Owner: gentrystyle URL:www.murdocklondon.wordpress.com Join Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007 10:26:21 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog/ magazine for the discerning gentleman, covering everythign from fashion, style, travel, the arts, culture & style Site statistics:Click here
Venice takes flight.. the Biennale! 2007-06-15 13:00:44
War is bad, we’re all going to die, and men with bird heads are a very bad sign … in a special report from the world’s biggest arts jamboree, Adrian Searle reveals what the Venice
Biennale has to teach us. Standing in a huge, daylit room lined with vast new paintings by Sigmar Polke, I feel breathless. Their colour is translucent, resinous, and as dark as toffee. There are things going on in, under and behind the surface. At the top of one painting, a group of eager children peer down into the gloom, where something horrible and nacreous is half-visible. It might be a landscape, a wound or something children aren’t meant to see. It is hard to know what one is looking at, and I’m tempted to follow the advice of Robert Storr, director of the 52nd Venice Biennale, who calls his (more…)
5 Best… Movies set in Paris by Pablo Cabrelli 2007-06-13 05:42:51 5. Frantic
4. Rififi
3. An American in Paris
2. Les Quatre Cents Coups
1. Le Samourai
5. Frantic (1988)
Polanski’s thriller begins with a gripping sense of confusion and desperation, flowing unevenly into a scarcely believable but hugely enjoyable clandestine world of missed connections and secret alliances. Whilst Walker takes a shower, his wife, Sondra, simply disappears and he is left to his own devices, attempting to retrace her steps through the Parisian underworld, accompanied only by Ennio Morriccone’s haunting synths. Polanski saw the film as a moment when a line is crossed, somewhere between the past and present; what a man used to be and what he might become. The stunning rooftop sequence purposely recalls Vertigo, reminding us of another detective in search of more than just a woman. Frantic explores the idea of the city as a place where anything can be discovered or regained, a space where nothing is lost, except those who are searching.
4. Rififi (1955)
Celebrated for Read more:hellip
, Pablo
Biennale or Bust 2007-06-22 11:57:19 Picture it: London’s Stansted airport, departure lounges filled with art-going professionals and their hangers-on, many travelling in their carefully selected sunset cocktail frocks in order to avoid ‘economy class’ creases that no steam iron could remove (this is Ryanair to Treviso, after all). No doubt this is a scene repeated across airports, as the ever-burgeoning art world began its descent on the Biennale, the first to be curated by an American, Robert Storr.
With our leather weekend bag in tow, exclusive preview and party invites in hand, Gentrystyle perambulated to the nearest vaporetto. We head directly to the Russian party held on the (more…)
The worlds most expensive Whisky? is it worth the money? 2007-07-07 09:51:43 The chatter stops and a reverential hush falls over the crowded bar, interrupted only by the finest sound known to man: the gentle plop of a cork being withdrawn from a bottle. And this is no ordinary bottle. Johnnie Walker 1805 (birth year of the Ayrshire grocer who founded the brand) is a unique blend of nine rare whiskies, the youngest of which is 45 years old. Only 200 bottles have been produced, it is for sale over the bar of only one establishment in London and a shot of it will cost you £1,000: Famous Grouse, eat your heart out.
The man who withdrew that cork, and who will dispense your grand dram, is Salvatore Calabrese, the dapper little Italian who is the doyen of London barmen and a practitioner of his trade with a worldwide reputation for flair and excellence. He has already fallen in love with the 1805, and not just because of the potential benefits to his cash flow. “This,” he says, “is liquid history” — a mellifluous phrase at the best of times, and all the mo Read more:Whisky
Beyond the Myth, Art Endures 2007-07-07 08:54:56
Frida Kahlo spun her own life into a myth. She was so good at it that her art almost got lost along the way. Her persona, fashioned over almost three decades of self-portraits, fused physical suffering and emotional isolation. Her frank depiction of a woman’s psychic pain made her a feminist icon. She became a Chicana heroine and an unintended purveyor of Mexican kitsch. She is an emblem of confessional painting at a time when nothing is intimate anymore.
But this year, as Mexico celebrates the centenary of her birth, the largest retrospective ever of her work attempts to look beyond what Mexicans call Fridamania. The result is a rich view of her art and her life, one that broadens the perspective on her career beyond the narrow, cultish view that has at times threatened to obscure her work. For the majority who know Kahlo’s painting only from the movie version of her life or the unmistakable power of her face on a T-shirt, the exhibition that opened here last month at the Palac
10 Point Escape Plan to San Sebastian 2007-07-06 14:05:55
1. Book a round-trip flight to San Sebastian
; British Airways flys direct from London, from the USA fly to Madrid on Iberia (from about $800); there’s a one-hour hop to San Sebastián.
2. Check into the grand nineteenth-century Hotel de Londres y de Inglaterra (from $178; 34-943-44-07-70), an imposing white reminder of the days when Spanish royalty summered here. Watch the sun set from the downstairs Swing Bar.
3. Stake out a spot among the beautiful people on La Concha or Ondarreta beach. Calm bay waters and surrounding mountains provide a perfect backdrop for young Basques and holidaying Europeans. (more…)
Read more:Escape
What a carry on! Menswear Spring/Summer 2008 2007-07-10 14:07:03
It has become customary, it seems, to make some kind of connection between what is being shown on the catwalks and what is being shown on CNN. Thus you get endless nonsense, every time a pair of combat trousers appears on the runways, to the effect that this is a reference to “our military times” and that scowly models are some kind of commentary on “the paranoid times in which we live” (yes, those are direct quotes). Maybe I’m a conventional sort but, personally, if I want to talk about the war, I’ll do it orally, not sartorially.
(more…)
Read more:Summer
, Menswear
, Spring
The Perils of Facial Hair 2007-07-26 08:43:54
There are certain steadfast rules which I think ought to guide a man safely through the perilous Scylla and Charybdis that are Fashion and Fad. They’re all pretty obvious, but still bear repeating, even in our enlightened times: 1) Don’t wear linen or white before the end of May (t-shirts excepted). 2) Be sure the leather of your belt matches your shoes. 3) Only wear natural fibres. 4) Never feature facial hair.
(more…)
Top 5: Movies set in Tokyo by Paolo Cabrelli 2007-07-31 09:56:38
5. Godzilla (1954)
Ishiro Honda’s Gojira is a snarling dystopia of the present, pre-occupied by Japan’s legitimate anxiety over the nuclear capabilities of the USA. The mutant terrorist lays waste to the towering structures and, in doing so, stems the post-war economic resurrection of the city. Acting almost as an agent for Western forces, Godzilla has a strange place in the hearts of the people: at once an enviable, almost inspirational power but also an uncontrollable one. The urban landscape is a battle-ground and this iconic beast represents the awesome dangers of living in man-made world, substituting the peaceful order of nature with demented human designs. Much copied (see last year’s The Host) – and pummeled into near worthlessness by endlessly inferior sequels – this is a spectacular disaster movie that manages, from beneath the rubble, to tell a thrilling political allegory. (more…)
Read more:Tokyo
, Paolo
Our Favourite Men’s Stores: J.Press 2007-08-14 07:43:39
The recent opening of the new flagship J.Press
store in Manhattan gives us a welcome reason to write about this quiet, unassuming, even dusty men’s clothier. If you don’t know about J.Press, it’s high-time you did. If you do know about J.Press, you’ll be annoyed at me for telling everyone else about it.
Like so many good men’s stores, J.Press started life (in 1902) as a clothier for men at Yale in New Haven. Gradually, gingerly, they opened a few other stores – in New York, Washington and Cambridge, Mass – never venturing beyond their East Coast, Ivy League market. J.Press epitomizes the American Style – a mostly roomier, boxier cut in blue blazers and quintessential gray flannels with NO PLEATS, for example. Their keywords are ‘heritage’ and ‘craftsmanship’, two words most contemporary designers don’t attend to very much.
(more…)
Read more:Favourite
Gentry’s Favourite Weekend Bags 2007-09-01 17:01:24 It’s harder than you might think, finding a really good weekend bag. It’s not that there aren’t lots on the market. On the contrary, every designer and high street whore tries to cash in on the men’s bag market with cheap nylon duffles, tacky sports bags emblazoned with logos, and cheap leatherette carry-ons. Avoid all those, obviously. The problem isn’t finding a bag, it’s finding a really good one that will look sharp this season, and all seasons to come.
Ever in the service of style, we’ve gone ahead and done some of the legwork for you and can happily recommend any of the following classics. Most fit nicely in the overhead if your weekend away requires air travel, but one or two are best tossed in the back seat of a car. Here they are, our favourites, in no particular order:
The Sandstorm Bag by Johnson’s Cashmere – this cozy tweed and leather weekend bag is just the thing for cool autumn weekends. It has a whiff of peaty whisky and hint of tobacco about it. Gr Read more:Favourite
, Weekend
10 Point Escape Plan to Taipei 2007-09-10 15:56:47
New high-tech wealth and a flurry of upscale shops, clubs, and restaurants that have opened in the capital city are sparking a “Taipei
is the next Shanghai” buzz. It’s not quite there—yet—but visitors will appreciate a more reliable transportation system as well as friendly locals who speak better English than their mainland counterparts. After winter’s chill and before summer’s monsoons is the best time to go. Plan on a five-day stay, after which it’s an easy jump to other Asian hot spots.
1. Bring some Ambien for the eighteen-hour flight to Taipei. China Airlines flies direct from JFK (with a refueling stopover in Anchorage -reindeer jerky makes an excellent snack) or fly from London with EVA air direct.
2. The most stylish of the megahotels is the 856-room Grand Hyatt Taipei (from $172; 886-2-2720-1234) in trendy Xinyi. For less bustle, try the chic 84-room Les Suites Taipei Ching-Cheng (from $210; 886-2-8712-7688), with flat-screen TVs and a lovely garden.
(more&h Read more:Escape
Things We Like Autumn 07 2007-10-02 17:32:44 There was no such thing as summer this year in London, so we have high hopes for autumn. If the rain stays away, allowing for crisp afternoons, we may even see autumnal shades on the leaves in the Royal parks. That’s likely being overly optimistic. Still, now that temperatures have dropped and the evenings are gradually closing in, it’s time to invest in fall favourites. Here are some of the things we covet this season at Gentrystyle.
Martin Margiela Wool Coat – This is a modern, Belgian take on the classic camel coat. What makes this stand apart from others is the rounded shawl collar, giving it a less formal, less businessy edge. (Shawl collars are still everywhere this year, so indulge in this old grandpa look while no one will raise eyebrows.) It’s pleasingly thick, hangs well and looks great with everything. You can find it at Bergdorf Goodman.
Paul Stuart Donegal Wool Tweed Sport Jacket – If it’s not quite cool enough for your Martin Margiela Wool Coat, then yo Read more:Autumn
Modern Masters in Naples 2007-10-20 14:41:30
When my parents went to Naples
, Italy, 15 years ago, a taxi driver told my mother to hide her Mandarina Duck handbag under the back seat, the better to elude the city’s notorious thieves. If the image brings to mind an out-of-towner’s visit to New York during that same time, be assured that Naples is Naples, a city quite unlike any other, although it (much like New York) has overcome its reputation as a crime capital.
It is the city of Mount Vesuvio and Pompeii, of the Camorra Mafia and a continuing garbage-removal problem. It has the best tailors in Italy. We also know it as the backdrop of Pasolini’s “Il Decameron” and Billy Wilder’s “Avanti” and multiple films starring Sophia Loren. What is not so well known is that Naples is also home to a group of first-rate art galleries and emerging talent. While Turin still holds the title as the country’s premier destination for contemporary art, Naples is Italy’s best-kept secret.
(more…)
Read more:Modern
, Masters
The 10-Point Escape Plan: Zanzibar 2007-10-20 13:39:00 Swahili. Taarab. Bandas. A trip to the Tanzanian island isn’t your everyday beach getaway.
A sexy beach vacation in Africa is nothing new. But prices in Cape Town have soared, and the once-pristine Kenyan coast has evolved into an African Cancún lined with high-rise hotels for the package-tour set. So where to now? Zanzibar. Go for its rich history, colorful blending of Arabic and Swahili cultures, great shopping, world-class reef diving, and clove-scented air. Summer is the perfect time—the rainy season is over, days are balmy, and nights are cool. You need at least a week to explore Stone Town and the surrounding countryside, with time for snorkeling, diving, or just plain relaxing on some of the world’s best beaches.
1. Book your flight on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, JFK or London to Amsterdam, then change planes for Dar es Salaam via Kilimanjaro (21 hours, from $1,540 round-trip). Sit on the left for great views of Mount Kilimanjaro. Then hop on Coastal Aviation’s $55 one-w Read more:Escape
Top 5 Dystopian Movies by Paolo Cabrelli 2007-10-29 04:14:36 5. THX—1138
Before George Lucas became a juvenile baboon, he forged this cold, stark, strangely convincing vision of the future. Heavily indebted to Yevgeny Zamyatin’s novel We, THX-1138 reveals the sterile nightmare of emotional suppression, where sex and love are only a brief indulgence permitted to the doomed and insane. There is something seductively plausible about the way in which the population have given themselves up to an obscure ruling class, spending their days weeping into automated confession booths, wasting their nights on the mind-numbing entertainment offered by the state. Lucas’ frozen, spotless society is a utopia of sorts – a timeless paradise without feeling, obsessed with protection. This is an amazingly austere film, perfectly constructed, like the inner workings of a clockwork heart.
The original student film on which Thx-1138 was based is available to watch here:
(more…)
Read more:Paolo
Grow a beard this November 2007-11-13 08:31:09 November is ‘National Beard Month’. Now there are many reasons to grow a beard
—curiosity, whimsy, lowness of character among them—but once the decision to grow has been brooked, one must choose from a dizzying variety of styles. Nonetheless, fear not! As a comfort to the boggled, and following the scientific and philosophic rule that entities should not unnecessarily be multiplied, I’ve prepared a small list of common beard types.
Regular Beards
These are bland beards that eschew excitement: fine if you want to look like a Fisher-Price construction worker, bad if you want to score. A nice variation is the Miami Vice five-day growth (also called the “Indiana J.”), which offers a slightly edgy look, but risks associating its wearer with people who are—never mind the insistent, boozy reasons—irremediably stuck in the 1980s.
Long Beards
These are your basic Santa Claus/ZZ Top full-facial hair shafts. Wearers account for 35% of official Sasquatch sightings each yea Read more:November
The Tribes of Art Basel Miami 2007-11-26 05:25:06 As the Art World winds down for this year, there is one last week of parties before going into hibernation, Art BaselMiami
. We certainly enjoy a party and there is nothing better that observing these various social groups bathing in the hedonistic waters of Miami. Here is our guide to the subcultures of the sixth annual art bacchanal.
TRIBE: THE COLLECTOR
HQ: The Four Seasons
Members: Jerry Speyer, Eli Broad, Steve Cohen, Peter Brant, Beth Rudin De Woody, Asher Edelman, Michael Lynne.
Party of Choice: After-party for private screening of Berlin, the Lou Reed film directed by Julian Schnabel.
Spot Them: Trying to sneak into the NADA fair early to see Daniel Reich’s booth.
Most Likely To: Promise never to sell a piece, then sell it.
TRIBE: THE ARTISTS
HQ: The Raleigh
Members: Damien Hirst, David LaChapelle, Doug Aitken, Jack Pierson, Aaron Young, Kehinde Wiley, Terence Koh.
Party of Choice: Visionaire. It’s launching a $250 “sound magazine” (tracks by U2, Courtney L Read more:Art Basel
Recommend Site To A Friend
