The Rake

Recently the stylist Francesca Burns called out Hedi Slimane, the Creative Director at Celine, over sample sizing. She was styling a photoshoot and was helping a model try on a pair of pants that had been sent. The model, as you can tell from the ima

While I like cars, I am tone deaf when it comes to engineering. I am unable to make the calculation that tells me whether certain brake horsepower is impressive, and although I’d like to understand, ‘torque’ is not a concept I follow. I do, however,

I was four years old, in a playground, when I saw my first Aston Martin drive by. Something clicked, and the memory is clear in my mind to this day. Growing up, I spent all my free time reading as much as I could about cars. The second I got my licen

In 1927, a most singular automobile glided out of the doors of a factory in Molsheim, in present-day Alsace. The Bugatti Royale was the ultimate in luxury conveyances, as envisioned by the celebrated Italian engineer and designer Ettore Bugatti. Repo

Having grown up avidly tuning into the Oscars — “but only for the red carpet bit” — Andy Poupart, a software engineering manager, has always been left a little cold by the “trackie pants and jeans” culture prevalent in his professional realm. But it

Being the 13th Count of Mejorada as well as the 17th Marquis of Portago, not to mention the grandson of the Governor of Madrid (aka the 9th Marquess of Portago) and the godson of King Alfonso XIII, Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco

Given there’s as much animal cruelty encapsulated in what’s forked into ordinary pooches’ bowls twice a day as that conducted at the Hampshire or Bilsdale hunts combined, I’ve always considered class-based resentment to be the fiercest wind in the an

In a celluloid market saturated with superheroes, let it be proclaimed that Gal Gadot’s latest effort in the bracelets, as Wonder Woman 1984, is a breath of fresh air from the shores of Themyscira. An all-action, ass-kicking force of nature fighting

There have been a number of important milestones on the path that has led to the glorious addition to horology you see before you. Perhaps the earliest was the moment in the late 1960s when Ralph Rueben Lifshitz, born in the Bronx in 1939 to Ashkenaz

The element that to me provided insight into the crazed attention to detail in the design and case construction of Audemars Piguet’s now two-year-old Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet was, innocuously enough, a small screw. Specifically, a high-polished,

I’ve asked many an acquaintance, at the kind of soirée where sartorial distinction is as crucial to proceedings as oxygen, to nominate a single establishment as the world’s bespoke atelier nonpareil. Almost invariably the four-syllable response is th

“Have you met Eddie?”, I was asked several times before I met Eddie Redmayne. It would be easier to relay the meaning behind that question in person rather than on paper, but the gist of it was this: when going through the standard operating procedur

The reasons why range from the prosaic to the romantic — the money needed to participate; the thrill and adrenaline that victory delivers to the man who, otherwise, has it all — but the elite have always gravitated towards racing machines. It’s a phe

The world of motorsport is as curious as it is contradictory. On the one (Castrol-stained) hand, it is characterised by the most advanced technologies generating a few more revs per minute in an arena whose metrics are measured in milliseconds. Comme

MODEL: ROBERTAS AUKSTUOLIS @SELECT MODELS PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT: DERRICK KAKEMBO THE RAKE STYLIST: VERONICA PEREZ HAIR/MUA: LUKA WATABE ■

A new day has dawned. We are emerging from the domestic hibernation that comes with a global pandemic, and looking towards the horizon with a resolve to understand and make manifest our new priorities in how we wish to dress. The Rake’s team has met

His countenance is known the world over. His visage has become an obsession for men and women alike. There are legions devoted to his ineffable style, his ability to move effortlessly between sublime sports chic, pitch-perfect preppy-dom, and transce

Let’s jump in the DeLorean and set the year for 2010, because in the words of the immortal Doc Brown, “We are going back to the future”. Laurent Ferrier is celebrating his 10th anniversary as a watch manufacturer this year with what might seem like a

I remember the moment I set eyes on the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph. Though it was just over a year ago, it seems — considering the mind-bending changes that have happened to the world in the interim — like a lifetime ago. Before I get into th

If you work hard enough, you can overcome anything. This is what Stefano Canali, the third-generation president and C.E.O. of the eponymous Italian luxury house, wants to remind readers as we wean ourselves off an excess of bathrobes, naps and two o’

I have got myself into a bit of a corner. Over the years I have written several stories that have bemoaned the overuse of histrionic language in the luxury industry. People have taken liberties when using terms such as bespoke, artisanal, luxury, tai