Financial Times UK November 21 2020

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THE FIX

LUCA NICHETTO FOR DE LA ESPADA HAROLD MENSWEAR T here was a point around three buying stupid train tickets or overpriced Above: TOD’s wool-
DESK, £4,034, FROM CONRANSHOP.COM months into lockdown when coffee or lunches at Pret. mix polo shirt,
PAEAN TO I reached for the unironed £420, cashmere
THE POLO polo shirt in my drawer, and I kept coming to the office throughout rollneck, £720,
realised that I hadn’t worn lockdown, not because I liked commuting and wool-mix
As an alternative to a shirt and tie, and infinitely more a suit or business shirt for weeks. And also but because I thought it was important to be jacket, £1,420
comfortable, the polo shirt just makes total sense, that I had too many polo shirts. in the newsroom when the world was falling
writes FT news editor Matthew Garrahan apart. That’s what I told people, anyway: the
This is not going to be one of those real reason was that there wasn’t a single
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAR A ANGELIL articles about working from home during quiet room or workable surface to stick
STYLING BY R APHAËLLE HELMORE lockdown and discovering that not a laptop on in my house, with three noisy
MODEL MAXIMILLIAN PECK commuting is actually much nicer than kids and my wife hogging all the spare ones.
commuting. Nor did I have a great
epiphany that working at home is better So off to work I went. And have
than working in an office because you continued to go. Since spring, there have
can save lots of money if you’re not rarely been more than a handful of us in
the whole building. You can walk through

FT.COM/HTSI 21

THE FIX

down collars to stop them flapping up in Lauren was inspired by polo players and
the wind. John E Brooks, the grandson of a vision of Waspish American life that, in
Brooks Brothers founder Henry Brooks, his youth, would have been out of reach
was so struck by them when watching an for a Jewish boy from the Bronx who was
English polo match that he put button-down born Ralph Lifshitz. But he may have also
collars on Brooks Brothers shirts – among been inspired by René Lacoste’s classic polo
the first sold in America that had the collars shirt, which wasn’t even a polo shirt at all
attached. More than a century later, because Lacoste was a
the company still labels its long-sleeved, champion tennis player.
THERE’S NO Lacoste wanted a shirt
Ibutton-down shirts “original polo”. POINT IN that could be worn
n America, polos have a preppy WEARING on the court so he
association, for which we can blame BUSINESS shortened the sleeves of
Ralph Lauren because he essentially GET-UP. BUT I the polo and reduced
invented preppiness in the late ’60s CAN’T LOOK the number of buttons.
with a range that became the default LIKE I’VE JUST The Frenchman’s
GOT OUT OF BED

wardrobe for people named Tad who use nickname was “the
“summer” as a verb (as in: “Where do you Crocodile”, which is why each Lacoste shirt
summer?”) and wear chinos and sweaters carries the small crocodile insignia on the
tied in a knot around their shoulders. Lauren heart and is believed to be the first item of
even called his range Polo and designed a clothing ever to have a logo on it.
logo of a polo player on a horse, wielding “He created this shirt, which was then
a mallet above his head. copied by Fred Perry who added the
Wimbledon wreath to his logo,” says Peter
Howarth, a fashion consultant and former
Left: SUNSPEL merino-wool polo, £170. Esquire editor who has worked with Armani
BERLUTI wool jacket, POA. Below: and Versace. After Lacoste, polo shirts would
GIORGIO ARMANI cotton-silk-cashmere be adopted by suave Italian men riding
polo shirt, £810, and cashmere jacket, £2,350

around Rome on Lambrettas; English Mods
empty floors and never see a soul, just like in the 1960s, who wore Fred Perry; and then
in The Shining without a homicidal Jack skinheads, who liked their polos almost as
Nicholson. And because no one else has much as Dr Martens boots. Such associations
been around, I have thought: what’s the aren’t always helpful: Fred Perry recently
point in wearing business get-up? Which stopped selling a black version of its shirt
is only countered by the thought that if after it became the de facto uniform of the
someone important happens to come in, Proud Boys, a nutty American far-right group.
then I can’t look like I’ve just got out of bed Howarth says the shirts have evolved
or haven’t dressed for work. over time: once only available in cotton
piqué, designers now make them in an array
Hence the polo shirts, which I started of fabrics, from silk blend to cashmere. And
wearing at work because a polo shirt is every designer has one in its menswear
more comfortable than a suit and tie. Also range, from Tom Ford and Burberry to Kiton,
it is not a T-shirt. And I actually like them, which sells one for only £900. High fashion
which is not something I readily admit or low fashion, Howarth says the polo shirt CHERNER CLASSIC WALNUT ARMCHAIR, £1,489. LUCA NICHETTO FOR DE LA ESPADA HAROLD DESK, £4,034. BOTH FROM CONRANSHOP.COM. CASTING
because, depending on your age or where “is very much a thing to be played with DIRECTOR, SHAWN DEZAN AT HOME AGENCY. MODEL’S AGENCY, PREMIER MANAGEMENT. GROOMING, KEIICHIRO HIRANO AT THE LONDON STYLE AGENCY,
you are in the world, a polo shirt can be a because it’s something any man can wear”. USING UNITE HAIRCARE.PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT, CALLUM INSKIPP. DIGITAL OPERATOR, CAMERON WILLIAMSON. STYLIST’S ASSISTANT, BRYONY HATRICK
kind of anti-fashion statement, like wearing If it means not having to wear a suit and
cargo shorts or the non-ironic – or even tie, who wouldn’t want to wear one? I can’t
ironic – pairing of brown socks with sandals. imagine the handful of style icons in the
empty FT newsroom wearing a £900 one
The original polo shirt – so called any time soon. But you get my point.
because they were worn on the polo fields
of India – had long sleeves and button-

TREND

Clasp of 2020

Buckle up with the season’s waist-
cinching belts. By Marianna Giusti

Waist-hugging belts were all over this PACO RABANNE ALEXANDER CHLOE suede PRADA OFF-WHITE CHANEL FENDI wool-leather belt, ETRO
season’s catwalks, displaying chameleonic leather Disc, £520 McQUEEN and brass leather acetate- metal and £790, and x CHAOS cases leather
versatility: Altuzarra had delicate, brightly leather Franckie, £545 Vanity, silver chain resin belt, for earphones, £490, and belt with
hued feather styles; Chanel and Off-White Harness, £860 necklace £1,730 smartwatch, £450 studs, £530
belted with chains; while Paco Rabanne’s £650 belt, €550
oversized buckled styles paid homage to
Jim Morrison. “We can be strong and
feminine at the same time,” Miuccia Prada
remarked backstage at her last autumn/
winter show. This idea was illustrated by
a collection in which belts were used to
cinch everything, from broad-shouldered
jackets to oversized T-shirts. Fendi and
Alexander McQueen offered utilitarian
variations, with slim belts used to hang
small lockets and flasks, sometimes paired
with matching crossbody straps, as did
Valentino, with understated tiny black
leather knots. Here’s our edit of the best…

22 FT.COM/HTSI

Commemorating the very first aviators and explorers
sharing their heritage with Longines.

Howard Hughes,
a famous inventive
pioneer in the world
of aviation, circum-
navigated the globe
in record time, using
his trusted Longines
aviation chronometers
and chronographs
to guide him safely
over land and sea.

In 1935, Howard Hughes was His journey took him only 3 days, The Longines Spirit Collection
the fastest flyer in the world. 19 hours and 14 minutes… and of was crafted to embody pre-
He set the airspeed record of course, he was the fastest man to cisely this. A careful blend of
352 mph (566 km/h). But what do so. Hughes always trusted his elegance, tradition and perfor-
makes Hughes’ story so especial- Longines astronavigation chro- mance — with the same distinct
ly impressive, is that the plane nometer to determine the exact features that were tailored to
he flew in, was of his own design. position of his airplane at night, in assist the very first aviators:
Hughes was no ordinary record- total darkness and over the many from the proofed accuracy to
breaking pilot — he was also vast oceans he crossed. the oversized winding crown,
an aeronautical engineer, busi- to be adjusted easily while wear-
ness magnate and successful How we face the fall is what sep- ing gloves; prominent high-
Hollywood movie producer. Yet arates the pioneer spirit from contrast numerals; and hands
it was his fighting spirit and cour- the rest. Falling with elegance, with luminescent coating, for
age in the face of the unknown, when all the odds are stacked nighttime flying.
that compelled him to keep push- against you. Trying, failing, fight- A powerful reminder that the
ing forward. Just a few years ing and triumphing with elegance. pioneer spirit lives on.
later, Hughes circumnavigated This is what’s remembered, what
the globe. remains — when all else has been
stripped away.

THE FIX

CHRISTOPHER
KANE skirt, £995

MARNI ROYAL
bag, £2,350 STRANGER
stool, £1,080,
LES OTTOMANS ZIMMERMANN luxdeco.com
cushion, €145 lace-up
AQUAZZURA
AERIN Valentina boots, £980 Astor pumps,
tray, $395 £650
ARMANI
dress, SHOPPING
£2,300
SOFT
POWER

We’re crushing on velvet this season.
By Raphaëlle Helmore and Clara Baldock

LE DOLCE &
MONDE GABBANA
BERYL belt, £255
Braided
headband,

£115

OLIVIA VON
HALLE Coco Astor
pyjamas, £465

MAISON MARGIELA
Shadow gloves, £255

PAUL STUART
Harrier III
shoes, $570

FENDI Selleria
watch strap, £275

BRABBU
BATAK
armchair,
£2,015

ACNE STUDIOS
Gradient shirt,
£410
BURBERRY
Lola bag,
£790

AKRIS
blazer,
€3,850

24 FT.COM/HTSI

Why this watch? Well, there is a silicon balance-spring that means resistance to strong magnetic fields and everyday shocks. Thanks
to its improved accuracy and precision, it is a COSC-certified chronometer. How much do we believe in these stunning members of

our new Longines Spirit Collection? We are delivering each one with a full five-year warranty.

THE FIX

SKINCARE

GRAPE
CRUSADERS
Beauty brands are harvesting the benefits
of the vine. HTSI’s wine writer Alice Lascelles
tests the terroir

L ike many people, I have spent multilevel hydration”. It features more
rather more time than I’d like than 30 botanicals, including dandelion
staring at my face in punishing (brightening), coconut water (hydrating),
close-up this year. Zoom wine marine algae (fortifying) and kakadu plums
tastings may be good at lifting (renewing). I’m not sure how many people
the spirits, but they’re definitely not kind to understand the finer details of the patented
the skin. So when someone recommended “phyto-ferment process” – a two-week
the products by a US skincare brand called fermentation to imbue the essence with live
Vintner’s Daughter – which not only probiotics that Gargiulo claims promote a
contains grape extracts but is made by the healthy “biosphere” for the skin (and that
offspring of a renowned Napa winemaking also give the essence a smell a bit like
family – I leapt at the chance to try it. kombucha). But that didn’t stop the
Vintner’s Daughter, one of a new crop essence becoming a bestseller on Net-a-
of products that have been informed or Porter and winning a slew of awards.
inspired by the vine, is the brainchild of
April Gargiulo – the 46-year-old daughter I’m a drinks writer, not a beauty editor:
of Jeff and Valerie Gargiulo, owners of I’ve been using the same Olay moisturiser
Napa’s Gargiulo Vineyards. All-natural, for the past 10 years, and I was sceptical.
cruelty-free and unapologetically luxurious, But after two weeks using the duo, I have
the range was her answer to years spent found the result impressive. I’m not sure the
searching fruitlessly for the answer to her improvement has been cumulative, exactly
skin-pigmentation problems and acne. – nothing will ever get that 2020 dent out
“I think I tried everything out there!” of my brow – but for several hours after
she says down the line from San Francisco. every application my skin definitely looks
“But it wasn’t until I had my first child revitalised. Brighter, tighter, with the kind
that I really started to look at the of glow that comes from being bathed in
ingredients in those products I was
using. In most cases they contained California sun, rather than the light of a
0.01 per cent active ingredients, and Mac. A couple of men in my life even
the rest was just low-quality filler remarked on how well I looked.
– often fillers that were synthetic. Alongside Vintner’s Daughter,
That didn’t sit well.” there are other brands at the top end
Gargiulo resolved to create of the beauty market taking
a “clean, green” skincare range a decidedly vinous turn. Beauty
of her own. “I thought: how do Pie’s cute-looking (but, for my
I create skincare that uses the skin anyway, rather bracing) new
fine winemaking principles of range, Japanfusion, is made with
craftsmanship and quality? Well, extracts of the sun-resistant
you never compromise on your Delaware grape, offering
ingredients, you never take shortcuts. polyphenols for “soothing,
And you harvest from plants in the antioxidant and UV-related skin-
the best terroir possible.” She launched
in 2014 with Vintner’s damage repair”. Cult Korean beauty brand
MARY QUEEN Daughter Active Botanical Neogen Dermalogy promises a complete
OF SCOTS Serum – a grape seed- skin reset with its Bio-Peel Gentle Gauze Above: VINTNER’S DAUGHTER Active Treatment Essence, £210,
based “multi-correctional” Peeling Wine pads, which are infused and Active Botanical Serum, £175, libertylondon.com. Above
R E P U T E D LY with wine extracts. Grape-seed oil is a key left: BEAUTY PIE Japanfusion Deep-Treatment Serum, £75.
BATHED IN face oil infused with component of many home masks and Below right: the Six Senses Hotel & Spa in the Douro Valley
serums, including Summer Friday’s R+R
WHITE WINE 22 botanicals, including Mask, Sunday Riley’s Luna Sleeping Night
pore-shrinking hazelnut Oil and the divine Kypris Beauty Elixir 1,
from Piedmont, bergamot from Calabria which also contains Bulgarian rose oil. And
to even out skin tone, and skin-tightening in these gloomy times, who could pass up
cypress from Spain. Celebs queued up the chance to try Mimi Luzon’s Sparkling
with praise (Gwyneth Paltrow: “I love Champagne Super Mask, a glittery
it!”; Karen Elson: “I’m obsessed!”) and “oxygenating” face mask made with
the discreet little dropper soon became grape-cell extracts?
a favourite on stylish dressing tables.
It wasn’t until the launch of Vintner’s And yet the concept is not new. Vinous ILLUSTRATIONS: WILLIAM LUZ (4)
Daughter Active Treatment Essence last ingredients have informed beauty regimes
year, though, that the brand went really for centuries: grape-seed oil was prized as a
stellar. Billed as a complement to the moisturiser in medieval times; Mary Queen
oil-based serum, the water-based botanical of Scots reputedly bathed in white wine to
essence promises “optimal nutrition, improve her complexion; and the 17th- SKINCEUTICALS SUNDAY RILEY KYPRIS Beauty MIMI LUZON Sparkling NEOGEN DERMALOGY
century beauty Queen Isabella of Hungary Resveratrol B E Luna Sleeping Elixir 1, £242, Super Mask, £187, Gauze Peeling Wine pads,
micro-exfoliation, brightening, firming and was famous for her grape-based elixir Night OIl, £85 net-a-porter.com £31, selfridges.com
of youth. The pioneer of contemporary Serum, £153 net-a-porter.com

26 FT.COM/HTSI

THE FIX

grape-based skincare was the French FRAGRANCE
brand Caudalie. Born of a chance meeting
between Mathilde Thomas, daughter of the Cold spray
owners of Bordeaux’s Château Smith Haut
Lafitte, and Joseph Vercauteren, laboratory From dark and daring to sweet and
director of the Pharmacy University of comforting, Lauren Hadden picks out
Bordeaux, the company was the first to give
scientific credence to the winter scents to savour
idea that grape extracts
WHO COULD could benefit the skin. HERMES TWILLY D’HERMES
PASS UP A Christine Nagel has been doing wonderful
SPARKLING “Do you know that you things at Hermès since she became its new
CHAMPAGNE nose. This twist on tuberose is a perfect
SUPER MASK? are throwing away example of how she creates fragrances that
treasure?” Vercauteren feel almost sculpted; when HTSI interviewed
reportedly said when her for The Aesthete, she referenced both Rodin
confronted with the sight of the discarded and Claudel as influences. Spicy, woody notes
marc – the seeds and skins that are left – there’s ginger at the top and, somewhere, a
over after winemaking. “He told us that herbal hit of old-fashioned soap – offer a clean,
grape seeds contain the most powerful medicinal foil to the sweet tuberose. Charming
antioxidants in the world,” says Thomas. and expertly crafted. £111 for 85ml EDP
CAUDALIE Premier
THE COMPANY LAUNCHED in 1995 with Cru The Serum, £90. LUSH FRANGIPANI
three products touting the benefits of Inset below: SUMMER I defy anyone not to be suckered by Lush’s
grape polyphenols – the grape-seed FRIDAYS R+R Mask, £46 sweet festive offering. The name apparently
extracts alleged to have antioxidant and references both the tropical flower and the
anti-wrinkle properties. This was followed by plants to protect them from infections, legend of the Marquis of Frangipani, who
by the Caudalie range Premier Cru, the first UV radiation and climate change. fragranced his gloves with sweet almond. But
on the market to champion the effects of to this nose the dominant note is more akin to
the polyphenol resveratrol. Today, Caudalie “Oral resveratrol was shown to extend the custardy frangipane of a Galette du Roi.
produces more than 20 products containing the lives of laboratory mice due to its effect Almond and sugar, that medieval luxury made
everything from grape-skin extracts and on a group of genes called sirtuins, which mass-market, is always a killer combination
grape water to seeds and vine sap. when activated seem to slow down the and is joined here by a fizzy sherbet top note.
Of the products I tried, the one cellular-ageing process. It hasn’t been £70 for 100ml EDP
I like best was the reviving
Firming Eye Gel Cream that possible to replicate this in humans TRUDON BRUMA
boasts both grape-derived – yet. But resveratrol has shown real Saddle up for a gallop by starlight on your
resveratrol and hyaluronic promise when it’s used topically in favourite steed – or uncap the scalloped green
acid. But Caudalie is best skincare products as an antioxidant, lid to experience what that crisp, nighttime air
known for its Vinoperfect protecting skin cells’ DNA from might smell like. Leather and vetiver bring
Radiance Serum, a milky serum damage caused by free radicals.” earthy darkness, while iris’s violet notes and
spiked with Viniferine – a bitter green galbanum lift everything and
patented extract of vine sap that’s If you’re serious about getting add a string of twinkling lights. This is a
long been held to brighten skin, your hit of resveratrol, Bunting powerful fragrance with real depth. £180 for
even skin tone and correct dark 100ml EDP, selfridges.com
spots (dark spots are one of the adds, the product to go for is
few ills I have not succumbed to Skinceuticals Resveratrol B E CHANEL SYCOMORE
yet, so I can’t testify on this one). Serum – a product made with “There’s sap in the trees if you tap ’em,” croons
resveratrol derived not from musician Bill Callahan in “Sycamore”, one of
It’s possible to find products that exploit grapes but Japanese knotweed. his more hopeful tunes. If you’ve never been
grapes in all kinds of different ways – some, I gave it a spin and, while the gel-like introduced to Callahan, or Chanel’s Sycomore
like Vintner’s Daughter, use grape-seed oil serum feels nice going on, I can’t report – a smoky stalwart of its Les Exclusifs line – this
as a moisturising agent. Others make bolder much difference either way so far; it also is the ideal time of year to get acquainted.
claims about what extracts of the skin, flesh leaves a less-than-perfect orange stain The scent is treasured by lovers of earthy
and seeds can do. So where is the hard on your pillowcase. vetiver root, which is joined by sandalwood
science? I asked Harley Street dermatologist To delve deeper, perhaps go the route – that creamy sap in the trees – on a journey
Dr Sam Bunting to clear things up. “Grapes of the Scottish Queen and indulge in a to a crackling log fire. Best accompanied
are of interest in skincare because they decadent spot of vinotherapy. Caudalie is by a good bourbon (our drinks writer Alice
have antioxidant properties,” she says. “Of used in more than 40 spas around the Lascelles rates Eagle Rare). £155 for 75ml EDP
particular interest is resveratrol, which is world that offer a menu of bacchic
found in fermented red grapes and is a treatments: Merlot wraps, grape scrubs, OSTENS CASHMER AN VELVET
member of the stilbene family. It’s produced soaks in grape marc and red wine, and If in search of something comforting, calm and
resveratrol facials, as well as a slightly collected – and who isn’t right now? – this is
menacing-sounding treatment described as your man (it’s at the masculine end of the
“vine drainage” (actually just a massage scale). Cashmeran Velvet was inspired by a
designed to help the body de-puff). synthetic molecule of the same name that this
Even if you don’t buy the science – new fragrance house – Ostens launched in
travel permitting – you can be sure of 2018 – supplied to perfumer Sophie Labbé as
a beautiful setting. The original Caudalie her starting point. She wisely matched a novel
spa in Bordeaux occupies a picturesque molecule with age-old perfume ingredients
spot at the heart of the Château Smith such as sandalwood, vanilla and patchouli to
Haut Lafitte estate, while its newest venture stylish but ultimately reassuring effect. A 9ml
Les Sources des Cheverny Hotel & Spa, “préparation” oil of the raw material can be
which opened in September, sits among worn alone or layered with the main scent.
vines in the Loire. £105 for 50ml EDP
Portugal, too, offers gorgeous vineyard
views and vinotherapy at the Six Senses CLOON KEEN CASTANA
Hotel & Spa in the dramatic heartland Another sophisticated gourmand offering
of port, the Douro Valley. Here you can from a respected Irish fragrance house. The
enjoy treatments including grape top note offers the burnt caramel aroma of
exfoliations and body wraps steeped in roasted chestnuts, alongside another little bit
the local juice. Still in need of rejuvenation? of nostalgia, toasted marshmallows. A blend
The hotel also has a very good wine list – of vetiver, cardamom and red pepper follows,
sure to put even the harshest lines into very with cinnamon’s cousin, cassia, and a hint of
flattering soft focus. jasmine creating a spicy floral finish.
@alicelascelles Ambrosial. €150 for 100ml EDP

FT.COM/HTSI 27

THE FIND

SMART INVESTMENT

Brush up any surface with
these painterly tiles

EDITED BY CLAR A BALDOCK
PHOTOGRAPH BY ADAM GOODISON

BALINEUM tiles,
handmade in Italy in
nine patterns designed
by Brooklyn-based artist
and textile designer
Wayne Pate, from
£13.75, balineum.co.uk

28 FT.COM/HTSI

THE FIX

In the space of a mere six months,
loungewear has transformed from
the afterthought in all our wardrobes
– the old T-shirts and threadbare
sweaters kept only for slouching
about the house – to the indispensable
clothes we’re most likely to reach for
in the mornings.
In the process, it’s also taken on the
unenviable mantle of being a psychological
crutch for many of us. Pulling on a thick
jersey crewneck or a pair of stretchy
sweatpants makes for a comforting, almost
reassuring moment at the start of the day.
It’s the style equivalent of a milky coffee FASHION
on a cold morning.
“We’ve seen a big increase in demand KEEP YOUR
for loungewear this year, driven by people’s KNITS
changing lifestyles,” says David Morris, ABOUT YOU
Mr Porter’s buying manager. “In a short
space of time, our customer has become The ultimate in comfort,
more conscious of investing in clothes that Loro Piana’s new loungewear
provide utmost comfort for days working shouldn’t be confined to the
at home. We certainly expect to see this home, writes Aleks Cvetkovic
demand continue into 2021.”
Few brands have understood this PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAR A ANGELIL
change more successfully than Italian STYLING BY R APHAËLLE HELMORE
thoroughbred Loro MODEL MAXIMILLIAN PECK
Piana, which has been
“LOUNGEWEAR sourcing, spinning,
IS THE STYLE weaving and finishing
EQUIVALENT world-class cashmere in
OF A MILKY
COFFEE ON Piedmont since 1924. As
A COLD
MORNING” we head into the depths
of winter, the brand is
launching a new knitted-
loungewear collection that is equal parts
indulgent and composed. Available
ILLUSTRATIONS: WILLIAM LUZ. CASTING DIRECTOR, SHAWN DEZAN AT HOME AGENCY. MODEL’S AGENCY, PREMIER MANAGEMENT. GROOMING, KEIICHIRO HIRANO AT THE LONDON for both men and women, it is made
STYLE AGENCY, USING UNITE HAIR CARE. PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT, CALLUM INSKIP. DIGITAL OPERATOR, CAMERON WILLIAMSON. STYLIST’S ASSISTANT, BRYONY HATRICK entirely from either superfine knitted
cashmere or The Gift of Kings merino.
The latter is a particularly fine quality
of wool, spun from fibres measuring just
13 microns in diameter. (A human hair,
by contrast, is around 50 microns.) The
result is a collection of “new normal”-
ready staples that feel like silk worn
next to the skin.
“Loro Piana has always celebrated
absolute comfort and wellbeing through
clothing,” says the brand’s CEO, Fabio
d’Angelantonio. “We think of touch as the
most fundamental sense to convey a feeling
of comfort and quality. Precious knitted
garments are the answer to feeling
comfortable and looking sophisticated,
even when relaxing or working from home.”

THE COLLECTION FEELS ALMOST too refined LORO PIANA cashmere/silk one. We’ve never worked to this rhythm. in two-tone grey made from a blend of
to just lie on the sofa in. Luckily, this Portland bomber, £1,535, The sweater you buy in-store at the cashmere and silk, or classic navy in
loungewear is put-together enough to wear matching trousers, £1,255, moment is designed to look good with baby cashmere.
out and about too, with many of the key cashmere Le Mans jumper, the jacket from last year and the pants
pieces echoing sportswear: drawstring £1,445, and Harley that we’ll release next year.” These simple designs allude to Loro
waists, hoodies, ribbed collars and cashmere/silk rollneck, Piana’s slow-fashion mentality too. After
zip-throughs. The trousers could easily £1,350. PANTHERELLA cotton The collection’s understated colour all, the grey jersey tracksuit has been around
be worn with a T-shirt and unstructured Danvers socks, £14. THONET palette underscores this point. It’s a for more than half a century, albeit not quite
blazer, while the hoodie is ready to be S533 R chair, £1,258, deft exercise in pairing neutrals – cream, as high on the luxury index as Loro Piana’s.
layered beneath a tailored coat, with conranshop.com. THE RUG beige, camel, dove grey, charcoal and
jeans and a pair of boots for a quick dash COMPANY hand-knotted navy – in a range of staples to be mixed “When we’re all spending more time
into town. It’s loungewear designed bamboo silk rug, from £1,116 and matched. Standout pieces include at home, some exceptionally well-made
to play into 2020’s new dressed-down, the Cappuccio Merano Contrast sweater knitwear is a simple pleasure,” says
neighbourhood-chic sensibilities. in baby cashmere for women, and a d’Angelantonio. Perhaps, but Loro Piana’s
pair of men’s contemporary tracksuits new loungewear is so dashing you’d be daft
“Our garments are always designed not to show it off around town too.
as solutions for customers, to suit
changes in their lifestyle,” d’Angelantonio
continues, “but we also create clothes to
last. For many brands, a new collection’s
only mission is to outdate the previous

FT.COM/HTSI 29

TAGLIATELLE
Rings in silver,
or gold and
with diamonds
inspired by a
trip to Italy.

cassandragoad.com

THE KUDOS PROJECT

aFcraadmeemy
Meet the twin sisters who are eyewear
designers, DJs and philanthropists.
By Charlene Prempeh

C orinna “Coco” Doston sits on the left. Her
décolletage is adorned with tattoos, she is
wearing a strapless top and there is a
collection of rings dangling from her nose.
On the right is her identical twin sister,
Bianna “Breezy” Doston: the same
assortment of body art, nose rings and
dreaded hair, which she twists throughout our conversation.
Typically, I’d find this experience of double vision
disconcerting, but in this instance it’s a delight.
The sisters are the co-founders of Coco and Breezy
Eyewear, a sunglasses and optical glasses company
established in 2009, when the twins were just
19 years old. Designs (from $225 to $325) are
categorised simply as Round, Rectangle,
Cat-Eye and Aviator, but the DNA is bold,
colourful and ambitious – the iconic
“third eye” sunglasses designed for Prince
being one example of their ingenuity.
The sisters moved to New York
from Minnesota, and began their
venture from an apartment in
Brooklyn with just $1,000 and the
eyewear designs they had created to
shield themselves from bullies in their
PHOTOGRAPHS: DENZEL GOLATT. GORDO LTKO. LEWIS WINKLE. MATTHEW TAYLOR hometown. “The people bullying [us] were
hurt. They tried to ruin our lives, but we got
something dope from it,” Coco says. The resulting mix
COCO AND of resilience and compassion has grown into a range
BREEZY of coveted statement eyewear with distribution in more
FAMILIAR than 400 stores and celebrity patronage from Beyoncé, Coco, left, and THE KUDOS PROJECT
OPTICAL Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj. Breezy Dotson,
GLASSES, co-founders of Coco A celebration of black innovators, creatives
and Breezy Eyewear and entrepreneurs, The Kudos Project
$249 EACH A strong work ethic and zen temperament were launched as a bi-weekly column on FT.com
From left: ingrained in the twins early on. “By the time we were this June, compiled by Charlene Prempeh
COCO AND 19 we already had three jobs each,” Breezy says. They (pictured below with her son, Lucky). The How
BREEZY describe the incredible support of their parents as To Spend It contributing editor is the founder
Lively-104, another key aspect of their entrepreneurial journey. “We Their own introduction to the of A Vibe Called Tech, an initiative and
$285. Lively-101, started off with self-expression,” Breezy explains, “and I “WE MAKE eyewear industry was less cushioned, creative agency exploring the intersection of
$285 think that set us up for success in regards to being GLASSES TO but they see the positive in finding black creativity, culture and innovation, and
creative.” It’s an upbringing that also fostered an appetite HEAL YOUR their own way: “Life is about going her playful opening gambit for the column
to give back, and they now mentor a number of black- EYES; WE MAKE through an experience and figuring was Bullshit, a luxury candle from IIUVO,
owned eyewear companies. “We’re not stingy at all with MUSIC TO HEAL out how you can learn from it.” co-founded by Tomi Ahmed and Leo Gibbon.
our knowledge!” exclaims Breezy, while Coco laughs. YOUR SOUL” Subsequent features have embraced the
As well as Coco and Breezy nine-foot-high public sculptures of Thomas J
Eyewear, the twins produce music Price, urban gardening with Claire Ratinon,
and DJ. “We make glasses to heal your a philanthropic art-meets-fashion
eyes, we make music to heal your soul” is the mantra collaboration between Michael Armitage
declared by Coco. Recent innovations in “healing” include and Stella Jean, and LIHA, a beauty brand
a collaboration with Zenni Optical to create affordable powered by Yoruba philosophy. Follow The
eyewear for children aged eight to 12, a percentage of Kudos Project series on FT.com.

profits being donated to the Child Mind Institute, and the
purchase of a contemporary mountain retreat in the
Catskills called The Lorca, consisting of five vacation
properties renovated with friends. They also released a
new song in November, “U” featuring Dawn Richard.
It sounds exhausting, but neither Coco nor Breezy seems
overwhelmed. “We celebrate our losses and our wins,”
Breezy says, looking to Coco, who affirms her sister’s point:
“We just try to keep everything super-even-keel.”

cocoandbreezy.com

FT.COM/HTSI 31

Right: Mathias Augustyniak
(on left) and Michael Amzalag
at the M/M (Paris) studio. Far
right and below: the new
book M to M of M/M (Paris)
Volume II. Left: the front and
back of Saville’s sleeve for
New Order’s Power,
Corruption & Lies

The type set

Graphic artists Peter Saville and M/M (Paris)
have forged a near 20-year friendship

through their shared fascination with music,
fashion and design. By Harriet Quick

PHOTOGRAPHY BY K ATJA R AHLWES first-class degree in 1978. One of his creations while still a Right:
student was a poster for Factory Records, the label he set interviewing
T he old adage about the danger of meeting up with Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus and Martin Hannett Amzalag,
one’s heroes did not apply when Mathias that championed emergent Manchester bands including Joy Augustyniak
Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag of Division and The Durutti Column. Saville’s impactful poster and Saville.
design and art direction agency M/M Fac.1, with its thick rules and a sans-serif type, led to prolific Below: Saville,
(Paris) were introduced to British graphic record-cover work for Factory artists and The Haçienda club. as drawn by
artist Peter Saville at a conference in Augustyniak
Barcelona in 2003. The French duo, best “The remarkable thing about graphics in the context of during
known for their abstract, multilayered graphic art in the music is that it does not matter what is on the cover. I had the video
fashion, music and art worlds, encountered a kindred relative autonomy to create the covers that I wanted, and conversation.
spirit. Indeed Saville, who thrust graphic art into the public I would send them to the printers without anyone seeing Left: pages
consciousness via his record covers for New Order and Joy them,” says Saville, adding that he was never able to replicate from M to M
Division, had paved the way for their own practice. The trio that level of autonomy again. It was Saville’s extraordinarily of M/M (Paris)
have made graphic art a vital part of visual culture. beautiful postmodern transfusion of art and design history Volume II
into pop culture that struck a chord. Henri Fantin-Latour’s
They see each other regularly and worked together when still-life A Basket of Roses (1890) appeared on New Order’s
Augustyniak and Amzalag invited Saville to contribute an Power, Corruption & Lies, released in 1983; a photographic
essay for their new book M to M of M/M (Paris) Volume II version of a de Chirico painting shot by chief collaborator
(Thames & Hudson), which accompanies their current Trevor Key adorned Thieves Like Us (1984); and a blown-up
exhibitions at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs and Musée tapestry pattern and book-title-style graphics were on OMD’s
d’Orsay (both temporarily closed) and Shanghai’s Power Talking Loud and Clear (also 1984). This seminal work flew
Station of Art. Saville’s chapter takes the form of an in the face of clichéd “portrait of a band” cover art.
interview with writer and creative director Jo-Ann Furniss
and discusses Paris, high art vs pop culture and Saville’s Saville’s appropriation of fine art into pop culture was an
beginnings as a founding partner at Factory Records. astonishing riposte to the cultural hierarchies of Thatcherite
Britain. “It was new to me, and it turned out that other young
Amzalag started his record collection in his teens. “I was people were happy to discover it through this remarkable
13 when I first heard New Order on the radio, and the next platform of Factory Records and Joy Division and New Order,”
day I bought the album. That discovery fired up my interest says Saville, who continued to create Factory covers for 10
in graphic design. It was a bright spot, an illuminating more years. Roxy Music, Pulp and Suede are among the many
moment,” he says. In 1986, he entered the Ecole Nationale other bands that have commissioned him for cover art.
Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, where he met his
future creative partner, Augustyniak. “I leave him to write As he developed new visual lexicons, he also expressed
the lyrics; somehow he is the lead singer and I play the the mood of the time through his lifestyle and dress code
keyboard” is how Amzalag describes the dynamic behind (silk robes, polonecks and lounge jackets). Handsome and
M/M, one of fashion’s most sought-after creative agencies. enigmatic, Saville came to hold a mythic status in the fashion,
music and art worlds at the vanguard of popular culture that
Saville’s own awakening to the potential of graphic art was imploding through MTV and style magazines such as
happened at Manchester Polytechnic. He was awarded a The Face and i-D in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

Ten years younger, Amzalag and Augustyniak share
Saville’s predictive antennae. Augustyniak’s breakthrough
happened while studying at the RCA in London. “In France,
art-school training is based on expression of the artistic
self. The transdisciplinary, applied-art approach at the RCA
introduced me to the idea of art direction and learning how
to articulate and interlink the specificity of someone else
– a photographer, designer, typographer, musician or a
writer,” says Augustyniak, who was raised in the south
of France. The mission at M/M was to further the cross-
disciplinary approach pioneered by Saville and ultimately
create graphic art as an end in itself.

32 FT.COM/HTSI

DOUBLE ACT

All three have been instinctively drawn to the fertile world and creative directors might appoint a graphic designer before
of fashion. It was avant-garde designer Yohji Yamamoto who a photographer. That was unheard of 30 years ago.” He adds:
first gave both sides a platform there. The introduction for “Yohji allowed me freedom. He said, ‘I want to see what you
Saville happened via art director Marc Ascoli and Nick Knight, want to see.’ The only rule being that he needed to like it.”
who were shooting a Yamamoto catalogue. Knight suggested Ascoli later enlisted M/M, who’d been blown away by the
bringing a graphic artist on board to add another layer. audacity of Saville’s series. M/M worked on campaigns and
“Without Marc Ascoli, without Nick Knight we would catalogues for Jil Sander, as well as Yamamoto. In time, more
not be having this conversation today,” says Saville of the brands sought out their distinctive, unorthodox approach. In
resulting collaboration, a catalogue that is still used as a the case of Balenciaga, then helmed by Nicolas Ghesquière,
reference point. “The contribution that could be made they layered collage, photography, hand-drawn typography
through graphic media – through graphic, type, layout and and symbolism in dense imagery that was as intricate and
materiality – was not practised in fashion. Now, it is standard, multireferential as Ghesquière’s distinctive design.
“We found the freedom to express ideas and a
vision through the medium of fashion. When we
were studying in Paris in the late ’80s and early ’90s,
fashion was seen as a kind of capitalist, frivolous
evil,” says Amzalag. Like Saville, the duo wanted to
reignite the relationship between art and fashion
that flourished in the early 20th century in the
writings of Roland Barthes and Marcel Duchamp
or the collaborations between designers and artists,
including Chanel and Cocteau, Schiaparelli and Dalí.
Observes Saville: “Even now, talking to
Michael and Mathias, it strikes me again that the
conversation around fashion, style and the art of
living is totally different in London, which is so
pragmatic, to Paris, which is romantic. I remember
Ascoli talking about this red dress as ‘la robe rouge’.
Between the two terms there is a difference,
something enigmatic. Fashion is essential to the
French art of being. The Brits don’t have that.”
“THE NEW ORDER ALBUM FIRED UP MY INTEREST Both M/M and Saville have also worked on
IN GRAPHIC DESIGN. IT WAS A BRIGHT SPOT”
civic projects. Saville became the consultant
creative director of Manchester and worked with
the council on the cultural regeneration of the city. He
founded ShowStudio with Nick Knight in 2000 and also
worked with Nicholas Serota at the Whitechapel Gallery.
For 20 years, M/M worked with Théâtre de Lorient on
posters and stage sets that are now being rediscovered by
a young generation. Alongside major fashion campaigns for
Loewe, Stella McCartney and Calvin Klein, M/M have also
worked for artists including Sarah Morris and Philippe
Parreno. This extraordinary body of work features in the
new monograph M to M, and is also spread across the Paris
and Shanghai exhibitions; the City of Lights is immersed in
M/M’s exuberant landscape of artefacts, posters, sculptures,
visuals and 3D M/M symbols and letterforms. Now cultural
luminaries, Amzalag and Augustyniak were awarded
Chevaliers des Arts et des Lettres in 2012. In the UK, Saville’s
aesthetic imprint has also been honoured in a CBE (2019),
Band a monographic exhibition at the Design Museum.
ut when it comes to authoring and art
directing their own books, all three have
preferred to enlist other graphic artists. Saville
asked Christopher Wilson to work on his
Designed by Peter Saville book, while Paul
Neale, co-founder of British agency GTF, had
a hand in M/M’s tomes. The cover features
two fingers holding coins with M/M hieroglyphs.
Now 65, Saville says he only wants to take on work that
interests him. And for clients who will be patient. “Nothing
much happens in my world until noon,” he smiles. Recent
projects have included the rebranding for Calvin Klein
(music aficionado Raf Simons also reached out to him to use
Factory covers on parkas), and a collaboration with Riccardo
Tisci on Burberry’s new logo and monogram. “I want to step
back a little and spend time on my legacy, my own work. As a
graphic artist, you constantly exist in other people’s worlds.
The work out there is a fraction of the boxes and boxes of
unseen work I have.” He continues to draw with pen and
PHOTOGRAPHS: COURTESY PETER paper in his live/work London studio. “Michael and Mathias
SAVILLE (2). THAMES & HUDSON (3) have another decade to contribute to,” he says.
Would a joint exhibition be in the offing? “We could
stage it at Agincourt,” jests Saville. Amzalag and
Augustyniak agree that would be a fine idea.
M to M of M/M (Paris) Volume II is published by Thames
& Hudson, £50. Their Paris and Shanghai exhibitions are
on until 10 January and 18 April respectively.

FT.COM/HTSI 33

BAROQUE
STARS
Bulgari’s new high jewellery
is a celebration of Rome – and its

richest collection to date,
writes Jessica Beresford

Photography by Alessio Boni T he Fountain of the Four Rivers, In the Luce series, necklaces and earrings mimic the Right: ETRO
Styling by Isabelle Kountoure smack bang in the middle of the tapering shape of feathers – inspiration plucked from cotton shirt, £305.
grand Piazza Navona in Rome, is a the plumage of peacocks. Such non-native plants and BULGARI Barocko
Model Penelope Ternes chaotic mass of human figures, flora animals were a point of fascination after the Romans gold, amethyst,
and fauna, set about an imposing began trading with the East Asia, and were often depicted tourmaline, pearl,
34 FT.COM/HTSI obelisk. The sculpture, by Gian in baroque paintings or represented as motifs in decor. rubellite and
Lorenzo Bernini, is typical of the The Wonder Peacock necklace is an ornate example, with diamond Gem
expressive, overly decorative style of teardrop tanzanites and circle-shaped emeralds studded Constellation
baroque that has shaped the Eternal with diamonds to mimic the “eye” of the feathers. This is necklace, POA.
City – from statues to balustrades to table legs. one of Silvestri’s favourite pieces. “I love the combination Left from top:
of colours and the different shapes – pear, round, cushion. BULGARI Barocko
Lucia Silvestri came across this scene one morning There is everything, but in a very harmonical way,” she gold, 58ct rubellite,
while searching for ideas for Bulgari’s latest high- says. “It was a piece that I followed from the very emerald and
jewellery collection. The creative director was drawn to beginning of the process, and the craftsmanship took diamond Pink
the roughly hewn rock on which the figures sit, calling more than 1,500 hours.” Twist necklace,
to mind the contrast between the uncut gems and the POA. Barocko
final, polished stones in each of her pieces. Among the Bulgari’s iconic Serpenti is naturally present: a pink-gold, ruby,
commotion she also spied a snake, a motif intertwined white‑gold and pavé-diamond bracelet coils around the mandarin-garnet
with the house’s codes. She immediately pulled out her wrist, with an elongated tongue that protrudes across and diamond
phone and sent pictures to her creative team. the hand and connects to a ring. The snake’s head is also ring, POA
embellished with a mighty, 10.14ct teardrop diamond.
The resulting collection, Barocko, morphed into a
celebration of the sumptuous curves, vivid hues and If high jewellery showcases the top tier of skills,
arabesques of the 17th- to mid-18th-century movement. gemstones and design a house can wield, then Barocko
Baroque as a style isn’t something Bulgari has frequently is Bulgari’s most impressive to date. “Value-wise, it’s
explored, even though it is as intrinsically linked to Rome probably the richest we’ve ever put together,” says CEO
as the jewellery house itself. “The theme was one that Jean-Christophe Babin. “If you look at the cost of the
we had in mind a few years back, but we thought maybe gems and of the craftsmanship, which we measure in
it was too obvious,” says Silvestri. “But we are baroque, the thousands of hours per piece, if we combine those
and we’ve never done something specifically on it, so it two parameters, it is the richest we have ever displayed.”
was a natural evolution.”
And demand for such extravagant pieces still exists.
Although it was conceived well before the turmoil of What has changed, Babin says, is the way in which their
this year, the theme comes at a time when calls to support customers are buying such jewels. “The way to access
Italy and its craftspeople are more urgent than ever. luxury, to process luxury, to live it, is changing. The
The collection totals more than 120 one-off jewels (all bestseller is the pendant – this has not changed. What
POA) and spans three series: Meraviglia, Luce and Colore. has changed is the country where you buy and the channel
It also pays tribute to the specific artists who shaped you use.” This is in line with the LVMH-owned house’s
the baroque movement – Bernini, but also architect new strategy to focus on selling in local markets –
Francesco Borromini and painter Caravaggio. One especially China – instead of relying on existing
necklace, the Chiaroscuro, is a geometric tiling of round, customers to travel to Europe for their purchases.
brilliant-cut and pavé diamonds punctuated with seven
vibrant gemstones – including rubellite, green tourmaline But that didn’t stop the house from launching Barocko
and tanzanite – and is named after the technique with a suitably grand salon-style show and dinner in
employed by painters to contrast light with dark. Another Rome in September, even if some of their usual high
piece, the Festa ring, features a 7ct mandarin garnet at jewellery clients couldn’t travel to be there. The event,
its centre, designed to imitate the succulent fruit in held in the privately owned Palazzo Colonna, was about
Caravaggio’s still-lifes. And the Pink Twists necklace, painting the whole picture of the collection and bringing
a cushion-cut 58ct rubellite suspended on a chain of glamour back to a year in which such things have been
curling pavé-set diamonds, references the gilded frames lacking. “We need beauty after this time and to enjoy the
and mirrors typical of the period. quality of life, of course,” adds Silvestri. “I hope people
wear the collection with joy.”

FT.COM/HTSI 35

BOTTEGA VENETA teddy
shearling coat, £6,545,
cotton shirt, £750, and
denim trousers, £905.

BULGARI High Jewellery
pink-gold sautoir,

Roman bronze coin
(c41-54AD), malachite and
diamond Monete necklace

(all one piece), POA

36 FT.COM/HTSI

DOLCE & GABBANA crêpe
coat, £2,350, and cotton
poplin tunic shirt, £695.
BULGARI Barocko white-gold,
Paraíba tourmaline, onyx and
diamond Exotic Love earrings
and matching Exotic Love
necklace, both POA

FT.COM/HTSI 37



MAX MARA cotton shirt, £380. SALVATORE
FERRAGAMO wool/silk/cotton trousers
with belt, £705. BOTTEGA VENETA calfskin
boots, £940. BULGARI Barocko white-gold,
rubellite, green tourmaline, amethyst,
citrine, yellow-quartz, aquamarine,
tanzanite and diamond Chiaroscuro
necklace. Bustier, stylist’s own
Casting, Cicek Brown. Model’s agency,
Modelwerk. Hair, Sebastien Bascle at
Calliste Agency. Make-up, Martina
Lattanzi using Les Chaînes d’Or de Chanel
and Chanel Le Lift Crème de Nuit. Nails,
Martina Lattanzi using Chanel Le Top
Coat and Chanel La Crème Main.
Photographer’s assistants, Alessio Keilty
and Andrea Luna. Stylist’s assistant,
Marie Poulmarch

FT.COM/HTSI 39

40 FT.COM/HTSI

XX VISION
Gallerist Alison Jacques is putting overlooked artists who never
“got their dues” in the picture, says Francesca Gavin

PHOTOGRAPHS: COURTESY OF THE DESTINA FOUNDATION, NEW YORK AND ALISON JACQUES GALLERY, Alison Jacques photographed SPhotography by Hannah Starkey
LONDON. © ARTIST’S RIGHTS SOCIETY, NEW YORK, AND ADAGP, PARIS. COURTESY OF THE LENORE G TAWNEY at her gallery in Fitzrovia, trong women intent on doing their
FOUNDATION, NEW YORK, AND ALISON JACQUES GALLERY, LONDON. © LEONORE G TAWNEY FOUNDATION London. Behind her hangs own thing are like magnets for me,
Pounding Strong, 1981, by I gravitate towards them and their
Dorothea Tanning. Above work without even realising it,” says
right: The Jade Mountain, Alison Jacques. The Mayfair gallerist
1967, by Lenore Tawney has established herself among the most
prominent international galleries to
focus on repositioning female artists
overlooked in the canon of art history.
When it comes to the art market,
she is the queen of old ladies. Thanks to her, many
previously under-the-radar artists are being given major
international shows, including Brazilian painter and
installation artist Lygia Clark at the Guggenheim Bilbao
this autumn; textural artist Sheila Hicks at the Hepworth
Wakefield next year; and Slovakian sculptor Maria
Bartuszova at Tate Modern next November.
Working directly with women in the later stages
of their careers, or posthumously with their families and
estates, Jacques has a superlative eye, and a tenacity
that’s inspiring. She began carving her niche in 2007,
three years after opening her eponymous gallery space,
with the American performance artist and sculptor
Hannah Wilke, known for her pieces exploring sexuality,
femininity, and reclaiming the female body from the male
gaze. “It was difficult to find her work and see in the flesh.
But if you really want something and you search for it, you
will find someone, somewhere who can put you in touch
with someone else who opens a door,” Jacques says of
her experience. “Wilke had had a rough ride even from
her contemporaries in the ’70s. She was too beautiful. It
wasn’t until she made the body of work when she was
dying from lymphoma, of photographs of herself bloated
and losing her hair, that people accepted her.” The gallery
was the first in Europe to hold a solo exhibition of Wilke’s

FT.COM/HTSI 41

“DOROTHEA work. Tate bought a small piece, and the purchase set in PHOTOGRAPHS: COURTESY ALISON JACQUES GALLERY, LONDON AND ALEXANDER GRAY ASSOCIATES, NEW YORK © BETTY PARSONS FOUNDATION. © MARSIE, EMANUELLE, DAMON AND ANDREW SCHARLATT, HANNAH WILKE COLLECTION & ARCHIVE, LOS ANGELES. LICENSED BY VAGA AT ARTIST’S RIGHTS SOCIETY
TANNING WAS motion a relationship with Jacques and Wilke’s estate (ARS), NEW YORK, DACS, LONDON. COURTESY OF HANNAH WILKE COLLECTION & ARCHIVE, LOS ANGELES AND ALISON JACQUES GALLERY, LONDON. COURTESY OF THE DESTINA FOUNDATION, NEW YORK, AND ALISON JACQUES GALLERY, LONDON. © ARTIST’S RIGHTS SOCIETY, NEW YORK, AND ADAGP, PARIS
100. SHE WASN’T and archive that eventually resulted in the public gallery
LOOKING FOR purchasing the largest installation Wilke ever made –
prices now reach up to $1m for large installations (though
A GALLERY. small drawings can start from around $35,000).
I JUST KEPT
KNOCKING ON Focusing on the art historical and female artists who
THE DOOR” were not getting their dues was also a way to future-proof
the gallery against “the increasing number of situations
Right: Betty Parsons in her studio. when large ‘supermarket’ galleries try to take what we
Below: S.O.S. Starification Object have built,” she says, referring to the poaching of emerging
Series #4 (Mastification Box), 1975, artists just at the point that they start to gain recognition.
by Hannah Wilke. Opposite page:
Portrait de Famille (Family Portrait), Jacques had some experience with estates, having
1977, by Dorothea Tanning taken on Robert Mapplethorpe’s in 1999, when she was in
partnership with fellow gallerist Charles Asprey, running
42 FT.COM/HTSI Asprey Jacques. At the time, the American photographic
artist was not being shown in museums. Jacques worked
with the Foundation to promote some of his lesser-known
bodies of work – from Polaroids to unique sculptures to
jewellery – and began to build a specialist reputation.

Jacques’s process for discovering her now-impressive
roster of female names has been instinctive. “There is a
formula. It starts with my passion and belief in the work.
I need to know curators and collectors will respond to
the work,” she says. In 2010, she spotted a small, forgotten
Dorothea Tanning work in MoMA. “A tiny stained-glass
painting. It was exquisite,” Jacques recalls. She found out
that Tanning was still alive and contacted her foundation.
“Dorothea was, I think, 100. She wasn’t looking for a
gallery. I just kept knocking on the door intermittently
over the next six months. Eventually I was allowed to go
in.” She spotted some collages at the back of a hallway
that had rarely been shown. Made in the ’70s and ’80s,
these were the only works that Tanning had always
wanted – and never had – exhibited in a group. Jacques’s
hard work helped to get Tanning a well-deserved

Jretrospective at the Tate Modern last year. Today, her

paintings can command prices between $75,000 and $1m.
acques was also able to capitalise on the
fact that there wasn’t a strong market for a
generation of older female artists when
approaching Lygia Clark’s estate. One of the
most important South American abstract
artists to emerge in the 1950s, Clark had not
shown extensively outside Brazil, partly due
to complicated terms with purchasing and
export. “A lot of well-known gallerists in New

York had tried for years to get through to the Clark family
and had been met with silence,” she says. But Jacques
approached Clark’s son with a personal note. She had a
response within 24 hours. The relationship was a huge
success, and in 2011 Clark was given a solo stand in the Art
Feature at Art Basel. Jacques will stage a delayed centennial
exhibition in her own gallery next spring, featuring collages,
gouaches on paper from $220,000, paintings from $1.7m and
sculptures, including Bicho (Creature) pieces, from $1.2m.

It’s a similar story with Betty Parsons, the late New
York gallerist celebrated for championing new American
painting by the likes of Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock,
but whose success often overshadowed her own role as
an artist. Jacques’s exhibition of Parsons’s paintings,
gouaches on paper and sculptures last year was the first
London exhibition for nearly 40 years, and one of the
hottest tickets during Frieze Week.

Jacques’s mix of instinct, opportunism and luck has
deep roots. In her 20s, a postgraduate curating course in
Prato led to a placement at the Kunstverein Düsseldorf,
where then-director Jiri Svestka saw her potential and
charged her with curating light-installation artist James
Turrell’s first travelling show. A job as news editor at
Flash Art magazine in Milan followed, under whose
auspices a trip to the now-legendary UnFair in Cologne
planted the idea of having her own space. Among the stands
of Maureen Paley, Karsten Schubert and Jay Jopling,
“I really sensed this collegial atmosphere”, says Jacques.
“It was fun. There was something in the air. Karsten was
giving out gingerbread men to all the gallerists. I remember
thinking, I’d like to have my own gallery one day.”



44 FT.COM/HTSI

PHOTOGRAPHS: © SHEILA HICKS, COURTESY OF ALISON JACQUES GALLERY, LONDON. © O MUNDO DE LYGIA CLARK, ASSOCIACAO CULTURAL, RIO DE JANEIRO, COURTESY OF
ALISON JACQUES GALLERY, LONDON. COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF MARIA BARTUSZOVA, KOSICE, AND ALISON JACQUES GALLERY, LONDON © THE ARCHIVE OF MARIA BARTUSZOVA,
KOSICE. RITA BARROS, COURTESY ALISON JACQUES GALLERY, LONDON, AND NICOLA L COLLECTION AND ARCHIVE © NICOLA L COLLECTION AND ARCHIVE

“IF AN ARTIST IS TRULY GREAT THEY
WILL GET THERE, IF GIVEN THE

RIGHT PLATFORM. YOU’VE JUST GOT
TO PUT ENERGY INTO IT”

Top left: Untitled, 1972-1974, by Maria Bartuszová. Left: Amethyst Forest, 2020, by Sheila Hicks. Above: Nicola L at her home in the
Chelsea Hotel, wearing one of her series of Pénetrables, 1989. Opposite page: Lygia Clark in her studio in Rio de Janeiro, c1950s

The female gallerists in London – Maureen Paley, well these overlooked female artists can sit alongside well- work at the São Paulo Biennial. At that time, Hicks was
Victoria Miro and Sadie Coles – were a strong inspiration, known contemporary artists. Tanning, for example, with seen more as an artist existing in the design realm. “I just
alongside New York pioneers such as Barbara Gladstone, Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Lucas and Jenny Saville. Jacques’s remember it was a sea of colour and texture. It was like
Marian Goodman and Paula Cooper. “It was much harsher aim was to reposition Tanning as something far more than nothing else I had seen before. It was fantastic,” says
for them as women than I think it is for us now,” says Max Ernst’s ex-wife. “Maybe it’s a bit idealistic, but I believe Jacques. Next autumn, Hicks has a major solo at
Jacques. She came back to London, briefly working for that if an artist is truly great then they will get there if given Hepworth Wakefield, with curator Andrew Bonacina.
Victoria Miro before Leslie Waddington on Cork Street the right platform. You’ve just got to put energy into it.”
offered her a full-time job. “He really took me under his Although a large number of Jacques’s roster is female,
wing. He was so knowledgeable. He could be difficult but Many of the artists Jacques has added to her roster feminism is not necessarily at the heart of their practices.
he was absolutely the real deal.” She began as a press have yet to gain widespread recognition. Maria Bartuszová, Notable exceptions are Ana Mendieta and Hannah Wilke,
officer, but was encouraged by Waddington to sell. Her first for example, is a Slovakian artist who, during her lifetime, as is the latest artist to join the gallery, the octogenarian
client was Charles Asprey, whom she met at an opening, made distinctive, organic-looking white plaster sculptures, French-Moroccan figurative sculptor Nicola L, whose
and who bought a work by abstract painter Ian Davenport. which currently sell for between €65,000 and €700,000. “functional and playful sculptures”, also praised in a design
After a curating stint at the British School in Rome, Jacques But that is set to change with Bartuszová’s Tate Modern context, often explore female objectification and the
teamed up with Asprey and in 1998 they opened their show – originally scheduled for this November, but delayed domestic. Jacques maintains that her focus is talent rather
gallery, which ran for seven years. When she started her by a year. Two years ago, Jacques also took on the Lenore than gender. This autumn saw a solo exhibition of the late
own eponymous space, collectors Charles Saatchi and Tawney estate. She first showed her pioneering hanging African-American photographer Gordon Parks, following
Jerry Speyer stopped by on her first day and promised their thread-based textile works at Frieze Masters, sold a major a stunning solo booth at Frieze Masters last October. And
support. From the start, she set an ambitious programme, work to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and is for two decades, she has worked with artists such as
selling out her first show of Jack Pierson sculptures at holding the first solo show of Tawney’s work next May, Graham Little – an exceptional British painter with one of
£65,000 per work. “The curators came and could visualise focusing on pieces from the ’60s to the ’80s. the most interesting and sensitive approaches to figurative
the works in a museum. We started selling to museums art. “One thing that unites all my artists, be they male or
straight away.” Part of Jacques’s agenda is to show how Projects with Glasgow International, Sydney Biennial female, dead or alive, is they all have their own voice.”
and the Hayward followed Jacques’s decision to represent alisonjacquesgallery.com
the late Sheila Hicks in 2012, after coming across her

FT.COM/HTSI 45

Media Partner:

OVR: Miami Beach
December 2–6, 2020

artbasel.com/ovr



Unpeopled slopes, pristine snow and powder bowls for days.
FT travel editor Tom Robbins finds out why insiders are heading to
Ayder for a heli-skiing adventure in completely the wrong direction

Photography by Jancsi Hadik

COLD TURKEY
48 FT.COM/HTSI

Heli-skiing in the t was dark when I walked across the tarmac at
Kackar mountains, Trabzon airport and a warm wind was blowing at
my back. Standing in the little domestic terminal,
above Ayder in waiting for my skis to come round the carousel, I
eastern Turkey felt a bit self-conscious. Trabzon is famous, in
Turkey at least, for its butter, its Black Sea coastline
and its football team. It is not famous for its skiing.

As I stood among the hugging families and
returning businessmen, I felt a tap on my arm and
turned to see someone else with ski boots slung

Iover his shoulder. “Hey, man,” said an American
voice, sounding a bit lost. “Are you going to Ayder?”
We got chatting; it turned out that he had come from
San Francisco – traversing the world for a heli-ski
adventure in what many would consider completely the
wrong direction. For most of the past 50 years, if you
wanted to heli-ski you went to the powder-choked
wildernesses of British Columbia and Alaska, where the
sport was invented. Our destination, the mountain village
of Ayder, lay in Turkey’s far east – closer to Baghdad than
Istanbul. Finding an untouched ski paradise there seemed
a thrilling, but also improbable, prospect, and there was a
certain anxiety among the dozen or so skiers who landed
at Trabzon that night. It was the end of January but the
Alps were already unseasonably warm. In the Trois
Vallées, where I’d been the previous week, everyone
complained that the lakes had failed to freeze. Would we
really find powder hundreds of miles further south?
Ninety minutes into what we’d been told was the
two hour drive to Ayder, our minibus was still beside the
coast, the headlights illuminating stray dogs and brightly
coloured plastic chairs outside kebab shops. Finally, we
turned inland, following the Firtina (literally “storm
water”) river up a deep wooded valley. With 20 minutes of
the journey left to run, a dirty trail of slush appeared at

A FLURRY OF ACTIVITY AND
THEN WE WERE IN THE
HELICOPTER, PASSING THE
MOSQUE’S TALL MINARET

the edge of the road. My fellow passengers – mostly high-
flyers who could easily have been in St Moritz or Aspen
instead – laughed weakly.

But then the slush grew thicker. As the road climbed
the temperature fell; soon we wound up the windows. And
then suddenly, in the space of three of four hairpins, the
world turned white. By the time we pulled up outside our
hotel in Ayder – conspicuous for the two helicopters
parked outside – fat flakes were falling. Waiting for us,
snow settling on his shoulders, was Thierry Gasser, the
Swiss guide who first dreamt up the idea of heli-skiing
in Turkey. Inside, distributing room keys, was Sam
Anthamatten, one of the world’s top freeride skiers, who
would be our lead guide; the last time I’d seen him, he’d
been on stage in a West End cinema introducing his latest
movie. I felt my hopes begin to rise.

The next morning, thick cloud raised the prospect of a
dreaded “down day”, when helicopters are grounded and
skiers’ patience is tested. We pressed on with avalanche-
training sessions, helicopter safety and using the
transceivers and airbag rucksacks we were all given.
Gradually the clouds began to lift. There was chatter on
the guides’ radios, rumours in the hotel corridors and
finally confirmation that we were going after all. A flurry of
activity and a rush through the overheated hotel in full ski
gear and then we were in the helicopter, lifting up over the
village roofs, passing the mosque’s one tall minaret and
climbing out of the steep-sided valley.

There is nothing quite like this moment – the horizon
unfurling with every vertical metre gained, one valley
revealing itself after another, the forests of spruce, horn-
beam and rhododendron giving way to open alpine
slopes, pure white and extending for miles. We touched

FT.COM/HTSI 49

WE ENCOUNTERED
A SERIOUSLY FIRST-
WORLD PROBLEM:
TOO MUCH SNOW

Above left: a
helicopter lifts off
after dropping a
group of skiers.
Right: Tom Robbins
(far right) at the
Ayder helipad. Far
right: pristine snow.
Below: the village
of Ayder. Left: a tea
break with Italian
climber Abele
Blanc (right) and
pilot Roland
Brunner (centre)

down on a ridge after a couple of minutes, clambered Back at the hotel several hours later, the skiers hung Studying the maps, he saw that the Kackar mountains,
out, then huddled on the snow as the helicopter roared about the helipad, grinning and clapping each other on part of the Pontic Alps, might be the ideal location for a
off. Then silence, and a few seconds to stare down the the back, a group of holidaying ski instructors from heli-ski base, offering proximity to Europe (thereby
untouched slope before us – a moment of satisfaction, Megève passing around flasks of homemade pear schnapps. avoiding the jet lag associated with trips to the western
charged with potential energy. And some relief too: We had managed eight runs before the clouds had come US), slopes high enough to ensure snow – the range rises
the fantasy of an eastern Shangri-La for skiers down again, skiing some 6,000 vertical metres, any to 3,937m – and proximity to the sea, which creates a
might just be real. more stable, safer snowpack. That summer, Gasser spent
Idoubts driven out by pure exhilaration. several weeks touring the region on foot, in a hire car and
In truth, we encountered a seriously first-world problem f modern tourists are obsessed with escaping their in a light aircraft, scoping out the best locations. “We
on that run: too much snow. To avoid being buried, I had own kind, then skiers are doubly so. The flipside to didn’t want to start heli-skiing where it already existed –
to lean way back over the tails of my skis, descending in a the intense joy of skiing fresh powder is the we wanted to be pioneers, to do something new,” he says.
sort of woozy slalom. We quickly moved to a slope with a frustration of reaching a mountaintop to find the
slightly different orientation, where the wind had scoured snow already defiled by others. Since the advent of Ayder is a traditional staging post between the villages
some snow off, leaving powder deep enough to billow up fat skis, which make it much easier to go off-piste, in the lower valleys and yaylas at altitude, where families
over our heads at each turn, but light enough to give that skiers have ventured into the backcountry of the famous would pause to enjoy the natural hot springs. Today the
sensation of effortless speed and motion, of intoxicating resorts in soaring numbers, prompting an exodus of the mineral-rich water, which emerges at a scalding 50C,
release from gravity’s mundane pull. more hardcore devotees to ever tinier ski areas, which supplies the bath house beside the mosque. We went there
boast few facilities except the absence of others. Heli- after skiing, the heat of the water inducing a happy torpor,
We kept going, moving to a new mountain face for skiers are the extreme vanguard, requiring neither lifts the steam-filled pool empty except for a couple of local
each run, sometimes floating down dazzling-white nor pistes, and in recent years new operations have men quietly debriefing on their day.
powder fields, other times dancing around small silver- popped up in increasingly obscure locations – northern
birch bushes. Occasionally I caught a glimpse of Iceland, Siberia, Kamchatka, Albania. Covid may bring a In summer this is a popular destination for Turks from
Anthamatten launching himself from wind lips, flying pause to the exploration, but some heli-ski operators are Istanbul and Ankara, who come to hike, picnic and go
through the air and landing in a puff of white smoke. hoping the relative isolation they offer, compared to rafting, and for tourists from the Middle East, who
“This is the real freeriding experience,” he told me later. visiting a resort, could even bring a boost this winter. exchange the desert for green, wildflower-filled meadows.
“If you see a line you like on the mountain, you go ski it Gasser, who is based in Verbier, found this place almost In winter, it’s a quieter affair. I strolled up the sleepy,
– boom! Then you go to the next line you like and boom! by accident. “We were heli-skiing in central Asia and by scruffy, slush- and mud-covered main street, where
That liberty is insanely interesting to me.” chance on the way back the plane passed the Black Sea – at woodsmoke rose from the few cafés that remained open,
midday and in full sunshine,” he says. “To the right was the and the occasional passer-by bid me As-salamu alaykum.
Dotted on plateaus here and there were yaylas – small Caucasus, which I knew well, to the left, the Kackar range. From the centre of the village, though, came the shrieks of
villages of basic wooden chalets where farmers would We said, right, we must go and look there.” children, who were flying down a snowy slope on rubber
bring their livestock to graze on the high pastures in rings, and then the wild, bouncy sound of the tulum, the
summer, the same way as they do in the Alps. And always, local version of bagpipes. A group of young people were
in the distance to the north, the dark blue of the Black Sea.

50 FT.COM/HTSI

dancing in a circle around the musician, hand in hand, who come here. For now, the Kackar mountains are become crucial. Though Ayder is an offbeat destination,
kicking up snow with their rhythmic stamps – a scene like the Alps before the advent of mass ski tourism – Gasser’s operation is a model of Swiss precision. The
from another age, had they not all been filming one another imagine the panorama above Zermatt or Courchevel, pilots and mechanics are from Air Zermatt, the staff are
with their smartphones. but with lifts, then people, then all the paraphernalia leaders in their field. On the first day, I chatted to a small,
of resort infrastructure erased from the picture. To bald man I assumed was some kind of caretaker but who
Change may be around the corner. In August, a convoy be there, sharing a 5,000sq km area with perhaps 20 later turned out to be Abele Blanc, a renowned Italian
of black limousines arrived in town and President Erdoğan other skiers in total – only four and a guide in each climber who has summited every 8,000m peak.
stepped out, promising a range of measures to protect the group – is a rare privilege.
environment, including putting powerlines underground, Late one morning, rapidly warming temperatures
building a subterranean car park on the edge of the village We felt it on our third day, when we flew a little and wind-loaded upper slopes persuaded Anthamatten
and tearing down the scrappy illegal buildings that have further, and the high peaks of the Kackar massif became to call an early end to the day’s skiing. Instead the
proliferated. A new airport at Rize, only 50km away by visible, jagged and wrapped in glaciers. We skied a helicopter picked us up and flew us down the valley, the
road, is due to open next year. “We are also working on succession of gentle, powdery bowls, then stopped for a whiteness giving way to dark green forest, until we gently
promoting ski tourism here,” Erdogan announced. picnic lunch beside a deserted yayla, the shiny helicopter touched down among a sea of terraced tea plantations.
parked next to the rough sun-bleached timbers of the In a guesthouse amid the fields, we settled in for a
Ayder seems an unlikely place to develop as a major ski chalets. Many of them are apparently now occupied in long lunch: fresh tea, bread and chunks of local honey-
resort – it is in too narrow a valley – but there is huge summer by retirees from the coast, but some are still used comb, platters of meat grilled over a wood fire, and
potential in the mountains all about. The Turkish Ski by animal herders who make cheese and yoghurt in hand- then another echo of the Alps – a sort of local
Federation has commissioned the Compagnie des Alpes, a cranked churns, cutting the grass with scythes, collecting fondue, muhlama. Rather than the cheese melting slowly
French resort operator and developer, to carry out a survey honey from hives lodged among the tree branches beyond in a heated pot, here a brass pan of molten butter is
identifying sites for new ski areas; Gasser has been acting the reach of bears. There is cow-fighting here too in poured on the cheese with a flourish, sending a rich-
as a consultant. The Compagnie compares the project to summer, the same as takes place in Switzerland’s Valais. scented steam across the table.
France’s 1964 “Snow Plan”, which led to the development Sometimes it’s easy to forget that if you kept going 200
of a swath of state-of-the-art resorts. And rapid change is miles or so, you would be in Iran. I left early the next day with the doctors, racing to the
possible, especially with a strongman political leader in airport ahead of an incoming storm that would drop more
the background: in 2005, I heli-skied in a Russian village In settled weather you can ski the south side of than a metre of fresh powder up high. They seemed
called Krasnaya Poliana, where wild pigs and stray dogs Kackar, where the terrain and vegetation change again, more committed than ever to heading east to ski – this
picked at the rubbish on the muddy unmade streets. Nine and visit the one yayla where an inn stays open all winter. winter they’re off to Kyrgyzstan.
years later, the Compagnie des Alpes had overseen its We had more mixed conditions – big snows, but also Tom Robbins travelled as a guest of Elemental Adventure
transformation into a sparkling modern resort that hosted clouds that would roll in suddenly from the Black Sea, (eaheliskiing.com) and Turkish Airlines (turkishairlines.com).
the ski and snowboard events of the Sochi Olympics. billowing up one valley then pouring over the ridge into Elemental Adventure offers a week’s heli-skiing at Ayder from
the next like an overflowing coffee cup. Those are €7,700. Turkish Airlines flies daily from London to Trabzon via
Whether or not anything like that comes to pass, conditions when good guides, pilots and organisation Istanbul, from £290 return
the prospect offers eye-opening perspective for those

FT.COM/HTSI 51



TRAVELISTA

PALLADIAN
GOODNESTONE
PARK WAS BUILT

IN 1704

TRAVEL NEWS REINVENTING THE CLASSIC recycling and filtration systems, composting,
and its own vegetable and fruit gardens).
One step beyond SAFARI CAMP To further their social end, Hastings and his
team are working with a Swiss-backed local
Botswana is a place of legend philanthropic organisation, Somos Barú,
across all strata of safari on creating cultural, culinary and artisan
Stately homes and fantasy camps excellence: wildlife and wilderness, experiences that rely entirely on, and
provide this month’s escape routes guiding and conservation empower, the local indigenous communities,
of course, but also camps with women in particular. His guests will benefit,
stellar design and food and wine fit of course; but the idea is to seed a more
WORDS BY MARIA SHOLLENBARGER for card-carrying gourmands. One thoughtful brand of tourism in a region
that’s sorely in need of it. plansouthamerica.
name long familiar to Africaphiles com; from $1,995 per night, including activities
will, as of January, be in play here
again. Back in its day (which was HOW TO ESCAPE ASPEN – IN ASPEN
many years ago), Xigera was
T houghts may well be turning to among the finest camps in the Nobody gets bored on or off the slopes in Above: Goodnestone
post-lockdown English escapes. Okavango Delta. Now it’s been reclaimed in a Aspen; between the late-night hijinks at Park and its gardens,
One to bookmark? A gorgeous compelling way under owners Red Carnation, J-Bar and the daytime allure of the Shigeru near Canterbury
period house with an intriguing who bring the hotel nous and spectacular Ban-designed art museum there’s ample
history, available for private use. design, showcasing the work of over 80 stimulation to be had. But Camp Kasbah CAMP
African artists and makers. They are assisted advances a novel proposal: a private retreat KASBAH’S
The 15 acres of immaculately tended gardens by safari-conservation outfit Great Plains, from Aspen, in Aspen. Set to open next MAURI WANEKA
at Goodnestone Park are considered some whose founders Dereck and Beverly Joubert month below the summit of Buttermilk (STANDING)
of the finest in south England, and boast have some of the realest Mountain, the 1,400sq m camp – with seven AND TESS
impressive literary credentials: they were JANE AUSTEN bona fides on the bedrooms, 10 baths, spa and gym facilities, FERGUSON
a favourite of Jane Austen, whose brother WAS KNOWN continent. The 12 suites an “après” tent complete with fire pit and a
Edward married into the owner’s family. TO ENJOY THE lace the water’s edge of treehouse designed by local architect Charles
She was known to enjoy the Serpentine GARDENS OF a prime position in the Cunniffe – is the brainchild of LA-based
PHOTOGRAPHS: GOODNESTONE PARK (3). SINGITA Walk (now a public footpath that roughly GOODNESTONE Moremi Game Reserve. Native Design & Development founders
circumnavigates the house’s grounds), Expect visual delights, Mauri Waneka and Tess Ferguson. It’s
and it has been floated that the manor was a velvety skies and all manner of charismatic intended for group bookings, and offers the
model for Longbourn and Netherfield Park, megafauna, including black rhino. Up in kind of outings, experiences, ambience and
two of the houses in Pride and Prejudice. Tanzania, the dab hands running Singita’s food that will evoke the
A full 24 people can have the run of the operations on the Grumeti reserve have halcyon experience of the
property for long weekends. And the rooms spent the Covid pause reinventing Singita classic American summer
– dense with chintzes and eggshell paints in Sabora. Gone are all the hyper-nostalgic camp, but for adults – ones
Below: Singita National Trust-approved tones – are more steam trunks and hard woods; in their place with serious means, and
Sabora Tented or less exactly what you’d expect, in a good come sleek new design interpretations in some hedonism on the
Camp in way. goodnestoneparkgardens.co.uk; POA leather and canvas, private meditation decks agenda. A smart detail of
Tanzania “rangers” is on hand to plan
indoor and outdoor activities.
and day beds. (Singita Grumeti’s 350,000 Beyond hiking, hacks
private acres, home each summer to a swath through the snow and
of the great wildebeest migration, require no cross-country skiing are
sell.) xigera.com; from $2,320 per person per whimsies such as millinery
night. singita.com; from $1,650pp per night and pysanka, the Ukrainian
art of egg decorating. (NB:
A THINKING PERSON’S GUIDE TO COLOMBIA diehard minimalists need
not apply; the decor, with
Plan South America’s Harry Hastings is the elements of Morocco, the
man with the intel we trust on all points Continent and First Nations
south of Mexico. His latest – an intriguing peoples, is of the more-is-
new villa on Colombia’s lush Barú Peninsula, more bent.)
about an hour south of Cartagena – comes campkasbah.com; from
online next month. Casa Letty is a fairly $15,000 per night for buyout
unique proposition here, a spectacular
private accommodation with a dual remit: @mariashollenbarger
to amplify its social impact and minimise its
environmental one (it’s 100 per cent solar
powered – but with backup generator
systems, in case – with full groundwater

FT.COM/HTSI 53

Nouveaux Classiques Collection

TECHNOPOLIS

NOW, HEAR THIS… GADGETS transportation to the engineering quality
and the slick packaging.
If you think your hearing is fine but Fancy a Pinter?
your children keep asking why you
have the TV on so loud, or why you Homebrew, but not as you
cup your ear at the dinner table to hear know it – and more
them, you’re likely a classic not-exactly-deaf
boomer. And while you can differentiate yourself WORDS BY JONATHAN MARGOLIS
from being merely old by explaining that it was
those nights in Studio 54 that did for your Pinter is a 10-pint heavy-duty plastic
hearing, you’re probably still not deaf enough brewing barrel that comes in various
to start out on the serious hearing-aids trail. bright colours. The kit includes brewing
yeast, a big bottle of concentrate (in which
This hearing earbud, the Olive Smart Ear, T he last time I tried to all the hops, malt etc are pre-mixed) and
from a Korean startup, is among the first of what homebrew beer I was about a special safe cleaning fluid for when
I am sure will be an increasing number of PSAPs 15 and excluded from even you’ve drunk your 10 pints. There are four
(personal sound amplification products) that the most broadminded pub. different beers and two ciders in the range
are available over the counter. It’s a reasonably So I bought a Boots kit, – all deliverable by post.
stylish little amplifier designed for one ear or which somehow involved The process itself, explained step-by-
two, but sold singly, as they see most people just For more of using the bathtub and my mum’s cleaning step in an online video, is easy and safe
popping one in to help out over dinner, or when Jonathan’s reviews, bucket. The result was weirdly red, (even though your idiot columnist managed
watching TV with other people. It tests your undrinkable and probably a health hazard. to leave his first attempt brewing upside
hearing and adjusts itself to suit you via its phone visit ft.com/htsi
app, and can then be set, using the app again, @thefuturecritic A few things have happened since then
for conversation mode, TV mode and degree – environmental concerns and an interest
of amplification. My hearing is quite good, but in the actual quality and provenance of down and – as it hissed and leaked
when I turned the TV too low for my comfort and beer among them. So the time is just malevolently – looking like an unexploded
inserted an Olive at 50 per cent volume, it was about right for a trendy east London bomb. When I redid it according to the
well-defined and clear again. startup to achieve the not-inconsiderable instructions, however, it was quick and
Olive Smart Ear, £229, hearingsupermarket.co.uk task of making homebrewing cool, actually enjoyable.)
zeitgeisty and even a little bit sexy. Making a tricky process such as
FUTURE-PROOFING AGAINST brewing beer this, ahem, boozer-friendly
The startup is called Pinter, and has taken the Pinter team several years
WIRELESS CUTOUTS I suspect its founders are all a bit young and is technological in every respect,
and hip to remember the eponymous apart from having no electronics.
Those who have had their Zoom, British playwright, he of strange pauses The big surprise about Pinter, however,
Teams etc meetings messed up by and gnomic utterances. There’s nothing was the beer. It wasn’t just OK or acceptable
bad wired broadband connections obscure or opaque about this Pinter’s kits. for a homespun effort. It was absolutely
these past months will be unsurprised It has made a thoroughly sensible product, exceptional – fresh, subtle,
to learn that the UK has only the 34th from the basic concept of cutting out interesting, smooth and light.
best home broadband in the world. the waste involved in cans, bottles and DETAILS
Even if yours is good, you will have
noticed the extraordinary number of broadcast A wonderful fun product, Pinter £75, including
interviews from people’s homes going wrong. packs to make 20 pints,
At the same time, while all the tech perfect for these times on so thegreatergood.co.uk
controversy lately has concerned 5G, over much many levels.
of the country 4G has actually become rather
good – faster than home WiFi and rock-solid
stable. Many has been the time when I have
rescued a work assignment affected by flaky
broadband by simply switching to my phone’s
4G. Now, Netgear has this rather brilliant solution
– a home WiFi router with a 4G SIM. When the
wired connection wobbles, the Orbi LBR20 will
seamlessly move you to 4G. You obviously don’t
want to be doing all your internet stuff on 4G –
you would bust even a generous data limit within
a day. But as a backup system, this is superb.
Netgear Orbi LBR20 4G LTE WiFi router,
£370, netgear.co.uk

COOKING JUST GOT SMARTER

The controls on ovens are notoriously poor. When
I moved to my flat, I inherited a built-in oven that,
without the long-lost manual, proved so hard to
change the time on that I left it on GMT all year
round. As for any more advanced operations, like
setting timers, forget it. No idea.

Having seen other ovens that are equally
inscrutable, I started wondering if there was such
a thing as an oven that could be operated from
a phone or tablet. Which is what led me to Smeg’s
new range of WiFi-connected ovens. It has gone
for gold, building an elegant, intuitive app that
demystifies the most arcane of procedures – to
the extent that I’m actually looking forward to
setting it to work on the Christmas turkey.

The choice of ovens is wide,
with a variety of sizes, prices and
aesthetics, but the technology is
pretty similar in all of them. The
self-cleaning mode is a joy, as is
the built-in meat probe. Being
able to grill with the oven door
closed is also great. But being
able to run the whole thing from
a phone or iPad is the USP for me.
SmegConnect Vivo Max, from
£1,099, smeguk.com

FT.COM/HTSI 55



CULT SHOP

WORDS BY VICTORIA WOODCOCK

It’s time to take up ice swimming,
suggested one newspaper, adding
a new option to the by-now lengthy
list of thriving pandemic-friendly
pastimes. Plant tending. Foraging.
Forest bathing. Flower pressing. Letter
writing. Shelf curating. Lest we forget bread
baking. But the hottest hobby of 2020 is,
according to a recent survey by craft
website Diys.com, knitting. It’s also the
most relaxing, with the repetitive action of
wrapping yarn round needles decreasing
the average heart rate by 18.75 per cent.
The study of 357 Fitbit-wearing subjects
placed fishing in second place, while
baking ranked ninth.
“People really are knitting! We’ve
been selling way more of our Learn to
Knit kits than ever before,” says Joelle
Hoverson, co-owner of New York
knitting store Purl Soho, which has
been operating online-only since
March. One of the last customers to
come into the physical store was Kate
EASY HEEL Hudson, while regulars include Uma
COLORBLOCK Thurman and Katie Holmes. “We’re Purl Soho
getting many, many more comments
SOCKS on our website than usual – and for
PATTERN, $8.80 the most part they are the questions
TO DOWNLOAD of a person who’s right in the middle USP
of trying to learn a new technique.” A KALEIDOSCOPIC CRAFT SANCTUARY
Top left:
Slip-N-Snip FOR THE NEW KNIT NATION
folding scissors,
$24. Below: Hoverson’s take on knitting is WHERE
Super Soft no flash-in-the-pan fad, however.
Merino, $22 She set up shop 18 years ago in a 459 BROOME STREET,
NEW YORK, NY 10013

tiny space in SoHo’s Sullivan Street, CLICK “Yarn is still the cornerstone of what
after cutting her craft teeth at US PURLSOHO.COM we do,” adds Hoverson. “We sell lots of
our own Linen Quill – a fairly fine blend
homemaking stalwart Martha Stewart FOLLOW of alpaca, linen and wool that comes in
Living magazine. “I was really into @PURLSOHO a humongous array of colours – and our
knitting but I couldn’t find the shop Super Soft Merino, which is a thicker yarn
that I wanted to shop in – a store that’s very easy to knit with.” But it’s not
that sold all the most beautiful yarns.” all knitting. When Purl Soho posted a free
Her kaleidoscopic selection of “pure, sewing pattern online for City Gym shorts
natural fibres” has since shuttled into in 2014, mixing floral Liberty prints with a
bigger premises nearby and been joined friend and former colleague Page Marchese sportswear aesthetic, “it kind of went viral.
by her own-brand ranges, alongside all Norman joining in 2008. “Over time, we Everybody was making them and sharing
the tools and books imaginable. realised that the online content was really their version of it. Every summer, a whole
The website has flourished in tandem, driving and defining the business,” says bunch of people start making them again.”
with Hoverson’s sister Jennifer overseeing Hoverson of the wealth of patterns she and
a fulfilment centre in California, and her a team of contributors have conceived over Sewing supplies range from fabrics
the years – from the simple chunky ribbed and dressmaker’s shears to style-minded
Seafaring scarf to the Striped Crew socks patterns for quilts or baby bloomers. And
and the cool neon-pop Windy Day blanket. elastic. “We’d had the same roll of elastic
“My favourite things to knit are on our website for about 10 years – and
blankets because they’re these big colour then all of a sudden we were just selling
stories, and you don’t miles of the stuff. And loads of Liberty
have to worry if they fit fabric. There’s a lot of handmade Liberty
“WE’VE BEEN or not,” says Hoverson. of London face masks out there.”
SELLING WAY
MORE OF OUR “There are two Top right: Koigu
LEARN TO KNIT KPPPM + KPM
KITS THAN projects I designed yarn, $15.
EVER BEFORE” that I particularly love: Above right:
one called Nature’s the store’s
Palette and a newer façade. Right:
PHOTOGRAPHS: PURL SOHO (6) one called the Library blanket.” Both are the Windy Day
available as all-inclusive kits – catering to a blanket pattern
customer base that is primarily “advanced is free; a kit
beginners” – as is the investment-level with Linen Quill
Cashmere Ombré wrap, containing eight Worsted yarn
skeins of fine, hand-dyed Mongolian is $280
cashmere and priced at $410.

FT.COM/HTSI 57

CHRONOMAT

FOOD & DRINK

If you asked most people to envisage a whisky drinker,
chances are Jessica Anwar would not be it. Thirty-
two, married, mother of one, with a chain of fitness
studios in Singapore and Hong Kong and a taste for
vintage Chanel, the wellness entrepreneur defies the
stereotype. Yet she’s the co-owner, along with her
29-year-old brother and her father, of a whisky collection
that would make most aficionados tremble.
“It was at a family dinner in Hong Kong, about 10
years ago, that I had my first taste of Port Ellen,” she
recalls, “It was a 13th edition and that smokiness, the
complexity, attracted me immediately.” Inspired by this
cult Islay malt, she began collecting and has since amassed
more than 1,000 rare bottles from distilleries including
Brora, Lagavulin, Dalwhinnie, Port Ellen and Japan’s
sought-after silent distillery Karuizawa.
In line with current trends, she also likes to buy by
the cask: “It’s interesting because you get to taste it as it
matures and make the decision when to bottle it,” she says.
Her casks include a Lagavulin 1991, worth upwards of six
figures. She also buys complete sets: Prima & Ultima – a
£20,000 collection of eight ultra-rare vintage malts from
Diageo stocks – is another recent addition. Sharing those
whiskies with friends is “very much part of the experience”,
she says – she’s even been known to organise whisky
tastings for her fitness clients.
Anwar is just one example of a new generation of
millennial drinkers who are transforming the whisky scene,
making it younger, more global and more diverse. Natalie
Gray, 39, is a former talent acquisition manager at
Facebook, now self-
employed. She fell in love
with whisky while working
DRINKING

for a tech company in the drMamillebnunsitaelrs
Far East. Since her return to
the UK, she’s filled her
London home with more
than 70 whiskies from all
over the world: “I’ve got
bottles from Amrut in India,
Mackmyra in Sweden, the
Taiwan distillery Kavalan, Alice Lascelles meets the new generation That Boutique-y Whisky of minorities,” he says. “And as the market gets more
whiskies from Japan and of whisky collectors Co’s bottles, which often saturated, that’s going to make them less competitive.’
Kentucky well as a lot of tell a story (thatboutiquey Wade rarely bids at auction: “I do not like to pay
Scotch,” she says. “At any whiskycompany.com).” secondary prices,” he explains. But estate sales, he says,
ILLUSTRATION BY ANISA MAKHOUL

one time I’ll have five or six Her most treasured can turn up some real gems. “I once got a 1968 decanter
open in my house so people investment has been a of Old Forester bourbon for 16 bucks – you’d pay
can try different things.” pair of Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2016s that she picked up in $130 online just for the empty decanter.”
Gray’s favourite whisky bars include La Maison du 2017 for £2,000 apiece. Today, they’re worth twice that. Wade might not be a fan of auctions,
Whisky in Singapore (whisky.sg), and the offbeat whisky Trey Wade, 28, is a prolific collector of American but growing numbers of millennials are:
shop and bar Milroy’s of Soho (milroys.co.uk): “It has a whiskey – at his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, the “AT ANY TIME at the Sotheby’s spirits sale in March,
really eclectic mix of people,” she says. She also name- bar groans with more than 300 bourbons and ryes. I HAVE FIVE 54 per cent of bidders were under 40. One
OR SIX OPEN
checks the Old Harkers Arms in Chester (brunning “I love whisky because it’s about economics, chemistry, AT HOME SO familiar face on this scene is 24-year-old
andprice.co.uk). The proliferation of online tastings, history,” says the sales executive. “Once I started getting PEOPLE CAN Douglas Lau, who works as an assistant
particularly since lockdown, has also been great for into the subject I dived deep, researching the brands and TRY THINGS” manager in a statutory body in Hong Kong.
whisky enthusiasts, she says: “The Milroy’s ones in the history and how these whiskies are made.” A fanatic collector since his father, a wine
particular are proper fun.” Wade is a member of the executive team of the merchant, took him to Scotland at the age of 18, Lau has
Gray scours Twitter and Instagram for news on Black Bourbon Society (blackbourbonsociety.com) – a amassed over 2,500 whiskies, ranging from an ultra-rare
limited-edition releases. “I follow all my favourite whiskey club, events company and consultancy which Black Bowmore 1964 2nd edition (£22,500, thewhisky
distilleries as well as specialists such as Master of Malt boasts more than 20,000 members of colour around the exchange.com) to everyday drams he just drinks for the
and The Whisky Exchange, but I’m also a sucker for a nice world (one-third of whom are women) – and campaigns love of it. When he’s not buying established names, Lau
bit of packaging,” she admits. “I bought a Suntory Hibiki for more diverse representation in the whisky industry. likes to buy “en primeur”. He recently bought a cask of
21 Mount Fuji (£799, therarewhiskyshop.com). I also love “Many companies still don’t recognise the buying power nascent whisky from Islay’s newest distillery Ardnahoe
(£11,000, ardnahoedistillery.com): “You don’t know how
the whisky will turn out but it’s fun way to start.”
Monster mashes Lau’s knowledge of the subject is extraordinary. But he
insists he’s “no longer the exception. Especially in Asia
1. Black Bowmore 1964 2nd there are definitely more young people who have the money
Edition, £22,500, thewhisky 1 2 4 to buy whisky who also have the access to learning about it
exchange.com 2. Port Ellen 3 5 – it’s so easy now.” He credits whisky bars including The
1978 13th Release, £2,600,
thewhisky exchange.com
ILLUSTRATIONS: WILLIAM LUZ (2) 3. Yamazaki Sherry Cask Swan Song in Singapore (theswansong.com.sg), The Elysian
2016, £4,212, dekanta.com Whisky Bar in Fitzroy, Australia (theelysianwhiskybar.com.
4. Cragganmore 1971, from au) and House Welley in Hong Kong (facebook.com/
the Diageo Prima & Ultima housewelley) for playing a major part in that sea-change.
Collection, £20,000, email
diageorareandexceptional@ “Whisky has started to become fashionable with
diageo.com 5. Paul John 6yo my generation,” he says. “People don’t see it as boring
Indian Single Malt Whisky (That any more.”
Boutique-y Whisky Co), £97.95,
masterofmalt.com @alicelascelles

FT.COM/HTSI 59

My Fair Lady, silk lampas \ www.rubelli.com \ Ph. Giovanni Gastel

A Silk Dream

FOOD & DRINK

EATING

I can’t believe
it’s not…
Fried chicken, burgers, crispy bacon.
Vegan alternatives to the fast-food classics are
big business. But which ones really deliver?

Ajesh Patalay finds out

A t present my dietary outlook looks like this.
As a reducetarian, I consume meat but
want to cut back for health and animal-
welfare reasons. Being lactose-suspicious
(rather than intolerant), I try to avoid
dairy, except for creamy desserts, which
I consider a professional hazard/perk. An open-minded
carnivore, I don’t bat an eyelid about dining at a vegetarian
or vegan restaurant because a meal can still satisfy me
without meat (less so without wine, or at least an aperitif).
With this in mind, I’m always on the lookout for simple
vegan recipes. Natalie Portman’s Instagram feed has become
a fruitful source. A vegan since 2011, the Oscar-winner has
been posting videos of herself cooking in her Montecito and
Los Angeles kitchens. Some of her recipes are more involved
but the one for roasted cauliflower is a breeze (you boil the
head, cover it with avocado oil and salt, and bake). Another
for sweet potato fries is basically the same but works available from Deliveroo), which recalls McDonald’s circa
particularly well as a way to incorporate plant-based food 1987. The fries come in red-and-yellow cardboard cartons. Above: Anna Jones’s
into children’s diets. “It sounds unhealthy,” Portman notes, The burgers consist of thin patties in white buns with diced Really Hungry burger.
“but is in fact healthy… in other words, perfect for kids.” onion, tomato, lettuce and pickles. There may be better Below: Marli’s Kitchen
There’s a belief that “meatless” vegan food (particularly burgers but these taste of my childhood. vegan fried “chick’un”
fast food) is healthier than the meat equivalent, which For a homemade version, I recommend a recipe by
isn’t always true. It depends on how processed the meat cookery writer Anna Jones from A Modern Way to Eat (Fourth TOM HUNT’S
substitute is and the levels of saturated fat, among other Estate). Distrustful of veggie burgers, she sought to create VEGAN
factors. Nonetheless, even meat-eaters are increasingly one that escapes any “nut-roast-at-brightly-painted-café-
seeking out non-meat alternatives. According to Meriel wearing-hemp-trousers” connotations. Her Really Hungry COOKBOOK, £26
Armitage of Club Mexicana, the plant-based Mexican burger contains portobello mushrooms,
street food brand that recently opened an outlet in thyme, cannellini beans, medjool dates,
London’s Soho, non-vegans make up 70-80 per cent “VEGAN FOOD garlic, parsley, tahini, soy sauce, brown rice
of her clientele. Their tastes are a key reference point. DOESN’T and lemon zest, and has a satisfying
HAVE TO BE
“Anyone who runs a vegan or vegetarian restaurant and AS GOOD AS roundness of flavour and density.
tells you they don’t think about the comparison with MEAT. IT For vegan fried chicken, I can’t rave
meat restaurants or meat dishes is either not telling the HAS TO BE enough about the crispy oyster mushrooms
truth or isn’t considering everything they should in how BETTER” from street-food vendor Marli’s Kitchen

satisfied the customer is going to be,” she says. (available for delivery in London, goodeats.
“It’s not that I’m going, ‘How do I make this taste like io/marliskitchen). Not as juicy as chicken wings, they are
meat?’” Armitage explains. “It’s about the experience. When still deliciously chewy with a spicy batter that drew groans
TOM HUNT’S you’re eating a meal you want it to deliver on certain aspects. of pleasure when I gobbled one after the other.
VEGAN HAM For me, a Club Mexicana dish has to be bold in flavour and In anticipation of Boxing Day, when I always roast a
Top: actress Natalie Portman have zingy freshness. It’s got to look nice and deliver ham, I also tried a recipe from Tom Hunt’s book Eating for
roasts cauliflower. Below: texturally. When you bite into things, you want that chewy Pleasure, People & Planet. “A swede pretending to be a ham”
Club Mexicana tacos texture like meat or fish. You want crunch, acidity, some required studding a swede with cloves, roasting it for an
creaminess or fat. It’s not that vegan food has to be as good hour and finishing with a mustard/sugar glaze. It wasn’t
PHOTOGRAPHS: BACKGRID. JENNY ZARINS (2). JOHN DALE. NIC CRILLY-HARGRAVE as meat dishes; it has to be exactly ham but it did showcase many of the same flavours
better.” Armitage has set and was surprising tasty with sauerkraut in a bun.
the benchmark. Her tacos For steak I don’t think any plant-based fillet lives up to
(jackfruit, seitan, tofu the promise of a good T-bone. As for “facon”, I have tried
and soy) are astounding. I a few varieties and come to the conclusion that, in a BLT
especially like the Baja Tofish with lots of mayonnaise, I can just about settle for This Isn’t
taco with beer-battered Bacon. But why settle? I managed to get my hands on a
tofish (of convincingly fishy cutting-edge version from AtLast (a spinoff of New York
consistency), slaw, pico biotech company Ecovative) that is made from mycelium
de gallo, chipotle mayo fibres (the filament-roots of mushrooms). The rashers
and avocado. looked like mummified banana skins, but they sizzled
My meat cravings tend beautifully in the pan, crisped up nicely and had a lovely
to centre on burgers and brittle snap. They tasted like bacon, too. Uncannily so. The
fried chicken. And there are product is currently only available in Honest Weight Food
fantastic vegan options for Co-op in Troy, upstate New York. But there are plans to
both. One of my favourites widen distribution next year: one more reason, I suppose,
is Halo Burger in Brixton for wanting 2020 to be over and 2021 to hurry along.
and Shoreditch (also
@ajesh34

FT.COM/HTSI 61

HOW I SPEND IT

and sink with gold taps, and lightweight little chairs that
kept falling over; a diminutive china tea set in a cardboard
box that I kept for years. I wrote stories, too, in tiny books
made from folded paper for an imaginary library. My world
was one of interiors, and the world seemed richer when
it was miniaturised. So no wonder that I was attracted
to the museum, with its secret passageways, locked
cupboards and cabinets full of concealed drawers. Here
rest treasures that may be small in stature but tell stories
on a grand scale: portrait miniatures that you need a
magnifying glass to appreciate, painted with brushes as
thin as a single sable hair; Elizabethan caskets with
embroidered figures and beguiling, over-sized insects;
samplers worked by a child’s hand in almost invisible
cross-stitch; apprentice shirts rendered in perfect, scaled-
down detail and, most wonderfully,
two 18th-century dolls, Lord and
HERE REST Lady Clapham, beautifully dressed
TREASURES down to their underwear, with
THAT MAY BE spare clothes to boot and a chair
SMALL BUT TELL each to sit on.
STORIES ON A The obsession for small things
GRAND SCALE
continued when I had children of
my own. Their world became mine
as we sat around the kitchen table,
heads touching, making potato prints. I kept all their
creations: the wobbly pinch pots, pressed into shape by
little fingers, the egg trays filled with tissue flowers, the
matchboxes filled with surprises for me – a bead, a leaf, a
scrap of paper with pretend writing on it.
And these needed somewhere to go, for where else was
I to keep my memories, or the things that people bestowed
upon me for safekeeping: a leather diary from 1911 with
microscopic writing (who owned it?); an ivory fan from
Japan the size of my fingernail; a silk handkerchief in a
box inscribed “This token of affection Take, and keep,
I ’ve always been interested in the particularity of for the Sender’s sake”; a minute pair of clogs from Holland;
objects; the details. It’s probably why I work in a mermaid from a Spanish holiday with black hair and
a museum – because I can get really close up to CLAIRE WILCOX plastic fishtail; a tear-splashed letter written in purple ink;
objects, see how they work. Show me a bag and I’ll ON and my woes written on a Post-It, many of which are still
open it. If it’s a dress, I’ll turn it inside out. Pockets, troubling me now. And then the glitter of silver: Edwardian
as far as I’m concerned, are for putting your hands MINI THINGS finger purses, barely capacious enough to hold a sixpence;
in and, as a fashion curator at the V&A, I’ve found some chatelaines with dangling needle-case and scissors; a
surprising things in them over the years. pincushion in the shape of a bear.
In comparison with the actual museum, where the
It all began when I was a child. Because I was short- ILLUSTRATION BY EMILIE SETO collections are so important they are kept in perpetuity,
sighted, anything more than a few feet away was a blur.
I liked solitude and quiet, and was happiest lying on my my own archive is ephemeral. Open the doors of the old
stomach in the long grass making fairy skirts out of glass-fronted cupboard where it’s kept and it wouldn’t
geranium petals or hiding in the airing cupboard reading take more than a stiff breeze to blow the dried rose petals
everything from Tarka the Otter (I wept inconsolably) and such as hair grips, knitting needles and cotton reels (which and the seedheads and the locks of hair away. All
The Secret Garden to my grandmother’s Mills & Boon. the Borrowers used for stools). It was all these details, collections are made up of matter and memories – even
the way objects were repurposed – the postage stamp hung if, like mine, they are of little consequence. As Mary
But the book that really fascinated me was The Borrowers as a painting, the carpet made of blotting paper – that Norton knew, the value of small things is a matter of
by Mary Norton (who I have just discovered was also very made me love their runcible domesticity so much. Above perspective: for a Borrower, a thimble is handy for warming
short-sighted and, in her own words, an “inveterate lingerer”). all, I liked the descriptions of their homemade clothes: the up soup and a teazle makes a very good broom to
I got completely immersed in this magical, minuscule world ankle boots made out of old kid gloves, the way the buttons sweep the cobwebs away.
that existed in the liminal spaces of ordinary households; were all out of proportion – buttons of all sorts have Claire Wilcox is the senior fashion curator at the V&A
how wonderful that the Borrowers’ surnames – the Clocks, fascinated me ever since. Museum, a professor in fashion curation at the London
the Overmantels, the Linen-Presses – reflected where they I was encouraged in my obsessions: dolls’-house College of Fashion and author of Patch Work: A Life Amongst
lived. Moreover, it explained where things disappeared to, furniture in my Christmas stocking – a real porcelain bath Clothes (Bloomsbury, £16.99)

62 FT.COM/HTSI