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What exactly is luxury, asks Robin Dutt? The unattainable, the strategically unaffordable, the saved up for, the impossible, the salaciously needed … The sad desire to be?

Well whatever you think luxury just might be, Savile Row welcomes Argent Timeless to ‘The Row’. Timelessness and Savile Row, of course, go hand in hand, for craftsmanship and style are never part of the vulgarity of the fashion world. This writer, for one, is glad that there is a difference. After all, wasn’t it Jean Cocteau who said that ‘We must feel sorry for Fashion. She has such a short time to live.’ ? She…Or indeed, He… And even if he didn’t say this…Isn’t it true? Of course…

Argent Timeless is timely indeed when it came to their pre-Christmas opening of this magnetic boutique, a specialist in automotive, bespoke apparel and luggage items which remind of the time (Covid apart) when travel was not simply a luxury but an expansion of the mind. Travel may indeed broaden the mind, or of course you can be an armchair traveller but there is something about the efficacy of the feel of elegantly crafted leather and objets which simply reassure for any journey, whether you leave the drawing room – or no. Do you know…I am the proud owner of the jewellery box of the ‘Swedish Nightingale ‘Jenny Lind? Sadly no jewellery within…BUT the jewel was without, a piece in itself. It is purple plush velvet. And there was a letter which I will never read.

Small for a flagship store but crucially on Savile Row, the intent is to target the ardent driver, perhaps, in us all. My first car was a Mini. She was beautiful…A black beetle carapace. I recall giving a lift back from Llandudno with a charming blonde and the Mini practically conked out (because I hadn’t checked the oil level). BUT I got her back to Kensington. A Mercedes crashed into me some time after and I was pulled out of the wreckage by a passing policeman.

And then…I had a Karman Ghia – a poor man’s Porsche as they still say. Gone now, too…

At Argent Timeless you will find jewellery, prints, of course sturdy luggage and various accessories – such as impossibly glossy gloves. Don’t you hate it when you lose one? These here, you will strap to your soul.

Don’t forget to take a look at the 60s & 70s furniture too. The Argent Timeless leather collection has been hand crafted by its bespoke factory partner, established in the reign of George III and each piece in this collection is cut using traditional clicking knives and then stitched by craftspeople and individually hand finished. Leather has , of course, always been a source material – some might say, a bi-product.

Reassuringly expensive, with an Argent Timeless Handmade Weekend Bag at £595 or consider the Argent Bespoke Handmade Travel Watch Roll at £195. Quality is as always has been…all.

Old wisdom says…buy well once, you won’t buy twice.

Sounds just about right.

What exactly is luxury, asks Robin Dutt?

While this year’s grape harvest in France’s Champagne wine region may have had its challenges thanks to late frost and biblical hail, there have been some outstanding releases from some top producers. Helena Nicklin, pictured below, picks five of the best for us to toast the end of another tricky year.

One thing I have loved about my job over the years has been really getting to know the personalities of some of Champagne’s most famous sparkling wines. Fizz was always the final frontier for me when I was learning to taste as it’s so much harder to understand the nuances of what makes a bottle of bubbles exceptional than it is for still wine. Here are five producers who have released champagnes that have really shone this year, and all for different reasons. Everyone deserves to raise a glass of something special this season and with these fantastic bottles, you will not be disappointed.

Dom Pérignon 2003 Plénitude 2

Dom Pérignon is globally recognised as the benchmark for an elegant, pure and precise style of “Grande Marque”, champagne. Made only in the best vintage years where the weather is ideal, Dom Pérignon is always an almost equal blend of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay and as it ages, it takes on a haunting complexity that seems to change with every sip. Lees ageing is very important to the cellar masters here and they like to keep some of their vintage releases back to give them a new lease of life several years later under the name “Plénitude”. Normally, a champagne from DP will age on its lees (the dead yeast cells left over after fermentation) for eight or so years before being “disgorged”. When Dom Pérignon releases a wine in its second Plénitude (also known as P2) however, the time on its lees before disgorgement will have been in between 12 and 15 years, keeping the wine fresh and adding even more body and complexity. There is even a third Plénitude (P3), where the ageing is between 30 and 40 years! The wines are constantly tasted over time to find the exact moment when they start to shine again in their second and third iterations.

The 2003 vintage of Plénitude 2 is quite special in that it is from a particularly warm vintage, which gives the wine more body and tropical fruit character than other years. Quietly opulent with a creaminess from the extra time on lees, you’ll also find notes of hazelnut, apricot and toast. It’s a fantastic wine to have with food. Try roast quail or even guinea fowl served with nuts or dried fruit.

Stockists: clos19.com, Berry Bros & Rudd, Jeroboams, Hedonism Wines The Finest Bubble, The Champagne Company, Harrods, Selfridges. RRP £335

Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2009

Benedictine monk Dom Thierry Ruinart was a contemporary of Dom Pérignon around the time of Louis XI in France but was a lot more worldly wise and well-travelled. He discovered the famous “wine with bubbles” while galivanting around Paris at parties with young aristocrats and eventually came home to Champagne with his new-found interest and worked, strangely enough, with Dom Pérignon to improve the bottling process of sparkling wines. Dom Ruinart passed his passion onto his nephew Nicolas who managed to realise his uncle’s dream, founding Maison Ruinart in 1729.

Today, the house has a strong focus on the Chardonnay grape and, while they produce three non-vintage wines – the Brut NV, a blanc de blancs (100% Chardonnay) and a rosé NV, which uses both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – at the top of their tree sits their finest wines labelled Dom Ruinart.

The white is always a vintage wine made only in the very best years and solely from grapes grown in their top, Grand Cru vineyards. Dom Ruinart is also always a blanc de blancs, i.e. made from 100% Chardonnay. Named in homage to the monk who brought back his Parisian passion to the region, the first release of this wine was from the 1959 vintage. The 2009 therefore, 50 years later, celebrates a rather special milestone. Think candied pineapple, a squeeze of lime, honey on toast and Brazil nut. Another foodie champagne, try this with scallops or poultry or hard cheeses with a touch of truffle. Fabulous.

Stockists: clos19.com, Master of Malt. RRP about £150

Henri Giraud Argonne 2013

Champagne Henri Giraud is a true wine lover’s champagne. Lesser known than the bigger brands but prized equally highly by those in the know, Giraud has been a family-run business for 12 generations. Located in Aÿ and currently headed up by Claude Giraud, it is a champagne house that has a close relationship with the oak forests of Argonne that lie some 60 kilometres north-east of the house. The wood from Argonne trees is particularly dense and so barrels made with it require a very slow process of toasting. While fermentation in oak hasn’t traditionally been a huge part of champagne production in the region, Champagne Henri Giraud have always found that this particular wood complements their finest vintages and blends in a deliciously opulent, unique way.

The Henri Giraud Argonne is champagne you cannot ignore thanks to its unapologetic, striking oak presence. The top cuvée in the range, it is always a blend of 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay and the 2013 presents itself as luminous gold, voluptuous and voluminous. Despite being vinified and aged in new oak barrels, the wood flavour is not overbearing. Instead, it adds an intensity of flavour to the wine where notes of nutmeg, vanilla and spiced incense intertwine with flavours of exotic fruits, both fresh and dried. The bottle, with its unusual shape and flash of gold leafing, is just as memorable as the liquid inside too. A very special drop.

Stockists: The Finest Bubble, Hedonism, Woodwinters, The Whisky Exchange. RRP about £370

Rare 2008

Rare Champagne was the prestige cuvée champagne of the house Piper-Heidsieck until it separated to become a brand or marque in its own right – and deservedly so. Originally created to celebrate 100 years of Heidsieck Champagnes, Rare was presented to the French queen, which is why its presentation boasts a rather fabulous tiara (that you can remove and wear, should you so wish). Now its very own entity, Rare goes from strength to strength under the watchful eye of cellar master Régis Camus.

As the name would suggest, it is not every year that we see a new release of Rare. Only 12 vintages have been deemed worthy of producing a Rare since its first vintage in 1976. Pinot Noir dominant always, Camus manages to strike that incredible balance between body, fruit, complexity, texture and perfume in every vintage he produces, each a true labour of love and a work of vinous art. The 2008 is another example of this impressive balance, bringing a softness and youthful freshness together with brioche, red apple skin, perfume and spice. It’s a wine that would work well with meaty, white fish dishes but equally, it’s a champagne to sip and to savour on its own to let every playful, complex element show itself. Glorious.

Stockists: The Finest Bubble, Hedonism, Harrods, Selfridges. RRP £180

Bollinger PN V16

A brand-new style of wine from the iconic house of Bollinger, the PN V16 is made exclusively from Pinot Noir grapes that come specifically from their plot in Verzenay (hence the V) and largely from the 2016 vintage. Bollinger has long favoured Pinot Noir for its famously rich style, so with these new terroir-focused editions, they are taking things a step further and showcasing the grape from several of its terroirs separately to show what they bring to the wine. The majority of juice that makes up the base for the PN V16 comes from the 2016 vintage and it is blended with older “reserve” wines to maintain the house style.

What the Verzenay terroir brings here is depth of flavour and a sense of tension. There is also a touch of Pinot from Avenay and Tauxières, which add aromatics and complete the effect. Think creamy hazelnut paste, baked fruit, exotic spice and a touch of smoke all rounded off with a moreish, saline finish. It’s a sultry and serious champagne that needs a little time to open up but, once it has, it makes a fantastic match for smoked meats or grilled poultry. A little hard cheese works wonders with it too. Cin cin!

Stockists: House of Malt, Harvey Nichols, The Whisky Exchange, The Finest Bubble. RRP about £80

Helena Nicklin is an award-winning drinks writer and broadcaster. See more about her at helenanicklin.com or follow her on social media @HelenaSips.

While this year’s grape harvest in France’s

Christmas Gift Ideas

The work of the painter, Andrew Flint Shipman is known around the world, writes Robin Dutt. Famed for his technicolour expressions of flowers, esoteric symbols and occasional ‘landscape nudes’, his sense of bright hues has seen him transfer his expressions on canvas onto a host of functional and purely decorative objects. His Useable and Wearable art features aprons, T-shirts, candles and bags emblazoned with blooms and skulls and often accompanied by what has come to be his signature motif, a glossy apple used either as a centre stage emblem or more often, a deliberate pointe finale. It is something of a stamp or seal. And some four decades of creativity later, it is chiefly associated with him.

His paintings make fine presents and most of these are realised in Acrylic and liquid metal on canvas, linen or wood and his use of gold leaf or fluorescents inform the whole image and make it punchy and almost cinematic or stage-referential. So there is no surprise in learning that theatre was in this creator’s blood from a very early age.

Somehow, there is a surreal element to his work but the viewer is invited to interpret the different messages, almost like reading lush hieroglyphics of a secret world. Just as when we read Egyptian hieroglyphics we are unaware of how these shapes exactly sounded. We can approximate but not completely know. So it is with Flint Shipman’s fruits and flowers, esoteric symbols of life in mind, such as the Ankh or the Eye of Horus and indeed, thoughtful depictions of say, an insect pushing a miniature sand timer like a scarab beetle or a mystical triangle accompanied by three emerald green sentinel apples and a black feather, that he invites us into his world.

It is tempting to imagine the word-sounds of these motifs or even how they might be translated into musical notes. Obviously, there is a sense of magic and esoteric lore in what the artist is conveying and his titles such as, ‘Don’t just look, see’, ‘The Unknown just got more mysterious’ and ‘The sun disk and Om’ and in the main devoid of humanity, he paints the sorts of images and symbols human kind has been enthralled by for thousands of years in a continuum which is constant despite whatever new technology and developments emerge to challenge our feeling of the power of mystery and imagination. Flint Shipman will always be a painter first but his works are so adaptable onto a myriad of other affairs that he spends a good deal of time coming up with ideas for the home too.

Especially for Christmas, revel in his selection of attractive trivets (£50 each) made of toughened, recycled glass. he is often asked by his customers how they are supposed to go on a wall as there are no fittings. They aren’t! Although they look as if they could easily pass as unique works for display, seen either singly or in a massed conglomeration or simple set of rows. No, these are trivets for the table with large central blooms providing splashes of colour and tactility to any setting. Choose from Christmas Lily, Orchid, Fig, Oranges and Lemons among the fifty designs in the range and look far more magnetic when mixed than matched – particularly at this season. But for a more formal setting, six white lilies or deep purple agapanthus motifs add a sense of chic and propriety.

The table mat and coaster collection (£100 for a set of six or £35 for a set of six, respectively) will add more than a splash of colour whether you choose backgrounds of festive gold or acid Pop Art hues, with a central contrast bloom. Scented candles (£45) made in the UK with natural wax infused with essential oils will provide that welcome olfactory backdrop.

If you’re looking for the unusual when it comes to gifts this Christmas, Flint Shipman invites you to luxuriate in his art.

Paintings – www.andrewflintshipman.com
Useable & Wearable Art –www.andrewflintdesign.com

Christmas Gift Ideas The work of the painter,

Recently, Houseplant Appreciation Day was celebrated reminding all about the positive influence that plants can have in a domestic environ, writes Robin Dutt. Some might say that they’d be lost without their giant cheese-plant or that winding, trailing Ivy. Prince Charles is known to talk to his green friends and George Orwell reminded us of practically every Victorian and Edwardian musty hallway with his, ‘Keep the Aspidistra Flying’. I recall my Mama’s love of vibrant and vast blooms of red and white Geraniums, reminiscent of the Houses of York and Lancaster and a little similar since, apparently, the red hates the white – and vice versa!

This year we learn that Orchids have been identified as the most popular houseplant to include in an interior scheme. And as everyone knows, you can pay top dollar for a spindly example lavished with premium wrap from some joint in Chelsea or try your luck at Marks & Spencer where regularly, you can buy a pair of statuesque examples which will cost just over £15.

For readers of Savile Row Style, it might be worth remembering that whilst our little strip is universally, reassuringly expensive, they might find a little inspiration in surrounding themselves with plants that seem linked to all things monetary – Rubber plants (financial luck), the Lucky Bamboo (no explanation needed) and then why not consider a Pachira Money Tree. Who said that money and trees don’t go together?

It’s a quick hop, skip and a jump to your nearest nursery, my friend…

Recently, Houseplant Appreciation Day was celebrated reminding

ART – A Festival of Light and Stone by Nicolas Moreton

Nicolas Moreton is one of those truly gifted sculptors who revels in his love of past giants who wielded the chisel, writes Robin Dutt. ‘Making a Mark’ is a fine retrospective show of the creator’s signature style – whether gargantuan figures, cosmic or mythical symbolism, experiments in pure shape – or stone, bleeding halogen light. He began stone carving in 1985 but his output is so prodigious and ambitious that he made up for what anyone might call ‘other pursuits’. Purposefully sensual and sexual in content, these large male and female forms are suffused with a brooding, primeval energy and when, in some rarer cases he utilizes silk, paint, gold leaf, metal or Cedar Cones, he explores what is possible when conveying expression in unusual ways. The silk and stone are immediately evocative, for instance helped by the vividness of the chosen blood red hue of the silk. This piece is purposefully called, ‘Transition’.

The temptation might be to recall the magnificent work of such masters as Epstein or Moore and Moreton, pictured above left, would probably not disagree but he has certainly made a particular brand of sense, sensuality and sexuality his own. Many times, he presents his figures without faces – or if they have ‘faces’ then these might be embellished instead of detailed with eyes, nose, mouth or in one case, ‘Sunflowers (Man and Boy)’ he presents the reality of a guardian generation, the father with his son – both figures sporting the dense seed network of a rough, circular sunflower bloom.

This may not be the weather to want to spend too long outside, instead of dreaming of roasting your nuts by an open fire, but that is exactly what Moreton wants to encourage. The show is at New College, The Cloisters and Ante-chapel where so much of the work has been set in the context of the natural world. It is a harmonic union for the very material he uses can trace its origin to beneath the earth or as outcrops from marble cliffs. These materials such as Kilkenny Fossil Limestone, Ancaster Weatherbed Limestone, Clipsham Blue Limestone, Corremie Pink Granite or Portuguese Marble all have their distinct characters and qualities and Moreton is intimate with all their personalities.What is right for one construct is surely not so suitable for another. He respects and adores what nature has given him to play with but as a very contemporary worker in stone, he has some very contemporary ideas of production, too. As Miles Young, Warden, New College, Oxford points out – lest we do not know or are apt to forget, –

…’Moreton is no slave to tradition. He is a consummate craftsman
with a highly developed skill in direct carving into the stone, but he uses
tungsten carbide reinforced tips for his chisels and polyurethane for
his mallets which gives him the advantage over Michelangelo, and his
diamond sponges enable him to polish the surface of his stone carvings
to a brilliance which Henry Moore would have envied’.

Moreton attracted the attention of such enthusiasts as jazz singer George Melly and strident, brilliant critic, Brian Sewell who both had pieces in their private collections and Lord Archer is also a fan.

And showing his eager hand when it comes to experimentation in this type of sculptural work, he presents in this latest show, a selection of his tactile, almost hypnotic and atmospheric pieces such as ‘Chrysalis’, ‘O Joyous Light’, ‘In the Beginning’ and ‘Catherine Wheel’ where he makes use of lights, whether LED or Halogen. These might certainly take the chill off a winter visit to the show. The latter in particular adds a surprising element to his work where the light appears to mimic trapped molten lava. Or in the case of, specifically, ‘In the Beginning’ the structure is flagrantly sexual in its shaping and meaning, the crack of light, glowing within as an invitation and a reminder from where all life starts. It might of course, be read as a simple shape, an element of space, a potent decoration from a science fiction mansion and more – but knowing Moreton’s touch, the link with creation is too strong to ignore. It looks like an egg cracking open, the beginning of a stellar journey.

And it is back to the fecundity of nature which gives life when Moreton himself says of ‘Catching Nature’s Gift’ (a nude female with hands raised)

‘She sits, waiting, expectant. Her hands are raised ready to
catch the fertile waters of life from the sky. When the rains come, they
cascade down her fertile core and then into the earth beneath her. Her
stone pedestal represents the earth and the rivers of our world’.

Making a Mark – A Retrospective Exhibition of Sculpture by Nicolas Moreton is at New College and Ante-chapel, New College Lane, Oxford, OX1 3BN

ART - A Festival of Light and