Saturday 20 April 2024
Friday 19 April 2024
REMEMBERING: Colourful hedge fund boss Pierre Lagrange is claiming taxpayers' money to furlough staff at his Savile Row tailor, despite having a personal fortune of £240million / The unfair attack on Savile Row hero Pierre Lagrange / VIDEO:Shooting with Huntsman, with Pierre Lagrange and Nick Foulkes
EXCLUSIVE: Colourful hedge fund boss Pierre Lagrange
is claiming taxpayers' money to furlough staff at his Savile Row tailor,
despite having a personal fortune of £240million
Pierre LaGrange, 48, used taxpayers' hand-outs to pay
some of the 65 staff at his upmarket clothes firm, Huntsman
The Belgian-born former hedge fund boss, 48, who is
famous for his colourful love life, lives in Monaco and has homes in London,
New York and Mustique
He was involved in an amicable £160million divorce
from the mother of his three children in 2010 after coming out as gay
After falling for a flamboyant male fashion designer,
he took a former US Presidential aide as his husband
Huntsman supplied outfits for Earl Grantham in TV's
Downton Abbey and for the film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
As well as furloughing staff at Huntsman, it is
believed other workers were made redundant last year
By NICK
CRAVEN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED:
07:15, 18 February 2021 | UPDATED: 07:48, 18 February 2021
A
multi-millionaire has been claiming public money to furlough staff at his
Savile Row tailoring firm.
Belgian-born
Pierre LaGrange, who lives in Monaco, London and New York has used taxpayers'
hand-outs to pay some of the 65 staff at his upmarket London company Huntsman,
which inspired Matthew Vaughn's blockbuster Kingsman spy movies.
But former
hedge fund boss LaGrange, famous for his colourful love life, and whose
estimated worth is around £240m, will face fierce criticism for using the
bail-outs from the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme, which lists H Huntsman
& Sons Ltd as having claimed in December.
Ironically,
in 2019, LaGrange moaned to the Financial Times about Britain's high taxes
compared to 30 years ago, saying: 'The taxes have risen here dramatically in a
way that has killed the economy.
'Britain
was the most competitive place in Europe in attracting talent. It's lost a lot
of that.'
LaGrange
paid a record £160m divorce settlement to ex-wife Catherine Anspach after
falling in love with a flamboyant male fashion designer and recently took a
former US Presidential aide as his husband.
The latest
company accounts showed a loss of more than £10.4m for 2019, but also included
a statement from LaGrange pledging to continue to support the business - one of
the oldest on Savile Row - as a going concern.
After he
split from his former wife Catherine Anspach, Mr LaGrange came out as gay and
eventually married former White House adviser Ebs Burnoughtaken in Ibiza, Spain
in 2019
When
super-rich hedge fund boss Mr Lagrange separated from his wife of 20 years,
Catherine Anspach (pictured), in 2010, the split cost him a record-breaking
£160 million
As well as
furloughing some of its 65 staff, it is believed Huntsman, which supplied
outfits for Earl Grantham in TV's Downton Abbey and for the film Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy, also made other workers redundant last year.
In 2019,
his MD Phil Kirrage said: 'Since Pierre took the helm at Huntsman, we have run
the business with a start-up mindset, taking risks and making investments that
will secure the esteemed tailor's success for the next 170 years.'
Before
acquiring Huntsman in 2014, LaGrange co-founded GLG Partners, criticised for short-selling
shares in stricken Bradford and Bingley at the height of the banking crisis,
and acquired by Man Group in 2010, netting him £340m.
He sold his
London mansion alongside Kensington Gardens to Chelsea FC owner Roman
Abramovich for £90m in 2011, having bought it for just £19m seven years
earlier.
LaGrange
also owns a fabulous five-bedroomed bamboo beach-house on the exclusive
Caribbean hideaway of Mustique, which he rents out for up to £30,000 a week.
Set in
acres of 'lush gardens with unparalled sea views' the 'ultimate party house'
also boasts a butler, chef and two housekeepers.
When Pierre
and Catherine, the mother of his three children, split amicably in 2010 after
he came out as gay, they marked the occasion by exchanging Ferraris, said to be
worth a total of around £450,000.
LaGrange
began a relationship with British-born Sudanese fashion designer Roubi L'Roubi.
LaGrange
told the FT: 'When I realised I was gay I was terrified. It was an
extraordinary moment. I was terrified that people would not love me anymore . .
. and that people who trust me would not trust me anymore.'
'I had
lived as a straight white successful male, married to a woman I loved and with
kids I loved and having just a perfect life.'
He
described the transition as 'nearly overnight', adding: 'I was thrilled that
aged 48 I had finally admitted to something that I had buried, not knowing what
was buried under there.'
In 2019,
after the relationship with L'Roubi ended, LaGrange tied the knot with his new
boyfriend Ebs Burnough, a former White House aide to President Barack Obama.
Naturally, LaGrange wore a Huntsman blazer for the nuptials in Ibiza.
He has
regularly invested in movies, and been credited as executive producer onKickass
and the Kingsman movies: The Secret Service and its sequel, Kingsman: The
Golden Circle.
Huntsman,
which was honoured with royal warrants by Edward VII and Queen Victoria,
supplied outfits for Earl Grantham in Downton Abbey and for the film Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy
LaGrange
now lives with his husband Ebs Burnough between Monaco, London, Hampshire and
New York, but it's not clear in which jurisdiction he pays tax.
In 2019
after becoming the first Savile Row tailor to establish a permanent presence in
New York, LaGrange enthused about Huntsman's traditions.
'Go down to
the shop,' he told Knightfrank.co.uk, 'and you'll see some of what's there is
the same as 100 years ago, and that's really important. It's about perfection,
process, repeatability and sustainability – doing the same thing again and
again but better and better.'
A spokesman
for Huntsman told MailOnline: 'As with the other tailors across the Row,
Huntsman's UK business has been dramatically affected by the COVID pandemic
with evaporating footfall and significant losses.
'During
this unprecedented time, Huntsman has actually elected to keep as many staff as
possible working from home, including providing logistical costs for them to do
so. While they have furloughed a small number of staff with the Coronavirus
Retention Scheme, in fact the government compensation covers less than five per
cent of the business losses.
'In an
effort to keep as many staff in place, Mr LaGrange has been carrying
significant personal losses to ensure this landmark heritage brand survives the
pandemic.'
The
spokesman declined to answer questions about where Mr LaGrange pays tax.
The unfair attack on Savile Row hero Pierre Lagrange
22 February
2021, 6:50am
From
Spectator Life
WRITTEN BY
Tom Chamberlin
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-unfair-attack-on-saville-row-hero-pierre-lagrange
The Daily
Mail has a new target – Pierre Lagrange. The enormously successful hedge funder
has found himself in the cross hairs because he claimed money from Rishi
Sunak’s furlough scheme for some of the staff at Huntsman – the All-Blacks of
Savile Row tailors – which Pierre bought in 2013. As hit-jobs go, it is as
ill-advised as it is misinformed, so I thought I’d explain why.
The
clickbait premise by journalist Nick Craven was that Pierre should have paid
all the staff out of his own pocket rather than get support from the
government. He backed up Lagrange’s evil-hedge-funder status by saying that he
was 'famous for his colourful love life' – whether by 'colourful' he meant
being gay, divorced or currently one half of an interracial marriage, I will
leave Craven to elaborate. It’s too icky an adjective for me to want to look
too closely at.
There was
one factor that was entirely omitted by this article, which was that despite
the shaky start – some tailors left unsure of the new direction it may take –
Pierre Lagrange is one of the heroes of Savile Row and British tailoring. A
declining interest in bespoke clothing – this was before people were not
allowed outdoors – could be levelled squarely at an industry unable to find a
modern heartbeat for those who see clothes as romantic. The intervention by
Lagrange has injected a new interest in British tailoring from domestic and
international clients as well as Hollywood’s opportunistic eye. As Covid has
hit, it is creative businessmen like Lagrange who can find innovative solutions
to complex problems.
Let’s begin
with his mission to take the message of British tailoring abroad (note I don’t
say just Huntsman but British tailoring as a whole). In 2015 Nick Foulkes
hosted an exhibition for Savile Row in Washington D.C at the U.K. Ambassador’s
Residence. Pierre helped to fund the operation and went to great lengths to
make sure that it was as good as it could possibly be, which included flying in
Buffalo Bill’s overcoat (made at Henry Poole) from Wyoming in a climate-controlled
container.
This is
just one of countless instances where Pierre has shown himself to be a champion
for the street’s future viability, celebrating a set of craft skills that the
government is doing nothing to help. Nick says that 'Savile Row is lucky to
have him. I think you’d have to be fairly curmudgeonly to not say that he has
been good for the street.' Master Tailor Terry Haste of Kent, Haste &
Lachter – who incidentally was one-time head cutter and MD of Huntsman –
agrees. He says: 'We were all delighted when Pierre was running the Savile Row
Association, as there was so much more happening, there was real energy. It was
sad to see him leave the post.'
Within
Huntsman the innovations are setting the tone for what tailors need to be doing
to survive. While the article did not specify how many of the 65 staff were
furloughed – 'some' Nick Craven says – the notion of a tailor employing 65
people in the first place is remarkable. A bespoke suit requires several
artisans to create, but not 65. You don’t hire that many people for a tailor’s
shop unless you’re trying to achieve something extraordinary and whatever the
motives may be, that is 65 jobs in a struggling industry that he has been
paying for, as the article states, covering annual eight-figure losses himself.
Furthermore,
he’s invested in technology for the company which remains a tough pill to
swallow for a 'handmade' industry. The ability for someone to create their own
tweed is indulgent for sure but it is innovative and helps not just Huntsman
but the mills in Scotand that create the tweed too. Mr. Hammick, the robot
which is sent round the world to help with international fittings (Colin
Hammick is the houses most famous head cutter) has meant the incumbent head
cutter, Dario Carnera (son of legendary shoe maker John Carnera), can keep
processing orders to clients who aren’t able to visit London. Huntsman are in
fact currently touring America, there is a permanent foothold in New York
(thanks to Pierre) but the appetite for British tailoring has allowed for a
tour of the major American cities by the Huntsman tailors.
Should
Savile Row be relevant at all in the next 20 years, while one can also mention
Anda Rowland, Gaziano & Girling, Thom Sweeney (who have opened up round the
corner), a great chunk of that credit can go to Pierre Lagrange. The bespoke
suit, is of course an expensive, indulgent, luxury item, but it is an icon of
Britain’s cultural history. Money from China had helped bolster the financial
standing of Savile Row back in the noughties, but several of the houses bought
up by Chinese finance have padlocked chains on the door handles and the shops
have been gutted. Over half of the shops on Savile Row have no tenancy because
businesses can’t pay the bills, but Huntsman manages to inspire a soon-to-be
trilogy of films and exports the good name of British tailoring almost better
than anyone else. While the Government have been great with protecting jobs
during the pandemic, part of the reason Rishi Sunak is popular no doubt, their
efforts to protect British heritage brands has been woeful, and that pre-dates
Coronavirus. It has required people like Pierre Lagrange to keep the pulse
steady, the street would be in even bigger trouble without him.
WRITTEN BY
Tom Chamberlin
2013–2015
Since
taking over the company in 2013, Owner and Non-Executive Chairman Pierre
Lagrange has introduced a number of developments which differentiate Huntsman
from the majority of Savile Row tailors. Under Lagrange's direction, Huntsman
launched its 'Archive Collection' in 2013, a capsule collection of
ready-to-wear tailoring, shirting and accessories, returning a ready-to-wear
product to Huntsman. The collection focused on both rejuvenating some aspects
of Huntsman's traditional block, but also sought to integrate true menswear
classics into the collection, as inspired by Huntsman's extensive historical
archives. E-commerce was introduced at the same time, allowing for the
ready-to-wear collection to be purchased online. Huntsman's website states that
newly appointed Creative Director Campbell Carey is responsible for overseeing
the ready-to-wear collection. The house's new General Manager Carol Pierce
(formally the head of Dunhill's bespoke division) was also appointed in 2015 to
oversee the house's bespoke operations.
Alongside
regular visits to the east coast of America, visiting clients based in New York
City, Boston and Washington (as well as Chicago), the house also undertakes
regular west coast tours, visiting San Francisco and Los Angeles. Huntsman is
also the first Savile Row tailor to open a permanent location in New York, a
move that was announced in May 2015. An Asia tour has also been scheduled for
September 2015, including a trunk show in Seoul and visits to Tokyo, Singapore,
Hong Kong and Beijing.
Additionally,
Huntsman is the sponsor of selected initiatives in the world of professional
Polo. In June 2014, the Huntsman Polo Team was formed and won bronze, silver
and gold cups in the Land Rover International Polo Tournament. In November
2014, the house partnered again with another team led by His Royal Highness
Prince Harry, dressing his 'Huntsman Sentebale Polo Team' for the Sentebale
Polo Cup in Abu Dhabi. A limited number of exclusive polo shirts were available
to purchase after the tournament, with a percentage of the proceeds going to
Sentebale.[39] Huntsman also designed a unique lining for the contest,
featuring a motif of forget-me-nots, a mark of respect to those children which
the Prince's Sentebale charity (the motif of which is also the forget-me-not)
works to protect from poverty and disease.
Huntsman
was one of five founding members of the Savile Row Bespoke Association - Savile
Row's protective trade body.
2016–2017
In February
2016, Huntsman became the first Savile Row tailor to open a permanent location
in New York, with a location at 130 West 57th Street. American clientele now
enjoy a permanent home in the States in a pied-à-terre in New York with antique
Huntsman tweed covered furnishings and historic photographs from Huntsman's
past adorning the walls.
Alongside
regular visits to the east coast of America, visiting clients based in New York
City, Boston and Washington (as well as Chicago), the house also undertakes
regular west coast tours, visiting San Francisco and Los Angeles. Huntsman
expanded its trunk shows, pioneering visits to different corners of Asia,
including a trunk show in Seoul and visits to Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and
Beijing.
With
daytime fashion in mind, 2016 featured a busy social calendar for Huntsman. The
house participated in the polo and racing seasons with the highlights being
Huntsman's Royal Ascot residence on the Rosebery, as well as the house's
post-racing party. 2016 also saw Huntsman taking on more modern projects including
cutting bespoke tweed driving suits for Marc Newson and Charlotte Stockdale in
the 2016 Mille Miglia Race.
Huntsman's
Savile Row premises play host to a variety of exciting events, including
charity auctions for several worthy causes, which have raised up to £80,000 in
donations. Exhibitions for artists such as Cecil Beaton, Alex Talbot Rice and
Gray Malin were hosted by the house, as well as whisky tastings, private
lunches, and book launches
In 2016,
over half a million people tuned in live to learn all things bespoke from
Huntsman owner Pierre Lagrange at an event in Beijing. In February, Huntsman
even graced the London Fashion Week catwalk as a part of the inspired Gareth
Pugh show. The ‘Treasures from Chatsworth’,[52] a miniseries presented by
Huntsman and produced by Sotheby's, was launched in 2016 too - detailing the
magnificent collections of the Cavendish family whilst also putting a spotlight
on how contemporary Huntsman's age-old bespoke craftsmanship is.
Thursday 18 April 2024
4 November 2022: In memory of Robert Kime, by his friends and colleagues
.webp)
In memory of Robert Kime, by his friends and
colleagues
Elfreda Pownall pays tribute to the late antique
dealer and decorator Robert Kime, followed by memories from his friends and
colleagues
By Elfreda
Pownall
4 November 2022
November 2022https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/article/im-memoriam-robert-kime
'Ican’t
explain,’ said Robert Kime when asked how he had put together his exquisite
London flat so quickly. It took just one week – but also a lifetime of looking
and collecting. Robert, interior decorator to His Majesty, King Charles III and
at least five English dukes, plus pop stars and potentates, died on August 17,
aged 76. He never made a room plan and was very clear he was not an interior
designer. Robert believed in putting beautiful, old and curious things
together, assembling the contents of a room to make it settled and comfortable:
‘I want my rooms to be lived in, not looked at.’
From
childhood, Robert was fascinated by history. He collected coins from the age of
five and, later, was happiest when rearranging the furniture in a shed in his
mother’s garden. By the age of 16, he had won a place at the University of
Oxford to read medieval history, but, too young to go up, spent 18 months
working on archaeological digs in Greece and Israel.
During his
first term at Oxford, his mother arrived to say he had to leave, as his
stepfather had walked out and there was no money left. His tutor would not hear
of it and gave Robert the rest of the year to sort things out. He always said
that selling the furniture his grandmother and his mother, an avid collector,
had amassed was how he learnt his trade. He researched each piece and he learnt
where to sell it to get the best price. ‘I had to – we needed the money,’ he
explained.
By the time
he returned to Oxford, he was an experienced dealer, taking the bus every
Thursday to the antique and junk shops in the Cotswolds. In typically
self-deprecating fashion, hea dmitted to making quite a few mistakes in those
early days, but he learned to be decisive. His friend Alastair Langlands, who
wrote the 2015 monograph Robert Kime (Frances Lincoln), was astonished when he
saw the habitually gentle, soft-voiced Robert in operation at antique fairs:
‘He was extraordinary, always first at the gate as it opened, deciding
instantly what he wanted, concluding deals at lightning speed.’
After
Oxford, a chance meeting at a student house party at Ashton Wold, the
Northamptonshire home of the scientist Miriam Rothschild, led to his first
shop. She had a mass of furniture she wanted to clear, but had fallen out with
the two great auction houses. Robert persuaded her to let him sell it for her,
and she set him up in a shop in Oundle.
The party
also brought him his wife, Helen Nicoll. They married when he was 23 and moved
to a gothic schoolhouse at Mildenhall, near Marlborough, using two wings of the
cruciform building as his shop. Wiltshire remained the centre of their family
and work lives, though in the course of a long and happy marriage, they also
had homes in Cumbria, the Luberon, Ireland and Faiyum, in Egypt. Helen, the
author of the acclaimed Meg and Mog series of children’s books, died in 2012.
Robert was
frequently asked by his customers to decorate their houses. At first, he would
give only Fridays over to decoration, but the clamour became insistent. In
time, he built up a prestigious worldwide clientele, about whom he remained
discreet. His mantra ‘Every room begins with the rug’ meant he travelled
constantly to Turkey and Egypt in search of antique rugs and textiles. Once, on
a Turkish bus, he bought the headscarf of the lady in front of him – a kandili
print with a pattern of pea pods. When, in 1983, he realised that the supply of
antique fabrics he had been using for curtains and upholstery was drying up, he
turned to fabric expert Gisella Milne-Watson. Together they began to create a
range of fabrics – including one inspired by the pea pods. A collection she had
discussed with Robert before he died is under way.
Swangrove,
a hunting lodge on the Duke of Beaufort’s estate was described by Robert as
‘the happiest and jolliest job I have ever done’. It is certainly among his
most beautiful. But Clarence House, the official residence of King Charles III
when Prince of Wales, was the most prestigious. It afforded Robert the bliss of
rooting through the royal attics at Windsor on behalf of a client who shared
many of his tastes, including a love of Near Eastern fabrics. As King Charles
wrote of Robert, ‘You often hear of people who are said to have “a good eye”,
but Robert Kime’s must surely be one of the best’.
HOUSES
At home in Wiltshire with Robert Kime's managing
director Orlando Atty
The shock of Robert Kime’s death in August
reverberated across the interiors industry, not least with his tight-knit team.
Among them is managing director Orlando Atty, who has inherited the
responsibility of guiding the multi-faceted business that Robert developed
By Liz
Elliot
28 December
2022
At home in
Wiltshire with Robert Kime's managing director Orlando Atty
Dean Hearne
When
Orlando Atty began working as an assistant at Robert Kime 13 years ago, few,
Orlando included, would have imagined that he would eventually be running what
is one of the most influential businesses in the world of antiques, fabrics and
interior decoration. He was appointed managing director in 2016 and, although
so many of us were shocked at Robert’s sudden death in August 2022, there was,
thankfully, a clear succession plan already in place. At the time of writing,
the small team at Robert Kime is in the middle of implementing this plan far
earlier than anticipated. Some of the photographs featured in these pages were
taken nearly a year ago and include a portrait of Robert and Orlando at the
company’s treasure-filled warehouse in Wiltshire.
In 2010,
Orlando had just completed a degree in business studies at the University of
the West of England in Bristol when he landed a job at Robert Kime’s antiques
warehouse in Marlborough, Wiltshire. It was meant to be a temporary role, but
he caught the bug and never left. ‘From the moment I entered the storeroom, I
was fascinated,’ he recalls.
He started
working in Robert’s shop in 2012. At that time located on Museum Street, WC1,
it was an almost Dickensian treasure trove of pieces and Orlando realised how
much he had to learn. Slowly, his footsteps fell in behind Robert’s. ‘I was
like a dry sponge soaking up everything I could,’ he says. ‘Above all, Robert
was a very gentle and generous teacher.’ The pair went on buying and site
trips, with Orlando learning to recognise pieces of integrity and beauty, to
absorb the genius loci of a room and to feel the balance of a space.
From 2013,
Orlando worked alongside Robert on some of his projects, as well overseeing his
own commissions – always under his mentor’s watchful eye. Following Robert’s
stroke, more responsibility had fallen onto Orlando’s shoulders. It was he who
suggested the company move to Pimlico from Museum Street. Though charming, the
latter space was on several floors, so difficult to manage, and it was a little
off the interiors beaten track. It was also Orlando’s task to find somewhere
for Robert to live nearby. Featured in House & Garden in October 2018, this
memorably beautiful flat was to be Robert’s last home.
Orlando and
his wife Charlie, who married in 2019, had been living in London. But when
Charlie was made redundant from her job in event management, the need for them
to live in the capital became less obvious. Expecting their first child, they
started to look for a house around Marlborough.
The
house-hunting process began. The property they initially wanted fell through,
but the estate agent mentioned that there was another option that might work,
though it was not yet on the market. It was only when Charlie went to see that
particular house – an 18th-century cottage down a quiet country lane leading to
the village church and within easy reach of the Downs – and liked it
immediately that the agent admitted it was his own home. The couple bought it.
Pressured
by the impending arrival of a new baby, due in just three months’ time, Orlando
managed to create new bathrooms as well as a new kitchen and dining space. ‘I
really like the kitchen,’ he says. ‘It’s a good space to be in, although I
don’t like the floor. But in the three weeks it took to build the kitchen,
there was no time to replace the floor.’ His timing proved to be excellent –
only days after its completion, baby Phoebe arrived. And two years after that,
in July 2022, her brother Rafferty was born.
The cottage
is the very essence of cosy and inviting, and is an ideal place in which to
spend Christmas. The sitting room is dominated by an enormous sofa, big enough
to allow the entire family to sit together by the fire. Even the presence of
armchairs and consoles leaves room for the tree, which was transported on the
roof of Orlando’s old Land Rover. Both he and Charlie are adept at creating
Christmas decorations from things collected on their daily walks with their
working cocker spaniel, Bailey, so they can drape garlands of holly, berries
and ivy over the fireplaces and pictures, and hang ebullient wreaths on the
doors.
Orlando
splits his time between Marlborough and London, going wherever he is needed.
The company’s Pimlico base is an enviable place to be. Robert Kime was a master
story teller – the best of his kind. But the company has always been very much
a team affair. Robert and Orlando worked very closely with Claire Jackson, who
is director of Robert Kime Design and head of projects, and Christopher Payne,
head of antiques. ‘Robert was good at bringing people together,’ Christopher
says. ‘The business is essentially people-based. Our clients become friends as
well as being customers.’ It is the kind of place where everyone mucks in to
create the finished product, which is one of the reasons why they do not take
on more than a few selected projects at a time.
Over the
last year, projects that had originated with Robert have been transferring
seamlessly to be overseen by Orlando. Ringing in his ears will no doubt be any
number of words of wisdom – usually very simple – imparted by Robert over the
years: ‘It is all about balance: a beautiful rug and a not-so-distinguished
table can add character to an interior. Don’t complicate a room for the sake of
it. It should never look clever, but always at ease with itself’.
Robert
Kime: robertkime.com
At home in Wiltshire with Robert Kime's managing director Orlando Atty
HOUSES
At home in Wiltshire with Robert Kime's managing
director Orlando Atty
The shock of Robert Kime’s death in August
reverberated across the interiors industry, not least with his tight-knit team.
Among them is managing director Orlando Atty, who has inherited the
responsibility of guiding the multi-faceted business that Robert developed
By Liz
Elliot
28 December
2022
Dean Hearne
When
Orlando Atty began working as an assistant at Robert Kime 13 years ago, few,
Orlando included, would have imagined that he would eventually be running what
is one of the most influential businesses in the world of antiques, fabrics and
interior decoration. He was appointed managing director in 2016 and, although
so many of us were shocked at Robert’s sudden death in August 2022, there was,
thankfully, a clear succession plan already in place. At the time of writing,
the small team at Robert Kime is in the middle of implementing this plan far
earlier than anticipated. Some of the photographs featured in these pages were
taken nearly a year ago and include a portrait of Robert and Orlando at the
company’s treasure-filled warehouse in Wiltshire.
In 2010,
Orlando had just completed a degree in business studies at the University of
the West of England in Bristol when he landed a job at Robert Kime’s antiques
warehouse in Marlborough, Wiltshire. It was meant to be a temporary role, but
he caught the bug and never left. ‘From the moment I entered the storeroom, I
was fascinated,’ he recalls.
He started
working in Robert’s shop in 2012. At that time located on Museum Street, WC1,
it was an almost Dickensian treasure trove of pieces and Orlando realised how
much he had to learn. Slowly, his footsteps fell in behind Robert’s. ‘I was
like a dry sponge soaking up everything I could,’ he says. ‘Above all, Robert
was a very gentle and generous teacher.’ The pair went on buying and site
trips, with Orlando learning to recognise pieces of integrity and beauty, to
absorb the genius loci of a room and to feel the balance of a space.
From 2013,
Orlando worked alongside Robert on some of his projects, as well overseeing his
own commissions – always under his mentor’s watchful eye. Following Robert’s
stroke, more responsibility had fallen onto Orlando’s shoulders. It was he who
suggested the company move to Pimlico from Museum Street. Though charming, the
latter space was on several floors, so difficult to manage, and it was a little
off the interiors beaten track. It was also Orlando’s task to find somewhere
for Robert to live nearby. Featured in House & Garden in October 2018, this
memorably beautiful flat was to be Robert’s last home.
Orlando and
his wife Charlie, who married in 2019, had been living in London. But when
Charlie was made redundant from her job in event management, the need for them
to live in the capital became less obvious. Expecting their first child, they
started to look for a house around Marlborough.
The
house-hunting process began. The property they initially wanted fell through,
but the estate agent mentioned that there was another option that might work,
though it was not yet on the market. It was only when Charlie went to see that
particular house – an 18th-century cottage down a quiet country lane leading to
the village church and within easy reach of the Downs – and liked it
immediately that the agent admitted it was his own home. The couple bought it.
Pressured
by the impending arrival of a new baby, due in just three months’ time, Orlando
managed to create new bathrooms as well as a new kitchen and dining space. ‘I
really like the kitchen,’ he says. ‘It’s a good space to be in, although I
don’t like the floor. But in the three weeks it took to build the kitchen,
there was no time to replace the floor.’ His timing proved to be excellent –
only days after its completion, baby Phoebe arrived. And two years after that,
in July 2022, her brother Rafferty was born.
The cottage
is the very essence of cosy and inviting, and is an ideal place in which to
spend Christmas. The sitting room is dominated by an enormous sofa, big enough
to allow the entire family to sit together by the fire. Even the presence of
armchairs and consoles leaves room for the tree, which was transported on the
roof of Orlando’s old Land Rover. Both he and Charlie are adept at creating
Christmas decorations from things collected on their daily walks with their
working cocker spaniel, Bailey, so they can drape garlands of holly, berries
and ivy over the fireplaces and pictures, and hang ebullient wreaths on the
doors.
Orlando
splits his time between Marlborough and London, going wherever he is needed.
The company’s Pimlico base is an enviable place to be. Robert Kime was a master
story teller – the best of his kind. But the company has always been very much
a team affair. Robert and Orlando worked very closely with Claire Jackson, who
is director of Robert Kime Design and head of projects, and Christopher Payne,
head of antiques. ‘Robert was good at bringing people together,’ Christopher
says. ‘The business is essentially people-based. Our clients become friends as
well as being customers.’ It is the kind of place where everyone mucks in to
create the finished product, which is one of the reasons why they do not take
on more than a few selected projects at a time.
Over the
last year, projects that had originated with Robert have been transferring
seamlessly to be overseen by Orlando. Ringing in his ears will no doubt be any
number of words of wisdom – usually very simple – imparted by Robert over the
years: ‘It is all about balance: a beautiful rug and a not-so-distinguished
table can add character to an interior. Don’t complicate a room for the sake of
it. It should never look clever, but always at ease with itself’.
Robert Kime: robertkime.com
Tuesday 16 April 2024
Photographer John Slemp Discusses His "Bomber Boys - WWII Flight Jacket ...
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“ Rating:
5/5 stars. Received my copy of Bomber Boys in quick time! Beautifully packed
and presented for a safe trip all the way to Melbourne, Australia. Worth every
penny, beautifully photographed and written. Already a standard on our main
coffee table for everyone to see! Accompanies my Eastman A-2 replica jacket
perfectly. ”
— Raymond
Clegg
“ Awesome
compilation and thrilled to have the Book. ”
— Louise
Powell
“ Rating:
5/5 stars. This book is a true work of heart and a work of art. My husband was
amazed and truly so was I. I’m glad I didn’t wait to give it to him. It will be
enjoyed for years to come. Thank you for all the time and effort you put into
creating it. What a gift! ”
— Laurie Bennett
Description
“Bomber
Boys – WWII Flight Jacket Art” by John Slemp is the most comprehensive visual
record of A-2 jackets ever produced. Slemp, an award-winning photographer, has
captured the tactile beauty of the leather and the artwork that adorns the
jackets in archival quality. Over 100 jackets representing all World War II
theaters from both museums and private owners, along with artifacts and
personal accounts, reveal a visual diary of a man’s service in the U.S. Army
Air Corps.
The 12 x
12, 398-page coffee table book captures the imaginations of those unfamiliar
with this seldom seen genre of military folk art. The highly individualistic
art depicted on World War II “bomber jackets” continues to fascinate, educate,
and entertain to this day. Painted on the back of leather A-2 work jackets,
these collectible uniform items depict the attitudes of young airmen subjected
to the vagaries of modern warfare in the sky, and the successes, failures, and
eventual triumphs of surviving 35 missions over stubbornly defended enemy
territory.
“I’m not
sure anyone ever sits down and consciously decides to write a book about the
leather jackets worn by American aircrew during World War II. Yet, that’s
precisely what happened after I began photographing A–2 flight jackets in
2014,” stated Slemp. “As the number of jackets photographed grew, the stories
of their owners began to weigh more heavily on my mind. I began to realize that
the jackets were mobile signposts reflecting the distinct mortal challenges
every flyer faced. Initially, I was drawn to the artwork and symbology, but as
I more fully understood their cultural and historical implications, I became
more engaged. The emotion these jackets engender has been nothing short of
astounding. To illustrate that point is the case of the daughter of a WWII
flyer who, during an early exhibition of the work, stood in front of a print of
her dad’s jacket for almost two hours. As we were leaving, she pulled me aside
and said in a quivering voice, ‘You have no idea what this means to me.’ It was
a telling moment and has provided continuing incentive to bring the work to
fruition.”
Slemp
photographed over 160 A-2 jackets for the project including jackets from the
National Museum of the United States Air Force, the 390th Memorial Museum,
475th Fighter Group Museum, Allen Airways Flying Museum, Indiana Military
Museum, The Air Zoo Aerospace & Science Museum, Lowndes County Historical
Society Museum, March Field Air Museum, Minnesota Historical Society, National
Naval Aviation Museum, San Diego Air & Space Museum, and the Smithsonian
Air & Space Museum. Additionally, 37 jackets are from private collections
that can only be seen in this book.
In addition
to jackets like actor Jimmy Stewart’s, readers will find jackets and portraits
of pilots, radio operators, Women Airforce Service Pilots, and even a member of
the original unit who dropped supplies behind enemy lines. All of their stories
inspired the art.
Given the
highly collectible nature of the jackets, Slemp has included information on
care for the jackets by renowned professional conservator Rachel Waters;
information for collectors on how to find them, what to avoid, and how to
establish provenance by Jeff Shrader of Antique Roadshow fame; and their
influence on fashion over the years by subject matter expert Laura McLaws
Helms.
To help the
novice understand the experience of airmen from pilot to ball turret, Slemp has
included six beautiful aircraft illustrations from artist John Mollison. In
addition, a surprise from Mollison awaits the reader on the inside of the dust
jacket.
Mollison is
famously quoted as saying, “When an old man dies, a library burns”. This lies
at the very heart of why this book is so important. Slemp commented, “While
photographing Brigadier General Charles McGee of the Tuskegee Airmen, I asked
him why (at 101 years of age) he was still at the AirVenture airshow meeting
kids. He simply replied, ‘It’s important to tell these stories.’ I felt like I
got marching orders that day.”
Sunday 14 April 2024
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