Who has the energy to stand outside and get cold?
What will even a luxury product do for publicity? The Goring Hotel in London has been family owned, by the Goring family, since 1910. On April 26th, 2011, it got a lifetime’s publicity as the Middleton family did what is called a buy-out, they took over the whole 71-room hotel.
Michael and Carole Middleton and their kids Kate, Pippa and James, and presumably family and friends, stayed there. It was from the hotel that Kate Middleton, in her Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen wedding dress, left for Westminster Abbey to become bride of Prince William, and thereafter to be styled Duchess of Cambridge.
The Goring does have lots of good ideas of its own. This last summer it had Basil’s Bar, a structure in the garden modeled on the famous Mustique original.
Come forward, on September 28th, 2011, luxury underwear was revealed inside – and outside – the hotel, when Marks & Spencer took a room to unveil its spring 2012 collection.
Ladies of 24-hours, The Venetian, Las Vegas
My favorite real-store (as opposed to online) retailer is going for ‘fuss-free’ underpinnings, says Soozie Jenkinson, head of lingerie design. Fuss-free is certainly part of a gal’s luxury lifestyle, just as long as she does not have to brave the elements by standing outside on a hotel’s steps.
It is all a bit ‘Vegas’. In Las Vegas this May, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) held an annual symposium for the great and good, of the ilk of, say, Abercrombie & Kent, whose boss Geoffrey Kent, is the WTTC’s president.
A home-cooked English breakfast gives lots of energy
One evening there was a big party at Sheldon Adelson’s Venetian. The entertainers were total-Nevada rather than Venice – they included acrobats swinging from overhead chandeliers and pouring champagne into glasses held up from below, and other ladies of the day sporting, well, tight uniforms.
A gal needs lots of energy to take part in a life like this. The French would traditionally start with breakfast of buttered toast, with lots of jam, dipped into huge bowls of ultra-milky chocolate or coffee.
The English want their fry-up, Scandinavians go for marinated herrings and Americans opt for anything from pancakes through to the whole works, fruit and savoury together.
The new ener.g products really REALLY feel good
Whatever, energy is essential. Interesting, methinks, that Fairmont’s Willow Stream spas are introducing a new bespoke range of luxury spa products, ener.g – yes, just like that.
They are made by the Swedish spa expert Kerstin Florian – whose own-name products are already used in many Fairmonts, plus The Dorchester, London; Coworth Park, near Windsor Castle, and The Dolder Grand, Zurich.
Those lucky enough to have had a preview of ener.g are smitten. The Mineral Body Scrub has bergamot, chamomile, clary sage and geranium, it scrubs beautifully – and smoothly.
Jennifer Fox takes over the Fairmont brand
After that, rub yourself with the Hydrating Body Emulsion, body lotion with chamomile, clary sage and geranium.. These are some of the most agreeable ‘specially-made’ products in any spas, and they will also be available online.
Watch what Fairmont is up to in the luxury travel world. Tomorrow, November 1st, 2011, its new Toronto-based President starts.
Jennifer Fox, new President of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, is a fiery and lovely Australian with a penchant for Manolo shoes, jewellery from Mrs Wong in Hong Kong and style at all times (when she converted the old Regent in Hong Kong to the fabulous InterContinental Hong Kong she put Dom Pérignon on the cocktail hour buffet in its executive club lounge).
