Рубрика: General

This is the latest release from Italian company Luxardo. This is the latest release from Italian company Luxardo.

The aircraft completed the flight from Montreal to Nice in just over six hours. The aircraft completed the flight from Montreal to Nice in just over six hours.

In an exclusive interview, Elie Saab Jr. and Bombardier’s CEO explain how a shared clientele inspired one of private aviation’s most ambitious partnerships. 

No one is staying in their lane, often to thrilling results. The latest head-turning pairing: aviation leader Bombardier and Elie Saab, the Lebanon-founded brand known for red-carpet moments and regal clientele. “Ours is a mutual customer,” says Elie Saab Jr., CEO of the Elie Saab Group, which first ventured into the interiors world in 2019 and recently debuted a coterie of branded residences. “We want to deliver an experience [to our customers] everywhere they go.”

A longtime customer, Saab always wanted to design a jet – a Bombardier, as it’s most distinctly linked to his childhood memories of flying. Yet despite the longstanding relationship, the partnership remains groundbreaking for the private aviation industry. While big-name designers are often tapped by aircraft owners to bring style to the skies in one-off jobs, this is the first time an aircraft manufacturer has offered a high-design interior of this pedigree and caliber as an option – in this case for the extra-large cabins of Bombardier’s superlative Global 8000, first launched in December 2025.

See also: The Best Private Jet Interior Designers You Need to Know

Already billed as the fastest civil aircraft since the Concorde (the latest speed record clocked just over six hours from HQ in Montreal to Nice, France), this best-in-class ultra-long-range aircraft may now also take the title of chicest with a sweeping sand-hued palette; deeply plush tactile fabrics on Bombardier’s signature Nuage (French for ‘cloud’) seats; and outré additions (see: a five-seat divan sofa, his-and-hers walk-in closets, and a dramatic Patagonia stone bathroom).

“It comes together like a small coocoon,” says Saab, “like a small universe, where you can feel at peace and where you have that sense of elegance.” It also feels unmistakably residential, with a stateroom that flows into the closet, and finally into the show-stopping bathroom. “We wanted to deliver a configuration that could be an eye-opener for some people who maybe already own a business jet.”

See also: The Greek Aviation Startup Is Bringing On-Demand Helicopter Travel to NYC

Throughout, a few discreet, almost invisible logos add a whisper of if-you-know-you-know luxury, while a specially developed geometric bird pattern repeating across the bulkhead marquetry, carpets, and cushions serves as a symbolic hat tip to Bombardier’s technical achievements. “The biggest differentiator between a Bombardier plane and any other plane is the wing,” says Bombardier’s president and CEO, Éric Martel of the advanced wing design with leading-edge slats, which grant access to around 30 percent more airports than rival aircraft. “We’ve always pushed to have the best wing because it brings performance and comfort, and that’s the idea of the abstract bird logo.”

With two different configurations (three or four zones), the haute couture Elie Saab interior is now available as an option on all new Global 8000 aircraft, as well as on Global 7500s being upgraded.

A visit to the capital is not complete without a scone and a cup of tea. 

The English afternoon tea is that utter rarity of an experience that delights both first-time tourists and the born-and-bred English. A novelty for the former, it is a long-held tradition for the latter, and today no trip to the green and pleasant land would be complete without it. For the best afternoon teas in London, both groups are utterly spoilt for choice.

The nation’s capital, it’s no wonder London is where to source the best afternoon tea. Today, no luxury London hotel experience is complete without an afternoon tea offering, and this is slowly starting to spread into other realms of the hospitality sector, too.

Despite all the offerings the great city of London has to offer, we are yet to find a more charming way to escape the bustle of the city than an afternoon spent inside one of London’s finest establishments, engaging in one of the country’s favorite pastimes: exchanging pleasantries over a pot of tea and sandwiches. Bonus points if you discuss the weather.

[See also: The 15 Best Luxury Hotels in London]

The Lanesborough

Winter in the capital is grueling, and you’d be hard-pressed to find even the stiffest of upper lip Londoners successfully resist a smile at the dawning of spring. Luckily for us, The Lanesborough ushers in the glorious season early, with the launch of the hotel’s new Meadow Afternoon Tea.

Placing the spotlight on English ingredients, such as chicken from the Cotswold, cheese from Lancashire, and smoked salmon from Scotland (the best in the world, we’d argue), spring is thrust center stage with a pastry collection so gorgeous it feels almost criminal to eat. But do: the apple blossom is divine, and the white chocolate and honey bee is already a new classic.

oektercollection/thelanesborough.com

[See also: The 12 Best Fine Dining Restaurants in London]

The Ritz London

Afternoon tea at The Ritz is such a classic of the genre that we’re not quite sure any best afternoon teas in London round-up has missed it; and lest we be the first.

The Palm Court, where afternoon tea is held, oozes timeless elegance in the most opulent of settings. Featuring all the usual trappings of the afternoon tea affair – finely cut sandwiches, scones and cream – The Ritz London is also the only location across the UK to have a certified Tea Master.

Naturally, there is a dress code; this is The Ritz, after all. As there should be; the Palm Court was the hotel’s original ballroom, and echoes of gowns and jewels of centuries gone by linger as pleasantly as the musical ensemble from The Ritz London’s resident pianist.

theritzlondon.com

[See also: Trivet Restaurant, London: A Post-Pandemic Success Story]

Rosewood London

This one goes out to all the artists and art lovers; Rosewood London’s afternoon tea offering, the Dali Art Afternoon Tea, was voted the best contemporary afternoon tea in the UK. The latest in an impressive line of Art Afternoon Teas, executive pastry chef Mark Perkins was inspired by surrealist artist Salvador Dali.

Designed in line with the upcoming Surrealism Beyond Borders exhibition at the Tate Modern, Perkins says of the afternoon tea: “London is a vibrant city with an incredibly energetic art scene. Rosewood London’s quirky interiors reflect the British capital’s history, culture, and sensibilities.”

The pastry designs are magical; keep an eye out for the butterfly windmill, one of Dali’s most memorable designs, which is made using olive oil cake and encased in chocolate mousse.

rosewoodhotels.com/london

[See also: The Best Rooftops and Terraces in London]

Dalloway Terrace at The Bloomsbury Hotel

If The Rosewood London’s afternoon tea honors artists, then The Bloomsbury Hotel tips its hat to London’s long established literary scene with afternoon tea hosted at the hotel’s Dalloway Terrace, named after – of course – Virginia Woolf’s most famous character, Mrs. Dalloway.

An unmissable presence in the capital during the spring and summer months due to its open-air space and floral decorations that are reminiscent of the English countryside, in winter it remains fully heated and just as enticing.

There is, of course, so much more going on than just the venue. The terrace’s head pastry chef, Chris Dodd, is an Afternoon Tea of the Year finalist – can it get more quintessentially English than that?

dallowayterrace.com

[See also: Experience the Rugged Beauty of Cornwall’s North Coast at Scarlet]

The Goring

Located right beside Buckingham Palace – the closest luxury hotel to it, in fact – afternoon tea at The Goring is fit for a King. We mean this literally: it is the only hotel with a Royal Warrant for hospitality services and was the venue of choice for King Charles’ birthday celebrations in 2008.

If that’s not enough to assure you of The Goring’s prowess in the afternoon tea scene, further validation can be found in its possession of The British Tea Guild Council’s Top London Afternoon Tea Award. We told you the English take their afternoon tea seriously. Go in the spring months for the Coronation Afternoon Tea, which spotlights the King’s favorite cakes and sandwiches.

thegoring.com

They’re not traditional. They are delicious. They’re not traditional. They are delicious.

The new version of this whiskey is a seven-year-old single barrel expression. The new version of this whiskey is a seven-year-old single barrel expression.

Designer Alessandro Sartori drew on the Italian tradition of villeggiatura to present a vision of leisure dressing in Malibu. 

On Friday evening, the Italian menswear giant Zegna staged a brilliant expression of poised panache in a gala show at the Malibu Pier. Built in 1905, the pier has five years on Zegna, which was founded by Ermenegildo Zegna in 1910 in the hills of Piedmont, as a resource of superlative fabrics. Its latest materials were the backbone of this collection staged on a windy evening on the rough-hewn promenade, privatized for the event. 

The leitmotif of the collection was creative director Alessandro Sartori’s concept of Villeggiatura, the mid-century Mediterranean concept of seasonal living and cultivated leisure. Then — as now — the act of relocating to a coastal or countryside villa for the summer to escape the oppressive heat of the city and enjoy a slower pace of life led to a different way of dressing, or fresh expressions of saper vivere and saper vestire (knowing how to live and dress, respectively), where the act of dressing gains spontaneity and a sense of easy rhythm.

A century ago, trains used to run the length of Malibu Pier to unload cattle hides and walnuts onto ferry boats for export from California. Similar tonal shades appeared in this collection, which riffed on beachside or nautical stripes with hues like aquamarine, algae, sea green, rabbit, dune, teak, and desaturated black — often combined in striped canvas totes and weekend bags.

See also: Gilded Age Meets Keith Haring at the Louis Vuitton 2027 Cruise Show

Throughout, the fabrics were superlative — suede crocodile shirt jackets or belted safaris in the softest lambskin. Few designers develop more novel materials than Sartori, who dreamed up remarkable new knitted-leather blousons, where the strands are suede on the exterior, and nubuck inside, giving the garment a slight glimmer in motion. Also featured: washed hemp gabardine or blends of raw silk, wool, and paper.  

“Everything here starts from fabrics, which have texture and pattern, and look endlessly renewed by simply twisting and turning the subtlest elements, even just a thread. Constant evolution is what we strive for,” explained Sartori.

His jackets were roomy with broad shoulders and light padding, or narrow and deconstructed on safari looks. With seagulls and drones circling the show, Alessandro showed versions of his pathbreaking three-button blazer, this season in bouclé towelling; his seer-sucker Norfolk jackets with peak lapels worn with tailored shorts were another highlight. Detailing was precise. Pretty much every jacket and shirt had a back vent, or Spacco, to aid with movement and add a soupcon of grandeur. 

See also: Fendi Resort 2027 Imagines Clothes Meant to Be Shared

Back in 1996 when I attended my first Zegna show, the collection was almost entirely made up of crisp power-shoulder suits — always worn with ties — targeted at Wall Street and City bankers. But under Sartori’s direction, Zegna has pivoted to create cultivated, casual but always classy luxury. Better than any other designer, he has understood the post-Covid paradigm that successful men want to look at ease with their good fortune.

As Sartori puts it, it’s about “creating new categories, erasing staid ones in an endless quest for styles apt for liquid lives of today,” and developing an “evolving aesthetic that’s rooted in the classics yet freed from outmoded restraints.”

It’s a new cosmopolitan openness that somehow remains profoundly Italian. Over the past 20 years, Sartori has grown into one of the half dozen most influential designers in men’s fashion, as was clear from this display.

See also: Dior’s Star-Studded LA Cruise Show Marks a New Era for the House

The collection marked the second time Zegna has exited the June Milan menswear season to stage a mammoth show. Last year it transformed the Dubai Opera into a Zegna Oasis referencing Ermenegildo’s private garden, and staged an immersive multi-day immersive pop-up called Villa Zegna – offering bespoke tailoring and couture finishes. 

Ale, as he’s known to most, feted the LA show at Chateau Marmont with a performance by acerbic ’70s pop-rock band Sparks, who were first formed in Pacific Palisades. The following morning, the hotel’s famed cottages became the site of Villa Zegna, part set evoking the family’s summer holidays and history, part private salon where for five days VICs can order bespoke or limited-edition looks.

Zegna now follows the example of giant French houses like Chanel, Dior and Hermès by taking its collection to iconic global locations. Dior staged its cruise show underneath the brand-new Los Angeles County Museum of Art in May, while Hermès held a sunset show in the canyons of Bel Air on Thursday night attended primarily by VICs.

Hermès designer Nadège Vanhee showed haute hip Hollywood chic – featuring ballet slipper silhouette gowns; femme fatale film-noir black suits; and bright satin gowns, riffing on California sunsets and graphic city signage. It was a fierce fall winter 2026 collection entitled The Second Chapter that was far from quiet luxury, staged before an audience carrying hundreds of Birkin and Kelly bags.

But back to Malibu Pier, where scores of movie producers and Silicon Valley unicorn founders joined double Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, Paul Dano, Stellan Skarsgard, Roman Coppola, Rami Malek and Korean supermodel and DJ Soo Joo Park on striped canvas fold out chairs. All of them in the easy fluid silhouettes and rich, natural fabrics Sartori has made his signature. Basketball legend Scottie Pippen, wearing a crisp linen jerkin with Zegna’s signature suede neck trim, and composer Ludwig Göransson, who won his third Academy Award in 2025 for the soundtrack of Sinners, were also present, amid a flurry of paparazzi snappers and phone-wielding Italian editors.

Zegna’s soundtrack blended 60s Italian ballads, the Divine Comedy and the roar of breaking ocean waves. Scores of surfers could be seen catching the evening swell to the north of the pier while burned-out seaside villas from last year’s Palisades Fires dotted the landscape to the south. Like the pier, which survived the category five Hurricane Marie of 2014, Zegna has weathered the ups and downs of the market better than nearly any Italian brand. 

“You know what, we tend to do best in the years when conditions are tricky. Our quality, consistency and Ale’s creativity appeal even more,” mused Gildo Zegna, the chairman and the third generation to run the namesake brand.

Despite a very tricky 2025 for luxury, the Zegna brand scored a 4.5 percent rise in annual sales to €1.18bn last year, while the Ermenegildo Zegna Group — which includes Thom Browne and Tom Ford’s fashion division — notched a 20 percent rise in net profit to €110 million, earned on a slight dip of 1.5 precent in global sales of €1.917bn.

“An analyst recently called me the prince of patience and I like that,” chuckled Gildo, a twinkle in his eyes amid the last rays of sunset. 

Ras Al Khaimah is planning a new astronaut training experience in the UAE. 

While space travel was once reserved for trained professional astronauts and scientists, and regarded as one of humanity’s greatest collective achievements, the astronaut experience is increasingly becoming something that can be packaged, purchased, and consumed.

Ras Al Khaimah’s planned astronaut training experience reflects this shift. The result of a partnership between Blinc Space and Action Flight Aviation, the project intends to give an astronaut-inspired experience that combines high G-force and aerobic flights, designed to mimic the conditions outside Earth’s protective atmosphere. Astronaut preparation skills are also planned, such as freefall and parachute sky jumps, mental awareness and reaction tests, and zero-gravity environments. Training will take place in the remote Ras Al Khaimah landscape – a mix of sprawling desert terrain and harsh mountain peaks. 

Prospective attendees should note the program has no actual bearings on the science of real-life space travel or the years of rigorous scientific, engineering, and operational training undertaken by professional astronauts, and is entirely simulatory. Instead, it translates elements of the astronaut experience into an immersive training-style activity. Participants will not be preparing for space missions, contributing to aerospace research, or gaining qualifications recognised by space agencies. 

Instead, the experience is best understood as an adventure tourism product that borrows the aesthetics and terminology of astronaut training to create an immersive, aspirational experience. According to Blinc Space’s website, ‘These programs serve as entry points into the private space ecosystem, feeding education, training, and innovation pipelines.’

See also: Everything You Need To Know About the First Hotel on the Moon

As the advent of civilian space travel potentially draws nearer, commercial astro training is set to be in growing demand. In the UK, Blue Abyss has released plans to create an 164-ft pool, intended for human testing in extreme conditions. Spaceflight training company Orbite has secured millions in funding for its astronaut-style experiences, with a first campus slated for 2027. Again, neither of these companies are planning to ever get people up to space – if they do launch, their role is purely related to preparation. 

And amid all these proposed preparation facilities, while NASA’s recent Artemis II mission proved space travel still has the power to unite the world in awe, private programs hoping to get civilians into space are proving tricky to get off the ground. Virgin Galactic, which fetches up to $1m per seat for its 90-minute sub-orbital expeditions, paused its trips from 2024 to focus on testing (although there are whispers of journeys being resumed in the near future.) 

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, on the other hand, has halted both flights and testing following the explosion of a rocket in Florida. On social media, the company called the accident (in which no one was harmed or injured) an ‘anomaly.’ For the time being, parachuting from a place in the middle of the desert might be the best way to get a taste of astronaut life.

Chanel’s Riviera retreat, Versace’s South Beach mansion, Louboutin’s Portuguese enclave – fashion’s great names shape not only what we wear, but where we want to go. 

When your suitcase is already filled with their designs, the next natural step is to book a night in one of their properties. But while fashion’s relationship with hospitality is not exactly a novelty these days – with brands like Bulgari and Armani building lavish hotels around the world, and Louis Vuitton preparing to join them with its forthcoming Paris property – the most fascinating stays aren’t necessarily the ones carrying a logo over the door.

Scattered across the French Riviera, the Portuguese coast, and the Caribbean are private villas, country estates, and boutique hotels conceived by some of fashion’s most influential figures. These branded residences (in the truest meaning of the phrase) offer a true taste of the makers behind your favorite label, and a chance to step directly into the personal world of the designers themselves.

See also: The Luxury Hotels Where Marilyn Monroe Checked In (and You Can, Too)

Whether it’s Christian Louboutin’s colorful hideaway villas in Portugal, Coco Chanel’s beloved artist retreat on the French Riviera, or Gianni Versace’s maximalist Florida mansion, these are the homes and hotels that reveal how fashion’s biggest names really live, entertain, and escape.

The homes of luxury fashion designers you can stay in 

Coco Chanel’s Villa La Pausa
Perched above Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, La Pausa is the French Riviera retreat built from the ground up by Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel in 1928. The villa became the designer’s sanctuary away from Paris and a gathering place for some of the era’s most influential creative minds, including Salvador Dalí, Colette, and Luchino Visconti. After acquiring the property in 2015, Chanel embarked on an extensive restoration led by architect Peter Marino, painstakingly returning the house to its original appearance using archival photographs and recovered furnishings.

Today, La Pausa has been reimagined not as a hotel, but as a cultural residence, hosting writers, artists, and creatives through invitation-only programs supported by the Chanel Culture Fund. For most travelers, a stay remains firmly out of reach, but for a select group of invited residents, the chance to spend a few nights in Chanel’s private world is once again possible.

See also: The Fife Arms Launches New Chanel Suite: Review

Karl Lagerfeld’s Villa La Vigie
Similar to his former employer’s founder, Karl Lagerfeld was also drawn to the French Riviera, choosing Villa La Vigie as his private summer refuge. Perched above Monte-Carlo Beach with sweeping views across the coastline towards Cap-Martin, the Belle Époque mansion was long associated with the designer’s ritual escape from Paris. He would spend extended periods there photographing, entertaining, and observing life from its expansive terraces.

Though originally built in the early 1900s, following a meticulous restoration, the villa is now available for private rental through select luxury operators, complete with full service, security, and access to Monte-Carlo Beach amenities.

Christian Dior’s Château La Colle Noire
Long before it became one of the fashion world’s most coveted invitations, Château La Colle Noire was Christian Dior’s beloved Provençal escape. The designer purchased the sprawling estate near Grasse in 1951 and devoted himself to restoring the property, transforming it into a fragrant retreat surrounded by rose gardens, olive groves, and the flowers that would inspire many of his perfumes.

Following an extensive renovation by the House of Dior, the château has been returned to its former grandeur and now serves as an exclusive venue for private gatherings, cultural events, and intimate brand retreats. Overnight stays are not available to the public, but a select group of guests is occasionally invited to experience the estate firsthand, most recently including Alexa Chung.

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Gianni Versace’s Villa Casa Casuarina
Partly thanks to the maximalist design courtesy of its former owner (and partly due to it being the site of his tragic murder), few homes have achieved near-mythical status quite like Villa Casa Casuarina, formerly known as the Versace Mansion. Purchased by Gianni Versace in 1992, the South Beach property became an extravagant expression of the designer’s OTT vision, with mosaic-lined courtyards, frescoed ceilings, and a gilded aesthetic inspired by Italian palazzos.

Unlike many designer residences, however, this one can still be experienced firsthand. Now operating as a boutique hotel, the property offers a limited number of guest suites, allowing visitors to stay within the walls of one of fashion’s most famous homes while many of Versace’s original decorative flourishes remain intact.

See more: Meet the Man Behind the Medusa at Paris’ New Gianni Versace Retrospective

Christian Louboutin’s Vermelho Melides Hotel, and Villas La Salvada and La Maison des Bateaux
Christian Louboutin’s Portuguese passion project began with Vermelho, the jewel-box hotel he opened in the coastal village of Melides in 2023. This once sleepy corner of Portugal is where Louboutin has spent years championing and quietly transforming into one of Europe’s most intriguing creative enclaves. Filled with handcrafted details, antiques, and the designer’s eclectic collection of art and curiosities, the property offers perhaps the closest insight yet into Louboutin’s richly layered aesthetic.

For those seeking an even more personal experience, however, in late 2025, the designer expanded his hospitality portfolio with two private residences: La Salvada and La Maison des Bateaux. Tucked among the pine forests and sandy landscapes of the Alentejo coast, the villas reflect the same playful maximalism found at Vermelho while offering far greater privacy and space. 

Oscar de la Renta’s Punta Cana Resort
The Dominican Republic wasn’t just Oscar de la Renta’s birthplace, but the Caribbean island became one of his great design projects. As a longtime resident and partner of Punta Cana Resort & Club, the designer left an indelible mark on the destination. Most notably through the creation of Tortuga Bay, the resort’s flagship hotel, where he personally shaped the interiors and aesthetic of its collection of beachfront villas.

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Beyond the hotel, de la Renta also designed a number of private residences throughout the resort community, splashing his hallmark style of vibrant colors and nature-inspired motifs to sprawling family compounds surrounded by tropical gardens. While many remain privately owned, select villas within Punta Cana Resort & Club occasionally become available for rental through luxury villa programs.