The Spear's Luxury Index
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE SPEAR’S LUXURY INDEX From hoteliers and horologists to tailors, interior designers and jewellers, these are the 50 innovators, tastemakers and leaders at the forefront of luxury today 2020 By Edwin Smith, Alec Marsh, Rasika Sittamparam, Arun Kakar, Anna Solomon, Timothy Barber, Ben Griffiths, Andrew Harris, Gareth Herincx and Caroline Phillips Profile numbers for illustrative purposes only Peter Lürssen Elle B Mambetov 4 Prince of the waves 6 Modestly does it The family-owned German yard In May, fashion designer Elle B. Lürssen did it again this year with Mambetov relaunched her luxury ‘Project Opus’, another astonishingly womenswear brand, Elle B Zhou. The impressive ‘gigayacht’ – stretching to move was symbolic, marking triumph 142 metres (465 feet) in length, with over adversity. Born to a single mother two helipads and a retractable hangar in Texas, Mambetov’s journey has taken among the features. It also sleeps 36 in her from being homeless to 20 state rooms and looks stunning, sponsorship deals with Toni & Guy and having been designed by the Italian Evian – as well as being celebrated at studio Nuvolari Lenard. The Bremen London Fashion Week. But it also takes shipyard also gave the world Azzam in the confines of a British prison. (180m) in 2013, owned by UAE In 2016, she had become a London president Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan Fashion Week designer at just 26. and still the second-longest superyacht However, when police arrived at her flat in the world. After that came the 156m that November to arrest her on Dilbar in 2015. When it comes to suspicion of fraud, Mambetov’s fashion megayachts, the Lürssen family, in dreams unravelled fast. First a friend Brice Partouche business for 145 years, is still leaving had defrauded her before skipping bail. 1 High stepping everyone else in its wake. Then she was convicted for fraud and imprisoned for two years before the US Endurance sports had never really been ‘cool’ before. That was until the 2010s, when Rapha came intervened to free her. along and transformed cycling with tasteful, minimalist clothing and moody photoshoots. Running’s Since then, Mambetov has rebuilt ‘Rapha moment’ took longer to arrive – but it has been worth the wait. It comes courtesy of the her life – and her luxury fashion brand. Paris-based running brand Satisfy, the brainchild of Brice Partouche, a fashion entrepreneur. The Her collection is influenced by her aesthetic is often redolent of low-fi Eighties punk, but incorporates luxurious fabrics such as its identities as a modern African-American ‘Justice’ shorts lining, ‘made with an experienced French silk-maker and inspired by medical bandaging’. and a proud Muslim, and pioneers the Satisfy claims the material is 35 per cent lighter, making its shorts, which cost up to £273, ‘the practice of ‘modest fashion’. ‘This lightest in the industry’. They also dry 60 per cent quicker – another detail that shows Partouche’s collection is my brain, heart and soul commitment ‘to remove distractions’ in order to help runners pursue what he calls ‘The High’. stretching to collide two worlds of fashionable existence,’ Mambetov has KLAUS JORDAN JORDAN KLAUS said of her work. It is ‘representative of my own journey into dressing modestly; Jeannette Ho Barbara Broccoli each cropped top, short-sleeved shirt 2 Grand dame 5 The real Bond girl and pair of trousers have been repositioned to fit within this new world A producer of the last 11 Bond films, When London gets a new grand hotel, as I seek to redefine modest fashion.’ including No Time to Die, which is now it’s big news. When the hotel in question Her line was revealed in a high- out next year, Barbara Broccoli, also is in one of that capital’s iconic energy virtual presentation in co-owner of EON Productions with buildings – one garlanded with rich collaboration with supermodel Shahad Michael G Wilson, is one of the leading associations with individuals like Salman. Everything about it was big women not just in film, but in luxury. Churchill and Lord Kitchener, then it’s and bold, from the colours and patterns After all, which British icon has done really big news. Step forward Raffles to the unapologetic personalities of more to promote well-heeled London at The OWO, one of the capital’s Mambetov and Salman, a Saudi model masculine style than 007? And most audacious hotel reincarnations, with vitiligo. The industry couldn’t help where would Bond be without created from the reborn Old War Office but to take notice; since launching her his Aston Martins (eight films on Whitehall and opening in 2022. Clément Robert collection the designer has been and counting), Rolex or With interiors designed by Thierry Good taste merchant featured in Vogue Arabia, Glamour UK 3 Omega watches, Bollinger, or Despont – the New York-based French and Vogue Australia. Along with the Members of the five Birley Clubs – Annabel’s, Tom Ford clobber? Tom Ford architect who transformed the Ritz opening of her flagship store in Los Harry’s Bar, Mark’s Club, George, and Bath & returns for Bond 25, Paris – then you can expect the 125 Angeles, the collection proves beyond Racquets – now have a new club to enjoy, as do Omega and rooms and suites, and the nine bars and doubt that she has returned. one offering them access to a range of shoe-maker restaurants, to be seriously top-drawer. As well as protesting her innocence online tastings, food pairings, tours and Crockett & Jones. Part of Raffles’ rapid global expansion in her case, she is also turning her investment advice from the world’s top ‘I could not be (it’s opening in Boston next year, too) experience towards writing and wine, spirits and cigar producers and happier to be overseen by global chief Jeannette Ho, advocacy, and has been vocal on the experts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 650 dressing Daniel if the OWO is half as good as the part that she says racism and members signed up for the recently Craig as James 133-year-old flagship hotel in discrimination play in the British launched Birley Wine Club ‘within 48 Bond again,’ Ford Singapore, it promises to be a criminal justice system. ‘ For anyone hours’, according to head sommelier said. Luxury seriously hot ticket. struggling with injustice, or struggling Clément Robert. ‘The idea was to keep lovers and to be heard, I just hope you don’t give up our members connected with the best shareholders too soon, because in my case I came out vineyards and the best people in the couldn’t agree the other side stronger,’ she has said. world in this industry,’ he says. more. 55 Torsten Müller-Ötvös 7 Mr Rolls-Royce Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO of Rolls- Royce Motor Cars since 2010, has overseen the transformation of the 116-year-old marque. Owned by BMW since 1998, the Goodwood-based luxury brand delivered a record- breaking 5,152 vehicles worldwide in 2019, and the range now consists of five models. The latest addition is the second-generation Ghost, the replacement for the biggest-selling car in Rolls-Royce’s history. It may not look radically different from its predecessor, but the 2020 Ghost is new from the ground up and the most technologically advanced model yet to sport the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy mascot. The original car was launched in 2009 in response to younger customers who wanted a model that was slightly ‘smaller’ and less ‘ostentatious’. The new version is built on an aluminium space frame architecture, gets four-wheel drive and all-wheel steering for the first time, and features Rolls-Royce’s unique Adaptive Planar suspension, which uses miniature cameras to read the road ahead, delivering the famed magic carpet ride. Inside the cabin, the dashboard has been semi-decluttered, but there are still some familiar switches, buttons, dials and shiny organ-stop air vent controls. On the passenger side, there’s a new illuminated fascia featuring a glowing Ghost nameplate surrounded by more than 850 tiny stars. Exterior features of note include Rolls-Royce’s hallmark Pantheon Grille, which now includes subtly illuminated vanes. Cruise along and the driving experience is near silent, thanks to the car’s 100kg of sound-proofing. The mighty twin-turbo V12 only becomes vaguely audible when the car is driven in a more spirited fashion. Naturally, the Ghost is at its best serenely gliding along, but it’s also the most driveable Rolls-Royce ever. For a big car it hides its size well – it’s surprisingly agile, with sharp steering, while the grip and traction out of corners are outstanding. The more you drive it, the more your confidence grows. So, the new Ghost is a triumph of design and engineering. Seductively stylish, whisper-quiet, powerful, and offering an awesome road presence and dynamic drive, it’s a sublimely luxurious treat. But then with a starting price of £250,000, it should be. THE LUXURY INDEX Alex Eagle Frank Akinsete 11 Where Eagles dare Manuela Hauser & 8 Upcycling upstart Alex Eagle is the effortlessly cool 12 Iwan Wirth creative director best known for Frank Akinsete’s Portobello Market Art and the art of hospitality Alex Eagle Studio on Lexington Street, boutique is a West London institution. a 360° take on curated retail with an Stories of successful entrepreneurs’ He stocks an exceptional array of offbeat aesthetic. Her remit spans earliest endeavours are legion. But vintage clothing and accessories that fashion, lifestyle, art and furniture, setting up a commercial art gallery at attracts not only market-goers but also with all pieces hand-picked by 16 years old? Who does that? Iwan designers, stylists and clients from far Eagle herself.