Ocean Escapes

In the Orléans apartment of Micheline Taillardat sits a rectangular Louis XV lamp table adorned with a certificate from Christian Sorriano, an antiques specialist in France’s customs office. The certificate dates the piece at more than 100 years old and explains that French law prohibits the exportation of such historical treasures. The document is a […]

The home theater has become so ubiquitous that it is difficult for designers to create anything unique. One company, however, is using advanced technology to improve the widescreen viewing experience, while another is expanding the large-screen theater into a multimedia venue.   Since the early days of film, moviemakers have enticed audiences with ever-wider panoramic […]

Los Angeles designer Mel Lowrance is delighted when his touch cannot be detected in his work. “Somebody would really have to know my work to be able to say, ‘Mel Lowrance did this,’ ” he explains. “I rarely do what I call a stage set design. I ask clients what their lifestyle is and how […]

The psychology of island fever reveals a persistent behavioral pattern: our penchant for replicating what we seek to escape. Somewhere deep within our collective brain has gelled a fascination with these ocean-bound enclaves that feeds the desire for a second chance—the opportunity to start our long social experiment afresh, presumably with the intent of getting […]

Below the butter-colored stucco terrace of the Hotel Metropole’s Joël Robuchon restaurant, Avenue des Spelugues curves sharply toward the Place du Casino and the port of Monte Carlo. The hairpin turn is just one of many in which Michael Schumacher will maneuver his Ferrari at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, yet few locations in the […]

For the nature lover with an adventurous spirit, Frégate Island Private is an ecological Eden begging to be explored, a sanctuary for both man and beast to relish. “We live with nature here,” the open-air restaurant’s hostess notes in reference to the sparrowlike tok toks, bright orange Madagascar fodies, and Seychelles pigeons that hover around […]

In the fall of 1975, bad weather forced Canadian Jean Gagnon, an experienced bush pilot, to land his plane on Anticosti, a Jamaica-sized island at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Long known as the Graveyard of the Gulf, Anticosti had claimed hundreds of ships along its 360 miles of coast, but Gagnon’s troubles […]

German Alamilla, dive master and fishing guide at Cayo Espanto, recommends that you pack a pair of optically correct, polarized sunglasses for your trip to the island. The curved-lens shades provide the proper light balance for spotting the schools of bonefish that lurk in the shallows below your villa’s private dock. Catching one of the […]

Returning from a day at Waterford Castle’s golf club—the only 18-hole,  championship-caliber course at a private island resort—the golfer who runs afoul of the hilly parkland terrain and subtly contoured greens notices not the brightly colored pennants atop the castle’s battlements, but the rooftop gargoyles and their mocking grins. Such a greeting, however, belies the […]

Early Fijians, perhaps while fleeing from cannibals, are believed to have jumped to their deaths from Chieftain’s Leap, a precipice some 600 feet above the Koro Sea on Wakaya Island. A few yards from the drop-off, pottery shards, rudimentary tools, and human bones mark the site of the ancient village of Korolevu. The remnants and […]

Necker Island, a Caribbean resort owned by Virgin conglomerate founder Richard Branson, is known for pampering privacy-seeking vacationers, but almost half of its 56 employees tend plants, not guests. While conducting a tour of the island, gardener Thomas James identifies the plants that Branson’s team imported: the palm trees, hibiscus, bougainvillea, flamboyants, and almost everything […]

Like a toy boat in a rain barrel, the East King slowly rises toward the rim of its containment as the waters of the Yangtze swirl around its hull. This would be the first of five locks, each one large enough to transport several oceangoing freighters at once, and the ship’s passengers gather on the […]

The Ardbeg warehouse was dark and musty, the air thick with the yeasty odors of aging whisky. “You never know what you’ll find here,” said distillery manager Stuart Thomson, as we walked past rows of ancient barrels. Shuttered for years before being purchased in 1997 by Glenmorangie, Ardbeg is one of eight distilleries on the […]

For Paul Garmirian’s taste, the term vintage is used too liberally by many of his fellow cigar makers. “It’s totally revolting to me,” complains Garmirian, who also owns and operates a cigar boutique, McLean Cigars in McLean, Va. “I place an order for a cigar that is marketed as ‘vintage,’ and they’ll tell me they’re […]

when he speaks of the talent possessed by sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti, Edward Horswell’s tone of voice reveals his awe. Horswell, director of the Sladmore Gallery in London and author of Rembrandt Bugatti: Life in Sculpture (Sladmore, 2004), praises Bugatti’s ability to seize on an animal’s most fleeting gesture and fix it in bronze. Referring to […]

The months of August, September, and October are considered the season of birth and renewal at Maroma Bay, on Mexico’s Riviera Maya, because this is the time of year when giant green sea turtles come ashore to lay and hatch their eggs. Jose Luis Moreno set out to cultivate a year-round feeling of rejuvenation similar […]

“So Boudreaux and Thibodeaux were neighbors down in the parish,” begins Eric Kaspar in that lilting, singsongy way folks have of speaking down heah in Louisiana. The administrator of the new Audubon Golf Trail, Kaspar is standing at the head of a long dinner table in the clubhouse of the Tournament Players Club (TPC) of […]

In his 40 years as an angler, Rick Schair has battled marlin, bluefin tuna, and numerous other trophy fish, but none of those finned adversaries was as ferocious as the peacock bass. “Pound for pound, it is the greatest fighting fish there is. It does things that are almost mystical,” Schair says of the peacock […]

On a family vacation in 1992, goldsmith Christine Hafermalz-Wheeler and her husband and business partner, David Wheeler, discovered the natural beauty of New Zealand and promptly returned home to England (where David was born), packed their bags, and moved to Auckland. “If you’re sensitive enough to get the spirit of the people and surroundings,” says […]

In the Netherlands, when graduating lawyers begin interviewing with prestigious firms, it is not uncommon for senior partners to deliberate on whether the candidate is an “Oger man.” Oger Lusink, owner of the menswear chain, is hardly surprised that attorneys hold his operation in such high regard. Lusink began cultivating their esteem when he opened […]

With items that are a bit less structured and a lot less serious, a stylish spring wardrobe offers an alternative to the somber business attire often required by the workplace. This season’s clothes, whether they are worn while jetting to a private island paradise or simply relaxing at home, can make a fashion statement that […]

Over the course of her 16 years as a menswear buyer and personal shopper at Stanley Korshak in Dallas, Suzanne Warner has made some rather peculiar discoveries while cleaning out her clients’ closets, including pieces of sexy lingerie that her bachelor clients always swear were left behind by old college friends who had borrowed their […]

David Watson, Saks Fifth Avenue Club The ability to deliver instant gratification is essential when working with men, says David Watson. To meet clients’ immediate demands, he often relies on the close relationships he has formed throughout the clothing industry. He once borrowed sample garments from the nearby Kiton sales office because a gentleman wished […]

Even those who do not use personal shoppers at home can find their services invaluable abroad. They can introduce the hidden gems of a foreign city: new fashion boutiques, interior design houses, antiques shops, and art galleries. Many of these personal shoppers also serve as concierges who can assist with tasks that range from planning […]

Three years ago, when Michel Parmigiani first presented his radical design for the Bugatti Type 370 watch to the Volkswagen design team responsible for relaunching the Bugatti automotive brand, his idea was met with grimaces and blank stares. At the time, the stunned engineers could not conceive that the timepiece, which Volkswagen had commissioned, would […]

If understated black and brown foot-wear seems too staid for spring, the season to be a bit more daring in one’s manner of dress, take heart: Makers of the finest shoes are offering ample opportunities to step out on a limb—in supersoft suede driving shoes and sport sneakers in tropical colors, suede moccasins featuring innovative […]

Throughout the history of Mercedes-Benz, its designers, engineers, and executives rarely have introduced a car to the market before pondering every angle—the divergences of planes that form the car’s shape and the circumstances that could determine how the car’s release will affect the company’s bottom line. But barely a year after the introduction of the […]

Few tears fell in anyone’s gin when Bentley discontinued its Azure convertible in 2003. No obituary appeared in the Times of London. No questions were raised in the Commons. It even seemed the circumspect thing to do, this dumping of a ponderous, hugely expensive car patently outdated for its era and unchanged beyond a grille […]

Ettore bugatti is long dead, but the brand name that he created will not rest in peace. The launch of Parmigiani’s Bugatti Type 370 watch (“Engine Timing,” page 139) arrives ahead of the market debut of Volkswagen’s oft-delayed Bugatti Veyron, now scheduled for release this fall. The VW endeavor is the second major attempt to […]

A retro appearance and modern amenities proved an elusive combination for Edward Walson during the five years that it took him to find his dream boat. “I’d looked at top American brands like Hinckley and Italian names like Riva and Pershing,” says Walson, a cable television entrepreneur from Pennsylvania. “But they really didn’t have what I […]

New Zealand’s rugged beauty fits into 5,000 acres on Great Mercury Island. Soaring white cliffs, a sheep and Angus cattle farm, and forests of skyscraping pines and pohutukawa trees, which seasonally produce brilliant red flowers, border silica sand beaches and ocean as aquamarine as a tropical sea. Hiking, swimming, fishing, and diving are among the […]