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For a mentor, Jonathan Miller could give some pretty damn terrible advice. It was sometime in the late 1990s, shortly after we had met. I was back in the UK from my first job after university, as a foreign correspondent, and, low on contacts but high on ambition, looking for guidance.

Jonathan, to me, was the perfect role model. Intelligent, hilarious, swashbuckling, iconoclastic, a brilliant writer who was also good enough with people to have become an editor and columnist on what was then an all-powerful national newspaper. He was someone whose words rang out across the country every week, and for no reason other than a bond formed of camaraderie, a mutual dark humour and some hobbies in common, he took me under his wing. 

I had heard of a job going, as Rome correspondent of The Guardian. As an Italian speaking Europhile who had studied European politics at Oxford, worked as a foreign correspondent, and written for the Guardian, I felt I was a strong candidate. I asked my new mentor for his advice. “That’s the perfect job for you !” he said, “and you can sock it to those lefties at the Guardian!” Or words to the fact that effect – Jonathan‘s soft right politics were at odds with the newspaper. “Tell them it’s a pivotal time for Italy as it’s going to split into two states, north and south, you can predict it and cover it!”.  

It’s true that the Lega Nord, the Northern League, which favoured breaking up the country into its wealthy north and poorer south, was then at its zenith, but he was the only person I had heard to make this prediction with confidence. But he was Jonathan Miller – not only a national newspaper columnist, but one of the most convincing people on the planet.

I applied for the job, letting my (his) prediction for the future of Italy be known. I didn’t even get an interview. I am not sure why, but a friend working at the Guardian did email to ask me why on earth I had predicted in my application that Italy was going to split into two.

‘I always think of Jonathan’s ebullient, slightly dark confidence, whenever I launch a new issue of any publication’

I mentioned this to Jonathan, dolefully, during our next chat at his house. “Oh well it might happen sometime! Have a drink! Now, I’m 40 and I need to buy myself a Menoporsche! Which one shall I get?” With that, the previous topic was forgotten and we delved gleefully, like small boys with a combined age of 65, into the next. (He sold the “Menoporsche”, a glossy black Porsche 911 from the 1990s 964 series, almost as quickly as he purchased it.) 

The next “project” we had together was altogether more serious: after an ownership change at the publication we both contributed to, we got together with some other senior editors (who looked askance at the young freelance in the room) and put together an ambitious project for a new London weekly newspaper, a kind of cross between The New Yorker and The New York Observer, then at the height of its subversive influence. We got to the stage of producing dummies, a content plan and a business plan (when I say we: this was 90% Jonathan, 9% his fellow editors, and 1% me) and looking for funding for The Beast, as he titled it. Long evenings were spent at his desktop Mac in Hampstead piecing plans together for this game-changer (this was when confidence in legacy media was still high).  

I don’t recall exactly what happened to The Beast; perhaps the hunger to see it through was not there, or the funding proved difficult, or both. But the experience, a crash course in magazine making from people who had done it, taught me hugely important lessons for a future where I did and still do launch and create magazines and media, and I always think of Jonathan’s ebullient, slightly dark confidence, whenever I launch a new issue of any publication. 

Those beautiful days when Jonathan lived in a modernist house in Hampstead, and I would ring him up and drop round for tea or lunch or coffee or drinks with him and his delightful wife Terry – surely one of the nicest people ever to work for Goldman Sachs – and his children Alysen and Dan, seem infinitely far away now.

‘Highly intelligent and with the acuity of, well, a top journalist, Jonathan was always active – hyperactive, even’

Soon, I did get a proper job on a national newspaper, thus instantly disappearing my available time to drive up to Hampstead; and the Millers moved, first to the Surrey/Sussex border, from where he wrote an engaging newspaper column about farming on the edge of suburbia, and thence to the Languedoc, in southern France, from where he became a celebrated correspondent for The Spectator and other media.  

He gave me a tour of his Languedoc “starter chateau” more than 20 years ago when he was buying it, and to my shame I never visited the completed house, although like millions of others I feel I did, having read his dispatches. 

In France, Jonathan embraced his French inner child (having always been very in touch with his British/American/Jewish inner child back in London). According to those who know him best, he inserted himself fully into village life, not only becoming fluent in a second language (something he said improved his writing in English, and should be obligatory for all journalists), but also entering the political arena by being elected to the local town council. He wrote a book about France and frequently contributed provocative, funny, well-informed (and borderline inflammatory) pieces about French politics to both The Spectator and Daily Mail. Emmanuel Macron provided a lot of his material – “the gift that keeps on giving,” he said – but his writing for The Spectator was a potpourri of other subjects that caught his interest, including food, sexual mores and the French health system.

Last year, he decided it was time to write a memoir of his life as a journalist across the changing spectrum of the news. Shock of The News, Confessions of a Troublemaker was finished just before he died. It is typically Jonathan all the way through, insightful, unpredictable, entertaining, iconoclastic, and highly personal, including all his top tips for being a troublemaker, with the primary one being: “read this book!”.

Family was always extremely important to Jonathan: he once sent me an email with the subject field “My brilliant daughter”

My fondest memory of Jonathan, though, is not anything to do with the media or writing. Shortly after we met, he announced that he had tickets for the Iran vs USA match in the World Cup, in France. Jonathan was tickled by the idea of an American Jew and an exiled Iranian Brit going to this match together, and kindly invited me to join his family and other Iranian friends on what remains one of the most fun I have ever had at a football event.  

The atmosphere was a party, from both sides of supporters uninterested in higher politics, nobody really cared who won (Iran, I think, 2-1) and we spent 48 hours eating well, chatting about politics and wine and cars and how outrageous various things were that Jonathan disagreed with. Years on, his latest columns dealt with likelihood of a French civil war, which I personally treat with as much scepticism as the prospect of a North and South Italy, but in this case he had more than 20 years of living in the country to back up his views. 

Highly intelligent and with the acuity of, well, a top journalist, Jonathan was always active – hyperactive, even – which makes his death even more incomprehensible. He didn’t exactly have joie de vivre – he had too much of the Jewish inner black humour for that – but he had vivre. It would make sense to Jonathan to say that even though I haven’t seen him for 10 years, I really miss him. Farewell to my mentor, his buzzing, flashing lights turned off far too soon.  

“Shock of the News: Confessions of a Troublemaker” is available from Waterstones, Abe Books, Amazon and other booksellers

Darius Sanai is owner of LUX Media and The Oxford Review of Books, an Editor-in-Chief at Condé Nast, and in another life, launched The London Beast under Jonathan’s direction

The Heydar Aliev Cultural Center in Baku was one of the last great projects of super-architect Zaha Hadid

An initiative by Leyla Aliyeva, the prime cultural and artistic force in Azerbaijan, on Europe’s easternmost coast with the Caspian Sea, will set the cultural flames alight in the country’s capital

Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, on the Caspian Sea, is a unique cultural hub. Its own culture stretches back for millennia, encompassing the silk routes, fire temples, lyrical poetry in the medieval era, and some powerful contemporary and 20th century artists.

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It is also on a kind of cultural Silk Road, its position on the Caspian, close to Russia, Turkey and Iran on one side and central Asia and China on the other, leading to a constant exchange of artistic concepts.

Baku is a cultural panoply, embracing ancient temples and its old city, Belle Epoque mansions, and contemporary glamour

On the first weekend of November, it all comes together with Fly to Baku: Baku Art Weekend, featuring an astonishing panoply of visual and street arts, culture, dance, performances and exhibitions. The aim, says Aliyeva, is to connect memory with imagination, heritage with innovation, and hearts with hope.

Read more: Spirit Now London acquires works for National Portrait Gallery at Frieze

Guided by the element of water — a symbol of continuity, renewal, and shared memory — the festival unfolds across Baku’s museums, palaces, and public spaces. Over three days, the city becomes the central character of a cultural journey where heritage meets innovation, and where the Caspian horizon reflects both tradition and the future.

Baku Art Weekend takes place at sites across the cosmopolitan Caspian city, from concert halls and theatres to open-air venues

Exhibitions and performances will take place in museums, concert halls, outdoor spaces and the city’s celebrated Boulevard, the crescent-shaped seafront boardwalk that defines its relationship with the sea.

Baku, at the heart of a thriving country that is at once young and ancient, has the cultural soul, the confidence and the sheer creativity to make this the start of something very special – and also the continuation of a centuries-old tradition.

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The Spirit Now London Committee at Frieze London 2025, selecting this year’s winning works for the Acquisition Prize

Every year, collectors’ group Spirit Now London awards a prize to artworks at Frieze London to highlight the work of often-overlooked women artists, and acquire their work for an institution. Chaired by Marie-Laure de Clermont-Tonnere, the fourth edition of this prize saw a partnership with Frieze and the National Portrait Gallery to select the 2025 winners of the Acquisition Prize.

The winners, artists Madge Gill and Stella Snead have their selected works acquired and donated to the National Portrait Gallery.

The ‘Spirit of Giving Committee’, chaired by Marie-Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre and guided by Dr. Flavia Frigeri, Director of Collections at the National Portrait Gallery, gathered earlier this month during the Frieze opening preview to view the works in person and vote, after months of deliberation. The selection took place in the presence of Victoria Siddall, Director of the National Portrait Gallery and previous Global Director of Frieze.

The Spirit Now London committee is by-invitation only, made up of patrons, collectors and those dedicated to promoting cultural institutions, women artists and emerging artists. LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai (head of the table, back) joined the convocation over lunch at Frieze Masters

The prestigious committee is made up of some of London’s highest-ranking collectors and patrons to support women artists and cultural institutions. The 2025 Committee members were Amy Ainscough, Eva Anisko, Elizabeth Belfer, Francesca Brignone, Areti Dalacoura, Rocío de la Cuadra, Maryam Eisler, Catherine Gale, Maria Hatzistefanis, Carla du Manoir, Camilla Partridge, Laura Stock, Vanessa Mitchell Thompson and Lara Veroner.

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The award recognises two artists whose practices offer distinct perspectives on spirituality, identity, and imagination. The first is Madge Gill (1882–1961), who was a self-taught British artist known for her detailed ink drawings of female figures, often guided by what she described as a spirit named ‘Myrninerest’. While mostly painted on small postcard-sized pieces of calico, her visionary works explore themes of mysticism, femininity, and inner vision.

The selected winning piece by Madge Gill, Untitled, 1954

Stella Snead (1910–2006), is the second of the two winners. A British-born Surrealist painter and photographer whose career spanned London, New York, and India, her paintings often combined dreamlike landscapes with symbolic figures and natural forms.

Read more: The first ever Jodhpur Arts Week just opened

After relocating to India in the 1950s, Snead turned to photography, documenting rituals, festivals, and folk traditions. Both winners of the Acquisition Prize were deeply concerned with the importance of mysticism and imagination, topics often looked down upon within the reigning art historical canon.

Stella Snead’s winning pieces, titled Portraits of Leonora Carrington, 1978

Stella Snead, Portraits of Leonora Carrington, 1978

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Jonathan Siboni, founder and CEO of Luxurynsight with Stanislas de Quercize, a giant of the luxury industry

Darius Sanai: I think it would be interesting to start with AI.

Stanislas de Quercize: Yes, AI is fabulous – it’s not 10 times better, not 100 times nor 1,000 times, but one million times better than our brain. As you know, Jonathan Siboni is a worldwide leader of data for the luxury industry, thanks to artificial intelligence. So it’s vital.

Jonathan Siboni: There’s a lot of bias around AI, and rightfully so as the world is changing quickly, but 99 per cent of what exists today in artificial intelligence is nothing new – it existed 20 or 30 years ago. What has changed is the ability of the interface: to be able to ask a simple question and get an answer that seems human. That has a deep impact on how consumers may interact with brands in the future: they may discuss a certain problem and feel like they’re talking to a human – that is important in luxury. If you were in a different sector, you wouldn’t mind talking to a computer so much, but for us, it’s just not possible.  

However, a lot of the things we are doing with Luxurynsight have been using AI for years: the technology has not changed tremendously. There’s something interesting about machines and learning – the machine can be as powerful as you want, but if you don’t know how to teach it, it’s useless. The question of how to teach AI for luxury comes back to the purpose you want it to serve. If it’s to improve the fine tuning of prices versus demand, then it’s super useful for brands.

In 2025, Stanislas de Quercize published Emparadiser la Vie – which roughly translates to Paradising Life –reflecting his philosophy on leadership and purpose

A brand is a connection with a human: we all know that when we buy from Dior, we don’t buy from Christian himself, we talk to a salesperson, who 99 per cent of the time is our only face of the brand. If these people do not treat us well, all that work is burned in 20 seconds. So, the idea that tomorrow there will be a computer version, instead of a salesperson, will not have an impact. Most people won’t notice because a good AI system automatises for as long as possible and hands back to a human if a problem occurs. For me, as long as we limit AI to being something supportive, I don’t think it will be brands’ sole way of engaging with humans. 

SdQ: We always need to improve luxury. We should question what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. AI is fundamental because it’s ultimately going to boost whatever you do, from manufacturing to selling.  

A watch wholesaler told me that one of his bestsellers was the preloved category. He added that the earth has been preloved over thousands of years: your apartment, your boutiques, your gardens, your castles. What you buy today, you can sell in six weeks, six months, six years. And I spoke to a brand that helps you buy and sell preloved jewellery. Preloved is human – it’s good for the planet and for everyone. But whatever we do, we need to always find ways to improve it, and AI will help that. 

DS: At the moment we have two interesting trends: we are in the middle of the greatest generational wealth transfer in the history of humanity, but the luxury consumer market shrank last year. How will these affect luxury?

Jonathan Siboni on a panel with the Financial Times as an expert in strategic analysis of luxury, fashion, and beauty data

JS: For me, the impact has already begun. If you look at the luxury revolution over the past 70 years, younger people have access to more wealth than before – partly from their parents. This young generation will transform the industry to something more experiential, emotional and authentic – more about being than having. That’s my feeling, and it’s begun already. Younger people also love fashion, they love trends. When it’s trendy, they overbuy, when it’s out of fashion, they don’t buy.

That’s a risk, but also an opportunity for luxury. With the second trend, the market shrunk a little, true, but it was overinflated because of Covid. People didn’t have many ways to spend money, so they overspent on luxury goods. Now they can travel again, they won’t spend as much as before, so there is a new normal.  

SdQ: First, always improve. Second, all clients are asking what you’re doing to save the planet – there’s a new law in the EU called CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), an obligation for large companies to declare their environmental impact. Third, we need to improve where we develop. Luxury started in France, then developed into Europe, the USA, the Middle East, and now Japan, China and India.

There is a lot of effort to improve there because India is the number one market. In 1999, China was two per cent of the luxury market, now it’s between 35 and 50 per cent. India is one per cent of the market now so I think it will increase because of this new generation. I also think it’s important to have a price pyramid. We need the combination of access price and expensive price.

JS: Something amazing started to appear in the past generation – new luxury brands. When I started, there was new commerce, but not new brands. Now in almost all the industries there are new brands with relatively young founders. It proves there’s an openness to look at modernity and not just heritage. If you look at the brands performing best in luxury, they are ones considered modern – even if they are old, they re-invent themselves.

Where I believe the rules of the game can change is in new categories. A few years ago, I was in Switzerland with luxury brands and we discussed the Apple Watch. We asked ourselves: will it change or kill the luxury watch market? If every day people put smartwatches on, they may still have a Patek, but keep it in the safe – that’s not how they engaged with a product before and it would limit the market to only a few brands with high investment power.

It’s also about safety and technology. People hesitate to put on an expensive watch because of safety questions. If you have an amazing watch but can’t wear it, plus you prefer to have an Apple Watch to see what’s happening on your phone, it brings into question the long-term existence of the categories. They will survive, but maybe as pieces of art – much as we have antique furniture now as art pieces.

Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo are amazing brands, but if tomorrow people don’t want cars any more and everybody takes a bike to work, they will not wear heels – you cannot wear heels on a bike. The evolution of people’s lives will show which categories are engaging with which brands, and some young brands may be better at this. 

SdQ: Well, in luxury, there are always new brands and new creativity: Cartier is nearly 200 years old, but Messika only 20. So there is old and new, and you can sell again what you created 100 years ago – Cartier preloved and vintage jewellery, for example. What I love in luxury is that there is cooperation instead of competition. I worked as a board member of Comité Colbert, which has 95 maisons working in concurrence, not in competition. There are more and more clients in the world, and we need to open in new countries, so there’s room. 

JS: Luxury grows by going into new territories: if you stay where you are, you die. Luxury started two generations ago – brands with a strong heritage selling to a few rich clients in a few rich countries. Over the past 40 years they started selling to the middle classes in new territories and making new products for them, such as perfume. They have reinvented constantly to survive change.  

Today, brands need huge reach to grow – and it’s hard to be visible and not dilute yourself too much. There are two philosophies. The French philosophy is that brands come from haute couture, like Hermès, and go to ready-to-wear and perfume and so on. Then you have the Italian model of brands that come from the middle, like Armani, and grow, which allows them to go to haute couture. Today, these two models are competitors, because all brands went both up and down. Now, all luxury brands go to jewellery – to all segments – but will that hold? It’s an open question.

Siboni speaking at Talents du Luxe 2025

SdQ: The President of Hermès said luxury is what you repair, what you restore. My own definition of luxury is what you transmit. Your luxury is the best way to express your love, your friendship, your fraternity; it’s also vital to create new emotions. I once decided to invite our 80 top clients every year to see the new high jewellery collection, so they made potential new friends from different countries who love jewellery.

When we created a dinner at the top of the Eiffel Tower to present a new collection, a young American, maybe 25 years old, raised a toast to being a fourth-generation buyer. That’s what we are looking for: to have loyalty and serve clients from generation to generation. It is important to share from country to country, with companies helping each other, and to have events that people can share and amplify and are wins for everyone. 

DS: In terms of technology, Luxurynsight is a data firm, so what is happening in terms of the way luxury will be monitored?

JS: Luxury brands are about creating something that may not be needed but that will be desired. Generally, that comes with a high intensity of intuition and creativity that helps these maisons become empires. However, the world is changing quickly and, for me, the only way to understand its opportunities is to be able to create better GPS. Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Karl Lagerfeld all ensured they had as much connection to the world around them as possible. 

Stanislas de Quercize, Bernadette Chirac and Princess Charlene attend the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibition Launch at Musee Des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France 2012

Technology helps us go further. We work with more than 60 maisons every day, bringing in AI to optimise their business. The reality of the market today is not just your shop, it’s social media, it’s the ability to tell brands, “You’re performing well in that category but your competitor is doing this.” We process three to five million images a day. I can tell you in Italy right now which colour or category is over-performing because of the number of people wearing them.

Zara was a revolution a few decades ago, because it brought new technology to look at the world around it and be extremely reactive. Today, even Zara is being disrupted by new players like AI. The question is not, “How can I be quicker than them?”, because you can’t. Just see what the world is doing, find new opportunities in what you do, and look at the world around you with a little more prediction capability – not to copy, but to create.  

Stanislas once told me, “We invented the brake to go quicker.” If I give you data, you can be more creative – you can measure the risk of going in that direction of creativity. If you have zero data, anything you do will be a risk. That’s the beauty of luxury: it’s not about using data in order not to take risks; it’s using it to evaluate well and be better at taking the risks. You need to stay ahead by running, not by waiting and saying, “I’ve been here for 200 years.”

SdQ: You know, Jonathan is a genius: he’s using data to help people make decisions. Whenever you are travelling you need some form of GPS to help you, and in giving you data he helps you with that.  

DS: You’ve anticipated my next question: what do each of you find most interesting about the other?

Prince Albert de Monaco, Actress Juliette Binoche and President of Cartier Stanislas de Quercize attend the ‘Cartier: Le Style et L’Histoire’ Exhibition Private Opening at Le Grand Palais in Paris, France 2013

JS: A better question would be, “what don’t I?”. I am most fascinated by two things. The first is his modernity: the ability to think of the future and not just the past, no matter how glorious – when you’ve been the CEO of Cartier and so on –  but to look at the future, its complexities and trends. The second is a true kindness. Stanislas has been waking up every day to help young people, to help new industry – pure, non-business-related kindness that people want to give back to him. Speak to anyone who has worked with Stanislas, even 30 years ago, we all owe him a lot. I’m in debt to his kindness and vision, and that is rare: when you’ve done a lot, sometimes you think you can take, just because you have power. Stanislas is all about giving. 

SdQ: As I mentioned, Jonathan is fabulous because what he is doing with data really is helping everybody. One hundred per cent of brands and maisons are able to make decisions, and it’s incarnating his prophecy through inspiring, joyful solutions. If you’re using Luxurynsight, it’s boosting you. 

JS: What luxury brands have done recently is be open to change. When you’re number one, you don’t have as much incentive; all you can do is to lose, so you tend to just stop. But this ability to say, “You’re doing something I don’t know about; show me what you do,” is new to a lot of luxury groups. I think with this vitality, luxury will continue to be the amazing sector it’s been for hundreds of years. 

This article was first published in the Winter 2026 print issue of LUX. Read this continuing series of LUX x Luxurynsight Dialogues monthly online at LUX magazine

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