T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine by T Emirates

Travel May - June, 2013

The New York Times Style Magazine

Hot

Summer

Todâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Diego Della Valle on All Things Italian Camel Leather Races to Luxury Do Some Seoul Searching This Summer Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi Talks Passion

AED 20

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Issue 3, 2013

Family Flair

Camel Race to Luxury

In Pursuit of Perfection

An encounter with Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi assures us that he’s one in a million…one in 7.9 million Emiratis, to be precise. He speaks exclusively to T Emirates about his two passions that are shaping the Arab world today. By Priyanka Pradhan.

Amna BinHendi and Muna Al Gurg, two of the UAE’s most prominent businesswomen, talk about following in their families’ footsteps. By Orna Ballout.

A local tannery is wooing the market with its ecofriendly leathers. By Orna Ballout.

Giorgio Armani discusses his new Armani/Casa showroom in Dubai, his life, his mother’s influence, and just a few regrets. By Orna Ballout.

With Love, From Italy

Tod’s president, Diego Della Valle, speaks exclusively to T Emirates about style, his multimillion leather accessories empire and love for all things Italian. By Priyanka Pradhan. 42

Clockwise from top: Tod’s president Diego Della Valle; Matthias Schoenaerts; Italian maestro Giorgio Armani.

A camel leather bag produced by skilled in-house craftsmen at Al Khaznah Tannery.

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Good Morning, Matthias Schoenaerts

After a breakout role in ‘‘Rust and Bone,’’ Hollywood is waking up to the raw magnetism of this Belgian import. By Tim Murphy. Photographs by Bruce Weber. Styled by Deborah Watson. 78

clockwise from top: courtesy of tod's; bruce weber; Courtesy of Al Khaznah Tannery; courtesy of giorgio armani.

Passion Personified

Table of Contents

Lookout Sign of the Times

Designer fashion is no longer just for gay men and Europeans. Welcome to the age of sartorial enlightenment, in which the average male has shed schlumpiness for style. By Guy Trebay. 13 This and That

Runway Report

Take Two

By the Numbers

On the Verge

Gianni Agnelli’s custom cars; a global tour of opera houses; Berlin looks west; an Hermès scarf that is as much art as accessory; the restoration of Cliveden House; Tamara Shopsin’s (graphic) food memoir.

With a clever bag and shoe combination, dressing for any destination can be shockingly simple.

Karen Elson and Buzz Aldrin weigh in on the Strokes’ new album, an Alexander Wang sleeping mask, 16th-century watercolors and more.

Twenty years ago, the architect Peter Marino vaulted onto the style world’s A-list. Today he is riding higher than ever — more often than not on a Harley-Davidson.

As St. Tropez continues to get glitzier, the French resort town of Biarritz is emerging as a laid-back paradise for hip urban refugees from Paris and beyond. By Tim Murphy. Photographs by Jamie Hawkesworth.

Clockwise from top: Biarritz's dramatic cliffside, with its mix of French and Basque-style buildings perched on the Atlantic; Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière bag, AED 3,471; Chanel sandals, AED 1,744 Lanvin necklace, AED 5,693; Elizabeth and James bracelet, AED 2,552; ‘‘Men trapped in ice’’ (1980), courtesy of the artist, Robert Longo and Metro Pictures.

All the prices are indicative

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

clockwise from top: biarritz, jamie hawkesworth; lucas blalock.

Issue 3, 2013

Table of Contents

Chief Executive

Sandeep Sehgal

Editorial Editor at large

Stefano Leopaldi Assistant Editors

Interior of the bone chapel in Kutna Hora.

Arena

Orna Ballout Priyanka Pradhan Correspondents

Mia Fothergill Fox Cordelia Ditton Gwenda Hughes-Art Richard Thompson-Travel

The Moment

A Picture and a Poem

Bone Chilling

Part of the beauty of travel, stylistically speaking, is letting go of the restraints of the everyday for a more carefree look. Photographs by Paul Wetherell. Styled by Michael Philouze.

The sculptor Teresita Fernández ventures outside her usual medium to create an artwork inspired by new verse from Matthew Zapruder.

The Czech Republic's infamous bone chapel draws tourists for its intriguing yet repulsive approach to liturgical decor.

art Senior Designers

Nadia Mendez Ushi Pohlner Shawn Cadzow Photographers

Ajith Joseph Nigel Dickens Robert de Wailly

production Production Manager

Travel Diary

Viktor Ahmed

For the shoe designer Christian Louboutin, the cinema of India has always been a magical, otherworldly, Technicolor fantasy. He heads to the Marrakesh film festival to meet his favorites stars of the screen.

Production Supervisor

Tushar Raval

Marketing and Sales Assistant General Manager

Poonam Chawla

Assistant Brand Manager

Tarun Gangwani

Senior Sales Manager

Mohamed Galal

Marketing Coordinator

Disha Gagwani

Published by UMS International FZ LLC

Printed at

Emirates Printing Press LLC, Dubai Distributed by

GN Distribution

Bouchra Jarrar coat, AED 13,406; Bergdorf Goodman, (212) 7537300. Cartier ring, AED 7,988; cartier.com. Smythson diary, AED 202; smythson.com.

For marketing queries please call +97150-1447656 E mail: poonam@temirates.com Twitter: twitter.com/t_emirates Facebook: facebook.com/temiratesedition

Christian Louboutin with the 19-year-old ingenue Alia Bhatt.

All the prices are indicative

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

clockwise from top: EVA FernAndes; Paul Wetherell; Safquat Emquat.

P.O. Box: 503048, Building no 9, Office 106, Dubai Media City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel:+9714-4329467, 4341536 Fax: +9714-4329534

Issue 3, 2013

Behind the T

traveled with the photographer Mario Sorrenti to Amangiri, a secluded resort built at the foot of a rock formation in the desert of southern Utah, to shoot the season’s minimalist fashion. The pair have been collaborating together for over a decade.

Teresita Fernández A Picture and a Poem (Page 106) When the East Coast artist Teresita Fernández

first read ‘‘Poem for a Coin’’ by the West Coast poet Matthew Zapruder, what resonated with her most was ‘‘the idea that something intimate and small can serve as a catalyst for the universal,’’ she says. ‘‘In that sense, both the coin and the peephole become like touchstones, one tactile, the other visual, that conjure up a vast landscape of something huge contained within the miniature.’’ Fernández, whose sculptural installations and other works earned her an appointment by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in September 2011, created an original piece for T in response to the verse. She says the work relates to her ‘‘Night Writing’’ series, which explores the night sky’s relationship to the tactile language of Braille and is on view at the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.

Phoebe Eaton The Reincarnation of Seoul (Page 138) In Seoul, the writer Phoebe Eaton found herself for the first time in a world capital where her debit card was truly worth nothing more than plastic. ‘‘And it didn’t even matter,’’ she says. ‘‘To have used cash would feel so last century.’’ Eaton, currently at work on a screenplay about Mexican cartels, thinks the city is where Tokyo was a few decades ago: ‘‘on the Up escalator with all these brands vying for everybody’s attention.’’

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Fernández portrait: billy farrell agency; ‘‘night writing (hero and leander),’’ 2011: teresita fernández/Courtesy of lehmann maupin gallery, new york and hong kong, and stpi singapore. amangiri: courtesy of amanresorts.

Jane How Modernism Is the Message (Page 130) The stylist Jane How

Sign of the Times

The Rise of the Well-Dressed Man Designer fashion is no longer just for gay men and Europeans. Welcome to the age of sartorial enlightenment, in which the average male has shed schlumpiness for style. By guy trebay

The scene was a Williamsburg restaurant, packed with the usual

with a fondness for natty green blazers. He liked rump-hugging trousers with taut notch-pockets. He wore Brut cologne, silk foulards and white cleats on the field. Unembarrassed in his embrace of fashion, Namath was way out in front of the culture, a sartorial forerunner of all the athletes who have lately morphed from slobs wearing saggers into designer sandwich boards crowding the front rows at Versace shows. He was — if you’ll forgive the use of a lint-covered term from the cultural sock drawer — a metrosexual avant la lettre. Unlike the hippies and gender benders and rocker peacocks who were his near contemporaries, Joe Namath wasn’t toying with masculinity. His liking for nice clothes was no particular ‘‘tell’’ for sexual preference. That he wore coats made from the sheared pelts of expensively farmed rodents did not mean Joe Namath secretly liked men: it meant he liked mink. Looking around the restaurant that night at all the guys wearing scarves knotted just-so or herringbone tweeds from Rag and Bone or Adam Kimmel jumpsuits or shirts produced by the heritage labels

Robert Longo, ‘‘Men trapped in ice’’ (1980). Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures.

array of hip beard-farmers. There was a cookie-cutter likeness about the men in the room, an aesthetic Brooklyn lockstep. Everyone seemed to have gotten the same style memo, the one that called for cardigans with granddad shawl collars, for select brands of pricey Japanese denim and for glasses that make you look like you’ve read too much Ayn Rand. About the last name you’d expect to invoke in a room full of young fops in highly considered finery is that of Joe Namath. And yet suddenly I found myself thinking about Broadway Joe. You remember him, of course, the quarterback legend and media gadfly, a self-styled cartoon whose athletic prowess was pretty nearly overshadowed by his randy off-the-field antics. Goofy-handsome and with gull-wing bangs swooping back from his forehead, Joe had woolly pecs, a dense Happy Trail and a wardrobe that called to mind a coal-town Oscar Wilde. He wore shearling and raccoon and posed in pantyhose for a Hanes Beautymist commercial. He was an unabashed narcissist

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout

Sign of the Times

whose revival has evidently become a point of soaring national pride, I realized that Namath may have been slighted by historians of fashion. Maybe he is the liminal figure theoryheads are always rooting around for. Maybe, unacknowledged and in those long-gone days, it was Broadway Joe who began the inexorable march of butch dandies into the mainstream. It seemed pointless to speculate on whether the guys in this room, who clearly had given thought and care to what they had on, looked stylish on account of being gay or straight or American or, uh, French. Style is learned, not genetic. “Chic,” as the Ango-Irish opera designer Patrick Kinmonth once remarked, ‘‘is nothing. But it’s the right nothing.’’ The men in that room had done their homework. They could probably rattle off the names of the rightnothing labels in their sleep. You might, of course, suppose the phenomenon to be New York specific, or limited to the coasts. But a survey of the landscape suggests we may have entered an age of sartorial advancement. At the very least, there has been a course correction. A generation raised on the insult-to-the-eyes that was casual Fridays has suddenly discovered a novel new uniform: the suit. The last person anyone wants to dress like these days is Tim Allen. Thus the frumpy Dockers and the men’s version of mom jeans and the oversize shirts billowing like jibs have been bagged up and shipped to Goodwill. Even dot-com geeks have slowly begun moving away from the hoodies and sneakers, knit-hat-andsweatshirt Smurf look. In Silcon Valley these days, the stealth

There was a time when the notion of a good old boy coveting one of Browne’s shrunken suits — the ones with the high-water pants and jackets barely skimming one’s bottom — would have been more than implausible, a ‘‘Zoolander’’ fantasy. Yet barely a decade ago, when Browne was still catering to a select handful of clients and had no wholesale business, his customer base was already skewing toward in-the-know Wall Street types, said Tom Kalenderian, the executive vice president of Barneys New York. ‘‘You wouldn’t have expected that they were going to buy something so strong,’’ Kalenderian told me. ‘‘But the learning curve is very steep.’’ Such are the effects of the rushing slipstream of information, and of a solipsism so pronounced that our national fixation is with becoming ever better curated versions of ourselves, that leading the average American man to fashion is hardly the struggle it once was. ‘‘The past 15 years have been all about the mainstreaming of style,’’ Michael Hainey, the deputy editor of GQ, told me. ‘‘In the past there were no E! Entertainment shows about what people wore on the red carpet,’’ he added. ‘‘There was no fashion commentary as part of a man’s daily life. With the exception of Joe Namath, most sports stars in the past took a ‘Who cares?’ attitude about dressing.’’ That men do now gave all the lunks of the world permission to exit their man caves and go shopping, to acquire a smattering of knowledge about design and fit and to stop deluding themselves that it’s somehow more manly to look like a bum. ‘‘I’ve been to shows in Milan and sat next to N.B.A. All-Stars like Carmelo Anthony,’’ Dan Peres, the editor in chief of Details, said. ‘‘And when the show is over you can turn to him and say, ‘Hey, Carmelo, what did you think about the gladiator sandals Donatella Versace sent down the runway?’ ’’ Surely it’s a sign of some sort of cultural shift — the kind Broadway Joe might be proud to have set in motion — that, when Peres posed the question to Anthony, the 6-foot-8 Knicks forward responded with polite and knowledgeable interest rather than punching him out.

natty boys In the last few years there has been a dramatic spike in the average American male’s fashion I.Q.

signifier of status is that throwback to the glory days of haberdashery: brightly patterned socks. I asked the experts at the recent men’s-wear shows in Milan how had the change come about. How do you account for the apparent spike in the fashion I.Q. of the average American male? Is it fallout from years of so-called reality TV shows, the ones where anointed gay tastemakers descend on some slob in his mother’s basement and sprinkle him with pixie dust? It can’t be that, really. For one, the gay stereotypes don’t hold up. The guys from the corner of Queer and Gay Streets tended to dress like jokers in square-toed shoes and whiskered jeans and the silly muscle shirts one associates with certain preening news anchors. ‘‘Now, everyone knows everything,’’ Wendell Brown, a senior fashion editor at Esquire, told me recently. Growing up in the 1980s, Brown felt forced to hide his issues of GQ under the bed to avoid detection, not quite ready to come out to his parents as a Perry Ellis fan. ‘‘We are so far beyond that whole metrosexual phase, that ‘Is he gay?’ stigma.’’ Brown knew it had all changed, he said, when a female colleague in his office, an untrendy type whose boyfriend was a former frat boy, asked him if he could hook her fellow up with a suit from Thom Browne. 14

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

clockwise from top left : Tommy ton/Trunk Archive (3); Marcy Swingle/gastro chic.

A generation of men raised on the insult-to-the-eyes that was casual Fridays has discovered a new uniform: the suit. The last person anyone wants to dress like these days is Tim Allen.

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dubai marina

Celebrate

the spirit of the holy month of ramadan at the address dubai marina and mark this very special season with our traditional arabian hospitality. Join us for the warm and welcoming delicacies of an iftar buffet, in the stylish setting of our Constellation ballroom, offering all seasonal favourites. Early bird offer: aEd 140 per person for bookings made by or before 15th June 2013. iftar buffet available from sunset until 9pm

t: +971 4 436 7777 dubaimarina@thEaddrEss.Com WWW.thEaddrEss.Com Issue 3, 2013

Lookout

This and That

This and That A Cultural Compendium

illustration by konstantin kakanias

Culturati who’ve had enough of art-fair globe-trotting can now move on to music and dance. London’s Royal Opera House and the Ultimate Travel Company offer privileged access to some of the world’s best operas, ballets and symphonies. Each journey begins in London with a performance and private dinner at the Royal Opera House. Then maybe it’s off to St. Petersburg for

a show at the Mariinsky Ballet followed by a backstage tour led by the company’s director. Past trips have included V.I.P. treatment at the Salzburg Easter Festival in Austria, a visit to ballet schools, lectures, private concerts and a chance to meet virtuosos like the South African tenor Johan Botha. From $4,640 per person; theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk/roh. ROCKY CASALE

Car Talk

Lapo Elkann shares with his late grandfather Gianni Agnelli — the handsome playboy king of Fiat — a love of style and automobiles. As Elkann puts the finishing touches on an exhibit of Agnelli’s favorite custom cars, he recalls his grandfather’s devotion to driving.

Memory lane Clockwise from top left: the 1967 Fiat 125; Gianni Agnelli in 1972; Lapo Elkann with his custommade Ferrari 458 Italia.

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

My grandfather didn’t like to be driven — he liked to drive. Ninety percent of the time his chauffeur sat in the passenger seat and just made small talk with him about soccer. In terms of distinction and elegance, my grandfather was always looking to make his own cars more beautiful. My work today is a tribute to him — I make bespoke cars for Ferrari — but he was more understated when it came to aesthetics than I am. Nevertheless he taught me how to appreciate beautiful objects. At the museum are many of his favorite cars — like the baby Bugatti toy car he drove when he was a boy and many of his favorite Fiats, including the 130 station wagon, designed by Pininfarina in 1975, which is almost like a precursor to the sports utility vehicle. It’s a complex moment for Europe, and for the European auto industry. So it seems important to revive and refresh the sense of beauty and excitement he had for cars any way we can. ‘‘Le Auto dell’Avvocato’’ is on view through June 2 at the Museo Nazionale dell’Auto in Turin, Italy.

clockwise from left: Archivio e Centro Storico fiat; © 2013 the andy warhol foundation for the visual arts, inc. / licensed by ars; pierpaolo ferrari, from the book ‘‘lapo, le regole del mio stile’’ (add editore, 2012).

The (Very) Grand Tour

A Trimmer Trunk Between loud surf Jams and ill-fitting board shorts, American guys too often err when it comes to beachside style. Adam Brown, the British designer behind the culty swimwear brand Orlebar Brown, offers a corrective. His classic trunks — trimly tailored with a fixed waist and adjustable side tabs — come in three decreasingly daring lengths: the thigh-exposing Setter, as modeled by Daniel Craig in the most recent Bond flick (here in the new-for-spring Fiorentina print by the late designer David Hicks); the midlength Bulldog, for shyer sorts; and the Dane, a slimmed-down board short that marries Old World prudery with a New World fit. JULIA FELSENTHAL

Now Showing

The Artist as Curator

clockwise from top left: sebastian kim; Heinz Peter Knes; brad bridgers. illustration by Konstantin Kakanias.

Born in Vietnam and raised in Denmark, the conceptualist Danh Vo’s rapid rise in the art world can be attributed to his incisive and enigmatic style. His most famous work to date involved ‘‘building’’ a to-scale model of the Statue of Liberty: the hundreds of discrete chunks were never actually assembled into a whole; instead they were scattered around the globe to represent the reach of democracy and American imperialism. Last year, Vo won the Guggenheim’s prestigious Hugo Boss Prize, a biennial award that comes with a solo show at the museum. Continuing his exploration of identity and heritage, Vo has filled his show, which opens this week, with artwork, kitschy Americana (above right) and Oriental knickknacks that belonged to the late painter Martin Wong. ‘‘I consider it a kind of collaboration,’’ he says. ‘‘And I don’t have any problems collaborating with dead people.’’ Another of Vo’s exhibitions, which opens next week at Marian Goodman Gallery, cleverly assembles the personal effects of Robert McNamara, the former secretary of defense. Largely remembered for escalating the American involvement in the Vietnam War, McNamara is a fraught figure for the artist, whose family fled their homeland in a boat when he was 4 years old. But McNamara is also an ideal subject for Vo, who is once again deconstructing a complex symbol of American power. KEVIN McGARRY

Vamped-Up Vans Designers have remade the slip-on in leather, suede and mock croc, turning a skate-park staple into a lazy-man luxury. From far left: Coach, AED 653; coach.com. Bottega Veneta, AED 2,056; bottegaveneta.com. Common Projects, AED 1,351; mrporter.com. Tommy Hilfiger, AED 984; (212) 223-1824. All the prices are indicative

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout

light touch Far left: Tommy Hilfiger bag, AED 1,462; (212) 2231824. Tory Burch shoes, AED 550; (212) 510-8371. Louis Vuitton ring, AED 13,957 louisvuitton .com. Left: Donna Karan New York bag, AED 7,328; donnakaran.com. Hermès shoes, AED 4,956; hermès.com. Guess jeans (worn throughout), AED 327; guess.com.

Runway Report

Two for the Road With a clever bag and shoe combination, dressing for any destination can be shockingly simple.

Bright Fun Things Above, from left: Longchamp bag, AED 1,616; longchamp.com. Tod’s shoes, AED 1,634; tods.com. Bulgari ring, AED 3,783; bulgari.com. Etro bag, AED 10,714; etro.com. Jimmy Choo shoes, AED 496; jimmychoo.com. Ralph Lauren Collection bag, AED 2,387; ralphlaurencollection .com. Roger Vivier shoes, AED 2,479; (212) 861-5371. Near right: Burberry Prorsum bag, AED 11,000; burberry.com. Stuart Weitzman shoes, AED 1,046; stuartweitzman.com.

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Manicurist: Kim Chiu for mark edward inc.; models: Elisaveta Stoilova, Amy Poole/parts models.

Photographs by Brea Souders styled by Catherine Newell-Hanson

bold Statements Above: Prada bag, AED 7,897; prada.com. Chanel shoes, AED 1,450; (800) 550-0005. Second row, from left: Belstaff bag, AED 6,795; belstaff.com. CH Carolina Herrera shoes, AED 1,285; (212) 744-2076. Bulgari ring, AED 4,757. Chloé bag, AED 4,757; nordstrom.com. Chanel shoes, AED 1,745. Cartier bracelet, AED 31,000; cartier.com.

pattern recognition Above, from left: Valentino Garavani bag, AED 12,837; valentino.com. Tabitha Simmons shoes, AED 2,553; barneys.com. Isabel Marant bag, AED 2,075; (323) 6511493. Miu Miu shoes, AED 2,755; miumiu.com. Cartier ring, AED 7,989. Salvatore Ferragamo bag, AED 15,000 (866) 337-7242. Giuseppe Zanotti Design shoes, AED 4,959; giuseppezanottidesign. com. Right: Fendi tote, AED 4,370, and baguette, AED 8,000; fendi.com. Derek Lam shoes, AED 1,462; (212) 4934454. Bulgari ring, AED 7,526. Juicy Couture shirt, AED 544; juicycouture.com.

All the prices are indicative

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout solid ground Clockwise from left: textured concrete sets the tone at the Hotel Fasano in Punta del Este; a one-room Hermitage at Glencomeragh House in Ireland; the Tierra Patagonia is clad in local wood.

By Design

Stark Luxury Because sometimes sublime scenery and intelligent architecture are far more restorative than liveried butlers or signature cocktails.

Hotel Fasano Las Piedras High above Punta del Este, Uruguay, the Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld designed 32 concrete bungalows with rustic stone bases that seem to nestle naturally into their rocky hillside setting. The austerity of their exteriors contrasts with the warm, Brazilian Modernist vibe of the interiors. Glencomeragh House If it’s a spiritual getaway you seek, consider the wood-sided Hermitages, designed by Kevin Bates and Tom Maher, that are part of the Glencomeragh House, a retreat in County Tipperary, Ireland, owned by the Catholic Church. The minimalist interiors don’t preclude amenities like heated floors, full kitchens and satellite TV. Tierra Patagonia Hotel & Spa On the shores of Lake Sarmiento, near the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, the 40-room Tierra Patagonia is a long, wood-clad sweep of a building that its designers, of Cazu Zegers Arquitectura, liken to ‘‘an ancient fossil of a prehistoric animal,’’ with an aerodynamic shape that withstands the area’s winds. Dar HI The French designer Matali Crasset conceived Dar HI, a resort and spa in the Tunisian desert, as a walled village of what looks like elevated houses. Crasset and her collaborators, the owners Patrick Elouarghi and Philippe Chapelet, describe it as a citadel that rose ‘‘from the sand, dedicated to well-being.’’ Treehotel Designed by Tham & Vigard, the Mirrorcube, a 13-footsquare retreat, is one of six treehouses (four more are planned) at the Treehotel in Sweden. Its exterior allows it to disappear into its pineforest setting. (Infrared film on the mirror ensures that birds can see it.) Inside, six windows frame the views. PILAR VILADAS

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Fasano: fernando guerra; dar hi: Jérôme SPRIET; treehotel: peter lundstrom, wdo.

These days, when it comes to designing hotels and resorts in out-of-the-way places, less is more. Instead of historically inspired villas or clusters of vernacular-style huts or cottages, architects are embracing a kind of eco-modernism, with quietly powerful structures that take their cues — literally — from the landscape. Rather than imposing themselves on their spectacular surroundings, these buildings become part of them, sometimes so much so that it’s hard to tell where the natural stops and the man-made begins.

Above it all The Dar HI (left) overlooks the village of Nefta, in Tunisia; the Treehotel in Sweden includes the Mirrorcube (below) as well as the Birds Nest and the UFO.

Lookout

Take Two

A dual review of what’s new.

Karen Elson

Buzz Aldrin

Model mom and smoky-voiced chanteuse who has collaborated with everyone from Robert Plant to her ex-husband, Jack White. She is now at work on her second album.

Legendary moonwalker, contestant on ‘‘Dancing With the Stars’’ and author of the forthcoming space manifesto ‘‘Mission to Mars.’’

Gadget

I have to applaud them for always taking a direction that nobody would think the Strokes would take. Julian Casablancas, when he was a wee lad, used to work at my modeling agency. He was a scrappy little punk kid.

Music ‘‘Comedown Machine,’’ the new album by the Strokes.

Beauty Product

I’ve never had a tan in my life. The only time I ever used a self-tanner before this, I was 15 and I ended up with orange, streaky handprints on my legs for weeks. I am the wrong person for this, but at least it didn’t turn me orange!

It’s really soft, which I love. The eye masks the airlines give you are so scratchy and uncomfortable. I am absolutely terrified of flying — it’s the only time I want sensory deprivation — so this is a godsend.

The Face and Body Gradual Tan from La Mer’s new sun-care line, Soleil de la Mer (AED 312).

Travel Accessory Alexander Wang leather eye mask (AED 348).

It’s basically a travel diary of the times, and it’s fascinating, actually — the watercolors were meant to be like photographs, the kind we’d take today if we were traveling to a new place. I feel like such a nerd, but I was really into it.

Book “The Art of Travel,“ a visual account of a Polish adventure's 16th-century journey through the Ottoman Empire.

It’s great if you’re not a scuba diver. I dive down to 100 feet rather regularly. This camera is only waterproof to 45 feet, so I wouldn’t take it with me. In space we used a Hasselbad still camera that was quite a bit bigger than this.

I grew up in the period of Frank Sinatra and Karen Carpenter and ‘‘That old black magic has me in its spell.’’ But I did find the combination of rock music and violins interesting. It was relatively pleasant as background music.

I used it for several days and I’m beginning to see a good result. I always liked my complexion as a youth when I was out in the sun. But now I have numerous spots over my body that indicate that too much sun is not a good thing!

The very handsome leather mask that I received was too tight. I’m not sure why one would buy a personal item like this rather than take one of the free ones that you’re given on an airplane.

My interest is almost exclusively in learning from the immediate past how to do things in the future. The technical aspects of my mind are much more drawn to that than journeys in the distant past.

All the prices are indicative

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

elson: david swanson; aldrin: Buzz Aldrin archives; The STrokes: Michael Tran/Filmmagic/getty images; book: lucas Zarebinski.

Pentax’s rugged, ‘‘adventure-proof’’ WG-3 digital camera (AED 1,101).

For a digital camera, you can feel that it’s built like a brick. I dropped it off a staircase, I dropped it in some water. . . . If it can withstand me and my two children, it can probably withstand anything.

Lookout

By the Numbers

Leader of the Pack Twenty years ago, the architect Peter Marino vaulted onto the style world’s A-list with his limestone-clad design for the Barneys New York flagship, helping ignite a mania for luxurious retail environments that endures to this day. Hundreds of boutiques later, for clients like Louis Vuitton and Dior, Marino has nearly doubled his business in the last two years and is riding higher than ever — more often than not on a Harley-Davidson. By David Colman

OFFICIAL TITLE HELD

Best part of his job:

‘‘The opportunity to produce beauty; work with beautiful products, beautiful people, beautiful architecture.’’

How many projects total in the last 35 years:

Number of countries in which PMA has projects

1,000+

Chevalier de L’ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres, conferred by the French ministry of culture.

Personal Motto

Train Insane

Amount of clients’ money he has burned through:

‘‘In today’s money, over

Richard Prince / Anselm Reyle / Tom Sachs / Joel Shapiro / Wolfgang Tillmans / Not Vital / Idris Khan / Anselm Kiefer / Francesco Clemente / Gregor Hildebrandt / Bianca Sforni

Bernard Arnault / Laurence Graff / Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent / Gianni and Marella Agnelli Private clients he’ll only give last names of:

Armani / Coleman / Hill / Rayner / Rothschild Safra / Schwarzman Number of pounds Marino can bench-press

Married

1983, to Jane Trapnell

One

220

Favorite fragrance to wear? Height:

5-foot-9

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

None, ever.

Weight:

185 pounds Waist:

28 inches

daughter, Isabel

‘‘PEDRO’’

2 billion.

I did Barneys New York in the early 1990s — that was like $60 million. But $60 million in 1990 would be like $150 million today.’’

A name he uses to refer to himself.

on marc jacobs:

‘‘Marc has his ear to the ground, his eyes on the art scene, his head in the clouds, and his heart is fashion. And his tattoo of the Jean Michel Frank sofa makes me crazy.’’

clockwise from top left: manolo yllera; erica berger, getty images.

Private clients Marino will name: Artists he’s commissioned for projects:

whom he considers his Greatest Rival in the Business

Breakthrough Job*

Zaha Hadid

Andy Warhol’s town house

Largest private residence

55,000 square feet

Number of shades of gray in the Christian Dior Avenue Montaigne store

* There is some dispute over this claim. Marino collaborated on the project with Jed Johnson, Warhol’s boyfriend at the time. In recent years, the lawyers for Jed Johnson Associates have sent a letter to Marino demanding that he stop taking credit for the house.

3 Kinds of Leather are used to make Marino’s motorcycle outfits. He has summer shirts and pants made out of thin French lambskin, midweight clothes made out of cowhide from Libra Leather in New York and thicker garments made by his tailor out of German horsehide.

clockwise from top: jimmy cohrssen; vincent knapp; manolo yllera; claudio conti; martin mueller.

‘‘For clients in Dallas — very J. R. Ewing. Dallas is hilarious. Everything ‘biggest’ I have ever done was in Dallas.’’

Number of skull and vintage armor rings currently wearing

Favorite Boots

California patrolman boots or Redwing motorcycle boots.

‘‘Felix is an incredible tailor from the Dominican Republic and he sews nonstop for me. He makes the firm’s curtains and pillows and then goes, ‘Do you want a leather shirt?’ ’’

on karl lagerfeld

Motorcycles Marino owns

Number of years he has worked with Chanel

Number of led lights on glass facade of chanel ginza tower by peter marino

700,000

Number of Motorcycle Accidents One in which someone ran him off the road into a pole and a neardeath experience in Colorado. ‘‘That was like a movie where you wake up a day and a half later and think you made it to Heaven. I was driven off a cliff.’’

‘‘He’s the best educated and most cultured of any of the couturiers I’ve worked for.’’

Biggest pet peeve about the United States:

The so-called English system of measurement — inches, feet, yards, miles. ‘‘Ninety percent of our projects are metric. This is something from the 11th century.’’

Artists represented in PMA office art collection.............. 50 Number of Damien Hirst dots counted At PMA HQ ..........390 Original Warhols Marino owns........... 11 Renaissance bronze sculptures in personal collection............... 37 Pieces of porcelain and pottery in personal collection �� 1,000-1,500

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout Emirates

Ahoy There, Sailor!

When Art Met Fashion

Inspired by maritime and seafaring elements, Baldessariniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Spring/Summer 2013 collection is full of creative flair. With an edgy range featuring an exclusive eye-catching knotted rope print, and shades of red, white and blue, men will be able to channel a charming sailor-ish look. Orna Ballout Baldessarini is available at Dubai Marina Mall.

Fashion label Paul Smith held an evening of artistic flair at The Archive in Dubai, and invited three local artists to immerse themselves in the Paul Smith universe for inspiration. Yasmin Richie, UBIK and Mariam Yakan created art installations and illustrations at the venue to highlight the artistic persona of the brand and of Sir Paul Smith himself. PRIYANKA PRADHAN Paul Smith is available at The Dubai Mall.

Luxury on Wheels Jaeger-LeCoultre is unveiling three new models in collaboration with Aston Martin, an initiative that began ten years ago. In 2013, to mark the 180th anniversary of the Grande Maison in the VallĂŠe de Joux and the centenary of the English carmaker, three original timepieces are being launched to symbolize the enduring ties between the two luxury manufacturers. The Master Compressor Extreme W-Alarm Aston Martin watch, the Master Hometime Aston Martin watch and the AMVOX5 World Chronograph Cermet are the ones to watch out for. PRIYANKA PRADHAN

The three new models are available at Jaeger-LeCoultre stores across the UAE.

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

The French Connection Dubai-based luxury salon chain, Posh By Feryal is bringing the 50 year-old French haircare brand, René Furterer for a unique, ‘green’ experience. The high-end hair treatments are claimed to be made entirely of essential oils and plant extracts, for eco-powered styling, the first of its kind in the UAE. PRIYANKA PRADHAN

Eye-catching Shadows

Sensational Scents When it comes to creating unusual, unique fragrances, Jo Malone is one of a kind. For the launch of “Saffron,” the brand’s newest addition to its Cologne Intense collection, Lifestyle Director Debbie Wild and Product Development Director Celine Roux hosted an intimate gathering in Dubai to talk about the making of the fragrance. Developing Saffron “was a challenging and long process due to the nature of the raw material,” said Celine, adding that it was tough to create something that didn’t smell like food. According to Debbie, Saffron is “very vivid and striking” and will appeal to both men and women. “We’ve pushed boundaries and been pioneers from the very beginning; when we blend ingredients together, there’s something very magical about them,” she added. Orna Ballout Jo Malone is available at The Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates.

Make-up maestro Esteé Lauder has us dreaming of sun, sand and sea with its new limited edition Bronze Goddess Collection, inspired by the Caribbean. We adore the Pure Color Five Eye Shadow Palette in Barik Sun that brings together beautiful green, gold and nude hues – just the trick to combine and create stunning looks. Orna Ballout

Banish the Beauty Blues Offering instant skin-flattering benefits and a super-hydrated finish, the Pro-Radiance Illuminating Flash Balm from Elemis is the ultimate “hybrid moisturiser.” What’s more, with scents including neroli, bitter orange, bergamot and lemon mélange, it smells delicious too. Orna Ballout

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout Emirates

Italian Luxury Comes to Abu Dhabi Luxury contemporary décor store, Aati Abu Dhabi announces the availability of The Fendi Casa Collection, to be exclusively sold at the store. Alessandra Battistini, Fendi Casa’s architect was in Dubai to launch the collection, designed by Alberto Vignatelli. Battistini tells T Emirates, “The people of the Middle East have become very demanding and their houses are some of the most beautiful in the world. The most important thing in the project is the starting point. Our team of architects usually works with a neutral palette of colors that are very rich in terms of decoration. This includes wood panels and very particular paints for the walls that are then completed with silk curtains and very important materials for floors and bathrooms. In this very balanced atmosphere, Fendi Casa can play with a variety of models of sofas, beds, dining tables and armchairs, that are made in the most sophisticated and beautiful fabrics and leather. We try to maintain a very elegant color scheme so that we can add a glimpse of fashion color for finishing touches- in Paris, for example, we previewed the color yellow.” PRIYANKA PRADHAN Fendi Casa is available at Aati, Za’beel Road, Dubai and Shining Towers, King Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Street, Abu Dhabi.

The Great Gatsby Collection by Tiffany & Co Created in collaboration with the Hollywood movie’s costume designer, Catherine Martin made a debut at the jewelry brand’s flagship store at The Dubai Mall. The vintage-inspired collection is based on designs from the Tiffany Archives and worn by the film’s cast including Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. From the pieces showcased, the ones that stunned included the 1920’s Savoy – a headdress of diamonds and cultured pearls, made especially for the lead actress. PRIYANKA PRADHAN Some items from The Great Gatsby Collection are available for sale at the Tiffany &Co flagship store at The Dubai Mall.

Level Shoe District Makes a Statement With ‘Fragment’ Level Shoe District has unveiled its statement art installation by the London-based United Visual Artists (UVA) for its shoe emporium at The Dubai Mall, making it the first work to be created specifically for a public interior. The artists created a light work made up of 421 octahedron frames that together form an inverted pyramid, to channel light down from the glass ceiling overhead into the interior. Ben Kreukniet of UVA describes the work: “Fragment is about experimenting with formal minimalist geometries to see how light can be used as a tangible, controllable material. The work utilizes simple fundamental geometries to create complexity from repetition, depth and perspective. Together, the modular structure and animation of light suggest that what the viewer perceives may not be the complete picture. By doing so, Fragment encourages the viewer to move and shift their perspective, assembling their own fragmented impressions into a whole.” PRIYANKA PRADHAN

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Movie Glamour Kate Spade never ceases to amaze us with its eye-catching offerings. This season, the New York brand pays homage to all the things it holds dear to its heart, such as adventure and the movies – all fused with an element of surprise. T Emirates especially loves its quirky cinema-inspired accessories – conversation starters, for sure. Orna Ballout

Kate Spade is available at The Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates.

Summer Steals Give your wardrobe a well-deserved season update with these enticing pieces from Patrizia Pepe. The iconic brand’s Spring/ Summer 2013 collection is brimming with clothing and accessories that will help you nail the effortless chic look. Orna Ballout Patrizia Pepe is at The Dubai Mall and Dubai Marina Mall.

Fifty Fathoms: The Bathyscaphe Version Inspired by the abyssal underwater exploration of Swiss adventurer Jacques Piccard, Blancpain’s two new Bathyscaphe diver’s watch models are reinterpreted to dazzle. Loyal to the original Bathyscaphe version, the luminescent dot on the bezel serves to ensure the permanent readability of diving times. PRIYANKA

Silver Linings Jewelry brand Pandora has revealed its new bracelet – a solid silver bangle, hand-finished for a polished look. With its round minimalist design and signature Pandora clasp, the bangle makes a chic addition to the bracelet collection and exudes an unmistakable charm. PRIYANKA PRADHAN The new bracelet will be available at Pandora stores in the UAE on June 3.

PRADHAN

Available at all Rivoli outlets across the UAE.

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout Emirates

Louis Vuitton Art of the Matter Louis Vuitton collaborates with Tunisian-French graffiti artist eL Seed to reinterpret the classic silk Louis Vuitton scarf in his signature Arabic ‘calligraffiti’ style. eL Seed joins the Maison as part of the second tier of the ‘Foulards d’Artistes’ project, which has seen three other street artists design a scarf for LV, including Japanese AIKO, American RETNA and Brazilian Os Gemeos. eL Seed tells T Emirates, “When Louis Vuitton first approached me, I thought hard about what this would mean as a graffiti artist, and as the first artist of Middle Eastern background, to collaborate with such a high-end brand. For me, the opportunity was to experiment with a new medium; clothing, and bring my message to different circles.” The inspiration, he says, came from a poem about ‘openness and acceptance.’ He says, “I chose a poem that honored the city of Venice; a city that was open to Arab and Islamic influence while others chose to shut it out!” The eL Seed textile was presented in Dubai as a worldwide preview. One of the two stunning Arabic calligraphy designs is available exclusively in Louis Vuitton boutiques in Dubai, for a limited period. Priyanka Pradhan

Zephr Song The LV Tambour Monogram Launches at Baselworld 2013 Ten years after the creation of the Tambour watch, Louis Vuitton is launching a new sophisticated feminine timepiece: the Tambour Monogram, in seven references and in different sizes. The sunpatterned traditional engraving and a subtle Monogram reflection gives it an elegant finish. Priyanka Pradhan

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Louis Vuitton’s new fourwheeled suitcase, ‘Zephr,’ joins the iconic Pégase in the family of rolling luggage this summer. With a subtly retro look and strong curves, LV’s monogram flowers and stitched luggage (piqûres à cheval) aesthetic, it’s all set to add that touch of signature LV elegance to our travel ensemble this season. Priyanka Pradhan

Advertorial

Lookout Emirates

Passion Personified T Emirates meets the proud Emirati and passionate art collector, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi who continues singlehandedly to tweet up a revolution every day.

By Priyanka Pradhan

Photographs courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation

His tweets reach more than 200,000 people all over the world,

yet Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi strives every day to make a bigger impact about Middle Eastern politics and contemporary Arab art, two subjects that define his very being. And his edge-of-the-seat, deeply intense demeanor is an indication of just how much passion boils under the surface. A very big part of that passion is invested in his labor of love, the Barjeel Art Foundation, which is currently running an introspective exhibition titled “RE: Orient” covering three decades of political and sociocultural transition across the Arab region. The exhibition, which runs until November 2013, investigates modernism in the Arab world from the 1950s to 1970s and aims to dispel more than a few misconceptions about Arab art. “The Western perception is that the Arab art movement is a few decades behind the Western art movement, but when you see the cubism art works in

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

the Middle East, or the abstract artworks here, they could easily look at home at the Tate in London or MoMA in New York or the Pompidou Center in Paris. So these are not just works by Arab artists, but great artworks of the mid-twentieth century. This perception that Arab art is reflective of Western art is not entirely true – in many cases, Arab art is a trendsetter that echoes in the wider Middle East,” Al-Qassemi asserts. “I think things have been so overdone in Western Europe. Of course there’s still good art coming from there, but I think it has become so repetitive and eventually redundant. It’s everything we’ve already seen before. In the Middle East, however, because of the restrictions in this region, people have to be much more creative. Take, for instance, the Iranian art movement, which is exploding with creativity. It is incomparable to any other region in the world. Also, art from Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, is gaining

The Barjeel Art Foundation displays ‘Demon-cracy’ by Algerian artist Kader Attia.

prominence for its ingenuity. There’s an artistic movement of immense importance taking shape in the Middle East at the moment.” As an avid connoisseur of Arab art, Al-Qassemi has over 600 artworks in his personal collection, many of which are shared with the public at the Barjeel Foundation. These include a lot of contemporary art that reflects significant sociopolitical change in the Arab world, the political zeitgeist looming large over the collection. “I see art as an avenue of dialogue, communication and more importantly a tool for documentation. So we are documenting our present: What are we going through?” He gives an example: “We have an artwork showing a map of the Middle East where the artist places the Johnson & Johnson brand’s ‘No more tears’ sticker on all the crisis points in the Middle East in 2010 – Iraq, Palestine and Somalia. If you move to 2012, these stickers will be placed in other conflict zones – Libya, Syria, Yemen – countries that were not in the original work. Art is a tool for documenting history and current affairs, a self-awareness tool, really.” Some of the other prominent works of political art at Barjeel, he points out, are pieces that reflect the political uprising in Egypt. “We have a piece that shows an army official and a government official from the Muslim Brotherhood political party as different sides of a single coin. This is something that’s so contemporary that only if you follow the Middle East in 2012 will you understand the significance of this artwork,” he claims excitedly. “There’s another artwork in neon colors that looks very attractive, but look closer and you’ll see there’s a calligraphy that says ‘the people want A Louay Kayyali piece titled, ‘Woman Sewing’ displayed at Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.

the downfall of the regime’. Think about it; this slogan has characterized the Arab art movement altogether.” Despite the challenges of censorship and the conservative environment in the Middle East, AlQassemi showcases some bold artworks, not only as part of his private collection but also for public display through Barjeel. For example, an artwork from the Barjeel collection titled ‘Demon-cracy’ by Kader Attia, an Algerian artist, was not only showcased at Barjeel but also featured in the international Economist magazine as one of the most significant messages about the Middle East political sphere conveyed through art. Not one to subscribe to the ‘Art for art’s sake’ creed, Al-Qassemi firmly believes that art has a function of documentation and communication beyond its aesthetic value. He says, with feeling: “Art is another form of expression. You can’t say ‘music for music’s sake’. There’s always a message behind it – it evokes positive or negative feelings, various emotions, and you can definitely not disconnect these feelings from the art. In fact art in any form must be evocative!”

Kadhim Hayder’s artwork, Martyr's Epic, displayed at Barjeel Art Foundation.

This deep passion and enthusiasm for Middle Eastern art also pours itself into his work as a purveyor of politics in the Middle East, through both social and traditional media. “My sole objective is to document the conflict and state of affairs, the contemporary sociopolitical history of the Middle East,” he reflects. “It’s the same reason, the same passion in the end, only the medium is different, whether it’s art or social media or articles in newspapers.” What motivates Al-Qassemi to be a force to reckon with is not personal glory, though, but a deep sense of Emirati pride. He elaborates: “What pushes me is that as Emiratis we’re so few in number that we have to try and excel in different fields – in art, in sports – I wish I could do sports! I feel every Emirati has to try that much more to reach out and stand out, really.” He adds: “This is one of the complaints we get from our expat brothers and sisters from around the world. ‘We don’t see Emiratis, we don’t interact with them,’ they say. This is partly because there are just eight or nine hundred thousand of us, less than a million, so we have to really do that much more to be visible. We have almost ten times that number of foreign expats in the country, so we must interact more, reach out internationally, and do our best in our fields to stand out. That’s really what motivates me.”

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout Emirates

Winners of the International Emerging Artists Award (IEAA), Dr Hamad Al Falasi (extreme left), Pablo de Laborde Lascaris (second from left) and director, Rebia Naim (extreme right).

Taking Strides: The International Emerging Artist Award 2013 As the UAE’s first international contemporary art platform for emerging artists, the IEAA awards are urging the global artistic community to paint a few strokes on the Middle Eastern canvas. Here’s why the world is sitting up to take notice. By Priyanka Pradhan

Photographs By Judith Philip

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

As an emerging hub for art in the Middle East, the UAE has taken massive strides to establish itself as a significant destination for artists and collectors. However, IEAA Director Rebia Naim believes the focus here has remained on Middle Eastern artists and their work, with no scope for emerging international artists to shine through. This is why Naim began to paint a different picture in order to change the UAE’s art landscape, by founding the International Emerging Artist Award (IEAA) in 2012. Naim explains: “Having worked extensively in the Middle East as an art consultant, I felt there was no real platform for emerging artists in the UAE. Actually, there is enough physical space to showcase talent, especially in Dubai for example, but not enough content to fill those spaces! So I thought this would be an amazing opportunity for artists who were struggling to find a foothold in this market and trying to establish themselves.” “Let’s be honest,” she adds, “the region is very attractive for artists all over the world, and with these awards in 2012 and 2013 they finally got an opportunity to create a presence here. For the participants it’s a dream come true to exhibit in the Middle East.” In 2012, the platform took six months to build, finalize and take off, but the response from artists all over the world fueled the success of the initiative, according to Naim. That success prompted her to expand the concept in 2013 to include other genres of art such as new media art, paintings and sculpture in addition to photography, which was the sole focus of the 2012 edition of the awards. She points out another difference in 2013, saying: “Last year we didn’t have this demarcation between Emirati and international awards, because we thought it was obvious that Emiratis could apply under the international category too. But it was not obvious to them! So then this year we had to separate the two categories and create one especially for Emiratis.”

Under the patronage of HH Sheikha Wafa Hasher Al Maktoum, the International Emerging Artist Award 2013 was awarded to Pablo de Laborde Lascaris, a Mexican artist from the UK, and the Emerging Emirati Artist Award went to Dr Hamad Al Falasi. The winning works emerged after a precise, mathematical process of scoring by each of the judges independently, adding up to the final score. Pablo de Laborde Lascaris’ winning entry, “The weight of a choice”, was one of the most talked-about artworks for its unique take on sculpture. Lascaris explains: “I had a cardboard box filled with sand sitting in my studio for ages, and my studio was full of sand everywhere because of this forgotten old box. This was very annoying, but it inspired me to use the fluidity of the sand to create a box with holes, so sand was able to pour from the sides of the box. The work derived a very interesting relationship between two materials and combined this duality to re-question the static reputation of sculpture. If you look at the wood, the rings on the wood tell the number of years, and the grains of sand are suggestive of time. “This other piece was actually a cycle tire in its original form, but then I recreated it with a tractor tire and chopped up an entire wooden chair to fit it within the chair. It’s the same principle of re-questioning the staticness of sculpture.” Dr Hamad Al Falasi says he had a more emotional connect with his entry: “The concept revolves around Emirati colloquialism,” he says. “In the UAE we are known to have our own common dialect, which we’ve heard our ancestors use. In our generation, we still use these words and phrases while conversing with each other, but when it comes to the generation below the age of 25 they don’t recognize these words, because they use English more, and eventually they’re losing out on the essence of our dialect.

Top right: Dr Hamad Al Falasi’s winning photography; Center: Pablo de Laborde Lascaris’s woodwork displayed at IEAA; Below: Winning artwork titled, ‘Ring to Grain’.

“There are 21 common words that are used colloquially, and I decided to exhibit them in an artistic format. I put them down using flexi-sculptures and I took them around the UAE, selecting locations to place and shoot them.” Both artists have high expectations from their win. Rebia Naim says the organizing committee deliberately shied away from the idea of a cash prize. She emphasizes: “We created this format on purpose because we didn’t want to give a trophy and cash and then forget about the winners and participants thereafter. Instead, we want the participants to actually get real exposure, put them in touch with the right contacts all over the world, give them official recognition and credentials that they can use in their resumes, and enable them to actually launch their careers in the Middle East. We also take them around the world to showcase their work internationally.” “For Emiratis this is huge, as they’ve never exhibited their works before in Turkey, Singapore and even Europe (Paris)! There will be a solo exhibition for each of the winning artists – this is not part of any other exhibition at the various galleries. The winners now have one-year contracts to exhibit at various galleries as a result of this award.” Going forward, in 2014 the IEAA will feature an art fair and a new category, the “Emerging International Designer” award. Naim concludes: “We’re excited about next year and raring to go. With the art fair and a bigger venue we want to showcase all the participants’ works, and the new online gallery planned will offer even more exposure to all, which is really the essence of the International Emerging Artist Award.”

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout Emirates

Family Flair

Amna BinHendi and Muna Al Gurg, two of the UAEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most prominent businesswomen, talk to T emirates about following in their familiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; footsteps and building their businesses.

Photograph courtesy of Amna Bin Hendi.

By Orna Ballout

Amna Bin Hendi, CEO, BinHendi Enterprises. 38

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Muna Al Gurg, Director of Retail, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group.

The number of women securing high-profile roles in the business sector in the Middle East is on the rise.

Photograph courtesy of Muna Al Gurg.

o many people, taking a key position

in a business developed by the people you aspire most to impress would seem a challenge. However, Amna BinHendi and Muna Al Gurg, two of the bestknown women working in the UAE, are both successfully playing leading roles in businesses founded by their families. BinHendi Enterprises, established in 1974 by Mohi-Din BinHendi, is a conglomerate that spans industries from fashion to real estate, and has been influential in introducing many high-end brands into the UAE. Since 2007, Amna BinHendi has headed the company as CEO. While Amna appreciates that working in the family business is a great honor, she says that it also comes with a responsibility to “preserve our family’s legacy” and, as the next generation, “to safeguard BinHendi’s achievements, and take it to the next level”. Muna Al Gurg similarly ventured into the familyowned company Al Gurg Group, founded by her father HE Easa Saleh Al Gurg in 1960. The Group covers sectors such as construction, real estate, retail and lifestyle, and has likewise brought many prestigious brands to the UAE. Muna acts as Director of Retail, and her siblings also play leading roles. Working alongside family members can be challenging, as “there’s a lot of emotion involved”, says Muna, adding: “There are a lot of good mentors you can learn from in a family business,” so it can also be very rewarding. Muna and Amna share a passion for working closely with various people to build the brands that fall within their conglomerates. “Even though I’m head of retail, I still end up sitting with the bloggers of Dubai to build a certain brand,” says Muna. Amna, meanwhile, enjoys “obtaining new brands and negotiating with the principals and pursuing them to come into this fabulous market.” Following in the footsteps of your predecessors can itself present difficulties, as people may have the perception that your journey to the top has been smoother than for others. Amna maintains that “nothing in life comes easily, no matter who your father or family is. I had to prove myself in a male-dominated industry,” she notes, “and we all know how challenging that is in our conservative Arab society.” Muna, for her part, says that when she entered the family business it was her father’s wish that she be treated like any other employee. “I tackle that perception [that things were easy for me] by speaking to people,” she says, “and telling them my story of how, 12 years ago, I started working as a

marketing executive, conducting questionnaires on the shop floor.” Aside from her role as director of retail, Muna chairs Young Arab Leaders, a government-led initiative to promote education, entrepreneurship and youth development in the UAE. Moreover, Muna has helped to develop “Job Shadow Day,” a partnership between the business community, educators and volunteers, who work together to inspire and encourage young people to realize their full potential. “I want to change the statistics in the UAE of locals working in the private sector, and I have introduced the program within our group to bring in more local young talent.” The number of women securing high-profile roles in the business sector in the Middle East is on the rise, which is “a very important milestone in the region,” says Amna. “Women have made strides toward equality both in the community and in the workplace, and we are finally seeing some results, with leading women making their mark in the Arab world, whether academically, politically or socially,” she adds. Amna says there are many things to look forward to from BinHendi Enterprises this year. “We’ve already inaugurated a few outlets earlier this year, including Now Café in The Dubai Mall, a new version of China Times in Deira City Center, and the new B&B Italia showroom on Jumeirah Beach Road. We still have many new restaurants and outlets to open in the next few months, with new concepts and brands in both the hospitality and retail divisions.” Al Gurg Group, meanwhile, is busy expanding into other territories, with new offices recently opened in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. “We’re exploring business possibilities in Tunisia, Libya and Algeria,” reveals Muna. From personal experience of working in her family’s company, Amna enthuses that although she’d love her children to follow in her path, “it would be their choice, and they would have to decide on their own which direction they wished to go in.” Muna agrees that while she too would like her children to follow her, “every young person should enjoy what they’re doing, and if that doesn’t mean being involved, so be it.” Offering advice to other women striving to carve out a successful career, Muna encourages them to “surround yourself with positive people you can learn from”, while Amna says: “Never let others get to you; try your hardest in everything you do, even though you may feel as though you’ll never succeed. Great things in life never come easily.”

Issue 3, 2013

Photograph courtesy of Al Mandoos.

Lookout Emirates

Camel Race to Luxury A local tannery is wooing the market with its unique, eco-friendly leathers. T Emirates finds out more. By Orna Ballout

Ph o ai tog s o ra p n C o hs r th c o ay urt es .

Yacht designer Cyrille Bieri selected camel leather for a range of his design projects.

Photograph courtesy of Cyrille Bieri.

Maison Corthay features camel leather in its highend shoe designs to connect with the unique culture and history of the Middle East.

Camels have always played an important part in Emirati society, as a source of

transportation and food in Bedouin life, and as an attraction for tourists who visit the desert. And with the help of local company Al Khaznah Tannery, which supplies premium leathers to the market in an environment-friendly way, camel leather is increasingly making an appearance in the leather industry, providing a unique option combining heritage with distinctive design. Managing operations at the Abu Dhabi Governmentowned tannery is Jean-Marie Gigante, who brings over 30 years of experience working in the leather industry to the job. It’s a small world, after all, and “the creation of a tannery in the United Arab Emirates didn’t go unnoticed,” says Gigante, who resigned from the Hermes Group, for whom he managed the largest crocodile tannery in France, to take up the role in Abu Dhabi. Al Khaznah Tannery collects raw hides and skins as a by-product of the meat industry, and carefully processes them in its modern factory settings to produce a huge range of fully biodegradable and sustainable leathers. “We are proud to be the first tannery worldwide to offer a chrome-free biodegradable leather,” Gigante says. “And at the very heart of our offer is an exclusive range of camel leathers customized for all applications.” Gigante, who has worked across the world in tanneries specializing in different leathers, reveals that the majority of the leather market treats leather with metal salt, which can be toxic when it’s disposed of. However, that’s where Al Khaznah differentiates itself. “Our exclusive process is totally metal-free, uses sustainable ingredients, and allows the production of highperformance leathers,” he says.

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Local brand Al Mandoos developed a range of sandals using camel leather from Al Khaznah Tannery.

Mohamed Al Falasi, General Manager of Al Mandoos Trading. And it’s not just fashion brands where camel leather is proving popular. Clients including Etihad Airways, interior designer Philippe Starck and CDB Yacht Design have shown an interest in camel leather. Cyrille Bieri, Director of CDB Yacht Design, says that camel leather adds “a wonderful touch” to its projects, especially in the local market. CDB has featured the leather in a variety of its yacht design projects for clients such as GumWood Yacht Interiors. “We have the option of customizing the finish and colours to match exactly what we are after, and this makes the product the right choice for yacht design,” Bieri says. Acknowledging challenges, Gigante notes that “the regional market is extremely brand-sensitive,” but demand is picking up as “more consumers and corporate customers become aware of the high-quality leather, especially camel leather, produced right here in the UAE.” Style-conscious consumers often seek something spectacular to differentiate their style, and Gigante has no doubt that camel maintains as much appeal as coveted skins like crocodile, alligator or ostrich. “I am confirmed in my opinion when I see how top-end designers get inspired with this new and noble type of leather. They are first attracted by the specific appearance and feel of the camel leather, before showing an interest in the ethical values of our production.”

A range of exclusive Al Khaznah Tannery products created by its skilled in-house craftsmen, available at alkhaznahboutique.com

Photographs courtesy of Al Khaznah Tannery.

According to the industry expert, camel leather can be described as a leather for connoisseurs. “It contains up to 10 times more fibres than any bovine leather, which gives it a higher durability and a unique mellow feel,” he elaborates. As well as producing its own in-house products, which include a unique “hair-on camel leather” that Gigante says creates “that extra authenticity and character,” the tannery also supplies leathers to other producers. Many international and local brands are tuning in to the benefits of camel leather, and selecting Al Khaznah leathers for their product design. Parisian designer Pierre Corthay, founder of Maison Corthay, a bespoke shoemaker, points out that the main appeal of using camel leather in his collection was to connect with the unique culture and history of the Middle East. “The region is very evocative of adventure, nature and craftsmanship, and camel leather provided us with the exact exceptional characteristics that we were looking for,” he says. He also suggests that as the material is not often used by other prestigious designers, “a little innovation and creativity is always welcome.” For Al Mandoos, a brand that has developed a collection of sandals showcasing camel leather, the local connection similarly offered great appeal. “As a local brand, Al Mandoos also supports locally-made goods. The camel itself reflects the culture and heritage of the UAE and has a very nice natural-grain look,” says

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout Emirates

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Tod’s Diego

‘Dignity, duty and pleasure’ is the creed that the magnificent Diego Della Valle lives by. The president of leather accessories brand Tod’s speaks exclusively to T Emirates about all things Italian and what ‘the good life’ really means.

By Priyanka Pradhan

Della Valle

talks ‘Dignita, Dovere e e Divertimento’ Issue 3, 2013

Lookout Emirates

Above: The late lady Diana photographed with a Tod’s handbag (Image courtesyTod’s); Artisans making some of Tod’s leather products by hand; Interior of a Tod’s boutique in Italy.

“A

good plate of spaghetti, tomato and basil” may sound

very precise, but that’s how one of Italy’s most intriguing billionaires describes his ideal evening. For a man known as much for his flamboyant 52- foot cruiser ‘Marlin’ (a luxury yacht that once belonged to John F. Kennedy) as he is for pledging a whopping $33 million towards conservation of the Roman Colosseum, Diego Della Valle is a surprisingly simple family man. Despite the exacting, almost military, discipline he’s known for, as well as his several homes and Ferraris, his helicopter and even a floating residence, he insists that his philosophy is very simple – just like the reason for selecting the name ‘Tod’s.’ In 1978, when he and his brother first created the brand, originally called ‘J.P.Tod,’ the market was soon abuzz with the ubiquitous new ‘Gommino’ moccasins suddenly being seen on everyone from movie stars to royalty. “Who’s J.P Tod?” people asked, and various stories floated about, including one that suggested Della

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Valle had pulled the name at random from a Boston phone book. He smiles as he reveals the answer. “I believe that all the stories you are talking about are the real ones! ‘Tod’s’ is a fantasy name, perfect for what I was looking at – an old English sound that can be easily pronounced the same way in many different languages.” As simple as that! At Tod’s, he developed a strategy for a more laid-back and casual ‘American weekend’ style, rather than the uptight and formal ‘Sunday best’ dressing’ that was the norm in Europe at the time. In the 80’s he played a prominent role within the company, but it wasn’t until October 2000 that Diego Della Valle became President and CEO of Tod’s SpA, the new group he founded. The surge in Tod’s coffers from 2000 to 2013 led to his being named in the Forbes Billionaires List (March 2013), boasting a personal net worth of $1.55 billion, and emerging among the 20 richest people in Italy this year. But it’s not just his wealth that has earned him fame and recognition in Italy and beyond. Diego Della Valle is heavily invested in the ‘Made in

all Photographs courtesy of Tod's.

Italy’ pedigree, as he believes it’s more than just a label. It is this belief that led him to pledge a substantial portion of his wealth to the restoration of the iconic Roman Colosseum and to buy the legendary but ailing Italian fashion house Elsa Schiaparelli in order to breathe new life into it. Moreover, he rescued Italy’s Fiorentina soccer team from bankruptcy in 2002, and even launched a new highspeed train service for the public, called Italo, in collaboration with Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the chairman of Ferrari. “I love my country and I am driven by support for ‘Made in Italy.’ Therefore any time I have or I had in the past to contribute to supporting Italy’s image, credibility and its cultural image, it has been both a great honor and a duty for me. All these involvements, born from a civil conviction of participation, affirm the belief that investing in ‘Made in Italy,’ its skills, traditions and culture, makes the country more competitive, to create more opportunities for people who work there and who love its history and traditions,” he says. In Italy, the Tod’s factory still sees craftsmen making each product by hand, using up to 35 pieces of leather and more than 100 steps in the process. At a time when luxury houses are turning towards more cost-effective countries for their manufacturing, given the turbulent economic currents in Europe, Diego Della Valle deliberately walks in another direction. He explains: “At the end of the day, I truly believe that it is exactly the other way round. ‘Made in Italy’ is what makes the difference nowadays. Abroad, manufacturers based mainly in the informal economy don’t pay attention to quality at all. Tod’s is rooted in the highest quality of leathers and craftsmanship, and ‘Made in Italy’ guarantees it full respect. Our clients, loyal to our brand, want timeless luxurious products of the best quality. I believe this fully repays a more expensive production base in Italy.” However, the cash cow for Tod’s is not his home country, Italy, but Asia and the Middle East, he says. “I would say the Far East – China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan are our major markets – but the Middle East is one of our top priorities. We consider the Arab clientele one of the most refined anywhere in the world, and we always try to work on special activities, as they love exclusivity. Consumers here have the power of money, but they are very refined at the same time, and they always look at special products created specifically for their region and customized for them. They appreciate high quality and their tastes are evidently influenced by their cultural reality,” he comments. Interior of a Tod’s boutique in Italy.

The Tod’s headquarters in Italy.

Speaking of cultures, Diego Della Valle is an avid traveler and has had the privilege of visiting most countries in the world in his private jet, which proudly bears his dictum ‘Dignita, Dovere e Divertimento.’ He says: “I am a globetrotter, but mainly for business. I travel for short periods of time and when I am abroad I am in constant meetings; I don’t have much spare time for sightseeing. And when I travel for vacations, there are two destinations that I deeply desire – Capri, my second home, and the Greek islands, Folegandros above all. My family and friends on my boat… and just sunshine!” “As for the Middle East, I love Dubai, which I know pretty well. I find it inspiring; it changes so quickly, and every time I come I always find new ideas to steal!” he adds. The soles of his own shoes may be well worn from his hectic travel schedule and decades of running the multimillion-lira company, but Della Valle is not ready to retire just yet. He says: “To be frank with you, I have not thought about it yet. So far, I basically try to keep on going working as I am currently doing, but at the same time I’m trying to find some time to spend with my family and friends. I think it is really important spending some good time with the family while simultaneously working hard.” He’s currently overseeing the business side of Tod’s while the creative side is handled by the recentlyappointed creative director, Alessandra Facchinetti. “But I always keep an eye on our products as well,” he says. “Alessandra is a very talented woman. Her passion for detail and her dedication to the research of materials and manufacturing allow a sophisticated luxury craftsmanship and make her perfect for Tod’s, which has always been very attentive to quality.” Della Valle’s vision for Tod’s is grand but realistic, as are his ambitions for Italy. Whether it’s the renovation of a local school in his hometown in the Marche region or funding a Rome film studio, he believes in giving back to his country by sharing his largesse. This, combined with his razor-sharp business acumen, commitment and love for Italy, continues to paint a larger-than-life portrait of the patriotic billionaire. Something tells us that some buono spaghetti bolognese also has much to do with it.

Issue 3, 2013

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Loewe’s Hands of Spain

Loewe’s interpretation of the traditional 'Mantón de Manila' pattern, as part of the ‘Best Hands of Spain’ project.

The 166-year-old Spanish luxury accessories brand sets out to share its country’s culture, heritage and camaraderie with the world, one expertly crafted piece of leather at a time. T Emirates speaks to Loewe’s CEO Lisa Montague to find out how. By Priyanka Pradhan

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

“It takes close to 12 hours, and over 130 different pieces of leather,

for our craftsman to make one classic Amazona bag by hand,” says Lisa Montague, Chief Executive of the Spanish luxury brand, gesturing as she speaks towards an in-store artisan who is expertly cutting, sewing and hemming a bag for us to see. The tapestry on display is a part of Loewe’s ‘Best Hands of Spain’ project, which has been traveling the world to celebrate the country’s cultural heritage. Montague says: “We at Loewe talk a lot about our craftsmanship, and we want to emphasize what is special about Spain. When you read the papers, it’s all about the European crisis and tough times, but at this point we want to highlight what we can celebrate about Spain.” Loewe has collaborated with a number of indigenous Spanish brands such as the espadrille-maker Castañer and traditional fan-makers from Valencia. Montague explains: “The fan-makers chose a specially-made hand-carved ebony wood and a beautiful fabric to make the ultimate fan for Loewe. We then made a special case for the fan, crafted with our

all Photographs courtesy of Loewe.

Lisa Montague, CEO, Loewe.

finest leathers. Then we also have the ‘Mantón de Manila,’ which is a tradition from Seville, where we took the iconic pattern, added elements from Loewe from our own Manton archives and colored it up on our own. It’s a fresh, more modern interpretation of the traditional ‘Mantón de Manila’ of Spain.” The response so far, Montague says, has been great. “People have responded so emotionally to the project,” she exclaims. For a brand whose soul lies in its 166-year-old history, the challenge is to be accepted as a ‘modern’ brand, while retaining its traditional aura. Montague says the brand endeavors to constantly update itself, to keep pace with the changing times and evolving consumer needs. “Take digital communication, for example,” she says. “Our Galeria Loewe in Barcelona is so edgy and state-ofthe-art! It is a ‘modern-tech’ expression of a museum of Loewe, with projections, digital versions of the prints and drawings, holograms of the craftsmen making the products, and giant digital tables where you can drill down as much information as you want about the history and heritage of the brand. To me, this is the perfect combination of tradition and history, through technology.” She continues: “Coming soon is our ‘Tales of Spain’ project, which is all about prints and using our traditional scarf prints to interpret them on leather. We’ve digitized them, mixed and patchworked them, chopped them up and reassembled them to make it quite exciting for the modern consumer.”

The making of ‘The Best Hands of Spain’ by Loewe.

But when it comes to collaborations, Loewe is not following other luxury and designer fashion houses by going down the high-street route. Montague emphasizes: “Loewe is still a very well-kept secret… it’s a niche brand, really. Right now, for us, I don’t think high-street collaborations will work, because we have to uphold the quality of the brand and its products. We can’t do that without compromising the quality of the leather, which we would have to do to price it according to highstreet brands. I can see the argument for that, though – there is great merit in these collaborations for some brands, but not for us.” However she goes on, “We’re collaborating on another level. For instance, we’ve announced a high-design collaboration with Tokyo-based designer Junya Watanabe, to celebrate the Year of Spain in Japan (2013-14) with a capsule collection of accessories and clothing. For us, this is the perfect marriage between a strong luxury brand and a fashion ‘god’ in terms of cutting-edge design. This clash of cultures and the creativity from this collaboration will be very interesting to watch out for, going forward.”

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout Emirates

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Giorgio Armani In Pursuit of Perfection Giorgio Armani talks about his new Armani/Casa showroom in Dubai, his life, his mother’s influence, and just a few regrets... By orna ballout Photographs courtesy of Giorgio Armani

Armani admits that he’s a “workaholic and perfectionist,”

which is how he continues to spearhead the growth of his global empire. In Dubai, a “21st-century metropolis” that is already home to his first Armani hotel and numerous retail outlets, the Italian maestro has been furthering his presence in the market with the opening of a new Armani/Casa showroom, saying that “the people of Dubai seem to like the Armani look – the focus on luxury materials and elegant silhouettes, whether in clothing or interior design.” Armani/Casa comprises a range of furniture and home decor items that reflect Armani’s design philosophy, which he says is never about transient trends but “timeless style.” From the new range, he feels that his new rug collection, crafted using a traditional technique of hand-knotting, will appeal most to the local connoisseur. And he nominates the Freud bookcase to best sum up his own personality. “It is a functional piece that is also possessed of wonderful details. You need to dig a little before you find out my true character. So, in the case of the Freud, what initially appears to be a strong and simple piece, on further examination reveals great depth,” he shares.

Issue 3, 2013

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Armani/Casa collection

That depth of character Armani claims has taken him a long way. He’s the man who started his fashion career working at the Italian department store La Rinascente and went on to choreograph a billion-dollar empire covering fashion, furniture, property and everything in between. On the catwalks of his hometown, Milan, he’s even celebrated as “King Giorgio.” And that fashion flair he’s so famous for is something he credits to his mother, a woman who maintained “extremely simple style” and provided him with much inspiration. “She was a very graceful woman and didn’t like showing off; that’s a quality that I made my own,” he says. At 78, and after almost 40 years on the throne of his kingdom, it’s fair to say he has paid his dues. But when questioned on the motivation to keep constantly evolving something that is already such a success, Armani says it’s all about passion. “It is that passion that has driven me from the very beginning. Maybe some successful people do get to a stage where they want to take it easy, but not me. Why would I stop? I still enjoy myself and derive great satisfaction from what I design.” Armani attributes his success over many years to a distinctive design philosophy that is “based on elegance and a purity of line, and avoids ostentation and gimmicks” and a consistent commitment to “effortless, elegant and timeless style.” Yet there is always room for improvement. “We can certainly always stretch ourselves to go further, do more. Maybe that is a definition of the creative spirit – it is always searching, always curious.” There are, however, aspects of Armani’s life that have suffered as a result of his ambition. “Looking back now, I can see that perhaps my only regret is that I did not make more time for friends and loved ones,” he shares. In the course of his long career Armani has witnessed the development of the fashion industry over the years, which, he positively notes, “is so much more part of today’s culture than it was when I was starting out as a designer.” On the downside, he

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“You need to dig a little before you find out my true character. So, in the case of the Freud, what initially appears to be a strong and simple piece, on further examination reveals great depth.” Freud Bookcase.

“I never stop taking in everything that surrounds me, since inspiration can come from leafing through a book, looking at photos and landscapes, or people you meet in passing.” feels that “the growth of big corporate fashion groups has removed some of the creativity from the industry.” Creativity is something Armani doesn’t seem to be short of, as anything that comes to life bearing his name is delivered with cool and calm confidence. At the recent unveiling of his Autumn/Winter 2013 collection in Milan, Armani says he returned to a recurring theme in his work of “the independent spirit that seeks a degree of boyish androgyny in women’s clothing.” Outside the office, Armani strives to break away from his work routine, and although he doesn’t tend to stay in Milan, when he’s there you’ll find him in his 16th-century palazzo, which offers “a real retreat and shelter from the buzz of the city outside.” To keep in shape, he confides, he does an hour of exercise every morning, “a ritual I won’t ever give up.” His breakfast usually consists of coffee, fruit, yoghurt and a croissant. At the weekend, if the weather allows, he usually goes for a walk to feed his creative appetite. “I never stop taking in everything that surrounds me, since inspiration can come from leafing through a book, looking at photos and landscapes, or people you meet in passing,” he notes. Occasionally Armani invites friends over for an aperitif, “and every now and then we’ll watch a movie together. I love film and I enjoy keeping up to date with the newest releases as well as the great classics. I usually don’t go to bed too late. I’m a morning person and I like to start the day full of energy.”

Armani behind the scenes, and posing with models at his Autumn/Winter 2013 fashion show in Milan, where he returned to a recurring theme in his work of "the independent spirit that seeks a degree of boyish androgyny in women’s clothing."

Issue 3, 2013

Lookout Emirates

The Jump-off: Very few fashion houses retain an immediate top-of-mind reference outside sartorial terminology. Indeed, there’s Goyard (ocean-liner travel) and Moncler (Gstaad or Aspen skiing), yet most brands don’t stray beyond their boutiques and their runway shows – unless for some sort of vanity project, A la Chanel’s tennis racquets and surfboards. By Nick Remsen

HermEs and the Horse Enter the fabled Hermès, which has successfully juggernauted its equine program – saddles, tack and all – back to the forefront, alongside its ultra-successful accessory and ready-to-wear lines. This past April, Hermès returned to its sporting roots in hosting its Fourth Annual Saut Hermès, a three-day, professional-level showjumping event in Paris’ Grand Palais. Drawing the world's top-ranked riders (including a handful of Qatari and Saudi horsemen), Hermès used the high-profile platform to formally launch its Cavale saddle, having run soft trials this past winter in the United States’ tony Wellington community. (Going off at a quick tangent: recently, the GCC boasted its own significant victory – Qatari rider Bassem Hassan Mohammed won the competition’s two-phase 1.45m class with a Belgian-bred gelding named Cantinero.)

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“We developed it between rider, artisan and veterinarian,” said department head Marion Bardet of the advanced new equipment. The saddle is indeed technically modern and aesthetically pleasing, crafted from the finest leathers on the market and apparently just as comfortable for the horse as for the rider. The pieces are available to order, and start at approximately AED 30,000. The Hermès festivities didn’t stop at the Grand Palais’ doors. The brand hosted an intimate cocktail soirée at its rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré store, as well as a dinner party at the City of Light’s Hotel Potocki – where diners were told that the original Mr Potocki loved his horses so much, he built their water troughs from pink marble and their stables from virgin mahogany. It was the perfect anecdote to lens the luxe aestheticism Hermès so efficiently and beautifully produces, and a great way to close the weekend. Issue 3, 2013

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Objects

The Spirit of Adventure Sometimes all it takes to feel transported is a new accessory in an exotic material. Photographs by LUCAS BLALOCK styled by molly findlay

GRAY MATTER Clockwise from top: Tod’s bag, AED 19,559; tods.com. Burberry scarf, AED 1,285; burberry. com. Etro earrings, AED 2,615; etro.com. Salvatore Ferragamo sandals, AED 3,489; (866) 337-7242. Brunello Cucinelli bag, AED 11,129; (212) 813-0900. Ray-Ban sunglasses, AED 404; lenscrafters.com. All the prices are indicative

Issue 3, 2013

Quality

Objects

PINK LADIES Clockwise from bottom left: Emporio Armani bag, AED 3,471; armani.com. Devi Kroell bag, AED 29,017; (212) 6444499. Chloé sunglasses, AED 1,414; chloe.com. Michael Kors bag, AED 2,920; (866) 709-5677. Hermès necklace, AED 4,040; hermes.com. All the prices are indicative

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FRINGE BENEFITS Clockwise from top: Ralph Lauren Collection bag, AED 3,654; ralphlauren collection.com. Sergio Rossi necklace, AED 8,539; (305)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;8643643. Zoraide shoes, AED 3,195; shoescribe .com. Christian Louboutin shoes, AED 5,491; christian louboutin.com; Bottega Veneta bag, AED 24,426; bottegaveneta.com. All the prices are indicative

Issue 3, 2013

Quality

Home/Work

Solid as a Rock In the rarefied world of haute couture jewelry, Taffin’s designer James de Givenchy offers a unique combination of elegance and edginess. It’s a mix he loves, and lives by. By JULIA FELSENTHAL Portrait by Marcelo Krasilcic

tomato red and chocolate brown are apt to quicken the pulse the same way that Tiffany blue might for others. Those are the colors that the jewelry designer James de Givenchy, who sells his pieces under the brand name Taffin, uses for packaging his precious gems. For the past 17 years, Givenchy has been designing some of the most imaginative and luxurious one-of-kind pieces — he’s paired aluminum with coral, he’s strung a rubellite tourmaline on rope — which are coveted by the most discerning clientele. In person, Givenchy is refreshingly humble, especially given his surname (his uncle is the designer Hubert) and the exclusive market to which Taffin caters. (Prices can reach into the five figures.) Though when the French-born designer, 49, starts to talk about color, he is unusually exuberant. ‘‘I need red everywhere in most rooms,’’ he says. And a brown wall is a prerequisite in each home, ever since he fell in love at 16 with the brownpainted entryway in his first girlfriend’s family home outside Paris. Givenchy’s playfulness and his eye for unexpected combinations is evident in the way he has furnished his current place — a sprawling prewar apartment on the Upper East Side that he shares with his wife, Gina, and their 11-yearold daughter, Stella. The dining room is painted Benjamin Moore’s Grandfather Clock brown, a soothing contrast to the adjoining living room’s bright red rugs and pumpkin-and-taupe sofas. In the living room, two chairs — Art Deco-

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object lesson Clockwise from top: James and Gina de Givenchy in their Manhattan bedroom; a purple spinel, diamond and sapphire ring by Taffin; mandarin garnet and pink ivory wood earrings; the living room in his signature colors of red and brown.

interiors: NICHOLAS CALCOTT; jewelry: courtesy of Taffin.

For a certain sliver of the population, the colors

style pieces made of leather and steel — are Chinese knockoffs of an original design. In a sitting room off the main living area, a wide low coffee table is actually a platform bed. An antique Buddha head perches on a side table, jauntily wearing a pair of World War II aviator goggles that Givenchy picked up on a trip to China. The walls are covered in art, which Givenchy, to the mild annoyance of his wife, likes to rearrange, ever in search of the perfect balance. Hanging alongside works by Nobuyoshi Araki and Max Snow are some of the designer’s own creations, like an American flag homage to Jasper Johns made of plaster and a canvas built around a piece of gray plastic he found in the water in Costa Rica. ‘‘I’ve always been attracted to drawing,’’ says Givenchy, who flirted with becoming an artist before stints

best in show Clockwise from top: in the entryway, an antique Chinese silk painting and a sculptural vine from Thailand; a plaster cast of Givenchy’s daughter’s hand rests on a John Derian tray; at the showroom, large lacquer forms serve as display cases; an amethyst and yellow gold bead necklace.

True colors Clockwise from above: a Charles Sévigny lacquer desk in the showroom; earrings made of amethyst and diamond; a tray next to Givenchy’s desk holds projects in progress; a spinel and mandarin garnet ring.

at Christie’s and Verdura helped him settle on jewelry. Had he pursued art, he might have been a sculptor. It’s this talent, along with an obsession with the details of construction, that he applies to his jewelry. ‘‘You can’t avoid the physics,’’ Givenchy says. ‘‘It has to fit, and it has to be solid enough to be worn.’’ It’s also why he opts for combining materials that other high-end designers might never dare to — like setting diamonds in gunmetal in a collection for Sotheby’s Diamonds, where Givenchy was creative director from 2008 to 2011. ‘‘That was a real no-no,’’ he says. ‘‘Some people actually got offended.’’ But stepping into his Fifth Avenue showroom, one can only be in awe of the extraordinary concoctions made from precious spinels, mandarin garnets and Mexican fire opals that line the display cases lacquered, of course, in Taffin’s signature colors of tomato red and chocolate brown. A brown desk with a mirrored base by Charles Sévigny — a castoff from one his uncle’s stores — anchors one end of the room. Another desk in gilded orange — a 19th-century reproduction of a 17th-century piece — sits on the other end. This summer, the showroom will move to a new location. The architecture and objects will likely change, but Givenchy’s color scheme will be coming with him.

Issue 3, 2013

interiors: NICHOLAS CALCOTT; jewelry: courtesy of Taffin.

Givenchy opts for combining materials that other high-end designers might never dare to — like setting diamonds in gunmetal.

Quality

prim and proper With its wavy fabrics and layers of lace, Valentino’s spring ready-to-wear collection proved that demure need not mean dull.

Suzy Says

A Modest Proposal Right now, covering up seems way sexier and far more modern than baring it all. By suzy menkes

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of the Italian woman has wavered between a Madonna and a whore. The first look is about innocence, sweetness and femininity; the other a full-on, sexed-up vision, as seen in scoopbust, skintight clothes, amply displayed on television by the ‘‘protégées’’ of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s former prime minister. But out of Italy has come a fashion miracle: a look that suddenly puts ‘‘la moda da puttana’’ (‘‘hooker chic’’) right out of vogue. The new protagonist is Valentino and its design duo, whose modest capes, long-sleeved, calf-length dresses and general gentility has wiped out a decade of slut style on the runways. The cover-up clothes, undulating across the body, revealing flesh only as a lacecovered shadow from the high neck to the wrist, come from Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, who worked for nearly 10 years in the shadow of Valentino Garavani before budding and flowering on their own. The word that best describes their clothes is so ancient and out of fashion that it requires a good dust off: modesty. Yet this is not a sackcloth-and-ashes denial of sexuality but rather a fresh take on the female factor. The modern woman is not prudish about her body. She just may not want to put her erogenous zones on display. There has always been an eroticism attached to what is behind the veil — not least in Italian art. To grasp the significance of Valentino’s fragile and elegant clothes, the clock has to be turned back to the 1990s. That was when Tom Ford was dishing up smoldering sex at Gucci and John Galliano was showing visible bras and underpants on the runway. The on-view lingerie seemed unlikely to succeed, since Yves Saint Laurent, Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier had all been there before with bras on parade. But when Galliano did the look with a glint of wit and not a hint of vulgarity, who could have imagined that colorful bras flaunted under sheer tops were about to become an enduring trend? In fact, transparency is the leitmotif of an entire generation. It has been charming, worn as light layers of fine fabrics; elegant, with the embrace of lace; and slutty, as a sexed-up outfit when flashing flesh has been the purpose. Revealing the body beautiful has become

top left: Gorunway. all other images: CAtwalkPictures.

From movies to fashion, the stereotype

comfort zone Discreet dressing combines a flowy silhouette and a silky feel. Above: Louis Vuitton. Right: Céline.

the male. (Think of courtiers’ doublets and skintight hose, or the strategically placed Scottish sporran.) But rarely has there been much reasoning behind the rules. Legend has it, for example, that prudish Victorians were so shocked by exposure that they would drape the bare wooden legs of their pianos. However, the rationale for covering up legs for centuries did not often extend to the bosom — daintily displayed, as in the Jane Austen era. This new modest style is often as much about fabric as cut: Céline’s sleek, sloppy satin pants or the long, slim, pleated and silken columns from the Belgian designer Veronique Branquinho. Most especially there is the innocent elegance of the Row. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who are the Row designers, have caught the essence of the look by using fine fabrics from cashmere to silk, allowing the body to undulate beneath the gentle cover-ups. Texture and quality add to the deceptive simplicity of their beautifully made pieces. In every way, the Olsen twins, exposed to the trappings of Hollywood almost from birth, seem to understand the current feel for discretion. There is a sweet poetry in clothes that are womanly without being sexually provocative. But if the purpose of clothing from Adam and Eve onward has been linked to the idea of attracting

the opposite sex, does it really make sense to take sex out of the fashion equation? Perhaps the question should be asked the other way around: is covering up the body the death of sensuality? The answer, surely, is no! A lot of designers have swapped daring for decency: there is Guillaume Henry at Carven in Paris, whose mix-and-match separates suggest a youthful simplicity. The entire aesthetic of American designers of Asian descent tends toward politeness and gentility. That could be a

There is a sweet poetry in clothes that are womanly without being sexually provocative. coincidence, but Derek Lam and Phillip Lim are just two examples of designers from whom a pared-down simplicity is key. Similarly, the influx of Belgian and Japanese designers who came to show in Paris in the early 1990s seemed to temper the traditional seductiveness and frivolity of Parisian designs. As the big-name French houses continue to take on designers of other nationalities, fashion gets the streamlined look of Phoebe Philo at Céline and the architectural attitude of Raf Simons at Dior. Europe, divided between gray north and sunny Mediterranean south, is under different geographical influences and those have often shown up in Italy. The yin and yang between designers with opposing points of view goes back to Gianni Versace’s bravura against Giorgio Armani’s discretion; Prada’s ugly aesthetic facing off with a sexy Gucci; and more recently Valentino challenging Dolce & Gabbana’s hot Sicilian style. Is grace really going to win against in-yourface fashion? The truth is that it takes a certain courage and conviction to try simple, covered-up clothes. Whereas baring it all looks increasingly like yesterday’s trend.

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a fashion cliché. Even those yawn-inducing strapless dresses for the red carpet are designed for exposure — not to mention the side slits offering a show of leg, Angelina Jolie-style. The return of purity in fashion does not have to be about covering up — although that may well be part of the equation. It is more about bringing a new sensibility to a wardrobe: graceful court shoes and medium-heeled boots taking over from club-sandwich-style soles. (Those platform shoes were, of course, popularized in the 16th century and worn by Venetian prostitutes to elevate themselves above the crowd.) Sexuality has often been part of dressing the female and

The Moment

Wanderlust in Repose Part of the beauty of travel, stylistically speaking, is letting go of the restraints of the everyday for a more carefree look.

All the prices are indicative

Photographs by paul wetherell styled by michael philouze

A Belted Trench Bouchra Jarrar coat, AED 13,406; Bergdorf Goodman, (212)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;7537300. Cartier ring, AED 26,813; cartier.com. Smythson diary, AED 202; smythson.com.

Issue 3, 2013

Arena

The Moment

Loose, Slouchy Pants DKNY shirt, AED 863; bloomingdales .com. Sportmax pants, AED 2,754; (212) 674-1817. Alejandro Ingelmo sneaker, AED 1,193 (646) 692-8184. The Row sunglasses, AED 1,542; lindafarrow.com. Cartier ring, AED 7,988. Smythson camera case, AED 771.

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fashion assistant: Ahnna Lee. photo assistants: nyra lang, ned rogers. digital tech: eran wilkenfeld. MANICURE BY KELLY B. AT DEFACTO FOR CHANEL BEAUTĂŠ. prop stylist assistant: carrie hill.

A Scrunchable Tote Stella McCartney top, AED 4,517; saksfifthavenue.com. Jil Sander shorts, AED 2,571; saksfifthavenue.com. Reed Krakoff bag, AED 14,655; reedkrakoff.com. Model: Katja Krivorota. Makeup by Pep Gay at Streeters using Chanel. Hair by Leonardo Manetti for Ion Studio. Prop styling by Zac Mitchell at Art Department.

Issue 3, 2013

Arena Emirates

Truly Global Fashion designer Prabal Gurung discusses his mission, his plans, and memories of the Gulf. By Nick Remsen

Nepalese fashion designer Prabal Gurung is undoubtedly a star player in New York City’s current industry vanguard. It’s an elite circle, with peers such as Alexander Wang and Phillip Lim – to name just two – in the increasingly global echelon (cue: the former’s takeover of fabled Franco-Iberian house Balenciaga earlier this year). Yet where Wang affects an up-all-night, look-at-me aesthetic, and where Lim banks almost entirely on the easily trendy, Gurung’s output relishes a bit more bite to go with its bark. He’s a man who is ambitious but patient, sensitive but scrappy, and inviolably matchless. It’s Gurung’s singular blend of demi-couture sensibilities with a robust youthfulness, layered as if through petal and vine in hyper-femininity, that anchors his work. There’s no gimmick – he seems to operate on a discreet wavelength, churning out opulent and sometimes consciously askew clothing, always blending the girlish street with the million-dollar gala. “I’m motivated by the idea of women in power,” says the designer. “It’s fashion, it’s nothing political – it’s the idea of making women feel beautiful.” While such a sentiment may sound relatively cookie-cutter out of context, Gurung’s earnestness dispels any air of cliché. He really does want his girl to feel more beautiful, and thus more confident, than any other in her periphery – with just the slightest layer of edgy subtext. And, by the way, the designer does retain a rather deep political tie – America’s First Lady Michelle Obama is a known fan. Though always pleasant and poised, Gurung’s collections began to verge on the formulaic – flowery bits, marabou wisps, coquettish A-line minis – until Autumn/Winter 2013’s shoot-’em-up ascent into all things military, and, in turn, femme-fatale girl power. “I’d read Time magazine’s ‘Best Inventions of 2012’ list,” says Gurung, “one of which was the US Navy’s redesign of its women’s uniforms. Before, women were just wearing smaller sizes of the standard men’s versions, which actually hampered performance.” This jump-off led to perhaps the strongest presentation yet at his four-year-old brand, replete with muscular, bombastic coats, peplum-pinched tops and a strappy, dashed-up air somehow conveying not just naval vibes, but Army and Air Force harmonics as well. “Inspirations are never literal,” Gurung adds quickly, “and these women have a code. It’s very regimented, but there’s a subtext to it.” Gurung’s method is fitting for the Middle Eastern market and clientele, as evidenced by his 15-plus retailers in the MENA region alone. “The lifestyle in the Gulf is very much at a designer price point,” says the

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designer, “and there’s this heightened sense of femininity.” Gurung, who has cousins in both the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, grew up between Nepal and India and spent time in the region during his youth. “I remember catching glimpses of shoes, and flashes of bright colors and embroidery,” he says, acknowledging both the local dress and the sartorially discerning eyes it shrouds. Gulf consumerism orbits primarily around accessories, perhaps because that category is the most easily worn within an otherwise traditional form of dress. In this vein, Gurung’s ongoing collaboration with Casadei, the Italian couture-like footwear label, is sure to satisfy the region’s edacious appetite. “We speak the same vocabulary,” says the designer of the atelier. Wickedly high and razor-thin to boot, Fall’s footwork promises bondage-esque sandals and knee-highs, coated in buckled gold and jet-black leather. When questioned about launching an ever-lucrative permanent handbag line, Gurung states: “You have to understand your story – I don’t want to put out stuff just because I have to. But they’re coming.” Hear that? Stay very, very tuned. Gurung wouldn’t reveal much about the direction of his Spring/ Summer 2014 line-up, understandably, though he did hint that he’s looking towards an “international, multicultural woman”, which bodes especially well for the crossroads that is the Gulf. Yet no matter what the future holds (and take note, he intends to grow), expect to see a continued threshold of sybaritic, attentive distinction, and the continued production of damned-if-they-aren’t beautiful clothes for the very modern woman, whether she’s in New York, Abu Dhabi or somewhere in between. Capturing the immediate, local sensibility and his own modus operandi in tandem, Gurung concludes: “I’ve always been fascinated by the ornate underneath.”

all Photographs courtesy of Prabal Gurung.

Prabal Gurung sells at Symphony Boutique in Dubai.

Issue 3, 2013

Arena

The Moment

Travel Diary

A Mad Romance

I WAS BORN IN PARIS in the mid-1960s, and by the time I was 12 I had started going to the movies by myself. Most of the movies of that period never appealed to me. I didn’t like the ‘‘naturalism,’’ the sad or the ‘‘down-to-earth’’ characters. What I wanted from film was fantasy, dreams, funny situations, extravagant décor — and beautiful women. If the sets were not gorgeous, at least the actresses had to be! I favored films from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, and cared about only a few Western directors: Luis Buñuel, for his sense of surrealism and madness, and Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti, whose appeal requires no explanation. Nothing compared to my romance with Indian cinema, which remains passionate to this day. I loved these magical movies, which combined great acting with exhilarating soundtracks that stuck in my head 68

for weeks. At school, I talked so much about actors like Hema Malini and Dilip Kumar that my classmates considered me an alien. I have so many memories: going to the cinémathèque as a teen to greet the fabulous director Satyajit Ray; crying along with ‘‘Devi,’’ one of the most fantastic Bengali movies; taking a trip to Chennai to visit some of the movie studios; and a bit later, trying

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to imitate Shah Rukh Khan dancing. Bollywood celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2012. When Melita Toscan du Plantier, the director of the Marrakesh film festival, told me that the festival would be paying homage to Indian cinema, I immediately booked a room at La Mamounia hotel for the event, held this past December. I knew it was not to be missed.

Bollywood Express Christian Louboutin meets his childhood idol, the Indian starlet Sridevi, in Morocco.

Poster by Shaun Severi.

The Scene

The Marrakesh film festival is small enough to still feel personal. The actors are able to relax and enjoy the sights, the sounds and — since this is Morocco — some truly delicious food. This year the festival was dominated by the Bollywood celebration, and the amount of glamour generated by all those beauties in saris was intense. I was star-struck, but I was also on a mission, working on a portfolio of Bollywood stars with the help of my photographer friend Ali Mahdavi. We saw movies and traipsed down

Clockwise from top left: christian Louboutin; Safquat Emquat; Christian Louboutin (2).

Magic carpet ride Priyanka Chopra is cheered during the closing ceremony. Right: Louboutin on the red carpet with the 19-year-old ingenue Alia Bhatt.

red carpets that reminded me of the Cannes Film Festival before it began to look like a military bunker. The actors were like students on a class trip, staying up late, laughing and dancing. This is of course the spirit of Bollywood — dancing on- and off-screen. Isabelle Huppert chatted with the Indian Visconti, Karan Johar. Monica Bellucci, dressed in a long shahtoosh, blended in perfectly with the crowd. Apart from Brazilian mines, or Miss Taylor’s house, I had never seen so many precious stones in one room!

A riot of color Sari-clad actresses were decked out in spectacular jewels and peacock

feathers (a good luck charm in India). Left: the arrival of the mega-watt star Shah Rukh Khan.

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Arena

Travel Diary

Hot in here Above: spontaneous dance circles erupt around the Bollywood dancer Malaika Arora Khan. Right: a screening of ‘‘Student of the Year,’’ a college comedy with the breakout heartthrob Sidharth Malhotra.

cinema society Above: Bollywood’s James Dean, Hrithik Roshan, at dinner with his wife, Suzanne. Right: the team behind ‘‘Student of the Year’’ — Rishi Kapoor, Karan Johar, Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt.

make a wish Left: the actor Arjun Rampal celebrates his 40th birthday at the festival.

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Bollywood stars are versatile; they not only act, but each one has the dance skills of John Travolta in ‘‘Saturday Night Fever.’’ The actor Hrithik Roshan, who was at the festival promoting his recent film ‘‘Agneepath,’’ is like James Dean, but with the body language of Elvis. The superstar Shah Rukh Khan is something like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt combined. It’s difficult to describe his magnetic presence; everyone turns toward him when he enters the room. The actress Malaika Arora Khan reminds me of the Hindu deity Parvati: one is inscribed in limestone, the other on film, but both are clearly goddesses.

all images: Christian Louboutin.

The Stars

Lucky stars Left: Louboutin directs the French-Indian actress Kalki Koechlin and her screen partner Abhay Deol on Louboutin’s photo set. Far left: Safquat Emquat, a photographer and Bollywood body double, with the Indian film icon Amitabh Bachchan.

From ‘‘Devi’’ to ‘‘Mother India,’’ Christian Louboutin shares his 10 favorite Bollywood films. At tmagazine.com.

My Fantasy Comes True My job is designing shoes. It’s work that happens behind the scenes, as they say, and that suits me just fine because in general I am a shy person. But sometimes I have these extroverted outbursts. Being in the presence of Amitabh Bachchan, the godfather of Bollywood, and one of the most stylish men on earth, was not going to help me remain at ease — I am such a big fan of his. But I kept it together thanks to his impeccable manners, until I met Sridevi. Now in her late 40s, she was once known as the Shirley Temple of India. She first

Clockwsise from top left: christian Louboutin; Safquat Emquat; Guillaume de Santos (3).

Camera-ready Right: Sridevi’s makeup team kept her looking like a diva. Below left: everyone wants to kiss the Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan, including Louboutin’s assistant, MarieLaure Gimeno. Bottom right: in the middle of Louboutin’s photo shoot, the actor Arju Rampal and his wife, the supermodel Mehr Jesia, play vampire and victim.

appeared on screen at age 4; 19 years later she was in a movie dancing wildly like a snake. She carried herself — forgive my gushing — as the queen that she is, like Elizabeth Taylor entering Rome as Cleopatra. Ali, my photographer friend, forced me to take Mrs. Sridevi in my arms. She seemed amused by my strange behavior, but I was a little freaked out, holding my idol. She probably could never have imagined that she represented such a big chapter of my fantasy life as a child. Or that this was a moment I would never forget. Issue 3, 2013

Arena A Picture and a Poem

The World in a Grain of Sand Or a coin, or a keyhole. The sculptor Teresita Fernandez ventures outside her usual medium to create a drawing inspired by new verse from Matthew Zapruder.

strange coin I would call bronze on what feels like earth’s last morning I stand in the kitchen just holding your slight warmth in my palm trying now to remember from what country I removed you maybe Slovenia or terrible Spain you clink against the gold I wear on the finger known as ring on one side a number on the other some famous candelabra a solemn crowd once a year along the main avenue carried to celebrate Night the considerate guest that while we are sleeping quietly takes its clouds and departs or a shield that long ago protected a prince from an arrow so he could become the cruel organizer whose roads to this day we still unthinking travel strange coin I am asking whose hands without marveling held you on their way though you know you cannot answer some mornings I wander out below the sun scare some crows grab a spade and make a hole place some seeds or a whole plant my wife tells me what to do she is holding an orange can full of clear miraculous water her dark hair her white skin after a funeral I have seen loved ones ritually pound dirt with shovels to make the rectangular hole flat and ready for the stone we can return to each time to place some object that attracts our eye for some reason we cannot explain to wish the souls we don’t know if we believe in to nowhere safe journey just in case wherever they are they will know they are thought of and remembered Teresita Fernández, ‘‘Keyhole (Landscape),’’ 2013

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Matthew Zapruder

Poem for a Coin

BONE CHILLING A macabre trip to the Bone Chapel in the Czech Republic. text and photographs by Eva Fernandes

Unlike the other tourists posing for pictures, I am stiff

with morbid intrigue. We are in the Sedlec Ossuary, more commonly known as the Bone Chapel, in Kutna Hora—an hour’s train ride away from Prague. Legend has it that in the early 13th century an abbot from the Sedlec Monastery returned from a trip to the Holy Land with a handful of earth which he scattered across the cemetery outside this chapel in Sedlec. The association elevated the cemetery’s status not only in Bohemia, but all of Europe, as an ideal burial place. By the 17th century, the cemetery was overcrowded and the graves were exhumed. The task of arranging the exhumed bones in the chapel fell to a local woodcarver, Frantisek Rint, who bleached and organised the bones of the 40,000 bodies. Unlike the other bone churches in Europe, which merely stack the bones one on top of each other, Rint opted for a more, for lack of a better word, creative approach to his task. Using skulls, femurs, ribs and phalanges, Rint artistically constructed various decorative arrangements including a massive Schwarzenberg family crest, six narrow bone pyramids, two massive chalices and four candelabras. Perhaps the most impressive structure in the church is a huge chandelier which hangs above the center of the church and is claimed to include every bone of the human body. Rint’s own signature (executed in finger bones) can be found near the entrance of the church. It is this strange artfulness which sets the ossuary apart from any other. From the Capuchin Crypt and the San Bernardino alle Ossa in Italy, the Capela dos Ossos in Portugal to the more famous Catacombs in France, tourists are spoilt for opportunities to visit macabre bone churches in Europe. But unlike any of the former churches which tend to be home to bones stacked on top of one another, Rint’s innovative use of the bones treats the viewer to an eccentric mishmash of repulsion and intrigue. Eerie or fascinating—whichever adjective you choose it isn’t easy to reconcile the balance between art and morbidity. While the combination of skull-femur-skull-femur repeated across the ceiling would never be my chosen expression for decoration—there is no denying Rint has created something morosely beautiful. He employs a dark playfulness in his very precise and systematic execution of the principles of a typical Czech baroque aesthetic. Still, as I walk across the Ossuary, my stomach turning a thousand times over—a bizarre form of curiosity comes over me, and I begin to play a game of anatomy with my companions. Which bones do you think have been used to construct the bobeches of the

Interior of the bone chapel in Kutna Hora.

Issue 3, 2013

Arena

Travel Diary

The bone chapel in the Czech Republic attracts travelers with its macabre charm.

chandelier? Is it a femur or a humerus that is stuffed in to the oral cavity of each skull piled on top of each other to create that elongated pyramid of skulls? Trapped in a vicious cycle of art imitating life (or perhaps more accurately, death), I prod my left leg and arm to get a better sense of the limitations of my own bone structure. While the sheer magnitude of the bones on display can make even the squeamish, blasĂŠ, the distinctiveness of each skull is an acute reminder that each head propped so neatly on top of each other, is indeed a human head. As I look closer at a set of skulls so cheerfully strung together like a Christmas crepe bunting, I begin to notice the specific indents unique to the craniums closest to me. I have a strange moment of clarity: this head was once on a body, a body that could have been someone's father, son or lover. Leaving the chapel and willing my lunch to stay at the base of my churning stomach, I am amazed by the almost-bored look on the attendants who sit at the entrance of the church and collect the mandatory CZR 50 entrance fee (AED 9.5). Have they come to terms with the ultimate existential question? Does working with dismembered skeletons of 40,000 bodies numb you to the worries of the pressing question of what happens when we shuffle off this mortal coil? I leave, wondering.

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water front Biarritz’s popular surf scene is a draw for Parisians.

On the Verge

The Californication of Biarritz As St. Tropez continues to get glitzier, this French resort town is emerging as a laid-back paradise for hip urban refugees from Paris and beyond. By Tim Murphy Photographs by jamie hawkesworth

Biarritz has long been known as the

surfing capital of France — ever since the American screenwriter Peter Viertel arrived on its beach during the filming of ‘‘The Sun Also Rises’’ in 1956. Nowadays, major surf brands like Quiksilver and O’Neill have offices, shops and competitions in the area. But lately, a more indie surf-meets-art-meets-fashion scene has

sprung up, as cool young Parisians settle into this grand old town overlooking the Atlantic. Their presence — not just in summer but increasingly year-round — has transformed Biarritz and its surrounding beach towns from what was once a resort for bourgeois retirees into a breezy bohemian outpost that has come to be called ‘‘the French California.’’ It’s sunnier,

Issue 3, 2013

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Travel Diary

seaside heights Above: the Biarritz artist Damien Chauvier, 31. Left: the town’s dramatic cliffside, with its mix of French and Basque-style buildings perched on the Atlantic.

friendlier and more rough-hewn than much of France, tied by its hardy Basque roots to its Spanish neighbors just over the border. ‘‘St. Tropez used to be the cool place to be in France, but it became too bling-bling, so the real cool is here now,’’ says Thibault Taniou, 30. He and his girlfriend, Audrey Perrot, 28, met as

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classical dancers in Paris but now live here full-time. They own a minimalist fashion boutique, In the Middle, which stocks hip labels like Grenson and Warriors of Radness. ‘‘Madonna visited Guéthary two summers ago,’’ he says with pride, referring to a trendy rustic village down the coast. (She came with her young boyfriend, the French model-dancer Brahim Zaibat.) Other famous Biarritz-goers include the actress Monica Bellucci and the French electro singer Sébastien Tellier, whose cheesy-sensual hit, ‘‘Roche,’’ begins, ‘‘I dream of Biarritz in summer.’’ Also bringing a new sense of style to Biarritz is Olivier Granet, 23, who manages a sportswear boutique by day and in his spare time publishes B2, an online magazine that showcases fashion, design and culture from Biarritz and nearby Bordeaux (hence the B-squared title). ‘‘Biarritz is becoming a new

jamie hawkesworth

Biarritz and its surrounding towns have gone from being a resort for bourgeois retirees to a breezy bohemian outpost known as ‘the French California.’

coast garde Audrey Perrot (above), an owner of the boutique In the Middle, and Olivier Granet (left), who runs the online magazine B2.

Lee-Ann Curren, a pro surfer who lives in Biarritz, grew up here and in California.

fashion hub,’’ he says, ‘‘but the look here is much more relaxed than in Paris.’’ A certain muted luxury is the hallmark of Biarritz, the reason why not only 20-something surfer-artists but also more established urban refugees are putting down roots. Four years ago, Sébastien Farran, a Parisian music manager, and his girlfriend, Nadège Winter, a fashion publicist, started Big Festival, an annual music gathering that now draws nearly 20,000 people. ‘‘I fell in love with this region when I first came here five years ago,’’ Winter says. ‘‘It’s wild and healthy. We can drop the mask here.’’ You get a sense of that vibe at places like Le Comptoir du Foie Gras, a tiny tapas bar where Biarritz’s artists often show their work; at Hétéroclito, a charmingly ramshackle cafe on the cliffs of Guéthary; and at the Beach House, which opened last summer in the town of

Anglet and was an instant smash. It’s a breezy, white-painted building with a huge fireplace in a room full of nautical bric-a-brac. A crowd of hipster surfers gather on the huge sandy minibeach out front or the patio and pool in the back, ordering burgers and Coronas alongside Champagne and charcuterie. One of the Beach House’s regulars is LeeAnn Curren, a 23-year-old professional surfer who might just be the new Biarritz’s most emblematic resident. She grew up surfing in Biarritz with her mother, an accomplished French surfer; she spent summers in Santa Barbara with her father, the American surf legend Tom Curren. Now she lives in Biarritz, surfs nearly every day and sings and plays guitar in a band called Betty the Shark that sounds a bit like Liz Phair or Le Tigre. ‘‘I feel French because I grew up here,’’ she says. ‘‘But by French standards, I feel Californian.’’

Issue 3, 2013

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Good Morning, Matthias Schoenaerts After a breakout role in ‘Rust and Bone,’ Hollywood is waking up to the raw magnetism of this Belgian import. PhotographS by bruce weber STYLED BY deborah watson TEXT BY tim Murphy

It must feel a bit surreal to find

Matthias Schoenaerts hanging out in and around the Ocean Queen Inn in Hollywood, Fla. John Varvatos T-shirt, AED 580; johnvarvatos .com. Polo Ralph Lauren jeans, AED 360; ralphlauren.com. All the prices are indicative

yourself, in the tradition of once-unknown European actors like Javier Bardem and Jean Dujardin, suddenly an American sensation. Just ask Matthias Schoenaerts, who starred last fall in the French art-house hit ‘‘Rust and Bone,’’ in which he plays Ali, a single father and mixed-martial-arts fighter who falls into a careless romance with Stéphanie, played by a deglamorized Marion Cotillard, who has recently become a double amputee after being maimed by one of the whales she trained at a SeaWorld-type park on the Côte d’Azur. Schoenaerts’s performance, suffused with a clumsy gentleness that recalls Ryan Gosling’s career-changing role in ‘‘Half Nelson,’’ has earned him critical raves and media infatuation.

One day he’s a working actor living in Belgium, finding time to go to the gym; the next he’s a Hollywood man of the moment, with a string of movies on the docket. ‘‘It’s been exciting, but at some point it drives me nuts,’’ Schoenaerts says. Indeed, he feels that his quiet life in Antwerp — where he lives with his girlfriend, a law student and model — is slipping away. ‘‘I haven’t been here a lot this year,’’ he says. ‘‘Next year I want to do two projects and not more. Four or five a year starts feeling like a grab-the-money-andrun show.’’ Before ‘‘Rust and Bone,’’ Schoenaerts was busy promoting ‘‘Bullhead,’’ a drama in both French and Limburgish (a dialect of the DutchBelgian-German border) and a 2012 Oscar

Issue 3, 2013

Louis Vuitton jacket, AED 8,338; louisvuitton.com. John Varvatos henley, AED 617.

nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. In it, he plays another nonverbal lug, a cow farmer addicted to steroids and hormones similar to the ones with which he injects his cattle. For both roles, Schoenaerts bulked up from his usual 198 pounds to as much as 230 pounds, with intense weightlifting and copious amounts of fast food. ‘‘Ali should look like he could’ve been an athlete once but he got a belly,’’ he says of his ‘‘Rust and Bone’’ character. ‘‘Now I’m slimming back down and getting back to my sports schedule.’’ In fact, sports — namely soccer — were his salvation growing up. He was raised alternately by his grandmother in Brussels and his mother in Antwerp; his mother never married his father, the Belgian actor Julien Schoenaerts, who died

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All the prices are indicative

Issue 3, 2013

Bottega Veneta sweater, $1,880; bottegaveneta.com. Polo Ralph Lauren jeans, $98.

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The thought of playing a charming, goodlooking guy gives him the goose bumps, and not in a good way.

six years ago, and Matthias speaks very little about his family history. ‘‘It’s complicated,’’ is all he’ll say. ‘‘But when I was playing soccer, everything was fine.’’ Then along came another passion: street art. Online there is a video clip of a teenage Schoenaerts and some buddies getting apprehended by two cops while doing a graffiti mural in Antwerp. ‘‘We didn’t run when we saw them, we just kept painting!’’ he says with a laugh. A decade ago, his love of graffiti even led him briefly to New York, where he painted with the Bronx group TATS CRU. His father’s career hadn’t held much interest at that point. He enrolled in film school in the late 1990s but was kicked out after a year. ‘‘I was lazy back then,’’ he says. Eventually he

Issue 3, 2013

John Varvatos T-shirt, AED 580. Opposite: Olatz pajama bottoms, AED 2,755 (for set); olatz .com. John Varvatos henley, AED 617. Hair by Zaiya Latt at Bryan Bantry Agency. Grooming by Regine Thorre at 1+1 mgmt. Prop stylist: Dimitri Levas. See Bruce Weber’s video interview of Matthias Schoenaerts at tmagazine.com.

Sports were Schoenaerts’s salvation growing up in Belgium. ‘It’s complicated,’ is all he’ll say of his upbringing. ‘But when I was playing soccer, everything was fine.’

came around, making a name for himself in ‘‘Loft,’’ a 2008 Belgian thriller about five buddies who share a loft for trysting purposes — then turn on each other in paranoia when a dead woman is found there. He stars in the American remake, due this year, with James Marsden, Wentworth Miller and Eric Stonestreet, of the TV show ‘‘Modern Family.’’ It is his first English-language film, and others will soon follow, including ‘‘A Little Chaos,’’ with Kate Winslet, and ‘‘Suite Française,’’ with Michelle Williams, both due next year. Later this fall he’ll appear in ‘‘Blood Ties,’’ a crime thriller set in 1970s New York, in a supporting role in a cast that includes Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, Zoe Saldana, Mila Kunis and Cotillard; Guillaume Canet, Cotillard’s

boyfriend, directed the movie. One offshoot of working with a dialect coach on the film is that Schoenaerts speaks English with a ‘‘GoodFellas’’ twang. ‘‘My so-called neutral American accent now seems to be a New York accent,’’ he says. That may come in handy as he inevitably spends more time stateside. But he says that as much as he likes small doses of America’s manic energy, he’s determined to stay rooted in Belgium. He also swears he won’t do a romcom. The thought of playing ‘‘just a charming, good-looking guy gives me goose bumps,’’ he says, and he doesn’t mean it in a good way. ‘‘Then again,’’ he adds, giving away a bit of his newfound Hollywood savvy, ‘‘if it’s a good screenplay . . . yeah, why not?’’ All the prices are indicative

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Issue 3, 2013

Tailor: Lynn Rossi for Lars Nord. Production coordinator: Dawn Boller. fashion assistant: Alexa Lanza. Photo assistants: Michael Murphy, Joseph DiGiovanna, Christopher Domurat, Jeff Tautrim, John Knapp.

Lanvin dress, AED 7,713; (646) 439-0380. Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière shoes (worn throughout), AED 7,897; (212) 2060872. Opposite: Jil Sander top, AED 3,158 and skirt, AED 4,150; neimanmarcus. com. All the prices are indicative

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Modernism Is The Message

There’s a ravishing purity to fashion’s new minimalism, where a singular graphic line — a triangular neckline, an undulating ruffle — defines the rigor of design.

Photographs by mario sorrenti styled by jane how

Issue 3, 2013

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Stella McCartney dress, AED 8,246; (212) 255-1556. Opposite: Calvin Klein Collection dress, AED 46,262; (212) 292-9000.

Versace jacket, AED 10,266; (888)â&#x20AC;&#x2030;7217219. Fleet Ilya belt, AED 2,2088; fleetilya.com. Opposite: Gucci top, AED 7,162; gucci.com.

Sub Section

Issue 3, 2013

Section

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fashion assistants: lucy bower, eliza conlon. equipment: dan perrone at root eq. manicure: amangiri spa.

Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière top, AED 5,638 and skirt, AED 42,056. Opposite: Dior dress, AED 21,671; (800) 929-3467. Model: Anja Rubik/ Next. Makeup by Hannah Murray for Topshop Makeup. Hair by Recine for Rodin by Recine Luxury Hair Oil.

Issue 3, 2013

the reincaRna

Bright lights, big city Traffic clogs the streets of Gangnam, as seen from the Park Hyatt Seoul. Top right: the recently completed Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park, designed by Zaha Hadid.

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ation of seoul With a rush of sweeping cultural transformations, the South Korean capital is becoming the fashionable intrigue of the Far East. by phoebe eaton Photographs by zeng han

t is the new can’t-miss building in the heart of Seoul. Like the bandages on a plastic-surgery patient, the last of the protective fencing has been peeled away to reveal the capital’s latest architectural creation. City Hall, a vintage vestige of South Korea’s ruthless onetime colonial overlord Japan, has been restored. Over a cold stone shoulder, as formidable as the all-powerful mayor who works within, now rises a tsunami of glass and steel, the future poised to obliterate the past in the next 60 seconds. It took five months to build. This is the new face of Seoul. ‘‘Pali! Pali!’’ everybody likes to say. Faster! Faster! South Korea has been sprinting down the road to recovery since the end of the Korean War. As fast as PSY’s ‘‘Gangnam Style’’ anthem, mocking Seoul’s Ferrari-and-furs nouveaux riches, galloped to the top of the Western music charts this year, the city has emerged as one of the most hip (and most underrated) cultural capitals in the world. Cruise-line-proportioned flagships, architecturally bombastic headquarters, museums celebrating traditional houses to handbags, haute and hot restaurants are all competing for the attention of its 10 million increasingly affluent residents. Koreans have the reputation for being nose-to-thegrindstone, study-smarties. But looking around Seoul today, one can only conclude they’re ready to enjoy

themselves. It’s no longer the city voted least favorite layover in the Far East. Let everyone rabbit on about how places like Shanghai are The Future: Seoul residents are smarter dressers; its restaurants feel more fussed over, more daring; and after an early force-feed of education, everyone’s creative, individualist side is emerging. South Korea never just apes the West but puts its own topspin on music, fashion, food, technology. Apple may have won its patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung, but Samsung’s Galaxy S III is neck and neck with the iPhone 5 in stores, early to the notion that people wanted smartphones with bigger screens. Samsung has overtaken Sony as the world’s biggest maker of TVs. ‘‘Apple takes forever to develop a jewel of a phone, but Samsung, they just throw it out there. Bam-bam-bam!,’’ says the architect Euhlo Suh. ‘‘People don’t like this feature? Let’s make another one. Bam-bam-bam!’’ That’s just the hardware. Content has arrived, too. The cultural wave rolling from these shores already has a name — hallyu — literally, the Korean Wave, coined by awestruck Chinese who were the first to acknowledge Korea’s revised profile in Asia. Its ‘‘K-pop’’ music and television shows have been embraced with such a Pacific Basin bear hug that money from these sectors alone buoys South Korea’s economy by $4.5 billion a year. This year, Korean directors transitioned from Hallyuwood to Hollywood, and will open their first English-language films, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nicole Kidman.

he Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, which opened two years ago, is Seoul’s bigger, badder Whitney Museum, and a hard-won National Museum of Contemporary Art will make its debut later this year. (Like many of Seoul’s prestige projects, the Leeum was designed by Western architects and was hardly issue-free: Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel and Mario Botta were each commissioned for a site that shrunk after the economic crisis in the late 1990s — witness this trio of buildings now existing in near collision with each other.) The worldliness announces itself on every street corner: a constellation of starchitect-designed headquarters is aligning in the night sky. Here a Rem Koolhaas. There a Daniel Libeskind. Perhaps not so impressive a feat as a city like Shanghai, but Seoul is well on its way, even if the candelabra of new buildings are in many instances snuffed every night by 10 p.m., as the economy-minded socialist government has encouraged. Until now, South Korea has never really registered as a culture — or as a country — save in news reports about threats from the North, forever lumped together with places like Taiwan as an emerging industrial powerhouse. Seoul is run by a tight group of family-owned conglomerates (Samsung, Doosan, LG, et al.) called the chaebol, with every line of business in their tentacle grip. Now these families’ third-generation sons and daughters, in their 30s and 40s, are leading Seoul through the most radical upgrade of its 2,000-year history. They’ve come of age during South Korea’s growth with all the attached benefits: virtually every one of them educated abroad (America, mainly), fluent in foreign languages, buzzing with international connections. The most graphic sign of the city’s transformation is perhaps the string of fashion flagships docked on the main drag of Gangnam’s Cheongdam-dong: Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Tory Burch, Prada, Gucci. It all reads very Rodeo Drive — that is, if there weren’t already a

‘Apple takes forever to develop a jewel of a phone, but Samsung, they just throw it out there. Bam-bam-bam! People don’t like this feature? Let’s make another one. Bam-bam-bam!’ street named Rodeo Drive in Gangnam’s Apgujeong. The endgame for these companies has been to plant a flag early, establish the brand as quickly as possible. This explains what Dean & DeLuca is doing in the basement of Gangnam’s Shinsegae department store flogging French chocolates and muesli, why Jamie Oliver is taking meetings with the ‘‘global lifestyle company’’ CJ Foodville and why Tory Burch entered a partnership with Samsung Chiel. ‘‘If Samsung hadn’t approached us, we probably would have approached them,’’ says Burch, whose orange-lacquer flagship and 23 shop-in-shops enjoy double-digit sales growth yearly. Forty years ago, Gangnam (‘‘south of the river’’) was farmland. Today, after hyper-development and redevelopment that made numerous property owners mega-millionaires overnight, rabid consumerism runs free. The wives of Gangnam crowd into the months-old Gourmet 494 in the basement of the Galleria mall. To call this a food court would be an act of libel. The hottest restaurants in Seoul have branches here, like Pizzeria D’Buzza and Vatos Urban Tacos, the latter of which began with funds its California-born founding partner, Kenneth Park, raised on Kickstarter. The menu is an East-West border mix with kimchi carnitas fries, galbi short-rib tacos, peach makgeolitas made with Korea’s fermented rice wine makgeolli, and funny pictograms display the source of each meat, required by law ever since a 2008 controversy when beef from the United States was allowed back into Korea. At Gourmet 494, customers are learning to care more and pay more for groceries. Elderly ladies wearing stewardess-y pillbox hats sell gift sets of grapefruit-size apples and pears. Tins of Spam packed with Andalucian olive oil run counter to such other dainty offerings as the ‘‘brioches haricots rouges.’’ After the Korean War, the

icing on the cake Above: quirky cakes at the Menagerie, located in the high-end retailer SSG Food Market. Below: a life-size sculpture of Rick Owens stands in the window of the designer’s store in Dosan Park.

leisure class Clockwise from above: a pair of cafes, Tasting Room and Glamorous Penguin, sit across from each other in ultra-hip Hannam-dong; a sleep pod in Chaum Life Center; the stylist Raymond Chae in his newly opened boutique, MIK 24/7.

American base in town offloaded Spam onto the hapless starving natives who developed a taste for it. Now it is a tradition to give Spam as a thank-you to parents. Blocks away, at a satellite outpost of the cult Italian fashion emporium 10 Corso Como, Faye Lee gives her order to the waiter. Lee, who introduced Milan’s exoticskins brand Colombo to South Korea, is outfitted in the local uniform: fur vest, leggings and wedge heels. Bought out by Samsung in 2011, she drives a yellow Ferrari 458 Italia. Upstairs at the store, where Thom Browne shirts hang next to Mercury-winged Azzedine Alaia boots, an employee tails shoppers closely — too closely. The same occurs at the Rick Owens store in Dosan Park, where a Facsimile Rick in the window resembles a Dothraki horse lord from ‘‘Game of Thrones,’’ a wind machine buffeting his hair. In Seoul, the designer clothes may have arrived but the service has yet to follow. Koreans are as obsessed with image and aging as Westerners, and plastic surgery borders on national pastime. Having a ‘‘small face’’ is the ultimate, and the procedure of the moment is a very painful double-jaw overhaul. Also: hair implants for women to fortify a moderately thinning hairline. Koreans are decidedly more adventurous on the road to perfection. At Gangnam’s Enzyme Health Spa, women soak in fermenting rice bran up to their necks to lose weight. Then there’s the Dr. Fish pedicure, where for $2, carp will nibble dry skin from feet, like a thousand points of electroshock. Opening the wallet wider, for $170,000, locals can join Chaum, a Kubrickian anti-aging center in

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the Pie’n Polus building that will bank your endlessly renewable stem cells for the day stem-cell therapies become viable in Seoul.

estaurant bills can feel similarly ludicrous too, as if price alone can elevate the mediocre. At Elbon the Table, this translates to gold leaf on foie gras, steak served with five colored salts, wasabi ice-cream powder steaming from a liquid-nitrogen application. Innovation feels fresher at Okitchen, where the servers are all chefs in their 20s rotating nights in the kitchen and sending out Jeju horse carpaccio and Gorgonzola ice cream. At Goo STK, customers can call ahead to reserve their dry-aged steaks, and the kitchen stays open until 1 a.m., an exception in a city where most restaurants take their last reservation at 8 p.m. Why? To make way for the drinking that will go on afterward: in Asia, it is Korea that hits the bottle hardest, another reason you always hear people comparing the Koreans with the Irish. Jinro’s branded soju, a drink much like vodka, is the world’s best-selling alcohol you’ve never heard of. Speakeasy Mortar looks like it might be a sauna from the outside. Instead in this swank whiskey bar, the anomalous American vice chairman of the Doosan corporation has four men out on a hoesik, a traditional roundelay of after-work drinks. Today, one of them won an award. After a last belt of Guatemalan sipping rum, the boss is off. His team bows deeply at the waist as he vanishes into his chauffeured car.

retail therapy Above: the everchanging, LED-lit facade of Galleria Department Store. Below: young people wait for a traffic light on one of Seoul’s busy streets.

Seoul’s worldliness announces itself on every street corner: Here a Rem Koolhaas. There a Daniel Libeskind.

NEW WAVE Above: the curvature of Seoul’s new City Hall building hangs ominously over the original 1926 structure. Left: 10 Corso Como, an outpost of the Milanbased concept store in Cheongdam-dong.

ee Bul, Seoul’s biggest contemporary artist in residence, wears an apron as she bustles around her embassy-area studio. On the wall is a wearable Sigmund the Sea Monster sculpture reconstructed for her recent Mori Art Museum retrospective in Tokyo. Only three Korean artists have a truly international profile and an international market commensurate with that reputation: Bul, Doh-ho Suh (who mainly resides in London) and the longtime Japan resident Lee Ufan. Though the chaebol are major collectors — particularly the wives, sisters and daughters-in-law who collectively run six Korean art museums — they mainly indulge a taste for secondary-market Western art. ‘‘Go to MoMA in New York. Three of the biggest corporate sponsors are Samsung, Hanji and Hyundai Card,’’ says Bul’s husband, James B. Lee, who represents his wife and is a consulting partner at Seoul’s leading PKM gallery. Every major museum swings through Seoul with its trustees and directors with the goal of forging future institutional partnerships. Still, international collectors are not coming, which means fewer galleries, which hurts younger local artists. ‘‘I still think Korea is very isolated,’’ Lee admits. It’s difficult to tell who’s stockpiling what because of increased secrecy: South Korea doesn’t impose any taxes on transactions of art property, and artwork is exempt from transfer and inheritance taxes, too. Which makes it an ideal form of currency for some chaebol, and a way to launder money and make bribes. A number of prominent executives have found themselves accused and convicted of tax evasion, most famously Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of Samsung. Last year, the chairman and an executive at Orion Group were convicted of using embezzled funds to buy art and were sent to jail. Architecture is more the vehicle for flaunting a company’s success publicly. But too often, local business owners are consumed with creating spectacular shapes beribboned with LEDs and little else. A client can cheap out. The guts of a building are often forgotten as the zany facade takes precedence. The residents like to hate a lot of what’s going up. Seoul remains the destination for ‘‘the Cloud’’ in Daniel Libeskind’s Yongsan International Business District, which has drawn criticism for its remarkable similarity to the smoke-wreathed ruins of the Twin Towers. Some of the other starchitects are perceived to be phoning it in. The local architect Eulho Suh compares it to American movie stars quietly shooting dopey commercials in Asia for astronomical sums. Politics can also interfere. Zaha Hadid’s mercury-lobed Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park was supposed to be a cultural complex. When the mayor who championed so many of these projects felt obliged to resign in a force play over a school-lunch referendum, his socialist replacement made a point of denouncing a number of building projects, wrenching funds. The building boom became a touchstone issue for the have-nots demonstrating in front of City Hall and citing North Korea as a model society, untainted by all this Americanism, all this mindless showing off. It is now the year of the snake, and anything born the year of the snake is strong, sheds its skin and is reborn. Rumor has it when the bandages come off, Hadid’s building will be a shopping mall.

Issue 3, 2013

The Original Search Engine in the days before google, librarians at the New York Public Library hand clipped hundreds of thousands of photos and illustrations from magazines and books to create over 12,000 different files for its Picture Collection. Visitors could search for images of, say, rat catching or handshaking. It was here that Diego Rivera sought inspiration for his monumental murals and Andy Warhol borrowed advertising images, occasionally not returning them, for his art. The photographer Taryn Simon, whose work focuses on cataloging (contraband items seized by airport customs officials, bloodlines of Bosnian genocide victims), has been archiving the collection as part of a series now on view at the John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco. The contents of the folder ‘‘Beards & Mustaches,’’ shown here, is one of her favorites. maura egan

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‘‘Folder: Beards & Mustaches, The Picture Collection’’: courtesy OF taryn simon.

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