In the Doghouse with Savoir Faire

Traveling across the Atlantic on the French Line with your pet (Think, Dali and pet ocelot here) didn’t mean that your pet didn’t forsake any of the luxury that you as passenger were provided with.


The Normandie had a traditional ship like silhouette of the 1930’s with three squat funnels resembling medieval castle ramparts. The public demanded this as they deemed a ship with more funnels the largest, fastest and also the safest. The funnels on the Normandie subscribed to this and gave the ship its magnificent lines. The difference with the Normandie was that of these three funnels only two were functioning. The third was a dummy and added purely for aesthetic reasons.

The question then being what do we do with a third funnel that isn’t functioning? Answer being it was the perfect place to house the kennels for the pets that the wealthy clientele of the Normandie were so used to travelling with. Inside this dummy funnel were recreation areas and kennels for said pampered pooches.

To quote the current press of the day ‘the dogs live comfortably behind stainless steel bars that surround their oval room at the centre of which is a drinking fountain. The kennels are ventilated and steam heated, fresh beds of straw provided daily, and the dogs are always allowed exercise daily on the top decks.’ Out on deck a fire hydrant was provided for American dogs and a lamppost for French dogs for the call of nature. There were even life preservers in a variety of sizes in the case of an emergency. A special menu was also printed in French offering a choice of bones, soups, biscuits and vegetables. In case our canine tourist was indisposed, a veterinarian onboard helps him back on his sea legs.


I think these pampered pooches travelling First Class in the 1930’s were probably a bit more comfortable than the mass of immigrants that were travelling steerage at the beginning of the century.

Deck the Halls with a Conscience

Ok, I am succumbing and there is no escaping it! Christmas is coming and all the decorations are up, merchants are pushing their wears and money is being made. I usually think December 1st is a good date to start thinking Christmas and hauling the decorations out.

So why not decorate with a conscience and buy your decorations from somewhere where you know that it is also going to help others into the bargain! (Isn’t this part of the Christmas spirit). As most of you know I volunteer at Ten Thousand Villages (an organisation that promotes sustainable employment within developing nations, while supporting fair trade) and we have lots of great reasonably priced decorations to get you in the decorating mood.

So feast your eyes on these baubles for your tree, which are reasonably priced and create an impact in more ways than one!

Have you seen the Macbeth's lately?

They are quite changed.

Savoir Faire is always enamoured with modern day interpretations of the classics. Whether the adaptation is in the form of a movie, play, opera or any other form of visual art, I am always excited to see what people have come up with.

Even before Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet producers were putting there own spin on things. From epic costume dramas to minimalistic shows, we have been served a visual feast of the Bard from Stratford’s plays.

The plays of Shakespeare are no exception. I would imagine that ever since they were first performed, producers, actors and actresses had their own ideas of how they should be portrayed. Macbeth has been one of the most performed and now ranks as one of the most recognised, which makes it an ideal candidate for new adaptation.

Here are a few examples of the modern day Macbeth’s. In my opinion they haven’t looked so good. One can not away from the violence and malevolent undertones in the play and these modern day adaptations have capitalised on this perfectly, with just the right notes of seduction.

Just wondering what the man himself would have thought of these?

Meaty Savoir Faire!

All my life the local butcher’s was practically the centrepiece of the shopping centre of any Australian town. My small town of 1500 people where I grew up had 2. They always had people in them and it wasn’t only a place to buy your meat, but somewhere to catch up on the local gossip and in my case as a child we used to bundle up newspapers and sell to the butcher, for them to wrap the customer’s purchase in. With the advent of the modern day supermarket these are rapidly closing not only in Australia but across the world. I was disappointed when arriving in Toronto after moving from Australia, that the stand alone butcher shop is practically non existent.

However the butcher’s of my childhood was nothing like Victor Churchill Butchers Sydney. This is high end, the best quality and of the most fabulous design. You could be forgiven that when walking into the place, that you were entering into anything else except a butcher. More like a ritzy gallery with the meat on display like works of art, this gets all the senses moving.


Window shopping at a butcher's might seem a little strange, but be prepared to stop and drool over all manner of meats. Not only will you be looking at the meat, but the store itself. The owners engaged Sydney-based Dreamtime Australia Design who’s many restaurant, bar and resort projects around the world combine traditional and modern elements in a deliciously layered and multi-textured way.

Gone are the traditional refrigerated cabinets and parsley dressed meats, replaced with a store infused with European style and modern, cutting-edge design elements. Rich timber wall paneling, timber beamed ceiling and Italian Calcutta marble stone floor, and Himalayan salt brick walls create the new interior of shop. Meat is interspersed with other objects such as those found in a clothing boutique or wine store to create a tableau that is constantly changing. Behind a glass wall on real wooden butcher blocks, the butchers cleave their way through the best cuts of meat, creating a performance show of sorts

So if you are in the mood for a piece of prime rib…….

The Perfect Dinner Companion

I can’t remember who once said “that the perfect dinner companion is a good waiter” and I have to agree sometimes, so here are a few to help you enjoy that perfect dinner!

These waiters come courtesy of Palace and Grand Hotel’s in St Moritz!

Good Sensible Savoir Faire!

Savoir Faire is just loving these classic easy to wear pieces by design house Daniel Hechter. The combination of colours with the slate grey and the pops of fuchsia are just wonderful, and create just the right amount of impact. Good quality at a sensible price, you can’t go wrong, and for me they are just perfect for the office!

Savoir Faire en pointe

In the world of ballet especially in the formative years at the beginning of the 20th century, all male dancers were judged against one man alone. No one matched him for his virtuosity and the depth and intensity of his characterizations. His ability to perform en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time and his seemingly gravity-defying leaps were legendary. No one matched him and it seemed that no one ever could. Inexplicably linked with Sergei Diaghilev together they set the ballet world on fire.

Vaslav Nijinsky was clearly extraordinary for his time. What made him extraordinary was most probably his charisma and skill in mime, as the feats with which he astonished his contemporaries are now second nature to any male dancer. In epicene roles such as the god in Le Dieu Bleu, or the favourite slave in Scheherezade he was unsurpassed.

Born in 1900 in Kiev he joined the Imperial Ballet School where he studied under Enrico Cecchetti, Nikolai Legat, and Pavel Gerdt. The company's Prima ballerina assoluta Mathilde Kschessinska (Mistress to Tsar Nichols II) selected Nijinsky to dance in a revival of Marius Petipa's Le Talisman, during which Nijinsky created a sensation in the role of the Wind God Vayou.

Even this early in his career Nijinsky had the charisma and also savoir faire to do things entirely how he wanted to do them. His partnership with Tamara Karsavina, of the Mariinsky Theatre, was legendary, and they have been called the "most exemplary artists of the time".

A turning point for Nijinsky was his meeting Sergei Diaghilev, Nijinsky and Diaghilev became lovers for a time, and Diaghilev was heavily involved in directing and managing Nijinsky's career. Diaghilev created his famous company the Ballets Russes with choreographer Michel Fokine and designer Léon Bakst. The Paris seasons of the Ballets Russes were an artistic and social sensation; setting trends in art, dance, music and fashion for the next decade.

During a performance of Giselle at the Mariinsky Theatre, he was dismissed for appearing on-stage during a performance as Albrecht wearing tights without the modesty trunks obligatory for male dancers in the company. The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna complained that his appearance was obscene, and he was dismissed. It is probable that the scandal was arranged by Diaghilev in order that Nijinsky could be free to appear with his company, in the West.

Nijinsky took the creative reins and choreographed ballets, which slew boundaries and stirred controversy. His ballets were L'après-midi d'un faune based on Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune), Jeux, and Till Eulenspiegel .

As the title character in L'après-midi d'un faune during the final tableau he mimed masturbation with the scarf of a nymph, and caused a scandal. This was probably his best remembered role and has been copied widely since.

In The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps), with music by Stravinsky, Nijinsky created choreography that exceeded the limits of traditional ballet and propriety. For the first time, his audiences were experiencing the futuristic, new direction of modern dance. Unfortunately, Nijinsky's new trends in dance caused a riotous reaction when they premiered in Paris.

During a 1913 Ballets Russes tour of South America and free from Diaghilev’s supervision, Nijinsky married Romola de Pulszky in Buenos Aires. When the company returned to Europe Diaghilev is reported to have flown into a rage, culminating in Nijinsky's dismissal.

During World War I, Nijinsky was interned in Hungary. Diaghilev succeeded in getting him out for a North American tour in 1916. During this time, Nijinsky choreographed and danced the leading role in Till Eulenspiegel. However, it was around this time in his life that signs of his schizophrenia were becoming apparent to members of the company. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1919, and his career effectively ended. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and taken to Switzerland by his wife He spent the rest of his life in and out of psychiatric hospitals and asylums. Nijinsky died in a clinic in London on April 8, 1950.

No film exists of Nijinsky dancing. Diaghilev never allowed the Ballets Russes to be filmed. He felt that the quality of film at the time could never capture the artistry of his dancers and that the reputation of the company would suffer if people saw it only in short jerky films.