Innehållsförteckning för February 2022 - Issue 80 från The Rake

I am old. As our occasional contributor and rake about town Warren De Montague once declared, “But like the semi-desiccated grape Corvina, one of the multitude of varietals found in Amarone, I have only grown more intense”. One of the benefits to my many years is that I can recall when casual nudity was commonplace, accepted and even admired. Topless sunbathing, in particular, was the de rigueur methodology for enjoying oneself while ensconced besides any body of water, from local swimming pool to the Adriatic Sea. I recall with Proustian vividness being taken to a beach in France while a mere boy. There I came face to face with the mass of sun-browned corporeal flesh hewn by the only individual to surpass Bernini in his capacity to render beauty, the…

On the evening of May 24, 1966, his 25th birthday, Bob Dylan was due to play his first concert in Paris. But there was a slight hitch: he was refusing to take to the stage of the Olympia theatre unless Françoise Hardy came to see him immediately. Though he’d never met her, he’d already penned a Beat poem tribute to her on the sleeve of his fourth album, Another Side of Bob Dylan (“for francoise hardy/at the seine’s edge/a giant shadow/of notre-dame/seeks t’ grab my foot/sorbonne students/whirl by on thin bicycles…”) Hardy obliged, and the gig went ahead. Later, she went with Johnny Hallyday to a gathering at Dylan’s suite at the Hotel Georges-Cinq, where Dylan beckoned her into his bedroom, placed an advance copy of Blonde on Blonde on…

Some, though not all, readers will be aware of a choice piece of British folklore — an eternally entertaining dinner party gem — concerning a monkey that during the Napoleonic wars was tried and hanged in the town of Hartlepool in north-east England. The simian in question was the only survivor of a shipwreck, and, having been dressed in a French military uniform for the crew’s amusement, was presumed — by folk who’d never set eyes on either a monkey or a Gallic person — to be a spy from across la Manche. I mention this because it’s the only equivalent I can think of — in terms of a person setting eyes upon another carbonbased life form and jumping so wildly to the wrong conclusion — to the moment…

I find it mesmerising that fashion trends always come full circle. If you study the image opposite of the photographer Lindsay McCrum shot by Slim Aarons 40 years ago, you realise it could be influencer Camille Charrière’s older sister pictured recently wearing bright colours, stacking bracelets, an oversize jacket she spotted at a flea market, and a pattern scarf to top off her eighties look. The confusion of time becomes more palpable in a period in which dressing up is more often appreciated by your own mirror than other people. Still, embarking on 2022 with health and hope, Mrs Rake is detouring via the French Alps for the winter. She embraces style and elegance at high altitude even when she stops for a vin chaud and maybe a fondue if…

There are rumours that when Jemma Freeman arrives in Havana, she is greeted by some kind of People’s Fanfare. The court of St. James’s has assigned an ambassador to Cuba, but even he knows he is but a non-exec compared to the plenipotentiary Chairman of Hunters & Frankau. Freeman is — and it is extraordinary when you think about it — the only woman in the world in her position, which was made perversely clear when she won the 2013 Habanos Man of the Year award. She is responsible for the importation of every single Cuban cigar into the United Kingdom and Gibraltar. Across the world, the Cuban government assigns monopolies to companies in different territories, charging them with the distribution of their most prized and combustible export. For a…

Welcome to the first issue of 2022 and our fourth annual women’s issue. This is the launch of a new and exciting pillar of The Rake’s output, Mrs. Rake, where we see men’s and women’s elegance as entirely harmonius and compatible, and it is about time a magazine represented them together. I want to remind you, dear reader, that this is an issue dedicated to and about women, though not exclusively for women. Should you find yourself unable to be inspired, uplifted and energised by the extraordinary people in these pages, it is safe to say that every other issue of The Rake will not be for you, either. What is enjoyable about compiling the stories for this particular book is discovering who broke the mould, set themselves apart, and…

Pippa Bennett-Warner has managed matters well. She has always been a stately figure, overflowing with talent, whose creative endeavours are garlanded with artistic merit. I used the word ‘always’ in the previous sentence because I know that, from as long ago as 2001, ’twas ever thus. Pippa and I were at school together (St. Edward’s in Oxford), and her attendance was anticipated before she’d arrived. We heard that there was someone who had already acted in the West End, as the young Nala in The Lion King. Enter Pippa, with acting chops, for sure, but also an extraordinary singer. It was a fait accompli that she was destined for a higher calling than the school stage, and it was not long after leaving drama school that she paired with Derek…

Primitive human societies settled at the base of volcanoes, in flagrant disregard of the danger, believing that they were stationing themselves in proximity to deities. Once Homo sapiens set their iron ploughs to the turf, they realised that soil’s nourishment by lava ashes made it richly fertile, and set up their dirt-and-rubble domiciles on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, Fuji and Popocatépetl. Even today, the denizens of Naples — despite a fear so profound of the somma stratovolcano whose silhouette dominates the skyline nine kilometres to the west that many are superstitious about using the word ‘tomorrow’ — would sooner see Juventus lift the Champions League trophy than move a safe distance from the fissure in the Earth’s crust whose ill-tempered spews buried Pompeii. As for why my ancestors roamed the…

When you suffer, as I do, with an addiction of the horological kind, you attempt, in the quieter moments, to trace its origin. For me, it was a stonkingly warm summer evening in Nice; I was in my early twenties, and I was fortunate enough to be roaming the wonderful promenade. Such was the strength of the sun, I had to take solace inside the iconic menswear store Albert Arts (founded by Jean Goldberg of Façonnable). While the store was wonderful (heavily inspired by everything British), the manager, a suave, charming Frenchman in ecru shorts and a denim shirt, was rocking an oversized, black, square watch. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It was like nothing I had seen before. I asked him about it, and he mentioned it…

ADRIANO MENEGHETTI – www.adrianomeneghetti.com ALBERT THURSTON – www.albertthurston.com ALFRED RIFUGIO – www.alfredrifugio.it ALICE MADE THIS – www.alicemadethis.com AMOUR LUX – www.armorlux.com ANDERSON & SHEPPARD – www.anderson-sheppard.co.uk ANDREA POMPILIO – www.andreapompilio.it ASPREY – www.asprey.com AUDEMARS PIGUET – www.audemarspiguet.com AUDI – www.audi.co.uk BALLY – www.bally.com BAMFORD – www.bamfordwatchdepartment.com BARBANERA – www.barbanerastyle.com BASELWORLD – www.baselworld.com BATES – www.bates-hats.com BEGG & CO. – www.beggandcompany.com BELL & ROSS – www.bellross.com BELSTAFF – www.belstaff.co.uk BERLUTI – www.berluti.com BERRY BROS. & RUDD – www.bbr.com BLACKHORSE LANE ATELIERS – www.blackhorselane.com BLANCPAIN – www.blancpain.com BORSALINO – www.borsalino.com BREGUET – www.breguet.com BRIONI – www.brioni.com BROOKS BROTHERS – www.brooksbrothers.com BRUNELLO CUCINELLI – www.brunellocucinelli.com BULGARI HOTEL – www.bulgarihotels.com BUDD SHIRTMAKERS – www.buddshirts.co.uk BULGARI – www.bulgari.com CALABRESE 1924 – www.calabrese1924.com CAMOSHITA UNITED ARROWS – www.united-arrows.jp CANALI – www.canali.com CARMINA SHOEMAKER – www.carminashoemaker.com CARUSO…

RACHELL SMITH Rachell is an internationally renowned celebrity portrait and beauty photographer. She was born and raised in Wolverhampton, where her grandfather (who loved taking pictures of the family) introduced her to photography. After graduating from the London College of Communication, she went on to assist some of the world’s leading photographers before setting up her own studio in London. Her modern take on beauty and portraiture has been featured in a number of premier publications around the world, including Glamour, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Allure and Vogue. Rachell, who divides her time between London and New York, delivered this issue’s beautiful main fashion shoot, ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ (page 92). ERIC MICHAEL ROY Eric Michael Roy is known for his celebrity and fashion advertising photography. “I have an obsession…

Rolex Lady-Datejust in 18ct gold It was the year that Audrey Hepburn, her cultural cachet at a premium, starred alongside Fred Astaire in the musical romantic comedy Funny Face; around the same time that Those Without Shadows, French author Françoise Sagan’s third novel, threw light on the human condition from a distinctly female perspective; at a moment when Adele Simpson’s creations were making her more and more beloved of New York’s fashion cognoscenti; and, in the Middle-East, when Rawya Ateya was taking her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world. Notwithstanding the household-management ‘self-help’, darning lessons in school, and other trappings of life as a woman in the late fifties (as depicted in homely sitcoms such as I Love Lucy), a…

The phrase ‘made in Italy’, and its lofty connotations of quality, romance, authenticity and soul-stirring elegance, will reside at the forefront of most Rake readers’ minds. But what of ‘made in Germany’? The word ‘quality’ can be found in the centre of the Venn diagram, of course, but all sorts of other notions sit elsewhere in the circles, and equally proudly: from austere-yet-elegant functional design principles to meticulous engineering via robust durability. The apotheosis of the ‘made in Germany’ concept is pictured on these pages: two watches — named, with asceticism befitting the entire project, Leica L1 and Leica L2 — from a company that effectively invented spontaneous photo reportage. (Leica, founded by Ernst Leitz in 1869, make optical lenses, photographic lenses, binoculars, rifle scopes and microscopes as well as…

Those on even nodding terms with literature’s greatest detective (sorry, Hercule) will know that Irene Adler has intrigued fans of Sherlock Holmes for generations — in everything from the original prose to some rather risqué manga of the now. Her continued presence in the Holmes-sphere is surprising when you consider that she appears only once in Arthur Conan Doyle’s original canon — in the 1891 short story A Scandal in Bohemia, where she is an American-born opera singer falsely accused of being a courtesan. There are several possible real-life inspirations for Adler, among them Lola Montez, Lillie Langtry and Ludmilla Stubel — all stage performers who respectively bedded Ludwig I of Bavaria, Edward, the Prince of Wales, and Archduke Johann Salvator of Austria. In other words, women of considerable charm…