A Treatise On White Magic

Hiking through a forest of thousand-year-old redwoods recently, I sat for a breather on a fallen tree.  As I stood up I realized my hands were covered in sap, and while searching for a way to wipe the resin off, I caught the piney scent, buried my nose deeply into my hands and inhaled one of the purest fragrances I’ve ever come across. I embraced the moment, realizing just how disconnected from reality I’d become. The purity of the experience took me, through the power of smell. Read the rest of this entry »

How to look good in the Supermarket

It’s official – summer in the northern hemisphere (that’s where most of you live) is almost over & our brains are gearing up for crispy mornings, goulash suppers, woolies, gloves and the onslaught of the dreaded Christmas shop -  STOP right there – time to take a last minute breather…. Read the rest of this entry »

Maurice de Mauriac Zurich

It’s a risky manoeuvre, starting a watch company from scratch in a country with a long history of family run watchmakers, without a family name to pass the business on to you.  Daniel Dreyfuss, who runs the Zurich based Maurice de Mauriac, decided in 1997 to do just that.  The watches that have developed out of these humble beginnings are labours of love, not industry, and are designed to bring pleasure to the wearers.  They are more than a symbol of status; they are a symbol of taste.

The shop is small with a large window looking out over the street.  Passers-by can view the team of watchmakers assembling timepieces in the window. The team consists of only Dreifuss and 4 assistants, each of whom have backgrounds as unlikely as Dreyfuss.

Every watch can be fully customized, from the dial to the band, if the customer has an idea, the watchmakers are open to it.  Ideas brought to them serve as inspiration and new styles have arisen out of customer “tweaks”.

We caught up with Daniel, a White Line Hotel Collaborator, to find out just what it is that makes Maurice de Mauriac watches tick. Read the rest of this entry »

RIP Donald Frey, designer of the original Ford Mustang

An inspiration to all who strive to innovate, Donald Frey, the driving force behind a legendary American sports car, has died. He was 86.

Frey was the chief engineer behind the Ford Mustang, which debuted in 1964. Frey worked with former Ford manager Lee Iacocca to develop the roadster, which almost never saw the light of day. Frey pursued the project even though Henry Ford II, the president of the company, had turned it down four times, partly because Ford’s new Edsel had just failed so spectacularly. Lacking an official go-ahead, Frey met with Iacocca and other engineers and designers in a motel by night and a storage room by day. “The whole project was bootlegged,” Frey told USA Today in 2004. “There was no official approval of this thing. We had to do it on a shoestring.”

Frey proved that if you believe in something you should always pursue your goals. Ford eventually approved the product, which turned out to be a hit: Within two years, a million Mustangs were sold and an icon was born. The Mustang sprung to global prominence in the 1968 Steve Mcqueen thriller Bullitt, which itself went on to inspire our friends over at Larry vs Harry.

YouTube video of the legendary Bullitt car chase:

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Categories: Stuff we like, Collaborators

Bullitt. “Cars are just so last year.”

White Line Hotels collaborator Bullitt, from Larry vs. Harry, have a quirky sense of humour and the fastest cargo bikes on the planet.  We caught up with Harry just after one of many recent trips to one of Europe’s most bicycle friendly cities – Berlin.  Based in Copenhagen, Bullitt bikes can be found carrying almost anything and everything across the globe.

There’s certainly a need for cargo bikes – was there an Aha! moment of inspiration, or did the idea develop slowly?

Larry spent 3 years, developing the best trike for Winther bikes. Still, it didn’t look or ride as well as my 50 year old Long John. At least for Larry, that was a moment of Aha!… Read the rest of this entry »