Penha Duty Free Magazine 2014-15 by Alma Media International

WELCOME

Contents HOLLYWOOD’S NEW BRAT PACK Move over Brad, Leo and Johnny. There’s a new brat pack of actors lighting up Hollywood, and they’re all young, talented and ridiculously good-looking. But is there another reason they’re so popular with fans?

14 SHOPPPING

30 17

Our guide to all the stunning Penha shops across the Caribbean.

WHAT'S HOT

Treat yourself to the very latest in fragrances, cosmetics, apparel and eyewear.

36 40 46

FASHION

FRAGRANCE

TRAVEL

MUSIC

High heels are dead. Long live the flat shoe. Our fashion writer explains why top shoe designers are now going low.

Ever wondered what your choice of perfume says about you as a human being? We delve into the psychology of scent.

The world’s greatest whisky tour. Follow our guide to the ultimate driving tour of Scotland, taking in all the unmissable whisky stops along the way.

Superstar DJs and dance club culture may originally be a European phenomenon but the Americas are spinning to the sound of dance music more than ever before. Our music writer finds out why.

PENHA

cartier. com

WELCOME

Contents

FOOD The best food is always local and fresh. Follow our global tour of haute cuisine and, for every month of the year, discover a classic.

HUGH JACKMAN Actor, singer, dancer and, most famously, mutant superhero Wolverine, Hugh Jackman is one of the most physical actors there is. But what about the real character beneath? Here he discusses family life, fame, philosophy, money and rumours he’s gay.

HAIR & BEAUTY

Braids, buns, knots, curls, bobs, the French twist, the wet effect, the side sweep… Discover what hairstyles we’ll all be wearing this time next year.

FITNESS Fitness experts are singing the praises of high-intensity interval training. Requiring just minutes of exercise rather than hours, it’s great for busy lifestyles. But does it actually work?

76 80 PENHA

CHAMPAGNE If you’re serving your guests champagne, then you really need to get the etiquette correct. Follow our tips from one of the world’s most knowledgeable experts on bubbly.

MOTORING Experts agree electric motor cars are the future. But first we have to crack battery technology and the lack of charging points. The motoring editor of GQ magazine explains.

LUXURY TREAT Spoil yourself with the world’s most expensive chocolate.

KARL.COM #KARLPARFUMS

THE NEW SIGNATURE SCENT FOR WOMEN AND MEN

WELCOME

Welcome to Penha

elcome to the latest issue of Penha magazine. Inside you’ll find great articles on celebrities, fashion, perfume, beauty, music, motoring, sport, fine food and drink. Brought to you by Penha, the leading beauty and fashion retailer in the Caribbean, it also includes news and features about all our latest lines of fragrances, cosmetics, apparel and eyewear: Chanel, Dior, MAC Cosmetics, Estée Lauder, Clinique, Lancôme, Bobbi Brown, Clarins, Shiseido, Jean Paul Gaultier, Ralph Lauren… all are available - some exclusively - in our many exciting outlets dotted across the Caribbean. We hope you’re inspired to visit our variety of fantastic stores there are now 29 of them across five different islands - and find out why we pride ourselves on both our exquisite products and worldclass customer service. It was all the way back in 1865 that the Penha family first started trading in Curaçao. In the early 1900s the family moved their

business into the elegant Penha building on Willemstad’s waterfront, known as the Handelskade - now on the list of UNESCO’s world heritage sites. Although Penha traded in all kinds of merchandise over the years, more recently the company became renowned for its extensive range of luxury perfumes and cosmetics, thanks to the founder’s son Julius Lopez Penha junior. In the latter half of the 20th Century Penha then expanded business across to the Netherlands Antilles’ other islands. Led by Julius’s daughter Edna de Jong Lopez Penha, and her husband Jan de Jong, it opened stores in St Maarten and Aruba, making the Penha name and company a leading light in Caribbean retail. Despite all this history, Penha is not a business that stands still. In the last year we have opened five new Penha stores in St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands) and this has allowed us to add premium spirits and wines, jewellery and watches to our portfolio. We have also expanded our network of Victoria’s Secret stores to more islands. Enjoy reading.

PENHA

New. Clinique Sonic System Purifying Cleansing Brush Gently lifts the makeup, dirt and oil hand washing may miss. Gets deep into the T-Zone. Goes gentle on cheeks. Dermatologist-developed to transform skin. Oh, the healthy glowâ&#x20AC;Ś the purified pores. And moisture just sinks in. For all skins. Great skin just got better. Visit our Clinique counters and receive a free personalized skin consultation by the hands of our experts.

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Meet our new skin-changer.

CONTRIBUTORS

Contributors WRITER

EDITOR

Dominic Bliss

Paul Henderson

Dominic has been a magazine editor for the last 15 years, in fields as varied as retail, fashion, drinks, jewellery, architecture and sport. Based in London, he also writes for newspapers and magazines.

Paul is the food, sports and motoring editor on GQ magazine. This means he gets to attend major sporting events, eat in all the best restaurants and drive the most desirable cars in the world. Jealous?

WRITER

Ian Valentine

Charles Howgego

Ian has written extensively on whisky and Scottish heritage for lifestyle magazines such as GQ and Country Life. As a lad, he once worked in a Perthshire distillery, developing a taste for Scotland’s finest export. Hic!

Former editor of The Big Issue magazine, Charles is now following his passion for food and drink, interviewing top chefs and restaurateurs. He’s about to launch his own foodie magazine.

WRITER

Susi is a journalist and editor with many years’ experience working in fashion, travel and food. She also runs a major awards scheme for a fashion exhibition company and produces a membership magazine.

Over the years, this London-based music critic has interviewed a baffling array of stars including Ozzy Osbourne, Amy Winehouse, Burt Bacharach, Lionel Richie and Pink Floyd. He once even played piano on a top-10 Japanese hit single.

John Lewis

Susi Rogol

Penha magazine is published on behalf of Penha by: ALMA Media International 83 Bell Street, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 7AN, United Kingdom T +44 20 8944 1155 E info@almamedia.co.uk www.almamedia.co.uk For more information, recommendations or assistance please visit www.JLPenha.com or email us on info@jlpenha.com

PENHA

Publisher Tony Richardson Editor Dominic Bliss @DominicBliss Advertising manager Gideon Knowles Production assistant Tracy Powell Account director Amanda Richardson Design Shona Gow © 2014 Alma Media International Limited. Original articles and other contributions published in this magazine may only be reproduced with permission from both Penha and the publishers. Neither accepts responsibility for any views or statements made in the articles and other contributions reproduced from any other source. No responsibility is accepted for the claims made in advertisements appearing in this journal and the publishers reserve the right to accept or refuse advertisements at their discretion.

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S T O R E L O C AT I O N S

Where to shop

FOR THE VERY BEST IN DUTY-FREE FRAGRANCES, COSMETICS, APPAREL AND EYEWEAR, VISIT ONE OF THE MANY PENHA SHOPS ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN.

Aruba Just off the coast of Venezuela, Aruba is the westernmost of the Lesser Antilles. It may be tiny (less than 70 square miles), but it’s perfectly formed with beautiful, protected beaches in the west and rolling hills looking over the interior. There are five Penha stores on Aruba. The largest is in Oranjestad, next to the Renaissance Hotel, with a smaller outlet at Palm Beach Plaza. Penha also operate two MAC Cosmetics boutiques and two Victoria’s Secret beauty and accessories stores.

Curaçao

Grand Cayman

The largest and most populous of the three ABC islands, Curaçao is also the most architecturally significant. The capital, Willemstad, features beautiful Dutch and Spanish colonial buildings which have helped earn it UNESCO World Heritage status. The focal point of these historical buildings is Penha Punda, backdrop to countless tourist photographs over the years. Built in 1708, it now contains Penha’s flagship store, selling top fragrances, cosmetics and apparel. Right next to it is Penha Eyewear, selling all the leading sunglasses brands. There are four other Penha stores: Salina (cosmetics, eyewear and men’s and women’s apparel), Zuikertuin (fragrances), Renaissance Mall (fragrances and skincare) and a new cosmetics store on Heerenstaat. A Montblanc boutique (writing instruments, timepieces, jewellery, leather goods and eyewear) and a Victoria’s Secret beauty and accessories store complete the portfolio on the island.

An overseas British territory, Grand Cayman is the largest of the three Cayman Islands, and the furthest west. One of its main attractions is Seven Mile Beach, a long crescent of coral sand considered by many one of the finest beaches in the whole of the Caribbean. Penha's stunning flagship store stands proud in the centre of the capital George Town. There is also an exclusive MAC Cosmetics boutique and a Victoria’s Secret store.

St. Maarten

Part of the US Virgin Islands, St. Thomas is home to the islands’ capital Charlotte Amalie, known to locals as Rock City. The Penha flagship store in the centre of the city carries a full range of the latest beauty and fragrance brands. It is also home to an extensive collection of fine spirits and wine, a Swarovski boutique and a Swatch outlet. There are four further Penha stores on the island including one at the international airport. Finally, there’s a MAC cosmetics boutique on Main Street.

Comprising the southern half of Saint Martin island, this small territory is a constituent country of the Netherlands, along with Aruba and Curaçao. Over 1.5 million cruise passengers visit St. Maarten every year, making it one of the busiest cruise stops in the whole of the Caribbean. A good proportion of them pass through the fragrance and cosmetics stores in Phillipsburg (Penha Phillipsburg) and at the airport (Penha Airport Duty Free). There is also a Penha store at the Maho Beach Plaza. PENHA

St. Thomas

S T O R E L O C AT I O N S

Where to shop Aruba

Curaçao

Grand Cayman

St. Thomas

Penha Mainstreet

Penha Punda

Penha Duty Free

Caya G.F. Betico Croes 11 Oranjestad T (+297) 582 4160 F (+297) 582 4161

Penha Duty Free Palm Beach Plaza L.G. Smith Boulevard 95 T (+297) 586 6781 F (+297) 582 2669

Penha Duty Free Plaza Daniel Leo Emmastraat 1 Oranjestad

MAC Boutique Palm Beach

Palm Beach Plaza L.G. Smith Boulevard 95

MAC Boutique Downtown

Plaza Daniel Leo Emmastraat 1, unit 2 Oranjestad T (+297) 582 5446

Victoria’s Secret

Caya G.F. Betico Croes 20 Oranjestad T (+297) 583 7158

Victoria’s Secret

Palm Beach Plaza Palm Beach Plaza Mall LG. Smith Boulevard 95 T (+297) 586 0570

Heerenstraat 1 T (+5999) 461 2266 F (+5999) 461 7827

40 Royal Plaza, Unit B Cardinal Ave, George Town T (+1345) 949 6513 F (+1345) 949 6511

Penha Saliña

MAC Boutique

Saliña Galleries Schottegatweg Zuid T (+5999) 465 8788 F (+5999) 465 8789

40 Royal Plaza, Unit A Cardinal Ave, George Town T (+1345) 946 6512 F (+1345) 925 7374

Penha Zuikertuin

Victoria’s Secret

Zuikertuin Mall T +5999) 738 6368 F (+5999) 738 6367

40 Royal Plaza, Unit C Cardinal Ave, George Town T (+1345) 946 2087

Penha Renaissance Baden Powellweg z/n T (+5999) 461 2718 F (+5999) 461 2714

St. Maarten

Penha Eyewear

Penha Duty Free

Heerenstraat 5 T (+5999) 461 0524 F (+5999) 461 0527

Frontstreet 55 Philipsburg T (+1721) 542 2279 F (+1721) 542 5212

Montblanc Boutique Baden Powellweg 1 Renaissance Mall Unit 115 T (+5999) 461 2795

Penha Duty Free

Heerenstraat 1 T (+5999) 461 2266 F (+5999) 461 7827

Princess Juliana International Airport Unit 2-14, Airport Road Simpson Bay T (+1721) 564 7740 F (+1721) 542 5212

Victoria’s Secret

Penha Duty Free

Penha Cosmetics

Maho Beach Plaza Unit 9/10, Rhine Road

Heerenstraat 33 Tel: (+5999) 461 0707

36 Main Street T (+1340) 776 2303 F (+1340) 777 1616

MAC Boutique 37 Main Street T (+1340) 776 2303 F (+1340) 777 1616

Carried Away

37 Main Street T (+1340) 776 2303 F (+1340) 777 1616

Al Cohen’s Discount Liquors 18A Estate Thomas T (+1340) 776 2303 F (+1340) 777 1616

Penha Duty Free

8268 Crown Bay Center C-054A 161A Subbase T (+1340) 776 2303 F (+1340) 777 1616

Penha Duty Free

Cyril E. King Airport Terminal - Departure & Arrival 8074 Estate Lindberg Bay T (+1340) 776 2303 F (+1340) 777 1616

Penha Duty Free

9003 Havensight Mall 1 T (+1340) 776 2303 F (+1340) 777 1616

Penha Duty Free

9003 Havensight Mall 2 T (+1340) 776 2303 F (+1340) 777 1616 For further assistance please contact us: info@jlpenha.com info@dfstthomas.com www.jlpenha.com www.dfstthomas.com

PENHA

NEWS

elcome W

TO THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD OF PENHA

OVER THE FOLLOWING PAGES WE INTRODUCE SOME OF THE HOTTEST NEW (AND CLASSIC) FRAGANCES, COSMETICS AND LUXURY GOODS AVAILABLE IN OUR STORES ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN.

PENHA

NEWS

Women's fragrances

DKNY MYNY Fronted by pop star Rita Ora, this new fragrance from DKNY has top notes with a blend of raspberry, pink pepper and galbanum, followed by Egyptian jasmine, freesia and orris in the heart. The base encompasses patchouli, vanilla absolute, musk and ambergris.

GUERLAIN La Petit Robe Noire Couture

The composition is floral-fruity, bubbly, vivacious, and somewhat eccentric, retaining some of the distinctive gourmand character. Top notes include sparkling bergamot and raspberry, which is the main fruity ingredient of this new version. The heart presents rose laid on its chypre base of patchouli, vetiver, tonka bean and moss.

D&G Dolce

This is described as a soft and feminine scent of white flowers. Freshness of neroli leaf together with papaya flower open the composition, while the heart dominates with white amaryllis, narcissus and white water lily. The base is soft with cashmere and musk.

DIOR Addict Eau de Toilette This eau de toilette is a fresh, oriental floral fragrance that offers notes of Sicilian mandarin in the top, sambac jasmine and Tunisian neroli in the heart, and vanilla and sandalwood in the base.

LANCĂ&#x201D;ME

ARMANI

La Vie est Belle

Armani Si

As a symbol of beauty and youth, magnolia in this fragrance mixes its aromas with a warm, subtle and gourmet blend prepared in a delicate way. Depth and warmth are provided by elegant patchouli and soft vanilla, while its gourmet face is revealed by almonds, pralines, sugar syrup and tonka.

Chic, sultry, intense and soft at the same time, SĂŹ is a chypre scent reinvented, lingering on the skin and captivating the senses. Its olfactory signature is rhythmic, elegant and unique. It combines an inflection of three accords: cassis nectar, modern chypre and light musky wood. PENHA

NEWS

Women's fragrances NARCISO

ESTĂ&#x2030;E LAUDER

Narciso

Modern Muse Chic

This is composed of white gardenia and rose above the warm heart of musk. The base includes woody accords of vetiver and two types of cedar.

This is a floral, woody musk fragrance. Top notes are plum and artemisia; middle notes are sambac jasmine, tuberose and lily; base notes are cashmere wood, agarwood, labdanum, patchouli, ebony tree, musk, Madagascar vanilla and suede.

BURBERRY My Burberry This new fragrance opens with sweet peas and citrusy notes of bergamot leading to geranium, freesia flowers and golden quince in the heart. The fragrance is rounded up with patchouli in the base, joined with Damascus and centifolia rose.

GIVENCHY Dahlia Divin Dahlia Divinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s composition is centred around a sambac jasmine note on a woody chypre base. Mirabelle plum is at the opening, leading to the heart of sambac jasmine and white flowers. The base is sandalwood, vetiver and patchouli.

FENDI Fendi L'acquarossa This fragrance opens with Italian citruses: Sicilian mandarin, blood orange and Calabrian bergamot, spiced by Sichuan pepper. The heart includes lantana flower with elegant peony and violet, placed on a base of red cedar and musk.

VERSACE Yellow Diamond Intense This opens with fresh Mediterranean accords of bergamot, neroli, diamond cedrat and pear sorbet. Its heart includes feminine flowers of orange blossom, freesia, jasmine and osmanthus. The base is made of amber wood, musk, benzoin and guaiac wood. PENHA

NEWS

Women's fragrances LACOSTE

GIVENCHY

Sensuelle

Very Irresistible L'eau en Rose

A playful blend of juicy blackcurrant and voluptuous Turkish rose comprises the signature sensuality of this fragrance, with a gourmand touch of nougatine to finish.

Equally suitable for cold days and hot summer nights, this fragrance is suitable for any occasion. The composition is bold and bright with pronounced notes of roses on a background of musk.

PACO RABANNE Lady Million Eau My Gold!

VIKTOR&ROLF BonBon

This new edition of Lady Million has upper notes of mango, neroli, bergamot, mandarin and grapefruit, all on a heart of violet leaf and orange blossom. The base is warm with notes of musk, amber, sandalwood and cedar.

Presented in a pink bottle shaped as a wrapped candy, this has key notes of caramel, surrounded by aromas of mandarin, orange and peach at the top; flowers of orange blossom and jasmine in the heart; and cedar, guaiac wood, sandalwood and amber in the base.

KARL LAGERFELD Karl Lagerfeld for Her This is a fresh scent of citrus, fruit and flowers on a woody, musky base. It opens with accords of lemon and peach, with a floral heart of magnolia, rose and frangipani. All of this is soothed by the base of amber wood and musk.

CARTIER La PanthĂ¨re

RALPH LAUREN Midnight Romance Passions are awoken by raspberry, Italian bergamot and juicy lychee in the top of the composition; the heart encompasses seductive peony, sambac jasmine and freesia warmed with a sexy blend of black vanilla, ambroxan and iris absolute. PENHA

This fragrance has central notes of gardenia and musk. The top of the composition exudes a greenish, fruity mixture in the form of molecule styrallyl acetates, containing nuances of rhubarb, strawberries, dried fruit, apple and apricot. The heart is dominated by gardenia.

NEWS

Men's fragrances DUNHILL

ISSEY MIJAKE

Icon

Nuit d’Issey

Dunhill has always been the brand for the most refined gentleman: Elegant, discerning, a globe-trotting professional that lives life to the full, a keen sports player as well as an avid motor enthusiast.

A composition that is spicy with a leather backbone. Top notes include zesty citruses of bergamot and grapefruit. The heart of the mysterious trail of leather accords, enhanced spices black pepper, trees and vetiver. The base notes of rich black tree, patchouli and incense with berries bean.

Icon is inspired by the design and engineering of classic racing cars. This styling first appeared on Dunhill gentleman’s accessories in 1924 and it is still widely used throughout the Dunhill range. The bottle carries the brand’s DNA through its signature diamond point pattern.

VALENTINO UOMO

JIMMY CHOO

This composition opens with bergamot and myrtle, succeeded in the heart by roasted coffee combined with gianduja cream, on a rich base created of cedar and precious leather, with woody notes in the base.

Jimmy Choo Man This is a modern and fresh fragrance that combines aromatic, fruity and woody notes. It includes accords of honeydew melon, pink pepper, pineapple leaf, lavender, patchouli and suede.

MONTBLANC

KENZO

Emblem

Homme Night

This fragrance begins with aromatic clary sage and cardamom mixed with grapefruit. Fresh, green violet leaves are wrapped in cinnamon to provide elegance. The base features intense woods and tonka bean.

This scent opens with fresh accord of grapefruit mixed with spices such as cardamom and coriander. Its heart of geranium and wormwood, with a touch of mango, is offset by a seductive base of tonka bean, vetiver and guaiac wood.

PENHA

NEWS

Skincare & suncare CLARISONIC

LANCÔME

Clarisonic

Rénergie French Lift

Developed by a team of engineers and entrepreneurs in Seattle, Clarisonic combines technology with a revolutionary vision to redefine skincare. Clarisonic Pro Sonic Skin Cleansing System was initially developed for skincare professionals to use in treatment but it has quickly become the numberone cleansing brush recommended by leading dermatologists, aestheticians and spa professionals.

This is a moisturising night cream inspired by the precise French-lifting technique, and paired with an innovative massage disk. Together they retighten your facial contours while you sleep. Your cheekbones will appear lifted, your forehead smoothed and your jaw line and neck redefined.

CLINIQUE Custom-Repair Serum

DIOR One Essential Now with even higher performance, the new One Essential formula is enriched with red hibiscus essence from the Dior Garden in Burkina Faso. It frees the skin from all toxins at the heart of skin cells, thereby deeply re-energising the skin from within.

CLARINS

This formula uses precisionrepair technology to repair the damage you see and even the damage you don’t. Damaged skin sends out distress signals. Clinique Custom-Repair Serum understands these signals and delivers the appropriate ingredients to start visibly correcting the damage.

CHANEL

Sun Care Oil Spray

Le Lift The Le Lift range from Chanel includes three types of moisturiser (for different skin textures), a serum and an eye cream. All are based around the latest anti-aging technology and are designed to firm the skin on your face and neck, and reduce dark circles and wrinkles around the eyes.

This high-protection sun beauty oil for the body and hair reconciles women with the sun. It works well for women with dark skin who enjoy using tanning oils but often find these products do not offer much sun protection.

PENHA

NEWS

Colour cosmetics MAC Nail transformations Here’s a collection of nail lacquers and topcoats designed to give nails a stylish twist. Six glowing topcoats in Texturize, Shadow, Blue, Pink, Green and Gold will transform the look of your lacquers.

CLINIQUE Chubby Stick Baby Tint Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm

ESTÉE LAUDER Pure Color Envy Sculpting Lipstick 20 one-of-a-kind statement shades with the power to define every curve of the lip.

LANCÔME

This is a collection of four sheer shades ranging from orange and pink to red and violet, offering a unique and personalised colour for each wearer and bringing out the lips’ own natural tone. It’s packaged in easy-to-use, crayonlike barrels that exude a sheerness, conveying the translucency of the formula.

Grandiôse With its patent-pending wand, its contoured brush and its total-intensity pigments, Grandiôse transforms eyes for spectacular results.

ESTÉE LAUDER Advanced Night Repair

DIOR 5 Couleurs Welcome the new 5 Couleurs palette. First up are the tone-on-tone shades; next come the delicate contrasts; and finally the clashing shock harmonies.

PENHA

Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex slows down the look of premature ageing, dramatically reducing the appearance of lines and wrinkles, and significantly improving the appearance of skin radiance and evenness of skin tone.

NEWS

Fashion & accessories VICTORIA'S SECRET Across the Penha portfolio of stores, and now on five islands, Victoria’s Secret is doing what it does best: making women feel sexy. In Penha stores you will find the whole range of Victoria’s Secret fragrances and beauty lines, including the latest fragrance, Fearless. The boutiques are packed with the brand’s fantastic selection of bags, accessories and gift items ranging from panties to pencil cases.

TOM FORD Eyewear Tom Ford’s Eyewear collection includes sunglass and optical frames that evolve from the signature designs, introduce striking new colours and offer a range of looks, from classic and understated to bold and provocative. Made in Italy, the collection is crafted from the finest quality materials with impeccable workmanship.

SWAROVSKI Stardust Collection Light, sparkle, and subtle glamour are the key characteristics of Swarovski’s instantly recognisable signature style. Each season, these qualities are reinterpreted to deliver exquisite pieces of the moment. Alongside on-trend designs sit versatile creations that women can wear from morning to night, whatever their style and look.

The new Stardust bracelet is a perfect example, with all the makings of a must-have piece. It is not only the clean, simple lines that make it special. Stardust is a light, flexible bracelet that seems to almost burst into a thousand sparkles. The secret behind this intense brilliance? A translucent fishnet, brimming with 730 loose crystals for the simple bracelet.

PENHA

TV & MOVIES

WITH IAN SOMERHALDER (THE VAMPIRE DIARIES) AT THE HELM, A NEW BREED OF YOUNG MALE ACTORS – BLESSED WITH TORSOS AND GOOD LOOKS TO DIE FOR – ARE ENSURING THAT TV DRAMAS ARE ALMOST AS BIG AS HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTERS. PAUL HENDERSON, FROM GQ MAGAZINE, EXPLAINS HOW.

hen it comes to the bad boys of Hollywood movies, isn’t it funny how the more things change the more they stay the same? It all started with the Rat Pack. Originally made up of hard-drinking actors from the 1950s including Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, David Niven and Rex Harrison, it became most famous during the following decade thanks to the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. who brought new levels of partying to Las Vegas. The latter didn’t actually like their sobriquet, preferring to be known as ‘the Summit’ or ‘the Clan’. In the 1980s, thanks to a clever bit of writing in a New York City magazine and a Hollywood obsession with coming-of-age movies, a new band of young actors – Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall – became known as the Brat Pack. The stars of The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire may have lacked the style and cool of their crooning forebears, but they more than made up for it with their brooding good looks, doe-eyed vulnerability and undoubted mass sex-appeal. And now we have the latest incarnation of the talent tribe. Comprising a bunch of achingly handsome TV actors for whom shirts have become an unnecessary encumbrance, (thanks in the main to their toned torsos), the muscle-bound band has been dubbed ‘the Jacked Pack’.  Or in the case of all the vampire series that currently dominate the cable networks in which most of the blood-sucking cast look

UNTIL THE MID-1990S, TV WAS THE PLACE WHERE THE CAREERS OF ONCE SUCCESSFUL ACTORS WENT TO DIE. THAT ALL CHANGED WHEN HBO STARTED MAKING ORIGINAL SERIES, CULMINATING IN THE SOPRANOS.

PENHA

M VOI V T VT V & & MO E ISE S

Or in the case of all the vampire series that currently dominate the cable networks in which most of the blood-sucking cast look like supermodels, they’re known as ‘the Drac Pack’. The stars of those gothic shows are in no doubt as to whom they have to thank for their popularity. “The reality is that the unbelievable success of [Twilight] is what allowed us to have our show,” says Ian Somerhalder, who plays the drop-undead gorgeous Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries. As well as Somerhalder, in no particular order the other Nosferatu-but-nice actors who have benefitted from the craze for coffin dwellers (and their slayers) include Paul Wesley and Michael Trevino (The Vampire Diaries); Alexander Skarsgard, Ryan Kwanten and Stephen Moyer (True Blood); Sam Witwer (Being Human); and Kirk ‘Sticky Fingaz’ Jones (Blade: The Series). Even Jonathan Rhys Meyers got in on the act playing the main fang man Dracula. But rather than point the long-taloned finger at vampires as the cause of this glut of good-looking actors dominating our screens, the blame should be aimed at the ever-improving quality of television programmes. Until the mid-1990s, TV was the place where the careers of once successful actors went to die. That all changed when cable and satellite network HBO started making original series, culminating in the airing of the show considered by many the best ever – The Sopranos. Running for nearly ten years, David Chase’s story of an ItalianAmerican mobster and his day-to-day struggles to balance family life with Family life changed the perception of TV’s potential. Having won Emmy Awards and Golden Globes galore, suddenly it made it acceptable for top actors to appear on straight-to-TV shows. The networks, recognising a money-making opportunity, started offering bigger and bigger budgets. High production values, adult themes, nudity, bad language… it was all there, beamed into your front room in stunning HD, and, if you so desired, you could watch it in your underwear, drinking beer. (That’s not always allowed at your local multiplex.) First there came The West Wing, The Wire, 24, Homeland and Lost. Then more recently there has been Mad Men, The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and True Detective. 

THE LEADER O F T H E J A C K E D PA C K

"I LIKE THE IDEA THAT THE AZZARO POUR HOMME FRAGRANCE HAS LITERALLY BEEN AROUND THE WORLD SEDUCING WOMEN."

ne of the leading males in the new Jacked Pack (or Drac Pack, should they suck blood for a living), is American actor (and this issue’s cover star) Ian Somerhalder. Star of Lost (Boone Carlyle) and The Vampire Diaries (Damon Salvatore), this 35-year-old Louisianan has played everything from an assassin and a plane-crash survivor to a seductive vampire and a hedonistic bisexual. Now he is the new face of men’s fragrance Azzaro Pour Homme. “I like the idea that the Azzaro Pour Homme fragrance has literally been around the world seducing women,” he says of his latest role. “I think that fragrance plays an essential role. When I smell the scent of a woman, it creates a whole host of emotions, a particular kind of energy within me. I think that when a man wears fragrance… the intention of seduction is always there.”

MICHAEL TREVINO THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

PENHA

TV & MOVIES

So, where talented and beautiful young actors and actresses had once gravitated towards Hollywood and movie making, now they are more than happy to take the TV work with a spring in their step and a perfect smile on their very watchable faces. But of course, as interest has grown, so the marketplace has become ever more competitive. Just ask 27-year-old Kit Harington, the floppy-haired British actor and fully-fledged heart-throb who has helped make Game of Thrones the biggest show on TV at the moment. “I didn’t really think I’d be a leading man in any respect whatsoever,” he told GQ magazine earlier this year. “At drama school in my third year I was resigned to the fate of being Young Male Rape Victim No.2. That was the kind of category I was put in. I've got a very baby face underneath all of this fuzz.” And yet, beneath his shirt, as he revealed in the movie Pompeii, he has great guns and abs of steel – something that has become as important to casting directors these days as acting talent and a pretty face. Jason Momoa, who also appeared in Game of Thrones, was recently on the cover of Men’s Health magazine. Another British actor, Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam, has appeared on the cover of Men’s Fitness magazine looking like… well, as fit as a Men’s Fitness model should look. “Brad Pitt ruined it for everyone,” he said in an interview this year. “After Fight Club, the expectation of what a dude is supposed to look like when he takes his shirt off is just so high. So I said: ‘I’ll try and make it happen.’ So I shot 14 to 15 hours a day on Sons of Anarchy, then I would go to the gym for two and half hours every day after work.” Naturally, the more buff and beefy male actors become, the more expectation there is that actors will arrive on set in shape and not be afraid to flaunt it. Although Harington admits to using a bottom double in Game of Thrones, most of the Drac Pack and the Jacked Pack would think nothing of losing their shirt and dropping their trousers, should the role demand it. And guess what? Most roles do. As Humphrey Bogart once said: “I came out here with one suit and everybody said I looked like a bum. Twenty years later Marlon Brando came out with only a sweatshirt and the town drooled over him. That shows how much Hollywood has progressed.” Today… well, they don’t even need the sweatshirt. ◆

“BRAD PITT RUINED IT FOR EVERYONE. AFTER FIGHT CLUB, THE EXPECTATION OF WHAT A DUDE IS SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE WHEN HE TAKES HIS SHIRT OFF IS JUST SO HIGH.” SONS OF ANARCHY STAR CHARLIE HUNNAM Top: The so-called Drac Pack cast from The Vampire Diaries. Middle: Charlie Hunnam and Kit Harington. Bottom: Ian Somerhalder.

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FASHION

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FASHION

rides are buying an extra pair of shoes for their wedding day. After the ceremony, off come the strappy stilettos, and on go soft ballerina flats so that they can dance the night away without fear of falling or foot pain. Fashionistas, too, are carrying a second pair of shoes wherever they go. Tucked inside many a Hermes Birkin or Fendi B Bag are a pair of Melissa tortoiseshell plastic flats, designed for the Brazilian label by Vivienne Westwood. Karl Lagerfeld and Jason Wu have produced great jelly shoes as well. Check out Net-a-porter, the first-choice website for the well-dressed, and you will find more than 200 styles of flat shoes from the top names in footwear – an impressive line-up that features the likes of Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin and Robert Clergerie alongside exciting newcomers such as the highly-rated Charlotte Olympia whose collection is already a top-seller from Mayfair to Manhattan. Today’s flats are certainly not the less expensive option. Louboutin’s Yacht Spike loafers (great in cornflower blue, studded in white) come in at a cool US$1,120, while Valentino’s Rock Stud leopard-print calf skin will set you back much the same. Killer heels have got their names for a good reason; several actually. The American Podiatric Medical Association runs a video on its website that spells out the damage high heels can do. Celebrities have their own horror stories. David Beckham’s wife Victoria famously suffers from foot problems caused by shoes that went to great heights, leaving disfiguring bunions in their wake. And who can forget supermodel Naomi Campbell’s famous fall on Vivienne Westwood’s Paris catwalk in 1993? She was wearing the designer’s 10-inch heeled boots at the time. Earlier this year a Houston woman stabbed her boyfriend to death with the stiletto heel of her shoe, striking him more than 25 times. Talk about down at heel. 

WITH TOP DESIGNERS GOING FOR LOW-PROFILE SHOES, AND MEDICAL EXPERTS HIGHLIGHTING THE HEALTH PROBLEMS OF HIGH HEELS, FLATTIES ARE ALL THAT MATTER RIGHT NOW. FASHION WRITER SUSI ROGOL FINDS OUT WHY.

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FASHION

Designers have picked up on the problems that, to some women, outweigh the pleasure of parading in high heels. Firstly, the ball of the foot suffers – painfully so – because of the pressure bearing down upon it. The higher the heel, the greater the pain. Then there are the knee problems, the osteoarthritis, the awry posture, the ingrown toenails… over time, there could be irreversible damage to leg tendons and nerves. Add to that the fact that one third of highheel wearers have fallen as a result of their choice of footwear, and the case for going flat-out gathers momentum. The good news is that there are lots of alternatives available. From butter-soft round-toed and bowed pumps from the Menorca family firm Pretty Ballerina, whose fans include Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Kylie Minogue and Kate Moss (the supermodel’s 16 bridesmaids all wore Pretty Ballerina), to the classic man-style brogues by English house Church’s, the options are vast. Every colour, every fabric (coloured and printed lace promises to be the next big thing), every toe shape, and every buckle and bow, are there for the choosing. There’s something to match every mood, and complement every outfit. ◆

THE HIGHER THE HEEL, THE GREATER THE PAIN. THEN THERE ARE THE KNEE PROBLEMS, THE OSTEOARTHRITIS, THE AWRY POSTURE, THE INGROWN TOENAILS… THE DAMAGE TO LEG TENDONS AND NERVES.

FLAT OUT: LEFT TO RIGHT: ANGELINA JOLIE AND FAMILY, KATE MOSS, OLIVIA PALERMO, POPPY DELEVINGNE.

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BURBERRY Point-toe snakeskin ballerinas

TOD’S Gommino printed calf-hair loafers

FASHION

DOWN AT HEEL

IF YOU CHOOSE TO ABANDON HIGH HEELS, AS MANY WOMEN ARE, WHAT COOL FLATS CAN YOU OPT FOR?

PRETTY BALLERINAS

STELLA MCCARTNEY

Left: Faye leopard with studs Below: Sally black suede

Yasmin pumps

BURBERRY Point-toe snakeskin ballerinas

STUART WEITZMAN Meshuga espadrille

BIRKENSTOCK Anything in bold, bright colours

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN Body Strass jewelled flats

CONVERSE Chuck Taylor (design your own high-tops)

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN Body Strass jewelled flats

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FRAGRANCE

SCENT MESSAGES YOU DON'T NEED A PSYCHOANALYST TO TELL YOU THAT THE PERFUME YOU WEAR DEFINES YOUR PERSONALITY. WHETHER YOU CHOOSE FLORAL, CITRUS OR ORIENTAL NOTES, YOUR CHOICE OF FRAGRANCE TELLS ITS OWN VERY INTIMATE STORY.

FLORAL, AMBER, WOODY, LEATHER, CHYPRE, CITRUS OR FRUITY… the style of the perfume you wear says a lot more

about your personality than you imagine. The link between psyche and scent has always been incredibly close. “There is a direct corroboration between our personality, the type of scent we like, and what message it transmits about us,” says Roja Dove, world-renowned perfumer and founder of a perfumerie in London department store Harrods. “Aromas evoke memories, and memories are powerful. They intrude unannounced into our minds and souls. When revisited, they unlock the floodgates of emotions, leaving a profound imprint in our mind. Smell is the most intimate of the senses. And others often react to you because the perfume you are wearing awakens something in their mind.” According to Roja, certain personalities gravitate to particular fragrance groups, and they are likely to stay within their chosen group even if they switch from one brand to another. People who are natural, outgoing and happy-go-lucky, for instance, will almost always opt for a floral fragrance, whether its high note is lily of the valley, or a delicate English rose. Pick a soft, romantic, flowery scent and you are telling the world that you are uncomplicated and reachable. Dior’s J’adore is a perfect example; as is La Vie est Belle, by Lancôme. It’s a very different message to the one sent out by the wearer of a chypre-style perfume, however. They tend to be understated, uncompromising, a bit mysterious; women rather than girls; controlled rather than carefree. They are the sorts of women who wear plain black designer clothing with a single striking piece of jewellery.

The rich muskiness of their perfume confirms their unswerving confidence, and their strong sense of their own appeal. Bottega Veneta’s eau legère might be their first choice. Then there are the women who favour the rich, oriental fragrances. They demand to be noticed. They want to stand out from the crowd. They usually get their own way. Strong in personality, when they walk into a room, they cause a stir. Other people stop what they’re doing and look at them. Sexy? Yes, overtly so. They enjoy the power they wield over others. Opium by Yves Saint Laurent says it all. Azzi Glasser is a London-based perfume designer. “Fragrance personifies the person wearing it and is as telling as the clothes you put on,” she says, interviewed in Stylist magazine. “Both indicate how you would like to be perceived by the world. Take the rich, opulent scents. They’re very sexy and leave a strong trail behind them and often contain alluring, animalistic notes. I know the wearer will be confident and flamboyant before I’ve even met her. Spicy smells and incense notes are less common and indicate a more creative mind.” Some researchers have taken these theories on how perfumes define personalities even further. Chris Sanderson is a consumer expert at The Future Laboratory, working with fragrance manufacturers to predict how global consumers might behave in the future. He claims that the metallic notes found in some perfumes are much more popular with adventurous personalities. On the other hand, food notes such as caramel, cinnamon or fresh bread appeal much more to people with addictive personalities. “They will apply fragrance more ritualistically and throughout the day.” 

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FRAGRANCE

WHICHEVER PERFUME YOU CHOOSE TO WEAR, IT PAYS TO BE AWARE OF THE MESSAGES YOU ARE SENDING TO OTHERS. JUST TO BE SURE, HERE IS A CROSS-SECTION OF SOME OF THE MORE POPULAR PERFUMES (MOST AVAILABLE AT PENHA STORES) YOU MAY SPLASH ON YOUR SKIN, AND THE HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS THEY SUGGEST.

DECISIVE ROMANTIC DIORISSIMO, BY DIOR A romantic floral bouquet whose key note is lily of the valley, and the emblem of Dior couture. The message here? You’re a woman who is full of fun, great to be with, bright, breezy and kissable.

CLASSICIST YOUTH DEW BY ESTÉE LAUDER Opulent flowers, rich spices, precious woods and earthy notes make this 1953 classic a true masterpiece. It is rich, warm and instantly identifiable. The woman who wears this is a classicist who stays true to her signature character.

ADVENTURER CLASSIQUE BY JEAN PAUL GAULTIER With notes of ginger, rose, vanilla and orange blossom, this light, sexy scent says you are an adventurer who doesn’t follow the rules.

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CHANEL NO 19 For the decisive woman who is into fashion, and as cool as the green notes of cucumber, basil, green tea and vetiver that make this one so special.

SCENTS APPEAL

FRAGRANCE

CONFIDENT ARMANI SI INTENSE This modern and multi-layered chypre with top notes of blackcurrant, bergamot, mandarin and freesia, and delicious vanilla base notes, says you are chic, confident and positive. And a bit of a risk-taker.

FEMININE PARIS BY YVES SAINT LAURENT With heart notes of rose, lime blossom, ylang-ylang, violet, lily, orris and jasmine, Paris pegs you as feminine, elegant and committed in your relationships.

CITY SLICKER DOWNTOWN BY CALVIN KLEIN A newcomer to the Calvin Klein stable, this combination of citrus and fruity notes with white florals, woody tones and aquatics, is perfect for the city slicker who knows just where she is going.

EXOTIC SHALIMAR BY GUERLAIN Exotic, with oriental notes of bergamot, iris and warm vanilla, this has become an all-time best-seller. It is a sensual, feminine fragrance that says you know exactly what you want.

SEXY RUSH BY GUCCI This is one get-noticed, be-remembered, sexy scent, for those keen to make a real impression and collect admirers.

FLIRTY DREAM ANGELS BY VICTORIA’S SECRET Dream Angels says you are young, flirty and fabulous, a bit like the Victoria’s Secret models who have included Claudia Schiffer, Heidi Klum and Helena Christensen.

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T R AV E L & W H I S K Y

Follow y o u r n o s e SO MUCH SCOTCH AND SO LITTLE TIME. IF YOU’RE VISITING SCOTLAND IT WOULD BE CHURLISH NOT TO TOUR THE COUNTRY’S GREATEST DISTILLERIES. WHISKY WRITER IAN VALENTINE SUGGESTS THE 10 BEST STOPS OF THE HIGHLANDS AND THE ISLANDS. CHEERS, OR SLÁINTE, AS THEY SAY IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD.

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T R AV E L & W H I S K Y

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T R AV E L & W H I S K Y

THERE ARE NEARLY 100 WORKING DISTILLERIES DOTTED THROUGHOUT SCOTLAND, EACH CRAFTING ITS OWN DISTINCTIVE DRAM FOR A WORLDWIDE CLIENTELE. TO TICK THEM ALL OFF YOU’D NEED A WHOLE MONTH (WITH ANOTHER TO RECOVER). INSTEAD, YOU CAN BUILD A FULL PICTURE OF THE REGIONAL VARIATIONS BY FOLLOWING THIS ITINERARY THROUGH SCOTLAND’S WHISKY HEARTLAND.

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T R AV E L & W H I S K Y

EDRADOUR PITLOCHRY, PERTH & KINROSS Presuming you arrive in Edinburgh or Glasgow, then head north to the Highlands. Edradour is one of Scotland’s smallest – and prettiest – malt whisky distilleries, a hidden gem above the bustling village of Pitlochry. Thanks to its white Tolkeinesque buildings, bright red doors and sparkling clear stream, you’ll quickly gain a sense of what traditional whisky production is about. The classic 10-year-old single malt is delightful, “with rich, fruit cake flavours and a sweetness that emerges from the combination of sherry wood and the small stills”.

DALWHINNIE DALWHINNIE, HIGHLAND If you have time, then you could nip over to dreamy Aberfeldy (the cornerstone of Dewar’s White Label blend) or sample nutty Blair Athol (the centrepiece of the Bell’s blend). If not, then get yourself up to Dalwhinnie, Scotland’s highest distillery at 1,164 feet above sea level. One of Diageo’s classic malts, the 15-year-old Dalwhinnie is a fine example, with notes of “creamy vanilla, heather honey and just a hint of Highland smoke”. But be warned: it’s extremely more-ish. You may need to keep the rest of the day free.

ROYAL LOCHNAGAR

CRATHIE, ABERDEENSHIRE

Creep round the Cairngorms to Royal Deeside – so named for its long association with the British Monarchy and their holiday home at Balmoral. Indeed, neighbouring the castle in Crathie, you’ll find the Royal Lochnagar distillery, a personal favourite of Queen Victoria in the 19th century. The 12-year-old malt is sweet and fresh, although the premium selected reserve sounds intriguing: “A rich nose of Christmas pudding and antique furniture polish.” Don’t forget a spoon and some chamois leather.

BALVENIE DUFFTOWN, MORAY From the River Dee it’s a short dash to the banks of the Spey. While the salmon swim up, the sweet water runs down from the hills into countless distilleries. Wherever you wander in Speyside, the road signs read like a duty-free menu – household names such as Glenlivet, Macallan, Glenfiddich and Aberlour all jostle for your attention. Don’t miss the Balvenie distillery in Dufftown where the barley is home-grown and home-malted. Try the 14-year-old Caribbean Cask malt which is matured in rum barrels to give “a rich, sweet and creamy toffee nose with a soft and lingering finish”. It brings a new meaning to the phrase Highlands and Islands. 

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T R AV E L & W H I S K Y

TOBERMORY TOBERMORY, MULL

DALMORE CROMARTY, HIGHLAND Now, we’re getting north. Of course, there’s a lot more of Scotland above Inverness – you could go up to Glenmorangie in Tain, or voyage to the Orkneys to taste the Highland Park malt. But Dalmore, in the village of Cromarty, is far enough. The distillery has found the right blend of modern style and ancient craft, offering limited-edition malts that cost a pretty penny but provide great pleasure.

TALISKER CARBOST, SKYE The road from Inverness to Skye is breathtaking. Rugged hills sweep down to deep, clear lochs, eagles soar overhead, deer and shaggy sheep roam the heather. You’ll pass Loch Ness en route, with or without her monster, before wiggling up to the Isle of Skye. Talisker, in the village of Carbost, is worth the effort, set in a land that time forgot. The whisky is “warming and intense, with an explosion of pepper at the back of the mouth”.

OBAN OBAN, ARGYLL & BUTE With your new-found love of the West Coast, you’ll enjoy the snaking drive south to the old fishing town of Oban. If you need to burn off your hearty breakfast, then pop up Ben Nevis, the British Isles’ highest mountain at 4,410 feet above sea level. Oban distillery has made whisky since 1794, achieving a successful marriage of sweet Highland water with salty sea air to create a smooth and silken finish.

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For the rest of this tour, you’ll need your sea legs. From Oban, it’s just a short ferry ride to the historic island of Mull, home to the indomitable Clan Maclean. Their ancestral stronghold Duart Castle looms on the cliffs, in craggy contrast to the quaint village of Tobermory with her brightly-coloured house fronts. The distillery of the same name, established in 1798, is unique in that it produces two whiskies – the fruity, unpeated Tobermory and the smokier Ledaig. Make it a double.

LAPHROAIG LAPHROAIG, ISLAY No whisky tour is complete without a visit to the malt-mad island of Islay. No fewer than seven distilleries are dotted across this small outpost, with two more under construction. For good reason too – the islanders make excellent use of the clear water and pungent peat, creating whiskies that are popular throughout the world. Laphroaig distillery, in the village of the same name, produces one of the most complex, robust and divisive of all Scotch whiskies. Some struggle to get their tongue round the salty, seaweed-y, medicinal taste. Those that can, can’t get enough.

JURA CRAIGHOUSE, JURA Hop on a ferry from Islay and you’ll discover the enchanting island of Jura, home to several thousand deer, a couple of hundred people, one road, one pub and one distillery. The author George Orwell once described Jura as ‘un-get-atable’ on account of its remoteness, but the effort is rewarded. The locals have made whisky here for many centuries (often illegally). Today’s 10-year Origin malt is exquisite, with hints of “honey, caramel and soft liquorice”. ◆

MUSIC

SUPERSTAR DJS AND DANCE CLUB CULTURE MAY ORIGINALLY BE A EUROPEAN PHENOMENON BUT THE AMERICAS ARE SPINNING TO THE SOUND OF DANCE MUSIC MORE THAN EVER BEFORE. MUSIC WRITER JOHN LEWIS FINDS OUT WHY.

MUSIC

" I know how to drive a dance floor crazy. That’s what I do."

Meet Afrojack. He’s an extremely tall Dutchman, known to his mother as Nick van de Wall, who spins other people’s records for a living. He gets paid anything upwards of US$30,000 a night to do this. Last year he apparently earned $15 million for his troubles. “I have no idea what to do with all of this money,” he told the New Yorker magazine. He buys Ferraris, which he regularly smashes up. He hires private jets at $40,000 a flight. He drinks Armand de Brignac champagne at thousands of dollars a bottle. For his daughter’s first birthday party he rented an 80-foot yacht in Miami. His girlfriends are pop singers and supermodels – for a while he was dating Paris Hilton – and his social life a blur of exclusive nightclubs in London, LA, Miami and Amsterdam. He is just 26 years old. It’s difficult to work out what, exactly, Afrojack’s talent is. He plays no instruments, doesn’t read music, and he struggles to understand the most basic musical terms such as ‘chord’, ‘melody’ or ‘bar’. Yet he’s managed to co-write and produce singles that have sold millions of copies for the world’s biggest recording artists, including Beyoncé, Pitbull and Ne-Yo, and has even released chart-topping albums and singles under his own name. “I know what bits of a record can get people dancing in a club,” he says. “I know how to drive a dance floor crazy. That’s what I do.” Afrojack isn’t even the highest-paid DJ in the world at the moment. That honour goes to Calvin Harris, a Scotsman who has worked with the likes of Rihanna, Dizzee Rascal, Cheryl Cole and Kylie Minogue. The list of the world’s top ten highestpaid DJs is dominated by Europeans – the Dutch, the Swedes, the Brits and the Italians – and these superstar DJs have been a common sight around Europe’s hippest nightclubs for two decades. Now they’re starting to conquer North America. “For a long time, club culture never really took off in the States,” says Fatboy Slim, one of the first international superstar DJs to break out of the UK’s dance scene. “In Europe, people would start going to nightclubs at the age of 15 or 16 and might go out twice a week. In America, most clubs were over-21s only and kids are routinely ID’d, which meant that teenagers end up hanging out at shopping malls rather than going to clubs. But that’s slowly changing now.” 

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MUSIC

The founding fathers of DJ culture were black Americans such as the New York hip hop star Grandmaster Flash and Detroit’s techno pioneer Derrick May. But it was in Europe that the culture really developed. “The American continent might have invented DJ culture but, until recently, it never really flourished here,” says LA journalist Simon Reynolds, author of the dance music history Energy Flash. “American authorities would always clamp down just as dance music looked like breaking through in the US because the word ‘rave’ became associated with drug-related deaths. What’s happened in recent years is that ‘techno’ has been rebranded as electronic dance music, or ‘EDM’, and ‘raves’ have been rebranded as ‘festivals’. Clubbing has been cleaned up for an American audience, and finally it’s broken through to the mainstream.” In America, DJ culture has been used to lure younger punters to destinations with ageing demographics, particularly casinos. Las Vegas’s famous MGM Grand has become one of North America’s hottest centres of club culture with two nightclub venues on its casino and hotel complex – named Hakkasan and Wet Republic – which regularly feature bigname DJs such as Calvin Harris and Tiësto. This has shifted the centre of gravity of the dance-music world from Europe to America, and there is now a growing roster of homegrown US DJs playing on the festival circuit: the dubstep star Skrillex, for example, the EDM specialist Kaskade, and globe-trotting Diplo. All of these DJs earn upwards of $5 million a year.

DJ culture can be traced back to the shantytowns of 1960s Jamaica where teams would set up sound systems to play for street parties. Later, Jamaican immigrants would export DJ culture to New York City and London.

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DJ culture has humble roots, however. Its lineage can be traced back to the shantytowns of 1960s Jamaica where teams would set up gargantuan sound systems to play records for street parties. Using a strict demarcation of labour, a ‘selector’ would choose the discs, a ‘needle boy’ would play them, while a master of ceremonies, or ‘MC’ would introduce the songs on the microphones and speak rhythmically over the instrumentals in a speech-song style that the Jamaicans called ‘toasting’. Later, Jamaican immigrants would export DJ culture to New York City (where toasting would mutate into rapping and give birth to hip hop), and London (laying down the groundwork for the UK’s club scene). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s it was in America’s black, Latino and gay nightclubs where the skills of operating two or more turntables and mixing discs together started to earn appreciation from dancers. European-style turntable culture is now flourishing in the Caribbean and Latin America. A host of upcoming DJs are emerging, be they from Jamaica (DJ Inferno, DJ Nicco), Brazil (Mario C, Leo Janeiro, Fabricio Peçanha, DJ Meme), Guatemala (Francis Davila), Trinidad & Tobago (DJ Phaze), Argentina (Hernán Cattáneo) or Suriname (Chuckie). “I play a lot all over Latin America,” says LA-based DJ Diplo whose music borrows heavily from the shantytown sounds of Brazil and the Caribbean. “And there’s a real feel that this is DJ culture coming home to its birthplace. This is a part of the world that really knows how to dance. And that, ultimately, is what it’s all about.” ◆

FOOD

IT MAKES SENSE TO EAT FOOD WHEN IT’S IN PRIME SEASON AND AT ITS FRESHEST. BUT IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD LOCAL FOOD MATURES AT VERY DIFFERENT TIMES. FOOD WRITER CHARLES HOWGEGO PICKS A CLASSIC DISH AND A REGION FOR EVERY MONTH OF THE YEAR.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALICE TAIT

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FOOD

OYSTERS, IRELAND TRUFFLES, ITALY The hills of Umbria and Tuscany are alive every autumn with the sound of truffle hunters, and occasionally their trusty pigs. But for the best results, connoisseurs advise those searching for these mysterious fungi to wait until January when they have properly matured. Perhaps it was later than that in the case of a monster truffle unearthed in 2007 by Italian Cristiano Savini and his dog Rocco. Weighing 1.5kg, it was sold at auction for $330,000 to a Macau casino mogul.

In its tributaries, rivers, loughs and with the cool attentions of the Atlantic Ocean, Ireland produces some of the world’s greatest seafood. Eels, sea trout and salmon abound in its waters, but singing louder than any of these are its famous oysters. Plump and memorably described as evoking “the shock of freshness”, one shucks them and swallows them straight from the shell.

Live ters s y O h s i Ir

ASPARAGUS, SPAIN

Spanishragus As pa

It’s a characteristic of all great natural products that they don’t require much preparation – no glut of added ingredients or fancy cooking techniques. The princely asparagus is no different, although aficionados might argue over whether to serve with a fried egg or just some parmesan shavings. Sometimes it’s best simply cooked in olive oil with a bit of garlic. All over southern Spain asparagus shoots up in the wild, and every spring the good folk there go on ritual picking sprees. Followed by ritual eating sprees.

ABALONE, USA This bizarre-looking sea snail, much prized on the west coast of the United States, has been eaten so prolifically that some species are now endangered. Harvesting is now kept to specimens only of a certain size. Abalone produces the most succulent and subtle of seafood flavours and is also popular in the Far East, South Africa, Polynesia and New Zealand. The meat is very delicate though, so cooking must be gentle and quick – the Japanese simmer it with sake. 

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FOOD

SALMON, SCOTLAND The migratory habits of the salmon are the stuff of legend. In Scotland, some youngsters swim from mountain pools, down river, across the North Atlantic to Greenland, before repeating the journey in reverse as adults. They can cover over 6,000 miles in all. On their journey they attempt to avoid the trawlers, the seals, the killer whales, and the dolphins out to hunt them before, with any luck, ending up on the end a fly fisherman’s rod and eventually on your dinner table.

CAVIAR, ICELAND The Caspian Beluga sturgeon is an incredible creature, with a lifespan up to 120 years, a body length up to 20 feet, and the ability to produce some of the creamiest, most delicious caviar in the world. For this reason we have over-fished it and now there are tight limits on the export of its roe. The next best thing, however, is lumpfish caviar from Iceland, which pops with flavour in your mouth and is best “served naked”, as they say.

SCALLOPS, BAHAMAS These bivalve molluscs flourish all down the coast from Florida, through the Gulf of Mexico and into the Caribbean Sea. With their subtle flavour they are much admired and work well with a punchier accompaniment. In the Caribbean this means lemon or lime, mango, or commonly a black bean salsa. Nobu, on the Bahamas’ Paradise Island, turns up the heat with wasabi.

CRAYFISH, SWEDEN The crayfish is a figure of lore in Sweden, celebrated with lengthy summer feasts continuing late into the night. Like most foods, the farmed variety ensures they are available all year round but the Swedes like to remain seasonal by waiting until August. Then they overdose on the animal, washing thousands of them down with schnapps. 

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FOOD

CARIBBEAN LOBSTERS ARE

LAMB, TASMANIA

REFRESHINGLY VERSATILE,

Tasmania has become the go-to place in Australia for authentic and pure food and drink experiences. Its rich soil and organic lifestyle produces plants, livestock and fish of the highest quality. Tasmanian grain-fed lamb, as tender a meat as you’re ever likely to nibble on, has developed a global reputation. It’s most fresh in springtime, of course – Down Under, that’s September to November.

SITTING WELL IN CURRIES, SALADS AND, IN THE TRADITIONAL WAY, GRILLED SIMPLY OVER CHARCOAL AFTER A VISIT TO A CHILLI AND GARLIC MARINADE.

LOBSTER, ST LUCIA Lobster seasons are different for all the Caribbean islands but usually last between six and eight months. The season is at its height in November in St Lucia. The rules in place to protect shellfish around the Caribbean are strictly enforced to ensure healthy numbers of these beautiful and highly-prized reef-dwelling animals. Differentiated from their Maine lobster cousins by their smaller claws, Caribbean lobsters are refreshingly versatile, sitting well in curries, salads and, in the traditional way, grilled simply over charcoal after a visit to a chilli and garlic marinade.

STILTON, UK SAFFRON, KASHMIR Saffron remains the world’s most expensive spice, worth more by the ounce than gold. And the finest saffron in the world, Mogra Cream, comes from crocus flowers growing in Kashmir. Saffron derives from the crocus’s stigma and is notoriously labour-intensive to harvest – one acre produces just five pounds of the spice. Enjoy a warming bouillabaisse delicately enhanced with the spice and comfort yourself in the knowledge that the effort, the wait and the expense were all worth it.

Rather like the opposite sex, Stilton cheese is something you avoid when you are younger but find yourself irresistibly drawn to as you mature. The origins of this unique and oh-so English blue cheese are in the small village of Stilton in Cambridgeshire. What was simply a staging post for London in the 1800s quickly made a name for itself in the capital’s cheese markets. One style of cheese emerged dominant and eventually the Stilton name went global. So why do the Brits eat it at Christmas? There’s no real reason, but does it really matter when it tastes so good? ◆

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HUGH JACKMAN

ACTOR, SINGER, DANCER AND, MOST FAMOUSLY, MUTANT SUPERHERO WOLVERINE, HUGH JACKMAN IS ONE OF THE MOST PHYSICAL ACTORS THERE IS. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REAL CHARACTER BENEATH? HERE HE DISCUSSES FAMILY LIFE, FAME, PHILOSOPHY, MONEY AND THE RUMOURS HE’S GAY.

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HUGH JACKMAN

ON W OLVERINE

ACTION FIGURES

“People can stick pins in it, put it in the freezer. It's far more dangerous than a video game.”

ON CHICKENS

“The last 10 years I have had to bulk up for roles and I'm naturally skinny, so I have eaten and killed so many chickens. I wouldn't even want to count. I need to balance that out.”

ON RELIGION

ON FILMING A KISSING SCENE

“I had to lay down there and think of England as one by one they bring out the girls. It was a very tough morning. After each girl had finished, the crew would hold up scorecards.”

ON RELATIONSHIPS

“I have a terrific marriage, but unlike a lot of relationships where they ebb and flow, no matter what happens you fall deeper and deeper in love every day. It's kind of the best thing that can happen to you. It's thrilling.”

ON BEING SILLY

“I'm a big goofball, you know. Don't tell anyone that. In Australia we call it a ‘dag’.”

ON FEAR

“I've always felt that if you back down from a fear, the ghost of that fear never goes away. It diminishes people.”

ON MARRIAGE

“Your wife is always right. Very simple. I think I’m going to get it tattooed on my forehead.”

ON RUMOURS HE’S GAY

“I have a wife and a son, but the gay rumours have started. I guess it's a sign that I'm moving up the ladder.”

ON WOLVERINE FANS

“Now I meet people with full-colour Wolverine tattoos on their backs. Thank God I did okay, because I think if I hadn't, they'd spit on me in the street.”

ON SINGING

“I once sang Summer Nights, from Grease, at a bar in Melbourne with John Travolta, who’s a good friend of mine. He looked cool singing the part of Danny – sitting in an armchair, smoking a cigar – while I got stuck playing Sandy.”

ON HIS SELF-MOCKERY

“Basically, I'll make an ass of myself anytime, anywhere.”

ON HIS ENGLISH PARENTS

“Both my parents came out to Australia in 1967. I was born the following year. My parents, and immigrants like them, were known as ‘£10 Poms’.”

ON NEW YORKERS

“I love New York. I think it's the best city in the world. I love the people. I think they're honest, in your face. If they don't like you, they'll say, ‘Get out of my way’. If they like you they'll slap you on the back and support you. It's a very intoxicating environment to be in.”

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“I find the evangelical church too restrictive. But the school of practical philosophy is non-confrontational. We believe there are many forms of scripture. What is true is true and will never change, whether it's in the Bible or in Shakespeare. It's all about oneness.”

ON HIS DAD

“My father is a real idealist, and he's all about learning. If I asked for a pair of Nikes growing up, it was just a resounding 'No'. But if I asked for a saxophone, one would appear and next day I'd be signed up for lessons. Anything to do with my education or learning, my father would spare no expense.”

ON HIS FUTURE

“My agent said to me five years ago: 'Hugh, if I had to plan a goal for you, it's for you to have the kind of career that Sinatra had.’”

ON FAME

“My friends say: ‘Man, you're going to have kids sleeping on pillowcases with your face on it. You're going to be on toothbrushes and magnets and stuff.' I guess, now that I'm a dad, I'm thrilled about that.” Hugh Jackman is a Montblanc global brand ambassador. He stars in a short film that can be viewed on www.Montblanc.com

FITNESS

FITNESS EXPERTS THE WORLD OVER ARE SINGING THE PRAISES OF HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING. REQUIRING JUST

MINUTES OF EXERCISE RATHER THAN HOURS, IT’S GREAT FOR BUSY LIFESTYLES. BUT DOES IT ACTUALLY WORK?

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FITNESS

Never again can you use the excuse you’re too busy to work out. Thanks to a new trend in fitness called high-intensity interval training (HIIT), you no longer need to spend hours in the gym or running round the park. Instead, you can do short, sharp bursts of anaerobic exercise to get fit and burn fat. HIIT has been embraced by top celebrities ranging from movie and pop stars to Victoria’s Secret lingerie models. The theory is that short anaerobic workouts are more effective than traditional, long aerobic ones because the body’s metabolic rate remains higher for longer after the end of the workout, thereby increasing the amount of oxygen your body consumes. “This afterburn effect is the reason why intense exercise will help burn more fat and calories than regular aerobic workouts,” explains Eric Salvador, fitness instructor at a HIIT gym in New York City. Another benefit is that short, intense workouts don't make gym-goers as ravenous as long workouts do. So, you’re less likely to pig out after exercise. Several HIIT regimes have been developed independently around the world, but sports

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scientists have not yet agreed which is best. Internationally there is a multi-discipline sport called CrossFit – practised at over 6,000 affiliated gyms worldwide – which sees gym-users doing short, intense workouts of 20 minutes or less in disciplines ranging from sprinting, rowing and weightlifting to pull-ups, kettlebells and gymnastics. In Japan, meanwhile, Professor Izumi Tabata has used research with Olympic speed skaters to develop a martial arts-style exercise class lasting 30 minutes, featuring periods of 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. Tabata claims just one of his four-minute workouts gets you fitter than an hour of jogging, or an hour of moderate cycling or two hours of walking. Separate university studies – at McMaster University in Canada, University of New South Wales in Australia, and University of Loughborough in the UK – using exercise bikes in the gym have reached similar conclusions. Who knows? Given the busy lifestyles that everyone now has, perhaps HIIT will replace traditional gym workouts. It’s certainly easy to fit it into your lunch hour. ◆

HAIR

BRAIDS, BUNS, KNOTS, CURLS, BOBS, THE FRENCH TWIST, THE WET EFFECT, THE SIDE SWEEP… DISCOVER WHAT HAIRSTYLES WOMEN WILL BE WEARING

cutting edge

THIS TIME NEXT YEAR.

THE

ike high fashion, hairstyles are notoriously elusive. The minute you think you’ve pinned them down, they go and change. So we asked the fashion bloggers at Fashionisers.com – always up with the latest collections, look books and runway shows – to predict what women will be wearing next year. Using their connections with the top designers, here are their results.

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THIS INNOVATIVE STYLE IS A FAVOURITE OF THAKOON AND 3.1 PHILLIP LIM, LANVIN AND CHRISTOPHER KANE ARE KEEN ON IT TOO.

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RATHER THAN JUST FIXING A HAIRDO IN PLACE, HAIRPINS CAN LOOK GREAT AS DECORATIVE ITEMS, TOO, AS INTERPRETED BY ZAC POSEN, ZIMMERMANN AND REEM ACRA.

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BORED OF STRAIGHT HAIR? ISN’T EVERYONE? LOOK HOW DESIGNERS FROM BURBERRY PRORSUM, ROCHAS, BLUMARINE, J. MENDEL, ELIE TAHARI, CYNTHIA ROWLEY, SASS & BIDE, BETSEY JOHNSON, RALPH LAUREN AND ALICE + OLIVIA TO TOMMY HILFIGER, JILL STUART, PRABAL GURUNG, CHLOÉ, ISABEL MARANT, GUCCI AND ROCHAS ARE EMBRACING THE WAVES.

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C H A M PA G N E

NO TROUBLES WITH BUBBLES IF YOU’RE SERVING YOUR GUESTS CHAMPAGNE, THEN YOU REALLY NEED TO GET THE ETIQUETTE CORRECT. DOMINIC BLISS QUIZZES ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST KNOWLEDGEABLE EXPERTS.

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C H A M PA G N E

OPENING

No other drink on the planet is shrouded in such myth, such pomp, such circumstance. Millions consume it but few know the correct way to open it, pour it and, ultimately, enjoy it. This is where Francoise Peretti comes in. Head of the Champagne Bureau, here she offers tips on the etiquette and convention of the world's most coveted wine.

Many champagne drinkers, even those who have been quaffing for years, get very apprehensive when it comes to opening a bottle of bubbly. "Not surprising," says Francoise. "There are five to six atmospheres of pressure in a bottle – the same as in the tyre of a double-decker bus. It's an explosion of bubbles waiting to happen if you're not careful about certain key things." 

CHILLING Champagne needs a bit of forethought. Three to four hours of forethought, to be precise. That's how long you should keep it in the refrigerator before you serve it. “It's important you place the bottle in the least cold section of the fridge so that it chills gradually,” Francoise explains. “Whatever you do, don't put it in the freezer. This chills the champagne too quickly and risks ruining the aromas and the taste.” In a worst-case scenario you may even forget all about the champagne and freeze the wine solid. But not everyone has three to four hours' notice. What if guests arrive with a warm bottle, and you want to drink it before dinner? This is where a wine bucket becomes essential. Fill one with a mixture of ice and water (a much more efficient cooler than just ice on its own since it covers the entire surface of the bottle), and place the champagne in it. In just 30 minutes it will be at the perfect drinking temperature.

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Take off the foil, untwist the wire cage surrounding the cork and remove the top of the foil and the cage together. Keep your thumb on the cork constantly so it doesn't accidentally fly off.

Hold the cork in one hand and, with your

other hand, gently twist the bottle. (Either clockwise or anti-clockwise, to matters not). As you do this you'll feel the pressure inside the bottle pushing the cork upwards. With some older vintages, occasionally the cork can get stuck. This is where you might need the help of a tool. “Yes, you can buy special champagne pliers, but no need to bother with that,” Francoise explains.“ A normal nutcracker will loosen up the cork. Just make sure you keep one thumb on top of the cork as you loosen it." If you're serving champagne you really shouldn't encourage the bubbles in the bottle to overflow by shaking it up beforehand. “Making it go 'Boom!'. That's just for Formula 1,” Francoise says. And remember, there's always a risk of bubble explosion with champagne that's too warm. So make sure it's chilled to between eight and 10 degrees centigrade before serving.

POURING

C H A M PA G N E

“Please don't pour the champagne like beer, angling the glass,” Francoise insists. If you have, say, six glasses to serve, it's much better to fill just a third of each glass first. Then, once the effervescence has settled, you fill the rest of the glass without spilling it over the top. As with all wine, never fill beyond three-quarters of the way up. Flashy waiters like to serve champagne with their thumb firmly up the dip in the base of the bottle (the punt). Great if you’re a professional and you want your customers to admire the label. But, as Francoise explains, this technique can be perilous for us mere mortals. Better to hold the bottle around the middle so as to get the leverage you need to pour.

GLASSES

MAGNUM

Francoise recommends tulip-shaped glasses for champagne. “Very narrow flute glasses don't allow the flavours to escape from the top of the glass,” she says. "Round coupe glasses are fun and attractive to drink out of but, sadly, the wide rim means the effervescence dissipates within 10 minutes. Such a shame. It takes 10 years to create the effervescence and then, in just 10 minutes it's all gone.” The tulip glasses Francoise recommends above all others are Riedel Veritas, made of unleaded crystal. “Actually, it's not the material that matters. Both crystal and normal glass are fine. What really matters is the thinness of the glass. The thinner the glass, the better the feeling of the champagne when it touches your lips. This will increase your enjoyment of the drink.” What if you don't have any champagne glasses? Francoise says its fine to use normal wine glasses. “Much better than plastic champagne glasses,” she adds.

A normal 0.75 litre bottle of champagne has six to eight servings, depending on the generosity of the host. “That’s just not enough for a celebration,” Francoise insists. “What you need is a magnum [1.5 litres].” Apparently the higher proportion of wine to air space in the neck of the bottle ages the wine better and improves the taste since less oxidation occurs. If you want to be really flash, you could always try to get your hands on a Jeroboam of champagne (three litres), a Methuselah (six litres), a Balthazar (12 litres) or a Nebuchadnezzar (15 litres). You’ll certainly need to clear out your fridge for these big boys.

DRINKING Since champagne is the classic drink of celebration, it’s often consumed while you’re standing up. That means, inevitably, your hand will soon warm up the glass. Francoise suggests that, to keep your drink cool, you hold your glass by the stem. “The proper way is to hold the base of the glass but that’s slightly pretentious.” Not to say slightly precarious. ◆

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SABRAGE Francoise gets very nervous when the subject of sabrage [slicing off the head of the bottle with a blade] is brought up. “Leave it to the professionals,” she says. “Please don't do this at home. It’s so easy to injure yourself [with the blade] or others [with the decapitated bottle head].” Nevertheless, it would be churlish not to indulge in champagne culture’s most ostentatious ceremony of all. Dating back to the Napoleonic Wars, it involves decapitating the entire head of the bottle, cork and all, with a sabre. Over the centuries it has seen the demise of many a careless waiter’s thumb. But do it correctly – overseen by an expert – and it’s great fun. The trick is to slide the sabre along the seam running up the body of the bottle until it connects with the lip (or annulus) below the cork. Use the blunt edge of the sword, not the sharp edge. With a firm, fluid wrist action – like the perfect tennis backhand – this will separate annulus and cork from the neck of the bottle. Don't do it with a belly full of champagne since you need pitch-perfect coordination. And be sure to hold the bottle low down, below the trajectory of the sword, otherwise you’ll never hitch hike again.

WITH SABRAGE, BE SURE TO HOLD THE BOTTLE BELOW THE TRAJECTORY OF THE SWORD, OTHERWISE YOU’LL NEVER HITCH HIKE AGAIN.

ELECTRIC CARS

electricdreams EXPERTS AGREE ELECTRIC MOTOR CARS ARE THE FUTURE. BUT FIRST WE HAVE TO CRACK BATTERY TECHNOLOGY AND THE LACK OF CHARGING POINTS. PAUL HENDERSON, MOTORING EDITOR OF GQ MAGAZINE, EXPLAINS.

his summer the boss of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, posted a blog on his luxury electric car company’s website, announcing that all the patents for his vehicle technology had been lifted. “They have been removed in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology,” he wrote. In other words, any rival car manufacturer with an interest in expanding electric motor research and development could now pick over the 200 plus copyrights owned by Tesla and use them to drive the electric car market forward. At first glance, Musk’s announcement was deemed a brave and altruistic decision that would give the electric car market a much needed bump start. Silicon Valley couldn’t believe what it was reading. The most advanced electric car manufacturer in the world had given up the secrets it had worked on – and protected – for over ten years. It was like Willy Wonka opening the gates of his candy factory to Arthur Slugworth, or like Apple allowing Samsung and friends to download all of their cleverest creations. But in reality, Musk’s decision was less a donation to other car manufacturers than it was an appeal to their environmental conscience and an attempt to give the sluggish electric car market a much-needed zap of energy. “At best, the large auto-makers are producing electric cars with limited range in limited volume,” Musk said. “Some produce no zero-emission cars at all. We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform.” Musk is right, of course, but despite the technological generosity of Tesla, the failings of the electric car market are not merely down to a lack of high-tech advances. For a start, car manufacturers

have been reluctant to fast-track their all-electric development at the expense of their conventionalengined core business… for exactly the reason of expense. Developing and improving petrol, diesel and even hybrid engines to increase their efficiency and reduce emissions is far easier and more cost-effective than tackling the problems of making battery-powered propulsion more viable. At the moment, there are three main problems with all-electric cars. Firstly, there is the issue of range. Most affordable e-cars – such as the BMW i3, the Nissan Leaf and the Renault Zoe – are good for about 100 miles between charges. This is fine in the city, but for any kind of long journey, most drivers will find themselves counting down the miles in a state of increasing terror. They call it ‘range anxiety’. The solution is to make a bigger, more efficient battery. This is also the second problem. The issue with batteries will be familiar to anyone who has used a torch or a radio – they are relatively big, heavy and don’t last very long. To make them significantly better will require a lot of research and money, but the introduction of lithium ion batteries means that isn’t the hard part. What the car companies are struggling with is not making the battery brilliant, but making it brilliant and affordable and quick-charging. Currently, it takes six to eight hours to generate a full charge. Which brings us to the third problem. At the time of writing, there are over half a million plug-in electric passenger cars worldwide. The current number of standard charging points? Just over 55,000. And as for accelerated charging points, only 20,500. That means if you do have an electric vehicle, finding an unoccupied battery charger can be as worrisome as running out of juice on your drive. 

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ELECTRIC CARS

Tesla, the most advanced electric car manufacturer in the world, has given up the secrets it has worked on â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and protected â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for over ten years.

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MARKET SHARE

2020 2020

ELECTRIC CARS

And yet, despite all the potholes on the road to electric conversion, there is a growing interest and an increasingly positive attitude towards non-fossil-fuelled transport. Ian Robertson, BMW’s global marketing chief, is in no doubt where the future is. “The market is approaching a tipping point where battery power will become as normal as petrol or diesel,” he says. “If you look back over the past three years, the electric car market has multiplied by a factor of 25.” While not all car companies have invested as heavily in electric development as others, even supercar marques such as Ferrari (with its LaFerrari), Porsche (the 918) and McLaren (the P1) have created plug-in hybrid cars in limited numbers with vast price tags. These astonishing machines may not do much for the development of the electric-car market per se, but what they have achieved is to heighten public awareness in (and excitement about) the potential of the concept. Likewise the forthcoming Formula-E Championship race series that begun in September and will see electric-powered F1-style cars racing around the globe. Because the cars have zero emissions and promote an environmentally positive message, ten cities around the world have already committed to the series including Miami, London, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Berlin and Monte Carlo. Former F1 and Le Mans racer Lucas Di Grassi, who has driven the cars as a test pilot and has signed up to be part of the fledgling series, is evangelical about the concept. “The world of motor racing should care [about Formula-E] because it will be the future,” he says. “It will target the young generation and the city public. The business model is neat and will provide space for manufacturers to join in the future.” It won’t happen overnight, though. Conservative estimates by carmakers suggest that, by 2020, purely electric cars will account for only two to three per cent of the market. But it is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. And with one in 12 deaths worldwide linked to air pollution, it is a step we should all be willing to take. ◆

DRIVING STYLE

“The market is approaching a tipping point where battery power will become as normal as petrol or diesel. Over the past three years, the electric car market has multiplied by a factor of 25.” BMW’s Ian Robertson

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T H E L U X U R Y T R E AT

beware! DON’T MISS OUT ON LIFE’S LUXURY TREATS. LIKE KNIPSCHILDT’S LA MADELINE AU TRUFFE, SURELY THE MOST EXPENSIVE CHOCOLATE EVER MADE.

You can’t buy this in any supermarket. Nor at any specialist chocolatier. Knipschildt’s La Madeline au Truffe is so expensive – US$250 a piece – that you have to pre-order it specially. It’s actually a truffle within a truffle. At its core is a French Perigord truffle – the fungus variety rather than the chocolate one. Surrounding that is a “rich, decadent ganache” made of 70 per cent Valrhona dark chocolate, heavy cream, sugar, truffle oil and vanilla. The final result is dusted in fine cocoa powder. Created by a Danish chef called Fritz Knipschildt, something this delicate obviously perishes very quickly. Once it’s been made you have only seven days to consume it. Not that you’ll be hanging around. Just one taste and you’ll want to devour the lot.

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