LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
WHETHER THE WORDS ‘RAGING BULL’ REMIND YOU OF Martin Scorcese’s searing biographical sports drama about a middleweight boxer, or the automotive legend Lamborghini’s—the takeaway is performance and power. Now, in a world’s first, Lamborghini has embraced a radically altered design universe by auctioning a super sports car linked to an exclusive NFT. The car will be the last of the celebrated Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae lineage, a milestone vehicle for the marque which will be electrifying its entire range of performance cars 2023-2024. Rumour has it that the NFT and the Last Aventador were purchased together at Sotheby’s for US$ 1,603,125 on April 19.
If Lambo’s NFT has recalibrated the creative vocabulary of the automotive industry, luxury fashion house, Gucci’s Italian creative director, Alessandro Michele is transforming the way young men dress by reinterpreting masculinity. This bold new era involves dressing men in skirts, suits in rainbow-bright colours and graphic prints and feather boas. Fashioning
Masculinities, an exhibition that recently opened at London’s V&A museum, and for which Gucci is a partner, redefines man power. “People think I am the inventor of fluidity, genderless, I don’t know what!” he exclaims. Instead, he sees his Gucci as part of wider history, referring to Henry VIII and the Renaissance as obvious examples of the “male instinct for extravagant, embellished costume.”
If such fanciful fashion seems like an improbable reach, the Spice issue takes to the skies next with a more noteworthy ‘design’ conversation around international aviation and how first and business class seats incorporate smart design algorithms to enhance the ‘paxex’—passenger experience. Mile high luxury is no longer about a comfortable seat that transforms into a bed. Lights, ambience, feel of the armrest, tech panels and even décor plays a huge part in making a flight as fatigue-free as possible, to combat jet lag and promote overall wellbeing. The Doha-based Qatar Airways’ Qsuite, for instance, was among the first in the world to introduce the enclosed suite concept not in First Class but for every passenger in Business Class. Here, passengers travelling in a 4-seated joint suite can actually transform their space into a social area at 40,000 ft.
A similarly 360 version of the luxe sensibility has spurred many fashion designers to foray into home collections and weave whimsy and wonder into fabrics and furnishings. In April this year, fashion designer JJ Valaya unveiled his flagship store, The World of Valaya at JW Marriott, Aerocity, Delhi. If maximalism reigns supreme here, the visual drama at Satya Paul—which opened its flagship store in Khan Market, Delhi with their first-ever home line in March—explores the bold and colourful. But it’s not just high fashion labels that have branched into décor verticals but even mass appeal international brands such as H&M and Marks & Spencer brought their home collections to India in March this year.
But why should lounging in luxury be a homebound imperative? With the new made-in-India 2022 Mercedes-Maybach S-Class S580, the sink-in seats that come with six different massage programmes; the backrest with a soothing 14 air-chambered massage mat and the footrest, which treats you to a gentle calf massage can make weaving through crush-hour traffic simulate a spa experience. Design is the true disruptor.