Inspired by a Sunday spent exploring the luxury retailers of Bangkok, Sur La Terre Bangkok went searching worldwide for the best window displays.
Bijenkorf Window Displays by Studio Kiki van Eijk for Hermès.
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Dutch designer Kiki van Eijk has realized five fantastical window displays at Amsterdam’s luxurious de Bijenkorf department store.
Wandering Forest of Hermès by Nendo.
Tokyo, Japan
Japanese super studio Nendo has created mythical forests in windows of two Tokyo Hermès stores.
Printemps Christmas Dreams Windows by Karl Lagerfeld | Maison Chanel.
Paris, France
This winter at Paris’ mega department store Printemps, 11 windows have been filled with holiday displays by Karl Lagerfeld.
Hermès Berlin Window by Sarah Illenberger.
Berlin, Germany
Visualizer and set designer Sarah Illenberger has teamed with luxury label Hermès for its Berlin shop window.
Hugo Boss ‘Love Story’ Windows by LIGANOVA.
Paris, France
At fashion label Hugo Boss’ store on Paris’ Champs-Elysées, a designed communications campaign is based on two characters who meet and fall in love.
Christian Louboutin Window Displaysby StudioXAG Selfridges.
London, UK
London’s Selfridges department store has teamed with Studio XAG for its latest window display – a tribute to legendary footwear designer Christian Louboutin.
Hugo Boss Window Display by kubix & Hugo Boss.
Berlin, Germany
Resembling a bedazzled nightclub, a window display at Hugo Boss’ HUGO Berlin shop was a sound-animated light installation.
Replay Barcelona by Vertical Garden Design.
Barcelona, Spain
A retail setting collides with nature at Replay Barcelona, where a 100-sq-m vertical garden engulfs the storefront window and interior courtyard.
The Black & White Ball, April 28, 1966 at New York’s Plaza Hotel.
Everything is black and white this evening in the ballroom of New York’s Plaza Hotel. All walks of American high society are represented and quite a few of Europe’s jet-setters. The writer, Truman Capote, is giving a ball to mark his literary success. He has decided to celebrate his moment of glory by inviting “the 500 most famous people in the world”. Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh, Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra add Hollywood glamour. There are billionaires, the Agnellis, the Rockefellers and the Niarchos and former heads of state such as the Duke of Windsor and his wife and the Maharajah and Maharani of Jaipur. The political elite are also here for the evening, notably several members of the Kennedy clan. They have all adapted their attire to the dress code and theme of the party: “Black & White”.
The Host
A ball is first born of the imagination of the host or hostess. On the 28th of April 1966, in New York, invitations are sent out to the “happy few” by a man who calls himself “the most famous of all American writers”. In 1958, the much acclaimed Breakfast at Tiffany’s had launched Truman Capote’s reputation as a writer. A film has even been adapted from the book in Hollywood, with Audrey Hepburn as the heroine. Eight years later, Truman Capote is internationally renowned for his latest novel, In Cold Blood. It is a worldwide success. Ironically, the Black & White Ball will mark the highpoint of his success as a writer and journalist, initiating his professional and social decline thereafter. Never again will Capote experience this feeling of supreme achievement felt by the host of a legendary ball. He will die in 1984, at the age of 59.
Hosting a party can be risky business. Choosing one’s guests means excluding others. The Black & White Ball will create quite a few angry grudges among those who were “refused entrance”.
“He made 500 people happy by inviting them to his ball”, some of his close friends confided after his death, “but he created a thousand enemies amongst those who were not invited”.
The Abstraction Ring
This exceptional ring is a graphic celebration of the ball’s theme. It is inspired by abstract art. It is set with baguette-cut black spinel stones and a central stone that is one of the most amazing of the whole collection: a 15.54 carat diamond that fills the highest criteria of excellence in a diamond’s classification. It is a D colour, the most beautiful there is, has an IF clarity (Internally Flawless) and is type 2A. It took the gemologists at Van Cleef & Arpels several years to find this stone which has a vintage oval cut.
Diamond and Onyx Dancer
For this clip, the outline of the ballerina is slender and stream-lined, very similar to that of the legendary stars of the 1930s. In an Art Deco style, the white diamond and onyx brooch is perfectly in keeping with the dress code and theme of the Black & White ball given by Truman Capote in 1966. Just like for all of the clips in the Bals de légende collection, the ballerina’s face is represented by a rose-cut diamond, following the technique used by Van Cleef & Arpels for several years now.
Heavenscraper Earrings
New York’s architecture and its skyscrapers, particularly the Empire State Building, are the sources of inspiration for this set made up of a long necklace, a pair of earrings and a bracelet. The use of pearls, strung one by one and not set, gives the jewels great suppleness. They follow the movements of the woman who wears them. Moreover, the diamond and onyx motifs of the necklace have been set with the gems on the front and the back. This adornment pays tribute to the Art Deco tradition initiated at Van Cleef & Arpels by Renée Puissant, the Maison’s artistic director from 1926 to 1942.
Sur La Terre believes in celebrating Monday with great wine & exceptional cuisine. This week we trust Opus Wine Bar in Silom help us accomplish this. Contact us at bangkok@surlaterre.com for your exclusive print subscription, where you can read the full story by Dzovinar Bassil. All photography by Manoo Manookulkit.
Opus Wine Bar Silom, Bangkok Reservations: 02-637-9899 www.wbopus.com
Time, say old men, is the world’s greatest luxury: once spent, it can never be reclaimed. In the Italian region of Umbria, people don’t wait to learn this lesson. From the cities to the streams, the kitchens to the chocolate shop, locals already understand the importance – and the pleasure – of going slow.
Slow carries a capital “S” in many places these days, not least of all in Italy. Founded in 1989 by Carlo Petrini, the Slow Food Movement erupted as a protest against a serious and barbarous crime.
McDonalds had set up its shop in Italy, with a flagship franchise in the very heart of Rome, within breathing distance of the iconic Spanish Steps.
Lunchtime here can last for hours; so, too, can dinner. As the only land-locked region in Italy that doesn’t border another country, Umbria has grown comfortable with both its traditions and landscapes and has learned to take its time.
On the slopes of Mount Subiaso, not far from Le Silve, a wealthy couple have taken this idea one step further.
Noah and Simon left a career in Mechanical Engineering and a heady international lifestyle to move to Umbria with their two children just a few years ago. Their aim was simple in concept, if difficult in practice. They wanted the luxury of living off the land, the luxury of having time to spend with their children and the luxury of knowing that they weren’t always cutting corners in the race to stay ahead.
They’re not part of the Slow Movement – officially – and yet they live it with every inch of their lives.
Their home overlooks the valley of Assisi, a vast patchwork of fields spiked with Cedar trees.
They grow strawberries and cherries, chop firewood to fuel their oven and have taught themselves how to make home-made jam. They even gather water from a fresh mountain spring near their home.
Back at Le Silve, near the peak of Mount Subiaso the sun rises, the dew glitters across the fields on the short walk to breakfast. It’s an unhurried affair with fresh eggs, fresh coffee and a range of Umbrian cupcakes.
The chef, Enrico Garafalo, chops celery and onions to start the lunchtime ragu.
“We’re not part of the Slow Food movement,” he says, sprinkling parmesan cheese into a pan.
He shrugs. “We haven’t got around to it, yet.”
“And besides, in practice, everywhere in Umbria is Slow.”
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With the celebrated launch of the Singapore Louis Vuitton-Yayoi Kusama Concept Store making headlines in Asia, Sur La Terre Bangkok covers the life and inspiration of the artist.
The store is Inspired by “nerves”, the concept store comprised biomorphic shaped sculptures known as one of Yayoi Kusama’s most iconic artworks as well as designed with large scales and vivid colours, including Kusama’s iconic red and white, and red polka dots.
Yayoi Kusama, the 83-year-old phenonenon, was born in the mountains of the Nagano region of Japan. A multi-faceted artist: painter, sculptor, performer, designer, writer and singer, she even created and avante-garde fashion line. As a young woman living in New York City, she also became part of the seminal ‘Happenings’ scene of the Sixties. Fast forward to the 21st century, and her unique aesthetic is patterning London’s Tate Modern as well as a special collection for Louis Vuitton.
Inception
The Yayoi Kusama legend was born from a childhood hallucination, a worrying and strange occurence which manifested itself around the family dining table. “One day I was looking at the red flower patterns of the tablecloth on a table, and when I looked up I saw the same pattern covering the ceiling, the windows and the walls, and finally all over the room, my body and the universe.”
Fruition
According to critic and poet Akira Tatehata, cites “from 1951 until she left for the United States in 1957, Kusama concentrated entirely on works of paper….. It is noteworthy that she experimented in these drawings and watercolours with motifs clearly prototypical of those she would develop in the "net” and “dot” paintings of her early years in New York. Though they are mostly small works, these images - incorporating scattered dots and intricate, fluctuating nets - are products of obsessive repetition that seems to proliferate beyond all bounds.
Asylum
The return to Japan in the seventies was abrupt. Following the death of her partner Joseph Cornell and its subsequent toll on her health, Kusama returned to Japan. What was intended to be a short stay in 1975, became a decision to remain permanently. Following her first hospitalization in Seiwa in 1975, she decides to commit herself voluntarily in 1977. There exists the curious bookends to a significant period in her life: 1966, the introduction of mirrors in her work - 1977, her psychiatric internment.
Legacy
If you were Yayoi Kusama, you would answer the above questions with a passion and strength to live every day as a testament to personal expression. If you were Yayoi Kusama, your retrospective travels the world from Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid to Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Modern in London and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. The exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane sums up her life in four precise words, 'Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever.’
A parade in a gilded hall of mirrors: the firm footsteps of a woman seemingly rigorous yet sensual with an intense gaze. Her silhouette traced by a double-breasted overcoat of military cloth, leather lining and astrakhan collar.
Sur La Terre meets up with George Clooney to discuss life, work and, of course, his latest film, The Descendants. Alexander Payne, the film’s director, joins us to share his perspective on working with someone he refers to as ‘one of the most wonderful human beings’.
SLT:George, was it shooting in the tropical paradise of Hawaii that made you accept this role in the The Descendants?
GC: It’s tough working with Alexander! And even worse having to film in Hawaii. I remember one funny thing with the Coen brothers: I met them in Arizona, where I was shooting Three Kings. They told me ‘We’re going to send you a script, we were wondering if you’d agree to do a movie with us.’ I said yes straightaway, then I read the script. It was O Brother, Where Art Thou?. I couldn’t believe my luck. When Alexander told me he was going to send me a script, there is always this fear saying, 'I’m going to be in Alexander Payne’s first bad movie, because I didn’t read the script! That would be just my luck.’ But the exact opposite happened. I thought it was the best script I had read in a long time. In one way, nothing much happens. When you try and give the movie’s pitch, it’s complicated. It’s a movie which unfolds really slowly. It’s beautiful how it just takes time. It’s really hard to describe the screenplay. When you start to read it you are immediately drawn in and by the end, you are completely immersed.
SLT:Did you think that Matt (Descendants) was like you? Was that why you think you could play him?
GC: In any case, I always say to myself that I can try to do it. Like when I did Solaris. Steven Soderbergh was my partner. I sent him a letter because I think it’s fair to give people some space for them to decide. It’s better than saying everything face to face, which can be awkward. So I wrote him saying, 'I don’t know if I can play him but I would like to try. But only if you think I could do it’. He wrote back , 'Great, let’s do it’. You need that distance, you can’t always be direct with people. That’s how we approached things. I had the opportunity to read it, quickly, and to digest it. I knew it was something I had never done before, that is was very different from other roles I had done. I was interested in in exploring it. I imagine that if you are going to explore something new, you have to do it with people you trust.
SLT: How would you describe each other?
GC: I would just say that, apart from what he represents in the movie world, which is not insignificant, he is a very good friend, not just in the movie world but in life. I appreciate that as much as making this film.
AP: For years I had always heard how great he is to work with. I can confirm that. I feel the same way about our growing friendship. Our lives are very different. He travels the world, he’s always on the move. But when our paths cross it is always a great delight and meaningful. He is also very accomplished at everything he does. Making a movie, acting, his humanitarian work, his way of being a friend, the way he manages his career, his sporting ability. Here is a compliment: I think he is one of the most wonderful human beings.
GC: That is a real compliment!
SLT:Can you tell us a little about your father?
GC: My Father, who is extremely funny and witty, is also the best when it comes to giving eulogies. My father gave the eulogy for Walter Cronkite, in front of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. It was incredible, both funny and sad. He did it for my aunt Rosemary too. He is really the best. One day I went back and asked him, 'How old are you, 70?’ He replied, '77’. And I just said, 'So you are old’. 'I guess so’, he said. It’s like William Holden in Network. He is sure that end is closer than the beginning. So I said, 'You really are the best at doing eulogies.’ 'Yes.’ 'And barring the unforeseen, I will probably have to do a eulogy for you some day.’ 'Yes.’ And I said, 'But you’re better at all that than me. Why don’t you help me out at writing your own?’ 'I like that idea,’ he said. So he’s writing his eulogy.
The Descendants Summarized by George Clooney
I think that it’s a coming of age film. Except here the guy coming of age is 50. He becomes aware that for all these betrayals that he feels - from his wife, his children who are not really great kids, the fact they have to deal with issues on his lands - he is as responsible as everyone else for all that. That is how we come to forgive ourselves. A large part of the film is devoted to watching this quiet man. There are very good lines by Robert Redford in Ordinary People : “If this kid hadn’t died, this family would have survived and everything would have worked out fine. They would have done their studies and stayed married, become members of a country club and they would have lived this antiseptic life, but something went wrong and through them off course.” It’s the same kind of thing. With his wife who falls into this catastrophe , everything is thrown up in the air, and then suddenly you have to deal with issues you may have otherwise been able to avoid until your death.
Inception
