LUXE, CALME ET VOLUPTÉ
All clothes property of Alexander Kraft
It’s always a risk sharing a vintage car with another individual for three days. Choose correctly and the experience is bucolic charm. Choose incorrectly and you are plunged into an existential hell that would leave Camus, Sartre and Ionesco weeping in unison on the floor. So I approached piloting the 1967 280SL built on Mercedes’ legendary W11 platform in a vintage rally from Munich to Lake Como in the summer with vague trepidation. Because I’d never spent any real time with my chosen co-pilot, Alexander Kraft. Even if you haven’t met him or don’t know the name, you’re sure, if you read this magazine, to recognise his silent-movie-star visage and Cifonelli swath-cutting style from his Instagram feed, alexander.kraft, replete with its ‘ceo’ and ‘gentleman’ hashtags. Indeed, he is even the brand ambassador and official poster boy for one of my favourite tailors, the aforementioned Cifonelli, helmed by two genius cousins ensconced in the badlands of the City of Lights. On top of that, Kraft is the owner of Sotheby’s International Realty in France and Monaco, selling such things as the €45m Château Miraval to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The
