Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Volante

In the final part of our supercar review series, LUX takes the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Volante for a test drive

What is a sports car? In an era of AI and soon-to-be self-driving cars, the idea of driving as a sport is an anachronism. Everything from power steering to radar-controlled cruise control mean the elements of activity and chance in driving are being eroded. If ‘sports’ is a measure of speed, the fact that even the most anodyne of fully electric cars can accelerate as fast as many traditional sports cars only adds to the question.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

One answer comes in the form of the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Volante. Volante in Aston terms means convertible, and while this car has many modern accoutrements as a price tag of several hundred thousand pounds/dollars/euros would suggest, it is very much old school in that it is aimed at the pleasure of the driver and passenger, and not as an implement.

The Superleggera is powered by a 715hp V12 twin-turbo engine, which means that it has to be a monster. It is a striking-looking car and the carbon-fibre finishing on the exterior adds to the air of menace and poise. Roof down around town, it attracts a lot of looks, of admiration rather than hostility. This is a cultured car, and it makes a cultured noise. Unlike almost any other car with this power, it is also pleasurable to drive around town. Give a car more than 700hp and the ability to accelerate from 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye, and you often have something that is a bit of a pain to drive unless you are pressing on through an empty, fast road.

The Superleggera has a traditional automatic gearbox, rather than a F1-style manual gear shift (you shift gears with your hands on the paddles), meaning you can just stick it in D like a family school-run car and pootle around town quite happily. It rides firmly but doesn’t shake your brain out through your ears like some cars with extreme power specifications, and its medium-weighted steering makes it easy to manoeuvre. Roof down, you can see all parts of the car for parking – it’s a different story with the roof shut.

It’s the same with the accommodation. On a series of sunny summer days, we managed to cram four full-sized adults into the car for a two to three-hour journey each day. This is not what the car is made for: what you really want is to put the front seats back and drop your Bottega Veneta shopping bags in the rear. Still, when pressed, this supercar really can carry four adults, and some bags squashed in the boot.

Read more: LUX Loves: Richard Mille’s collaboration with Benjamin Millepied & Thomas Roussel

Conversely, the driver and front-seat passenger enjoy a wonderful experience. This is a car that can cruise at extremely illegal speeds, enjoyably and safely without too much breeze in the front. Some cars in this category excel at the racetrack, others are more aimed at high-speed comfort. The Aston is squarely in the middle, and actually succeeds in this difficult task rather well. Mashing the accelerator produces laugh-out-loud thrust all the way into those illegal speeds and beyond. Meanwhile it is a delight to steer through a series of fast, smooth bends.

Interior of the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera Volante

It also means that it is not as exciting or capable on tight roads as a full-on supercar; the Aston is heavy and will lose composure if pushed through the gears on a bumpy, sharp corner. Nor is it a calm, quiet cruiser, and the cabin does not have the luxury finish of its competitors. More nicely finished air vents and a detail in front of the passenger (perhaps a Superleggera logo, as appears on the bonnet), along with some more exclusive-looking leather on the dashboard, would make all the difference in what is after all a low production-volume car.

Other elements, though, are unique: the bellowing thrust from the V12, the steering that is calm and talkative; and the feel-good factor of piloting a car that requires effort. It is great fun to drive, and has a feeling of cultured Britishness. It’s very much at one with the company’s history as a supplier of cars to James Bond.

In fact, we can’t think of a better car for James or Jane Bond to be driving down the Grande Corniche while chasing a master criminal in a Tesla that runs out of electricity. Before turning up for an evening of fun and frolic at the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat with his or her gender-neutral companion for the night. Expensive, but a perfect sports car for the times.

LUX Rating: 18.5/20

Find out more: astonmartin.com

This article originally appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2020/2021 Issue.

Bentley Continental GT V8 Convertible

In the third part of our supercar review series, LUX gets behind the wheel of the Bentley Continental GT V8 Convertible

Certain cars have visual drama. Other cars loom. Others still are artistic. The new Bentley Continental GT V8 has presence.

It’s a hard thing to do well in a car, presence. Any large car is literally more present than any small car, and the Bentley is on the large side for a car that doesn’t accommodate more than one large suitcase in its boot, But, recently re-designed, the Continental has a svelte way of going down the road, with a rather beautiful front, and balance in its looks. It is not imposing like a Rolls, its presence implies elegance.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

This is a powerful, fast convertible that actually has proper room in the back for a pair of adults. It’s true that four adults, seated in the car and travelling in refinement at high speed accompanied by the mellifluous howl from the V8 engine would need to send all but their hand luggage ahead of them, as the boot could only accommodate some squishy Vuitton bags.

But that’s fine, because the Bentley is a car for being there and enjoying it, rather than getting there, as the name implies. Unless getting there involved a hypothetical world of traffic-free open roads with no speed limits and sinuous curves up mountain passes devoid of caravans and coaches. In which case, the Continental would be enormous fun. The engine has huge reserves of power from low down and makes a great noise as it punches forward. Perhaps it doesn’t have the bite of its 12-cylinder, bigger engined sibling, but you would only really notice if you were having a race. In the past, Bentleys tended to be bruisers of cars – capable and powerful, but not delicate, and sometimes rather awkward when pushed.

Read more: Anne-Pierre d’Albis-Ganem on championing artists

This car will canter at high speed through tight corners which would have left its predecessors losing grip. It’s also enjoyable to drive at low speeds, roof down, enjoying the scenery outside and the absolutely stunning detail of the interior. As cars have become luxury brands more than simply driving implements, the beauty of the finish in this car’s interior is what sets it apart from cheaper competitors that can match it on performance (think Tesla).

That, and its presence. Essential owning, if you have a home in St-Tropez or the Hamptons.

LUX Rating: 19/20

Find out more: bentleymotors.com

This article originally appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2020/2021 Issue. 

Jonathan Riss has designed a collection of bags exclusively for One&Only

Belgium-born designer Jonathan Riss is the founder of JAH AHR, a luxury brand which transforms authenticated vintage designer bags through embroidery techniques. His latest collaboration with One&Only Resorts – a collection of limited edition custom-designed vintage Louis Vuitton Keepalls – is inspired by the local heritage and culture of each of the brand’s destinations. Here, Abigail Hodges speaks to the designer about his creative process, sustainable fashion and the future of travel

1. What led you to start re-crafting iconic vintage fashion pieces?

We live in a society of significant over-production and if you analyse consumer behaviour, you quickly see that people prefer iconic pieces, not because of their value, but because of the work and effort to perfect these pieces over time so they too reflect the values and desires of society.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

Today, there is an increasing demand for sustainability as well as individualisation. The idea that we not only take vintage objects and give them a new lease of life, but also to continue to work on them. To be part of this pursuit of perfection, but at the same time to continue to reflect the wants of society by offering singularly unique pieces is very interesting.

2. Can you tell us your favourite story about one of the bags you’ve sourced?

There are so many stories across the different mediums that we are transforming. One that springs to mind for the Keepall collection is a bag we sourced in Moscow that was originally made in 1991, on which we placed the USSR flag as this was the year of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Another bag we found was in Hong Kong that was made in 1997 which was the year of the historic handover so we imprinted this bag with the Hong Kong flag. We also sourced some bags in Tehran which have our Persian rug design reflecting the philosophy of our collections, which is to highlight the imprint of the local culture where the object was used or sourced.

Riss at work in his studio

3. What does your design process typically involve?

The most important aspect of what we do is not the design itself, but the narrative that sits behind and around each piece. So the provenance often leads the design as the actual story of each object is much more interesting, and the design is an extension of the story, but of course, exploring different techniques of texture is a vital part of the design process enabling the execution of the narrative.

Read more: Win two life coaching sessions with Simon Hodges

4. How did your collaboration with One&Only come about?

This is a beautiful topic. One&Only owns a stunning portfolio of unique properties all over the world that really reflects the philosophy of our collection. The opportunity to create a bespoke heritage collection that allows us to showcase the cultural, social and natural aspects of each destination was an incredibly exciting opportunity as this is exactly what we do with all of our collections.

5. When deciding how to celebrate each destination, which elements were particularly important for you to highlight?

There are almost too many elements to consider, so again, we were often led by the bag itself. For example, for Cape Town we had a bag that was originally made in 1994 which was the first year of Nelson Mandela’s Presidency so we created a design celebrating the great man himself.

Similarly, we had a bag for Rwanda that was from 2002 which is when the new Rwanda national anthem was officially inaugurated so we placed the lyrics from the anthem on an interpretation of the national flag. For Dubai, we wanted to showcase the incredible architecture as well as the importance of Islam so we overlaid a blessing on the Dubai skyline. In Mexico, we are fascinated by the contrast of the colour and vibrancy of the Dia de los Muertos with meaning behind the celebrations. In Malaysia, we loved the romance of discovering ancient statues and carvings in the jungle. The breadth of inspiration is also important to us.

6. What’s inspiring you currently?

Given what has happened in the past year, I am getting excited by the future of travel, and how the quality and experience of travel will evolve. As we have seen, anything can happen that impacts society in a dramatic way so what is interesting is to see how we elevate ourselves and I am working on a new project thinking about this, so watch this space.

Follow Jonathan Riss on Instagram: @_jay_ahr_

To purchase one of Jonathan Riss’s bags for One&Only email: [email protected]

Keith Breslauer congratulating a wounded British veteran during The Veteran Games

Keith Breslauer is the founder and Managing Director of private equity company Patron Capital, and a trustee and donor to numerous charities including the Royal Marines Charity and the Prince’s Teaching Institute. As part of our ongoing philanthropy series, he speaks to LUX about building bridges between charities and the corporate world, his work with disabled veterans and how philanthropy differs in the US and the UK

Keith Breslauer

LUX: What inspired your interest in philanthropy?
Keith Breslauer: I was brought up to believe that giving what you can is the biggest triumph in life. I took this belief and inspiration from my parents and religion into my career and to help create a platform to give what I can to those who need it, enable others to do the same and make a lasting difference.

LUX: Why did you decide to support the Royal Marines?
Keith Breslauer: I’m from the US where veterans are celebrated on both a public and personal level. However, when I moved to the UK twenty seven years ago, I was disappointed to learn that British war veterans often receive marginal public support. That is why I started ventures that manifested as fundraising for all veterans with a focus on volunteering for the Royal Marines Charity (RMA-TRMC).

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

LUX: What led you to create Patron Capital?
Keith Breslauer: Lehman Brothers allowed me to come to Europe and work on distressed assets, which was a niche sector of real estate at the time. I loved being in the UK – everyone said ‘Breslauer is a New Yorker, he’ll never stay’ – but I love that on a typical Friday night (pre-Covid) I have five-plus cultures and languages at my table. So, when Lehman Brothers asked me to go back to New York, I decided to stay and took the leap to start our business with a great team of partners and the rest is history.

Keith with Royal Marines and a team from the Royal Navy on a riverbank during their re-creation of Operation Frankton, which was sponsored by Patron

LUX: What are the principle benefits of a business involving itself in charity?
Keith Breslauer: We’ve worked hard for Patron Capital to be positioned as a leader of successful commercial business while also available for charitable good – rather than just donating funds. As a team we’ve built the business to be a bridge between charities like the Royal Marines and the corporate world. We can offer them everything from business plans, employment advice, office space, secretarial services, to our business contacts and expertise.

We also utilise our business to give a voice to the extraordinary people we raise money for. In 2017, we established The Greatness Lectures, a forum to inspire, educate and create opportunities through Patron’s extensive business network. Through education, The Greatness Lectures can involve every member of the audience and ensure everyone has a part to play in the Patron value of ‘creating a positive change whenever and wherever required’.

LUX: How does philanthropy differ in the US and the UK?
Keith Breslauer: The key differences between the US and the UK lie in the construct of giving, the perception of philanthropy and the landscape of donors. In the US, it is not just tax-deductible, but also a status symbol for many and there are significant givers across the spectrum. However, while in the UK, it is a tax credit and the dynamic of it being a status symbol is far less prevalent – instead, there is much more grassroots support where individuals across the country might not give a huge amount, but they donate what they can on a regular basis.

Read more: Katrina Aleksa Ryemill on helping women in the arts

LUX: Is there anyone in particular who inspires you philanthropically?
Keith Breslauer: There are so many people, but I will always be inspired by Harvey Krueger, an early boss of mine at Lehman Brothers who is known for being the first banker to bring Israel, really, to the international capital markets. He embodied what it means to me to give as he gave a lot of his time and limited resources but remained focused on the primary objective of how to help those who needed it.

LUX: What feels more rewarding: enabling people to get involved in charity, or simply giving?
Keith Breslauer: I am a big believer in doing more than just giving. If you don’t immerse yourself in the act of charity, then you can only help on a superficial level and you will never understand the satisfaction of knowing what a difference you’ve made. To understand what a charity stands for – getting under the skin of why you’re trying to raise money – you need to endure some sort of hardship to help. You need to get know the people you are helping. At Patron, we encourage employees to take part in fundraising events that help people push their own preconceived limits. For example, in 2019, Patron sponsored Rock2Recovery’s flagship fundraising event – a sponsored climb of Ben Nevis in Scotland – and we were really proud to see an all-female team from Patron join the 140 climbers taking part. In total circa £26,000 was raised for the charity.

Keith (top) with his youngest daughter Samantha on Mont Blanc Massif, and at the summit of Pointe Percée

LUX: How has your religious background influenced your charitable work?
Keith Breslauer: My religious background is incredibly important to my approach to charity and giving – it’s the core of it really. For a start, a principle of the Jewish faith is to give away about 10% of what you earn, and I adhere to this with my time and money. Next, there is the concept of ‘tikkun olam’ which comes from Mishnah, a body of classical rabbinic teachings, and is defined by acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world. This is key to how I was raised and how I try to live my life; if you have the ability to make a difference then you should whenever and wherever you can.

LUX: What is the biggest lesson you have learnt in your lifetime?
Keith Breslauer: I have learned so much throughout my life and I am still learning, but one of the biggest lessons that has stayed with me comes from the late Lord Rabbi Sacks, and that is about working hard and seeing the possible where others see the improbable. We can achieve more than we think we can if we try.

Read more: Entrepreneur Wendy Yu on creativity & charity

LUX: How has Covid-19 affected your philanthropic efforts?
Keith Breslauer: In the first few months of lockdown, it was really difficult for everyone as no one knew what the future would hold – everyone suffered. We tried to stick to a routine at Patron and this is why we took the Greatness Lectures, a forum to educate and inspire the Patron team, our friends, and partners, online. This included “Reports from the COVID-19 Frontline” with Dr Seb Vandermolen and Nurse Laura Pinches, who had both been working on adult COVID-19 wards at St Thomas’ and St Bartholomew’s hospitals respectively.

Alongside our efforts to establish The Women In Safe Homes Fund, believed to be the world’s first gender lens property impact investment fund being launched as a solution to the lack of affordable, safe and secure homes across the UK for women and their children, who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk, I’ve made a personal commitment of £1 million to demonstrate how important this fund really is. We’ve also organised a Greatness Lecture with Chloe McCardel and Jane Jutsum to share different perspectives on domestic violence and providing help and inspiration to its survivors. Chloe is an elite athlete whose love of marathon swimming helped her recover from post-traumatic stress disorder, and she holds the world record for the longest non-stop ocean swim – 124km. Jane Jutsum is Director of Business Development at Solace, a charity that exists to end the harm done through violence against women and girls.

All of our charities have suffered this year; the Royal Marines Charity (RMA-TRMC) alone needs £1.5 million of vital funds. We’re always looking for ways of raising money and connecting those who wish to help with any one of our 30 charities.

LUX: What has been the most surprising discovery in your philanthropic activities?
Keith Breslauer: The most surprising thing for me to discover is the significant impact we can have through the multiplier effect of dedicating both time and money, rather than just one or the other. Our initiatives focus on funding projects and events with the potential to harness a multiplier effect either driving further donations, raising awareness, or helping deserving individuals who have suffered injury, illness or disadvantage achieve personal goals and build self-esteem.

Keith with the in-house climbing wall at Patron Capital

LUX: What are your passions outside of business?
Keith Breslauer: I’m obsessed with mountain sports, especially skiing, and climbing. I even had a climbing wall fitted in our office. When I first moved to the UK, I was introduced to European mountaineering through a trip to Mont Blanc. My wife told me I was only allowed one trip, but I’ve been addicted ever since and have now climbed, notably; Old Man of Hoy, Denali and various summits and routes in the Mont Blanc Massif. I also strive to incorporate social impact into everything and anything I do. And, last but not least, my family – they are everything to me.

LUX: How have you combined those interests with charity work?
Keith Breslauer: My personal philosophy on life and in business is to lead by example. Through working with the Royal Marines Charity (RMA-TRMC), I’ve been able to share this approach undertake challenges with some extraordinary individuals that also raise awareness and funds for those in need. For example, in 2017, we sponsored The Royal Marines’ recreation of Operation Frankton, an 85-mile paddle and a 100-mile run described as the most courageous raid of World War II. This commemorated the 75th anniversary of the legendary feat which was immortalised in the 1955 film ‘The Cockleshell Heroes’ and raised money and awareness for the charity. I joined the team as we retraced the route of 10 commandos who paddled up the Gironde estuary in December 1942 to attack enemy German ships moored at the port of Bordeaux in occupied France, before making the 100-mile journey on foot to rendezvous with the French Resistance in Ruffec. Only two men survived to tell the tale – the others succumbed to hypothermia or were executed by the Germans – but the operation’s significance reportedly led Winston Churchill to say he believed the raid could have shortened the war by six months. For me, our re-enactment was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

LUX: Should we expect to hear of any upcoming projects?
Keith Breslauer: I’m looking forward to working with disabled veterans as they take on new challenges, including in the near future with a disabled veteran Mark Bower. More generally, we have a range of both adventure projects and practical projects with different charities to drive reach and penetration where charities have lost traditional channels of outreach and fundraising due to the pandemic.

Find out more: patroncapital.com

Abdullah Ibrahim by Lex van Rossen

Abdullah Ibrahim was discovered by Duke Ellington, fought against apartheid, and played at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. The South African jazz legend speaks to LUX from his Cape Town home about his hopes and dreams

My favourite view…

The stars in the night sky over the green Kalahari.

The best place to listen to jazz…

Where your chosen jazz musicians are playing.

Where you’ll find the coolest new bands…

In the place you least expect.

The only thing I’ll queue up for is…

A masterclass with a master.

Most overrated tourist spot…

The beach.

Most undiscovered tourist spot…

The unlisted one you discover.

What I love about Cape Town…

The flowers and animals.

My favourite smell…

Musk.

I feel most at one with nature in…

The desert, hills and rivers.

The best local dish…

The traditional dish prepared at home.

My favourite memory is…

The next one.

What I think of the youngest generation…

I was once like them.

If I live to be 200 I would like to see…

If that bird at daybreak still sings the same song.

My proudest achievement is…

Realising and accepting that the process of learning is boundless.

My greatest fear is…

Becoming complacent and lapsing into a comfort zone.

My biggest regret is…

Not doing enough to seek for knowledge.

Find out more: abdullahibrahim.co.za

This article originally appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2020/2021 Issue. 

Nur-Sultan, the capital city of Kazakhstan with landmark Baiterek tower. Image by cosmopol.

Dynamic leadership and entrepreneurial thinking are required to help the global economy recover. We speak to seven leaders in the Kazakhstan chapter of one of the world’s most respected business organisations about mutual support among entrepreneurs, and their country being a touchpoint between east and west. Curated by Gauhar Kapparova

LUX’s Editor-at-Large Gauhar Kapparova

A first-time business visit to Kazakhstan is likely to end up with two overarching impressions. Firstly, of the sheer size of the country. The distance from the biggest city, Almaty, to the centres of oil production on the Caspian sea is an astonishing 3,000 kilometres. Even the short hop from Almaty to the shiny new(-ish) capital Nur-Sultan is an hour and a half on a plane.

The second impression is likely to be one of the openness and dynamism of a new entrepreneurial community. Kazakhstan often speaks of itself as a key country between east and west, with China to the east and Russia and the Caspian sea border of Europe to the west. It is also focussing on moving beyond its oil and gas-based 20th-century economy, with the majority of growth coming from other sectors.

To this end, the country teems with spirited, can-do entrepreneurs, unfazed by the distances they have to travel to get to the world’s financial centres and proud of their country’s potential. A new generation of largely western-educated business people add to the cosmopolitan feel.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

At the heart of this enterprising business community is the Kazakh chapter of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization), a global members group for chief executives and owners of significant businesses. Entry is by invitation only and open to those who own or run substantial businesses. Benefits are notable: an instant network of the highest level of contacts in your country and around the world, gatherings, conventions and seminars, and a highly sophisticated support network.

True to the country’s buccaneering business spirit, the Kazakh division of the YPO is known as one of the world’s most dynamic. There is no better insight into the opportunities in the central Asian country or into the minds of its prominent business leaders than from the YPO Kazakhstan chapter leaders we interview here.

ALINA ALDAMBERGEN

Chair of the Management Board, member of the Board of Directors of Kazakhstan Stock Exchange

Aldambergen’s career in the finance industry began in 1997 as an analyst and manager at ABN AMRO bank in Kazakhstan, then as a senior rating advisor in the global finance markets for the same bank in London before returning to Kazakhstan to chair the bank’s management board. After a series of senior posts at various financial institutions, she moved to the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange in 2016.

Alina Aldambergen. Image by Sergey Belousov.

LUX: Tell us about yourself and your experience. What distinguishes you from other YPO members?
Alina Aldambergen: I’ve been working at the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange since February 2016. In the 17 years since I was first appointed as chairperson of ABN AMRO Pension Funds Asset Management Company in Kazakhstan back in 2003, I have held a number of different management positions at private and state-owned companies.

My key expertise is in being a senior manager. Unlike other YPO members, I’ve never been an owner of a company. It is possible, of course, that one day I might decide to set up my own company, but I haven’t come to that decision yet.

I like to manage large-scale companies. It is important for me that I work for institutions that make an impact, which is why during the past ten years I have worked for companies in Kazakhstan that are owned by the state.

Read more: Deutsche Bank’s Claudio de Sanctis on investing in the ocean

LUX: How did you became the manager you wanted to be? How did you train and did you have any formal business education?
Alina Aldambergen: I happened to develop my career when the country was changing from the Soviet planned economy to a market economy. This was a significant transformation for the whole country, economically and mentally.

The country’s president was a visionary, he knew that this would require a new mindset and people with new sets of skills. That’s why the government set up a scholarship programme to send students to study abroad. I was awarded one of these scholarships and studied for an MBA at the Simon School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester, one of the top 25 business schools in the world at that time. I studied corporate finance and accounting, essential for doing business and setting up the financial system in Kazakhstan. Another major influence on my career has been working for the country’s first international bank.

Even though now I would think that doing an MBA straight from undergraduate school is a bit too soon, in my case it gave me all the essential skills to do business and manage business in Kazakhstan. I am still using all the concepts that I studied at business school in my everyday life.

Of course, I took various courses in different subjects later on, but still, the fundamentals are what keep you going. I am a strong advocate of keeping up your business education throughout one’s lifetime.

LUX: What motivated you then and what motivates you now?
Alina Aldambergen: I am motivated by excellence. However, that has to be adjusted for the environment that you are working in. At any job I have always tried to come up with the best business model, get support from the stakeholders, and follow it through. I will leave a company if my values do not coincide with those of the company.

I am a strong believer in not wasting time – why do so if you could be doing something more valuable and interesting elsewhere? It is important for me to bring worth to a company, its employees and shareholders, and to society. I want to see the results of my work make an impact.

Courtesy KASE

LUX: Why did you decide to become member of the YPO? Why it is important for you?
Alina Aldambergen: I joined YPO in Kazakhstan in 2018. For me, it was an exclusive members club of business people – true, self-made achievers. To become a member was prestigious for me. Another point is that YPO is an international organisation, so in that regard I considered it as another step forward for myself. I also recognised that it is an influential organisation that can make an impact on various issues concerning society.

LUX: What else does YPO bring to you?
Alina Aldambergen: I think I discovered even more value once I had become a YPO member. There is a wealth of knowledge, significant networking opportunities and an exchange of opinions that you can draw on.

I like the YPO concept of oneself, family and business all together. I think it is important that YPO encourages this amongst its members. Your spouse or child can become a member of the organisation and it provides access to the same education as you can get elsewhere. It really enables generations of business people to grow.

I also like the forum meetings. I found that they are a place where you can receive and share professional advice with your peers on dealing with different situations. I think this is the most valuable experience of the YPO membership.

ARMANZHAN BAITASSOV
Chairman of the Tan Media Group and publisher of Forbes Kazakhstan magazine

Baitassov is a Kazakhstan media manager, professional TV journalist and businessman. He has founded multiple media outlets, including his first TV channel, Channel 31, in 1992 the Megapolis newspaper in 2000, the Business FM radio station in 2018, and in 1994 the Radio 31 radio station. In 2017 he was elected chairman of the board of the Kazakhstan Media Alliance.

Armanzhan Baitassov. Image by Andrey Lunin

LUX: What age were you when you thought you might go into business as a career?
Armanzhan Baitassov: I was 19 years old when I decided to go into business. The first time we thought about business was in the late 1980s, when it became possible to engage in private entrepreneurial activity.

LUX: Who were your inspirations in business and how and why did they inspire you?
Armanzhan Baitassov: We were inspired by the guys who were able to earn a lot of money back then in Soviet roubles, guys as young as us who were also searching for opportunities to make money.

LUX: What were your first steps? Did you have any formal business education?
Armanzhan Baitassov: We started in advertising, reselling the advertising slots in newspapers. At that time, there were no textbooks about business, so we learned everything along the way.

Read more: Sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld on the power of public art

LUX: What were the most important parts of this learning phase of your business life?
Armanzhan Baitassov: I graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Kazakh State University and immediately went into the media industry, where I still work. Of course, in the early 90s there were problems with funding, there was not enough equipment or it was incredibly expensive, and legislation in Kazakhstan was not fully regulated. But we had enough advertising in the first year and big contracts with Procter & Gamble and Unilever.

LUX: What motivated you then and what motivates you now?
Armanzhan Baitassov: At first, the big motivation for us was creative work. We were young, we worked day and night to make our media more and more popular. Now, of course, we are more mature, but the main motivation remains to do something new to make our world better.

LUX: What are the unique challenges of business and enterprise in Kazakhstan?
Armanzhan Baitassov: There is the powerful influence of the state on the economy. It hinders entrepreneurship and corruption has penetrated all levels of power and the economy. Doing business in Kazakhstan can be simply unsafe, but there are also development institutions that are helping small and medium-sized businesses thrive. All systems work well, but look carefully at your segment, especially if it contains any state-owned companies and corporations.

The Forbes building in Almaty, Kazakhstan

LUX: What’s the secret of success in business?
Armanzhan Baitassov: For me it’s that I am interested in doing business, in watching companies develop and doing it myself, and not just being a shareholder and observing. When you are immersed, then you’ll succeed. And what probably helps is my belief that everything will get better every year.

LUX: What are your plans for the future?
Armanzhan Baitassov: The pandemic has changed all my plans for 2020 but I really want to develop media abroad in Russia, Uzbekistan and Georgia.

LUX: Who are your business heroes now?
Armanzhan Baitassov: Of course, there are people I admire such as Jeff Bezos, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin. There are also people here who inspire me, such as Vyacheslav Kim and Mikhail Lomtadze at Kaspi Bank. But today my business heroes are the young entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan.

LUX: The media business is going through unique challenges now. What do you think these are and where do opportunities lie?
Armanzhan Baitassov: The main thing is a sharp drop in income from advertising. Many media companies have begun to work remotely from home, which is a great opportunity because of the high office costs. There may also be greater digitalisation – print newspapers are living their last days.

LUX: When did you first hear about YPO?
Armanzhan Baitassov: I learned about YPO in 2010 from Nurlan Kapparov. A year or so later we went with him to the USA, where we were invited to an event held by the YPO chapter in Washington DC.

LUX: Emotional support in business and other matters seems to be an important part of being a YPO member – is that correct?
Armanzhan Baitassov: Yes. In Kazakhstan, most entrepreneurs encounter some difficulties, maybe even injustice, and we can openly discuss these within the chapter. It is an incredible support.

LUX: How does YPO support your business?
Armanzhan Baitassov: The biggest support that I get is when we hold events at Tan Media Group, almost all members are happy to come. I am especially pleased that they support the youth forum and are happy to speak to young entrepreneurs.

LUX: What does running the Kazakhstan YPO chapter mean to you?
Armanzhan Baitassov: It has become very influential. We want as many members as possible, but getting in is difficult. We have a committee that reviews all applications and only then sends them for consideration to the YPO members. We all feel a great responsibility, because each YPO member is one of our team.

AIGUL DJAILAUBEKOVA
Partner at InnoVision Management Consultancy

Djailaubekova began her career in banking 1996 in Amsterdam at MeesPierson and then ING Bank. In 2004, she returned to Kazakhstan to continue working for ING. Since 2007, her work in banking has included senior management roles at Citibank and HSBC in Kazakhstan and at large regional banks. At InnoVision she focuses on management consultancy, financial services and education.

Aigul Djailaubekova

LUX: What age were you when you thought you might go into business as a career?
Aigul Djailaubekova: I started my career about 25 years ago. Prior to then, being an ambitious straight-As student, I was set on an academic career but after a short teaching tenure, I decided to explore new opportunities in commercial and international business.

LUX: What were your first steps? Did you have any formal business education or training? Which companies did you work for?
Aigul Djailaubekova: I won a British Council scholarship to study at Lancaster University in the UK. After graduation, I landed a job in the Trade & Commodity Finance department of the Dutch bank MeesPierson in Amsterdam. I moved to ING Bank N.V., where for several years I covered financial institutions in various countries as a senior regional manager. Then I joined ING’s office in Kazakhstan as an expatriate manager.

LUX: What have you learned in your business life in recent years?
Aigul Djailaubekova: Over the past decade, I have been deputy chairman of the management board at Citibank and HSBC in Kazakhstan and in a few large local banks. Those were vastly different experiences for me in terms of their corporate cultures. All the successes and disappointments made me a stronger and perceptive manager as well as a more resilient and, hopefully, wiser person.

LUX: What are your business plans?
Aigul Djailaubekova: A few years ago I started thinking about setting up my own bank with a team of like-minded investors and banking professionals. In view of the multimillion investment required, it’s ambitious but most successful businesses at their early stages dare to dream big.

LUX: What are the unique challenges of business and enterprise in Kazakhstan?
Aigul Djailaubekova: It is important that foreign investors have a strong local partner who will be on the same page in terms of their business vision to help them navigate through the local bureaucracy.

LUX: Who were your inspirations in business and how and why did they inspire you?
Aigul Djailaubekova: My main inspiration in life is my family. I’ve always been driven by a desire to do something meaningful, to contribute to financial prosperity of our family, to be a good example for my children and to be a source of pride for my parents. Thanks to them and my husband, I have never had to face the choice of being a mother and wife or a being a banking executive.

Aigul Djailaubekova with her husband

LUX: What advice would you give anyone starting out in business?
Aigul Djailaubekova: I would say three things. Firstly, dream big and dare to have it all. One might not achieve each and every goal along the way, but it’s worth trying. Secondly, dare to follow your dreams, especially when you’re young. And thirdly, when you feel that the current trajectory is no longer satisfying, or that there are other opportunities opening up, dare to change to a new path.

LUX: How did you first hear about YPO?
Aigul Djailaubekova:Several years ago from some of my friends and business acquaintances. The Kazakhstan chapter was founded by Nurlan Kapparov, a highly respected businessman and visionary. It was very flattering when two of the long-standing members suggested I join, which I did more than five years ago. I was the first female YPO member in Kazakhstan.

LUX: Has being a woman member made a difference to the local chapter?
Aigul Djailaubekova: One of my missions was to break the image of our chapter as a closed, all male club. Later, I heard that initially some members had been cautious about a woman joining the chapter, but knowing several members before I joined and the fresh perspective and insights I brought helped me to gain the trust of other members.

LUX: How does YPO Kazakhstan benefit wider society?
Aigul Djailaubekova: Kazakhstan’s chapter has evolved from an elite business club to an organisation that strives to make differences in society. Some initiatives between the government and local businesses were introduced at the instigation of YPO. The charity balls supporting good causes are regular events now. And there are charity projects, such as the Ana Yui (Mother’s House) founded by one our members, which has become a nationwide movement saving thousands of babies from being sent to orphanages.

LUX: In what way does being a YPO member support and help you personally?
Aigul Djailaubekova: For me, YPO brings great value through business advices and insights and as a platform for personal development through the forums, training and special events. I have become good friends with most YPO members and their families, socialising outside official chapter events. When making a radical career shift, I took comfort from the forum and some closer friends at YPO to whom I could turn for advice.

SIDDIQUE KHAN
Founder and CEO of Globalink Logistics Ltd

Khan has worked in transportation since 1990. He established Globalink Logistics in 1994. In 2011 he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the American Chamber of Commerce. As well as chairing multiple committees relating to his sector, he also advises Kazakhstan’s government on the development of transportation and has a particular expertise in the Belt & Road Initiative.

Siddique Khan

LUX: What age were you when you thought you might go into business as a career?
Siddique Khan: I started part-time work while I was studying to gain practical experience and to earn some extra money. It turned out to be one of the best opportunities of my life. I was able to learn how small businesses work, and the hands-on experience helped me turn my visions into practical business ideas.

LUX: Who were your inspirations in business, and how and why did they inspire you?
Siddique Khan: I was always fascinated with the ancient Silk Road and became particularly aware of it when I started a job in transportation and logistics in 1990 while supervising the distribution of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. I saw the Silk Road’s heritage everywhere. In 1994, following the collapse of the USSR three years earlier, I set up a new business in Almaty to build a world-class transportation and logistics business that would eventually revive the ancient Silk Road.

Read more: Gaggenau launches initiative to support innovative artisans

LUX: How did you go about setting up this business venture?
Siddique Khan: Fundraising for a start-up to revive the Silk Road was anything but easy. After months of struggle, I managed to raise the seed capital, helping me launch Globalink Logistics on a shoestring budget. Choosing Almaty as a base was not a popular decision in those days, as most foreign investors were entering the former USSR market through Russia. Looking back, it was the right decision. It has helped Globalink gain recognition as the first international logistics company in Kazakhstan. Today, it has operations in nine locations in this country, more than 32 service centres in the former USSR and with representation in 55 countries.

LUX: What were the most important parts of this learning phase of your business life?
Siddique Khan: Companies have to re-invent themselves frequently, adapt to ever-changing market conditions, manage risk effectively, develop a competent workforce and invest in new technologies to be able to compete on a global stage. We must learn to overcome the uncertainty of the future and continuously educate ourselves to be able to stay ahead.

One of Siddique Khan’s company’s containers on the move

LUX: What motivated you then, and what motivates you now?
Siddique Khan: Giving financial success a purpose is still the most incredible motivation for me and gives me an enormous satisfaction in my work. My real thrill in life is not accumulating wealth, but to seek ways to use financial resources to create life-changing opportunities for others.

LUX: What are the unique challenges of business and enterprise in Kazakhstan?
Siddique Khan: Kazakhstan is a typical frontier market, offering high risk and higher reward. Overall, it and the Central Asian Republics are resource-rich economies with limited service sectors and infrastructures. There are viable business opportunities if one can cope with the numerous challenges of these emerging markets.

LUX: What advice would you give to foreign companies coming to Kazakhstan?
Siddique Khan: It is essential to learn and appreciate the cultural differences when you are doing business in this region.

LUX: YPO seems to be a unique business organisation. Is this true?
Siddique Khan: YPO is a unique group of exceptional executives that provides a network with a common aim: to become better leaders through lifelong learning. Every member seeks the knowledge and principles of success not only for their businesses but also for their families, friends and, most importantly, for themselves.

LUX: In what way does being a YPO member support and help you personally?
Siddique Khan:  Much of the YPO member experience comes from the local chapter, where you meet other business executives in your area. Although the organisation attracts high-achievers who are very competitive, the chapter also offers a sense of openness. Chapter life is full of action, ranging from family retreats and business events to executive education, counselling, healthcare and much more.

Depending on the size of the chapter, there are several forums. A forum is a group of about eight to ten people who meet frequently to discuss business and personal issues in a judgment-free and confidential environment. Forums become the sounding board for topics that you wouldn’t like to discuss anywhere else. I can confidently say that my forum has become my family. We trust and support each other – no matter what.

The professional, educational, spiritual and networking support that I got from the organisation helped me not only to transform myself but my business and family life as well. Thanks to YPO, I have become a better executive, spouse, father and friend.

RAMIL MUKHORYAPOV
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Chocofamily Holding

After early enterprises in Moscow, Mukhoryapov returned to Kazakhstan in 2011 to work in e-commerce, founding Chocolife.me, the country’s first online marketplace. This has since expanded to become Chocofamily Holding, Kazakhstan’s leading internet company with eight brands covering services such as online payments, health, travel and food delivery.

Ramil Mukhoryapov

LUX: What age were you when you thought you might go into business as a career?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: I was 19 years old when I started my first business. It was a club for parties for students. My first idea was for a comfortable and fun student life.

LUX: Who were your inspirations in business and how and why did they inspire you?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: I was inspired by a few Russian and international entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson, Oleg Tinkov, Sergey Galitsky and Evgeny Chichvarkin. I was inspired by their energy and their desire to change the world.

LUX: What were your first steps – which companies did you work for, how did you train and did you do formal business education?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: I studied at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation in Moscow. I used to read interviews with various entrepreneurs in the business newspaper Vedomosti, in which they described all sorts of business situations and how they dealt with them. Reading newspapers was my main training. I had no formal business education, just my basic finance education at the university.

LUX: What were the most important parts of this learning phase of your business life?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: I loved reading the biographies of top entrepreneurs such as Howard Schultz of Starbucks, Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, Steve Jobs, John Rockefeller, Feodor Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, and Richard and Maurice McDonald. I was inspired by their lives and their decision making.

LUX: What motivated you then and what motivates you now?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: At first I was motivated by money and the photos I saw in magazines that depicted businessmen like happy guys with beautiful lives. Now, my main motivation is to change the world. I would like to change the relationships between companies and employees, to change the service in our country and to create new possibilities in economics. I think that business people are sort of engineers of the world.

LUX: What are the unique challenges of business and enterprise in Kazakhstan?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: I don’t think that Kazakhstan offers any particularly unique challenges in business but it does have great potential for entrepreneurs, because of the very low levels of competition.

LUX: What advice would you give to foreign companies coming to Kazakhstan?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: First of all, welcome to our country! There are many great possibilities to start a business here. We are growing very fast, have a stable economy and political regime. Also, we have potential in retail, e-commerce and so on.

LUX: What is the secret of success in business and what keeps you going?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: I think that it depends on two things. Firstly, you should work a lot and very hard. And secondly, ambition. If you are not satisfied with the results, they have to push you to go further. It’s important not to say “enough” – that’s a very dangerous word in business.

LUX: What are your business plans?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: Our plan is to build the biggest e-commerce company in the region and to become the first tech company from Kazakhstan to be known worldwide. To keep pace with Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple and others – that’s our goal and I believe that everything is possible.

LUX: Who are your business heroes now?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: My business hero now is Elon Musk. He is a person who makes crazy things. He does not just dream about something, he does it. He inspires me to think the same way. We shouldn’t build barriers in our minds.

LUX: When did you first hear about YPO?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: The first time was when I was a student. I read a book by Artyom Tarasov, one of the first Russian millionaires and the first YPO member from Russia. That was about 19 years ago and I knew then that I wanted to join YPO.

LUX: What were your perceptions of YPO before you joined?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: YPO is a unique business organisation. It consists of the best entrepreneurs from Kazakhstan and enables you to communicate with others from different countries.

LUX: How does YPO support your business?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: I have two examples. First, two of the YPO members in our chapter became investors in my company: Timur Turlov and Aidyn Rakhimbayev. Second, when I need to speak with the managers of the big Russian e-commerce companies, I can get their contacts through YPO Connect and they answer quickly.

LUX: How often are chapter meetings held?
Ramil Mukhoryapov: Formal meetings happen on average 10 times a year. They take priority in my schedule. I appreciate the ideas and advice I get from them – they are like a personal board of directors.

ELDAR SARSENOV
Chairman of the Management Board of JSC Nurbank

Before his banking career, Sarsenov led the marketing at TAG Heuer in the US and worked his way up to being deputy director of sales and marketing at Helios LLP, the Kazakhstan petrol station company. He was the managing director of JSC Nurbank for three years, during which he managed the credit card department, IT and marketing, before he became the bank’s chairman in 2015.

Eldar Sarsenov. Image by Valery Ayapov

LUX: What age were you when you thought you might go into business as a career?
Eldar Sarsenov: I started thinking of myself as some kind of business person when I was maybe six or seven years old. At the time, I was in the US living near tennis courts where I worked as a ball boy. It was then that I understood the value of being paid for your services.

LUX: Your family was prominent in business already – you took a very international route when starting your career. Why?
Eldar Sarsenov:My career started early, helping out in my family’s business when I was still in school. When in college, I did some internships and later on I was working in a few businesses in Kazakhstan, so my career started locally. My first international work was in New Jersey, at TAG Heuer, as part of my MBA.

LUX: Who were your inspirations in business?
Eldar Sarsenov: I was inspired first by my parents’ enterprise in the early 1990s. When I was in college, a few professors who were also successful business people also influenced me.

Read more: Kering’s Marie-Claire Daveu on benefits of the blue economy

LUX: What business education do you have?
Eldar Sarsenov: My bachelor degree in science and business administration was from Suffolk University in Boston, and my MBA is from Northeastern University. Formal education helped my decision making and my ability to assess business practices in all sorts of situations.

LUX: What motivates you now?
Eldar Sarsenov: That’s easy. I am motivated by problem solving, by overcoming crises. I look at the person I was prior to certain events and can see how they transformed and improved me.

LUX: What are the unique challenges of business and enterprise in Kazakhstan?
Eldar Sarsenov: It’s a great place to conduct business, but one of the biggest challenges is its population size. It is a little below 20 million and no matter how efficient or effective you are, technologically and otherwise, at some point you will hit the ceiling of what market you can get.

The flag of Nurbank, of which Eldar Sarsenov is chairman

LUX: What’s the secret of success in business?
Eldar Sarsenov: There’s no big secret. Work hard, be kind to people, be a good person, and stay motivated. That’s harder than it sounds. You’ll be motivated at first but, later, obstacles might slow you down. The trick is to keep moving.

LUX: What are your business plans?
Eldar Sarsenov: Going international is in the plan for me. As a company, you need to cover as many countries as you can. It is healthy and financially sound.

LUX: Who are your business heroes now?
Eldar Sarsenov: The ones who surround me, such as those who survived the break-up of the Soviet Union and prospered for the benefit of the country. Also my YPO friends, who are people of high ethical standards and great business acumen.

LUX: When did you first hear about YPO?
Eldar Sarsenov: I first heard about it through friends and business acquaintances. My friend and mentor Armanzhan Baitassov, who is a YPO member of some stature, suggested I join.

LUX: What were your perceptions of YPO before you joined?
Eldar Sarsenov: I thought it was something along the lines of a fraternity of some sort. But when I saw a meeting, which was informal, I was impressed by the comradeship.

LUX: In what way does being a YPO member support and help you personally?
Eldar Sarsenov: It’s put into perspective what I am today as a business person. It has shown me how my strengths could be furthered, and how my weaknesses can be minimised.

LUX: YPO seems to be a unique business organisation, especially in its forums.
Eldar Sarsenov: Yes, the forums are what make YPO so sought after. Chapters consist of five to eight people. They are designed to be part of the YPO experience, where people can meet regularly within their own groups and discuss problems with work, family, or personal development.

LUX: Does YPO help with international contacts also?
Eldar Sarsenov: International contacts are what YPO bring to the table once you become a member. It provides a platform called YPO Connect that enables you to connect with YPO people round the world. I have helped members from Latin America, Europe and Australia who were interested in financial services in Kazakhstan.

LUX: What does being a YPO chapter member involve and what do you need to do?
Eldar Sarsenov: You get from YPO what you invest. If you make time, reach out to people, follow guidelines at meetings and participate in forums, then YPO gives back a lot. Since I joined in 2019 I have tried to be at every event and reach out to every member. YPO has been great for me. I look forward to meeting new people after the pandemic, and I urge everyone to consider joining this great organisation.

TIMUR TURLOV
Founder and owner of Freedom Holding Corp.

Turlov is an entrepreneur and financial expert who established Freedom Finance in 2008. Becoming part of Freedom Holding Corp. in 2015, the company is a leading retail brokerage and investment bank in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Turlov is a specialist in the US stock market and regularly comments, reports and lectures on financial and economic matters in business publications.

Timur Turlov, CEO of the Freedom Holding Corp.

LUX: What age were you when you thought you might go into business as a career?
Timur Turlov: I was hungry to earn money when I was at least 13. At 15 or 16 I had my first more or less serious job (as a junior media analyst) with an ‘adult’ salary.

LUX: Who were your inspirations in business and how and why did they inspire you?
Timur Turlov: I am not sure that I really can name any. I started my own business not because of my ambitions, but because my employer closed its investments arm.

LUX: What were your first steps? Which companies did you work for, how did you train and did you do any formal business education?
Timur Turlov: I have no formal business education. I started my career in the stock market industry in Moscow at a small proprietary trading firm founded by American who was a former Soviet Union citizen. Then I switched to a retail brokerage firm that was part of a medium-sized commercial bank, and became the youngest TOM manager by my third year. Then the investment arm closed after the 2008–09 crisis.

Read more: Prince Robert de Luxembourg on wine, gastronomy & storytelling

LUX: What were the most important parts of this learning phase of your business life?
Timur Turlov: I always was very practical. I learned a lot from my colleagues and partners, from googling and reading the necessary information to solve specific tasks.

LUX: What motivated you then and what motivates you now?
Timur Turlov: We live in a world where the winner takes it all and you need to be the best in the industry just to survive.

LUX: What are the unique challenges of business and enterprise in Kazakhstan?
Timur Turlov: The main challenge is being almost alone in your industry. A weak competitive landscape can be a problem when you eat your bread alone. And that’s an opportunity as well, of course.

LUX: What advice would you give to foreign companies coming to Kazakhstan?
Timur Turlov: Kazakhstan is a country of open doors. It’s very easy to get here and you will be warmly welcomed, but you have to manage expectations extremely carefully.

LUX: What is the secret of success in business and what keeps you going?
Timur Turlov: My ability to build relationships, to sense the direction the wind is blowing in and to create products that are in demand. And, of course, luck.

LUX: What are your plans and business dreams?
Timur Turlov: We need to expand more actively into the EU and from there, globally. Competition in my industry is already global and we need to grow to be competitive enough tomorrow, to be attractive enough to become a target for acquisition, or to acquire our competitors worldwide.

LUX: Who are your business heroes now?
Timur Turlov: My team, my competitors… No stars.

LUX: When did you first hear about YPO and from whom?
Timur Turlov: From my friend and client, Marat Shotbaev, three or four years ago.

LUX: What were your perceptions of YPO before you joined and what made you want to join?
Timur Turlov: I knew it to be a club of successful people from the business elite in our country.

LUX: YPO seems to be a unique business organisation. Is this true, and if so, how and why?
Timur Turlov: The spread across medium and large enterprises in Kazakhstan seems to be wider than usually found elsewhere in the world. So here, YPO is a club for large businesses.

LUX: In what way does being a YPO member support and help you personally?
Timur Turlov: Through the unique experience of the forum meetings, which unfortunately have been less frequent over the past year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

LUX: How does being a YPO member support your business?
Timur Turlov: Business is always about the development of relationships, and YPO helps to develop it much further.

LUX: Does YPO membership help you with international contacts as well?
Timur Turlov: I have never tried to use the international power of YPO.

LUX: What does being a YPO chapter member involve? How frequently do you have formal meetings, and international meetings?
Timur Turlov: Unfortunately, I have never participated in any of the international meetings, but this is only my second year of membership and international travel has been restricted, of course, for most of 2020.

Find out more: ypo.org

This article features in the Autumn Issue, which will be published later this month.

Installation view of Looking Up, Helaine Blumenfeld’s exhibition at Canary Wharf 2020. Photo © Sean Pollock

Helaine Blumenfeld OBE is best known for her large-scale public sculptures whose undulating, ethereal forms evoke a sense of fragility and movement, transforming the environments into which they are placed. In the light of a major exhibition of her works at Canary Wharf, Digital & Art Editor Millie Walton speaks to the artist about working intuitively, the importance of touch and how public art brings people together

LUX: What’s your creative process like? Do you follow a routine, or need a particular atmosphere to create?
Helaine Blumenfeld: I think I have quite an unusual creative process which has changed in a few ways over the years, but essentially, it has always been a process of trying to coordinate what I am feeling and thinking with what I am doing with my hands. That has taken a very long time. Now, when I go into the studio, I am able to disconnect from everything that is going on around me. Francis Bacon used to say that to release that [creative] energy he would either need to be drugged or drunk or both, to allow him to enter into a kind of trance state. I can go into that state, happily, without drugs. For me, it is a state of being. I go into the studio, close the door, and I am there.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

I don’t really look at the work whilst I am making. I take clay and I just keep adding to it or taking away. I have no plan of what I am going to do; I have no drawings. I just communicate with it, and that is how I have worked almost from the very beginning.

I had been working on a doctorate of philosophy, and I could never find the exact words I wanted, but when I made the very first piece in clay, I just thought: ‘This is just incredible! Did I really just do this?’ It was a talent that I had never understood I had, and yet it was so clear. Every piece I made in those early days was a wonder to me and then, we moved back to England from Paris and during the move, some of the pieces got broken. I thought I’ll never be able to do anything like that again.

Now, I do not have that feeling; I see it more as a process. There is a communication between what I am in terms of experience, and the work, and if one piece is interrupted or breaks or collapses, the next piece will follow it.

Helaine Blumenfeld with one of her sculptures. Photo © Sean Pollock

LUX: You mentioned that you were studying philosophy – when did you start making art?
Helaine Blumenfeld: I always had these amazing dreams that I could never seem to translate. The only way that I knew was words, and yet, to have an incredible dream and then to use words is so bizarre because it is a completely different language. For a while, philosophy seemed like the right method for my expression, but I was never satisfied. When I discovered sculpture and began to understand what very simple forms could communicate, I decided I wanted to be a sculptor.

I think that being an artist is not just about having something to communicate, but also finding the right way to communicate it, and if you don’t, you can be frustrated. Discovering sculpture opened up the whole world to me.

Helaine Blumenfeld, Exodus V, 2019, Photo © Henryk Hetflaisz

LUX: Was lockdown a creative time for you?
Helaine Blumenfeld: Well my main studio is in Italy, so I have not been able to go back at all. In fact, because I had this very big show [Looking Up] in Canary Wharf, I was meant to go back before we had finished the installation to bring back two pieces that I had not quite finished, but my husband said not to go. It was lucky that he did because otherwise I would have spent the whole lockdown without my family.

In the end, we managed to get the entire show of 40 pieces up at Canary Wharf just two days before lockdown. The opening, which didn’t happen, was intended to be the day of lockdown. When I went back to Cambridge, I was suddenly aware of the virus and what it was doing, which I hadn’t been, and the first two weeks were very anxious. I thought I would have contracted it because I had been working with so many people, including one of my assistants from Italy who had come over, and whose wife had the virus. But after that period, and I think a few artists will tell you the same, it was one of the happiest periods in my whole life. No pressures from the outside world, no commitments, no engagements, no travelling back and forth to Italy, which I normally would do for two weeks here and two weeks there. I was with my husband all the time which I hadn’t been since the beginning of our marriage. And I had clay; I had all the clay I needed. I was working, and I have done more work in the period of lockdown than I have in the last three years I think. So, yes it has been immensely creative.

Read more: Confined Artists Free Spirits – artists photographed in lockdown by Maryam Eisler

LUX: Do you ever start a sculpture and decide to abandon it if it’s not working?
Helaine Blumenfeld: There are different ways of working. Someone like [Constantin] Brâncuși, who I admire enormously as an artist, was held back by his own sense of perfection. Each piece had to reach what he wanted, and it never did, so he would have to abandon and try again. He was tied to certain ideas, whereas I believe that each piece is as good as it can be. I work through the idea rather than trying to get it right in that particular piece. As I said, I never have a clear idea of where I am going or a vision that I need to achieve; the vision comes in the piece.

Helaine Blumenfeld, Taking Risks, 2018, Photo © Henryk Hetflaisz

LUX: That sounds very liberating.
Helaine Blumenfeld: In sculpture, the gesture can be completely yours. When I am working, I don’t look at what I’m doing I feel it intuitively as it happens. Very often when I am in Italy, I finish something in clay and I cover it and wrap it with wet cloth, and then when I go back, I have no idea what I am going to find. I have never seen it objectively or critically, I have just seen it intuitively. When I do unwrap it, then sometimes I will say  ‘Oh, that doesn’t work’, and I won’t go on with it. At that moment, I am really seeing with a critical eye. It’s like seeing your lover in another way from the corner of your eye or a different angle which allows you to seem them objectively for a moment. When I come back to the work, I am able to see it objectively, and at that moment, I know intellectually whether or not it is working.

It is a bit of a different process if I want to do a large piece, however, because when I am working, I have no armature or inner support system. If I had that I would know exactly what I was going to do because the inner structure would dictate what I was going to make. Without that structure, the sculpture is initially incredibly fragile and if it is going to last, I need to have it cast in plaster quickly. Then, when I know the forms, I don’t feel the same resistance to having an armature. At that point, I have an assistant who will mechanically enlarge the piece for me with a proper armature and leave it in a rough state for me to take over. It does happen when I think a piece is very good, but when the scale changes, it doesn’t work. I think that is a mistake that certain sculptors make, thinking that everything can be large when some pieces work better on a small, intimate scale.

Helaine Blumenfeld, Exodus IV, 2019, Photo © Henryk Hetflaisz

LUX: What role do you think public sculpture can play in urban environments such as Canary Wharf?
Helaine Blumenfeld: I think that sculpture, in general, in a public place, creates a private space for people to enjoy. In a way, it creates a space that people can claim ownership of. My idea is to somehow mediate between the personality and the mechanism of a landscape and to create something that is personal and that people can relate to. For example, my first public commission was in centre of a walkway, and I went around and had a look at how people used space. There was a gigantic sculpture there that people would walk around to avoid. Somehow the massiveness of it mirrored and competed with the architecture in a way. So, I decided to do a sculpture in five pieces, that people could walk in between and interact with that would be on a human scale, and it was such a success.

Helaine Blumenfeld, Fortuna, 2016, Photo © Sean Pollock

My piece Fortuna, which was put up in 2016, was originally meant to go to the new area of Wood Wharf. When it was finished, it was temporarily put into an area in Jubilee Park, and in a very short space of time, that area in the park was overwhelmed with people coming to interact with the sculpture. When word got around that it was going to be moved, people were horrified. That particular area was meant for changing exhibitions, but the piece remains there and people still go to see it.

Read more: American artist Rashid Johnson on searching for autonomy

Also, in that same area, there is a sculpture called Ascent. After lockdown when you could have groups of six, I went back to see the piece and they had made circles on the ground around it so people could sit in those circles and know that they were social distancing. On that lawn there were six different circles of people sitting. They obviously knew each other and they were celebrating something. I had gone there because wanted to photograph the piece. When I arrived, a man looked at us and said ‘Oh, I see that you want to photograph Ascent‘ which was amazing, that he even knew the name. He said ‘Let me show you the best view!’ He took me round to the side and in fact, it was my favourite view. My friend told him that I was the artist and he knew my name too. He announced to the group of people in their circles: ‘This is the artist’. Every person in that area stood up and clapped. It was like it had been an opening. He told me that he came to the sculpture every day and that it was his point of light in the darkness, it gave him some hope that things could be better. It was an amazing experience for me.

Helaine Blumenfeld, Flight, 2019, Photo © Sean Pollock

LUX: Speaking of intimacy, you’ve said before that you like people to touch your sculptures. Why is that important for you?
Helaine Blumenfeld: Oh, I think it is vital for people to touch the work. I think we do not touch enough in our society. So much of our feeling and experience comes from touch. As babies, our world  is all about touch, but we are are losing that. Very early on I had a show with people from LightHouse for the Blind, and all they could do was touch. You would be astounded at what people could feel from touching a sculpture, another level of understanding, from just their hands.

You can see that people are entering into the sculptures where the bases have worn away. I often ask the children who are sitting inside, ‘What are you feeling?’ And they say something like, ‘I am in a secret forest and I am protected from all the things around me.’  It is lovely to see how a sculpture encourages imagination.

Often at public exhibitions, whether it is in a cathedral or in Canary Wharf, I see people discussing with each other, and they don’t know each other. ‘What do you see in it? What are you looking at?’ Not only does art introduce a huge audience to beauty, it is also allows people relate to something outside of themselves, it introduces them to another realm. I think that is an incredible way that art brings people together.

LUX: One final question: what’s inspiring or interesting you at the moment?
Helaine Blumenfeld:  It is hard for me to use the word inspiration; I feel incredibly moved. When an artist dreams a dream that is so deep within his own being, it is not just his dream, it is not just his pain, it is universal. That is what I hoped I was doing before, it was coming from within, but much of what I am doing now is coming from without. I am thinking about how people are trying to connect at this time, to reach out and see the perspective of other people. There is a much greater effort because we are all in this together. It has broken down that sense of isolation which I felt was leading to the precipice. So instead of expressing something deeply personal, I am trying to feel something that effects everyone. I think that is where the new work is going.

‘Looking Up’ by Helaine Blumenfeld runs at One Canada Square until 6 November 2020 and throughout Canary Wharf until 31 May 2020.

For more information visit: helaineblumenfeld.com

A dining room interior by SKIN. Image by Andrew Miller Photography

Founded by interior designer Lauren Lozano Ziol and graphic designer Michelle Jolas, SKIN is a luxury interior design studio that offers its clients the opportunity to accompany designers to furniture markets, design shows and antique shops. Ahead of the studio’s London launch, we speak to Lauren Lozano Ziol about the business concept, her inspirations and designing spaces to promote positivity

Lauren Lozano Ziol (right) with Michelle Jolas

LUX: How did the concept for SKIN first evolve and who’s your target customer?
Lauren Lozano Ziol: Since Michelle and I first met over a decade ago, we have succeeded in pushing each other out of our respective comfort zones of graphic design and history of art, allowing us to continually challenge style boundaries. When we founded SKIN in 2017, we bonded over our love for materials that can be used in design. There are so many exciting and interesting ways to use materials such as cowhides, shagreen, snakeskin, leather, fabrics, veneer and so much more. Wallpaper is another critical consideration for us, in the past, we contemplated creating a wallpaper line, and the name ‘SKIN’ was a fun play on all of the above. As we considered what SKIN as a company meant, we realised the meaning is profound – it’s your outer layer, what you show to the world, it’s inner and outer beauty, it’s diversity – this led us to name our website skinyourworld.com.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

Our target customer is a discerning client who appreciates the beauty of high-end, quality interiors and materials, with a shared interest in art and furniture history, who isn’t afraid of mixing period pieces and jumping out of their comfort zone to create unique, elegant and sophisticated interiors. Also, a client that likes to have fun with the process.

LUX: What’s your creative process when you start on a new interiors project?
Lauren Lozano Ziol: Firstly, we learn about the client, who they are, what they like and what inspires them in their daily lives so that we can understand their needs. The creative juices then start flowing. We create vision boards, art collection ideas and materials. We lay out the floor plans and make sure the scale is perfect, we then select potential furniture, sketch ideas and pull it all together with renderings to show the client. We love being in the client’s space with all the materials. Colour and texture, lighting and luxurious material all play a synchronised role in the complete design. When we present to a client, we love to collaborate with them, it sparks creativity and new ideas.

A private residence project by SKIN. Image by Andrew Miller

LUX: In terms of the design side of the business, is it important to have a style that’s recognisably yours?
Lauren Lozano Ziol: Yes, and no. Yes, in terms of being refined, elegant, timeless, classic and chic – whether the interior is modern or traditional. However, every client is different, so we like to explore what that means to the project and not box ourselves into one look. We want each project to be unique.

Read more: Two new buildings offer contemporary Alpine living in Andermatt

LUX: Is there a design era that you’re particularly drawn to or inspired by?
Lauren Lozano Ziol: French 40s and Art Deco in terms of style and materials. We also adore Maison Jansen.

Library design by SKIN. Image by Andrew Miller

LUX: How much of a consideration is sustainability?
Lauren Lozano Ziol: Very much so, our environment has never been more important, so we work together with architects and contractors to bring the right materials that are long-lasting and good for the planet. Now more than ever the need for healthy communities, clean air and non-toxic environments is paramount.

LUX: Why do you think lifestyle services have become more desirable in recent years?
Lauren Lozano Ziol: We firmly believe that environments influence how you feel. They have the potential to promote creativity and help make you your best. If you like the space you’re in, you feel happier amidst the disruption of Covid-19. The well-being achieved from a well-thought-out, organised home can have long-term positive effects on the whole family.

Read more: Three top gallerists on how the art world is changing

LUX: Are your excursions designed to inspire or educate, or both?
Lauren Lozano Ziol: Both! We make a list, head off to explore and see what catches our eye. We love talking about the history of pieces when we go on an excursion, but ultimately, we settle on what speaks to us and inspires our project goals. The day can end very differently to what we set out to accomplish because there are always hidden gems and treasures to find along the way.

LUX: Should good design last forever?
Lauren Lozano Ziol: Yes, our philosophy is “timeless, classic, chic with an edge” which allows us to create an ageless design yet pushes us to look for new and exciting trends.

LUX: What’s next for you?
Lauren Lozano Ziol: Our London launch, which we are so excited about. We are ready to meet new and interesting clients and breathe life into amazing projects. Again, our environments have never been more critical, and we are ready to take on our new adventure.

Find out more: skinyourworld.com

The creations of quintessentially Parisian jewellery maker Chaumet may have been fit for an empress in the late 18th century when the company was founded. But the jeweller aspires to be equally at home with the modern woman around the world. CEO Jean-Marc Mansvelt tells Irene Bellucci how they make the new out of the old

Jean-Marc Mansvelt

“For me, luxury is about craftsmanship and excellence. But it’s more than functionality – it’s also about emotion. And luxury transcends fashion, too; it takes time to invent, create and make.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

“Chaumet’s founder Marie-Etienne Nitot trained under the jeweller to Marie Antoinette, and after the Revolution became Napoleon Bonaparte’s official jeweller in 1805. This led to numerous commissions from the great and the good, including jewels for Empress Joséphine, after whom one of our most iconic collections is named. The brand’s tiaras went on to be worn by queens and rulers across the globe.

Laurel Leaf Tiara by Joseph Chaumet (1920)

“Yet, our history isn’t enough to sustain us in the 21st century; consumers’ tastes have changed as has the function of jewellery itself. Nowadays, a tiara is not really worn beyond special and rare occasions, so in 2010 we reinvented them by moving them from head to finger for our Joséphine ring collection. Once they were crowns expressing power, but now we have brought them into the modern era in a more delicate and wearable form.

“But not all of our pieces are reinventions. We try to mix tradition and contemporary art; we also like to look to the world of music for ideas. In referring just to the past, the risk is that we will repeat ourselves – we need to inject new elements into the process.”

View the collections: chaumet.com

This article was originally published in the Spring 2020 Issue

The artist Secundino Hernández in Venice, holding one of his preparatory studies for a larger palette painting

LUX Contributing Editor and photographer Maryam Eisler is entranced by Spanish artist Secundino Hernández. Here, she visits and photographs him on his residency in Venice to discuss inspiration and physicality in painting and the organised chaos of the creative process

Maryam Eisler: It is intriguing to hear about your visceral/carnal take on Venice; its tones and its ‘fleshiness’, as you call it.
Secundino Hernández: It was a coincidence. I only noticed it when I came here. I never had these memories about Venice before; I never thought about the colour of the buildings looking like flesh. It suddenly became evident as I looked out the window of my studio. I walk the city streets inspired, and I now combine the flesh tones by mixing them in the studio.

Maryam Eisler: What about the parallels with the work of L.S. Lowry?
Secundino Hernández: Yes, the palette! It’s amazing how Lowry developed his whole career with only five colours! The challenge is not to imitate, but to be inspired by his process. I have done this before with watercolours, based on Cezanne’s 14 colours.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

Maryam Eisler: It’s interesting that you’re taking a figurative approach to painting in Venice. It seems to me that you are very much about this yin and yang, constantly meandering between lightness and heaviness; between monochromes and colour, the abstract and the figurative.
Secundino Hernández: Yeah. Someone asked me once, after I was done with these black and white works: “What is next?” and I said, “Back to the body.” It was shocking but it was true. After the freedom of the abstract paintings, I needed to go back to the exercise of representation. The mentality changes with the technique. It’s a new, open field for me. This is the most exciting part of painting. It’s not that I feel obliged to do this or that, but I push myself to try something new all the time. That’s what makes it rewarding.

Maryam Eisler: You have taken an almost academic and art-historical approach to figuration; you even use a human model, although your figurative work is quite abstract.
Secundino Hernández: I want to explore how to paint figuration, after painting abstraction for a long time. It’s what I feel comfortable with. That’s why I paint with a model present and be academic in that way, but I always try to go a step further.

Maryam Eisler: So, you layer your work? You take all your past experiences, including the abstract, and layer it with the figurative. And then there’s magic…
Secundino Hernández: Yeah. I don’t move to figuration just for the sake of it. It’s about this inner exercise in order to see where the abstract works lead to. It’s like a mirror game. I want to test my abstraction, and for that, I need to have a reference, and that reference at this moment is the figure. This is the starting point for something new. The main thing is to open possibilities and new potential. I always thought it was easier to explain figurative work more than abstraction because abstraction is based on concepts, but I am realising that figures and bodies can also be very conceptual. We have seen the figure represented in paintings for centuries, so how do I paint a figure as if it’s being painted for the first time?

Hernández works with a live model to inform his figurative yet abstract works

Maryam Eisler: Going back to the language of the figurative and carnal, you often talk about ‘skin’ and ‘bones’, even with your abstract paintings. You scratch the surface of the painting like the surface of the skin and you dig deep into its bones.
Secundino Hernández: The pure linen is the bone because everything starts from this structure. I also like the idea of going backwards. It’s more like a sculpture, where you are sculpting and taking away from the form. Normally with a painting, you add to it. I like the idea of working with almost no paint at all, or even just with the primer.

Maryam Eisler: You talk about ‘scars’ and you’re interested in dereliction. I see it so evidently as we walk through Venice. Anything that peels, anything that’s scratched, anything that has weathered texture to its surface. Is there an element of temporality and or timelessness in your work?
Secundino Hernández: Yes, that is very much present at the beginning of the palette works. They are nice to admire, but for me, they’re about the memory of what happens in the studio – every day, the process, the passage of time. I used a clean brush and I started to mix colours and they started to grow and grow and grow. I like this idea of growth and subtraction because the works are like pendulums. Some are about adding, and others are about taking away. Everything happens in between and in the physicality of the paintings.

Read more: Louis Roederer’s CEO Frédéric Rouzaud on art and hospitality

Maryam Eisler: Speaking of physicality, your act of painting is very physical, almost performative. You also ripple between large and small-scale works…
Secundino Hernández: It’s demanding. I like it now, but maybe in ten years’ time I will not have this energy level. It’s about not repeating the same process, the same scale. So, going back to the body, I thought it was nicer to paint on a small scale because it is more practical and, in a way, easier to develop the idea faster.

Maryam Eisler: In both your abstract and figurative work, in the way that you use the power-jet, the steamer, in the way that you peel and scratch the surface of the canvas, it seems to me that there is an element of chance and creative fate.
Secundino Hernández: It’s all about fate, you know. I believe that it’s got to be that way, otherwise I would never do any of it.

Hernández is inspired by derelict surfaces and the ‘fleshiness’ of the colours in Venice, such as this peeling wall and rows of buildings

Maryam Eisler: Does the sublime play a role in your practice? Spirituality, or just trust in the universal powers of being?
Secundino Hernández: It’s about reflection. When you work every day as I have for so many years, there needs to be something meditative and spiritual in the process.

Maryam Eisler: Primal?
Secundino Hernández: Yes. I’m a very primal person [laughs].

‘Untitled’ (2018), by Secundino Hernández, rabbit skin glue, chalk, calcium carbonate, titanium white on linen, 276 x 249 cm

Maryam Eisler: You also go from monochrome palettes to a plethora of colours. Is there something emotive going on when you do this ?
Secundino Hernández: Actually, it’s about practicality. When I go to the studio, I start mixing colours and I work on these palette works which have no limits. If I get a bit overwhelmed or stuck, I go back to the palettes. The palette works are always there because their physicality enables the creation of other paintings. Without them, the others don’t exist.

Maryam Eisler: Coexistence and codependence? From peace to chaos?
Secundino Hernández: Yes, but it’s organised chaos. I’m not that chaotic, as you see in this studio. I’m very tidy. The surface of the canvas, on the other hand, looks chaotic because I tried this and I continued with that; everything is very well planned, most of the time. I even do small sketches to plan it all out in advance. Especially for the large canvases – because if you start painting a 5-metre canvas like a crazy monkey, it’s going to be a crap painting.

Hernández on a bridge near his temporary studio in the city. Above, on the roof of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, overlooking the Grand Canal.

Maryam Eisler: You’re often compared to American Expressionists, such as Pollock.
Secundino Hernández: I think it’s fine, but I feel more comfortable with ‘slow motion’ Expressionism.

Maryam Eisler: Let’s talk about your studio and the lonely business of being an artist.
Secundino Hernández: It’s always a lonely business. Because right or wrong, you are the one and only final judge. And you have to trust yourself.

Read more: Spring Studios Founder Francesco Costa on creative networking

Maryam Eisler: How much work do you destroy?
Secundino Hernández: I try to be successful with everything. But if I do destroy work, I don’t think about it anymore. I learn from the failure and move on. Now, with age, something strange is happening. I sometimes struggle with my paintings and what I can’t control is the frustration. With age, your passion is meant to lessen. It’s not the case with me… it’s getting stronger every day, and I judge myself all the time. I always said there are no mistakes in painting. But how do you know when something is good or bad, right or wrong? It’s difficult. It’s about the relationship between your actions and what you present to the world. I guess I’m only human!

Maryam Eisler: Would it be fair to say that painting is about reality – your reality?
Secundino Hernández: Yeah. That’s the miracle of painting. With some dust and a little bit of egg, you paint something that never existed before. It’s amazing. This is the miracle of painting I think. Also, painting for me is a way of naively understanding the world. Here, with the act of painting, I see Venice with different eyes. I see its surface, its different skin colours and its many people.

‘Untitled’ (2018), by Secundino Hernández, acrylic, alkyd and oil on linen, 261 x 196 cm

Maryam Eisler: What does it mean to be a painter in the 21st century?
Secundino Hernández: I don’t really know what it means. But I want my paintings to age in a timeless way. I want them to still feel fresh and talk to you in 40 years. This is the whole point. I may be asking for too much. But that’s what I am trying now and always will. Now, more than ever, I’m getting very ambitious. This morning, I was reading an article about Rembrandt and it said that the difference between Rembrandt and his contemporaries was that he not only was a great painter, technically speaking, but that he provided the figure with a certain life and soul. And that’s why his paintings look alive, even today. This is the point. And I was wondering if Rembrandt was even conscious of this. Maybe he was simply enjoying painting or maybe he was suffering and struggling as well, but it’s nice that at least someone writes in this way about your work, 300 or so years later.

Maryam Eisler: And the role of social media in the life of a 21st-century artist? Unlike most artists, you’re not present on social platforms?
Secundino Hernández: I’m not on Facebook and I’m not on Instagram. I have no time for that. Once I went on Instagram and I saw that there were 2,000 posts with my name, then I calculated, if you spend one minute per post, that’s 2,000 minutes of my time, which means two days of my life nonstop doing this sh*t. I just couldn’t do it. I prefer to sit and do nothing.

Maryam Eisler: Is it actually important for people, especially artists, to do nothing?
Secundino Hernández: It’s very important for everyone to be bored. I’m even making big efforts to check my mobile messages once or twice a day only. It’s difficult. It’s like cocaine. I feel like my brain needs it.

Secundino Hernández is represented by Victoria Miro Gallery. His latest exhibition runs at Victoria Miro Venice until 19 October. For more information visit: victoria-miro.com

This article was originally published in the Autumn 19 Issue.

Rock star turned interior designer Lenny Kravitz created a limited-edition collection for Dom Pérignon

The rock star turned interior designer takes the LUX hot seat, and shares a particularly fond memory involving a bottle of 1964 Dom Pérignon. Interview by Irene Bellucci

1. You’re best known as a musician, what drew you to interior design?

Because you can create the environment around you. It’s like theatre. That’s what I do – I feel the vibe, the mood. For the piece I designed for Dom Pérignon, I wanted to create a piece of furniture unique, never done before, building an object representing the idea of drinking champagne.

2. What inspires you?

Life. I just have to open my eyes and look or close my eyes and listen. I’m inspired by what’s around me.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxresponsibleluxury

3. Who do you confide in about your art?

Artists – people who have great eyes and can always tell me their true opinion.

4. You collaborated with Dom Pérignon on a photographic series, Assemblage, and you’re also its new creative director. Is there an interaction between different forms of art for you?

They feel each other and they are connected. I always loved to create, but after a month in the studio making music, you need to take a break. Not because you want to stop creating, but because you need to change and come back fresh. That’s why I go to shoot pictures, or I go and design objects.

5. What’s your fondest memory of drinking champagne?

I still remember one evening drinking 1964 Dom Pérignon at Château Dom Pérignon. I spent that evening in front of the fireplace with a friend. It was extravagant. I’ve always been a champagne lover, and I am very close to the chef de cave at Dom Pérignon, even before starting our amazing collaboration. Everything started out of a friendship.

6. Speaking of Dom Pérignon, what’s your favourite way to drink it?

I like to go high and low, that’s the beauty of it. Before this interview I was sat here, sipping champagne and eating my vegan pizza – it was perfect. You don’t need to do anything too extravagant.

Read more: Artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s tales of sadness and beauty

7. Tell us about the casting of Assemblage?

At the beginning I didn’t choose my daughter, Zoë, but they asked me, and she said yes. We had fun; it was a great group of people. Susan [Sarandon] is such a force, still so young, vibrant and beautiful. And Alexander [Wang] came with Zoë – they have known each other since high school.

8. Are you working on residential projects?

Yes, we are doing six residential projects in Miami, Malibu, Aspen and Detroit, but more are coming.

9. What are the challenges you face when designing?

Everything starts with a space in which I see the object I’m going to design, because I always design something that I want to use. I ask myself how I can amplify the space without taking over it; it’s a balance.

10. Where does the creative process start for you?

My mood board always helps me to visualise my ideas. I love to work with people that want to make art, in complete freedom; you can go deep and find unique and exceptional pieces. At the moment, there is a lot of interest in fine vintage furniture, pieces by Gabriella Crespi, Paul Evans, Pierre Jeanneret, to name a few.

11. Tell us about your design style?

I love to work in different environments – the concepts I create for the countryside are different from what I create in the city. However, you can see the thread in my work. The furniture is very sculptural, the art and the lighting are both important for my aesthetic. And I always look for organic materials, such as stone and wood.

12. And finally, how would you describe your life in a song title?

My first album, my first song. Let Love Rule. This drives my creativity and my life since.

Discover Lenny Kravitz’s limited-edition collection for Dom Pérignon: domperignon.com/uk-en

This article was originally published in the Autumn 19 Issue.

One of Rachel Whiteread’s so-called shy sculptures, ‘Cabin’ (2016), on Governors Island in New York, her first major permanent public commission in the United States

Rachel Whiteread, winner of the 2019 Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon award, has illuminated the world’s art scene with her blazing originality, her wit and her unique perspectives, for more than 30 years. She speaks to Darius Sanai about creating something out of nothing, the joys of London, and the importance of being bored

Rachel Whiteread in her studio, 2011

LUX: Your works create something from nothing. Is it a kind of anti-matter that you are creating?
Rachel Whiteread: That’s exactly right. I’ve always tried to make something out of nothing.
Something I used to do at college a lot was just stare at a white wall or a floor and visualise what I’d want to make from that space. I’d see what it was, so it was still something but it was out of nothing. It’s still a practice that I do, I suppose like a meditation, but I didn’t ever call it that. It was just, you know, staring at the wall.

There’s probably not enough staring into space done now. Everything’s always about looking at images, like on Instagram. Everything is just so full up that what I try and do is empty out. You wouldn’t think it from the chaos of my studio, though.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

LUX: Is there just too much social media around now?
Rachel Whiteread: Yes, I think so. People don’t know how to be bored anymore – I must have been saying this for years. Being bored is one of the most essential things of life, because what you do is you then work out how to not be bored, and by doing that, you open up a creativity in your mind. Even if it’s just deciding that you’re going to cook something or you’re going to read –whatever your creative outlet is – people just don’t do this anymore. They’ll scroll through Instagram instead and look at thousands of everyone else’s borrowed images. I think there’s something to be said about really slowing down the brain; it can be a very useful thing to do.

LUX: Will distraction of this kind affect future artists?
Rachel Whiteread: I suspect it will, but I also think that there’s going to be a backlash to all this and that people will just start to shut down a bit and try to be quieter about what they do, because you can’t just scream and shout about it. It’s hard for young artists. I’ve got two sons, they’re 13 and 17, and it’s difficult for them to be young anymore, to be able to play and enjoy life in a certain way, because you can just turn on the computer and you’re immediately entertained and distracted.

‘Shack I’ (2014), one of two concrete casts of cabins in the Joshua Tree National Park in California.

LUX: How do you decide what to create next?
Rachel Whiteread: Normally one thing leads to another, to be honest. I have had an exceptionally busy year de-installing and installing at the Tate, in Vienna and Washington. I have just come back from Washington where the exhibition has just opened, and also cast a very large piece, another one of my ‘shy’ sculptures, that’s in the Dalby Forest in Yorkshire – it’s a cast of a Nissen hut that’s been made as part of the First World War centenary. I have had a busy time doing all of that, and I am now having a breather before I get going again. I am at the pre-production phase of a new body of work.

LUX: Do you ever consider the reaction to your work while you are planning it?
Rachel Whiteread: I am very fortunate to be in a position to be able to do what I like. There has been a lot of controversy over various works I have made, but this is not something I court, it is simply in the nature of the objects.

‘Cushion’ (2006)

LUX: What gives you the most satisfaction?
Rachel Whiteread: Luckily for me, the show at the Tate gave me an enormous amount of satisfaction. It was five years in the planning and has travelled very successfully to Europe and America including the National Gallery of Art in Washington. I have very much enjoyed doing the retrospective, looking back at thirty years of work – it has been really helpful.

Read more: PalaisPopulaire & Berlin’s Cultural Revolution

LUX: What are your frustrations in making your art?
Rachel Whiteread: It is becoming harder and harder to find large studio spaces. Gone are the days when artists could colonise derelict areas in London. Consequently there is a lack of places for young artists to work. Luckily for me I am able to stay in London and carry out some of the more ambitious things, but it is very expensive. But what are the annoyances? That the day isn’t long enough, that I’m getting older and don’t have quite as much energy – I’ve got a bad back [laughs].

LUX: You’re carting heavy materials around…
Rachel Whiteread: That’s down to years of not looking after my back properly; it catches up with you. You think you’re forever young, especially when people were constantly calling you the YBAs [Young British Artists].

LUX: London – is it an integral part of who you are?
Rachel Whiteread: It’s totally integral to who I am. At one point we looked into moving out to Norfolk or Essex. To get a place with land where I could build a big studio, but I thought, actually I can’t. I need the frisson and busyness of London.

‘Nissen Hut’ (2018)

LUX: What do you love about London?
Rachel Whiteread: I love the multicultural world, the soupiness of London. It’s the one of the best cities of the world. I love the way the people are mostly extremely tolerant of each other. I love the way it’s an enthusiastic city and it has so much to offer culturally – even if you don’t go to that much you still feel it around you – it’s a bit like osmosis, it touches you somehow. I love the green spaces, I love the built-up spaces, I love the Thames, I love the canals, I love the way in which London can have these complex urban spaces and then these very beautiful but still very urban spaces. And so much has been done with trying to get wildlife going. It’s just a great community – a load of really good, interesting villages all stuck together – that’s sort of what London is, isn’t it?

LUX: After so much progress in tolerance over the past few years, are things now going the other way?
Rachel Whiteread: Completely, yes. Terrifying. I hate to think what we’re going to be leaving our children and grandchildren. There’s a sour feeling in the world at the moment and it’s not pretty.

LUX: It’s inexplicable, isn’t it? There are a people with a lot of money feeling angry.
Rachel Whiteread: A lot of it has got to do with Brexit. There are so many people who were sold a line that they just didn’t know what they were voting for. And the reality of that is sinking
in. It’s an appalling waste of money, time and energy – and for what, in the end? In the UK in particular there are a lot of people who are angry in London, and outside London, too, and quite rightly so for being neglected and ignored. Money is not coming in to pay for things that are needed, resources are at an all-time low, and there’s not enough housing. So for all of those things it’s a really complex city to live in, but when things work, they work brilliantly and people cross-culturally can really rub shoulders together and get a lot out of each other and that’s a great thing.

‘Untitled’ (100 Spaces) (1995), installed at Tate Britain in 2017

LUX: Your art has a blend of seriousness and wit – would you agree that this also describes yourself as a person?
Rachel Whiteread: My work is me, I couldn’t make anything else. It is totally me, it’s how I think, how I exist in the world.

Read more: Gender stereotypes and the male nude in art

LUX: Is there a responsibility with your influence? Are you tempted to use it?
Rachel Whiteread: I’ve got two children and a job, and I don’t have the energy for it. Maybe later on. My parents were both very political and it’s certainly in my DNA. The ways I can influence people are by giving lectures, by sharing my work.

LUX: How does it feel to be the Whitechapel Gallery’s Art Icon for 2019?
Rachel Whiteread: It’s nice to be recognised for the many decades of hard work, and everyone likes to be recognised. It is a great honour. The Whitechapel is a fantastic institution doing fantastic things and has such a great and rich history.

‘Holocaust Memorial’ (1995-2000) in the Judenplatz, Vienna

LUX: Do you believe that gallery funding should come from the state?
Rachel Whiteread: When they’re very much community-led galleries, which places like the Whitechapel are, then I would say yes. They’re for a community as they’ve always been. It’s just extremely hard raising money for galleries, and now there are a lot more than there used to be, they all need funding and they all have to find ways of making money. It’s complicated. But they are therefor the public and therefore the government should fund them.

LUX: Does the amount of money being spent in the art market seem strange?
Rachel Whiteread: The whole economics of the art market doesn’t sit comfortably with me. A lot of artists are generally left-ish, and a lot of them find that dichotomy difficult, because it’s a tough thing to think about.

LUX: Is it true that the punk movement influenced your generation in the art world?
Rachel Whiteread: Absolutely. I grew up in the seventies in London, I went to a few punk gigs. They were a bit rough for me to be honest [laughs]. But I was quite young at the time, so I’d go to the Marquee in Wardour Street [in Soho]. The gigs were pretty scary but they had an enormous influence upon me.

‘Monument’ (2001), installed in Trafalgar Square, London as part of the Fourth Plinth Project

LUX: Did you have any idea at art school what kind of art you would go on to produce?
Rachel Whiteread: No, the whole development of making my art was a gradual process, but certainly the seeds were sown at Brighton [Polytechnic] and the Slade [UCL London].

LUX: Did you always plan to be an artist?
Rachel Whiteread: Not initially, though my mother was an artist and there was always a strong familial influence. However, I always imagined that I would have to teach in order to sustain my practice as an artist. I have been very fortunate though, and my art has supported me.

LUX: Was it serendipity that you and the other Young British Artists, such as Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, were contemporaries?
Rachel Whiteread: It was total serendipity. People say it was a movement, but it just happened to be a certain moment in time where this political and creative energy came out. One of the artists I relate to most is Sarah Lucas. She grew up just down the road from me and I didn’t know her when we were children – we came from very different backgrounds. I was from a middle-class home and she was from a working-class family, but there was definitely the London energy in the work we both made. The YBAs were simply how the stars were aligned and we were fortunate to be doing our work together at the same time.

Rachel Whiteread is the Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon 2019 with Swarovski. Visit whitechapelgallery.org/support/art-icon-swarovski

This article was first published in the Winter 19 Issue.

An image from the first Alsara by Damiani campaign with Aliya Nazarbayeva wearing earrings and ring with turquoise and black-and-white diamonds

How does a historic Italian jewellery brand come to dedicate an entire collection to the traditions and culture of Kazakhstan? Through a little bit of serendipity, and some inspiration from one of the world’s ancient nomadic cultures, as LUX Editor-at-Large Gauhar Kapparova discovers

Guido, Silvia and Giorgio Damiani

Italian fine jewellery brand Damiani first opened stores in Almaty and Astana in 2005, following the brand’s strategy for global expansion under the leadership of third-generation Damiani family members, Guido, Giorgio and Silvia. The brand’s sensuous Italian style and commitment to hand-crafted detail quickly captured the attention of Kazakh women, whilst the Damiani siblings, who travel frequently to the country on business, became increasingly fascinated and enamoured by the culture and traditions there. A deep and mutual affection grew organically between brand and country, leading to the idea of a cross-cultural collaboration.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

To create Alsara, a collection inspired by and dedicated to Kazakhstan, the President’s youngest daughter Aliya Nazarbayeva teamed up in 2011 with Zhanna Kan, the owner of Damiani Kazakhstan and the driving force behind the new line. The name Alsara is a portmanteau combining Aliya and her mother’s name Sara, and pays tribute to the influence of not just them but also all the Kazakh women the jewellers have met.

Unique necklace ‘Tumar’ with blue sapphires, rubies, diamonds and semi-precious stones

The collection began as a conversation between Aliya and Damiani’s Italy-based designers, during which Aliya educated the brand on ancient Kazakh ornament, such as the traditional tumar necklace and bilezik cuff. These styles were reimagined and transformed by expert craftsmen in Damiani’s historic ateliers in Valenza, where Enrico Grassi Damiani opened his first goldsmith’s laboratory in 1924. The result was a collection of intricate gold and precious stone pieces, marrying refined Italian craftsmanship with Kazakh heritage. Following a sold-out range, the collection broadened to include silver and semi-precious stones, such as onyx and turquoise, typical of Kazakh jewellery.

Read more: Meet the new creative entrepreneurs

Bridging two distinct cultures, the Alsara collection melds tradition with contemporary fashion. “Alsara pieces became not only stylish accessories for modern Kazakh women but also perfect gifts for weddings and kudalyk, which are the engagement ceremonies,” comments Zhanna Kan. “They are regarded as family jewels to be preserved and handed down.”

The Alsara by Damiani campaign with Gulnara Chaizhunussova wearing silver earrings and a bracelet and ring with green agate, citrine and diamonds

Alsara’s most recent designs reveal a striking modern look for the collection, reflecting the evolving cosmopolitan culture of Kazakhstan. Colourful gemstones have been replaced with black and white diamonds, producing a pared-back aesthetic with hints of Art Deco and oriental motives. The Kazakh heritage has not been lost, however, and neither has the craft; the collection continues to be entirely handmade in Italy whilst the influence of traditional Kazakh jewellery remains in the threads of delicately curved silver, drawing on artisanal methods of filigree.

Discover the collections: damiani.com

This article was first published in the Winter 19 Issue.

Earrings with wings motif in white and yellow gold with smoky quartz, garnet and icy diamonds

Jewellery from Damiani’s Alsara collection, including necklace in white and yellow gold with black and white diamonds and pearls, inspired by Art Deco and Kazakh ornament

A view across the Engadine valley from Muottas Muragl, above St Mortiz

Switzerland’s Engadine region has been the enchanted holiday home of the likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, Gerhard Richter and some of the world’s most discerning wealthy. LUX takes a summertime tour of this romantic paradise

Landscape photography: Isabella Sheherazade Sanai (@sheherazade_photography)

There was a moment in the evening, a point in the flow of time each day, when the colour on the mountain was perfectly balanced. Just below my balcony, the larch forest rising out of the lawn was an almost vanishing green, turning to black. The same forest was a dark emerald high up the mountainside. The high pastures above, a thin carpet of melded brown and dry, light, green. And the peak of the mountain, that minute, was just straining to catch the last of the day’s sun, emanating from behind the hotel, on the west side of the valley. It was the colour of a tarnished gold ring, glowing with the pride of being in daylight, today, while the rest of us had fallen into tonight.

Out of the trees and grass around me, the image was accompanied by a rising smell of damp, green, earthy life, its textures matching those in the glass of wine that would always accompany this ritual, a glass of pinot noir from two valleys away, in what the Swiss call the Bündner Herrschaft.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

The Waldhaus Sils, where my room and balcony were, is known for its magic. Artists, writers, musicians and poets are guests there, sometimes invited by the hotel for the inspiration they bring. Gerhard Richter, arguably the greatest living artist, unarguably one of the most expensive, was staying while I was there;  as were others from these worlds, whom I won’t identify as I didn’t spot them personally (the Waldhaus is very discreet about its guests).

The hotel sits on a forested ridge (thus the name Waldhaus – ‘Forest House’) above the village of Sils, once home to Friedrich Nietzsche, and overlooking Lake Sils, considered by many in the art world to be the most beautiful lake in Switzerland. The lake is at the southern end of the Engadine, a broad, flat, high-altitude valley making a slash through the most mountainous part of the country, its southeast corner, from Austria to Italy.

The Waldhaus Sils sits in a forest above the mystical Lake Sils, which has inspired poets, artists and writers since the 19th century

There is something about the Waldhaus Sils that no amount of money could create in a new hotel. The furnishings, from light fittings to tables, chairs, cabinets and even the signposts, look like they have come from a mid 20th-century Modernist sale at Phillips auction house. They are so perfectly positioned, as if everything has been looked at with aesthetic sight-lines in mind, and yet none of it feels Designed (with a capital D); this is just the aesthetic of the family who own the hotel. No wonder Richter and others love it so.

The Waldhaus mixes old, in the sense of mid-20th century, with a very up-to-date cuisine and wine list. Most guests take the half-board option, with dinners in a broad gallery of a dining room, with picture windows looking into the forest. Most memorable were the variations on a consommé, each night made with a different base stock; and the choucroute and pork fillet served by a visiting farmer-chef one evening.

One of the bars at the Waldhaus Sils

One day, we walked out of the hotel down through the trees until we reached the floodplain of the lake, a flat meadow between the shore and the village. It was a summer day of intense mountain sunshine – you burn much more quickly here at altitude than down on the Mediterranean – but a flapping, chilly wind reminded us of exactly where we were. Along the lakeshore, a child and a dog were paddling in the water, on a tiny beach sprouting out of the path. The path itself curved past a tiny jetty housing a couple of rowing boats, and onto a forested promontory. Dipping and rising between larch trees and the water’s edge, it offered a different perspective every minute, with changes of light and in the colour of the water on the lake. The mountains beyond emerged bigger with every step we took away from them; my own mountain, which I had watched from the balcony, was revealed to be no more than the leading ridge of a much larger cluster of peaks at the end of what was a hidden valley.

Read more: Welcome to the age of internet art

We walked along that valley the next day. To get there, we first took a cable car from Sils up to a station above the treeline, from where we looked down at a string of lakes extended all the way down the Engadine past St Moritz, and were greeted by a pack of manic, crested chickens sprinting around a coop with a view most humans would crave. We walked along a path skirting the edge of the mountainside, past uncurious cows, until a luscious green valley, alternating meadows, streams, forest and hamlets, appeared beneath us. Invisible from the Engadine, this is Val Fex, home to some of the most ancient communities in Switzerland, who used the secret nature of the place (its entrance is sheathed in a deep, forested gorge which looks impassable from below) to shelter from invaders from Italy and the Germanic lands.

Along a woodland path at the bottom of the little valley, home to thousands of butterflies, we reached the Hotel Fex, where we had a fantastic lunch made of foraged and farmed local ingredients – young beef, herbs, grasses and flowers – while gazing at the high end of the valley. It was an hour’s walk, down past the butterflies and the meadow and through the gorge, to the Waldhaus and a balcony view back up to the sunset peak.

The forested peninsula on Lake Sils, nearly 2km above sea level

St Moritz is fifteen minutes’ drive down the Engadine valley from Sils, and it has a roster of legendary palace hotels. Our destination was just outside the town of St Moritz, on a hillside. Suvretta House, one of the oldest grande dame hotels of Switzerland, surveys the surrounding scenery like a majestic ocean liner atop a wave. As we approached from Lake Silvaplana, it was almost as if nature had bent to the grand hotel, according it its centre-stage position, with nothing around it except forest and lakes, on a ledge in this long, high valley.

That was an illusion; within a couple of kilometres of Suvretta House lies one of the highest concentrations of (vacation) wealth in the world, but part of this area’s appeal is that it doesn’t look like it.

The facade of the historic Suvretta House hotel

Our junior suite at Suvretta House had six windows opening out onto a carpet of forest below, the lakes ahead, and the peaks of the Bernina range on the east side of the valley beyond. The décor was clean and crisp, a kind of safe contemporary Swiss, with plenty of rich fabrics to please luxury’s traditionalists.

The Bernina mountains are one reason for the particularly attractive climate here; they protect the area from storms sailing up from the Adriatic beyond, while to the north and west, several ranges of high mountains stand as a kind of climatic Berlin Wall to prevent the moist Atlantic air of northern Europe arriving. The result is that this is the sunniest spot in Switzerland; and Suvretta House itself lies on a sun-trap of a ridge. We discovered this the next morning, on a pre-breakfast frolic in what must be the most picturesque children’s playground in the world, carpeted in lush grass, banked on three sides by Alpine forest and on a fourth by a slope leading down to the hotel.

Read more: The Getty LA launches an African American Art Initiative

At the front of Suvretta House, the 25-metre indoor pool stretches through a conservatory alongside a broad lawn, on which sun-loungers, a giant chess set, and other leisure accoutrements are set (in summer, anyway; in winter, it would be under several metres of snow).

Suvretta House’s swimming pool

The Fuorcola Surlej restaurant above St Mortiz

Breakfast was served at the Arvenstube restaurant, and featured about 36 different types of bread, cooked (and shaped) in their own in-kitchen bakery every day from three in the morning. The buffet seemed lavish enough, until we found it extended around the corner with dozens of combinations of freshly cut fruit, more permutations of gluten-free cereal than would fit on the biggest yoga mat, an array of nuts, seeds and other health-giving items that would embarrass a health food store, and still plenty of indulgences on the pancake/ chocolate/Nutella/cooked bacon front.

We returned to the Arvenstube for dinner, at first a little apprehensive. Almost every hotel in the German-speaking Alps has a restaurant called a stube; in humble hotels these are often beer-cellar-type places serving humble food (sausages, dumplings) and good beer. Luxury hotels sometimes persist in the belief (mistaken, in our views) that a luxury stube ought to be a play on these dishes, with lashings of old- fashioned Michelin-chasing creams, foams and drizzles, and tiny portions that make you wish you had gone out for some fondue instead.

What we found instead was a revelation. In the beautiful evening light as the valley turns to night – the Arvenstube faces south – there was a menu based on the concept of ‘Switzerland  meets Latin America’ from chef Isaac Briceño Obando, and it really worked. Examples: Puschlaver lamb, baby corn, roasted spring onions, tortilla powder and mountain honey; or Swiss cheese, guava jelly, tamarind jelly and paprika coulis; or tepid char with grilled peach, palm hearts and pine nuts. It was the distinctive, balanced, vivid cuisine of someone with a real ability to understand how and by whom his dishes would be consumed. We returned there three times and always had clear, crisp options.

On the path to the aptly-named Paradise hut, above Pontresina

Goat’s cheese with rocket and truffle at Chasselas

The Suvretta House also owns the Gault Milau-celebrated restaurant just up the road, the Chasselas. At the bottom of a piste, with its own chairlift linking it to the main Corviglia ski area of St Moritz, the Chasselas tries hard to look like a pristine, immaculate but humble mountain hut; however, the cuisine and wine list are anything but humble. We loved the medium-grilled saddle and braised cheeks of Iberico pork with artichokes, balsamic onions and plain in pigna, and Irish highland lamb racks with salsa verde, grilled vegetables and barley risotto. Different chef, but the Suvretta principles remained: there was nothing on the menu to weigh you down and make you feel, like many mountain restaurants do, that you need to climb the nearest peak to burn everything off.

It’s tempting never to leave Suvretta House (either during your stay, or when it’s time to depart) but we did, one day taking a cable car up the opposite side of the valley, towards Piz Corvatsch, and walking along a rocky, dramatic, high altitude trail until we reached a restaurant in a little mountain hut on a ridge. The other side of the ridge revealed a little lake, and a flabbergasting view down to a glacier and up to a range of high, snowy, rocky peaks. Fuorcula Surlej, the restaurant, really is a humble mountain hut. The owner told us she lives there, with only her dog for company, all summer and all winter; when she returns after her autumn break to open up for the ski season, all the available water is frozen in blocks of ice and she curls up with her dog to keep warm.

A small staff in her kitchen were making dishes off a short menu; we tried the barley soup, which tasted of fields and mountains together as we ate it on the terrace, looking out at the high peaks framed by dreamy deep blue; followed by a spaghetti with ragu, flavoursome home-made food by someone whose home is a ridge at the top of nowhere, towering above the Engadine.

Darius Sanai

For more information and to book your stay visit: waldhaus-sils.ch; suvrettahouse.ch

This article was first published in the Winter 19 issue.

‘Shabdiz and Gholghoun, horses of Persian poetic myth;’ Hana Louise Shahnavaz (2018)

Are you a scientist or an artist, a genius or a poet? Do you really have to choose? Perhaps humans are more rounded than that. Some of the world’s leading scientists tell us about their favourite poets, cutting-edge poets nominate the scientific geniuses who changed the world

A LUX x ROSEWOOD COLLABORATION

Genius: Douglas Eck

“I studied English literature as an undergraduate, so I read a lot of poetry at that point in my life. I like structure, so I’m drawn to poetry that plays with metre and rhyme such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love sonnets. I also enjoy the work of American poets Elizabeth Bishop and Ezra Pound. I could [also] go on for hours about lyrics, particularly from artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Joni Mitchell, Jay-Z, Tom Waits, Björk and Georges Brassens.” For an artist to be successful, Eck believes, “They must create something new that extends our understanding of the world around us, persuading us to think differently.”

Principal scientist on the Google Brain team in San Francisco, Douglas Eck spends his days working on Magenta, a research project exploring the role of machine learning in the process of creating art and music.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

Poet: Sabrina Mahfouz

“The concept of a singular genius to me is something very male – that one person can have a great idea and that all the hundreds or thousands of people responsible for making it happen can get pushed into anonymity! I believe in collective genius but not in an individual one. What’s happening in the worlds of technology and activism seem to be the most illuminating examples of collective genius around today – both areas which inform and inspire my own work constantly.”

An award-winning writer, playwright and poet, Sabrina Mahfouz is one of the most exciting voices on the creative arts scene today.

Genius: Richard Sargeant

“I don’t foresee my favourite poems in my battered copy of Francis Turner Palgrave’s Golden Treasury ever being replaced by AI, because we don’t buy art for its function, but for its story and experience. I might admire poems for their cleverness, but I love them for the character they reveal. I love Milton’s courage in the face of his blindness (which is described in his poem When I Consider How My Light Is Spent) and G.K. Chesterton’s joyful humility in the epic The Ballad of the White Horse.

“As with other art forms, it isn’t ultimately the quality of the stanzas, but the resonance of the experience that stands behind them that gives poetry its purchase on our mood and our imagination. In poetry, the spirit of the work is the essence of what we value.”

Richard Sargeant is chief commercial officer at ASI Data Science, a leader in the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to real world business and public policy problems. The company was listed on this year’s Tech Track Ones to Watch

Poet: Hollie McNish

“I recently watched the American biographical film Hidden Figures, so right now the three geniuses inspiring me are the mathematicians who worked in Nasa during the space race: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. I am so fascinated by this sort of mathematical brain. Saying that, I’m not sure how I feel about the idea of a genius. The first idea I had of this concept was Roald Dahl’s Matilda. But after that, in all my education and university life, geniuses – until this film– were so strongly aligned to the white male that I found the concept almost ridiculous.”

Performance poet and writer Hollie McNish has published five books of poetry, including ‘Nobody Told Me‘, which won the 2016 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry

Read more: Philippe Sereys de Rothschild on fine wine & supporting the arts

Genius: Ian Blatchford

“Poetry has a rapier-like quality, revealing our emotions, motives and sometimes hubris,which is why I love the work of John Donne so much. You can find it in science too. I like to think mathematics is the poetry of science,a kind of haiku in which you can spin a whole universe and its destiny out of a few symbols.”

Ian Blatchford has been director and chief executive of the Science Museum Group for the past eight years. Previously he was deputy director of London’s V&A Museum

Poet: Rosy Carrick

“Nikola Tesla was the Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer who was best known for his contribution to the design of electric currents. What’s interesting about Tesla is the line between creativity and insanity. Often the work of a creative genius can seem like magic or craziness but we realise later that it is someone simply ahead of their time.”

For the past eight years, writer and performer Rosy Carrick has been a co-host of the Latitude Festival poetry stage and also co-curates the Port Eliot Festival poetry stage.

THE CARLYLE, A ROSEWOOD HOTEL

New York is a city steeped in poets, from the likes of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg to today’s virtuosos on the slam poetry scene. The Carlyle Hotel has the great fortune to have a legacy in both camps, as legend on the Upper East Side, home to the city’s aristocracy, and for its Bemelmans Bar, famously decorated by illustrator extraordinaire Ludwig Bemelmans.

rosewoodhotels.com

This article was originally published in the Winter 2019 issue

Looks from the MANDKHAI Autumn/ Winter 2018 collection

Mongolian designer Mandkhai Jargalsaikhan’s eponymous brand is dedicated to the sustainable production of high quality cashmere. Using yarn spun from the coats of free roaming goats, the cashmere is dyed and then delicately crafted into elegant, contemporary garments. We ask the designer 6 Questions.

Mandkhai Jargalsaikhan

1. What’s your favourite memory from your childhood?

My favourite memories will have to be the times I spent at the factory growing up. My parents always worked until late so I would often be with them at the factory watching the craftsmen do their jobs and playing around.

We got visitors regularly at the factory and one time everyone kept asking me to go this man and ask for an autograph. I did as I was told not knowing who it was because I must have been around 5-6 years old. Later I found out it was Richard Gere!

2. Why did you want to start your own brand?

I started MANDKHAI because I saw that there was a gap in the market for well designed, modern cashmere pieces. Everything I saw was very basic and old fashioned. After studying fashion design in London, I felt like I could offer something more exciting using my background in cashmere production. We make everything ourselves in our factory in Mongolia and are vertically integrated, so I really wanted to show the different processes and give an insight into the craftsmanship and expertise that goes into the production of cashmere, which in itself is sustainable.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

My name means to rise above in Mongolian. I decided to stick with my name because I wanted the brand to be personal and relatable while staying true to my roots.

MANDKHAI Spring/ Summer 2019 collection

3. What’s your top tip for recognising and buying high quality cashmere?

Just because it’s super soft does not necessarily mean it’s good quality cashmere. Do have a look at where it was made. Mongolian cashmere (not to be confused with inner Mongolia as that’s a region in China) is of higher quality because the cashmere comes from free roaming goats that produce the fibre to survive the harsh winters reaching up to -50C. Good quality cashmere will last you decades and becomes even softer as you wear it and will even stop pilling.

4. Do you think it’s possible for fashion to become fully sustainable?

Everything is possible, so yes I do think fashion can become fully sustainable. It just needs people to want it.

Read more: Canary Wharf Group’s MD Camille Waxer on urban transformation

5. Who or what is inspiring you right now?

A trip I took to Wyoming and Jackson hole is currently inspiring me. The nature is beautiful there and it’s similar to Mongolia in some areas. Our next collection is based on this trip and I am very excited to share it soon.

MANDKHAI Spring/ Summer 2019 collection

6. What’s next for MANDKHAI?

Recently we have added a menswear line and are excited to see the growth as we are getting good responses. I think fashion is becoming more and more androgynous and it will be definitely interesting to design for men. We will also keep pushing our womenswear and work to create an awareness around cashmere production.

Discover the MANDKHAI collections: mandkhai.com

Caroline on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival closing ceremony in May this year

Caroline Scheufele is co-president of Chopard, the Swiss jeweller and watchmaker that has been run by her family for more than 150 years. As head of the women’s collections and fine-jewellery range, she has made the Cannes Film Festival a dazzling stage for the brand’s showbiz ambassadors to display a new range of bespoke creations every year. Her time running the company has seen the rise of the Chinese market and the emergence of social media. LUX Editor in-Chief Darius Sanai visits her at Chopard’s Geneva HQ to discuss doing business in Beijing, how to keep innovating and how the best ideas come in the rain

LUX: We just looked at the atelier where you create your individual pieces, and what struck me was the creativity and ‘anything goes’ style of these one-offs. Is Chopard becoming more creative or has it always been like this?
Caroline Scheufele: I think Chopard has always been known for being one of the most creative in the watch and jewellery market. But over the years there has been a big evolution – especially over the past 10 years when I started to introduce the Red Carpet collection that we release annually in Cannes. We started with the 60th anniversary, so crazily enough I said we will make 60 special pieces, and every year we add one, so we are now up to 71.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

A Red Carpet Collection necklace

It’s a big challenge for the workshop. Over the past 10 years there was a big evolution and maybe even revolution within high jewellery because we started to work a lot with titanium and even now ceramic and aluminium, and you get a completely different finishing look than if you only work with gold. Personally, I love to wear big earrings and that’s why we started a lot with titanium because normally big earrings are very heavy because of the gold, and the worst thing is when you sit at a dinner and you see a woman taking off her earrings on the table because they hurt.

That’s also the practical side of it, if you use titanium – like on the big orchids in this year’s collection – they are like feathers. And now we can colour the titanium, which we can’t do with gold. When we started my father said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘It’s not written anywhere that diamonds have to be set in gold.’ It’s just historically always been done like that.

LUX: You were inspired by your recent travels?
Caroline Scheufele: Yes, I travel a lot. I just came back from two weeks in China which is always very inspiring. And there are a lot of things you can pick up in ancient architecture or colours or music. But there is not a given moment when you say, ‘OK, today I’m going to sit down and be creative.’ It doesn’t happen like that. But it often happens when I travel which is good because I always come home with ideas and you always need new ideas. I love architecture. I think if I would not have been doing what I do with the family I probably would have gone into architecture.

Emerald and diamond earrings (above) and necklace from Chopard’s Red Carpet collection

LUX: When you are travelling, do you have to force yourself to go out of the usual itinerary to get to the inspirations?
Caroline Scheufele: I fight with my team because this time, for example, I was two days in Xi’an, an old capital of China where they had the first Emperor, and very close to the Terracotta Warriors. I said, “No matter what, I am going there. Please put these two hours into my programme.” And like always my team say, “Ah no, no but you have to do this…”. I mean, I was in China five times last year and I still haven’t seen the Great Wall.

Read more: Entrepreneur Adrian Cheng & landscape architect James Corner are redesigning Hong Kong

LUX: For the Cannes unique pieces is it really carte blanche? You create whatever you want and clients will buy them?
Caroline Scheufele: It’s pretty much carte blanche. We do have a theme, but otherwise anything goes.

LUX: Do you worry they won’t get sold?
Caroline Scheufele: No… we have a very nice group of clients who are very attached to the brand and they get to see them pre-Cannes. And then we may have other customers who want the pieces but we only make one of each.

Caroline sketching the palme d’or design

A Red Carpet Collection bracelet

LUX: China has gone from zero to biggest market in the world in the past 15 years. How have you established yourselves as the brand with the power that you have over there? Because they didn’t know Chopard previously.
Caroline Scheufele: We started with some agents and now we run China ourselves, we have our own office in Shanghai and another in Beijing and a big one in Hong Kong. First it was more about watches but now the Chinese have discovered branded jewellery. We have our Chinese ambassadresses and when they wear something, the next day it can be sold out. They are very celebrity-driven so it’s a lot about social media. China is also so big. When you go to a city like Beijing, it’s 22 million people, almost three times Switzerland. The dimensions are so different. Last time I met a very nice successful lady, who runs a family business, but they have 320,000 employees – that’s the whole city of Geneva!

LUX: You have to visit China in person, right?
Caroline Scheufele: Yes, they appreciate meeting the family. They like the personal interaction. We had an exhibition at a luxury fair in Hainan, and we printed a book in Chinese. I gave it to a lady and the next morning she knew everything in the book, she had read the whole thing, which probably wouldn’t happen in America.

LUX: Is the perception of luxury changing in China?
Caroline Scheufele: Certain brands were very popular in the beginning when China opened up, and now certain people in the Chinese elite are going for smaller brands because it’s more chic or less widely seen. I met a very interesting professor from Beijing University who was giving some background on China, about how things change quickly. Within the past three years, 100 million people moved from poverty into the middle class but in the next six years it will be 300 million more. They set themselves goals and visions and they really do them.

Cate Blanchett wearing Chopard creations at this year’s Cannes Film Festival

LUX: Are consumers around the world less loyal to brands and is that a problem?
Caroline Scheufele: It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity. It’s also stimulating for us to be more innovative and more creative. And fast.

Read more: Parisian designer Jacques Garcia on creating spaces for seduction

LUX: Is speed an advantage because you’re a family company?
Caroline Scheufele: It’s an advantage because if something is urgent we can make things quickly because everything is in-house. Also we can stop something and say, ‘Now we make this engagement ring because their engagement is the day after tomorrow.’ Which in other companies is more complex. They have [to get] 10 people’s signatures before they even start the design, and we’ve already made the piece.

LUX: Have tastes changed around the world in the past few years?
Caroline Scheufele: Yes, jewellery has become more democratic in a way, how women wear it. So, mixing colours, mixing shades of gold. With a beautiful diamond ring you can also wear it with jeans, you don’t need to have only the long dress to go with it. So I think yes, it has changed.

Lupita Nyong’o in Chopard at this year’s Cannes Film Festival

LUX: I might have this completely wrong as an outsider, but it seems to me that jewellery used to be made by men and bought by men for women, and you’re a woman and your customers are women.
Caroline Scheufele: Women and men. Both. I sometimes call men and say, ‘Your wife’s birthday is coming up, I hope you didn’t forget it!’ But yes, previously jewellery was always something that you expected to be given as a present. Whereas certain women spend easily, they go shopping for designer clothes and they spend $10,000, $20,000 without a problem, but to buy yourself a beautiful diamond ring was not so much on the menu. I think now a lot of women are independent, they make their own money, they also buy their own jewellery, they might still be married but they sometimes go, ‘Ah, this is new?’ ‘Yes, I just bought it for myself.’ The behaviour of buying has changed, also with the advent of e-commerce.

Actress Celina Jade also wearing Chopard at this year’s Cannes Film Festival

Caroline with Jacky Ickx and her brother Karl- Friedrich Scheufele at Cannes

LUX: Is that going to become more and more important?
Caroline Scheufele: We have to work with both. I still like magazines, I’m not somebody who can read a book on iPhone. I still like the touch of paper, but maybe I’m not this very young generation… I still think there is a difference. A lot of people get information first online and then they go to the destination, physical shopping. So, the digital side is important. How you present your company. I think there will always be stores. But the stores today have to be much more of a lifestyle experience. The people who sell have to be better. It’s not good when the client knows more about diamonds than the salesperson.

A Red Carpet Collection necklace

LUX: Do clients care about your decision this year to only use Fairmined products?
Caroline Scheufele: I think it definitely appeals a lot to the younger generation because they are much more alert, today, about the planet, about sustainability and responsibility. The other day I had lunch with a friend and the son came in. We were talking about tennis shoes and he said, “Mummy no, no, no, you cannot buy this brand. It’s not good because they use kids.” And the mother said, “Ah.” The little one is six years old. So there is much more information and I think we all have to take care of the planet, we cannot just wait for the next generation to clean up.

LUX: You met the miner who mined the diamond you bought from Botswana, the Kalahari Diamond. Is the female empowerment element important for you?
Caroline Scheufele: It is important. And what was the beauty of the Kalahari is that a woman found it and it was on a Sunday. For me this was a unique experience, because I really followed everything from A to Z – from the mine to the cutting to the design. And then obviously we presented, we made the presentation in Paris and we invited the lady who found the stone to the presentation. And she had never been out of the village, so they had to get passports and visas, and she came with her son and then they went to Versailles. They were there one week, and in Versailles the son said, “Is this ice?” because it was the first time he had seen snow. So that, it was nice, it was actually nice.

LUX: Do you get inspiration for your next ideas in unlikely places?
Caroline Scheufele: Yes, I do. Once, we had rented a boat and we were very unlucky because it basically rained for the whole week, so what do you do? You watch movies, you read, you go and eat, you read more, you listen to music. And I was looking around, thinking, ‘How important the sun is!’ And your mood is down, and that’s when I had the idea of doing the Happy Sun collection. I designed it in the rain.

View Chopard’s collections at: chopard.com

Geoffrey Kent standing next to a helicopter in Tasmania, Australia. Image courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent

Founder and CEO of luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent, and regular LUX columnist, Geoffrey Kent began his career by taking tourists on safaris in Kenya. Now his business operates tours across the globe by land, sea and air – on board the A&K private jet, naturally. As Geoffrey Kent launches his Safari Collection of travel apparel and luggage, Digital Editor Millie Walton asks the luxury travel pioneer about his greatest memories, worst fears and how it all began

LUX: If you could relive one moment in time, what would it be?
Geoffrey Kent: The moment I turned down the opportunity to have dinner with Nelson Mandela. What could have been more important than that? I can’t recall now, but I do keenly feel the regret I have that I never met him. He was so inspiring.

Alternatively, I would relive the dinner I had in New York with former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate Kofi Annan, who passed away recently. I was so impressed with him and grateful to him for saving Kenya, my home, when he brokered a power sharing deal between the president, Mwai Kibaki, and the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, in the aftermath of the 2007-8 post-election crisis, bringing peace and prosperity back to Kenya.

On the action front, to win that US Open again would be amazing. It would be a ‘Field of Dreams’.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

LUX: What frustrates you the most about the current travelling industry?
Geoffrey Kent: The lack of regulation in the so-called ‘collaborative economy’ for businesses such as Uber and Airbnb. I’ve used Ubers and stayed in Airbnbs. I think both are amazing, innovative products. The problem is with licensing. I think if I were a taxi driver, I would be very unhappy about Uber. Likewise, Airbnbs are putting licensed hotel operators out of business. There can’t be rules for one and not the other.

Princess Diana congratulates Prince Charles and Geoffrey Kent at the Guard’s Polo Club, 1987. Image courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent

LUX: Where do you long to go back to?
Geoffrey Kent: I had the privilege to visit Gabon recently at the invitation of President Ali Bongo Ondimba. In an executive Puma helicopter, I cruised the coast and flew over forests, the sand cliffs, and Kongou and Djidji Falls. I fell in love with Loango National Park where I spotted elephant, hippo, and buffalo. One group of elephant were swimming off the beach with their trunks raised out of the water like snorkels. Tourism is still a fledgling industry in Gabon, but I predict it will take off in a big way and soon, and I hope A&K can be part of it. I’ll definitely be back.

Read more: Geoffrey Kent on finding new places in a well-travelled world

LUX: When were you last afraid?
Geoffrey Kent: I went into Iraq with some SAS guys in 2010. There were some hairy moments during that trip, however the thing that concerns me most on an ongoing basis is climate change. The polar icecaps are melting, there are prolonged heat waves and the sea levels are rising. My concern is there’s no way we can just throw up our hands and say “stop!”. We’re going down this chute far too fast and I believe it’s far worse than we think. Even if we stop burning fossil fuels in the next decade, we might tragically lose some low-lying countries. As both a father and a global citizen, I’m very afraid of climate change. It’s not just about carbon off-setting (though everyone should do that), it’s about sustainability going forwards. For my part, I’m very proud of what Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy is doing around the world in its 41 projects in 20 countries.

LUX: What’s the most recent lesson you’ve learnt?
Geoffrey Kent: That quality is synonymous with luxury has always been my mantra. When I launched the Geoffrey Kent Safari collection of timeless, high-performance, luxury travel apparel and luggage for today’s adventurer, I learned quickly that for me, quality means ‘made in Italy’. I found a manufacturer in Monza, a town just outside of Milan. I like to have a very close relationship with my suppliers and get involved every step of the way. There is such passion and detail put into each and every cut of leather and every stitch made by hand. That same flair and attention to the minutiae has always gone into every bespoke holiday and escorted tour that A&K has created – those are the secret ingredients that clients perhaps can’t put their finger on but always know if they are missing.

Geoffrey Kent and his parents set up Abercrombie & Kent with the intention of hosting safaris around Kenya

LUX: What did you want to be growing up?
Geoffrey Kent: I was obsessed with polo from the time I learnt the sport. When I was 14, Major Digby Tatham-Warter – a family friend – was training in me in three-day eventing at his farm in Eburru. One day he said: “Geoff, you’re excellent in the saddle and you’ve got quick reflexes. Why not try your hand at polo? It’s a much more exciting sport”. And how right he was. Polo excited me wildly and I spent hundreds of afternoons riding ponies with a polo stick in my hand. I became a world-class player and eventually I captained the Windsor Park polo team – which included HRH The Prince of Wales. Together with my US Abercrombie & Kent team, I also won a Cartier Open, World Open Championship, US Gold Cup, and two US Open victories. These victories were dreams come true and more than I could have imagined as a 14 year old learning at Eburru.

Other than that, I would have liked to have been a helicopter pilot or fly fighter jets. I love airplanes and helicopters, plus I’m a bit of an action junkie.

Read more: Northacre CEO Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro on creating dream homes

LUX: So how and when did Abercrombie & Kent begin?
Geoffrey Kent: In February 1960, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan gave his famous ‘Winds of Change’ speech in Cape Town. This address stated that colonial rule could not go on and in 1962, the British government gave Kenya self-governance and determined that the farms in the highlands would be returned to the Kikuyu people. The Kenyan government forced my parents off the farm they’d spent two and a half decades creating in the Aberdares, South Kinangop in Kenya.

Fortunately, my parents – Colonel John and Valerie Kent – had sensed this coming and my father had landed a job as a part-time guide with a local travel company. He had been the first person to map the route from Kenya to Nigeria whilst in the army, so Dad knew the roads and sights of Africa better than any tour guide in the region and thus was able to earn a good wage – especially from American travellers, who tipped generously when they liked a guide.

In 1962, my parents and I made a decision to go in as partners, founding our own travel company (picking the ‘Abercrombie’ out of a phonebook), with the intention of hosting safaris around Kenya, and possibly moving into other areas of Africa.

LUX: And now you’re organising luxury tours across the globe as well as leading your own personal expeditions! What happens next?
Geoffrey Kent: A&K will continue to offer tailor-made luxury holidays and unparalleled escorted-tour experiences. Someone once calculated that I travel 300,000 miles per year. I’d say that was the average. My lifetime total is 17 million miles. When I last counted I had been to 148 countries and there are so many more I still need to see – I have no plans to slow down. I’m currently planning two or three of my Inspiring Expedition by Geoffrey Kent, which are innovative and amazing in every way.

To find out more about Abercrombie & Kent visit: abercrombiekent.com

Andy Warhol, The Scream (After Munch), 1984 © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Photo Sparebankstiftelsen DNB

Andy Warhol first became properly interested in Edvard Munch on a visit to Oslo in 1971, where he spent time at the National Gallery and the Munch Museum. He was said to be a great admirer of Munch’s prints, far more so, in fact, than of his paintings. The Norwegian master was not only a prolific printmaker, but also technologically innovative; he enjoyed experimenting with textures and colours, which naturally resonated with Warhol as a leading figure in the Pop Art movement.

Madonna and Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm (After Munch), Andy Warhol, 1984. © Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

Between 1938 and 1984, Warhol produced a series of 15 prints, known as After Munch,  featuring some of Munch’s most renowned motifs. Like most of Warhol’s best-known works, these prints transform the meaning of the original image to lend a new and intriguing perspective.

Eva Mudocci (After Munch), Andy Warhol, 1984. © Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum

Read more: Why The Thief is Oslo’s coolest hotel

The most striking example of this – and the stand out piece on display in the Munch Museum – is Warhol’s interpretation of the The Scream. One of the most iconic artworks of the 20th century, if not of all time, Warhol’s reproduction of the The Scream using different colour variations and stencils gives the work a completely different mood, thus encouraging the viewer to more deeply consider the artistic process.

‘Andy Warhol – After Munch’ runs until the 26th August at the Munch Museum, Oslo. For opening times visit: munchmuseet.no/en/exhibitions/andy-warhol-after-munch

Millie Walton

Flagpole Summer 18 Collection

New York based swimwear label, Flagpole is a Cali-surfer girl’s dream. Clean lines, block colours and bikinis that won’t fall off every time you dive into the sea. LUX asks co-founders Megan Balch and Jamie Barker how they do it.

Jaime Barker and Megan Balch

1. Describe the Flagpole woman.

The Flagpole woman loves to travel, always active in her pursuit for exploration. She is sophisticated, practical and embraces a sporty edge to her style. She appreciates quality in all aspects of her life.

2. How does the collaborative design process work?

We have the same taste but very different strengths in our designing. We like to choose the colour palette together and with that, the collection really starts to come together. It’s the blend of Megan’s focus on functionality and Jaime’s artistic vision that gives Flagpoleits signature design.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

3. What’s inspiring you at the moment?

It’s almost always architecture. We just returned from a trip to Chicago bursting with ideas and appreciation from their skyline.

The Lori top with Frida skirt from the Flagpole Summer 18 Collection

4. What comes first, functionality or style?

Honestly, it’s a combination. They are not mutually exclusive. Without artistic vision, Flagpole would not have its voice. Without functionality, it would not have its progress. We must have both to embrace and succeed in our story. So when we approach a new concept, both are simultaneously in conversation.

Read more: The ultimate mid-week escape at The Royal Crescent hotel, Bath

5. Your collections always have a distinct colour palette. How do you decide on the shades?

Colour is something we both find very emotional. We spend a lot of time working to find the perfect colour combinations that speak to what we want to feel in our collection. The painstaking process of balancing warm and cool tones is honestly one of the most exciting and aggravating stages. But we will work until we both feel that every shade is perfect.

The Gia one-piece from the Flagpole Summer 18 Collection

6. What’s next for the brand?

There are so many things in the works we can’t wait to share with the world. One we can say, and are excited to announce, is that this summer we’ll be launching our Men’s line!

View the collections and buy online at flagpolenyc.com

The UR-105 provides an analogue and digital display of the time

URWERK’s unique approach to high horology has established it as one of the most creative and desirable brands in the industry. URWERK’s watches are like nothing else on the market, reinventing the design of a timepiece to put function and artistry above conventional wisdom; and, despite their modernity, taking inspiration from the Huguenot tradition of clock making that once changed the world. LUX Editor in Chief Darius Sanai speaks with Felix Baumgartner about innovations and collaborative design

LUX: You grew up around English clockmaking rather than watches. Can you tell us a bit about your early education in the industry?
Felix Baumgartner: Absolutely, my grandfather worked at IWC, but my father didn’t really like the big company structures; he was more into history, antique clocks. So after working at IWC for a brief period, my father opened up his own atelier at home, where he still restores clocks. That was my school, it was where I learned about clocks, and also about watchmaking because it is similar. There’s a difference in proportion between clocks and watches, and watches are only 120 years old, before that you only had clocks.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

When I grew up in the beginning of the 90s I saw a watch industry which was very much focussed on watches with very traditional tourbillon, but all the time there were the same complications and the same approaches, which, for me, was not at all contemporary. From my mother, I learnt a contemporary open-mindedness (my mother loved, and still loves, contemporary art, architecture and music) and from my father I learnt the history, knowledge and mechanical passion. However, it was difficult to bring these two things together so I started working with Martin Frei (co-founder of URWERK). Martin isn’t actually a designer, he was working in film and painting at the time we met, but it was so interesting for me to work with someone from the artistic world to create a new concept for a watch, and to think about what a watch can be today.

Felix Baumgartner at work in the URWERK studios

LUX: Had anyone else taken this approach in high end horology?
Felix Baumgartner: I think in high end watchmaking we were the first. You have Audemars Piguet; in the 70s, they made the Royal Oak, and the Royal Oak as a case is very contemporary. It is a very, very nice watch but they concentrated on the case, and didn’t look at the movement. In traditional watchmaking, you always have a case and then you have the movement inside, it is very separate and what is unique about our approach is that we create one piece, in which the movement and case speak together. What we do is very pure, very minimalist.

LUX: Did you know that people would want something like this at the high end or did you just hope? How did you create the market for your watches?
Felix Baumgartner: We were very naive! I was 22 years old, Martin was a bit older, but we were both very young, we are still young… You have to understand everybody had these polished wooden cases with a nice golden watch and we wanted to disturb the old values. When you look at architecture, or cars for example, the design process moves on but the watchmakers in Switzerland still continue with the same methods.

A lot of other watch brands try to copy what was done 100 years ago, but it is changing. 20 years ago we were absolutely alone, apart from at the entrance level where you always had contemporary watches such as Swatch; Swatch was absolutely up to date. In the middle range you had Tag Heuer and Omega. But we’re not businessmen, I’m a watchmaker and Martin is an artist, we love what we do, it’s 100% passion. We showed up at 22 years old and some people hated it, others were astonished, they didn’t know what was going on.

Read more: Swarovski x Design Miami/ designers of the future

LUX: The mechanical movement in your watches is very advanced and sophisticated…
Felix Baumgartner: Yes, we are working with the latest materials and because most of our mechanisms didn’t exist in the past, we have to invent them, which is challenging.

The UR-210 is our most complicated watch today, but it still feels simple. It is a very nice way to tell the time, because you can read the time actually without having to turn the wrist. We only make 150 watches per year, it’s a very limited production. The parts are made in Zurich by a very specific professional team, and then in the town of Aarau there’s a team doing the research, the technical dossier, the engineers and prototyping and in Geneva you have final assembling and then the communication side.

The UR-210 in black platinum

LUX: The people who buy Urwerk what do they have in common? It seems that buying watches like yours is like collecting art or cars…
Felix Baumgartner: Yes, to me, the watchmaking of today is an expression of mechanical artisanal art. It’s a little machine that you have on your wrist, which you can understand, you can hear it, you can feel it and at the same time it tells you the time. But it also is kind of a jewellery, a “bijou” for men, also for women.

LUX: How does your collaborative design process work?
Felix Baumgartner: I’ve known Martin for 25 years, and we’ve worked together on URWERK for 20 years. We call our design process: ‘ping-pong’. We meet, but also speak on the phone almost everyday. Martin lives and works in Zurich, whilst I’m in Geneva most of the time so we play with ideas then he sends it over and I send it back, it’s a ping pong. Largely though, I’m still the mechanic and he’s the aesthete.

Read more: Luxury handbag brand Moynat opens with style in Selfridges, London

LUX: Unlike many luxury brands, you don’t do any kind of celebrity marketing. You say that the product speaks for itself, what do you mean by that?
Felix Baumgartner: We are lucky because we do not have to go the ambassadors, to the actors or to the important people in the industry, they are coming to us. For example, Ralph Lauren is a collector of several works, Jackie Chan wore the UR-202 in a film and basketball player, Michael Jordan. Robert Downey Jr has worn our watches in movies too. Usually companies like Sony Pictures ask a lot of money for product placement, but it was Robert Downey Jr who asked us, not the other way round!

LUX: What’s next for URWERK? Any big plans?
Felix Baumgartner: Let’s say it’s already happening, we are working on a new invention which we will present in a few months…

To view URWERK’s collections visit: urwerk.com

Moynat’s Artistic Director, Ramesh Nair

Ramesh Nair worked under Martin Margiela and Jean Paul Gaultier at Hermès until luxury titan Bernard Arnault came calling in 2011,with his personal brand Moynat. The artistic director of the Paris-based luggage house tells LUX why Paris is his inspiration – and why London is Moynat’s hot destination this year

LUX: What role does Paris play in your creative inspiration?
Ramesh Nair: Paris is the city I have lived in the longest at a single stretch and I still find it amazing, creatively speaking. Inspiration comes from many things big and small – simply living here, walking the streets, observing the buildings and the people. The juxtaposition of the old and the new, the quality of the light and the depth of the sky, the architecture (always look upwards while walking through the city). And the unmistakable Parisian style.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

Paris is a unique city where the past is always with us even as we live modern lives. For me, this is perfectly captured by I.M. Pei’s pyramid for the Louvre with its Cubist inspiration and its determinedly modern use of materials like steel and glass, the perfect counter-balance to the classical architecture of the Louvre itself.

This is the ideal I hold in my mind when I create modern bags or trunks for Moynat: to strike an equilibrium between heritage and modernity, between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design.

LUX: What’s your favourite part of the city?
Ramesh Nair: Each district in Paris has its own unique personality and flavour. On the left bank, I have a soft spot for the Beaux Arts neighbourhood. Across the river from the Louvre, this is a warren of old streets steeped in history. The profusion of art galleries, specialised boutiques with unusual products, and the presence of the Beaux Arts school helps keep the neighbourhood youthful and avant-garde. The hotel where Oscar Wilde spent his last days is located here, too.

Moynat Breakfast Trunk for the chef Yannick Alléno

On the right bank, I like the area from Trinité to the Montmartre neighbourhoods. I like the mix of art galleries and artists’ studios, theatres and cabarets, small-scale industries like printers, right next to open-air markets. The Théâtre Réjane was set up in this neighbourhood in 1906 and still functions under the name Petit Théâtre de Paris. There is some remarkable modern architecture to discover, including Adolf Loos’s house for Tristan Tzara.

Mini Gabrielle bag by Moynat

LUX: Ever feel the urge to reconnect with nature, away from the big city?
Ramesh Nair: When I have the time, I prefer to drive out of town in search of greenery. Every year, I take a few weeks to explore different parts of France, to discover the diversity of natural beauty in this country, not to mention the wines of the different regions or terroirs.

LUX: Your inside track on Parisian cuisine?
Ramesh Nair: Since I am vegetarian, I often have to ask restaurants to accommodate my choice and I have had some lovely surprises. One of my favourite places in Paris is La Bauhinia at the Shangri-la where chef Christophe Moret impressed me not just with the quality of his organic, locally sourced vegetarian ingredients, but also with the way he elaborates his choices, and of course the exquisite cocktails.

Read more: Luxury Leaders interview with Guillaume Davin, CEO of Moynat

I am also very pleased that so many great chefs are embracing the idea of vegetarian cuisine, from Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athénée to Thierry Marx at his restaurant Camelia in the Mandarin Oriental.

For me, the fusion of different types of cuisine is really the wave of the future, but it has to be done with a lot of respect for the culinary traditions of each culture. I think chef Atsushi Tanaka has elevated this to an art form at his restaurant AT.

A Moynat Cabotin bag

LUX: Is eating out all about the cuisine?
Ramesh Nair: Not at all, I am very sensitive to the authenticity of any experience. From a very simple, home-style environment to a Michelin-star restaurant, truthfulness to one’s vision and passion will always make itself felt. Apart from the ambiance and music, the quality of the service, the contact between guests and staff, the effort made to share what the experience is all about, these are elements that feed all the senses.

LUX: What’s your cultural life in Paris?
Ramesh Nair: My two great loves are art and music. I try and catch as many concerts as possible (blues, jazz, rock…) when work allows me. I like the acoustics of the Olympia and the Grand Rex. Smaller venues like New Morning and La Maroquinerie are great if you want a more intimate setting or to discover rising stars, plus great acoustic quality.

Paris has so many art museums and galleries that it is hard to pick even a few… plus the museums are often breathtaking on their own. At the moment there are two simultaneous exhibitions showcasing the oeuvre of Martin Margiela, whom I had the privilege of working with during my early years in Paris.

Read more from the Image Issue: Gaggenau – the art and architecture of appliances

LUX: Where does a Parisian designer like you shop for clothes?
Ramesh Nair: Mostly at Yohji Yamamoto for clothes. I am obsessed with trainers, of which I have a collection of limited editions and rare models.

LUX: You travel a lot on work, what is the first thing you do when you get home?
Ramesh Nair: Relaxing with my cat is the perfect antidote for jet lag.

Moynat picnic trunk for a bicycle

LUX: What would you recommend all visitors to Paris to do?
Ramesh Nair: Paris is a city meant to be explored on foot. So, walk along the Seine, explore the Ile Saint-Louis with its historic buildings and bridges. If you walk through the Louvre courtyard at night, you can see the art through the windows and it gives you a whole new perspective.

LUX: London was the first city outside of Paris to have a Moynat store – why was that?
Ramesh Nair: Moynat has had historic ties with London since the very founding of the House. In the mid-1800s, radical advances in the way people travelled and experienced the world made it possible for houses like Moynat to reach visitors from the UK and to make their innovations and quality known. This was one of the keys to the reputation and success of Moynat. So it was a natural decision for us to make London our first store outside of Paris.

The Mount Street store is one of my favourites, for its architecture, its luminosity and its distinctive character. We will soon have a second store on the ground floor of Selfridges, which will showcase our House in a different environment and to a different type of customer.

Discover Ramesh Nair’s designs at moynat.com

Gaggenau’s Vario cooling 400 Series appliances such as this wine climate cabinet are designed to be as much part of the architecture as they are functionally capable

Kitchens were once the utilitarian core of the house. Now, leading manufacturers of kitchen appliances are more about architecture and design than just practicality, meaning they can enhance a home’s aesthetic. Emma Love meets the designer of German high-end manufacturer Gaggenau to hear how life’s all about the experience, and how kitchens can be design statements in themselves

Increasingly, design-led kitchens are an extension of the architecture of the rest of the home. Here, we look at how appliances fit in.

Two years ago, at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Japanese designer Kengo Kuma created The Floating Kitchen, which consisted of a series of shelves with ceramic bowls and plates, urns and vases that he had found in the Chinese city of Chengdu. It was part of a satellite exhibition, the Kitchen Home Project, which imagined what our living environments could look like in the future (the exhibition also included a fully transparent kitchen by Dutch studio MVRDV). And while this crystal-ball creative thinking is certainly a world away from manufacturers such as Gaggenau, whose global success is built on technological advances and an architecturally inspired design language, it does demonstrate that our notion of what a kitchen looks like is changing in all kinds of ways, from the kitchen utensils we use to the plates we serve our food on and to appliances.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

In the past few years, for instance, there has been a growing interest in knives made by specialist craftsmen. The Japanese Knife Company, which has stores in London, Paris and Stockholm, sells traditional handmade Japanese knives to chefs and home cooks. Equally, more and more chefs are commissioning ceramicists to make tableware for their restaurants, a trend which is also reflected in non-professional kitchens. And when it comes to appliances, gone are the days when refrigerators and freezers were an ugly but necessary addition to an otherwise beautifully designed kitchen.

Now, appliances are increasingly made to reflect the overall aesthetic of the room and the wider home – all clean sculptural lines that blend seamlessly with the rest of the cabinets and furniture – while still setting new standards in terms of function. In other words, the appliances themselves are a crucial part of creating a visually pleasing kitchen landscape.

“People want their kitchens to be both a purposeful and a beautiful space whilst being a seamless extension of the architecture of their home,” says interior designer Natalia Miyar. “The kitchens in our projects are always designed in context of the wider architecture of the home, often with clean silhouettes, grounded by strong, classical materials like stone and softened by interesting textures and warm metals. It is important that a kitchen is designed not as solely a utilitarian space but also to have a warmth and a relaxed feel.”

This, of course, includes the design of appliances, which Miyar says is key: “It is important that these elements tie the design together and do not jar with the rest of the scheme. There are more and more design-led functional appliances on the market but I also like to design joinery which conceals larger pieces and provides a further tailor-made aspect to the design.’

One such manufacturer leading the way with design-led functional appliances is Gaggenau, whose Vario 400 series is the first modular system of fully integrated refrigeration products that can be combined to form a cooling wall. Comprising a series of statement handleless pieces, the idea of the system is that it shifts the image of refrigerators and freezers from purely professional appliances to elegant design objects. In part this is achieved through the highest levels of craftsmanship but it is also down to the considered choice of materials (think dark anthracite aluminium, oak-wood and glass doors) and techniques used (the finer glass-bead blasting of the aluminium parts), all of which results in a super-sleek tone.

Read more from the Image Issue: Global entrepreneur Johnny Hon on promoting global exchange

“This new range for Gaggenau is the very essence of refinement in the luxury kitchen appliance market,” says head of design Sven Baacke. “We see extraordinary interior aesthetics as something that should be seen in all spheres of life, including the kitchen. Staged beautifully and with perfect illumination, you are no longer simply storing wine or refrigerating, you are making a statement.” And these days it seems that this architectural statement doesn’t end with the right placement of the cooking island or the finish on the worktops – it encompasses everything else in the kitchen too.

Gaggenau designer Lars Dinter takes inspiration from architecture

We talk to Gaggenau designer Lars Dinter about the architectural influences behind the Vario cooling 400 series.

LUX: How was the new Vario 400 series inspired by architecture?
Lars Dinter: It’s not inspired by any particular style but I’m always very interested in what’s happening in architecture in general. It’s higher than art in a way because it’s a big responsibility and architects create works that last for a very long time compared to product design, for instance. I’m always drawn to contemporary Belgian architects such as Vincent Van Duysen, Marc Merckx and CAAN Architecten. Their style is very minimalist but uses natural materials and textures so buildings still feel warm. One of my big idols is Piero Lissoni. He is a product designer who does lots of interior design and again he has a minimalist style but it’s combined with an Italian elegance.

LUX: Gaggenau regularly consults chefs, sommeliers, interior designers and architects. Did this effect the design of the 400 series?
Lars Dinter: Interior designers and architects often tell us that they wish the products would integrate better into dining rooms and kitchen. The input from sommeliers includes the fact that the LED lights that we’re using need to be free of infrared and ultra-violet wave lengths to make sure that we’re not harming the wine during long-term storage and that we need specialist storage solutions such as humidity controls for storing vegetables and fruit as people are eating more of these and less meat these days.

Read more: Geoffrey Kent on Millennials and transformational travel

LUX: What affects your choice of materials and how do you make them become part of the architecture?
Lars Dinter: It’s as much about the shapes as it is about the materials so we’ve tried to make the overall appearance of the appliances cleaner and more contemporary. With the materials, we have changed from a stainless steel anodising process to anthracite aluminium for components such as the support brackets for the glass shelves (the cavity is still clad in stainless steel). We’re using this to give the appliances a warmer, more elegant feel which we think will also integrate better into the architecture. We want the same warm atmosphere and emotional appeal to our appliances as there is elsewhere in the home without losing that powerful technical performance.

LUX: What technological advances can we see in this series?
Lars Dinter: The most important technical advancement is our opening-assist system for the doors which enables customers to have cabinet fronts without interruptions. In the past there have been handle-less kitchens but the refrigerator and freezer has always still had handles. As far as we know our opening-assist system offers the first fully complete handle-less kitchen – appliances included. You can use the system as a push-to-open device in a handle-less kitchen but it also has a second setting so if you have a more traditional kitchen and still want handles, the same mechanism can be used to support opening heavy doors.

Gaggenau designer Lars Dinter combines shape and material to create elegant solutions which match form and function

LUX: Tell us about the design of the wine climate cabinet.
Lars Dinter: We are using oak-wood because it has a warm colour, a good grain and fits in with our approach to authentic materials. We have also added new accessories including a serving tray and a bottle presenter. These also feature anthracite aluminium and oak, so they are finely aligned with the rest of the products. With these accessories, we are trying to add more quality and appeal to the pieces. We are trying to make a big step towards becoming more appealing on an emotional level.

LUX: Do you think that kitchens are increasingly seen as architectural spaces?
Lars Dinter: There are no boundaries anymore. Kitchen, living and dining spaces are all merging together in one big living space and our new line-up of kitchen appliances fit into this way of living. Traditionally, a kitchen might have an island or cabinets with an oven or coffee machine and the appliances are integrated into this. We are enabling customers to have a transitional zone with a cabinet wall that has wooden panelling on the front with no hint what is hidden behind. The appliances could be hidden into these cabinets. With connecting rooms, a nice solution is to take the same architectural aesthetic throughout so the wine cooling units for example, could stand in the background of your dining room. After dinner, you can set the lights so they give off a little glow and become part of the mood of the space.

gaggenau.com/gb/

Pit Power Pendant

Parisian jewellery designer Anissa Kermiche takes inspiration from everyday objects and situations to create wearable pieces of art that are as bold and quirky as they are sensual and delicate. Since the launch of her first collection in 2016, Anissa continues to challenge the conventions and restrictions of traditional jewellery; her most recent collection in collaboration with Rejina Pyo draws on Alexander Calder‘s iconic mobiles with curved golden lines and hanging pearls. LUX asks Anissa 6 questions.

Anissa Kermiche

1. Who do you design for? Describe the Anissa Kermiche woman.

I wouldn’t say that my designs are just segmented to women, there are a lot of men that have worn my pieces before. Men love wearing the Precieux Pubis pendant! If I had one criteria though, it would have to be someone fun! In terms of my female customers, I am inspired by many women around me, women who are funny, successful and independent, it’s not just one. Lately, I have found that many of my customers feed me with inspiring thoughts too.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

2. You originally studied engineering and computer science – what led you to change career paths?

I got into the jewellery world quite late. After 5 years of working as an engineer for a big consultancy firm, I was about to be promoted, but I just couldn’t see myself becoming one of my managers and the lack of creativity made me sad. I then decided to ditch everything to move to London and study jewellery design at Central Saint Martins. I dreamt about creating my own label one day, but I didn’t know that it would be so soon after graduating.

3. As an independent designer, how do you compete with bigger jewellery brands?

Right from the start, I wanted to create jewellery that wasn’t seen anywhere else before. I felt like there was demand for cool, quirky and edgy pieces, but still in precious and fine materials. I have  been fortunate enough to work with some of the best known worldwide retailers including Net-a-Porter, MatchesFashion etc. who have provided me with a great platform for my brand.

Mobile Doré earring

4. What’s inspiring you at the moment?

Paris has always inspired me, because it is home. When I lived there, I took it for granted, but whenever I go back I get an inspired by everything and spend the journey home sketching. Paris is an open museum, everything has artistic value to me, from the rich architecture to the food to the luxurious boulevards.

5. Can you tell us more about the 3D printing process you use to create your jewellery?

CAD allows me to see the precision in my design, creating attention to detail. It helps me to under-stand the practicality: how to create not only  beautiful jewellery but also durable, functional pieces.

Read more: Geoffrey Kent on responsible and sustainable travel

For example, rings and earrings need to be durable and wearable, as they can easily get knocked. CAD allows you to see how heavy an earring will be in advance, so you will know that it will fit comfortable and look beautiful before you make them.

Manipulee Black Onyx Citrine earring

6. We’re very excited about your collaboration with Rejina Pyo. What was the creative process behind that particular collection and do you have any more collaborations in the pipeline?

Thank you! Working with such a talented designer like Rejina Pyo was such an honour. Myself and Rejina were both fond of each other’s work and working together came naturally.

We were both inspired by Alexander Calder’s mobiles and Bertoia, one of my favourite architects, and created pieces that can be worn as wearable art that coincide with both our design aesthetics.

anissakermiche.com

The Waldhaus Sils sits above Lake Sils, in the Upper Engadine of Switzerland. Image by Gian Giovanoli

The Waldhaus Sils sits on a rock amid a forest in the heart of the Engadine, Switzerland’s legendary high mountain valley; and is a cultural inspiration to artists and writers. LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai on why he’s tempted to make a spontaneous visit to his favourite Swiss hotel

One of the greatest sources of social media FOMO (fear of missing out) in the LUX offices currently emanates from the unlikely source of tourist office Instagram feeds. Normally, these are full of the usual platitudes about activities for all the family and new dine-around packages, and adorned with images of improbably physically superhuman and beautiful families gazing out over vistas in perfectly styled hiking gear.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

But this has been a near-record-breaking winter for snowfall in the Alps. The same bands of cloud sweeping in from the Atlantic that have caused floods in Paris and anxiety in France have dropped their load as snow as they hit higher altitudes. Many resorts have had more snow than they know what to do with, literally in some cases, as poor Zermatt, ringed by some of the highest Alps, was cut off from the world a couple of times.

A table is prepared for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Image by Stefan Pielow

While you wouldn’t wish to be skiing during a snowstorm, the weather has calmed down now, and those resort Instagrams are brimming with images of deep snow, chalets peeking out from drifts, silver woodlands, vistas of powder. The fact that the biggest snowfalls happened after the peak Christmas season means there is plenty of fresh stuff around still, also.

Read next: Ulysse Nardin CEO Patrick Pruniaux on why creativity gets results in the luxury watch industry

A ski trip in the next few weeks seems inevitable, but LUX is not tempted by the fleshpots of Courchevel or Verbier. Instead, we are thinking of heading to our favourite, semi-secret hotel in the Alps. A place that does no self-publicising, doesn’t market itself to a market of billionaires, is not interested in whether you are a celebrity (A list or Z list), has no ski-in-ski-out facilities, and yet is, quite possibly, the most entrancing destination we have discovered.

Is it a photograph? No, it’s a view from a window at the Waldhaus Sils. Image by Stefan Pielow

The Waldhaus, Sils, sits on a rock above the tiny but culturally significant village of Sils-Maria near the head of a broad, high, sunny valley in southeast Switzerland. Sils-Maria was the home of Friedrich Nietzsche, and it has been a gathering point of the European cultural aristocracy for more than a century: Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Marc Chagall and Gerhard Richter have all visited for inspiration. Views from the Waldhaus stretch south, along Lake Sils, frozen in winter and surrounded by forest, and north, past St Moritz (just 10 minutes away) and along either side of the Engadine valley.

Image Mart Engelen

The Waldhaus is a family-run hotel that has an other-worldly feeling of design harmony: not ultra-contemporary, not classic, but a perfectly curated collection of modern 20th century design. It’s there in the details – the chairs, the tables, the wood flooring, the lights – above all, the lights – and also in the fundamental layout: a window view from a reading room that looks like a perfectly framed Thomas Ruff image; the way the staircase is lit, and the stair rails designed; the way the keys hang at reception.

There is nowhere we have found that has this encompassing, and inspiring, depth of modern-classic design beauty: the Waldhaus Sils has not been consciously designed, just put together and maintained by its family owners.

There is everything you would expect from a five-star Swiss hotel, including excellent, not over-fussy, cuisine; an indoor pool; and a service to take you to and from all the ski lifts of the St Moritz area to enjoy that snow. But we will be just as happy walking down through the snowdrifts to the wooded promontory on Lake Sils where the Romantic poets took inspiration, or to drink a hot chocolate laced with rum next to Nietzsche’s house in Sils itself. And walking back up to the hotel, crunching deeply through the white, and reflecting that the Waldhaus and its aura will still be with us long after the greatest literary figures of the 21st century have come and gone.

waldhaus-sils.ch/en

London-based Greta Bellamacina is one of those people who, once discovered, you can’t stop thinking about. Like a sleeper hit which innocuously makes its way up into the charts as one by one fans fall in love, Greta’s infectious presence online and throughout the arts scene utterly grabs hold. For October’s Vogue she is included in a feature about today’s progressive new poets, along with Cecilia Knapp, Selina Nwulu and James Massiah – but this is hardly surprising considering the unique blend of talents in her arsenal. LUX’s contributing poet, Rhiannon Williams speaks to the woman behind the words about the plight of of the public library, how her varifocal talents intersect, and her inspirations.

Ethereally beautiful, the first thing that strikes you is that Greta looks every part the romanticised ideal of ‘poet’. But it is her passion for what she does which, more than anything, startles – and makes you want to follow in her lead as a force for good in a confusing world. Greta’s work as a poet, film-maker, activist and model crosses and fuses borders, something that is seen more and more these days as people resist the restrictive boundaries of having a single ‘profession’ – and what could be more fitting for a modern-day poet? She published her debut poetry collection ‘Perishing Tame’ in 2015 through New River Press, a poetry press which she co-founded herself, and launched it into the world with readings at Shakespeare & Co, Paris and The Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles. She has also edited collections, including ‘Smear’ in 2017, an important anthology for young women poets everywhere, and has published collaboratively with poet-husband Robert Montgomery the collection ‘Points for Time in the Sky’.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

In the role of film-maker a particularly significant recent work was 2016’s documentary ‘The Safe House: A Decline of Ideas’, which smartly tackles the state of the British public libraries, spreading awareness of a plight that not enough people are conscious of. For a poet, the savage cuts to public funding that have brought the libraries of the UK to their knees over the last decade is a political outrage that hits very close to home. Greta’s activism with this documentary, which involved Stephen Fry and Irvine Welsh among others, demonstrated a fierce defiance in the face of a crisis of intellectual deterioration, and a prime example of how Greta uses her creative abilities as a force for good.

On top of all this, Greta has been involved in modelling campaigns for the likes of &otherstories and Stella McCartney. One can only pause in awe to wonder how she has time for so much, all the while maintaining an image that is undeniably slick. This is brought about by a stylishness that spans from the arresting design of her website (think arty snaps with poet John Cooper Clarke outside her film premiere), to her Instagram presence (handwritten pages of her thoughtful, searing poetry), to her fashion choices (somewhere in the realm of elfish art student lost on a Victorian couture runway).

Greta has appeared in modelling campaigns for the likes of &otherstories and Stella McCartney

Rhiannon Williams: How did you first fall into poetry?
Greta Bellamacina: It has always been there, I’ve always heard words in my head that I felt compelled to write down. I knew from early on that poetry has the power to break your heart and fill it up again within a sentence.

RW: Can you tell me a bit more about the intersection between your talents for film-making, writing and modelling? Do they complement or sometimes clash?
GB: I think I have always been drawn to exploring the truth and beauty in the everyday- and playing with everyday conventions. If you make art in any form I think you have the moral responsibly to make the world a better place and be socially progressive. Fashion can be a fun way to make people feel apart of a new consciousness.

Read next: Kering’s Marie-Calire Daveu on championing long-term sustainability 

RW: In your writing as well as film-making you are an activist, tackling the threat to the public libraries in Britain with ‘The Safe House: A Decline of Ideas’ and promoting the empowerment of girls and female identity with ‘Smear’. Was this always a conscious decision to use an artistic avenue to further a cause, or do you think your beliefs shape your work almost without you realising?
GB: The working class fought for a hundred years to have public libraries. My local one had been turned into a block of luxury flats. But it wasn’t until I kept meeting young secondary school students fighting for seats in the library all round Britain that I understood how much it would change the next generation, change the communities if these temples of learning were to disappear. I think it’s good to let the audience have room to imagine their own futures and memories in these places, in order to shape wider beliefs and bring change. I think thats why when I edited ‘Smear’ I didn’t have any age limit or direct theme of Feminism, I just wanted women to have a place to be uncensored and shameless, a place for women to speak.

RW: What is your creative process – how do you sort through ideas and plans for projects?
GB: Rage, heartbreak and love- usually in that order.

Rhiannon Williams: Who are some poets you could not live without reading?
Greta Bellamacina: I always seem to go back to Ted Hughes, his words have some many eternal, harrowing shades to them. It has a closeness to it that you can’t help feel connected. There are so many more, Robert Montgomery of course, Alice Oswald, Warsan Shire, Heathcote Williams, Anne Sexton….

RW: What are you reading, listening to or excited about right now?
GB: I am listening a lot to Mazzy Star, Patti Smith, Sharon Van Etten and Sleaford Mods right now and really enjoying Warsen Shires poetry collection “Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth”. I’m excited about the morning sun, learning from strangers and finding new worlds in the sky.

gretabellamacina.com

‘The Artist is Asleep’, 1996 at the Kasteev Museum of Arts, Almaty in 2015

Once again, Venice becomes a stage for the world’s best art with the 57th edition of the Biennale opening this month. Under the direction of Christine Macel, chief curator at the Centre Pompidou, this is the first year that artists from Central Asia are represented in the Biennale’s main Giardini pavilion, as part of the curatorial project VIVA ARTE VIVA. Millie Walton speaks to Kazakh artistic duo Yelena and Viktor Vorobyev about the re-creation of their 1996 installation, The Artist is Asleep.

Yelena and Viktor Vorobyev

Millie Walton: What does it mean to be included in this year’s Biennale curatorial project?
Yelena and Viktor Vorobyev: The most important is the feeling of belonging to a great important international project, when you feel part of the global world. This happens not so often, but here – the Venice Biennale’s main pavilion for the very first time. It doesn’t matter anymore whether the curatorial position coincides with major world trends, the mainstream, so to speak. Christine Macel’s vision is well founded and thought-out. As for our piece, it fits logically into her concept. Thus Macel’s and our positions reinforce each other. We’re glad it turned out that our modest work will not be lost in a series of many interesting three-dimensional projects by 120 invited artists from different countries.

MW: Has the 1996 installation been altered at all for the new space or is it re-created as an exact replica of the original?
Y&VV:Our 2017 version of the installation The Artist is Asleep is not an exact replica of the 1996 original, but it is still very close to the old one. The cover and the bed sheets are different, but it does not matter for the concept of the work. It should just give an idea that an artist is sleeping on the bed. Also the text is handwritten, so the installation is slightly different each time.

Read next: British model, Charli Howard’s battle against Size Zero

MW:What was your inspiration for the piece?
Y&VV:In 1995 the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan published a series of catalogues on 10 Kazakhstani artists. Among them was published our paintings and drawings catalogue. The organizers of that series asked artists to write a statement. Since we were actually immersed in the meditative practice of painting that bordered on sleep – between the moment of dumb contemplation of an empty canvas and convulsive waking up, the moment of clarity, further action – the following text was written as a credo:

“The Artist is Asleep.

To wake him, to shake him, to urge to conform to his time is an utterly useless endeavour. But the one who is always wide awake, always is “all ears”, knows “which way the wind blows” and has his craft at the ready, does not suit many for some reason.

All one can do is to wait for the sleeping boulder to stir, rub open his eyes and get up as if to relieve himself.

Well then don’t let the moment slip. His efforts may result in a masterpiece.”

Our critics had a good laugh over this strange statement, but printed it anyway.

In 1996 we were invited to take part in a group show devoted to human rights. The exhibition was held in a grandiose building which housed a business center. As we have always been opponents of glamour, we decided to do something that was contrary to that situation to cause cognitive dissonance with a respectable audience. That’s how the idea just to “illustrate” this short text came about. We decided to illustrate it by making an installation with “a poor sleeping artist.”

‘The Artist Is Asleep’ (detail), 1996, at the Kasteev Museum of Arts, Almaty in 2015

MW: How is the installation still relevant to modern audiences?
Y&VV: We think that the figure of artist, creator still has value. The ability to visualize ideas that are important for many is just an amazing skill. Modern audiences are able to perceive the metaphors offered by different artists. Our work is, on one hand, a metaphor for the secrets of creativity and, on the other, a narrative describing the life of the recent era as well as the ironic context in relation to ourselves.

MW: What’s next?
Y&VV: There are many ideas that we would like to realize and of course we plan to participate in exhibitions.

labiennale.org, aspangallery.com

British model and blogger, Joanna Halpin. Photograph by Bryan Rodner Carr

Sydney Lima

The models who look at us from our magazine covers and Instagram feeds are often astute businesspeople as well as subjects for fashion stylists and photographers. They are now “360 degree creatives”, raising revenue from everything from social media to events appearances. Our contributing editor Sydney Lima is a model with Storm and has appeared on the cover of Condé Nast‘s glossies; she also works in film and in this new exclusive series interviews her peers about the lifestyle.

THIS MONTH: British model Joanna Halpin joined Premier Models at the age of 20 and has since shot major campaigns for the likes of L’Oréal, Free People and Urban Outfitters. Her clean, minimalist aesthetic on Instagram has attracted a following of over 280,000 and now she’s climbing the blogging ladder too, with her sister and fellow model, Sarah Halpin and their model lifestyle blog, What She Said.

Sydney Lima: How did you get in to modelling?
Joanna Halpin: I went to agency ‘walk ins’ in London nearly 4 years ago now and got taken on by Premier.

SL: What’s been your favourite job to work on so far?
JH: I’m not too sure if I have a favourite job but I have been lucky enough to get taken some of the amazing counties and shoot in the most beautiful locations. So any job where I get to travel to somewhere new always makes the favourite list.

SL: What’s been your proudest working moment?
JH: Sarah and I have recently starting working on a big exciting project through our blog so that’s going to be a very proud moment when I can properly say what it is. So sorry to sound so secretive!

Read next: Jaipur Literature Festival photography series

SL: Did modelling have any influence over your decision to become a blogger? How did it all come about?
JH: Yes modelling did have an influence on me starting a blog. I love modelling but I wanted to be able to have more creative input on shoots. I have a background in graphic design, as does my sister, so we decided last summer to start our blog together so we could be creative, and of course it goes hand in hand with modelling.

Sydney Lima: How do you find inspiration?
Joanna Halpin: With apps like Instagram and Pinterest it’s so easy to be constantly influenced. There are now so many beautiful accounts to follow that are great for inspiration. Accounts such as @c_l_o, @frankieandclo, @maggieontherocks, @oraclefoxjournal and @fredericforest all generally post such a variety of things from campaigns, to art, to fashion, to interiors. I think what inspires me most is imagery over actual designers, or style icons.

SL: What plans do you have for 2017?
JH: I really want to focus on the blog this year, my sister Sarah who I run it with has finally finished university now so we can hopefully both dedicate much more time to it. We also want to travel together this year, we are actually both meant to be in Sydney right now but my visa is taking a little longer than I had originally thought. But hopefully I’ll be there with Sarah in a few days!
@joannahalpin | @whatshesaidblog