Oct-Dec 2007 - SC Global Developments

OCT⁄ DEC 2007

Strolling through a modern art gallery fi lled with abstract works that encompassed blue
squiggles on plain white canvases, a young lady said with some disdain, “ I could do this.”
“Yes,” answered the gentlemen beside her, “but you didn’t.”
Indeed, there is much value in having made a statement fi rst—to have broken ground for the
fi rst time. Like an abstract painting, once someone splashes a canvas with blue, no one else
can do it. Because it’s been done and there can only be one original.
No one knew this better than the late pop-artist Andy Warhol, whose iconic prints have
made him second only to another original, Pablo Picasso, in the highest grossing artist stakes.
Warhol copied ubiquitous images in popular culture and re-interpreted them in Technicolor.
His works had mass appeal and celebrity glitz, and they changed the way people thought
about creating art.
You could say that Warhol was the world’s fi rst real graphic designer. And while his modern
day counterparts could easily strike the same effect on any portrait or print with a few clicks
of the mouse on Photoshop, none of them would be considered revolutionary simply because
Warhol did it fi rst.
Such originality was what drew us at S C G L O B A L D E V E L O P M E N T S to sponsor the upcom-
ing exhibition “A is For Andy” to be held at 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road from 17th to 18th
November 2007. The exhibition features over 100 paintings, prints, collages and drawings
spanning the artist’s entire career, with an estimated total value of over US$10 million. The
works were drawn from private collections, wholesale dealers and the Warhol Foundation,
and the highlight of the show is the rare “complete” Mao portfolio, comprised of 10 of
Warhol’s iconic prints of Chairman Mao (see page 60 for the complete story).
The sponsorship of this exhibition ties in with our “Own The Original” ad campaign which empha-
sises the luxury of SC Global’s unique properties. We are proud to be the fi rst luxury residen-
tial developer in Singapore to offer apartments with private swimming pools on every fl oor at
The Marq, as we were to be the first to offer luxury loft apartments in the sky when we
premiered The Lincoln Modern in 2002. Incidentally, to co-incide with the launch of Lincoln
Modern, SC GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS commissioned an exhibition of original artworks by some
of the world’s most promising contemporary artists, including the likes of E-Boy, the design
collective who now enjoys a cult following for their signature pixel artworks.
Certainly, the appreciation of art and good design is a key value that we support, and through
exhibitions such as these, we hope to inspire the next generation of designers in all industries
to create and be constantly inspired.
After all, living well has everything to do with good design and creativity. All these are just
parts of the path to The Ultimate Living.
SIMON CHEONG

OCT⁄ DEC 2007
RE V IE WS BEST 8 GADGETRY 11 BOOKS+MUSIC 12 GOURMET 13 TRAVEL FILE 14 HOT REELS 15 SCENE 16
OBSESSION RESISTANCE IS FUTILE 18 TOP SHOPS 22 MIRACLE SHINE 24
LIGHTNING IN A BOT TLE 26 THE NE W GENERATION BAT TLE 28
FASHION ST YLE APPEAL 30 DESIGN FLIGHT OF FURY 38 SPECIAL FROM FERRARI TO FERRET TI 46
A R T SCENE GREAT DIMENSIONS 54 THE GET T Y GIF T 57 STILL DANDY 60 VOYAGE ULTIMATE DESTINATIONS 64
GOURME T A COOK’S TOUR 66 WHAT’S FOR DINNER 68
CEL L A R DRINK TO THIS 70 S TOCKIS T MERCHANTS’ LIST 72

OCT⁄ DEC 2007
MANAGING EDITOR ANNET TE TAN ART DIRECTOR TENG CHERN LING DESIGNER FELIX LEE
EDITOR FRANCIS KAN, VAL CHUA ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT PHYLLIS CHEAH ACCOUNT MANAGER JENNY LEE
ASSISTANT OPER ATIONS MANAGER YEO KENG SENG
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BOOKED BY DIOR
Diorphiles can now add
literature to their collections.
The book Christian Dior
by fashion historian Farid
Chenoune commemorates the
house’s 60 th birthday. It retraces
the Dior timeline through photos
of some of the most beautiful
haute couture garments
captured by Laziz Harmani. The
400-page book journeys from
the time of Monsieur Dior to
his successors like Yves Saint
Laurent, Gianfranco Ferré and
John Galliano. Chenoune also
gives the inside scoop on
the house’s front row stars,
models and backstage hijinks.
SPEED R ACER
Bentley maneuvers into
luxury with the GT Speed,
built for driving enthusiasts
who value performance, agile
handling and masculine
design. With 15 per cent
more torque and nine
percent more power than
the standard Continental GT,
the GT Speed clocks in a top
speed of 326km/h. The car
was inspired by Bentley’s
legendary speed models of
the 1920s, and comes with
bespoke performance tires
and a dark-tinted front
grille for a harderedged,
more
sculpted take on
the iconic car.
POWER SHOPPER
Ermenegildo Zegna now has a
new outlet in the heart of the
business district. Located at
Capital Tower, the Italian luxury
clothier’s latest store stocks
its new Heritage collection of
leather accessories, in addition
to its collection of ready-to-wear
apparel. Exclusive to this outlet is
the brand’s Su Misura (made-to-
measure) service, which provides
custom tailored suits and leather
goods, all in a plush private room.

MASTERS AT SPACE
Multi-label furniture boutique
Space at Millenia Walk
introduces Cassina’s Maestri
(Masters) Collection, which
includes some of the most
significant furniture designs
by architects including Le
Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand,
Frank Llyod Wright and Gerrit
Rietveld. Cassina revisited
original design plans, sketches
and prototypes to recreate
each piece as it was originally
conceived. Every design bears
the signature of its author, as
well as a production number to
confirm its authenticity.
A PROVOCATIVE MATCH
Hugo Boss takes provocation
to the limit with its first his
and her fragrances, HUGO
XY & HUGO XX. Redefining
total harmony as the basis of
modern relationships, the two
dramatically different scents
complement and challenge
each other in a provocative
power match as demonstrated
by charismatic actor Jonathan
Rhys Meyer and international
model Better Franke.
LUXURY LUGGAGE
Building on the success of the
understated dunhill d-eight
print, the luxury label has
launched the d-eight CT—a
durable and stylish luggage
collection for the discerning
male. With each piece
combining a black embossed deight
nylon with a black leather
trim, a contrasting beige nylon
interior and the now distinctive
dunhill signature stripe strap,
d-eight CT is the definitive
companion for the urban male.
Available as a Messenger,
Single and Double briefcases,
North South bag and Pochette.

INTERNE T TABLET
The Nokia N800 sees the Finnish
mobile phone manufacturer
expand their portfolio into the
ultra mobile personal computer
market. The internet tablet
taps on Wi-Fi to bring you a
full suite of communications
applications such as Skype,
instant messaging and email.
The device is a boon for
businessmen with its built-in
webcam allowing one to hold
video conferences while its
full-screen qwerty keyboard
means you can take notes on
the go. With all its connectivity
options and functions, the
N800 looks set even to replace
your ubiquitous laptop, much
less your mobile phone.
BE AUT Y AND BR AINS
Sony Ericsson’s latest offering is
undoubtedly its most beautiful
in its stable of devices. Made of
scratch-resistant mineral glass
and stainless steel casing, the
phone is a mere 12.5mm at its
widest. Unlike most fashion
phones on the market, the T650i
features top-end applications
such as a 3.2-megapixel camera,
FM radio and A2DP Bluetooth
stereo. With power, beauty and
brains, the T650i is everything
you want to carry around.
TOUCH MUSIC
It’s the iPhone without the
phone. And the good news
is you don’t have to wait till
next year to get your hands
on it. Featuring the multitouch
interface of the iPhone
on its 3.5-inch widescreen
display, the iPod Touch is
the next generation beyond
Apple’s iPods. More than
just playing music, its Wi-Fi
capability now allows you to
navigate websites via its builtin
Safari browser and stream
content online, which means
all of YouTube’s hilarious
videos are at your fi ngertips,
wherever you are. Available
in 8GB and 16 GB models.
PRO-AM
Most shutterbugs are divided
into either the Nikon or Canon
camera systems. And if the
Canon EOS 40D is anything to go
by, the numbers of EOS users
looks set to spike. While it’s
considered a mid-range digital
SLR camera, the 10.1 mega-pixel
40D has power-packed features
which include a shooting speed
of 6.5 frames per second, a
nine-point auto-focusing system
and an integrated sensor
cleaning function. Powered
by the top-of-the-line DIGIC III
imaging processor, you can be
sure that even your amateur
shots will look like a pro’s.

THE WORLD WITHOUT US
Alan Weisman
The World Without Us is a
refreshing change from the ecofriendly
books that are toppling
off the bookshelves these
days. Rather than reprimand
humankind for destroying
Mother Nature, the book instead
postulates what the world
would become should humans
disappear from the face of the
earth in an instant. According
to Weisman’s research, the
Atlantic Sea will fl ood New
York City in days while our
modern cities will be overrun
with vegetation within a few
months. While these are strictly
hypothetical situations—if they
did happen, we wouldn’t be
around to care anyway—it does
give an amazing insight on how
drastically we have shaped our
planet to suit our lifestyle.
AF TER DARK
Haruki Murakami
Deviating from his usual fi rstperson
prose, After Dark marks
Murakami’s new style of writing.
Yet, what is still prevalent in his
latest book is the overwhelming
theme of isolation that one
senses from the book’s main
characters as he traces their
movements through one autumn
night. From a bookish girl, a
sleeping beauty, an Amazonian
bouncer to a violently repressed
salaryman, Murakami opens
a window into what goes on
in the night as Tokyo sleeps.
THE BIG BOOK OF ART
David G. Wilkins
The Big Book Of Art provides
everything you need to know
about the world of art ... or the
important pieces at least. The
528-page encyclopaedia is a
veritable archive that spans from
when cavemen started drawing
on caves to the multi-hued
Campbell tins of Andy Warhol.
While its 1,000 seminal works
are wonderfully illustrated,
more interesting are the essays
that capture the essence of each
period and how it later evolved.
LENNON LEGEND: THE
VERY BEST OF JOHN
LENNON
Some might be sick of the
money-spinning anthologies
that fl ood the market but we’re
happy to say that Lennon
Legend is one for the true fans
of John Lennon. For starters,
these are songs from Lennon’s
solo career with songs from his
Apple days to the Dakota period
such as “Give Peace A Chance”.
You won’t fi nd any of the
Beatle’s hits within. This is the
one defi nitive album that you
should have in your collection.
FORE VER COOL
If there’s one good thing to say
about technology, it is that it
can bring back the dead to life.
Forever Cool is a tribute to the
late Dean Martin, producing his
voice and tunes in his prime with
a range of diverse contemporary
artists from Joss Stone to Kevin
Spacey. Yes, while it might be
hard to imagine, Spacey does a
great job in his duet with Martin
in swing tunes such as “King of
the Road” and “Ain’t That a Kick
in the Head”. It’s startling to hear
how lucid Martin belts out his
hits accompanied by an equally
stellar cast of collaborators
and we truly hope that the
production team will go on to
create duets with other legends.
Perhaps Pavarotti or Sinatra in
the pipeline?

TURKISH RELISH
If your knowledge of Turkish
cuisine is limited to just
kebabs and pilaf rice, then be
enlightened by the Turkish
buffet lunch and dinner
promotions at Greenhouse
at The Ritz Carlton-Millenia,
Singapore from 23 October
to 4 November. Resident
chefs from The Ritz-Carlton,
Istanbul will be creating Turkish
delights inspired by those
from the palace kitchens of
the Ottoman Sultans, plus
a smorgasbord of regional
Middle Eastern dishes. Feast
on specialties such as mani
pasta (pasta fi lled with minced
lamb meat), and sweets such
as helva (made with semolina
and crushed sesame seeds). Of
course, the ubiquitous donner
kebab will be there too.
PH: 6337 8888
EUROPE AN CHIC
Since opening its doors in
December 2006, Reif + James has
been serving modern European
repasts accented with Asian
fl avours. Diners were thrilled, but
the chefs have decided to revamp
their menu to include more
imaginative dishes. A fi ne curtain
raiser would be the organic
wild rice and caviar in béarnaise
sauce and truffl e foam. The Asian
element kicks in with the entrée
of the grilled quail marinated
with a fi ve-spice powder. For the
mains, tuck into a lip-smacking
concoction of grilled baby
octopus with lychee and lamb’s
lettuce in homemade chilli jam, or
an oven-baked Chilean seabass
thoughtfully paired with soba
noodles in lemongrass broth.
PH: 6238 8817
COUR TING WITH SHELLS
The fi ery spices take a back
seat for the month of October
at Szechuan Court — Raffl es
The Plaza’s stalwart Chinese
restaurant — as an extravagant
shellfi sh promotion rules the
kitchen. The young head chef,
Sebastian Goh, is known for
pushing culinary boundaries in
an otherwise tradition-oriented
cuisine. Diners can expect their
favourite crustaceans rendered
in creative ways, such as the
two-way Alaskan king crab,
which comprises a gateau of
Alaskan king crab with honey
mango, fresh avocado and
Saké fi sh roe in passion fruit
sauce, and an Alaskan crab
leg with white pepper sauce
and crispy curry leaves.
PH: 6431 6156
ME ATING PL ACE
“Thou shalt not have a
vegetarian friend,” says one of
the 10 “commandments” put
forth by The Prime Society on
its website. This pronouncement
sums up the carnivorous spirit
of this cosy restaurant housed
in a former army barracks at
the hip Dempsey Road. Expect
nothing less than prime quality
steaks and ribs here. As if the
mouth-watering menu isn’t
enough to whet your appetite,
the restaurant also features
a parilla-style oak plant grille,
which allows the chef to fl aunt
his grill drill in front of you.
Meals don’t end at the table
— an island bar sitting in the
heart of the restaurant gives
you time to unwind and swoon
over your meaty conquests
with a post-dinner tipple.
PH: 6474 7427
WWW.THEPRIMESOCIETY.COM
MEDITERR ANE AN
AFFAIR
Executive chef of Seven on Club,
Jason Lee, has worked in many
European and Latin American
restaurants. Thus, it seems
apt that he is now running a
restaurant that serves modern
Mediterranean cuisine, allowing
him to draw upon his wealth of
experience to create thoughtful
culinary combinations. The
“two-way” lobster bisque is such
an example. The velvety bisque
possesses an Italian-French
pairing of lobster tarragon
cream and the anise-fl avoured
liqueur of Pernod. The roasted
Yorkshire pork rack, with its
ingenious pairing of a delicious
prune-lime potato mash, looks
set to be the star among the
mains. Those in a carnivorous
mood can opt for the Brazil
churrascaria, where a passador
(meat carver) slides up to your
table and proffers slices of
premium meats from a skewer.
PH: 6327 9663

FOUR SE ASONS
ALE X ANDRIA
Built on the fabled San Stefano
Hotel which once hosted
esteemed dignitaries in the
19th century, Four Seasons
looks set to ride on the site’s
glorious past in providing
opulent lodging. The hotel’s
theme is based on the
Mediterranean Sea with each of
the 118 rooms offering private
balconies with spectacular
sea views. Within, the chic
décor also features traditional
Mediterranean accents with
Roman style bathrooms.
Exploring the history and
culture of Alexandria can be
tiring, which is where its twostorey
spa with 14 treatment
rooms come in handy. Together
with nine dining establishments
offering diverse cuisines, the
Four Seasons Alexandria is
perfect for that little getaway
or a business retreat.
W W W. F OURSE A S O N S .
C O M / A L E X A N D R I A
BANYAN TREE AL AREEN
It’s inconceivable that deserts
might be a place for relaxation.
But with Banyan Tree setting
laying roots in the Middle East
with its latest establishment,
they might just change that
notion. The Al Areen is the only
spa resort in the Middle East
that features all-villa lodging
and understandably, in the
arid desert, its key treatments
are based on water with
an extensive hydrotherapy
complex. Each spacious villa
is decked out in contemporary
Arabic interiors and comes with
a private pool and a courtyard.
With the luxury one has come
to expect of any Banyan Tree
establishment, the Al Areen
looks set to be an oasis that any
jaded urbanite will fi nd solace in.
LUNA 2
If you love Bali for its charm
but not its architecture, then
Luna 2 is the ideal berth for
you. Though you might have to
wait your turn on the already
long reservations list for the
well-appointed fi ve-bedroom
villa located at Seminyak. Its
modern interior features iconic
furnishings from the likes
of Philippe Starke while Pop
Art works are peppered all
over the property including a
mosaic of Marilyn Manson that
lies at the bottom of its 20m
pool. Beverages are catered
for at the lounge bar, with two
kitchens pandering to your
every craving. For other whims,
a staff of 23 is on hand to tend
to your every need. And while
its hefty price might deter
some—it costs about US$4,000
a night—for those that nothing
but the best will do, Luna 2 is
the only address to stay in Bali.
W W W. LUN A 2BALI.C O M
R ACKS MDB
Perhaps shedding its last
vestiges as a British Crown
Colony, American Pool looks
like it’s overtaking snooker, a
decidedly English sport, as the
next hobby to cultivate in Hong
Kong. And if there’s one place
to be seen racking them up, it’s
at Racks MDB, on the seventh
fl oor of the M88 building. That
is, if you manage to get onto
its exclusive membership list.
Crowded with models, bankers
and celebrities lounging on
brown leather sofas and
velvet stools, it would seem
that pool is the last thing on
anyone’s mind. Yet with its
many theme nights, beautiful
people and smashing drinks,
you’ll be forgiven if you stay
away from the pool tables
and stick to the bar instead.
W W W. R AC KSMDB.C O M

MISS POT TER
With her doe-eyed
innocence, cutesy voice
and charming mannerisms,
Renee Zellweger assumes
the life of Beatrix Potter,
the celebrated author of
children’s books, and creator
of Peter Rabbit and other
lovable illustrated creatures.
Directed by Babe’s Chris
Noonan, this largely
harmless and easy-to-like
fi lm attempts to view the
world, in Victorian England,
through Miss Potter’s eyes.
At a time when women were
told that their place was in
the home, the iconoclastic
Potter is determined to
carve out a literary career,
taking on one bigoted
man at a time, until she
meets the enlightened and
promising Norman Warne
(Ewan McGregor), a novice
publisher who believes in the
magical quality of her work.
Alas, the path to true love
is paved with hardship. An
affable fi lm that may be a
tad too sweet for some,
Miss Potter is a story about
the yearning to create
great art, and the desire
for a happy, fulfi lling life,
even if it fl ies in the face
of social convention.
THE NUMBER 2 3
The Number 23 is a
psychological thriller that
centres on a regular Joe’s
deepening fascination with
numerology. Specifi cally, Walter
Sparrow (Jim Carrey) starts to
lose his rag over the number
23, after fi nding a book about
a man whose life turns violent
because of the number and
its apparent appearance in all
kinds of everyday equations.
Most unsettling, as Sparrow
reads the book, is the
uncanny resemblance of his
life to the one being related
on the page, one that will
eventually lead to murder.
Directed by skilled commercial
helmer Joel Schumacher, The
Number 23 manages to get
the paranoia, and attendant
ridiculousness, right.
However, the highly stylised,
noirish nightmares do
not mix well in this overly
ambitious, not-quite-satisfyingenough
creep fest.
THE PAINTED VEIL
Edward Norton plays the good
but nebbish Dr Walter Fane,
who marries the exotic and
beautiful Kitty (Naomi Watts)
in anticipation of a wonderful
life in colonial-era Shanghai.
Before long, however, his free-
spirited new wife goes astray.
Out of spite, he whisks her
away to a small cholera-
infested village, where he
hopes to save the affl icted
and punish her infi delity.
Far from the bright lights of
the big city, the estranged
couple realise the folly of
their initial coalescence
and. This rich mood piece is
carried through by the central
love story that sees Norton
and Watts crossing swords
with delicacy and aplomb.
FUR
In this self-proclaimed highly
fi ctionalised imagining of the
life and times of photographer
Diane Arbus, “strange” is
the operative word.
Nicole Kidman plays the
Arbus alter ego as a bored
housewife who yearns to
see the beautiful oddities of
life up close. While the late
Arbus, renowned for capturing
unsettling images of people
on the fringe of society, did
indeed get her start in fashion
photography, the fi lm goes
off on a tangent after this
initial dovetail with reality.
Kidman’s character goes
on a fantastic journey
of self-discovery as her
eyes are opened to an
amazing counter-culture of
“freaks” with the help of a
mysterious new neighbour.
Fur makes “strange” rather
wonderful, exactly how
one supposes Arbus would
have defi ned the word.
AMA ZING GR ACE
A righteous tale about the
crusading abolitionist William
Wilberforce, Amazing Grace hits
all the right buttons predictably,
doing well to engage and inspire.
Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd,
better known as Mr Fantastic
in the Fantastic Four franchise,
portrays the passionate
protagonist, a young
politician who is convinced
that he is doing God’s
work in trying to free those
enslaved by Great Britain’s
trade in “savage” labour.
Wilberforce stages stirring
orations in parliament,
his resonant voice aided
by his quick wit.
As he grapples with ill health
and self-doubt, Wilberforce
fi nds help from unexpected
quarters, in the form of political
adversary Lord Charles Fox
(played with scene-stealing
relish by Michael Gambon),
and loving support from
a good woman, Barbara
Spooner (Romola Garai).
While providing few surprises,
Amazing Grace is ably brought
along by director Michael Apted.
In the fi nal analysis, there
is enough political intrigue
to go with the triumphant
central story, which makes
this fi lm amazing enough.

HAVE A TOAST
15 November
Fort Canning Park
On the third Thursday of each
November, from little villages
across France, over a million
cases of Beaujolais Nouveau
begin their journey through a
sleeping France for immediate
shipment to all parts of the
world. Building on the success
of last year’s festival, The
Hidden Host is inviting the
cosmopolitan community of
Singapore to share in this
tradition once again. This year’s
outdoor event will feature a
variety of music, entertainment
and a bevy of French businesses
showcasing their food and
products in colourful tents in
the park. And in true Beaujolais
Nouveau fashion, the wine will
be free flow.
INVISIBLE CIT Y / FROM
WORDS TO PIC TURE : ART
DURING THE EMERGENCY
19 October - 3 November
Singapore Art Museum
Local filmmaker Tan Pin Pin’s
feauture Invisible City is a
groundbreaking chronicle of
the ways people attempt to
leave a mark before they and
their histories disappear. Tan
draws out doubts, hopes and
the ordinary moments of these
protagonists who attempt
immortality. Audiences here
can catch a special screening of
Invisible City in conjuction with
the Singapore Art Museum’s
From Words to Pictures: Art
During the Emergency exhibition.
The latter explores the effects
of one of ‘s darkest movements
in history—the Malayan
Emergency (1948-1960)—on the
local arts scene.
If you miss the exhibition, which
ends on October 31, be sure to
catch the film, which runs till
3 November.
THE RIT Z-CARLTON,
MILLENIA SINGAPORE
– THE FIRST ART
COLLEC TION PODCAST
25 August
Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Guests staying The Ritz-
Carlton, Millenia Singapore can
now experience the first selfguided
podcast art tour of the
hotel’s modern art collection,
considered by many to be
among the finest in Singapore
and Southeast Asia. Featuring
contemporary artists such as
Frank Stella, Dale Chihuly, David
Hockey and Henry Moore, the
28-minute art tour will interest
not only hotel guests, but art
aficionados alike.
7 R A F F L ES AV ENUE P H : 6 4 3 4 518 5
VIENNA BOYS CHOIR
5-November
Esplanade Concert Hall
The world’s favourite children’s
choir is set to wow audiences
here when it performs here in
November. Formed in 1498
by Emperor Maximilian I, the
Wiener Sängerknaben (Vienna
Boys’ Choir) is one of today’s
most celebrated ambassadors
of music. From as early as 1926,
the Choir performed outside the
Austrian Imperial Chapel, paving
the way for today’s successful
world tours. There are around
100 choristers between the
ages of ten and fourteen, who
give around 300 concerts and
performances each year. The
choir’s repertoire includes
everything from medieval
motets to Beatles and
Celine Dion, from folk songs to
film scores.
W W W. S I S T I C .C O M
THE PILLOW MAN
9-25 November
DBS Arts Centre
An Olivier Award winner
for Best Play in 2004, The
Pillowman played to rave
reviews in London and New
York. The Asian premiere is
directed by Tracie Pang, and
features top talents like Adrian
Pang. With the twists of a
thriller, and the twisted logic of
a horror film, The Pillowman is
darkly funny and surprisingly
poignant. Katurian, a writer of
terrifying short stories, has
been newly imprisoned and is
questioned by the police, who
scale new heights of brutality
with their version of the good
cop/bad cop mind game.
Along the way, the reasons
for the storyteller’s capture
are revealed in a viciously
entertaining cat-and-mouse
game that will keep you on the
edge of your seat.

18 +
19
OBSESSION
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

STILL A THINKING
PHOTOGRAPHER’S TOOL, THE
M8 ISN’T A CAPITULATION TO
NEW TECHNOLOGY BUT MORE
A TESTAMENT OF HOW TO
MELD CHANGE TO A CLASSIC
It was f ilm’s last stand.
Encased within the angular
s h o u l d e r s o f t h e L e i c a
M-series rangefinder camera,
the analogue/digital impasse
that existed since the advent
of digital cameras was kept at
bay—in what many consider
the purest photographic tool
in production.
Since the march of digital
cameras began, collectors
and photographers watched in rapt fear when
analogue’s most ardent ornament would go
digital. In 2006, 52 years since the first M-series,
the cloth shutter and film advance mechanism
of the M-series made way for a circuit board.
It was a long resistance with an ineluctable
conclusion—starting in 1954 with the M3,
followed by grudging technological updates
coming an average of 10 years apart, and
culminating in the M7—Leica’s last and only
film rangefinder in production.
But this isn’t an obituary. While film was
often a sentimental medium, what distinguished
the Leica rangefinder is its cognitive and
premeditative interpretation of an image and
the process it takes to acquire it. On these
merits the M8’s gestalt remains intact with its
signature knurled shutter knob; the single block
of brass hewn to house the viewfinder chamber;
and the manual focus and exposure controls.
OLD SKIN, NEW WINE The M8 designers
faithfully reproduced the placement of the
aperture, shutter speed and focus controls.
Save for the removal of the film crank, the most
tactile changes occur at the back where digital
core controls are accessed by a simple scrolland-set
action. Great consideration was given
to keeping the details of digital photography
like white balance settings and image review
as efficient as possible. As such, the scroll and
zoom function for image review is smartly
controlled by the command dial, positioned
where your thumb rests.
Like its counterparts, the M8’s brass bottom
plate opens similarly, but
what was once the film spool
compar tment now houses
the lithium-ion battery and
SD card storage. Beyond that
l ies t he new hear t of t he
M8: a noise-free 10.3-million
pixel CCD image sensor that
is closely matched to t he
supreme resolution of Leica’s
M lenses. The mandate to
s que eze d ig it a l c i r c u it r y
into the confines of a M-series chassis posed
certain problems to the engineers at Leica. Most
pressing was the proximity of the lens’ rear
element to the CCD sensor. It is so close that
when wide-angle lenses are used, there would
surely be darkening of the image at its corners,
as light hits the CCD sensor off-perpendicularly.
The M8 avoids this by using a series of micro
lenses on its CCD sensor that are gradually offset
as they get closer to the edge of the frame.
SHUTTERED EXPECTATIONS The choice to
replace the cloth shutter was a fractious one but
necessary as the M8’s electronic innards created
limited space. This meant altering Leica’s
signature shutter ‘click’, intimately familiar to
a generation of photographers. The metal-blade
slotted shutter is perhaps a whisper louder, but
what’s perturbing is the ensuing re-arming
‘whir’. The M8’s predecessors also make that
‘whir’ as one cranks the winder lever resetting
the shutter. The only difference is that manual
cranking, when done slowly, makes almost
no noise. The silver lining to this sacrifice is a
faster maximum shutter speed of 1/8000 sec
and a quicker flash synch speed of 1/250 sec.
Still a thinking photographer’s tool, the M8
isn’t a capitulation to new technology but more
a testament of how to meld change to a classic.
You still see the image in its full palette and
instinctively turn the notches on the aperture
ring and shutter knob . It is a practised genuflect
all photographers do in their pursuit of their
envisioned image, and is an act that doesn’t
change whatever the medium…film or digital.
L EIC A R A NGEF INDERS A R E PHO T OGR A P H Y ’S EQ UI VA L EN T T O A S A MUR A I ’S
K ATA N A . T HIS L AT E S T L EIC A DONS A NE W BL A DE STORY+ IMAGES MERVIN CHUA

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22
+
23
OBSESSION
TOP SHOPS
A NEW BREED OF CULT INDIE FASHION BOUTIQUES BOASTS THE KIND OF SUPER-HIP
CACHET THAT DEPARTMENT STORES CAN ONLY DREAM OF
D a s l u , C o l e t t e , M a r i a L u i s a — t h e s e n a m e s
rol l of f t he tong ues of fash ion istas on a reg ular
basis. They aren’t t he latest r unway models, but
r at her t he mu s t- s t op s hop s for a ny j et s et t i ng
s t y l e s e a r c h e r y e a r n i n g f o r t h e m o s t c u t t i n g -
edge in desig n.
A l o n g w i t h o t h e r n o t a b l e s i n c l u d i n g t h e
D o v e r S t r e e t M a r k e t , L’ E c l a i r e u r, C o r s o C o m o
and If, such bout iques cater to t he too-chic-for-
d e p a r t m e n t- s t o r e s s e t b y o f f e r i n g d e r i g u e u r
br a nd s l i ke Marg iela and M i hara, w it h obscure
ind ie labels t hrow n in.
O f t h e s e , C o l e t t e i s a r g u a b l y t h e p i o n e e r o f t h e h y p e r-
t r e n d y mu lt i - b r a n d b o ut i que where a r t , d e s i g n a n d f a s h i o n
coalesce. Ten years on, t he Par is bout ique cont inues to def ine
a l l t h i ng s fash ionable. Stores l i ke Colet te have usu r p ed t hei r
more establ ished compet itor s —think Bar neys, Har vey Nichols
et al— by of fer ing h ig hly l imited ed it ion pieces t hat merge t he
ar t w it h fash ion.
A t N e w Yo r k ’s I f, o n e c a n f i n d s p e c i a l l y c r e at e d M a r g i e l a
tees feat ur ing shoe pr int s. Colet te boast s Cel ine tops desig ned
b y Japane s e c u lt a r t i st M i k a Niag aw a a nd snea ker pi mp s can
STORY JOSEPH LIM
f i nd t he Ni ke A i r for c e 1 b y mu s ic i a n /de s ig ner
H i r o s h i F u j i w a r a a t L o n d o n ’ s D o v e r S t r e e t
M a r k e t ( D S M ) . D S M , t h e l a t e s t i n a l i n e o f
s up e rh ip mu lt i b r a nd s t or e s , w a s t he r e s u lt of
a v i sion by Comme des Garcons’ Rei Kawakub o
t o c r e at e d e d i c at e d s p a c e s f o r d e s i g n e r s a n d
s t y l i s t s t o d o w h at t h e y d o b e s t — s e l l i n g t h e
u lt i m at e i n c o ol . K aw a k u b o h a s j o i n e d f o r c e s
w i t h C a r l a S o z z a n i , o w n e r o f M i l a n’s C o r s o
C omo, t o op en a not her C or s o C omo i n t he h ip
epicent re of Tok yo’s Ayoyama d ist r ict.
Wo n d e r f u l w a r e s a n d p r e c i o u s p i e c e s a s i d e , s h o p p i n g at
t h e s e s t o r e s t r a n s c e n d s t h e m u n d a n e a c t o f p u r c h a s e a n d
v e e r s t o w a r d s d i s c o v e r y a n d a p p r e c i a t i o n . T a k e t h e m o s t
exclusive of t he f ive L’Ecla i reur stores in Par is, for example.
Tuc ked aw ay i n Rue Herold, t here a r e no s ig nb oa rds t o t he
s t o r e a n d e nt r y i s g a i n e d t h r o u g h a t i n y d o o r b e l l . I n t e r m s
of c h ic d i s c r et i on, C om me de s G a r c on s’ G u e r i l l a s t or e s p a l e
i n compar i s on . It em s a r e e x h i bit e d i n t he caver nou s i nt er ior
a n d w a l k i n g o u t w i t h o u t s o m e t h i n g s e e m s i m p o s s i b l e . I n
L’Ecla i reur and t he l i ke, one feels l i ke one has embarked on an
exc it ing jour ney where each t ur n is an advent ure in st yle.

W HAT: L’EC L AIREUR
W hen Mar tine and A rmand Hadida f ir s t
op ened L’Ec lair eur, a 24 - s q m out f it in the
basement of a shopping c entre on Avenue
des Champ s - Elysees in 19 8 0, it was the
f ir s t Fr ench s tor e to s tock Marithe Francois -
Girbaud, T imb erland as well as Hogan
and Tod’s . W idely acknow ledged as one
of the world ’s b e s t men’s f ashion s tor e s,
L’Ec lair eur s ealed its r eputation w hen it
move d to a larger premise ( 3 0 0 - s q m) on
Rue de Rosier s in the hear t of f ashionable
Marais dis tric t in 19 9 0. Back then, they
of f ered Paris the tromp e l ’oeil designs of
Fornaset ti, f urnitur e by Philippe Star c k
alongside c ut ting e dge f ashion lab els . Now
a f ive - s tor e c hain in Paris, the las test jewel
in its sup erhip c row n is L’Ec lair eur Tok yo,
in the expensive dis tric t of Aoyama.
W HY SHOP THERE : A n e c le c tic mix of the
niche and the unheard-of. Check out its Rue
Herold branch w here you need to intercom
b e for e you c an enter.
W H E R E : 10 Rue Herold, Paris 75 0 01, France
4 -21-26, Minami Aoyama Minato - k u, Tok yo
10 070 0 0 6 2, Japan
WHAT: DASLU
Perhaps, f ashion designer and inventor of
the w rap dress Diane Von Fur s tenb erg s aid
it b e s t of Rio de Janeiro’s b e s t k now n s tor e.
“Daslu, the f ashion temple. I have never
s e en any thing like it...an endless labyrinth
of small rooms each designed as a woman’s
ideal c loset, divided by c olor s, by moods,
by themes. T he s alesgirls ar e all b eautiful,
the a tmosphere is unique and men ar e not
allowed in mos t rooms s o tha t women c an
dress, undress, and walk f rom room to
room. T here is definitely a Daslu c ultur e
that is unique in the world.... “
W HY SHOP THERE : Because it t ake s
shopping in a s tore to w hole new levels
w ith its impressive range and imp e c c able
s er vic e. A nd an all - women - only s tor e?
Sur ely, tha t ’s wor th a visit.
W H E R E : Daslu, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
W HAT: DOVER STREET M ARKET
Japanese designer Rei K awakub o’s pie c e
de r e sis t ance is an innova tive new r e t ail
c oncept s t ar ted in 20 0 4 . T he 13,000 - s q
f t , six-f loor b outique is packe d w ith one -
of- a - k ind, avant- garde f ashion, design
and ar t obje c t s, r e sulting f rom unique
c ollab orations w ith s t yle gur us such as
A z zedine A laia, A nne -Valerie Hash and
ex- Dior Homme designer, Hedi Slimane.
Incidentally, Slimane also designed pie c e s
of f urnitur e e specially for this c oncept
s tor e. D over Street Mar ke t help e d put
London back on the f ashion radar.
WHY SHOP THERE : Vogue UK c alled it “the
c oolest s tor e in the world ’’. A nd f ew would
argue. Go on a Sunday and you’r e likely to
f ind Chris tian Dior designer John Galliano
r ubbing shoulder s w ith Mar c Jacob s .
W H E R E : 7-18 D over Street, London
W1S 4LT, England
WHAT: COLE T TE
T here’s no denying the imp or t ance of this
place eight year s af ter it f ir s t op ened.
C ole t te is s till r e garded as Paris’ b e s t
indie b outique. T he b onus : T he up s t air s
galler y, w hich is a mus t- s e e w ith show s on
ever y thing ranging f rom photography to
toy design. C elebrit y- spot ting is a given.
WHY SHOP THERE : T hey s tock ever y brand
available. A nd if they don’t, those are
lab els you shouldn’t b other w ith.
W H E R E : 213 Rue St .- Honor é, 75 0 01
Paris, France
W HAT: 10 CORSO COMO
In 19 91, C arla Soz z ani, sis ter to Franca
(editor of Vogue Italia) , op ened this
13,000 - s q f t c olle c tion of s elling spaces
group e d around a b eautiful c our t yard in a
slightly of f- c entre neighb ourhood. Under
its roof ar e the Galleria C arla Soz z ani
(a photography and design galler y) , a
b ookstor e and a f ashion b outique. E xpec t
to f ind hard-to -f ind ac c e s s orie s and
appar el and other design - r ela ted produc t s .
T here is also the c afe and the T hr e e Rooms
Hotel. Pretentious? A lit tle. St ylish? You
b e t ter b elieve it.
WHY SHOP THERE : A ny thing you f ind in
Vogue I t alia, arguably the world ’s mos t
r evered f ashion and s t yle bible, is likely
to b e found here. Ye s, s tric tly for f ashion
vic tims only.
W H E R E : C or s o C omo 10, 2015 4 Milan, I t aly

24
+
25
OBSESSION
MIRACLE SH
TENDER LOVING CARE TO GET YOUR CAR GLEAMING LIKE NEVER BEFORE—
AT $15,000 A POP STORY MERVIN CHUA IMAGES PHOTOLIBRARY + GETTY IMAGES

I NE
A gooey mix of fatty acids, alcohol, and hydro-
carbons, Carnauba is to your car what Crème de La
Mer is for your wife. And for $15,000, Paul Dalton
of the UK, will hand-massage it onto your Enzo.
To date, only Jessica Simpson’s lathered lap
dance of a car wash in Dukes of Hazzard has cost
more for a car wash than Dalton’s $15,000 wash
and polish. Clearly not your usual drive through,
Paul of Modena Cars in Buckinghamshire, UK,
doesn’t really do car washes inasmuch as he
does coat renewal. His 61-stage Pinnacle service
is a two-week regime of systematic rejuvenation
of your car’s surface, making its original
factory shine look like your wife’s mud mask
when he’s done.
B E A U T Y R E G I M E Mov i ng t he m ic r o -
scopic dings and scratches from the factory
begins with a hose down with purified water
and suds made from a rare organic shampoo,
r ubbed in w ith an ultra-soft natural sea
sponge. Dr ying is almost as arduous with
exotic micro-weave dr y cloths of var ying
grades before contaminants are coaxed out
of the coat with exotic plasticine-looking clay.
Now that the coat is clean of whatever crud
it has absorbed from greasy hands and fawning
fans, paintwork correction begins. What was a
car wash suddenly looks like the set of CSI as
Dalton uses an ultrasonic scope to measure
the depth of the paint, base and topcoat. With
that, he charts the veneer of your car and
decides how much elbow grease he can put in
at various spots. For extra control, an extremely
gentle polish is used because most car polishes
are highly abrasive and more often than not
removes existing scratches with their own
signature of smaller swirls. Dalton’s use of a
gentle polish lets him remove scratches and relevel
the car’s lacquer by one or two microns so
the paint can reflect light at all angles.
Figuring when the paint’s albedo is at its
zenith is when science and experience meet.
Once the car’s scratches are removed and
the light that falls on it is as sculptured as
the wind that f lows across it, Dalton handmassages
four coats of Zymol Royale wax onto
the car and takes about 96 hours. The labour
of love doesn’t really faze Dalton—rather,
what gets his goat is if he spills any bit of that
Zymol Royale wax. Understandable since this
wax has a staggering 73 per cent concentration
of Carnauba wax and costs $20,000 per
tub…just slightly more expensive than gold
per gram. Whoever said beauty was cheap?
Visit www.miracledetail.co.uk for details

26
+
27
OBSESSION
LIGHTNING IN A BOT

TLE
I n a n i nc r ea s i ng ly d ig it a l world, t wo
industries are technological islands isolated in
their reliance on analogue devices like vacuum
tubes. Microwave towers, while beaming burst
transmissions of data still rely on vacuum tubes
because of their unassailable power handling
capabilities at high frequencies. And to an
audiophile, only the humble vacuum tube’s
fidelity signature can achieve aural harmony
with the human ear. As opposed to solid state
transistors used in most consumer-grade audio
equipment, the inherent physical properties of
vacuum tubes produce lower overall distortion
that just can’t be beat.
On an aural level, while transistors replicate
sound linearly, the magical difference of tubed
sound is its clean smoothness, which is more
detailed and accentuated by more life-like sound
staging. But tube amps weren’t always lauded.
The high-end hi-fi market was once dominated
by sold state transistors, while tube amplifiers
were the domain of audio geeks, nostalgic about
vintage amplifiers from before 1970. It wasn’t
until the 1980s when the interest for tubed
sound burgeoned. Oddly, it wasn’t a domestic
interest that brought vacuum tubes back into
favour but audiophiles from Asia, namely Japan,
who clamoured for vintage tubes with “Made in
USA” or “Made in England” labels.
AMPLIFIER VACUUM TUBES ARE ORBS OF ANALOGUE DEFIANCE IN AN
ENCROACHING DIGITAL WORLD. HERE’S HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE A RARE
GEM FROM A HOUSEHOLD BULB S TO RY + I M AG E S MERVIN CHUA
Unceasing foreign demand––often 10 times
more than domestic demand––was also fuelled
by a unique Japanese aural craving. It was a cult
following for the particular sound produced by
a Western Electric 300B audio trode initially
used in 1930s movie theatre amplifiers. In
addition, Hi-fi components made in the ’50s
and ’60s by American companies like Marantz
and McIntosh Laboratory Inc became cult
brands in Asia.
VACUUM HUNT As authentic supplies shrank,
the Gold Rush days of sourcing for vintage
tubes have turned to a search for offshore
oil deposits, exacerbated by the fact that
American manufacture of vacuum tubes has
ceased totally. These days the only countries
still producing vacuum tubes are Russia, China,
and Japan. There are however, new old stock
(NOS) tubes still to be had at numerous auction
sites. NOS are unused tubes manufactured
decades ago in the U.S, Canada, and Western
Europe up until the1980s. Another category of
tubes are JAN tubes (Joint Army Navy). These
were mostly post-1970 production tubes used
for military communication equipment and
prized by audiophiles for their durability
having been rated to withstand vibration and
g-forces in fighter planes.
ALMOST EVERY
AUDIOPHILE HAS A TEARY
EYED CONFESSION OF
HOW OLD HIS VACUUM
TUBE IS, AND HOW, LIKE
WINE, ITS RESONANCE
GETS BETTER WITH AGE
Foremost when sussing out the veracity of a
NOS tube is its original factory packaging. The
boxes won’t be in mint condition as they’ve
been sitting in storage for a few decades but
be sure to match the box type with the type of
tube it holds. Despite their age and condition
of the box, NOS tubes should still have bright
shiny components without signs of burns,
discolouration or halos around it. Some military
tubes, however, have a small burn spot from
being “burned in” before being packaged. Also
ensure the bases of the new tubes are clean and
free from scrapes––an indication that it has
been mounted onto an amplifier before.
NOS t ub e s shou ld st i l l b ea r t he t ub e
manafacturer’s logo on the glass along with
type and date code, while the tube pins are still
straight. Darkening on the base of the tube or
heat cracks is a clear indication of a used tube.
Almost every audiophile has a teary eyed
confession of how old his vacuum tube is, and
how, like wine, its resonance gets better with
age. Some tubes from the ’40s have been known
to still work impeccably. In that aspect, perhaps
the adage “they don’t make them like they used
to” was really a reference to vacuum tubes. But
beyond ageless performance, vacuum tubes are
reminiscent of days before technology’s bells
and whistles got so blarring

28
+
29
OBSESSION
THE NEW GENE

It starts innocuously enough. The four-year-
old child stretches out her chubby hand for a
PSP—that’s a Playstation Portable—a palm-
sized video game repository. Her parents sigh,
they think, why not? And they give in.
Fast-forward 10 years. Now 14, she demands
an iPod this week, a coloured mobile phone with
Bluetooth functions the next, then a branded
Crumpler bag, and oh, don’t forget the shopping
money for dresses from Topshop and its High
Street ilk. She must have these, because that’s
what all the “in” girls at her school possess, and
she just has to be on the right side of the school
social divide.
Mum and Dad, both working and typically
spending more time in a month out of Singapore
than in, feebly protest before they give in. They
think: “What’s the use of fighting? We spend
so little time with her, let’s keep her happy and
give her want she wants.”
Teenage consumerism. It’s an insidious
battleground into which all parents, whether
cash-rich or cash-strapped, are inexorably
sucked in against their will. What is apparent,
however, is that the odds are increasingly
stacked against the parents.
“The game has moved on,” says consultant
psychiatrist Brian Yeo. “Gadgets like iPods, even
laptops, have become mainstream. Package
that together with the fact that guilty parents
who spend little time with their children try to
make it up by substituting dollars for time, and
you have a triple whammy. “Most parents are
trying to do their best, but many feel the easiest
thing is just to give their kids the cash,” adds Dr
Yeo. Which begs the question: What, then, can
RATION BATTLE
PARENTS ARE FACING A NEW BATTLE WITH THEIR TEENAGE CHILDREN—BUYING
EXPENSIVE GADGETS AND IPOD-RELATED GOODS THAT ARE THE NEW UNIFORM FOR
THE YOUNG. WHAT CAN THEY DO ABOUT IT? S TO RY WONG SHER MAINE
parents who want to raise sensible adults who
know the value of money, possibly do?
DISTR ACT Instead of g iv ing teenagers a
chance to star t obsessing about mater ial
goods, try to divert their interests elsewhere.
Get them interested in sports, the arts or even
religion, suggests Dr Yeo. “Light begets light.
Ground the kids in healthier pursuits, where
even the friends they meet in those circles
w ill be geared towards more wholesome
goals.” It is an approach which Dr Yeo himself
adopted, as his wife resigned from her job to
steer their children in what the couple feel is
the right direction.
MODEL In a manner of speaking, monkey see,
monkey do. Teenagers who see their parents
splurging on designer goods are wont to do
adopt the same values and do the same. Said
Mr Philip Chang, a counsellor from the Centre
fo Fathering: “From a young age, children are
watching their parents. Whether they splurge
on designer brands, their attitude towards flats
and private property, how they regard elite and
neighbourhood schools. Parents unconsciously
pass on values this way.”
C A P I TA L I S E Turn a potential war into an
opportunity for imparting some good old values.
“Explain that they should not give in to external
demands,” says Dr Yeo. But also recognise and
acknowledge the need for them to fit in. Use it
as an opportunity to convey moral lessons.”
Something which parents can also tell their
teenaged children is that the “keep up with
the Joneses” approach is not always right—that
each family is different.
“Grab the chance to teach their teens about
making sound buying decisions,” adds Mr Chang.
“You can call it a gift of life values, rather than a
gift of things.”
C O M P R O M I S E The just-say-no approach,
which may have worked in the olden days with
relatively naïve teenagers, would probably
cause even more friction with the brash-talking
teenagers of today. Parents, say the experts,
have to first empathise. Then compromise.
Offer to pay part of the price and then ask the
child how much he is willing to fork out of his
own allowance. Then at least he learns to make
savvy purchase decisions, ask do-I-really-needthis
questions and be accountable. Parents can
also get their children to work for their income,
perhaps by performing household chores

30
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31 FASHION
G E A R U P F O R F A L L W I T H P L U S H F A B R I C S A N D L O T S O F S H I N E
PHOTOGRAPHY ELIZA PHUA ART DIRECTION STEVE THIO STYLING DEBR A WONG HAIR KENNETH ONG, (HP: 91478321) MAKEUP TINOQ RUSSELL GOH (HP: 98162149) USING YVES SAINT
LAURENT BEAUTE MODELS CARLOS & IVANA / AVE. ALL PENS FROM GR AF VON FABER-CASTELL

SEXY SHEEN
BLACK LEATHER DRESS
AND OBI BELT FROM
LOEWE AT NGEE ANN CITY

S LEEK L I N E S
M I L I TA RY S T Y LE D
WOOL JAC K E T, PANTS
AN D F I T T E D W H I T E
C OT TO N S H I R T F R O M
BURBERRY AT PA R AGON

S H A R P S T Y LE
B L AC K K N I T T E D B LOUSE
AN D LE AT H E R G LOV E S F R O M
BURBERRY AT PA R AGON

NO FLY ZONE
BONTRAGER RACE
LITE CRANKSET

G R A PHIC AC C E N T S
P R I N T E D SUIT, S H I R T AN D T I E
F R O M BURBERRY AT PA R AGON

S T Y L I S H N OT E S
B L AC K TURTLE N EC K AND
F L AT F R O N T PANTS F R O M
LOEWE AT N G E E ANN C I T Y

C L AS S I C E LEGAN C E
C OW L N EC K B LO USE
AN D H AT BY AG N E S B AT
I S E TAN S C OT T S. 2 0 07 ’S
PE N O F T H E Y E A R F R O M
G R AF VO N FABER- CASTELL

TREK EQUINOX TTX 9.5 FLYING ACE
OCLV 110 CARBON FRAME
SHIMANO ULTEGRA 20-SPEED

WITH SPEED COMES INTIMIDATION
CAPTIONS FOR TREK STORY
PHOTOGRAPHY STYLING TITLE: & ART FLIGHT DIRECTION OF FURY
MERVIN CHUAA RAYMOND TAY
-
DPS:
TREK EQUINOX TTX 9.5 FLYING ACE
- OCLV 110 CARBON FRAME
- S H I M A N O U L T E G R A 2 0-
SPEED
DESIGN
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CARBON CONVERGENCE
BONTRAGER’S RACE LITE
TT CARBON FORK

THUNDERBOLT
THE INSPIRATION OF THIS TREK’S PAINT JOB, THE
P47 THUNDERBOLT WAS THE LARGEST SINGLE-
ENGINE FIGHTER OF ITS DAY. IT WAS ONE OF THE
MAIN UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCE (USAAF)
FIGHTERS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

NO FLY ZONE
BONTRAGER RACE
LITE CRANKSET

LAUNCH PAD
FI’ZI:K K1 CARBON FIBRE SEAT
IS A MELD OF HARD, BRITTLE
CARBON FIBRES AND SOFT GEL
BONDED TO EACH OTHER AND
ENCASED UNDER AN ULTRA
THIN COATING

ZIPP WEAPONRY
EACH RIM STARTS AS 70 CNC CUT PIECES
FROM FIVE TYPES OF CARBON/GRAPHITE
FIBRE. THESE PIECES ARE THEN HAND-LAID
AND FUSED USING ZIPP’S PROPRIETARY
ICT (INVERSION COMPOSITE TECHNOLOGY)
PROCESS TO OPTIMISE STIFFNESS

AIRFOIL TECHNOLOGY
ZEDTECH WHEELS ARE OPTIMIZED USING
ZIPP’S PATENTED REGENERATIVE AIRFOIL
TECHNOLOGY AND ABLC (AERODYNAMIC
BOUNDARY LAYER CONTROL) DIMPLES TO
LOWER AERODYNAMIC DRAG

46
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47 SPECIAL
FERRARI TO
NOW THAT SINGAPORE IS OPENING UP
HER WATERS, LUXURY YACHTS ARE SET
TO DOMINATE THE HORIZON. JUST HOW
BIG IS THE INDUSTRY AND SHOULD YOU
RUSH TO BUY A YACHT TOO?
S TO RY WONG SHER MAINE I M AG E S PHOTO LIBRARY

FERRETTI
If you ask 45-year-old Benjamin Lai what sets
his pulse racing these days, he’ll gladly let on
that his object of desire lies not in a new set
of wheels or a club membership, but in a pair
of sails. One that can hopefully propel him
into the elite world of the seafaring crowd
who sip champagne on board their Ferrattis,
while enjoying the cool breeze of the ocean.
“I don’t need a branded or very expensive
yacht,” said the foreign exchange trader,
“but having been on yachts belonging to
my friends, I can say I like the seafaring
lifestyle, the comfort of being on a yacht out
at sea, and the sheer freedom. Who knows?
I might want to try my hand at fishing.”
From hankering after supercars like
the Ferrari to craving super yachts like the
Ferretti, legions of new fans like Benjamin
have sprung up in recent years, driven
partly by the new accessibility of this
once-exclusive world. Singapore, for one,
wants to draw the international yachting
set to its shores, along with the high
rollers for its two upcoming casinos and
the F1 race. Most notable is the ongoing
efforts to build an oceanfront residential
community in Sentosa Cove, where the uber
rich can park a yacht at their front door.
The business moguls certainly know where
the money is headed—the mushrooming of
berths is an indication of how hot the industry
is becoming. The just-opened One°15Marina
at Sentosa Cove, for instance, has nearly
200 wet berths, 100 dry berths and 10 of the
biggest berths in Singapore for mega yachts
of between 85 and 200 feet. Following hotly
on its heels is Marina at Keppel Bay with five
spaces for mega yachts of between 100 and
200 feet, and another 170 spaces for all other
yachts. It is slated for completion at the end of
this year. All these, on top of existing berths at
the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club, the SAF
Yacht Club, Raffles Marina and Punggol Marina.
Current yacht-owners include Mr
Shaw Vee King—a nephew of Hong Kong
entertainment mogul Run Run Shaw—who
owns the 270-feet Sea Shaw yacht. Then there
is Mr Brian Chang, the CEO and chairman
of Yantai-Raffles Shipyard in China, who
owns the 290-feet Asean Lady. She was
ranked the 19th largest yacht in the world
in 2006 by Power and Motoryacht magazine.

Yacht brokers are getting an unprecedented
number of calls from interested buyers,
leading one broker to wryly remark that the
industry has gone from being under-brokered
to over-brokered in just one year. Vincent
Lim, Raffles Marina’s relations and business
development manager: “It’s the new toy to
see and be seen in. It’s the new supercar. And
even compared to the private jet, which is
seen more as a convenient necessity to get
from point A to point B, the yacht is purely a
luxury tool. You don’t need it but you have it.”
MONTE CARLO OF THE EAST? Luxury yachts
are particularly bountiful in the Mediterranean
and Caribbean Seas, although increasingly,
luxury yachts are cruising in more remote
areas of the world. Singapore is merely riding
on a luxury yachting wave that is global in
nature and tied closely to booming economies
that are creating a new moneyed class,
especially in emerging countries like China.
All the large yacht producers are reporting
increased orders, noted Mr Lim. “I won’t use
the word explode, but it’s growing. Worldwide,
luxury yachting is seeing huge growth because
of the money. Economies are doing well and
it’s all linked to luxury money,” he said.
The link is so close that when stock
markets register a blip, potential buyers
immediately decide to postpone their
purchases. However, once the clients reach
a certain level of wealth, they are “recession
proof”. He added: “There is a lot of new money
in Asia, especially in China and Indonesia.”
It appears that demand is especially
hot for motor engine-powered yachts—
the more expensive and therefore more
prestigious compared to sailing yachts—
which are commonly used for racing
and are characterised by their tall masts
and large sails. Brand-name yachts like
Ferretti, Azimut and Riviera are the talk
of the town, boosted no less by One°15
Marina chairman Arthur Tay’s acquisition
of a 116-foot Italian-built Azimut yacht.
The new marina wants to turn
Singapore into the “Monte Carlo of the
East”, where royalty and movie stars rub
shoulders with one another as they cruise
the blue seas and attend car rallies.
But is there enough demand to drive Singapore
into that direction? Not yet, say experts.
A yacht broker who declined to be named,
said: “Yachts have indeed been placed at the
forefront especially in the past year, but the
market is not educated. People have no clue
what they want. They want a yacht because
they say, oh, my friend has a yacht too.”
In that sense, the yacht market here is in its
infancy, as compared to ritzy Monte Carlo or
even Hong Kong, he says. Many of the calls he
fields are from people who have no idea how
much a yacht even costs. Some corporations
call up with the intention of giving away a
yacht during their company dinner; others call
up wanting to charter a yacht for a business
meeting. “Usually the price immediately puts
them off,” he says, and estimates that less than
20 motor yachts are purchased and arrive in
Singapore in a year. “There are so many berths
and frankly, not enough boats to fill them up.”
SET TO GROW Despite teething problems, the
consensus is that yachting will take off. “In the
IT’S THE NEW TOY TO SEE AND BE SEEN IN. IT’S THE NEW SUPERCAR.
AND EVEN COMPARED TO THE PRIVATE JET, WHICH IS SEEN MORE AS A
CONVENIENT NECESSITY TO GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B, THE YACHT
IS PURELY A LUXURY TOOL. YOU DON’T NEED IT BUT YOU HAVE IT.
next five years, probably all the marinas will
be at least three-quarters full,” said the broker.
While those who are buying yachts now—a mix
of expatriates and increasingly, Singaporeans—
are mostly starting with smaller yachts, the
prediction is that some of them will upgrade.
And what is exciting the industry is the
anticipated entrance of big spenders who
will propel the luxury yachting scene to an
even higher level. “This is the top spending
tier, where we will see some serious buyers.”
Serious yacht enthusiasts, apart from those
involved in yacht racing, are well-heeled
individuals who want to escape the city by
taking off for a few days to places like Penang,
Langkawi or further afield. And perhaps,
more than anything, the appeal of wanting to
possess a yacht lies more in the intangibles.
As Mr Tay says when describing the
experience offered at One°15 Marina: “This
will be more than a world-class marina where
you can admire some of the world’s most
beautiful boats and mega-yachts. This will
also be the place to hang out with the who’s
who in industry and society, watch the sunset
and appreciate the finer things in life.”
WANT THE YACHTING
LIFESTYLE?
You don’t have to be a
billionaire but you need
money. Depending on
the brand, features and
size, a 27-foot cruiser
could easily cost over
US$70,000. Then there
are the berthing fees.
At the Republic of
Singapore Yacht Club, it
costs $465 a month to
park a 33-foot boat in a
dry berth. This does not
include diesel fuel costs
for a motor yacht, and a
skipper if you don’t own
a boat licence.
Once you’re ready to
take the plunge, speak to
a boat dealer. Reputable
ones include Pen-Marine,
Lotus International
Luxury Yachts, Kingfisher
Marine Luxury, Simpson
Marine and Peninsula
Boating. These brokers
will talk you through a
host of decisions: For
instance, whether to buy
new or used, whether
to buy sail or motor and
how big a yacht you
need. Typically, yachts
start from 36–40 feet
and can go up to over a
few hundred feet. The
longest private-owned
motor yacht in the world,
which belongs to the
Crown Prince Sultan of
Saudi Arabia, is believed
to be the 456-feet-long
Al Salamah.

50
ADVERTORIAL
crisis guru
HOW ABN AMRO’S BAREND JANSSENS DID IT HIS WAY
It is during uncertain times that one is put to
the test. And you can be sure that Mr Barend
Janssens will pass with flying colours in any
crisis. The private banking head of ABN AMRO’s
Asia operations has not only kept above the
fray of a poaching war for talents, he has grown
the business even as the bank itself undergoes
merger discussions. Just look at the numbers.
During his two-and-a-half-year stewardship,
clients entrusted a lot more of their money to
the bank’s private banking operations. Assets
under Management increased 90%, from US$10
billion to US$19 billion, a record matched by few
private banks in Asia.
And while other banks went on a bidding
war for talents, he avoided this by setting
strict hiring criteria. Yet he managed to attract
more qualified people than ever before—his
team grew by almost 25% to 445, far beyond
industry averages. And for that, Mr Janssens
has been given the Outstanding Private Banker
in Asia Pacific award recently by London-based
publication Private Banker International. The
annual award pays tribute to the best-of-breed
in the global wealth industry.
You’ve beat two other worthy finalists—CEO of
Coutts International Hanspeter Brunner and SG
Private Banking (Asia Pacific) Managing Director
Balakrishnan Kunnambath—for the award. What,
in your view, makes you stand out?
This award is really a recognition of the
team’s effor ts and hard work. The fact that
the award is coming at a time of merger talks is
particularly significant, and definitely a morale
booster for the bank. Any private banker can
do a great job when times are good. But it is
only in times of crisis that he is really put to the
test. The last few months have seen ABN AMRO
embroiled in merger talks but the team has not
been distracted. We have kept our priorities right
by staying focused on meeting the demands of
the clients.
I believe in a client-focused mindset. This
means investing time and efforts to communicate
regularly with your clients. Over the last few
months, I have been making personal calls and
visits to our clients to cement the relationships.
Constant contact with clients is very important,
especially in Asia, where many of the high
net-worths wants the private bankers to actively
manage their money, unlike in Europe.
Perhaps another area where I stand out is my
ability to integrate Asian sensibilities into my Dutch
heritage. As I believed in being on the ground, I
have established good relationships with my Asian
clients over the last few years and that has helped
me gain insights into their mindsets and cultures. I
realised that where I come from, people are more
outspoken but here in Asia, you often need to be
more sensitive when you communicate.
What makes a good private banker?
With the ongoing expansion plans of private
banks in the region, we will continue to see a
shortage of professional bankers which will be
difficult to solve in the short term. We recognise
the talent crunch challenge in the industry, which
is why we have invested substantially in internal
training initiatives to develop talent from within
the bank and that has worked well for us so far.
We have managed to recruit, retain and develop
a team of experienced private banks over the
last two years despite stiff competition in the
market. To me, a good private banker needs to
always put the interest of the clients first. This
means investing time to understand the mindset,
needs and financial goals of the clients before
recommending any financial solutions.
Like I said, it is easy to do a good job when
times are good. A private banker, who is there
for the clients both in good times and especially
in bad, is a true professional. An example, during
the recent sub-prime crisis, our private bankers
proactively contacted the clients to update them
on the situation and assess their portfolio risks.
A good private banker also needs to have
high level of integrity, which perhaps is the most
important trait of all. The ability to say no to
something that is on the wrong side of integrity is
key. That’s because once you lose the trust of your
clients, chances are, you never get it back

54
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55 ARTSCENE
KOREAN-AMERICAN ARTIST JINNIE SEO TAKES AUDIENCES BEYOND THE CONSTRAINTS
One of the things one notices about artist Jinnie
Seo when she talks, is how she uses her hands to
accentuate and punctuate her sentences. There is
a simple pleasing grace in how precisely they pass
through the space in front of her, never faltering on
their intended trajectories. Nary a twitch or quiver
is perceptible in her hands, hands that could have
found use for a scalpel, instead of pencils, brushes
and other art implements.
“I could have been a doctor; I was fantastic
at dissection,” says Seo, who studied biology at
New York University in the late 1980s—no doubt
infl uenced by her mother, a radiologist—before
discovering a passion for art. That discovery
came along purely by chance, a “fluke” as Seo
describes it.
While considering a career in medicine, the
Korean-American was living in the Soho district of
New York, where much of her leisure was occupied
by visits to the numerous trendy art galleries in
the area at the time. Science was something she
enjoyed, hence it was her chosen vocation coming
out of high school. Art, on the other hand, was
something her twin sister had more of a knack for.
“I didn’t think much of it at fi rst,” she says. “I
went to the galleries just to have some fresh
air, to take time off. They were an outlet for me.”
Eventually, though, art came to Seo “naturally”.
She started taking art classes while studying
biology. During the course of the latter, in learning
and remembering concepts, she found that making
drawings helped her achieve a near-photographic
memory. She proceeded to get her Master of Fine
Arts degree in Painting, and has been exhibiting her
works for the last decade, mostly in Seoul and New
York. Her fi rst exhibition in Singapore took place in
2005, when she held a solo show at The Substation
called Space in Transit.
Its curatorial mission was to record “the process
of encountering, defining, marking, and creating
a transitory spatial dialogue”, and it entailed the
artist drawing on the walls of the Substation
Gallery. Her latest work in Singapore, where her
sister now lives, is an installation created within
the fl agship Liat Towers store of Hermes.
Wander/Wonder carries on the artist’s exploration
of spaces and spatial relationships, and refl ects her
desire to take audiences into a work of art, just as
she herself had stepped through the looking glass,
so to speak, fi ve years ago.
“My awareness of space came about when
I started wanting to break through the twodimensional
aspects of my works,” says Seo,
who thinks of herself as more of a drawer than a
painter. At fi rst, she attempted to create space on a
two-dimensional plane by layering creatively with
lines and colours—to no avail.
Driven to exasperation by the constraints of her
art, she looked for ways to become more involved.
“I wanted to be inside the artwork. Looking at
my work, you can see that there’s nothing onedimensional.
There’s definitely an interplay
between two and three dimensions.”
Indeed, a number of Seo’s works over the
years have questioned the necessity and utility
of the boundaries of an art exhibition space, the
very walls that determine how a specifi c amount
of space becomes a room. Seo’s work within the
Hermes store, inhabiting the entire top fl oor and
extending to the spiral staircase that connects
all floors, and the ground-level window displays,
encourages spatial contemplation. Geometric

OF LINES AND CANVASES, AS FAR AS HER IMAGINATION RUNS FREE
shapes in a variety of bold colours abound on
PVC film sheets and take larger-than-life forms,
creating a mini-maze on the third fl oor.
Every drawn line, Seo assures, has been
meticulously done by hand.
Mirrors are strategically placed so that visitors
are made starkly aware of their place within the
artwork and jolted from the status as ordinary art
consumers.
“There’s an immediacy that hits you and it lets
you recognise where you are.”
At different times of day, as the light streams in
with differing intensity from the store’s large glass
windows, so does the viewer’s experience change.
“It’s all about perception—different angles and
different perspectives, and deconstructing and
peeling off the layers,” says Seo, making a perfectly
evocative peeling motion with her hands.
Wander/Wonder is open to the public at the
Hermes store at Liat Towers, from now until 25
November 2007. 10.30am to 7.30pm daily. Free
admission.
S TO RY YONG SHU CHIANG I M AG E S HERMES

THE GETTY GIFT
THE OIL BARON’S LEGACY LIVES ON IN THE FORM OF THE WORLD’S WEALTHIEST
ARTS INSTITUTION S TO RY YONG SHU CHIANG I M AG E S CORBIS
ARTSCENE
57
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58

In terms of enormous wealth, the late American
oil baron Jean Paul Getty was undoubtedly the Bill
Gates of his time. Getty’s fortune was estimated
in the region of US$2 to US$4 billion ($6 billion) in
1974, two years before his death at age 83, and he
had a somewhat more eccentric reputation than
Microsoft’s Gates does today.
The folklore surrounding Getty, a health nut
who occasionally wore worn-out clothes to feign
poverty, centred on his installation of a pay phone
in his own home (he felt that guests had been
making too many expensive calls) and his refusal
to pay the ransom to his rebellious grandson’s
kidnappers (he eventually relented, but not after
his grandson was irrevocably traumatised). But it
was his final and most stunning act—true to his
reputation—that has ensured his legacy lives on
today, and will probably continue to live on for a
long time.
A LEGACY IN ART Instead of bequeathing his
estate to his family, every single dollar to Getty’s
name, amassed via the Getty Oil Company and
hundreds of other business concerns, would reside
within a trust fund that would ensure “the diffusion
of artistic and general knowledge”.
The Los Angeles-based J. Paul Getty Trust has
an estimated endowment of US$5.8 billion, and
it operates two California museums: the J. Paul
Getty Museum (housed within the Getty Center)
in Brentwood and the Getty Villa in Malibu. The
Getty Center, a dramatic hilltop campus designed
by Richard Meier, opened in 1997 and celebrates its
tenth anniversary this year. It is home to thousands
of valuable pieces of Western art dating back to the
Middle Ages.
Some of the treasures in its permanent collection
include famed paintings, such as Irises by Van
Gogh, King of France and Navarre by Hyacinthe
Rigaud; manuscripts, sculptures, Greek and Roman
antiquities, and decorative arts.
Also in the permanent collection are more
than 31,000 American and European photographs
from the 19th- and 20th-century, which the
museum director Michael Brand has called the
establishment’s only link to modern times.
William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret
Cameron, Roger Fenton, Gustave Le ray, Alfred
Stieglitz and Walker Evans are some whose works
are featured and photography curator Weston Naef
claims that these immaculate photographs attract
up to 50 per cent of the Getty Center’s visitors.
Another key feature of the Center lies at its heart.
The Central Garden, created by renowned artist
Robert Irwin, is a 12,500-sq-m layout that features
a natural ravine and tree-lined walkway.
Meanwhile, the Getty Villa in Malibu reopened
in early 2006 after an extensive eight-year, US$275
million refurbishment with a new mission as an
educational centre and museum dedicated to the
arts and cultures of ancient Greece and Rome.
Inside this museum—modelled after a classic
Herculaneum country house buried by the volcanic
ash of an erupting Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD—are
about 44,000 priceless artefacts, dating from 6500
BC to 400 AD.
The permanent collection includes galleries
portraying gods and goddesses, mythical creatures,
the Trojan War, and life-sized Greek bronze fi gures.
From now until January 2008, seasonal exhibitions
are also gracing the premises of the two Getty
museums. Medieval Treasures from the Cleveland
Museum of Art, which opened on 30 October this
year at J. Paul Getty Museum, is the fi rst travelling
exhibition to showcase a significant number of
the medieval masterpieces from the Cleveland
Museum of Art, which houses one of the finest
collections of early Christian, Byzantine, and
European medieval art.
Over at the Getty Villa, Reflecting Antiquity:
Modern Glass Inspired by Ancient Rome, which
opened on 18 October, explores the influence
of Roman glass on modern and contemporary
glassmakers. The designs and production
techniques of ancient glass vessels excavated in the
late 18th and early 19th centuries were a revelation
to modern artisans who sought to emulate them in
their own work. This exhibition includes some of
the original Roman objects that inspired modern
glassmakers.
FREE ADMISSION The two Getty museums
combine to attract well over a million visitors
every year, not one of whom is required to pay an
admission fee. Such a policy would sit well with
the late Getty, who was a noble patron of the arts.
During his lifetime, he collected works from
masters such as Tintoretto, Titian, Gainsborough,
Romney, Rubens, Renoir, Degas and Monet, as
well as 18th-century Beauvais tapestries, 18thcentury
French and English furniture, rock crystal,
chandeliers and Greek and Roman sculptures.
Many of these pieces remain in the possession of
the J. Paul Getty Trust and continue to enthral the
continuing stream of visitors at the two museums,
possessing even the power to leave a Hollywood
insider awe-struck.
April Ferry, an Oscar-nominated costume
designer, whose credits include Terminator 3 and
the mini-series Rome, told The Guardian in a recent
interview that the ancient art showcased at the
Getty Villa “makes me weep”.
“I wish I could live inside that museum.”

60
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61 ARTSCENE
STILL DANDY

In February 1987, Andy Warhol died of compli-
cations after a routine gallbladder surgery. After
a party-fi lled, highly dramatic life—during which
he altered the course of 20 th century art, churned
out scores of movies, and got shot at by a spurned
scriptwriter—the silver-wigged artist’s fi nal exit
at 59 years of age was a relatively prosaic one.
Two decades later, the Prince of Pop Art’s
massive popularity is reaching a new peak.
He is second only to Pablo Picasso in the highest-
grossing artist stakes. Revenue from some 40 licen-
sees of Warhol-related products have quadrupled
since 2001, generating about US$2.25 million in
royalties for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the
Visual Arts in its 2006 fi scal year alone.
In May this year, Warhol’s ‘Green Car Crash
(Green Burning Car I)’ sold for US$71.7m at a
Christie’s auction—quadruple his previous auction
record price. Little wonder then that to commemorate
his 20th death anniversary, a slew of related
happenings has been underway all over the world.
In London, the British Film Institute’s Andy
Warhol season recently ended its run at the end
Chairman Mao. Mr Federico Moccia, Cannonball’s
managing director, explains that such portfolios—
numbered with the same edition number—are
very rare. Many had been broken up by galleries
and sold as individual prints. He adds: “We have
been very lucky to fi nd one which has never been
opened and framed. It is very valuable.”
Other works include the jaunty, stylised images
of Perrier bottles; and a set of drawings, collages
and prints, featuring Muratti cigarette packets,
which Warhol created for a campaign for Philip
Morris. Both date after 1972, when he started
experimenting with new techniques, involving
superimposed drawing and diamond dust.
Also on display are prints in the abstract
Camoufl age series (literally camoufl age designs
executed in Warhol’s signature pop colours) and
Shadows series (of shadows cast by objects in his
studio). The pieces are on sale and priced from
US$55,000 for a Campbell Soup print, to more
than US$900,000 for the Mao portfolio.
On why Warhol remains relevant in these times,
Mr Moccia says: “Warhol was an opinion maker, a
trendsetter—an artist manager who turned art into
a mass phenomenon, making consumption itself a
form of art.” Given the artist’s highly commercial
approach to art, it is fi tting that an art fund should
focus on investing in his works.
AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, ANDY WARHOL’S POPULARITY IS REACHING A NEW PEAK AND
CAN BE WITNESSED IN THE UPCOMING EXHIBITION, A IS FOR ANDY
of September this year. Jewelry designer Robert
Lee Morris has a line of bling with Warholian
motifs like the dollar sign and Brillo logo. Levi’s
has wax-coated jeans dubbed Warhol Factory
X. Closer to home, Hong Kong’s cult streetwear
brand Dusty has rolled out a Warhol-inspired
range now available at Far East Plaza, no less.
A FOR ANDY In Singapore, a new exhibition of
works by the Pop Art Master opens in November,
with the public viewing on 17 to 18 November. “A
Is For Andy” features more than 100 paintings,
prints, collages and drawings spanning the artist’s
entire career, with an estimated total value north
of US$10 million.
Co-organised by investment company
Globefi n’s Cannonball Art Fund and Singaporean
e v e n t - d e s i g n - m a r k e t i n g f i r m L u m i n a
Communications, the exhibition was put together
by New York-based art dealer Cristiano Cairati,
who drew from private collections, wholesale
dealers and the Warhol Foundation.
A key exhibit is a “complete” Mao portfolio,
which consists of 10 of Warhol’s iconic prints of
Cannonball reckons that, with Warhol’s
artworks appreciating at a rate of between 50 to
100 per cent per year for the last fi ve years, they
are bound to increase in value. Not bad for a man
who declared in the 1960s that he was going to
stop painting because, “I want my paintings to
sell for $25,000”.
WHY WARHOL, WHY NOW? The current vogue
for the Warhol brand owes much to its beguiling,
ambiguous simplicity. As Singapore-based
independent art consultant Veronica Howe puts it:
“Warhol’s art is ‘user-friendly’, easy to understand
and forever trendy.”
Described by writer Truman Capote as “a Sphinx
without a secret”, Warhol carefully cultivated a
madcap, deliberately shallow and empty public
persona. He often got his assistants to write and
publish completely fi ctional interviews with him,
or hiried actors to impersonate him in public.
Independent curator Matin Tran muses: “Was
Warhol mocking our social ignorance in more
important life issues? Or was he clinking the
champagne glass in celebration of our indulgences?
On an artistic level, Warhol represents the
embodiment of free expression. He was, literally, a
walking, talking piece of art.”
Perhaps, American actor Taylor Mead put it best
when he said in 1963: “The Pop Artist has isolated a
way of looking at what surrounds us; just like how
the person who paints a sylvan scene has isolated
the countryside somehow.” Warhol, by training his
fl amboyant yet detached eye on everyday objects
and cultural white-noise, did just that.
But beneath the mass appeal, celebrity glitz
and surface-is-all philosophy of Warhol’s art, he
changed the way in which people thought about
creating art. “Art is what you can get away with,”
he once quipped. At his New York studio, tellingly
dubbed The Factory, he rolled out prints in an
assembly-line fashion, often relying on his assistants
to do most of the work. He toyed with rubberstamping
his signature to further remove the
human hand from the artistic process.
Even when making his Oxidation paintings—which
were produced by getting people to
urinate on canvasses coated with wet copper paint
which would then react chemically and change
colour—Warhol got his associates to, literally,
take the piss and do the “work”. Not surprisingly,
Warhol’s mechanical mass-production methods
S TO RY CLARA CHOW I M AG E S MARIA MULAS + CANNONBALL ART FUND
DAVID BOURDON: BUT FOR ALL YOUR
COPYING, THE PAINTINGS COME
OUT DIFFERENTLY THAN THE MODEL,
BECAUSE YOU HAVE CHANGED
THE SHAPE, SIZE AND COLOUR.
ANDY WARHOL: BUT I HAVEN’T
TRIED TO CHANGE A THING!
... IT’S AN EXACT COPY.
– UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT FROM THE ANDY
WARHOL ARCHIVES, PITTSBURGH, 1962–63

have made it tough to ascertain which works are
“authentic” today.
Given the diffi culties involved in sifting out the
real and the fake, Warhol’s art foundation and its
authentication arm have come under fi re in recent
years for its stringent policing of the number of
“real” works by the artist. Earlier this year, London-
based American film-maker Joe Simon-Whelan
lodged a class action lawsuit against Warhol’s
estate, foundation and authentication board for
allegedly conspiring to manipulate the art market
in order to drive up prices of its own collection.
With authenticity being such a hot issue at
the moment, Mr Tran advises potential buyers of
Warhol’s works to do careful research by consult-
ing as many qualifi ed experts as possible.
COPYING IMPERFECTION In his 2001 novel, My
Name Is Red, Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author
Orhan Pahmuk weaves an intriguing plot-cum-art
treatise around 15th-century Ottoman miniatur-
ists in Istanbul. In it, a group of Muslim manuscript
illuminators hang on desperately to the tradition
of uniformly copying images handed down
by old Masters—an act that preserves the perfec-
tion of the world, as seen through Allah’s eyes. At
the same time, they struggle with their desire to
leave their own signature, in the form of an artist’s
individual style, on their work—even as Western
Renaissance techniques wriggle insidiously into
their work, mind and hearts.
Warhol’s oeuvre has shades of this very artistic
conflict in it—transposed, of course, to the
New York of his era. The key difference, between
him and the devoted Muslim miniaturists of yore,
was that he sought to document the world not
through the omniscient, perfect eyes of God, but
the fl awed ones of an uncertain, fearful man. After
all, Warhol—it was revealed after his death—had
been a devout Catholic throughout his life. (Cut
this chunk if not enough space)
In his copying of the ubiquitous images in
popular culture, the artist tried to capture the
modern world in all its Technicolor imperfection.
From dead movie stars to cars, to scenes of death
and disaster, Warhol’s subjects are squeegee-d
over with the same sense that there is something
metaphorically, and literally, off-colour and offkilter
about the universe.
More than just an artist, Warhol was an editor,
a curator, who sucked in the detritus of urban life
and fi ltered them into beautiful objects. He altered,
transmuted and elevated icons into hysterically
pitched versions of themselves. And in these
increasingly over-crowded and overwhelming
times, the ghost of Warhol is apt to wander and
take hold.
PHOTOGR APHER
AN D ART
COLLECTO R GARY
SNG, W H O H AS
M O R E T H AN 10 0
WARHOL PR INTS,
TELLS US W H AT
TO LOOK OUT FOR
W H E N I N VESTING
I N ONE :
• If you are serious
about collecting
Warhol, get the
latest edition of his
Catalogue Raisonne.
It will be your bible.
• Do a condition
check before buying
because these are
works on paper.
• How well a print is
preserved makes
all the difference.
Pieces that are
faded, have fauxing
or are trimmed are
less desirable.
• Always make sure
prints are framed
with acid-free
museum-quality
materials. Use UVprotected
glass
or Plexiglas.
• The key is holding
power. Use funds
that you can afford
to put aside in case
the economy takes
a downturn. Prices
may just stagnate
or fl uctuate slightly,
and then rise again
on the next upturn.

64
+
65 VOYAGE
ULTIMATE DEST
EVEN IN TRAVEL, CLUB MEMBERSHIP HAS ITS PRIVILEGES

In the high stakes game of luxury travel,
leaving home is no longer an option. Truth
is, the private jet-flying, entourage-towing (a
personal assistant here, a nanny there) elite
doesn’t want to feel like he’s left his superb
home for a holiday. This is where destination
clubs come in. Changes of scenery without
feeling like you’re away from your posh nest.
Destination clubs are a recent breed of
exclusive multi-million-dollar homes in prime
locations nearly anywhere in the world. A high-
end spin on the old time share schemes, if you
will. Catering to the ever-increasing demand
for luxury with a twist, these clubs are open
to you for an initiation fee that ranges from
US$35,000 to well over US$1 million. Annual
dues go from US$15,000 to above US$50,000.
Hardly modest sums but they get you access
to super exclusive chateaus in Burgundy,
private polo clubs in New York, casitas in Los
Cabos and so on — a brilliant alternative to
traditional second or third home ownership.
While the old time share would have gotten
you a modest condo in Miami, the swanky
creature that is the destination club home is
likely to be over 3,000 sq ft, decked out with
plasma TVs, state-of-the-art kitchen and
quite possibly, right next to a golf course or
vineyard. The destination club system works
similarly to a time share: three to four weeks of
advanced reservations, based on availability.
More of these clubs have cropped up in
the last few years as the jaded luxury traveler
grew tired of standard and impersonal hotel
rooms, holiday home maintenance costs (for
a similar amount of keeping one’s holiday
home, you get access to a number of amazing
INATIONS
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11
1+2 CABO DEL SOL, CABO SANS LUCAS
3 PARK VIEW, NEW YORK
4 RDM RISCO
5+6 BC
7 SLTC, PARIS
8 SLTC, TELLURIDE
9+10 SLTC, ASPEN
11 SLTC, ST BARTHS
S TO RY CHONGWAN TAY I M AG E S E X C L U S I V E R E S O R T S A N D S O L S T I C E
ones around the world with a destination club)
and rentals that disappoint. Clubs like Solstice,
Quintess, the Vintner’s Club and Ultimate
resorts charge the premium fees for spectacular
properties from Tuscany to Costa Rica. Room
service aside, these homes usually have hosts
on call round the clock for their guests.
At Exclusive Resorts, a concierge staff is
available 24/7 to tend to every member’s needs;
be they grocery shopping, getting theater tickets,
booking tee times or even arranging for a child’s
birthday party. From a Kilimanjaro safari to
a deluxe chalet in Megève right next to Mont
Blanc to Bovey castle in England, homes are
fully equipped with an impeccable concierge
service that is rarelt found wanting. All that for
a cool one-off sum of US$425,000 plus annual
dues of US$27,500. The average value of the
homes in this club is no less than US$3 million.
Helium Report (www.heliumreport.com), a
portal for the luxury market reviewing anything
from private jets to yacht clubs, features a
comprehensive directory of these destination
clubs. The most exorbitant ones include
Yellowstone Club World (with a whopping US$3
million join fee) and Ciel (at US$1 million). In
this ultra-luxe category, Solstice, the club with
a very solid background and reputation, has
a membership fee of US$875,000. That Ron
Snyder, the CEO of Crocs Footwear, is a member
is now a well-known fact. With properties
in hot spots like St Barth’s to London and a
private yacht Solstice I, the club has maintained
its high profile and a healthy membership.
Which is more than many of these luxury
wannabes can say. Some clubs dwindle
and disappear with solvency problems,
while few are able to generate growth.
Quintess, a club that was awarded “Best
of the Best” by Robb Report this year, has
doubled in size. They offer 56 homes in 28
destinations. Even though it has more than
300 members, it still manages to provide a
six-to-one member-to-home ratio, which is
one of the lowest figures in the industry.
Despite the obvious risks, destination
clubs are popping up everywhere in an effort
to satisfy voracious appetites for super-luxe
travel. Some have gone beyond exotic locales
ro develop niche offering. Themed destination
clubs are now on the rise. Golf? Check.
Gourmet? Check. Flyfishing? As you please.
For wine enthusiasts, The Vintner’s Club
will please their palates. With a deposit of
about US$300,000 and annual dues of about
US$25,000, you get 28 days of advanced
reservations, unlimited visits based on
availability and access to local winemakers’
private cellars. So far, only one property,
Domaine Montagny, a 15th century chateau
in Burgundy is on the club’s list. Bordeaux
and Tuscany are possible future locales.
Meanwhile, golf fanatics with means flock
to The Markers, the first and only membership
club in the world created exclusively for the golf
purist. Prime locations such as Cabo del Sol in
Cabo San Lucas and Troon North in Scottsdale
are just two of its offerings. Membership starts
at $285,000, with annual dues of $14,500. Not
much, if you’re mad about golf and get a
membership that gives you PGA event access
passes, VIP private lessons with Markers
Golf Professionals, tour bags full of the latest
equipment, access to spas and more. The
luxury residences with upscale furnishings
and finishes are the icing on the cake.
But beyond meeting all your possible elitist
desires, a big bonus of joining these destination
clubs is, essentially, the company you’ll
keep. And what swell company it will be

66
+
67 GOURMET
WITH KITCHENS BECOMING THE LAST GREAT BASTIONS OF
CULTURAL TRADITION, SPENDING TIME IN A VACATION
COOKING CL ASS CAN OFFER A GLIMPSE INTO A
COUNTRY’S LIVING HISTORY
A COO ’S T
S TO RY ANNET TE TAN I M AG E S M E R V I N C H U A

OUR
There are few better ways to get into the
heart of a city than through its cuisine. And that
doesn’t mean just the eating of it. Learning to
cook and traipsing the local markets in search of
ingredients help endow a deeper understanding
of a cuisine, a country and its history. In today’s
ultra-modern world, kitchens are often the last
great bastions of cultural tradition. And spending
a day or so in a cooking class can offer a glimpse
into a country’s living history.
To wit, the one-day culinary immersion
experience at the Amandari resort in Ubud, Bali,
starts early at the Blakia market. Guests are
given a shopping list and a pocketful of rupiah
and are accompanied by a guide, chef de cuisine
and bargaining assistant. These insider guides
help steer you towards the best stalls, let you
in on delicious secrets and ensure you pay a fair
price for that handful of nutmeg.
A short ride away in Bongkasa Village, a
Balinese family demonstrates how to turn out
an authentic Balinese meal. The matriarch
demonstrates how to make curries and sambals
over a charcoal stove, while the patriarch stands
out back spit-roasting a suckling pig. Guests can
help prepare various elements of the meal and
present offerings at the family temple.
At La Maison Arabe in Morocco, guests are
schooled by the hotel dada, a plump, matronly
woman who shares her secrets (through an
interpreter) at the riad’s demonstration kitchen.
Traditionally, dadas are housekeeper/chefs
that hail from sub-Saharan Africa to wealthy
Moroccan families. La Maison’s Arabe’s dada
shares her family recipes that had been
passed down for generations, promising all
the knowledge you’ll need to deftly prepare
dishes like lamb tagine with dates and almonds,
chicken couscous and Moroccan pastries.
Beyond the cooking element of these
e x p e r i e n c e s , g u e s t s a r e a l s o d r a w n t o
experiencing the local markets firsthand with
their guides who can explain that strange looking
snakeskin fruit or eel-like fish thrashing about
in pails along the roadside. In a foreign land,
new foods can seem pungent and proprietors
intimidating. A guide helps the hapless foreigner
turn trepidation into joy. A really good guide
could even offer access into places usually
reserved for a privileged few.
So it is at the InterContinental Paris Le
Grand Hotel, where guests can accompany
Laurent Delarbre, chef of the hotel’s Café de la
Paix restaurant (or his assistant) to Rungis, the
largest fresh-food wholesale market in the world
situated just outside of Paris. Entry is usually
limited to those in the food trade, so being able
to explore the 573-acre market along with a chef
to explain the 19 varieties of pears and heady
smelling cheeses is a real treat.
EXTENDING YOUR CULINARY REPERTOIRE
However skilled a home chef you are, there
is always room for improvement, especially
when it comes to mastering a cuisine that’s not
native to you. At the Sorrento Cooking School
at the Esperidi Resort in Italy’s Amalfi Coast,
guests can tackle various menus that focus on
Mediterranean recipes and typical Neapolitan
dishes. These include local appetisers like
arancini di riso (ricotta fritters), gnocci, lasagne,
ravioli, sauces, pizzas, fish and local desserts
like tiramisu, lemon delite or babà. Indeed,
many people create their own pastas at home,
but classes like these allow you to expand
your repertoire and see how it’s done in the
home country.
To take it up a notch, head to the Villa San
Michele School of Cookery in Florence. Built
into the side of a hill below the 15th century
monastery-turned-hotel, it offers sweeping
views of Florence and classes by the hotel’s chef,
as well as by the chefs of the Hotel Cipriani in
Venice and the Hotel Caruso in Ravello. Besides
how to cook Tuscan lunches and regional pastas,
guests can also learn the art of the table from
Florentine noblewomen.
Of course, learning from the stars is always a
sought after experience, and while few Michelinstarred
chefs have time for teaching classes,
there is a handful who will oblige. One such chef
is Jean-Philippe Perol of the Michelin one-star La
Table du Baltimore at the Sofitel Baltimore Paris.
As part of the Plaisir Gourmand package, which
can be booked for any weekend (except during
August), guests can learn to master dishes
like seabream roasted with olives and get an
introduction to oenolgy with master sommelier
Jean-Luc Jamrozik.
Certainly, culinary schools and vacations
are fast growing around the world. Just check
out ShawGuides (cookforfunshawguides.com)
and International Kitchen (www.international
kitchen.com) and you’ll find an extensive and
ever growing list of them. Besides learning
new skills and grasping the secrets of new
cuisines, cooking vacations invariably expand
your culinary horizons, nudging you to be more
brazen in your home kitchen. In between picking
up new skills, you also pick up techniques that
can be used in your every day cooking. And
ingredients you once shied away from eventually
make their way into your pantry. In that sense,
these are vacations and experiences that reap
plenty of dividends back home — for both you
and your family

WHAT
THESE DAYS, MORE THAN JUST SIMPLE FOOD. IN SOME CIRCLES, HOME ENTERTAINING IS AS
Blame it on the rise of the celebrity chef or
discerning globalised palates, but in the last few
years, the casual dinner party has taken on a new
level of pressure. Certainly, cooking dinner for
a group of friends has long been an experience
fraught with performance anxiety — who hasn’t
burnt a roast, collapsed a soufflé, or served a
molten chocolate cake prematurely erupted?
But in this age of Thomas Keller cookbooks
and seasonal eating, for some hosts, even the
most laidback dinner with their nearest and
dearest can be a yardstick for their self-worth.
Never mind if they bear a tray dressed in thrift
store threads — god forbid that tray should
hold cheese from the neighbourhood super-
market shelf or a salad dressed with store-
bought vinaigrette.
It seems the new signifiers of taste are what
you serve at your table. Has the pork been braised
gently for hours, by you, in your oven? Is it organic?
Or better yet, is it Kurobuta? How many years has
your balsamic vinegar been aged? And does it bear
that all-important Modena consortium seal?
Perhaps the most obvious bellwether for
these times is the humble salad. When was
the last time you saw a bed of iceberg lettuce,
chopped tomatoes and sliced cucumbers served
in a wooden bowl? Today’s home-style salad
is nothing short of crisp baby spinach leaves,
fresh arugula and perhaps a few plump cherry
tomatoes bought still attached to their vine.
In some ways, cooking and entertaining in
certain circles, has become a way for people to
demonstrate their cultural cachet. Now that
supermarkets are stocking more premium
products and gourmet stores are mushrooming
across the island, dinner parties are quickly
becoming as much about showing off your foodie
credentials as they are about the food you serve.
“Talking about food is certainly more
interesting than talking about the weather,” says
Charmaine Liew, who confesses to being a victim
(and propagator) of culinary anxiety. “People can
talk about the food served at the table all night
long. And when you’re the one doing the cooking,
you want people to say nice things.”
“People who cook love to show off their cooking
skills,” says Grace Kee, a senior executive at MTV,
who together with her husband, Holman Chin,
are avid home entertainers.
Kee recalls one dinner where she attempted to
single-handedly cook a full Peranakan meal for 18
guests. “I’ve made duck confit, stews, pork with
crackling, onion marmalades, onion soup (not
easy to make a good one!), poached egg with panfried
foie gras ... the list goes on … but the most
back-breaking meal I’ve ever cooked was one
which comprised curry devil, green chilli sambal
with prawns, ngoh hiang, sambal sotong, sambal
kangkon, assam fi sh and pan fried eggplant.”

’S FOR DINNER?
By 4pm that afternoon, Kee found herself in
a panic, with only two dishes down and three to
go. Her husband eventually rushed home to help
get dinner on the table.
Indeed, home entertaining can turn otherwise
mild-mannered men and women into persnickety
chefs, much like the way an upcoming
wedding can turn a timid young woman
into bridezilla.
“My wife goes a little nuts when it comes
t o t h r o w i n g p a r t i e s , ” s a i d C h o n g , w h o
understandably, didn’t want us to use his
real name. “At first it was nice. People would
compliment her on her cooking and all the
lovely things she was serving. But then for my
son’s birthday party she spent more than $2,000
on caviar and blinis, gourmet pizzas, mini
hamburgers and cold cuts and cheese. And this
was only his second birthday.”
Wit h t he r ise of cable telev ision food
programmes, food blogs that wax lyrical about
white truffles from Alba, and food magazines
with beautifully styled photographs, have come
yet loftier ideals of how home entertaining
can be. As such, the new domestic goddess is
the well-groomed lady (or gentlemen, for that
matter) who can construct a perfectly quivering
terrine of wild forest mushrooms and several
other courses— more often than not involving
a siphon (that’s the gadget that turns food into
foam) and ingredients like foie gras and cocoa
butter, as well as a multi-component dessert
involving homemade French macarons.
Then again, that’s not entirely new, says food
consultant and cookbook writer Christopher Tan.
“I think entertaining and cooking have always
been part of that — at certain levels and in certain
parts of society. I’m sure we’ve all had aunties
who tried to out-do our other aunties with homecooked
goodies. And having lots of people over
IN SOME WAYS, COOKING
AND ENTERTAINING
IN CERTAIN CIRCLES,
HAS BECOME A WAY
FOR PEOPLE TO
DEMONSTR ATE THEIR
CULTUR AL CACHE T
MUCH ABOUT A HOST’S FOODIE CREDENTIALS AS IT IS ABOUT THE COMPANY OF FRIENDS
STORY ANNETTE TAN MAIN IMAGE GETTY
to eat has always been a very Singaporean thing,
since our great-great-grand-relatives’ time.”
“In my book,” he adds, “cooking and sharing
food should be a pleasure, not a socially pressured
situation. Parties are opportunities for people
to be gracious to one another and enjoy each
other’s company — not chances to show off, be
pretentious about chi-chi food, or one-up each
other as to whose olive oil is from a rarer estate. In
a world that still has so many starving people in it,
we should remember that sharing food should be
an act of blessing, not a tool of social mobility.”
The f lip side of the new ag ita of home
entertaining is that people can tend to be daunted
by another’s status in the food world. “I never
get invited to these kinds of dinner parties,”
says Tan. “Seems that once people fi nd out I’m
a food writer, they get scared that I’ll be like
Anton Ego from Ratatouille once I’m at their table.
Sad, right?”
GOURMET
68
+
69

70 +
71 CELLAR
In the ever-changing world of wine, there
have been many innovations over the years:
the introduction of screw caps at the expense
of the cork, the creation of low-carb wines
and—gasp—the production of wines in
cans. Sacrilegious? Perhaps. But then, the
worldwide popularity of wine is, arguably, at
its apex, and the wine industry is doing what
it takes to meet the needs of the market.
Clearly, the demographics for wine
consumption have broadened. There are more
young people enjoying wine, and there are
more Asians enamoured with it. Frenchman
Herve Aymond recounts an interesting
conversation he once had with a taxi driver
in Thailand, who said he was saving up to
afford to buy a bottle of wine. “In Asia, wines
are not just status symbols anymore,” said
Mr Aymond, co-founder and director of
Singapore-based fine wine merchant Corndale
Consultants. “They’re becoming a way of life.”
DRINK TO TH
A former investment banker, Mr Aymond
set up his business because he predicted
that fine wines would be in demand in
Singapore and throughout Asia. Specialising
in first-growth, or Premier Cru, Bordeaux
wines such as Chateau Mouton-Rothschild,
Chateau Latour and Chateau Lafite-
Rothschild, Corndale has seen business
flourish since setting up shop here in 1993.
The thirst for fine wines, Mr Aymond
noted, is practically recession-proof, for
the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 was
responsible for only six months of lowerthan-usual
sales. And as personal incomes
go up in Asia, the palate towards good food
and drink are becoming insatiable. “Work
is not everything anymore. Places like One
Rochester, Dempsey Road—all these would
not have been (viable) 10 years ago. People
are quickly becoming very passionate about
wine,” said Mr Aymond, a Bordeaux native.
“CONVIVIALITY” One of the big differences
between Western wine aficionados and
their Asian counterparts is that the latter
love to share their fine wines, drinking
them with friends, usually over meals. In
Europe, some fine wines may spend more
time in the cellar as part of the proud owner’s
collection. Here in Asia, people are “more
generous and convivial” in their shared
consumption of great wines, said Mr Aymond.
The net effect of such a keen interest in fine
wine in Asia, as well as in South America,
Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, is
that the world’s greatest wines are becoming
harder to obtain, and growing ever more pricey.
Leading wine critic Robert Parker has predicted
that a great vintage of first growths could cost
as much as US$10,000 a case—at a minimum.
It’s simple mathematics, said Mr Aymond.
As more wine is being consumed, fewer great
wines from years past remain in existence;
and as more people clamour for them, prices
have no place to go but up. What’s more, he
added, the makers of these transcendent wines
have been reducing their yields in recent times
to maintain their lofty standards—scoring
in the high 90s on rating scales—and thus
keeping prices in high altitude. As such,
wine merchants like Corndale are valued
by customers for their ability to procure top
wines, in regular cases or special collector’s
sets, such as vertical collections—an unbroken
sequence of vintages of the same wine.
WINE FUTURES Purchasing wines en
primeur, usually while they are in barrels,
before they are bottled, is one way to secure
a vintage ahead of time and at a lower price
than when cases first reach the market.
Such a purchase would take place about 12
to 18 months before the wines are ready
for delivery. In fact, Corndale was one of
the first wine merchants in Singapore, if
not the region, to offer en primeur wine
sales, noted Mr Aymond with pride.
Its recent highly successful en primeur
campaign for 2006 Bordeaux wines, for
which wines would only be delivered in
spring or autumn of 2009, saw prices range
from $25 to $860 a bottle. As explained on
Corndale’s corporate website, “not just
anyone” has access to the best vintage from
the chateaux in Bordeaux. Priority goes to
certain brokers, merchants, wholesalers and
retailers. The ability to get your hands on
that great Bordeaux first-growth depends
on “who is your wine merchant,” said
Mr Aymond with a twinkle in his eye.
“It’s about working with people you can
trust, with a good pedigree,” he enthused.
In essence, it’s not what you know, it’s
who you know, as the old adage goes.
Some things, even in the world
of wine, never change

AND CONNOISSEURS, ESPECIALLY THOSE IN ASIA, ARE
CREATING HOT DEMAND FOR FINE WINES
ISCOLLECTORS S TO RY YONG SHU CHIANG I M AG E S CORNDALE

OBSESSION
O DE TO LUXU RY
BULGARI
#01-08/09 The Paragon
Ph: 6836 6911
#02-1/3 Takashimaya
Shopping Centre
Ph: 6735 6689
www.bulgari.com
TO P S H O PS
C O LET T E
213 Rue St. Honore
75001 Paris, France
www.colette.fr
10 C O R SO C O M O
20154 Milan, Italy
www.10corsocomo.com
DAS LU
Rio de Janeiro
www.daslu.com.br
D OV E R S T R E E T M A R K E T
7-18 Dover Street, London
W1S 4LT, England
www.doverstreetmarket.com
L’ ECL A I R EUR
10 Rue Herold, Paris 75001, France
4-21-26, Minami Aoyama Minato-ku,
Tokyo 100700062, Japan
www.leclaireur.com
FASHION
ST YLE APPE AL
AG N E S B
Level 2 Isetan Scotts
Ph: 6733 5848
www.agnesb.com
BURBERRY
#01-32/33 The Paragon
Ph: 6839 6688
www.burberry.com
C E L I N E
#01-30/31 Ngee Ann City
Ph: 6736-0511
www.celine.com
C H O PA R D
#01-18 Ngee Ann City
Ph: 6733 8111
www.chopard.com
G A R F VO N FABER CASTELL
www.graf-von-faber-castell.com
E LEPHANT & C O R AL PE N C O
#03-07 Wheelock Place.
Ph: 6736 1322
www.elephant-coral.com
LOEWE
#01-10 Ngee Ann City
Ph: 6733 6477
www.loewe.com
DESIGN
FLIGHT O F FURY
T 3 B I K E G E A R S
79 Upper East Coast Rd
Ph: 6441 6828
SPECIAL
FE R R ARI TO FE R R E T T I
O N E 15 M A R I N A
#01-01 Sentosa Cove
11 Cove Drive
Ph: 6305 6988
www.one15marina.com
R E PUBLIC O F S I N G A P O R E YAC H T C LU B
52 West Coast Ferry Road
Ph: 6768 9233
www.rsyc.org.sg
1 Kim Seng Promenade
VOYAGE
DESTINAT I ON C LUBS
SOLSTICE
www.solsticecollection.com
E XC LUSIVE R E SORTS
www.exclusiveresorts.com
QUINTESS
quintess.com
GOUR MET
A COOK’S TOUR
A M ANDA R I R E SORT, U BUD BALI
Amanresorts International Pte Ltd
#05-01 Tourism Court
1 Orchard Spring Lane
Ph: 6887 3337
www.amanresorts.com
I N T E R C O N T I N E N TAL PA R I S
LE- G R AN D H OTEL
2 Rue Scribe
Paris, 75009 France
Ph: 33-1-40073232
www.intercontinental.com
SOFITEL BALT I M O R E PA R I S
88 Bis Avenue Kleber, 75116 Paris,
France
Ph: 33-1-44345454
www.sofi tel.com
L A M A I SON A R ABE
www.lamaisonarabe.com
SORRENTO C O O K I N G S C H O O L
www.sorrentocookingschool.com
V I L L A SAN M I C H E LE
S C H O O L O F C O O K E RY
www.villasanmichele.com
CELL AR
D R I N K TO THIS
C O R N DALE C O N SULTANTS
37 Jalan Pemimpin
#07-05
Ph: 6354 1238
www.corndale.com