‘“Sometimes when I get up in the morning, I feel very peculiar. I feel like I've just got to bite a cat! I feel like if I don't bite a cat before sundown, I'll go crazy! But then I just take a deep breath and forget about it. That's what is known as real maturity.”’
No, it was not Bonaparte’s barber who snuck away his hair post a routine trim and waited two hundred years to hawk it in the market.
This may sound a little ludicrous to the average Joe accustomed to his electronic keyboard with 375 instrument sounds, but this here is no mean Violin.......
Intrigued? Bombers and art galleries? The odd mix of menace and beauty has been utilized by Artist Fiona Banner to become a fascinating installation art in her ‘Harrier and Jaguar’ show.....
This is very thoughtful on the part of Disney to provide for a decent luxury resort for the darling pet, who is as dear as one’s own kid for many.....
The world’s most expensive and powerful production motorbike debuted at UK’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, which was on from 2-4 July, 2010. This €130,000 wunderbar ultrabike ....
On 21st July, the 106 year-old British ketch Bessie Ellen set sail from Bordeaux for Montreal, laden with a precious cargo of 20,000 bottles of Smith Haut Lafitte.....
Scheduled for 18th August, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong is hosting an unusual gala dinner to be held in the grand ballroom, the Connaught Room that will be priced at a cool HK$12,000........
One would have thought that when it came to making tents, none could beat the Indian tent-walas, who can erect and dismantle amazing replicas of giant castles and palaces overnight.....
It would be quite alright to call Tom Ford a maverick. How often is it that a fashion designer directs and produces a movie, which is not only not about fashion but also goes on to win some decent awards? Tom Ford, the famous fashion designer whose debut film, ‘A Single Man’, recently released in India, the DVD and Bluray versions just out globally, has gone on to win such acclaims as nominations for the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for the movie, Critics Choice Awards - Best Adapted Screenplay, Independent Spirit Awards - Best First Screenplay, Independent Spirit Awards - Best First Feature and a Bafta for Colin Firth, the lead actor. Not surprising at all, because Tom Ford is one long success story, the odds along the way working as just one of those props that help to add spice to the main theme.
Being Tom Ford today is probably, to quote a journalist, ‘a very sexy place to be’. Ford remains quite unfazed with all the fuss. For long he has been the ‘golden boy’ of the fashion kingdom, the ‘King of Cool’, the man loved by the world’s ‘beautiful people’, the press, Hollywood, winning accolades, the envy of all, lean, good looking - the fellow who turned the sad script of Gucci into a multi-billion dollar story. In fact it is the last that catapulted Tom Ford to the forefront. He has managed much by default, using his power of persuasion, manipulation, charm and an attitude of come-what-may to get his way. In the latest season of Tom Ford’s success, his journey so far earns the right to be retold.
Thomas Carlyle Ford joined New York University in 1979 at age 17 to study art history, dropped out a year hence to lend his handsome looks to TV commercials, eventually enrolling for a course in interior architecture at Parsons, The New School for Design whence he patronized local nightclubs and discovered his gay-hood and against all odds, did graduate with a degree in architecture. Before that he went off to Paris to intern with Chloe’s press office sending clothes out on photo shoots. He successfully used all of the above, barring his degree in architecture, to launch himself into a career in fashion. With his power of persuasion and deception he managed to start out as design assistant for Cathy Hardwick’s sportswear company. Two years hence he utilized his social contacts, the president of American fashion house Perry Ellis, Robert McDonald, and Marc Jacobs, its designer, and worked with the fashion house for two years. The Italian luxury brand Gucci was struggling with near bankruptcy and was on the lookout for someone willing to take on the job of overhauling their women’s ready-to-wear. Tom Ford wasn’t exactly creating waves in the US markets and seeing an opportunity in distant Italy, where no one knew him, he moved to Europe for Gucci. Dawn Mello, the creative director of Gucci who hired the unknown American designer Ford for the job remembers, "I was talking to a lot of people, and most didn't want the job," since at that time, "no one would dream of wearing Gucci." This was the year 1990. Tom Ford truly applied all his energies, rose rapidly up the ladder, and bull-headedly pushed on despite creative tensions with Maurizio Gucci, the company's chairman and 50% owner, who wanted to fire him. In 1994 he became creative director and churned out glamorous Halston-style velvet hipsters, skinny satin shirts and car-finish metallic patent boots; 1995 he created a series of edgy new ad campaigns and Gucci began to be noticed big time. Sales jumped, Ford’s lines became a byword in high fashion, and Gucci went public with the launch of its first IPO, following it up with two more in subsequent years. By 1999, Gucci was valued at $4.3billion and when Tom Ford quit in 2004, it was as a $10billion!
Tom Ford had arrived. Thereafter has been one charmed life of the brand Tom Ford that sells optical frames, sunglasses, Esteé Lauder’s TOM FORD Beauty brand, private fragrances, moving on to Tom Ford flagship stores in New York, and subsequently across Milan, Tokyo, Las Vegas, Dubai, Zurich, UK and Russia, men’s wear lines, accessories, winning every conceivable fashion award. The best dressers across the globe, Hollywood, Bollywood included, like to be seen in a Tom Ford. He can now safely admit, “I’m lucky, I have mass-market tastes."
The party boy idling in the back benches of an architecture class is today a powerful fashion designer. As of this year, he is also a successful movie producer and director. He loves his new role. "That is the ultimate design project," he says. "You don't just get to design what people wear, but you design the whole world and whether characters get to live or die. There is a permanence to film that fashion lacks." There is yet another wish that he harbors, to raise children with his live-in partner of 23 years, Richard Buckley, former Editor in Chief of Vogue Hommes International.
- NMA
Dark Stout and Porter
Disclaimer : This is not about portly blokes with a deep tan. Right. Always good to clear all misconceptions at the start. Such as not all beers come in shades of gold. Some are dark, thick and sweetish. Such as stout and porter, which are dark beers made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water, and yeast. Stout or Porter was said to have been first made and sold in London in the early Eighteenth century, becoming quite popular in the British Isles for its strength of nearly 7-8% with the street and river porters of London, eventually getting to be called ‘porter’. The arrival of ‘pale ales’ shifted the focus from the dark stout beer in Great Britain, but the breweries in Ireland, such as Guinness, Murphy’s and Beamish kept up the tradition. Today it is the Irish stout beer that is most well known.
Mention Irish stout and the world at large immediately connects with Guinness, which is a dry stout. Historically, in Ireland Guinness was thought as a Protestant beer and not as popular as Murphy’s, which was run by Catholics. Eventually all such parameters paled and by the 19th century stout porter beer was promoted as a health drink, medically recommended for athletes, nursing mothers and convalescents.
New Glenfiddich rich oak single malt demonstrates distillery’s wood mastery
Glenfiddich branches into new territory with a pioneering virgin European oak cask whisky. Delicately finished in untouched American and European oak casks, Glenfiddich today honours the distillery’s long history of wood mastery with the release of the 14 year old Glenfiddich Rich Oak Single Malt Scotch Whisky. The use of untouched European oak casks is a first for the single malt whisky industry, and the Glenfiddich Rich Oak is the latest in a long line of groundbreaking whiskies from the world’s most awarded distillery.
The Glenfiddich Rich Oak is testament to the pioneering spirit of the distillery’s founder William Grant, and the skill and precision required by Glenfiddich’s sixth Malt Master, Brian Kinsman, who has been instrumental throughout the final stages of a nurturing process that has given rise to a whisky of exceptional quality and flavour.
Caught between the fictitious nostalgia for a glorious past that has unfortunately gone forever and a new aesthetic takeover
Estelle Arielle Bouchet
The English word “vintage” that had been used up till then to talk about wine quality appeared, by a semantic shift, in fashion in the 1990s and reflects the notion of a craftsman-like authenticity that the concept of “vintage” carries: the smell of humus and soil, of old purple wine, of green timeless landscapes and of the rustic fragrance of woodland. What is the reason for this quest backwards in time, rather than looking towards the future ?
The concept of “vintage” is used to describe old clothing from prestigious designers such as Chanel, Dior, Hermes and Yves Saint Laurent, and, by extension of meaning, used for any object dating from before 1990 that reflects a particular moment in the history of twentieth-century fashion and design. The mania for vintage is such that the word is now used to describe any piece that is ever-so-slightly retro. Designing movie costumes coincides with the vintage approach because it is in the spirit of a collector that a designer tries to find accessories that were fashionable at a given time to recreate the illusion of a historical setting through a multitude of items.
Cinema is a great vehicle for “vintage” and old movies can revive a trend: eighteenth-century baroque in Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon,” Roman hedonism of the ‘60s and the eternal feminine embodied by Anita Ekberg in Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”... Today’s fashionistas and antique-clothes sellers all have the soul of a costume-designer. A coat by Paul Poiret was sold for more than €100,000 in 2005, and in the light of this enthusiasm, the major couture houses are offering copies of past successes, like Yves Saint Laurent’s tuxedo, le Smoking. In this same vein, the contemporary creations of the two Irish- American artists McDermott & McGough draw their strength from the evocative power of the image; living the past as an existential challenge and refusing to be trapped in our contemporary times. They project themselves into whatever period that is best to express what they want to say in their work, using techniques of that period and introducing related decorative and stylistic details. They live “vintage” at its maximum: choosing to fully inhabit a period that suits them best, linking up with the nostalgic quality of the “vintage” spirit: in this case, the Victorian era from the late nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. Thus they live in interiors exclusively furnished with things from last century and wear tailcoats: real dandies, emblematic of this “vintage” movement.
Today, the temples of “vintage” are the clothing and jewellery auction-sales, flea markets like Villeneuve les Avignon where Ines de la Fressange and her daughter bought used handbags in springtime, the second-hand shops of South Kensington which offer Chanel, Hermes, Ossie Clark and other wonders... The most sought-after pieces have a designer label or are from before the 1950s. Some of the most beautiful old houses of Fine Jewellery like Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari and Cartier have put their incredible patrimony on public display. The Musée Galliera in Paris and the Fashion Museum of Marseilles are a veritable Aladdin’s cave for lovers of vintage. And ladies, don’t we all have our mother’s Chanel suit from the ‘70s, or our grandmother’s ball dress, tucked away somewhere in our wardrobe? In this sense, vintage is highly emotional and for this reason it should be asked to linger as long as the emotion of Marcel Proust and his little Madeleine which, in an instant, catapulted him back into his childhood... Vintage firmly says “no” to the massifi cation of fashion, globalization and “Made in China”: it is a “yes” to more tenderness, vulnerability and humanity.
Oiseau de Paradis (birds of paradise)
Estelle Arielle Bouchet
Like a fleeting and colourful summer dream, perhaps you will encounter the rare and precious Bird of Paradise…
Perhaps he will enable you too to embrace the dizzy spheres of sublime blue at the extreme canopy of your desires as an explorer, beyond the mountains, beyond the forests of New Guinea or Australia.
His enchanting colours will reinvent a heavenly rainbow of exceptional gems for you, spreading out all of his loveliest attire as a homage to your beauty…
His ancestor arrived in Europe on Magellan's caravel and protected his vagabond and travelling soul.
This free and gentle bird, which is the symbol of a new, more ethereal and spiritual era, will perhaps one day come down from the surreal and celestial nebulas, to join the velvet-smooth lapel of a jacket or a dress to be decked out with its subtle lights.
This piece is the fruit of the new Van Cleef & Arpels Collection dedicated to the “Birds of Paradise”, inviting us in a Mercurian and talismanic vein, to engage in a search for absolute aestheticism.
In fact, we find the unparalleled know-how of the famous Maison in its mystery setting, which strikes a perfect balance between curves and volume, two exceptional glistening sapphire pendants shine forth and echo back to the cheerful notes of the love song of a beautiful bird.
« Oiseau de Paradis »
Van Cleef & Arpels
22, Place Vendôme
75001-Paris
Tel : 33 1 53 45 35 70
www.vancleef-arpels.com
The phone doesn’t stop ringing or pinging; meetings, deadlines, parties char the hours; when the smog seeps in quietly so that you don’t notice it anymore, neither the honking at rush hour – it is time to go away. The ideal spot would be where none of the above can find their way even if they tried. A hermit’s cave on a mountain top or deep wilderness would be just right. Yes..but equipped with a soft bed, great food and er.. There is one just such a place - 360˚ Leti – located at 8000ft, sitting at the edge of a precipice on a vertiginous plateau near a tiny hamlet named Capri in the Kumaon region of the Himalayas, in the state of Uttarakhand. If it is spring time, be prepared to be welcomed by forests of rhododendron, smell of wet lichen, mighty oak and the grand stand view of the silent and majestic range of the snow clad Nanda Devi peaks at 20,000ft that speak of further impenetrable hollows. No phones, no electricity, so no TV, needs an hour and a half of trekking to get here – this here is a luxury resort rated very high on the list of the ‘world’s best’.
It would take a psychoanalyst to figure out the perfect therapy for the dwellers in the high-stress global cities. Jamshyd Sethna, a Mumbai born Parsi psychoanalyst, serious mountaineer, travel enthusiast, founder of Shakti Himalaya which runs 360ºLeti, envisioned and executed this exotic getaway. "Four year ago I was walking through the glaciers in thigh-deep snow and I saw snow leopard tracks. Blue antelope were beyond, and the peak of Nanda Devi. The place totally gripped me," he says. "I felt energized-a felling of exhilaration and peace and it was then that I felt I had to do it. In the mountains everything drops away. It's like three months of therapy in three days." He hired Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai Architect, who along with his team utilized well the contours of the terrace hilltop to create four freestanding guest cottages with private grass terraces, sunken outdoor fire pits for logfires, maximum privacy and a virtual 360 degree view of the majestic mountains and the valley, all made of limestone and glass by local masons using age-old building techniques, combined with contemporary design and structural technologies. There is also the main house with a lounge and common dining area. The site simply blends into its surroundings. All furniture is custom made from Burma teak. Comfortable beds with Pashmina blankets and fluffy duvets, indoor wood fires, ample space to store clothes, writing tables, solar heated showers, in-house Tibetan chef Yeshi (a mountaineer and ex- monk) capable of world class gourmet offerings, a choice of foreign wines, single malts and blends from Scotland, warm scones with bed tea – it keeps getting better.
The access to this little Himalyan kingdom is not so easy – which of course fulfills the primary objective of making it a perfect getaway. 360º Leti can only be reached after a two hour trek from the nearest road head, which adds to the experience. The team Shakti will hold your hand right from the point of putting you on the train to Kathgodam from Delhi, pick-up and drive for 8 hours to the nearest road head and friendly expert guides for the final 2 hr walk. They also offer a private charter flight from Delhi to Pithoragharh, 3.30 hour drive plus the final trek. To keep the visitors engrossed, the team organizes gentle walks out into the countryside, waterfalls, ancient shrines, picnic hampers, yoga and meditation sessions by arrangement, informal cooking demonstrations by Yeshi etc etc.
At the core of Shakti Himalaya and 360ºLeti is a deep ecological sensitivity and social responsibility to the region, where the effort is to leave the lightest footprints. Most staff is local and the local culture is protected zealously, even as effort is made to generate income to improve infrastructure of the region. Sustainable sources to generate enough electricity to charge cameras and ipods and heat bath water, rainwater harvesting, use of only dead/broken wood for log fires, zero litter policy, support to local cultures such as Kumaoni dancers and more.
The one final concern about unforeseen emergencies has been taken care of too. The staff does have mobile phones for such usage. For medical emergencies that require a doctor or hospital, stretchers and helicopter evacuation facilities are available.
I think I will opt for this hermitage to commune with myself in peace.
Recently two new joints, Ice-Lounge in Saket and Kunzum Traveller Café in Hauz Khas village, were launched in Delhi with a promise of a one-of-a-kind ‘luxury’. A visit reassured us that it was no hollow promise. Luxury it sure was, but each from two different ends of the spectrum. Read on to find out…
Freeeezzzing cold on a hot summer noon in Delhi
When the mercury is threatening to edge past 42º on a sultry afternoon in July in Delhi, all thoughts of igloos and ice qualify as wild fantasies deluded by mirages. Not any more, for one such facility, The Ice Lounge, is operational in Saket at the MGF Metropolitan mall, the first of its kind in India, brought to us by Mirage Entertainment (who else!). I had my lurking doubts as I waited to meet Kanav Chadda (one of the three partners behind the project) in the Ice Lounge’s cosy restaurant. Low seating, nice music, mirrored wall, courteous staff, hmmm.. nice so far. As also was the friendly and very young entrepreneur.
To get to the main freezer that is the real attraction, we stepped out into a open balcony that projects out of the centrally air-conditioned mall. Before the sweat beads could turn into rivulets we were asked to don gloves and a heavily quilted poncho. No kidding! On into a corridor, a heavy thick door, and – hey presto- we were in Iceland. The walls were made of ice bricks, a curtain of ice cubes on strings, a bar of
solid ice with a shelf of ice behind it, a sofa of ice, a carved throne of ice, statues of peacocks, lions, Jaipur chhatri models on ice stools to prop drinks – all made of clear ice blocks. There was this six foot sculptor of an Indian lady (inspired by a photograph of Aishwarya Rai that the team sent to their Canadian ice carvers) greeting all with a Namaste. It doesn’t stop here. A smiling bar man wearing a fur trimmed hooded jacket offered vodka in glasses made of ice too. We were informed that the temperature inside was maintained at a steady -10º or lower. Surprisingly the Real cranberry juice poured in the vodka cocktail was not frozen.
This was world class, like any of the other such Ice- bars in Orlando, USA or the Absolute Ice-Bar in Stockholm or London or Tokyo or Melbourne. The Indian Ice-Lounge, quite like its international counterparts is built with 30 tons of Crystal Clear Ice imported from Canada. The famous ice carver Julian Bayley of Ice Culture, Canada, was commissioned for the architecture and design. Overhead LED capable of producing a million color variations, keeps changing the mood. The ice glasses, which are for one time use only, are imported from Canada and are stored partially in a cold storage in the basement of the mall and rest in a rented cold storage elsewhere in Delhi. The entry fee is kept at Rs1000, equivalent to $18-25 globally, and includes a free vodka. Usually the stipulated time permitted inside a Ice-bar is upto 40-45 minutes for health reasons. Delhi Ice-Lounge does not enforce it but hasn’t seen many last out longer. No grub is served inside the igloo but the restaurant (we waited in on entering) does serve decent Lebanese, Chinese, continental and other such cuisine. A DJ and karaoke helps the Eskimos thaw back to room temperature. Great place for a one time experience or take the out-of-own visitors to. A definite high ranker not to be missed.
Fresh traveler tales o’er a cuppa’ coffee
‘Kunzum Travel Café’- the first of the signboards on the road leading to the Hauz Khas Village, the deer park on the right. Follow the arrows on more such signboards, past the art galleries, the silver jewelry window, the boutiques, to the old Hauz Khas heritage monument and to the left, opposite the courtyard of a tiny temple, up a few narrow steps is the café. The immediate feeling was of coming home – warm aroma of coffee, easy ambience, low chairs scattered about the place, shelves full of interesting books, friendly chatter. No, this isn’t really a CAFÉ like a Barista or a Coffee Day. Sure, there is the coffee, and the cookie, air-conditioned venue with free Wi-Fi for surfing on your laptop- but the similarity ends there. There is no charge for the coffee. Really! The menu doesn’t go beyond that either, so there are no waiters or cashiers. Just a lot of people from everywhere – travelers from afar, or across Delhi – engaged in deep conversations, reading books, a solitary one gazing out of the large bay window overlooking a white washed rustic brick wall. We were intrigued and charmed.
This unique initiative is the brainchild of Ajay Jain and Anubhuti Rana, two avid travelers, the former being a brilliant photographer too. They have raised a lot of dust travelling across the length and breadth of the country, upper Himalayas, Kumaon, Garhwal, Leh – the evidence is on the walls, which are covered with amazing photographs of life captured in the course of their meanderings. The name Kunzum is borrowed from the Kunzum La pass located nearly 15,000 feet above sea level in the Lahaul Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh in India. Ajay explains that the idea behind the Traveler Café in the heart of Delhi was to recreate the ambience of the little tea-shops, such as the one’s in McLeod Ganj or Dharamshala, where travelers from all over the globe, backpackers, families, budding Buddhists, locals, hang out and exchange notes and experiences. He and his wife missed that in Delhi, and so did such people as these. He is almost there. The Kunzum Traveller Café is vibrant. Occasionally free music sessions are held that are announced on their blog. Practicing local bands, guitarists, soloists- perform on weekends – or maybe middle of the week. They are not sticky about it. Stay as long as you want – no rush. How do they support this? Is this is a NGO? Not really, recovery is not the rush, this is not a profit making venture. OK but what about running cost. Oh! People do leave something behind for the coffee, and the photographs on the wall are for sale, which is beginning to pick up… Such a luxury this - to be able to follow your heart without worrying about the balance sheet. I came away enriched, as if I had actually watched that heard of elephants, or sat alongside the King cooling in the shallows.
Paris Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2010-11 (July 5-8)
The Haute Couture fall/winter 2010-2011 was held at the Mecca of fashion, Paris, earlier this month. This is the ultimate IT event for fashion. We bring for you some of the styles that appeared on the walkways, as well as a static display on mannequins of a few exquisitely finished corsetted and military-inspired pieces ‘exactly inspired by the original Worth line, except the hemlines, designed by current Worth designer Giovanni Bedin.
Worth Designer Giovanni Bedin,
The one name that is regarded as the ‘father of haute couture’ is that of Charles Fredrick Worth, an Englishman, from Bourne, in Lincolnshire, who opened his maison in Paris in 1846 and acquired cult status. The current Worth designer Giovanni Bedin has designed an audacious line of corsetry, inspired by the silhouette of the founder. The display was confined to the mannequins.
Valentino Designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli A young collection of short fragile and light dresses embellished with bows, embroideries, beading; black dresses in silk gazar, the little smock-shapes in cream double-faced satin or red organza, the ballet crinolines, in blush organza, and the trapeze coats in ivory double crepe, black Chantilly lace trapeze-trenches and little black dresses in guipure. The theme of the collection was ‘The Dark Side of First Love’.
Chanel Designer Karl Lagerfeld Missing in action was the famous Chanel little black dress. There were suits and dresses in tweeds with plenty of handworked regalia like miniature camellias in pearls and sequins, appliquéd motifs in fur, crystals and sequins. Fitted and fluid silhouettes focused on a small-shouldered bolero or jacket, often with full, rounded sleeves, cropped just below the bust, and flowed into a skirt finishing just on the knee, or mid-calf. Color palette used navy instead for black, jewel colors of ruby, amethyst, jade and lapis, shot with gold, bronze and copper.
Giorgio Armani Privé collection Designer Giorgio Armani
With the moon as the prop in the background, it was a celestial collection inspired by the sky at night. Opalescent organza, gold, jacquards and pearl-white ostrich skin with crescent brooches fastened to sculpted jackets. The moon theme was played across collars, lapels, undulating peplums and skirts. Silk tulle, micro-organzas in pale pinks and lemons, sequins on cuffs and hems, on black gowns, shorter, bustier dresses with fitted pencil skirts.
Elie Saab
Designer Elie Saab The phoenix rising from the ashes was the inspiration for the collection which was opulent and dramatic with ‘goddess’ gowns in flaming red embellished with beads and crystals, chiffon ball-gowns with flame print, fabric wings, swathes of red silk tulle and chiffon draped intricately, single sleeves encrusted with crystal, pearl, beads, red ostrich feathers woven into sequin-strewn angora for fitted dresses and suits, belted in ruby velvet. The shimmer and jazz was carried over to opulent batwing jumpsuits and caped fishtail gowns.
There is no single scale to measure the parameters of luxury. A brief visit to a one-of-a-kind high priced exotic destination is as much a luxury as one that welcomes warmly with no obvious immediate demands and the promise of a rich interaction. Such stark contrasts are featured in this issue in our coverage of the Ice Lounge and the Kunzum Travel Café. The former only a few can afford while the latter everyone. Again, the former has paucity of time while the latter, endless. Which is better? Only the observer can tell.
‘Work hard and play hard’ are both luxuries that complement each other as pairs, one becoming monotonous without the other. A bespoke well-fitted suit is as much a luxury as that pair of well worn old jeans. The winter wear in Lapland will find no takers in Kenya. Sifting through the plethora of such examples, the words of the old bard of Avon come to mind, “This above all: to thine own self be true". But for that first one has to recognize and reconcile with the ‘own self’.
The old is great, the new is too; as is the new initiative from the world’s most awarded distillery Glenfiddich, which releases the 14 year old Glenfiddich Rich Oak Single Malt Scotch Whisky. This here above is one unifier that works with equal zeal anywhere on the globe.
It would be quite alright to call Tom Ford a maverick. How often is it that a fashion designer directs and produces a movie, which is not only not about fashion but also goes on to win some decent awards? Tom Ford, the famous fashion designer whose debut film, ‘A Single Man’, recently released in India, the DVD and Bluray versions just out globally, has gone on to win such acclaims as nominations for the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for the movie, Critics Choice Awards - Best Adapted Screenplay, Independent Spirit Awards - Best First Screenplay, Independent Spirit Awards - Best First Feature and a Bafta for Colin Firth, the lead actor. Not surprising at all, because Tom Ford is one long success story, the odds along the way working as just one of those props that help to add spice to the main theme.
Thomas Carlyle Ford joined New York University in 1979 at age 17 to study art history, dropped out a year hence to lend his handsome looks to TV commercials, eventually enrolling for a course in interior architecture at Parsons, The New School for Design whence he patronized local nightclubs and discovered his gay-hood and against all odds, did graduate with a degree in architecture. Before that he went off to Paris to intern with Chloe’s press office sending clothes out on photo shoots. He successfully used all of the above, barring his degree in architecture, to launch himself into a career in fashion. With his power of persuasion and deception he managed to start out as design assistant for Cathy Hardwick’s sportswear company. Two years hence he utilized his social contacts, the president of American fashion house Perry Ellis, Robert McDonald, and Marc Jacobs, its designer, and worked with the fashion house for two years. The Italian luxury brand Gucci was struggling with near bankruptcy and was on the lookout for someone willing to take on the job of overhauling their women’s ready-to-wear. Tom Ford wasn’t exactly creating waves in the US markets and seeing an opportunity in distant Italy, where no one knew him, he moved to Europe for Gucci. Dawn Mello, the creative director of Gucci who hired the unknown American designer Ford for the job remembers, "I was talking to a lot of people, and most didn't want the job," since at that time, "no one would dream of wearing Gucci." This was the year 1990. 
Tom Ford truly applied all his energies, rose rapidly up the ladder, and bull-headedly pushed on despite creative tensions with Maurizio Gucci, the company's chairman and 50% owner, who wanted to fire him. In 1994 he became creative director and churned out glamorous Halston-style velvet hipsters, skinny satin shirts and car-finish metallic patent boots; 1995 he created a series of edgy new ad campaigns and Gucci began to be noticed big time. Sales jumped, Ford’s lines became a byword in high fashion, and Gucci went public with the launch of its first IPO, following it up with two more in subsequent years. By 1999, Gucci was valued at $4.3billion and when Tom Ford quit in 2004, it was as a $10billion!
Disclaimer : This is not about portly blokes with a deep tan. Right. Always good to clear all misconceptions at the start. Such as not all beers come in shades of gold. Some are dark, thick and sweetish. Such as stout and porter, which are dark beers made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water, and yeast. Stout or Porter was said to have been first made and sold in London in the early Eighteenth century, becoming quite popular in the British Isles for its strength of nearly 7-8% with the street and river porters of London, eventually getting to be called ‘porter’. The arrival of ‘pale ales’ shifted the focus from the dark stout beer in Great Britain, but the breweries in Ireland, such as Guinness, Murphy’s and Beamish kept up the tradition. Today it is the Irish stout beer that is most well known. 
The English word “vintage” that had been used up till then to talk about wine quality appeared, by a semantic shift, in fashion in the 1990s and reflects the notion of a craftsman-like authenticity that the concept of “vintage” carries: the smell of humus and soil, of old purple wine, of green timeless landscapes and of the rustic fragrance of woodland. What is the reason for this quest backwards in time, rather than looking towards the future ? 
Like a fleeting and colourful summer dream, perhaps you will encounter the rare and precious Bird of Paradise…
The phone doesn’t stop ringing or pinging; meetings, deadlines, parties char the hours; when the smog seeps in quietly so that you don’t notice it anymore, neither the honking at rush hour – it is time to go away. The ideal spot would be where none of the above can find their way even if they tried. A hermit’s cave on a mountain top or deep wilderness would be just right. Yes..but equipped with a soft bed, great food and er.. There is one just such a place - 360˚ Leti – located at 8000ft, sitting at the edge of a precipice on a vertiginous plateau near a tiny hamlet named Capri in the Kumaon region of the Himalayas, in the state of Uttarakhand. If it is spring time, be prepared to be welcomed by forests of rhododendron, smell of wet lichen, mighty oak and the grand stand view of the silent and majestic range of the snow clad Nanda Devi peaks at 20,000ft that speak of further impenetrable hollows. No phones, no electricity, so no TV, needs an hour and a half of trekking to get here – this here is a luxury resort rated very high on the list of the ‘world’s best’.
The access to this little Himalyan kingdom is not so easy – which of course fulfills the primary objective of making it a perfect getaway. 360º Leti can only be reached after a two hour trek from the nearest road head, which adds to the experience. The team Shakti will hold your hand right from the point of putting you on the train to Kathgodam from Delhi, pick-up and drive for 8 hours to the nearest road head and friendly expert guides for the final 2 hr walk. They also offer a private charter flight from Delhi to Pithoragharh, 3.30 hour drive plus the final trek. To keep the visitors engrossed, the team organizes gentle walks out into the countryside, waterfalls, ancient shrines, picnic hampers, yoga and meditation sessions by arrangement, informal cooking demonstrations by Yeshi etc etc. 
to generate enough electricity to charge cameras and ipods and heat bath water, rainwater harvesting, use of only dead/broken wood for log fires, zero litter policy, support to local cultures such as Kumaoni dancers and more. 
When the mercury is threatening to edge past 42º on a sultry afternoon in July in Delhi, all thoughts of igloos and ice qualify as wild fantasies deluded by mirages. Not any more, for one such facility, The Ice Lounge, is operational in Saket at the MGF Metropolitan mall, the first of its kind in India, brought to us by Mirage Entertainment (who else!). I had my lurking doubts as I waited to meet Kanav Chadda (one of the three partners behind the project) in the Ice Lounge’s cosy restaurant. Low seating, nice music, mirrored wall, courteous staff, hmmm.. nice so far. As also was the friendly and very young entrepreneur.
This unique initiative is the brainchild of Ajay Jain and Anubhuti Rana, two avid travelers, the former being a brilliant photographer too. They have raised a lot of dust travelling across the length and breadth of the country, upper Himalayas, Kumaon, Garhwal, Leh – the evidence is on the walls, which are covered with amazing photographs of life captured in the course of their meanderings. The name Kunzum is borrowed from the Kunzum La pass located nearly 15,000 feet above sea level in the Lahaul Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh in India. Ajay explains that the idea behind the Traveler Café in the heart of Delhi was to recreate the ambience of the little tea-shops, such as the one’s in McLeod Ganj or Dharamshala, where travelers from all over the globe, backpackers, families, budding Buddhists, locals, hang out and exchange notes and experiences. He and his wife missed that in Delhi, and so did such people as these. He is almost there. The Kunzum Traveller Café is vibrant. Occasionally free music sessions are held that are announced on their blog. Practicing local bands, guitarists, soloists- perform on weekends – or maybe middle of the week. They are not sticky about it. Stay as long as you want – no rush. How do they support this? Is this is a NGO? Not really, recovery is not the rush, this is not a profit making venture. OK but what about running cost. Oh! People do leave something behind for the coffee, and the photographs on the wall are for sale, which is beginning to pick up… Such a luxury this - to be able to follow your heart without worrying about the balance sheet. I came away enriched, as if I had actually watched that heard of elephants, or sat alongside the King cooling in the shallows. 
