AIR Magazine - Empire Aviation - July'22

JULY 2022

AUSTIN BUTLER

Introducing the

Global 8000

Fastest | Farthest | Smoothest

businessaircraft.bombardier.com

The information in this document is proprietary to Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries. The Global 8000 aircraft is currently under development and the design tolerances remain to be finalized and certified. This document does not constitute an offer, commitment, representation, guarantee or warranty of any kind and the configuration and performance of any aircraft shall be determined in a final purchase agreement. This document must not be reproduced or distributed in whole or in part to or by a third party without Bombardier’s prior written consent.

Bombardier, Global, Global 8000 and Exceptional by design are registered or unregistered trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries. © 2022 Bombardier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contents

AIR

Credit: Bille Holiday, courtesy of Billie Holiday, Lady Day: Body & Soul, published by Rocket 88 Books

JULY 2022: ISSUE 130

FEATURES Thirty Four

Forty

Forty Eight

Fifty Four

AIR meets Austin Butler, the man tasked with filling Elvis Presley’s blue suede shoes on the big screen.

A new blockbuster exhibition explores the history of modern African fashion and the impact it’s had on western culture.

How Billie Holiday’s fight against racial bias sparked the song of the century.

Dior’s Kim Jones on reshaping the male silhouette by taking a fresh look at the New Look.

The King And I

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Out of Africa

The Song They Couldn’t Silence

Keeping Up With The Jones

“This is the only mask I wore for two weeks.”

Maceo, Soneva Enthusiast since 2010

“Nestled in the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the pristine marine ecosystems around Soneva Fushi are just waiting to be explored.”

Fabio, Diving Instructor since 2009.

We are Sonevians.

Inspiring a lifetime of rare experiences MALDIVES | THAILAND soneva.com

Contents

JULY 2022: ISSUE 130

REGULARS Fourteen

Radar

Sixteen

Objects of Desire Eighteen

Critique Twenty

Art & Design Twenty Four

Timepieces Sixty Three

Gastronomy

EDITORIAL

Sixty Six

Editor-in-Chief

Ultimate Stays

John Thatcher john@hotmedia.me

ART

Sixty Eight

What I Know Now

Art Director

Kerri Bennett Illustration

Leona Beth

COMMERCIAL Managing Director

Victoria Thatcher General Manager

David Wade

david@hotmedia.me

PRODUCTION Digital Media Manager

Muthu Kumar Thirty

Jewellery Why, at Graff, it takes both hi-tech mastery and ancient design traditions to bring out the beauty in the rarest, most richly coloured of sapphires.

Tel: 00971 4 364 2876 Fax: 00971 4 369 7494 Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from HOT Media is strictly prohibited.

HOT Media does not accept liability for any omissions or errors in AIR.

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B LU E WAT E R S | P O R T D E L A M E R | M A D I N AT J U M E I R A H L I V I N G | C E N T R A L PA R K AT C I T Y WA L K N A D A L S H E B A G A R D E N S | S U R L A M E R | B V LG A R I R E S O R T & R E S I D E N C E S | N I K K I B E AC H

Empire Aviation Group JULY 2022:ISSUE 130

Welcome Onboard JULY 2022

Welcome to this issue of AIR – Empire Aviation Group’s private aviation lifestyle magazine for aircraft owners and charter clients. In this edition, we take a look at the benefits and challenges of managing a mixed fleet of business jets on behalf of owners. Since we launched Empire Aviation in Dubai in 2007, we have inducted over 70 aircraft into the fleet consisting of a mix of business jets, propeller and rotary-wing aircraft, giving us a really broad range of experience and expertise.

Empire Aviation has managed aircraft from all the major global business jet manufacturers, including Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer, Gulfstream and Hawker Beechcraft. Our private aviation sales specialists have assisted customers in sourcing and acquiring the right new or pre-owned jet for their operational requirements and providing a complete inventory of services necessary for private jet ownership.

Our asset management approach to aircraft management means that we offer a one-stop shop including all MRO requirements – Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul – regardless of the aircraft type.

By outsourcing MRO services, we appoint and manage the best MRO specialist for the aircraft type in the right location and meet all the requirements of the owner’s business model while taking full responsibility and always with full transparency with all our owners.

Of course, there are some challenges within this aspect of our service.

Still, the expertise of our team of specialists means that we can manage every part of aircraft operations – from crew to MRO – across multiple locations. One of the major demands is scheduling routine maintenance and ensuring that owners and charter clients can fly, with minimal disruption and using our fleet resources where appropriate while managing the essential MRO responsibilities. For some third parties, we also manage CAMO-only contracts, which in effect means we take all the service responsibility for an aircraft on behalf of the owner to ensure that it is airworthy.

Providing a one-stop solution for aircraft management is a challenge but the team continues to meet the challenge brilliantly on behalf of our owners.

Enjoy the read.

Paras P. Dhamecha Founder & Managing Director

JULY 2022

AUSTIN BUTLER

Cover: Austin Butler as Elvis © 2022 Warner Bros. Photo by Hugh Stewart

Contact Details: info@empire.aero empireaviation.com

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Empire Aviation Group JULY 2022:ISSUE 130

How To Manage A Mixed Fleet Of Business Jets Why Empire Aviation is trusted to manage one of the region’s largest fleets

Empire Aviation manages one of the region’s largest fleets and a dynamic fleet of business jets from various manufacturers on behalf of aircraft owners. When it comes to managing maintenance (MRO – Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul), the complexity of supporting a mixed fleet across multiple operating bases becomes apparent. One of the major challenges is the ready availability of approved facilities to provide MRO support to owners in all locations where aircraft are based.

In response, Empire Aviation works hard to identify and validate that all the MRO service providers we work with are appropriately certified and that all personnel are professionally licensed for each type of aircraft on which we work. With Empire Aviation’s CAMO-only programme of work, the company is responsible for ensuring 10

the provision of qualified and professional staff working as part of the company’s internal team.

As different types of aircraft join our managed fleet, the team contracts with approved facilities to undertake the maintenance of the new aircraft, under the management of Empire Aviation. Of course, our aircraft management team must also ensure that all the internal CAMO personnel are available, along with the pilots and crew, and that the operations team is fully familiarised with the new aircraft type.

With a growing and increasingly mixed fleet of business jets under management, one of the major challenges is to put in place all the appropriate MRO infrastructure for each aircraft, at the local operating base, working with our partners and approved facilities to ensure the aircraft is maintained in excellent

condition. Scheduling and managing general maintenance across the fleet is also a challenge and we try to minimise down-time and any potential disruption to their travel schedules.

On average, each aircraft will need three to four weeks in maintenance each year. The team tries to work around owners’ schedules but if there is a need, we can call upon our managed fleet and provide interim lift to owners, from other aircraft on the fleet. The Empire Aviation maintenance team will always arrange aircraft service at the best facilities available and closest to the aircraft base, depending on the required type and volume of work.

For Empire Aviation’s CAMO-only clients, the team offers the same service benefits that we provide to our managed aircraft owners, including MRO as part of the one-stop service.

Empire Aviation Group JULY 2022:ISSUE 130

The Importance Of CAMO Why Empire Aviation’s CAMO certification matters As a ‘Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation’ (CAMO), Empire Aviation Group is certified to maintain aircraft airworthiness and this involves the management of all aircraft inspections and the associated documentation to meet the requirements of the regulatory authorities. Empire Aviation takes responsibility for the quality management and auditing of each aircraft under management and maintaining all the required records, which are a vital part of every aircraft’s history and therefore, a significant part of its value.

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CAMO certification is an important element of aircraft management because it is at the core of maintaining aircraft to the highest standards and, equally, to maintaining aircraft records which are integral to preserving the long-term value of the aircraft/asset. CAMO assures the highest safety standards for passengers and crew, by ensuring the aircraft’s airworthiness through planned maintenance, compliance with aircraft manufacturers’ service bulletins, regular inspections and weekly checks, and appropriate replacement parts.

Harish Sadarangani, Empire Aviation’s Director of QA and Technical Director: “Our

Quality Assurance function relates to the company’s Air Operations Organization and Continuous Airworthiness Management Organization (CAMO) area of business.

In practical terms, this means that we supervise, coordinate and collate data daily for activities under each regulation, liaising with the regulatory authorities where required and ensuring compliance with the applicable regulations. I also manage the internal Quality Audit Program to satisfy Air Operations & Continuing Airworthiness Management Regulations, assessing contractors, supplier/vendors to be used by the company in the performance of contracted services.”

R AR E, INDIGE NO US , CAP T I VAT I NG Experience the alluring, golden desert landscape, the captivating silence of nature, the free-roaming wildlife in the reserve, all enjoyed from your private suite and pool. Indulge in a luxurious desert adventure with camel treks, horseback riding, falconry, archery, dune drives and more.

HOTELS THAT DEFINE THE DESTINATION FOR RESERVATIONS, PLEASE CALL +971 4 832 9900 OR VISIT AL-MAHA.COM

Radar JULY 2022: ISSUE 130

AIR

To mark the 150th anniversary of Tiffany & Co., London’s Saatchi Gallery is currently displaying defining objects from the jeweller’s rich archive – some 400 pieces, to be precise. Across seven chapters, each devoted to a strand of the brand’s identity, Vision & Virtuosity showcases the likes of archival high jewellery designs, Tiffany’s famous window displays, and its impact on popular culture, via the original script for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Visitors will also have the opportunity to feast their eyes on the legendary 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond.

Vision & Virtuosity by Tiffany & Co., Saatchi Gallery, London, ‘til August 19

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Master craftsmanship, effortless style and timeless appeal; this month’s must-haves and collectibles

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

CHANEL

E TERNAL N°5 NECKL ACE Chanel memorably marked last year’s centenary of its iconic N°5 fragrance by launching a mesmeric 123-piece collection of high jewellery. This year, it’s fine jewellery’s time to seek inspiration from the number five, Gabrielle Chanel’s favourite number.

Each piece in the collection (including dazzling transformable earrings) features diamonds set in white or beige gold, with this necklace the star of the show.

It’s crafted from 18-carat beige gold and applied with diamonds to ensure the number five shines.

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

SICIS JEWELS

RIBBON COLLECTION The technique employed by the skilled artisans at Italian brand Sicis Jewels dates to Roman times, when innumerable fragments of different coloured enamel glass or tesserae were set to form pictures.

Skip forward to this century and this micro-mosaic process is now applied to

high jewellery pieces, where it’s particularly arresting in the brand’s newly-launched Ribbon collection. It’s characterised by three-dimensional bows in white gold covered in micro-mosaic and precious stones, with a central octagonal step-cut gem that radiates colour.

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

GUCCI

HORTUS DELICIARUM The third chapter of Gucci’s extravagant high jewellery collection, Hortus Deliciarum, comes in five parts, each inspired by the possibilities of travel to comprise an imaginary travel diary, with the jewellery the souvenirs gleaned from each location. It starts with the Grand

Tour, the customary crossing of Europe by young male aristocrats in the eighteenth century (for it, micro-mosaics of Italian landmarks are imbedded in myriad pieces) and ends in the 1970s; cue the mystical, a theme expressed in pieces resplendent in psychedelic colours.

3

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

DIOR

M E D A L L I O N C H A I R B Y P H I L I P P E S TA R C K At Milan’s Salone del Mobile, all eyes were on Philippe Starck’s reinterpretation of the Medallion chair, following in the footsteps of the 17 creatives who last year added their own touch of flair to a piece of furniture that is emblematic of the house — the 4

Louis XVI Medallion chair dates to the late 18th century, and has been associated with Dior since 1947.

This year it was Starck alone in the spotlight, and he responded with 24 versions of a chair he has christened ‘Miss Dior’.

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

DUNHILL

SPRING SUMMER 23 Working from the view that in today’s world reliability is a new form of luxury, creative director Mark Weston has delved into the Dunhill archives for the brand’s spring summer ‘23 collection. A particular item inspired by one from the past — a heavyweight full waterproofing

experimentation from the 1900s — is an umbrella coat, updated in an ultralightweight wool silk, which is treated to possess both water and creaseresistant properties. Elsewhere across the collection, Weston works from a colour palette that is noticeably muted.

5

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

O S C A R D E L A R E N TA

PRE-SPRING 2023 COLLEC TION Inspired by the 16th-century botanist and horticulturist, Doctor Charles de l’Ecluse, Co-Creative Directors Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia have found inspiration in the botanical world for their pre-spring 2023 collection, following in the footsteps of Oscar de

la Renta himself, who was wowed by flowers outside of his vacation home in the Dominican Republic. An exploration of the textural and visual contrasts in the botanical world, the colours of tanzanite, daffodil, hyacinth, and amaranth are to the fore.

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

S T E L L A MCC A RT N EY

F R AY M E M Y L O

Billed as the world’s first ever luxury bag created from mycelium, a leather alternative developed from fungi, the Frayme Mylo has been handcrafted in Italy by a team of artisans specifically trained to work with this next-generation material.

Having made its debut during the brand’s

summer 2022 runway show in Paris, the first drop of the bag is a limited edition run of only 100 pieces, with each numbered one to 100. It features a recyclable aluminium chain strap that runs around the bag, and a statement medallion.

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OB JECTS OF DESIRE

BRU NO CUCI N EL L I

HIGH SUMMER CAPSULE COLLECTION showcases the skillful craftsmanship deeply rooted in the Italian brand’s DNA, with supremely lightweight fabrics and the soft textures of knitwear all rigorously made from precious blends of natural fibers. The most stylish way to roll into summer.

A first release of its kind for the Italian brand, Cucinelli’s high summer capsule collection (for both men and women) takes its cues from California’s roller skate community in Venice Beach. In silhouettes of blue and denim, with welcome touches of orange, pink and red, every outfit 8

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Critique JULY 2022 : ISSUE 130

Film Elvis Dir. Baz Luhrmann Baz Luhrmann’s take on the life and times of Elvis Presley centres on his relationship with enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

AT BEST: “A grand cinematic spectacle that intelligently breaks away from cliches.” – Ruben Peralta Rigaud, Cocalecas AT WORST: “Luhrmann’s musical biopic becomes more style than substance.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

The Forgiven Dir. John Michael McDonagh

AIR

In collusion with the local police, a wealthy couple try to cover up their responsibility for the tragic accident of a teenage boy.

AT BEST: “A searingly brutal critique of modern colonialism.” – Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network AT WORST: “A basic film; not bad, but not all that great, either.” – Dan Bayer, Next Best Picture

She Will Dir. Charlotte Colbert While an ageing film star convalesces, mysterious forces of revenge emerge from the land where witches were burned.

AT BEST: “A genre-defying look at the politics surrounding #MeToo.” – Kaleem Aftab, Cineuropa AT WORST: ‘Arguably more an exercise in mood than depth.’ – Nicholas Bell, ioncinemaI.com

Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel Dir. Amélie van Elmbt, Maya Duverdier A documentary that takes us through the storied halls of New York’s Chelsea Hotel, a haven for famous artists.

AT BEST: “An enigmatic documentary that artfully honours the Chelsea Hotel’s legacy.” – Greg Wetherall, Little White Lies AT WORST: “There’s not much new in this lovingly made impressionistic documentary.” – Jay Weissberg, The Film Verdict 18

‫‪AIR‬‬

‫“‬

‫بمحرك ثماني األسطوانات‪،‬‬ ‫مدفوعة‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫تتحرك السيارة بمنتهى الثبات واالنسيابية‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫يحافظ الجزء األمامي من كابينة السيارة على‬ ‫طابع ‪ Audi‬األصيل‪ ،‬ليجمع بكل تناغم وأناقة‬ ‫بين عملية األداء وجمال المظهر‪ ،‬فيتيح خيارات‬ ‫بسيطة االستخدام‪ ،‬مثل أزرار شاشة اللمس‬ ‫االفتراضية التي تصدر صوت نقر يحاكي صوت‬ ‫األزرار الحقيقية عند ضغطها‪ ،‬والمفتاح الدوّ ار‬ ‫ً‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫دقيقا‬ ‫تحكما‬ ‫للتحك م بالصوت الذي يتيح‬ ‫ً‬ ‫وفطريًا بدرجة الصوت ويأتي في تصميم‬ ‫توجه الرقمنة‬ ‫كالسيكي غير رقمي يخالف ّ‬ ‫السائد على كل شيء في يومنا هذا‪ ،‬في لفتة‬ ‫تضفي لمسة جميلة على التصميم وتمنح‬ ‫السائق ذاك الشعور المحبّب المعهود‪.‬‬ ‫وتتوسط قمرة القيادة شاشتان لمسيتان‬ ‫متطابقتا التصميم‪ ،‬تتيح إحداهما إمكانية‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫التحك م بدرجة الحرارة بكل سالسة مع‬ ‫خيارات عديدة تجعلها مناسبة أليام الصيف‬ ‫الحارّة‪ ،‬بينما تم تخصيص األخرى لوظائف‬ ‫عملية مثل الموسيقى والمكالمات الهاتفية‬ ‫أما شاشة أدوات ومؤشرات القيادة‪،‬‬ ‫والمالحة‪ّ .‬‬ ‫فتمتاز بتصميم مدروس وأنيق لألدوات‬ ‫مع إمكانية تعديلها بأشكال متنوّ عة‪.‬‬ ‫وعلى غرار القسم الداخلي‪ ،‬فإن المظهر‬

‫الخارجي لـ‪ A8‬لم يكن بحاجة ألكثر من لمسات‬ ‫بسيطة إلثراء طابعه األنيق أص ًلا‪ ،‬حيث يتألق‬ ‫بخط من المصابيح الخلفية وشبك الفت عند‬ ‫حجما يوحي‬ ‫المقدمة يمنح السيارة مظهرًا أكبر‬ ‫ً‬ ‫بمزيد من القوّ ة‪ ،‬ما يعتبر أحد أبرز مزايا موديل‬ ‫‪ 60TFSI quattro tiptronic‬من ‪ ،A8‬لتكون‬ ‫هذه سيارة تتوق ‪ Audi‬الستعراضها بكل فخر‪.‬‬ ‫ترتفع السيارة عن األرض أوتوماتيكيًا بمجرد‬ ‫فتح قفلها‪ ،‬لتسمح للركاب بالدخول بكل راحة‪،‬‬ ‫ومن ثم تنخفض بمجرّد جلوس السائق على‬ ‫طابعا رياضيًا ويعزز‬ ‫مقعد القيادة‪ ،‬ما يمنحها‬ ‫ً‬ ‫قدراتها على صعيد األداء‪ ،‬إذ تستطيع االنطالق‬ ‫من السكون إلى سرعة ‪ 100‬كم‪/‬ساعة خالل‬ ‫‪ 4.4‬ثانية بفضل محركها ثماني األسطوانات‪،‬‬ ‫علما بأن سرعتها القصوى تبلغ ‪ 250‬كم‪/‬ساعة‪.‬‬ ‫ً‬ ‫رغم كل هذه القوّ ة والقدرات‪ ،‬فإن محرّك‬ ‫السيارة بالكاد يُسمع له صوت‪ ،‬على عكس ما‬ ‫قد يتبادر للذهن للوهلة األولى‪ ،‬حيث تم تزويده‬ ‫بخواص كاتمة تسمح للسيارة بالتحرّك دون صوت‬ ‫يذكر على سرعات عالية‪ ،‬لتلفت األنظار بتصميمها‬ ‫االنسيابي الرائع دون أي ضجيج أو صخب‪.‬‬ ‫تتيح السيارة تجربة ركوب في منتهى السالسة‬

‫”‬

‫بفضل نظام التعليق الذي ينطوي على سوية‬ ‫عالية من التخطيط والبراعة الهندسيين‪ ،‬لدرجة‬ ‫إتاحة الميزة الريادية آنفة الذكر‪ ،‬والمتمثلة‬ ‫بزيادة ارتفاع السيارة عن األرض عند ركوبها ومن‬ ‫ثم خفضها عند بدئها بالحركة؛ حيث توزع‬ ‫منظومة الدفع الرباعي العزم بشكل ذكي‬ ‫على العجالت الخلفية عند دخول المنعطفات‬ ‫بسرعة‪ ،‬ليتكامل ذلك مع منظومة التوجيه‬ ‫الخفيفة والمتجاوبة ألبعد الحدود‪ .‬إ ّنها سيارة‬ ‫رائعة لمن ينشدون تجربة قيادة ذكية تحقق‬ ‫االستفادة المثلى من الحجم والوزن فتضمن‬ ‫مستوى عاليًا من الثبات واالنسيابية في الحركة‪.‬‬ ‫إن تحقيق التوازن األمثل بين الفخامة‬ ‫والراحة واألداء العالي ليس بالمهمة السهلة‪،‬‬ ‫السيما عندما ينشد المرء سيارة يرغب‬ ‫بقيادتها بنفسه بقدر رغبته بأن يكون أحد‬ ‫ركابها في المقاعد األخرى‪ ،‬إال أن ‪Audi‬‬ ‫قد أنجزت هذه المهمة بنجاح باهر!‬ ‫عالوة على كل ذلك‪ ،‬فإن السيارة تمتاز بـ‪40‬‬ ‫نظام لمساعدة السائق من شأنها إثراء تجربة‬ ‫قيادة ‪ ،Audi A8‬والتي نرى فيها واحدة من‬ ‫أفخم السيارات هذا العام وأكثرها تم ّي ًزا‪.‬‬

‫ّ‬ ‫يفضل الكثيرون النهار على الليل‪ ،‬والسيما‬ ‫عندما يتع ّلق األمر بالسيارات وقيادتها‪ ،‬غير أن‬ ‫‪ Audi A8‬تضفي بعدً ا جديدً ا من التميّز على‬ ‫القيادة الليلية بفضل منظومة مصابيحها‬ ‫األمامية ‪ ،Digital Matrix LED‬إذ يشتمل كل‬ ‫مصباح على ‪ 1.3‬مليون من المرايا فائقة الصغر‬ ‫ليسطع بأنماط إنارة الفتة على أي سطح أمام‬ ‫السيارة عند تشغيلها وإطفائها (يمكن اختيار أحد‬ ‫خمسة أنماط بضغطة زر)‪ ،‬في ما يمكن اعتباره‬ ‫بمثابة “رقصات ضوئية” تصل ذروتها باستعراض‬ ‫شعار ‪ Audi‬الشهير رباعي الحلقات‪ .‬غير أن‬ ‫تميّز هذه المصابيح ال يقتصر فقط على هذه‬ ‫الخصائص الجمالية‪ ،‬وإنما تتسم كذلك بتقنيات‬ ‫حديثة من شأنها االرتقاء بسالمة القيادة إلى‬ ‫مستويات جديدة‪ ،‬ومن جملة هذه الخصائص ميزة‬ ‫أشبه ما تكون بـ“بساط ضوئي” ينير الطريق أمام‬ ‫السيارة لمسافة ‪ 50‬مترًا مع إبقاء اإلنارة محصورة‬ ‫بالمسار الذي تتحرك عليه السيارة؛ وخاصية اإلنارة‬

‫ّ‬ ‫شدة الضوء‬ ‫المنحنية منخفضة‬ ‫التوهج التي تقلل ّ‬ ‫تلقائيًا مع خفض زاويته في حال استشعار سيارة‬ ‫قادمة من االتجاه المعاكس كي ال تؤثر سلبًا‬ ‫على مجال رؤية سائق السيارة المقابلة‪ ،‬وذلك مع‬ ‫مواصلة إنارة المشاة أو أي أشياء أخرى على جانب‬ ‫الطريق؛ وميزة األسهم الضوئية التي تسطع على‬ ‫األرض لضمان بقاء عجالت السيارة ضمن مسارها‪.‬‬ ‫كما أن كابينة السيارة تتمتع بخصائص إنارة ال‬ ‫تقل تم ّي ًزا‪ ،‬حيث تتيح للسائق إمكانية انتقاء اللون‬ ‫الذي يناسبه من باقة لونية متنوّ عة‪ ،‬مع تعديل‬ ‫شدة اإلضاءة بما ينسجم مع مزاجه وتفضيالته‪،‬‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫لتغمر الكابينة بالضوء على نحو يساعد السائق‬ ‫في االسترخاء دون التأثير سلبًا على يقظته وتنبّهه‬ ‫لظروف الطريق‪ .‬وإلى جانب هذه المزايا الرائعة‬ ‫من أجل السائق‪ ،‬فإن القسم الخلفي من السيارة‬ ‫ليس بأقل روعة‪ ،‬والسيما عند اختيار الموديل ذي‬ ‫قاعدة العجالت الطويلة التي يقارب طولها نحو‬ ‫‪ 5,3‬متر (أي أنها تصنف ضمن فئة الليموزين‬

‫رسميًا)‪ ،‬والذي يستغني عن المقعد الخلفي‬ ‫األوسط إلتاحة مزيد من المساحة والتقنيات (حيث‬ ‫أن سيارات ‪ A8‬تأتي بخمسة مقاعد للركاب في‬ ‫تصاميمها المعيارية)‪ .‬لهذا السبب يتيح القسم‬ ‫الخلفي سوية عالية من الراحة مع توفير خيارات‬ ‫ال متناهية لتعديل المقاعد على النحو األمثل‬ ‫لكل راكب‪ ،‬فض ًلا عن إمكانية بسط األرجل بكل‬ ‫حرية‪ ،‬حتى لمن يتجاوز طولهم ‪ 180‬سم‪ ،‬وذلك‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫تحكم مركزية سهلة االستخدام‬ ‫مع لوحة‬ ‫تسمح بتعديل إنارة الكابينة ووضعية المقعد‬ ‫ودرجة حرارة المكيّف‪ ،‬عالوة على درجة ضغط‬ ‫خاصية التدليك ونمط حركتها لتغمر العضالت‬ ‫بالراحة واالسترخاء‪ .‬وتضاف إلى ذلك كله الشاشات‬ ‫الخلفية التي يمكن وصلها السلكيًا بأجهزة‬ ‫الركاب المحمولة لمشاهدة ما يحبون عليها‬ ‫من ‘نتفليكس’ وغيرها‪ ،‬باإلضافة إلى الستائر‬ ‫شدة اإلضاءة‬ ‫الكهربائية التي تتيح خيار خفض ّ‬ ‫الخارجية القادمة عبر النوافذ‪.‬‬

‫“سيارة تخطف األنظار في حركتها وسكونها”‬ ‫‪AIR‬‬

‫موتورينغ‬

‫يوليو ‪ :2022‬العدد ‪130‬‬

‫قوة األداء وجمال المظهر‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫حديثا التجسيد األروع لريادة وعراقة ‪Audi‬‬ ‫السبب في كون ‪ A8‬المعدلة‬ ‫بقلم‪ :‬جون تاتشر‬

Critique JULY 2022 : ISSUE 130

Books

In her novel, Horse, author Geraldine Brooks weaves a tale of obsession and injustice across American history.

“Brooks [has an] almost clairvoyant ability to conjure up the textures of the past and of each character’s inner life... Her felicitous, economical style and flawless pacing carries us briskly yet unhurriedly along. And the novel’s alternating narratives, by suspending time, also intensify suspense,” enthuses the Wall Street Journal. “This is historical fiction at its finest, connecting threads of the past with the present to illuminate that essentially human something,” says Good Housekeeping, in a review echoed

by LitHub: ‘You won’t be able to contain yourself while reading this elegant story about three generations of people inspired by the story of America’s greatest racehorse… This is a novel about love, anger, passion, and justice – unbridled and bursting.”

The Fugitivities by Jesse McCarthy tells the story of a recent graduate whose lack of direction comes into

focus following a chance encounter with a regretful ex-NBA player. “A thrilling twenty-first-century sentimental education – a tale of black intellectual guilt and irrepressible wanderlust that follows a young teacher from disillusionment in Brooklyn to doubt and revelation abroad. McCarthy’s spiralling, observant, exquisitely cadenced prose is a shot of adrenaline in a sea of laconic and episodic fiction.

A powerful debut that is worldly in the most expansive sense – and with electricity to spare,” reviewed Julian Lucas for the New Yorker. “An acclaimed African American essayist puts forth a first novel whose quirky romanticism, vivid landscapes, and digressive storytelling owe more to classic European cinema than conventional literature… An intellectually stimulating fiction debut,” praised Kirkus in a starred review. The New York Times also highlighted McCarthy’s writing style for praise: “Virtuosic… [McCarthy’s] prose, agile as a pianist in full flow, dances across the page… there are

no conclusions, no resolutions to this fugue state, but there is something glorious in its exploration.”

Multi award-winning Japanese author Natsuko Imamura returns with The Woman in the Purple Skirt, a novel that explores envy, loneliness, power dynamics, and the vulnerability of unmarried women. “A tale of slapstick and stalking… An off-kilter farce, in which the protagonist’s poker-faced lack of embarrassment heightens the comedy,” says the Financial Times.

“Deadpan and disturbing, Imamura’s novel explores the tangled roots of female invisibility and visibility, while taking the reader on a journey into the fascinating world of hotel housekeeping in Japan,” reviews NPR, while fellow author Shuichi Yoshida hails a “superb story… I was mesmerised by this narrator. Unlikable men who hold our sympathy are frequently found in fiction, but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a woman as unappealing as this one who still managed to keep me completely beguiled.”

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Art & Design JULY 2022: ISSUE 130

AIR

Thinking Outside The Box No obstacle is too big to overcome for artist Wallace Chan, whose artistic goals break through boundaries and defy categorisation

WORDS MATHILDE RUDE

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hinese multidisciplinary artist Wallace Chan — gem carver, sculptor, painter, researcher, jewellery artist, and philosopher, takes the universe as his key inspirational source. But what is the universe? For Chan, it represents connectedness in both the physical and abstract sense.

Following this path of thinking, an invisible movement in the air can lead to a storm, a drop of water can be seen as the beginning of a flood, and what we do as people affects others. This also applies to art.

It is, therefore, not surprising that Chan’s latest exhibition, TOTEM, in the Fondaco Marcello, Venice, begins with a particular and peculiar soundscape, composed of “earth tones”. As one gazes around in the deep, dark exhibition room, relic-looking sculptures, which at first look like extra-terrestrials, and then heads on footings scattered on the floor, slowly come into sight. The enigmatic face motifs serve as reminders of the ageless and androgynous facial features often referred to in Buddhist imagery.

There, in the dark, an individual’s experience is well capsulated. The exhibition title, TOTEM, refers to the Buddhist belief that the universe and everything in nature has a soul and that totems are symbols of human connections with all living and inanimate things. It is impossible not to question the totems of modern society and perhaps make an inner list of totems both worthy of admiration and questionable. These feelings that emerge when surrounded

by Chan’s sculptures are perhaps

related to the fact that his practices as an artist are much about spirituality.

In art, there is a tendency to categorise artists and their art for posterity, e.g. impressionists, expressionists, surrealists and so on. Though Chan is driven by his Buddhist belief, he is difficult to place in a box with religious art because he works without boundaries. As an artist, he wants to be free to experiment with all kinds of art forms and materials. Over the past five decades, his creativity and curiosity have led to myriad innovations, such as The Wallace Cut, an illusionary three-dimensional carving technique; the mastery of titanium; patented jade technology; the invention of elaborate gemstone settings without metal claws; and, most recently, The Wallace Chan Porcelain, a ground-breaking material that is five times stronger than steel. Chan does not make a fuss about an oeuvre that most people would find extraordinary.

But art critics may be confused by the lack of boxes in which to categorise him.

Categories are probably helpful to explain a certain art form or style, but in Buddhism, there is the belief that everything is from the same origin, which means that there is a basic harmony overall. Chan allows himself the freedom to transcend and move beyond boundaries in his work. He chooses not to put a label on his art in order not to be confined. “In the end, history will give me my place,” explains the artist.

A pioneer in using titanium for art-making, Chan has researched, experimented, and discovered the space age metal’s potential not only

‘

In the end, history will give me my place

These pages, from left to right: Wallace Chah; TOTEM

22

’

in jewellery but also in his large-scale sculptures. With a melting point of 1700 degrees Celsius, titanium is extremely difficult to work with. Chan’s tools gave way under the pressure of sculpting it, creating a continued demand for new tools, which he had to invent as well. His works are the products of persistence and incredible patience, which his past as a Buddhist monk prepared him for.

TOTEM presents a large-scale installation of the unassembled parts for his 10-metre sculpture, titled A Dialogue Between Materials and Time, Titans XIV. According to James Putnam, curator of the exhibition, the exhibition is “juxtaposed of iron beams and modelled titanium heads of various sizes, which create a dialogue between the two materials, with titanium, one of the strongest, most durable, and lightweight metals known, providing a contrast to the weightiness and susceptibility to corrosion of iron, which with time, will act as an earthy root, rusting away gently, while the

titanium endures.” The installation does not belong to a singular form, but it is produced by the relationship between multiple parts, which together create an expansive universe.

Looking at the deconstructed sculpture, one gets a sense of fragility and of an imminent collapse of the previous order, which could symbolise the current atmosphere of uncertainty over global issues, such as polarised politics and climate change. Following that line of thought, Chan’s work is not merely an oscillation of Buddhism; it can be interpreted as a political statement and a critique of an international political situation, though this is not Chan’s exact purpose in pursuing his art.

“Everything we do is always about searching for existence and our own place in the world — the meaning of life.

I look for a spiritual reality — something that is beyond me,” says Chan.

WALLACE CHAN: TOTEM is on view at the Fondaco Marcello, Venice, until October 23, 2022

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Timepieces

JULY 2022: ISSUE 130

It’s All In The Mind As MB&F returns with its first chronograph, Maximilian Büsser outlines its genius WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

I

t’s de rigueur to call brands disruptive these days, yet few deserve to be credited as such. One company fully deserving of that billing is Maximilian Büsser & Friends, or MB&F to attribute its more common moniker. Back in 2005 when Büsser founded the company, the term ‘disruptor’ hadn’t yet made it into the lexicon of fluffy marketing speak, but Büsser’s mission to piece together inspiring minds from the watch industry and beyond to ‘develop radical watches’ — so-called Horological or Legacy Machines — instantly set him apart from his peers. As a result, it’s fair to conclude that his ideas weren’t immediately embraced. “Scepticism is a very light word in this case!” remembers Büsser. “The feedback you get when you come out with a groundbreaking idea which could change your industry is exactly the same as the feedback you get when you come out with the dumbest idea which could send you into bankruptcy. I had no idea if I was onto one or the other, but I knew one thing for sure: I had to try.”

So try he did. Seventeen years on and with close to two dozen Horological and Legacy Machines launched, Büsser now knows he was onto a good thing, his standing within the industry now as envied as it is surefooted.

Of course, to arrive here Büsser has leant on his ‘Friends’. What attributes does he look for in his collaborators? “Great talent of course, but it has to be linked to great human values. We cannot work with people who do not share our values,” he states unequivocally.

One such person is watchmaker and Oxford graduate Stephen McDonnell.

“I have met a lot of incredibly talented people in my life but Stephen is the only genius,” states Büsser. “His mind works like no other. Stephen is not interested in ‘only’ beautiful watchmaking, he needs to address

These pages, clockwise from left: Legacy Machine Sequential EVO with atomic orange dial plate; Maximilian Büsser Next pages, clockwise from left: Stephen McDonnell; Legacy Machine Sequential EVO with coal black dial plate

and solve issues which have plagued the watchmaking world for centuries.

Every part of his work is holistic — a total 360° process. Every component is designed with the idea of both efficiency and beauty. My only talent on his creations for MB&F has been to give him free reign and to offer him a platform for his insane talent.”

That may be modest of Büsser, but

it was to McDonnell he turned again for his laboratory’s latest concoction, Legacy Machine Sequential EVO. Until now, a chronograph was a notable absentee from MB&F’s stellar line up, yet Büsser always maintained that they’d create one if it was unique. That time is now. “We waited to bring all of Stephen’s solutions to our world,” says Büsser. “We would never have been happy in just presenting another way of reading time for a chronograph.”

The result is a timepiece which incorporates two column-wheel chronographs and a groundbreaking ‘twinverter’ binary switch to allow for multiple timing modes — a combination never seen before on a chronograph.

And so to McDonnell, and a window into the genius thinking Büsser hailed. “Conventional chronograph construction includes three elements which constitute inherent technical 25

AIR

flaws,” outlines McDonnell. “One: all conventional chronographs utilise a lateral clutch, a device that can often cause the seconds counter hand to jump ahead when the chronograph is started, so an inaccuracy is introduced right from the start. Two: conventional chronograph architecture takes a standard base-movement geartrain, and the chronograph mechanism is added as a branch off to the side. This means that the chronograph wheels are not under tension because they in turn do not drive anything else. Therefore, the seconds counter hand would not move smartly and regularly with each beat of the watch, but would flutter around the dial in irregular lurches.

The conventional solution is to add a friction spring to create an artificial tension in the chronograph mechanism.

This solves the hand flutter problem but creates a new problem, as it consumes so much energy. Three: the conventional minute-counter operates using a jumper spring which holds the minute-counter wheel (which carries the hand) still for 58 seconds.

A finger then comes in for the other 26

I have met a lot of ‘incredibly talented people in my life but Stephen is the only genius

’

two seconds and advances the minutecounter. This finger must overcome the strength of the jumper spring, and so even more energy is lost while the minute counter is being advanced, causing a further temporary drop in precision during these two seconds.”

The desire to create a watch with two chronographs only amplified the potential problems. But, challenge accepted, McDonnell developed the solutions. He created a completely new type of vertical clutch, one integrated directly into the main geartrain of each chronograph. “All of the main geartrain in any mechanical watch is under tension because of the mainspring when you wind the watch, so in this way the clutch is now naturally under tension. Since it is the vertical clutch itself which carries the seconds counter hand, the problem of hand flutter has been eradicated,” outlines McDonnell.

Also unique to this clutch is its internal jewelling, which solved the problem of excess friction. Speaking in measurements of thousandths of a millimetre, McDonnell outlines how he set jewels directly into the top and bottom ends of the steel clutch pinion, something which has never been done before. Lastly, instead of a jumper-operated minute counter, McDonnell devised a gear-driven system to drive the minute counters where the gears are in constant mesh.

Rather than jumping, when the chronographs are engaged the minute counters advance continuously.

Solving these flaws allowed McDonnell to press ahead with his idea for the ‘twinverter’, a “modern take on the connected series of dashboard pocket-watch chronographs used a century ago,” says Büsser. “Stephen created a miniature and much improved version into our movement. The definition of a brilliant idea is a simple idea which no one had ever thought of — but of course he then needed to implement it reliably at that size.”

For such a forward-looking company, MB&F often turns to watchmaking’s past for inspiration.

“Because no tree can grow strong without strong roots,” states Büsser.

A mere 17-years-old, MB&F still has plenty of growing to do, but its uniquely brilliant creations mean those roots are rock solid.

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B AY O F P L E N T Y Live a life of unrivalled luxury at Jumeira Bay by Meraas

CLOTHING: RAMI AL ALI A/W 2022-23 READY TO WEAR ART DIRECTOR: KERRI BENNETT PHOTOGRAPHER: OSCAR

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Stylist Chee Hair and Make-up Alena Model Leylane, Baceface

Jewellery

AIR

JULY 2022 : ISSUE 130

Heart of a Stone At Graff, it takes both hi-tech mastery and ancient design traditions to bring out the beauty in the rarest, most richly coloured of sapphires WORDS: ANNABEL DAVIDSON

W

hen a piece of Graff high jewellery is near to completion, a human body is required for an essential test: how the piece feels when it's actually worn. “You can sit there with a necklace on a wooden bust, and it looks fantastic,” explains Samuel Sherry, general manager of the Graff workshop and CAD (computeraided design) guru. “But put it on a human and suddenly something like a collarbone presents a challenge.”

Sherry is detailing the creation of one of the London jeweller's newest high

30

jewellery pieces, a diamond necklace boasting an enormous and very rare sapphire — an antique, unheated (the vast majority of sapphires are heated to enhance the colour), mesmerisingly hued Sri Lankan stone of 109.35 carats.

Imagine a small hen's egg in a deep indigo, gently faceted to catch the light.

“We'll often put these pieces on different people, to check what's actually happening,” Sherry says.

“Is a piece breaking symmetry when on? Is it pinching? Is it heavy? Could it be worn at length without getting uncomfortable? Regardless of the

You have to ‘ immerse yourself in its light and colour every day to really get to know the mineral

’

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‘

’

The stone has its own story it wants to tell

singular, stones. “The same object in a different substance doesn't have the same impact,” Sherry explains. “It's important to understand the way it refracts light, and to be familiar with the physical weight of it. This stone has a real heft to it in the hand.” It does indeed — almost 22 grams.

“So we use CAD as an extension of handmaking,” he continues. “This necklace will only ever exist once. CAD doesn't make the process any faster.

It can actually make it longer, as it's more precise. We still need to recut every single piece of gold by hand, move every grain of gold by hand. It's still the same handmade process — just perfected in advance by CAD.” Once a design has been finished in CAD, a 'maquette' is made — a 3D print of the necklace with a space for the sapphire. “For every maquette, you might do four or five designs in CAD — and I made nine maquettes for this necklace.” Maquettes show up what a screen can't: shadow and light. “We print in a sort of terracotta-like resin that really shows the darks and lights of a design.”

It's at this point that founder

Laurence and his nephew Elliott, part of the Graff family business that is one of the world's most successful and storied diamond merchants, might visit the workshop to see how things are looking, with the actual sapphire placed in the printed design. Changes may be suggested, or they may decide to get it into production to see what it looks like in metal. But the real test is upstairs, in daylight, on that all-important living being. “We recently had a new trainee mounter try on a really important coloured diamond necklace in front of the Graffs. It was her first week, and she blushed as she tried it on.” Sherry recalls. “It's really nice for a mounter to see that reaction. We all make these things with the customer in mind, but when you're in this labyrinthine, highsecurity workshop, you don't always see the interaction with the wearer.”

Computer programs and 3D printing may be an essential part of creating high jewellery in the Graff workshops.

But no technology can replicate seeing a woman admire herself in a mirror, flushed with pleasure, when she places the final result around her neck. Let's hope it never will.

Credit: © Annabel Davidson / Telegraph Media Group Limited 2022

AIR

piece, be it a necklace, a ring or a tiara, it has to be a pleasure to wear.”

Who, then, gets to try it on?

“Sometimes it's a woman in the workshop,” says Sherry. “But it might be a lucky man. We often have some great hairy bloke in a pair of diamond earrings to see how they sit.”

The trying-on step, however, is jumping towards the end of the story, as the process of making the piece starts with a gouache — a painted design in precise, measured detail.

When it centres on a stone as rare as said sapphire, the gouache will be more of a concept than a blueprint: stones like this won't necessarily play ball. “When the stone arrived in the workshop, I realised straight away how incredibly deep it is. To maintain its intense saturation of colour, it has to be a really physically deep stone, which was the first challenge.

“We played with the surrounding diamonds, which slightly changed the proportions of the central stone.

We built a framework of emerald-cut diamonds to get that art deco feel, combined with recent motifs from the Tribal collection. It's an elegant stone, but its depth has to be managed.

You're not trying to hide it, exactly, you're trying to make it harmonise with the rest of the necklace, which must be very tactile and hug the body.”

And while it is hands that ultimately set a stone like this into its metal mount, it's a computer program that ensures every one of the thousands of tiny elements that make up the necklace is perfect — and perfectly aligned. In the Graff workshops, CAD is an instrument of unrelenting precision — but you don't leave such a major necklace up to a computer program.

“The best combination is CAD and handcrafting all happening in the same space,” Sherry says. He sat with the actual stone at his desk each day, taken from its high-security safe, while he worked on the mechanics of the design on a screen. “I know it sounds quite cheesy, but the stone has its own story it wants to tell. You have to immerse yourself in its light and its colour every day to really get to know the mineral.” It's entirely possible to scan a stone and 3D-print it in resin in a very high resolution — a 'carbon copy' — but such hi-tech methods aren't really useful when dealing with rare,

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AIR meets Austin Butler, the man tasked with filling Elvis Presley’s blue suede shoes

WORDS: JOHN THATCHER INTERVIEW: LEX MARTIN

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has affected me in many ‘Elvis positive ways, including the cautionary tale of his life ’

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he king is dead, long live the king. Elvis Presley isn’t an anomaly when it comes to the record sales of artists continuing, blossoming, even, posthumously, but few can compete with his crossgenerational appeal. Spotify revealed that Elvis is streamed more by 18 to 22-year-olds than the middle-aged.

He’s now back on the big screen in a blockbuster biopic from the ever-artful Baz Luhrmann, following on from where Freddie Mercury (Bohemian Rhapsody), Elton John (Rocketman), and Aretha Franklin (Respect) have already been, to varying degrees of success – Respect didn’t get much in the way of it, Bohemian Rhapsody picked up awards for Best Picture and Best Actor.

Critics are tipping Elvis to mimic the latter. When it premiered in Cannes, the standing ovation it garnered lasted some 12 minutes.

Filling Presley’s substantial blue suede shoes is 30-year-old Austin Butler, known more for his TV roles than for big-screen outings. It’s estimated that there are upwards of 400,000 Elvis impersonators worldwide, so what for Butler is the difference between being an impersonator and acting as the genuine Elvis? “I’m sure there’s a ton of talented 36

people out there, and they love being called Elvis tribute artists. And there are many of them that just have such love for Elvis,” he placates. “But for me, I think the thing that I wanted to avoid was an external performance, to have something where all the features are there, but you don’t feel the soul. I really had this unrealistic expectation that I could make my face Elvis’ face, you know? And so I look in the mirror and I go, ‘why can’t I somehow contort my face to look exactly like his?’ And I would judge myself in such a way that I would think I’m not good enough for this, or I can’t do it. Then at a certain point I released myself from that and the thing that got me into it in the first place, the thing that really made me want to do this, was stripping away the icon of Elvis and getting to the humanity. That meant all of my own life experiences and all my own griefs, pain, and joy — pouring in my own soul and connecting it in the most truthful way that I could find to his internal life.”

As the film charts Elvis across three decades, culminating in his pot-bellied phase, did Butler have to sacrifice something to be able play Elvis in such an immersive way? “I didn’t intentionally set out to sacrifice. It was coming from love. It was coming from

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I didn’t intentionally set out to sacrifice. It was coming from love

Credit:Lex Martin/The Interview People

Opening pages: photo by Hugh Stewart Previous pages: photo by Hugh Stewart These pages, clockwise from left: photo by Trent Mitchell; photo by Ruby Bell; photo by Hugh Stewart.

All photos from Elvis © 2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

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my love of doing this. But I didn’t see my family for two years. I didn’t see one of my friends from home for that entire time. I wasn’t able to maintain relationships with anybody from my own life. [Shooting was interrupted because of covid]. And afterward, I think that’s why I had such an existential crisis when I finally finished, because suddenly it was like I got this emotional whiplash after the film and I was going, ‘oh, well this is what real life is’. It’s bizarre.”

It must have been difficult to make that switch back to normality?

“Interestingly, I went immediately into another job. I had a week where I was bedridden when I finished and then I flew straight to London and I was doing something that takes place in the military [TV miniseries Masters of Air]. So suddenly I’m in fatigues, which was bizarre as well, because you go from being in the jumpsuit and being on stage and hearing all these screaming people, and that being my life for two years, to being in bootcamp.

Ironically, this happened to Elvis after he became famous in 1956 — two years go by and then he heads to the army.”

Elvis Presley died at the relatively young age of 42, but crammed enough into those years to live what Baz Luhrmann says was more like “a 100year life.” Did anything about Elvis’ life come as a surprise to Austin when he researched the role? “I knew a bit about his life before I started working on the film, but not nearly as many details as I got to explore in the process of it. I didn’t realise how poor Elvis grew up before I started researching. I knew he was from Tupelo, but I didn’t realise that he was in one of a few white houses in a black neighbourhood. So the culture that he was soaking in from such a young age, the fact that we would not have Elvis without black music and black culture, was this beautiful revelation for me. There are many things, but that’s one of them.”

The late Sam Philips, legendary producer and founder of Sun Records, is credited with discovering the young Presley. History has it that Elvis walked into Philips’ studio with $4 in his hand to cut a personal record for his beloved mother, and that he considered Elvis to

be one of the most introverted people who had ever come into the studio.

There are parallels with Butler, who was discovered when he accompanied his stepbrother to an audition. “I just tagged along and they saw my mom and me and said, ‘well, you got another son.

He should do it as well’. And she said, ‘you want to do it?’

“I was incredibly shy, so shy. I never liked really hanging out with other kids. I was very solitary. I wouldn’t even talk to strangers. So I don’t know why I said yes that day, but I just said yes.”

By saying yes, Butler embarked on a career that hits its highest note so far with Elvis. “This is the most magical time in my life for sure,” he beams. “I can’t even put into words how grateful I feel because I’ve been working since I was 12-years-old. I haven’t never had a real job. For so much of your career as an actor you’re just trying to pay the rent. I remember when I was 17, I wasn’t working for a while and I had a point where I looked at my bank account and I thought if I don’t get a job, I’m not going to be able to pay for gas. And if I can’t pay for gas, I can’t get to auditions.

I’m suddenly going to not be able to work. And I remember that terror and then the feeling of just having to take a job, to be able to pay the rent or pay for gas. There are so many actors out there who are really talented but don’t get the opportunity. So now I’m at this point where I’m getting to work with the filmmakers I’ve always wanted to work with and getting to talk with you, I just feel so grateful.”

It’s when the music stops that Butler can lean on his experience of playing Presley. “Elvis feels such a part of the fabric of my being at this point. I know he’s affected my sense of humour. He has affected me in many positive ways, including the cautionary tale of his life. I see it with experiencing fame as rapidly as he did. And there wasn’t a roadmap before him, so bless his heart in that way.

The quality he had of not being able to be alone in a silent room, that always scares me. Because when you experience all the attention and then suddenly you’re in a quiet room, life hits you and you experience incredible loneliness. And that’s my fear.”

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A new blockbuster exhibition explores the history of modern African fashion and the impact it’s had on western culture. It’s been a long time coming

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WORDS: ALICE KEMP-HABIB

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ondon’s Victoria and Albert Museum’s new blockbuster exhibition, Africa Fashion, which opens on July 2, is its first to explore fashion on the continent. It’s been a long time coming. “Designers have referenced the continent for ever,” says Omoyemi Akerele, the founder of Lagos fashion week, who lent her expertise to the V&A team. It’s true that Africa has long been a source of inspiration for designers in the West, from Yves Saint Laurent’s preoccupation with Morocco to John Galliano’s Egyptinspired spring/summer couture 2004 collection for Christian Dior.

“The time has come for individual African voices and perspectives to be in the foreground,” Akerele says, and Africa Fashion takes visitors from the liberation years (the mid-1950s to 1994) through to the present day.

The most influential contemporary designers will be spotlighted in the exhibition. There is Thebe Magugu, the first African designer to win the prestigious LVMH prize in 2019. He

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has since been endorsed by a slew of A-listers (Issa Rae, Miley Cyrus and Rihanna among them). There is Laduma Ngxokolo, whose brand MaXhosa snagged the Vogue Italia Scouting for Africa prize in 2014. And also Adeju Thompson, whose genderless label Lagos Space Programme takes adire (a type of indigo resist-dyed cotton cloth common in the Yoruba region of southwest Nigeria) and places it in the new context of knitwear.

The showstopper comes from the label Maison ArtC, by the Marrakesh-based designer Artsi Ifrach: Culture Games is a billowing, Moroccan-style selham cloak and face covering embroidered with the protective symbols of the hamsa hand and the karana mudra hand gesture. Inspired by the British trench coat, Islamic burqa and African masks, the piece is “a homage to [the exhibition’s] collaboration between Africa and England”, Ifrach says.

As Africa is the continent with the youngest population in the world (60 per cent are under 25), it makes sense

Opening pages, from left to right: Alchemy collection, Thebe Magugu, Johannesburg, South Africa, AutumnWinter 2021. Photography by Tatenda Chidora; Kofi Ansah ‘Indigo’ Couture 1997, Narh & Linda, photo © 1997 Eric Don-Arthur These pages, from left to right: Models holding hands, Lagos, Nigeria, 2019 by Stephen Tayo. Courtesy Lagos Fashion Week; self-portrait, Gouled Ahmed, Addis Foam, Ethiopia

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that designers such as Thompson are spearheading a modern renaissance akin to the one in the immediate postcolonial years. “When I was asked to work on the exhibition, I knew the story had to be about agency and unbounded creativity. What better place to start than those liberation years,” says Christine Checinska, the V&A’s inaugural curator of African and African diaspora fashion.

“There was a swelling of creativity that had always been there.”

In 1957 the revolutionary first prime minister of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, declared his country free from colonial rule. For the occasion he shed his Savile Row suit in favour of kente cloth — a traditional handwoven fabric historically worn by Ashanti royalty. In doing so he implied that Ghana was entering a new era, one in which African heritage would be embraced over western values.

“We are going to demonstrate to the world […] that we are prepared to lay our foundation,” he proclaimed.

“Our own African personality.”

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There was a swelling of creativity that had always been there forward is threaded throughout the exhibition. A highlight is the Vanguard section, dedicated to designers from this era. Chris Seydou, Kofi Ansah, Alphadi and Naima Bennis were the first generation of African designers to gain recognition around the world.

Seydou worked for designers including Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne before returning to Mali in 1990, while the Ghanaian designer Ansah made headlines in the late 1970s when, on graduating from Chelsea School of Art, he made a beaded top for Princess Anne. Alphadi founded the International Festival of African Fashion in 1998, which brought designers on the continent together with the likes of Kenzo and Jean Paul Gaultier. Meanwhile, Bennis was at the forefront of Generation Kaftan — a group of designers credited with the exploding popularity of Moroccan styles in the 1970s.

Then there’s Shade Thomas-Fahm, who pioneered ready-to-wear in 1960s Nigeria by opening the country’s first fashion boutique (no small feat in a country where made-to-order

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Previous pages, from left to right: ’The Trench’ designed by Maison ArtC, Morocco, 2021. Image courtesy @M.A.Roock; Aso Lànkí, Kí Ató Ki Ènìyàn, (‘We greet dress before we greet its wearer’) collection, Lagos, Nigeria, 2021. Lagos Space Programme. Photo (c) Kadara Enyeasi

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The starting point of our creativity is community occasionwear was the norm). She was passionate about the use of local textiles but chief among her trophies is the impact she had on womenswear.

“This was the moment of women’s independence as well as national independence. Thomas-Fahm was doing really simple but revolutionary things, like putting a concealed zip in an iro [the traditional Nigerian wrapped skirt],” says Checinska. “She wanted to design clothes that were easy to run about town in. It was this idea of women having busy lives, they don’t want to spend hours wrapping and rewrapping their skirts.” One such iro will be on display in the Vanguard room.

Many of the 267 objects on show in Africa Fashion were procured via a call-out to the public. Among them a kente cloth bought in Ghana to mark the christening of a child on the brink of moving to Britain, as well as a Chris Seydou-designed skirt suit in bogolanfini (a Malian cotton fabric dyed with fermented mud), made for the wearer’s 18th birthday. Photographs from ten families will be presented in

Capturing Change, a section dedicated to the vital role that photography played during decolonisation. It’s an unorthodox approach to curation, which Akerele says, “speaks to the very essence of what African fashion is.

The starting point of our creativity is community, it’s the heart and soul of what makes fashion in Africa unique.”

Checinska hopes the exhibition will mark a turning point in the way the continent is represented. In fact, the V&A is introducing a dedicated curatorial team to work alongside her, with two new members of staff focusing on performance, art, architecture and photography. “A shift in priority is long overdue. People of colour are in the global majority. It is crucial we see ourselves represented in exhibitions staged by leading cultural institutions,” she says. “There is a long history of black fashion and textile designers creating exceptional work, some under their own labels, some under the auspices of the big fashion brands. We have had a far-reaching impact on fashion and style. It is time this is recognised.”

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How Billie Holiday’s fight for survival against racial bias sparked the song of the century WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

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‘ She had a lot of love in her heart’

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t doesn’t matter how many times you hear her sing it, it affects you the same way, to the same degree, on each and every occasion. Billie Holiday’s live performances of Strange Fruit also transfixed audience members throughout the years she performed it — save for those who found it too uncomfortable, too unpalpable to listen to, as the truth so often can be.

What was originally a poem written

by Abel Meeropol, a civil rights activist from the Bronx, became a song that Holiday first sang on stage while a 23-year-old. It was at New York’s Café Society, and at Holiday’s request the waiters would stop serving and the room would fall into darkness, but for a single spotlight directed at her face.

“Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees...”

Holiday’s delivery of those words, which depict the lynching of black men and women in America during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was cut through with such raw emotion that the song became a lightning rod for polarising interests: a rallying cry for the civil rights movement; a subversive strain that reached the ears of senior figures in J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. The song that made Billie Holiday a star would also engender her downfall.

“I could see around me many Black American people whose excellence was rewarded with very harsh treatment by the government, or the system in Hollywood, or the theatre system or whatever,” Suzan-Lori Parks, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and scriptwriter of the critically-acclaimed film The United States Vs. Billie 50

Holiday, told the Los Angeles Times. “I did the math and realised it must have had something to do with the status quo, you know? The powers that be must have had some hand in Billie Holiday’s downfall.”

That ‘hand’ is largely attributed to belong to Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger, who forbade Holiday to perform Strange Fruit in the face of its country-wide appeal [it became a hit despite the polar-opposite nature of the three biggest-selling songs of that year: Judy Garland’s Over the Rainbow, Kate Smith’s God Bless America, and Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade.]

Holiday defied the order; Anslinger decreed she would pay the price.

He had heard rumours of Holiday’s drug dependence and assigned a black agent to befriend her so as to track her every move. After a series of raids on her home served up no evidence, an informer conspired with Anslinger to set her up. She spent a year in a correctional facility, and upon her release had her license revoked so she couldn’t sing in any venue that served alcohol — every jazz bar in America.

Holiday was not the only big name Anslinger knew to be hooked on drugs — Judy Garland was another — but the difference was their skin colour.

Anslinger even wrote to the head of Garland’s studio to assure them that The Wizard of Oz starlet didn’t do drugs, while at the same time advising Garland on ways to hide her addiction from them.

Come 1959, when heart, lung and liver problems saw Holiday check herself into hospital, Anslinger finally had his way — his men handcuffed Holiday to her hospital bed after discovering an insignificant amount of drugs in

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her room and prevented doctors from offering her further treatment to deal with the severe withdrawal symptoms she was suffering. The treatment had been going well. Days later, Billie Holiday was dead, aged 44.

Holiday’s health problems were of her own making but very much shaped by her impoverished childhood, a chunk of which was spent living in a brothel where her mother turned tricks to make her way (a path Holiday followed for a while as a teenager, doing all she knew to get by).

By the time of her death, Holiday had come off worse in an ongoing battle with drug and alcohol addiction but also men, from whom she suffered physical abuse throughout her short life. And yet, despite her troubles, her talent radiated, shining as bright as only a true star can.

Born in 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to her teenage mother, Billie (a name she adopted from a famous film star of the time) found solace in her voice, which had its first public airing in the local clubs of New York, where she was discovered aged just eighteen by hotshot producer John Hammond. Her first, criticallyacclaimed recording followed swiftly after.

A new book, Lady Day: Body & Soul, from Rocket 88 Books, details Holiday’s influence across a broad cultural spectrum — from poetry and literature through to art and music — via quotes, tributes and photographs, which capture the woman they nicknamed Lady Day both on stage and off, happy and sad, alone and with friends, most notably her beloved dogs. “They are my favourite pictures,” says the book’s editor, Nichelle Gainer. “She loved Mister, Pepe and Chiquita and all of her animals. She had a lot of love in her heart.”

Of all the words in the book, it’s perhaps those of actress, singer, and civil rights activist Lena Horne which resonate most when considered alongside the knowledge of how Holiday was hounded by the authorities until the very last seconds of her life: “Billie was putting into words what so many people had seen and lived through,” she said.

As a prominent black woman capable of reaching the hearts and minds of the masses through a singular voice, she was considered a danger to the established order. An order which, 52

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The constant harassment and racist treatment she endured impacted her entire life legally, did not even permit Holiday into the venues in which she was booked to entertain on account of her skin colour.

Nor, while touring such venues, was she allowed to stay at the hotels where her white bandmates spent the night — Billie’s bed was on the tour bus.

Tired of being dehumanised, Holiday quit the band.

“The constant harassment and racist treatment she endured due to her addiction and her resolve not to abandon Strange Fruit impacted her entire life — mentally, financially, and professionally,” says Gainer.

It has also, however, impacted her legacy. In 1999, Time magazine declared Strange Fruit the “song of the century.”

The authorities may have helped shorten Holiday’s life, but her music reaches on through the decades.

Billie Holiday, Lady Day: Body & Soul is out now, published by Rocket 88 Books. Only available at billieholidaybook.com

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All pages: photos from the book Bille Holiday, Lady Day: Body & Soul, courtesy of Rocket 88 Books

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Dior’s Kim Jones on reinventing the male silhouette, holidaying with Kate Moss and wearing Kim Kardashian’s T-shirts WORDS: ANNA MURPHY

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n fashion history there is surely no ensemble more emblematic of femininity than Christian Dior’s New Look of 1947: that vast skirt and that nipped-in top half — the bar jacket, named after Monsieur Dior’s favourite haunt at the Plaza Athénée in Paris.

And yet, for the winter 22-23 Dior Homme collection, the bar jacket was remade for men. “I wanted to celebrate 75 years of Dior,” says Kim Jones, the British creative director at the house. “I wanted to bring all his loves together: English tailoring, the flowers of his garden. I wanted to take a new look at the New Look.”

The result is unquestionably mannish, its almost imperceptibly hourglass lines delivered by creating folds in a more conventional man’s jacket shape. The raw edges add to the masculine feel, yet tucked away under the collar there is — whisper it — the most beauteous floral embroidery. “Dior was set up after the Second World War to bring joy, colour and excitement to the world through fashion,” Jones, 48, says. “That’s what I looked at, what I set out to do.”

To be able to revisit the Dior archives and then to reinvent them is, he says, one of the “brilliant” aspects to heading up such a celebrated fashion house.

“When you are stuck for an idea you just go into the archive. There is always something new being added. Often I see something that should be part of a collection that I am working on, and I will call it in straight away.”

Jones’s work at Dior Homme, which

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he joined in 2018, requires a careful balancing act — not only to ensure that an aesthetic heritage originally aimed at women appeals to men, but also to serve the manifold natures of his customers.

Some men want tailoring, some want streetwear, many want both. Some, like Jones, favour a traditionally masculine palette of black and grey, and, if they do embrace flowers, want theirs to be a secret under-the-collar garden variety.

Others are game for his recent foray into pink tailoring, and are up for a sweatshirt encrusted with 3D blooms.

“I have to appreciate all our different customers. It’s different in cities. It’s much more conservative in China than America. It’s about being aware of what is going on. Look at how rappers dress. They wear what they want and that’s an inspiration to kids all over the world. I guess it’s about whether you live a creative or conservative life. We hit the mark with both.”

He concedes that he wears “black pretty much all the time. Sometimes pale grey on holiday. I don’t want to think about what I am wearing when I get up in the morning because I have got millions of clothes to look at in the day.” He describes himself as an outerwear addict, and says that hanging next to the Dior Homme in his wardrobe there is Balenciaga and Prada, plus T-shirts from Skims. “Kim [Kardashian, the Skims founder] kindly sends them to me the whole time.

They are the best I have ever worn.”

Jones — who in 2020 extended

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There are a lot more garments that go into a men’s look, much less fluidity

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his purview to womenswear at Fendi — insists that menswear is the trickier metier. “With a woman you can just throw a dress on them and a pair of shoes. For men it’s much more about structure and about different pieces of clothing. There are a lot more garments that go into a men’s look, much less fluidity.”

Presumably a further straitjacket is that, while women can essentially embrace a kind of cross-dressin; sporting a frock one day, a trouser suit the next, many men must operate within a considerably narrower sartorial bandwidth. “Yes. Women can wear men’s clothes. So it’s much easier. A nice coat is a nice coat. No one is going to go, ‘Oh my God, the buttons are on the other side.’ ” What’s clear is that, while Jones may be all about the big picture — conjuring up high-profile collaborations with the visual artist Peter Doig or the rapper Travis Scott — he is also about the detail. “I always make sure our customers can match things up from different seasons. They are spending a lot of money, so they want that thing to stay in their wardrobe. For me that is respectful as a designer.

And you have to think about it as a business, about what people actually need and want.” Luxury, he says, is all about keeping your client, his or her lifestyle, and demand for quality always in your mind’s eye.

To head up a big house is hugely demanding. To head up two is the kind of juggling act only someone as driven, not to mention workaholic, as Karl Lagerfeld — Jones’s predecessor at Fendi — could pull off. Like the German 58

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you are stuck for an idea ‘ When you just go into the archive ’ designer, Jones talks with rat-a-tat-tat speed and precision, and his formidable intellect is clear. This is a man who has, for example, a world-class library of first editions. “I probably have the best collection of Virginia Woolf in existence. My intention is to leave it to Charleston [the house and trust]. I have Vita’s [SackvilleWest’s] inscribed Orlando. That’s a book people dream about owning.

I can’t believe I own it. I have Noël Coward’s, Vanessa Bell’s, Woolf’s own.”

The designer, who claims he is “a bit shy deep down”, and lived in various countries in Africa as a child due to his father’s work as a hydrogeologist, is a committed traveller. When he is at the Dior Homme atelier in Paris every month, he lives in a hotel. “I don’t want any extra thoughts,” he says.

As for what the French make of having a British man at the helm of one of their most illustrious labels?

“I think French people don’t really get me, but they understand I have some level of taste. To be brutally honest I don’t care. I just get on with what I do.” Despite his high-rolling existence he insists he keeps things comparatively normal. “My best friends include a schoolteacher and someone who works in a doctor’s surgery.”

Not that normal, though. Kate Moss is another of his besties. He is just back from a trip to Rwanda with Moss, and is sporting a multipocket gilet with a mountain gorilla logo to prove it. “There is no one I like to go away with more on nature holidays than Kate. We have such a laugh. We get up at the crack of dawn and we are out looking at gorillas or chimps.” What does her safari wardrobe entail? “It’s mega. I can’t tell you more or she’d be upset. She’s one of the most stylish women in the world.”

What would be his advice to any man who feels lacking on the style front? “Go with a friend you trust to buy stuff. Don’t rush it.

And start with a great coat.”

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Gastronomy JULY 2022: ISSUE 130

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Greg Malouf has rewritten the rulebook on Middle East cuisine.

Now he’s penned the next chapter in Dubai

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t’s not an exaggeration to state that Greg Malouf has done more to advance Middle East cuisine than any of his contemporaries — not least via his acclaimed cookbooks, nine and counting, one of which, the dessert-focussed Suqar, picked up a prestigious James Beard award.

The success of those books proves that there is a global interest in the food of the Middle East, yet it still suffers from a variety of misconceptions. “A lot of people think Middle Eastern food is the same as Mediterranean and Greek food,” says Malouf. “And while there are some similarities, there is also a big difference in our techniques and aromas.”

Amplifying those differences through his renowned appreciation of flavours has served the native Australian of Lebanese parentage well throughout his years in the industry, a career that has taken him across the globe (France, Italy, Austria and Hong Kong) and from restaurants like London’s celebrated Petersham Nurseries Café to Clé Dubai, all the while advancing his sensitive interpretation of Middle East cuisine and picking up a Michelin star along the way.

“Middle Eastern cuisine is seen by the Western world as an exotic mix, and guests are always drawn to its generosity and variety of flavours. However, while it has taken small steps there is still scope to progress and develop the cuisine further, in my opinion.”

To that end, Malouf’s latest venture, Bushra by Buddha-Bar at Grosvenor House Dubai, intends to do just that.

“It’s always been one of my passions to cook in the Middle East, hence I made the decision to move to Dubai to show the Middle East why their cuisine is such an important part of food culture,” outlines Malouf. “I hope to unfold and reinterpret dishes that represent my culture as I’ve done for many years now. Bushra by Buddha-Bar provides a great platform for me to present a contemporary Middle Eastern restaurant to the locals and expats of Dubai who are well travelled, have understanding palates, and want a change from regulation Lebanese dining.”

It is that ‘regulation Lebanese dining’ that’s something of a bugbear for

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Malouf. “Traditional, tried, and true recipes are a wonderful introduction to any cuisine, but often a certain laziness creeps in, both in technique and, especially, in quality of produce.

For instance, I dearly love traditional Lebanese food (it’s what I grew up eating, after all) but when eating out, I’m often very disappointed by even the humblest dip or simplest salad — and it’s largely because the quality of the raw ingredients falls short. For me, it’s always been about balance. I’ve always believed that there are new, exciting, and imaginative ways of exploring and interpreting the traditional dishes and techniques of my childhood — but, critically, without compromising the integrity of the cuisine. And I do think it’s important to never forget that integrity includes quality.”

Quality, of course, is a chief ingredient of Malouf’s dishes. At Bushra by Buddha-Bar you’ll find it in dishes like hazelnut falafel, picked shredded turnips and yoghurt with tahini sauce (“A dish which remains with me for many years as a true symbol of new food of the Levant. It’s slightly reinterpreted with the addition of crushed roasted hazelnuts.”)

And the summer tabbouleh with

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edible flowers (“The use of grated cauliflower instead of cracked wheat and the addition of green tomatoes and cucumbers offers a simple dish with a healthy and sophisticated twist.”)

Malouf is a master of flavour combination. “I grew up in a LebaneseAustralian family which meant Middle Eastern ingredients, such as sweet and savoury spices, flowers and flower waters, fruit molasses, nutty tahini, grains, preserves and creamy labne are in my culinary DNA. Nearly all the recipes in my books have been inspired by the dishes I remember from my childhood, or from subsequent travels and research that Lucy (co-author of the cookbooks) and I have undertaken over the last twenty-odd years. Back at the start of my career, in the 1970s and 1980s, Middle Eastern food in the West was pretty much limited to greasy kebabs and soggy tabbouleh, so I went into cooking with a clear agenda to introduce all my favourite ingredients and delicious dishes I grew up with to my hometown of Melbourne, Australia. I wanted people to become as familiar with labne, sumac, preserved lemons and pomegranate molasses as they were with Italian pesto and Spanish paella. Over the years Lucy

It’s important to never forget that integrity includes quality

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and I have been lucky enough to travel extensively around Lebanon (where I still have family), as well as Syria and other countries in the region, such as Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean, Moorish Spain, Iran, North Africa, and the UAE, researching and documenting their food cultures, and taking inspiration for my books.”

Malouf has gleaned much from those travels, analysing the differences between restaurant cultures in cities around the world. “What seems clear to me is that there is a hunger for the ‘new’ and ‘different’ anywhere there is a sophisticated restaurant culture.

I’m all for pushing boundaries (that’s how cuisines and cultures evolve, after all) but I’ve found that, all too often, there’s a tendency for chefs to focus on being ‘experimental’ just for the sake of it, and this leads to fashions and fads, that inevitably fade away over time.”

Dubai’s claim to a sophisticated restaurant culture has been verified by the arrival of the Michelin guide.

As someone who has helped shape that culture, what effect does Malouf

think Michelin’s arrival will have on the city? “Any new guides introduced to sprawling cities will have an instant reaction, both with the consumers and the hospitality industry. But it doesn’t end there — suppliers play a pivotal role ensuring consistency and

freshness, two of the biggest challenges to keep restaurant standards.”

Taste Malouf’s food and you’ll be left in no doubt that he has superb suppliers. You’ll also be sure that he’ll soon be served his second Michelin star.

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Travel JULY 2022: ISSUE 130

ULTIMATE STAYS

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park London

W

hile there’s the expected buzz around Mandarin Oriental’s soon-to-open second hotel in London (in Mayfair’s Hanover Square), the brand’s flagbearer in the city remains assured of its standing among the handful of truly great hotels in the capital. When it comes to outstanding service, however, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park stands alone.

Leafy Hyde Park provides the perfect backdrop for this quintessentially London hotel — at breakfast, floor-to-ceiling windows frame the sight of the Queen’s impeccably groomed (and regally attired) Household Cavalry trotting by, the horses being put through their paces before that morning’s Horse Guard’s Parade. Iconic department stores Harvey Nichols and Harrods are the shortest of strolls.

Yet this grand dame hotel has enough attractions of its own to keep you in house.

Not least, its superb suites. Joyce Wang didn’t have to look far for inspiration when applying her unique, critically

acclaimed touch to the hotel’s rooms — the natural beauty of Hyde Park is a feature throughout, reimagined in the most beautiful of ways (pay particular attention to the light fittings) — but marrying it to the theme of travel’s golden age was a masterstroke. This is a design that’s at once both classical and modern.

The Two-Bedroom Hyde Park Suite that homed us for the weekend is the epitome of elegance. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a fireplace to ward off winter’s chill when it grips, you’ll also find luxurious touches applied via silk wall coverings and hand-gilded mirror artwork. The rooms are separated by a large living room complete with a curated library of noteworthy books — curl up with one in the light of the Hyde Park-facing windows, which open to allow for a calming breeze.

While in-house restaurant Dinner

by Heston Blumenthal needs no introduction — book in advance for what is a meal very worthy of its two Michelin stars — The Aubrey is something new

to sink your teeth into. It serves up an authentic Japanese izakaya experience, with the likes of light-as-air tempura and a thrillingly good wagyu sando as highlights. The inventive drinks here, masterminded by Bar Director Pietro Rizzo, are best sampled at the six-seater bar counter, yours to find behind a hidden door. And while The Rosebery is famed for its ever-popular afternoon tea, it has a few not-to-be-missed gems of its own, headed by a sublime 8-hours slow cooked marinated teriyaki short rib.

Indulge too much and a morning at the spa beckons. Its recent renovation saw its facilities swell to include an amethyst crystal steam room, sanarium, vitality pool, and a zen colour therapy relaxation area, along with 13 individual treatment rooms and a suite for couples. As is the norm with the staff at this landmark hotel, the therapists are the best in the business.

Mandarin Oriental Mayfair has some reputation to uphold.

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What I Know Now

AIR

JULY 2022 : ISSUE 130

Tim Reynolds

,

FOUNDER AND OWNER OF ÀNI PRIVATE RESORTS The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is to find a career you enjoy.

If you enjoy coming to work in the morning, everything else comes into place. Hospitality is the most enjoyable career I could image — it’s the joy of making other people happy.

Peace with everything and everyone, is how I define personal success. Life always brings struggles that demand your attention. When you are doing well, you can find peace everywhere — family, colleagues, friends, and even the environment.

A lesson I learned the hard way was learning from my failures and weaknesses. This meant spending time looking internally much more closely than I felt comfortable with.

I realised I needed to embrace failure, accept it, and adjust with a view to look for new opportunities. In learning this

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about myself I always to continue to push myself forward.

or plants, as we jointly sustain life on earth.

One of my goals is to make the world a little bit smaller. By that, I mean bringing people closer together. The theme of ÀNI is togetherness, to get together with your extended family or friends and have the time to re-solidify those relationships stress-free.

If I could go back and tell my younger self anything it would be to assure myself that it will all work out and you can work your way out of anything. I am a big believer in self-determination and not blaming circumstances or other people. My approach is ‘it happened’ and I know that I alone am responsible to find a new direction.

My wife and children inspire me. I am very lucky as I am surrounded by some inspirational people in my life, and they are with me the whole time.

Who could do better than that? This is a house of unconditional love, and it is paramount.

One thing I do every day is take care of my dogs as much as I can. I have two Wheaten terriers — Winston and Molly.

I believe it is important to nurture all forms of life, whether they be animals

I strongly believe in my own ability to learn. I have no qualms to push myself to learn new things to support myself on the next part of my journey.

My ambition is for ÀNI to be considered the best private resort in the world, and to ensure that we stay true to our core commitment of togetherness, earning the trust of our guests and anticipating their needs.

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