Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i Robb Report

Forget floating cities pinballing between overcrowded, underwhelming ports. As the cruise industry defrosts from its Covid-imposed yearlong hiatus, it’s radically refocusing by launching a spate of nimble new vessels that combine voyages to far-flung destinations with abundant high-end amenities. “These ships are the best of both worlds,” says Expedition Trips founder and president Ashton Palmer, whose agency focuses on this very niche. “We’re in an unprecedented boom period for small-ship cruising—every line is trying to outdo the others, whether on hardware or the itineraries.” He adds that even charter vets should consider booking one of these adventurous trips: Larger ships are more stable, of course, and better equipped with essentials like helicopters to reach even the most remote, wildlife-packed spots. Take Ponant’s 123-cabin Le Commandant Charcot, which launches next month…

2,700 square feet of the home is dedicated to outdoor space, including a sprawling entertainment area with views of the Empire State Building and beyond. THE PENTHOUSE at 240 Park Avenue South may be situated in the heart of New York City, but architecturally it looks like it was plucked from the rolling hills of Bel Air. It owes its contemporary aesthetic to interior designer Søren Rose, who took the unit down to the studs and completely revamped the place over the course of two and a half years. Shortly after all that work was finished, the owner got married and his 6,025-square-foot party pad—complete with a rooftop infinity pool—no longer seemed like the appropriate fit. The newlyweds have since moved to the West Coast, leaving their former home available…

HAD A LITTLE too much—or, let’s face it, far too much—family time lately? Get away on a solo adventure by booking an individual stateroom, rather than the whole boat. The opportunity to reserve a single room on a charter yacht is rare, but there are companies that specialize in the service. “Couples or singles interested in expeditions, rather than a specific yacht, tend to be our clients,” says Tamsin Vaughan, director of yacht expeditions for EYOS, a UK firm that zeroes in on luxury travel to extreme and off-the-grid destinations. “We go places where they wouldn’t charter yachts by themselves.” The 236-foot Nansen Explorer, a seven-stateroom yacht with a bar, lounge and gym, will host an EYOS charter in Antarctica this winter. Kayaking around glaciers and hiking snow-covered slopes are…

THE ORIGINAL airline disruptor, JetBlue, is at it again with its reimagined Mint class. “We decided to do a deeper dive this time to see how customers behaved in the original Mint,” says Mariya Stoyanova, JetBlue’s director of product development. “We wanted the flight to be a natural progression of how people live on the ground.” The designers changed every seat into a pod-like suite, with a door, a lie-flat seat, a drawer for laptops, wireless charging and an emphasis on residentially inspired materials—think vegan leather, wood and flannel—for a homey atmosphere. “It can feel like your office, a dining room when you’re eating, and then transitions to a bedroom,” Stoyanova says. “It can feel like your office, a dining room when you’re eating, and then transitions to a bedroom.”…

IT WAS AN AFTERNOON in 2001 spent rifling through his family’s archives that first sparked Frédéric Rouzaud’s curiosity. Rouzaud is the CEO of Champagne house Louis Roederer, which has been owned by his family for centuries, and among those papers, he found menus from suppers thrown in the 1940s and 1950s by his great-grandmother Camille. The formidable widow was then barely halfway through her more than four-decade tenure at the vineyard’s helm. She’d scribble the assortment of wines to be served—the best vintages of Cristal and other sparkling labels, of course, but also, remarkably, always a few still reds and whites made from specific plots dotted around the family’s almost 600 acres of vines. “She liked to show how the region can also produce great still wine, with surprising wines…

It’s more than 6,000 miles from Los Angeles to Umbria, Italy, but the cultural distance can often seem further still. And yet, the new collaboration between LA eyewear stalwart Oliver Peoples and Solomeobased Brunello Cucinelli feels, in retrospect, obvious: Both brands come from sun-drenched parts of the world and are famous for laid-back, effortlessly elegant takes on classic styles, brought to life through exacting craftsmanship. There are five new models in the line, composed of both sunglasses and optical options, made from premium materials such as natural horn, acetate, vintage glass—even Brunello flannel. Acetate frames include the chunky Filu’, the retro, rounded Nino and a special version of OP’s classic Oliver Sun; wire frames include the aviator-style Disoriano and the two-in-one Artemio, which combines eyeglasses with clip-on shades. As with…

Prosper Assouline is impatient for a return to normality. Normality, that is, of a very French and rarefied type, for the 64-year-old luxury-book publisher really embodies the brand that bears his name. Founded with his wife, Martine, in 1994, Assouline issues jewel-hued, fat-paged tomes that express the couple’s devotion to all things nonpareil. Beginning with an homage to their favorite hotel on the Cote d’Azur, Assouline has since published more than 2,000 monographs on topics including panama hats, Venetian synagogues and the official history of Formula 1, doused in rubber-scented perfume. “What I like is to make books alive and tactile,” says Prosper. He enthuses about a recent two-kilo doorstopper on Versailles, “a special edition with the seal of Louis XIV . . . huge, gold, the cover is in…

WHEN FORCED to choose between a wine cellar or a butler’s pantry, most yacht owners are likely to give the linen the heave-ho. At least, that’s what the owner of the 164-foot Endless Summer did when looking to honor his passion for fine wines. The custom teak cellar was incorporated into the interior design before construction on the yacht even began. “The intention was always for the cellar to be a focal point, given its location at the top of the stairwell to the bridge deck. It’s most certainly on show,” captain Tony Hodgson tells Robb Report. Concealed lighting illuminates labels collected from vineyards around the world. As collections grow in size and status, the line between functional storage and sculptural design is blurring. It’s a burgeoning trend among yacht…

AN LED lamp may be efficient, but its output isn’t always so beautiful. In their raw form, LEDs emit a cool, often harsh glow not unlike the kind radiating from your smartphone. It takes a skilled artisan, then, to make the medium look less iPad and more sculpture. Niamh Barry’s high-concept chandeliers are made of carefully worked bronze and glass. Together, the two materials diffuse the LEDs’ light so it’s warmer and considerably more inviting. The design for one of Barry’s new works, Artist’s Hand, comes from a curvy sketch—easy enough to scribble in a notebook but much harder to make into a more than nine-foot-long bronze chandelier. Altogether the piece, on view next month at New York’s Salon Art + Design, takes about 600 hours to create; the result…

The EQS evokes a feeling of well- crafted, old-world solidity despite its unrepentant digitization. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class has long dominated the executive-sedan category with a simple formula, flawlessly executed: seamless propulsion, understated elegance and lavish, amenity-laden comfort. Then the world started paying attention to the electric revolution—S-Class customers included. In response, Mercedes-Benz has finally launched its EQS, the first fully electric luxury sedan from one of the industry’s founding marques, recognizably related to its internal-combustion-powered stablemate and yet a daring departure nonetheless. It’s an S-Class, but certainly not the kind you’re accustomed to. The design is fittingly bold, though far from the prettiest bod Mercedes has produced. The battery-based architecture sitting beneath the occupants creates a low center of gravity, while the gently arcing roofline optimizes slippery aerodynamics with the…

The Delta variant turned what was supposed to be the summer of post-Covid celebration into another fraught, virus-dodging slog, but not all progress was lost. International travel finally returned, and with it the first-class experience. And while some routes and aircraft remain mothballed, the options are growing and, in many cases, include improvements intended to make the highest echelon of airline travel rival chartering a private jet. Take Air France, which now allows a single guest to book all four suites in its La Première section. And it’s not the only change: The airline also refurbished its La Première lounge at Charles de Gaulle Airport with a separate first-class › check-in area, seated dining service and renovated showers, as well as introduced in-flight meals for flights departing from CDG, prepared…

The thing about bachelor pads is that their owners might not remain bachelors indefinitely. One man in El Paso, for example, built his dream concrete house with architect Jon Anderson and promptly got married a few years later. The couple subsequently had two daughters and wanted to upgrade quickly to a larger space. Trouble was, they lived in a subdivision in the Upper Valley area, so there wasn’t much room to expand. “I tried several times to buy the house in back of me to raze and use,” says the husband, a real-estate developer who asked to remain anonymous. It took some persuading, but their neighbor finally parted with the one-acre lot, and the couple called in Texas-based architecture firm Lake Flato to build a second, larger home on the…

Long a destination for the yacht-and-jet set thanks to its azure Adriatic waters and the historic charm of cities such as Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb, Croatia has recently seen an uptick in travelers seeking out the country’s vibrant dining scene. And fall is prime season to eat and drink your way across the land, well after the hordes of visitors in search of cheap beach bars and Game of Thrones tours have departed. The West Virginia–sized nation of just 4 million people has certainly caught the attention of the Michelin Guide, which has awarded stars to seven restaurants, including Restaurant 360, in Dubrovnik, which offers breathtaking views atop the city’s famous walls and a menu that showcases ingredients from across the Dalmatian region. Sea bass is accompanied by pastry purses…

Komos, TerzaDimensione Komos takes its cues from real-world architecture, combining the skills of two Italian design houses: TerzaDimensione, which specializes in working with big ceramic slabs (hence the tabletop) and LATOxLATO, which traditionally draws its inspiration from famous buildings. The table’s base recalls Egyptian pyramids; it’s named for an ancient Greek ritual that revelers would participate in while drunk. Great for parties. From about $7,000 Annecy, Vladimir Kagan Studio This low table was one of the last pieces made by Vladimir Kagan—a designer renowned for creating curvaceous furniture; it’s named after one of his granddaughters. He was 85 when he first drew the concept, and yet, even in his advanced age, Kagan never stopped learning. He and his apprentice took boat-building classes in Nantucket to discover how to make the…

It’s no secret that size matters in the yacht world, but for a forward-looking generation of builders, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Maximizing interior space has become the go-to approach for many brands, with the Ferretti Yachts 1000, Princess X95, Benetti Oasis, Wally WHY200, Sanlorenzo SX112 and Azimut Grande Trideck—all launched within the past year—joining larger custom superyachts in a quest to increase usable interior space. “The X95 layout has 40 percent more indoor space than a traditional motor yacht,” says Richard Dart, principal designer at Princess. “You can get a 95-foot boat into most marinas, and when you increase the interior by 40 percent, it attracts clients who might live aboard, especially in the current climate.” How to keep the profile svelte—or at least not bloated—is the…

ONCE NEAR-SACRED fire-breathing hunks of rolling Americana, Detroit muscle cars are a fast-dying breed, considered a hard sell in an increasingly electrified future. Even Cadillac, which has been producing such brawn in a three-piece suit since it debuted the 400 hp manual-transmission CTS-V in 2004, is getting out of the game: The 2022 CT5-V Blackwing will be the brand’s farewell to tire-smoking, V-8 powered rear-drive sedans. Fittingly, though, that swan song is more of a furious roar. Starting at $84,990, the CT5-V Blackwing is Cadillac’s fastest production car to date, with a top speed of over 200 mph and a 3.6-second sprint to 60 mph. And, yes, it comes with a stick—standard. While exiting pit lane at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), even a light brush of the throttle hints at…

On the three occasions she’s revealed massive donations to schools and other nonprofits, MacKenzie Scott has also broken with another tradition of the donor class. Instead of waiting to publish a triumphant annual letter, she’s written short posts on the blogging site Medium to explain the rationale behind her bequests—and the methodology behind choosing her grantees. At press time, those funds collectively totaled more than $8.5 billion, all of it disbursed within the past two years. The largest chunk of Scott’s initial giving spree, announced in July 2020, allocated over $586 million specifically for racial-justice groups. In the accompanying note, Scott lamented that “life will never stop finding fresh ways to expose inequities in our systems; or waking us up to the fact that a civilization this imbalanced is not…

Riten Mozumdar 1927-2006 “Unlike many modernist Indian designers who emerged from the National Institute of Design with a more Western-focused approach, Mozumdar studied at Santiniketan as an artist and approached modernism from a more indigenous angle. Working with Kashmiri felt-rug makers and Gujarati tie-and-dye artisans and drawing inspiration from both traditional Mughal calligraphy and Bengali script, he developed a modernist design language that felt fresh and new but was still deeply rooted in Indian traditional craft. For me, Mozumdar’s work resonates because it synthesizes traditional Indian motifs and patterns with Western minimalist and abstract art.” —Puru Das, DeMuro Das FOLLOWING INDIA’S independence from the British Empire in 1947, artisans moved to revive the subcontinent’s ancient handicrafts. One of the most notable was Riten Mozumdar, whose work significantly shaped the country’s…

“This year, just as you say, it’s like everything is coming together. It’s just f------ insane for me.” Mate Rimac sat at a table, facing a camera. To his right was Oliver Blume, the CEO of Porsche, and to his left its finance chief, Lutz Meschke. They were about to host a video conference to announce the deal to merge Bugatti, for which Porsche has responsibility within the vast Volkswagen Group, with Rimac’s eponymous start-up hypercar maker. A small number of journalists from the business media joined Robb Report on the call, among them the Financial Times and Bloomberg. Blume and Meschke were dressed in sober business attire, as you’d expect of German C-suite executives making a major announcement to the world’s press, and they sat stiff and upright. But…