How a new start-up aims to bring beauty – and no little fun – to the EV market.
EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief & Co-owner
John Thatcher john@hotmedia.me
COMMERCIAL
Managing Director & Co-owner Victoria Thatcher victoria@hotmedia.me
PRODUCTION
Digital Media Manager Muthu Kumar muthu@hotmedia.me
Welcome Onboard
JUNE 2025
NASJET is the leading private aviation operator and services provider in Saudi Arabia that delivers world-class services in aircraft management, charter, flight support, sales, and completions. Launched in 1999 in affiliation with US partner NASJET Inc, NasJet — originally NASJET Middle East (NJME) — demonstrated the highest levels of regional expertise by being the first private company in Saudi Arabia to be awarded an Aircraft Operating Certificate (AOC) by the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA). The company has since grown to managing/supporting in excess of 15 fixed-wing aircraft and employing 92 in-house aviation industry experts. We operate 24/7 from a state-ofthe-art flight centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, delivering superior levels of safety, service, and value.
VISION
To be the leading business aviation solutions provider in the Middle East.
MISSION
• Safety: Our clients’ and employees’ safety and security are the highest priority in all our operations and services.
• Standards: Our clients receive the utmost levels of service with world-class standards.
• Empowerment: Our employees are vital to our success and rewarded for outstanding performance and innovations.
• Profitability: We strive to ensure the full success and profitability of our organization.
• Responsibility: We pride ourselves on our work ethics and strive for the highest levels of professional standards.
VALUES
• Transparency: We are transparent with our clients and with each other.
• Efficiency: We achieve the highest levels of efficiency within our organization.
• Communication: We work as a team and communicate with each other to improve the success of our business.
Recently we have relaunched our company website to provide a more user-friendly, design-driven portal, which provides a full overview of our services and outlines the advantages of utilising them. You can visit it at nasjet.com.sa
We welcome the opportunity to serve you onboard one of our private jets.
Captain Mohammed Al Gabbas Chief Commercial Officer
Owning a private jet is certainly a pleasure, but it is also a significant capital investment. We can handle that hassle and give you peace of mind knowing that an established and experienced international operator is efficiently managing your aircraft. The company has grown to managing/supporting in excess of 15 Middle East-based aircraft.
Charter
NASJET has a dedicated fleet of ultra-modern aircraft available for immediate charter, including Airbus, Gulfstream, Legacy, and Citation Excel. We are also able to source any type of aircraft in the world if our fleet does not match your preference. Your requests and personal requirements are managed by a team of highly experienced charter experts focused on making your trip exceptionally comfortable and seamless. Remember, we are looking to exceed your expectations, with our Client Service team operating 24/7, 365 days a year, to ensure we are doing just that.
For frequent charter clients, we have a number of flexible and dynamic Block-Charter programs with all the usual benefits of the on-demand charter but with additional cost savings based on volume discounts and flexible payment terms. The charter programs allow you to take control of your flying requirements on a trip-by-trip basis. At the same time, it grants you access to the largest regionally managed fleet with seamless operations and a superior level of safety, reliability, and value. For Charter Broker inquiries, please contact our 24/7 charter department at +966 11 261 1199 or email charter@flynas.com.
Flight Support-Aircraft Owners Aircraft owners managing an aircraft internally can still benefit from NASJET's unrivaled level of international support and significant
'economy of scale' cost-saving benefits. The NASJET Flight Center, Client Service, Charter Team, and Engineering Teams operate 24/7, supporting owners with flight planning, overnight & landing permits, ground handling, fuel management, accommodation, catering, aircraft insurance, maintenance, and evaluations. NASJET will provide aircraft owners with 'back-up' aircraft at attractive prices when their aircraft is unavailable. The core management fleet includes Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault, Embraer, and Gulfstream aircraft.
Aircraft Sales
As a world-class owner, operator, and manager of corporate aircraft, we are in a unique position to understand the many advantages and disadvantages of aircraft ownership. We offer real-time pricing analysis, aircraft financing at preferential rates, aircraft inspections, sales/ marketing collateral, and assertive price negotiations. Close ties with the leading business aircraft manufacturers, operators, and international sales brokers further ensure the information presented is accurate and timely. Dedicated teams are able to handle legal and administrative documentation, including registration and licensing, as well as scouring the market to present you with the widest
possible choice of aircraft. We have the required experience to enter into negotiations on any aircraft model, and together with marketing and advertising experts, we can help you buy or sell your aircraft with cost efficiency and the utmost discretion. With NASJET, you can be assured that your aircraft sale or purchase is being managed by aviation experts.
Completions Advisory
If you are planning to purchase a new 'green' aircraft or refurbish your current aircraft, we have the capability and wealth of experience to ensure the completion and delivery of the aircraft is to the highest standard, protecting the future residual value of your aircraft. NASJET and appointed partners provide advice on the design, selection, and installation of the cabin configuration, layout, type of seats, carpets, sidewall treatments, and other furnishings, entertainment and communication systems, galley, and lavatory fixtures, avionics packages, exterior paint, and extended warranty programs. Operating business aircraft in extremely hot and humid climates can mean the finishing and preparation of materials must be of a specific requirement. Capitalising on our regional knowledge as an operator of over 15 fixed-wing aircraft with hundreds of thousands of miles flown across every continent in the world, we guarantee your aircraft will be finished to the optimum standard.
From the moment you step on board, NASJET redefines business travel. Seamless connectivity, discreet luxury, and tailored service—because your time is as valuable as your destination.
Introducing Our Fleet
Over 19 fixed-wing aircraft are under our management
‘ We are also able to source any type of aircraft in the world if our fleet does not match your preference ’
Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ) A318
In NASJET, we have two types of Airbus A318, an aircraft that combines Airbus reliability and intercontinental performance.
Airbus A320neo
Airbus A320neo is distinguished by its innovative technologies and the spaciousness of its cabin the widest in the single-aisle aircraft category. The aircraft is equipped with a new generation of engines that contribute to a 15% cutback in fuel consumption and harmful emissions and a 50% reduction in noise level.
Boeing (B767) and Boeing (BBJ3)
Boeing Business Jets bring the best of private air travel, offering customers a wide range of Boeing products. The robust characteristics of this aircraft also provide an excellent value proposition
when outfitted for more personalised space, unmatched reliability, and worldwide support.
Gulfstream (G450) and Gulfstream (GIV-SP)
NASJET is the longest-standing Gulfstream operator in the Middle East. You can fly in a spacious and comfortable cabin, which includes a full-service galley to serve your favourite meals.
Embraer Legacy 600 and Legacy 650
The NASJET Legacy 600 has installed an Ionization System that eliminates 99.9% of all microbes, bacteria, germs, bad smells, etc., in the cabin air during flight. This Legacy 600 is the first and only business jet to have this system installed during the Covid-19 pandemic and will significantly reduce the virus's spread within the cabin air.
Cessna Citation Excel
The Citation Excel aircraft combines transcontinental range and remarkable efficiency in a beautiful mid-size jet. The cabin offers a comfortable room and a spacious interior. The high-quality leather seats are extra wide with full reclining capabilities for optimal comfort.
Bombardier Challenger 850
The Challenger 850 aircraft is considered a mid-range aircraft which offers a spacious cabin and a large baggage area.
Dassault Falcon 900B
The Falcon 900B aircraft is one of the quietest three engine aircraft with an excellent transcontinental range and the ability to carry a greater number of passengers.
The inspiring story of how Richard Mille defied the naysayers to launch a watch brand that continues to fly in the face of convention, Richard Mille: The Impossible Collection takes a deep dive into the artistic, high-precision timepieces that have shaped modern Swiss horology. “To create a timepiece is to succeed in combining art and science, design and engineering, tradition and innovation,” said Richard Mille, who fused his passions for aeronautics, motor racing and watchmaking to set up his eponymous brand, a brand that’s now as collectable as it is coveted.
Richard Mille: The Impossible Collection is out now, published by Assouline assouline.com
Master craftsmanship, effortless style and timeless appeal; this month’s must-haves and collectibles
The final collection designed by the collaborative effort of Chanel’s Creation Studio before Matthieu Blazy takes the reins from October was unveiled in the dreamy surrounds of Villa d’Este on Lake Como, a sun-kissed spot that the Studio took inspiration from – not least in its
choice of colour palette – to deliver looks that featured many of the house’s classic codes (tweed, camellias, pearls, the always magnificent embroideries and lacework) and more than a little old school glamour, courtesy of this gold lurex damask trouser suit.
CHANEL CRUISE 2025/26
OBJECTS OF DESIRE
It was a daring move by Boucheron to create Quatre, merging four key but very much distinct patterns from the brand’s archive. Yet the fact that it still looks as contemporary today as it did when it debuted a little over twenty years ago is testament
to the brand’s vision. To update the architecture around this now iconic motif, creative director Claire Choisne has created a tube design that looks particularly striking in the guise of this angular bracelet and two-finger ring.
BOUCHERON
QUATRE CLASSIC TUBE
BORN OUTSIDE ITALY OFF-SEASON
Not content to drop just the one new sneaker, Born Outside Italy has dropped two at once, continuing the Dubai-fostered brand’s upward trajectory by “raising the bar across the board – materials, fit, finish and design. This is the shape of things to
come,” says co-founder Daniele Pe. For sneaker 003, that shape is a classic sneaker silhouette with considered detailing, while sneaker 004 goes fullon sophisticated suede. As usual, both options are crafted in Italy and feature the brand’s signature hexagonal sole.
OBJECTS OF DESIRE
296 SPECIALE A
Built with a drivetrain that delivers a jaw-dropping combined power output of 880hp – a record for a rear-wheel-drive production Ferrari – the new plug-in hybrid 296 Speciale A is indeed a special car. But what makes it extra special
is the fact that you can drive it roofless. That means you’re also in for an aural treat, with the 296 Speciale A not just inheriting the already acclaimed sound of the 296 GTS but building on it by accentuating the tone-rich volume.
FERRARI
With a population under 3,000, the island of Burano, a teardrop in the Venetian Lagoon, may be tiny but it packs a real visual punch. Its natural beauty and pastel-hued buildings are the inspiration for Loro Piana’s Resort collection which, as ever, is
a masterful treatment of luxurious fabrics, with linen to the fore. As per the nature of the collection, clothes are crafted for comfort, but expert tailoring underpins it all; flowing lines that follow the body, as best emphasised by this dress and pants.
LORO PIANA RESORT 2025 COLLECTION
RICHARD MILLE
RM 75-01 FLYING TOURBILLON SAPPHIRE
Few watchmakers like to challenge themselves as much as Richard Mille. In its latest stand against improbability, the brand has, for the first time ever, designed a movement specifically for a sapphire case, the fully skeletonised RM7501 calibre conceived as an aethereal
sculpture. It’s a piece comprising three expressions: two 10-piece designs that combine clear and coloured sapphire crystal and the other – limited to 15 pieces – that’s purely formed from clear sapphire. Each adopts a striking if soft hue, reminiscent of a seascape.
Each year on the occasion of the Cannes Film Festival, Caroline Scheufele, Chopard’s co president and artistic director, challenges herself to design the same number of high jewellery pieces as there have been festivals. That number reached 78 last month, and Scheufele’s
always expressive designs showcased her full range of inspirations, among them animals, flowers and couture. But at the centre of Chopard’s world is the heart, symbolic of the family behind it, which looks resplendent as a ring in tinted aluminium set with vivacious rubies.
CHOPARD RED CARPET COLLECTION
OBJECTS OF DESIRE
Come Undone
Robbie Williams paints himself as radically honest in the latest exhibition of his art, which illustrates anxiety, self-love, introversion and morning mirror pep talks
WORDS: DYLAN JONES
The first time I met Robbie Williams I couldn’t get rid of him. It was 1998, I was leaving a big job, and someone was throwing a dinner for me in one of the upstairs rooms in The Groucho Club, the private members’ club in Soho. About an hour into the dinner, Williams burst in, obviously looking for the lavatories. But, pleased by what he saw, namely a lot of adoring young women making purring noises, and extremely attentive waiters, he stayed. And stayed and stayed. He stayed for the rest of the evening, uninvited but outrageously good company — singing, telling jokes, doing cartwheels, and even spending a good 45 minutes discussing the problems with newspaper and magazine distribution with our circulation director.
“The Groucho was somewhere I went nearly every night for 18 months. I enjoyed it because I found a kinship with people that I respected highly that allowed me to be a member of their fraternity without judgement. I was sometimes 20 years younger than them, sometimes 10 years younger, but they were all people I highly respected,” he says. “It was all people who were mentally ill and addicts, most of them
anyway. But to be allowed into the fraternity of people who had made me laugh or made me think without judgement felt special. While I was ruining my life at the same time.”
As I would learn over the coming years, his performance that night was very Robbie. I’ve since interviewed him a few times, and the interviews usually disintegrated quite quickly into therapy sessions, which, obviously, tended to make them more revealing. When I spoke to him for this interview, and asked him how he was in reference to his mental health, he was as positive as I’ve ever seen him.
“How am I? I’m good. My story arc is at the other end. I’m now looking back and talking about what was. Now I get to explain myself. I am a journalist, and I have one subject and it’s me. And I’m reporting live from the scene, whenever I decide to turn the camera on.”
Recently, you’ve probably been reacquainted with Williams. Whenever he speaks to the press he appears to be drawn into conversations about his mental health, he remains a ridiculously popular live attraction, and not so long ago there was the biopic where instead
of an actor playing him, there was a chimpanzee instead. That’s right, maybe you saw it, or more than likely you didn’t. By all accounts it didn’t break any box office records, and apparently didn’t perform well in the US, one of the few places in the world where Williams can walk down the street unmolested. On that topic, I remember sitting in a hotel room in Belgravia in 2003 with David Bowie, and all he wanted to talk about was Williams’s extraordinary success. Bowie lived in New York at the time, a city immune to Williams’s charms, and Bowie just did not understand why he was so popular. As for the film, although it was a canny enough idea, unfortunately the script and the narrative were a little too pedestrian for the film to really work. But it’s certainly not unenjoyable.
“I was incredibly pleased by the profound effect it’s had on people, as well as the critical response,” says Williams, with genuine pride. “It could have been sh**, and it’s not. That feels good in my soul, and it’s therapeutic. The monkey idea came out of [director] Michael Gracey’s brain. He asked me one day what my spirit animal was, and when I said lion, he looked at me with
a cocked head. ‘Really?’ And I said, okay, monkey. And that was the idea. Instantly it played into my whole career, as it’s all been built on audacity.”
Regardless of how you might feel about Williams – and there may be huge swathes of you who think they know everything there is to know about the man, too much possibly – I encourage you to pause judgement until you’ve seen him live. Over the past two decades I’ve seen him perform a number of times – Wembley Stadium, Fashion Rocks at the Albert Hall in 2003, the rehearsal for a private performance in LA about a decade later, yada yada yada – and he has never been less than extraordinary. There are many things Williams isn’t, but there is no one who can control an audience like he can.
He obviously still gets a massive buzz out of it. “The feeling you get from performing in front of hundreds of thousands of people changes over time, because when it first started to happen, the dramatic imposter syndrome couldn’t work it out and reacted against it, in disbelief,” he says, thinking deeply about his response.
“It created an acute existential crisis. But when the first child arrived, and then the fourth, imposter syndrome took a back seat. And necessity comes forward. There is no place for the panic about your place on the planet or within the music industry. You’re facilitating a beautiful life for your children and your family. Childhood trauma doesn’t understand 80,000 people beaming back love to you, and that’s how strong that feeling is. The trauma sent me off in a not good direction.”
Williams is performing again, appearing at the Emirates Stadium this month, but he’s also in London to celebrate his first art show. Because Williams is now an artist. Taking over the massive Moco Museum, the public gallery at the Hyde Park end of Oxford Street, he’s trying his hand at something completely different. According to the gallery, Williams’s “expressive style manifests as striking physical pieces that use a mix of materials and layered textures that expand his visual language of sarcasm, self-deprecation and playful irreverence”. Okay, got that. What else? “From a marble depiction of anxiety and a seat designated for uninterrupted introversion to a
‘ It feels a bit icky commercialising it because most of my art revolves around mental illness, but of course I will ’
monumental jumper of mixed feelings and vibrant canvases that explore personal narratives – it’s all there, blunt and unpolished, yet oddly comforting.”
Comforting? Using his epigrammatic skills and his fondness for modern ‘pop’ style poster imagery, he’s created a series of artworks that reflect how he feels about… well, Robbie, just what do they reflect? He has previously said this work is
about all those things which make us human – anxiety, self-love, introversion, morning mirror pep talks. In a world obsessed with keeping it together, embracing the chaos, facing selfjudgement and enjoying the disorder.
“I’d been doing things in secret in my garage since 2006 and was too scared to show it. And then for some reason nearly two years ago I had this drawing of three
Previous page: Robbie Williams, by Rob Jones @khromacollective
All other pages: artworks courtesy of Moco Museum London
people on a podium and the joke was, ‘She came first at the Ozempics’. And I became neurotic about getting that joke out there first before somebody else did. So I put it up on Instagram and got such good feedback that I carried on doing it. And Instagram makes you more prolific because it needs feeding. I’ve only just joined the ranks of people using social media. I’ve previously existed in the 1990s, but I’m now a fully-fledged member of the new age in which we find ourselves. And what I’m finding is that I’m an entertainer with a compulsion to entertain and this is perfect. I get to entertain in a new fashion every day. Previously I thought it was a bit ‘pick me, pick me’, and I’ve always been ‘pick me, pick me’, but I think my ego might have thought I was above it.
“Kim [Logchies-Prins] at Moco saw the value of the mental health aspect of the stuff that I do, and feels that it’s of its time, and the conversation that’s happening socially in the world right now.
“I haven’t monetised it yet, but there does need to be a plan. I need my creativity to have a destination, and sometimes that destination is people telling me how much the film moved them, or they liked a gig or how much a song meant to them. But sometimes it’s just cynical commercialism. It feels a bit icky commercialising it because most of my art revolves around mental illness, but of course I will. There is a huge back catalogue of failures, so it took me a while to make a go of it.”
I had figured that his exploration was a mere whim, but Williams was actually encouraged to pursue his art by one of our most famous and accomplished artists.
“The reason I thought I could do it is because I was hanging out with David Hockney at his studio in LA and he showed me how he draws on an iPad. If it wasn’t for Hockney, I wouldn’t have thought that iPad drawings would have been a medium that would be considered worthy. I’ve got all these boxes of pens and paints and canvasses and glue and typewriters, but you use an iPad, and it becomes simple and quick. And my brain works so quickly and gets bored so quickly, you don’t get a chance to get bored. Hanging out with him was like hanging out with a Beatle, it was incredible.”
The show is called Radical Honesty, although I’m not sure how radical it is. His paintings look like the kind of things you
‘ I do worry about criticism which is why it took so long for me to show the work’
might find in a primary school show, using the kind of maxims and adages adopted by the likes of David Shrigley or Hayden Kays, although Williams’s are all about… Williams. To wit: “Just because you’re dyslexic doesn’t mean you’re not stupid; I will not be honouring my commitments today and I will be feeling marvellous about it; Be yourself (restrictions apply); Just off to have a nervous breakdown — does anybody want anything?” Etc etc. You’ve seen similar things on Instagram, and they all seem to exist solely to house the aphorism. In fact, imagine your local GP waiting room redecorated by the set designers on Sesame Street, and you’re halfway there. I’m not sure how great they are, but I quite like them.
Is he remotely bothered by what the critics might say?
“I do worry about criticism which is why it took so long for me to show the work. Also, my own thoughts about celebrities doing art is not very positive. I didn’t want people to shame me. Most celebrities’ artwork… I don’t rate it. I thought, I must be sh** too. When a lot of celebrities do art, they have a need to be taken seriously, but I’ve never asked the world to take me seriously. And they’ve repaid in kind. But with my art, it’s not serious, it pokes fun. I hope my stuff is ridiculous and shows us how ridiculous we are. I’m not saying my stuff is any better, I’m just saying why it
took me so long to show it to people.
‘Myself, I like Jonas Wood, but most of what I like is the greatest hits of the people we all like. I like Pop Art. Warhol, Haring and all the people you see on posh people’s walls. I’ve bought some art but I don’t collect art. What I find interesting is that in England, Damien Hirst’s spot paintings are on the wall of every house I’ve looked at to buy. In California it’s Ed Ruscha. And in Miami it’s Kaws. It’s money see, monkey do. With me it’s about you know, walking into somewhere and seeing something and going, I could do that, so I’m going to. I love looking at something and going, I can do that.”
So, Robbie Williams is at it again, lost in a world of his own making, seemingly still unable to make sense of the tumultuous effect fame has had on his young mind and body, and his ongoing struggles with anxiety, relationships, rejection, popularity, unpopularity and his seemingly innate desire to get everyone in the world to love him. Have a look at the art and take it for what it is (he’s a better artist than Bob Dylan) but don’t let it affect any desire you may have to go and see him live. Trust me, you won’t regret it. If you do, tell Williams. Because I can guarantee he’ll want to talk about it.
Radical Honesty is ongoing at the Moco Museum London, london.mocomuseum. com
The Family Jewels
Pasquale Bruni’s creative director, Eugenia Bruni, on creating jewellery with a soul
WORDS: JOHN THATCHER
Bout from the foot of the Alps, unfurling itself into a magnificent canvas woven by Mother Nature’s fair hands: verdant valleys, majestic mountains and alluring lakes.
It also bears a golden heart.
During the early part of the nineteenth century, the small town of Valenza began to attract hundreds of goldsmiths, the jewellery they crafted earning the town an enviable reputation that now stretches far beyond Piedmont’s peaked borders, their skills passed down through familial lines.
It’s within this now world-class hub of jewellery making that Pasquale Bruni, aged just 20 at the time, birthed his eponymous brand in 1968, a brand
‘Spirituality fills me with the pure energy that’s needed to give a soul to my jewellery ’
for which his daughter Eugenia now spearheads creative direction, drawing rich inspiration from Pasquale’s original atelier. “I remember every detail of that magical place,” says Eugenia. “I was very young yet so in love with the place where I could find drawings, goldsmiths’ benches and all the most colourful gemstones. All these things made me feel good; they were the source of my smile, of my whole being and my curiosity. I spent hours admiring my father and the very few people that were working with him at that time. They were my whole world and my family. Even today, I feel like all the people working with me are my family.”
It was in this storied atelier that Eugenia fostered her own understanding of jewellery craftsmanship. “I had the chance to
observe and learn the art of jewellery making, starting from childhood, living it truly and fully. I did always love drawing, but my father encouraged me to try and get involved in every single aspect of the creative process: from the technical and artisanal side to visual merchandising and image coordination. I have tried, and still try every day, to make the most of this experience, as there’s always room to be taught something new.” And to create something dazzling. Following in the footsteps of her father, whose reputation was built on handcrafted pieces that married time-honoured skills to modern designs, Eugenia’s Heart to Earth high jewellery collection comprises ethically acquired Zambian emeralds, Sri Lankan sapphires and rubies from Mozambique, each stone lovingly
Previous page: Eugenia Bruni
All other psges: pieces from Heart to Earth high jewellery collection
light in the harmony of shape. The pavè setting is crucial here, used to recreate a sense of flow, a stream of diamonds where precious stones beat like hearts, while flowers pulse and represent Earth.”
It's a design that stems from Eugenia’s desire to bring a jewel to life. “My way of giving life to a jewel involves all senses, with a mysterious and intimate approach,” she explains. “A jewel should have eyes and heart. It creates a bond and a dialogue with us. What I always try to convey is a feeling of belonging, and the desire to express freely our own world through a jewel. Jewels are a way to tell our own story, with our own colours and
unique way of wearing them.”
Eugenia’s own story began in Valenza – “I have always considered my birthplace to be the perfect place where I could dig myself deeper in my inspiration and, more broadly, my job” – before taking in art school, where she indulged her innate passion for goldsmithery, and further studies in New York, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Eugenia describes these years as fundamentally important to her creative development, allowing her to acquire fresh artistic and cultural stimuli, and she returned to the family business in 2021, acquiring her current role.
“I love the creative instinct and I’m very visceral in my inspiration,” she explains.
“I never go looking for it; it’s basically a divine gift, a source of endless emotions that I need to choose and channel into something to be shared and brought to
life. Spirituality fills me with the pure energy that’s needed to give a soul to my jewellery, the creation of which is a feeling, a miracle that simply happens.”
The process feeds its ultimate purpose. “Creativity means sharing art and love,” outlines Eugenia. “When I see that a person gets emotional in front of a jewel, this is something that makes me proud and gives me the strength to go ahead.”
But while Eugenia turns to the universe for inspiration, it is in the Pasquale Bruni workshop that the real magic happens. “Creative ideas can fly; they embrace contamination and are fed by many different places. But the handmade work and the production itself can only be experienced in our factory. Creating wonders can bring light to the world, and this is our intention for the future.”
The world certainly needs it.
It’s Complicated
As Vacheron Constantin ticks over into its 270th year, its ingenuity shows no sign of stopping
WORDS: JOHN THATCHER
In what’s a big year for anniversaries in the watch world, Vacheron Constantin’s 270 years of continuous production is the biggest. As such, it was never likely to celebrate such remarkable longevity with a slice of cake and a few selfcongratulatory slaps on the back. Instead, we have Les Cabinotiers Solaria, the most complicated wristwatch in the history of horology.
Quite the celebration, then. And quite the feat. But we shouldn’t be in the least bit surprised. For if we can glean one thing from Vacheron’s storied past, it’s that it has relentlessly pursued technical achievement.
As long ago as 1929, Vacheron created a pocket watch with 13 complications for King Fouad I of Egypt, while last year, the Berkley Grand Complication, another of its prized pocket watches – Vacheron being one of the few manufacturers still engaged in the creation of such magnificent timepieces – was unveiled as the world’s most complicated watch.
Now they’ve done it with a wristwatch.
A single-piece edition, Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication comprises 41 complications, incorporating five astronomical functions never previously combined in watchmaking (including one that’s a world first, allowing for temporal tracking of celestial objects) and an innovative minute repeater
‘This watch occupies a special place in horology ’
mechanism that chimes the Westminster carillon, the most sophisticated of the musical sequences, involving four gongs and four hammers. This mechanism alone accounts for seven of the thirteen patent applications Vacheron filed for this extraordinary timepiece.
“This watch occupies a special place in horology, especially since it integrates astronomical functions related to the apparent course of the sun across the sky,” says Christian Selmoni, Vacheron Constantin’s Style & Heritage Director. “It is rare for a timepiece to display civil time with central hours and minutes, solar time with equation of time display, and sidereal time coupled with the movement of the constellations. Thanks to an innovative mechanism, it displays in real time the position of the sun, its height, the time of its culmination and its angle of declination. This construction requires differentiation in the gear trains to account for the peculiarities of the solar system – groundbreaking feats for a mechanical wristwatch.
“The third astronomical complication – sidereal time – linked to the splitseconds chronograph function and displayed on the back of the watch, allows us to determine when a chosen star will appear in our field of vision.
“These highly complicated mechanisms are part of a long tradition of astronomical watches at Vacheron Constantin, dating back to the early 19th century and including the Les
Cabinotiers Celestia presented in 2017, which has 23 functions inspired by astronomy.”
Greatness is rarely achieved without endeavour, and the complexity of assembling a total of 1521 components inside a wristwatch measuring 45mm in diameter and just 14.99mm in height proved a considerable challenge – one readily accepted. The calibre was designed in two sections, with the base movement combining the time, chronograph and chiming functions, and an additional mechanism combining all the astronomical indications. To unite them, Vacheron developed what it has termed a unique ‘plug and play’ mounting system, now the subject of its own patent application.
“Because it is the most complicated wristwatch in the history of horology, the mechanism had to be arranged in the most logical and compact way possible,” outlines Selmoni. “The main objective was to bring together all the main complications, timekeeping, astronomical, chronograph and chiming, on a single base plate. Thanks to this construction, it was possible to create a wristwatch with harmonious proportions. Many of the innovations of this watch are related to the solutions found to avoid adding bulk and to gain in energy efficiency. The 72-hour power reserve attests to the latter.
“The miniaturisation of the movement is an essential point – a real
watchmaking feat. Everything about the design of Calibre 3655 has been thought out with space constraints in mind, especially regarding the minute repeater with a four-gong and four hammers Westminster chime. Redesigned with more compact dimensions and greater mass, the hammers and gongs are positioned on either side of the base plate to gain height and efficiency.”
Just as complicated was the construction of the dial, its multiple discs requiring precision manufacturing and assembly.
It took a total of eight years to create this masterpiece. Not uncommon at Vacheron Constantin, but this celebratory piece did come with a surprise.
“The creation of this new timepiece was different from the Reference 57260 and The Berkley Grand Complication pieces with a record number of complications – each occupied three watchmakers for respectively eight and eleven years,” says Selmoni. “However, a single watchmaker is behind the entire project of Les Cabinotiers Solaria. He designed the movement, imagined the case – which is a direct response to the movement architecture – and guided the choice of finishes to be applied to every element.” That’s 1521 pieces, all finished by hand.
The passing of time isn’t feared at Vacheron Constantin. Rather, it is celebrated. Uniquely so.
The star on the whirlwind that was The White Lotus, meeting his former self on set, his unlikely road to fame, and being a ‘spouse baby’ in his wife’s new film
WORDS: LAURA MARTIN
“Idon’t know if we come back here again,” Walton Goggins ponders of life on Earth, every bit the philosophical, low-buttoned shirt-wearing dude we have come to love. “I don’t know anything, none of us really do, right? The only thing that we have control over is our participation in the world around us, and I try to lean into those things.”
Leaning in seems to be Goggin’s natural sensibility, but that’s not easy when you’re in the eye of a hurricane. The past 18 months have seen the cult actor hit stratospheric heights, appearing in several huge TV hits; the biggest of all being, of course, pop culture juggernaut, The White Lotus.
“I’m thinking of the right words to describe it …” he says in his familiar Southern drawl, from a hotel room in LA. “Wonderfully chaotic!”
It certainly has been. Mike White’s third series of the millionaires-onholiday murder mystery was the most tragic so far, with the fateful tale of two lovers at its heart: a lone wolf with abandonment issues, Rick Hatchett (Goggins), and his besotted younger girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). It ended up as one of the most heartbreaking stories of the season.
The show pulled in an average of 16 million viewers each episode, but fans soon began to turn their feverish attentions to the actors off-screen, especially after cast mate Jason Isaacs talked about the intense filming of the show in Thailand. All the cast lived at the hotel where the show was filmed, for months, and Isaacs said: “Some people got very close, there were friendships that were made and friendships that were lost.” And so ignited much online speculation about the cast, particularly whether an assumed once-close Goggins and Wood had fallen out.
“I’m not going to go too far down this path,” Goggins starts carefully, when I ask about the sudden internet wildfire, “but I will say this, with anything that commands the public’s attention, there will be a lot of scrutiny on it. But with everything in life, it will flow, and it will ebb and people will move on to something else. I’m just grateful so many people were invested emotionally in this story.”
It was almost impossible not to
‘ I was challenged at a very early age to look at the world as a beautiful thing and fall madly in love with it ’
be. Goggins delivered a captivating performance as the troubled man who just couldn’t get the “monkey off his back”; and Wood shone as the cosmic girlfriend who desperately wanted to fix her soulmate. The chemistry between Chelsea and Rick was palpable in the series, and whether or not they got on as people, they were electric on-screen together. Did they work on creating a backstory for the couple’s complicated relationship together?
“A little bit,” Goggins says. “Aimee’s such an incredible actor, she’s such an incredible storyteller. There’s not really a lot of talking that needs to happen, but we talked a little bit about it. You know you’re in safe hands and I think she knew she was in safe hands, and let’s just save it all for when Mike yells, ‘Action’.”
Rick was a role that undoubtedly touched his soul. In a strange turn of events, on the last day of filming in Bangkok with close friend Sam Rockwell — with whom he shared one of the stand-out scenes of the series — Goggins found himself in the exact same spot he had been 18 years earlier, when he had been travelling in the wake of the devastating death of his first wife Leanne Knight.
“I didn’t anticipate pulling up to this dock on a boat and recognising it,” he says, his voice growing lower.
“I looked up and I realised exactly where I was and the room that I stayed in at the time. I got out, and I just walked up and looked at that balcony and at this road, and I remembered every step that I took to walk to check in to that hotel 18 years ago.”
What would you say to that Walton back then?
“Do you live in London?” he suddenly asks me. “When did you move to London?” About 20 years ago, I tell him. “So maybe you have the same experience that I have in Los Angeles? I have ghosts of myself on every street in the city. I think, I
know that corner and this corner, this is where I was in my life then. And so we’re constantly coming into contact with former versions of ourselves.
“So at that particular point in my life, there was a lot going on. To be where I am in my own life now, and to look up at this guy, I just wanted to hold him and say, ‘Everything’s gonna be alright, man’.”
He watched The White Lotus finale alone — with a whiskey in his hotel room — as he was in New York appearing in a number of chat shows, which is why he didn’t join the rest of the cast in LA. Surprisingly, for one of Hollywood’s most versatile talents, he then admits:
“To be quite honest with you, I’ve done that for everything I’ve ever done. I don’t watch a movie that I’ve been in with any other person, certainly for the first time, unless it’s a premiere.
“It’s because it’s an intense, personal experience for me, whether it’s a drama or whether it’s a comedy. And I was there, right? So I really don’t need to ever see any of these things, but if I do choose to see them, I don’t want the people around me to be expected to react in a certain way. Because that’s unfair to them and so I would just rather watch it myself.”
Much has been made of the final scene of ill-fated Rick and Chelsea, falling dead into the resort waters after being shot. Was that a… smile on Rick’s face in his final shot?
“Yeah, I think there was,” he confirms. “But I won’t tell you my feelings about it as it’s too personal for me. It’s like when I asked Quentin Tarantino if I’m the sheriff of Red Rock in The Hateful Eight and he said, ‘Only you can decide that, and I don’t want to know the answer to your question.’”
I get the feeling he’s slightly relieved when we move on to other subjects, and he becomes more animated — such as talking about his terrific turn as the flamboyant evangelical pastor, Baby Billy, in Danny McBride’s The Righteous Gemstones. This fourth and final series features Baby Billy in a ‘Teenjus’ musical, in which the 70-yearold character plays a teenage singing and dancing Jesus; Goggins recently posted a brilliantly bonkers behind-thescenes video to his 1.4 million Instagram followers. Another scene in this series
has Baby Billy water-skiing naked.
“All of those scenes have been wild,” he says. “It’s been an extraordinary experience. The Teenjus episode is so outrageous and just so cool, as is the finale.” He’s keeping a couple of mementos from this role, namely a red Yves Saint Laurent top from season four and a Gucci jacket: “The costume designer is a dear friend of mine and I said, ‘Girl, I need to go home with this!’ And she said, ‘Oh you absolutely have to go home with this.’ And then I got an email from HBO saying, ‘You can go home with that, but you got to pay for it!’” He bursts out that famous laugh.
Goggins is clearly a man who goes all guns blazing into every role in his decades-long career. Growing up in Lithia Springs, Georgia, he was taught to approach everything with an open heart by “a very unconventional group of women in the South”: his mum, aunts and grandma who raised him.
“My path was set pretty early by the big thinkers in my life,” he says. “They challenged me from a very early age to look at the world as a beautiful thing and fall madly in love with it, and
to explore your own path. They laid out options for me and then planted seeds.” He adds of his wife of 14 years, Nadia Conners, and their 14-yearold son, Augustus: “It’s hopefully what we’re doing with our child.”
Moving to LA when he was 19 – not necessarily to be an actor, he says, more to “see the world and understand the world” – he booked his first job, In the Heat of the Night in 1989. But in his early twenties, it all went rather quiet after a movie that “very few people saw”. Goggins’ story might have ended there. But, he says, “Instead of getting depressed about it, I thought, what do I really want to do anyway? And so I enrolled in a community college and studied philosophy, film and algebra. I did it for about six months and I had a great time doing it.”
Then the casting agents came calling again, and by this point he was levelheaded about the fickle nature of the industry. “I think everybody kind of goes through that, thinking they’ll never work again, right? And that’ll probably happen again,” he says self-deprecatingly. He went on to dominate TV crime
thrillers with roles in Justified, The Shield and Sons of Anarchy, as well as acerbic comedies like Vice Principals. Neo-Western films like Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight were perfect vehicles to showcase his range; of being able to move from genuinely menacing roles to hilarious personas with impeccable comedic timing. Now, he’s finally graduated into his main-man era.
Such a back catalogue, along with his infectious grin and whole wise-cracking, affable vibe, have always made him popular with fans out on the street.
“It’s something about my personality, but people feel like they know me,” he says. “And people have been coming up to me for different roles for a number of years. I’ve been lucky to be a part of things that have resonated with people for a long time. This right now just happens to be on a much bigger scale.”
The next story he’s hoping fans move on to is his newest film, The Uninvited, written and directed by his wife. No, he didn’t have to audition, he tells me, when I call out the nepotism. “Hah!” he chuckles. “A nepo baby! No, wait,
This page: Still from The White Lotus (2025)
that makes me a spouse baby!”
Set in a gorgeous LA house, actor Rose (Elizabeth Reaser) and her agent husband Sammy (Goggins) are throwing a party for Sammy’s star clients, when a confused elderly woman turns up, claiming that their house is hers. The piece was initially conceived by Conners as a play, and this intimacy still shines through as a film, which is a warm exploration of relationships and loneliness – Goggins says when he first read the script on a plane that he “cried uncontrollably”.
At one point in our chat, I have to pick up the mini Goggins in my laptop and walk him through to another room in my house. “It’s like an Architectural Digest tour of your place!” he quips, en route. If only it were as spectacular as Goggins’s own video tour of his stunning 1920s Scottish hunting lodge in upstate New York, where he lives with his family, which racked up more than 4.6 million views on YouTube in just two months. “Did it? Really?” he says when I tell him his house is doing the numbers online. “Wow, that’s a lot of people,” he adds, seemingly astonished that so many people would be so invested in it.
His house is an incredible place, full of history – Walt Disney, Joan Crawford and “the House of Windsor” all once visited as guests of the previous owners – but the appeal of the video to his fans is to see Goggins warmly and candidly throw out little anecdotes about his life on the estate, including the former linen closet, now his on-site cocktail snug.
It’s clear that this is a man who lives to entertain, and certainly enjoys a drink or two — he even has his own brand of whiskey, gin and vodka, called Mulholland Distilling. So how true to life is the Hollywood party in the film, skewering industry bashes and the egotistical actors who frequent them?
“You know, I’ve been throwing parties for a really long time, and certainly when no one had any idea what my name was,” he says. “And those were as much fun as they are, when you look around a room and there are people that you recognise. But no, none of those parties that we’ve thrown or we’ve been invited to are predicated on any of that.” And he might have moved from the bright lights of La La Land to the wilds of the Hudson Valley in 2021, but Goggins still wants to let the good times roll.
‘There’s something about my personality which makes people feel like they know me ’
“We have the same parties where we live now. And you look around and hopefully if you’re hosting, you have a room full of really interesting people. And hopefully, if you’re a guest, you can be an interesting person to the other people that have assembled.”
Also starring in The Uninvited is the other man of the moment, Pedro Pascal, who recently broke hearts in a traumatising episode of the second season of The Last of Us. The two have been friends for a while, and they’ve both universally been declared “the internet’s daddy” – an older, distinguished guy who also happens to be incredibly hot. Is this something the two men ribbed each other about on set, being the heartthrobs of HBO?
“No,” he says, cracking that big grin again and visibly lighting up talking about Pascal. “No, we’ve never had that conversation. I just think that Pedro is the cat’s meow. I think he’s the chef’s kiss, certainly in front of the camera, but just as a human being. I’m in love with Pedro Pascal, and so, it stands to reason, is the rest of the world. You know, why wouldn’t you be in love with him? It’s just cool when you see your friends do really well.”
There’s just time for one final
question before he dashes back to set to continue filming as the nose-less Ghoul in the second series of Emmynominated video-game adaptation, Fallout. What are his thoughts about becoming a perhaps unlikely sex symbol later in his life? His love for dressing up can be seen in his recent internet-breaking photo shoots, and it’s clear he’s having a ball not only being everyone’s favourite leading man, but being fashion’s darling.
However, he explains it all in his typically Zen manner: “I don’t look at movies or roles or wearing clothes or food as a crazy experience, or ‘too wild’ or ‘too out there’. Whatever the conversation dictates, whatever topic anybody wants to talk about at the dinner table, you go there, whatever the story is asking from you, you try to get as much out of it as you possibly can.
“If a photographer has shown up with an idea and has invited me to collaborate in their vision for something, you can bet I’m going to put my heart into it. If there’s an interview, or if someone’s cooking a meal, or if a person has made a piece of music, I’m going to listen to it with my ears wide open. I just try to be present for all of it.” And his presence is a gift for us all.
This page: Still from George & Tammy (2023)
From humble beginnings, Thom Sweeney’s classic craftsmanship and contemporary style has conquered America. With Dubai in its sights, we meet co-owner Luke Sweeney to talk service, Savile Row and the future of tailoring
INTERVIEW: JOHN THATCHER
Given that a strong client-tailor rapport is woven into the very fabric of Savile Row, it should come as no surprise that Savile Row-trained tailor Luke Sweeney, who alongside Thom Whiddett founded luxury menswear label Thom Sweeney in their home city of London in 2007, is instantly engaging. His charming, warm and likable demeanour all the more impressive given that he hasn’t long stepped off a long-haul flight from Miami when we meet for an earlymorning chat in Dubai.
“As e-commerce went crazy, we found that face-to-face interaction with the client became even more important. So as e-com grew, it actually really helped our business, especially bespoke and made-to-measure,” outlines Luke, declining the offer of a caffeine pickme-up for a vitamin-dense green juice. “Experience is an overused word, but giving the client an actual experience, something that’s just not achievable behind a computer screen, is of evergrowing importance and that’s always been our forte.
“Everything from trying things on for the right fit, talking about what you can wear with it and where you can wear it, right down to the touch of the fabrics, the music and the smell in the stores. It’s all important to us.”
Nowhere is this more apparent than at Thom Sweeney’s flagship London townhouse on Old Burlington Street in Mayfair, a stone’s throw from where the duo met one another as apprentice tailors.
Spread over four storeys, it houses the brand’s ready-to-wear collections and bespoke and made-to-measure services on dedicated floors, along with the workrooms where the cutters, tailors and apprentices go about their craft.
On the lower ground floor is a stylish barbershop, while above it sits the ready-to-wear showroom. On the first floor you’ll find a bespoke handmade pool table, lined in a navy-blue baize, and homely rooms where the consultations for bespoke garments take place. Such consultations are by appointment only. But to ascend to the top floor, you have to be invited. “That’s where we have our private Clubroom,” says Luke, smiling.
Named Sol’s in honour of Luke’s late father-in-law, the famed hotelier Sol Kerzner, the Clubroom marries the
‘ When we started out as tailors the world of bespoke was very stuffy, a little pretentious and actually quite intimidating ’
carefree charm of the Rat Pack-era to contemporary elegance, comprising a cocktail bar and lounge. “You don’t know it’s up there, but it’s really cool. Guys like to hang out there and play cards or backgammon. There’s always a game on.”
The idea of Sol’s being invitation only is an element of the business Luke says the brand will look to explore further as it expands. “With members’ clubs, if you’re wealthy enough, or you know someone, you can get in. So it’s when it’s by invitation only that it becomes a little bit more exclusive, a bit cooler.”
Luke and Thom were involved in the design of the townhouse, “right down to the doorknob,” and the strong DNA of their brand is why you’ll know you’re in a Thom Sweeney store without even looking at the signage.
Their newest store has recently opened in Miami – hence the flight - in the city’s burgeoning Miami Design
This page, from top to bottom: Thom Whiddett (left) and Luke Sweeney (right); the soon-to-expand Thom Sweeney townhouse on Old Burlington Street, Mayfair All other pages: Thom Sweeney SS25
District, adding to a US footprint that already includes boutiques in New York and LA. It’s a city whose vibe also feeds into Thom Sweeney’s SS25 collection; all lightweight linen, soft knits and unstructured tailoring, relaxed yet impeccably stylish. “But not crazy colours,” states Luke, mindful of the other image Miami can conjure. “Everything is quite classic and simple. We don’t want to follow trends. We stick to what we’re good at.” What they’re good at, exceptionally so, is modern tailoring. Not following fashion, but in tune with the times. Particularly when it comes to bespoke. “For a long time now we’ve found that guys like to wear a little bit of knitwear under a jacket, and have slightly softer shoulders, which has always been our ethos anyway. There’s also been changes around fit. For a time, we found that guys wanted everything really skinny and short. But now they
want a slightly easier fit, something that’s more comfortable.”
This whole idea of softening mirrors what has happened to Savile Row. Once the embodiment of the British ‘stiff upper lip’, its businesses are now much more approachable. “When we started out as tailors, the world of bespoke was very stuffy, a little pretentious and actually quite intimidating,’ remembers Luke. “It had this aura around it. Some places had curtains in the window, so you couldn’t even see into the store. That mentality was there. But houses are far more conscious now of the need to be more welcoming, more openminded.”
That path to change was set by the likes of Richard James, Ozwald Boateng and particularly Timothy Everest, who introduced a fashion designer approach to Savile Row’s traditional craftsmanship, drawing celebrities –and increased exposure – to their doors.
‘ We don’t want to follow trends. We stick to what we’re good at’
‘ Giving the client an actual experience that’s just not achievable behind a computer screen is of ever-growing importance ’
It was when both worked for Everest that Luke met Thom. “An amazing place to work,” says Luke. When Everest’s success opened up more lucrative routes into high street retail, Luke and Thom’s shared love for tailoring brought them together. “We were craftsmen, and with Tim doing what he was doing, we kind of formed Thom Sweeney very organically. We didn’t really talk about it, or have a clear goal in mind, we just got on really well.”
They started out in a tiny room off Oxford Street. A decade later they opened a store in New York, where they had built up a loyal following from doing trunk shows, the likes of which they now bring to the UAE.
“New York was a huge milestone for the company,” states Luke. “We were the first British tailors to open a standalone store in Manhattan, and we suddenly realised that we were doing something completely different. There’s a lot of Italian tailoring in Manhattan, but not British, and that store opened a whole new world for us over there.”
It also helped them realise that being a British tailor – no doubt due to Savile Row –has a certain cache. “We’re so humble as a nation to admit it but being British definitely carries weight globally.”
Luke also attributes some of their early success to their youthful exuberance. That fearless edge that age tends to blunt. “It helped that we were a bit naive. We were both really young guys, and there weren’t many young guys in the business,” he says.
Now it’s a different story.
“There’s a tonne of young talent coming through, which is really encouraging for the industry,” details Luke. “I think the average age in our workshop is something like 28, and they’re all super passionate and very talented. We also take on interns all the time. Skills wise it’s one of the few industries that hasn’t really changed. You’re still working with chalk and scissors. It’s beautiful.”
Much like the world of Thom Sweeney. Tailored to perfection.
The Met Costume Institute’s annual blockbuster exhibition explores dandyism and identity across time and geographies
WORDS: PAUL JAMES
Right: André Leon Talley strolls down 5th Avenue, 1986.
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library
Hidden somewhere beneath the blanket coverage of who wore what (and who thought it was a good idea to don underwear imprinted with the image of a civil rights icon) at last month’s Met Gala was the real reason why the chosen few were called there: to honour how men’s style has helped shape black identities for more than 300 years. More specifically, how bold tailoring and an expressive style known as dandyism proved a defiant declaration against confinement, a celebration of black identity that fuses resistance, pride and history.
The exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue until October 26, is inspired by Guest Curator Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, and interprets the concept of dandyism as both an aesthetic and a strategy – a dandy defined as a flamboyantly dressed male figure concerned with both looking good and making a statement.
“Dandyism can seem frivolous, but it often poses a challenge to or a transcendence of social and cultural hierarchies,” outlines Miller. “It asks
questions about identity, representation and mobility in relation to race, class, gender, sexuality and power. The exhibition explores this concept as both a pronouncement and a provocation.”
There’s layered meaning to the exhibition’s title. “The title refers to ‘superfine’ not only as the quality of a particular fabric –’superfine wool’ – but also as a particular attitude related to feeling especially good in one’s own body, in clothes that express the self,” says Miller. “Wearing superfine and being superfine are, in many ways, the subject of this exhibition. And the separateness, distinction, and movement between these two states of ‘being’ in the African diaspora from the 1780s to today animates the show.”
Encompassing over 200 items, from clothing through to accessories, paintings, photographs and other curios, the exhibition is spread across 12 thematic sections. They include the likes of ‘Disguise’, which shows how fashion can be used to conceal and reveal, particularly for the enslaved, who understood that clothing and dress marked them as individuals; ‘Beauty’, a section inspired by a 1969 poem by Nikki Giovanni, which highlights the beauty,
‘ Dandyism can seem frivolous, but it often poses a challenge to or a transcendence of social and cultural hierarchies ’
This page, top to bottom: Tailor Boys at Work, Frances Benjamin Johnston. Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Ensemble, Grace Wales Bonner, fall/winter 2020–21. Courtesy of Wales Bonner.
‘ André Leon Talley understood that, as a Black man, what you wore told a story about you, about your history, about self-respect’
confidence and ‘sheer fabulousness’ of style and attitudes that begin to emerge among black males in the 1970s and ‘80s; and ‘Cool’, which examines the turn to stylised casual dress that revolutionised fashion from the 1960s to the 1980s, with black designers and the wearers of their clothes at the centre of redefining how people dressed for work and play.
“I think our entire audience will see a complex, fascinating, powerful story and history of Black sartorial style and of the idea of the dandy and how that had this almost projection throughout history,” Max Hollein, the Metropolitan Museum’s CEO and director, told the Guardian. “You will learn about Black history. You will learn about the ways that history has unfolded.”
Various artists have contributed to the exhibition, including Iké Udé, whose unique expertise and experience as a dandy are brought to bear in a section of the exhibition that explores his own work and highlights Julius Soubise, a former slave, whose style and behaviour challenged societal norms in 18th-century London.
Slavery stripped its subjects of their own clothes, dressing them in standard-issue clothing. “Everyone was supposed to look exactly the same,” Miller told the BBC. “It was a vehicle of dehumanisation, but people immediately
affixed buttons, ribbons, modified the garment a little, literally tailored it so that it could be individualised.”
As Deborah Nicholls-Lee explains for the BBC. “In the 17th and 18th centuries, for enslaved Africans brought back to Europe as domestic servants, control was once again asserted by their masters – in some households they were dressed up in ostentatious, deliberately anachronistic livery, their masters objectifying them in order to signal the family’s wealth. Some were educated alongside members of the host family, whose guests were amused to see someone of colour speak and act like a gentleman.”
Released from slavery in the 1760s by his British mistress, the Duchess of Queensbury, Julius Soubise turned this on its head. “The joke was on the aristocrats,” continues Nicholls-Lee. “Soubise reclaimed and exaggerated the flamboyant clothing that his mistress had made him wear by adding diamond-buckled, red-heeled shoes, lace frills and clouds of perfume, and his subversive, startlingly feminised dandyism created shockwaves among white society. Educated, witty and charming, and a capable equestrian, fencer and violinist, he destabilised established categorisations of race, gender and class, and forced a reimagining in the white consciousness
of what a black man could be.”
Another figure prominent in the story is the late André Leon Talley, the first black creative director at US Vogue Included in the exhibition is Talley’s favourite photograph of himself, walking down a sun-soaked Fifth Avenue in a grey panel-checked suit by the tailor Morty S. “That was what made André so incredible: his instinct for selfpresentation,” wrote Anna Wintour in the May issue of Vogue. “He understood that, especially as a Black man, what you wore told a story about you, about your history, about self-respect.”
Dandyism continues to this day, not least in the clothing of Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton, the exhibition sponsor.
“The dandy and the art of sartorialism serve as continuous leitmotifs in the men’s collections of Louis Vuitton. Williams views dandyism as a transformative tool for the notions of opportunity and enhancement at the heart of the philosophy that drives his work.”
As Miller summed up when talking to the BBC. “[Dandyism] is very much related to a jazz riff. Somebody puts that down, somebody picks that up, modifies it, changes it, it becomes something new…”
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City until October 26, 2025
WORDS: JOHN THATCHER
The topic of range – and the seemingly never-ending quest to deliver more of it, regardless of whether there’s an actual need – tends to dominate the discourse around EVs. At least, it would appear to do so in the meeting rooms of most manufacturers. Longbow, however, aren’t like most manufacturers. What this passionfuelled, UK-based EV start-up wants to talk about is desirability. About beauty.
“You don’t buy a sportscar because it’s the right vehicle to fill every one of your motoring needs. You buy it through emotion, and I think most of that derives from how it looks,” says Mark Tapscott, who alongside fellow owners Daniel Davy and Jenny Keisu recently launched Longbow by pooling all the knowledge they have gleaned from stints at the likes of Tesla, Lucid and Polestar.
“Beauty is very important, but manufacturers have lost sight of that fact, for various reasons, over the last few years. So we decided to create something you’d want to turn back around and look at a second time. And when we talked about the cars that make us do that, most of them hail from the period around the 1960s, when cars were just designed to be beautiful.
“We wanted to take inspiration from that period and modernise it. You never quite know, of course, until you show the car, and it’s still subjective to everyone, but I think the feedback we’ve had suggests that we’ve done it.”
Indeed they have. Their Speedster and Roadster cars are both dynamic designs, all crafted curves, sleek lines and poster-worthy appeal – the kind you’d see hanging on the bedroom wall of a young car fanatic, which Mark and Daniel undoubtedly were, channelling that ingrained passion into the company they have now formed because, in Mark’s words, nothing else like it exists.
“The Tesla Roadster came out over a decade ago and showed that electric cars can be fast, fun and engaging, but nothing has come since then to really enter that space again, and it’s a big space to play in.”
(The second iteration of the Tesla Roadster was unveiled in 2017 but is yet to be
‘ We will make compromises on everything apart from beauty ’
delivered. Musk may have been a bit busy).
“Some other cars have come out but none of them are lightweight sports cars, and that’s the important part,” says Mark.
The roof- and windscreen-free Speedster weighs in at just 895kg, while the Roadster is slightly heavier at 995kg. What Longbow calls Featherweight Electric Vehicles (FEV).
“To make a sports car fun it has to be lightweight, and the industry is going completely in the opposite direction. So much of what it’s doing today is based around adding extra technology. I mean, there are cars that can literally wade through rivers. Ultimately, I think all this technology is there to hide what is now a dull driving experience.
“Our mission is to change how the Earth feels about sports cars. Because I think it’s the last piece of the EV market that hasn’t been conquered. Having a clear product definition of something that is fast, fun, dynamic; something you just enjoy driving. That’s what we are creating, by engineering emotion and theatre into the vehicle.”
So why do they think this gap in the market exists? “Often you’ll find that the answer to that question is that there isn’t a gap, and that people simply aren’t entering that space because they don’t think it’s possible,” says Daniel. “First of all, I reject the idea that something’s not possible nowadays in the automotive world. So I think the reason it’s not being done is that most companies aren’t capable of doing it right.”
Mark and Daniel attribute Longbow’s ability to buck the trend to its nimbleness. A company as light as the cars it creates. One free of anything non-essential and the layers of management and competing voices that tend to slow everything down. Its mechanical pieces – the batteries, motors, brakes etc – will be sourced from other companies and will work via a bespoke software system. Also sourced
are the people who put it all together. “We think of ourselves as something similar to a film studio,” outlines Daniel. “So we sit at the top and produce and curate the user experience, and then we bring in a bestin-class crew to develop a feature or a car. Everyone then goes their separate ways and we continue owning the customer.
“It’s about finding really, really good people, giving them a clear direction and then letting them do it. I think the one thing we’ve learnt over the decade and a half that we’ve been in the EV industry is who can really do this right, and who says they can but can’t. So we’ve managed to pull together those that can.”
The Speedster will go from 0-100km/h in a reported 3.5 seconds, the Roadster in 3.6 seconds. Range is estimated, using the WLTP scale, at 442km for the Speedster and 450km for the Roadster. Mere details, though. “A lot of people can tell you their favourite classic car. But ask them for the stats of that car – what engine is in it?
What’s the size of the fuel tank? – and no one knows or cares. And yet somehow car companies convince you all those other things are what’s important,” says Daniel.
“You need a range above a certain number. You need to have certain features. But, once you’ve ticked those boxes, what’s your priority? Our number one priority is beauty. We will make compromises on everything apart from beauty. It’s the number one thing, because it’s a luxury product.”
In the case of the Speedster it’s also an exclusive product, limited to just 150 examples. Combine this with how it looks and its starting price of £84,995 ($113,000) looks very appealing.
“Making another $2 million hypercar doesn’t change how the Earth feels about anything,” states Mark. “We’ve been told that we could have set the price much, much higher, but that isn’t part of our mission.”
“Exclusivity does not come from price,” continues Daniel. “It’s easy to price something high and say it’s exclusive. It’s difficult to build an exclusive brand and product that has desire.”
So far, Longbow has certainly proved itself capable of building the latter. longbowmotors.com
Opening pages, from left to right: Speedster, Roadster
This page, top left: Daniel Davey (left) and Mark Tapscott (right)
The Storyteller
Winner of this year’s World’s Best Female Chef title, Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij is a trailblazer fuelled by curiosity
WORDS: JOHN THATCHER
Had things turned out as previously planned for Pichaya ‘Pam’ Utharntharm, she may well have been the one writing this article. A taste for the written word encouraged her enrolment in a journalism degree, but despite its appeal, the kitchen was always calling.
“I initially studied journalism because I believed in the power of communication,” she says. “But even while studying, I spent as much time as I could working in kitchens across Thailand, learning, observing, and immersing myself in the energy of real kitchens. I realised that food was my real language – it allowed me to connect with people instantly, in ways words sometimes couldn’t.”
Pam has certainly connected with Potong, her Bangkok-based restaurant that has been open for less than five years but has earned a Michelin star, a high placing on the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants and, for Pam personally, recognition as The World’s Best Female Chef 2025.
In what’s still a predominately male-dominated profession – the most recent study, conducted in 2022, found that of the thousands of Michelinstarred restaurants spanning 16 countries, just 6% were led by women – such a title carries weight, and Pam has been keen to use it, setting up the Women-for-Women (WFW) Programme to
provide scholarships and internships for young Thai female chefs.
“I’ve lived the challenges of trying to grow and lead in a kitchen world that often feels inaccessible to women. Talent isn’t what’s missing – opportunity is.
“It’s not about fixing women to fit into outdated systems. It’s about building a new system where women can lead authentically.
“Seeing young female chefs rise, grow, and eventually create their own paths has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my journey so far. I hope WFW can continue to open doors that stay wide open for generations to come.”
Pam opened her own doors, taking the daring decision to leave her homeland of Thailand for the unknown of New York when aged just 21. “It felt like being dropped into the deep end of the ocean – but it was exactly what I needed. I arrived with two suitcases, my knives, and a lot of dreams. Enrolling at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) was already intimidating, but working at Jean-Georges, a three-Michelin-star restaurant, was a different world entirely.
“The pace, the expectations, the discipline – it was exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. I had moments where I questioned if I belonged there. But I also had moments
of intense clarity – when you push yourself to the edge, you discover new strength. Those years taught me to embrace discomfort, to respect the grind, and most importantly, to work with humility and resilience. New York made me tougher but also more open-minded. It showed me that there is no shortcut to excellence – you have to earn it every day.”
Pam has certainly done that, her plate never less than full. “When I was opening Potong, I had just given birth to my daughter. I was a new mother, managing postpartum recovery, overseeing a complex historical renovation, and trying to craft a world-class restaurant experience all at once. There were days when I questioned if I could handle it all.
‘But I learnt that resilience is not about never falling. It’s about choosing to stand up every time. It’s about creating a system around you: a strong team, a supportive family and being willing to ask for help when you need it. You don’t have to sacrifice being a mother to be a chef, or vice versa. You can build a life where both coexist, even if it’s not always easy.”
Certainly not easy was the renovation Pam speaks of, which revived a historic building in Bangkok’s Chinatown by transforming it into the five-floor Potong. It’s a building
‘ When you push yourself to the edge, you discover new strength’
of considerable significance to Pam.
“Potong is not just a restaurant to me; it’s a continuation of my family’s legacy. The building where Potong stands was my family’s Chinese herbal pharmacy for over 120 years. As a little girl, I would walk through those halls with my grandfather, listening to the stories attached to every corner. Those memories are stitched into the walls, the floors and the faded signage we preserved.
“Reviving this building wasn’t just a business decision but a deeply personal act. It’s about honouring the sacrifices and dreams of the generations before me, while creating something that can live for generations after. Every dish, every guest experience at Potong carries that weight and that pride. It’s a living bridge between the past and the future, rooted in family and love.”
By way of an example, Pam highlights two particular dishes from Potong’s progressive menu. A duck that’s marinated with traditional ThaiChinese spices, air-dried for 14 days, and then roasted with precise temperature control to achieve perfect
skin and tender meat. “It’s a dish that embodies how I respect tradition while pushing technique to the next level.” And pad Thai, reimagined with Nakhon Si Thammarat shrimp. “It’s more than just a reinterpretation; it’s a tribute to the resilience of Thai people during wartime, when pad Thai was created as a symbol of national pride. Every element, from the house sauce to the organic Thai flag we present with it, carries meaning.”
Potong’s dishes are a visual feast, as though they have been created to sate the appetite for such content on Instagram. That’s not the case. “Visual presentation is important, but it must feel natural, not forced.
A dish should look beautiful because it was built with thought and feeling, not because it was designed for a photograph. At Potong, we work very hard to ensure that every plate tells you something through taste and feeling before it impresses you visually.”
It was Pam’s mother who fed this mindset. “She didn’t follow recipes from books, she cooked from feeling,” says Pam. “I remember her adjusting
the heat by hand, tasting by instinct, balancing sweet, sour, spicy and salty in ways I didn’t understand back then but can fully appreciate now.
“Going to the market with her was also part of my education. She taught me to look beyond appearances to smell the herbs, feel the textures of produce and taste small things before buying. Those moments weren’t just about feeding the family; they were about connecting with life through food. Even today, when I’m creating dishes, I work from that same place of intuition: letting the ingredients lead, respecting their nature, and building flavours that feel alive.”
As well as leading Pam to multiple awards, her philosophy has brought TV fame and co-ownership of The X-Project, a Thai hospitality group that operates ten restaurants and bars. But still young, there remains a craving for more.
“Creativity is a mindset. As long as I stay curious, passionate, and connected to the heart of what makes Thai food so special, I know there will always be something new to create.”
Opening page and right: Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij
All other pages: dishes from Potong
Perhaps it was the way he casually introduced me to some of Hollywood’s finest before proffering the perfect martini, mixed by one of the best barmen in the business. Or how he then guided my gaze towards the dining table, where two gallery-worthy desserts from master pâtissier Nicolas Rouzaud demanded to be devoured, the pair artfully arranged either side of a chilled bottle of Billecart-Salmon. But something told me that my butler and I were going to get along just fine.
“Would you like me to polish your shoes?” he asked, telling me about the ultimate John Lobb shoeshine service that would see my shoes delivered back to my room with more sparkle than is on show at a Taylor Swift concert. Alas, he then looked down to see that I was wearing trainers, a shadow of disappointment cast across his face.
Butlers at The Connaught, the Mayfair institution, are programmed to please and routinely do so with a genuine warmth that radiates through the storied building, which has been a hotel since 1815 and is now fully butler serviced.
The aforementioned treats are the standard welcome when you stay at one of The Connaught’s splendid suites, those Hollywood stars coming courtesy of a library of films curated by the British Film Institute, which you can choose to screen insuite, the selected titles featuring actors who share a history of multiple stays at the hotel – the likes of Lauren Bacall (To Have and Have Not), Jack Nicholson (Chinatown) and Grace Kelly (Rear Window).
They are, though, just a taster. “We have such a rich choice of wonderful experiences on offer at The Connaught, it felt only right that for the first time, we can now offer them to our guests in the privacy of their elegant suites,” said General Manager, Sandeep Bhalla. “We can even provide our own Connaught Concert Pianist to play, should the mood call for it.”
It’s that genie-like service that makes a stay at The Connaught so memorable. And, in many ways, unique. “The service at The Connaught differs from that offered at other top-tier London hotels because our service is bespoke, personalised and discreetly orchestrated behind the scenes,” enthuses Paulo De Sousa, Head Butler at the hotel. “Every day and every guest is different, and we go above and beyond to anticipate our guests’ needs to provide a tailor-made luxury service. We are always ready to meet the highest demands and expectations.”
Opposite page: Sutherland Suite This page, from top to bottom: The Connaught butler; The Apartment; Connaught Suite; Grosvenor Suite
The suites themselves are immaculate, all of them individually designed to emphasise the character of their position within the hotel, whether in the centuries-old original building – where the historic wooden staircase caught the eye of Ralph Lauren, who created a replica in his New York office – or the more contemporary wing that opened in 2007. You’ll note how this location shift is also subtly marked on The Connaught’s walls, where ornately-framed paintings give way to modern photography. “I was keen to create a feeling of a continuous story, since this building was created in the 1800s, which meant layering in authentic and original elements and evolving the collection of furniture and arts over the years until the present day,” says lead designer Guy Oliver, who cites the Mughal-inspired aesthetic of the Prince’s Lodge and King’s Lodge suites as his personal choices for a weekend stay. Each suite contains an individual chinoiserie antique cabinet which doubles as a cocktail bar. “My favourite single piece of furniture is the Steinway piano which belonged to Wladyslaw Szpilman (subject of the film, The Pianist), which is in one of the two Sutherland Suites.” It would be hard to pick a favourite from The Connaught’s exceptional restaurants and bars, the former boasting two overseen by culinary virtuoso JeanGeorges Vongerichten and the three Michelin-starred Hélène Darroze –where you can sample an outstanding collection of her own family’s vintage cognac – while the latter includes the genuinely iconic Connaught Bar. Once voted the world’s best bar, it has lost none of its sheen nor convivial atmosphere. Order the hotel’s signature martini and it comes with a dash of the theatrics. Wheeled over on a trolley to your tableside are its ingredients, among them a choice of handmade bitters, their bouquet sprayed on a card, fragrance style, for your consideration. Then the martini comes together in a show of exaggerated pouring and stirring. It tastes magnificent. It’s more than a drink, just as The Connaught is more than a hotel. Both steeped in tradition but better than ever. JT
Xavier Rougeaux
CEO OF VALEXTRA
The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is to never give up. If you fall, stand up, keep going and try again. This advice has stayed with me over the years and I try to apply it both in my personal life and in my professional journey. Resilience is what allows you to grow, especially when challenges feel overwhelming.
My greatest achievement professionally is the creation of Casa Valextra in Kyoto. It’s a concept that truly embodies the values of the brand –discreet luxury that brings together the masters of Milanese design, the DNA of Valextra, and the enduring influence of Japanese culture. On a personal level, without hesitation, my greatest achievement is my three children. They are my pride, my joy, and a constant source of inspiration.
The pandemic was a hard lesson for everyone. For me, it emphasised the importance of caring for the team – of being present, supportive, and united. It reinforced that leadership is not only about vision, but about empathy and cohesion. Success happens when people feel valued and part of something greater.
I would love to be an architect. I’ve always been fascinated by the way architecture shapes our emotions, behaviours, environment and human relationships. This is also one of the reasons I feel so connected to Valextra – the brand has a deep and authentic relationship with design, architecture and the art of spatial experience.
To me, perfect happiness lies in achieving the right balance between
personal life and professional ambition, between love and passion. It’s about being aligned with who you are, surrounded by the people and energy that inspire you.
I would tell my younger self to always be true to yourself. Take the time to explore the world with curiosity and humility. Every experience, even the difficult ones, adds depth and clarity to who you are.
I deeply admire figures from the world of performing arts. People like Pina Bausch for her visionary physical theatre, Sasha Waltz for the poetic intensity of her choreography, Wajdi Mouawad for the depth of his storytelling, and Patrice Chéreau for his unique theatrical and cinematic voice.
