AIR Magazine - Gama Aviation - June'23

JUNE 2023

PRIYANKA CHOPRA JONAS

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 ƓQDOL]HG DQG FHUWLƓHG 7KLV GRFXPHQW GRHV QRW FRQVWLWXWH DQ RIIHU FRPPLWPHQW UHSUHVHQWDWLRQ JXDUDQWHH RU ZDUUDQW\ RI DQ\ NLQG DQG WKH FRQƓJXUDWLRQ DQG SHUIRUPDQFH RI DQ\ DLUFUDIW VKDOO EH GHWHUPLQHG LQ D ƓQDO SXUFKDVH DJUHHPHQW 7KLV GRFXPHQW PXVW QRW EH UHSURGXFHG RU GLVWULEXWHG LQ ZKROH RU LQ SDUW WR RU E\ D WKLUG SDUW\ ZLWKRXW %RPEDUGLHUōV SULRU ZULWWHQ FRQVHQW %RPEDUGLHU *OREDO *OREDO DQG ([FHSWLRQDO E\ GHVLJQ DUH UHJLVWHUHG RU XQUHJLVWHUHG WUDGHPDUNV RI %RPEDUGLHU ,QF RU LWV VXEVLGLDULHV k %RPEDUGLHU ,QF $OO ULJKWV UHVHUYHG

Showrooms:

Contacts:

Social Media:

The Dubai Mall

+971 4 2262277

mahallatiJewellery

Dubai Marina Mall

retail@mahallatijewellery.ae

mahallatiJewellery

Mall of the Emirates

www.mahallatijewellery.ae

Mrs.Mahallati

Gold Souk

SIGNATURE LIVING

BY MAJID AL FUTTAIM Lanai Islands emerge from the crystalline waters of the Lagoon Al Ghaf to create substantial residences in excess of 30,000sq ft.

Crafted in association with SAOTA & Kelly Hopper.

Contents

Credit: Julia Roberts © Alexi Lubomirski

JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

FEATURES Thirty Six

Forty Two

Fifty

Priyanka Chopra Jonas on dealing with inexplicable pressures and empowering other females.

Celebrity and royal snapper Alexi Lubomirski on shooting the biggest names.

The stylistic vocabulary of Karl Lagerfeld is the subject of the Met’s latest blockbuster exhibition.

A Woman’s Touch

Prince and the New Power Generation

Kaiser Chief

5

Contents

Credit: Stella Maris Ocean Villa

JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

REGULARS Fourteen

Radar

Sixteen

Objects of Desire Eighteen

Critique Twenty Two

Art & Design Twenty Eight

Jewellery Thirty Two

Timepieces Fifty Six

Motoring Sixty

Gastronomy

EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief & Co-owner

Sixty Eight

John Thatcher

What I Know Now

john@hotmedia.me

ART Art Director

Kerri Bennett Illustration

Leona Beth

COMMERCIAL Sixty Four

Managing Director & Co-owner

Travel

Victoria Thatcher

Why a taste of Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi is one you’ll relish.

PRODUCTION Digital Media Manager

Muthu Kumar

M e d i a C i t y, D u b a i , UAE 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.

7

Gama Aviation JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

Welcome Onboard JUNE 2023

Janine Tombs Managing Director Gama Aviation

Welcome to the new issue of AIR, Gama Aviation’s in-flight magazine.

Gama Aviation’s started in 1983 as a bespoke aircraft manager and operator in the UK, and has since grown to be a leading, global, business aviation services organisation. With a fleet of over 230 aircraft, we have bases across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East. Our headquarters are located at Farnborough Airport, England, where we are listed on the London Stock Exchange (Gama Aviation PLC: GMAA).

In 2009, we opened an aircraft management office in Dubai, and applied for a UAE Air Operating Certificate (AOC). The GCAA awarded Gama Aviation’s UAE AOC in 2010, after which we grew our managed fleet of charter and private jets in the UAE. It quickly became apparent that Dubai International Airport was becoming increasingly restrictive in terms of slot and parking availability, in addition to airspace and taxiway congestion, which is not conducive to business aviation operations. Our industry is geared towards saving time for our clients. This led to our Group CEO identifying Sharjah International Airport as an intelligent gateway to Dubai and the Northern Emirates for private jet users.

In 2012, Gama Aviation was granted the concession at Sharjah International to provide VIP (‘FBO’) handling services, and in 2014 we opened the airport’s very first FBO facility. Sharjah International has since become a popular business jet hub — and fuel stop location — due to its ease of use and close proximity to the heart of Dubai and the Northern Emirates. We operate stunning passenger and crew lounges, with dedicated customs/immigration, along with providing line maintenance services and hangar/parking solutions. In a nutshell, we offer the highest levels of service delivery in our industry, for prices that are lower than the regional market rate. A very special service in Sharjah that also sets us apart is the fact we can arrange airside access for passenger vehicles to the aircraft steps on both arrivals and departures.

Sharjah offers true door-to-door time savings for visitors and residents of Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

An important component of Gama Aviation’s service offering in Sharjah is line maintenance and AOG (Aircraft On Ground) support in the surrounding region. In addition to our engineers holding US/FAA A&P licenses, our maintenance approvals include UAE/GCAA, UK/EASA, Isle of Man, Bermudan and Cayman registered aircraft. Our maintenance capabilities cover the Gulfstream G650, Bombardier Learjets, Challengers and Globals, Embraer Legacies, Hawker 800/900 and KingAir types.

Our group services include: • Aircraft management • Aircraft charter • FBO services: VIP aircraft and passenger handling • Line maintenance for business jets • Special missions support such as air ambulance operation and engineering modifications Thank you for choosing to fly with Gama, and for being part of our continuing success. We wish you an enjoyable journey.

Contact Details: info.mena@gamaaviation.com / charter.mena@gamaaviation.com

Cover: Priyanka Chopra Jonas

by Andrew Eccles/AUGUST 9

Gama Aviation JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

Business Aviation And Carbon Offsetting Why Gama Aviation is committed to carbon offsetting

We have been offsetting our own business aviation operations and the general operations of our entire organisation for over two years now. We have chosen a carbon offset partner in Carbon Footprint Ltd and are delighted to have reduced our operational emissions over the past two years.

These emissions and our approach to improving our operational process are audited and ratified by Carbon Footprint Ltd and the projects we invest in are certified to ensure they have the very best and most positive impact.

What is carbon offsetting?

Carbon offsetting is about funding projects around the world that 10

help reduce carbon emissions by a measurable and verifiable amount.

Without the extra ‘carbon finance’ from people or organisations offsetting their emissions, these projects would not have happened.

How does carbon offsetting actually work?

Individual carbon offset projects around the world are being set up thanks to carbon finance provided by individuals and organisations offsetting their emissions. These projects include renewable energy generation, improving energy efficiency, reducing deforestation and planting more trees.

The projects our carbon offsetting

partner, Carbon Footprint Ltd, support all meet the leading international carbon offsetting standards and are rigorously inspected and regularly audited to assure that they are generating the carbon reductions. Carbon credits are only issued once these carbon savings have been made and verified. These carbon credits can then be purchased and used to offset the unavoidable emissions of organisations (‘carbon offsetting’).

And now to improve further, we believe this is important.

We want to make a difference. We believe in this, we are not doing this because we have to, we are doing this

With simple airside access and a quick 6 minute taxi time, the whole experience through our own dedicated, private and exclusive FBO is a decisive advantage to our clients and guests alike.

If you combine this with a 30 minute transfer time to Downtown Dubai then our access to the Northern Emirates via our Sharjah facility is a compelling reason to #switchtosharjah.

To discuss our services at Sharjah International Airport please call +971 65 734371 or email our FBO Services team on fbo.shj@gamaaviation.com

11

Gama Aviation JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

believe that we have a responsibility to operate and perform ‘We in an environmentally responsible way, and offer our clients as much ratified and best practice information as possible so they can make their own, educated decisions ’ .

We believe business aviation can be responsible.

We believe that business aviation can operate in a much more ethical and environmentally friendly way. We are constantly monitoring available technologies and also trust our carbon partner to advise us on the best practices going forward.

As such, we are now giving all our managed aircraft clients the ability to offset their aircrafts’ operational footprint. This will be on a voluntary basis, but we will provide all the data required to highlight how their emissions can be offset. We even offer the same ratified project that we invest in to our clients, to ensure the best offsetting impact.

We also include and discuss the concept of carbon offsetting with all our new aircraft management clients and ensure they are fully aware of how best to operate their aircraft missions.

We hope our managed clients feel the same.

We believe that we have a responsibility to operate and perform in an environmentally responsible way. We offer our clients as much ratified and best practice information as possible so they can make their own, educated decisions.

What about our charter operations?

Our charter team is equally as committed to ensuring we operate in the best possible way. Once the new update to our myairops operating system is complete we will offer, as part of every charter quotation and subsequent booking, the ability to offset each flight.

The calculations and associated costs

because we believe we need to.

We started our monitoring and internal processes more than two years ago to ensure we knew the whole process properly.

12

will automatically be sent to Carbon Footprint Ltd, so our clients can decide whether they wish to offset their specific charter mission.

Whilst we offer this service it is completely certified, ratified and operated by Carbon Footprint Ltd, and Gama Aviation makes no financial or benefit in kind from any of the processes.

So, by the close of this year all our existing business aviation managed clients will be notified on how best to offset their flights, all new managed clients will be offered, as part of contract discussions, the ability to offset their missions from contract outset, and all our business aviation charter operations will similarly be offered the opportunity to offset.

We will continue to engage with Carbon Footprint Ltd to monitor our own operational emissions to ensure we are hitting our own targets and to improve how we complete our business aviation services.

Radar

AIR

JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

Launched to promote the beauty and pageantry of pre-war handcrafted vessels, the inaugural Richard Mille Cup sets sail this month, chartering a course from Falmouth in England to Le Havre in France from June 1025. In all, 15 yachts drawn from the late 19th century to the 1930s will compete in schooner and cutter categories for the chance to hoist aloft a spectacular metre-high trophy designed by Garrard, jewellers to the British Royal Family for the last 300 years. “Classic yachts bear a living, breathing testimony to the highest values of workmanship, heritage and tradition passed on to us through the centuries,” says Richard Mille. “By creating this challenge, we aim to set sail through history and to bring this high-end craft very much back to life.”

14

15

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

EYEWEAR Who better than Nile Rogers to celebrate shot by fashion snapper Karim Sadli. In the decadence of the disco era by donning them, they pose in the full range of soughta pair of ‘chic’ shades? The legendary after styles, from timeless black sunglasses musician fronts Chanel’s 2023 springwith emblematic, quilted-effect arms or summer eyewear campaign alongside decorative chains, to retro aviators and Vivienne Rohner and HyunJi Shin, each the extravagantly oversized frames in pearly subject of retro, Polaroid-style portraiture cream and pink.

1

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

GUCCI

LINK TO LOVE Gucci’s latest fine jewellery collection bills itself as an exploration of modern romance, where notions of individualism and self-expression are at the forefront of sensibilities. Cue a bold selection of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings, many of which feature the collection’s

signature octagonal shape. Crafted in white, pink or yellow gold, the items feature different finishes, from studded to finely striped and exquisitely embellished with precious stones. Elsewhere, bracelets and necklaces of different lengths and thicknesses introduce a new chain link design.

2

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

OMEGA

SE AMAS TER AQ UA TERR A WORLDTIMER 2023 The Seamaster Aqua Terra Worldtimer has enjoyed several updates since its introduction in 2017. Now there are three new models: a titanium edition with a dial made entirely by laser ablation and two options in stainless steel. In addition to scratch-resistant ceramic bezels, all three

watches have something very special in common: the unique Worldtimer display.

At the centre of the dial, OMEGA has produced a vision of Earth, viewed from above the North Pole, by laser-ablating continents and colours on a grade 5 titanium surface.

3

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

ERDEM

WHITE COLLECTION First launched in 2021, ERDEM’s readyto-wear white collection continues to play on the tropes of romance and tradition, while building on the brand’s custom offering and history of creating bespoke pieces for brides, whether for a full look or worn as separates.

The new additions to the collection convey the fine craftmanship native to ERDEM’s atelier and consist of delicately embroidered organza gowns with oversized asymmetric bow detail, sequinned column dresses, and an elegant cloqué coat dress.

4

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

F E R R AGA MO

P R E - FA L L 2 0 2 3 “I want to explore what contemporary essentials are, from denim to eveningwear,” explains Ferragamo’s creative director, Maximilian Davis.

“To take classic pieces in the everyday wardrobe and twist or subvert them with textures and materials that make

them feel more modern, more playful and more unexpected.” Closet staple denim therefore plays a leading role, with an additional nod to the history of Salvatore Ferragamo, who created cowboy boots for the 1923 film The Covered Wagon. As such, gingham prints also find favour.

5

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

6

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

ROL L S-ROYCE

S T. T R O P E Z B L A C K B A D G E G H O S T Never let it be said that Rolls-Royce’s clients are shrinking violets. The luxury brand’s Black Badge was created for the daring, which is a neat way to describe the eyegrabbing St. Tropez orange that clads this commissioned Black Badge Ghost. There

are even matching orange brake callipers, adding a striking touch to the wheel finish, while the arresting hue is also used as an accent inside, complementing navy blue and exuberant Mandarin leather. Dare to be different, reap the rewards.

7

OB JECTS OF DESIRE

SICIS JEWELS

RIBBON GREEN RING SICIS Jewels has the ability to enchant, crafting dazzling, captivating pieces that marry traditional techniques to contemporary aesthetics, each an ode to meticulous attention to detail and exceptional artistry. That’s emphasised by the Ribbon Green collection, the basis

for which is a mesmerising green ribbon that appears weightless, effortlessly capturing the essence of nature’s beauty while evoking a sense of grace and movement. The varying shades of green add depth and dimension, creating a lively interplay of light and shadow.

8

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

Critique JUNE 2023 : ISSUE 141

Film Simulant Dir. April Mullen Set in the near future, a brilliant global hacker unleashes an A.I. uprising when he removes all restrictions governing android simulants’ thoughts and capabilities, triggering a government manhunt.

AT BEST: ‘A mixture of a heart-breaking love story, sci-fi action. and ticking-clock thriller,’ — Katie Hogan, Filmhounds Magazine AT WORST: ‘A sometimes confused and always lazy pastiche of warmed-over ideas.’ — Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail

Padre Pio Dir. Abel Ferrara

AIR

The aftermath of WWI sees the first free election in Italy threaten to tear a village apart. Against this backdrop, a friar battles personal demons and spiritual anguish.

AT BEST: ‘It is a minor film, but interesting.’ — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian AT WORST: ‘In cinematic confession, no number of Hail Marys could make amends for this.’ — Robbie Collin, The Telegraph

Scarlet Dir. Pietro Marcello A lonely young woman who dreams of greater possibilities is seduced to follow the prophecy of a witch she meets in the woods.

AT BEST: ‘The characters and images are illustrated with a fierce and breathtaking beauty.’ — Sophie Monks Kaufman, Little White Lies AT WORST: ‘The film drifts so far into weightless fantasy that it practically dissipates before one’s eyes.’ — Keith Watson, Slant Magazine

Follow Her Dir. Sylvia Caminer Posing questions about the ethical boundaries of social media, an influencer is hired by a mysterious client to write the ending of a screenplay in a remote cabin.

AT BEST: ‘It’s muddled and messy in places, but there’s a lot of fun here.’

— Sharai Bohannon, Dread Central AT WORST: ‘A clumsy, incoherent, and heavy-handed attempt to comment on a mountain of issues.’ — Alejandra Martinez, We Got This Covered 18

Critique JUNE 2023 : ISSUE 141

Books

Brandon Taylor’s The Late Americans depicts a loose circle of lovers and friends who encounter, confront, and provoke one another in a volatile year of self-discovery. “For all their disagreements and misunderstandings and incompatibilities, [Taylor’s characters] are all attempting to make peace with the cosmic bêtise of existence, to figure out how to live without compromising everything they value. It’s beautiful and wrenching to watch them try,” writes Charles Arrowsmith for the Boston Globe.

Says Harper’s Bazar: “Taylor develops his characters so precisely, they feel like close friends: recognisable, sometimes infuriating, and always worth following to the book’s last page.” Taylor’s apparent “sixth sense” is hailed by Booklist, which suggests it allows him to, “create scenes readers will visualise with ease. At the beginning and ending of things and in confronting gradations of power, and class, ambivalence pervades.

Lovers of character studies and fine

writing will enjoy getting lost in this.”

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair simply says it is a “Finely rendered” novel.

In the late Javier Marías spy thriller, Tomás Nevinson, a retired agent for the British Secret Service is brought back in from the cold for one last assignment. “Marías mesmerises us again and we are swept on by the long, powerful swells of his prose,” writes Lucy Hughes-Hallett in The Guardian. “This is a spy thriller, but it reads like one transposed into music by Philip Glass. A many-layered meditation on mortality and memory and free will and its opposite.” Alex Preston, for the Financial Times, hails Marias, who passed last year, as “One of the most acclaimed Spanish authors of his generation, Marías has always been interested in the spaces between genres… a writer who loves the propulsiveness of the thriller, the page-turning compulsion that drives a reader through Eric Ambler or John le Carré,” and says Tomás Nevinson is “brilliant on the daily

vexations of the spy’s life. There’s always a profound interest in the human condition in Marías, the sense of an author who uses the tools of postmodernism to ask deep questions about the way we engage with each other and perceive ourselves.”

A young woman gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others pretends to be someone she’s not in Emma Cline’s The Guest. “With her propulsive third book, Cline confirms her reputation as the literary prophet of women on the brink… Dreamlike and disaffected, this charged study of class and gender lingers like a bad sunburn,” says Esquire. “Cline is a master of depicting the nefarious and atmospheric menace that often lurks adjacent to our most glittery environments, and she does so here with subdued but no less cutting aplomb,” reviews Vogue, while The Wall Street Journal hails Cline’s descriptions as “frequently bracing and acute, sharpened to icepicks by a stance of amoral neutrality.”

19

AIR

Summer Loving T

Transform each shopping day into an extraordinary experience at The Bicester Collection

he summer season is in full swing at The Bicester Collection, the Europe-wide group of multifaceted shopping destinations, housed just a short hop from powerhouse cities including Paris (La Vallée Village), London (Bicester Village), Milan (Fidenza Village), Munich (Ingolstadt Village), Madrid (Las Rozas Village), Dublin (Kildare Village), Barcelona (La Roca Village), Frankfurt (Wertheim Village), plus Brussels, Antwerp and Cologne (Maasmechelen Village).

Indeed, fly your jet to any of these vibrant villages and you’ll place yourself at the heart of an exciting cultural dialogue between fashion, art, gastronomy and music, underpinned by exceptional opportunities for a shopping splurge.

Just outside of Paris, La Vallée Village celebrates summer with F.A.M.E. (Food, Art, Mode, Entertainment), a colourful festival dedicated to joie de vivre. From now until September 10, an unprecedented 15-week programme of artistic and cultural events invites visitors to indulge in unique immersive experiences via augmented reality, master classes, workshops, performances and exhibitions featuring star names, enthusiasts and experts drawn from each

20

strand of the cultural span. That means reliving some of the finest moments of fashion in film via an engaging VR experience, and tasting delicacies prepared by some of the world’s best chefs, including celebrity pastry maestro Desty Brami, whose renowned desserts are sure to summon you to his seasonal pop-up of Madeleine by Ferrières.

Don’t leave here without snagging a TikTok favourite, the New York Roll.

Touch down in the Spanish capital and you can head first to Las Rozas Village, a few minutes from the Salamanca district in Madrid. This is a place designed for the style set. Home to boutiques of the best brands, this summer, Las Rozas will also host UVNT ART FAIR X LAS ROZAS VILLAGE, a worthy project dedicated to new contemporary art. Long evenings here are best enjoyed on its famous Summer Terrace, where you can enjoy the best sunset in all of Madrid backed by live music and an expertly crafted cocktail.

Next, hop over to the coast, where La Roca Village in Barcelona will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a very special collaboration with the artist TV Boy, who will transform the Village into an open-air art gallery to reflect on the values that make us all more human.

In addition, music and fashion ensure a summer afternoon to cherish.

Already in its 20th year, Fidenza Village in Milan continues to position itself as the perfect Italian summer shopping destination, thanks to late-night shopping every Thursday, an always attractive mix of brands and restaurants, and an extensive entertainment programme of live performances.

A must-visit this season, Fidenza Village has launched the third edition of its StreetArt Festival. Curated by one of the most respected names on the Italian street art scene, Luca Vollono — also known as Lucamaleonte — this year’s iteration will feature a number of up-andcoming artists, whose work will enrich the Village’s art collection as part of a gallerystyle walk-through, brought to life by specially created audio guides. The audio guides, which are full of anecdotes about the artists and how they created their artworks, will be available on Spotify, in Italian, English, Chinese, and Korean.

Factor in that each Village also offers up its world-renowned labels at up to 60% (or more) of their original price, and you’ll see why the European Villages of The Bicester Collection are this summer’s hottest ticket.

AIR X THE BICESTER COLLECTION

21

Art & Design JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

Living Colour

Yevonde was not only a pioneer of colour photography but also a champion of female emancipation. A new exhibition celebrates her groundbreaking work WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

AIR

T

he life of Yevonde Middleton, known also as Madame Yevonde or simply Yevonde, was colourful in every sense of the word. “A bold innovator who defined what it means to see and be seen,” is how Yana Peel, Global Head of Arts and Culture at Chanel, describes the late generational photography talent, a pioneer of her craft who is credited with changing the direction of portraiture through her innovative use of colour.

The Chanel Culture Fund has partnered with London’s National Portrait Gallery — reopening on June 22 after the most extensive renovation in its long history — to present Yevonde: Life and Colour, a major exhibition dedicated to the photographer’s catalogue of acclaimed work across a 60-year career.

The exhibition is curated by Clare Freestone, who is in no doubt as to what was distinctive about Yevonde’s style.

“The way her unique and vivacious personality infused her work. The way that she was always seeking to innovate.

She experimented with technique and threw her ideas at the process, which, because it was complex, could have been prohibitive for some.”

Born in south London in 1893 to a prosperous family, Yevonde’s early passion was the suffragette movement, an activist organisation she joined upon returning to the UK from studying abroad. Although she left it — apparently not in tune with its militant tactics — its spirit never left her, fueling her belief that “to be independent was the greatest thing in life” and propelling her towards photography, a career she felt could offer both financial and professional independence — if successful.

To ensure that would be the case, Yevonde set about learning from the best, taking an apprenticeship at the Mayfair studio of Lallie Charles, the

22

These page, clockwise from left: Lady Dorothy Warrender as Ceres, by Yevonde (1935), given by the photographer, 1971; Dorothy Gisborne (Pratt) as Psyche, by Yevonde (1935), purchased with support from the Portrait Fund, 2021; Edward James, by Yevonde (1933), purchased with support from the Portrait Fund, 2021. All images © National Portrait Gallery, London Opposite page: self-portrait with Vivex One-Shot Camera, by Yevonde (1937), purchased with support from the Portrait Fund, 2021 © National Portrait Gallery, London

‘ Yevonde wanted to upset the balance’

23

AIR

leading society photographer of the day, from whom she gleaned knowledge of how best to handle aristocratic and sophisticated clients while also developing her practical skills.

“When Yevonde left Lallie Charles’ studio, she understood that her tutor’s style – soft ‘Edwardian’ flattery – was on the way out,” says Freestone. At a time when women were growing more independent, Yevonde decided to set up on her own, taking a loan from her father to purchase expensive premises in central London. “However, she had only taken one photograph with Charles and so she set about experimenting,” continues Freestone.

“Her early studies do emulate Charles, but it is not long before she is trying more spare and strong compositions, also dabbling in Pictorialism, with work published in Photograms of the Year.

“When colour came onto the scene her imagination really took off, and Surrealism fused with sheer experimentation influences her style.”

Commercial colour photography became increasingly important during the 1930s and one process of printing reigned supreme: Vivex. It employed three negative plates — cyan, magenta and yellow, for the full colour range — which were exposed and processed separately, giving Yevonde the freedom to indulge in different forms of colour manipulation.

“The Vivex process, and the equipment required to make a successful print, is extensive,” says Freestone, “Although prints were made at the first colour lab for professional photographers in the UK, Yevonde had to ensure that she followed steps in order for a decent print to be achieved. She understood this process well and pushed and manipulated it.

Enough for the Vivex printers to complain about heavy greens or blues. But this was exactly what she wanted to achieve — she wanted to upset the balance!”

Addressing the Royal Photographic Society in 1932, the first woman to do so, Yevonde made this desire clear: “If we are going to have colour photographs, for heaven’s sake let’s have a riot of colour, none of your wishy washy hand-tinted effects.”

Following extensive research, Yevonde: Life and Colour will feature many new discoveries from the photographer’s oeuvre, including a range of sitters 24

‘

The way that she was always seeking to innovate made her style unique

and subjects – debutantes and royals, writers and movie stars – captured in vibrant colour. They include one of the most photographed women of the 1930s, Margaret Sweeny, who would later become embroiled in one of Britain’s most notorious divorce cases after assuming the title of Duchess of Argyll.

Also featured is a previously unseen self-portrait from 1937, captured in her trademark vivid tricolour alongside her outsized one-shot camera.

It is her sittings with the era’s leading socialites that account for Yevonde’s most pioneering series of colour portraits.

Titled Goddesses, it saw these prominent female figures adopt the guises of classical myth, including Dorothy, Duchess of Wellington as Hecate, Lady Anne Rhys as the goddess Flora, and Lady Milbanke as Penthelisa, Queen of the Amazons.

“Many of the sitters were regulars at Yevonde’s studio, others were friends or acquaintances,” says Freestone. “Some had a costume in readiness from a fancy dress ball held earlier in 1935, and all would have entered into this collaboration believing it to be great fun, I am sure.

“Yevonde’s photographs had been receiving attention since her first solo exhibition in 1932. I’m sure that the offer to portray a powerful woman

’

from mythology would have appealed to these great beauties, of varied and interesting lives, and dressing up and colourful fashion were very much in vogue. The artistic results were reviewed as ‘startling’; who wouldn’t want to be depicted in this way?”

One surprising new discovery unearthed during research is an addition to Goddesses. The previously unknown element of the series depicts Dorothy Gisborne (Pratt) as Psyche, Greek goddess of the soul, complete with butterfly wings.

“Yevonde’s originality demonstrated through these photographs traverses almost a century and provides a vision so fresh and relatable,” enthuses Freestone. ‘It is enthralling.”

Yevonde’s motto was “be original or die”. Having studied her work so intently, does Freestone believe she lived to this maxim? “She certainly did. This statement was in response to the threat to studio photography in the 1930s, due to the increased demand for reportage and competition from department store photographers. She understood that fashion changed and that photography should reflect and capture the zeitgeist. She called for innovation, and her work is testament that she practised what she preached.”

Opposite page: Vivien Leigh,

by Yevonde (1936, printed 2022-3), purchased with support from the Portrait Fund, 2021 © National Portrait Gallery, London This page, clockwise from top left: Joan Maude, by Yevonde (1932), given by the photographer, 1971; John Gielgud as Richard II in Richard of Bordeaux, by Yevonde (1933), given by the photographer; Margaret Sweeny (Whigham, later Duchess of Argyll), by Yevonde (1938), purchased with support from the Portrait Fund, 2021. All images © National Portrait Gallery, London

25

A W O R L D A PA RT Located in Dubai, Tilal Al Ghaf is home to some of the region’s most imposing and striking residences.

Rising from an impressive crystal blue lagoon, Lanai Islands will provide estates designed by some of the world’s finest architects and interior designers, redefining the very concept of luxury living, reserved for the few ART DIRECTOR: KERRI BENNETT PHOTOGRAPHER: SAM RAWADI LOCATION: TILAL AL GHAF BY MAJID AL FUTTAIM

24

AIR

27

Stylist Chloe Bosher Hair and Make-up Elena Zhosan Model Ana Carolina and Adrian C signatureelement.com Clothing Hermès Shoes: Hermès & Santoni

Jewellery

AIR

JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

Star Of The Show Why Chopard's high-jewellery masterpieces were the real stars of this year’s Cannes Film Festival WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

28

Jewellery SEPTEMBER 2022 : ISSUE 132

29

AIR

‘

L

Scheufele retains an undimmed passion for sketching the extraordinary

ast month’s staging of the annual Cannes Film Festival — the 76th time it has attracted film’s finest to Cannes’ historic La Croisette — saw the world’s media eagerly await the appearance of Johnny Depp. Unofficially shunned

by Hollywood (fallout from the claims made by his ex-wife Amber Heard and upheld by a British court in Depp’s unsuccessful libel case against the UK’s leading tabloid), this was Depp’s return to the spotlight, the big league, and he lapped it up — blowing kisses, shaking hands, and briefly dabbing at his eyes. The film he was there to promote, Jeanne Du Barry, would later receive a seven-minute standing ovation — cue more emotion.

Emotion of a more edifying nature was generated by Chopard, whose annual red carpet showing of exceptional artistry was, as ever, showstopping.

30

Indeed, Chopard at Cannes is a love story fit for film, and it began way back in 1998. That was the year the brand’s artistic director and co-president, Caroline Scheufele, was invited by Pierre Viot (then the festival’s director) to redesign the Palme d'Or, the coveted trophy that has been presented to the director of the festival’s best film since 1955. But it’s another trophy that best emphasises Chopard’s deep passion for film.

An initiative of Scheufele’s, the Trophée Chopard — a silver-coated gold film reel, set on a glass base that she also designed — was created to honour rising talents within the film industry, ensuring that emerging stars would not be overshadowed by their megawatt counterparts, who descend on the South of France each May to soak up the glamour as much as the sun.

There is simply nothing to overshadow

’

Scheufele’s other creative homage to Cannes, the always-challenging, evermagnificent Red Carpet Collection, an annual bounty of beautiful high jewellery creations. She debuted it in 2007 to mark 10 years of Chopard as the festival’s official partner. That year was also the 60th edition of the festival, a milestone that gave Scheufele the impetus to challenge herself to create 60 one-of-a-kind pieces.

As a testament to her undimmed passion for sketching the extraordinary, each year Scheufele ups by one the total number of pieces in the collection to keep in step with the festival’s timeline.

For good measure, she also dares to design around a different theme.

This year’s Red Carpet Collection therefore comprises 76 remarkable pieces, each one designed around the theme of art. A fitting way to describe their rare beauty.

Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, literature, dance, and cinema were the stimuli for Scheufele’s extraordinary expressions, ideas shaped by both the beauty of the natural world and enriching encounters on her numerous travels, and thrillingly given form by the highly skilled artisans inside Chopard’s storied workshop, their expert knowledge passed down from their predecessors, their practical skills time-honoured but always sharpened to cut a new way through a technical challenge.

For this collection, new materials such as titanium were employed alongside novel stone-cutting techniques and, as always, a dash of avant-garde spirit.

These one-of-a-kind creations are given due respect by the painstaking selection of the precious stones that grace them: colour, volume, transparency, only the most

extraordinary examples of each are used — while adhering to Chopard’s overarching sustainability principles.

The most extraordinary example is the 127-carat yellow sapphire that sits at the heart of a magnificent ring, where it’s cradled by antique-style figurines hand-sculpted from gold and emanating from a diamond-set base.

Another is a beautiful pear-shaped tanzanite, which weighs more than 32 carats and dangles from a necklace crafted from tinted titanium, while jaw dropping is the Fairmined-certified ethical 18-carat white and yellow gold necklace, set with pear-shaped (101.86 cts), marquise-cut (116.30 cts) and brilliant-cut (2.26 cts) yellow diamonds, as well as pear-shaped (43.40 cts) and brilliant-cut (1.94 cts) white diamonds.

A pair of enchanting earrings and a stunning ring complete the set.

Scheufele’s passion for the performing

arts is indulged in a necklace and matching pair of earrings, both of which make a feature of dainty diamond corollas, designed to evoke a visual comparison with the tutus worn by ballet dancers. Music, meanwhile, is reimagined through a Fairminedcertified ethical white gold choker, delicately set into rows of briolettecut diamonds to resemble the lines of a musical score. And a glorious burst of colour characterises a cuff bracelet in Fairmined-certified ethical 18-carat white gold and titanium, set with an oval-shaped garnet (12.11 cts), oval-shaped mandarine garnets (10.79 cts), rose-cut yellow-orange sapphires (129.55 cts), brilliantcut yellow sapphires (1.01 cts), and brilliant-cut diamonds (12.12 cts).

Johnny Depp may have hogged the headlines, but the biggest star at Cannes will always be Chopard.

31

Timepieces

AIR

APRIL 2023: ISSUE 139

The Art Of Time At Watches and Wonders, Van Cleef & Arpels revealed a dazzling display of timepieces rich in artistry. Nicolas Bos, President & CEO of the storied maison, details what sets it apart WORDS: JOHN THATCHER 32

Timepieces APRIL JUNE 2023: 2023: ISSUE ISSUE 141 139

33

AIR

T

ime waits for no one, it is true, but the artisans at Van Cleef & Arpels are able to capture it, shaping it to their will by marrying masterful watchmaking to jewellery savoir-faire and crafting a unique vision of timekeeping.

This year’s Watches and Wonders was the latest invitation for Van Cleef & Arpels to showcase its artistry, but also one for the maison to “make sure that we are present in the world and environment of watchmaking,” says Nicolas Bos, President & CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, evidently aware that it’s jewellery for which the maison is more commonly known.

“This exposure is particularly important for an approach like ours, which is quite specific, and was rather unique a few years ago: very feminine, very narrative, very jewelled. So, quite unusual in a world that was mostly technical and masculine.”

It was far more than a few years ago that Van Cleef & Arpels crafted its first timepiece, more than a century in fact, with chatelaines and pocket watches appearing in collections from the maison’s very foundation in 1906.

The unique approach Bos speaks of positions Van Cleef & Arpels at a point where jewellery and watchmaking traditions combine. Is there a particular timepiece that he feels best characterises this approach? “The Lady Féerie Or Rose is a good example,” states Bos of a watch that depicts an artful fairy pointing out the minutes with her magic wand “You see the jewellery expertise with a fullpaved rose gold case, the plique-à-jour enamel on the fairy’s wings, creating a unique shade of pink, and the engraved mother-of-pearl background. And you see the watchmaking know-how via the self-winding mechanism, jumping hours, and retrograde minutes.”

Van Cleef’s desire to craft the unique has made for some of the most notable creations in the history of timepieces. Secret watches account for one such style, for which the dial is hidden until discretely revealed.

Van Cleef & Arpels has made secret watches since the 1920s, most famously in the form of the Ludo bracelet, created in 1934 and named on account of Ludo being the nickname of the maison’s co-founder, Louis Arpels. At this year’s Watches and Wonders, three new interpretations of this classic timepiece

34

‘

In our increasingly digital world we remain very sensitive to masterpieces crafted by artisans

’

were unveiled. Two combinations of materials — rose gold with either diamonds or pink sapphires — decorate a new size of watch, its dial revealed in guilloché white mother-of-pearl, while a third iteration has been crafted in homage to the 1941 Ludo Hexagone Macaron secret watch, for which its dial is hidden behind a motif adorned with Mystery Set emeralds, the maison’s prized and patented technique. The Ludo’s “brick-pattern meshwork bracelet imitates a finely woven fabric,” outlines Bos of the couture-like technique used. “The mesh links are assembled by hand, one by one, to offer optimal articulation and flexibility.”

Elsewhere, six new jewellery secret watches have been added to the Perlée collection, each with a different precious or ornamental stone, the likes of rubies and sapphires, rose quartz and chalcedony. Designed to be worn as long necklaces, their inspiration resides in 17th-century pocket watches.

The Mystery Set, introduced in 1933, allows for precious stones to be set with no attachment visible. So complex is the technique, that in the Van Cleef & Arpels’ workshop only a few master jewellers hold its know-how. “Innovation has always nurtured Van Cleef & Arpels’ creativity. Our quest for technical excellence gives us higher chances of successfully narrating our stories,” says Bos. “Furthermore, the maison is constantly striving to improve the way its pieces are made. For instance, the Mystery Set has been perfected and enriched, giving birth to the Navette Mystery Set [using marquise-cut stones to create a 3D effect] and the Vitrail Mystery Set [which conceals the mounting on both sides of a creation].

“The goal is always to respect our traditions while introducing a contemporary approach to the fields of jewellery and watchmaking.”

Respecting traditions brings us to the field of automaton, a moving

mechanical device and a domain in which Van Cleef & Arpels’ has excelled since its founding, creating a series of what it terms Extraordinary Objects following several years of research and development. This year’s Watches and Wonders saw three more of these handcrafted creations brought to life, building on what Bos believes is a “global interest in traditional watchmaking and the mechanical arts. In our increasingly digital world we remain very sensitive to masterpieces crafted by artisans, and to the genuine emotions that they convey.”

Standing 50cm high, the new Planétarium automaton depicts six planets and the Moon, all fashioned from a combination of precious and ornamental stones, and each – thanks to an ingenious, highly complex mechanical movement – set to complete an orbit at their genuine speed of rotation: 88 days for Mercury, 224 days for Venus, 365 days for the Earth, 687 days for Mars, 11.86 years for Jupiter, and 29.5 years for Saturn. The hours, meanwhile, are indicated by a shooting star clad in gold, diamonds, Mystery Set-sapphires and emeralds, which appears from a small door to circle the dial. “The Planétarium automaton regroups a variety of crafts and inspires a dual emotion, between immersion in the universe and the beauty of craftsmanship,” enthuses Bos. In many creative industries, traditional crafts are dying out without interest from the next generation. Not so at Van Cleef & Arpels. “We are a living heritage company with a long-standing commitment to the transmission of know-how,” outlines Bos. “Thus, we contribute to the preservation of French jewellery savoir-faire, which has shone throughout the world for several centuries. We make sure that the training of the younger generation is at the heart of our métiers and workshops. We welcome people on apprenticeships, who will learn alongside experienced people, working in pairs.

“That is also why we created the de Mains en Mains (from Hands to Hands) initiative in 2021, targeting secondary school students and the general public to offer them a chance to dive into the world of jewellery and gain hands-on experience.”

Through such initiatives, Van Cleef & Arpels’ poetic take on time will continue to dance through the decades.

Opening page, clockwise from top: Perlée secret pendant watch; wristwatch, 1952; Ludo secret watch; lapel watch, 1924; Lady Féerie Or Rose; Secret de Coccinelle watch; Perlée watch; Planétarium automaton Next page: Ludo secret watch This page: Perlée secret pendant watch and artisans at work in the VCA workshop

35

Priyanka Chopra Jonas on performing stunts, dealing with inexplicable pressures, and empowering other females to follow in her footsteps

AIR

INTERVIEW: LUCY ALLEN ADDITIONAL WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

36

37

AIR

D

espite the richly choreographed, high-octane action sequences that announce — with a bang — the opening of Amazon Prime’s spy series Citadel, it takes Priyanka Chopra Jonas all of a few seconds to steal the screen, walking into shot dressed to thrill (and, as it happens, kill) like a smouldering screen siren throwback to Hollywood’s golden age.

In her role as Citadel agent Nadia Sinh, she’s joined by Richard Madden’s character, Mason Kane, the ass-kicking cohorts setting about their bruising business as equal partners on screen and, more importantly, off. A fact that Chopra Jonas is keen to acknowledge.

“I’ve been working in the entertainment industry for 22 years now, and I’ve done almost 70 features and two TV shows.

But Citadel is the first time in my career that I have had pay parity with my male co-actor. And I wonder, did that happen because I had a contract with one of the very few female decision makers in Hollywood? Would it have been a different conversation if a woman didn’t make that decision? I’ve done many movies in which I’ve been co-lead, but the ease with which Amazon Studios said, ‘That’s what you deserve. That’s just fair.’ And I was like, ‘You’re right, it is fair!’ It’s the first time I’ve heard that.”

It’s a train of thought she’s not going to jump from. “There are so many challenges that women face in the entertainment industry — I’m laughing about this, but it’s kind of nuts — putting in the same amount of time, making the same investment and working just as hard but getting paid much less. Why is there a difference if they’re playing the same parts?

But that wasn’t even a conversation until women had representation in positions like Jen’s [Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios]. Having women in front of the camera, behind the camera,in high positions. That’s when change happens. That’s when someone says, ‘That’s not right. They’re co-leads, they should be paid the same and should be treated the same.’

One of the few female studio heads, Citadel was Salke’s grand idea and it’s a ground-breaking one. A ‘mothership’ series that has several native language satellite series set across the globe — the Italian Alps, India, Spain and Mexico — each feeding into the main

38

show. “It’s truly ambitious and one of its kind,” says Chopra Jonas. “The show is predominantly in the English language, but as a global series our characters travel the world and feature in stories scripted by native writers. Italians write the Italian show, people who speak Hindi write the Hindi show — but their stories connect with ours. That has never happened in entertainment. And she [Salke] just called them [directors, the Russo brothers] and was like, ‘OK, I want to create this global franchise of completely original IP in multiple countries at the same time.’ Not ambitious at all! But they were up for the challenge.”

Chopra Jonas was also up for the challenge, which proved particularly gruelling on her body. “It took a lot of training, five days a week for one and a half years. It’s difficult to stay disciplined. That was really hard. Richard [Madden] and I both used to wake up at four o’clock in the morning and train before we even started filming.”

For some of the most physical stunts, Chopra Jonas was replaced with a stunt double, but she was determined that they would also act. “I did a bunch of action Bollywood movies back in the day and used to train with the stunt team. But I kind of learned to trust my body to do my stunts because I wanted to look as good as the boys. When I see stunt doubles that come in and just do the fight, they don’t think like the character would.

So if I get thrown across the table and I land, how would a stunt double turn around and look? The body changes if you’re scared, the body changes if you’re angry, the body language changes depending on what you’re thinking.

So now I work very closely with my stunt doubles. I usually do most of my stuff first so that they can see how my character reacts to being punched. I’ve just trained myself that way where I have to have control of my reactions if someone else is doing something for me.

I’m very protective of my characters!”

Chopra Jonas describes her character in Citadel as different to any other she has played. “She’s the toughest one in the room. She’s always the one who’s a leader, taking the decisions, making sure everyone gets home safe. And then you see her vulnerabilities when she’s alone. And I felt the burden of her character was just so much fun for me to chew on. As long as I’ve been working

explain to ‘youI can’t how it feels

when you’re sitting down on your couch and you just feel the world coming at you because people have forgotten that you’re human

’

in America, I have sought work that helps me showcase my diversity, and Nadia really gave me an opportunity to showcase a character that has depth, is strong, but also vulnerable. She’s such a prism of so many feelings and thoughts.”

A driven character who shows her vulnerability when alone, there are obvious parallels between Nadia Sinh and the woman who portrays her. “I have been told many things which are very difficult to hear. And in my job the pressure is so intense that you can’t really show the chinks in your armour,” reveals Chopra Jonas. “Yesterday, somebody told me that I wasn’t sample size, and I was hurt and cried to my husband and my team about the situation. Why is the fact that I’m not sample size considered a problem? I’ve also had times where I may have said something and it’s been

misconstrued, and you see people saying the meanest and the nastiest things, not just about me, but about my child, about my family members. And I think sometimes people forget that you’re even human. Such pressures are inexplicable.

I can’t explain to you how it feels when you’re sitting down on your couch and you just feel the world coming at you because people have forgotten that you’re human.”

So how does she cope? “What you have to do, is surround yourself with people who love you. Surround yourself with people who care about you, people who want to see you smile, people who want to see you enriched. I can count those people on my hands. But I know when I’m feeling like that, or I’m made to feel like that, I don’t need to wake up still feeling like that. Your family and friends are your real wealth. Your real strength.

I think that’s what gives me a sense of balance and sanity. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to survive in this extremely mean, opinionated world sometimes.”

Born in 1982 to military physician parents, Chopra Jonas was catapulted to fame after winning 2000’s Miss World title. Film offers came flooding in, paving the way for a successful Bollywood career, Hollywood hits, and latterly the launch of her own production company. “I was turning 30, and my mom sat me down and said, ‘You’re too old for the business, I think.’ And I said, ‘What do you know about the business, you’re a doctor?’

She was like, ‘I hear that in the movie business, the guys want to work with younger girls. So once you’re 30, you’re going to have to have another avenue for revenue.’ And at the ripe old age of 30 [laughs], she put a seed in my head.

39

Having women in ‘front of the camera,

behind the camera, in high positions. That’s when change happens

“It was my mother who named my company Purple Pebble, because purple is the colour of royalty in India, and she thinks I’m a queen. And ‘pebble’ because we’re a small company and we wanted to be the shoulders for other people.”

Chopra Jonas now has a first-look deal with Amazon, giving the streaming giant first rights to any creative content she makes. “Jen [Salke] had this unbelievable faith in the ideas that I discussed with her and we’re now developing so many shows together, which puts females front and centre, both on screen and in writers’ rooms. And diverse women from around the world because, to me, diversity is global.”

Creating an environment in which women can excel is of paramount importance.

“For such a long time, there have been so few opportunities for women. If you look at women in most professions, you’ll see fewer women in higher positions. And as soon as a woman gains a position of power, there’s so much pressure on her to be the smartest in the room, or to have the wittiest answer, because she’s the only one there. So I think every time a woman takes a step forward, she should turn around and pull someone else up with her.

“What we’re talking about is being able to have equal opportunity, to be able to have the doors open for us the way they did for guys. In my industry, it gives me so much joy to see so much female-onfemale support. I’m working with so many female actors who didn’t have leading roles written for them and decided to become producers or writers and do it themselves. There is empowerment, and now we are partnering together and making movies together.

“Don’t worry about looking for precedent in what our voices are demanding right now, in the change that our voices are demanding. We can’t look for a precedent because there isn’t one.

Our generation will set the precedent for the next generation of girls.”

40

Credit: Lucy Allen/The Interview People

AIR

’

This page: Still from Prom, 2011

41

AIR

Celebrity and royal portrait photographer Alexi Lubomirski – a prince himself – on capturing the biggest names

WORDS: MELISSA TWIGG 42

43

the resounding response of “Me”.

Luckily, Lubomirski has the natural confidence and easy charm of someone who has lived an unusually glamorous life. In fact, if a novelist created a character like him, a good editor would likely suggest they tone it down.

Born to a British-Peruvian mother and a French-Polish father, he grew up between Botswana and Paris and went to an English boarding school.

Next up, New York, where he still lives and where he launched a fashion photography career under Mario Testino before becoming the portraittaker of choice for major celebrities and royalty. Oh, and his full title, inherited through his father, is His Serene Highness Prince Alexi Lubomirski.

Phew. Although good looks and a Mills & Boon backstory aren’t quite enough to sustain a two and a half decade career — and part of his success comes down to intuitively knowing what his subjects need from him.

“Some girls want to flirt with you, some guys want to flirt with you; some guys want to show you that they’re alpha on the set,” he says, over Zoom

My assistant had to ‘nudge me to take the

photograph because I was so in awe of what she was doing

’

These pages, clockwise from left: Jerry Hall and Thierry Mugler, Paris 1996. © Helmut Newton Foundation; Claudia Lynx 1995. Prêt à Porter Fall/Winter 1995-96 collection.

Courtesy and © Helmut Newton Foundation; Haute couture Spring/Summer 1997 collection, painted latex dress, Fritz Kok; Yasmin Le Bon, London, 1997. Haute Couture Fall/Winter 199798 collection © Alan Strutt

44

Credit: © Melissa Twigg / Telegraph Media Group Limited 2023

AIR

A

lexi Lubomirski is not easily rattled. The photographer has spent his two-decade career shooting celebrities like Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow – but even his relaxed demeanour sounds like it was shaken by the production that is a royal wedding.

As official photographer for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s marriage in 2018, he was charged with getting not only portraits of the couple but a group photograph with the extended family, the bridesmaids and pageboys.

It was one of the most stressful moments of his career, not least because courtiers had warned him in advance that Prince Philip wasn’t a fan of having his picture taken; equally, he had to corral ten under10s into looking at the camera.

With the children proving to be a handful, Lubomirski, 47, eventually went up to the late Queen and promised he wouldn’t be more than five minutes; she smiled and said, “I’m not the one you need to worry about.”

In the end, he got the shot by asking, “Who likes Smarties?” to

45

46

AIR

from his house in upstate New York.

“The big trick is to get them to forget they are in front of a camera by throwing a few jokes in, and catching a tiny moment when they’re disarmed.”

Mega-stars are rarely the ones to arrive with an entourage or demand special treatment. Despite this, the only other occasion he was rattled was when he photographed Julia Roberts for the first time.

“I had to bring a couple of T-shirts as I sweated right through them. Although, really, she creates this fantastic familial feeling on set — and all you have to do is say something that makes her laugh and you’ve got the shot.”

Lubomirski has gone on to work with Roberts numerous times for magazines including Elle, Marie Claire and Harper’s Bazaar — and allegedly, Meghan Markle hired him after seeing one of these shoots.

Another trick is to give his A-listers a character. On a Harper’s Bazaar shoot with Kate Winslet, he asked her to imagine she was waiting in a Parisian apartment for her lover, who was late; as Winslet leaned against the mantlepiece and turned her face into a mixture of excited, anxious and seductive, he felt chills run up his arms.

“My assistant had to nudge me to take the photograph because I was so in awe of what she was doing.”

Generally, British actors win in the fun stakes, and one of his favourite people to work with is Ewan McGregor, who is as happy to hop around on set in bunny ears as he is to pose in a suit.

“I desperately miss how good British people are at laughing at themselves,” he says. “You quickly learn in America not to take the piss out of other people — whereas in Britain it’s a sign of rapport.”

Lubomirski speaks with an English accent and that, mixed with his royal connections and his successful career in what he describes as “clean-slate” America, made him the ideal choice for the status-conscious Duke and Duchess of Sussex (he took their engagement photos, their wedding pictures and their first family-of-four Christmas card).

Before collaborating with big-name subjects, Lubomirski finds points in common to chat about on set. With Harry, Botswana was the obvious choice — but it sounds like the Duke of Sussex was more interested in honing

‘

With Julia, all you have to do is say something that makes her laugh and you’ve got the shot his burgeoning photographic skills.

In fact, the Princess of Wales appears to have some competition on her hands. “Harry is really interested in photography,” says Lubomirski.

“He takes a lot of great black and white pictures. I talked to him about different apps to use to create the perfect picture. I was definitely giving him ideas.”

Watch out fellow celebrity photographer Brooklyn Beckham, with his reportage of elephants.

The prince-on-prince professional relationship began on the grounds of Windsor Castle in late 2017 when Lubomirski shot the all-important engagement images that would act as Meghan’s royal coming-out.

“Every time they looked at each other I almost felt awkward. I kept thinking, ‘This is so intimate, should I even be here for this?’ Being around them was very intoxicating.’’

’

Opening page: Alexi Lubomirski Previous pages, clockwise from bottom left: Victoria Beckham; Jennifer Aniston; Jessica Chastain These pages: Julia Roberts

47

48

AIR

While the rest of the press pack was kept at arm’s length, he spent hours with them. “I’m cheesy and I love taking pictures of people in love.”

I ask if being a prince changed the dynamic between himself and the royal couple and Lubomirski laughs and says, “No”, seven times in a row. “It’s not like there’s a secret handshake between princes. We’re not masons.”

Although Harry and Meghan aren’t his only British royal connections.

In 2018, Lubomirski photographed Charles and Camilla in Clarence House for Vanity Fair. Mostly, they talked about lavender — how to grow it, the different varieties and the soothing effects of it — but alongside this, Lubomirski noticed how happy the now King and Queen seemed in each other’s company.

“They laughed and turned to each other all the time, like boyfriend and girlfriend. You would never have thought they had been together so long.”

Lubomirski should know — he has been married for well over a decade to his Cuban-Italian wife Giada, with whom he has two sons.

In fact, the one downside of being a good-looking straight prince in

the world of fashion photography is that absolutely everyone assumes you are going to be unfaithful.

“People congratulated me on getting married but told me I’d probably cheat on my wife — which I absolutely haven’t,” he insists. “I always mention her in the first few minutes of a shoot so nobody gets the wrong idea.”

A relief for Giada, I would imagine, given how many of the world’s great beauties he has worked with.

Many of them are now the subjects of his new book, The Sittings (2003-2023), a collection of 113 portraits that include Julia Roberts, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Aniston and of course the royals.

The publication was accompanied by an exhibition at the ArtSpace in Claridge’s last month, with the proceeds donated to humanitarian charity Concern Worldwide.

Notably, most of the celebrities in his book are smiling — which is unusual in the world of high-end photography.

“In the end, the best compliment is when someone’s mum says it’s a nice picture because mothers want their children to look happy — but also like themselves.”

Spoken like a true prince charming.

These pages, clockwise from left: Keira Knightley; Lupita Nyong’o; Eddie Redmayne.

All images © Alexi Lubomirski and feature in his new book The Sittings (2003-2023)

49

AIR

The stylistic vocabulary of Karl Lagerfeld is the subject of the Met’s latest blockbuster exhibition

WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

50

51

AIR

I

t was said that Karl Lagerfeld despised sentimentality so much that he loathed talking about the past in press interviews, despite a near 70-year career liberally peppered with extraordinary moments. It made him diligent in his desire to avoid museum retrospectives of his work, and insistent that he be spared the usual memorial in the event of his passing, which was announced in the morning of February 19, 2019.

He was, however, deemed “a giant among men” by Vogue’s Anna Wintour, a fashion colossus nicknamed ‘Kaiser’, whose death was never likely to pass without major recognition of his countless achievements across the houses of Chanel, Fendi and Chloé, alongside his eponymous label. “What Warhol was to art, he was to fashion; he is irreplaceable,” said Claudia Schiffer.

In June 2019, 2,500 guests were invited to the glass-domed Grand Palais in Paris, home to so many of his spectacular Chanel shows, to celebrate his life at an event orchestrated by Canadian opera director Robert Carsen, who created a set featuring 56 largerthan-life images of Lagerfeld, a bar, a Steinway piano, and a rotating stage on which the likes of Tilda Swinton and Pharrell Williams performed and numerous anecdotes were read aloud.

Now it’s the turn of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to pay homage to one of fashion’s most prolific figures, devoting The Costume Institute’s spring 2023 exhibition to his work. Running until July 16, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty focuses on the designer’s stylistic vocabulary, as expressed through lines — aesthetic themes that appear time and again — in his fashions from the 1950s to his final collection in 2019.

“Karl Lagerfeld was one of the most captivating, prolific, and recognisable forces in fashion and culture, known as much for his extraordinary designs and tireless creative output as for his legendary persona,” says Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director of The Met. “This immersive exhibition unpacks his singular artistic practise, inviting the public to experience an essential part of Lagerfeld’s boundless imagination and passion for innovation.”

Born in Hamburg, northern Germany, to cultured, complicated parents, 52

‘

The fluid lines of his sketches found expression in recurring aesthetic themes in his fashions

’

53

AIR

Lagerfeld had somewhat of a gilded childhood (he had his own valet from the age of four), and it wasn’t long before his many idiosyncrasies showed. “As a child, I wanted Austrian lederhosen,” he said. “I always wanted to be different from other people. I hated children. I was born with a pad of paper in my hand. I was looking at images before I could read.”

His talent for fashion was first recognised in 1954, when his design for a woollen coat, with a high neckline and plunging V-shaped opening in the back, won a prize he would share with Yves Saint Laurent, who designed a dress for the event.

One of the judges happened to be a certain Pierre Balmain, who offered Lagerfeld the post of junior assistant.

But it swiftly became apparent that Lagerfeld was too big a talent — and character — to fit under anyone’s wing.

If Chloé was where the foundations for his stellar career were firmly set, it was Chanel where it was built, taking over at a house still looking to fill the void left by the death of Coco Chanel in 1971. He joined in 1983, and immediately transformed the brand's fortunes, first via cheeky reinterpretations of Coco’s classic codes — including a pair of tweed hotpants — and then kickstarting logomania by printing the interlocked ‘CC’ on all manner of garb and accessories.

It set Chanel on an upward trajectory it’s yet to veer from, and earned Lagerfeld a lifetime contract, a rare bond in the fleeting nature of the fashion world.

His work for Chanel is, of course, a major component of The Costume Institute’s exhibition. “The exhibition explores Lagerfeld’s complex working methodology, tracing the evolution of his fashions from the two dimensional to the three dimensional. The fluid lines of his sketches found expression in recurring aesthetic themes in his fashions, uniting his designs for Balmain, Patou, Chloé, Fendi, Chanel, and his eponymous label, Karl Lagerfeld, creating a diverse and prolific body of work unparalleled in the history of fashion,” says Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, The Costume Institute.

Drawing on the theory of art and aesthetics expressed by William 54

Previous pages, clockwise from top left: runway image of ensemble, Chanel fall/winter 1986-87; runway image of 'Aurélien' dress, Chloé spring/summer 1983; sketch of dress, Chanel spring/summer 1995 haute couture; sketch of 'Aurélien' dress, Chloé spring/summer 1983.

Photo by Paul van Riel/ANP/Redux. All images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art These pages, clockwise from left: sketch of ensemble, Chanel spring/ summer 2019; runway image of ensemble, Chanel spring/summer 2019; Karl Lagerfeld portrait image, by Annie Leibovitz/ Vogue/Trunk Archive.

All images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

I was born with a pad of paper in my hand ‘and looking at images before I could read ’

Hogarth as the "line of beauty,” the exhibition is anchored by two lines: the ‘straight line’ and the ‘serpentine line,’ which delineate, respectively, Lagerfeld’s modernist and historicist tendencies.

These lines explore different stylistic representations of themes that the designer returned to again and again, spreading in a rhizomelike configuration with intersecting moments — or ‘explosions’ — that

exemplify points of convergence.

The exhibition rounds off with the ‘satirical line,’ a section that focuses on Lagerfeld’s ironic, playful, and whimsical predilections expressed through visual puns that reflect the designer’s razor-sharp wit.

In all, approximately 150 garments are on view, spanning Lagerfeld’s entire career. Whether he would have approved of such a grand retrospective is another matter.

55

Motoring

AIR

JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

56

The Fine Print How Czinger Vehicles aims to turn automotive manufacturing on its head with the world’s first human-AI designed and 3D-printed hypercar WORDS: CHRIS ANDERSON

57

AIR

I

magine walking into the car showroom of the future. You would choose the model, the extras you needed, and the body colour, then once payment was made the salesperson would simply press a button. In a nearby assembly room, a 3D printer would come to life, start churning away, and a short while later your new car, to your exact specifications, would arrive on the forecourt. No waiting lists, no sourcing parts, no stock shortages.

And a car company in California is already heading in this direction.

Czinger, a Los Angeles-based start-up, actually grew out of another company, Divergent, which specialises in AIdriven design software, 3D printing and automated assembly. And with the fatherand-son team behind it, Kevin and Lukas Czinger, also fans of superfast, limitededition hypercars, using their technology to make one became the next logical step.

“The 21C is our first vehicle,” explains Lukas Czinger. “We’re leveraging our own proprietary design and manufacturing system, DAPS (Divergent Adaptive Production System), which is the world’s first digital manufacturing solution, with over 550 patents, and the potential to transform the automotive industry.”

No ordinary manufacturing process, and no ordinary car. With its smooth, ultra-lightweight aluminium and carbon-fibre chassis, fighter jet-inspired cockpit, and scissor doors, plus a hybrid powertrain consisting of a twinturbocharged 2.88-litre V8 engine and an 800V electric drive system, the 21C produces a combined 1,250hp, with a 0-100km/h time of 1.9 seconds and a top speed of around 407km/h – a more powerful 1,333hp version is available too. Needless to say, the car has already broken lap records at the Laguna Seca Raceway and Circuit of the Americas.

“It’ll even run on net zero fuels, such as carbon-recycled methanol,” adds Lukas.

Talking about the look of the 21C and its unusual cockpit seating, Lukas cites the SR-71 Blackbird jet as inspiration, with the pilot at the front, and the co-pilot or wingman behind. He’s also very proud of the digital manufacturing system. “Our cars are the first to use anything like this,” he says. “It’s all supercomputing, machine-learning, new materials and architectures, additive manufacturing and robotics, allowing you to create vehicles previously

58

impossible or unthinkable, both in terms of looks and how efficient they are. We’ve gone further in terms of weight-saving, for example, which increases performance and improves sustainability, using fewer materials.”

Lukas talks about the printed gearbox casing used, which allowed Czinger to integrate function, reduce mass, and enable rapid design improvements throughout the development process.

According to Lukas, artificial intelligence and laser-metal 3D printing allowed Czinger to drastically cut the design and production times, and make almostunlimited changes to their prototype.

“The BrakeNode, which combines the brake calliper and suspension components into a single unit, was another benefit of this process,” says Lukas. “We could significantly reduce the mass, increase the stiffness, and reduce the part count, with a marked improvement to the ride handling and overall performance.”

In production, the 12-piece rear subframe is assembled in around five minutes, with other components placed on top, and once the specification has been entered, an identical car can be reeled off at the touch of a button — handy for scaling up production if a particular model becomes popular. With production maximised, energy and material waste are minimal. “This is a vehicle defined by iconic design, ground-breaking technology, dominant performance, and harmony with nature,” explains Lukas.

“It’s a manufacturing revolution.”

The plan is to make just 80 examples of the Czinger 21C, with each carrying a price tag of more than $2 million. It also comes in two variants, both road legal and perfect for the track, but with the 21C V Max offering a longer rear for optimal GT performance. “There’s also a storage compartment in the 21C V Max for a bespoke luggage set, providing endless customisation options for owners to match their taste,” Lukas adds.

It seems that both the car and the technology behind it are garnering attention. Lukas claims that many of the planned 80 examples have already sold, with customers awaiting delivery later this year, and Aston Martin asking for 3D-printed aluminium subframes for its DBR22 speedster, which will arrive from Divergent already assembled. A relief for Lukas and his team, as he says the initial stage, getting everything up and running, creating all of the new software, hardware and processes, was easily the biggest challenge.

Czinger says it also plans to expand its customer network, with dealer locations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Surely the right places for such a forward-thinking company.

“We’ve built our business to leverage digital manufacturing from day one,” Lukas concludes. “It means we can move at a pace not seen by the automotive industry before, with sustainability and fewer materials used among the advantages we offer.”

‘

We can move at a pace not seen by the automotive industry before

’

59

Gastronomy JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

The Greatest Showman Meet Vladimir Mukhin, the instrumental force behind Krasota, Dubai’s new mesmerising gastro-theatre WORDS: JOHN THATCHER

AIR

T

he white rabbit conjures myriad thoughts. There’s magic — that classic trick whereby the magician pulls a bunny from a seemingly empty top hat. Alice In Wonderland, the always-in-a-hurry, clock-watching rabbit whom Alice can’t help but follow through the land of wonder and disbelief. And The Matrix, where it appears as a tattoo, a symbol to follow one’s insatiable curiosity.

All of this is relevant to Krasota, the mesmerising, magical, and wonderous gastro-theatre dreamt up by the Moscow-based White Rabbit Family and brought to Dubai by its acclaimed chef, Vladimir Mukhin.

Accommodating just 20 diners at a circular table, eight alwaysinventive courses are served against the backdrop of a visual feast involving interactive installations, 3D projections, and custom AI designs.

It is a thrilling show underpinned by art, specifically paintings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries by artists such as Paul Cézanne, Mikhail Vrubel, and Marc Chagall, whose work comes to life everywhere around you while its meaning is explained by your clued-up waiter and reinterpreted in the accompanying dish.

Krasota debuted in Moscow. How did Mukhin ensure nothing was lost in translation when it opened an outpost inside Dubai’s Address Downtown Hotel? “Our main challenge was to source ingredients from a new region.

In our homeland, we grow our own produce on farms we know well.

Luckily, before we started creating the menu, I had the chance to visit some farms near Dubai. From them, we order delicious local tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and even seedless avocados with edible peel. Further afield, in Pakistan, I discovered 60

unusual nettle sauces. And it was in a market in Jordan that I fell in love with Lumi. Locals use these fermented limes in tea or to season stews, and we’ve used them to add a tart, tangy flavour with very interesting musky undertones to our crab dish. Then, from my country's forests, we use wildpicked strawberries, sea buckthorn, cloudberries, and green gooseberries.

I have the feeling that when you come to Dubai, you have to bring something new, and definitely the best.”

That’s certainly the case with Krasota, a culinary experience currently without equal in the city. “The Krasota performance is not just about the film and the interactive table visuals, but also about finding through the menu a new narrative adapted to an audience that is both Arabic and global, as Dubai is an amazing and effervescent cultural melting pot. I am still inspired by the ingredients and dishes I discover in the UAE, along with the ancestral preserving techniques used by

61

AIR

speaks both to the future and ‘toMythecuisine past, from a creative present ’ Bedouins, which go back centuries.”

Such traditions have fascinated Mukhin throughout his culinary journey. “My cuisine speaks both to the future and to the past, from a creative present. Cuisine, just like our history, is a continuum. One needs to acknowledge his or her roots to spread branches. Being solid and firmly rooted is important, so as not to find yourself lost. There are hidden treasures in the past of all cultures. Ancestral technologies were developed by men and women even before fire was discovered. They are, for me, as interesting as the recent AI innovations applied to cuisine.

Today, innovations will become traditions for future generations. Isn’t it fascinating? I’ve been resurrecting traditional recipes from my homeland using all the techniques of modern gastronomy to bring them into the 21st century for the past few years.

By establishing these bridges with the past, we also contribute to curing and caring for our heritage and help preserve one of the most precious treasures of humanity: our culture.”

Mukhin has done much to preserve the heritage of Russian cuisine, which he says was “trampled on” by the Soviet era. “During that period, it was illegal to cook from anything other than the Stalin-approved 1939 cookbook, The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food. Before then Russian food had colour. The Soviet period was grey.

Everything was grey. Everybody was grey. When the wall broke, my father rebuilt a restaurant with his hands, and it was the first restaurant in the 62

city after the Soviet Union dissolved.

I will always remember what my father told me that time: “Forget about money, forget about being rich, just try to combine ingredients.” Colour, freedom, and creativity. And from the very beginning, my personal goal was to present real Russian cuisine to the world. Traditional Russian cuisine has everything it takes to become a gastronomic cradle: unique ingredients, our own techniques of cooking — salting, soaking, and baking in the Russian oven. It has a lot of surprises, even for sophisticated foodies.”

Mukhin is a fifth-generation chef, first working in a restaurant kitchen aged just 12, the same restaurant in which his father worked in the small town of Essentuki, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. In Moscow, he would work his way up from dishwasher to make his first dish at a restaurant called Rosemary: chicken with an almond crust and sour cherry sauce, which impressed his fellow chefs. He hasn’t looked back.

Does he think his cooking style is still evolving? “I think every chef looks to achieve the maturity of his or her style during their career. I feel like I've already found mine. I would call my style ‘controlled chaos on a plate.’

I consider myself a sensitive human being that absorbs what he sees and feels around him, passes it through the sieve of consciousness, to then serve to the world under the prism of beauty.

This is also how any metamorphosis occurs for me. There is no distance between what I cook and how I live.”

He speaks like an artist, in the

manner of the painting greats Krasota lauds. “Paintings have always inspired me. As Kandinsky said, ‘There are two ways of perceiving colours: when they are combined, and when they are not combined.’ It is applicable to taste as well. The art of a chef is to create harmonies of flavour and to stimulate the palate through different taste stimuli. I've always felt that gastronomy is art, ephemeral and edible art. This gives it a very interesting dimension.

A dish could be considered a painting.

Indeed, the first perception a diner has is visual. Then smell follows, first as an external signal coming up our nose, to mingle with taste. The dish’s textures and temperature play with the sense of touch through the different receptors on the skin. Sound can be conducted with external sounds and music, as in our gastro-theatre, but can also be smartly suggested through the textures that will sound inside the oral cavity — melting, crunching, sparkling, and subtle or loud. So a dish is a multi-sensory creation.

“One of the things a chef and artist have in common is the reflection of themselves in their creations. This is a big responsibility, as your creations contain messages, feelings, and emotions that your guests will receive.

Even if you try to be as objective as possible, you will always reflect in what you create; it is a part of you.”

One such dish at Krasota is a beautifully flavoured black cod, plum and fig, which represents Ivan Aivazovsky’s 1850 painting, The Ninth

Wave. “It has a special, vivid meaning to me,” says Mukhin. “I had the chance last winter to experience what it is like to be sailing in the middle of a storm in the Norwegian fjords. It was like being inside Aivazovsky’s painting, despite the fact that I was on a ship with an experienced crew and not clinging to the wreckage of the ship’s mast, like the characters in this painting. I had a choice: go and meet natural forces or stay inside. I went to meet the fierce sea with the rest of the crew, and many of the feelings and impressions I faced there are expressed in that dish. In the painting, the sun opens a path of light and hope in the darkest sea storm, the promise of life radiating on sunripened fruits. Here, I chose a plum and a fig to represent the fruits, and it was impressive how they matched the colour palette of the dark waters that Aizakovsky masterfully painted.

To bring into motion these waves, with all their beauty, we cut thin slices of plum and curled them. The fruits represent the comfort of faith and the light of the sun, in contrast with the raw saltiness of the scene: a group of shipwrecked people facing the ninth wave, the most intense and devastating wave in a storm sequence. The black cod represents the wreckage of a boat, with its layers falling off inside your mouth, while the almost crunchy texture of the firm plum slices reflects the sound of the cracking waves. A beautiful synesthetic moment.”

Much like all the moments you’ll experience at Krasota, it’s also magical.

63

Moments To Savour JOURNEYS BY JET

AIR

A taste of Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi is one you’ll relish

64

Travel JUNE 2023: ISSUE 141

I

t’s the little luxuries that make a big impression. With Malé’s mishmash of cheek-by-jowl buildings swiftly disappearing as our yacht powers its way into the richly contrasting expanse of sun-dappled ocean, the cork is popped on a bottle of perfectly chilled champagne to toast our impending arrival at Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi.

It’s the only Maldives resort licenced to pour alcohol on its yacht transfers from the crammed-in capital, and it sets the tone for the elevated level of service that awaits once my family and I disembark 45 minutes later, a dozen or so staff members lined up along the resort’s jetty to welcome us to this large slice of paradise.

As if also part of the welcome committee, we spot a stingray gliding gracefully through that Maldivespatented pellucid water, while upon entering our overwater Reef villa, flying fish perform what looks every inch like a routine choreographed for our private pleasure.

Reflective of its spectacular surrounds, it’s a beautiful villa, long, light and

Two-Bedroom Reef Villa

spacious, with a large pool outside that dangles invitingly over the ocean, and a glass floor between its dressing room and bathroom, through which the multi-hued occupants of the underwater world can be viewed while you casually brush your teeth. One night before bed, one such occupant was a 2-metre-long shark, for which my daughter’s toothbrush was dropped in astonishment.

Like most rooms these days, it’s one that you can operate via an iPad. Unlike most rooms these days, this one isn’t infuriatingly difficult to do so. Too many are the times I’ve spent in a hotel room, fruitlessly trying to turn off the lights, close the curtains, or cut the AC with the in-room iPad, only to resort to yanking out every plug from the wall, curling into the foetal position for warmth, and having to apologise to housekeeping for mistakenly summoning them to collect a garment for pressing. Here, the system is essentially foolproof — luckily for me.

It meant I was able each morning to excitedly raise the blackout curtains just as the sun was also rising, streaming shards of light into the eyes of my wife and teenage daughters

AIR Top: Aqua Wellness Centre. Above: Terra 66

long before they hoped to wake.

They would exact their revenge in the resort’s gym, signing us up for a core class to publicly humiliate me, the instructor doing his very best to stifle his smiles as he put me through what was a punishing routine — though admittedly I was the only one left red faced and gasping for air. For good measure they also made me do Pilates. Badly.

The adjoining spa was much more me. And the very reason why many of us make the short trip to the Maldives — relaxation. Here, a Wellness Concierge — a first of its kind in the Maldives — tends to that. They’ll create for you a personal pathway to rejuvenation, however brief your stay.

The Waldorf Astoria Spa really is a blissful place, treatment rooms dotted about lush botanical gardens and another over water (in which there is a glass floor), the calming sound of the ocean a soothing soundtrack, the air thick with the scent of frangipani.

It’s here, on a pavilion that juts out to the ocean, that we did yoga early morning and late afternoon and tried our hands (unsuccessfully in my case) at transcendental meditation. Not that you need to be guided to switch off here.

This part of the island is also home to the magnificent Aqua Wellness Centre, an outdoor pool split into designated zones that you move around in sequence so that each part of your body gets blasted by powerful jets of water.

Ample fun as well as invigorating.

The spa offerings alone are proof that, contrary to popular opinion, there is plenty to occupy your time in the Maldives before you even think about the near endless list of ocean activities on tap.

This resort has other notable USPs beyond those found at its sublime spa, like Ithaafushi – The Private Island, the largest in the Maldives at 32,000 square-metres. It can house up to 24 guests across one four-bedroom residence and two villas (and can only be reached by boat), but one area in which Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi truly stands apart from its rivals is restaurants. Put simply, nowhere else comes close to matching not just their variety but quality.

There are eleven venues in total and Zuma — the only one in the Maldives — isn’t even the best of them. It’s

‘

No other resort comes close to matching the variety and quality of the restaurants

’

excellent, as you’d expect, but the real feather in the Waldorf’s culinary cap is Terra. Comprising seven handcrafted pods that accommodate couples only, each is positioned at a different level within the treetops, fruit bats swooping overhead in the mood-setting moonlight.

In this heart-tugging environment, a seven-course set menu is served that would grace any Michelin-starred establishment the world over. Memorable were the likes of a flaky turbot in a macadamia crust, and an unbelievably tender cut of wagyu beef from Japan’s Miyazaki prefecture — the cream of the crop when it comes to wagyu.

Glistening slivers of crispy duck, roasted in a woodfired oven and handcarved at your table, is the big draw at Li Long; a wonderful line up of organic dishes influenced by produce from the island’s own garden is the concept at toes-in-the-sand Glow; while the menu at on-the-beach Nava — where a DJ sets the mood, day and night — is hugely impressive in its breadth.

Then there’s The Ledge by Dave Pynt, he of Singapore’s much talked of — and Michelin-starred — barbecue restaurant Burnt Ends. Casual but vibrant, thanks to a large open kitchen in which flames rise high to char meats and vegetables, a shortish menu of crudo, snacks and grills features a glorious brisket-based cheeseburger (I’d wager you won’t have tasted one better, ever) and a square of sourdough slathered with an incredibly flavourful beef marmalade. Thoroughly impressive.

But then pretty much everything is at Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi, including your personal butler being instantly available via WhatsApp. Then, just as you think you’ve left it all behind as the island becomes a speck on the horizon on your yacht transfer back to Malé, out pops the cork once more on another bottle of bubbly to bid you farewell. Every moment is one to savour.

Zuma

Zuma

Overwater Spa Villa

Starlight Ocean Massage 67

What I Know Now

AIR

Illustration: Leona Beth

JUNE 2023 : ISSUE 141

Omer Acar CEO RAFFLES & ORIENT EXPRESS

The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is: “Until the story of the hunt is told by the lion, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter”.

This African proverb reminds us that there are two sides to every story. It encourages us to listen with an open mind, while remembering that there are always other perspectives. As a leader, these words challenge me to consider how our stakeholders will be impacted by the decisions we make.

I try to give my children a kiss at least three times a day, because I believe you can never give enough love to your children. I travel quite a lot, and many days this isn’t possible, so I try to make the time count when I’m at home.

My generation has become very good at teaching young people to learn from failure, yet it’s also important to learn how to handle your own success. I’ve learned that no matter how high one 68

can rise in their career, you need to stay grounded and remember where you came from. This gives me a sense of ongoing gratitude to appreciate my work and my colleagues, even on challenging days.

I’ve recently been inspired by a brilliant book called Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands, by Kevin Roberts, former CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi.

Roberts completely upends the traditional business-based perspective of brand building and considers the deeper human motivations that drive consumers to connect with a brand.

Ultimately, we are creatures of emotion, not reason — the heart wants what the heart wants. His theory is particularly evident in the world of hospitality, which appeals to deeply personal notions of feeling welcomed and cared for.

Outside of my career, being a loving and supportive partner and father is what I aspire to achieve for myself. Human

relationships are joyful, stressful, pure, complex, nourishing, humbling, and inspiring. I believe it is the ultimate way that we progress as human beings.

Looking back, I would tell my younger self to not fear failure and to trust my progress. If things don’t work out, don’t get discouraged; ask yourself what lessons you can learn from setbacks and keep moving ahead. I would also add, do not be afraid of taking risks and always listen to your heart. You will always end up doing things that you love if you remain true to yourself.

My ambition is always to be my best self by acquiring new skills, continuously learning, and expanding my knowledge.

Fortunately, my career in hospitality and my new role stewarding the Raffles and Orient Express brands gives me the opportunity to keep pushing my boundaries and broadening my horizons, both literally and metaphorically.

LUXURY RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE prime.bhomes.com