Starting the mid-16th century, sprawling assemblages of exotic objects known as Cabinets of Curiosities were stowed in the homes of European royalty. Divided into animal, vegetable, and mineral items, trinkets came from faraway places for the viewing pleasure of the nobility.
Today’s equivalent might be Daphne Guinness’s wardrobe or real estate mogul Robbie Antonio’s prolific portraits of himself. But with Guinness’s patronage of designers like Alexander McQueen, and Antonio’s commissions of only an elite caliber of artists, much of the prestige and allure is in the label, less so in the products themselves.
It was in reaction to overbearing, omnipresent brands that journalist Thomas Erber developed a new approach to presenting modern luxury. Curating his own contemporary Cabinet of Curiosities, Erber proffers a selection of art, fashion, and design pieces from independent artists and labels based around the globe—in a way, harkening back to the early caches of rare, wondrous objects.
“It’s an old concept, the Cabinet of Curiosities,” says Erber. “Creating a new concept that can mix all these fields, with a level of curation, then it creates a real wave.”
Essentially a pop-up shop, the Cabinet launched at Paris’s Colette boutique in 2010; two more took place at stores in London and Berlin. The fourth staging will be at SoHo’s Avant/Garde Diaries Project Space. Sponsored by the French music and fashion label Maison Kitsuné and featuring nearly 50 brands, the exhibition will showcase a mix of fashion items including a Maison Kitsuné flight jacket and a Nor Autonom head-engulfing hoodie. House of Waris and Bliss Lau contributed jewelry. A series of lucky rabbit’s feet keychains are a collaboration between Maison Kitsuné and Ambush Design. Brooklyn-based kink photographer Natasha Gornik, surrealist painter Nick Deverux, and nightlife maven Andre Saraiva are among the visual artists represented.
Handpicking local participants, Erber looks for a mix of superior quality and unmatched aesthetics. Then each makes a work specifically for the Cabinet. “Every story is a different one,” he explains. “I visit them in their studio, I see how they work. Sometimes I give the idea to the designer, sometimes we discuss an idea, sometimes the designer has his own idea, and I like it and it’s fine. Sometimes it doesn’t work.”
Erber’s experience as a music and fashion journalist reporting for Vogue Hommes, Jalouse,and Optimum, the latter two of which he helped found, gave him the connections he needed to get Cabinet off the ground. “I was a party animal,” he explains. “I created a great network of friendly, creative people all around the world.”
It served him well when he launched the first Cabinet. “In the beginning it was only friends,” he describes. But as prospects flooded in, the newfound curator had to be more selective. “I need to like them, because I want them to stay close to me,” he says. “I need to like the way they do their own thing.”
Yet Erber’s purpose is far beyond personal. “It’s a fight to preserve independence in the fashion business, the creative business,” he says. “If we can help each other, it makes sense.”
One of the highlights of New York’s Auction Week is actually set just over state lines, at the Greenwich, Conn., estate of publishing magnate Peter Brant and Stephanie Seymour. A playground for Jeff Koons’ Puppy (basically a 40-foot-tall, terrier-shaped topiary), the property is also home to the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, a nonprofit that mounts two major exhibitions every year. Building from works in Brant’s collection, recent solo shows have covered Andy Warhol, Urs Fischer and Nate Lowman.
On Nov. 10, guests like Debbie Harry, Christopher Walken, Benicio Del Toro, Andre Balazs, Calvin Klein, William and Maria Bell, Michael Ovitz and Jane Holzer flocked to Greenwich to celebrate the latest exhibition, a retrospective of Julian Schnabel. The artist and film director emerged as one of the stars of New York’s early 1980s Soho scene, and then went on to direct such acclaimed films as Basquiat (1996), Before Night Falls (2000) and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007). While he’s now attached to Johnny Depp’s film adaptation of Nick Tosches’ In the Hand of Dante, Schnabel has been upping his game in the studio as well. The Brant Foundation survey encompassed everything from the artist’s drawings from the late 1970s to more experimental recent sculpture, as well as a spate of new portraits (with foundation director Allison Brant among the subjects.)
The brilliant blue skies were cause enough to leave the city, though they were quickly swallowed by a storm. “I was wondering how it is that the Brants always get the most glorious weather on these openings. A bit suspicious, really,” tastemaker/curator Clarissa Dalrymple laughed, as partygoers dashed out of the rain and into the elaborate buffet tent on the polo field. Despite the downpour, hostess Seymour stayed radiant, in a snugly fitted, flared Alaia ensemble. “I always wear Alaia,” she purred, prompting Jeffrey Deitch to admire: “And no one else wears it quite like her.”
Schnabel also was cutting quite the figure, having put aside the pajamas in favor of jeans and a blazer. He strolled the grounds with former model, gallerina and recent Playboy cover girl May Andersen, who was pushing a carriage with the latest in the Schnabel dynasty, the couple’s four-month-old son, Shooter Sandhed Julian Schnabel, Jr. (Andersen’s first child, Schnabel’s sixth.) Inside, the artist’s paintings were turning almost as many heads as the new family, with the side-by-side installation of the two, near-identical, 13-foot paintings Large Girl With No Eyes (both 2001), causing more than one passerby to do a double take. The paintings are shown together in a way that not only begs comparison, but also necessitates it. Complementing the wall works were pieces of furniture Schnabel had fashioned, including his own bed and a table he had made for artist Francesco Clemente’s studio.
While the crowd was thick with glitzy fellow collectors (Jean Pigozzi, Argentinean developer Alan Faena and Manila maverick Robbie Antonio among them), artists like Elizabeth Peyton, Josh Smith and Alex Israel seemed quite at ease (Peyton even brought her dog along.) Larry Gagosian paused mid-tent to trade some kind words with artists Rob Pruitt and Jonathan Horowitz, whose dealer, Gavin Brown, was jokingly using his infant to cut through the line at the bar at the other side of the tent. As the rain-stranded went back for seconds, dealer Helly Nahmad put in an appearance, though not for long, as his companion, younger brother Joseph, was due back in New York to celebrate an opening of Richard Prince‘s joke paintings at his own fledgling gallery, Nahmad Contemporary. MoMA PS1’s Klaus Biesenbach (who came on the arm of Diana Widmaier-Picasso) also had places to be; that night, the Auction Week crowds would hit the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where Koons would be helping Lady Gaga launch her latest album, ArtPop (which features the artist’s work on its cover).
GIORGIO Armani envisions a highly comfortable, warm, harmonious and sophisticated haven.
This November, intrepid developer Jose E.B. Antonio will try to outdo himself—yet again.
In 1996, he took a major gamble by building his first luxury condominium, Essensa East Forbes, at the then-undeveloped Bonifacio Global City. It was designed by the firm of architecture icon I.M. Pei.
The Asian Crisis had left the property market anxious and cautious, but Antonio’s company, Century Properties, weathered that storm and thrived.
In the past few years, it has collaborated with Versace Home, Donald Trump and Philippe Starck in building residential towers in Manila, and with Forbes Media for its commercial tower. The Antonios even invited celebrity Paris Hilton to design the clubhouse of Azure residences.
For the first half of 2013 (January to June), Century Properties earned P12.1 billion in pre-sales. Its presales target for 2014 is projected at P24 billion.
Where Acqua Iguazu by yoo has the fun and effusive Starck as design guru; Milano Residences has the bold iconography of Versace; and Trump Tower is imbued with the urban aesthetics of the Trump scions, the new tower will acquire the streamlined modernity and earth-tone sensibility of Giorgio Armani.
Flower in bloom
GRAND lobby. The Armani/Casa Interior Design Studio will oversee the selection of allmaterials, colors and finishes involved in the fit-out and design of the built-in or custom-made furnishings, to ensure the uniqueness of the designs. PHOTO BY ANDREW TADALAN
The Italian fashion designer is joining the latest Antonio project called Century Spire through his interior design firm Armani/Casa.
The 60-story Century Spire will be the eighth tower to rise in Century City, an upscale mixed-use development on Kalayaan Avenue, Makati City. Century Spire will have office spaces, Armani/Casa-designed amenities and residential units.
Architect Daniel Libeskind, the creator of Ground Zero, the redevelopment project of the former World Trade Center in New York, has designed a building with a crown composed of three interlocking blocks that open to the sky, resembling a flower in bloom.
The design is said to be evocative of the country’s progress. The local architectural counterpart is Gabriel Formoso and Partners.
At the launch, Century Spire’s average unit price was pegged at P227,000 per square meter. The average unit size is 57.4 sq m. The higher floors will have 200- to 400-sq m penthouses and 200- to 350-sq m duplexes.
CENTURY Spire’s poolside, designed by Armani/Casa, reflects Armani’s signature understated elegance. PHOTO BY ANDREW TADALAN
Armani/Casa will work on the Grand Lobby, Library, Pool area, Juice Bar and relaxation areas.
Signature fixtures
“It will feel like a building in Milan,” said Antonio, who also revealed that when Century Spire is completed in 2018, Century Properties will move its headquarters there.
Prospective buyers can get ideas on how to decorate their condo when they visit the model units in February 2014. Armani/Casa will furnish these mock-ups with its signature fixtures such as the bathroom line, Armani/Roca, and the kitchen line, Armani Dada.
The Armani/Casa Interior Design Studio is reputed for its comprehensive interior design services that include adapting to the culture, the geography and the architectural milieu of its projects.
CENTURY Spire’s crown has three interlocking segments designed by architect Daniel Libeskind. PHOTO BY ANDREW TADALAN
Antonio says the deal with Armani was brokered by his son Jose Roberto—Robbie to friends—who handles the company’s branding. A dedicated collector, Robbie met Armani in the international art circles.
Giorgio Armani, president and chief executive officer of the Armani Group, said in a statement: “If the architect’s aim is to create remarkable spaces, then it is my aim to bring these to life through my interior-design aesthetic. I am very pleased to be partnering Armani/Casa with Century Properties, and I believe that the combination of Daniel Libeskind’s vision and my own will result in a truly remarkable place to live, full of elegance and wonder.”
Antonio has received accolades for his achievements, the latest of which is Personality of the Year by the Southeast Asia Property Awards. A self-made billionaire, he started out by marketing building projects. His first development was the 12-story Le Grand Condominium in Salcedo Village.
“It was 28 years of hard work,” he said.
Leveling up
Century Properties leveled up its strategy by venturing into international projects, starting with the I.M. Pei-designed Essensa East Forbes. The 13-year-old building looks better through time because of the travertine finishes.
“It’s the same marble that built the Colosseum in Rome,” said Antonio proudly.
ANTONIO against the silhouette of Century City. Century Properties has transformed 744,576 sqm of space into premier residential and office developments in and outside Metro Manila. PHOTO BY ANDREW TADALAN
Essensa is the only residential tower in the country that hosts 17 units occupied by a foreign embassy. Known for its generous cuts, Essensa’s average unit size is 290 sq m, which costs P50 million.
“The price has more than doubled because of its quality,” noted Antonio.
“We want to convey the message that Century Properties is about quality. Behind those brands is a specification of what a building should be. You can’t build a Trump Tower and have a glass of 1 mm. We have to follow their specifications manual. So when you buy a unit from our branded building, you are assured that what you are getting is of world-class standards,” he added.
While the government seeks foreign direct investments (FDI) through corporate investments or sovereign funds, Antonio said retail offers the biggest potential. “People buy units that cost $200,000 to $1 million. If you compile those, the sum is big. But it is not recorded as FDI.”
Last year, Century Properties raked in P21.4 billion in pre-sales. Only 26 percent of its buyers are based in the Philippines, while 74 percent are based overseas—foreigners, OFWs and Filipino expats.
Late participant
Antonio said the Philippines is a late participant in the luxury condominium industry. However, local developers are having a field day with brisk sales. High-end condos in Metro Manila are still 85-percent cheaper than luxury condos in other Asian countries.
Century Properties’ luxury projects comprise 24 percent of its pre-sales revenues. The buyers consist of entrepreneurs and empty nesters who either invest in quality or for status.
“The fact that the property is branded enhances its asset value after five to 10 years. If you’ve got a brand, you can sell it and people will buy,” said Antonio.
For instance, Milano’s unit price has appreciated by 33 percent since its launch in 2010, while 97 percent of the units have been sold. Trump Tower’s unit price grew 63 percent in two years, and 92 percent of its units have been taken. Acqua Iguazu by yoo (inspired by Starck) is 71 percent sold, and its unit price grew by 16 percent in a year.
Antonio, whose net worth is $255 million as of July 2013, is No. 35 in the Forbes List of wealthiest men in the Philippines.
Asked why he’s still spearheading Century Spire when he can just relax instead, the businessman replied: “I’m not handling this. There is a team. I’m just your friend.”
