Financial Times How to Spend It 7.08.2021

7 AUGUST
2021

WHAT
FRANK
OCEAN
DID NEXT

An EXCLUSIVE interview

HUDSON VALLEY CALLING – BALEARIC CHIC – VEGAN CRUS – LOUIS VUITTON’S GAME PLAN





CHANEL CELEBRATES N°5

In 1921, Gabrielle Chanel has an idea for a perfume which she calls N°5,
her lucky number.

This vision of creation owes its singularity to the permanence of one perspective:
the idea above all else.

In 2021, a High Jewellery collection celebrates the House’s emblematic number
with a creative act that combines the audacity of a technical challenge with
the freedom of an original approach.

CHANEL High Jewellery creates the N°5 Collection, with a centrepiece that
reveals a unique geometric virtuosity: a necklace whose design reflects all
the defining features of the N°5 perfume bottle, composed of more than
700 diamonds set around a diamond specially cut to weigh 55.55 carats.
The perfection of the idea has determined the weight in carats.

This is an unprecedented approach: to start with a rough diamond, aiming
not for the greatest weight but for the perfection of the stone, cut to the exact
dimensions of an idea.

Diamonds are eternal. To CHANEL, éternité, the French word for “eternity,” is
first and foremost an anagram of étreinte, the word for “embrace.” As such,
this is how the House defines creation: an embrace between matter and spirit,
which alone can give birth to a style.

CHANEL reaffirms it today: creation is eternal.

chanel .com

N°5 NECKLACE IN WHITE GOLD AND DIAMONDS,
FEATURING A 55.55-CARAT EMERALD-CUT DFL TYPE IIA DIAMOND.



CONTENTS

7 AUGUST 2021 23

REGULARS THE FIX 40

9 OPENING SHOT 19 HOME SUITE HOME

Mitch Epstein captures How to transport five-star-
India’s colourscape hotel style to your home.
By Lucia van der Post
13 EDITOR’S LETTER
23 LEVEL UP
Jo Ellison on the cult
musician stepping out Louis Vuitton’s aim to
of the shadows engage 3bn players.
By Charlene Prempeh
15 THE AESTHETE
23 I AM TITANIUM
Author, artist and publisher
Leanne Shapton talks taste Seven super-tough,
super-light watches
30 DOUBLE ACT
25 BIG IN JAPAN
The father-daughter design
duo making the medieval Aylin Bayhan’s Tokyo-
modern. By Aimee Farrell inspired buys

57 TECHNOPOLIS 26 MEET THE

Serious astronomy made SUPER-NATURALS
brilliantly simple. Daniela Morosini
By Jonathan Margolis investigates the future of
bioengineered beauty
58 TRAVELISTA
19
Chic hotel openings to fly
for. By Maria Shollenbarger

61 DRINK

Alice Lascelles pairs wines
with plant-based menus

61 FOOD

Josh Niland’s new gospel

of fish. By Ajesh Patalay

PHOTOGRAPHS: BRUNO STAUB. WESTON WELLS. VALENTIN DELATRON WEARS FENDI WOOL JUMPER, POA. PHIPPS WOOL LEGGINGS, £170. UMIT 62 HOW I SPEND IT
BENAN COTTON HAT, £170. PANCONESI PEARL-DIPPED-IN-ENAMEL NECKLACE, £325. HERMÈS SILK TWILL SCARF (SEEN AROUND HIPS), £701
Novelist Eimear McBride’s

library of literary London

25

48

7 AUGUST FEATURES 48 HAPPY DECAMPERS
2021
34 FRANK OCEAN’S NEXT ACT Deborah Needleman explores
WHAT Hudson Valley, NY, the out-of-
FRANK The enigmatic music icon talks town refuge now undergoing a
OCEAN to Mark C O’Flaherty about huge revival
DID NEXT Homer, his debut luxury brand.
Photography by Jesse Gouveia All travel, exhibitions and events
An EXCLUSIVE interview are being disrupted by the
40 BALEARIC BEAT spread of coronavirus.
HUDSON VALLEY CALLING – BALEARIC CHIC – VEGAN CRUS – LOUIS VUITTON’S GAME PLAN Information published in the
Fashion looks to Ibiza for a magazine may be susceptible
ON THE COVER: new take on the bohemian to change.
Frank Ocean photographed idyll. Photography by Bruno
by JESSE GOUVEIA Staub. Styling by Giovanni
Dario Laudicina

All products in the magazine are available to buy from each FT.COM/HTSI 7
brand’s website or store, unless otherwise stated

Elegance is an attitude

Simon Baker

The Longines
Master Collection

The Arabian Sea, OPENING SHOT
Mumbai, 1983

INDIAN SUMMER American fine-art photographer Mitch Epstein made eight well as more intimate moments. Together, they reflect
trips to India between 1978 and 1989 while working on three India’s broad swathe of subcultures and reveal Epstein’s
Mitch Epstein has collated a decade of travel films with his then-wife, director Mira Nair. Over the course position as both “insider and outsider”. “I had to be back in
to the subcontinent to create a colourscape of of that time, he shot tens of thousands of photographs, a America for several decades before I could really see the
extraordinary subcultures and scenes selection of which, most of them previously unpublished, India I had photographed,” writes Epstein in his introduction
have now been brought together in a new book: In India. to the book, “where the stratified facets of society were
in continual convergence.” SARA SEMIC
The images capture public scenes – such as a crowd of Mitch Epstein: In India is published by Steidl at $75
men veiled in neon-pink powder at the Ganpati festival – as

CONTRIBUTORS

PHOTOGRAPH: SOPHIE BASSOULS EIMEAR McBRIDE DANIELA MOROSINI MAUREEN M EVANS GIOVANNI DARIO LAUDICINA

The novelist grew up in Ireland and moved to The British-born Italian reporter and brand Based between Mexico City and London, the The Sicilian stylist and Vogue Hommes Paris
London when she was 17 to train at Drama consultant explores the intersection between photographer specialises in interiors, lifestyle, fashion editor dreamed up a bohemian summer
Centre London. Her debut novel, A Girl is a technology, beauty and business. This week food and portraits – taken in natural light. For in rural Ibiza for this week’s shoot. Laudicina
Half-formed Thing, won awards including the she describes how biotechnology is being used us she shot artist Sophie Coryndon and her wanted to portray the young people swapping
Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her latest to produce sustainable beauty ingredients. cabinetmaker father Nick at Sophie’s studio city life for the countryside: “They’re seeking a
book, Something Out of Place: Women & “I’ve always found the message that natural is in East Sussex. “Capturing the connection better balance, with a focus on mental calm,
Disgust, explores the ways in which women are best stifling,” she says. “So the discovery that between father and daughter was very special,” respect for the body and an appreciation for
shamed. In How I Spend It, she opens up her perhaps the kindest and most potent way to she says. “You can appreciate the detail and nature,” he says. “I tried to imagine a new
books about London: “Everyone’s welcome in enjoy natural extracts is with a pit-stop in a the artistic vision that Nick and Sophie share wardrobe made up of comfortable, easy-
my undiscerning, inexhaustive collection.” laboratory was fascinating – and validating!” on their pieces while inspiring one another.” to-wear clothing and accessories.”

FT.COM/HTSI 9







EDITOR’S LETTER

HTSI I n a world of cookie-cutter celebrity,
the musician and producer Frank Ocean
EDITOR is unique. At 33 years of age, he has
eschewed the social-media routes by
Jo Ellison ( [email protected]) which careers are now made, opting instead

DEPUTY EDITOR to quietly push the frontiers in pursuit of developing his

Beatrice Hodgkin ([email protected]) sound. His 2012 debut studio album, Channel Orange, HOMER
a magnificent synthesis of jazz-funk, soul, biting social HAMMER
CREATIVE DIRECTOR commentary and gently psychedelic pop, embedded in
our aural culture as profoundly as the landmark albums of MAN
Rasha Kahil ([email protected]) Stevie Wonder or The Beatles. Subsequent work has PENDANT,

STYLE DIRECTOR $645
(PAGE 34)
Isabelle Kountoure ([email protected])
been just as unexpected and exploratory, while his
FEATURES
influence continues to reverberate.
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
In this issue, and after a five-year hiatus, the enigmatic
Tim Auld ([email protected])
icon steps out of the shadows to talk about his long-planned
ASSISTANT EDITOR
luxury brand (page 34). The history of musicians and their
Jackie Daly ([email protected])
proclivity for adornment is well documented. Think of
FASHION FEATURES EDITOR
Liberace and his excess of bulbous rings, Elton’s weakness
Jessica Beresford ([email protected])
for diamonds, and everyone, from Keith Richards to
COMMISSIONING EDITOR
Pharrell Williams, who has favoured amulets and FOR OCEAN, editor Deborah Needleman arrived in
Lauren Hadden ([email protected]) pendants to strew around their necks. Ocean’s interest in JEWELLERY Garrison 25 years ago, creating a
jewellery reflects the same enthusiasms that inspire his IS SYMBOLIC second home in which to garden at the
EDITORIAL COORDINATOR music; he’s an ever-curious student of contemporary weekends before returning to the day

Clara Baldock ([email protected]) design. But he’s also aware of the deeper sociological OF WHERE job in New York City. But the past
meaning: for Ocean, jewellery is a talisman, symbolic YOU’VE year and a half has found her making
EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS of where you’ve come from, what you’ve achieved and COME FROM Garrison her primary residence and
something to pass on. His articulation of the pleasure further interacting with an area now
Rosanna Dodds ([email protected])
Baya Simons ([email protected]) – and pride – one feels in owning, and earning, buzzing with urban émigrés. Deborah

EDITORIAL INTERN something precious will be familiar to all. meets the artists, makers and growers involved in the

Sara Semic ([email protected]) The emergence of Hudson Valley as a hub of creative revival as well as those locals who have long contributed to

FASHION enterprise has been in evidence for years now, but Hudson’s creative fire (page 48). Of course, such sociological

ACTING FASHION EDITOR the pandemic has seen that shifts are not without their tensions. Deborah’s survey of

Zoë Sinclair ([email protected]) community quickly grow. The the area makes for a fascinating study of the post-pandemic

FASHION COORDINATOR writer and former magazine mindset, new opportunities, and the changing rhythms

Aylin Bayhan ([email protected]) of a community that finds itself a cultural hub.

ART This weekend sees the culmination of the Olympics,

ART DIRECTOR which I study mainly for the resilience that allows

Carlo Apostoli ([email protected]) competitors to keep their cool. While I marvel at their

DEPUTY ART DIRECTOR athleticism, I’m in awe of their mental strength, the precision,

Darren Heatley ([email protected]) the training and the enormous self-sacrifice. This week’s

DESIGNER Aesthete, Leanne Shapton (page 15), trained for the Olympic

Morwenna Smith ([email protected]) swimming trials as a teenager, and was once destined to

PICTURES represent Canada on the world stage. Her book Swimming

PICTURE EDITOR Studies is in part a memoir of that time. Yet, since leaving

Katie Webb ([email protected]) the sports world, Shapton’s life has been extraordinarily

PICTURE RESEARCHER productive. She is now a writer, artist and publisher who has

Paula Baker ([email protected]) managed to channel the laser focus required of competitive

SUBEDITORS swimming into a broader creative zeal. Her choices are an

PHOTOGRAPHS: BEAT SCHWEIZER. JESSE GOUVEIA. MARILI ANDRE. ROB PALMER FROM CHIEF SUBEDITOR inspiration (I love her new infatuation with low-watt
TAKE ONE FISH BY JOSH NILAND (HARDIE GRANT, £26)
Kate Chapple ([email protected]) lightbulbs). And her accomplishments are a great reminder

SUBEDITORS of that hoary cliché: when it comes to self-development

Helen Bain ([email protected]) it’s not the winning but the taking part that counts.
Alexander Tyndall ([email protected])
@jellison22
JUNIOR SUBEDITOR
Above: Leanne For the best of How To Spend It straight into your inbox,
Chris Allnutt ([email protected]) Shapton at home sign up to our newsletter at ft.com/newsletters
in Greenwich
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Village, New York
(page 15). Above
Vivienne Becker, Bella Blissett, Simon de Burton, right: drunken
Delphine Danhier, Aimee Farrell, Kate Finnigan, bass groper,
mushrooms and
Maria Fitzpatrick, Nick Foulkes, Chloe Fox, condiments
Alexander Fury, Julian Ganio, Francesca Gavin, (page 61). Right:
Frank Ocean with
Fiona Golfar, Alice Lascelles, Giovanni the Homer Plus
Dario Laudicina, Jonathan Margolis, Nicola Moulton, pendant, $435
(page 34)
Rebecca Newman, Michelle Ogundehin,
Ajesh Patalay, Charlene Prempeh, Tamara Rothstein,

Fergus Scholes, Victoria Woodcock

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Lucia van der Post ([email protected])

TRAVEL EDITOR

Maria Shollenbarger ([email protected])

US CORRESPONDENT

Christina Ohly Evans ([email protected])

PUBLISHING

GLOBAL DIRECTOR, LUXURY & WEEKEND ADVERTISING

Dorota Gwilliam ([email protected])

PUBLISHING MANAGER

Jo Thompson ([email protected])

ADVERTISING COORDINATOR

Isaac Peltz ([email protected])

PRODUCTION

Denise Macklin

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION

Daniel Macklin

WWW.FT.COM/HTSI
TWITTER.COM/HTSI

INSTAGRAM.COM/FT_HOWTOSPENDIT
FT.COM/NEWSLETTERS

EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES 020-7873 3203
ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES 020-7873 4208
How To Spend It magazine is printed by Walstead Group for,
and published by, The Financial Times Ltd,
Bracken House, 1 Friday Street, London EC4M 9BT

ORIGINATION BY Dexter Premedia

FT.COM/HTSI 13



THE AESTHETE

Leanne
Shapton

The author, artist and publisher
loves 40-watt lightbulbs, vintage

bathing suits and her Vico
Magistretti coffee table

INTERVIEW BY BAYA SIMONS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEAT SCHWEIZER

MY PERSONAL STYLE VIPER
SIGNIFIER is probably FINS,
my hair. I cut it $79.95
myself. Other people
seem to like it more
than I do but it does
have a DIY, wake-up-
and-go thing going on. I also have a friend
who sent me a picture of the little boy in
the 1956 film The Red Balloon, saying:
“This is you.” He’s wearing track pants
and a suit jacket and I had to agree, that’s
pretty much my look.

THE LAST THING I BOUGHT AND LOVED was
a pair of Viper Fins. I had wanted a pair for
a long time, ever since seeing some in a
surf shop in 2012. I love how they look
kind of brutalist, like hardware. When
I competed [Shapton trained for the
Canadian Olympic swimming trials],
I trained with short-blade flippers,
but I started using them again
recently because it’s rocky where
I swim, on the north fork of Long
Island. $79.95, 662bodyboardshop.com

AND ON MY WISHLIST is a car. I live in what you look like, what you sound like, by Plasticana. Small thrills, but I’m enjoying Top: Shapton at home
New York and I want to get out of the city whether you measure up. Also, I’ve come wearing jelly sandals now the weather is in Greenwich Village,
– I haven’t gone anywhere in so very long. to appreciate the 40-watt lightbulb, warmer in New York. $64, salter.house New York City. Above:
I have two car dreams: one of them is a which is bright enough to read by but the baby Ficus tree
1963 Raymond Loewy Avanti. The other is not so bright that you’re too aware of THE PODCASTS I’M LISTENING TO are The gifted by a friend.
a 1980s Toyota Cressida, which has this your surroundings. I always thought, dim World As You’ll Know It, about the world Right: the best book
boxy shape, with round headlights. Right lightbulbs – why bother? But you need a post-Covid. It’s very optimistic, which Shapton has read in
now every car looks like a sneaker when I sense of shadow, a sense of darkness. I love. Then because I worked at The New the past year
want it to look like a good old boxy loafer. York Times and I feel it’s my alma mater to
I ALWAYS THOUGHT, DIM some degree, I’ll listen to The Daily. And
THE PLACE I CAN’T WAIT TO GO BACK TO LIGHTBULBS – WHY BOTHER? there’s Someone Knows Something, put out
by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
is the Canadian Arctic. I went there to do BUT YOU NEED A about true-crime mysteries. That was great
a story for The New York Times Magazine SENSE OF DARKNESS because who doesn’t love a true-crime story?
in 2016 and I camped with the Inuit. And also it is a bit hokey in a Canadian way,
It was just so beautiful; we caught Arctic THE BEST BOOK I’VE READ IN THE PAST YEAR and all the accents were familiar to me.
char and mixed it with Lipton soup and I listen to that for a sense of home.
there were a lot of stories and laughing is Moms, a graphic novel by Yeong-shin Ma,
around propane stoves inside canvas which is based on the author’s mother and MY STYLE ICON is German choreographer
tents. It changed my sense of time and her friends. It was a subculture I knew Pina Bausch and her dancers. It was almost
my sense of geography, and it got in my nothing about: middle-aged Korean women. as if her own style icon was a real person
bloodstream. I want to go back. He writes about these women with love and on the street, because she used her sense
sympathy and a little brutality. It reminded of space and dance and body to emulate
THIS YEAR, I’VE REALLY COME TO me of how Alice Munro writes women the style of strangers. My other icon is
and how Haruki Murakami writes cities. probably David Hockney. He doesn’t stop
APPRECIATE being alone. I think previously drawnandquarterly.com at his paintings, in terms of the colours
I overscheduled socially, and I’m recently and the joy, if you look at his jackets and
divorced so I was afraid of getting quite A RECENT FIND is jelly sandals, specifically the rugby sweaters and the stripes.
low. But being alone, you have all this time French hemp-plastic Sandana jelly sandals
to not be self-conscious; to really think
and to really not think about yourself in
relation to other people, to not think about

FT.COM/HTSI 15

THE AESTHETE THE LAST ITEM OF CLOTHING I ADDED

Below: Shapton at TO MY WARDROBE was a vintage Givenchy
home in Greenwich cardigan – but it hasn’t arrived yet. It
Village. Right: her Tom was bought in a small phase of having
Ford reading glasses too much time on my hands. I also bought,
for a friend, a vintage Margaret Howell
I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE MAKE overcoat that I really like. It might
ME PLAYLISTS – IT’S LIKE wind up in my wardrobe but I think
I’ll probably give it to him.
SOMEONE COOKING FOR YOU
AN OBJECT I WOULD NEVER PART WITH
16 FT.COM/HTSI
is my coffee table. It’s a Vico Magistretti
coffee table, and it’s one of my favourite
things in the whole world.

THE ONE ARTIST WHOSE WORK I WOULD

COLLECT IF I COULD is Henri Fantin-Latour.
You remember the New Order album
cover with the flowers [Power, Corruption
& Lies]? Fantin-Latour painted those
flowers for the bourgeoisie, but they’re
so dark and kind of sinister, I find them
so stormy. There’s a ruminative, depressive
darkness to them that I love.

Above: Shapton’s THE BEST GIFT I’VE GIVEN RECENTLY is art MY FAVOURITE ROOM IN MY HOUSE is my
Vico Magistretti supplies – Boku-Undo E-Sumi Watercolor living room, where I have my beloved
coffee table. paints. I buy these little kits, in black and coffee table. In the book David Hockney
Below: Henri neon, in quantity and give them as gifts to Photographs, there’s a photograph he
Fantin-Latour’s friends. Paints from $3, jetpens.com took in Lucca in 1973, of a room with
A Basket of Roses, a coffee table and some yellow couches.
featured on the AND THE BEST GIFT I’VE RECEIVED The coffee table is my coffee table, and so
cover of New everywhere I live, I just try to recreate it:
Order’s Power, RECENTLY is a baby Ficus tree. It was a my platonic ideal of a living room. I’ve
Corruption & Lies little get-well-soon present that a friend never found out who designed the
sent and it felt really special. couches. I’ve sent the picture to the
VETIVER Italian consulate and the Museum of
VERITAS THE LAST MUSIC I DOWNLOADED was Modern Art, but nobody has
BY JAMES the “One night in…” playlist by my friend, been able to find out. It is
HEELEY, the writer and prolific playlist-maker the most stylish living room.
Teju Cole. I love when people make me It’s very simple.
€135 playlists – it’s like someone cooking
for you. tejucole.com/playlists THE BEAUTY STAPLE I’M
Above left: Shapton’s hemp-plastic
Sandana jelly sandals by Plasticana, I HAVE A COLLECTION OF vintage bathing NEVER WITHOUT is giant tubs
$64. Above: sunglasses made by suits. I’ve collected them for the past
the Inuit on Shapton’s trip to the 30 years. I love one-pieces, nylon Speedos of Cetaphil moisturiser. I
Arctic. Right: Branston pickle. for laps and patterned, smocked numbers
Left: the Roffe cotton masks ($17.50 that I wear as dresses in the summer. I’m have to pile it on: I’ve got
each) she has relied on recently partial to ones from the 1950 to 1970s:
nothing too high on the hips. really troublesome skin. And

IN MY FRIDGE AND FREEZER YOU’LL ALWAYS Listerine, the original. I rotate SWIMMING
three perfumes because I love STUDIES,
FIND bags of ice. I use so much ice. There’s them all equally. One is Tom
also always Ortiz anchovies, smoked trout, BY LEANNE
Heinz ketchup and pickle: Branston pickle, SHAPTON
pickled fiddlehead ferns, pickled Brussels
sprouts and bread-and-butter pickle. Ford Neroli Portofino, the

THE GADGET I COULDN’T DO WITHOUT is second is Eva, which is a perfume from
an electric pencil sharpener. I’m not that
gadget-driven but I hate sharpening Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa
pencils by hand. That’s the one thing
I need all the time. And my scanner, Maria Novella, and the third is called Vetiver
because that’s how I work.
Veritas by James Heeley. Eva, $135, smnovella.
AN INDULGENCE I WOULD NEVER FORGO is
books. I will buy my daughter any book com. Neroli Portofino, $340, tomford.com.
she wants. I just bought her the complete
Ian Fleming James Bond collection. Vetiver Veritas, €135, jamesheeley.com
Any book anybody wants, they
should have access to: it’s a I’M PLANNING my next book, very slowly.
mental-health issue and part of It’s about my mother’s side of the family,
education. In terms of a more and my namesake, a general called
Dionysian indulgence: a shot of Leandro Fullon who was in the Philippine-
ice-cold vodka followed by a glass American war. I hadn’t really delved into
of champagne. I used to do this researching his story – my mum’s family
before I flew, every time. story. It will most closely resemble my
book Swimming Studies in that it will be
mostly prose, but with some chapters
that will be image-driven.

IF I WEREN’T DOING WHAT I DO, I WOULD

be in the military. Both my parents’ sides
of the family were military, and I
remember, when I was little, thinking
that I would go into the military and
the government. What I did instead
was swim, which is, strangely, also
representing your country. It’s not
quite public service but it’s the
closest I came.





THE FIX

INTERIORS I t’s hard to explain today the sensation at andrefuliving.com with pieces that
Blakes hotel caused when it opened in include a new dining table, armchair
HOME SUITE 1978. The first distinctive example of and sofa, while his Art Deco Garden
HOME what came to be known as the boutique range can be found at amara.com from late
hotel, Blakes was the love child of August. He’s also worked with de Gournay,
It’s never been easier to transport hotel style to
your everyday environment. The chocolate on Anouska Hempel, who filled its rooms with which now handpaints panels in his
the pillow is optional, says Lucia van der Post
a wildly idiosyncratic iteration of her own zen-garden-inspired design.
Top: Duxton Reserve
reception area. Above: theatrical, lush and highly decorative taste. For a completely different look, Africa’s
Anouska Hempel Duxton
Reserve fan, £325, from Hempel has astutely turned her taste famed design firm Cécile & Boyd has created
anouskahempel.com. Right:
in the style of Domaine des into a successful subsidiary business. She an oasis of laidback modernity at Singita’s
Etangs, Creations Dragonfly
Singuliers tray, from £276, and has gone on to design many new hotels, luxury lodges, furnished with huge, squashy
Miladies teacups, £312, from
theinvisiblecollection.com the Monsieur George in Paris and the sofas, functional lights and characterful ANOUSKA
HEMPEL
Duxton Reserve in Singapore among artefacts evocative of their surroundings.
MARBLE-TOP
them, and many of the pieces can be “Though everything we sell MONSIEUR
GEORGE TABLE,
ordered for the home. Most popular HEMPEL HAS is perfectly appropriate £8,750, FROM
from Monsieur George are Hempel’s ASTUTELY in Africa, it isn’t all African- ANOUSKA
signature Yardstick lamps, along with TURNED HER inspired,” explains Kim HEMPEL.COM
marble tables she had made in Istanbul. TASTE INTO A Peter, general manager of the

Buying into the aesthetic offered by SUCCESSFUL Singita Boutique & Gallery.

the world’s chicest hotels has never been BUSINESS She points to the recently

easier. The Bulgari hotel group’s favoured reimagined Sabora Tented

architect Antonio Citterio heads up a Camp in Tanzania, where the aesthetic is

practice that gives each of its hotels a sense contemporary with leather furniture and

of place using local artisans and designers to steel lighting. Lebombo Lodge features

ILLUSTRATIONS: WILLIAM LUZ create pieces that connect with the vernacular, furniture made from woven ilala palms,

mixed with his own designs – sofas, while the Mara River Camp boasts woven

armchairs and tables – that can be snapped furnishings featuring a strong African

up from bebitalia.com and pamono.it. design. Buying pieces from the collection,

Designer André Fu, having recently which spans from rugs, through to tables,

completed a suite at Hong Kong’s Upper chairs and lighting, can be done at singita

House, has extended his Living collection stores.com, and the boutique ships overseas.

FT.COM/HTSI 19

THE FIX

Far left: a suite at
Singita’s Lebombo
Lodge. Left: brass
tribal cuff, R700
(about £35), from
singitastores.com.
Below: a bedroom at
Number One Bruton

This year brought the launch of a Bruton is carved out of a Georgian

charming ensemble of furniture and townhouse, and the couple have made

furnishings, originally created for two French a point of using local design talent.

hotels: the Château Les Carrasses in the “Everything we have used in the hotel has

Languedoc and the Château St Pierre de some personal significance and the idea of

Serjac. Its owners, Karl O’Hanlon and Anita selling things that we had commissioned for

Forte, working with specialist suppliers, the hotel gave us an excuse

had developed a cohesive collection “IT GAVE US to highlight local makers,” As seen at BULGARI hotels:
for both inside and outside, which have AN EXCUSE says Waddams. On the antonio citterio for B&B italia
been made available through domainelife. TO HIGHLIGHT walls are photographs by the charles sofa, from £10,575,
from bebitalia.com
com. It features low-maintenance, LOCAL Don McCullin (a local
Above: Créations Dragonfly
weatherproof, hand-woven rattan MAKERS” friend); Perry Ogden A l’aube trays, £4,332, and
Elementary Particles
furniture (tables, chairs, loungers, etc) (Claudia’s cousin); and box, from £354, from
theinvisiblecollection.com
in French grey with garden parasols, and William Dalrymple (a family friend), all of – artisan pieces
commissioned by
interior staples such as divans, mattresses which can be ordered. Some of the furniture Domaine des
Etangs
and duvets, as well as lighting, art and is also available to buy: Candace Bahouth,
THE COBBLERS
antiques. A third estate, the Château Capitoul, the mosaic artist, has created special COVE LOOK:

also in Languedoc, is due to open shortly benches; artist Theodora Gould’s painted SOANE BRITAIN
RATTAN LOGGIA
and in the coming months it hopes to expand cabinets (£5,000) are deliciously pretty; there CHAIR, £2,300,

its offering to headboards and ottomans. are Hana Reynolds lamps and shades (from SOANE.CO.UK

£350 each), and a rainbow-hued chair by

MANY HOTELS DRAW ON local artisans to Solange Azagury-Partridge and Bill Amberg.

create bespoke pieces that add a point Designer Lulu Lytle of Soane Britain

of difference to the comfort they offer, has taken her signature style further

often supporting those artists and afield to Cobblers Cove, the much-loved

designers by commissioning pieces for Caribbean retreat revamped last year by

their e-boutiques. The rustic 13th-century owners Sam de Teran and Hugh Godsal.

Above: Château Les Domaine des Etangs château in the rolling Between them they came up with some
Carrasses furniture,
POA, from domainelife. Cognac countryside is a notable example. intricately woven rattan furniture and some
com. Right: Bill
Amberg x Solange It has been meticulously restored by its gloriously sunny fabrics inspired by the
Azagury-Partridge
leather upholstered owners using stonecutters, cabinetmakers fauna and flora of their surroundings, ILLUSTRATIONS: WILLIAM LUZ. PHOTOGRAPHS: ADRIAAN LOUW. DOMAINE LIFE. JEAN-FRANÇOIS
chair, from Number JAUSSAUD. MIGUEL FLORES-VIANNA, SOANE BRITAIN AND COBBLERS COVE (2). SINGITA
One Bruton and carpenters to create limited-edition which can now be found at soane.co.uk.

pieces that showcase the local culture and Selling the hotel lifestyle is fuelled by

artisanal skills. Many of the smaller pieces commercial entrepreneurship but also

– tableware, vases and kitchen accessories creates a shop window for design. The mix

– can be found at domainedesetangs.com. has proved popular. Kit Kemp, the founder

A very English eclecticism sets the scene and creative director of Firmdale Hotels who

in Somerset. Claudia Waddams and Aled creates collections for fabric and wallpapers

Rees’s 12-bedroomed retreat Number One brands Christopher Farr and Andrew

Martin, has envisaged pieces for Wedgwood,

and her fabulously colourful furniture, made

to order at firmdalehotels.com, was

showcased at a pop-up shop in New York’s

Bergdorf Goodman in 2019. Others are

following in her footsteps. South African

hotelier Liz Biden, whose Royal Portfolio

group of hotels are admired for their dashing

COBBLERS COVE individualism, sells easily transportable
ENTRANCE HALL: designs – ceramics, linens, throws and
SOANE BRITAIN wonderful African artworks. It’s the kind
RATTAN LILY SOFA, of no-effort service that makes hotel stays
FROM £13,500, AND so attractive in the first place. The added
RATTAN MIRRORS, benefit? No suitcase is required.
£3,900 EACH, ALL
FROM SOANE.CO.UK

20 FT.COM/HTSI

LONDON DUBAI SHANGHAI Midi Mayfair in Ivory Croc

Virtual shopping 0203 326 5008

ASPINALOFLONDON.COM



THE FIX

GAMES A “POSTCARD”
FROM 200
LEVEL UP
ANECDOTES
Louis Vuitton’s latest foray into the games
world aims to engage 3bn players and
crack a market worth some $176bn.
Charlene Prempeh has a first look

He’s the most famous man you in their own right – an interest that has
know nothing about!” exclaims
Louis Vuitton CEO Michael already been piqued by the likes of Gucci,
Burke, speaking of the French
luxury house’s founder. Over which auctioned off a four-minute NFT film
the phone from Paris, amid the hum of
couture shows, Burke is taking a pause to titled Aria for $25,000 in May, and New
discuss 200 Anecdotes, a mobile game being
released by the brand in celebration of what York-based jeweller Jacob & Co, which
would have been Vuitton’s 200th birthday.
It follows Vivienne, a monogrammed flower sold an NFT SF24 Tourbillion watch for
character who traverses the globe unlocking
stories about the house’s origins, including $100,000 in April. Burberry recently
the founder’s two-year journey to Paris on
foot from his hometown of Anchay, and his announced a partnership with Mythical
rise from an apprentice trunk-maker to the
owner of a luxury-goods business. “It’s a Games to launch Blankos Block Party, a
coming-of-age story,” says Burke, a vocal
gaming enthusiast. “It’s about a kid having multiplayer game featuring NFT vinyl toys
to leave home under duress, acquiring
skills, taking risks and becoming himself.” accessories. The luxury brand also created a that can be collected, upgraded and sold.

BURBERRY’S At a time when “hustling” is the special case for the Summoner’s Cup – the Louis Vuitton will make 30 NFTs
B-BOUNCE, rallying verb of a generation, the
rags-to-riches story is likely to trophy awarded at the League of Legends available to collect in 200 Anecdotes, with
2019 resonate with young consumers,
as is the choice of medium. “The
idea is to start in the 21st century World Championship – that married 10 of them designed by American digital
and get people interested in a
21st-century way, which means high-tech LEDs with traditional artisanship. artist Beeple, who collaborated with the
gaming,” says Burke.
The fashion industry has been “We were one of the first to get involved house on digital prints
dipping its toes into gaming for the
past few years – no doubt to [in gaming] with League of Legends,” “OUR NEXT-GEN for its spring/summer
capitalise on an industry that has Burke says. “That’s when we realised CLIENTS ARE 2019 collection. “It was
3bn players globally and is valued that the next generation of our clients GOING TO BE foresighted of Nicolas
at $175.8bn, according to Newzoo.
In 2019, a partnership between are going to be plugged into gaming.” PLUGGED INTO when he engaged with
Louis Vuitton and League of
Legends saw the house’s women’s Also in 2019, Burberry entered the GAMING” Beeple years before his
artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière
design a unique skin for one of the space with B-Bounce, a game fronted by $69m sale at Christie’s,”
game’s characters, as well as a
capsule collection of clothing and a deer negotiating treacherous weather says Burke. He is quick, though, to point

conditions while donning gilets and jackets, out that the tokens in 200 Anecdotes are not

in a clever association with the house’s for sale. “We don’t make any money out

expertise in protecting customers from the of it, so this is a non-commercial, almost

elements; meanwhile Gucci released a range pedagogical, educational experience that

of games within its app, including a buzzing has to be fun, emotional and dynamic.”

mascot navigating a maze in Gucci Bee and In addition to the game, which is

retro arcade-style ping-pong. A slew of available on iOS and Android, the house

virtual dress-up games have also been is celebrating the 200th anniversary with

released, including Ada and Drest, where a documentary, novel and a triptych by

players can fit out avatars in luxury goods. the American figurative artist Alex Katz.

The latest fashion gaming releases also “Everyone will learn about Louis the man,”

accommodate the frenzied excitement for says Burke, “that he faced the same trials

Top: Luminous City in non-fungible tokens. This is part of the and tribulations we all face and that he
Louis Vuitton’s 200 Anecdotes
game. Above: its main luxury industry’s experimentation with overcame them and created something
character Vivienne
the role NFTs can play as product entities that will last for eternity.”

WATCHES

I am titanium

Tougher and lighter than steel, it’s the watch-case material for a hard-knock life

ILLUSTRATIONS: WILLIAM LUZ. PHOTOGRAPHS: LOUIS VUITTON (4) BREGUET titanium HERMES titanium Slim OMEGA 18ct-gold and titanium- RICHARD MILLE titanium and LONGINES titanium CHOPARD ceramicised- TAG HEUER titanium
Marine XXI Chrono, d’Hermès Squelette tantalum Diver 300m Co-Axial carbon TPT RM 60-01 Les Voiles Avigation BigEye, titanium LUC Time Traveller Carrera Calibre Heuer
Lune, £16,120 Master Chronograph, £16,770 £2,970
£20,900 De St Barth, about £144,500 One Black, £10,100 02T COSC, £17,400

FT.COM/HTSI 23

LONDON NEW YORK PARIS DÜSSELDORF MOSCOW SINGAPORE
S H A N G H A I Q I N G DAO H O N G KO N G G UA N GZ H O U TA I P E I S EO U L

STEVEN MCRAE, PRINCIPAL , THE ROYAL BALLET

savoirbeds.com

Two-panel FLORAIKU Between THE FIX
screen with Late Two Trees eau de
Edo period parfum set, £260, LOUIS VUITTON x KANSAI YAMAMOTO
(1603-1868) net-a-porter.com pre-owned 2017 Kabuki Daruma mirror
painting, case, £816, farfetch.com
$49,000, MARSELL Astin
1stdibs.com loafers, £410,
farfetch.com

TAKUYA PRESOTTO Kengo
HAMAJIMA sideboard by
ceramic U Stool, Gherardi Architetti,
$7,500, 1stdibs.com £5,410, artemest.com

DIOR silk-satin SIR/MADAM
and wool ceramic Ozu
Oblique men’s coffee cup,
jacket, £3,000 £60 for two,
amara.com

NOSHI MM6 MAISON COMPLETEDWORKS
silver Flow MARGIELA gold-vermeil and
earrings, mesh shoulder pearl Befuddled
£155, bag, £135, bracelet, £395,
artemest. matches matches
com fashion.com fashion.com

SHOPPING FENDI KARUIZAWA
silk and 38-year-old
BIG IN wool Pearl Geisha
JAPAN dress, single malt
POA
Ride the Olympics highs with Tokyo- Japanese
inspired buys, says Aylin Bayhan whisky,
£18,750,

lymited.com

ABADIA Vintage
viscose and 18ct-gold
cotton Anoud and
jacket, £727 Japanese-
coral ring,
$7,000,
1stdibs.com

ISSEY
MIYAKE
CRT Pleats
trousers,
£1,375

The inspiration: HERMES steel Heure-H
Yoko Ono at home watch, £2,300

in Ascot, July 1971

1900s Japanese ARMANI
iron tetsubin with red CASA Mirò
cabinet, POA
lacquer lid, c1900,
£519, 1stdibs.com

PHOTOGRAPH: MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES JAPAN BEST Ikigai: The GABO GUZZO
shower set, Japanese handpainted
£190, Secret to a leather
mrporter.com Long and Millefoglie J
Happy Life bag with jade
TEAM GB by Hector clasp, £6,900
Yoyogi Polo Garcia,
shirt, £23 £11.04,
whsmith.
co.uk

TOKYO DESIGN BANSHU HAMONO
STUDIO Nippon Japanese grip scissors,
sushi plate, £45 £54, store.wallpaper.com
for set of two,
amara.com

FT.COM/HTSI 25

THE FIX

BIOSSANCE Mathilde Thomas. The Premier Cru range
SQUALANE +
ANTIOXIDANT includes The Serum (£90) and The Rich
CLEANSING
Cream (£90), designed to brighten, firm and
OIL, £25,
CULTBEAUTY. hydrate the complexion.

COM Cosmetic brands are also making

breakthroughs in creating alternatives to

extracts usually derived from animals,

addressing another issue that has recently

plagued consumers. Luxury beauty brand

Hourglass has already made waves with its

Confession Red 0 Lipstick (£39): the bold, DECREE SOS Revitalising
Biocellulose Treatment
femme-fatale rouge, which launched in Mask, £120 for set of six

March, is formulated entirely without MURAD
CITY SKIN
carmine, a pigment made from crushed OVERNIGHT

cochineal insects. According to the brand, DETOX
MOISTURIZER,
it takes roughly 1,000 insects to make a
£70
standard red-lipstick bullet. “Carmine is
CAUDALIE
used in an estimated 20 per cent of all colour PREMIER
CRU THE
BEAUTY cosmetics,” says Jason Harcup, global vice SERUM, £90

MEET THE president of research and development ONE OCEAN BEAUTY
SUPER-NATURALS Marine Collagen,
at the Unilever Prestige division, which £38 for 30 capsules,
Harder, better, faster, stronger… Daniela Morosini cultbeauty.com
investigates the benefits of bioengineered beauty acquired Hourglass in 2017. Carisa Janes,
ALGENIST
Hourglass’s founder, notes that carmine GENIUS
LIQUID
offers “full depth of colour, and colour
COLLAGEN,
that’s hard to replicate”, pointing also to £90, CULT

its relatively low production cost. “Before, BEAUTY.COM

consumers weren’t aware of

HOURGLASS what they were putting on
CONFESSION their skin or in their body.
Now they’re so much more
RED 0
LIPSTICK, £39

E veryone wants their beauty educated, so there’s more
products to come from natural,
sustainable, animal-free identical to the microorganism but it’s a demand [for alternatives],” explains
sources – so much so that the much more sustainable way of doing it,”
“clean” movement has ballooned adds Chaiban. The lab-grown extracts are Janes. The brand’s patent-pending Red 0
used in products such as the Ultra
Hydrating Algae Oil (£59) and the Marine took three years, 175 colour experiments,

36 pigment combination tests and 19

full formulations to create. On the lips,

beyond smaller, independent brands, with Collagen (£38) supplements. Likewise, San it glides on with a balm-like feel, and

the likes of L’Oréal and Unilever making Francisco-based Algenist uses a specific the colour is as rich and lustrous as any

long-term commitments to the use of extract called alguronic acid – derived traditional carmine-based product.

environmentally friendly ingredients. But from lab-grown algae – in all its products. Another beauty bugbear for vegans is

the botanical boom raises two big questions: “Alguronic acid comes from a unique squalene, a lipid that adds slip to products

how can nature’s bounty be harvested green freshwater species of microalgae,” and provides moisture, which has

sustainably to keep pace with demand? And says CEO Rose Fernandez. “Our micro- historically been sourced from sharks’

how can said natural products deliver the algae is renewably grown from proprietary livers. Happily, the humble sugarcane now

results today’s choosy consumers want? renewable cultivation technology.” provides an alternative. “It took us about

The answers could lie in bioengineering. Of course, this two to three years, but we figured out how

“The origins have been around for “IT’S FOR THE approach isn’t reserved to make squalene through fermentation
over a decade, but consumers weren’t PERSON WHO for marine ingredients:
using sugarcane as the feedstock instead of

ready to understand what BUYS ORGANIC Decree uses plant shark-liver oil,” explains John Melo, CEO

bioengineering was beyond GMOs,” BUT STILL bio-cellulose derived from of biotechnology company Amyris, which
says cosmetic biochemist Nausheen DOES BOTOX” coconut pulp to make its
has funnelled its development into skincare

Qureshi. “There was a lot of fear- Bio Cellulose Sheet Masks line Biossance. The brand’s Squalane +

mongering but it has become much more (£120 for six), while the Murad City Skin Antioxidant Cleansing Oil (£25) is buttery on

pure now.” According to Qureshi, the focus Overnight Detox Moisturiser (£70) uses an dry skin, emulsifying easily with water and

is on taking an extract from nature and extract from the marrubium plant stem cell, melting away make-up without giving the

finding ways to give the consumer a much harnessing powerful antioxidants with the skin a tight or sore feel. I followed it with the

more concentrated shot of it, or to grow it added security that its lab-grown version is Squalane + Omega Repair Cream (£45),

LIVING in a lab setting sustainably. “It’s for the free from pesticides. which has the whipped texture of a thick
PROOF Curl
Conditioner, £31 person who will only buy organic groceries, cream, but quickly dissolves into a gel once it

DECLEOR but still does Botox,” explains Qureshi. “THERE’S A HUGE OPPORTUNITY for is massaged in. “We started with a renewable,
LAVENDER
FINE LIGHT DAY For example, extracts from algae and biotechnology to make natural ingredients sustainable source of sugarcane from Brazil,
CREAM, £80,
FEELUNIQUE. seaweed have become enormously popular more viable in the future and to make more and we chose this because it doesn’t require

CO.UK in skincare thanks to their antioxidant and efficacious products,” says cosmetic irrigation and it uses little to no fertiliser,”

anti-inflammatory properties. But rising sea formulator Jen Novakovich. Caudalie has adds Melo. A plant-derived squalene from

temperatures have already put these species invested heavily in biotechnology: in 2018 sugarcane, olive oil and rice is also used by PHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY IMAGES. ILLUSTRATIONS: WILLIAM LUZ

at risk, and there is concern around the the company built a €20m laboratory and Decléor in its Lavender Fine Lifting Light

environmental impact of industrial logistics centre in Gidy, France, complete Day Cream (£80), while Living Proof uses

harvesting. Which is why New York-based with 60,000sq m of planted space and a a squalene bioengineered from botanical

brand One Ocean Beauty uses lab-grown molecular and cellular biological laboratory. sugars for its Curl Collection range, citing the

alternatives to mimic the benefits. “Once The brand holds five patents for its lightweight smoothing properties and lipids

we identify marine microorganisms with bioengineered extracts, including Viniferine, that mimic those already found in the hair.

beneficial skincare properties, we a brightening extract from grape vine sap, “If, as an industry, we were producing

take a tiny, tiny amount, and then we and Resveratrol, a vegan collagen booster all of our ingredients in a bioreactor instead

take that clipping back to the lab,” derived from mahogany bark. “The toughest of using huge swathes of land, the impact we

CEO Sheila Chaiban explains. “Using product of all time for Caudalie was the would have would be significantly lower,”

bio-fermentation, we can feed it and Premier Cru collection – it took us more says Novakovich. “Almost every ingredient

allow it to reproduce and grow. What than seven years and 214 trials to achieve all out there with the right people behind it

is reproduced as a fermentation the Caudalie patents in one formula with a can be produced via biotechnology – the

extract is the active ingredient. It’s bio- beautiful texture,” says Caudalie co-founder sky’s the limit.”

26 FT.COM/HTSI

UK PROPERTY & INTERIORS

Curated by Clive Christian O.B.E, The Officer of
British Excellence brings together Clive’s most
trusted advisors, specialists and artisans that he has
relied upon personally and professionally to create
the ultimate legacy homes, from acquisition of prime
property to complete renovation and illumination.

THE OFFICER.COM



A FAMILY STORY

Yasmin and Amber Le Bon wear ASHOKA ®

DOUBLE ACT

“She pushes me
to my LIMITS”

Artist Sophie Coryndon and her cabinetmaker father Nick work in
wildly divergent mediums, but their creative collaborations uphold
family traditions. Aimee Farrell meets them in East Sussex

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAUREEN M EVANS

E ver since I was tiny, when painting jobs ignited a forensic fascination with surfaces. “A lacquered
came along they were always passed along screen would come in and be stripped back for restoration
to me,” says British artist Sophie Coryndon, and you’d see how all the different layers were built up to
whose father and grandfather showed her create the finished piece,” she recalls.
how to carve and draw as a little girl. By the
age of six, she was using tools including Consequently, her artworks draw inspiration from
cabinetmaking and historical objects. Following 15

chisels and lathes, and as a teenager she years spent as an artist, Sophie began to incorporate

was restoring painted clock faces and ship’s chests. an extraordinary artillery of decorative techniques learnt

Below: Sophie Life has long revolved around the workshop of her on the workshop floor into her creative process, and
and Nick
Coryndon inspect father Nick Coryndon, the master cabinetmaker, antique experimented with everything from Japanese lacquer work,
a turned lamp
base for Soane restorer and paterfamilias of the family firm Coryndon. marquetry, lost wax casting, etching, pen work and gold Above: Nick Coryndon
Britain. Bottom: with project drawings
Honeymoon, a “I remember a set of drawers that was full of materials – work. Her creative quest, she says, is to gently pull these outside the East
gilded bronze Sussex studio
sphere, hangs over veneer, shagreen and pieces of tortoiseshell,” she says. associated craft skills into the 21st century – and her
Harvest Moon, a
carved poplar “I saw them as treasures and wanted to collect them and father has joined her on that journey, each working in
panel, in the studio
make something out of them.” their own sphere, but taking the chance to collaborate

It is from such materials that Wiltshire-based Nick and whenever the opportunity presents itself.

his team of 14 fellow craftspeople create bespoke and One of Coryndon’s latest projects, the interior of

historic reproductions, specialising in Tudor and late Crosby Hall, a vast private home

English furniture – what Sophie terms “the antiques of “IT TAKES on the banks of the Thames, has
the future”. Their work is marked out by its hand- AROUND TWO provided one such opportunity. “It’s a
drawn quality, something that’s increasingly rare in a TO THREE very swanky Renaissance English
world where the term cabinetmaker has been so diluted YEARS TO palace that’s housed everyone from
that it’s used to describe the average kitchen joiner. Richard III to Catherine of Aragon,”

“Everything is done by hand,” explains Nick, who COMPLETE A Nick says. “It takes around two to
works with draughtsman pencils and Rotring pens on SINGLE ROOM” three years to complete a single
large sheets of cartridge paper. “That’s why people room.” From libraries to billiards

come to us. They like the fact that an idea has gone rooms, everything is being carved,

from someone’s mind and onto the page.” constructed and decorated in an English Renaissance style

Sophie’s formative experiences have gone on to shape that echoes the owner’s vast collection of Tudor and

her artistic evolution from furniture finisher at the family Elizabethan furniture. The father-daughter partnership

business to botanical painter to mastermind of the here works thus: Nick constructs and Sophie decorates

wondrous and mind-bogglingly intricate reliefs and – in this case painting a series of 20 heraldic shields

installations she creates today. Her time in the workshop featuring the coats of arms of prominent figures of the day,

including Thomas More, which will

adorn the walls of the Great Hall.

Remnants of their ongoing labours

are scattered around Sophie’s converted

barn in East Sussex: the objects rest

on tabletops surrounded by versions

of the dark botanical carved wall

hangings that helped cement her name

as an artist. The eye is drawn to a

wooden baton intricately carved

with flowers on a workbench, leaving

one to ponder whether it is destined

to become part of the balustrade of a

sweeping staircase or a finishing

flourish on a centrepiece table.

In fact, the pair have been hard at

work in their respective homes during

the pandemic. Earlier this year, Sophie

launched a collection with Lulu Lytle at

Soane Britain, offering a series of printed

fabrics and wallpapers inspired by their

shared love of antique textiles, including

ecclesiastical robes. Nick, of course, had

a part to play in the project and was

tasked with hand-turning the original

set of prototype Apothecary tulipwood

lamp bases – modelled after 14th- and

30 FT.COM/HTSI

DOUBLE ACT

Right: the studio
pinboard includes
gilded forget-me-
nots, Renaissance
paintings and
wallpaper scraps
from Sophie’s
Soane Britain
collection

A PALM LEAF
WALL LIGHT

PLASTER
MAQUETTE

15th-century apothecary jars and made to order. Sophie is

currently in the throes of painstakingly hand-painting each

limited edition with six botanical and geometric patterns.

Indeed, the father-daughter’s opportune collaborations

can take many forms. Sophie’s love of medieval millefleurs,

specifically the Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries, gave rise

to Harvest Moon, one of 12 large poplar panels in the 2019

series (created, again, by Nick)

IF THE TOOLS covered with gessoed linen and
TO REALISE decked with an array of native
HER VISION British flowers and insects. From
wild strawberries to periwinkles to

DON’T EXIST, common blue butterflies, each one
HE WILL sculpted from clay and cast in
CREATE THEM Jesmonite before being gilded and
tinted and carefully pinned into

position. The work is typical of her

complex, cerebral and highly nuanced creative output –

and the behind-the-scenes support, in any small way,

provided by her father.

Above: a reproduction of a “WHAT I DO IS DEFINITELY NOT PURELY CRAFT, purely design
19th-century finial, carved in or purely fine art,” says Sophie pointing to another current
tulipwood. Left: Sophie Coryndon in residential project bringing the two together – a hallway
front of Green Hellebore, a work from cabinet, which has been designed by Studio Reed, made by
her large-scale botanical series Coryndon, and is being elaborately decorated to evoke the
background of an altarpiece by the Renaissance painter Fra
Angelico. It will be set with raised gold florets, each one with
white-gold petals and 23-carat-gold centrepieces to create a
dreamy carpet of wildflowers and butterflies.

The creative exchange between Nick and Sophie
typically plays out as follows: “I come with a drawing, he
puts his head in his hands, then very quickly works out the
practical elements.” If the tools to realise her vision don’t
exist, Nick will create them. It’s his lateral thinking and
ability to work through ideas that Sophie most often
utilises in her own work. “If I get stuck on something,
which I frequently do, he always has a way of making
things work,” she says. “He has an encyclopedic brain, and
is incredibly good at working through problems on paper.”

Though he may consider some of her concepts outré,
and her tastes are often simpler and more contemporary
than his own, it’s clear she pushes Nick to the outer edges
of his capacity. “There are things that I do for Sophie that
I wouldn’t have dreamt were possible,” he says. “She has
some extraordinary abilities – and a mind like porridge so
there are always these ideas she’s determined to realise that
come out years later. It’s the Coryndon obstinacy.” She has
no intention of relenting any time soon. “I’d like to think
that I haven’t pushed you to your limits yet,” she says.

Beyond sheer practicality, it’s her father’s unerring
belief that has kept Sophie on her creative path. “He has
never questioned that I’m an artist or told me to get a
proper job,” she says. Theirs is a relationship founded on
mutual admiration and their homes are filled with one
another’s work. His plaster maquette of a hand, created
in his early days as a sculptor, sits in pride of place on her
desk. “I call it the hand of God,” she says. “But I make
him hold my pencils for me.”

FT.COM/HTSI 31

TOWARDS A DREAM



FRANK
OCEAN’S

NEXT
ACT

He’s risen to the top of the music industry by doing what he wants, when he wants.
Now the enigmatic icon is bringing the same uncompromising vision

to his new luxury brand, Homer. He tells Mark C O’Flaherty why
he was driven to create something that he could “pass on”

Photography by Jesse Gouveia

34 FT.COM/HTSI

ne of Frank Ocean’s favourite
photographs of himself was
taken when he was a baby. “I’m
wearing a gold bracelet, gold
rings and a gold chain,” says the
reclusive, industry-disrupting
recording artist. “My mother
was into jewellery, but in a low-

Okey Princess Diana kind of way.
My godfather was into guns,
but he was also into cars, and he bought luxury-lifestyle
magazines, which I became obsessed with. They became
a form of play for me as a child. It was the furthest thing
from my actual life at the time, and I began plotting ideas
and a life in that universe. I’d look at yachts and want one.
But I don’t have one because I get super-seasick.”
The 33-year-old singer-songwriter, who appeared in
Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world
when he was in his mid-20s, is discussing the origins behind
his new luxury brand, called Homer, which is launching
with a 25-piece collection of mostly fine and some high
jewellery. Five years since he last released an album, and
following a period in which his appearances have been
elusive, the new launch marks an unexpected return to the
public gaze. But Ocean has always functioned by being
unpredictable. A queer cult figure in an age of disposable
celebrity, Ocean remains sphinx-like on social media, and
prefers to present his projects as fait accompli. He self-
released his album Blonde in 2016 the day after Endless
was released by Def Jam. The latter was a critically well-
received contractual obligation, the former received more
acclaim and came as a total surprise. It was a bold, defiant
statement, and a practice he has stuck to, to this day.
Neither does he court the attention normally afforded
to someone of his stature. When he walks his bike through
the lobby of the Mercer Hotel in SoHo on an aggressively
humid summer afternoon, no one looks twice. He’s a regular
here, handsome but understated, wearing a white vest and
a diamond earring and a necklace from the new line.
The jewellery collection that he has been working on
for three and a half years is as iconoclastic as his recordings
are confessional. Why Homer? “Mostly because it’s five
letters and the dotcom was available,” he says. “But also
because Homer is considered the father of history and
history is meant to endure – the same as diamonds and
gold – and I know Homer used papyrus, but I’ve always
liked the idea of carving history into stone.”
Despite the literary credentials, the collection is full
of joy: the pieces are pop but luxury, channelling the
personality of Takashi Murakami and the graphic energy
of ’90s club flyers. Scrolling through images on an iPad, he
shows me dancing “Angry Man” pendants rendered in
brightly coloured enamels, while the classic shape of
children’s Jacks are turned into rarefied objects studded
with lab-grown diamonds. He has updated his mother’s
favourite “Sade hoops”, with diamonds punctuating the
circle at their equator, and has created his own family crest.
In addition to the jewellery, the debut includes a belt buckle
and a silk scarf, and prices range from $395 to $1.9m.
“I didn’t want our work to be any less expensive than
Cartier,” he says matter-of-factly. In person he is modest
but straightforward. He knows he’s talented as much as he
knows he is a focus of fascination for many, but he wears
this knowledge lightly. Contrary to the standard digital-
first strategy for launching a retail business in the 2020s,
Homer is arriving via a bricks-and-mortar store in the
downtown jewellery district of Manhattan. It won’t be
available online, though you can order by phone. If you
want to buy it, you have to see and feel it first.
Frank Ocean is an empire-building individual. “I
don’t find business boring, I really enjoy it,” he says. He
is worth an estimated $13m, and famous for doing things
in an unexpected way. His ambitions and way of working,
he argues, were rooted early on in childhood. Born
Christopher “Lonny” Breaux, Ocean grew up in New
Orleans amid considerable disadvantages. “The city
probably had the highest murder rate in the country,” he
says, as he talks about a childhood that was the opposite of
his song “Super Rich Kids”. His first successes came writing

FT.COM/HTSI 35

Far left: Ocean with Homer “I’M PERFECTLY HAPPY
silver, enamel and diamond WEARING $3M WORTH
Plus pendant, $435. Left: an OF JEWELLERY AND
Angry Man sculpture GOING FOR A WALK”
by Homer. Above: Homer
high-jewellery white-gold it. I like Brazilian modernism. Sergio Rodrigues’s furniture
and diamond Sphere Legs is beautiful, warm and inviting. It’s just… horny.”
bracelet, $271,500. Below:
Homer gold and diamond As his fingers scroll through a catalogue of his designs
Angry Man pendant, $5,150 on an iPad, images of brightly coloured jackets with the
Prada logo flash past – a forthcoming collaboration with
for John Legend and Justin Bieber. Then around 2010 he his close friend Miuccia. I ask what she thinks of the
jewellery designs. “Oh, I haven’t shown her yet,” he says.
met future close friend Tyler, The Creator, and his career “I never let anyone see anything until I’m ready.”

accelerated. He still wrote for others – including Beyoncé I ask him what he thinks of the recent collections that
Raf Simons has produced at Prada. “I really admire both
and Alicia Keys – but his debut album in 2012 reached Raf and Miuccia,” he says. “It’s a treat to see them play
together and show us how they collaborate. I have had
number two in the Billboard charts. more conversations with Miuccia than Raf. I find her
really warm and sharp-witted. She is so open-minded.
“It’s never lost on me that my surname Nothing about her feels jaded.”

is a by-product of slavery in the US,” he Making waves his house for his “Summit”, a secretive Ocean has been aligned with
says of Breaux, a common surname in a collective dedicated to developing Prada for some time. When the
Met Gala came around in 2019
part of the country that saw enslaved 1987 designs. The house was virtually empty, for the opening of the Camp:
African people brought to the area by the Born in Long Beach, California. surrounded by an expanse of land. Notes on Fashion exhibition,
French in 1718. “It’s never lost on me that Family relocates to New Orleans Ocean’s concept was to use the time for Joan Collins turned up in a
I don’t have access to my real name. I can’t experimentation: “We had everyone voluminous Valentino white
trace my heritage back that far, which when Ocean is five from horticulturalists to electrical gown adorned with tier upon
is why I am interested in creating things engineers and architects, carpenters and tier of feathers, and Harry
2006 Styles posed for photographers
Moves to LA and writes for Justin in a sheer black blouse from Gucci and heels. Ocean
Bieber, Beyoncé and John Legend strolled in wearing a prosaic black Prada anorak. It was a
genius move. He was the man of the moment. Like
that are mine, stay mine and belong to my 2011 metalworkers. We made tables and many of his generation, he is dissolving boundaries,
expectations and clichés. Despite saying very little, he’s
family. Things that I can pass on.” Releases debut mixtape Nostalgia, chairs, wired the lighting, then started forged a path through the culture built on the single
I ask Virgil Abloh, a close friend of Ultra and works on Kanye West and working on other things for the house.” gesture. In an interview with Apple Music last year,
rapper Lil Nas X, who came out as gay in 2019, said:
Ocean’s, what he thinks about the Jay-Z album Watch the Throne Some of the objects they created “Artists like Frank and Tyler [The Creator] made it easier
singer’s creative process and progression. feature in photography for his jewellery for me to be where I am, comfortably.”
2012 Frank Ocean is an industry, but a purposely
Releases his debut album opaque one. He won’t say how many people there are in
his team, or who anyone is. He also doesn’t want to
Ocean has made regular appearances in Channel Orange catalogue but aren’t for sale: makeshift be boiled down to stereotypes or to serve as a
spokesperson 24/7. He gives credit to the place of
the front row of Abloh’s Louis Vuitton 2013 seating and a concrete and mattress- jewellery in hip-hop culture for inspiring him on his new
and Off-White presentations, and both Is included in Time’s 100 most foam lamp. After the essentials, things journey. “It’s a part of the end credits to what we are
men are self-styled, phenomenally influential people in the world got macro and more interesting: “We doing,” he says, “and it has influenced my perspective,
successful polymaths. “Frank Ocean worked on a deadbolt that was soft resin but so have many other things.”
and myself live with a discerning eye 2016 on the outside. It is a simple object, and As an American artist who sits at the polar opposite
toward the pursuit of the arts,” he Releases visual album Endless for the key and mechanism are banal and from, say, straight white male Bruce Springsteen, he is
replies. “Our kind is born to create. That ordinary, but really detail-oriented. It wary of what he deems “descriptors”. “I just do what
creation knows no limits.” Def Jam and and self-releases ended up being quite beautiful.” The feels authentic and what feels right for me,” he says.
Blonde the next day “I’m someone who can make someone else feel like
certain things are possible.”
2021 When the BLM protests happened last year, many
Launches Homer people looked at the fashion and luxury-goods industries
with an arched eyebrow – there was a lot of rhetoric, but a
The power of jewellery, says Ocean, is process led him to the idea of making blinding absence of black individuals in positions of
control. Ocean is an asset to that industry going forward.
how he can use it to create a feeling. It’s a personal thing for jewellery, focusing on the minutiae and mixing materials “There are possibilities for black people now that weren’t
always there for us,” he says. “I grew up in poverty. I’m
him and makes him feel positive. I’m reminded of the stories – including the use of resins in both packaging and his grateful to my mother because she tried to expose me to as
much as she could so far as the bigger picture is concerned.
of Andy Warhol carrying priceless diamonds in his store interior. One of the most complex pieces in the new I’m very fortunate to be someone who can make someone
else feel like they have possibilities, and I think that will
breast pocket – close to him but invisible, just for the collection incorporates a convex twist on the classic make art and fashion richer for it.”
Ocean’s vast fan base will wonder what he has
hell and thrill of it. “I seldom appear on stage,” says Ocean, Cuban-link bracelet. “It took us a year and a half to make planned next. Will it be musical or design based? He plays
his cards closer to his chest than anyone since David
“and I keep things to myself. But I’m perfectly happy that fucking bracelet,” he says, with some exasperation. Bowie. Only he and his closest collaborator know. Until
then, he’s keeping those secrets locked up on his iPad.
wearing $3m worth of jewellery and going to the studio, or Ocean speaks slowly and thoughtfully. He is And when he’s ready – he’ll be sure to let you know.
Homer, 70-74 Bowery, New York, NY 10013 (+1212-410 3300)
for a walk in the desert.” immensely design literate, and happy to discuss his tastes

His journey into what he calls “hard goods” began and obsessions, but ponders each question posed before

with a stint of bohemian DIY in LA in 2019, formulating answers. There’s no media training or filter,

when he moved a group of 20 craftsmen friends into and if he could avoid interviews for the rest of his life, one

imagines he’d be more than fine with that. But he engages

Left: Homer silver, with talk about furniture and architecture, which are
diamond and enamel perennial inspirations. He riffs enthusiastically about
Small Ball chain (comes Donald Judd and his landmark house at 101 Spring Street,
standard with Sphere Legs and how the artist created his own minimalist furniture
pendant), $1,190. Below: because he could find nothing he liked. He also loves the
Homer gold, diamond and Herzog & de Meuron-designed Prada store in Aoyama,
enamel Jester on Dice
pendant, $5,700

Tokyo, with its honeycomb glass structure that is both

natural and high-tech at the same time. It’s a sweet

spot that intrigues him, and part of the reason why – as PHOTOGRAPHS: TYRONE LEBON (3)

well as for environmental reasons – he wanted to

work with lab-grown diamonds.

“I have a Pierre Paulin sofa at home, and it’s futuristic,

but also natural. Paulin started out as a sculptor who

was interested in flowers. I think there’s something

peaceful and high-tech about the natural world. There’s an

interplay there that is interesting to me. I use green a lot,

because it is the stem of a flower and all colour works with

36 FT.COM/HTSI

FORWARD.CC

TOP LOCATIONS. LUXURY LIVING.

Mountains AND Lakeside

”HEIM@T” | TEGERNSEE | GERMANY

FIRST KITZBÜHEL
THE REAL ESTATE COMPANY

T +43 5356 666 04 | WWW.FIRSTKITZBUEHEL.COM





40 Ibiza’s bohemian spirit offers a
new take on the blissed-out days
of summer. Photography by
Bruno Staub. Styling by
Giovanni Dario Laudicina

BALEARIC
BEAT
FT.COM/HTSI

This page: Cian wears LOUIS
VUITTON cotton shirt and tie,
£650 for both, and wool skirt,
POA. ALFIE cotton shorts, £166.
Socks, model’s own

Opposite page: Valentin wears
ETRO wool and mohair cardigan,
£1,000. POLO RALPH LAUREN
cashmere jumper, £395

FT.COM/HTSI 41

This page: Valentin wears ETRO
wool and mohair cardigan (on
right arm), £1,000. POLO RALPH
LAUREN cashmere jumper, £395.
MEI LOUMI cotton trousers, £90.
NICK FOUQUET – FEDERICO
CURRADI suede and shearling
shoes, £623. HERMES cashmere
and silk Kaleidoscope scarf,
£1,721. Scarf (around waist under
scarf), model’s own

Opposite page: Ylang wears
FENDI cotton top, POA. MARNI
wool crochet trousers, POA. NICK
FOUQUET – FEDERICO CURRADI
suede and shearling shoes, £623.
DIOR pearl resin rose choker,
£810, and wool blanket, POA

42 FT.COM/HTSI

FT.COM/HTSI 43

44 FT.COM/HTSI

This page: Cian wears DOLCE &
GABBANA wool cardigan, £2,700.
MEI LOUMI cotton top, £103.
PHIPPS wool leggings, £170. NICK
FOUQUET – FEDERICO CURRADI
suede and shearling shoes, £623,
and wool/cashmere socks, £266.
Long socks, model’s own

Opposite page: Valentin wears
LOEWE wool cardigan, £2,100,
and wool shorts, £1,750. T-shirts,
model’s own. NICK FOUQUET –
FEDERICO CURRADI suede and
shearling shoes, £623. UMIT
BENAN cotton hat, £170. ETRO
silk foulard choker, £420.
PANCONESI enamel and
natural-pearl necklaces (worn as
brooches), €325 each. FALKE
cotton Brooklyn socks, £20, and
long socks, model’s own

FT.COM/HTSI 45

This page: Cian wears BRIONI
cotton shirt, £460, and silk tie,
£230. GIORGIO ARMANI woven
wool jacket, £2,000 for suit.
PHIPPS wool leggings, £170. ETRO
sneakers, £475. NICK FOUQUET
– FEDERICO CURRADI wool/
cashmere socks, £266. ISA
BOULDER acrylic and elastane
Raglan gloves, £140 for pair.
HERMES silk and cotton Mr
Farrier scarf (around waist), £594
Opposite page: Ylang wears
PRADA wool top, £1,400, and
wool rollneck, £820
Shot on location in Ibiza. Models,
Ylang at Blow Models; Valentin
Delatron and Cian at Mint Artist
Management. Casting, Piotr
Chamier at Streeters. Hair, Louis
Ghewy at Management Artists.
Make-up, Karin Westerlund at
Artlist Paris. Photographer’s
assistant, Paulo Vieira. Digital
operator, Miguel Benajes.
Fashion assistants, Marine Dévé
and Luca Aniello Migliaro.
Production, Kitten

46 FT.COM/HTSI

FT.COM/HTSI 47

HAPPY
Long cherished by second-homers seeking refuge from New York City,
Hudson Valley has lately seen its population soar. These new émigrés, however,
are seeking a more permanent pastoral existence. Deborah Needleman meets the
people stoking the region’s creative fire
DECAMPERS

Photography by Weston Wells

48 FT.COM/HTSI

This page: chef Clare
de Boer at her home
in Dover Plains.
Opposite page: a view
of the Hudson river from
Olana, the former
home of Hudson River
School painter Frederic
Edwin Church

FT.COM/HTSI 49

A s a weekend getaway for its near mid-Hudson Valley neighbours – Kinderhook, Top: Regan & Smith Antiques in
New Yorkers, the Hudson Germantown, Tivoli, Red Hook and Kingston – have seen Hudson city. Above: inside
Valley has always been the property prices skyrocket since the pandemic began. “We Regan & Smith. Right: the
anti-Hamptons – less fancy, have never been so flooded by people wanting to move waterfall at High Falls
fewer high-gloss celebrities, here, or seen available stock dip so low,” says Vidor.
and with an assurance that
you’re not going to run into Hudson charms with its neat grid of streets lined with
all the people you claim well-preserved 18th- and 19th-century buildings. Dutch
to be leaving the city to get colonists lived here in the 17th century, negotiating
away from. Straddling the ownership of land from the native Mahican people, its
Hudson River as it flows original inhabitants. After the English gained control in
south from Albany to just above New York City, its 7,000 the 18th century, Hudson was settled by whalers and
square miles are wrapped by mountains and cliffs, and became an active port town for more than a century. The
even a fjord that cuts through the lower end, where I live. collective American romantic notions of the area come
directly from the 19th-century Hudson River School
When my husband and I moved to New York City 25 landscape paintings by artists such as Thomas Cole, and
years ago, we bought a small house in Garrison, on the from writers such as Washington Irving. And while many
east of the river, so I could garden. I would often toil 40 of the vistas they heralded still exist, the land has been
hours over a weekend, working into the night by the under threat for as long as it’s been memorialised.
headlights of the car. Then came years when family and
work intervened, and upstate life took a back seat. When When the Erie Canal was built in the 1820s, the Valley
the children went off a few years ago, I swapped out life as became a major industrial corridor, with factory buildings
a magazine editor for willow-basket weaving and tea- dominating Hudson and immigrants arriving to work in
making. But NYC remained my primary home – until the them. In the 20th century, as these were abandoned, the
pandemic. Grounded, but fortunate enough to have an towns fell into steep decline, leaving them vulnerable to
alternative to months sitting it out in a Manhattan cheap development and landscape-scarring, air-polluting
apartment, I had the chance to take in every miraculously industry.Someof thiswasfendedoff byearlyenvironmental
tiny change of season, from bud to leaf and flower, and activism. Soon after, in the ’80s and ’90s, a first wave of
from seed to winter slumber. As lively as the rebounding creative pioneers – among them David Bowie and Iman,
city is now, it won’t be getting me back any time soon. Brice and Helen Marden, Ellsworth Kelly and Gregory
Crewdson – arrived, attracted by the affordable real estate,
I am not alone in this. In fact, I’m a demographic great architecture, big studio spaces and sublime setting.
cliché. Throughout quarantine, city dwellers with houses On their heels came others, and Hudson became a day-trip
to go to mostly fled, along with others who bought, rented and weekend destination for New Yorkers looking for
and freeloaded up and down the Hudson. As a result, the antiques and handmade or independent design. Many of its
region is experiencing one of its periodic revivals – a derelict factories and warehouses were transformed into
migration of urbanites in search of a more pastoral way of cultural, music and community gathering places.
life, one embedded in community and the landscape.
P art of what makes this moment
The artist Dustin Yellin, founder of the artist-run different, however, is people
cultural centre Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn, realising they can work remotely,”
decamped upstate to stay with friends, and ended up says Vidor. “So they’re able to make
buying a house on a lake near Cold Spring – a move he big life changes.” Mona Talbott (a
had been thinking about making for 15 years. But “if it veteran of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse
hadn’t been for Covid-19, I’m not sure I ever would have and the food programme at the
slowed down enough to do it”, he admits. Yellin, a near- American Academy in Rome) and
manic workaholic in the city, spent the pandemic months Kate Arding (a cheesemonger who
moving stones and moss, slowly cultivating a Kyoto- worked at Neal’s Yard) were among
inspired rock garden. His appreciation for the Hudson the first of the new wave. They
Valley has only deepened. “Forget that there are so many moved to Hudson from Brooklyn and Hillsdale several
cool people here; there’s so much else here. I’ve become years ago to open their tiny cult cheese and provisions
obsessed with the history of the region and the shop, Talbott & Arding. “I wanted to be closer to the
[Revolutionary] war, and I love the river, and driving farms, and the best local farms and orchards are in the
along it,” he says, ticking off some of his favourite places: Hudson Valley,” Talbott says. She relishes feeding writers
Mohonk Mountain House, the DIA Beacon arts centre, and farmers alike, and particularly loves it when the
Storm King sculpture park, antique shops in Hudson farmers drop off their produce in the back and then drive
where he goes to look for “weird objects” for his house. round the front to shop. But it was the pandemic that
made their dream of a large destination space where
The writer Malcolm Gladwell, who had been spending locals and others can gather into a practical reality. “So
weekends in the Hudson Valley, also bought and renovated many people have moved up here or made their second
a house in the city of Hudson proper. It’s now the upstate homes into their primary ones. Occasional customers
outpost for NYC-based Pushkin Industries, the podcasting have become regulars, and so the timing was perfect,” she
company Gladwell founded with Jacob Weisberg (full says. The couple have taken over an 8,000sq ft former
disclosure: the latter is my husband). Several Pushkin children’s clothing factory from the 1940s with a big
staffers already lived in the area, and the building operates production kitchen, a retail space and room for seating,
like an ad-hoc co-working space for friends such as so people can stop in for lunch or a coffee before picking
screenwriter Charles Randolph and New Yorker writer up fresh pasta or bread or dessert and heading home.
Michael Specter. “When I bought my house, it never
occurred to me that I would leave the city completely,” says Others who moved before the pandemic have felt their
Specter. “But the more time I spent here, the less I wanted conviction that they’re in the right place solidify. The
to spend there. It turns out that I love gardening. It’s a great British fashion designer Katie Hillier came a few years
place for a serious cyclist. My dog doesn’t have to pretend ago after falling in love with a Hudsonite, the furniture-
that the ground isn’t made of concrete. There are plenty of maker and sculptor Jeff West, back when her life involved
creative people and yet no book parties. Heaven.” jetting around the world for her London-based label
Hillier Bartley. “The change from compact city to
The phenomenon is most pronounced around Hudson sprawling countryside with mountains has been amazing
itself, which, according to real estate agent Nicole Vidor, for my creativity and productivity,” she says. “I can think
who has lived and worked in the area for 20 years, “is on and turn ideas into reality with much more ease.”
fire”. For years a refuge for artists, writers, and the kind of
creative New Yorkers who dwell downtown, Hudson and

50 FT.COM/HTSI