The K11 Musea retail complex forms part of the Victoria Dockside development

Entrepreneur Adrian Cheng and landscape architect James Corner are transforming Hong Kong with a multi-billion dollar development plan. Leading architecture writer Mark C O’Flaherty reports

Every city wants its own High Line. Designing an urban park that sits cheek by jowl with super-prime real estate is a difficult task, and the benchmark is the 1.45-mile-long repurposed structure that runs north from the once run-down – nay, degenerate – Meatpacking District in Manhattan. So, when Adrian Cheng (son of Hong Kong billionaire Henry Cheng and executive vice chairman of real-estate behemoth New World Development) was looking for someone to transform the world-famous but tired TST waterfront area of the Kowloon Peninsula into a 21st-century destination for recreation, he turned to James Corner of Field Operations. Corner is perhaps the world’s most celebrated landscape architect right now – the man behind the engineering of the High Line, as well as the new Domino Park on the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn. After six years of work, Kowloon’s Victoria Dockside – which has already taken significant shape and is scheduled for completion late next year – looks set to offer a new gold standard for urban planning.

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“The High Line was an epic success,” says Corner, without any hint of a self-congratulatory tone. “It is much-loved by people from all over the world.” At the same time, he sees the High Line as something unique to its Manhattan context, flanked by landmarks and the neighbourhoods of the Meatpacking District and Chelsea. It can’t, he believes, be duplicated. “Every city does seem to want its own High Line,” he says, “but other cities should better evaluate and imagine how public spaces can be designed for them that are authentic to, and resonant with, their own contexts. With the Hong Kong project, all we did was simply amplify the power of the existing context – improving accessibility, designing places to sit and linger, and provide shade. The new design will recall many characteristics of the old TST, while pointing ways forward to its future.”

The Mount Pavilia residential complex is part of New World Development’s Hong Kong portfolio

Corner first visited Hong Kong in the 1990s, the decade that saw sovereignty handed from the UK to China. If there was any worry that the handover would stem growth on the island, it was misplaced – this continues to be an electrifying hub of culture and commerce, developing at an incredible rate. Corner started work on the US$2.6billion, three-million-square-foot New World Development project in 2012, and has been visiting every 10 weeks since then. “The city has always appeared vibrant and cosmopolitan to me,” he says. “But even more so in recent years, especially now that it is actively shaping public access and space around the harbour front, investing in new cultural facilities, and prioritising liveable, walkable and sociable city space.”

Corner’s waterfront design includes lots of shaded areas

For years, the Avenue of Stars on the Kowloon waterfront has been on every tourist’s list of must-dos in the city. The statue of Bruce Lee here has been photographed as much as the light show that bursts into to life across the skyscrapers of the CBD on the other side of the harbour. But, as waterside thoroughfares go, it’s hardly up there with the pleasures of the Southbank Centre in London or Sydney Harbour. It was never somewhere you’d want to linger – particularly when heat and humidity hit typically intolerable levels. “We have improved access to shade with numerous trellises, trees and other canopies,” explains Corner. “The experience will be richly varied, fun and engaging – it is social, global, spectacular and at the same time humanising, fun and special.” Looking at renderings of it from above, it mixes inside and outside elements with graphic élan. It will redefine the look of the city.

Read more: Bruno Schöpfer, Managing Director of the Bürgenstock Selection, on the future of luxury hospitality

One of the many things that makes this project so different from other urban park commissions with which Corner has been involved, is Adrian Cheng, an art patron and gallerist as well as a developer. He has a unique fluency in the language of urban culture. While there’s already a fully operational 15-floor limestone-and-bronze office tower at the new Victoria Dockside (Mizuho Bank and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank were two early adopters of the space), and a revenue-spinning hotel and shopping complex with a glass corridor at the heart of the masterplan, there will also be a sunken amphitheatre with curved glass walls surrounding it, and a constantly changing collection of public art on view. One of the first pieces to be installed when the project is finished next year will be Elmgreen & Dragset’s Van Gogh’s Ear – a swimming pool turned upright, deep-end down, originally installed at the Fifth Avenue entrance to the Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center in New York City in 2016. It will, inevitably, be photographed with the same fervour as the Bruce Lee statue.

The 15-floor K11 Atelier office building is already open

The aforementioned shopping complex has its own cultural agenda. Christened the K11 Musea, it takes its name from the K11 Art Foundation that Cheng founded in 2010, and which he continues to head. Like the new Whitney in New York, it has incorporated numerous terraces into its design, which stops it looking like a hermetically sealed institution. Instead, the green layered spaces that punctuate the elegant, rounded architecture bring human and plant life to the skyline. The K11 retail complex will host live music, exhibitions and numerous other cultural events according to Cheng who, in addition to his cultural responsibilities in Asia, sits on the board of the Museum of Modern Art PS1 in New York and is a member of the International Circle of Centre Pompidou.

Hong Kong entrepreneur Adrian Cheng

“Adrian is a true visionary and inspiration,” says Corner. “He is of course a developer and his primary business is development for both retail and lifestyle, but his passion is art and culture, so he works very hard to bring richly textured practices of art and culture to his development projects. This is why he is so passionate about the outdoor public spaces – these are not simply frontages to his development, but more active platforms for social life, for civic engagement, public participation, art and culture. His vision is civic, generous and inclusive.”

Read more: Why you should be staying at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme this September

Cheng’s other developments include The Pavilia Hill (pictured here) and Skypark rooftop clubhouse (above)

Landscape architect James Corner

As far as the dynamic of the public outdoor spaces of the new Victoria Dockside goes, there are valid logistical parallels with the High Line. “Like the project in New York, it is tightly dimensioned,” explains Corner. “But we were still able to provide spaces to sit, gather and look at views, and plantings to provide colour and shade, as well as water features and lighting for dramatic effect and art for social enrichment.” The two projects also share an issue in terms of the choice of the greenery. By its very nature (being essentially a raised, elongated platform), the High Line had a very thin allowance for soil. “We used a planting palette that is robust and attuned to those kinds of conditions,” he says. “The same is true in Hong Kong, where we do not have ample soil, but we do have stress from sun, heat and typhoons – so again we needed a careful planting palette with adequate maintenance and oversight.” The result will look perpetually fresh, green and inviting.

One may wonder for a moment, in a global city where every square inch has to wash its own face financially, what the quantifiable value of recreational space is. At a time when you can shop online and choose to work remotely, it may in fact be priceless. Traditional urban office and retail space is undergoing a global reboot, and Victoria Dockside is a particularly stylish example of the phenomenon. It offers a profoundly pleasurable experience. “Cities are economic machines,” says Corner, “and the new Victoria Dockside significantly improves economic value, while at the same time enhancing public space experience for everybody. Parks, squares, gardens, courts, terraces, promenades, waterfronts and so on, are fundamental to improving the liveability, sustainability and social equity in our cities. These are investments that only add value. It is a win-win – a transformation for both the economy and the people.”

View more of James Corner’s projects at: fieldoperations.net
Learn about Adrian Cheng’s K11 Foundation: k11artfoundation.org

L’oscar is named after and inspired by writer Oscar Wilde. The hotel sits in the heart of London’s historic literary neighbourhood Bloomsbury

Jacques Garcia is the master of decadent design. His portfolio includes the likes of Hôtel Costes in Paris, La Mamounia in Marrakech and NYC’s NoMad. Now the French designer is bringing a touch of Parisian style to London with luxury boutique hotel, L’oscar. He talks to LUX about Oscar Wilde,  alluring atmospheres and the importance of low lighting

LUX: How did you come up with the concept from L’oscar? What’s your creative process like?
Jacques Garcia: Although I’ve had many proposals to do concept design projects in London, L’oscar is only my second public project in the city after Ronnie Scott’s. What particularly seduced me about this project is the fact that the building has a history, it was a former [Baptist Church]. I had to think of ways to work with the structure of the existing building and its history, whilst incorporating modernity through colours and fabrics.

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So for the decor, I imagined that I was Oscar Wilde. Twenty years ago, I created Hotel des Beaux Arts, where I imagined Oscar Wilde’s last bedroom when he was living in Paris. I imagined it as if he lived in a very nice apartment, although in reality he was very poor at the end of his life. I was interested in showing the paradox of the writer’s glory and achievements, and the way he was treated by people for his personal convictions at the time. I returned to the story of Oscar Wilde for this hotel because he is someone that I am continually drawn to – the name of the hotel, of course, is in his honour: L’oscar (the Oscar).

Jacques Garcia in L’oscar

LUX: Did the building present any design challenges?
Jacques Garcia: Yes, it was very difficult to work with and it took a long time. It was like doing a hotel in New York. London and New York are two of the most difficult cities to for hospitality projects, especially when you’re working with buildings that are listed or historical. But when I like a project, I’m like a kid and even if it takes 9 months, I still love it at the end.

Read more: Wandering Paris with Moynat’s Artistic Director, Ramesh Nair

LUX: Why do you think Parisian style is so desirable?
Jacques Garcia: For a very simple reason: no one ever speaks about the sexiness of the London girl, but everyone always talks about the sexiness of the Parisian girl. This is because the Parisian girl is an attitude, whereas there’s a certain rigidity to the English and also an elegance that the French don’t have. But the English, in my opinion, are missing the attitude. That’s the allure.

LUX: You once said that “before everything, I am a creator of atmosphere.” How do you go about creating an atmosphere?
Jacques Garcia: Personally, I am not a big fan of public spaces. I am very lucky to have an extraordinary house and friends who have extraordinary houses so in my personal life I have no real reason to go to public spaces like a hotel – unless it is to meet and to be seduced by people. People go to public places meet other people, and for me, that’s the starting point when considering atmosphere. I create places where people can meet and seduce. That begins with choosing comfortable chairs, the right lighting. People look better in dim light, always.

LUX: Your designs often incorporate opulent fabrics – where do you source your materials?
Jacques Garcia: I used a lot of fabrics in L’oscar particularly, but since the peacock was the emblem of Oscar Wilde, I wanted to utilise that pattern and used special fabrics sourced from England and France. Mixing colours, especially unusual colours, was very important for me in this project, which is difficult to do, if you do it wrong, you risk the design becoming kitsch. It’s a very thin line, much like a haute couture collection – sometimes it can just work, it can be incredible and sometimes it doesn’t.

Read more: Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s mesmerising art opening on Cap Ferrat

LUX: How much of a consideration is sustainability when designing?
Jacques Garcia: I recently went on a trip to Saudi Arabia. I was in the middle of the desert and there was air conditioning, but a natural system of air conditioning that was used in the old desert houses of 12th century: windows! And of course, the way the house was structured to keep it cool. The projects I work on are different to this. For example, I use a lot of fabrics. Think of my older hotels like the Costes or the NoMad. People are coming into those hotels from 7am to 3am, they are using the seats for working or socialising 20 hours a day and so the fabric wears out and you have to change the upholstery. In that way, it’s not really sustainable. I would love to be more sustainable, but there are also regulations I have to consider such as fire. Plastic treatment on silk is unfortunately mandatory. To use real silk or real corduroy would be more ecological, but unfortunately we have to have the fabrics treated. I hope that businesses will integrate sustainability into their day to day operations once the project is complete. L’oscar, for example, have started by avoiding the use of plastic straws.

The walls and ceilings of the Café L’oscar are lined with mirrors, gold panels, and original art.

LUX: Which hotel design(s) are you most proud of?
Jacques Garcia: As well as L’oscar, my favourites are The Mamounia and La Réserve in Paris. My house, the Chateau du Champ-de-Bataille, is also one of my favourites!

LUX: And can you tell us about your upcoming projects?
Jacques Garcia: I have a hotel opening soon in Singapore, a private house in Rome, there’s a hotel in Rome as well. There’s a very big hotel in Doha. Private residences in the Gulf. A new NoMad has recently opened in Los Angeles. There are a lot of projects going on!

LUX: What’s your favourite city in the world?
Jacques Garcia: Paris. Why? Because the Parisians.

L’oscar opens in Bloomsbury, London on 17th September. To make a booking visit: loscar.com
To view more of Jacques Garcia’s work visit: studiojacquesgarcia.com

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s sculptures stand alongside Jean Cocteau’s murals in Villa Santo Sospir

Last week saw the private view and opening of French-Iranian artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s latest exhibition. LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai was entranced.

The mesmerising Villa Santo Sospir on Cap Ferrat in the south of France, once home to Jean Cocteau, played host to Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s private view of his Oneness Wholeness with Jean Cocteau exhibition; LUX was privileged to be invited.

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The villa itself is something of an anomaly on Cap Ferrat, perhaps the swankiest real estate spot in Europe. Walk down the steep drive from the little road (just around the corner from the Four Seasons Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat) and you are transported into the 1950s. No bulletproof glass or architect-designed pavilions here: just a low-rise villa, its gardens festooned with bougainvillea and bamboo, and, inside, walls decorated with intricate murals by Cocteau himself.

Those attending included Lily Cole, Richard Biedul, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kiera Chaplin and Jo Wood.

From right to left: Natalie Rushdie, Maria Behnam-Bakhtiar, Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar, Melissa Tarling, Richard Biedul and Nathalie Emmanuel

Kate Slesinger, Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar and Darius Sanai

Tyrone Wood and Jo Wood

Guests were scattered through the cosy living room, onto the terrace, down the stairs on another garden terrace, and on a final, lowest level near the sea, but the stars of the show were Behnam-Bakhtiar’s sculptures (which also adorn one of the special covers of this issue of LUX magazine) and a soundtrack which featured Cocteau himself, present among us.

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar with Nathalie Emmanuel

Silhouettes of guests merge with Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s sculptures as the sun sets

As a storm cleared and the sun set over Cap d’Antibes and the Massif de l’Esterel in the distance, the melancholy and joy of Behnam-Bakhtiar’s creations added an extra note to the end of summer in an area that has inspired artists for generations. Who knows, perhaps its the start of a new life for the Cote d’Azur as an artistic hub, generations after the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Cézanne and Dufy were mesmerised by the light, shapes and people here.

Oneness Wholeness with Jean Cocteau runs until 30 September at Villa Santo Sospir

The Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme is located in the luxury heart of Paris

Why should I go now?

Any number of reasons: visiting Fashion Week; dropping by some dealers ahead of next month’s FIAC art fair; a series of meetings after a long, quiet summer; visiting the Franz West show at the Pompidou; or just dropping into the world’s most beautiful city now that the summer crowds of tourists have gone home and the real Parisians are back.

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September can still hold some promising weather in Paris; on a warm evening, you will crave a calm, quiet, chic courtyard in the heart of the city, and nobody does this quite as well as the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme. Here, sheltered from any traffic noise, we love to pick at some sashimi while sipping at a glass of chilled Puligny Montrachet from the excellent 2012 vintage.

Sens restaurant serves a seasonal menu using regional products

What’s the lowdown?

The Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme is in the luxury heart of Paris, just off Place Vendôme, a diamond ring’s throw from the Rue St Honoré (where, among much else, you will find the global flagship and home of Hermes’ saddlery atelier and the original store of luxury leather goods super-brand Moynat); yet its interior architecture conjures up tranquillity and space. Whiz upstairs from the cleverly interconnected, classical-contemporary series of rooms on the ground floor (surrounding that courtyard) and you are in a kind of uber-townhouse, with super-chic bedrooms.

Read more: Geoffrey Kent on taking his business from Kenya to the rest of the world

We love it also because the Park Hyatt has a perfect blend of different types of luxury, and nobody else in Paris does it better. The courtyard has modern Parisian grandeur; the service is contemporary cool, not too formal, but also beautifully efficient; and it feels like it could be nowhere else.

La Terrasse restaurant serves cocktails and antipasti in the hotel’s courtyard

Getting horizontal

Get a room with a courtyard view; you feel like you are in a modern version of a Molière play. We loved the Asian-inspired bathroom, and the eclectic room service menu.

Flipside

The Park Hyatt is perfectly located for the Rue St Honoré and the offices and sights around the Place Vendôme, and the Louvre/Beaubourg area. But if you need to be up near LVMH HQ or around Avenue Montaigne in the 8th arrondissement, it’s a 10 minute taxi ride.

Rates: From €1,169 ( approx. $1,350/£1,050)

To book your stay visit: hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/france/park-hyatt-paris-vendome

Darius Sanai

Perched on top of a mountain, the Bürgenstock Hotel boasts unparalleled views of Lake Lucerne

Bürgenstock is the most ambitious resort development in European history, a spectacular complex of luxury hotels, spas, contemporary restaurants and a high-end medical clinic perched on top of a mountain overlooking Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, on the site of a historic hotel and developed at a cost of 550 million Swiss francs by the Qataris. LUX Editor in Chief Darius Sanai speaks to Managing Director Bruno Schöpfer about the challenges and delights of creating something on a scale never done before

Bruno Schöpfer

LUX: Bürgenstock is not just about creating something for now, it’s also a vision of the future in many aspects. How did that come about?
Bruno Schöpfer: That’s a big question! First of all, the Bürgenstock Resort has a past, so it’s not something created from scratch. When I took over the whole development, I created a slogan called the ‘future has a past’ and, as an example, we held an exhibition with historic elements and future elements in order to show not only the press, but also internal people working on the project that we will honour the past. We want to protect our heritage because one day these global visitors will want to visit us to see not only our clear mountains, our air, our lakes, but also to see our history.

And then of course we wanted to recreate the stories about all the famous visitors such as Mahatma Gandhi or Audrey Hepburn (who lived here for 12 years). What great stories to have and to build on for the future. We have included all of these elements in the development of the resort.

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Another important element is food and beverage, especially for Asians, [for whom] food is immensely important. At breakfast they talk about what they want for lunch and at lunch they talk about what they want for dinner. So the food element is key to the resort. We tailored it to our future visitor markets. Not that we wanted to forget our Swiss.We know the Swiss are also well travelled and will enjoy Spices restaurant with its Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Thai cuisine, and they will enjoy Sharq, the oriental restaurant with Lebanese mezze and Persian grills. All of these elements together, I think, are a cocktail for success. The resort, as the largest of the developments in Switzerland, is what we call the beacon – in German we call it the leuchte – to bring visitors to Switzerland.

LUX: How did you choose the brand name for the emerging group?
Bruno Schöpfer:  We have three historic brands: the Schweizerhof, the Royal Savoy – which, in my opinion, has the biggest potential for international development because it is unique – and of course the Bürgenstock brand. Again, it is very much a Swiss brand – it has been in place for 145 years – and we decided this would become the umbrella brand for the properties.

A Deluxe Lakeview Room at the Bürgenstock Hotel

LUX: Is there potential for expanding the brand beyond Switzerland?
Bruno Schöpfer: There is potential, but for the last ten years we have been focusing on conceptualising and renovating these wonderful assets – we’ve spent one billion Swiss francs on them – and I think the next focus should be to market these globally. And then as a next step yes, I can see an expansion, but one step after another. Now we have established, next is to market it globally and then, yes, there could be an expansion.

LUX: In the past F&B was more incidental to the hospitality concept in Europe, whereas here the restaurants are really a destination in themselves, with their own identity. You didn’t bring other brands in to run your restaurants – what was the thinking behind that?
Bruno Schöpfer: My passion is F&B. I started off my career as an F&B manager in famous hotels such as Mandarin Oriental Bangkok and in my spare time, my hobby is to look at amazing hotels and restaurants. Because of that knowledge, I’ve met and worked with some amazing talent. I basically felt that we would be able to manage with our own global talent. We do have one association and that’s with Marc Haeberlin, who has a three Michelin-star restaurant in Alsace and is the consultant chef at RitzCoffier. We very much put a focus on absolutely great talent. I myself have worked in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines; the executive chef/culinary director worked in the Philippines, Thailand, Switzerland and the US.

Read more: New levels of sophistication in Ibiza Town

LUX: You’ve created a new dining concept in each of the locations – was that with an eye to the future market?
Bruno Schöpfer: That’s a very good question. If a Swiss goes on holiday to China, after one week he is looking for his Swiss sausage salad. Today’s international traveller from, let’s say, China or India, is no different. After a couple of days, they want their authentic, national cuisines. We know that in Switzerland there are very few really good oriental restaurants. So the key to our success will be to create many cuisines in the hotels in which we operate. I know very well that these markets will change and develop, and before long – especially the Chinese and Indian markets – they will become a lot more sophisticated, and the need for their cuisine will always be there. We always have the future markets in mind. And we’re not surprised that we’re seeing a Swiss liking for such cuisines; the Swiss are a big travelling nation and you see them in all the markets. For them, it’s very emotional if they can eat a good Thai, Japanese or Indian meal here at home.

Spices Kitchen & Terrace overhangs Lake Lucerne with an open kitchen

LUX: What’s the difference between creating Bürgenstock as a resort and creating Bürgenstock the brand?
Bruno Schöpfer: One advantage is that the brand goes back 145 years. It was once a great brand, but a lot of people will agree it is much easier to reenergise a brand than to create one. We are not a large company here who can put hundreds of millions of dollars behind the creation of a brand. We made the decision with the Schweizerhof, the Savoy and Bürgenstock to keep the historic branding; they have a following and a history. It’s all about brand protection and brand management. If you start a new brand it can be quite a challenge just to be registered. We have succeeded with ours because they have been in the market for so long, all of them. But now it’s a matter of how we reload and reenergise them, because a brand is only as good as its content.

LUX: Is Bürgenstock a reason to come to Switzerland for your many of your guests who otherwise wouldn’t? Are they coming here instead of going elsewhere?
Bruno Schöpfer: I think Bürgenstock should become a reason for people to come to Switzerland. We compete when it comes to the inter-continental travel market for travellers’ time. We need to give an international traveller enough attractions, or what I call ‘wow’ factors. It’s all about ‘wow’ today. We want people to come to our resort, pull out their phone and send a WhatsApp picture to their friends. They call it mouth-to-mouth advertising. We want that to happen.

We want to create not one USP, but many USPs, and if you look around here in the resort, you see lots of ‘wow’ factors. Is it the spa with the infinity pool 500metres above Lake Lucerne? Is it the Spices restaurant overhanging the lake and with its amazing open kitchen? Is it the health and medical wellness facility? There are lots of ‘wow’ factors. The reason is very simple. We want the people who visit us for a restaurant to be so impressed that next time they will stay here three days. And we can see that happening right now – it’s high season and we have a lot of Middle Eastern traffic. Most of the people who check-in extend their stay. Just yesterday I had someone staying for two nights who extended his trip by another two nights because, he says, ‘I cannot see it all in two days, I need four!’

The infinity pool at the Alpine Spa, 500 metres above Lake Lucerne

LUX: You’ve been in the luxury travel industry for a while now. How has luxury travel and the leisure traveller changed over the last twenty years?
Bruno Schöpfer: The biggest change happened, in my opinion, with 9/11. From then on we’ve been seeing a lot more private air travel. Here we have the great advantage of a private air strip and four helicopter pads, so we’re seeing more people arrive by private planes and helicopters. Another change is that people are having more holidays. The historic holidays of people staying in the resort for two weeks are now less common. When it comes to our Bürgenstock Hotel and the Palace, the average stay is two or three days.

LUX: Are travellers’ demands higher now?
Bruno Schöpfer: As a whole, yes, demands are much higher. I would say that in the luxury sector generally service has improved. We are a lot more customer-oriented than in the past. Social media and online rating systems put everyone on their toes and make it more demanding, because people can read about it for themselves on Google. But I think the key has to be employing talented people who are interested and passionate about what they do. I always say I’ve never worked a day in my life. In other words, you have to have fun. If you’re not having fun then what are you doing? If it’s not fun then it’s really boring. We need more people who really enjoy what they’re doing, and I think here we offer a surrounding that gives you that. But of course it’s a tough job…I don’t want to glamourise it. It’s a tough job with high occupancies, full restaurants and lots of check-ins and check-outs. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing it would be difficult.

Read more: Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar in conversation with Jean Cocteau

LUX: You’ve been open a year now – what have been the greatest challenges?
Bruno Schöpfer: How long do we have? First of all it was a challenge to just get everything ready. When you’re building thirty buildings all to a certain standard, with high interior design specifications, you need to have an amazing team and really passionate people around you. You need to communicate well with your builders. There are so many elements that have to come together from all over the world: marble from Italy, case goods from China…it’s a fantastic logistical masterpiece. And of course you have delays. When things are not there you have to be creative and know how to overcome a certain shortcoming.

Another challenge is the defects: when you take a building into operation it looks great, but you flush a toilet or have a shower for the first time and you realise there are a few issues that you need to fix. That’s normal for building projects. These rectifications are very strenuous and time-consuming because they involve not one but sometimes half a dozen parties. That’s challenging.

The silent room at the Alpine Spa

Another challenge for us is the weather. When we have wonderful weather we have perhaps three times more visitors than when we have bad weather, and the implications of that can be tremendous in both cases. You might have full fridges, but the weather is less good so you have less day visitors. But then you might suddenly have wonderful weather and you have three times more visitors than expected. We had amazing weather in September, so when people heard the resort was opening we were flooded with thousands of people. That put a lot of strain on the team and the restaurants, all of which were not yet used to the operation.

There’s also training and retaining staff. The fact is, when you hire a team, not everyone will stay. Twenty percent might leave because they don’t like the job, or you don’t like them, and so you need to re-recruit. So that was basically the first year. But the main challenge besides the usual delays of construction and the defects was the tremendous level of business we had. We opened with full hotels, full restaurants and that has been quite a challenge.

Read more: Wendy Yu on building bridges between the East and the West

LUX: The resort must require a big team – how do you find your staff?
Bruno Schöpfer: There is a staff issue in Switzerland. We have a big pharmaceutical industry and a banking industry; in other words, we have many competing industries with tourism. Fifty percent of our graduates from École hôtelière de Lausanne, my alma mater, join banks, the famous food companies. So, how do we bring 700 people to work here? One strategy from day one was to build at least two hundred staff rooms in the resort to provide convenience for staff members. We now have 200 staff members who live in the resort, so we provide them the fantastic convenience of walking five minutes to work. No commuting – that’s one way to bring staff here. People who are interested and passionate about the industry love to work with such an amazing brand because it’s great for their CV. The chefs love to work here because we are not a boring Swiss restaurant. Young people find this a very interesting and enriching resort to work in. They can learn. When it comes to these great restaurants we needed specialists from these countries. In Switzerland we have very strict labour restrictions, so we couldn’t hire someone from Thailand without a labour permit. We had to obtain what are called third-country permits to hire people from Iran, Lebanon, India, Thailand, China and Hong Kong, who bring the authentic know-how of these cuisines to us. We don’t want to create fusion food, we want to create original dishes. To achieve this we need the right employees.

LUX: We have a lot of readers and friends who historically will go for their detox weekends to Lanserhof or Merano; will this be an alternative?
Bruno Schöpfer: We would love to be an alternative, but we are also aware that we cannot create that in twelve months. You’ve actually just touched on a business I’m very passionate about. I have visited – although I don’t look like it – every place under the sun when it comes to the likes of Lanserhof and Merano, and when I created the concept of the resort in 2008, I asked myself what the next big thing in Swiss tourism was. Nowadays every hotel has residences, ballrooms, the traditional spas. We must be able to take advantage of the reputation of Swiss medical treatments. The King of Saudi Arabia comes to Geneva for medical treatments, the ruler of Doha flew in after he broke his leg for treatment in Zurich, we have a lot of Chinese who come to Switzerland for what we call the ‘sheep’ treatment [a treatment involving the injection of stem cells from sheep]. So there is a lot of history and outstanding medical treatment here in Switzerland.

When we developed this concept I had the help of a doctor and I created a medical advisory board. We basically looked at five business segments which we have now developed. One segment is what we call the medical recovery where people recover from musculoskeletal operations and cancer treatment. But we are not a hospital and we don’t want to be one because that is a totally different investment. We don’t want to be in competition with hospitals – there are plenty of operating theatres in Switzerland – we want to work with hospitals. So the rehabilitation section is where people are rehabilitated after they have been operated on in surrounding hospitals.

The outdoor pool at the Waldhotel Spa

We have a detox and weight-loss segment. There is also a basic need for the medical check-up, not a ‘hocus-pocus’ one but a proper medical check-up which analyses bone, muscle and fat density, hormones, etcetera. Another special element is psychosomatic rehabilitation, which I approached from a business point of view. Together with cancer, burnout is the fastest-growing condition in the population, especially in a place like Switzerland where we are all in the tertiary sector and under immense pressure to deliver. Burnout is prevalent. This is big business for us – sorry if I call the wellbeing of others a business – but we have a facility here which is pristine, where you can have a perfect sleep in the perfect surroundings, with green mountains and fresh air where you can recharge your batteries. We are in a fantastic location to do this. That is one of our other areas of expertise. The last one is all to do with anti-ageing, because people want to look better. I hate the word anti-ageing – we call it ‘better ageing’ – but it’s everything about skin and looks. We have Dr Jalili, a very good dermatologist, and of course botox is a part of it all too; that’s basically what the Waldhotel offers.

At the end of the day, the resort is a one-stop shop in one place and in two days you can do a total medical check-up on the spot. It’s very efficient.

LUX: Where will Bürgenstock the brand be in 10 years?
Bruno Schöpfer: I’d love to see another couple of hotels. I hate to say ten hotels in ten years…I don’t believe in that. I’d much rather see two or three hotels that are just right rather than growing for the sake of growing. Let’s just do it right. A good brand needs to develop in its own time. It’s also very difficult to recreate a place like the Bürgenstock Resort. It’s unique.

LUX: That was my next question – how will you find anywhere else, is there anything else like this?
Bruno Schöpfer: There could be, there could be. But one has to look very carefully. It’s difficult to find a place with this amazing history, this privileged location, these amazing buildings and atmospheric hotel village. But never say never..

For more information on the resort and facilities visit: buergenstock.ch

The entrance to recently opened boutique hotel, Mikasa.

Most luxury travellers know that the most beautiful corners of Ibiza are in the North, far away from the strip of infamous clubs, but the opening of new boutique hotel Mikasa in the centre of Ibiza Town is a game changer, says Digital Editor Millie Walton – and it’s open all year round

It’s early evening in Ibiza and we’re sitting on the rooftop terrace of the newly opened Mikasa hotel at the Lebanese restaurant. The surface of the sea is shimmering gold with the light of the setting sun and the super yachts loom almost spectral in the rosy hue. As it’s not yet 8pm, we’re the only ones on the terrace (in the Med, the evening begins proper at 11pm) and it’s almost completely silent apart from the occasional drift of voices from the street below and the call of seagulls. It’s hard to imagine that this is the heart of Ibiza Town, a stone’s throw from the infamous nightclub Pacha, in full swing of high season. Of course, it’s not all like this, Ibiza hasn’t miraculously transformed into a quiet paradise island, but Mikasa, somehow, has found a calm corner in the midst of the carnival.

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Mikasa’s rooftop Lebanese restaurant with views of the Marina and Ibiza Old Town.

The hotel opened earlier this year, by the same people behind Beachouse and Finca La Plaza, two of the island’s most exclusive venues, and it offers the same level of sophistication with 16 beautiful rooms, furnished simply with natural woods and linens. None of the rooms are enormous, but the best have their own balconies which catch the sun at various times of the day depending on which way you’re facing. Ours overlooks a small courtyard, whilst the other side benefits from glimpses of the sea.

Read more: Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar in conversation with Jean Cocteau

Downstairs, there’s a restaurant where breakfast is typically served and trendy looking freelancers perch throughout the day on their Macs, sipping freshly pressed juice. A famous blogging duo arrived earlier this morning to pose against the turquoise tiling at the entrance — you can tell that the design of the hotel has taken the Instagram culture into account without being gimmicky, but in the sense that there’s bright, photogenic colours and well curated ornaments. Even the food is presented to seduce the camera lens.

Mikasa’s 16 rooms are named after the monthly moons.

Our tasting Lebanese mezze arrives just as the tables around us begin to fill and within half an hour, the place is full. Mikasa is the group’s first hotel, and up till now they’ve been mainly known for exceptional dining with Finca La Plaza regularly being listed amongst the island’s top restaurants. Located in the gorgeously picturesque town of Santa Gertrudis (a fifteen minute cab ride from Mikasa), Finca La Plaza serves seasonal Mediterranean food in a secluded courtyard laced with fairy-lights. On a previous evening, we dined on fresh, oozing burrata with anchovies and baba ganoush, tender octopus with sweet kumquat confit and wild seabass with sautéed broccoli and sweet garlic.

So we have high expectations for tonight at Mikasa. Whilst there’s initially some confusion with our waiter on what we, as pescetarians, can and cannot eat, the meal is fabulous; rich creamy humous paired with a crunchy fattoush salad, falafel and tangy marinated prawns which are cooked to mouthwatering perfection.

Octopus with sweet kumquat confit at Finca La Plaza restaurant in Santa Gertrudis.

Beachouse is the group’s daytime venue (also a fifteen minute cab drive away), located on the far end of Playa d’en Bossa, far away from the crowded package hotels and the spill of tipsy tourists. We arrive early one morning for a dynamic beach yoga class, followed by a wholesome breakfast. The classes are held every weekday morning at 09.30am and are donation only – the proceeds go towards the keeping the sand and sea clean.

Read more: Wendy Yu on building bridges between the East and the West

Morning yoga on the sand in front of Beachouse.

The Beachouse is by far the most beautiful venue on this strip of sand with plush double or single sun-beds, waiter service and a cool, open sided restaurant. During our trip, there’s a party with a live DJ playing a set from 6pm whilst people sway on the beach and barefoot children race between legs. Unlike a lot of Ibiza’s party venues, which are essentially overpriced sticky clubs, Beachouse has a relaxed, hippie kind of vibe and attracts a high-class cliental.

Luxury double daybeds can be reserved at Beachouse with a minimum spend of 100 euros.

Our only gripe is that calling a taxi is tricky at nighttime in Ibiza Town. Even with the help of Mikasa’s reception, we have several cancel on us last minute. It would make more sense for the hotel to offer their own private transportation to and from their various venues, that way guests could drift with ease in a perfectly sealed bubble of luxury.

Mikasa is open all year round, to book a room visit mikasaibiza.com; for a reservation at Finca La Plaza – fincalaplaza.com; and for more information on Beachouse – beachouseibiza.com

All photography by James Houston

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s latest exhibition responds to the work of French polymath Jean Cocteau. Virginia Blackburn travels to the Cote d’Azur to meet the artist and his muse

“The sea,” says the French/Iranian artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar, gesturing out at an exceptionally beautiful cove on the Cote d’Azur, “is a symbol and a direction of life. It’s where we all came from. As long as you are facing the sea you are on the right track.” And it is not just Behnam-Bakhtiar who is facing the Med: beside him is Jean Cocteau, or at least a representation of Cocteau, leading a line of luminaries from the Villa Santo Sospir in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to face out at the spectacular view.

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Inside the house, Cocteau is in conversation with Behnam-Bakhtiar, for this exhibition, Oneness Wholeness with Jean Cocteau, has its roots in a video Behnam-Bakhtiar came across that Cocteau made in 1962; the younger artist discovered that his preoccupations and fears about the way the world was going were identical to the older man’s. And so the idea took root.

Oneness Wholeness with Jean Cocteau, which runs from 6th to 30th September is comprised of two aspects, visual and aural. The visual element is spread throughout the villa and its grounds: it consists of 32 wooden sculptures in six different sizes, representing both the historical figures who visited the villa when Cocteau and its owner, the socialite Francine Weisweiller, lived there, and what could be termed humanity itself.

Each sculpture is double sided, to represent the masculine and feminine aspects of the individual, although it is up to the viewer to decide which is which; the wood is bois marine, or sea wood, the type used to make boats. It was treated three times and then painted in Behnam-Bakhtiar’s signature style, embodying energy, stripe after stripe of differing colours fighting to make their way through to the top. “I didn’t want the sculptures to be super-clean but artisanal,” explains Behnam-Bakhtiar, adding that the work took nearly a year and changed him in the process. “So many great things came out: who are we? What are we doing here? Why these sculptures?” he says.

Read more: Why we love Club Dauphin on Cap Ferrat right now

Inside the villa the recorded conversation between the two artists takes place, in which they discuss their fears about the almost robotic world in which we live, the emphasis on material success despite the very high price it exacts. The setting could not be more appropriate: Cocteau’s extravagant murals cover the walls and the ceiling; outside his mosaics bring the myth of the minotaur to mind. One mosaic is doubleheaded, which is reflected in Behnam-Bakhtiar’s double sided sculptures, that dual identity being a preoccupation with both men.

To walk among the sculptures in their stillness, their complexity, induces a feeling of eternity, of contemplation, of timelessness. Visitors to the exhibition will be encouraged to do exactly that, imparting their own life energy to the statuary as they make their way towards the imposing figure of Cocteau, slightly taller than the rest.

Read more: Northacre CEO Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro on creating dream homes

One figure stands out for a slightly different reason: he is covered in shades of black, although some colour is struggling to get through. “He had it a little rougher than the others,” says Behnam-Bakhtiar. To the viewer he symbolises death, but with hope – the light is trying to break in, even here.

This is a remarkable exhibition based on a brave and remarkable concept: artists in conversation across decades, sharing the same space. And catch it while you can because the group will be broken up at the end of it, dispersed among museums and collectors, while the villa is closing for a couple of years for major renovations. It is a treat, visually, and balm for the soul.

Oneness Wholeness with Jean Cocteau runs until 30 September at Villa Santo Sospir. Visit Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s website for more information or follow him on Instagram at @sassanbehnambakhtiar

Wendy Yu. Portrait by Jonathan Glynn-Smith

Wendy Yu – entrepreneur, investor, cultural ambassador, fashion devotee, and frequent flyer between Shanghai, Hong Kong, London and New York – is taking the word ‘global’ to a whole new level, as Elisa Anniss discovers when they meet

Instagram can be hugely revealing about the people who use it, though rarely will you get the fullest picture of any of them. With her 1,913 posts and the 94.1K followers of her Instagram account, @Wendyyu_official, it still paints only a partial picture of this remarkable young woman, who is the founder and CEO of Yu Capital, a major Chinese investor in fashion and technology, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist.

Nevertheless, snaps of Wendy Yu with Giambattista Valli, Thom Browne and Charlotte Olympia do reveal her stellar fashion credentials. There are the images of the Met Ball in New York and of a dinner for her friend Mary Katrantzou, co-hosted with Lord Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor. Instagram also tells us that she appears to be something of a collector of evening gowns. Indeed, the rare snap of her in trousers raises an obvious question. “I love both, to be honest,” she darts back, when challenged. “I’m very spontaneous. Sometimes I love things that are dreamy, crazy and imaginative. At other times I just like very simple things. I love to be a chameleon, it really depends on my mood.”

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This morning she’s flown in from Hong Kong. For the flight, she wore head-to-toe Alaïa with a yellow Mary Katrantzou fur. It’s typical of what she wears on planes – Alaïa or a kaftan from Oscar de la Renta paired with flat shoes. “All super comfy so I can sleep easily.” Last month she flew every two or three days. Shanghai is her main base, but Hong Kong, London and New York, are all places where Yu regularly spends time. “New York more now because next year we’re launching an exciting project there,” she ventures, but that’s all she’ll give on the details. Still, Shanghai is where she has a home and where her parents’ live – Yu is heir to her family’s business, the Mengtian Group, China’s leading wooden door manufacturer.

It takes sitting down and talking to this young entrepreneur and philanthropist to see that dressing up and accumulating possessions isn’t really what drives her. Her enquiring mind and the way she lights up, crackling with enthusiasm and talking nineteen to the dozen when discussing her many passions, leaves a lasting impression. It’s certainly something that Instagram is unable to convey. Fashion, disruptive technology, the arts, China and being a Sino- Western bridge connecting people, are just some of the subjects she tackles with energy.

“Wendy is passionate about London designers and entrepreneurs and has definitely made a positive impact by supporting some of the best talent out there. We need more people like her,” enthuses José Neves, the fashion-tech businessman who founded Farfetch, and husband of Daniela Cecilio Neves, in whose business Yu was an angel investor. Undoubtedly, it was Yu’s inquisitiveness that brought her to England in the first place. This involved spending time at school in Somerset, in the English countryside where she got a taste of the British boarding school system as well as meeting other, mostly non-Chinese pupils. Next, she went on to complete a degree in fashion management at the London College of Fashion with a stint in between interning at Vogue China. She has also completed executive business programmes at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, interned for a family office in the Middle East and has spent time working for Mengtian. “Truth be told, while education is important, it’s not until you do internships and start working that you really learn about business,” she says.

Wendy Yu and Caroline Rush, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council, co-hosted breakfast for Vogue China’s Editor-in-Chief Angelica Cheung

Today, Yu is the youngest member of the Fashion Trust, a British Fashion Council charity, and a founding member of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Young Patrons’ Circle. Even though she herself doesn’t use the word ‘anglophile’, with her love of Harrods – “I still vividly remember the first time I went [there]. It really ignited my passion for fashion” – and her appreciation of British life beyond London – “I love the town of Taunton, and Devon is beautiful, too”– it’s a moniker that fits.

Read more: Geoffrey Kent on finding new places in a well-travelled world

In 2015, Yu founded the investment vehicle Yu Capital and in January 2018, Yu Capital became Yu Holdings. Yu Holdings is a platform created to unite the worlds of strategic investment, technology, philanthropy, arts and culture and to reinforce business and cultural ties between China and the rest of the world.

“The evolution of Yu Capital into Yu Holdings was a strategic decision to consolidate my investment activities with my cultural and fashion projects, all with the end goal of bridging the economic and cultural gap between China and the rest of the world, a mission that drives every decision Yu Holdings makes,” says Yu. The investment vehicle is divided into three main areas of interest: Yu Capital, Yu Fashion and Yu Culture. Yu Capital, the investment arm of Yu Holdings, is focused on strategic investment in global technology, lifestyle and fashion businesses that show high potential for growth in a global market.

Yu’s two technology investments are Didi Chuxing (for more information see end of article), the largest taxi-hailing firm in China, valued at US$35 billion and whose other investors include Apple, Alibaba and Tencent, and Tujia.com. This Chinese online marketplace and hospitality service enables people to lease or rent short-term lodging, something like Airbnb (see end of article).

“Because Didi and Tujia are both multi-billion-dollar companies, they have very big and powerful investors. I’m involved financially rather than strategically,” she notes. “I’m generally less involved with technology investments than with my fashion and lifestyle investments, where I look to add value and contribute to their development and growth.”

One of Yu Capital’s recent ventures, Mary Katrantzou, with her SS18 show

Earlier in 2017, Yu Capital made its first luxury fashion investment in the London-based designer brand Mary Katrantzou (see end of article) whose sought-after collections are sold in leading luxury stores around the globe. Yu confesses that before she makes the final decision on an investment she consults with her fortune master, who told her great things about Mary, prompting her to go ahead. “At the back of my mind there is always the question, is this relevant to the Chinese market?”

Read more: President of Monaco Boat Service Lia Riva on the family business

Whether she proceeds with a fashion investment or not also depends on the chemistry she has with a designer as well as the company’s future potential. “With Mary, I really like her as a person as well as a business woman. Her enthusiasm is infectious and she’s hugely talented.” She was also struck by Katrantzou’s background in architecture and opportunities that lay waiting in the whole lifestyle sector.

Yu believes that past collaborations with Adidas, Moncler and Topshop have already helped Mary Katrantzou capture the attention of Chinese consumers and that there is still greater opportunity there for Katrantzou’s core brand. “We are very open to the new emerging designers and the purchasing power in China is now very strong. However, one needs to select carefully which partners in China will be the best in the long term because they all want exclusivity.” Yu can help Katrantzou navigate these complexities. “I don’t have any agenda, I only want what’s best for Mary,” she says.

The investment in Mary Katrantzou followed two made in 2015, one in ASAP54, recently re-branded Fashion Concierge, and another in the sustainable accessories brand Bottletop. Yu was drawn to Fashion Concierge by the disruptive technology it displayed at the time of its launch, whereas with Bottletop it was the idea of social investment that appealed to her. “I liked their concept and approach to sustainability,” she says. As a pioneering fashion accessories brand (founded in 2012 by Oliver Wayman and Cameron Saul, the son of Mulberry founder Roger Saul), the brand revolves around the simple idea of re-cycling the ring pulls from drinks cans – hence the name. A novel, sustainable, chainmail-like material, often with an enamel finish in a range of colours, helps to make Bottletop products, which include totes, clutches, backpacks and belts, instantly identifiable. The company also funds the Bottletop Foundation, which supports young people in Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and South Africa. “Wendy is a rare visionary and we have loved having her as part of the Bottletop family,” says Saul. “Wendy is also very strategic and has supported us with important introductions as we position the brand to launch in Asia.”

This is echoed by Daniela Cecilio Neves of Fashion Concierge: “I’ve greatly benefited from Wendy’s insights as a tech-savvy, fashion-loving individual, who can also provide me with a perspective on China,” she says.

Wendy Yu at the Women’s Opportunity Center in Rwanda

Ever since Yu took a trip to Rwanda with Brita Fernandez Schmidt, the UK executive director of the charity Women for Women International, social investment, and how similar principles could be applied to the less developed parts of China, have been at the forefront of Yu’s mind. “Brita invited me to see her work in Rwanda because that’s where they have the Women’s Opportunity Center. I’m very curious and I’ve always wanted to see different parts of the world. It was the most inspiring trip I’ve ever been on. I’m looking to potentially develop some culture-related projects with Women for Women, as Brita is keen to see rural parts of China. As a Chinese woman, I would like to explore how we could create support areas in China where there are still huge gender inequalities.”

This leads into the overarching ambition of Yu Culture, the purpose of which is to enrich China’s cultural landscape through development and exchange initiatives in film, art and media, and by working in special partnership with international cultural institutions on projects to be unveiled in 2018.

Yu is already closely involved in the Victoria and Albert Museum. “The V&A has been one of my favourite museums since my student days,” she enthuses. “They invited me to join and I said yes without hesitation.” Her role includes introducing friends from Asia as well as a young group of people from the international fashion and art world. “It’s a bridge, again,” she continues. “Introducing people comes very naturally to me. It’s win-win for everybody because they love the V&A and getting to know the industry community, and the museum loves to meet new art collectors.”

Her involvement is certainly appreciated by the museum. “As a Founding Member of the Young Patrons’ Circle, Wendy Yu has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Victoria and Albert Museum, not only contributing to the successful launch of this important initiative and its exciting programme, but also through her involvement with the Museum’s annual Summer Party and her passion and knowledge of the V&A’s fashion collection,” says a senior museum spokeswoman.

“I love to be the bridge between China and the rest of the world because I love both cultures and want to enhance the connection between the two,” continues Yu. The South China Morning Post recently described her as being both “a sounding board for British designers negotiating the labyrinthine ways of doing business in China” and China’s “unofficial ambassador for British fashion”.

Net-A-Porter, a company Yu admires because of its “great customer experience”, invited Yu to become one of its global ambassadors. In this new capacity, she is scheduled to take the former Prime Minister’s wife, Samantha Cameron, and her clothing brand Cefinn, which sells on Net-A-Porter, to China in 2018. It’s a collection she considers to be super wearable with a good price point. “I’ve been wearing her blouse with different outfits and wearing her skirts,” enthuses Yu. “I respect Samantha’s vision and I think Cefinn would be very relevant to Chinese professional ladies.”

According to Yu there are still major differences between the West and China, particularly in terms of technology. In China, she can go out carrying just a mobile phone. She explains that instead of a wallet, Chinese people use Alipay, a third-party mobile and online payment platform established in China in 2004 by the Alibaba group, or WeChat Pay, launched by Tencent.

Her insight into a world that the West is hungry to know more about, is just one of the reasons why she is so in demand in the fashion world. “Wendy’s business acumen and knowledge of the financial sector are invaluable assets to our British designers hence why her support and dedication to the BFC Fashion Trust are so invaluable,” says Caroline Rush CBE, chief executive of the British Fashion Council. Yu describes Rush as “a friend and a mentor” and is someone with whom she co-hosted a breakfast to welcome Angelica Cheung, the Vogue China editor-in-chief, to London. Yu’s involvement in the BFC Fashion Trust has also led to her meeting many designers and learning about the challenges that they face. “You find that a lot of designers are super-creative but they don’t really have that business sense. Nowadays, for a fashion brand to evolve, you have to have both creative vision and to understand the commercial world, exactly who the customers are and what they are looking for.”

Read more: Why we love Club Dauphin on Cap Ferrat right now

Huishan Zhang is a London-based designer in Yu’s friendship circle who is known for his classically feminine evening gowns and dresses that sell in his Mount Street flagship. Like Yu, Zhang was born in China, but left when he was still a teenager. “I’m great friends with Huishan Zhang,” Yu says. “He’s a lot of fun, we share a lot of friends and look to support each other as well, on both a personal and a business level.” According to Yu, he makes her made-to-measure dresses for her and she collects signed sketches of his designs. “Wendy has been a good friend to me,” says Zhang, who doesn’t manufacture in Italy but produces his clothes in his family’s factory in China. “She is an active entrepreneur and supporter of the fashion industry, honing in on new talent, along with great passion and a unique style.”

Portrait by Jonathan Glynn-Smith

It’s mid-afternoon and we’re coming to the end of our interview now and still there’s no sign of any jet lag or of her flagging post-photo shoot. Yu’s energy levels are high. But then they have to be, as she’s off to Lisbon next, speaking at Web Summit, which bills itself as “the largest tech conference in the world” and welcomes an extensive and diverse line up of speakers ranging from Al Gore to Suzy Menkes. Yu says she’s booked to talk on two panels, one with Caroline Rush and another with the CEO of Matchesfashion.com and Vestiairecollective.com. “It’s all come about very spontaneously and it’s a nice group of industry insiders.”

It won’t be Yu’s first foray into the speaker circuit. In June she appeared on the British Fashion Council’s Fashion Forum panel alongside a group including Yana Peel (CEO of the Serpentine Galleries) and the shoe designer Rupert Sanderson, discussing cultural and commercial partnerships in China. She has also given similar talks covering her investments and connecting with China, in Cambridge and at London Business School, as well as back in China. When asked if she ever gets nervous about speaking publicly she replies: “No, not really. Though I always prefer talking on a panel, it feels more natural. I wouldn’t say no to a glass of champagne if my nerves get the better of me!” And why not, I say.

LUX would like to thank 45 Park Lane in Mayfair, London, for the use of its exquisite Curzon Suite for the shoot of Wendy Yu by Jonathan Glynn-Smith. 45 Park Lane is the artistic sibling to The Dorchester, next door, and has a fabulous program of art events, its own curator, and its own artist in residence. dorchestercollection.com

For more information on Wendy Yu’s investment platform visit: yu-holdings.com

Mary Katrantzou

Mary Katrantzou, who won the £200,000 BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund prize in 2015, is Yu Capital’s most recent investment. One of the heavy hitters at London Fashion Week, the Greece-born designer delights the audience each season with highly original ideas brought to life using elaborate embroidery and embellishment, a mix of textiles, prints and silhouettes and an inimitable signature that shouts Mary. The London-based ready-to-wear marque was established in 2008, after the designer graduated with an MA in Fashion from Central Saint Martins. She was soon dubbed The Queen of Print by the press, a tag that recognised the enormous influence of her work in the medium. In recent years, collaborations, including capsule ranges with Longchamp, Moncler, and Adidas Originals, have helped to broaden her appeal at home and abroad, and of course in China. Mary Katrantzou doesn’t have a bricks-and-mortar store, yet, but she does sell to leading luxury stores in many countries including Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue and Le Bon Marché. “Wendy is an extraordinary person with a pragmatic and forward-looking vision, who is a close friend as well as an ambassador for the brand,” says Mary Katrantzou. “The most important thing for me is to be surrounded by people who understand my vision and support me in building a truly international lifestyle brand. It’s very exciting to enter our 10th anniversary with a board of incredible women advisors who are shaping the industry in their own right and will be helping us shape our future and reach our full potential.”

Tujia

The rental company has taken couch surfing to a whole new level with $300 million of investments announced in October 2017. Giving Airbnb a serious run for its money, and valued at $1.5 billion, Tujia was founded in 2011 under Tujia Online Information and Technology Company of Limited Liability. With 345 locations across China to choose from and at least 1,000 partnerships internationally, it boasts 650,000 listings and is tapping into a large affluent travelling class, revolutionizing the hospitality industry in China.

Didi Chuxing

The taxi-hailing app is China’s answer to Uber (in fact, it acquired Uber China in 2016) and is the largest such company in the world, with 200 million rides under its belt last year. The app was launched in 2012 and today has over 450m users across the Chinese continent, spanning 400 cities and a variety of services. From social ride-sharing to options including Didi Chauffeur, Didi Bus and Didi Car Rental and Hitch, its social ride-sharing branch, it has taken China by storm and has recently developed an English-language version of the app. It is also looking towards the future with groundbreaking investment into AI technology, with over $5.5 billion raised in 2017.

This article originally appeared in the LUX LOVE Issue, Spring 2018

Geoffrey Kent standing next to a helicopter in Tasmania, Australia. Image courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent

Founder and CEO of luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent, and regular LUX columnist, Geoffrey Kent began his career by taking tourists on safaris in Kenya. Now his business operates tours across the globe by land, sea and air – on board the A&K private jet, naturally. As Geoffrey Kent launches his Safari Collection of travel apparel and luggage, Digital Editor Millie Walton asks the luxury travel pioneer about his greatest memories, worst fears and how it all began

LUX: If you could relive one moment in time, what would it be?
Geoffrey Kent: The moment I turned down the opportunity to have dinner with Nelson Mandela. What could have been more important than that? I can’t recall now, but I do keenly feel the regret I have that I never met him. He was so inspiring.

Alternatively, I would relive the dinner I had in New York with former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate Kofi Annan, who passed away recently. I was so impressed with him and grateful to him for saving Kenya, my home, when he brokered a power sharing deal between the president, Mwai Kibaki, and the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, in the aftermath of the 2007-8 post-election crisis, bringing peace and prosperity back to Kenya.

On the action front, to win that US Open again would be amazing. It would be a ‘Field of Dreams’.

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LUX: What frustrates you the most about the current travelling industry?
Geoffrey Kent: The lack of regulation in the so-called ‘collaborative economy’ for businesses such as Uber and Airbnb. I’ve used Ubers and stayed in Airbnbs. I think both are amazing, innovative products. The problem is with licensing. I think if I were a taxi driver, I would be very unhappy about Uber. Likewise, Airbnbs are putting licensed hotel operators out of business. There can’t be rules for one and not the other.

Princess Diana congratulates Prince Charles and Geoffrey Kent at the Guard’s Polo Club, 1987. Image courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent

LUX: Where do you long to go back to?
Geoffrey Kent: I had the privilege to visit Gabon recently at the invitation of President Ali Bongo Ondimba. In an executive Puma helicopter, I cruised the coast and flew over forests, the sand cliffs, and Kongou and Djidji Falls. I fell in love with Loango National Park where I spotted elephant, hippo, and buffalo. One group of elephant were swimming off the beach with their trunks raised out of the water like snorkels. Tourism is still a fledgling industry in Gabon, but I predict it will take off in a big way and soon, and I hope A&K can be part of it. I’ll definitely be back.

Read more: Geoffrey Kent on finding new places in a well-travelled world

LUX: When were you last afraid?
Geoffrey Kent: I went into Iraq with some SAS guys in 2010. There were some hairy moments during that trip, however the thing that concerns me most on an ongoing basis is climate change. The polar icecaps are melting, there are prolonged heat waves and the sea levels are rising. My concern is there’s no way we can just throw up our hands and say “stop!”. We’re going down this chute far too fast and I believe it’s far worse than we think. Even if we stop burning fossil fuels in the next decade, we might tragically lose some low-lying countries. As both a father and a global citizen, I’m very afraid of climate change. It’s not just about carbon off-setting (though everyone should do that), it’s about sustainability going forwards. For my part, I’m very proud of what Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy is doing around the world in its 41 projects in 20 countries.

LUX: What’s the most recent lesson you’ve learnt?
Geoffrey Kent: That quality is synonymous with luxury has always been my mantra. When I launched the Geoffrey Kent Safari collection of timeless, high-performance, luxury travel apparel and luggage for today’s adventurer, I learned quickly that for me, quality means ‘made in Italy’. I found a manufacturer in Monza, a town just outside of Milan. I like to have a very close relationship with my suppliers and get involved every step of the way. There is such passion and detail put into each and every cut of leather and every stitch made by hand. That same flair and attention to the minutiae has always gone into every bespoke holiday and escorted tour that A&K has created – those are the secret ingredients that clients perhaps can’t put their finger on but always know if they are missing.

Geoffrey Kent and his parents set up Abercrombie & Kent with the intention of hosting safaris around Kenya

LUX: What did you want to be growing up?
Geoffrey Kent: I was obsessed with polo from the time I learnt the sport. When I was 14, Major Digby Tatham-Warter – a family friend – was training in me in three-day eventing at his farm in Eburru. One day he said: “Geoff, you’re excellent in the saddle and you’ve got quick reflexes. Why not try your hand at polo? It’s a much more exciting sport”. And how right he was. Polo excited me wildly and I spent hundreds of afternoons riding ponies with a polo stick in my hand. I became a world-class player and eventually I captained the Windsor Park polo team – which included HRH The Prince of Wales. Together with my US Abercrombie & Kent team, I also won a Cartier Open, World Open Championship, US Gold Cup, and two US Open victories. These victories were dreams come true and more than I could have imagined as a 14 year old learning at Eburru.

Other than that, I would have liked to have been a helicopter pilot or fly fighter jets. I love airplanes and helicopters, plus I’m a bit of an action junkie.

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LUX: So how and when did Abercrombie & Kent begin?
Geoffrey Kent: In February 1960, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan gave his famous ‘Winds of Change’ speech in Cape Town. This address stated that colonial rule could not go on and in 1962, the British government gave Kenya self-governance and determined that the farms in the highlands would be returned to the Kikuyu people. The Kenyan government forced my parents off the farm they’d spent two and a half decades creating in the Aberdares, South Kinangop in Kenya.

Fortunately, my parents – Colonel John and Valerie Kent – had sensed this coming and my father had landed a job as a part-time guide with a local travel company. He had been the first person to map the route from Kenya to Nigeria whilst in the army, so Dad knew the roads and sights of Africa better than any tour guide in the region and thus was able to earn a good wage – especially from American travellers, who tipped generously when they liked a guide.

In 1962, my parents and I made a decision to go in as partners, founding our own travel company (picking the ‘Abercrombie’ out of a phonebook), with the intention of hosting safaris around Kenya, and possibly moving into other areas of Africa.

LUX: And now you’re organising luxury tours across the globe as well as leading your own personal expeditions! What happens next?
Geoffrey Kent: A&K will continue to offer tailor-made luxury holidays and unparalleled escorted-tour experiences. Someone once calculated that I travel 300,000 miles per year. I’d say that was the average. My lifetime total is 17 million miles. When I last counted I had been to 148 countries and there are so many more I still need to see – I have no plans to slow down. I’m currently planning two or three of my Inspiring Expedition by Geoffrey Kent, which are innovative and amazing in every way.

To find out more about Abercrombie & Kent visit: abercrombiekent.com

Andy Warhol, The Scream (After Munch), 1984 © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Photo Sparebankstiftelsen DNB

Andy Warhol first became properly interested in Edvard Munch on a visit to Oslo in 1971, where he spent time at the National Gallery and the Munch Museum. He was said to be a great admirer of Munch’s prints, far more so, in fact, than of his paintings. The Norwegian master was not only a prolific printmaker, but also technologically innovative; he enjoyed experimenting with textures and colours, which naturally resonated with Warhol as a leading figure in the Pop Art movement.

Madonna and Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm (After Munch), Andy Warhol, 1984. © Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum

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Between 1938 and 1984, Warhol produced a series of 15 prints, known as After Munch,  featuring some of Munch’s most renowned motifs. Like most of Warhol’s best-known works, these prints transform the meaning of the original image to lend a new and intriguing perspective.

Eva Mudocci (After Munch), Andy Warhol, 1984. © Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum

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The most striking example of this – and the stand out piece on display in the Munch Museum – is Warhol’s interpretation of the The Scream. One of the most iconic artworks of the 20th century, if not of all time, Warhol’s reproduction of the The Scream using different colour variations and stencils gives the work a completely different mood, thus encouraging the viewer to more deeply consider the artistic process.

‘Andy Warhol – After Munch’ runs until the 26th August at the Munch Museum, Oslo. For opening times visit: munchmuseet.no/en/exhibitions/andy-warhol-after-munch

Millie Walton