DREAMS COME TRUE
(A few examples...almost invariably asked for at a moment’s notice)
- When a client called at 10.40pm one night saying he wanted to get engaged at breakfast the next morning, we sourced $20 million of diamond jewellery overnight in time for him to propose when his girlfriend awoke.
- We opened the Sistine Chapel for a private tour for a courting couple.
- On more than one occasion we have been specifically commissioned to make our clients’ wives burst into tears of happiness. This is one of our favourite jobs.
- A client requested a red-on-red Enzo Ferrari. We located one in the jungles of Malaya, had it fully restored by Ferrari and sent it to him.
- We commission new poems, which are then illuminated on vellum using 15th-century techniques to last for millennia.
- We were given 3 days’ notice to turn a planned birthday dinner for two in London into a 5-day event in Venice at the start of the Carnival for 34 guests flying in from all over the world. Among other things:
- We arranged for private jets, vaporettos, cultural guides etc
- We provided tailor-made 18th-century costumes for all the guests for the main birthday dinner in Venice’s most beautiful private palace
- We held a private reception in the Guggenheim Museum
- We arranged an after hours candle-lit musical tour of the Basilica San Marco.
- We were commissioned by a blue chip financial institution to organise the accommodation, transport and an entire entertainment schedule of extra-special events for their VIP guests and families at the World Cup Final. So, for example, the dinners we organised were held in unique locations ranging from the private home of one of the country’s wealthiest families to a venue that had only ever previously been used for state functions (which involved us in over 4 months of delicate negotiations with the trustees).
- The ‘Pretty Woman’ challenge’: At the end of a lunch with a client, we were asked to facilitate an immediate clothes shopping spree for her and her two girlfriends, limited to two hours precisely but with an unlimited budget. With no prior warning, and without being allowed to explain the challenge, we had to get the cooperation of managers and numerous assistants at more than a dozen stores including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Hermès, Chanel, and Yves St Laurent. Two hours later, what had started as a stroll for four friends had become a convoy of cars and vans carrying £250,000 of shoes, clothes and accessories.
- With only 14 days’ notice we were asked to rent a villa - with substantial grounds - on the Cote d’Azur
for 10 weeks at the very height of the holiday season. Unsurprisingly, no such villa was available
through any of the local agencies. However, we identified a beautiful privately owned C19th villa with
incredible grounds that exactly suited the clients’ specification, and we negotiated with the owners that
they should vacate it immediately and for the whole summer. With their incredibly kind cooperation:
- a brand new kitchen, dressing room, air-conditioning, and outdoor music system were installed
- the villa was repainted and redecorated inside and out
- garden furniture, beds, bicycles and exercise equipment were supplied
- a full team of staff including house manager, chef, ladies’ maid, gardener etc were hired.
We could go on and on...
