Tabla de contenidos para October 2020 - Issue 72 en The Rake

Recently the stylist Francesca Burns called out Hedi Slimane, the Creative Director at Celine, over sample sizing. She was styling a photoshoot and was helping a model try on a pair of pants that had been sent. The model, as you can tell from the image Burns shared, was, as she put it, “tiny”. Yet she found buttoning the apparently child-size trousers impossible. Burns’s issue is that a model experiencing this will feel embarrassed or frustrated, which can lead to body dysmorphia, eating disorders, anxiety, and other mental health issues. (And we are talking about an already rail-thin professional model who, despite appearing on the pages of a fashion magazine, is young and at a formative and impressionable point in her life.) In the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, which…

The photographer Boo George has contributed to international editions of Vogue, W, Love, Arena Homme + and i-D; commercially he has been engaged by Calvin Klein, Hermès, Emporio Armani, Dior, and Ralph Lauren. He has turned his lens on myriad personalities, including Emma Watson, Helen Mirren, Michael Fassbender, Kim Kardashian and Sienna Miller. Ireland-born Boo now splits his time between Britain and the U.S., and joined us in London to shoot Eddie Redmayne for this issue’s cover. He says: “I’d shot Eddie before, but it was years ago. For the location of this shoot we chose this rundown old hotel in Lancaster Gate — I’d often passed it on my bicycle, and I thought it would be a nice juxtaposition, the decaying walls and old wooden floorboards against Eddie’s beautifully…

Being the 13th Count of Mejorada as well as the 17th Marquis of Portago, not to mention the grandson of the Governor of Madrid (aka the 9th Marquess of Portago) and the godson of King Alfonso XIII, Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton pretty much had the first part of the phrase ‘gentleman racer’ nailed from birth. And what of the second part? Pictures of the Spanish aristocrat in a Ferrari 860 Monza — in which he tore up the track at the Windsor airfield in the Bahamas in 1956 — are but pieces in the jigsaw, for Portago also raced bobsleighs (finishing fourth in the 1956 Winter Olympics), horses (he twice took part in the Grand National at Aintree), and —…

The Ralph Lauren Polo watch collection There have been a number of important milestones on the path that has led to the glorious addition to horology you see before you. Perhaps the earliest was the moment in the late 1960s when Ralph Rueben Lifshitz, born in the Bronx in 1939 to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Belarus, left his job at Brooks Brothers to run a necktie company from a tiny space within the Empire State Building. Another came shortly afterwards, in 1972, when the polo player motif, mallet raised aloft in the moments before a ball is struck goalwards (as prophetic a statement of intent as has existed in the history of fashion) was introduced. Fast-forward to 2008, and Ralph Lauren Watches and Fine Jewelry was launched, with haute Swiss-manufacture…

“Have you met Eddie?”, I was asked several times before I met Eddie Redmayne. It would be easier to relay the meaning behind that question in person rather than on paper, but the gist of it was this: when going through the standard operating procedure of setting up a cover shoot, questions like “Does he need a car?”, “Does he have any catering needs?”, or “Can we shoot behind-the-scenes content?” all elicited the response, “Have you met Eddie?” He took the tube, by the way. This being my 36th issue of The Rake, with no fewer than 30 of those covers being handled by publicists who represent the great and good of the big screen, it is difficult to elucidate just how unusual it is to get a response like…

A new day has dawned. We are emerging from the domestic hibernation that comes with a global pandemic, and looking towards the horizon with a resolve to understand and make manifest our new priorities in how we wish to dress. The Rake’s team has met every day during this time, and, like the Romans at the Senate, through our bedsheets have deliberated about where classic style needs to position itself. For a while we thought perhaps we’d look out and see who would come up with the solution, but we decided in the end that we might as well be that solution ourselves. Welcome to The Rake Tailored Garments, a project that embraces our desire for comfort without any compromise on aesthetics. A collection that defines classic elegance for the…

Let’s jump in the DeLorean and set the year for 2010, because in the words of the immortal Doc Brown, “We are going back to the future”. Laurent Ferrier is celebrating his 10th anniversary as a watch manufacturer this year with what might seem like a counterintuitive move: launching his most accessibly priced and simplest watch. But this act of revisionist horological history has been in the works for a decade. Ferrier says with a smile, “It was important to me 10 years ago to position my brand at the highest level, with a watch that had a substantial technical value, like the Tourbillon Double Spiral. But in my heart I was always dreaming to create something that was a core expression of my purest values. A simple three-hand, manual-winding…

I have got myself into a bit of a corner. Over the years I have written several stories that have bemoaned the overuse of histrionic language in the luxury industry. People have taken liberties when using terms such as bespoke, artisanal, luxury, tailored, and of course the grandmaster of hyperbole, iconic. I think, because the industry is rather niche, each brand knows it has to create something that stands out among a crowd with a limited audience. They all strive to create something ‘iconic’ that pierces the objective materialism of what people are buying and plays with the subconscious to invigorate the part of the brain that feels joy, exhilaration, and even arousal. Comrade Castro managed it with Cohiba; Rolex managed it by, well, being Rolex; and Henry Poole did…

The process of ‘bowdlerisation’ — the sanitisation/castration (depending on your viewpoint) of fictional material deemed lewd or inappropriate — is a buzzword right now, what with censorship of all kinds being high on the agenda of public debate. It’s nothing new, though: in the 1950s, the first-world-war escapades of Captain James Bigglesworth, written for older adolescents, were expunged of certain adult nuances when a younger readership cottoned on to the stories’ appeal. Faced with a shattered windscreen, child-friendly Biggles would now exclaim, “My Gosh! What a mess!” References to his “drinking whisky for breakfast” after unwittingly having an affair with a German spy certainly had to go (whisky was often replaced with lemonade), as did references to smoking. It’s likely that today’s bowdlerisers would make far more prolific use of…

In 1927, a most singular automobile glided out of the doors of a factory in Molsheim, in present-day Alsace. The Bugatti Royale was the ultimate in luxury conveyances, as envisioned by the celebrated Italian engineer and designer Ettore Bugatti. Reportedly inspired when Ettore was goaded by the remarks of an Englishwoman, who compared Bugattis unfavourably to Rolls-Royces, the Royale cut a suitably imposing figure. It was 21 feet long and weighed around three tons (outshining a Rolls by 20 per cent and 25 per cent respectively). Its rangy bonnet concealed a 12.7-litre straight-eight engine, originally designed for the French Air ministry, which could theoretically propel it to 180 kilometres an hour or more. It featured a swooping Art Deco running board and a radiator cap modelled on a dancing elephant…

Given there’s as much animal cruelty encapsulated in what’s forked into ordinary pooches’ bowls twice a day as that conducted at the Hampshire or Bilsdale hunts combined, I’ve always considered class-based resentment to be the fiercest wind in the anti-bloodsport movement’s sails. Controversial, I know, but as far as I’m concerned, if you blench at the thought of a pestilent canid being eradicated from existence in a flash of violence but willingly ingest the kind of petrol-station fare that bears the dispiritingly vague description ‘meat’ on the packet without questioning how it came to be there, I’d posit that some serious cognitive dissonance is underway. Of course, some would say that I’m biased, given that the husbandry that brought me into existence furnished me with a single purpose: to flush…

The element that to me provided insight into the crazed attention to detail in the design and case construction of Audemars Piguet’s now two-year-old Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet was, innocuously enough, a small screw. Specifically, a high-polished, screw-slotted, hexagonal-shaped threaded device used to retain the attachment for the strap. This solid bar slips through each side of the strap and is milled — in the words of Peter Speake, aka the Naked Watchmaker — to resemble “a balance staff”. It fits between the two lugs and is secured with the screws in question. Which, if you think about it, is an incredibly complex way to attach a strap. Why didn’t Audemars Piguet simply create a circular-slotted screw to fit the hole in their signature open lugs instead of machining…

There are dozens of waterproof dive watches available on the market, and there have been since the early 1950s. However, if you asked 100 people to name a dive watch, I’m pretty sure that 90-plus would name the Rolex Submariner. Much more than a tool watch, the Submariner has become an icon of both horology and style. With or without a date, it is a classic that Rolex have slowly and gently revised over the years, yet it is still as true to its DNA today as it was nearly 70 years ago. In 2020, the new era of the Submariner is here for both the Submariner and Submariner Date. True to form, these watches are an evolution rather than a revolution, but the tweaks Rolex have made — modifications…

I remember the moment I set eyes on the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph. Though it was just over a year ago, it seems — considering the mind-bending changes that have happened to the world in the interim — like a lifetime ago. Before I get into the details of the special edition of this watch, which was designed by Bulgari’s amazing Creative Director, Fabrizio Buonamassa, I’d like to talk about the changes to the world and, in particular, Bulgari’s reaction to them. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Bulgari’s Chief Executive, Jean-Christophe Babin, was one of the first to respond — firstly by funding a 3D microscope to help researchers at Spallanzani hospital in Rome study the virus at a cellular level, and secondly by transforming a fragrance factory outside Milan…

I was four years old, in a playground, when I saw my first Aston Martin drive by. Something clicked, and the memory is clear in my mind to this day. Growing up, I spent all my free time reading as much as I could about cars. The second I got my licence, I found myself at a small, almost hidden, mechanic’s garage in West Los Angeles. For those of you not so familiar with L.A., there is nothing exceptional about a mechanic’s shop in a city in which cars are more or less a necessity, but this one was different, and it changed my life. I would find myself there almost daily, with a group of people who had been bitten by the same bug as I had. Over the…

Having grown up avidly tuning into the Oscars — “but only for the red carpet bit” — Andy Poupart, a software engineering manager, has always been left a little cold by the “trackie pants and jeans” culture prevalent in his professional realm. But it was a chat with a man whose neck was a-drape not with a tape measure but a stethoscope that prompted the sartorial overhaul that has proved life-redefining. Poupart says: “About eight years ago I had a physical — my blood sugar was trending badly and the doctor just said, ‘You don’t want that trend to continue’. So I ended up losing a bunch of weight, and my clothes didn’t fit any more. I needed an entirely new wardrobe. I had a couple of suits made on…

In a celluloid market saturated with superheroes, let it be proclaimed that Gal Gadot’s latest effort in the bracelets, as Wonder Woman 1984, is a breath of fresh air from the shores of Themyscira. An all-action, ass-kicking force of nature fighting for good, and looking — well, how many superlatives have you got time for? — good doing it. But we respectfully submit that Gadot is eclipsed by the original inhabitant in the on-screen role, Lynda Carter — she of the sapphire eyes and the Sapphic vibe. After dropping out of college to pursue a career in music, Carter took out the crown of Miss World USA in 1972. That counted for merely a second glance in Hollywood, though, and on the eve of a penniless return to Arizona, Carter…

I’ve asked many an acquaintance, at the kind of soirée where sartorial distinction is as crucial to proceedings as oxygen, to nominate a single establishment as the world’s bespoke atelier nonpareil. Almost invariably the four-syllable response is the same, and uttered with a level of reverence that sees the speaker’s pupils snap into focus, and which induces slow, appreciative nods by all in earshot. So why exactly is an atelier founded in Rome by Giuseppe Cifonelli in 1880, and these days entered via a staircase and a large wooden door in a Haussmannian building on Paris’s Rue Marbeuf (the house’s home since 1936) the Mecca, the Mount Sinai and the Mahabodhi Temple of international tailoring? “ They’re best known for visible details, but equally remarkable is the work hidden inside…

His countenance is known the world over. His visage has become an obsession for men and women alike. There are legions devoted to his ineffable style, his ability to move effortlessly between sublime sports chic, pitch-perfect preppy-dom, and transcendent black tie. He is the celebrity’s cause célèbre, with many, from Kanye West to Drake to John Mayer, smitten by him. And the mere rumour of his appearance on a skateboard literally broke the internet, with millions of fans vying for the chance to meet him. He says little, but his warm, fathomless brown eyes speak volumes of his extraordinary depth. And while he may be small in stature, he exudes a heroism and strength of character that is singular and inspirational. Amid the turmoil of 2020, for many of us…

If you work hard enough, you can overcome anything. This is what Stefano Canali, the third-generation president and C.E.O. of the eponymous Italian luxury house, wants to remind readers as we wean ourselves off an excess of bathrobes, naps and two o’clock Gimlets. Stefano is at a crossroads. Unlike the eras of his predecessors, a contemporary man’s style is no longer defined by a single sartorial position, but rather a broad church of garments and fashions for any given moment. Stefano also understands that for the past to survive — especially after such an uncertain six months — he must look to the future. Why be forced to pick between tradition and innovation? Between smart and casual? As long as one is motivated and passionate (and since 1934, Canali have…

ADRIANO MENEGHETTI – www.adrianomeneghetti.com ALBERT THURSTON – www.albertthurston.com ALFRED RIFUGIO – www.alfredrifugio.it ALICE MADE THIS – www.alicemadethis.com AMOUR LUX – www.armorlux.com ANDERSON & SHEPPARD – www.anderson-sheppard.co.uk ANDREA POMPILIO – www.andreapompilio.it ASPREY – www.asprey.com AUDEMARS PIGUET – www.audemarspiguet.com AUDI – www.audi.co.uk 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 BORSALINO – www.borsalino.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 ARROWS – www.united-arrows.jp CANALI – www.canali.com CARMINA SHOEMAKER – www.carminashoemaker.com CARUSO…