Luxury London Magazine Winter 2020

WINTER 2020 £8.00

MAGAZINE

TOM KERRIDGE ON SAVING PUBS AND FEEDING KEY WORKERS

WES ANDERSON GET THE DIRECTOR’S LOOK FOR YOUR HOME

GOING UNDER? IS IT TOO LATE TO SAVE THE MALDIVES?

LEWIS Hamilton The seven-time World Champion on transcending Formula One

“We have to remain committed to making a change”

FELICITY JONES

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CONTENTS UP FRONT

CULTURE

60 Against all odds

12 Editor’s letter

he restaurateurs opening new T ventures during the pandemic

16 The Waldorf Astoria, New York

CONNOISSEUR

he heritage hotel T being transformed into luxury residences

22 Villa d’Este, Lake Como

I s this the world’s most luxurious hotel?

32 The DECK London

aisy Knatchbull makes D history by opening the first women-only tailor on Savile Row

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48

Cooking from the hip

THE AGENDA

Culture in the capital, from activist photography and augmented reality to era-defining handbags

Jackson Boxer, chef and founder of Vauxhall’s Brunswick House Café, on why dining habits may have changed forever

68

TOM KERRIDGE

on 15 years of The Hand & Flowers, cooking for frontline workers during lockdown and the resilience of the restaurant industry

38

LEWIS HAMILTON

n Formula I, Black Lives o Matter and becoming seven-time world champion

54

CHARLES MANSON COVER IMAGE: Lewis Hamilton for the Police x Lewis Eyewear Collection.

How locking up the Manson Family leader did little to stop his cult LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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AN EVOLUTION IN TRAVEL VISIT TUMI.COM

CONTE NTS INTERIORS

COUTURE

76 Comfort and joy

88 Man about town

he interiors collections T to covet this winter

hom Sweeney’s new Mayfair HQ T and a sustainable sailing collection

ESCAPE Maldives Special 116 What’s on in the Maldives

Luxury news from the Indian Ocean

118 Going under?

he fight to save the Maldives, T the nation on the frontline of climate change

92

THE BEAT GOES ON

The headline watch launches from 2020, from Rolex’s updated Submariner to Patek Philippe’s stainless steel Calatrava

124 NEW WAVE

he resplendent resort putting T sustainability first

80

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO WES

How The Grand Budapest Hotel director’s idiosyncratic film sets are influencing interior design

98

WISH UPON A STAR

The ultimate Chistmas wish list, from watches to whisky

108 Palette pleasers

he fashion designers taking T inspiration from the art world

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128

RAISE THE BAA

iscover the Baa atoll, the Maldives’ D only UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

FROM THE EDITOR

Richard Brown DEPUTY EDITOR

WINTER 2020 Issue 23

A

Ellen Millard SENIOR ASSISTANT EDITOR Anna Prendergast EDITOR-AT-LARGE Annabel Harrison

nd then it was Christmas. It’s been a difficult few months in which to celebrate personal successes – births, engagements, anniversaries, milestone birthdays – while so many people have been losing their jobs, or, heartbreakingly, worse.

ONLINE EDITOR Mhairi Graham CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Lewis Hamilton had more than most to celebrate in 2020. And more than most at which to despair. During a year defined by global protests against racial injustice, Lewis transcended his sport to assume a principal position in the Black Lives Matter movement, taking a knee before each Grand Prix while a number of his fellow competitors, claiming political impartiality, among other reasons, chose not to do so.

We spoke to Lewis shortly after he’d finished qualifying at November’s Turkish Grand Prix (p.38). “I will remember this period of my life as an awakening for society,” he said, the prospect of equalling Michael Schumacher’s seven world championship titles the following day tempered by his steadfast commitment to accelerate not just conversations, but real world action, wherever racial inequality rears its head. “The death of George Floyd acted like a giant rock dropped in a pool of water. It created a ripple effect which has spread throughout the world – we now have to ensure those ripples don’t fade away.”

On the theme of metaphors, if you’ve still been bothering with the government’s press briefings, you may have heard that someone’s been tooting the bugle (no, not that kind).

The cavalry is coming, someone somewhere has slipped a penalty past a goalie, and the shiny vaccine train, which this year stands in for the Coco-Cola truck, is jingling in the distance. Whisper it but it looks like we’re almost out of the woods. The home run, the last lap, not quite yet, but soon.

Rob Crossan Jeremy Taylor HEAD OF DESIGN Laddawan Juhong GENERAL MANAGER Fiona Smith PRODUCTION MANAGER Alice Ford COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Rachel Gilfillan MANAGING DIRECTOR Eren Ellwood

Which of your pre-Covid freedoms have you missed the most? Visiting inspiring exhibitions (p.48), the thrill of new restaurants (p.60), proper shopping (p.87) or that total, barefoot, phone-off escapism that waits at the end of a flight (p.115)? How about the elements of lockdown you are terrified of losing? It hasn’t been all bad.

The drumming’s getting louder. They’ll be here soon. In the meantime, Happy Christmas, stay safe, see you in the New Year, perhaps.

PUBLISHED BY

RICH ARD BROWN Editorial Director

ONE CANADA SQUARE, CANARY WHARF, LONDON, E14 5AX T: 020 7537 6565

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Harrods Hampers, with love Bursting with hand-picked delicacies and festive tipples from our iconic Food Halls, Harrods hampers are the essence of Christmas.

Discover the collection at harrods.com/hampers or visit The Food Halls on the Ground Floor to curate your own.

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T H E B R I E F I NG T H E L AT E S T N E W S F R O M T H E W O R L D O F L U X U R Y

Once considered New York’s “unofficial palace”, the Waldorf Astoria is being revived in a $1bn restoration project

16 THE PROPERTY The Manhattan hotel being turned into luxury homes 20 THE CAR The new-and-improved Rolls-Royce Ghost 22 THE HOTEL Lake Como’s Villa d’Este and its storied history 26 THE SUPERYACHT Heseen is building the world’s largest aluminium yacht 28 THE STAYCATION The rebirth of Scotland’s Gleneagles hotel 32 THE TAILOR Introducing Savile Row’s first all-female tailor LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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01 THE PROPERTY

Waldorf Astoria New York A $1BILLION REFURBISHMENT OF MANHATTAN’S MOST CELEBRATED HOTEL MEANS YOU’LL SOON BE ABLE TO LIVE THERE PERMANENTLY Words: Ellen Millard

“T

he greatest of them all” was how esteemed hotelier Conrad Hilton described the Waldorf Astoria, the palatial New York hotel that occupies an entire block in Midtown Manhattan.

It was, after all, the Waldorf Astoria that arguably created the template for luxury hotels as we know them today, being, as it was, the first to offer room service, operate a reservation-only restaurant, and come up with the concept of a rooftop ‘happy hour’.

Waldorf Astoria opened in 1931 to much fanfare as the largest and tallest hotel in the world. President Herbert Hoover even delivered a congratulatory message live on the radio from the White House. He was such a fan that he moved in three years later, and almost every president since has chosen the Waldorf as their base when in New York (Donald Trump bucking the trend).

Other visitors of note included HM The Queen, Sir Winston Churchill and songwriter Cole Porter,

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There are 126 apartment layouts to choose from, ranging from studio apartments to two spectacular penthouse suites located at the top of the hotel’s towers

who lived at the Waldorf for almost 30 years, penning some of his most famous jingles on a Steinway & Son’s piano gifted to him by the hotel. When Porter died in 1964, his apartment was taken over by Frank Sinatra, who rented the space for the princely sum of $1m a year.

Having shut its doors in 2017, Waldorf Astoria is now being completely overhauled in a $1billion restoration project that will see 1,400 former guest rooms transformed into 375 condominium residences and 375 hotel suites. When I visited in March 2020, a couple of weeks before the city was forced into lockdown, the traditional New York din of taxi horns was for once drowned out by a crescendo of heavy machinery coming from within the hotel’s walls.

Taking up an entire block between 49th and 50th Street, the Waldorf Astoria sits on the Midtown Manhattan stretch of Park Avenue, within walking distance of Grand Central Station, Times Square and the Rockefeller Centre. So tall is its Art Deco façade, that’s it’s hard to gauge just

how large the building is without stepping into the middle of the street.

Considering the building’s size, the scale of the project is daunting – and with its exterior and interior formally protected under New York’s Landmarks Preservation Law, the Waldorf Astoria is a property all the more difficult to refurbish.

Developer Daijia US and architect Skidmore, Owings & Merril are undoing a number of insensitive alterations from the past, including replacing more than 5,000 windows with original profiles and colours, colour-matching original ‘Waldorf Grey’ bricks, and structurally reinforcing a number of terraces so as to provide access to them for the first time.

The space within the ‘Towers of Waldorf Astoria’ will be turned into private homes located above the hotel and designed by interiors mogul Jean-Louis Deniot. The building was effectively a construction site when I visited, but a one-bedroom show

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apartment, with a marble reception area, provided an impression of what to expect. Each residence will feature solid custom-panelled doors and be fitted with bespoke antique hardware.

Bathrooms will feature custom cabinets manufactured by Molenti&C and vanities topped with polished marble.

While there will be bespoke elements throughout each apartment, the general design is fixed — so yours will be a quartzite countertop kitchen whether you want one or not.

There will be 126 floorplans to choose from, ranging from studio apartments to two spectacular penthouse suites located at the top of the hotel’s towers – with prices starting from $1.7m and rising to

Designed by Jean-Louis Denoit, The Towers of Waldorf Astoria’s private amenities will feature a large wellness facility, complete with its own treatment rooms, gym and a spectacular 25m swimming pool overlooking Park Avenue.

$18.5m for a four-bedroom apartment.

It’s a big price to own a comparatively small slice of New York real estate, with the majority of properties being just oneand two-bedroom apartments — but the developers are banking on its roster of residents-only amenities making up for the lack of space.

There will be a 20,000 sq ft spa, with its own sauna, steam rooms and treatment rooms; a fitness centre overlooking a 25m swimming pool and outdoor terrace; two bars; a billiards room, a games room; a theatre; a children’s playroom and a library.

The restoration is a massive undertaking, and it’s proving timeconsuming; the original 2020 reopening date had already been pushed back by a year, and thanks to the pandemic the developers are now projecting a 2022 launch instead. But they aren’t in any rush.

“The greatest of them all” is a lot to live up to, after all.

The Towers of Waldorf Astoria Residences start from $1.7m, with occupancy expected in 2022, waldorftowers.nyc LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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02 THE CAR

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THE BRIEFING

The Rolls-Royce Ghost ELEVEN YEARS AFTER ITS LAUNCH, THE GHOST HAS BEEN COMPLETELY REIMAGINED FROM THE GROUND UP Words: Jeremy Taylor

A

ccording to Rolls-Royce, the only components that were carried over from the first Ghost to this new edition were the Spirit of Ecstasy emblem and the umbrellas in the doors. Everything else was designed, crafted and engineered from the ground up in accordance with customer feedback.

Equipped with a 6.75-litre, twin-turbo V12 engine borrowed from the Cullinan, the Ghost has an incredible turn of speed for a car weighing nearly two-and-a-half tonnes.

There are no paddle gear changers or driving modes to explore here because Rolls-Royce claims that isn’t what Ghost owners want. Instead, the all-wheel steering set-up makes the new Ghost extra nimble around town, or more precise and surefooted barrelling into fast corners.

On a motorway, the Rolls is in a different class for comfort. So good, in fact, that highrolling backseat passengers can whisper to the driver and still be heard – partly due to 100kg of soundproofing layered around the car.

Bizarrely, when testers first drove the new Ghost they decided the cabin was actually too quiet. The effect disorientated passengers and a suitable amount of noise had to be built back in.

This is the first Rolls-Royce with doors that can be opened and closed electrically, while the dashboard is refreshingly simple and decluttered.

Interior designers still need 20 half hides to deck out the leather panels, while the open-pore wood dashboard can be dotted with an illuminated star-like finish to match the roof lining. rolls-roycemotorcars.com

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03 THE HOTEL

Villa d’Este, Lake Como, Italy THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS HOTEL ON ITALY’S MOST FAMOUS LAKE HAS A REPUTATION THAT PRECEDES IT Words: Richard Brown

I

t’s just gone seven pm in mid-September and it’s still hot.

Hot enough to make you wish you’d worn a thinner blazer (you have to wear a blazer). Hot enough to make you regret taking a table in the waning sun (you’ll get over it). Climate is one of Lake Como’s biggest draws. That, and the three-legged lagoon’s proximity to Milan – 50 minutes by train, 40 by car, 20 by chopper. Villa d’Este’s helipad isn’t just for show.

Danilo Zucchetti tells a good anecdote.

He was 14, for instance, when he failed to hoodwink his way past the general manager of the 16th-century cardinal’scrash-pad-turned-palatial-hotel on the outside of Cernobbio.

The property – big, white, famous for its manicured gardens and Nymphaeum mosaic – has been carving a name for itself as the most luxurious lodgings in Lake Como – some, including Forbes magazine and participants of a survey

by The Telegraph, say the world – since a cohort of Milanese businessmen turned it into one in 1873. Zucchetti was laughed off the premises.

Thirty-something years later, Zucchetti is back; be-suited, bespectacled and having developed more than a passing

resemblance to Roger Moore (The Spy Who Loved Me, if you had to pin it down).

A waiter in black tie – all waiting staff wear black tie all the time – dispenses more Ruinart, the hotel’s house champagne, natch, and Zucchetti, who’s been with Villa d’Este since 2005, its managing director since 2012, continues riffing though the most memorable moments of his tenure so far.

There was the time a duck wandered into the dining room, got spooked, and flew into a window, prompting the maître d’ to declare that duck was now on the menu. Then the lady who threw her diamond engagement ring into the lake following a dust-up with her other half, only to jump in seconds later to fish it out (she failed).

The crowd is well-dressed and well behaved; younger than you’d expect for a hotel with more 18th-century oil paintings and 19th-century antiques than most museums. The majority are repeat visitors. Few people stay at Villa d’Este only the once.

Down on the lake to our left, connected to the hotel’s beach bar – commendable caipirinhas, cold Peroni, a sublime club sandwich between 11.30 and 18.00 – a floating swimming pool,

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installed in 1966, is tethered to the shore by a wooden gangway. It was the first of its kind on Lake Como. Last winter, the whole 167-tonne structure had to be towed to Valmadrera, nine hours away, for a £700,000 refurbishment. Perched on the corner of the pontoon, looking down at the lake, is a heron. The same heron, says a different waiter in the same black tie later that evening, has visited the same spot for more years than he cares to remember. Myth and magic. Fact and fiction.

Fact: Villa d’Este was once owned

by Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales and short-lived queen consort to King George IV (her first cousin, incidentally). Believing herself to be a descendant of the princely Este family from northern Italy, it was the Saxonborn Princess who bequeathed the property its modern-day name.

Fact: in 1948, at the end of the after-party that followed a fashion show

by Milanese designer Elvira Leonardi Bouyeure, Pia Bellentani, a well-to-do socialite who’d married a better-to-do Count, shot dead her former lover, wealthy silk magnate Carlo Sacchi, on the edge of the Villa d’Este dancefloor. Bellentani then turned the gun on herself but it failed to shoot. She was later incarcerated in a mental hospital, subsequent to one of the most exhaustive criminal proceedings in Italian legal history.

Fiction: those medieval fortifications on the hill. Well, they are real, in the literal sense. You can climb them, touch them, take selfies from on top of them.

But they’re a con, a vanity project commissioned in 1808 by the villa’s thenowner, Vittoria Peluso, a former dancer at Milan’s prestigious La Scala ballet school, in honour of the swashbuckling exploits of her marauding husband, a general in Napoleonic army. There’s a trail to the top that passes through turrets and secret openings and hidden passageways. Few people bother with it.

It was one of the highlights of our stay.

Villa d’Este has 152 rooms; 125 in the Cardinal Building; 27 in the Queen’s

A ballet of waiters pirouettes out of the kitchen delivering enormous plates of fresh pasta and sea bass served whole Pavilion. Each is accessed by a heavy brass key after a long walk down an extremely wide corridor. No two rooms are the same. Heavy velvet curtains plunge you into darkness at night. Hefty exterior shutters slide into cavities concealed within the hotel’s outer walls in the morning. Bathrooms are marble. Beds are vast. Elizabeth Taylor used to hideout at Villa d’Este at the start of her affair with Richard Burton.

Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand and Bill Gates have all stayed at the hotel.

Ditto, Michael Douglas, Mel Gibson, Mick Jagger and Madonna. You could run through the alphabet from A to Z –

Rooms at Villa d’Este start from ¤920 (approx. £840) per night, based on double occupancy, including breakfast, villadeste.com

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beginning with King Albert of Belgium and ending with Catherine Zeta-Jones.

World wars and global pandemics notwithstanding, Villa d’Este has hosted the Concorso d’Eleganza, the prestigious classic car gathering, since 1929. In 2013, Ralph Lauren won ‘Best in Show’, having flown in his 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC

Atlantic. Every year, to cover the value of the competition’s 70 or so entrants, Zucchetti has to insure the hotel’s garages to the tune of €270 million.

Books have been written about the gardens of Villa d’Este. An 18th-century Nymphaeum was declared a national monument. A double chain of stone basins, hundreds in total, connects the mosaic of polychrome pebbles to a statue of Hercules casting Lichas into the sea.

More books still – four so far – have been written about the food. The latest, A Culinary Experience, includes the recipes of the hotel’s signature dishes. Weather permitting, you can dine pieds dans l’eau right up until November. Executive chef, Michele Zambanini, gets his herbs

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and vegetables from a garden beneath Hercules. A ballet of waiters pirouettes out of the kitchen delivering enormous plates of fresh pasta and sea bass served whole. Men are required to wear a jacket. A pianist plays on the patio until well past midnight.

There’s a fitness centre with a sauna and steam room and large indoor swimming pool. There’s a squash court, a digital golf simulator and eight clay tennis courts. You can kayak, canoe and paddleboard for free; you can sail, windsurf and water ski for a fee. It’s hard, truly, to say what more you could want from a hotel.

Like always, it’s the little things that make all the difference. An international edition of The New York Times left outside your door every morning without having to ask. Your plate being taken back to the kitchen to be kept warm when nature calls halfway through dinner.

Cernobbio’s bell tower rings eight o’clock. Across the lake, the street lights of Blevio flicker like the embers of a dying fire. The sun’s run out, so has the Ruinart. The heron’s still there.

What sort of welcome would Zucchetti give his 14-year-old self if he rocked up today? “If I turned up on my pushbike and shorts?! I wouldn’t let him passed the front door!”

Best in the world? It’s got to be up there.

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04 T H E S U P E R YA C H T

Project Cosmos HEESEN YACHTS IS BUILDING THE WORLD’S LARGEST, FASTEST FULL-ALUMINIUM SUPERYACHT Words: Richard Brown

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he problem with building a superyacht above a certain size, Mark Cavendish, director of sales and marketing at Heesen Yachts, is explaining to me, through the medium of Zoom from the shipbuilder’s headquarters in Holland, is that when you go above 50 metres or so, the boat has the potential to straddle two waves at the same time. Not so much of an issue, he says, if that boat is made from good-old-fashioned steel.

When, however, that boat is made from lighter-weight, more malleable aluminium, for the purposes of speed and fuel efficiency, there’s the possibility of the unsupported section of the boat flexing in the middle. Which would be a problem, potentially a catastrophic one.

To ensure that Cosmos, Heesen’s largest boat to date, was stiff enough to ride two waves at once, the firm’s engineers had to devise a completely new, spine-like construction method, a technology they appropriately patented ‘Backbone’.

“To explain the Backbone quite simply,” says Cavendish, “it’s more or less like the conventional ‘I’ beam girder used in regular construction,

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COSMOS WILL BE CAPABLE OF SPEEDS OF ALMOST 35MPH THANKS TO ITS KEEL CONSTRUCTION

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where you’ve got a horizontal member and two vertical ones and that gives it enormous rigidity. In the boat we have a similar process. The top beam, for instance, will be the deck; the bottom of the beam is the keel, and then in the middle you have the vertical structures that provide the rigidity.”

Thanks to the new, groundbreaking construction technique – and four enormous V20 diesel engines which, between them, are capable of producing more than 19,000hp – the streamlined, shallow-hulled Cosmos is set to become the world’s fastest, largest, all-aluminium superyacht when it launches – global pandemics willing – in November 2021.

The exterior of the yacht is the work of naval architects Winch Design, which, as per the owner’s brief, has decorated Cosmos with a 270 sqm sun deck; a helicopter landing area that doubles as an outdoor cinema; a seven-metre, glass-bottomed swimming pool; a beach club with a sunken walkaround bar; and, sure to clinch any game of superyacht Top Trumps, a waterfall that plunges from one deck to another. heesenyachts.com

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T H E B OAT M E A S U R E S THE LENGTH OF MORE THAN F IV E B U S E S

T H E O U T PU T O F T H E F O U R V20 D IE S E L E NG IN E S T H AT P O W E R C O SM O S

05 T H E S T AY C A T I O N

Gleneagles Hotel & Golf Resort, Scotland FOLLOWING A SIGNIFICANT OVERHAUL OF ITS FACILITIES AND THE REOPENING OF THE STRATHEARN RESTAURANT, GLENEAGLES HAS GOT ITS SWAGGER BACK Words: Mhairi Mann

I

t’s lunchtime at Gleneagles. Pinsharp waiters zip through the plant-packed, bright courtyard of the Birnam Brasserie, furnished with marble top tables and rattan café chairs. By the entrance, visitors pick up bouquets from a flower cart or emerge reinvigorated from the spa.

Outside, smart cars crunch gravel, taking care to avoid Pashley bicycles and the gaggle of children playing croquet on the lawn. The hotel is buzzing with Barbour-clad locals and stylish weekenders, lapping up the luxuries that

a weekend at this five-star playground has to offer.

This was not always the case at Gleneagles. While always considered Scotland’s most luxurious hotel, offering unrivalled views of Perthshire’s rugged, undulating landscape, it became antiquated over the years, drawing an older, golf-centric crowd. The property was sold in 2015 to the team behind The Hoxton hotels group, Ennismore, and has since undergone a period of rapid renovation to be transformed once again into Scotland’s trendiest hotspot.

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Gleneagles now boasts an incredible 11 restaurants and bars of varying formality.

An arcade of boutiques caters for the wellheeled, selling fine jewellery, cosmetics and kiddie cashmere. There is also the supremely plush Bob & Cloche hair and beauty salon, with dusty pink furnishings and pink velvet sofas.

For its efforts, the hotel has been scooping up accolades: it boasts the only spa in Scotland to be designated a Luxury Spa Resort by the Leading Hotels of the World group and, more recently, Daniel Greenock was awarded Restaurant Manager of the Year for leading the transformation of the new Strathearn restaurant, which launched in 2019 to widespread acclaim.

The art deco-inspired grand dining space has been redesigned to capture the glamour and grandeur of the Roaring Twenties, with fringed velvet seating, ornate glass lampshades and artfully gilded trimmings. On a low-lit evening, a fleet of bespoke silver serving trolleys work the room, theatrically flipping wafer-thin crêpes and sizzling steaks over towering flames, while a pianist plays beneath the bay window.

The restaurant pairs the best of Scottish produce with the flair of French fine dining for an impeccable menu that includes whisky barrel smoked salmon, wild venison with red wine jus and tender halibut with champagne sauce.

The Strathearn delivers on both drama

F or all its rural setting, Gleneagles is surprisingly accessible.

It is one hour from both Edinburgh and Glasgow airports and boasts its own train station.

The Strathearn restaurant delivers on drama and jazz-age decadence but it is also lively – a feat not often accomplished by a countryside hotel

The action-packed kids club celebrates the hotel motto: ‘Whatever an adult can do, a child can do too’

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and decadence but, more importantly, it is lively – a feat not often accomplished by a countryside hotel restaurant. The menu is matched by a convivial atmosphere, ringing with laughter and bonhomie.

After dinner, we retire to the ambient and discreet American Bar, where a prohibition-style cocktail proves the perfect nightcap.

Bedrooms are elegant and spacious, while the famed Gleneagles breakfast is a spectacular spread spanning charcuterie, haggis, clootie dumpling (steamed Scottish fruitcake), smoked cheeses and a millennial-friendly smashed avocado station.

Guests at Gleneagles are encouraged to explore the great outdoors, be it cantering on horseback, by bicycle or behind the wheel of a Land Rover.

An honourable mention for the fleet of electric Toylander cars for kids, perfect for mini adventurers and

in keeping with the hotel’s motto: ‘Whatever an adult can do, a child can do, too’. There is also falconry, archery, a shooting school and, of course, the world-famous golf course.

All of this, plus the mountainous views of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs on your doorstep, makes Gleneagles so much more than just a hotel. What really sets this cool five-star retreat apart from The Hoxton, Soho House and all of its equally lavish, velvet sofa-clad counterparts across the UK, is the inimitable Scottish charm – that signature warmth and wit, instilled by the tweed-topped staff from the moment you’re ushered through the revolving doors.

Rates for a Country Double Room start from approximately £395 including VAT and breakfast, The Gleneagles Hotel, Auchterarder PH3 1NF, gleneagles.com LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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06 T H E TA I L O R

The DECK London FOUNDER DAISY KNATCHBULL MAKES HISTORY BY OPENING THE FIRST ALL-FEMALE TAILOR ON SAVILE ROW

When Daisy Knatchbull donned a top hat and tails for Royal Ascot in 2016, she became the first woman to do so in the history of the Royal Enclosure. She knew she was breaking with tradition, but the overwhelmingly positive reception she received still came as a shock.

“It was the reaction of the women and the press that made me realise the beauty and elegance of all things sartorial was woefully unavailable to women,” she explains, “and so I decided that I would take the risk and try to make a difference.”

That difference comes in the form of The Deck London, a madeto-measure tailoring service founded by women, produced by women and available exclusively to women.

Knatchbull utilised her years working as the communications director for Hunstman on Savile Row to set up her business, naming it after a deck of cards in a nod to the four signature silhouettes, or

‘suits’, the brand offers: the SingleBreasted, the Double-Breasted, the Boyfriend and the Safari.

Competitively priced, made-tomeasure suit trousers start from £700 and blazers from £1,600. Each style is available with a choice of straight-leg, wide-leg, flared or cigarette trousers, and more than 7,000 types of material, with the lining, buttons and thread customisable. There’s also the option of skirts, waistcoats and shorts.

“We wanted to create an exclusive tailoring offering for women and challenge the conception that being fitted for a suit is often an ‘intimidating process’ by offering an empathetic women-for-women service, understanding their needs and emotional relationship with clothing. There are thousands of tailors making for men and only a handful for women – so it’s fantastic to be a part of that.” EM 19 Savile Row, thedecklondon.com

Furnished exclusively by Oka and spread over 3,000 sq ft, The Deck London’s Savile Row store stocks signature tailoring alongside a capsule collection of concession brands that will change every three months, including jewellery, shirts and shoes that complement the brand’s own suiting.

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THE BRIEFING

07 THE MEMBERS’ CLUB

The Fitzdares Club THE UPMARKET BOOKMAKERS OPENS A SPORTS-THEMED MEMBERS’ CLUB ON MAYFAIR’S DAVIES STREET

Fun fact: Fitzdares takes its name from Elizabeth Fitzdare, Balthazar B’s love interest in the J.P. Donleavy novel The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B.

While other bookmakers are closing their doors or migrating online, bespoke betting company Fitzdares believes the future of gambling lies not in algorithms and smart screens but in the old-school connection between bookmaker and sports fan. To help foster the return of that critically-endangered relationship, the company has opened a Mayfairbased members’ club inspired by sport.

Spread over two floors, The Fitzdares Club boasts a restaurant, bar, two private dining rooms and a dedicated Racing Room.

Interiors have been designed by Rosanna

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Bossom, the creative mind behind 5 Hertford Street, while the wine list has been curated by Dom Jacobs, former bar director at Sketch.

Food-wise, expect twists on traditional bar classics, such as Bresse chicken and truffle dippers, burgers made from rump and bone marrow, and lobster croissants.

“No other club really deliver the joys of great food and wine accompanied by the wonders of sport,” says William Woodhams, Fitzdares CEO. “There is genuinely nothing like it anywhere else.”

The Fitzdares Club has also launched a home delivery service offering dishes such as Beef Wellington with all the trimmings, and the Ultimate Game Day Feast – consisting of chicken dippers with black garlic aioli, The House Scotch Egg, The Fitzdares club sandwich and Posh Nachos with double Gloucester, parmesan, black truffle and crème fraîche.

Fitzdares Club opens seven days a week, from noon until midnight – and much later if there’s a big-ticket boxing match taking place the other side of the pond. RB Membership costs £600 per annum; 50 Davies Street, Mayfair, W1. For membership, email club@fitzdares.com

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In the year that he became the most decorated driver in Formula One history, Lewis Hamilton also assumed a principal position in the Black Lives Matter movement while intensifying his efforts to champion diversity within motor sport. Here, the seven-time world champion discusses his own experiences of racism, the opportunities his platforms provide, and the launch of his Extreme E racing team

“I WILL REMEMBER THIS PERIOD OF MY LIFE AS AN AWAKENING FOR SOCIETY�

Words: Jeremy Taylor

LEWIS HAMILTON X LG SIGNATURE

Hamilton is now the most successful driver in Formula One history. On 15 November 2020, the boy from Stevenage claimed his seventh world championship title at the Turkish Grand Prix. In doing so, he equalled the record set by Michael Schumacher 16 years earlier – a haul that many believed would never be beaten.

Hamilton has now won more races than his German hero – 94 at the time of print – with the promise of further titles, unless something goes drastically wrong, in the years to come.

I spoke to the 35-year-old on the Saturday of that Turkish Grand Prix.

The champion-elect had just endured a terrible qualifying session, unhappy about grip on a newly-laid track that had tested his imperious wet-driving skills to the max.

Instead of lining up at the front of the grid, the next day Hamilton would start the race in sixth position. In inclement conditions, he would claim his 94th grand prix victory, and with it the 2020 championship.

“That’s for all the kids who dream the impossible,” he will say, in an emotional radio message broadcast around the world.

Wiping away tears, Hamilton will lift his visor and be engulfed by a tsunami of Mercedes team mates. Boris Johnson will send a congratulatory message. Plaudits will flood in from all quarters of society.

A second BBC Sports Personality of the

LEWIS HAMILTON X LG SIGNATURE

LEWIS

Year award will surely be on the cards, and there’ll be rumours of a knighthood in the upcoming New Year’s Honours list.

The emotional scene will be a moment to savour in what has become, in other places, a very dark year. Hamilton is already reflective about his role in 2020 – both on and off the track. “It has been a very unusual year of competition because of the effects of the pandemic.

Racing without fans and with social distancing has changed everything.

“Away from Formula 1, I will remember this period of my life as an awakening for society. The death of George Floyd sparked the Black Lives Matter campaign and acted like a giant rock dropped in a pool of water. It created a ripple effect which has spread throughout the world. We now have to ensure those ripples don’t fade away.”

Hamilton became a figurehead of the Black Lives Matter movement by encouraging his fellow F1 drivers to ‘take the knee’ at each of the season’s grands prix. While his competitors have all expressed their solidarity against racial injustice, some, claiming political impartiality, among other reasons, refused to kneel.

The split in ranks hasn’t deterred Hamilton, who continues to lobby drivers to stay involved in conversations about equality and injustice. “We have to remain committed to making a change,” he says.

“There has been improvement this year but we need to do more work. We need to be constantly learning and holding ourselves accountable.

“I took risks using my voice and putting my head above the parapet, but in 2021 I intend to keep on going. F1 needs to be more diverse and minorities need more opportunity. Your destination in life shouldn’t be determined by your colour, religion or where you are from. We should all have the same opportunities.”

Hamilton has experienced racism first-hand. From an early age he was bullied both at school and on the go-kart track (he began learning his trade at the age of eight). Certain events are etched into his memory.

“I have a lot of memories from back them. Memories of people looking down and talking down to Dad and I. It wasn’t just the parental bickering

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“WE ARE STILL IN THE EARLY STAGES WHEN IT COMES TO DIVERSITY IN MOTORSPORT. PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR THOSE FROM A MORE DIVERSE BACKGROUND IS A PRIORITY ”

you get between families; I’m talking about racism.”

His father, Anthony, bought Hamilton a remote-control car when he was five and realised his son had a passion for speed. Within a year, the toy had been replaced with a go-kart powered by a lawn-mower engine.

“We took it to the empty car park at B&Q when there was nobody around and I learnt how to use the pedals. Dad drove me anywhere there was a space big enough. Then we discovered Rye House go-kart circuit, just off the A10 in Hertfordshire.

“Dad was a tough man – when he said something, I did it. He would watch where the champion kart drivers braked into a corner, then pace out a few extra metres further on and stand where I should brake. I kept skidding off through the tyres and into the field. The first time I had an accident and bloodied my nose he ran up to see how I was. I just replied ‘can you fix the kart in time for racing tomorrow?’”

The Hamiltons weren’t a wealthy family. Lewis’ grandparents had come to the UK from Grenada in the 1950s and his parents, Anthony and Carmen, moved from London to Stevenage’s Shephall Estate before splitting up when Hamilton was two. Anthony worked in IT and took a succession of extra jobs to fund his son’s fledgling career.

“We’d lower the seats of Dad’s Vauxhall Cavalier and stuff my go-kart in the back. It didn’t fit and would just hang out the boot.

We eventually bought a box trailer and my Stepmum would sit in the back with a little gas heater that Dad found in a skip.

“She had a red plastic flask with a hot Pot Noodle and bacon sandwiches always at the ready. I went back to the circuit a few years ago and it was great to see. I don’t miss the trailer and the Knorr Chicken Noodles but I do miss the simplicity of it all.”

Hamilton’s first kart was among the slowest of his competitors’, partly because of age restrictions, but when he started to get better at racing, the would-be champion noticed how other parents would be extra competitive towards his Dad. “You expect that in sport but what isn’t okay is when it becomes racist.”

Things weren’t much better at secondary school. “I hated it. School LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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was always a struggle for me. Kids can be tough and I was one of only two black kids. Luckily, I had big sisters who were able to look out for me. I was bullied a lot – a massive amount, in fact.”

Earlier this year, Hamilton surprised the owners of his first family home in Stevenage by turning up unannounced.

“I drive by quite often and decided to knock on the door. It had changed a lot but the fireplace my father built was still there and the owners were very kind.”

Hamilton returns to Hertfordshire as often as he can to see his divorced parents. He recently reconciled with his father after a very public falling out. He splits his spare time between homes in Monaco and California.

“All I want to do is finish this season on a high,” he says, “take my dog for a walk on the beach and maybe go surfing in Bali. If I was to treat myself, it would be to go on a trip with my family or friends.

I’d like to go and see one of the seven wonders of the world – especially the Pyramids, because I’ve never been. Then I’d like to throw some clothes in a bag and go scuba diving. It really has been a tough year.”

In 2021, Hamilton will achieve another lifetime ambition with the launch of his own racing team. The champion won’t leave Mercedes but has just entered into the new Extreme E series. The all-electric, off-road platform is due to start in 2021, racing SUVs in parts of the planet most affected by climate change.

“I’ve always wanted my own team; I just never knew when it would be. So when I heard about Extreme E, I jumped at the chance. Then, when I learnt what the series would be, what it means, what it will do, I knew it would create a powerful statement.”

Hamilton’s team will include both a male and female driver, as mandated by the Extreme E rulebook. Breaking down gender barriers was another reason Hamilton signed up. “We are still in the early stages when it comes to diversity in motorsport. Providing opportunities for those from a more diverse background is a priority for me.

“It’s not a quick fix for the motor racing community to move into a more inclusive situation. It’s going to take time to address the inequalities that there are

THIS PAGE AND RIGHT LEWIS HAMILTON WITH THE NEW MERCEDES-BENZ S-CLASS

in the career pathway for many people.”

Intriguingly, the series will once again pit the seven-time world champion against his old F1 rival, 2016 World Champion and Monte Carlo neighbour, Nico Rosberg.

Neither will compete as drivers but the contest still promises to be fascinating.

“The environment and raising awareness about climate change are close to my heart. Electric racing gives me an opportunity for me to merge my love of motorsport with my love for the planet,” says Hamilton.

“I’m aware of the platform that Formula 1 has given me and I want to put it to good use. In my position, I have a responsibility to raise awareness of climate change.”

The irony of what he does for a living isn’t lost on Hamilton. “Motor sport does have a negative impact on the planet but now there is an alternative. New technologies like hydrogen fuel cells will charge Extreme E cars with a zero-emission energy source – which I think is incredible. Hopefully, we will start a ripple effect and other parts of the industry will follow.”

Last year, Hamilton backed up his eco commitments by selling his £25 million private Bombardier Challenger jet. He

now chooses to drive around Monaco in a battery-powered car. His electric Smart has been supplemented by the new Mercedes EQC – an electric SUV. “I bought the Smart so my Mum and half-sisters wouldn’t freak out driving a supercar around town when they come to visit me. I use it all the time, as well as the EQC. “The other car I have in Monaco is a McLaren, but I very rarely use it. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed driving a car on the road, however counter-intuitive that sounds for a racing driver. It’s very stressful and any journey longer than an hour or so is just dead time you don’t get back.”

Even so, Hamilton says he does relent when he moves to California for his annual winter break. The F1 star has a collection of cars which seem more of an investment than a pleasure, considering how little time he spends behind the wheel.

Hamilton’s garage contains all manner of automotive exotica, including a rare Ferrari 599 SA Aperta convertible, Pagani Zonda 760LH, McLaren P1 and a Mercedes-AMG One. Pride of place goes to a brace of classic Shelbys – a 1966 427 Cobra and a 1967 Ford Mustang GT500.

“I do like to take a car out driving in

the mountains – it’s a chance to get away from it all. The season ends much later this year, so there won’t be a lot of time to enjoy that.”

Hamilton keeps a Mercedes-Maybach in England but admits that most of his time is spent in the back seat these days.

He’s awaiting delivery of the all-new Mercedes S-Class, which is on sale now and will start deliveries next year.

Touted as the most technicallyadvanced Mercedes ever built, the luxurious four-door has been completely re-engineered for 2021 and weighs 60kg less than the outgoing model. The hybridonly car features an augmented reality heads-up display and a Tesla-like portrait computer on the dashboard.

“I’ve driven the new S-Class and what really impressed me was the ride quality.

You would think that by now we have reached the very pinnacle of comfort in cars but somehow the engineers have taken it to a new level. In F1 you feel every bump, so I’m well qualified to talk about seat comfort.”

These days, Hamilton says his biggest luxury isn’t what’s parked on the driveway – it’s time. “I remember being a kid and naturally you see what others have and you don’t. I was given one pair of trainers a year and had to make them last. I also remember the idea of wanting the next big thing – a computer, bike or whatever it was.

“When I first met Nico [Rosberg], he was a world champion’s son and his dad had 26 cars. I never knew you could own more than one car! He turned up in a Lamborghini at one race and we arrived in a Fiat Cinquecento. I remember being blown away by that and thinking ‘wow!

One day I’m going to have one of those’.

“Thankfully, I’ve gone through that period and come out the other side. You realise you don’t actually need any of that shit, what is really valuable and what you can never really get back is time.”

Hamilton, who reportedly earned £40 million in 2019, says time is one commodity he can’t afford. “When I get a Monday off after racing, I take my bulldog Roscoe down to the beach and sit and throw a stone with him, that’s luxury. I’ve had most of the things I’ve ever wanted but I can never get enough time.”

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Culture MUSIC,

MUSEUMS AND

MASTERPIECES

Visual activist and photographer Zanele Muholi’s 26-year career will be explored in a new exhibition at Tate Modern (p.48)

48 THE AGENDA Exhibitions to add to your calendar, from artist JR’s Saatchi Gallery retrospective to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s long-awaited bag exhibition 54 CHARLES MANSON: THE PRISON YEARS How the Manson Family cult continued long after its leader was behind bars

T H E A G E N DA YOUR CURATED GUIDE TO CULTURE IN THE CAPITAL Words: Ellen Millard

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Lynette YiadomBoakye, Tate Britain

Artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye doesn’t need a real person to create her figurative artworks. In fact, she’d prefer not to have one. Each of her portraits, often completed in a single day, are literal figures of her imagination, a conglomeration of people she’s seen on the street, in photographs or in her dreams. As much a writer as she is an artist, the British-Ghanaian painter gives each artwork an elusive title – In Lieu of Keen Virtue; A Passion Like No Other – which acts as an extension of the painting. It is up to the viewer to decide what they mean, who the person is and how the two connect. At Tate Britain, the largest exhibition of the artist’s works will go on display this winter, with more than 80 portraits spanning from 2003 to the present day.

Fly in League with the Night, until 9 May, £13, Millbank, SW1P, tate.org.uk

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, No Need of Speech, 2018, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, photography by Bryan Conley

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JR: Chronicles, Saatchi Gallery

Merging graffiti with photography, French street artist JR spotlights communities across the globe by photographing them and then showcasing their images – sometimes

illegally – in public spaces on a monumental scale. A TED prize winner and Oscar-nominated filmmaker, JR’s global art projects have created dialogue around social issues such as women’s rights, immigration and gun control.

This winter, Saatchi Gallery presents the largest solo museum exhibition of his work to date. Organised by the Brooklyn Museum and with major support from LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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Art Explora, the show charts his early years as a teenage graffiti artist in Paris to his large-scale architectural interventions across the globe.

Until 21 March, £9, Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, SW3, saatchigallery.com JR, The Chronicles of Clichy-Montfermeil, 2017, ©jr-art.net

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Absolutely Augmented Reality, Hoxton 253 Combining fine art with photography, artists Kuzma Vostrikov and Ajuan Song have created a series of surreal portraiture that offers a new and intense view of the modern world. Combining theatrical and symbolic imagery with historical art references, the duo has produced a vibrant and super-charged exhibition, Absolutely Augmented Reality, which will go on display at Hoxton 253 in January. The artists’ first major exhibition in the UK will include 20 of their favourite works from their book of the same name, which was published earlier this year.

21 January – 18 February, Hoxton 253 art project space, 253 Hoston Street, Whitmore Estate, N1, hoxton253.com

Above Travel into a Good Mood Right Antiquated Lips, both ©Kuzma Vostrikov and Ajuan Song

4 Story,

Victoria Miro

Three decades ago, Chantal Joffe began painting portraits of her mother, Daryl.

Some were from photographs, a family scene from Joffe’s childhood during the 1970s perhaps, while others were from life, with Daryl alone in a doorway, for example, or reclining on the sofa. The result is a series of figurative paintings that depict not just Joffe’s mother but their relationship, and the shift in dynamic as time has gone by.

Chantal Joffe, Me, Em and Nat, 2020

A selection of these portraits will go on display at Victoria Miro gallery in an exhibition entitled Story, along with a series of large-scale pastel self-portraits.

27 January – 6 March, 16 Wharf Road, N1, victoria-miro.com

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Clockwise from left Grace Kelly’s departure from Hollywood, photography by Allan Grant, ©The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images; Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, Speedy handbag, Autumn-Winter 2006, Paris; Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Lait de Coco evening bag Autumn-Winter 2014, Paris; Gianni Versace, Safety-pin handbag, Spring-Summer 1994, Italy, all images ©Victoria and Albert Museum

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Bags: Inside Out, Victoria and Albert Museum

Bags: Inside Out has twice been rescheduled due to the pandemic, having originally planned to open in May and then again in November. When it does finally open, it will no doubt be worth the wait. Exploring the function, design and craftsmanship of the beloved accessory, the exhibition will showcase bags of historical note, such as Margaret Thatcher’s Asprey, Winston Churchill’s despatch box and Queen Mary’s WWII gas mask bag, along with culturally significant totes such as the Hermès Birkin.

Dates to be announced, please check the website for more informtation; £12, Cromwell Road, SW7, vam.ac.uk

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A self-described visual activist, artist Zanele Muholi has been documenting the lives of LGBTQIA+ communities in South Africa since the early 2000s. This winter, the largest showcase of Muholi’s career to date will open at Tate Modern, where more than 260 photographs are being exhibited. Key series of works include Brave Beauties, which celebrates empowered non-binary people and trans women, and Somnyama Ngonyama, an on-going self-portrait series which translates as ‘Hail the Dark Lioness’ and explores themes such as labour, racism, and sexual politics.

Zanele Muholi, Tate Modern

Until 7 March, £13, Bankside, SE1,tate.org.uk

Zanele Muholi, Ntozakhe II, Parktown, 2016, courtesy of the Artist and Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, New York, ©Zanele Muholi

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CHARLES MANSON IN CALIFORNIA’S PELICAN BAY STATE PRISON, 1 SEPTEMBER 1996

“I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you... You want to kill me? Ha! I am already dead – have been all my life. I’ve spent 23 years in tombs that you have built.”

Charles Manson was, at the age of 36, about to return to jail, an environment he already knew only too well – though the man due to be locked up for the rest of his life was not the same person who had spent 23 years of his formative life incarcerated.

The diminutive petty crook (he was only 5ft 2) who was jailed in his teens and 20s for robbing petrol stations and stealing cars had grown into something infinitely more powerful.

The Charles Manson entering California’s correctional system at the start of the 1970s was one of the most famous, and feared, men on earth, complete with a small army of followers who were prepared to stop at nothing to secure his freedom and obey his crazed desires.

The story of the Manson Family has fascinated Americans, and much of the rest of the world, for more than half a century, spawning dozens of books, TV series and movies, with the tale most recently being given a completely fictional dénouement by Quentin Tarantino in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Living on a semi-derelict Californian movie set called Spahn Ranch, Manson and his followers were responsible for the brutal murder of heavily pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four of her friends in her Hollywood Hills home alongside similarly viscous killings of successful Beverly Hills businesswoman Rosemary LaBianca and her husband Leno over the course of the summer of 1969.

With Beatles song titles Helter Skelter and Piggies written on the walls of the murder scenes in their victim’s blood, the Family were the ultimate manifestation of the dark underbelly of 1960s counter-culture.

Ideals of flower power and anti-capitalistic future utopias were gruesomely inverted by Manson and his burgeoning group of mainly female, maniacal drop-outs, all of whom were completely under the spell of a man capable of imposing messianic powers over his acolytes.

For most of the outside world, the arrest of Manson and key members of the Family marked the end of the murderous activities of the group. The truth, however, was infinitely more murky, confusing and dangerous.

Now all but forgotten by history, Manson’s murder trial almost resulted in a killing inside the court room itself when, on 5 October 1970, Manson leapt over his lawyer’s table with a sharpened pencil and attempted to stab Judge Charles H. Older.

His female followers inside the court house began chanting in Latin as Manson was led from the room, screaming “in the name of Christian justice, someone should cut your head off!”

CHARLES MANSON: THE PRISON YEARS I N L A T E 1 9 7 0 C H A R L E S M A N S O N A N D H I S ‘ F A M I LY ’ S T O O D I N T H E D O C K A C C U S E D OF

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Despite the intervention of President Richard Nixon, who publically declared that he thought Manson was guilty “either directly or indirectly” before the trial had even concluded, pleas for a mis-trial by Manson’s lawyers were rejected. In his testimony, Manson voiced a directed culpability for his actions onto wider society: “These children that come at you with knives, they are your children. You taught them. I didn’t teach them. I just tried to help them stand up. Most of the people at the ranch that you call the Family were just people that you did not want.”

Judge Older was now sitting with a pistol concealed on his person. And although he wasn’t hurt in Manson’s court room attack, the attorney Ronald Hughes was less fortunate.

Acting for Family member Leslie Van Houten, Hughes argued with Manson that his client shouldn’t attempt to protect the Family leader by claiming, as she was being pressured to in her upcoming testimony, that Manson had nothing to do with either the Sharon Tate or LaBianca murders.

Hughes’ decomposed body was found wedged between two boulders by fishermen in March 1971, over four months after he disappeared. To this day nobody has been charged in connection with his death yet Manson follower Sandra Good has stated that “Hughes was the first of the retaliation murders.”

ABOVE CHARLES MANSON MUGSHOT FROM 1968 MIDDLE CHARLES MANSON IN A COURTROOM IN SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, IN 1970 TOP RIGHT CHARLES MANSON ON 16 JUNE 2011

“I’m 10 times the Pope. I’m 50 times the Pope.

I’m the Pope in the hills and in the mountains”

Found guilty on seven counts of first degree murder, Charles’s death penalty sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, the State of California abolishing the death penalty in 1972.

Manson and the leading members of the Family may now have been behind bars, but there were still plenty of devotees willing to complete his work on the outside.

Moving to live near Folsom prison so she could regularly visit Charles, Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme waited four years before making her next move on behalf of the deranged beliefs of the Family.

Dressed entirely in red and standing barely a foot away from President Gerald Ford, she fired a Colt.45 pistol at the US head of state while he walked across the grounds of the California State Capital building in Sacramento on the morning of 5 September 1975.

Incredibly, it seemed that Froome wasn’t aware that her gun didn’t include a round in the gun’s chamber. Failing to pull back the gun slide to insert a cartridge into the pistol’s chamber, the only sound on firing was an empty

metallic click.

Froome was swiftly jailed for attempted murder. But her attempts to reach her leader Charles wouldn’t be over yet.

All the while, Manson was being shuffled around various US prisons, now with a swastika tattooed between his eyes and seemingly determined to cause as much trouble as possible.

“Suffice it to say that he cannot be described as a model prisoner,” said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in 2017, by which time Manson’s violations numbered well into the hundreds.

A mail order catalogue for hot air balloons was found in Manson’s cell in 1982 along with nylon rope, a hacksaw blade and LSD tabs, advancing theories and conspiracies that leaked well beyond prison walls that Manson would, one day, mount an escape.

These plans, fanciful as they may have been, were dealt a severe blow two years later when Manson was doused with a flammable liquid and set ablaze by a Hare Krishna devotee who claimed Manson

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had threatened him for practising his faith in the same penitentiary in Vacaville.

Manson was treated for second- and thirddegree burns, and his scalp, hair and beard were singed.

Incredibly, despite a rap sheet of inmate offences that also included setting fire to mattresses and attacking guards and fellow inmates, Manson was given permission to take part in a series of highprofile TV interviews to US stations in the 1980s and 1990s, where he was allowed to vent at length on his theories.

He bragged to ABC News that he was a “gangster” and, with his prominent swastika tattoo and full, greying beard and hair on show, he stated to journalist Penny Daniels in 1989 that: “we use the word God. God hooks all the other words up. I’m the Pope. I’m 10 times the Pope.

I’m 50 times the Pope. But I’m the Pope in the hills and in the mountains.”

Manson’s unhinged proclamations seemed designed to ensure that he would never be paroled. And there is a school of thought that suggests that prison was the environment Manson actually wanted to inhabit all along. Able to prolong his

fame from behind bars, Charles became even more enigmatic, winning over new converts such as Gray Wolf.

Formerly known as Craig Hammond, the McDonald’s employee quit his job and moved to California in order to be close to the man he called his “hero”. It is believed that it was Wolf who managed to smuggle cell phones to Manson, who was regularly caught with mobile devices in his cell until 2016.

Continuing to communicate with various female members of the Family, both old and new, the Manson rumour mill went into overdrive in 2014 when Charles became engaged to Afton ‘Star’ Burton, a Mississippi woman five decades his junior.

Burton visited the famous inmate every day as well as running his website.

But despite obtaining a marriage license, they never became officially wed with Manson later claiming to the press that the reason the nuptials were never concluded was due to him discovering that Burton planned on taking possession of his corpse when he died and charging members of the public to view it.

By this time, Manson was in his 80s and becoming seriously ill. Having long stopped attending his own parole hearings, deeming them a “waste of time”, he was admitted to Bakersfield Hospital in January 2017 with gastrointestinal bleeding.

Considered too weak for surgery, the diagnosis was kept from the public, as were pictures of the dying Manson.

Knowing his time was running out, there was a conspicuous lack of info from both Manson and prison officials in the final months of his life with both parties having vastly differing reasons for not wanting to draw attention to the imminent end of the darkest of cult figures.

Charles Manson died aged 83 on 19 November 2017 of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure connected to colon cancer, having spent almost half of the last century in prison. His body was cremated in the California desert with rumours continuing to persist that surviving, freed members of the Family, plus new converts to Manson, were there to see Charles’s remains perish to ash.

Former Manson family member Dianne Lake gave a TV interview at the time of his death, stating that Charlie was “cute, LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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impish, fun” at first but that she wanted to commit suicide after he later raped her. “If they [the surviving imprisoned Family members] really had remorse,” said Lake, in a separate interview, “they would waive their parole hearings so that the families of the victims don’t have to relive this experience over and over.”

As of now, key Manson family members, including Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, are both still behind bars while Charles ‘Tex’ Watson, who described himself as Manson’s right-hand man, has become an ordained minister while still serving jail time in San Diego.

He has been denied parole 17 times.

As for Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Froome; she escaped from prison in 1987 after receiving a life sentence for the assassination attempt on President Ford.

Attempting to reach Manson in his cell, she was found two miles from the jail she’d fled in West Virginia after a 48-hour man hunt.

In August 2009, after serving 34 years in jail, Froome was released. Now in her early 70s, her whereabouts are unknown; just another former Family member now living in an America no longer containing Manson but where similarly deranged cults celebrating violence, conspiracy and white supremacy continue to persist.

As Linda Deutsch, who has covered the Manson Family story for more than half a century for US newspapers recently observed: “Manson had a streak of pure evil. The story is that it persists until now. He’s dead, finally, and yet it’s as if the curse has not yet disappeared. And it hangs over everyone who was ever involved with him.”

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During the first lockdown, Tom Kerridge launched Meals from Marlow, a charity that helped feed NHS staff, key workers and people in need (p.68)

60 AGAINST ALL ODDS The restaurateurs opening new ventures during the pandemic 62 COOKING FROM THE HIP Jackson Boxer explains why dining habits may have changed forever 68 TOM KERRIDGE The Michelin-starred chef on the resilience of the restaurant industry

Noble Rot

AG A I N S T

ALL ODDS

Founded by food and drink writer Dan Keeling and Master of Wine Mark Andrew, Noble Rot began life as a journal dedicated to all things wine, before spawning the first Noble Rot bar and restaurant in 2015. Now, the brand has opened its second outpost in the former site of legendary Soho restaurant Gay Hussar, offering a Franglaise-style menu and an excellent stock of plonk to boot. Directed by sommeliers previously of St John and Hawksmoor fame, the wine list caters to both casual drinkers and staunch oenophiles, with house favourites starting from just £3 a glass.

It’s been a shaky year for the hospitality industry, but it’s not all been doom and gloom. Taking a ‘business as usual’ approach, a number of restaurateurs and chefs have thrown caution to the wind and launched new ventures in the midst of the pandemic, from a wine-themed restaurant in Soho to a returning favourite from Corbin & King Words: Ellen Millard

2 Greek Street, W1D, noblerot.co.uk

Combining the best of Japanese and Nordic culture, Pantechnicon is a new concept store and dining destination in Belgravia. Taking its name from the Grade II listed, 19th-

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUAN TRUJILLO ANDRADES

century building in which its housed, Pantechnicon is home to three eateries: Café Kitsuné, a French-Japanese restaurant; Sachi, a 30-cover Japanese pop-up that precludes a larger dining space scheduled to open in 2021; and Eldr, a 70-seat restaurant inspired by the traditional Nordic

cooking methods of pickling, foraging and cooking with fire.

There is also a roof garden and bar serving a menu of Nordic-inspired cocktails that will change seasonally and be curated by guest bartenders.

19 Motcomb Street, SW1X, pantechnicon.com

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLIE MCKAY

Pantechnicon

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Akoko William JM Chilila was a finalist on Masterchef: The Professionals in 2019 and the youngest chef ever to be included in the 30 under 30 Zagat list at the tender age of 19. In October, he opened his first restaurant Akoko on Fitzrovia’s Berners Street, bringing a taste of West African cuisine to the capital.

Combining British ingredients with African spices, the menu includes popular West African classics such as smoked jollof rice, and grilled beef soya with caramelised onion and confit tomato.

21 Berners Street, W1T, akoko.co.uk

Kol

Maison François Founded by François O’Neill, the restaurateur who took over his father’s Brasserie St. Quentin in 2008, rebranding it as Brompton Bar & Grill, Maison François is the French brasserie to end all French brasseries. With a menu devised by O’Neill, sommelier Ed Wyand (previously Verden) and head chef Matthew Ryle (The Dorchester), the restaurant offers all-day dining inspired by the grand brasseries of Paris, Lyon and Alsace. A low-key wine bar, Frank’s, can be found in the basement, where the wine list is 250 bottles strong. Head downstairs for a nightcap, but not before sampling a pastry or two from the restaurant’s teeming dessert trolly.

34 Duke Street, SW1Y, maisonfrancois.london

The man behind Noma Mexico, Santiago Lastra opened his first London restaurant in October. Using British ingredients, including foraged food from Kentish woodlands, shellfish from the Scottish coastline and vegetables and herbs from a small-scale farm in Hertfordshire, the chef cooks up contemporary Mexican dishes such as langoustine tacos, kohlrabi ceviche and confit cheek carnitas. In the basement, you’ll find a traditional Mezcaleria bar, serving rare agave spirits and cocktails.

9 Seymour Street, W1H, kolrestaurant.com

PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVEN JOYCE

Bellanger Chris Corbin and Jeremy King’s Islington restaurant Bellanger shut its doors for good in 2019, having struggled since it opened four years previously. But, with the property industry being

just as temperamental as hospitality, the restaurateurs failed to sell the space. So it was that in the summer of this year, Bellanger reopened as a pop-up, with the view to becoming a more permanent site should the revamp prove a success.

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Offering a more casual, cheaper menu than before, the Upper Street restaurant serves French brasserie classics such as steak frites, coq au Riesling and confit de canard.

9 Islington Green, The Angel, N1, bellanger.co.uk

COOKING FROM

D U R I N G T H E F I R ST LO C K D OW N , JAC K S O N B OX E R , T H E ACC L A I M E D, O U TS P O K E N C H E F B E H I N D B R U N S W I C K H O U S E C A F É I N VA U X H A L L A N D O R A S AY I N N O T T I N G H I L L , S U P P L I E D M E A L S T O N H S S TA F F. H E R E , T H E C A M B R I D G E - E D U C AT E D S T O C K W E L L L O C A L E X P L A I N S W H AT R E S TA U R A N T S M U S T D O T O S U R V I V E T H E C O R O N AV I R U S PA N D E M I C A N D W H Y D I N I N G H A B I T S I N L O N D O N M I G H T H AV E C H A N G E D F O R E V E R

Words: Rob Crossan

THE HIP

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nterviews with chefs tend to follow a well-trodden path. They’ll say something about their ‘passion’ for local ingredients.

They’ll tell you something vague about their ‘philosophy’ for great food. At some point, they’ll namecheck Rene Redzepi.

Jackson Boxer, it is fair to say, does not have time for these kinds of blandishments. And, despite Covid-19, his commitment to giving Londoners somewhere unique and exciting to eat remains intact.

Opened a decade ago in a Georgian-era, former railway workers’ meeting house on Vauxhall roundabout, Brunswick House Café was, and continues to be, a genuine game-changer for the London restaurant scene, creating dishes that balance the impressive act of being both comforting and innovative.

Dishes shimmy around notions that are both decadent and demure; from Tamworth duck and pistachio sausage rolls with plum ketchup sauce to roast Brixham hake with crookneck courgette and borlotti beans. It’s all unpretentious, modestly priced and, most importantly, hugely fun to eat in a room devoid of any kind of hushed reverence for the cuisine.

Orasay, in Notting Hill, continues the theme, though with a stronger steer towards piscine pleasures. Named after the Hebridean island where Jackson would take summer vacations with his father as a child, the menu here is free of fuss and foam, with the main attractions allowed to sing freely in dishes such as roast cod with courgette purée, peas and brown shrimp and (utterly sublime) Dorset clams, served with King oyster mushrooms and burnt corn.

Jackson is following an impressive family culinary heritage. His grandmother is the esteemed cookery writer Arabella Boxer; his father Charlie runs the wonderful Italo deli in Vauxhall; and his brother runs the eternally-cool Frank’s Cafe and Campari Bar in a carpark in Peckham.

Operating a delivery service during the first spring lockdown which included sending meals to NHS workers in Lewisham and Paddington, Jackson has nothing but positive memories of the summer’s ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme, which proved controversial in some quarters.

“I think everyone was rather taken aback at how effective the scheme was,” says Boxer. “It’s hard to recall now, but when restaurants were allowed to reopen many people were still feeling incredibly cautious about being out in public. The incentive

EA

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ABOVE BRUNSWICK HOUSE CAFÉ BELOW GRILLED MONKFISH TAIL WITH PEANUT SAUCE, SERVED AT ORASAY

was very successful in encouraging people to dip their toes in, and, finding the experience of going out both a happy and safe one, to keep doing it.”

Yet, at the time of writing, both of Boxer’s restaurants are closed again due to the impositions of the second lockdown. Much as Jackson championed the government schemes of the summer, he’s understandably angry about his restaurants being closed once again.

“It’s a point I feel comfortable making, repeatedly, if gently and respectfully, that since reopening in the summer, not a single infection has occurred among any of my team, nor has a single infected person been traced to either of the restaurants, among the 50,000 or so who’ve visited since July. Being forced to close again is hugely frustrating. But all these changes are putting restaurants in a position where they do have to make a stronger case as to why people should keep using them at all.

“It’s more noticeable than ever now how elitist London is, what a lack of democratic free spaces we have and

what role restaurants need to play in this conversation. Are restaurants just for one type of person? Morally, can we afford to base restaurants around one type of lifestyle or income category?”

These are challenging, and rarely heard, words from a pioneer in an industry full of chefs waiting for an opportunity to seal their financial futures by working for investment-led, corporate restaurant groups.

Jackson fully admits that his current operating model is not sustainable (“before the second lockdown we were serving half the amount of customers with twice the amount of staff to clean up afterwards”) but believes that now is the time to start asking pertinent questions about the role restaurants can play in ‘new normal’ London.

“The world has changed in distinct and indistinct ways,” he says. “People’s lives have been upended and habits have changed. Leaving the office and going for a drink with your colleagues, going out for business lunches, going out from the office for an hour for

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a coffee. All the ways we relate to urban life through work have ceased to exist and may never return.”

As Boxer and I start skirting around the issue of comfort food in all its contemporary guises, he begins to bristle.

“Comfort food can be misleading as it’s not comforting if it isn’t cooked with care and love. There are so many restaurants serving burgers and mac ‘n’ cheese in London but it’s often not comforting because it’s being prepared in a joyless place where nobody’s inspired and nobody cares enough to inject it with love.”

Cocking a snook at the endless array of chicken shacks and barbecue joints that appeared to be slowly drowning London in a sea of chipotle mayo and craft IPA pre-lockdown is one thing, but Jackson’s positivity is never absent for too long in conversation.

“Despite everything, I’m genuinely excited by the future of restaurants,” he enthuses. “People aren’t going into town anymore. People aren’t engaging in mindless consumption.

People are spending more time in their neighbourhoods. I’m seeing that people are really using their local neighbourhood places a lot more. It’s been an explosion of European style, lazy, fun, promenading café culture – which I think is what so many of us have been wanting for, for years!”

Now aged 35, Boxer cheerfully admits that, even prior to lockdown, restaurants were “always a terrible way to make

“A year without lockdowns, curfews, where I can just get on with it, does seem too much to hope for right now”

ABOVE BRUNSWICK HOUSE CAFÉ IN VAUXHALL BELOW ORASAY IN NOTTING HILL

money”. Yet, his commitment endures, despite misgivings about what 2021 may bring.

“I’ve never been good at planning.

I don’t like to predict the future, for fear of inviting disaster. I love my job, I love turning up every day and simply cooking delicious food to make people happy. Though a year without lockdowns, curfews, where I can just get on with it, does seem too much to hope for right now.”

And with that, Jackson has to go and look after his three children who happen to provide him with his all-time favourite food: “leftover kids’ pasta, slightly dried out and chewy and leathery is the greatest. The tomato sauce is dry and becomes super concentrated. I then get a dribble of oil and some parmesan then cover it with chilli flakes and black pepper. I have terrible dreams afterwards but it’s completely worth it!” orasay.london; brunswickhouse.london

LuxuryLondon.co.uk Your curated guide to culture in the capital Explore our digital platform, dedicated to showcasing the very best of what London has to offer, from high-end boutiques, luxury hotels and spas, to entertainment, restaurants and cultural attractions

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LEFT SEARED LANGOUSTINE AND RÉMY MARTIN XO; BELOW RÉMY MARTIN XO TASTING BOX; RÉMY MARTIN XO

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hen Rémy Martin was founded in 1724, it made history. The cognac house, still family-owned, was the only producer of its kind to use grapes from two of the world’s most sought-after growing regions: Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne. The resulting eaux-de-vie has superior ageing potential, and, when harvested, distilled and aged in barrels over different periods of time, reveals uniquely characteristic aromas.

Through a meticulous selection of grapes and a lengthy ageing process, Rémy Martin is able to produce exceptionally intense cognacs. The most premium of these is Rémy Martin XO, for which cellar master Baptiste Loiseau mixes up to 400 different blends aged for a minimum of 10 years. Such is the

specialty of Rémy Martin XO, that the cognac won the gold medal at the 2020 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Best enjoyed neat, or with a large cube of ice, Rémy Martin is the ideal accompaniment to a celebration. For Christmas, the house has produced a limited edition bottle adorned with gold leaf and presented in a gold coffret box (£180, exclusive to Harrods); consider it the ultimate gift for cognac lovers.

To truly reveal its complexities, Rémy Martin XO should be enjoyed with food. In partnership with Jean-Francois Piège, the two Michelinstarred chef and founder of Le Grand Restaurant in Paris, Loiseau undertook a series of experiments and tastings to uncover the perfect palate to bring out the spirit’s flavours. Together, they LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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discovered that seafood, such as lobster and scallops, works particularly well with XO, along with stronger-flavoured ingredients like duck, wild mushrooms and pork belly.

To reveal the cognac’s umami flavours, pair with hand-carved Bellota ham, or salty parmesan cheese. For those looking to enhance its sweeter, spicier notes, try pairing with black figs, dark chocolate or walnut and raisins.

Or take the lead from the house’s own flavour masters; Rémy Martin has teamed up with independent food supplier Borough Box to create a Rémy Martin XO tasting kit, complete with cognac miniatures, a Lucy’s Dressing spiced plum chutney, Godminster organic cheddar and a bar of Midnight Mover 75 per cent dark chocolate (£29.99, boroughbox.com). Each food pairing has been chosen to enhance a different note in this most special of cognacs. remymartin.com

TOM KERRIDGE

FROM THE THAMESIDE TOWN O F M A R L O W, T O M K E R R I D G E BECAME THE FIRST PUB LANDLORD TO S C O R E T W O M I C H E L I N S TA R S F O R H I S C O O K I N G AT T H E HAND & FLOWERS. AS HE M A R K S T H E R E S TA U R A N T ’ S 1 5 T H ANNIVERSARY WITH A NEW COOKBOOK, THE CHEF DISCUSSES FEEDING FRONTLINE WORKERS D U R I N G T H E PA N D E M I C A N D W H Y L I A M G A L L AG H E R WA S THE PERFECT PERSON FOR THE F O R E WA R D O F H I S B O O K

Words: Ellen Millard

TOM KERRIDGE IN THE KITCHEN AT THE HAND & FLOWERS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRISTIAN BARNETT

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“Hospitality will always survive because as humans we love that social connection; we just have to hold on very tightly until we get there”

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t the beginning of the year, Tom Kerridge was working on a four-part documentary for BBC2 that reflected on the mounting pressures felt by pubs across the country.

Saving Britain’s Pubs was to be a Mary Portas-style series with the Michelinstarred chef offering his expertise to four boozers struggling to keep their heads above water. Then, the country went into lockdown and suddenly it became as much about saving his own pubs as it did about saving Britain’s.

“Right in the middle of filming this documentary, coronavirus hits,” Kerridge laughs, his cheery west country twang floating down the phone from his London restaurant. “It meant that 46,000 pubs up and down the country were shut, including my own. The documentary starts off with me trying to use my business know-how and get that reflected into other landlords and landladies’ viewpoints, to us all being in this together, trying to save our own businesses.”

He can laugh now; when we speak, it’s the beginning of October, a few weeks ahead of the government announcing

the second lockdown and, along with many other restaurants across the UK, all five of his in London, Manchester and Marlow are back up and running.

But it has been a testing year for the hospitality industry and not even the most prestigious of restaurants have been spared the hardship.

“It’s been a pretty mental six months, hasn’t it? Running a business has been painful. Every day seems to be presenting itself with another challenge and we just keep adapting and moving with it; that’s the only way to do it.”

And keep adapting Kerridge has. During the first lockdown, the Salisbury-born chef and his team set up a charity called Meals from Marlow, raising more than £180,000 and feeding more than 80,000 people from the Buckinghamshire town. Furloughed staff set to work in the kitchen, while locals poured in to volunteer their delivery services, sending food to frontline NHS workers, hospitals and local residents who were high risk. During October half-term week, the charity offered hot dinners to children eligible for free school meals, with Kerridge tweeting his frustration at the government’s decision not to extend the service beyond term time: ‘Did they really do that?’

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OPPOSITE PAGE SMOKED HADDOCK OMELETTE; THIS PAGE THE HAND & FLOWERS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRISTIAN BARNETT

“The hospitality industry is one of the most amazing, most brilliant industries,” he tells me. “Essentially what we want to do pretty much always is serve people and help people, and we found ourselves in a position where we had chefs, we could get hold of food, we had a unit where we could cook and we had frontline nurses who weren’t getting food, so we thought right, let’s do our bit.”

It’s the industry’s resilience that leaves him cautiously optimistic about its future in a post-pandemic world. “I think in the short-term it’s going to be very difficult. There will undoubtedly be some restaurant losses and some pub losses; there are going to be places that have closed down that will not be reopening.

The costs and the pressures that they are under are huge,” he says.

“But long-term, it’s one of the most exciting, diverse, eclectic, rich, amazing industries to be in and there will be entrepreneurial spirits that will see opportunity and flourish. We’re walking through a very smoky room at the minute, trying to find the exit, and until you do that it’s hard to see the positives.

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However, hospitality will always survive because as human beings we love that social connection; we just have to hold on very tightly until we get there.”

Holding on tightly is something Kerridge knows all about. The early days of The Hand & Flowers were trying.

It was a dinner at Michael Bedford’s The Trouble House in Tetbury that inspired what is now arguably Britain’s most famous pub. Popping to the toilet between courses, Kerridge stopped to read a few framed press clippings on the wall, a paragraph about brewery-owned tenancies catching his eye.

The next day, while surfing the internet with his wife Beth, The Hand & Flowers, a Greene King pub, jumped out at him. Kerridge had decided it was the one he wanted to own before the couple had even visited. They told the bank they planned to extend their house, then used the loan to take over the tenancy of the pub instead.

They furnished the kitchen with appliances bought at auction; legless fridges were balanced on bricks wrapped in tin foil and the broken oven door was held shut with a 25-litre drum of vegetable oil. Kerridge tiled, hammered and nailed the space together, quickly learning the

benefits of copper over ceramic pots after the shelves he had installed himself fell down and his set of Le Creuset smashed to pieces.

More important than aesthetics, though, was the food being served.

Focusing on “flavour-driven cooking”, Kerridge took a Gary Rhodes-style approach (he was his sous in the late 1990s), simplifying dishes and allowing the ingredients to speak for themselves.

His career up until that point had been focused on fine dining, and so he chose to flip the concept of traditional pub grub on its head.

Ever the optimist, he wrote a letter to the Michelin guide ahead of The Hand & Flowers launch, enclosing his CV and letting them know he was opening a restaurant pub. They responded by showing up three weeks later. Within 10 months of opening, The Hand & Flowers was awarded its first star, and five years down the line it won its second — the first and only pub in the world to do so. It was game-changing, not just for Kerridge but for the entire industry.

“I think the way the pub movement and the pub scene has grown — to being reflective of great food, but in an environment that still feels more LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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THIS PAGE TOM KERRIDGE (CENTRE) WITH COLLEAGUES IN THE KITCHEN AT THE HAND & FLOWERS OPPOSITE PAGE CHOCOLATE AND ALE CAKE, PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRISTIAN BARNETT

comfortable and more accessible to the wider public — has allowed people to feel like they can go and eat Michelin-starred food but in a space that they enjoy,” says Kerridge. “That, in turn, has led to restaurants becoming much more laidback and making them more accessible.

Michelin has never ever claimed that Michelin-starred restaurants have to have 11 types of petit fours and tablecloths; they’ve always been about the food, and I do think the pub scene has been very prominent in altering people’s attitude to what the Michelin guide is all about.”

Following The Hand & Flowers, Kerridge has opened The Coach (which won its Michelin star in 2018) and The Butcher’s Tap in Buckinghamshire, Kerridge’s Bar & Grill in Corinthia London, and The Bull & Bear in Manchester. There have also been a stream of TV shows and books charting his weight loss journey (he famously dropped 12 stone in two-and-a-half years) and offering easy, DIY pub grub to make at home.

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What has been missing from many a foodie’s bookshelf, however, is a tribute to The Hand & Flowers. This November, the restaurant’s journey from start-up to stardom is chartered in a new cookbook, a celebration of the pub’s 15-years in business. Penned for a summer release but pushed back due to the pandemic, the tome presents 70 of the restaurant’s best dishes, such as smoked haddock omelette, roast hog with salt-baked potatoes, and chocolate and ale cake.

“One of the most beautiful things about [the cookbook] is revisiting some of these recipes and recognising that many of them would still be able to stand the test of time and be served in The Hand & Flowers right now,” says Kerridge.

“A lot has changed in terms of the way we build the dishes and create the food, but the heart, soul and DNA is still exactly the same as when we first opened. From first opening to now has just been a phenomenal journey but it’s still about connecting and resonating with people.”

Among those people is Liam Gallagher.

In place of a foreword in the book is a photo of the musician with Kerridge, alongside a glowing Twitter review of his trip to the Marlow restaurant. For the chef, who is a lifelong Oasis fan (he chose the band as his specialist subject on Celebrity Mastermind, and won), it was the perfect way to open the book.

“I could have got a really major chef to write something, or a food journalist to write something clever about pubs and their place in society, but actually the most beautiful thing about The Hand & Flowers is it’s always been somewhere where everybody is welcome, no matter where you’re from,” he explains.

“You don’t have to be a foodie, you don’t have to read food articles and you don’t have to go to a farmers’ market; you

just turn up and have steak and chips.

For me it was very important to try and find a foreword that was connecting or reflective of people.”

A potty-mouthed rockstar isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a Michelin-starred restaurant — or, indeed, a cookbook — but that is why it is so perfect. Kerridge has never been about

The Hand & Flowers Cookbook by Tom Kerridge is out now, Bloomsbury, £40; Saving Britain’s Pubs with Tom Kerridge is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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pomp and circumstance, and this is surely why The Hand & Flowers has seen such success. Fifteen years later, good food, good atmosphere and a cheery pub landlord is still working its magic in Marlow.

As Gallagher put it best: ‘Hand and Flowers, Marlow. Food of the Gods. Tom Kerridge fantastic chap.’

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Interiors I T ’ S W H AT ’ S I N S I D E T H AT CO U N T S

De Gournay hand-painted ‘Abbotsford’ Chinoiserie wallpaper on Ullswater India Tea Paper. Photograph

by Tim Walker. De Gournay: Hand-Painted Interiors (Rizzoli) is out now.

76 COMFORT AND JOY From Shrimps to Habitat to Studio Ashby, these are the most exciting homeware collections and collaborations to covet this winter 80 THE WORLD ACCORDING TO WES How we are mirroring director Wes Anderson’s uber-stylised film sets within our homes

COMFORT AND JOY With the pandemic compelling us to spend more time at home, the world’s most astute designers have found new ways to channel their creativity so that we can invest in more joy-sparking items for our homes. These are some of this season’s most exciting (and, in some cases, unexpected) interiors collections and collaborations Words: Ellen Millard & Annabel Harrison

Sister Act As the founder and creative director of Studio Ashby, Sophie Ashby is no stranger to creating homeware and furniture – but they have always been one-offs. Whether for Ikoyi, the Nigerian restaurant in St James’s, or her own home, Ashby’s creations have always been coveted by her fanbase. Enter Sister, the designer’s debut homeware collection. The

edit of small-scale production and unique pieces is inspired by empowered femininity, and Ashby’s own sisters and friends.

Prices start from £40 for crockery and go up to £8,690 for a pair of incredible hand-painted bedside tables. A standalone store and larger collection is planned for 2021 – watch this space. studioashby.com

The Invisible Collection Maison & Objet’s designer of the year for 2019, Laura Gonzalez, has collaborated with online design platform The Invisible Collection. Produced in Portugal and her native France, Gonzalez’s debut range includes a 1960s-style Soho armchair, a sculptural glass Lilypad chandelier and two chairs which are inspired by painted Indian wooden pieces from the late 19th century. Gonzalez has also created a green table in partnership with artisan lacquerer Anne Midavaine, and pastel wall sconces with ceramicist Jean Roger.

From £474, theinvisiblecollection.com

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In Character Shrimps’ founder Hannah Weiland has lent her creative eye to Habitat once again, producing a second homeware collection that encapsulates her kitsch style.

Following the success of her sell-out cushion from her last Habitat collection, which was inspired by Shrimps’ Doodle clutch bag, Weiland has created

a second print with new characters, which has been reimagined in cushion, rug and art print form. The rest of the range is inspired by 1970s Palm Springs and features a sunny palette of yellow, pink and sky blue, with hand-painted gingham prints and rattan accessories.

From £60 for a cushion, habitat.co.uk

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Cover Up

Made in Britain The Chelsea Barracks development, in partnership with the interior design team at Albion Nord, has created an 11-piece collection that draws upon interesting elements of British design and architectural heritage. Every piece has been made in Britain by specialist artisans, with a particular focus on British oak, patinated steel/bronze and marble.

All tell a story relating to the local area, the Chelsea Barracks site, Britain or Georgian design: the Wellington desk, for example, includes details such as lion claw feet and the Chelsea Barracks rose marking, while the Belgravia Lamp has a distinctive marble base modelled on the classical architectural proportions of properties in Chelsea and Belgravia. chelseabarracks.com

When Alice Temperley started making quilts for her Somerset home, she knew she was onto a winner.

“People used to stay over and want to leave with them,” the designer says. But it wasn’t until 12 years later that she struck upon the idea of a homeware collection, incorporating archive prints from her eponymous fashion label, her love of quilting and her eye for design to produce a range of beautiful soft furnishings. Temperley

London’s signature Lotus, Euphoria and Harmony prints have been reimagined as bohemian velvet cushions, throws and tablecloths, each of which is handmade and embroidered in India using traditional craftsmanship techniques.

From £120, temperleylondon.com

A Bit of Off-White For Off-White’s second homeware collection, Virgil Abloh rebranded everyday objects with his personal design signifiers. The 80-piece range includes the brand’s ‘swimming man’, ‘off-hand’ and ‘off-cross’ iconography, stamped onto mohair blankets, pillows, clocks and towels.

Devotees can buy everything from wallpaper to coffee cups, pitchers and dining sets in glossy black and marble-style ceramics. off---white.com

The World at Your Feet

Colour Me Happy Step away from white. Our homes need colour, and they need it now.

Farrow & Ball’s Colour Curator Joa Studholme suggests we add rich, warm tones like Preference Red, moody India Yellow or the mushroom hue of the

unforgettably-named Dead Salmon to neutral palettes. Natural greens, like Treron, Green Smoke and Sap Green are also likely to be popular in 2021. Parents of young children will be delighted to hear that Farrow & Ball also produces a range of wipeable and scuff-proof paints. farrow-ball.com

Come Dine with Me Dinner parties might be off the table for now but Summerill & Bishop and The River Café have created the perfect collection for when they are back. Inspired by the 25-year friendship between Ruthie Rogers and June Summerill, the linen napkins come in vibrant shades of hot pink, sunshine yellow and cobalt blue. A matching tablecloth, featuring a graphic print designed by artist Michael Nash, completes the collection.

From £50 for a set of two napkins, summerillandbishop.com LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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As we burrow into winter, rugs are needed both for aesthetic impact and warmth underfoot.

French atelier La Manufacture Cogolin, nearly a century old, prides itself on its efforts to keep the manufacturing process as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible, and it still uses 19thcentury jacquard hand-weaving looms today. The company designs for longevity. “We are regularly asked to authenticate rugs that were made 50-80 years ago,” explains MD Sarah Henry. These are rugs to treasure for decades, and pass down through the generations. manufacturecogolin.com

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO

WES P L AY F U L A N D P R E P P Y, P A S T E L - W A S H E D A N D C O L O U R - P O P P E D ;

A S A N E W B O O K E X P LO R E S W E S A N D E R S O N ’ S I D I O S Y N C R AT I C A E S T H E T I C ,

L U X U R Y LO N D O N LO O K S AT H O W T H E E X AG G E R AT E D, U B E R - S T Y L I S E D S E T S O F T H E DIRECTOR’S VISUAL-LED FILMS ARE INFLUENCING OUR INTERIOR DESIGN CHOICES

Words: Annabel Harrison

D

espite the fact that I was 11 years too young to watch Top Gun when it was released in cinemas – and the chances of me being a fan of the film seem as unlikely as an MiG aircraft performing an inverted manoeuvre – its hit songs are the soundtrack to my childhood.

Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay, Take My Breath Away, Great Balls of Fire – I belted them out with my dad at top volume in the car decades before I actually watched the film and realised I knew

every song. Why? Because the Top Gun album is “a quintessential artefact of the mid-80s,” declares Allmusic.com, “which still defines the bombastic, melodramatic sound that dominated the pop charts of the era”.

From sing-a-long soundtracks and pitch-perfect quotes to costumes that popped up on catwalks and hair styles we loved – then regretted – the world that a director creates has the potential to seep out of the screen and influence every corner of popular culture, from food and drink to cars, clothes and interior design.

HOTEL OPERA, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC C. 1891.

PHOTO BY VALENTINA JACKS

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A straw poll among friends serves up an eclectic series of favourite sets, spanning decades and genres, from the indisputably cool to the downright questionable (and I won’t say which are mine). The diner in Pulp Fiction. The Ferrari garage in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The loft apartment in Legal Eagles. The houses in High Society, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Parasite and Something’s Gotta Give. Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. The Grand Budapest Hotel. And that wardrobe from Clueless in the 90s (which everyone I know wanted). Days later, the messages keep coming – dwelling on a dream, film-inspired homes are apparently rather irresistible.

But what works on a film set is unlikely to work in our homes – in the absence of a Hollywood-sized budgets, the decadent glamour of The Great Gatsby or the ethereal Elven domains of The Lord of the Rings cannot be recreated in a London flat, no matter how persuasively the estate agent pitches it.

There is, however, a director whose productions have not only captured our imaginations but are also ripe for the picking when it comes to interiors inspiration.

“People say they can tell in 10 seconds that a film is by me,” says Wes Anderson, director of films including The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs and Moonrise Kingdom, such is his unwavering commitment to obscure colour palettes, pastel dreamscapes, fronton façades and faded grandeur. This immediately identifiable niche has won him legions of fans – not just on the film front but across fashion, design and décor.

Some 1.2million fans follow @accidentallywesanderson, an Instagram account that collates locations with the “vivid, unique, and meticulously constructed” aesthetic of a Wes Anderson film. It’s so on brand for Instagram that the company has even named a room in its New York office after it.

AWA’s popularity – founder Wally Koval receives about 3,000 submissions a month – has resulted in a fantastical tome of real-world places with an other-worldly feel, “capturing the symmetrical, the atypical, the unexpected, the vibrantly patterned, and distinctively coloured in arresting photographs from around the world”.

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Design elements favoured in the film sets of Wes Anderson include pops of colour, sharp symmetry and painted or patterned wallpaper – fantastical and unusual elements in otherwise ordinary locations, as showcased in the book Accidentally Wes Anderson.

OPPOSITE PAGE ASCENSOR DA BICA, LISBON, PORTUGAL, C. 1892. PHOTO BY JACK SPICER ADAMS BELOW POST OFFICE, WRANGELL, ALASKA, C. 1937.

PHOTO BY ROBIN PETRAVIC AND CATHERINE BAILEY

Photographers worldwide seek out locations with the distinctive Wes Anderson aesthetic, from rollercoasters to hotels and houses.

Accidentally Wes Anderson by Wally Koval is out now, £25, published by Trapeze, accidentallywesanderson.com

And the filmmaker himself wrote the foreword – quite the endorsement.

“It’s about taking one step to the left,” Koval explained, “and a quarter turn, then a place takes on an entirely new look – maybe the light is hitting it just right or a cloud behind has just popped. I find that moment every single day.” London hotspots worthy of a square on Koval’s grid are Sketch, with its bubble-gum pink dining room, The Blue Bar at The Berkeley, with its 50 shades of blue, and Lina Stores’ King’s Cross restaurant and deli, with

a mint green hue that saturates bar stools and banquette seating.

What’s so brilliant about the world of Wes, says a friend who adores his sets, is that “they’re timeless, in that they feel like they are from another era, but also modern – which makes them easy to take ideas from”, as Accidentally Wes Anderson so deftly conveys.

Start with colour; choose a distinctive palette, and use it everywhere. Take your time to find objects both everyday and statement – Anderson is said to handpick every single item featured in

a set – and delight in furniture that is vintage, outlandish, elegant and quirky.

Eccentric, bold wallpaper and framed prints or photographs – the odder the better – are an easy way to add the Wes effect to any room, big or small. If in doubt; add a record player.

The family home in The Royal Tenenbaums boasts a portrait-lined ballroom, an indoor phone booth, chandeliers, a roll-top bath and zebra-print wallpaper – a meticulously planned blend of both familiar and fantastical. “That’s the kind of movie that I like to make, where there is an invented reality and the audience is going to go someplace where hopefully they’ve never been before. The details – that’s what the world is made of.”

After the year we’ve had, a world – and home – according to Wes Anderson is one I’d happily inhabit.

LEFT THE WHITE CYCLONE AT NAGASHIMA SPA LAND, KUWANA, JAPAN, C. 1994-2018.

PHOTO BY PAUL HILLER OPPOSITE PAGE ROBERTS COTTAGES, OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, C. 1928. PHOTO

BY PAUL FUENTES

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EXPLORE THE NEW WINTER COLLECTION AUDLEY HOUSE, LONDON W1K 2ED • + 44 (0) 20 7499 1801 • PURDEY.COM

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A DIFFERENT

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American painter Josh Smith is one of six artists who has put his stamp on a Louis Vuitton bag for the brand’s Artycapucines collection (p.108)

88 MAN ABOUT TOWN The latest in men’s fashion 92 THE BEAT GOES ON In a year of limitations, horologists have found news ways to push boundaries 98 WISH UPON A STAR The ultimate Christmas wish list 108 PALETTE PLEASERS The designers taking inspiration from the art world

Connolly’s Legacy Collection Fortuitously for British leather goods specialists Connolly, it launched its first e-commerce site in March, just a week after Covid-19 forced its Clifford Street store to shut. During the summer, the company, which spent most of the 20th century supplying premium leather to the likes of Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Jaguar, curated the ‘Legacy’ collection – an assortment of pieces that best surmise its characteristic spirit. Made by hand, the Connolly Toolkit was designed by Sebastian Conran and now comes in two sizes (£1,655/£3,200). Make a statement on your next classic car run with the brand’s retro-styled Driver Goggles (£165) – made in England from smooth grain leather and approved for use on the road. connollyengland.com

MAN ABOUT TOWN

From Savile Row to Shoreditch, the latest brand partnerships, boutique openings and style trends shaping men’s fashion Words: Richard Brown

THOM SWEENEY HAS UNVEILED ENGLISH ACTOR MATT SMITH AS THE FIRST PROTAGONIST IN ITS ‘TRUE CHARACTER’ CAMPAIGN SERIES

Thom Sweeney’s new Mayfair HQ The british tailor relocates its bespoke, ready-to-wear and made-to-measure offering under one roof

While certain corners of Savile Row continue to struggle with the fallout of Covid-19, homegrown tailor Thom Sweeney has cut the ribbon on a four-storey boutique on Old Burlington Street. The store, equipped with a custom-built pool table and copper-clad cocktail bar, replaces the brand’s two former London premises on Weighhouse Street and Bruton Place.

On the ground floor, menswear mavens can browse Thom Sweeney’s ready-to-wear collection. The floor above is home to the tailor’s bespoke and made-to-measure services.

A vaulted chamber at the rear of the brand’s new London HQ houses a state-of-the-art Pankhurst London barbershop.

24c Old Burlington Street, thomsweeney.co.uk

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HUGO B O SS INSPIRED BY THE SEA

MAKING WAVES Last year, aroundthe-world sailor Alex Thomson (pictured) christened the new Hugo Boss yacht (left) – a boat he helped design – by sailing it through the open arms of Tower Bridge.

The 60ft monohull yacht – which is currently competing in the Vendée Globe, the unassisted, single-handed circumnavigation race, with Thomson at the helm – was created in line with Hugo Boss’s commitment to sustainability: the hull was left unpainted; the primary power source is sunlight; and the boat’s motor is electric-powered.

Inspired by this green design philosophy, Hugo Boss has launched an eight-piece, sailing-informed capsule collection crafted from responsible materials. A water-resistant raincoat, hoodie, cap and backpack are all made from double-faced recycled polyester; while the BOSS logo T-shirt, polo, knitted beanie and sweater that complete the collection are crafted from eco-friendly and socially responsible cotton. As comfortable on the water as they’ll be on the sofa. hugoboss.com

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POLO SHIRT IN ORGANIC COTTON PIQUÉ, £89

HOODED SWEATSHIRT IN RECYCLED FABRIC, £169

ROLLNECK SWEATER IN ORGANIC COTTON, £249

RECYCLED LOGO BACKPACK IN NEOPRENE, £219

NAIM X FOCAL X BENTLEY

MOTOR HEAD Buy a new Bentley and it’ll come with a list of options as long as your arm. Once you’ve scrolled past a £500 boot mat and a £1,640 veneered picnic table, you get to a Naim audio entertainment system. The speakers will add £6,615 to your inventory but ensure that the inside of your cabin reverberates with more bass than a deep house rave in a disused air hangar on a Balearic party island. The good news, for anyone lacking that sort of liquidity, is that you can now get a similar sound experience without forking out for a Bentayga.

The new Naim Mu-so for Bentley Special Edition wireless speaker (£1,799) is the first Mu-so to be finished in sustainable African hardwood and features a volume dial that illuminates on touch.

Elsewhere, Naim sister brand, Focal, has created the Bentley Radiance headphones (£1,199), which have been sonically tuned to the match the audio quality of Naim’s speakers. Copper colour accents and recurring lattice patterns on both products reference design elements from the Bentley Mulliner Bacalar. shop.bentleymotors.com

No Time to Die in your boots

A new concept space created between tailors Cad & the Dandy, The Fresh Coffee Company and design agency Department Two has opened at number 32 Savile Row. The coffee-shop-cumexhibition-area-cum-menswearmarketplace serves caffeine and pastries alongside a curation of UK-based menswear brands. More importantly, The Service is helping foster a sense of community among a cohort of brands that are facing declining footfall and drastically-altered wardrobe habits. theservicelondon.com

While Crockett & Jones had worked with James Bond costume designers in the past, the partnership between the Northampton shoemaker and EON Productions became official with the 2012 launch of Skyfall. Craig’s fifth and final outing as 007 sees him sport a pair of Crockett & Jones’ brand-new Molton chukka boots, a plain-fronted, three-eyelet ankle kicker made from age-defying, rough-out, dark-brown suede.

Look out for the boots when Bond travels to Norway. £395, crockettandjones.com

SavileRow goes social A new coffee shop helps foster a sense of community on the beleaguered menswear mecca

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Wool-Tweed Flat Cap

TOM FORD LONDON

The designer-turned-director-turnedperfumer captures the spirit of the capital in a spicy scent. £174, 50ml, tomford.co.uk

Royal Warrant holder Lock & Co Hatters has created a flat cap exclusively for Mr Porter’s Kingsman collection. £135, mrporter.com

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Flight Jacket

For a smart take on the rough-andready flight jacket see this waterresistant, doeskin-weave, merino-wool number from Manchester’s Private White V.C. – complete with suede trim, shearling collar and reinforced elbow patches. £895, privatewhitevc.com

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Mélange Cotton-Jersey Polo Shirt

Slit at the sides for a relaxed fit, this polo was designed by Ms Déborah Neuberg, the former Hermès creative behind chic French label De Bonne Facture. £175, mrporter.com

Albert House Slippers

The ultimate work-from-home footwear courtesy of Edward Green. A rakish, round-toe, softsuede slipper to carry you from breakfast to those dreaded after-work Zoom drinks. Yay. £390, edwardgreen.com

Words: Richard Brown & James Buttery

Despite production lines grinding to a halt and the cancellation of the industry’s two largest trade shows, Covid-19 couldn’t prevent watchmakers ending 2020 on a flourish. These are the headline stories from a year in watches

THE BEAT GOES ON

Five years after breaking ground, Patek Philippe’s new 10-storey nerve centre is big enough to conceal seven Airbus A380s and has a basement the size of 90 Olympic swimming pools

PATEK PHILIPPE The Genevan watchmaker unveils a stainless steel Calatrava to celebrate the completion of its new £500million headquarters

More interesting than the sheer size of Patek Philippe’s new command centre – which, at 189 meters in length, 67 meters in width and requiring the steel of two Eiffel Towers to build, is, by itself, fairly mindblowing enough – is what the allocation of space within the hangar-sized headquarters reveals about the business plan of the last family-owned watchmaker in Geneva.

For, while a considerable amount of square footage is taken up by a 299-seat auditorium and a penthouse restaurant large enough to accommodate 880 guests, also considerable is the space given over to the production of spare parts needed by the brand’s customer service department – a division the brand openly credits for helping raise annual revenues to more than £1 billion (£1.15 billion in 2019, according to Morgan Stanley).

You see, while production has remained at around 62,000 watches a year, production of complicated watches – that’s chronographs, annual and weekly calendars, minute repeaters and world time watches – has grown to account for almost half of Patek Philippe’s inventory. The brand’s phenomenal modern success hasn’t been down to the fact it’s been making more watches, but because it’s been making more complicated – read ‘expensive’ – watches.

Patek Philippe marks the completion of

CALATRAVA REF. 6007A-001 The 40mm, time-and-date model features a date aperture at three o’clock and is powered by a self-winding movement PRICE £21,710

its new manufacture with a limited-edition timepiece. Rather than precious metal, the case of the Calatrava Ref. 6007A-001 is comprised of polished steel, a material that’s highly sought-after among collectors for the fact that it is seldom found in Patek Philippe’s collections. You’ll have to move quickly though, as only 1,000 pieces are being produced. RB patek.com

ROLEX A new line up of watches from Rolex includes a subtle refresh of the Submariner – the model’s first update in 12 years

No brand is capable of raising as much of a ruckus as Rolex, something deftly illustrated by the launch of the company’s 2020 line up. And while, in some places, the updates might have offered new definition to the word ‘incremental’, there were plenty of them and there was much to like.

Changes to the Submariner were deliberately low-key – after all, if it ain’t broke. The Submariner’s case (both No-date 124060 and Date 126610 models) has grown from 40mm to 41mm and now house Rolex’s all-new 3230 time-only and 3235 date calibres.

The 3235 arrived back in 2015, heralding the kind of improvements we now see in the 3230 – namely, a 70-hour power reserve (up from 48 hours) courtesy of a more energy-efficient ‘Chronergy’ escapement and Parachrom hairspring.

Larger though it may be, the new Submariner actually manages the neat trick of appearing, if anything, smaller on the wrist due to its slimmer lugs and wider bracelet. These changes are barely on the millimetre scale, but they are there. JB The new Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner, from £6,450, rolex.com

Larger though it may be, the new Submariner actually manages the neat trick of appearing smaller on the wrist Elsewhere, Rolex also introduced five candy-coloured dials reminiscent of the enamel ‘Stella’ dials the brand produced for the Day-Date and Datejust in the 1970s and 1980s. The original Stella dials proved unpopular with

customers, but have since gone on to become highly sought-after by collectors. You can now choose from candy pink, turquoise blue, yellow, coral red and green dials in a variety of the Oyster Perpetual’s five case sizes.

BELL & ROSS The French-Swiss watchmaker expands its bestselling BR 05 line with a new two-tone, silver-on-gold power watch

BR 05 BLACK STEEL & GOLD The 40mm automatic displays hours, minutes, seconds and the date, and has a sapphire crystal case-back PRICE £8,800

Alongside the new bi-metal BR 05, Bell & Ross has also launched a blue-ongold version. The polished 18ct rose gold case of the aptlynamed BR 05 Blue Gold contrasts against a midnight blue sunray dial. Rose gold gilded

appliqué numerals and indices, as well as the 18ct rose gold gilded skeletonized hour and minute hands, are filled with Super-LumiNova for optimum legibility.

Get it on a rose-gold bracelet (£27,000) or blue rubber strap (£18,000).

Bell & Ross’ BR 05 answered the great Sports Luxe clarion call of 2019 – amalgamating a number of signature ‘sports luxe’ design cues, including an integrated bracelet, lozenge links, dominant bezel and exposed screwheads.

For the latest BR 05 model, Bell & Ross uses satin-brushed steel for the bulk of the bracelet and 40mm case while opting for eye-catching 18ct rose gold to serve as a highlight on the centre links and bezel top. Each satin-brushed component is then framed with a polished bevelled edge for added definition.

The theme of contrast is continued on the dial with gilded rose gold appliqué hour markers and open-worked hands, filled with Super-LumiNova popping against the black, sunray-brushed dial.

While the silhouette of case and integrated bracelet is entirely new for Bell & Ross, the company has relied almost entirely on the dial to convey its instantly recognisable brand identity, using a mix of rounded baton and numeral markers at the six, nine and 12 o’clock positions and a date window sitting at the three o’clock.

On the reverse, a sapphire crystal exhibition back offers a view of the Sellita-based BR-Cal. 321 4hz automatic movement, which offers 42 hours of power reserve, and its circular ruthenium-coated winding rotor. JB bellross.com

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TUDOR David Beckham helps Tudor unveil a navy blue version of its flagship model, which comes with three strap options and is guaranteed to an accuracy of within four seconds a day

When watch brands turned their attentions to manufacturing massproduced dive watches in the early 1950s, Tudor was at the front of the pack. It debuted its first waterproof wristwatch, the Reference 7922, in 1954, the same year the watchmaker’s sister brand Rolex introduced the Submariner. Blancpain, for the record, had unveiled the Fifty Fathoms, broadly touted as the first ‘modern’ dive watch today, a year earlier.

Four years later, in 1958, Tudor introduced the Reference 7924 – a finelooking dive watch that was waterproof to 200 metres. Nicknamed the Big Crown, owing to its oversized winding device, it was this timepiece that informed the design codes of the runaway success that has been the Black Bay Fifty-Eight (launched at Baselworld in 2018).

In 1969, Tudor created its first dive watch with a blue dial and blue bezel. In the same year, the company introduced its now-hallmark snowflake-shaped hands.

In 1969, Tudor introduced its now-hallmark snowflake-shaped hands All three features appear on the brand’s new Black Bay Fifty-Eight ‘Navy Blue’.

The watch is sized at 39mm, in keeping with the Reference 7924, and is available on two fabric straps and a riveted steel bracelet.

Inside is a COSC-certified calibre, although Tudor’s movement goes beyond the standards set out by Switzerland’s leading precision testing institute – guaranteeing its watch will be accurate to within -2 and +4 seconds a day. RB From £2,520, tudorwatch.com LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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The Black Bay FiftyEight ‘Navy Blue’ will run for 70 hours from a fully wound state, ensuring that should you take the watch off on a Friday and leave it in a drawer over the

@DAVIDBECKHAM

weekend, it will still be ticking on a Monday – although, given the go-anywhere, do-anything credentials of the thing, why would you want to do that?

For the case, middle, back and bezel decoration of the Diver Net, Ulysse Nardin turned to FIL&FAB, an ecofriendly French company that recovers nets from fishing harbours and transforms them into polyamide pellets – a raw material that is highly resistant to friction. The new material, named

Nylo®, is made from ropes that are reduced to fibres and bonded by non-polluting compounds. “Our association with Ulysse Nardin is natural,” says Yann Louboutin, one of FIL&FAB’s three founders. “We share the desire to produce reliable objects, made to last, while reducing their ecological impact.”

ULYSSE NARDIN The official timekeeper of the 2020-21 Vendée Globe creates a concept watch recycled from the ocean

Ahead of this year’s Vendée Globe, the non-stop, unassisted around-the-world yacht race, Olympic surfer and Ulysse Nardin ambassador, Mathieu Crepel, collected ice from the summit of Pic du Midi in the French Pyrenees. The ice was then analysed to demonstrate that microplastics can now be found at the top of mountains – nanoparticles evaporating into clouds and falling in snow.

As part of its commitment to combat marine plastic pollution, Ulysse Nardin, official timekeeper of the Vendée Globe, introduces the Diver Net concept watch. The upcycled timepiece features a strap made from recycled plastics and forgoes sapphire crystal glass in favour of more environmentally-friendly transparent ceramic glass. The Diver Net is also equipped with a unidirectional bezel made of recycled fishing nets.

While the Diver Net remains a concept for now, owners of Ulysse Nardin’s Diver, Marine and Freak X models can support marine conservation through the company’s new R-Strap, which again has been upcycled from old fishing nets. RB ulysse-nardin.com

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BREITLING The pilots timepiece specialist imagines the ultimate Ironman watch for its squad of champion-winning triathletes

It was a natural question. When Germany’s Olympic gold medal-winning triathlete, Jan Frodeno, joined Breitling’s ‘Triathlon Squad’, he asked the Swiss watchmaker which of its models he should wear while training. The enquiry got Breitling brainstorming. What would the perfect lifestyle sports watch look like?

“The conversation led to the development of the Endurance Pro,” explains Breitling CEO Georges Kern. “We adapted our SuperQuartz™ technology to the needs of people like Jan... the Breitlight® case is so light that it won’t interfere with anyone’s training routine.”

The new family of watches is inspired by the lightweight, resin-based Breitling Sprint, which was produced during the 1970s in a range of dazzling colours.

Like all timepieces in Breitling’s Professional range, the Endurance Pro is powered by a thermo-compensated SuperQuartz™ movement that’s 10 times more accurate than a conventional quartz watch. The 44mm case is made of Breitlight®, an ultra-lightweight material introduced by Breitling in 2016.

It’s more than three times lighter than titanium and almost six times lighter than stainless steel.

Five inner bezel colour variations are available: white, blue, yellow, orange, or red. All come with a black dial and a black rotating bezel; each is presented on a matching Diver Pro rubber strap.

A pulsometer scale can be used to track heart rates during training sessions.

Look out for the Endurance Pro on the wrist of 2018 Tour de France winner, and fellow Breitling ambassador, Geraint Thomas when he attempts to reclaim the yellow jersey next year. RB From £2,450, breitling.com

The Endurance Pro is powered by a SuperQuartz™ movement that’s 10 times more accurate than conventional quartz A D IG ITAL PAS S P O RT F O R AL L N EW WATCHES From October 2020, all new Breitling watches will be delivered with a blockchain-based digital passport. The passport contains detail of the owner’s watch, including its serial number, and is time-stamped with the activation date of its digital warranty.

Watch owners will also be able to track repair guarantees and use the service to insure their timepiece against loss or theft. Scanning

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an electronic guarantee card with a smartphone camera will allow collectors to consult with Breitling directly through an embedded chat feature.

Wish upon a

Star

For a very special festive season slip an extraordinary gift under the Christmas tree

Clockwise from far left 1. Rose gold Tango bracelet, £11,200, pomellato.com 2. Yellow gold and diamond double ring, £1,555, dior.com 3. Move Joaillerie pavé diamond medium ring in white gold, £6,870, messika.com 4. Paper scented star decoration, £60, diptyqueparis.com 5. 30mm automatic Happy Sport watch in rose gold and stainless steel, with diamonds and rubies, £6,310, chopard.com 6. 18kt rose gold Ritratto ring with amethyst and diamonds, £4,140, pomellato.com 7. Rose gold Happy Spirit diamond pendant, POA, chopard.com 8. 18kt white gold Comète Chevron earrings with diamonds, £6,900, chanel.com 9. 18kt white gold Coco Crush bracelet with diamonds, £9,200, chanel.com

10. 1 8kt beige gold Coco Crush bracelet, £5,900, chanel.com 11. T it for Tat marble candlestick holders, from £125, anissakermiche.com 12. S olitaire board with gold leaf and glass blown beads, £2,280, cartier.com 13. Y ellow gold Panthère de Cartier ring with onyx and tsavorite garnets, £5,800, cartier.com 14. M ythology 18kt gold spinning moon charm with diamonds, £8,500; 18ct yellow gold saturn chain, £525, annoushka.com

Clockwise from left 1. Bing 100 suede, crystal and pearl shoes, £795, jimmychoo.com 2. Bon Bon bag in velvet, £695, jimmychoo.com 3. Latte printed calfskin Lady Dior bag with multi-coloured embroidery, £4,800, dior.com 4. Cavalcadour Voltigeur silk scarf, £345, hermes.com 5. La Crème, £520, cledepeau-beaute.com 6. Lipstick Cashmere in shade 514 Enamored, £50, cledepeau-beaute.com 7. Luminzer Face Enhancer, £75, cledepeau-beaute.com 8. Tobacco Mandarin extrait de parfum, £235, byredo.com 9. Vetiver Moss eau de parfum, £175, alexandermcqueen.com

10. 18kt white gold and diamond flower and double G earrings, £2,210, gucci.com 11. Blue velvet jewellery box, £75, sophiebillebrahe.com 12. Double leather card box with playing cards, £140, alexandermcqueen.com

Clockwise from left 1. Molton boots, £395, crockettandjones.com 2. Document case in grained Italian leather, £449, boss.com 3. Belt bag in Italian leather, £269, boss.com 4. Cashmere knit gloves with suede palm, £590, brunellocucinelli.com 5. Météore cologne, £200, louisvuitton.com 6. Set of two crystal champagne coupes, Kingsman X Higgs & Crick, £285, mrporter.com 7. Glenmorangie single malt whisky, £36, clos19.com 8. Oud Wood candle, £68, Tom Ford, tomford.com 9. Oversized fringe wool scarf, £150, Acne Studios, mrporter.com

10. Small windowpane check lambswool scarf, £125, mulberry.com 11. Leather cardholder, £240, Tom Ford, mrporter.com 12. Travels and Experiences Panama notebook, £55, smythson.com 13. Playing cards, £75, William & Son, mrporter.com 14. James brass spiral cufflinks, £245, alicemadethis.com 15. StarWalker resin and platinumplated ballpoint pen, £320, Montblanc, mrporter.com 16. H Roll Twill wool and silk tie, £170, hermes.com

Clockwise from left 1. Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin Skeleton, £85,500 (including additional 18k pink gold strap), vacheron-constantin.com 2. BR 05 Chrono Blue Steel, £4,800, bellross.com 3. Black Bay Fifty-Eight, £2,520, tudorwatch.com 4. Oyster Perpetual Submariner Date, £11,450, rolex.com 5. Carrera Sports Chronograph, £4,695, tagheuer.com 6. Calatrava Pilot Travel Time 7234G, £37,350, patek.com

Clockwise from left 1. G lenmorangie Malaga 12 Years Old, £75, clos19.com 2. S et of two crystal champagne coupes, Kingsman X Higgs & Crick, £285, mrporter.com 3. H ennessey V.S festive sharing set, including 70cl bottle and two lowball glasses, £38, clos19.com 4. H ennessey Oh So Classic Cocktails Manhattan gift set, including 70cl bottle and strainer, £60, clos19.com

P PALETTE PLEASERS JOINING FORCES WITH LEADING ARTISTS FROM ACROSS THE

G LO B E , FA S H I O N H O U S E S S U C H AS DIOR, LOUIS VUITTON AND B O S S H AV E R E I N T E R P R E T E D S C U L P T U R E S , PA I N T I N G S

A N D I L L U S T R AT I O N S I N TO

WEARABLE WORKS OF ART

Words: Ellen Millard

HENRY TAYLOR FOR LOUIS VUITTON, ARTYCAPUCINES COLLECTION, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA NONI

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n a visual homage, Californian artist Henry Taylor has transposed a portrait of his friend Noah Davis, the late American painter and installation artist, onto a Louis Vuitton bag.

Produced using cutting-edge laser printing and traditional marquetry techniques, the artist’s A Young Master comes to life on leather using 2D and 3D printing methods to replicate his original brushstrokes.

Interrupted only by an ivory white LV logo, the portrait forms a striking sculptural bas-relief on the taupe Taurillon leather.

It is one of six limited edition totes that make up the Artycapucines collection, a collaboration between Louis Vuitton and a group of international artists, which first launched in 2019. This second iteration sees Taylor, along with fellow creatives Josh Smith, Beatriz Milhazes, Liu Wei, JeanMichel Othoniel and Zhao Zhao, transform a Capucines bag into a work of art.

Art and fashion have long been intertwined. Salvador Dalí and Elsa Schiaparelli were among the first to bring the two mediums together, his Lobster Telephone inspiring her Lobster dress, a white organza evening gown emblazoned

FROM LEFT IPHONE CASE WITH PRINTED HEARTS AND LOGO, £45; CASHMERE SWEATER, £369; JUMPER, £159, ALL BOSS.COM

LEFT STELLA MCCARTNEY SS21 CAMPAIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY

BY MERT & MARCUS; BELOW Z IS FOR ZERO WASTE, JOANA VASCONCELOS, PORTUGAL

with a scarlet red crustacean. Coco Chanel called Shiaparelli “the Italian artist who makes clothes”, and she didn’t mean it kindly, despite herself partnering with Pablo Picasso on the costumes and backdrops for the Ballets Russes. Yves Saint Laurent, too, would frequently seek inspiration in the art world, producing A-line dresses using reproductions of modernist paintings by Piet Mondrian in the 1960s, and a couture collection inspired by the works of Henri Matisse in the 1980s.

In 2020, the art and fashion nexus has been revived. A number of designers have reached out to the art world for collaborative efforts for their AW20 and SS21 collections, producing limited-edition, wearable works of art that use the body as a blank canvas.

At Dior Men’s, a single artist has informed the SS21 collection. Ghana-born, Viennatrained painter Amoako Boafo first met the artistic director of Dior Men’s, Kim Jones, in 2019 at the Rubell Museum in Miami. Enamoured with Boafo’s fingerpaint

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP ROGUE BAG 18, £795, COACH.COM; SQUARE BAG, £195, COACH.COM TORY BURCH AW20; DIOR MEN’S SS21

For AW20, JeanMichel Basquiat’s primitive graffiti is reimagined as graphic prints

masterpieces, Jones decided to build the entire Dior Men’s collection around his artworks. The artist’s influence can be felt throughout the collection: cashmere turtlenecks feature characters from Boafo’s paintings; a jacquard of paintbrush strokes is inspired by a photograph Jones took in the artist’s studio; and prints are drawn from graphic patterns that characterise his work.

Perhaps most prominent of all is Boafo’s favoured colour palette: lemon yellow, blue, coral and green.

Fashion designer-turned-illustrator Justin Teodoro, meanwhile, has found himself returning to his roots, creating a capsule collection in collaboration with BOSS. The New York-based artist’s sketches of hearts, stars and a reinterpretation of the fashion house’s logo transform classic BOSS basics into whimsical works of art, with hot pink hearts and cobalt blue stars stamped onto T-shirts and pussy-bow blouses, embroidered onto knitwear and hidden within the lining of vibrant two-piece suits. Trainers feature printed soles and leather accessories are adorned with playful motifs.

At Coach, creative director Stuart Vevers took the opportunity to champion a favourite artist of his own, working closely with Jean-Michel Basquiat’s family to produce a ready-to-wear clothing range and a series of complementing LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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accessories that encapsulate the late artist’s vision. For AW20, his primitive graffiti is reimagined as graphic prints and charming motifs.

For her AW20 range, Tory Burch looked to her personal art collection for inspiration. An avid ceramics collector, the designer bought one of artist Francesca DiMattio’s first sculptural pieces in 2012, not long after the artist had decided to move away from painting. Eight years of friendship and mutual admiration has led to a collaborative collection for the new season, a ready-to-wear range adorned with bodacious prints taken directly from DiMattio’s artworks. For Burch’s fashion show in New York in February, models strutted down the runway flanked by the artist’s real sculptures.

Not just a creative outlet, art acts as a vehicle to inspire forces for change.

Stella McCartney, a long-term pioneer of sustainability, found lockdown only served to cement her passion for environmentalism. The result is an alphabetised manifesto that acts as a blueprint for her fashion house’s future intentions.

Each letter stands for a different objective – A, for example, is for Accountability, while O is for Organic and Z is for Zero waste.

To illustrate it, the designer commissioned 26 international artists, including the likes of Jeff Koons, Peter Blake, Cindy Sherman, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Mert and Marcus, to produce an artwork for each letter. It’s a mission statement for a brighter future, and a poignant reminder that, even in the darkest of times, creativity prevails.

DISCOVER THE

BEAUTY

HEALTHCARE . PHARMACY . SKINCARE . WELLBEING

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PROMOTION

WORKING TOWARDS BETTER MENTAL HEALTH H O W C A N S E N I O R E X E C U T I V E S W E LC O M E S TA F F BACK TO WORK WHILE SAFEGUARDING THEIR OWN P H Y S I C A L A N D M E N TA L W E L L B E I N G ?

A

ccording to Bupa Global’s Executive Wellbeing Index, 82 per cent of senior executives have experienced poor mental health since the start of the pandemic 1.

While the desire to return to ‘normal’ is widely felt, the journey back should not be underestimated. Recent research from Bupa found that 65 per cent of people are anxious about going back to the office2.

1&3

Dr Pablo Vandenabeele, Clinical Director of Mental Health at Bupa Global advises how being kind, open and understanding are three ways that you can help safeguard your mental health and those around you.

He says: “It is important to give colleagues the opportunity to express concerns about returning to work in a one-to-one conversation and encourage openness about their mental wellbeing.

Ask how they’re doing and understand that these are challenging times and everyone’s experience will be different.

“While showing kindness to others might come naturally, it’s equally as important to try to go easy on ourselves too. Turn off that inner critic and take time to pause and reflect. Mindfulness, meditation and breathing techniques can help bring you back to the present moment and reduce stress levels.”

During the pandemic, 40 per cent of senior executives delayed seeking help for their mental health symptoms3. Early diagnosis can have a positive impact on the long-term prognosis so, if you are unable to cope, it’s vital you seek professional help as soon as possible.

Premium health insurer Bupa Global recognises that mental health is as important as physical health. This is why Bupa Global’s cover provides holistic health management for you and your family. To find out how a Bupa Global health plan puts you in control of your health, search bupaglobal.com/withyou or call 0371 346 0138.

According to figures taken from the Bupa Global Executive Wellbeing Index (September 2020), conducted by Opinium Research among 100 high net worth individuals

from the UK. 2

According to research by Bupa Health Clinics (July 2020) bupa.co.uk/newsroom/ourviews/return-to-work-anxiety

Calls may be recorded. Bupa Global is a trading name of Bupa Insurance Limited and Bupa Insurance Services Limited. Bupa Insurance Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Bupa Insurance Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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EASY BREEZY TA K I N G T H E H A S S L E O U T O F H O L I D AY S , O N E F I N E S TAY I S T H E G O -T O H O M E - S H A R I N G S E R V I C E F O R T R AV E L L E R S L O O K I N G F O R AN EFFORTLESS ESCAPE

W

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP VILLA COCO, ST BARTS; CORAL PAVILION, TURKS AND CAICOS; VILLA DU LAVOIR, PARIS; MECKLENBURGH SQUARE II, LONDON; VILLA MARCHESA, TUSCANY

hen onefinestay launched in 2010, it did so with the mission to set a new standard in the travel industry. For the past decade, the high-end home-sharing service has been tailoring travel experiences with its unique brand of bespoke hospitality, connecting discerning globetrotters with some of the most beautiful homes in the the world, and offering an unrivalled service in the process.

In the wake of the pandemic, a holiday with onefinestay has never been easier. Providing a clean, safe and secure experience, the company only offers private home and villa rentals, providing you with the utmost privacy and space during your stay. The onefinestay team expertly matches guests with their perfect property based on their travel needs and desires, with every booking professionally managed and including a personal welcome, home tour, 24/7 support and weekly housekeeping.

The company’s service and concierge teams have the insider knowledge to make sure your time at the property is as effortless and enjoyable as possible. Guests can request a host of premium services and tailored amenities, such as grocery deliveries, private chauffeur or transfer services, car hire and childcare, to name a few.

The team can also hook you up with activities and excursions — such as local experiences, yacht rentals or helicopter LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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rides – as well as private chefs and wellness treatments to enjoy from the comfort of your holiday home. There is even a selection of seasonal services available for those celebrating occasions such as Thanksgiving, Hanukkah or Christmas abroad; from decorations to baking lessons, and a virtual visit from Santa.

And then, of course, there are the homes themselves. The onefinestay team has a stringent vetting process, with every home assessed for space, character and comfort. The result is an incredible portfolio of one-of-a-kind destinations.

From palatial villas in Barbados to historic estates in the Italian countryside, each home under the onefinestay umbrella is finished to perfection, with fully-equipped kitchens, beautiful interior design and unique features such as personal gyms, curated libraries or rooftop terraces.

Should you fancy settling in for longer, consider booking a monthly stay, for which the company offers reduced rates.

All you need to do is pick the destination – and there are plenty to choose from. Every home can be found in a prime spot, whether that be in New York, Mexico or Bali. Sun seekers will be pleased to hear that the company has just added St Tropez to its list of destinations, with homes in Cannes and Provence being introduced in summer 2021.

For more information about onefinestay, call +44 20 3871 8650 or visit onefinestay.com

Escape TO STRIVE, TO SEEK, TO FIND...

JOALI Maldives, where a team of marine biologists run a Reef Restoration project to help combat the effects of climate change (p.78)

MALDIVES SPECIAL 116 WHAT’S ON IN THE MALDIVES Reward programmes and waterslides 118 GOING UNDER? The race to save the Maldives from rising sea levels 124 NEW WAVE How one luxury hotel is putting sustainability first 128 RAISE THE BAA Exploring the Maldives’ only UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

Fairmont Maldives

The Coralarium at Fairmont Maldives Sirru Fen Fushi is an underwater art installation that doubles as a coral regeneration project.

Comprised of sculptures made using more than 500 ceramic ‘starfish’ that have been specially designed to attract marine life, the Coralarium acts as an artificial reef. Regularly updated, the installation has recently welcomed a series of new sculptures that imitate the formation of coral colonies.

From £545 per night, fairmont-maldives.com

WHAT’S ON IN THE

MALDIVES Crystal healing workshops, arty coral regeneration projects and a government-backed reward system for frequent flyers Words: Ellen Millard

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WHAT TO PACK

THE HAT This handmade Lack of Color hat is crafted from sun-baked palm leaves £135, HARRODS.COM

Maldives Border Miles As if you needed further incentive to visit the Maldives, the local government has launched a three-tiered loyalty system for

frequent travellers. The bronze, silver and gold tiers allow visitors to collect points based on the frequency and length of their stay, which are redeemable against a series of rewards and services.

THE SUNGLASSES Scalloped edges and tortoiseshell tips give Chloé’s shades a retro vibe £345, NET-A-PORTER.COM

Kagi Maldives Anantara Kihavah Having closed its doors during the peak of the pandemic, Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas recently reopened with a new and improved design. The two-, three- and four-bedroom beach pool villas have been updated with thatched palm roofs, Balau hardwood decks and extended swimming pools, which are tiled in natural Sukabumi stone and fitted with massage jets. Each villa is equipped with a spa room and gym, and has its own villa host, with a personal chef and wine sommelier available on request.

From £665 per night, anantara.com

THE BAG This pouch by Anya Hindmarch is made using recycled plastic bottles £250, ANYAHINDMARCH.COM

Pitching itself as a spa island, the recently-opened Kagi Maldives offers a holistic approach to holidays.

Perched in the island’s lagoon waters, the spa and wellness centre is the resort’s focal point, offering alternative therapies such as crystal- and soundhealing, health coaching and nutrition lessons.

From £537 per night, kagimaldives.com

THE FAN Keep cool with this rainbow riff on a traditional wooden hand fan £80, FERNFANS.COM

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SANDRO BRUECKLMEIER

Soneva Fushi From beachside cinemas to underwater restaurants, gimmicks come thick and fast in the Maldives. Not to be beaten, the architects at Soneva Fushi have had fun putting together the largest one- and two-bedroom Water Retreats in the world – each of which comes complete with its own 19m water slide. The eight sustainably-designed villas all feature a private pool, a retractable roof and a large al fresco deck that provides direct access to the water – but why take the steps when you can take the slide? Starting from the upper floor, guests can glide straight into the ocean.

From $2,626 (approx. £1,965) per night, sonevafushi.com LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

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G O I N G I S I T T O O L AT E T O S AV E T H E M A L D I V E S ?

Words: Anna Prendergast

U N D E R ?

THE CORALARIUM ART INSTALLATION AT FAIRMONT MALDIVES SIRRU FEN FUSHI, READ MORE ON PAGE 116

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n 2009, the former President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, held a cabinet meeting underwater ahead of that year’s UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.

It was a cry for help, a raising of the alarm for a country under threat.

When asked what would happen if the conference failed, Nasheed responded simply: “We are going to die.”

The same year, Nasheed’s government also announced plans to become the first carbon neutral country by the year 2020, but in 2012 he was ousted in a coup, and successive administrations scrapped the plan. Now, years of political upheaval, alleged corruption, money laundering and abuses of power have hindered much of the progress that Maldivians were promised more than a decade ago.

Best known for its postcard-perfect beaches and blue waters, the archipelago consists of 1,200 islands, of which 200 are inhabited and 150 are resorts. Global warming is causing rising sea levels, and with 80 per cent of the country less than one metre above sea level, the Maldives is particularly vulnerable. Which means so is its population, 80 per cent of whom live within 100m of the sea.

In response, the nation has turned to geo-engineering, building artificial and reclaimed islands such as the controversial Thilafushi, a landfill island purpose-built to cope with the country’s waste, and Hulhumalé, a settlement designed to relieve capital city Malé’s overcrowding and provide housing, development and job opportunities to Maldivians.

But this kind of land reclamation – achieved by pumping and transporting sand from the seabed – is problematic in itself, as it can destroy and choke existing reefs. It seems to be a sacrifice the nation is willing to make, with few alternatives, an increasing population and youth unemployment on the rise.

Not all development is welcomed by locals, and some are fighting back.

Earlier this year, one community succeeded in its campaign to ‘Save Madivaru’ from being turned into a resort. They lobbied the government with the

backing of marine biologists, who reported that if the North Ari Atoll’s coral reefs were allowed to degrade, it would cost locals roughly £125 million in lost revenue from tourism and fishing over three decades. Now, Rasdhoo-Madivaru is a marine protected area, and, in February 2020, the Ministry of Tourism introduced a points-based system to vet potential investors to ensure they are committed to sustainability.

While, ultimately, it is locals who will pay the price for the environmental damage being wrought upon the Maldives, it is a cost that shouldn’t be theirs alone to pay. On average a single tourist produces five times more rubbish than a Maldivian (excluding Malé).

The archipelago attracts roughly 1.5 million tourists a year, enticed by five-star luxury resorts and incredible diving opportunities. But 17 more resorts are planned to open by the end of 2021, which will inevitably place even heavier strain on the very ecosystems the industry relies upon. From coastal erosion caused by construction to plastic pollution caused by improper waste disposal (one word in the local Dhivehi language for beach, gondhu doh, translates as ‘garbage area’), the Maldives are in desperate need of a lifeline.

Earlier this year, record levels of microplastics were found in the oceans there in a study by Flinders University. “Microplastics, especially in these densities, pose a huge threat because their size, colour and shape resembles many naturally-occurring prey items,” says the study’s author Professor Karen Burke da Silva.

“Small organisms consume small microplastics, large organisms either consume the small organism or the larger microplastics… and it’s all being captured in the guts and flesh of these animals, causing huge health and wellbeing problems.”

Understandably, she’s sceptical of the government’s pledge to go ‘single-use plastic-free’ by 2023.

It’s difficult to believe it’s not just another over-ambitious policy that echoes the naivety of previous administrations and doesn’t address issues such as the fact that 94 per cent of the country’s emissions still come from the burning of fossil fuels.

As a country, the Maldives is responsible for just 0.0003 per cent of the world’s total emissions.

Yet the island nation and its ecosystems suffer disproportionately due to their size, remote location and vulnerability to events such as 2016’s El Niño, in which sea temperatures rose enough to damage reefs all over the world in one of the largest-recorded episodes of mass bleaching (where distressed coral expels crucial algae that provides more than 90 per cent of its food). Considered the most destructive El Niño since 1950, the 2016 event resulted in coral bleaching more than 60 per cent of sites in the Maldives.

The reefs in the Maldives are more than just photogenic dive sites – they support more than 2,000 species of corals, reef fish, shells and crustaceans.

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ABOVE AND RIGHT CORAL PROPOGATION AT HURAWALHI MALDIVES BELOW PLASTIC BOTTLES READY FOR RECYCLING AT THILAFUSHI MALDIVES, ©MOHAMED ABDULRAHEEM/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE DIVER BEHIND CORAL FAN; TURTLES, BOTH COURTESY OF HURAWALHI MALDIVES, PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY VEN EEDEN; BLEACHED CORAL, COURTESY OF SHUTTERSTOCK.COM; WASTE DISPOSAL SITE IN MALÉ, COURTESY OF SHUTTERSTOCK.COM; WASTE ON SONEVA FUSHI, ©SANDRA HAGELSTAM

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As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s estimated that tourism in the Maldives won’t return to pre-pandemic levels until late 2022 – but return, it will. Sun-seeking travellers will leave their footprints in the sand, sea planes will take to the skies, boats of divers will drop anchor once again. The Covid-19 crisis will pass, but there’s no such guarantee we can reverse the damage of the more invisible threat: the climate crisis.

And it won’t just ruin our holidays – it’ll irrevocably ruin our economies and livelihoods, too. “I think, and hope, we’ll see greater linkage between tourism and biodiversity in the coming years,” says Justin Francis, CEO of Responsible Travel, which screens all its trips for their environmental and social commitments, “with the restoration, protection and rewilding of land and the sea bed.”

For a nation that depends almost entirely on its coastal and marine ecosystems for survival, it is these bio-networks that are suffering the most. Coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, beaches and lagoons are rich in biodiversity, yet coral, fish and crustaceans are in decline. Is eco-tourism the answer?

“Some of the most environmentallyfriendly hotels are doing a great job reducing plastic pollution,” says Burke da Silva. “All hotels in the Maldives should currently be plastic free – no bottles, no straws, no wrapping, instead providing filtered water in glass bottles.”

Many are optimistic that proactive travel can turn the tide, and not just on plastic.

Responsible Travel designs trips that include litter cleanups and tree planting, with accommodation that works closely with Save the Beach, an NGO that also partners with Palm Beach Island Resort and Spa. Resorts such as JOALI, Anantara and Velaa Private Island have launched reef regeneration projects with dedicated conservation centres and teams of marine biologists. Education by exposure is key – seeing the harsh contrast of a bleached reef next to a healthy one can turn a diver that knows about climate change into one that understands its effects; snorkelling with endangered turtles can inspire even the youngest swimmers to take their future seriously.

As the islands’ existence hangs in the balance, the future of the Maldives is serious indeed.

Three hotels turning the tide in the Maldives

Hurawalhi Maldives Hurawalhi sources more than half of its energy directly from solar panels on the island, so you can rest assured that while you soak up the rays, so will they. And speaking of rays, not only can you dive with eagle and mobulas at the 50 sites nearby, but dine with them, too, at the world’s largest underwater restaurant, 5.8, named after the number of metres it sits under the sea. You’ll find your attention torn between the Lhaviyani Atoll’s marine life and exclusive menus designed by guest chefs such as Stefan Heilemann. If you want to get in the water, not just under it, Hurawalhi also invites visitors to help with the coral re-growth programme and lagoon clean ups.

Doubles from £500 per night, bed and breakfast, hurawalhi.com

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JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa One of the Maldives’ newest resorts, JW Marriott is a familyfriendly retreat on the Shaviyani Atoll. The in-house marine biologists work on maintaining the house reef, and also lead dives, snorkels and swims around the

island, and the Kids’ Club helps little ones learn about the importance of marine life and how to protect it.

Single-use plastic is banned, down to the last detail: toiletries are provided in refillable glass bottles, and amenities such as bamboo toothbrushes are wrapped in biodegradable packaging.

Doubles from £717 per night, bed and breakfast, marriott.co.uk

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Kudadoo Maldives Private Island

With just 15 overwater villas, Kudadoo maybe one of the smallest resorts in the archipelago, but it’s garnered a reputation as one of the leading hotels in the Maldives – or anywhere else for that matter. The resort’s ‘anything, anytime, anywhere’ approach is ultra-all-inclusive, with head chef Antoine Lievaux’s team ready to whip up your favourite dishes on a whim. The service is seamless and the resort is 100 per cent solarpowered and plastic-free. Guests

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get full access to neighbouring sister-resort Hurawahli, but with the Maldives’ first Himalayan salt chamber on site and jet skis on demand, why would you want to be anywhere else?

Doubles from £2,920 per night, fully inclusive, kudadoo.com

NEW WAVE ONE RESORT IS REDEFINING

L U X U R Y B Y AC K N O W L E D G I N G T H AT RESIDENTS OF ITS REEF ARE JUST A S C R U C I A L A S PAY I N G G U E S T S

Words: Anna Prendergast

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n my second day at JOALI, there’s a murmur of anticipation among staff. “We’re on ray watch,” one explains excitedly. A squadron of mantas was spotted close by, and staff will notify curious guests should they appear again.

I keep one hopeful eye on the glassy water for the rest of the day, and the next morning, spend 10 minutes staring at what I’m sure is a rock… or is it a ray? I’m elated to discover it’s neither rock nor ray when the outline of a green turtle becomes clear as it paddles slowly towards me, then banks beneath my overwater villa.

One of 19 new hotels in the Maldives to open in 2018, JOALI was launched by entrepreneur and owner Esin Güral Argat. Every time the travel industry thinks the Maldives has reached peak one-upmanship, the archipelago’s first ice rink or largest underwater restaurant is announced, but JOALI serenely sidestepped the competition without a floating cinema or five-figure bottle of champagne in sight. Rather than imposing its own ideas on you, this is a resort that gives you the space to work out exactly what you want from your time here instead.

When you arrive at JOALI by seaplane, your personal ‘jadugar’ (Urdu for ‘magician’, JOALI for butler) whisks you away to your villa and hands you a mobile phone with which you can contact them day and night. In the overwater villas, Istanbul-based design studio Autoban has made the most of natural materials (glossy marble tables, bamboo headboards, rose gold hardware) both inside and out. An open-plan design and soaring ceilings allow light and air to

between the interior and the split-level decking outside, which blends into the surrounding sea with an infinity pool and a hammock suspended over the water.

There’s no sense that anything here is too precious to be put to immediate use, which means making yourself at home is a breeze.

While I preferred to idle in my villa – I savoured the privacy, the solitude and the proximity to air-con – there are also divine sweeps of beach and a communal pool popular with families. I wondered how I’d top snorkelling directly from my bedroom, but an early morning scuba dive blew it out of the water (excuse the expression). Playful spinner dolphins joined us on our voyage to Hulhudhoo corner, where perfect visibility and a gentle current allowed us to experience unicorn fish, needlefish, Moorish idols and eagle rays in a dive led by Abdul Alim, a free-diving 23 year old ex-soldier who spoke five languages. It was magical, and somewhat moving, too. There’s beauty in abundance here, but that beauty is under threat.

Addressing this issue is JOALI’s in-house team of marine biologists, Samantha Reynolds and Martyna Socha, who lead a roster of underwater adventures and educational activities for guests and have been cultivating a coral nursery since the hotel was built. “Coral reefs play a key role in the lifestyles of Maldivians and serve as a major resource for the economy,” says Socha. “They are sources of food and income; serve as nurseries for commercial fish species; attract divers from around the world and generate revenue from tourism. Plus, they act as natural barriers that protect coastal communities from high impact waves and beach erosion.” JOALI’s Reef Restoration project prioritises biodiversity by laying strong foundations on which species can flourish. “Coral reefs are one of the most complex ecosystems on earth. They cover less than 1% of the ocean floor, but are home to approximately 25% of all ocean species,” Socha explains. The team not only assists with the reef’s natural recovery from events such as 2016’s mass coral bleaching, but also works with Blue Marine Foundation and Maldives Underwater Initiative to protect seagrass, a vital component of the ecosystem.

What JOALI understands is that it’s not enough for a hotel to take an interest in sustainability for the sake of its own success: it must also invest in the future of Maldivians, marine life, the islands and the planet. Not only does the hotel carbon offset your journey before you even arrive through local tree-planting initiatives, but it’s working towards EarthCheck certification by reducing the resort’s impact on the environment. From harvesting rainwater and growing vegetables on-site to creating a water-bottling plant and using a rocket composter for food waste, the processes aren’t always glamorous – but they are essential, particularly when microplastics are at a record high in the Maldives and rising sea levels threaten the very existence of the islands.

The team’s devotion to the ocean is also reflected in the immersive art dotted around the island, from Misha Kahn’s Underwater Coral Sculpture Garden,

“Coral reefs play a key role in the lifestyles of Maldivians and serve as a major resource for the economy” CLOCKWISE FROM TOP FOUR BEDROOM BEACH VILLA; OVERWATER VILLAS; BEDROOM IN A LUXURY WATER VILLA

which Socha says encourages “species such as algae, sponges and hydroids, which then attract fish looking for shelter or food” to vernacular architect Porky Hefer’s two manta ray-shaped treehouses, made using upcycled steel and coconut palm leaves. “We planted palm and banana trees around the structures – I imagined the mantas as being under the sea and the trees being the seaweed,” Hefer explains. If diving isn’t your scene, the hideouts offer a truly special way to connect with the nature here, with unforgettable views of the shore studded with traditional dhoni fishing boats and framed by a canopy of foliage.

With its world-class design and fivestar service, JOALI exemplifies the idea that sustainable tourism doesn’t have to be about sacrifice. It gives conscious travellers the opportunity to put their money where it matters, which is essential for not only the survival of the industry, but that of the entire country and the marine life on which it relies, and sets a precedent for other resorts to follow suit.

If that’s not a good enough reason to plan a holiday here, we don’t know what is.

Inspiring Travel Company offers seven nights at JOALI from £5,449 per person based on two adults sharing a Water Pool Villa, including daily breakfast, return economy class flights from London Heathrow and seaplane transfers (saving up to £3,230 per person). Offer valid for travel completed by 12 April 2021. Book by 31 January 2021, inspiringtravelcompany.co.uk

Raising the

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A S T H E M A L D I V E S ’ O N LY U N E S C O B I O S P H E R E R E S E R V E , T H E B A A A T O L L IS HOME TO ONE OF THE LARGEST GROUPS OF CORAL REEF IN THE INDIAN OCEAN — AND THE WESTIN MIRIANDHOO MALDIVES RESORT MIGHT JUST BE THE BEST P L AC E F R O M W H I C H T O E X P E R I E N C E T H I S U N D E R WAT E R O T H E R W O R L D

Words: Ellen Millard

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here’s a small creature nibbling at the hedgerows that separate my villa from the beach and the indigo ocean beyond. Its furry feet pad at the sand as it ducks and dives between branches, scouting out the most delicious of leaves for its snaffled feast. When I tell the hotel staff of this sighting, there’s excitement.

The legend is true. A security guard, whose own claims went dismissed some months previously, is venerated. Together we are the only two on the island who have seen it, but now I have photographic evidence: black, white, pink-eyed and, I imagine, not believing his luck, a bunny rabbit basks in the Maldivian sunlight.

The photograph is shared amongst the staff, and a new conversation begins.

How did it get here? The animal is clearly not a native, though he has drifted into island life seamlessly. The only way to arrive at Miriandhoo, the 14-acre islet home to The Westin Maldives Resort, is by seaplane or boat. Unless a freak of nature, somehow able to swim the breadth of the Indian Ocean (at this point, I wouldn’t put it past him), then this rabbit is either somebody’s escaped pet or an endearing stowaway – or, perhaps, both.

What we do know for sure is that he is stranded on Miriandhoo until further notice, and I can’t help but envy him. Previously undeveloped land, this tiny island was transformed into The Westin’s first Maldivian hotel in 2018.

Envisioned by Italian architectural firm PEIA Associati, the 70 villas and suites are inspired by the marine life that surrounds them, with roofs shaped like the shells of turtles, overwater villas arranged in a fish motif and all paths pointing to the ocean – the land villas, all 41 of them, lead directly to the white sand beach, while the 29 that hang over the ocean are a mere hop, skip and a splash into the waves below.

And it’s water worth swimming in.

Comprising 1,200 islands in a sequence of 26 atolls, the Maldives is known for its

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abundance of coral reefs, of which there are more than 250 species intricately-laced beneath the turquoise waves. Together they account for five per cent of the world’s reef area, and Miriandhoo is home to some of the most special. The island is located in the Baa atoll, the Maldives’ only UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, designated so in 2011 for its bounty of marine life. Found just north of the Kaashidhoo Kandu channel, which divides the northern chain of atolls, the Baa supports one of the largest groups of coral reefs in the Indian Ocean.

It is spectacular. Below the waves, hawksbill turtles share space with docile reef sharks, while fish of every colour, pattern and persuasion flit in and out of pastel-coloured crevices. The nearby Hanifaru Bay is a mantra ray feeding ground, the largest of its kind in the world, and there’s a popular mating point for whale sharks.

The atoll’s UNESCO status limits commercial fishing and tourism activities to certain areas, which require certification and a license from the country’s Environmental Protection Agency. With the Maldives’ biodiversity forming the bedrock of its economy, this ensures that its protection is of paramount importance, not just for the wildlife but for those who live around it.

RIGHT BATHROOM IN A BEACH VILLA; BELOW PRIVATE POOL AND PATIO IN A BEACH VILLA

It also means that visitors who take part in excursions can do so knowing that they are regulated to ensure minimal environmental impact. Those with strong sea legs can catch a boat to the best snorkelling spots with The Westin’s expert guides, or arrange an excursion to stake out the deep blue for dolphins. Less seafaring parties can simply paddle in the shallow waters around the hotel – there is much to be found among the seaweedstrewn stilts of the overwater villas.

Even better, book a massage in the resident spa and find yourself looking

down at a glass floor and a view of the ocean below, with schools of fish and scuttling crabs providing entertainment.

Wellness is the key message at the hotel, and while simply pitching up and sunbathing would do anyone a world of good, The Westin offers a series of amenities and experiences tailored to mind and body. There’s a state-of-theart fitness centre, running sessions that start at the crack of dawn (my invitation was politely declined) and yoga classes taken under the guise of an astonishingly flexible man named Guru. Food is as much a part of the wellness package, and the three restaurants – Island Kitchen, Hawker and The Pearl – balance nutrition with indulgence, serving panAsian, street food-inspired and Japanese cuisine respectively. The Sunset Bar, a lowkey lounge overlooking the ocean, is the perfect setting for sundowners.

It’s all too easy to slip into routine.

The days on Miriandhoo are effortless, the island a blanket of peace. The only disturbance comes from the odd screech of the resident flying foxes, which chatter in the trees and occasionally swoop across the sky, their giant wings casting shadows on the sand. They rule the roost here, the largest animals on the land, holding sway over the other critters on the island.

Do they know there’s an outsider in their midst? The lone rabbit, elusive and shy – and having the time of his life.

From £608 for two people per night on a B&B basis, westin.com/maldivesmiriandhoo

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10/11/2020 09:07