Table of contents for April 2024 in Robb Report

You don’t need to be bonkers to be a goalkeeper, but it surely helps. Placing one’s head in harm’s way of a rocketing projectile and swinging cleats for a living is risky enough; adding insult to potential injury, if your side loses, you’re usually the one who gets blamed. Meet Bobby Dekeyser. In the 1980s, he was a fearless backup goalkeeper for Bayern Munich, then the toast of European football. At age 26, a catastrophic injury nearly cost him his left eye and brought his sporting career to a dramatic close. Thankfully, he remains 100 percent committed to crazy jobs: He’s now a high-end hotelier. Since opening Nay Palad Hideaway, his flagship barefoot paradise in the Philippines, in 2012, the resort has garnered a trophy cupboard to rival Bayern Munich’s.…

CHRISTOFLE AND ITS subsidiaries have used a variety of hallmarks, from a rooster to a cat’s head, since the Parisian firm was founded in 1830. It employs the knight, one of the most powerful pieces on the chessboard, on the high-quality items it has silver-plated. In a winking nod to that heritage, the company has launched its first game, a chess set called Duel des Thés. “We were thinking about how games are booming and what would be Christofle’s interpretation,” Marie Beaussier, the brand’s director of product design, tells Robb Report. “The idea was to have two iconic tea services, Art Nouveau and Art Deco, actually compete.” The resulting set, whose name translates to “duel of teas,” is a playful spin that replaces key pieces with teapots, creamers, cups, and…

ASK ANY ELITE athlete or entertainer about how they were inspired early on, and you’ll likely hear another household name that impacted their trajectory to stardom. LeBron had Jordan, Bono had Bowie, and Streep cites De Niro. The same holds true in automotive design. Here, we’ve asked the individuals responsible (in full or in part) for poster-worthy cars from the Ferrari Testarossa to the McLaren F1 to the Bugatti Mistral: Which models served as your artistic muses? While you’ll recognize a number of iconic names on this list—the ’67 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale was actually nominated twice—some unexpected choices will surely surprise. Viju Mathew 1932 Ford Model B DESIGNED BY: Edsel Ford NOMINATED BY: Michelle Christensen, head of design for Karma Automotive, led the team responsible for the second-generation…

The first century of aviation design didn’t give trendspotters much to get excited about, with the vast majority of production aircraft remaining little more than tubes with wings attached. Later, boomerangshaped outliers known as “flying wings,” such the Northrop YB-49 and Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, captured the aeronautical industry’s imagination with their futuristically stealthy looks, while military jets with blended-wing-body (BWB) configurations—notably the B-1 Lancer and the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird— likewise built cult followings for breaking design barriers as well as sonic ones. A resurgence of BWB concepts, now addressing prior control and stability issues, promises more efficient operation for defense, cargo, and even commercialpassenger applications, with some specifically designed as business jets. The streamlined BWB shape reduces drag, thereby increasing fuel efficiency, and lowers carbon output—the last being the…

Active Beach Clubs The leisure space at a yacht’s stern has become an essential part of the superyacht blueprint. Owners’ emphasis on the water’s edge has given rise to active beach clubs, which might feature enclosed lounges, drop-down transoms for watersports access, or multidecked havens where relaxation meets wellness meets seaside living. Most beach clubs come into their own when the yacht is at anchor, but aboard Oceanco’s Aquijo, the world’s largest high-performance ketch, watertight doors mean guests can still use the Jacuzzi, spa pool, hammam, and sauna when sailing at top speeds. Glass-bottomed Jacuzzis and glass-encased pools on the main deck, as seen on Golden Yachts’ 288-foot Project X, shine natural light on a beach club below, mitigating a lack of windows. Other solutions include side terraces that extend…

DREAM MACHINES A DEVOTION TO MOTION One of the most interesting superyacht previews this year was Benetti’s 148-foot Motopanfilo model, which introduced the brand’s Veranda deck. The Italian builder’s unconventional design eschews the traditional main salon, instead creating a less-formal living area that’s exposed on three sides. The main-deck lounge “is a space that has fallen behind,” says Giovanna Vitelli, chair of the Azimut-Benetti Group, who declares the company’s reinterpretation as “the new standardbearer of a more relaxed lifestyle.” Benetti’s latest design concept and the smaller Oasis deck that preceded it are just two examples of how clients are looking to replace starched salons and prim dining rooms with larger, easier-living exterior spaces. This also includes a preference for foldout rear decks, reimagined bows, and balconies that extend when activated,…

FIRST DRIVE AT FIRST BLUSH, the McLaren 750S doesn’t look all that new. Like an old friend with exceptional plastic surgery, the British marque’s latest model appears more taut but the underlying bone structure is still there. And it’s an impressive foundation; after all, its genes are inherited directly from the 720S. Now, with an estimated 30 percent of the 750S being new, performance enhancements include an obligatory bump in output to 740 hp, livelier handling, and a shoutier, angrier engine. The gains are most pronounced on a closed circuit, as we experienced at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Nevada. Quickly apparent is the vehicle’s increased muscle and shorter gearing. The twin-turbo V-8, with 590 ft lbs of torque, dumps power assertively to the rear, allowing the 2,815-pound (dry weight)…

PLANES WITH FLAPPING wings sound more anime than aerospace, but the world’s largest airframers on both sides of the Atlantic are expediting prototypes that could shape the next generation of business and commercial jets in entirely unconventional ways. Their mission? To make aircraft exceedingly more fuel efficient and help deliver on aviation’s sustainability pledge to be carbon-neutral by 2050. In Europe, Airbus is designing radical wing configurations, including one that changes form to counter turbulence, while stateside, Boeing has partnered on NASA’s X-66A experimental plane that relies on trusses to support unusually long and slender wings. The Extra Performance Wing that Airbus is developing “mimics a bird’s feathers and adjusts automatically to maximize aerodynamic flow,” says Sebastien Blanc, technical wing director for the project, part of the Airbus UpNext program.…

Pleasure yachts were once the province of amateur sailors and oligarchs—men who, aside from a shared appreciation of varnished teak, adhered to diverging aesthetic templates. For serious mariners, form followed function, and fripperies were frowned upon. The upper-cruster aboard his gin palace, meanwhile, preferred nightclub chic, with heavy doses of gold, chandeliers, and black-lacquered surfaces. Both types of vessel suffered from a surplus of wood paneling and a scarcity of sea views. That design rulebook has now been thrown out, thanks to shifting priorities, new technologies, and the pandemic-fueled boom in yacht ownership. A rising generation of younger owners prefers watersports toys and wellness suites over cigar lounges and book-matched mahogany. Seductive superyacht concepts on social media promise a life in which families waft unbounded through fluid, open-plan, indoor-outdoor spaces…

Several years of living in a sleek if nondescript penthouse in the heart of Bologna, Italy, left architect Laura Gasparini and her family desiring a home with more room and character. Their 1,600-squarefoot apartment was sufficient for everyday life, but Gasparini says she, her husband, Maurizio, and their son, Rocco, “needed more space and a more prestigious house for receiving guests.” Though her work is decidedly contemporary, Gasparini has always been drawn to older buildings. So when she and Maurizio started researching properties around Bologna, historic homes made the top of the list. “I love modern buildings, but they must be special,” she explains. “They don’t always transmit the same emotions as historic ones.” After viewing a handful of options, Gasparini was struck by the quiet grandeur of the building…

THE GOODS THIS MONTH’S WHO, WHAT, AND WEAR Before the 19th century, when the steamship and the railroad greatly expanded the capacity for long-distance transit, little attention was paid to tracking time zones on the wrist. But in the 1930s, when the world-time complication came to market, a new standard was set for traveler’s watches— suddenly, with just a glance, one could see the hour and minute in all time zones simultaneously. The only problem? The international community couldn’t quite agree on a single, universal time-zone system. It still can’t. In the U.S., a handful of states completely ignore daylight saving time (DST), and certain countries near the equator similarly have no use for it; there’s persistent talk about jettisoning the system altogether. For watchmakers, this lack of consensus makes…

During his prolific and inventive career, Marc Quinn has cast a selfportrait with his own frozen blood, preserved flowers in liquid silicone, and made a series of 3-D works by covering images of postcard-pretty sunsets with urban detritus and mounting them on violently crumpled aluminum. The through line? Our inextricable dependence on our environment, both natural and of our own making. Or, as Quinn puts it, “what it is to be a person in the world.” “Those frozen sculptures bring out the idea that we only exist in certain conditions—and if you change those conditions, then we cease to exist,” Quinn says over Zoom from his London studio. “The frozen head only exists because it’s minus-20 Celsius. If you unplug it, it turns to a pool of blood. The frozen…

While most youthful infatuations rarely lead to long-term relationships, there’s always the exception. Just ask David Lee, who never forgot the feeling of that love-at-first-sight sucker punch—though his heart’s desire was not for a person but for a 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO. “The model debuted when I was in high school, and I fell in love with it but never dreamed I could own one,” says the 57-year-old bon vivant, who’s regarded as one of the foremost Ferrari collectors. The son of a world-renowned gemstone craftsman, Lee graduated from USC’s Marshall School of Business with a degree in entrepreneurial studies, then began working for his father’s namesake atelier. Now CEO of the Hing Wa Lee Group, he has spent more than three decades selling high-end jewelry and timepieces and has…

Once known as the gritty, industrial heart of northern Italy, Milan emerged in the mid-20th century as one of the most exciting design hubs in Europe, if not the world—a title it still holds today, as evidenced by the annual pilgrimage of design lovers to Salone del Mobile. Running concurrently with Fuorisalone, or Milan Design Week (April 15-21), the 2024 edition of the fair will have more than 1,900 exhibitors. In February, Salone announced that it had tapped director David Lynch— yes, of Twin Peaks fame—to curate a space called A Thinking Room. Known for his evocative and thematically driven sets, Lynch was chosen for this unexpected collaboration based on his unmatched creativity and ability to design immersive, mind-bending worlds. “Every year [we] propose new events that span from culture…

The yacht-design industry’s current obsession with reinventing vessels’ exterior space is moving all the way up front, giving a social makeover to what has traditionally been a utilitarian, crew-centric domain. Dutch builder Damen’s SeaXplorer series of expedition yachts, ranging from 197 feet to 345 feet, transforms the bow with an open observation nook protected by the overhead deck. Most leading edges aren’t designed to let people look over them, but the model line’s vertical bow allows owners and guests this more visceral perspective. “It was created for a thrilling experience—watching whales around the boat, dolphins surfing bow waves, or passing glaciers in icy waters,” says Enrique Tintore, Damen’s design manager. “The idea is to maximize the connection with nature.” Then there’s the Ferretti Group’s Infynito 90 (above). More cruiser than…

Dan D’Agostino recognizes that only a handful of music lovers are prepared to dedicate a miniature skyscraper’s worth of space—and an equally towering financial outlay—to build a comprehensive multicomponent sound system. So the sonic engineer and his team at D’Agostino Master Audio Systems reworked technologies from their Relentless and Momentum Series separates to create a benchmark all-in-one solution. While fitting a preamp, stereo amp, DAC, digital streamer, and phono stage into a solitary chassis is nothing new, it’s a tall order to have it deliver the power, performance, and aural signature virtually identical to a stack of leadingedge separates. The Momentum MxV Integrated Amplifier, priced at $80,000 with the optional digital and phono modules inside, took considerable sleight of hand to design: Packaging the same circuits and parts of the…

FIELD NOTES We all know the saying “Less is more.” Over the past century, the aphorism has become a battle cry for architects and designers, defining a modernist aesthetic that champions the minimal and the refined over the busy and the ornamental as a path toward better living. But has our understanding of minimalism itself become a little too reductive? And does it even fit with our collective ethos here in 2024? While the pithy phrase was popularized by the 20th-century German American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, it doesn’t apply to the way many of his clients actually lived in his buildings. Photographs of Farnsworth House, his modernist glassbox icon, show a space arranged as Mies had envisaged it, with his streamlined furnishings and pared-back interiors. In fact,…

Cleopatra's Barge ✜ History’s first superyacht owner was Ptolemy IV, who ruled Egypt from 221 to 205 B.C.E. Among his royal fleet was a 300-foot catamaran that towered 60 feet above the Nile, propelled by thousands of enslaved men. But it was his descendant Cleopatra, reigning nearly two centuries later, who has captured the imaginations of poets, playwrights, and Hollywood producers. Cleopatra’s barge was the first nautical fashion statement, a blazing vessel that included silver oars, colorful sails, and a goldencrusted hull. Shakespeare’s reference in Antony and Cleopatra was so inspirational to George Crowninshield Jr., who hailed from a wealthy merchant family in Salem, Mass., that he named his yacht Cleopatra’s Barge when it launched in 1816. At a time when no one cruised for mere recreation, the 83-foot schooner…