ART & DESIGN THE
ART & DESIGN THE CENTURION SELECTION Marie Wilkinson, design director of Cutler and Gross THE EYES HAVE IT Customised spectacles can be a character-changing accessory, whether made from wood, python or titanium Tortoiseshell frame from EB Meyrowitz You’d think that, with so many spectacles available on the high street, there would be little demand for madeto-measure glasses. But Tom Davies says that isn’t the case. “People who normally hate wearing glasses have started to realise that a bespoke pair, made to complement their features, can totally change the way they look and feel,” he says. The London-based optician should know – he created a pair for Clark Kent in the film Superman V Batman “and when he put them on, it totally changed his character”. Like Davies, two other British brands, EB Meyrowitz, the family-owned business that has been making glasses since the 1870s, and Cutler and Gross, whose founders have been creating fashionable frames since the 1960s, can craft glasses in materials from wood and python skin to titanium and gem-studded gold. Generally, one craftsman is tasked with making a pair from start to finish, which can cost anything from £995 for a simple pair to £25,000 for an entire frame wardrobe handmade by Davies. “I can make glasses to drive with, sunglasses, reading glasses – a whole range depending on what you need,” he says. “A bespoke service means you get bespoke prescriptions, too. Who doesn’t want the best vision you can get, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing?” tdtomdavies.com; ebmeyrowitz.co.uk; cutlerandgross.com When Archpoint Design Bureau was conceiving the interior of Baku, a swish Moscow restaurant that echoes both the ruggedness and elegance of its Azerbaijani namesake, stone was the obvious choice. But the designers struggled with how to access the material’s power without putting up an overbearing wall or curating a selection of ornate sculptures. Enter Italian firm Lithos Design, which specialises in natural stone blocks that can be placed together to form extraordinary repeating patterns. The brothers who run the company, Claudio and Alberto Bevilacqua, worked with Archpoint to find the right look, just as they have with clients across the globe for both homes and commercial spaces. The principle is engagingly simple: subtle manipulations of the stones can create exceptionally powerful effects that neither nature alone nor manmade materials can provide. Lithos constantly produces new patterns and takes pride in creating one-of-a-kind solutions for unique spaces. This could take the man cave to whole new level. lithosdesign.com STONE STYLE PHOTOS FROM TOP: © CUTLER AND GROSS, © EB MEYROWITZ, © LITHOS DESIGN 50 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
PHOTOS FROM TOP: © JUNIPER BOOKS, © SELMER ON THE BOOKS Bespoke library design isn’t just for covers – curated book collections have a serious shelf life Any tome wrapped by library designer Thatcher Wine should be exempt from the age-old adage not to judge a book by its cover. Wine’s Juniper Books produces bespoke jackets in paper, leather or vellum, “more durable, tearresistant and water-resistant” than the publishers’ editions. But it is aesthetics that seem to drive the demand for these custom-curated collections. Working closely with interior designers, Wine interviews his clients extensively then compiles relevant titles. Art meets literature when spines line up to form a bold, singular wall-size image, be it the Eiffel Tower, the Union Jack or a photograph such as the striking image of a snowboarder in halfpipe which Wine recently adapted for a Utah ski house. Despite the proliferation of e-readers, “books we keep are the stories we tell about ourselves” insists this mastermind behind walls lined with the most extensively filtered and edited selfies in the world. juniperbooks.com SAX OF A KIND One French firm is leading the globe in saxophones designed exactly to the player’s specifications It may have been some 170 years since Adolphe Sax patented his strangelooking brass instrument and then named it after himself – the saxophone – but, all the same, you really have to like the solo on Baker Street to want to commission one yourself. It’s typically the stuff of professional players, but, as Florent Milhaud of Selmer – maker of arguably the world’s best saxophones – notes, it happens to them about 15 times a year. A lot of requests are superficial: a change made to a production- line model, a special lacquer or engraving. But professional saxophone players sometimes have much more taxing demands. “We’ve had players who wanted to change the position of a key so that it’s a better fit with their hands, for example,” says Milhaud. “Or to blend characteristics of different models into one. We’ve even worked on a saxophone commissioned by one player who wanted extra keys added so they could play quarter tones. That’s at the extreme, but it’s possible – and we’re always interested in meeting special requirements because making them improves our knowledge too.” selmer.fr CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 51
