Every fashion capital has its own pace, character and rhythm. To experience these cities as the fashion elite and tastemakers do is to look beyond the obvious: the hotel where design is as considered as the wardrobe, the trattoria that books out the moment reservations open, the bar that only those in the know can find. Consider this your edit of the addresses worth knowing before you book your next flight.
Paris
Stay: For the ultimate in Parisian luxury, check into Cheval Blanc Paris, where the Art Deco grandeur of the Samaritaine meets the Seine. It’s Paris as a private dream: a morning at the Dior Spa, dinner at Arnaud Donckele’s three-star Plénitude, and a nightcap on the Le Tout-Paris terrace as the city glitters below.
Eat: Doobie’s, the legendary Parisian address reborn this September on Rue Marbeuf, has been reimagined by architect Arnaud Behzadi as a collector’s apartment, with art chosen in collaboration with Galerie Strouk. Dinner flows into the late-night bar. Order the sea urchin omelette or the lobster linguine.
Shop: Begin with a classic: Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, the city’s most theatrical department store, crowned by its glass-and-steel dome. Your next address is the Marais, where The Frankie Shop’s twin boutiques face each other on Rue Saint-Claude, a lesson in effortless, oversized tailoring. Then make a pilgrimage to Chanel at 31 Rue Cambon, the house’s historic flagship, where Coco Chanel’s private apartment still sits above the salons.
After dark: Mondovi is also home to Le 7, a cocktail bar created with Colin Field, the legendary former head bartender of the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz. Need we say more?
Milan
Stay: Check into Portrait Milano, the Ferragamo family’s Lungarno Collection hotel, built around a vast 17th-century courtyard in the heart of the Quadrilatero della Moda. Architect Michele Bönan has turned the former seminary rooms into generous bedrooms with bathrooms clad in Carrara marble, and there’s a pool and spa for the moments between appointments. For a more design-forward alternative, STRAF, conceived by artist and designer Vincenzo De Cotiis steps from the Duomo, is all raw concrete and burnished metal. Hotel Viu in Porta Volta, with vertical gardens on its glass façade, has a rooftop pool with the best aperitivo views in town.
Eat: Langosteria in Navigli is the address for glamorous seafood: raw dishes, oysters and the daily catch from premium suppliers, with a wine list to match. For a long, easy lunch, LùBar, opened by the children of designer Luisa Beccaria in the courtyard of Milan’s modern art gallery, draws the style set from breakfast until midnight.
Shop: Begin in the Quadrilatero della Moda, the golden rectangle formed by Via Montenapoleone, Via della Spiga, Via Sant’Andrea and Via Manzoni, where the great Italian and international houses keep their flagships. Then head to 10 Corso Como, Carla Sozzani’s pioneering concept store, where fashion, design, books and art have shared one courtyard since 1990. Before you leave Portrait, stop by Antonia, the boutique in its courtyard and a favourite of the Milanese for decades.
London
Stay: For Mayfair with a wink, book The Twenty Two on Grosvenor Square, a hotel and private members’ club in a listed Edwardian manor. Its 31 rooms and suites, including a standalone mews house, were decorated by Natalia Miyar, and guests can join members in the Living Room, the Music Room and The Vault Bar. For a smaller, more intimate address, Grand Hotel Bellevue in Paddington occupies a Victorian townhouse on leafy Norfolk Square. It’s the first British hotel from French group Lignée, with interiors by Paris-based architect Fabrizio Casiraghi, who imagined it as the London home of an aristocratic Englishman and his globetrotting wife. To the east, Aethos has reinvented the former Nobu Hotel on Willow Street as a creative, members’-club-led address with interiors by Barcelona’s Astet Studio.
Eat: In Notting Hill, Celeste is the all-day Italian-American restaurant from the community behind Estelle Manor and Maison Estelle, California-inspired in spirit, with a front terrace for morning coffee and a courtyard warmed by a fireplace. Members have the run of all four floors of the townhouse, including a Japanese restaurant and members’ bar. Martino’s is another favorite spot for a weekend lunch accompanied by a cocktail.
Shop: Dover Street Market remains a pilgrimage for anyone who sees fashion as art. Follow it with a slow afternoon on Mount Street, among its flagships and galleries.
After dark: Claridge’s Bar, Art Deco to its fingertips, is where the fashion crowd has always gathered for a martini.
New York
Stay: The Fifth Avenue Hotel in NoMad is a love letter to the Gilded Age. A restored McKim, Mead & White palazzo has been joined to a 24-floor glass tower, and Martin Brudnizki has filled the 153 rooms and suites with his signature maximalism. Think peacock sconces, a black lacquered cabinet of curiosities and kaleidoscopic Murano chandeliers. Downtown, The Mercer has been fashion’s SoHo hideaway for more than 25 years, with Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Jacobs among its loyal guests. Its 73 loft-like rooms, with interiors by Christian Liaigre, sit within a landmark Romanesque Revival building on the corner of Mercer and Prince, and Sartiano’s downstairs serves from breakfast to dinner.
Eat: Cove, the latest from chef Flynn McGarry, brings a California sensibility to fine dining in Hudson Square, with dining rooms wrapped around an open kitchen where each course is prepared in real time. McGarry designed the interiors himself, inspired by vintage objects and West Coast modernism, and much of the produce comes from his garden on Isabella Rossellini’s farm on Long Island. Book the 30-seat kitchen room for the full experience. In Midtown, The Polo Bar is Ralph Lauren’s equestrian-themed clubhouse, a fashion-week favourite where tables are famously hard to come by. Order the burger.
Drink: In NoHo, Elvis is an intimate, Parisian-style wine bar from Golden Age Hospitality, the group behind The Nines, with orange-painted walls, red tiling and just 30 seats. It’s walk-in only and fills early, so arrive at golden hour for a glass on the sidewalk café. Then finish the night at The Nines, the group’s decadent piano bar, for a classic martini.
Relax: Spencer’s Spa, in SoHo’s historic Tiffany & Co. building on Broadway, is a sanctuary for design lovers.
