Автор: karymsakov_qq4zn395

It may seem like a dream to own an 18th century French château or a storied Italian villa in the countryside – but how glamorous is it really? 

Although the musical artists’ go-to Missoni Suite at Hotel Byblos is no longer available, there are plenty of reasons not to mind. 

Part of the family-run Groupe Floirat, Hotel Byblos was built in 1965 by Jean-Prosper Gay-Para, reportedly to impress Brigitte Bardot. Despite multiple renovations, the property still feels like a small, yet hedonistic, village of sun-washed buildings, linked by winding cobbled paths – including a direct route to the famed late-night Les Caves du Roy. 

Its latest surge in relevance, though, comes from elsewhere. The hotel’s signature accommodation, the Missoni Suite (now renovated and named The Presidential Suite), was name-checked in Drake’s 2022 song Middle of the Ocean – “I’m in the Missoni room at the Byblos” – which has recently gained viral popularity via TikTok, pulling a new, younger set of eyes toward the Côte d’Azur fixture.

It’s worth noting that even before TikTok, the space had cultural weight. The suite occupies the former balcony bar seen in a 1971 photograph of Mick Jagger during his honeymoon with Bianca Jagger, and more recently, in 2020, appeared in season three of Sky Atlantic drama Riviera, starring Julia Stiles, Rupert Graves, Poppy Delivigne, and Jack Fox.

As the Missoni Suite, the space was certainly deserving of attention. Originally unveiled for the hotel’s 50th anniversary, the two-bedroom suite was designed by Rosita Missoni and Mireille Chevanne. Interiors leant heavily, almost dizzyingly, into the Maison’s signature zigzag patterns, with the entirety of the space dressed in a 1970s palette. 

This summer, it will be joined by eight new suites designed by Laura Gonzalez. This set adds to the bold, color-driven schemes she debuted in her 2024 collaboration with the hotel, brought to life in a palette of Mediterranean blues. Elsewhere, four rooms in the Bastide have been redesigned by Wanda Jelmini. 

The updates will stretch beyond interiors – guests of Hotel Byblos will also be able to enjoy a new fitness centre, with equipment by Technogym. The menu at the Byblos Spa by Sisley is expanding too, adding a men’s treatment, plus reflexology and lymphatic drainage treatments.

A new on-site boutique near the pool will also launch this season, extending the hotel’s e-commerce offering with limited-edition pieces and collaborations. These include a third capsule with Orlebar Brown, alongside designs from Pinel & Pinel and Hadoro. For something fun and collectible, the shop will stock Les Caves du Roy shot glasses, finished in black grained leather with copper detailing.

Originally designed by Yale-trained architect Judith Chafee, the modern desert marvel was recently updated by local designer and gallerist Casey W Smith. Originally designed by Yale-trained architect Judith Chafee, the modern desert marvel was recently updated by local designer and gallerist Casey W Smith.

The 216 stones showcase a novel patented cut with 37 precisely engineered facets. The 216 stones showcase a novel patented cut with 37 precisely engineered facets.

The Reservation: A new family-run restaurant in Europe’s food capital. 

While sun seekers flock to southern Spain, those in the know are going to the country’s wild north to visit the Basque Country, where the weather forecast is less reliable, but the food scene is among the best in the world. At its epicenter is San Sebastian, a dot of a city that all but sparkles with Michelin stars.

The newest star in that line up was awarded in late 2025 to Itzuli – a restaurant from Basque Country native, Iñigo Lavado. A short drive out of town in the hilltop village of Igeldo (with amazing views on a good day, and literally none on a cloudy one), Itzuli opened as the flagship restaurant at the five-star Hotel Luze. But, while this is undeniably a new project, it marks something as a homecoming for Iñigo who began his career in San Sebastian, before opening his first solo restaurant, Restaurante Iñigo Lavado, in the town of Irun, close to the French border. He returns with a team that has been at his side throughout his career.

See also: The Underrated Destinations Vying to Become the Next Foodie Hotspots

A family business, Iñigo’s partner Arantxa Martínez and fellow Basque native oversees the management of the dining room, and their eldest son Julen manages the wine program, armed with a sommelier degree from the Basque Culinary Center. His two younger siblings, María and Iñigo are also both studying at the culinary school, but pick up weekend shifts in their parent’s restaurant. The wholesome family element is far from just easy marketing fodder, and easily translates to the guest experience. Although Arantxa’s handshake greeting is formal, her accompanying “Welcome to our home!” is anything but. Several hours and even more courses later, the restaurant matriarch bids farewell with a kiss on each cheek.

Iñigo’s food has a similar character. Tasting menu only, on paper (and in its avant-garde plating), it looks high-brow. But start eating, and you’ll find familiar flavors in even the most complex dishes. Basque roots is a running vein, as is creativity. There are two menus: the first, Luis Irizar, is dedicated to Iñigo’s late mentor and one of the founding fathers of New Basque Cuisine; the second, Cocina de Emociones, is an exploration of his own personal and professional development.

See also: The Backyard Spirit Being Used in Michelin-Starred Restaurants

Julen’s accompanying wine pairing deftly bounces around Spain (and some other parts of Europe), prioritizing small-scale, organic producers, and is clearly not intimated by his father’s menu. The combinations are bold and fun: perhaps a unusually still glass of local Txakoli with a a jellied lobster salad; a 1996 Kerner Spätlese with a deconstructed pina colada, complete with coconut foam and pineapple chunks; or a zesty sherry-aged Palomino accompanying a fat Normandy oyster with pickled vegetables and Iberico jus. Nods to the family business continue: with the spiced whole pigeon comes a glass of 2005 Remelluri Reserva Rioja, chosen for the year Julen’s father first opened his restaurant. 

Itzuli’s crowd is mixed – there are the vacationing American couples in sneakers, inevitably drawn to Itzuli’s star power, but also intergenerational family tables, as well as groups of lunching Spanish ladies, apparently there for a birthday. At lunchtime mid-week, virtually every table is full. The space itself was designed by local interior designer Iñaki Biurrun, who captures the family’s playful take on fine dining. The tables are laden with perfectly pressed linens and there is a sense of ‘proper’ service, but swimsuit-clad sculptures along the wall (and used in plating) help stop Itzuli from feeling overly formal. It’s a carefully struck balance, suggesting the Lavado family knew exactly the kind of place they wanted Itzuli to be from the very beginning.

The 2026 BMW M2 CS is more aggressive, both visually and dynamically, yet still doesn’t distance itself enough from the base model. The 2026 BMW M2 CS is more aggressive, both visually and dynamically, yet still doesn’t distance itself enough from the base model.

The hip-hop mogul’s treasure trove of watches is now estimated to be worth $10 million. Here, he shows off 20 of his favorites. The hip-hop mogul’s treasure trove of watches is now estimated to be worth $10 million. Here, he shows off 20 of his favorites.

Lapland’s secretive former military outpost is now serving as a luxury lodge. 

Currently, the Adrian Newey–led squad sits in a tie for last place after two races. Currently, the Adrian Newey–led squad sits in a tie for last place after two races.

From Princess Catherine to the Queen Mother, Anna Murphy explores how the royals have long used fashion as a tool of influence. 

It’s the end of fashion month. The usual quartet of New York, London, Milan, Paris – in that order – was joined by Rome, where Valentino has just staged a show-cum-homage to mark the passing in January of its founder, Valentino Garavani, at the age of 93. 

A catwalk show is a fantasy, and there was none more fantastical than this one. Alessandro Michele, the house’s current creative director, is fully signed up to the froth- and frill-fuelled preferences of his illustrious antecedent. His was the ultimate palazzo-appropriate line up, its gaze firmly focused on the past. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Royal Collection Trust (@royalcollectiontrust)

But there have been some very different visions of contemporary luxury at other shows. Maria Grazia Chiuri’s mainly black, entirely restrained debut at another Italian brand, Fendi, for example, was the exemplification of less is more; of a rigorous modernity.

These opposing aesthetics – replicated to a greater and lesser degree throughout fashion month – have found an unexpected resonance for me in Justine Picardie’s fascinating new book Fashioning the Crown: A Story of Power, Conflict and Couture (Faber). 

A riposte to anyone who argues that clothes are a superfluity, Fashioning the Crown tells the story of the British Royal Family in the first decades of the 20th century through the prism of their wardrobes, ending with the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953. 

These were often bumpy years. In the run up to World War I, when anti-German sentiment was at fever pitch in Britain, the family still went by the name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, its lineage more Germanic than British. Rebranded as Windsor, the name was no longer a problem when World War II was declared, but there was still the small matter of a recent abdication by a Nazi-supporting king. What the Royals wore (or didn’t wear, on which more anon) aided their navigation of such turbulence. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Prince and Princess of Wales (@princeandprincessofwales)

Clothes are still part of the royal toolkit. The Princess of Wales’ sartorial serenity is currently helping the family through the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor-related instability. Catherine may have stated last year that her office would no longer give the details of what she wears, the better to focus on what she does, yet, the two are – pun very much intended – interwoven. She is her image.

“The soft power of monarchy is always expressed through visual iconography, jewels and clothing,” is how Picardie put it to me recently. “For the key figures in the House of Windsor to navigate this latest crisis, they need to be as fluent in the language of fashion as their forebears. Given that they are not supposed to speak their minds, it’s their wardrobe that does the talking.” 

The balancing act for a modern queen-in-waiting such as Catherine is how to come across on the one hand as, in Picardie’s words, “more democratic and sympathetic”, while also still channelling that essential “mystery” famously referred to by Walter Bagehot in his 1867 book The English Constitution. “We must not let in daylight upon magic,” he wrote. Alas, it’s not merely that there’s been too much daylight recently but too much darkness. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Prince and Princess of Wales (@princeandprincessofwales)

Picardie is especially compelling on another moment of royal darkness, the years in and around Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936. By way of his subsequent marriage to Wallis Simpson, two contrasting aesthetics came head to head. And the potential ramifications were considerably more profound than a pair of catwalk brands jostling for commercial dominance. 

In the late 1930s the world order was in flux. It says something about how differently things could have ended – should he have been allowed to marry his bride and remain King – that everyone from the Nazi diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop to Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, expressed their unhappiness at Edward VIII’s abdication. 

There was nothing more contemporary-looking, more future-facing than the ‘hard chic’ – as delivered by labels such as Schiaparelli and Mainbocher – of the woman who was rebranded, alongside her Duke, the Duchess of Windsor. Yet beneath her unquestionable chic, and her husband’s, were deeply questionable politics. The couple were unabashed supporters of the Nazis, a regime that also styled itself as modernity incarnate. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Royal Collection Trust (@royalcollectiontrust)

How clever then of the man who had never thought he would be King, George VI, to decide that his wife, the woman the Brits still refer to as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, should lean into the exact opposite with her wardrobe; should conjure up the Elysian Fields of the past. 

When the fashion designer Norman Hartnell was invited to Buckingham Palace in 1937, the King showed him the idealised, not to mention flouncy, royal portraits of the 19th-century German painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter. “His Majesty made it clear in his quiet way that I should attempt to capture this picturesque grace in the dresses I was to design for the Queen,” Hartnell recalled in his autobiography.

As Picardie writes, “This was a masterstroke – a superb visual riposte to the angular modernism embodied by Wallis Simpson.” Its apogee was reached in the all-white Hartnell-designed wardrobe that Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother wore for the royal tour of France a year later. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Royal Family (@theroyalfamily)

What better way to counter the steel-edged semiotics of Nazism than with the marshmallow of a gown she donned, like a 20th-century Titania, for a garden party in Bois de Boulogne?

Hartnell and, later, Hardy Amies, would go on to craft a similarly fairy-tale image for the young Princess Elizabeth – at that point, like Catherine now, another queen in waiting.

Last September the Princess of Wales looked straight out of a Winterhalter herself when she wore a gold Chantilly lace creation by Phillipa Lepley – accessorised with the £1 million Lover’s Knot tiara, her heaviest –  for a state banquet at Windsor Castle. She appeared transcendent; and, also, insurmountable. It was one of the greatest sartorial successes of her royal career, and also, it’s worth noting, about as far from ‘democratic’ as it’s possible to get. 

Fashioning the Crown serves as a reminder that clothes can be the very definition of soft power. The palazzo fashion of Valentino in Rome last week fades into insignificance next to the palace fashion of our royals. It’s shaped their past, and it is part of what will forge their future.