing room | Sitting room | Dining room | Study | Kitchen | Three bedrooms with en suite bathrooms | Garage | Garden | EPC rating E
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chesleaSW10@struttandparker.com
Kensington 020 3813 9477 | kensington@struttandparker.com
Cornwall Gardens, South Kensington SW7 £1,575,000 Leasehold
Stratford Road, Kensington W8 £2,150,000
An outstanding two-bedroom apartment with a superb south-facing roof terrace.
A wonderful three-bedroom upper maisonette in an attractive Victorian terraced house.
791 sq ft (73.5 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen | Master bedroom with en suite bathroom | Second bedroom | Further shower room/guest cloakroom | Roof terrace | Shared use of storage room | EPC rating C
1,552 sq ft (144.2 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen | Three bedrooms | Dressing room | Bathroom | Two shower rooms | Cloakroom | EPC rating D
South Kensington 020 3504 5901 | southken@struttandparker.com
Kensington 020 3813 9477 | kensington@struttandparker.com
Leasehold
References per Tenant £54 (Inc VAT), a deposit – usually between 6-10 weeks of the agreed rent. Any rent advertised is pure rent and does not include any additional services such as council tax, water or utility charges.
Strutt & Parker is a trading style of BNP Paribas Real Estate Advisory & Property Management UK Limited, which provides a full range of services across the residential, commercial and the rural property sectors.
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Chester Street, Belgravia SW1X £6,350,000
Freehold
Elm Park Road, Chelsea SW3 £1,450,000
Share of Freehold
An exceptional end of terrace period family house with extensive accommodation and outside space.
An outstanding two-bedroom flat situated on the second floor and offering exquisite views.
3,973 sq ft (369.1 sq m) Three reception rooms | Family room | Kitchen | Master bedroom suite | Three bedrooms with en suite bathrooms | Two further bedrooms | Shower room | Garden | Utility room | EPC rating E
735 sq ft (68.3 sq m) Entrance hall | Reception room | Kitchen | Master bedroom | Further bedroom | Bathroom | EPC rating D
Knightsbridge 020 7235 9959 | bertie.hare@struttandparker.com
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chelseaSW10@struttandparker.com
Eaton Place, Belgravia SW1X £3,650 per week
Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge SW7 £4,500,000/£3,950 per week Leasehold/Furnished
Furnished
A beautifully presented furnished duplex penthouse (with direct lift access and private roof terrace).
A meticulously refurbished two-bedroom first floor flat with exceptional proportions and grandeur.
2,282 sq ft (211.97 sq m) Reception room | Dining room | Kitchen | Three double bedrooms | Three bathrooms | Cloakroom | Roof terrace | Lift | EPC rating E
1,170 sq ft (108.7 sq m) Entrance hall with coat storage | Drawing room with open plan kitchen | Master bedroom suite | Second double bedroom | Shower room | Roof terrace with garden views | Utility room | EPC rating C
Knightsbridge 020 7235 9959 | knightsbridge@struttandparker.com
Knightsbridge 020 7235 9959 | knightsbridge@struttandparker.com
*After an offer is accepted by the Landlord, which is subject to contract and acceptable references, the following charges and fees will be payable before the commencement of the tenancy: Preparation of Tenancy Agreement £222 (Inc VAT),
/struttandparker
@struttandparker
struttandparker.com
60 Offices across England and Scotland, including prime Central London.
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Academy Gardens, Kensington W8 £2,950,000 Share of Freehold
Kings Road, Chelsea SW10 £995,000
An exceptional two-bedroom maisonette in this exclusive gated development in the heart of Kensington.
A bright and beautifully presented one-bedroom garden flat which has been the subject of an extensive and thoughtful refurbishment by the current owner.
1,566 sq ft (145.5 sq m) Drawing room | Kitchen/breakfast room | Master bedroom suite | Second bedroom suite | Cloakroom | Patio | 24 hour concierge | Secure underground parking space | EPC rating D
Share of Freehold
760 sq ft (70.6 sq m) Reception/dining room/kitchen | Bedroom with en suite bathroom | Cloakroom | Vault | Garden | Patio | EPC rating C
Kensington 020 3813 9477 | kensington@struttandparker.com
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chelseaSW10@struttandparker.com
Laverton Place, South Kensington SW5 £3,550,000 Freehold
Astwood Mews, South Kensington SW7 £1,495,000 Leasehold
A stunning three-bedroom house which has been the subject of an extensive renovation.
An outstanding three-bedroom maisonette arranged over the first and second floors of this attractive mews property.
1,658 sq ft (154 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen | Formal dining room/games room | Media room | Master bedroom suite | Two further bedrooms and bathroom | Utility and cloakroom | Bar and wine cabinet | Balcony | EPC rating E
1,235 sq ft (114.7 sq m) Open plan kitchen/reception room | Master bedroom with en suite bathroom | Two further bedrooms | Bathroom | Private street entrance | EPC rating D
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chelseaSW10@struttandparker.com
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chelseaSW10@struttandparker.com
References per Tenant £54 (Inc VAT), a deposit – usually between 6-10 weeks of the agreed rent. Any rent advertised is pure rent and does not include any additional services such as council tax, water or utility charges.
Strutt & Parker is a trading style of BNP Paribas Real Estate Advisory & Property Management UK Limited, which provides a full range of services across the residential, commercial and the rural property sectors.
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Seymour Walk, Chelsea SW10 £1,450 per week Long Let Unfurnished
Elm Park Gardens, Chelsea SW10 £2,495 per week
A bright and spacious family home offering fantastic living space and a south west facing garden.
An interior designed three-bedroom maisonette with direct access to communal gardens and three reception rooms.
1,711 sq ft (158.99 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen | Three bedrooms | Bedroom four/study | EPC rating E
2,659 sq ft (247 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen | Dining room | Media/family room | Three bedrooms (two with en suite bathrooms) | Family bathroom | Steam room | Patio | EPC rating E
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chesleaSW10@struttandparker.com
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chesleaSW10@struttandparker.com
Queen’s Elm Square, Chelsea SW3 £3,500 per week Furnished/Unfurnished
Drayton Gardens, Chelsea SW10 £1,300 per week
A five-bedroom newly refurbished house located in a private gated crescent with off street parking in prime Chelsea.
A spacious and luxurious apartment comprising two large double bedrooms and two bathrooms. Available fully furnished.
3,000 sq ft (279 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen | Dining room | Five bedrooms all en suite | Study | Cloakroom | Patio | EPC rating D
1,366 sq ft (126.9 sq m) Entrance hall | Drawing/dining room | Kitchen | Two bedrooms | Bathroom | EPC rating C
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chesleaSW10@struttandparker.com
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chesleaSW10@struttandparker.com
Unfurnished
Furnished
*After an offer is accepted by the Landlord, which is subject to contract and acceptable references, the following charges and fees will be payable before the commencement of the tenancy: Preparation of Tenancy Agreement £222 (Inc VAT),
/struttandparker
@struttandparker
struttandparker.com
60 Offices across England and Scotland, including prime Central London.
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Rutland Court, Knightsbridge SW7 £9,950,000 Share of Freehold
Hugo House, Knightsbridge SW1X £5,500,000
An exquisite first floor three-bedroom refurbished apartment with parking, porter and gym on a private gated road in Knightsbridge.
An immaculate newly refurbished three-bedroom lateral apartment in the heart of Knightsbridge.
2,361 sq ft (219.3 sq m) Entrance hall | Reception room | Dining room | Kitchen/breakfast room | Three bedroom suites | Guest WC | Utility room | Lift | Porter | Parking | Residents gym | EPC rating D
1,744 sq ft (162 sq m) Entrance hall | Double reception room | Kitchen | Master bedroom suite | Two further double bedroom suites | Cloakroom | Lift | Porter | EPC rating D
Knightsbridge 020 7235 9959 | paul.gransbury@struttandparker.com
Knightsbridge 020 7235 9959 | ollie.blakelock@struttandparker.com
Burnaby Street, Chelsea SW10 £2,000,000
Drayton Gardens, Chelsea SW10 £4,950,000
Freehold
Leasehold
Freehold
This stunning three-bedroom upper maisonette has been meticulously refurbished inside and out.
An elegant and grand Grade II Listed Freehold five-bedroom house situated in this sought after Chelsea address.
1,400 sq ft (130 sq m) Reception room | Dining room | Kitchen | Garden | Master bedroom | En suite | Two further double bedrooms | Bathroom | Terrace
3,146 sq ft (292.3 sq m) Dining room | Kitchen | Drawing room | Family room | Master bedroom suite | Four further bedrooms | Two shower rooms | Study | Utility room | Garden | EPC rating E
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chelseaSW10@struttandparker.com
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chesleaSW10@struttandparker.com
References per Tenant £54 (Inc VAT), a deposit – usually between 6-10 weeks of the agreed rent. Any rent advertised is pure rent and does not include any additional services such as council tax, water or utility charges.
Strutt & Parker is a trading style of BNP Paribas Real Estate Advisory & Property Management UK Limited, which provides a full range of services across the residential, commercial and the rural property sectors.
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