Category: Europe
Big Bucks Fashion: New Buckingham Palace Exhibit Showcases 18th Century Style
Glittering gowns of improbable proportions. Gravity defying updos that expand like marshmallows in a microwave. An obsession with implausibly pearly grins that are anything but God-given.
Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
We’re not talking about celebrities strutting their stuff at New York’s Met Gala or the latest film debut. Rather, these are some of the 18th century trends highlighted in Style & Society: Dressing the Georgians, a new exhibition at The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London.
Chelsea, London: Live Like a King–or Rock Royalty
Few countries possess a flair for pomp and pageantry quite like Great Britain. While gilded carriages and ermine-trimmed robes are only trotted out for the most magnificent occasions, like the coronation of King Charles III or the late Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, Chelsea–one of the poshest post codes in London–boasts spectacular styles, sleek supercars, and famous personalities in perpetuity.
Musical legends, including The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix, reigned supreme here in the Swinging Sixties, and Chelsea-based designers like the late greats Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood altered the fashion landscape forever.
Read more about how to roll like the Stones–or blue-blooded royalty–in my story in GoWorldTravel.
Vivienne Westwood is memorialized in a mural on Chelsea’s King’s Road. She gained renown for her punk and “New Romantic” fashions of the 70s and 80s. © Amy Laughinghouse
Chilling in the Swiss Alps
Amy takes a dip in Arosa, Switzerland’s ice-cold Untersee lake. Courtesy Carmen Prantl of EisbadiArosa.
My mother has offered lots of advice over the years. Some of it I’ve heeded: “Look both ways before you cross the street.” “Always buckle your seatbelt.” Some of it I haven’t: “Don’t talk to strangers.” (As a journalist, that’s part of my job…and generally speaking, the stranger the better).
But one topic evaded her maternal warning system. “Never set foot in a frozen lake in a bikini.” Or rather, “Never set foot in a frozen lake, full stop.”
So if you’re reading this, Mum, look away now. The rest of you can read the full story in Wine Dine + Travel Magazine.
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Carmen Prantl, a volunteer with the EisbadiArosa ice-bathing organization, coaches Amy through her frozen dip in Switzerland’s Untersee lake. Courtesy Tschuggen Hotel Group.