The art of travel
Following from the success of their Carnets de Voyage, in which four contemporary artists were invited to illustrate cities they visited for the first time, Louis Vuitton will be launching two new travel titl...
Brief encounters at the Pullman
In the first of a series of tales that begin from a Pullman Hotel in a number of locations, we explore the relationship of artist and patron and how a serendipitous meeting in a lobby or bar might...
Find your talisman before it vanishes
It’s official – Art14 rocks. You just had to step inside the throng of buyers, dealers and artists all bopping their way into the main hall at Olympia to the sound of happy house to feel it. Everyone was th...
Your very own piece de resistance
The Belgians really love their food. Brussels’ proximity to its gastronomic neighbour Lilles, just half an hour by train, seems to have spurred the city on to strive for higher culinary standards. Per capit...
The winning light
Chris Levine is a light artist, otherwise known as the Golden Boy for his intuitive Midas touch that both illuminates his subjects and captures their essential glow. Recognised for his pioneering ...
The gift is in the journey
Mr Grumpy hates shopping, specifically the Christmas shopping list and the New Year sales. I have always had to do all the gathering and face the crush of shoppers on Oxford Street alone. So this year I con...
Oklahoma City rises again
The first time I boarded an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Oklahoma City eight years ago, it was half empty and exclusively full of men, rugged faces mostly hidden behind dusty ten gallon hats. Eac...
A writer of residence
Ten years ago Fay Weldon was a writer in residence at the Savoy Hotel in London. Since then it has had a complete refurbishment, but its particular atmosphere, its essential Savoyness, and the kind of peopl...
Rolls-Royce Wraith – The rebirth of a classic
“I’d like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.” ? F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
When I first met Alex Innes, it was inside the front window of Harrods, wher...
Let nature do as she wants
On the craggy ridge of a moor, our ghillie Innes inches along the sodden ground with his elbows, his belly dragging through inhospitable growth. The glen is scattered with dark mounds, temporary shelters of...
Three perfect days in Paris 6eme Rive Gauche – day three
The morning began with a fresh coffee and oeuf au jambon at Bistrot Mazarin, next to La Palette, where we met Sebastiano Varoli. A curator with a very different perspective on how art should be exhibited, b...
Glass talks to Annabelle Wallis about her career-defining appearance in Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders
When Annabelle Wallis walks into the bar in the first episode of Peaky Blinders, she illuminates the dank post-WW I Birmingham set like a white flag flying above the parapet – it is a career-defining momen...
Clinking Glass: The echo of a Chinese masterpiece
Seated in the leafless cedarwood forest of Kengo Kuma’s imagination at Sake no Hana on St James Street, the bare wooden geometry was like a balm to the bustling city outside. I was waiting for Hongxing Zhang,...
Kulture kid: Visiting Frieze Art
The best thing I heard at Frieze Art Fair this year was, “Daddy that would look great on our wall!” The father in question looked up, noted it, and moved on to a higher purpose. The worst thing I saw was my...
Three perfect days in Paris 6eme Rive Gauche – day two
There is only one place to have your first breakfast in Paris – Les Deux Magots. Sitting in the morning sun opposite the oldest church in Paris, L’Eglise St Germain, it is the perfect place to begin a walking...
Three perfect days in Paris 6eme Rive Gauche – day one
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At six in the morning there was a run on the gates of Eurostar in St Pancras International, it seemed like everyone was leaving London. Looking around me I was struck by one of those thoughts that quickly ...
Behind the façade
One of the most endearing things about Milan is that on first impression, it is nothing special. Inconspicuous entrances to various buildings give you no clue that once you pass the threshold a world of imp...
Racing towards the future with LaFerrari
Our first pitstop when we landed in Maranello used to be Schumacher’s favourite canteen – Montana. NowFernando Alonso’s preferred hang out, its walls are lined with photographs of familiar faces from the ta...
Written in the stars
The first time I encountered Audrey Nugent, of the musical duo Nugent&Belle, was after a John Rocha show where as one of Ireland’s top models she had danced down the runway alongside Kate Moss and Naomi C...
The art and craft of Caroline Groves
When I was a little girl there was a certain fairytale that I found totally unbelievable. How was it that not a single woman in the whole kingdom could fit into Cinderella’s glass slipper? Growing up in an ...
An engaging Grecovery
As I boarded the Aegean Airlines flight bound for Athens, it seemed like I had mistakenly intruded on a congregation of goddesses – there was a foreign and palpable femininity manifest in their silky dark t...