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Once upon a time, the world’s wealthy sent their daughters to Swiss finishing schools but by the 1960s, gender equality, women’s liberation and an emphasis on higher education for all prompted a decline. Nowadays only Villa Pierrefeu remains. It’s not about balancing a book on your head, how to hold…
Much about Ahmed Mater’s world seems to reconcile opposing states of being. Somehow, the artist finds space for religion and science, anatomy and spirituality, technology and tradition, violence and morality, swarming multitudes and empty plots of land. Speak with Ahmed Mater and almost immediately, you’ll get the sense that he…
Japanese architect Tadao Ando makes masterpieces in concrete. Here, Official Bespoke takes a look at his recently completed Pringiers House in Sri Lanka. I remember the first time I saw a piece of Tadao Ando. I was visiting a friend in one of the lower-rise, village-like neighbourhoods of central Tokyo.…
The film on everyone’s lips these days is Julian Schnabel’s Miral. I finally watched it during the Doha Tribeca Film Festival where it received a standing ovation from an audience of Qataris, world cinema buffs, filmmakers and the media. The story of this extraordinary film is from a book of…
Over half a million visitors queued for hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City this summer to witness a monumental, retrospective exhibition of the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen’s astonishing body of work. Alexander McQueen was obsessed with beauty and its decay. His macabre expressions…
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” -The Queen, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.” The dissonance of a Queen is a comparatively small ordeal to overcome, if one is to step out onto…
At 82, Frank Gehry has designed his first skyscraper and it has transformed Manhattan’s skyline. Official Bespoke tracked down the spirited architect to discover his side of this twisting, rippling tower. “I’m getting tearful,” says Frank Gehry when we ask him how he feels about finally making his mark on…
Male divas do exist, and David LaChapelle is one of them. The photographer, filmmaker, set designer and overall legend was discovered by Andy Warhol while he was a busboy at New York’s Studio 54 club. Since then he has gone about setting stars into unique scenes, forging a colourful aesthetic…
An old and established family, the Sursocks have been a cornerstone of Lebanese affairs for generations. Lady Sursock Cochrane was born the only daughter to Alfred Bey Sursock and his Italian wife Donna Maria Theresa Serra di Cassano, yet she is far less interested in talking about her own heritage…
Back in 2007, Ghadah Al Rashid became the first Saudi Arabian female to have a Parisian couture boutique. Today Ghadah Couture is stocked by high-end boutiques across the Middle East and Europe, including London’s notoriously demanding Harrods. With her principal atelier based in Paris, Al Rashid’s fusion of an Oriental…
