General
Papillon
Celebrating the launch of their new flagship store, Papillon co-owners Felicia Brocklebank, Maggie Snouck and Nicole Robinson were joined by the cream of London’s mothers and children for a fairytale extravaganza.
Louis Vuitton Maison
The new Louis Vuitton Maison - 'superstore' doesn't quite cut it, and nothing of 1500 square metres can be called a boutique - had its official celebrity opening last night on New Bond Street. (Alexa Chung turning up to your party is the equivalent of breaking a bottle of champagne over a ship's bow.)
FT: Italian govt seizing superyachts
Rome's crackdown on suspected tax dodgers has unsettled owners of super-yachts considering Italy as a summer destination following the tax police's seizure of the 63-metre Force Blue owned by tycoon Flavio Briatore.
ISIS Dinner
“One thousand two hundred pounds for the blonde lady. Um, sorry – I don’t want to be blondist.” Sotheby’s Chairman Henry Windham, who conducted the auction last Thursday night at the inaugural ISIS ladies’ charity dinner, wasn’t exactly struggling with the task of selling luxury items off to a roomful of discerning City, society and scientist belles.
MoMA's Gathering of the Brave
Billed as a festival of daring ideas, the Courage Forum featured visionary and brave individuals who had overcome personal circumstance or the social status quo to blaze a trail that challenges contemporary thinking and inspires others.
John Arlidge on R4, at the Frontline Club
John Arlidge, one of Spear's contributing editors and a nominee for the Orwell Prize 2010 for his interview with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, has featured in BBC Radio 4's Profile strand, talking about Blankfein.
At the Sharp End: Rocco Forte
In a new feature, Spear’s grills a major figure from the worlds of wealth management, business or culture. First is hotelier Sir Rocco Forte
Refashioning Myself
Having taken herself back across the Atlantic, Daisy Prince finds that what is fabulous in London is merely frou-frou in New York
For the Im-Patient
Your health deserves a hurry — Penelope Bennett finds that Viavi does not just offer the Rolls-Royce of healthcare but does it in a trice
The Discriminator Dines Out
'Perennial favourites' is such an interesting expression. It denotes much of what we are about as creatures. Or at least much of the more pleasant side of what we are.
Books
Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour
Michael Lewis
Kyle Bass, a Texas-based hedge-fund manager who did well out of shorting the sub-prime property market before the 2008 financial crisis, used to play the international strategy board game Risk as a kid, which led him to find out everything about a tiny country called Iceland, which was a key strategic location in the game
The Gentry: Stories of the English
Adam Nicolson
How delicious the notion of the gentry is. How beautifully it shades into every kind of 19th-century fraudulence, into Eric Hobsbawm’s Invention of Tradition. How easily it locks on to the much later and altogether more middle-class idea of the gentleman
Zahawi and Hancock on 'Masters of Nothing'
Anne McElvoy
The Wide Blue Yonder
A new breed of Tory MPs emerged from the 2010 general election, and already some are making their mark. Anne McElvoy looks at two of Cameron’s cabal
HNW Events
Spear's/Speechly Bircham Seminar: How to be a philanthropist in the 21st century
21 February 2012
Spear's Young Turk Awards 2012
01 April 2012
Spear's Design for Living Awards 2012
01 May 2012
Spear's Wealth Insight Forum 2012
19 September 2012
The Diary
Mark Hix
04 Jan 2012
Amanda Palmer
22 Nov 2011
Patrick Perrin
11 Oct 2011
Nicky Haslam
05 Aug 2011
Stephen Webster
06 Jul 2011