Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Quote du Jour
"Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words…By means of art we are sometimes sent—dimly, briefly—revelations unattainable by reason." Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
The Nautilus: Back in Black
When is a Patek Philippe ever a bad choice? If you can afford one, it’s pretty much never an ill decision -- unless you want something highly unique. Patek Philippe is the straight and sober luxury watch brand that continues to soar in popularity and collector value.The Nautilus is the maker’s classic diver-style sport line, and it has always been the most “eager to be active” watch of the entire collection. The last few years have seen the Nautilus line grow in size and be offered with additional complications than just the time. The Patek Philippe Nautilus chronograph sits in the middle of the range with a great look and that always-appreciated Patek Philippe touch.
Within the Patek Philippe Nautilus chronograph is the beautifully made in-house Caliber CH 28-520 C automatic chronograph movement with a solid gold rotor. In addition to the time and date, it has a 12-hour chronograph complication -- all contained in one subdial. The trick is having a dial within a dial. The central seconds hand for the watch is used for the chronograph seconds, while the two subsidiary hands are used for the chronograph minutes and hours. This gives the watch dial a very clean and attractive look, something that Patek Philippe is known for mastering.
Photos of Paris flood, 1910
The 1910 Great Flood of Paris was a catastrophe in which the Seine River, carrying winter rains from its tributaries, flooded Paris, France, and several nearby communities.
In late January 1910, following months of high rainfall, the Seine River flooded the French capital when water pushed upwards from overflowing sewers and subway tunnels, and seeped into basements through fully saturated soil. The waters did not overflow the river's banks within the city, but flooded Paris through tunnels, sewers, and drains. In neighbouring towns both east and west of the capital, the river rose above its banks and flooded the surrounding terrain directly. [More on Wikipedia, via]
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In late January 1910, following months of high rainfall, the Seine River flooded the French capital when water pushed upwards from overflowing sewers and subway tunnels, and seeped into basements through fully saturated soil. The waters did not overflow the river's banks within the city, but flooded Paris through tunnels, sewers, and drains. In neighbouring towns both east and west of the capital, the river rose above its banks and flooded the surrounding terrain directly. [More on Wikipedia, via]
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US Bikini Laws,1922
‘June 30, 1922. Washington policeman Bill Norton measuring the distance between knee and suit at the Tidal Basin bathing beach after Col. Sherrell, Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds, issued an order that suits not be over six inches above the knee.’ [National Photo Co., via]
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – armistice signed 27 July 1953) was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China (PRC), with military material aid from the Soviet Union. The war was a result of the physical division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. The Korean peninsula was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Following the surrender of Japan in 1945, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th Parallel, with United States troops occupying the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part. [via]
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| A US howitzer position near the Kum River, 15 July |
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| Korean civilians pass an M-46 tank |
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| A GI comforts a grieving infantryman |
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| The U.S. Air Force attacking railroads south of Wonsan on the eastern coast of North Korea |
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| General Douglas MacArthur, UN Command CiC (seated), observes the naval shelling of Incheon from the USS Mt. McKinley, 15 September 1950 |
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Monday, August 29, 2011
The Devil Wears Kiton
Naples Defines Sartorial Refinement
Naples is one of the world’s most creative and energetic cities, a Mediterranean version of New York. It has the same energy, the same beautiful people, and the same nonstop tempo as Manhattan at its most frenetic, and it’s been that way even longer.
Big factories have not done well there, but businesses based on high style and elegance have become world-class enterprises. Some of the finest furniture in Italy—from inlaid marble desks and tables to magnificent carved wooden pieces—is made in Naples, and men’s fashion has reached its highest level (and certainly its highest prices) in Naples, from Marinella ties to the super-chic ateliers of Borrelli, Isaia, Attolini, Kiton, Barba, Rubinacci, and others.
Naples is one of the world’s most creative and energetic cities, a Mediterranean version of New York. It has the same energy, the same beautiful people, and the same nonstop tempo as Manhattan at its most frenetic, and it’s been that way even longer.
Big factories have not done well there, but businesses based on high style and elegance have become world-class enterprises. Some of the finest furniture in Italy—from inlaid marble desks and tables to magnificent carved wooden pieces—is made in Naples, and men’s fashion has reached its highest level (and certainly its highest prices) in Naples, from Marinella ties to the super-chic ateliers of Borrelli, Isaia, Attolini, Kiton, Barba, Rubinacci, and others.
It may seem counter-intuitive that a city famed for mass misery should simultaneously be a world center of luxury men’s style, but the “Naples look” now dominates the top-of-the-line market throughout the Western world, from New York and San Francisco to Hong Kong, St. Petersburg, and Dubai. In fact, the city’s fashion industry is booming, accounting for 34 percent of Neapolitan exports. There are some 5,422 enterprises producing clothing, leather, and shoes in and around Naples.
The success comes, in part, from the fact that almost all garments from the leading Neapolitan companies are handmade. No two are exactly the same, even those that are “ready-to-wear” rather than custom-tailored. Moreover, there are two basic components of Neapolitan sartorial elegance that make these clothes special:
First, the quality of the fabrics. With rare exceptions, the fabrics are manufactured by select British and Italian mills and are unique to the Neapolitan tailors. The wool typically comes from New Zealand, where Merino lambs produce an unusually fine fiber which, in turn, is woven into very soft and flexible wool. The cotton is of the highest quality, as is the cashmere that is often blended into both summer and winter garments. Clothes made from such fabrics are extraordinarily comfortable, and really do feel like a “second skin.”
This feel is further enhanced by the second component: the internal architecture, especially inside the jackets. A very soft canvas chest-liner enables the jacket to move easily and still maintain its elegant design. It’s costly both because it is cut and stitched by hand and because the preparation of the canvas takes time and attention. This style is a distinct departure from Saville Row clothes, which are more rigid. The other Neapolitan stylistic innovation is a paucity of padding. Jackets are softer and more closely shaped to the natural slope of the back, neck, and shoulders than other styles. This approach, too, gives customers a greater sense of freedom and naturalness, and, while most of the suits and jackets you find in the United States have at least some padding, it is still minimal when compared to domestic products, or to British or continental clothes.
Fashion writers are sometimes at a loss for superlatives when they describe Neapolitan style. “I ponder the strange confluence of substance and accident,” wrote Jo Durden-Smith for the upscale American Express magazine Departures. “The weather; the dramatic geography; the Baroque sensibility; the English visitors; the Norman, German, French, Spanish, and conquerors; the royal courts; the street theater; the love of display; the tradition of craftsmanship—that has contrived to produce Neapolitan sartoria.”
I certainly see the Neapolitans’ great flair and sense of elegance, along with at least two other important elements common to all creative people, and particularly refined (and often overlooked) among successful Neapolitans: ruthlessness and arrogance.
If you talk to these captains of style, you will find that they are masters of marketing, superb salesmen, and utterly disdainful of their competition. Ciro Paone, the owner/creator of Kiton, is merciless when he talks about the other masters of Neapolitan style, proclaiming his own clothes more elegant, and more virile. His career bespeaks a toughness of mind and spirit that is common to all captains of industry.
It is not intuitively obvious that there are many men in this world who will enthusiastically pay $6,000 or $7,000 for a jacket and a pair of pants, no matter how elegantly crafted or how magnificent the fabric. But Ciro Paone and the others know better. Ciro didn’t start by making nice suits, building up a clientele, and gradually raising prices. From the very beginning, Kiton (named after the Greek robe, the chiton) charged top lira—more, in fact, than you would expect to pay for custom-made suits (Kiton clothes are entirely handmade, but they are rarely made to order). Paone now employs more than 300 tailors. As you would expect, he’s expanding the line: there are now handmade Kiton shoes, ties, and shirts, along with perfume and women’s clothes. And it is all done with the same single-minded attention to detail and elegance that characterizes the firm in everything it does.
Today, the Neapolitans are omnipresent in the luxury market. It is an amazing achievement, especially when you consider the prices. Kiton suits, for example, average around $6,000, and you can easily find a vicuna suit for more than twice as much. Attolini and Rubinacci are in the same stratospheric range, with Isaia and Borrelli marginally more affordable (roughly $4,000 a suit). Shirts, and even a pair of gloves, run in the $500 range.
Now, I don’t quite see the city’s long history incarnated in a Finamore shirt or one of Cesare Attolini’s suits. But I do see the historical connection. “See Naples and die,” a quotation attributed to wits from Virgil to Goethe, admonishes travelers to absorb the beauty of the setting and the drama of the city itself. But today, the world’s elite is more likely to say, “See Naples and buy.”
The success comes, in part, from the fact that almost all garments from the leading Neapolitan companies are handmade. No two are exactly the same, even those that are “ready-to-wear” rather than custom-tailored. Moreover, there are two basic components of Neapolitan sartorial elegance that make these clothes special:
First, the quality of the fabrics. With rare exceptions, the fabrics are manufactured by select British and Italian mills and are unique to the Neapolitan tailors. The wool typically comes from New Zealand, where Merino lambs produce an unusually fine fiber which, in turn, is woven into very soft and flexible wool. The cotton is of the highest quality, as is the cashmere that is often blended into both summer and winter garments. Clothes made from such fabrics are extraordinarily comfortable, and really do feel like a “second skin.”
This feel is further enhanced by the second component: the internal architecture, especially inside the jackets. A very soft canvas chest-liner enables the jacket to move easily and still maintain its elegant design. It’s costly both because it is cut and stitched by hand and because the preparation of the canvas takes time and attention. This style is a distinct departure from Saville Row clothes, which are more rigid. The other Neapolitan stylistic innovation is a paucity of padding. Jackets are softer and more closely shaped to the natural slope of the back, neck, and shoulders than other styles. This approach, too, gives customers a greater sense of freedom and naturalness, and, while most of the suits and jackets you find in the United States have at least some padding, it is still minimal when compared to domestic products, or to British or continental clothes.
Fashion writers are sometimes at a loss for superlatives when they describe Neapolitan style. “I ponder the strange confluence of substance and accident,” wrote Jo Durden-Smith for the upscale American Express magazine Departures. “The weather; the dramatic geography; the Baroque sensibility; the English visitors; the Norman, German, French, Spanish, and conquerors; the royal courts; the street theater; the love of display; the tradition of craftsmanship—that has contrived to produce Neapolitan sartoria.”
I certainly see the Neapolitans’ great flair and sense of elegance, along with at least two other important elements common to all creative people, and particularly refined (and often overlooked) among successful Neapolitans: ruthlessness and arrogance.
If you talk to these captains of style, you will find that they are masters of marketing, superb salesmen, and utterly disdainful of their competition. Ciro Paone, the owner/creator of Kiton, is merciless when he talks about the other masters of Neapolitan style, proclaiming his own clothes more elegant, and more virile. His career bespeaks a toughness of mind and spirit that is common to all captains of industry.
It is not intuitively obvious that there are many men in this world who will enthusiastically pay $6,000 or $7,000 for a jacket and a pair of pants, no matter how elegantly crafted or how magnificent the fabric. But Ciro Paone and the others know better. Ciro didn’t start by making nice suits, building up a clientele, and gradually raising prices. From the very beginning, Kiton (named after the Greek robe, the chiton) charged top lira—more, in fact, than you would expect to pay for custom-made suits (Kiton clothes are entirely handmade, but they are rarely made to order). Paone now employs more than 300 tailors. As you would expect, he’s expanding the line: there are now handmade Kiton shoes, ties, and shirts, along with perfume and women’s clothes. And it is all done with the same single-minded attention to detail and elegance that characterizes the firm in everything it does.
Today, the Neapolitans are omnipresent in the luxury market. It is an amazing achievement, especially when you consider the prices. Kiton suits, for example, average around $6,000, and you can easily find a vicuna suit for more than twice as much. Attolini and Rubinacci are in the same stratospheric range, with Isaia and Borrelli marginally more affordable (roughly $4,000 a suit). Shirts, and even a pair of gloves, run in the $500 range.
Now, I don’t quite see the city’s long history incarnated in a Finamore shirt or one of Cesare Attolini’s suits. But I do see the historical connection. “See Naples and die,” a quotation attributed to wits from Virgil to Goethe, admonishes travelers to absorb the beauty of the setting and the drama of the city itself. But today, the world’s elite is more likely to say, “See Naples and buy.”
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Quote du Jour
“A man is obliged to live for himself, as an educated person ought to live.” Leo Tolstoy
Friday, August 26, 2011
The Line of Beauty
The Economics of Good Looks
Beauty has lost none of its power to bewitch, bother and get its own way, as various new studies on the economic advantages of good looks confirm.
Physically attractive women and men earn more than average-looking ones, and very plain people earn less. In the labour market as a whole (though not, for example, in astrophysics), looks have a bigger impact on earnings than education, though intelligence—mercifully enough— is valued more highly still.
Beauty is naturally rewarded in jobs where physical attractiveness would seem to matter, such as prostitution, entertainment, customer service and so on. But it also yields rewards in unexpected fields. Homely NFL quarterbacks earn less than their comelier counterparts, despite identical yards passed and years in the league. Not everything comes easier: good-looking women seeking high-flying jobs in particularly male fields may be stymied by the “bimbo effect” until they prove their competence and commitment. But the importance of beauty in the labour market is far more pervasive than one might think.
In America more people say they have felt discriminated against for their appearance than because of their age, race or ethnicity. Sexualised images are everywhere, and the world that has emerged is one in which no one can afford to pretend beauty does not matter. Pretty people, it seems, have all the luck.
Beauty has lost none of its power to bewitch, bother and get its own way, as various new studies on the economic advantages of good looks confirm.
Physically attractive women and men earn more than average-looking ones, and very plain people earn less. In the labour market as a whole (though not, for example, in astrophysics), looks have a bigger impact on earnings than education, though intelligence—mercifully enough— is valued more highly still.
Beauty is naturally rewarded in jobs where physical attractiveness would seem to matter, such as prostitution, entertainment, customer service and so on. But it also yields rewards in unexpected fields. Homely NFL quarterbacks earn less than their comelier counterparts, despite identical yards passed and years in the league. Not everything comes easier: good-looking women seeking high-flying jobs in particularly male fields may be stymied by the “bimbo effect” until they prove their competence and commitment. But the importance of beauty in the labour market is far more pervasive than one might think.
In America more people say they have felt discriminated against for their appearance than because of their age, race or ethnicity. Sexualised images are everywhere, and the world that has emerged is one in which no one can afford to pretend beauty does not matter. Pretty people, it seems, have all the luck.
Agatha Christie and her surf board, 1922
‘Agatha Christie on Waikiki beach, Hawaii, 1922. She was travelling with her first husband, Archie, and mastered stand-up surfing, becoming one of the earliest Britons known to do so.’
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