AW17 claridges

The Party Issue • JACK GUINNESS ON LEGENDARY PARTIES • THE RETURN OF ANNABEL’S • HOW TO HOST THE PERFECT DINNER • PLUM SYKES ON PEARLS • 70 YEARS OF FERRARI • WHAT TRACEY EMIN DID NEXT

RICHARD MILLE BOUTIQUES LONDON 90 MOUNT STREET, MAYFAIR 0207 1234 155 • HARRODS 87-135 BROMPTON RD, KNIGHTSBRIDGE 0203 036 6264 www.richardmille.com

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CAPRI

COURCHEVEL

N E W YO R K

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www.degrisogono.com

G STA A D S EO U L

KU WA I T ST M O R I T Z

LOND ON

HIGH JE WELLERY E ARRINGS 5.30 C TS AND 5.40 C TS PE AR-CUT WHITE DIAMONDS 78 C TS BRIOLE T TE, MARQ UISE AND BRILLIANT-CUT WHITE DIAMONDS UNIQ UE PIECE

Semi Feature SOMEONE SOMEONE WITH THIS TITLE REVEALS WHAT’S INSPIRING THEM NOW

1. Chanel

1. Chanel

1. Chanel

1. Chanel

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

DESCRIPTION OR SUBHEAD HERE

DESCRIPTION OR SUBHEAD HERE

DESCRIPTION OR SUBHEAD HERE

Whatever your preferred social media channel, be sure to get the latest news from Vogue first by following us on us on Instagram, Facebook

Whatever your preferred social media channel, be sure to get the latest news from Vogue first by following us on us on Instagram, Facebook

Whatever your preferred social media channel, be sure to get the latest news from Vogue first by following us on us on Instagram, Facebook

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ILLUSTRATION: BY CLYM EVERNDEN

DESCRIPTION OR SUBHEAD HERE

ou’re never far from a party in London. From intricately planned and perfectly executed events to spontaneous ‘everybody back to my suite’ nights, this city simply adores a shindig. And despite the unreliable weather, winter is party season, when the capital is transformed into a fairylit backdrop for a whirlwind of social events. The nights get longer, but we make the most of them.

Our cover star, the irrepressible Jack Guinness, is known to enjoy a good party; he’s even installed a bar in his home. He’s also known for being not simply a model, but a force of nature. We catch up with him in The Apartment at The Connaught, where he fills us in on what makes an invitation impossible to refuse (page 58).

While brilliant fun, hosting parties can be nerve-racking. Countless variables – the flowers, the invitations, the colour schemes – snowball into decision-making dilemmas. So we asked London style leaders – including designer to the royals Emilia Wickstead and FlowerBx

founder Whitney Bromberg Hawkings – to take over the ballrooms of The Connaught and The Berkeley and show us how the experts do it. Enjoy their soirée creations on page 34.

Beyond the hotels, amid the Georgian buildings of Berkeley Square, this winter will see the reopening of the legendary Annabel’s.

London’s original nightclub once boasted a guest list featuring everyone from The Beatles and the Jaggers to Her Majesty the Queen. (At the time of going to press, it remains the only nightclub she has been to.) On page 90, we find out what the next chapter holds for this illustrious institution.

We also look at a few of our own parties over the past decade, courtesy of an archive of pictures so fabulous we simply had to include them (page 95). As Diane von Furstenberg declared at her Claridge’s party, ‘If walls could talk, these rooms could write books and books…’

Enjoy the issue.

CLARIDGE’S

THE CONNAUGHT

THE BERKELEY

Brook Street, London W1K 4HR +44 (0)20 7629 8860 claridges.co.uk

Carlos Place, London W1K 2AL +44 (0)20 7499 7070 the-connaught.co.uk

Wilton Place, London SW1X 7RL +44 (0)20 7235 6000 the-berkeley.co.uk

maybourne.com.

For reservations please call +44(0)20 7107 8830 or email reservations@maybourne.com Alternatively call toll free from the UK 0808 238 0245 or from the USA +1 866 599 6991

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 11

HERITAGE

TITLE title TITLE title Byline Name Here

AW 2017

PLUM SYKES

In our Party issue, author Plum Sykes looks at the enduring appeal of pearls (page 82). The best parties... are in private houses. Partywear is… a gold sequin dress. My dancing song is… Celebration

by Madonna.

TONY GLENVILLE

The author and London College of Fashion creative director explores the appeal of illustration (page 68). The best parties... have yet to happen! Partywear is… an opportunity to dress up and just a soupçon beyond. My dancing song is… anything from Glenn Miller’s In the Mood to the golden age of disco. I love to dance.

The pull of a new winter coat is hard to ignore and this season delivers a beguiling edit. Name Name Tailored, quilted, ankle-skimming or cropped – which direction will you take?

BILL PRINCE

GQ’s deputy editor visits Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s new neighbourhood restaurant at The Connaught (page 44).

The best parties... are always unexpected.

Partywear is… overrated, therefore come as you are. Otherwise, no one forgets a midnight blue jacket and black rollneck.

My dancing song is… rarely, if ever, played!

Byline Name Here

ESTHER WALKER

The Bad Cook author tries out recipes from the first Claridge’s cookbook, released this month, and lets us know exactly what her children make of the famous chicken pie (page 30). The best parties... are the ones I’ve just left.

Partywear is… better to take off so I can breathe out again. My dancing song is…

Rubber Biscuit by the Blues Brothers, because it’s my son’s favourite song.

ANNA MURPHY

IMAGES: JAKE WALTERS, CHRIS FLOYD

THE PULL OF A NEW WINTER COAT IS HARD TO IGNORE AND THIS SEASON DELIVERS A BEGUILING EDIT. NAME NAME TAILORED, QUILTED, ANKLESKIMMING OR CROPPED – WHICH DIRECTION WILL YOU TAKE?

CONTRIBUTORS

As Matchesfashion.com prepares to leap out of the digital world with a concept store opposite The Connaught, Anna Murphy, fashion director of The Times, looks at the new face on Mayfair’s retail landscape (page 78). The best parties... are ones where I get to see old friends and make new ones. Partywear is… a jumpsuit – great for dancing. My dancing song is… Get Lucky by Daft Punk.

TOM STUBBS

How To Spend It’s style commentator and menswear stylist takes over The Connaught this month, dressing our favourite model and man about town Jack Guinness (above, page 58). The best parties... have all already been thrown. Partywear is… inspired by a captain of the darts team on holiday in Torremolinos. My dancing song is… Genius of Love by Tom Tom Club.

HANNAH BETTS

The award-winning fragrance writer selects her top scents to inspire magic and mischief (page 84). The best parties... are always hosted by my friend Ned, and always will be. Partywear is… my emerald feather and gold sequin headdress from The Crazy Horse. My dancing song is…

Disco 2000 by Pulp.

ELLE BLAKEMAN

Our editor meets the exuberant Jack Guinness to discuss parties, karaoke and why it’s impossible for the British to take themselves too seriously (page 58). The best parties... always end up in the Fumoir at Claridge’s.

Partywear is… a Halston jumpsuit and dark red lipstick. My dancing song is…

I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston.

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 13

INSIDE AUTUMN/WINTER 2017

17

The season Your guide to the months ahead

29

My London

By Christian Louboutin

30

Semi Feature

34

1. Chanel

DESCRIPTION OR SUBHEAD HERE

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

1. Chanel

DESCRIPTION OR SUBHEAD HERE

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

1. Chanel

DESCRIPTION OR SUBHEAD HERE

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

ooking the books C Bad Cook author Esther Walker tries out the new Claridge’s cookbook

44

matter of taste A Jean-Georges opens his new restaurant at The Connaught

68

46

op draw T The timeless elegance of fashion illustration

1 0 things you didn’t know about Hélène Celebrating a decade at the helm of her two-Michelin star restaurant at The Connaught

72

Out of the wilderness Tracey Emin CBE returns after a year out of the spotlight

76

Screen wars How online streaming is shaking up Hollywood

DESCRIPTION OR SUBHEAD HERE

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

48

54

Variety acts From London guides to confidants, the roles played by our doormen are many Shape of things As Ferrari turns 70, we look at Italy’s most seductive export

ON THE COVER

Whatever your preferred social media channel, be sure to get the latest news from Vogue first by following us on us on Instagram, Facebook

Whatever your preferred social media channel, be sure to get the latest news from Vogue first by following us on us on Instagram, Facebook

Whatever your preferred social media channel, be sure to get the latest news from Vogue first by following us on us on Instagram, Facebook

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Jack wears printed shirt, £625, Louis Vuitton. Silk pyjama trousers, from a selection, Caruso. Drive de Cartier watch, £13,100, Cartier. Sunglasses, £212, Oliver Peoples pour Alain Mikli. Photographed by Jake Walters at The Connaught. Styled by Tom Stubbs.

Grooming by Joe Mills assisted by Daisy H. © 2017 Brook Street Publishing Ltd Published by Brook Street Publishing Ltd, 71-75 Shelton st, London WC2H 9JQ

90

Join the club The reopening of London’s original members’ club

95

58

1. Chanel

Homeward bound Cary Grant’s visit to Claridge’s back in 1946

By design London’s tastemakers take over the ballrooms

SOMEONE SOMEONE WITH THIS TITLE REVEALS WHAT’S INSPIRING THEM NOW

88

an about town M Jack Guinness checks into The Connaught

78

In residence Behind the scenes at the new Matches townhouse

82

Girls in pearls Plum Sykes on her enduring love affair with pearls

84

B ewitching hour Perfume to enchant this party season

86

Game face New season beauty launches to see you through A/W

Raising a glass A decade of fabulous parties across Maybourne

100 The scoop Maybourne news and views

104 A portrait of…

Dame Kristin Scott Thomas

by David Downton

“Fashion illustration holds a mirror up to the prevailing times” SEE PAGE 68

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 15

The Season

HERITAGE

MAYBOURNE’S MODERN BRITISH CALENDAR

Opera: Passion, Power and Politics

IMAGE: “MILANO”, FROM THE SERIES “FRATELLI D’ITALIA” (2005-2016) © MATTHIAS SCHALLER

An epic history of opera in Europe over 400 years, this dramatic exhibition charts the course of seven seminal premieres in seven different cities, from Paris to Venice. It culminates in the international explosion of opera in the 20th and 21st centuries, and takes in the genius of composers including Handel, Mozart and Philip Glass and directors such as Robert Wilson.

30 September – 25 February vam.ac.uk

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 17

CALENDAR

Art

1 3

1. Convex mirror owned by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 2. William Holman Hunt The Lady of Shalott, about 1886-1905 3. Salvador Dalí, The First Days of Spring (1929) 4. Salvador Dalí, Red Lobster Telephone (1936)

4

Theatre

5

OCTOBER

7

6

2 OCTOBER – 2 APRIL

7 OCTOBER – 3 JANUARY

5 – 8 OCTOBER

REFLECTIONS: VAN EYCK & THE PRE-RAPHAELITES

DALÍ/ DUCHAMP

FRIEZE LONDON & FRIEZE MASTERS

Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait raises important questions about draughtsmanship, colour, iconography and technique. This exhibition places the seminal work alongside paintings from the likes of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt to consider the piece’s influence on the Pre-Raphaelite era. nationalgallery.org.uk

Featuring around 80 works from Salvador Dalí and Marcel Duchamp, this probing exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts shines a light on the intriguing relationship and mutual admiration between one of the most renowned surrealists and one of the most exciting conceptualists of the 20th century. royalacademy.org.uk

Taking place in Regent’s Park, Frieze features more than 160 of the world’s leading galleries, with opportunities to buy pieces from over 1,000 different artists. There is also a sculptural exhibition and special events in the Frieze Projects and Talks programmes, including a new novel from British artist Georgina Starr. frieze.com

Theatre

UNTIL 10 FEBRUARY 2018

42ND STREET A song and dance hymn to the magic of Broadway, centering on the tale of a backing singer suddenly thrust into the limelight. A touching story with uplifting songs from start to finish. 42ndstreetmusical.co.uk 18 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

The Secret Theatre A spy thriller comes to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, bringing espionage, double-crossing and blackmail back to Shakespeare’s Globe. Set in Elizabeth I’s court, amid civil unrest and trouble with Europe, this promises to be a powerful watch. shakespearesglobe.com Theatre

21 NOVEMBER – 30 JUNE

Hamilton: An American Musical A sold-out sensation in America, this groundbreaking musical presents an alternative history of the US through the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton. Penned by performer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, the largely hip-hop show has won 11 Tony awards, including Best Musical, and become a cult hit. A must-see treat of humour, subversion and warmth at the Victoria Palace Theatre. hamiltonthemusical.co.uk

Festive fun

17 NOVEMBER – 1 JANUARY

WINTER WONDERLAND Embrace all that is festive in the heart of London’s Hyde Park. From a huge funfair to the glittering Bavarian Christmas market, it is impossible not to get caught up in the spirit of the season. hydeparkwinterwonderland.com Festive fun

MID-NOVEMBER

Christmas lights There is nothing quite as magical as the turning on of the Christmas lights, especially in London, whose dark nights and long elegant streets come alive during the festive season. Choose from the world-renowned bustle of Regent Street, the classic white and red bulbs of Bond Street and the traditional mulled wine and village party style of Mount Street and Motcomb Street.

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 19

NOVEMBER

5. The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915–23 (reconstruction

by Richard Hamilton 1965– 6, lower panel remade 1985).

6. KAWS Final Days 2013 at the Frieze Sculpture Park 2017. 7. Ugo Rondinone Summer moon 2011 at the Frieze Sculpture Park 2017

2

IMAGES: © THE NATIONAL GALLERY, CHRISTOPHER JACKSON AS GEORGE WASHINGTON. PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS; ALAMY, COURTESY OF SHAKESPEARES GLOBE, WEST DEAN COLLEGE, PART OF EDWARD JAMES FOUNDATION / © SALVADOR DALÍ, FUNDACIÓ GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ, DACS 2017, COLLECTION OF THE DALI MUSEUM, ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA © SALVADOR DALI, FUNDACIÓ GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ, DACS 2017, WILSON L. MEAD FUND, 1948.54, THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, © SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON (KELMSCOTT MANOR). PHOTOGRAPH: ANDY STAMMERS PHOTOGRAPHY, © MANCHESTER CITY GALLERIES/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

16 NOVEMBER – 16 DECEMBER

CALENDAR

Festive Fun

Claridge’s Christmas hamper

Events

FROM MID NOVEMBER

Ice skating

Every winter, ice rinks pop up at some of London’s most iconic spaces, providing a festive glow across the capital. Choose between the elegant courtyard at Somerset House, the dramatic backdrop of the Natural History Museum and the playful funfair feel of Winter Wonderland (see previous page). hydeparkwinterwonderland.com

It’s said that time is the most precious gift of all, but we think our Claridge’s Christmas hamper comes a close second... Full to the brim with festive treats, from Fornasetti candles to home-made biscuits, it’s a touch of Claridge’s you can take home. claridges.co.uk

Culture

UNTIL 24 DECEMBER 24 DECEMBER

Carols from King’s

RADIO, £179.99, MARSHALL, AVAILABLE AT SELFRIDGES

This atmospheric service features nine lessons and carols, beautifully sung by the choir at King’s College Chapel in Cambridge. Opening with ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, it has been running for almost a century and is broadcast across the world on Christmas Eve. kings.cam.ac.uk

JUMPER, FROM A SELECTION, BELLA FREUD, AVAILABLE AT SELFRIDGES

Craft

Wish list

From a Tom Ford lip wardrobe to Burberry’s new must-have bag, these are things we would love to open…

THE GRENADIER

A tiny traditional pub, hidden on a quiet mews in the heart of Belgravia, The Grenadier is popular with locals and visitors alike. The upper floors were once used as an officers’ mess, while its cellar served as a drinking lair for soldiers.

18 Wilton Row, Belgravia

THE PUNCHBOWL

Once owned by Guy Ritchie, The Punchbowl is one of Mayfair’s oldest pubs and prides itself on offering everything from classic ales and fish ’n’ chips to something a little more sophisticated. The ideal spot for a cosy winter’s eve.

41 Farm Street, Mayfair

DIAMOND AND EMERALD BRACELET, FROM A SELECTION, NIRAV MODI

DK88, £1,695, BURBERRY

LIPS AND GIRLS COLLECTION, £1,500, TOM FORD, AVAILABLE AT SELFRIDGES

CHRISTMAS PUDDING, AVAILABLE AT CLARIDGE’S

20 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

RINGS, FROM A SELECTION, POMELLATO, AVAILABLE AT HARRODS

1 DECEMBER

Dance

9 DECEMBER – 27 JANUARY IMAGES: SKATE AT SOMERSET HOUSE WITH FORTNUM & MASON (C) JAMES BRYANT, THE NEW CRAFTSMEN, COURTESY OF SADLER’S WELLS, DAVE BENNET, ALAMY, GETTY IMAGES

Gifts

There is no better time than winter to take a Dickensian walk through the streets of London. Starting in Borough, this guided walk takes you through the landmarks that inspired the great author’s work, from the cobbled streets of Southwark where he spent his childhood, via the London hospital from the Pickwick Papers, ending alongside London Bridge by ‘Nancy’s Stairs’. dickenslondontours.co.uk

THE NEW CRAFTSMEN For Mayfair’s most chic craft collective, winter is about gathering, feasting, nature and, most importantly, hibernation. Pop into their North Row space to see handmade tablewear, pop-art-inspired lambswool cushions and thick, cosy throws. thenewcraftsmen.com

COACH & HORSES

Dating back to the 1770s, this is thought to be one of the first properties on Bruton Street. It was originally built for weary travellers to be fed, watered and rested before getting back on the road. We’re happy to report that not too much has changed.

5 Bruton Street, Mayfair

A DICKENSIAN WALK

DECEMBER

TRADITIONAL ENGLISH PUBS

Festive Fun

Festive fun

1 NOVEMBER – 31 JANUARY

Winter cinema Watch a Christmas classic in cabins on the rooftop of The Berkeley hotel, huddled under a Moncler blanket and sipping from a cup of hot chocolate. It’s as festive as this city gets. Spaces are limited so be sure to book. the-berkeley.co.uk

CINDERELLA Renowned choreographer Matthew Bourne once again takes to the director’s chair at Sadler’s Wells, putting a wartime spin on this interpretation of the classic Cinderella story. Set amid the chaos of the Blitz, the production features a theatrical score by Prokofiev, pulling the audience into the emotion and drama of the story, while the London setting fits perfectly with this story of love and triumph over adversity. sadlerswells.com

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 21

CALENDAR

Design

Theatre

UNTIL 15 APRIL

UNTIL 21 OCTOBER

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child This two-part stage play expands on the much loved Harry Potter story, continuing the intoxicating journey into the world of magic and muggles. Critically acclaimed, and boasting nine Olivier awards, it follows Harry and his friends on another epic adventure as they battle dark forces. harrypottertheplay.com

Enzo Ferrari in factory, 1947

Ferrari: Under the Skin

11 JANUARY – 3 MARCH

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL Shakespeare’s classic tale of romance and rebellion. Follow the earnest heroine Helena as she battles for the heart of the devious Bertram after the death of her father. Expect a tangled web of duty and honour before the night is out. shakespearesglobe.com Art

FROM 1 JANUARY

MCQUEENS SCHOOL OF FLOWERS Sailing

10 – 14 JANUARY

London Boat Show A show with an international scope, this features everything from the best in yachts and sailboats, to luxury charters in the Mediterranean, coastal cruising in the UK and the latest fashion, gadgets and inventions for marine and boating enthusiasts. londonboatshow.com 22 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

Forget tiresome resolutions – this new year, why not resolve to pick up a new skill instead? The talented team at McQueens are now offering courses on creative flower arranging, lasting from one day to four weeks, based on their philosophy of style, simplicity and skill.

Courses are available in London, Rome, Sydney and California. mcqueens.co.uk

UNTIL 4 FEBRUARY

North: Fashioning Identity

The Potters: Jamie Glover, Emma Lowndes and Theo Ancient star in the West End show

Sport

Fashion

16 – 20 FEBRUARY

3 FEBRUARY – 17 MARCH

London Fashion Week

Six Nations

Taking place over five weekends across February and March, the Six Nations is a highlight of the sporting calendar. Watch as England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France and Italy fight it out to be declared rugby champions. This year you can see England play both Ireland and Wales at Twickenham as old rivalries are battled out in the most gentlemanly of contact sports. sixnationsrugby.com

In this exhibition, Somerset House places a microscope on northern identity in the UK, considering why these regions remain a strong source of inspiration for creatives across the board, from fashion to music.

Using contemporary film and photography, fashion collections and artworks, the exhibit aims to tell the story of northern English life in the 20th century. somersethouse.org.uk

ANYA HINDMARCH

Theatre

Art

TEMPERLEY LONDON

Above: Three Blue Lines by Oliver Barratt stands in front of My Words Split Apart by Sally Temple. Above right: author Anthony Horowitz at Bill Jackson’s Aldeburgh Beach Pop-Up, both at the 29th London Art Fair

The essential contemporary art show celebrates 30 years in 2018. Take in a latenight viewing or sign up for one of the many curated tours. In the main fair you’ll find well-known names including Sir Peter Blake and Patrick Hughes, while in the side rooms you’ll find two curated sections focusing on younger galleries and new work with Art Projects and Photo50. londonartfair.co.uk

Celebrating 70 years of Ferrari, this major exhibition at the Design Museum is set to be one of the most thrilling of the season.

With everything from early design models, drawings, letters and memorabilia to some of the most famous Ferraris to be seen on racing circuits around the world, this is a rare insight into one of the industry’s most iconic brands. designmuseum.org

FEBRUARY

JANUARY

LONDON ART FAIR

Girl from Seacombe, New Brighton 1985,

by Tom Wood

PREEN BY THORNTON BREGAZZI

17 – 21 JANUARY

IMAGES: GIRL FROM SEACOMBE, NEW BRIGHTON 1985 (C) TOM WOOD; PHOTO BY CHARLIE GRAY, DAN KITWOOD FOR GETTY IMAGES, STEPHEN CHUNG / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO, GETTY IMAGES

Culture

Want to know what you’ll be wearing in six months?

Pay close attention to the movers and shakers descending upon London this week and you’ll find out. Attracting international designers as well as Brit favourites, this is a five-day extravaganza of style. londonfashionweek.co.uk

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 23

Pablo Picasso, Le Rêve (The Dream), 1932

Art

8 MARCH – 9 SEPTEMBER

The EY Exhibition: Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy It’s being pitched as one of the most significant shows Tate Modern has ever staged. Taking visitors on a month-by-month journey through 1932 – a time so pivotal in Picasso’s life and work that it has been called his ‘year of wonders’ – the show comprises more than 100 outstanding paintings, sculptures and works on paper. tate.org.uk

MARCH

Art

Food

LONDON’S FOOD MARKETS London markets come alive in the spring with fresh produce, new trends and artisanal delicacies BOROUGH MARKET

Borough Market, at one end of London Bridge, has existed in one form or another for around 1,000 years. Today, it is still the go-to place for foodies. Expect to see celebrity chefs, kitchen demonstrations and stalls full of artisanal produce.

Open Monday – Saturday

FOOD & DRINK

MALTBY STREET MARKET

Among the warehouses-turnedbars and beneath railway arches decorated with bunting, this spot in south-east London offers a lively alternative to traditional food markets – think gin popcorn and salted caramel brownies.

Open Saturdays and Sundays

BROADWAY MARKET

At the corner of London Fields, this market is always buzzing with trendy locals stocking up on everything from fresh fruit to vintage clothes. Pop into F. Cooke’s Pie and Mash shop, which has been selling jellied eels since 1900.

Open every Saturday

FOOD & DRINK

Title headline

Abril Fatface

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

5-6 October 2016

5-6 OCTOBER 2016

GREENWICH MARKET

Exploring the design stories of the world’s greatest ocean liners, including the Titanic, Normandie, Queen Mary and Canberra, this exhibition shows how these impressive vessels shaped the way we travel. vam.ac.uk Sport

BERWICK STREET MARKET

In the heart of Soho, this famous market is as diverse and vibrant as its neighbourhood, with foods and dishes from all over the world.

Go early to get the best produce – Londoners do.

Open Monday – Saturday

24 MARCH

THE BOAT RACES There is no more quintessentially British pastime than cheering on the rival teams of Oxford and Cambridge as they race along the Thames each year. Best viewed from the banks of Putney or Chiswick with a pint in hand. Remember to wrap up well. theboatraces.org 24 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

SWITCHED ON

The glossy magazine audience is at the vanguard of new technology ownership, and way ahead of the national average. There is little difference between Millennials and Generation X

GUTTER CREDITS

Ocean Liners: Speed & Style

New Context IMAGES: © COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART, OHIO, © SUCCESSION PICASSO/DACS, LONDON 2017

UNTIL 10 JUNE

London’s only historic market set within a World Heritage site, this has something for everyone. Food, fashion, art, antiques and crafts are all within reach. Afterwards, stroll to the Royal Observatory to see the Meridian Line.

Open every day

No.1 SAVILE ROW I BATH I BIRMINGHAM CHESTER I LIVERPOOL I WINCHESTER gievesandhawkes.com

CALENDAR

Festive Fun

Claridge’s Christmas hamper

Events

FROM MID NOVEMBER

Ice skating

Every winter, ice rinks pop up at some of London’s most iconic spaces, providing a festive glow across the capital. Choose between the elegant courtyard at Somerset House, the dramatic backdrop of the Natural History Museum and the playful funfair feel of Winter Wonderland (see previous page). hydeparkwinterwonderland.com

It’s said that time is the most precious gift of all, but we think our Claridge’s Christmas hamper comes a close second... Full to the brim with festive treats, from Fornasetti candles to home-made biscuits, it’s a touch of Claridge’s you can take home. claridges.co.uk

Culture

UNTIL 24 DECEMBER 24 DECEMBER

Carols from King’s

RADIO, £179.99, MARSHALL, AVAILABLE AT SELFRIDGES

This atmospheric service features nine lessons and carols, beautifully sung by the choir at King’s College Chapel in Cambridge. Opening with ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, it has been running for almost a century and is broadcast across the world on Christmas Eve. kings.cam.ac.uk

JUMPER, FROM A SELECTION, BELLA FREUD, AVAILABLE AT SELFRIDGES

Craft

Wish list

From a Tom Ford lip wardrobe to Burberry’s new must-have bag, these are things we would love to open…

THE GRENADIER

A tiny traditional pub, hidden on a quiet mews in the heart of Belgravia, The Grenadier is popular with locals and visitors alike. The upper floors were once used as an officers’ mess, while its cellar served as a drinking lair for soldiers.

18 Wilton Row, Belgravia

THE PUNCHBOWL

Once owned by Guy Ritchie, The Punchbowl is one of Mayfair’s oldest pubs and prides itself on offering everything from classic ales and fish ’n’ chips to something a little more sophisticated. The ideal spot for a cosy winter’s eve.

41 Farm Street, Mayfair

DIAMOND AND EMERALD BRACELET, FROM A SELECTION, NIRAV MODI

DK88, £1,695, BURBERRY

LIPS AND GIRLS COLLECTION, £1,500, TOM FORD, AVAILABLE AT SELFRIDGES

CHRISTMAS PUDDING, AVAILABLE AT CLARIDGE’S

20 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

RINGS, FROM A SELECTION, POMELLATO, AVAILABLE AT HARRODS

1 DECEMBER

Dance

9 DECEMBER – 27 JANUARY IMAGES: SKATE AT SOMERSET HOUSE WITH FORTNUM & MASON (C) JAMES BRYANT, THE NEW CRAFTSMEN, COURTESY OF SADLER’S WELLS, DAVE BENNET, ALAMY, GETTY IMAGES

Gifts

There is no better time than winter to take a Dickensian walk through the streets of London. Starting in Borough, this guided walk takes you through the landmarks that inspired the great author’s work, from the cobbled streets of Southwark where he spent his childhood, via the London hospital from the Pickwick Papers, ending alongside London Bridge by ‘Nancy’s Stairs’. dickenslondontours.co.uk

THE NEW CRAFTSMEN For Mayfair’s most chic craft collective, winter is about gathering, feasting, nature and, most importantly, hibernation. Pop into their North Row space to see handmade tablewear, pop-art-inspired lambswool cushions and thick, cosy throws. thenewcraftsmen.com

COACH & HORSES

Dating back to the 1770s, this is thought to be one of the first properties on Bruton Street. It was originally built for weary travellers to be fed, watered and rested before getting back on the road. We’re happy to report that not too much has changed.

5 Bruton Street, Mayfair

A DICKENSIAN WALK

DECEMBER

TRADITIONAL ENGLISH PUBS

Festive Fun

Festive fun

1 NOVEMBER – 31 JANUARY

Winter cinema Watch a Christmas classic in cabins on the rooftop of The Berkeley hotel, huddled under a Moncler blanket and sipping from a cup of hot chocolate. It’s as festive as this city gets. Spaces are limited so be sure to book. the-berkeley.co.uk

CINDERELLA Renowned choreographer Matthew Bourne once again takes to the director’s chair at Sadler’s Wells, putting a wartime spin on this interpretation of the classic Cinderella story. Set amid the chaos of the Blitz, the production features a theatrical score by Prokofiev, pulling the audience into the emotion and drama of the story, while the London setting fits perfectly with this story of love and triumph over adversity. sadlerswells.com

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 21

REGULARS

Shoe designer Christian Louboutin

My London Christian Louboutin

SHOE DESIGNER CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN ON TERRIBLE DATES, PEOPLE WATCHING AND WHY HE IS ON A ‘COLLECTING’ DETOX

Favourite London memory?

Visiting with my sister and a friend in the mid 1970s. It was the first time I had been to London and I still have a photo from the trip [below], taken outside Selfridges. I was wearing yellow sunglasses and a leather biker jacket.

The Gir affe & A c a cia Tree C andel abr a in Sterling Silver

A rtis ans of e x tr a ordin a ry g if ts fr om A fric a 1 0 4 - 1 0 6 F u l h a m R o a d, L o n d o n, S W 3

w w w. p a t r i c k m a v r o s . c o m

IMAGES: CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN, PHOTOGRAPHER GYØME DOS SANTOS, COURTESY OF RIZZOLI, BELLA FREUD

Hidden gem in the city?

I had a great steak and kidney pudding at Butlers Wharf Chop House when I was working on an exhibition at the nearby Design Museum, before it moved. In fact, I had it a few days running.

What sums up British fashion for you?

I love going to Savile Row, even if it’s just to look in the windows. In particular, I like Norton & Sons, who create beautiful ornamental embroidery for me.

Best date place?

McDonald’s on Oxford Street.

It would be so awful, you’d always be remembered.

Best place to let your hair down?

I don’t have much hair so it’s not much of an issue for me.

But, to relax, I run in the parks.

Store of choice?

Clifton Nurseries in Little Venice, for searching through their greenhouses. I was a landscape gardener before I became a shoe designer. I also love Papers and Paints in

Chelsea. They have a definitive range of historical paint colours.

What do you look for in a London hotel?

I always stay at Claridge’s.

[Designer] Guy Oliver has managed to marry contemporary luxury with the classic Art Deco of the 1930s – especially in the restaurant.

Favourite gift-shopping spot?

I love Bella Freud’s shop in Chiltern Street. Also, London Borough of Jam – which only opens at weekends, so I have to be careful when planning my visits to London.

Most memorable London event?

I saw my friend Kristin Scott Thomas in The Audience at the Apollo. She seemed very at home as the Queen. Martin Ballard [head concierge at Claridge’s] always tells me what’s on when I’m in London.

up filling a whole crate, which then has to be shipped back.

Building you’d most like to buy?

Albany House. I love the building and have great memories of being there with friends. It’s probably the only place in London I would cheat on Claridge’s for. M

The newly refurbished Louboutin store is now open at 17 Mount Street

Best place to people watch?

The London Underground.

Museum you love to visit?

Sir John Soane’s Museum.

I too have a passion for collecting things. In fact, friends say I have a collecting disease. But I’m on a detox!

Biggest extravagance?

When I travel, I try to buy only a few small things to carry home. But I always end

From top: Louboutin’s A/W17; Albany House; Selfridges window, Christmas 2016; Bella Freud, Chiltern Street; Lion candle, Bella Freud; Louboutin and friends in the 1970s

IMAGES: JOHN CAREY

FOOD & DRINK

30 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

have a somewhat potted history with restaurant cookbooks. The long list of ingredients that I need to pop to an obscure Thai supermarket in South London to find. Then the endless errors because they’ve been written by people who are used to throwing saucepans and shouting, not writing words. I still have nightmares about a burger bun recipe from Hawksmoor.

Typically, any book-of-a-restaurant merely needs to look great and contain comfortingly familiar words like ‘stir’ and ‘chop’.

The recipes don’t need to be practical – they don’t even need to be accurate – as long as the photos are in focus.

I do sometimes wonder if restaurant cookbooks are part of a conspiracy. If you made a book of recipes that were achievable by the average home cook without nervous breakdowns or setting the house on fire, why would anyone go back to the restaurant? Amateur kitchen enthusiasts back away, chastened, and sagely mutter to themselves that it’s better just to let the experts do it. I mean it’s all just such a terrible… but hang on – what’s this?

Hmm, the Claridges Cookbook, I see.

I was last at Claridge’s for my sister-in-law’s wedding. The hotel had levered into the foyer an entire tree covered in fairy lights, around the base of which was a mountain of confectionery, which served as the wedding breakfast pudding. This is not an establishment that does anything by halves.

But alas my husband Giles and I are not regular guests – I suppose we felt we never had the right occasion to merit a return visit, or smart enough shoes. But now I don’t need the shoes – I’ve got the cookbook!

And if any institution is going to do this kind of thing properly it’s got to be Claridge’s, who know a thing or two about catering. Kate Moss had her thirtieth

Cooking the books AS CLARIDGE’S LAUNCHES ITS FIRST COOKBOOK, BAD COOK AUTHOR ESTHER WALKER TAKES ON SOME OF THE HOTEL’S FINEST RECIPES

Left and opposite: Claridge’s chicken pie.

Above: the new Claridge’s cookbook

“I pick three recipes from the Claridge’s book that are most likely to get eaten by my family, just so that I don’t eat the whole lot”

birthday party here for goodness sake!

Spencer Tracy said he’d rather go here than heaven when he died! This is where Churchill retreated in 1945 and the kings of Greece, Norway and Yugoslavia lived for the duration of the WWII. Maybe, just maybe – this time – I can bring a bit of restaurant glamour into the shabby London townhouse I call home.

I pick three recipes from the Claridge’s book that are most likely to get eaten by my family, just so that I don’t eat the whole lot on my own.

I’m sure Giles would like an Omelette Arnold Bennett. And my kids – Kitty, 6 and Sam, 4 – will eat the Chocolate Sandwich biscuits (if I can make them before they eat all the raw ingredients).

These biscuits are bound to be a hilarious disaster because I just don’t have the Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 31

FOOD & DRINK

“‘Yeah,’ says Giles, who is never impressed by my cooking. ‘Omelette Arnold Bennett is always nice.”

Above: Clarence Court eggs used at Claridge’s. Left: Omelette Arnold Bennett. Top: illustration by Clym Evernden

32 | Claridges . The Connaught .The Berkeley

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Two hundred years of secrets, stocks and scones are condensed wittily onto beautifully illustrated pages. And, how can you dislike a book with instructions like this (from kindly coauthor Meredith Erickson): ‘The chocolate might look grainy and split at this point – don’t worry!’

I save the one I’m most comfortable with for last – the Omelette Arnold Bennett. I can already make an omelette. I can make a white sauce. I know how to switch on my grill.

Perhaps it tastes a little better eaten from the Claridge’s eau-de-nil and white plates, rather than scoffed hastily at our scuffed kitchen table while being shrieked at by small children, but it was pretty delicious.

‘Yeah,’ says Giles, who as the food critic for The Times is never impressed by my cooking unless I have deboned and stuffed an entire duck.

‘Omelette Arnold Bennett is always nice’. Praise indeed. M @esthermcoren. Esther Walker is the author of Bad Cook. Claridge’s: The Cookbook by Martyn Nail and Meredith Erickson, £30, published

by Octopus, is now available at the hotel.

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SUBHEAD

Title headline IMAGES: JOHN CAREY

personality for baking. The third recipe is the Claridge’s chicken pie. I make a mean one myself, I’m interested to see how theirs compares.

It’s no small thing that I can also get all the ingredients I need from my local Sainsbury’s – score one for Claridge’s!

I start with the chicken pie which goes relatively well, although I can’t promise that I followed the recipe to the letter: 180 words are devoted to the precise construction of the pastry lid alone. But it is certainly more interesting than the one I usually make for my kids, who scream blue murder at any ‘bits’ in their food. And, alas, they roundly reject this, as it has mushrooms in it. Even after I pick them out, it’s no deal.

So I make them toasted cheese sandwiches instead and eat some of the pie, standing at the kitchen counter. It is far more refined than mine: more delicate and fragrant. My pie is a sort of emergency thing you could knock up over a campfire, into which I bash roasted chicken thighs, skin and all. Comparing the two is like comparing wrestling with fencing.

As predicted, the biscuits are a disaster.

Even reading the words ‘piping bag’ makes me want to bang my head on the counter. By teatime the kitchen is streaked with chocolate, my fan oven has burned most of the biscuits to a crisp, I never want to see a spatula again and I badly need a drink.

I have realised that while this book is absolutely made to be cooked from – unlike some of my previous nemeses – it’s also there to tell the story of the restaurant itself.

HERITAGE

Es essi cusdae el idem re, voluptae anderum qui velenis sed maiorehendae eat ut mollore Nem eos atus, te voloressi ullat Pisque accum fugitat iistet eatem que et magnam hilitet laboreped exerspitium ducienda dolecte Ereped quiasi coris abo. Onsequatis errumquate verovid quas quibus, inciis duntion nos consequi offic tet lam ressustio For more information visit www.websitehere.com

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“The pull of a new winter coat is hard to ignore and this season delivers a beguiling edit. Name Name Tailored, quilted” consed qui asimaior aute comnitia ex eum senimus aliciet, qui omnis et alitatis erum il ipicill umquiam conserit pre consecte commolum eatisquas aut ipsunt et plaut audant re necaerit id exped ea sinctur aut ex eatempe dolest eserfer sperovide consequaspid quam ut odipsum que plandit atente que desti sanis es volupti consedi gentur, et experatendae id eatur sunt eniam nus et pedit ut ex et rerorat uribustet re remperro cusa ipid quiatem oloratur? Qui aut Ur magnissed maximus molut rempeleceria volorescius adi dolor mossit laboriore necae et magnatist, omniminitat laborias dolor seriae. Mus dentiis conecabor susa pratur autaturero moluptas minctus verorro blam et ut qui untibus dolum volendant et parum ea eosam ipid quaspiduciis maio. Ibusci bla que nias et vene quosae eium aciatas quoditi squam, etusant lam fugiamus est, utet plaut qui aboremos nonestiusci inim quidelenda percid minis repro ea natinctur, volorehenime niet, quam aut ut quibus nim reptat as et et et mod etus, sinusam, officatur, voluptat paruptur, nonsed mil et

ST YLE

Emilia Wickstead and Whitney Bromberg Hawkings at their table at The Connaught, both wearing Emilia Wickstead

BY DESIGN

AS OSCAR WILDE NOTED, THE ONE WHO CAN DOMINATE A LONDON DINNER TABLE CAN DOMINATE THE WORLD... BUT WHAT OF THOSE WHO CREATE IT? WE INVITED SOME OF LONDON’S MOST SEASONED ENTERTAINERS TO DESIGN THE TABLE OF THEIR DREAMS AT THE CONNAUGHT AND THE BERKELEY

By Fiona McCarthy Photographed by Beth Evans

ST YLE

Dorothy Draper’s Entertaining is Fun! How to Be a Popular Hostess – she was an American interior designer in the 1940s and 1950s, known for dispensing witty decorating advice and for throwing great parties.

I love the old-style glamour, etiquette and attention to detail that went into entertaining with great style during that era. It must have been a very magical time.

For The Connaught, we created a printon-print feel with a gold rosebud-print tablecloth, taken from my new resort collection, and contrasting napkins from the silver version. The metallic thread helped to pick up the other textures in the room – the shimmering wallpaper and marble columns – while bouncing light around the room.

As mixing patterns can be quite busy, we kept cutlery and crockery simple – sophisticated gold-rimmed white dinner plates that echo the colours on the table perfectly.

A table generously laid with flowers really gets people excited and gives them something to talk about – it immediately lifts the evening’s mood. And of course good music is essential – I put together playlists of the old classics by the likes of Flowers and ‘Bailey’ vases, from a selection, Flowerbx. Taper candles, Angela Wickstead. Marshmallows and turkish delight, from a selection, Selfridges Food Hall. Tablecloth and napkins, from a selection, Emilia Wickstead.

Glasses and silverware, available in The Mayfair Room at The Connaught

“I love old-style glamour, etiquette and attention to detail”

ew Zealand-born, Milanraised, London-based fashion designer Emilia Wickstead is one of the UK’s most exciting rising fashion talents, much loved by the style elite including the Duchess of Cambridge, Alexa Chung and Gigi Hadid. Since she debuted her first catwalk collection in 2011 at The Connaught (‘I hid backstage and did the music on my iPod,’ she recalls), her designs have since become synonymous with all things feminine.

Her friend and regular creative collaborator Whitney Bromberg Hawkings – and for almost 20 years, Tom Ford’s right-hand lady – co-founded online florist Flowerbx in 2016 as a way of shaking up the way we order flowers, with an emphasis on single-stem bouquets.

36 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

She has also since launched vases with both Emilia and another of London’s most stylish It girls, Laura Bailey. For this issue, they set a glamorous scene that would work for a girls’ evening or a chic, modern city wedding in The Connaught’s ballroomstyle Mayfair Room, with guests including supermodel Erin O’Connor, stylist Martha Ward and jeweller Sabine Getty.

EMILIA:

‘I often forget all about the food.

I become so crazy with the details of creating the perfect dinner party table that food is an afterthought. Luckily my husband cooks!

How you design a table really affects the way people feel – it’s the little things that seduce guests, making them feel welcome and special. I find inspiration in reading

APPLE BLOSSOM COCKTAIL

BY AGOSTINO PERRONE, MASTER MIXOLOGIST, THE CONNAUGHT BAR

ADDITIONAL IMAGES: SARAH BRIMLEY

EMILIA WICKSTEAD AND WHITNEY BROMBERG HAWKINGS IN THE MAYFAIR ROOM AT THE CONNAUGHT

Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin. It often starts out playing softly in the background at the beginning of the evening but inevitably gets louder as the night goes on.

I like a two-pronged approach to seating plans. If I think two people who haven’t met might get along well, I make sure to introduce them while we’re having drinks on arrival. At the dinner table, I often put people together I know are good friends but might not have seen one another in a while. With our fast-paced lives, there’s nothing nicer than a host giving you the chance to catch up with someone you love. If I’m hosting, I swap seats with someone at the other end of the table for nightcaps following dessert.

Being a great host means embracing your inner style – celebrate it and bring it into every detail of the table, music and food. And keep those drinks flowing!

Being a good guest means showing an interest in the people you’re seated with.

After all, you never know who you might meet. I always think the best mark of a good night is when people say afterwards what great conversations they had… emiliawickstead.com

INGREDIENTS 15ml Galliano Aperitivo 10ml Calvados 125ml champagne Garnish with dried citrus METHOD Pour the Galliano and Calvados into a clean punch bowl, stir and add ice; garnish with dried orange or lime slices. Ladle into individual champagne coupes and top with champagne. Add one or two of the dried orange slices to garnish.

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 37

Jean-Georges Vongerichten, pictured here with the dinner party guests, created a special menu for the evening and couldn’t resist popping in to see the night in full swing

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Secae provit, tem cus, quunt.Liqui blat.

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“Flowers are a luxury, but they make life infinitely happier”

WHITNEY:

38 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

THE MODERN BRIDE

HOW TO MAKE IT A PARTY TO REMEMBER BY JADE BEER, EDITOR OF BRIDES Go beyond the obvious with your dress.

Marrying in an elegant city hotel like The Connaught provides so many other options to choose from: like a sharp crepe ‘Le Smoking’ tux or silky jumpsuit.

Make the drinks one of the most important elements. Champagne never fails to impress or go for bespoke cocktails – use your favourite spirits, flavour and botanical essences.

Banquet-style dining caters to all sorts of tastes. It gets everyone up and mixing, making everyone feel more included.

Make the most of having everyone you love all together by asking an illustrator to sit and sketch them. It’s a great conversation starter, it will encourage people to get into the party mood and it’s the perfect memento to remember a special day.

Give your guests something beautiful to remember the day by – ask your florist to take all the day’s blooms and place them in beautiful urns near the exit, alongside big rolls of brown paper. As your guests leave, invite them to take a bunch, wrap them up and enjoy them at home.

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“The pull of a new winter coat is hard to ignore and this season delivers a beguiling edit. Name Name Tailored, quilted”

consed qui asimaior aute comnitia ex eum senimus aliciet, qui omnis et alitatis erum il ipicill umquiam conserit pre consecte commolum eatisquas aut ipsunt et plaut audant re necaerit id exped ea sinctur aut ex eatempe dolest eserfer sperovide consequaspid quam ut odipsum que plandit atente que desti sanis es volupti consedi gentur, et experatendae id eatur sunt eniam nus et pedit ut ex et rerorat uribustet re remperro cusa ipid quiatem oloratur? Qui aut Ur magnissed maximus molut rempeleceria volorescius adi dolor mossit laboriore necae et magnatist, omniminitat laborias dolor seriae. Mus SUBHEAD dentiis conecabor susa pratur autaturero moluptas minctus verorro blam et ut qui untibus dolum volendant et parum ea Es essi cusdae el idem re, voluptae anderum qui velenis sed eosam ipid quaspiduciis maio. Ibusci bla maiorehendae eat ut mollore Nem eos atus, te voloressi ullat Magnipheasant Collection que nias et vene quosae eium aciatas quoditi Pisque accum fugitat iistet eatem que et magnam hilitet squam, etusant lam fugiamus est, utet plaut laboreped exerspitium ducienda dolecte Ereped quiasi coris qui aboremos nonestiusci inim quidelenda abo. Onsequatis errumquate verovid quas quibus, inciis duntion nos consequi offic tet lam ressustio For more information visit130 Mount Street, Mayfair percid minis repro ea natinctur, Second Floor, volorehenime niet, quam aut ut quibus nim www.websitehere.com 0203 298 0970 reptat as et et et mod etus, sinusam, Lower Ground Floor, Harrods, Knightsbridge officatur, voluptat paruptur, nonsed mil et

Title headline IMAGES: SARAH BRIMLEY

‘I like to keep flowers tonal – for elegant impact, I play with the same colour tone across a selection of different singularly-bunched flower varieties. I also love the simplicity of using just one flower en masse – it doesn’t matter what flower you use, just a lot of one bloom creates a ‘wow’ factor.

Flowers are a luxury, but they make life infinitely happier. I wanted Flowerbx to be to flowers what Net-a-Porter is to fashion – the idea was to pare the way we buy flowers right back to selling single varieties, emphasising the idea that ‘less is really more’. Less fussiness, more flowers.

Here, we used an abundance of café au lait dahlias, pink flutter astilbe, and avalanche and pink lace spray roses, displayed as single bunches in ‘Bailey’ bud vases and silver vessels from The Connaught. Working with different heights – some flowers as single stems, some low-lying in big bunches – is more unexpected than the traditional bouquet arrangement. The great thing is you don’t need to be a florist to create this look, you can just scatter them randomly down the table and you’re done. It’s totally foolproof!

Flowerbx.com To book an event at The Connaught, call 020 7499 7070 or visit the-connaught.co.uk

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0203 036 6176

ST YLE

Rachel Cecil Gurney wears a dress by Needle & Thread.

Silver candelabra and napkin rings, from a selection, Patrick Mavros. Murano glass tumblers, from a selection, Nason Moretti at The Conran Shop. Handpainted dinner service, pheasant figurines and goose tureens, printed folding screen, printed duchess satin used as a tablecloth and hand-carved ‘Gustavian’ dining chairs all, from a selection, de Gournay. Placecards by Lucy Edmonds, Quill London. Flowers, made to order,

By Appointment Only Design

Javier Salvador and Robert James from

By Appointment Only Design

“This suave and dynamic duo are much sought after for their wildly extravagant floral schemes”

RACHEL CECIL GURNEY OF DE GOURNAY WITH JAVIER SALVADOR AND ROBERT JAMES OF BY APPOINTMENT ONLY DESIGN IN THE BALLROOM AT THE BERKELEY hen Kate Moss recently decided that she wanted to design her own handpainted wallpaper, there was only one brand she would consider collaborating with. De Gournay has been the go-to for London’s most fashionable since it opened almost 30 years ago, rapidly becoming known for its fine craftsmanship and handmade approach. Whether it’s intricately hand-painted silk wallpapers or hand-thrown porcelain, true craftsmanship defines everything that De Gournay does.

Absolutely nothing is left to machine alone.

Rachel Cecil Gurney, along with her sister Hannah, are De Gournay’s second generation following in the footsteps of their charismatic father Claud who established the company when he couldn’t find anyone to restore or replace the antique wallpapers of his family home in Knightsbridge.

Not only does their wallpaper adorn the homes of the great and the good, from Kate Moss to the Prince of Wales, but De Gournay has collaborated with many a fashion designer, including Jenny Packham 40 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

and Alexander McQueen. Recently they worked on a collaboration with Edgardo Osorio, founder and creative director of Aquazzura, for whom they created ‘Amazonia’, a wild tropical print which graces the screen seen here.

The tablecloth hails from a collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum, used at American Vogue’s Met Gala ball.

When Robert Angell was redesigning the Collins Room at The Berkeley, he turned to De Gournay to create a custom design, featuring a unique cherry blossom print which now covers the elegant walls.

With The Berkeley unveiling its redesigned ballroom in the heart of Knightsbridge, we asked Rachel to imagine her dream table, working with Javier Salvador and Robert James from the A-list florist, By Appointment Only Design.

Established in 2007, this suave and dynamic duo are much sought-after for their wildly extravagant floral schemes which have been seen all over the world, from London to Hong Kong, transforming everything from wedding tabletops to fashion front rows.

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 41

ST YLE

JAVIER:

‘We’re always trying to reinvent how we work with flowers to create something unique. I studied fashion at Central St Martins and Robert has worked within luxury interiors for 20 years, from retail design to penthouses.

Our partnership works beautifully: Robert takes the whole space, architectural detail and colour scheme into consideration while I will often look to fashion, particularly haute couture, for inspiration. So, the tiny nodules on the hydrangea buds can mirror the intricate beading of a dress, a dahlia’s petals can be like folds of fabric.

We’re known for our use of texture and generous abundance of different flowers in each arrangement or installation. We try to match the spirit of the person and the event to the flowers we work with and always look to the seasons for new or interesting varieties.

For Rachel’s table, we took inspiration from the tropical motifs of the fabrics and teamed sculptural blooms such as gloriosa, orchids and anthuriums with the softness of classic English garden flowers such as roses and sweet peas. The combination is completely magical and totally unexpected. M byappointmentonlydesign.com

MODERN CALLIGRAPHY

How to go the extra mile by Lucy Edmonds, founder of Quill London

“I like bright-coloured treats for the table such as chocolate-dipped halva or preserved orange slices” RACHEL:

‘My father loves to entertain, he’s a very generous host and it’s in the de Gournay DNA to make everything we do personal and unexpected.

We like our guests to feel like part of the family and our dinner parties are always marked by the memories of good food, good wine and lively conversation. If it’s in the summer, we’ll lay a table with flowers from my father’s garden in the countryside, if it’s winter, we improvise with bright, colourful vegetables.

I love The Berkeley, my dad used to take us here for afternoon tea as it’s so close to where we grew up in Brompton Close. Now I take clients there to the Collins Room as it’s the perfect place to see our designs in action. Wilton Place is my absolute dream address in London.

As the new ballroom is very chic and 42 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

contemporary, we decided to go all out with a very decadent and exotic feel for this table, starting with our brightest prints. We used some of de Gournay’s more unusual handpainted pieces, from the dinner service to the goose tureens (perfect for displaying the bold-hued macarons) – they really lend something unexpected to the table. I like bright-coloured treats for the table such as chocolate-dipped halva, sugared almonds or preserved orange slices.

I adore silver candlesticks – they fill any space with a soft glow – and these palm tree-style versions from Patrick Mavros are ideal for this setting.

For me, the joy of throwing a party is all in the preparation. Each time, I can make it look and feel totally unique – and once I start planning and sourcing ideas, it seems anything is possible. degournay.com To book an event at The Berkeley, call 020 7235 6000 or visit the-berkeley.co.uk

Give your invitations an extra punch with a beautifully addressed envelope. Have fun playing with scale – perhaps make a feature of the name and then write the address smaller underneath – or draw a little motif to go with the theme of your party.

Create personalised menus by either printing out part of the menu and then adding handwritten flourishes afterwards, including the guest’s name; or go wild and handwrite each individual menu for a more organic look.

Play around with writing place names with a brush or marker pen on everything from leaves, pebbles, driftwood, wine glasses and napkin rings.

Create your own monogram wax seal at stampitude.com. Use it to add a touch of elegance to invitations and place cards.

Create chalkboard signs to welcome guests or point them in the right direction. Draw the lettering first with chalk and then add the thickness to the downstrokes afterwards.

Modern Calligraphy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Art of Creativity by Lucy Edmonds is out now, published by Orion.

RONALD PHILLIPS

HERITAGE

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BY THOMAS CHIPPENDALE FROM HAREWOOD HOUSE volorehenime niet, quam aut ut quibus nim www.websitehere.com reptat as et et et mod etus, sinusam, 26 BRUTON STREET, LONDON W1J officatur, 6QL voluptat paruptur, nonsed mil et

“The pull of a new winter coat is hard to ignore and this season delivers a beguiling edit. Name Name Tailored, quilted”

Title headline

+44 (0)207 493 2341 ADVICE @ RONALDPHILLIPS.CO.UK RONALDPHILLIPSANTIQUES.COM

FOOD & DRINK

A matter of taste

WITH CHIC LIGHTING, ILLUSTRATED MENUS AND EVEN A TAKEAWAY PIZZA, JEAN-GEORGES VONGERICHTEN IS RESTORING A LIGHTHEARTED TOUCH TO MAYFAIR DINING, SAYS BILL PRINCE

44 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

“It’s in step with a town that’s learned to relax and enjoy what a restaurant can be”

IMAGES: CRISTIAN BARNETT

ith the opening of Jean-Georges at The Connaught, Jean-Georges Vongerichten is returning to his professional roots. But he’s never really been away. Via his last authored dining space in London – Vong, at The Berkeley – the Alsace-born chef revolutionised the culinary landscape to lasting effect.

Before Vong opened in 1996, ‘Asian fusion’ had barely been heard of, much less adopted as the contemporary cuisine for any restaurateur wishing to appeal to a growing army of globalistas making London their home-from-home. Yet within a scant six years, Vong spearheaded a vogue for Asianinspired – or simply fusion-friendly – menus, from Nobu to Zuma, Roka to Sexy Fish.

Fast-forward to 2017 and it seems JeanGeorges’ stamp can be found on half of the capital’s preferred kitchens. But the chef has chosen to renew his career-long connection with the city (he first visited in 1985, assisting the legendary Louis Outhier on Park Lane) by adopting a fresh approach at his new home overlooking Carlos Place.

Jean-Georges at The Connaught, which opened in the summer, is in step with a town that’s learned to relax and enjoy what a restaurant can – and should – be.

Vongerichten’s first all-day offering is complemented by a stunning design that enhances its day-to-night allure. Interior designer John Heah’s mood board might well have read ‘sociable, convivial, accessible’, such is the emphasis on craftsmanship and original artworks; a piece by the late sculptor Louise Bourgeois and a creation by Irish painter and printmaker Sean Scully greet diners as they enter.

But the room’s attributes run deeper. By day it’s filled with light, thanks to floor-toceiling windows topped with stained glass

by French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel. By night it’s intimate, thanks to low-slung furniture that aids sightlines across what will inevitably be a well-populated room.

From a diner’s perspective, the space offers myriad possibilities: a friends and family moment around a large, marble-topped table; an à deux secreted beneath the Scully; a simple ‘hi and bye’ coffee stop at a posing table by the bar.

Alongside the triedand-tested full English, breakfast offers an array of fresh alternatives, including émigrés from Vongerichten’s healthy-eating New York outposts ABC Kitchen and ABCV. Lunch and dinner offer a similarly satisfying mélange of local favourites: alongside fish ’n’ chips and Cornish lamb chops are a few of Jean-Georges’ greatest hits, including his signature crispy salmon sushi, and egg toast with caviar.

There’s a free-spirited yet accomplished theme throughout, exemplified by menus illustrated with winning whimsy by French graphic designer Jean Jullien. Afternoon tea makes a welcome return to this corner of the hotel – once a drawing room that provided a peaceful retreat from the bustle beyond – while evening diners can enjoy a further twist on Vongerichten’s repertoire: a ‘takeaway’ truffle pizza (in its own Jean Jullien-designed box).

This innovation speaks to an earlier era when hotel regulars might receive the

From top: table at Jean-Georges at The Connaught; crushed peas and mint on toast; crispy salmon sushi; illustration by Jean Jullien; the view over Carlos Place

occasional hot supper, delivered to their nearby home or office.

Vongerichten’s pizza-to-go service is the latest iteration of a sense of civility and service that dates back to the founding of The Coburg, the hotel that once occupied the site on which The Connaught stands.

The Coburg was founded by French chef Alexander Grillion, who relocated his club and dining rooms from nearby Bond Street (on a site now occupied by Cartier) at the beginning of the 19th century. Another French chef, Auguste Scorrier, took over the lease on The Coburg, but didn’t live to see its redevelopment as The Connaught in 1917.

At the time, a clause in the property’s lease forbade a bar, which only added to its reputation for focusing on food.

The Connaught became rightly revered for its cuisine, overseen by internationally-renowned chefs.

Each added his, and latterly her, personal touches to its menus.

But times change, and the prospects of ‘crêpes de volaille Connaught’ and ‘sole Carlos’ no longer hold quite the same allure as they did in the days of Daniel Dunas or Michel Bourdin, who between them commanded The Connaught’s kitchens for almost 50 years. Instead we come to avail ourselves of what a globally recognised chef can bring to a destination dining room. In JeanGeorges’ case, that is a career spent combining his French sensibility with the explorative edge of a true culinary pioneer.

With the brilliant summation of those influences at Jean-Georges at The Connaught, Vongerichten has triumphantly rejoined London’s roll call of legendary chefs. M @billgq Bill Prince is the deputy editor of British GQ. To book Jean-Georges at The Connaught, call 020 7107 8861 Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 45

FOOD & DRINK

10 things you didn’t know about Hélène TO CELEBRATE 10 YEARS OF HÉLÈNE DARROZE AT THE CONNAUGHT, WE’VE COMPILED OUR FAVOURITE FACTS ABOUT THE RENOWNED, TWO MICHELIN-STARRED CHEF

6.

Hélène provided the inspiration for the feisty character of Colette in Disney’s Ratatouille, teaching the hero to cook while reminding him to ‘Keep. Your station. Clear!’

1.

She has a weakness for Krispy Kremes, having been introduced to them by her best friend, the renowned pastry chef, Pierre Hermé.

2.

7.

In 2015, she was named Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2015.

As a child, she wanted to be a surgeon and even enrolled at college to study medicine, before deciding to become a chef.

8.

3.

4.

She has two daughters, Charlotte and Quiterie. The girls were models for Bonpoint’s S/S16 fashion show in Paris.

9.

5.

Hélène is a fourthgeneration chef and she often says she was ‘born in a saucepan’.

Her family has owned restaurants in Landes for over 100 years.

46 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

From top: solitaire menu board, Hélène in her kitchen, Cross by Cassandra Goad, Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, Quiterie in the Bonpoint SS16 show, Damien Hirst’s Kaleidoscope paintings in the restaurant, Colette from Ratatouille, Krispy Kremes

The Darroze family have been making Armagnac for three generations, an honour which now falls to her brother Marc. Hélène serves vintages dating back to 1941 in her restaurant.

10.

She never takes off the gold cross given to her by her much-loved grandmother.

IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK/REX. INSTRAGRAM/ HÉLÈNE DARROZE, ALAMY

Five years ago, Hélène launched a charity, “La Bonne Étoile” with her friend Laeticia Hallyday, which helps to care for and educate children in Vietnam.

She is a presenter for the award-winning TV programme Top Chef in France.

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SUBHEAD

Title headline Es essi cusdae el idem re, voluptae anderum qui velenis sed maiorehendae eat ut mollore Nem eos atus, te voloressi ullat Pisque accum fugitat iistet eatem que et magnam hilitet laboreped exerspitium ducienda dolecte Ereped quiasi coris abo. Onsequatis errumquate verovid quas quibus, inciis duntion nos consequi offic tet lam ressustio For more information visit www.websitehere.com

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“The pull of a new winter coat is hard to ignore and this season delivers a beguiling edit. Name Name Tailored, quilted” consed qui asimaior aute comnitia ex eum senimus aliciet, qui omnis et alitatis erum il ipicill umquiam conserit pre consecte commolum eatisquas aut ipsunt et plaut audant re necaerit id exped ea sinctur aut ex eatempe dolest eserfer sperovide consequaspid quam ut odipsum que plandit atente que desti sanis es volupti consedi gentur, et experatendae id eatur sunt eniam nus et pedit ut ex et rerorat uribustet re remperro cusa ipid quiatem oloratur? Qui aut Ur magnissed maximus molut rempeleceria volorescius adi dolor mossit laboriore necae et magnatist, omniminitat laborias dolor seriae. Mus dentiis conecabor susa pratur autaturero moluptas minctus verorro blam et ut qui untibus dolum volendant et parum ea eosam ipid quaspiduciis maio. Ibusci bla que nias et vene quosae eium aciatas quoditi squam, etusant lam fugiamus est, utet plaut qui aboremos nonestiusci inim quidelenda percid minis repro ea natinctur, volorehenime niet, quam aut ut quibus nim reptat as et et et mod etus, sinusam, officatur, voluptat paruptur, nonsed mil et

HERITAGE

Variety acts

From left: Marko Govorusa, Penelope and Charlie Watts and Danny Mitchell at the entrance to The Berkeley

CAB HAILERS, RED-CARPET ROLLERS, WEATHERMEN, DOG-WALKERS, VALETS, CONFIDANTS, LONDON GUIDES AND MORE, OUR DOORMEN ARE THE VERY DEFINITION OF GOOD HOSTS, ALWAYS READY TO WELCOME YOU BACK TO YOUR LONDON ADDRESS Photography by Sam Barker

“One winter night it was raining as only London can, and I handed an umbrella to a lady walking past. She wrote a letter to say that she had been on her way to a first date and it saved the day.”

48 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 49

HERITAGE

“I love getting to know our guests. One of our regulars told me all about her farm back home; she now brings me eggs whenever she stays in London.�

From left: Paul Rhodes and Carl Holness at the entrance to The Connaught with an Aston Martin DB5, which was kindly provided by our neighbours JD Classics, located on Mount Row

50 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 51

HERITAGE

“A lady arrived for Afternoon Tea with her father, but was running late as she had a flat tyre.

I called our service team and we managed to get it fixed for her before she finished her tea.”

From left: Marcin Szydlowski, Emily Frere from McQueens and John Watts at the entrance to Claridge’s

52 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 53

MOTORING

One Ferrari 250 GTO – the most soughtafter of all – is available to a buyer prepared to pay a reported £45 million. A 1956 290 MM, raced at the time by the great ot many hotels offer Juan Manuel Fangio, made $28 million at an automotive atelier, much an RM Sotheby’s sale in New York in less one dedicated to the most 2015. But as far as the Design Museum is desired car brand of concerned, their financial value is all: Ferrari. secondary to their However, cultural import. visitors to The Berkeley Ferrari is a story can’t miss the stunning about great people; mechanical pulchritude in founder and the hotel’s salon-cumnamesake Enzo showroom. Their engines being merely the temporarily silenced, most famous. The these imperious machines exhibition is gaze out onto divided six ways: Knightsbridge from their Enzo; the bones of highly privileged home.

Ferrari; the form; What is it that makes clients; racing and Ferrari so special? That’s Ferrari today. a question London’s Essentially, this is Design Museum will an homage to the answer when a major creation of beauty. exhibition opens in ‘The cultural November. It’s called and intellectual Ferrari: Under the Skin aspiration is to and coincides with interpret a great the company’s 70th brand from the anniversary celebrations.

Design Museum’s Unsurprisingly – given point of view, the track record of using its critical museum director Deyan apparatus,’ says Sudjic – it draws an curator Andrew irresistible narrative out of Nahum. ‘We want a tale so full of love, death, to show that Above: Enzo Ferrari at the entrance of the romance, chicanery and vehicle design and Ferrari Factory, 1957. Opposite: Rally of car-creation that it’s a Ferrari design are the South African Ferrari Clubs on the Kyalami Circuit for the 50th Anniversary wonder it hasn’t yet been real crafts, and to fashioned into a expose some of the Hollywood movie. (Director Michael mystery. I doubt, for example, that many Mann has been on the case for nearly 20 people outside the automotive industry will years: not so long ago, he was know that clay modellers exist [within it] at Ferrari’s private test track, Fiorano, and use similar techniques to sculptors.’ for research.)

Ferrari: Under the Skin features a full-size Cars shape our streets, underpin western wire model and a wooden buck (a skeleton economies and enflame passions as the of a car, fashioned in wood). Both evoke the heartbeat of one of the most popular global remarkable level of artisanal skill that Italian sports, but are an arguably overlooked outpost of contemporary industrial design.

Maybe their sheer ubiquity undermines academic appreciation. But the best-known examples of this Italian marque are up there with Modigliani and Michelangelo.

A Ferrari with the requisite provenance will make very significant money at auction.

SHAPE OF THINGS

AS THE DESIGN MUSEUM OPENS A NEW EXHIBITION PAYING HOMAGE TO 70 YEARS OF FERRARI, JASON BARLOW EXAMINES ITALY’S MOST SEDUCTIVE EXPORT 54 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

COURTESY OF FERRARI

“Cars shape our streets, underpin western economies and enflame our passions”

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 55

MOTORING

TO GET

THE FULL PICTURE

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MOST EXCLUSIVE PROPERTIES...

Clockwise from above: present day manufacturing of the Ferrari California car; 412 T2 drawing, 1995; F150 design drawing; Mick Jagger with his GTO delivery; Enzo Ferrari at the Targa Florio in 1920

“An exquisite sculptural object, it was made by people who loved metal and knew how to form it” carrozzerie (coach-builders) used to create these exotic machines in the 1950s, when Ferrari was getting into its stride.

The majority of Ferraris were designed by the great Torino-founded coach-building firm Pininfarina. But many of the bodies themselves were fabricated by Modena man Sergio Scaglietti and his team of metalworkers, who hand-beat aluminium over wire frames or wooden bucks.

‘You’re not making a surface – you’re merely suggesting it,’ Nahum says. ‘But for the carrozzerie, it was enough. A curve can look good on paper – but, when it’s compounded with all the other curves, something happens that you didn’t expect.

The whole composition might not work.

Something similar happens in boatbuilding, where the craftsmen begin the process with splines before they plank a boat. If you use the spring of the wood, you get a very good natural curve. I don’t know if that was passed to the good people 56 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

of Modena (Enzo Ferrari’s birthplace), or independently discovered.’

This most human of endeavours inevitably led to human error. History records that a client complained to Enzo that the door on one side of his new car was longer than on the other. ‘Of course they are,’ the boss replied. ‘They were made by different craftsmen.’

Ferraris such as the 250 GT SWB, GTO and original California Spyder are among history’s most beautiful pieces of industrial design. ‘When you see them, you feel a car couldn’t be better balanced,’ says Nahum.

‘The shape suggests its speed, power and ability. And it’s an exquisite sculptural object, no doubt about it. It was made by people who loved metal and knew how to form it. In a way, they are innocent and personal shapes. The craft is almost visible in them.’

As well as peeling back the layers, the Design Museum exhibition will immerse

visitors in a world rarely glimpsed. British collector and historian Ronald Stern has loaned artefacts from his archive – widely thought to be the world’s greatest collection of Ferrari memorabilia, brochures and historical documents, assiduously collated over three decades.

‘We have menus celebrating race victories, and rarely seen originals of well-known photographs,’ Nahum says.

‘We want to create a privileged environment; something that’s a chamber of wonder, full of Enzo relics. Then you come into this wonderful sunburst of remarkable Ferraris. It’s important that we tell the story; it can’t just be a room full of cars.’ M @jasonbarlowuk Jason Barlow is a contributing editor to GQ magazine and editor at large for Top Gear.

‘Ferrari: Under the Skin’ is at the Design Museum from 15 November – 15 April, designmuseum.org.

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SUBHEAD

Title headline Es essi cusdae el idem re, voluptae anderum qui velenis sed maiorehendae eat ut mollore Nem eos atus, te voloressi ullat Pisque accum fugitat iistet eatem que et magnam hilitet laboreped exerspitium ducienda dolecte Ereped quiasi coris abo. Onsequatis errumquate verovid quas quibus, inciis duntion nos consequi offic tet lam ressustio For more information visit www.websitehere.com

“The pull of a new winter coat is hard to ignore and this season delivers a beguiling edit. Name Name Tailored, quilted” consed qui asimaior aute comnitia ex eum senimus aliciet, qui omnis et alitatis erum il ipicill umquiam conserit pre consecte commolum eatisquas aut ipsunt et plaut audant re necaerit id exped ea sinctur aut ex eatempe dolest eserfer sperovide consequaspid quam ut odipsum que plandit atente que desti sanis es volupti consedi gentur, et experatendae id eatur sunt eniam nus et pedit ut ex et rerorat uribustet re remperro cusa ipid quiatem oloratur? Qui aut Ur magnissed maximus molut rempeleceria volorescius adi dolor mossit laboriore necae et magnatist, omniminitat laborias dolor seriae. Mus dentiis conecabor susa pratur autaturero moluptas minctus verorro blam et ut qui untibus dolum volendant et parum ea eosam ipid quaspiduciis maio. Ibusci bla que nias et vene quosae eium aciatas quoditi squam, etusant lam fugiamus est, utet plaut qui aboremos nonestiusci inim quidelenda percid wetherell.co.uk minis repro ea natinctur, volorehenime niet, quam aut ut quibus nim reptat as et et et mod etus, sinusam, officatur, voluptat paruptur, nonsed mil et

...SPEAK TO THE

EXPERTS

no-one knows mayfair better than wetherell

FASHION

Man about town Cambridge-educated, brilliantly connected and famously hairy, Jack Guinness leads a new breed of top male models. Meet London’s modern man about town

By Elle Blakeman Styling by Tom Stubbs Photographed by Jake Walters at The Connaught

58 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

Wool coat, £1,835, Bottega Veneta. ‘Bowie’ Fedora, £295, Lock & Co Hatters.

Wool and silk trousers, £395, Thom Sweeney.

Merino wool rollneck, £150, John Smedley.

Leather ‘Jimi’ boot, £650, Jimmy Choo. Trolley Case, £1,320, Globe-Trotter Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 59

FASHION

Hound’s-tooth wool suit, £4,500; tab collar shirt, from a selection, both Edward Sexton.

Asymmetric gold ring, from a selection, Toby Mclellan. Vintage tie, from a selection, Hermès

ack Guinness is in the bath, wearing sunglasses, silk pyjamas and a Cartier watch. Very 1970s-era Jagger, it’s a tough look to pull off – especially with a nine-strong crew in the room – but he manages it with ease. ‘The knobs look good,’ whispers the photographer to his assistant. ‘Why thank you,’ Guinness whips back. ‘I’ve just had them done.’

‘This is what I love about being British,’ he says, rearranging his sunglasses while trying not to slip further into the bath.

‘You can’t take yourself too seriously.’

No one could accuse Jack Guinness of that. GQ’s ‘coolest man in Britain’, Tatler’s ‘bearded scenester’ and the go-to host for many an A-list event, it would be easy for him to be a diva. Yet he has a wholly deserved reputation for being the most charming man in any room.

His Twitter account is full of self-deprecating comments and mischievous antics, such as moving his headshot over Rita Ora’s at their shared model agency, while pensive-looking cover shots are put on Instagram with taglines such as, ‘Trying to add 2 + 2.’

Guinness has been an actor, presenter, model and fashion insider – but now, in his mid-30s, he’s decided to forsake the multifaceted path that is the birthright of the millennial and stick with what he loves best.

‘I think of myself as a model who does the occasional thing on the side,’ he says.

Not that he has time to kill, being one of the most in-demand faces in British menswear. He has walked for Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, while his campaigns include Paul Smith, Barbour, Dunhill and L’Oréal. His trademark beard – grown during student days at Cambridge because he ‘couldn’t be bothered to shave’ – looms from billboards the world over. Given that thick facial hair is now as ubiquitous in London as black cabs and emergency umbrellas, can we credit him with kickstarting its resurgence? ‘My friends tease me but, deep down, I do think I started it,’

he jokes. ‘Let’s put it in print and then it’s fact. It wasn’t Jesus, it wasn’t Che Guevara; it was me.’

Wondering if there’s any connection between Jack and ‘the black stuff’? Yes: he’s the great-great-great-great-grandson of Arthur Guinness – which, in certain places, surely makes him borderline royalty. ‘I get the odd free pint in Ireland, but no one cares here,’ he says. ‘But it’s lovely knowing your history. As I get older, I find it fascinating. Everyone is descended from someone amazing. I’m just lucky that I know a bit of my history.’

Did such a recognisable name help him break into a notoriously tough industry? ‘It’s definitely opened doors, in terms of people being curious. But if I was rubbish at my job, no last name, even Windsor, would save me.’

Despite his dynastic connections, Guinness is no toff. ‘I was brought up in Brixton until I was ten and in Belgravia from ten to 20. The 1980s in Brixton was a really exciting time: a melting pot of cultures and ideas, with incredible music. I’m glad I’ve seen both sides of London: you don’t want to be in a bubble, wherever you are.’

He credits an early interest in fashion to the capital. ‘Growing up in central London, fashion plays a huge part in your life, whether you realise it or not. Music, theatre, art…

While modelling is a career that favours women, Guinness is one of the few male models becoming a brand in his own right.

‘I’ve learned a lot watching other models, especially female ones. The best models bring something special to the set. They become creatures when the camera’s on.

They flow, they do something magical.’

His boundless energy is lauded on and off set, and he often hosts events (such as a GQ charity ball with Samuel L. Jackson) or hangs out with a roll call of friends that looks like a casting agent’s dream – Alexa Chung (with whom Guinness shared a flat), Daisy Lowe, Pixie Geldof and Nick Grimshaw; more often than not, in a supremely dapper suit.

‘Because I don’t have a 9-5 job where I have to wear a suit, I really enjoy dressing up at night,’ he explains. But he isn’t always so 007. ‘In the evening I like suited-and-booted and in the day I look like a cowboy. A hairy cowboy – that’s my vibe.’

With almost 60,000 Instagram followers and an invitation to every event in town, he has labels falling over themselves to dress him, and is patriotic in his choices.

‘Huntsman from Savile Row are a beautiful old brand and they’ve dressed royalty, going back hundreds of years. When you put on their suits, you’re wearing a piece of history. I get inspired by heritage brands. British manufacturing is incredible – I love seeing Savile Row tailors working with wool mills, making their own cloths and turning them into beautifully cut suits.’

A front-row fixture, Guinness makes an effort to see breakthrough brands. ‘I love to see new design talent. There’s a young guy called Charles Jeffrey who does crazy fashion shows – he reminds me of McQueen.’

He’s also known for throwing legendary parties and even has a bar in his house. ‘It’s dangerous,’ he admits. ‘When I say “bar”, it’s not like The Connaught Bar. It’s the end of an old East End boozer – not as glamorous.’

Surely it makes for a good start to a party?

‘Definitely – but you want to keep it special.

You can’t crack open the bar all the time.’

As East London’s answer to Jay Gatsby, what is his recipe for a great party? ‘Everyone can’t know everyone else; you need some opportunity to introduce new people. I also like to keep it relatively small.

‘The real secret is booze and karaoke – especially if you have lots of British people there. People get carried away with dressing a space, but all you really need is fun people, drinks, good food and fun music.

‘When I DJ, I don’t try to be cool: I play music that people actually want to dance to.

It’s all about guilty pleasures!’ M

“You’re supposed to be like Cara Delevingne and be a model-turned-actor. I’m the wrong way round” fashion feeds into all of it.

‘And British people are the best dressed.

You’ve got cool kids and design talents, but also established brands like Burberry and heritage brands on Savile Row. That’s why people all over the world look to Britain.’

Why does he think we’re still such a force on the global stage? ‘Someone said to me that French people dress to laugh at each other and English people dress to laugh at themselves – we have fun with clothes.

British people are very good at being individuals and showing our personalities.’

Studying English Literature at university, his original plan was to be an actor. ‘You’re supposed to be like Cara Delevingne and be a model-turned-actor. I’m the wrong way round.’ However, his penchant for dramatics is evident: on our shoot, he leaps down staircases, writhes on sofas, Laurent-Perrier in hand, and jumps on the Connaught Bar, throwing a lemon in the air. It’s all we can do to keep him still. ‘I’ll do anything for a good shot,’ he laughs. ‘I once went to Iceland and was jumping off glaciers and doing dangerous stuff that I thought was normal.

Then I got home and thought, “I nearly died about 50 times – what was I thinking?”’

FASHION

Corduroy and leather suit jacket, £1,805; corduroy trousers, £595, both Prada. Merino wool rollneck, £150, John Smedley. Velvet embellished loafers, £825, Manolo Blahnik.

Asymmetric gold ring, from a selection, Toby Mclellan. Rose-gold Tank Louis watch, £8,000, Cartier

FASHION

Printed shirt, £625, Louis Vuitton. Silk pyjama trousers, from a selection, Caruso.

Drive de Cartier extraflat watch, £13,100, Cartier. Sunglasses, £212, Oliver Peoples pour Alain Mikli

“This is what I love about being British – you can’t take yourself too seriously”

Shawl collar dinner jacket, £425; evening trousers, £200, both Hackett. Crew neck silk knit, £485; polka-dot silk scarf, £220, both Bottega Veneta. Leather Chelsea boots, £330, Paul Smith 64 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

FASHION

Cotton pin collar shirt, £190; bespoke wool suit, £5,400, both Edward Sexton. Calfskin shoes, £1,195, John Lobb. Wool tie, £145, Tie Your Tie. Cufflinks, stylist’s own

Suit jacket, £1,185; trousers, £395, both Thom Sweeney. Silk buttondown shirt, £474, Connolly. Fedora, £395, Lock & Co Hatters. Necklace, stylist’s own. Rose-gold Tank Louis watch, £8,000, Cartier. Hair and grooming by Joe Mills, founder of Joe & Co. Soho, using KM and Dermalogica, assisted by Daisy H. Model: Jack Guinness at Next

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 67

ART

Illustrations by artist-in-residence David Downton. From left: Dita von Teese, Poppy Delevingne and Stephen Jones

To coincide with the rehanging at Claridge’s of a selection of Downton portraits, author Tony Glenville looks at the timeless skill of fashion illustration

ILUSTRATIONS BY DAVID DOWNTON

Top draw

rom composers at the great courts, through the diary of Samuel Pepys, to the Bloomsbury Group painting each other’s portraits, there is a noble ancestry to the recording and celebrating of moments in time. Today, David Downton, artist-in-residence at Claridge’s, captures the unique elegance of a select group of visitors and guests; creating history so future generations may gaze upon the images and see for themselves the family of stylish individuals who made Claridge’s their home in London. ‘Fashion illustration,’ he says, ‘holds a mirror up to the prevailing times, telling us how we want to look and live; who we want to be.’

In an age of Instagram and Photoshop, the craft of fashion illustration stands out more than ever for its sheer skill and otherness. Like the flair of a makeup artist or the sweep of a calligrapher’s pen, it is one

of the few remaining mediums that cannot be replicated purely by technology. The balance on the page, the colour, the elimination as much as the inclusion, and

“Fashion illustration holds a mirror up to the prevailing times, telling us who we want to be” the use of different media are all notably present in Downton’s work.

With sharp strokes, great artists such as Étienne Drian, René Gruau and Carl ‘Eric’ Erickson encapsulated the fashion of the

moment far more effectively than photography. The brilliant jazz age covers of Harper’s Bazaar by Erté, and the immaculate gentlemen of the 1960s drawn by Eric Stemp, boast unique harmony and magic.

The spirit and elegance of the age can be seen in the work of Kenneth Paul Block for Women’s Wear Daily and Marcel Vertès, the illustrator and costume designer.

‘For me, Marcel Vertès was the best of the best,’ says illustrator Susannah Garrod. ‘His use of colour and line to create fun illustrations full of flair really appeals.

I would have a wall plastered in Vertès’ Shocking de Schiaparelli illustrations if I could.’

Illustration is perhaps a signature here at London’s three most prestigious hotels: many styles and artists appear subtly on menus, invitations and cards. The soft watercolour femininity of Susannah Garrod, seen on Prêt-à-Portea menus at The Berkeley, Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 69

STROKES OF GENIUS CLYM EVERNDEN Having studied at Central Saint Martins, where he was often to be found in the archives of the magazine section in the library (‘I loved the early editions of British Vogue’ ), artist Clym Evernden has won over the fashion crowd with his witty drawings and ingenious posts on Instagram.

Refusing to limit himself to the page, Clym has produced set designs for Tiffany & Co and the New York City Ballet, and window designs for Fenwick.

Above: Illustrated cover of US Vogue in 1937

by Eduardo Garcia Benito. Below: Illustration

by Eduardo Garcia Benito for US Vogue in 1931. Hand-coloured engravings Gazette du Bon Ton in Wartime 1915 by Etienne Drian

TANYA LING Tanya Ling is one of London’s most celebrated artists. She studied at Central Saint Martins and worked in Paris as a designer before starting an art gallery back in London with her husband William Ling.

She remains in high demand in the upper echelons of the fashion world – with commissions from Diane von Furstenberg, Louis Vuitton and Harrods – and has designed her own ready-to-wear collection. Her drawings can be seen on the menus in the Foyer at Claridge’s.

contrasts with the witty retro swiftness of Clym Evernden, seen above and at the front of this issue; their work brings something unique to the house style.

‘We live in an age where people are saturated with digital imagery, in social media, in advertising,’ says Evernden. ‘So any art form which is expressive, instinctive, and has a human soul is instantly appealing.’

‘Fashion illustration is showing a resurgence as a reaction to the computergenerated images of recent years,’ agrees Garrod. ‘A “perfectly imperfect” illustration offers so much to the viewer; it is a more intimate way of interpreting fashion and a wonderful way to record designs for posterity.’

However, noted illustrator Tanya Ling, whose work can be seen on the menus of the Foyer at Claridge’s, warns against being overly nostalgic: ‘People sometimes talk about how great fashion illustration was with Carl Erickson, René Bouché and René Gruau, as if today it’s lost something. But many great fashion illustrators are employed and celebrated as important creatives adding value to the work of a design house, such as

women whose style soars from the chic whisper of an androgynous minimalist to the siren call of an hourglass vamp. His paper held at an elegant angle, his pencil drawn swiftly, Downton distils and captures the essence of his subjects as swiftly and accurately as a surgeon with a scalpel. The subject is lulled, seduced, charmed, entranced and willing to engage in the moment. Downton discreetly delves and discusses as they relax and pose, confident they are the focus of his attention and skill.

The new hang of portraits will offer an insight into the style, personality and splendour of these individuals whose dress sense, talent and poise are now and forever captured and preserved.

‘I am excited by the prospect of rehanging the drawings all together,’ says Downton.

‘They were designed as a series of talking heads; a snapshot of our times and the people who make them. We can only imagine the conversation they are having!’ @tonyglenville Tony Glenville is the creative director of the London College of Fashion. His latest book, ‘New Icons of Fashion Illustration’ , is out now

“A ‘perfectly imperfect’ illustration offers so much to the viewer; it is a more intimate way of interpreting fashion”

70 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

Louis Vuitton and Dries Van Noten.

‘There has also been a rise in fashion illustration as a category to be collected – we are living through a golden age now!’

For Downton, his craft is as much about recording the moment as it is capturing the designs of the day. ‘Claridge’s has been attracting the great, the good and the raffish since it opened,’ he says. ‘For the past six years I have been under its spell, recording the passing parade, and my main observation is that nothing has changed.’

His drawings and portraits reflect the heritage of Claridge’s by linking the past to the present and the future.

And illustration allows Downton to spend time – as did his illustrious predecessors – with film stars, milliners, dandies and a fascinating spectrum of

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CLYM EVERNDEN, PETER HORREE / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO, PHOTO BY EDUARDO GARCIA BENITO/CONDE NAST VIA GETTY IMAGES

Illustration by Clym Evernden

SUSANNAH GARROD Famous for her inky, fairytale-like designs, Susannah Garrod is an artist and illustrator of ‘fashion and beauty and things that inspire her in life’. With degrees in fine art and history of art, she has amassed an impressive client list including Vogue, Jimmy Choo, Emilia Wickstead and Jessica McCormack.

Garrod’s work can also be seen at The Berkeley, gracing the Prêt-à-Portea menus and the stylish takeaway ‘hat’ boxes. M

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ART

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS

Tracey Emin poses in front of her work as part of her ‘The Last Great Adventure is You’ exhibition at the White Cube Gallery in 2014 72 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

IMAGES: CHRIS JACKSON/GETTY IMAGES. KEN WELSH/ALAMY

Once an ‘enfant terrible’, artist Tracey Emin has become a British icon. So why did she take a year out of the spotlight? Ajesh Patalay investigates

’ve had the most fantastic, south of France. For an artist ‘influenced amazing times both at by nature and me’, as she puts it, it’s Claridge’s and The perfect – albeit not for a phone Connaught,’ says artist interview. Patchy reception is made Tracey Emin. ‘My all-time worse by a thunderstorm. ‘As it is, I highlight was at The have to perch at the end of my bed,’ she Connaught when my mum explains. ‘And when I’m talking I dare and I were leaving to go to not move my head a mere centimetre.’

Buckingham Palace to collect my CBE. When we do speak, she paints a vivid As we came out of the lift [head concierge] picture of her creative life. ‘I’ve got three Corrado and the staff had lined the blank canvases, which I’ve had hanging lobby to give us a very proper send off.’ up for six weeks. I’m too scared to touch Four years ago, the year she was them. But I’ve got to go in there and awarded her CBE by Princess Anne, just smash through to the other side. It’s Emin reached a crossroads. She resolved like walking through a forest with a to take a year off from exhibiting, from machete. It’s exciting.’ interviews and lectures, from all that The sabbatical freed her from the comes with being one of Britain’s most constraints of producing work for a famous artists, so she could concentrate show. ‘When you’re at the level of my on her art. ‘I had to get my act together career,’ she says, ‘every show is pressure.

And schadenfreude. Most people, and work really hard at what I was instead of being happy, want you to fail. doing,’ she says. ‘I needed to change the I made a lot of work that I will probably work, move up a gear.’

So, for a year, ending this summer, never show. It was just me experimenting An installation by Tracey Emin, exhibited in she retreated from public view. The shift and crazily thrashing about.’

El Centro de Arte Contemporáneo was palpable because Emin, now 54, has It was a key year in other ways. Emin’s been part of the national conversation mother died, and grief coloured much on art since bursting onto the scene with of her work. Her latest show at the 1995’s Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 – a tent appliquéd Xavier Hufkens gallery in Brussels – where, being staunchly antiwith the names of everyone with whom she had shared a bed. In Brexit, she is thrilled to be showing – features paintings of her dying 1997, she made a headline-grabbing appearance in a TV debate on parent. ‘I was so angry because I want my mum back. I did a lot over conceptual art: apparently drunk, she stormed off, muttering, ‘I want Easter, which is a really strange, spiritual time that stands for renewal to be free. Get this ****ing mike off.’ Two years later, she was and the phoenix rising. That definitely went into the paintings.’ nominated for the Turner Prize, and exhibited My Bed – a mattress She insists this new work is very different to what came before, so littered with ashtrays, condoms and other detritus – at Tate Britain. would look out of place in her new monograph (published by Rizzoli), Her work ever since, whether nude drawings or neon scrawls, has which spans the years 2007 – when she represented Britain at the been just as unflinchingly personal.

Venice Biennale – to early 2017. ‘I’ve had 30 years of working,’ she Emin spent much of her sabbatical year at a hilltop villa in the says. ‘I’ve got another 30, if I’m lucky. The book is the middle phase.

Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 73

ART

Clockwise from top left: I Never Stopped Loving You, Droit House, Margate 2010. The Last Great Adventure is You, White Cube, London 2014. Borrowed Light, British Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2007. Where I Want To Go, Tracey Emin/Egon Schiele, Leopold Museum, Venice 2015. My Lips Moved Across Your Face, 2015. The More of You The More I Love You, 2016. Good Red Love, 2014

She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea, Turner Contemporary, Margate 2012

I see this as the third and last phase of my life.

‘Things are infinitely better for me than they were ten years ago. I’m stronger, more assured. I’ve always been able to paint and draw, but now it’s in this completely different way. I didn’t know I could do these extreme things. There were a few paintings for Xavier’s show: finished, lovely, serene, very palatable. I walked into the studio one day, and thought, **** this. I got a massive load of paint, threw it over them and started over on top. The power I got from it was amazing, like being able to tear trees out of the ground.’

Unable to expand her current building in London’s Spitalfields, Emin has decided to move her studio to Margate, where she grew up. ‘It’s scary, like going home,’ she says, though she’s looking forward to showing My Bed at the seaside town’s Turner Contemporary gallery (until January). ‘I’m almost embarrassed about what people I went to school with will think, and my mum’s friends. But I know people in Margate are excited.’

It’s a marker of how attitudes to Emin have changed: ‘When I made Bed, I was innocent. The Bed wasn’t. Now I’m not innocent but the Bed is. It has been totally forgiven and stopped being shocking.

Before, people were disgusted by it. Now, people look at it and sigh.

It’s this sweet thing.’ Is she happy about that? ‘Absolutely.’

As for Britain’s art scene, Emin despairs of the possible effects of Brexit: ‘As an artist, you won’t be able to work in another country.

Culture shouldn’t be trapped like that. And it’s going to be much more difficult for museums to exchange shows.’ She feels the art

world has become conservative and money-driven, unlike when she started out with the other Young British Artists. ‘It was just a wilderness and we had to find our way through. We made it all happen, whereas now everything is set up.

‘A lot of people at college now expect to get a show and for their paintings to be [worth] £20,000 as soon as they leave. They have all these expectations. And even if their work is very good, in five years’ time they may want to change completely, but won’t be able to, because they will be caught in a treadmill of commercialism. It shouldn’t be like that. Students says to me, “What do you do to show with [art dealer] Jay Jopling?” I say, “Paint a bit better, for a start. Why don’t you just get on with your painting?” I’m not being facetious: it’s the truth. Everyone wants a shortcut, instead of going the long way round. I think the longer it takes, the more assured you are.’

Emin’s solution occurred to her after 1,700 people turned up to hear her speak at this summer’s Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts: to deliver lectures on what it means to be an artist. Her studio director is assembling a list of British universities that have asked her to speak. ‘We’ll work out the ones that have got the biggest auditoriums, for the maximum amount of people,’ Emin explains.

‘I’ve got three honorary PhDs, so I should start with those.’ She laughs, trying out the honorary title. ‘Professor Emin…’ M @Ajesh30. Ajesh Patalay is the culture director at PORTER. Tracey Emin: Works 2007-2017, text by Jonathan Jones, is out now, published by Rizzoli.

IMAGES: COURTESY OF TRACEY EMIN AND RIZZOLI

“Everyone wants a shortcut, instead of taking the long way round. The longer it takes, the more assured you are”

74 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

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CULTURE

Clockwise from below: Orange Is the New Black; Okja (pictured twice); The Meyerowitz Stories; Narcos; House of Cards

ELSA SCHIAPARELLI AND THE ARTISTS

An homage to the wit, bravado and boundary-pushing of one of the greatest designers of 20th-century fashion, couturière Elsa Schiaparelli. £65, published by Rizzoli

READING ROOM

ART, FASHION AND THE FAB FOUR – THE BOOKS TO COVET THIS SEASON ANTONY GORMLEY

The most comprehensive monograph to date on the contemporary British sculptor, this book examines sketches, materials and concepts behind the artist’s public and private works.

By Martin Caiger-Smith, £100, published by Rizzoli

Claire Foy and Matt Smith in Netflix drama The Crown

With big budgets and epic blockbusters, Netflix and its peers are shaking up the film and television industry, but not everyone is happy about it

By William Moore

he Cannes Film Festival is no stranger to controversy.

For pure shock value, nothing beats Lars von Trier’s comments about Nazism at a press conference in 2011. (It’s worth watching on YouTube for Kirsten Dunst’s wordless, ‘ground-swallowme-up’ reaction.) But while von Trier-gate remains Cannes’ most awkward controversy, 2017 earned a special place when an odd film about a computer-generated ‘super pig’ was booed at its premiere. The pig had no provocative views about Hitler (that we know of ), but the film, Okja, was one of two in contention for the prestigious Palme d’Or funded by the streaming service Netflix.

The French cinema establishment was furious because Netflix films do not get a traditional theatrical release in the country and instead go straight online. Okja was not booed because it was bad – it is, in fact, an impossible-to-categorise marvel from

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho. It was booed at the mere sight of the Netflix logo at the start.

This hoo-ha was exacerbated by differences among the festival bigwigs. The jury president, the great Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, said it would be an ‘enormous paradox’ for the Palme d’Or to go to a film that cannot be seen in cinemas. Actor and fellow juror Will Smith, however, hailed Netflix as ‘nothing but an absolute benefit.’ It had, he said, ‘broadened my children’s global cinematic comprehension.’

The row resulted in a hasty rule change: all contenders at next year’s Cannes will require a traditional release in French cinemas.

But Okja’s writer, Jon Ronson, argues that traditional distribution channels simply weren’t an option for his film: ‘Who else [but Netflix] would have financed a $60 million movie that is as strange and disturbing (and multilingual) as this?’

Cannes may be holding out against change, but in Britain the industry is shifting quickly. The consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that the UK will spend up to £1.42 billion per year on streaming services by 2020, compared to an estimated £1.41 billion on cinema tickets. Meanwhile, Blu-ray and DVD sales will likely fall from £1.22 billion in 2016 to just £533 million by 2021. Streaming services’ revenue, in other words, is likely to overtake that of traditional media.

Accessibility is key. ‘If you don’t live right in a city, it may not be convenient to see some of these very interesting independent films,’ says Roy Price, head of Amazon Studios. ‘But once you take that constraint out of the system, we’ve observed there are

“Online streaming could start an independent film renaissance”

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IMAGES: COURTESY OF NETFLIX, COURTESY OF RIZZOLI, COURTESY OF TASCHEN. © THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, INC. ©HARRY BENSON

Screen wars

RIVER CAFE 30

categories that tend to thrive when they have greater availability.’

Ben Stiller – who starred in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), the other Netflix-funded film to be caught in the Cannes kerfuffle – argues that streaming services are also more open to investing in risky independent projects than many major studios. ‘The general landscape has changed,’ he said. ‘[Studios are] making less of everything, except what’s making them money, and that’s why Netflix is doing so well with what they’re doing now. They’re the only ones who are making interesting movies in this mid-budget range that the studios used to do.’

Producer Al Morrow agrees that streaming services are a dream for independent film: ‘Netflix’s deep pockets mean that if they are investing in a film, its producer is only looking at one to two funding avenues, rather than the traditional six or seven… The prevalence of online streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime could start an independent film renaissance.’

Accordingly, the next London Evening Standard British Film Awards, in partnership with Claridge’s, will for the first time allow films available solely on streaming services to compete alongside their cinematic rivals. Since they were established in 1973, these awards have championed vision and innovation.

Home technology means the public now has more access to independent film than ever before. Will Smith is right: streaming services encourage ‘global cinematic comprehension’ and so should be celebrated. When the London Evening Standard British Film Awards return to Claridge’s in January we hope to do just that. M William Moore is arts editor of the London Evening Standard and chairs the judging panel for the London Evening Standard British Film Awards, in partnership with Claridge’s

This bold, exciting new cookbook celebrates 30 years of simple, contemporary Italian cooking from the legendary River Cafe.

By Ruth Rogers, Rose Gray, Joseph Trivelli and Sian Wynn Owen, £28, published by Ebury Press

THE BEATLES, ON THE ROAD 1964-1966

Acclaimed photographer Harry Benson shares his best shots from the job of a lifetime, on tour with the fab four as they travelled across America at the height of their fame.

By Harry Benson, £29.99, published by Taschen

ANDY WARHOL. SEVEN ILLUSTRATED BOOKS 1952–1959

Before Warhol was Warhol, he was a successful commercial artist.

To woo clients, he created seven handmade artist’s books, which Taschen have now reproduced; a rare insight into the great man. £150, published by Taschen Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 77

FASHION

The Matchesfashion.com ‘In Residence’ space in New York

IN RESIDENCE THIS SEASON, MATCHESFASHION.COM IS JUMPING FROM ONLINE TO BRICKS-AND-MORTAR WITH A NEW CONCEPT SPACE OFFERING EVERYTHING FROM FASHION INSTALLATIONS TO FLOWER-ARRANGING. JUST DON’T CALL IT A ‘SHOP’...

By Anna Murphy

FASHION

KNIT JUMPER, £910, MIU MIU

AUTUMN PICKS

From thick cosy knits to daring winter florals, Anna’s pick of the Matchesfashion.com pieces for A/W17

TUXEDO JACKET, £765, RACIL

“One week you might walk in and it could be like a beach party. Another it could be all about red-carpet dressing”

t’s a sign of how much has changed in fashion retail that it wouldn’t be entirely accurate to call the new Matchesfashion.com establishment at 5 Carlos Place a boutique. But this ‘new concept space’ – as the brand labels it – will be full of fabulous clothes designed to excite, to seduce and to encourage us to spend.

What 5 Carlos Place won’t have, according to Matchesfashion.com’s co-founder Tom Chapman, are ‘the fixed rails and unchanging product’ that define most retail spaces. ‘We want to do things our customer won’t expect. One week you might walk in and it could be like a beach party. Another, it could be all about redcarpet dressing.’

Just a hop, skip and Gucci-loafered jump from The Connaught and the myriad luxury boutiques of Mount Street, 5 Carlos Place is slated to open in January. Evidently anything but predictable, it will be more a kind of permanent pop-up. ‘We want to use the space to inspire and engage our customer,’ says Chapman. ‘It’s not really 80 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

Carlos Place, where the new Matchesfashion.com space will open

about making money, as our real business is online.’ (Around 95 per cent of sales at the last count; the remainder is from its existing physical stores.)

There’s a growing synergy between the brand’s digital presence and its bricksand-mortar one: the fluidity of the space makes it more akin to a website than a conventional boutique. As Chapman puts it, ‘We try to make the physical as digital as possible, and the digital as physical.’

Carlos Place will provide a permanent

– albeit ever-changing – home for an ‘In Residence’ programme of events that has already proved successful in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. ‘What other fashion retailer has offered a flowerarranging class on the Upper East Side?’ laughs Chapman. ‘Or a talk with Phillips Auction House and the designer Duro Olowu about collecting contemporary photography?’

Here, then, is a kind of salon, where people can meet, talk, learn and be inspired, as well as checking out killer threads. (iBeacon technology will enable customers to add items to their online wishlists.)

Carlos Place is also where the brand’s ever-expanding roster of designer collaborations will be launched. Buying director Natalie Kingham works closely with favourite labels, ‘to produce the kind of things our customers will find exciting and that they will really want to buy.

They want products that are different and authentic.’

New collaborators for this season

IMAGES: COURTESY OF MATCHESFASHION.COM

The Matchesfashion.com ‘In Residence’ space in New York

include the London-based brand Racil, which offers some of the best tuxedos in the business, and Milan’s Attico, which delivers vintage-style silk wrap dresses with a cool-girl edge.

Events at the store will be shared across Matchesfashion.com’s digital platform.

‘It’s about being democratic,’ says Chapman. ‘Everything we do, we will push out digitally.’

Here, then, is a cunning confluence that addresses some of the contradictions at the heart of 21st-century clothes shopping. Fashion fans are, as much as ever, on the hunt for transformative garb that makes us and our lives better. On the one hand, we need that hunt to fit around the demands of our 24/7 existences: we need the speed and convenience of online shopping. On the other hand, we want experience, points of difference and spaciousness of time and place.

What greater luxury is there, when you’ve not enough time, than to decide that you will make time anyway? That you will step out of your schedule, put

the phone on silent, and spent an hour or two on yourself? What a delight, in this harried age of ours, to hang out somewhere beautiful, surrounded by all that’s beauteous. That’s why we love to travel, and to seek out the very best hotels. That’s why we are all about the best brunch spot, or a favourite dinner haunt, where we can dawdle indulgently with friends.

That’s also why a high-end shopping destination like Mount Street has thrived.

It’s a treat to pop into Simone Rocha, say, or Roksanda – boutiques completely in tune with the aesthetics of their labels – and fall in love with a dress that feels part of its milieu. So how clever of a multibrand retailer such as Matchesfashion. com to set up shop nearby, and to reinvent that environment week by week, in order that one might experience this same harmony of product and place.

At 5 Carlos Place it will be a case of, quite literally, watch this space. M @AnnaGMurphy Anna Murphy is fashion director of The Times

WOOL COAT £1,200 JW ANDERSON

CHANDELIER EARRINGS, £210, SIMONE ROCHA DRESS, £2,050, DOLCE & GABBANA

WICKER BAG, £1,210, GUCCI

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FASHION

Girls in pearls

As pearls once again take pride of place in the jewellery boxes of London’s most fashionable, author Plum Sykes reveals a lifelong love affair When my grandmother gave me a little black box on my 21st birthday, I was thrilled. It was from my cousin Cassandra Goad, who has a wonderful jewellery store on Sloane Street. I have always admired Cass and adored her designs. Inside the box was a double strand of real pearls. I couldn’t believe it – my very own string!

I wore them with strapless 1980s ballgowns to deb parties, with T-shirts and jeans to march down the King’s Road with friends, or even just at home with a nightie to feel glamorous for bed.

As I grew older, I stopped wearing the pearls. I worried they were a little too Sloaney, perhaps a bit square.

Back they went in the box, to sit for years at the back of my dressing table. But by the time I turned 30, I again wanted something smart to wear round my neck, and asked Cassandra to jazz up the strands.

She added a chunky gold cross with pearls on each end and hung it from a thick gold loop around the jewels. Suddenly, my pearls were groovy. They looked like something the young Madonna might have chosen if she were channelling Coco Chanel. Ever since, I have worn Granny’s pearls religiously. M @therealplumsykes ‘Party Girls Die in Pearls’ by Plum Sykes is out now, published by Harper

PARTY PEARLS

From vintage earrings to a statement necklace, what to wear this season…

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“From Coco and Audrey, I learned that to dress up a plain outfit, a thick rope of costume pearls would often do the trick”

82 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

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1. Pearl and diamond necklace, from a selection, David Morris 2. Mother-ofpearl watch, from a selection, A. Lange & Söhne 3. Gold ring, £180, Alexia Jordan 4. Pearl and diamond earrings, £9,075, George Pragnell 5. Pearl and gold cuff, from a selection, Cassandra Goad 6. Platinum diamond and pearl bracelet, £8,475, George Pragnell 7. Pearl earrings, from a selection, Boodles 8. Pearl 5 and gold ring, from a selection, Ara Vartanian

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IMAGES: CHRIS FLOYD, HULTON-DEUTSCH/HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES

ike most British girls, I have always absolutely adored pearls. As a child, I would look at those wonderful females on the ‘Girls in Pearls’ page at the front of Country Life magazine and wonder what it would be like to be a debutante. Such is my lifelong love that when writing my most recent novel – a comic murder-mystery called, after my weakness, Party Girls Die in Pearls – I found myself creating a death scene involving a beautiful girl in a dress beaded with seed pearls and a pearl tiara. The height of 1980s sophistication.

One of my grandmother’s stock pins – an equestrian staple, worn when she hunted in the 1930s – was the first pearl with which I fell in love.

I imagine how elegant she must have looked on her horse, with her crisp white riding stock, navy hunting coat and that beautiful pin: an elegant gold bar with a large pearl in the centre, encircled by tiny diamonds. Then there were the reams and ropes of pearls worn by Coco Chanel in the 1930s; I was inspired by the way she glamorised soft suits with her trademark costume jewellery. I was equally enamoured with Audrey Hepburn’s pearls, so perfectly setting off the little black dress in Breakfast at Tiffany’s that the two became iconic and inseparable. From Coco and Audrey, I learned that to dress up a plain outfit, a thick rope of costume pearls would often do the trick.

Mrs Charles Sweeny pouring tea for Lady Bridget Poulett at Claridge’s in 1938 Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 83

BEAUTY

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Florals by night can be fabulous wolves in sheep’s clothing. Hermès’ Hiris is an impeccably powdery celebration of the iris: sublimely feminine, it appeals to even the most blossom-resistant. Despite its insouciance, Hiris’ capacity to arouse the tall, dark and handsome knows no bounds.

There is something in its Hitchcock-blonde sophistication that acts as pure catnip.

Coco Chanel decreed that a woman ought not smell of a rose. Accordingly, her house’s first major feminine fragrance for 15 years, Olivier Polge’s Gabrielle, takes as its inspiration the notion of ‘a dream flower’ to symbolise Chanel’s radicalism, audacity and ambition. Its defiance lies in its reinvention of what a white floral might mean: no longer brash, blatant and blowsy, but tailored, elegant and tenderly assertive – the little black dress in floral form.

“It is the scent of the girl who dances on tables, or jumps out of a cake, then breaks your heart”

Bewitching hour o head out of an evening is to take a gamble, which is why some of us find it so addictive.

Anything, everything, could happen: friendships hazarded; alliances forged; futures born and made in chance encounters. One path closed, another laid open; lives transformed in a single glance. The blue hour whiled away in The Berkeley’s Blue Bar, dancing until dawn at Claridge’s, the hottest of hot dates at The Connaught. Autumn and winter are alive with such festivities, and intoxicating for it.

We all require a little magic for such adventures: olfactory alchemy to spritz away our everyday existence and to metamorphose us into creatures of the 84 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

night. Clothes, jewels, cosmetics – all play their part, but nothing concocts our nocturnal selves more than perfume.

Guerlain’s cult classic Après l’Ondée (‘after the shower’) imparts a shivering hawthorn high with the chill of champagne and the tenderness of a kiss. Created in 1906, it is the scent of the girl who dances on tables, or jumps out of a cake, then breaks your heart with her flapper-like fragility; exuberant yet exquisitely beautiful. Think Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.

Where Après l’Ondée is cool and girlish, Sisley’s Eau Du Soir is warm and womanly. A chypre-based fragrance, it boasts carnal carnation among its top

notes and sensuous syringa at its heart, on a heady patchouli base. Sisley’s Count Hubert d’Ornano presented this jewel to his wife, Countess Isabelle, in 1990. For almost a decade it was her private joy, until admirers begged the family to share it.

Sometimes a whisper is louder than a shout. Serge Lutens’ oak-based Chêne beguiles because it is so utterly enigmatic.

Natural, cerebral, austere, lacerating, it lures acolytes to one’s wrist, throat and breast. The cedarwood-rich Tiempe Passate, by Antonia’s Flowers, meanwhile, is the scent of the morning after a night of dancing and fun. While Jo Malone’s heavenly Incense & Cedrat evokes a trip to church to confess.

IMAGE: FLORIAN SOMMET/TRUNK ARCHIVE

As dusk descends, fragrance has the power to transform us into creatures of the night. Award-winning perfume writer Hannah Betts selects her favourite scents for magical evenings

That said, what is required to propel one into party mode will at times be nothing short of a magic cloak-cum-carpet. Caron’s spice-drenched Poivre – the eau de toilette of which went by the name ‘Coup de Fouet’ (‘crack of the whip’) – remains a staggering declaration of presence. Somewhere between mace and black magic, it renders people drunk on carnation and clove. Wear it to make conquests.

Etat Libre d’Orange’s Rien (‘nothing’) sounds as if it could be Poivre’s opposite.

But that’s a misnomer for a perfume that is, in fact, everything. The ultimate second skin, its suede top notes yield to rose, leather, resin and patchouli, on an astounding cumin, black pepper, amber and opium base. Rien enslaves everyone who inhales it, and to sport it is to be the belle of every ball. At a magnificent Venetian bash, it elicited the response: ‘You smell of the most divine incense – I will worship you.’ As with all these enchantments, think of it as a spell that gets the wearer anything they wish for. M @HannahJBetts Hannah Betts is an award-winning perfume writer, and a regular contributor to Harper’s Bazaar, the Telegraph and The Times

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1. APRÈS L’ONDÉE, £85 GUERLAIN 2. EAU DU SOIR, £85 SISLEY 3. RIEN, £75 ETAT LIBRE D’ORANGE 4. INCENSE & CEDRAT, £112 JO MALONE LONDON 5.

HIRIS, £105 HERMÈS 6. CHÊNE, FROM A SELECTION SERGE LUTENS 7. POIVRE, FROM A SELECTION, CARON 8. GABRIELLE FROM A SELECTION CHANEL

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BEAUTY

GAME FACE

FROM SKIN-RESTORING SUPER-CREAMS TO A LUSCIOUS LIPSTICK, LET OUR EDIT TAKE YOU SEAMLESSLY INTO THE PARTY SEASON AND BEYOND Written by Siân Ranscombe

THE EXPERT MASCARA, £24, KEVYN AUCOIN

LASHES OF LASHES

The Japanese camellia oil in this formula conditions, while building volume and length – meaning softer, more supple lashes that are less prone to breakage.

Skin Caviar Absolute Filler, £410, La Prairie

E X PE R I E N C E T H E ULT I M AT E W E L L B E I N G DE ST I N AT I ON DARK AMBER AND GINGER LILY CANDLE, £55, JO MALONE

PLUMP IT UP

The latest addition to La Prairie’s Skin Caviar range targets the loss of volume in the skin over time; plumping, smoothing and restoring density.

THE DARK SIDE As autumnal winds pick up and the skies grow increasingly heavy, warm the mind and soul with this uplifting blend of amber, black cardamom and ginger from Jo Malone London.

MAGIC POTION

Tilbury’s good-skin cream goes supersized with a 150ml version of the cult classic. Ideal for dull and dehydrated skin in need of a boost in moisture and radiance.

GIANT MAGIC CREAM, £180, CHARLOTTE TILBURY

TUBEROSE LE JOUR, £145, AERIN

GOOD VIBRATIONS MINI FACIAL TONING DEVICE, £150, NUFACE

INDIAN SUMMER

Aerin’s smooth new scent is inspired by tuberose flowers, gathered at dawn in India, just as the buds begin to open and bloom.

This nifty little gadget uses microcurrents to stimulate the skin, providing an instant lift and improved definition in facial contours. Travel-sized for an on-the-go, pre-party fix.

IRIS ILLUMINATING EYE MASSAGER, £119, FOREO

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WARM UP Chanel’s Autumn/Winter make-up collection by Lucia Pica was inspired by a Californian road trip. ‘Daylight’, a soft and flattering nude, is typical of the warm tones in the range.

Treatments include: face and body aesthetics from PHI Clinic, led by Dr Tapan Patel; a full-body cryotherapy chamber with 111Cryo, led by Dr Yannis Alexandrides; nutritional and fitness advice from Louise Parker; mindfulness practices with Terrence the Teacher; VitaDrips from The Elixir Clinic; and bespoke skincare solutions from Gen Identity – each designed with you in mind.

For more information or to book an appointment at The Wellness Clinic, call +44 (0)20 7225 5678, email thewellnessclinic@harrods.com or visit us in-store on the Fourth Floor.

THE EYES HAVE IT The skin around the eyes is half as thick as that of the rest of the face and retains moisture poorly, leading to puffiness and dark circles. This eye massager boosts circulation and aids absorption of creams and serums.

We invite you to discover The Wellness Clinic at Harrods. With 14 treatment rooms in an elegant 10,500sq ft space, it offers an integrated approach to wellbeing and beauty, hosting world-renowned experts in aesthetics, wellness and dermatology.

HARRO D S.CO M/ THEWELLNE SSCLINIC ROUGE COCO ULTRA HYDRATING LIP COLOUR IN DAYLIGHT, £28, CHANEL

HERITAGE

Homeward bound Dubbed the ‘world’s politest paparazzo shot’, this image captures Hollywood’s leading man of the era, Cary Grant, as he steps from Claridge’s in April 1946. Much like his onscreen characters, Grant was debonair to a fault, with a penchant for Savile Row tailoring and fine wine – both of which would have been readily available within a stone’s throw of his suite here on Brook Street.

Having shed his given name (Archie Leach) and traded his Bristol accent for an altogether more aristocratic tone, Grant returned to his home country as Hollywood royalty. Since debuting on the silver screen in 1932’s This Is the Night, he had firmly positioned himself as everyone’s favourite fictional bachelor – so much so that James Bond author Ian Fleming

IMAGE: KEYSTONE/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

“He had firmly positioned himself as everyone’s favourite bachelor”

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was said to have used Grant as inspiration for 007. (Later offered the lead in Dr No, Grant declined, believing he – then pushing 60 – was too old.)

In 1946, Grant was enjoying a rare break from America, staying in London to see friends before heading back to Bristol to visit his mother. Later that year he starred in one of his best regarded films: Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious.

In a movie reign that spanned four decades, Grant never lost his British wit. Once told by an interviewer that ‘Everybody would like to be Cary Grant,’ he replied, ‘So would I.’ M

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HERITAGE

Clockwise from top left: Joan Collins visits the club in 1987; Madonna attends a launch party for Stella McCartney in 2003; Anna Wintour at a book launch for Isabella Blow in 2010; Bryan Ferry and sons in the club

Lady Gaga at Annabel’s in 2011

Join the club

For over 50 years, Annabel’s has been a glamorous hideaway of the great and the good.

Now, with an exciting move underway, the club is opening its doors to a new vanguard

IMAGES: RICHARD YOUNG, DAVE M. BENETT/GETTY IMAGES

By Emma J Page t’s unassuming from the outside. Just a discreet striped canopy on a townhouse on the edge of Berkeley Square marks the entrance to the ultra-exclusive, members-only nightclub Annabel’s.

This dimly lit, louche Berkeley Square basement has played host to many an intriguing encounter, legendary party and intimate dinner; a heady collision of old guard and new. This is a place where Frank Sinatra unwound after-hours, where Ray Charles played informal sets and John Wayne and Jack Nicholson propped up the bar. Over the years, the club has garnered a reputation for being a keeper of secrets, and a sense of offduty intimacy remains integral to its allure.

Mark Birley opened Annabel’s in 1963, when a friend, casino owner John Aspinall, wanted somewhere to unwind in the small hours. The idea of a members-only nightclub was novel. Named for Birley’s then-wife Annabel – who went on to marry the late financier Sir James Goldsmith – the hangout was old-school yet boho; quintessentially British with a sprinkling of exoticism. ‘Everything came together in a rather magical way,’ recalled Anna Wintour, then

two decades away from helming Vogue. ‘The Sixties was an extraordinary time to be alive in London. And at the centre was Annabel’s, standing for the old world but also representing the new.’

The club’s country-house-style interiors – largely the brainchild of designer Nina Campbell – offered a decadent glamour not seen in the capital since before the Second World War. ‘People had thought there would never be anything nice again,’ observed legendary interior designer Nicky Haslam. ‘No luxury, no building wonderful rooms. And it was a time when designers and photographers were becoming very fashionable.’

In this heady new era, the establishment rubbed shoulders with creatives – although George Harrison and Beatles manager Brian Epstein were denied entry in 1966 when the former refused to wear a tie.

In the early days, the club was populated largely by Birley’s friends and connections. Five hundred founding members paid an annual membership of five guineas. Today, the surviving 71 pay the same rate – the equivalent of £5.25 a year. It’s an enviable fee for a club preparing to reincarnate as a dawn-to-dusk, fully fledged private members’ club, catering to an eclectic mix of established faces and young talent.

“The Sixties was an extraordinary time to be alive in London. And at the centre was Annabel’s”

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HERITAGE

1963

Mark Birley opens Annabel’s – named after his then wife – in the basement of the Clermont Club. He tells founding members it will be ‘international in character and more of a club in the true sense than any other’.

1970

Mark Birley buys the mews behind the club and establishes the private dining room at Annabel’s.

1970

Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles perform.

Under the watchful eye of Richard Caring, who bought the venue in 2007 from Birley, the original will be transplanted to a Grade-Ilisted Georgian townhouse at 46 Berkeley Square, just two doors away. Over four floors, the new site offers restaurants, bars, private dining rooms, a cigar salon, a workspace and a garden terrace with an impressive retractable glass roof. Interior designer Martin Brudnizki – lauded for his combination of classic and contemporary – has ensured that the grandeur associated with the original remains. A cantilevered stone staircase, elaborate plaster ceilings and majestic rococo fireplaces form the bones of his design, while the iconic Buddha has been reinstated in the building’s basement, where a new nightclub will be recreated.

‘We’ve been very conscious of retaining the spirit of the original while creating something fresh and engaging,’ Brudnizki explains.

‘Nina Campbell’s interiors were vibrant, bold and beautifully layered, and I hope we have mirrored this enthusiasm with our design.’

Annabel’s embraces the laid-back glamour with which it will be forever associated, but the focus is also on the newest, brightest talent that the city – and world at large – has to offer. A cultural committee including photographer Mario Testino, style commentator Derek Blasberg, make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury and art consultant Hikari

The great and the good at Annabel’s (clockwise from top left): Francesca von ThyssenBornemisza and Jerry Hall at the Valentino party in 1987; Jack Nicholson outside the club in 1988; Joan Rivers in 2011; Kate Moss and friend attend a Lady Gaga event in 2013; Jamie Cullum sings at the club; Princess Michael of Kent at a fashion show in 1980

1986

2003

The Queen pays her only recorded visit to a nightclub, ordering a gin Martini with no lemon.

2007

Birley sells the club to Richard Caring.

2012

Longtime member Bryan Ferry launches his album The Jazz Age at the club.

2017

Annabel’s relocates to a Georgian townhouse two doors away at number 46.

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“In the early days, the club was populated largely by Birley’s friends and connections. Five hundred founding members paid an annual membership of five guineas” Yokoyama is helping to shape the identity of this British institution.

Several of Testino’s subjects, such as Kate Moss, are frequent players here already, while Tilbury harbours precious rites-of-passage memories: ‘I’ve been visiting Annabel’s ever since I was a teenager and created many a magical moment there.’ She’ll be devising make-up for female members of staff, and promises, intriguingly, to create London’s most beautiful powder rooms.

The success of any club, however, is determined not by its heritage but by the members who frequent it and a sprinkling of magic conjured only by chance. Bars director Luis Simone has no problem imagining that the new-look Annabel’s will share the frisson of its predecessor: ‘The main bar will be designed with comfort and a sense of conviviality at its core; while, in the nightclub, the bar will feed off the energy of the restaurant and dancefloor, seeping into the intimate hidden snugs.’

And with a string of illustrious names already lined up to grace the gilded threshold, it looks like the next chapter in the history of Annabel’s will have no trouble writing itself. M annabels.co.uk @emmajpage. Emma J Page is the contributing editor for Homes & Gardens and interiors editor at 25 Beautiful Homes

IMAGES: RICHARD YOUNG FOR REX, DAVE M. BENETT/GETTY IMAGES

Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sarah Ferguson slip into the club disguised as policewomen.

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SOCIAL

Laurent-Perrier chosen by

Claridge’s.

Illustrated by Quentin Blake

Raising a glass IMAGES: DAVID BENETT/GETTY IMAGES

Photo credit: Iris Velghe / Illustrator credit: Quentin Blake

CUVÉE ROSÉ CHOSEN BY THE BEST

FROM LEFT: DIANE VON FURSTENBERG, VICTORIA BECKHAM, VALENTINO GARAVANI AND NATALIA VODIANOVA IN CLARIDGE’S IN 2010

From DvF toasting affairs to Dolce & Gabbana drinking Champagne into the early hours with Bond girls, these hotels have seen more than their fair share of great parties.

Here, we look back on a decade of decadence in the heart of London

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SOCIAL

SIENNA MILLER AND KELLY HOPPEN

STEP INTO OUR WORLD

ANYA HINDMARCH

From couture fashion shows to floral displays like no other, follow us on Instagram to keep up with the news from London: @claridgeshotel @theconnaught @the_berkeley

ERIN O’CONNOR

TAMARA MELLON

EMILIA FOX

M.A.C Prêtà-Portea launch

ALICE TEMPERLEY

AT THE BERKELEY, 2005 It was a daring thought: taking inspiration from the runway and turning it into afternoon tea. Aren’t fashion and cake mutually exclusive? As it turned out, the London Fashion Week set loved the idea when it launched at The Berkeley.

Everyone from designers Alice Temperley and Tamara Mellon (both of whom would launch their own confectionery collections) to model of the year Lily Cole were keen to try the designs.

JEMIMA FRENCH

CHEFS PIERRE KOFFMANN (LEFT) AND TOM AIKENS

The Edge of Love VIP party

LUCY YEOMANS AND STEPHEN JONES

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY

AT THE BERKELEY, 2008 There is special kind of relief that comes in the aftermath of a premiere – with the work finally done, there’s nothing left but to raise a glass and enjoy the moment. That’s exactly what the cast of The Edge of Love were doing at the VIP afterparty at The Berkeley in 2008. In attendance were the stars of the film, Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley, along with a crosssection of London’s creative elite, from Miller’s close friend Matthew Williamson to literary icon Zadie Smith.

AMBER LE BON AND DAISY LOWE

DAVID DOWNTON AND LAURA BAILEY

Dolce& Gabbana’s Christmas party

LILY COLE

SELMA BLAIR AND MARC JACOBS

PIXIE GELDOF

OLGA KURYLENKO

IMAGES: DAVID BENETT

AT THE CONNAUGHT, 2007 Back in 2007, Mount Street was not quite the buzzing edit of luxury stores it is today, with Céline, Oscar de la Renta and Balenciaga yet to come. Marc Jacobs, however, decided that this beautiful little pocket of London had the potential for fashion greatness and opened his flagship there. To celebrate, he held his LFW show at Claridge’s, with the raucous afterparty at The Connaught. As Sarah Mower MBE noted, it ‘finished off London Fashion Week with a bang and weary showgoers got to eat, drink, and be merry for the first time in days’.

AT CLARIDGE’S, 2014 Who decorates the Claridge’s Christmas tree has become something of a state secret among London society. For months, they will bribe, beg and more for this information and then suddenly – an answer, an invite! In 2014, this honour fell to the debonair duo Dolce & Gabbana, who promptly installed an eight-metre tree and then tried to conceal every branch with 300 handmade baubles, bows and stars. Naturally the launch party was as sparkling as the décor with London’s most glamorous – including Kylie Minogue, Erin O’Connor and Bond girl Olga Kurylenko – doing their very best to upstage the tree.

FROM LEFT: STEFANO GABBANA, COCO BRANDOLINI D’ADDA, DOMENICO DOLCE

Marc Jacobs’ A/W07 show afterparty

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KYLIE MINOGUE

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SOCIAL Brook Street Bag in Black Embossed Flower

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN AND INDIA HICKS

DAME JOAN COLLINS

CARA DELEVINGNE

TOM FORD

CHARLOTTE DELLAL

Diane Von Furstenberg launch party

AT CLARIDGE’S, 2010 ‘Like many of you I have had affairs in Claridge’s, business meetings in Claridge’s and many memorable moments here,’ Diane von Furstenberg said to what must have been the most star-studded room in London history outside of a royal wedding. Everyone came out to celebrate her newly designed suites at Claridge’s: Natalie Massenet in Gatsby-esque sequins, Victoria Beckham in thigh-high boots and Madonna, fashionably late, in a rakish trilby.

An evening of fun, decadence and all-out glamour continued into the early hours, adding to the many parties and stories this grand hotel has seen. As DvF said: ‘If walls could talk, these rooms could write books and books and books.... Let’s not stop having affairs.’ M

TRACEY EMIN CBE AND DAMIEN HIRST

FROM LEFT: GWYNETH PALTROW AND MADONNA

FROM LEFT: NATALIA VODIANOVA, DIANE VON FURSTENBERG, VICTORIA BECKHAM AND DASHA ZHUKOVA

NAME HERE

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IMAGES: DAVID BENETT

DAME NATALIE MASSENET

ASPINALOFLONDON.COM

TEL: + 44 (0) 1428 648180

REGULARS

INSTAGRAM STORIES From couture fashion shows to floral displays like no other, follow us on Instagram to keep up with the news from London: @claridges @theconnaught @the_berkeley

FLOWER POWER Petersham Nurseries has always been a fan of the finer things in life, offering a place where you can browse one-of-a-kind antiques, pick up some plants for the garden or simply dine in the bucolic surroundings of Richmond. Now, they are ‘bringing flowers back to Covent Garden’, opening two restaurants, a lifestyle home and garden shop, a delicatessen with a wine cellar and – of course – a florist, all in the aptly named Floral Court.

Petershamnurseries.com

THE MAYFAIR GURU IN 1983, MAYFAIR ESTATE AGENTS WETHERELL PUT ITS FIRST ‘SOLD BY’ BOARD ON A FLAT IN GROSVENOR SQUARE. AS IT CELEBRATES 35 YEARS IN MAYFAIR, WE ASK CEO PETER WETHERELL TO SHARES HIS BEST MOMENTS

BEST SALE? A 77-room mansion built in the 1720s for the Gray family of tea importers, and subsequently the home of Lady Astor. The property had been requisitioned during the Second World War and the instruction to sell came from the Ministry of Defence. It is now The In and Out club.

The Scoop STEP INTO OUR WORLD WITH THE LATEST NEWS FROM CLARIDGE’S, THE CONNAUGHT AND THE BERKELEY AND OUR STYLISH NEIGHBOURS

MOST UNUSUAL SALE?

From top: teapot, £175; tiered fruit stand, £340; Astier De Villatte chandelier, £2,400; giant rose, £65; Murano champagne glass, from a selection; two-seater bench, £790, all from Petersham Nurseries

HÉLÈNE GOES TO HARRODS

This season, The Connaught’s own Hélène Darroze will join the hallowed Food Halls of Harrods as Chef of the Season. ‘Hélène at Home’ will offer Londoners the chance to experience her celebrated culinary style without having to leave the house. ‘The first time I visited the Food Hall many years ago, I felt like a child in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Day! It was like a treasure trove, and I wanted to taste everything,’ says Darroze.

Dishes include salt cod and espelette-pepper tortillas, chicken stuffed with wild mushrooms and truffle and pigeon Wellington – the ideal recipe for a cosy winter’s night in.

The Hélène Darroze Chef of the Season range, ‘Hélène at Home’, will be available from 3 November until the end of December. harrods.com

I once sold just a front door and the corridor behind it for £85,000.

It was back in 1985 and the buyer owned everything else in the building but not the entrance!

PROUDEST MOMENT? We paid to have the bell in Grosvenor Chapel restored because ‘it needed to chime’.

We also coined the phrase ‘Mayfair Village’ which has stuck.

MOST FASHIONABLE SALE?

We brought Coco Chanel’s house for a client in 1984, for around £750,000. It was a 1930s building and inside it had a roof terrace with a fountain and all of the bathrooms had Lalique glass faces out of which water poured.

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BEST ADVICE? IMAGE: JOHN CAREY

SHELF HELP For tomes that qualify as works of art, there is simply no one like Taschen.

With a new store inside Claridge’s, collectors can browse a highly curated selection of books, prints and limited editions, from signed prints by Ellen von Unwerth to the complete works of Zaha Hadid. taschen.com

Don’t wait to buy in Mayfair... buy in Mayfair and wait! @mayfairguru Wetherell Estate Agents, 102 Mount St, Mayfair, London Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley | 101

REGULARS

FOOD & DRINK

WELL GROOMED After a gap of more than 50 years, The Gentlemen’s Department at Fortnum & Mason will once again house its own Master Barber, offering everything from haircuts and hot-towel head massages, to bespoke beard styling, wet shaves and hair treatments.

It even comes with a fully stocked bar, should you fancy a mid-snip Martini. Fortnumandmason.com

From top: shaving brush, £35 Fortnum & Mason. Shaving set, £75, Taylor of Old Bond Street. Air-safe manicure set, £225, Czech & Speake

FOOD & DRINK

Title headline

Abril Fatface

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

5-6 October 2016

5-6 OCTOBER 2016

SUITE STYLE

HIRO AT HAMILTONS

For over 30 years, our neighbour Hamiltons Gallery has been at the forefront of photography, exhibiting everyone from Irving Penn to Don McCullin. From 17 December to 18 January, it will be opening a new exhibit on the legendary fashion photographer Hiro. hamiltonsgallery.com

New Context

SWITCHED ON

The glossy magazine audience is at the vanguard of new technology ownership, and way ahead of the national average. There is little difference between Millennials and Generation X

Contemporary masterpieces

Exclusively Maddox - Emerging, Established and Blue Chip artists.

9 Maddox Street, Mayfair, London W1S 2QE Tel 0207 870 7622 I info@maddoxgallery.co.uk GUTTER CREDITS

© HIRO

If you’ve become accustomed to the style of living at The Berkeley, then you’ll be pleased to hear that Heathrow have redesigned the Chelsea Lounge within their private suites at Heathrow VIP using the same team. Helen Green Design has collaborated to redesign the lounge, looking to provide the same sense of ‘comfortable glamour’ that they pioneered here in Knightbridge. Available to First and Business travellers, Heathrow VIP is a private service offering chauffeur-driven transfers, concierge and a team to handle check-in, security and luggage. heathrowvip.com

5 Shepherd Street, Mayfair, London W1J 7HW Tel 0203 150 2452 I info@maddoxgallery.co.uk 112 Westbourne Grove, London W2 5RU Tel 0207 989 0304 I sales@maddoxgallery.co.uk

102 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

www.maddoxgallery.co.uk I @maddoxgallery

HERITAGE

A portrait of…

Dame Kristin Scott Thomas poses for artist-in-residence David Downton

HEADLINE HERE

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Front of book fashion caption here fashion

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TITLE HERE

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

TITLE HERE

Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

t’s you, Charlie, it’s always been you.’ So said Dame Kristin Scott Thomas as the lovelorn Fiona in Four Weddings and a Funeral, as the audience held its breath (and wanted to shake Hugh Grant for not choosing her over Andie MacDowell).

Since then, her unique combination of fearlessness and restraint, allied to a beauty that can turn Garboesque when called for, has illuminated more than 50 films.

Recently, declaring she was tired of ‘fussing about with teacups’ on-screen, she 104 | Claridges . The Connaught . The Berkeley

has gravitated towards the stage and ever riskier movie roles such as the bleach blonde mother from hell in 2013’s Only God Forgives.

We met at Claridge’s and I found her engaged and engaging. Bien dans sa peau, as they say in France: comfortable in her own skin. She was considering a move back to London from Paris, where she has lived since she was 18, which would be our gain.

A dream to draw, her face has the distinctive angles and curves – like rhyming couplets – of an authentic star. M

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Returns next month alongside the October issue – until then, get daily updates on celebrity style and news, beauty and fashion at

©2017 Harry Winston, Inc. CLASSIC WINSTON™ RING

#BrilliantlyInLove

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