Life

There can be resistance to Raphael. A bit unfair, really. Just as Renoir is considered the soft-edged Impressionist, Raphael (1483-1520), indisputably one of the three great artists of the Renaissance, is often eclipsed by his near contemporaries, Leonardo and Michelangelo. Is it because his works are just too beautiful, too ethereal, too perfect? This view is a relatively new phenomenon. In the 19th century, Raphael had pole position because his paintings were so otherworldly. His romance with La Fornarina (the baker’s daughter, sitter for one of Raphael’s greatest portraits) only boosted his reputation further. However, it turns out the 21st century is more inured to love’s dream. We prefer artists to be tortured souls.

In 1924, it is said, the company that became Montblanc – the Simplo Filler Pen Company – developed special pens for customers who wanted something more refined for use on a Sunday. Dubbed Meisterstück designs (literally “masterpiece”) these took a number of forms before settling on the 149 model, the iconic cigar-shaped style we know today, which appeared in 1952. So classically elegant in its looks, it has an almost childlike simplicity and is identified by a snow-capped lid – a white “star” motif referencing the frozen peak of the mountain that gives the brand its name.

The decision by Italian clothing brand Corneliani to use American psychedelic folk musician and artist Devendra Banhart as its “face” for this season is a telling one. This firm from Mantua, which has been making sartorial Italian menswear for nearly a century now, made its name creating traditional style for professionals. But times change, and style with it. So, wisely, Corneliani has been developing modern menswear that uses its traditional tailoring and fabric knowledge but applies it to more casual designs. Style director Stefano Gaudioso Tramonte says, “Today’s Corneliani man is no less interested in quality, but the life he lives is less constrained by formal conventions. He still wants elegance, but not in an uptight way.

Jewelry designer Cora Sheibani’s eye for detail and form was refined from a young age, having been brought up immersed in what sounds like an exciting epicenter of the art and design world during the 1980s and ’90s. Her father, the Swiss-based international art dealer Bruno Bischofberger, and her mother Christina, both collectors, invited guests – often well-known artists and designers – into a home full of intriguing art, furniture, and objects, be it a kitchen chair or walls hung with works by Warhol and Basquiat. Early on, Sheibani had an interest in collecting Roman bronze rings, attracted by their deceptively simple mechanics, and the way they aged through wear would later inform her interest in engineering as design.