In Pursuit of Luxury

Kathryn started her career in the wonderful world of tailoring at Gieves & Hawkes in 1996, rising to the position of Head Cutter, the first woman to do so in the entire history of Savile Row. She founded her own tailoring house in 2012 and is the world’s only female Master Tailor. Breaking tradition, she offers tailoring for both men and women focusing on the needs of the client rather than a...

Kenya Hunt is the Editor-in-Chief of ELLE UK. Kenya’s career spans working for some of the most influential women’s titles on both sides of the Atlantic. From her post-graduate days as an Assistant Editor at the seminal magazine, Jane, to her time as Deputy Editor of Grazia UK and ELLE UK. She has written for some of the most prestigious publications in the world including The Washington Post, The...

T Michael is a bespoke tailor/ designer /artist with a conceptual approach to men’s tailoring inspired by his love of sartorial traditions and his passionate quest for a different narrative within tailoring, design and creativity, that celebrates stylistic and cultural diversities present in today's zeitgeist. He is known for his meticulous attention to details and for his garments’ impeccable con...

Jenny King has run an established embroidery studio for 20 years. Specialising in free hand satin stitch embroidery created on Irish machines the studio offers all aspects of design and development , production and bespoke.  Jenny King Embroidery now counts amongst its clients and ever-growing list of high profile designers including Erdem, Vivienne Westwood, Aspinal of London, Roksanda, JW A...

Having been at the forefront of women’s’ fashion for almost three decades, Jo Hooper has worked as a buying director and design director for some of the largest retailers including Freemans Debenhams and John Lewis. Her newish venture, NRBY, focuses on women who more than ever are working from home or part-time and are not always looking for clothes that are about the 9-5 or the big event. Jo has...

Crombie was founded in 1805 on the River Don in Aberdeenshire and it has been the choice of royalty, presidents and popstars ever since. It ceased trading at the start of the pandemic in 2020 and was acquired by Gordon and his partners early in 2022. Gordon has a history with the company, he was head of wholesale between 2011 and 2014 and was responsible for getting it into the best stores around...

Stefan Sagmeister has designed for clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones and the Guggenheim Museum. He’s a two time Grammys winner and also earned practically every important international design award. While his work is steeped graphics, he has also directed a film, created furniture, made products, designed a watch and ventured into clothing. His books sell...

Stefan Sagmeister has designed for clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones and the Guggenheim Museum. He’s a two time Grammys winner and also earned practically every important international design award. While his work is steeped graphics, he has also directed a film, created furniture, made products, designed a watch and ventured into clothing. His books sell...

Stefan Sagmeister has designed for clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones and the Guggenheim Museum. He’s a two time Grammys winner and also earned practically every important international design award. While his work is steeped graphics, he has also directed a film, created furniture, made products, designed a watch and ventured into clothing. His books sell...

Ted Bradley is a lighting designer located in Boulder, Colorado. Not your traditional designer as he started, or rather ended a career as a Google product manager to focus on lighting design.  Having been told that it would be very difficult or impossible to design the porcelain lighting sculptures he envisioned, he took it upon himself to prove everyone wrong. After 12 months, hundred hours...

Brian Woodrow is a Senior Design Director at Tomas Pearce Interior Design. In his role, Brian leads a team of creatives and designers on projects that range from multi-million dollar homes and expansive retreats to luxurious residential high-rise towers and private condos.  Prior to assuming his role at Tomas Pearce, Brian was involved in the design and development of an array...

Ron Arad was born in Tel Aviv educated at the Jerusalem Academy of Art and later at the Architectural Association in London. He co-founded the design and production studio One Off with Caroline Thorman in 1981 and later, in 1989, Ron Arad Associates architecture and design practice and in 2008 he set up Ron Arad Architects. Ron was awarded the Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in recognition of hi...

Inspired by an old family photo album from the decades before her birth, Maya set out to capture, by way of scent, these moments in time, these tropes of familial life, set within their frames. 'What did it smell like?' The small Swedish summer house surrounded by mercurial forests or the visits to her grandparents’ sparsely furnished flat on Sunday afternoons, she sought to bottle the spirit conn...

Clare Campbell, having found her inner rebel with a cause, founded the Prickly Thistle in 2015, a new purpose that would weave everything she cared about into a single passion. Clare's rebel journey was clear to her despite the difficulties that she knew lay ahead. She had to restore a future for powerful story telling tartan designs, and eventually return artisan tartan weaving skills and disrupt...

Matteo is the founder and creative director of Mucca. His multidisciplinary background in architecture, graphic design, illustration, and typography facilitated his early business successes and inspired his decision to create a New York branding and design agency. Under his lead, Mucca has solved numerous design challenges and created uniquely successful work for global companies like Sephora, Shi...

Natasha’s practice has been notable for crossing media genres, drawing on references from a diverse range of cultural, historical, aesthetic, and technological sources. Her work encompasses brand identities, environmental design, multi-scale exhibitions, signage systems, print, motion and interactive graphics, created in collaborations with global tech brands, consumer startups, cultural inst...

Ollie Dabbous is a Michelin starred chef famed for stripped back fine dining who has worked at  Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, Hibiscus, Mugaritz, Noma, L’Astrance, The Fat Duck, WD-50  and  Pierre Gagnaire , before returning to London to take the position of head chef at  Texture  and then opening his own restaurant, Dabbous in 2012. Since closing in 2017, he opened Hi...

Sam Bompas and Harry Parr first came to prominence through their expertise in jelly-making, but the business rapidly grew into a fully-fledged creative studio offering food and drink design, brand consultancy and immersive experiences across a diverse number of industries. Sam focuses on storytelling, and underlying narratives that define the experiences he and his team create. The team explore th...

On this episode of the IPOL podcast I am speaking with Simon Erlanger, Managing Director of Isle of Harris Distillers. As an expert in the international development of premium spirits brands, Simon has worked for amongst others, Diageo and for over a decade he was Commercial Director of Glenmorangie. After the sale and integration of the business into LVMH, he left the Company and in 2015 joined t...

Coinneach is from the Isle of Lewis, the furthest north of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. There is no doubt he loves baking and the Hebrides, both of which led him to launch the Hebridean Baker in 2020 – to share his love of food and the island, foraging, and motivating his followers to learn a little Gaelic. He lives by an old Gaelic saying ‘there is a time for everything’ and it is this that in...

Paul is a ground-breaking and inspirational chocolatier who is at the forefront of British chocolate innovation. Never the conformist, and as an alchemist, he continues to push the boundaries of taste by combining what may seem to be unusual ingredients. His passion for his craft and his cutting edge creativity has won him numerous awards including Outstanding Chocolatier by the International Choc...

Paul is a ground-breaking and inspirational chocolatier who is at the forefront of British chocolate innovation. Never the conformist, and as an alchemist, he continues to push the boundaries of taste by combining what may seem to be unusual ingredients. His passion for his craft and his cutting edge creativity has won him numerous awards including Outstanding Chocolatier by the International Choc...

Right from the start, Jim McMillan knew that finding the best Mānuka bush and having access to remote locations meant building great relationships with landowners throughout the country’s best Mānuka honey-producing regions. As it’s always been, a big part of Jim’s job is working closely with farmers, local Iwi and the Department of Conservation. He’s dedicated to protecting New Zealand’s unique e...

Taro Asano is one of only a handful of practicing ‘Kajiya’, the art of swordsmithing, in Japan. He started smithing knives and swords in 1997 as an apprentice, and continues to master his craft through continued practice at his workshop in Hashima-city near Nagoya in Japan. We discuss all things Katana, how he became a Kajiya, his view of luxury, his continued journey to make the perfect...

The Revd Dr Richard Sudworth was appointed as the new Secretary for Inter-Religious Affairs to the Archbishop of Canterbury and National Inter-Religious Affairs Adviser for the Church of England in 2018. The post resources the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England in relating to the great world faiths – nationally and internationally, as well as at a local parish level. He advises the...