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Designer Rosita Missoni, champagne and the best of December

Designer Rosita Missoni, and the best of December

MISSONI ACCOMPLISHED
Rosita Missoni, matriarch of the Italian fashion empire that bears her name, is the quintessential 21st-century woman: a working mother or, more precisely, a working grandmother. At an age when most people are looking to wind things down, she decided to ramp them up.

Rosita and her husband Ottavio founded the Missoni fashion knitwear business in 1953 and it quickly grew to become one of the most distinctive fashion brands of the late 20th century. Its signature multi-hued geometric designs were not only iconic but difficult to copy. After decades in the business, in 1998 Rosita declared she was bored with fashion. She was in her 60s at the time and it appeared to many that she was retiring and handing over the design of the range to her daughter, Angela.

“I was more than bored, it had become a duty and I had lost the passion,” she told WISH on a recent visit. “I was then just playing the grandmother and after some weeks I said, ‘Oh my god, I cannot go on like this, I have to do something’.” Missoni decided to combine her two loves: work and taking care of her home. “I felt that the home was becoming fashion and there was also a move away from minimalism to something more decorative. I could feel this by the envy I had and the reaction of people when they came to my home.”

So she took the moribund Missoni Home range – then just a collection of upholstery fabrics – and turned it into a trendsetting force in interior design that includes everything from fabrics to furniture. “It’s nearly 10 years since I started working in this field,” says Missoni. “The best thing about it is that I rediscovered my passion.”

TOTALLY COMPOSED
Rebecca Lloyd has a rare gift. She can swiftly grasp the vision of a film director from a story sample and come up with a musical theme and orchestration to support the dramatic structure of the movie. “I think it’s intuitive … I just get it,” says the composer, producer, conductor and classically trained musician from Perth.

Based in Los Angeles, Lloyd was brought to New York in 2006 by studio World Wide Audio Inc as resident composer. Since then she has gone freelance and cemented a reputation as a composer who can “get it right first time”, essential in the world of film where “you don’t have time to do rewrites”. In the past two years, she’s worked on eight feature films including And Then Came Love and Twisted Fortune for Warner Bros, as well as numerous shorts and commercials in rock, jazz, world music and orchestral styles.

But when she first arrived in New York she felt daunted by the “big boys’ club” she was joining. “Only five per cent of composers are female – and even less in film and TV. I wanted to conform so I cut my waist-length hair short, wore pants and competed with the boys. Then I realised haircuts in New York were too expensive so I let my hair grow and then I found I could wear skirts and be myself and still get work. That was such a liberating experience.”

Lloyd, 30, got her big break in Sydney in 2002, stepping in as composer for The History of the World for China TV, which was screened to one billion people. “I was only 22 and it was the first time I’d written for a picture, but I loved it.”

Now she is emulating the strategy of eminent film composer John Williams and nurturing relationships with up-and-coming directors such as Christopher Burke and Tommy Walsh on Shooting Johnson Roebling and Chester Jones on Hey Diddle Diddle. “I’m so passionate. To work on this calibre of film I never thought would be possible for a young girl from Perth,” she says.

COMPACT DISCS
Far too pretty to be confined to make-up bags are the new limited-edition powder compacts from Estee Lauder. There are nine designs in the range, variously encrusted with pearls or crystals, and all are little works of art.

Nature is the underlying theme of this season’s selection and American jeweller and designer Jay Strongwater was asked to contribute to one of the collections. His jade enamelled Butterffly Dream with jewelled clasp is among the select group of refillable compacts priced between $230 and $500 at Estee Lauder counters.

SMART NEW CARRYALL
Earlier this year the French luxury goods company Hermes showed off its collaboration with the car maker Bugatti. As WISH reported in our May issue, the Bugatti Veyron Fbg par Hermes is not only the fastest piece of luggage on the planet but also one of the most expensive. The Hermes
Bugatti comes with a price tag of more than $2.5 million and, notwithstanding the global financial crisis, that’s one expensive motor car in any economy.

Now comes news that Hermes has joined forces with another, somewhat more egalitarian, carmaker. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the innovative Smart car, Hermes designers came up with the Smart Fortwo-edition Toile car. It is available in Europe in 10 colours, including Hermes’ signature orange.

Each Smart car is fitted with a Hermes leather-covered steering wheel and gear levers in contrasting colours. Priced from €38,000 ($74,000), it’s not only a recession-buster of
a car but also cheaper than some Hermes bags.

WATER'S THE GO AT WATEGOS
If, as many argue, Wategos Beach at Bryon Bay on the far north coast of NSW is the most beautiful spot on the eastern seaboard, then Watermark would have to be the enclave’s best-positioned beach house. While by no means the grandest dwelling at Wategos, it has the virtue of being 20 paces from the sand. In the past 10 years, as the rich and glamorous discovered the charms of the tiny beach’s powdery sand, Wategos has been transformed.

Today, Christmas rents along Marine Parade can fetch more than $15,000 per week, which makes Watermark’s $490 per night over this time seem reasonable. And you won’t be skimping on comfort: think internet, cable TV, fluffy towels, dolphins beyond the breakfast table … wategoswatermark.com 

SHINE A LIGHT
Hope, peace, romance, remembrance and celebration ... all good reasons to light a candle, especially at this time of year. And if that candle is perfumed, so much the better. Could there be a simpler way to instantly change the ambience of a room and create your own festival of light?

Choose a fragrance for its aromatherapeutic values (lavender to help you relax, perhaps; orange or rosemary to perk up flagging energy levels) or simply because you love it. The Armani/Prive candle is imbued with Pierre de Lune, a heady mix of cassis and orange blossom, one of Giorgio’s favourite scents. Not to be outdone, the apricot-coloured Clinique candle is scented with its flowery/woodsy classic, Aromatics Elixir.

Then there are fragrances you may not have considered for your home. What about Black Pepper or White Mulberry, both found in the huge range offered by Molton Brown, whose candles come in lightly frosted, heavy glassware. Wild Fig & Cassis, Parma Violets Tea, and Vintage Gardenia with Cardamom & Myrrh are some of the more exotic fragrances in Jo Malone’s extensive range. Can’t decide? Its Fragrance Combining Candle lets you group three of your favourites together. Let there be light.
Armani/Prive [phone]); Clinique 1800 061 326: Molton Brown [phone]; Jo Malone 1800 661 062.

RIGHT CORKERS
Champagne is the drink of choice when it comes to celebrations and, despite all the economic turmoil in the world, at WISH we think the festive season is still a time for partying. So in that spirit, we have chosen three of the best champagnes (well, our favourites anyway) to put you in a happy mood.

It’s worth getting hold of the Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque Vintage 1999 ($260) for the bottle alone. Its design dates from 1902, when master glassmaker Emile Galle created a bottle decorated with anemones for the champagne house. The wine recently scored third place for the Greatest Quality Wines of 2009 category in Tom Stevenson’s highly respected Wine Report.

In first place was G. H. Mumm’s Cuvee R. Lalou Vintage 1998 ($340), a legendary vintage cuvee named after the winemaker Rene Lalou, who ran the champagne house for more than 50 years until his death in 1973. The 1998 vintage is only the 10th for the wine and the first since 1985.

And for those who like their bubbles a little on the pink side, there’s the Laurent-Perrier Cuvee Rose Brut ($145), which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year with a distinctive bottle modelled on a 17th-century design. Eat, drink and be merry!

LEATHER JACKETS
Since 1984, designer Bill Amberg has had a singular vision – to craft beautiful goods in leather. He has worked with some of the world’s leading luxury brands, such as Aston Martin, Bulgari, Bergdorf Goodman and Dunhill, to make everything from bags to car interiors to dog collars to furniture and even a rugby ball.

Now he’s turned his attention to books in a new publishing collaboration. The Penguin Classics range boasts more than 1400 titles in paperback editions. Sometimes, however, the physical act of reading an “affordable paperback” is not the tactile pleasure it ought to be. There are six titles in Amberg’s new limited edition, leather-bound range: The Great Gatsby, A Room With a View, The Big Sleep, Brideshead Revisited, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Breakfast at Tiffany’s ($125 each).