Tabla de contenidos para June 2019 - Issue 64 en The Rake

I may be in grave danger of segueing off my chosen path, smashing through the guardrail and careening down the sheer and precarious cliff of hypocrisy with what I’m about to say. But certain recent occurrences in my life have left me feeling extremely wary about luxury objects and their capacity to seduce. From the beginning, the objective of this magazine was to discuss suits, cars and mechanical watches based not on what they represent sociologically — because far too often they are wielded as aggressive symbols of affluence — but because whether it’s that Patek Philippe chronograph, Joe Morgan suit or Riva yacht, some brilliant and talented human beings have spent a significant portion of their finite energy on Earth bringing something beautiful into existence. And in using the…

There’s a point to be made about Elvis Presley’s early life that touches on our music in a unique way. Forget the bloated, drug-addled, gun-toting, ludicrously dressed Elvis of his later years, the horror figure that haunted Las Vegas singing to middle-aged women and passing out his sweat-drenched cheap scarves. I’m talking about the shiny young man who walked into the Sun Records studio in the morning of his life full of hope and confusion, with charisma and talent bursting transcendently out of him. Elvis came of age in the very middle of the 20th century, in the decade following two world wars and a soul-searing economic depression. And it was for the post-war American 1950s to delve chaotically into the issues of race, working class anxiety, mass culture, corporate…

In a world of Instafame, influencers and overwrought celebrity, Tom Hughes is a refreshing anomaly. Unfazed by the glittery appeal of stardom or the hype of social media, the 34-year-old acknowledges that he belongs in a bygone era and pines for a simpler time. His unaffected nature can perhaps be attributed to his down-to-earth upbringing in Chester, where he spent his youth “trapped in music and climbing trees and playing football”. A passionate musician first and foremost, his desire to act was ignited almost accidentally after unexpectedly landing a stint in a school play. He would go on to spend his Friday nights commuting to and from youth theatre in Liverpool before studying at RADA, which helped him secure several important parts, including the BBC drama The Game and Ricky…

Long before the Marvel movie studio decided to monetise the shit out of their IP by cramming Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow and the other one played by Jeremy Renner into Avengers, another more formidable clique of celestial beings produced awe and wonder. We’re talking the nineties and we’re talking supermodels. There’d been iconic faces before, of course, and there have been since, but never such a collection en masse. They muscled their exquisite way from the fashion pages to the covers of magazines; they famously didn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000; and investors threw cash at them for a chain of short-lived eateries (because catwalk strutters go with food like Vladimir Putin goes with minding his own fucking business). And the supermodliest of…

It is tempting to use some kind of horticultural pun when discussing Budd. To do so would be a bit misleading, because unlike a fledgling spruce or blossoming fruit flower, Budd’s might has permeated the sartorial landscape like the roots of a mighty oak, firmly grasping England’s soil. In 1910, when the Ottoman empire was still administering territories in Europe, the Titanic hadn’t sunk, and stainless steel had yet to be invented (or crosswords, if you can believe there was ever a time without them), Budd opened their store in Piccadilly Arcade in London, the same location you can find them in today. All the trappings of an archetypal British establishment remain: rickety staircases about the width of this magazine, painted columns in the doorway, barely a lick of paint…

The summer of 1969 was not exactly dull. The moon landings, the Manson murders, Woodstock, the Vietnam war… The images of the time are etched into the collective consciousness: the grainy flickering frames of space-suited astronauts looking like Michelin men bouncing about the lunar surface; the wide-eyed stare of the murderous Manson; a sea of hippies stretching as far as the camera lens could see; and the nightly television installments of whirring helicopter blades, death and destruction from Indochina. Such is the cultural payload of these images that they crowd out other, less celebrated pictures from the summer of ’69, such as one taken by that Nadar of the jet set, Slim Aarons (see page 103). While it bears his fingerprints in terms of style, subject and location, it has…

Being a restaurant critic must be quite good fun. Negative reviews are enjoyable to read, so I only presume they are even better to write. Personally, I have never had a column but my internal monologue can formulate the most brutal takedowns using all manner of cooking-based puns. The target of my unpublished ire is most commonly a group of restaurants and clubs that will remain nameless but exude the sort of elegance you’d traditionally find in a Moscow brothel and have infected the London scene with an enormously successful takeover of what used to be stylish establishments. At times like this, I think back on an excoriating review of a restaurant by the master hack the late Adrian Gill, who on skewering a new Chinese restaurant in Soho concluded…

Do you subscribe to the concept of synchronizität, or synchronicity? Introduced by Carl Jung in the 1920s, it was sanctified and given full expression in his 1952 paper ‘Synchronizität als ein Prinzip akausaler Zusammenhänge’. The Acausal Connecting Principle posits that events are ‘meaningful coincidences’ if they occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be meaningfully related. Synchronicity took me to the doorstep of Preludio, one of Singapore’s most talked about restaurant openings of 2018. It is a thrilling time to be eating in Singapore. Of course, my point of view is skewed because I am Singaporean, and proudly so. But just because the opinion is biased does not make it less true. Please do not take my word for it; just ask the interwebs, because clearly it knows the…

On his 21st birthday, a pampered African prince rejects the fiancée his parents have chosen for him and flies to New York to find a woman he genuinely wants to marry. So begins Coming to America, a 1988 romantic comedy that infuses the ancient template of the fairytale with Eddie Murphy’s fish-out-of-water, character-comic sensibility. The crown prince of Hollywood at the time, Saturday Night Live alumnus Murphy followed the colossal success of Beverly Hills Cop by reuniting with Trading Places director John Landis to write the film’s story and star as its debonair hero, Prince Akeem. For a mainstream American feature, the film is an unusually inclusive showcase of established and emerging black talent. The future chat-show host Arsenio Hall is Akeem’s wily friend aide Semmi (he and Murphy also…

A facet of this magazine, and what makes it stand out from the crowd, is that it takes great pleasure in extolling the virtues of noble fibres such as vicuña and cashmere. A great example is last year’s collaboration with Fratelli Piacenza and New & Lingwood, whereby we created a unique vicuña have made you feel like Henry VIII. Nobility, though, doesn’t come exclusively from luxury fibres, as it can also be found in the humility of a fibre such as linen. At this time of year in the northern hemisphere, now we’ve moved into June and are yearning to soak up as much vitamin D as possible, linen can assert its annual claim to the throne with an insouciant attitude. In September last year I visited De Petrillo, a…

Had Friedrich Nietzsche, in his 1883 allegorical masterpiece, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, posited the überhund as the ultimate transcendence of caninity rather than the übermensch as the ultimate transcendence of humanity, his magnum opus may not have earned its exalted status in the annuls of philosophical literature. But it would be a far more plausible read, especially if the dog he plonked onto this literary pedestal were the not so lowly Labrador. The odd human being from modern history might accurately be described as an übermensch — the Einsteins, the Gandhis, the Mandelas of this world — but, by and large, humans are blighted by a paradoxical flaw: they lack the wisdom required to harness their vast intelligence for the good of their own species. Hence, they wage war — on…

When Daisy Knatchbull eschewed sartorial convention and turned up at Ascot’s Royal Enclosure wearing a bespoke morning suit constructed by her then employers, Huntsman, few observers saw her attire as a challenge. As Knatchbull puts it, “it wasn’t some massive statement”, but she adds: “It was saying, ‘Let’s challenge the rules and see what we can do’.” Two years on from that seminal moment, Knatchbull is taking the ancient, noble art of tailoring into loftier realms. Her mission? No less than the empowerment of 50 per cent of the population. “The suit acts as an amplifier of power,” she tells The Rake in the King’s Road space that is home to her womenswear tailoring brand, The Deck. “As soon as I wore a suit that was tailored to me, I…

www.orlebarbrown.com/007 Who’s your favourite Bond? It’s a question we’ve all been asked before, probably even George Lazenby. Is it Daniel Craig for his tortured, muscle-bound super-spy? Or Sean Connery for his twinkling charm, slick suits and sex appeal? Or perhaps you’re more inclined towards the tongue-in-cheek humour and old-school panache of the late, great Roger Moore? That’s not to forget the polished steel that was Pierce Brosnan’s rendition (but perhaps it is to forget Timothy Dalton? No hard feelings, Tim…) . Regardless of your preference, there is a common denominator that never left Bond’s character, no matter who was playing him: his style. It shows a remarkable consistency, given the many different decades in which Bond films have been made, that each despotic criminal mastermind after the other has fallen…

With thanks to Half Moon Bay, Antigua, the exclusive new resort on the island of Antigua, and home to the Rosewood Half Moon Bay Hotel, set to open in 2022. Like Theresa May, Elon Musk and the shareholders of Flybmi, trousers get a poor deal. They’re the workhorse of a man’s wardrobe, with a thankless task to perform — squashed, pressed, scuffed and stretched out of shape day-in, day-out, from trains to planes, from bar stools to benches. This is a shame, because the humble trouser has the power to make or mar any outfit you care to put together, particularly in warm weather, when the time comes to shrug off your flannel and corduroy in favour of a lighter, sun-friendly look. In fact, this summer we’d encourage you to…

Turin-born Luca Faloni’s eponymous company was born of frustration: his inability to get beautifully cut clothes, made of the finest materials, consistently and at a reasonable price. Now, the brand he founded in 2014 has garnered a reputation for the fastidious sourcing of materials from his native Italy — full grain leather from Santa Croce; linen from the country’s ancient mills; fine-yarn cashmere from Cariaggi; brushed cotton from Grandi & Rubinelli — and tasking the nation’s best artisans, people whose skills have been passed down through generations, with turning them into beautiful menswear staples. But there is more to this brand than unsurpassable raw materials and craftsmanship. Faloni is, by his own admission, borderline-paranoid when it comes to the finer points of a garment. “Detail is everything,” he tells The…

G. BRUCE BOYER G. Bruce Boyer has been a noted men’s fashion writer and editor for more than 40 years. He was associated with Town & Country magazine as Men’s Fashion Editor for 18 years. His feature articles have also appeared in Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Forbes, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Departures and Plaza Uomo, among other titles. He was the first American fashion journalist to write for the Italian fashion magazine L’Uomo Vogue. He is the author of three books on the history and direction of men’s fashion: Elegance (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1985); Eminently Suitable (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1990); and True Style: The History and Principles of Classic Menswear (Basic Books, 2015). In this issue Bruce reminisces about the…

America likes to think of itself as the gold standard of homeliness and righteous living, all apple pies and milk and cookies, but over its short life its greatest sons and daughters have been subversives. From George Washington to Malcolm X, Mark Twain to Bob Dylan, Harriet Beecher Stowe to Madonna Louise Ciccone, the Americans who really matter have been rebels and outsiders. To these add Paul Theroux, a fine novelist, a great travel writer, and that supposedly rarest of things, an American ironist. Theroux has always been on the move. Though he looks the epitome of east coast preppy, his background is quite humble. His father, Albert, was a salesman for the American Leather Oak Company, his mother, Anne, a teacher, and he was the third of seven children,…

The Chopard L.U.C XPS 1860 Officer Royal Arms of England Richard I earned his ‘Lionheart’ appellation for his efforts as a military leader and warrior, not least his whipping the proverbials of Saladin and his men in the Battle of Arsuf during the Crusades. So it’s apt that this Chopard piece — one set to fight its way through the dress-watch battlefield with robust authority — pays tribute to the medieval monarch by revealing a lion when the crown is pressed to make the hinged cover hiding its exhibition case-back open at a 90-degree angle. Richard I, an iconic English king who was also Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, is a perfect figure with whom to celebrate the opening of a new flagship boutique on London’s New Bond Street…

Driving through Biella, the northern Italian province famous for its woollen milling industry, provokes a feeling somewhere between romantic nostalgia and sadness. About a 90-minute drive north-west of Milan, the city remains Italy’s woollen milling epicentre, if not the world’s — a title that has been unchallenged for more than 300 years. Nestled in the lower slopes of the Piedmont Alps, the textile industry is the region’s biggest, in large part due to the water that channels down from the snow-crested peaks and into the River Cervo, the principal tributary of the Sesia River. The Biellese are quick to point out that here flows the purest, softest water in the world, virtually devoid of calcium and magnesium ions and thus perfect for the production and finishing of wool. But all…

Given a mechanical wristwatch’s propriety as a family heirloom — what is better suited to being passed through the generations than a reminder of the human relationship with time, crafted to outlast its first owner many times over? — it’s tricky to think of a more appropriately named watch than the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony, a timepiece you could CGI onto the wrist of any character in movie history without the blooper-gendarmes getting in a cyberhuff. Fairbanks, Gable, Douglas, Clooney? Sorry, no careless anachronisms to see here. Even more impressively, with the latest reboot of its markedly clean and elegant watch line, one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world has managed to capture the zeitgeist (specifically, the vociferous appetite for blue dials) without doing the slightest harm to its…

Details cannot lie. Inspect closely the Riva Rivamare. Forget about the phantasmagorical Riva badge and pay attention to the chandlery. The shape of the chrome buzzer, the two small position lights close to the chrome integrated anchor, the three steps to go down to the water, in a distinctive alcove at the back, and the stainless steel double curved windscreen are some of the key design signatures that don’t allow any kind of doubt: this is a genuine Riva. A Riva is not only a runabout. As anyone who has had the chance to jump on board the sleek and sinuous mahogany dinghy will attest, a Riva is really an object that can magically provide access to the lifestyle of a golden era. The owner might not use it more…

ADRIANO MENEGHETTI – www.adrianomeneghetti.com AG – www.agjeans.com ALBERT THURSTON – www.albertthurston.com ALEXANDER MCQUEEN – www.alexandermcqueen.com AMI – www.amiparis.fr AMOUR LUX – www.armorlux.com ANDERSON & SHEPPARD – www.anderson-sheppard.co.uk ANDREA POMPILIO – www.andreapompilio.it AQUASCUTUM – www.aquascutum.com AQUAZZURA – www.aquazzura.com ASPREY – www.asprey.com AUDEMARS PIGUET – www.audemarspiguet.com BALLY – www.bally.com BAMFORD – www.bamfordwatchdepartment.com BARBANERA – www.barbanerastyle.com BASELWORLD – www.baselworld.com BATES – www.bates-hats.com BEGG & CO. – www.beggandcompany.com BELL & ROSS – www.bellross.com BELSTAFF – www.belstaff.co.uk BERLUTI – www.berluti.com BERRY BROS. & RUDD – www.bbr.com BLACKHORSE LANE ATELIERS – www.blackhorselane.com BLANCPAIN – www.blancpain.com BOGLIOLI – www.boglioli.it BORSALINO – www.borsalino.com BOTTEGA VENETA – www.bottegaveneta.com BREGUET – www.breguet.com BRIONI – www.brioni.com BROOKS BROTHERS – www.brooksbrothers.com BRUNELLO CUCINELLI – www.brunellocucinelli.com BULGARI HOTEL – www.bulgarihotels.com BUDD SHIRTMAKERS – www.buddshirts.co.uk BULGARI – www.bulgari.com CALABRESE 1924 – www.calabrese1924.com CAMOSHITA UNITED…