Robb Report’s definitive shoe guide
Here’s everything you need to know about your favorite accessory—from the essential styles to the best bespoke brands.
Related articles
Any well-heeled gentleman knows that shoes make the man. The right footwear can exude elegance, infuse a splash of personality, or give that formal suit a sporty spirit. And while enthusiasm for everyone’s favourite accessory runs deep, how much do you really know about shoes? Below, we test your knowledge, breaking down the 10 styles that should form the quite literal stepping stones of every well-rounded collection. From settling the difference between an oxford and a brogue once and for all to hashing out the history of some of our favourite pairs to slip on, consider this your cheat sheet to all things shoes.
We also list our favourite bespoke purveyors, because sometimes even the best brands (don’t worry — we’ve listed those, too) can’t satisfy your exacting tastes. So, read on to discover our definitive shoe guide. Apologies to your wallet in advance.
Oxfords
Berluti Oxfords Photo: Courtesy Berluti
A basic black pair of oxfords will take you far in this life. The lace-up style has been a go-to dress shoe since the courtiers at Scotland’s Balmoral castle first wore it in the late 18th century. It was then incorporated into the student uniforms at Oxford University, lending it the name it carries today. Classically sleek, they are characterised by shoelace tabs called eyelets that are attached under the vamp (the section of the shoe’s upper stretching from the toe to about the middle of the foot) — anything attached above is classified as the oxford’s slightly more casual cousin, the derby. It bears repeating that you can’t go wrong with classic black leather — which, if the style features minimal detailing, will pair easily with everything from tuxedos to dark trousers. A pair with a toe cap (the seam that bridges across the shoe at the widest part of your foot) would look right at home in the C-suite.
Brands to Know: Despite the shoe having a distinctly British heritage, brands based on the continent often do it best. Look to Berluti for oxfords with minimal seaming, which allows their beautifully patinaed leather to take center stage. For a dose of personality, lace up a pair from Corthay, as many of the brand’s already unique styles can be customised with unique leather finishes and dandy laces.
Brogues
George Cleverly Brogues Photo: Courtesy George Cleverly
Though “brogue” conjures up a very specific type of shoe — think oxfords with intricately decorated uppers — the term actually refers to a technique by which leather is perforated with tiny holes, often arranged in flowing patterns that mirror the geometry of the foot. Today, broguing is typically used to give any shoe, from your standard lace-ups to chunky Chelsea boots, some aesthetic kick. But the technique has humble roots: it was originally devised in the 18th century to allow water to drain from the shoes of those slogging through the marshy Scottish and Irish terrain. The style remained the domain of country houses until the early 1900s, when the then Prince of Wales was spotted wearing them while out playing a round of golf. From there, it inched its way into the workday wardrobe of those whose feet were planted firmly on dry ground, adding an artistic element when wearing more demure suits or dressing up dark denim.
Brands to Know: Family-owned brand George Cleverly has a range of brogue styles, but it does formal-leaning brogues especially well. Go for the signature chisel-toe shape to add a bit of masculine edge to the model, or lace up a pair of the brand’s classic wing tips (a swooping line of perforations that forms a “W” just below the toes). Santoni offers styles with a bit of a subversive twist — think ombré leathers and styles that feature perforations almost all the way through, a wink to the shoe’s origins.
Monk Straps
Santoni Monk Straps Photo: Courtesy Santoni
Likely developed by monks (hence the name) as an alternative to sandals once winter set in, these buckled shoes have come a long way since their medieval origins. Today, they are a more sophisticated alternative to the oxford and have the uncanny ability to look either sharp or relaxed, depending on the materials with which they are made. Single-buckle models in richly polished leather are a stylish way to step out of the formal-shoe norm, and they look especially powerful when paired with a double-breasted suit or sleek shawl-collared tuxedo. Their double-buckled brothers appear slightly more casual, especially when they are made of buttery-soft suede, and can work nicely with both more relaxed suits — think slim-fitting gray or unstructured navy — and jeans.
Brands to Know: When it comes to a classic single- or double-buckle monk strap, you can’t go wrong with a pair from John Lobb or Ralph Lauren. Both brands carry styles that will pull their weight in your closet for years to come, the former made with a sharp British sensibility and the latter with an ever-so-slightly more relaxed American flair. If you crave something a little bit bolder, Santoni’s colorful styles (which can be customized by pairing together whatever two leathers your heart desires for the upper and the straps) are playful without losing an ounce of refinement.
Loafers
Gucci Loafers Photo: Courtesy Gucci
Originally worn by Norwegian fishermen, the blueprint for today’s loafer was almost simultaneously co-opted by preppy American co-eds and the English upper crust in the late 1920s as the casual shoe of choice (sneakers, after all, had only just been invented). Gucci helped elevate the style when it introduced the now-iconic horsebit loafer in 1953 — spawning generations of copycats and countless knockoffs. Over half a century later, the Italian brand still makes the classic style, though it and many others have also branched out into thoroughly unstuffy versions of the often WASP-y style. Socks are no longer required (though that debate still rages on with surprising intensity), and modern variations done in an unexpected color, punched up with often over-the-top embellishments, or made even easier to slip on with step-down backs offer playful ways to dress up your nine-to-five.
Brands to Know: Besides Gucci’s sweeping range of loafers both classic and decidedly not, almost every brand does loafers well. Tod’s is another classic option — its soft Gommino driving shoe walks the line between true loafer and dressed-down moccasin, though it also does more traditional loafers well. Salvatore Ferragamo does, too, offering a range of variations on the classic horsebit embellishment.
Smoking Slippers
Christian Louboutin Smoking Slippers Photo: Courtesy Christian Louboutin
Made famous by men who have little else in common — namely, the Pope and Hugh Hefner — smoking slippers, obviously, represent very different things to different people. The former inherited the red velvet slippers he wears as part of a centuries-old uniform, while the latter used them to leverage his personal strain of louche interests into a full-blown cultural movement. Either way, the style, which originally was worn inside with a pipe in hand by the likes of Prince Albert, quickly became a sexy replacement for buttoned-up oxfords or monk straps for a certain kind of rakish man. They have become a common black-tie option over the past 50 years, but even the most demure pairs still make a serious style statement when paired with an expertly tailored tuxedo or denim.
Brands to Know: For a model like the ones that Prince Albert would have slipped on before his evening scotch, look to Larusmiani’s selection of classic velvet slippers, which come in a range of colors. Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin do the modern, more opulent version of the shoe extremely well — with options ranging from silky satin outfitted with tassels to eye-catching slippers adorned with limited-edition and, for some, highly collectable patterns.
Lace-Up Boots
Bally Lace-Up Boots Photo: Courtesy Bally
Though lace-up boots have been worn by nomads, knights, and workmen for centuries, the history of the style is muddled at best. What is sure, however, is that Prince Albert once again played a role in turning the previously purely practical shoe into one of the most popular styles of the day when he commissioned a pair of lace-up boots that would keep him dry while walking around the grounds of Balmoral castle, while being fashionable enough to also wear inside. The style immediately took off, with men pairing sleek versions of the boot with their best suits. And while we would certainly recommend adding a dress boot to your wardrobe (keep it classic with a rich black leather pair), you’re likely to get much more mileage out of a pair that sticks closer to the original’s workwear roots. Look for one that mixes form with function, marrying thick soles that will keep you high and dry on even the slickest of days, with uppers that feature elevated details like broguing or softly pebbled leather.
Brands to Know: Swiss brand Bally got its start in the 1850s making finely crafted shoes, and lace-up boots were reportedly some of the first styles the house made. Today, you still can’t go wrong with one of its designs — the label makes both dressier styles inspired by Prince Albert and mountain-ready pairs. English shoemakers Edward Green and Grenson also make sturdy lace-ups that are still sharp enough to pair with wool trousers for winter days at the office.
Chelsea Boots
Saint Laurent Chelsea Boots Photo: Courtesy Saint Laurent
Another style that we can thank Victorian England for, Chelsea boots — characterised by their stretchy side panels, snug fit, and low heel — were originally commissioned by Queen Victoria, who wanted a pair of shoes she could easily slip on and off. A century or so later, the swinging Mods that would hang out in London’s Chelsea neighborhood revived the previously stuffy style as part of their rock-and-roll uniform (the style also appeared, most visibly, on the Beatles), a connotation that the boots haven’t yet shaken. Pair them under a suit for a subtle kick of personality on your nine-to-five, or with dark denim and your favorite vintage band T-shirt on casual days.
Brands to Know: Saint Laurent’s lineup of sleek — and often racy — Chelsea boots are your best bet if you are looking for a pair that fully embraces the style’s rock-and-roll roots. Church’s also makes Chelsea boots that nod to this side of the style’s history, embellishing its designs with subtle brogues and rendering them in rich suede. Berluti does them well, too, highlighting their classic minimal construction with ultrafine leather.
Sneakers
Feit Sneakers Photo: Courtesy Feit
No shoes inspire devotees quite like sneakers do. Invented in 1917 by Converse (the brand’s iconic low-top is widely regarded as the first modern sneaker), the athletic style quickly became a favourite casual shoe. It wasn’t until the late 1980s with the explosion of Nike’s Air Jordan into mainstream culture that the shoes became the full-on style statement they are today — inspiring collectors to line up for hours to get their hands on a pair and driving up resale prices for those who couldn’t get them in store to dizzying heights. Luxury brands quickly capitalised on this new market, drumming up versions of the athletic shoe elevated by buttery-soft leather or downright flashy details. Today, you can get away with a sneaker just about anywhere — though we’d suggest leaving your flashy collector’s pieces for the weekend and sticking to sharp leather styles at the office (which are best paired with pants that are ever-so-slightly cropped).
Brands to Know: Besides the classics — think Nike Air Force 1s or Adidas’ Stan Smiths — you can’t go wrong with a pair of sneakers from Harrys of London or Feit. The former takes classic shapes and renders them in candy-coloured leather, while the latter makes its minimal creamy white, tan, or all-black pairs out of single pieces of leather. On the designer front, Gucci’s Ace sneaker has become one of the brand’s most easily recognisable designs, thanks to its perfectly punchy green-and-red-stripe detailing.
Espadrilles
Tom Ford Espadrille Photo: Courtesy Tom Ford
Characterised by their soft canvas uppers and jute rope soles, espadrilles have been worn for nearly a millennium in the Basque and Catalan regions of France and Spain. The casual slip-on was made famous by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, who were often photographed wearing them in the 1940s as a nod to their Catalan heritage (which, at the time, was a visual code for their anti-Franco politics), quickly becoming part of the mainstream fashion thanks to its casual but not overly dressed-down look. The style was first elevated by Yves Saint Laurent, who partnered with Lorenzo Castañer (whose namesake brand still makes the style today) to make a pair that swapped standard canvas for luxe silk. That said, you don’t need silk to elevate the humble style, as today many designers do versions in more practical leather and suede that are equally chic.
Brands to Know: When it comes to adding a luxe twist to the classically casual style, brands like Tom Ford and Brunello Cucinelli do it well — both rendering the shoe in soft suede, often in a large variety of colours (though we’re partial to pairs done in neutrals like navy, tawny brown and yellow). Spanish leather brand Loewe also makes some of the best designer versions, leveraging the history of the shoe playfully.
Sandals
Bottega Veneta Sandals Photo: Courtesy Bottega Veneta
Likely the first kind of shoe that our ancestors ever slipped on, sandals, with their simple, flat soles and straps, have a history that can be traced back thousands of years. They’ve come in and out of fashion for men — and are often seen as only acceptable if you’re going to spend all day lounging by the pool. That said, having a solid pair of slides that can take you from the beach to the bar is an essential (even if you’ll only ever wear them on vacation), and there are plenty of pairs ranging from simple to statement-making. Look for a style that provides more coverage with wide, criss-crossing leather straps, or lean into the shoe’s Grecian roots by buckling on a pair that would look right at home on the shores of ancient Mykonos.
Brands to Know: Though you can’t go wrong with a pair of plain leather slides, Bottega Veneta often carries styles that feature luxe upgrades — think intricately woven intrecciato leather straps. Ralph Lauren and Jimmy Choo both also carry solid options, often leaning sportier (and therefore all the better for the pool) thanks to their squishy rubber soles and wide, single straps.
Best Bespoke Shoemakers
Atelier sur Mesure Bottier Photo: Courtesy Berluti
Many of the brands mentioned above have histories rooted in bespoke — after all, it was primarily how shoes were made until the invention of mass manufacturing just over a century ago. The following eight labels all carry the torch of the bespoke shoe, proving that age-old cobbling techniques still hold water in the modern world — especially when they can allow you to build the shoes of your dreams.
Stefano Bemer
Florentine cobbler Stefano Bemer has been a well-kept secret of some of the world’s best-dressed men since the 1980s. Today, the brand — which can craft everything from sharp split-toe loafers to special-order sneakers in everything from calfskin to stingray — is quietly expanding, introducing ready-to-wear styles in case you just can’t wait the 20 weeks to have your bespoke creations delivered.
John Lobb
British brand John Lobb has been making fine bespoke shoes for more than 150 years, outfitting everyone from princes (the house holds a Royal Warrant) to Aristotle Onassis in its supple monk straps and oxfords. Orders are crafted over the course of nearly a year and require at least three fittings to ensure the fit and aesthetic are exactly right. Once that pair of exotic-skin derbies are in your closet, you can expect to get at least 20 years’ worth of wear out of them.
Corthay
Certainly not for sartorial wallflowers, Parisian atelier Corthay specializes in bespoke shoes with personality in spades — oxfords rendered in subtly patinaed maroon leather and electric-blue suede tasseled loafers, or really anything else you can dream up. Founder Pierre Corthay was awarded the prestigious Maître d’Art by the French government in 2009 and is the only men’s bootmaker to ever earn the designation.
George Cleverly
Though known for shoes with a powerful chisel-toe shape, George Cleverly can craft styles to almost any C-suite exec’s taste (though the brand also counts rock stars and media moguls as some of its devoted clients). The process still employs traditional techniques of bespoke shoemaking used in the early 19th century, and fitters travel around the world constantly to take measurements and deliver shoes to clients that can’t make it to the brand’s London headquarters.
Gaziano & Girling
Out of their Savile Row and New York City outposts, the experts at Gaziano & Girling spin classic styles — sleek oxfords, single monk straps and lace-up ankle boots — into highly personal creations. In a process that can take up to 16 months, the cobblers will source that perfect snakeskin to use as an accent, carefully position brogues to flatter the individual lines of your foot, and spend countless hours working the patina of the leather until it is exactly what you want it to be.
Roberto Ugolini
The craftsmen at Roberto Ugolini, located just off the Piazza San Spirito in Florence, have put the city’s leather-working tradition to highly individualized use. Specialising in shoes with creative flair, the brand can craft everything from patent-leather and Bordeaux suede oxfords that perfectly pair with your favourite tuxedo, to mixed-media monk straps that complement ornate brogue detailing with pared-back twill.
Berluti
Though the Parisian house has leveraged modern technology to make many of its shoes customisable with the click of a few buttons, Berluti still operates a traditional bespoke service out of its boutiques around the world. Master shoemakers will help clients pick styles, soles and leathers that best fit their specific lifestyle and personal tastes and will then let them run wild with design elements — selecting patinas, designating elements to be tattooed, or choosing accents of exotic skins, all of which are sourced with respect to preserving endangered species.
Casa Fagliano
Based out of Hurlingham, Argentina, the experts at family-owned Casa Fagliano have upheld aristocratic traditions of bespoke polo boots since 1892. Today the house sends its fitters and cobblers around the world to fit clients attending the most prestigious polo matches, taking orders for everything from lace-up ankle boots to sleek, knee-high leather riding boots. If you are not an expert rider, the brand has also leveraged its boot-making heritage into sturdy, precisely designed oxfords, monk straps and derbies.
Subscribe to the Newsletter
Recommended for you
The 7 Best Watches of the Week, From Mark Zuckerberg’s Greubel Forsey to Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s Patek Philippe
Seven celebs flaunted stylish wrist candy for all to see this week.
How Maine Firefighters Sparked the Beginnings of an Italian Heritage Brand
Beloved by such style icons as Gianni Agnelli and Princess Caroline of Monaco, you can’t go wrong with Fay outerwear.
You may also like.
15/01/2025
09/01/2025
You may also like.
Show Stoppers
The Sydney Harbour Concours d’Elegance—a beauty pageant for priceless classic cars—returns for another instalment at the city’s most intriguing, and unlikeliest, venue.
The logic behind staging a prestige automobile show on an island may, at face value, seem warped—history tells us that cars and water do not play nicely. The rationale twists further when said piece of land is a former shipyard that is, aesthetically, more workhorse ute than classic Ferrari.
Scratch beneath the surface, however, and the decision to plant the Sydney Harbour Concours d’Elegance on Cockatoo Island for the second year running begins to make locational sense: the steel arch of the emblematic bridge acting as photogenic backcloth; the UNESCO World Heritage site’s previous guises as 19th-century penal colony and eminent boat-building facility fleshing the show’s historical bones; the theatre of watching collectors delicately coaxing their four-wheeled artworks off a rusty roll-on/roll-off barge in the islet’s wharf before showtime. (After all, if owning a car in this stratosphere isn’t about projecting drama, then what’s the point?)
Throw in an endless endowment of free Champagne for guests and VIP transport from the mainland via superyacht, and it barely matters that the three-day jamboree is, in the words of founder and curator James Nicholls, “a logistical nightmare”.
“People love the energy, the adventure” says the Anglo-Italian, a broadcaster, writer and photographer whose extensive resume includes various stints as a concours judge across the world. “There’s a great contrast between the luxurious motor cars and the industrial environment. The Turbine Shop [a timeworn, hanger-like space used to display the vehicles] is where ocean-going liners and propellers were built. People interested in cars are also interested in that kind of thing but it’s just a backdrop. Cars are the main focal point.”
The concours d’elegance concept (“concours” means “competition” in French) can be traced back to 17th-century Paris, when aristocrats would flaunt horse-drawn carriages in local parks during summer months. Animals eventually gave way to automobiles, and the gatherings mutated into more organised contests in which these new-fangled contraptions were, in somewhat prescient fashion, judged solely on the appearance. The trend spread throughout European high society, before reaching America in 1950 with an inaugural pageant at Pebble Beach, California—a concours which has since evolved into a behemoth of the species, now billing itself as “the world’s most prestigious car show” and drawing 214 vehicles and spectators in the low five figures at the last annual meeting. Other concours are thriving globally, from spectacles in Lake Como in Italy (the longest running event, launched in 1929) to Udaipur in India. Vanity, it seems, remains in vogue.
Among this storied company, Sydney’s interpretation is playing catch-up. But Nicholls insists the local variant—launched in 2019, having occupied three other citywide locations—has no intention of locking horns with competitors. Not numerically, at least.
“In 2024, we had 500 people over the three days; this year we’ll aim for 750. But we’re never going to become a 20,000-people show,” he says. “We want it to be bespoke and beautiful, so people don’t have to queue for a glass of Champagne. You can talk to the car owners, and everyone feels like a VIP.” The overarching aim is to become a “destination event” on the socialite calendar, on par with the Melbourne Cup or the Australian Grand Prix.
While keen to keep paying visitors guessing, Nicholls offers Robb Report a sneak peek into some of the 44 objets booked to occupy the coarse, exposed-brick viewing hall, ranging from turn-of-the-century rarities to modern-day exotics: a 1905 Eugène Brillié 20/24 HP Coupé Chauffeur, believed to be the only one of its ilk left; a 1955 Porsche Speedster 356 “Pre A”, examples of which are valued in excess of $750,000; a Lamborghini Miura 3400, a model famed for its starring role in the opening sequence to 1969’s The Italian Job movie; a 2021 Audi R8 Spyder, an iteration that is no longer being produced and thus quietly accruing kudos.
Up to seven “classes” will be open, including categories solely for Porsche Speedsters and pre-war Australian coachbuilt cars. Two 1930s Bugattis are slated for appearance, one of which is, as this article is being written, on a boat somewhere, on its way to Australia. A panel of seven judges, led by the first ever female concours head assessor, who also adjudicated in 2024, will select the overall “Best in Show” winner—scored last time out by a 1964 Ferrari 250 LM, a model line with a $24 million price tag attached. And in a progressive play designed to lure the oil-shunning generation, an “electric elegance” section will debut. Nicholls estimates the combined value of all this precious metal at around $80 million.
While it would provoke an illicit thrill to discover that frenzied super-collectors were slyly puncturing rivals’ tyres or keying priceless bodywork—skulduggery has plagued other pageants, from dog show Crufts (canine poisoning) to Miss World (rigging allegations)—the entrants are, in keeping with the show’s refined, English-garden-party profile—a gentlemanly bunch. To a point. “They like meeting up, the community that’s here, but they do get competitive,” says Mark Ussher, the Sydney Harbour Concours d’Elegance managing director, and on-the-ground organiser. “They care about their cars but they’re investors as well as collectors. If they win a concours anywhere around the world it adds value to the car.”
Which makes it doubly important that, surrounded by all that deep Harbour water, everyone remembers to put their handbrake on.
The Sydney Harbour Concours D’Elegance runs from February 28th-March 2nd 2025; sydneyharbourconcours.com.au
You may also like.
09/01/2025
17/01/2025
We Cherrypicked the Best Elements of Luxury Resorts to Create the Ultimate Fantasy Hotel
Everyone has a favourite hotel—but what if you could create your own? We envision the ultimate place to stay, combining elements of the world’s most noteworthy openings.
Forget fantasy football—what about a heavenly hotel? Imagine you could create one from scratch, cherrypicking the best aspects of the world’s most noteworthy recent openings and reopenings, combined into the perfect, impossible property. That’s what we’ve done, from the best rooftop restaurant for supper to the only beach club where’s it’s truly worth basking in the sun, this is the world’s ultimate hotel. The only thing we can’t arrange: the chance to check in.
FACADE Capella Sydney
Australia
It took seven years to turn this local landmark—the building once housed the departments of education and agriculture—into a luxury hotel. A honey-coloured jewel in a precinct awash with appealing sandstone facades, its crowning glory, literally, is the gleaming, four-storey glass addition that perches atop the structure like an architectural tiara.
SUITES
The Surrey, a Corinthia Hotel
New York City
After a full reimagining by Martin Brudnizki and its new operators, Malta-based Corinthia Hotels, this Upper East Side stalwart’s signature suites now include a quartet inspired by Central Park bridges. Mouldings nod to the structures’ architectural details, while hand-painted sketches inside the grandes armoires evoke the Ramble-adjacent Bow Bridge.
RESTAURANT
Le Rooftop at Royal Mansour Casablanca
Morocco
Relax on the 23rd floor of this Art Deco-inflected skyscraper hotel and you’ll not only enjoy astonishing views over the water and toward the towering Hassan II Mosque, but you’ll also find yourself rubbing elbows with the coolest crowd in the city. Snag a sofa on the terrace before sundown and linger all evening.
LOBBY
Peninsula London
England
Hong Kong’s Peninsula hotels are renowned for their fleet of high-end classic cars—a personal passion of billionaire owner Sir Michael Kadoorie. No wonder he struck a deal with Surrey’s Brooklands Museum for his latest opening in London: not only is the Claude Bosi-operated restaurant named in its honour, but the institution also makes available a rotating selection of outstanding vintage vehicles—most recently, a Bentley Blower and a Napier-Railton—for display in the eatery’s dedicated lobby, close to the Concorde nose installed overhead, sourced from Kadoorie’s personal collection.
BEACH CLUB
Borgo Santandrea
Italy
The dearth of standout beaches is the Amalfi Coast’s dirty secret, so this is a remarkable asset: walk down through the terraced, lemon-tree-filled gardens of this Gio Ponti-inspired hotel bolted to the steep cliffs by Conca dei Marini, and you’ll stumble upon its own beach club attached to the property. The restaurant sits in a renovated boathouse; feel free to snip some herbs from the mismatched pots filled with sage and basil.
SPA
Meritage Resort and Spa
Napa Valley
The naturally formed 2,044 m² Estate Cave, located 12 m underground, was already spectacular—its extensive menu of treatments includes both cave-stone massage and guided breathing and meditation sessions—but the $37 million rehab of this establishment thankfully doubled the size of the adults- only pool in front of Spa Terra.
POOL
One&Only Za’abeel Dubai
UAE
This gravity-defying infinity pool, sitting atop the cantilevered link between the hotel’s two towers, has a clubby vibe, swim-up bars and sunken seating pods—and the fact that it’s Instagram catnip doesn’t hurt either.
Photos by ADRIAN GAUT; BORGO SANTANDREA; PENINSULA LONDON; WILL PRYCE.
You may also like.
15/01/2025
09/01/2025
17/01/2025
Hole In One
The Citizen Kanebridge VHG Golf Open Returns to The Southern Highlands This February.
The third annual Citizen Kanebridge VHG Golf Open Day is happening again this year at Citizen Kanebridge Lodge in the Southern Highlands on Friday, February 21. Players will tee off from 8 am for a day of unrivalled bucolic hospitality in the spirit of friendly competition.
The Open unites forces with the operators of Mount Broughton in Sutton Forrest to stage the popular day, in which teams of four enter to enjoy 18 holes of unadulterated fun.
Players will meet at the clubhouse, where—golf aside—they will be served breakfast, lunch and liquid refreshments throughout the day before heading back to Citizen Kanebridge Lodge for a special dinner, fun awards ceremony and more drinks.
Located just 10 minutes from the Citizen Kanebridge Lodge in Berrima, the stunning Mount Broughton course gives players—male and female, and ranging from amateur to semi professional—the chance to compete in a golf day with plenty of high-jinks and food along with way.
The event is part of the new offering from Citizen Kanebridge, a private membership club based in Sydney. Citizen Kanebridge allows members to have access to the Robb Report Club(RR1) based in the United States of America, Citizen Kanebridge Lodge in the Southern Highlands of NSW, and The Royal Automobile Club of Australia (RACA) in Circular Quay, Sydney.
Members interested in Golf Open Day, may enquire by reaching out to leanne@citizenkanebridge.com.au. For more information on Golf Open day, you can download the information brochure here.
Love golf? jump to our golf connoisseurship package from the Spring 2024 issue of Robb Report ANZ.
You may also like.
15/01/2025
17/01/2025
Ace Tennis Apparel
Bring your A-game this summer as you slip onto the centre court in style
Since the 70’s, and the advent of the professional circuit and tennis coverage on TV, players have recognised the value of looking distinctive and acting distinctively to attract an audience and sponsors. The male superstars of that era—Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, John Newcombe, Ilie Nastase and Vitas Gerulaitis—dazzled audiences not only with their athleticism and guile but also with their logo-laden plumage. Nastase’s bad-boy Adidas stripes, Borg’s headband and pinstripe Fila top and John Newcombe’s pastels and handlebar moustache were competitive points of difference that were as much a part of their weaponry as their serves. In the intervening decades, on-court apparel has served double fault after double fault and commercial interpretations of those looks have been even more egregious. But if today’s luxury purveyors have anything to do with it, ‘tennis fashion’ may no longer be an oxymoron.
Look and feel your best on the court with Robb Report’s selection of ace tennis apparel.
Gucci ‘Jannik Sinner’ duffle bag; $3,000; Gucci.com
Brunello Cucinelli nylon sweatshirt vest in white or grey $3,043; brunellocucinelli.com
Brunello Cucinelli calf skin leather tennis bag in cream; $12,967; brunellocuccinelli.com
Gucci terry tennis shorts $2,600; gucci.com
Ralph Lauren linen short sleeve shirt in white; $229; ralphlauren.com
Loro Piana logo baseball hat in cream, $1,200; loropiana.com
Brunello Cucinelli grained calfskin and washed suede runners, $2,200; brunellocuccinelli.com
Penhaligon’s Racquets (recently discontinued so buy now), $249; penhaligons.com
You may also like.
15/01/2025
09/01/2025
How Perfumer Francis Kurkdjian Learned to Bottle the Zeitgeist
The vaunted French nose has spent 30 years devising best-selling fragrances for the world’s leading luxury brands. Can he work his magic reimagining the world’s best-selling fragrance, Dior Sauvage?
The perfumer dips a tester into one of the tiny glass vials aligned on the desk in front of him. There are dozens of them, with labels identifying various dilutions of compounds such as methyl geranate, phenyl acetate, and akigalawood. He brings the paper to his nose and inhales. “Once in a while, I try to introduce my palette to new ingredients, to see if they’re interesting enough to create something with,” Francis Kurkdjian says. “Most of the time, they’re not.” With that, he tosses the strip into the trash.
To be a perfumer is to be a lifelong learner. Science advances, ingredients run out, regulations governing what you can use (or can’t) change. But Kurkdjian’s high standards and boundless curiosity have helped the 55-year-old become one of the industry’s best-known and most prolific noses, as those in the profession are often called. Since 2021, he has been Dior’s perfume creation director; before that, he cofounded his own house, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, and spent more than 25 years helping other companies articulate their olfactive identities. His hundreds of commissions—Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Le Male, Kenzo World, and Carven Pour Homme among them—have generated many millions of dollars for luxury’s leading lifestyle companies. Along the way, his increasing renown has helped bring perfumers from behind the scenes and into the spotlight.
“It’s a profitable business when you make a name for yourself, without a doubt,” says Robert Burke, CEO of luxury consultancy Taylor/Burke Communications. “In the past, brands oftentimes didn’t talk about who their perfumer was—it used to be a little more like a private label. Now, it’s a selling point.” And selling is the operative word. According to Statista, a sort of Google for market researchers, the global fragrance market will reach nearly $60 billion in revenue in 2024. Last year, LVMH reported that its perfumes and cosmetics division, of which Dior is the biggest player, moved over $8.2 billion worth of products.
In September, Kurkdjian will unveil his most significant project to date, and his first men’s fragrance for Dior: Sauvage Eau Forte. It’s a follow-up to Sauvage, a sensual and uncommonly long-lasting men’s eau de toilette designed in 2015 by Kurkdjian’s predecessor, François Demachy. And the stakes for this new flanker (the industry term for an iteration of a flagship scent) couldn’t be higher. Since 2022, the original Sauvage has been the world’s best-selling fragrance, men’s or women’s, surpassing even longtime champ Chanel No. 5. It’s estimated a bottle of Sauvage is sold every three seconds.
Still, selecting a fragrance is a deeply personal, even emotional, decision. Kurkdjian’s challenge was to make a big tent even bigger by offering a new—but not radically different—vision of something millions of men around the world already wear.
He started the project—where else?—at a desk covered in vials. Though a team of two associate perfumers works just down the hall from his office in Paris, one gets the sense that Kurkdjian prefers solitude. When I later ask one of his friends if Kurkdjian is shy or just French, they respond, “He’s shy. And French. Double whammy.”
But one-on-one, Kurkdjian is supremely self-assured, armed with the type of confidence you expect to see in a surgeon or first responder. “I don’t feel the pressure, to be honest, because I decided not to feel the pressure,” he says, in reference to the various demands of his role, including devising bestsellers, overseeing the other perfumers, managing Dior’s relationship with its flower growers in Grasse (the raw-materials capital of the French fragrance industry), and even training store associates how to express his ideas. “It’s not a job you can handle if you’re afraid, because fear is unproductive.”
Fortunately for Kurkdjian, he comes from brave stock. On both sides of his family are relatives who immigrated to France from the former Ottoman Empire early in the 20th century to avoid political persecution; his maternal great-grandmother and grandmother only narrowly escaped the Armenian genocide.
To instill a sense of pride in their heritage, Kurkdjian’s parents took him and his two siblings to the Armenian Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paris every week. He still attends regularly. “When I’m in my final box, that’s where I’ll go,” Kurkdjian says, with a slight smile at his own gallows humour.
But the family also put a premium on a French sense of personal style and savoir faire. He remembers his mother buying fabric used in past-season Chanel collections to make her own suits. It didn’t hurt that one of her best friends, Françoise, was a petite main who once made dresses in Dior’s couture atelier. After Kurkdjian’s mother died in 2013, Françoise, now 87, became a surrogate aunt—but she has long been a link to the man whose memory Kurkdjian is now tasked with upholding. Because she worked closely with Monsieur Dior himself, Kurkdjian still calls her “whenever I need to fact-check something.”
As a teenager, Kurkdjian stole spritzes of his father’s small selection of classic colognes, which included the fresh, citrusy Dior Eau Sauvage, released in 1966 and unrelated (in the olfactory sense) to the 2015 scent, as well as the suave, vanilla-forward Pour un Homme de Caron. His mother wore perfume in what was then a novel way: different scents for different occasions, seasons, and moods, instead of a single signature. “She was loyal to my father, but she was never loyal to perfumes,” Kurkdjian jokes.
At first, he thought he’d be a ballet dancer—“I wanted to be Nureyev,” he says—but he failed the rigorous entrance exam to the Paris Opera Ballet School. Then, for a time, he thought he could be a couturier, until he came to grips with the fact that he couldn’t draw.
When he was 14, he became fascinated with a collection of perfume samples his sister had put together. A few years later, Kurkdjian saw a magazine article about fragrances that sealed the deal. He remembers feeling jealous of the perfumers on the page and wanted to join their ranks. “I was choosing my life,” he says, before paraphrasing a quote from Jean-Paul Sartre: “‘Choosing not to choose is still choosing.’ And this is, like, almost tattooed in my brain. I don’t know if I always make good decisions, but I make decisions.”
In 1994, two years after Kurkdjian graduated from ISIPCA, a fragrance school in Versailles, the industry was dominated by a small handful of huge companies. Designers in need of new scents would send out requests for proposals, and perfumers would enter a knock-down, drag-out fight to win the bid. Thirty years later, not much has changed.
“They still make perfumers compete against each other, even within the same house,” says Dawn Goldworm, an olfactive expert who has been friends with Kurkdjian for over 20 years. “So at Firmenich, you have a lot of perfumers competing against each other on projects,” she explains, referring to the leading French firm, “but they’re also competing against perfumers at Givaudan, International Flavors & Fragrances, and Takasago. It doesn’t really create a collaborative spirit.”
A chance meeting with the executive who owned Jean-Paul Gaultier’s fragrance license would produce one of the industry’s most consequential partnerships. At the time, Kurkdjian was just 25 years old and had enrolled in a master’s degree program at Paris’s Institute of Luxury Marketing. Gaultier was soliciting bids from the major houses for a new men’s fragrance. His brief was to evoke the seductive side of clean sweat, something Kurkdjian later described as “the idea of sensuality where you want to practically bite into a man’s skin.” The exec gave him three weeks to submit a formula as a sort of training exercise; Kurkdjian had never designed a fragrance outside the classroom. He took the assignment anyway—and won.
His composition used lavender, mint, vanilla, and a hint of cumin to conjure the musky aroma the designer was after—and it beat designs from far more experienced perfumers. Housed in a torso-shaped bottle clad in a striped sailor motif (Gaultier’s idea), Le Male quickly became a sensation, notable for how different it was from other men’s scents on the market, which generally conformed to generic ideas about masculinity: You could smell either clean, like a fraternity pledge getting ready for Friday night (à la Davidoff’s Cool Water or Issey Miyake’s L’eau d’Issey Pour Homme), or powerful, in the vein of an old-money financier (think Creed’s Green Irish Tweed). Le Male was far more nuanced—a little sweet, a little floral, yet undeniably masculine. Released in 1995, it was perfectly positioned for the metrosexual trend of the late ’90s and early aughts, which heralded changing ideas about what it meant to be a man.
“It was a unique combination of the freshness of lavender with the warmth of the vanilla and amber in the base—it was very modern smelling,” says Sebastian Jara, a fragrance consultant in San Francisco. Though Kurkdjian’s initial formula has since spawned 55 flankers, Jara notes that people still wear the original. “It’s one of the icons of the perfume industry,” he says.
Le Male also made Kurkdjian an overnight star in his field. “Most perfumers at 25 don’t have the breadth or the facility to do a global bestseller,” Goldworm says. “Francis is an anomaly, because he’s just brilliant.”
But Kurkdjian learned early that success can come at a cost. In short order, a rumour went around Paris that his formula was selected only because he was sleeping with Gaultier.
“It was not true,” Kurkdjian clarifies, obviously still hurt by the accusation, even if it was partly based on a simple misunderstanding: “Jean-Paul had a boyfriend at the time whose name was the same as mine—Francis.” He believes the rumour stuck because “in France, people don’t like success. Success is always suspicious.”
Though he should have been on top of the world, he began avoiding industry events, socialising only with a tight circle of trusted friends. Even now, decades later and at the height of his powers, the lesson still lingers. Kurkdjian will go as far as to confirm that he’s gay, but he won’t divulge anything else about his romantic life to the press.
His work is another story, and Le Male opened the door to plenty of it. It helped him land a job as a perfumer for Quest, a Dutch-owned company later acquired by Givaudan, where he created a string of best-selling and critically acclaimed bottles: Elizabeth Arden’s Green Tea, in 1999; Lancôme’s Miracle Homme, in 2001; Narciso Rodriguez for Her, in 2003. He even devised two scents for Dior’s halo line of fragrances, La Collection Privée, in 2004.
It wasn’t just his early successes that made Kurkdjian stand out. Perfumers are a small community, by some estimates numbering as few as 200 professionals. “Many people use the analogy that there are more astronauts than perfumers,” says Linda G. Levy, president of the Fragrance Foundation, a New York-based trade group.
“There’s a stereotype of who [can be a perfumer], and perhaps a lack of welcoming into the industry,” she says. Though that has begun to change, when Kurkdjian’s star was on the rise, his peers were mostly straight, older men descended from families in or near Grasse whose members had made fragrances for generations. Kurkdjian was a young gay man with no connection to the industry, outperforming the other guys and making it look easy.
One factor has long leveled the playing field: Most perfumers aren’t widely credited for their work. It’s something that seemed unfair to Marc Chaya, a finance and strategy executive who was a partner at Ernst & Young in 2004, the year he met Kurkdjian at a birthday party for a mutual friend. “When I learned that he was the man behind some of these beautiful perfumes that I already had in my collection, I was very intrigued and surprised,” Chaya says.
They became fast friends, quickly learning they had a lot in common: They were both gay and wildly successful; Chaya, who’s Lebanese, saw overlaps in their families’ histories. And they were both hungry to work for themselves instead of making heaps of money for other people. “I guess we met at a time where we were both looking for something, and we found an answer in each other,” Chaya adds.
In 2009, the two formally became business partners, launching Maison Francis Kurkdjian, for which Chaya serves as CEO. From its inception, Chaya ensured Kurkdjian would receive credit for his compositions, because his name would be on every distinctively faceted bottle.
“We know fashion designers by their names, but we know fragrances by the name of the fragrance,” says Lana Todorovich, president and chief merchandising officer at Neiman Marcus, the first retailer to carry the maison’s fragrances in the United States. “They were both on a pretty significant mission to actually bring to light the incredible talent of perfumers.”
Chaya, who stayed with the company after LVMH acquired it in 2017, believes there’s still a way to go. “I’m not sure that many people know who Alberto Morillas is. I’m not sure that many people know who Calice Becker is, or who Jean-Claude Ellena is, or Christine Nagel,” he says, referring, respectively, to the creators of Calvin Klein’s CK One, Dior’s J’adore, Terre d’Hermès, and Jo Malone’s Wood Sage & Sea Salt. “It’s about time we respect what they’ve done.”
Kurkdjian has long compared what he does, especially for other brands, to being an actor. The briefs are like scripts, and exploring a new fragrance’s mood or avatar lets him step into identities he wouldn’t otherwise occupy—say, the modern London gentleman with a classic sense of style (Mr. Burberry) or the off-duty mogul just trying to put his workweek behind him (Armani Mania).
The job gives Kurkdjian a far bigger stage than he ever would have had as a ballet dancer. He calls leading Dior’s fragrance department the role of a lifetime—one he has been able to make entirely his own. “It’s not even work,” he insists.
Still, he takes pains to keep the businesses separate. Some of that is down to confidentiality, but other aspects stem from personal preference. Take flowers, for example. “I don’t put them so much at the forefront in my own house, but at Dior, they’re part of the founding act,” he says, referencing Christian Dior’s love of gardening and his practice of modeling dresses after various blooms. “They’re the DNA of the brand. So at Dior, I love working with flowers.”
He calls the Sauvage franchise “the story of lavender being the core flower of masculine perfume,” which he attributes to its use in traditional British shaving tonics. It’s the shared ingredient among all five iterations of the scent. (In addition to the fresh, citrusy, and woody original eau de toilette, François Demachy, Kurkdjian’s predecessor, made three more concentrated flankers that play up different elements of the flagship.) But if the original is smooth and urbane, Kurkdjian’s Sauvage Eau Forte is both fresher and more complex: a little green, a little peppery, with an earthy undercurrent like a warm breeze rolling through a desert oasis. Dior has leaned heavily into the imagery of water in its marketing for the scent, because Eau Forte uses water as its base instead of alcohol. The result—in addition to its opaque white appearance—is that the initial expression lasts longer than traditional scents, which tend to evolve over the course of the day.
During a span of about 10 months, Kurkdjian created 120 versions of the scent before arriving at the final formula. Though he won’t say which ingredients hit the cutting-room floor, the ultimate makeup includes a “cold spice” accord (it smells of elemi, cardamom, and black pepper), bleached lavender, and musky, woody notes. What he will say is that he rarely steps foot in the lab. He’s old-school, still writing out all his recipes with pencil and paper and handing them off to be mixed by one of his team. (“I am super lazy,” he admits. “And when you are lazy, you need efficiency, because you need things to run fast.”)
It’s one of several charming idiosyncrasies he has developed. He no longer drives because the traffic in Paris has gotten so bad that he can’t safely satisfy his need for speed. Every morning, instead, he’s driven to one of his two offices—Dior or Maison Francis Kurkdjian—around seven o’clock.
He hasn’t worn fragrances since he was in perfume school, where he was taught not to distract his nose from the formula in front of him. Occasionally, he’ll give scents he’s working on a test run or put something on for the odd party. Otherwise, his brain starts to work—and not in the good way. “Like, ‘Is that good enough? You should have done that. Why don’t you try this?’ So it’s not fun.”
He confirms the rumour that his nose is insured, though he won’t say for how much, which is one of many indications as to just how vital his role is to the bottom line. LVMH’s 2023 investor report lists four strategic priorities across its fragrance and beauty business. No. 2 is: “Focus on developing Parfums Christian Dior in harmony with couture.”
“I think it’s telling that that’s how important Christian Dior perfumes are in the entire portfolio of brands,” says Burke, the consultant. “For a brand like Dior, the fragrance category is absolutely key and a significant part of the business.”
So, yes, there’s serious money at stake. But despite the aggressive revenue targets, his ambitious schedule (he’s already working on fragrances for 2026), and the knowledge that thousands of people depend on his success, Kurkdjian tries not to take his work—or himself—too seriously.
“It’s important to put everything in perspective,” he says. “It’s just perfume. We’re not saving lives. We’re trying to make life even more beautiful.”
Scents of Occasion
Francis Kurkdjian is a firm believer in the olfactive wardrobe, the notion that you can be scented 24/7 for a range of moods and purposes. Here’s how five of his notable formulas square with what’s already in your closet.
The Wool Topcoat: Mr. Burberry Eau de Parfum
You might not wear this earthy, spice-laden fragrance year-round, but it’s an indispensable and versatile layer in the fall.
The Oxford-Cloth Button-Down: Maison Francis Kurkdjian Amyris Homme
Rosemary, cedar, and the titular Caribbean shrub combine to create an eau de toilette that’s as crisp and comforting as a clean white shirt.
The Peak-Lapel Tuxedo: Christian Dior La Collection Privée New Look
Kurkdjian’s only Dior project without flowers is filled with soapy aldehydes, amber, and frankincense—the scent of masculine chic, bottled.
The Cashmere Crewneck: Maison Francis Kurkdjian Grand Soir
Soft, warm, and uniquely enveloping, this eau de parfum’s amber-vanilla accord has an alluring edge thanks to notes of resinous benzoin.
The Dressing Gown: Carven Pour Homme Eau de Toilette
A refined and relaxed blend of violet leaf, sandalwood, sage, and vetiver, codesigned with perfumer Patricia Choux.
Hero photo by Tiphaine Caro
You may also like.
15/01/2025
09/01/2025
