Prestige Magazine Issue 42 by Neo Africa Publishing

PRESTIGE i n

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The Finer Things Philippe Starck

Aston One-77

Opus Timepieces Luxe Ocean Cruises

• Jaeger-LeCoultre • Persian Carpets • South African Brandy • Jaguar XJ • Koos Van Der Lende • Best New Helicopters • Namasté Wellness Retreats • Rolex Regattas • Dr Demartini • Portland, Maine • Retirement Investments ISSUE NO. 42

R39.95

South Africa’s Premier Luxury Lifestyle Magazine

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contents 20 50

14 SAILING & Yachting Superyacht WHY – Why Not?

Rolex Regattas – Homage to the Art of Sailing

Haute Horlogerie & Audio-visual Wild about Harry Winston Watches – Opus I to X

Homes Theatres & Listening Rooms – DIY

Jaeger-LeCoultre – and Jérôme Lambert

Business & CSI The World’s Wealthy – Perspectives on Retirement

Luxury Apartments – as Investment

SPECIAL FEATURES

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Philippe in Starck Contrast – The French Designer

Koos van der Lende – Moments of Grace

Guns to Die For – EJ Churchill

Prose and Cons – The Genius of John Ashbery

A Daimler Brand

Anke Kleinschmit, Director, Powertrain Electronics, on “The best or nothing”:

“What I see all around me at Mercedes are just lots of people in love – with technology.” Gottlieb Daimler’s maxim “The best or nothing” drives each and every employee at Mercedes-Benz. It is an aspiration that is brilliantly reflected in the S-Class – with its Adaptive Highbeam Assist and Intelligent Light System. Together they regulate light distribution according to the traffic situation and illuminate your field of vision just as far as necessary without dazzling other drivers. Learn more at www.mercedes-benz.co.za

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Motoring & Aviation Behold a Thing of Beauty – Aston Martin One-77

The Sharpest Blades – Elite New Helicopters

XJ – New from Jaguar

TRAVEL & LIFESTYLE Maine Event – Foodie Paradise in the US

Brandy – Lifting the Spirits

Sailing Crystal Waters – Luxe Ocean Cruises

Accessories – Little Things that Say a Lot

Art for the Floor – Decorating with Oriental Carpets

Empowered Destiny – Dr John Demartini

The Ultimate Detox – Namasté Wellness Retreats

Regulars

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Letter from the Chairman

Letter from the Editor

Live the Life

Premier Travel Portfolio

Making Waves

letter from the

chairman

The ‘finer things in life’ is normally at the very heart of aspiration. Success is generally measured by, and is congruent with, attaining an everincreasing standard of living. There are many around who dream of a better home, a better car, better holidays, better education for their children. And yes, it is not always materialism that causes this. We want to be the best providers for the generations to come, to be seen to have achieved success, to be counted and to feel wanted. At the end of the day, as long as such advancement or gain is done without detriment to others, it is deemed perfectly acceptable to reward oneself every so often. That said, balancing personal fulfilment and social upliftment is a decision each person has to make based on their own value system and personal objectives and there can be no right or wrong in whatever choices one makes in this regard. Despite many socialist environments criticising individuals who seek personal gratification, it is interesting always to find people who somehow become ‘more equal’ than others, even in the most socially oriented economies. It is an embedded human trait in pretty much everyone to feel special and to stand out from the crowd. Generally, there isn't anything wrong with that. Despite the trend today of what is acceptable, along with the current

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school of thought around seeking experiences rather than accumulation of material possessions, there is still a definite demand for luxury goods. Major and niche global brands spend significant budgets on research and development of new products. And world markets seek to identify the latest trends, buzzing hotspots, ‘must-see’ destinations and new innovations that are ‘must-have’ toys. The finer things in life also have no lifespan, as this idea is a proliferation of old and new. Antiques are as much in demand as new age products. In today's world there is no shortage of choice, but clients are becoming more selective and more discerning about value for money and quality of experience. We have made an earnest effort to present you with some new ideas and new thinking to help identify these new experiences. As always, things operate in balance, so choosing which of life’s finer things to aspire to is a moving goalpost, and always should be. One just has to listen to one's heart and go for it! We at Prestige hope that you enjoy this indulgent edition. As always email comments and inputs to escuchar@neoafrica.com.

PRESTIGE i n

letter from

the editor “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” – Woodrow Wilson

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PUBLISHER – Neo Publishing (Pty) Ltd Tel: +27 11 484 2833 Fax: +27 86 699 2266 CHAIRMAN – Vivien Natasen vivien@neoafrica.com EDITOR – Toni Muir toni@prestigemag.co.za TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY EDITORS – Charl du Plessis – charl@prestigemag.co.za Tanya Goodman – tanya@prestigemag.co.za ADMIN & CIRCULATION – Adesh Pritilall adesh@prestigemag.co.za ADVERTISING Adie Ceruti Tel: +27 83 601 2291 / +27 11 465 1572 adie@prestigemag.co.za Katy Essa Tel: +27 82 633 2962 katy@prestigemag.co.za Rui Barbosa Tel: +27 84 290 2070 rui@prestigemag.co.za

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to catch a seminar by Dr John Demartini on the topic of ‘Why Can’t I Stay Positive’? Granted I’ve read some of Dr Demartini’s literature and peruse his website often enough, but there was just something about hearing it from the man himself that made the words resonate differently. Sitting in an audience of a few hundred people nodding in unison as he spoke, laughing at his often hilarious way of phrasing things, his vigour and honesty shed alarming clarity on many things, which I'm sure was the case for many people. This month Dr Demartini has shared his opinion on life and its lessons, and how and why we appreciate the finer things the way we do. His will be a regular contribution to Prestige from now on, and I hope you’ll look forward to what he has for us each month as much as I do. As has come to be expected of Prestige, for this edition we set our journalists on the loose to find and bring back only the best features locally and internationally. Thus we have for you a grand collection of some of the finest stories on some of the finest topics. Harry Winston’s incredible Opus timepieces, for which a new watch is designed, produced and released each year in limited – make that very limited – numbers. We visited the workshop of EJ Churchill in England to see how the time-honoured craft of traditional gun making still lives on, and spoke to a respected South African brandy maker about this fine local liquor. The Aston Martin One-77 is sure to wow, as are the bespoke helicopter interiors available from Eurocopter and Versace, the incredible and entirely unretouched photographs of artist Koos van der Lende, and the eco-conscious WHY superyacht – a collaboration between Wally Yachts and Hermès fashion house. We have profiled poet John Ashbery and designer Philippe Starck, visited Portland, Maine, to advise on the best spots to get the best seafood, and travelled the Aegean, Ionian and Adriatic seas aboard the world’s most luxurious cruise ship. We spoke to industry experts about what one should expect from financial investments, particularly as one nears retirement age, and looked at some of the finest luxury apartments available on the market, examining how these are looking to become highly sought-after once the much-anticipated Gautrain is fully operational. And there are other fine things I’ve not mentioned here, but you’ll have to keep reading to discover just what. Please, do enjoy. Toni

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DESIGN & LAYOUT VDS Design Studio Liesel van der Schyf Tel: +27 82 336 7537 liesel@vdsdesign.co.za Proof-reading Clive Moses Print Paarl Web, Gauteng SUBSCRIPTIONS R480 for 12 issues; R840 for 24 issues To subscribe, send us an email with the words SUBSCRIBE PRESTIGE in the subject line, and your name, email address, cell number and delivery address in the body of the email. Send it to mail@prestigemag.co.za. DISTRIBUTION Prestige is available on newsstands and through subscription. Free public space distribution includes charter fleets operating in the Southern African region. Top five-star hotels and all major business class airport lounges nationally receive free monthly copies. Also look for Prestige in upmarket coffee shops, spas and private banking waiting areas. Cover Images Panthère de Cartier cuff bracelet by Cartier; Aston Martin; iStockphoto.com; Harry Winston; GreatStock/Corbis

All rights reserved. Prestige is published by Neo Publishing. Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher or any of its clients. Information has been included in good faith by the publisher and is believed to be correct at the time of going to print. No responsibility can be accepted for errors and omissions. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information and reports in this magazine, the publisher does not accept any responsibility, whatsoever, for any errors or omissions, or for any effects resulting therefrom. No part of this publication may be used, or reproduced in any form, without the written permission of the publisher. Copyright 2010. All copyright for material appearing in this magazine belongs to Neo Publishing and/or the individual contributors. All rights reserved.

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Glenmorangie

The Secret of Signet

The rise of whisky culture in South Africa is seeing the emerging middle-class choose premium single malts as their drink of choice. And Glenmorangie has just launched their most luxurious single malt to date. Now, there is a firm and established relationship between taste and style, and Glenmorangie Signet is a whisky steeped in sophistication and rich in taste. Every ingredient and every detail is carefully considered and specially selected. To achieve the full experience, Signet should be taken neat, and gently swirled. The texture of the liquor could be compared to velvet; delicate and dark. For those seeking something with even more impact, pour Signet over ice and feel new, powerful aromas arise. This is a whisky made without compromise, and it is now available from leading liquor stores.

From Italy with Love

Montegrappa Montegrappa writing instruments are a symbol of Italian skill and genius, created in Italy and still the country’s oldest pen manufacturer. The company’s spectacular designs are a collaboration between artists, artisans and engineers. Marc Hoffmann, CEO of The Luks Group, speaks about the passion collectors have for these high-end writing instruments. “Our collectors are very successful and discerning, with a sophisticated appreciation of the finer things in life. They understand quality, precision and detail.” Perhaps these fine instruments will usher in a new era, placing the personal touch as pride of place. For local Montegrappa stockist info, contact +27 87 943 5390.

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Wild about Harry Winston

WATCHES

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WAT C H

A mere decade ago, watches from jewellery or fashion houses were accessories first and serious timepieces second. Harry Winston’s Opus project changed all that. With Opus raising the bar, a glamorous name on the dial was not enough to add credibility to a watch. For them, the true value of a highend watch must be more than that of the

Words: KEN KESSLER Images: © HARRY WINSTON

diamonds on the bezel.

ome 10 years ago, Harry Winston initiated a project that would become a series of ‘annual events’: the unveiling at every Basel watch fair of a new Opus model, starting with Opus 1 in 2001. Their aim was to transfer their know-how of fine jewellery making and translate the knowledge and innovations into watch-making. In 1999, Harry Winston launched the timepieces division. “To achieve such innovative ideas, we decided to create a new, limited timepiece each year,” says a company spokesperson. “It was always going to be a collaboration because the idea was to look for the most talented designers and to help them realise their ideas. The nature of the project, producing a yearly series, had not been done before. It also keeps Opus unique and special, knowing that only a certain number of people will be able to buy one. They can’t be mass produced.” Without missing a year, even when some timepieces have proven more difficult than others to reach production, Harry Winston has delivered a steady flow of timekeepers ranging from the subtle to the flamboyant, the clever to the outrageous. Common to all models is the company’s eye for watchmaking talent, employing the services of both established and new artisans. From tourbillons to mechanical digital read-outs, the complications unveiled in the Opus models have been novel, exciting and – in a world known more for maintaining tradition than breaking it – controversial. Add to that intrinsic rarity, and you have timepieces to entice watch enthusiasts in the way Harry Winston’s pure jewellery charms do those who adore gems. And here they are, from Opus 1 to X. OPUS 1 (2001) Opus was launched in style with creations by one of the most acclaimed watchmakers of the post1980s renaissance: François-Paul

Journe. A regular recipient of the industry’s Grand Prix, his specialities are tourbillons and, more famously, watches housing two independent balances, which ensure superior timekeeping by synchronising their resonant frequencies. This cancels out each other’s varying oscillations, beautifully described as beating “together as twin hearts, keeping the time with a precision that no other mechanical watch can equal”. To ensure an impressive debut, three models were produced, in editions of only six pieces, all in 38mm platinum cases set with baguette diamonds, and fitted with hand-stitched crocodile straps: six resonance chronometers, six tourbillons and six five-day automatics. The Opus 1 resonance chronometers, thanks to two goingtrains, two escapements and two balances, allow independent setting for two time-zones. The Opus 1 tourbillon features a one-minute tourbillon movement, indicating the seconds on the dial, with constantforce remontoir to improve timekeeping accuracy. Lastly, the Opus 1 automatic chronometer enjoys, on a full wind, enough power to run for five days. Along with a ‘big date’ read-out, the dial also counts down the 120-hour power reserve. OPUS 2 (2002) Geneva’s Antoine Preziuso created the second Opus. Again, three models were presented in 38mm platinum cases embellished with diamonds. They included a tourbillon with retrograde perpetual calendar in an edition of only 11 pieces, another 11 pieces for a ‘plain’ tourbillon, and lastly, a piece unique: a single tourbillon set with 158 brilliant cut and 16 baguette diamonds. For the tourbillon, the face shows the hours and minutes, while providing a view of the one-minute rotating cage with remontage mystérieux winding. Preziuso produced a watch conceived to draw the eye to its intricacies, including

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exposed bridges with the barrel’s bridge cut to form the initials HW, at the 12 o’clock position. All surfaces are beautifully engraved, with sunray patterns, waves and other details, accented by blued-steel screws. On Preziuso’s tourbillon with retrograde perpetual calendar, the dial displays the time while a secret, hinged cover on the back opens to expose the day of the week and the date in two fan-shaped apertures. These are indicated by blued-steel hands, traversing arcs in the apertures, while months are shown on a

in black, and the date read vertically in red, in the top and lower centre portholes. Another feature is the upper date aperture doubling as a ‘countdown’ mechanism, showing the final four seconds of the minute just before a change of hour or minute. Such a radical ‘re-think’ of displaying the time also called for a re-think of the movement. An all-new winding system consisted of a horizontal crown that adjusts upwards and downwards to four setting levels, rather than a traditional

gong produces a low note, while a shorter one produces high notes – the former to indicate the hours and the latter for the quarter-hours and minutes. Merely tuning them is a specialist skill in itself. Powering Opus 4 is a manually wound movement with an astonishing 423 parts, with 40 jewels made of white sapphires instead of the standard red. Despite the plethora of complications, its power reserve is a healthy 53 hours. Claret adapted the round platinum case – similar to that of Opuses 1 and 2, but increased to

subsidiary dial. OPUS 3 (2003) Among the most radical of all the Opus models is Vianney Halter’s reinvention of the digital read-out. Halter made a name for himself with creations that seemed inspired by Jules Verne. Opus 3’s 36x52.5x13.70mm-high square case bore a dial with six apertures, within a manually-wound mechanical movement producing a true digital display, with jumping hours, minutes, seconds and date, with each digit occupying one of the six apertures. Some 10 discs rotate independently to show the hours in the top outer portholes in blue, the minutes in the lower outer portholes

vertical winding stem. Opus 3 is limited to 55 pieces: 25 in rose gold, 25 in platinum and five in platinum set with white diamonds. Opus 4 (2004) Christophe Claret, one of the watch industry’s troubleshooters for solving technical problems, teamed up with Harry Winston for Opus 4. The challenge would try even his skills: a massive, moon-phase display surrounded by date indication to fill the back, two sets of counter-rotating hands on the back-to-back dials, and a repeater striking hours, quarters and minutes with a cathedral gong, chosen for the purity of its tone. Adding to the complexity is the need for a pair of gongs: a longer

44mm – to create Harry Winston’s first reversible case. The owner can view either the skeletonised tourbillon or the moon-phase. Opus 4 is limited to 18 watches, plus two jewellery pieces set with diamonds. Opus 5 (2005) Watchmaking prodigy Felix Baumgartner, co-founder of Urwerk, became the fifth Opus collaborator. For his contribution to the project, Baumgartner mated a variant of his signature mechanical digital readout mechanism to a 50mm interpretation of the Harry Winston case, resulting in what was then the most futuristic Opus so far. Baumgartner’s pièce de résistance is the now-iconic ‘satellite hour’

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display consisting of three small blocks that carry four numerals, mounted to a rotating mechanism that presents each numeral as the hour, terminating in a pointer. The pointer indicates the minutes, arcing across a scale marked 0-60, and flying back when the arc is completed. Also visible through the dial were dayand-night indication and the 122hour power reserve display. But there was also a secret function incorporated into Opus 5: on the case back was a ‘service indicator’, also a world first. Graduated from 0 to

that the series promised regarding innovation, as Greubel Forsey’s designs are like no other. Opus 6 married the aesthetics of the classic Harry Winston case, here measuring 44mm in white gold, with the instantly recognisable layout of a Greubel Forsey, with its double tourbillon positioned at 7 o’clock. A small disc at 11 o’clock provides the seconds read-out, while hours and minutes are shown between 2 and 3 o’clock with concentric rotating discs and fixed hands, acting like a dualconcentric regulator.

Opus 7 (2007) Nothing could have prepared observers for Opus 7, which Harry Winston described perfectly as “a wondrous movement with an open heart”. Although that applies to any skeleton watch, designer Andreas Strehler, inspired by Art Nouveau, went further, creating an array of circles with visible gears and the rotating black dial at 2 o’clock, dominated by a spidery bridge. He placed the case-filling, butterflyshaped bridge above a display that made Opus 7 ‘interactive’. But it takes

5 years, it informs the owner when his or her Opus 5 will require periodic maintenance. Opus 5 was produced in both platinum and pink gold – 45 pieces for each precious metal – with an additional seven models in platinum set with full-cut diamonds and a final three in platinum with baguette-cut diamonds. Opus 6 (2006) To date the most exclusive Opus of all, Opus 6, was created for Harry Winston by Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey, arguably the most impressive watchmakers of the nouvelle vague. Although again featuring a tourbillon, the choice of partner for Opus 6 exemplified all

Being a Greubel Forsey, it’s not just any double tourbillon, but one inclined 30 degrees to enable the balance to oscillate constantly in all planes, to achieve more precise timing. Visually, it is a treat for the eye. But alas, only six fortunate connoisseurs will ever own an Opus 6.

even a seasoned enthusiast to figure out how to read the time: to do so, one presses a chronograph-like button at the side to change the specific functions on the pointer positioned at 12 o’clock. For this purpose, Strehler developed an ‘alternating’ display. Press the pusher once, and the indicator at 12 points to hours; it pops up as an ‘H’, the disc rotating to the correct position. Push it again for minutes, and the ‘H’ turns to an ‘M’, the disc advances to the correct point. Press once more and power reserve is displayed, with the marker changing to an ‘R.' Manually wound and with a reserve of exactly 60 hours, Opus 7

It was always going to be a collaboration because the idea was to look for the most talented designers and to help them realise their ideas.

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employs a 45mm rhodium-plated white gold case, with the blue stitching on the alligator-skin strap identical to that of the movement’s main wheel. It was produced in a run of 50 pieces. Opus 8 (2008) Probably the wittiest, most amusing of the Opuses is Opus 8, which enthusiasts will admire for being wholly mechanical, yet using a digital display made up of small segments just like the shapes that form numerals in an illuminated LCD or LED read-out. Better still, the red surround, in both colour and shape, recalls the battery-driven LED digital watches that launched the format in the 1970s, as worn by Kojak. Irony has never been better employed. Designer Frédéric Garinaud’s background features complex mechanics, starting in the French Naval Academy. Followed by a stint at Renaud & Papi, he was able to expand his expertise for watchmaking purposes. Such a mind created a display inspired by those ‘pin art games’, which form 3D impressions of objects pressed against them. In Opus 8, the time is shown when the user activates a slider on the side of the case, which causes the appropriate segments to ascend to form the hour and AM/PM. Minutes are displayed with a vertical scale graduated in five-minute segments. On the back, the time indicated by discs, plus power reserve. Housed in a 45.8mm wide, 33.5mm high, 13mm thick case, shaped like a vintage TV set, the manually-wound Opus 8 is fashioned from white gold and amorphous carbon, fitted with a leather strap. Only 50 were produced. OPUS 9 (2009) In some ways, the ninth Opus is the most wearable, for it is the easiest to read, the most cleanly styled and the most discreet: its face betrays none of the secrets inside. Indeed, the front of the Opus 9 is free of hands, it has no digital read-out, and yet it communicates hours and minutes with instant clarity. Architect Eric Giroud and

watchmaker Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, both previous collaborators with Harry Winston, came up with a clever use of the company’s trademark ‘product' – diamonds – without simply reverting to diamonds as a way to decorate a dial or case. Instead, Opus 9 features 66 baguettecut diamonds mounted on brass chains to create two ‘tracks’, accented by two garnets placed equidistantly in the chains. Thus the gems aren’t merely decorative: they indicate the time. It’s a sublimely clever arrangement: the two chains run in parallel, with the garnets stopping next to a number in a vertical scale, protected by sapphire crystals. To the left are the hours, to the right the minutes. And as each garnet nears the top of the scale, the second garnet in the chain appears to recommence the time-telling. Opus 9’s 56x48x20mm white gold case, with black alligator strap, houses an automatic movement with 72-hour power reserve. It will certainly entertain just 100 fortunate clients. Opus X (2010) Jean-François Mojon used the concept of the regulator – in which hours and minutes enjoyed separate dials – to create a complete new architecture for a time-telling device. The layout produces a continually captivating visual effect, achieved through the 24-hour rotation of the mechanism supporting the individual displays of hours, minutes and seconds. Each of the three modules maintains the same orientation regardless of the platform’s position, accentuating the revolving effect because the oblique axes of the displays conform perfectly to the curve of the crystal. In addition to the hours, minutes and seconds, Opus X qualifies as a GMT model because it displays a second 24-hour time zone around the edge of the platform. A linear power reserve can be found on the back of the case, measuring up to 72 hours. Opus X will be limited to a production run of 100 pieces. Visit www.harrrywinston.com. 

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Superyacht

WHY? Why Not?

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WOW

WHY is an acronym for two of the most recognised brands in the luxury industry – Wally Yachts and Hermès. The Wally Hermès Yacht design that emerged from this project may also become a synonym for pure indulgence with a green

ally yachts have graced the cover of every reputable yachting, sailing and luxury magazine since the start of the production of the most avant-garde, large power and sailing yachts on the water. So popular have their yachts become that the boating public’s fascination has resulted in see-byappointment-only access during yacht shows in order to save the Wally crews from being completely overrun. In a similar class of reverence and adoration, Paris-based Hermès represents the best in fashion. The launch of this collaborative project has had the design and yachting worlds waiting with baited breath since last year, and despite some downscaling on the original project and a lesser role for Hermès than originally anticipated, the result still lets jaws drop. The WHY project aimed for a ‘liveonboard’ concept. But being opulent and rather spacious, some refer to it instead as ‘island living at sea’. Both these descriptions, though, express the ambition of achieving selfsustainability through cutting-edge green design. Significantly reducing onboard energy consumption is increasingly becoming a key objective for all major yacht designers, engineers and builders. The overriding objective for this project then became to reduce by 50 percent the

average energy consumption in comparison to motor yachts of similar displacement. Key principles guiding the design work were: not searching for speed at all costs; insulating the vast areas on the yacht that are subject to energy loss; managing onboard consumption in an efficient way; and maximising, storing and recovering energy. Though the notion of insulation sounds terribly boring, the execution of the smart design actually results in a look of incredible beauty. By raising the living spaces in a traditional Wally way and implementing the characteristic roof-blade top with solar panel surface, the yacht gains protection from sun, heat and light. Furthermore, the retractable swinging blades create a shaded area and promote fresh air circulation, which naturally cools the temperature in the living quarters. This all, of course, leads to lower energy needs for air conditioning. At 58 metres long and 38 metres wide, this colossal luxury yacht also features a 25-metre pool and a 36-metre beach for ultimate seafaring relaxation. Along with other high-end amenities and contemporary living spaces, the WHY does strike us as the ultimate party boat, rather than the design and environmental wonder it really is. But, sorry, access to this party will likely be by invitation only. Visit www.why-yachts.com to see more. 

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Words: TANYA GOODMAN Images: © TONI MENEGUZZO

conscience.

C R E AT E

Philippe in

Starck

Contrast

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C R E AT E

Philippe Starck’s fundamental vision is that creation, whatever form it takes, must improve the lives of as many people as possible. From café and hotel interiors to buildings and motorcycles, with stops to launch the punk movement in France, create fly swatters, lemon juicers, loo brushes and toothbrushes, and of course, mega yachts, Starck is seemingly

Words: TONI MUIR; JONATHAN WINGFIELD Images: © AP/PICTURENET; TWIICE INTERNATIONAL

everywhere.

ays Starck, “My father was an aeronautical engineer, so for me it was a duty to invent.” From a childhood spent beneath his father’s drawing tables, cutting, pasting, constructing and creating various childish artefacts, Starck retained one lesson in particular: everything should be organised elegantly and rigorously, in human relationships as much as in the concluding vision that presides over every creative gesture. French-born Starck is probably the best known designer in the New Design style, his creations ranging from spectacular hotel and restaurant interiors to mass-produced consumer goods. He was educated in Paris at the École Camondo, founding his first design firm, Starck Product, in 1968, specialising in inflatable objects. Here, Starck initiated his collaborations with the biggest design manufacturers in Italy (Driade, Alessi, Kartell) and the rest of the world (Drimmer in Austria, Vitra in Switzerland, and Disform in Spain, among many others). Starck’s career really took off in 1982 when, on the advice of Culture Minister Jack Lang, President François Mitterrand chose Starck to redesign and decorate the private apartments of the Elysée Palace (the French president's official private residence). Starck followed this two years later with the Café Costes, the Royalton and Paramount hotels in New York, the Delano in Miami and the Mondrian in Los Angeles. This institutional

recognition of design brought him into the public spotlight, where he has remained since. Starck's initial designs were created not with the elite in mind, but the whole of society, and he strongly believed – and still does, actually – that everyone deserves the best. His dream was design ‘democratisation’, or quality products at lower prices and diffusion to the largest audience possible. Starck says, “Every object, every shape, every style must have a meaning, and it is this meaning that influences us every day.” But Starck was the only one uttering this cry, and he remembers fighting hard for it. “No one wanted me to, but every time I lowered the price, I also improved the quality and the product sold better,” he says. “I never stopped campaigning to see perfect products emerge; quality products made to last.” As a protean designer, Philippe Starck rethinks the most ordinary objects or practical items to the point of drastic reinvention. His designs focus heavily on functionality, aiming to elicit the best usability from the product with minimum material. From this frugality comes the clean grace of a minimal line, with curves that lean

Subversive, ethical, ecological, political, humorous... This is how I see my duty as a designer. – Philippe Starck

towards the disappearance of objects. A prime example is Starck’s Louis Ghost chair (designed for Kartell in 2002). Since its launch no less than a million examples have been sold. Unlike other designers from this school of thought, Starck's work does not concentrate on the creation of expensive single pieces but rather on usable household items marketed for mass production. His products and furnishings are often stylised, streamlined and ‘organic’ in appearance and material, constructed using unusual combinations like glass and stone, plastic and aluminium, plush fabric and chrome. Some of his revisited objects have become emblematic examples of design, such as the toothbrush he did in 1989 for Fluocaril, a range of items for babies in 2004, for Maclaren, the Optical Mouse by Starck in 2004 for Microsoft, and the Zikmu speakers he created more recently in 2009 for Parrot. When Philippe Starck was given the 2004 Lucky Strike Designer Award by the Raymond Loewy Foundation for his life's work, the jury justified their choice as follows: “Philippe Starck is probably the most unusual, quirkiest, and most exciting designer of the past 20 years and is likely to be for decades to come.” Indeed, he is one of the most versatile and acclaimed designers of this century, pushing the limit and criteria of contemporary design but showing no sign of slackening his pace. Many wait in eager anticipation to see what he will next create. 

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DINE

The

Maine

Event You expect world-class dining in major cities. ‘The usual suspects’ of London, Paris, Milan, New York and Tokyo have earned their positions as haute cuisine destinations. But can Portland, Maine, an East Coast American ‘burg with a population of under 65,000, be worthy of mention in the same sentence? Unimaginable, but true.

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Words: KEN KESSLER Images: © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; WALTER'S; CINQUE TERRE/VIGNOLA

A Foodie Paradise in the US

F E AT U R E

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ard-core foodies are adventurous. They love nothing better than finding a to-diefor restaurant that is not in all the guidebooks. They revel in telling their friends about their discoveries. So imagine finding not just an overlooked restaurant but a barely-on-the-radar city full of world-class eateries that has America’s gourmet underground salivating at its mere mention. Portland, Maine, is about as ‘maritime’ a spot as the planet has to offer. It is the USA’s seaport with the largest foreign inbound tonnage transit, the largest tonnage port in New England and the USA’s 25th largest port overall. Sailing, fishing, hunting, skiing and both ocean and fresh-water lake sports are Maine specialties, providing year-round appeal, but nothing has matched Maine as a must-visit as has the seafood. And once you get past the clam cakes, the haddock or clam chowder, fisherman’s platters, fat scallops and everything else the North Atlantic can offer, you’re left with the world’s finest lobster. Whether you opt for the lobster roll – clear lobster meat, a dash of dressing, a soft roll – or a lobster bake, ‘lazy lobster’ with the meat picked off the shell, or a purist’s pair of steamers, it is the ne plus ultra of seafood. Sweet, juicy, a hint of the sea: at the best lobster shacks, you pick the ones you want to eat from a huge tank prominently placed in the dining area. It is but one of the local specialties that attracts not just hungry visitors but a flood of superb chefs who saw in Maine a ‘perfect storm’ for creating a new dining culture. As recently as 30 years ago, Portland was a sleepy city that people drove past on their way to either the resorts of Bar Harbor or Boothbay Harbor, for sailing off Monhegan, or further north and inland to the ski regions. But it all came together when a canny businessman gentrified the seedy Old Port area, attracting artisan and craft shops, and specialty food stores. Concurrently, there was an

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influx of professionals, especially lawyers from Boston, 160 kilometres to the south, who tired of Massachusetts taxes or merely wanted a slower pace. Add to that seasonal visitors and second-home owners including Whoopi Goldberg, John Travolta, the Bush family, Glenn Close and other notables and you had a sudden increase in the levels of sophistication, which created a need for fine dining. An entire generation of savvy chefs realised that Portland, Maine, offered both the clientele and the local ingredients – add superior quality potatoes, blueberries, deer and other comestibles to the seafood – to create dream restaurants. And, uncharacteristically for an American city with so few inhabitants, its new-found sophistication also led to a wine selection not only of America’s best, but also some

astounding Old World choices. Simply put, Portland is spoiled for choice. Hugo’s, Five Fifty-Five, Cinque Terre, Vignola, Fore Street, David’s Restaurant, Street & Co, Dogfish Café, Ribollita, Duckfat, the Front Room, the Grill Room – these are but the most oft-mentioned among the dozens of restaurants able to make the best of the excellent local produce. And it’s not all ‘high-end’ dining, the region offering street food and local specialties that lead expats to using bumper stickers that read: Born in Maine – Living in Exile. There’s the whoopie pie, two slabs of chocolate cake with a white cream filling; the Italian Sandwich from DiPietro’s; the Pier Fries and Bill’s Pizza at nearby Old Orchard Beach; and traditional deli as good as anything New York can offer at the Full Belly Deli. For this writer, who left Maine 35

years ago, the transformation is as extreme as that which turned London from the dining hell of the 1970s into its current status as a Michelinstarred capital. To see just how much Portland has changed, I try to sample as many restaurants as I can when I visit, by flitting from the funky/artsy Old Port area to the city’s main thoroughfare – Congress Street – and to the outlying avenues. While the new-wave chefs collectively cover every cuisine imaginable, their menus marry New England’s traditional ingredients with world-class preparation and global vision. And, as I found, these culinary delights can be washed down with wines that you’d be happy to find in Paris or Berlin. Hugo’s is a perfect example, held up as a beacon among the new wave of gourmet restaurants. Its chef, Rob Evans, was a James Beard Nominee for ‘Best Chef North East’ in 2007 and 2008, while Food & Wine Magazine listed him among the ‘Best New Chefs 2004’. The restaurant’s specialty? Its pork belly dishes, including Maple & ginger-glazed pork belly. For me, Maine Sea Scallops with braised endive, cranberry and orange butter sauce seems a nice way to part with $19. While devotees of abbinamento will be horrified, I only drink red, even when faced with the world’s best seafood. Moreover, I’d rather drink Italian than anything else. To accompany the pork, Hugo’s offered one of my favourites, the 2003 Gattinara Travaglini for $53, a delicious Nebbiolo one friend described to me as “Barolo on a budget”. Hugo’s pricing not only decries the London practice of sixtimes-wholesale, it shakes a fist at it: with a bottle selling for circa £18 at wholesale prices in the UK, one might expect to pay £80 in a London restaurant. One could also take up Hugo’s offer of a half-bottle of 2003 Damilano-Lecinquevigne Barolo for an enticing $38. Five Fifty-Five’s maître d’ handed me a wine list running to 21 pages, and I still turned to the reds despite the anticipation of Seared pepper-

crusted local diver scallops with aromatic fennel-potato puree, butterglazed pearl onions and organic baby carrot with vanilla emulsion. There they were, on page 18, all of my babies, and all at prices that would have the sommeliers in my favourite London restaurants rending their garments. And there it was: the 2005 Gaja Ca Marcanda ‘Promis’ at a scandalously low $74. I’d had the same in Las Vegas earlier in the year for $190. Remember, I’m talking about enjoying these wines in restaurants, with their added margins, and which happen to be 5,600 kilometres from Italy. Five Fifty-Five sells 2004 Gaja Barbaresco for $110; the same wine, in London’s most allegedly ‘desirable’ eatery? £192.50. Strangely enough, the food at Five Fifty-Five was better, too. Local 188, on the same side of the street as Five Fifty-Five, yielded another 2003 Gattinara – I do so love that wine – for $46, or you could have it for £52.50 in London. Main dishes in this funky-rather-than-formal restaurant (not that any of Portland’s are stuffy) include Seared shrimp and chourico in Romesco over penne, and Dried chilli-marinated grilled pork tenderloin with tamarind cream at $18 for either. In the Old Port area, fine restaurants nestle shoulder-toshoulder, cheek-to-cheek. Street & Co specialises in seafood, among the best I’ve ever tasted, but my world was rocked when I found it carried my beloved 2004 Tignanello for $104 a bottle. Back in the UK? Expect to pay £170 or more. While the wine list mustn’t overshadow the deliriously fresh shrimps, lobster or scallops, one has to admire a restaurant of such high standards selling a 2004 Villalta Amarone for only $64. Although I only get back to Maine

Simply put, Portland, Maine is spoiled for choice. If lobster is your weakness, then Maine is your paradise.

a couple of times a year, I admit to having grown particularly fond of Vignola and its sister Cinque Terre. At the former, one can enjoy as casual a pizza as one would like, while washing it down with the affordable but often-hard-to-find Guidalberto for $80, or at the latter, more upscale restaurant, dine on Pan-seared duck breast, soft polenta, roasted root vegetables, fruit mostarda and balsamico for $19.95. I was amused to hear from one of Cinque Terre’s staff, when I asked her what the difference was between the two restaurants, her reply that “We don’t serve pizza”. The froideur could have chilled a Montrachet at 20 paces. But any restaurant willing to sell me a 2004 Nicolis Valpolicella Ripasso for $45 can skip the pizza. For that price, I was tempted to take some home. 

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COVET

Aston

Martin

One-77

Behold a Thing of Beauty

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COVET

The One-77 epitomises everything Aston Martin, from technology to craftsmanship to precise attention to detail. It is undeniably beautiful, with performance potential that eclipses all previous Aston Martins. And it was designed to take a person’s breath away, which of course it does, together with

Words & Images: © ASTON MARTIN

much more.

he vision for the One-77 (so named because Aston Martin will build just 77 of them) was simple: It had to combine hightechnology with handbuilt craftsmanship, and perfectly demonstrate the exceptional capabilities and passion of Aston Martin designers, engineers and technical partners. Says Aston Martin’s CEO, Dr Ulrich Bez, “As you can now see, we have achieved that goal in magnificent style.” For Chris Porritt, One-77 Programme Manager, it was about creating something that wows as much when you see what’s under the skin as the exterior styling itself. The team started by identifying the most technologically exciting frontengined, rear-wheel drive cars in the world – those from the DTM race series – and then applied the principles and technology that feature heavily in their design before translating it to a road car application. Thus, the One-77’s structural core is a lightweight and immensely rigid carbon-fibre monocoque. Employing the classic formula of double wishbones at each corner, the One-77 features inboard suspension front and rear, with pushrods employed to transfer vertical suspension movements to the horizontally mounted spring/damper units. The dampers are fully adjustable and feature advanced Dynamic Suspension Spool Valve (DSSV) technology; a world-first for a road car application. Underlining the truly bespoke nature of the One-77, once delivered to its owner, the car’s suspension characteristics will be precisely set up by Aston Martin engineers to suit his or her exact requirements. Thanks to the adoption of a drysump oil system, the engine is mounted 100mm lower than in previous V12-engined Aston Martin road cars, which helps keep the One77’s centre of gravity as low as possible. To further aid agility and endow the One-77 with progressive handling and stable, predictable onlimit behaviour, the engine is also mounted 257mm aft relative to the

front wheel centreline. The drivetrain comes in the form of an immensely potent 7.3-litre, naturally aspirated V12 engine. The power unit is an extreme evolution of the 6.0-litre V12 engines fitted to the DBS, DB9 and new V12 Vantage models. Says Porritt, “Our brief to the engine team was for them to take the 6.0-litre V12 as far as it could go, both in terms of output and weight reduction. The targets were a power output of no less than 700bhp with a 10 percent reduction in engine mass. Incredibly, the engineers achieved a mass reduction of some 25 percent. It’s an awesome accomplishment, but one that’s typical of the One-77 project, for it has consistently brought out the very best in everyone involved.” Wearing Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres developed specifically for the One-77, all 700+bhp is transmitted to the road through the rear wheels via a new six-speed gearbox. Controlled via column-mounted paddles behind the steering wheel, this robotised sequential manual is a new generation of Aston Martin’s familiar transmission. While functionality and efficiency are of course paramount in the design and construction of the One-77, so too is aesthetic beauty. To this end, each and every component of the vehicle has been crafted from the finest materials with absolute attention to detail. From the mesmerising weave of the glossy carbon-fibre tub and the abstract, sculptural beauty of the dry sump’s oil reservoir, to the unerring precision of the billet-machined aluminium suspension mounts, the One-77’s rolling chassis is an automotive masterpiece. With a top speed in excess of 320km/h, the One-77 is capable of going from 0 to 100km/h in just 3.5 seconds. And with a projected weight of 1.5 tonnes, will surely occupy the very highest echelons of road car performance. Indeed, the Aston Martin One-77 promises a driving experience of unrivalled intensity and excitement. That’s if you can afford the $1.8 million price tag. 

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INSPIRE

Koos Van Der Lende Moments of Grace

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Words: CHARL DU PLESSIS; TONI MUIR Images: © KOOS VAN DER LENDE

INSPIRE

He walked as far as 350 kilometres during one two-month trip. He waited 12 days to capture a single moment on film. Photographer Koos van der Lende’s solitary trips are spiritual experiences, rather than photographic expeditions. The images he captures from these shoots have now been amassed into a book entitled, ‘Moments of Grace: The Unveiled African Landscape’.

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he African landscape is vast, and in his recently launched limited edition book, Koos van der Lende showcases the continent in a manner that would make internationally acclaimed landscape photographers such as Ansel Adams envious of the material available for the camera’s lens. Not that Mother Nature or Africa’s bounty should take all the credit. Van der Lende is a strict and passionate disciplinarian of what he considers a dying art – understanding light.

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He elaborates, “I still shoot with film. After almost two decades behind the camera, of which a fair share was spent doing commercial projects with as many as 13 lights at a time, I still find that mastery lies in what I do with my camera, not what can be fixed with modern design tools afterwards.” Typically, van der Lende’s pictures blend natural and artificial lighting sources, with minimal intervention afterwards during the printing and reproduction of the images. Van der Lende works in panoramic format using the time-honoured film

and darkroom processing technique. The large vistas his camera records are technically complex, with Van der Lende spending days, sometimes weeks, researching the ambience of each potential composition. And his manner of travelling and setting up shots is remarkable, too. “The first thing I do after arriving at my destination is to find out exactly the degrees where the sun rises and sets, and also the time of it. With that in mind I set out to scout. When I have found a composition I will go back to the car and set up camp

wherever it might be. Sometimes the site is kilometres away from the car because I do not drive off the tracks in the wild.” During one two-month trip to Angola, van der Lende walked more than 350 kilometres to scout and photograph landscapes. He also waited for as many as 12 days in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Park to capture a single shot. Van der Lende he has been called by many a ‘purist’ among photographers. “I love to be in wild places, to explore and absorb the beauty and awesomeness of creation.

To give it purpose, I photograph. I love to create a composition,” he says. “I am very sensitive to natural light and can sense and see small nuances in the quality of light. Working without a shirt in the bush I can feel a third of a stop difference on my skin when the weather changes. To create the perfect shot on site is what thrills me, and to be called a purist is what God has made me in my work. For me it is wonderful to come home after two months, process the films and see exactly that which I saw in the bush.” Van der Lende’s photographs

represent a stark visual journey, illustrating his sense of being in touch with the world and its beauty. He imbues his photographs with an added layer of spiritual intensity, and modesty is central to both his character and his work, which in itself records a moment of humility and wonder. Moments of Grace is the result of seven painstaking years in the making of a book that explores and unveils the multi-faceted African landscape. Contact Koos van der Lende on koos@delende.com or visit www.delende.com. 

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HOVER

The

Sharpest

Blades

Elite New Helicopters

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HOVER

Helicopter travel is always a treat, but some companies have upped the ante. We identified and looked inside some of the most elite in the world, created in collaboration with motor

omfort is king and Geneva is renowned for opulent living, so it was entirely appropriate that Eurocopter launched a model of the design it had created along with German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz, at EBACE, Europe’s most popular private aviation show, which took place earlier this year in this Swiss city. The helicopter manufacturer teamed with Mercedes to develop a special edition of its eight-seat EC145 twin-engine helicopter with high-end interior. The EC145 ‘Mercedes-Benz Style’ was conceived in a design project led by the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studio in Como, Italy, and bears all the hallmarks and passion of the elite carmaker’s signature vehicles. Of this collaboration Professor HC Gorden Wagener, Mercedes-Benz design chief said, “Eurocopter and Mercedes-Benz are a perfect match. Both are renowned for groundbreaking innovation and trend-setting products.” Olivier Lambert, Eurocopter’s SVP for sales and customer relations, agreed, saying, “The EC145 ‘Mercedes-Benz Style’ is our third major creative initiative of this type in seven years, ensuring that Eurocopter will continue as the helicopter manufacturer of choice for corporate and VIP customers.” The EC145’s spacious cabin is inspired by the automaker’s new

R-Class range. Seat upholstery will be available in deluxe materials and a range of colours, with a choice of wood types on offer, giving comfort underfoot. The overall impression of quiet distinction and style is complemented by a striking arrangement of wood panelling for the ceilings. All seats are mounted on rails and can be quickly and easily reconfigured for different seating arrangements, or removed to make space for luggage. There are also three multi-function boxes with features such as a cool box, cup holder, table, monitor and DVD player, adding extra storage space and drawers. There is a partition wall with windows separating the cabin from the cockpit, and the same integrated ambient cabin lighting that is utilised on the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and S-Class vehicles. There is also a highcapacity baggage compartment with numerous attachment points on the floor and walls for golf clubs and other outsized articles. Eurocopter is famous for creating a five-seat EC135 variant named ‘l’Hélicoptère par Hermès’. The fashion house created the cabin with guidance from Eurocopter’s engineers. The interior is drawn from Hermès’ impeccable design, right down to invisible stitching, and features calf leather seats and leather-trimmed controls. It is also enclosed in Hermès canvas. An additional, thoughtful touch is a set of onboard binoculars, enabling passengers to view the

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Words: LIZ MOSCROP Images: © EUROCOPTER; JÉROME DEULIN

manufacturers and haute couture designers.

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scenery from above. And the exterior is equally attractive. The svelte, futuristic aircraft is coloured brown with randomly draped orange paintwork, culminating in a long tail ending in a loop. The Eurocopter editions are beautiful; however, couture helicopters first entered the market three years ago. Back in 2007, Versace rolled onto runways of a different kind when it teamed with Techniques d’Avant Garde, Aircraft Interiors (TAG AI) in an elite collaboration – Versace Design. Versace creates the concepts while TAG executes the work, as well as acts as marketing and sales agent for the partnership. Versace was the first couturier to branch into interior design, and the first to create a branded hotel, so the move into aviation was no real surprise. The resulting interiors, however, are startling, and include designs for Agusta. There are few individuals in the world who can afford a Versace bespoke helicopter. Customers are likely to be extremely wealthy individuals who will collaborate with completion centre designers of their choice to create their ideal floorplan. Versace Design then turns these dreams into reality. The intention is to offer exclusive fashion statements to an ultra-select group of helicopter owners. Both companies believe there is a customer base among the very wealthy. Giancarlo Di Risio, Versace’s then CEO, said at the time, “I believe that today, lifestyle is important. You express this with your travels, with your car or helicopter [or private

plane]. You express it in 360 degrees.” TAG’s CEO Bijan Khezri agreed, “We offer the most exclusive interiors in the industry. We are offering a unique designer cabin by Versace, plus the TAG group has 38 years in the business and is best in its field.” Di Risio continued, “Versace is not just about fashion but about luxury in every aspect of life. This agreement has been made with the desire to respect the DNA of this company, which truly represents Italian luxury style.” Each interior will be one-of-akind, and treated as carefully as a work of art. They will be numbered and signed like paintings. Versace's creative team will be offering fabrics, furniture and fittings, including specialised cutlery, porcelain, linens, place settings and even flight attendant uniforms, if requested. Drawing from the Versace home couture collection, the interiors dramatically contrast black and white and feature Versace’s signature Greek fret motif and Medusa head, derived from classical legend. Clean, crisp lines and luxe materials and textures help create an environment that is part Art Deco and part 21st century. All materials used will have to meet flammability and other aviation safety standards. So how much will a Versace interior cost? “It will be at a considerable premium,” says Khezri – after all, Versace commands a hefty price for everything it sells. These fittings are going to be expensive, of that there’s no doubt, but hey, you know what they say – if you have to ask the price… 

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LISTEN

Room for Improvement

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LISTEN

Home Theatres & Listening Rooms A natural reaction is to assume that a magnificent sound system – or its younger sibling, the better-than-most-real-cinemas home theatre – is all about the equipment. It isn’t. No more than a dream kitchen is about the choice of gas range. A listening room is as much a part of the sound as the hardware you put into it. According to many audio designers, the room itself may be the most important component of all.

Words: KEN KESSLER Images: © KLIPSCH; TANNOY; WILSON AUDIO

ow so? The room doesn’t play discs or find radio stations or change the volume. It does not amplify the signal or choose tracks. But the room’s importance is in-your-face obvious to anyone who has studied acoustics: whatever system you might buy, the room will affect the performance. There are well-known problems that all can appreciate, each with a negative effect. Thin walls mean sound leakage into other rooms. Floppy floorboards or cavity walls resonate and cause boomy bass. And if you still love LPs, walking across a poorly supported floor might even cause your tonearm to skip. An audiophile will address every aspect of the surfaces and dimensions a room presents. Usually, though, rooms are chosen by default. Unless you have a purposebuilt lounge, whichever room in the house was designated as the room for home entertainment will exhibit pre-

existing conditions. The good news is that you can surmount pretty much anything that doesn’t require fullblown structural work. Most problems are easily dispatched. If your room is thickly carpeted and furnished with soft sofas and chairs, the sound might be muffled or dull because the profusion of soft surfaces means that the high frequencies will be absorbed. Conversely, a ‘hard room’ – wooden floors, no curtains, less-than-plush chairs and sofas – will cause the sound to reflect too much, creating a fatiguing, harsh listening experience. To deal with either, you simply change a few items, adding or removing soft furnishings as required. For an ultra-modern home, those with all-hardwood floors and floor-toceiling sliding glass doors and windows, the addition of throw rugs, some curtains and a cushy sofa can change the atmosphere entirely. For more specific, sophisticated solutions, hi-fi retailers and custom installers have access to both free-standing and

wall-mounted panels or cylinders that can ‘tune’ your room. Their effects will focus on precisely the frequencies that are suffering. Size and room shape will determine both the amount of amplifier power you require, and the size of the speakers that will work well in a given area. A perfect example is the range of speakers from Wilson Audio. While nearly all of the models can play loudly enough to fill huge rooms, the ideal model will be chosen by the space it’s required to fill. For most ‘normal’ situations, the smaller Sophia 3 or Sasha will do the trick. If your room is a cavernous 10 x 15 metres or more, you’d be better served by the towering Alexandrias. Amplifier choice is a product, first and foremost, of the ‘sensitivity’ of the loudspeaker, which is how much power a speaker needs to produce a given volume. The majority of speakers have a wide operating range, working with amplifiers of minimal power in small rooms, but needing more power to fill larger rooms. The Wilson Sophia

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3, mentioned above, can easily fill a 4 x 6-metre room with an amplifier producing 60 - 100W per channel. But ask the Sophias to deliver the same volume in a room of 6 x 8 metres, and you’d be better off with a more powerful amplifier. Home cinemas compound what is required by a sound system in two main ways. The first is the need to accommodate a screen suitable for the number of viewers the room might contain. If it’s four or five people, a wall-mounted 42 - 60 inch, direct-view plasma or LCD might do the trick, as would a projector suitable for the room. If, on the other hand, you entertain with large groups – and home cinemas with seating for a dozen or more friends are no longer uncommon – you will most certainly be using a projector system with a screen of even 100-inch diagonal. This calls for a room designed just like a proper commercial cinema, with the floor sloping downwards and the sidewalls angled toward the screen, and the projector housed in its own chamber (this ensures that the sound of its cooling system doesn’t intrude). As for the second primary difference between a music-only system and a home cinema, the latter is likely to offer surround sound. Years after the arrival of Dolby Digital and DTS, most consumers still stick to stereo sound playback, which requires only two speakers, situated in front of the audience to the left-and-right of the ‘soundstage’. Home cinema, and for those wanting surround sound for musiconly playback, requires not two but five speakers: three across the front – the third positioned centrally and dealing mainly with dialogue, with the fourth and fifth speakers located in the rear corners, for the surround effects. More can be added, including a subwoofer for the deep bass – highly recommended – or extra speakers at the sides and rear for exceptionally large rooms. What these demand, most obviously, are more space, offering the locations for positioning

the speakers correctly if you wish to have all-enveloping sound. When faced with a system that’s been set up properly, with a room that allows the system to work optimally, the first thing you will notice is the scale of the music. Even before switching on the visuals if it’s a home cinema, you’ll be aware of how lifelike everything sounds just by virtue of the music filling the area before or around you. Unlike far too many systems, which sound like miniatures of the real event, a realistic, ‘high-end’ system presents an orchestra, or a hockey game, or car chase with dimensions identical to the actual occurrence. Until you’ve heard a system which sounds this big in a room capable of providing the requisite space, you can only be amused or confused by the hyperbole that audiophiles use to describe cutting-edge sound. A custom installer will fine-tune the main pair of speakers to serve the central ‘hot’ seats while ensuring that the other positions can enjoy better than 99 percent of the experience. But even sitting off-centre, and in the back row, it should be impossible to fault the experience; jockeying for the hot spot is unnecessary. Add to that a sense of ‘bottomless’ bass, a feeling of total ease no matter how loud you want to play it, and it will be as if the system has ‘disappeared’. You should never be aware of how hard the equipment might be working. Even more so than music lovers, film purists still insist that the only way to watch a movie is in a huge hall seating several hundred or more noisy strangers rustling sweet wrappers. Well, that isn’t necessarily so if you have the room, the money and an installation team up to the task. With a 4-metre wide (not diagonal) screen in front of you, in a room some 7 x 10 metres, with the appropriate level of equipment and a room furnished for it, your listening and viewing experiences can be better than in any concert hall or cinema you can name. 

Lifestyle Division Our lifestyle division is an exclusive and

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F E AT U R E

Guns to

Die For EJ Churchill

The name Churchill is still spoken with reverence in the game shooting world, both as a method of shooting and for the guns made by the company itself. Superbly designed, hand-crafted and beautifully finished, nothing oozes good taste quite as much as a classic English shotgun, its design evolved over the course of the last century or so, and its surface embellished with fine engraving.

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SHOOT

Words & Images: © JULES MARSHALL/TCS and FLORIS LEEUWENBERG / VISTA / TCS

n the noble sport of game shooting, a gun is very rarely just a gun. It’s a statement – of taste, of class and status. Whether on the grouse moors of Scotland or at the local clay shooting range, the barrels down which you ‘draw a bead’ speak volumes. Are you ‘old money’ or new? Elegant or vulgar? Knowledgeable about the sport and its unwritten codes or a pushy arriviste? If you shoot, you know it’s true. Wanting an attractive weapon probably predates the gun by thousands of years – there were bound to be guys who took pride in having a nicer spear than their mates. With up to a thousand hours of hand craftsmanship going into a single gun, EJ Churchill makes shotguns and rifles famous around the world not just for their superlative function, but their beauty too. The story of EJ Churchill starts in 1877 when, after a seven-year apprenticeship, Edwin John Churchill went to work for, and later manage, Frederick T Baker, gunmakers of Fleet Street, London. Not only could ‘Ted’ Churchill ‘lock, stock and barrel’ a gun, meaning he could make every part, he was also a champion pigeon shot. In 1891 he struck out on his own and founded the EJ Churchill company, building it into one of the most competitive and outstanding gunmakers of all time. The reputation of the company was based firmly on the fine balance, exacting fit and exceptional finish of its guns, but ultimately on how they performed in the field. Ted’s nephew Robert ‘Bob’ Churchill joined the firm in 1900. Ted died the following year. Bob Churchill went on to become a world-famous game and pigeon shot himself, and instructed Home Guard recruits during WWII in the art of shooting. He also introduced a number of innovations in gun design, including the ‘Churchill rib’. The finest of all Churchill guns was the ‘Premiere’, which exhibited

all the qualities expected of the highest-grade English sporting gun – style, grace, balance, durability and innovation. These qualities were no more obvious than in the manufacture of the pinless sidelock, which provided a firing mechanism impervious to the weather while also allowing the engraver an uninterrupted surface on which to showcase his art. The 1960s and 70s saw huge upheaval and amalgamation in the UK gun industry. Churchill’s coughed, spluttered and eventually ceased production in 1984, and it seemed as if an historical company famed for its

exacting craftsmanship was lost for good. But the brand was resurrected by Sir Edward Dashwood, 12th Baronet and descendant of libertine freethinker Francis Dashwood, founder of the notorious Hell-Fire Club that scandalised 18th century England. Rated among the top 20 game shots in Britain, Sir Edward’s home is the magnificent West Wycombe Park, a rolling 2,000-hectare estate. In 1989 Sir Edward built West Wycombe Shooting Ground for clay pigeon shooting on a reclaimed landfill site at the edge of the estate.

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And in 1996 he acquired the rights to use the Churchill name, primarily as a flag-flying operation for the other activities. A fresh team of experienced gunmakers was established under master gunmaker Lee Butler, a workshop was fitted out in old stables on the estate, and the following year production of the new Premiere sideby-sides commenced. In 2003 the trading name, intellectual property

playground too, so we now have a great mix of shooting, fishing, 4x4 driving, corporate events and the Hotshotz club (for young beginners) all helping each other.” West Wycombe was one of first grounds to have automatic clay traps, which means one person can release clays from 8 to 10 different points. “Our grouse butts can be very exciting,” says Sir Edward. “With eight clays coming at you at a time, it’s

London. Our shop is here (50-odd kilometres from London), they can go to the workshop, take the gun out and try it immediately, instead of holding it in a shop and going ‘oh, this looks pretty’. Our customers can come for the whole day, choose their wood and watch it being made.” Adds gunmaker Lee Butler, “Our price is slightly below the big guys’ too. The workshop is smaller and we have no problem with a customer coming in at any time and

rights, goodwill and gun records of Churchill (Gunmakers) Limited was purchased and the whole enterprise – shooting ground, gunmaker, corporate events – brought under the EJ Churchill umbrella. “The actual gun making is just one part of the business,” says Sir Edward. “It’s been very successful and we have benefited from the history.” He doesn’t use the word ‘synergy’ but notes that while there are other shooting grounds, though they don’t have the gunmaking side. “Having the ground on the edge of the estate means we have the estate as a

more realistic. But a lot of what we do is just for fun. Some clients come to get better, but most treat it the same way as a golf club: as a place to relax.” Why would a client come to buy a Churchill gun, as opposed to one of the other famous British marquees like Purdey or Holland & Holland? “Well for a start, the product is very good,” answers Rob Fenwick, Managing Director of EJ Churchill, “and the reputation we have is superb, but a lot of our value is in the service. If you go to one of the bigger companies, they’ve got shops in

checking the progress of their guns. The bigger gunmakers are not into that; they don’t want people wandering around their workshops.” The majority of Churchill’s customers come from London and the surrounding counties, but many come from the US. “They tend to come for a whole week, spend time with us then fit in some game shooting,” says Fenwick. “Churchill has always been a huge name in America, because Bob did a lot of pigeon shooting there. I’m amazed at how much the US customers know about him and his method. We bought Churchill and

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resurrected it because we saw huge value in the name and the product. The shooting school we’ve had for 20 years and we wanted to tag on a great name with substantial gravitas behind it, so decided to invest time and money rebuilding the Churchill brand.” Not that the deal was cosmetic, he points out. “The guns we have made in the last 10 to 15 years will be some of the best Churchill’s has ever built, using top engravers,

(£25,000) and go up to the Premiere (£60,000) – designs that have been used for more than 100 years. Timeless craftsmanship and the most advanced manufacturing techniques produce the modern-day Churchill. These days, the classic action is built using the very latest computer-aided design technology. “Our Premiere guns take about 1,000 man-hours to make,” says Fenwick, “the Imperial about 450 hours. We can decrease the price with

Each gun is hand-engraved by superbly skilled craftsmen with painstaking attention to detail. One of Churchill’s engravers, Peter Cusack, used to do engraving for British banknotes and stamps – they use the same skills. The effect is to transport the gun from the realms of mere mechanical excellence to an artistic masterpiece, with grace and movement in both the shape and detail of the engraving. Customers may order from

actioners and barrel makers. Not just our own staff, we’re using some of the top people in the industry. It is not as if our modern guns are not as good as the old ones – our guns have got better and better as time has gone on. The old guns were made for the Churchill shooting method, with short stocks, shorter barrels but with a lot of cast. As time moved on, people now shoot more to the side, so you keep twisting, and need longer stocks and less cast.” The new Churchill workshop now turns out between 18 and 20 guns a year. They start at the Imperial

modern technology, removing the really labour-intensive side of the gun, giving the Imperial a one-year waiting list instead of two.” According to Butler, the day of a gunmaker is pretty much the same today as it was in Ted Churchill’s time. “If I’m working on a specific gun, I may be polishing parts, fitting mechanisms, jointing, finishing, stripping. Repairs of old guns are investigated, some things are sent away and the workflow needs careful management. Then it’s all put back together at the bench, taken out and field tested.”

a range of different engraving styles to suit their own particular preference, be it a game scene or a favourite gun dog. “I’ve seen everything put on guns,” says Butler. “We made a pair of guns for a guy in the City with naked ladies engraved on the side. Each has his own taste. Arabs like plenty of gold, Germans like a heavy scroll, carved into metal – a style known as Arcanthus leaf, and so on.” The end result is not just a gun but a piece of outstanding craftsmanship; a work of art; a personalised statement in a sport that values heritage and understatement. 

Brandy

Lifting the Spirits

Brandy is the highest selling spirit in South Africa. Its versatility means it can be enjoyed on its own, over ice or with a mixer. It has a universal appeal, and more and more people are starting to appreciate it for the fine product it is. The stringent rules applied to South African brandy production also work toward ensuring that our brandy is of the highest quality, on par with global standards and trends.

obus Gelderblom is the chief brandy master at KWV. He oversees the total process of KWV’s brandy production from the wine, to the bottle including distillation in KWV’s Worcester and Upington cellars, maturation in Paarl and Worcester,

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and finally the blending in Paarl of different spirits-related products including brandies, gin, vodka and liqueurs. He serves on various wine and brandy tasting panels and since 1999 has served on the judging panel of the International Spirits Challenge in London, as one of only six judges worldwide. His passion for

brandy and the expertise he has gathered over the decade spent working with this liquor make him more than just an expert. We stole some of his precious time – just an angel’s share mind you – to talk about good brandy. What makes a great brandy and what is most important in

Words: INGRID KENMUIR Images: © KWV

S AV O U R

the process of brandy making? I am a strong believer in good quality grapes, the correct variety for the specific age brandy, good wine, distillation and maturation. Time is also one of the main ingredients in brandy manufacture. What makes South African brandies different to those made in other countries? As in France’s region of Cognac, we have to distil twice according to South African laws, our barrels cannot be bigger than 340 litres each, and the minimum age of our youngest brandy can only be three years. Also, Colombard, Chenin Blanc and Pinotage grapes are unique cultivars and produce excellent distillates in local conditions. Most other countries distil spirit products from surplus grapes.

Tell me about the maturation process; the importance of the barrels and what they are made of, and how this affects the end product. During distillation many flavours develop due to the esterification process. Here, copper plays an important role in getting the alcohol and fatty acids from the wine to react with each other. These flavours, or asters as we call them, need to develop further with the wood components in the barrels. The wooden staves of the barrels come from a specific forest in France and get seasoned for at least two years by being left outside so that a specific mould can grow on them, transferring many enzymes to combine with the flavours developed during distillation to end in more than 800 identified flavours one can taste or smell. How should brandy be stored to keep it at its best? When in a bottle you can keep it as long as you live – remember it does not change with age as wines do. The age on a brandy bottle refers to the time it spent in a small oak barrel. Even once opened you can keep it for a long time. The content may change in flavour due to oxidation, but it will be for the better. What is the best way to enjoy brandy? There are so many ways. The standard brandies like our KWV 3 and 5 can be enjoyed as long drinks with ice and with a range of mixers. The more premium ones such as KWV's 10 and 15 year-old brandies are best with ice and soda or still water, or even on the rocks as you would do with our 20-year-old. Sweet drinks do not blend well with older brandies because of the wood sugars present in the liquor. These just clash with the fructose in the cool drinks. Are there particular tastes one should note when drinking? Chenin Blanc and Colombard grapes tends to give ripe apple and pear flavours and combine well with the vanilla and wood flavours from the

barrels. Our older brandies may also contain small portions of Pinotage or Cinsaut with these cultivars and result in a dried fruit, apricot, peach and raspberry combination rounded off with subtle nutty, toffee and even eucalyptus flavours. I've read that all cognacs are brandies but not all brandies are cognacs. What is the difference between brandy and cognac? Cognac and South African brandies are identical. Cognac is a registered area for their product, like Champagne, and for it the French use mainly Ugni Blanc grapes. Europe’s temperature differs to here and therefore the grapes are harvested much earlier than in South Africa, resulting in a very low alcohol content after fermentation. The humidity there also differs from South Africa and causes different flavour development during ageing. That is the main reason, aside from the fact that the pH in French soil is much higher and they've got different blending legislation to us. Can you tell me more about the fable of the 'angels’ share'? During maturation we lose about three percent alcohol due to evaporation. This volume is known as the angels’ share. This is actually good for the texture of the final product as it results in a concentration of the remainder and makes it more viscous, and this makes for a better mouth-feel. How good is brandy for your health, if at all? Apparently, when brandy is heated, it works well to cure a bad stomach, sore teeth or ear pain. Alcohol, including brandy, tends to make blood thinner and increase circulation. It dissolves fats in the veins and some components make your liver function better – all with moderate consumption off course! The long time spent in wood causes many antioxidants to develop, which can fight cancer. And lastly it can make you very clever – just ask my wife! 

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CRUISE

Sailing

Crystal Waters The Aegean, Ionian and Adriatic Seas are flanked by ancient lands with diverse cultures. From Turkey to Greece, Croatia and Italy, this is an evocative cruise passage that is as intensely beautiful as it is memorable. Words & Images: ÂŠ KERI HARVEY

Crystal Serenity anchored off Santorini, Greece

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heir long white skirts billow as they twirl like human spinning tops. Cone-shaped fez hats on their heads, their arms form arcs like ballerinas. But the dancers are all men; all Sufis and they appear to be in trance with the lilting music. Turkey’s Whirling Dervishes spin in kaleidoscope formation in this hypnotic, spiritual dance that, to foreign eyes, is

ancient as the 4th century, cherry-red Hagia Sophia or the magnificent Blue Mosque, with its six minarets. Inside is a study in cool blue carpets and traditional Iznik tiles. It’s a profound experience to walk amid such antiquity, an experience relived again at Ephesus, which dates back to biblical times. Here you can almost hear the ancients discussing commerce, and imagine scholars brooding over books in the library of Celsus. This second-century

wake. Cruising is an elegant way to travel; in sumptuous luxury without any of the tedium of packing and unpacking your bags, clearing immigration or trying to navigate your own way in foreign lands – all of which is taken care of on your behalf. Crystal’s two luxury liners, Serenity and Symphony, ply the world’s oceans throughout the year, choosing the best weather and sailing conditions wherever they go. Sailing is so smooth

Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar; Venice’s waterways and gondolas

choreographed beauty in motion. The audience is transfixed, dead quiet, amazed. This mystical dance is a Turkish delight. With one foot in Asia and one in Europe, the city of Istanbul is unique and historical – much like its famous Grand Bazaar. Here, there’s plenty of sweet Turkish delight to taste in flavours of rose, pistachio or coconut. But with over 4,000 shops in the bazaar, you can buy anything from caviar to gold jewellery, silk carpets to fresh cherries. And everywhere you go you will be offered sweet apple tea to promote relaxed shopping negotiations because here, no price is ever cast in ink. The spiring minarets of elaborate mosques pierce the sky over Istanbul, but none is quite as spectacular and

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city was home to 300,000 people and was actually a port and successful commercial hub in the Middle East. Now the ocean has receded and the ruins of Ephesus stand on a barren landscape. It’s evening in Istanbul as the majestic Crystal Serenity cuts slowly through the water, leaving the twinkling lights of the city in her

Known quite simply as the very best cruise ship in the world, Crystal Serenity is consistently awarded the highest accolades by the readers of Condé Nast Traveller, among others.

that we often have to step onto our private balcony to see if the ship is actually moving. It is surprising that ships this beautiful and luxurious are also so unpretentious and understated. The international crew lend a relaxed, global atmosphere to the ship and seem to anticipate every whim and desire – be it in the spa, the library or one of the seven dining venues onboard. ‘Discreet’ is their motto, broad smiles their dress code. Crystal has been voted the World’s Best Cruise Line for the past 15 years, an accomplishment unmatched by other cruise lines. And, known quite simply as the very best cruise ship in the world, Serenity is consistently awarded the highest accolades by the readers of Condé Nast Traveller, among others. All suites onboard have sea

views, most with private verandas. Suites vary in size from Crystal penthouses to deluxe staterooms. Television, DVD, data ports and drinks fridges are standard, while penthouses have Jacuzzis, sound systems, cordless phones and the services of a private butler. Turkey today, Greece tomorrow – that’s what happens when you cruise. Days spent at sea are serene and there’s as much or as little to do as

cocooned in your suite, enjoying meals and abundant entertainment without going anywhere at all. Simply relaxing on your private balcony and staring out over the tranquil ocean is natural theatre, too. We awake one morning surrounded by little fishing boats flying the striped blue and white flags of Greece. On the hillside above, the whitewashed village of Santorini beckons. A cable-car ride from the

Dubrovnik on the Dalmation Coast of Croatia

you choose. And while you travel, your biggest decisions are when to have your spa treatments, which courses you’d like to do at the University @ Sea, and which onboard restaurant in which you would prefer to dine. And guests are far from limited when it comes to dining options. Serenity boasts the opulent Crystal dining room, Prego restaurant for Italian cuisine, Silk Road and Sushi Bar for Japanese cuisine by Nobu, the Lido Café for buffet-style, indooroutdoor breakfast and lunch, deck buffets around the pool, the Parisianstyle Bistro coffee bar and café, the Trident Grill and Ice-Cream Bar for American fare, and wine-themed dinners in the Vintage Room on request. Of course, you could also choose to spend your time onboard

shore into the town lands us on ancient cobbled streets abuzz with activity. Gentle oud music fills the streets and donkeys laden with baskets of fruit and vegetables amble past lazy cats lying in doorways. Lunch is lip-smacking moussaka and a Greek salad of course, with views across domed houses to our cruise ship on the inky ocean down below. Athens is a city in blinding white, with the ancient Acropolis high on a hillside in the heart of it. It is a steep walk to the top to wander among the columns and marble relics, and looking down on the colourful and quirky Plaka District below is just as inviting. Filled with shops and restaurants – and of course music – Athens seems as though it is always in a good mood. En route down again,

we stop to listen to the sandouri being played in whimsical rhythms. This Greek folk instrument is a little like a harp, but sounds much sweeter. With hardly a bow wave Serenity sails again, cutting her way silently through the mysterious Ionian Sea, along the shoreline of Greece and Albania and on to the exquisite Dalmation Coast of Croatia. Now we’re in the Adriatic Sea, in a multitude of tiny islands marked by miniature lighthouses. It’s almost Lilliputian; definitely romantic and the sea sparkles with a million sunshine stars that dance on its surface. And then Dubrovnik appears in all its red-roofed splendour. A place of epic war and peace, the city has a certain sense of timelessness about it. Locals go about their daily lives along the worn streets, nuns chat animatedly together and children stand on the pavement licking icecreams. We walk the thick wall around the old city of Stari Grad and look down on regal Venetian-style buildings. Handmade lace hangs in the windows and lavender is everywhere. The city breathes antiquity, with the monastery dating back to the 14th century and the Old Pharmacy inside still operating after all these years. Dubrovnik is beautiful and often called ‘little Venice’ for its romantic air and enigmatic atmosphere. Between the Dalmation Coast’s 1,200 islands we sail effortlessly and smoothly into the real Venice. The morning sun bathes the city in warm orange as Serenity docks and we head out to explore. Vaporettis or water taxis criss-cross the labyrinth of waterways, and traditional gondolas glide effortlessly between them. It is a surreal experience disembarking our floating city of the sea for Venice, which appears to also float on the ocean. We sip cappuccinos on the Piazza St Marco, listen to string quartets and watches waves of pigeons flutter across the square. And then we buy a little glass ship to remind us of Venice and sailing three seas in perfect serenity. Visit www.cruises.co.za or call +27 11 327 0327. 

Accessories

If elegant understatement is the key to personal grooming, choice of clothes and the cool, confident and successful way you present yourself to the world, it seems a shame to spoil the overall effect with ostentatious or flashy accessories.

y accessories, of course we mean wristwatches, sunglasses, briefcases, personal jewellery, pens and wallets. Given, then, that the whole object of understatement in clothing and deportment is to quietly proclaim you as an individual of impeccable taste, confident enough in his success and his position in society to be able to do

without attention-grabbing outward trappings, why do so many betray themselves with vulgar watches and clanking neck chains? The Breitling wristwatch much favoured by a certain youthful, strident and publicity-seeking politico is undeniably a magnificent timepiece â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re an airline pilot, a submarine captain, an astronaut, a racing driver, or maybe Bear Grylls disporting

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Words: GAVIN BARFIELD Images: © MONTEGRAPPA; LOUIS VUITTON; PANERAI; CARTIER

ACCESSORISE

himself in the jungle for the delectation of all on the haunted goldfish bowl. It’s designed to do a job, and it is superb, unparalleled even, at doing that job. For this quarter-million-Rand bauble to be dragged from one public faux-pas to the next, its price-tag flapping in the breeze in case no one notices, must have the Breitling people in Switzerland sobbing into their muesli. It was fine for James Bond to have an Omega Seamaster because, beneath the ridiculous one-liners and encounters with all those unlikely villains, he was, after all, a thorough gentleman with a string of highprofile connections and some impressive decorations to boot. So they made it a battered old Seamaster that dependably saw our hero through many a tough scrape. Thus it became the only watch for someone like Bond to even contemplate having. That it survived falling out of aeroplanes and being chewed by big guys with silver teeth who floss with cable car wires gave the watch a certain cachet that has its makers and marketers yodelling with joy from Alp to Alp this very day. All that aside, today’s watches are preferred by many to be wafer-thin and worn with a simple brown, black or grey alligator strap. No diamonds, no bells and whistles – unless you’re a professional footballer, or your occupation calls for a lot of dials, buttons and snazzy features. Watch faces are plain, white or yellow gold, and the piece is noted and admired for its simplicity. Think Panerai, Piaget, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cartier and Baume & Mercier. Mont Blanc is the place to go for pens. While they also make watches, leather goods, jewellery and various fragrances, it’s the pens we want. Accepting that there are more exalted articles to be had at places like Christies and Sotheby’s, the sort of thing you’ll pick up there is just too valuable to write with and carry around. In any case, it’ll quite probably be a Mont Blanc too. Or perhaps a Montegrappa, beautiful, Italian-

crafted pens that are relatively new to the South African market. Handwriting is making a comeback, with fountain pens the way to go; ballpoints – however exalted – are not tolerated. You likely remember being told at school (way back when) that fountain pens were the only thing that lent your handwriting character and individuality. Like your faithful correspondent, you may even have been starkly forbidden to use ballpoints at all. Pencils it was, up to the end of Standard Two (as it was then; grade four today, if you can keep up), and then fountain pens that leaked in your pocket. Mont Blancs and Montegrappas do not leak. Lest we forget: briefcases. Toting everything around in a laptop bag is fine – for laptops and their bits and pieces, that is. For everything else you need a briefcase – or attaché case, as our transatlantic cousins call it. There isn’t a single personal accessory in corporate or professional life that says more about you than an elegant, simple briefcase. Even if all you keep in there are fishpaste sandwiches wrapped in tin foil and last Wednesday’s Star, nobody but Jeeves needs to know that. Laptop briefcases, combing both roles, are the current thing. Black is nice, brown is better. Although crocodile and ostrich are all well and good, polished leather – even polished and slightly scuffed –lends an air of sophistication and quality that goes far beyond price. Perhaps the Louis Vuitton Président Classeur? Sunglasses should be chosen to flatter a face and keep out harmful UV rays out. Ray-Ban Aviators, Drivers and the black-framed Wayfarers have been iconic since the early part of WWII, and are available in various lens colours and sizes, as are all quality makes, including Bulgari, Chanel, Tiffany, Cartier, and so many more. Sunglasses are never pushed up into the hair like a costly Aliceband, and are never worn after dark, except by footballers and Roy Orbison, of course. It is the little things that say the most, so pay careful attention to what they tell you. 

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ROAR

XJ New from Jaguar Jaguar was drifting, in my humble opinion. It had, by the mid-1990s, sleepwalked into a state of backward-looking mediocrity, building cars that harked back to the company’s glorious history of the 1950s and 60s. In this process Jaguars had become wood-bedecked nostalgic cars, cars that sought to remind the driver of the day when the firm had built the best cars on the road.

hen Ford bought Jaguar, the big American company instigated a process of re-imagination, of stopping the process of allowing modern designs to be heavily influenced by the designs of 50 years ago. Instead, like William Lyons had done all those years ago, with their minds firmly on the mantra ‘space, pace and grace’, and on its

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modern derivative, ‘beautiful, fast cars’, the company embarked on a plan to take Jaguar to the place it had been in 1959: building the best cars on the road. It began with the XK, the fabulous GT, and then the mind-blowing XK-R. Then it was the XF, a stunning, midsized saloon car that took the world by complete surprise. And now, the big cat, the XJ – the S-Class, A8 and 7-Series competitor that’s playing

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Words: ALEXANDER PARKER Images: © QUICKPIC.CO.ZA

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with the big boys. There is no greater expression of Mercedes-Benz than the S-Class. It’s what the Stuttgart company does. It builds big, luxurious, incredibly technologically advanced cars. And suddenly there’s this, the new XJ. Of course, you don’t even need to get into the car, let alone drive it, to understand that this is something very different, something utterly unlike anything on the road. With its astonishing, swooping, modern lines, Jaguar has, in the XJ, evidently left

leathers and multi-layered veneers abound. There’s a ring of wood around the whole car, but this is as far from pipe-and-slippers as is possible. The circular vents size out of the dash like exhausts, the touch screen control panel waits, and the stop/start button, as in all modern Jaguars, pulses red, thump-thump, thump-thump, like the heart of an animal. Press it and the big car fires up. The circular gear selector rises out of the centre console – Jaguar people call it Jaguar’s handshake.

you apply a little gas, that this is a car for drivers, and for people who enjoy driving. The steering is surprisingly firm and responsive and, whipping along the back roads of the Western Cape, the car belies its size. It fact, the all-aluminium big cat feels far smaller and far more chuckable than a car its size often is. The chassis is superb, offering a really dynamic, entertaining drive when the road gets bumpy and unpleasant, and complete poise and accuracy on smooth, sweeping carriageways. When the

automotive conservatism to the Germans. In one stroke, Jaguar has paid homage – brilliantly – to cars like the Mk 2 and the old 1960s S-type. They’ve done it by creating a car that looks like it was created by artists, and people who love cars. It is utterly distinctive, and while the success of the German brands speaks volumes for the size and scale of the market for conservatively styled luxury cars, the new XJ will test the market’s appetite for something altogether more dynamic. Inside, the seismic shift from the last XJ to this one is as shocking. Dark

The car I drove on launch was the five-litre V8, naturally aspirated. It’s good for 283kW and 0 to 100km/h in just 5.7 seconds. Later in the year a supercharged five-litre XJ-R will be available, which produces an amazing 346kW and will despatch the 0 to 100km/h sprint in fewer than five seconds. That’s fast in any language. For the more relaxed cruiser, there’ll also be a three-litre diesel, which oozes 600Nm of torque and which will whisk you past slow-pokes with unflustered ease. But this V8 is a gem. And there can be no doubt, from the moment

party’s over, the big cat settles into a comfortable cruise. A final note is this: a Merc and a BMW will get you respect, for sure. But the XJ wins the out-and-out, jawdropping stares. People can’t believe it, and because nowhere on this car can you find the word ‘Jaguar’. There’s also no ‘leaper’, or big cat leaping off the bonnet, but instead a very large profile of Jaguar’s big cat on the boot lid and, writ small, the letters ‘XJ’. Don’t you worry, it’s a Jag all right, a seriously impressive one that offers something so very different. I loved it, and wish it well. 

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F E AT U R E

Prose Cons and

The Modern Genius of John Ashbery

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RHYME

Reading one of John Ashbery’s poems is much like finding yourself in a beautiful green-hedged maze – pleasant, nonchalant, almost boring, before a twist in the path escorts you into a world of unfamiliar unease before brushing you off and throwing you back into your green and leafy sanctuary.

ohn Ashbery has been called the greatest contemporary American poet. And he is exceptionally successful, having published more than 20 volumes of poetry and having won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1975. Even though he is so highly esteemed in literary circles, his work still proves controversial because of its notorious post-modern complexity that appears almost opaque at times. Stephen Burt, a poet and Harvard professor of English, has called Ashbery the “last figure whom half the English-language poets alive thought a great model and the other half thought incomprehensible”. Ashbery is as New York as they come. He graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1949, where he was a member of the Harvard Advocate, the university's literary magazine. He also wrote his senior thesis on the poetry of WH Auden, a poet who would later play a huge role in Ashbery’s success. Ashbery went on to study briefly at New York University, and received an MA from Columbia in 1951. His ‘big break’ into poetry, though, was almost entirely dictated by fate. In 1956 he entered a competition called the Yale Series of Younger Poets, which was being judged by Auden himself. Ashbery’s entry was deemed not good enough to reach WH Auden and so was returned to him. But Auden decided that none of the manuscripts that he

received were publishable and recalled some of the first entries, among them Ashbery’s. Incidentally, Ashbery’s work was chosen as the winning collection and resulted in the publication of his first book, entitled Some Trees. Ashbery next received a Fulbright Fellowship, which took him away from his beloved New York and into fair France for the next decade of his life. Though his poetry was groundbreaking, he also had a deep love of art, at one stage wanting to be an artist by profession. He managed to combine the two loves by acting as the art editor of the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune, while also translating potboilers and contemporary French literature. But Ashbery's real success came in 1975, when his collection entitled SelfPortrait in a Convex Mirror won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. According to Ashbery, a lot of his poetry comes out of popular American culture; some references include comic strips, B movies and song titles. Even though his poetry has often

I don't look on poetry as closed works. I feel they're going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a length. – John Ashbery

been deemed ‘difficult to follow’, Ashbery is from the school of Modernism that more or less expected that great literature (Joyce, Pound, Proust, Stein) would be hard to read. Ashbery himself likes to point out that the word ‘accessible’ never turned up in discussions of poetry in that era. Perhaps the ‘difficulty’ in his poetry is due to Ashbery’s occasional use of experimental styles of writing called pantoum or the sestina. These techniques are forms which take the poem really out of the hands of the poet in attempting to satisfy the constraints that are the trademark thereof. The purpose is to allow the unconscious mind of the poet to form the poem. Ashbery notes that partaking in ‘mechanical’ or mindless activities is a far more effective technique when trying to liberate the unconscious mind. He refers to his non-linear style, disjointed as it may be, as an element of surprise that rewards the reader by sending them into a different place. Even though Ashbery’s postmodern style of plucking and combining threads of contemporary culture can be a little puzzling at a cursory glance, once you’ve got the hang of it, it becomes a transcendental experience. His poetry is best served cold. Pick it up, stir the surface thoughts about in your head, put it down and come back to it. The key is to stop looking actively for meaning and let the meaning find you. It is quite liberating once it does. 

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COLLECT

Art Floor

for the

Decorating with Oriental Rugs In this interview with Victor Lidchi, South Africa’s renowned connoisseur and specialist dealer in fine, decorative, hand-made Oriental rugs, we asked him about the ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’ of these beautiful objects. Below, from left to right: Victor, in a corner of his Dunkeld, Johannesburg showroom; A close-up of a fine pure silk Kashmir 'Hunting Scene' rug

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COLLECT

restige Magazine (PM): Victor, with your decades of experience here and in the markets of the East and West, what should the well-to-do buyer know and do? Victor Lidchi (VL): Let’s put that question in context with the yesterday of fine Persians and Orientals as a decorative art and craft. Since biblical times in the East, and since the Renaissance in the West, the best examples of beautiful hand-crafted Oriental rugs and carpets have been not only a measure of taste and luxury, but also, like original paintings, a potential store of wealth and valued heirlooms. To the present day they are universally loved and seen as the ultimate in taste and beauty for the floor, in a way that fine paintings are the ultimate for the wall. We see them in the finest homes, apartments,

those who want a pure contemporary feel. In the hands of competent designers or decorators, this can yield very impressive results, yet they tend to date within a few years. This is all a matter of personal preference. None are right or wrong, if well conceived and executed. PM: Where does the hand-made Oriental fit in with all this? VL: I constantly experience two broad approaches and types of buyers. Some people don’t give a hoot about fashion or what’s 'in' this year. They choose what touches them emotionally or spiritually, and what expresses their personality. Whether they elect a traditional, eclectic or modern theme as a decor basic, they buy the paintings, rugs and other art objects that speak to them. Others are more comfortable with either pure traditional or pure contemporary. Beauty and style does not belong in any one era. Bach,

decades due to political, cultural and economic changes, there are still superb examples being created in these regions, and especially today in India, Nepal, Pakistan and to a lesser extent in Iran and China. But for how much longer? With the rising cost of skilled artisans, raw materials and increased mechanisation, not much longer. Yet, the best will stand the test of time. Our collection, which up to 40 years ago was almost 100 percent traditional, became, from the 1990s, 20 to 30 percent modern, and today has to be around 50/50, based on our clients’ taste. PM: With your decades of travel and dealings, what is your advice to today’s buyer? VL: One, choose what you spontaneously love, and feel you won’t tire of. Don’t be afraid to be original! Even adventurous! Don’t be swayed by the opinions of others. You

Above, from left to right: Four rugs with the timeless, much-loved 'Shah Abbas' Persian motif; The various famous Central Asia 'Bokhara' motifs in glorious colours, ideal for both classic and contemporary settings; Four examples from Victor's hand-made Orientals – 'VL Contemporary Collection'.

hotels, even boardrooms and executive suites, from Cape to Cairo, New York to Hong Kong. PM: Yes, we witness that in our travels and in architectural and design magazines. But what about today, with changing contemporary trends, minimalist design and decor and so on? VL: Remember that not everyone enjoys these trends. I have found, here and abroad, that there are three broad tastes. Firstly, there are those who prefer traditional/classical decor that survives changing fads or fashions. Then, there are those who love an eclectic look, such as a happy blend of ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’. The effect can be really tasteful and original, and is indeed timeless and above fleeting fashion. Finally, there are

Beethoven, the Beatles and the best of today’s music can each be inspiring and beautiful, can’t they? PM: What is the likely future of hand-made rugs with this changing world? VL: The finer Persian and Oriental rugs of past generations have always been not only prized and loved as decorative objects, but also as stores of wealth or as collectibles. The same will surely happen for the better levels of rugs and carpets of the recent past and present. They will become the rare and valuable ones for tomorrow’s art lovers and collectors. Although total production from the most famous regions of the past (Persia, Turkey and Central Asia) has declined enormously in recent

will live with your art and decor items, not they. Remember, all advances in the arts – music, paintings, architecture – broke the rules. And then, buy the best you can afford when buying art. Things like curtains or even most furniture are replaceable at low cost. But art for the floor or walls can and should be items of joy and pride for the longer term.  Call +27 11 341 0367 (Victor Lidchi) for Dunkeld, Johannesburg showrooms, and +27 11 675 5008 (Sharon Lidchi) for Clearwater Mall showrooms (Roodepoort area) or to attend an open house introduction on Oriental and Persian rugs once per month. Booking is vital. Visit www.victorlidchi.co.za.

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SAIL

Rolex Regattas Homage to the Art of Sailing

As the end of summer in the Northern Hemisphere draws near, the Rolex Regatta calendar packs in a stunning series of events that celebrate the last rays of sun and the enduring spirit of sailing, and with a few brave South Africans competing for

rom the Rolex Commodores’ Cup in Cowes (Isle of Wight) to two events along the glorious coast of Porto Cervo in Sardinia (Italy), then on to San Francisco (USA), and finally capping off the month of September in the iconic Saint Tropez (France), there is only the Rolex Middle Sea Race in Valletta, Malta, in late October, before the perennial year-end favourite, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in Australia. This year saw a South African team, for the first time, enter the Rolex Commodores’ Cup. This biennial, international event hosts entries that consist of three boats each representing their home country. It is extremely competitive and the sevenday course tests the teams on a variety of offshore and inshore courses. According to Mike Bartholomew, having a South Africanowned yacht, the King 40 Tokoloshe, sailing in the Solent for the past two

years was the catalyst to becoming involved. Word has it that she has not just been competing, but has proved a force to be reckoned with in recent months. Bartholomew skippered the team’s Class 2 Tokoloshe while owner Phil Gutschi recruited skipper Rick Nankin for his Landmark 43, Windpower, in Class 1 and Rick Garratt chartered the J-109, Zelda renamed Inspara for the event, skippered by Dave Hudson in Class 3. Another critical element in the list of irresistible reasons to participate was the involvement of the Race Ahead project, created in 2008 by brothers David and Roger Hudson, who have been part of the South African sailing scene for most of their lives. Race Ahead is aimed at providing a structured route into the international sailing world for talented young South Africans to compete in the Laser SB3 circuit in the UK and Ireland, which meant that Garratt had access to experienced crew. Unfortunately for South Africa,

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honours.

however, the Commodores’ Cup trophy went to Ireland this year. The spectacular Costa Smeralda in Sardinia saw two Rolex regattas in September. One of the highlights of the Mediterranean yachting season, the Maxi Yacht race in Porto Cervo, is an annual event. This regatta features some of the most impressive sailing yachts in the world. From the gargantuan supermaxis, including the 45-metre Saudade and Salperton, to the 44-metre Visione, as well as the stunning, classic-looking, 42-metre J-Class, Ranger, most of these eyecatching racers were there. Back to defend their 2009 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup division titles were Neville Crichton’s Shockwave (ex-Alfa Romeo 3), Niklas Zennstrom’s Rán, Michael Cotton’s Whisper, and Claus-Peter Offen’s Y3K. This race is obviously not just about the boats but also about the powerful men who own these beasts. A record fleet of 49 yachts registered this year, suggesting that the global economic crisis has eased, at least for some. The primary limitation in this event is length: minimum rather than maximum – all yachts must be over 18.29 metres (60 foot). Ironically, yachts between 24 metres and 30.5 metres are now just

classed as maxis. When the term ‘maxi’ was first used back in the 1980s, the yachts concerned were rarely bigger than 24 metres; a reflection of how far yacht design creativity and boat-building skill have progressed in the past 30 years. If you want to be a supermaxi now you need to be over 30.5 metres. The Mini Maxis may be the poor relations of the maxi world in terms of size, but for competitive racing they are exceptional. With an inaugural world championship at stake, the prize for success at the event was massive, explaining why such a large fleet had gathered. Overall winners for 2010 by class were: Esimit Europa 2 (Maxi), Ranger (Supermaxi/J Boats), Hetairos (Supermaxi), Y3K (Wally), Rán (Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship) and Aegir (Mini Maxi Racer-Cruiser). From the most luxurious, through the most traditional, to the most advanced monohulls afloat today, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is nothing if not an astonishing line-up of sailing power. For more information on the Rolex Regattas, visit www.regattanews.com. To follow the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, visit www.rolexsydneyhobart.com. 

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FORDOUN SPA MIDLANDS

This family-run hideaway in the Natal Midlands, with its pristine country air and rolling hills, offers luxurious accommodation and some of the most advanced, award-winning spa facilities. Highly personalised service includes the very best in traditional African treatments. Fordoun is the perfect place to escape and refresh mind, body and spirit. www.fordoun.com Reservations: +27 33 266 6217

RADDISSON JHB & PORT ELIZABETH

Spas, gyms and a unique “Yes I Can” concept that includes 100 percent Guest Satisfaction, both hotels have conference facilities and free Internet and offer luxurious rooms, fine dining experiences as well as opportunities to “paint the town Blu.” www.radissonblu.com/hotel-portelizabeth and www.radissonblu.com/hotel-johannesburg Reservations: +27 41 509 5000 (PE) and +27 11 245 8000 (JHB)

THE SAXON BOUTIQUE HOTEL & SPA SANDHURST Voted the World’s Leading Boutique Hotel six years in a row, The Saxon is the ultimate city base when in Johannesburg. Close to the financial and business hub of South Africa, the lush tranquillity offers a calm retreat from a busy day’s work. Enjoy discreet and highly personalised service in a tasteful African elegance. www.thesaxon.co.za Reservations: +27 11 292 6000

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TEACH

Empowered

Destiny Does anyone ever get up in the morning and desire to ‘be’ less, ‘do’ less or ‘have’ less? Of course not, other than possibly be less frustrated, eat less and have less emotional stress or burdens. No, it is our inherent nature and intuitive desire to expand and stretch ourselves in all areas of our lives and certainly in our overall awareness and influence.

s I have travelled the world and met people from all walks of life and presented my signature programme, The Breakthrough Experience, I have observed many character traits and ambitions in all seven areas of life that are commonly expressed. We all want to learn, expand our mental capacities and grow our knowledge about what is truly most important to us. We want to feel upto-date and informed, and adept in our areas of greatest interest. We desire to educate ourselves to the fullest (formally or informally) and want to share what we have learned

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with others. We want to feel that we know and are at least well-informed and we desire to raise the bar on our mental understanding about our very existence. None of us want to awaken at sunrise and feel stupid or ignorant, so we inherently search for hidden patterns of order and meaning in our daily routines. In addition to expanding our mental capacities, we also want to develop a meaningful career and provide greater and more influential service for the satisfaction of accomplishment as well as for financial remuneration and prestige. We want to make a difference and fill other human needs by creating businesses that provide vast benefits,

change lives and impact the world. We want to feel the thrill of conquering the challenges that a business offers and experience the adrenaline of achievement. We want to participate in a cooperative and competitive environment of the greatest productivity. Only few that I have met ever truly believed that financial wealth was not vitally important. We are hard-wired to desire more of what money can provide, and what and how it can influence and serve. The accumulation, management and mastery of money offer us a way out of mediocrity and onto a journey of the finer experiences that life can offer. Wealth is associated with

TEACH

well-being and it correlates with higher standards of everything as well as wellness, more than illness and magnificence, more than insignificance. Family is also genetically programmed into our being and our natural desire to manage it effectively is one of the greatest training grounds for then managing ever-greater social dynamics. Besides love and intimacy, communication and consistent reflection, the satisfaction of watching children grow and bloom and carry the torch of influence beyond and further than our own efforts is inspiring and meaningful to say the least. Thousands of years of creative evolution have made us guide and direct our genetic lines to ever greater standards as a means of expressing our immortality through the ages. Regardless of our individual ideals we all desire to contribute to the welfare of others or socially influence our immediate if not our global community, and find a way in which we can lead and direct our and others’ destinies. Power and influence are rewarding and yet with this comes new responsibilities that make us grow more creative and accountable even faster. We want to be remembered, make a true difference and leave our legacies. Could anyone honestly say they want to be forgotten or insignificant? The greater our service to the world and more powerful our influence, the more likely we will leave our mark in history, not for the sake of grandeur, but for the sake of higher fulfilment and contribution. Physically, we also desire to be vital and fit, and handsome or beautiful. We want to sip from the fountain of youth as long as possible. We have places to go and things to accomplish that require energised bodies animated with wellness. When

we eat to live more than live to eat we unveil our greater physical potential. When we honour the feedback that our bodies provide us to live a more balanced, rhythmic and consistent life, we maximise our levels of endurance and stamina. We are then ready to tackle the challenges our lives bring us and are equally primed to accomplish what is most meaningful. Whether it is climbing a mountain, sailing the seas, running a marathon or simply creating a garden that inspires, being physically fit and at our peak is worthy of all the efforts of raising our own Olympic bar. Of course, last but not least, is our common need for an inner spiritual quest, one that calls us to inspired actions of humanitarian service or to the arts or aesthetics or even the finer, more masterful and mystical settings in life. Whether meditating before an ocean, praying on top of a mountain or walking in a lush forest, our desire for the contemplative and humanitarian service-oriented life seems never to evade us. Whatever our individual values are they will be reflected in our distinctive and honourable spiritual expression. But why are these seven areas of life forever calling us to expand, grow and experience the finer things in life? Possibly, because by having them do so we more effectively pave the way for others to climb their mountains, ever broader, ever taller and ever more powerfully in the desire to fully express their highest nature. By giving ourselves permission to live to the fullest and function at the highest, we exemplify what is amazingly possible and give permission for others to do the same. The greater our lives, the greater will be our contribution to the whole of humanity. At the end of our lives we will ask ourselves at least one important question: Did we do everything we could with everything we were given?

We want to be able to say absolutely yes. We are here to raise our bars and stretch ourselves beyond our limits. We are here to inspire others to do the same so humanity breaks through any stagnant ways of previous generations and is catapulted forward to newer and ever more magnificent ways of being, doing and having.  Dr John Demartini is regarded as the world’s foremost authority on human behavior and one of the greatest teachers of our time. He is also the author of numerous books. Out of his many years of research and study, he founded The Demartini Institute, the home of his various courses and programmes. His signature programme, The Breakthrough Experience, has profoundly changed hundreds of thousands of lives. John’s lifelong commitment is to help as many people as possible develop and transform their lives to one of increased fulfilment.

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The Ultimate

Detox

NamastĂŠ Wellness Retreats

Stressed, tired, over-worked and overweight. This is an apt description of my state of being when I finally decided to take action and embark on what would be the defining step towards changing my life.

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R E T R E AT

hen I arrived at the beautiful five-star Fordoun Hotel and Spa set in the picturesque farming community of Nottingham Road, a jewel in the heart of the Natal Midlands, I was welcomed by cherry blossoms, a heard of spritely dairy

cows, and the professional Namasté team. I was eager to start my sevenday journey, having pre-selected the Namasté juice fasting programme (a healthy eating programme is also available). Research of my own showed me that juice fasting is a detoxification method in which one consumes only fresh, preferably

organic, vegetable and fruit juices. It is often done for the physical benefits of cleaning the body’s cells as well as losing weight. Besides the obvious physical benefits of juice fasting I was also fascinated by the reported spiritual awakening that is often experienced. External toxins from the environment such as chemicals found in foods, water and air, pesticides, heavy metals and other pollutants are present at alarmingly higher levels than any time in history. These toxins bombard our bodies on a daily basis, preventing detoxification organs from doing their job. This is why a regular detox is vital in achieving optimal health. As the group members introduced themselves on the Sunday afternoon, I got a brief glimpse into the reasons why some of the guests had chosen to

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come on the retreat to detox not only their bodies but their minds and souls too. Some were stressed executives who wanted to relax and learn how to better manage their lifestyles, others wanted to lose weight while a few had very specific reasons, such as wanting to move on after losing a loved one. To begin the programme we were weighed, measured and given our comprehensive body composition analysis. I was 18 kilograms overweight, with a fat percentage of 41 percent. I was horrified and wondered how I had let myself go like this. I admit at that very moment I felt extremely despondent but was assured by the professional Namasté team that a few lifestyle changes would go a long way. My lodgings were luxurious, spacious and had a great view overlooking the dam. I was eager to open the bag of goodies left waiting for me. I was pleased to find it included a full range of organic toiletries as well as a journal that we were encouraged to use daily to explore our feelings and thoughts. The following morning began with a friendly wake-up call at 7am, a warm detox-aiding drink and the awareness that today my juice fast begins. I was anxious to say the least but after the morning’s yoga and meditation session my mind began to calm and focus. Breakfast was a lovely pineapple, apple and ginger juice. The fresh, organic juice was delicious and the flavours intense – yummy! This was to become a ritual. Four times a day I drank my juice combined with a concoction of supplements and the obligatory serving of fibre. It was explained that the fibre ensures blood sugar levels remain stable over the day. I could already feel it at work. Surprisingly I found I really wasn't hungry and as the programme developed my energy levels started to peak.

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The next six days were liberating. I learnt the difference between eating because I was hungry and eating to suppress my emotions. During the course of the programme and after my wellness coaching session I was able to pin-point the reason for having ‘let myself go’. I had begun to define myself by my job and the success I achieved by voraciously climbing the corporate ladder. I had become last on my own list of priorities following my career, staff, children, husband, bond – and the list goes on. The rest of the week was filled with many activities including yoga, meditation, walks on the farm and water aerobics as well as sauna, steam and floatation-tank sessions. I thoroughly enjoyed my one-on-one physical training session with the fitness guru, who gave me a personalised workout plan that I can even do from a hotel room when travelling for business. The daily massages included in the package were just heavenly and I decided to treat myself to a resurfacing facial, manicure and pedicure. I even came to appreciate the colon hydrotherapy I’d signed up for, which I experienced as both a physical and emotional release. Top specialists came in to talk to us about nutrition, supplementation, exercise, finding personal balance, bio-energy healing and traditional herbal medicine. Empowered with recipes, eating and exercise plans as well as an arsenal of tactics to assist me in managing my stress, I was eager to start implementing this newfound knowledge. In total I lost a remarkable 19 centimetres and 5.4 kilograms while on the retreat, which serves as my motivation to continue this momentum once I return home. My experience was profound and the benefits stretched far beyond just the

weight which I had lost. This unique programme of Namasté’s has been designed from a holistic standpoint, detoxing not only the body and mind but also allowing the framework in which to allow for self reflection and spiritual development.  About Namasté Wellness Retreats The specialist team of experts at Namasté Wellness Retreats are eager to motivate and inspire you to find your personal formula to health and longevity. This is not just a spa holiday but rather a way to achieve optimal health through goal-oriented detoxification programmes. The programmes have been designed from a medical and scientific standpoint: food consumption, supplementation and daily activities are carefully planned and monitored to achieve the best results. Choose from the 4 Day Revitalise, 7 Day Detox or 10 Day Weightloss programmes combining juice fasting or healthy eating, colonic hydrotherapy, lymph drainage massages and a daily exercise regime. For more information or to book a retreat hosted by Namasté, contact +27 11 022 7500, email info@namaste-retreats.com or visit www.namaste-retreats.com. Upcoming Five-Star Retreats in the Natal Midlands 4 Day Revitalise 14 - 17 January 2011 R5,750 PPS, R6,750 PP 7 Day Detox 28 November – 4 December 2010 8 - 14 January 2011 R12,555 PPS, R13,755 PP 10 Day Weight-Loss 8 – 17 January 2011 R21,350 PPS, R24,750 PP

S U BSCRIBE

Prestige has firmly established itself as Southern Africa’s premier luxury lifestyle magazine for billionaires, millionaires and those aspiring to this lifestyle. The magazine offers a mix of luxury elements that appeal to both men and women: rarity, craftsmanship, generosity, freedom, curiosity, tradition, intelligence, wit, aesthetics, and adventure. It incorporates the latest in the areas of boating, motoring and aviation; travel, health and wellness; style, trends and haute horology; people, personalities and superstars, design, art and antiques; collectibles, investments and property; research, business and technology. Working with a finely nuanced definition of luxury, “meaningful and successful lives beyond money, old or new,” Prestige is a magazine for those who engage with the world across various dimensions and in significant ways.

R480 for 12 issues; R840 for 24 issues To subscribe, send us an email with the words SUBSCRIBE PRESTIGE in the subject line, and your name, email address, cell number and delivery address in the body of the email. Send it to mail@prestigemag.co.za.

RETIRE

Retirement

It may seem unnecessary, at first glance, to think that someone with millions of Rands would need to engage in retirement planning in the way a person of more modest means would. Yes, the retirement planning needs of high net worth investors differ from those who rely on company or government pension funds, but retirement planning is still essential.

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A Perspectives on The World’s Wealthy:

ccording to Barclays Wealth’s latest edition of Wealth Insights, Wealth in an Ageing World, Volume 12, the world’s recent economic crisis has caused many wealthy individuals to doubt whether planning for a sustained period of economic inactivity in retirement is a realistic or sensible option. This recent report surveys the opinions of more than 2,000 high net worth individuals (HNWIs) across the globe on the subject of what retirement means to them. Insights are drawn from wealthy entrepreneurs and leading thinkers who shape the view of what this later stage of life looks like, and the benefits of what a generation of older, working wealthy may bring to society. Key insights reveal that many wealthy individuals: • Don’t want to stop working • View unpredictability as a fact of life • Believe planning for later years is challenging but essential • Believe that attitudes towards retirement will continue to change Absa Wealth Head of Front Office Carl Roothman comments, “Contrary to our earlier survey, which unveiled a number of wealthy individuals who pursue wealth and investment in their quest for early retirement, we have found that some 60 percent of respondents noted their desire to continue working in some shape or form for as long as possible.” An equal number of wealthy entrepreneurs and property investors hold the view of being involved in commercial or professional work of some kind, regardless of their age. Roothman is quick to point out, “The source of wealth makes relatively little difference to an individual’s desire to keep on working. What we call ‘nevertirees’ are a global

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phenomenon, but there are marked difference across the markets.” The top five ‘nevertirees’ include Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, South Africa and Latin America, while the bottom five ‘nevertirees’ include Hong Kong/ Singapore, the US, Japan, Spain and Switzerland. In emerging market economies, such as South Africa, very few wealthy individuals plan to stop working completely, in some cases fewer than 10 percent. Among the developed economies, this is true, but to a lesser extent, with those most likely to desire traditional retirement being HNWIs from Spain, Switzerland and Japan. “Age, however, is a key differentiator,” says Roothman. “In emerging markets, 59 percent of millionaires are under 45, with just 16 percent in Europe and 21 percent in the US. This could well be viewed as a reflection of differing social attitudes to the concept of retirement itself, and perhaps the role of the patriarch in these societies.” HNWIs’ faith in their ability to predict the future may have been dented by the global financial crisis, yet 73 percent of respondents are reasonably confident that they will be able to predict the amount of money needed to maintain their lifestyle in retirement. Roothman believes that the predictability of the amount of money needed may well be misplaced, if only because it is impossible to predict the age at which one will die, coupled with the unpredictability of one’s own personal health. Respondents in the 55-65 age group are more concerned about the rates of return on their investments in the current economic climate, while younger respondents assume that rates of return “will even out over time”. Says Roothman, “What I find most interesting is that respondents in the emerging markets, including South Africa, are more likely to view investment returns as quite

predictable or very predictable in the context of planning retirement, despite the general perception that the same markets in these economies are unpredictable.” The top five countries with predictable returns include Saudi Arabia, Latin America, India, Spain and South Africa. HNWIs confront many critical issues relating to retirement planning: having to make certain assumptions about the future of the economy, inflation and their own life expectancy, and settling on an assetallocation plan to ensure they meet their lifestyle requirements while having enough money to provide for, and transfer wealth, to spouses, children, grandchildren and charities. Says Roothman, “Wealthy investors need to select annual returns for investment portfolios of stocks and bonds, for example, and catch a glimpse of the probability of outliving their assets over varying retirement lengths, varying withdrawal rates and varying asset allocations.” Inadequate retirement planning can leave a wealthy person working for longer than he or she had planned. Even the ultra-wealthy are finding that retirement age has to be pushed out to later years because they may not yet have enough to live on if they stop working. “Over the past few years,” says Roothman, “I have seen clients who had millions of Rands in assets but who were surprised to learn from analyses of their financial situations that if they wanted to continue their passions for art collections or vintage car collections that annual spending needed drastic reductions.” Going backward in terms of lifestyle and income hurts people and is felt more negatively than making progress towards a goal. This may mean that many HNWIs actually need more assets during retirement than they were expecting. If investors are unwilling to cut back on their

expenses, they have to make sure their assets grow in value. Attitudes towards later stages in life have already started to change, as has the growing understanding that an economically active older generation can be of greater financial value. The impact of an older generation of wealthy active participants in the economy may not be quantifiable, but they have a visible impact on the corporate scene. Particularly in times of crisis such as the recent recession, a greater pool of astute and seasoned board members represents bigger gains. “It is likely that attitudes toward transferring wealth, rather than simply accumulating wealth, will be changed by individuals working longer and later. Government attitudes toward the working wealthy are also something on which we need to keep a close eye,” says Roothman. He explains, “Governments benefit directly from increased taxes from the wealthy if they continue to work, and there are also indirect benefits to the economy from their extended presence in the work force of the country. But governments facing fiscal difficulties feel pressure to find additional sources of revenue when these wealthy individuals retire or transfer their wealth to a less astute younger generation who may still face pressing spending needs.” In conclusion, Roothman believes that to compete successfully, wealth managers will need to modify their operating models to create new client experiences, specifically those who want to compete in the large, affluent, retirement wealth management services market. He says, “The overarching challenge confronting all retirees and pre-retirees is to have enough income to meet their needs and maintain a particular lifestyle for many years into the future – a goal that is simple to state yet requires careful planning to achieve.” 

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CRAFT

Jaeger-LeCoultre Time Out with

Jérôme Lambert Jaeger-LeCoultre has been in the business of fine watchmaking for quite some time. An impressive 177 years to be exact. While their way of manufacture has certainly changed over time, their passion and precision has not, with each and every watch created in the Swiss-based factory

brilliant inventor and self-taught watchmaker Antoine-LeCoultre (1803-1881) founded his first workshop in 1833, following the invention of a machine to produce watchmaking pinions. A century later Edmond Jaeger set Swiss watchmakers the challenge of producing the same ultra-thin calibres as what he had invented, a task LeCoultre’s grandson, Jacques-David, pursued with passion.

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A friendship came out of what could easily have become a feud between Jaeger and LeCoultre, and gave rise to a range of horological wonders and, in 1937, the birth of the JaegerLeCoultre brand. Many decades on this historic company is under the stewardship of Jérôme Lambert, who was appointed CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre in 2001. At the time he was just 33 years of age. Now, some 10 years on, Lambert talks to us about the progression of the

brand, the growth of the watch market, and the effects of technology. “Jaeger-LeCoultre is one of the five oldest brands active in fine watchmaking,” Lambert starts off by saying. “For the last 177 years it has not stopped activity, still done to this day in the factory in Le Sentier, Switzerland, where we first began.” Jaeger-LeCoultre, unlike other watch houses, designs, creates and manufactures each and every part, every component of the watch, entirely

considered an item of incredible value.

CRAFT

from start to finish. “We have more than 50 craftsmen – engravers, decorators, fine mechanics and watchmakers – working in our factory,” says Lambert. “This is what sets JaegerLeCoultre apart from other fine watchmakers.” According to Lambert, JaegerLeCoultre has created some 1,250 movements during its time. “To put it into perspective,” he says, “the movement in a watch is much like the motor in a car. The number of movements we have created is by far the largest ever created by a watchmaker in this segment – the next highest is around 600.”

function together. The reason for this is simple: in a watch, every sixth of a second something moves.” Lambert believes that today’s watch market is very strong and everdeveloping. While in years past a person would own only one watch, nowadays this is not the case, with men preferring one for work, one for play, a dress watch and maybe a collectible. “Ultimately, a watch is the only accessory a man can really wear,” he says. “A person’s choice of watch is very personal, and the feelings one has for it are very strong.” Certainly the watch industry is a dynamic one, made even more so by

technology to our advantage, to make our fine watchmaking ever more adapted to the current way of living. The functionality of the watch and the item itself are better carried and protected.” I ask what has been most crucial in building the Jaeger-LeCoultre brand. “Definitely the capacity of integrating new talent,” answers Lambert. “The creation of new movements, the creativity – it’s all linked to the talent we have working for us. Every year we recruit young engineers and watchmakers and train and teach them over the ensuing years.” Because of this, Jaeger-

Last year Jaeger-LeCoultre presented its most complicated watch ever, which features some 1,200 components and 26 complications. It is called the Hybris Mechanica à Grande Sonnerie. Says Lambert, “We make each component one after the other, because each has to function with the preceding and with the following. So we make one, do the next, adjust the first, work on the second and the third, go back to the second and ahead to the fourth, and so on because, at the end, it has to all

the worldwide development and growth of the luxury market. “It is very interesting,” Lambert says, “and very promising. We have a lot to offer at a level we’ve never had before. With modern technological tools we are able to produce ever-more superior products.” Technology has changed the way people live and with this, the environmental factors to which watches are subjected. “Nowadays, watches are exposed to more shock, increased magnetism, harder wear and so on. We have used

LeCoultre has a very strong, very loyal staff base, many of whom have had generations of relatives working for this same company. “We are proud of the individuals in our employ, who work together to bring out the best in everything,” affirms Lambert. So what can we look out for next, from Jaeger-LeCoultre? “Next year is the 80th anniversary of the Reverso, one of the most iconic of watches,” says Lambert. Ah yes, definitely something to look forward to with great anticipation. 

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F E AT U R E

Luxury Apartments as Investment

In a quiet side street close to the central business district of Rosebank Johannesburg. A small but luxurious apartment building has just been completed and is quietly on the market.

ts name – The Station – is the giveaway. Its developer is the hugely successful interior designer Kim Hutton, the first to respond to the high-density transformation that the city’s metro rail system, the Gautrain, will bring South Africa’s biggest city. Hutton expects his buyers to want to

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be within easy walking distance of this new public transport system. The project’s level of luxury is well above Rosebank’s norm. A 350-square-metre unit is going for R8.75 million – R25,000/m2 compared to about R8,000/m2 for a typical unit in the suburb. Not all the new apartments that line the Gautrain

route and its related bus rapid transit (BRT) system will be as luxurious. But Hutton’s project signals the convergence of some important urban social trends that will change the face of our cities. The primary trend, and the driver of the rest, is the massive urbanisation that is taking place as much in South Africa as in China,

is an early sign of dramatic changes that are about to take place in

LIVE

India, Brazil and the rest of the developing world. With urbanisation comes congestion and the painful hours spent getting from A to B. This triggers two simultaneous trends. The first, the desire to live as close as possible to work and play through the development of mixed-use properties that combine them; the second, cities turning to sophisticated public transport to move its denizens. High-speed trains are probably the fastest-growing way of moving people from one place to another. But another trend is the growing household wealth that comes with low-productivity rural workers moving

into the cities and becoming highproductivity workers. They help to create many more rich entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. A further trend is the slow shift from the luxury stand-alone homes in car-based leafy suburbs to the luxury apartments close to work, transport and urban play areas such as restaurants, theatres and sporting venues. Cape Town was an early adopter of this, with luxury flats going up in the city centre and V&A Waterfront during the late 1990s. South Africa’s most expensive apartments, selling for between R85,000/m2 and R100,000/m2, are located in Clifton and the V&A Waterfront. In fact, South Africa’s first R100-million penthouse is situated on top of Sol Kerzner’s One and Only waterfront hotel. But Johannesburg started catching up halfway through this decade, mainly in the Sandton CBD. This is epitomised by Michelangelo Towers, where units have sold for as much as R45 million and R60,000/m2, according to the latest data from subscription website SA Property Transfer Guide (SAPTG). The Michelangelo Towers development is integrated into the larger Sandton City complex, giving its occupants every imaginable facility within a short walk, including the Gautrain station. All this convenience is a favourite of three kinds of people: out-of-town businessmen who can leap off their plane onto the Gautrain and continue their business within half an hour, African businessmen travelling from afar, and wealthy retirees – for whom it is perhaps the most convenient luxury lock-up-and-go, or stay-homeand-be-pampered home they can imagine. Melrose Arch in Johannesburg offers a less dense alternative, a lowrise urban village for the sophisticated wealthy, with perhaps fewer facilities than Sandton City but with what it has clothed in a great deal of class. According to SAPTG, prices at the first residential phase have ranged from R3 million to R8 million. The flats are large and can go for below R30,000/m2.

Even R100,000/m2 in Cape Town, although it is considered one of the world’s dozen or so international cities, is negligible compared to super-prime international properties. For instance, Candy and Candy’s One Hyde Park and another development

on St James Square in London have been selling for over R1 million/m2. But surprisingly, it will likely be Johannesburg prices that will rise to heights that all but the most super-prime beachfront apartments in the coastal cities will achieve. The evidence for this comes from comparisons of average prices between, say, apartments in prime Paris and those on the Cote d’Azur, or New York’s Manhattan, or California’s Malibu. The simple formula is enormous population, living in high density with excellent public transport attracting the most wealth and the most demand. It may take a few decades, but you can bet on it. 

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makingwaves Wayachts Presents

the Wake 66

The Wake 66 is an incredible 20-metre open yacht that joins the Wake 48 in the Wayachts range. Wake 66 was designed entirely by architect Francesco Rolla together with Stefano Milanesi from Navaldesign & Consulting, to ensure continuity between models. It is a two-deck and half, open, hard top boat built in two versions, with three or four cabins (plus the crew cabin), each with a private toilet. The two 700 hp diesel Volvo Penta IPS 900 engines make for a cruise speed above 29 knots, peaking at over 36. The Wake 66 shares some features with the Wake 48 but, being larger, the layout and some features of the boat’s interior are more complex, making the design of Wake 66 unique among boats of this sort. See www.wayachts.it for more.

African Romance Exclusive to Sandton Eye

African Romance is opening a brand new boutique at The Sandton Eye, home of the new Radisson Blu Gautrain Hotel, and will be among the first ‘new look’ retail stores rolled out over the next 12 months. African Romance rough diamonds are purchased locally from 100 percent, conflict free and accountable companies and are polished by South Africans into some of the world’s best diamonds. There is no technology anywhere in the world that cannot be found at African Romance, who even trained their own South African team in every aspect of the polishing of their GIA certified ‘excellent cut’ grade diamonds. All the diamonds they produce are laser inscribed with a unique serial number on the girdle of the stone, which cannot be erased and which tracks the origin of every diamond, from its rough form to the polished final product. Visit www.africanromance.com, or contact +27 11 384 5600 for more.

The Wellness Lounger from MBM This is the newest offering in exclusive outdoor furniture from MBM, and like all their furniture uses only the best technology to produce top-of-the-range pieces. The sleek curvature of the Wellness Lounger hugs the contours of the body, making for long periods of reclined relaxation without needing to shift around to stay comfortable. Made from a white Mirotex weave exclusive to MBM, it is also resistant to UV and harsh weather conditions, meaning minimal maintenance is required. Available from MBM showrooms nationwide. Contact 0861 222 626 or visit www.mbmafrica.co.za.

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