The Rake December 2019 - Issue 67

At my peril I paraphrase Queen Elizabeth II in her speech to Guildhall on the 40th anniversary of her accession to the throne. “2019 is not a year I shall look back on with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has been an annus horribilis.” As far as I’m concerned, 2019 truly sucked ass. It has sucked big fat donkey balls. To put it metaphorically, 2019 was like being an agoraphobic living downhill from a waste processing plant when the main tank blows and you are stuck helplessly as an endless tsunami of the most repugnant faecal matter washes over you with seeming ceaselessness. Why did 2019 blow so damnably much? Why shall it be indelibly inked besides the word ass-suckitude in the…

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,It may be your last,Next year we may all be living in the past… No good times like the olden days,Happy golden days of yore,Faithful friends who were dear to us,Will be near to us no more… Familiar with the lyrics to this Judy Garland yuletide ditty? No? Well, believe it or not these were the original lyrics for the song that featured in the film Meet Me in St. Louis. Some of the cast members understandably thought that, in the season to be jolly, they were a bit depressing, and they were changed to the lyrics we know, love and cling tight to today. Within this five-year epistolary relationship I have had with you, dear reader, my letter for the December issue of The Rake is always…

Chilean-born photographer and director Nino Muñoz got his start as a photography assistant at the age of 18 in 1990s New York City; in the two decades since he has earned acclaim for a signature style that is at once grounded in fashion and steeped in the intimacy and ephemeral moments of classic celebrity portraiture. His body of work reflects his versatility, ranging from fashion brand advertising and major T.V. networks to intimate editorials with Hollywood’s most noteworthy celebrities. His work also includes an ongoing personal project that has been shot along the beaches of Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica and California. Nino lives in Los Angeles with his husband and three dogs — but pulled himself away to photograph our cover star, Jon Hamm (page 98). Simon Crompton is a leading…

There is a park that is known for the faces it attracts. The smile on their faces, it speaks of profound inner peace. They’ve taken a lifetime lease on Paley Park… Paley Park is nestled in the heart of Midtown Manhattan — on the site of the former Stork Club, no less — and was dedicated to the city of New York by William S. Paley, the former chairman of CBS, in 1967. The original ‘vest-pocket park’, its tenth of an acre is dominated by a 20-foot-high wall of water at the rear, while a shade-friendly grid of honey locust trees and two ‘vertical lawns’ of English ivy add to the city-bolthole feel. When New York’s public park smoking ban went into effect in May 2011, the private space of Paley…

Gstaad is a small ski-resort town nestled in the Swiss Alps that — alongside St. Moritz, Courchevel and Zermatt — has long been regarded as the epitome of idyllic Alpine chic, and favoured by the jet-set both historic and contemporary. The great thing about Gstaad is the ease with which you can reach it — it is a two-hour drive or train journey from Geneva, making it an ideal location even for a long weekend. The charm of Gstaad lies in the fact that it caters to a range of skiers and non-skiers alike. The skiing is good though not great, due to its relatively low altitude, yet it makes up for this by providing the ardent après-skier like myself with a fabulous choice of options for entertainment — with dining…

It’s fortunate that Stavros Niarchos didn’t live to see the headline printed in The Washington Post on April 17, 1996. “Greek tycoon, Onassis rival Stavros Niarchos dies at 86,” it read, proof positive of the whimsical cruelty of history. Despite huge success and extravagant wealth, an alpha personality twinned with charisma, and a taste for risk that was just one failure away from recklessness, this hero of the Age of Oil lives on only as the ultimate loser in a giant game of oneupmanship. But for that marriage to a presidential widow (give or take an opera star), it would be Niarchos we picture when we hear the still-redolent phrase ‘Greek shipping magnate’. Pretty much anything Aristotle Onassis did, Niarchos could do better — and did first. With a name that…