CAPITAL CITY
Lin Sampson meets the cashmere couple pouring cash into Cape Town condos
AHSAN Darvesh is a high-end businessman, scion of the century-old global Darvesh Empire headquartered in Dubai with a reported turnover of more than a $1-billion (R15-billion). With his luxury thatch, sleepy eyes and easy smile, he is a charmer with perfect manners.
“I came to study at the Waterfront Graduate School of Business. I stayed at the Ambassador but could not find a decent apartment to buy. Everything was so old and rundown, just like the hotel itself,” he says.
But he had fallen in love with the old Ambassador Hotel with its livid carpets and seedy décor. Over the years it had faded into the parochial landscape of Cape Town, an old friend in terrible clothes.
“It was very old fashioned but it was the best location in Cape Town. I tried to buy property on the Atlantic Seaboard but there was nothing like the Ambassador in terms of position.”
The family saw it as an opportunity to launch an internationalstandard apartment block. The billionaire-bait development, which will cost about R750-million and be called Aurum (gold in Latin), comprises 23 apartments, eight presidential apartments and 15 luxury apartments across the road.
Ahsan himself defines the word international. He is always graciously attired in the very best of thin worsted woollens and super silk combinations as soft as the inside of a walnut.
“It is the quality of the product. All the doors here have hinges that squeak. If you look at our project, all the doors are without hinges. They can’t make those doors locally. We are starting with very good basics, marble that does not stain, well-made cupboards.”
His personal style is exemplified by this attention to detail. He has his suits made by Savile Row tailors Anderson & Shepphard, who also stitch for Prince Charles. His waferthin leather jacket is Hermès and his denims are Japanese salvage denim — “For me if it looks like denim it is not denim.” His watch is Audemars Piguet. His e-mail messages are “sent from my Porsche phone”. The number plate on his Aston Martin Lagonda reads ADH 007.
His wingman is Lily Eskandari, nicknamed the Beyoncé of Bantry Bay for her style and contemporary vogueing. Lily is the creative brain behind the Aurum project. In her Dolce & Gabbana coat, Alexander McQueen black ensemble, killer Cesare Paciotti boots and perfect makeup, she has the appearance of an enamelled Fabergé egg adrift in a breeze of Hermès fragrance.
Both Ahsan and Lily come from a world where it is considered bad manners not to dress well. When I first met Lily, I said: “I didn’t bring a photographer because you might need time to wash your hair.”
She answered icily: “Our hair is always washed.”
Lily is an interior architect, a profession that stands at the intersection of architecture and building and addresses the technological issues. She studied at the Ryerson School in Toronto.
“A huge part of luxury is the technicality, the way we are using the acoustics, the concrete and the plumbing.
“When you say international standards you are not just saying expensive finishes, you are talking about perfect installations, things like when you flush the toilet it doesn’t make too much noise or . . . when you barbecue the smoke doesn’t go everywhere.”
Ahsan wanders through the world picking through different cultures for references.
“I travel to a city, I pick up strange ideas and things. It doesn't function for normal people because they think I am crazy. I have just returned from Salone del Mobile in Milano where I picked up some new fugitive colours, tan leather and this amazing blue that came in a soft suede. I just loved that. I would just play around with that for a year or two. I am not really consistent in terms of my creativity.”
In the world of trend Ahsan and Lily are the anointed. Their single aim is to be fabulous and have a life that takes place on the unrolling of a red carpet, and they are prepared to work hard to get it.
“It’s very exciting,” says Lily. “So many people want to know about us. A police officer stopped me and wanted to give me a ticket. When I told him I was working on a project at the Ambassador, he let me off and said, ‘I have always loved the Ambassador’ .”
She has the appearance of an enamelled Fabergé egg adrift in a breeze of Hermès fragrance She answered icily: ‘Our hair is always washed’