LUXURY MEDIA LUXURY A OF THE YEAR OF
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EXCELLENCE XCELLENCE IN N SG MAGAZINE DESIGN G INE DESI DESIG S O PA 2014 SOPA 200 1 4 A 2201 AWARDS WARDS
TAN TA AN SWIE S WIE HIAN H IAN
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July
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CONTENTS THE BRIEF
26 THE STORY WITHIN This charming designer home holds a story within its walls.
22
THE A-LIST Things to know this month.
24
ACCESS BAGGAGE This new start-up has the bag of frequent business travellers.
26
DREAM HOUSE This designer holiday home comes with two bedrooms and a tale.
28
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN Designers pay an iconic chair the ultimate compliment.
30
SIGNATURE RUIN Singapore’s latest menswear label creates a unique damaged look as part of its debut collection of sensible basics.
32
GAS WORKS Guilt-free man-made petrol could lead to an interesting alternative motoring future.
34 S G
50 SNAPSHOT
PLAYING BY THE RULES How you capered about as a child has a bigger impact on adulthood than you might think.
24 ALL IN ORDER Take care of your packing needs with this new app.
28 A FRESH TAKE Arne Jacobsen’s classic Series 7 chair gets a local spin.
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Breguet, the innovator. Invention of the shock-protection device, 1790 Inspired by “subscription watches”, the Tradition 7027BR model daringly symbolizes the Breguet art of watchmaking through a subtle play on transparency effects and an eminent contemporary architectural design. It highlights one of Breguet’s most important inventions, the pare-chute, designed to protect the balance pivots in case of impact, it was the forerunner of all modern shock-absorbing devices. History is still being written ...
SINCERE FINE WATCHES Takashimaya S.C. Ngee Ann City +65 6733 0618 SINCERE HAUTE HORLOGERIE The Shopping Gallery at the Hilton +65 6738 9971
94 FEATHER LIGHT NTPT carbon, used in racing yachts, gives this Richard Mille timepiece dynamism.
ON THE COVER TAN SWIE HIAN SELF PORTRAIT TAN SWIE HIAN
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TO BREAK THE RULES, YOU MUST FIRST MASTER THEM. THE VALLﾃ右 DE JOUX. FOR MILLENNIA A HARSH, UNYIELDING ENVIRONMENT; AND SINCE 1875 THE HOME OF AUDEMARS PIGUET, IN THE VILLAGE OF LE BRASSU S . THE E AR LY WATCHM AKE R S WER E SHAPED HERE, IN AWE OF THE FORCE OF NATURE YET DRIVEN TO MASTER ITS MYSTERIES THROUGH THE COMPLEX MECHANICS OF THEIR CRAFT. STILL TODAY THIS PIONEERING SPIRIT INSPIRES US TO CONSTANTLY CHALLENGE THE CONVENTIONS OF FINE WATCHMAKING.
MILLENARY MINUTE REPEATER IN PINK GOLD, WHITE ENAMEL DIAL.
SINGAPORE AUDEMARS PIGUET BOUTIQUE FORUM THE SHOPPING MALL 583 ORCHARD ROAD, #01-05/06 TEL (65) 6836 4918 THE SHOPPES AT MARINA BAY SANDS CANAL LEVEL B2-207 TEL (65) 6688 7595 AUDEMARSPIGUET.COM
48 OLD TRADES RESURRECTED Three young craftsmen build careers on the strength of their hands.
FEATURES 37 T H E
66 MUSCLE MEMORY When was the last time you wrote a physical note?
HOT SEAT
SAFE AND SMART Don’t be an easy target for cyberattacks.
38
THE PEAK INTERVIEW
THINKER, ARTIST, FIGHTER, SON His mind opened by a spiritual awakening, Tan Swie Hian is a character infinitely larger than life.
48
MEET THE MAKERS The maker movement is the antithesis to high-tech lives.
55
THE ART OF CRAFT The hundreds of steps that go into the creation of five modern icons.
66
AT OUR WRITS’ END As handwriting gives way to typing as the norm for communication, we risk forgoing more than just the scribbled note.
68
THE PEAK SALON SERIES A post-baby boom generation shares how they get on in a fastchanging digital age.
72
MY HUMANIFESTO The time has come for us to decide what really matters – our humanity or our machines.
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FANCY HANDIWORK A close-up look at every stitch and detail of iconic works by five designer labels.
55
74 DUAL LOOK Fashion ensembles that serve the hip sportsman well.
FASHION, WATCHES & GROOMING 74
IN OUR OWN BACKYARD Take off on an urban adventure in styles that are equal parts smart and sporty.
82
THE STARTING POINT Once shorthand for middleof-the-road style sensibilities, chinos now make up some pretty fashion-forward looks.
88
ROMAN REIGN The Eternal City unveiling of a monograph on the lives and inspirations of the Bulgari brothers.
90
FORCE OF FASHION Designer and entrepreneur Victoria Beckham on building a thriving business and shutting down naysayers.
94
LIGHTNESS OF BEING Timepieces crafted from high-tech materials take the weight off your wrist.
106
APPLE OF MY EYE The Apple Watch won’t oust luxury mechanical timepieces – but it can teach traditional watchmakers a thing or two.
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THE CHARMING BIRD Mechanical singing bird automaton movement. jaquet-droz.com
LIFESTYLE 114
FRENCH EVOLUTION One of the world’s oldest cognac houses celebrates its tricentenary, and The Peak drops in on the festivities.
122
POWER DINING Osteria Art shows that it means business.
124 T H E
PEAK EXPERT
THE TIES THAT BIND The art of putting a story together – one page at a time.
128
DEUS X6 MACHINA The car that critics loved to hate became so popular that its second generation is now out.
130
EAT MY DUST The new BMW X6 is a better (and equally popular) version of its predecessor.
UP CLOSE WITH BIG APES Veteran gorilla researcher’s expertise helps travellers get cosy with the primates.
136 P E R F E C T
WEEKEND
THE HUMAN TOUCH Building relationships is all in a day’s work (and rest) for this creative director.
128
PEOPLE 138
THE PEAK GOLF TOURNAMENT Guests from the diplomatic community and the corporate elite let their hair down on Tanah Merah Country Club Garden Course.
148
THE PEAK G RESTAURANT AWARDS The Peak Selections: Gourmet and Travel held its sixth installation of G Restaurant Awards at The Fullerton Hotel.
158
STOCKISTS
124 TIED-UP TALES How bookbinding defies technology.
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160
THE LAST PAGE Creating a greener world starts at the top.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES July 2015
SPINNING AROUND Vinyls are making a surprising comeback. On tablet.
TASTE OF PARIS Marc Restellini on how he curates Pinacotheque for Singapore. On tablet and Web.
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MASTER GLASS Discover the French style of mixology with a session at Plaza Athenee. On tablet.
DOWNLOAD THE DIGITAL EDITION OF THE PEAK VIA MAGZTER AT WWW.MAGZTER.COM.
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EDITOR’S NOTE Over the weekend, I found myself frantically scanning the shelves of Books Kinokuniya, looking for travel literature for an upcoming holiday. This, despite the fact that I own a Kindle and can buy books from Amazon at my leisure. But this convenience, I have found, comes with a set of problems. Neglect the device for too long and the battery dies. Starve it of electricity, deprive it of a charger, and it suffers the same fate. I resent having to monitor the needs of a machine, while mine go unfulfilled. As the pages of an e-book are hidden in the depths of the device, I can’t get an overview of it, skim the chapters or fan the pages to touch down on the juicy bits. I’ve lost my connection with books and I miss it, like I miss touching something real, something with character in the way the paper feels and smells, the quality and style of the artwork on the cover. Evidently, others feel the same way. Sales of the Kindle have dropped, while those of physical books have risen 5 per cent, according to a top UK book-retailing chain earlier this year. After noisy predictions of the death of physical books, has the tide turned in favour of retro products? We put the question to a group of top executives who joined us at The Peak Salon Series a couple of months back. Their robust discussion is documented on p.68. Vinyl, too, is making a comeback, and it’s not all about nostalgia. In this month’s tablet exclusive, Spinning Around, we speak to the music fans behind its revival in Singapore. Certainly, being able to touch and interact with a product enhances our enjoyment of it. In The Art of Craft, p.55, we turn the lens to the process itself, by breaking down the steps that go into the making of a modern icon. For, while machines, once calibrated, can churn out flawless goods, humans striving for perfection, like a gymnast nailing that landing after a triple somersault, is something else to behold. And it is to this that we pay homage in this issue. JENNIFER CHEN Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ThePeakSingapore.
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PHOTOGRAPHY WINSTON CHUANG ART DIRECTION NORSHAM HUSAINI STYLING DOLPHIN YEO HAIR MICHAEL CHIEW/HAIRLOOM, USING GOLDWELL MAKEUP LOLENT LEE, USING GUERLAIN CLOTHES WOOL SILK PLEATED DRESS, FROM CARVEN
MAN VS MACHINES
July
15
20
THE BRIEF 08 US$2,345,678
01 BRAIN TEASER
The sum (equivalent to S$3 million) that Chinese businessman Zhu Ye bid at the Glide Charity Auction to win a private lunch with investor extraordinaire Warren Buffett. Buffett can discuss any topic, save what he’s buying and selling.
Bill Gates is back with his summer reading list and we recommend What If?, a collection of wacky hypothetical questions with serious scientific answers.
02 FLOWER POWER
07
FLY SAFE All Lufthansa long-haul fleets are now equipped with an intensive care unit that’s spacious enough for a bed, two seats and intensive care equipment.
03 DIGITAL
THINGS TO KNOW THIS MONTH
06 PROGRESSIVE
PATTERNS From skinny ties to knit ties, men’s most enduring accessory isn’t done reinventing itself yet. Burberry Menswear’s S/S 16 collection features ties made of lace for a more ethereal look.
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05 STEPPING HIGH
Masterpiece In Motion is the Singapore Dance Theatre’s upcoming triple-bill performance and you’ll want to check out Bournonville Divertissements, choreographed by La Sylphide’s August Bournonville. Aug 21 and 22, Esplanade Theatre.
04 POWER BREAKFAST
FORTRESS Multinational professional services firm EY has launched Managed Security Operations Center, which will provide customised cybersecurity by predicting future cyberthreats with advanced analytics.
Sick of dry, crunchy toast? Japanese company Balmuda has created a toaster with a humidifying function and a complex temperature monitoring system to ensure toast that is uniformly crisp on the outside yet fluffy on the inside.
TEXT CHARMIAN LEONG PHOTOS (WARREN BUFFETT) NAJLAH FEANNY/CORBIS (CAULIFLOWER) LEW ROBERTSON/CORBIS
Chef Candy Argondizza of New York City’s International Culinary Center predicts cauliflower to be the vegetable of 2015. Prepare it like a steak, rice or even a pizza crust.
THE BRIEF
ACCESS BAGGAGE This new start-up has the bag of frequent business travellers.
Imagine the freedom of arriving at the airport with nothing but your coat and passport, or jetting from one meeting to another without having to stop by your hotel to pick up the luggage, or worrying about changes in the climate. For a fee, travel valet business Dufl can store your clothes at its facility, let you select what you want for every trip, then send the package to your destination before you arrive and collect it before you leave. Here’s how it works.
02 ‘PACK’ Fill the suitcase with winter and summer clothes you frequently wear on travels. Don’t worry about being neat, as the whole point of this service is to help you avoid this laborious activity.
03 STORAGE Dufl will pick up the suitcase via Fedex (with whom it has a partnership) and it will inventory, photograph and store your clothes for the next trip you go on.
* PAY It costs US$9.95 (S$13.50) a month for a virtual closet, and US$99 for every round trip. While you can swop clothes in and out of your closet at no extra charge, they’re meant to stay at the Dufl facility, so you may want to buy some duplicates.
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05 RETURN When you’re ready to leave for your next destination, send the suitcase filled with your laundry back to Dufl via Fedex, and it will take care of the washing and dry-cleaning.
04 TRAVEL Before your trip, use the app to access your “virtual closet” and select the items you would like to take with you. Dufl will pack everything with military precision and send it to your designated address before you get there.
TEXT CHARMIAN LEONG ILLUSTRATION JEAN YAP
01 DOWNLOAD The Dufl app is available only on Apple’s App Store at the moment. Create an account and wait for Dufl to send you a special suitcase.
DREAM HOUSE
This designer holiday home comes with two bedrooms and a tale.
English architecture is so much more than magnificent castles and pickleshaped skyscrapers, and it’s a message the team behind Living Architecture has been pushing for the past five years. The social enterprise, founded by philosopher and writer Alain de Botton, is a holiday home rental company with a strong design slant; world-famous
ROOM FOR MORE
Have a stay at Living Architecture’s previous peculiarities.
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architects are commissioned to build innovative homes in hopes of promoting the enjoyment of modern architecture in the UK. Its newest completed project, A House for Essex, doesn’t disappoint on the uniqueness front. Designed by English artist Grayson Perry, the two-bedroom holiday home was (clearly) inspired by “a history of follies”, as well as pilgrimage chapels and fairy tales. But the rooms within have a story to tell, too. Perry dreamed up a fictional
THE BALANCING BARN This precariouslooking house was designed by Dutch firm MVRDV and is located in Suffolk. It appears small and traditional, but actually spans a theatrical 30m in length.
character, Julie, to whom her husband, Dave – also imagined – dedicated the house, following her untimely demise when she was run down by a curry delivery driver. Julie’s accumulated effects are scattered throughout the house, giving guests a chance to discover her character. Ideal for those who don’t want to deal with the possibility of real ghosts in those charming English cottages. www.living-architecture.co.uk
A ROOM FOR LONDON This cosy boatshaped abode by David Kohn Architects and artist Fiona Banner is big enough for only two, and sits brazenly on top of London’s Southbank Centre.
TEXT CHARMIAN LEONG
THE BRIEF
COMMUNAL BOND The Vlotwateringbrug bridge in the Netherlands was designed by Next Architects with components that provide roosts for the area’s migrating bats.
THE BRIEF
BIRTHDAY DRESS The “slip-on” by Brendon Lim of Imajin studio.
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN How do you reimagine Danish designer Arne Jacobsen’s classic Series 7 chair, known for its sexy hourglass silhouette? Accent it with a basket weave? Coat it in a reflective layer? That’s what three of seven local studios did for the chair’s 60th birthday, by invitation of W. Atelier, dealer of Fritz Hansen, the makers of the chair. For the weave, Imajin’s Brendon Lim introduced a “slip-on” to contrast with the chair’s sleek surface. To emphasise its versatility in complementing different settings, Colin Seah of Ministry of Design and celebrity designer Peter Tay came up with similar ideas. Both applied mirrored surfaces to the veneer, naming their interpretations Kamaeleon and Anywhere, respectively.
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Our favourite is also the most radical, albeit the least practical: a suspended chair named Series 8, 9, 10, 11... (Experiment on Curves vs Light), by Sam Ang and Sal Chua of Grey Canopy. Timber cylindrical rods are hand-pasted on the chair’s surface for a textured surface. “Try shining light on it from different angles. The shadows cast will
dance and change with the curves,” says Chua. Others in the project include Robert Greg Shand of Robert Greg Shand Architects, Terence Chan of Studio Terre, and Leong Hon Kit and Si Jian Xin of Wynk Collaborative. 7 Architects x Series 7 will be exhibited at the National Design Centre on July 9 and 10, and various venues around Singapore, until the end of the year.
TEXT MERYL KOH
Designers pay an iconic chair the ultimate compliment.
CABIN ALTITUDE: 1,172 M* PASSENGERS: UP TO 18 SIGNATURE OVAL WINDOWS: 14
W
ORK AT EASE
Welcome to the next level of success. The Gulfstream G550™ offers every aspect of exquisite interior design to maximize the comfort of ultralong-range travel. Flexible interior layouts with crew rest areas and stateroom privacy, numerous wireless options and an ultra-quiet cabin mean you can handle business even as the G550 cruises at Mach 0.80.
JASON AKOVENKO | +65 6572 7777 | jason.akovenko@gulfstream.com | GULFSTREAMG550.COM *At the typical initial cruise altitude of 12,497 m
THE BRIEF
SIGNATURE RUIN
Singapore is better known for its food, not its fashion, but that hasn’t stopped talented local designers from trying to create a better-dressed society. The latest team to join the cause include President’s Design Award 2014 winner Larry Peh, Lenz Fan of menswear label Wanderwonder, and artist/entrepreneur Lyn She. Together, they have launched Faculty, a menswear label for the modern gent. The three have one straightforward goal: to make clothing that is as comfortable as it is stylish. “Faculty’s designs are based on functionality,” explains Peh, the brand’s creative director. Indeed, Faculty’s debut line consists of uncomplicated shirts in muted, wearable colours, along with jeans made from Japanese denim. But the devil’s in the detail. “My background helps me to illustrate my ideas, and we also design our own iron-on patches,” says the founder of and creative director at design studio &Larry. He cites the Denim 15 Damaged Jeans – the collection’s feature piece – as an example. “I needed the cutouts and holes to be well-positioned, with shapes that would be unique to Faculty. The stitching on the triangleshaped cut-out on the right has very intricate stitching – look closer and you will notice the insertion of grey
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thread and leftover denim in the holes to attain a natural and seamless look.” The brand is especially proud of its denim, and its star pair also features selvedge (the self-finished edge that keeps the fabric from fraying) and is cut from 14.5oz denim that hails from the popular Kuroki mill in Okayama prefecture. “Japanese denim fits the Asian frame better and the fabric is of a very high quality, which enables us to put it through countless treatments to make the Denim 15 Damaged Jeans.” Manufacturing a well-worn look is certainly no walk in the park. www.faculty.com.sg
COMFORT IS KEY Faculty offers everyday casuals for Singaporeans.
TEXT CHARMIAN LEONG
Singapore’s latest menswear label creates a unique damaged look as part of its debut collection of sensible basics.
THE BRIEF
GAS WORKS
With all the limelight on electric vehicles (EVs) these days, it is too easy to forget that the vast majority of cars still run on old-fashioned fossil fuels. And it’s a situation that will remain for at least another one or two decades, while adoption of EVs plods along. So, when German carmaker Audi announced that it has produced, with its French biotech partner Global Bioenergies, a non-fossil-based fuel “e-gasoline” that can drive a regular petrol-powered car, it has rightfully revved things up. While renewable fuels made using living organisms called biofuels are nothing new, what’s spectacular about Audi’s achievement is that its propellant is created virtually out of thin air. More specifically, the ingredients are water (any kind would do, including seawater), carbon dioxide, sunlight and specialised single-cell microorganisms. Under the right conditions, these industrious creatures are tricked into using photosynthesis to continuously produce fuel, instead of new cells.
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Plant matter such as sugar or starch crops that “traditional” biofuels require is conspicuously absent. That means that the production of e-gasoline does not compete with that of food crops, a major criticism of first-generation biofuels. Second-generation biofuels mitigate this by taking advantage of plant matter that we can’t eat, such as wood chips or sawdust, but factories processing such volumes of raw materials demand large swathes of real estate. Yields per acre for such synthetic fuels – Audi’s also working simultaneously on e-gas, e-ethanol and e-diesel – are expected to be 20 times greater, compared to conventional biofuels made from, for example, corn. Audi estimates that over its life cycle, a car running on e-fuel will exhibit a carbon footprint that is as good as that of an EV charged with renewable energy such as wind or solar. It’s astounding news, especially so for petrolheads, who may wish to pick up those petrolguzzling supercars eco-conscious drivers are shunning, stat.
TEXT LOW KA WEI ILLUSTRATION JEAN YAP
Guilt-free man-made petrol could lead to an interesting alternative motoring future.
SG 50 SNAPSHOT
Singapore playgrounds then and now
WHO Rachel Eng, joint managing parter of Wong Partnership WHERE Tiong Bahru Park – 1974; Tiong Bahru Adventure Playground – 2015.
PLAYING BY THE RULES “Watching children play can reveal a lot about their personalities,” observes Rachel Eng, as she looks towards the Tiong Bahru Adventure Playground, a treasured spot she used to play in when she was six years old. The now 46-year-old mother of three and joint managing partner of Wong Partnership LLP – one of the top three law firms in the country – recalls watching her son as a toddler at a playground and learning that his timidity around the slides stemmed from concern for others, because he was worried they might get hurt sliding down. So, what would Eng’s parents have gleaned from her when she was that age? “They would have said I was always cautious and careful. I never broke any rules, even when playing.” So it is felicitous that she wound up a lawyer, and an esteemed one to boot. Eng began her career in 1992 with Allen & Gledhill before moving to Messrs Arfat Selvam and Gunasingham. She joined her current firm in 1995, got promoted to salaried partner just two years later, and, by 2010, became the first woman to head a law firm in Singapore. But training for the corporate jungle can unknowingly start at a young age. She says: “It’s good for children to experience just a little bit of risk and danger.
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“It’s important to learn how to pick yourself up after you fall – or at least learn how not to fall too badly. Playgrounds these days are too safe; they’re so well-padded. If every safety precaution is taken at that age, children won’t learn anything.” The Tiong Bahru Adventure Playground is indeed a far cry from the version in Eng’s memories. When the 3.3ha Tiong Bahru Park was first built in 1967, its playground was modest and featured only swings, monkey bars and a roundabout. Eng’s parents would drive her and her two siblings out here a couple of times a month, and the children considered it a treat as it was more spacious and less crowded than the playground below their old apartment. Today, the Adventure Playground is worthy of the name, with its flying fox, tilted “runaway” train structure, mini-maze and roundabout. But, even if Eng was a child again in this age, she would stick to the old sites. “They were basic but that way you create your own fun and make the most of what you’ve got. You had to learn how to kick yourself off on a swing, to see if you could stand on it, or to find a way to sit in the middle of the roundabout while it was spinning. They left a lot to the imagination and encouraged creativity.” And this is a quality that separates great minds from conventional thinkers.
TEXT CHARMIAN LEONG PHOTO (LEFT) RACHEL ENG PHOTOGRAPHY (RIGHT) WINSTON CHUANG ART DIRECTION DENISE REI LOW
How you capered about as a child has a bigger impact on adulthood than you might think.
THE HOT SEAT VINCENT STECKLER CEO, Avast Software
SAFE AND SMART
TEXT MERYL KOH PHOTOGRAPHY ZAPHS ZHANG ART DIRECTION DENISE REI LOW CHAIR GIORGETTI HUG CHAIR BY ROSSELLA PUGLIATTI AVAILABLE AT SPACE
DON’T BE AN EASY TARGET FOR CYBERATTACKS.
Cybersecurity threats towards corporations are no longer just from external sources, with the ubiquity of mobile devices. As more employees use a smartphone for work, companies face a higher risk of security breach. “It comes down to just one oversight, for an outsider to hack into a corporate network easily,” says Vincent Steckler, chief executive of leading computer and mobile security firm Avast Software. “People in Singapore don’t worry about security much, because it’s a safe country. But the weakest entry point to tapping a mobile device is actually the user.” The 56-year-old cites the example of fake mobile applications that look realistic and pretend to run updates on one’s mobile phone. He adds: “All one needs to do is accept, and hackers have access to the company’s network.” To safeguard trade secrets, identify the most important information and reinforce security to protect it. He says: “It’s not just about installing firewalls that protect against external threats in general. Anti-virus alone can’t defend against an advanced persistent threat.” To counter such threats, Avast has apps for both the iOS and Android platforms that guard against privacy loss, identity theft, viruses, malware, adware and spyware. Other solutions such as intrusion detection software and log analytics to track suspicious activity should be included for extra protection. In addition to bolstering security on company IT systems, the “indirect threat” of social media platforms should not be taken lightly. Although Steckler concedes that it is difficult to monitor and control employees’ online activities, a company should raise awareness among staff of possible threats. Corporate websites and social media platforms are easier to supervise. He says: “Watch the type of pictures that are posted and don’t expose e-mail addresses or names.”
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THE PEAK INTERVIEW
HIS MIND OPENED BY A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING, TAN SWIE HIAN IS MANY PERSONS AT ONCE, AND A CHARACTER INFINITELY LARGER THAN LIFE. TEXT KOH YUEN LIN PHOTOGRAPHY VERNON WONG ART DIRECTION NORSHAM HUSAINI STYLING C.K. KOO
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STYLING ASSISTANT GRACE LIM GROOMING SHA SHAMSI, USING LAURA MERCIER CLOTHES COTTON SUIT, COTTON SHIRT & MOTIVES SILK TIE, FROM ARMANI COLLEZIONI
HIS SCHOOL OF THOUGHT Architect-to-watch Lim Koon Park is working on the upcoming Hwa Chong International school and alumni building, whose design – his sketch is on the opposite page – is inspired by a classical Chinese landscape painting. T H E P E A K T H E P E A K
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is pictures are worth millions – and a single calligraphy word, tens of thousands. Yet, when he learnt that a collector had acquired an occasional piece he did for an acquaintance’s birthday, he offered to exchange it with a painting of higher value potential – only to tear up the returned piece. And, when fire broke out at Telok Kurau Studios in January 2013, the first thing he did was to save a stray cat, only then returning to retrieve just six paintings, leaving the rest of his work to the mercy of fate. For somebody reputed to be Singapore’s, or even South-east Asia’s, most expensive living artist – his ink work Portrait Of Bada Shanren sold for 20.7 million yuan (S$4.4 million) at the Poly Auction in Beijing last November – Tan Swie Hian doesn’t seem too precious about his output. Yet, at the same time, he is fiercely particular about who collects his works. He entertains only those who display a respect for both him and his work, and “grooms” them before he lets them make a purchase. Indeed, the 72-year-old seems to be a man of many contradictions. The 1987 Cultural Medallion recipient dresses plainly, perpetually clad in a “uniform” of a loose-fitting shirt, worn-in bermudas and slippers. He has lived in the same two-storey shophouse over the years “in the heart of the red light district” – the only possession left of his father’s empire which crumbled in the mid ’60s. “The house is falling apart but I will only repair – rather than change – it, in honour of my parents,” he says. Yet, his ride is a Mercedes SLK. The devout Buddhist, who begins each day by meditating for four hours, has dedicated his work to perpetuating the profound wisdom of the religion. His compassion for all sentient beings makes him put everything 4 0
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on hold – just to save a fly that has got itself stuck in his paints. But provoke him and you will be in for a fight. The boy who grew up in the gang-mired streets of Geylang during the 1950s did not earn his street cred by being weak and meek. He gleefully recalls knocking a smoking pipe out of a gangster’s mouth when he was threatened as a youngster. That fighter in him does not take things lying down, even today. Finding a letter which Singapore novelist Yeng Pway Ngon had sent to The Straits Times and National Arts Council in 2005 libellous, Tan took Yeng to court. He would go on to win the case in 2012. It is easy to judge a person, especially when his actions seem conflicting. But Tan is a complex person with as many hidden layers as his work – such as a new series of anamorphic paintings where he masks written text by transforming the characters into geometric shapes. Even in his contradictions, there is consistency. Conflict and a zen state of mind are not opposites of each other in the Buddhist universe, and the incongruously flashy two-seat roadster can be explained: Tan simply wanted a small car with beautiful lines. 'ONLY THE EDUCATED ARE FREE'
SPEED OF LIGHT Tan completed his ink work Portrait Of Bada Shanren in 60 seconds, and it was sold for a recordbreaking $4.4 million in Beijing last November.
There is nothing lavish about his work space, as one might expect of a decorated multi-disciplinary artist. At all of 646 sq ft, his corner unit at the Telok Kurau Studios, where we meet, is sparse. Both completed pieces and works in progress line walls whose grey paint has seen better days. Books, journals and various clippings are strewn across a long wooden table – an organised chaos that only its creator can figure out. The humid heat of the afternoon is eased only by fans. There is no air-conditioning, nor any standard tools of the craft that I can see. Sensing what I am looking for, Tan says with a chuckle: “I don’t use an easel and
palette. I just sit on the oor (to work).â€? Then, he starts speaking – and the vastness of his knowledge is immediately clear. He peppers his conversations with references to not just artists from all ages – Leonardo da Vinci, Vermeer, Pablo Picasso, even Charles Schultz – but also Greek philosophers, European literary giants, contemporary Chinese scholars and prominent politicians. In his book To Paint a Smile, Tan’s friend Woon Tai Ho writes of him as a man informed by history and intrigued by current affairs. Epictetus said that only the educated are free – by that, Tan most certainly is. A Time magazine article in 2003 called him a “Renaissance manâ€?. He notes that these are “the geniuses – such as da Vinci and Michelangelo – who crossed various disciplines with ease of a free mind, showing a balanced use of the two hemispheres of their brainsâ€?. He adds: “Wang Wei of the Tang dynasty, who practised meditation, wrote poetry and theory, played the zither, painted and invented the ink-painting style, is a Renaissance man. And so are Su Shi of the Song dynasty and Rabindranath Tagore of 20thcentury India.â€? Tan too possesses that ability to transcend formats with his artistic expression. His mind was developed early, when a history teacher at The Chinese High School introduced him to Prince Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism. “I was shocked by the historical account,â€? he says, referring to the man who abandoned everything to contemplate the meaning of existence in a forest. Tan researched further and “found Buddhism to be the most profound philosophical system in humankindâ€?. He experienced a spiritual awakening in 1973 and, since then, has dedicated his life to the religion. He says:
FOUR APHORISMS TAKEN FROM TAN SWIE HIAN’S POEMS AND SHORT LINES, TO BE RELEASED LATER THIS YEAR. Being
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A fake will turn old but will never turn real. A POINTED OBSERVATION OF THE ARTS SCENE ABOUND WITH COUNTERFEITS.
“My art is just a drop in the ocean of wisdom expounded by Prince Siddhartha.� GROWING HIS INTELLECT
To date, Tan has published some 58 books – from prose and fables to stories and criticisms. Later this year, a deluxe 350page monograph entitled Zhen Yun Lou Collection: Tan Swie Hian’s Works will be published, followed by two anthologies: Tan Swie Hian’s Poems and Short Lines, a bilingual collection of his poetry and aphorisms, and Tan Swie Hian Speaks 2, a bilingual collection of talks and interviews given by him.
enlightened young, living old to have the splendour fully expressed in the journey. MOST SAGES ATTAIN ENLIGHTENMENT AROUND AGE 30 AND LIVE TO A RIPE OLD AGE TO WALK THE TALK.
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Bend to your oars, boatman, bend to your horizon. A REMINDER TO WORK HARD TOWARDS ONE’S GOAL
The mover and shaker and the slumbering fat cat enter into the new year of the galloping horse exactly at the same time. REGARDLESS OF STATURE OR PACE, ALL LIFE CROSS INTO THE NEW YEAR AT THE SAME TIME.
AN EMERGING ARTS GIANT The son of the wealthiest man in the Indonesian town of Bagansiapiapi, Tan came to Singapore at age 12 to study at The Chinese High School where he met two teachers who would change his life.
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HIGH CALLING After giving up literature and art to devote himself to meditation upon receiving his first spiritual illumination in 1973, the devout Buddhist picked up painting again in 1977 at the behest of French cultural attache Michel Deverge. 4 2 4 2
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His first ground-breaking work, a collection of modern poetry titled The Giant, was published in 1968, the same year he graduated from Nanyang University with a bachelor’s in Modern Languages and Literature. The collection is widely credited as the culmination of the Chinese modernist literary movement here and in Malaysia. He would go on to add the French language to his knowledge base. What he began studying in university – he was proficient enough to clinch the position of press attache for the French Embassy in Singapore – he improved on in later years by immersing himself in the culture. In his 24 years at the embassy, Tan became the first person to translate the works of such literary giants as Aldous Huxley, Henri Michaux and Marin Sorescu into Chinese. In 1978, he was conferred Chavalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France and, in 1998, he won the Marin Sorescu International Poetry Prize from Romania.
Tan didn’t dedicate himself to art full time, until he retired from the service at age 49. He did, however, create enough by 1973 to hold his first art exhibition at the National Library. “I also had my first spiritual illumination zthat year and I gave up literature and art entirely to devote myself to meditation for four years – until cultural attache Michel Deverge threatened to terminate our friendship, unless I picked up painting again,” he recalls. Quoting Picasso, he says: “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” Tan drew when he was a child, painting images of the God of Earth (Tua Pek Kong) and folk heroes for neighbours and friends. But the need to be financially independent prevented him from pursuing his passion. “I had no illusions of an artist’s life, so I started making art full time only when I had the means to get by,” says Tan. He insists that it’s not for the money. “To date, I have only about 400 works, when any
China ‘master’ can produce 400 in a year.” This is why Tan can bear to tear up his work – he wants only the best for posterity. He creates to express himself, not to indulge others. He once painted a mouse to illustrate a saying by Reverend Hong Yi: To keep mice at bay, feed them with rice for cats. He says: “I caught a mouse and made a large number of sketches based on it. Then I released it thankfully and made a painting. A collector was so impressed by it that he requested a painting with the mouse motif. I said, ‘Sorry, I can’t give birth to mice now.’” He was delighted when a friend commented that his art is not recognisable, for he adopts different styles to suit the requirements of the subject, theme and approach. “No two works by me are alike,” he says. “Picasso said, ‘God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying things.’” But Tan is not God, and it is no mean feat to excel
in different mediums. Even more challenging is to find new mediums that add meaning to his work. He illustrates this with series of portraits in ink, painted on pages of The International Herald Tribune. What seem like common practice drafts on waste paper are given depth, not just through the casual juxtaposition of drawing and newsprint. With clever captions and quotes that link a drawn portrait to the paper’s content, Tan displays his intimate knowledge of historical icons and his understanding of the world today. Thus, while these discoveries may seem to come by chance, they are the product of his erudition, crystallised in a moment by a spark of inspiration. FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR
It’s clear that Tan has a phenomenal intellect, but he wasn’t exactly a model student in school. He was born in Pulau Halang, Indonesia, to Chinese parents who had migrated from Fujian, China. His father, Tan Chan Pok, was a self-made businessman who went from
RECORDBREAKING In 2012, Tan's oil and acrylic painting, When The Moon Is Orbed, sold for $3.7 million at Beijing's Poly Auction, which sealed his title as Singapore's most expensive living artist.
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WISDOM FROM BOOKS – AND LITERARY GIANTS – THAT HAVE INFLUENCED TAN SWIE HIAN.
THE CHINESE TRANSLATION OF THE HEART SUTRA BY MASTER XUAN ZANG OF TANG DYNASTY
A POST-DINNER WALK WITH ROMANIAN POET MARIN SORESCU FROM HIS HOME TO TAN'S HOTEL IN BUCHAREST IN 1995
“(It was) well past midnight, the street was dimly lit, broken, deserted, and the old buildings were ridden with bullet holes. The sporadic sound of a dog’s bark punctuates the night. Having gone through the most horrendous dictatorship of (Nicolae) Ceausescu, Sorescu said to me that censorship comes with the dawn of mankind and will never be done away. Instead of wasting time to debate, we could artfully dance with it.”
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EARLY SPRING BY GUO XI OF SONG DYNASTY
“It teaches me how art is not an exact representation of reality but, in Giacometti’s words, ‘the creation of a reality with the same intensity’. Guo’s landscape does not exist in reality, but is an assemblage of parts of landscapes from different locations. Art is a lie as claimed by Picasso and many other masters, an ethereal, virtual construct stored between heaven and earth.” A CONVERSATION WITH FRENCH POET HENRI MICHAUX WHILE VISITING PARIS IN 1973
“An avant-garde poet who read Mediaeval classics, Michaux taught me a poet should have what T.S. Eliot terms as ‘historical sense’ – in that one should not only perceive the ‘passness’ of the past but also its presence, thereby gaining his contemporaneity in time by being traditional.”
PHOTO (EARLY SPRING BY GUO XI) CORBIS
“Its 260 characters constitute the most precise description of the state of the enlightened mind. It draws the clearest picture of what is arising from conditional causation.”
being a humble fisherman to the wealthiest person in the town of Bagansiapiapi, owning a fleet of barges among other operations. Tan senior was also an influential elder and clan leader who earned the townsfolk’s respect not just through making his own fortune, but for being a righteous person who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and stand up for the meek. “My father was big on philanthropy – he would pay off debts on behalf of people and, at the same time, regulate interest charged by creditors. The huaqiao zonghui (Chinese association) he formed had its own police force and he maintained the peace of the town,” says Tan. “He was a brave man and didn’t succumb to fear – I take after him in that respect.” Having great expectations of his son, Tan senior sent him to Malacca to study English when he was 10 years old, and then to Singapore, where he would enroll in The Chinese High School. The rebel in the adolescent emerged during those days. “I was a good student and was always in the best class. But, when I was in Secondary 3, I was upset and lost interest in studies, going from the best class to the last, with all the gangsters,” he says. Apart from the pain of being separated from his parents, Tan was ostracised for being geeky. In retaliation, he got into fights and defied authority. Tan regales The Peak with stories of how he would bring cheat sheets into examinations and be thrown out of the examination hall when caught. With such results, Tan senior wanted to recall his son to help in the family business, but Tan knew even as a teenager that he wasn’t suitable for business. His decision to repeat a year marked a turning point in his education. He says: “My
English teacher, Chen Shaoyi, and my Chinese teacher, Wang Zhen Nan, discovered my talent for language. They never gave up on me, and I would top the subjects they taught.” When inspiration struck in Chinese composition class, he would refuse to put down his pen, even when class was over. His teacher, meanwhile, would forgo his lunch break to wait for him. Little did the teachers know that they were nurturing not just a linguist, poet and author – but a student who would one day become a giant on the arts scene. Tan describes the episode early in his life poetically: “In a nutshell, it was a period in my life when I was separated from my beloved parents, wandering and groping extensively – and eventually riding on the rainbow.” And ride the rainbow he did. While the art world is currently obsessing over his inspired paintings – Portrait Of Bada Shanren was completed in about 60 seconds, after Tan had a vision of the monk from the Ming dynasty while meditating – a visit to the Tan Swie Hian Museum in Sims Avenue reveals the versatility of the man beyond his reputation as a painter. Spread over four levels are murals, paintings, photographs, books and sculptures – every piece, big and small, a physical manifestation of his brilliant mind. The French artistic community was the first to recognise Tan’s talent. In 1987, at age 44, Tan was elected as a member-correspondent to the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institute of France. “Apart from being the youngest member, since its founding over 366 years ago, I am also the first and only artist from Southeast Asia to be admitted to this prestigious art institution...
to be in the league of Ingres, Moreau, Delacroix, Dali, Moore and other great masters,” says Tan of the honour. To date, he has won countless awards and accolades, among them the World Economic Forum Crystal Award and the Meritorious Service Medal – Singapore’s highest honour accorded to cultural personalities. He is also the most awarded artist in the Republic. Tan sees the honour as encouragement. He says: “The first award I got in Singapore was from the Malay community. Compared to the crystal award I received in Davos, it’s a rustic, bucolic thing, but it is still heart-warming. “There is a sense of responsibility – you are chosen so you have to work hard. Whether it is a plate or plaque, it is a demonstration of people’s love. Sometimes, hawkers will bow to me and I am very touched by that. The extra fishball in my noodles is my chevalier.”
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THE MAKER MOVEMENT IS THE ANTITHESIS TO HIGH-TECH LIVES LIVED AT HYPER SPEEDS, BORN OF AN AGE WHERE RAPID PROTOTYPING MACHINES CAN FABRICATE JUST ABOUT ANY OBJECT. THREE YOUNG CRAFTSMEN TELL THE PEAK OF CAREERS BUILT ON THE STRENGTH OF THEIR HANDS, AND, IN DOING SO, RESURRECT THE OLD TRADES ONCE MORE.
TEXT AARON DE SILVA PHOTOGRAPHY VEE CHIN ART DIRECTION DENISE REI LOW
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ost artisans aren’t usually noted for their business acumen. But bespoke shoemaker Edwin Neo, founder of Ed Et Al, is the rare breed who has that winning combination. He has even got the attention of Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who highlighted Neo this year in his Budget speech as someone resolved to deepen his skills. Tharman, who was elaborating on the new Skillsfuture Study Awards and Fellowships that aim to help Singaporeans develop specialist skills and gain mastery
in future growth clusters, said: “He is doing well...selling both ready-to-wear shoes and upmarket bespoke creations. Not cheap, by the way.” Neo was one of the first to ride the maker movement when it hit Singapore about five years ago. He discovered his passion for shoemaking after working at his brother-in-law’s shoe-repair outfit for five years in the early 2000s, and went on to apprentice with Hungarian master shoemaker Marcell Mrsan in Budapest. He returned to Singapore in 2011 to set up a one-man show, with just $14,000 in capital. Today, he has a staff
of nine, a standalone boutique in Millenia Walk, four points-ofsale with local menswear retailer Benjamin Barker, and a turnover that’s expected to cross the million-dollar mark soon. The Internet revolution – not renewed interest in traditional menswear – has been key to his success. Neo says: “I think we set up at the right time. If we had started five years earlier, we probably wouldn’t have got to where we are so quickly. As a very small company with zero budget, it was due to Internet forums, Facebook and word-of-mouth (marketing) that we got our start.”
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EDWIN NEO, 34 FOUNDER, ED ET AL
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Support from friends and clients has been essential, too. In 2011, photographer Dominic Khoo lent Neo a retail space at his urban art gallery 28 Fevrier, then located at Jalan Kilang, in exchange for 20 per cent of his monthly sales, a good deal in a retail landscape as competitive and expensive as Singapore’s. Retired property consultant Peter Ow introduced his friends at the Ferrari Owners Club Singapore (FOCS) to the brand. FOCS member and prominent aesthetic doctor Chan Kok Weng has since become a fan, ordering bespoke shoes such as one in full fuchsia with a tinge of purple at the ends and champagne gold buckles. Besides bespoke orders which start from $2,500 and are entirely handcrafted and hand-welted by Neo and his 5 0
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team, Ed Et Al also carries an entry-level Ready-To-Wear (RTW) line – each pair costs $349 – made by craftsmen in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The next level up is the By Request collection, where customers choose from RTW models and have them customised to their speciďŹ cations for $700 a pair. Last month, Neo launched the Prestige range. At about $1,200 a pair, this new semi-bespoke line has ďŹ nishing that’s “close to, if not the same as, bespokeâ€?. The shoemaker is setting up a workshop in Vietnam run by a Singaporean team for better quality control of the RTW and By Request lines. While there are plans to expand internationally, he is not rushing into it and has engaged partners in Hanoi and Sydney to organise trunk shows for potential customers. And in an effort to nurture the next generation of craftsmen and “keep the gentle craft of shoemaking goingâ€?, he intends to set up a communal workspace for other makers and brands. He says: “I took a long route as I was mostly self-taught and eventually had to y to Europe to learn. I want to create this opportunity for promising Singaporeans. “To be a good footwear designer, it is very important that one understands the process. Even if they do not become shoemakers themselves, the knowledge of shoemaking will give them an advantage.â€?
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hereas most in his age group run the rat race to climb the corporate ladder, this young chap was so determined to work in a sunset industry three years ago that he sought far and beyond to learn the basics of the trade. Never mind that he was advised by local plywood suppliers that there was no future in woodworking, and that he should seek his fortune in the banking or ďŹ nancial industries. Louis Kwok, who is a commercial photographer by trade, wanted to express his creativity in threedimensional form, which he felt photography lacked. Traditional woodworking also intrigues him because of its “organic natureâ€?. He says: “Wood is still alive and breathes even after a tree has been chopped down. It continues to expand, contract and warp, sometimes in uncertain ways. Because of this organic nature, I have learnt to respect the material further. “Different types of timber have different qualities and, because the subject is so vast, it seems like a neverending learning process.â€? While he had no luck in ďŹ nding someone in Singapore to impart woodwork skills to him, he found a sensei in 2012 in Tokorozawa, Japan, who specialised in crafting traditional tables and cabinets. Kwok had one-on-one tuition for three full days. He says: “It gave me a good foundation. I learnt how to use
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Japanese tools, which are very different from Western ones.” Western saws, for instance, are forward-cutting implements that use a downward force, whereas Japanese versions are backward-cutting tools. “I like Japanese saws, because as you pull, the blade straightens,” he says, making clear that the type of tools used doesn’t affect the outcome of an item. It is simply one way of production. In 2013, he enrolled in a sixmonth course at the prominent Peter Sefton Furniture School in Worcestershire, as well as a
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two-day, one-on-one course with renowned English box maker Andrew Crawford. Back in Singapore and armed with new skills to pursue his hobby, Kwok set up a workshop in his Normanton Park apartment. While he did not intend to start a business, commission orders came trickling in soon after he started Tumblr blog Kjung Woodwork – Kjung being a play on his Chinese name. Local leather restorer and shoe-shine store Mason & Smith approached him to design a presentation tray. Male friends
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asked him to create “man boxes” to contain menswear accessories. Bespoke requests from the public also came through. He declines to give a price range for his creations as “it depends on the piece”. Kwok hasn’t given up his day job as a lensman – he runs an eponymous photography firm – and wants to continue honing his woodwork skills. When asked if he intends to expand this business and retail his creations, he says: “The beauty of my work is that I can’t make multiples of the same thing. Every piece is a one-off.” T H E P E A K
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JONATHAN CHIANG, 30 FOUNDER, LEONG T
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one are the fluorescent lamps of traditional tailoring shops. Here, one won’t find bolts of fabric lined against vanilla walls. Instead, a pink neon sign is emblazoned on one of its flamboyant purple partitions. Crisp suits of various styles and colours hang on a rack. If it is difficult to visualise this tailoring shop along North Canal Road, Jonathan Chiang has hit bull’s eye in modernising a 40-yearold business once known simply as Leong Tailors and now rechristened as Leong T. He has singlehandedly revived his granduncle Chow Leong Choy’s business which was bleeding from dwindling traffic and increasing overheads at Hong Leong Finance Building, where it had operated out of a basement unit for over four decades. Giving up a career in manufacturing, Chiang returned from Shanghai in 2013 after learning of how his granduncle was about to wind up his tailoring business. Chiang says: “I didn’t want the business to die. I’m so proud of the history and culture of my family business. And I love beautiful things.” With Chow, who is in his late 70s, and
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his team of tailors helming the back end, Chiang set about rebranding the business and pumped his own savings – he declined to give the exact amount – into the enterprise. Since the new brand launched in January last year, he has been encouraging Chow and his team to explore more
contemporary Italian silhouettes, in place of the traditional British cuts that they had been offering that were more structured and formal. Chiang has also brought in complementary niche products, such as shoes from Shanghai-based designer Charles Philip, Ross & Brown sunglasses
handmade in Italy, and Turkish designer Begum Khan’s lapel pins. Last month, he hosted a trunk show by cult shoemaker Phillip Carr of Saint Crispin’s. Chiang, who takes measurements for clients while his granduncle’s team stitches, says: “Everything I have is not mass (produced). There’s a story behind them – how they developed and who designed them. Such stories captivate me, and I hope to (similarly) captivate my clients.” It is a byappointment-only boutique and his clientele does not exceed 100. He admits that business has been challenging because
it is still a niche name, but its customer base has been growing. While he declines to give sales figures, he says the sons of Leong Tailors’ customers go to him, believing in the workmanship. Shirts start from $180, and suits are from $2,200. Chiang plans to set up Singapore’s first men-focused emporium later this year, with dedicated areas for men’s grooming, apparel, accessories and furniture from speciality regional brands, which he says are well-made but not well-represented here. “It will be a destination for all artisanal, tailor-made products from Asia.”
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HUNDREDS OF STEPS, EXECUTED BY SPECIALISTS IN THEIR FIELD, USING THE BEST MATERIALS: THAT’S THE COMMON THREAD LINKING THE FIVE MODERN ICONS ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES. FROM THE BRIONI BESPOKE SUIT TO THE BENTLEY MULSANNE, OUR STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO THE UNCOMPROMISING WORK THAT GOES INTO THESE LARGELY HANDCRAFTED DESIGNS REAFFIRMS THE ROLE OF THE ARTISAN, AND THE DESIRABILITY OF PRODUCTS BEARING THE UNIQUE MARKS OF THEIR MAKERS.
TEXT AARON DE SILVA, LOW KA WEI & PATRICIA LEE
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P THE MAJOR STEPS INVOLVED IN CREATING MADE-TO-MEASURE SHOES REQUIRE ABOUT 250 DIFFERENT OPERATIONS. MASTER ARTISANS IN THE ATELIER ON RUE VOLNEY, NEAR PLACE VENDOME, SPEND APPROXIMATELY 50 HOURS WORKING ON A SINGLE PAIR OF SHOES.
01 SOURCING MATERIALS The highest-quality skins and materials are sourced from around the world: leathers and linen from France, camel leather from the UAE, denim from Japan. Corthay craftsmen rely on suppliers with whom they have developed a strong relationship over time. These artisans traverse the globe to meet their clients to take their measurements
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and discuss the order. For new clients, the craftsmen will observe their stride, personal style, and enquire after their lifestyle habits. This is so that they get to know the client’s individual quirks and preferences. A dozen or so measurements of each foot are taken, with the client’s body weight distribution, feet symmetry, width, arch and instep all duly noted.
lanes, Trains and Automobiles might be the title of a 1987 Steve Martin flick, but it also describes the source of Frenchman Pierre Corthay’s inspiration: vehicles. The 52-yearold master shoemaker is particularly fond of incorporating aerodynamic silhouettes into his designs, professing an affinity for Japan’s shinkansen and his grandfather’s collection of classic cars. Indeed, a pair of Corthay shoes is recognisable at ten paces for its distinctive shape, all sleek lines and smooth contours, often daubed in vibrant hues or an ombre patina. The Sultan of Brunei is known to be a fan, famously ordering 150 pairs in 1992, just two years after Corthay set up his eponymous
label proffering bespoke handcrafted footwear (a ready-to-wear line was launched in 2001). The decision to strike out on his own was made after Corthay paid his dues: seven years apprenticing at Les Compagnons du Devoir et du Tour de France (a craftsmen’s guild dating to the Middle Ages) before joining master shoemaker John Lobb in 1984, and then taking over the reins as Chef d’Atelier at heritage Parisian shoemaker Berluti in 1986. Today, Corthay and six other craftsmen design and make about 150 pairs of bespoke shoes a year, continually experimenting with an array of diverse materials, colours and shapes in an effort to surprise and delight his patrons.
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04 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Back in the atelier, the artisan begins to assemble the different yokes, stitching them together by hand using linen threads. Maison Corthay adopts the traditional Goodyear construction method to ensure durability and
02 MAKING THE LAST Using the dimensions provided by the craftsmen, a lastmaker fashions a mould, or last, of the client’s feet, using a piece of wood that he gradually sculpts into shape. This step presents a technical challenge as he has to take into account every single foot measurement, without compromising on the overall aesthetics of the eventual product dependent on it. Given that the last is made for just one shoe, clients can have several lasts made.
03 MAKING PATTERNS AND PROTOTYPES Next, the patternmaker draws the chosen shoe model on the last, covering the last with adhesive paper and then drawing directly on it. The adhesive paper is then removed and the shoe model is reproduced on a cardboard pattern, which will be used for cutting the leather yokes. Subsequently, the skins are cut to the desired shape, according to the design of the shoe. Two months after the initial meeting, the artisan revisits his client for a first fitting. A dummy pair is used to check the fit and shoe volume, and to also give the client a rough idea of what the final outcome will look and feel like. During the fitting session, the artisan marks directly on the dummy shoe any changes that are to be made.
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exceptional comfort. When stitching the welt to the upper, the shoe is held in place between the artisan’s knees with a leather strap. This helps them maintain a firm position for the shoes and gives them extra leverage during the stitching process.
05 PERFECTING THE PATINA The final touch is the patina. It is applied with a technique that makes it possible to obtain unique, transparent nuances. The colour palette is infinite,
though Maison Corthay believes in using tones that instantly energise. Be it Lie de Vin (wine-coloured), Vieux Bois (literally, old wood) or Aubergine, each patina has a distinct character.
THE RIGHT FOOT With its swooping, architectural lines and rich patina, the Fantomas is Corthay’s signature derby.
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T FOR THE PINNACLE OF MOTORING, NOTHING EXCEEDS THE OBSESSIVELY CRAFTED BENTLEY MULSANNE. HERE’S HOW ITS PRODUCTION PROCESS MELDS HIGH TECHNOLOGY WITH THE EXPERT HANDS AND EYES OF ITS CRAFTSPEOPLE.
01 BUILDING THE BODY Right after the chassis has been welded together by high-precision robots, the craftsmen at the Body in White workshop get busy. Here, 570 kg of steel and aluminium are joined together by eye and by hand – comprising hundreds of metres of welding and 5,800 individual welds – to create the shell. An example of their superb work: where the roof of the Mulsanne flows into the rear haunch through the pillar, one specialised team brazes the joint until it is invisible to the eye, making the section look as though it was hewn from solid metal.
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he superlative “fit for a king” is often used too liberally. But for Bentley Motors, holder of royal warrants for the likes of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, there is perhaps no better label for its cars. Take EIIR’s Bentley State Limousine, for example. Totally bespoke (another tired phrase completely justified here, as the car looks nothing like any other Bentley), it was crafted in-house at Bentley’s Mulliner coachbuilding division. The rear seat position was determined using a model of the same height as the Queen, so that the Queen’s signature wave
can be optimally viewed by her subjects when the car is on procession. The rear doors are hinged at the back. The car allows the Queen to stand up straight before stepping off onto the ground. Sadly, only two of the cars were made, both dedicated to the royal household. The closest the super-rich can get to that kind of exclusivity is the Bentley Mulsanne. Bentley’s flagship is made in small numbers in a large part by hand at the company’s factory in Crewe. Each Mulsanne takes 400 hours to build; compare that to a mass-produced car, say, a Volkswagen Golf, which is wrapped up in 30 hours.
03 SOURCING FOR WOOD Here, the story turns to farms around the world, where exotic trees have been growing for 200 years (seven trees are replanted for each harvested). The suppliers steam the root burls and slice them into 0.6mm-thick veneers, presenting them to visiting Bentley experts who take up to two days to check every inch for perfection.
The craftsmen at Crewe further pick the most highly figured areas of veneer, bookmatching them (so that the left and right sides of the car’s interior feature mirrored wood grain), before applying them to solid substrates such as walnut, cherry or oak. Finally, the wood is sanded, lacquered and cured for 72 hours, and then sanded and polished again.
02 PAINTING AND POLISHING Because of the way the body curves, the layers of paint must be applied in different thicknesses so that the result will appear completely even – which is why the process is done by hand. Before the car is ready for the next step, the lacquered paint is fine-sanded and polished with lamb’s wool for 12 whole hours, ending in an appearance so reflective, it’s known as the Bentley Mirror Finish.
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04 WORKING ON LEATHER Thanks to the temperate climate and lack of barbed wire fencing, farms in Northern Europe produce hides largely free from insect bites and scars. Up to 3,000 such hides a week are used in Bentley’s Leather Workshop, a place where the most time-consuming work is done, at 150 hours per car. Done in the same style as fine furniture, the seats, doors and other leather accoutrements are stitched, shaped and finished entirely by hand – the contrast stitching alone takes around 20 to 40 hours to complete.
05 CRAFTING THE ENGINE The iconic 6¾-litre V8 engine, unique to the Mulsanne, started its life in 1959 and has been in constant development since. While now completely modern – it features intelligent technology such as cylinder on demand – its internal components are still selected by hand to form a matching, balanced set to ensure that it runs perfectly smoothly. Technicians take years to acquire such skill and are rare; as a sign of pride, they sign off on the engine when it is complete.
ROYAL RIDE From the wood used to make its interior panels to the paintwork of its body, no details are spared in the making of the Bentley Mulsanne.
06 ASSEMBLING AND FINAL TESTING The Mulsanne receives its own dedicated line in the main assembly hall, where the wiring looms, dashboard, engine, seats and so on are installed. The quality-control checklist for this runs 500 to 650 items long. Sound specialists
drive the car around the factory to detect noise and vibrations. To ensure that the car is water-tight, a monsoon test is applied where 1,820 litres of water tinted with traceable UV dye is sprayed onto the car. Finally, the car is valeted and checked for a final time in a light tunnel.
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YOU WON’T FIND A 3-D PRINTER OR ANY SORT OF RAPID PROTOTYPING MACHINE IN ROGER SMITH’S WORKSHOP. THE BRITISH WATCHMAKER PREFERS TO MAKE HIS WATCHES THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY – BY HAND. THIS IS WHY IT TOOK 11 MONTHS TO PRODUCE THE GREAT BRITAIN WATCH.
01 CRAFTING THE CASE The platinum case is handmade using traditional British case-making techniques. First, three strips of platinum are rolled to the correct size and then bent to form circular rings. The rings are then individually soldered together and driven under great pressure into a
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oger Smith’s six-man studio is somewhat of an anachronism in the watchmaking industry – it’s the only contemporary practice in Britain that relies on an age-old technique of fashioning and assembling every single timekeeping component by hand. No doubt it’s a laborious, timeconsuming process that requires comprehensive know-how, but Smith, 45, is keen to retain the spirit of the late watchmaker, George Daniels, his mentor and founder of the studio, based in the Isle of Man.
tapered former. Three perfect circles are produced as a result – one for the back, middle and front of the case. Next, the front and back rings are machined to form the profiles, followed by the cutting of the sapphire crystal seats. Finally, the lugs are handsoldered onto the middle ring and profiled.
Because of his insistence on using the Daniels method of production, only about 10 watches are created yearly – some production models, while others, bespoke orders – making Smith’s timepieces a true luxury item. “British watchmaking disappeared (in the 20th century), but George restarted it in a very small way in the late 1960s,” says Smith. “Today, we’re the only makers of watches in Great Britain. There are many (watchmakers) who are attempting to do things, but they’re obviously relying on the Swiss watch industry for a
great deal of support.” For his unwavering efforts in flying the British flag, Smith was chosen to be a partner in the Great Britain campaign – a major international marketing initiative started by the British government – in 2013. He was commissioned to produce a specialedition timepiece that would travel the world to promote the best of Britain in key trade markets. Like all his offerings, the Great Britain Watch bears a classical face and an obsessive attention to detail.
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03 FASHIONING THE HANDS Displaying minutes, hours and seconds, the threedimensional, sculpted hands are Roger Smith’s signature design. Hewn from a sheet of steel 0.5mm thick, they are hand-polished and flameblued to a purplish-blue hue. It takes five days of painstaking work before the finishing is deemed to be of a standard high enough to be fitted onto an R.W. Smith watch.
04 MAKING THE MOVEMENT The manual-winding movement is designed specifically for the Great Britain Watch. Boasting an architectural quality, the calibre features a three-quarter plate with a floral, hand-engraved raised barrel bridge. At the heart of the movement is Smith’s Single-Wheel Coaxial escapement, a system based on the Daniels Co-axial escapement that
02 DEVELOPING THE DIAL The Great Britain Watch dial ranks as one of the most complex dials ever made by hand. Crafted from sterling silver, the dial comprises 34 individual parts depicting an off-centre Union Jack. Taking three months alone to design and build, the components are engineturned and engraved by hand. This is followed by soldering, which entails flame-heating the components to 730 deg C, until the solder melts and bonds the two metals together. This is followed by several high-precision machining processes, before the next stage of soldering commences, and continues until the Union Jack design is complete. Finally, the dial background is flame-whitened, prior to the fitting of the flameblued Roman numerals.
offers an enhanced rate of accuracy. As the calibre is a one-off, and because of time constraints, Smith skipped the prototyping phase and delved straight into assembling the movement after designing a complete set of new bridges, plates and other components. Heat treatment and tempering of steel parts was followed by gold plating of the bridges and plates, before the final finishing procedures.
05 FINISHING UP The finish given to the watch is described as an “English finish” and can be characterised by the gilded and frosted plates and bridges that elegantly frame the black polish applied to the gold cocks, jewel chatons and steel work. Flame-blued by hand, the screws with their purple and blue hue firmly secure the gilded bridges and cocks in place. The under-dial work, usually ignored, is finished to the same standard, with a black polish and bevel again being applied to all steel and gold components.
TIMELY WORK A one-of-itskind model, Roger Smith’s Great Britain Watch upholds the strictest standards of traditional watchmaking.
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ITS DESIGN MAY SEEM SIMPLE, BUT THE CONSTRUCTION OF A SERIES 7 CHAIR NECESSITATES A RATHER ELABORATE MANUFACTURE. AS THE ICONIC CHAIR CELEBRATES ITS 60TH ANNIVERSARY THIS YEAR, WE PEEL AWAY THE LAYERS TO UNCOVER EXACTLY HOW IT’S MADE.
01 ROTARY CUTTING AND SLICING The shell of each chair – comprising the seat back and seat rest – is made of nine layers of wood veneer. The seven inner layers are made of rotary-cut veneer, which is achieved by cutting in one long run around a tree trunk, much like how an apple or potato is peeled. Each of these layers is 1mm thick, while the two outer layers are thinner, between 0.6mm and 0.7mm, and
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sliced (cut lengthwise along the trunk). The back of the outer veneer is fortified by a piece of Indian cotton canvas that is glued on separately. To make the chair stronger and more flexible, the outer veneer is cut into narrow strips and glued together to form a single sheet. A sheet of veneer comprises between three and six strips. The resulting sheet is then allowed to cool so that the glue hardens.
ew, if any, furniture manufacturers can claim to have sold seven million chairs, let alone that of a single design. Yet this is what Danish firm Fritz Hansen can attest to. Since its debut in 1955, the Series 7 has been the company’s – and possibly the world’s – most sold piece of furniture. Designed by the celebrated architect Arne Jacobsen, the fourlegged stackable chair embodies simplicity, timelessness, durability and versatility – qualities that make Scandinavian design so sought-after today. With a pliable tubular steel base and flexible plywood shell, the chair is both comfortable and strong, able to resist heavy loads despite its seemingly fragile construction.
02 GLUING AND MOULDING The nine layers are compressed into a single piece by means of steam moulding. The steam heating the mould is at 104 deg C, while the pressure exerted is 21.5kg per square cm, or the equivalent of 85 tonnes. The shells remain in the mould for about two minutes, after which they are removed, placed on pallets and allowed to cool for 20 minutes. After this coolingoff period, the shells would be at a temperature of 30 deg C. They are tremendously strong yet flexible and bendable, and do not deform when stacked. Next, they are taken to a warehouse where they remain hardening for about five days.
The chair has been described as the culmination of the use of lamination, a technique refined by Soren C. Hansen (Fritz Hansen’s grandson) in the 1920s and 1930s and perfected by Jacobsen, who exploited the technique’s potential. For the chair’s 60th anniversary this year, Fritz Hansen has unveiled a special edition Series 7 that plays with a contrast of materials and colours. There’s a more masculine version with a dark blue lacquered shell and powdercoated legs, as well as a feminine model dressed in pale pink lacquer and 24K gold-plated legs. Each chair also bears a gold plate mounted on the underside to commemorate the occasion.
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03 PROFILING Subsequently, a machine cuts the profile of the chairs, sands the edges around the shells and removes a circular section in the base (120mm in diameter, 2mm in depth) where a plastic roundel will later be glued on. The roundel accommodates the tubular chrome steel legs, which are manufactured by a supplier in Sweden.
04 GRINDING AND SANDING After profiling, the chair is checked for quality. Minor irregularities in the structure of the wood can be repaired and removed by manual sanding. The edges are further refined to make them less sharp and
to ensure that the lacquer adheres properly. Quality checks are also carried out to ensure that there are no pressure marks, glue penetration, tears from the cutter, and so on. Only approved shells proceed to the lacquering stage.
05 LACQUERING Using a water-based lacquer, each shell receives up to six lacquer coatings, depending on the final colour desired. After lacquering, the shells remain in an evaporation room for 40 minutes before being dried and hardened in a heated room (at 60 deg C) for 45 minutes. They are then allowed to cool down in another room for 20 minutes. The shells are checked for defects before they leave the lacquer department. At the final stage, the shells are assembled with the four-legged base, which is screwed into the roundel. The roundel is glued into the shell’s circular cutout section. A unique ID number label is also added at this point.
CHAIR MASTER This dark blue edition of the Series 7 chair is one of two models made to commemorate the 60th anniversary of this icon of modern design.
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IT TAKES BRIONI SPECIALISTS MORE THAN 200 STEPS TO PUT TOGETHER A SU MISURA SUIT CUT JUST FOR YOU, AND THE FIRST STEP TAKES PLACE EVEN BEFORE A MASTER TAILOR CAN TAKE OUT HIS TAPE MEASURE.
01 MEASUREMENTS AND MATERIALS The process begins before a measurement is even taken. When the master tailor meets the client, the first thing he does is observe his posture and how he moves. This will determine the most flattering silhouette for his body type. He is then measured, and outfitted in a trial garment. The latter ensures that the client has an idea of the basic look of the final product. Then,
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he decides on the details. First, the fabric – Brioni is renowned for its bold colour palette and wide selection of materials, with 70 per cent made exclusively for the brand. This is followed by the choice of buttons, special linings and personal touches, such as an embroidered name or initials on the inside of the jacket. The measurements are recorded and sent to Penne, for the pattern to be cut.
enswear doesn’t get more personal than the bespoke suit. And for a long line of dapper dressers stretching from Richard Burton to President Barack Obama, the go-to name in the intimate world of bespoke is Brioni. The Italian fashion house prides itself on adhering to the same rigorous codes of craftsmanship it instituted back in 1945. This includes buttonholes hammered by hand on site, and jackets pressed more than 80 times to help contour fabric to a client’s body shape. Each
of the 220 steps involved in creating a single suit is done in-house in its nearly 50-year-old factory in Penne, Italy. The old-school art of tailoring is a tradition that the brand takes very seriously. So seriously that it founded an institution in 1985 – Scuola di Alta Sartoria Nazareno Fonticoli – to ensure that the expertise is passed down through generations. The arduous journey to becoming one of Brioni’s master tailors begins here, with students entering as young as 14 years old, and only the
top 15 from each year taken on as apprentices at Brioni’s facilities. It is the unique relationship between the tailor and the client that differentiates Brioni’s most exclusive Su Misura suit. Here, a new pattern is designed from scratch specifically for the client, unlike “made-tomeasure” which involves adjusting a pre-existing, standard size pattern. In fact, every aspect from fit to fabric is conceived with the client in mind. The result is a garment customised to an individual’s personality, lifestyle and ideal look.
02 CREATING THE FOUNDATION The master tailor creates a pattern unique to the client. Every person is built differently; in the same way, no two patterns are ever alike. He meticulously aligns it with the fabric to make sure that each component of the suit – such as the chest piece, back panels, sleeves and collar – matches
up precisely. This is particularly critical for suits with checks and stripes. The pattern is then cut by hand. A step that defines the bespoke process, it allows adjustments to be made easily. With this groundwork laid, the rest of the suit, including the inner canvassing, shoulder padding and felt, can be assembled.
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04, 05 FITTED TO PERFECTION The suit is now complete, but not considered finished till a second fitting has been conducted. The client is invited to try on the garment, as the master tailor assesses whether it meets the brand’s exacting standards. He uses a chalk
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or basting stitch to mark any adjustments that may be needed to perfect the fit. The suit is sent back to Penne for Brioni’s expert tailors to make the final alterations. The suit is now ready to be delivered to the client.
WELL SUITED Brioni’s Su Misura suits are made to individual specifications and look contemporary yet timeless, like this outfit from the brand’s Spring/Summer 2015 collection.
03 ASSEMBLING AND FINISHING The garment is placed on a bust to confirm that the drape and form of the jacket are aligned correctly. The internal canvassing – typically made from a mix of linen and horsehair – is now sewn into the chest area. Enhancing a man’s shape, this allows easy movement, yet gives the jacket the snug fit of a second skin.
It is also a mark of a suit’s pedigree, as only the finest handmade garments in the world are fully canvassed. Each step of workmanship – from attaching the felt lining for support in the collar to finishing the buttonholes – is then carried out by hand, involving over 200 tailors, each with a specialised role.
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I momentarily forgot h write my
AS HANDWRITING GIVES WAY TO TYPING AS THE NORM FOR COMMUNICATION, WE RISK FORGOING MORE THAN JUST THE SCRIBBLED NOTE. TEXT CHRISTOPHER TAN
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momentarily forgot how to write my name the other day. Thanks to the convenience of online transactions, I hadn’t had to do so in several weeks and, so, with my pen poised over a document waiting for endorsement, the shape of my signature abruptly blanked itself from my mind. How to cross the t? Where to swoosh the r? The amnesia lasted only seconds, but felt wrenching. Afterwards, I tried to recall the last time I’d written someone a message by hand, and I couldn’t. Are smart gadgets obliterating that most human of arts, handwriting? Are the intricate glories that evolved from cuneiform devolving into keystrokes, bits and bytes? In an age of verifying identity via retinal and blood vessel-pattern scans, do we even need signatures anymore? When was the last time you saw a child diverting himself by writing something on a piece of paper, as opposed to glueing his face and thumbs to a smartphone?
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As much as I hate to write – hell, type – this, the future of good penmanship doesn’t look bright. I used to take pride in my handwriting. At primary school, I learnt to reproduce (if stutteringly) the rather prim letters of Marion Richardson hand, created and codified by a British art educator in the 1930s. Subsequently moving to England, I had to trade in my Paper Mate Kilometrico ballpoint for jars of Quink ink. It sounds almost unbelievable to me now but at my prep school, we used fountain pens exclusively, for notes, essays, maths equations, even exams – our anxietypropelled scribbling made exam rooms sound like a yard in which a flock of very small birds were scratching the ground. At secondary school, I hankered after the sleek Rotring fountain pens owned by the cool kids. One such guy was our class’ slowest writer. What his nib lacked in speed, it more than made up for in its wake’s visual swagger. Another friend
of mine re-trained himself to write all his lower-case As like swashbuckling little backward “5”s, which, admiringly, I tried to emulate, but without success. (I should have stuck with it – he became a film producer and married a Russian supermodel.) I did, however, end up taking up calligraphy as a hobby. Osmiroid pens joined my workaday school Sheaffer in my instrument case, with jewel-bright green and red ink cartridges lining up next to the blacks and blues. One time, I even found a huge and perfect bird feather lying on the
pavement, and made a quill pen from it. I loved calligraphy’s exotic jargon, terms which somehow sounded just like the fonts they described: the plump doughnut curves of uncials, the jagged joints of italics, dark thickets of blackletter. I filled many sketchbook pages trying to tame the alphabet beyond submission and into beauty.
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Neuroscience research tells us that learning to write cursively tunes up children’s brains to integrate and reďŹ ne motor control and mental focus. I wonder, does this also mean that my brain-hand connection is growing stale, as the ink that started me off on my writing career gets displaced by pixels? Certainly, my handwriting seems to get increasingly crabbed and wonky from sheer lack of practice. But surely it’s the thought behind the words that really counts, whether they’re made with ďŹ nger taps or a pen, I hear you digital natives say. And aren’t emojis – now established as being the fastest-growing language in history – a more efficient
precis of our states of mind than wordy paragraphs? You see, I think that form matters. How a word is eneshed and delivered adds to its meaning and impact. Haven’t we all got some grief before, due to an e-mail or text message that was misinterpreted for lack of context? Those of us old enough to have received regular handwritten letters from loved ones can surely recall being able to intuit the emotion and import of a passage, merely from the way it unfurled across the page. I have a folder of decades-old missives from schoolmates and teachers, some of which are my last links to them. I would save these in a ďŹ re. In fact,
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Ă? 6 H H L Q J V R P H R Q H Z K R F D Q Z U L W H E H D X W L I X O O \ LV DOZD\V D GHOLJKW Ă? & O D U H Q F H : H H S U R I H V V L R Q D O FDOOLJUDSKHU
ly t hhow to my name the other day. the increasing rarity of a hand-penned gesture accrues more meaning to its every usage. “Seeing someone who can write beautifully is always a delight,â€? says Clarence Wee, a professional calligrapher who crafts handwritten collaterals such as cards, invitations and menus. An initial interest in typography grew into a fascination with letter forms. “What better way to understand them than to start with the most basic‌ the handwritten word,â€? he relates. “From there, it just snowballed into a career for me‌ I enjoy the details and the intricacy of calligraphy.â€? Among the projects pictured on his website (www.craftvaries.com) are several scribed for notable
high-end brands, for whom hand-penned materials presumably signify both intimacy and luxury in a time-starved, screenswiping world. “It becomes a privilege‌to receive a personalised invite or oneof-a-kind art,â€? Wee says. The wonderful thing about handwriting, however, is that it needn’t be the preserve of the privileged (although Ray Bradbury or George Orwell would probably have had fun with that idea). Unlike sourdough bread or Ming porcelain, when it comes to writing, everyone is an artisan within their own margins. Maybe, if we considered communication as not a throwaway thing, but as a chance to express our truest selves, to sculpt our feelings and thoughts as uniquely as cold shapes a snowake, we would write by hand more often.
Hope might also come from an unlikely quarter, driven by another limb altogether. When veteran soccer player Steven Gerrard retired recently from Liverpool, teammate Mario Balotelli sent him a heartfelt hand-penned farewell letter, which many news reports scanned and reproduced in full. As surprising as his jaunty, neat penmanship was the fact that he chose a letter at all, rather than a Facebook post, tweet or Instagram tribute. If a celebrity sportsman – albeit, or maybe especially, with a bad-boy image – with thousands of worldwide fans thinks that writing is cool, then perhaps it may just catch on again.
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THE PEAK SALON SERIES AGENDA TECHNOLOGY
FINDING OUR PLACE IN TIME A post-baby boom generation shares how they get on in a fast-changing digital age. If you were born before the ’90s, you would be able to appreciate that we live in breathtaking times. Age affords perspective. If you haven’t had to use a pencil to rewind a cassette tape, you wouldn’t rejoice at the sheer magic of being able to download and listen to any song in the world in seconds. We know how things used to be but does this experience push us to embrace ever more advanced technology or make us more circumspect about it? According to several salon guests, the drawback of digital communication is its perceived coldness. Computer-generated fonts, the formatting of text, and sleek screens, while perfect, are devoid of character. Electronic communication is slightly “dehumanising”, says Elaine Yew, managing partner at Egon Zehnder International, Singapore. A handwritten note, meanwhile, conveys the writer’s personality and psyche. “You can ‘see’ the writer,” says Yew. Dawn Lim – the wife of Lim Cheng Teck, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Asean – remembers the joy of squeezing words into an aerogramme during her boardingschool days and receiving a response two weeks later. “This is an experience my children will not have, because they communicate through Whatsapp.” Nostalgia aside, everything from the handwriting to the type of paper used adds to the sincerity of the correspondence. Kathy
ABOUT THE PEAK SALON SERIES
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01 Lim Cheng Teck & Dawn Lim 02 Michael Ma 03 Jaelle Ang & Simon Tay
The classic salon assembles leaders of society, and those in art and politics, to discuss and commune with one another. The Singapore Institute of International Affairs and The Peak update this concept as dinner conversation with a difference. The SIIA-Peak salon is where sound bites and bites of good food intersperse, and guests from different backgrounds share their views on a significant topic. Exploring big questions and small, the salon conversation moves between smart and sometimes controversial, serious and irreverent, the crux of which is documented on these pages.
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“Part of the reason I am so anti-digital is that I used to be the most digital person.”
TEXT JENNIFER CHEN PHOTOGRAPHY ALVINN LIM
YIAN HUANG, COMPUTER SCIENCE GRADUATE WHO LEFT FINANCE TO TAKE UP PHOTOGRAPHY TO CONNECT WITH PEOPLE.
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Lim-Sheehy, group CEO of The Straits Wine Company, goes one step further, associating pen-to-paper communication with carrying a kind of “truth”. A former journalist and avid magazine collector, she understands the weight of the printed word. “With e-mail or Whatsapp, you could mean it, or not mean it, it doesn’t really matter because people would take it quite lightly. When you write on paper, you have to take responsibility for it. Every word counts. You have to check your spelling and make sure you say the right thing.” The ease with which online content can change, while a boon in breaking the news, paradoxically decreases its credibility. “You can’t quite believe what you read on media sites these days,” says Michael Ma, founder of Indochine. According to him, businesses feel the same way, and those who have invested in digital advertising in the past few years are swinging back to traditional media, and products that can be touched and felt. “You have higher recognition, if you go print instead of digital,” he says. Perhaps the shift is not happening fast or en masse enough, or applies only to certain genres. Globally, news broadsheets from The New York Times to The Straits Times are grappling with the issue of migrating readership. A recent Reuters Institute report on digital media found that 25 per cent of people around globe use the smartphone as the main device to read the news. For those under 35 years old, the figure is 41 per cent. Says Joanna Lee-Miller, group editor of luxury and custom titles at SPH Magazines: “The digital sphere is something we need to embrace. We are reacting to what people are reading, and they are going online.” The death knell does not ring the same for all physical publications. American news magazine Newsweek was resurrected 14 months after it stopped its print run in December 2012. Editors cite the long shelf life of a magazine’s stories, superior art direction and images, and pleasurable tactility as reasons for the genre holding ground. Similarly, physical books have resurged, with a top UK retailer reporting 5 per cent growth earlier this year. Sales of e-reader Kindle, however, have flattened. But this may be simply a temporary rally in a long-term trend. Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, believes that the digital book will reign when it fully exploits its platform. “It’s about unleashing the qualities of that space,” says Tay. “We’re T H E P E A K
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going to see this tactile thing as a niche product, and books may become something for collectors. Over the past few years, there has been more interest in how they are handmade – stitching, binding, and so on.” Whether digital or physcial, go with the more efficient medium, notes Standard Chartered Bank’s Lim. We live in these times, we’ve got to embrace both the old and the new, says Yuan Oeij, chairman of The Prive Group. “It’s just about using digital media in the right way, which is not to rely on iPads and TVs to silence your children. As long as you engage all your senses, whether it’s smelling the computer’s disc drive, or appreciating the resolution of the screen. Move forward, instead of hanging on to the past. I think you can defend [analogue] for one generation.” One such crusader is entrepreneur Yian Huang who, together with his wife, Jaelle Ang, is determined to give their two young children the kind of upbringing they had in the ’70s, which is to make connections with the natural world instead of the virtual. This has required the couple to ban televisions from their home, and the iPad as default babysitter. There are too many problems with learning from digital devices – shortened attention spans, slow development of motor and language skills, and so on. According to Ang, a trained architect, computers and software are tools to an end. Creating art with your hands comes first. “Even renowned architects go back to drawing first,” says the director of Country Group Development Public Company. “For ideas, discussion and collaboration, we have to physically build a model first because it gives you a different dimension – structure, load, space – that computers can’t.” The question turns to whether electronics helps or hinders the process of discovery. Yew remembers the days when she stumbled across new books at the school library or bookstore. Now that doesn’t happen unless she reads book reviews, “which is not the same thing”. Indeed, it’s our interaction with the physical that helps us to remember and enhance understanding. Huang, who annotates all his books, can return to one he read 10 years ago to chart his maturity, solely by contrasting the text he had highlighted and views noted then against those he holds now. Still, the benefits of the digital platform are apparent. It’s less harmful on the 7 0
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04 Jennifer Chen, Jaelle Ang & Yian Huang 05 Joanna Lee-Miller, Simon Tay & Jennifer Chen 06 Elaine Yew & Sajan Koch
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07 Kathy Lim-Sheehy, Yuan Oeij, Elaine Yew & Michelle Cheo
MENU Courtesy of Jade Delightful Trio Combination: Deep-fried Prawn Coated with Crab Roe in Spiced Fragrant Salt Sauteed Shredded Pork in Sweet Bean Sauce Roasted Duck in Foie Gras Flavour Stewed Sliced Grouper with Fish Maw and Yam Pan-fried Beef Tenderloin Fillet in Marmite Sauce OR Pan-fried Chicken Fillet in Marmite Sauce Traditional Style Simmered Duo Noodles with Boston Lobster Shaved Almond Ice with Ginkgo Nut, Snow Fungus, Lily Bulb and Wheatgrass Jelly Accompanied with Bird Nest Egg Tart Sparkling Wine 07 Roederer Estate Quartet Brut, Anderson Valley, USA White Wine Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite Los Vascos Chardonnay, Peralillo, Chile 2013 Red Wine Bodegas Caro “Aruma” Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina 2011
“Move forward, instead of hanging on to the past. I think you can defend it for one generation.” YUAN OEIJ, CHAIRMAN OF THE PRIVE GROUP, ON CLINGING ONTO ANALOGUE 07
environment, notes Sajan Koch, executive chairman of Insight Asia Research Group. Less natural resources consumed means less waste generated. Plus, it has removed barriers to learning with its 24/7 accessibility and unlimited information. Koch became an instant chef by watching Pierre Marco White and Gordon Ramsay on Youtube. An app called Evernote allows Mewah International CEO Michelle Cheo to keep track of ideas, while Google helps her to follow up on them. Ideas are realised, things get done. If adults are discovering the advantages of digital technology, why begrudge children the opportunity? Koch notes that, as the younger generation is growing up in a much more developed and interlinked world, adults should learn to trust them. “They will be much better than us,” he says. In some respects, however, adults still have the advantage of foresight. Huang is filling a time capsule with photos printed with colour fast ink. He says: “The ones that aren’t printed, that are stored on digital, I am sure will be lost. “In 10, 20, 30 years, Google, Facebook, somebody will go out of business. We have hard drives from five years ago that we can’t read anymore. Our kids would see my grandparents’ photos more than they will see mine.”
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PE R S PE C T I V E
MY HUMANIFESTO
SIMON TAY’S TRUE LUXURIES Time, Thoughts and Things
Man’s relationship with tools and machines is ancient. So much so that the 19th century Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle believed that “man is a tool-using animal. Without tools, he is nothing. With tools, he is all”. But fear is growing about machine dominating man. It’s evident in the zeitgeist as portrayed in movie blockbusters – from The Matrix onwards – and in the emerging realities of robotics, the Internet and Big Data. Self-driving cars will be only one symbol of the coming revolution. There are many rational and economic reasons to embrace machines and technologies – efficiency, convenience, speed, quality and, of course, profit for those making and deploying them. But what about the reasons to prefer the human factor? I envision a manifesto for humans: a Humanifesto. The following suggestions may occasionally seem irrational and even whimsical, but this is apropos to the subject – part of the nature of our humanity. CELEBRATE SLOW First, go slow. Machines promise ever greater speed and efficiency. But to proclaim our humanity is to recognise that faster is not always better. Benefits abound in taking longer with things, to savour the process and time, and preferring quality over quantity in 7 2
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a range of activities – from work and decisionmaking to education, exercise and foreplay. One exploration of the wider philosophy is the best-selling book In Praise of Slow by Canadian journalist Carl Honore, whom I met some years ago in London. But food probably provides the first and clearest example. A Slow Food movement was born in Italy in the early 1990s and it emphasises savouring the experience of gathering, cooking and dining. Local produce is often favoured, and preparations can take hours – like sous vide cooking. Yet, outside of some idyllic towns in Southern Europe, this is still the exception. Price and convenience steer many more towards mass-produced, fast food. We wince when the waiter tells us that a dish will take even 20 minutes to prepare. The pressured pace in Singapore and cities across Asia limits most of us to one-hour set menu lunches. So this Humanifesto calls for three-hour meals. Try it once a week. Savour that fabulously tender meat dish at a French/Italian eatery. Or drive out to some coffee shop favourite where that stockpot of pork ribs, chicken bones or prawns has been boiling all night. Have the meal with friends, be it catching up with old ones or getting to know new acquaintances better. TOUCHED BY MAN Second, this Humanifesto calls for human handiwork. Machines promise to produce uniform goods that usually meet reasonable quality at reasonable prices. But besides a lot of shoddy manufactured stuff out there, even competent, mass-made uniformity can fail to satisfy. As a result, there has been a rise in our demand for craftsmanship and uniqueness, especially in the world of luxury. For instance, many draw a distinction between Hermes and other leather-makers. The world-famous French house (still familyowned) can boast of tracing products to one or another craftsman, thereby justifying both limited supply and higher prices. Similarly, Lexus, the Japanese luxury carmaker, has recently been talking up the concept of “takumi”. This identifies master craftsmen who sign off on key parts of the manufacturing process – such as the paint, leather work and stamping of the vehicle body. That blend of man and machine can be experienced in the new Lexus NX, a hybrid sports utility vehicle (SUV). Despite its large size, it is by no means a “slow living” car – it has a fast
IN UNIQUENESS, AN IDENTITY Handmade products, like those produced by nature, are not perfectly identical, thereby making each special.
PHOTOGRAPHY ALECIA NEO ART DIRECTION & ILLUSTRATION JEAN YAP CLOTHES WOOL SUIT, CASHMERE SWEATER, COTTON SHIRT & SILK TIE, FROM BOSS SELECTION
The time has come for us to decide what really matters – our humanity or our machines.
is gaining recognition among select customers for her unique sensibility. The Humanifesto calls for us to appreciate craftsmanship and, where possible, seek to shake the hands of those craftsmen. And, yes, to be willing to pay extra or even a premium for that human touch.
“TO PROCLAIM OUR HUMANITY IS TO RECOGNISE THAT FASTER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER.”
take-off when the electric engine effortlessly twins with the smooth, 2.5-litre petrol engine. But it is a car that offers crafted comfort and quietness, alongside the oomph of a sports car and the utility promised by the initials “SUV”.
EMBRACE IMPERFECTION Third, accept and embrace the imperfection of what humans make. Rather than correcting all imperfections in the name of quality control or renovating things to make them wholly new, we should be guided by the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. What is made by humans will almost by definition be less than perfect and uniform. Rather than rejection, wabi sabi extols the beauty in the patina of wear and tear, and the value of intrinsic, handmade imperfections. This concept was evident when I was drinking tea in Tokyo. When I inspected my cup made by a Japanese pottery master, there was a small indentation in the surface. When I looked at another cup, there was something of a warble in the lip. There were visible inconsistencies and asymmetries. The master potter could have made these cups uniform, my host explained, but so could a machine. What the master could do – and which a machine cannot -- was to make each slightly but noticeably non-uniform. At a stage in the process, before firing, he introduced these “imperfections” deliberately and consciously.
UNIQUENESS IS ALL Looking for the human hand, this Humanifesto calls on us also to avoid restaurants where the big-name chef is absent and designs the menu from thousands of kilometres away. Instead, try restaurants like Nicolas Le Restaurant, one of my favourites. Here, even at lunch, Michelin-star chef-owner Nicolas Joanny can be seen cooking in the open kitchen. He is one of those who still give personal attention to his food and customers. What is unique and human is also evident in the jewellery of Lauren X Khoo. Pieces offered in her collection, like the X arabesque or the Garden of Sensual Delight ring, combine high-quality stones with striking and often audacious designs. Her pieces are far different from the massmade, bland designs seen in high street shops or even blue chip joailliers like Bulgari and Cartier. The Singapore-born, Hong Kong-based designer
ONLY HUMAN The Humanifesto calls for us to seek out unique, handmade or antique items. This is especially so for things that touch us or have some ceremony to them. Yes, you can have your latest electronic gizmos. Indeed, there are machines used in the process of what I have described above, whether they are the tools of artisans and craftsmen, chefs and potters. But in each of these cases, it is the human who controls and uses the tools, and not the other way around. From that human use and control, there is an indelible and unique imprint on what results. For too long, such words as “I am only human” have lamented our limitations and frailties. No longer. With the ever-growing roles for technology and machines with so many different capabilities making this world ever faster, more pressured and uniform, a frail but noble and true humanity may be our greatest luxury. T H E P E A K
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IN OUR OW N BACKYA R D
TEXT LYNETTE KOH PHOTOGRAPHY VERNON WONG ART DIRECTION DENISE REI LOW STYLING C.K. KOO
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STYLING ASSISTANT GRACE LIM GROOMING SHA SHAMSI, USING LAURA MERCIER MODEL RUNE K./MANNEQUIN
TA KE OF F ON A N U R B AN ADVEN T U R E I N ST YLES THAT A RE EQUA L PAR T S SM AR T AN D SPOR T Y.
NEW AGAIN Military-inspired staples such as cargo pants and the haversack get upgraded for civilian life in luxurious materials like silk and leather.
Wool pullover and leather sneakers, from Prada. Voile jacket (tied around waist), silk trousers and leather bag, from Louis Vuitton. Silk scarf, from Hermes.
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NEUTRAL TERRITORY Juxtaposed with plenty of textures, earthy colours are anything but basic.
Suede jacket, from Tod’s. Cotton top, from Bottega Veneta.
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READY FOR ANYTHING Sure, windbreakers are functional. But a blouson cut and irregular stripes make this one fashionforward as well.
Ermenegildo Zegna Couture nylon windbreaker, from Ermenegildo Zegna. Cotton shorts and leather sneakers, from Hermes.
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JUST A MOMENT A blazer with quirky details lets you dress up the simplest look in an instant – and it’s also handy when you get into indoor spaces with freezing air-conditioning.
Cotton blazer, cotton tank top, leather bag and leather sneakers, from Gucci. Cotton trousers, from Hermes.
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SEA CHANGE Nautical-inspired styles, such as this white jacket with thick broken stripes, add a fresh feel to a casual outfit.
Polyester jacket, from Emporio Armani. Cotton polo shirt and silk trousers, from Z Zegna.
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GOOD JEANS Designers have had a field day with denim this season, making it a good time as any to get the blues.
Denim jacket, denim jeans and leather sneakers, from Prada. Cotton tank top, from Bottega Veneta. Leather bag, from Hermes.
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OF F PE A K
THE STARTING
ONCE SHORTHAND FOR MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD STYLE SENSIBILITIES, CHINOS HAVE EASILY STEPPED UP TO SERVE AS THE FOUNDATION OF SOME PRETT Y FASHIONFORWARD LOOKS. TEXT LYNETTE KOH PHOTOGRAPHY ZAPHS ZHANG ART DIRECTION JEAN YAP STYLING DOLPHIN YEO
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PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT ANGELA GUO STYLING ASSISTANT ANGELA CHU GROOMING ANGEL GWEE, USING REDKEN AND LANEIGE MODEL RONN/MANNEQUIN
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BEYOND BASICS Unexpected combinations can give wardrobe essentials an instant update. Here, a tuxedo jacket gives a dressy dimension to staples like a hoodie jacket and chinos.
Wool tuxedo jacket, cotton hooded cardigan, poplin shirt and cotton chinos, from Boss.
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OF F PE A K
BRIGHT SIDE Why confine yourself to khaki when chinos come in just about every colour imaginable? Sporting the colour on your trousers and away from your face means that you don’t have to worry about whether it clashes with your complexion.
Polyester-blend jacket, silk-blend polo tee and cotton chinos, from Paul & Shark.
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FOR ALL TERRAIN White cotton trousers are a common element in nautical-style looks, but their fresh appeal also works well to lighten up earthy separates like heavy knits in natureinspired tones.
Cotton cardigan, cotton shirt, cotton chinos and silk tie, from Tommy Hilfiger.
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OF F PE A K
BLOOMING GOOD The way to make seemingly disparate elements work together is to match them subtly. Here, the colour of the trousers picks up that of the shirt, while the shirt’s floral print visually connects with the sweater’s blooms.
Wool sweater, cotton shirt and cotton chinos, from J. Lindeberg.
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THE NEW CLASSIC Chinos don’t just work in casual ensembles. Paired with extras like a vest and scarf, teal chinos have an easy elegance that never falls into overdressed territory.
Wool vest, cotton shirt, cotton chinos and silk scarf, from Brooks Brothers.
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FA S H ION
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ROMAN REIGN
A new monograph chronicles the lives and inspirations of the Bulgari brothers, Nicola and Paolo. The Peak journeyed to the Eternal City to witness its unveiling. TEXT AARON DA SILVA
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For a figure as powerful in the jewellery business as Nicola Bulgari, it might come as a surprise that he doesn’t wear any jewellery. “The only accessories I wear are pink gold cufflinks. Simple ones. I like them plain,” says the 74-year-old ex-vice chairman and great-grandson of Sotirio Bulgari. He does, however, profess a love for sapphires. “The beauty of sapphires is that the spectrum of colours is endless,” he says. These aspects of Nicola’s personality are revealed to The Peak during a recent trip to Rome to witness the launch of Roma Passion
Jewels, a book on the House of Bulgari. Around 50 members of the international press have gathered for the launch in the anteroom of Domus, a small, by-appointment only museum that recently opened on the second floor of the brand’s Via Condotti boutique (see side story). After a 27-year reign, Nicola and his brother, Paolo, the ex-chairman, sold their controlling stake in the family business to LVMH for 4.3 billion euros (S$6.5 billion) in 2011, a deal that made them instant billionaires. Today, Nicola maintains a non-executive role in the company. He is the more entrepreneurial of
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A CURATED EXPERIENCE
Lucia Boscaini, Bulgari’s brand heritage and corporate events senior director, fields our queries on how the Heritage Collection is curated and exhibited in Domus.
the two – it was he who took the business to the US in the 1970s – whereas Paolo is the creative force behind many of Bulgari’s designs, and remains so today. “A lot of the things you’ll read in the book are about our lives, my brother and myself. It helps you understand how we’ve come a long way,” says Nicola, who speaks with a slight American accent, thanks to his years of living in the country. Home is an 8.5ha estate in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is also where his 100-odd collection of vintage American cars is kept. The book, says author Vincent Meylan, is “also about wine, art, architecture, music
01 NAME MATTERS Nicola (left) and Paolo Bulgari sold their controlling stake in the family business in 2011 but are still involved in the company. 02 BULGARI STAMP Ancient coins are incorporated into modern design in the Monete Tubogas range. 03 OPEN HOUSE Roma Passion Jewels provides a glimpse into the lives of the Bulgari brothers.
PATRICIAN LOOK Jewellery design harks back to the classical period.
and everyday life on both sides of the Atlantic”, in reference to the fact that Nicola lives in Allentown while Paolo lives in Rome. This diversity of influences has contributed to the richness of the Bulgari universe. “We can take inspiration from anything,” explains Paolo. “You can get inspiration looking around. There are no rules.” While Nicola is a car and jazz enthusiast, Paolo is a renowned art lover whose collection encompasses works by Jacob Jordaens and PierreAuguste Renoir, among others. Bulgari’s jewels are a celebration of bold colours and sumptuous shapes. This distinct identity was forged in the 1960s, when Bulgari made a pronounced departure from the dominant French school of design. Its artisans took inspiration from antiquity, infusing Greek and Roman influences into confections that displayed a striking but harmonious balance of classicism and modernity, a keen sense of volume, and a penchant for rhythmic colour combinations. Nicola attributes Bulgari’s extraordinary success to a number of reasons. “I think our jewels are extremely wearable, extremely tailored, and irresistibly attractive. Very special, balanced, elegant, not over-the-top, with lots of colours. They also don’t make women look ridiculous. The (challenge) now is to make things as immortal as possible,” he says, referring to timeless designs and heirloom pieces.
What criteria do you use to decide which pieces go into the collection? First, the piece of jewellery must be emblematic of the Bulgari style in a given decade. We also evaluate creations that, in a way, deviated from the brand hallmarks as they represented an experimentation in terms of design or materials adopted. We mostly look for pieces prior to 1990 to be bought back at auctions or from private collections. Which is the oldest piece in the collection and which is the most recent acquisition? The oldest pieces are the silverware forged by founder Sotirio Bulgari at the end of the 19th century, while the most recent acquisitions are a Serpenti necklace and bracelet from the 1960s. The Serpenti pieces play an important role in the Heritage Collection: this iconic design has evolved from the 1940s...in tune with major fashion trends, so it perfectly embodies the eclectic spirit of Bulgari’s creativity. What special exhibitions are being planned for 2015, whether in Rome or overseas? This year, we will uphold the Elizabeth Taylor collection with two exhibitions in China to be set up in Beijing and Shanghai starting from April 29. The Serpenti Heritage pieces will be protagonists during the Milan Design Week, and showcased at the Bulgari Hotel in a dedicated installation designed by archi-star Zaha Hadid. Finally, in September, a major retrospective exhibition will take place in Tokyo.
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FA S H ION • V I E W
FORCE OF FASHION
In less than a decade, the Victoria Beckham brand has grown to become a business encompassing ready-to-wear, a secondary line (Victoria, Victoria Beckham), eyewear and acessories, with an annual turnover of £30 million (S$62.6 million) in 2013, and more than 100 employees. Its founder, too, has been embraced by the industry’s toughest critics as a bona fide fashion designer. Despite these accomplishments, however, changing people’s minds about what she’s capable of remains a fixture on the to-do list of Victoria Beckham: wife of footballer David Beckham, former member of the popular ’90s pop quintet, the Spice Girls, and now fashion designer and
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entrepreneur. Not all the roles are complementary. Her fame as a girlband member discredits her legitimacy as a fashion designer, but she ploughed on. Beckham made her mark in the unforgiving world of fashion in 2008 with the debut collection of her eponymous fashion label – a focused collection of 10 bodyhugging, knee-length dresses. Slim-fitting, structured and sophisticated, the style of those
dresses quickly became seen as her signature. That’s a good thing, if you don’t mind being regarded as a one-trick pony. Not that great if you’re looking to expand your repertoire as a fashion designer. For her Spring 2015 collection, Beckham showcased a range of looser, military-inflected looks. A critic for the influential fashion website Style.com concluded: “You couldn’t fault the cool precision of this
TEXT LYNETTE KOH
Designer and entrepreneur Victoria Beckham on building a thriving business and shutting down naysayers.
COOL HEAD Beckham has silenced critics to become an entrepreneur with an annual turnover of $63 million.
collection, but it did make you long for the days when she put a little wiggle on it.” Speaking to The Peak when she was in town in May to showcase her Fall/Winter 2015/16 collection at Singapore Fashion Week, Beckham – cutting a slim, poised figure in a black calf-length slip dress and heels – was unapologetic about moving on from those days. She says: “That was, what, eight years ago. I still wear those signature dresses, and they’re a huge part of my business. But I also want separates, I want tailoring, I want knits. There are other things in my wardrobe, and my team and I now have the knowledge to do those things. I didn’t in the beginning. I’ve had to learn.” The mother of four is briskly forging ahead, even as her critics remain stubbornly attached to their idea of what she should be. Known as Posh Spice in her pop-star days, Beckham’s public image was that of a pouty performer in a tight little dress. Then, it seemed, she was a lover of fashion – but perhaps not quite a lover of taste. But was that so? In a 2014 article about Beckham on the website The Business of Fashion, Zach Duane (CEO of the Victoria Beckham company) shares an anecdote showing how the Victoria Beckham name was the opposite of a selling point during the brand’s beginnings. Some personal shoppers at certain
stores that carried Beckham’s designs removed the labels in order to get their clients to try on the clothes. Only after they were suitably impressed would the designer’s identity be revealed, so the story goes. The tale illustrates how Beckham has silenced naysayers: with creations that reflect sheer hard work, and an eye for fashion that has been nurtured and honed. When presenting her collections, the designer is known to speak at length about fabrics, construction and details – knowledge gleaned from years of learning the ins and outs of her craft, as well as from collaborations with various established fashion and accessories brands prior to setting up her label. Indeed, this education is an ongoing process that Beckham remains clearly passionate about. Last September, the brand opened its first flagship store in London’s Dover Street. For its founder, it is the perfect opportunity to gain first-hand understanding of her customer. She says: “When I’m in the store, I want to know how she feels when she puts on a dress, what fabrics she likes, what seaming details she likes, what she wants each season.” Even as it expands its partnerships with retailers and further develops its e-commerce site (which is “doing very well”, says Beckham), the company plans to open more standalone
stores. Its next boutique will open in Hong Kong next year – and a Singapore store may not be far off. “At some point, I’d love to,” says Beckham, adding that “I love coming here. I think the women here really understand and appreciate fashion”. With that, her minder signals that it is time to wrap up our interview. She has to move on; there are multitudinous details to look into before the fashion show that evening. Says Beckham matter-offactly: “I never sit back and go, ‘Ah, hasn’t everything gone well?’ We’re constantly going, going, going, because we’ve got to build on what we’ve done. For me, the main thing is to give my customer what she wants, because that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing.”
“I NEVER SIT BACK AND GO, ‘AH, HASN’T EVERYTHING GONE WELL?’”
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SHADOW PLAY Four layers of paint are applied to the leather to create this shading effect.
NEW AGE
Classic leather goods are refreshed with help from a Renaissance man.
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MONA LISA COLOURS Montblanc’s Sfumato range.
TEXT LYNETTE KOH
What do Mona Lisa and Montblanc’s latest leather goods have in common? Sfumato, a painting technique pioneered by Renaissance master artist Leonardo Da Vinci – used most famously in his portrait of the young woman with the enigmatic smile. The technique, whose Italian name means “evaporated like smoke”, involves the use of fine shading to produce subtle, imperceptible transitions between different tones and colours. Taking inspiration from Da Vinci like generations of artists before them, the craftspeople at Montblanc’s leather workshop in Florence apply this effect to calfskin, imbuing each piece of leather with a beautiful patina in brown, anthracite or navy blue. Before assembly, four light layers of paint are applied to each piece of leather to create a shadowed finish that brings out the leather’s suppleness. Because of the hand-painting process used on individual pieces of leather, every item in the Meisterstuck Sfumato collection is unique – whether it is a briefcase, wallet or card holder. Looks are just one part of the equation: The items undergo stress tests to ensure the strength of elements like handles and closures, while colour-fastness tests are also carried out, so their signature hues remain undiminished over time.
50% Recent reduction in Chinese import taxes on goods such as clothing and cosmetics, as part of a move to boost consumer spending.
02 STRIKE A BALANCE As a brand originally built on fine cashmere sweaters, it is unsurprising that Brunello Cucinelli’s latest collection should simultaneously evoke casual comfort and elegant formality. Therefore, while the Fall/Winter 2015/16 clothing is tailored for a closely flattering fit – with coats elongated for a dressier elegance – they are tempered through the juxtaposition of softer elements. Classic coats, for example, come with detachable goose-down padding, or a suit might be paired with a T-shirt and – of course – a cashmere sweater. Speaking of those signature items, they are presented not just in the brand’s trademark neutrals, but also in autumn-appropriate shades of orange, red and green this season.
03 SMALL AND MIGHTY When it comes to bags for men, designers typically take an all-or-nothing approach, with many leather goods collections leaping from wallets to briefcases – with zilch in between, size-wise. Which is why we think Berluti’s Un Jour Gulliver bag is such a nifty idea. A shrunken version of its Un Jour (French for “one day”, so named because it holds everything one might need for the day) structured briefcase that first appeared in 2007, the mini bag comes in four patinated colours, and several carrying variations. Available in hand-held or pouch versions, it also has a removable strap that allows it to be carried on the shoulder. der.
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MAKING WAVES The seaside and garden are two quintessentially ally Briti British tropes, which makes it fitting that they served as inspiration for Alfred Dunhill’s latest swimwear pieces. Drawing upon English flora, the collection includes swim garments featuring a British seaweed pattern done in the style of Victorian botanical drawings. Ferns and magnolia flowers – which figure among the plant life found in Alfred Dunhill creative director John Ray’s garden – illustrate another pair of trunks. Shirts featuring similar designs take their place alongside the swim shorts, a particular boon for those in possession of the much-discussed “dad bod”.
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LIGHTNESS OF BEING T I M E P I E C E S C R A F T E D F R O M H I G H - T E C H M A T E R I A L S T A K E T H E W E I G H T O F F Y O U R W R I S T .
TEXT LYNETTE KOH PHOTOGRAPHY VERNON WONG ART DIRECTION JEAN YAP
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M O T O R I N G
A H E A D
Taking its cue from the world of motor sports, the 46mm watch case of the IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month is crafted from titanium aluminide. This alloy is lighter and stronger than pure titanium.
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F O R M I D A B L E
F E A T H E R W E I G H T
As strong as steel but 40 per cent lighter, titanium is one of high watchmaking’s preferred hightech materials. Thanks to a case and bezel made from the lightweight metal, the 45mm Panerai Radiomir 8 Days Titanio has an imposing presence that doesn’t wear heavily on the wrist. 9 6
T H E P E A K
T O P
O F
T H E
W O R L D
Made from the high-tech ceramic that Rado is synonymous with, the Hyperchrome Ceramic Touch Dual Timer is light and hypoallergenic, yet scratch-resistant. The watch has a second time-zone function that makes it particularly useful for frequent travellers.
T H E P E A K
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F R O M
T H E
I N S I D E
O U T
To take a quarter of the weight off its classic El Primero calibre, Zenith used titanium instead of brass to create its main bridges. Further enhancing the feather-light feel of the El Primero Lightweight are features like an openwork dial and the cut-out numerals of the date disc.
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T H E P E A K
S E T T I N G
S A I L
First used for the sails of racing yachts, NTPT (North Thin Ply Technology) carbon is used to dynamic effect in the Richard Mille RM 011 Lotus F1 Team. Highly resistant to breakage and cracking, the material comprises multiple layers of resin-impregnated carbon ďŹ bre ďŹ laments that give it a wood grain-like appearance.
T H E P E A K
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WAT C H E S • N E W S
01 UP TO SPEED
In 2012, Audemars Piguet introduced its first watch created in collaboration with motorracing icon Michael Schumacher, who is currently recovering from a serious skiing accident that occurred the following December. Now, with the encouragement of the driver’s family, the Swiss manufacture unveils the second timepiece bearing his name – a technical breakthrough that’s a worthy tribute to a figure widely regarded as the greatest race car driver of all time. Taking some five years to develop, the Royal Oak Concept Laptimer Michael Schumacher resulted from the driver’s desire for a watch that could measure a series of consecutive lap times. To make this possible, the new Calibre 2923 has a chronograph mechanism driving two central hands that can be controlled independently via three pushers. The mechanism incorporates three column wheels – quite something, considering a single column-wheel chronograph is already reason to boast.
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T H E P E A K
It’s a serious sports watch – with the looks to match. The 221-piece limited-edition timepiece comes in a 44mm forged carbon case, accented with titanium bezel, case edges and caseback, with pushers in ceramic and pink gold. It bears the marks of the driver who inspired it: The MS monogram appears on the pusher at nine o’clock, while seven stars on the left side of the case pay homage to his seven F1 World Championship titles.
RIGHT FORMULA The new watch by Michael Schumacher and Audemars Piguet goes way beyond the surface.
TEXT LYNETTE KOH
A Formula One legend inspires a chronograph that’s the first of its kind.
02 STUFF OF FICTION One of our favourite ongoing collaborations has just spawned a new collectible timepiece. IWC recently unveiled its Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph Edition “Le Petit Prince”. Its latest watch to pay tribute to the classic novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupery features a double chronograph automatic movement, whereby two stopwatch seconds hands, one mounted atop another, let a user record intermediate times. This dynamic feature is paired with a whimsical feature – a jumping star display that sees one of seven stars in the inner circle of the midnight-blue dial light up in gold each day, representing the Little Prince’s visit to a different planet. IWC will produce 1,000 pieces of the 44mm steel watch.
03
FACE VALUE Last seen in red gold, the Arnold & Son DSTB (Dial Side True Beat) is now available in a steel case that contrasts starkly with a dial plate in black ADLC. Powered by the automatic calibre A&S6003, the 43.5mm watch puts an Arnold & Son signature front and centre. Its true beat seconds (which means the seconds hand appears to tick, rather than smoothly sweep) mechanism is showcased entirely on its dial. Comprising elements like an anchor-shaped lever, wheels and three palladium-treated bridges, the visible mechanism provides an architectural contrast to an opaline subdial that indicates the hours and minutes.
04 HISTORICAL WONDER It’s not quite as tiny as the Willard Wigan micro-sculptures in Greubel Forsey’s Art Piece 1 watches but, at less than 3mm in height, the gold bust of Marcus Aurelius in Christophe Claret’s Aventicum is pretty petite too. Based on an original gold bust of the Roman emperor that was found in 1939, the little sculpture looks twice as large as it is, and appears to float at the centre of the dial – thanks to a mirascope comprising two identical parabolic mirrors. The ancient Roman theme continues on the flip side: The transparent sapphire rotor features five Roman Gaul racing chariots that swing around with each wrist movement. Available in red gold and PVD-treated titanium, or white gold and PVD-treated titanium. Christophe Claret retails exclusively at Sincere Fine Watches in Singapore.
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THE WATCH SPECIAL
DAILY NECESSITIES One of horology’s most useful complication categories is also among the most technically dynamic. A. Lange & Sohne presents its ŵnest calendar pieces.
A BETTER TOMORROW The smallest change can make the biggest And the movement is as elaborate as the dial is difference. The popular Datograph gets an clean. It has 556 hand-ŵnished parts, with many impressive perpetual calendar and moon phase this of them in full view through the transparent year, but long-time fans will appreciate the baton caseback, such as Lange’s signature German markers and retouched bezel shape as they give this silver mainplate, blued steel screws and gold grey-faced beauty a more reŵned look. The 41mm chatons. The 36-hour power reserve is a little Datograph Perpetual comes in 18K white gold and on the short side, but it’ll give one an excuse is powered by the manually wound L952.1 calibre. to admire it again with every winding.
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THE WATCH SPECIAL
SHARP AND SIMPLE The Saxonia collection had the honour of housing the brand’s ŵrst annual calendar mechanism back in 2010, and the Saxonia’s classic design made it the ideal vessel. Missing out on extra features like the leap year (typically found on perpetual calendars) and day/night indicators works in this watch’s favour as the information it does provide – date, day, month, moon phase and time – are harmoniously aligned and highly legible.
The automatic L.0851 has a few convenient features, including a 46-hour power reserve and Lange’s patented zero reset mechanism, which halts the movement and resets the seconds to zero when the crown is pulled out, enabling extremely precise time setting. All other registers can be adjusted via discreet micropushers located at four, eight, nine and 10 o‘clock. At 38.5mm, the Saxonia Annual Calendar is classic and understated enough for practically any occasion and wrist size.
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WAT C H E S • PE R S PE C T I V E
APPLE OF MY EYE
SU JIA XIAN Independent watch journalist, industry observer and collector www.watchesbysjx.com
“THE APPLE WATCH REMAINS A FUNCTIONAL OBJECT, EVEN WITH THE SLEEK SOLID GOLD MODELS.” 10 6
T H E P E A K
Think about this: Luxury mechanical wristwatches are almost the antithesis of technology. Why? Because they embody an archaic idea first developed some four centuries ago – a portable timekeeper powered by gears and springs. In concept, mechanical timepieces are closer to water clocks made of wood and iron from millennia ago, than they are to today’s smartwatch. On the other hand, the latter is a leap forward in the evolution of technology, a gadget that is part of you without being implanted. The very appeal of timepieces lies in their outdated technology, and are less about timekeeping than luxury and history – precisely the qualities that transform them into a status symbol. Watch whizz Jean-Claude Biver, famous for turning around both Blancpain and Hublot before selling them for millions, created a wristwatch that embodied that appeal back in 2006. One of the highlights of that year, Hublot’s Big Bang All Black had an all-black dial that made it almost impossible to read the time, due to the lack of contrast. Biver even displayed it in a dimly lit showcase, further emphasising its illegibility. But that was precisely the point: A modern luxury watch isn’t necessarily meant to tell the time. That illustrates the comical extreme of the appeal of the mechanical watch, and the reason that, in my opinion, luxury timepieces will not be supplanted by the Apple Watch. The latter will still be a game changer and on a massive scale, as Apple has successfully styled itself as a maker of luxury electronics – something it wants to pursue with the recruitment of exluxury goods executives, such as the former chief of Burberry. I’m going out on a limb here, but I think it’s likely that, in its first year, and certainly by its second, the Apple Watch will sell more, in both
volume and value, than all the watches exported annually from Switzerland. But the Apple Watch remains a functional object. Even with the sleek solid gold models, it lacks the cachet of a finely made mechanical watch. And the fact that each successive generation will render the previous one obsolete means the Apple Watch will lack staying power. Each new Apple Watch model will become the next coolest thing, until it is not. In fact, the Apple Watch may actually increase wristwatch use, since it will introduce the idea of wrist-borne timekeeping to many who would never wear a wristwatch – a significant portion of the young in many countries. However, lower-end luxury watches, the sort that cost as much or a bit more than the Apple Watch, might need to up the ante to stay attractive. In the sub-$1,000 segment, a mechanical watch is less a status symbol than a functional object. Makers of pricey mechanical watches do not need to change the fundamentals of their product – the antiquated mechanics that are quaint, charming and impressive – but they can make a better, affordable product, as the Apple Watch demonstrates. What Apple has managed to achieve in terms of construction (a large sapphire crystal without a bezel) and materials (the ceramic-gold composite for the top-of-the-line model) is superior to anything Swiss watchmakers can muster for the same price. Add to that the fact that the Apple Watch is made in China, something that might lead one to ask: Where’s the value in Swiss-made? Swiss watchmakers would do well to learn a few things from Apple, most obviously how it can produce a well-finished watch with relatively advanced materials for prices that will appeal to a wide range of consumers, especially non-watch-wearers.
PHOTOGRAPHY TAN WEI TE
The Apple Watch won’t oust luxury mechanical timepieces – but it can teach traditional watchmakers a thing or two.
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IN GRAND STYLE
7KH 3HDN DQG 7:* 7HD SUHVHQW WKH DUW RI HOHYDWLQJ WHDWLPH WR D PRPHQW RI UHŵ QHPHQW In an era of high-speed connectivity, tea
Bouqdib, the collection of eight represents
Grand Pu-Erh, sourced from the varietal’s
– be it had in the tea gardens of Istanbul,
the ŵnest single-estate teas in the world.
historical home of Yunnan, China. And
the teahouses of Kyoto or the tea rooms
Spanning white and green to blue
then there is the Grand Golden Yin Zhen.
of London – is a special libation, always
and black teas, the collection highlights
Lending a touch of luxury to this rare
sipped in uplifting calm. And when the cup
the diversity and complexity of the forms,
white tea, the ŵrst buds of spring are
of tea you nurse in your hands is lovingly
Ŷavours and aromas captured within the
plated with 24K gold, creating a visually
brewed from rare leaves, handpicked
single genre. Think green teas such as
distinct blend that also delights the
at some of the world’s most esteemed
Grand Lung Ching from the rolling hills
taste buds with its honeyed overtones.
estates, it presents not just a tranquil
of Hangzhou, China, and Grand Sencha
break from the day’s demands, but a
from Mount Kirishima from Kyushu, Japan;
moment of sophisticated reŵnement.
blue teas such as Grand Oolong from
in: hand-blown glass Ŷasks in a shade of
the cliff-lined Paciŵc coasts of eastern
black emblazoned in gold, so designed to
comes such an exceptional selection:
Taiwan, and Grand Malawi from the lush
protect the leaves from sunlight. The lids
the Grand Fine Harvest Tea Collection.
valleys of Mount Mulanje in Africa; black
also double as measuring cups. Certainly,
Curated by TWG Tea’s team of tea
teas that are the product of the rarest of
the collection makes for a perfect gift for
connoisseurs, led by the company’s
Ceylon and Darjeeling harvests; and a
tea connoisseurs – if you can bear to part
president, CEO and co-founder, Taha
matured tea that comes in the form of a
with it yourself.
From luxury tea company TWG Tea
Fittingly luxurious are the vessels the Grand Fine Harvest teas are encased
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GRAND MALAWI From the valleys of Mount Mulanje – one of the lushest tea-producing areas of Africa known only to the most learned of tea connoisseurs – comes this robust blue tea with an aroma of freshly picked raspberries. Once infused, the leaves reveal tart and citrusy Ŷavours that lead to a short and clean ŵnish, making it a refreshing cup perfect for drowsy afternoons.
GRAND OOLONG The saline humidity of the cliff-lined Paciŵc coasts of eastern Taiwan imbues this Grand Oolong with a distinct Ŷavour. Harvested from summer through autumn, the small, dark, rolled leaves make a complex brew, burnt orange in hue. On the nose, it presents an oaky aroma, while a Ŷoral Ŷavour accented by notes of pinecone and sap dances on the palate. A crisp aftertaste of freshly cut apples and honey rounds off a sip, making this a cup you would want to savour slowly.
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FRENCH EVOLUTION One of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest cognac houses celebrates its tricentenary, and The Peak drops in on the festivities to learn how it has outlasted the competition. TEXT CHARMIAN LEONG
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T H E P E A K
July
15
20
LIFESTYLE
Some 300 guests from over 15 countries celebrated Martellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 300th birthday in Versailles.
T H E P E A K
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T R AV E L
Even among the luxury world’s elite, operating for 300 continuous years is not a common – and certainly not easy – feat. But here Martell still stands, the oldest of the “big four” cognac producers including Courvoisier, Hennessy and Remy Martin, and predating other venerable luxury houses like Hermes, Patek Philippe and Louis Vuitton (none of which have even reached their 200th year). And Martell didn’t scrape its way here. Discounting the usual hang-ups of running a business, the brand has truly prospered. From past to present, the spirit has found itself on world-famous tables, from Nicholas I’s to George V’s. And, if this year’s celebrations are anything to go by, history has done nothing to dull Martell’s brilliance.
THE SOIREE Martell’s event planners must have learnt a thing or two from real-estate agents because the foremost thing in people’s memories of the evening would have been location, location, location. The tricentennial celebrations were held at none other than the Palace of Versailles, a venue so staggeringly beautiful and so richly steeped in history that it almost distracts one from the point of being there in the first place. But it was not a point that was easily forgotten for the 300 VIP guests. “We chose to host the celebrations here because the Palace of Versailles and Martell both existed during the Age of Enlightenment, and the palace is clearly the embodiment of the French art de vivre,” said Martell CEO and 1 16
T H E P E A K
01 AGEING GRACEFULLY Approximately 700 casks rest in Martell’s cellars. 02 WATERS OF LIFE “Gabare” boats used to transport cognac around the world in the 18th century. 03 BOTTLED HISTORY Some of Martell’s eauxde-vie are over a century old. 04 BIRTHDAY CANDLES The party concluded with a spectacular fireworks show.
01
02
03 03
chairman Philippe Guettat. “We have also been a patron of the palace since 2007, helping with the restoration of this magnificent jewel of French culture. There’s no better place to begin the celebrations.” The party to kick off the year-long festivities in over 30 cities worldwide was a glitzy affair, starting with cognac cocktails accompanying a sensational show put on by the Patrouille de France aerobatics team above the gardens. The dinner, conceived by chef Paul Piret of Shanghai’s Mr & Mrs Bund and Ultraviolet restaurants, was part of a sensorial experience that included the use of giant visuals and sounds to accompany each course – to pay tribute to founder Jean Martell’s first journey to Cognac. Outside the dinner hall were four “ateliers” that made
04
up the Art of Martell exhibition, which focused on the aspects of distillation, blending, ageing and tasting. Here, guests – which included celebrities like Diane Kruger, Naomie Harris, Solange Knowles and Karen Mok – were able to learn about the complex processes that give Martell its unique DNA.
THE STORY Before we dive into the complexities of the liquid, let us look at a different kind of spirit – the one of endurance. The house’s story begins with Jean Martell, an Englishman from Jersey whose original trade was in eau-de-vie (clear, colourless fruit brandy). Jean was only 12 years old when his father entrusted him to one of his trader contacts to learn the ropes, and was 21 by the time he was sent to France to look for new business. As the first foreigner to arrive in Cognac, Jean seized the opportunity to become an independent trader. By going to Cognac alone, he ensured better control of his supplies, earning him a reputation in the region for being honest, hardworking and entrepreneurial. For nearly 40 years, Jean dedicated most of his time to learning the intricacies of various eauxde-vie, eventually expanding his business by buying oak barrels to age these spirits in. When he died in 1753 his wife Rachel Lallemand took over and kept the business alive while its competitors slowly dropped out thanks to colonial wars and climactic perils that drove price fluctuations. After 30 years of devotion to the brand, her sons Jean and Frederic took over and continued to build Martell, boosting overseas sales (the T H E P E A K
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T R AV E L
BIRTHDAY PRESENTS
Even if you missed the party, you can get into the spirit of it with these four anniversary editions.
ASSEMBLAGE EXCLUSIF DE 3 MILLESIMES This blend tells the story of Martell through three eaux-de-vie from three Cognac Crus. The eau-devie from the Grande Champagne has a powerful character, which represents the brand’s strong foundation when it began. The Fins Bois is subtle and smooth, reflecting the brand’s rise in the 19th century. Finally, the Borderies eau-de-vie pays tribute to Martell in the 20th century when Cordon Bleu, distinguished by its strong Borderies character, was created. The spirit has a sweet nose, a woody vanilla palate and a long finish.
PREMIER VOYAGE If you have room for only one special edition in your cabinet, make it the Premier Voyage. Limited to only 300 bottles and priced at 10,000 euros ($15,098), the bottle houses 18 different eaux-de-vie aged in barrels made from a 300-year-old tree. This tribute was the result of seeking out wine-growing families whose ancestors supplied Jean Martell all those years ago and relying on their inspiration to create a cognac full of blackcurrant, honey and gingerbread aromas and a finish of spice and beeswax.
CORDON BLEU “A TRIBUTE TO MARTELL’S 300 YEAR ANNIVERSARY” The famous Cordon Bleu cognac was created by Edouard Martell, the founder’s 10th descendant, in 1912. Last year, Benoit Fil unveiled his own version of the blend for the anniversary using over 100 eaux-devie with, as always, an emphasis on Borderies. Top that off with ageing in 300-year-old oak barrels and you get a copper-coloured cognac that explodes with flavours of plums, apples, roasted nuts, candied fruit, cinnamon and honey.
XO EXCLUSIVE TRICENTENAIRE EDITION The house’s iconic arch-shaped XO was definitely not going to miss out on the bash, and has been redressed in silver lines to represent the “lifelines” of the oak the spirits are aged in. The cabochon atop the cork was carved from the very same tree that made the barrels the eaux-de-vie were aged in. Each bottle also comes with a small 10cl montre, a miniature bottle distillers traditionally presented samples in.
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T H E P E A K
first shipment to Singapore was in 1871, for 200 cases) until it became the top cognac brand in England by 1814. In the generations that followed, many (now famous) Martell products were launched, such as the brand’s first VSOP in 1831 and its most well-known edition, the Cordon Bleu, created in 1912 and now among the most popular cognacs in the XO category. The brand is now represented in over 130 countries today. So what is it that’s kept Martell afloat for three centuries and still going strong? In a word: elegance.
THE SPIRIT Martell’s celebratory campaign theme is French art de vivre, which can be poetically translated as “the art of life”. And there is artistry in the way Martell makes its precious spirits. If you visit the distillery before the harvest season, you will notice a large rose bush in front of each row of vines in the nearby vineyard. The roses are big and splendid but not entirely decorative. They have a dark and honourable purpose: to serve as the first line of defence against certain bugs and fungi. Because the bushes are more susceptible to such afflictions, the vines are kept safe. While Martell uses grapes from four of Cognac’s best crus – Grande Champagne, Petit Champagne, Borderies and Fins Bois – it especially favours eaux-de-vie from Borderies and Martell owns half of the area’s vineyards. This is because Borderies soil is highly diverse – the clay and flint stones in the soil help produce eaux-
de-vie with distinct nuttiness and an aroma of violets. Martell also has an unusual distillation rule. Like any other cognac house, the grapes are first pressed to obtain the juice, which is then left to ferment for a few days. At this point most distillers will proceed to distil this wine, but Martell insists on filtering out the lees (fermentation sediment) before distillation, so as to create a finer, purer eau-de-vie. Despite the huge machines that help the entire production process, making good cognac is still a very human operation that is heavily reliant on its cellar masters. Their exceptional sense of smell and extensive knowledge of their product enable them to keep producing consistent spirits, even when presented with hundreds of varying eaux-de-vie. When we smell apples, a cellar master will smell apple crumble their grandmother baked on Sundays; when we smell leather, he will remember the antique chesterfield they jumped on as a child. “You are always putting a part of your personality, a part of your feelings, into each blend,” says Martell cellar master Benoit Fil, who has been with the house for 38 years. “I am always learning, and the longer I do this, the better I get at it.” Three centuries is a long time to maintain such an unwavering level of dedication to quality, but, if the house keeps doing what it does best – making sublime cognac in a style unlike any other – then we’re certain they’ll be around for three more.
ROLEX SPECIAL
TAKING THE LEAD
The new Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date has arrived and it’s showing the industry that it’s still the boss. The Rolex Day-Date is also universally
40mm case (with reŵned lugs and middle
baton indexes, and all but the platinum
known as the “Presidents’ Watch”. Not
case, and a broader dial aperture) and a
model have Ŷuted bezel.
only did it get its name from the brand’s
new variety of dials.
own President Bracelet, which is
The iconic Rolex Day-Date doesn’t
Although the reduction in case size from 41 to 40mm is admittedly marginal,
immediately recognisable for its semi-
need much of a facelift, so the new
the slimmer lugs and case band present
circular three-piece links, the Day-Date is
Day-Date 40 dials’ laser-etched patterns
a more elegant overall aesthetic for the
also a model that has been worn by more
are alluring but subtle, quite unlike the
manufacture’s most prestigious line.
presidents and visionaries than any other
dramatic and deep grooves of guilloche
Henceforth, the Day-Date 40 is a worthy
watch in the world.
engraving.
successor to – and replacement for – the
Launched in 1956, the Day-Date
The new Day-Date is presented in
Day-Date II.
was the world’s ŵrst waterproof self-
950 platinum or 18k Yellow, White or
winding chronometer watch to come with
Everose gold versions, all with a President
the appearance of the Day-Date, Rolex
a modern calendar equipped with an
bracelet and with a variety of elaborate
has also introduced a superb new calibre
instantaneous day display.
dials. The Yellow and White gold versions
in this model. Hidden behind the solid
have applied Roman numerals, while the
caseback is the calibre 3255, which seems
Everose and platinum ones have raised
a waste to not be visible, considering the
Now, more than half a century later, the prestigious watch has a new kind of ŵrst: a
Not satisŵed with simply updating
completely novel movement boasts 14
Rolex is also retailed at the
patents and signiŵcantly improves upon
following The Hour Glass boutiques:
every calibre Rolex made before it.
Takashimaya S.C. Tel: 6734-2420 Tang Plaza. Tel: 6235-7198
The thickness of the barrel’s walls has been reduced by half to create more
Ion Orchard. Tel: 6509-9282
space for the mainspring, giving the
Knightsbridge. Tel: 6884-8484
watch an additional 10 hours of power
Orchard Central. Tel: 6337-8309
reserve and a total of 70 hours – about 50
RafŶes Hotel Arcade. Tel: 6334-3241
per cent more than its predecessor, the
Millenia Walk. Tel: 6339-4870
calibre 3156. It also features the brand’s
One RafŶes Place. Tel: 6534-5855
Chronergy escapement, which features a redesigned pallet fork to reduce energy
Customers receive an exclusive gift at
consumption, making it 15 per cent
any of THG boutiques with a minimum
more efŵcient than regular Swiss lever
spend of $20,000. Valid from July 1 to
escapements.
Aug 1, 2015.
The escapement wheel has been skeletonised to make it lighter, the pallet stones have been made thinner, the contact surfaces of the escape wheel teeth have doubled, the gear train has new lubricants to reduce friction, and a new perpetual rotor allows for more rapid winding. Unsurprisingly, the anti-magnetic Parachrom hairspring, yet another Rolex invention, makes an appearance here as well, as it is known for being 10 times more precise than traditional hairspring. All of these improvements have easily earned the Day-Date 40 a COSC certiŵcation. In fact, certiŵed chronometers require an accuracy of -4/+6 seconds per day, but the new calibre 3255, which has also been extensively tested against Rolex’s own standards, meets the requirement with a deviation of just -2/+2 seconds a day. Everything about the Day-Date, past and present, commands respect: its unchanging design, patent-laden history, and the fact that it’s only ever made in precious metals – to the point that it would deserve to be called the Presidents’ Watch, even if it never touched a world leader’s wrist. For its dedication to the betterment of itself, as well as its inspiration to the rest of the industry, the Day-Date will always be in the lead.
The COSC-certiŵed Calibre 3255 (right) was built from the ground up and features 14 patents. Its case remains typically Day-Date (below) but subtle changes make it even more elegant than its predecessors.
F O OD & DR I N K • R E V I E W
Osteria Art shows that it means business.
With the hubbub surrounding the art scene this year, you may mistake Osteria Art for just another gallery, but it’s not. Instead, the “Art” in the name of restaurateur Beppe De Vito’s latest venture refers to Pellegrino Artusi, whose tome of home cooks’ recipes, La Scienza in Cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene, was instrumental in uniting the country’s cuisine. “Osteria” signals that it’s a simple Italian restaurant. The establishment’s decor of swanky red leather seats and sumptuously dark wood furnishings, however, is more in line with an upscale New York bar than mama’s kitchen. But this is exactly what De Vito wants, which is a classy, centrally located place for the suits to talk shop. Indeed, he’s not put off by the high cost of real estate in the CBD. Says De Vito:
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PLAY ON TEXTURES Crispy bits of cured pork belly round off the flavours of this rich dish – papardelle with pork cheek and red wine.
makes this pasta stand out. Diced and fried to perfection, the crispy bits offer texture and smokiness to round off the rich flavours. This attention to detail carries over to the desserts. An olive oil cake with lemon sherbet owes its delicate nutty flavours to the cold-pressed olive oil made from fruit from De Vito’s plantation in his hometown of Bari, in the Puglia region. And, if it’s a celebratory occasion, the restaurant has a stellar wine list featuring noteworthy vintages to toast, such as the 1970 Brunello Di Montelcino Riserva or 1947 Chateau Leoville Las Cases. #01-01, 55 Market Street.
TEXT MERYL KOH
POWER DINING
“There is a market gap for business dinner spots (in the CBD) but not many want to take that risk, because investments in creating a space like this are too high.” If Osteria’s interior belies its down-to-earth culinary style, the veteran with 20 years of F&B experience is focusing only on the cuisine he knows best. De Vito is aggressively expanding from his Sentosa base. In April, he launched Il Lido in Bali. Another project, Aura, will open at National Gallery Singapore in October. While the dishes at Osteria Art might not be out of place on a dining table at home, they are executed with more finesse here. Take a snack of cheesy bombolinis, where molten parmesan is cocooned in a soft, chewy crust. Sprinkled with freshly grated parmesan, these savoury puffs are a dream to eat. Then, there’s the papardelle with pork cheek and red wine. The handmade pasta offers good bite and there are generous shreds of meat. The addition of cured pork belly from De Vito’s other restaurant, &Sons,
DE BETHUNE SPECIAL
THE WILD WILD EAST
Swiss watchmaking and Chinese clock history combine for a beautiful chapter in horology. Modern luxury watchmaking has given horology lovers a glut of wondrous timepieces but the ones we remember always have the best stories. And when two master storytellers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the conventioneschewing De Bethune and The Hour Glass â&#x20AC;&#x201C; join forces, the result is a wristsized masterpiece of art and history. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take a moment to once again appreciate the De Bethune DB25 Imperial Fountain. The DB25 Imperial Fountain is a heritage-inspired follow-up to 2012â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s DB25 IX Maya. But instead of the Mayan Calendar, the Imperial Fountain pays tribute to the famous water clock in the Old Summer Palace â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or Yuan Ming Yuan â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in Beijing. Built in the mid-1700s
showing a different animal head in the
by French, Italian and Chinese craftsmen
centre of the dial, hand-engraved using
decorative pieces like these are not a
for then emperor Qianlong, the clock
the bas-relief technique by artist Michele
staple in the De Bethune family â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but
featured 12 bronze animal heads from
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extraordinary movements are. In order not
the Chinese zodiac. Each head would
disc of rich grand feu enamelling and
to obscure the wearerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s view of such an
spout water every two hours to tell
even more gloriously detailed engraving.
ornate dial, the Calibre DB2145 movement
time in the ancient Chinese way.
The collection is available in sets of 12,
was created, giving the watch peripheral
in yellow gold, rose gold or platinum
hour and minute hands that circle the
they are no less mesmerising. There are
case, or individually, encased in white
dial instead. This mechanism required
12 pieces in the collection, each one
gold with either blue or gold relief.
the development of perfectly balanced
The watches are a tidier affair, but
Impressive as they may be, highly
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looted in 1860, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reassuring to know that its memory is being kept alive all the way on the other side of the world. 7KH '% ,PSHULDO )RXQWDLQ LV DQ H[FOXVLYH FROODERUDWLRQ ZLWK 7KH +RXU *ODVV DQG LV DYDLODEOH RQO\ DW LWV ERXWLTXHV
THE PEAK EXPERT BOOKBINDING
BY THE BOOK Master craftsman Chong Beng Cheng at work at Bynd Artisan.
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THE TIES THAT BIND The art of putting a story together – one page at a time. TEXT CHARMIAN LEONG PHOTOGRAPHY DARREN CHANG ART DIRECTION NORSHAM HUSAINI
Try as it might, the digital age has yet to render physical books redundant. And it probably never will. Swiping across a glass surface doesn’t elicit the same tactile pleasure of running one’s fingers over grainy pages and wrinkled spines. While technology has made bookbinding a much more economical process, the romance of caressing pages that were painstakingly bound by hand cannot be replicated. The art of bookbinding doesn’t just coexist with the electronic era; it defies it. “Everything relies on computers that run on electricity, these days. Even mass-produced books are made by machines,” says professional bookbinder Adelene Koh. “But, if you take away electricity, I can still bind a book.” Koh was trained in Japan and London, and runs Dddots, a speciality binding shop with a second outlet in London. On top of making prints and binding various volumes, a bookbinder is also responsible for restoring old books. “I’ve restored an autograph book from 1914 and the fact that it’s been around for 100 years and survived a world war reminds us that books can outlive us.” Mechanised production has enabled everyone to own a book, which, in itself, is a marvellous thing. But it has also turned books into just another workaday item in our everyday
lives, when historically they were luxury items or reserved for religious writings. On the flip side, having them so readily available has helped raise their making into an art form. “Design binding is a form of bookbinding where the binder draws inspiration from the theme and characters of a book’s story and creates a ‘theatre’ for its scenes through the covers, endpapers and decoration. This is when you should judge a book by its cover,” quips Koh, who received a prize at The Bookbinding Competition 2014 for her binding of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Today, bookbinding can be both highly creative and downright opulent. Depending on the style, size and materials used, it can take anything from an hour (for a stitched booklet) to several days (for coffee table tomes), and can be bound with exotic skins or covered in jewels and bone. Unfortunately, as with any artisanal skill, the pool of people who are capable of doing so are limited. “Some skills
cannot be imparted through writing, but through experience and guidance. I have yet to find a bookbinding manual that is comprehensive enough to cover what is required in this craft,” adds Koh. But there are a dedicated few who will keep it alive. Corporate gift company Grandluxe had its roots as a bookmaking business in the 1940s, and has evolved again last year to include Bynd Artisan, a chain of stores offering customisable, handmade stationery and leather goods. Like vinyl records, mechanical watches and fountain pens, a hand-stitched book is cherished for its ability to connect its user to the past; where every process had a human thought behind it. “When you hold a beautifully made book, you smell its leather, feel the ease of turning its pages and behold the theatricality of its covers and content,” she gushes. “It’s the feeling of a book coming alive in your hands.”
“IF YOU TAKE AWAY ELECTRICITY, I CAN STILL BIND A BOOK.”
ADELENE KOH, PROFESSIONAL BOOKBINDER
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A HAND-STITCHED BOOK IS CHERISHED FOR ITS ABILITY TO CONNECT ITS USER TO THE PAST. COVER TO COVER
Master craftsman Chong Beng Cheng has been with Grandluxe for over 40 years and now helps to train younger craftsmen for Bynd Artisan. Here, he illustrates the art in its simplest form.
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01 PREPARE
02 PUNCH
Fold the page by pressing down on the centre, and slide outwards to prevent creasing. Chong is using a bamboo folder but any smooth object will do. Secure the cover to the pages with clips.
Make a punch guide by measuring where you want the holes. Place the materials on a foam block and use an awl (a long, pointed spike) to punch out the holes.
03 BIND
04 FOLD
Use waxed linen thread as itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stronger and easier to work with. Sewing methods differ greatly depending on the desired pattern, but a basic binding starts from the lowest hole and works its way in and out of the spine until it returns to the original point.
After tying up the thread and discarding the excess, fold the book in half and use a mallet to hammer the spine until the book is flat.
05 SHAPE
06 STAMP
Align the book against the trimming machine and slice off the excess, starting with the length of the book. Save the leather strips and set aside.
Heat up the letterpress machine, arrange the desired letters and screw them into place. Apply gold leaf, and press down on the book. Peel off the excess.
07 STRAP
08 DONE
Select the longest strip of scrap leather from before to use as a bookmark. Slide it into the top portion of any page and attach with doublesided tape.
Take a second strip of leather and cut two slits in it with a penknife. If meant for a gift, roll the book up like a scroll and tie the leather strip around it into a little ribbon.
HISTORY PAGES An abridged timeline of the book.
3150BC – SCROLLS
3000BC – CLAY TABLETS
Possibly dating back to the First Dynasty of Egypt, scrolls were the first form of editable text and were also used in Eastern Mediterranean civilisations. Papyrus was made by weaving together stems of the papyrus plant and then hammering the sheets flat. The sheets were then polished and glued together to form scrolls.
People of the Babylonian era used a blunt instrument known as a calamus to scribe characters into moist clay. The tablets were then fired or left in the sun to dry out and harden. They were in use until as recently as the 19th century.
AD100 – CODICES
AD105 – PAPER
700 – BOOKS
The codex is probably the oldest form of book to actually resemble the ones we have today and it was invented by the Romans. Several sheets of papyrus, paper, vellum or other similar materials were bound on one edge and had covers that were sturdier than the sheets.
The ancient Chinese were writing on everything from bone to silk before Han court eunuch Cai Lun invented the pulp papermaking process. Freeing up more silk for export actually led China into a Golden Age.
After learning the art of papermaking from the Chinese, the Arabs set about binding paper into books. They were sewn together with silk and bound with leathercovered paste boards.
1450 – PRINTING PRESS Invented during the Holy Roman Empire by Johannes Gutenberg, the printing press helped standardise bookbinding, with the exception of page sizes. Various methods of binding were employed all over the world.
HOLDING IT TOGETHER
Familiarise yourself with the most common forms of bookbinding. COPTIC This style was used to compile the first codices and date back to the 2nd century AD. It’s characterised by multi-section bindings attached to one another with chain stitch links across the spine. In addition to its attractive spine, Coptic-bound books are favoured for their ability to be laid completely flat when opened.
MEDIAEVAL The most laborious part of this method is making the leather cover. Because leather is thick and tough, grooved lines need to be carved into it (by a process known as skiving) before they can be folded, and it takes a strong and skilled hand to make the lines precise and deep enough.
COIL The most economical form of bookbinding probably first appeared in the 1930s, but became an office necessity by the 1950s, when technology began reviving the post-war economy. This style was used for books that needed to be folded back on itself without damaging the spine.
STAB Both traditional Chinese and Japanese binding styles used this method, though the widths between sewing stations were equidistant for the latter, but not necessarily the case in the former. Today, the stab method is employed to create elaborate sewing patterns.
T H E P E A K
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C A R S
DEUS X6 MACHINA Surprise! The car that critics loved to hate became so popular that its second generation is now out. TEXT LOW KA WEI PHOTOGRAPHY TAN WEI TE ART DIRECTION DENISE REI LOW
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Part sport utility vehicle, part coupe. When the original BMW X6 was launched in 2008, pundits called it “an answer to a question nobody asked” – and that is just one of the kinder comments. After all, SUVs are SUVs, and coupes are coupes, and never the twain shall meet. Or so conventional wisdom went. Despite the car emerging right in the middle of a global recession, however, it sold better than the 6-series Coupe, Convertible and Gran Coupe
combined – more traditionally shaped cars that appeal to roughly the same demographic. All told, the Munich carmaker shifted 260,000 specimens of the first-generation X6 during its six-year run – not bad at all for a model this niche. How did industry observers get it so wrong? Approach the car with an open mind, and everything begins to make more sense. The new X6 is heavily based on the well-regarded third-generation X5 launched
THE NUMBERS ENGINE: 4.4-litre, twin turbo, direct injection V8 POWER: 450bhp from 5,500 – 6,000rpm TORQUE: 650Nm from 2,000 – 4,500rpm 0-100KMH: 4.8s
in 2013, a car that stays truer to the 4x4 mould. So there is no question that the X6 boasts SUV bona fides: a commanding driving height, lots of room for passengers and luggage, as well as the ability to make progress on most terrain on whim. The coupe part of the equation comes partly from the physical styling of the X6. While its front end differs little from the X5, the rear roof slopes off, in keeping with the silhouette of a sportier vehicle. But
equally important: All manner of technological devices that effectively “shrink” what is a gigantic car around the driver. The speed-sensitive steering and torque-vectoring drivetrain make piloting the 2.2-tonne garden shed on wheels wonderfully accurate. Even parking the 2m-wide beast is a doddle, thanks to the push-button automatic Parkassist system, if you are too lazy to do it yourself, or 360-degree cameras to help, if you are feeling more hands on.
All these fancy aids help create an illusion that you are piloting a smaller vehicle. In fact, you could say they sometimes perform too well, to which the three kerbed wheels on the three-month-young press car can attest. My advice: If you are thinking of ordering fancy alloys with your new X6, save them for after you are used to its dimensions. Also massive is the engine in the xDrive 50i variant that I tested. This 4.4-litre V8 is carried over from the old model, but substantially reworked for more power and better economy (respectively, up 10 per cent to 450bhp and down 22 per cent to 9.7 litres per 100km on the average EU test cycle). I was unable to achieve the stated fuel consumption figures, but only because the V8 sounds so glorious that I would rev the engine whenever I could just for the heck of it. For something a bit more frugal, yet almost as brutal in performance, the M50d triple-turbo diesel is available via special order. For the best balance in running costs and performance, most customers, however, will pick the entry-level 35i, which features the familiar 3-litre in-line six found across the BMW range. The verdict: The X6 is a mean machine with better headroom than its predecessor and marginally more load space, addressing two major concerns of the previous model. It has pretty much everything an SUV provides in a package that will not quite pass off as a lithe coupe, but is in its own way exceptionally stylish. Of course, it would not do if you have a pair of labradors that you regularly ferry to the Botanic Gardens – that is what more conventional 4x4s such as the X5 are for. Performance Motors, Sime Darby Performance Centre, 303 Alexandra Road. Tel: 6319-0100.
4 CLEVER TOYS BMW X6
01 AIR BREATHERS Not only does this slit in the wheel arch add to the aggressive styling of the car, but it also optimises airflow for better fuel economy.
02 CONNECTED DRIVE A package of services that includes real-time traffic information and – our favourite – a real-life concierge on call 24/7.
03 HIDDEN ISOFIX Say goodbye to ugly baby seat anchors. Isofix is kept out of sight under a discreet zip in the plush leather upholstery.
04 BOTTLE HOLDER Another thoughtful touch: The drink holders in the front doors can accommodate 1.5-litre bottles for long road trips.
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T R AV E L • V I E W
UP CLOSE WITH BIG APES Veteran gorilla researcher’s expertise helps travellers get cosy with the primates.
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Peace Corps. Several years later, he had the good fortune to join a research team assembled by the late, great primatologist Dian Fossey, author of the bestseller Gorillas in the Mist. From there, he embarked on a career studying mountain gorillas in Rwanda. “(Dian) had been living in the mountains alone for a long time,” he recalls. “I think she believed the mountains and gorillas were hers.” Fossey was mysteriously murdered in 1985, but left behind a legacy including the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International and the International Primate Protection League. The conservation efforts put in place by Fossey have led to an increase in the
population of mountain gorillas, despite a decline in the numbers of other great apes like the chimpanzee and bonobo across Central Africa. Tourism to Rwanda has also played a big hand in safeguarding the endangered species, as it is one of three countries in Africa where tourists can safely get up close with gorillas. Permit fees for gorilla trekking can run as high as $750 an hour. It is no wonder that travel and tourism in the landlocked country is a multi-million-dollar industry, according to a Euromonitor International report last year. Sholley notes: “If it were not for the tourism industry, a lot of these forests which gorillas inhabit would have been destroyed 10 or 20 years ago.”
FOCUS FOUND Sholley’s study of mountain gorillas started with a research stint with the late primatologist Dian Fossey.
TEXT JOSIAH NEO
Craig Sholley could have died at the hands of a gorilla. Once, he was tracking a group of them in a rainforest in Africa when a 200kg male turned on him, knocking him over and slamming his fist down beside his head. “He could have killed me, but what he did was a reprimand, which is indicative of what gorillas are about,” says the 63-year-old vice-president of philanthropy and marketing for the African Wildlife Foundation. “They’re gentle giants.” From next February, the wildlife biologist with more than four decades of experience, together with safari vacation specialists A2A Safaris, will offer his expertise to travellers trekking through the mountainous rainforests in the famous Volcanoes national park in Rwanda, Africa, where more than 400 gorillas roam. Sholley found his way to Africa in his early 20s as a science teacher with the US
T R AV E L • N E W S
TAPPING ON HOME GROUND The Dharma Shanti Yoga Bale at the Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan is constructed entirely out of local bamboo, right down to the hand-whittled pegs used in place of nails.
MANE ATTRACTION
It’s all things equestrian at the Nihiwatu from Nov 3-10. That’s when the 21-villa resort on the Indonesian island of Sumba celebrates the occasion of it joining the British Polo Day series, an international network founded in 2009 that includes events in Morocco and Russia. Pick up your mallet and have a go, while on the backs of the Sandalwood ponies and wild Australian thoroughbreds, at a challenging game of beach polo. Heads up: It’s trickier for horses to stop and turn on sand than on turf. Enjoy a spot of “horse surfing”, where you skim over shallow waves on a wakeboard towed by a horse. Or simply sit back and watch the re-enactment of Pasola, a festival where warriors battle on horseback. “This event is for people who want to meet like-minded people in a beautiful location. An international gathering of sorts,” says James McBride, managing partner of Nihiwatu. The management won’t confirm its guest list, except to hint that you may well be playing polo opposite the likes of Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and property developer Satinder Garcha (we hear he plays a mean game of polo). www.nihiwatu.com
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SOFT GAME Nihiwatu’s beach will serve as a polo field come November.
TEXT MERYL KOH
01
02 SEE YOUR SEAFOOD Regular visitors to the Maldives who are bored of private beach dinners can now take their prandial activities underwater. Accessible only by speedboat, the Subsix at the Per Aquum Niyama Maldives is a former nightclub transformed into a sub-aquatic lounge tailored for guests who fancy a champagne breakfast or a wine tasting. A three-tier staircase leads you into a coralthemed space decked out with a clam-inspired bar and bespoke furniture pieces. Sink into the soft anemone-like chairs with your glass of bubbly, while taking in the marine view from 6m below the waterline of the Indian Ocean. www.niyama.peraquum.com
04 THE ESCAPE PLAN
03
TEXT MERYL KOH
SQUARE ROOMS Frantic growth in China has led to the destruction of many historical buildings, which is why efforts like The Temple House in Chengdu are to be applauded. Its entrance is set in a Qing-dynasty Chinese courtyard and its facade is created out of rustic materials such as timber, brick and stone. Located within the newly established Chengdu Daci Temple Cultural and Commercial Complex, the 100-room hotel and its 42 adjoining serviced apartments are part of a project to preserve and restore the surrounding heritage structures next to the millennium-old Daci Temple, one of the city’s best-loved religious sites. www.thetemplehousehotel.com
Craving sushi in Tokyo? A burger in New York? With just four hours’ notice, you can arrange on your smartphone an impromptu flight to anywhere in the world, whether it’s a one-way journey for durian or a multisector expedition to “collect” all the Michelin stars in Europe. Jet service provider Blue Star Jets’ first global private-jet mobile app allows you to pick any aircraft you fancy, from helicopters to corporate jets. And you get door-to-door attention too – 24/7 customer service takes care of any transfers within 15 minutes of booking your flight. www.bluestarjets.com
T H E P E A K
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A RT & DE SIGN • N E W S
01 A GLASS ACT
Whisky, wine, sake – there’s a right glass (or cup) for every drink. And a right maker, too, if you take your glassware seriously. Hirota Glass is a 116-year-old Japanese company that insists on keeping the tradition of crafting its wares by hand. “The type of raw material might be the same (as that used in glasses produced by machine), but the difference is quality. Handmade glass is more durable, and there is that personal touch,” says Tatsuaki Hirota, president of Hirota Glass, when he visited Singapore. Case in point: the beautiful patterned glass in the Taisho Roman Glass series. Here, the classic “aburidashi” technique – shaping glass in a patterned mould to create an opalescent effect – is applied for an elegant mix of stripes and checks in a translucent blue. Atomi, #04-27 Mandarin Gallery.
TEXT MERYL KOH
NEW LIFE Popular a century ago, the aburidashi technique was forgotten until Hirota Glass revived it.
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02 THE WRITE STUFF Here’s a fine piece of Swiss craftsmanship that isn’t a watch. The latest luxury fountain pen by Caran d’Ache paints a picture of the Swiss landscape with images of snow-capped peaks and cosy wooden chalets sculpted in solid silver on the matte black body. Rutile quartz, a pure rock crystal mined from Swiss mountains, is carefully polished then set on the tip of the cap. Limited to eight fountain pens and 10 rollerball pens in Singapore. Level 3 Takashimaya Singapore and Aesthetic Bay, #04-14 Ion Orchard.
03 ON SOLID GROUND Good shoes take you places, but it’s the floor that grounds you. Spruce up the ground beneath your feet with the warm terracotta tones of the Tierras tile collection designed by acclaimed Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola. Thanks to an innovative production technology, the homogeneous porcelain stoneware tiles are tactile and durable, with minimal water used in their manufacture. The collection comes in eight formats and transversal cuts that can be arranged to form striking geometric patterns. Ricelab, #01-03, 213 Henderson Road.
04
TEXT MERYL KOH
FAIR PICKS Another Salone del Mobile, another batch of trendy new pieces. Fresh from the world’s most important furniture fair are the Carl Hansen & Son Colonial sofa and side table by Danish designer Ole Wanscher and the Nanimarquina Melange carpet by Spanish designer Sybilla. The former reflects Wanscher’s penchant for simple, refined lines and materials like walnut or mahogany that mimic the 18th-century style of English colonial furniture. The latter is a more modern offering made with 20 graphical rugs casually overlaid to create a giant patchwork effect. Space, 77 Bencoolen Street.
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PERFECT WEEKEND KEN TAN Creative director, The Establishment Group
THE HUMAN TOUCH
Building relationships is all in a day’s work (and rest) for this creative director.
As the creative director of F&B group The Establishment, Ken Tan makes a living by building relationships with people. His idea of de-stressing is to do exactly the same thing. “Collecting art is not as easy as going to the supermarket and taking your pick – just like how opening a restaurant is not just about buying ingredients,” says the 34-year-old, who is also an art collector. He is one of the founders of Gem Bar, eatery Pluck and, most recently, Wanton, a modern noodle bar. “There’s a lot of research and networking that go
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into acquiring art. It energises and inspires me.” Tan’s collector journey began with innocent barter. He recalls completing a project for UK music label Mo Wax in 2007, where he requested for an art piece, instead of cash, as payment. That first piece was from the Pointman colour series by American graffiti artist Futura. “I didn’t know much about art then and just wanted a piece that has presence,” says Tan. Today, he keeps his eye on artworks above $10,000 as he feels works below that won’t appreciate in value. His prized trophy is a punching bag by Native American artist Jeffrey Gibson, which he stores in New York. “I didn’t really like the punching bag series – it was too colourful,” says Tan. But speaking to Gibson at an art fair in Hong Kong helped him
understand the artist’s perspective of using the punching bag as a canvas to project his feelings. The next step was finding a work he liked. “Marc (Straus), the gallery owner who represents Gibson, took out his iPad to show me the whole collection and one piece caught my eye. The only problem? It belonged to Marc,” says Tan. But he was determined. “If a collector has a piece you really want, you have to chase after it,” he says. “I spent a lot of time building a relationship with the gallery owners, flying to New York to stay with them, and understanding their art programme.” It took seven months for him to persuade Straus. “In the end, he sold it to me because he could see my sincerity,” says Tan. “It’s a piece you can’t buy, even if you wanted to.”
TEXT MERYL KOH PHOTOGRAPHY VEE CHIN ART DIRECTION DENISE REI LOW
“IF A COLLECTOR HAS A PIECE YOU REALLY WANT, YOU HAVE TO CHASE AFTER IT.”
Leading transformation
Brought to you by:
18 - 19 August 2015 Sands Expo & Convention Centre www.apcc.sphereconferences.com
To receive your exclusive invitation to the event, please contact Jiahui at +65 6848 5378 or email to jiahui@sphereconferences.com
people
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THE PEAK GOLF TOURNAMENT 2015 Venue TANAH MERAH COUNTRY CLUB
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golfing equipment from Royal Sporting House and 50 lucky draw prizes. The event patron was Credit Bureau (Singapore), with Mitsubishi Electric as the lifestyle partner, together with Park Hotel Group as hospitality partner and A. Lange & Sohne as timepiece partner. Other prize sponsors were Ambient Lounge, Briggs & Riley, De Dietrich, Dyson, Endermospa, Etro, Golf House, Greg Norman, Hansgrohe, Karcher, Lalique, Leica, Mizuno, Nespresso, Paul Design, Sealy, Senso Ristorante & Bar, Spa Club, Sphere Exhibits, Teka, Wilson Staff and Zero Halliburton.
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PHOTOGRAPHY DARREN CHANG & VERNON WONG
Now in its sixth year, The Peak’s annual golf tournament was held on the newly renovated Tanah Merah Country Club Garden Course on May 14, with golfers from Singapore’s diplomatic community and the corporate elite in attendance. The tourney began with a shotgun start, with Double Peoria System scoring. Besides enjoying the company of friends, players were treated to delicious Bedrock Bar and Grill’s beef sliders, beer provided by Suntory The Premium Malt’s and Swensen’s ice cream. Subsequently, they enjoyed an eight-course dinner and the finest single malt whisky from Speyside Scotland, provided by The Balvenie, the event’s whisky partner. Apart from the hole-in-one prizes – which included an A. Lange & Sohne Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase timepiece worth $63,100, a Buben & Zorweg Python V8 Top Monaco Black Winder worth $41,000, and a Mercedes-Benz C 180 Avantgarde worth $111,000 – there were novelty prizes which included
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01 Peng Chun Hsien, Willie Low, Theodore Tan & Keith Lee 02 Christopher Chan, Dennis Pua, Daniel Poon & Dicky Goh 03 Clinton Ang 04 Quah Soon Hong, Lenz Tan, Lalit Lohia & Alistair Christie 05 William Lim & Dennis Pua 06 Rosalyn Tay & Clinton Ang 07 HE Sven Hakan Oskar Jevrell, Ambassador for Sweden, Catherine Jevrell & Ivan Breiter 08 David Ong & Jennifer Chen
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09 Dr Frederick Shen & Glenn Ang 10 Chua Yam Seng 11 Ang Boon Kiat, Jimmy Ng, Kelvin Eyu & Woon Chiap Chan 12 Michael Goh, Fred Yong, Jessica Tan & David Yip 13 Andrew Tan & Christopher Chan 14 Zhang Weiwu & Cheng Heng Chew 15 Tan Ooi Boon 16 Seow Poh Leok & Jennifer Chen 17 Sit Kok Seng, Benjamin Tan, Alfred Saw & Eddie Ho 18 HE DuruRajis Benedicta Nonyelum, High Commissioner of Nigeria 19 Colin Macdonald & Dennis Pua 20 Lim Chow Leng & John Khoo
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21 Jason Wong & Dennis Pua 22 Vincent Ang, Priscilla Lee, Didi Kurniawan & Dr See Tho Kai Yin 23 Jonas Corse, Luke Diep, Henry Tan & Ben Neo 24 Raymond Chia, Michael Ng & Jonathan Yeo 25 Neo Bock Cheng 26 K.C. Foo, Sam Lim, Dr Aidan Yeo & Dr Justin Ang 27 Nobukazu Ikuno 28 Lim Meng Eng, Michael Ng & Jonathan Yeo
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29 Lee Choon Li, Steve Foo, Joseph Ang & Ke Yam Cheong 30 Nicholas Goh, Clinton Ang, Rosalyn Tay & Jimmie Tay 31 Khoo Kah Nan & Dennis Pua 32 Mohd K. Rafin & Nicholas Goh 33 Ian Williams 34 Quah Soon Hong & Christopher Chan 35 Chng Chee Beow, Lim Meng Eng, Lim Ho Wee & L.L. Wong
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36 Steve Foo, Joseph Ang, Li Choon Li, Henry Lim & K.C. Lee 37 Ray Yow, Jim Lau, Chua Hock Tong & K.C. Tang 38 Mohd K. Rafin 39 Ramadas Naidu, Dato Peter Madhavan, Cyril Rodrigo & Nara Krishnan 40 Teo Boon Kiat, Colin Macdonald & Gary Loh
PATRON
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LIFESTYLE PARTNER
HOSPITALITY PARTNER
TIMEPIECE PARTNER
HOLE IN ONE-PRIZE PARTNERS
BEER PARTNER
ICE-CREAM PARTNER
SNACKS PARTNER
WHISKY PARTNER
PRIZE SPONSORS
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G RESTAURANT AWARDS 2015
With THE FULLERTON HOTEL Venue THE GRAND BALLROOM
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PHOTOGRAPHY VERNON WONG, JASPER YU & ZAPHS ZHANG
The grand ballroom at The Fullerton Hotel resounded with applause on May 25 as the stars of Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dining scene were recognised at the sixth installation of G Restaurant Awards. A total of 43 honours were handed out, with Restaurant Andre emerging as Restaurant of the Year for the third consecutive year. The event is sponsored by official whisky partner The Macallan, and official vodka partner Snow Leopard. Supporting partners include Visa Worldwide, Butter Studio, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, The Entertainer, The French Cellar and Vintec.
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01 G Restaurant Awards 2015 winners 02 Sylvester Ng 03 Kenjiro Hashida 04 Dennis Pua & Loh Lik Peng 05 Stephanie Lee & Cheryl Lee 06 Christopher Chan, Dennis Pua, HE Heather Grant, High Commissioner of Canada, Joanna Lee-Miller, Caroline Ngui & Jennifer Chen 07 Christopher Chan & Jason Tan 04
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08 Yasmin Abdol Hamid 09 Luo Zhongyu & Cassandra Leong 10 Rob Collins 11 Sylvester Ng & Lawrence Chia 12 Christopher Chan & Lee Sin Yee 13 Anita Korfiatis & Shirley Kwan 14 Sylvester Ng & Preetam Singh 15 Jasmine Tan, Paul Ling & Dr Chng Chai Kiat 16 (back row) Sylvester Ng, Meryl Koh, Adeline Wong, Lynette Koh, Sheryl Chen, Joanna Lee-Miller, Lesley Ann Chai, Derrick Huang, Norsham Husaini, Denise Rei Low, (front row) Daniel Poon, Jennifer Chen, Georgina Chin, Santi Ismaja, Josiah Neo, Kristine Yang, Sheryl Thong, Tan Rou Xi, Jean Yap & Christopher Chan 17 Judy Hunt, Anne Goh & Ronnie Goh 18 Sylvester Ng & Dolores Tay 19 Denise Kwok, Nick Flynn, Julien Royer & Denise Lim
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MENU Courtesy of The Fullerton Hotel 19 Boston Lobster Noodles ***** Chilli Crab Mantou ***** Roasted Peking Duck
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***** Pan-fried Supreme of Chicken with Mushroom Ragout
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***** Pan-fried Prawn with Indian Spiced Lemon Sauce ***** Black Olive Fried Rice ***** Mutton Curry “Rara Gosh” ***** Malay Style Braised Vegetables, Light Curry Gravy ***** Baked Chocolate Tart ***** Miniature Pandan Pannacotta ***** Selection of Tropical Fresh Fruit ***** Coffee and Tea Free Flow of Soft Drinks With Freshly Brewed Coffee and Tea
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20 Loh Lik Peng 21 Ng See Ming, Chong Hon Moon, Reuben Arthur Lim, Ling Siew Khien, Kelvin Tham, Pong Kah Hou, Jun Chong & Cheong Qing Da 22 Chloe Li, Meryl Koh, Joyce Yao & Pearly Cheong 23 Sylvester Ng & Colin Buchan 24 Shawn Tay, Marilyn Lum, Quan Soon Hong, Cheryl Lee & Mohd K. Rafin 25 Caroline Ngui & Kathy Lim-Sheehy 26 Alex Resnik, Josh Brown & Wes Guild 27 William Tan, Velda Cheng & Edmund Ho 28 Ivan Brehm & Raj Datwani 29 Kenjiro Hashida & Julien Royer 30 Richard Low, Lilian Low, Fanty Soenardy, Raymond Wang, Grace Kong & Raymond Wong
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ASCENDAS CEO NIGHT 2015
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Ascendas celebrated Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Golden Jubilee at its annual CEO Night held at 72-13 on March 20. The event, themed Quintessentially Singapore, featured cuisine, art and entertainment by local talents.
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01 Elisa Wong, Manohar Khiatani & Roswell S. Wolff 02 Christian Ruhs, Samuel Pasquier & Tan Yew Chin 03 Kris Wiluan, Tan Yew Chin, Ho Kee Sin & Jeffrey Chua 04 Soo Yew Weng, Darby Sanchez & Amy Chua 05 Khoo Seng Thiam & Tony Loke
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ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE DAY
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HE Yael Rubinstein organised a reception at Capella Singapore on April 23 to mark the 67th anniversary of Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Independence Day.
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01 Dolores Low, Alvin Lee & Lena Tan 02 Prof Dany Sherman, HE Yael Rubinstein, Ambassador for Israel, & Budisatyo Tanihardjo 03 Alan Goh, Stephanie Goh, Chng Pei Ee & Ooi Tjin Kai 04 L. Ayan, Galit Daya, Tzahi Jino & Jalit Tsafrir 05 Efrat Benor & Adi Benor 06 Rayman Chia, S.M. Pang & Shai Oren
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A. LANGE & SOHNE NOVELTY TOUR 2015 At A. Lange & Sohneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Novelty Tour this year, the brand hosted VIPs to a dinner on April 23 at Jaan, where it premiered its latest collections. It also held a boutique cocktail event at its Ion boutique on April 25.
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01 Dana Cheong & Darren Cheong 02 Priscilla Ang, Michelle Chen & Jenny Low 03 Chris Leung 04 Robin Lim, Chester Lau, Stefano di Domenico, Eddie Sng, Joseph Koh & Andy Chua 05 George Khnevsser & Judith Khnevsser 06 Peng Chun Hsien & Yvonne Peng
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01 Chloe Phua, Jun Cheng & Jimmy Tong 02 Eric Tan & Vertic Kok 03 Kingston Chu 04 Ong Ban, Kingston Chu, Kiyoshi Takehara & Elaine Chew 05 Tay Si Wei, Jasmine Tan, Marc Tzivelekas & Winnie Wong 06 Steven Tan & Irene Koh
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SUNTIME WATCH OPENING LAUNCH Sincere Watch celebrated the official launch of a new retail concept boutique, Suntime Watch, at Takashimaya Shopping Centre on April 23.
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FASHION & ACCESSORIES ALFRED DUNHILL #01-42 Paragon Tel: 6734-8126 BOSS #01-14 to #01-18 Ngee Ann City Tel: 6735-0233 BOTTEGA VENETA #B1-99 & #B2-72A The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6688-7228 BRIONI #B1-76 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6688-7528 BROOKS BROTHERS #B1-17 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6688-7328 ED ET AL #01-67 Millenia Walk Tel: 6337-8919 EMPORIO ARMANI #B2-27 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6304-1330 ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA #01-34/36 Paragon Tel: 6735-8147
LOUIS VUITTON #02-14 Ion Orchard Tel: 6788-3888 MAISON CORTHAY Available at Malmaison by The Hour Glass MALMAISON BY THE HOUR GLASS #01-01 270 Orchard Road Tel: 6884-8484 PAUL & SHARK #B1-80 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6688-7495 PRADA #01-45/47 Paragon Tel: 6735-5715 SALVATORE FERRAGAMO #01-40 & #02-42 Paragon Tel: 6738-3206 TOD’S #01-48 Paragon Tel: 6738-3323 TOMMY HILFIGER #B1-16 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6880-7128 ZEGNA #02-07 Ion Orchard Tel: 6509-8770
GIORGIO ARMANI #01-19 & #02-09 Ion Orchard Tel: 6304-1368
TIMEPIECES & JEWELLERY
GUCCI #01-38/39 Paragon Tel: 6734-2528
A. LANGE & SOHNE #02-05A Ion Orchard Tel: 6509-1712
HERMES #01-02A Liat Towers Tel: 6738-9807
BVLGARI #B1-36 & #B2-35 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6634-8313
J. LINDEBERG #01-365 Suntec City Mall Tel: 6336-9921 LEONG T #02-01 11 North Canal Road Tel: 8353-6999
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CORTINA WATCH #03-02/03 Ion Orchard Tel: 6509-9218
IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN #B1-126 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6688-7088 PANERAI Available at The Hour Glass RADO #B1-86 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Tel: 6688-7290 RICHARD MILLE Grand Hyatt Singapore Tel: 6733-1313 ROGER SMITH Available at The Hour Glass SINCERE FINE WATCHES #01-12 Ngee Ann City Tel: 6733-0618 THE HOUR GLASS #01-02 Ngee Ann City Tel: 6734-2420 ZENITH Available at Cortina Watch, Sincere Fine Watches and The Hour Glass
MOTOR BENTLEY 45 Leng Kee Road Tel: 6378-2628
FURNITURE FRITZ HANSEN #01-02 75 Bukit Timah Road Tel: 6270-8828 SPACE 77 Bencoolen Street Tel: 6415-0000
STATIONERY BYND ARTISAN 2 Chin Bee Avenue Tel: 6267-5066
ENJOY THE PEAK DIGITAL ON THE GO The Peak is an essential guide for the select few to keep abreast of the latest developments in the corporate, professional, social and cultural spheres. With the tablet edition of The Peak, Timepieces and Gourmet & Travel, you can access a digital replica of the print magazine and access exclusive interviews, behind-the-scene videos and photos of the ďŹ ner things in life.
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COOL HEADS Creating a greener world starts at the top.
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The rest of the world ought to follow France’s example soon, but Singapore’s made some commendable efforts of its own thus far. The Parkroyal on Pickering is the country’s first eco-friendly hotel, boasting 22 sq ft of greenery for every 11 sq ft of land. Its annual energy savings is said to be able to power 680 households. The upcoming Osia Downtown is also set to build a shrub-covered facade, turning the hotel into a verdant beacon of environmentalism. Looks like we’re living up to our reputation as a garden city.
UP ON THE ROOF The greenery on the highest level can be used to generate power.
TEXT CHARMIAN LEONG PHOTO GEORGE HAMMERSTEIN / CORBIS
Every building can contribute to its own energy needs. That’s what France demonstrated earlier this year when it passed a law decreeing that all new buildings built in commercial zones must be partially covered in either plants or solar panels. In addition to the added greenery, such eco-friendly roofs can make use of solar energy instead of petroleum-based fuels to power the building’s activities. The plants can also help to absorb extra heat and rainwater – which would otherwise turn into contaminated surface runoff – as well as give urban wildlife sanctuary.