Strolling through a storybook forest like Oasi Zegna in Northern Italy, one could easily (and, perhaps, understandably) find heightened concepts like fashion and design slipping out of mind entirely.

Yet it’s here, in the spiritual home of an entity that has come to embody both Italian elegance and high-powered corporate tailoring, where fashion’s potential for regenerative change is at its most striking. Born in Oasi Zegna, a new tome from the Zegna house and published by Rizzoli, brings this relationship to life in vivid colour—a tribute both to the sweeping nature reserve that stands as the brand’s greatest creation and the philanthropic streak that remains core to its identity.

While Zegna’s modern-day nerve centre lies in Milan, its soul rests in Trivero. A secluded comune nestled in Northern Italy’s wool-producing Biellese Alps, it was here Ermenegildo Zegna and his brothers started making quality fabrics using a mill handed down to them by their father over a century ago. Ermenegildo’s vision grew in line with his house’s reputation, and as the Roaring Twenties gave way to the austere ’30s, he recognised something commonplace today, but then revolutionary—the potential of fashion as a force for social and environmental good.

By then one of the area’s biggest employers and its most significant social force, Zegna funded social welfare projects and employed locals to start work reforesting 100 km² of hillsides and valleys surrounding the brand’s ancestral home. Transforming a landscape rendered barren and lifeless by a century of industrial revolution, the half-million trees planted would bloom in the decades that followed to form Oasi Zegna, a pristine pocket of wilderness 30 times larger than New York’s Central Park. It’s both the brand’s greatest creation and, increasingly, its greatest source of creative inspiration.

Even as Zegna’s suits have become a common sight in offices of state and on Hollywood’s most glamorous red carpets, Oasi Zegna serves as a living, breathing symbol of democratisation within the world of high fashion. To this day, it remains freely accessible to the public—a popular escape for action sports enthusiasts and bird watchers alike—and is the brand’s main philanthropic HQ, home to the house’s charitable foundation, a host of contemporary art installations and myriad biodiversity projects.

At once an ode to Zegna’s altruistic heritage and a visual mission statement for its future, Born in Oasi is not your typical coffee-table fashion book. There are no monochrome shots of glamorous supermodels in razor-sharp tailoring. Rather, suits and shoes give way to Oasi Zegna’s lush forests captured at the height of summer and in the brightest hues of autumn, both in its modern-day resplendence and during its early years. Archival photos and artworks are interwoven with contemporary illustrations by Paolo Bacilieri, Cecilia Carlstedt and Giuseppe Ragazzini, offering a conceptual look at the brand’s metamorphosis from a successful mountainside clothmaker into a tailoring icon—a story eloquently told in text by journalist Chidozie Obasi.

Emerging from the hyper-capitalist aesthetic that dominated throughout the turn of the millennium, in recent times Zegna has joined its contemporaries in re-evaluating its relationship with nature. Oasi Zegna is naturally the focal point of such ruminations. A strip of 232 Panoramica Zegna, the serpentine road Zegna built to improve public access to Oasi and its sweeping vistas, now features on the company’s logo.

This influence is already filtering down into the label’s sartorital output. Artistic director Alessandro Sartori, who rejoined the brand in 2016, has made a pronounced shift away from the sporty casualwear and overtly slick suiting of Zegna’s recent past, allowing the natural textures of wool, linen and cashmere to guide it back to a more time-honoured aesthetic. But regardless of what lies ahead creatively, Oasi Zegna, and the book it inspired, will serve as an essential reminder of what can be achieved when the industry’s biggest players embrace conservation over consumption.

“It’s a legacy that [Ermenegildo] left us for future generations,” says Zegna’s great-grandson, now the company’s chief marketing, digital and sustainability officer, Edoardo. “His vision went beyond reason, and as a generation, we are just its custodians.”

Born in Oasi Zegna is now available to buy exclusively at Zegna stores globally and online; zegna.com

The buildings on the banks of Lake Geneva are topped with signage for the world’s most exalted brands. At night, the lighted logos of Hermès, Patek Philippe, Chopard et al. serve as beacons for the one percent. It’s no accident that financial powerhouses like UBS also form part of the skyline. This is where real money resides. On the left bank, nestled between Société Générale and Boucheron, is the orange-coloured sign for L.Raphael—a name that, to skincare devotees, is as lofty as its neighbours on this illustrious strip.

For over 20 years, owner Ronit Raphael, a perfumed steamroller of a woman who divides her time between Geneva, New York and the world’s chicest parties, has tended to the faces, bodies and vanities of the rich and famous. Her six-storey salon on Geneva’s swank Rue du Rhône offers a multi-dimensional, personalised approach to beauty and wellness for those as serious about skincare and anti-ageing as most Swiss are about chocolates and watches.

“Switzerland is also about advanced pharma, healthcare and new technologies,” Israel-born Ronit avers, on an early-spring afternoon. “They’re very uncompromising when it comes to quality. They expect results.”

It’s not just the Swiss who are treading a path to her handsomely appointed clinic. Ronit’s exacting clientele includes VIPs and C-suite types from around the world. It’s not uncommon, she confides, for a time-poor billionaire to fly in for a few days and block a group of therapists to work on him, six hands at once. Or for her team to be dispatched to someone’s yacht when a trip to Geneva is not an option. “They are ready to pay for this service as they know the result.”

L.Raphael is not strictly for the ultra-rich, though. Ronit points to a recent uptick in serious skincare among those who breathe less rarefied air. “It started with women,” she explains, “but more men are investing considerable amounts of their disposable income in their appearance. We are facing a societal change as people evaluate which luxuries come first. Designer luxuries are losing ground to healthy beauty and youthful energy.”

Originally making up only 15-20 percent of her clientele, more and more men have discovered L.Raphael through their wives, partners or press. It’s not surprising, given that they are working later in life and are afraid of being aged out. Since the rise of the young tech CEO a few years back, the prevailing sentiment is that if you haven’t made it by 28 you are obsolete.

“The market has changed so much,” Ronit muses. “Especially with the demands on appearance of social media, men are under a lot of pressure to remain vital and look good. They are seeking solutions.”

A few years ago, the company launched a separate men’s section on the top floor of the building. There, men have their own waiting room and can relax in a lounge between private consultations and treatments. For those unable to attend in person, the L.Raphael website delivers its signature products internationally, including to Australia.

The company’s green-caviar-infused products and oxygen-based treatments are the stuff of beauty legend. But it has promoted holistic offerings from the outset, blending age and stress management, nutrition, physical activity, and her cutting-edge proprietary lotions and potions. 

“I literally go the extra mile to ensure that my clients incorporate a healthy lifestyle into their regimen,” Ronit says, explaining how one of her off-menu extras is going on lengthy walks with regulars who need gentle coaxing. It sounds cliched, she adds, but “true beauty radiates from the inside out, when the body and mind are in perfect harmony.” 

Their backgrounds may be diverse, but most of her male clientele are results- focused and prefer treatments—to borrow from Monty Python—with machines that go beep. “It makes the experience more ‘masculine’ if there is machinery involved,” says Ronit. These men gravitate towards hair loss, acne treatments and, increasingly, lifting and sculpturing for the face and body. 

“At L.Raphael we stand for mostly non- invasive treatments,” Ronit says, of options such as the Combi-Treatment, a triple-action procedure in which a therapist treats the skin with a targeted jet-pressure spray application of oxygen enriched with lecithin, omega-3, antioxidants and vitamins, “but we also have a doctor on hand for more involved treatments and procedures.” 

The resident medic, Dr. Gumener, administers everything from Botox (the popular muscle-relaxing neurotoxin that was originally developed to treat eye problems but is now injected directly into muscle to help with worrisome expression lines like “puppet mouth” and “the 11s” that form between the eyebrows), to threading (a minimally invasive alternative to facelift surgery performed by inserting a medical- grade thread material into your face and then “pulling” your skin up by tightening the strand) and mesotherapy (a technique that uses injections of pharmaceuticals, vitamins and plant extracts to rejuvenate and tighten skin, as well as remove excess fat). 

A common denominator among men is their preference for face treatments with zero downtime so that they can return to the office afterwards. “They don’t have the luxury of covering anything with makeup,” Ronit explains, “so they want no visible side effects.” 

Beyond Botox and fillers such as Juvéderm and Restylane, which are used on wrinkles and folds, as well as to plump cheeks and lips, and to build up sagging jawlines, men are drawn towards newfangled offerings such as Ultherapy. A tightening procedure, also known as “the lunchtime lift”, Ultherapy uses ultrasound to work
on the neck, under the chin and or eyebrow areas over the course of two to three months. Results can take up to a year to fully kick in, but within weeks most men see visible tightening and a healthier, collagen-rich complexion. 

Frown lines, sagging necks and spare tyres aside, are there any key differences between the sexes? “In my experience,” Ronit says, choosing her words carefully, “while we don’t offer excruciating treatments, women are much better with pain.”

L.Raphael

Recently I decided to head for the hills—literally. In January, 26 years after this Queenslander moved to New York City, I sold my apartment there and started building a house in the Mexican mountain town of San Miguel de Allende.

If you want a lifestyle change that forces you to reconsider the relative value of time, a move from Manhattan to regional Mexico will do it. One example is the different attitude the town’s many churches take to tolling the midday hour from their bell towers.

They don’t rush to do it all at once, like New Yorkers piling into a subway car. No, the churches of San Miguel take what could be described as an omakase approach, each serving their own version of noon over a relaxed period that can stretch for several hours.

The plucky oratorio nearest me, for example, prefers to get in early, chiming midday sometime after 11.30 am. Other more established churches follow in order of seniority, with the grandest holding off until closer to 1.00 pm. This drives some gringos, usually the newest arrivals, loco. One can imagine them accosting a bellringer: “There’s a reason why my watch is made out of gold, señor! Don’t you know time is money?”

Mexico, though striving, remains a poor country by many economic measures. But this ancient mountain plain is the same one the Aztecs tromped through, warring with older tribes, on their way to founding Tenochtitlan in 1325. The Spanish crossed it to conquer them in 1521, renaming their capital Mexico City.

And now the gringos are here, many fleeing climate change or economic and political instability further north. Seen in this light—through the drowse of the daily siesta, surely the most civilised custom known to man—the phrase “time is money” takes on a richer meaning. Different groups come and go over millennia, but the land endures. Time is its people’s real wealth, an inheritance that’s available to spend even when there might not be cash in their pockets.

It’s a persuasive way of life. Being able to take a lunchtime nap is a luxury that feels like cashmere dipped in chocolate wrapped in gold. And it comes at an unbeatable price: free. Plus, you never have to worry about hitting the snooze button. The local churches will keep reminding you it’s noon, sometimes until 3.00 pm.

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRIS LUENGAS.

Naomi Campbell contains multitudes. Since emerging on the scene in 1986, modelling for British designer Jasper Conran, the statuesque stunner has used the runway for takeoff. She has ventured into all aspects of the culture, from Vogue to Playboy and reality TV. In the business arena, she has dabbled in publishing and the two F&Bs (fragrance and beauty, and food and beverage). Her philanthropic efforts are legion.

Naomi is better known than any of her peers and, aged 54, remains more relevant than ever. As a testament to her pervading influence, a new exhibition, Naomi: In Fashion, is opening at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Celebrating her 40 years in the spotlight, the show includes clothes from the model’s closet and some of the designer fashion she has helped to immortalise.

We all know her snake-hipped walk, her glowing skin, her famous paramours, and—yes—her many tantrums and tiaras. But how much do we love her exactly? Let’s count some of the ways. 

1. She Was Born to Be Famous

Many people know Naomi for her appearances in music videos for Michael Jackson’s In the Closet and George Michael’s Freedom! ’90—the latter also featuring fellow supermodels Linda, Cindy and Christy. But Naomi has been in front of the camera since she was a child, and her prolific music-video career predates her modelling. At 8, she appeared in the official video for Bob Marley’s 1978 hit Is This Love. At 13, Culture Club cast her as a tap-dancing teen in I’ll Tumble 4 Ya. It would be another two years before she was discovered by model scout Beth Boldt, while shopping in London’s Covent Garden.

2. She Hits All the Right Notes

As anyone who has ever seen Unzipped, the 1995 cult fashion documentary by Douglas Keeve, Naomi always has a song in her heart. She put her mouth where her money was in 1994 and recorded an album, Babywoman. The cover art featured Naomi, photographed by Ellen Von Unwerth, shaving her legs while sitting on the toilet. Fittingly, the album was canned—despite assistance from contributors like Donna Summer and PM Dawn. 

3. She’s Always Ready for Her Close-Up
Hollywood’s history is full of models who went on to become successful actors. Naomi is not one of them. But not for want of trying. Her turn as a nightclub singer in Vanilla Ice’s 1991 movie Cool as Ice flies under the radar but doesn’t deserve to. Nor does her scene-stealing cameo as a French cheese shopper in The Night We Never Met, alongside Matthew Broderick and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Or her playing a sexy telephone operator in Spike Lee’s Girl 6. Who else has that kind of range? 

4. She Tells It Like It Is

We’d be remiss not to mention her 1994 novel Swan. A roman a clef about a young girl breaking into the modelling industry, flanked by her four besties who are also divas in training heels, it certainly played with genres. A murder-mystery-cum-sexy-romance-cum-vocational-advice page-turner, or something like that, this guilty pleasure was cruelly overlooked and relegated to the annals of bargain bins everywhere. 

5. She’s Got a Mind for Business

Naomi has been vocal over the years about making less money than her white peers and was not going to wait for the industry to catch up. Instead, she has ventured into businesses ranging from her former stake in the Fashion Cafe in New York to her signature fragrances, first released in 1999. What does Naomi smell like? Subtle yet complicated, consisting of top notes of peach, coconut and bergamot with a deep, woody base of cedar and sandalwood—apparently.

6. She Gives Until It Hurts

For a so-called narcissist, Naomi has often put her fame to philanthropic use. She has galvanised black models in fashion with the Black Girls Coalition and has raised money for Africa, Haiti and disaster relief worldwide, including after the Mumbai terrorist attacks. When she was dating the Russian billionaire and Aman Resorts owner Vladislav Doronin, she became committed to saving the tiger. Is there anything this overachiever can’t do?

7. She Can Make Hay From Anything

When she was sentenced to community service following allegations by a former employer that Naomi had attacked her with a mobile phone, the model emerged from her punishment dressed in couture and trailed by a photo crew who were shooting a fashion layout of her for W magazine. And when she was summoned in 2010 to appear in a war crimes trial against former Liberian president Charles Taylor—in relation to an uncut blood diamond he’d allegedly given her—our girl showed up in an Azzedine Alaïa twin-set and wearing a silver “evil eye” necklace, turning the courtroom into a photo opportunity.

8. She’ll Be on Your Side for Evermore
The fashion industry is hardly known for its loyalty or congeniality, but Naomi has maintained decades-long friendships with not only her supermodel sisters like Christy Turlington but also some of the most powerful and difficult players, including John Galliano and Marc Jacobs. That she has remained tight with so many of her friends is not lost on her adoring public. She must be a loyal person and in return, fans everywhere remain loyal to her.

Naomi: In Fashion runs from June 22, 2024, until April 16, 2025, at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; vam.ac.uk

The big fish of Sydney society came out Thursday night for the third annual Sapphire Dinner to raise much-needed money for ocean conservation. Held in conjunction with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the boldfaced bash was the first sit-down dinner held at the Tank, a repurposed World War II fuel container that sits beneath the Art Gallery’s new wing. 

Set against a backdrop of immersive ocean-inspired video projections by South Korean digital creators d’strict, and with a dress code that inspired guests to recycle their most fabulous fashions, the zero-waste dinner supports The Sapphire Project’s mission to galvanise the community to take action to protect our oceans and the Great Barrier Reef.

Deep-pocketed VIPs who walked the evening’s blue carpet included  Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull, real estate maven Monika Tu, Penelope Seidler, Anna Marsden (Managing Director of Great Barrier Reef Foundation), Michael and Tina Brand, Andrew Cameron, MCA Chair Lorraine Tarabay, Myer boss Olivia Wirth, benefactors Paris Neilsen and Beau Neilson, and Paul Howes and Olivia Wirth, the power couple known as ‘Paulivia’. 

Retired swimmer Giaan Rooney MC’d the event, hosted by Sapphire Committee co-chairs Hayley Baillie and Ryan Gollan and committee members Ian Thorpe AM, Luke Hepworth, Clare Herschell, Susan Wynne, Brioney Prier, Bianca Rinehart, Doris Ma, Kate Champion, Ellie Aitken, and Chong Chua. 

A troupe of former Australian Ballet dancers and a musical performance by the Fijian-Australian singer and actress Paulini entertained the revellers.   

Among the auctioned items was an original work by Del Kathryn Barton, which raised more than $200,000 in a high-spirited bidding war led by Four Pillars Gin founder Stu Gregor, whose expletive-laden entreaties were suitably salty. 

Nobody minded, given that more than a million dollars were raised to support the criminally underfunded ocean conservation (it’s estimated that only about 2 percent of philanthropy in Australia goes towards the preservation of our precious national treasures), with funds going to support important initiatives such as The Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the University of Sydney’s One Tree Island Research Station, the Australian Museum’s Lizard Island Research Station, the Australian Sea Lion Recovery Foundation and Biopixel Oceans Foundation’s Project Hammerhead. 

For further information, visit SapphireProject.com.au