The first thing you notice when you walk in the door of Hermès’ new Sydney flagship is not the wall of leather bags, the Birkins and the Kellys, wrote Lauren Sam in June. It’s not the stretched silk scarves that hang suspended like art. It’s not the ex-libris on the floor, the company’s “welcome mat”, according to the project’s lead architect, Denis Montel.
No. The thing you notice is the enormous staircase, swathed in sweeping, stacked parallel columns of ash wood that curve around the winding balustrade.
It’s exquisite. And well it should be, given it took a team of four boat builders from Brisbane nine months to construct it by hand.
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Lennox Hastie puts Sydney’s food bowl on the Netflix map
Firedoor chef Lennox Hastie prepares a whole lamb over a fire-pit. Catherine Marshall
A feast is being composed on the banks of the Hawkesbury River. The produce has been assembled, the fires lit. The conductor lifts his baton – a metal poker – and draws it across the coals. Lennox Hastie, chef and co-owner of Australia’s singular, fire-only restaurant Firedoor, has realised his childhood dream: to become a conductor one day.
“People always ask me, ‘What did you want to be when you were a kid?’ Actually, when I was a little boy, the thing I wanted to be – and god knows why – was a conductor. And I feel like nowadays … that role’s fulfilled, because the ingredients are the star, and [I’m] just there orchestrating it.”
Catherine Marshall joined Hastie – and the farmers and fishermen of the Hawkesbury whose produce he stars in his dishes – on the river in September, ahead of his star turn in the acclaimed Netflix series Chef’s Table.
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John Wardle wins Australian architecture’s top prize
Architect John Wardle’s restored holiday home, Captain Kelly’s Cottage on Bruny Island. Trevor Mein
All hail John Wardle! When the Melbourne-based architect was awarded the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal this month, wrote design editor Stephen Todd in May, he was instantly elevated to the ranks of grandees including Jørn Utzon, Harry Seidler and Glenn Murcutt.
The accolade, which recognises distinguished service to Australian architecture, is well-merited. Since setting up his practice in 1986, Wardle has designed and delivered buildings of all scales – from bijoux beach houses to high-rise office towers – and of a rare, idiomatic elegance. Decidedly of their place, but like nothing else already there.
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Will we ever wear suits again?
“My mission as a designer has always been concerned with the idea of comfort,” Giorgio Armani said in June. Pictured here is part of the designer’s autumn/winter 2020 collection.
It’s perhaps not surprising that the godfather of modern suiting, Giorgio Armani, has been pondering existential questions of late, Dan F. Stapleton wrote in June. Since the pandemic sent most of us home from the office – some of us, perhaps, never to return – our suits have largely been consigned to the cupboard. But what happens now, as things start returning to normal?
“As our idea of work and home blurs and our notion of workwear is consequently interrogated, we will seek comfort above all things in our garments, while also requiring them to do multiple service in different environments: professional, semi-professional and non-professional,” Armani told Stapleton via email.
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Fine dining is back, but you might not recognise it
Chris Lucas: “The decision to continue restrictions is tantamount to a death sentence.”
Eamon Gallagher
Before the coronavirus, Chris Lucas was planning to open five new restaurants over the next 12 months. And now? Well, they could be running a little late, wrote Necia Wilden in June.
“A lot of people have said to me, ‘Why do it? Why would you open new restaurants now, after all this trauma?'” says the Melbourne-based entrepreneur, whose restaurant empire includes Chin Chin (in Sydney and Melbourne), Kisumé, Hawker Hall, Baby and Kong.
“And I say that’s because I think we need them. We all need something to look forward to and that’s why I’m determined to go ahead.”
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Why people are paying $24,000 to spend three nights at Hermes Estate
Hermes Estate strives for unrivalled opulence and service.
Seated in a plush cream armchair surrounded by numerous vases of fresh white lilies, a baby grand piano and library of leather-bound first editions, the owner of Hermes Estate is succinct in detailing her vision: “At the end of the day, I just wanted to create a moment of perfection in paradise.”
When you take four years to modify a large pavillion-style home near the hippie town of Bellingen – then turn it into a hotel and quietly price it at $8000 a night, with a minimum three-night stay – suffice to say, it’s a bold statement that’s bound to raise eyebrows, travel editor Fiona Carruthers wrote in October.
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Whisky production goes from strength to strength
Starward’s Port Melbourne distillery. It wants to create a brand that stays in the everyday whisky drinker’s ‘sharing cabinet’.
“Six o’clock. Whisky time. This has been a ritual at our place, on and off, for years,” wrote drinks writer Max Allen in May. “Recently, we’ve been observing it a lot more on than off. Sitting down with a glass of fine single malt or excellent rye offers a moment to pause and reflect on the weird shapelessness of our days right now.
“I have a few more whiskies than usual to choose from at the moment, too, because the spirits industry – or, rather, the promotions arm of the industry – has shown little sign of slowing down during the pandemic.
“Whether it’s the launch of the latest rare, luxury scotch or the Australian arrival of a new brand from an unexpected country, the breathless press releases have been coming in thick and fast – often accompanied by tasting samples. Lucky me.”
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Turning a ’90s dream car into a 2020s reality
The 1998 brochure vision of the Peugeot 406 coupe.
“I’ve seen this Jaguar from the 1990s and it’s only $10,000,” friends say in a tone that makes it clear the question to follow is rhetorical. “That’s a bargain, isn’t it?”
The answer is usually no, but the temptation remains great, wrote motoring columnist Tony Davis in November. And if we applied pure logic to everything, life would be boring.
Cars that many of us wished we could have afforded new 20 or 30 years ago can now be picked up for a song. During the COVID-19 pandemic, all indications are that more people than ever are taking on the challenge of doing up an older car.
While I was out for a walk, exactly such a temptation on wheels ambushed me: it was hanging around on a street corner displaying a small handbill that read: “For Sale: one owner, $4950”. It was a 406 coupe – a particularly unusual Peugeot in that it was designed and built in Turin by the famed Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina. Its elegant, understated lines caused such a sensation at the 1996 Paris Motor Show there were rumours the design was originally intended for Pininfarina’s most famous client, Ferrari.
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The $7000 e-bicycle that’s worth every cent
From the right angle, you can barely tell the Vado SL is an e-bike. Supplied
There I was, standing on the side of the road next to my broken-down vehicle, on the phone to tech support, wrote John Davidson (in one of dozens of witty and wise reviews of the gadgets that passed through the Digital Life Labs in 2020).
The technician on the other end of the line called up a screen on his computer and said to me: “Oh, it looks like the speed sensor on the rear wheel isn’t working.” He located a replacement part and promised to collect the vehicle and have it repaired the next day.
This must be what it’s like to own a Tesla, I thought. Remote diagnostics! Instant service!
Only, this wasn’t a battery-powered car. This was a battery-powered bicycle, the new Vado SL e-bike from Specialized, the most luxurious, easiest-to-use, and overall best e-bike we have ever reviewed here in the Digital Life Labs.
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