Spring Fashion

If an auto scribe chronicles the experience of driving the new Lamborghini Reventón at triple-digit speeds, don’t believe him. Contributing writer Ezra Dyer took the nearly $1.5 million supercar for a spin near the Lamborghini headquarters in Sant’Agata, Italy, and writes about that jaunt in “Bull Flight” (page 82). Dyer reports that the company has […]

Dennis Conner, the four-time America’s Cup winner, did not laugh at my joke. Conner was in Newport, R.I., about five years ago, sailing what was essentially a scaled-down version of an America’s Cup yacht around the harbor. His crew for the day was a group of clients from the investment firm that was sponsoring his […]

Max Büsser was hesitant to launch a watch brand, because he lacked a certain prerequisite. “I initially thought I could never have my own brand because I am not a watchmaker,” says Büsser, the 40-year-old former managing director of Harry Winston Rare Timepieces. “Until Richard Mille, no one had created a brand without a watchmaker […]

Ferrari’s racetrack-ready F430 Scuderia is all raw welds and unpainted aluminum. Naked carbon fiber stretches from the center tunnel to the doorsills; the floors are bare metal; and frills are fewer than a farm truck’s. This is a vehicle for those who work seriously at motoring more quickly and smoothly. To serve such wants, Ferrari […]

As the jet soars over the California coastline, Dave Ryan grins. Ryan, a 10-year veteran of Learjet, is piloting the company’s first production 60 XR, fresh from the factory. Bombardier Aerospace, the Canadian owner of Learjet since 1990, produces two other Learjets: the 40 XR light jet and the 45 XR, the only superlight jet […]

Like a Giant Oyster, the personal submersible’s transparent, spherical cabin closes, and William Kohnen—one of the craft’s inventors—and I slip slowly beneath the surface of the water. Two scuba divers follow us, taking pictures of the descent. As we approach the ocean floor, a sand dab skitters across it, the two eyes on the side […]

Colum Egan, master distiller for Bushmills Irish Whiskey, remembers the instant he became inextricably linked to his employer’s past. “My key moment was when I tasted an 1882 Bushmills bought at auction,” explains Egan while leading a tour of the company’s centuries-old distillery in Bushmills, Northern Ireland. “We drew the sample with a syringe. You […]

Maduro tobaccos are considered too thick and too costly to use for anything but wrapper leaf. Thus a maduro (the Spanish word for “mature” or “ripe”) cigar is only wrapped in—not filled with or bound with—one of the rough-hewn, brownish-black tobaccos of the same name. However, last year, Caribe Imported Cigars, known for its full-bodied […]

“When I Think of the most memorable times in our lives, it’s always centered on food and wine,” remarked Margrit Mondavi, as she welcomed guests to a preview dinner last fall of the inaugural Pebble Beach Food & Wine event to be held in March at the fabled California resort. Although the dinner at the Napa […]

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, a few hundred Huguenots, hoping to avoid religious persecution, fled France and settled on South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. The ruling Dutch government of the time gave many of the refugees land in a picturesque valley called Oliphantshoek (Elephant Corner), which soon became Franschhoek […]

Marco Coppiardi insists that by employing Antonio Stradivari’s antiquated techniques, he produces violins superior to any modern-made ones. Coppiardi, a 40-year-old luthier with dark hair and a small build, creates copies of instruments made more than 400 years ago by Stradivari and other Italian masters. He fashions their fronts and backs from Val di Fiemme […]

For 12 days last fall, at its expansive gallery in Manhattan’s hip Meatpacking District, the Phillips de Pury auction house presented 45 works by French jewelry designer Frédéric Zaavy. Each piece was displayed alone, in a black box and illuminated by a single spotlight. Intent on positioning jewelry as collectible, cutting-edge art, the 212-year-old New […]

Lamborghini’s cachet might be at an all-time high. After years of cash-flow problems and a parade of owners that has ranged from Chrysler to an Indonesian investment group, the snorting bull seems to have found its stride under Audi’s stewardship. At the factory in Sant’Agata, Italy, every car on the production lines is already spoken […]

Chris Dawson is pleased as punch with his latest assignment. As the blond, British captain strolls through Selene, a new, 184-foot semicustom sailing yacht from Perini Navi that has docked in Monaco, Dawson reflects on his good fortune; he says he could not have been given a better boat to pilot. Like other Perini Navi […]

To introduce L’Atlantide (Atlantis), its latest high-jewelry collection, Van Cleef & Arpels hosted a party, last November in Hong Kong, at which it tried to re-create the collection’s namesake city. Sounds and scents of the sea flowed throughout the venue where the Paris jewelry house staged the event; there were walls of falling water and […]

Portofino, St. Barts, Southeast Alaska, and Nantucket have distinctive dress codes. From the latest spring and summer menswear collections—which feature wind- and water-repellent jackets, linen and cashmere knits, and a boatload of seaworthy accessories—we chose ensembles that are perfect fits for these prime yachting destinations. And we offer suggestions on how to spend your time […]

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of Amanpuri, the Phuket hideaway that eventually became the flagship of Amanresorts. Today, in addition to Amanpuri, the company operates 17 properties that draw Amanjunkies to such far-flung destinations as the Philippines, French Polynesia, Bhutan, and Jackson Hole. Some highlights: Amanwana Moyo Island is a nature […]

Adrian Zecha, founder and chairman of the Singapore-based Amanresorts group, may be the world’s most successful creator of playgrounds for the affluent. He certainly is one of the most enigmatic. Here is a former journalist and publisher who rarely speaks to the press, a developer who is zealous about preserving natural habitats, and a hotelier […]

Children shout as I pass through their villages; “Suuuuuu-per-maaaaan!” they scream at me. In Italy, where Ascari, Fangio, Moss, Nuvolari, and other legendary racecar drivers still are revered for their Mille Miglia exploits, a first-time participant would not expect such adulatory reactions from the young spectators lining the route for this, the 80th-anniversary running of […]

Sir John Leslie, the fourth of his line to hold the title of Baronet at Castle Leslie, is telling me about Jonathan Swift. Although Leslie is one of the few living Irish survivors of the Spanish flu (born in 1916, he says he remembers having a temperature of 106 degrees at the age of 3), […]