The Brands: Incotex

incotex


Over the last few weeks, we have been wading through the retail jungles of Hong Kong, Vancouver and Sydney to pick up a thing or two before the skiing season in St Moritz ends, and the swimming season in Stockholm begins. It’s the same dilemma each year.

At times like this it feels good to know that although a post-shopping glass of Krug in Paris´ 3rd arr is a decent way of spending a Tuesday afternoon, the shopping answer to your question is always in Como. A Gi Emme is the store that always comes up trumps. And more importantly – they stock the eminent brand Incotex, an off shoot from the Italian fashion group Slowear.

Their chinos are simply incomparable, and also relieves you of a commonly spread plague known as SAS (and we’re not referring to the non-business class MD-80s that operate between ARN and CPH).

Tyler himself describes it like this:

Every season I’m seduced into trying some other company’s attempt at making the perfect twill trouser and they’re never even close to Venice-based Incotex. They get the leg silhouette just right and also ensure that wearers never suffer from SAS – saggy ass syndrome.

This disease could well be one of the most unpleasant inconveniences to have to witness for the surroundings. So before the WHO get their act together and puts the diagnosis on one of those lists, make sure that you flat fronts are Incotex – or Italian at least. After all, we’re not savages.

Better people: Alain de Botton


There is one person that we love to turn to in order to find essential insights on life and society in general, that is of course the best-selling author Alain de Botton.

Mr. de Botton has for a long time been a prominent figure in the family around Tyler. Because of that and his impeccable tast in decoration, writing and, of course, life he will be a regular installment in this publication. I’m sure all of our readers are well aware of Mr. de Botton’s lengthy CV but for those of you who are not, let us paint a picture of this exquisite man.

Born on hills of Switzerland, he soon moved to London with his family (including a father that has been generous enough to share his fortune and potentially making the lives of the de Botton family very livable) but it was after graduating from Cambridge he started writing about the small things in life.

As a 23 year old (“while pretending to do a PhD”) he was ready to take on the topic of love, with his first book Essays in Love. The Independent gave it a reasonably fair review: (Mr de Botton has) taken philosophy back to its simplest, most important purpose: helping us live our lives.

With that in the bag he delivers thoughtful truths on a regular basis about topics such as life, architecture, status and travel. In short, the small things in life.

If you need more evidence, dear readers, that he’s almost somewhat of an equal to Tyler, his weekend pleasures includes doing emotional audits of airports and taking courses in luggage handling technique. That my friends is a true Tyler man. As such he has valuable recommendations for a better life:

Pick up any newspaper or magazine, open the TV, and you’ll be bombarded with suggestions of how to have a successful life. Some of these suggestions are deeply unhelpful to our own projects and priorities – and we should take care.

Listen to the advise of Mr. de Botton, we always do.

Mr. de Botton, welcome. It will be a pleasure working with you.

Improvable cities: Toronto

Toronto Financial District

Complacency. Such a disappointing diagnosis for a city. Tyler Brûlé´s ex-home town Toronto suffers from this badly, and we thought we should go through a few pointers on how to improve this sub-par Canadian city.

Ultimately, the responsibility for all urban development is the mayor´s. And as Mayor David Miller of Toronto refuses to incorporate the advice given by Mr Brûlé earlier, we see no reason in supporting him in his position.

And my God, when you fly over Toronto you see these vast tracts of two-car garages that jut out in front of the house, and these communities where you have to live by the automobile. It won’t be sustainable.

We demand an immediate ban on two-car garages. The madness must stop. Learn from the free bike schemes “Züri rollt” and “Vélib” in Zürich and Paris respectively. Look at Spain´s Renfe AVE first class rail development – the Siemens S103 Velaro is a more than adequate for medium range travel. Copenhagen has their Ansaldo Trasporti contracted driver-less Metro systems (that now steadily runs all the way to Kastrup – handy for the environmentally friendly pre-flight lounge hopper). The possibilities are simply endless.

We expect more from you, Toronto. If significant changes aren’t to be seen within short, we’ll have Wally Olins at your doorstep with a complete rebranding scheme before you can say “24-hour-a-day metabolism”.

Introducing: Brûlé Airways

Airplane en route to Hong-Kong

At a conference panel in Münich earlier this year the panelists including Meister Brûlé recieved the question ”If you would start a new venture, what would it be?” We will spare you the ideas from the other Hobo-Joes on the panel. TB’s answer? Starting a new European airline company.

We immediately felt compelled to pick up our Blackberries and call Lufthansa’s customer service asking how we could transfer our Miles & More points to this new aviation paradise. What would it look like? Would it serve the same excellent vegetable consommé as the Marc Newson designed Qantas business class? Could it really outshine ANA’s inflight nightwear?

Out of gitty excitement and since we can hardly wait for this venture to get of the ground we decided to start a series which explores potential ideas on what Brûlé Airways would be like. The first instalment in this series will be out soon.

Top 3 Middle Eastern Airlines

Etihad Airbus A330-243 A6-EYL @ LIMC/MXP

As we all know, letting your PA book your flights is a gruesome process in the beginning. Finding out that you have to cancel your morning run to make it on time for the morning transatlantic flight is bad enough. But not realising until reaching the airport that you are intended to fly Delta is an experience I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. Sure, everyone has to learn, but that knowledge as elementary as airline quality isn’t taught in schools is nothing less than an insult to modern society. Only a layman chooses airline based on destination.

Nevertheless, to make yet another contribution to society, we hereby present the tier one airlines from the Middle East. Perfect when visiting the next edition of the IDEX Arms Bazaar in Abu Dhabi, stopping by Doha for some caviar at Al Shaheen, or – god forbid – passing through Dubai for a (hopefully) quick transfer.

1. Etihad
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan certainly has an excellent choice in airlines. The Abu Dhabi Sheikh not only hosts specially recruited Food and Beverage Managers for each flight, but the Diamond First Class non-stop to JFK is divine. We’re especially excited about the upcoming A350-1000s which will be a nice addition to this sweet Middle Eastern aviation gem.

2. Qatar Airways
The post-flight nightmare is easily handled by the charming staff at The Premium Terminal at Doha International. As Tyler noted, that new line of 777s is also well awaited. Doha is literally overfull with business men waiting to get a smooth departure to Barcelona, Taipei or Oslo.

3. Emirates
Dubai is an awful mess, but as an international flight hub is performs well. With an impressive route map, Emirates comes in with a strong third position. Our man Tyler Brûlé has another essential life improvement that comes with the service:

“Best time saver: to shower at the airport or not to shower at the airport? This dilemma has now been solved thanks to the shower suites on Emirates’ new A380s. “

Private aviation: HondaJet

HondaJet

As the second of our two high notes from last years aviation tradeshow, EBACE, comes HondaJet (HA-420). This is an aircraft with exquisite finish and a manga inspired design, clearly representing the attention to detail that always defines Japanese products. After almost 10 years of preparation it made an astonishing debut a year earlier (with over 100 orders placed in the first three days) and was certainly in the spotlight at last years fair.

Michimasa Fujino, the CEO of Honda Aircraft makes a slightly confused impression but manage to find a few key pieces that could sell the HondaJet to just the right customers:

We’re always looking for the next innovation within transportation and mobility. Coming from motorcycles it’s natural for us to go into the air. European countries are also best fit for this kind of aircraft, since Europeans are more environmentally conscious. This is a low noise, low emission and high fuel efficiency aircraft which should be attractive for european customers.

Mr Brûlé explains why we are seeing an emergence of a stronger and larger private aviation market:

As the premium airline experience becomes less attractive and more aircrafts come to market around the one million euro price range the worlds biggest carriers will continue to lose their top passengers as they opt to go private.

Will HondaJet be their first choice? It’s definitely an option to seriously consider when your searching for a fast and easy transportation to get to your favourite cottage in the alps or a weekend at The Pellicano Hotel in Tuscany.

Private aviation: Pilatus PC-12

PC-12

As we are packing our Porter bags for one of the highlights of this season, the annual aviation tradeshow EBACE in Geneva, it seems appropriate to take a closer look on the private aviation market. We will be looking into two of the high notes from last year’s show. First out is Pilatus Aircraft’s PC-12.

The PC-12 might be associated with the rough image of Australias flying doctors but this latest model, with a cockpit interior designed with the tasteful qualities of BMW and a price mark just shy of three million euros is described perfectly by Tyler:

The PC-12 is to private aviation what the Range Rover is to manicured graveled highways in the Hamptons – luxurious but with the butch credentials of an aircraft used by the RCMP and the Australian flying doctors.

If that wasn’t enough of an argument. Listen to the 100th buyer of a PC-12:

I thought I needed the speed of a jet. But flying the PC-12 down to our home in Florida, with 5 or 6 of our friends, we would all have more room, we’d spend a lot less money getting there, and we’d arrive only minutes later than the jet. That’s because the jet has to stop for fuel, and we don’t, since the PC-12 delivers far more range.

This surely makes the PC-12 a strong contender for our next aviation purchase.