style

Style is oh-so-much. A girl would love to be drawn (looking good, of course). Here is Linda Evangelista, as sketched by the inhouse artist at Claridge’s, London – cleverly, the hotel has appointed a specific FASHION artist-in-residence, one David Downton, a regular at Paris haute couture shows for the last ten years or more.

Style is arriving at a hotel by helicopter, such a safe and special mode of transport, especially for a girl alone - see

http://girlahead.blogspot.com/2011/07/helicoptering-in-to-rooftop-of-tivoli.html

But style is so much more. Style is lunch outside (photo, below) on a terrace at Red Carnation’s idyllic Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa, overlooking the wild waves of Camps Bay, on the outskirts of Cape Town. That day, only last month, I amazingly coincided with Luke Bailes, owner of the phenomenally successful Singita lodges – charming guy, oodles of style, made me feel that his life was now complete having finally met me (while I felt the same). Oh by the way, lovely new GM of Twelve Apostles, Horst Frehse, who used to work for Luke, showed me round the renovations of the hotel’s spa. What was formerly a dark, troglodyte haven is now, as of 1st August, a light-bright-white sanctuary with the brand-new B Africa products devised for Red Carnation’s creative leader, Bea Tollman.

Style is here, too, in the burgeoning Morumbi IT-financial district Sao Paulo (not so much outskirts of this sprawling city but in the hub of today’s, 21st century, activity). At Grand Hyatt Sao Paulo, I have five matching pink carnation plants on my coffee table, three identical other pink floral displays on the desk and my Trousseau robe, initialled of course, was wrapped in tissue in a big, ribbon-tied box. Style, too, is its wellness, Technogym of course, with a decent-sized, decent-temperature indoor pool. And oh the food – but that will be another story.