Screening Room Yolanda Hadid is not a design professional, but she is no stranger to the world of interiors. Her husband, Mohamed Hadid, has developed more than 15 Ritz-Carlton hotels with his company Hadid Development, and the couple travels regularly to Europe to shop for antiques and accessories. For their own house in Holmby Hills, Calif., […]
A home is not merely an assemblage of rooms. Rather, it is the consequence of a series of decisions made by you, your architect, your interior designer, and your landscape designer. ” We are not constrained by any such deliberations when we assemble the rooms that comprise our Ultimate Home Tour. ” Each room was selected […]
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Think of the Sonora, an electronics cabinet created by Sensorial Design (+39.0922.44.14.36, http://www.sensorialdesign.it) of Sicily, as the body of a violin—albeit a very large violin at 8 feet tall, 13/4 feet deep, and from 12 to 141/2 feet wide. As with a violin, the Sonora’s design does more than just make the cabinet visually appealing; […]
“A syncopation of space, form, and color,” says architect Alexander Gorlin, the proud papa of a piano that looks like a cross between a Mondrian painting and a Gerrit Rietveld chair. Gorlin won the first International Piano Design Competition, sponsored by Maximiliaan Rutten for the 10th anniversary of his company, Maximiliaan’s House of Grand Pianos. […]
Architecture is a peculiar thing. At its best, it embodies the architect’s (and presumably the client’s) taste, ideals, and concepts of how human beings should relate to their environment. At its worst, it encases the hapless inhabitant in a tepid mediocrity imposed by the current demands of the resale market as dictated by an unctuously […]
At New York’s Julien Farel salon (212. 888.8988, http://www.julienfarel.com), the atmosphere is low-key and intimate with a nod to high-tech amenities such as retractable computer monitors with high-speed Internet access and portable telephones at most cutting stations. Farel, who opened the salon last year, is attuned to the scheduling constraints of the modern man and […]
THE KITCHEN was the center of attention in Atlanta last November, when the first Insperience Studio, a showcase for Whirlpool Corporation’s Whirlpool and KitchenAid appliances, opened the same night that Viking celebrated its newest Viking Culinary Arts Center (VCAC). The Insperience festivities lured local chefs, who performed their gustatory magic for guests, but these showrooms […]
If spirits can be likened to nobles—if a Speyside malt is, say, a Scottish laird—then this infamous elixir is surely the de Sade of the still. Criminal, sensual, and enigmatic, its name evokes decadence, lurid nightlife, and dangerous intoxication. Its mystique has furnished inspiration for paintings and poems, and its hallucinatory allure has made disciples […]
Georges Perrier was dining at his landmark Philadelphia restaurant Le Bec-Fin one afternoon last spring when his mood turned liturgical. Customers are like church-goers, he observed. “To get zem to come to church every Sunday, zee pries’ mus’ stand outside and ring zee bell.” That, lamented Perrier, is what he had to do—in a figurative sense—to […]
An unintended consequence of the recent surge in popularity of portable audio players has been a renewed interest in headphones. When Sony created personal hi-fi with the Walkman almost 25 years ago, it lifted the headphone out of its niche as a useful but hardly essential accessory. Still, it remains a common misconception that headphones […]
Ballantine’s 30 Years Old A blend of venerable oak-aged whiskies from distilleries across Scotland, Ballantine’s 30 Years Old delivers remarkably smooth and well-groomed flavor. Despite the more than 40 different malts it contains, this deep gold Dumbarton blend remains finely balanced, while still revealing distinctive flashes of its component whiskies: Honey, smoke, brine, and sherry […]
For the past 34 years, 1,500 investors have gathered on a remote mountaintop above California’s Salinas Valley to convene the annual shareholders’ meeting of the Chalone Wine Group—whose business the attendees take very seriously. Wine from the publicly traded company’s various estates (among them Acacia, Sagelands, Moon Mountain, Provenance, Château Duhart-Milon, and, of course, Chalone) […]
Our premium seats for the baseball season represent experiences that are not only exclusive and unique but also reflective of the respective team’s hometown. As a member of the Dodger Dugout Club, you mingle with the stars: those from the entertainment industry who frequent the club and the players who are within arm’s reach of […]
The cycling tour designed by Discover France (800.960.2221, http://www.bikingfrance.com) replicates the storied stages of the Tour de France at a pace that allows even those with more will than muscle tone the chance to experience the spirit of this timeless test of stamina and courage. Featuring an option to arrive in time to see the […]
After 19 hours of riding in a truck, a shuttle, an Air Canada airbus, a prop plane, a van, and a floatplane, I finally arrived at King Pacific Lodge, a floating paradise in British Columbia’s Barnard Harbour. Having traveled from Los Angeles to Vancouver to Prince Rupert, then another 56 miles south to the lodge, […]
You can read Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons and Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book a thousand times each and watch every Nicklaus videotape until it frays, but the only sure way to shave strokes off your handicap is to put in time on the practice range. However, touring pros, who practically live on the range, know that […]
In the realm of luxury menswear, two factions—small artisan brands and prestige designer labels—peacefully coexist and even complement each other in a man’s wardrobe. While you cannot dispute the extraordinary quality of garments that are produced by artisan tailors working by hand, there is no denying that the designer camp, backed by brand recognition, is […]
Subtlety is not a strong suit of jewelry designer Leo de Vroomen. Recently, when a client entered his London boutique wearing diminutive diamond stud earrings, de Vroomen couldn’t refrain from commenting: “Take those miserable things off your ears.” She slipped her earrings into her handbag and, not surprisingly, left the shop wearing a new pair […]
French leather accessories maker Gustto (858. 336.7067, http://www.gustto.com) bridges the gap between fashion and electronics. Gustto President Agathe Planchon was an early adopter of personal technology and presumed that if she desired more stylish holders for her phone, PDA, and compact digital camera, then others would, too. “I came to realize that every single person […]
Naples is shaking again, but this time the trembling has nothing to do with Mount Vesuvius. The tremors began last year, when Gianluca Isaia decided to rethink the classic Neapolitan suit, a garment that has remained virtually unchanged since the 1930s. The silhouette, with its high armhole and exaggerated trim fit, is a look that only […]
When the art of shaving opened its first grooming boutique and shaving spa in 1996, cofounder and president Eric Malka had to convince men to take their shaving accoutrements as seriously as their cologne. “Men went to Barneys New York to buy fragrances, but to the drugstore for shaving products,” he explains. Well, times have […]
For years, Parisian-born jeweler Robin Rotenier was known for his original, whimsical cuff links. Once, when a Hollywood executive needed an original gift for a producer, he called upon Rotenier to create gold cuff links in the shape of vintage movie projectors, with ruby and sapphire switches. Rotenier is now exploring his more colorful side […]
Few things rankle more than when someone disses your sweetheart—even if she happens to be a watch. When you show off your new complicated wristwatch, you may encounter one of those opinionated purists who relishes letting you in on the truth. “Oh, it’s a nice piece,” he will comment disdainfully, “but they don’t make their […]
Vincent Minuto is on the phone with a New York art dealer, and he is fuming. The owner of Hampton Domestics, an employment agency with offices in Sag Harbor, New York City, and Palm Beach, checks off the caller’s requirements: She wants a private chef on call four days a week—but to work and receive […]
When Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez went shopping for a hi-fi system for the company’s flagship Vanquish, one criterion was paramount. “Aston Martin customers should have the best of whatever is available,” he says. “We looked for a company that not only produced what is regarded as the best audio systems but also fit well with […]
It could be argued that Lamborghini (www.lamborghini.com) designed its forthcoming Barchetta without a roof so that God can peer inside one of his favorite road-going machines. The yet-unnamed $290,000 vehicle, which will be available next year, features many of the same highlights that have made the Murciélago a deity among discerning drivers. The car shares […]
I had planned to spend my first afternoon in Jerez de la Frontera basking in the Spanish sun, sipping sherry finos at an outdoor tapas bar, and strolling leisurely through the ancient Moorish palaces and plazas. Alas, the day I arrived the worst downpour in a quarter century had driven the locals and sightseers indoors and […]
With the notable exception of Dr. Porsche’s work on Hitler’s Beetle, the Porsche name has always been synonymous with one thing: sports cars. The company nurtured this tightly focused brand identity with 55 years of competition and technological innovation and has clung to it through good times and bad. The 928 grand tourer was the […]
To listen to some automakers speak, you would think that they are developing human clones rather than building cars: Bentley executives sing about how the forthcoming Bentley Continental GT features the genes of the R-Type Continental, and Maserati officials crow that racing is in the company’s DNA. If you consider the Dodge Tomahawk (www.dodge.com) concept motorcycle […]
Unstable global politics, dropping stock averages, and scrutiny of corporate misbehavior have driven down profits for most American businesses, but not for Sentient, a Massachusetts company that offers private flight service. In fact, the stock market’s malaise actually sparked the company’s 145 percent growth rate in the third quarter of 2002. Nowadays, the mention of […]
Building and furnishing a multimillion-dollar house can be a daunting endeavor involving thousands of decisions that range from the vital to the trivial. Which architect best understands the task at hand? How large can the footprint be? What should the exterior look like? Should the dining room walls be painted in cool marine blue or […]
In the mid-1990S, Bernard Li, the founder of Eagle One automotive care products, had sold his company to Valvoline and was working on his newest venture: reviving a legendary motorcycle. In 1998, however, that dream was nearly shattered. The 56-year-old Li, who owned a Yamaha dealership when he was in his 20s, was planning to […]
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