Brummell Summer 2015

Summer 2015

Bright young things Celebrating 30 City hotshots under 40 • Culinary rising stars • Catching India’s new surfing wave Creative movers and shakers • Off-market property specialists • New watch brands with pedigrees

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MASERATI QUATTROPORTE DIESEL FROM £69,235 ON THE ROAD Maserati has a long tradition of surprising the automotive world with innovation and unconventional thinking.

The introduction of our new state-of-the-art V6 diesel engine in the Quattroporte is just the latest example. This 3.0 V6 unit produces 275 HP and the performance that befts the company’s fagship, whilst clever engineering has managed to reproduce the distinctive and much loved Maserati exhaust note.

For more information on the new Maserati Quattroporte Diesel, call 01943 871660 or visit maserati.co.uk Offcial fuel consumption fgures for the Maserati Quattroporte Diesel in mpg (l/100km): Urban 36.2 (7.8), Extra Urban 54.3 (5.2), Combined 45.6 (6.2).

CO2 emissions 163 g/km. Fuel consumption and CO2 fgures are based on standard EU tests for comparative purposes and may not refect real driving results.

Model shown is a Maserati Quattroporte Diesel at £71,647 On The Road including optional metallic paint at £660, electric sunroof at £1,560 and extended key-less entry at £192.

Q U A T T R O P O R T E

www.maserati.co.uk

CALIBER RM 030 POLO DE ST-TROPEZ Declutchable rotor Automatic movement Power reserve circa 55 hours Declutchable and adjustable rotor geometry Winding indicator Date display Free sprung balance with variable inertia Double barrel Baseplate, bridges and balance cock made of titanium Torque limiting crown in titanium Balance: glucydur, 4 arms Inertia moment 4.8 mg·cm², angle of lift 53° Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 hz) Spline screws in grade 5 titanium for the bridges and the case Interior fanges in carbon fber Baseplate and bridges in grade 5 titanium, wet sandblasted, titalyt® treated Barrel bridges pvd coated Sapphire blasted and hand-drawn surfaces Titanium centre case and atz ceramic top and lower case Limited edition of 50 pieces Only available at Richard Mille Boutiques

M I N I L I LY B AG

M U L B E R RY. CO M

ARMANI.COM/ATRIBUTE

Welcome to Brummell In this issue, we are proud to present Brummell’s annual Ones to Watch index. As ever, our aim is to showcase the tremendous young talent in London’s fnancial-services industry and related sectors.

Our expert panel, themselves shining examples of high achievement and successful careers, applied rigorous criteria to an inspiring long-list of nominees to select this year’s contenders.

Many met the frst set of standards: under-40s who have demonstrated innovation, drive and energy and consistently outperformed their peers or market – and who have the potential to rise to the top. But now society demands more: it’s all very well to be a powerhouse in the workplace, but tenacity and motivation – not to mention old-school ruthlessness – need to be tempered and rounded by softer stuff, in the form of

measure, caring and reasonableness. The panel sought out those who contribute both inside and outside their companies via their involvement in mentoring, fundraising, networking, advocacy groups or the third sector, or by establishing entrepreneurial projects. In some instances, candidates exhaustively ticked most of the boxes.

We also reach out beyond the City and meet enterprising young people who have launched fourishing businesses, are pursuing a creative calling or are embracing innovative technology to launch new platforms for their passions. What’s clear is there’s an abundance of impressive talent all around us, making its mark, offering inspiration and often changing our lives for the better.

Joanne Glasbey, Editor

aquascutum.com

Contents • Brummell

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Cover illustration: Peter Judson Show Media Brummell editorial 020 3222 0101 — Editor Joanne Glasbey Senior Art Director Dominic Murray-Bell Publishing Director Lucy Teasdale Chief Copy Editor Eirwen Oxley Green Deputy Chief Copy Editor Gill Wing Art Director Jo Murray-Bell Copy Editors Nicky Gyopari, Tanya Jackson, Mary O’Sullivan, Katie Wyartt Editorial Assistant Jemima Wilson Picture Director Juliette Hedoin Deputy Picture Editor Jamie Spence Creative Director Ian Pendleton Managing Director Peter Howarth — Advertising & Events Director Duncan McRae duncan@fyingcoloursmarketing.com 07816 218059 — showmedialondon.com brummell@showmedialondon.com — Visit Brummell’s website and follow Brummell on Twitter for more tailor-made content: brummellmagazine.co.uk @BrummellMag Colour reproduction by the Born Group; borngroup.com. Printed by Pureprint Group; pureprint.com.

Brummell is published by Show Media Ltd. All material © Show Media Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited.

While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions.

The information contained in this publication is correct at the time of going to press. £5 (where sold). Reader offers are the responsibility of the organisation making the offer – Show Media accepts no liability regarding offers.

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Foreword David Charters surveys the challenges facing heavily scrutinised future leaders Money no object The most slender mechanical watch in the world – proving that, when it comes to timepieces, you can never be too thin BEAUMONDE News Hasselblad’s sharpest shooter yet; never launder a shirt again; Masterpiece London returns; and keep your cool in linen Property Buying off-market is the best kind of move, explains property-search specialist Banda Footwear Bally’s new Scribe range – what every well-heeled man about town should be wearing this summer After the City The tenacious former trader taking polo – and a taste of British luxury – to an appreciative international elite

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FEATURES Ones to Watch 2015 Brummell’s annual line-up of the City’s top 30 rising stars under 40 Creative talent Five young people with drive and vision, from inspiring artists to retail entrepreneurs Watches The newest brands with growing heritage Travel Once more unto the beach: India’s quirky – and fourishing – surf culture offers an active holiday with a difference Men’s style Dolce & Gabbana turns couture on its head, taking bespoke tailoring to new heights EPICURE News Modern-day mead; razor-sharp Japanese knives; an ode to truffes; a seasonally inspired cookbook; and The Ivy’s reinvention Cocktails How mixologists are creating exciting favours with unusual infusions Restaurants The new generation of innovative young chefs who are cooking up a storm on the capital’s culinary scene Need to know Giorgio Armani marks four decades in fashion with a permanent retrospective at his new exhibition space in Milan

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Foreword • Brummell

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Adapt to succeed ‘It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change,’ declared Darwin. The City should take note

Words: David Charters Illustration: Brett Ryder

In nature, it is not necessarily the strongest or the biggest that survive, but the most adaptable. On those grounds, the City seemed for many years to be an anomaly – at least until the music stopped in 2008. Size was what mattered: size of balance sheet, of global operations, bonus pool, size of… well, everything. Except now it doesn’t. Big is no longer seen as cool, but, on the contrary, as a potential problem. Nimble and responsive are in – large and powerful are, at least partly, out.

‘Too big to fail’ has started to be addressed, with more to come. What has yet to be tackled is its fellow traveller: too big to nail. So far, individual retribution for the hundreds of senior personnel involved in the latest batch of scandals has largely been avoided. A handful of token individuals most directly involved in Libor or Forex fxing can be offered up, along with billions in headline-grabbing fnes, paid for by long-suffering shareholders. Big penalties offer politicians and regulators the chance to take victory laps in front of the media, but rooting out whole layers – possibly an entire generation – of inept management is fled under ‘too diffcult’.

So, what does this mean for future leaders of the fnancial-services industry, some of whom are profled in this issue? Has the game changed or will they be as fortunate as their predecessors?

And what will be their major challenges?

Throughout my career I have repeatedly seen crises, bubbles, over-optimism, grandstanding, naked emperors – in fact, all the things we should have learnt from previously and prevented from happening again. Around they duly came, though, every few years, perhaps dressed up in slightly different clothes and with the odd tweak here and there, but, fundamentally, we did not learn from our mistakes – and no one who was meant to be supervising our industry made us do so, either.

This time, it’s different. Today’s leaders are subject to a degree of scrutiny and mistrust that will take a generation to overcome and eventually forget. I have no doubt we will forget it – in the fnancial-services industry we seem to be on a loop, doomed to repeat our mistakes forever, only in

The next generation of leaders can expect to be challenged — and always sooner and more harshly than they might wish

different forms – but the journey from here to being able to get away with anything like the nonsense of the past will be a much longer one than usual.

In future, more chickens will come home to roost. The industry will have to demonstrate not just proftability, but social utility as well – culture will be judged alongside strategy. Are we good corporate and world citizens? How did we achieve the levels of profts we have, however big? Did we simply stick to the letter of the law, or was our work underpinned by a strong moral compass?

There will also be fewer of us. Decades-old trends are accelerating. In the markets, transparency resulting from super-fast information fows, the commoditisation of many services, a continuing trend towards disintermediation and, above all, a vast increase in computer power will make it increasingly diffcult for investment banks to deal proftably and for managers and traders to retain an edge over the competition. Large, well-capitalised frms with patient shareholders will stay in the game; others will disappear altogether or shrink to the margins.

A wild card in all this is artifcial intelligence.

If IBM’s Watson can beat the best human players at Jeopardy, could it also beat the best traders in the markets, analyse companies, write offering documents and propose M&A deals? I was sceptical when I heard recently that the last human pilot has already been born: not only will cars be free of drivers in the future, but planes free of pilots.

Personally, I’d always want to see a human on the fight deck, and would pay a premium if necessary.

Similarly, I remain old fashioned enough to believe there will always be a need for the very best people in the industry – the ones whose wisdom, judgement and sheer canniness leave you feeling humbled and fully cognisant of why they are paid what they are.

But how many of them will we need and where will they come from if the talent pool of the industry’s lower ranks is dramatically shrunk?

Along with changes to how we do things will come changes to where we do them. The industry is likely, fnally, to become globally dispersed. As the economic power of the world reconfgures away from Europe and the US, so the industry will move with it. London and New York will remain major centres because they are great places to live and because it will be convenient for large numbers of like-minded practitioners to physically meet one another, not because of any fundamental necessity.

The pace of events will also change. Already we are taken by surprise when Russia and Ukraine bump up against each other, or when a new global terror organisation bursts on to the stage with a more effective media strategy than our own.

Imagine how we’ll struggle if ever a dirty bomb explodes in a Western capital or a pandemic fnally reaches SW3. A lot of bad things are lurking out there, and the next generation of leaders across society can expect to be challenged – and always sooner and more harshly than they might wish.

So, if the stories in this issue are impressive, we should be pleased, taking reassurance from the industry’s ability to attract and develop top talent.

We should scrutinise them carefully, watching out in particular for any hint of complacency. There is no doubt they’ll fnd themselves being tested over the coming years. It is a tough world and it is getting tougher. They will need all the skill and determination they have and, above all, they will need to know how to adapt. I wish them luck, but I’m not sure how much I envy them. l The Ego’s Nest by David Charters, the ffth novel in the series about City anti-hero Dave Hart, is published by Elliott & Thompson, £6.99

Brummell

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Maximum complexity, minimum space: introducing the thinnest mechanical watch in the world

Photography: Andy Barter Words: Joanne Glasbey

Piaget is the potentate of super-slim timepieces.

Since inventing its frst ultra-thin movement in 1957, the house has held more than a dozen records in various categories over the years. And just when it seemed impossible to get all those complex parts into an even slimmer case, it celebrated its 140th birthday last year with the launch of the Altiplano 900P: the world’s thinnest mechanical watch.

Some serious technological breakthroughs led the Piaget watchmakers to create this piece, which has the implausible vital statistic of just 3.65mm thick. Unusually, the horologists created a case and movement in a single unit to maximise economy of space, and crucial millimetres were shaved off by having one layer fewer on the back of the watch, because the case back multitasks as the baseplate. On the face, the petite, off-centre dial is set into the bridges, also reducing thickness.

A very wearable timepiece, the Altiplano 900P is both technically and aesthetically impressive, and its 38mm size adds to its lightness and gracefulness. Piaget is rightly proud to boast that this intriguing architectural example, the brand’s 23rd ultra-thin calibre, is achievable only because the house controls the manufacturing processes of both its cases and movements.

The collection is named after the geographical Altiplano – Spanish for ‘high plain’ – that extends 1,500km across the roof of the Andean Plateau.

One of the world’s highest populated regions, it has an average altitude of 3,650m – a fgure that is echoed in the watch’s slenderness. It’s haute horology, but it’s certainly not plain.

18ct red-gold case, £19,600; piaget.com

Beaumonde

The ultimate shirt service; fnd your art’s desire; sartorial details made with military precision; a camera built for Stellar results

On fne form ← The Royal Hospital Chelsea is set to become a cultural hub shortly, as collectors, curators and enthusiasts head to Masterpiece London to peruse fne art, antiques and design from more than 150 leading international galleries.

A highlight of the summer art and auction season, the fair presents museum-quality works spanning more than 3,000 years of creativity, all in one convenient location. New exhibitors to seek out this year include London fne-art gallery Richard Green, Parisian decorative-arts dealer the Kraemer Gallery, and Nilufar, a contemporarydesign gallery from Milan, and pieces by such luminaries as Barbara Hepworth, left, are guaranteed to garner admirers.

25 June to 1 July; masterpiecefair.com

Watch this space Fellows launched the UK’s frst Barbara Hepworth’s ‘Reclining Form’, Trewyn, 1959, courtesy of Waterman & Co

online timepiece auction in 2010.

Its specialist sales of wristwatches and pocket models are now being organised on a monthly basis, meaning it holds more dedicated horological sales than any other auctioneer. For those unable to attend in person, high-res images, a detailed condition report and interactive 360° images of each lot are available on its website, where you will also be able to bid live. fellows.co.uk/thewatchsale

Light relief ↑ In the warmer months, wearing a suit and looking and feeling effortlessly cool in spite of the heat is a challenge.

It’s good news, then, that Hackett – which promotes itself as purveyors of ‘essential British kit’ – has launched a new, elegant line in lightweight linen.

More relaxed and breathable than traditional wool, the single-breasted, well-cut suit is available in grey or navy, and a range of accessories – including classic striped ties and linen-mix handkerchiefs – completes the look.

From £60 for accessories and £600 for linen suiting; hackett.com

Shirt supply ↑ Putting on a box-fresh laundered shirt is a satisfying way to start the day. But the tedious buying, washing, drying and ironing routine preceding this luxury is a bore. Now ex-investment banker Hasan Mustafa has come up with a solution: Collar Club, a full-service shirt concierge. Each member receives 11 made-to-order Italian shirts of Jermyn Street quality, and at the end of each week, fve of them are collected and fve more delivered – laundered, packed and ready to wear the next working week. Monthly subscription, £95; collarclub.com

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Beaumonde • News

Bordeaux beauty ← Recently opened and already awarded fve stars, La Grande Maison is the latest hotel-restaurant from wine magnate Bernard Magrez and Michelin-starred chef Joël Robuchon. Set in the heart of Bordeaux, the palatial townhouse was built in the 19th century by Léon Duguit, whose family were wine merchants.

Its cellar, once renowned for housing the fnest grands crus of the region, is now home to two Robuchon ventures: a gourmet restaurant for fne dining, and a casual lounge-bar for more relaxed occasions. There are no fewer than 259 options on the wine list, and La Grande Maison offers a number of wine-tasting workshops, too, so, having checked in to one of its six luxurious guest rooms, you’ll check out an expert. lagrandemaison-bordeaux

Small wonders Accessories designer Alice Walsh has in the past looked to manufacturing processes in aerospace and Formula One as inspiration. For her new line of tie pins and Capture the moment ↑ Hasselblad cameras have a history of adventure, both on Earth and in Space – indeed, the frst images of man on the Moon were taken by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin with a Hasselblad. The 20.2-megapixel Stellar II is Hasselblad’s latest compact model, based on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 II but aimed at collectors and connoisseurs.

It features a 3.0in high-res screen, with an increased 20 per cent range of motion, and NFC technology and integrated wi-f for sharing images on smartphones, tablets and computers.

Finished in titanium, it has a stylish, contoured hand grip, available in olive wood, walnut, padouk or carbon fbre.

From £1,550; hasselblad-stellar.com

cuffinks she’s worked with historic ceremonial designand-supply house Firmin & Sons; the resulting Military Hardware collection is made using one of the most intricate techniques for producing military regalia.

Available online from May; alicemadethis.com

Screen time ↑ While wearable tech is a hot topic in horology, Montblanc was the frst brand to extend the concept to fne Swiss watchmaking. Its TimeWalker Urban Speed e-Strap has a touchscreen that attaches to a traditional analogue watch and doubles up as an activity tracker. It uses integrated technology to offer notifcations, remote control and fnd-me functions. Compatible with most iPhone and Android devices, it allows you to see incoming communications on your wrist and locate either your watch or your smartphone within a range of 30m.

And the deal clincher? It’s expected to last fve days on just one charge. £3,660; montblanc.com

A real find Wondering how to track down – and buy – a property before it even hits the market? Welcome to your smartest move yet…

Words: James Medd Illustration: Daniel Clarke

Anyone who’s tried to buy a house or fat in London recently will know the feeling: there must be some kind of secret knowledge to which you’re not party that prevents you from ever getting close to the good ones. Well, there is. In the trade, it’s called ‘off-market’, and there are ways to access it if you approach the right specialists.

Banda Property is a boutique search and development agency. Part of its bespoke service involves sourcing properties for buyers, and in the past year, 63 per cent of purchases have been off-market, meaning they were never available for viewings or even offcially listed for sale. And it’s a fgure that’s been steadily rising since the company was founded in 2007 by Edo Mapelli Mozzi.

If the advantages for buyers are obvious, staying off-market can be equally good for sellers.

‘It’s about privacy,’ Mapelli Mozzi explains. ‘Even

if you’re a very public person, one thing that’s private is the inside of your own four walls. You don’t want the world saying, “I saw your house in a magazine.”’ When you factor in the issues of security and of avoiding disturbing you or your family with people traipsing through your home, you see the attraction of allowing viewings by only a focused group of serious, certifed buyers.

For Banda’s agents, it’s all about connections.

‘You have to ensure you’re at the top of an estate agent’s list after a valuation,’ says Sophie Roberts, Banda’s head of search and acquisition. ‘A lot of our properties come from agents saying, “I’ve got a one-off. Do you want to get in?”’

Equally, it can come down to legwork, often writing to every address in a chosen area. Looking for a family house in Fulham with a location brief of just 10 roads around the Hurlingham Club, Roberts went doorstepping: ‘I literally knocked on every door, spoke to the owners and, by the end, had a report of each street for the buyer, saying who was selling, who wasn’t and who might in the near future. The client then picked which to go for.’

Another route is research. ‘If we’re targeting a property,’ says Mapelli Mozzi, ‘we’ll go back through its history and contact the agents that last sold it. For a sales agent, that’s a great phone call to take, because it gives them a chance to get in touch with the owner and say they have a buyer.’

Banda is part of a growing market. ‘When we started, there were 10 companies like ours; now you’ll fnd 50 or more,’ says Mapelli Mozzi. During its eight years in business, it has spread its net,

focusing not just on Chelsea, Belgravia and Mayfair, but taking in areas such as Bermondsey and Shoreditch, as well as properties in lower price brackets. ‘Previously, the belief was that, unless you had more than £2m, you didn’t need a buying agent,’ he says, ‘but now people come to us with £700k. The competition at the lower end of the market is so ferce that if you don’t have a buying agent, you don’t have a competitive edge.’

Last year, the company’s off-market purchases ranged from £770,000 to £15m. Banda claims two advantages over the competition. The frst is that each of its agents takes on only four clients at any time, and the second is that it also offers a development service. ‘Before any client has offered on a house, we can give them a full plan of exactly what it’s going to cost and how long the process will take,’ says Mapelli Mozzi. ‘Even if it’s a straightforward purchase, we can look at detailed specifcations and interpret them. We don’t have any ex-estate agents working here: we’re surveyors, project managers, people with experience.’ In addition, says Roberts, it gives them a whole new layer of contacts for off-market sales.

If a service such as Banda’s seems just another cost to add to the already-considerable expense of moving in London – a retainer of £2,000, then two per cent of any purchase price – bear in mind that it opens up a world of hidden properties. It also cuts out much of the miserable slog of house-hunting – after all, as he says, ‘Buying a house doesn’t need to be stressful.’ l bandaproperty.co.uk

BR-X1

THE HYPERSONIC CHRONOGRAPH The BR-X1 is the perfect synthesis of Bell & Ross’s expertise in the world of aviation watches and master watchmaking: an instrument with an innovative design, produced in a limited edition of only 250 pieces. Lightweight and resistant, the grade 5 titanium case of the BR-X1 is protected by a high-tech ceramic bezel with a rubber strap. Ergonomic and innovative, the push buttons allow the chronograph functions to be used easily and efficiently. Sophisticated and reliable, the skeleton chronograph movement of the BR-X1 is truly exceptional and combines haute horlogerie finishes with extreme lightness.

Bell & Ross UK +44 (0)207 629 6464 | Bell & Ross Boutique – Units 48-49 Burlington Arcade – London – W1J 0QJ | www.bellross.com Download the BR SCAN app to reveal exclusive content

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Beaumonde • Footwear Destined for the top Left: Sherpa Tenzing conquers Mount Everest in a pair of Bally Reindeer-Himalaya boots.

Below: Scanlan brown leather Oxfords, from the new Scribe range

Made to last

Elegant and ultra-lightweight, Bally’s reprised and rejuvenated Scribe range of shoes is just as robust as the 1951 originals

Words: Mansel Fletcher

With its sleek, contemporary image, Bally takes its place among the world’s fnest fashion brands on Bond Street, where it opened an imposing fagship store last October. But, while that accurately places the company in its modern context, it also distracts from its extraordinary history.

The brand’s origins lie in a traditional shoemaking business, founded in 1851. Any concern that’s been selling fne leather shoes for that long in Switzerland, with its climate and the national appreciation for craftsmanship, must know about quality, longevity and timeless style.

It’s this very Swiss combination of style and substance that distinguishes Bally. As well as the elegance and masculine weight we associate with the best Goodyear-welted shoes, its footwear has enough design fair to stand out from the crowd.

Often a man has to choose between the panache of Italian shoes and the built-for-life quality of

their British counterparts. Almost uniquely, Bally’s range combines a Continental aesthetic and a dependable, northern European construction.

It seems fair to assume that it was the durability rather than the appearance that appealed to Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. When the Nepalese mountaineer ascended to the 8,848m summit of Mount Everest in 1953, he was wearing a pair of Bally ReindeerHimalayas. It’s hard to think of a stiffer test of a pair of boots, and it’s one it passed with aplomb.

Astoundingly, Bally’s design heritage is as remarkable as the quality of its shoes. It seems almost too much to ask that a company so dedicated to craftsmanship should exhibit such a refned sense of aesthetics. But it does; a point underscored by the architects it has commissioned for its store design. In 1928, pioneering modernist Robert Mallet-Stevens created a shop in Paris; 20 years later, Le Corbusier worked on a design for another in the French capital. And the tradition continues: Sir David Chipperfeld created the interior of the Bond Street fagship. The shoes that take centre stage there are as contemporary as their surroundings. Chipperfeld’s very modern design draws inspiration from the work of Bauhaus legend Marcel Breuer. In a similar way, the new Scribe Novo Light range is infuenced by the past while looking determinedly to the future.

These are shoes made the way the best British footwear is made, but with the huge innovation of being very light. Most Goodyear-welted examples are rather solid, which was once a great selling point in terms of their longevity, but the relevance of this has diminished. By putting its craft and know-how into making shoes constructed this way lighter, Bally has demonstrated a rare ability to build on tradition. Too often companies seem either trapped by it or simply jettison it. The handsome Scavone Chelsea boots, in contrast, demonstrate that there is another way to succeed.

While emblematic of Bally’s contemporary relevance, the Scribe range was launched in 1951 as part of the company’s 100th anniversary.

The shape of the last created for it has just been developed in line with current tastes, with a longer, sleeker toe and hand-dyed, hand-polished calf leather. By allying thoughtful innovation with tradition, Bally continues in the best Swiss style, producing shoes men will want to wear, whether scaling mountains or pounding pavements. l bally.co.uk

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Beaumonde • After the City

Playing the field

Through his global network of high-rollers, British Polo Day founder Ed Olver is taking the best of Britain to a new audience

Words: Charlotte Metcalf Photography: Trent McMinn

Ed Olver frst wrote to Deutsche Bank in 1997.

He’d left school and decided he’d rather work than follow his friends on a gap year. ‘James Dyson says, “Only dead fsh go with the fow”, and my view is, if you fnd yourself in a feld of sheep, jump the hedges and look for the unicorns,’ says Olver. His determination meant he was working on Deutsche Bank’s trading foor at just 17. ‘I was tenacious, outgoing and ambitious – and I learnt fast.’

Today, as founder of British Polo Day, Olver fnds himself travelling the world and mixing with billionaires and royals. In fact, he’s in partnership with 12 royal families and 110 billionaires and employs 26 people. ‘Those who dismiss us as a bunch of rich kids just don’t get it,’ he says. ‘In the three years since I started the company from a laptop in my bedroom, we’ve put on 40 events in 16 countries and raised $1.5m for charity.’

Though formative, Olver’s time in the City was brief. Determined to keep ft, he joined Deutsche Bank’s cricket team: ‘I was playing with the head

of Global Markets [Anshu Jain, now the bank’s co-CEO]. I noticed Anshu was treated with kid gloves, but I knew him as opening batsman of the team.’ Jain urged Olver to go to university, and he ended up reading politics at Bristol. An entrepreneurial streak quickly emerged and, after two years, Olver left to work with some of the country’s top brands, including Red Bull and the Royal Academy of Arts, in marketing. ‘Business was fast, but I kept thinking about my grandfather, who was a Spitfre pilot, and felt what I was doing was shallow,’ says Olver. He fnished his degree and joined the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.

‘One day, I was riding round Hyde Park with Field Marshal the Lord Guthrie and I asked, “Why isn’t the Musical Ride [the historic display performed annually at the Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo] performed abroad?” I suspected he might be angry at my cheek, but he agreed it was a great idea and told me to do it. Suddenly, we were fying 50 horses out to Abu Dhabi. At the age of 28, I’d found a new bubble of oxygen in my life.’

Olver believes horses have a powerful role in international diplomacy. ‘You have to be gentle around them,’ he explains. ‘Churchill said, “The outside of a horse is very good for the inside of a man”, and horses are a bridging point.’ Encouraged by the success of the 2009 Musical Ride in Abu Dhabi, Olver then helped his university friend Tom Hudson stage a Harrow-Eton polo match in Dubai.

‘Tom had laid on an Eton reunion in Dubai and I rang up HRH Prince Rashid of Jordan – who’d been at Harrow – and asked if he’d like to bring a team to play Eton. That became the Princes’ Cup and the frst British Polo Day,’ says Olver. ‘We did it again in 2010 in Abu Dhabi, then, in 2011, I left the Army and started my own business.’

Olver teamed up with Hudson and a third partner, Ben Vestey, to found British Polo Day. ‘Without each other, we wouldn’t roll, and we have a brilliant young team under us,’ he adds.

Though the business is ostensibly about staging polo matches, Olver’s passion is to bring the best of British to an international stage. ‘Britain is held in such high esteem globally, but we’re reluctant to project ourselves,’ he says. ‘My vision is to revive all those great British brands that are based on real craftsmanship and skill.’ Through its holding company, Britannia Elevation, British Polo Day is now in partnership with a host of brands, from Land Rover to Harrods.

‘People keep advising me to commercialise and monetise the brand, but I’ve resisted all attempts to turn it into a commodity. We remain an invitation-only model and no one can put a price on that. We’re not going to start selling tickets; this is a place where billionaires can let their hair down because our focus is always on quality and, above everything else, relationships.

Knowing someone in the space industry who I can sit between Richard Branson and Elon Musk, or watching Martin Sorrell listen with rapt attention to Jack Ma talking about Alibaba, I realise my whole life has been in preparation for what I’m doing now – but I wouldn’t be here without that baptism on Deutsche Bank’s trading foor.’ l britishpoloday.com Photographed at the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel; parklane.intercontinental.com

ThE EssENcE of BrITaIN Made in switzerland by BrEITLINg

British chic, swiss excellence: Breitling for Bentley combines the best of both worlds. style and performance. Luxury and accomplishment. class and audacity. Power and refnement. Perfectly epitomising this exceptional world, the Bentley B05 Unitime houses a Manufacture Breitling calibre, chronometer-certifed by the cosc (swiss offcial chronometer Testing Institute), the highest benchmark in terms of precision and reliability. It is distinguished by its exclusive crownadjusted worldtime system featuring revolutionary user friendliness. a proud alliance between the grand art of British carmaking and the fne swiss watchmaking tradition.

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BENTLEY B05 UNITIME

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Ones to Watch 2015

Brummell is proud to announce the results of the third annual Ones to Watch – a celebration of bright young talent in London’s fnancial-services sector and related felds.

The judging panel, comprising seasoned professionals and high achievers from across the industry, applied the usual rigorous criteria to the lengthy nominations list.

In addition to the requirement to be under 40 and an outperformer in their market, a successful nominee needed to demonstrate drive, energy and entrepreneurial spirit. The judges

were also looking for evidence of his or her holistic contribution to the organisation for which he or she works – be that internally, as a leader of a networking or advocacy group, or externally, as a champion of a charity, mentoring programme or other such project.

The 30 individuals selected are all rising quickly to the top – and, equally importantly, making the world a better place on their way there.

Miranda Abraham, Barclays, selected for Brummell’s Ones to Watch 2014

Words: Jemima Wilson Photography: Philip Sinden Co-ordinator: Duncan McRae

In association with

Silk-cady blazer (part of a suit), £2,715, and silk-charmeuse tank top, £640, both GIORGIO ARMANI

Ones to Watch • Brummell Jennifer Low ← Senior manager, global program execution services, EY Low is a strategic-management consultant with a record of leading global-transformation programmes and working with board-level executives to deliver business objectives. She is also a chartered accountant and has provided assurance, transaction and advisory services during her career at EY. A gender-equality advocate, she co-chairs the multi-award-winning UK & Ireland Women’s Network, inspiring, connecting and developing EY’s people, clients and communities.

She is an active mentor and was named Innovator of the Year in 2014.

Mitesh Sheth → Director of strategy, Redington Sheth earned a reputation as a driver of change by building Henderson’s award-winning fxed-income business, and was hired by Robert Gardner to help Redington become the largest independent investment consultancy in the United Kingdom. He currently leads the frm’s business development, communications, marketing and digital strategy. In addition to his role as an actuary, he is an amateur actor, committed to his involvement in youth-charity development and devoted to his young family. He can be summed up, he says, by his mantra for life: ‘If we don’t stretch our limits, we set our limits.’

Edward Budd Head of product strategy and COO of product management in global transaction banking, Deutsche Bank Exemplifying Deutsche Bank’s commitment to homegrown talent, Budd joined as a graduate trainee and progressed to MD level. He now leads the product strategy function for the transaction banking business.

Having led the development of the Autobahn App Market, he focuses on driving adoption of best practice for product management from other industries. He is a founding member of a Deutsche Bank (UK) charity-ball fundraising committee for Sparks.

Tara Courtney Davies Senior managing director, Macquarie Capital Davies leads a team of investment bankers focused on buying, selling and funding of infrastructure businesses.

She is the only female MD within the investment-banking division in Europe, and therefore plays an important role developing junior female bankers. In 2014, she advised on deals with a value of £10bn and regularly participates in events bringing together politicians, governmental departments and the City. She is a keen cross-country horse rider and has traversed North Korea and climbed Mont Blanc.

Nishan Degnarain Monetary Policy Committee, Central Bank of Mauritius Degnarain is an independent member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Mauritius and chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Oceans. A former McKinsey consultant, he is an adviser to several global CEOs and government leaders around the world and led the creation of delivery units to aid national strategy implementation. In 2011, he advised the Mauritian Minister of Finance on the country’s economic and Africa strategies, and within three years, it was upgraded by credit-rating agencies.

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Brummell • Ones to Watch

Yang Du Head of China desk, Thomson Reuters Du joined Thomson Reuters in 2008 and set up its frst offshore Chinese business in 2014. He now leads the frm’s RMB and China strategy, as well as that for Chinese fnancial institutions.

Renowned as a thought leader on RMB internationalisation, regulation and the Chinese capital market, he is an author and regular public speaker, and in 2012, co-founded the RMB Interest Group to build Chinese fnancial knowledge in London. Outside work, Du performs as a traditional Chinese folk singer – to date, his concerts have raised over £6,000 for the Maple Trust.

Freddie Ewer Investment consultant, Redington Ewer develops investment strategies and risk-management solutions for some of the UK’s largest institutional investors. He has recently worked with Redington CEO Robert Gardner and Lord Hutton to spearhead an extensive report into the future of retirement saving, making recommendations on how to make the pension landscape work effectively for current and future savers. In 2013, he co-founded fnancial-education charity RedStart, and has become a thought leader and campaigner for a greater appreciation of the importance of fnancial literacy.

Elizabeth Grier-Menager Executive director, JP Morgan Drawing on a background in fnance in New York and her work with New York Cares, in 2010, Grier-Menager founded HandsOn London to offer fexible opportunities by which capital-dwellers could give back to the community.

So far, she has assisted around 60 frms with their charitable requirements and linked 4,000 registered volunteers with 100 community partners throughout Greater London. In 2011, she launched Wrap Up London, via which, with the help of several hundred participants, 40,000 donated coats have been redistributed to those in need.

Lucy Grimstead Deputy head, UK large corporate and London-based European corporate foreign-exchange sales, RBS An RBS director and a 2014 Women of Achievement fnalist, Grimstead helps drive the frm forward by harnessing its employees’ innovation and talent and has implemented a learning programme using in-house knowledge to inspire others to build networks.

She entered Team RBS in the Clipper City Challenge last year in support of Sail 4 Cancer – an endeavour she hopes to repeat this summer before competing in the Clipper Round the World Race later in 2015.

Rachel Harrington Director, Coutts Institute After spending eight years in the non-proft sector, Harrington joined Coutts in 2011. She is now a director, working with clients to develop strategies for family wealth. She is deputy chair of the Coutts Women’s Network, supporting more than 500 members. She is also active in numerous charitable projects and was founding chair of the Coutts London Charity of the Year committee, through which she raised £75,000 for The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields, encouraging over 2,000 colleagues to participate in fundraising events.

Sarah Hay Head of EMEA market structure and liquidity strategy, UBS Heavily involved in the development of the UBS global liquidity strategy, Hay advises UBS clients and internal groups on liquidity analysis, market structure and regulation. As a member of the Securities Trading Committee of the AFME, she participates in a number of initiatives, including Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II developments. She also contributes to evolving exchange and multilateral trading facility models in Europe. Hay fundraises for a number of charities and is a triathlete and cyclist.

Samantha Moyo → Director, Morning Gloryville Moyo launched Morning Gloryville in 2013, bringing City professionals together at 6.30am to rave their way into the day. Infuenced by a childhood spent between Zimbabwe and the UK, she works to unite people from varied walks of life and spread a happy, health-conscious ethos to help companies embrace playfulness in their working environment. From May to July 2014, Morning Gloryville launched in 11 major cities around the world and now comprises more than 20 international franchises, providing a second income for its ‘glory agents’.

Opposite: Shirt, Moyo’s own; straight-leg pleated-gauze trousers, £1,685, and large leather bowling bag, £1,245, both GIORGIO ARMANI

Edit Laszlo ← Customer experience product director, RBS With a Masters in International Management and an extremely varied career, Laszlo uses her wide-ranging skills to improve customer service at RBS. A champion of corporate social responsibility, she drives signifcant elements of the sustainability agenda.

Outside the offce, she mentors students and young professionals and is currently developing her own programme to support disadvantaged youngsters in her native Hungary.

She also chairs the fnance committee at the Portman Early Childhood Centre and was shortlisted in 2014 for the Women in Banking & Finance Young Professional of the Year award.

This page: Linen-mix jacket with shawl collar, £1,305; grid-texture viscose-mix knitted pencil dress, £1,685; and nappa-leather bag, £POA, all GIORGIO ARMANI Opposite: Cotton shirt, £360, and cashmere-wool-blend trousers (part of a suit), £2,525, both GIORGIO ARMANI

Emma-Jane Houghton Associate director, infrastructure advisory, KPMG LLP Houghton has an executive advisory background in major infrastructure projects. She led an initiative to drive KPMG’s sales agenda, supporting the development of an app rolled out to 12,500 staff. A champion of the business talent pipeline, she is an active member of the Women on the Wharf steering committee and Women in Infrastructure Leadership group. She was selected for the Government and Infrastructure Future Leaders programme and has spearheaded provision of cross-border mentoring support to junior members.

Ones to Watch • Brummell

Faisel Rahman OBE ↑ Director, Fair Finance Social entrepreneur Rahman founded Fair Finance in 2005 to tackle fnancial exclusion and high-cost lending in low-income British communities.

With a background in international development at the Grameen Bank and the World Bank in Bangladesh, he created the UK’s frst microcredit programme in 2000, which he grew into Fair Finance. An occasional Guardian columnist, writing about exclusion, in 2009 he was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and, in 2014, made an OBE for services to community fnance.

Laura Jane Jackson Management consultant, Accenture Jackson is a strategic management consultant, whose talents extend far beyond her chosen feld. She is an avid fundraiser for and supporter of meaningful causes and manages a number of social enterprises, from network-building weekends and dinner parties to pop-up bakeries under the moniker Ninjaginger. She has run both the Rwandan and London marathons, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and completed a 2,000km charity bike ride around the world, and, via ORT Jump, helped a secondary-school student achieve their career ambitions.

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Ruth Lau Engagement manager, HSBC Lau’s career history spans education, law, publishing, charity and banking, and she has achieved great success in each of these professions. Alongside her current role, she co-founded the Eastern Blossoms platform, which connects social networks in large corporate companies, acting as a knowledge-sharing and cultural exchange between the East and West.

It delivers career workshops and mentoring sessions for students at UCL, LSE and Imperial College and helps promote charities such as the Mulan Foundation and Chinese Welfare Trust.

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Brummell • Ones to Watch

Beth Knight EMEIA fnancial services head of corporate sustainability, EY Knight joined EY at manager level in 2010 and quickly progressed to head up its Financial Services Corporate Sustainability practice across Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia. A leader in sustainable fnance and an advocate for behavioural change, she engages with stakeholders to promote the role fnancial institutions play in sustainability.

She founded EY’s Vantage Program, which offers pro-bono services to high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets, and has written numerous articles about intrapreneurship.

Jonny Letham Associate, Redington Making a signifcant contribution to the development of Redington’s asset-liability modelling and investment strategy, Letham provides world-class analytics to some of the UK’s largest pension funds. In 2012, he co-founded RedStart, an initiative aimed at tackling fnancial illiteracy in the UK, the target of which is to teach a million young people by 2025 how to save, budget and give back. He was listed in the Financial News Extra Mile Top 40 in 2014 after RedStart provided 3,500 hours of fnancial education to young people in London, Bristol and Edinburgh.

Joanna Lloyd-Jones Director of projects, Maggie’s Lloyd-Jones is currently on a year’s secondment from HSBC to the cancer-care charity Maggie’s, where she is leading plans to support its growth strategy. During her 11 years at the bank, she has been at the forefront of high-profle internal change initiatives. As COO for its global communications function, she transformed disparate country structures into a successful operating model used by a worldwide team, including the creation of a popular mentoring programme for highpotential employees at all levels.

Charmian Love Co-founder and director, Volans Love has worked with the likes of HP, Allianz and Nike to develop successful social-innovation models and forge cross-industry partnerships. A regular speaker on social change at global events, she has written for Harvard Business Review and is helping to co-ordinate the launch of the B Corp movement in the UK. She was part of the UK Corporate Forms working group for the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce, and is a trustee of both the 3D Investment Foundation and Shared Impact, and a BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network member.

Gillian Lyng Head of strategy and governance, Deutsche Bank Focusing on delivering strategic service improvement and achieving signifcant cost-saving, Lyng runs strategy and governance for the bank's corporate banking and securities business services technology department.

She mentors junior female colleagues to help strengthen their ambitions and successfully nominated the Helen Bamber Foundation as one of Deutsche Bank’s UK Charities of the Year. An active volunteer, she has secured two Deutsche Bank Community Awards for the Hackney Winter Night Shelter.

Matthew Partovi Senior product marketing manager, Microsoft As a senior manager, Partovi leads strategy and delivery of global Offce 365 community events at Microsoft.

He worked with PwC before he was headhunted by the enterprise social network Yammer, contributing to its growth before it was acquired by Microsoft. A founding member of the independent global community Responsive Org, he is a co-founder of WeWorkUnbound. He also founded Culturevist, a collective improving workplace culture and offering practical interventions in charities.

Jim Westropp → Private banker, Barclays Wealth & Investment Management Westropp manages a high-net-worth portfolio of private clients within the fnancial-markets propositions team at Barclays. He makes a substantial contribution to business development and new-client acquisition, generating a multi-million-pound revenue stream.

He served in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo as a captain in the Welsh Guards and organised a run, cycle and kayak back from Bosnia to London, which raised £50,000 for charity. In 2012, he co-founded the Peter Westropp Memorial Trust in memory of his cousin, which has so far supported carers in the UK to the tune of £100,000.

Viscose-mix jersey dress, £675, and nappa-leather bag, £POA, both GIORGIO ARMANI

Ones to Watch • Brummell Caroline Graham ← Senior leader, Barclays Graham has worked at Barclays since 2007. She has spent the past three years in India, supporting the building of Barclays Operations in Chennai and Mumbai, and setting up a new-change organisation for Barclays Investment Bank and Wealth Management functions globally.

The founder of Barclays’ Women’s Initiatives Network in India, reaching almost 15,000 employees, she is also the editor-in-chief of WeAreTheCity India, a website that receives a million hits each month. She is a founder member of the Women on the Wharf network and the newest board member of the London Women’s Forum.

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Daniel Ricard Co-leader, GLEE@PwC Following a global career in fnancial and professional services, Ricard founded and now co-leads GLEE@ PwC. An inclusive business network for ‘Gays, Lesbians and Everyone Else’, it currently has 500 members. He has expanded its reach beyond London to the Midlands, the North and Scotland, and connected PwC’s LGBT networks globally. He has also advised many of the frm’s clients on creating their own networks and organised numerous joint events. He supports several charities and has been a guest speaker at diversity and inclusion panel events.

Jane Seabridge Head of business management, Lombard Asset Finance and RBS Invoice Finance/Transaction Services UK, and mentor, Commercial & Private Banking, RBS Group Working across customer-relationship management, strategic delivery and executive-team roles, Seabridge delivers transformational programmes at RBS and helps market-leading frms make long-term investment decisions. She is involved in the RBS Focused Women’s Network and is a founding member of Back to Business Basics, which promotes awareness in schools of the importance of businesses to the UK economy.

Jason Turner Director and client adviser, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management Turner manages family-offce and ultra-high-net-worth clients at Deutsche AWM and has advised people in the world of tennis, golf and Formula One, as well as senior law-frm partners and entrepreneurs. He is a business ambassador for the School of Hard Knocks, which uses contact sport to change the lives of young people, and brought together a board of infuential City fgures to raise funds. He was recently approached by Sporteducate to become a trustee of Southwark Tigers, an inner-city rugby club.

Matt Wertheim CFA, Algo Sales & Trading Services, Liquidnet Since he joined Liquidnet’s graduate programme in 2010, Wertheim has worked across sales, trading and capital markets in both London and New York.

He has played a key role in automating client workfow, while continuing to allow clients to execute block trades.

His function helped the company expand its algorithmic business in London to achieve a record revenue growth of 43 per cent last year. A serial fundraiser, he ran 14 half-marathons in 2013/14 and is an active supporter of Rwanda’s Agahozo Shalom Youth Village.

Emilie West Client services manager, RBS, corporate and institutional banking West is responsible for driving initiatives to deliver customer-service excellence for RBS’s large corporate and institutional customers. She is an active member of the community-investment programme and a mentor to young people both within and beyond the bank. Passionate about developing aspiring female talent within the banking industry, she chairs the RBS Focused Women’s Personal Development Committee for London and the South East, which hosts bespoke skills-development and networking sessions for members.

The panel Our expert judges, all inspirational professionals in their own right, are well qualifed to recognise the next generation of rising stars in the City

Miranda Abraham Head of emerging markets, loans syndicate, Barclays Abraham manages the underwriting, pricing, syndication strategy and liquidity for loans in CEEMEA regions.

As an executive director on the board of Women in Banking & Finance and the head of the Women on Boards programme, she has led campaigns to create opportunities for women in the boardroom. A senior sponsor for Barclays Women’s Initiatives Network, she sits on the Women on the Wharf and Barclays steering committees. She chairs the Kensington & Chelsea branch of the National Childbirth Trust charity.

Richard Brass Head of UK clients, Berenberg Brass joined Berenberg to establish its London private-banking offce.

He previously worked at Schroders Private Banking and co-founded the European offce of Compass Advisers, having qualifed as a chartered accountant with KPMG. The founder of the award-winning Impact Ventures UK, he is a director of the Montpelier Foundation and a member of the UK Cabinet’s Investment and Contract Readiness Fund. He sits on the boards of the advisory council of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Institute for Family Business.

Clive Furness Managing director, Contango Markets Following a career as a coffee broker and trader, Furness joined the J Aron division of Goldman Sachs in 1987.

He was appointed director of business and market development at the London Commodity Exchange and London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange and, in 1999, went on to found Contango Markets. The frm specialises in product and market development for exchanges, banks, IDBs, clearing houses and technology companies, and has developed into one of the world’s leading derivatives and commodities consultancies.

Anita Karppi Managing director, K&K Global Consulting Ltd Karppi set up K&K Global Consulting Ltd (K&KGC) in 2008 to build a global buy-side community. It operates the Alpha Trader Forum (ATF) and Asia Buy-side Forum (ABF) for heads of equity, fxed income and FX trading, which meet to discuss issues pertinent to the marketplace. It also launched the Buy-side Perspectives in-depth research reports and private portal buysideintel.com. Karppi mentors students aiming for a career in fnance and was asked to open the markets at the London Stock Exchange in 2013.

Emma Mitchell Diversity and inclusiveness leader, EY Mitchell has 20 years’ global experience working in organisational change and human resources as an internal and external consultant at PwC, HSBC and now, EY. In her current role, she leads inclusiveness and diversity for EY’s EMEIA fnancial-services practice and thrives on achieving aims thought impossible by organisations. She pursues multiple passions alongside her work and this has included lecturing in HR, fundraising, completing a Masters in sustainability and business practice, and working in a school in Peru for pupils with special educational needs.

Birgit Neu Managing director, Neuchange Neu has extensive corporate experience and previously worked at HSBC in various roles, including head of private-banking initiative for its commercial bank and COO positions within its global banking and markets business. She founded culture-change consultancy Neuchange in 2013 as MD, and currently co-chairs the Network of Networks for Gender, a best-practice sharing forum for gender employeenetwork heads from 100 corporates and Government agencies. Neu also writes a regular How To column for Harper’s Bazaar At Work online.

Special thanks to all those who submitted nominations Photographer’s assistant: Chris Bromley Hair, make-up and grooming: Carol Morley

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Brummell promotion

CITY FOCUS David Clulow’s designer spectacles and prescription sunglasses by luxury brands such as Oliver Peoples, Paul Smith, Persol and Prada are worn at work and play alike by discerning professionals

Brummell promotion

Frame work

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In business, the right pair of glasses is just as crucial to creating a favourable impression as a well-chosen pair of shoes – and optician David Clulow passes the eye test every time

Words: Mansel Fletcher

Nothing a man wears will affect his appearance and the image he conveys as much as his glasses.

And, at David Clulow, whether you’re seeking optical frames with prescription lenses, or Italian sunglasses, the power to shape the way you look and the impression you’ll make is in your hands.

Take two extremes: compare the wire-rimmed spectacles worn by John Lennon to the heavy black frames favoured by Michael Caine in his Sixties heyday. Whether you’re heading out for a business meeting, a social function or even a romantic rendezvous, it’s worth giving the matter some thought – do you want to ‘give peace a chance’ or ‘blow the bloody doors off’?

When it comes to frame styles, there are four shapes that stand out. The frst and most discreet is either rimless or wire-framed. These can almost disappear against the face and thus represent a grown-up choice. However, they don’t add much pleasure to the business of wearing glasses. To sport rimless spectacles is arguably to miss out on the opportunity to use glasses as a fattering accessory.

A more stylish choice, and one that’s suitable for men of all ages, are Thirties-style ‘panto’ frames.

Reassuringly, the name has nothing to do with Widow Twankey, being instead an abbreviation of pantoscopic, the term that describes the slight tilt given to the frame front. Timelessly elegant, they typically come in tortoiseshell. This is the style Christian Bale wears in American Psycho (Oliver Peoples’ O’Malley model, should you be wondering), and it’s the shape currently favoured by the ‘new gents’ – those young guys interested in classic tailoring. ‘Pantos’ have appealingly bookish connotations and are well suited to a business environment, since they look serious but not geeky.

If you wish to make more of a statement, then look for thicker frames in colours that contrast with your skin tone. It’s hard to think of a better

example than Caine (again) in The Ipcress File: his thick, dark frames contrast powerfully with his fair hair and skin, but he has the confdence to carry them off. It’s a very contemporary look, right down to the horizontally orientated frames.

The late shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis’s thick frames made an even more impressive statement – although it might be worth waiting until you, like Onassis, are the boss before you wear them to the offce. When you’re ready, try Oliver Peoples’ Bradford model.

Meanwhile, a different set of associations altogether is conjured up by Ray-Ban’s Clubmaster frames. Their design, which combines plastic with metal, puts one in mind of late Fifties and early Sixties Americana – they’re like something from an early series of Mad Men. It’s a style that was frequently worn by Malcolm X, who was as stylish as he was controversial. Perhaps he was drawn to them for the intellectual air they lend the wearer.

In the end, every pair of glasses says something about the man wearing them, how he sees himself and, crucially, how he wants to be seen. Whether you wish to project the persona of a spy, a shipping tycoon or a civil-rights leader, just make sure your frames say all the right things about you. l davidclulow.com

Seeing is believing: David Clulow’s range of high-end frames mean neither style nor vision is compromised.

From top: O’Malley and Bradford, both Oliver Peoples, 9649 by Persol, and Clubmaster by Ray-Ban

On Wednesday 10 June, David Clulow will be hosting an exclusive Brummell in-conversation reader event at its Cabot Place, Canary Wharf store. The celebrity- portrait photographer Lorenzo Agius (lorenzo-agius.com) will be showcasing some of his most iconic images and revealing how he has captured the essence of such diverse subjects as Madonna, Liam Gallagher and the Queen during his 25-year career.

To confrm your attendance, email your name and contact details to brummell@showmedialondon.com.

Guests will qualify for a 10 per cent in-store discount.

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Brummell • Creative talent

This page: ‘Network’ by Tom Price, one of the works appearing in The Line, a new sculpture trail in East London Opposite: The Line’s co-founder Megan Piper, photographed at The Fine Art Society

Beginners’ pluck From popcorn to pop-up spaces, it takes grit to take a creative passion and turn it into a way of life. Meet fve tyros whose ideas are changing our worlds

Words: Bella Dickie Photography: Trent McMinn

Megan Piper, 30 Co-founder of The Line Young art dealer Megan Piper is a force to be reckoned with. ‘When I get an idea in my head, I’m single-minded in my approach and don’t like to take no for an answer,’ she says resolutely.

She has harnessed this gritty determination to launch her latest project, The Line, an ambitious world-class sculpture trail linking the Olympic Park and the 02 Arena via the waterways of East London. ‘So much extraordinary art is hidden from public view in storage and studios,’ Piper explains. ‘I wanted to shine a light on this unseen world-class work through an outdoor exhibition that is free, accessible and open to all.’

To kick-start the scheme, Piper teamed up with urban regeneration expert Clive Dutton and recruited an infuential team of supporters, including photographer David Bailey, Turner

Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger and architect Lord Rogers. She also raised more than £140k in just seven weeks via a Crowdfunding campaign.

Despite her age, Piper is practically a veteran of the art world and she has nurtured an entrepreneurial spark ever since her teenage years, when she ran a stall in Camden Market. After university, she worked as a gallery co-ordinator for art handlers Momart, looking after the Gagosian Gallery, White Cube and the Serpentine. But a visit to an exhibition on Seventies’ artists at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery in 2010 inspired her to quit her job and set up The Piper Gallery in Fitzrovia. ‘A lot of young galleries showcase only emerging talent,’ she explains. ‘I wanted a space to celebrate and rediscover mature artists.’

The Piper Gallery closed at the end of 2013;

however, Piper continues to represent the artists and holds talks and viewings at her Mayfair home.

For now, though, Piper’s focus is on The Line, which is opening on 23 May. Nine sculptures, from artists including Damien Hirst and Gary Hume, have been selected by an independent panel for the frst phase, and a curator has been enlisted to work on the future development of the programme – which Piper hopes will become a permanent fxture in the capital. ‘I’ve lived in London my whole life and feel very passionately about the city and its constant ability to surprise,’ she says. ‘Hence the fun of merging previously unseen artwork with the largely unexplored industrial and natural landscape of East London – it’s a totally new and fresh perspective.’ the-line.org

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Brummell • Creative talent

This page from top: Work in progress; George Butler’s pens, inks and watercolours Opposite: The artist in his studio in Peckham

George Butler, 30 Artist and illustrator George Butler is something of an anomaly in today’s reportage of confict and current affairs.

Whereas a war photographer documents with his camera, Butler sits quietly in situ with sketchbook, ink and watercolour, recording details of daily life around confict zones in Africa, Syria and Lebanon. In August 2012, he walked with the Free Syrian Army from Turkey across the border into Syria, where he spent four days drawing the deserted, bomb-damaged town of Azaz.

‘I will never forget the road into Syria,’ says Butler. ‘We passed an exploded petrol station, houses blown inside out, young boys playing on burnt-out army tanks, and visited hospital wards full of children who had lost limbs. When I look at my drawings, so many memories food back.’

Six months later, Butler returned to document

the plight of Syrian refugees. His illustrations were printed in newspapers including The Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel, and reported on BBC World News, CNN and BBC World Service.

Amid the media scrum to provoke and shock with ever-more gruesome and violent images of war, Butler’s more subtle approach to record the personal stories behind the front-line horror is powerfully evocative. While visiting refugee settlements in northern Lebanon, he drew collections of the few possessions families had escaped Syria with. ‘Most of it was junk,’ says Butler, ‘but junk they couldn’t throw away because it connected them to their former lives: the TV remote control, keys for a lost motorbike, a photo of a son left behind so he could attend school.

This was the reality of war.’

And although danger is ever-present (Butler narrowly escaped being kidnapped while crossing into Mali in 2010), the rewards for the intimate observational reporter are compelling: ‘It’s an incredible feeling to immerse yourself in a civilian scene for a few hours. You have people looking over your shoulder, wanting to write their names on your page. You gain trust, and are invited into places you would never normally gain access to.’

Further to his war reportage, Butler’s work has taken him all over the world: depicting elephants in India, oil felds in Azerbaijan, Saxon villages in Transylvania and even a neo-Nazi murder trial.

He has won the Editorial Illustration and Overall Winner Awards at the V&A Illustration Awards and an International Media Award. georgebutler.org

Creative talent • Brummell

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Opposite: Cassandra Stavrou at Propercorn’s headquarters in King’s Cross This page: Playful packaging and design is a key part of the Propercorn brand

Cassandra Stavrou, 31 Founder of Propercorn The snack-food industry is a notoriously saturated and challenging market for newcomers, and yet Cassandra Stavrou’s Propercorn brand (‘Popcorn done properly’) has skyrocketed since its launch in 2011. Propercorn is currently stocked in fve countries, the company sells more than two million brightly illustrated packets of handpopped corn each month, and it is confdently predicting a £15m turnover for 2015.

The idea was born out of Stavrou’s acute observations of people’s eating habits – and the snack options available – while she was working at an advertising agency in Soho. ‘I found it all so uninspiring,’ she recalls, ‘and wanted to create a genuinely healthy snack without the trade-off of bland taste and dull packaging.’ That same year, she gave up her job, moved back home and turned

the family kitchen into an experimentation lab.

‘I ransacked supermarket shelves for every spice and seasoning under the sun, then invested in an oil spray to mist the popcorn. Pretty much the entire downstairs of the house was covered in a flm of grease,’ she admits.

An injection of seed capital in 2011 allowed the company to fnally launch, but it was a steep learning curve for the then-27-year-old entrepreneur. ‘There was a lot of frustration along the way, because I really had no clue what I was doing – no idea how to deal with manufacturers or how to put together a business plan. However, on refection, it taught me some valuable lessons – in particular about having business principles you’re not prepared to compromise on. Clarity and conviction are key.’

It wasn’t long before Propercorn had won an impressive list of big-name brand accounts, which included Google, Leon, Harvey Nichols and Waitrose. And from there, demand has multiplied, each new stockist drawn not only to the quality and taste of the product (there are fve favours available so far), but the company’s sense of integrity – and the creative consideration that goes into every tiny detail. Even the cardboard supply boxes, which no consumer will see, are decorated with the same playful style of illustration of the individual popcorn bags.

‘We rarely outsource anything,’ says Stavrou.

‘Everyone under the Propercorn banner is involved in the process of everything we produce.

It’s what keeps the brand fresh and exciting.’ propercorn.com

This page: Pop-up space to rent at Old Street station Opposite: Appear Here founder Ross Bailey

Ross Bailey, 22 Founder of Appear Here Pop-up shops are the fastest-growing business sector in the UK, contributing around £2.1bn to the economy each year. And at the forefront of this trend is Ross Bailey, whose London-based digital start-up Appear Here has created a retail-letting platform that makes renting a shop as effortless as booking a hotel room.

In the two years since its launch, Appear Here has disrupted the retail-property market and made costly long-term leases and muddling middlemen a thing of the past. ‘Renting through an agent is a lengthy process that will take, on average, three to six months,’ says Bailey. ‘But on Appear Here last month, we completed 50 per cent of bookings in just 48 hours.’

The platform now has 10,000 brands using its site – from Marc Jacobs, Google and Net-a-Porter

through to tiny independent labels – and has lured eight of the UK’s biggest landlords on board. The result is a smorgasbord of rental opportunities, from the industrial Boxpark in Shoreditch to Mayfair’s iconic Burlington Arcade.

Even Transport for London has jumped in on the action, letting out its formerly soulless underground spaces to a thriving hub of pop-up juice bars and coffee shops. Bailey mentions that a restaurant is due to open in the former men’s washroom of Old Street station, urinals and all.

One of the ideas for Appear Here actually came from Bailey’s own experiences of creating a pop-up on Carnaby Street during the 2012 Diamond Jubilee. Securing the space was a ‘nightmare’, and he was eventually banned by Buckingham Palace for selling punk T-shirts of

the Queen, but the experience was invaluable.

‘Shortly afterwards, a big international brand called to see if I could source them a pop-up shop for the Olympics. I thought, hang on a minute, if they’re desperate enough to ring a random kid – and are experiencing the same stress that I went through – then this is defnitely a problem worth focusing on and committing to.’

After a seed round of £1.2m in 2013, Appear Here recently secured £4.8m of new funding and the company now looks set for international domination. ‘Our aim is to become global-marketbased,’ says Bailey. ‘In the same way you can go on Airbnb and rent a room anywhere in the world, we want people to be able to rent a space, in any city, that will make their idea happen.’ appearhere.co.uk

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Brummell • Creative talent Clockwise from left: Rohan Dhir in his East London offce; Archibald Optics’ beautiful packaging; and individual, handcrafted frames

Rohan Dhir, 26 Founder of Archibald Optics Young entrepreneur and design enthusiast Rohan Dhir is on a mission to disrupt the entire notion of retail as we know it. Starting with eyewear. ‘The concept behind Archibald Optics,’ Dhir explains, ‘is that we take the best product in the industry and apply a craftsman-to-consumer model to it – cutting out the middleman and sourcing the fnest artisans in the world to make that product.’

Pricing at Archibald Optics is highly competitive (from just £175 including lenses) and service is swift – once customers have ordered their eyewear online, the frames and lenses are then handmade and ftted in Japan, and shipped direct to the customer’s door within eight days.

However, Dhir insists that, in terms of quality, his glasses are superior to offerings from well-known luxury specialists, and that an equivalent product

on the high street would retail at around £650.

At a time when many industries are sacrifcing product quality to increase income margins, Dhir considers what he is doing as a return to tradition: ‘To buy a good-quality pair of shoes 200 years ago, people would travel to fnd the best cobbler.

I’ve travelled to fnd the best craftsmen in the world, and I’m proof that you can offer the fnest product at a fair price.’

Eager to explore the full spectrum of the eyewear market, Dhir decided to travel to China, Germany and Italy shortly after graduating from Columbia University in New York, but he was disheartened by what he found. ‘Much of the manufacturing in Italy was just two screws going into a product from China. And when it comes to Chinese export manufacturing, they will cut every

single corner possible.’ Dhir’s quest for master craftsmen eventually led him to Japan, and into the centuries-old Fukui community of optical artisans. ‘The story behind the optical industry in Japan is amazing,’ says Dhir. ‘They have been perfecting their craft for about 150 years, although they are often reluctant to work for foreign brands.’

It took him months to build relationships with the artisans, to help them understand the company and the fact he wanted to ‘take their art and preserve it’.

Dhir hasn’t looked back since and, with the success to date of Archibald Optics, is confdent he can roll out his disruptive business model across all sorts of industries. ‘As long as craftsmanship is valued and consumers are paying unfair mark-ups, we can break into any category.’ archibaldoptics.com

Auctioneers & Valuers Antiques | Jewellery | Watches

The Watch Sale Vintage & Modern Wrist watches, pocket watches and accessories.

Visit www.fellows.co.uk to view catalogues and the monthly auction calendar.

Fellows Auctioneers www.fellows.co.uk Saleroom & Head Office 0121 212 2131 | 19 Augusta Street, Birmingham B18 6JA London Office 020 7127 4198 | 2nd Floor, 3 Queen Street, London W1J 5PA

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N O Ë L C O WA R D ’ S

DESIGN FOR LIVING

ACT TWO: SCENE I

is Leo’s flat in London. It is only a flat but very comfortably furnished. Two French windows at the back open onto a small balcony, which, in turn, overlooks a square. It is several floors up, so only the tops of trees can be seen; these are brown and losing their leaves, as it is autumn. Down stage, on the Right, are double doors leading to the hall. Above these, a small door leads to the kitchen. On the Left, up stage, another door leads to the bedroom and bathroom.

There is a large picture of G I L D A , painted by O T T O , hanging on the wall. The furniture may be left to the producer’s discrimination.

THE SCENE

N O Ë L C O WA R D C O I N E D T H E P H R A S E ‘ D E S I G N F O R L I V I N G ’.

W E T H I N K H E WA S O N T O S O M E T H I N G .

W W W. B A N D A P R O P E R T Y. C O . U K • L O N D O N

New faces

Young brands secure their places in the horological pantheon with timepieces that will prove to be future classics

Photography: Andy Barter Words: Simon de Burton

Clockwise from top left: BELL & ROSS BR 01-92 10th Anniversary; RICHARD MILLE RM61-01 Monochrome; SEVEN FRIDAY P1B-1; STRUTHERS FOR MORGAN ‘Trench’; BREMONT Jaguar MKII; LINDE WERDELIN SpidoSpeed Carbon Green

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Brummell • Watches

Linde Werdelin SpidoSpeed Carbon Green ↑ Former banker Jorn Werdelin and designer Morten Linde established Linde Werdelin in 2002, unveiling the brand’s frst collection four years later. Its watches are unique in serving as platforms for a pair of dedicated clip-on sports computers: the Rock, for skiing, and the Reef, for diving. Each watch design is produced in small editions, and the watches and ‘instruments’ can be bought as a pair or individually. The SpidoSpeed Carbon Green is a skeletonised sports chronograph with a lightweight forged-carbon case, vivid green accents and a tough textile strap. Only 99 examples will be made. £15,900; lindewerdelin.com

Bell & Ross BR 01-92 10th Anniversary ↑ When Bell & Ross was launched in 1992, founders Carlos Rosillo and Bruno Belamich created their own designs and farmed out the making of the brand’s frst models to the German watchmaker Sinn. But after 10 years, Bell & Ross went solo with its own Swiss production facility and, in 2005, launched a square watch that quickly acquired a cult following. The BR 01 was intended to look as if it had been ripped from the cockpit of a fghter jet, with its raw look and hefty 46mm dimensions.

Its frst decade is celebrated with this anniversary model with a ceramic case. Just 500 will be made. £3,300; bellross.com

Bremont Jaguar MKII ↑ Although less than a decade has passed since the frst Bremont went on sale, the privately owned British brand is now regarded as a serious horological player, producing about 6,000 watches a year. The new MKII chronograph is the result of an offcial collaboration with Jaguar and pays tribute to the celebrated E-Type, with dial markings inspired by the car’s dashboard instruments, a classic ‘driver’s strap’ and tyre-tread engraving on the winding crown. Turning the watch over reveals the icing on the cake – an automatic winding rotor that resembles a miniature E-Type steering wheel. £4,950; bremont.com

Richard Mille RM61-01 Monochrome ↑ In just 15 years, Richard Mille has established itself at the forefront of avant-garde haute horology with distinctive, cushion-cased watches made from high-tech materials. Despite the eye-watering price tags, the brand isn’t afraid to place its products in extreme situations by strapping them on the wrists of elite sportsmen. Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake is a brand ambassador in whose honour Richard Mille has created three models to date, the latest being the RM61-01 Monochrome, with a carbon and ceramic case and an ultra-shock-resistant titanium movement. It is limited to 50 pieces. £93,500; richardmille.com

Seven Friday P1B-1 ↑ Seven Friday is a three-year-old Zurich-based brand that is enjoying phenomenal success with its range of distinctive Chinese-made watches, which are powered by robust and reliable Japanese mechanical movements. The unusual case shape and generally quirky design are an acquired taste, but the watches are well made, imaginative and good value for money. The P1B-1 is the latest evolution in the ‘industrial look’ P1 range and features disc sub-dials for 24-hour indication and small seconds to complement the main time display. It is available in a range of bright hues. £675; sevenfriday.com

Struthers for Morgan ‘Trench’ ↑ Master watchmaker Craig Struthers and wife jeweller-silversmith Rebecca only began making watches in 2013, after winning the Design Innovation Award at International Jewellery London with their frst effort, a self-winding pendant suspended inside a gimbal. The duo subsequently approached the Morgan Motor Company with the idea of creating a series of made-to-order timepieces for Morgan drivers using vintage Omega movements and classic styling – a typical example of which is the ‘Trench’, which features a sterling-silver case with a hinged back and bespoke, lizard-skin strap. £10,500; struthers-london.co.uk

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The Brummell website – brummellmagazine.co.uk – is an essential resource: your edited selection of the very best in style, culture, travel, watches, food, drink, technology and motoring. Featuring exclusive interviews, videos and reportage, it’s the indispensable daily update of the little black book for the City.

Board games

Combining exhilarating waves, tropical beaches and yogic bliss, India’s idiosyncratic nascent surf scene offers an unforgettable experience

Words: Ian Belcher

Have you ever driven through an Indian city? It’s unforgettable: a crazed tangle of taxis, scooters and tuk-tuks, threaded with cyclists, pedestrians, shiny 4WDs and the odd naked holy man. Somehow, obeying its own law of dynamic fow, it works.

Now imagine that ever-tightening knot transferred to Kerala’s Arabian Sea. Instead of vehicles, there are screaming, splashing youngsters, fshing boats – the frenzied crowd occasionally exiting the water to drag the day’s catch onto Edava’s sands – and nippy surfers who, every so often, catch the point break and slice through the mob as if protected by an invisible force feld.

Do not adjust your set. That’s surfng and India.

The subcontinent’s nascent southern-state surfng scene doesn’t claim to rival South Africa’s Jeffreys Bay or California’s Mavericks, but offers warm, shallow waves alongside intoxicating tropical culture. Gnarly surf obsessives need not apply, but for anyone else, it promises an exhilarating, unique and often surreal experience.

Edava’s joyous weekly riot of surfng and fshing is run by Soul & Surf, a petite retreat that was launched by two coolly enterprising Brits, Sofe and Ed Templeton. Having introduced the frst qualifed surf instructors to India, they’re now aiming to shape the sport’s development for local good.

‘One day it will be huge,’ predicts laid-back surf assistant Olly Thresh, as we walk past Edava’s pea-green mosque. ‘There’ll be rentals, repairs,

I try to stand, my right leg collapses, and I fall off – a sequence I repeat for two hours

tuition and equipment shops. I’d rather locals ran them, then the whole community benefts.’

But Soul & Surf, based in a stylish, relaxed cliff-top lodge an hour’s drive north of Trivandrum, doesn’t just teach whiplash-thin Keralan kids. It also offers beginners’ classes; ‘pop-up’ weeks in Indonesia, the Andaman Islands and Sri Lanka; and daily guided trips for experienced surfers to nearby breaks such as River Temple’s powerful leftie, Jengos’ long wall wave, and Jay Bay’s blast past the state’s best-sited teashop.

I’m not a total rookie. I surfed long ago while living in Cape Town, but it wasn’t pretty and I’m rusty – a perfect candidate for a week’s tuition on unintimidating waves. I’m nursing a damaged right hip, but Qatar Airways’ spacious business class eases the long-haul pain, and I’m hoping Soul & Surf’s massages and yoga classes will do the same.

It quickly becomes apparent this isn’t north Cornwall. At 6.45am, our fve-strong class clambers into a green Mahindra Jeep (the other buggy is a pimped Hindustan Ambassador taxi) and drives to Main Beach, whose honey-coloured sands are empty but for a meditating Dutch tourist.

After we’ve practised popping up on the board, guides Jasper and Olly push us into the froth.

I try to stand, my right leg collapses, and I fall off – a sequence I repeat for two hours. Class over.

I need help. Step forward, Lucy Foster-Perkins.

The contemporary dancer blends rooftop yoga with

Cecil B DeMille sunsets. Vinyasa Flow and surfng are perfectly paired, she explains, not just for their ‘in-the-moment’ focus, but for their reliance on balance, strength and deep metronomic breathing.

‘It takes your mind to parts of your physique without looking,’ she says. ‘Perfect for catching a wave.’

Soul & Surf provides further inspiration by screening classic surf flms, such as Big Wednesday, a tale of lost innocence among Sixties California dudes, all ripped torsos, sun-bleached hair and breathtaking surfng. Projected onto a sheet beneath the palms, they’re accompanied by curry-leaf pizza, the whisper of breaking waves and hypnotic lightning – eat your heart out, Curzon Mayfair.

It has to help. Surely. But the next day’s lesson shows little improvement. Nor the next. Classmates advance to turns on more muscular sea, while I still pop up and fall down. Trapped at briny base camp.

Just by being here, however, I’ve already caught one major wave. Surfng is breaking rapidly along India’s 7,000km-long shoreline. When Ed arrived in 2008, there were 30 enthusiasts across Kovalam, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where Surfng Swamis – religious devotees of a Californian wave-riding guru – had established their famous ashram. Now, nine groups of foreigners offer lessons, and the holy surfers employ qualifed instructors alongside running a dealership for one of the planet’s biggest surf-distribution companies. ‘I used to know everyone who surfed in India,’ says Ed. ‘Now there are hundreds. Soon there’ll be thousands.’

By day four, it seems unlikely that number will include me. My right leg remains unstable, so after visiting the village temple, complete with flea-bitten elephant, I seek alternative guidance. Palm-reader Deva Madhavan, possessor of a 1,000-watt smile, meets me in a café. He scrutinises my right hand, before issuing staccato predictions: my eyesight will fail, business partners will rip me off, I’ll inherit an illness from my father – ‘I’m 99-per-cent certain it’s piles.’ Yet, when it comes to surfng, he sounds like a cornered politician: ‘You’ll be safe in the water. Avoid alcohol and you’ll avoid accidents.’

It’s wonderfully vague. I want precise predictions.

‘Well, you won’t drown,’ he says.

I pull out all the stops on the remaining days: regular dusk yoga, extra pranayama (dynamic breathing) and refuelling on a nine-dish Ayurvedic banquet. Sadly, I remain hopeless. Mr Madhavan was right to be cautious. But who’s complaining?

Surfng in India is unique. Like its extraordinary chaotic traffc, it’s simply unforgettable. l Standing room only Opposite: The feet of surfboards at Soul & Surf. From top: ‘Minty’ the Jeep; practising on Edava’s Main Beach before entering the waves

Soul & Surf (soulandsurf.com) offers seven nights’ B&B from £210pp from October to May, including daily surf-guiding. Six beginners’ lessons and daily yoga costs £145. Qatar Airways (qatarairways.com) fies to Trivandrum via Doha from £432 return

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Brummell • Men’s style

Beyond bespoke Dolce & Gabbana’s men’s couture service is producing some truly one-of-a-kind pieces, showcasing the fnest Italian craftsmanship

Words: Peter Howarth

At an intimate cocktail party held in Milan earlier this year, Stefano Gabbana explained how the idea for his new project took shape. There was, he said, a customer enquiry. In front of a roaring fre, in the ornate red-silk-wallpapered reception room adjacent to the house’s permanent show space, he relates how he received a phone call from a stranger in China. ‘This man got in touch. He was the husband of one of our couture customers, and she had bought this beautiful dress that featured printed reproductions of a Canaletto painting.

He said, “I would like you to make me a matching suit.” I explained that, unfortunately, this would be impossible, as we had only acquired the rights to reproduce the image of the Canaletto once, for the dress. “Don’t worry,” he said, “you can use mine!” He had his own Canaletto!’

With this, a seed was planted. What if Dolce & Gabbana were to create a couture service for men? It does it for women. But what about the husbands and partners of those customers? And the many men out there who want something unique and special that goes beyond the type of thing routinely offered by bespoke tailors?

Last year, the frst steps towards realising this project were taken with the opening of Dolce & Gabbana’s atelier for bespoke menswear in Corso Venezia in Milan. Here, the Italian design duo

Matt Lever

Think of menswear as a blank canvas where luxury materials and artisanal skills can create remarkable pieces

have created an extension of the 16th-century neoclassical palazzo that already houses their menswear store and in-house martini bar.

The new space, dedicated to bespoke tailoring, has a relaxed, beautifully curated interior, and features work by Italian architect and industrial and furniture designer Giò Ponti. This is a place conceived to replicate the kind of work Domenico Dolce remembers his father doing in his tailoring workshop near Palermo in Sicily, where the young designer served his apprenticeship.

While the new atelier has the sort of bespoke service you might be familiar with, offering a whole range of pieces, from two- or three-piece suits to shoes, coats, shirts, underwear and even pyjamas, Gabbana’s experience with the Chinese husband he’d spoken to suggested there was yet another level to be achieved.

Hence the new Dolce & Gabbana Alta Sartoria service, which is, says Dolce, ‘beyond bespoke’. Signifcantly, the name is a play on the Italian for couture – alta moda – meaning ‘high fashion’. The idea is simple: take the expert tailoring the bespoke atelier can deliver and add to its repertoire the type of detailed craftsmanship that is currently being employed in the making of couture for women – bespoke details such as embroidery, beading and decoration. In other

All in the details Opposite: Trying on a Dolce & Gabbana bespoke suit for size. This page, from top: Intricately embroidered jackets backstage at the Alta Sartoria show; tailoring precision at Dolce & Gabbana’s bespoke atelier

words, think of menswear as a blank canvas where luxury materials and artisanal skills can create remarkable pieces that will be truly unique.

The next step was the question of how to communicate the idea to the customer. Again, looking to women’s couture, the designers realised they could make a selection of one-off pieces to demonstrate their new offer and show them to an invited audience of customers. Breaking with the convention of men’s ready-to-wear catwalk shows, this would be a method directly mirroring the presentations made to private female customers.

To stage the show as an at-home experience, Dolce and Gabbana renovated yet more of their palazzo on Corso Venezia to create a salon-like atmosphere that would best beft a couture show.

In the process, they discovered a beautiful painted ceiling, which they had restored, and, together with the chandeliers, mirrors and parquet foor, created the perfect environment in which to launch their Alta Sartoria project.

To seduce the male halves of their existing couture customers, the show was staged on the day after the house’s women’s couture show this spring. Still in town, many of the women came back with their partners, but, notably, the audience also contained many unaccompanied males, who were there simply for themselves.

As for the clothes themselves, around half were what you might classify as ‘classically wearable’ – a range of suits and coats, cut and immaculately crafted from the fnest materials, with something of an aristocratic look about them. The remainder, however, were defnitely designed to show what Dolce & Gabbana can do in the rarefed arena of couture for men. Here, gold embroidery, elaborate decoration, piping, hand-stitched buttonholes, military-style frogging and beading jostled with astrakhan boots, dressing gowns, pyjamas, tuxedos and fowing overcoats.

‘This is not for the fashion customer,’ Dolce told us after the show, meaning he and Gabbana were doing this instead in a spirit that is a far cry from the mass appeal of ready-to-wear. This new show will take place twice a year and afterwards the designers host a lunch for their guests, before inviting them to purchase outfts from the catwalk, or variations on the outfts shown. You can visit the bespoke atelier at your leisure, and Dolce & Gabbana will also send a tailor from the team to wherever you are in the world, if required.

However, while it is fair to say you don’t have to own a Canaletto to commission your own Alta Sartoria outft, if you’re the kind of person who can afford an old master, you might fnd the prices less prohibitive – as each piece is designed as a one-off, there are no pricing guides at all. l Dolce & Gabbana Alta Sartoria, 13 Corso Venezia, Milan; dolcegabbana.com

Epicure • Brummell

Eating out in the capital has never been so exciting, and we take this opportunity to celebrate the young chefs who are bringing new fair and favour to London’s culinary scene. Offering a smorgasbord of ambitious and innovative styles and cuisines, these often-experimental cuisiniers have helped establish London as an international contender in the restaurant arena, right up there with New York, Tokyo and Copenhagen. The drinks experts behind our city’s bars are no slouches in the invention department, either, and we review the mixologists creating appetising blends with unconventional infusions. We also recommend truffe-based treats, sharpen up with Japanese knives based on samurai swords (right), and imbibe George Clooney’s tequila – leaving us both shaken and stirred.

Epicure Cutting-edge cuisine

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Brummell • Epicure

Season to taste ↑ Spring, the latest cookbook by Skye Gyngell, features 80-plus recipes from the Australian-born chef’s eponymous restaurant in Somerset House. Always inspired by seasonal produce, Gyngell is renowned for her understated, elegant cooking, and the menu here spans seafood, pasta and meat dishes, as well as salads, vegetables, breads, desserts and preserves. It’s more than just a collection of recipes, though: it also offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the restaurant’s creation, from Gyngell’s frst visit to the space to its design, development and opening two years later. Spring: The Cookbook is published on 14 May (Quadrille, £25); springrestaurant.co.uk New in town ↑ With a concept well timed for summer, chef Brett Redman has teamed up with fashion stylist Margaret Crow to open East London’s frst raw-seafood bar, The Richmond (therichmondhackney. com). Highlights include a range of oysters and clams, a rotating selection of carpaccios and tartares and a wide choice of ethically sourced fsh.

Also out east, Martin Morales has taken over the Alexandra Trust Dining Rooms for his latest venture, Ceviche Old Street (cevicheuk.com). It has a dedicated ceviche bar, Peruvian rotisserie and open charcoal grill, plus a bar serving pisco cocktails and craft beers from Britain and South America.

Opening on Mount Street in Mayfair, Le Chabanais (lechabanaislondon.com) takes its name from a Belle Époque absinthe drinking den. Conceived by the team behind renowned Parisian restaurant Le Chateaubriand, its menu will focus on European ingredients and be complemented by a concise wine list and a classic French cocktail menu.

Look sharp Drawing on more than 800 years of Japanese samurai sword-making knowledge, Tog’s fnely honed knives are beautiful, durable and, most importantly, razor-sharp.

Handmade in Seki City, the sword capital of Japan, the blades – 21 layers of stainless steel and copper alloy – are just 2mm thick. They come in three sizes: a 12.5cm paring knife, 17cm multipurpose knife and 21cm chef’s knife. Tog fans include British Culinary Federation Chef of the Year Adam Handling.

From £99.99; togknives.com

A new brew ↑ Move over, craft beer – the latest boutique beverage set to tantalise Londoners’ palates is mead. Gosnells, in Peckham, is the city’s frst brewery to concoct a modern version of the ancient drink. Weighing in at 5.5% abv – about a third of the strength of its ancestor – and slightly carbonated, Gosnells London Mead is deliciously sweet and refreshing, with intriguing foral notes that come from the fermented Spanish orange-blossom honey used as its base. Enjoy it at Dabbous, Barnyard, Tate Modern and The Swan at Shakespeare’s Globe, or buy it to savour at home from independent off-licences. gosnells.co.uk

Epicure • Brummell

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Reviving The Ivy ← Something of a national treasure, The Ivy has been one of the capital’s favourite theatre restaurants for nearly a century. On 1 June, however, it will reopen its doors to reveal a fresh new look, following its frst refurbishment in a quarter of a century. The past fve months have seen Martin Brudnizki Design Studio renew everything except its famous stained-glass windows – and it’s not just the decor that has had a thorough revamp. In the kitchen, executive chef Gary Lee has created a new menu of dishes with a Southern European and Asian twist, alongside The Ivy’s much-loved British staples. the-ivy.co.uk

Worth snuffing out ↓ Harrods’ lower-ground foor will soon be home to Tartuf & Friends, an Italian ‘truffe lounge’ that aims to present the celebrated delicacy in a variety of innovative forms. Everything on the menu is made using either black or white truffes – even the cocktail list features a truffe martini and a unique take on a margarita – and signature dishes include homemade tagliolini pasta with fresh truffe, and vanilla ice cream with pine nuts and dried fgs in truffe honey. Its walls, meanwhile, will display a series of prints illustrating the history of the truffe as far back as the 1500s. tartufandfriends.it

Where wine shines Just when you think Jason Atherton has done it all, he launches a new venture, and this time wine is taking centre stage. Social Wine & Tapas is a wine bar, shop and restaurant that will offer a selection of fne vintages and a tapas menu by Frankie Van Loo, formerly of Social Eating House. Sommelier Laure Patry has assembled great wines from all over the world and is also championing smaller growers. All serving staff will be oenophiles, too, so you can count on an informed service. socialwineandtapas.com

That’s the spirit ↑ George Clooney, bar and restaurant mogul Rande Gerber and Discovery Land Company CEO Mike Meldman know a thing or two about toasting good times. After many a night fuelled by their favourite tipple, tequila, the trio decided to create their own.

Called Casamigos, or ‘house of friends’, after the homes Clooney and Gerber both own in Mexico, the smooth-tasting tequila is made from seven-year-old hand-selected agaves. Available in blanco (new), reposado (rested in oak barrels) and añejo (aged) varieties, each batch must be approved by a master distiller and Gerber and Clooney themselves. From £62.99, at Selfridges; casamigostequila.com

Cocktails • Brummell

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Lifted spirits From concrete and clay to peppercorns and hay, London’s mixologists are experimenting with a remarkable range of new, infused favours

Words: Jane Fulcher Illustration: Cynthia Kittler

Long gone are the days when a bottle of melon vodka or cucumber-accented gin would satisfy the capital’s cocktail-makers. London’s best bars have been infusing their own spirits for years to give their cocktails an added dimension, but now mixologists are trying new combinations and techniques to create weird and wonderful favours.

Proving the point, beneath Roka on Charlotte Street (rokarestaurant.com) is a shochu lounge serving exquisitely favoured versions of this fashionable Japanese spirit. In fact, customers can ask for a particular infusion to be created and kept for them, which they can work their way through on repeat visits. Recommended are the plum and rose infusions, which work beautifully in a cocktail.

At Oblix (oblixrestaurant.com), Roka’s sister restaurant, which foats above the London skyline on the 32nd foor of The Shard, the focus is very much on American cocktails. In order to make a range of superb Manhattans, James Shearer, head barman for the group, started to age batches of the cocktail in decanters for more than six months in order to make the fnal concoction as delicious as possible. The addition of Oblix-made green tea and hibiscus liqueur gives this classic delicate foral notes, while the fg Manhattan has a nutty, treacly favour. As at Roka’s shochu lounge, Oblix will reserve a decanter for customers who want to keep their own reminder of Manhattan behind the bar.

Moving beyond foral and fruity notes, Bruno Loubet’s Grain Store, on Granary Square (grainstore.com), serves drinks with favours not usually seen on a cocktail menu, such as a savoury, umami-rich truffe martini. Elsewhere on the menu, biscuity champagne is coupled with hay liquor to provide an effervescence of earthiness.

Indeed, teetotallers can also enjoy something similar in the form of Hay and Grass Water.

There are even more intriguing experiments, with infusions being served up by the two men who could be said to lead London’s cocktail scene: Tony Conigliaro of 69 Colebrook Row

(69colebrookerow.com), Zetter Townhouse (thezettertownhouse.com) and Bar Termini (bar-termini.com), and Ryan Chetiyawardana of Whyte Lyan (whitelyan.com) in Hoxton and Dandelyan at Mondrian London (morganshotelgroup.com). At this chic bar with glorious views of the Thames, Chetiyawardana mixes cocktails infused with fresh fowers and served with edible blooms foating on top. There’s also the whisky-based Puff Grains and Chocolate, with hints of toasted grain and pink peppercorn, recommended as an ‘all-day pick-me-up’. But for something truly unusual, it has to be a Concrete Sazerac, crafted with cognac fltered through concrete to give ‘a crisp, stony edge’. Other exotic favours include chalk bitters and Douglas fr.

Conigliaro is inspired by similarly earthy favours and has his own lab dedicated to creating remarkable new libations. Having infused the favours of fint, clay, moss and nettles into the game-changing cocktails served at 69 Colebrook Row, the mixologist explores more traditional themes on the menu at his newest venture, Bar Termini on Old Compton Street. Alongside the negronis infused with rose are marsala martinis and bellinis favoured with almond blossom.

Cocktails and spirits infused with tobacco and smoke can now be found at many leading London bars. Their popularity means that venues such as Barts (barts-london.com) in Chelsea dedicate a whole section of the menu to smoky drinks.

The Cignature, featuring Lindisfarne mead, and the Smoke Screen, served in a box flled with apple-scented tobacco, are particular standouts.

It seems there’s no end to the variety of unusual taste sensations mixologists are crafting and that thirsty Londoners will try. It’s a manifestation of how molecular gastronomy has crossed over from the kitchen to the bar, and of how popular such experimentation has become. Not to mention the deeper pleasure to be derived from sipping any drink that’s been expertly and lovingly crafted. l

72

Brummell • Restaurants

New order

Young, visionary chefs continue to gravitate to London, where the choice of cuisines spans the globe and provenance is key

Words: Stefan Chomka

Food lovers of London, pinch yourselves. Never has there been a more exciting time to eat out in the capital, and never has there been such a crop of up-and-coming chefs to amaze and delight with their culinary talent. This year is truly a golden age for the London restaurant scene.

If this sounds like mere attention-grabbing hyperbole, then consider the chefs that have recently broken – or are on the verge of bursting – into the capital’s eating-out scene. Not least of these is Tomos Parry, the winning chef at the 2014 Young British Foodie awards, who is currently cooking up a storm in Mayfair. Hot-shot Parry swapped trendy Climpson’s Arch in East London for the more salubrious Shepherd Market late last year to open Kitty Fisher’s (kittyfshers.com), and it’s here that he is wowing diners and critics with food cooked over a bespoke wood grill. Ingredients such as calçots and beef from Galician milking cows have a delicate and tantalising smoky perfume, thanks to Parry’s deft touch with the grill.

Indeed, London is embracing a new kind of grillmanship – one that relies less on the sicklysweet glazes of the US Barbecue Belt that have inundated the UK in recent years, and instead takes its cues from the East. A major proponent of this is chef Sebastian Holmes, formerly of the excellent Thai street-food purveyor The Begging Bowl in Peckham and now ensconced behind the grill at Soho’s hottest new restaurant, Smoking Goat (smokinggoatsoho.com). Here, Holmes uses a wood-ember barbecue to produce Thai dishes that

More authentic and creative ethnic food is the calling card of 2015, thanks to a new wave of young chefs

pack a punch. He is also part of new start-up EatGrub, which is attempting to add insects to our diets – look out for barbecued crickets on the menu soon, perhaps?

More authentic and creative ethnic food is the calling card of 2015, thanks to a new wave of visionary young chefs. Erchen Chang and siblings Shing Tat and Wai Ting Chung, for example, are the triumvirate behind soon-to-open Bao in Soho (baolondon.com), serving authentic Taiwanese food. Backed by the family behind top London restaurants Kitchen Table and Gymkhana, Bao takes inspiration from the Xiao Chi, or ‘small eats’, establishments of Taipei, and sees the brand move from street-food stall to a permanent location. The trio’s signature bao – steamed milk buns – which include braised pork and lamb shoulder, will no doubt be the stars, but dishes such as lamb-tongue fries with curry dip will also see diners return.

Turkish-Cypriot chef Selin Kiazim is also looking to expand foodies’ culinary horizons by pulling Turkish cuisine out of the kebab shop and onto the London restaurant scene proper. Kiazim, who has worked with chef Peter Gordon at The Providores and also at Trip Kitchen & Bar in Haggerston for a six-month residency, has been dubbed one of the most exciting young talents in food. London awaits her frst permanent restaurant with bated breath and a hearty appetite.

Another chef used to being recognised as an emerging talent is Stevie Parle. He has already shone at his restaurant Dock Kitchen in Ladbroke

Full time Opposite: Insects for supper?

Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, says Sebastian Holmes.

This page, from top: Pickles line the counter at Portland; while ethnic cuisine gets a coolover at Bao and Typing Room

Grove for a number of years, and with his new venture, Craft London (craft-london.co.uk), he is now set to burn even brighter. Opening fully at Greenwich Peninsula in April, this is an ambitious restaurant where skills such as fsh-smoking, beekeeping, meat-curing and the fermentation of vegetables will come to the fore, along with forgotten vegetable-growing techniques such as clamping and forcing. Once again, the grill plays its part, with a huge hearth as its centrepiece for the cooking of dishes such as Stitchelton-cured Hereford sirloin over seasoned hardwood.

If Parle’s name is already familiar, that of Merlin Labron-Johnson is probably less so. Hailing from Devon, Labron-Johnson has previously lived up to his name by proving himself a wizard in the kitchen at the world-renowned In De Wulf restaurant in Belgium, and now he’s working his magic behind the stove at newly launched Portland in Fitzrovia (portlandrestaurant.co.uk). This smart restaurant has a strong pedigree, with a team whose experience includes time at the Quality Chop House in Farringdon and 10 Greek Street in Soho, but it’s the food that is really turning heads, including the legendary game pithivier.

Top UK chef Jason Atherton is also nurturing several chefs whose stars are in the ascendancy.

Lee Westcott, executive chef at Typing Room in Bethnal Green (typingroom.com), is one such person. He has worked alongside star chefs the likes of Tom Aikens and did stages at the internationally acclaimed Per Se in New York and Noma in Copenhagen before heading up two of Atherton’s restaurants in Hong Kong. Now he has swapped the Far East for East London, taking over the dining room in Bethnal Green Town Hall Hotel that was once home to top Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes’s Viajante and ensuring it remains a destination restaurant.

And then there’s Alex Craciun, who will shake up the Asian market when he heads up the kitchen at Atherton’s forthcoming Japanese restaurant Sosharu (jasonatherton.co.uk), at the former Turnmills nightclub in Farringdon.

Craciun’s CV is impressive, with prolonged stints at Brazil’s D.O.M. and Noma, as well as a year’s tour of Japan working in the country’s top kitchens in preparation for his new position.

Sosharu will feature a restaurant within a restaurant; it will have a main dining room serving British ingredients with Japanese sensibilities, plus a more intimate and ambitious 15-seat space in the style of Kitchen Table in Marylebone and Brooklyn Fare in New York.

This will have its own entrance and serve a 10-course menu and is, without doubt, going to be the hottest ticket in town when it opens later this year. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. l

74

Brummell • Need to know

Anatomy of style At Armani’s new exhibition space in Milan, visitors can stroll through the design maestro’s impressive body of work from the past 40 years

Words: Peter Howarth

well as chic. He started to deconstruct tailored clothes for men and women by reimagining how they could be put together – freeing them from the constraints of padding and lining, and thus creating garments that made the wearer feel smart and at the same time relaxed. You can see this in the tailoring Richard Gere, above, wears in American Gigolo, the 1980 flm that brought Armani’s style to a global audience. And you can still see it in the relaxed shoulder line of the tuxedos worn by Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L Jackson, Robert De Niro and Sean Penn on the red carpet.

Perhaps more importantly, it is there, too, on the hangers in his stores, and modelled by ordinary people the world over, who go to Armani because he has cracked the code of how to make you look good. Signifcantly, this is also why he is so loved by his famous clientele – just ask George Clooney, who chose Armani to make the outfts for his wedding celebrations in Venice last year.

The new exhibition space – located in a former Nestlé factory in Milan, built in the Fifties and originally a granary – required investment estimated at around €50m. With four foors encompassing around 40 rooms, the show takes

an in-depth look at how Armani has consistently made stylish but wearable clothes.

‘I never get distracted by transient trends,’ says the designer, ‘but instead aim to make clothes that are simple and sophisticated, and that will therefore stand the test of time.’ This approach has served him well. Armani still owns 100 per cent of his company and its last reported fnancial results were record-breaking: consolidated revenues of more than €2bn and earnings before interest and taxes of more than €400m.

As well as being home to the Armani archive, Armani/Silos will also host temporary visiting exhibitions. The project is something the designer has been thinking about for a long time. ‘I’m opening the Silos space now to coincide with the launch of the Expo in Milan, for which I am special ambassador. It’s an important moment for the city and I am very proud to be part of it,’ he says. ‘I am also delighted to welcome the public to view an archive of my work, where I hope they will be able to get an insight into my personal thoughts and world view.’ l Armani/Silos is at 40 Via Bergognone, Milan; armanisilos.com

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Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images

Giorgio Armani has a tendency to speak of his youthful desire to become a doctor as a false start. As a teenager, he had notions of a career in medicine, even spending time at med school before dropping out to pursue a path in fashion.

However, visit the recently opened Armani/Silos space in Milan that houses a permanent retrospective exhibition of the designer’s work and marks the 40th anniversary of his label, and you could be forgiven for thinking that, far from being a red herring, that early calling was in fact a vital clue as to what he was to do next.

Viewed collectively, the archive designs and sketches on show are clearly telling us one thing about this man’s design aesthetic: it is based on anatomy. Of course, many designers lay claim to this approach, but what makes it remarkable in Armani’s case is that he seems to eschew the addition of decoration and ornamentation, trendy fads, and to a great extent even colour, in favour of elegant, timeless silhouettes, constructed to respect the body of the wearer.

Since the mid-Seventies, Armani has been a pioneering champion of a philosophy based on the belief that clothing should be comfortable as