Table of contents for March 2019 in Robb Report

Sasha Israel Israel, a portrait and lifestyle photographer, brought her signature naturalism and authenticity to her disarming images of teenage sneaker dealers in this issue’s “They’ve Got Game” (p. 98). Israel was the principal photographer for The New York Times best seller In the Company of Women, and her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Elle, Self, Glamour, and New York magazine. She splits her time between New York City and Providence, R.I. Max Berlinger Berlinger is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor who focuses on the intersection of style, culture, and technology. This month the native Californian covered the growing cadre of teenage sneaker dealers in “They’ve Got Game” (p. 98) and rounded up some of the country’s top style advisors in “The Wardrobe Fixers” (p. 132).…

YOU ONLY NEED be caught in one shower come rainy March and April for your mind to leap to the question: trench coat or mackintosh? But first, a note on their differences: The former, which was invented to shield Allied officers from grim weather in World War I, is double-breasted with an oversize revere collar and epaulets on the shoulders. The latter is simpler, single-breasted, with a smaller collar, raglan sleeves, and an A-line silhouette. As with many things in menswear, the winds of change blow unpredictably between the two. One season, Humphrey Bogart–style trenches are in; the next, the mac is the stormy staple of choice. The truth is neither is wrong, but this spring, attention does seem to be turning toward the mac. It’s cooler and cleaner—more Michael…

EVEN FOR THE MOST dedicated watch collector, maintaining a perpetual complication can become a perpetual chore. Resetting the calendar components could take so long you have to pencil it into your schedule (pretty counterproductive for a watch, don’t you think?). Of course, there are plenty of collectors who relish every moment of attention they can lavish on their babies. For those of us who’ve got other things to do, Vacheron Constantin’s new platinum Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar ($199,000, vacheron-constantin.com ) is the answer. Launched in January at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, the Twin Beat is the first timepiece to have a user-controlled dual frequency that allows the wearer to switch via a single pusher between an active (5 Hz) and a standby (1.2 Hz)…

GROWING UP IN 1960s Austria, Erwin Wurm and his friends had an expression for expensive automobiles that were instantly recognizable and driven, they surmised, by rich people: “fat cars.” As one of contemporary art’s more iconoclastic conceptual artists, the Vienna-based Wurm has spun the term into a series of corpulent, life-size sculptures that contemplate our consumer society. “The car and the house, the two objects which I’ve made fat, were always the most beloved objects of human beings—before they created the iPhone,” Wurm says with a chuckle. “It’s how we address our well-being, our wealth, our coolness. It’s social status.” Wurm has fattened up Porsches and Ferraris, but his latest is a lumpy, forest-green Mini Cooper, which is on view in a solo exhibition at London’s Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (ropac.net)…

THE PIKES PEAK International Hill Climb—in Colorado Springs, Colo.—is a litmus test for efficient automotive design and engineering, and the innovative, all-electric Volkswagen I.D. R has proven it has the winning chemistry. “In computer simulations, limiting weight was the obvious key to conquering Pikes Peak,” says Volkswagen I.D. R chassis project manager Cedric Delnatte. “Light weight, balance, and grip to be fast on the corners.” With front and rear electric motors delivering 479 ft lbs of torque and about 670 electric-equivalent hp to all four wheels of this 2,425-pound racer, there were no concerns about power. “No sound from the engine, no gear change, no rev band. At first the quiet is irritating.” Delnatte’s corporate mission was an engineer’s dream: Design a performance car for the Pikes Peak Unlimited class,…

I’M KITTED OUT in aluminum trousers, fireproof layers, and heavy boots. No, I’m not about to fight a fire in Southern California’s hills. Rather, I’m about to fly a jet pack, and its owner is keen I don’t fry myself with the 1,000-degree engine blast. Earplugs in, helmet on, jets alight—I’m ready for liftoff. Rising on columns of thrust is literally the stuff of dreams, except this can hurt badly if it all goes wrong. Any altitude up to 10,000 feet, at which you would need oxygen, is theoretically attainable. Teaching me how to control the machine supplying all this heat, noise, and potential disaster is David Mayman, one of its inventors. His JetPack Aviation’s latest design ($340,000, jetpackaviation.com ) uses six small jet engines (the version I tried had…

Kenny Dichter is a man of many passions. He heads aircraft charter company Wheels Up, which operates a fleet of Beechcraft King Air 350i turboprops, but he also cofounded Tequila Avión and Marquis Jet. Last year, Wheels Up sponsored the Triple Crown–winning racehorse Justify, and this year, it has launched a new entry-level membership tier that includes access to app-based private flight bookings and serious savings on empty-leg and shared flights. John Lyon Why has Wheels Up stayed committed to flying turboprops? We discovered that more than 80 percent of private flights flown average two hours in-flight time with fewer than three passengers on board. That stat was important in our decision to make the massive investment we did in our exclusive fleet of King Air 350i aircraft. Are there…

As this is the style issue, can we talk about color for a minute? Though maybe I’m not the best person to start this conversation, being that I’m technically color-blind (reds and greens—terrible for snooker). Perhaps that’s why, when it comes to clothes, I’m pretty consistent. Navy. Gray. Tan. The odd lighter shade. That’s pretty much it. And I’ve noticed I’m not alone. Style, like so many things, is about balance, and, as a general rule, most men are better served in clothes in shades of blues, grays, and browns than anything more primary or lurid. The pop of contrast provided by a pocket square, a scarf, or even a watch strap in an unexpected but complementary hue is usually more than enough to signal that beneath a put-together exterior…

THE ALLURE of the hermetically sealed hotel—that reliably consistent bastion of sterilized luxury we all once swore by—has practically become a taboo among modern travelers. But lately, even a place that successfully brings the local culture inside its curated walls isn’t enough. We’re greedy; we want more. We want to stretch out across a block, a row, even an entire village. That’s the idea behind Enso Ango (ensoango.com), a new hotel in Kyoto that’s spread over five buildings and more than a dozen blocks. There’s an art gallery here, a tearoom there, a Zen garden in one building, a restaurant and bar in another, and scattered throughout, a collection of rooms, some simple hotel accommodations, others more spacious apartments, and all designed in that classic Japanese minimalist style of neutral…

FRANCE’S EXPERIMENTAL GROUP (experimentalgroup.com) made good on its name more than a decade ago when it started turning some of Europe’s least desirable addresses—a Chinatown hole-in-the-wall in London; a graffiti-covered dive in Paris’s second arrondissement—into some of the world’s best cocktail bars. Now the company’s killer instincts and derring-do are about to disrupt another industry with a collection of modern hotels in Paris; London; Verbier, Switzerland; and, later this year, Venice and the Spanish island of Minorca. Here, cofounder Pierre-Charles Cros tells us why the guys who make your favorite drinks are so well suited to make your bed, too. How did you go from cocktail bars to hotels? Hotels were always the goal because they are the pinnacle of hospitality. You can have all your skills under one roof,…

E. Guigal has mastered both ends of the winemaking spectrum: The Rhône Valley winery’s single-vineyard expressions like La Landonne and La Mouline are famously hard to acquire, while its beloved Côtes du Rhônes can easily be found around the world at bargain prices. For third-generation vintner Philippe Guigal, there should be a place for both at any table—and this year, he’ll prove it by opening E. Guigal’s first public tasting room, in the medieval village of Ampuis. Here, the winemaker makes the argument for going high and low when it comes to stocking your cellar. Sara L. Schneider Why build a tasting room in Ampuis when you already have a devoted fan base around the world? The idea is not to sell, but to share our passion for this region.…

WHEN PAUL NEWMAN’S Rolex Daytona ref. 6239 sold for $17.8 million at Phillips auction house in 2017, Daytona prices were suddenly launched into the stratosphere. Pre-owned watch e-tailer Crown & Caliber (crownandcaliber.com) has charted the famed model’s ascent through sales data from the last six years, using its most popular references to illustrate its massive climb in value. “When we see a vintage watch, like the Paul Newman, publicly sell or auction for a high dollar amount, it has an almost immediate effect on the pre-owned market,” says Crown & Caliber founder Hamilton Powell. “It essentially becomes the tide that raises all boats in terms of price—sometimes dramatically.” How dramatically? Just look at the ref. 16520. Back in 1988 when it was introduced with the Zenith “El Primero” Caliber 4030,…

VIRTUE Sweat it out with Teckell’s sculptural and smart Ciclotte Bluetoothenabled bike. (Starting at $14,000, teckell.com) Clean up your diet with a healthier humidor: the Lotusier Jangala tea box crafted from sycamore wood. ($16,310, lotusier.com) VICE Treat your gluttony with Phanes’s Mademoiselle BC Parme caviar spoon in silver, mother-of-pearl, and parma shagreen. ($1,250, phanes.fr) If you must puff, use Joe Doucet’s Fetish ashtray in 24-karat-gold-plated aluminum. ($2,000, shop-tetra.com ) Pick your poison wisely when sipping from Vista Alegre’s Pºison Bottle porcelain snake flask. ($765, vistaalegre.com)…

VOICE RECOGNITION (VR) technology is working its way into every facet of life, in every way imaginable. Initially available only in the odd smart appliance, VR exploded with the advent of connected homes and operating systems like Nest and Google Assistant. Now smart speakers with virtual assistants with sexy names like Alexa, Siri, Bixby, and Cortana are waging war for the chance to become your full-time robot butler (and surreptitious data collector, but that’s another story). In some applications, VR doesn’t make all that much sense. Sure, you can command your smart microwave to “heat chicken” with the voice of God, but you still have to pull the bird out of the fridge, plate it, and prep it when it’s done. Did you really save that much effort by eliminating…

Inspired by the design of sailing yacht Grace E, the Pavilia Bay in Hong Kong is naval architect Philippe Briand’s first residential project. Elements of his maritime structural expertise are found throughout the waterfront development, such as 650 steel plates welded together like the hull of a yacht, and the two towers of the building made to evoke the mast of a yacht under full sail. The overall result delivers nautical-chic nuances to a skyscraper skyline. Julia Zaltzman How did you go about applying nautical lines to Pavilia Bay? The starting point for us was to explain to the developer the main rules of yacht design and to translate what materials will and won’t work. We identified the lines, and the materials followed, such as the white external painted facade…

A-list celebrities have stylists who dress them for everything from film premieres to their walks from the car to the airport terminal (yes, really). But who can civilian men of means turn to for their own personal clothing conundrums? A new breed of “wardrobe fixer” has arisen in recent years to hack the closets of financiers, tech moguls, entertainment executives, and other elites. Today, thanks to social media, C-suite execs who once went incognito are expected to be public-facing representatives of their companies, which means having plenty of judgmental eyeballs sizing up not only their business acumen but also their sartorial choices. In other words, ill-fitting clothing and square-toed shoes are no longer acceptable. To make matters more confusing, the days of the suit as a trusty go-to are over—the…

“In a professional environment, a coat is a ‘finishing garment.’” YEARS IN THE BUSINESS: 40 SERVICES: Personal shopping services at home; in-house tailoring. FEE: Complimentary Is there a piece of advice you give to every client that seems to work? “Buy clothing that you’re not only physically comfortable in but mentally comfortable in as well. I don’t recommend wearing something that’s not a reflection of you or your personality just because someone else is wearing it.” What are the key pieces you think every man should have in his closet? “My top five go-to items include a dark suit—I prefer charcoal; a solid-colored blazer or patterned sport coat; a pair of dark slacks; beige or white linen pants; and a nice jacket—three-quarter length, long enough to cover a suit. I…

“Every man needs ‘a navy blue suit, and a charcoal one is a plus.’” YEARS IN THE BUSINESS: 25 SERVICES: House calls, doing closet assessments, and sometimes bringing in a tailor to give items that extra little tweak. FEE: Complimentary What does every man need in his closet? “A navy blue suit, and a charcoal one is a plus. A beautiful lightweight cashmere blazer you can wear all year round. A selection of white shirts—I have 20 or 30, because anytime I don’t have time to think about what I want to wear, that’s where I go. I love Kiton, but it’s an exclusive brand for a certain client.” Any advice for guys when they’re shopping? “Bring your wife along, if you have one. I love to have wives’ opinions:…

Aman Sveti Stefan A 15th-century fortified village and a 1930s royal villa separated by a stretch of Adriatic Sea make this Aman resort in Montenegro feel like a town unto itself. The walk from your room (in the former fishermen’s quarters) to the spa takes you through beach, forest, and city. (aman.com) Monteverdi Tuscany A medieval village brought back to life, this 900-year-old hamlet-turned-resort in the heart of the Val d’Orcia is an albergho diffuso done right, with a contemporary art gallery, an enoteca, a culinary academy, and just 18 rooms and suites. (moneteverdituscany.com) Belmond Casa de Sierra Nevada In Mexico’s San Miguel de Allende, six colonial mansions—including a 17th-century fort and the archbishop’s 16th-century home—were merged to create this enclave of 37 rooms patched together via courtyards and cloisters.…

A FEW YEARS ago, while Krista Scruggs was working for one of the biggest conglomerates in the wine business, she had a realization. “The FDA would allow you to add up to 300 additives [to wine],” the 33-year-old vigneronne recalls of her days at the company, which used artificial enhancements to alter both the look and taste of wine. It was an unwelcome deviation from what Scruggs considered to be the natural process of winemaking. At the mass-market level, “wines were being made in a lab,” she says. “Not in the vineyard.” That’s not the case at Zafa Wines (zafawines.com ), Scruggs’s biodynamic winery in Vermont. Just a year old, it’s making waves not for its cutting-edge innovation, but for its throwback methods: There’s no fining or filtering, no herbicides…

PASK’S PICKS THE PERFECT TOPPER: The authentic Parisian workman’s jacket, Le Mont St. Michel, made just for B.in three new colors. THE ESSENTIAL LAYERING PIECE: Comme Des Garçons’s Shirt Forever chambray button-down. THE GO-TO PANTS: Wide-leg, flat-front khakis from Germany’s Closed. A CHILDHOOD FAVORITE: Clarks Originals desert boots, updated in a basket-weave, exclusively for B. BRUCE PASK has been doling out style advice for more than three decades. The men’s fashion director for Bergdorf Goodman and former fashion editor has amassed a legion of followers who regularly stalk his sartorial style on Instagram. And now, he’s taking his authoritative feed—which is flooded with requests for where to find the often obscure brands that make up his singular wardrobe—to RL (you know, real life) with February’s opening of B., a new…

Ruth Tomlinson From her Hatton Garden studio, Tomlinson handcrafts intricate pieces informed by nature and historical design. (ruthtomlinson.com) Ming Jewellery Designer and bench-jeweler Ming Lampson portrays her passion for unusual stones and glorious color in a beautifully refined style. (mingjewellery.com ) Venyx World Eugenie Niarchos’s audacious label takes far-out galactic and fantastical motifs and turns them into rock-star-worthy jewels. (venyxworld.com) Anissa Kermiche Alexander Calder, Constantin Brancusi, and Pablo Picasso are among the muses that have inspired Kermiche’s sculptural pieces. (anissakermiche.com )…

Christoph Grainger-Herr may be just 41 years old, but he’s already had two careers that would make most men envious: The CEO of one of Richemont’s top watch manufacturers started out as an architect before being named the brand’s top executive in 2017. We sat down with the man of many talents to find out where he’s taking IWC, and how he’s going to get there. P.R. How did you go from buildings to watches? I have no idea! I’m always trying to find a rational answer to that question. Ultimately, I’m a brand person, and the more you design, the more you start to think about all the different dimensions of a company. But to make a gut decision about what feels IWC and what doesn’t? Either you bring…

A graduate of ArtCenter College of Design in Switzerland, Pontus Fontaeus has worked on projects for Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti. Now based in Southern California as the executive design director for China’s GAC Motor (gac-motor.com ), he shares why car interiors have room for improvement and why his newly debuted all-electric concept could be the answer. V.M. What is your approach to design? I really like to challenge myself and my design team. If we stay in our comfort zone, we will never push boundaries or invent something new. How has aviation influenced your perspective? I had the opportunity to act as lead designer for the latest new business class from Singapore Airlines, which led me to understand the future of great cabin design in cars. We have to…

Inside Kiton’s sprawling workshop, the first thing you notice is the noiselessness. No machines buzz; only the hushed banter of men gathered around tables rhythmically sewing swaths of creamy fabric into exceptionally crafted Neapolitan jackets. This type of hand-touch is impossible to automate; each bespoke model gets cut and sewn to fit the anatomical nuances and movements of its owner. Today, the brand that patriarch Ciro Paone established in Naples in 1956 employs more than 350 skilled tailors and operates a school to train the next generation. “Our tailors are artists,” says Antonio Paone, one of Ciro’s nephews and Kiton’s U.S. president. “They take pride in what they make; a well-made jacket can last a lifetime.” 1 Pattern Play There is no standard size; a man’s right shoulder might be…

Build the monochromatic look with varied shades of a similar hue—think creams, light grays, and dusty beiges for spring. The monotone palette should extend to footwear: Pristine sneakers work with suiting or separates. Don’t limit the tonal look to solids; mix it up with textures and patterns in the same low-key palette.…

“I’m here to help you show your authentic self.” YEARS IN THE BUSINESS: 25 SERVICES: “Excavation,” or editing a closet; “Rejuvenation,” which is focused on building a wardrobe from the ground up; and “Lifestyle Optimization,” a full style upgrade. FEE: $2,000 to $25,000 What makes you successful at your job? “I don’t work with people’s posses,” says Hitchcock, who insists on dealing directly with clients. “I’m not a ‘yes’ person. I’m here to help you show your authentic self.” What is the number-one mistake that men make? “Getting bedazzled by brand name or price tag; these measures do not necessarily equate to quality. Also, men’s shirt lengths are always off. The cuff is too long, or on short-sleeve shirts it’s almost to the elbow. Some guys are still wearing a…

Rich Matta upends the typical model of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur: He’s trying to make his fortune by reining in the internet, not expanding its reach and influence. Matta, 46, runs Reputation Defender. It’s the leading player in one of the hottest new digital markets: online reputation management. It’s his job to make sure his clients look as good, if not better, on the internet and social media as they do in real life. That doesn’t mean making sure Instagram shows their best image. It’s reputation he’s concerned with—because that is now constructed online via URL as much as IRL. “Anyone can publicly say almost anything about anyone, whether or not it is true or fair, and those comments can turn up in Google’s search results forever,” he explains. “You…

Growing up in Imola, Italy, Stefano Domenicali worked at the nearby Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari racetrack. This early passion for fast cars turned into his life’s work. After graduating from the University of Bologna, Domenicali landed a job in Ferrari’s financial division. His career accelerated at the carmaker, and he was named director of the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team, which went on to win the Constructors’ Championship during the first year under his leadership in 2008. After piloting several successful seasons, Domenicali joined Audi as vice president of new business initiatives before landing the pole position at Lamborghini in 2016. He recently parked for a moment to share what keeps him on track. What one thing do you do daily to stay sane? Because I don’t live near…