The Rake

The world’s preeminent publication dedicated to the renaissance in gentlemanly sophistication and style, THE RAKE recaptures the codes of classic men’s elegance. Inspired by icons such as Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, the Duke of Windsor, Gianni Agnelli, Sean Connery, and their contemporary counterparts, THE RAKE provides incisive, in-depth commentary on magnificent menswear, and the many other elements of gentlemanly living, from manners and ethics, to art and design, tasteful travel, health and well-being, the intellectual and philosophical, to homes, modes of transport, entertainment, food and drink. THE RAKE is the modern voice of classic elegance.

Letter from the Founder

Letter from the Editor

Contributors

The Rake

arbiter • BILLY THE GOAT; FANTASTIC MR. FOX; ACTION STATIONS; DOGGED DETERMINATION; GOLDEN JUBILEE; YOU BETTER WATCH OUT; BODY CONSCIOUS.

FIRE IN HIS BELLY • Billy Joel’s best songs are an intriguing, genre-defying mixture of melody, musicality and lyrical brimstone. What’s with the attitude? Is he a great-but-flawed entertainer or forever just a Bronx Joe made good?

ANIMAL ATTRACTION • With a bloodline that runs through British stage and screen, how could Freddie Fox resist the lure of acting? And with several projects released this year, including the dark drama White House Farm, how are we going to get him out of our minds?

MICHELANGELO AND THE YEARNING FOR TRAGEDY • ‘We lived in silence. He has only one way of expressing himself: his work.’ So said Michelangelo Antonioni’s first wife, Letizia Balboni. It’s true, the Italian director was notorious for taking existential inquiry — and his own artistic purity — to another level. But what a legacy of film he left behind…

THE SHORT AND THE SHORT OF IT • A Wire-Haired Dachshund — once known in America as the ‘liberty hound’ — clambers onto the soapbox to relate a not-so-tall story of height-related propaganda…

FIFTY SHADES OF PLAY • When THE RAKE’s founder, Wei Koh, turned 50, his friend and Rake Ambassador Alexander Kraft invited half a dozen of Wei’s closest, most rakish friends to Kraft’s country bolthole in Provence for an epic two-day celebration featuring an exhilarating mix of fine wines, white truffles, potent Negronis, vintage cigars, cars, watches, naturally exquisite countryside — and some splendid eveningwear…

A HIGHER CALIBRE • Naturally enough, Auro Montanari — aka John Goldberger, or the doyen of watch collecting — has a peerless wrist game. But what of the rest of his wardrobe? THE RAKE was curious to find out…

THE NATIONAL TREASURE • Elle Macpherson embodies everything good about her Australian homeland — natural beauty and a gregarious character underpinned by uncompromising toughness. But the best thing about her is that she knows her way around a joke — even if it’s on her.

atelier • INVESTMENT HANKER; LUSTING FOR TUSTING; TWEAKING ON TWEED.

INVEST • Investments can be unpredictable, but not so with these four winners, which we have handpicked to provide you with sound and secure appreciation — aesthetically, spiritually and financially.

HIDE TO SEEK • Big in Japan but under the radar in the U.K., it is high time the leather goods firm Tusting is given the credit it deserves.

THE DEVIL WEARS KENT, HASTE & LACHTER • When the master tailor Terry Haste asked Nick Foulkes to come up with the designs for three new tweeds, THE RAKE’s Contributing Editor was in his element. Now, surely, Foulkes had reached his life’s destination: to create a pattern so distinctive — indeed, exclusive — that only he would wear it…

articles • DEUCE; MICROMANAGEMENT; WHO LIVES IN A HOUSE LIKE THIS?

THE GOLDEN AGE • It has been nearly 20 years since Maggie Gyllenhaal walked into our lives — with a twinkle in her eye and an interesting...