Just like Cole Porter, we love the City of Light in the springtime… and we love boutique hotels in Paris. Hotel Sezz is the perfect place to enjoy the season: the fin-de-siècle façade gives way to industrial-chic interiors in couture-inspired colours (check out those Valentino-red carpets), and the Seine-side location makes for optimum sightseeing. Style: [...]
Are you a fly-by-night kinda gal? We’ve got style counsel for your party destination: Lucy Fennings helps you land the right look, with day-to-night dresses, stay-put foundation and ante-upping accessories
It’s 10am and I’ve just turned down a free glass of champagne. I hate myself. On the plus side, I’m sitting on an elegant dove-grey sofa at the Maison de Parfums in Selfridges, surrounded by a glittering array of Dior perfume bottles and being given an education in fragrance by a very lovely lady called [...]
Since we’re in the family way (or will be very soon: look out for smithandfamily.co.uk on an internet near you), we spend a lot of time scouting around for anything that makes parenting that little bit easier, or reminds you that, even though you’ve had kids, you’re still a human, with your own interests, passions [...]
Chic, charismatic and well-connected curator Sophia Koopman is a woman after our own hearts: a globetrotting tastemaker who selects the best of the best for her demanding clients (sounds a little like someone we know). Heading up Koopman Contemporary Art, Sophia travels the world to source creative pieces and super-talented international artists to showcase in venues [...]
Starck-designed hotel Le Royal Monceau knows a thing or two about art: it’s got a gallery, art-book shop and a dedicated art concierge. With our thinking caps firmly on, we nominated the art-savvy YBA Gavin Turk to join the ranks of our secret hotel reviewers and tackle the task of appraising this unconventional Parisian palace. Turk has [...]
Beginning to feel like London’s the only city in the world? If you’re more interested in croissants than canoe sprints, or berets than badminton, look to Paris and Hôtel Le A: a diminutive and discreet hideaway without a whiff of sporting ambition in the eighth arrondissement. Style All-white and arty Setting Chi-chi Champs-Elysées Our favourite bits [...]
This month, we enjoyed some barefoot bliss at Niyama in the Maldives, iconic Australian adventure at Arkaba Station & Walk in Flinders Ranges, some super-luxe suites at Indigo Pearl on Phuket’s northern shores, and a Euro-Thai high rise named Hotel Muse in Bangkok. In Marrakech, we discovered Palais Namaskar, a Balinese-inspired masterpiece (above), and in [...]
This month, we added several stylish UK stays to our handpicked hotel collection: Number Thirty Eight, a boutique Bristol townhouse; the very pretty Vine House in Norfolk; The Cranley Hotel, a particularly genteel Londoner; and Belgraves, a little slice of the Big Apple in the heart of Belgravia. Then, we popped across the channel to [...]
Organised romance: what an arousal-squashing concept. Discerning lovers should bypass all the pink and sickly tack for some unabashed indulgence – from helicopter rides to ladies in lakes – at our romantic hotels. Mr & Mrs Smith built a business around the art of seduction, so who better to entrust with your night(s) of passion? [...]
