October 2022 - Issue 84

The Rake

The Modern Voice of Classic Elegance.

The Rake2 min read
Contributors
Kurt, a photographer born in the blue-collar creative breeding ground of Akron, Ohio, and raised in Argentina and Mexico, was influenced by the eclectic cultural and geographical contrasts he experienced as he travelled as a young boy. He picked up a
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Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
It has been a while since the last comely blooms of the weighty garden peonies shed and withered on the ground. The remaining stems absorbed their sunlight (perhaps too much this summer, but we shouldn’t complain) and were cut back, which marked the
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Letter From The Founder
If you polled my friends, the consensus would be that I have a penchant for what is colloquially known as the ‘French exit’ or ‘Irish goodbye’, both of which mean the same thing: the departure from a social event without announcement or farewells. To
The Rake1 min read
The Rake
FOUNDER & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Wei Koh EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & HEAD OF BRAND Tom Chamberlin tom@therakemagazine.com ART DIRECTOR Rob French rob@therakemagazine.com ART EDITOR Kim Lang kim@therakemagazine.com DIGITAL IMAGING ARTIST Kok Haw Koh CHIEF SUBEDITOR
The Rake8 min readFootball
The One-man Jet Set
I support the New York Jets, which is a statement met consistently with a slew of ‘whys?’ and ‘poor yous’. We are perennial losers. The worst team in New York state sports, with a litany of crazy head coaches, terrible luck and bad draft picks, offer
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‘I Felt That My Life Was Changing In Those Days, To Be On A Show Of That Scale’
Shubham Saraf is having a well-deserved break. He is in India spending time with his family when The Rake catches up with him, following his lead billing in the National Theatre’s production The Father and the Assassin (by Anupama Chandrasekhar). Shu
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The Aesthete
He is not one to leave the house with matutinal croissant crumbs caught on his tie. Time not spent wearing a highly considered outfit is spent considering what the next one will be. If the best clothes and shoes that money can buy need maintenance an
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Life Was Shit. Everybody Was Horrible. But Wasn’t He Wonderful!
The YouTube clip is a bit grainy, and the sound quality a little fuzzy, but it leaves an indelible impression. Jacques Brel takes to the stage of Flanders’ Casino de Knokke, in 1963, to perform his breakthrough hit Quand on N’a Que l’Amour (‘If We On
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Le Beau Monde
Britain and France have long squabbled for superiority. The French author José-Alain Fralon summed up the relationship perfectly, describing Britain as “our most dear enemies”, while those rosbifs continually, and wrongly, mistake our refined insouci
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Warrior Queen
Imagine yourself an American G.I., a long way from your Idaho hometown in the Hürtgen Forest between September 19, 1944 and the denouement of battle on December 16. You’ve endured sub-zero temperatures, shelling that has reduced comrades to stains in
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Invest
It was the Fourth of July weekend of 1947 in a small city in central California, and things had got a bit out of hand. “The diminishing roar and crackle of the last of an estimated 2,000 departing motorcycles today ended the ‘worst 40 hours in Hollis
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An Audience With Louis Xiii
There are a select few occasions in my life about which I like to reminisce. They include a birthday celebration when a tiny table was crammed with friends and family, and a room filled with inspiring, artistic visionaries. In these moments there is
The Rake11 min read
To Victory!
If you’ve ever seen Spike Jonze’s Her, you may recall those moments when Joaquin Phoenix’s Theodore mentally sinks into a place of comfort and safety that is derived from speaking to someone with whom one feels completely understood. I was reminded o
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Like The Fifties Never Went Away
Ladies of Lyford Cay’ is, at first sight, a fairly straightforward vision of bliss. Taken in 1974 by the American photographer Slim Aarons, it looks like a happy-accident snapshot of a natural grouping of beautiful women of various ages, at ease with
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Rural Affairs
SHOT ON LOCATION AT HAMSTEAD PARK, NEWBURY PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT: DERRICK KAKEMBO SENIOR MAKE-UP ARTIST: MARY JANE FROST USING CHANEL LES 4 OMBRES TWEED AND CHANEL LE LIFT PRO SENIOR HAIR STYLIST: PHILIPPE THOLIMET USING ORIBE HAIRCARE BOTH AT DAVID
The Rake7 min read
Sweet Valley Highs
In recent times, watchmaking bosses have become like rock stars, their auras and magnetism burning as brightly as their brands. Cue hotshots such as Richard Mille or MB&F’s Maximilian Büsser, or the maverick Chief Executive François-Henry Bennahmias,
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Blue-sky Thinking
What do you get — to borrow a joke construction that’s older than time itself — if you cross the creative laboratory belonging to one of the biggest watch retailers in the world with a Swiss fine watchmaking manufacturer whose place in horological hi
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Light Of Your Life
It was reassuring for me that the first person I saw wearing Bulgari’s aluminium-cased wristwatch — some 20-plus years ago — was, indeed, a rake. Put it another way: if a Japanese audio genius who could get away with sporting embroidered Nehru jacket
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Perfect By Design
O. K., let’s be honest here. For many years, until August 30, 2021, Parmigiani Fleurier was a brand that, from a technical and quality perspective, I admired more than most. And yet I felt absolutely no desire to own one of their watches. Zero. Zilch
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A Rare Bird
Switzerland is breathtakingly beautiful. I fear the country’s inclination for neutrality has fostered a sense of modesty about the extraordinary drama of its topography. Though a large number of you will be there in the winter months, for ski season,
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NIVADA x REVOLUTION & THE RAKE DEPTHMASTER ‘NO BARRACUDA’
I’m just going to come right out and say it. I love Nivada Grenchen. They represent everything the world needs right now: magnificently designed watches rooted in a cool history and with incredibly ethical and accessible pricing. Nivada Grenchen is o
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‘What Does It Really Mean To Create “Forever” Products?’
When it comes to luxury destinations, few houses can top Asprey. Founded in 1781 by William Asprey, the company began as a silk-printing enterprise before expanding into all manner of luxury goods, from the rarest and most intricate jewellery to leat
The Rake4 min readAddiction
Taking A Leaf Out Of His Own Books
When my elder son was six months old, I was asked to go to the Dominican Republic on a trip with Hublot to discover more about their collaboration with Arturo Fuente. Fuente was the first non-Cuban cigar brand whose story and product I was familiar w
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Ric Rolling
If Ric Flair didn’t exist, America would have to invent him, so perfectly does he embody the populist mindset of the nation. “I’m a Rolex-wearing. Diamond-ringwearing. Kiss-stealing. Wheeling, dealing. Limousine-riding. Jet-flying. Son of a gun. And

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