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Damian Hurley

Unapologetically me

Damian Hurley was born famous. Even though his mother, Elizabeth Hurley, put her career on hold to look after him, paparazzi would harass them on a daily basis. His teenage years were tainted with the death of important people in his life, the mark of which is palpable in his short film The Boy on the Beach and his debut feature-length film as a director, Strictly Confidential. Our Editor-in-Chief, Julia Pasarón, had the chance to catch up with him recently and learn who Damian Hurley really is.

Blessed with ridiculously good looks and having had his every need always catered for, Damian could easily have become an insufferable brat. Instead, this young man is devastatingly charming and easy-going. He has been obsessed with the world of celluloid since an early age, which is no surprise given that his mother is an actress and his godparents include industry giants Hugh Grant and Sir Elton John. Growing up, Damian used to hijack every holiday, torturing his long-suffering family and friends to act in his mini-movies, shot on a Flip Video camera given to him…

Lifestyle

Sotogrande Villa Noon

The world’s first zero-emissions villa

Located on the hills of Sotogrande, one of the most sought-after destinations in southern Europe among lovers of golf, polo and luxury life in general, Villa Noon is billed as the world’s first zero-emissions villa. Not only that, Villa Noon also generates its own water… from the sun. Viewed as a ground-breaking achievement in sustainable […]

Lifestyle

Rocco Forte House Milan

Italian Design for luxury contemporary living

The signature elegant luxury of Rocco Forte Hotels has been transposed to a beautiful new setting with the unveiling of Rocco Forte House Milan. After the plaudits received by Rocco Forte House Rome, the group is now opening eleven graceful new apartments on the highly desirable Via Manzoni in the very centre of Milan. They […]

Conservation, Lifestyle

Why Sarah Kate Byrne

Buys Only Vintage Clothes

Fashion is one of the major polluting industries, with the textile industry accounting for an estimated 25% of the total carbon emissions by 2050, making it the second-largest polluter in the world after the oil industry.

If you wonder how this is possible, just think of all the steps required in the production and distribution of the crops, fibres, and garments used in fashion.

For starters, in most of the countries in which garments are produced, untreated wastewater from textile factories containing many toxic substances (among them lead, mercury and arsenic) empties directly into rivers and from there, into our oceans, harming both aquatic life and humans; not to mention all the fertilisers used in the production of cotton, which heavily pollute runoff and evaporation waters.

The textile industry consumes 23% of all chemicals produced worldwide. They are used during fibre production, dyeing, bleaching, and wet processing of each of our garments, causing diseases and premature death among cotton farmers, along with massive fresh and ocean water pollution and soil degradation.

According to a 2019 report by UNICEF, 780 million people in the world don’t have access to clean water. The fashion industry uses huge amounts of it for the dyeing and finishing process of clothes. A ton of dyed fabric can take up to 200 tons of fresh water. On the other hand, cotton requires vast quantities of water to grow. The ecological consequences are terrifying. For example, cotton production has entirely drained the waters of the Aral sea.

A pair of jeans requires 10,000 litres of water to be produced.

But that’s not all. Synthetic fibres (used in 72% of our clothing), such as polyester and nylon are made of plastic and therefore non-biodegradable. In fact, they can take up to 200 years to decompose. Every time we wash a synthetic garment about 1,900 individual microfibres are released into the water, making their way into our oceans. Small aquatic organisms ingest them. They are eaten by small fish, which are eaten by bigger fish, introducing plastic in the food chain. In total, it is estimated that every year 190,000 tons of textile microplastic fibres end up in our oceans and that 85% of human-made debris in our shorelines are microfibres.

The fashion industry plays a major part in degrading soil in different ways: overgrazing of pastures through cashmere goats and sheep raised for their wool; the massive use of chemicals to grow cotton; and deforestation caused by wood-based fibres like rayon, viscose, and modal, with 30% of them coming from ancient and endangered forests. Every year, 70 million trees are cut to produce clothes. This loss is threatening the ecosystem and indigenous communities all over the world.

The exponential growth of fast fashion means that consumers can buy many cheap trendy clothes (the average price per garment in a woman’s wardrobe in the UK is £32) and discard them after just one season, which has dramatically added to the pollution generated by the textile industry. Our Editor Julia Pasarón had a long chat with renowned sustainable stylist Sarah Kate Byrne about the threat that the fashion industry poses for our planet and how second-hand garments are an obvious solution to this increasingly troubling problem. “Fast fashion is the worst of all the textile industry in terms of pollution but most people don’t realise. I remember when I was younger, buying cheap bikinis and underwear that I would toss away after just one season. It never really occurred to me to think of where those garments will end up or how many people had worked in very poor conditions to produce them.”

A survey conducted by Saveonenergy.com/uk/ revealed that women in the UK have an average of 103 items in their wardrobe, of which 24% have not been worn in at least a year. Clothing has clearly become disposable. As a result, we generate more and more textile waste. A family in the western world throws away an average of 30 kilos of clothing each year. Only 15% is recycled or donated and the rest goes directly to landfills or is incinerated.

60% of all clothing ends up in incinerators or landfills within a year of being made.

What children see at home has a strong influence in their attitude to over-consumption when they grow up. “My journey towards vintage and second-hand fashion started with my father,” explains Sarah, “he was an engineer specialised in architectural salvage so he taught me to find value and beauty in things that others will consider just old junk. In a way, I’ve never really liked new things so I suppose it is not that strange that I ended up becoming a sustainable fashion stylist.”

Sarah has been a sustainable fashion stylist for many years. It all started when she found an e-commerce platform for vintage and second-hand clothes (Open for Vintage). During this time, she reached out to someone she knew who covered horse racing for TV and offered her help. “In the end, I landed a job as a fashion stylist for ITV racing’s main presenter Francesca Cumani. This gave me the chance to use second-hand and vintage pieces on people that were very much in the public eye.”

Francesca Cumani at Ascot dressed in vintage with a Jess Collett hat.

At the start, she came up against a lot of opposition for using vintage clothes, even if they were from top designers like Dior or Balenciaga. She was asked to “stop using old clothes and perhaps use some more high street fashion.” Sarah agreed to it if they could point out which ones they thought were new and which ones old from the last 10 looks she had created. “Needless to say they couldn’t see the difference” she comments with a smile. This sort of eco-warrior crusade was unchartered territory especially in television where not following the trend of a new piece on the weather girl every day might alienate their mainstream audience. Audiences often go out and buy clothes they see on TV but, Sarah argues, “Six months later, how many of these purchases end up in a landfill?”

Clothing has clearly become disposable. As a result, we generate more and more textile waste. A family in the western world throws away an average of 30 kg of clothing each year. The UK in particular disposes of 350,000 tonnes (£140 million worth) of clothing in landfills every year (Greenpeace, 2017).

“I grew up in a house where nothing was thrown away,” admits Sarah, “everything was repurposed. When I moved to London I found myself with very little disposable income. I couldn’t afford new clothes so instead, I went to charity shops where I knew I could find many beautiful and useful things of quality but really cheap. Surprisingly, I started getting compliments and I felt encouraged to keep shopping that way until, at some point, I couldn’t remember the last time I had bought newly made clothes. Even when I was working in a law firm during my first year in London, I was buying and selling vintage clothes on the side.”

By her own admission, Sarah doesn’t read fashion magazines. “I find inspiration in architecture and interiors, especially Queen Anne and Georgian. I like structured styles and glamour so Art-Deco is a personal favourite. For example, I am fascinated by the Irish architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray, a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture, associated with artists like Kathleen Scott, Le Corbusier, and Jean Badovici, with whom she was romantically involved. In 1926, she designed the famous E-1027 house for them in Monaco, today considered a masterpiece of Modernist architecture. She was also a great furniture designer. In 2009, Gray’s Dragons armchair was sold at auction in Paris for €21.9 million, setting an auction record for 20th-century decorative art.”

The iconic E-1027 by Eileen Gray. Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Ireland

All these influences have resulted in Sarah favouring classical, feminine looks. As she says, “I don’t understand fashion for the sake of it. I like dressing people so they look better, not just because it is that season’s look.”

Sarah mostly works with women who attend numerous race-days or events every year and need help to dress throughout the season. “It can be difficult to push sustainable style,” she admits, “but by showcasing only vintage in my own choices, as well as on my high profile clients, slowly I got more and more requests from people that admired the vintage pieces I wore and wanted my help to find their own. That said, there are many wonderful small British or Irish contemporary designers available now with very high standards of production and I favour these where I can too.” These smaller designers have a very small carbon footprint and as Sarah says, “You are unlikely to see another hundred women dressed like you that season. Each year there is a “must-have” dress that is mass-produced. Where is the joy in wearing that? Wearing couture made ‘50s or ‘60s piece that you know nobody else could possibly have with its own unique story – priceless!

Shopping sustainable though is not for the faint-hearted. “In general, if you want to dress sustainably, you have to roam the markets, charity shops, and find websites like Wolf & Badger, who offer new clothes and accessories, but all of them ethically produced,” Sarah explains. “It is true that this requires a bit of effort at the beginning but soon you get the hang of it and if you are anything like me, will feel delighted when you find unique pieces of costume jewellery maybe by Dior or Yves Saint Laurent. However, clothes by Haute Couture designers are extremely rare. With the invention of Google, everybody more or less knows what brands are valuable. Although I once found a Christian Dior suit for £200 in a charity shop in Putney! An issue with vintage clothing though is sizing. People used to be smaller so you cannot find the larger contemporary sizes in anything vintage.”

As the interest in sustainable fashion is growing so are the prices, a matter that worries Sarah because “as vintage clothes get more expensive, the trend will reverse as many women would not be keen to spend a lot of money for clothes that are second hand even if those garments are better made, ethical and don’t harm the environment. As we mentioned earlier, often people don’t realise that the dress they are buying for £80 was probably made in Bangladesh by a teenager.”

70 million trees are cut every year to produce clothes.

Most of our clothes are produced in China, Bangladesh, or India, countries essentially powered by coal. This is the dirtiest type of energy in terms of carbon emissions. Actually, fashion accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions. The global fashion industry generates an incredible amount of greenhouse gases due to the energy used during its production, manufacturing, and transportation of the millions of garments purchased each year. To give you an idea, 23kg of greenhouse gases are generated for each kilo of fabric produced.

The synthetic fibres used in the majority of our clothes are made from fossil fuel, making production much more energy-intensive than with natural fibres. In the case of polyester, 70 million oil barrels are used each year to produce it. Cheap synthetic fibres also emit gases like N₂O, which is 300 times more damaging than CO₂. The increasing popularity of fast fashion makes things worse. 400% more carbon emissions are produced if you wear a garment five times instead of 50.

Increasingly brands are being called out for waste.

In 2018 Burberry burnt £28.6million worth of clothing, accessories, and perfume to prevent unsold stock from being stolen or sold cheaply. The news created a massive uproar among the public and although initially, Burberry claimed that the energy generated from burning its products was captured, making it environmentally friendly, by September that same year they announced they’d stop that practice.

Sarah adds, “Equally, big brands are starting to realise that they can’t keep producing a bag in China, applying the last touches in Italy and say it is Made in Italy, claim craftsmanship and heritage and charge a king’s ransom.

“Vintage and second-hand is not for everybody but all indicators suggest that second hand will eventually outgrow fast fashion,” says Sarah confidently, “that means that if a garment is good enough, it may have three or four lives before it is finally discarded. Online resale and vintage platforms will play an important role in how we move forward, as well as social media and sustainable brands making new clothes. Like with food, we also need to get used to buying local. If you can buy a coat produced in England, don’t buy it from Italy, and if you can buy it from Italy, don’t buy it from China.”

Resale website thredUP claims that if we shopped second-hand exclusively for one year, we could save over £1,600. Add this to the £2,966 worth of saleable clothes that they estimate each woman has in her wardrobe and you could end up with £4,618 in the bank – and help save the planet. In fact, if everyone bought just one second-hand item instead of new, thredUP believe we’d save enough energy to light up the Eiffel Tower for 141years.

Fashion magazines have been influencing for decades the tastes of the public in what it comes to which brands are desirable and trendy, often promoting non-sustainable, incredibly overpriced clothes and accessories because of the advertising they get from those big brands. In general, Sarah comments, “They don’t want stylists to choose one-off vintage pieces simply because they can only be sold once; but if you feature a dress by D&G for example, there will probably be hundreds of the same in their boutiques and other retailers across the globe.”

Model and influencer Vogue Williams dressed for her role as Epsom Derby Ambassador, 2019.

When asked if she is advocating for nothing but vintage in the next issue of Vogue, Sarah smiles and answers, “I am not saying that everything featured must be vintage or second-hand but at least mix and match a bit, especially nowadays, when all fashion magazines want to be seen as having ecological values. This would be their opportunity to promote longevity and the avoidance of waste, but unfortunately, vintage and second-hand are still seen almost like dirty words in the business of fashion magazines. One of the few ones that use quite a lot of vintage is LOVE. In my opinion, we should see a sustainable fashion shoot in every edition of every fashion publication out there”.

https://www.sarahkatebyrne.com/

@sarahkatebyrne

Words: Julia Pasarón

Inspiration:

https://www.instagram.com/convertedcloset/

https://www.instagram.com/ecowarriorprincess/

Vintage:

https://www.instagram.com/london.vintage/

https://www.openforvintage.com/

Virtual fairs:

https://www.instagram.com/pop_up_vintage/

https://www.instagram.com/portobellogreenmarket/

Contemporary and Sustainable:

https://www.wolfandbadger.com/

https://www.annamasonlondon.co.uk/

Vintage Platforms:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Womens-Vintage-Style/bn_7109720080

https://uk.designerexchange.com/

Opening Picture: Sarah Kate wearing a vintage `70s dress.

Lifestyle

Jo Lewis

Everything You See, Touch and Feel

Confident, smart, and with a serious “can do” attitude, Jo Lewis leads the McLaren team responsible for Colour & Materials design across all their products, including Special Operations. She signs-off on everything from the shimmer of the paintwork to the texture of the steering wheel, the softness of the leather… even the colour of the fuel cap.

Her career journey began in textile design, graduating from Central St Martins and Royal College of Arts in 2007, then working in various roles within design industries including Stella McCartney; TWI in Cambridge (a company dedicated to the ultrasonic welding of textiles), followed by the leap into automotive design in 2010, working with JLR and Lotus before joining McLaren in 2016.

Over the last four years, Jo has developed, implemented new CMD processes for 11 McLaren products, with particular focus on redefining “the pinnacle” of Colour & Materials through the customer journey for McLaren’s ultimate series: the Hyper-GT Speedtail. With this project, Jo has been first to market with unique and innovative materials design, as well as increasing the opportunity for truly bespoke customisation to a level never seen before at McLaren.

In 2017, Jo was proud to be awarded the winner of the Autocar Women Designer of the year award.

Our Editor Julia Pasarón had the chance to interview Jo at the McLaren mothership in Woking, a spectacular building design by Foster + Partners, considered a benchmark in industrial architecture.

I-M: In the 10 years you’ve been working in automotive, how have you seen developing the importance of details like textiles, materials and finishes, considering how male oriented this sector has traditionally been?

J.L: The approach to design in the sector has changed a lot in the last decade and become much more emotive. It’s not just buying a car anymore. Each brand has a slightly different approach but when you are buying a McLaren, it is definitely and emotional experience. When the customer meets their car for the first time, this is the moment when they can start to think about how they want to make it their own.

Everything you see, touch and feel in a McLaren car has been created, developed and defined by my team and I. So when a customer comes in with their personalisation request, I’ll sit down with them and go over all the options and try to accommodate to any of their requests. I believe nowadays any kind of shopping or retail experience is about making it personal and giving the customer that kind of added edge.

Of course, it depends on what product you are going to buy but in something like the McLaren Speedtail, with a very small volume and super high price point, bespoke is at its pinnacle and as a designer that opens some really exciting opportunities to develop cutting edge ideas in terms of application of details, materials, colours…

I-M: McLaren started producing very basic road cars. How did things evolve from there to this moment, when customers can even choose cashmere for the seats?

J.L: It has been a very exciting journey. For example, the new GT family has opened a lot of opportunities for new approaches to what my team does, based on the new kind of customers we think the GT will bring to McLaren. We can get much more into the materiality as part of the emotional side of the purchase. We can talk about how beautiful the leather is, how it feels and smells, things like that.

Many of the ideas we have created could be brought to the GT family. If you compare the Speedtail to the Senna, it is obvious that the latter is stripped back, quite raw; it is about track driving and therefore the approach to materials is very different and gives me a different challenge. I actually see cars as characters, almost as people, and I can see what they’re about and my job is to make sure their personalities stand out and are identifiable.

McLaren GT with Verdant theme and cashmere on the seats.

I-M: How does the differentiation by materials and finishes contribute to the personality of a particular car?

J.L: Every new project takes around three years from conception to launch. For each of them we try to challenge the norm, we try to create something that is unique and suits the car. Once I know where the product sits in the McLaren family and what we want to say with it, then it is time to choose the materials that will give it its character. The choice is influenced by many factors. For example in a higher volume car, we’ll use different materials to those we offer in a Speedtail, but we always aim at giving the customer the best and most purposeful materials.

I-M: What is the balance between luxury and purpose? I guess that sometimes, the most luxurious material is not necessarily the most appropriate?

J.L: You are right. I think that is what’s different at McLaren and it’s something that I’ve never experienced in other roles. Here, we don’t just go for the most beautiful or the most expensive, we also look for functionality. As an example, by carefully stripping layers off and rethinking how to apply it, we developed a very lightweight paint for the Senna (eight kilos lighter than the standard), giving the car an extra edge of functionality and performance. Whether I am designing for a track car or for a GT, I always start with a similar brief: reduce weight, improve performance. This can be a real challenge. How can we make carbon-fibre even lighter? What is the next technical textile lighter than Alcantara or any of the other materials we currently use?

In a way, with track cars, it’s easier to work out what to put into them. The GT on the other hand was a great challenge because it was all about luxurious materials, but they still had to speak McLaren. For example, some of the lightest leathers we created were based on our most luxurious and we worked with our supplier to make them 30% lighter but still keeping the integrity of the material.

Only the finest leathers are used for the interior of McLaren cars.

I-M: How close do you work with other departments at McLaren?

J.L: As we are a relatively small company, it is very easy to work with other departments and everybody has the same goal, from the engineers to the marketing team. Personally, I like to push the boundaries and challenge everything, so I have to negotiate a lot with other teams but the fact that we are all next door to each other definitely helps and makes everything much quicker. We are a closely-knit family and we have a great relationship between departments. I particularly love the brainstorming and the problem solving that goes on in the engineering departments. I find it really exciting. It’s very different from being super creative.

I-M: In the decade you’ve been in the automotive industry, what are the things you’ve done that you’re the proudest of?

J.L: I think the Speedtail. I know I talk about it a lot but this is a project that as a designer, you’d die to work on. On my first day at McLaren almost four years ago, I walked into the design studio at the time of the kick-off of the project. I went straight into a meeting –an executive review- and thought it was incredible.

Of course, it takes a long time from the concept design to the moment the car goes into production but it is all worth it. The level of detail, the amount of new materials… all the things that nobody else has done that we managed to put into this car, all of it makes me very proud. For example, the Speedtail features “Titanium Deposition Carbon Fibre”, which is when a micron-thin layer of titanium is fused directly onto the weave and becomes an integral part of the carbon fibre’s construction, as well as Thin-Ply Technology Carbon Fibre (TPT), which consists of countless 30 micron thick layers of carbon fibre.

Interweaving polymer colours with TPT carbon fibre creates incredible effects.

There are still challenges ahead but I can confidently say that the Speedtail has been the pinnacle of my career so far and it has led me into lots of different areas of design and development that I would have probably never touched if it wasn’t for the Speedtail.

I-M: In what direction do you think supercar design is going?

J.L: I think that in terms of materials, functionality is key as well as sustainability, a factor that we take very seriously here at McLaren. I certainly do when I talk to my suppliers. It may not be something that we outwardly promote, but as a designer and in the world that we live, we need to be more eco-conscious and I have no doubt that it will become increasingly prevalent in the future. There is also growing concern about sustainability on the side of the customer. I realise when I talk to them. For example, when we speak about leather, this is as traditional a material as you get, but vegan movements are pretty much against it. However, leather is a very resistant and sustainable product when produced and treated properly in which case energy can be generated from its production and fed back into the grid.

I like looking into the future, not just at what is round the corner. I like thinking of all the possibilities that will be open to us in 20-30 years and looking at the many interesting things that are happening now, like rapid prototype technology that allows the building of materials through different ways than traditional methods and how that can be applied to all kinds of things.

I-M: Have you ever reconsidered your choices?

J.L: A lot of it is a personal preference. Before we go into production we have a series of virtual prototypes built during what we call pre-production and it is in them that we try stuff out and if it doesn’t work, we change it. As much as you can use digital visualisation these days, nothing compares with the reality of what material feels to the touch. A good example is when we use a new colour on a huge scale or a material applied on different surfaces, or even things like a reflection of if a certain stitch is in the right place. An interim prototype gives us the opportunity to adapt a design if necessary. So yes, things do not always work the way you want and I have had some whacky ideas that haven’t always flown but I like to try.

Detail of the stitching on the seats of a McLaren.

I-M: What if the whacky ideas come from the customer?

J.L: Most customers let us guide them but there are always some who are super creative and have some really crazy ideas that they want to try out and that’s cool with us if we can make them happen, but there’s always a limit. I remember a guy who wanted to trim the whole of the exterior with Alcantara leather.

Another passion of mine is people so I love the interaction with clients. Due to the nature of what we do, this is where customers get to put their own mark on the car and the process can be fascinating.

We have done many “firsts” here at McLaren, like interweaving TPT carbon fibre with gold, which is something normally only done by high-end watch brands like Richard Mille.

McLaren badge made of TPT carbon fibre interwoven with gold.

The 30-micron layers of TPT carbon fibre interwoven with gold or other crystallised material are then shaved down to 10 microns what creates a kind of wood-grain effect. This innovative material can be applied to different surfaces in the car, from the control panels to the paddles both sides of the steering wheel. We can add a polymer colour to it to create almost any tonality the client may desire. I call it carbon jewellery. In the Speedtail I wanted carbon fibre to look less “tracky”, less raw and more “tailored suit” so with my background in textiles I went back to the drawing board. We changed the production method to make the fibres thinner, so we could have up to 1,000 strands per yarn and interweave it. The result is a much more refined and lighter material and effectively, the first-ever carbon fibre fabric. This gives clients the opportunity to have their names and signatures interwoven into the carbon.

We have also managed to apply a wool-cashmere blend to the interior of a GT. We actually work with the only British supplier, Abraham Moon & Sons, up in Leeds. They buy the raw product and weave it right into the end fabric.

I-M: What do you do in your spare time?

J.L: As a lover of all things Porsche, in my spare time, I enjoy driving my 1982 911 Porsche Targa: Guards red exterior with original black leather interior, a classic and sporty combination and amazingly fun to drive. His name is ‘Arry’ and I bought him after falling in love with a similar model at a classic car show. I recently added a 996 Carrera 4S Cabriolet to my collection called “Penny”; I think she is a classic in the making!

Based in Essex and living by the River Cam, ducks have become another passion of mine. Not happy with the standard drakes and mallards that wander around the garden, I decided to breed and rear my own more interesting varieties.

www.mclaren.com

Opening picture: Jo Lewis photographed by Cat Garcia in a McLaren 425-SE.

Lifestyle, Toys

Dreams of White Time

by Julia Pasarón

White has always been associated with purity, elegance, and simplicity. In many religions, white conveys rich symbolisms, for example, innocence and sacrifice in Christianity and purity, self-mastery, and emancipation in Buddhism. In some cultures, like the Chinese, it is associated with death and commonly worn at funerals.

In fashion, white always makes a statement, although it is notoriously hard to pull off. Glorious exceptions include Marilyn Monroe flirtatiously posing over a subway grate, her white dress fluttering in the air (The Seven Year Itch), and Grace Kelly clad in Dior in The Rear Window.

White on your wrist is equally risky, but with the right outfit and attitude, it can add glam and style to any overall look, placing the wearer in that rarefied category of the perennially elegant.

Breguet’s latest Marine collection, dedicated to modern-day women explorers is an example of elegance and mastery in watchmaking. Part of the series is this Marine Dame 9517 in a 33.8mmm steel case with a white mother-of-pearl dial and white rubber strap with steel buckle. The hour markers and markings are luminescent as well as its faceted open-tipped gold hands, with the date window framed also in gold.

The Marine Dame 9517 exudes elegance and femininity.

If you are going to purchase a white watch for the first time, go for this one. Whatever you are wearing, this Marine Dame model will be noticed… and your good taste recognised.

RRP: £14,700

www.breguet.com

Blancpain marries femininity and artistry in its Quantième Rétrograde Calendar. Its romantic aesthetic is accentuated by its delicate dial, featuring mother-of-pearl marquetry and extraordinary detailing, with the moon phase at 12 o’clock, nestled in a starry, diamond-studded sky. Echoing the whimsical mood, the serpentine blue hand is tipped with a star. The lunette, set with 40 diamonds, plus the white strap, highlight the femininity of this piece, with the final flourish seen in a diamond-topped crown.

Technique at the service of beauty: Blancpain’s Quantième Rétrograde.

Attention to detail shines through in every part and component of this elegant timepiece, where technique is placed at the service of beauty. The hour and minute counters are decentralised at 6 o’clock. The calendar is indicated by a retrograde hand, which consistently jumps back to the first day of the month.

The sapphire display back showcases the flower-shaped oscillating weight and the beating heart of the watch, the calibre 2650RL.

RRP: £34,300

www.blancpain.com

For women with high expectations, RICHARD MILLE’s RM 07-01 in white ceramic delivers everything any ambitious lady could ask for, effortlessly combining elegance, durability, and practicality.

The heart of the 07-01 is the calibre CRMA2, a highly skeletonised automatic movement developed specifically for this watch. With baseplate and bridges machined from grade-5 titanium, the CRMA2 includes a variable-inertia balance in order to maintain exacting long-term performance and a rotor with shifting geometry to adapt to the owner’s activity. Its crown is not connected to the interior of the movement directly so it is impossible to break. The technical mastery of this watch can be appreciated throughout the skeletonised movement with its balance placed at 6 o’clock.

The RM 07-01: tough and very pretty.

Its curvaceous lines and high-grade finishes add sensuality to the wrist of the wearer. The gemstone set centre field and the water droplet-shaped indexes contrast with the lines of the movement, accentuating the unique personality of this remarkable creation of haute horlogerie.

RRP: CHF195,000

www.richardmille.com

Considered by many as THE watch, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak is undoubtedly one of the most iconic timepieces of our time and a watch for all seasons and moods. Crafted in hand-finished white ceramic, this particular Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar features day, date, month, astronomical moon, and week of the year. The leap year indication — pioneered by Audemars Piguet in 1955 — is also featured on the “Grande Tapisserie” decorated blue dial, which features silver-toned counters, white gold applied hour-markers, and Royal Oak hands with luminescent coating and blue inner bezel. The white ceramic bracelet comes with an AP folding clasp in blackened polished steel.

This Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar will keep the time perfectly until the year 2100.

The new self-winding calibre 5134 is based on its predecessor, the calibre 2120, but enlarged in accordance with the updated 41 mm case size. The highly finished 4.31mm thick movement is fully visible through the glare-proofed sapphire crystal caseback.

RRP: £93,300

www.audemarspiguet.com

Created in collaboration with Bamford Watch Department, Girard Perregeux recently launched the Laureato Ghost, a limited edition of 45 pieces that pays tribute to the debut version of the original Laureato launched in 1975. Housed in a 38mm white ceramic case, this specific material was selected for its perfectly vitrified surface and its uniform, lustrous appearance, allowing for finishes characteristic of classic steel and gold Laureatos.

The black touches give the Laureato Ghost its sporty character.

The ethereal, ghost-like qualities given by the white ceramic and the luminescent material are compensated by the titanium crown treated with black PVD and black accents on the dial, such as the GP logo presented in relief and the black minute flange, both of which add a touch of sportiness to the general look of the watch. The central sweep seconds hand features a twisted counterweight endowed with a zebra motif, while an aperture at 3 o’clock reveals the date. The case-back is engraved with the text “One of 45” and “Laureato 45th Anniversary”. The innovative design aesthetic is completed by a fully integrated bracelet or a leather strap.

In its heart, this very special ghost carries the Girard Perregeux self- winding Calibre GP03300-0139.

Leather strap: £ 10,300

Ceramic bracelet: £12,000

www.bamfordwatchdepartment.com

Even more, hardcore is the new Bell & Ross BR 03-92 WHITE CAMO. Famous for its aeronautical and military references, this is the latest addition to their family of camouflage watches. This new Limited Edition of 999 pieces features a 42mm matt black ceramic case, with a CAMO patterned dial adorned with a patchwork of white, dark grey, and light grey tones and finds its inspiration in the world of alpine soldier units. The cutaway around the numerals and indices reveals the black Super-LumiNova® covering the lower insert of the dial.

The camouflage on the BR 03-92 White Camo reflects the alpine military uniform.

As Bell & Ross have us used to, this timepiece retains a perfectly legible display both day and night thanks to the photoluminescent coating on its hands, indices, and numerals. To complete the alpine military look, the strap comes in calfskin with grey-white camouflage and black rubber, buckle in black PVD coated steel.

RRP: £2,990

www.bellross.com

Opening picture: Girard Perregeux Laureato Ghost.

Lifestyle

Extraordinary Gifts

Inspired by Extraordinary People

Most of us, as we reach year’s end, tend to remember and celebrate people who have made an impact in history and in our lives. From political figures to fashion designers, scientists to artists, in all fields of life we find extraordinary humans that have changed the way we think and the way we live. Inspired by some of these ground-breaking figures, we have selected a few out-of-the-ordinary- gifts with a tale to tell by themselves.

Responsible for creating the signature look of the mid 20^th century, Christian Dior was at one point earning more than half the total revenue generated by Parisian haute-couture. The French Maison has known how to evolve and adapt to stay at the very front of the luxury world.

As part of their growth, Dior introduced their very first jewellery line in 1998, designed by Victoire de Castellane, who has been the creative director from the beginning. Renown for her intrepid imagination, de Castellane has just reinvented the Archi Dior (inspired by Christian Dior’s fascination for architecture) adding four new pieces that emulate the lightness and delicacy of lace.

The white gold bracelet, ring, choker, and pair of earrings emulate the intricate patterns of lace and are dotted with diamonds that seemed embroidered into the metal, bringing movement and volume to these extraordinary pieces. POA.

www.dior.com

Only 88 of the Bremont Hawking watch in white gold/ blue dial will be made. £18,995

I’ve been fascinated by science all my life and a fan of Stephen Hawking since my dad gave me his book, A Brief History of Time when I was 13 years old.

British watchmakers Bremont celebrate the great scientist with a new limited edition Hawking watch, containing four wooden discs inlaid into the back of the watch taken from his desk, a meteorite at the centre of its closed case back, and etching of stars from the night sky in Oxford the day Hawking was born. This classically styled chronometer features a retrograde seconds hand and grand date and houses a BE-33AE movement with a 42-hour power reserve.

Only 388 stainless steel and black dial, 88 rose gold with black dial, and 88 white gold and blue dial pieces will be made; the numbers referencing the year in which Hawking’s A Brief History of Time was published, 1988.

www.bremont.com

Mario Radice (1900-1987) is considered, together with Manlio Rho, the founder of the Italian abstract school. He was fascinated by rationalist architecture and was one of the first Italian artists to break from figurative art to join the abstract movement flourishing across Europe at the time.

Rho and Radice founded the so-called Como group, oriented towards the renewal of the arts and architecture – as far from the liberty as from the Novecento style. Radice’s art is recognizable for pure and harmonic geometric shapes in warm colours and his works can be found in the permanent collections of many modern art museums, including Milan, Trento, Turin, and Rome.

Mario Radice’s Composiz represents Lombardia in Christie’s Milano online sale

Christie’s Milano will be presenting Mapping Modern and Contemporary Art, an online auction running from 20 January to 10 February 2021.

Building on the concept of The Grand Tour an educational visit through Europe and beyond, which took place in the 17th- and 18th-century, Christie’s will create a sale, mapping Italian modern and contemporary art from all 20 regions, including works by international artists who have been inspired by the country or have lived and worked in Italy for a period of time or have been strongly inspired by Italian culture.

Christie’s Mapping Modern and Contemporary Art online sale: 20^th January – 10^th February 2021

www.christies.com

L’Abeille Eternelle 190th anniversary, 1L (€65,000) is limited to 5 pieces worldwide.

The House of Guerlain was founded in 1828 by Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain and remained a family business for four generations. Pierre-François’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren were responsible for some of the most famous fragrances of the 20^th century and becoming the strongest trend influencers in the world of perfumery. From Shalimar, created in 1925 to Chamade (1969) and most recently Jardins de Bagatelle (1983), L’Instant de Guerlain (2003), and Idyll (2010), the latter two under the LVMH’s ownership, who acquired Guerlain in 1994.

For their 190^th anniversary, Guerlain has teamed up with Baccarat to create an exceptional fragrance that brings together strength and delicacy, heritage and modernity: The Eternal Bee. Guerlain’s Master Perfumer Thierry Wasser has combined, in an unprecedented Double Absolute concentration, contemporary top notes of orange, orange blossom, and almond with more traditional base notes, featuring benzoin tincture, sandalwood, and ylang-ylang.

Guerlain’s long-term partners Baccarat, (responsible for Jicky’s and Shalimar bottles) have produced an exceptional vessel for The Eternal Bee. Designed by jeweller Lorenz Bäumer and sculpted by Nathalie Blaise, the end result is a crystal creation full of air and lightness that enhances and magnifies the perfumer’s art.

www.guerlain.com

Opening image: @Brett Sayles

Gourmet, Lifestyle

Baccarat Bar

When Luxury Meets Chemistry

I think it is safe to say that London has one of the widest offers of drinking establishments in the world. Whatever type of watering hole is your favourite, from a local pub to the most exclusive champagne bar, you’ll certainly find it in the British capital.

When I thought I could not find anything new, I discovered the Baccarat Bar on the Lower Ground Floor of Harrods (separate entrance on Hans Crescent).

Created by Fabled Studio, the bar has been designed around the idea of being a room within Maison Baccarat in Paris, paying homage to the form and pattern of some of the brand’s most celebrated pieces. Faceted walls and motifs are mixed with tactile leather and velvet upholstery in Baccarat’s signature red, obtained by the gradual fusion of clear crystal with 24-kt-gold powder, as well as midnight-blue. The bar is adorned in crystal lighting and features monochrome marble flooring.

Artist Alexandre Benjamin Navet was commissioned to add his original illustrations to the space, which give a note of vibrancy and avant-garde to the space. His frescoes on the stairs and tabletops, inspired by the typical moldings of French interiors, create a wonderfully theatrical setting.

Original work by artist Alexandre Benjamin Navet adds colour and vibrancy to the Baccarat Bar.

Behind the bar, charming manager Cameron Attfield and his team, responsible for the success of places like Dandelyan, Scout and Eau De Vie, have developed a drinks menu packed with specialist ingredients, many of which you’d never expect to find in a cocktail (for example, goat’s cheese). The concept behind is to blend innovative mixology with good old chemistry. And I mean proper blending: from a sparkling wine made with peas to using a rotary evaporator to isolate liquid alcohols by density and anything in between. The imagination of Cameron’s team knows no boundaries. In fact, they have just won a prestigious IMBIBE Award for Best Themed Cocktail Menu UK, 2020.

Cameron Attfield was voted one of the top eight World Class Bartenders of the Year in 2019.

Their current menu, “Refraction and Emotion” focuses on light’s interaction with Baccarat crystal to produce rainbow refraction. As such, it is divided into eight sections – each with two cocktails representing the seven colours that blend to create light plus one for white. Each beverage has been paired to a Baccarat glass that reflects its core flavour, profile and colour spectrum indicated on the menu. A series of young artists were commissioned to illustrate each of the sections in the menu and different kinds of paper are used to enhance the guest’s sensorial experience. Furthermore, each segment pairs its two cocktails with an emotion. For example, “White” links to the emotions of purity and cleansing and showcases drinks that equally associate to those qualities; one of them, The Arrival, gin-based with sugar snap distillate, fermented pea and rice oil and carbonated water and the other, Glass Case, is built around pisco and is served in a perfectly transparent Baccarat flute.

Associated with the purity of white, the Glass Case is free from corruption and guilt.

On the other extreme of the spectrum, you find purple, associated with mystery and imagination, brought to life with a rum-based cocktail, Night Thoughts, with notes of coconut, carrot caramel, and cardamom and the surprising Hat-Trick put together with Mezcal, banana wine, cinchona bark, and compact caramelised dairy.

All the cocktails we tried were delicious. I can only imagine all the hard work and experimenting that goes on at Cameron’s chemistry lab to end up with these fascinating drinks.

Many of the cocktails are available alcohol-free and if you are not feeling all that adventurous, they also offer a wide range of wines, beers, champagnes, and spirits.

These melt-in-the-mouth beef-cheek beignets are full of flavour and well-balanced textures.

Food is not to be missed. The bar menu is exquisite. From Baccarat foi-gras burgers to Faroe Islands smoked salmon (apparently one of the leanest salmons in the world) and the unforgettable beef-cheek beignets with aged Comte cheese and mustard cress.

The Baccarat bar is currently opened Monday – Wednesday 4pm – 10pm and Thursday – Sunday 12noon -10pm.

reservations@harrods.com

https://www.harrods.com/restaurants/baccarat-bar

www.harrods.com

www.baccarat.com

Lifestyle

Time To Play

by Lavinia Dickson-Robinson

With “Lockdown 2.0” stretching our patience with those around us, i.e. our families, and Christmas just a few weeks away (more family time), I thought wise to have a word with The Man in the Know -Father Christmas – and find for you the best board games (leaving out murder mysteries such as Cluedo) to keep you and your lot entertained and dark thoughts at bay.

Bored with the throwaway culture, I wanted to invest in games that would pass the test of time and become heirlooms to pass on to future generations. My first port of call was, of course, Harrods, and within, the sets produced by a family run Italian company, Agresti. Known for their quality and design flair, Agresti has been making handmade pieces since 1949. Their Casino Passione is utterly breathtaking, delicately crafted in red briar and mahogany, with polished finish leather handles. This is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and comprehensive multigame sets I have ever come across. It contains a 36 cm mahogany roulette rake, poker with 365 chips, chess and backgammon sets, dice and leather cups, and domino playing cards.

If backgammon is your dream game then you are in great company: Omar Sharif, Cole Porter, and Joan Crawford were famously dedicated players. Many brands offer good quality sets but on this occasion I have chosen the 17” set by Aspinal in red, white, and blue, housed in a hand-crafted briefcase bound in Italian full-grain lizard-print red leather, featuring contrasting laying points inlaid within its frame.

If you have dreams of becoming a real estate tycoon, Monopoly is probably your favourite classic board game. My choice is Aspinal yet again. Since 2001, Aspinal has been making contemporary and sophisticated leather goods that celebrate the traditional undertones of classic, quintessentially English luxury. Their Monopoly set is handmade in England, bound in red and black lambskin leather, and sits atop a black hide leather box, lined in black felt and recessed for the pewter playing pieces. The houses, hotels, and player counters are all made from pewter and are accompanied by paper money, property title deeds, community chest and chance cards, and two dice. This is a beautifully handcrafted edition of a world-class and iconic game. A family favourite that will last a lifetime!

Scrabble has been a favourite of my family’s since I was a little girl. I think my parents hoped it would expand our vocabulary and help us stretch our brains a little. This luxury edition is handmade with a leather hand-bound playing board atop a jewel Italian calf leather tray in red, which is felt-lined and provides stowage for the 100 Bridle Hide backed letters, four leather-bound letter racks, rules, and letter drawstring bag. The tray is trimmed to the base with a non-slip Suedette making it perfect for the coffee table. Keep wiser brains active and satisfy the inquiring minds of the younger generation with this classic board game.

I couldn’t finish my selection of Christmas entertainment without including jigsaws. On this occasion, I have picked one that looks at the universe, literally. You can time travel into deep space with the officially licensed NASA jigsaws. The awe-inspiring puzzles use amazing and inspiring imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope to help you piece together the ultimate puzzle. With three to collect and 1000 pieces each, they are a challenge but not nearly as complex as space. The Hubble Telescope was launched in 1990 and through its explorations of dark matter to its quest to determine the age of the universe, Hubble has helped answer some of the most compelling astronomical questions of our time and revealed enigmas that we never knew existed. Throughout history, humanity’s eyes on the universe have never seen with more clarity or focus; find out how Hubble has opened the window to the grandeur and mystery of space.

NASA’s Hubble telescope jigsaw. RRP £14.99

www.harrods.com

www.agresti.com

www.aspinaloflondon.com

Thumbsup.com

Lifestyle

How to buy the watch of your dreams

by Julia Pasarón

It might seem a simple enough proposition. Buying a watch should be a matter of walking into a retailer, selecting the one that captures your eye and meets your budget, and handing over your credit card. However, there are questions that may arise during this supposedly simple process depending on what you want it for. After talking to friends and a few of our loyal readers, there seem to be three main reasons: investment, status quo and in occasion, the simple pleasure of wearing wrist candy.

There are now a number of sales channels from which to buy, but with choice comes complexity. Do you opt for the safety of a brand’s own boutique? Look for the “unbiased” advice of an authorised retailer? The promise of a better price online? Or, if you are a relic hunter, a CPO platform (Certified Pre-Owned)? If there is a watch on your Santa’s wish list, here are some ideas to help the bearded red-suited guy acquire the timepiece of your choice as long as you are on the “nice list”.

Santa’s first consideration is whether you want new or vintage. If the former, it all depends on when it was released, who the manufacturer is, and how many have been produced. Even watches that were once thought to be ubiquitous have become limited in terms of supply in recent years. For example the Rolex Daytona in steel used to be so easy to get that you could even have a discount from the retailer. However, nowadays the new models hold a waiting list of at least a couple of years. Rolex restricts the supply and voilà! everybody wants one.

Many new iterations of iconic watches hold long waiting lists…
– Julia Pasarón.

Only a miracle would get you the new Nautilus for Christmas.

An authorised dealer would be the obvious choice for purchasing a new watch. The advantage versus a brand’s own boutique is that these keep different clients’ lists and you won’t get any priority for a new release unless you have bought several pieces by that same brand, even if you have 200 watches in your collection. Buying from dealers like Watches of Switzerland or Goldsmiths will solve this problem (they work with many watchmakers) but beware that the advice you’ll receive may not be completely unbiased. Just look at their windows and see how much space each brand takes; that would give you an idea of what they are going to try to sell you first.

Now, both of the above options give you the peace of mind of knowing that your purchase comes with a warranty and that the watch is genuine. In terms of accessibility… that’s another story. The Daytona is not the only new watch with a long waiting list. Anyone who may have recently tried to lay their hands on a new Patek Philippe Nautilus, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak in steel or Richard Mille RM035-02 will have been faced with a smiling brand emissary who regrets to inform them that the waitlist is a number of years long. Only a Santa-esque buying presence at the boutique can help you. Alternatively, private concierge companies like the newly formed Lymited specialise in getting their clients all kind of luxury goods, often jumping queues thanks to the influential experts they work with. The lust for some of these timepieces is such, that some people will buy watches they don’t want (and then flog them online two seconds later) just to carry favour for when the object of their desire appears.

John Reardon, founder of Collectability Inc.

If you are tempted to do this, make sure the dealer does not learn of your strategy or you will end up on their “naughty list”. This behaviour results in a large market for second-hand new watches. So if the object of your desire is not sought after by collectors, it is worth having a look at sites like Watchfinder or Chronext, where you’ll find new pieces a bit discounted, in their boxes and with all their papers.

Increasingly, the brands themselves are selling directly across the web. They have dedicated e-commerce sites that get the deed done and delivered to your door in very quick and easy steps… but without the romance of trying it on your wrist, discuss its virtues with the boutique’s specialist or asking for your partner’s view while sipping a glass of champagne under the rosy light of the store.

If your Santa has special connections, you may get a new Rolex Daytona this Christmas.

Talking to several CEOs of luxury watch brands, they all agree that there has been a rise in online sales. CEO face-to-face webinars with collectors have resulted in direct lucrative watch sales. One of them remarked that he had sold several watches during a “Meet the CEO” webinar with China. The watch brand in question is at the higher end of the market (think mid five figures in terms of sterling). But if watches can be bought online at the attendance of a webinar with the CEO, does the brave new world of online connectivity in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic signal the slow demise of brand boutiques or the need to try the watch before purchase?

The jury is still out on this question, but one element to consider for sure is reputation. Outside of the “internet buzz” for a watch, the success in being able to sell high-end pieces without them being seen first relies on the reputation of the watch itself and of the brand. Part of it is founded on the vicarious experience of other owners, who post in social media; part of it comes from the ability to resell second hand if you no longer want it.

To read this article in full, please order your copy of I-M TIME here!

Business, Lifestyle

The rise of the designer

by James Gurney

The watch world can come across as all about brands and watchmakers with designers rarely getting a namecheck and only as an afterthought. That makes sense when it’s the industrial heft of Rolex that guarantees the brand’s quality and the heritage of Patek Philippe that drives demand for watches that haven’t even been seen in the metal. But what do people actually talk about when, as has just happened, Rolex release a new Submariner collection or Patek introduce an updated Calatrava? It’s all about the design.

That the new Submariner has a silicon-based Chronergy escapement is great, but what about the bezel colour and the slimmer lugs (quite apart from how long will you have to wait to get one). Given how industrially most watches are made even at the higher end (if you want pure hand-made, get your largest cheque-book out and wait), it is near impossible to separate similarly priced brands on simple precision or build-quality. That leaves looks and brand-values as the basis to make a decision on and that’s why design and designers are starting to get a little more limelight.

It’s commonplace to see creative directors representing the brand to the world…

Giroud’s sketch for LeRoy’s Chronomètre Observatoire cadran bleu.

Watchmaking is something of exception (and a little behind the times) in a design literate world that makes stars of designers such as Jonny Ive, Marc Newson, Philippe Starck or Jasper Morrison and in which we know who designed everything from our chairs to our shirts, to accept that our watches simply come from this brand or that maison no longer makes sense. While watch companies were quick to recognise the value of their brands – Longines was one of the first to register a trademark and the 1889 winged hourglass logo is the oldest extant registration at WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organisation) – they’ve been less keen to recognise design contributions and so named designers are few and far between until quite recently.

The likes of Jack Heuer, who brought a design sensibility informed by midcentury architects such as Oscar Niermayer to his running of the family firm, was a rarity and even he revealed that the 1963 Carrera owed its most identifiable feature, an angled inner dial edge on which the tachymetre scale was printed, to a new method for making the watch waterproof. Design responsibility – if not practice – was for those like Jack Heuer, who were managing the companies: Louis Cartier clearly had a strong vision for the watches he designed as he drove the expansion of Cartier and so did Hans Wilsdorf of Rolex and Henri Stern of Patek Philippe who were detail obsessives that allowed nothing to pass without their approval.

Yves Piaget in the 60s and 70s was another design-savvy watch boss. The quality of design under leaders with a strong creative touch is obvious enough, but they were bosses first and creatives second at best. The rapid growth of consumer culture in the postwar US opened the door for designers to take a more public role in the process, particularly as boundaries between art and design eroded – Movado’s Museum Watch, with its dial being defined by a solitary dot at 12 to symbolize the sun at high noon, was designed in 1947 by the Bauhaus-influenced artist Nathan George Horwitt, while later on in the 50s, Hamilton employed the car designer and artist Richard Arbib to produce a space-age watch for the company’s new electric movement, which became the Ventura.

MB&F Legacy Machine Flying T designed by Eric Giroud.

Jewellers too expanded into watch design with Gilbert Albert, Emerich Meerson and Andrew Grima producing memorable designs into the 70s. It was, however, a jobbing watch designer, Gerald Genta, that changed the game. A string of highly recognisable and still sought-after designs for Audemars Piguet (the Royal Oak), Patek Philippe (the Nautilus), IWC and others, established his credentials within the industry as designer for hire. While it was only once collectors began to value his work that his name escaped the industry and he achieved recognition in his own right; it was his reputation in the industry that allowed him the creative freedom to make sure it was his ideas that made it through to see the light of day.

Genta’s path was followed in relatively quick succession by Jorg Hysek who designed the 222 for Vacheron Constantin (from which the contemporary Overseas is derived) and went on to produce key designs for Breguet, Seiko, TAG Heuer and Tiffany. Notably, by the time of his Kirium for TAG Heuer in the mid-90s, Hysek’s name was part of the communication around it. This didn’t mean that every watch from thereon needed to have a named designer, but it did mean that a certain design literacy was to be expected. By 2005, when Dior planned the launch of a new men’s collection, it was unthinkable that the watch would be designed without the house’s then Artistic Director, Hedi Slimane, being closely involved.

Now brands are expected to at least have a design philosophy even if the designer is kept in the background, though not everyone will do that as clearly as NOMOS Glashütte, whose adherence to Deutscher Verkbund (a pre-Bauhaus movement that prized “the refinement of commercial work in collaboration with art, industry and craft”) ideals is central to the brand’s identity. Nevertheless, it’s now almost commonplace to see creative directors representing the brand to the world – think how prominent Davide Cerrato and Fabrizio Buonamassa now are at Montblanc and Bulgari respectively.

The demand for design-led watch brands has grown at every level of the market…

Original Vacheron Constantin 222 in steel designed by Jorg Hysek.

As the demand for design-led watch brands has grown at every level of the market so have brands appeared to meet it, from Rado’s work with the likes of Jasper Morrison and Konstantin Grcic through to Benoit Mintiens’ Ressence project and Martin Frei, the co-founder of Urwerk who have introduced radical ideas that have come to be seen as almost natural over the years. And then, there’s the man who has designed more watches by volume than anyone else, Marc Newson. Newson played a key role in the design of Apple’s Watch, brought on to the project at least in part thanks to his Ikepod venture from which watch designs appeared in the 90s that looked, at first glance, like nothing that had come before (look out for early Hemipode’s which are starting to become collectible).

As with Apple’s watch though, they reveal a knowledge of watch design that’s of an enviable depth – he began designing and making watch concepts in the 80s while still at college. Newson is very definitely designer first (his range of clients stretches from Qantas to Ford via Montblanc and G-Star) but brings such a refreshing vision to watch and clock design that he’s worth top-billing in the watch industry’s design pantheon.

The Apple watch was first released in April 2015.

Eric Giroud is the go-to guy of the Swiss industry, having worked for everyone from Boucheron to Vacheron Constantin via LeRoy and MB&F where he’s had the free rein to express himself. There’s another list of clients that he can’t acknowledge, but he’s seen brands becoming more relaxed about the designer’s role.

“The visibility of watch designers has changed a little over the last 10 years, especially with the new independent brands. For these, the visibility of watch designers is part of their communication in a rather natural and transparent way.” He also notes that the emergence of collaborations has opened the door still wider. In turn, that fuels interest in the designer from collectors who start digging around for more.

Gourmet, Lifestyle

Lockdown Liver is No More

The Light at The End of The Tunnel

Alcohol has always been one of Britons’ favourite ways to unwind, relax and share with friends after a long day of work or over the weekend to celebrate football team wins, drown sorrows and so much more. Alcohol consumption is embedded in our culture as much as tea is.

Although the NHS recommend us not to drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week (six pints of beer or seven medium-sized glasses of wine), according to research commissioned by Alcohol Change UK, 24% of adults in England and Scotland regularly drink much more, with 27% of drinkers in Great Britain binge drinking on their heaviest drinking days (over eight units for men and six for women).

Lockdown has had a terrifying effect on how much we drink in Britain. The same organisation saw a 242% rise in visits to the advice and support pages on their website between 23rd March and 23th June compared to the same period in 2019. It appears that one in five of us drank to handle stress or anxiety during lockdown. Parents of the under-18s top the list, followed by non-parents, with parents of adult children drinking the least.

Up to 76% of alcohol consumption is under-reported.

Now, if we take into consideration one of the perennial mysteries of alcohol research, that is, that when you tally up all the booze that people report consuming when they are surveyed about their drinking habits, it rarely adds up to even half of the alcohol sold, it paints a much more chilling picture. In fact, up to 76% of alcohol consumption is under-reported.*

In the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of National Statistics reported a 10.3% increase in supermarket alcohol sales and a 31.4% annual increase in alcohol store sales in March 2020. In an article published in the British Medical Journal (October 26^th, 2020) the Liver Unit at King’s College University Hospital, London, revealed that referrals from their network more than doubled in June 2020 compared with June 2019.

I’ve personally experienced an increase in my drinking over lockdown: Zoom parties, stress, boredom… all of them seemed to involve a glass of wine or a G&T, or two, or three… I realised though that a great deal of the habit was psychological, it was about having something to drink while chatting to friends or watching TV, so I started to explore non-alcoholic options. I must say that the landscape is not that exciting and I struggled to find anything I liked but Coke Zero and Waitrose’s lemonade (neither of which are great with food by the way) so I was about to give up when a friend told me about a new brand, Jukes Cordialities, launched by wine expert and author Matthew Jukes, who has worked in the wine industry for over 30 years and written hundreds of articles, dozens of reports and 13 books on the subject, on top of hosting a couple of radio programmes and his own TV series. He estimates he tastes around 40,000 bottles of wine every year.

When asked why a guy who has made his career thanks to wine would launch a brand of non-alcoholic drinks, he said, “It is all about taste, about the desire to bring to the world of non-alcoholic drinks the romance and detail of the wine world. I wanted to create an alternative to wine that had the same magic, the same mouthfilling power.” Furthermore, they are a low-calorie alternative to booze, as all Jukes have less than 18kcal per serving.

The base of Jukes drinks is top quality organic apple cider vinegar blended with fruit, vegetables, herbs, and spices. Apple cider vinegar is widely believed to have various healthful properties, including antimicrobial and antioxidant effects, aiding weight loss, reducing cholesterol, lowering blood sugar levels, and improving the symptoms of diabetes. From a taste point of view, the vinegar selected by Matthew has a very faint smell but a very long and clean finish. It allows the other ingredients to line up beautifully on the palate, adding dryness and length and making Jukes a great accompaniment to food.

Each Jukes involves approximately two dozen fruits, vegetables, fresh and dried herbs, spices, and flowers, sourced from the same merchants who supply London’s finest restaurants. With so many ingredients involved, Jukes have become very popular as mixers, particularly with vodka drinkers. In America, mixologists in bars are all over them.

Matthew mentioned that it is worth trying them with hot water, like an infusion or tisane. Since the fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices used to produce Jukes have not been processed in any artificial way, just pressed and kept extremely cold, most of the micronutrients in these beautiful ingredients are preserved (vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants).

Each Jukes involves 24 fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices.

Unlike any of the other non-alcoholic drinks I’ve ever tried, Jukes truly pair well with food, each of them in a very different way, pushing their personality through and bringing out the best in the dishes they accompany.

Jukes 1, also known as “The White” is centred around a citrus and herb theme with touches of peach, cucumber, plum, apple and pineapple. It goes really well with fish, mixed with ice-cold water in a large wine glass that you can swirl, or, if you are having a lazy afternoon in the sun, served in a tall glass with sparkling water and ice, what heightens its citrus and herbal notes. Served this way, it also works with spicier dishes and contemporary Asian fusion cuisine.

My friend Ellie thinks it is better with tonic water as it feels more like a cocktail. In fact, Heston Blumenthal serves it at his restaurant Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental, London, only with tonic water and in special glasses.

With layered red fruit flavours and a faint smokiness, Jukes 2 is ideal for autumn and definitely my favourite. Very dry, almost like a Sangiovese, with notes of pomegranates, raspberries, red apples and rosehip, it pairs wonderfully with pasta dishes and seasonal produce like mushrooms and game. Matthew recommends it for tomato-rich dishes, which are always difficult to match as well as with Chinese and Indian food.

What I like about this variety is how it changes in flavour depending on what you mix it with. With sparkling water, it kind of goes a bit “loco” and becomes ideal for super spicy dishes and street food as it cuts through sauces, mayonnaise… almost anything.

Much deeper, fruity and spicy in style, Jukes 6 is the one that most resembles wine. As such, it pairs beautifully with beef dishes and darker, more intense meats like venison. I agree with Matthew that 6 doesn’t go all that well with just sparkling water but it works if you mix half still and half sparkling. It is the best way to appreciate its depth and multiple berry tones.

Jukes 8, the rosé in the family, launched last summer and it was an immediate success, to the point that is currently out of stock, mostly due to massive demand in America. Pale in colour, almost coral, like a Provençal rosé, the main thrust is made up of watermelon, melon, pear, rhubarb and apple. Matthew made sure there is a faint saline/ozone tang, which hints at a shoreline vibe while ensuring that the palate is super-sleek, firmly dry and very long. I think the best way to drink it is with ice-cold still water, being as it is a very gentle, delicate, and refined drink. Magnificent with crustacean, seafood dishes, gentle salads… in short, this is the Jukes to enjoy a long summer afternoon drinking with friends and still walk out alive and kicking, instead of legless. My suggestion is you alternate one glass of wine with two of Jukes 8 so instead of getting plastered as you’d do with good old rosé, you are keeping hydrated and providing your body with beneficial micronutrients from all the fruits, vegs and spices that make up Jukes 8.

I’d recommend you start with a tasting box (£38), experiment at will and discover how best you like them. If nothing else, you’ll have fun trying something new that doesn’t have a guilt chip attached to it.

www.jukescordialities.com

Words: Julia Pasarón

*Prof Keith Humphreys (June 9^th 2014). People Severely Underestimate — or Lie About — How Much They Drink. (The New York Magazine)

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