In this Sunday's magazine, Peter Savodnik explores Baku's attempt to become a new hub for the itinerant filthy rich. In some sense, the article was born a couple years ago when Peter and I worked on a piece for Bloomberg Businessweek about Eurovision, the pan-European song contest in which "American Idol" meets Davos with drum machines. Azberbaijan, which isn't even really in Europe, was hoping to use its 2011 victory to jump-start a nation rebranding campaign. As it happens, it might just work out.
Azerbaijan has adapted numerous facets of American nouveau riche culture. And I learned about a new one this weekend when Hugo Lindgren, the magazine's editor, e-mailed me to ask, "Have you seen the Jason Binn-style magazine called Baku?"
I hadn't, but I was hardly surprised that Baku had its own version of Hamptons or Capitol File, two of Binn's more memorable magazines. The point of those magazines, after all, is for the newly rich to celebrate their richness, and that, of course, seems to be the entire point of Baku, the city. Naturally, Baku, the magazine, would follow.
What did surprise me, however, is that the magazine isn't that bad (I read it in print; its Web site appears to only function in Azerbaijani). Even in broken English, it was superior to Hamptons. (Only after reading it did I realize that it was published by Condé Nast.)
Here are eight things I learned from the latest issue.
1. How rich is Baku, the city? The first four ads in Baku, the magazine, are Dior, Bulgari, Tom Ford and Celine. The next page features an ad from Eren Yorulmazer, an architect and interior designer whose work seems to reflect what a high-end strip club would look like on Pluto.
2. There's an emerging art scene. (No surprise — after countries like China and India became rich, their native art markets experienced their own booms.) I still cannot describe Azeri art.
3. How rich is Baku, the city, Part 2? Burberry recently opened a children's store there.
4. Azerbaijan recently hosted the Under-17 Women's World Cup. That was particularly surprising for a predominantly Muslim country.
5. I admit to sort of being charmed by the headline "A Sultan of Bling," which goes with a profile of Roberto Cavalli. So much better than I could do in Azerbaijani!
6. The fashion story about Baku's winter looks, with models shot amid the city's 18th-century architecture, was pretty amazing and could have easily been in W. Great fashion credits, too. Prada and Chanel were side by side with smaller designers like Christopher Kane.
7. Great story on Lofti Zadeh, the Baku-born University of California, Berkeley, mathematician. The layout looks as if it could have appeared in an American magazine like Wired.
8. Jennifer Lopez has been to Baku! Jennifer Lopez loves Baku! Says Jennifer Lopez: "I have an amazing view out of my hotel. Wow. It's gorgeous. The Flame Towers are beautiful. What's that building by the waterfront that looks like a rolled up thing? The National Carpet Museum? That's amazing!" I think she is actually talking about the Zaha Hadid-designed Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center. But it definitely does look like a bunch of rolled-up carpets.
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