Breakfast is served alfresco at Glenburn Tea Estate on the terrace. Image by James Houston

The Himalayas are one of the few corners of the earth that remain unconquerable by humans. Many of the world’s highest peaks are yet to be summitted and much of the range is still a mystery. In the first leg of a journey from North East India to Nepal, Digital Editor Millie Walton ascends to the colonial city of Darjeeling to experience life at high altitude from the luxurious view point of Glenburn Tea Estate.

Life on the mountains begins at sunrise. The curtains of our suite are drawn at 6am with the delivery of “bed tea” ( a china teapot of the estate’s finest brew) and biscuits. The room glows pale yellow, a light which will soon turn bright and icy. We have been told that this is when the Himalayas are at their most magnificent as the sun slides down the edges of the mountains, and the snow blushes pink, then gold. This morning, however, nature won’t oblige voyeuristic eyes and the mountains are concealed by layers of puffy, white clouds. Set against, the vibrant green of Glenburn’s surrounding tea plantations, it’s still beautiful, but not quite Kanchenjunga.

Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, sits opposite Glenburn

“You may need umbrellas. It rains almost every day here,” Jemima, our Scottish hostess warns us as we set off on a morning walk down to the Sikkim river. In the hot sun, it’s hard to believe, but the weather at high altitude is volatile and necessarily so for the healthy growth of tea. “Most people don’t realise that there are only two types of tea: Chinese and Assam. We grow both here at Glenburn,” our guide explains to us, as we stroll through the neatly combed lines of tea plants. Today is Sunday so there are no pickers at work, but there are over 1,000 employees on the estate who contribute in some way to the production of the tea. The estate, originally established by a Scottish family hence the Celtic name, is now owned and run by one of the most respected tea families in India, The Prakashes, not just as a business, but as a community. There are five villages, five schools, shops, hospitals, mosques, churches, Hindu and Buddhist temples on Glenburn’s hillsides. Lives are created and lived on the same soil from which the tea grows. It’s not something you tend to think about when you sit down for a cup of afternoon tea, but of course, most of the brands we are familiar with don’t have that kind of heritage, in fact, we’re told, a large percentage of the tea bags we dip into boiling water are stuffed with the leftover scrapings of leaves, the bad, cheap stuff. Unwittingly, our tastebuds have been dulled into acceptance of mediocre.

Read next: Hotel Byblos owner, Antoine Chevanne on intimate luxury

The Glenburn estate isn’t actually in the town of Darjeeling, and whilst it’s only 6 km away (as the crow flies), it’s a painful hour’s jeep ride along mountain roads and down dirt tracks to reach the pretty green and white cottages that sit on a well kept, mountainside shelf (each morning the postman makes the journey to deliver the daily newspaper). So it’s remote enough not to see or hear the deafening horns of India’s jostling traffic, which somehow still manages to infiltrate the lower parts of Darjeeling. Walking down an increasingly steep track to the river, the only sound is the singing of birds. The lower we descend, the more jungle like the landscape becomes – the mountains here are so vast that they support multiple ecosystems – and we arrive at the riverside campsite glistening. Here more adventurous guests can camp for a night in the basic, comfortable lodge, but compared to the four poster bed in our bright and spacious floral suite, we decide lunch will suffice.

Tea pickers on the estate

The river, flowing fast with ice cold, glacial mountain water, is the border between West Bengal and Sikkim, and whilst Indians can move freely between the two states (we meet two men returning to a Glenburn village later on with baskets of beer hanging from their foreheads, as alcohol is cheaper across the water), foreigners require a permit to cross the bridge so all we can do is peer through the distant trees. The journey back is by jeep – luxury travel gives guests the option to choose the intensity of their adventure – and the clouds are still stubbornly blocking our view, smouldering with coming rain. Come nightfall though, the mountains around us are blinking with thousands of lights revealing the isolated communities that are hidden during the day. At a higher level, the sky seems even more black and endless filled with the vibrations of cicadas.

The Singalila Suite

Views from the bathtub. Image by James Houston

Dinner is served formally at 8pm, following colonial tradition, round a communal dining table after drinks in the drawing room. On the first night, guests timidly trot round the edge to find their place name, smiling shyly at their neighbour, but conversation flows freely after a few glasses of wine; the remoteness of Glenburn appears to attract a more worldly and relaxed type of traveller in comparison to city smart hotels. The menu is themed each night according to the produce the estate has been able to source, and whilst it’s not quite Michelin star quality gastronomy, the chefs do well with the limited resources, often incorporating tea into dishes in innovative ways. It’s a languid, indulgent and homely evening. The very charm of Glenburn lies in its unpretentiousness and eccentricity; each room is furnished with beautiful, “lived-in” antiques, battered board games are stuffed onto shelves amongst well read books, there are no locks on any doors and guests are free to wander without butlers pouncing on them to ask if they’d like another drink. It’s a nostalgic world that could not exist anywhere else, but the foothills of the Himalayas.

Read next: Haute cuisine at high altitude in Zermatt

That night, I’m awoken by the reverberating drumming of an insect calling out hopelessly into the darkness for a female. It’s almost 2am, hours from sunrise and yet… I draw back the curtains and in the silvery light of the moon glimpse the jagged edge of a luminous mountain, just visible for a moment before a shadow moves across the sky. There’s something reassuringly calming though, just knowing that the mountains are and always will be there.

glenburnteaestate.com

Groupe Floirat’s first property, the legendary Hotel Byblos, Saint Tropez

Hotel Byblos and its nightclub Les Caves du Roy are French Riviera legends, hosting celebrities, old wealth, young Bohemians and new wealth for rest, play and partying since the Swinging Sixties. As the Byblos celebrates its 50th anniversary, Antoine Chevanne, CEO of the family-run Groupe Floirat, which owns the Byblos, the Caves, and owns two other French resort hotels, talks to Nathalie Breitschwerdt about running a family business, discreet luxury, and the enduring allure of St Trop.

Antoine Chevanne

LUX: Your great grandfather founded Groupe Floirat back in 1967, how has the business evolved since then?
Antoine Chevanne: Groupe Floirat has grown, starting with our flagship property Hotel Byblos in St Tropez, 50 years ago. It now comprises of three properties including La Réserve in St Jean De Luz and Les Manoirs De Tourgeville in Normandy. Although the group has expanded, I have strived to maintain the spirit of the group that my grandfather first implemented, a feeling of home away from home, a personalized experience and intimate luxury.

LUX: From your experience, what are the challenges facing family run businesses today?
Antoine Chevanne: I think both the challenge and reward for a family run business is to maintain its own values and not lose sight of the company’s ethos. It’s finding a balance between adapting to the latest trends in luxury and technology, whilst continuing the legacy of the company’s founders.

Rosita Missoni at the Byblos 50th anniversary

LUX: Byblos St Tropez continues to thrive after 50 years. What is the key to its success?
Antoine Chevanne: The key to Hotel Byblos’ success is personalized luxury to create a unique experience. We like to give freedom to our clientele, whilst providing impeccable service. We want our guests to feel at home, but in the most immaculate conditions. The breakfast at Le B by the pool is open until 1pm, and guests can eat dinner at any time after a night at Les Caves Du Roy – these are just examples of what I like to implement to make my guests feel special. As a ratio, we allocate on average 3 members of staff per room.

Read next: Bangkok’s Art Deco palace, The Siam 

LUX: In our rapidly changing world, how important is it to emphasise traditions and stability?
Antoine Chevanne: It’s very important to emphasise the company’s values in order to prove you are not getting swept away with the rapidly changing world. The challenge is to remain unique, whilst growing with our times.

Anna Cleveland, Catherine Baba, Elie Top and Joana Preiss at the Byblos Party

LUX: How do you define luxury within hospitality?
Antoine Chevanne: Time, Space, Freedom – we want to make our guests feel relaxed. Many of our guests lead busy lives so we want them to feel free, independent as if they were in their own home. For example we serve breakfast until 1pm to give our guests time to relax and get up at whatever time they wish in the mornings.

LUX: In this sense, how has Groupe Floirat separated itself from other hotel groups?
Antoine Chevanne: By creating these bespoke and unique experiences for our guests. In order to do so, we partner with like-minded brands, who share the same beliefs and values of the group. For instance, this year for Hotel Byblos 50^th Anniversary, we partnered with a range of luxury brands that share a similar mindset: Rolls Royce, Audemars Piguet, Goyard, Sisley, Missoni Home and Dom Pérignon. By creating these affiliations, we ensure guests are delivered any service to the highest standards, always in a similar spirit. Even our staff is now family, with certain members who have been with the group for over 20 years.

The 50th anniversary party at Hotel Byblos

LUX: How do you see luxury hospitality evolving over the next 5-10 years?
Antoine Chevanne: I don’t predict luxury will change immensely over the next 5-10 years. An experience can’t be replaced by virtual reality, an emotion can’t be replaced by an application, a feeling can’t be replaced by social media… Luxury will continue to be the ‘crème de la crème’, which is what guests seek when they travel to a 5 star property. May it be the gastronomy, beauty, or wellbeing, all of our properties will continue to deliver optimum, innovative and exclusive services to guarantee we remain ahead of the game. With this in mind, we seek to predict the change of expectations with the change of generations.

Read next: The star studded launch of Dom Pérignon P2 Champagne

LUX: Which of your experiences have been most helpful in leading Groupe Floirat?
Antoine Chevanne: Being the General Manager at Hotel Byblos for 5 years before becoming CEO in 2006, this really taught me the power of observation. Being aware of my clientele, receiving feedback and implementing solutions. Being on the ground at the beginning of a career, is key to successful leadership.

Rivea restaurant by Alain Ducasse at Hotel Byblos

LUX: In which ways has St Tropez changed over the last few decades? If at all, how have you responded to those changes?
Antoine Chevanne: The beauty of St Tropez is it’s never changing, legendary atmosphere. Byblos has maintained its prestigious reputation not only due to our services, but also thanks to our loyal customers and long standing relationships.

LUX: When not at Byblos, where is your favourite holiday destination?
Antoine Chevanne: My family house in South West of France in a village called Ahetze, where I can enjoy some quality time with my friend and family.

groupe-floirat.com

Bill Bensley’s Art Deco palace, The Siam

Why should I go now?

Thousands of tourists flock to Thailand every year to take part in intensive wellness and meditation retreats in monasteries round the country, but whilst most of these tend to involve at least degree of comfort deprivation, The Siam is offering its own luxury holistic programme throughout 2017 with visiting artisans running classes to help guests restore a sense of balance into their hectic lives. Think aromatic essential oils, cold towels, soft, fluffy dressing gowns and slippers. In other words, pure, indulgent bliss.

What’s the lowdown?

A treatment room at the Opium Spa

Designed by renowned architect and interior designer, Bill Bensley, The Siam is a contemporary Art Deco palace with traditional Thai elements, but whilst Art Deco architecture is usually known for its heavy facades and oppressive detailing, the hotel is light and airy with stark white walls and a glass roof atrium. Unlike most of the city’s other luxury hotels – towering skyscrapers, glinting on the skyline – The Siam is more like a creative home with a well curated art collection and original antique furnishings as well as cosy communal spaces where you can curl up in an arm chair listening to one of the hotel’s vinyls; the library area can also be transformed into a private cinema room, on request, complete with popcorn. As such, it attracts a stylish and refined crowd who value aesthetism over elitism. The Opium spa is seductively sultry and Thailand’s Princess  trains regularly in the hotel’s gym, which feature its own miniature Muay Thai ring. The real charm here is in all the thoughtful details; free water bottles to keep you hydrated in the humidity, umbrellas in case of sudden downpours, cards specially printed with Thai instructions for guests to hand taxi drivers, even a guard standing by to stop the traffic when you cross the road for a lunch time street food snack. If you must venture further into the city, The Siam’s sleek yacht transports guests up and down the river from its private pier. It’s as James Bond as it sounds.

One of the hotel’s sumptuous Pool Villas

Read next: Minjung Kim’s contemporary ink paintings at Aloft,  Hermès, Singapore

The sprouting glass atrium

Getting horizontal

Our suite was a sensual chamber of cool Art Deco black and white, with enough mirrors to satisfy the most vainglorious of guests and smooth jazz set as the default soundtrack. The room came with a butler, who took personal responsibility for all our needs and was fitted with its own bespoke smart phone programmed with city guides and useful hotel information.

Flipside

The only window in the room was behind the bathtub, but in Bangkok that’s not necessarily a disadvantage. It’s one of the few cities in the world where people actually avoid the views unless you’re into mazes of futuristic skyscrapers. Plus, since most of the hotel is glass and full of exotic plants, it’s easy enough to find natural light when you need it.

Rates: From THB 17,971 a night inclusive of breakfast, excluding tax and VAT (approx. USD $ 500/ €500/ £400)
Millie Walton

thesiamhotel.com

Mountain, 2017. Ink on mulberry Hanji paper

Close up of Mountain,-2017

Korean artist, Minjung Kim is the first of two artists this year to be invited to the Aloft art space at the Hermès boutique, Singapore. Exploring the gallery’s 2017 theme of reflection, Kim’s contemporary ink paintings depict vast, hazy mountainscapes that roll endlessly into the distance. The artworks are painted onto mulberry hanji paper (the traditional Korean medium) and created in line with Taoist tradition, which demands the artist seeks a state similar to meditation so that she is able to apply thin, detailed lines with a steady hand. Yet, Kim’s paintings, though delicate, are dreamy rather than precise, flowing and undulating almost like water. The fading mountains could just as easily be waves of a colourful sea disappearing into the horizon; look at them for long enough and you will almost begin to sway. It’s an intensely relaxing and hypnotic viewing experience. The artist’s state of mind at the point of creation runs through and from the ink, just as the ink bleeds into the paper.

‘Oneness’ runs until 30th July 2017 at Aloft, Hermès, Singapore

The breathtaking views of the Matterhorn are worthy of any postcard and a million selfies

Above Zermatt, Switzerland’s most spectacular mountain village and home to the Matterhorn, high-altitude restaurants like Chez Vrony combine tradition with chic, and put the haute into cuisine, as Darius Sanai discovers

All-round views are breathtaking

Mountain hut cuisine will be familiar to anyone who has skied the Alps; raclettes, fondues and other dairy confections. Fresh in the best sense of the word – sourced locally, recently – but rarely sophisticated.

We were looking forward to a little mountain cuisine as we approached Chez Vrony, in Findeln, high above the resort of Zermatt. It was a clear, warm summer’s day, and we had been hiking down from Fluhalp, a hut positioned high above a former glacier I enjoyed gazing at in my childhood in the 1980s (now melted, due to global warming, Mr Trump). The hike had taken us through a fantastical rock wonderland – where part of the mountainside above had simply collapsed into several football fields of Mini-sized boulders. We strode along the side of Stellisee, a lake whose reflections of the famous Matterhorn, facing us from across the broad Zermatt valley, have featured in a million postcards. We edged along a narrow path, a sheer drop to our left, as the glacial valley disappeared into a stream far beneath us; we could just make out the sound of a stream, a distant, constant swirl, like a giantess shushing its infant.

Read next:Kazakh artists make world art breakthrough at Venice Biennale

Descending, we walked past the highest trees, stumpy starter Christmas trees that had the temerity to grow above the otherwise uniform treeline; and skirted around another lake, this one more green, where children splashed and a thousand tiny frogs appeared and vanished into the grass on its edge.

The restaurant’s idyllic terrace, above the Findelnbach stream

Past a rock ridge, we gazed down and saw the hamlet of Findeln, home to Chez Vrony; only another ten minutes of descent down the well-made, sand-covered path and we were there. Chez Vrony is a wooden village hut from the outside, a sophisticated terrace restaurant from the other side. Ushered in by a lady who knew everyone (was this Vrony? Her daughter?), we were whisked past groups of well-dressed hikers (a curiosity in itself) and sat on sheepskins atop benches by a broad wooden table. The Matterhorn stared down, a world of ice, rock and snow, across a forest and a valley. We could have been served supermarket sandwiches and would have declared it the most wondrous refuge in the world.

But Vrony has other ideas. The menu was haute cuisine in both meanings: ingredients plainly sourced from the mountains, like the ‘pink-roasted entrecôte of Swiss lamb served with a port-steeped fig and hazelnut potato purée’, but with real panache and delicacy. (For a simpler option, the beef in the Vrony burger was sourced from the pasture above the hut.) We could have stayed all afternoon; indeed I think we did.

Vrony serves mountain cuisine with a sophisticated touch

Afterwards, it was 45 minutes’ rapid downhill hike through a scented forest as dusk approached, to the outskirts of Zermatt. The Matterhorn, changing angle and mood, always there with us, always a reminder that, however civilised the food, and however much we melt the glaciers, above Zermatt, this greatest of all Alpine villages, is a wild world, not our own.

chezvrony.ch

‘The Artist is Asleep’, 1996 at the Kasteev Museum of Arts, Almaty in 2015

Once again, Venice becomes a stage for the world’s best art with the 57th edition of the Biennale opening this month. Under the direction of Christine Macel, chief curator at the Centre Pompidou, this is the first year that artists from Central Asia are represented in the Biennale’s main Giardini pavilion, as part of the curatorial project VIVA ARTE VIVA. Millie Walton speaks to Kazakh artistic duo Yelena and Viktor Vorobyev about the re-creation of their 1996 installation, The Artist is Asleep.

Yelena and Viktor Vorobyev

Millie Walton: What does it mean to be included in this year’s Biennale curatorial project?
Yelena and Viktor Vorobyev: The most important is the feeling of belonging to a great important international project, when you feel part of the global world. This happens not so often, but here – the Venice Biennale’s main pavilion for the very first time. It doesn’t matter anymore whether the curatorial position coincides with major world trends, the mainstream, so to speak. Christine Macel’s vision is well founded and thought-out. As for our piece, it fits logically into her concept. Thus Macel’s and our positions reinforce each other. We’re glad it turned out that our modest work will not be lost in a series of many interesting three-dimensional projects by 120 invited artists from different countries.

MW: Has the 1996 installation been altered at all for the new space or is it re-created as an exact replica of the original?
Y&VV:Our 2017 version of the installation The Artist is Asleep is not an exact replica of the 1996 original, but it is still very close to the old one. The cover and the bed sheets are different, but it does not matter for the concept of the work. It should just give an idea that an artist is sleeping on the bed. Also the text is handwritten, so the installation is slightly different each time.

Read next: British model, Charli Howard’s battle against Size Zero

MW:What was your inspiration for the piece?
Y&VV:In 1995 the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan published a series of catalogues on 10 Kazakhstani artists. Among them was published our paintings and drawings catalogue. The organizers of that series asked artists to write a statement. Since we were actually immersed in the meditative practice of painting that bordered on sleep – between the moment of dumb contemplation of an empty canvas and convulsive waking up, the moment of clarity, further action – the following text was written as a credo:

“The Artist is Asleep.

To wake him, to shake him, to urge to conform to his time is an utterly useless endeavour. But the one who is always wide awake, always is “all ears”, knows “which way the wind blows” and has his craft at the ready, does not suit many for some reason.

All one can do is to wait for the sleeping boulder to stir, rub open his eyes and get up as if to relieve himself.

Well then don’t let the moment slip. His efforts may result in a masterpiece.”

Our critics had a good laugh over this strange statement, but printed it anyway.

In 1996 we were invited to take part in a group show devoted to human rights. The exhibition was held in a grandiose building which housed a business center. As we have always been opponents of glamour, we decided to do something that was contrary to that situation to cause cognitive dissonance with a respectable audience. That’s how the idea just to “illustrate” this short text came about. We decided to illustrate it by making an installation with “a poor sleeping artist.”

‘The Artist Is Asleep’ (detail), 1996, at the Kasteev Museum of Arts, Almaty in 2015

MW: How is the installation still relevant to modern audiences?
Y&VV: We think that the figure of artist, creator still has value. The ability to visualize ideas that are important for many is just an amazing skill. Modern audiences are able to perceive the metaphors offered by different artists. Our work is, on one hand, a metaphor for the secrets of creativity and, on the other, a narrative describing the life of the recent era as well as the ironic context in relation to ourselves.

MW: What’s next?
Y&VV: There are many ideas that we would like to realize and of course we plan to participate in exhibitions.

labiennale.org, aspangallery.com

Westminster School, London

Westminster School in London is probably the best school in the world. From Beijing to Buenos Aires, the global elite crave a place at the institution, dating back to 12th century, for their children. At the school’s heart is the pursuit of knowledge and the fuelling of intellectual curiosity for its own sake. Its headmaster Patrick Derham talks to Darius Sanai about educational challenges in an internet-dominated world, and how to stay on top.

LUX: The big debate right now is about how the internet is affecting learning. Is rote learning over because the sum of human knowledge is available on your iPhone? And are all schools outdated (which some pioneers are saying in Silicon Valley)?
Patrick Derham: It’s a fascinating question that isn’t new; and whenever you talk to educationalists and people in education there are different opinions. However, we all agree that what really impacts on young people, wherever they are in the world, is the quality of the teaching. No matter what technological advances there are, I passionately believe that what happens in a classroom – the interaction between teacher and pupil – is crucial to the life chances, the success, and the educational journey that young people are embarking upon.

The internet is a fantastic resource when used properly. I’m unusual as a Head in that I teach an A-level history set. I believe in varying the material I present to the class: not just traditional text books or biographies, but also online materials and access to online articles. It is a great bonus for them to have a much greater breadth of potential resources than I had at their age. So, I think it is very exciting.

In terms of rote learning, I’m afraid education is tough and there are no shortcuts. And there is nothing wrong with a bit of old fashioned rote learning as part of that educational journey. The information may be out there, but you have to have the skills to detect its bias and to understand its reliability and validity. Rote learning provides a foundation of knowledge from which to make those judgements.

But you also need to be able to think, and to realise that learning is, by nature, difficult. When learning a language, for example, before you can speak fluently, you have to learn the grammar and vocabulary; there is no other way around it. It is a helpful discipline; but learning is not just that. The best educational offerings are inculcating in young people a radical, questioning, liberal tradition: an encouragement to entertain, to challenge and to scrutinise. The greatest teaching encourages interaction: that discussion, the challenge that gently steers the pupils without necessarily giving them the answers, encouraging them to find their own solutions and to deepen their inquiry, as Westminster has done for generations.

Read next: British model and founder of the All Women Project, Charli Howard on her battle against Size Zero

LUX: You mentioned style of teaching, which I think is a key distinction. I will call them the new educationalists: people who are saying that facts are there, you can learn remotely and you don’t have to be in one room with a person telling you things. But what you’re saying is that good teaching is not just telling people what facts are?
Patrick Derham: The best teacher isn’t the one who points out the facts and just dictates. This is because good teachers are not constrained by syllabus requirements; they are not teaching to a test. They have the confidence in their subject knowledge and relationship with their pupils to be risk takers, prepared to go off on tangents. They will, whatever their subject, draw examples from the modern world, the past and from other disciplines so that young people realise that just because they are studying Physics, for example, doesn’t mean their learning is compartmentalised: they are led to understand how it interacts with the rest of society and the rest of life. It’s the same with the humanities and the arts. The best teachers need to be risk takers to push beyond the boundaries of the syllabus, to be seeking out connections. To understand the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, you need to have a full appreciation of cultural influences. It’s not just about learning the facts of who was king and who was the prime minister.

Patrick Derham

LUX: Interesting. Recently, I found some work from when I was at Westminster. I did Chemistry, Biology and and English for A Level, and I found a science essay on molecular biology where I had brought in some of the metaphysical poets’ perspectives on love and how that related to molecular interaction. What struck me was that the teacher was fascinated and encouraged me to talk about it more. And that’s a Westminster thing!
Patrick Derham: That’s what I think the best education systems, wherever they are in the world, should be aspiring to do. I think there is something very distinctive about Westminster. It’s an extraordinary institution – very modest, we wear our traditions very lightly – but actually we are at the cutting edge of the finest teaching and developing the finest minds. I edited a book of essays, ‘Loyal Dissent’, which I think encapsulated Westminster well. The pupils are very loyal, but they are very dissenting; they are very radical and challenging. One of the most interesting parts of the book is Nick Clegg’s introduction [the former UK deputy prime minister] because he reflects on what he learnt at school.

We are, arguably, the leading academic school in the world. When I arrived, we took the international PISA-based test for schools and gratifyingly we came top in the three measurements. But, much more interesting and exciting was the fact that the study connected us with leading research across the world on pedagogy. The lessons we learn from PISA, the work we are doing with Cambridge and major educational studies, is all about getting the best out of our pupils and to prepare them for challenges ahead, many of which, as yet, are unknown. More than ever, we must give young people, wherever they are in the world, a skill set that means they have the ability and flexibility to move from job to job in the workplace as it evolves.

The new generation at work, the twentysomethings, are having to demonstrate much greater versatility. The best education is about giving them resilience, too – the ability to cope with disappointing setbacks: not just to throw their hands up and say, “This is unfair!” but rather, “What am I going to do about it?” We are living in very interesting times nationally and internationally. But the young people today are much more prepared to engage with big questions; they are much more interested and positive and much less selfish. This makes me hugely optimistic. When I look back to my early days of teaching it felt very different.

LUX: How do you find your teachers?
Patrick Derham: We look for the primacy of the subject, the love of subject, that infectious enthusiasm that really makes a difference and excites people. That’s what I want to see. So, we need to reduce the administrative load on teachers, and, in this, we can learn from each other. What’s happening in China is very interesting.

LUX: What exactly?
Patrick Derham: That they are given more time to focus on teaching rather than administration.

LUX: A school like Westminster, for many hundreds of years, catered to the British intelligentsia. Now it’s the international high flying set who have settled in London. Has that changed the school?
Patrick Derham: No, I think it’s exciting that London is such a cosmopolitan city. Westminster has a cosmopolitan,

Westminster School with view of the London Eye

international feel and this makes it very outward facing. We don’t need to talk about the importance of the global economy because it is very much here and it gives our community a real buzz. A related question for me is the issue of the affordability of fees and I worry about schools like ours becoming too exclusive. So we work extremely hard in all sorts of ways to make a Westminster education possible for those who would benefit most from it: bursary provision, for example, and we’ve appointed a director of outreach and widening access working with local primary schools to identify the right people whom we can support.

Really excitingly, we are in the third year of the Harris Westminster Sixth Form, which is our collaboration with the Harris Federation to replicate a Westminster Sixth Form education in the state system. It has been a stunning success and the admissions criteria there are for underprivileged children. We are thrilled that in the second cohort they have got 23 offers at Oxford and Cambridge, which is remarkable. This eclipses a huge number of independent schools that have not achieved that number this year.

Read next: Sophia Kah CEO and designer on sophisticated style

And again, the successful partnership with Harris, helps remove any air of public school arrogance, which I can’t stand. There is no place for it and there never was. The world owes no favour to pupils from schools like Westminster. They have got to demonstrate from their own merits, their own talents, their own skills that they are the best person – a Westminster education doesn’t give them a head start or a privilege.

LUX: You mentioned preparing people for a world where they will have multiple jobs in series or in parallel. The risk of artificial intelligence replacing many traditional careers seems to me to encourage a bias towards the creative industries where artificial intelligence is less likely to take over. Do you think that’s true? And how do you prepare people who might be studying sciences for a world where creativity (whether it’s entrepreneurial or traditional) is what might save them from being taken over by machines?
Patrick Derham: I think it goes back to the ethos of the school, and the education you’re trying to provide. If you teach science in the ways we do – predominantly experimental – it’s a much more creative approach. We want our pupils to experience scientific understanding and to gain knowledge through ‘doing’. And, you used that brilliant example of the cross fertilisation of Biology and English. In a sense that is creativity in action. Specialists need to be working alongside each other and with an open mind, in the world we are moving into. I think the best people from schools and universities are those who can demonstrate that ability to move quickly from one thing to another, making connections both within disciplines and between them. That sort of fearless intellectual curiosity comes from the best schooling

westminster.org.uk

British model and founder of the All Women Project, Charli Howard

LUX contributing editor and Storm model, Sydney Lima continues her online exclusive series, interviewing her peers about modelling life and business.

Sydney Lima

THIS MONTH: 26 year old British model, Charli Howard is certainly not just a pretty face. A woman at the forefront of the battle against Size Zero, she signed to New York’s Muse models in 2015 after publically criticising her London agency for their impossible standards. After gaining a huge following and overnight features in Vogue and i-D, she created the All Woman Project with model Clémentine Desseaux to carry the message that beauty is not in your measurements. She has since worked for huge international publications from Harpers Bazaar to Tank, as well as fronting unretouched campaigns for Nike and Mango.

Sydney Lima: How did you first get in to modelling?
Charli Howard: I’d been scouted a few times in places like Oxford Street and Camden growing up, but I was always told the same thing: that they wouldn’t sign me unless my measurements were down to a certain size. I got let down so many times by the best agencies who told me I had to have a 34″ hip, otherwise it was never going to happen. Then at 21 my friend Fletcher sent my Facebook photos off to agencies, and I got signed at a 35″ inch hip.

SL: What has been your proudest working moment?
CH: There have been a lot. Shooting with Inez and Vinoodh was great. Creating the All Woman Project has been so therapeutic for me personally. And recently I’ve worked with brands like Mango and Desigual who aren’t Photoshopping me thinner, which feels like a blessing!

Image by Claire Rothstein

SL: Why did you start the All Woman Project?
CH: I wanted to show that you don’t have to be a size 0 to be beautiful. We shot models who are all undeniably beautiful – far more beautiful than I will ever be – in a variety of sizes. But rather than Photoshopping their cellulite or stretch marks out, we left them in. Women responded so well to it.

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Sydney Lima: Why do you think its so crucial to change our types of role models?
Charli Howard: I know that a lot of women of my generation – women who grew up in the early noughties – were affected by size 0 and excessive retouching. So the last thing we need is another generation of women feeling the same way, and insecure.

SL: Do you think the industry is changing?
CH: Yes I do: slowly, but surely. I think the changes are happening quicker in New York, but I think London is following suit. I think it’s now more about the personality of the girl, rather than her measurements. As women, we will always aspire to and be inspired by beautiful women. That doesn’t mean they have to be overly thin to be inspirational.

SL: What plans do you have for 2017?
CH: I want to continue being happy and to teach girls their value doesn’t lie in sizes. Life is too short to be miserable!

instagram.com/charlihoward