More from: Nick Foulkes
Style September 2022
GRACE PERIOD
For an eye-watering 70 years, Queen Elizabeth II has managed to alchemise a sense of majesty, mystery and simple humanity. One might even argue that hers has been a divine blessing…
Style September 2021
LIVE AND LET LIVE
From dinner jackets and gadgets to casino plaques and a golden gun, the legend of James Bond has been preserved for ever in its archive, run by the peerless Archive Director Meg Simmonds. Nick Foulkes gets up close and personal with some of Meg’s precious relics to tell the cultural story of Ian Fleming’s ageless secret agent.
Style September 2021
The King of Clubs
Mark Birley was an aesthete par excellence and a fabulous raconteur, described as a cross between James Bond and Charlie de Beistegui. He dominated London society in the second half of the 20th century, creating several of the most exclusive hotspots in town, from Annabel’s to George.
Craft September 2021
Neapolitan Pride: House of Rubinacci
With the exclusive Luca Rubinacci for The Rake collection available to order now, Nick Foulkes finds out how Rubinacci has preserved the sophistication and character of the city’s distinct sartorial culture.
Style July 2021
THE POOR LITTLE GREEK BOY GREW UP
Some of his journalism comes with a health warning, but, taken together, Taki Theodoracopulos’s work reads like a roman-fleuve, an affectionate tapestry in remembrance of things past. The precocious teenager of the fifties is now one of the last men standing from an era of authentic chivalry and elegance.
Style June 2021
ENGLAND, OUR ENGLAND
If it’s summer in the shires, it must be the sport of kings. And if it’s the sport of kings, the dress code must be raffish eccentricity (ironed shoelaces optional). Originally published in Issue 58 of The Rake, NICK FOULKES charts the long and colourful history of dressing for a day at the races.
Style June 2021
What Slim Saw
He began his career as a combat photographer in the second world war, and it was an experience that defined the rest of Slim Aarons’ life. ‘Beaches were made for lying on, not invading,’ he concluded. Decades later, the Aarons legend — as chronicler of the jet set, high-society’s leading impressionist — is as strong as ever.
Style February 2021
FÜRSTEN FOREMOST
She was betrothed at 14, twice-divorced at 25, and now, aged 80, stands as a trailblazer for female celebrities turned cross-cultural influencers. As one critic observed, Princess Ira von Fürstenberg always had the ‘total courage of her modernity’. By NICK FOULKES.
Style February 2021
PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Without Countess Consuelo Crespi, the Italian fashion industry might not be the commercial and cultural force it is today. The irony, writes NICK FOULKES, is that Crespi was not even remotely Italian. She was a Henry James or Edith Wharton heroine updated for the jet age.
Style February 2021
Goss Bros
Igor Cassini — Ghighi to his friends — was a Russian aristocrat with a bloodline to the Tsars who became America’s most influential gossip columnist with a hotline to the White House. Originally published in Issue 39 of The Rake, Nick Foulkes writes that together with his brother Oleg, the dashing immigrants (and playboys) were the forerunners of today’s celeb-centred high society — until, they fell foul of the Kennedys.
Style January 2021
THE ART OF MAKING IT
Originally published in Issue 57 of The Rake, Nick Foulkes writes that, if the Old World’s aristocracy was raised on the feudal system, the New World coined its nobility through banking and industry. From the Rockefellers and Astors to the Vanderbilts and Carnegies, these ‘ungartered’ peers helped forge the myth of America with their astonishing fortunes and lavish spending.
Icons December 2020
BIG-TIME CHARLIE: The Beistegui Ball
One critic likened it to a ‘moral indecency’; those who were there were so consumed by the opulence and theatricality that they had no reason to care. The night in question — September 3, 1951, in Venice — has gone down in history as the party of the century. Originally published in Issue 42 of The Rake, Nick Foulkes delves into the life of Don Carlos de Beistegui, an aesthete of some repute who used his riches to keep the reality of war and sacrifice at bay.
