Рубрика: General

The styles we swore we’d never wear again are back on rotation. 

From floating in British Columbia’s waters to overlooking the Dolomites, these are the best saunas around the world with unforgettable views. 

The Regalis Foods founder offers his expertise on some classic delicacies. The Regalis Foods founder offers his expertise on some classic delicacies.

Known as Staples Point, the seven-bedroom Cape Elizabeth retreat comprises three acres above a sandy beach.  Known as Staples Point, the seven-bedroom Cape Elizabeth retreat comprises three acres above a sandy beach. 

This season, individuality, independent designers, and vintage finds take center stage. 

Festival season is officially here, and although Glastonbury’s fallow year left a gap in the calendar, there are plenty of other events on the horizon.

Anyone who’s been to a festival will know the level of outfit preparation it takes beforehand – often in response to extreme and unpredictable weather that can swing from torrential rain to heat waves and dust storms.

Then there’s the walking: depending on the festival, 30,000 steps a day isn’t unheard of, so practicality tends to come first, especially when it comes to footwear. Lightweight, comfortable shoes are the obvious starting point, with blister Band-Aids on hand as a precaution.

For bags, fanny packs and crossbody styles are popular choices. They’re secure, easy to wear all day, and most come in wipeable fabrics that hold up well after a dusty weekend. A waterproof layer also comes in handy if conditions turn – or a clear disposable poncho, if you’re committed to showing off your festival fit.

After the practical considerations comes the more subjective part: what to actually wear.

Festival dressing has always sat somewhere between practicality and self-expression, blending boho, disco, Western, athletic, and grunge influences. But there’s been a shift in recent years toward pieces that feel less like ‘festival outfits’ and more like things that belong in everyday rotation.

Lale Boz, It Girl and founder of Normal New York and the Not-A-Normal Show – a retail and experiential platform known for its curated designer and vintage marketplaces — sees this shift clearly through the designers and collectors she works with.

“I think festival style is becoming much more elevated and personal,” she says. “Rather than dressing in a costume for the occasion, people are choosing pieces they would genuinely wear beyond the festival itself.”

Buck the trend

She advises looking inwards and away from the influence of wider trends. “The festival looks I remember most are never the most trend-driven. They’re the ones that feel personal, effortless, and reflective of the person wearing them.”

“What excites me most right now is seeing people mix independent designers with vintage finds and heirloom accessories,” she says. This often comes through in how different references are layered together – vintage pieces, independent designers, and heirloom items that don’t necessarily belong to the same category but work together anyway. “The best festival outfits feel collected over time rather than purchased for a single occasion.”

Her own approach reflects that. Rather than building a complete outfit concept, she starts with one piece and lets everything else fall into place around it. “For me, that might be a vintage slip dress, a beautifully tailored jacket, or an incredible pair of vintage boots. Festivals involve long days, so comfort matters just as much as style.”

Choose comfort, as well as style

From there, the priority is ease – pieces that work across the entire day without needing to be reconsidered. “I gravitate toward pieces that feel effortless, photograph beautifully, and transition easily from day into evening,” she says. “A great pair of sunglasses, layered jewelry, and well-worn leather boots are probably the items I would reach for.”

For those looking for a statement piece to build around, Boz recommends seeking out designers with a strong point of view. “Designers like Paris Montes and Call Me Masha create expressive and memorable pieces from deadstock designer fabrics.”

Look to vintage dealers

And for vintage pieces, she points to curated collections from dealers like The Jennie Walker Archive, Lulu’s Vintage Lovelies, and Valhalla Vintage, which offer “the kind of individuality that makes a festival look stand out.”

As for the looks set to dominate the festival circuit this summer, Boz predicts a continued play on contrast. “I’m seeing many soft romantic elements – lace, sheer layers, antique-inspired details – mixed with tougher pieces like leather boots or oversized jackets. There’s also a return to beautiful accessories: statement jewelry, vintage belts, scarves, and bags that make an outfit feel unique without trying too hard.”

Overall, she cites individuality as the defining trend of the season. “People are styling pieces in ways that feel authentic to them rather than following a specific festival formula.”

The new school of Scottish design presents an authentic, elemental take on the country’s landscape and heritage — with not a tartan or thistle in sight. 

Pimm’s can be glorious or disappointingly sweet. Here’s how to get it right. 

Most of us, I imagine, think of Pimm’s as a quintessentially English drink. And to a great extent it is. The recipe was created in 1912 for a chain of London oyster bars founded by the Englishman, James Pimm, at a time when it was customary to pair oysters with a ‘cup’ or ‘punch’ made of gin, fruit, spices, bitter herbs, and liqueurs, mixed with lemonade.  

But Pimm’s No.1 is also a big deal in that American cradle of the cocktail New Orleans: the city’s Napoleon House bar, in the French Quarter, has been knocking out its fruit-scattered gin cups for almost a hundred years.

See also: The Best Martinis in the World, According to the Experts

So, what’s the secret to a good one? I have some views on this. Because, a well-made Pimm’s can be absolutely divine, but a bad one can be very sickly. Temperature is critical – Pimm’s must always be really, really well-chilled. I think it also benefits from half an hour or so steeping with the fruit, in the fridge. Add lots of orange and lemon wheels to cut the sweetness; strawberries and even raspberries if you want. Plus, a generous handful of freshly-picked mint sprigs – give them a sharp smack before adding, to release the aromatic oils.

The traditional capstone for Pimm’s – and gin cups of all kinds – is a sprig of cucumber-scented borage flowers. These purple-blue blooms enhance the cooling effect and add a lovely pop of color.

Charles Dickens was a big fan of borage: “[it] makes a world of difference” he said to a gathering of fans in Boston, in 1868, for whom he mixed one of his reputedly excellent cups. Borage is pretty easy to grow in a pot, but failing that, cucumber slices will also work in its stead.

Cheap and cheerful fizzy lemonade (or 7-Up) is the classic mixer, but if you prefer it a bit less sweet, substitute with a pared-back tonic like Fever Tree Light or even just sparkling water. And mix roughly 1-part Pimm’s to 3 parts mixer.

Pimm’s used to be bottled at 31.5 percent abv but the strongest version you’ll find today is a rather lily-livered 25 percent abv, which can mean even the best-made cup can wind up tasting a little underpowered. For this reason, it’s worth considering making your own gin cup from scratch – simply mix equal parts gin, red vermouth and triple sec (or other orange liqueur), and dilute to taste.

See alao: A Drinks Expert’s Take on Match-Day Pairings for the World Cup

Hayman’s London Dry Gin, which is made in London by England’s oldest family-owned distillery, has a starburst of citrussy botanicals that would be great here. Or play up to the English country garden theme with Hendrick’s Gin which pairs juniper with subtle notes of cucumber and rose.

For the red vermouth, I’d go with Martini’s more full-throttle Riserva Speciale Rubino or the barbera-based rosso by Chazalettes. And for the orange liqueur Cointreau or Pierre Ferrand’s weightier Dry Curaçao. The new High Fidelity Triple Sec , co-created by Ashley Palmer Watts, chef and co-owner of London sensation The Devonshire, is also very good. It has a little pinch of Cornish salt in the recipe that makes it extremely moreish.

And if it wasn’t clear already, you should always mix Pimm’s by the jug. Because it should always be enjoyed in company – and one glass is never enough.  

Alice’s DIY Pimm’s recipe

Ingredients

-300ml gin

-300ml red vermouth

-300ml triple sec or other orange liqueur

-900ml well-chilled, fizzy lemonade, tonic or soda water

-Garnish: orange and lemon slices, sliced strawberries, mint sprigs, and borage flowers

Method

Combine the first three ingredients in a jug with all the garnishes except the borage and chill in the fridge for half an hour. Just before serving add ice, more mint sprigs, and borage flowers.

These pop-ups are the places to see – and be seen – this season. 

We found the model to be at a unique crossroads of limousine and utility vehicle, but wonder how the U.S. market will respond. We found the model to be at a unique crossroads of limousine and utility vehicle, but wonder how the U.S. market will respond.

The mood might have been subdued, but the concepts were not. Simone Rocha and Kei Ninomiya proved that menswear’s most interesting ideas are still emerging in Florence. 

Pitti Uomo, the world’s biggest menswear salon, is the twice-yearly bellwether of how men will be dressing in six months’ time, and judging from the latest edition, their wardrobe will be a battle between the artisan and avant-garde.   

Though perhaps not a vintage Pitti, after visiting three key runway shows, dozens of presentations, and scores of stands, a number of key trends did emerge. On this showing, next spring tailoring will be sparse, minimalist even. Fabrics will be lighter than ever. Colors will be muted, muddied even. Shirts, on the contrary, should be rather fantastical. And believe it or not, there is a revival of the kilt.   

The fair’s 110th three-day edition ended Thursday with the debut menswear show by Irish star designer Simone Rocha on the stage of Teatro della Pergola. The 2024 British Fashion Designer of the Year winner, Rocha manages to savvily combine punky romanticism, cool historicism, and a dash of transgressive style.   

Not every man will wear her lace-trimmed doily bloomers, pearl-trimmed ballet slippers, or naughty priest soutanes. But if they have enough panache they will look sensational in Rocha’s pearl-button Venetian wool double-breasted jackets; her panelled rugby jerseys with wingtip collars; her soft nappa cream-hued leather dusters or her sensational jockey racing tops in Clongowes Wood College purple and white stripes. Her silk multi-pleated pants are must-haves.   

By blending her Irish and Chinese heritage with Elizabethan detailing and Victorian codes, Rocha has built a global business since opening her first store in Mount Street in London. 

Voluminous trousers will be all the rage next summer. At Kiton New Texture, the experimental range of the Naples-based tailor, they were seen in wide double-pleat denim or coppery cotton pants paired with slim, perfectly cut double-breasted jackets with a soft Neapolitan shoulder. So minimal were they that none had a breast pocket.   

Pitti 110 happens at a tricky moment for Italian fashion. Tepid Chinese luxury consumption and tensions in the Middle East brought Italian menswear sales down 2.2% in 2025, even if exports did rise 0.1 percent to €8.8bn.   

“Today, men really do change their clothes and wardrobe frequently,» explained Antonio De Matteis, Kiton’s managing director and president of Pitti, «that has widened our market, and is the motor which will drive our sector.”   

During the fair, Florence became an exercise in storytelling, like the Negroni-fuelled cocktail party for Gucci Storia, a brilliant history of the brand inside Palazzo Gucci in the city’s historic main square, Piazza della Signoria.  

Being a great designer requires a healthy ego, and no one could accuse Gucci’s creative director, Demna, of false modesty. One room featured three huge brand-new Renaissance-style tapestries featuring a history of the Gucci clan. One showed the Georgian-born designer finishing a fitting in his atelier, poised like Raffaello or Michelangelo.   

Two hundred yards away, Sebago staged an 80th anniversary boat tour party on the banks of the Arno in the city’s rowing club. It featured a motorboat in the shape of a classic Sebago red-white-and-blue docksider loafer. The boat shoe turned shoe boat. It’s one of four brands – along with California swimwear label Sundek, Pennsylvania’s Woolrich, and France’s K-Way – that are smartly being revived by Basic Net, owned by the extraordinarily entrepreneurial Turin-based Boglione family.   

The fair celebrated one of Florence’s favorite sons, Emilio Pucci, with a discussion animated by veteran fashion editor and expert Suzy Menkes on The Astonishing Odyssey of a Fashion Icon, a new biography by Terence Ward and Idanna Pucci. A World War Two bomber pilot, Marchese Pucci, led the Italian fashion renaissance of the 1950s by founding a brand — in one of whose dresses Marilyn Monroe was interred — which is today a key marque of the LVMH luxury conglomerate.   

Featuring spring/summer 2027 collections, 740 brands displayed their latest ideas at Pitti. Curiously, in the midst of a heatwave with temperatures hitting 38 degrees, some of the smartest shirts came from Antik Batik, where designer Gabriella Cortese showed beguilingly soft and breathable khadi tops. Woven on old wooden hand looms from Calcutta, khadi is the fabric Mahatma Gandhi urged all Indians to wear and use to become more self-sufficient and escape the dominance of British textiles. 

In fashion, as in life, sometimes it’s all about timing. Such was the case at DSM Kei Ninomiya, the debut show of the first brand launched by Dover Street Market. Fashion insiders’ favorite retailer, DSM is the brainchild of Japanese design legend Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons fame.   

Presented inside Sant’Orsola, currently a building site, it’s a massive 14th-century monastery famed for being the final resting place of Lisa Gherardini, the presumed model of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Instead of Renaissance beauties, Japan-born Ninomiya rode the punk revival and presented some sensational posh-punk fantasies – in mash-ups of plaid blazers and blousons, grommeted kilts and chain-covered biker jackets.    

See also: Max Mara Marks 75 Years with Cruise Collection, Exhibition, and Boutique in Shanghai

A pedant would say: grazie Vivienne Westwood. But that would be unfair. This was instead the latest expression of fashion’s everlasting admiration and demolition of Scottish baronial style.    

The collection culminated with giant mohawks and Liberty Spike haircuts. Though unlike the punk versions, these sprouted real flowers at the top of the spikes. And while few of the billionaires and hedge fund execs among us will ever sport a mohawk, maybe we should consider a kilt. It is, after all, most definitely fashion’s greatest icebreaker.