Bulletin Board 70
Summers' best deadstock striped tee, and a dispatch from the chicest vintage car rally on Lake Como.
CAR TALK
I would be hard pressed to find a better Saturday in recent memory than May 16th. Imagine seeing a forecast of nothing but grey clouds and rain, and somehow being met in the morning with beautiful sunshine, a gentle breeze, and zero humidity. Such was the case when I opened my shades in Tremezzina, one of the tiny villages on the shores of Lake Como, when I awoke at the town’s new Edition Hotel. Converted from a grand lakeside palace hotel into a modernist haven by the hotel group founded by Studio 54 maven Ian Schrager, I saw the lifeguards letting up the black and white striped umbrellas and the bartenders readying their ice buckets. Rather than a bathing suit though, I was throwing on a tie to head to the annual Villa d’Este Concorso.
Though I’ve been lucky to attend several car shows in the past, the Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza was something entirely different. As expected, the Italians have removed all of the trappings of idiocracy—the tire sponsor booths, the chintzy memorabilia being sold, etc.—and turned it all into a perfect lakeside party; a glorified runway show of just 54 near-priceless cars and eclectic spectators from all over the world and expert service by a buzzing army of tuxedoed waitstaff.
In fact, throughout the spectacle the stars are not only the cars on display, but the food and drink. Namely, the club sandwich, which has risen to renewed acclaim thanks to several recent stories (including one from our friends at Town & Country where Matt and I both lent our expert sandwich commentary) but it’s always been a mainstay on the Villa d’Este lakeside menu. When I was given a rare behind the scenes look at the hotel’s bustling back of house kitchen, I was met with an army of no less than 65 chefs, captained by executive chef Andrea Guerini, serving 1,200 guests consuming over 350 club sandwiches within the 2 hours of seated à la carte offering. It’s a feat of five-star service, and the highest number of club sandwiches assembled in a single day every year for the hotel.
Even more impressive were the car collectors, particularly the ones so dedicated to their collections that they went largely unnoticed and let the cars do the talking. There was Jonathan Segal of California, smoking a cigar out of the window of his 1953 Siata 208 CS Balbo Coupé. There was Gianni Agnelli’s very own, one-of-one Testarossa Spider now owned by Ron & Rosie Stern, painted in a particular shade of silver Mr. Agnelli was known to prefer as the periodic table code for silver is “Ag”, the inverse of his own initials.
Yet no entrant earned more acclaim than Jonathan Hui of Hong Kong, who attended with a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO in the perfect shade of navy blue. When asked by the afternoon’s master of ceremonies Simon Kidston if he ever turned heads when he took the car on the road, Hui told the crowd, “This car could be bought for $6,200 not that long ago, so I don’t think about the price as much as the insurance companies do. I love cars and I love driving cars, so it would be sacrilegious to not drive it to its full potential. We only live once, so get out and drive, and that includes to the McDonald’s drive-thru, which I did once in this car.” Today, the car’s estimated value sits around $50 million.
In the end, the two prizes — the crowd-voted Coppa d’Oro and the judge-voted Best of Show — were not taken home by the Ferrari. Instead, the Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este prize went to an impossibly perfect Mercedes-Benz 300SL. First delivered to its original owner in 1963, the entire car was not only in pristine condition, but remained entirely unrestored as it traveled through the garages of three separate owners including its original snow chains and a pair of skis accessorizing the roof rack.
Another seemingly impossible feat of preservation, the BMW 328 Bugelfalte took home Best in Show. Nicknamed the “trouser crease” for its sleek pressed edged along the front wings, the one-of-one car was first built in May 1937 by BMW’s development department as an entrant of Le Mans before it was stripped down and rebuilt (with a bit of added horsepower) for the 1940 Mille Miglia. It’s the only one of the five cars that entered the Mille Miglia in 1940 that has survived in its original condition, and has never been fully restored.
I finished the day with a visit to Villa d’Este’s neighboring hotel, Passalacqua, where owner Valentina De Santis regaled us with the lake’s latest gossip with a side of beautiful cocktails and bar snacks set against a sweeping view of the palazzo-turned-five star, 24-room hotel. A fitting finish to a picture perfect Lake Como adventure. —Zachary Weiss
WORK IN PROGRESS
At the end of last summer, I collaborated with my friend Chris Molnar of Cacio Pepe to produce my ideal striped crewneck tee using a deadstock jersey fabric. There was only enough to make 30, and they promptly sold out.
I paid Chris another visit while Yolanda and I were in Los Angeles last November, and naturally we went hunting for more cloth. While scouring a fabric mill’s warehouse, we came across a super soft and lightweight cotton-blend knit in navy with a broad white stripe. Amazingly, it had been sitting there untouched since 2015!
I knew right away that this light knit meant it would be a good weight for summer and could be dressed up with a pair of side-tab trousers or worn with a blue blazer. But it could also be the sort of thing you pull on over a pair of white jeans or swim trunks without giving it another thought. So, we had it cut-and-sewn into another long-sleeved tee by Chris’ factory in LA.
Because it’s being made entirely from that single roll of fabric—there’s only enough to make 50 pieces—the neck inset is “perfectly imperfect,” meaning not all collars will be a solid blue on each garment and it may show a little white from the stripe. That’s the sort of odd detail that I love, one that makes a garment unique while telling the story of how it came to be. I have been wearing mine non stop and it launders well with a cold water wash and hung to dry.
They’re up now at Cacio Pepe—go get ‘em!
Club sandwich and a Negroni, please.