CONTENTS

6 2015

PAGE 19 Milan tailor Francesco Quaranta uses rich fabrics for custom suiting.

8 THE BESPOKIST INSIDE BUSINESS FROM 19 26 FEATURES 38 Spring | Summer | Summer Spring THE EDITOR YOUR MAN IN MILAN THE (NEW) KINGS THE LAST BOAT TO By Jessica Flint Tailor Francesco Quaranta. OF THE CASTLE By Kareem Rashed Landed gentry of the 21st cen- PARADISE (FYI: HELICOPTER tury are becoming increasingly AND CHEF INCLUDED) 20 11 entrepreneurial to save their Sophy Roberts sails the True North A BACKYARD HOLE IN ONE family’s—and nation’s—history. across the Solomon Sea, a previously WHAT’S IT World-class golf at home. By Sarah Rose inaccessible swath of the South Pacific. WORTH? By Thomas Dunne Photographs by Ken Kochey 28 Breguet’s smart watch… 24 DO I HEAR $400 MILLION? 46 building your own island… HIGH-END HOUSE WINE Why a Giacometti sold THE FLORENTINE FIGHT CLUB luxe sporting goods…Kim Having your own label for $101 million. Modern-day gladiators take Kardashian by the numbers… no longer requires By Tyler Cowen to the streets of Florence to compete the new Bentley Mulsanne… owning a vineyard. in a 16th-century death match. and more. By Elizabeth Sile 30 By Lee Marshall FUTURE FORECASTING 25 Photographs by Michael Löwa Talking business at the HOW NOT TO WRITE 66 Jaipur Literature Festival. 52 MY BEST YOUR MEMOIR ASHTON KUTCHER’S INVESTMENT The secret to hiring a 34 TECH TAKEOVER best-selling ghostwriter. THE OLD BILLIONAIRES’ The Hollywood star is the new triple By Mark Cuban By Marisa Meltzer CLUB threat: model, actor, and seriously Centuries-old family-run successful start-up investor. businesses make up By Peter Kafka one of the world’s most Illustration by The Red Dress exclusive societies. By Joshua Levine 56 ’ROUND MIDNIGHT A fashion portfolio of men’s and women’s eveningwear. By Kareem Rashed Photographs by Chris Brooks

Photograph by ANDREA FRAZZETTA From the Editor Editor in Chief Richard David Story

EDITOR Jessica Flint

EXECUTIVE MANAGING EDITOR Deborah Frank DESIGN DIRECTOR Alexander Spacher FEATURES DIRECTOR Heather Halberstadt

TIME IS THE ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR Robin Rizzuto SENIOR FEATURES EDITOR Julian Sancton ASSOCIATE STYLE EDITOR Kareem Rashed GREAT EQUALIZER ASSOCIATE EDITOR Elizabeth Sile ASSISTANT STYLE EDITOR Lauren Joseph o matter who you are, you have only 24 hours in a DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Lea Golis day. There’s no way to save up or slow the minutes. ART DIRECTOR Marc Davila Time is something that can only be spent. ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Jordan Bonney N ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Valeria Suasnavas It’s with this thought in mind that we created centurion, PRODUCTION MANAGER Glenn Bo which is not just the newly relaunched and rejiggered maga- COPY CHIEF Janet Kim zine for Centurion Members but also an entirely new kind of ASSOCIATE RESEARCH EDITOR Joe Harper publication, geared toward those for whom time is the most ASSISTANT RESEARCH EDITORS Janaki Challa, Chris Giblin ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR IN CHIEF Robert Khederian precious investment. These pages provide an easy way to access all that is one of a kind and one in a million (or, in the case of Tyler Cowen’s story Senior Vice President/Publisher Steven L. DeLuca on the art bubble, “Did I Hear $400 Million?”). If you didn’t make it to India for the annual Jaipur Literature Festival, we VICE PRESIDENT/ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Mark Cooper take you to the brainfest in “Future Forecasting,” a precaution- 8 ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, MARKETING ary tale about using big data to drive business decisions. We go Yung Moon behind the scenes with the Hénokiens, a society of 200-plus- ADVERTISING DIRECTOR year-old family-run businesses, in Joshua Levine’s “The Old Kathryn Banino Bano 2015 FASHION DIRECTOR Ed Cortese Billionaires’ Club” and to Silicon Valley in Peter Kafka’s “Ash- JEWELRY & WATCH DIRECTOR Jill Meltz ton Kutcher’s Tech Takeover.” HAWAII Liane Sunn In The Bespokist, a section dedicated to made-to-measure LAS VEGAS/SOUTHWEST Tricia Baak LOS ANGELES Jason Yasment one-upmanship, we had fun doing the legwork in figuring out MIAMI Eric Davis, Jill Stone how to build a world-class golf course in your backyard and GENEVA Philippe Girardot Spring | Summer | Summer Spring tracking down the phone number for the classiest custom suit maker in Milan (not easy—he’s un-Googleable). Time Inc. As for taking time off, there’s no one better in the business CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Joseph Ripp to tell you where to travel to now than Sophy Roberts, who CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER Norman Pearlstine points her compass toward the Solomon Sea in “The Last Boat EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, TIME INC. Evelyn Webster EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER to Paradise.” Jeff Bairstow Enjoy the ride. EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENTS Lynne Biggar, Colin Bodell, Teri Everett, Mark Ford, Greg Giangrande, Lawrence A. Jacobs, Evelyn Webster

Jessica Flint CENTURION® Issue No. 1

Editor Published biannually by Time Inc. Affluent­ Media Group, 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036. centurion is a trademark of American Express Marketing & Development Corp. and is used under limited license. Time Inc. Affluent Media Group is not affiliated with American Express Company or its subsidiaries. For customer service regarding your centurion magazine subscription, including change of address and replacement copies or to opt out of receiving the magazine entirely, please contact American Express Customer Service at the phone number printed on the back of your Centurion Card. GENERAL OFFICE: 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036; CONTRIBUTORS 212-522-1212. centurion magazine does not accept unsolicited manuscripts, Tyler Cowen, Thomas Dunne, Peter Kafka, drawings, photographs, or other works. All rights in letters sent to centurion magazine will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication Anna Kavaliunas, Joshua Levine, Lee Marshall, and copyright purposes and as subject to unrestricted right to edit and to comment editorially. Contents copyright 2015 by American Express Marisa Meltzer, Sophy Roberts, Sarah Rose, Tony Swan Marketing & Development Corp. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Member of the Alliance for Audited Media. What’s It Worth? A VALUATION OF PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS NOW ON THE RADAR

11 2015 Spring | Summer | Summer Spring

SMART WATCH At a time when the Apple Watch is the hottest trend in horology (nearly 1 million people ordered it the first day it was available), an artfully crafted hand-wound timepiece could seem superfluous. Yet a watch like the Breguet Messidor Tourbillon, which has 201 individual components at work beneath its skeleton display, is what really sets the tech standard. Paying tribute to the first tourbillon, patented by Abraham-Louis Breguet in 1801, the Messidor is a supreme example of watchmaking virtuosity. Sure, tourbillons may no longer be the height of accuracy, but true connoisseurs can appreciate the exacting mechanics that have kept this movement ticking for more than 200 years. With beauty and brains in equal measure, it’s intelligent design in every sense. From $154,200; breguet.com. PROP STYLING BY ARIANA SALVATO AT APOSTROPHE AT SALVATO ARIANA STYLING BY PROP

Photograph by GRANT CORNETT What’s It Worth?

DNA’S NEW EVOLUTION I NVESTMENT- he golden age of DNA science is upon us, T and where medicine goes, spas follow. Lux- VEHICLE UPDATE ury retreats, like Canyon Ranch (canyonranch he new Hagerty Market Rating tool tracks .com) in Lenox, Mas­sachusetts, and Tucson and T the strength of the collector-car market by the St. Regis in Abu Dhabi (dnahealthcorp.com), using an algorithm that incorporates eight main cat- claim that genes should dictate diet, exercise, egories, including not only public-auction results but and relaxation therapies. Treatment packages also, most important, elusive private-sales figures. with names like DNA 4 Life or Nutrigenomics A rating from 1 to 100 is assessed: 35 or less is con- include screenings and consultations to deliver sidered deflationary; 40 to 50 is flat; 60 to 75 is a gene-tailored wellness plan. But can a spit test peak-performance; and above 75 is overheated. As really improve a facial or circuit training? “There of this writing, Hagerty’s rating is 71.81, indicating a is great potential,” says health guru Dr. Andrew healthy, expanding market. hagerty.com Weil of personal DNA analysis. “For example: Who should exercise more vigorously, who less?” Genetic tests reveal heritable diseases, but at the spa, on the wellness level, the information “doesn’t come as a real surprise —you know yourself, your OBJET D’SPORT family,” says Craig Barnard, founder of St. Lucia’s 12 he term “luxury sporting goods” brings 13 BodyHoliday resort (thebodyholiday.com). REAL ESTATE’S to mind Louis Vuitton tennis rackets and Your genetic code can tweak the margins, but you T Pucci ski suits. Designer Elisabeth Weinstock, still have to work out, eat right, and relax. however, has upped the extravagance quotient, 2015 NEXT FRONTIER rendering standard-issue sports gear in exotic 2015 skins, like a handmade football in anaconda or a Netherlands-based company Dutch Docklands builds private baseball and bat in boa. Weinstock prides herself islands anywhere in the world a client wants one. THE BEYONCÉ on her infinite custom offerings, meaning you can get your pigskin in any shade of snakeskin. (Rihanna recently commissioned a pair of boxing gloves in electric yellow, and an injured Usher or-

Spring | Summer | Summer Spring utch Docklands’ sales pitch is short but sweet: “We build | Summer Spring your own island, completely catered to your own needs,” CASE STUDY dered crutches and a surgical boot in gold-dipped snake.) Though the pieces are meant strictly for says Frank Behrens, the company’s executive vice president. The social effect of a mega-celebrity becoming a show, we quite like the idea of taking the high/low If it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t. “Our company is Harvard Business School subject. juxtaposition to the park. Practical? Perhaps not. from the Netherlands,” he says. “We’ve been fighting the Luxurious? Most definitely. Boxing gloves, $1,350; water for years. We’ve developed state-of-the-art methods to transform hen Beyoncé dropped her self-titled album in bat, $850; baseball, $575; and football, $975; D elisabethweinstock.com. living on the water as opposed to fixed land.” Indeed, if you dream it 2013—without warning—the Internet collectively MONEY AS ART up, Dutch Docklands will build it, anywhere on the globe you want it, lost its mind. So this past school year, when Anita he first rule of finance is that it takes as part of its Amillarah Private Islands project. The islands’ founda- Elberse, one of Harvard Business School’s ​ T money to make money. Artist Dustin Yellin put that proposition to the ultimate test in New tions are made from concrete and an unsinkable polystyrene foam, on youngest-ever​ tenured professors (at 38), and her York earlier this year when, along with the which can sit a mansion, two houses, you name it. The buoyant patches Wformer student Stacie Smith published “Beyoncé,” a case study on the collective Bazaar Teens, he put $10,000 from an of land are built off-site and then popped into the water and attached record launch, the report spawned hundreds of think pieces (“Business anonymous donor into a wood chipper and to a lake or sea bottom with only strong cables or pillars so there’s min- Professors Finally Get Serious About Studying Beyoncé,” Bloomberg) arranged the pieces onto eight canvases. Each sold for $10,000, and proceeds went to arts imum impact on the environment. Right now, Dutch Docklands picks and even a Cosmopolitan list-icle (“6 Things You Never Knew About education. The series, The Riches of God’s Love positions near big cities on lakes and bays where the water is privately Beyoncé’s Surprise Album Release”). A Harvard rep says that case stud- Unto the Vessels of Mercy, is part commentary on owned. It currently has projects in Dubai and the Maldives and also in ies are meant only for educational purposes so the school didn’t measure the commodification of art and part Christian Miami, where the company bought the 75-acre Maule Lake, south of Beyoncé’s impact on applications, but the report still got 131,000 Goo- allegory—feeding the multitude not with seven loaves but with a wad of cash. Yellin, the founder Aventura, and is in the process of getting permits to build 29 gle hits—including 700 news articles—while Facebook shares and of art-and-innovation nonprofit Pioneer Works, 7,000-square-foot islands that it plans on selling for $50 million each. Twitter retweets climbed to the thousands. (A Vogue Facebook post says reactions to the project ran the gamut from “Clients can say, ‘I want to have my island designed by a famous archi- about the study attracted close to 3,200 likes.) For comparison, a case amusement to outrage over its perceived tect with a famous interior designer,’ and we can offer that,” Behrens study on Ikea, released soon after the Beyoncé one, generated no news. wastefulness. In response, he cites the series’ 800 percent return: “Investors are trying to get says. “You can have your own kingdom designed to your wishes. All the proof we need that whenever Beyoncé is involved, it’s a smash 3 or 4 percent, so f--- it!” dustinyellin.com Options are endless.” dutchdocklands.com hit. The “Beyoncé” case study can be bought for a whole $9 at hbs.edu. FROM LEFT: BAZAARTEENS; WATERSTUDIOS. ILLUSTRATION BY VI LUONG BY ILLUSTRATION BAZAARTEENS; LEFT: WATERSTUDIOS. FROM JOHN LAMM VI LUONG; LEFT: FROM ILLUSTRATIONS, APOSTROPHE. AT SALVATO ARIANA STYLING BY PROP GRANT CORNETT. BOTTOM RIGHT: What’s It Worth?

I’m a control $30 freak. million Sometimes A QUICK Her 2014 salary was higher than the total I wish CARDIO FIX compensation of 23 of Fortune ’s 25 highest-paid THE BUSINESS OF BEING I had an limb to a better body in just 30 minutes. female CEOs, a list that That’s the vision behind Rise Nation, a includes Sheryl Sandberg. C assistant, new climbing-based fitness studio in Los Angeles. Founder Jason Walsh’s hard-core cardio class but I can’t uses the VersaClimber, the secret weapon that KIM Walsh has relied on for years in his West Holly- delegate. wood private gym to train the likes of Jessica Biel KARDASHIAN and Matt Damon. It’s more effective than a tread- mill or a bike. Pushing and pulling with the legs 28 When Kim Kardashian became part of popular —–Ocean Drive and arms, the body moves primitively, functionally, million vernacular in 2007 with the leak of her sex tape and the launch and upright for a half hour while conquering up Number of downloads of her family’s reality show, the socialite successfully pivoted to 4,000 steps—more than twice the height of the of the Kim Kardashian: Empire State Building. Walsh says three sessions Hollywood app. It was the her 15 minutes into countless business opportunities. a week delivers full-body results. Classes are eighth-highest-grossing MEDIA iPhone app of 2014, earning Now, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Kardashian earns $26 each, or a private session with Walsh is $250 $1.6 million in the first up to $30 million a year and has a net worth of $85 million from MOGUL an hour. At 613 N. La Cienega Blvd.; 424-343- 14 five days after its Total compensation 0082; rise-nation.com. 15 release. It now earns in 2014 $125,000 per day. Keeping Up With the Kardashians, various sponsorship deals and endorsements, clothing, perfume and makeup lines, and

2015 appearance fees. And let’s not forget those weddings. 2015 U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, AND WORLD BANK COMMISSION, AND WORLD SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE U.S. Bob Iger $51.4 MILLION

TV GUIDE,

iCAN’T BELIEVE IT Spring | Summer | Summer Spring KARDASHIAN AS A COUNTRY | Summer Spring Leslie Moonves Her salary was HER NET WORTH IS MORE THAN TWICE THE GDP OF TUVALU, 17 times the salary of Apple’s $50.8 MILLION Tim Cook last year. A POLYNESIAN ISLAND NATION WITH A POPULATION OF 10,000. TIMES, NEW YORK MORE THE ENERGY HACK Moon Juice’s herbal powders and dusts are just CHOPPERS, what the tireless mogul ordered. MORE LIKED THAN THE PRESIDENT Kim Kardashian MORE $30 MILLION 10 PERCENT: HER SHARE OF INSTAGRAM’S 300 MILLION ACTIVE USERS. BARACK OBAMA HAS 1 PERCENT. hit a point when I had pushed my life to the limit of what was hu- PROBLEMS manly possible, but I wanted to be able to do more,” says Amanda

MAGAZINE, THINK GAMING, ast summer, 15,388 helicopters and Chantal Bacon, founder of Moon Juice, a Los Angeles apothecary of

OK! L fixed-wing planes operated out of East

Rupert Murdoch Hampton Airport on weekends. As a result, 22,468 sorts that specializes in holistic juices, nut milks, tonics, and cleanses. $29.5 MILLION aircraft-noise complaints were filed, the majority “I think that’s the game every entrepreneur is in. It doesn’t matter of which involved helicopters. This raises a very Ihow many green juices you’re drinking, how many supplements you’re East End “can’t have your cake and eat it, too” taking—sometimes you need to bring in the big guns.” Enter Moon NEW YORK POST, NEW YORK problem: Is it better to spend about $3,000 and up

PRIME-TIME PRIME-TIME Juice’s new Nourishment for the Mogul collection, a mix of four pro- DEATH MATCH k k $ $ to fly privately to the South Fork to avoid losing six The150 amount Kardashian makes per episode 150The amount Kerry Washington earns Reed Hastings of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. per episode of Scandal. $14 MILLION hours of your life sitting in NY 27 traffic, or is the prietary powders—vanilla mushroom-plant protein, maca, mucuna MAGAZINE, sound of silence priceless? East Hampton town pruriens, and “brain dust”—that, when blended with almond butter officials, who recently took back the power to and water, Bacon claims can have myriad effects: raising energy levels, BY THE HOUR govern the airport (an authority formerly granted

NEW YORK to the Federal Aviation Administration), think the decreasing brain fog, increasing mental stamina, elevating moods, clear- latter: In April they imposed landing restrictions— ing up skin, even taking off stress-related weight. The resulting drink is no flights can take off between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. not a meal replacement, rather it’s a systems-balancing pick-me-up. $10,359 $1.54 MILLION (with even stricter rules for aircraft deemed “There is a calm confidence that comes with drinking it,” Bacon says, THE AMOUNT SHE AND NOW EX-HUSBAND THE AMOUNT WARREN BUFFETT’S “noisy”). Proposed legislation banning helicop- KRIS HUMPHRIES EARNED PER HOUR DURING FORTUNE HAS INCREASED PER HOUR. SOMEONE ters was not passed—yet, at least. The chopper “that doesn’t feel like you’re riding off a cup of coffee or a B12 shot.” The THEIR 72-DAY MARRIAGE. WHO OUTEARNS HER! situation is being monitored. Nourishment for the Mogul package is $140; moonjuiceshop.com. BUST OF KARDASHIAN: KAREN CALDICOTT. ICONS: JORDAN BONNEY. SOURCES: APPLE, BLOOMBERG, BUSINESS INSIDER, CELEBRITY NET WORTH, CNN MONEY, FORBES, FORTUNE, GLU MOBILE, MOBILE, GLU FORBES, FORTUNE, CNN MONEY, INSIDER, CELEBRITY BUSINESS WORTH, NET APPLE, BLOOMBERG, SOURCES: BONNEY. ICONS: JORDAN KAREN OF KARDASHIAN: CALDICOTT. BUST MYBANKTRACKER, INSTAGRAM, VI LUONG BY ILLUSTRATIONS APOSTROPHE. AT SALVATO ARIANA STYLING BY PROP GRANT CORNETT. RIGHT: What’s It Worth? ANATOMY OF SPEED The new Bentley Mulsanne Speed takes the company’s reputation for luxury and performance to a new level. STEINWAY’S Speaking with Bentley’s director of design, Luc Donckerwolke, at this year’s SELF-TICKLI NG New York Auto Show, after having test-driven the Mulsanne Speed in Miami a few months earlier, we couldn’t help but agree that this is a car for those who not only drive but are IVORIES also driven. “You get up to 190 miles per hour in a car like this,” said Donckerwolke. “It becomes the fastest living room you can imagine.” his spring, the 162-year-old manufac- turer Steinway & Sons announced that Tit was releasing a new line of player pianos, which it’s calling the Spirio. The idea of having the world’s most prestigious pianos play themselves might sound dissonant (at least cognitively), like Ferraris going driverless or Thomas Keller launching an Automat franchise. For Darren Marshall, Steinway’s chief marketing officer, the better analogy is with Apple, which didn’t invent the MP3 player but perfected the technology and revolutionized the industry. “What Apple did with the iPod is bridge design 16 with technology,” says Marshall. “And that’s exactly the same thing we’re doing here. “Too often when you think about player

2015 pianos,” says Marshall, “you think about sa- The Mulsanne Speed starts at $335,600; bentleymotors.com. loons in the Klondike.” Mechanical pianos were once among the most popular ways of sharing music—the iPods of their day—until consumer radio displaced them in the ’20s and the Great Depression dealt them a deathblow. It wasn’t

Spring | Summer | Summer Spring until very recently that digital technology was able to register and reproduce a pianist’s touch

THE 6¾-LITER TWIN- ONE STEERING MASSAGING REAR THE WOOD for each and dynamics with the level of precision that TURBO V8 has been WHEEL takes five SEATS are fully car always comes Steinway deemed worthy of its instruments. reengineered to deliver hours, 620 stitches, adjustable, heated, from a single tree, Because the electromagnetic actuators that 811 ft.-lb. of torque and and 10 feet of and ventilated. and customers have 13 percent more fuel thread to complete. Eight-inch screens used wood from push the keys are hidden from view, the 100 efficiency. It can go Over 150 hours and electrically trees on their own fully playable Spirios being rolled out this year from 0 to 60 mph in are spent hand- deployed iPad tables estates. Bespoke will be indistinguishable in look and sound 4.8 seconds and offers crafting the interior, with keyboards marquetry is avail- a new sport- which features let you tap into the able, limited only from regular Steinways. suspension mode. 593 individual onboard Wi-Fi. by the imagination Once Steinway had perfected the technol- pieces of leather. of the buyer. ogy, it had to build up the repertoire. Using complimentary iPads, Spirio owners will be able to scroll through a roster of more than 1,700 pianists playing a range of styles and even sum- mon the ghosts of Glenn Gould or Rachmaninoff WHEN BRAKING to their living rooms. (Several iconic recordings, such as Gould’s rendition of the Goldberg Varia- IN PRÊT-À-PORTER tions, were painstakingly retro-engineered.) JUST WILL NOT DO Marshall envisions further developments: “Over time, imagine Lang Lang at Carnegie Hall, wo heritage fashion houses have recently intro- you in your apartment in Dallas—wouldn’t duced made-to-order driving shoes: Salvatore it be cool if the concert were simulcast from Ferragamo’s MTO Driver (from $450; T one Steinway to another?” The Steinway ferragamo.com), far left, now comes in more than 100 materials, ranging from ostrich to candor calf, while the Spirio Music Room Grand (Model B) will sell for Gommino Club by Tod’s (from $525; tods.com), left, is $116,000, the Medium Grand (Model M) available in 15 shades of classic leather and suede. for $84,000; steinway.com. FROM TOP: BENTLEY (5); GRANT CORNETT. BOTTOM: PROP STYLING BY ARIANA SALVATO AT APOSTROPHE. ILLUSTRATION BY VI LUONG BY ILLUSTRATION APOSTROPHE. AT SALVATO ARIANA STYLING BOTTOM: BY PROP BENTLEY (5); GRANT CORNETT. TOP: FROM The Bespokist A COMPENDIUM OF EVERYTHING ONE OF A KIND

bespoke suit is a decadent investment. A It can take three or more hour-long fittings, at least three months, and upwards of $5,000 before a suit is ready to wear. For men whose days are busy enough without trekking to the tailor, Francesco Quaranta is the suit maker to know. Though he’s based in Milan, Quaranta exclusively makes house calls (and office, hotel, and yacht visits) to clients every- where from Switzerland to Saudi Arabia, adapting to each indi­ vidual’s schedule as thoughtfully as he cuts each pattern. “My customer decides everything from fabrics, linings, buttons, to place and time,” Quaranta says. The constant is Quaranta’s dis- tinctively Neapolitan nattiness— subtle details that give each 19 garment an elegant ease. Unlike a Hong Kong tailor who

does fittings in a junior analyst’s 2015 cubicle, Quaranta runs an inti- mate operation that doesn’t sac- rifice the old-school charm of traditional tailoring. He does all initial fittings, and two additional tailors hand-finish every piece in their own homes—a scale that | Summer Spring allows Quaranta to produce fewer than 100 suits annually. “He’s the kind of tailor my grandfather would have had,” says Max Bernardini, a Quaranta devotee and owner of Milanese watch emporium Bernardini Vin- tage Luxury (where Quaranta, pictured, was photographed). Time efficiency may be a hall- mark of Quaranta’s work, but most clients are happy to have him stay and chat. Bernardini recalls, “More than once we’ve been at my store with ACCESS a couple of friends — who are also his cli- YOUR MAN IN MILAN In a day and age ents. We’re all in our when everyone has a website, Facebook underwear with him Francesco Quaranta does custom tailoring with page, and Twitter and taking our measure- Instagram accounts, quintessential Neapolitan finesse—anytime, anywhere. Francesco Quaranta ments, and we’re has no Internet looking at watches presence. None. The only way to get on and having a drink. It’s By Kareem Rashed his client list is to a boys’ thing—a little know his number: moment you take to 39-33/8625-7148. spoil yourself.” ♦

Photograph by ANDREA FRAZZETTA The Bespokist

he best golf course in the state T of Texas is so obscure that most golfers aren’t even aware it exists. It’s not part of a hill-country mega- resort, nor does it belong to an old- money country club in some tony Dallas suburb. It’s in Port Lavaca, a small town of some 12,000 souls on the coast between Houston and 20 Corpus Christi. Port Lavaca is a 21 blue-collar community that draws much of its livelihood from the Gulf

2015 of Mexico through the fishing in- 2015 dustry and from the shipping of alu- minum and petrochemicals pro- duced by the region’s many plants and refineries. Civic boosters call it

Spring | Summer | Summer Spring “Paradise on the Bay,” but to be | Summer Spring honest, it’s not the prettiest place in the world. A blink-and-you-miss-it sign on a dusty two-lane highway outside of town marks the front gate of Wolf Point Ranch. Nothing about the im- mediate surroundings suggests golf. As the winding dirt road proceeds A BACKYARD into the interior, handsome cattle HOLE IN ONE Wolf Point Ranch, outside of Houston, is more than a golf course with a clubhouse—it’s one couple’s private playground.

By Thomas Dunne

Photographs by FREDRIK BRODEN The Bespokist

appear, grazing around a parklike taken out of play, should one wish, caretakers have to do that have zero to cover that last 10-foot area. So landscape dotted with live oaks and but after a couple of attempts at to do with the actual playing of take three steps in your living room cottonwoods. A series of small bridges bouncing the approach into a green golf,” he said. “Take Augusta Na- and say to yourself, this is the dif- cross a deep, V-shaped barranca. that retreats on the diagonal, one be- tional and the way they edge their ference between ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ Then the short grass appears—acres gins to understand that the best way bunkers. All the time they take to It’s absurd, because those three of close-cropped Bermuda revealing to make par is to flirt with the make that perfect, sharp, beautiful steps can cost $750,000.” At Wolf the wild contours of greens. By the water—that side gains the best an- straight edge does nothing for the Point, where sprinkler heads are time a golfing visitor arrives at the gle. On the brilliant par-four fifth, game of golf. That’s 100 percent spaced at a (radical) distance of 85 modest and contemporary one-room the drive must steer clear of the aesthetics. They could let that edge feet, one can guess at the areas that clubhouse, he or she should be dying course’s most intimidating bunker go shaggy and reduce how much aren’t being regularly covered by to sprint to the first tee. complex (nicknamed “Infierno”), money they spend taking care of it, the spray…and they’re beautiful. Wolf Point is as exclusive as a club while the second shot calls for savvy and it wouldn’t change the scores Surveying the greensward from a can possibly be—it’s the backyard trajectory control, as the ball must that people shoot one bit.” Augusta distance, the eye takes in various playground of the ranch’s owner, an carry enough steam to travel through can easily afford this practice, of hues of greens and browns, even a executive in the aviation industry. a swale short of the green that’s rem- course, but as perhaps the highest- spectral purple, all melting into He and his wife, who prefer to have iniscent of the Old Course’s “Valley profile, most widely imitated tour- one another, and the vista isn’t their names withheld, do not hold of Sin.” Not too much steam, marred on the margins by mono- corporate outings or offer the course though—the barranca that wends its chromatic irrigated rough. to be ranked or rated by any golf way through the property, influenc- magazine. The 6,500-yard 18-hole ing several holes along its course, MANY GOLFERS hile Mahaffey recently col- layout is the first solo design by lurks with the threat of a lost ball WOULD DRIVE W laborated with Tom Doak 22 Mike Nuzzo, a 46-year-old New Jer- just beyond the putting surface. on an irrigation system for his highly 23 sey native who left a career as an THEMSELVES UP regarded Red Course at Nebraska’s aerospace engineer (his specialty: de- his brings to mind Wolf Point’s THE WALL TRYING Dismal River Golf Club, any visitor 2015 signing giant antennae for telecom- T third key principle. It’s easy to to Wolf Point is bound to come 2015 munications satellites) to pursue his imagine one man’s exclusive preserve TO GET THEIR away baffled that Nuzzo has yet to passion for golf architecture. as a lush and manicured spare-no- BALL ONTO THESE receive a major commission since expense affair, but Wolf Point’s phi- its debut. The design is just that mong avid golf travelers, it’s losophy is more of a throwback. The TOPSY-TURVY good and just that original. Perhaps

Spring | Summer | Summer Spring A common not so much to be- turf runs firm and fast, almost like a this is the drawback to having a per- | Summer Spring come jaded, but to reach a point British links, and the ball is played GREENS. sonal course as your portfolio leader, where golf courses—even great along the ground as much as it is but Nuzzo is currently exploring ones—offer few surprises. Wolf Point through the air. Credit for this be- new projects in West Texas and Tas- shatters that complacency. It’s what longs to Don Mahaffey, a superin- nament venue in the world, it can mania. He’s bound to be heard from happens when a smart, talented out- tendent and irrigation expert who be argued that Augusta sets a stan- again soon. And while only a very sider is given carte blanche on a de- served as a valuable sounding board dard of perfection that is unrealistic fortunate few may get to see Wolf sign. “Our client didn’t really know for Nuzzo throughout the design for most clubs to pursue. Point, the lessons it offers can be ap- what he wanted,” Nuzzo said. “He on them is interesting, to put it greens, which are built from native and construction process and has plied to plenty of courses—existing simply said that he wanted it to be mildly—but it’s crucial to note that soil instead of by the standardized stayed on to manage the course since or new designs, the amount ones and new projects alike. Perhaps fun and challenging but that he didn’t the course also offers an over- USGA method. There are no its opening in 2007. F spent in construction can have the most significant one is that it’s ACCESS want to waste his time looking for whelming amount of free- — abrupt edges telling the golfer No matter how well-heeled it a dramatic impact on the course’s not about how a golf course looks, balls in tall grasses. And he wanted a dom to choose the point in The only way to what to do —the only differ- may be, any course with a member- future, and many high-end projects it’s about how the course plays. In play Wolf Point is home-field advantage, which I took the fairway from which one to know the owner. ence between the putting sur- ship of two has to operate at a sus- will spend $3 million or more on that regard, the only critic who mat- But you can speak to mean interesting. ” wants to approach. Wolf to course designer face and its surrounds is the tainable cost. Fortunately Mahaffey their sprinkler systems in pursuit of ters at Wolf Point seems satisfied. Mike Nuzzo about Nuzzo’s translation of these direc- Point is like a puzzle: Each his architectural height at which the grass is is by nature an essentialist when it perfection. This is folly to Mahaf- “It’s hard to picture this, but the tives lends Wolf Point its defining hole can be “unlocked” by services by calling mowed, and even that differ- comes to maintenance. Eyes tend to fey. As he explained it: “If you go owner is out there every single day,” him at 713-467- features: ultrawide fairways and ultra­ many different combinations 2207. To see more of ence is barely noticeable. glaze over when it comes to this from spacing sprinkler heads 65 Nuzzo said. “It’s his morning activ- Nuzzo’s work, go to wild greens. These two concepts work of shots, but based on the mnuzzo.com. Standing on the first tee, subject, but he has a way of framing feet to 75 feet apart, that looks like ity, and he never gets tired of it.” hand in glove. Many golfers would wind and the hole locations, the player scans a delightfully arguments for economy with ter- a 15 percent increase. But it’s not a A course that one could play for drive themselves up the wall just try- the solution key will vary dramati- encouraging vista; there’s an ocean of rific clarity. “If you hang out in linear equation because the heads the rest of one’s life and never ing to get their ball onto these topsy- cally from day to day. The options short grass as wide as a football field. greens committee meetings, you’re throw water in a circle—you really grow bored—now that is the ulti- turvy greens—and actually putting multiply even further around the The lake on the left can be completely going to hear about things that the need at least 30 percent more heads mate luxury. ♦ The Bespokist

These days, everyone needs a book about HIGH-END HOUSE WINE themselves. Customize a private reserve to fit your lifestyle—without owning a vineyard.

By Elizabeth Sile v

o select the wine for The Wine Foundry deals ex- Daniel Boulud’s clusively with California vine- T private-label program, yards in Napa, Sonoma, Men- wine director Daniel Johnnes docino, and Santa Barbara. solicits samples of Chardon- While hobbyists could source nays, Pinot Noirs, Cham- their own grapes, “some pagnes, and Bordeaux Blancs of these vineyards won’t even from France, California, talk to people about buying H OW and beyond. The wines are grapes,” Chandra says. “The scrutinized and subjected way we get the fruit is because to as many as three blind tast- we have the connections and NOT TO ings before they’re presented we work them for years.” 24 to Boulud. Personalized blending out- 25 What eventually makes it side the United States is a into the bottle becomes a challenge—customs and fluctu- WRITE YOUR Cuvée Daniel, something of an ating exchange rates are a 2015 2015 elevated house wine, to be pain—but there are possibili- served at restaurants across ties. For $38,000, a new expe- OWN MEMOIR Boulud’s empire. For Boulud rience at Baglioni Hotels’ Cala and other top chefs, a private del Porto (rooms, from $290; Via What it takes to enlist a literary darling to put your life story into prose. By Marisa Meltzer label can easily be made when del Pozzo, Punta Ala; 39-564/922- one has a network with insider 455; baglionihotels.com), in Tus-

Spring | Summer | Summer Spring know-how. But could the dis- cany, lets guests blend a barrel n the recent third season of House insurance-industry analyst Alice HarperCollins’s Dey Street Books, | Summer Spring cerning wine enthusiast work of Sangiovese, Merlot, Caber- I of Cards, president Frank Under- Schroeder. But luring a marquee publisher of a slew of celebrity mem- with a vineyard in this way net Sauvignon, and Syrah at wood hires a famous novelist to write writer to pen a biography would re- oirs. This was true for Jami Atten- to produce his own label to the region’s Rocca di Frassi- his biography. Because if your life is quire more than just a handsome pay- berg, author of the best-selling novel drink at home? nello winery. Each individual’s as colorful as Underwood’s, or even— out. There is also the ego to contend The Middlesteins, who was ap- “Not possible,” Johnnes says. wine is aged for at least a Cult wineries like Screaming year in a French oak barrel maybe especially—if it’s not, it needs with. Famous writers “have justifiably proached by “a rich, elderly woman’s Eagle, in Napa Valley, agree: among the 2,500 others a legendary writer to do it justice. large egos, and in most cases, daughter” to write her moth- “We are not in the business of in the winery’s barrel room. Real-life marquee names tend to their egos would rather have ACCESS er’s biography. She declined. crafting wine for individuals,” You’ll need somewhere — agree. When Keith Richards decided themselves be the only Amanda “Binky” “The story did not seem says direct-to-consumer make their own blends with the marketing and business devel- to put your barrel’s 300 bot- to write his memoir, Life, his name on the cover,” says Urban, at Inter­ interesting in the slightest,” manager Patrick J. Chapman. Reserve’s grapes. There’s opment for the Wine Foundry tles, so if you don’t have a national Creative London-based literary agent, Ed Vic- Madeleine Morel of 2M Management, rep- Attenberg says. This dilemma is solved at a half-barrel minimum (150 (45 Enterprise Court; home cellar, consider resents all the top winemaker Bill Harlan’s the bottles for $15,750) and 877-946-3404; thewine a wine-storage tor, struck a deal with James Fox, au- Communications, an agency brass: Walter Isaac- Plus, Oswald says she’s sure ACCESS son, Richard Ford, Napa Valley Reserve (1000 Sil- a three-barrel maximum (or foundry.com), de- — company to protect thor of White Mischief and son-in-law that represents ghostwriters E. L. Doctorow, the writer would want the verado Trail N.; 707-968-3190; 900 bottles for $94,500). The scribes his Napa- To stock your own your liquid invest- Haruki Murakami. wine on a chartered of painter Lucian Freud. “I have to and claims responsibility for book “to be authorized but thenapavalleyreserve.com), which Reserve specializes in Caber- based custom-crush ment, says Marc Contact aurban@ yacht, you’ll need to tip my hat constantly to James Fox,” 25 New York Times best sell- icmtalent.com. not approved, so they could many may know as the world’s net Sauvignon blended with facility as “an send it to the port Lazar, president of ahead. Navigating Richards told British GQ, referring to ers. Though this cuts both retain final cut.” This means most exclusive wine club. For Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and incubator for wine taxes and customs Domaine Wine a $175,000 initiation deposit, Petit Verdot and also makes a brands.” The cost is best left to a pro, Storage (domaine his memoir. “They’re my stories, but ways: Notice that Richards’s is the both parties should be prepared to like Cellar Advisors members can buy up to 75 Sauvignon Blanc. to make, label, (cellaradvisors.com), winestorage.com), the way he crafted them, I couldn’t only name on Life ’s jacket. face the consequences. “We’re still in cases (900 bottles at $105 per Another option is a custom- and bottle a barrel which can arrange which has five have written it that way myself.” The question of how interesting touch,” Schroeder told the New York bottle) a year of the Reserve’s crush winery, which provides typically ranges from the “smuggling” outposts around the for you. Life garnered a $7.3 million ad- the story is matters, too. “A name Times after her Buffett book came wines, made on the property’s space for smaller wineries to $5,500 for a Sauvi- United States: “You 80 acres. But unlike most process their grapes without gnon Blanc or a want a place where vance, similar to the $7.2 million re- writer would have to have a fascina- out. “It is not as frequent as before. other wine clubs, this one of- investing in equipment. Chardonnay to $13,000 for a you can trust the wine for a ceived for the Warren Buffett biogra- tion with the person in question,” You can conjecture what you want fers members the ability to Sharath Chandra, director of top Cabernet Sauvignon. long period of time.” ♦ phy The Snowball, written by former says Denise Oswald, a senior editor at from that.” ♦ PROP STYLING BY ARIANA SALVATO AT APOSTROPHE AT SALVATO ARIANA STYLING BY PROP OF THE PUBLISHERS COURTESY OF BOOKS PHOTOGRAPHS

Photograph by GRANT CORNETT Inside Business reflects the country’s maturation large house parties. He wants to tran- sons of ancient families stripped of from feudalism to the industrial rev- sition away from the wedding-castle political power, taking on debt and PRIVATE LIVES, PUBLIC FIGURES olution to the service-driven 21st model, in which brides angst over preparing to put some rather extensive century. Sir Francis Crossley, a carpet seating charts, then leave the house roofs over their families’ heads. The manufacturer, bought Somerleyton forever. “It erodes your soul,” Hugh HHA represents 1,500 historic homes Hall in 1863 with (in what today’s says. Instead hunting-party grandees and gardens with a collective backlog THE (NEW) KINGS OF world would be) millions to spare, will, he hopes, take an ongoing in- of repairs of more than $1 billion. whereas Hugh inherited an estate terest in the hall itself; think Soho that he estimates might be worth at House meets B and B. mong heirs, there is a hierar- THE CASTLES least $70 million and a house with a The transition from aristo in Lon- Achy of houses. The good ones maintenance habit of roughly don to Lord Somerleyton was chal- are treasure homes, well located (near $295,000 a year. He was debt-free lenging. Typically fathers prepare London or the Lake District) or lib- but cash poor, and in a service econ- sons for succession at least 10 years erally appointed with art (Van Dyck, omy, servants are expensive. before it might be necessary. But Gainsborough) or international name The stately homes of the aristoc- when the third Lord Somerleyton brands, such as Holkham, Langley, racy are crucial to the English tourism was struck by Alzheimer’s disease, and Chatsworth. But visitors are market, noblemen will say. What Hugh’s footloose London days ended dropping off nationwide. With cheap would Great Britain be without its flights to the Continent, Britain’s grand estates? Two of every three his- THERE IS market for palaces, castles, and gar- toric homes are in the hands of only den mazes is in a funk. a few private families. If the castles A SUPPORT Somerleyton Hall is compara- crumble, will visitors even come? GROUP FOR tively small (18 bedrooms, 5,000 26 acres) and off the tourist path (2½ 27 eers are now entrepreneurs min- YOUNG NOBLES hours by train from London) with Ping ways to make a manor earn TAKING ON THE no museum-quality art. It is hard to 2015 Britons Lord and Lady Somerleyton are part of a growing number of young its keep. At Somerleyton, there have find a market niche. Hugh is given 2015 been pedestrian efforts, like a log- FAMILY MANSE. to fantasies such as “If Hot Chip re- Europeans trying to figure out how to support massive, money-draining estates. cabin vacation park; failures, a bank- ally takes off…” Until then, Somer- rupted winter wonderland; and fan- DISCUSSIONS leyton needs practical solutions. Like By Sarah Rose tasies, such as Somer’leikum, a INCLUDE many titled gents before him, he

Spring | Summer | Summer Spring planned Arab-themed cultural festi- looks to Americans for a bailout. The | Summer Spring he carved-oak entry of Somer- bangs, he is the very handsome model the reasoning goes, the public gets val. “Right now, the log cabins are the HANDLING DEBT. U.S. audience is, he believes, prime T leyton Hall is lavishly fes- of a modern noble gentleman. Som­ something in return. There is no lon- engine room,” says Hugh. Somerley- quarry for a house-party hotel. tooned with tiger pelts. There are er leyton­ Hall, in Suffolk, opens as a ger any shame in the hoi polloi eyeing ton’s Fritton Lake Retreats are 70 abruptly. He returned to Suffolk in The tour ends in the family’s pri- two polar bears mounted on either castle for let for the first time in June, the tapestries, tiaras, and chattels. timber-framed holiday homes that 2004 to rescue an ailing estate with- vate quarters taking up one arm of side of the door in full grappling starting at $16,100 a weekend. Where Chatelaine Lara Crossley, 34, com- generate annual rents to support the out the benefit of his father’s men- the U-shaped manor. There is a pale- pose. It is a room for another age; his great-great-grandfather mands a tour through the very hungry house. “It was a sick pa- torship. At the same time, he needed blue kitchen and a living room over- one in which hunting parties would was a titan of the industrial ACCESS hall. Generations of Cross- tient,” he says. “I’m trying to return to find a wife who was willing to looking sunken gardens. An AGA — return from the Norfolk broad revolution, Crossley is a ho- Southwestern leys stare down from the por- stability to Somerleyton so I don’t take on not just him but also his stove heats the homey space. Lara woodlands, brush mud off their telier, a restaurateur, and a France is littered traits lining the walls of two have to cut its heart out.” house—away from all the London puts a kettle on the boil. The Cross- tweeds, and sit by a fire as servants wedding coordinator. “This with castles for sale. dining rooms. Previously “the To that end, Hugh has launched a fun. When he married Lara in 2009, ley children (ages five, three, and Plus, prices are delivered tea, whiskey, and entitle- is not a house anymore,” he down 40 percent. portraits were hard to admire gourmet French-fry business, using they discussed their options, includ- one) pad through. A herd of six- ment. In those times, the lord of says. “It’s a business.” “Take advantage,” against the light flooding in rapeseed oil and potatoes from the es- ing selling, in order to not be “slaves point red deer poses cinematically at says Jean-Baptiste de Som­er­leyton would play host to the The downward mobility Lafontaine of from the windows,” she says, tate, called Hot Chip. (When pro- to the house,” but she gamely fol- the window. All of Lord Somerley- grand hunt, spending generously for of the British nobility is Périgord Sotheby’s, having shifted them from nounced in the Queen’s English, it lowed him. “Lara is an expatriate ton’s effusive business energy goes to currently selling the pleasure of his guests. Today hardly news; Downton Abbey four for less than above the grand staircase. sounds to an American ear exactly here,” Hugh jokes. supporting this domestic scene, a Hugh Crossley, the fourth lord of turned the issue into an inter- $2 million. Contact Working in an art gallery be- like “hot [unprintable expletive].”) There is a support group for young fairy tale in itself. “There is a lot of Somerleyton Hall, asks hunting par- national obsession. Today the 33-5/53-30-44-04; fore she was married, Lady He hopes to take the concept interna- nobles taking on the family manse, happiness in surrender,” he says. perigord-sothebys ties to pay for the privilege—and landed gentry are in the third realty.com. Somerleyton has led the ren- tional and seeks investors, earning though Hugh says he was “too anti­ also for his own. generation of opening their ovation of the servants’ quar- him the moniker His Lordchip. establishment” to join when he Rates at Somerleyton Hall start It is a precious class of problems, gilded gates to commoners by gov- ters into luxury guest suites. Sir Chips is betting the farm, so to needed it. The Successors Group at at $16,100 a weekend; Lovingland, Crossley, 43, admits. With a plummy ernment order since the 1950s; for That every great home in England speak, on Somerleyton’s extensive ren- the Historic Houses Association Suffolk; 44-87/1222-4244; accent, blue eyes, and gravity-defiant the nobility to get favored tax status, suffers a similar riches-to-rags trend ovations, designed to accommodate (HHA) leads meetings for the eldest somerleyton.co.uk. PHOTO: SOMERLEYTON HALL. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ALPHA LIMA ECHO X-RAY BY ILLUSTRATION PHOTO SOMERLEYTON HALL. PHOTO: Inside Business DO I HEAR

edge fund billionaire The growing role of Asian $400 Steven A. Cohen had and Middle Eastern buyers H some money to spend. reinforces the status of the But instead of opting for a tech best-known pieces. Those start-up or Spanish equities, he market players respect the MILLION? bid $101 million, last November status and beauty of the major at Sotheby’s, for the 1950 artists. They are less keen to Why the art bubble Giacometti sculpture Chariot. carry acquisitions from the A spindle-thin, Etruscanesque minor artists back home, which isn’t popping anytime soon. figure balancing precariously on raises the cachet and price the axis of two wagon wheels, of art superstars all the more. By Tyler Cowen it’s one of the artist’s finest Given the liquidity of the works. The piece was part of a market and the chance of $422 million sale for Sotheby’s, substantial price appreciation, its highest total ever. many buyers are willing to take New records are being a chance on art. And why not? set just about every year. In Elsewhere in the world’s major February a beguiling Paul economies, rates of return Gauguin painting of two Tahitian are relatively low because of girls, Nafea Faa Ipoipo ( When sluggish economic growth, Will You Marry?) , from 1892, weak demand, and the aging of 28 went for $300 million, the top populations. Almost $2 trillion price ever paid for a painting. of European securities are Prices at those levels are most paying negative rather than likely here to stay. In an era of positive yields. Picasso looks 20152015 rising income inequality, art has pretty good by comparison. become a preferred place to put True, artworks cannot a lot of that money sloshing always be flipped for a profit, around global markets. Why not but beauty remains a factor. invest in something other What’s more, it is now common wealthy people are buying, too? to use quality art as collateral

Spring | Summer | Summer | Summer Spring Spring That often means shelling out for loans, or in schemes (of for a “gold standard” painting, varying degrees of legality) to as defined by the nebulous reduce one’s tax burden or metric that is market taste. transfer funds. Best of all, if The art market you own a great gravitates around ACCESS painting, everyone is artists and paintings — talking about you. that are as prized for “Sometimes people The wealthier and come to us, and their fame as they are they’re ready to start more globalized the for their quality. They buying,” says Ashley world becomes, Carr, a cofounder of have become the TWAAS, an art- the more there is to liquid currency of the advisory firm in spend on status. New York. “We say, art world, just as gold ‘Let’s slow this Besides, supersecure and silver once down. Let’s go to German bonds became monies or as the museum. Let’s are nowadays just go to the auction but the dollar became the not buy anything.’ electronic book- world’s reserve It takes time to keeping entries. And de ­velop your eye.” currency. Maybe you Contact 917-508- they don’t have the think Richard 0700; twaas.com. allure of those old Pousette-Dart is as bearer bonds—much good as Warhol, but only the less of a new Giacometti. latter, with his instantly recognizable images, has truly Tyler Cowen is a professor of global market reach. The more economics at George Mason iconic the artwork, the better. University, in Fairfax, Virginia, Sotheby’s sold Alberto Giacometti’s And no work cries out “Alberto and the author of In Praise of Chariot for $101 million. Giaco ­metti” more than Chariot. Commercial Culture. REX FEATURES VIA AP IMAGES REX FEATURES Inside Business

FUTURE FORECASTING

A statistician, two journalists, and an economic strategist discuss the uncertainty of using big data in business.

30 2015 Spring | Summer | Summer Spring

or almost a decade now, many liter- mihir sharma: Nicholas, let me start off that. [Laughter. ] The point is, we gotta get to ary and scholarly minds—from Sal- by asking you why you aren’t an econ- the next step. How do you build systems that F man Rushdie to Niall Ferguson—have omist and why you think being a stat- can withstand forecasting mistakes?” descended on the Jaipur Literature Festival, istician is really important. I went back to New York and started in India, each January for a five-day forum on writing Antifragile —on how systems ideas and literature. It’s equal parts enlight- nassim nicholas taleb: My speciality is risk, handle disorder, which mostly was mathe- ening, illuminating, and inspiring. And free. so you have several levels of statisticians. matical work initially. And I was able This year, one standout panel was “What Let me explain through a story. I was in Korea to get out the message about two kinds of the Doctor Ordered: Prescriptive Economics on a panel—towards the end of the economic mistakes. There are the systems that and the Science of Uncertainty.” Writer crisis. There was this fellow who was then benefit from their own mistakes—pharma- Mihir Sharma, who moderated, asked, Is it the number two at IMF. Before the panel ceutical companies, for example. If your better to have the wrong map of reality or started, he went up and started giving us his drug has a side effect—a hypertension no map at all? forecasts of the IMF for 2010, 2011, 2012. I drug can lead to nurses on the eighth Lebanese American statistician and risk got in a state of rage. It was not my turn, but I floor making phone calls about some weird analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of rushed up there. I said, “Mr. Kato, show these activity, and that drug would be subse- The Black Swan; Indian political analyst and people”—there were 2,000 Koreans watch- quently named Viagra. Or a system like journalist Ashok Malik; and Indian American ing—“what your forecasts were for 2008 and banking, where, if you make a mistake, economic strategist and Harvard Business 2009, back in 2000, 2001,” and so on. There you blow up the whole system. Then you School professor Tarun Khanna talked of was silence in the room. I told him, “It’s not explain why it shouldn’t have happened pseudostabilities, globalization, and inter- that we have to ascertain that the fellow or the economists said it was not supposed

locking fragilities. Herewith, an excerpt. forecasting is totally incompetent. We know to happen. CONTINUED» GETTY IMAGES Inside Business

ms: So, in many ways, what you took ms: How much does it matter— ties caused by this whole process of global- life, with data. I wrote about it about 15 years And I think what’s important is—and I’ll make a told that even the last prime minister away from that was a sense that we [chuckles] being wrong all the time? ization and the death of American ago in Fooled by Randomness. And I probably big pitch for it—sound economic logic, as op- of China could not trust his own statis- have to build societies that protect us manufacturing have caused great unrest need to read it every few years, because I fall posed to bs forecasting. Logic transfers over. tics. But in India, you feel that we actu- from errors of prediction. tk: Well, in the aggregate, it does. I have to among white blue-collar workers in the into the trap that if you have high-frequency ally have better, a more trustworthy generate my own data, in effect. So that’s American Midwest. Which caused them, in data, you’ll only see noise. And we’re not nnt: Can I interrupt with one of my apho- data than… nnt: These systems tend to have unique one way that we think about it. We should be 2008, to actually turn and vote for a black made to understand that, say, something like risms? I have an aphorism that says, “It’s shapes. For example, if you’re a corporation running experiments that allow us to gener- Democrat, which they were not expected to a 20 percent move in the stock market is much easier to macro-bs than micro-bs.” tk: Well, we have less-doctored data. Let me and have a lot of debt, you need to be very ate our own data on the fly and be expert at do. So if the Republicans want those votes several billion times more informational than [Laughter. ] be a little more precise about what I mean by good at forecasting. And we’re not good at doing that as quickly as possible. Read some back, will they listen to prescriptive econo- a 1 percent move. We don’t realize that. So if “doctored.” What I mean by that is that there forecasting. Oil prices—we have no clue. If approximations and move on. mists, who will say “No, no, no, no,” argue for we’re going to have newspapers, they should tk: That’s right. So when you get down to the are certain views about what the Chinese you don’t have a lot of debt, you can make free trade till kingdom come, or will they say, be, on some days, 5,000 pages long. On other nitty-gritty and get the data that are rele- state considers antithetical to its continued mistakes in forecasting. You can use fore- ms: Ashok, as an observer of politics “No, we need to address this constituency”? days, one page. Not even a page—a few lines. vant—the agora example from the Athenian existence, and it would like to prevent that casting for therapy, entertainment—whatever and of government in this country So how important is prescriptive economics So this is the problem of data. Because at city-state—then you’re in good shape. You data from showing up. And therefore you it is—without being harmed. Top-down sys- [India], do you feel that we take what in actually winning elections and addressing no point in history did we live as divorced can make actual decisions on that basis. have a truncated distribution of outcomes in tems tend to fall apart when you make a mis- both Nicholas and Tarun have ex- your constituents? from our informational habitat. If you lived in many instances. And you just need to be take. Distributed systems do a lot better. They pressed on skepticism about the broad a Greek village, you know, you go to the ag- ms: Tarun, in China, as you have said aware of it—that’s all. probe uncertainty—they are tinker agents. statements of predictive economics ms: To return to Nicholas. I wanted to ora. Whatever information will get to you is over and over again, the great entre- This approach makes them a lot more stable. with a little too much seriousness? ask you to go a little into the discussion what’s filtered to be relevant to you. Things preneur in many ways is the state it- ms: So it’s like there will be no province of how ordinary people reading eco- that are relevant to you get to you. self. And in India, you have all these en- that will report less than 5.5 percent ms: Tarun, you work with and have ashok malik: There’s something Tarun and nomic journalism—or, in fact, the noise Now you sit in your living room. I have a trepreneurs succeeding—in some ways growth. studied a lot of entrepreneurs who you just said about entrepreneurs under- that, in general, passes for journalism— TV and, worse, the Web, Google News…and like little Davids against the Goliath that have been successful in societies you have all these things hitting you. You’re is the state, that is sort of squatting in tk: Something like that. where they deal with uncertainty. completely lost with noise. And that affects a lot of places and trying to keep them How do they negotiate this? all of us. So even if you’re aware of the prob- out. Are you still as certain that the am: More recently there are provinces in lem, you cannot ignore information, because state, that the Chinese state, managed China reporting zero percent growth. tarun khanna: I’ve come to realize that in we’re designed to never ignore information. to predict, managed to handle the un- 32 most of the ventures that I’ve been person- FURTHER READING So what do I do? I’m a trader. I live with certainty of where I should, for exam- ms: Something may have changed. 33 ally involved in, the aggregate data are data. I live with prices. I don’t want to know ple, build a giant airport? Well, in India, of course, the problem scarcely ever informative enough to mean- what happens in the markets unless some- that we always talk about is that we ingfully constrain me in my entrepreneurial thing moves more than 4.73 percent. Before tk: I could throw it out there, just to see what may say that, nationally, we have 2015 2015 venture. I can find macro­economic fore- that, you’re forbidden to talk about it. I don’t people say—I think there’s no difference be- 7 percent growth—or 6 percent growth casts—projections of interest rates and what want to know about it. I programmed my tween an entrepreneur in China and one in or 5—depending upon what the na-

have you—but those are not the risks that are MIHIR SHARMA’s NASSIM NICHOLAS TARUN KHANNA ASHOK MALIK screen not to show me a price if it doesn’t India. Ultimately they are human beings navi- tional income accounts tell us. And most likely to torpedo most of the ventures Restart: The Last TALEB’s best seller deftly compares is currently cross that point. That’s how you filter it. You gating through a highly contaminated data that’s a sort of relatively trustworthy when they start out of the gate. Chance for the The Black Swan: two Asian giants finishing a book have to use mechanisms and devices to pro- context, in some sense, but, importantly, number because that has to fit in with Now, this is not, obviously, a universal Indian Economy is The Impact of the in Billions of on Indian prime tect yourself from the negative influence of contaminated in fundamentally different what the rest of the world is selling to a no-holds-barred Highly Improbable Entrepreneurs: How minister Narendra Spring | Summer | Summer Spring | Summer Spring statement. I’m just saying for a large examination dissects the conse- China and India Are Modi’s recent news, information, noise. And you can proba- ways. In the Chinese situation—other than us, etc. But if you look at individual class of entrepreneurial problems, the kinds of the country’s quences of un­ Reshaping Their election. bly have a closer image of what should affect situations that the government considers states and you add up what the states of data that I would need in sufficiently large economy. predictable events. Futures—and Yours. you—something close to what someone 2,000 fairly anodyne and not controversial, other are telling you about how much they’re quantities to be able to extract statistical years ago would have had in a village in India. than those situations—the data that you see growing, and everyone is like, “My patterns and some kosher inference are simply are fairly doctored. And I think the most im- state is growing at 11 percent” and “I not available. tk: Can I pick up on something portant thing that an entrepreneur am growing at 10 percent.” And you standing their markets, their customers, and should try and disentangle truth from Nicholas just said? One way to con- can do is to recognize that they’re add all those up and it turns out that ACCESS ms: Like do people, for example, shop being flexible enough and nimble enough to the noise that comes at them. nect to the dimensionality of data doctored. And, frankly, if you have we’re, in fact, growing at—apparently, — in the morning or shop in the afternoon? use data that they generate to address them. that he was just talking about is a This year, the Jaipur come up in the Chinese system, according to states—2.5 percent You need to see politicians actually as entre- nnt: Let me tell you more about how people situation that I confront all the time Literature Festival is you’re perfectly aware of this—intu- faster, or thereabouts, than the na- tk: For instance. Or do people who wore pur- preneurs who do pretty much the same are naive when it comes to data, using two in my classroom. You see and ob- branching out into itively aware of this.… I think the tional average. So everyone in India ple shoes last night shop today at this time or thing. The role of economic counsel in policy frameworks. The first one is big data, as it is serve phenomena. Somebody suc- the United States. constraints in India—abstractly, it’s was sort of exaggerating their state- not? Extremely fine-grained data that would making or in politics is, of course, there. One now. I testified in Congress against funding ceeded at launching something. The From September 18 the same, if you will, mathematical level data. constrain. It sounds like a facetious example, can’t discount it. Not at all.… people for using data to forecast the next cri- executives in our classroom—the to 20, the festival problem, right? That there are con- but those kinds of data are now starting to I’ll give you two real-life examples. One, in sis. It gives you false confidence. The fellow Harvard M.B.A. classroom or some will be in Boulder, straints—you just need to be aware nnt: I have one last comment, which could be available in some circumstances. the most recent election here, [Narendra] before me showed what he can do with the classroom like that—will immedi- Colorado. jaipur of what they are. And you experi- be a little provo­cative. There’s something to Modi offered some sort of economics of as- data. Then I came up and said, “I have a silly ately jump to the conclusion as to literaturefestival.org ment your way—I was saying ear- figure out—that is how to help people cope ms: Because we’re all telling Google piration—that got him votes from communi- question. Do you realize that we had, before what it is that could have been the lier—to a solution. But the aware- with uncertainty or produce people who are where we are at any point. ties, groups, families that were not hitherto the crisis, 600 million correlations in finance? candidate explanation for that. And the reality ness of the constraints is where people trip better at dealing with uncertainty. And it is Modi or his Bharatiya Janata Party voters. Six hundred million correlations. What did you is that anything that you observe typically up. And the assumption that the constraints decrease the number of people in higher ed- tk: That’s right. With the exception of some Now, if five years down the line he has pro- do with this data?” He said, “Well, I was miss- could have a multiplicity of paths—a combina- that they encounter in places that they were ucation—because it’s an S curve. The prime circumstances where we do have so-called duced a good economic story, his political ing something.” I said, “Okay, so it’s always tion of different things that resulted in that very successful historically—assuming that minister said [he’d] “rather have a thousand big data arriving now, it might be possible rivals to the left will have to moderate, de- gonna be missing something.” We never had particular outcome. And to sort through that, the same ones will transfer over seems to be schools than one university.” He’s right. What to start making more-kosher inferences. But, spite what their prescriptive economists may more data as we did before the crash, okay. you need some kind of theory of the world, a human fallacy of some sort. happens is that school teaches you basic for the most part, the IMF forecast and so say, and move to the right. Yet [chuckles ] it was totally unpredicted. So I some sort of conceptual model to be able to skills. Beyond that, the more educated the on for the median entrepreneurs are simply Likewise, in the U.S., to use words Nicho- can’t rely on these people suddenly. interpret that. Otherwise, you’re lost in this ms: It’s interesting what you say about person, the more incapable they are at han- inconsequential. las famously uses, fragilities and uncertain- Now, there’s a second point, in your own sea of 600 million correlations and then some. China because we always used to be dling uncertainty. ♦ FROM LEFT: MOHD ZAKIR/HINDUSTAN TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES; DAVID LEVENSON/GETTY IMAGES; LEVENSON/GETTY IMAGES; TIMES VIA GETTY DAVID IMAGES; MOHD ZAKIR/HINDUSTAN LEFT: FROM QURAISHI/AP TIMES VIA GETTY MUSTAFA IMAGES; MOHD ZAKIR/HINDUSTAN Inside Business

THE OLD BILLIONAIRES’ CLUB Lessons in longevity from the Hénokiens, the 44-member society of generationally owned enterprises whose youngest member is 201 years old.

By Joshua Levine

recently found myself in a French great French wine merchants; De still be around) is the conviction that I château, completely surrounded Kuyper, the Dutch distillers; perhaps they’re keeping an ancient flame by Hénokiens: three-headed creatures even C. Hoare & Co., the illustrious alight while the rest of the world from the planet Hénoki. Okay, I just English private bankers. (“My bank- goes to hell in a handbasket. In their made that up. Hénokiens are human ers are Hoares,” quips Captain Jack own small way, the Hénokiens see beings, but it turns out they’re no less Aubrey in Patrick O’Brian’s famous themselves as a bulwark against all improbable for all that. sea novel Master and Commander, that is ephemeral, shoddy, self- 35 To join the absurdly exclusive set in the 19th century.) seeking, and shortsighted. It’s a very Club des Hénokiens, you must be- Most of the Hénokiens remain appealing ethos—as long as some- long to a family that has owned and unknown and unsung, but they’re one else’s family is upholding it. 2015 run its business for at least 200 years. out there generation after generation, Few people can imagine going to It’s a dauntingly high hurdle: There fighting the long odds against family work every day with their siblings, are only 44 members. The oldest of unity. Augustsea, an Italian maritime- cousins, parents, and grandparents. them, a traditional Japanese inn transport concern, is now run by the “In a world in crisis that wonders

called Hoshi, dates back to the year 16th generation of the Cafiero fam- about its economic future—and | Summer Spring 717. When the Hénokiens throw a ily. Toraya, owned by the Kurokawa where faceless egotism and short- party, which they do every year, the family, has been making traditional term finance, uncontrolled, restless, 200-year-olds sit at the kiddie table. Japanese pastries called wagashi for and destructive, imposes its laws— The group’s peculiar name comes nearly 500 years. (It’s complicated to family business is a humanist re- from Hénok, French for Enoch (the explain what wagashi are, but red sponse: balanced, calm, and durable. biblical son of Jared, father of Methu- and white beans figure prominently.) The Hénokiens have proved it for selah) who lived 365 years and went What the Hénokiens all appear to centuries!” Thus thundered Chris­ directly to heaven without dying. share (besides very comfortable in- tophe Viellard, the former presi- In this age of rapid-fire capitalism, comes—otherwise they wouldn’t dent of the Hénokiens, during his the Hénokiens might as well have opening remarks at the 2013 an- three heads. Everything they em- nual meeting. Viellard runs Viellard body, everything they stand for, runs THE HÉNOKIENS Migeon & Cie., which started life counter to the spirit of the current sometime in the late 1600s as a age. The Hénokiens are acutely con- SEE THEMSELVES family forge and branched out along scious of this, and they revel in their AS A BULWARK the way into automotive fasteners oddity, as I was to learn in the course and fish hooks. (There’s nothing in of their weekend get-together. To AGAINST ALL the Hénokiens bylaws that says the them, it’s a badge of honor. They’re family has to keep doing exactly the right and everybody else is wrong. THAT IS SELF- same thing, although many do.) You’ve probably heard of some of SEEKING AND Viellard was greeted with wild ap- the members: Beretta, the fancy Ital- plause and hearty bravos from his ian gun maker; Louis Latour, the SHORTSIGHTED. fellow Hénokiens. Some of them

Illustration by VI LUONG Inside Business

told me privately that they thought De Kuyper has personal experi- glycerin, which can be used to man- stints at Armani. Now he’s back in to mention a database of 1,800 living young man just feels like shooting Viellard could get a little bombastic, ence with the bad-spouse problem: ufacture explosives. This was not a the family bosom and looking to Hoares, any of whom is a potential out the lights. It almost killed the but on the whole, this kind of pep- “My uncle married a New Zealand fate that befell the De Kuyper spirits make Fratelli Piacenza a global brand candidate for a career at the bank. Köcherts. “We made a lot of mis- rally stuff is red meat to them. woman. Nobody liked her. He met business. “The Germans didn’t bomb while still keeping it in the family. A “Sustainability and stewardship,” takes,” he said. “We wanted to get her in Canada and luckily ended up us. They loved what we made,” said tricky task. “We want to do what said Hoare. “We’re not here to shoot bigger—buy this, create that new e were all assembled on the staying.” This worked out well for de Kuyper brightly. Loro Piana did and then not sell out the lights.” This may explain brand—and we overexpanded. There W grounds of the Château du Bob: “If he hadn’t stayed in Mon- out,” he said, referring to the well- why there isn’t a single Hénokien were five really tough years, and we Clos Lucé, in Amboise, since this treal, my grandfather wouldn’t have ow tough is it to survive? In known Italian wool and clothing from America, where shooting out had to pull way back.” was France’s year to play host to the asked my father to take over, and I H De Kuyper’s home village of brand that recently sold an 80 per- the lights is viewed more favorably. Hénokiens. The château is a modest wouldn’t be in the business.” Schiedam, Netherlands, where it still cent stake to LVMH after only six “We Europeans look at the Ameri- he Köchert boys have calmed bijou made of lovely pink brick, al- The De Kuyper business went has its main plant, there used to be generations. In Hénokiens chronol- can desire to get rich quickly with T down since then. Köchert said, most hidden in the shadow of the through a rough patch some years 400 distilleries. De Kuyper is one of ogy, that’s the blink of an eye. some wonderment,” said Hoare. “People come to us when they want much bigger Château d’Amboise back, and by “some years,” we mean a the four remaining. In Holland, only Lately thinking about the virtues On the way to dinner, I ran into the something authentic. It’s a very good just alongside it. Clos Lucé is where whole lot of years. It happened when 40 percent of family businesses make of family businesses has changed dra- newest Hénokiens—so new, in fact, niche. A Russian oligarch came in Leonardo da Vinci spent his final Napoleon invaded Holland. “We did it past the first generation. By the matically, not least because the world that they weren’t officially members the other day and wanted his own years as the invited guest of King all our business through middlemen second generation, only 15 percent does indeed appear to be going to hell signet ring with a kind of yin-yang Francis I. It’s a very Hénokiens- in the U.K., and Napoleon embar- continue on; then 7 percent of the in a handbasket, just like the Héno­ symbol. He told us, ‘You are my im- friendly spot, since it has belonged goed trade with them. That was a third generation. Almost no one gets kiens said it would. Family business is A MCKINSEY perial jeweler now.’ Fortunately he to the Saint Bris family for 161 further than that. There’s a version of now increasingly seen as a good thing, SURVEY SHOWED didn’t want a crown.” years. And while the family opened the old saw “Shirtsleeves to shirt- and the Hénokiens are becoming un- Zengoro Hoshi didn’t make it to the château to the public many years “WE EUROPEANS sleeves in three generations” in many likely heroes. New studies are turning THAT FAMILY the Hénokiens gathering last year. 36 ago, it remains, like the Hénokiens LOOK AT THE languages around the globe. “What up evidence that a family business He is 76 years old and the 46th- 37 themselves, largely undiscovered. you need most of all to be a Héno­ may be better not just for the family BUSINESSES generation Hoshi to run the world’s Viellard’s remarks preceded the AMERICAN kien is luck,” said de Kuyper. that runs it but for the business, too. GENERATED oldest inn. The story goes that the 2015 2015 award of the Leonardo da Vinci DESIRE TO GET Family businesses haven’t always A McKinsey survey several years ago, great Buddhist monk Taicho Dai- Prize. The prize goes to a family en- gotten a lot of respect. People who for instance, showed that family busi- HIGHER 10-YEAR shi was sleeping on Mount Haku terprise that isn’t old enough to be a RICH QUICKLY study these things often wrote family nesses generated higher 10-year re- RETURNS TO when the local deity appeared to Hénokien but looks likely to qualify firms off as full-employment pro- turns to shareholders than public him in a dream and directed him to if it can manage its begats for a few WITH SOME grams for not-especially-gifted rela- companies do and had dramatically SHAREHOLDERS a wondrous spring in the nearby

Spring | Summer | Summer Spring more generations. This year, Daher, a WONDERMENT.” tives. There are plenty of other draw- lower borrowing costs. village of Awazu, in Ishikawa Pre- | Summer Spring Marseilles-based aerospace manufac- backs to the family-business model, I asked Alexander Hoare, the lone THAN PUBLIC fecture. Taicho found the spring turer founded in 1863, took home too: hidebound thinking; endless English Hénokien, about this new COMPANIES DO. and told his disciple Garyo Hoshi the Leonardo. “Save us a place in the very bad moment. We almost lost the squabbling among people who, let’s respectability. Hoare is an 11th- to build a spa on the site and run it heart of the Association des Héno­ business,” said de Kuyper. face it, aren’t necessarily programmed generation partner and former CEO forever, which the Hoshis have kiens,” said president Patrick Daher Jean-Nicolas D’Hondt can relate. to get along; and, most disruptively, of C. Hoare & Co. (notable clients: yet, but close enough so the group in- made a good start on doing. as he accepted the award. “We’ve He is a good-looking Belgian chap constant worries about finding the Samuel Pepys, Jane Austen, and Lord vited them along anyway. Christoph I wrote to Mr. Hoshi to see what only got 50 more years. In the life of of 34 who just took over his family’s right relative to take over. Byron). “Attitudes are changing,” he Köchert was only 26 when his father advice he might have for becoming a family, that’s not a lot.” chemical company, now specializing The Hénokiens aren’t blind to said. “The feeling now is that while died and left him and his young a Hénokien or staying one, since he After the ceremony, the Héno­ in industrial cleaning products. The these pitfalls; it’s a large part of what we may not make as much money in cousin Wolfgang to run A. E. seemed likely to know more kiens strolled among the models of company, called Pollet, dates back to they talk about when they get to- boom times, we’re a lot more stable Köchert, the Viennese jewel- ACCESS about it than anyone. Here — Leonardo’s inventions on the châ- 1763 and claims to have produced gether. “It’s very helpful to come here in hard times.” ers since 1814 who proudly A. E Köchert is once is what his translator sent: again crafting its teau’s grounds and talked of family Belgium’s first liquid soap. Pollet al- and discuss family issues,” said Vasiliy served the Hapsburgs. Köchert diamond Sisi Stars. “When you earn much luck matters. What do you do, for in- most went under during World Piacenza, a handsome young Italian or the family firm, stability’s is best known for its Sisi Stars, The jewelery can be or money, don’t use it all. custom-made; a no- stance, when someone in the family War I, when it was prohibited from who was attending his first Héno­ F handmaiden is fertility: To keep a set of 27 diamond stars that ble family recently When you have much hap- requested colored marries someone nobody can stand? making chemicals. The family even kiens meeting. Piacenza, 31, rep- the firm well-stocked with capable Emperor Franz Joseph com- stones instead of piness, try to share with “You get rid of them!” said Bob put it up for sale at auction. As luck resents the ninth generation of Fratelli managers, you must ensure a ro- missioned for his bride, Elisa- diamonds. Sisi Stars, others—not keep it for from $1,000; de Kuyper, the tall, good-natured would have it, a younger member of Piacenza, which has been producing bust supply of children. Richard beth of Bavaria, known as koechert.com. yourself only. Try not to say Dutchman who represents the 10th the Pollet family bid for the com- luxurious wool and cashmere at its Hoare, the goldsmith who founded Sisi. You can see them woven all the details—people don’t generation of de Kuypers in the pany and won, and Pollet stayed on mill in Palbone, Italy, since 1733. C. Hoare & Co. in 1672, seemed to into Sisi’s hair in a famous portrait. want to listen to you. Try not to family’s distilling business. It is a track to join the Hénokiens. Like a lot of young Hénokiens know this instinctively: He sired 17 Köchert still makes them. “The boast or tell your successful story— heritage that the de Kuypers never In World War II, the Germans these days, Piacenza started working of them. Today there are eight Hoares Japanese just love the Sisi Stars,” people won’t trust you.” And there lose sight of. bombed Pollet. Its factories made elsewhere—in his case, that meant on the bank’s 13-person board, not Köchert told me. But sometimes a you have it. ♦ THE TRUE NORTH —A CRUISER WITH 18 DOUBLE CABINS,

GOURMET CHEFS, SCUBA GEAR, AND A HELICOPTER ON BOARD—IS THE

BEST NEW WAY TO ACCESS THE SOLOMON SEA,

AN EMPTY SWATH OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC, WHERE WORLD WAR II

SHIPWRECKS, CORAL REEFS, AND UNDERWATER VOLCANOES AWAIT.

THE LAST BOAT TO PARADISE FYI: HELICOPTER AND CHEF INCLUDED

BY SOPHY ROBERTS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KEN KOCHEY I T IS AFTER DARK WHEN WE PULL AWAY FROM N EW BRITAIN TO

40 TRAVERSE ONE of the deepest oceanic trenches in the world—nearly such lonely parts. Easier to understand is how the 30,000 feet below. Our means of passage is the nim- presence of foreign ships and planes led to the evo- ble expedition cruiser True North, which, from Oc- lution of “cargo cults,” whose believers thought that tober to December, makes almost a complete cir- gods were dropping goods from the sky. In this Pa- cumnavigation of the island of New Guinea in a cific wilderness, anything that breaks the horizon series of 5- to 11-night itineraries. I’m sailing the feels like it belongs to another world. Solomon Sea (part of Melanesia, an area in the With the New Britain Trench behind us, we wake South Pacific bearing little relation to the political up to salty mist hanging low over the water, glass- entity of Papua New Guinea, which governs most of flat, like a mirror. Our captain, Chad Avenell, says the region), using this Australia-flagged boat with we’re sailing through the tail end of a cyclone sweep- 18 double cabins, gourmet chefs, scuba gear, and a ing down from the Philippines. The moody light helicopter on board. turns the paradise of postcard clichés—blue lagoons We talk at the bar—me and more millionaires and arching palms—into something spectral. than I’m used to in one room, all but six of whom We anchor off a spit of sand forming part of the having sailed on the True North before. They’re ex- Lusancay Islands, made up of reefs and sandbars. ceptionally well traveled, which is exactly why On one island—an eel-thin streak of sand snaking they’re here: The True North represents one of the out across the water—there is a small hut made from few ways of accessing this empty swath of the map pandanus leaves. Our boat’s managing director, without chartering a private yacht out of Cairns (for Craig Howson, says the last time the True North $245,000-plus per week) and sailing up from Aus- came by, in 2013, the hut belonged to a fisherman; tralia’s northern tip. Among the group is a marine he was living there with his wife and child, their nut- biologist, who talks about the peculiar creatures that brown bodies having the island all to themselves. can survive trench-living over five miles down, and Now they have gone, most likely back to the Trobri- a leading Australian historian, who suggests that a and Islands, from where they came. I ask Howson missing Allied WWII submarine may lie in this what’s there, in this next string of low-lying coral mysterious oceanic crevice. islands 50 nautical miles to the west. “A Rolling In shallower waters, we dive among the wrecks of Stone,” he says. “And yams. A lot of yams.” the Pacific War, including a Japanese tank and a The Trobriands are among the world’s most re- Zero fighter plane now gathering coral on the ocean mote archipelagoes, where, by virtue of their isola- floor. Yet even when I touch the broken propellers, I tion, a peculiar cultural tradition has evolved. What struggle to imagine a good reason for fighting in is to us a dull tuber is to the Trobriander a source of Exploring a Japanese tanker among the sunken military wreckage from the 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, a major assault between the Japanese naval and air forces and those of the Allied forces. An Oro dancer on the beach in Tufi, in the Oro Province on Papua New Guinea’s eastern coast, performs wearing a birds-of-paradise headdress; taking in the crystalline waters of the Deboyne Lagoon (right). meaning and wealth. When the yam harvest comes ACCESS in, usually from mid-July to August, celebrations take The True North (northstarcruises on a curious expression of sexual promiscuity. For .com.au) operates a 10-night Ad- around two months, communities take part in erotic ventures in Paradise itinerary, sail- dances accompanied by salacious songs. Women get ing from Kavieng, on New Ireland, to Alotau, in Milne Bay Province, to jump the men, having their way with them in the with cabins starting at $13,210 per gardens where the men have tended the yams for the person, including private return air last 10 months. By mutual agreement, married cou- charters between Cairns and the ples can play away, while teenagers are encouraged to ship’s embarkation and disembar- kation points. The next sailing have as many sexual partners as they choose. As to runs from December 3 to 13. A Howson’s reference to a Rolling Stone, he’s talking shorter five-night Archipelago about Mick Jagger. We see no other tourists in this Adventure cruise of the Louisiade 10-day sail across the Solomon Sea; Jagger, however, Archipelago departs on December 13 and starts at $6,870 per has been hanging out with a Trobriand chief. person with the same inclusions.

The True North, equipped I SMILE AT THE with an onboard helicopter, anchors offshore at Papua New THOUGHT OF OUR Guinea’s Deboyne Lagoon. two ships passing in the night as we press on, toward Tufi, in Oro (Northern) Province, where we’re met with a score of Oro dancers decked in headdresses feathered by birds of paradise. The dancers beat their drums on a golden beach at the end of a jade fjord. 44 We barter from the aft deck, buying up carvings for a few bucks from the local outriggers. We fly in the helicopter and get a sense of the tumultuous geolog- ical movements that have formed this territory—and what is left: the sunken calderas, the hot springs, the fingerlike spurs that spread out from the volcanic peak of Mount Trafalgar, the coral “bommies” that show their heads just above the water where the Ring of Fire has caused the earth’s crust to steam and warp. We sail on, past Goodenough Island, pausing to swim the wreck of a Japanese fighter, ditched in May 1942 during the Battle of the Coral Sea. We spend an afternoon paddleboarding the outra- geously turquoise Deboyne Lagoon. We fish, dive, and snorkel, which is the rhythm of our Pacific days. We eat sashimi and crayfish barbecued off the back of the boat. Then we draw up into the Louisi- ades: 250 miles of coral atolls separated by ink-blue channels, which in their turn are crisscrossed by tiny boats sailed by the local Dobu people. It is here, where the Coral Sea meets the Solomon Sea, that our captain reverses the True North into the most perfect tropical anchorage: the high-sided, jungle-covered crescent of Ebora, where he slings the bowline off a tree. I dive off the boat and swim to land, where I buy an exquisitely carved prow from the front of a waga, or oceangoing canoe. I fight for its journey home through customs in Aus- tralia, Hong Kong, and London. There aren’t many places left on earth where you can leave with trea- sures such as this, acquired on a journey that I like to think only the few aboard the True North —and a Rolling Stone—will ever get to make. ♦ PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL LÖWA

THE FLORENTINE

FIGHT CLUB

BY LEE MARSHALL

A completely legal face punch (above) during a PLAYED EXCLUSIVELY WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS, THE GLADIATORIAL 2011 calcio storico match; members of the blue FLORENTINE BALL SPORT OF CALCIO STORICO DATES BACK TO THE RENAIS- team, representing Florence’s SANCE. BUT HAS IT LATELY GOTTEN TOO BRUTAL FOR ITS OWN GOOD? Santa Croce district, huddle before a game. Siena, it is part of the city’s identity, its sense of self.

A special, one-off match was organized in Feb- A 1971 calcio storico match (1) between the red team, from the Santa Maria Novella district, and ruary to celebrate the 485th anniversary of a leg- the green team, from the San Giovanni district; endary game: In 1530, under a months-long siege designer Stefano Ricci (2), a central force behind calcio storico’s rebirth; the Renaissance-themed by the army of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, procession (3) before a 1938 match; two players (4) the Florentines organized a calcio storico game in pose before the final game in 1934. full view of the enemy troops as a gesture of defi- ance. Someone even managed to rustle up a veal 1 calf, then as now the prize for the winning team. It’s a cold, bright day when two teams, the bian- chi (whites) and the verdi (greens), file in at the tail end of the procession. The players strut and snarl at their rivals, exchanging unprintable insults in Flo- rentine dialect. My ringside companion points out a grizzled defender and tells me that he’s one of Florence’s top criminal lawyers. At last, to the sound of a cannon, an official known as the palaio throws the ball into the air—and the greens have it! It’s immediately clear that this is going to be a more fluid, passing game than most recent calcio storico encounters. It’s a physical, bruising variation on rugby, but it’s not a barroom brawl. 2 That’s by design. Among the spectators is the un- mistakable figure of Stefano Ricci, his Darwinian beard perfectly groomed. Ricci, the CEO of the 49 eponymous Florentine tailoring brand, is here as one of the main architects and sponsors of calcio stori- co’s current relaunch. The sport is generally fi- nanced directly by the Florence city council, but Ricci has taken on the expense of arranging this exhibition match, paying for, among other things, the several truckloads of sand that are brought in to create the playing surface. His aim is to promote a (slightly) more civilized vision of the sport. Later, surrounded by hunting trophies in his company headquarters in the hills just outside of 3 Florence, Ricci talks of his love of the game and the reasons why there is a movement afoot to change its image: “My father used to take me to matches when I was a boy. But in recent years, calcio storico magine a football game where any- known as calcio storico fiorentino. To those visitors has not been a sport you could bring kids to watch. Players for the

thing goes. Punching, kicking, trip- who stumble on the sport, it may at first seem like Santa Croce team It has always been a physical game, but it shouldn’t brandish their ping, half nelsons, full nelsons, any a harmless historical reenactment. After all, each district’s coat be a brutal one. I want to bring it back to what it of arms after kind of slam, drop, takedown—all are 50-minute game is preceded by a pageant in which a victory. used to be: a splendid expression of the passionate permitted because no regulation has 530 participants in Renaissance costume, some heart of Florence’s quartieri. I want the players to ever outlawed them. The only true mounted on horseback, parade from Florence’s Pi- remember that every one of them has the image rule is that the ball, which can be held, azza Santa Maria Novella to the designated place of and reputation of Florence in his hands.” thrown, or kicked, has to keep mov- battle in Piazza Santa Croce. The players wear Ricci identifies his brand’s image with that of his ing. But it can move at walking pace, in the hands slashed leather breeches straight out of a Pintu- native city and has dedicated himself to promoting Iof a player who strolls nonchalantly around the ricchio fresco. Most years, there are just three its cultural patrimony. In 2012, for example, he 4 backfield while his teammates beat the living day- regular matches between teams from the city’s four paid for a low-emissions lighting system to illu- Ilights out of the opposition, or have the living day- main districts, or quar­tieri —two “semifinals” and a minate the Renaissance sculptures in Piazza della lights beaten out of them, or wrestle in two-man final, always held, weather permitting, on June 24, Signora (including a copy of Michelangelo’s Da- ARCHIVIO FOTO LOCCHI FLORENCE (1, 3, AND 4); FLORENCE LOCCHI ARCHIVIO FOTO heaps that sprout here and there on the sand-strewn the holy day of Florence’s patron saint, San Giovanni. vid ). That same instinct lies behind his sponsor- field like funghi porcini after an autumn shower. For true Florentines, calcio storico is a defining mo- ship of calcio storico. As president of CFMI (Cen-

Welcome to the violent arena of sweat and blood ment of their year. Like the Palio horse race in © RIGHT: (2) WEEK, 2013 ART STYLE.UZ FOR IMAGES FORESTIER/GETTY YVES tro di Firenze per la Moda Italiana), the holding company behind the men’s fashion event Pitti It was toward the end of the 1990s that the sport Uomo, Ricci is helping to organize another exhibi- began a downward spiral with games turning into tion match to take place on June 15, on the eve of vast brawls, players being rushed to hospital, foot- this year’s shows. He’s also sponsoring an autumn ballers ignoring the unwritten rule that those al- 2015 encounter in Shanghai. ready pinned to the ground should not be kicked or In a city more often associated with fashion and punched, and even assaults on the referee. A long art, there’s something appealing about the robust standoff between teams and city authorities began. physicality of calcio storico, a gladiatorial combat that defuses local rivalries by “EVERY PLAYER delegating them to 27 brave footballer-warriors per side. HAS THE IMAGE Luciano Artusi, the sport’s dapper elder statesman and AND REPUTATION archivist, is the go-to guy for OF FLORENCE the historical long view. He’s sitting in the headquarters of IN HIS HANDS.” the city’s calcio storico asso- ciation, housed in the 14th- and 15th-century Palazzo di Parte Guelfa, which was Games were canceled on more than one occasion. probably designed by Brunelleschi. “Calcio was born In the 2014 tournament, the final was called off in Florence,” he states in a tone that brooks no dis- after an ejected player refused to leave the field. sent. To measure the extent of the claim that Artusi is And yet, when it flows, calcio storico can be an making, it helps to understand that, in Italian, calcio exhilarating spectacle, “a superfast game” in Lapi’s 50 simply means “football.” So what he’s saying is: Our words, with elegant passing play and heroic solo A player for the white team runs Florentine game is at the root of all your footballs. runs firing up spectators who have paid as much as toward the goal; young fans $1,500 for a seat on one of the grandstands that from the Santa rtusi traces the lineage of calcio surrounds the temporary Santa Croce field. Croce district (below) cheer storico back to the Romans. There’s a growing consensus that the events of for the Although there is a more than 2014 represented a watershed for the modern blue team. millennial gap in the historical game. Michele Pierguidi, the president of calcio rec or­ d, evidence does link the storico’s governing body, is currently working with Florentine sport to harpastum, a the teams to come up with new rules that would strenuousA ball game that was seen as good battle reduce the number of non-Florentines on each side training for legionaries. Nobody knows how points and outlaw stand-up boxing matches between play- were scored in harpastum. In calcio storico, they’re ers. “The problem isn’t just the violence,” Pierguidi notched up by sending the ball into a narrow net at comments. “It’s that these one-on-one midfield the end of the rectangular field. It sounds easy, but clashes can make for a very static game of football.” it isn’t—if a player misses, half a point is awarded to Back on the field, the bianchi have just scored a the opposing team. caccia, or goal, after a player from the verdi mis- Calcio storico was played in Renaissance Flor- timed a backward pass. As soon as the goal is scored, ence, often by scions of the nobility. Lorenzo de’ the two teams change sides, led by their flag bearers. Medici, Alessandro de’ Medici, and Vincenzo Gon- The idea, born from Florence’s long military his- zaga, the Duke of Mantua, are all known to have tory, is that the winning side is allowed to “occupy” taken part in games. It’s safe to assume these high- the territory of its rivals. This connection to history born calciatori were handled with kid gloves by helps explain why, at least in this form, calcio storico ACCESS their teammates and rivals. No such concessions are has never spread beyond the city limits. Asked The 2015 calcio storico tournament made in the modern game. It seems odd that a sport what, if anything, links the tradition of high-quality games will be played in the Piazza Santa whose very raison d’être is robust, bare-knuckle artisanship that he has drawn on in his menswear Croce, weather physical contact should be criticized for being too line with the body blows of calcio storico, Stefano permitting, on June 13, 14, and 24. violent. Veteran player Gianluca Lapi, known to all —Florentine- Ricci reaches for the word fiorentinità Tickets will be as “Lorenzo il Magnifico,” a giant of a man who has ness. True Florentines know that there is nothing available from early May at the scored 66 goals in a career spanning 32 years, ex- strange about 54 modern gladiators facing off out- online reseller Boxol (boxol.it) ; the best plains the paradox: “In a sport without rules, it’s up side a church where Michelangelo and Galileo are seats are in the Tribuna to the players to impose their own sense of fair play. buried. In Florence, cultured refinement and bone- d’Onore Centrale. Recently this has gone by the board.” shaking physicality are the best of friends. ♦ Already a backer of such companies as Uber, Airbnb, and Spotify, Ashton Kutcher—the model turned actor turned hobby tech investor—is upping the ante with a new firm, Sound Ventures. But with competitors like Andreessen Horowitz and SV Angel, is his celebrity status enough? ASHTON KUTCHER’S TECH TAKEOVER

BY PETER KAFKA ILLUSTRATION BY THE RED DRESS f you want to argue that we’re in a new tech bub- have to convince start-ups you’re bringing something to ble, or at least heading toward an exuberance the table. There’s probably a dozen angels whose names “THERE ARE PROBABLY A DOZEN ANGEL INVESTORS overload, you can cite plenty of sobering statistics. alone create more value. He’s one of them.” (Kutcher de- WHOSE NAMES ALONE CREATE MORE VALUE. Or if you like metaphors, you could point to clined to be interviewed for this article.) South by Southwest Interactive. It’s the tech con- So what do you get besides Kutcher’s money when ” ference in Austin, Texas, that used to give earnest Kutcher gives you his money? developers a chance to drink beer in the sunlight. That depends on who you ask. Calacanis thinks Kutch- Now the nerds are long gone, replaced by a heav- er’s fame and social reach—16.8 million Twitter followers, ing gathering of marketers and media executives 17.5 million Facebook likes—are no-brainers for start-ups ASHTON IS ONE OF THEM. in search of something—anything!—disruptive. that need exposure. This is the guy, after all, who made a Here’s what they got this year in March: A rau- point of appearing on CBS’s Two and a Half Men with a cous party, cohosted by Ashton Kutcher and Guy laptop covered in stickers from his portfolio companies—to Oseary, to toast Sound Ventures, their new the chagrin of the network’s executives. A well-known angel “It was him and Guy Oseary.” Then she and her cofounder, tors most recently valued the company at $20 billion. tech-investment fund. Live Nation and Lenovo investor who didn’t want his name used, even though he has Ashley Granata, flew to L.A. to meet Kutcher in person. Then again, Kutcher is a rich, famous model turned helped foot the bill for the bash at the Copper- only flattering things to say, agrees: “I think the notion of “He was friendly, very easy to talk to,” she says. “But we were actor. Last year, Vaynerchuk was pitching him on Resy, a tank Event Center, which can hold 800 people some celebrity tweeting once or twice about a product— taken aback by his questions. They weren’t softball questions. start-up that allows diners to buy reservations at hot but had a block-long line of attendees outside. that’s not what does it. I don’t think it’s just check-the-box We were pleasantly surprised that he was a serious investor.” restaurants. “He was like, ‘Why would anybody need help Inside, producer Brian Grazer stopped by. So did marketing. If the company is already telling a great story in Kutcher became a Fashism board member (unusual for to get into a restaurant?’ ” Vaynerchuk says. rapper T.I., as did Mark Cuban, the billionaire the press, his involvement can amplify that. It’s another data him and for many angels). “He came to our board meet- Kutcher invested anyway. turned reality-TV star. (See “My Best Invest- point to keep the cycle going. That’s the benefit. But it’s not ings—in person,” Moreland says. “He gave his point of The newest data point in Kutcher’s favor: He has aligned ment,” page 66.) And, of course, Mila Kunis, going to make a shitty company into a good one.” view in design meetings.” His celebrity was also useful, ac- himself with private-equity heavyweight TPG Capital, Kutcher’s partner. Lil Wayne performed; Sean Others downplay Kutcher’s celebrity and argue that he’s cording to Moreland. For instance, he put them in touch which is either investing in his Sound Ventures fund or in- 54 Combs was slated to cohost the event, though he didn’t just smart, period. with actress Zooey Deschanel­ for a project they wanted to vesting alongside it, depending on which report you read. 55 actually show up. “Ashton has uniquely strong product instincts,” says in- do with her. But in general, says Moreland, “that part was Now that Kutcher and Oseary are leveling up—their new This should be the moment when a sober observer sur- vestor Chris Sacca—best known for his association with less helpful than him being a normal investor.” When it fund, Sound Ventures, reportedly allows them to make veys the scene and gets as far away from tech as possible. An Twitter—who counts Kutcher among one of the early in- was clear that the company was going to fail, in 2013, “we multimillion-dollar bets, instead of a couple hundred thou- Iactor and a music manager toasting their own digital savvy? vestors in his own fund, Lowercase Capital. “I don’t just basically told him it was shutting down,” Moreland says. “I sand—they’ll find themselves bumping into a new level of Launching their second fund so they can make bigger bets? mean strong for a celebrity. I mean that he genuinely un- was upset, but he was very helpful, talking to me about it competitors. It’s one thing when you’re fighting with mil- But here’s the thing. These guys seem to be really serious derstands what makes for a good product experience and and telling me it wasn’t going to be the last start-up I ever lionaires to bet on a start-up, but quite another when you go about this. And Kutcher might be really good at it. how to make it better.” did.” (And it hasn’t been. Moreland is now behind up against the deep pockets and wide influence of top-tier For five-plus years, the guy best known for playing on- Alex Hawkinson, the founder and CEO of the “Inter- wearable-tech start-up Jewliebots.) VCs, like Greylock, Benchmark, and Andreessen Horowitz. screen doofuses (Dude, Where’s My Car?, That ’ 70s Show, net of Things” start-up SmartThings, made room for Sometimes Kutcher offers counsel to companies that he Two and a Half Men ) has been diligently studying, net- Kutcher in his 2012 seed round after hearing good things hasn’t bet on yet. “Throw out the things that aren’t vital. hen again, those firms might still make room for working, and putting his money—his net worth is esti- from other investors. Hawkinson says he was pleased to Feature the things that are magical,” he recently advised Kutcher and his halo. Sound Ventures just par- mated at $140 million, according to Celebrity Net learn that Kutcher “was very insightful about the customer Rounds, a live-chat start-up seeking feedback on Product ticipated in a $7 million round for Pocket, a ser- Worth—to work via dozens of angel investments. (Kutcher life cycle and consumer psychology.” Hunt, the site that’s become Silicon Valley’s online equiv- vice that lets users store Web pages for later use, launched his first fund with Oseary in 2011, along with Investor Shervin Pishevar met Kutcher eight years ago at alent of TV’s American Idol. along with New Enterprise Associates, which well-connected supermarket magnate Ron Burkle, who is a TechCrunch event. At the time, Pishevar was running a raised a record-setting $2.8 billion fund. reportedly less involved in Sound Ventures; his name didn’t gaming company and was showing off his iGolf app. The ffluent tech investors often mistake the issues The more likely risk for Kutcher is the same appear on the South by Southwest launch-party invite.) two started talking and have worked together since. Pishe- that vex their lives with those that everyday Tone facing every single tech investor—that the bubble, or Along the way, Kutcher has managed to get in early on var turned Kutcher on to Uber, which has become one of people grapple with, which might explain why exuberance or whatever you want to call it, is going to end, some of the era’s biggest winners, including Uber, Airbnb, Kutcher’s biggest wins. Pishevar says he even brokered the San Francisco is awash with venture-backed and lots of smart bets are going to look less so. The Wall and Spotify. And he’s still logging plenty of time looking for first meeting between Kutcher and Uber CEO Travis Kala- companies that deliver food, underwear, and Street Journal estimates that there are more than 80 venture- new opportunities. This spring, for instance, he spent two nick, a famously curt and aggressive sort. “Travis didn’t weed to people who don’t want to leave their backed companies worth $1 billion or more on paper. full days at Y Combinator, evaluating the start-up factory’s know what to expect,” Pishevar says. “He came away super- apartments. But Kutcher is good about recog- Compare that with 1999–2000, at the height of the dot- newest crop of companies, like Cleanly and Cinder. impressed with Ashton. And Travis is a pretty tough cookie.” Anizing that not everyone is a rich, famous model turned com bubble, when there were, according to the Journal, 18 Just as important—and perhaps more important since Not everything Kutcher has backed has been successful. actor, says investor Gary Vaynerchuk. venture-capital-backed companies in the United States val- you can’t judge his actual performance without seeing his In 2009 fashion-tech entrepreneur Brooke Moreland “He’s good at not putting himself as a focus group of ued at a billion dollars or more. So it’s hard to imagine those financials—Kutcher has convinced start-ups that he brings asked Kutcher to invest in Fashism, her New York City one. Obviously he’s not the normal user,” says Vayner- are all going to stay billion-dollar companies in a downturn. value to their companies. That’s crucial at a time when social-fashion company that ultimately failed. “We had chuk. He says that insight helped Kutcher spot the value But even in that case, there are plenty of people willing companies get to pick their investors. heard from [famous angel investor Ron Conway’s] SV An- of Airbnb early in the company’s history, when most peo- to bet that Kutcher will do better than most investors. “It “In a market like this, people are fighting to get into gel that Ashton was looking at [social-fashion start-ups],” ple thought that the room/apartment–renting service would be easy to underestimate Ashton,” Sacca says. rounds, and deals close before they’re even announced,” says Moreland. “We jumped on the phone and asked would appeal only to couch-surfing millennials. “He was “Frankly I am sure many guys in venture capital don’t says entrepreneur and investor Jason Calacanis, who has [Foursquare CEO] Dennis Crowley to connect us. painting a picture of the value proposition and the size of want to admit to themselves that a wildly successful actor invested, like Kutcher, in companies such as Uber. “So you “The very first call was terrifying,” Moreland continues. the company way before others,” Vaynerchuk says. Inves- and model is also a great investor.” ♦ ’round midnight Dressed to thrill in silk, satin, and velvet, OLATZ robe, $735. STELLA McCARTNEY bra, $140. NICHOLAS a neo-noir romance unfolds. KIRKWOOD shoes, $950. FRED LEIGHTON diamond necklaces, Photographs by CHRIS BROOKS prices upon request. TIFFANY & CO. diamond bracelet (left), price upon request. FD GALLERY vintage Cartier Fashion Editor KAREEM RASHED diamond bracelet (right), $430,000. SIEGELSON multicolored diamond ring, price upon request. DE VERA goblet, from $1,250 for a set of four. HERMÈS teacup, $380. 59

ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA COUTURE jacket, $3,895. TOM FORD trousers, $1,440. BERLUTI shoes, $1,850. BULGARI tourbillon double-chronograph, $175,000. 61

LANVIN dress, $3,990. JONATHAN COHEN fox stole, $3,225. NINA RUNSDORF diamond earrings, $59,000. MUNNU THE GEM PALACE diamond and aquamarine necklace, price upon request. On left hand: YEPREM yellow and white diamond ring, $19,000. On right hand: MARIE-HÉLÈNE DE TAILLAC Paraiba tourmaline ring, $160,000; FERNANDO JORGE diamond and PRADA suit, from $2,525, topaz ring, $3,060; and LITO diamond and turtleneck, $970. VACHERON ring, $5,625. DE VERA coupe, from CONSTANTIN chronograph, $1,950 for a set of eight. SIEGELSON $69,000. SIMON TEAKLE Georgian sapphire and diamond cigarette ring, $6,200. case, price upon request. 63

On him: LA PERLA jacket, $2,615. BERLUTI scarf, $360. ULYSSE NARDIN chronometer, $10,400. On her: VIONNET dress, $3,225. MUNNU THE GEM PALACE moonstone bracelet, price upon request. YOSSI HARARI diamond bangle, $17,540. FRED LEIGHTON peridot ring, price upon request. FD GALLERY Edwardian fire opal ring, $19,000. MARIE- HÉLÈNE DE TAILLAC rubellite and fire opal ring, $4,450. DENNIS BASSO chinchilla fur, $21,000. DONNA KARAN dress, $10,000. ARA VARTANIAN emerald and diamond necklace, $73,600. FRED LEIGHTON diamond necklace, price upon request. On left hand: DE VERA pearl and diamond ring, $2,950; and SUEL rings, from $990. On right hand: MARIE-HÉLÈNE DE TAILLAC tourmaline ring, $5,750.

Prop styling by Andy Harman. Hair by Cecilia Romero using Rene Furterer at the Wall Group. Makeup by Yacine Diallo using DiorSkin at Defacto. Manicures by Casey Herman using Tom Ford Beauty at Kate Ryan Inc. Produced on location by Nicole Hektner for Hen’s Tooth Productions. The models are Dean Stetz at Wilhelmina and Michelle at APM. Casting by Wulf Casting.

65 MY BEST INVESTMENT

66 2015 Spring | Summer | Summer Spring

Mark Cuban BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR AND OWNER OF THE DALLAS MAVERICKS

The one thing in life you can never get back is time. Having my G550 available at any hour, plus the ability to drive right up to it and take off without all the hassles of flying commercial, has given me countless hours with my family and moments to myself to get things done or just relax. I can’t live without it.

Photograph by JEFFREY MILSTEIN