Is Gilles Hennessy as smooth and distinctive as the cognac he sells?
Suited in Dior, shod in Berluti and speaking in that confident tone – all rounded vowels and aspirated Ts – Gilles Hennessy is the portrait of a modern day dandy, that is until he brings up his fashion hero, the inimitable but long dead Beau Brummel. “I’ve only heard what people say about him, but he seemed to me the embodiment of manly elegance,” he concedes in good humour.
Of course Gilles refers to Brummel, hardly a name on the fashion set’s lips, as paragon of manners and taste to which only a few pay heed nowadays. “People don’t dress up anymore,” he laments. “It’s a bit of a shame, really. At least the ladies still change for dinner, but the men have no excuse not to do so.”
Gilles knows that elegance is all about a consideration for others and an attempt to be one’s best self. In his case, it is also about propriety – he assembles his workday uniforms from Dior, a part of the LVMH conglomerate that owns Hennessy cognac which once belonged to his family.
Gilles spent his boyhood in boarding schools in France and England where, formal uniforms notwithstanding, he learned the rudiments of both dressing and carriage. Today he refers to his style as ‘classical’, which by his appearance can only mean sporty but not vulgar, formal but not sombre.
As vice-president of Moet Hennessy, the wines and spirits branch of LVMH, Gilles travels the world, as he puts it, “to sell some drinks”. Things are looking up, however, on this side of his universe. “We’re acknowledging change,” he beams, adding that cognac is now popularly enjoyed as cocktails – a downright heretical idea just a few years ago. “But drinks will stay the same for some time; they haven’t invented machines that will replace humans – one that can smell or taste.”
Well, they haven’t invented a machine that can replicate style either.
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