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The New Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé
September 2008
Men's Style: Extraordinary Accessories: Carried Away
William Kissel
Daring Duffels. Once relegated to the locker room, the duffel bag has emerged in versions that serve as tasteful travel carry-ons or computer bags. In deference to their freshly elevated status, the newest fall bags feature tissue-soft leathers,...
Men's Style: Extraordinary Accessories: Sure-Footed
William Kissel
Pedestrian Perfection. In his quest to redefine men’s footwear, Italian accessories designer Cesare Paciotti created perhaps this season’s most intriguing hybrid—a cap-toe dress shoe with a high-top sneaker’s heel and sole. Numerous other designers...
Men's Style: Extraordinary Accessories: Finishing Touches
William Kissel
Singular Style. To help their clients dress from head to toe in a comprehensive style, menswear designers are crafting ever-expanding ranges of unique and personalized accessories that complement their suits and sportswear. Many use color, exotic...
Men's Style: Extraordinary Accessories: Beyond Basic
William Kissel
Intricate Elegance. It is often the small, discreet details that define true quality. A closer look reveals the subtle design nuances and delicate workmanship required to create these extraordinary accessories.Photo clockwise from top left:...
Threads of State
The Editors
With all eyes on Washington, D.C., these days, the man of international affairs must cultivate a variety of impeccably tailored looks to fit any situation, whether he is lobbying for change on Capitol Hill, negotiating trade agreements on Embassy...
Snapshots from the Edge
The Editors
A rendezvous along the Pacific Coast calls for a multifaceted wardrobe of distinctive sport coats and stylish casual wear.
above, on him: Dunhill suede jacket, $2,450, plaid shirt, $270, wool vest, $190, striped wool pants, $2,195 (for suit), and...
A Material Difference
William Kissel
A glass of red wine that accidentally spilled on his trousers prompted Italian fashion maverick Gianluca Isaia to explore the possibility of creating a waterproof fabric made entirely of natural fibers to protect his luxurious suits. After months of...
Star Power
Gregory Anderson
Early 100 years ago, Charles Rolls, the cofounder and bankroller of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, became the first person to complete a nonstop, round-trip flight across the English Channel. Rolls took more than an hour and a half to accomplish the...
Driving Privileges
Paul Dean
You don’t have to pay dues to join the exclusive SLR.Club and enjoy its many perks, and you don’t have to pass muster with present members. The only requirement is ownership of a rare $500,000 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren—or a new $1.2 million, 671 hp,...
Stuck on the Mud
Jack Smith
J. Tylee Wilson, the former chairman of the board of RJR Nabisco, found much to like when he visited Santa Fe for the first time 15 years ago: art galleries, museums, the Spanish and Native American cultures, the climate, and the stark beauty of New...
Robb Design Portfolio: Raccoon Rolls
Gregory Anderson
Phantom II Continental Streamline Saloon by Park WardThough known for its conservatively styled automobiles, British coachbuilder Park Ward thought outside the boxy mold when creating the Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental Streamline Saloon. The...
Robb Design Portfolio: Sheer Rocks
Jill Newman
De Beers, the mastermind behind diamond marketing for the past century, intends to change the way we value this coveted stone. The company’s latest creation, inspired by ancient Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti, is an elaborate diamond collar comprising 1,999...
Wheels: Go, Go Godzilla
Lawrence Ulrich
Like most video games, the Nissan GT-R has a built-in cheat code. Flip three switches on the dashboard until they all light up—activating "R," or race, mode—then depress the brake and step on the accelerator. This sequence activates the GT-R’s...
Wings & Water: The Mighty Mustang
Elizabeth Moscrop
In 1911, Clyde Cessna charged people 50 cents apiece to watch him perform aerial stunts over Kansas in his state-of-the-art Silver Wings monoplane. That is considerably more expensive than today’s Cessna demonstration flights, which are free to...
The Mighty Mustang: The Citation Story
Elizabeth Moscrop
Innovative though the Citation Mustang is, its development is grounded in a long-standing business formula from a solid company, one that has had only four chairmen since 1927. When the manufacturer introduced its Citation line in the early 1970s,...
Journeys: Everything Under the Tuscan Sun
Mike Nolan
My golf ball sits deep in the gully, and as I consider my next shot, I hear only water trickling in the creek at my feet and the faint cries of kestrels, which soar in the sky above me as they look for lizards in the hills that ring the valley....
Everything Under the Tuscan Sun: Tuscan Golf Tour
Mike Nolan
Golf may not be the most obvious reason to visit Tuscany, but these resorts and courses make it worth the effort to pack your clubs when traveling to the region.Terme di Saturnia Spa & Golf ResortLocated two hours north of Rome by car, in the...
Home Entertainment: House Music
Brent Butterworth
Digital technology has transformed the home recording studio as completely as it has refashioned photography and communications. Only 15 years ago, most in-home studios relied on mixing boards as bulky as billiard tables and multitrack tape machines...
House Music: Weekend Warriors
Bailey S. Barnard
The term "record producer" immediately brings to mind an image of a musical luminary like Quincy Jones hovering over a giant mixing board as Frank Sinatra stands alone at a microphone in an adjacent recording space. Today, for a fee, record producers...
One Last Thing...
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
The Item. This cocktail shaker dates from the early 1930s and is one of only two known examples of its kind. It was crafted to match the Bottoms Up–style cups that were first made in the late 1920s. Both the shaker and the cups are clay. The cup...
FrontRunners: Footwear Fetish
The Editors
Steven Taffel wants you to stop suppressing your footwear fetish. "Men enjoy great shoes as much as women do; they just don’t talk about it," says Taffel, who recently opened Leffot (www.leffot.com), a men’s footwear boutique in Manhattan’s West...
FrontRunners: Dialing up the 911
The Editors
The Porsche 911’s soap-bar-shaped body seemingly has not changed since 1963, when the first models rolled out of Stuttgart. Although they, too, look like their predecessors, the 2009 Porsche 911 Carrera and Carrera S (www.porsche.com) coupes and...
FrontRunners: Bike Writer
The Editors
The Ducati Corse (www.aquilabrands.com) is a limited-edition pen made by an Italian brand, named for an Italian motorcycle marque, and inspired by the feats of a young Australian. That Aussie is 22-year-old Casey Stoner, the current MotoGP champion,...
FrontRunners: Viva Riva
The Editors
Italian boatbuilder Riva selected this month’s Cannes International Boat Show as the setting for the launch of the Riva 92' Duchessa (www.riva-yacht.com). The Duchessa model sports a distinctive fiberglass-topped flybridge and striking exterior...
FrontRunners: Highly Anticipated
The Editors
Though it will not begin deliveries until 2010, Hawker Beechcraft already has received more than 70 orders for the next model in its line of light business jets, the Premier II (www.hawkerbeechcraft.com). The fuselage of the $7.4 million aircraft,...
FrontRunners: Adirondack Renaissance
The Editors
A 2005 fire destroyed the circa-1882 Lake Placid Lodge (www.lakeplacidlodge.com), but the Adirondack Mountains landmark has been rebuilt, and the resort is reopening its main lodge this month. The new structure retains the original’s rustic charm,...
FrontRunners: From the Robb Cellar
The Editors
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Robert Drouhin—then head of Joseph Drouhin, one of Burgundy’s most prestigious domaines—became interested in expanding the family’s production to Chablis, the Vaudésir appellation suffered from neglect that had...
FrontRunners: In Rare Form
The Editors
Jewelry designer Nina Runsdorf (212.382.1243) scours the diamond market for nontraditional stones—thin slices or rough rocks—that give her pieces a modern look. "Organic-looking diamonds lend themselves to a more casual jewelry style," says Runsdorf,...
FrontRunners: Shock Absorber
The Editors
As a publicity stunt, early-20th-century watchmaker Paul Wyler once demonstrated the durability of his timepieces by tossing one of them off the Eiffel Tower. In the rose-gold Wyler Genève Tourbillon Big Date (www.wylergeneve.com), the newly...
FrontRunners: Select Smoke
The Editors
Cigar conglomerate Altadis has augmented some of its top brands with Cabinet Selección blends, which are made with specially selected and aged tobaccos. The Por Larrañaga Cabinet Selección is the best of this elite breed, offering a wonderfully...
Spirits: Lowland High Point
Roger Morris
Breaking the seal on a bottle of rare, extra-aged, single-malt whisky often summons the ghost of years past. Indeed, much of our pleasure in owning such a spirit derives from the recollections it awakens of the happenings in the world and our own...
Watches: Masters of Time
Laurie Kahle
While browsing through an antiques shop five years ago with well-known complication specialist Christophe Claret, watch-industry veteran Steven Holtzman pointed out an old desk clock with rolling-bar indicators. Holtzman, the onetime distributor for...
Autos: Trident True
Matthew Phenix
Pininfarina is sometimes too good at making cars appear sporty. Take, for example, the rakish GranTurismo, which the Italian design firm shaped for Maserati. The car’s silhouette promises a level of performance that its power train simply does not...
Motorcycles: Davy Jones' Chopper
Don Williams
With its radical custom appearance and retro styling, Harley-Davidson’s new Softail Cross Bones might be the perfect motorcycle for indulging the conflicted psyches of maturing baby boomers. Harley-Davidson, however, clearly considers the Cross Bones...
Aviation: Change Is in the Air
Douglas McWhirter
When the going gets tough, the tough invest in the future. Amid layoffs, restructurings, and rising jet-fuel costs, Flight Options, the Cleveland-based fractional aviation company, announced late last year that it would spend $1 billion for 150...
Boating: Rough-Water Rogue
Michael Verdon
It was only a matter of weeks before Dale Maloney discovered that his Midnight Express 37 Open Fish lived up to its hard-charging pedigree. Maloney, by his own admission a sportfishing fanatic, had taken delivery of his 900 hp, outboard-powered...
Smoke: Under the Volcano
Brent Butterworth
One might be forgiven for reflexively recoiling from any brand of Hawaiian cigar. After all, the souvenir sticks found in the islands’ gift shops are made—somewhere other than Hawaii—from scrap tobacco of various origins that has been fouled with...
Golf: Over the Edge
Shaun Tolson
One would expect Sean Cahalane to look back fondly on the course where he spent much of his childhood. But the longtime member of the Ocean Edge Resort & Club in Brewster, Mass., has few positive recollections of the property’s former layout. "I...
Travel: A Whole New Game
Laurie Kahle
Having arrived after-hours at Marataba, a Hunter Hotels game reserve that borders South Africa’s Marakele National Park, I waited outside the locked, electrified gates for a staff member to meet me. Tired and increasingly impatient after the long...
Vacation Homes: Atlantic Divide
Jennifer Hall
"In the case of an emergency I guess you could run across the road and holler for the neighbors," joked Leoni, property host at Chalet Soleil in the Alpine ski town of Chamonix, France. Internet and telephone services, she explained, were not up and...
Jewelry: Standout Chameleon
Jill Newman
In the late 1950s, an expert at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA)—the world’s leading nonprofit institute devoted to gemological research and education—graded an unusual green diamond. After conducting a thorough examination of the stone,...
Antiques: Golden Boy
Erika Heet
Largely overshadowed by his more famous 18th-century contemporary Thomas Chippendale, the English wood-carver Thomas Johnson was a man preoccupied with fantasy. Johnson drew inspiration primarily from Francis Barlow’s illustrations of Aesop’s Fables,...
Art: Fired Up
Jeff Matthews
"All Japanese art is a niche," says Erik Thomsen, a New York gallery owner and dealer in Japanese art, "but Fukami is a very well-known artist, and he is easy to sell."
Well known, indeed: Sueharu Fukami, a native of Kyoto, has his works in more...
Collectibles: Bond, Bound Bond
Bailey S. Barnard
Before Daniel Craig, before Pierce Brosnan, even before Sean Connery, there was Ian Fleming—the English novelist who gave life to secret agent James Bond in 1953 with his first book, Casino Royale. To celebrate the centenary of the author’s birth in...
Music: Conducting Business
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Steve Uhrik spends most Friday mornings at church. He and his business associate, Lawrence Trupiano, make the short trip from their shop in Brooklyn to Manhattan’s St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue—where they go to work, not worship. Uhrik and Trupiano...
Home Electronics: Listen Up
Brent Butterworth
Headphones offer certain advantages over conventional speakers. They provide a private environment where the listener can play music at any desired volume, without disturbing others. They are unaffected by room acoustics and do not require powerful...
Home: Pillow Talk
William Kissel
Casa del Bianco does its best work in the bedroom. So when the Italian linens company opened a by-appointment-only studio in New York in April 2007, Fabrizio and Lupe Biasiolo—the two of the company’s four owners who run its U.S. division—decided...
Contributors: Picture Perfect
The Editors
Contributing fashion director Joseph DeAcetis produced the annual fall fashion section in this month’s issue. "We wanted to reflect the changing attitudes of American men today," says DeAcetis, who also oversees the men’s style content for Playboy...
From the Editors: Capital Company
Brett Anderson
"Lafayette Square was society. Beyond the square, the country began." Thus wrote Henry Adams of the park in Washington, D.C., that he lived next to from 1877 to 1918. The square could, indeed, be viewed as a microcosm of America’s fledgling...