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4 Electric Surfboards That’ll Help You Ride the New E-Foil Wave
Our top six picks of the latest offerings from names like Fliteboard, Lift and Aerofoils are designed for all rider types.
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Electric surfboards, the fastest-growing segment of yacht toys, make it possible to carve waves in even the flattest conditions. Most foil-less e-boards don’t really look much like a surfboard, but still deliver a fast-running, sharp-turning surfing experience, thanks to compact electric motors and electronic hand controls. The recent explosion of e-foil designs, from oversized models with handlebars for beginners to sleek, low-volume boards for advanced riders, means there’s a board for every enthusiast. Plus, foils deliver advantages. “Hydrofoils need less power and lighter batteries, so they extend run times,” notes David Trewern, founder of Fliteboard, one of the original e-board manufacturers. “It’s hard to beat that feeling of riding above the water.” A dozen competitors are looking to carve up their own slice of the market with feature-rich models for beginners to elite riders alike. Here are six of the big kahunas.
Fliteboard MN86
Sleek, sturdy and technical, the limited-edition Marc Newson design has wing options for different conditions and an interactive colour display on the hand controller that delivers data from every session. From $32,999; Fliteboard.com
Awake VINGA 3 SR
The stable VINGA 3 SR, with its high volume and double-concave bottom, offers easy starts, low-speed planing and forgiveness for mistakes. Awake designed it as the beginners’ board to build skills for advanced e-foiling. Around $20,70; Awakeboards.com
Audi e-tron efoil Performance
Aerofoils’ collaboration with Audi finds the automaker’s e-tron aesthetics integrated into a board that, with its tight turning radius, shares the marque’s penchant for agility. Around $25,750; Aerofoils.com
Lift4 Sport
Lift’s 145-cm-long carbon-fibre e-foil has sound-dampening technology and new wings—with options for fast cruising or razor-sharp carving—that enhance stability at higher speeds. Around $19,350; Liftfoils.com
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The Woman Behind the Hermès Man
For 36 years, Véronique Nichanian has supplied the exacting creative vision for the storied French house’s menswear. Her secret: navigating the space between fashion and style.
There are six large jars in Véronique Nichanian’s office, lined up in a row near her desk, where, during idle moments, she can look up and ponder their contents. They’re stuffed with brightly coloured bits of fabric—one has various shades of blue, another yellows, the next greens. They’re mood jars, of sorts. Nichanian is obsessed with textiles and colour, and these vessels, she says, have been with her for years. She pulls a clump of thread from one as if it’s a jewel, and in a sense, it is. If these are the palettes that excite her—a woman with immaculate taste, a fastidious eye and ranging curiosity, who has remained perched atop the menswear tree for nearly four decades at one of France’s finest luxury maisons—then they are special stuff indeed.
Nichanian is artistic director of the Hermès men’s universe, a bombastic title with a somewhat more prosaic explanation, which is that she oversees all the menswear stuff—clothes, bags, shoes, accessories and the like. But it’s how she has done this that intrigues. She’s been dressing chic Parisian males and their counterparts around the globe for 36 years and is the longest-serving creative director in fashion who doesn’t have her name above the shop. Only the Ralphs and the Giorgios have been designing in one place for longer.
Alfredo Piola
But in a sense, Nichanian has also done what they’ve done. When she was appointed by Hermès to take over its menswear division back in 1988, the brand was in the midst of a reinvention by Jean-Louis Dumas, great-great-grandson of founder Thierry Hermès, and was not the pinnacle of aspiration that it is today. Nichanian didn’t lay the foundation at Hermès, but she can claim to have built the temple of its contemporary menswear business brick by brick, starting at a time before GPS, Pretty Woman and the World Wide Web.
She has done it with a keen understanding of what fashionable men want. “I’m so demanding when working on the clothes,” she says. “It’s not my job to make fashion and a beautiful photo,” she adds, alluding to the elaborate ad campaigns that punctuate the conversation multiple times a year at other labels. “A beautiful fashion photo does not mean beautiful clothes.”
Alfredo Piola
Every morning, on the walk to her office inside company headquarters, Nichanian passes glassed-in workshops through which she can see artisans manipulating the famous Hermès leather, using tools and blades as much as machines to do so. Natural light floods the workspaces; once the light goes, I was told, the workers knock off for the day. “What I like about Hermès is it’s a house that’s very open-minded, where the craft is seen, where things are done by the hand,” she says.
“As a designer, I’m totally free to do what I want—there’s no marketing person, nobody telling me I have to do some ties or shoes,” she continues. “At Hermès, I express a modern way for a man to dress. He likes beautiful things, beautiful material. And he understands why it’s costly. It’s not expensive—we’re not talking about price. I choose the best material, the best cashmere and the best manufacturer, and at the end of that, it’s costly. But not because I put a big logo on it. And I like this man because he understands that. He knows himself.”
Hermès is most famous for its ornate silk scarves and handbags so scarce and desirable they can sell on the secondary market for hundreds of thousands. But certain menswear items deserve equal billing. Under Nichanian, the house’s leatherwear has become essential, and I admit to spending far more time than strictly necessary trying on a silky taupe-gray suede overshirt in the Paris store beneath its headquarters on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. The label has been lauded in these pages (it’s won multiple Best of the Best awards) for both its outerwear and bags, but the quality of fabrication of its knitwear and shirting is equally strong.
Alfredo Piola
“Hermès is a very French house,” Nichanian says. “The sophistication I have, it’s very Parisian. It’s very sophisticated how the French man puts things together. But since the beginning, it’s a casual house. I know how to do a beautiful suit, but what is very difficult is to define the way to dress casual and very chic. I don’t want to be classical or traditional, and I don’t want to be fashion at all. I want to be on the verge.”
A pile of iconic orange Hermès boxes provides a splash of colour in a corner of her office; behind the door, on a wall, there’s a collage of photographs of famous friends: French president Emmanuel Macron; a number of young sportsmen; and a familiar face from the art world—David Hockney. “Yes, that was a big meeting,” she says with a smile. “He’s really funny. I asked him, which I never asked anybody in my life, ‘Can we make a picture together?’ When I came back, I designed a sweater and sent it to him.” The picture is of the artist, with a striped cashmere rugby shirt, looking absolutely delighted.
For many of us, wardrobe MVPs come in navy, gray, white and black. But the Hermès man is often to be seen sporting pops of colour that add interest without overwhelming—a striped belt, say, or an accent on a collar or hem. For spring-summer ’25, which showed in Paris a few days before our conversation, Nichanian sent out a procession of complementary, youthful separates that epitomise casual chic. Short-sleeve shirts in an openwork cotton knit with contrasting collar and placket matched with roomy straight-legged pants. A cocoa blouson in a pique canvas over light-blue cotton drill trousers. Simple but elegant shirting and a number of exquisite leather jackets, one in ecru calfskin, another in a barely-there blue glacier. With Hermès, the details are all-important—the proportions of the collar, the extended shoulder that provides the drape. Easy to miss but integral to the effect.
Alfredo Piola
Nichanian prides herself on such minutiae, designed to make a statement to no one other than the wearer. “I want to make selfish clothes,” she says. “When you touch them and feel the material, you say, ‘Oh, my God’. That feeling is for you first.” She’s talking about up-close aspects such as a pocket indulgently lined with lambskin or a seemingly regular cotton-poplin shirt with the hand feel of silk. Or take the sweatshirt, shirt and T-shirt that opened this collection’s show, featuring what looked like an artist’s pencil sketch of a horse. The catch: all the garments are made of calfskin, and the lines seem almost rubberised to the touch.
The designer’s other favourites include shirts, shorts, pants and bombers featuring Hermès’ iconic “L’Instruction du Roy” print of equestrian details and floral motifs, penned last century by designer Henri d’Origny and made famous on its silk scarves. The theme of this section was an evening beach party, and the twist was that the graphic print ran off the clothing and appeared tattooed onto the chests, arms and legs of the models. You could see it as the sartorial equivalent of the inside-outside movement in interior design, as the dialogue between the body and the clothes you wear becomes more integrated and fluid. The tattoos were temporary, of course, and Nichanian tried one herself before subjecting the models to them. “It stayed for five days,” she says, impressed. (And no, they’re not for sale.)
Alfredo Piola
She says she still gets nervous before a show, because each collection is the manifestation of a particular idea, and capturing the essence of that idea never gets easier. “The difficult point is to know when to stop—with so many ideas, you can make many different shows,” she says with a rueful smile. “So you have to say, ‘Okay, I want to say that’. And this is my starting point, and this is exactly the collection I have in my head. Sometimes I know exactly what I want to do since the beginning. But sometimes I change my mind: a week before one show, I said we’re going to change the ending. There’s not a recette, as we say in French—a recipe.”
Nichianian is 70, not that you’d guess it. Petite and elegant in a simple black-and-white outfit with funky accessories, she has a quiet intensity but eyes that smile often. She speaks English in a thick accent, with an occasional, rapid burst of her native tongue to make a larger point.
“I said to my parents when I was 15, ‘I want to work with clothes.’ She studied at Paris’s elite École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, where she graduated top of her class, then joined Nino Cerruti as a stylist on his menswear line. Cerruti is credited with helping define the Italian tailoring tradition of a lighter, looser silhouette, and his take influenced many—not least Giorgio Armani, who was there in the ’60s. At Cerruti, Nichanian developed her love of tailoring and particularly of cloth, partnering with Italian mills to refine their materials to her standards. “I remember when I started working, the fabrics were so heavy and everything was so stiff,” she says. She eventually left to join Hermès, enticed by the promise that she could make menswear according to her own vision. Thirty-six years later, that vision remains.
Alfredo Piola
She has a small team of eight, some of whom have been with her for 10 or 15 years. Is she a good boss? Well, she says, she knows her team likes to work with her “because they write to me and say, ‘We don’t want to be with Hermès, we want to be with you.’ And I love that.”
She describes the office environment as “very democratic”, despite her strong instincts. “We discuss. And sometimes I say, ‘Yes, you’re right, I was wrong. Let’s make it different.’ When I know what I want, I go straight. But when I ask my team, I follow their advice.”
Younger members hit the clubs of the French capital, for which she’s grateful, as while she’s not interested in following trends, she does want to remain au courant. “This is not my life anymore, going to a party every night,” she says. (She prefers the cinema.) “So I say, ‘Okay, what’s going on?’ And when I travel, to Japan or New York or LA, I bring two of them each time, and it’s fun. I have the maturity. I know exactly what Hermès is because I built it for 36 years. But working together, they’re listening to me, I listen to them. The world is changing very fast, and I like that. It’s very exciting.”
Alfredo Piola
There must be a temptation to put her feet up, to spend more time with her husband at their house in the South of France? She says no. “I’m very proud to have good reviews and good sales after 36 years. So I will continue. If I’m bored—it could happen tomorrow or in 10 years—I will say, ‘Okay, let’s do something different.’ I don’t have a plan. I’m never looking back, because I think it’s sad, and I don’t have any regrets. I’m very happy in my life. As a creative person, working at Hermès is a dream—and it’s the dream of many people outside. So I’ll let you know.”
A Brief Chronology of Hermès
1837: Thierry Hermès moves to Paris and founds his harness-making workshop.
1853-70: The city’s new wide boulevards, designed by Baron Haussmann, enable Parisians to parade around in their finery and show off their elaborate carriages, which is very good for business.
1880: Thierry’s son, Charles-Émile, adds saddles to the mix and moves the store and workshop to the now-iconic address of 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
1902: Customers request something to carry their saddles and riding boots, and the Haut à Courroies bag is born, along with the brand as we know it today.
1916: Émile, one of Charles-Émile’s sons, visits North America, where he’s introduced to the zipper (then called the close-all) and sees the future. Émile secures an exclusive license in France, where the invention is dubbed the Hermès fastener. Seven years later, the company files a patent for the use of zippers in leather goods.
1925: After a client reportedly complains, “I am fed up with seeing my horse better dressed than me,” Hermès creates its first men’s ready-to-wear garment—a golf jacket.
1928: Watches are added to the growing array of goods.
1930: Hermès enters the US market in partnership with Neiman Marcus.
1942: The soon-to-be-iconic Hermès orange box is introduced.
1949: The atelier produces its first tie.
1967: The H-belt, which will come to encircle the waists of the world’s best-dressed men, arrives.
1977: In a possibly apocryphal story, consultants recommend that Hermès follow the Gucci model: close the atelier and lower the price point. In response, Hermès institutes a company-wide ban on consultants, said to be enforced to this day.
2015: The Apple Watch Hermès is announced.
2024: With the reopening of the Melbourne, Australia, store, Hermès has 303 shops in 45 countries—and counting.
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Capella Singapore Gave Its Residence-Like Bungalows a Makeover
The Capella Manor and the two Colonial Manors have been updated with vintage furniture and cozy touches.
The bungalows at Capella Singapore just got a major upgrade.
The singular Capella Manor and the two Colonial Manors at the five-star resort have undergone a full refresh. Designed to mimic a private residence, all three accommodations contain three ensuite bedrooms; separate living, dining, and study rooms; and a private terrace and pool.
“This redesign showcases Capella’s commitment to creating spaces that not only celebrate our heritage but also provide a warm and welcoming environment where guests can seamlessly transition their lifestyle from home to the manors,” Yngvar Stray, the general manager of Capella Singapore, said in a statement. “By incorporating personal touches and timeless furnishings, we invite guests to immerse themselves in a tranquil retreat that feels uniquely theirs.”
The Capella Manor has been done up by the interior decorator Simone Haag, who aimed for a contemporary-chic design. Throughout the manor, you’ll encounter neutral tones, subtly patterned wallpapers and fabrics, and foliage that nods to the property’s 30 acres of greenery.
The living room features a lantern that casts leafy shadows and a custom rug with notes of olive, off-white, and brown. Haag has also sourced vintage touches like a pair of Swedish carved monk chairs from the 1930s and woven Peanut chairs.
“Over many years, we have established a growing network of artists, makers, antique specialists, vintage traders and designers that spans the globe,” Haag said in a statement. “Drawing from this treasure trove, we can curate projects unlike anything seen before. At Capella Singapore, an evolving design and procurement methodology has shaped a meticulously layered manor where vintage pieces have been woven with custom contemporary rugs, furniture and commissioned artworks. This invaluable network brings agility, allowing for some beautiful outcomes that contribute to the manor’s ambience and memorability.”
As for the Colonial Manors, Matthew Shang Design Office has taken the lead. Upstairs, the Nest serves as a cozy living area, with a hand-knotted Persian rug, curated artworks, and tropical printed cushions.
Downstairs, the cozy vibes continue in the Nook alcove, while an outdoor dining area includes a barbecue and a dining table for up to six.
In all three spaces, you have access to a personalized host who can help organize activities like poolside picnics, dim sum masterclasses, and spa services. Plus, the property offers bespoke turndown service, as well as in-manor breakfast and a fridge full of Champagne and premium wines.
Rates for Capella Manor start at around $35,000 per night; rates for Colonial Manor start at around $29,000.
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Hooked on Caviar
Australians are fixated with the venerable sturgeon roe—thanks to experimental local chefs and quick “hits” in restaurants.
For a taste of pure luxury, caviar is an appetiser par excellence. And in Australia, our consumption of the sturgeon-procured delicacy has grown exponentially. Just ask Lisa Downs. At the dawn of the new millennia when the entrepreneur started her small-scale concern, she imported just 60 kilos of caviar a year. Now in 2024, demand is so buoyant, her business—which has since been acquired by Simon Johnson—brings in around three tons.
Consumption peaks in the early summer months and, according to Downs, continues through Chinese New Year and into the balmy nights of February. Often likened to the black pearl for its scarcity, and prized for its high oil, fat and salt content, the best quality caviar is almost always served before any other food has hit the tongue. Chefs will tell you the product pairs best with plain foods that allow caviar’s saltwater neutrality to breathe, but it can also enhance complex or crispy dishes with its creamy texture and subtle umami.
Following a worldwide ban in 2000 on fishing sturgeon for their roe, as the species neared extinction, the industry has adopted more ethical and sustainable practices to preserve fish stocks. These days, smaller but no less delicious quantities still originate from the prized waters of the Caspian and Black Sea, but high-calibre examples can also be found coming out of China, Spain, Italy, Iran, the UAE and even Australia (though locally, roe are collected from salmon or trout, as the sturgeon is considered a noxious species and production is prohibited.”
Caviar “bumps” are now offered at some of the country’s best seaside restaurants, including mimi’s in Coogee, Sydney, or Entrecôte in Prahran, Melbourne. A single hit of 10-20 grams is served from a tin resting on an iced bowl and the caviar is placed on the back of the hand using a spoon made of shell, horn or bone. The roe is supposed to rest between the index finger and the thumb, enabling it to warm to body temperature—and express its full flavour and quality—before it is consumed in a single kiss. True caviar devotees will then press the delicate eggs up into the roof of the mouth and inhale through their nostrils to capture the magical perfume. “One thing I love about caviar is that people don’t rush eating it,” says Downs. “With caviar people stop and enjoy the experience.”
At his modern Greek eateries in Sydney and Brisbane, executive chef Jonathan Barthelmess favours Yarra Valley caviar from Victoria served on top of a filo crisp with taramasalata. He opts for ethically farmed, sustainably produced pearls, which form the core of the lemony Greek dip which has become one of his signatures. By contrast, at home he serves malossol (low salt) Oscietra caviar in a simple fashion: “I like to keep it low key with sour cream and a packet of Pringles.”
In a similar vein, Mr. Wong chef Dan Hong also keeps things humble. “I like to have my caviar with either potato gems or hash browns, and a Japanese-style tartare sauce,” he says. “The difference being Japanese tartare has roughly chopped hard-boiled egg.”
At the other end of the gastronomic scale, chef Peter Gilmore of Quay and Bennelong fame doesn’t shy from the sultry indulgence of caviar. At the former, his house-made crumpets and caviar are lionised by patrons. Gilmore says the best way to enjoy the sea’s black gold is “with a glass of Champagne in one hand, and a caviar bump on the other.”
Whether you’re an inquisitive newbie or experienced buff, consider the words of Lisa Downs, who implores that everyone follows the golden rule of caviar connoisseurship. “Never order less than 30 grams for four people,” she says, “and remember to buy it, and consume the tin in one opening. Think of it like a bottle of Dom Pérignon. You don’t open a fine Champagne and then put the cork back in. The idea is that you open it, you celebrate it, and you drink the whole thing at once.” Welcome to your new obsession.
Shop Caviar for the holidays at Simon Johnson.
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The 7 Best Watches of the Week, From Pharrell Williams’ Richard Mille to Snoop Dog’s Cartier
Celebrity watch lovers were boxing, singing, and out at the movies this week in some stellar wristwear.
It doesn’t matter what you are doing or where you are going, a luxury timepiece will always up your style game as this week’s celebrities prove so elegantly. Let’s start with boxing and Jake Paul and Amanda Serrano, who popped their watches on—Jacob & Co’s Billionaire Ashoka and Rolex’s Day-Date 36 respectively—for the famous pre-fight weigh-in.
Elsewhere across the country, Snoop Dog, Giancarlo Esposito, and Jeff Goldblum were rocking timepieces from Cartier; John Legend was spotted on the piano wearing an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph and Pharrell Williams was on TV flashing his Richard Mille UP-01 Ferrari.
Let’s take a closer look.
Pharrell Williams: Richard Mille
First we have Pharrell Williams who was seen this week wearing Richard Mille’s RM UP-01 Ferrari on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show. The musician and record producer has been wearing this watch a lot recently. It is the world’s thinnest mechanical wristwatch measuring just 1.75 mm thick, surpassing the previous record holder Bvlgari, and its Octo Finissimo Ultra (1.80 mm) by five tenths of a millimeter. No doubt a watchmaker somewhere is secretly plotting to break the record once more, but for now, Williams has the thinnest watch in the world! The RM UP 01 Ferrari will set you back $3,035,369.
Snoop Dog: Santos de Cartier
Cartier was also the choice for Snoop Dog this week who went to the premiere of Paramount Pictures’ Gladiator II in Los Angeles with his wife Shante Broadus. On his wrist, there was no mistaking the Santos de Cartier in stainless steel. This large model is powered by the automatic Caliber 1847 and comes with the Maison’s signature white dial, Roman numerals, blue hands, and seven-sided crown with a faceted synthetic spinel. The watch also comes with a “SmartLink” adjustment system and can be easily changed for a calfskin strap. This timepiece costs around $13,344.
John Legend: Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph
Singing a brand-new song on Instagram this week, we couldn’t help but notice the rose gold Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograph peeking out from under his peach-colored suit. Known for his impeccable sense of style, he is frequently seen wearing this timepiece with everything from jeans to a black tie. This model is powered by Audemars Piguet’s Caliber 2385 and comes with an integrated yellow gold bracelet, white Tapisserie dial, and that famous octagonal bezel. You can expect to pay $225,080 for this model.
Jake Paul: Jacob & Co. Billionaire Ashoka
Famous YouTuber and professional boxer Jake Paul was seen before his big Netflix fight against Mike Tyson last weekend wearing Jacob & Co.’s Billionaire Ashoka timepiece. This one-of-a-kind piece combines 260 carats of emerald-cut diamonds with a manual-winding mechanical skeletonized tourbillon movement. If you can look past the diamonds, you will notice that the finishing on the movement is particularly impressive with a mirror-polished upper cage and hand-beveled and hand-polished components. Other owners of similar Billionaire timepieces include Floyd Mayweather, Rick Ross, and DJ Khaled. Paul’s Billionaire Ashoka is valued at around $11 million.
Amanda Serrano: Rolex Day-Date 36
Professional boxer Amanda Serrano was also seen at the weigh-in for her fight with Katie Taylor last weekend wearing a yellow gold Rolex Day-Date 36. Serrano’s Rolex features the famous Rolex fluted bezel and President bracelet that make spotting this watch from a distance a cinch! Here’s a fun fact: The fluted bezel originally had a functional purpose as it was screwed onto the case to ensure the water resistance of the watch. The case back was also fluted for the same reason. Nowadays, it is purely an aesthetic feature and has become a signature element of the Day-Date. This timepiece can be purchased for around $70,000.
Giancarlo Esposito: Cartier Ballon Bleu
Actor Giancarlo Esposito was spotted this week at the 2024 Governors Awards in Hollywood wearing a stainless steel Cartier Ballon Bleu. Best known for playing Gus Fring in the drama series Breaking Bad, Esposito had paired the model with black tie attire for his night out at the awards. The Ballon Bleu comes in a variety of sizes and looking at Esposito’s photo, we are guessing that this is a 42 mm model. The Ballon Bleu is easily recognizable thanks to its signature blue sapphire cabochon crown within a protective metal arch and those famous Cartier Roman numerals. It is powered by an automatic movement and comes with a price tag of around $12,000.
Jeff Goldblum: Cartier Tank
Actor and producer Jeff Goldblum was at NBC this week wearing one of his favorite watches, the Cartier Tank. Best known for his roles in Jurassic Park, La Mouche, and The Grand Budapest Hotel, he is also known for his adventurous dress sense. The Cartier Tank, or Tank de Cartier to be precise, is quite a classic choice for the actor but it makes a statement. This model is the larger model in the line and is powered by a quartz movement. The timepiece is housed in a yellow gold case and comes with a white dial with black Roman numerals. You can expect to pay around $19,000 for this wristwatch.
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Seeking an Edge
Part James Bond lair, part luxe eco-lodge, Verbier’s gravity-defying Cabane Tortin brings the alpine drama.
For all its natural splendour and sweeping mountain vistas, Verbier has never really been a place one goes in search of solitude. It is to mountain exploration what the Côte d’Azur is to actual sailing—a place to get in touch with the outdoors and the off-piste, but with its selection of high-end eateries and luxe lodges, also one where you can keep the natural extremes of the Swiss Alps safely at arm’s length.
Come December, however, one pioneering chalet is set to provide a new outlet for the discerning and intrepid when it opens 3,000 m above the iconic resort village. Named Cabane Tortin after the glacier it overlooks, the chalet offers an experience that’s becoming increasingly rare in this part of the world: one of comfort through seclusion—with no luxury spared, of course.
“The altitude is unique by itself, but this was also the most inhospitable scenery I had ever visited,” says Snorre Stinessen, the architect tasked with bringing Cabane Tortin back to life. The site itself—a rocky, secluded outcrop perched dramatically just below the summit of Mont Fort—has been occupied since 1981, when members of a local ski club built a small lodge to provide basic shelter for climbers and skiers seeking the area’s off-piste delights. Snorre says it’s still the only part of the mountainside both protected and forgiving enough to inhabit year-round.
Building any structure, let alone a luxury eco-lodge, in such a setting required near-heroic feats of engineering and execution. The building, made entirely of locally sourced stone and timber, used the foundations of the former hut for convenience and sustainability. Power comes via in-built solar and a sustainable pellet burner, while water flows directly into the property from a nearby mountain spring.
Naturally, its dramatic locale already draws comparisons to a Bond villain’s lair, but the fireplaces and lashings of warm wood inside quickly betray a space designed to be far cosier.
Even for Stinessen, having honed his craft building in the frozen extremes of his native Norway, Cabane Tortin presented more than its fair share of challenges. Once completed, the chalet would have to withstand regular gales equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane and more than a ton of snow load per square metre of space it occupied. “It’s hard to put into words how it came to life, other than from trying to find my own approach through a combination of patience, instinct and respect,” he says.
The final result appears to hover on the very precipice of the valley below—a huge cantilever facade providing the focal point both inside and out as its vista sweeps over the Tortin Glacier. A bench runs the length of the window in the main living area, sitting on which makes one feel as if they’re defying gravity as the terrain drops away underneath them. “Sit and look out; it feels as if the landscape is all yours,” says Stinessen.
The rear windows of the building, purposely slanted upwards rather than out, guide the view of those inside up the jagged outcrops of Mont Fort’s mountainside. “The idea was to invite the skies above in, to emphasise the feeling of floating between earth and sky,” adds Stinessen,
The chalet’s visual impact is matched only by the level of hospitality to be found inside. Manager Matthew Burnford and his team have curated an experience combining the personalised service of a five-star retreat with a sense of elevated hygge befitting the chalet’s Scandi design language and frozen outlook. The main guest area of the chalet, taking up the entirety of its two levels, comfortably sleeps eight.
Another eight can be accommodated downstairs in the adjoining Bivouac des Gentianes—a boujee ski lodge that, due to local laws, has to be made publicly available when the main property isn’t occupied. Also designed by Storre and offered with the option of a chef, there are far worse places to wait out a storm.
Visitors, naturally, are encouraged to explore the surrounds, with ski-in, ski-out access to the glacier’s ungroomed trails and powder fields during the winter, and a healthy bevy of equipment available at one’s leisure. Cable cars provide access to and from the neighbouring villages of Verbier and Nendaz, while a private chef and two live-in staff ensure that ski expeditions, lazy days indoors and all adventures in between are appropriately catered for. The cabin’s ease-of access also means that in-chalet spa treatments can be booked as requested.
Clearly, then, Cabane Tortin is designed, more than any of other Verbier’s luxury lodges, to feel like a true home away from home. All the mod cons, however, melt away when you stand at the edge of its sweeping facade and experience the chalet’s crown jewel: a view that feels, if only for a fleeting moment, as if this small corner of the mountains entirely belongs to you.
Stays from around $105,000 for three nights, full board; cabanetortin.com
