Nothing feels like summer more than a straw basket, chilled champagne and cabanas. And we’ve got it all covered in this week’s hotlist.
It’s all classy and effortless chic this week. Make sure to enter the Clos19 competition to win your personalised signature Veuve Cliquot (Champagne? Check), up your activewear wardrobe (a la Princess Diana and Susan Sarandon leaving the gym), and book your Italian roadtrip (straw bag in tow, see below).
This week’s Citizen Femme hotlist has la dolce vita at its heart and we know you’ll love it as much as we do.
ENTER THIS The Clos19 Competition
It’s champagne season. Well, it’s always Champagne season. In our Clos19 Summer Taste Lab series, we’re bringing you the finest expert advice on food pairings, travel tips and more… Because the finer things in life deserve to be enjoyed.
Clos19 are offering 2 lucky people the chance to win a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label in the Personalisable City Arrow tin with your choice of personalisation.
Your favourite summer destination, or your hometown? Add a personal touch to Veuve Clicquot’s signature champagne with your personal customisation of any city, hometown or dream destination, illustrated with the distance to Reims, the unofficial capital of the Champagne wine-growing region.
BUY THIS New Balance x Staud
Every now and then, a fashion collaboration comes along that brings together 2 brands that couldn’t make you happier. The partnership between cool girl LA fashion brand STAUD and classic US sneaker label New Balance is a sweet union, with their retro-looking, colourful capsule collection. This is STAUD’s first foray into activewear and its all we can think about as we step out in our “coming out post lockdown” workout wear.
“Our initial muse for the collection was Princess Diana leaving the gym,” says the brand’s founder Sarah Staudinger. “We loved this example of an independent, strong woman prioritizing fitness for themselves. The images of her in bike shorts with a leather bag felt so relatable to us.” Could this be any more relevant to the Citizen Femme?
Another image that inspired the designs was one of Susan Sarandon wearing New Balance sneakers in Cannes in 1978 – “this photo represented the essence of the collaboration- feminine, cool and timeless.”
BOOK THIS The Southern Italian roadtrip
The sun-drenched south of Italy with blue, twinkling coastlines have flittered through our daydreams over these last months but restless travellers, both in Italy and abroad, are finally able to live La Dolce Vita again.
Reclaim your Italian Summer with a glorious drive into Southern Italy, twinning two of the country’s most historic and beautiful family owned boutique hotels. Fly into Naples, rent a vintage Alfa Romeo Spider 1967 and drive to Monastero Santa Rosa Hotel & Spa a converted monastery, built into the side of a cliff on the iconic Amalfi Coast, offering one of the most dramatic views in the world. Stay for 3 nights in this 20 bedroom boutique hotel. Enjoy their Michelin Star restaurant Il Refetorio and Santa Maria Novella spa treatments and privately guided hikes around the hidden trails of the Amalfi coast.
From Monastero, enjoy a scenic, leisurely 5h30m drive towards Puglia with a stop in Matera – a little-visited, historically-renowned town and the filming location of ‘The Passion of the Christ’. Onto Salento, the heart of Italy’s inner ‘heel’, with unbeatable views of Puglia’s olive groves, white sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters, known as ‘The Italian Maldives’.
End with a three-night stay at the eight-bedroom Castello di Ugento in Puglia, the most historic family property in the region. The Castello is famed for being a culinary destination and if lockdown has encouraged you to up your culinary skills, let this be the icing on the cake with your own private cookery class at the world-renowned Puglia Culinary Centre. Picnics and aperitivos and day trips to some of the best beaches in Italy.
RELAX HERE Gray Malin x The Beverley Hills Hotel
For our Californian gals, fine art photographer Gray Malin debuts a glam new cabana at The Beverly Hills Hotel that pays homage to vintage Hollywood.
The photographer, known for his incredible aerial shots of travel destinations such as St Barts, The Hamptons and Bondi Beach, created over 30 images for a previous collection held at The Hotel, which were inspired by the hotel’s glamorous Golden Era, featuring Fifties and Sixties-style scenes against the hotel’s retro backdrop. In his return to the Hotel, he debuts his experiential design project with an effortlessly classic and chic cabana, partnering with Serena & Lily paying tribute tribute to the iconic design and history of the hotel with CW Stockwell’s signature banana leaf wallpaper, Martinique, which has graced the hotel’s walls since it was first installed in 1949.
The colour palette draws inspiration from relaxing coastal tones and vintage glamour, incorporating the property’s signature hues of sand, pink, white and green in an array of solid and patterned fabrics and textiles. Rattans, raffias and other natural textures makes the cabana feel like a relaxing retreat.
CARRY THIS Stelar vegan raffia tote
Nothing feels like summer more than a raffia or straw basket. Stelar works directly with artisans in Bali to create unique, hand-woven and hand-made pieces from Balinese atta grass, with real meaning, finding new ways to re-interpret age-old techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation.
They wear beautifully over time, and make the perfect chic holiday companion, from beach to sunset bar. With their signature sailing rope shoulder strap, this basket bag is trimmed with two tone raffia and lined with cotton canvas inside with a drawstring top. Each product is subtly embossed with a unique number which connects you to the artisan who made the piece.
Any Questions or Tips to add?