Well known in high-end residential design and development circles, Candy & Candy is "not your average interior design firm," explains one of the company’s two founding brothers, Nick Candy. Its goal as lifestyle consultants, as well as architects and designers, is to create a turnkey living experience using the elements of coveted real estate and bespoken designs, literally delivering its creations with everything from sheets to staff. Candyscape is the group’s first foray into yachting and, bringing more than a decade’s design experience to the table (gleaned from its residential projects), it’s done quite well.
 

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In this case, the palette was a 147-foot Benetti motor yacht, Ambrosia, originally built for one of the yard’s owners in 1994 as his personal yacht. Given her intended owner, her interior specification was quite high. The quality of her build was a perfect fit for what Candy & Candy had in mind—a high-style enclave in the guise of a traditional motor yacht. (Click image to enlarge)

Project designer Brigitta Spinocchia was charged with transforming the relatively dated and twice refitted yacht into something of Candy & Candy caliber by fine-tuning every nuance. Spinocchia’s approach affects the difficult paradox of understated glamour, which comes off in an exciting combination somewhere between Harvey Nichols and West Hollywood.

"When developing a luxury lifestyle, it’s the details that make a difference," says Spinocchia. For Candyscape, the details include crew selection and training; rare book and fine art collections; fabric, linen and toiletry selection and design; and, of course, interior décor. The result is an impeccably planned living experience created for clients who don’t have time to do it themselves. In this case, the clients are the firm’s owners, Nick and Christian Candy, who have put the 12-passenger yacht into charter service while simultaneously using it as a floating sample kit.

Equally refreshing as the firm’s head-to-toe approach is the way in which the yacht’s design differs from other speculation or charter projects, which follow neutral briefs aimed at pleasing as many people as possible. While not always practical, Candy & Candy follows its own sensibilities with a unique and exclusive aesthetic. (Click image to enlarge)

Crew uniforms are something of a feature aboard Candyscape, with Alasdhair Willis, husband of fashion designer Stella McCartney, working alongside Spinocchia and the company Stone, Bryce and Wood to design and produce stately, stylish gray suits.

In addition to taste in art and aesthetics, the full lifestyle concept also extends to literal taste—food. The chef aboard Candyscape began his training under one of the United Kingdom’s first Michelin Star chefs at the Royal Crescent hotel in Bath. With eight years’ experience in the art of onboard cuisine, he has built up a divine repertoire living and working around the Mediterranean. As a frequent apprentice to some of Europe’s finer chefs, he has the opportunity to continually practice and experience his art of international cuisine. In this way, Candy & Candy ensures guests (whether charter or private owners) will always be treated to a creative feast of the freshest trends.

The items chosen for Candyscape’s guest accommodations are some of the finest available in terms of quality and sensory appeal. All toiletries have been selected from U.K. favorite Jo Malone, a woman notorious for making olfactory senses go wild, with combinations including Lime Basil, spicy Pomegranate Noir and Mandarin, Amber and Lavender.Theo Vanderzalm produced 600-thread-count Italian bed linens from a woven fabric, integrating the unique Candy & Candy logo, and all beds are topped with Scottish cashmere throws, including several beaded throws handmade for the yacht.

Rare fabrics are a staple in Spinocchia’s design, such as the hand-painted silk salon curtains created via a painstaking, multi-layered, Chinese process. The designer also spent a fair amount of time pouring over fashion and furniture archives to select the vintage fabrics and patterns used to accent the interior of Candyscape. Dress patterns from the 1930s, classic prints from designer Ozzie Clark, and jeweled and beaded mid-century images depicting fables and phrases such as "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" are among those specifically re-created for the project.

Cementing Candyscape’s place as one of the few haute couture motor yachts is her Louis Vuitton dayhead adjacent to the skylounge-cum-media room. Several massive suitcases were disassembled to upholster this powder room in the classic monogram, complete with locks, handles and buckles. (Click image to enlarge)

One of the most invaluable services offered by the designers at Candy & Candy is the careful effort put into compiling important collections of art and books. Whether it is an owner with certain tastes but no time, someone wishing to have the designers do it all for them or a speculation project developed by the designers themselves, it seems Candy & Candy is adept at collecting a variety of culturally prominent media.

Bits and pieces of these collections are scattered around the yacht, giving guests and owners a chance to update their cultural awareness simply by living in its well-appointed environment. The main and dining salons are prime examples, with a total of three Salvador Dalí drawings hanging in the spaces collectively, and a coffee table from the revered Italian sculptor Alberto Giacometti as a focal piece in the main salon. Photography in the main and guest living areas is also pedigreed, primarily by fashion photographer Vincent Dolman, with a few by famed Frenchman Jacques Henri Lartigue.

Both the artwork and books chosen for the project build on a theme—fashion and interior design are prominent, as is modern art. Candyscape’s book collection includes antiques and limited editions, with subjects ranging from treatises on the great art-deco designer Ruhlmann, to the modern Mexican architect Luis Barragan and contemporary artist Jim Dine. The collection also features several selections from the Visionaire series—books that are themselves art. Most of these are found in the media room, aptly named for the variety of entertainment options provided—projection screen, plasma television, Kaleidescape DVD video system. The artwork even reflects media, with antique cameras housed in glass boxes on one wall, and the famous dagger belt worn by Halle Berry in Die Another Day framed on another.

The details go on, forcing one to pass over countless other elements also worthy of description—among them, the vintage Parisian dining table that flips over to become a roulette wheel. The bottom line: In addition to an impeccable interior never to be duplicated, Candy & Candy affords clients a tailored service that delivers the finest treats the world has to offer; all that is left is to turn the key.

Candy & Candy
44 (0) 20 7594 4300
www.candyandcandy.com