December 24, 2022

Rock of Ages

From Ukraine, Bernard-Henri Lévy tells of “Slava,” the rock star who sings to the troops in the trenches and embodies the fierce determination of the whole country …

Not Your Average Nose Job

Linda Wells, AIR MAIL’s beauty-and-wellness columnist, takes a whiff of the custom fragrances being designed for the super-rich that can easily top $100,000 …

Home Alone

From New York, James Wolcott celebrates the melancholy beauty of spending Christmas by oneself in the city …

Last Woman Standing

From London, Harry Mount remembers his cousin Frances Campbell-Preston, the Queen Mother’s oldest surviving lady-in-waiting, just as the position is set to disappear …

The Seasoned Traveler

From the departure lounge, art critic supreme Jerry Saltz divulges his travel routine. Top tip: sit behind him—he never lowers his seatback …

The New Gruel

From Brixton, Malika Browne chows down at the Clink, the most difficult restaurant to get into in London …

But, Wait, There’s More!

Sonny Rollins, titan of the tenor saxophone … 60s icon Pattie Boyd reveals all … silk-cashmere undergarments to keep off the chill … Argentina is awash with wine … the sleepy Uruguayan town transformed by fine dining … pour yourself some midcentury highballs … who’s up and who’s down on this week’s Attention-Whore Index …

Issue No. 180

The View from Here The rock star and soul of Ukraine

By Bernard-Henri Lévy

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Views for Days Take in epic scenery, historic passages, and adventures at a slower pace on these 25 spectacular European rail trips

By Oliver Smith

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Uncorking Greatness at 3,000 Feet A journey into Mendoza, Argentina’s treasure chest of undiscovered vineyards and the home of its most storied producer, Catena Zapata

By Mark Rozzo

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Gifts for Yourself

After a season spent seeking out gifts for your nearest and dearest, it’s time to treat yourself. Here, choose from a bounty of extra-special pleasures—picked just for you

Shop

Photo: Steve Schapiro/Corbis/Getty Images (Pee-wee Herman)

My Favorite Things Salima Boufelfel, the woman behind Desert Vintage’s stylist-beloved selection of singular sartorial gems, shares her favorite finds, from Parisian tea to a Moroccan lip stain

By Salima Boufelfel

Shop

Photo: Kam Boufelfel (Boufelfel)

Eye of the Beholder It’s no longer enough to simply smell good. For the .01 percent, only a completely custom fragrance will do. And if it costs tens of thousands of dollars, so be it! Our sensible beauty columnist sniffs out the truth of this trend

By Linda Wells

Read On

Jerry Saltz The Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic reveals his travel routine

Read On

Drink Amor y Amargo A syrupy mojito or sweet piña colada isn’t for everyone. For those who prefer a no-nonsense cocktail, check out America’s only bitters-based…

Set Laetitia Rouget There is a time and a place for kitsch. Just ask the French-born, East London–based artist Laetitia Rouget, whose witty ceramics and…

Wear Colenimo Those who geek out over fabrics, knits, and mills owe themselves a short jaunt to Columbia Road in East London, where Aya Nakagawa’s designs are…

Watch The Old Man & the Pool About halfway through Mike Birbiglia’s latest one-man show, The Old Man & the Pool…

Visit Mayflower Inn & Spa I credit Rebecca Gardner, the interior designer and entertaining maven behind the store Houses & Parties, for making me reconsider ruffles…

Wear Hanro At some point in the winter, you just give up. You accept the early bedtime, the reliance on carbohydrates, and even the need for long underwear…

Drink Amor y Amargo A syrupy mojito or sweet piña colada isn’t for everyone. For those who prefer a no-nonsense cocktail, check out America’s only bitters-based…

Set Laetitia Rouget There is a time and a place for kitsch. Just ask the French-born, East London–based artist Laetitia Rouget, whose witty ceramics and…

Wear Colenimo Those who geek out over fabrics, knits, and mills owe themselves a short jaunt to Columbia Road in East London, where Aya Nakagawa’s designs are…

Watch The Old Man & the Pool About halfway through Mike Birbiglia’s latest one-man show, The Old Man & the Pool…

Visit Mayflower Inn & Spa I credit Rebecca Gardner, the interior designer and entertaining maven behind the store Houses & Parties, for making me reconsider ruffles…

Wear Hanro At some point in the winter, you just give up. You accept the early bedtime, the reliance on carbohydrates, and even the need for long underwear…

Vroom, Vroom! What’s not to love about gas? Hint: almost everything

Illustration by Ross MacDonald

Read On

Pattie Boyd’s Life in Pictures She married George Harrison and then Eric Clapton, was a muse for Mary Quant and David Hockney, and was photographed by David Bailey and Norman Parkinson, among others. Now the English model is publishing a book about it all

12

Boyd and George Harrison announce their marriage to the press the day after their wedding, January 22, 1966. “The lead up to our wedding was actually terribly sad for me,” Boyd writes. “I couldn’t tell anyone that I was getting married except my mother. I must have told Mary Quant, though, because she had a fur coat made for me.”

Boyd models a Quorum minidress in London. “It was like a zeitgeist,” she writes of the city at that time. “We were no longer twin sets and pearls; we were forging ahead, going through the tunnel knowing there’s something at the other end.”

*Top,* Boyd and Harrison, who were introduced by Beatles manager Brian Epstein. *Above,* Harrison on a Triumph at Friar Park, the Oxfordshire home the couple bought at the encouragement of Epstein, who “wanted to get all of the Beatles out of London,” Boyd writes. “It was becoming very difficult to either leave or come into the London flat because there were so many girls outside.”

Boyd during a modeling session. “I took every job available at first,” she writes. “The more prestigious the magazine, the less they paid … but at least they had a makeup artist.”

Tea break in Covent Garden Market, 1963.

An early test shoot. “I was working and learning at the same time.”

Eric Clapton in a hotel room. Clapton, whom Boyd married in 1979, first “encouraged me to buy a camera,” she writes.

Boyd and her sister, Jenny, in a shot for a Foale & Tuffin campaign. Jenny was working for the designers at the time.

*Top,* one of the scrapbooks started by Boyd’s mother, which Boyd kept with “little cuttings from my work.... I loved working and I loved the idea of making money because it meant I could buy shoes … and I love shoes.” *Above,* a never-before-published shot of Boyd photographing Jenny at Friar Park.

“Shoots were simple affairs,” Boyd writes. “A plain roll of paper for a backdrop, whatever props were lying around, and a single light.”

Boyd, center, with Kellie Wilson and Elisa Ngai, wearing clothes by the Fool for the Apple Boutique, and photographed by Ronald Traeger for *Vogue,* 1968.

A Different Kind of Holiday How to enjoy Christmas alone in the big city

By James Wolcott

Read On

Dining at the Clink One of London’s best restaurants is extremely rough around the edges

By Malika Browne

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It’s a Very Merry Morning Meeting James Wolcott joins the podcast this week to discuss the pleasures of the solo Christmas

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Diego Calva For his first role in an American movie, the Mexican actor stars alongside Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie in the Hollywood epic Babylon

By Clara Molot

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Art That’s Out of This World Meteorites are rare, expensive, and being snapped up by collectors

By Carl Wilkinson

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David Yaffe On

Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins

by Aidan Levy

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Murder, They Wrote

by Lisa Henricksson

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Celia McGee On

Midcentury Cocktails: History, Lore, and Recipes from America’s Atomic Age

by Cecelia Tichi

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Jess Walter’s Rules for Writing Eight Questions with the author, who discusses inspiration, his process, and the moment he realized Obama was a fan

By Jim Kelly

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“Getting coal in my stocking is part of my winter energy plan.”

High Times in José Ignacio How a pair of restaurants helped turn a sleepy Uruguayan fishing town into a worldwide destination—without sacrificing its charm

By Elena Clavarino

Read On

Dame Frances Campbell-Preston Harry Mount remembers his cousin, the Queen Mother’s oldest surviving lady-in-waiting

By Harry Mount

Read On

Is Edited By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

Deputy Editors

Ashley Baker Ash Carter Chris Garrett Nathan King Julia Vitale

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Angela Panichi

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Jim Kelly

Arts Intel Report Editor

Laura Jacobs

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Elena Clavarino

Editor at Large

George Pendle

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Ann Schneider

Copy Editor

Adam Nadler

Research & Legal Editor

Matt Kapp

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H. Scott Jolley

Associate Editors

Jensen Davis Carolina de Armas Clara Molot Paulina Prosnitz Elinor Schneider

Art Director

Paloma Huerre

International Editor

Isabelle Harvie-Watt

London Editor

Bridget Arsenault

Columnists

Cazzie David Emma Freud Lisa Henricksson
Walter Isaacson Pico Iyer Rachel Johnson
John Lahr Jonathan Margolis Linda Wells
James Wolcott

Writers at Large

Lili Anolik Johanna Berkman Joseph Bullmore Vassi Chamberlain William D. Cohan Rich Cohen Michael Hainey Stuart Heritage George Kalogerakis Sam Kashner James Kirchick Alexander Lobrano Alexandra Marshall

Contributing Artists

Monica Ahanonu Barry Blitt André Carrilho Paul Davis David Downton Andrea Ferolla Josh Gosfield Cathy Graham Eric Hanson Angelica Hicks Pip Johnson Hilary Knight Danielle Kosann Michael Lindsay-Hogg Ross MacDonald Joe McKendry James McMullan Donald Robertson Charles Dare Scheips Grant Shaffer Ed Sorel Ralph Steadman

Contributing Photographers

Jonathan Becker Justin Bishop Alex Board James Emmerman Marcos Fecchino Daniel Paik Art Streiber Sharon Suh Justin Weiner

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Basil Walter

Head of Audience Development

Rachel LeSage

Cartoon Editor

Bob Mankoff

Music Supervisor

Randall Poster

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Emine Gozde Sevim

Designer

Zoé Gillette

Technology

Brooks Oakley Justin Rubaloff Sade Singleton

Interns

Kendra Huber Gasper Tringale-White

OUR CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER ARE

Bill Keenan and Emily Davis

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Advertising Director

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Integrated Marketing Producer

Alex Dickerson

Financial & Business Operations

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Adam Mendelsohn

AIR SUPPLY

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Jennifer Noyes

Editor

Zoe Ruffner

E-Commerce Manager

Isaac Metlitsky

E-Commerce Associates

Coco Paul-Henriot Roxy Solis

In Memoriam

Peter Bogdanovich Duncan Hannah Douglas McGrath Richard David Story André Leon Talley

The View from Here The rock star and soul of Ukraine

Views for Days Take in epic scenery, historic passages, and adventures at a slower pace on these 25 spectacular European rail trips

Uncorking Greatness at 3,000 Feet A journey into Mendoza, Argentina’s treasure chest of undiscovered vineyards and the home of its most storied producer, Catena Zapata

After a season spent seeking out gifts for your nearest and dearest, it’s time to treat yourself. Here, choose from a bounty of extra-special pleasures—picked just for you

My Favorite Things Salima Boufelfel, the woman behind Desert Vintage’s stylist-beloved selection of singular sartorial gems, shares her favorite finds, from Parisian tea to a Moroccan lip stain

Eye of the Beholder It’s no longer enough to simply smell good. For the .01 percent, only a completely custom fragrance will do. And if it costs tens of thousands of dollars, so be it! Our sensible beauty columnist sniffs out the truth of this trend

Jerry Saltz The Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic reveals his travel routine

Vroom, Vroom! What’s not to love about gas? Hint: almost everything

Pattie Boyd’s Life in Pictures She married George Harrison and then Eric Clapton, was a muse for Mary Quant and David Hockney, and was photographed by David Bailey and Norman Parkinson, among others. Now the English model is publishing a book about it all

A Different Kind of Holiday How to enjoy Christmas alone in the big city

Dining at the Clink One of London’s best restaurants is extremely rough around the edges

It’s a Very Merry Morning Meeting James Wolcott joins the podcast this week to discuss the pleasures of the solo Christmas

London

New York City

Munich

Aspen

London

Diego Calva For his first role in an American movie, the Mexican actor stars alongside Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie in the Hollywood epic Babylon

Art That’s Out of This World Meteorites are rare, expensive, and being snapped up by collectors

Jess Walter’s Rules for Writing Eight Questions with the author, who discusses inspiration, his process, and the moment he realized Obama was a fan

High Times in José Ignacio How a pair of restaurants helped turn a sleepy Uruguayan fishing town into a worldwide destination—without sacrificing its charm

Dame Frances Campbell-Preston Harry Mount remembers his cousin, the Queen Mother’s oldest surviving lady-in-waiting

Is Edited By

Deputy Editors

Design Director

Chief Technology Officer

Books Editor

Arts Intel Report Editor

Senior Editor

Editor at Large

Photo Director

Copy Editor

Research & Legal Editor

Production Editor

Associate Editors

Art Director

International Editor

London Editor

Columnists

Writers at Large

Contributing Artists

Contributing Photographers

Architectural Consultant

Head of Audience Development

Social Media Manager

Cartoon Editor

Music Supervisor

Photo Editor

Designer

Technology

Interns

OUR CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER ARE

Shop General Manager and Brand Partnerships

Advertising Director

European Sales Director

Integrated Marketing Producer

Financial & Business Operations

Account Manager

Chief Strategy Adviser

Merchant

Editor

E-Commerce Manager

E-Commerce Associates

In Memoriam