Jane Shepherdson is the woman behind the early success of Topshop, the fast fashion behemoth where she served as Chief Brand Officer in the 2000s. After this and her subsequent role as CEO of retailer Whistles, however, Shepherdson found that her complicity in one of the world’s biggest polluting industries was overriding the joy she once found in fashion. Here, the Director of the London Fashion Fund talks to Ella Johnson about her pivot to luxury rental start-up My Wardrobe HQ, and why rental is key to bringing the fun back to fashion

LUX: You are often associated with Topshop’s success as one of the early pioneers of fast fashion.
Jane Shepherdson: I always wanted to be a buyer – to structure and create ranges without actually designing them, and to work closely with designers. I got into Topshop at the very bottom, starting in the accessories department, and moved up to the jersey department, which was the biggest. It was where you could make the biggest impact, because you had responsibility for tens of millions of pounds worth of the company’s money. We travelled an awful lot in those days, and we did not worry about the environmental aspect. It was hard to beat as a lifestyle.

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LUX: When did you start to think about the environmental and social side?
Jane Shepherdson: We started our drive to better understand the supply chain at Topshop in the 1990s. We brought in a team of experts to do it, but Topshop had thousands of suppliers: it was very difficult to start establishing exactly what the supply chain was from the beginning like that.

It wasn’t until I moved to Whistles in 2008 that we really started to address the environmental side of things. We were a small business and we got to know each of our suppliers as well as we could, working with them to improve their practises. But it is still difficult to be completely sure that the factory you’re using is doing everything you expect them to be doing.

LUX: You are now Chair of fashion rental platform My Wardrobe HQ. What prompted your move to the rental fashion sector?
Jane Shepherdson: I left Whistles in 2016 because I was unsure that running a fashion business was something I could continue to do. I started looking at the possibility of creating a platform to display sustainable fashion, but I realised that I couldn’t find enough credible fashion brands that were sustainable. There is no point in endorsing fashion brands that I don’t think are any good: their practises may be perfect, but if the garment that comes out of the other end comes out as a hair shirt, there is no point doing it.

I had also just come back from a year travelling around America in Airbnb virtually every night. Fifteen years ago, you would never have considered sleeping in a stranger’s bed for the night. Now people are far more relaxed about renting apartments, cars, scooters. Why not fashion?

LUX: How have luxury brands responded to the rental proposition?
Jane Shepherdson: In the beginning, they were slow. They couldn’t see how rental worked within the luxury world, with the feeling of exclusivity. But in the last year we have started to have conversations directly with the luxury players – including Burberry, Liberty London and Harrods – because they are starting to realise that rental is not going away.

Think about it from the designer’s point of view. Most of their catwalk pieces end up just being that – catwalk pieces. The wholesalers don’t buy the avant-garde or brightly coloured pieces because they are too risky. Conversely, it has been proven that people are much more experimental when it comes to what they rent: consumers are much more likely to rent something that is covered in feathers or bright yellow than they are a black dress.

Jane Shepherdson, Chair, My Wardrobe HQ and Director, London Fashion Fund

LUX: Has that been true of your own experience of renting clothes?
Jane Shepherdson: I have spent a lifetime trying to dress myself for events, typically spending £1000 on something that was quite discreet, in navy or black, and assuming that was my sense of style. When I was first introduced to rental, however, the first thing I wore was this floor-length lilac Sharon Wauchob dress that was covered in feathers, with a matching tailored coat. Lisa Armstrong then called me one of the best dressed women of the year – the first time that has ever happened to me! It was completely different to what I had ever worn before, but it felt completely me – because I was allowed to experiment. Rental brings fun back to fashion.

LUX: Can second-hand ever be incorporated into ‘mainstream’ luxury?
Jane Shepherdson: The stigma associated with second-hand clothing is becoming less every single day. Most of our marketing and social media is really based on showing the beautiful, over the top creations that don’t look like they have come from a charity shop and are a bit more glamorous. I hope people will get that feeling and then prefer to rent a few pieces that were beautifully made that made me feel amazing, rather than have a wardrobe of cheap clothing that cost the same and they aren’t going to wear again.

LUX: Some say that rental perpetuates the appetite for newness which drives overconsumption in the first place.
Jane Shepherdson: I think telling people that they can’t do or have something is tantamount to saying to them ‘go on, do it again’. You have to find ways of allowing people to have fun, but in a different way.

Rental isn’t perfect, and I know that. There are plenty of environmental factors that I am still trying to overcome, like ozone cleaning and having to dry clean clothes all the time. But I hope it changes people’s mindset and relationship with fashion. Rental slows you down: you have to plan ahead.

LUX: How important is diversity to My Wardrobe HQ’s offering?
Jane Shepherdson: We want to be accessible to as wide of an audience as possible. That is difficult, though, because the individuals who lend us their wardrobes tend to be in small sizes. It is easier with the clothes we get from brands, because they give us a full size range. But we are continually trying to get a broader selection of clothes on the site.

LUX: Is there scope for designers to bring out collections for rental alone?
Jane Shepherdson: We have to think of different ways of doing things. I have had many conversations with [sustainable fashion designer] Patrick McDowell about how designers might do that with deadstock. If rental takes off and we get to some kind of scale, then it would certainly be a business model that designers would be happy to adopt. Think about the difference: designers selling their product to a wholesaler get back about 30% of retail price; if they rent it, they have only got to rent it out two or three times to have made more money than they are going to get from the wholesaler.

Read more: All-access rundown of Ozwald Boateng’s return to London Fashion Week

LUX: In what other ways are you seeing fashion innovate itself?
Jane Shepherdson: I am Director of the London Fashion Fund, which is funded by the Mayor’s office to find environmentally and socially responsible businesses who will be the future of fashion. We are currently looking at one business that is growing cotton hydroponically, which uses 90% less water. There is another which is looking at creating garments that photosynthesise when you wear them. They are alive, since they have these microbes, so instead of putting your jacket in a dark wardrobe, you hang it on the back of the chair in front of the window. They claim that one square metre of the cotton jersey they produce absorbs as much CO2 as a 100-year-old oak tree, and are talking to a high-street retailer about putting a collection together.

It is early days for a lot of these things, but there is so much that is happening that makes me feel optimistic. At least we can mitigate some of the damage. I am so desperate that someone doesn’t come along and say, ‘you can’t have fashion anymore: it is too trivial’. We have got to find ways.

Find out more:

mywardrobehq.com

fashion-district.co.uk

Abe Odedina, They’re Playing Our Song, 2021. Courtesy of the Artist, Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles. Photo by Robert Wedemeyer.

In our ongoing online monthly series, LUX’s editors, contributors, and friends pick their must-see exhibitions from around the globe

Jumoke Sanwo, Artist & Curator, Founder of Revolving Art Incubator & Co-Founder of NFT Africa

Top of my list for this month is Under the Influence, Nigerian-British artist Abe Odedina’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. It’s presented as a special project room installation by Diane Rosenstein Gallery and opened during Frieze LA but runs until 12th of March 2022. The show includes a collection of eight still life and portrait paintings on plywood board – the artist’s nod to the street signage found in many African cities, especially on the streets of Ibadan and Lagos, from where he received his earliest influences.

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I am personally drawn to his work because it engages the charged relations between mythological and contemporary Afro experiences, delving into the magic realism of Yoruba mythologies and folk. He has a glossary of symbolisms of the everyday, alongside relatable characters and similar to some of his earlier influences such as the late Nigerian magician Professor Peller, he transports the viewer through bold imagery into a world of magical realism.

Shahrzad Ghaffari, Artist

While I’m in London working on Oneness, my commissioned artwork for Leighton House, I’m looking forward to seeing Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child at the Hayward Gallery (open until 15 March). Louise is one of my favourite artists — I love how vulnerable and expressive she is through her art. She works across a variety of mediums, such as painting, sculpture, and drawing. Her work explores traumatic events from her childhood with a beautiful sense of boldness.

Installation view of Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child at Hayward Gallery, 2022. © The Easton Foundation/DACS, London and VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Mark Blower/© The Hayward Gallery

Durjoy Rahman, Art Collector & Patron, Founder of Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation

There’s so much great art to see this month, but I’m most excited about Desert X AlUla 2022, a recurring, site-responsive, international free admission art exhibition taking place in AlUla, Saudi Arabia (on until 30 March). The show features newly commissioned works by 15 artists from across the globe.

Read more: All-access rundown of Ozwald Boateng’s return to London Fashion Week

Stand-out pieces include Ghanaian artist Serge Attakwei Clottey’s Gold Falls, a vibrant yellow tapestry-like work made from square parts of yellow water jerry cans found throughout Africa that the artist has long used to discuss issues related to water scarcity and migration in Africa and also AFROGALLONISM, an artistic concept that comments on consumption within modern Africa. Jerrycans, imported to Ghana from Europe and Asia carrying cooking oil, are used to store water pumped from the soil in regions of short water supply. This situation contributes to plastic waste and fails to present a sustainable alternative. Addressing this situation, Clottey creates tapestries out of plastic pieces with the help of his community studio. These sculptural installations poignantly draw attention to the economic and social situation being faced by many people on this planet.

Serge Attukwei Clottey, Gold Falls at Desert X AlUla 2022. Photo by Lance Gerber

Tae Kim, Artist

Korean artist Park Grim’s solo exhibition entitled Horo, Becoming a Tiger is currently on show at Studio Concrete in Seoul (until 27 March 2022) and it’s definitely a must-see. A deep concern with self-image coupled with a lack of confidence has a tight grip on the Korean population, who have grown up in the age of the internet and the queer population, especially, still faces discrimination largely due to lack of understanding. In this latest exhibition, Grim uses his art to overcome the social stigma and self-hatred that he faces as a queer artist. Using the narrative of the shimudo, a story revolving around growth and enlightenment in Buddhist teachings, he illustrates his own journey towards self-confidence (towards, metaphorically, “becoming a tiger”) while diverse symbolism, quotes on contemporary Korean culture and references to the queer scene add a sense of depth and immediacy to the works.

般若虎 반야호 The Tiger of Perfect Wisdom (Interracial), 2022, 비단에 담채

The LUX Editorial Team

This month, we’re spotlighting a few artists and organisations who are raising much need funds for Ukraine through the sale of artist prints, NFTs, and other creative initiatives.

According to artnet, the UkraineDAO (a decentralised autonomous organisation) co-created by Russian Pussy Riot founder and artist Nadya Tolokonnikova, has so far raised more than $4.6 million USD worth of ETH with the funds being donated to Come Back Alive, a crowdfunding organisation that funds members of the Ukrainian military and their families. The group’s NFT – a single edition of the Ukrainian flag –  is being released alongside a PartyBid, a tool that allows people to collectively bid, and, in case they win, own a fractionalised piece of the artwork. Italian sculptor Lorenzo Quinn is also selling 100 NFT called “Support Ukraine, Stop the war” on SuperRare for 0,24 ETH (~$690) with profits going to Ukrainian charities that support civilians.

Image via @jackdavisonphoto

Earlier this week, London-based creative space Have a Butchers launched a charity print sale in association with Hempstead May & May Print. The sale runs until 11th March with all prints sold at £50 and proceeds donated to the British Red Cross, Ukraine Crisis Appeal. New York-based photographer Dom Marker has also put together his own website (accessible here) selling photographic prints for 100USD each, with all profits going to Save the Children’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund . Current work includes Marker’s own photographs alongside three images by Jack Davison, available as 8×10 C-prints. Meanwhile, Idris Khan revealed a new artwork on his Instagram that will be available for purchase as a print via the charitable organisation Migrate Art which helps displaced communities (a release date is yet to be announced, but keep an eye on their site for updates).

Over in the US, the producers behind Immersive Van Gogh and Immersive Frida Kahlo are bringing a new art show to Chicago that pays tribute to the Ukrainian artist, writer and political activist Taras Shevchenko. Entitled Immersive Shevchenko: Soul of Ukraine, the exhibition will debut in select cities throughout the United States and Canada on March 15 with 100 percent of the proceeds from ticket sales to the event being donated to the Red Cross and National Bank of Ukraine Fund.

The ‘Evering Small Tote’ by BEEN London

This month, we’re celebrating designers who are paving the way for a more sustainable and ethical fashion industry. Here, Genia Mineeva, the founder of innovative London-based handbag brand BEEN London, discusses her mission to rescue waste materials, support artisanal techniques and preserve our planet’s biodiversity

Genia Mineeva

Previously a political journalist for the BBC newsroom and a campaigner for the likes of the UN and Change.org, Genia Mineeva’s entrance into the world of fashion was somewhat unconventional: via her frustration at throwaway coffee cups.

Initially fired up by the idea of making better use of these recyclable objects, she began researching the potential of waste materials and eventually, enrolled on a course in Sustainable Value Chains at Cambridge University followed by a degree in Accessories Design at London College of Fashion.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

Her brand, BEEN London, was launched, amidst the pandemic, on Kickstarter in 2020 and has since been named as ‘one of the most innovative companies in the world’ by British Vogue. Their product range includes handbags, laptop cases, make-up bags and totes, all made from waste materials and handcrafted by local craftspeople in East London. Here, Genia explains why sustainability is so much more than ticking boxes.

LUX: Your bags are made from a variety of recycled waste materials including apple skin leather. How did you go about developing these?
Genia Mineeva: It all started with a mission to rescue as much waste as possible from going to landfill. And the rest is a story of collaborating with likeminded people and material innovators around the world who are equally passionate about changing the way we make things. Some of our key partners are an Italian fabric mill turning discarded clothes into luxury cotton, a Dutch social enterprise collecting used corporate uniforms from the likes of IKEA and making really beautiful felt, and a team that turns used fishing nets which are polluting our oceans into a stunning regenerated nylon. What we do is develop practical and well-designed everyday accessories that help our customers have a real impact on the things they care about.

The ‘Islington Backpack’ in three different colours

LUX: How would you describe BEEN London’s design aesthetic?
Genia Mineeva: British Vogue once described our style as ‘Scandi meets Greek island chic’ which I think is pretty accurate! Clean, colourful but most of all practical. We make bags for real people who need a good quality product.

Read more: All-access rundown of Ozwald Boateng’s return to London Fashion Week

LUX: What guides your decision to use a particular material for a specific design or collection?
Genia Mineeva: We have a very clear set of principles here. Firstly, the material has to actually rescue waste, that’s why we wouldn’t use mushroom leather for example or cactus leather – where a plant is grown specifically to make the material. There are some brilliant brands doing it, but this is not our mission. Secondly, we we only work with materials that have a recognised certification (such as Global Recycled Standard 0r Blue Sign) and thirdly, we consider the impact of the material. We look at CO2 emissions, water consumption and even the end of life of each of our bags, we take everything into consideration!

Genia with one of BEEN London’s artisans in their East London workshop

LUX: Each of BEEN London’s bags is handcrafted by artisans in East London. How did you go about finding your team of makers?
Genia Mineeva: It’s all a bit of luck, people recommending other people and a definite gut feeling. My dream is for BEEN London to become the central hub for preserving the disappearing skills of leather makers. How cool would that be to merge artisanal training with innovative materials? All under one roof!

LUX: Why was it important for you to support craft methods?
Genia Mineeva: I think we seem to have lost the connection to how things are really made. A lot of the time, the things that we buy are made somewhere far away and we don’t give a second thought to the person who’s behind it and how their lives are affected by the work they do. To me, it’s about both human rights and wellbeing as well as the slow, beautiful process of making products entirely by hand, with a lot of love and skill put into it.

The ‘Cecilia Crossbody’ bag

LUX: What inspired your decision to start planting trees in Peru? And how does the project work in practice?
Genia Mineeva: We always wanted to expand our impact from reworking waste to include regeneration. The Amazon, being the largest and the fastest disappearing rainforest on the planet, was an obvious choice. The challenge was to find the right partner. So many tree planting programmes are a bit of a box ticking exercise and plant mono-cultural forests (using the same plants all over) but it was very important to us that we planted them properly in order to preserve biodiversity.

Read more: Justin Thornton & Thea Bregazzi, founders of Preen, on their intuitive design approach 

LUX: How has your understanding of sustainability changed since you started?
Genia Mineeva: I had a degree in sustainability when I created BEEN London, so the fundamental education was there but as the science and research is forever changing, there is always a lot to learn! It’s about the learning mindset and measuring everything in order to see the brands progress and impact.

The ‘Monier’ bag in black and white

LUX: What’s the biggest challenge of running a sustainable luxury brand?
Genia Mineeva: Time!

LUX: What are your future ambitions for your company?
Genia Mineeva: We want to become the go-to brand for a trusted, genuine approach. A collaboration from start to finish, we work hand-in-hand to combine traditional craftsmanship with innovation. We believe it’s so important to support local skills and techniques that have stood the test of time. For us, it’s a real dream to really preserve these artisanal techniques and to help train others.

View the collections: been.london

As fashion week kicks off in London, we’re celebrating designers who are paving the way for a more sustainable and ethical industry. Here, Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, the founders and creative directors of cult fashion label Preen, discuss their collaborative design process and instinctive approach to sustainability

Justin Thorton & Thea Bregazzi

Justin Thorton and Thea Bregazzi have been upcycling and recycling materials since well before ‘sustainability’ became a fashion world buzzword. The couple first met as teenagers on an art foundation course on the Isle of Man, where they both grew up. They moved to London in 1990s after university to launch their label Preen in a small shop in Portobello, the creative hub of the time.

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One of their first design hits was drainpipe trousers, made famous by Kate Moss, and over the years, they have continued to draw a celebrity cult following. Their pieces have been worn by the likes of Beyoncé, Alexa Chung, Scarlett Johansson and Michelle Obama.

Today, the brand maintains its punkish sensibility, but with a grown-up edge of sophistication. With a focus on longevity and practicality as well as beauty, many of their pieces are made to be worn in different ways. A mac coat from their Pre-Fall 2022 collection, for example, comes apart into a cropped jacket and a gilet dress while a double-layer dress of red stretch tulle and acid green floral print can be worn together or as two separate pieces. Here, the duo talk through some of their recent inspirations.

LUX: How would you describe Preen’s design ethos? And has that changed at all since the brand’s inception in 1996?
Justin Thornton & Thea Bregazzi: We have a very organic approach to designing. There is a certain irregularity to all that we do. We have developed and grown throughout the years but “darkly romantic” has all ways been our style.

Read more: Patrick McDowell on the social impact of sustainable fashion 

LUX: What’s your typical process for designing a new collection? Do you each play specific roles or do you work collaboratively throughout?
Justin Thornton & Thea Bregazzi: Every time we design a new collection, we try to open ourselves up to experience as many things as possible. We talk a lot about what we are loving and what’s inspiring us, and then we start to edit our inspirations and draw from those. We work very collaboratively throughout the designing and creating processes.

LUX: How do you think your experiences of living and working in London and then, New York have shaped your design thinking?
Justin Thornton & Thea Bregazzi: Showing our collections in New York really made us focus on being an international brand. However, living and working in London is so inspiring to us, it’s such a multicultural, creative city.

LUX: You’ve said before that you pay some consideration to how your clothes will photograph. How do you think image-based social media platforms have impacted the fashion industry?
Justin Thornton & Thea Bregazzi: When we design it’s important to consider [how the garments will appear] on all platforms, but at the heart of it, what we’re trying to create is an emotional reaction whether that’s in person or through a screen.

Read more: Olivia Muniak’s Guide to the Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

LUX: You’ve been upcycling fabrics more or less since the beginning and are now on a mission to become a 100% sustainable brand. What does that mean exactly?
Justin Thornton & Thea Bregazzi: We’ve never considered ourselves to be “a sustainable brand“, but we try our best to offer as many sustainable, recycled and organic options within our collections as possible. It’s important that all designers make an effort to produce a product that doesn’t destroy our planet.

LUX: What was on your mood-board for the Summer & Resort 2022 collections?
Justin Thornton & Thea Bregazzi: We were greatly inspired by the work of [French artist and photographer] Guy Bourdin: his bold colours and strong graphic lines. We also looked at dance – in particular [Scottish dancer and choreographer] Michael Clark’s work.

View the collections: preenbythorntonbregazzi.com

Image by Sterling Davis

As the art world’s elite flock to Los Angeles for Frieze art fair, Olivia Muniak, founder of catering company La Cura and LA resident, shares her guide on the best places to drink and dine around the city

Olivia Muniak

Growing up in the restaurant business, I learned to appreciate the subtleties of what makes a restaurant succeed. I saw my parents transform a casual European cafe into New York’s coolest lunch spot after which they launched two chic Italian fine dining restaurants in the heart of Greenwich Village and having worked myself in pretty much every front of house position, I know how much hard work it takes to deliver an exceptional dining experience. It goes without saying that the food has to be good, but the best restaurants know that it’s also the lighting, the decor, the people that define their identity and keep clients coming back for more.

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Since moving to Los Angeles in 2017 to set up my business La Cura, I’ve made it my priority to scope out the city’s best places to eat and below are just a few of my favourites. Some newly opened, other’s mainstays in my book.

Bicyclette

The sister restaurant to the famed French cafe République.

Stepping down into the bistro feels like midnight in Paris, it’s a lively, warm space and almost every seat in the house gets a peak into the kitchen. Reservations are a must and make sure you arrive a little early for an aperitif at the bar. The food is classic bistro style, but so thoughtfully prepared. The soft egg, onion tart and bouillabaisse are amongst my favourites. Whether you go for a bottle of wine, or by the glass (my tip: ask for half-pours so you can explore the by-the-glass list), talk to the sommelier for their recommendations.

bicyclettela.com

The interiors of Gigi’s Hollwood. Image: @gigis_la

Gigi’s Hollywood

A trendy favourite for a late night dinner that begins and ends with cocktails.

The emerald green and gold interior, and white tablecloths feel fresh and luxe in contrast to the sporty-clad staff – it’s a vibe and we’re all into it. The quintessential California-french menu has many hits including the baguette with butter and caviar, but the most unexpected dish, at least for LA, is the Schnitzel and it’s delicious. Be sure to make a reservation.

gigis.la

Read more: Michael Xufu Huang on Supporting Emerging Chinese Artists

Cafe Stella

A tiny garden restaurant tucked away behind an even better bar.

Go for dinner, plan to stay late for drinks, and possibly, a spot of dancing. The interior is a bit worn and rustic, but that’s what makes it cool. The menu is also French bistro style and has all the favourites: Moules frites, Steak frites, Poulet Roti and Sole meunière.

cafestella.com

Image: @crudo_e_nudo

Crudo e Nudo

A very casual “fish market” with sidewalk seating, natural wines and the best crudo you will ever taste – trust me!

Crudo e Nudo takes sustainable seafood sourcing  to a new level. The chef knows every fisherman that brings in the day’s catch, and how that fish was caught. You can see the Japanese influence on a very Californian menu in the seasoning of the dishes but also in the discipline in the way the food is prepared. It’s worth striking up a conversation with the chef who’s friendly face you’ll see at the counter. The menu rotates but you can always find these dishes: Vegan caesar with Furikake and  Tuna Toast.

crudoenudo.com

Read more: Koons, Kitsch & the Evolving Art Market

Grá Pizzeria

A funky local spot in the Echo Park area.

The interior is pared down with exposed brick and an open garden patio. A few things worth mentioning about the pizza: the dough is made with a long-fermentation sourdough recipe that the owner brought over from the UK, and cooks in a wood-burning stove so it’s crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. More importantly, it holds it shape when folded (a true sign of a quality pizza). The Margherita is my favourite but the seasonal pies are always worth a taste. The plate of prosciutto and green lovage salad should also be on your order.

xn--gr-nia.com

The patio at Gjelina. Image: @gjelinarestaurant

Gjelina

A well-known spot but deserving of the hype.

The menu is a journey through California produce, with some of the most creative, seasonal vegetables, pizzas and pastas. As soon as a vegetable is not at it’s peak, it’s off the menu. Gjelina is equally great for brunch, lunch or a relaxed, yet elegant dinner. If you can’t get a reservation, try  their sister restaurant Gjusta, which doubles up as a deli.

gjelina.com

Bovet 19 Thirty Hours hand setting

Swiss watch brand Bovet is renowned for its artistic and mechanically sophisticated high-end timepieces. On the company’s 200th anniversary, owner and managing director Pascal Raffy speaks to Ella Johnson about his plans and dreams

Pascal Raffy is not, at first glance, a likely candidate to own a high luxury Swiss watch brand. Having left his native Lebanon aged 13, he embarked on a successful career in pharmaceuticals, and promptly retired, aged 38. Yet, in 2001, he went on to acquire one of the oldest watch companies in the world.

Swiss watchmaker Édouard Bovet established his eponymous house 200 years ago this year. It soon gained a reputation for the artistry of its engraving and miniature paintings; Bovet also invented the glass case back so beloved of collectors today.

After Raffy bought Bovet, he turned it into a genuine manufacture for the first time: now, even the spirals and regulating organs in each watch are made in-house. Raffy also bought a 14th century castle near Lake Neuchâtel in western Switzerland that was once home to the original Bovet family and restored it, turning it into the brand’s factory and headquarters.

Pascal Raffy, owner and CEO of BOVET 1822

LUX: You were originally from Lebanon, but were uprooted during the conflict there. What do you remember of that time?
Pascal Raffy: Whatever is related to human suffering cannot be forgotten. When the civil war arose, all parts of the country suffered a lot. It was a very difficult period, not only for myself and my family, but for all families. It is a disaster of what humankind can do, and is written in my body, in my blood.

Lebanon was, and still is, considered to be the Switzerland of the Middle East, with its beauty. It is one of those rare places where you can go swimming, and then half an hour later go and ski in the mountains. I had a true appreciation and love for Switzerland, too, because we had been going to Sion since my childhood on holiday. So, when I was unable to study anymore in Lebanon, at 13, we went to Sion. Like Lebanon, it is a beautiful, disciplined country, with so many assets in so many fields, and a deep civic sense.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

LUX: What did your career look like before Bovet?
Pascal Raffy: My family were industrialists in pharmaceuticals, so after I finished my studies, I started working in that field. But I decided to stop everything when I was 38 years old, thanks to my oldest daughter, Audrey, who told my own father that although she was very happy, she was [sad to] not be able to see me more often. It was at that moment that I decided to stop doing absolutely everything. My family thought I was kidding, but I was very serious. I stopped everything and retired when I was 38 in beautiful Switzerland.

LUX: So what compelled you to come out of retirement?
Pascal Raffy: One day, one of my bankers came to see me with some brands in search of investments [and mentioned Bovet]. I already knew the house, and it was truly love at first sight. I dreamt a lot in the months after that conversation about paying the house its due respect with true facilities and artisans, and so I bought it in 2001. In 2006 I also bought Château de Môtiers – not because it was a castle, but because it belonged to the Bovet family, so it had the meaning. It was then that our journey with the facilities, where today we do our age-old dials, our hands, our movements, began.

Château de Môtiers, where all BOVET 1822 watches are manufactured

LUX: How did you know how to run a high-end watch company and expand it?
Pascal Raffy: I did not know at all. To be in the position of a collector is not the same as running a watchmaking facility every day. But between pharmaceuticals and watchmaking there are a lot of common parts. In healthcare you must be organised, clean, and disciplined. The most important thing is quality.

LUX: You could have bought a stake in Bovet, appointed a managing director and taken a back seat as chairman.
Pascal Raffy: The House of Bovet has never been exclusively an investment for me. It has always been clear in the long term that true watchmaking is based on patience. Time is a true luxury. If you expect a return on your investment in two years, it’s not this kind of watchmaking that you have to develop. If you want to defend a project where a house can become an institution in the long run, you have to establish true facilities over time, because the most important asset is the artisans, not the machinery or the buildings.

I also wanted, selfishly, to serve myself. That’s a fact. When globalisation started, and a lot of things became impersonal and mass produced, my project in life became to defend detail and heritage. I love to design my timepieces and have designed my collections since 2001. It’s not work, it’s a passion.

BOVET 1822 x Rolls Royce Collection, bespoke timepiece

LUX: How did word about your reinvention of Bovet spread?
Pascal Raffy: To grow a house is like growing a child: it takes time. For us, it’s a generation. We all know that when we travel, we talk, we tell stories. But the most valuable thing is when people actually come to the castle, spend time with the artisans, and see that Bovet is creating all its timepieces in-house. That is very important, because then the collectors become like the press. They are our ambassadors. It is an authentic way of doing things.

LUX: Some of your timepieces, like Bovet 1822 Miss Audrey Sweet Art, which has a dial made from sugar, are quite creative.
Pascal Raffy: In French, my grandmother always used to call me mon petit sucre, ‘my little sugar,’ as a token of affection. I started working with the artisans to try to master a technique in which sugar could be used in our creations and would not melt. We had to choose every single sugar crystal, making sure everything was going to float beautifully around the dial. So it was poetic, and engineering at the same time. It was a great success because it is surprising and truly different.

Miss Audrey Sweet Art gradient sugar crystal dial

LUX: You mention the importance of family: are there any plans for your daughter, Audrey, who has now joined Bovet, to take over the company?
Pascal Raffy: Audrey has always been in love with what we do with the artisans, and I’m very proud of that. Yet she is the first one to realise that it takes time to understand all the elements, so there is no hurry. I am letting time take its time. I know I can rely on the wisdom of Audrey step by step.

Read more: Patrick Sun on Promoting LGBTQ+ Art in Asia

LUX: You have teamed up with Automobili Pininfarina, the car manufacture and design house that created some of the most legendary Ferraris.
Pascal Raffy: What happened with Pininfarina was destiny – a moment of life, not a business meeting! I happened to meet Paolo Pininfarina in California, and I realised that we had the same way of thinking about companies, entities, what we do every day.

Paolo kindly asked me if I would go on a journey to try and design a timepiece with him. The scale is different, but the will is the same.

Pascal Raffy and Paolo Pininfarina

LUX: And you also created something for the remarkable, bespoke $28m Rolls-Royce Boat Tail.
Pascal Raffy: The partnership with Rolls-Royce came about thanks to a couple of extraordinary collectors, who love and understand true luxury and the House of Bovet. We created something absolutely unique: two mechanical timepieces on the dashboard of the car, with all the additional capabilities to wear them as wristwatches, or use them as table clocks, with such dense artistry. In the same way as the sugar dials, this had never been done before.

Find out more: bovet.com

Olafur Eliasson: Your light spectrum and presence installation view at Tanya Bonakdar gallery

As Los Angeles gets ready to launch this year’s edition of Frieze, our Contributing Editor Sophie Neuendorf shares her must-see exhibitions and events happening around the city

Sophie Neuendorf

I have a special fondness for Los Angeles and not just for the sun and sea. My father spent a lot of time in the city. During his days as a gallerist, he travelled to LA to discover fresh talent, many of whom he showed or represented, developing several life-long friendships.

One of those artists was David Hockney, who loaned my father his car when he did his driving test and bought him an ice cream to celebrate. Another life-long friend was Robert Graham, a marvellous Mexican-American sculptor, well-known for not only his art but also his cameos in Wes Anderson movies (not to mention his glamorous wife, the inimitable Anjelica Huston).

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Venice Beach was one of his favourite spots, where his friend the artist Billy Al Bengston still lives and works today. One of Ferus Gallery’s artists, Billy’s unique, ethereal West Coast Pop is unmistakable and continues to inspire many artists and designers. Most recently, he worked with Yves Saint Laurent’s Hedi Slimane on a fashion show.

Artist Billy Al Bengston at work in his studio

Now, as the art world flocks to the city for Frieze, I’ve put together a list of must-see exhibitions, events and projects.

Frieze Los Angeles

This year, Frieze (17 to 20 February) has moved from Paramount Studios to a new location, a tent adjacent to the Beverly Hills Hilton. It will, however, spill out across the city with monumental installations for Frieze Projects, including Mel Bochner’s Street Sign, which you can spot while travelling northbound on Merv Griffin Way across from the fair. The fair also welcomes a new director Christine Messineo and will feature 100 galleries, both local and international with exhibitors from 17 countries. The crowd promises to be nearly as colourful as the works for sale, studded with artists, collectors, celebrities, and fashionistas.

Felix Art Fair

Launched by collector and television mogul Dean Valentine, Felix (17 to 20 February) is a more intimate, edgier alternative to Frieze. Taking place at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, it will feature 60 international galleries, exhibiting in the cabanas alongside the David Hockney-painted pool and in the guest-rooms on floors 10 and 11.

Read more: Michael Xufu Huang on Making Art More Accessible

Womanhouse

Curators Barret Lybbert and Stefano Di Paola are curating a show commemorating the 50th anniversary of Womanhouse, an immersive installation co-organised by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro featuring work by 21 women artists. In the same radical spirit as the original installation, there’s no set artist list and the exhibition will evolve over its duration (18 Feb to 2 April) in an East Hollywood storefront.

Gallery Exhibitions

To coincide with Frieze, Gagosian is showing 10 recent works by Jeff Wall, marking the artist’s first exhibition in Los Angeles in nearly 20 years (on until 26 March 2022). Seven of the photographs were made in LA, where Wall lives and works in addition to his native Vancouver.

Over at Sprüth Magers, a show by artist Lucy Dodd (on until 12 March) is also a must-see while Nino Mier gallery is opening a show by hard-edge painter Georg Karl Pfahler, whose groundbreaking works will also be on view at Simon Lee’s London space this spring (read my interview with Simon Lee here for more info on what to expect).

Manuela restaurant at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles

If you’re stopping by Hauser & Wirth’s impressive space to see Phyllida Barlow’s exhibition (I highly recommend you do), get in some R&R at their iconic restaurant, aptly named Manuela after the gallery’s co-founder and then pop by Tanya Bonakdar gallery to see Your light spectrum and presence, a solo exhibition by Olafur Eliasson. The show features eleven circular paintings created between 2012 and 2021, demonstrating Eliasson’s long-standing investigation into light, colour and the ways we perceive and interact with our surroundings.

Read more: The Best Art Exhibitions to See in February

It’s always worth a visit to the Getty Center, which is currently showing Poussin and the Dance (until 8 May) in collaboration with London’s National Gallery. The exhibition establishes a dialogue between 17th-century French painter Nicolas Poussin’s dancing pictures and new dance films by Los Angeles-based choreographers.

untitled: skirt i; 2019. © Phyllida Barlow. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: ©2020 Alex Delfanne, All Rights Reserved

End Frieze week on a high note by visiting the absolutely unmissable LACMA exhibition Black American Portraits with work by Kehinde Wiley, Calida Rawles, and Catherine Opie (on until 17 April). Several of the artists in the exhibition will also be showing work at Frieze, albeit at different galleries. Wiley – whose 2018 portrait of former President Obama was also on view at LACMA in a separate exhibition that included Amy Sherald’s portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama – will be part of Roberts Projects’ group exhibition at Frieze. The gallery will also present an exciting new portrait by Wiley while Rawles’ work will be on view at Various Small Fires’ booth, and Opie will be part of Regen Projects’ Frieze presentation.

Sophie Neuendorf is Vice-President at artnet. Find out more: artnet.com

‘My path is full of petals- I have not swept it for others.’ Image courtesy of Sol Golden Sato

Born in Malawi, Sol Golden Sato is a London-based artist who incorporates philosophy into his paintings and sculptures. Here, he speaks to LUX Chief Contributing Editor, Maryam Eisler, about the connections between identity, place, community and art

Maryam Eisler: How would you define your identity Sol?
Sol Golden Sato: I came to London from Malawi on my twentieth birthday. I had a strong Malawi and African identity but I wasn’t really political, even though I had left because the politics had changed so much. I came to London and instantly found myself working as a commercial migrant. That was my first identity crisis. Living in Brixton in rented accommodation… I think I was paying around £25 a week rent, with no heating. I was really enjoying it at such a young age. I stayed there for four or five years and I found myself doing other jobs. I had never really thought of my identity in that sense at that point. I think it was only when I personally started changing, in particular when I started identifying more as a Londoner, that I began thinking ‘how do I or should I actually present myself’ ?

Maryam Eisler: The concept of being a ‘Londoner’ is interesting. Talk to me about that.
Sol Golden Sato: It all lies in the nuances. I want to be known as an international artist or a London artist or better yet, a London-based artist, who tells stories of my life here in London whilst equally referencing my experiences growing up in Malawi. It is no longer a conundrum; rather, it is normal for somebody like me in London, to have moved around a great deal and become malleable with the definition of one’s own culture or cultural identity.

‘One message from home is wroth a ton of gold.’ Image courtesy of Sol Golden Sato

Maryam Eisler: Do you think you have had to sacrifice certain parameters in order to fit in? Or has it been a a seamless integration?
Sol Golden Sato: It is never seamless. I spoke to someone who was a diplomat at the time, and he said ‘you have to soften your edges so that you can walk into a room, not be what they want you to be, and yet be able to connect with a variety of people from the perspective of their point of view rather than your own.’ When you are in a diaspora, you soon learn how to be diplomatic.I see so many displaced people here and they all have something important to contribute to the conversation in this forever changing world. You may lose on some points but you definitely gain on others. And sometimes, you may just forget the environment you grew up in altogether. In my case, I have not spoken with anyone from Malawi for all this time, so I have forgotten most of the language, which is quite a painful and sad process. At the same time, I have spoken to psychiatrists and speech therapists and they all say ‘You will remember it as soon as you go back’. How is it possible that your brain can and will switch off bits of you altogether over time?

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Maryam Eisler: I would even push you further by saying that you are not a London artist, but rather a Chelsea artist, given that the Kings Road in particular seems to be home to your studio but also to your public art.
Sol Golden Sato: Yes, it is one of those things, when for years, I didn’t quite realize how much I was presenting within and giving back to the Chelsea community just by being in it. I think the history of the Kings Road and the manner in which I like to dress somehow connect with each other. I think place has both a psychological and a spiritual identity and it is something that I try and seek in other places too. When you invest yourself in a community and find out what that community’s identity is all about and how that relates to you, you can then, and only then, make it. The Kings Road is where I have learnt those principles actually. I have also done projects near the Portobello road, and I instantly found a way of connecting with people through the Grenfel community but also through the Notting Hill Carnival… with a particular interest in trying to understand how different cultures live together amongst themselves, but also side by side with other communities.

‘You have been in my dreams, old friend- I miss you.’ Image courtesy of Sol Golden Sato

Maryam Eisler: You have an amazing way of tattooing yourself on the walls of these spaces and places because, even though you have a studio you are also very present and visible on the street. You have somehow managed to integrate the outdoor skin of these communities.
Sol Golden Sato: Yes, it is something that did not start with an ideology, just “Oh, there’s a piece of wall, we could do something there”. But now I am starting to see it as a mission: that the artist should always be present, not just where they live but where they are. I have been following a number of people who want to activate communities, especially via the act of making art. I did this in Portobello and I am trying to do these activities in other centres and gardens now too. Sometimes the local people can’t do it on their own, and it takes a cultural activator to come in and say, “I see this, we can do this” and then it is a way of tattooing culture into a place, like a renewal of some sort.

Maryam Eisler: We should open minds at a young age as opposed to allowing brains to be imposed upon by tradition and old world thinking, would you not agree?
Sol Golden Sato: Yes. When we were doing this project in Notting Hill, I had forgotten my brushes so I thought I would just pour paint on canvas and move it around with my feet. The kids said, “You’re dancing ! We want to dance on the canvas too !” Now I am talking to some people in Nine Elms, where the Battersea Power Station is, asking ‘ Why don’t we do a large, forty-metre-long dancing painting where you get all the kids involved together, side by side’. It is another way of activating a community that is continuously and radically changing at a fast pace.

‘Wind, light and time ever revolve; Let us then enjoy life as best we can.’ Image courtesy of Sol Golden Sato

Maryam Eisler: What are the types of topics that interest you when making your art? What are your paintings inspired by?
Sol Golden Sato: My art still goes back to stories coming from people, almost all relate to time and place, and more often than not, to very specific times in history.

Maryam Eisler: Can you talk to me about your interest in the iconic gangsters, the Kray brothers and their trip to Nigeria as depicted in your current work- in-progress painting ? In a way, it is a perfect example of you linking two continents, but more importantly linking a very London story to stories elsewhere.
Sol Golden Sato: Yes, Northern Nigeria 1964; I found a little document in the form of a photograph and I just asked the question: what were the Krays doing there and most importantly, how did that trip affect them or better yet, did it affect them at all? From there, I linked other more universal questions about how different cultures communicate or connect with each other. If I were to say, “let’s look at black African migration in the East End of London,” it would be an equally interesting subject, but if we look at it from the cultural phenomenon of the Kray brothers, that is so much more interesting and potent to me.

‘It’s all one single grief.’ Image courtesy of Sol Golden Sato

Maryam Eisler: You are always attracted to and explore the same kind of topics but you treat them from different perspectives?
Sol Golden Sato: Yes. Certain subjects I strongly feel should be portrayed through paint and others might be more cinematic in nature, like the story of the Kray brothers. I am also starting to learn that some thoughts can be better communicated through public art installations and others are better suited to a gallery presentation. That’s how you engage different and wider audiences.

‘Could I get mansions covering ten thousand miles, I’d house all the poor.’ Image courtesy of Sol Golden Sato

Maryam Eisler: Today, you have enveloped your own body in these beautiful, lush and colourful fabrics; I am assuming they are of African origin? You are using your own body as artwork and communicator of ideas.
Sol Golden Sato: Yes. It is interesting to see how different people do it. In my case, I have always liked and been inspired by Salvador Dali, mythologising himself and creating something beyond his own immediate persona. The fabrics I am using today are originally Dutch fabrics that were developed and designed for local flavour. As such, It is also interesting to study how trade and culture work together. One of my heroes or idols is Quentin Crisp. He used to get frequently beaten up  for being effeminate, so he decided, to wear make-up so it was easier for people to know who he was.I like that because it is actually quite inclusive, being different and making people come up to you and ask questions.

Read more: Michael Xufu Huang on Arts Philanthropy & Making Art More Accessible

Maryam Eisler: I suppose it is a visual cue that attracts people, the same way you caught my attention whilst crossing the Kings Road?

Sol Golden Sato: Yes, it attracts. Sometimes my rule is to just be the opening and see what happens from there. Sometimes it’s brilliant. I have had some funny moments: a football fan started a chant saying “who brought the pimp.” You can interrupt normality.

Find out more: solgolden.com