Vested Interest

On January 2, 2024, cinephiles and admirers of Michelle Yeoh, the lionised Bond girl from Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), were unintentionally fooled by the fact that she had welcomed her first child. In good humour, she clarified her post caption, which included “A little miracle on the first day of 2024″, by uploading a picture of herself in a heartfelt embrace with her husband, Jean Todt, while using a new caption. “Thank you, darling Nicolas and Darina, for making us the happiest and proudest grandparents!! Welcome, baby Maxime.”

Nicolas Todt, the son of Jean, is the manager of Monegasque Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, and his influence in auto racing spans driving management, scouting – and team ownership – all responsibilities undertaken at the apex of motorsport’s pyramid. This was the place where his father, Jean, spent many decades, and if Egyptian mythology included open-ended apexes, Jean, along with Bernie Ecclestone and the impeccably dressed Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, would sit on the triple crown of that exclusively infinite summit due to his peerless contributions to automobile sport.

Inspired by ethereal drivers of the early 1960s, such as Jim Clark and Dan Gurney, Jean’s age meant his era was starting at the tail end of the decade, and he began a highly successful rally co-driving career before retiring in 1981 to become director of Peugeot Talbot Sport—a distinguished post that led to bigger honors— no less than General Manager of Scuderia Ferrari, CEO and Special Advisor at Ferrari, and President of FIA.

But returning to the revered Yeoh, despite the aforementioned picture where she posted her fingers gently caressing some fresh yet tiny toes without faces, it was the inception of 2024, and one has to bear in mind that in the previous year, 2023, she not only won an Academy Award for best actress for her spellbinding performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) which also won best picture on that starry night on March 12 at the Dolby Theatre, but she then, after a 19-year engagement, married Jean Todt in Geneva on July 27, and so people were believing that she was an immortal human.

Born in Ipoh, Malaysia, in 1962, Yeoh was educated in a convent school, and English became her first language – a skill that only propelled her to seek ballet training overseas, and it was with that hunch that she enrolled at the performing arts-focused Hammond School in Chester. Not London, Paris or New York, Chester, situated on the Welsh border, incidentally near where I reside, is a stunning Roman-founded cathedral city, but it’s not a mecca of “The Seventh Art”.

Adventurous, hard-working, talented and beautiful, Yeoh did soon migrate to London’s Royal Academy of Dance; however, her ballet career was cut short by injury (not the last serious performing injury in her career). She later became Miss World Malaysia in 1983—a feat that aided her commission to play Michelle Khan in the Hong Kong action film, Yes, Madam (1985). And it was her presence alongside the crème de la crème of the arts that she met Dickson Poon, the Hong Kong business magnate, who is the executive chairman of Dickson Concepts, a Hong Kong-based company that owns Harvey Nichols and S.T. Dupont. Knighted in the 2015 New Year Honours for business and charity, he received the title of Sir Dickson Poon. But reverting back to the 1980s, it was then that he co-founded D & B Films Co., LTD., a firm that released successful motion pictures. And one of those films not only happened to be Yes, Madam (1985), which ignited her acting career, but they wed in 1988.

Now, such is Yeoh’s endearing and admirable character; despite divorcing in 1992, she was made godmother of Poon’s daughter, Dee, who is from his first wife, Majorie Yang. However, since 2004, when Yeoh met Jean in Shanghai, she has been frequently pictured hand-in-hand with Jean at various F1 Grand Prix tracks, not least the turbocharging glamorous environs of the Monaco Grand Prix.

There’s no other F1 track that exceeds the Circuit de Monaco for its history, circuit topography, mythical panorama, glamour, bold-faced names, and enduring premiership of the Formula One Grand Prix calendar. Despite the wealth swirling around the Principality, it is the art of stylistic restraint that flourishes in Monte-Carlo. Married between 1978-1980, it was the French businessman Philippe Junot and Princes Caroline of Monaco who cut a swathe through society with real panache. Junot could be seen striding away from Port Hercule to the royal terraces in a navy lightweight wool single-breasted or double-breasted blazer, light grey flannel trousers, black loafers, thin white and blue  striped Western shirt, and accompanied with a neat neckerchief and square aviator sunglasses.

While Junot’s attire was not overly formal, dress codes have indeed relaxed to some extent since the 1970s. For executives, managers, and dignitaries who are often there in a working capacity, it is a sporting event that requires significant walking, often in a hurry. Therefore, attire that allows for freedom of movement during such engagements is optimal. Well-made vests from a superior fabric featuring a double zip are the archetypal garments to suppress such moving-ignited irritability, and they are practical and functional when designed with adept side pockets. And so when jotting down the attributes of a high-quality vest in the environs of smart and prestigious sport events, especially in the automobile scenery, it is no surprise that Nicolas Todt often opts for a vest worn over a shirt and even a sleek sweater.

Not confined to professional sport automobile spectacles, the vest, if worn with the correct accompaniments, is also in its correct habitat in the most prestigious classic car meetings. Two weeks ago, the western shore of Lake Como again served as the setting for the Concorso D’Eleganza, organised by the custodians of BMW Group Classic and the luxury Villa d’Este hotel. Exuding an aura of old-world elegance, it is in the garden, flanked on one side by the Renaissance-era built villa and sumptuous botanical vegetation. It is on the Sunday that the public fetes over 50 of the world’s finest pre-1980 classics, but in an unstuffy manner where well-made yet comfortable clothing is the order. It’s likely many of the visitors will arrive and leave in their own open-top vintage vehicles, and especially with the winds increasing the quicker you drive, there isn’t really a more stylish and practical garb than the AK MC vest which also comprises that insulation that’s needed when cruising along the roads of Lombardy.

Across the pond, and also held annually, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is another famed car meet. The 2025 edition will take place on August 17, and it is there, either under a blazer or on its own, that a vest will be a wise choice. If your discerning leanings mean you’d rather arrive in a navy blazer yet don’t want to sport a jumper underneath in preparation for cooler temperatures in the evening, it is the AK MC tactile navy vest, expertly crafted from 100% VBC wool, the centuries-old and bona fide Italian mill, that not only seamlessly fits below a blazer but, unlike thick, unsightly versions, the AK MC design is cut with a neat mock neck, and its light internal padding maintains the shape of your outfit while encompassing those distinctive AK MC details, such as the double fullzip.

David Blunkett, born in 1947 in a deprived part of Sheffield, was appointed as a life peer to the House of Lords, thus becoming Baron Blunkett. Blind from birth, he is an inspirational figure in forging and making such an important mark in the unforgiving sphere of politics. He never displayed any signs of his disability, demonstrating that smart doggedness can overcome even the most formidable obstacles. Down in the crypt underneath the vast St Paul’s Cathedral, there is an memorial stone with the moving inscription. “Lord Thomson of Fleet,”. “He gave new direction to the British newspaper. A strange man from nowhere, ennobled by the great virtues of courage and integrity and faithfulness”. It’s an eye-opening epitaph, but like Baron Blunkett, he did come from nothing, and his eye-sight was more than a detriment to a word-focused career. And so it’s remarkable that for his peerless contribution to newspapers industry he was rewarded with the ennoblement as Baron Thomson of Fleet, an hereditary British peerage that, because he was born in Ontario, and so under Canadian law at the time, was required to surrender his citizenship.

In 1966, he acquired The Times from the Astor family – a purchase that would only add to an already formidable newspaper empire. During that decade, the industry remained male-dominated and rife with misogyny; in the hectic printing rooms, men could be seen waving their arms while wearing nylon white shirts with cuffs rolled up beyond their elbows, often paired with a white vest underneath. The undervests were unsightly, thus becoming a less frequent sight today. Examining the men’s attire revealed that it accentuated their flamboyance, a phenomenon that only tapered off after the ’60s and ’70s. You would see editors huddling in the passageway beside Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese drinking a pint of stout and puffing on a cigarette while gabbling away, wearing well-made navy blue chalkstripe suits and a pair of black brogues. You still do it today, but less so, like the undervests, and it’s the latter that has never really been replaced with a desirable alternative.

In the 21st century, especially in the environs of workplaces, even in Parliament, on Fleet Street, and the Square Mile, we’ve witnessed a continuation of relaxing dress codes. It has, however, caused a slapdash attitude in dressing up appropriately in well-crafted pieces. Not the undervests, but the double fill zip vest, if adroitly designed from a quality fabric, can be worn seamlessly with sartorial garments; it’s an excellent accompaniment. These vests in the upper echelons of artisanship are rare, but to fill the void and to even prompt new thinking on dressing in a concoction of casual or semi-formal environs, it’s the new AK MC outerwear vest that opens up vast ideas.

And although it’s a piece of apparel that embodies dressing restraint, it must be highlighted that, consequently, it flourishes in a room of high drama. If you were present in the salesroom of Sotheby’s London witnessing Sam Fogg purchasing “The Massacre of the Innocents”, the biblically inspired painting by the fabled Old Master painter Rubens, which was acquired for Roy’s grandson David Thomson for $76.7 million, it’s a setting that perfectly aligns with the correct use of the vest. And the same is true if you were in the gallery watching or bidding at the Arqana thoroughbred sale in Deauville when Rougir was bought in the ring for €3 million – a record at Arqana by the bloodstock agent Michel Zerolo on behalf of Coolmore; it really is a simple yet well-made piece that performs in an array of important denizens.