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Issue twent y three | AprIl 2013

Ryan

Mr selfridgeThe tale of the maverick who revolutionised luxury shopping

sole ManHow Bruno Frisoni fuelled the welcome revival of Roger Vivier

faMily valuesThe man at the helm of Patek Philippe on the secret of its success

georgina chapManMeet the fashion designer wife of Hollywood’s most powerful movie mogul

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High feminine complication, this fl ying tourbillon decoratedwith the motif of the camellia, a tribute to Mademoiselle Chanel’s favorite fl ower, beats away discreetly and almost secretly at the heart of the Première watch. Having no upper bridge, the carriage decorated with a camellia appears to be rotating in a weightless state. Limited edition of 20 numbered pieces. 18-carat white gold, set with 228 diamonds (~7.7 carats).

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F L Y I N G T O U R B I L L O N

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19-03-13• afsm_maserati_quattroporte_air mag ad_FP Ad • 20cm W x 26.5cm H

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Contents / F e atures

Managing DirectorVictoria Thatcher

Editorial DirectorJohn Thatcher

Advertisement DirectorChris [email protected]

EditorLeah [email protected]

Contributing EditorHazel [email protected]

WriterGrace [email protected]

Senior DesignerAdam Sneade

Designer / IllustratorVanessa Arnaud

Production ManagerHaneef Abdul

Senior Advertisement ManagerStefanie Morgner [email protected]

Advertisement ManagerSukaina Hussein [email protected]

Advertisement Manager Silviya [email protected]

Fifty TwoPrivate Ryan

Hollywood’s hottest young actor talks bank robberies, Elvis impersonating uncles and all things movies

Fifty EightGeorgina Chapman

Get to know the woman behind some of couture’s most covetable gowns, Mrs Harvey Weinstein

Sixty TwoThe Showman of Shopping

Some 100 years after he changed shopping forever, AIR delves into the past of Harry Gordon Selfridge

AIR_Contents_ Apr.indd 5 3/27/13 5:51 PM

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Contents / regul ars

FourteenRadar

Chanel celebrates its little black jacket in a UAE-bound photographic exhibition

Twenty SevenTimepieces

AIR meets the man at the helm of family-owned watch powerhouse Patek Philippe

Thirty SixJewellery

Take a sneak peak at Fabergé’s highly covetable fine jewellery line

Thirty EightArt & Design

Louvre Abu Dhabi prepares to unveil a never-before-seen Picasso

FiftyInteriors

Meet the lighting company behind some of the world’s most famous properties

SeventyGastronomy

AIR shares a bite with celebrity Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli

Seventy FourTravel

Delve into the formidable 175-year history of Brown’s Hotel, London

EightyWhat I Know Now

Torquhil Ian Campbell, the 13th Duke of Argyll, shares his life lessons learned

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from HOT Media Publishing is strictly prohibited. All prices mentioned are correct at time of press but may change. HOT Media Publishing does not accept liability for omissions or errors in AIR.

Tel: 00971 4 364 2876Fax: 00971 4 369 7494

Sixty SixMotoring

Get up to speed with the many charms of the McLaren MP4-12C Spider

AIR_Contents_ Apr.indd 7 3/28/13 3:14 PM

I N D U L G E

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R izon Je t

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Contact details:[email protected]

Best Fixed Base Operator, Middle East

Best Charter Airline Company, Europe

As the founder of Ghanim bin Saad al Saad & Sons Group Holdings (GSSG), it is my pleasure to share with you the latest developments of Rizon Jet.

Rizon Jet has been achieving continuous growth since its debut. This is due to the robust and unique business model that the company has adopted. Rizon Jet has developed a product offering that combines maintenance, aircraft management and Fixed Base Operation. Having those main components of private and business aviation under one brand umbrella guarantees efficiency and the highest standards of services to our customers in the Middle East, Europe and the rest of the world.

It is my pleasure to inform you that this unique model has won the recognition of the industry and resulted in the recent winning of two prestigious awards; “Best FBO in the Middle East” and “Best Charter in Europe”. Most importantly, our quest for excellence has won your satisfaction.

We will maintain our commitment to seven-star service; whether that means providing unparalleled world class VIP passenger handling facilities and services, or managing and maintaining business jets to standards that exceed industry norms. Our facilities in Doha and Biggin Hill, London, enable us to extend this level of service to clients in all of Europe and the Middle East.

Private aviation is no longer a luxury, rather it is a requirement of the modern day business environment. With this in mind, we pledge to keep improving and developing our services to respond to your lifestyle, business and leisure travel needs with utmost luxury and efficiency.

Ghanim bin Saad al SaadThe FounderGSSG Holdings

April 2013

Welcome onboard

D E S T I N AT I O N SBUSINESS

TRAVELAWARDS2012

D E S T I N AT I O N SBUSINESS

TRAVELAWARDS2012

Business Destinations Travel Awards 2012

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R izon Je t ne ws

Oryx Jet is a world-class aircraft management and luxury aircraft charter provider. Offering ultimate and executive travel solutions for the global personal and business traveller, we are supported by a comprehensive suite of services. A highly experienced team of professionals with many years of aviation experience from across the globe provide round-the-clock aircraft charter and management services, tailor made to meet customers’ requirements.

Oryx Jet’s corporate philosophy is to offer paramount levels of safety, reliability and an unparalleled level of service. This enables us to customise solutions to satisfy every aviation requirement. We take great pride

in delivering personal attention to detail and meticulously planned, fully flexible programmes, ensuring our clients upmost trust and confidentiality.

Located at London, Biggin Hill and only 7 minutes by helicopter from the heart of the City, makes us ideally placed to offer logistical excellence and the ultimate, executive travel experience into London and beyond.

For the ultimate aviation experience and for further information please contact +44 1959 543111 or email [email protected] www.oryxjet.com

Enjoy the freedom of flight

Rizon Jet hosted “Luxury d’Elegance Qatar”, theofficial launch event of The Luxury Network, Qatar

R izon Jet, the award-winning luxury flight services company headquartered in Doha, State of Qatar,

a founding member of The Luxury Network, hosted the network’s official Qatar launch event last month. Luxury d’Elegance Qatar, an invite-only event attended by 150+ VIP guests, showcased 20 of the finest luxury companies from the Middle East.

This much awaited event was meticulously designed and structured by the executives of the top

participating companies for the past few months, and The Luxury Network worked with the best that Qatar has to offer to create what was an affair to be remembered.

Luxury d’Elegance Qatar featured the finest vehicles, jewellery, watches, fashion, property, travel, resorts, hotels, health, beauty, luxury gifts and lifestyle services, bringing together a selection of luxury brands quite possibly not seen before in one venue in the Qatar market.

St. Regis Doha’s 5-star catering butlers served the finest food selections, making the VIP guests

feel special and pampered all night long. One of the evening’s highlights was the exceptional Debaj Collection fashion show, showcasing its new line of abayas and turbans. Debaj Collection offers limited pieces of unique abayas with artistic designs for each season.

Rizon Jet CEO, Captain Hassan Al-Mousawi, said: “We were very proud to have been given the opportunity to host the network’s most successful launch event. It’s been a wonderful opportunity for Rizon Jet to work closely with non-competing key luxury brands, creating such a


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Oryx Jet is a world-class aircraft management and luxury aircraft charter provider. Offering ultimate and executive travel solutions for the global personal and business traveller, we are supported by a comprehensive suite of services. A highly experienced team of professionals with many years of aviation experience from across the globe provide round-the-clock aircraft charter and management services, tailor made to meet customers’ requirements.

Oryx Jet’s corporate philosophy is to offer paramount levels of safety, reliability and an unparalleled level of service. This enables us to customise solutions to satisfy every aviation requirement. We take great pride

in delivering personal attention to detail and meticulously planned, fully flexible programmes, ensuring our clients upmost trust and confidentiality.

Located at London, Biggin Hill and only 7 minutes by helicopter from the heart of the City, makes us ideally placed to offer logistical excellence and the ultimate, executive travel experience into London and beyond.

For the ultimate aviation experience and for further information please contact +44 1959 543111 or email [email protected] www.oryxjet.com

Enjoy the freedom of flight


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R izon Je t ne ws

prestige event and developing a wider network and expanding our client base. It is an ideal gateway to develop a comprehensive strategy to form new alliances and partnerships with brands that will complement our products and growth.”

Mr. Fares Ghattas, of The Luxury Network Qatar, added; “I firmly believe that we are creating the best circle of luxury companies here in Qatar and this is still growing. I have congregated most of the finest firms in the country, and we all aim to maintain our top status in the luxury industry, where we belong. Also, many companies related to luxury are coming onboard The Luxury Network very soon, since we cover all areas - some of which are automotive, aircraft, properties, fashion, restaurants, hotels and resorts, etc. The Luxury Network will be an instrument for us to be unified as one. Each brand will have their fair share of exposure locally and internationally through business development, networking, B2B and B2C events, VIP clientele database referrals and partnerships.”

About The Luxury Network

Described as ‘the next generation of marketing for luxury brands’, The Luxury Network is the world’s leading luxury affinity marketing, partnerships and events group; a private consortium of premium brands in each luxury capital of the world, working together at senior director level for mutual business and client development. Other current Luxury Network founding members around the world include: Silversea Cruises, Ferrari, Gucci, Aston Martin, Cartier, Lotus, Embraer Jets, B&O, Lamborghini, Netjets and many other superb luxury marques. ´́ [email protected] | www.theluxurynetworkqatar.com


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> Fashion lovers will be delighted to hear that Chanel’s acclaimed Little Black Jacket exhibition is to arrive in Dubai later this month. More than 100 images taken by Karl Lagerfeld will be on display, featuring the likes of Keira Knightley and Diane Kruger modelling the iconic Chanel jacket in their own inimitable way. Having already charmed crowds in cities including Tokyo, New York, London and Paris, the exhibit - based on the coffee table tome Lagerfeld produced with former Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld - is expected to do likewise when it opens on April 27 at The Venue, Downtown Dubai.

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> Punk’s influence on couture fashion since the 1970s is set to be explored next month in a new exhibition by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Punk: Chaos to Couture will see original punk garments juxtaposed with recent fashion to illustrate how visual symbols of punk have been interpreted in haute couture and ready-to-wear. Seven galleries will have designated punk ‘heroes’ seen to represent the broader concepts behind the fashion on display, including one gallery inspired by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren’s famous Seditionaries boutique. Designers on display include Karl Lagerfeld, for Chanel, Dolce and Gabbana and Alexander McQueen.

> If you’re in London this month, head to Harrods to discover what happens when the House of Dior is given free reign of the British landmark. Inspired by Christian Dior, who was a passionate Anglophile, the design house has transformed the store into a wondrous and nostalgic space that aims to capture the brand’s long-standing connections with Great Britain. Until April 14, Harrods’ Brompton Road window display will pay homage to an array of British cultural icons, including Royal Mail post boxes boasting a series of exclusive and limited edition Dior products, telephone boxes implying

a cut-out of Dior’s signature New Look silhouette, and royal beefeaters teamed with ready-to-wear designs by Raf Simons, Dior’s artistic director. Venture inside, where the fashion house has transformed the fourth floor, starting with a recreation of the facade of 30 Avenue Montaigne - the Paris Dior house. Discover 40 mini-Stockman mannequins adorned in some of the fashion visionary’s most famous hits before visiting Café Dior for some very special cupcakes.

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Cr it ique

FilmTo the WonderTerrence MalickAfter an idyllic romance in France, Marina and Neil decide to move to Oklahoma to start a life together. Their promising partnership on a rural farm soon turns sour, however, as both realise they may have embarked on a life more tumultuous than they anticipated.At best: “A brave, soul-stirring and sensitive work.” Total Film At worst: “Characters have little substance or development. The dialogue is minimal and deliberately semi-audible.” Observer

jOBSJoshua Michael SternThe life of Steve Jobs laid bare, this eagerly-anticipated biopic provides insight into the very foundations of the Apple empire and its creator. At best: “The welcome surprise here is Kutcher, as the barefoot rebel who brought the spirit of psychedelia to technology.” Screen InternationalAt worst: “More or less embodies the sort of bland, go-with-the-flow creative thinking Jobs himself would have scorned.” Variety

Into the WhitePetter NaessAs the battle of WWII rages, planes from both sides of the war are shot down over Norway. The crews huddle together in an abandoned barn, but at such close proximity their hostility is hard to maintain.

At best: “This is clearly breaking no new ground, but it does what it does with skill and likeability.” Radio Times At worst: “Although nicely produced, this Second World War yarn is bland and predictable.” The Guardian

The Company You KeepRobert RedfordAfter a journalist exposes the whereabouts of a former member of a violent revolutionary militant group, he must come to terms with the aftermath – but does he hold the key to the wanted man’s safety?At best: “Robert Redford makes a welcome return as director and lead actor in this clear-eyed drama.” Hollywood ReporterAt worst: “By the end, it all seems to have been a lot of noise and running for nothing.” NPR

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BooksFew figures epitomise their era quite as fully – or extravagantly – as Diana Vreeland, tyrannical editor of American Vogue during the late 1960s. With her blue-black laquered beehive, rouged talons and ever-smouldering Virginia Slim, Vreeland pioneered the US fashion scene, but she came from rather different roots, reveals Amanda Mackenzie Stuart in her biographical tome Empress of Fashion. Her Parisian upbringing – and the innate connection to haute couture that it inferred – was mere smoke and mirrors: Vreeland was, in fact, the daughter of a north London post office worker, and was raised on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Nevertheless, Guardian’s Kathryn Hughes is enthralled: “Vreeland’s extravagant self-fashioning worked both as psychological armour and as a triumphant calling-card in the world of mid-century glossy magazines,” she writes. “Mackenzie Stuart situates Vreeland firmly in her time and place while taking nothing away from her idiosyncratic – often downright bonkers – talent.” Jane Shilling of the Daily Mail is also captivated: “This beautifully written biography reveals a woman who was, beneath the startling eccentricity of her manner and appearance, brave, original, loyal and unexpectedly kind.”

Set on a remote island plantatation under the pressure of an increasingly vice-like colonial grasp, Katie Kitamura’s Gone to the Forest paints a stark picture of life on the fringe of society. As a father snatches away his son’s fiance while a nearby volcano erupts, this tragic tale – almost Shakespearean in its melodrama – unfolds. “This new novel pries open, with rare insight, the vulnerability, the wounding woundedness, that defines her men,” writes Rob Nixon of The New York Times. “They are pushed to the brink, struggling to exercise their expiring powers, seeking to stave off the ruin that awaits them.” Writing in

The Literateur, James Tanner seizes upon the darkness of Kitamura’s novel: “Before reaching the twist, I didn’t think things could get worse for the broken characters without slipping the bounds of credulity. Sure enough, though, the hammer falls on that deepening bruise yet again, and this last blow is Kitamura’s best and most surprising, mocking us for hoping that the worst was finally over.”

Crime fiction aficionados should take note of Lynn Shepherd’s A Treacherous Likeness, the latest of the literary historian’s detective novels. Delving into the 19th-century family affairs of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, Shepherd unearths a murderous scandal which entangled the Shelley clan – to devastating effect. “As a piece of literary detective work, it’s brilliant,” writes The Spectator’s Andrew Taylor, but the ambiguity of fact and fiction raises troubling questions for Guardian’s Daisy Hay: “It is the privilege of fiction to speculate, to invent truths that documentary evidence cannot supply. But in exploring the stories of figures who are no longer able to defend themselves it is a privilege which has to be used wisely.”


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When Spanish artist Carles Casagemas shot himself in the temple in 1901, Europe’s bohemian circles were stunned. For his best friend Pablo Picasso, the suicide was almost too much to bear, but from his depair rose some of the artist’s most striking works – known as the ‘Blue Period’. Courtauld Gallery’s Becoming Picasso exhibition has its gaze firmly on that seminal year, featuring the key works from Picasso’s most profilific phase. “This is a formidable exhibition, didactic, intense and moving,” writes Brian Sewell in the London Evening Standard. “The ground is not new, but the particularly sharp focus on it is. The quality of the exhibits is uneven [but...] the quality of the best is astonishing, even sublime.” Perhaps the most striking of the pieces is Yo, Picasso, the self portrait painted just before the artist turned 20 that year. Alastair Sooke of the Telegraph views the work as a sign of things to come: “He appears incandescent, a fireball of inspiration and cocksure ambition burning against a background as dark as outer space. His cravat is an explosion of red, orange and yellow. Every frenzied mark is thick with vigour and self-assurance.”

Is it art that imitates life or vice versa? That’s the question that New York’s Metropolitan Museum raises with Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity, an elaborate gathering of fine nineteenth-century fashions and the artworks they inspired – or was it the other way around?

Either way, it’s a combination that the critics can’t seem to resist – Roberta Smith of The New York Times among them: “Its broad allure derives from its visual fireworks, historical clarity and pitch-perfect contextualising. It builds webs of new information and viewpoints around some of the best-known, most beloved paintings of all time, [and] chronicles the circular f low of life and art.”

Dubai-based British artist Patricia Millns is renowned for her subversive interpretations of Arabic customs, and her latest exhibition – Emra’a Adornment, at Tashkeel Gallery – promises to be the most insightful yet. Of the show, which focuses mainly on the niqab, Millns aims to encourage viewers to “explore and understand” Arab women’s place in society. Speaking to Gulf News, the artist reveals: “I see the niqab as something that adorns a woman and makes her look more beautiful. I know that in this region, [wearing it] is a matter of choice and I have always been fascinated to know why the women who wear the niqab choose to do so. Over the years, I have spoken about this to many women and this exhibition was born of those conversations and interactions.” Writing in Bazaar Magazine, reviewer Deepa Pant enthuses: “There is a sense of freedom and f luidity in the work. It stands out for its distinctive colour, beauty and use of symbols. [The show is] a tantalising teaser into this artist’s versatility and virtuosity.”


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Theatre

The casting of Scarlett Johansson as Tennessee Williams’s smouldering Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof looked set to leave Broadway audiences af lame. Those fortunate enough to get early tickets for the Richard Rodgers Theatre production left with rather damp spirits, however – according to The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney, at least. “The star and her similarly marooned fellow castmembers are all at the mercy of Rob Ashford,” he writes, “a director out of his depth and reaching for any f loatation device he can grab in this sinking Broadway revival.” Even Johansson’s dusting of Tinseltown magic isn’t enough to save the production from its failings, Rooney finds: “There’s otherwise insufficient delicacy in her characterization, which overall is the problem with Ashford’s production.” In a rare positive review, however, Ben Brantley of The New York Times sees Johansson’s

casting as a “lifeline” for the much-maligned production: “She confirms her promise as a stage actress of imposing presence and adventurous intelligence. She obviously has a strong sense of what she wants to do here, and the conviction to follow it through.”

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations was brought to the boards of London’s Vaudeville Theatre last month, to great critical acclaim. The family melodrama, set in a crumbling 1800s mansion, has already received plaudits for its intricate set and costume design: “Robin Peoples’s cobweb-strewn design of the forlorn great house with its crumbling rococo plasterwork, rotting wedding cake and the sounds of scuttling mice, is potently evocative,” finds the Telegraph’s Charles Spencer. “There is a dreamlike quality to the production.” In a dynamic re-working of the novel’s much-loved Gothic narrative, the

staging is more playground than staid classic backdrop: “[The] mansion becomes an antique playground with characters springing onto the dining table or prising their way through gaps in the plaster. This approach allows for a dream-like f luidity that exposes some of the novel’s concerns with a strong diagrammatic force.”

The aim of Australia’s Expressions Dance Company has always been to showcase the best of the country’s emerging dance talent, and its latest production, Propel (the next step), is set to continue that legacy. Staged last month at Queensland Theatre, the contemporary pieces by young choreographers Liesel Zink and Lucas Jervies has already attracted critical acclaim: “The story telling of the dancer/actors really shone,” writes Aussie Theatre’s Bobbi-Lea Dionysius. It is wonderful to see a public offering of emerging choreographers’ work.” Certainly one to watch, next time you’re down under.

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T imep ieces

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Frederic WatrelotChristie’s watch specialist on their must-see exhibition

This month, Dubai has a treat in store for those who love to admire the best watches in the world.

From April 14-17, at Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel, Christie’s Dubai will be showing around 35 watches drawn from our Important Watches sale, which takes place in Geneva, Switzerland, next month.

We always try to bring in a selection of watches to tempt new and existing collectors from this region and this season they will not be disappointed. The finest names in watchmaking will be represented, including Patek Philippe, Breguet, Cartier, Rolex, F.P. Journe and IWC.

The most important piece will be a Patek Philippe perpetual calendar

chronograph. This fine, large and rare platinum wristwatch with moon phases, known as ref. 5970, was manufactured in 2009 and is no longer in production. Reference 5970 was introduced to the market at Basel in April 2005 and replaced the celebrated reference 3970. The model immediately enjoyed enormous popularity amongst collectors and was available in white gold or pink gold only until 2007, when the production of these two versions ceased. Reference 5970 in yellow gold was in production only in 2008. Since then the model has been available exclusively in platinum and has been out of production since 2011. The watch we will show in Dubai is the platinum version, in virtually mint condition and with all of its accessories originally supplied. It’s a premium example from this very exclusive series, since it has never been offered in public before and comes from a very distinguished private collection. We are expecting the piece will realise between $105,000-158,000.

There will also be a selection of modern and vintage Rolex’s on show, including the famous Daytona Paul Newman, a stainless steel chronograph wristwatch with

bracelet. A keen eye can spot the difference between the Paul Newman Daytona and the standard Daytona and it is all in the watch face. The Paul Newman has a distinctive dial - the outer ring is in the same color as the registers and a different hour marker and font are used for the outer ring. Referred to in the trade as the Ref. 6239 and made around 1968, it is estimated at $52,000-84,000.

The other piece I wanted to point out is by F.P. Journe – a tourbillon wristwatch in platinum – very fine and very rare. It is known as the Tourbillon Souverain, no.158-TN, made around 2004, and carries the same estimate as the Rolex ($52,000-84,000). The tourbillon is a device invented by A.L. Breguet in 1801. It consists of a mobile cage carrying all of the parts of the escapement with the balance in the centre. Essentially it improves the accuracy of the watch by countering the effect of gravity on the movement. It is an ingenious piece of engineering which, when you consider it was invented more than 200 years ago, is quite humbling. The watches will be sold by Christie’s in Geneva on May 13. christies.com

> To celebrate 25 years of Ferrari in the UAE, the elite Italian motor company has teamed up with long-term partner, Swiss watchmaker Hublot, to create an exclusive 25-piece limited edition watch. The Big Bang Ferrari UAE features green, red, black and white accents, nods to the national flag, while the famous symbol of the Ferrari racing team, the prancing horse, sits discreetly at 9 o’clock. Subtle hints to Ferrari can also be found in the indices and hands, inspired by the counters in the cockpit, the watch strap’s stitching, akin to its upholstery, and the UNICO chronograph movement Hublot developed to power it, appearing like alloy wheel rims.

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T he Mouawad family may be renowned for its exquisite gems and jewellery, but its members are no strangers to the

watchmaking industry either.Now, more than a century after

David Mouawad began creating fine timepieces for prestigious clients, and some four decades after Robert Mouawad launched his luxurious watch brand Robergé, the family’s fourth generation of brothers have ushered in a new watchmaking venture under the family name.

Mouawad Watch Division is led by Alain Mouawad, who has joined his two brothers Fred and Pascal after 30 years in the Swiss watchmaking industry, first at Robergé and then with his own brand Blacksand Genève.Speaking at the launch of the first Mouawad luxury timepieces collection, he told AIR: “In 2010, when my father (Robert) decided to retire, Pascal and Fred took over Mouawad. They didn’t want to go into the watch business so I decided to make Blacksand, but last year we decided to work together. Blacksand is going to slightly disappear into the Mouawad world, but all of the high complications of a Mouawad watch will have the Blacksand DNA.”

Mouawad’s first collection for men, the Grande Ellipse, offers classic, elegant lines with sleek black or brown leather straps, gold or black dials and subtle diamond detail. Importantly, it has also adopted the oval-shaped dial introduced by Alain’s father at Robergé in 1972. “Most of the watches on the market today have a round shape,” explained Alain. “This is why my father wanted to create a watch that had a different style and this is why today we continue with the Grande Ellipse, to differentiate our creations from other brands. With this shape people should be able to know that it is a Mouawad watch, simply by looking at it.”

Both the Grande Ellipse and La Griffe, for women, are produced at the Mouawad Genève workshops and manufacturing facility in Switzerland, and combine the best of Swiss watchmaking tradition with the elegant and luxurious touches Mouawad is famous for.

The possibilities are both exciting and endless: evident in what was undoubtedly the star of the Mouawad Watch Division’s UAE launch, its bespoke and eye-dazzlingly fabulous Snow White Princess Diamond watch, featuring 233 colourless diamonds weighing 106.83 carats and worth US$6.8 million.

“My father is happy that all the family is working together,” Alain said. “Of course, a family business is a wonderful business but a tough business - the good thing is that we love each other and communicate well. We are proud of our first collection but also eager to improve. Every day we learn, we listen to what people say, but quality is always the priority.”

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Family matters

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Words: Hazel Plush

As the fourth generation to lead Patek Philippe, Geneva’s last independently-owned fine watchmaker, Thierry Stern knows the importance of family values. Here, he shares the secret of the marque’s unparalleled success

W hen I meet Thierry Stern, I can’t help but sneak a look at his watch. With some of the world’s most sought-after timepieces at his disposal, how does the president of Patek Philippe choose to tell the

time? “It’s the Reference 5208,” he says, following my gaze. With 701 components, and a plethora of the industry’s most complicated complications (a minute repeater, perpetual calendar, and monopusher chronograph to name but three), it’s clear that the boss has a collector’s taste. “Pieces like this are very hard to realise – this one took eight years to make. It’s not just about the skill, but about the time it takes to make the piece. That’s why they are so rare.” Not a quartz hybrid in sight today, then.

Since 1932, when Charles Stern acquired the watchmaking firm in Geneva, Patek Philippe has remained in the hands of the same family – and is now the only fully family-owned luxury watchmaking company in the Vallée de Joux. Thierry Stern is the fourth generation to lead the empire. When we meet, it’s the re-launch day of the marque’s Dubai Mall boutique: after a suitably luxe refurbishment, Patek Philippe is back in business.

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It’s a momentous day for the family, and as the boutique’s timepieces receive a last-minute polish, Stern’s pride is clear. “My family has worked on every single watch we sell,” he says with a smile. “Every week we have a meeting with the creative department; from the earliest stages of design to the finishing touches, we are there.” It’s no sales spin: Stern and his father Philippe Stern give final approval on the brand’s most complicated pieces, and personally sound-check every minute repeater.

These are not common responsibilities for the heads of a luxury marque, so does the responsibility weigh heavily on Stern’s shoulders? “Not at all – it’s a privilege. In the watch industry today, you have two types of people: knowledgeable watchmakers who really know their craft, and those who are knowledgeable about business. I am lucky to be a combination of both.”

When Stern started work at the family company at the tender age of 20, his father ensured he had humble roots. “I was an administrative employee, and went to work with the retailers in Germany,” he says. “My father wanted to impart the value of the brand, the techniques that make Patek Philippe what it is. He wanted me to understand the passion of the family, to work with all aspects of the company – it was a unique education.”

Completing training everywhere from the Patek Philippe watchmaking school to international retail outlets, Stern didn’t just acquire an encyclopaedia of industry knowledge – he got to know people in every corner of the company. “That’s the difference between Patek Philippe and many other brands,” Stern says. “I know everybody, and relationships are very important to us. As a family company, trust is at the core of everything we do.”

The marque is famed for its exclusive output – only 50,000 timepieces are produced every year – but the company has grown significantly since Stern’s father succeeded his own father, Henri Stern, in 1977.

“When my father started working, he had maybe 150 people working for him, but now we have over 2,000. I think of them all as family. The most important thing is to keep the respect of the brand, and ensure that the people who work for us are happy.”

The Sterns aren’t the only ones with strong links to the company: today, around 10 per cent of the Patek Philippe workforce have relatives also working for the brand. “Gone are the days of whole families taking up a career in watchmaking,” admits Stern. “Now we see the younger generation moving into commercial roles, into retail. That’s a very important part of the brand – the ‘human’ element, the involvement of families, is what makes us unique.”

But with the growth of the family company, does Stern feel pressure to take on a more corporate guise? “Yes. We try to run the business as a family business, but it’s not possible to do that in the true sense any more. We have to be strict, more professional. My father and I tend to be softer than people who are from a corporate background; it’s not just a commercial thing for us. We do business in a more emotional, sensitive way, and that is something we want to nurture.”

The importance of family doesn’t just define the Patek Philippe work ethic; it is at the core of the brand’s appeal, too. As the marketing slogan claims, “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation”. The idea of its timepieces as treasured heirlooms defines the brand as a true collector’s marque, but this is not a marketing gimmick.

“It’s not about the value of the watch,” says Stern, “it’s about its history. I have one of my grandfather’s watches; I know the feel of it, the scratches – he used to wear it all the time, so I feel like I know it. It’s a very emotive experience.”

From the Nautilus pieces being arranged in the boutique’s window to the extensive Calatrava range that’s been evolving since 1932, Patek Philippe timepieces are famed for their collectability – but what makes them stand


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‘I have one of my grandfather’s watches; I know the feel of it, the scratches – he used to wear it all the time, so

I feel like I know it. It’s a very emotive experience’


out from the crowd? “Each new design retains the character of the other watches in the line,” says Stern. “Collectors love that they can recognise the style; you can follow the evolution of each piece. There is a long tradition for each and every one.”

Stern never claims to reinvent a classic piece – instead, his aim is to raise each line to the height of perfection – and never, ever, create a ‘fashion piece’. But with such a focus on the brand’s heritage, how does he intend to lead the Patek Philippe empire into the future? “We are always making new designs, new components, new movements – we have around 100 people just working in the design and development department. Their job is to improve

and innovate: we love to work with new techniques, new materials, new ideas.”

With the relaunch of The Dubai Mall boutique and a new outlet in Shanghai, the future is certainly bright for Patek Philippe – and Stern has already introduced his two children to the brand. “I like to bring them to the factory from time to time,” he says, adding that school comes first.

Stern knows that exclusivity is what affords his marque’s status at the height of the luxury market. “I am not looking to increase the production numbers. I do, however, want to increase the quality. At Patek, we want to do everything properly – out of respect for the client and the brand – and that, of course, takes time.”

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‘The most important thing is to keep the respect of the brand, and ensure the people who work for us are happy’


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> If you have yet to catch the unique heritage pieces on display at Bulgari’s Serpenti Gallery, head to its Avenue at Etihad Towers boutique, Abu Dhabi, between April 5 and 15. There you can see pieces spanning 70 years, that were worn by the likes of Italian actress Virna

Lisi and Elizabeth Taylor. Alternatively, this image is one of a selection paying homage to the maison’s visual heritage in forthcoming tome Bulgari Portfolio, published by Skira. It is filled with images of international celebrities in exquisite jewels. rizzoliusa.com

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Fabergé unveils its high jewellery collection to the UAE

Horsebit bracelet 18 carat pink gold, 30 black diamonds and black synthetic

corundum

Gold Standard

Be the envy of your friends with Gucci’s new

Horsebit collection

Horsebit cocktail ring 18 carat pink gold, 4.58 carat brilliant-cut black

diamonds and black synthetic corundum

Horsebit ring18 carat pink gold, 5

carat brilliant-cut black diamonds and black synthetic corundum

When AIR was invited to afternoon tea at the Burj Al Arab to preview Fabergé’s high jewellery collections, launching in the UAE this October, our expectations were high. From the deep red Burmese gem at the heart of the Solyanka spinel ring, to the show-stopping Roses Egg - a lavish, gem-encrusted pendant that pays homage to Catherine the Great’s treasured roses, they did not disappoint. This emerald and diamond Romanov necklace is sure to turn onlookers green with envy. Those unable to wait can find a capsule collection at Damas or order from an international Fabergé boutique, which will fly out pieces to UAE customers at just four hours notice. faberge.com

> For its latest collection, Water, the House of Harry Winston sought inspiration from two of the world’s natural wonders - rare gemstones and water. This Turquoise Splash ring is one of 19 dazzling designs. Here, two oval turquoises weighing 5.36 carats, an oval sapphire of 1.12 carats and 46 pear-shaped and round brilliant-cut diamonds weighing 6.14 carats, are set in platinum. harrywinston.com

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Art & Des ign

T hose looking for yet another reason to get excited about the Louvre Abu Dhabi project are likely to find it this month at its Birth of a Museum exhibition: for if the sheer scale of the

presentation fails to inspire you, then the Pablo Picasso work that has never been seen before certainly will.

Birth of a Museum, which opens on April 22 at Manarat Al Saadiyat – Saadiyat Cultural District’s arts and culture centre, is the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s first large-scale presentation. Aimed at whetting the appetite of the public ahead of its 2015 opening, it also gives a taste of the treasures it will house and its curatorial concept: universalism.

The presentation will feature 130 of its newly acquired pieces, which date as early as 2BCE and encompass centuries of creativity: from magnificent ancient sculptures through to

Let there be Louvre In its largest exhibition to date, the Louvre AbuDhabi aims to shed further light on its narrative

and collection ahead of its 2015 opening…

“The exhibition will give people a taste of both the artworks that will be in the museum and [the building’s] architecture”, explained Hissa Al Daheria, the museum’s project manager. “It will follow the core principles and curatorial concept of the museum – universalism and the comparison of artworks from different civilisations. A lot of these pieces reflect human experiences as we develop through time. We are trying to tap into things that bring humans together.”

Other highlights of the exhibition include an ornate sculpture of a Bactrian princess from Central Asia, dated the late third millennium BCE, as well as an opaque watercolour of Maharao Sheodan Singh of Alwar, dated 1863, and the 1878 painting The Scholar, by Oman Hemdy.

Birth of a Museum also offers an insight into prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel’s vision

for the Louvre Abu Dhabi: an intricate cavern of pavilions, plazas, alleyways and canals, reminiscent of an ancient city floating on the sea. Hovering above the 64,000 metre complex will be a vast, Arabic-inspired, shallow dome perforated with intricate designs, intended to bathe the museum in ethereal-like light.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is keen, Al Daheria explained, to create a dialogue between the museum and its future visitors – “having them be part of this conversation, part of this process”. With this in mind, as with all exhibitions linked to the museum, a succession of cultural talks, tours and workshops will take place around it.

“There is art work from all different regions, in a dialogue that allows people to understand the connection between all these different civilisations,” she said. “It is a place where we invite people to come in and reflect on how art has developed, moved from one region to another, and how we influence one another.”

contemporary paintings. Among them, the Spanish artist’s papier collé Portrait of a Lady, rumoured to be of the granddaughter of Tsar Alexander II, Natalia Paley, a model who moved in fashionable Parisian circles. Largely unknown, the piece is believed to have only been mentioned once, in John Richardson’s 2007 book A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932.

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2. Exterior of Louvre Abu Dhabi, design by Atelier Jean Nouvel

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1. ‘Evliya Çelebi Seyâhatnâme’, by Sermin Ciddi

2. ‘Sultan Süleyman’, by Taner Alakus

3. ‘Kayip Sehrin Cocuklari’, by Hikmet Karabulut

4. ‘Oil on canvas’, by Sari Laleler

5. ‘Paper Marbling’, by Hikmet Barutcugil

6. ‘Semse’, by Gulbun Mesara

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A s one of the most significant cities in history, having served as the capital of four empires, it is unsurprising that Istanbul has long inspired artists.

In recent times, however, the city’s art scene has been predominantly focused on

modern pieces, with multiple art venues and events devoted to showcasing contemporary works.

That looks set to change this month with the introduction of All Arts Istanbul - an event dedicated solely to exploring traditional and classical Turkish, Islamic and Ottoman arts and antiques.

The fair, which runs April 18 to 21 at the city’s Congress Centre, will feature 100 local and international participants displaying works ranging from the ancient to the contemporary, and originating from Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa.

With Contemporary Istanbul - the city’s hugely popular modern art fair - now in its eighth year and attracting tens of thousands of visitors annually, Istanbul feels it is the right time to celebrate the region’s more traditional art forms too.

“We wanted to have a base for the classic, traditional, Turkish and Ottoman art in Istanbul,” said Professor Hasan Bulent Kahraman, general coordinator of All Arts Istanbul. “This is culturally important because in Turkey these traditional arts, for a long period of time, had been ignored.

“Even today there are people who produce traditional arts in the way that they were being produced 300 or 400 years ago. Of course, there is a transformation, a

Classic reinventionA new art fair in Istanbul aims to reignite old passions for traditional Turkish and Ottoman works…

metamorphosis, a mutation...nevertheless, the basic principles and approach are the same, or similar, to what has been produced in centuries past. Until now these people did not have a means to show themselves, to display or present themselves and their work.”

One of the principal aims of All Arts Istanbul, Prof Kahraman said, is to fuel better understanding of more classical art forms among collectors and aficionados. With this in mind, there will be a comprehensive VIP programme available that includes visits to artists’ studios, guided tours of the city’s many museums and private collections, seminars, conferences and workshops hosted by experts in various art forms, including calligraphy.

The long-term aim, Prof Kahraman explained, is for Turkey to become a hub, on both a regional and global level, for such art.

“We want to play a leading role in this market because Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, [and thus immersed in] Ottoman and Islamic Arts, for 600 years. Private collectors will be given a chance to present, promote and sell their valuable objects, and the fair will create an opportunity to enrich and transform existing collections.”

‘The fair offers an opportunity to enrich and transform existing collections’

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Art & Des ign

L ondon’s Soho galleries never fail to deliver fascinating off-the-wall art collections and Pete Hawkins’ latest exhibition, Behind Closed Doors, promises to be just that.

In his second collection of works for The Outsiders gallery, the Panama-born artist has taken to rough-hewn door surfaces sourced from Yorkshire, England, to explore the possibilities they represent.

“Doors hold a lot of meaning and not only as transitional points in people’s lives,” he explained. “There’s the inherent sense of nostalgia they bear. Plus, there’s the compelling suggestion of what may lie behind them.”

From a white collar worker wistfully watching a space-walking astronaut to an adolescent woman on a swing suspended from a lion-shaped door knocker, who is trying to kick through the door, the artist’s works – inspired by mythology and literature – seek to blur the line between dream and reality.

“Children seem to have a vast expanse of imagination, which can be lost the older we get,” he said. “In a child’s mind, anything is possible and I was looking to harness that.”

This isn’t the first time Hawkins has looked to childhood dreams for inspiration. His first exhibition at The Outsiders, Every Day’s a School Day, was a series of childhood aspirations painted on vintage school desks.

“Behind Closed Doors has strong links to Every Day’s a School Day, but this body of work has more macabre undertones,” Hawkins explained. “While at first glance the image looks quite innocent, with further investigation you’ll realise there’s more to it.

“These are slightly more complex narratives, often inspired by the features of the doors,” he added. “For instance, is the girl on the swing trying to smash in the lion’s den?”

The Outsiders gallery, which sells original works from the Lazarides stable of artists – including Banksy and Antony Micallef - is no doubt anticipating big things for Hawkins’ solo exhibition. His first solo show for them was greeted with excitement when shown to select buyers, and led to a sell-out exhibition in 2011.

“I instantly knew it would be a different experience working with them [The Outsiders],” Hawkins said. “There is a very nurturing and encouraging culture towards the artist, which enables me to feel unrestrained in terms of ideas and the materials I want to use.”

The doorsA new exhibition at The Outsiders London gallery provides a portal to

childhood dreams…

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1. ‘For Queen And Country’2. ‘In Hindsight’

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T here are few shoes larger to fill than those of late French designer Roger Vivier. The creator of the stiletto heel, his constructions

were regarded not simply as shoes, but pieces of architecture, sculptures, that today can be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre, Paris.

For most designers, taking over creative responsibility for the house of Vivier may have seemed too daunting a task: but Bruno Frisoni is not like most designers.

A decade after the Italian was appointed the artistic director of Vivier, he is walking tall – having managed to successfully, and sensitively, reinterpret the brand, bringing it firmly into the noughties.

“It’s the idea of giving a new chapter to Vivier,” Frisoni told AIR, when we meet at the label’s new boutique in The Dubai Mall’s Level shoe district. “Sometimes (as a designer), you feel totally free but in some other place, in other aspects of the design, you have to remain true to the Vivier story.”

Roger Vivier’s story is an illustrious one that begins in Paris, where he was born in 1907. Having trained at the city’s School of Fine Arts, he began a ten-year collaboration with Christian Dior in 1953. While very high, thin heels were around in the 19th century, Vivier is credited with reviving and developing the stiletto heel during his time at Dior using a thin rod of steel. While no doubt his signature creation, he also pioneered several other cutting-edge shapes using what were then unusual materials.

“The lines are very important,” Frisoni explained, gesturing to the

Hot stepperAIR meets the creative force fuelling the revival of Roger Vivier - ‘the Fabergé of shoes’...

Art & Des ign

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elegant shoes that surround us, “Vivier was a huge designer of lines. Materials are very important [too] – such as the mirror-effect, stretch...sometimes PVC. Then there is the silhouette - the shark heel, the pearl, the ball heel...”

Arguably Vivier’s most distinctive design, however, was and remains the buckle pump – made famous by Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour.

“The buckle is the main recognition piece of Vivier,” Frisoni agreed. “It is like a club member card. We don’t put the Vivier name on any product or piece, ever. This is very Vivier and continues to be relevant in what I do today: you will recognise a Vivier shoe by the style, but only if you know the style.”

During his hey-day, Roger Vivier’s creations were worn by some of the biggest names on the planet: from Ava Gardner to the Beatles, Josephine Baker to Jeanne Moreau – even

Queen Elizabeth II, on the day of her coronation in 1953, slipped into a pair of Vivier ruby-studded kidskin pumps decorated with a fleur-de-lis motif that perfectly matched the Imperial State Crown.

Decades later, thanks to Frisoni’s creative flair and sympathetic reinterpretation, Vivier is once again the luxury label at the top of high society’s wish list. This is perhaps, in

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Art & Des ign

part, due to his decision to add elegant handbags and glamorous eyewear to the house collections.

“I love shoe design because there is something complete about it: it could be architecture, it could be an object, it could be something that is part of you because you wear it, like you wear your dress. Equally, I love bags for what they are – objects that you covet,” Frisoni said.

“What we wanted to do when we

relaunched the brand is to make Vivier a maison d’accessoire, a beautiful house of accessories, that would bring, around the core shoe business, beautiful accessories like glasses, bags, perfume maybe - whatever would be relevant. Of course, it’s always been a challenge: people knew Vivier for the shoes and not naturally for the bags, so all those things took time. But we achieved it.”

For evidence of this achievement,

one need look no further than this year’s Golden Globes. Jessica Alba, Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Garner were among an array of stars snapped clutching ferociously to their incredible Vivier handbags, while Jennifer Lawrence, Freida Pinto, Miranda Kerr and Julianna Margulies were all snapped strutting down the red carpet in Vivier creations.

With so many designers channeling celebrity muses, I wonder which of these ladies inspire Frisoni’s work.

“I don’t have a muse,” he said. “My inspiration could be an old woman, it could be a beautiful woman, it could be a kid. I’m always being inspired by kids because I think there is something never costumed, something that is fresh, something that is, of course, young – a young take on the clothing. They have such a beautiful attitude that is so ingénue (innocent). They embody it in a very natural way, without any idea to try to convince you of something.”

Adored by celebrities and royalty, but inspired by the everyday man, just who is a typical Vivier customer?

“To me, she is a woman who is really keen on fashion,” Frisoni said. “She really likes fashion, but never takes it too seriously. She is looking for something that is very unique and exclusive, at the same time that is recognisable and very stylish.”

She is, it would seem, also very often from Dubai: hence the decision to open a Vivier boutique here.

“People [have been coming] from Dubai for years to London, to Paris or to Milan [to buy Vivier shoes],” he said. “Also, Dubai is a meeting place, like London, so you meet many kinds of customers here.”

After 10 years at the helm, and having succeeded in making Vivier relevant again, Frisoni felt the time had come to reintroduce original Roger Vivier creations to collections, albeit with a fresh perspective.

He began with the much-coveted Rendez-Vous collection, an exquisite collection of swoon-worthy handbags and shoes, limited to a maximum of


around 20 pieces, showcased during Paris haute couture week twice a year: think rare feathers, lush colours, dazzling gems and opulent fabrics.

“This time, I decided to show a collection that I named The Archives of Imagination. I brought back the comma heel silhouette, with embroidery that we duplicated with one of the only embroiderers still existing who had worked with Roger Vivier, Francois Lessage: Lessage

has passed, but the company is still there. We duplicated exactly to the ones we [found in the archive]. I also reinterpreted it, with a new height.”

Creatively, a decade at a fashion house is a long time. Having achieved what he initially set out to do at Vivier, one could understand the creative director considering pastures new.

But, having called time on his own eponymous and highly successful label to ensure Roger Vivier received

his full attention, he is content.“I wanted to concentrate on what I

love to do, and what I love to do is to create and develop something.

“My line was calling me to take too many decisions that were not about design. I feel free now. Earlier, someone asked me about the limits or frustrations of working for such a prestigious house but I think limits are key to my job: you have a goal because you have limits.”

‘I love shoe design, there is something complete about it. Equally, I love bags for

what they are - objects you covet’

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Inter Iors

Sara CoSgroveHarrods’ head of interior design explains why introducing a shade of blue can transform living space

I am always looking for new and innovative ways to create impressive interior design but sometimes, the best way is to not try too hard but to select from classic colour combinations and palettes. From cobalt to indigo, duck egg to cornflower, blue is one of those classic colours with so many variations that it almost has an entire spectrum of its own. A popular misconception is

> The Rug Company’s collaborations with major fashion houses rarely disappoint and these latest offerings from the Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith range are no exception. Traditional French Aubusson tapestry techniques, silk and pashmina threads and soft metallic accents bring McQueen’s vivid Hummingbird design to life. Meanwhile, Smith swaps stripes for bold graphics in his three latest offerings. Inspired by modernist buildings, the British designer’s Umbra rug (pictured top right) nods to the urban, while Cubes (top left) takes inspiration from stained glass windows. The Rug Company, DIFC, Dubai

that blue can make a room feel harsh or cold but, a firm favourite in many beautiful interiors schemes, it can be used to create a wonderfully calm atmosphere for contemporary and more nostalgic spaces, either at home or in a commercial environment.

Make blue work in your own home by following my interior styling tips...

Incorporate an accent colour to a neutral palette by framing your furniture on a stunning rug in a striking design or by finishing off with a dramatic pendant light or chandelier. You will find some wonderful designs from The Rug Company, who have collaborated with many established designers to create their evolving rug collections. This will immediately set the scene within a space, creating an anchor for your furniture layout. Lighting can be the perfect way of adding colour. Go for glamour with a ‘Zenith Midnight’ chandelier by Baccarat or try contemporary decorative lighting from Heathfield & Co.

For real impact, why not opt for an entirely blue room? I love the Blue

Bar at The Berkeley Hotel in London’s Knightsbridge, which features a clever collection of furniture and lacquered wall finishes in delicate shades of blue with flashes of red.

There are many simple ways of working the colour into your home and accessorising is an easy way to update a space. I like to add Chinese style ceramic vases to a clean fresh scheme, which subtly suggest colour. The use of textiles is another way to revive your room. Add scatter cushions and curtains in varying textures and patterns to bring a space to life. Fabrics from Rubelli, Sanderson and Romo have some impressive options, which can be used to upholster key pieces or can be stretched in a frame and hung on a wall. For the bedroom, the Edmond Frette and classic Frette ranges feature some pretty bed linens or, for a touch of luxury, Yves Delorme has a quilted throw in silvery-blue velvet which adds a sumptuous layer to a bed.

Whatever you choose, ensure it makes you smile and evokes a sense of calm when you are there…

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> This opalescent, 176-piece limited-edition crystal ATOMS Hermès clock is the collaborative effort of the French fashion house, Jaeger-Le Coultre and Les Cristalleries de St Louis. The unique crystal sphere, which subtly reflects light, was made using a complex double overlay technique, which involves coating layers of glass over each other. Inside, an almost perpetually moving mechanism developed by Jaeger-Le Coultre that is powered by air. Perfect for any room. jaeger-lecoultre.com

N ame a prestigious property created during the past two decades and it is likely that Baroncelli is responsible for the

light installations within it. The Italian business’s innovative designs, created using age-old techniques and the finest

Murano glass, has earned it contracts at some of the world’s most luxurious addresses: from Claridge’s in London to the Burj Al Arab and even the world’s most expensive terraced house (One, Cornwall Terrace, London, incase you were wondering).Baroncelli has been shining light on addresses in the UAE for years, with recent additions to its portfolio including Meydan Beach resort, the Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah and another large project in Abu Dhabi that, for now, remains top secret. It has also worked on many residential addresses, though the details are similarly hush-hush.Whether it’s a ceiling installation inspired by a collection of cocktail umbrellas or an extravagant chandelier for a millionaire’s hallway, Baroncelli prides itself on being able to cater to its clients’ whims.

“Bespoke has always been our greatest strength,” said Giovanni Corrado, the company’s creative director and son of founder Rinda Baroncelli. “When you’re dealing with big residential projects, people want something special. There is always a budget, but it is less important than having something unique.”Baroncelli’s UAE clients, he said, are among the most creative: “There is this expectation that clients in the UAE will opt for more traditional designs but actually that isn’t the case. Their ideas tend to capture the imagination – they are often my favourites.”For centuries, Venetian glass produced on the island of Murano was highly sought after for everything, from mirrors and chandeliers through to furniture. When Italian-born Rinda Baroncelli founded her eponymous company in the early 1990s, her design-led approach married traditional Murano glass craft with bold, contemporary design, challenging preconceptions and earning an impressive portfolio of new devotees. “You have to be doing design that people want today,” said Corrado. “It’s great that in the 18th century we were doing flowers and leaves, but if people don’t want flowers and leaves then it’s a mute point. Baroncelli pieces can be made-to-measure or completely customised – both options popular with UAE clients. As everything is hand-crafted in Venice, patience is required though: items take at least four months to be created. But the results are definitely worth the wait.baroncelli.com

Glass actAIR catches up with the bespoke Italian lighting company

that has been leaving its rivals in the shade for more than 20 years…

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Words: Jan Janssen

Private Ryan

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Even though women melt at his feet, Ryan Gosling has never thought of himself as being particularly ‘hot’ - or ‘cool’, for that matter. But there is no disputing his standing as one of Hollywood’s heartthrobs, blessed with boyish good looks and laid-back charm. He’s also a terrifically talented actor whose performances in films such as The Notebook, Blue Valentine, and Drive have enthralled critics and audiences alike. Gosling is an unconventional movie star, however, having grown up in a strict Mormon household in Canada only to wind up supporting his family as a child star on The Mickey Mouse Club. Growing up in Disney World fed his vivid imagination, even while he admittedly spent his leisure time “corrupting” his fellow mouseketeers. Now 32, he still retains an iconoclastic perspective and is stubbornly resistant to the many perks of fame and fortune.

“This business is full of ups and downs, and I don’t want to look down in case I might fall,” Gosling muses. “I don’t have any master plan. I love acting, I love being able to play characters that are a mix of good and bad, and are as flawed as they are admirable. It’s my way of trying to make sense of human nature.”

His new film, The Place Beyond The Pines, draws heavily on the 32-year-old actor’s melancholy perspective. It marks the second collaboration

between Gosling and director Derek Cianfrance following Blue Valentine, and the film is layered with brooding romanticism and a deep sense of foreboding.

As Luke, the film’s tenebrous anti-hero, Gosling revels in the guise of the laconic rebel, an anti-hero whose curious élan is reminiscent of early Jack Nicholson. There are even hints of Steve McQueen in Ryan’s work, and it’s an interesting coincidence that Gosling has toyed with both cars

(Drive) and motorcycles (Pines), just as McQueen did in Bullitt and The Great Escape.

In conversation, Gosling is refreshingly open and unassuming, preferring to avoid pre-packaged answers in favour of genuine reflection and witty observation. Wearing a bright blue shirt, jeans, and green high-top trainers, he has the relaxed air of a man riding the wave of his success with a certain amount of amused curiosity.


What led you to work with director Derek Cianfrance a second time around?It’s an interesting story. We were having a conversation and I mentioned

Do you feel like a movie star these days?No, I feel tired!

to him that I’ve been fantasising about robbing banks for a long time. Ever since I was a kid. I was telling Derek, “That’s my fantasy. If I ever robbed a bank, I would do it on a motorcycle, and I would do it in this or that way.” And then he said, “Oh, that’s weird, I just wrote a script about that.” It just felt meant to be.

So how did it feel to live out your fantasy?Derek said I was gonna get to rob the banks for real. There would be no cuts,

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were all inspired by my own childhood fantasies about the kinds of tattoos I wanted to get but which obviously as an actor, especially a young actor, you just can’t get them done. So the film was my opportunity to wear them for a few months. But just before we were about to start shooting, I chickened out when it came to having the dagger tattoo on my face. I told Derek, “I can’t do this. This is too much, it’s too distracting”. But he explained to me, “But that’s exactly what happens when you do a face tattoo. You regret it and you can’t take it off and you’re stuck with it!”

Your girlfriend in the film is played by Eva Mendes [Gosling’s real life love interest] and apparently you were the one who suggested her for the part?I’d known her for a long time and I just knew that there was no better actress for the part. That’s how I felt, but obviously Derek had to feel that way, too...But in the end she just kept after him and eventually he gave her the part and as soon as we got on the set it was obvious that she was perfect.

You’ve achieved a lot of recognition during the last few years with films like Drive and The Ides of March. Do you feel like you’ve reached the level where you want to be at?That was a great year when those films came out, and I had been waiting for that kind of a moment. You can’t plan things. I take each project as it comes and I try to work with talented

and real people in there, real bank tellers. I’d have to ride the bike up, rob the bank, and ride away on the bike. I was very excited – I thought I was gonna be real scary. But then I got up there in the bank and in the heat of screaming at these people, I just looked down at them and they were all smiling. The bank employees were just enjoying the show. Some of them were even taking pictures of me with their cellphones instead of covering their heads with their hands the way they were supposed to. I wasn’t exactly making anyone tremble with fear on that first take.

So how did you make that scene work?Derek and I had to go regroup after the first take. We were like, ‘“Oh,

no! They’re not scared, they’re entertained! They’re having fun, they’re happy to be in a movie!” And then Derek was like, “Well, you gotta scare ’em, you know?” And I was like, “OK”. And I went back and did it again and I kept trying to be scarier and scream louder and louder and trying to make them react like it was a real robbery. But I think the more angry I got, the more fun they were having. It was an interesting challenge (laughs). But after we did several more takes we eventually wore them out. They got exhausted and just wanted to be done with the scene. That’s when we started to hit some interesting places.

Your character Luke is covered with tattoos. Did that add a sense of menace to him?That wasn’t the main intent. It was more something that defined his rough journey in life. The tattoos he wears

‘This business is full of ups and downs, and I don’t want to look down in case I might fall’

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people. I feel like I’m getting more opportunities and a chance to be part of more interesting films, so on that level there’s been a definite difference. But you’re also aware that the stakes are higher and you want to make sure you don’t make mistakes.

You’ve spoken in the past about how making Blue Valentine was a very intense experience. Was that why you wanted to work with Derek Cianfrance again?I think he’s an important filmmaker. These two films I’ve made with him have changed my life and they have changed me as an actor. As I go to approach making my own film (he’s about to make his directorial debut in How to Make a Monster) I’m even more in awe of how he does it, because the filmmaking is invisible and yet it’s such a cinematic film. You don’t see the effort. It feels effortless and yet it’s completely the opposite. I also love the idea of working with the same people. You spend most of the time getting to know a person, getting to know how they work, developing a shorthand together. So it’s nice to be able to go into a second picture with them and hit the ground running. You’re able to do better work and you don’t waste time with formalities. I feel like Derek and I had a shorthand when we came into this film. We were able to do much more in a shorter period of time. We both evolved and the film evolved.We have instant access to each other, which you need when you’re making a film because time is always coming to get you.

You’ve tried to maintain a distance between your movie star self and your private life. How hard is it to separate a real life from your public life?I often think that I have multiple selves. My personal life is very separate from what I do for a living and I want to keep it that way. I need to maintain that distance because often things can get very blurry. I find I need to spend time living totally separate from my life as an actor because you need to be part of the real

world and draw on those experiences as opposed to those you have riding in limousines, staying in five-star hotels, and leading a very pampered and insulated life as an actor. My early teenage years were spent living in a theme park (Disney World). It was a fantasy world and a place where people worked and lived and where Mickey Mouse would be sitting next to you at the cafeteria with his head off and telling you stories. Those kind of experiences were interesting and they kind of mirror this gap between illusion and reality. That’s what makes telling stories in films so interesting, because you get to talk about reality through this carefully created illusion that you allow yourself to become part of through your character.

Was there any one particular influence that led you to become an actor?Well, my uncle was an Elvis impersonator. It took me a little while to realise that that’s what he was – I just thought that he was different than everyone else (laughs). But he came to live with us for a while, and he started making this jumpsuit; he was putting sequins on it, bedazzling it. I was little and it was the most interesting thing happening in the house, you know? Then he was singing in the mirror and he was doing the voice, he was working on the songs. I guess I watched him create a character over the course of a few months. And then he put me in the act - I was head of security. Suddenly we’d be walking out and the music’s playing and he’s Elvis...he was a totally different person. Meanwhile, he had a birthmark, a moustache and no hair, he looked nothing like Elvis. But he became Elvis… I think that must have had something to do with it (laughs).

Two years ago you decided to move away from Los Angeles and live in New York. Was that to help gain greater distance from Hollywood?I had reached a point where I couldn’t live in Los Angeles anymore, even though I loved the weather and the palm trees. The problem is that you spend half your life sitting in traffic

and driving from one place to the next. Everything in that city seems to be centred around the film business and it just pervades everything you do. In New York I can walk around more or less freely and it feels real there. There’s such a strong sense of identity and culture to the city that you thrive on that kind of spirit. I love it there.

Show business has been your life. What kind of impact does that have on you in terms of learning to adapt to a lot of responsibility early on?I was very serious when it came to

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acting and earning a living. My mother and sister were dependent on me after my parents got divorced, but by mom was supporting me in my career and I could never have achieved anything without her and my sister there for me. So I may have supported them financially but I didn’t look at it as if I was doing anything other than what I should be doing. I saw acting as a way of making very good money compared to how my parents had struggled, when my dad was working at a paper mill and my mother was a secretary. So I was happy to be helping. Also, I’m not stupid. Acting is pretty good.


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She creates $80,000 dresses

for the A-list and is married to Hollywood’s most

powerful man. Meet Georgina

Chapman...

Words: Tim Teeman

S he insists that her pregnancy jeans “are really quite comfortable”, but when we meet, 10 weeks before her second baby is due, Georgina Chapman doesn’t look even moderately close to embracing maternitywear. The co-founder of Marchesa – the couture label favoured

by red carpet A-listers such as Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz and Renée Zellweger – is wearing dramatic Alaïa heels, a black leather Balenciaga skirt (“not too bad, it’s got elastic in the back”) and a fitted white Givenchy shirt. Her make-up is flawless, her hair so glossy

it came with its own light show. “There are moments when you stare into the wardrobe and think, ‘Oh [goodness], something that looked lovely four weeks ago won’t work now.’ But I’m trying to make my old clothes work,” Chapman says, in her sing-songy posh accent, with the first of many fluting laughs.

We are in Chapman’s showroom and headquarters in West Chelsea, Manhattan. Pinned to a mannequin in front of a “mood board” littered with pictures of old movie stars is the dress actress Amy Adams wore at this year’s Golden Globes: a blush-coloured, Chantilly lace and boned tulle corset, with netted skirt. In the atelier beyond, Marchesa’s 60 staff are in a busy blur of stitching and pressing (Chapman’s own nails “are too beaten” to qualify for manicures). At the time of our interview, the Oscar dress commissions were unconfirmed, but the likes

of Olivia Munn would sport Marchesa on the red carpet. Does she mind when the critics dig in their talons? “Let them say what they say. The important thing is the client and if she’s happy.” You don’t mind if your creations are trashed? “It’s a hard thing… taste. You just move on and make another dress.” And when said dresses can sell for a cool $80,000, who cares what a critic thinks?

Whereas there will be those (admittedly, non-fashion types) who will not have heard of Chapman, 36, there won’t be many who haven’t heard of her husband – movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, 60. They married six years ago, and

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‘I have the best job. I get to dream all day and design

gorgeous dresses’


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about “under a blanket so I could nurse her” to fittings, and now “comes into the office almost every day. I’m incredibly lucky; I have support [including her mother, who moved to the US to help], but for women who work for someone else it must be difficult.”

Chapman was brought up in upper-middle class comfort in Surrey, England, the daughter of a millionaire businessman father and journalist mother. She made clothes from a young age and in moments of teenage angst she took herself off to Richmond Park to paint. She applied to art college to study painting and sculpture, but “knew I’d end up doing fashion” and switched courses. “It was the time of Galliano, McQueen. As a kid I went to Kings Road, seeing punk rockers, and I loved the visual aspect of it. Then I became obsessed by Lacroix and Byzantine jewellery. I started stitching feathers on white shirts. Awful.”

And like many a middle-class kid, she went to India on her gap year, only its effect was more long-lasting. “My great-grandmother and grandmother were born there. Their photo albums began my obsession with fashion: they’re in corsets, long skirts. My own visits left a mark on me.” Not only did she and Weinstein name their first daughter after the country, they also fund the Rose Home Shelter for Girls in New Delhi. “It houses 50 homeless girls, from babies to 18-year-olds. We get them into education.” Now they want to help these young women find work. “I’ve been very lucky in my life. I had an amazing, wealthy upbringing and now this incredible brand. A lot of people don’t. I think that if you can afford it you have a responsibility to do something for others.”

Chapman and Keren Craig, whom she met at art college, co-founded Marchesa in 2004, encouraged first by Isabella Blow. “We were at a party. I had bought a sari from Southall and created a backless corset. She loved the dress, asked to wear it and said, ‘You should be doing couture.’ Without her encouragement, I’m not sure we would have had the courage to do it.”

The label is named after another inspiration, the Marchesa Luisa Casati, an eccentric 20th-century Italian heiress, for “her fearless approach to fashion, being a living work of art. Like Isabella, she was a rare bird. I love women who embrace fashion, their bodies, unafraid.”

Chapman would like to keep Marchesa an independently owned company, but doesn’t have “a problem” with the idea of a conglomerate swooping in. “At the moment I have the best job,” she says. “I get to dream all day and design gorgeous dresses.”

She is due to give birth early this month and then direct her first film, a 12-minute “fairytale”. “How am I going to get in and out of the director’s chair?” It’s set in New York and written by Neil Gaiman, author of the graphic novel series Sandman. “I’m definitely going to seek out Harvey’s advice. It would be foolish not to.” Another fluting laugh. “I’m hoping that if he ever designed a dress he might ask for my advice.”

have a two-year-old daughter together, India, as well as three grown stepdaughters from Weinstein’s first marriage.

She and Weinstein couldn’t seem more different: he bearish, brutal, thick-skinned; she young, petite, gentle. They met in 2004 and married in 2007. What first attracted her to him? “He is probably the most charismatic person you’ll ever meet. He’s an extraordinary man and an extraordinary talent. He is my husband and I love him. I love being married. Everyone said, ‘You won’t feel any different,’ but I think you do. I’m romantic. Look at my clothes! I love the idea of the fairytale.”

But he has such a ruthless reputation? “You should see him with our daughters. He’s just putty in their hands.” Does he get couture? “He goes to Dior shows. He gets costume because he has beautiful costumes in his films. Does he have anything to do with this brand? Absolutely not.” Chapman guffaws. “Have you seen the way he dresses? I would not let him near this brand, no. When it comes to fashion, it’s a separate world: think Church and State.”

Has he got smarter since she met him? “I like to think so. I order him suits from Richard James and great jackets from Belstaff and Zegna. My whole world is about fashion and aesthetics and it’s actually quite nice to be with somebody who isn’t about that at all and doesn’t particularly get what I do, but appreciates and loves it because I love it.”

They have homes in the West Village, a weekend residence in Connecticut, and Chapman kept her first flat in Brook Green, London, “for sentimental reasons”.In Connecticut, they cook and walk their dogs. Is it an extravagant lifestyle? “I don’t dislike luxury,” Chapman laughs. “I like beautiful craftsmanship.” She “loves” Frette sheets, candles, baths and, when not pregnant, “a good Tuscan red on a Friday night”.

Although Chapman insists that her children and family come first, she is equally devoted to her work. “India was born seven days before a show. I had her on the Monday and was back at work on Thursday. I was delirious; it was very intense, but you just get on with it.” India was ferried Im

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W hen I meet Lindy Woodward, author of Harry Gordon Selfridge’s

biography Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge, the day and setting couldn’t be more apt: we’re at London Oxford Street’s Selfridges department store on March 15, the same date that changed shoppers’ lives forever 104 years ago.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you’re used to Dubai climes) there’s no sign of snowflakes tumbling from the sky today, as they did during Selfridges grand opening in 1909 – much to Woodward’s dismay. And if anyone is deserved of a little historic ambience it’s this blonde, bubbly, well-spoken Brit who’s dedicated four years of painstaking research to the maverick retailer and his prized store.

But it seems her effort is paying off – her story is currently winging its way across screens worldwide in a TV drama, Mr Selfridge, that sees Entourage’s Jeremy Piven (or “The Piv” as Woodward likes to call him) in the title role. Though there’s not a jot of the foul-mouthed Ari Gold, for which he’s better known, to be seen.

“TV always makes you younger, thinner and better looking,” chuckles Woodward on the casting. “But he [Piven] has seized on the ‘mile-a-minute Harry’ character… He’s astonishingly charismatic.”

Having recently aired in the UK, Mr Selfridge is set for Middle Eastern screens (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain) this year. But will its London roots guarantee global appeal? “I think shopping is universal!” beams Woodward. She has a point: strolling by Selfridges’ immaculate glass counters earlier that morning – a walk Mr Selfridge did daily, reportedly writing his initials ‘HGS’ as he went in any traces of dust

(“it didn’t stay around long”, chips in Woodward) – I was as intrigued by its tales as any self-respecting shopaholic, fashion-follower or lover of luxury. For the man behind the name revolutionised shopping. He did it by creating a store that seduced men and women and instantly sidelined his stuffier Victorian rivals. “I think his spirit is still lurking around,” Woodward says, with a mock glance over her shoulder.

Words: Laura Binder

Dandy, maverick, self-made millionaire – Harry Gordon Selfridge revolutionised luxury retail as we know it. AIR gets the measure of the man behind Selfridges...

The Showman of Shopping

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“Harry Gordon Selfridge revolutionised shopping by creating a store that seduced men and women and instantly sidelined his stuffier Victorian rivals”


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Selfridge’s bid for retail domination didn’t begin as you might think – rather, it was the product of 25 years of hard graft at Marshall Field in Chicago, first as an unglamorous stock boy and finishing as a fully-fledged partner. In 1906, he landed in London with big dreams and a big investment. “This egalitarian American arrives in London and causes a sensation,” smirks Woodward, ever-enthralled by his eccentricities. “He had musicians playing in the street, while the building of Selfridges went on – something the police later banned as he had no music licence.”

Assuming the then-unfashionable, tail-end of Oxford Street didn’t stifle his vision either. “At that time, shopping came only in the form of small, interlinked boutiques,” tells Woodward. “Selfridges was the very first modern department store of the West End, built entirely from scratch.” And for Harry, only the most modern techniques would do: “It was only the second building in the UK to be built with a steel frame,” adds Woodward. “There used to be hundreds of people

“Harry wanted to be the best. He loved beautiful buildings and the first and most luxurious thing

in his life was Selfridges”

standing on the street staring at the crane because it was the biggest they’d ever seen.” Add to the spectacle the in-store use of electric light (just 45 per cent of the commercial capital had it) and telephones (eight per cent of London households owned one) and Selfridges caused quite the stir.

“Harry wanted to be the best,” concedes Woodward. “He loved beautiful buildings and the first and

most luxurious thing in his life was Selfridges.” At a time when there was no TV or radio, he put on a show of his own, daily. “Selfridges was a theatre with the curtain going up at nine o’clock each morning”, she smiles.

Inside, customers could quaff the world’s first fizzy drinks and take their first bites of a real American burger

– but that was the tip of the iceberg. “Men could learn to fly an aeroplane at Selfridges,” tells Woodward. “In the 1920s Harry fitted a flight simulator on the roof. The store had a walk-in humidor room for cigars so if you were travelling somewhere far-flung, like Egypt, and ran out of your favourite cigar, you would just phone Selfridges and they would ship them out to you. It was toys for the boys.”

Aeroplanes, diamonds and fur coats were showcased in light and bright displays – with glass counters used in London for the first time – while in 1910 Selfridge made the controversial move to sell make-up and perfume. The kind of frivolous fancies reserved for showgirls, he foresaw a trend and fashioned the first cosmetics-


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dedicated hall of any department store. It became Selfridges’ most profitable department.

Such behaviour didn’t go unnoticed: celebrity guests came thick and fast, with the likes of ballerina Anna Pavlova, Winston Churchill and even King George V visiting. Of course, the commotion was hard to miss – Selfridges famous window displays were show-stopping productions all of their own (he coined today’s concept of visual display), one of which famously featured the aeroplane Louis Bleriot used to complete the first flight across the English Channel. “There was a press club in the store, with typewriters and a bar,” says Woodward, “and they would never leave without a story. Harry would always create one.”

So do the spectacular UAE malls of our era have Harry Gordon Selfridge to thank? “The evolution of shopping malls is something that would have happened as an extension of big department stores,” muses Woodward. “But I think setting the benchmark for glamour is something Selfridges did.”

It wasn’t just women’s shopping that he revolutionised, either. “Men could come here and not just buy cigars, but smoke them; look at the Ticker Tape machine and check stocks and shares. They could book theatre tickets, send flowers to their girlfriend, pay their wife’s monthly account and leave having had a flying lesson. He could buy a plane too, if he wanted,” says Woodward.

Selfridge’s desire to put on a show was fuelled by his love of theatre, where you’d find him on any opening night, decked out in white tails. “He was passionate about theatre and passionate about beauty,” Woodward elaborates, “so if you combine them – he’d already bought a beautiful building and he wanted beautiful things to fill it.”

And where there were shows there were theatre actresses likely to catch Selfridge’s roving eye. Despite having arrived in London with wife Rosalie (of Chicago’s esteemed Buckingham family) and four children (Rosalie,

Violette, Beatrice and Gordon Jr.) his dandy ways regularly made their way into starlets’ dressing rooms. “While he adored his wife he had serial affairs – that’s a fact”, tells Woodward.

The cost of maintaing such affairs - Selfridge was known to lavish his ladies with extremely expensive gifts, including property - partly led to his downfall. His dalliance with two sisters from the stage, Jenny and Rosie Dolly, was said to have cost him £5 million, a sum equivalent to £270 million in today’s market.

Such profligacy was further flamed by a weakness for gambling and, after losing both his wife and beloved mother in later years, Selfridge’s many vices took a more merciless hold. “The global recession started on Wall Street in 1929 and by 1934 England was in a pretty bad way,” Woodward recalls. “Harry was quite elderly by now. He had the girlfriends and was living life as if he was 20 years younger and it was all the same – and he didn’t see

the writing on the wall. His addictions took over.”

In 1939 he was ousted by Selfridges’ board of directors, who had grown increasingly weary of extravagant spending that saw him owe the store £150,000 (£8 million in today’s money) and a further £250,000 to the Inland Revenue (£13 million).

He ended up a poor man, his clothes so shabby that he was once arrested on suspicion of being a vagrant, and died in 1947.

So, after years of research, endless archives and character dissection, what does Woodward make of the maverick businessman, the risk-taker, the dandy, the shopping showman? “Oh I absolutely adored him!” she gushes. “I found some of the things he did very frustrating, but like all entrepreneurs and exciting characters, he had guts. Just being good at his job wasn’t enough, Harry Selfridge had to be the best so he had this amazing life – way to go, really.”

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Motoring

Is the McLaren MP4-12C Spider the best supercar of all?

Spider Fan Words: John Simister

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Motoring

‘This McLaren will do things I have never quite dared to make a car do before’

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F orgive me if, for a moment, I sound like a spoilt motoring journalist. So-called supercars, sleek and loud machines don’t

automatically “do it” for me. I can’t see the point of these unusably fast and entirely impractical machines, which are ridiculously over-specified for a quick spin.

Just occasionally, though, an ultra-car comes along which shakes even cynical old me out of my what’s-the-point stagnation. You’re looking at one right now.

This new McLaren MP4-12C Spider is the most thrilling muncher-up of real roads, the most viscerally astounding conqueror of corners and annihilator of straights, that I have experienced in all the years I have been writing about cars.

Given the road space and a suitable guardian angel, this McLaren will do things I have never quite dared to make a car do before. Even better, you can feel and hear much of the magnificence even without going ridiculously fast.

It’s not just that it will scorch around corners, it’s the way it does so, helping you all the way, always predictable and friendly. This is where the McLaren differs from, say, the Ferrari 458, which is its most obvious rival. The Ferrari offers full aural theatrics, ultra-quick responses and superlative agility, but there’s a slightly artificial feel to its drama and a sensation that you have to take some of its abilities on trust.

By comparison, the McLaren feels almost super-real even though it, too, uses electronics to keep it stable and some aural-effect manipulation in its engine. The difference in these enhancements is the key. McLaren’s “brake steer”, as used in Formula One, nudges individual brakes as required to help point the car where required. Combined with active hydraulic suspension, which gives

an astonishingly supple ride while keeping the McLaren near-level in corners, the result is a car which almost melts into the road.

This model, you will notice, can expose its passengers to the elements. The MP4-12C was launched as a coupé over a year ago, but a Spider was always promised. This is it, with an automatically retractable roof which, when closed, makes available a secondary boot space, which might be useful for a long weekend.

The exhaust system, meanwhile, has been honed for aural effect over the already improved coupé system, because with the roof open you’re in a particularly good position to be able to hear the result.

Yet it is not a total success. There’s a lot of wind-buffeting at speed, and the view in the interior mirror is

restricted. That said, it uses the same ultra-stiff carbonfibre structure and feels just as solid, with none of an open car’s typical shudder over bumps in the road.

As for the engine, one small criticism of the MP4-12C when it was launched was that it sounded a touch too “clinical” and its response to the accelerator was not quite as natural as it should be. This is now fixed, along with changes to the double-clutch, paddleshift gearbox, which now shifts with breathtaking immediacy; in combination with the engine’s explosiveness, it triggers a whole new kind of excitement.

So, would I have the Spider over the coupé? This is a car to thrill beyond all others, and with its sonic delights, the Spider thrills even more. Wind in the hair it is, then.


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gastronomy

Words: Leah Oatway

H aving been raised in a Michelin-starred restaurant, it was probably inevitable that

Giorgio Locatelli would become a chef – and a rather good one, at that. Yet there was a moment when the Italian gastronomist – who now has two Michelin-starred restaurants among his impressive portfolio – almost turned his back on the industry that he loves.

Today, on the recently landscaped terrace of Ronda Locatelli, Atlantis, The Palm – the restaurant he helped establish and continues to consult on, his laid-back charm and infectious passion for Italian cooking make it all but impossible to imagine him miserable and stressed out. And yet that was the state he was reduced to following three years in Paris at Europe’s finest restaurants.

Having grown up in the kitchen of his family-run restaurant reading Escoffier’s French culinary guide from cover to cover, Locatelli left Italy in the 1980s determined to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a “big French chef” – “I didn’t want to be an Italian chef: Italian chefs were drunk, dirty and losers”, he joked. After a short time working in Switzerland, in 1986 he joined the kitchens of The Savoy, London.

“I was at the Savoy for about four years but the idea [in the 1980s] was that you were nobody if you hadn’t worked in Paris,” he recalled. “So I implored the chef to help me to get a job there.”

Locatelli moved to the French capital in 1990, where for the next three years he worked, first at the

Italian jobThe

shift, what two spinach and cream would sell for in the restaurant. That really got to me. I despised the whole idea of it. It didn’t feel good. I went back to Italy weighing 60 kilos, really skinny, really malnourished, because of the stress.”

Luckily for us foodies, kind words from his grandmother and an impromptu motorcycle holiday with the local butcher’s son helped Locatelli rediscover his passion for cooking.

“When I left I really didn’t want to be a chef anymore,” he said. “But on that [trip] something happened and I started to realise, ‘Hold on, our job is about being joyful and giving a lot of joy, it’s not about putting people down’. I never heard anybody in the restaurant where I grew up shouting at anybody else or anybody putting people down. The travelling made me realise the food was what was important. I thought, ‘I can do the food, I just have to change the parameters’.”

Shortly after returning from their motorcycle jaunt, Locatelli received a call from a waiter he used to work with at The Savoy, who had bought a small restaurant in London. Due to open in a month, and without a chef, he asked Locatelli to come on board. The restaurant was Olivo, on London’s Eccleston Street, in Victoria.

“I didn’t ask how much I’d be paid,” he said, “I just asked if I could do the menu and he said, ‘yes’. We painted it, put the tiles on the road, travelled to Paris to get all the crockery. My friend’s father used to sell crockery by the stack at a flea market there and we realised by the time we got to open the restaurant that we didn’t have enough money to buy crockery, so we went there and he gave us these odd plates.

Michelin-starred celebrity chef Giorgio

Locatelli speaks candidly about the emotional force driving his career and why

his UAE restaurant is a labour of love…

Michelin-starred Restaurant Laurent and, later, at one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious restaurants, La Tour D’Argent.

“It was terrible,” he recalled. “I arrived there and they used to say, ‘You are the worst: you’re a spaghetti that learnt how to cook from roast beef, so you’re really the pits’.Sometimes the chef would just turn and ask [what garnish a certain dish should have]. I would know - that killed them, but it killed me as well because of the pressure.”

Locatelli also missed the team camaraderie that he had been raised to believe in. “I grew up with an idea that the wealth created by what we were doing was shared by the people creating that wealth,” he said. “Our family restaurant was well known because we paid the extra - we paid double what everyone else did around the lake. That was my granddad’s influence; he was a very fair person. In Paris one day I managed to look at the menu and realised that I was being paid for one day’s work, a 14 to 16 hour

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gastronomy

We stacked them in the Fiat Panda: coming back the car was so heavy in the back we felt like we were travelling uphill all the way.”

Locatelli’s extensive knowledge of northern Italian food, combined with the skills he had acquired during four years at The Savoy and three in Paris, meant the restaurant was a huge hit. The odd crockery only added to the restaurant’s rustic, Italian charm.

In 1995, his reputation growing and having met his wife Plaxy, he opened Zafferano restaurant where his cooking quickly won plaudits, including ‘Best Italian Restaurant’ at the London Carlton Restaurant Awards for two consecutive years and Locatelli’s first Michelin star. More acclaim followed with his second restaurant, Spighetta, in July 1997, and its sister restaurant, Spiga, which opened in March 1999. In 2002, the

chef and his wife opened their first independent restaurant, Locanda Locatelli, in London. A year later it was awarded a Michelin star, which it has retained every year since. Following his heart had paid off, but Locatelli remains modest about his achievements.

“I don’t think there is a secret to creating Michelin-starred Italian food,” he said. “If we were 10 years later with that food maybe we would never get that Michelin star. It was the

right time and it was about the people understanding that Italian food is not just food - every dish is attached to a history.”

In fact, Locatelli says that the notion of Italian food is a relatively new concept and one that is not entirely accurate.

speak to an Italian they always say, ‘I’m from Milan’, ‘I’m from Sicily’…they feel attached to the territory. The cuisine is very much an expression of that and a way that they recognise each other. So it’s about more than food, it is emotional, and that has been a great disadvantage for Italian cuisine because for hundreds of years nobody could put their fingers on what it was.”

It was emotion, too, that led Locatelli to Dubai and, in particular,

to Atlantis, The Palm. Having been approached by a regular Zafferano customer from Dubai, who was keen to bring the chef’s exquisite Italian fare to the emirate, Locatelli visited the Palm Jumeirah, then just a building site - “I thought, we’ll see, let’s wait”. But when tragedy struck, and that

business thing. I felt I owed him that. It was the dream of his son and I was part of that. There was a purpose; it gave me a bit more of a push, which I need because I am not very motivated by money.”

Today Ronda Locatelli is, as Locanda Locatelli, very much a family-orientated dining experience. At the heart of this homely restaurant is a large, wood-fired brick pizza oven. It is a first for a Locatelli restaurant and was inspired by the chef’s

‘It’s really important to attach food to memories. A recipe has to have something more, to become a real recipe’

“Many nations are attached to a particular thing or person: for example, in England they have the Queen. In Italy, we don’t have that. We had a social revolution 60 years ago, brothers killing brothers, Fascists against Communists, so when you

customer was killed in an accident, Locatelli felt compelled to see the vision through.

“After a couple of weeks his father arrived to the restaurant and said, ‘I want you to still do it’. At that point it was an emotion, not any more a


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childhood memories.“I come from northern Italy and

pizza is a typically southern dish,” he explained. “When I was little there was only one pizzeria on Lake Maggiore, where I lived, run by these Neapolitan guys who had moved to northern Italy. On weekends there was a balera (an open air dance hall) and the guys would come with the harmonica and the people would go there and dance. They called it the ronda (meaning round). These guys built this wood-burning oven and three days a week they would make pizza. On Fridays, when the family restaurant was really busy and we were very little, they would put my brother, my cousin and me in the back of the car and take us for this pizza. For me, it was the best thing ever: you could eat it with your hands and we had come from a restaurant that was

a bit stiff. So that’s how this concept of ronda came out. I think it’s really important to attach food to memories. A recipe has to have something more, to become a real recipe.”

These days, Locatelli’s role as a consultant at Ronda Locatelli means he is only required to visit Dubai twice a year. In reality, however, he finds himself in town far more often. He considers himself and his team, many of whom worked at his side in Locanda Locatelli previously, ambassadors of

Italian cuisine and is keen to ensure that remains the driving force behind the restaurant.

“These guys are working with my name on the door so I really owe them,” he said. “If I think about something, I want to share it with them, and if I make a step forward technologically or change something in London, then I want them to be a part of it. It’s a business about people – the people who do it and those who consume it. They need your time.”

When he is Dubai, he tries to ensure the whole team sit down together for lunch or dinner – a tradition he carries with him from his family business in Italy.

“In London, 90 per cent of the staff we have are Italian, because they all want to come to work in a Michelin-star restaurant in England. They learn the language, it’s their step to going

around the world. Here in Dubai it is very different: you’re picking up people from everywhere, and this is the greatest satisfaction. It makes me smile when I’m in London sometimes and I see my boys and think that there are people in Dubai who had never cooked or even seen a pasta dish and now, after four years, I see them cooking and see what they put out. They know only what you have taught them - it’s really a great pleasure, a real motivation.”

Locatelli’s knowledge of Italian food, and of the land in which he grew up, is inspiring. Minutes into our meeting it is clear to see why the BBC looked to him when casting for the travelogue he presents with art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon, Italy Unpacked. Their knowledge, enthusiasm and burgeoning friendship has made the show a runaway success and, with viewer figures having doubled since it began, the BBC has commissioned another series, which they start filming this summer.

Locatelli is, again, modest about his celebrity chef status, but ask him about filming and his face lights up. “I really like it,” he said. “From my arrival in London, I worked so hard: there is very little time to go on holiday and when we do my children and my wife say (adopts comic, whiny voice), ‘Not another food shop… not

another market, dad… So, obviously, when we go filming it’s fantastic because it’s dedicated to those things.

“We get to see and film the best things and to spend time with incredible people. I spent an hour cooking with the first three-Michelin-starred chef in Italy, now 85 years old. The guy’s put his jacket on and is cooking this risotto with us - I’m sure I wasn’t touching the floor for an hour. I was in heaven, you know?”Yes, Giorgio Locatelli, we do. Im

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F or 175 years, one property has remained among London’s most fashionable, and historically important, landmarks. Brown’s Hotel’s beginnings, however, were relatively humble.

In 1837, James Brown, the butler of English poet Lord Byron and his wife Sarah, Lord Byron’s maid, leased 23 Dover Street. Their aim was to create a ‘genteel inn’, but within a year the couple found themselves expanding into numbers 21, 22 and 24 - London’s first hotel was established.

From the start, Brown’s was dedicated to serving the England capital’s well-heeled gentry, and its elegant and discreet luxury was soon creating a stir among the upper echelons of society far and wide.

Among the hotel’s most illustrious early guests were Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie, both of whom were forced into exile following the Franco-Prussian War and the creation of the Third Republic in France. For a long time, the hotel was to become their home away from home.

Perhaps the most impressive hotel guest of all time, however, was Queen Victoria, who would visit and take tea at the hotel in the late 19th century, though always returning to the palace to lay her head.

In 1859, now a gleaming and highly revered city landmark, Brown’s Hotel was bought by James John Ford, a Wiltshire-born businessman who had found success in a livery and stable business on Oxford Street.

It was to be the start of a long Ford family involvement in the hotel that would bear witness to astounding historical events and some truly incredible guests.

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AIR delves into the long and fascinating history of firsts that has

kept Brown’s Hotel, London, at the top of its game…

Golden Brown’s


It was from the hotel in 1876, for example, that eminent scientist and inventor Alexander Graham Bell told the government that he had invented the telephone. Indeed, the first successful call he made was from Brown’s to James Ford’s son Henry’s home in Ravenscourt Park, using Ford’s private telegraph line.

In 1882, James handed reign of the hotel over to his son, whose aim was to create a homely and comfortable environment for his highly influential guests – no mean feat when catering to royalty.

Later that decade, the first hotel restaurant was introduced, as was a smoking room for gentlemen. And then there was the small matter of electricity. In 1884, in a bid to ensure state-of-the-art in-room comfort, power was installed, courtesy of an oil-driven generator in the basement.

News of these creature comforts, impressive advances in technology and the staunch privacy afforded to those who stayed, spread overseas. In the late 19th century, having taken third place in the mayoral elections for New York, Theodore Roosevelt travelled to London, staying at Brown’s ahead of his marriage (which took place in the city) to second wife, and childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow. Today, the hotel has renamed the room, on the first floor, the Roosevelt Room and a copy of the couple’s marriage certificate hangs on the wall.

Other notable guests to have rooms named after them include the founder of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Cecil Rhodes, who often stayed at the hotel. And in 1890, at a meeting at Brown’s Hotel, the International Niagara Commission decided to use the famous falls to conduct electricity: the Niagara Room today serves as a permanent reminder.

In 1889, Henry Ford purchased St George’s Hotel on Albemarle Street, which backed on to Brown’s. Albemarle Street was itself synonymous with the who’s who of London, being home to the Albemarle Club – frequented, for example, by the Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde.

Ford merged the two properties – adding a fifth floor to the hotel – though today St George retains a visible presence at Brown’s, both in the hotel logo and in a stained glass window retained from the original hotel bar (now named The Donovan Bar).

While Wilde is not among the heady list of writers usually linked to the hotel, Rudyard Kipling is. Kipling wrote The Jungle Book from Im

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his suite at Brown’s. A regular guest between 1892 and 1936, he chose to stay there when marrying Caroline Starr Balestier, and it was here, in 1936, that the writer was reportedly found facedown on his desk having suffered a perforated ulcer. He died shortly after surgery at Middlesex Hospital.

Having extended into a further three townhouses by 1905, the hotel became a refuge for royals and nobility during both the First and Second World Wars - including Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, who stayed with her family for the duration of the First World War, King George II of the Hellenes, who was exiled from Greece between 1924 and 1935, and Haile Selassi, the emperor of Ethiopia, who fled his country following Mussolini’s invasion in 1936. The Dutch government in exile also declared war on Japan in 1941 from the hotel.

In the years that followed the Second World War, Brown’s Hotel continued to attract the world’s leading literary stars, among them Agatha Christie, whose novel At Bertram’s Hotel is based on Brown’s Hotel.

With the swinging Sixties, however, came change - to British society at large but also to the hotel, which was bought by Trust House Limited (later becoming Forte plc).

In 1997, Brown’s was sold to Raffles before being bought by Forte’s son, Sir Rocco Forte, in July 2003, who incorporated it into the Rocco Forte Collection. Keen to ensure Brown’s remained among the city’s most sought-after abodes, in April 2004 the hotel closed its doors for a £24 million renovation under the expert eye of Sir Rocco Forte’s sister Olga Polizzi, the company’s creative director.

It reopened in 2005, to the delight of Britain’s art and fashion elite, and today remains an elegant English hotel (albeit with a touch of the contemporary) whose appeal to the rich and creative (think Tracey Emin, whose work lights up the hotel’s restaurant, Paul Smith and Stella McCartney) remains as fervent as ever. brownshotel.com

1. Deluxe Mansard bedroom2. Lord Byron room3. Dover Suite sitting room

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‘Queen Victoria would visit and take tea at Brown’s in the late 19th century, though always returning to the palace to lay her head’

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French fancyOne of Europe’s best-kept secrets is finally revealed…

F or more than a century there has been a French Riviera address so exclusive that only the world’s most influential individuals even knew it existed.

Next month, however, as the glitterati prepare to descend on the Cote d’Azur for

the annual Cannes Film Festival, one of Europe’s most closely-guarded secrets will finally be unveiled.

From May, for the first time, Villa Egerton, a long-time summer residence of the world’s wealthiest, will be available to rent, having undergone a six-year, multi-million-euro restoration project designed to return the incredible property to its former glory.

An original Belle Époque property, it was designed by sought-after architect George Tersling and built in 1902 for British politician Reginald McKenna (who later became UK Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer).

No expense or time has been spared in restoring its incredible grandeur, examples of which can be found in the striking entrance and front gates, custom made by Fucina Boranga Artistica, the company responsible for the ironwork gates surrounding the Colosseum in Rome. Inside, frescoes and gold leaf details hand-painted by a

team of Italian artisans from Mariani Affreschi have been painstakingly rejuvenated.

Since its creation, the villa has welcomed some of Europe’s most revered personalities through its doors: Winston Churchill is believed to have penned part of his memoirs in the shade of the garden’s trees.

During the 1940s and 1950s, the coast’s party scene was legendary. Coco Chanel, Greta Garbo, F Scott Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali, Man Ray and Ernest Hemingway among the heady list of guests to have summered there.

Situated in Roquebrune, Cap Martin, one of the most coveted stretches of the Riviera, the 7,500-square-metre property, which also boasts seven bedrooms, two kitchens and a state-of-the-art cinema, is just minutes from the Italian border and affords commanding views of the stunning Bay of Monaco.

Today, few abodes remain capable of entertaining as Villa Egerton can: from the intimacy offered by the secret bar hidden within a library bookcase, to the vast outdoor living and dining expanse - which includes a pool terrace, outdoor cooking stations, heated swimming pool and Jacuzzi. With facilities, history and views so spectacular, expect one lengthy waiting list. villaegerton.com

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l if e l essons

I moved to Scotland in

1973 when my grandfather

died. I was five at the time. I am very

fortunate to have had a privileged upbringing

but at no time did my father sit me down and

talk to me about it; it was simply all around me.

There is a huge responsibility that comes with my position

(Hereditary Master of the Royal Household in Scotland - as such, one of the Queen’s

representatives, and as Chief of the Honourable Clan Campbell, a global family of more than three million Campbells worldwide): I am merely

a custodian.

I’ve always been a hard working person. I trained as a chartered surveyor; I spent many years

in the hotel industry… I have learnt that you have to go out and work very hard; you can’t sit back and

expect things to come to you.

Travelling is something I’ve always done. I’m very interested in foreign cultures. It gives you a wonderful

insight into other people’s lives: important when marketing your product, as you have to make it relevant to the people that you’re targeting.

You have to be excited about what you do. I get to attend wonderful events in exciting dynamic places, such as the

Royal Salute UAE Nations Cup. I get to meet amazing people at polo events. People really enjoy fast,

dynamic, dangerous sport.

Networking is very important. We were brought up in an environment where you learnt to have

a conversation with adults when you were young: you didn’t sit and watch television. Be

an outgoing character. There are amazing opportunities out there for the taking.

What I KnoW noWTorquhil Ian Campbell, the 13th Duke of Argyll

Ambassador for Royal Salute

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