Watching the lucky diamond half-hourly 'ballet' at Galaxy casino, Macau
It is luxury fashion, in Macau, to salute the lucky diamond that rises, every half hour, at the Galaxy casino. Vanessa Friedman, in this weekend’s Financial Times, credits Steve Jobs with bringing fashion to everyday life.
She cites designer L’Wren Scott – aka long-suffering girlfriend of that forever-young Rolling Stone, Sir Mick Jagger – putting on every chair at her recent Paris fashion show mini Hewlett-Packard laptops that she has designed.
I guess it is like Burberry, which started in macs (the raincoat type) progressing to fashion, umbrellas and baby buggies, and, to come shortly, Burberry Body perfume and an accompanying single by The Feeling.
A girl approves of brand extension, generally. She definitely believes that personal style can be an individual’s brand. Quite the opposite of Lady Gaga, who changes her persona with every sighting, Steve Jobs understood that if you wear much the same thing every time you appear in public you become both instantly identifiable and the owner of a look – think, also, Coco Chanel and her suits, Kate Middleton (Duchess of Cambridge) and her hair and perfect attire and American Vogue queen, Anna Wintour, also hair and neatness.
It's fashion to wear one's uniform, even in front of the living wall in my Banyan Tree Macau spa suite
So who cares if I wear the same? It is this girl’s look, merely shown in different places. Here I am in what looks like Phuket heaven. Where, among the full-size bamboos and ten-foot high circular arches and water galore, are the monks?
The black ceiling of the spa at Banyan Tree Macau has a back-lit collage of white birds. I am led to Sangzhi, one of 21 treatment rooms, and I say wow. The bamboo, grey stone and soft green interior has a backdrop of a living wall.
I have a blissfully-forceful sports massage by Orothai, one of 17 Thai therapists here (we are interrupted briefly, at my request, so I can order a grilled vegetable sandwich, for afterwards, part of necessary time management). When it is over, I am asked if I want my ginger tea with or without honey. It comes with jackfruit and voghurt, and a deep wai, and I head back to my beautiful villa.
View of Banyan Tree Macau's Villa 506 terrace (Thailand?) with a bit of the 32-floor golden highrise (Las Vegas?) behind
Make a note. The luxury villas at Banyan Tree Macau are nearly 1,000 sq ft in all. Villa 506 has two bedrooms, one private massage room and, like the others, a private deck and 60 x 30 ft pool flanked by decorative pools that flow into what can best be described as a ‘riverlet’ that runs along the bottom of all the villas.
By my pool I have a sala, for outdoor dining, and plenty of sunlounging space. Thailand, in Macau? Right behind is the golden, 32-floor tower that houses the main part of Banyan Tree and its sibling Okura Hotel Macau. Thailand meets Las Vegas, here in Macau.
