Автор: karymsakov_qq4zn395

The Reservation: Can the slick sushi joint settle in its new home? 

“We have moved!” announces Bar Des Pres’s restaurant. And indeed it has – it’s moved less than 15 minutes’ walk from its former Albemarle Street home to equally upmarket South Audley Street. The Connaught, The Audley Public House, and Lilibet’s are all worthy neighbors. 

Since its initial London opening back in 2021, which marked the first international address for chef Cyril Lignac’s popular Parisian venture, Bar Des Prés became a mainstay on the Mayfair circuit, with diners drawn to its luxe look and Franco-Japanese menu. Need stone-cold-evidence that the restaurant has captured its target market? Dubai and Saint-Barths have become the latest Bar Des Prés locations. (The love hasn’t been universal, though, and the London iteration was met with some savage critical disdain.)

The new location’s decor is more out-there than its predecessor. Designed by Lázaro Rosa Violán Studio – the Spanish firm responsible for The Bazaar by José Andrés in New York and The Barcelona Edition, among other international hospitality projects – maximalism runs riot: there’s a blue-and-cream spotted carpet, peacock-feather emblazoned sofas, and cherry-toned wood panel walls. 

There’s bigger tables with banquette seating and a (dark) private dining room toward the back of the restaurant, but as is our advice for any restaurant with a counter: hop on one of the stools for a view of the chefs at work.

See also: Is Mayfair Ready To Be Mayfair Again?

For its London relaunch, Bar Des Prés has made a few advancements on chef Lignac’s  Japan-meets-Europe menu. Sushi remains the cornerstone, with an extensive list of California rolls, maki, and sashimi (we watched one solo dinner pull up a seat on the counter, nibble four slices of salmon, sip a Diet Coke, and leave), but new additions include a robata grill for smoky skewers of chicken satay and beef fillet. 

The crab and avocado galette – spiked with a whiff of curry spice – is a signature, but lesser-sung heroes are the salmon-topped crispy rice with its almost chewy center and a sweet, miso-coated grilled eggplant. 

While Bar Des Prés claims a French-Japanese fusion, you’ll quickly see that Asia does much of the lifting food-wise (although each dish is helpfully listed in French, too). Where France rightfully gets its piece of pie is in the wine list, which, bar a small sake selection, doesn’t veer away from the nation’s finest export even once. 

Cocktails, on the other hand, zip all over the globe: there’s mezcal palomas, yuzu and mango martinis, lemongrass margaritas, and lavender and elderflower spritzes.

While this move has captured London’s media as well as its lunching Mayfair residents, there is a sense that Bar Des Prés needs a while longer to settle into its new home. On my visit, things looked slick, but service didn’t quite match up to the lacquered walls and moody lighting. Put it down to teething issues if you will; refinement takes time.

With 450 creations, sketches, photographs, and objects belonging to the fashion house founder on display, we speak with the lead curator on bringing the late designer’s world back to life. 

“You will find me in my work,” reads the Gianni Versace quote that greets visitors at the newly opened retrospective at the Musée Maillol in Paris. For curator Karl von der Ahé, the quote acts as both introduction and invitation, encouraging visitors to discover the man behind the Medusa through the creations he left behind.

“Our exhibitions are first and foremost emotional experiences – emotional, authentic, and very close to the individual,” he tells Elite Traveler ahead of the opening of Gianni Versace Retrospective on June 5. “This is about a man, his products, and his personality. It is not about the brand; it’s about the person.”

To tell that story, von der Ahé and fellow curator Saskia Lubnow have assembled 450 original creations, accessories, sketches, photographs, and decorative objects, creating one of the most comprehensive exhibitions dedicated to the late designer.

The retrospective has already traveled across Europe, with previous stops in the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Spain, and, most recently, London. But Paris is not simply a repeat performance: “That would be very boring for us.” For its latest incarnation, the exhibition has been expanded with new acquisitions, reworked scenography, and a renewed focus on Versace’s relationship with the French capital.

See also: What To Expect From Schiaparelli’s First UK Exhibition

Among the additions are a dress worn by Grace Jones that has not been publicly displayed since the late 1980s and the Marilyn Monroe-motif dress immortalized by Madonna in a Mario Testino photograph taken at Mar-a-Lago.

“It’s a very important piece for understanding how Gianni Versace worked with art history,” says von der Ahé of the latter. “I think it’s one of the most important pieces in the exhibition.”

The additions are particularly fitting for a city that, according to von der Ahé, sits at the heart of the designer’s story. «Paris is the city of fashion, and we talk about [Versace’s] relationship to Paris and to France,» he explains. «The whole exhibition is built around the idea of a catwalk, because, for him, Paris was the place to show.»

The Musée Maillol has been transformed accordingly. Runways cut through the galleries, guiding visitors through a dozen thematic chapters that trace the designer’s inspirations, from the bold modernism of the 1980s to the exuberant black and gold Baroque motifs that would become synonymous with the Versace name, before culminating with references to the designer’s final Paris show.

Bringing that vision to life, however, required far more than clever scenography. Many of the exhibition’s most significant pieces remain in private hands, and convincing collectors to part with them can be a delicate process.

«It was hard to convince the seller that we absolutely needed this Grace Jones dress,» von der Ahé admits. «People have a very emotional relationship with these pieces. It’s not about fashion or money; it’s often about emotions and memories connected to them. But when we show these pieces in an exhibition like this, we bring them back into the light,» he says. «If a piece is hanging in a wardrobe at home, it’s hidden from the public. Here it comes back into public view.»

That collaborative spirit has become one of the defining characteristics of the retrospective. Collectors are invited to openings and given the opportunity to see their pieces in a new context around preserving the designer’s legacy. «It’s a kind of very Italian la famiglia,» says von der Ahé. «Everyone connected through Gianni Versace.»

Preserving that legacy has required drawing a firm line around the period the exhibition examines. Though Donatella Versace would go on to guide the company for nearly three decades following her brother’s murder in 1997 – before standing down last year and passing the role to former Alaïa alumnus Pieter Mulier – this retrospective remains focused exclusively on her brother.

«It is very sensitive,» says von der Ahé. «We are talking about the period up until July 15, 1997. What he created up until 1997 and the collections for 1997-98 are the final point of our story. We don’t work with anything after that.»

It’s for that reason, according to von der Ahé, that the Gianni Versace Retrospective is not officially affiliated with the Versace company or family – although the curator stresses that both remain aware of the project and supportive of its aims. The distinction, he says, allows the exhibition to focus on the man rather than the mythology that has accumulated around the brand in the decades since his death.

«We are showing something from a time when the brand itself was not the most important thing,» says von der Ahé. «Quality, personality, and family were more important.»

In many ways, that focus feels particularly timely: at a moment when fashion houses are undergoing rapid leadership changes and the industry is increasingly questioning what luxury means in the age of algorithms, influencers, and relentless marketing cycles.

While von der Ahé stops just short of positioning the exhibition as a critique of contemporary fashion, the comparison is difficult to ignore. «The fashion industry is actively searching for a new starting point,» he says. «We hope people, even those from the fashion industry, coming to this exhibition feel [that] this is a certain substance needed to be relevant.

Bids are currently sitting at a rather modest $45,000. Bids are currently sitting at a rather modest $45,000.

From experimental lighting debuts and collectible furniture to meeting the leading craftspeople of tomorrow, this is what not to miss during Northern Europe’s leading design festival. 

As Marilyn Monroe would have turned 100, a major new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looks beyond the blonde bombshell stereotype to reveal a savvy image-maker who understood fame long before the age of influencers. 

A century after her birth, Marilyn Monroe remains one of the most recognizable faces on the planet – a woman whose image has been endlessly reproduced, often to the point where the person herself seems to disappear beneath the iconography. Now, a major exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery, running until September, seeks to reverse that process.

Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, staged in association with the Marilyn Monroe Estate, celebrates what would have been the Hollywood legend’s 100th birthday by examining her life, career, and enduring cultural legacy through portraits created by some of the most influential photographers and artists of the 20th and 21st centuries (Andy Warhol, Pauline Boty, and Marlene Dumas to name but a few). 

The exhibition promises more than a parade of famous images. Instead, according to curator Rosie Broadley, it seeks to understand Monroe as an active collaborator in constructing one of the most powerful celebrity identities ever created.

“This exhibition explores Marilyn through portraiture. We really wanted to think about how she is not just a subject for photographs,” Broadley explains. “We’ve become so used to seeing her image everywhere – proliferating on merchandise, for example – but we wanted to get back to those key images and how they were made, who made them, and what Monroe’s role was in making them happen.”

The exhibition reveals a woman far more strategically involved in her own representation than popular culture often allows. “Many photographers talk really interestingly about working with Marilyn,” Broadley notes, “how she understood the camera, how she understood how to pose, how she understood the technology and the techniques behind it, the lighting, all of those things.”

Alongside the photography, the exhibition examines Monroe’s influence on artists, charting how she evolved from movie star into cultural symbol. While many visitors will immediately think of Warhol’s famous silkscreens, Broadley was surprised to discover that artists were depicting Monroe while she was still alive. “Those [pieces of art] attest to the fact that actually in her lifetime, she was a pre-eminent cultural figure,” she says, noting how Monroe’s rise coincided with the emergence of Pop Art and a rapidly expanding media landscape.

The exhibition’s journey begins with its most intimate object: a tiny photo booth self-portrait taken when Monroe was just 15 years old and still known as Norma Jeane Mortenson. “There’s no photographer there,” Broadley explains. “It’s entirely unmediated. It’s Marilyn on her own.” The image captures a teenager experimenting with glamour, testing a future persona without yet knowing the global phenomenon she would become.

On the opposite wall sits a late Warhol portrait, produced towards the end of the artist’s career and striking contrast to Monroe’s own self-portrait. “It’s almost as far away from a little girl as you could possibly get,” says Broadley. “[Warhol plays with this] idea of the mask of celebrity that Marilyn seemed to embody.”

The wider exhibition follows the transformation of Norma Jeane into Marilyn Monroe, the machinery of fame that helped make it happen, and ultimately, her death.

See also: What to Do in London During the Day

Yet for all the discussion of celebrity and mythmaking, the exhibition repeatedly returns to the human being behind the legend. “We hope that you begin and end with something really joyful,” Broadley says. “Because that was one of Marilyn’s amazing abilities and qualities, was that whatever was happening in her life, she was always able to express this amazing sense of joy, even in spite of the challenges.”

To reinforce that humanity, the exhibition includes a selection of personal belongings, including scripts, shoes, and dresses. Among them is a costume worn in The Prince and the Showgirl, filmed in Britain, as well as a glamorous gown that Monroe adopted for public appearances after it went unused on screen.

“It’s nice to always remember that behind these images is a real person and a woman with a beating heart,” Broadley reflects.

The irony, however, is difficult to ignore. Having spent an entire exhibition encouraging visitors to look beyond the icon, the National Portrait Gallery deposits them straight into a sea of Monroe merchandise in its gift shop. Tote bags, postcards, and collectible books await, reminding us that Marilyn remains one of the most marketable faces in modern history. If the exhibition reveals anything, it is that the woman and the myth remain inseparable. Everyone wants to know the real Marilyn – provided she comes printed on something tangible.

With 104 matches taking place across 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico, and the US, we’ve selected the must-book suite in every World Cup 2026 destination. 

Honey, I shrunk the watches! 

Galeon’s popular 700 Sky has been given a stylish makeover. Galeon’s popular 700 Sky has been given a stylish makeover.

The model debuts with increased performance and enhanced bespoke interiors, setting an EV benchmark amid industry debate. 

Paddock style expert Carlotta Constant shares how to dress stylishly – and authentically – for this weekend’s Formula 1 race. 

Each year, the Monaco Grand Prix brings a heightened sense of anticipation to the principality, not least because of its challenging street circuit and unforgiving barriers. Alongside the racing, celebrities, athletes, and luxury brands descend on Monte Carlo, appearing trackside, portside, and at exclusive after-parties, making the weekend one of the most glamorous on the sporting calendar.

Style during the Monaco Grand Prix has never been more prominent. The fashion stakes trackside continue to rise, accelerated by the growing A-list presence of Formula 1’s WAGs and the increasing number of drivers establishing themselves as style icons. Mercedes-AMG Petronas even made headlines last year by appointing an in-house stylist, and Gucci recently announced it will become the title sponsor of Alpine F1 Team from 2027 onwards.

Few people are better placed to decode Monaco style than Carlotta Constant. The London-based fashion stylist and creative consultant has worked with some of sport’s biggest names, including Lewis Hamilton, David Beckham, and Anthony Joshua.

See more: The Best Hotels in Monaco

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More recently, she has become closely associated with Monegasque Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and his wife Alexandra Leclerc, working on their looks for race weekends, commercial campaigns, red-carpet appearances – most recently at the Cannes Film Festival – and their wedding in Monaco.

“There’s an unspoken understanding that Monaco is one of the most glamorous weekends on the calendar, and people most definitely rise to the occasion,” says Constant. “Monaco is Formula 1’s fashion capital, and people embrace that.”

The stylist has noticed Monaco’s fashion scene becoming increasingly individual, reflecting Formula 1’s growing relationship with style. “People are expressing themselves much more now than they did a few years ago. There’s a greater willingness to experiment and use fashion as part of the spectacle of the weekend,” she adds.

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“That’s something we’ve seen across Formula 1 more broadly, and I think a lot of that can be attributed to drivers like Lewis Hamilton, who have helped push fashion further into the spotlight within the sport.”

When it comes to paddock style, Constant advises against chasing seasonal trends. Monaco, she says, remains rooted in a more timeless approach to dressing. “Think crisp tailoring, beautiful fabrics, timeless pieces.”

Unlike many sporting events, race weekend in Monaco rarely involves a single destination. Guests might begin the day in the paddock, spend the afternoon on a yacht, and end the evening at a restaurant, hotel terrace, or private party. As a result, Constant believes versatility should be the foundation of any outfit. “You need an outfit that works everywhere and can transition effortlessly throughout the day,” she says. 

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Footwear, she adds, is one of the most overlooked aspects of race-weekend dressing. “Comfort has to be part of the conversation and if you’re boarding yachts, you’ll also need footwear that’s easy to remove. Elegant flats, chic sandals, or comfortable block heels are more practical than sky-high stilettos.”

Practicality, however, should never come at the expense of personal style. “I always think the biggest styling mistake is wearing something because it looks good on someone else, rather than because it feels authentic to you,” she says. “The most stylish people at Monaco are usually the ones who look completely comfortable in what they’re wearing.”

Constant argues Monaco style is about looking considered, without appearing as if you’ve tried too hard. For women, she recommends leaning into the pared-back Riviera aesthetic: “A beautiful midi skirt paired with a chic top always works.” For men, the formula is equally simple. “A relaxed polo shirt, a beautifully tailored trouser, and a great loafer are hard to beat.”

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A trust pair of sunglasses also makes a difference. “They’re one of the few accessories you’ll genuinely wear all day, and they can completely elevate a look.” 

Asked who best captures Monaco’s aesthetic, Constant points to Charles and Alexandra Leclerc: “They embody what Monaco style should be: effortless, elegant, and never overdone. 

“Perhaps I’m slightly biased because I get the opportunity to work alongside them, but they represent the essence of modern Monaco dressing. Neither looks like they’re chasing trends. They simply understand the balance between sophistication and ease, which is exactly what the Riviera style is all about.”