T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

Women’s Fashion September − October, 2014

T Emirates : The New York Times Style Magazine Women’s Fashion September − October 2014

Carmen Chaplin and the Venice Film Festival — The Rise of the Middle Eastern Art Collector Downtown Design Dubai — The Inner Demons of Sarah Burton by Andrew O’Hagan

UNTAMED SPIRIT AED 20

Table of Contents

Women’s Fashion September − October, 2014

KARIM SADLI

Features 64 The Big Easy

Fashion's solution to life on the go comes in the form of enveloping knits and dramatically long, loose and oversize wear.

72 The Genius Next Door

Four years after the death of her boss, mentor and close friend, Sarah Burton is finally ready to break free from the haunting legacy of Alexander McQueen. An intimate look at fashion’s reluctant star.

Page 72 ANIMAL INSTINCT Stella Tennant wears a fur and feather coat with a hammered-metal bow belt, leather gloves and Mongolian fur-trim boots.

By Andrew O’Hagan Photographs by Karim Sadli Styled by Joe McKenna 82 A Feminine Cut

With a few ladylike flourishes, like tapered waists and portrait necklines, classical tailoring feels smart and elegant.

Photographs by Mark Borthwick Styled by Jonathan Kaye

ON THE COVER: Photograph by Craig McDean. Styled by Joe McKenna.

Hair by Eugene Souleiman. Makeup by Peter Philips. Model: Vanessa Axente.

Prada coat, AED 23,286 prada.com.

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Table of Contents

Page 39

Page 32 Left: An exhibitior at the 2013 Downtown Design fair in Dubai.

Right: Eduardo Novillo Astrada, Miguel Munoz Angel, Astrid Munoz, Milla Jovovich, Clive Owen, Helena Bordon, Elissa Shay and Scott Haze pose wearing Jaeger-LeCoultre watches during a gala dinner hosted by Jaeger-LeCoultre at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco during the 71st Venice Film Festival.

Quality 45 In Fashion

Simple, knee-length coats make dressing for fall a walk in the park.

49 Watch Report

Delicate gold watches 50 Objects

13 Sign of the Times

Cathy Horyn makes a case for the commercialization of high fashion.

16 This and That

Ai Weiwei and an anti-‘‘Waterworld’’; furniture packs on the pounds; a sharpshooting pop sensation; and more.

22 Market Report

Chain-strap bags

Lookout Emirates 32

A Time for Everything

Carmen Chaplin speaks about her grandfather Charlie Chaplin's Memovox watch by Jaeger-LeCoultre on the occasion of the 71st Venice Film Festival as well as her films in the making.

36 In Praise of Transformation

Hermès celebrates metamorphosis, its theme of the year for 2014, on the French isle of Le Mont Saint-Michel.

43 The Rise of the Middle Eastern Art Collector

Arena 57

Yes, Please

Once reserved only for off-hours duty, the lowly flat makes a power play among the fashion set.

59 On Beauty

Smudged makeup and tousled hair are indicators that women have better things to do with their time, and yet a look this careless requires product.

61 Home and Work

The Brooklyn townhouse of Tiffany & Company’s new design director Francesca Amfitheatrof.

The U.A.E.’s art scene has soared over the last several years. From art fairs, auctions and an increase in art galleries, the country is positioning itself as a major hub for art and culture. It is also witnessing an ever growing number of regional and international art collectors.

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FROM LEFT: IMAGE COURTESY OF DOWNTOWN DESIGN DUBAI; IJAEGER-LECOULTRE.

Lookout

Fit to be displayed among objets d’art, high-gloss bags and shoes in rich hues are the season’s most prized possessions.

IMAGE BY TEJAL PATNI

Table of Contents Dior coat, AED 24,9700, Balenciaga pants, AED 3,654, nordstrom.com.

Hermès shoes, AED 3,416, hermes.com.

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PAPER DOLLS The increasingly mainstream direction of high fashion, as depicted

by Andy Warhol in ‘‘Fashion Figure,’’ circa 1963.

Sign of the Times

Straightforward, commercial clothes used to be the antithesis of high fashion. Now, they are the benchmark.

BY CATHY HORYN

IN THE SUMMER OF 1965, after several lackluster seasons, Yves Saint Laurent took a major step forward. Not only did he introduce his famous Mondrian shift, he also showed baby-doll dresses with wide collars and sashes. With their patent-leather shoes and hair bows, the models looked like little girls, Gloria Emerson wrote in The Times.

Nonetheless, she called the collection ‘‘the brightest, freshest and best he has ever done.’’ The eagle-eyed Emerson also raved about the small jackets worn with studded belts: ‘‘Saint Laurent has probably never come face to face with a real Rocker, but his big belts seem reminiscent of the ones they wear.’’

At 29, Saint Laurent had finally caught the winds of the ’60s. But the youthful mood didn’t last. Before long he was paying extravagant homage to

gypsies and Russian peasants — not the freewheeling girls on the Left Bank.

His clothes never again had the erotic sweetness of those lollipop dresses.

That is, until Hedi Slimane revived them at Saint Laurent. His are not so sweet, but that is not the point. Slimane located the moment when the brand was truly cool, the years between 1965 and 1968. His predecessors at Saint Laurent tended to look at the whole YSL career, going for the key moments.

Slimane, though, has largely confined his view to a single window. Then, adding a dark gloss of California rocker angst, he has kept his message stunningly simple — to the point where his clothes, while clearly high in quality, have the attitude of a trendy street label. It’s as though he refuses to strive for the standard goals of a luxury designer — to make modern,

September – October, 2014

13

Sign of the Times

creative constraints imposed on designers now that fashion is conceptual or intellectually resonating clothes. Instead, he viewed globally, often on tiny screens. He used the word makes straightforward commercial fashion that a woman can ‘‘guardrails’’ to emphasize the lack of freedom a designer instantly relate to. has. On the other hand, he said, the designer who sticks I’m no fan of Slimane’s, but he’s clever. In two years as to those limits will likely be successful. creative chief, he has barely broken a sweat as he fetches Another factor is simplification. Here, a bit of another pussy bow from the ’60s time capsule. Last year, background is necessary. The rise of haute couture in Saint Laurent led Kering’s three biggest luxury brands in the early 20th century dovetailed with advances in revenue growth with an 18 percent rise, beating Gucci communication and travel, and so, too, the public’s and Bottega Veneta. He has also defeated his critics, unusual interest in this rarefied world. There are wellwho no doubt sensed the futility of continuing to known stories of Paris policemen and taxi drivers point out that he doesn’t seem to be trying very being able to recognize couture, like a cop in the hard to be inventive. (In my own case, he banned ’30s who refused to arrest a feminist agitator on the me from Saint Laurent’s runway shows when I grounds that she was dressed by Molyneux. By the ’60s, was this newspaper’s critic.) As Tim Blanks wrote everyone knew about the latest fashion, if not from last season on Style.com, ‘‘There is no longer Mary Quant, then from the Beatles. But sometime in any shock of the whatever in what he is offering.’’ the late ’80s, fashion discovered semiotics. Clothes So why write about Slimane now? Here’s why: If suddenly acquired meaning (think of the efforts to ‘‘decode’’ you accept that fashion reflects the times — and I do a Helmut Lang show or almost any by Martin Margiela).

— then you have to concede that in this respect You truly needed to be an expert to appreciate why a jacket Slimane has been impressive, even prescient. His Saint was worn inside out or why a dress that made you look like Laurent collections perfectly capture the mood and values a bag lady was cool. Susan Sontag described a similar shift of the present. The need for simple messages. The triumph in the arts in the mid-60s, noting that ‘‘the most interesting and of branding. The shortening of horizons due to economic creative art of our time is not open to the generally educated; it factors. The lack of prejudice toward old ideas, especially demands special effort; it speaks a specialized language.’’ Today, among young consumers. I would never expect any as high fashion moves closer to mass media — with branddesigner to own up to such pessimistic motives. But neither hosted YouTube channels, films, huge spectacles — there is do I assume that Slimane, with his gift for marketing, hasn’t pressure to simplify. I also wonder whether the surge of new thought about them. brands — their shows often crammed with weird and banal For the fall collections, it was intriguing to see how designs — hasn’t caused elite designers to rethink matters. many designers fell in line with Slimane and offered Hence more straightforward clothes. straightforward clothes of their own. I’m thinking, for Finally, we may be running out of ideas. In a review last instance, of Céline’s ’40s-style coats, the tasteful sweateryear of the Prada Foundation’s reconstruction of a 1969 show, and-skirt looks at Bottega Veneta and Altuzarra’s classic ‘‘Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form,’’ Holland wrap coats. Being the genius that he is, Karl Lagerfeld at once Cotter, an art critic for The Times, wrote, ‘‘We’re in an age mocked and praised commerce, presenting Chanel in a postof remake culture, an epidemic of re-enactment fever.’’

Warhol supermarket and sending out perky tracksuits, Cotter, who actually praised the show, cited other examples the ultimate fashion commodity. I imagine they’ll be a hit. of ‘‘old is new’’ thinking. That has never been a problem Even Nicolas Ghesquière, with his much anticipated first for the fashion industry, but it does make it easier for a collection for Louis Vuitton, showed wearable styles with luxury brand to justify its practices. polish: trim coats, ’60s-cut minis, modest accessories. And that’s Each year, it seems, we live in a different world, and not what people expect from Ghesquière, who for most of his 15 this takes an adjustment that no longer feels incremental years at Balenciaga created a genuine stir. There, he developed but profound. First came Sept. 11. Then came the shock of the cutting-edge materials and artful interpretations of archive looks. recession — well, the shock of realizing that the American dream What struck me about the Vuitton show was Ghesquière’s may have come to an end. As Christopher Hitchens, quoting Saul comment that he listened to what women around him wanted to wear. Did Bellow, defined the dream, it was ‘‘that universal eligibility to be he care before? Also, it’s clear that he was stripping Vuitton of the noble.’’ To make the record of your own life — come what may! — preferences of his predecessor, Marc Jacobs, notably irony and theatrics, as Bellow’s Augie March does. But in the long decade since Hitchens at the same time that he was distancing himself from Balenciaga, now under aired that thought, we’ve seen horizons shorten. Income inequality is the Alexander Wang. So a neutral, normal statement makes sense. Only time primary cause; people simply can’t afford to risk new experiences. It’s also will tell how committed Ghesquière is to it. true that stuff we never had to think about before, like smartphones and new Anyway, I suspect that many women are thrilled to find clothes that promise more wear, given the money they’re spending. As much as young designers hate kinds of entertainment, has gained the upper hand, inspiring us in many ways but also narrowing our sights with all manner of guardrails, so what was creeping commerce, no one has produced a style that matches in originality once noble is now a universal fast-track to fabulousness.

Rei Kawakubo’s black-clad armies of the ’80s or Prada’s ugly-chic rebuke to Whether that is a good development or a bad one is not really the Milan glitz in the ’90s. Then, too, young consumers don’t seem to care BUSINESS OF concern of fashion designers, though. Their job is simply to reflect whether their clothes are ‘‘original,’’ a hang-up of my generation. But FASHION Easy to their times in a conscious way. In 1965, the year of the baby dolls, the there are other reasons for the rise of commercial fashion. wear — and understand — mood was encapsulated by the words on a popular T-shirt in Paris, The easiest to see is branding. It’s so pervasive in our culture clothes straight from also observed by Gloria Emerson. It said, in French, ‘‘I am free and that it functions for some as a means to fulfillment. People definitely the runways by some of the most I am alive.’’ Since then the quest to be modern — and that is really get enthralled with things — sports, TV shows, fashion — in a way influential designers, what we are talking about — has been complicated by a new set of that a fan in the ’60s or ’70s wouldn’t recognize. One assumes that clockwise from top: Saint Laurent, considerations, none of them less valid than wit and imagination. has a lot to do with ‘‘the religion of branding,’’ as Michael Rock Bottega Veneta, So, while I may not care for Hedi Slimane’s Saint Laurent, it doesn’t put it. Rock’s firm, 2 x 4, does branding and graphic design Céline, Louis Vuitton, matter. He has grasped modernity in its totality. for companies and art institutions. Recently, we spoke about the Altuzarra, Miu Miu.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY OF SAINT LAURENT; COURTESY OF BOTTEGA VENETA; COURTESY OF CÉLINE; COURTESY OF LOUIS VUITTON; COURTESY OF ALTUZARRA; COURTESY OF MIU MIU

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This and That

ILLUSTRATIONS BY KONSTANTIN KAKANIAS

Cool Beans

From Ralph Lauren to Bergdorf Goodman, something’s percolating in the fashion world.

Trends come and go, but fashion folk will always agree on the merits of a good, strong cup of coffee. Now, a handful of designers and retailers are brewing up java-related projects of their own. LVMH recently purchased a majority stake in the company that owns Cova, the 197-year-old cafe located on a prime corner in Milan’s main shopping district; plans are afoot to expand the brand, placing Cova outlets in close proximity to the conglomerate’s flagship stores. Bergdorf Goodman’s new Goodman’s Bar, housed in its men’s store, will soon start serving Illy Monoarabica roasts during daylight hours.

Scott Sternberg of Band of Outsiders

recently designed limited-edition paintdrip mugs for Starbucks, where he stops in daily for his iced venti red-eye. And Ralph Lauren tapped his favorite roaster, La Colombe, to create three custom blends — espresso, drip and decaf — for Ralph’s Coffee, the new cafe in the Polo flagship store in Midtown Manhattan. Shoppers can take home signature bags of beans or enjoy a fresh cup with a brownie, made from Lauren’s mother’s recipe. Sternberg’s theory on why so many designers are hooked on caffeine? ‘‘Because it makes you skinny, duh.’’ pasticceriacova.it; bergdorfgoodman .com; ralphlauren.com — EVIANA HARTMAN

NATURAL GLOW From left: Ambra Medda in a Paris atelier designed by the architect Robert MalletStevens; Miss Viv’ L’ArcoBaleno bag, AED 54,638.

Roger Vivier’s New Muse

The curator and design-world darling Ambra Medda has collaborated on a special sequined version of the house’s classic Miss Viv’ bag, inspired originally in 2009 by another statuesque beauty: France’s former First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

FEELING FOR

Single Earrings

Jewels so striking that one, worn alone, is enough.

From left: Erickson Beamon, AED 2,497, Curve. Bottega Veneta, AED 3,599, bottegaveneta.com.

Hermès, AED 4,223, hermes.com. Eddie Borgo, AED 587, net-a-porter.com. Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane, AED 2,920.

Céline, AED 4,407 (sold individually), neimanmarcus.com. Maria Canale for Forevermark, AED 178,753, neimanmarcus.com. Nikos Koulis, AED 44,810, londonjewelers.com.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: SOFIA SANCHEZ AND MAURO MONGELLO; COURTESY OF ROGER VIVIER; P. BAXEVANIS/GREY STUDIO; ANTFARM; JOSHUA SCOTT (2); COURTESY OF EDDIE BORGO; VICENTE SAHUC, GRÉGOIRE ALEXANDRE, JEANFRANÇOIS JAUSSAUD AND CLAUDE JORAY OF STUDIO DES FLEURS; JOSHUA SCOTT; COURTESY OF ERICKSON BEAMON

A Cultural Compendium

Lookout

This and That THE SHAPE OF THINGS From far left: Melitta Baumeister; designs from her debut collection.

A NEW LINE

Melitta Baumeister’s sculptural designs are wild and weird but also eminently wearable.

Rihanna turned up at Paris Fashion Week in March wearing a black pleather jacket that was hyperbolic in form, so protective with padding that it made her bodyguard seem kind of superfluous. Was it Comme des Garçons? Rick Owens? Raf Simons for Dior? No, no and no. The look was from Melitta Baumeister, a 28-year-old German designer who has gotten serious attention in New York since showing her debut women’s wear collection earlier this year at the VFiles Made Fashion show. ‘‘Garments have been made the same way for such a long time,’’ says Baumeister, who graduated from the M.F.A. program in fashion design at Parsons last year. ‘‘I’m interested in magic, in new ways of making common shapes.’’ Her architectural designs contain several pieces that look like Calvin Klein classics bred with Eva Hild’s ceramic sculptures, but are actually cast in pure white single-ply silicone from molds of existing knit sweaters and tank tops. In an age of anxiety over the loss of craftsmanship and couture techniques, Baumeister shrugs: ‘‘I am keeping the numbers small to be more exclusive, but in truth, I embrace the ease of reproduction.’’ melittabaumeister.com — SARAH NICOLE PRICKETT

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The Martha Washington hotel, built in 1903 to house unmarried women, will reopen in September in New York’s NoMad neighborhood, with austere new interiors by Annabelle Selldorf. ‘‘Our design for the hotel was very much influenced by the spirit of large, open spaces at the turn of the century,’’ says the architect, who updated the Renaissance Revival landmark with a walnut palette, blue tile floors and tons of glass to NEW AGAIN From top: Danny offset the space’s gothic fluted Meyer’s Marta restaurant in the Martha Washington hotel; the columns. Danny Meyer will lobby as it looked in 1913. also be opening Marta, a restaurant serving rustic Italian food, yet another fitting nod to the Washington’s namesake, who was known for being an expert hostess. chelseahotels.com — BROOKE BOBB

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: UNGANO & AGRIODIMAS; PAUL JUNG/THE LICENSING PROJECT (2); SELLDORF ARCHITECTS; THE COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. ILLUSTRATIONS BY KONSTANTIN KAKANIAS

A Ladies’ Hotel Open to All

FOOD MATTERS

Spring Has Sprung

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: RII SCHROER; JASON LOWE; MARCUS GINNS; STILL FRAME FROM ‘‘THE SAND STORM’’/CAMERA BY CHRISTOPHER DOYLE. ILLUSTRATIONS BY KONSTANTIN KAKANIAS

Skye Gyngell makes a triumphant return to the culinary spotlight with her most ambitious restaurant yet.

While preparing for the October food writer at British Vogue), she has opening of Spring in London’s grand collaborated with artists to realize her Somerset House, the Australian chef vision of a ‘‘feminine yet strong Skye Gyngell is reflective. ‘‘I started restaurant.’’ A wall of the light-filled cooking at dining room facing the Petersham Thames will be covered with Nurseries in a ceramic blossoms by the cleared-out Brazilian artist Valeria potting shed Nascimento; Maureen with dirt floors Doherty from the cult and a couple of boutique Egg has pans,’’ she says fashioned sorbetof the beloved striped uniforms with restaurant. It fitted aprons; and the was surprising, then, acclaimed garden that she decided to designer Jinny Blom leave just a year after has created Spring’s she was awarded her centerpiece, a winterfirst Michelin star. ‘‘It garden atrium with was never my own, walls of cast-Corian and, stars or no stars, Gunnera manicata IN GOOD TASTE From top: the chef Skye Gyngell; her spring it was time to follow leaves. As for the food salad with borage and pansies; my heart,’’ she says. itself, Gyngell’s Somerset House, a cultural When Spring’s doors hallmark is her artful institution in central London. open it will represent composition of not only a professional milestone but a seasonal flavors. ‘‘It has always been my personal one for the single mother who dream to make my own bread, butter, once struggled with addiction. yogurt, ice creams — everything,’’ she Calling on her contacts in the design says. ‘‘I can do that now.’’ and fashion worlds (Gyngell was once a springrestaurant.co.uk — DAVID PRIOR

Cosmic Creations

Designers are going where few have gone before, with everyone from Calvin Klein to Rick Owens getting into a sci-fi state of mind.

Ai Weiwei and the Apocalypse Despite inflated budgets and egos, the art provocateur makes his film acting debut.

In 2013, after more than six years as the head of video for TED Talks, Jason Wishnow went to Beijing for a break. During a visit with Ai Weiwei he asked the artist to appear in ‘‘The Sand Storm,’’ a short film he had been developing.

Drawn to Wishnow’s idea of water as a metaphor for the flow of information, Ai agreed to play a water deliveryman in an arid world. They shot rogue near Ai’s studio in the gritty district of Caochangdi, where a spike in Beijing’s pollution index required the crew to wear face masks and gave the film its sickly brownish yellow tint.

By the time Wishnow locked his edit, he was out of cash, so he launched an ill-fated Kickstarter campaign. Ai sent Wishnow a cease-and-desist letter, furious that his image and involvement had been exaggerated and ‘‘co-opted for promotional purposes.’’

Kickstarter suspended the campaign, and Wishnow returned to Beijing hoping to make amends. In a widely reprinted — and ultimately successful — open apology, he wrote, ‘‘Creative endeavors with artistic titans should not be treated lightly.’’ The rebooted campaign became the third-best-funded short film in the site’s history, bringing in over $100,000.

Ai hasn’t made any further comment. He doesn’t say much more than that in the film, in which he mainly drives a tuk-tuk while wearing a costume that’s part Mad Max, part Chinese laborer’s uniform. But his presence is deeply felt in ‘‘The Sand Storm’’ — which will premiere exclusively at tmagazine.com — just as it is in the international art world. Asked on set how he felt about his role, Ai answered with typical mischievousness: ‘‘In life, we all deliver something.’’ — SAMANTHA CULP

September – October, 2014

Lookout

This and That

A Felt Frenzy

Inspired by the industrial fabric, designers are adding heft and durability to ladylike looks.

WHEN IN PARIS

The designer Jacques Grange reimagines the Grand Palais as an enormous French garden under glass. include carpets that look like flower beds, an imposing fountain at the entrance and topiary art placed in pots that flank the vendor booths.

And yet, despite Grange’s grandiose green thumb, his greatest childhood memory of the royal residence has nothing to do with its perfectly manicured grounds. ‘‘I was particularly obsessed with Marie Antoinette’s bathroom,’’ he says. Sept.

11–21, sna-france.com — BROOKE BOBB

Clockwise from top left: Proenza Schouler fall 2014.

Proenza Schouler bag, AED 2,809. Marni fall 2014. Dries Van Noten shoes, AED 3,232, saksfifthavenue.com. Fendi bag, AED 15,611 barneys.com.

The Curious Case of Kiesza

How a Canadian ballerina-turned-sailor became the season’s biggest pop music breakout.

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Clockwise from above: Kiesza, seen here on the streets of New York in June, has racked up over 60 million views for her ‘‘Hideaway’’ video; while enlisted in the Naval Reserve, she guarded Queen Elizabeth II; at the International School of Ballet in Calgary, Alberta.

‘‘I’m always on an exploration,’’ Kiesza says of her latest voyage: the charttopping pop single ‘‘Hideaway,’’ steeped in the sound of ’90s-era dance divas like Crystal Waters. Favoring weeklong Rocky Mountain escapes and raging-wind sea excursions as a teenager, the Calgary-born singer enlisted in the Canadian Navy to fulfill her thrill-seeking streak. ‘‘They’d wake you up in the middle of the night firing blanks at you and setting off fake grenades,’’ she recalls gleefully of boot camp. Despite being pegged as a sharpshooter, the military’s restriction on her sense of self (‘‘I stick out like a sore thumb wherever I go’’) led Kiesza to de-enlist after two years.

Writing and performing music offers her a new high. ‘‘It’s a growing passion that I became addicted to,’’ says the Berklee College of Music graduate who will release her debut album in October. But don’t expect her to stay stagnant for long. ‘‘Life experience brings out different emotions and different perspectives on things,’’ she says. ‘‘I just want to be constantly evolving.’’ kiesza.com — DAN HYMAN ALL PRICES ARE INDICATIVE

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: PROENZA SCHOULER (2); MARNI; JOSHUA SCOTT; COURTESY OF FENDI; COURTESY OF STEAMPOP MUSIC LTD. (2); TIBA VIEIRA. ILLUSTRATION BY KONSTANTIN KAKANIAS

Next month, when the Grand Palais hosts the 27th Biennale des Antiquaires, Jacques Grange will bring the feel of the Palace of Versailles’s lush gardens to the glass-domed exhibition center. ‘‘I was inspired by the groves and the arabesques,’’ says the French interior designer, who visited regularly in his youth. His plans for the fair, which showcases the finest rare furniture, artwork and jewelry from around the world,

STYLED BY MALINA JOSEPH GILCHRIST. PROP STYLIST: RACHEL HAAS AT JED ROOT. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PACO RABANNE BAG, BARNEYS.COM. PRADA BAG, PRADA.COM. DIOR BAG, (800) 929-3467.

CHANEL BAG, (800) 550-0005. JIMMY CHOO BAG, JIMMYCHOO.COM. MARC JACOBS BAG, (212) 343-1490. PROENZA SCHOULER BAG, (212) 420-7300. SAINT LAURENT BY HEDI SLIMANE BAG, (212) 980-2970

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Market Report

Ace Hardware A chain strap lends some over-the-shoulder heft to the new lady bag.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOANNA M C CLURE

Clockwise from top left: Paco Rabanne, AED 7,162.

Prada, AED 30,118. Dior, price on request. Chanel, AED 22,405 Jimmy Choo, AED 8,631 Marc Jacobs, AED 33,057 Proenza Schouler, AED 5,784. Saint Laurent

by Hedi Slimane, AED 5,472.

ALL PRICES ARE INDICATIVE

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The Luxe List

From Comme des Garçons new oud-inspired perfume to Fendi’s new limited-edition Crazy Carats timepiece collection, here is a selection of covetable luxury items.

BY REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR

Falcon Jewel

Edgy fashion brand Comme des Garçons has launched its own take on the Eastern oud scent with the perfume Wonderoud. A resin produced from the tree of Agarwood, an Asian plant, oud has long been revered as one of the East’s most important fragrances, due especially to the rarity of the tree from which it is sourced. Comme des Garçons’ particular take on oud is the result of master perfumer Antoine Maisondieu, who creates an intensely woody creation that honors the spicy textures of this ancient resin.

Available at Harvey Nichols in Dubai. Price available on request.

Available at Boucheron at Mall of the Emirates and The Galleria on Al Maryah Island, AED 241,500.

The Spilla Gommino Designer Alessandra Facchinetti has introduced the new Spilla model of the iconic Tod’s Gommino. Featuring classic tailoring details, the Gommino is transformed with unexpected contemporary fastening; the piece becomes an unusual accessory that fits in just over the leather tassels. It can be removed and replaced, to personalize the iconic Gommino, as mood dictates.

Available at Tod’s in Mall of the Emirates, AED 1,890.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: COURTESY OF BOUCHERON, COURTESY OF TOD'S, COURTESY OF COMME DES GARÇONS.

Wonderoud

French jewelry Maison Boucheron has created a one-of-akind pendant features a falcon design especially for the U.A.E. The exquisite piece is made in white gold and featuring three fancy onyx stones totaling 2, 35 carats, 113 round sapphires totaling 4, 74 carats, and 122 round diamonds totaling 2, 59 carats. The design is influenced by the natural world and the special importance given to the falcon in the Gulf region. The bird can be found on the U.A.E’s coat of arms and has signified courage and sportsmanship throughout the region’s history.

Ancient Aesthetic With a classic yet chic contemporary aesthetic, Bulgari’s new LVCEA collection pays homage to the brand’s Greek and Roman heritage, and as its name implies, to light. The brand incorporated the Italian word for light “luce” with the Latin word “lux” to form the name of its LVCEA Collection.

Rounded like a halo of light, the case of the watch is also a symbol of unity, drawing the brand’s strong connection between past and present. The watch is highlighted with a cabochon cut in noble purple and an exquisite diamond on the crown. The LVCEA comes in a collection of 12 different styles ranging from a classic steel version to the luxury of pink gold and pavé diamonds.

The watch also offers a rich marriage of steel and pink gold with various models imbued with diamonds that sparkle on every hour, or glow with mother of pearl. Others revert back to ancient Rome with sundial Roman numerals XII and VI to mark the time.

Available at the Bulgari boutique in The Dubai Mall. Price upon request.

Bleu de Chanel This woody and aromatic fragrance for men caters to the male who likes to take risks and who defies the monotonous structures of the everyday. For the man who takes pleasure in the unexpected, his fragrance features a provocative blend of citrus and woods, which liberates the senses and culminates into a fresh, clean and sensual statement of determination and desire. The brand’s latest perfume for men, this scent is at once bold and elegant – for the gentleman who likes to do his own thing.

Bespoke Treatment

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY OF BULGARI; COURTESY OF BERLUTI (2); COURTESY OF CHANEL.

Available at all CHANEL counters in the Middle East.

Bleu de CHANEL Eau de Parfum 100ml, AED 545.

Taking place during Level Shoe District’s “Shoe Atelier”, a two-month in-store campaign highlighting the craftsmanship of exclusive brands, Berluti, the iconic men’s footwear brand, has set up an exhibition to showcase its bespoke shoemaking services. Comprised of three podiums, and a video projection, the show offers a step-by-step lesson in Berluti’s craftsmanship of fine leather shoes. The first podium displays shoes in wood and tools used from Berluti’s Bespoke Atelier on Rue Marbeuf in Paris. The second exhibits Berluti’s bespoke kit, which demonstrates the different steps of the bespoke shoe fabrication. The third podium showcases several finished models of Berluti’s bespoke shoes.

Available at Level Shoe District at The Dubai Mall.

September – October, 2014

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Tulle Milano Bag This practical and chic bag by Cruciani C is an elegant accompaniment for everyday wear. It comes in two versions, both of which have leather handles. Called CITY, the large version is great for weekend trips while the smaller one, PETITE, is ideal for casual attire. The bags come in a variety of colors including red, green, orange, petroleum blue, fuchsia and beige.

Iconic and Edgy Iconic Italian brand Max Mara presented its Autumn/Winter 2014 collection in Dubai under the special presence of the brand’s fashion director, Laura Lusuardi. The event presented Max Mara’s renowned cashmere coats and evening gowns as well as its edgy Sportmax pieces. “During my first visit to the region, I saw just how much women from the Middle East love fashion,” says Lusuardi. “The Middle East is an important market to us. We strive to fulfil the needs of these women by enhancing elegant dresses, offering feminine collections and working on the mix of different weights, fabrics. We plan to open more stores in the region in the near future.” Max Mara’s Autumn/Winter 2014 collection is at once edgy, urban and elegant. It is characterized by stunning Scottish and Irish tweeds that have been a constant source of inspiration for the brand.

Available at the Max Mara boutique at The Dubai Mall.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY OF CRUCIANI; COURTESY OF MAX MARA.

Available at the Cruciani boutiques in BurJuman and Cruciani C boutiques in The Dubai Mall and Mirdiff City Centre. Price available upon request.

Crazy Carats Infusing its Autumn/Winter 2014 timepiece collection with contemporary flair, Fendi’s Crazy Carats collection presents special edition watches that come in colorful and luxurious mink straps.

Crafted by the Maison’s fur atelier, on each watch three shimmering precious stones are offered as dial markers. Limited to a production of just 50 pieces, the mink bands come in a variety of color combinations.

With an aesthetic that serves more as a fashionable bracelet than a timepiece, these watches are cutting-edge accompaniments that are at once fun and also make a bold statement.

Available at Fendi boutiques across the U.A.E. Price upon request.

Glam’Azone Inspired by ancient Greek mythology, Messika Paris has unveiled exclusive additions to the Glam’Azone collection.

Each has been crafted in honor of the ancient Greek goddesses Artemis and Athena, with designs echoing the sharp curves of Artemis’ arrows and Athena’s spear. Dynamic, elegant and highly intricate, this collection reflects independence, a love of heritage and also the avant-garde.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: COURTESY OF FENDI; COURTESY OF VOGUE FASHION DUBAI EXPERIENCE; COURTESY OF MESSIKA PARIS.

Available at Messika Paris in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. Price available upon request.

A Fashionable Experience Returning for its second run this October, the Vogue Fashion Dubai Experience is set to present a strong program of fashion events over three days. This year, eight designers selected by Vogue Italia will showcase their collections during an exclusive event at The Dubai Mall. In addition, the event will feature 20 emerging international designers selected through an intense talent scouting competition, among which several are from the Middle East region. One of Dubai’s fashion events of the season, the second edition promises a more in-depth look at fashion through an array of workshops, catwalks and panel discussions.

‘Vogue Fashion Dubai Experience’ will take place from 30 October through 1 November 2014 at The Dubai Mall and the Armani Hotel.

September – October, 2014

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Gemstone Creations Located in a massive edifice in Jumeirah Lake Towers, the Damas factory is where the renowned Middle Eastern retailer creates jewelry for all its in-house brands. T Emirates tours the facilities and learns how diamond rings are made.

BY REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR

DAMAS, A JEWELRY GROUP founded in 1907 with its origins in the Syrian capital, Damascus, has become well known across the region for its creations of aesthetic value and Middle Eastern heritage. Today it is headquartered in Dubai, which itself has a long-standing reputation in the gold and diamond trade. Middle Eastern women are nowadays the world’s biggest buyers of luxury jewelry, because beyond aesthetics and symbolism, jewelry embodies value. Now a trusted household name among the region’s jewelry-lovers, Damas has developed an extensive portfolio of international and regional brands. It comes almost as a surprise to find that a leading jewelry brand could have its factory based somewhere like the U.A.E., where so much of what we see is imported. Most well-known brands and jewelry-makers situate their workshops far from the Middle East. Damas, however, has chosen to place its factory in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, not far from Downtown Dubai.

“A factory in the U.A.E. is significant because it is here that the brand took its first steps,” says Kevin Ryan, the brand’s retail director, referring to Damas’ first retail outlet in the Gold Souq back in 1959. The factory also holds tremendous sentimental value for customers and employees alike. “It reinforces our vision as a famous international jewelry brand from Dubai,” explains Ryan. “Damas designs have a strong

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foundation, historically and culturally, and the fact that our factory is located in Dubai and we are able to be inspired and interact with such a diverse audience is what makes it so significant.”

The factory creates jewelry for Damas’ many inhouse brands, such as Hayati, Anaya, Solitaire, Vera and many more. It also makes jewelry for special occasions like Diwali, Valentine’s Day and Christmas in the Heartto-Heart collection. The factory also acts as a service hub for all repairs and special customer orders. At the heart of the factory are 165 craftsmen with a wealth of experience in the different areas of jewelry-making, such as model-making, stone-setting, polishing and filing. The craftsmen possess the skills to create all kinds of pieces, including pearl jewelry.

What sets the Damas factory apart from other factories in the region, according to Ryan, is its emphasis on quality. “We believe quality comes from innovation,” he says. “Creativity is thus at the heart of our brand. We first hand-pick the finest jewels and then craft them into unique designs using state-of-the-art techniques.” Quality controls are provided at each step of the jewelry-making process on every single creation, ensuring that each piece is as flawless and perfect as possible. A visit to the factory reveals the painstaking care taken at each stage of the process, from making the initial sketch to hallmarking the finished item.

A fancy VERA Ring featuring lemon quartz amidst dazzling diamonds.

THE PROCESS

Creating the design The designer first creates a sketch, then a graphic designer creates a CAD (computeraided design) rendering of the piece – a ring, for example. This allows the casting department to create a silver master copy of the ring, after which the manufacturing department takes over.

Filing When rings arrive at the filing bench they may present defects or burrs, which the Damas expert filers will meticulously remove. The filer removes the burrs with a jewelry saw and evens out the surface of the shank with a manual file.

After filing, the ring will be pre-polished in preparation for the stone-setting stage.

Casting The CAD rendering is first used to cast a silver master, which is then used to create a rubber mold, which in turn will be injected full of wax and used to produce multiple replicas of the silver master. The wax replicas are then attached to a wax pole to make a wax tree.

Stone-setting The stone-setters work in a very quiet environment in order to concentrate on their high-precision craft. The setting department prides itself on employing very skilled microsetters who set extremely small diamonds under a microscope, resulting in an even surface with many rows of diamonds.

The wax tree maker will attach about 40 to 70 wax model rings to the pole, depending on their size, making sure they don’t touch each other or the inside of the metal flask that will cover them. The flask, with the wax tree inside, is then filled with liquid plaster, which is left to harden for a few hours, and a hole is drilled to allow the wax to melt away in the next step of the process, a thousand-year-old technique called lost-wax casting. The flask with the wax tree in it, now also full of plaster, forming another mold, is placed in an electric furnace to allow the wax to melt and run away, leaving hollow impressions inside the plaster.

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF DAMAS JEWELRY.

In the casting machine, the casting expert sets the parameters to allow chips of 18-carat gold to be smelted. The flask is removed from the furnace and placed in the foundry, where liquid gold is poured into the ring-shaped plaster cavities. In just a few minutes liquid gold fills the flask. It’s left to cool off for a few minutes, then the flask is immersed in roomtemperature water, which causes the plaster to dissolve entirely, revealing the gold tree.

The gold rings are clipped off from the pole and transit from the casting department to be patiently hand-crafted by a team of filers, polishers, stone-setters and rhodium-plating experts. Separate rooms are equipped with sophisticated machines for buffing, rhodium plating, engraving and soldering. Stringent quality control is maintained to detect any imperfection before pieces are delivered to the stores.

Polishing After the rings are set with diamonds they are handed to the polishers, who give each piece its shine and luster. A quality controller once more inspects the polished jewelry before it is released for further processing.

Rhodium plating The polished rings are then sent to the electroplating department, where they are treated in a rhodium bath. Rhodium is a noble metal of the platinum group of metals. It is used as plating for gold jewelry because it is glittering, dazzling, white and mirror-like, and it enhances the beauty of the diamonds. For precision plating of small items and detailing, a technique called rhodium pen plating is used.

Quality control Each piece must be checked against certain criteria, depending on the design. After passing quality control, pieces are sent to the hallmarking department.

Hallmarking An operator transfers the hallmark electronically to Damas’ high-tech laser engraving machine, which inscribes the required hallmark with a laser beam. The hallmark, which varies from one GCC country to another, describes the gold’s purity and country of origin. The process takes just a few seconds.

An engraver may also personalize jewelry in accordance with the wishes of the customer, before the piece is sent for its final quality check.

‘A factory in the U.A.E. is significant because it is here that the brand took its first steps.’

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IN CONTROL: Alessandra Facchinetti has the brand's ethos in mind as she works her creative vibes.

Talent Watch

A Winner All the Way She is being compared to C line’s Phoebe Philo, and the brand’s last collection was termed a C line moment in Milan. What does Alessandra Facchinetti of Tod’s have to say about the prospects?

BY SINDHU NAIR

SURROUNDED BY A FLURRY of nervous activity in the aftermath of the Autumn/Winter show in Milan, Alessandra Facchinetti seemed to be just a tiny bit affected by all the media attention. This was her second collection as Tod's creative director. The season’s direction and designs would make or break it for the designer, who did not have an easy career path despite having worked with the best in the fashion industry. A day after the show and with reviews that would make any designer preen with pleasure, Facchinetti took all the attention in her stride. Developing a women’s ready-towear line to accompany Tod’s shoes and bags has brought her praise from fashion critic Suzy Menkes who described her collection as, “precise and chic ” in the International

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New York Times, and hailed her second collection as “streamlined, modern, and women-friendly,” concluding that “Tod’s seems to have found a winner.”

Thinking back to the moment when she was asked to be the creative force behind Tod’s, Facchinetti agrees that it was a challenge, albeit an entirely different one. “I was ready for change,” Facchinetti says. “This profile was something I enjoyed because of the Italian connection and also because the ideals of Tod’s, detailing and quality, which were similar to mine.”

Facchinetti had worked with big names earlier in her career and already revealed her creative streak as Tom Ford’s successor at Gucci, and later as the creative director at Valentino. While her work at both of these

ALLIMAGES COURTESY OF TOD'S.

DEEP COLOR Clockwise from far left: Selections from Tod's Autumn/ Winter collection 2014; the designer sketches the shoes and then coordinates it with designs for clothes; the show was held at the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea in Milan and Facchinetti's sketches show how she detailed the interiors of this museum.

houses was lauded, neither appointment proved the right fit, and she soon left the brands.

“I have taken away something from each of the houses that I have worked in,” says Facchinetti. “All of them come with so much history and I can see that I have imbibed some qualities of each of them. I have had very invigorating discussions with these designers and I will value all that was shared.”

At Tod’s, she has to go about designing from the foot up. And this was a challenge that Facchinetti loved taking on. “This proved to be much more exciting,” she says. A tan-blue leather high boot paired with a leather coat, the historic Tod’s moccasins in colors that stimulate, chocolate-red, a rich navy blue and a very subtle pink, all celebrated in different metallic embellishments that do not take the attention away from comfort or the material, paired with trench coats, or the most classic of patterns, the checks, applied in wool and silk, are just some examples from the collection. For many the designs were winners, for the simple reason that customers could see themselves wearing the clothes that Tod’s made.

To Facchinetti her collection is “hyper-feminine or more graphic when exploring the sartorial style with a sophisticated uni-sex flavor. Simplicity in spirit but with a unique vision of being dressed with a purpose,” she sums it up.

While seasonal clothing seems to have become a staple with fashion houses, Facchinetti believes that ready-towear has grown to be much more, straddling climates and geographical barriers, adorning a Chinese woman, being held by a Middle Eastern diva or fitting perfectly onto an American foot. In this global fashion world, brands like Tod’s scale territories and are as much at home in Chinese markets as they are on Italian home ground. “I think you can wear the clothes I design in many different ways,” says Facchinetti.

“I always think that my clothes come to life depending

on how the person wears it. That’s the beauty of clothes.”

Leather is the staple for Tod’s and it is a celebration of the material at the show. It swishes and moves provocatively, shines like lacquer in some creations and falls effortlessly from the shoulders as it comes to life at the hands of the designer. Thin yet light, stretchable nevertheless taking on the form, the leather has taken much more physical and chemical composition to become almost like cotton at the hands of the designer. Laser-cut skirts, a flowing coat, stand testimony to the new material.“Leather is cotton, and shiny like silk,” says Facchinetti about this “new” material and to perfect it she was assisted by the age-old artisans at Tod’s.

“I worked with our artisans and explained to them what I wanted from leather, to lacquer it to look like waxed cloth, and they helped me attain what I had envisioned.”

“Leather is like the heart of the brand, and I find it especially enthralling to experiment with the age-old tradition of the brand,” she says. “You can say that I gave it a new spirit.”

While Facchinetti is all in for innovation, she is firmly guided by tradition, and that’s what makes her association with Tod’s unique. She believes that the love for heritage, the respect for labor and creativity makes her work at Tod’s more like a vocation than an occupation. How about the pressures that comes with a creative head’s role? While the best designers have cracked under duress, what makes Facchinetti feel positive about the industry?

“With a great team and respect for each other, I feel anything can be achieved,” she says. “I also love my work so much that I have never thought about it as pressure.”

And if she was not designing clothes, Facchinetti would be doing so many things, browsing through art shows, attending cultural gigs, designing her home (which she has already perfected in the unique Facchinetti way), but she emphasizes that fashion will always be her first love.

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A Time for Everything Carmen Chaplin’s relationship with Jaeger-LeCoultre goes back to her grandfather Charlie Chaplin and his Memovox watch by the brand. The actress speaks with T Emirates about her relationship with Jaeger-LeCoultre and her films in the making.

BY REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR

IT’S AN OVERCAST DAY in Venice. A few raindrops trickle here and there as I leave the taxi boat that brought me to the Excelsior Hotel on the Lido, the place of the 71st Venice Film Festival, to interview British actress and film director Carmen Chaplin. Known for her mesmerizing looks, dark hair and soft spoken manner, Chaplin is also the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin — the actor, filmmaker and

comedian who rose to fame during the silent era — as well as a longtime friend of Swiss watch brand Jaeger-LeCoultre. Timepieces, particularly by Jaeger-LeCoultre, play an important role in Chaplin’s family legacy as well as her own development as an actress and film director.

It all started decades ago when the original Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox was gifted to

Carmen Chaplin at the Venice Film Festival in 2012.

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ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF JAEGER-LECOULTRE.

‘What I love about old time pieces is that you pass them on to your children and they pass them on to their children.’

Charlie Chaplin. This special model was engraved with the inscription ‘Tribute to Charlie Chaplin from the Vaudois government - October 6, 1953’. “My only enemy is time,” Charlie Chaplin would often say. The unique Memovox was presented to him in honor of his contributions to the realm of film by the Vaudois Canton when he decided to settle in Switzerland.

The watch passed down through the generations from one wrist to another.

Just last year, Carmen Chaplin along with Jaeger-LeCoultre decided to commemorate the watch and the legacy it entailed by making a short film entitled “A Time for Everything” to coincide with the 180th anniversary of the Swiss watch manufacturer as well as the memory of her grandfather. Carmen decided to act in the film alongside her mother and her baby daughter Uma Chaplin Bhalla.

“The watch is like a symbol of eternity,” says Chaplin. “It illustrates the idea of transmission and the passage of generations through film. The watch was given to my father when he was a teenager who gifted it to my mother when they got married. I loved the idea of making a film with my daughter, who at the time was only four months, and my mother. I really felt this strong sense that I was becoming my mother and that my daughter would one day become me. This watch somehow plays a role in all of this – in this passage of time and generations.”

Carmen pauses as she reflects on how such a small object can serve such a great role. “What I love about old time pieces is that you pass them on to your children and they pass them on to their children,” she adds. “I liked the idea of having that feeling of time going by and knowing all the while that the watch is still there.”

That is indeed what is so remarkable about a luxury object; it is a symbol of personal significance and inheritance and often, due to the power of memory which we place on it, often outlives its owners.

Jaeger-LeCoultre, watches and cinema. While these all signal very different artistic disciplines, they do inherit similarities in terms of production, artistry and craftsmanship. JaegerLeCoultre is now partner of seven film festivals around the world, with the Venice Film Festival being the first they sponsored and the Toronto Film Festival the latest. The brand works indepth with each festival it sponsors, from the actors and films it chooses to patronage to the other various events it hosts. We are often lured to the beauty of a watch by its technical mastery and forget that the aesthetics and overall production involved in its creation is made

through incredible artistry — just as is done in the making of a major film. “When they are made at a high level, watches are like a form of art – it takes so many people to make one watch, it’s kind of like a film, I suppose,” says Carmen.

“When I went to the manufacture I was fascinated by the amount of people involved and how everyone has a specific job that they do – just like on films — someone does the makeup, others do the hair and others the production, and all of it together creates something beautiful when it works well. The making of a watch truly does mirror the production of a film.”

Carmen’s own upbringing in a family of artists has contributed to her work in film. Her mother is Trinidadian artist Patrick Betaudier, and she is also the great-granddaughter of playwright Eugene O’Neil — thus the artistic lineage in her family is long. “When you grow up in an artistic family it leaves an imprint on you,” she says. “While my parents were not directly involved in film growing up, we loved watching films together and cinema always fascinated me from a young age.” Carmen’s upcoming projects include acting in the thriller “Vicious”, out in the late fall. It is set in New Orleans with co-star Malcom McDowell. She’s chosen to delay filming “Bombay Nights”, her first film, because of her daughter. “My daughter is still so little but she comes everywhere with me,” she says. “Bombay, while it is so exciting and vibrant, is too hectic for such a small child.”

Even so, she loves India. “I went to India before I knew my boyfriend and I have since been there many times; I have always found it to be what I imagine New York was like in the 1970s, vibrant but a bit wild. It is still so but it is much more tame whereas Bombay is wonderfully wild - you see so many different things,” she beams. “The way people view life and death is so different from the way we see it. I always find it visually beautiful – the colors and the many stories that you can see evolving day after day on the streets.” “Bombay Nights”, she explains, is a love story between two expatriates. One is a soldier who finds himself in Bombay during his travels and the other is a woman who has been living there for several

years and has become a pickpocket. “She’s a hustler and the story is about the love that grows between them,” says Carmen.

With India on hold, Carmen has chosen to direct her first film in Paris, another city that she loves and where she has lived for many years.

The skies are beginning to clear but Carmen is a bit concerned about the rain on the red carpet tonight. She’s just arrived from London and is still relaxed and elegant. On her wrist is a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso watch in rose gold and it glistens. But her first love is for antique watches. “I love all the old antique watches by Jaeger-LeCoultre - I don’t know all the names,” she smiles, “But they are beautiful timepieces from the 1970s - gold watches rendered in a variety of elegant shapes and sizes – some even that look like a serpent.” A preference that is much in the same spirit as her grandfather’s Memovox watch – it breathes style, heritage and it boasts a time that can last forever.

Top: Carmen Chaplin at the manufacture; The Scuola di San Rocco in Venice where Jaeger-LeCoultre held its annual gala dinner during the Venice Film Festival 2014.

September – October, 2014

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The Architecture of Time High jewelry watches make their mark during a preview of the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris. T Emirates reports on these wondrous and intriguing watch creations.

BY REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR

FOR CENTURIES women’s watches have provided

artisans and watchmakers with the occasion to endow the simple wristwatch with superb ornamentation.

During the 18th and 19th centuries women considered a timepiece to serve as an item of adornment rather than a practical object with which to tell time. Artisans thus created timepieces that became very much like jewelry; they were decorated with pearls, miniature paintings, diamonds and a multitude of precious stones in a variety of innovative designs. At the 27th edition of the Biennale des Antiquaires, the biannual event dedicated to antiques and high jewelry at the Grand Palais in Paris, elaborate timepieces constitute a prominent focal point amidst high jewelry creations.

Scenes recalling an icy winter wonderland and the drama, love and loss in the Russian novel “Doctor Zhivago” come to mind when viewing Boucheron’s Splendeurs de Russie collection. The collection is part of the Rêves d’Ailleurs collection, which translates to “Dreams of Elsewhere”, and is inspired by Russia’s magnificent frozen landscape. The Romanov family was a regular client of the Maison Boucheron and within each piece prevails a grandiose feeling of empire. Among the marvelous high jewelry timepieces is the Reflet Pompon watch. This piece is made entirely paved with round and baguette diamonds and has a detachable diamond-paved tassel that can also be worn around the neck for a full jewelry look. Created by Boucheron in 1947, the iconic Reflect case boasts a rectangular profile that is softened with rounded edges and which has here been covered with icy diamonds. On the dial is a delicate snow-setting that is framed by baguette and round-cut diamonds on the bezel. Made by three stands of diamonds, the bracelet features a fanciful diamond pompon, a recurring motif in Boucheron’s vocabulary.

Also of note in the collection is the Cristal de Lune watch. As its name suggests, the piece is crafted in the form of a moon and is literally encapsulated – frozen in time within a rock crystal dome. Much more than a timepiece, the watch is a three-dimensional landscape as well as an invitation to dream. Inside the dome a peacock from the moon flies under a sky full of diamonds. Once again, the piece comes with an opulent bracelet and

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removable tassel that can also double up as a pendant. It is set with round and baguette-cut diamonds in white gold.

Previewed this summer in the Théâtre des ChampsÉlysées, the Café Society high jewelry collection from Chanel celebrates the Parisian café society of the early 1900s. This group of artists, intellectuals, writers, musicians and grande dames, and one in which Gabrielle Chanel also partook, was shaped by a desire to pioneer a reality that valued talent over birthright. Befitting it was that the collection was staged at the Théâtre des ChampsÉlysées — precisely the spot where Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ was performed so many decades earlier. Displayed in a way reminiscent of the parties had by this group of artists, the Bubbles high jewelry watch boasts a wide cuff of circles encompassing onyx geometric shapes. In the Symphony watch, fancy-cut diamonds with brilliant and baguette-cut diamonds offer the dazzling timepiece movement that suits it to the jazzy mood of the period.

Through their architectural aesthetic and multitude of embellishments these pieces literally dance — the light from their stones is in constant movement.

Within the Extremely Piaget collection, which revisits the golden 1970s with a selection of exquisite gemstone dials, is a cuff watch that features an off-center natural lapis lazuli dial set within hammered white gold. Lapis lazuli, this opaque rock found largely in the Kokcha River valley in northeastern Afghanistan, seems to be making a comeback in the jewelry world. Cartier has also recently employed the stone in its colorful Paris Nouvelle Vague collection. Also of note from Piaget’s collection is the Secret watch. The piece is literally hidden by a large hand-engraved sapphire and sits on the watch cuff that is studded with 601 brilliant-cut diamonds along with a natural blue opal. It is set on an oval-shaped bracelet that is snow-set with 1,699 diamonds. A creation of mystery and intrigue, the wearer has the power to choose whether she wishes it to be a bracelet or a timepiece.

These watches give time an architectural beauty that resonates with the aesthetic heritage of each jewelry brand.

The increasing presence of high jewelry watches, at once ornaments and practical timepieces, further emphasizes the resonance of the market for luxury timepieces.

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF DESIGNER.

Clockwise, from top: de Grisogono's Grappoli watch; Bulgari high jewelry watch from the MVSA collection; Cartier's high jewelry Secret Watch; Reflet Pompon by Boucheron from the Splendeurs de Russie collection; Harry Winston's Glacier; Bulgari high jewelry watch from the MVSA collection; Cartier's Obsidian wristwatch. Center: CHANEL's Bubbles watch from the Cafe de Society collection.

During the 18th and 19th centuries women considered a timepiece to serve as an item of adornment rather than a practical object with which to tell time.

September – October, 2014

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Legacy

In Praise of Transformation This summer, Hermès hosted a celebration in honor of its theme of the year: metamorphosis. Held on the French isle of Le Mont Saint-Michel, this experiential event celebrated transformation and change.

BY REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALFREDO PIOLA

land with a tall tower that rose far into the skies.

It was encircled by nothingness or perhaps water — maybe an year. An idea, subject matter or culture, themes have included “The Year of India” in 1986; “Paris in the Air” in 2006; “The Gift of indication of where we would be received.

After several hours on a train gliding through the depths of the Time” in 2012 and “A Sporting Life” in 2013. This year it is French countryside, we arrived in Normandy. A quick bus ride “Metamorphosis.” These wonderfully poetic ideas symbolize for drove us past St. Malo and towards the sea. And there, the entirety of a year, the nature of Hermès’ various collections. magnificently placed, as if with regal designation, was Le Mont With its inherent philosophical and fantastical connotations, Saint-Michel — a historical island commune with a great and thoughts of the word “metamorphosis” conjure up all sorts of ancient past. Since the eighth century, it has been home to a whimsical images and physical and mental transformations. A monastery by the same name. Its unusual geographical position metamorphosis is, indeed, a change. An inevitable part of life and one which many both fear and crave, it is as necessary an element as an island that is but 600 meters from land has throughout the for the development of the human and natural world as it is for the centuries made it accessible to many pilgrims who have sought out its abbey. It is a visionary example of feudal society: God, the process of artistic creation. abbey and the monastery are located on top of the island, while It was a secret we were told. The location and nature of the below are noble offices, then housing and at the very bottom, occasion was to be unveiled when we arrived at our destination. cottages where farmers and fisherman live. Le Mont No interviews had been planned and no itinerary had Saint-Michel’s silhouette against the blue sky and been prepared. For the nearly 200 international DINNER WITH A VIEW: surrounding sea is at once bold and gracious. guests who attended the event, the experience was Above: Guests gather on top of Le Mont SaintEndowed with a spiritual essence, it is a place where new and unexpected. Aside from the name of the Michel, an island people can retreat for religious reasons, solitude and theme, we were told to wear comfortable walking commune in Normandy, France, to enjoy a the beauty of its walls. It is a building that signifies shoes and that the event would take place in magnificient sunset and positive transformation by its very presence —an Normandy, near the town of Saint-Malo. But there, on indulge in preparations by engagement with nature, spiritual growth and the back of our invitation cards, was a lone piece of Chef Olivier Roellinger.

SINCE 1986 HERMÈS HAS CONCEIVED a theme for each calendar

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SIGHTS OF SAINT-MICHEL: and our own ongoing metamorphosis: life. solitude. And it was here that Hermès decided to Clockwise from top: A Throughout the experience we were led to taste four stage its event. panaromic view of the masrshland of Le Mont broths that were made with the purpose to purify, We climbed up over 90 steps to reach the top of Le Saint-Michel; an Egyptian energize, invigorate and soothe. They were four Mont Saint-Michel. Bag pipe players greeted us from dancer performs the dance flavors that touched upon different aspects of our early on, with their music resounding even into the of Nil Soufi; whirling dervishes dressed in lives. Here we had the first one: “birth.” It was made nearby vicinity of the island. They were perched at colorful garb dancing on from seaweed, green tea and a touch of acidity. We various intervals as we climbed our way up – top of Le Mont Saint-Michel. sipped this as we watched more performers. The situated at places where there was a particular Bian Lian, or “Changing Face”, a character from a scenic view or a historical entrance way. The music traditional Sichuan opera, came out to dance around the crowd. was entrancing and many stopped, amazed, simply to revel in its The figure was adorned with a mask and various colors, which physical and emotional vibrations. Evoking what was seemingly a were meant to reflect the mood of the person it represented. trance-like call to something greater; we fensuollowed the music Traditionally, it is portrayed sometimes happy and sometimes sad. continually upwards. And once reaching the top, we came into a Lingling Yu, a virtuoso of the pipa, an ancient Chinese stringed large space typical of an Italian piazza with the main church musical instrument, came out from a corner to sit on the chapel's located right behind. In front of us was an expansive view of the stone steps. Born in Hangzhou, in South East China, Yu by the age beach, the sea and the sunset. of 13 devoted herself to the pipa. She travels through China with her There were no Birkin bags, square scarves or enrapturing master Dehai Liu and her favorite instrument to give concerts and Hermès dresses present on Le Mont Saint-Michel. More live musicians played joyful tunes while we were served savory dinner teach music. Here she was seen alone, while her playing filled the venue with an eerie and pristine beauty. At one point, Pierre-Alexis items prepared by Chef Olivier Roellinger — nearly all of which Dumas, the artistic director of Hermès and a member of the carried a name preceded by “metamorphosis” in line with founding family that has run the brand for six generations, spoke.

Hermès’ theme. It was a pause in the day and in life - a chance to appreciate the surrounding beauty as well as the spiritual and historical significance of the place. The experience was a chance encounter with contemplation — a time for brief personal reflection on the momentous changes that are constantly taking place around us and within us.

The show went on. We were led into the church and asked to take a small white ceramic bowl and keep it with us for the duration of our journey. More music was played - this time by singers from Sardegna and a traditional musician from Mongolia.

They played simultaneously — mixing sound and heritage in an intriguing and beautiful ensemble. Afterwards, we were led into a nearby chapel and this is where the small white bowls were first used. They signified, as we were later told, “our common secret”

There were no Birkin bags, square scarves or enrapturing Hermès dresses present on Le Mont Saint-Michel.

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while Arab musicians played the drums in harmoney with his movements. His dress began to twirl, a constant but temporary vision, that mesmerized and united us all into a state of wonderment. As we moved between the various chapels and corridors of the abbey we were given the remainder of the four broths in our little white bowl. The second referred to a child who was discovering life’s adventures. It was made from the chlorophyll of a flower bud, chervil and galangal. The third recalled the passage of growing up. Energizing and filling, it was composed of burnt ginger and black cardamom. We were given the last as we exited back into the main outdoor area. Made from honey, nutmeg and vanilla, it was the sweetest, and referred to the He addressed the multitude of guests with his own thoughts on dream-like passage of time. metamorphosis. “There are no Hermès products here,” he said.

By now the sun had set and it was dark, except for the lights on “The event represents the philosophy behind the brand and the the whirling dervishes’ colorful costumes. They danced again, theme it has sought to follow for the entirety of a year. glistening as they twirled in the night sky on the top of Le Mont Metamorphosis is about life. Like nature, our lives our constantly Saint Michel. Unforgettable and a life experience in itself, even changing and transforming.” And through its creative aims and without the Maison’s stunning creations to behold, we could sense maintenance of its inherent craftsmanship, Hermès does, too.

Dumas clearly didn’t want to talk about fashion. It was this special the spirit of Hermès and particularly this theme that is so pertinent to all. Metamorphosis has been a subject explored since event that was to lead us to truly experience Hermès. ancient times, such as in the Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo a Our experience of the journey was heightened when we were story that mirrors the brand’s ad campaign for this year. The confronted with a dance by whirling dervishes in an outside human world and the natural world often intertwine. And like courtyard. It was called the dance of the Nil Soufi and was based Apollo chases Daphne out of desperation and love, while she is on the Mevlevi practice that spread to Egypt during the Ottoman unwilling to return his and she transforms into a laurel tree, we period. It celebrates the men of Nil with a dance that has the too, as Pierre-Alexis Dumas explained, are in a constant performers spinning around with their white or state of transformation. Lives, like artistic creation, colored dress that open like the flowers of a cosmic SUNSET SOUP: The metamorphosize. And what they leave behind is garden. Called the “Tanoura,” the skirt is the key crowd of happy guests experience and often beauty. choreographic element of the dance. The dancers feasting on Chef Roellinger's Apollo, has his beautiful laurel tree, and we take back swirl anti-clockwise to evoke the planetary system metamorphosisan evening on Le Mont Saint-Michel. And just as Apollo and ignite an experience that invites the audience and inspired cuisine; the white bowls used for chases Daphne out of desperation and love, while she is the performer to enter a state of transcendence. That the four broths; unwilling to return his love and is transformed into a it did. We watched in awe as a young Egyptian boy musicians performing laurel tree, we too continue to change. continued to turn for what seemed to be eternity, during sunset

‘Metamorphosis is about life. Like nature, our lives are constantly changing and transforming.’

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Designated Design This October brings the second edition of Downtown Design, an event put on

by Art Dubai to showcase original design by international artists. T Emirates speaks with Cristina Romelli Gervasoni, the fair’s director, about why Dubai has become so relevant to the international design scene.

BY REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR

ALL IMAGES COURTESY DOWNTOWN DESIGN DUBAI.

AFTER A SUCCESSFUL FIRST RUN last October,

Downtown Design is back for a second showing, this year with the theme ‘Original’. The fair will be showcasing companies and brands that define the evolution of contemporary design through hospitality, residential, office and product design for the region’s many developers, contractors, interior designers and architects. “The way people live, work and travel is undergoing a radical transformation today,” says Director Cristina Romelli Gervasoni. “This is reflected in the creations of the world’s foremost designers, and is the single most important driver of the innovations we are witnessing worldwide and which we bring to Downtown Design every year.” The fair will feature a host of leading global designers showcasing new collections and exclusive collaborations. These include Herman Miller, Fritz Hansen, Carl Hansen, Bang & Olufsen, Tai Ping, Lasvit, Golran, De Vecchi, Elica, Gaggenau, Hansgrohe and Vitra, among others.

Through names like these the fair aims to open up business opportunities for the GCC, particularly in the realm of public facilities and commercial residential property — something that, with the U.A.E.’s rapid growth, is certainly much needed.

While the prospects for Downtown Design now look very exciting, when it launched last year many art and design enthusiasts wondered how the fair would differ from Design Days Dubai, another fair that takes place each year during Art Dubai and is now in its third run.

What did this new fair offer the region that Design Days Dubai didn’t already? “Although both are owned and managed by the same team behind Art Dubai, they are

An exterior view of The Venue, the location of Downtown Design in downtown Dubai.

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‘Downtown Design hopefully helps to shed light on the fact that quality-driven pieces can be part of everyday life.’

The entrance of the 2013 Downtown Design Fair; left: Scania ebonized and upholstered deck chair by Theodore Alexander.

as it did last year with the Abu Dhabi tannery Al Khaznah and its new division Atelier AK, which produces camelleather upholstered furniture on an international scale.

Renowned Czech designer and manufacturer of bespoke light fittings Lasvit will be exhibiting at the fair for the first time. The company has won many awards for its innovative glass art installations and kinetic sculptures. “This is the right time for us to be in the Middle East market,” says a spokesperson for the company. “The region is experiencing unprecedented growth in the hotel, residential and commercial sectors, and Downtown Design provides the ideal environment to showcase our glass art installations to a growing number of customers here who are after original design in lighting and other sectors.”

It’s an impressive international line-up of design heavyweights for such a young country. But in the end, the fair is about providing a creative edge to the region.

“Exposure, exposure, exposure,” says Gervasoni. “The fair is the best opportunity for emerging and aspiring designers from the region to meet with the world’s most respected brands, learn from the best, and experience first-hand what product design, craftsmanship and innovation can bring to commercial design.” It certainly adds another platform to the many that have been established in the U.A.E. to honor design, under the wider umbrella of support for the arts and creativity.

But Gervasoni has an even larger vision. “We believe there is an emerging culture of design in the region that we have a responsibility and opportunity to nurture,” she says. “Downtown Design hopefully helps to shed light on the fact that quality-driven pieces can be part of everyday life,” she adds, recalling how, growing up in Italy, design was second nature. “I still use my grandmother’s chairs today, and I can do that because of their innate quality and originality,” she says. An original design piece, in her view, carries with it the brand’s ethos and heritage: “It is the innovation and craftsmanship that goes into designing that perfect glass or couch. And that cannot be replicated.”

Downtown Design takes place from October 28-31, 2014, at The Venue in Downtown Dubai. For more information, visit www.downtowndesign.com

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ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF DOWNTOWN DESIGN DUBAI.

The opening of Downtown Design 2013, top. Above, exhibitors gather at the fair. Below right, visitors peruse the pieces on display and below left, the making of the Wishbone Chair at the Craftsman booth during the 2014 fair.

very different fairs,” says Gervasoni. “Downtown Design is a curated commercial fair showcasing international brands that produce limitless pieces of design, targeting industry professionals and high-end consumers. Having all these amazing companies under one roof is something that has never been done before in the region, and it is exactly what makes this fair so unique: it is the only place where design enthusiasts can discover the latest global trends and innovations that are shaping the world of design.” Design Days Dubai, on the other hand, is led more by the art galleries featured throughout the fair. Downtown Design is thus better placed to bring global brands to the Middle East. Both fairs are held in a boutique-like ambiance allowing guests to easily peruse the multitude of interesting objects. The two serve different purposes, but both ultimately aim to establish Dubai as a global design destination.

Downtown Design features a greater number of international designers than up-and-coming local names, but attempts to balance the two with educational and commercial scope. “We are responding to the U.A.E. and GCC markets’ growing thirst for the best in global design,” says Gervasoni. “It is estimated that construction deals in the U.A.E. will reach 315 billion dollars, which will significantly drive business in the interior and industrial design sectors.

Growth in residential and commercial developments is expected to continue across the region, with Qatar and Saudi slated to spend almost as much as the U.A.E. over the next few years.” Thus the role of Downtown Design is to bring together major players in the design industry to help meet the demand for high-end design in the region. But as Gervasoni underlines, the fair is also keen to highlight the work of emerging local talent,

In the Name of Art Abu Dhabi Art returns again this November for its sixth edition. T Emirates takes a look at the fair’s highlights and new use of the city of Abu Dhabi.

BY REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR

IMAGE COURTESY OF GALLERIA CONTINUA.

SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 2009, Abu Dhabi Art has

attracted as participants some of the world’s leading modern and contemporary art galleries. Originally situated in the Emirates Palace, for its past two editions the fair has taken place in the U.A.E. Pavilion and Manarat Al-Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi’s new cultural hub on Saadiyat Island and future home to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Zayed National Museum and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. The fair is hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s woes, when an unfortunate leak in the Norman Foster Pavilion due to rain showers caused many of the blue chip galleries attending to relocate to a smaller location in the Manarat Al Saadiyat — where all the galleries will be stationed this year. With a total of 50 major galleries from the Middle East and the world taking part this year, including a handful of returning galleries as well as newcomers, Abu Dhabi Art will be striving once again to bring art to the U.A.E. capital,

but in new ways that further engage the local public.

Abu Dhabi Art is just one of a number of projects aimed at developing the city into a global hub of art and culture. Over the past decade the international art community has watched, intrigued, as Abu Dhabi has developed outposts of two leading museums: the Guggenheim and the Louvre. With art world heavyweights such as Lisson Gallery, the Gagosian Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Galleria Continua, Galerie Enrico Navarra and Acquavella Galleries on board, Abu Dhabi Art has quickly established itself among the world’s most noted art fairs. All these names are returning this year except for the Gagosian Gallery, which has been present since the fair’s inception. “We are really happy to be returning to Abu Dhabi Art for a third year,” says Paul Stolper, Director of his eponymous gallery. “Over the last several years we have built a growing number of private

September – October, 2014

Anish Kapoor, Untitled, 2014, stainless steel and lacquer.

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Above: Hassan Sherif, Spoons No. 3, 2014, Spoons, papier mache, cotton rope and acrylic; right: Aisha Khalid, Unfold your own myth, 2013, Gouache on Wasli paper.

works that will be exhibited this year for the first time throughout the city of Abu Dhabi. The display of work outdoors in the community aims to foster an appreciation of the role of public art.

Taymour Grahne Gallery will be exhibiting works by Abu Dhabi-based Tarek Al Ghoussein and Algerian Parisbased artist Faycal Baghriche as well as several new paintings by the Brooklyn-based Iranian artist Nicky Nodjoumi. “It is exciting to show works by these artists in the region, some of whom are not exhibited often in the Middle East,” says Grahne. Two of Nodjoumi’s paintings were exhibited at the artist’s solo museum exhibition at the Cleveland Institute of Art several months ago. “We are also bringing two bodies of work by Al Ghoussein: K-Files, which were exhibited as part of the Kuwait Pavilion at the Venice Biennale last year, and (In) Consideration of Myths, which is a body of work that was photographed on site in Abu Dhabi,” adds Grahne. Lastly, the works by Baghriche will include Feiko, which is a god replica of an emergency blanket, as well as a few works from his Musallat series, which photographs in which Baghriche visited Muslim sites of prayer (Musallats) in Montreal whereby he aimed to capture the spiritual energy in each place.In an increasing effort to engage the local Emirati populace, an issue that is often highlighted in the current debates on support for emerging artists in the U.A.E., the fair will also feature the return of Artists’ Waves, a presentation of innovative works by Emirati artists. It includes a section with a special salon where visitors can engage with galleries representing participating artists. The Abu Dhabi Art Design Program is another effort to further the artistic growth of artists in the U.A.E. It fosters the creation of design objects that combine the heritage of the U.A.E. with contemporary design. This year the program features presentations by the winners of the Abu Dhabi Art U.A.E. Designer Program, launched in 2013, who will unveil prototypes of unique contemporary design works that incorporate elements of the history and culture of the U.A.E., following a year of development and tailored support.

All in all, by adding new and innovative sections as well as concentrating on other art forms such as performance and design, this year’s Abu Dhabi Art looks set to take great strides ahead — building on its success last year and strengthening Abu Dhabi as a major regional and international hub. And while the participants in the new Beyond section have yet to be named, the public can look forward to experiencing how the fair will reach out into the city to woo and embrace new art lovers.

For more information visit www.abudhabiartfair.ae

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Above, from left to right: Ben Johnson, Approaching the Mirador, 2013, Acrylic on canvas; Nargess Hashemi, Carpet, 2014, pen and graph paper; Etel Adnan, Untitled, 2014, oil on canvas.

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF ABU DHABI ART.

and museum clients at the fair.” The gallery will be returning with works by Damien Hirst and launching two new diamond dust spot prints by the British artist. It will also be bringing a new painting by Ben Johnson of the Alhambra Palace, which investigates the geometry as well as the sacred that is embodied in Islamic architecture. But it’s the fair’s regional and increasingly Emirati aspect that has propelled its growth into a commercial and educational event that brings together East and West through art.

“As the event grows annually, Abu Dhabi Art continues to cultivate a viable cultural ecosystem for the city, and to establish Abu Dhabi, along with the future museums of Saadiyat Cultural District, as a global cultural hub,” says HE Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (ADTCA). This ‘cultural ecosystem’ is found throughout this year’s many programs. They offer an extensive selection of public talks, book launches, film screenings and also performing arts, including the return of Durub Al Tawaya, a host of live and artistic expressions that take place throughout Abu Dhabi.

“It is crucial that we engage the local community,” says Alanood Al Hammadi, Exhibitor Relations Coordinator at the ADTCA. “Abu Dhabi Art is an event that participates in the U.A.E.’s broader cultural movement. By bringing together the international and the greater Middle Eastern community through art we help the U.A.E. further develop as a leading platform for the arts.”

Galleries will once again exhibit within the fair’s five established sections: Modern and Contemporary, showcasing major works of 20th-century art; Design, featuring prominent pieces by international and regional designers; Bidaya (which means ‘beginning’ in Arabic), a space awarded to one emergent gallery, dedicated this year to New York’s Taymour Grahne Gallery; Signature, a section that presents the work of one emerging artist through a solo exhibition; and the Beyond section, for largescale installations, sculptures and specially commissioned site-specific

The Rise of the Middle Eastern Art Collector The U.A.E.’s art scene has soared over the last several years. From big art fairs, art auctions and an increase in art galleries, the country is positioning itself as a major hub for art and culture. It is also witnessing an ever growing number of regional and international art collectors. T Emirates reports on the growth of the U.A.E.’s collector base.

IMAGES COURTESY OF ARTSPACE.

BY REBECCA ANNE PROCTOR

Left: Zakaria Ramhani, Oum Kolthum, 2014, oil on canvas.

Right: Adel El Siwi, Untitled 4, 2013, Mixed media on canvas.

AN ART OBJECT is a trophy in its own right. Selected with utmost care while paying attention to the demands of the market and the aesthetic preferences of the buyer, the chosen piece becomes a quasi-heirloom as well as a deeply personal object. The rising popularity of Middle Eastern art over the last several years has signaled a surge in the number of art institutions, galleries and major regional and international events. It has also pointed to a more knowledgeable and discerning art collector. This individual now has a more commanding sphere in the Middle Eastern art arena and has developed just as the market has.

The last decade has witnessed the maturing of individuals in the region who buy art. “Early on between 2005 and 2010 there was a lot of speculation and manipulation by a rather small pool of collectors,” says Khaled Samawi, owner and Founder of the Ayyam Gallery, which has two branches in Dubai, one in Jeddah and London. “Recently we have found that the pool of collectors is much more informed and serious than before with a long term vision. Important international collectors are seriously looking and collecting Middle Eastern art. I believe the market matured very quickly and prices have stabilized which gives collectors more confidence than the earlier cowboy days.” This statement mirrors that of the international auction house Christie’s, which held its first sales in the region in 2006. There was a time, not so long ago, when some of the people who came to our sales found the set-up quite intimidating, not knowing a great deal about the art from the region,” says Hala Khayat, Head of Sale and Associate Director at Christie’s Dubai. “This is no

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An exterior view of the Christie's Dubai office in DIFC. Below, right: Fateh Moudarres, Damascus, 1966, Oil on canvas.

Left: Mahmoud Said, Bergère á Alamein, 1959, oil on panel.

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longer the case. I think of the many transformations I have witnessed since we started to hold our regular sales in 2006 and this is the most important. Now collectors and enthusiasts visit art galleries and fairs and are rightly proud of the rich amusertistic traditions of the region. They have developed a true passion for the work and the artists.” Sossy Dikijian, the Director Artspace Gallery in DIFC, one of the city’s first art spaces, emphasizes how the number of foreign art collectors has grown in the region. “We’re witnessing more international collectors than ever before,” she says. “The art scene is much more stable in the region and a lot of interest in Middle Eastern art is now coming from abroad.”

A good sign this is for such a young art market.

Statements such as these underline how many art institutions have set up in Dubai precisely because they see potential among the U.A.E.’s collector base. While many might speculate as to the wealth of the organizations behind the U.A.E.’s surge in art institutions, the mere fact that the Louvre and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Art, Art Dubai, Christie’s and the many art galleries are present in the region underlines the region’s potential for a world-class art market. But as Khayat adds, “There’s still a need to nurture this enthusiasm with solid content.” To that end, Christie’s has invited, for a second time, its education department, Christie’s Education, to run a special twoday course. It will introduce a wide variety of subjects covering the local and the international art market in coincidence with the auction house’s October sales.

“There are many other opportunities available to people,” says Khayat. “These include lectures, the DIFC (Dubai International Financial Center) Art Nights, the Art Fair Forum in March combined with wellinformed magazines and publications on art, our own website and catalogue notes, art videos available on Youtube and the new museums being built.”

But what are collectors of Middle Eastern art buying? Both modern and contemporary works hold great appeal depending on the buyer and their spending power. “It really depends on the collectors and their budgets,” says Samawi. “Top collectors are definitely very interested in Samia Halaby, Abdulnasser Gharem, and Safwan Dahoul.

The pool of collectors is getting deeper every year locally and internationally. This is very exciting for the artists.” The region’s modern masters from the first half of the twentieth century continue to grow in relevance and popularity. In this edition of Frieze Masters several galleries such as Meem Gallery in Dubai and Agial Art Gallery in Beirut are bringing works by esteemed Middle Eastern modern masters such as Iraqi Dia Azzawi and Lebanese Huguette Caland. In

T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

addition, Christie’s Dubai continues to offer a strong selection of works by artists from this period. “Season after season, the modern masters continue to dominate, as you would expect,” says Khayat. “They are the most established among the region’s artists and have made the greatest contribution to the story of art in the Middle East.

The names will be familiar to many, Shafic Abboud, and Paul Guiragossian from Lebanon, Mahmoud Saïd from Egypt and Fateh Moudarres and Louay Kayyali from Syria. From Iraq it would have to be Dia Azzawi.”

However, the significance of these artists doesn’t overlook the importance of some of the region’s most popular contemporary names such as Farhad Moshiri, Pariviz Tanavoli, Safwan Dahoul and Ayman Baalbaki, among many others.

Christie’s upcoming auction for Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art in October will highlight a selection of Modern Arab masters. The first highlight is a major group of works by Shafic Abboud which were bought by the Lebanese jewelry designer Vivian Debbas and her husband, Robert, from the mid1970s. “Each one is a marvelous example of his lifetime interest in color through his abstract, expressionist works,” remarks Khayat. The second feature is a group of works acquired by an American diplomatic couple in Syria during the 1960s, works by the then young and unknown artist Louay Kayyali. As Khayat explains, the four works up for sale depict very different aspects of Kayyali’s oeuvre, from a pair of intimate portraits of the collector, Mrs Maria Tobler and the couple's son Charles, to a unique white landscape of Kayyali’s favorite village in Syria, Maaloula, as well as a very early still-life of flowers in a vase. “There is also a fantastic group of works by the great Iranian, Parviz Tanavoli,” she adds.

However, even as the U.A.E. art scene charges full steam ahead, there still seems to be a need to continually strive for a greater public and educational platform for the arts. “Dubai is definitely becoming one of the most important art centers in the world and the undisputed center of Middle Eastern art,” says Samawi, who might be opening a new space in the Americas soon. “I would like to see a license for private museums and foundations which currently does not exist.”

Nurturing an appreciation among young collectors in the age brackets of 20 to 40 years of age in addition to furthering what is done for art education in the U.A.E. are other ways to continue to build a strong platform for the arts. “The U.A.E. is a young country, which also attracts a segment of young entrepreneurs and ambitious employees in the many multi-national companies who have bases here, so it feels very natural for us to reach out to this crowd,” says Khayat. “Their enthusiasm is infectious and it is their energy which is helping to shape the country. Combine this with the rich stream of talent among the young contemporary artists from the region and you have a perfect combination.”

The building of an art history and a contemporary heritage is what is taking place in the U.A.E., and the rise of the Middle Eastern art collector plays a pivotal role in the region’s success in the international arena for modern and contemporary art.

Christie’s Dubai art and watch auctions will take place on 21 and 22 October in Jumeirah Emirates Towers. For more information, visit www.christies.com.

Left: Carolina Herrera coat, AED 13,186. Hermès shirt (worn throughout), AED 7,070, hermes.com.

Right: Oscar de la Renta coat, AED 9,513. Hermès shirt (worn throughout), AED 4,315. On both: Céline sunglasses, AED 1450.

Loewe bag (worn throughout), AED 6,207, loewe.com. Saint Laurent

by Hedi Slimane shoes (worn throughout), AED 3,287.

In Fashion

These Coats Are Made for Walking So lightweight and beautifully made, they do all the work.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BEN GRIEME STYLED BY JASON RIDER

September – October, 2014

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Quality

In Fashion

Left: Bally coat, AED 12,837. Right: Proenza Schouler coat, AED 12,818. Opposite, left: Chloé coat, AED 10,835. Right: Hermès coat, AED 24,976. On both: Céline sunglasses.

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T Emirates: The New York Times Style Magazine

ALL PRICES ARE INDICATIVE

September – October, 2014

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MODELS: NICOLE KEIMIG AND TABITHA PERNAR AT THE SOCIETY MANAGEMENT. HAIR BY OWEN GOULD AT THE WALL GROUP. MAKEUP BY JUNKO KIOKA AT JOE MANAGEMENT USING CHANEL. MANICURE BY CASEY HERMAN FOR CHANEL LE VERNIS AT KATE RYAN INC. DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: HEATH M C BRIDE. PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT: MATT SIMMONS. STYLIST’S ASSISTANT: OLIVIA HESS DANIELSSON. DOGS: ALL TAME ANIMALS, INC. SPECIAL THANKS TO THE MARK HOTEL, N.Y.C.

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Watch Report

Small Indulgences Gold timepieces as slender and delicate as a woman’s wrist.

STYLED BY JASON RIDER. MODEL: LAURA KARGULEWICZ AT WILHELMINA. GROOMING BY RACHEL TOLIN AT THE WALL GROUP FOR CHANEL. MANICURE BY ALICIA TORELLO AT THE WALL GROUP USING ZOYA. PROP STYLIST: THEO VAMVOUNAKIS AT STACY VOGWELL PRODUCTIONS. STYLIST’S ASSISTANT: OLIVIA HESS DANIELSSON

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHARLIE ENGMAN

Clockwise from top left: Movado Dot, AED 5,491. Cartier Mini Tank Américaine, AED 128,562, cartier.us. Dior Timepieces La Mini D de Dior, AED 119,379, dior.com. Hermès Faubourg, AED 55,833, hermes.com.

ALL PRICES ARE INDICATIVE

September – October, 2014

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Quality Objects

Prized Possession High-gloss handbags and heels in a range of decadent colors are the most covetable accessories of the season.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANTHONY COTSIFAS PRODUCED BY MICHAEL REYNOLDS

GRAY MATTER From left: Valentino Garavani boots, AED 6,776. Balenciaga bag, price on request, similar styles at (212) 206-0872.

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NEUTRAL TONES From left: Marc Jacobs bag, AED 4,040.

Gucci boots, AED 3,655, gucci.com.

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Quality

Objects SHARP CONTRAST From left: Emporio Armani bag, AED 3,103, armani.com.

Bottega Veneta bag, AED 55,095, bottegaveneta.com.

Brian Atwood shoes, AED 2,552, brian atwood.com.

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RETOUCHING: ROBERT WILLINGHAM. PHOTO ASSISTANT: KARL LEITZ. PROP STYLIST’S ASSISTANT: EVAN SCOTT

FRENCH BURGUNDY Clockwise from top: Roger Vivier shoes, AED 4,223, Bally boots, AED 4,958. Tod’s bag, AED 4,646.

ALL PRICES ARE INDICATIVE

September – October, 2014

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THE COOKING CURE Joël Robuchon and Dr. Nadia Volf argue that trout combats anxiety and sadness, while endive protects against obsession, binge-eating and bad breath.

Food Matters

PROP STYLIST: VICTORIA PETRO CONROY

A Recipe for Happiness Can a meal be more than just a delicious coming together of fine ingredients?

Can it alter your feelings in predictive ways? The Michelin-starred chef Joël Robuchon and his neuropharmacologist have created dishes to cure what ails you.

BY LIESL SCHILLINGER PHOTOGRAPH BY KYOKO HAMADA

‘‘MILK PROTEINS DO NOT belong in human bodies,’’ Robert Cohen wrote in his 1997 book ‘‘Milk: The Deadly Poison.’’ A single glass contains ‘‘powerful growth

hormones, enormous quantities of dietary cholesterol, fat, allergenic proteins, insecticides, antibiotics, viruses and bacteria.’’ For a solid year I shunned cheese and

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Häagen-Dazs, drank Rice Dream and ate my toast dry. I lost 15 pounds. But, as so often happens with restrictive diets, at some point dairy flowed back into my refrigerator, and my weight crept back to normal. Fast forward to 2011 and the book ‘‘Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health.’’ Wheat, not milk, was the culprit, and once again my persuadable mind succumbed to an alarmist argument. I didn’t lose the weight this time because in the intervening decade I’d casually adopted the South Beach and Atkins diets, satisfying my snack cravings with string cheese and salami instead of bagels and Fritos.

But it’s not just health (and skinniness) we’re after from our diets — it’s happiness. The gluten-free converts talk of being clear-minded, and any juice bar offers a host of emotional and psychological claims along with its cups of pulverized shrubbery. So if a goji berry stirs the libido and clams reduce anger, can it all be mixed into a recipe that can feed the soul while also tasting delicious? The

on watercress (to fight water retention, a boon for a particularly bloated friend). Impressed by the book’s description of the restorative powers of grapefruit and cherries, I prepared spritzers of Pellegrino and fresh juices alongside the rosé and white wine.

The chilled mint pea soupe élégante contained green peas ‘‘to fight problems of circulation, edema and water retention in the legs’’ and fresh mint (a cooling herb), topped with a dab of crème fraîche and toasted pumpkin seeds (also helpful in battling obsessions). I served up Robuchon’s beets and endive with smoked duck breast, chives and Granny Smith apple along with a sermon: ‘‘The fatty acids in the duck are good for your heart, and it has phosphorous, too, which stimulates memory; the endive combats fear, the hazelnut oil boosts serenity, the beets help the immune system and detoxify the blood and the apples have iron and pectin, which calm the stomach.’’

Our main courses were Robuchon’s trout with carrot tagliatelle (with a little curry thrown in to improve memory) and chicken with preserved lemon. The zucchini in the dish I’d served with them — quinoa with sautéed vegetables and ground golden flaxseeds — was supposed to fight fright. ‘‘Has Robuchon lost his mind a bit?’’ someone asked, but the meal actually seemed to be working. The mint quieted Sabine’s feistiness. The chives helped Lucas release his inhibitions. Zainab’s jet lag disappeared.

Victoire, who had taken a liking to the pea soup and was recovering from strenuous hours at the ballet barre, told me, ‘‘The pain in my legs is going away!’’ Michael, fortified by the preserved lemon, said, ‘‘I feel like I could break rocks with my head.’’ For dessert, along with clafoutis I served fresh pineapple, whose bromelain would help us all to digest our trout, duck and pâté.

Remarkably, after so many courses, the guests were still light on their feet, possibly due to the trout. Or the pineapple. Or maybe it was the saffron.

In the ensuing days, I noticed that my cold had disappeared — surely not a coincidence — and Victoire emailed, ‘‘All my ailments are gone!’’ Plus, two of my single guests, sated on figs and the heart-stirring cherries in the clafoutis, started dating. Were we all just suggestible, or were these food-boosted effects real? The question reminded me of a long-ago college lecture on ‘‘angels and atoms,’’ in which the professor explained that today’s accepted belief that the world is made up of atoms is no easier for most people to prove than the medieval belief that the air contains legions of invisible angels and devils. It is hard to sever science from faith; evidence can be mischievously subjective, and in either case, it works better if you believe. Whatever the reason — conviction, science or the delicious duck breast — my experiment in the alchemy of dining was surprisingly potent. And it was a lovely summer garden meal I won’t soon forget, whereas I can’t for the life of me recall a single Atkins dinner I ever made. (Thankfully, Robuchon and Dr. Volf offer a cure for forgetfulness: caviar, served with a poached egg, smoked salmon, crème fraîche and chives.)

‘I see so many girls today who comfort themselves after a heartbreak by eating ice cream. The most beautiful thing to eat when you have heartbreak is turkey, because turkey has the amino acid tryptophan, which is the basis of our hormone serotonin. But the girls just don’t know that.’ renowned French chef Joël Robuchon and the acupuncturist and neuropharmacologist Dr. Nadia Volf think yes.

Their new cookbook, ‘‘Food & Life,’’ transforms kitchen cupboards into medicine cabinets, highlighting the arsenal of wellness that resides in everything from foie gras to the humble pea. Combining his artistry with her scientific knowledge, the pair claims that meals can improve your health, energy and mood, and maybe even help you find love. ‘‘It’s about what to eat at different times, when you feel one way or another. When you are obsessed by a thought that torments you, eat endives and your obsession will go away,’’ Volf said. ‘‘I see so many girls who comfort themselves after a heartbreak by eating Nutella and big portions of ice cream, but it doesn’t work. They gain weight, and they don’t feel better. The most beautiful thing to eat when you have heartbreak is turkey, because turkey has the amino acid tryptophan, which is the basis of our hormone serotonin.

But the girls just don’t know that.’’

Among my close circle of friends, ailments range from sore joints and muscles, jet lag and water retention, to poor concentration, night sweats, melancholia, anxiety, frugality, migraine, myopia, hay fever and numbness. For much of June, I’d been felled by a summer cold and cough. When I scanned the catalog of our woes, I blanched, worried that we all needed gruel and bed rest — not a multicourse meal. And yet, on a meltingly hot New York night, I decided to give it a go.

I started with a canapé of radish and cucumber with chèvre and lemon rind, intended to stimulate the liver, lessen anxiety and relieve rheumatism and inflammation.

I also served grapes (which quell obsessive thinking), figs (a calming aphrodisiac), Marcona almonds (to bolster equanimity and soothe coughing) and duck-liver mousse

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On Beauty

No Mistake

imitated; I’m thinking of New York’s beauty/junkie queen, Cat Marnell, who applies her YSL Rouge #17 to look as if she has recently escaped a kidnapping. At Vivienne Westwood’s fall show, the models wore what the makeup artist Val Garland called ‘‘a Marilyn Monroe mucky lip, like she’s had a few drinks.’’ Call it ‘‘the new smear,’’ call it ‘‘the smudge.’’

The wearer is clear: She’s a woman undone, but on purpose. ‘‘Undone’’ is the enemy of ‘‘not done,’’ which is also known as the au courant ‘‘no-makeup look.’’ As nudity is distinct from nakedness, so the ‘‘no-makeup look’’ is separated from the ‘‘no-makeup reality’’ by, in order of application, three layers of finely spackled creams, four brow-enhancing products, several individually positioned, almost-black lashes, two shades of blush, a fine dusting of powder to ‘‘set’’ everything and, finally, the subtlest, sheerest lip gloss, painted with a tiny brush. The whole thing takes two hours. I know because I recently underwent this treatment myself for a photo shoot (they wanted me ‘‘natural’’ and ‘‘fresh’’).

I felt about as plain as a Vermeer. Afterward, I rubbed a Kleenex all over my face, used a cheap, wine-colored lipstick to stain my mouth and cheeks and applied the kind of lush, wet mascara that always creases in my eyelids, but I like it, so there I was, again my unnatural, pretty self by the time I got home in a cab.

And, as it turns out, an accidental example of a trend.

Those also prone to putting on makeup in taxis, on

Messy hair and imperfectly applied makeup — smeared lips, ringed eyes or caked-on mascara — conjure the thrill of creativity and the rush of life.

BY SARAH NICOLE PRICKETT

COURTESY OF CÉLINE

THE MAN WHO INVENTED MODERN MAKEUP also

invented doing it wrong. In the 1930s, Max Factor picked up one of his brand-new tubes of rouge and drew a Daliesque pout over the naturally little lips of Miss Joan Crawford, transforming her from flapper to unflappable femme. He called his method, playfully, ‘‘the smear.’’

Over the years, the smear appeared on film whenever an actress, usually playing another actress, needed to look, well, actressy. In ‘‘Opening Night,’’ Gena Rowlands disintegrates under a fine black veil and applies her signature rose lip in slippery circles. In a similar, eerie still in ‘‘The Marriage of Maria Braun,’’ Hanna Schygulla’s lipstick is a blotto red mess that recalls Tallulah Bankhead in the ultra-shlocky ‘‘Die! Die! My Darling!’’ Halfway through the 1990s, Courtney Love’s permanent slip dress and sloppy moue — a cross between Crawford’s and a clown’s — was, and is again, widely

September – October, 2014

OFF-KILTER Above, from left: images from Céline’s prefall 2014 lookbook showing a bare face with smudged mascara, untamed eyebrows and a casually applied plum lip, and a model’s tousled hair and earringless lobe.

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WOMEN UNDONE Above, from left: models with a tangled wet-hair look, shiny skin and nude, barely there lip color at the fall 2014 Marni show; M.A.C. cosmetics A Novel Romance lipstick in Myself, AED 59, maccosmetics.com.

subways and/or on one too many Ativans, will be pleasantly bemused to know that ‘‘imperfect beauty,’’ as it’s called in fashion circles, is a bona fide thing, as shown on the fall runways. At Lanvin’s fall 2014 show, Pat McGrath dabbed inky shadow, markerlike, above the lashline, while at Anthony Vaccarello, Tom Pecheux used dental floss to apply red and black squiggles that barely, just barely, resembled eyeliner. Mascara was caked on at Prada, buried in glitter at Altuzarra and left off altogether at Céline, where wet hair and taupe-ringed eyes evoked a fortnight-long bender just ended. In the usual close-ups of models’ faces taken backstage, the hand of the makeup artist was almost disconcertingly visible.

You could see fingerprints on eyelids, even mouths. Again at Céline, nails were not only polish-free but uneven, certainly unmanicured. (Of course, youth permits all manner of beauty sins. If you’re not a 19-year-old model, you should try one ‘‘mistake’’ at a time. Rihanna got away with going to the 2013 American Music Awards with obvious tan lines and doobie-wrapped hair not only because she’s Rihanna, but because her makeup, nails and diamonds were neoHollywood flawless.)

Maybe the ‘‘undone’’ or ‘‘handdone’’ trend is a way of saying ‘‘no thank you’’ to airbrushing in Photoshop, just as the recent vogue for rough ceramics and crafty abstraction

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in the art world is in part a rejoinder to artists like Jeff Koons who reproduce, en masse, the mass-produced.

Or maybe it’s a simple acknowledgment that we’re most of us too busy to bother with the 26 precision tools a nomakeup look requires, and not hydrated, well-slept or content enough for a no-makeup reality.

Either way, where I used to begin each day with a canvaslike mask of foundation, I now apply an uneven layer of tinted moisturizer. And sometimes I leave the permanent, bluish half-moons under my eyes untouched.

I like to think this is my own interpretation of the novelist Junichiro Tanizaki’s ‘‘In Praise of Shadows,’’ an essay that discussed the Japanese con cept of wabi-sabi that the design writer Leonard Koren later defined as beauty ‘‘coaxed out of ugliness.’’ And once in a while I feel emboldened to color outside the lines. I want to leave in more mistakes, to leave an impression more provocative than good. A face made up in a rush is also done for the rush of making it up, and for the childlike pleasure of showing that you’ve made it. As the American painter Cy Twombly said to the critic David Sylvester, ‘‘Paint in a sense is a certain infantile thing . . . I start out using a brush, but then I can’t take the time because the idea doesn’t correspond, it gets stuck when the brush goes out of paint . . . So I take my hand and I do it.’’

HAND-FINISHED Clockwise from top: an unbrushed, piecey look with dark roots at Louis Vuitton; Bumble and Bumble Semisumo, AED 102, spacenk.com; a model with hair pulled back as if with fingers after a shower, dark eyes and clumpy lashes; Estée Lauder Sumptuous Extreme Lash Multiplying Volume mascara, AED 95, esteelauder.com.

ALL PRICES ARE INDICATIVE

PRODUCTS: JOSHUA SCOTT. MODELS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: CATWALK PICTURES; DON ASHBY/FIRSTVIEW; SCHOHAJA

Once in a while, I feel emboldened to color outside the lines. I want to leave in more mistakes, to leave an impression more provocative than good.

Arena

LONGCHAMP, DIOR, ALEXANDER M C QUEEN, CALVIN KLEIN, VERSACE, BURBERRY PRORSUM, BOTTEGA VENETA, GIORGIO ARMANI, DR. MARTENS, NICHOLAS KIRKWOOD FOR SUNO, COACH, THE ROW, BAND OF OUTSIDERS, BRUNELLO CUCINELLI, CHLOÉ AND RALPH LAUREN SHOES: MARKO METZINGER. ALL OTHERS: COURTESY OF THE DESIGNER

Yes, Please

The Invasion of the Flats Who knew that the humblest shoe could become a symbol of power in the working world?

BY SADIE STEIN

FOR MANY YEARS, it felt like there was a choice before

us: look grown-up and sexy or clomp around like a hearty German tourist. We all knew that flats were practical. But like pencil skirts and straightened hair, high heels denoted polish.

Looking over the fall fashion spreads of designer

orthopedic sandals and neon-hued sneakers, I suspect that girls today probably don’t feel the need to wear heels to transform themselves into grown-up women the way I did. Whereas heels were once integral to power dressing, flats now connote a liberation from that stereotype. As clothes have become more gender-neutral, the need to

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announce our femininity with a percussive soundtrack has vanished.

There has never been just one kind of woman who wears flats. Well-to-do Americans have long kept a range in their closets: scuffs for at home, sneakers and walking shoes for sports, sandals and moccasins for weekend getaways. (Heels, of course, were always the ‘‘main event.’’) Conversely, as long as there’s been a counterculture, bohemians from Greenwich Village to the Left Bank have made flats one of their hallmarks: a sign not merely of their general disdain for convention but of their implicit solidarity with honest working folk. Greek fisherman’s sandals, sturdy tromping boots, Turkish slippers and huaraches were indications of an independent spirit, a beatnik irreverence, a cosmopolitan bent.

In Hollywood, Audrey Hepburn taught the world that flat could be feminine. Her embrace of the Ferragamo ballet slipper in 1957 (a year after Brigitte Bardot wore the Cinderella slipper by Repetto) made the shoes a necessary gamine accessory, providing a demure counterpoint to conventional midcentury notions of sex appeal. Meanwhile, the continental sexpots of the New Wave — from Anna Karina to Jean Seberg — were frequently pictured in ballet flats or the mod Roger Vivier varietal. Like everything we fetishize

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about the mythical French woman, the flat — along with the striped shirt and the scarf, other essentials for the cartoon dame — denoted practicality and childlike grace.

Susan Sontag was a devotee of the tennis shoe. Joan Didion wore flats (and presumably still does). The fashion editor Diana Vreeland, dismissive of ‘‘hideous strappy high heels’’ and the mincing walk they imparted, had her flats custom-made by obliging cobblers.

Today, all the old tropes and even the recent ones (Birkenstocks, Tevas, shower sandals) have been taken out of the box and made to look fresh and new. You can find driving moccasins, once an icon of staid WASPiness, bristling with ironic attitude, deck shoes in the farthest reaches of Brooklyn.

In the summer heat, urban women resembled Greek goddesses in strappy sandals. On runways from Marc by Marc Jacobs to Chanel, the look was bright sneakers and flat boots. Rather than teetering to their town cars, top fashion editors and stylists were suddenly able to hop on Citi Bikes or toodle through the Tuileries. From Lanvin’s laceless oxfords to the Row’s crocodile brogues, Marni’s tasseled loafers to riffs on Dr. Martens at Céline and Alexander McQueen — these are shoes you want to walk in. Nothing could feel more grown-up right now.

CASUAL STYLE Fashion’s flatwearing pioneers, sporting their signature looks.

ILLUSTRATION BY KONSTANTIN KAKANIAS

Whereas heels were once integral to power dressing, flats now connote a liberation from that stereotype. As clothes have become more gender-neutral, the need to announce our femininity with a percussive soundtrack has vanished.

Home and Work

Brunch at Tiffany’s As the storied jewelry house’s first female design director, Francesca Amfitheatrof is imbuing modern luxury with an unexpected hint of bohemianism — perhaps the result of her recent move to Brooklyn.

PORTRAIT: FLORA HANITIJO. ALL OTHER PHOTOGRAPHS: ALPHA SMOOT

BY EVIANA HARTMAN

CHARMED LIFE Clockwise from top: Francesca Amfitheatrof in the Tiffany studio with sketches of her first collection, which launches this month; the entry hall of her Brooklyn townhouse; the back garden; the designer’s personal jewelry.

THE SIGHT, FROM ACROSS THE STREET, of Francesca Amfitheatrof

taking in the morning air on the upstairs balcony of her Brooklyn home — a grand, free-standing 1889 Romanesque Revival townhouse in the eclectic neighborhood of Clinton Hill — might almost be an apparition. Lissome and fair, with a profile that calls to mind a John Singer Sargent portrait, she suggests a vision from a bygone era, the original lady of the house.

Yet despite her Old World elegance, Tiffany & Company’s first female design director is very much a modern woman. Her sonorous, hardto-place accent is the fruit of an adventurous life steeped in art, culture

and travel. (Her father, a Time magazine bureau chief of Russian-Italian parentage, toured the world for work, while her Italian mother did the same as a public relations executive at Valentino and Armani.) She has lived, at various times, in Tokyo, Rome, Moscow, Manhattan and, for many years until recently, London.

Her résumé, too, reflects the fluidity of the times. In addition to creating jewelry under her own name — clever mixed-media objects that interpret organic forms with droll humor and a dramatic sense of scale — Amfitheatrof has lent her skill set to the design of accessories collections for a host of

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ALL THE SMALL THINGS Clockwise from top left: a Tiffany T chain necklace in 18-karat gold; artwork by Amfitheatrof’s children; the designer’s dog in her bedroom; technical sketches of the new Tiffany T bracelets; the Smile pendant in 18-karat gold; Tiffany T diamond band rings; Amfitheatrof wears a mix of Tiffany pieces with a piece of string bought on the beach in Brazil; her sketchbook; two 18-karat gold bangles from the new 63-piece Tiffany T collection.

other labels (eyewear for Marni, jewelry for Chanel and Fendi, silverware for Asprey, objects for Alessi) and to curating art shows and advising private collectors. She arrived in New York last fall after her appointment to Tiffany, where she now oversees a staff of 20 designers.

At the time, Amfitheatrof, her husband, Ben Curwin, who works for a tech incubator, and their two children and two dogs had been happily ensconced in a four-story Victorian overlooking Hoxton Square in London. With the U.S. school year imminent, they opted to seek out a rental online; within a week, they’d signed a lease. ‘‘I didn’t know Brooklyn well at all,’’ she says, ‘‘but I wanted somewhere that had that feeling of East London. I’ve always been around artists and creative people.’’ To make the place homier, the couple added a few of their own things: books; some of Amfitheatrof’s designs, including a filigree chandelier fashioned from intricate metal pieces soldered together in the shape of a bird; and a painting of her paternal grandmother by her onetime suitor, the architect Gio Ponti.

Reflecting her personal style, Amfitheatrof’s first collection for Tiffany, Tiffany T, offers what might be called a Brooklynized take on fine jewelry.

Polished enough for a night on the town, it could also easily be worn on a

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stroll to the farmers’ market. ‘‘I like things that clash a bit,’’ she says. ‘‘I wanted to do a collection you can style together, so instead of going matchy matchy matchy, you can kind of choose from within it and feel quite confident in styling it yourself.’’

The modern range of mix-and-matchable designs are laced with sly wit — one necklace uses a double-headed ‘‘T’’ to form a smile — and innovative robotics: Tennis bracelets and rings stretch and contract on railroad-like tracks, while modular linked necklaces twist and flex in all directions for a fluid effect. ‘‘It’s got a clever bit of engineering,’’ she says. ‘‘I’m a bit of a nerd like that.’’

The T assortment is only the beginning for Amfitheatrof, who, as just the eighth person to hold the position since the company was founded in 1837, will oversee all facets of design for the historic brand — tableware, engagement jewelry, gifts, red-carpet one-offs. ‘‘With Tiffany, because of its American design heritage, everything has a freshness and a lightness,’’ says Amfitheatrof. ‘‘That’s something that I really believe in.’’ A comment she makes about the collection could also apply to the refined yet relaxed aesthetic she brings to every aspect of her life. ‘‘It appears more effortless than it is,’’ she says. ‘‘That’s the thread, really.’’

JEWELRY, CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: MARKO METZINGER (3); JOSHUA SCOTT (3). ALL OTHER PHOTOS: ALPHA SMOOT

‘The T motif is very modern. It’s got an affinity with New York and the immediacy and speed of it. There’s a way that women here dress and move.’

FROM TOP: KARIM SADLI; MARK BORTHWICK.

WILD ROMANCE September – October, 2014

The Big Easy Page 64 Sarah Burton Page 72 Feminine Tailoring Page 82

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THE BIG EASY ENVELOPING KNITS, DRAMATICALLY LONG, LOOSE AND OVERSIZE, ARE FASHION’S GENEROUS SOLUTION TO THE PRACTICALITIES OF A LIFE ON THE GO. PHOTOGRAPHS BY CRAIG M C DEAN STYLED BY JOE M C KENNA

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Rick Owens dress, AED 11,845, and boots (worn throughout), AED 7,492, rickowens.eu.

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Lanvin coat, AED 28,465, and turtleneck, AED 6,574, (646) 4390380. Opposite: Yohji Yamamoto top, about AED 18,365, and pants, about AED 13,369, barneys.com.

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Calvin Klein Collection coat, AED 18,346, (212) 292-9000.

Haider Ackermann sweater, AED 3,221, bergdorfgoodman.com.

Opposite: Comme des Garçons jacket with dress, AED 10,853, (212) 604-9200.

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PRODUCTION: LALALAND. SET DESIGN BY ANDY HILLMAN AT STREETERS. MANICURE BY SOPHY ROBSON AT STREETERS. PHOTO ASSISTANTS: SIMON ROBERTS, HUAN NYUGEN, GRZEGORZ KRZESZOWIEC, MARK LINCOLN. DIGITAL TECH: CAVIT ERGINSOY. STYLIST’S ASSISTANTS: CARLOS NAZARIO, JOHN PASHALIDIS. TAILOR: MICHELLE WARNER. HAIR ASSISTANT: JAIMIE TANNER. MAKEUP ASSISTANT: DELPHINE DELAIN. SET ASSISTANT: SAM OVERS

CĂŠline coat, AED 17,446, bergdorfgoodman.com.

Opposite: The Row sweater, AED 17,446, and cape (worn as skirt), AED 16,344, bergdorfgoodman.com.

Models: Vanessa Axente/ DNA and Lexi Boling/Ford Models. Hair by Eugene Souleiman for Wella Professionals. Makeup by Peter Philips for Dior.

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SHY, UNASSUMING AND NICE, SARAH BURTON, THE ALEXANDER MCQUEEN DESIGNER, IS EVERYTHING THAT HER MAGICALLY HAUNTING COLLECTIONS ARE NOT.

THE GENIUS NEXT DOOR

BY ANDREW O’HAGAN PHOTOGRAPHS BY KARIM SADLI STYLED BY JOE M C KENNA

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THE WORD ‘‘NICE’’ OVERCOMES a multitude of human complications: People can be rich, so long as they’re nice; they can be lazy at school or useless at work, but if they’re nice, it doesn’t matter. Nice is not the same as ‘‘great’’ or ‘‘lovely’’ or even ‘‘sweet’’ — it’s a category of well-pitched, ordinary decency, and a person who has niceness has everything. To my mind, Sarah Burton is not merely one of the world’s greatest designers, she just happens to be the nicest, and she is about to enjoy the flowering of her life.

Once thought of as the diligent one, the silent one, the reliable power behind the dazzle of Alexander McQueen, she has emerged as a person with a devastating music of her own. Season after season, she produces beautiful combinations of the gracious and the eerie, giving us worlds that we didn’t know until we saw them. And now, after some dark winters and several seasons in the media sun, Burton seems free somehow, and ready to stake her claim on the future.

It is four years since Alexander McQueen — or ‘‘Lee,’’ as he was called — who in addition to being Burton’s boss was also her beloved friend and mentor, committed suicide. She was heartbroken — she finished the collection, assumed the role of head designer (which she never sought) and, soon after, in the hot glare of speculation, made the wedding dress of the decade, for the Duchess of Cambridge.

To do it all, to bear it, and still be nice, is to exhibit a set of capabilities that adds even more to an already first-rate talent. I didn’t know Sarah Burton, but we got together over several weeks for this story, at her studio, at restaurants, backstage at one of her shows and, finally, at her house in North London. The first time I met her, I noticed how bitten her nails were, how self-doubting she was and how vulnerable. Yet over the weeks, her strength emerged as it does in her work: determined, sure-footed, risky, humorous and ready to open her soul in order to make contact with people. She hadn’t given an interview for almost two years before this one and even then had said very little, and she found herself speaking in a new way. A portrait emerged of a brilliant woman whose nature has been tested under severe conditions. And yet the person I met could laugh for England, making life stories, and her own life story, into an elegant aria of dreaming and believing. There is depth to her niceness, and a niceness to her depth, which has not only quadrupled her company’s fortunes, but which promises a wealth of great work to come.

Burton grew up outside Manchester. Her father was an accountant and her mother was a music teacher. She has four siblings. When she described her childhood to me she spoke a lot about education, about her father feeling that knowledge was something ‘‘nobody can take away from you.’’ On weekends, she and her brothers and sisters would be taken to places such as the Manchester Art Gallery, where she remembers doting on the pre-Raphaelite paintings. When

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Burton brings an English tendency toward dark pleasure as opposed to dark pain. She is a prettier designer than many, but always alert to the mysteriously perverse.

DELICATE TERROR Stella Tennant adorned in a lasercut leather and lace dress with a matching mask and a cage corset, from spring 2012.

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HARLEQUIN ROMANCE Edie Campbell steps up in a velvet jacquard jacket with sheepskin collar and trousers, broderie anglaise cotton shirt, silver ivy rings and velvet jacquard steeltoed combat boots, from fall 2014.

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FINE FRIPPERY Tennant in a furembroidered chiffon dress and pony-skin boots, from fall 2014.

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we talked about influences, she sometimes glanced over her own personal things, as if she might always be haunted by the things that once haunted Lee McQueen. ‘‘I don’t have that darkness,’’ she said to me one morning as buses roared past her office on Clerkenwell Road. ‘‘I’m not haunted or sad. I don’t have that story in my youth.’’ ‘‘But some artists are lured towards their opposite,’’ I said. ‘‘That’s right. Some people think the pre-Raphaelites show a rather insipid way of representing beauty. But the painting of Ophelia [by John Everett Millais] is dark and beautiful at the same time.’’ ‘‘She’s being pulled under by what Shakespeare called ‘her weedy trophies,’ ’’ I said. ‘‘Literally, being sunk and drowned by her dress. That’s not going to happen to you, is it?’’ ‘‘No, it’s not,’’ she said. ‘‘Though I couldn’t always swear to it.’’ ‘‘Who is your hero?’’ I asked. ‘‘I think my dad is my hero,’’ she said. ‘‘He works so hard, and he never lies. He believes in family. He’s always been totally fair. And he treats everybody in the family equally.’’

I looked for the sources of Burton’s memories of childhood, and the pictures she looked at in Manchester offer a host of beautiful, melancholy signals in abundant, colorful cloth: in ‘‘La Mort d’Arthur’’

by James Archer, a woman and a ghost grieve at the feet of the magical king. ‘‘The Lady of Shalott’’ by William Holman Hunt is drawn from Tennyson’s poem about a woman devoted to her loom and her weave who makes a fateful journey to the outside world. Yet Burton says she had a wonderfully happy childhood. The darkness was stored, and she grew up among the flora and fauna of the North — the windswept moors, the Pennine hills, the long green valleys they call the dales — which finds its way relentlessly into the best of her designs. ‘‘I’ve always loved nature,’’ she says. ‘‘I grew up in the countryside, and when I was a child I loved to paint and draw — that was my first love, actually. Eventually I was drawing clothes, but at first it was flowers and vegetables. So often we were outside, playing.’’ ‘‘What was play for you?’’ I asked. ‘‘A lot of dressing up.’’ ‘‘Were you the boss?’’ ‘‘Yes, always,’’ Burton said, laughing. ‘‘My poor younger sister, she’d get the not-so-good outfits. Fashion wasn’t something in the psyche. I learned very early on you had to go with your heart and it doesn’t matter what people say. My job is quite fearful — I don’t shout the loudest, and I’m quite shy, which was why I was reluctant to throw myself into the public eye. I love beauty, craftsmanship, storytelling and romance, and I probably don’t have the armor to survive the relentless competition that exists in this particular world. But I have my own toughness.’’

You see it in her collections. There is nothing fey about them, and her bold, searching intelligence is everywhere. What she makes are couture works of art, full of a wonderful dreamlike phantasmagoria.

As if the material, the organza, the silk and the leather, was alive not only to history itself but to her own personal history, the dark and the light. Sometimes her stylistic similarities to McQueen have been levied as a criticism against Burton. ‘‘What do people think I was for all those years, the cleaner?’’ She helped him draw out the savage brilliance that first made the house famous. For such a retiring person, Burton had no problem journeying with him into the madness of the macabre, the rigid body-contoured corsets, the goldpainted fox-skeleton wrap, the bondage pieces, the kimono-style parachute, the antlered bridal gowns. She helped give birth to these designs and is said to have kept the show on the road through many difficult episodes. But she’s ultimately a different kind of artist.

It’s hard to see her sharing the dark roots of McQueen’s fetishistic damage obsession. (His famous ‘‘Highland Rape’’ show, which McQueen said was about the rape of Scotland by England, took place before she joined the company.)

Burton’s darkness is more masked, almost more surprising. It comes unbidden from a place of relative personal optimism and sunniness. Her hauntings are more romantic, and the materials she

uses are increasingly different, more celebratory of enduring life and returning nature, despite the brutality at nature’s core. I’d also argue that a larger sense of wearability, and of lightness, of small detail and cool craftsmanship, has matched the house to a new and bigger audience. She is fiercely loyal to Lee McQueen, a fact which brought her, several times during our interviews, past the brink of tears. She loves who he was and wants the company he founded to continually honor his memory, but she has to move on. The work already has moved on, and she knows that is what McQueen himself would have demanded. There is now a feeling, I detect, that she is ready to let him rest, no matter how hard that is. All the great houses had to move beyond their founding geniuses: Coco Chanel died, one must remember, and so did Cristobal Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent. Burton took over under traumatic circumstances, and it has taken her this long to be able to truly speak. It took a little work but eventually she opened up about some of the difficulties she’d had. We sat at a large table in her workshop with dresses hanging on every side, organza puffballs, feathered slips. She spoke with love but also with an essential determination. ‘‘He would sit here and I would sit there,’’ she said, pointing to two chairs. ‘‘Sometimes he’d call me at 3 o’clock in the morning just to talk, and we had this relationship where . . . I would do anything for him. And then when he died I didn’t want the job, but then everybody was going to leave and I thought, ‘Well, what else are you going to do?’ ’’ When somebody with that size of talent dies you’re blessed with this legacy, and the legacy gets more and more. ‘‘Lee is Marilyn Monroe. He’s James Dean. And to be honest, it’s taken me a while to stop being afraid and see that the company needs me to be at my best.’’ ‘‘Did you feel angry at him?’’ ‘‘Why?’’ ‘‘Because he left you. Because he destroyed himself. Because you had to finish the collection. Because you had to take over. And maybe nobody gave you permission to be angry?’’ ‘‘I’m not sure,’’ she said. ‘‘But the hardest thing is that I never really understood the pressure he was under. He could deal with all the difficult characters just by telling them to shut up. But I’m not like that. Only now am I beginning to accept the differences between us, and it’s fine. He was a painter who worked in massive brush strokes and I’m a person with tiny brush strokes.’’

The media has been on her case since that sad day in 2010. Many designers with less talent would have crumbled under the pressure, but Burton, despite all the fear and all the doubt and all the grief, has established her aesthetic. She speaks a lot off the record and doesn’t want to raise her voice, but eventually she does. ‘‘Lee and I weren’t cut from the same cloth, but we often cut into the same cloth, so it shouldn’t surprise people, after all these years, that we shared some basic creative instincts. I think I’ve probably spent too much time expressing an anxiety about Lee’s influence, but that’s coming to an end now and a new period is beginning. I loved Lee, but he is gone. And the decisions I will make for this company have already been bold, I hope, and strong, and driven by a creative integrity that is finding its feet in new ways every day. Every great design house knows that legacy cannot be allowed to be a curse and must be a wonderful opportunity for invention. That’s where I am.

That’s who we are.’’

It’s worth remembering the motto at Withington Girls’ School, where Burton was a happy pupil in the 1980s: ‘‘ad lucem’’ — toward the light. That is the general direction of her life and her talent. Her husband, David Burton, is also her best friend, and they have twin

‘My job is quite fearful.

I don’t shout the loudest, and I’m quite shy, which is why I was reluctant to throw myself in the public eye.

I love beauty, craftsmanship, storytelling and romance.’

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WINGED DESIRE Campbell in a leather-embroidered cape and dress with thigh-high pony-skin boots, from fall 2014.

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SUBTLE SUBVERSION Campbell wears a laser-cut leather ruffle jacket and organza dress with a matching headpiece, from spring 2012.

Sometimes her stylistic similarities to McQueen have been levied as a criticism against Burton. ‘What do people think I was for all those years, the cleaner?’

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‘Every great house knows that legacy cannot be allowed to be a curse and must be a wonderful opportunity for invention. That’s where I am.’

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‘‘What have clothes to do with emotion?’’ I asked. ‘‘Oh, everything,’’ she said. ‘‘They can describe a moment in your life or a feeling that is completely instilled in you. Feeling the texture of the material and seeing how it moves on the body, well, that is emotion — it’s emotion-in-motion. It might interest you to know that the clothes that sell best in our shops is the most extreme stuff — people want to express something about themselves and they find an enabler in us, and that’s emotional.’’

One of the reasons Burton has shied away from the media is because certain quarters of it have pursued her. Her biggest project to date, making the royal wedding dress in 2011, meant the press stalked her for months, and the stress of trying to keep the secret and trying to deal with bogus stories came fast on the heels of Lee’s death. The dress was universally admired and it made Alexander McQueen a household name, but there are critics who say she has been too silent. ‘‘I had no idea it would be as big as it was. Only the night before, seeing all the photographers outside the abbey, did I think, ‘Oh, my God. This is massive.’ ’’ When I first brought the dress up with Burton, she wanted to wave the subject away. But during our second meeting, she appeared resolved to put the matter to rest. ‘‘I know we live in a culture obsessed with fame,’’ she said, ‘‘but I happen to believe privacy is a virtue, and the relationship I have with my clients is private. Some people like to think I’ve been too shy or that I’m afraid to speak up about the happy experience I had creating the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress, but I can tell you that is nonsense. I have never been a shrinking violet or a person who is ruled by fear. I loved making the dress, I loved adapting my ideas to suit the person and the occasion, and we put our hearts into it. I respect the intimate nature of that lovely project and I respect the friendships that were forged during it. This is the era of blab, but we’re strong-minded here at McQueen, we always have been, and we’re proud of what we do. There are people in the media who will always want to invent sinister reasons for people’s discretion, but an instinctive, intelligent, imaginative young woman’s wish for a beautiful wedding dress — or any kind of dress — is the most natural thing in the world. And I was honored to pick up the challenge and always will be.’’

So there you have it. Does that sound like a frightened artist to you? Like someone playing second fiddle to anyone? She made the most famous dress in the world and survived to tell us that the tale is hers. It provides a perfect antidote to the prurience of our times and shows Burton to be willing not only to take her values into her workplace, into her home life, but now, after a season of rain, into the sunny uplands of her public image.

When I popped backstage to see her after her recent men’s wear show in London, there was a queue of international glamour types lining up to praise what she’d done. It was quite a show — long, lean coats with flashes of red lining, made in Prince of Wales check or houndstooth, with abstract Kabuki patterns lifting them out of England — but she waved off the praise, then smiled broadly when the elderly mother of the show’s hairstylist came up. ‘‘Oh, you’re the belle of the ball, so I won’t keep you,’’ the lady said. ‘‘But how’s the kids? Great. Well, let’s be seeing you before long, darling — you’re looking lovely.’’ ‘‘Would you sooner come back as a butterfly or a bee?’’ I asked her. ‘‘Oh, a bee,’’ she said, her Northern accent suddenly obvious. ‘‘I think I’m more of a worker than I am a painted lady.’’ Everybody who knows Burton admires her, and many of them have waited patiently for her to speak out without being hesitant, to embrace the success she’s having, and to let the light of Alexander McQueen shine equally on the past and the present. She now has her own legacy to think about. ‘‘We’re in the enchantment business,’’ she said. ‘‘Fashion will never stagnate so long as there are teams of people willing to tackle the soul of the culture. That’s what we do here at McQueen, that’s what we’ve always done.’’

PRODUCTION BY GAINSBURY & WHITING. MANICURE BY TRISH LOMAX FOR JED ROOT. TAILOR: CAROLINE THORPE. PHOTO ASSISTANTS: ANTONI CIUFO, LAURENT CHOUARD, SIMON MCGUIGAN. DIGITAL TECH: EDOUARD MALFETTE. STYLIST’S ASSISTANTS: CARLOS NAZARIO, JOHN PASHALIDIS. HAIR ASSISTANT: REBEKAH CALO

girls. If you’re available for optimism, as she is, then the movement toward the light will come naturally, with all the opposing shadows existing like ghosts on a glass negative. In her fall show for Alexander McQueen, Burton set all this to life, like a magician of selfhood. A strange, misty moorland — not unconnected to the landscape of her childhood — was the setting for the combination of beautiful tailoring and wild imaginings that characterize the house. There was a sense of romanticism-in-crisis, of the Bronte sisters, of Heathcliff haunted by the cold hand of death scratching at his window, of owls, dreams and the poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whom Burton cites. The dresses came with capes, fur hoods, bell sleeves and delicate, small embroidery, frilled and frayed hemlines. Clothes like these don’t make themselves, and legacy doesn’t make them either. Some designers are driven not by what is flamboyant in them but by what is recessive.

Burton brings to the McQueen brand an English tendency toward dark pleasure as opposed to dark pain. She is a prettier designer than many, but always alert to the mysteriously perverse.

Not everyone has obvious demons. With Lee it was skulls, shipwrecks, hospital inmates and birds of prey. But Burton’s instinct might be more subtle. Her instinct might be to see the fly in the ointment, the crack in the teacup, the little details that make the ordinary strange. ‘‘When I went to Saint Martins’’ — the art school she attended — ‘‘a lot of the people there were these flamboyant characters.

I thought, ‘God, I’m not like them.’ I thought, ‘What’s going on? I’m really normal.’ But my own demon is the fear of failure. My obsessional addiction is work and there’s a possible twistedness in always putting myself last, you know?’’ ‘‘Were you never really interested in being a star designer?’’ ‘‘Honestly, no. There have been times when, if I could have disappeared from this industry I would have. I had to battle with it.

I don’t look like a fashion person, I’m not cool, and I always just loved people who are good at what they do. I’m not interested in going to parties. I hate having my picture taken. When the Met Ball is happening I want to go through the back door. When the giant McQueen show was on there’’ — which became the biggest draw in the history of the museum — ‘‘I didn’t want to go up the red carpet because . . . it’s embarrassing. I’m shy. When celebrities tap me on the shoulder I think they’re asking me to move out of the way. And you know: It doesn’t bother me. I smile about it with my husband, we’re secure. And to me the only story that is worth telling is the story of the work.’’

Someone who works with Burton told me about the pressure she came under to accept the job at McQueen.

She was approached for the creative directorship of another major fashion house at the same time and this person told her she’d regret not accepting the offer. ‘‘You’ll always be haunted at McQueen,’’ she said. After Lee’s suicide, the co-worker remembers Burton burning a candle in Lee’s room and leaving off the lights: ‘‘There was just this candle. Sarah had this giant decision to make. And we were all relieved when she took the job. We always knew she had a whole vision of her own that helped Lee’s vision but was peculiar to her.’’

Burton told me she was relieved to be able to talk again about the basics of design and inspiration. She felt she’d been tossed around in a sea of media obsessions — the hunger for news about her relationship with the royals still persists, and a few days before we first met, the media camped on her doorstep again, convinced she had designed Kim Kardashian’s wedding dress, which she hadn’t.

With me she became more relaxed, saying it was nice to be back on dry land, talking about ideas, trying to define her way of doing things in a job she loves.

ANIMAL INSTINCT Tennant wears a fur and feather coat with a hammeredmetal bow belt, leather gloves and Mongolian fur-trim boots. Models: Edie Campbell and Stella Tennant/DNA Model Management.

Hair by Malcolm Edwards at Art Partner. Makeup by Christelle Cocquet at Calliste.

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Giorgio Armani jacket, AED 8,356. Opposite: Michael Kors coat, AED 14,673, michaelkors.com.

Céline pants, AED 4,591, saksfifthavenue.com.

Hermès shoes (worn throughout), AED 3,415 hermes.com.

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A romantic inclination

TOWARD CLASSICAL portrait necklines and cinched waists is giving

tailoring a more feminine spirit.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK BORTHWICK

STYLED BY JONATHAN KAYE 83

CĂŠline top, AED 9,549, and pants, AED 4,591.

Opposite: Ralph Lauren Collection jumpsuit, AED 12,102, ralphlauren.com.

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September – October, 2014

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Louis Vuitton coat, about AED 18,989, top, AED 3,011, belt, AED 2,644, and earring, price on request, louisvuitton.com.

Opposite: Chanel coat, AED 28,649, Balenciaga pants, AED 3,654, nordstrom.com.

ALL PRICES ARE INDICATIVE

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Document

Cindy Sherman’s 29 Blond Wigs From a collection of 158 wigs shot in the artist’s New York City studio.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEANNE SHAPTON AND JASON FULFORD

BY LEANNE SHAPTON

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