What a year it has been for The 2017 A-List. From the Ermenegildo Zegna style challenge to the Game of Drones with Breitling, the 10 gentlemen in last year’s batch were tested physically, mentally and sartorially. All of them stylishly emerged with flying colours. We expected nothing less.
The final A-List challenge was all about the three C’s – cocktails, charisma and Charlene Kiew (@kiewc). An A-Lister is always able to make a lasting first impression and at Nutmeg & Clove, they had to do just that.
Vishal Harnal, 2016 A-Lister and venture capitalist, was the guest judge for the first part of the challenge, which involved the A-Listers giving a 60-second elevator pitch for a business idea related to AUGUSTMAN and The A-List.
The second half of the challenge involved creating a cocktail to Charlene’s liking based on the conversations they had with her. For the record, she loves a good whiskey sour although the gentlemen didn’t know that.
When the dust had settled, the overall winner for the Three C’s challenge was Dr Alan Cheung.
After the challenge, all the A-Listers, past and present, converged at Curate at Resorts World Sentosa for a sumptuous dinner to cap off the year. The five-course dinner helmed by chef Benjamin Halat was a revelation and had everyone raving.
But it would not be an A-List event without a few surprises. We sprung two. The first were the individualised AUGUSTMAN covers for the 2017 batch and the second was a speech challenge.
The A-Listers had to present three famous film speeches – the Bill Pullman Independence Day speech, the Revolutionary Speech in V for Vendetta, and Charlie Chaplin’s (yes, the man did talk) final speech in The Great Dictator – to the crowd, who also acted as the judges.
All of them were a tad inebriated but performed with aplomb and enthusiasm. It was a close fight but the winner of the Speech Challenge was Paulo Atienza, who edged it by a few points with his amazing rendition of Bill Pullman’s Independence Day speech in his native tongue.
Check out the video above to see the highlights from the challenges and the dinner.
We’ve also started our search for The 2018 A-List, presented to you by Breitling and Ermenegildo Zegna. If you know of any man with style, substance and success, or perhaps even yourself, head on over to alist.augustman.com to nominate yourself or your friends. Registration opens on 9 January 2018.