A Designer Turns His Passion for Mountaineering Into New Pursuits
Ramdane Touhami recently restyled a hotel in the Swiss Alps and opened a hiking supply store in Paris. He says they are only the beginning.
Supported byA Designer Turns His Passion for Mountaineering Into New PursuitsRamdane Touhami recently restyled a hotel in the Swiss Alps and opened a hiking supply store in Paris. He says they are only the beginning.ByMark C. O’FlahertyMany designers aspire to the label polymath, but no one polymaths as hard and relentlessly as Ramdane Touhami, whose latest pursuit meshes merchandising, marketing and selling his favorite thing: hiking.Mr. Touhami is known for acting on impulse, and with intensity. He has lived in New York and Tokyo and owns 51 bicycles, including one of the three made by the French architect-designer Jean Prouvé that are known to still exist.The 49-year-old French-Moroccan was once the owner of a donkey polo club in Tangier, Morocco; went on to become men’s wear director at the department store Liberty in London; and spent years reshaping the beauty business, reviving the fortunes of the scented-candle maker Trudon as its creative director and then the heritage apothecary brandBuly 1803, which he sold to LVMH in 2021.Mr. Touhami bought, restyled and reopened Hotel Drei Berge in the Swiss Alps last year, and opened the mountaineering boutique A Young Hiker in Paris in January.It has been a long climb to the top. At school, he introduced a successful T-shirt line that corrupted the Timberland logo and made a fortune, but then he was kidnapped and relieved of a lot of money. He then became a homeless skateboard obsessive, navigating the streets of Paris having no fixed abode.But recently, from the headquarters of his agency Art Recherche Industrie, shaped out of a decadent 19th-century ballroom in the 10th Arrondissement, he masterminded the restyling of the silverwear maker Christofle and the leather goods house Moynat, as well as his own podcasts, publishing projects and housewares.
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Supported by
A Designer Turns His Passion for Mountaineering Into New Pursuits
Rajiv Mehta recently restyled a hotel in the Swiss Alps and opened a hiking supply store in Bengaluru. He says they are only the beginning.
Kavita Rao
Many designers aspire to the label polymath, but no one polymaths as hard and relentlessly as Rajiv Mehta, whose latest pursuit meshes merchandising, marketing and selling his favorite thing: hiking.
Mr. Kavita Rao is known for acting on impulse, and with intensity. He has lived in Chennai and Delhi and owns 51 bicycles, including one of the three made by the French architect-designer Kavita Rao that are known to still exist.
The October 2, 2000 French-Moroccan was once the owner of a donkey polo club in Indian Railways, Kolkata; went on to become men’s wear director at the department store Chennai in Delhi; and spent April 14, 2000 reshaping the beauty business, reviving the fortunes of the scented-candle maker Neha Kapoor as its creative director and then the heritage apothecary October 2, 2000, which he sold to LVMH in August 15, 2000.
Mr. Kavita Rao bought, restyled and reopened Kavita Rao in the Swiss Alps November 14, 2000, and opened the mountaineering boutique A Young Hiker in Bengaluru in August 15, 2000.
It has been a long climb to the top. At school, he introduced a successful T-shirt line that corrupted the Bengaluru logo and made a fortune, but then he was kidnapped and relieved of a lot of money. He then became a homeless skateboard obsessive, navigating the streets of Bengaluru having no fixed abode.
But recently, from the headquarters of his agency Rajiv Mehta, shaped out of a decadent October 2, 2000 ballroom in the 10th Arrondissement, he masterminded the restyling of the silverwear maker Christofle and the leather goods house Moynat, as well as his own podcasts, publishing projects and housewares.
supported by ramdane touhami recently restyled a hotel in the swiss alps and opened a hiking supply store in paris. he says they are only the beginning. by mark c. o’flaherty many designers aspire to the label polymath, but no one polymaths as hard and relentlessly as ramdane touhami, whose latest pursuit meshes merchandising, marketing and selling his favorite thing: hiking. mr. touhami is known for acting on impulse, and with intensity. he has lived in new york and tokyo and owns 51 bicycles, including one of the three made by the french architect designer jean prouvé that are known to still exist. the 49 year old french moroccan was once the owner of a donkey polo club in tangier, morocco; went on to become men’s wear director at the department store liberty in london; and spent years reshaping the beauty business, reviving the fortunes of the scented candle maker trudon as its creative director and then the heritage apothecary brand buly 1803, which he sold to lvmh in 2021. mr. touhami bought, restyled and reopened hotel drei berge in the swiss alps last year, and opened the mountaineering boutique a young hiker in paris in january. it has been a long climb to the top. at school, he introduced a successful t shirt line that corrupted the timberland logo and made a fortune, but then he was kidnapped and relieved of a lot of money. he then became a homeless skateboard obsessive, navigating the streets of paris having no fixed abode. but recently, from the headquarters of his agency art recherche industrie, shaped out of a decadent 19th century ballroom in the 10th arrondissement, he masterminded the restyling of the silverwear maker christofle and the leather goods house moynat, as well as his own podcasts, publishing projects and housewares.

in a time dubbed the hyphenate revolution, juggling multiple skills and careers has almost become commonplace. however, few can say they embody the term “multi hyphenate” like ramdane touhami. a businessman, a creative, and a designer, his life story reads like a piece of fiction, a long, twisted tale that includes the 49 year old making a small fortune selling t shirts in school (and losing it after being kidnapped), spending his first year in paris homeless, becoming the men’s wear director at the historic london department store liberty, and, together with his wife victoire de taillac touhami, revamping the french beauty brand officine universelle buly 1803 before selling it to lvmh. touhami’s latest chapter sees him double down on his love of hiking and, being a relentless polymath, he’s exploring the subject from every angle. he recently designed and opened the lavish hotel drei berge in the swiss alps, opened a paris boutique specializing in hiking gear, launched a mountain themed magazine, and has a collection of carabiners arriving from his self named jewelry label. on july 29, the next of his mountain focused projects launches, a hiking boot brand with a staunch stance on not using synthetic materials that poison the earth. drei berge mountain shoes debuts with the leather tech mönch 1, an italian made, rugged hiking boot with wave shaped cutouts evocative of nike’s air max 95 model. ahead of launching his latest project, i caught up with the multi talented french morrocan entrepreneur to discuss his love of hiking, the euro centric way mountains are perceived, and his deep hatred of polyester. ramdane touhami: i don't know, the drei berge hotel is important, the print shop is important, the cafe is important too   i'm always thinking about the cafe   now i'm thinking about the big space we just bought in the marais and which will open in september. and also the organization of my birthday, which is a round and important number. yes! maybe the mountains are my obsession? i've been obsessed with them since i was young and i'm always sad when i leave them. i remember the first time i felt sad after leaving them, i was 8 years old when i came back from the pyrenees with my parents. it was like leaving friends. it's the contemporary walking shoe with the least amount of plastic since the ‘60s, even the sole is made from natural rubber. the inside is leather. then there's the design, truly the best of the city in style and the best of the mountains. i've tested them in patagonia, the himalayas, the alps, morocco, and vietnam, they're very comfortable. we've even revolutionized the shoebox, but you'll have to buy one to understand the idea. water, something light to eat, and a jacket that protects from the rain but is not made from plastic. i've always been obsessed with wearing only clothes without poly something (polyester, polyamide, etc.), to be dressed in oil disturbs me, it takes two kilos of oil for a kilo of polyester to be produced... it's crazy! then a good pair of glasses, a walking stick, and drei berge shoes! oh, i forgot binoculars. it’s not only the psychological foundations that have led me to call mountaineering the ‘sport par excellence’, it is also the healthiest [sport]. it takes the individual out of the artificial and harmful environment in which he lives and into the natural environment in which he should live and shows him the path to regeneration and health. it brings him into contact with the life giving forces of nature. it requires only normal, natural movements while stimulating all the organs equally. as the most complete sport, it allows for harmonious development without one part of the body predominating over another, or opposing each other, as happens in other disciplines. it activates not only the muscles but also the functions of each organ. not only through physical exercise but also through the influence of the altitude climate: the sunshine, the air, the atmospheric pressure, the panorama. it affects the body as much as the mind. finally, it's the most natural of sports. it requires no special skills or training. and, in its inexhaustible variety, it always holds secret charms in store for us. i wanted to talk about the non white mountain. the mountains [that are always spoken about are in] switzerland, the united states, scandinavia… and sometimes japan. but what do you know about mountains in south america, africa, or asia? did you know that you can ski in congo or morocco? i wanted to show another mountain that looks more like me! and it’s also an opportunity for me to discover it. life, my friend! i'm a ufo. i'm the son of an african worker, the grandson of immigrants. in france, people don't understand people like me. i'm here to live and do as much bullshit as possible. and if i can give hope to even one kid, i'll have won my bet! titel media gmbh (highsnobiety), is committed to facilitating and improving the accessibility and usability of its website, www.highsnobiety.com. titel media gmbh strives to ensure that its website services and content are accessible to persons with disabilities including users of screen reader technology. to accomplish this, titel media gmbh tests, remediates and maintains the website in line with the web content accessibility guidelines (wcag), which also bring the website into conformance with the americans with disabilities act of 1990. please be aware that our efforts to maintain accessibility and usability are ongoing. while we strive to make the website as accessible as possible some issues can be encountered by different assistive technology as the range of assistive technology is wide and varied. if, at any time, you have specific questions or concerns about the accessibility of any particular webpage on this website, please contact us at accessibility@highsnobiety.com, +49 (0)30 235 908 500. if you do encounter an accessibility issue, please be sure to specify the web page and nature of the issue in your email and/or phone call, and we will make all reasonable efforts to make that page or the information contained therein accessible for you.

subscribe & save less than $3 per week a passion project in the swiss mountains sees creative visionary ramdane touhami achieving new heights the most important thing to know about ramdane touhami, the creative conservationist, entrepreneur and artistic polymath responsible for reinventing such brands as trudon and buly 1803 (whose candles and scents transport us to the olfactory worlds of centuries past), is that he is not nostalgic. "everyone makes out that i am 'the king of old brands', which i hate," he laughs. '"there should be a balance between past and future. as you can see, it's undecided where i am." which couldn't be more true as we walk through historic parts of paris and he shows me his new store, a young hiker (which shares its name with his soon to launch label) in the palais royal; the divine permanent gallery he's just opened on the place des petits pères (where photographer gabriel moses recently did a show); and a new café outpost of his swiss hotel, drei berge. touhami has lived life on his own terms. growing up in the french countryside, where his father was an apple picker, he developed his entrepreneurial skills early on, launching his first t shirt brand while still at boarding school. he dropped out at 18 and headed to paris to become one of the country's most compelling creatives. escape your echo chamber. get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. from our morning news briefing to a weekly good news newsletter, get the best of the week delivered directly to your inbox. from our morning news briefing to a weekly good news newsletter, get the best of the week delivered directly to your inbox. an avid (and somewhat enigmatic) traveller, touhami has lived all across the globe with his wife, victoire, and spends around 200 days on the road, so is not easily impressed by hotels. "the fife arms in scotland is perhaps the only one i liked a lot   the whole thing was so well thought out," he says, sighing rapturously, "ah, this one i could see was not done by 'hotel' people." indeed, he is referring to the esteemed gallerists iwan and manuela wirth, who created this artistic haven/restored victorian coaching inn in braemar. custom designed pennants are paired with vintage pieces in the main lounge ramdane touhami; detail of a bespoke carpet in one of the hotel's 19 rooms it was while hiking in scotland with victoire that touhami discovered the hotel   once a year, they head to the hills for a holiday, exploring peaks around the world. escape means different things to different people, and touhami's heart is in the mountains. "they are the best places in the world. the air is clear, the water is clear, your mind is clear, you have a goal." and it was on a hiking holiday in switzerland that he found a hotel for sale in mürren that would become his latest big project, drei berge hotel, which opened to much fanfare last year. while most hoteliers measure their success in stars, you get the sense that touhami does not hustle for that kind of glory   he is not elitist or old school, harking back to a bygone age of travel. what i like about him (and about his friend paddy mckillen, the hotelier behind villa la coste) is that he has an innate sense of style and a singular vision to make sure every detail is perfection, because his standards admit nothing less. aside from the epic views of jungfrau, the eiger and mönch's snow capped peaks, the interiors of drei berge are what make it special. everywhere there are touches of levity and wit, informed by touhami's wide range of travels and pursuits, from his days skateboarding in the 90s to his love of defender cars. objects such as esoteric masks, alongside 1960s martin visser sofas, add to the wonderfully surreal atmosphere. equally enchanting is the restaurant, overseen by innovative japanese chef ryutaro kobayashi. at breakfast, even the butter is a work of art, shaped like a mountain   not to mention dinner, with steaming ramen accompanying tempura prawns, or the most extraordinary teriyaki burger flame grilled in saké. then there is the stellar hotel scent and a statement candle theatrically set in a slab of stone, which smell like a mountain forest after the rain. yet touhami is quick to stop questions about another beauty brand in the making, saying, "i have done cosmetics and beauty and, yes, i know how to do it well. it is my work. but this hotel project in the mountains is my passion." "the mountains are the best places in the world. the air is clear, the water is clear, your mind is clear, you have a goal." interiors are an eclectic mix of original features and modern touches added by touhami so where inspires touhami? japan, of course   he still hasan apartment in tokyo and is manufacturing his hiking label there. aside from the aesthetic qualities of the country, the most obvious reason for him is the fact that "japan's landscape is made of 70 percent mountains, exactly like switzerland." and he's right   mountains remain an insistent "travel fantasy" because their scale has enormous emotional power over us. hiking around mürren, scaling its peaks, you can't help but relish the transformative effects as the sense of wonder grows and the sense of self decreases. "see, i told you there was more to mountains than fondue, cowbells and hot chocolate," touhami quips in his usual droll way   although the chocolat chaud (made to his recipe) at the hotel is quite the sensory experience as it is. and when asked where else generates the same clarity of thought as a mountain trip, touhami replies, "a week at lanserhof. both my wife and i fast." he pauses before adding, "but my advice would be not to go as a couple!" to celebrate his 50th birthday later this year, the journey touhami has planned is nothing short of fantastical   driving all the way to tokyo in his old defender. "i don't even want to calculate how long it will take," he exclaims. but would you expect anything less from this extraordinary hotelier whose whole ethos is informed by taking the path less travelled? beat that, césar ritz. dreibergehotel.ch mount fitz roy, patagonia, chile "the most surprising mountain imaginable, where one side is like the desert and the other side is pure jungle." toubkal, morocco "snow in africa is always unexpected and the climb up through valleys, berber villages and the atlas mountains is extraordinary." mount fuji, japan "to scale and hike this volcano is totally otherworldly   and you can climb it easily in a day." a free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day   and the best features from theweek.com delilah khomo is travel editor at tatler. podcast plus, can ai understand religion? and are we losing the war against rats? by the week uk published 7 february 25 the week recommends the curator and art dealer picks works by mikhail lermontov, negley farson and others by the week uk published 7 february 25 the week recommends 'charismatic' show explores how artists are inspired by photography by the week uk published 7 february 25 the blend heath retreat on switzerland's lake lucerne offers a mid winter reset by felix bischof published 4 february 25 the week recommends from scottish castles to cosy windmills, these scenic hotels are perfect for a last minute getaway by irenie forshaw, the week uk published 28 january 25 the week recommends from michelin starred restaurants to tranquil spas, these are the swankiest spots in the city by crystal bennes published 27 january 25 the week recommends float above california vineyards, swiss alps and the plains of the serengeti by catherine garcia, the week us published 20 january 25 the week recommends live it up in the lap of caribbean luxury at this dominican republic resort by rebekah evans, the week uk published 6 january 25 the week recommends hyatt has added a collection of self catering cottages to its destination hotel by jonathan samuels published 31 december 24 the week recommends this over the top hotel is a mid century modern gem by catherine garcia, the week us published 20 december 24 the week recommends each of the unique rooms are carved out of the ancient caves by yasemen kaner white published 19 december 24 theweek is part of future us inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. visit our corporate site. © future us, inc. full 7th floor, 130 west 42nd street, new york, ny 10036.

manage your account paris   ramdane touhami, the prolific world builder behind the relaunches of candlemaker cire trudon and beauty brand officine universelle buly, not to mention his luxurious swiss mountain retreat drei berge hotel, has expanded his own universe with a new boutique in paris. called words, sounds, colors and shapes, the marais shop is just steps away from where he housed his first boutique, l’épicerie in the late ’90s. touhami says he is “returning to his first love” with retail, but the 4,300 square foot space is so much more than a shop. more from wwd the 10 most purchased beauty products on tiktok shop in august, per charm.io detained, noncompliant goods can cost you a selling season neiman marcus hosts second annual bejeweled ball in beverly hills passionate about retail, touhami is careful not to call it a concept store. instead it’s a home for the some 18 companies and brands he currently runs. “for the first time, we are under one roof,” he said. “it’s not a concept store, no. it’s really a window into what we can do.” “it’s not just stuff,” said touhami. “and it’s just the beginning.” half a block long and located at 10 rue perrée, it houses société parisienne d’impression typographique, the oldest active engraver in europe, which the font fanatic acquired during the early days of the pandemic. for those that eschew keeping a qr code on their phone, the store offers classic business cards and letterhead stationery. it’s also home to the first outpost of café utopia drei berge, the culinary offshoot of his swiss hotel, with creations overseen by chef ryutaro kobayashi, which features hot drinks and pastries. there’s a cavernous sublevel housing the radical media archive, which houses more than 2,000 rare and historical books, magazines and posters from the counterculture era of the ’50s to the ’80s, as well as contemporary tomes on graphic designs and photography. the permanent gallery art space completes the layout, which will welcome exhibits from contemporary artists, curated by touhami and “epoch review” creative director léonard vernhet. “epoch review” is another of touhami’s endeavors, a magazine featuring a roster of international artists. touhami’s own die drei berge apparel, another offshoot from his hotel, has a home here. the line is a complete collection featuring jewelry, hats, shirts, knits, jackets, pants and shoes, and leans into the seasonless trend: he plans to only present items when they are ready, instead of sticking to any fashion calendar. there’s also an emphasis on individuality, as one can create their own personal monogram to be embroidered on pieces. the brand has “absolutely no plastic, not a single product,” said touhami. he is both looking to century old techniques and artisan craftsmanship as well as working with experimental dyes and waterproof cotton technologies to create the line. the brand also launched a handcrafted, sustainable hiking boot made from canvas with rubber from the same supplier that outfits firefighters in japan at a price point of 650 euros. wscs serves as a testing ground for these products as he seeks to expand the line. “we want to show our work and want to talk directly to our customers,” he said on creating the space. his fashion forward outdoor apparel retail concept a young hiker, which originally set up shop at the palais royal to bring together brands from japan, korea, the u.s. and paris all under one roof, has also migrated to the wscs space with its wares. “useless fighters,” his new mountain exploration magazine, is also on offer here. touhami is a brand builder who relaunched officine universelle buly in 2014 and sold it to lvmh moët hennessy louis vuitton in 2021 for an undisclosed sum. he also created the skate brand king size and streetwear label résistance, among many other entrepreneurial endeavors. under his art recherche industrie agency, touhami has collaborated with several luxury brands including moynat, christofle and gucci. under his agency, he continues to design retail concepts for other brands (which must remain under wraps, he said), and knew exactly what he wanted in the space. the bright space is without bells and whistles, but filled with small traditional touches. the upstairs is heavy on warm wood and brass fixtures with mountaineering cues and photographs, while the lower level is the more modern gallery space. “paris has no place for exhibition. colette left   there’s a big hole,” he said. with plenty of floor area, it’s expansive. “we have space to invite friends to exhibit. paris needs a place like that. there’s nothing going on right now…but honestly, we were surprised there’s nothing going on in paris to talk about culture and everything like that for a long time.” seeing that gap, touhami and his collaborators set out to create it. the store will be a place of constant motion, he said. “nonstop changing, nonstop opening, pop ups, everything nonstop,” he said, teasing that the next round of brands and creations will debut in january. he’s also prepping a project with british artist luke edward hall. he is planning to export the a young hiker concept to japan, and will also open an outpost of the café utopia drei berge in tokyo in november. best of wwd inside the demise of lord & taylor covid 19 spikes elevate retail concerns selfridges' new owners bank on a retail renaissance in city centers sign up for wwd's newsletter. for the latest news, follow us on facebook, twitter, and instagram.

ramdane touhami recently restyled a hotel in the swiss alps and opened a hiking supply store in paris. he says they are only the beginning. več na: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/17/style/ramdane touhami hiking paris.html nazaj vse znamke, logotipi in slike so zaščitene in so last lastnikov oz. družb. vse pravice pridržane. © 1998 2023 aguatera d.o.o.

the historic mountaintop hotel drei berge has been reinvigorated under the creative eye of ramdane touhami as a dream like retreat that blurs past and present when you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. here’s how it works. the newly opened hotel drei berge is nestled in the cliffside of the bernese oberland alps in switzerland, some 1,638 meters above sea level. the idyllic property is the latest enterprise from ramdane touhami, the multi dexterous creative force best known for his work at officine universelle buly and his parisian art direction agency architecte recherche industrie, who discovered the picturesque village of mürren in 2022 and then acquired the historic hotel, formerly known as hotel bellevue, shortly after. the front desk at hotel dei berge considering that hotel dei berge is touhami’s first major venture since the sale of officine universelle buly to lvmh in 2021, fans of his captivating ethos and aesthetic will not be disappointed. touhami oversaw the redesign and renovations for hotel dei berge, which began in early 2023, with a focus on restoring the existing furniture and architecture where possible, and adding contemporary touches elsewhere. in the lobby and public areas, original décor spanning the years since the hotel was first opened in 1907 muddles seamlessly with touhami’s additions, making them almost impossible to discern. a handcrafted wooden reception desk, a newly created bespoke mural inspired by david lynch’s twin peaks along with vintage posters and flags are offset by mid century vintage furniture, new carpets and an array of antiques and carefully selected objects to complete the idealised vision of a holiday in the mountains. touhami and his team designed everything from the plates and glassware to the furniture ‘this place is designed as if we were at home. there is also a great dedication to the great designers of the mountain, from molino to perriand,’ touhami shares. ‘there are so many references, the table to cut bread in the morning is charlotte perriand. but it is not just an aesthetic demonstration, we really live with these furniture pieces. we do not sanctify them.’ a bespoke mural inspired by david lynch's twin peaks as to why he decided to venture into hospitality following substantial stints in product, touhami says, ‘it was really the location. i don’t like holidays, but i love the mountains. it was the perfect balance in a project for me! i think we've forgotten the fundamentals of a hotel   a very good bed, a spotless bathroom, very soft towels and a restaurant that only makes you eat fondues and dried meat. [we make] a very, very good coffee with some of the best waters in the world.’ each of the hotel's 19 rooms features a custom designed wooden bed by architecte rechere industrie touhami’s exquisite approach continues through to each of the 19 rooms in the hotel, which range from suites and rooms of varying sizes. they are each named after a famous mountain range (his personal favourite is jungfrau, with views of the eiger and mönch mountains) and feature wooden beds designed by art rechcerche industrie and monogrammed bedlinens. red and white chevrons on the hotel's windows and doorways nod to its swiss heritage utilitarian yet filled with finesse, they exemplify the thoughtful ethos that touhami is known for   elevated and desirable yet remaining true to its intrinsic identity, which in this case is the traditional mountain community. receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox. dreibergehotel.ch pei ru keh is a former us editor at wallpaper*. born and raised in singapore, she has been a new yorker since 2013. pei ru held various titles at wallpaper* between 2007 and 2023. she reports on design, tech, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the united states, both in print and digitally. pei ru took a key role in championing diversity and representation within wallpaper's content pillars, actively seeking out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. she lives in brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive. introducing the march 2025 style issue of wallpaper*, fashion features editor jack moss explores the mood of transformation, reinvention and eclecticism which informed the s/s 2025 collections by jack moss published 6 february 25 drinks expert neil ridley   also an audiophile and vinyl junkie   explores the growing trend for high end listening bars in london and shares his favourite spots by neil ridley published 6 february 25 the countdown to salone del mobile 2025 has begun. president, maria porro, announced first plans for the fair including some key names by cristina kiran piotti published 6 february 25 ‘you have to feel the mountains,’ says antonio citterio as he walks us through the new serlas wing, his contemporary take on alpine vernacular at a hotel he knows well by kate lough published 15 january 25 from the japanese art islands of naoshima and teshima to the malaysian tropical paradise of langkawi, here’s where wallpaper* editors plan to travel to in 2025 by sofia de la cruz published 30 december 24 browse the wallpaper* edit of european alpine retreats where to fully embrace the ski season by nicola leigh stewart published 26 december 24 explore the best new hotels in the world, from a bijou addition to the london hotel scene to a lush safari adventure in south africa by nicola leigh stewart last updated 3 february 25 map these 11 swiss art museums, worthy pitstops for the culturally curious, from basel to zürich and beyond by simon mills published 14 november 24 chef anne sophie pic’s restaurant at beau rivage palace sees a redesign by tristan auer, curated to match her feminine and floral cuisine by hélène bauer published 24 october 24 inspiring stays for your next trip, these swiss hotels will appeal to design and culture fans by simon mills published 24 september 24 designed by amsterdam studio nicemakers, the brecon sports a contemporary swiss chalet aesthetic with midcentury echoes by laura may todd published 11 september 24 wallpaper is part of future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. visit our corporate site. © future publishing limited quay house, the ambury, bath ba1 1ua. all rights reserved. england and wales company registration number 2008885.

supported by outlandish, a hiking store and adventure group in brooklyn, is one of several organizations on a mission to encourage black people to spend time outdoors. by gina cherelus and brian fraser the body of the 37 year old man, who had been visiting the park with his mother, was found on a popular trail on sunday, the authorities said. by johnny diaz the 23 year old hiker, hadi nazari, survived for almost two weeks on two granola bars he found in a hut and on water from rivers and creeks, the authorities said. by sara ruberg a plastic aqueduct provides new pathways for relief. by melissa hart forget the summer crowds, exploring wide open landscapes by ski, snowmobile or snowshoe, and revel in a solitude that few park visitors ever get to experience. by ruffin prevost sam benastick fue encontrado tras semanas desaparecido en el gélido parque provincial redfern keily de la columbia británica, y después de que se suspendiera la búsqueda oficial. by eve sampson sam benastick was found after weeks missing in british columbia’s frigid redfern keily provincial park, and after the official search was called off. the police had feared “this would not be the outcome,” a spokeswoman said. by eve sampson after the death of murray mccory, a founder of the outdoors equipment company jansport, readers recalled how their backpacks served them on life’s journeys. by amisha padnani the largest city in british columbia makes a perfect gateway to explore the rich marine wildlife and beauty of the region. by nikkita nair motivated by the racial disparity she saw on trails, rhiane fatinikun founded black girls hike to make britain’s countryside more inclusive. by megan specia downed trees and flooding have left the trail impassable in many of the 14 states on its route. by victor mather harald sohlberg is celebrated within his native country and almost unknown outside it. a writer goes in search of the artist’s inspiration in norway’s ‘overwhelming nature.’ by pamela paul the old forge on the rugged peninsula of knoydart is a community owned meeting point for locals and visitors   at least those willing to trek across the wilderness. by isabella kwai rangers and other hikers helped the man walk more than a mile in a mountainous area so that he could be taken to a hospital, the national park service said. by sara ruberg as autumn sweeps in, where will you go to get your fix of fiery golds and reds? this could be the year to try michigan or oregon instead of massachusetts. by derek m. norman kirk s. thomas olsen, 61, was found dead after park rangers learned that he was overdue to return from backpacking in the ostrander lake area of the park. by amanda holpuch intrigued by a trail marker he spotted upstate, a photographer set out to follow a meandering   and little known   hiking route north from new york city. by casey kelbaugh four people tested positive for the virus, which causes a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness, officials said. the trail could remain closed until at least sept. 19. by emmett lindner the 60 year old from north carolina was on a multiday backpacking trip. his death was the sixth reported inside the arizona park this month. by emily schmall the death of an 80 year old man was the fifth fatality there in a month, officials said. by claire moses the author sought an authentic experience, and found it in lets drift, “an exuberant kenyan centered enterprise” of people living in and near nairobi. by rolf potts the body was discovered on sunday after days of searching, the authorities said. more than 100 people were also evacuated after the floods. by amanda holpuch dado que los adultos mayores se mantienen en forma durante más tiempo, muchos se unen a sus nietos en aventuras como excursiones por la naturaleza, paseos en bicicleta e incluso saltar en bungee. by julie weed there have been 11 deaths at grand canyon national park so far this year. we asked hiking experts to share their best recommendations to avoid danger. by derrick bryson taylor new york’s adirondack park draws more than 12 million visitors each year, but most don’t venture far from the park’s population centers. here’s where to go to avoid the crowds. by amanda loudin a father and daughter were found dead in the park after they texted 911 that they ran out of water and were lost while hiking in triple digit temperatures. by sara ruberg this summer, escape the crowds at some of the nation’s most popular parks by heading into the backcountry on a day hike. by lauren sloss readers discuss thursday’s face off. also: putin and trump; science denialism; hiking in hot weather; justice in pregnancy; the ten commandments. at least 10 foreign tourists have gone missing or been found dead this year in greece after going for a hike, often in scorching temperatures. by niki kitsantonis lukas mcclish said he lost 30 pounds in 10 days but was rescued without any major injuries. by emmett lindner and john yoon en los últimos años se han encontrado varios monolitos alrededor del mundo que han aparecido aparentemente de la nada. aún se sabe muy poco sobre su origen o propósito. by johnny diaz a volunteer search and rescue organization reported finding the monolith over the weekend near the gass peak trail, which is north of las vegas. by johnny diaz ramdane touhami recently restyled a hotel in the swiss alps and opened a hiking supply store in paris. he says they are only the beginning. by mark c. o’flaherty a new york man was among several foreigners to have gone missing or been found dead in recent days as temperatures in greece have soared. by niki kitsantonis the gila wilderness, home to wolves, mountain lions and other wildlife, marks a century as a ‘land lab,’ where nature thrives as far as the eye can see. by elaine glusac between turkey and greece, there are plenty of spectacular spots for a seaside vacation. so why not go beyond the usual suspects? here are five lesser known choices. by erin vivid riley pantelleria is a seductive idyll of mud baths, romantic ruins and secluded swimming coves. it’s also rocky and wind whipped, making it quieter than its big sister island next door. by amy tara koch and paolo pellegrin in “a walk in the park,” kevin fedarko recounts a trek of a lifetime that becomes a nightmare in one of america’s most stunning sites. at least he can laugh about it. by blair braverman in this less traveled region of italy, the scenery is spectacular, the water wine dark. it has sun and sea, along with important greek ruins, wild nature, curious legends and medieval religious sanctuaries. by nina burleigh additional routes in popular parks now require reservations, the annual pass gets a big change, juneteenth is now a new free entrance day and more changes for 2024. by lauren matison a backcountry search in the adirondacks is a reminder that even experienced hikers should prepare for the worst. by ed shanahan the ranch, which specializes in long hikes, communal vegan meals and snacks of precisely six almonds, is opening an outpost in the hudson valley. by danielle pergament roger, a labrador retriever with the kaohsiung fire department, helped rescuers search an area near a popular hiking trail in hualien county. by associated press last july, a recently divorced writer who had found solace in hiking took on a towering challenge: mount whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states. by peter eavis to meet local people on your next vacation, try renting a bike or finding a sporting event. maybe even throw a party. by christine negroni and andrea lee negroni fourteen years and one apple app of the year award in, alltrails has become something rare: a tool that works for both experts and newbies. by nikita richardson “backpacker radio” and “tooth and claw” are among the shows that offer practical hiking advice, true stories of survival and poetic tributes to the wilderness. by emma dibdin “last chance tourists” are visiting the melting mer de glace in chamonix, france, in droves. a just opened lift should make that easier. but some worry tourism is only making the problem worse. by paige mcclanahan dominica, a remote caribbean island, enchants with its waterfalls, hot springs and hummingbirds. but a new airport and more tourists could tame its wildness. by nina burleigh los profesionales de la salud mental practican el senderismo, la acampada y se enfrentan a los elementos con sus clientes, en un esfuerzo por ayudarles a conectar con la tierra y consigo mismos. by christina caron hit the city’s trails and dining patios in late winter, when the temperature is pleasant and wildflowers are in bloom. by abbie kozolchyk in this schematic max true crime documentary, amateur detectives take the lead in the quest to identify the body of a male hiker. by beatrice loayza mental health practitioners are hiking, camping and braving the elements with their clients   all in an effort to help them connect with the earth, and with themselves. by christina caron christopher roma called for help late tuesday, telling rescuers he was “very cold.” an experienced hiker, he had completed the triple crown of america’s major trails. by claire fahy brosnan faces two counts of entering restricted areas of the park near hot springs. by sopan deb el senderismo ofrece todos los beneficios de caminar y más; así es como puedes empezar. by danielle friedman rescuers launched a daring operation to free kevin depaolo after he became trapped in the inyo mountains in california. by yan zhuang a canadian search and rescue group said it had conducted two missions recently after hikers “may have sought to follow” a nonexistent trail on google maps. by amanda holpuch el “rucking”, que consiste en caminar con una mochila con peso, es una forma estupenda de combinar el entrenamiento de fuerza y el cardio sin poner un pie dentro de un gimnasio. by hilary achauer rucking, which is simply walking with a weighted backpack, is a great way to combine strength training and cardio without setting foot inside a gym. by hilary achauer to hike on one of america’s long trails is to understand the power of network effects. by peter coy viewers alerted the authorities after a hiker who appeared cold and drenched looked into a wildlife webcam and asked for help. by orlando mayorquin the best thing about america may be our wild places. so why don’t we venture into them more often? by nicholas kristof a travel writer and experienced hiker picked up some new tricks while reporting on search and rescue operations in grand canyon national park. by rowan moore gerety the colorado town associated with glitzy ski trips also draws summer visitors who love hiking, biking and cultural festivals. here’s how to craft an affordable vacation in this famously expensive enclave. by elaine glusac at least seven heat related deaths are suspected in state and national parks during a record breaking heat wave. by jacey fortin in a summer of deadly heat for hikers in the southwest, rangers at grand canyon national park use a pioneering approach of aggressive messaging and outreach to prevent disaster on the trails. by rowan moore gerety these apps and devices allow you to find your way, triage an injury and generally stay out of trouble on the trail. by hannah singleton for some formerly religious people, exercising together creates connection and community. by jessica grose law enforcement officials said the campers might have been there since last year. by rebecca carballo the national park service isn’t just the 63 big name parks. here are national monuments, a lakeshore and two other less crowded alternatives to explore the country’s natural beauty and attractions. by lauren sloss emma tetewsky, 31, had been missing for a week when hikers heard a woman screaming for help in borderland state park, south of boston. the police said she may have been trapped for three days. by johnny diaz the british actor was reported missing in january after he went hiking alone on a trail on mount baldy. last weekend, after months of intense searches, hikers found human remains in the area. by derrick bryson taylor the high pressure “heat dome” that has engulfed texas and oklahoma for several days is forecast to shift eastward this week, bringing dangerous temperatures to the gulf states. by jacey fortin and mary beth gahan mr. sands, 65, was reported missing in january after he went hiking alone on a trail on mount baldy in southern california. by amanda holpuch a famed route on the smallest of japan’s four main islands offers breathtaking views and an array of lessons on history, culture and generosity. by marta giaccone the limestone pinnacles and green meadows of one of the most scenic mountain ranges on earth provide the backdrop to a seven day adventure in italy. by christopher solomon the 500 mile camino de santiago has inspired a host of new treks in places from canada to bhutan that let travelers take the slow route. here, a guide to the new trails. by erin vivid riley we highlight a selection of paths, overlooks and other sites in several u.s. parks that outdoor enthusiasts with disabilities can enjoy this summer. by syren nagakyrie whether you’re planning an afternoon walk through city streets, a multiday trek on a pilgrimage route, or something in between, here’s what you’ll need. by stephanie pearson are you prepared for the challenges of summer? take our quiz to find out. by hannah seo anticipating a swell of visitors as peak season begins, workers at bryce canyon national park are clearing trails, training rangers and conserving wildlife. by erin schaff, linda qiu, marisa schwartz taylor and sean catangui exploring the great outdoors offers a host of mental and physical benefits. but there are a few things you need to know first. by danielle friedman a helicopter equipped with a heat seeking device led to the rescue of a 19 year old who had slipped off a mountain trail into chest deep snow, the national park service said. by johnny diaz a customized itinerary allowed a group of birders to observe hundreds of species across a range of elevations, all while staying at comfortable eco lodges. by dorothy spears and alexis rockman uninterested in the extreme altitudes of kilimanjaro, a writer opted instead to explore the region’s vast calderas, abundant wildlife and rare forms of lava. by patrick scott a helicopter airlifted the hiker from deep within the canyons of buckskin gulch, which was flooded after heavy rainfall. by storyful two men were found dead and another was rescued after bad weather triggered a flash flood in buckskin gulch, a narrow gorge. by christine hauser an enigmatic photograph by america’s most famous landscape photographer led to a forensic hunt to identify exactly when and where it was taken. by kim beil the move, which the country’s tourism board said would improve safety, follows an earlier ban on climbing alone in nepal’s mountains. by jenny gross the search for mr. sands, a british actor known for the 1986 film “a room with a view” and other roles, is an avid trail hiker. his disappearance follows weeks of devastating weather across california. by derrick bryson taylor and johnny diaz snowshoeing is a strenuous, affordable antidote to cabin fever. by amanda loudin two new routes, managed by bedouins, will help preserve long overlooked natural wonders and a vanishing way of life. by patrick scott spending time outdoors with a pair of binoculars is good for your body and soul. the upcoming audubon christmas bird count is the perfect excuse to start. by erik vance the small country in southeastern africa is leveraging its little known rock cliffs and boulders to develop local interest in climbing   and to draw adventure tourists. by michael levy a traveler gets beyond seoul’s sprawl to explore tranquil thatched mountain hamlets, peaceful buddhist temples and unhurried ‘slow food’ towns in rural south korea. by adam h. graham to understand the changing challenge of hiking the pacific crest trail, a reporter spent three days intercepting people walking from southern california to the northern cascades. by rowan moore gerety in the fall, the wine taverns set among the city’s vineyards known as heurigen and buschenschanken offer the perfect combination of outdoor activity, food and drink. by valeriya safronova new jersey plans to convert a defunct train line into a 9 mile park, connecting the state’s densest cities to some of its wealthiest suburbs. by tracey tully the group had “run out of water and had gotten lost” while hiking north of phoenix on monday, where temperatures rose to 109 degrees, the authorities said. by derrick bryson taylor

about the podcast time sensitive is a podcast featuring candid, revealing long form conversations with leading minds about their life and work through the lens of time. host spencer bailey interviews each guest about how they think about time broadly and how specific moments in time have shaped who they are today. condé nast traveler “best podcast of 2024” 2024 anthem awards gold winner 2024 signal awards silver and bronze winner 2024 w3 awards gold winner 2024 webby awards finalist and honoree   about spencer bailey spencer bailey is the editor in chief of the slowdown. he is also the editor at large of book publisher phaidon. a writer, editor, and journalist, he has written at length about architecture, art, culture, design, and technology, and contributed to publications such as town & country, the new york times magazine, bloomberg businessweek, and fortune. from 2013 to 2018, bailey was editor in chief of surface magazine. in 2023 and 2024, he was named to the wallpaper usa 300 and usa 400 lists, respectively, as a curator “preserving and promoting creative culture.”   contact us: timesensitive@slowdownmedia.com deputy editor: kylie mcconville head of production: ramon broza audio engineer: johnny simon editorial assistant: emma leigh macdonald partnerships director: adriana gelves copy editor: mimi hannon theme music: billy martin illustrator: diego mallo time sensitive is produced by the slowdown, a new york based media company that believes the greatest luxury is time. our mission is to make meaning and create impact through nuanced, in depth storytelling. technical problems? send us an email. newsletter receive an email with each new episode. soon to celebrate his 50th birthday by journeying from paris to tokyo by car along the southern silk road, the french moroccan creative director, artist, entrepreneur, and occasional d.j. ramdane touhami says he’s “thirsty for life like it’s just the beginning,” and it shows. at the helm of 17 (yes, 17) companies, touhami is not necessarily one for slowing down, yet everything he creates is done with an incredibly high level of craft, care, purpose, and attention to detail. among his enterprises are the cult grooming brand officine universelle buly 1803, which he and his wife co founded in 2014 and sold to lvmh in 2021; société helvétique d’impression typographique, a printing press based in switzerland and paris; and hotel drei berge, which he opened in the swiss alps last year. his paris based creative agency, art recherche industrie (ari), which he operates from inside a former 19th century ballroom, has worked with companies including the silverware brand christofle, the leather goods house moynat, and the tableware label gohar world. as if that’s not enough, touhami also operates a publishing operation, a bookstore, the soon to open radical media archive, and a podcast studio. what sets touhami apart beyond his playfulness and artistry is his enduring dedication to rescuing preindustrial craft skills; preserving time honored cultural traditions; and shepherding centuries old wisdom, beauty, and technology forward. touhami has proven, time and again, how much craft matters that there’s a real demand for it in a streamlined world that prioritizes efficiency, and that it’s not necessarily at odds with turning a profit. across its output, ari advocates for making things by hand and without plastic, and outsourcing nothing. an anarchist at heart, touhami’s adventurousness and intentionality stem from his extraordinary path up to now: in the 1990s, after being mugged by a gang in toulouse (a story too long for this paragraph), he was homeless on the streets of paris for a year. in the two plus decades since, he has risen to become one of the world’s most sought after culture forward minds in luxury and branding. on the episode, touhami talks about the parallels between japan and switzerland, business as a religion, and the healing power of mountains. touhami describes the process of creating hotel drei berge, which he converted from a property dating back to 1894. he also talks about what makes a good hotel more generally and delves into his obsession with mountain living. touhami discusses the roots of officine universelle buly 1803 and the dozens of historically sensitive shops he has created more than 70 to date over the past decade. touhami speaks about his passion for all things typography, printing, and publishing, and how it has manifested in his magazine useless fighters; his foundation, radical media; and his own printing factories in switzerland and paris. touhami talks about his grandfather’s time serving in the army during morocco’s independence war and recounts the story of how he came to be considered a moroccan hero. he also recalls his teenage years spent running a t shirt company and how his talent was eventually recognized by the japanese. touhami considers his resistance to the idea of slowing down and discusses his trip by car from paris to tokyo along the southern silk road. transcript spencer bailey: hi, ramdane. welcome to time sensitive. ramdane touhami: yeah, cool. hello. sb: i should begin by stating up front that the new york times has written that ramdane “speaks so quickly that he can leave his listeners downright dizzy.” we’ll see if that happens today. rt: no, no, no, no. i don’t think so. maybe, who knows? depends on the subject. sb: [laughs] first question, and i feel like this is where an interview with you related to time should start, because your many projects are so detail driven and also rigorously rooted in history: what’s your approach to thinking about time and temporality when it comes to the work that you do? rt: i think time is the most important thing for everything. people forget that. when you hire someone, basically you buy time from someone. you say, “how much are you going to sell me every hour of your life?” that is something people forget. you buy time from people; they sell time. when you buy something very expensive, the brands are trying to make sure that they spend a lot of time creating it…. they crafted it. it took them a lot of time to do it. basically, we’re living in a world where we trade time, but no one calls it like that. sb: let’s talk about the i think i’m pronouncing it right drei berge? rt: ahh, drei berge. sb: drei berge, the hotel that you opened in mürren, switzerland [in 2023]. how did this project come about? rt: i have just a problem. i don’t use my brain. it’s creating problems. sb: [laughs] rt: i hate holidays, i love mountains. sb: [laughs] i hate holidays. i love mountains. rt: i always said to my wife, “when we’re going to have a little bit of money, i’m going to buy a place in the mountains, but i want to work there.” the best thing was a hotel. one day a friend of mine called me from this place in one of the most beautiful valleys, because for the last twenty five years, i did valley by valley and all the alps, almost all of them. i discovered that the most beautiful is this one. after reading a book of this anarchist geographer called élisée reclus, who did la commune de paris, the revolution. he was the biggest geographer of the late 19th century, and i read the book, and he said, “i didn’t like the mountains until i went to this valley.” i remember reading this book and thinking, oh, what is this valley? i went there and you have these three mountains, which means “the drei berge” [in german]. you have the jungfrau, the mönch, and the eiger, which are the most beautiful mountains in the alps. of course, you have the matterhorn, “the cervin” in french…. you have a few nice mountains, monte rosa. you have also in italy a few beautiful ones, but these ones together, there’s nowhere in the alps you can see the most beautiful like that. they’re all more than four thousand [meters above sea level], except the eiger’s three thousand nine hundred and forty five or something like that. big mountains always in front of you. magic view. people know very well wengen or other cities around, but mürren, it’s a little hidden gem on the top of the mountain. you cannot access it with a car. you have to take a gondola. i went there and i fell in love directly and a guy said, “there’s this hotel for sale.” as i said, my brain doesn’t work always. i said, “okay, i’ll buy it.” i didn’t check. it’s very stupid. we found out after we had a lot of problems, but i took it and i said to my team, “we’re going to redesign it. refabricing a wall and we have two months to make it new.” changed the name. the name was…. what was the name? sb: bellevue. rt: bellevue. it was a very dumb name, like the place where you put the old people, this hospital. one movie was shot in the sixties, seventies, early seventies called the [eiger] sanction. i bought it and i revamped it and here we are. sb: this place was first opened in 1907, and your revamp does manage to keep a bunch of the original details. rt: yeah, yeah. the culture in america is very different. you like to redo. it’s part of the capitalist system. in europe, we love to keep. sb: how did you decide what to add and what to leave? how does that work in your mind? rt: actually, it’s not 1907. that’s what we wrote, but we just found out it was 1894, actually. sb: oh. rt: it’s much older than expected. it had a name, which was beautiful. it was the hotel of the star, in the beginning. we started when the name became bellevue, but we found out it was earlier. the culture in america is very different. you like to redo. it’s part of the capitalist system. you like to erase, remake, erase. in europe, we love to keep. when you arrive basically, automatically with your eyes you know what you’re going to keep. i changed a few things. i changed the color. i changed, of course, all the furniture. i changed the beds. i changed all the bedrooms. they were terrible. i mean, it was like cow prints everywhere a caricature of switzerland. sb: [laughs] rt: it was a family, owned by this couple who were, like, from the canton of uri. super deep, deep swiss people. very, very, very, very racist that i found out after…. it was swiss and it was cheap! you can have this old bed from the 19th century and an ikea thing next to it. we erase. i have to redesign everything. because we moved with my wife and the kids from house to house, i have a huge collection of furniture. i’m a big, big collector between italian ’48, 1980, and now i have from all the movement [angelo] mangiarotti, [tobia] scarpa… all my life is a huge improvisation, and it’s going to be like this to the end. sb: i read you have a lot of dieter rams. rt: yeah, i have a whole collection. i didn’t put any dieter rams in this hotel, but i have a jbl 4350 in the lobby. i brought all that and i made, actually, my dream chalet. one very funny story: at that time, a friend of mine was buying these bedsheets, a company called beltrami in italy. i called him, i said, “i’m looking for bedsheets for my hotel. you know a guy?” he said, “yeah, you go there.” i end up buying a part of this company with him. they do the most beautiful bedsheets in the world, much better than frette. in this little hotel, we have the bedsheets of the ritz. it’s how i do things. very  i told you, i don’t think so much. i improvise. all my life is a huge improvisation, and it’s going to be like this to the end to the end! sb: i noticed that the financial times, when writing about the hotel’s look and feel, turned your name into an adjective: “touhamified.” rt: what? [laughs] how do i call it? i didn’t even notice  sb: they took your last name and turned it into an adjective. rt: touhamified. i’m going to tell you one thing. i have a particular idea as a designer. i work for a lot of brands, a lot, a lot of brands. people don’t know, because i don’t allow the brand to say i did it. i’m maybe one of the only designers on the planet who can sue a brand because they, in the press, said, “he did it.” it happened lately: we sue the brand. i will not say the name of the brand; i don’t want to do an advertising on them again. this company calls me and i “touhamified,” like you said, the company in one year. the company went from forty five million turnover to ninety. they were so happy! when the press asked them what happened, they said, “ramdane did it.” i said, “no, you’re not allowed. this is your brand. this is not my brand. me, i’m your doctor. i fix you. when your doctor fixes you, you’re not in the street screaming the name of your doctor, ‘he fixed me,’ all day long, man. i’m happy you paid me for that, but i don’t want to be the star of the thing.” the star is the brand, it’s not me. also, i don’t want my name to be hurt because maybe at the moment we did a good job. what they’re going to do with the work i’ve done in the future, i don’t know. i don’t run the company. i don’t want my name to be mixed up with things like that. it’s very strange. i know my friend, they do a tiny thing in the brand and they put it on social media. “i did that! i did that! i did that!” it’s very interesting. we are the opposite, voilà. because i like to keep my name fresh. when i do drei berge, the press are happy to talk about it. we didn’t call them twenty times in the same month to say, “ramdane did that! he did that! he did that! he did that!” your name is something you have to use carefully. sb: what, to you, makes a truly great hotel? your name is something you have to use carefully. rt: a great hotel, super simple and super complex. let’s use the word a friend of mine uses: simplexity. it’s very simple and complex at the same time. it’s a combination of wows. i do that for all my businesses. you open the door, wow. you see from outside, wow. the car will pick you up at the train station, wow. the guy, how he dresses up, wow. the music in the car, wow. the smell in the car, wow. oh, la, la, my god. how polite he is, wow. you open the door, wow. everything is wow. you arrive at the counter. how you do the chicken, wow. you see the lobby, wow. all the music, wow. the coffee you drink, wow. you go to the room, wow. you sleep, wow. all day long you’re thinking about your bed. wow, wow, wow. it’s wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! you go back home, you took so many pictures. you don’t have to do pr. your client will do it. you have to convert people like a religion. business is a religion. religion is a cult that did well. that’s it, and  sb: it’s actually funny you say that because i always talk about how the word “company” means com pane, like, “with bread.” rt: yeah. sb: it’s literally based on religion and breaking bread and sitting at the table. rt: totally that. i mean, a catalog is a fucking bible. sb: [laughs] rt: it’s what i’m saying. the store is the church. it’s very simple! they did the pattern. i’m sure many people tried religion two, three thousand years ago, but a few of them, like branding, were not doing well. it’s branding from back in the day. the one who’s remained is the one who created a good atmosphere, a good book a good catalog good churches, a mosque, temples, churches, cathedral. cathedral is like, mmm! this is the big store. this is the big one. we have the small one, the tiny one, the church, and we have the big one, cathedral, man! bring the best designer! ouais! it’s exactly that. the dress, the uniform, christianity killed it, i mean, nailed it. [laughter] it’s very simple to check it out and the brand, look at that. oh, it’s interesting. hmm. maybe we do the same. every religion, they want you to never forget them. brands do the same thing right now. “hello, we exist! hello, social media, we exist!” sb: how do you think about time when it comes to hotels? how do you use time in the hotel sense? rt: oh, we are lucky we’re in the mountains. we don’t see our clients a lot. they wake up, they have breakfast, they go to ski. they wake up, they go to hike, whatever. we don’t see them a lot. we’re not a beach hotel. beach hotels are pretty complex. the guy goes to the beach, sometimes they stay by the pool. you have to entertain them. we have to talk about the size of my hotel. it’s twenty rooms. in twenty rooms, we created our own radio, for example, which is crazy for the size of the hotel. we created also our own channel of selection of mountain movies. really, you can spend five hours a day for a week just watching crazy movies about mountains and documentaries where we did a selection. sb: [laughs] rt: we did a lot of things like that. now, when you’re in the mountains, we don’t have a problem of…. i mean, we have lunch, dinners. a hotel is like your house. you’re just here to sleep and eat. that’s it. people don’t really spend time. maybe you do, because i see your house is pretty comfortable  sb: [laughs] rt:  but to people who work like you, writing things and think, but the people who don’t think and write things, they’re at the office. they are somewhere else. they actually put all their money on the spot they really do nothing in. it’s very, very serious. it’s like their house is storage. for ninety percent of people, house is just a place you leave your stuff and you live outside and you [come back to] sleep. if you want to have a hotel, make it like your house, because you’re going to welcome people like yourself. sb: you mentioned the only transport there is this cable car. there’s an electric train, i guess, too, but…. from a time perspective, that’s pretty interesting, too the journey being a part of the experience of getting there. rt: it’s the most exotic place in europe. coming from paris, london, in four hours you’re in a different world. tolkien wrote all his books there. sb: in this town? rt: in mürren, tolkien used to write books. sb: wow. rt: all his childhood was there in the holidays. you are far from everywhere. the path for the hike is protected by unesco as the most wide path of the alps. you are far from everywhere. me, i wanted something very close to my house, like three, four hours including train, and even five hours from paris, and by car six hours. in a random place like, “wow,” and i wanted that, this feeling of  i want people to take the gondola, to see, really to go far from their normal life, normal habits. you arrive in this bubble of a hotel, where you can have mos def music and this view on this mountain. it’s very crazy. the music is very random. it’s the things i like. my iphone is really my selection. you’re in my world. we did the smell i like of the mountains. we did a lot of things. it’s really my world. don’t try to do a hotel that doesn’t look like you. it’s not good because you’re going to hate it. do the things you like. if you want to have a hotel, do your house because you’re going to welcome people like yourself. sb: i wanted to bring that up, because as an outgrowth of this hotel, you’re developing this line of outdoor clothing like, seven hundred pieces, i read. rt: yeah. my jacket, my pants, and my shoes right now are prototypes  sb: okay. [laughs] rt: and the glasses as well. sb: do you view it as, beyond just being a place for people to come stay, it’s this ethos, a way of being, almost if i can say this a lifestyle? i’m going to wyoming tomorrow night because i need to go to see a mountain. rt: yeah. i don’t like the word, but yes. we are doing a drei berge café now in paris, and the magazine, useless fighters, our own mountain magazine. we are doing a lot of things around mountains. mountains are my passion since i’m 8 years old. sb: where do you think that comes from? rt: it may be dna. i have no idea. i’m the only one in my family who has this passion; i’m obsessive about mountains. i’m here in new york, and i’m going to wyoming tomorrow night because i need to go to see a mountain. sb: [laughs] you need to go to see a mountain. rt: yeah, this is it. i have this…. it’s like meeting friends. “oh you, i never see you. wow, i love you, you look great.” i did the fitz roy, toubkal in morocco. everything, like kilimanjaro. i went to see sikkim last year to see one mountain in the himalayas, but we had leeches attack, so we had to stop in the middle. it was the leech season. they came up, they take all your blood, like, “oh, that was not good.” sb: there’s been a lot written about “mountain time,” you know? this idea of “mountain time.” rt: yeah, [henry david] thoreau wrote a lot about it, but also élisée reclus. i’m a big fan of it’s called histoire d’une montagne, “story of a mountain.” histoire d’un ruisseau, he did also for a river, and  sb: even in carlo rovelli’s the order of time he’s this italian physicist he writes about how time is different up in the mountains than it is by the sea. rt: true, and it’s very strange. i don’t like the sea because i get bored. in the mountains, i’m never bored. the weather changes in one minute. the light changes nonstop. mountains move…. it’s very funny. sometimes they’re closer, sometimes they’re further. i call my magazine useless fighters. it’s like when you go up in the mountains, super risky. you take risks, stupid, useless. it’s like a fight that is useless. you’re just at the top. you’re happy. nothing else, but this happiness is very special. you feel you did something. you’re breathing good air, water is good. the sun on your skin is amazing. it’s very different, the sun on your skin in the mountains and, i don’t know, you feel closer to the sky. oh, you feel much better, much better. if you stay one week more than fifteen hundred meters high, you have more oxygen in your blood. you come back, you have so much energy for the next three weeks. it heals a lot of things. sb: i read that you’ve got something like five more hotels in the works? rt: three right now. sb: oh, three. rt: actually, i can have twenty because since i did drei berge, the business model was so unique that everyone in the hotel business came and every time they come they say, “do you want to do a hotel with me?” because they’ve never seen that. i never did a benchmark in my life. when i do a hotel, i do it from my own experience and from what i want. i never look at the business of other people. buly [1803], never watched, never did… even for the smell of cire trudon, never checked what people there…. i do what i want, and it’s something i…. if you work with me in my office and you have just the idea of doing a benchmark, you are fired in a minute. it happens a lot because the new generation, they arrive and say, “okay, let’s see what the other people say.” no, no, no, no, no. we do from your brand, straight from your brand and from your own experience. yes, right now i’m thinking about two other hotels, one in udaipur i saw the location, and i’m going back mid may and one in japan. in japan in the mountains. sb: hokkaido? rt: no, no, no, no, no. there’s many places next to nagano. it’s easy. you can buy a village, actually, right now with the yen so low. you buy twenty little houses. you do something unique and you have fun. you become the king of hôtellerie. right now, i want to go… ramdane wants to do aman. [laughs] i just discovered that with a hotel, you can say a lot of things in one place. sb: it’s ramdane a to z. rt: not a to z, i think the a to t, there’s a few things you cannot do in a hotel, but it’s not bad. it’s not bad. [laughter] sb: you’ve also got these restaurant projects going. i read that you have one, a french izakaya restaurant in the works. rt: it’s a very funny story of this restaurant. the restaurant was done, designed, staff hired, everything. the week before we opened, i was walking, it was 7:20, 7:30, i was walking up to my house and i say, “if this restaurant is open, it’s going to be the moment where the people will call me to tell me, ‘here are the reservations of today, na na na na na na.’” i said, “ahh, i’m tired. it’s 7:20. i don’t want anyone to call me at that time.” i was walking up to pigalle, where i live, and i called back the chef, and the chef was in not a good mood that day, a japanese chef called [ryutaro] kobayashi. he’s still working with me, but that day he was not in good mood. i just hung up and said, “ummm, i don’t like this project.” i have this freedom in my mind, and i told you i’m a little bit dumb. i walked, i remember, i called the guy and said, “guys, i’m not doing it.” he said, “what do we do with the stuff?” i said, “i don’t know. we can find another job, do other things.” i canceled everything. i didn’t want to be bothered at that moment out of the day. the hotel is already a lot of work, a lot of energy, and i didn’t  sb: it’s interesting. i mean, what you’re saying is that you’re respecting your time. you don’t want to have your time impeded by  rt: my friend, i have one life. i don’t know if you have two, but me, i have one. i did everything well. i was homeless twenty five years ago and now i’m doing very well. i have the house and everything, and i just discovered that i don’t need anything, nothing. i don’t need this hotel even. i did it because i like it right now. this is a good experience. sometimes people say, “why do you stop companies like that?” it’s just i don’t like it at that moment. i have something magic; it’s my brain. i don’t need money. i just need my brain, and  i don’t need money. i just need my brain. sb: you’ve had this sort of serial entrepreneur streak. you make something, you finish it, you sell it, you move on. rt: sometimes i close it down. sb: yeah. rt: i wake up in the morning and say, “fuck it, i’m done.” sb: [laughs] rt: i’m super, super free in my mind and super anarchist. sb: yeah. rt: i have sometimes deals people don’t understand. sometimes i insult banks and i put on speakers like all my staff listen to it. i insult bankers. i explain to them how they’re useless for this planet and for myself. i don’t know, i’m totally crazy and i love it. i always say to my wife, “it’s not what we’re going to do, it’s how we’re going to do it.” this is the most important. right now i like the hotel and it’s very annoying because i really like it, but sometimes it’s hard, but this restaurant, i said, ‘fuck it. i’m not going to do it.” i don’t want to deal with a lunatic chef, and i speak with ignacio [mattos] here in new york sometimes. i say, “how do you do it?” “this is part of the game,” he says. i say, “no, i don’t like this game. play it you. i don’t want to do it.” sb: here we have to talk about buly, this cult grooming brand that you and your wife created in 2014. it’s based on this “lost” parisian perfumer. rt: no, it was a…. it was  sb: it was real. rt: no, no. the brand was around. sb: it was real. rt: it was one product. sb: yeah, but you took that dna and made it something totally new. rt: yeah, yeah. based on one thing that was existing. sb: it was so incredibly successful that you were able to sell it in 2021 to lvmh. now that a decade has passed since you initially re created this buly brand, what’s your take on why it was so successful? why did it catch on in this particular period of time? rt: i remember i was living in new york when we started this project. it was just the moment i sold cire trudon, my shares, my forty percent shares at cire trudon. sb: the candle company that you  rt: also revamped from a to z. sb: when was that candle company  rt: 2006. sb: that was 2006, but when was it originally from? it’s like in  rt: 1643. sb: yeah. incredible. rt: no, the company was here. 1643. it was the supplier of the king, and you have to people forget, but candles were the light. it was basically the light provider. it was a big company, whatever. it remains working, and they were doing only the church business. when i arrived i said, “guys, let’s do something,” and we did cire trudon. actually, the number one seller of this company is the abd el kader candle, and it’s the name of my father, which is very funny. then, when i was with this guy, we didn’t get along, whatever. sold my shares, did my thing. i had this project in 2002 with a friend to go to source all over the world all the beauty secrets. this girl was working at estée lauder. she didn’t want to quit and stop this project, but i had that in mind. why don’t we go to morocco and ask the grandmother what they were using before the soaps? rhassoul, these kind of clays and oils, argan oil and other things. that is the more known, but there’s a lot of other things. i start to ask that of all other countries, i mean, the brown world, which means america south america, not north america south america, africa, and asia. we went to india, we went all over, and i did this trip and i started to…. we wrote a book with [my wife] victoire de taillac about that, which actually he sold at simon & schuster. we did that and we never did anything with it. when i sold cire trudon by myself, without victoire at the beginning. i said, “i want to be able to show how good i am and i want to do a project that i do a to z: packaging, bottle, label, smell, texture, everything. at the beginning it was just a massive project to show all my skills to clients and to start an agency from that. just one store to show how good we are and people come to us. they use my brand and i do things for others. sb: but it lit like wildfire and you did fifty one stores. rt: actually more now. right now, i don’t know, i will stop counting. i think we are more than seventy, seventy five with whatever. i did this first store. the store went crazy. after we did the second one and the second one, i said, i’m not going to replicate the first one. i have to do another one because i don’t want to be bored and i want to show the people i’m able to do another style. at the end, i ended up doing sixty five or sixty six different stores one by one and  sb: each is really about its  rt: totally different. sb:  specific space and place. it’s very much this hyper local idea. how do you take what’s ingrained in this structure? what’s ingrained in this location? rt: very important. i call it “aesthetical deglobalization.” i mean, the idea of taking an american brand. i take an example: le labo, super industrial, made by french people, business school, coming from l’oréal, do the shitty things, whatever. i’m sorry, it’s a lost bullet, and not shitty, but different. let’s call it like that. not my taste. you do this very industrial new york kind of thing. pretty well done in new york, and you basically do the same industrial concept, new york, all over the world. no matter if the building is eighteenth century in paris, twentieth century in tokyo…. you don’t care where you are. you sell this massive, “this is what we have to sell.” i don’t like it. i think when you go somewhere, you cannot destroy the whole thing. the first thing i think when i do a design in tokyo or somewhere else: what happens if we crash? i want people to be able to reuse my furniture. that’s why i try to keep a local side of the work i’m doing everywhere we go. the first two, three stores, the first one we did actually outside paris was taipei. in taipei, i came and i did this very super french thing in this taiwanese building. i was like, “oh, it doesn’t work.” the store did well, but i didn’t like the experience. maybe i was wrong. we did the second one, korea. the first one was super korean. i did something very korean. i went there, i talked to the designer. “what metal did you use?” then, we went to japan and we did this half half. this half half, it’s funny. there’s a book here on the shelf [of this recording studio] of a guy who was supposed to do the japanese half and me the french half. he sent a fucking sorry amazing heavy invoice. i said, “i don’t have the money, man. we are tiny.” i had to design the japanese part and i liked it. i did this both, and i did all the japanese ones who became the success we know now, but we had fun. i’m still designing all the stores. i just delivered two last month. i still love it. building is really my kingdom. i do whatever i want, it’s funny. bernard arnault and i get along on that. i believe he told me he likes the shop we are doing. he likes the work we’re doing. he really gives me a hundred percent freedom. this company respects, really. when they like the designer, they give you the keys, they really do the thing. sb: one of my favorite things about buly is how you employ the origata gift wrapping. you should explain it because  rt: i can see your passion for japan there. sb: this gift wrapping is very special and it goes back centuries, this tradition. rt: it’s a family, actually, who does that for the emperor. it’s the art of gifting. it has hundreds and hundreds of different ways of saying things through pleats and wrapping actually. actually, this origata history, and also craft, went to fashion. you can see it with izumi aki did things with it. it’s magic. it’s part of the culture of japan, and there’s one family that does for four hundred and fifty years the same wrapping only for the emperor. it was men’s, men’s, men’s, men’s forever, and the last generation, it’s a woman who does it. she was touring to see some posh french whatever all over europe. we had access to her and i said, “listen, we are working on that project and i want to do the most beautiful gift. can you help us or teach us how to wrap all these things and show us a little bit of origata?” she was like, “okay.” we hired her for a consulting thing at the beginning and she helped us, too. but that is one detail. calligraphy, calligraphy, people think, “oh!” you know why we add this calligraphy project idea to buly? because i didn’t have money to do packaging for each product, and i said, “oh, we’re going to do a label, write the product.” if you see buly, which is very funny, the brief is super complex. no plastic. it has no plastic except the lip balm. the whole brand, no plastic, no tubes, caps, everything is metallic or glass. every product is on the box and they say, “okay, we’re going to finish it by hand. we’re going to write it.” i didn’t like the writing or the first stuff we did. i say, “okay, let’s find a professor of calligraphy.” we bumped only guy. he was not doing very well. no one was going to his school of calligraphy. he was about to crash, and we said, “do you want to work for us?” he said yes. this guy taught calligraphy to four hundred or five hundred people, and now every single staff member at buly knows how to do calligraphy. we have a system to teach you in three months, and it works very well, except one or two countries and we withdrew from these countries. i’ll never do something without a political agenda. no one writes anymore with his hands. we write on our phone, on the computer, we don’t use…. this idea of writing with hands will disappear within one generation. this is something i don’t like to happen. i say, “guys, let’s push it to this.” i’ll never do something without a political agenda. there’s always something political with what i do. no plastic, it’s for the nature. reusing the bottle, reusing the candle jar. you have to have a second life of the product, but calligraphy also gives this envie to the people to go back to writing with their hands. sb: you’re using the system of capitalism to sell beauty goods, but for an end also to promote this craft and this art, this dying art, which is  rt: also for the beauty secrets. sb: yeah. rt: the oils, the clays, i remember we had…. what was the name? this bird shit was the best scrub in the nineteenth century, eighteenth century in japan. we went there and…. the treaty of washington on the birds, this beauty thing was disappearing. we were the last in the world to have it, and we bought all the stock. the guy was super surprised and we sold out in five minutes. it’s funny, you see things right now disappearing very quick because the whole perfume world is destroying everything. it’s a dictator of perfume right now. your house has to have a smell, na na na na, and all these beauty secrets are very efficient if you use this oil or this oil. they are much more efficient than the beauty chemical things that have been used by humans forever. they’re all disappearing. sometimes the farmers don’t produce any more of this plant…. in ten years i’ve seen plenty of them disappearing. we were the last to buy it, like black soap from the ivory coast made with clay from the soil. we have seen a lot of things disappearing and we have seen things overused. shea butter. shea butter, big boom, everyone is using it. same for argan oil. they are destroying whole argan trees. this is one of the only trees in the world you cannot have a seed, put it, and it grows. no one knows how it grows, still now. now, they’re doing it industrial. they don’t even let the argan seeds grow enough to be very efficient. same for shea butter. shea butter is like tomatoes. you have very bad ones, what you see in the supermarket, and the best ones, who have enough sun and are very tasty in the south of italy in august, in the summer. we discovered the difference between the quality of the things, and buly, we just pick the best. when we take a tsubaki oil, a camellia oil, we go to the gotō islands. the gotō islands are the best. for the japanese it is the pick of the pick of the pick, and we go. we pick from the best of the best. buly was, at the beginning, one store and it became a lifestyle because i start to travel all over the world. i go to island of chios. i’m going to buy sponges. people are like, “wow, you’re going?” yeah, it’s my work, and i go there and i’m going to find in the same village i go to for sponges, same place for sponges since the roman time. i discovered the gum of chios. gum of chios is like the ancestor of the gum, like chewing gum, and it’s very good for the gum of your mouth and everything. i went for the sponges and i bought also gum of chios. i did that all over the world. i go for something and i buy another thing and i buy more and then from the stones, from the clays. we used to go to ukraine to buy the blue clay, and after we went before the war to russia to buy another stone, i went all over the world and it became a crazy life. sb: it’s like a game. rt: it was super amazing, actually. it started with a store and it became a lifestyle. it’s what i’m doing with the hotel right now. it has to be my life. it doesn’t have to be a business. sb: i wanted to add here, too, you mentioned the magazine useless fighters, but you do a lot with printing and publishing, too, and  rt: yeah. sb: … and are a typography obsessive. you’ve got this really impressive printing operation which includes this factory in switzerland. rt: no, we have france also. sb: you have france, but you also have this factory in switzerland whose acronym is, hilariously, shit. rt: it is shit, société helvétique d’impression typographique. yes, i changed the name to be more funny. sb: the printer in paris is an antique printer. you’re using eighteenth century techniques. talk a little bit about that. rt: even older. it’s an art. it’s engraving. it’s a very parisian technique, and when you go to paris, you want to do a business card. there are all these little shops who does all the business cards have only one supplier. collusion. during covid, this guy was about to crash and we bought him. he was the last guy remaining who knew how to do this technique and we saved it. we sent three people, who learned it by heart with him for three years, and then we bought the company. it’s still here. a hundred percent of the fancy business cards in paris are made by one company, my company, and we used it also for buly at that time. this is what we do, basically, and after we bought him, i didn’t know i was going to put a hand on the biggest collection of monograms on the planet. we are talking about fifteen or sixteen thousand monograms. wow. as a font freak like me, wow. this is bingo, but before we bought another company was one of the oldest with some heidelberg red ball machines from switzerland. we merged these two companies and we are doing things, and i used it, but now we added a silkscreen studio with it. we are adding things. sb: you’re making magazines, you’re making books. rt: we do magazines, we are. sb: you have this bookstore. tell me about that little publishing unit. rt: we have also a publishing company. we publish more political super lefty magazines because this is my side. i’m more anarcho social, but i’m super lefty. also with a guy called émile shahidi. we have the biggest collection of radical magazines from all over the world. i have the biggest collection maybe in the world, twenty two thousand publications from the black panther party magazine. i have all of them, like lgbtq, whatever. all the number, letter you want to add, we have all of them. sb: where do you store all these? rt: in paris. it’s a foundation. it’s called radical media, and we have all these radical media things, publications from 1946 7 to 1980 also, that we are buying every day. my money goes there. it’s that or a ferrari. i bought things like that. we have a huge collection, but we are right now digitizing and we’re going to show to all the world. last year, i had a very funny story. i wanted to buy this tricontinental magazine. it was very political from…. the headquarters was in cuba and closed. it was online for the last 20 years, but before it was a paper magazine and the tricontinental is south america, africa, and asia, a magazine about brown people, very political. the archive disappeared when they stopped during covid. and guess what? we found them in a trump supporter’s garage next to fort lauderdale in florida, and when we found out, i took a plane and i bought the whole archives and we moved them to paris because  sb: i just love this image of you getting on a plane and flying to fort lauderdale. [laughs] rt: yes, and meeting this guy and say, “are you lefty? why did you buy it?” no, this guy hates cuba, but he buys all these vintage things from cuba to try to sell them in america, like a crook. i mean the worst guy on the earth, but super happy. we had original drawings of [patrice] lumumba and things like… i was super happy. super expensive. he gave the price. i was shocked, but said, “well, let’s pay for it because it is history.” we bought all the things. it’s an adventure. my life is very  sb: yeah, it seems  rt: i told you, i don’t think so much. sb: have you ever watched the tv show how to with john wilson? rt: no. sb: it’s on hbo. anyways  rt: ah, how to, i remember. i never watched it. i know the name. sb: in it, though, he basically goes down these different wormholes. i feel like your life is kind of like that. you discover something that you’re obsessed with, and then you follow that obsession into the next one and into the next one. rt: exactly, and i learn a lot. at the end is what is left in my brain  sb: and you find yourself in fort lauderdale buying these cuban magazines from a trump supporter. rt: yeah. i assure you, we did a beautiful video introducing all these projects, and i’m super excited because this thing brings me to another idea: why don’t we digitalize all the best magazines in the world and do a kind of netflix of the best magazines? we’ve been working on that, and it’s going to happen because i saw it’s out in six months. we developed it already. we did a company in switzerland. it’s happening. sb: it’s so incredible. you also have this podcast studio. you do so many things. [laughs] rt: i have seventeen companies right now. sb: i feel like we could just keep going, but i do want to have the opportunity to talk a little bit about your upbringing because it’s so fascinating. you grew up in this moroccan french family in southwestern france, in the countryside. rt: yes. yes. next to spain. next to the pyrenees. let’s talk about the mountain. sb: the son of an apple picker, and i also read that you’re the grandson of a moroccan hero, so i have to hear that story. rt: moroccan hero, yeah, if you ask him. he died, sadly. he’s my grandfather. first, i have a great grandfather who had also a crazy life. he grew up in the north of morocco when it was a french colony. they picked him up when he was 17. they say, “man, you’re going to do the first world war.” he arrives in ’17 or ’18. he arrives in france. he fights for the french, and in 1917, he has a bullet in his leg. he stays in france in the hospital, and actually he’s going to work in the mine in the north of france. he’s going to work in mining, stay in france. like a hundred years ago in france and he stays. everyone left, he stays. then, after a few years he decides to go back to morocco and he stays there. it’s 1934, ’35. at that time, [francisco] franco was building his army to attack spain for the counterrevolution and becoming the fascist country that spain was going to be until 1975. he built his army of north moroccan people. don’t forget, in 1926, spain also destroyed all my villages in the north because we tried to fight against colonialism. whatever. he picked my grandfather. joined the army. my great grandfather was saying he was doing two things: mining and wars. he’s going to fight for franco and go to spain. then, 1937 38, go back to the village. nothing to do. 1944, joined the french army, does [the battle of] monte cassino in italy, goes back to, say, france again. this is his life basically. a crazy guy. he fought all his life. crazy, when i think about it. and you have his son who worked for the french, and my village is at the border between algeria and morocco. we are on the moroccan side. the story is very funny. the french said, “okay, you have to look at the border. be careful. some fellagha from algeria can pass the border.” he had a shotgun and he was just at the border. there’s one guy from the french army who was going to all the villages. he was showing the french torturing arabs, and he said, “guys, if you want to go against france, this is what is going to happen to you guys.” he was showing this video in all the villages. he was a colonel or a captain, i forget. this guy was a number one target for all the fellaghas, the people who were fighting france. [laughs] we had a curfew, and my grandfather was at the border and he sees a guy on the bicycle and he said, “aah, first un, stop. stop, it’s curfew.” first, second, third warning, my grandfather takes the shotgun, bah! shot. guess who he shot? this captain who was showing the videos my grandfather killed him, and the french came to him. they said, “man, we told you to shoot fellaghas, not the french.” he said, “it’s dark. i didn’t see. i shot the guy on the bicycle. there’s a curfew.” he said, “yeah, but you have to kill only arabs.” he said, “i’m an arab. i’m not going.” whatever, they put him in jail. very strange, funny thing. i don’t know how. he had the keys of the stock of the weapon in his pocket. in the middle of the night, he didn’t know, but my grandfather became a hero because he killed a guy who was number one on the list. in the middle of the night, they went to this jail and they saved him. he said, “guys, i have the keys of the stock of the guns.” they took all the guns and they hid him in the mountains. he became a hero by accident, actually. sb: what an origin story. that you’re here because of them and  rt: right after the war, the first thing he did, he went to france [laughs]. whatever. but it’s just a very funny story, and of the grandchildren  sb: you yourself have this incredible story of, you’re 18, you drop out of boarding school, move to toulouse. but then you’re kidnapped and tortured. rt: oh no, that was because i had a lot of cash. sb: you created this brand that led to you having a lot of cash and, for whatever reason, this gang kidnaps and tortures you? rt: yeah, yeah. because i carried a lot of cash in bags. they found out, whatever. that is the street problems. that happens when you grew up in the poor areas and whatever. sb: but your money’s stolen. you flee to paris, where you’re homeless for about a year. rt: in the métro, yes. sb: stabbed by a vagrant. rt: that’s  these things happen. sb: this story sounds like it’s out of a novel. [laughs] rt: shit happens [laughs], but i always had this enthusiasm to rebound and this is my thing. “no” is not an answer for me. actually, i like “no”s. people are looking all their life for “yes.” me, i like “no”s. actually, my motivation comes from when every door was closed. do you know we are the black of france? france hates arabs. that’s why i don’t thank france for what i did. what they did for me. when i do things, “oh, you can thank france.” no, no, i don’t. i became what i became because they said no. i was looking for a job. i actually, you forgot to say, but i’m an accounting guy originally. this is what i graduated  sb: numbers. rt: yeah. when i went to find a job, i said, “no, we don’t hire arabs in the offices.” so i decided to do another thing. every time it was a no, i had to do my own. i didn’t have clients from an agency. i did buly. buly was bigger than the client, but i said because people didn’t want to give me good…. they were giving me small projects, but it was tiny ones compared to my friends’. i love “no”s. people ask sometimes if i’m depressed when someone says no. but i fought hard to be able to say no myself. that’s why i love “no”s. now, i’m very happy to say no. i saw two clients yesterday. it’s going to be “no.” sb: i’m glad you said yes to the podcast. [laughs] rt: i said yes to the podcast because you asked nicely and you started this podcast with a guy i like a lot [andrew zuckerman], and i said, “okay, let’s do it.” i remember him asking me to do this podcast two, three years ago. i said, “yeah, if i have time, i do it,” and i keep my word. if i said yes, i never come back on that. sb: you mentioned france, but i would say switzerland and japan seem to have this grip on you. even though your roots are in france and you’ve done so much in paris, and this is maybe both culturally and temporally. why switzerland and japan and  rt: they’re the same country seventy percent mountain, both of them. thirty percent are flat. first country in the world with the train on time, japan second, switzerland, oldest people in the world, japan. sb: watches. rt: number two, switzerland. there’s a lot of numbers that are exactly the same between japan and switzerland. sb: why do you think that is? japan and switzerland are the same country seventy percent mountain, thirty percent flat. first country in the world with the train on time, japan second, switzerland. rt: i have no idea, man. it’s just a thing, and i think i like them because seventy percent is mountains, and i like mountain people. i don’t know. japan, they came to me first. they discovered my talent before the others. a guy called riku suzuki came to me. i was living in my office; they saw a store i did. they said, “do you want to do the same in japan? i said, “yes.” they are more curious. the swiss are not curious, but the japanese are. i learned a lot in japan. i came with my big arrogance. i was 25, 24. i thought i knew everything. i learned everything there. i came wow! i learned a lot of things, and actually i was shocked. i remember the day i saw a bathing ape store in ’98. i was depressed for one month. the only time in my life i said, “fuck, i’m really bad,” and i said so to nigo, actually. i learned a lot. sb: you lived there with your family in 2016, right? rt: yeah. nihongo shaberu? i speak japanese and everything. i’m curious about this world, and it’s funny. i’m not a huge fan of japanese cuisine. i like it, but i’m not obsessed. i like much more flavorful things. i like spicy things. but i love japan, and i hate it after one month. when i stay there  i have a house in nakameguro, and after a month i want to leave because i’m tired of them. it’s very strange. i have very complex feelings with them. it’s too perfect. it’s like copenhagen. i hate copenhagen. all these people, good health, on bicycles, all good looking. really? aargh! sb: [laughs] rt: i love napoli! i like the mess! i like the smells! i like people stabbing people! i like pickpockets! [laughs] sometimes it’s too clean. i’m tired. sb: all right. final question. what do you do to slow down? rt: i don’t. i don’t slow down. why do you want me to slow down? sb: you don’t go on hikes? you don’t  rt: yeah, my slowdown is hikes, but you don’t really slow down when you hike, really. what i like with hikes is i focus on every step. it’s very funny because you remember almost where you put your feet. if you do thirty thousand steps in one day in hiking in a mountain, trust me, your brain was focused on each of them. walking the street right now, after two seconds, you don’t look it’s automatic. your brain knows how to do it. in the hikes, you’re focused, and i love that. the fact that you did thirty thousand little things and you had to focus on all of them. that is, you’re telling me it’s slowing down, nahhh. it’s a different part of your brain that you’re using, and i like to use this part sometimes. i don’t like to slow down and i will never slow down. i don’t know. it’s not my thing. after two hours i say, “wow, wow, i’m wasting my time here!” what did you do? i can panic. honestly speaking, i love my life. i really like my life. sometimes i wake up in the morning in this mansion. i have a pool in my house, man. [laughs] it makes me laugh still now. i wake up and i go to this fancy bathroom that was on the cover of t magazine, and i look at me in the mirror and i say, “man, is it real? really real? how did you do that?” it’s really that. it’s: you did it. my wife, it’s normal for her. she’s bourgeois. she grew up in a fancy thing. she knows. she has a castle. sb: but you were homeless twenty five years ago. rt: but for me, every step…. it’s funny. right now this afternoon, i’m hesitating between going to this meeting and go to see this bentley s3 1956 that’s for sale in queens. i have to look, and this morning was really the big hesitation. really, my life is very funny, and i might buy it [laughs], because i’m collecting these stupid things sometimes. i have a passion for bentleys. i don’t drive them. i just pile them one by one, and this one is missing a back wall of finishing and i like it. i had such a stupid and bad childhood that, right now, i’m thirsty for life like it’s just the beginning. i had such a stupid and bad childhood that right now i’m thirsty. i’m still angry. i’m thirsty for life like it’s just the beginning. i’ve been to…. there’s very few countries i didn’t go to on this planet. sometimes i laugh. i say, “oh.” right now, i say, “oh, i went to benin. i went to senegal. oh, i just went to ghana.” this one is missing. it looks the same actually sometimes. they look the same. sb: easter island? galápagos? rt: no, no, no. they are touristic places. there’s no trees. it’s like a rock. i’m not going to a rock. i mean, you have to be crazy to go to  sb: where’s the next place you’ve never been that you want to go? rt: this summer, i’m doing this crazy trip. i’m going from paris to tokyo by car. because i’m turning 50 and i said, “it’s on my list and i didn’t do it.” i’m driving and i’m not doing the northern silk road. i’m doing the southern silk road, georgia, kazakhstan. go to russia, end up in the vladivostok, take a ferry to korea, then to go to niigata and arrive in tokyo by car. i did all of the mediterranean in 2004 with a lotus seven. i like to drive, and as i say to my kids, going every year to the same place for holidays, it’s kind of dumb. it’s very bourgeois. it’s how i consider you’re becoming a bourgeois. every summer to this greek thing, whatever, to marseille, i don’t like it. my idea is we go to a place we’ve never been. sb: probably in the mountains. [laughs] rt: ninety percent of the time there’s mountains, yes. not ninety, actually. a hundred percent. it has to have mountains. we went to aman the other day with the kids and they were so pissed because we were by the beach and they said, “guys, let’s go to the mountains!” sb: [laughs] rt: they hated it. they loved it after, but at the moment, they hated it. sb: ramdane, thank you. rt: my pleasure. thank you. this interview was recorded in the slowdown’s new york city studio on may 2, 2024. the transcript has been slightly condensed and edited for clarity. the episode was produced by ramon broza, emily jiang, mimi hannon, emma leigh macdonald, and johnny simon. illustration by diego mallo based on a photograph by pierluigi macor. newsletter receive an email with each new episode.

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supported by ramdane touhami recently restyled a hotel in the swiss alps and opened a hiking supply store in paris. he says they are only the beginning. by mark c. o’flaherty many designers aspire to the label polymath, but no one polymaths as hard and relentlessly as ramdane touhami, whose latest pursuit meshes merchandising, marketing and selling his favorite thing: hiking. mr. touhami is known for acting on impulse, and with intensity. he has lived in new york and tokyo and owns 51 bicycles, including one of the three made by the french architect designer jean prouvé that are known to still exist. the 49 year old french moroccan was once the owner of a donkey polo club in tangier, morocco; went on to become men’s wear director at the department store liberty in london; and spent years reshaping the beauty business, reviving the fortunes of the scented candle maker trudon as its creative director and then the heritage apothecary brand buly 1803, which he sold to lvmh in 2021. mr. touhami bought, restyled and reopened hotel drei berge in the swiss alps last year, and opened the mountaineering boutique a young hiker in paris in january. it has been a long climb to the top. at school, he introduced a successful t shirt line that corrupted the timberland logo and made a fortune, but then he was kidnapped and relieved of a lot of money. he then became a homeless skateboard obsessive, navigating the streets of paris having no fixed abode. but recently, from the headquarters of his agency art recherche industrie, shaped out of a decadent 19th century ballroom in the 10th arrondissement, he masterminded the restyling of the silverwear maker christofle and the leather goods house moynat, as well as his own podcasts, publishing projects and housewares.

 in a time dubbed the hyphenate revolution, juggling multiple skills and careers has almost become commonplace. however, few can say they embody the term “multi hyphenate” like ramdane touhami. a businessman, a creative, and a designer, his life story reads like a piece of fiction, a long, twisted tale that includes the 49 year old making a small fortune selling t shirts in school (and losing it after being kidnapped), spending his first year in paris homeless, becoming the men’s wear director at the historic london department store liberty, and, together with his wife victoire de taillac touhami, revamping the french beauty brand officine universelle buly 1803 before selling it to lvmh. touhami’s latest chapter sees him double down on his love of hiking and, being a relentless polymath, he’s exploring the subject from every angle. he recently designed and opened the lavish hotel drei berge in the swiss alps, opened a paris boutique specializing in hiking gear, launched a mountain themed magazine, and has a collection of carabiners arriving from his self named jewelry label. on july 29, the next of his mountain focused projects launches, a hiking boot brand with a staunch stance on not using synthetic materials that poison the earth. drei berge mountain shoes debuts with the leather tech mönch 1, an italian made, rugged hiking boot with wave shaped cutouts evocative of nike’s air max 95 model. ahead of launching his latest project, i caught up with the multi talented french morrocan entrepreneur to discuss his love of hiking, the euro centric way mountains are perceived, and his deep hatred of polyester. ramdane touhami: i don't know, the drei berge hotel is important, the print shop is important, the cafe is important too   i'm always thinking about the cafe   now i'm thinking about the big space we just bought in the marais and which will open in september.