18 minute read
Animal magnetism Test driving the ferocious Lamborghini Aventador
ANIMAL MAGNETISM
Tempus tames a fighting bull desperate to get out on the track
Words: Gareth Herincx
Ask any petrolhead to sketch a modern supercar and the result is likely to resemble Lamborghini’s evergreen Aventador. The dramatic wedge-shaped supercar has been with us since 2011, when it debuted at the Geneva Motor Show as a replacement for the Murciélago.
Eight years on and we’ve arrived at the final iteration, and the last hurrah for this mighty fighting bull.
The flagship Aventador SVJ is the most extreme, sophisticated version yet, featuring the most powerful V12 ever produced by the iconic company at its dream factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese. SV stands for Super Veloce (Italian for ‘very fast’), while the J (or ‘Jota’) is Lamborghini’s way of denoting a race spec car.
As much a piece of automotive art as a motor car, the SVJ is an awesome sight. Long, low and wide, its blend of curves and sharp edges features a complex front spoiler, a spectacular rear wing, twin high-mounted exhausts and crowd-pleasing scissor doors. The SVJ is the pinnacle of aerodynamic design, minimising drag and improving downforce.
My introduction to the new Aventador took place on the roads of Sardinia; a memorable location to drive a true Italian thoroughbred. And this is an epic car in every sense. From its aggressive profile to the legendary growl of the V12, it’s a sensual delight. I lost count of the number of headlight flashes I received from oncoming cars, not to mention toots of the horn and waves from passersby.
Driving the SVJ is surprisingly straightforward. Once you’ve worked out how to open the doors, it’s just a case of lowering yourself down into the high-tech cockpit – a forest of carbon fibre, leather and Alcantara, switches, dials and digital displays. Press the start button and the 6.5-litre 760bhp monster behind your head erupts into life.
The SVJ is wider than the new Rolls-Royce Phantom, but you soon learn to compensate for the car’s vast width as well as the almost complete lack of rearwards visibility. And indeed, compared to a road car, the steering is heavy, the suspension rock hard and the seven-speed manual gearbox hardcore.
However, it’s also blisteringly fast, so much so that within a few seconds you’ll find yourself hitting the national speed limit. Much like its closest rivals, the McLaren 720S and Ferrari 488, you really can only appreciate a fraction of the SVJ’s performance in legal limitations.
Its speed is no surprise. Apart from its official figures of 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 217mph, in 2018 it smashed the Nürburgring Nordschleife production car lap record. In fact, its best lap time of 6m 44.97s was a massive 2.27s faster than the previous holder (a Porsche GT2 RS).
Even driving on regular roads, it’s clear that the SVJ is special. Whichever drive mode you choose (Strada, Sport, Corsa, or the customisable EGO option) it never feels anything other than totally planted on the tarmac. Choosing your drive mode is just a question of how ferocious you like your Lambo. One thing’s for sure, if a barrage of pops and crackles puts a smile on your face, then downshifting in Sport is addictive.
There’s exceptional wheel grip and huge amounts of traction thanks to its four-wheel-drive system and clever computer wizardry, while the addition of four-wheel steering and active aerodynamics allows the SVJ to corner at astonishing speeds. In short, it’s seriously swift and fantastically engaging.
With a starting price of £360,000 the Aventador SVJ is an expensive toy. That said, just 900 will be built, along with 800 soft-top versions and 63 SVJ 63 special editions, so it will be a wise investment too.
The Lamborghini Aventador SVJ is a piece of pure automotive theatre, especially if you can take it out on track to experience its full potential. But here’s the thing: as a daily driver I’d recommend its little brother, the Huracán EVO, which starts at £206,000. Okay, it’s only got a V10 engine, but it’s more refined, comfortable and nimble on the road while still looking the part.
DREAMING BIG
Named after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus London brings design fantasies to life with highly personalised interiors
London’s luxury interior design industry is a fiercely competitive space. With myriad design houses already vying for a slice of the pie, and more cropping up every year, it’s difficult to stand out. “It’s competitive at this level of interiors,” explains Rickesh Patel, design director at premier design agency Morpheus London. “The competitors around us are exceptional; London is home to some of the best designers in the world. London design is global – it’s revered, it’s renowned, it’s wanted.”
The reasons for this are plenty. London is home to a number of excellent design schools, for one. Another is the quality of craftsmanship and materials available in Britain, and the boom in property development which, despite the dip in pricing caused by Brexit, continues to attract investors from around the world.
A fine property demands an even finer interior, and one that’s highly personalised to the owner’s exacting tastes and lifestyle. This is something that Morpheus London knows well and prides itself on delivering. Here, Tempus speaks to Patel about the design trends of the future and how British designers are dominating the world of high-end interiors. »
Morpheus is a brand, yes, but we don’t have a house style. There are some big brands who have a house style that you get given, and that’s it. But Morpheus, being the god of dreams, captures the spirit of the client’s requirements, which forms the DNA of the projects. We don’t design for Morpheus; we design for individual clients or brands. The brand exercise is different for each client.
With so much competition in the capital, how do you source your clients?
Word of mouth is how we get a lot of our work – and that’s great. Whether that’s private clients talking to their network or developers we work with. When we work with architects, we work together, not against the grain, as some designers do. This leads to a good working relationship. I believe the future is collaboration.
How much of your work is dictated by your clients’ ideas, compared to your own?
We’re fortunate to work with some great clients who have good budgets, and we’re designing for some exceptional spaces, and sometimes you think, ‘This would be perfect’, but then you get home and see toys everywhere and it’s like, ‘No, it wouldn’t work.’
Some clients will show us pictures on Instagram and say: ‘I’ve been to this hotel, I want this.’ But what we try and do is take these images and re-energise them and say, ‘Actually this is how you live, this is what your lifestyle is’, and adapt that image. It’s not about just repeating something that they can see everywhere, it’s about creating something unique.
Some clients will say, ‘No, I categorically want that’, while others will want us to completely take the lead. It’s a balance. We’ve got a quite intrusive set of taste and lifestyle questions that we ask each client, so we get to know everything.
What kind of questions do you ask your clients?
We ask about their favourite restaurants and hotels, their entertainment styles, even which side of the bed they get out of. It’s just bringing out their personality and lifestyle. And it is a process – it’s not just a first meeting. It’s very strategic. We might take them for dinner somewhere we feel may be their look and feel and check what they think of the environment. We might take them to certain showrooms or other projects, because a lot of clients come to us when they’ve heard of a project and gone, ‘This is amazing; love it.’ Then, it’s just going back and understanding what they like about it and giving them something completely new.
What are Morpheus London’s signature projects?
We’ve had Ashberg House, an 8,500 sq ft new build, which we sold last year to a private client. We worked with our sister company, Icon 1992, to deliver a full design and build. It’s special as it’s very different to anything in the London market. It’s on Cathcart Road in Chelsea, which was bombed heavily during the war. The location allowed us actually to create something quite unique – it’s glass fronted and quite monolithic with a strong black façade.
We’ve also just finished a 3,500 sq ft penthouse at Chelsea Waterfront. There’s a garden upstairs which we had quite a bit of fun with – we put a green wall in and some hanging beds overlooking the skyline of the Thames.
In Monaco, we worked on Thirty Nine Monte Carlo, our first foray into hospitality. The client gave us free rein and said, ‘Design me a brand that I can take globally’. The majestic double height entrance hallway showcases the Grace Chandelier, an 8ft glass constellation designed to honour the past, present and future of Monaco and inspired by Princess Grace’s wedding bouquet – a delicate arrangement of lily of the valley, ribbons and sprigs. Princess Graceof Monaco actually came and opened the actual health spa. It was amazing. We gave her a piece of glass from the chandelier as a memory.
We’ve had to become quite clever in how we work on a commercial or developed project, and how we entice high-end brands and the right calibre of people, by linking and designing certain elements that will capture their imaginations. We’re not just decorators, we’re thinking about the whole journey from sales to final use.
What are people asking for at the moment?
Sustainability and eco-friendly designs are important, but I think there are two strong sides to it. Big brands like Six Senses want to be seen as making a difference to the global market. On the private client side, however, it’s finding that balance. We’re having to advise them from the start. At times, private clients want a certain look and a certain product. So, it’s up to us to say, ‘Yes, we could give you that’. But then we go away and research how we can produce it locally. A lot of our furniture is bespoke and we make a lot in London or just on the peripheries, which cuts the carbon footprint. I think it’s almost, not cloak and dagger, but we design in a manner that, at times, they don’t even realise we’re being sustainable.
Have you felt the impact of Brexit at all?
For sure, some projects have been on hold and people have had to rethink. But with our work flow – we like to keep 50% overseas and 50 per cent in the UK – we’ve managed that quite well by making sure we’re out in certain locations. We’ve done a fair bit of work in Marbella. We’re looking at stuff in Marrakech and West Palm Beach at the moment. But there’s also the upside of falling property prices as there are some bargains to be had – some super high-end prices have been slashed by 20%. And then with the currency exchange, that’s another saving.
We review the market constantly, talking to the likes of Savills and Knight Frank every month to see what they’ve got to offer. Andrew Murray [director and founder of Morpheus London] is very entrepreneurial. He’s constantly thinking of ways of marketing certain properties and targeting to the clients. And it works. It’s about thinking outside the box and going five steps beyond what a designer would normally do.
What makes London such a strong design hub?
The British brand has travelled and has been very prevalent in architecture around the world. And it’s that nostalgia that people understand. Yes, we’re a small island but actually what’s been produced from here has been phenomenal. London also has great design schools. We attract a lot of the international students who then stay in the UK.
When it comes to products, I think quality is key. There are some incredible names – the Linley brand, for instance, is still exceptional. And it just resonates with what we’re about – high-quality products that are well finished, with elegance and longevity. Yes, you can have fun and be outrageous with certain pieces, but the clients know that the starting point is strong. If it is different and outrageous, it’s still going to be of high-quality.
Above: Morpheus London design director Rickesh Patel Right: Monte Carlo’s Club Thirty Nine makes a statement with its opulent entrance
Vin + Omi model paired the brand’s sustainably created pieces with facial accesories by Patch
FASHION forward
Nettles, Olympians and punk spirit: how Vin + Omi is tearing up the couture rulebook
Words: Lizzy Dening
Outside The Savoy in London, a woman dressed in black is holding aloft a banner that reads: “RIP London Fashion Week: 1983- 2019”. She is one of around 200 protestors clamouring for an end to fast fashion as they march to the home of London Fashion Week, 180 The Strand.
It’s just as well that the Extinction Rebellion protesters keep on walking, as inside the capital’s most stylish hotel tonight’s show – titled Sting – ecoactivists Vin + Omi might well be showcasing the fashion industry’s most sustainable collection.
Vin + Omi is named after its two founding designers – British Vin and his collaborator Omi, who was born in Singapore and worked for Christian Dior under John Galliano. The pair, who go only by their first names, are known for their creation of 100% sustainable fabrics – last year’s SS19 show presented pieces made from hybrid metal fabrics manufactured from discarded cans and plastic bottles.
“We actually love Extinction Rebellion and their take on London Fashion Week,” says Vin. “Sting is the largest show outside of London Fashion Week’s official selection. We are not associated with LFW as the British Fashion Council’s criteria for selection is focused around the number of stockists a brand has, and not the many other things that matter much more.”
This outsider attitude is embodied by their SS20 collection – a blend of punk and raw nature that sees models wearing branch crowns, patched anarchist jackets and roaring wildcat emblems. While the clothes might seem anti-establishment, the duo’s environmental ethos has found them an unlikely ally – The Prince of Wales.
The forward-thinking designers had a conversation with Prince Charles last year about weaving from plants, which culminated in the heir to the throne granting the designers access to his Highgrove Estate so they could collect thousands of nettles to create a sustainable fabric, used in 10 of the items featured in the new collection.
“We love working with the Prince because of his stance on eco issues,” says Vin. “He is genuine and thoughtful about using his influence to help change the planet.”
Royal connections aside, the pair have always had friends in high places. Blondie singer Debbie Harry is their principal muse (it’s her voice that opens the show, ordering us to ‘stop fucking the planet’), and their collections have been worn by the likes of Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Kate Moss and Jodie Kidd.
That diverse clientele is reflected at the show at The Savoy, a Fairmont managed hotel; one of the joys of the runway is the diversity of its models, which includes several Olympic athletes plus perennial rock chick Jo Wood and daughter Leah. The models show off enough floor-sweeping gowns, edgy co-ords and statement jackets to bring punk spirit to the most modest dresser.
For Vin + Omi, the sustainable ethos doesn’t end with the show. In 2020 the pair will create bespoke uniforms for The Savoy’s doormen, while show attendees are each presented with entirely compostable products from headline sponsor Patch – whose bamboo plasters were used as innovative accessories by catwalk models –and wildflower seeds to offset the impact of brochures and other printed material.
It’s small decisions like this – from our bathroom products to where we buy our clothes – that Vin + Omi urge us to consider more carefully.
“Consumer habits will and have to change,” says Omi. “We need to buy less and choose much more carefully. Fashion is the second biggest polluter of the planet – so all companies need to act fast.”
Vinandomi.com
イースタンディライトツ EASTERN DELIGHTS
Tempus goes on a journey through fabulous food and fascinating experiences in Japan with Prince Hotels & Resorts
I’m sitting on a cushion on the floor at Sanyo-so, a Sukiya-style Japanese residence-turned-hotel in Izunokuni, which promised to fulfil all of my Memoirs of a Geisha fantasies. It’s taken me over two hours to travel here from Kyoto, but I’ve been promised the traditional Japanese feast I’ve journeyed for will be worth it.
Upon entering the Ryokan hotel, I’m encouraged to abandon my Western ways. Instead of shoes, I wear special socks and, if I go outside, wooden flip flops (geta) that tilt as you step – quite the art to master on cobbled pathways. Putting aside my Western clothing – and English reserve – I wear a yukata (casual kimono) to bathe in the al fresco communal ladies’ onsen which steams hot against the cool country air.
My host is an elegant lady called Kazumi. Despite us not being able to communicate easily, we quickly strike up a friendship as she teaches me how to properly tie a yukata and scorns at my hesitation to eat fish for breakfast. She gives me a tour of the hotel, where paperthin walls and sliding doors separate tatamimatted rooms, and we walk through the gardens in the rain pointing out our favourite plants. At Sanyo-so, it’s this humbled simplicity that makes it so charming.
I’m here to experience a traditional Japanese feast, which is served to me in my room in a seemingly endless array of courses. The menu is in Japanese, so I hazard a guess at what most of the foods are as I make my way through bowls of colourful vegetables and tofu, raw sashimi, hot soups, rice with tiny fish in it and a fillet of tuna, washed down with a trio of sake.
Breakfast is a similar affair – cold and hot soup, vegetables and roots, tofu, seafood and what appears to be a Japanese omelette. Setting sight on the sea of coloured bowls I’m intimidated, but ingredients are so healthy each bowl is light to stomach.
After a relaxed morning I board the bullet train to Tokyo. But my sadness to leave SanyoSo is wiped from my mind as I arrive at The Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho, a modern Luxury Collection Hotel that towers over the Chiyoda Akasaka-Roppongi area.
I sit down for an aperitif at the Sky Gallery Lounge Levita, a striking 35th-floor space with dramatic architecture fighting for attention with dramatic two-storey floor-to-ceiling views of the city. I opt for the signature Kishu cocktail – a sweet yet refreshing blend of plum wine, sumo mandarin, orange bitters, lemon and sugar syrup.
For dinner, I head over to Washoku Souten, the hotel’s contemporary Japanese restaurant. The venue itself is stunning – blocks of crystal lights hang from the ceiling like ice and glass-panelled windows open up to the city skyline.
This time, English translation guides me through the seven-course menu. From the first course to the last, it’s clear that food here is an art form. Exquisitely presented dishes come out one-by-one, taking me on a seasonal journey, starting with a palette-cleansing trio of vegetable appetisers – seasonal greens, mushroom mouse and artichoke with truffle oil.
After an intriguing taste of foie gras custard, it’s onto the fish courses – exceptionally fresh assorted sashimi and steamed yellowtail – followed by rib served in a modern way –wrapped around asparagus. The main is flavourful Japanese pepper rice with beef and a side of miso soup. The meal is washed down with sparkling sake – a new type of sake that’s trendy in Tokyo and quickly became my new favourite beverage.
As I check out of the hotel the following day, I’m informed a package has arrived for me. I’m surprised to find that my friend Kazumi has sent me a packet of my favourite Japanese sweets to wish me a safe flight. This is just another example of the Japanese hospitality that Prince Hotels, and Japan itself, is famous for. I leave with a sugar high and a promise that one day, I’ll return.
Above and top left: Traditional style at Sanyo-so. Centre left and below left: Mesmerising menus at contemporary Tokyo Wahoku Souten
