When Two Minds Meet

Mmm, we hear the name Goldfinger and we are inexplicably led to one of 007’s arch enemies, who had a bit of a penchant for gold. However dig a little deeper and we come across another man of the name Goldfinger who had a penchant for architecture. Erno Goldfinger was a Hungarian born architect and furniture designer who worked primarily in England and who was a key member of the Modern Movement.

His style which was very austere and severe and almost brutal at times ended up being an integral part of modernist architecture in England during the 1920’s and 1930’s. His buildings and designs contrasted dramatically with the surroundings in which they were located in. In the setting of old London and other areas his designs stood alone and thus demanded to be looked at and studied for their own merits and then as to how they related to their surroundings. Even right through to the late 1960’s Goldfinger was there, and England is dotted to testaments of his legacy, like the Trellick Tower in London, one of the landmark attempts of high-rise residential living.

The façade of the Georgian mansion he updated for Helena Rubinstein’s new London salon on Grafton Street in 1925. was a triumph of modernist design. The salon was located in chic Mayfair. Goldfinger's original design included Madame’s name illuminated in lights, repeated four times down the side of the building, which Madame vetoed as she thought it bad taste. Goldfinger resented Rubinstein as being overbearing- an adjective often used to describe himself, however in retrospect, he could see how interesting she was. Stubbornly, Goldfinger forced through the starkly modern design which was to the taste of neither Madame or of her customers, nor indeed of the builders who tried to add decorative touches to Goldfinger's drawings in the belief that he must have accidentally forgotten them. Although he struggled even to be paid for the project, Goldfinger succeeded in building 'the first modern shop in London' with a fully glazed façade which is today's standard treatment.

I don’t have a photo of the salon’s exterior however it would have been similar to the below.

The interior of the beauty salon was designed in a minimal way, with chrome and glass fittings faintly reminiscent of hospital interiors.

Sadly destroyed during World War II, Madame’s London Salon was redone in a totally different style. As usual Madame, had a knack for sourcing hitherto unknown talent and paving the way for their success.

Savoir Faire From All Angles

Growing up in Australia in the mid 1970’s one could not help but notice the amount of artwork that proliferated schools. Schools were invariably the recipients of prints of art works by famous artists that took pride of place in classrooms, usually above the blackboard. One Australian artist who had this unlikely honour, not only in schools but other public spaces was Sir Sidney Nolan. Nolan was one of Australia’s premier artists, with his most famous works being the highly stylised series based on the Australian Bushranger Ned Kelly, created in 1946-1947. These are instantly recognisable for the depiction of Kelly and his famous iron mask and body armour, as a black silhouetted figure.

Fast forward to 2003, where Sydney furniture designer, Johnny Charmaki, has used this series of paintings as inspiration to design a chair! This is art evolving and changing as how art should. Take something or an image that we are all familiar with and turn it into something else, while maintaining the original focus of the original work. Look at paintings and chair individually and that is what they are painting and chair, however put both together, and we have an evolving piece of work that spans 60 years. The parts of the chair carefully relate to Nolan’s paintings and Kelly’s gun battle scenes. For example there are three holes in the seat that relate to bullet holes in Kelly’s armour. The arms represent guns ready to fire.

True to the savoir faire style, I will have one please!

Royal Savoir Faire

Princess Alice of Battenberg, later Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and mother in law of the Queen, although having a troubled life, possessed true savoir faire, and did basically what she pleased later in life. Not particularly fashionable, at one stage committed to a sanatorium for schizophrenia, turning to religion and becoming a nun, her life shaped her into a person who was completely herself.

For all the wealth and privilege she was born into, she developed a true sense of self and ended up devoting her life to helping others, on somewhat reduced circumstances. During the Second World War in Greece, she worked for the Red Cross organization, helped organize soup kitchens for the starving populace and flew to Sweden to bring back medical supplies on the pretext of visiting her sister, Louise who was married to the Crown Prince. She organised two shelters for orphaned and stray children, and a nursing circuit for poor neighborhoods, and founded a nursing order of Greek Orthodox nuns, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary. Because of her actions, she was a puzzling enigma to her family with her mother the Marchioness of Milford Haven once saying, "What can you say of a nun who smokes like a chimney and plays canasta?"

When she died she left no possessions, having given everything away. Before she died she had expressed her wish to be buried at the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem (near to her aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, a Russian Orthodox saint). When her daughter, Princess George of Hanover, complained that it would be too far away for them to visit her grave, Princess Andrew jested, "Nonsense, there's a perfectly good bus service!" Her wish was finally realized on 3 August 1988 when her remains were transferred to her final resting place in a crypt below the church.

21st Century Savoir Faire

Should I be waxing lyrical about a strikingly modern interior that seems devoid of any sort of ornamentation when it is located in a highly ornate Victorian shopping arcade? YES!

Sydney’s Strand Arcade is a veritable institution of all that is Victorian. It is a wonderful place of high Victorian ambiance in a very modern Sydney. Once Sydney’s downtown core offered a profusion of this style of arcade, however sadly all are gone except The Strand. You can walk through and escape to another era, while feasting upon a wonderful array of retailers.

One retailer stands alone in the Strand and that is Aesop’s new flagship boutique. This is an incredibly stark modern space; however it goes far beyond that. Walk in from the highly ornate space that is the Strand, right into the 21st Century. However this is the 21st century with intimacy. You have to look beyond the overall design to see the subtle details that make this a warm and inviting place, which fits in perfectly with Aesop’s design aesthetic.

Forgoing decoration of any sort, the product itself is the decoration. Line upon line of product on curved shelves creates a piece of art which is constantly changing when product is removed or added by customers and employees. The wall of product has rhythmic quality that although very linear draws the eye in. The subdued lighting softens the hard white porcelain of the sinks and makes them extremely personal.

So next time I am back in Sydney, I know where I am headed, for a visit.

Some Friday Savoir Faire

For those of you that might be jetting off to somwhere glamorous this weekend, do it in style with at least one of the airlines below.

Fragrant Savoir Faire

Not long ago I blogged on my top twelve men’s fragrances. Now fragrance/perfume is such a fickle thing, with something being in vogue one year and then out the next. Sadly some of the perfume masterpieces of the last 50 years or so, which continued to top the best selling lists, are just shadows of their former selves or no longer available. These were masterpieces and classics. It is a fine line branding something a classic as the boundaries are always changing. These days, is something judged a classic because it sells or do we look further than that into the product itself dissecting it and then judging whether it is a classic or not.

Savoir Faire promotes finding one’s individual style and going with it. Setting yourself apart from the crowd with your own individual signature, and so should fragrance be a signature. One of my girlfriends used to raid my colognes and after shaves and a bottle of Monsieur Lanvin would disappear in the blink of an eye. She was incredibly feminine and once she sprayed herself with the said Lanvin, she would have men falling at her feet.

So not only is the following list for the ladies, it is also for you gentleman. I wear or have worn all of the following at some stage or another, and love them. Don’t be put off by the fact these are ‘women’s’ perfumes as ‘men’s’ colognes are perfumes with just different notes than women’s.

Here are some of my top perfumes which I think translate and work quite well on a man, taking on entirely different characteristics than if they were worn by a lady. As usual with the classics of yesteryear not all readily available, but out there!

Vivre by Molyneux

Shocking by Schiaparelli

Chanel No 19 by Chanel


Miss Dior by Christian Dior

Ma Griffe by Carven

L'Air du Temps by Nina Ricci

Je Reviens by Worth

Givenchy III by Givenchy

Diorella by Christian Dior

Cabochard by Gres

Savoir Faire With a Conscience

You can be forgiven at times for thinking that going green, volunteering, or buying Fair Trade does not enter the realms of Savoir Faire, and that a sacrifice of style is necessary if we are to follow any of these practices. Fear not style mavericks it is not so!

Each week I volunteer at one of the Ten Thousand Villages locations here in Toronto and have been doing so for close on 5 years. For those of you that don’t know Ten Thousand Villages is a non-profit fair trade organization that markets handcrafted products made by disadvantaged artisans from more than 120 artisan groups in 35 countries.

So now to the crunch! Ok, so a lot of the stuff that they do stock is not to my taste, however a few gems can be found if you want some savoir faire with a conscience.

For that summer cocktail that deserves a low ball while sitting outside on your terrace, glass-blowing, basketry, and innovative recycling have come together by way of Bangladesh.

Two salad items that I can’ live without are below, come to us by way of Vietnam. Salad Servers are reclaimed buffalo horn (I know what you are thinking, however nothing has died to make these)

Then to go with your salad servers the below bamboo bowl again fro Vietnam. Doubles as salad bowl or fruit bowl, who would have guessed, two uses for the price of one!

For the girls there is the fabulous cuff bracelet below from India, worn with the right frock this oozes jet set glamour.

For Ambience on the terrace at night, I just love these metalwork candle holders also from India.

Also now that we have to pay 5 cents for plastic bags here in Toronto from our favourite purveyors, be green and stylish at the same time with the below jute bag from Bangladesh.

So visit a store and I am sure you will find something you will like, only if it is a pack of the best coffee ever!