Get in bed with Giorgio

No sooner does one fashion week end, so another begins. We’ve hit New York and London and this week it’s off to bella Milano we go. You can drink with Donatella, fawn over Ferragamo, but you’ll find a string of beauties getting into bed with Giorgio at the new Armani Hotel Milano. With 95 sophisti-chic rooms and suites in his signature less-is-more beige and bronze aesthetic, plus soothing spa, complete with pool, all in the middle of designer retail land, it’s the ideal shop and flop spot this season.

Via Manzoni 31, Milan. T: +39 02 8883 8888. W: milan.armanihotels.com

The whole sea-bang at J. Sheekey

The leggy lovelies have arrived across the pond, strutting up a storm with non-stop fashion action at London’s Somerset House. When you need respite from the parade of new faces and willowy figures, there’s nothing quite like a glass of champagne and a half dozen oysters at nearby J. Sheekey Oyster Bar, a stiletto’s toss from the tents. It’s the perfect waistline-friendly pitstop to recharge between shows, and has proved season after season to be the chicest star on the circuit.

28-34 St. Martin’s Court, Covent Garden, London. T: +44 020 7240 2565. W: jsheekeyoysterbar.co.uk

Spa-tacular city views

Welcome back to our weekly LUXE Links, in which we source some of the week’s best reads from around the web and around the world. This week, a fashion show on ice, Mexico City’s best street food, and a rooftop thermal bath overlooking Zurich. Get clickin’, chickens!

Once a brewery, now a Zurich boutique hotel with an 11,000 square-foot spa and rooftop thermal bath. [Urban Daddy]

Why the Moncler Grenoble show was one of our New York Fashion Week favourites [Style Bubble]

A photo tour of the many delicacies at Noryangjin Fish Market in Seoul [Seoul Eats]

Zip-lining, jet-skiing, and good ol’ sunbathing at these 10 South American getaways [Huffington Post]

From tacos and nopales to Japanese shabu shabu, seven must-hit eateries in Mexico City [Eater]

Fillet de Sole Daumont from the first Next menu: Paris 1906

Missed your chance to try now-defunct El Bulli’s molecular marvels? Well, star Chicago chef Grant Achatz begins his tribute menu now until May 27 at Next. Yes, it sold out yonks ago, but up to 10 seats will be made available each day, on the day via their Facebook page, so good luck. For the rest of us, the teaser video is here. Drool…

Fashion crème de la crème lie just beyond the velvet rope

New York’s loveliest and leggiest will soon strut off the Big Apple’s runways for autumn/winter 2012, but the fashiony fun has only just begun with our European faves London, Milan and Paris next on the map. If you’re in the city that never sleeps however, cosy up to a supermodel for a chance to get into Chinatown hotspot Le Baron, where André Saraiva (ex-The Beatrice Inn and Kenmare) has brought Paris’ most fashionable party to NYC. Although photography is strictly forbidden, know that good times await inside this louche 70s-style Saigon lounge, just remember kittens – dress to kill.

32 Mulberry Street, New York, USA. W: clublebaron.com

An enLIGHTening experience, indeed. [Photo: Stijn Coppens/Huffington Post]

Welcome to our weekly LUXE Links, in which we source some of the week’s best reads from around the web and around the world. In our inaugural week, we bring you food porn, a light festival, and an outer-space themed hotel room. Get clickin’, chickens!

A peek inside the heavenly home of NYC-based jewellery maestro Eddie Borgo [The Coveteur]

The five best restaurants in Amsterdam, according to a Dutch foodie [Dutch Grub]

A fiber-optic ceiling of stars, a.k.a. the outer-space themed room at Singapore’s Wanderlust Hotel [Hotel Chatter]

LED cathedral in Belgium made from 55,000 lights is divine indeed. [Huffington Post]

Bourbon cheese balls, black truffle onigiri, and Dungeness crab arancini. Need we continue? [Foodspotting]

Yes, we know it is a Hallmark Holiday, but it’s also the perfect time to indulge in some romantic R&R and spoil your better half with something a little more original than a hastily bought, overpriced bouquet of red roses. Boring. Instead, why not gift one of our sleek and sexy box sets with all those cities you plan to visit together?

What’s in your little Black box? Ours is full of surprises and we let you decide!

To help you plan your mini break or major vacation, we’ve put together five hotels guaranteed to light your beloved’s fire, from palm-fringed hideaway to Venetian palazzo. And it couldn’t be easier, just a few clicks away online at the LUXE City Guides Hotel & Villa Booking Site.

Read more…

Cambodia joins the international luxury resort circuit

Hello young (and old) lovers, wherever you are! Looking for a far-flung island retreat to celebrate V-day (and beyond) in style? Well, you’re in luck, just look to the new Song Saa Private Island, Cambodia’s first five-star luxury island getaway, spread across two previously untouched isles in the Koh Rong archipelago, just a half-hour boat ride from the coastal town of Sihanoukville. White sand, blue sky, crystal clear waters, plentiful marine life, and with Song Saa meaning ‘sweethearts’ in Khmer, it’s your ticket to some serious spoon ‘n’ cocoon time.

Read more…

See you at the bottom for a hot choccy

If you’ve been huddling under the duvet trying to beat the winter blues, you may not have heard. LUXE has teamed up with Singapore Airlines to bring you a fab monthly column on their new silverkris.com website, as well as in their inflight mag, where we tell you the LUXE-iest way to spend 24 hours in some of our favourite destinations.

This month, we hit the slopes of Japan’s Niseko. This skier’s paradise has everything a snow bunny could want – excellent on and off-piste tracks, luxurious accommodation, delicious local cuisine, soothing natural hot springs, and snowfall that seriously puts the POW in powder.

Don’t forget, silverkris.com readers can score two guides for the price of one with the LUXE Tokyo & Niseko App, as well as 15% off all LUXE City Guides and Box Sets. We are also giving away 5 fabulous nights at Niseko’s premier property, Suiboku. So get your boots on and get registered.

Here’s to a cracking Year of the Dragon [Photo: Alamy/Destination MO]

Dear hearts, if you’re in Hong Kong over Chinese New Year, you just lucked out. Traditionally, the holiday is a time for families to gather at home to eat, drink, and eat some more, which means the usually frantic city is gloriously peaceful, and all yours to explore. What’s more, this year’s zodiac is the prime symbol of good fortune, so what better fortuity could befall you than to be in Hong Kong to meet that Dragon? As ever, we love to share our faves with you Leggy Lovelies, so here are some top tips on what to see, do and eat in the Fragrant Harbour, compiled for Mandarin Oriental’s Destination MO magazine by the man behind LUXE City Guides, Grant Thatcher. Kung hei fat choi, darlings!

Want more fab tips on Hong Kong? Check out the LUXE Hong Kong guide, or download the handy app with maps.