I hope you are doing well and you are looking forward to Autumn!

I always love September. This month motivates me so much, after having had a long and lazy summer which I usually take off almost completely, I want to get to work again! I am flying to a Mauritius campaign shoot tomorrow - with an 8 days production it will be the longest I have been away from my son, which makes me feel heartbroken.

But in the same time I am so excited for the production. Two hearts beating in a mothers chest!

But not only about the back-to-work aspect of September I am excited, also in terms of fashion I much prefer warm autumn to summer in terms of dressing. I am not a fan of getting dressed in hot summer days - for context, I am really talking about hot summer days in a city, not on the beach of Hydra (where I love to dress summary, who doesn’t). My favorite items of clothing are big leather jackets, paired with bare legs, big wool jumpers combined with silk pants, maybe shorts and maybe adding a beach shoe - I bought great transparent beach shoes in Hydra which add a fun aspect to every outfit.

Which brings me, conveniently, to a new Autumn collection worth talking about! I collaborated with Sézane for this newsletter to share with you not only more about their exciting, new visual direction, but also some of the new and strong pieces for the upcoming season.

A new chapter for Sézane

The Parisian brand, founded by Morgane Sézalory, has just been relaunched with a beautiful evolution including a new visual identity and a new logo. It feels more minimal, intentional, and grown up compared to the previous Sézane - I am very excited for what is to come!

I chose some of my favorites pieces from the new collection to style them together - I loved the oversize big collar jackets and the knitwear, but my absolute favorite are the brown velour pants which fit like a glove.

Outfit credits:

Image 1: Wool jacket Jule, velour leather pants Ciara (available soon in brown velour), clogs Low Saga Pony (available soon)

Image 2: Leather jacket Jule, oversized bag Pio, earrings Elise

The quality went up a big notch: The leather feels heavy and buttery, the knitwear feels very luxurious. This is a new Sézane.

Outfit credits:

Image 1: Bracelet Hector

Image 2: Leather jacket Jule, oversized bag Pio, earrings Elise

Outfit credits:

Image 1: Knit Théo, velour leather pants Ciara, earrings Julie

Image 2: Leather jacket Jule, oversized bag Pio

I am looking forward to the next collections to come, and wearing my new pieces when Autumn really breaks!

A Book: Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakam

Sisters in Yellow is Mieko Kawakami’s 2023 thriller, translated by David Boyd. Set in pandemic-era Tokyo, it follows four women reckoning with their conflicted past in the city’s underground scene of the 90s. All of them are fleeing something and together they set out to remake their lives, fighting predatory lenders, organized criminals, and plain bad luck with a bar they open called Lemon. The story portrays dark Tokyo nightlife figures, from bar owners, to hostesses, to street gangs who are all looking to survive. It’s a beautiful book about friendship, coming of age: It really sucks you in, it’s absolutely thrilling - I still haven’t finished it, I need some time to digest the first part :)

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Glorious Alpine Summer - The Lower Engadin

I already wrote about the beautiful Hotel Post Bezau in part one of the Glorious Alpine Summer series here, now I want to tell you more about the Lower Engadin, Scuol, Ardez and Guarda. Tarasp and Zernez are also part of the Lower Engadin but we didn’t visit this time - the Upper Engadin consists of St. Moritz, Sils, Pontresina and Zuoz. I will create a guide for this area in the next edition for part III of the the Glorious Alpine Summer guide series.

Our starting point to our day trips is always Laax, Switzerland where we spend lazy lake days and exciting hikes, but in a long holiday we sometimes like to travel to a new place, explore the country. We started this time by heading to Ardez, from there heading further to Scuol where we decided to stay and then Guarda. On the return we visited Muzeum Susch, highly recommended!

But step by step:

Ardez

Ardez is a tiny village with just between 400 and 450 residents, this village is an absolute heaven of calm. The houses are beautifully restored, many full with as called “sgraffito” which is a dark base layer of plaster which is often lime mixed with soot or charcoal is covered with a lighter top coat, then scratched through in patterns before it fully dries.

Famous artist Non Vital, who lives and works between Beijing, Rio de Janeiro and Sent in Switzerland, has created his headquarters here in a tower-like house in Ardez called Haus Planta von Wildenberg or as it’s also called, the Chasa Könz. It had been built in 1642 for Johann Planta von Wildenberg and became the artist’ headquarters in 2006.

It’s usually open every August to show exhibitions - when we were there, unfortunately they weren’t.

Scuol

Scuol is very famous for its spa culture: In the Bogn Engiadina one can bathe in warm mineral waters across indoor and outdoor pools, including a Roman-Irish bath and sauna area. Sadly we could not enjoy any spa, because our one-year-old doesnt’t currently enjoy spas, so we focused on walking around.

We were generally not as keen on Scuol as the other locations, I guess because we couldn’t enjoy the village for what it is known for, but it’s also good as the base. We stayed in the Hotel Üja, which was cute and had a very good breakfast. There is a Hatecke branch (one of the best butchers in Switzerland) in the village, but I wouldn’t say that the other options are necessarily worth coming here - it was merely our place to stay :)

Guarda

Visiting Guarda however is very worth it: This was one the the most beautiful places I have ever been to in Switzerland. It almost felt as if it cannot be real. The village is located at 1,653 meters, in the far east of Switzerland near the Austrian border, surrounded by forests, and with beautiful views over the Silvretta Alps. Guarda is the setting of the famous kids’ book of Alois Carigiet's Schellen-Ursli (A Bell for Ursli) - and it’s so fitting. Here is the trailer for the film - you can see what the village looks like!

Cars are not allowed in the village: You can park your car at the entrance of the village and walk from there. The houses are very well preserved, Guarda actually won the Henri-Louis-Wakker prize in 1975 from the Swiss Heritage Society for its exemplary preservation of the houses and the sgraffito, which is incredible.

We had cake and coffee at the beautiful cafe Chasa 74 from Garde Manger which you can also find in Ardez and in Zuerich. Amazing views, not to be missed - but you also can’t miss it physically, because the town is so tiny and you will walk by.

We had lunch plans someplace else, but had we not, we would have gone to Crusch Alba, it looked very nice from outside and their website convinces me too!

I think Hotel Meisser looked beautiful and had fantastic views which can be enjoyed from their sunny terrace, facing the mountains. Adults only!

Muzeum Susch

On our way back to Laax, we stopped by at Muzeum Susch, a private art museum in the village of Susch. The collection is focused on promoting the work of female modern and contemporary artists, founded by Polish entrepreneur and collector Grażyna Kulczyk. She was denied a museum in Poland, so she built one in Switzerland (fair enough).

The museum opened on January 2, 2019 and has a beautiful interior, and some amazing art works which have been worked into the space. It’s obvious that the founder has an great taste, and understands who to work with.

Highly recommend to also grab lunch in the museum, it was fantastic - plus really enjoyed the space.

That’s it, I hope you enjoyed it and maybe inspired you to travel to the area. The next edition will be around the Lower Engadin <3

LKD

I hope life is treating you good.

I am still in Switzerland, enjoying my last week of holiday here. We had some rainy days, so we drove around quite a lot to see different places. Over the next weeks I will share the Suisse guide for this years’ series Glorious Alpine Summer, including the lower Engadin such as Scuol, Ardez, Guarda, a beautiful restaurant in the Swiss vineyards, and Upper Engadin in St. Moritz and Sils, and finally our last stop in Munich which I counted technically as Alps still - or at least the return from the Alps :)

I read so many books this holiday which I am happy about, I also added quite a few more to my wishlist. I just love reading so much, as a child I always read, but lost it for a while as an adult. But now I am back! Please share any good book recommendations if you have - I am collecting again <3

I got very intrigued with Japanese author Sayaka Murata, born in 1979 in Inzai, Japan, after reading Convenience Store Woman. In her work, she highlights outsiders navigating rigid and strange social norms which force them to either conform or find radical, unconventional ways to survive within or outside those norms. Additionally to Convenience Store Woman, I now read Vanishing World and Life Ceremony - the New York Times was quoted on Vanishing World saying it was like Handmaids Tale on Acid - very true!

Life Ceremony imagines a society that has rerouted death and reproduction into a ritual on which storyline the twelve short stories are based (some of which leave you in absolute horror while others are more humouros), while Vanishing World takes sex and family out of the equation altogether.

HOTEL AMORE Feature: Diana Quach, food stylist & tour manager of singer Annahstasia

For this edition, I would love to introduce you to the wonderful Diana Quach: We met through a refereral for a Soho House membership, as she is part of the member committee. I thought she is such an interesting person, so I asked her for a feature with HOTEL AMORE INC <3

Handing over!

Hi, I am Diana Quach aka DQ, and I live in Berlin since 2008. I was born and raised in a small town near the Baltic sea, my parents are both Vietnamese. My approach for most things in life is being an autodidact in every way. Whatever I touch, I love to learn from the beginning and usually doing this all by myself. For example - I have an alcohol allergy but I love making drinks - so I worked at the Ritz Carlton in Berlin to learn more. I always create cocktails with intuition - my team needs to then try if they are good :)

I have done almost every job in the creative industry, from productions to film, so I am well acquainted with a 360° view of what every perspective takes.

I usually stumble into my careers: Since 2022, I am the tour manager of the most amazing artist, singer and now best friend Annahstasia.

We have been travelling the world together. To me, doing this is the most beautiful job: I get to take care of her, I make sure she is doing well, but we can also explore new cities and continents together, and learn something new wherever I go.

I got the job as her tourmanager, because when we didn’t know each other yet, I reached out to her to invite her over to Berlin: I was so blown away by her music, being this fascinated happens once in a lifetime. Annahstasia did follow my invite to come to Berlin and after her visit she asked me if I could accompany her on tour in the role of her tourmanager.

Fast forward - today we have been working together for four years, and have become really close friends. The last tours brought us to Japan, Australia and New Zealand and we are currently planning Antwerp, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Barcelona, Porto, New York City and Montreal - this is my dream come true.

My other passion is cooking which I have been doing since around 2013/14. Back then, a former friend who was working at an e-commerce company - they had launched a new kitchen machine brand. They didn’t have enough budget then to hire a proper food stylist so she asked me if I could do it, she knew, that I love cooking and food. The rest is history!

To me it’s the most fun when clients want to work with me because they like the way I approach my work, not just for providing food, but doing it in interactive and fun way, to make the process of eating more exciting.

I love grocery shopping on farmers markets, and generally super markets in other countries. Wherever I go, I source new condiments and sauces, tea, ceramics, kitchen ware and knives.

International Food Guides by Diana Quach

Obviously Diana knows where to eat well which is why I asked her to share her favorite spots in the world with us. She is sharing food intel for Melbourne, Tokyo, Paris, New York, London, Barcelona, Porto and Berlin with us - get your google saved list ready!

Melbourne

Shopping

The hub general store

Pans, knives, whatever you need and you don’t need for the home - a great place to spend time.

The Signet Bureau

Women’s fashion store featuring bespoke garments, shoes and accessories from Melbourne based designers and small brands.

There are so many Asian restaurants in Melbourne, I loved it! These two were my favorites:

Soi38

Hectors Deli

Not Asian, but also amazing :)

Tokyo

We did one show here which left us with three days in Tokyo - but these were incredible. I wish we would have had more time!

Higashiya Ginza:

Come for tea and beautiful interior!

Godaime Hanayama Udon

Famous for its extra-wide Himokawa udon noodles. The queue at their store in Ginza is famous as well, so keep that in mind :)

Tokyo has amazing food halls: our favorite were Mitsukoshi Ginza, and Matsuya Ginza.

Shopping

Hands

You can buy everything and anything in this store, from kitchen equipment to stuffed animals to magic dice.

Montbell

Amazing OG outdoor shop in Tokyo

Now on with Barcelona, Porto, London, New York, Paris!

Barcelona

I had the best flan at Casa Costa - would go back in a sec:

My favorite coffee/pastry shop is LOT Roasters:

Porto

My favorite place in Porto is this amazing tea shop - Companhia Portugeza do Cha!

London

I also always love to be back in the city - it feels like my second home. I usually get to stay at my wonderful friends place with a guestroom which makes me feel as if I live in London!

The Tamil Prince

Favorite Indian restaurant! The restaurant is a Michelin-recognised gastropub in Barnsbury, Islington, in a former pub, with amazing food by chef Prince Durairaj.

Tsujiri

For really great matcha soft serve:

Bao

For cold brew tea and Horlicks Ice Cream Bao dessert <3

Selfridges

I come here to browse for new condiments in the food hall and for stationary!

Paris

Guo Xin Ravioli: For great dumplings!

Mamiche

For pastries!

La maison du pastel

For pastel sticks

The Broken Arm

Dover Street Market

Calligrane

Favorite stationary/paper/envelopes/letter store:

BilliardM8

Pool/billiard plus Chinese food - could there be a better combination?

NYC

Aire Spa

Ancient-bathhouse-style thermal spa in a restored 1883 Tribeca textile factory with candlelit thermal pools, massages, and a proper full-reset afternoon.

Markets:

The Happier Grocer, Union Square Green farmers market and Trader Joes:

Soft Hours & Heytea teabar

Chinese tea houses!

Cocoron

A tiny, 14-seat soul-food soba shop on the Lower East Side of New York City.

Berlin

Of course we also need your Berlin intel - I am very curious for your recommendations from a chef perspective <3

To shop food to cook at home:

Goldhahn und Sampson

Frischeparadies

KaDeWe

Iconic.

Karl-August Marktplatz

Especially the stand from Wilmarsgaerten!

Restaurants

soopoolim

District Mot

Sai Gon streetfood

Shoolongkan

Chinese Hot Pot!

Shodo Udon Lab

Homemade Sanuki Udon

Takumi

Japanese ramen

Ita bistro

Papaya südstern

Thai cuisine

ARI’S diner

ao cafe

moii cafe

keyu cafe

I have yet to try some more tea places like kissabo, which is right up my ally -

I LOVE TEA!

Thank you Diana, this was great! See you around.

LKD

I hope you are doing well and you are having a beautiful summer.

It’s so terrible to see the daily news from wildfires caused by climate change in all of Europe to the development of politics in the world. It feels so heavy. This newsletter to me is my escape from the news, to allow me to be able to stay positive and optimistic despite everything. My after pill after listening, seeing and reading what is happening in the world and the reminder that what we have is precious and we need to protect it.

I have been to Switzerland, our little refugio, more than one hundred times. It’s a melancholic summer this year, as my family has decided to sell our house. My heart is aching - this place feels like a second home. Sometimes beautiful things have an end and it looks like this summer will be that end for my beloved Swiss summer, at least summer in the Casa Muntina which translates to The House on the Small Mountain.

Despite my heart break, I have decided to start a HOTEL AMORE SERIES this season, calling it A Glorious Alpine Summer. We have come with our car, took a first stop already at the beautiful HOTEL POST BEZAU from Susanne Kaufmann in Austria and on the way back we will stop at Rosewood in Munich - the journey is the destination. We are planning to visit some more places in Switzerland in August, which those will be, we haven’t decided yet but will do so soon.

First stop on the route of The Glorious Alpine Summer was as mentioned the very special HOTEL POST BEZAU in Austria, which is about 40 minutes from Bregenz by car. We stayed for one night and had a fantastic dinner which you can read about below.

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HOTEL POST BEZAU

Already a long-time fan of the beauty products of Susanne Kaufmann, and a regular visitor of the Susanne Kaufmann treatments at my favorite concept store and treatment salon MDC in Berlin, I was thrilled for our invitation to visit the HOTEL POST BEZAU. The hotel is a 4-star wellness hotel in Bezau, in the Bregenzerwald region of Vorarlberg. I had met Susanne for the first time in Berlin at MDC, and we were so excited to be able to experience the hotel about which I had heard so much already.

The place has been run by the Kaufmann family since it opened in 1850. It is now in its fifth generation under Susanne Kaufmann. Her brother, architect Oskar Leo Kaufmann, renovated the house working with regional craftsmen and furniture makers to produce pieces exclusively for the hotel. The interior has followed a very minimal approach with very clean lines and beautiful Swiss pine fittings. We stayed in a room in the new built house with a terrace with a mountain view which was incredible to wake up to!

The hotel offers a spa concept focusing on preventive treatments and regeneration, TCM detox, and beauty treatments which Susanne Kaufmann is also known for, as well as an activity programme which you can sign up for in the evenings before, as well as a new reformer pilates studio. Unfortunately I didn’t have time for either (and I was too late to sign up for the activities), but spend time in the bathhouse whirlpool, steam rooms and with different saunas, facing the mountains.

I loved the outdoor sole pool - lying at the pool, reading a book, looking at the mountains <3

The dinner at POST BEZAU was fantastic - the offer is regional cuisine with vegetables from their own garden alongside a balanced TCM detox cuisine. We chose a main course which probably had less detox aspects - a Schnitzel - but it was so good!

HOTEL POST BEZAU is the kind of hotel, where many guests will stay in the hotel area most of the time, take their meals. One will see them in the spa, during the activities - these kind of hotels are my favorite kind of hotel. The atmosphere is so different to a city hotel where one probably mostly ignores the other guests. To me there is nothing better than imagining what kind of stories other people have!

After having spent a night here, I think it is the perfect place to go for a birthday, for a small summer break, I think new years or the first days in January would be amazing - especially coming solo I imagine must be great, days filled with hikes, sauna and pool, reading and eating great food.

HOTEL POST BEZAU is only 40 minutes by car to Bregenz to where I would recommend paying a visit. One could visit the Kunsthaus Bregenz, designed by Peter Zumthor and for lunch, we followed Susanne Kaufmann’s recommendation for which was superb so I would recommend further!

A recap of the current show at Kunsthaus Bregenz:

Cyprien Gaillard: When You Expect Flutes, It’s Whistles
13 June – 4 October 2026

Cyprien Gaillard (born 1980, Paris) lives between Paris and Berlin. His work has been shown at institutions including Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2024), Palais de Tokyo & Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf (2015), Sprüth Magers, Berlin (2015), MoMA PS1, New York (2013) - he has a pretty amazing roster of shows under his belt.

The first time I heard about his work was through a friend, who talked about his video work called Nightlife, from 2015. This work is absolutely mesmerizing to watch. The work is an immersive 15-minute 3D video installation shot entirely at night over two years in Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Berlin. It features urban landscapes and nature to explore themes of historical trauma, political resistance, and resilience. The music, the movement and the colors - altogether I feel like I could watch it one hundred times.

My favorite work from the current show in Bregenz was the inflatable “Visitant” dancing through a choreography set to a legendary Berlin sound system initially built for a 1990s Osaka nightclub. It’s an amazing work - very memorable through its size, somehow elegant movement and the 90s decibel loud music.

The other works were also great, but I won’t spoil what they are - just watch out how he also interacts with the space. I always really enjoy when artists do that, it feels so different to see an exhibition where someone has thought about everything together.

Some More Books

I love reading, and after I haven’t read for over a year, I now started again. I remember now, it’s really one the best thing in the world to be immersed into a book!

I Will Take The Fire by Leïla Slimani

One of my favorite authors, Leïla Slimani, had published the third novel of her trilogy I Will Take The Fire. This one is following In the Country of Others and Watch Us Dance - which I have both read and loved. The novel centers on the third generation of the Belhaj family, sisters Mia and Inès, daughters of the successful gynecologist Aïcha and a high-ranking government official, born in the 1980s. Like their mother and French grandmother before them, the sisters search for freedom and autonomy within a Moroccan society still shaped by religious tradition and rigid class divisions, closing out the family's multi-generational story of memory and identity across changing times. Once you start, you are in the world that Slimani created - I couldn’t put it down.

There is also a great new podcast featuring Leila Slimani on Fashion Neurosis - I have listened to many different podcast episodes featuring Leila Slimani and this one did not disappoint. I enjoy listening to her, she is a fascinating, strong and intelligent woman and it makes a difference listening to her words before you read her books.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

I liked her novel Prep - a coming-of-age, so I wanted to read something else by her. American Wife is loosely based on Laura Bush’s life. It follows Alice Blackwell, a quiet Wisconsin librarian, through a tragic teenage accident into an unlikely marriage with Charlie, a charismatic, reckless heir who through a sequence of different events unexpectedly becomes President. Alice, a lifelong Democrat, has to navigate life as a politically mismatched First Lady. It’s an intimate character study of compromise and interior life inside a very public marriage.

The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson

The story is set in the coastal town of Greenhead, Massachusetts. A New Yorker named Caroline arrives as an outsider and falls for a local guy called Van, whose ex is pregnant and still in the picture, which unsettles his very close childhood friend group and their long-buried history. I really enjoyed it, I read it after I saw Coco Mellors recommndation, whose novel Blue Sisters I devoured.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

I love Japanese literature such as Butter and Hooked by Asako Yuzuki, and was looking for something comparable. Convenience Store Woman follows 36-year-old Keiko Furukura, who has worked the same Tokyo convenience store job for 18 years. Keiko has never fit conventional social expectations — she finds genuine peace and identity in the store’s rigid rules, which give her a script for how to be a person that the rest of the world never provided.

It’s a sharp, deadpan look at societal pressure to marry, have a “real” career, and conform. It’s also short, funny, and quietly unsettling.

That’s it! I am looking forward to our next stop for the HOTEL AMORE SERIES: A Glorious Alpine Summer <3

Sending Love,

LKD

I hope life is treating you good.

While I was traveling recently I thought I should ask AI what I would look like with bleached hair - I asked a friend who told me she won’t tell me what she thinks, because I keep asking since years and never follow suit - but I might some day!

I just returned from my first non-work trip without my baby - instead I had a much-needed weekend with my two best and oldest friends. It was very special to enjoy quality time with these two amazing women after we haven’t done that for a couple of months, but also to sleep and read without interruptions :) I am sure every parent can relate! This newsletter edition will be about our beautiful destination for this weekend, and some Paris and Berlin intel. Enjoy!

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Verneuil la douce

Only one hour from Paris-Montparnasse there is this beautiful countryside retreat. I learned about the place through a friend who connected me with her friend and founder of this place, Camille Agnès Omerin. Prior to opening the hotel just last year, Camille worked in fashion - she has considered every detail, every corner, every inch of the hotel, and has worked with different artists to create the beautiful Norman house with an impressive large glassroom, and a fresco-painted ceiling.

The hotel has a beautiful garden pool surrounded by two hundred year old trees - the pool area is beautiful, with a mosaic-floored pool and red, yellow and green parasols.

We had the perfect temperature, not too hot, not too fresh. It was just perfect - being with old friends, reading a good book, sipping white wine, enjoying life. The hotel served a good lunch too - I would recommended.

For dinner we went to town, the options are rather simple, but I liked it. Verneuil la douce also offers fine-dining, but as we had a pretty fancy dinner at the vinyl bar Billie in Paris the night before, we were happy with the local, easy choice. The town is very small, and options are limited, but absolutely fine for one night.

The hotel will soon open also their spa with a pool, a steam room and sauna, which means it will be a fantastic destination in the colder season not just summer. Perfect for a weekend!

What to do in Paris and Berlin

We only stayed one night and one morning in Paris, but the things we did were fun so I want to share plus there have also been new openings and things happening in Berlin. Please find my verdict below!

Paris

Billie, Paris

Billie in Paris was really good! Especially the cod which I chose - I will remember this dish. Really vibey place, and one of the few occasions where a 9pm reservation feels right for someone who involuntarily doesn’t sleep that much. Apparently also for lunch!

Matisse at Le Grande Palais

We went to see the Matisse exhibition at Le Grande Palais - co-produced with the Centre Pompidou and devoted to the final thirteen years of Matisse’s life. It shows the period when a health crisis and declining mobility pushed him toward an entirely new language: the cut-out gouache. Over 300 works trace this “second flight,” from the Jazz album to preparatory studies for the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, alongside the Blue Nudes series pulled together from private collections. The Grand Palais has added extended evening hours on Wednesdays to ease the crowds, it’s worth booking before you go rather than hoping to walk in, especially as it is ending this week!

Berlin

Bravo, Berlin

Before I end this edition, I have to tell you also about this new place in Berlin: Soeren Zuppke, founder of beloved restaurants otto, Pluto and various other fantastic pop-up venues has now taken over Bravo Bar at the gallery KW, which has existed for years but never had so much relevance. I went, and it’s great food in a great place, but I expected nothing less from him anyways. In case you missed it, here is his interview with HOTEL AMORE INC from this year - make sure you visit his newest venture, I will be there a lot! Menu, setting, location are the perfect combination, so this will do well - deserving!

MDC - Alpine Lift Facial

My favorite local beauty and treatment concept store MDC is offering a new Susanne Kaufmann treatment called Alpine Lift Facial which I tried out this week - it’s divine. The 90 minutes treatment is a highly effective, yet non-invasive facial which is designed to lift, define and revitalise the skin - combining a manual massage with high-performance formulations and LED light, with which it activates the skin’s natural regenerative processes for a natural glow. Who doesn’t want that! Even better, it's offered in MDC's new treatment space, the Remise - which is so beautiful that simply being there already feels like a small escape. A great gift for oneself or someone else!

Angelica Blechschmidt - In The Archives at Villa Grisebach

The beautiful Grisebach auction house showed 300 photographs from the personal archive of Angelica Blechschmidt, who edited German Vogue from 1989 to 2003 and nearly doubled its circulation until mid July. “In the Archives” gathers her backstage snapshots - a genre she more or less invented - shot on a compact silver Olympus, always paired with a quilted black Chanel bag she chose, she liked to say, to match her cigarettes. The opening looked so fun, I really missed an amazing evening with Kiki Albrecht, who took care of the invitations and the press, and Alexandra Bondi di Antoni who did a guided tour together with Dr. Anna Ballestrem!

Have a great week <3

Love,

LKD

I hope life is treating you good.

I love summer in Berlin so much and June is one my favorite months when the warm season is just starting. It smells of strawberries and peaches, we’ve got hot lake days, can sit outside, read in the sun, drink iced coffee... July feels like the hot peak and then comes slow August for a breather to then get back into the game in September. I usually take August off since I work freelance which I love, my industry sleeps anyways and now it feels like having proper summer holidays. I have also started to reserve one morning per week to read a book (ok, I did that one morning, but hey I want to do it again), currently I am doing that at the pool of Soho House - this does so much for my me-time.

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Pop-Up: Stella Stangenberg x Etre

There was an amazing pop-up in Berlin last weekend, which I missed due to nap time of my baby - from Stella Stangenberg (designed by Stella Stangenberg who now started to make very beautiful shoes and has always made amazing bags) and Etre (designed by Laura Wullff who makes beautiful earrings) BUT even if you also missed the pop-up you can order direct from their Instagram. I have a beautiful bag from Stella and various earrings from Etre, and I love love all of what they do!

I already had the perfect summer vibe this season in Hydra - seeing my son eating a peach for the first time was so beautiful. His hair and skin smelling of the sun and the ocean, his little fingers grabbing and trying to eat the peach - is just everything. This is what I will think about when he grows up, already getting nostalgic!

Besides eating peaches, dressing my son in summer is one of my favorite things- especially in the French brand Petit Sézane - my son already owns quite a few pieces, the collections are just so cute. I always put a lot of thought into his little outfits, as I know there'll be a point where he won't let me do that anymore, so I'm enjoying it while I can :) Here are my favorite Petit Sézane looks from this season, done in collaboration with Sézane!

Outfit credits:

• Outfit 1: Hat Shila, jacket Gaspard, body Ange, bloomer Gabriel

• Outfit 2: Bloomer Clélia, blouse Héloïse, Mary Janes from Vibi Venezia - available in lots of colors and sizes

One of my favorite pieces from the permanent collection is the Gaspard knitwear jacket - we have it in three different colors, there is also vanilla-yellow and white, as well as the set of the bloomer above. So easy to dress for hot summer days, both is very light. Pro tip - always order bigger sizes to make the clothes fit longer.

Now - onto the actual reason I'm writing today: I went to some great places in the past weeks... I flew to Art Basel, then visited Hydra for an off-site exhibition of Super Super Markt followed by a quick stint to St. Moritz for the Condé Nast Traveller Wellness & Spa Awards. Now it’s all about work work work for July!

Condé Nast Traveller Wellness & Spa Awards

I started this newsletter because of my great love and passion for travel and hotels, therefore I was so thrilled that I am becoming part of this industry, having been invited to the iconic Condé Nast Traveller Wellness & Spa Awards. For the coming months I have planned exciting collaborations with hotels, and also for my freelance work, I'm shifting my focus more toward hospitality, blending it with the experience of over a decade spent in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle to create content and brand universes for hotels, helping clients to find stories that differentiate them from others, but also planning events, interesting curators for spaces etc.

The locations for the award were great - the invited guests of the event were all staying in one of the five luxury hotels, Kulm, Badrutts Palace, Suvretta House, Kempinski and Grace La Margna. The programme was two packed days starting with a cheese and champagne lunch, fun activities such as meditation, pilates and hiking and a beautiful dinner hosted by Badrutt's Palace, for which each hotel prepared one course. The guests were so interesting, and I left very inspired after the trip.

I stayed at Grace La Margna, which I really enjoyed. The room was very spacious, the hallways of the hotel smelled great, the light was beautiful. Very good shampoo and showergel. These things make all the difference, especially when they are not there :) There was a great portafilter coffee machine in the room, incredibly soft bed sheets, the service prepared a rug next to my bed before I came home from the dinner, breakfast was perfect.

Thank you Condé Nast and the entire team for this great event! Switzerland is my forever favorite place <3

Speaking of which, this leads me to Switzerland part II - to the Art Basel mini guide I wrote:

Art Basel Mini Guide

The trip happened quite spontaneously - a close, longtime friend suggested it, and I just said yes, bringing my son along too. We don’t live in the same city, so we don’t see each other often. My husband was exhibiting at Liste, the fair for emerging galleries, and I’d always wanted to see him at a fair!

We arrived early morning and left the evening of the following day. Next time I’d like to stay one more night, just to be able to see more of Basel, now with travels on either end of the day, it was a bit more stressful. We tried to not do too much; we focused on seeing the most important places and doing so with intent.

I don’t have a recommendation to stay - obviously there are some fantastic hotels in Basel from Volkshaus Basel to Basel Youth Hostel, but during Art Basel you have to book early, and you overspend generally - or you can stay on the German side, in Lörrach, close to Beyeler.

We stayed very central in the old town, just five minutes from the Rhine and the Grande Hotel Le Trois Rois which was great - everything was easily reachable and in the evening we walked along the Rhine where lots of people were having an evening beer, ice-cream and were swimming.

Fondation Beyeler

This is one of my favorite museums in the world. It feels like the Louisiana in Copenhagen, but the Swiss version. Last time I came to Beyeler, we saw the work of Georgian painter Nikos Pirosmani; this time there was a major exhibition of Pierre Huyghe (1962, Paris), one of the most innovative and influential contemporary artists, whose work we'd already encountered two years ago at Pinault during the Biennale.

The Fondation Beyeler showed some of his recent key pieces from his work, but also some new works which had been created for this show.

The show was very dark, quite dystopian - a worm-like creature installed at a doorway, conceived as an ancestor of the human unconscious, his film was on display Liminals which follows a faceless humanoid figure drifting through a dimension outside time and space, onto which the whole exhibition’s unease gets projected. The film was already shown at Berghain in Berlin in February. I felt like one leaves the exhibition a bit hopeless, sad - but it is still a great exhibition.

Don’t miss seeing the permanent collection - my favorite is the snowman by Fischli & Weiss next to the restaurant entrance, but also the third, the Lying Figure by Francis Bacon is also an amazing work.

We got a great lunch in the beautiful park of the museum - we could have sat there for hours, it was a great mix of feeling relaxing but also buzzing, watching very chic art people being very busy at their phones.

Art Basel Fair

Art Basel is a system of sectors, in the main hall there were 232 international galleries this year, the core part of the whole fair. You can see the curated shows from famous galleries such as Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, Pace, White Cube and Thaddaeus Ropac, alongside Marian Goodman Gallery, kurimanzutto, Mendes Wood DM, and many more - showing works from Picasso, Ed Ruscha, and other exciting artists.

Then there are specialized sectors -

• Feature: curated historical presentations, usually 20th-century.

• Statements: solo booths for emerging artists, 18 exhibitors this edition, several debuting at a fair this size.

• Premiere: recent production, works made within the last five years, expanded to 17 presentations this year.

• Edition: prints and multiples, spread across both floors of Hall 2.

• Kabinett: small curated installations embedded inside existing gallery booths, not separate stands.

While going around, you can download the Art Basel app which gives context to all art works you see which is very helpful.

Liste

Liste is Basel’s emerging art fair - the counterpoint to Art Basel’s blue-chip machinery, running parallel in the same week and just next to Art Basel. Liste was founded in 1996 and is now in its 30th year. It was the largest edition to date: more than 100 galleries and over 60 programme participants, with 41 first-time and 64 returning exhibitors, drawing from 36 countries.

The focus lies strictly on emerging galleries and artists, this year leaning heavily Korean (Whistle, Cylinder, Primary Practice, sangheeut, A-Lounge Contemporary) alongside first-timers like Pangée (Montreal), Matta (Milan), and Gallery Ver (Bangkok). Galleries from Bangkok, Jakarta, Singapore, New Taipei City, Addis Ababa, Kyiv, Buenos Aires, Kampala, and Guatemala City also featured, giving it a genuinely global spread rather than a Euro-American center of gravity.

Bodega zum Strauß

A Basel institution which feels like Paris Bar, right on Barfüsserplatz. Inside it’s beautiful, lots of amazing art works and the food was very good. It's the kind of place where you run into half the city. The ground floor is loud, the first floor is quieter. I think inside it’s much nicer than outside, it was just too hot to be inside…The cuisine is Italian, the décor is French bistro-style, and the front of house was run for years by Scottish Johnny Freeman. I had sardines which were great! Basel locals told us that the vibe has changed because of a change in ownership, two younger operators took over from Johnny - we had a good time, but also haven’t been in the restaurant before, so I can’t really judge the change.

Naturbad Riehen

It was incredibly hot when we were in Basel and a friend we ran into at Beyeler, recommended us this incredible spot, not far from the museum. The Naturbad is a biologically-filtered outdoor bathing lake. Instead of mechanical/chemical water treatment, the water is cleaned through aquatic plants, gravel, sand, and soil, closer to swimming in a clean natural lake than a municipal pool. I wish we had something like this in Germany!

It has been designed by the architect Herzog & de Meuron - the same Basel firm behind the Fondation Beyeler’s original building. It was completed in 2014 after a design process going back to a 1979 competition. It’s built largely in regional wood. It’s a legitimate architecture pilgrimage site as much as a swimming spot - only in Switzerland!

Art Basel Social Club

I would have loved to go, but with the heat, it just didn’t make sense so we skipped it. This year's Art Basel Social Club, which now is in its fifth edition, took over a vacant multi-story office building near Basel SBB station, designed by Diener & Diener. It's become one of Art Basel week's most anticipated alternative destinations, arriving in 2026 with its most ambitious setting yet. This year's theme, "The Office," examines the changing nature of labor in an era of remote work, digitalization, and AI.

These were the Basel highlights! I will go again next year, maybe see you there?

My favorite books this season

I am so happy that I managed to read a lot in the past weeks - on the plane, on the beach during baby naps, before going to bed, before work and as I am also always looking for good books, I thought I’d share what I loved, especially with holiday season coming up. Because there is nothing better than being excited for a quiet minute in which you could read your book, right? I am actually reading books on my iPad - I do have a Kindle, and like everyone I obviously prefer to read a proper book, but if I am traveling, bringing a book makes no sense because I read too fast…My friend gave me the advice to use AI for book recommendations (I am currently using Good Reads), the next book which I will like according to Claude, is The Big Swiss - will keep you posted on how that goes :)

Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash

I am still reading this book, it’s so well written. It’s sharp, funny and smart: Wes Anderson meets The Royal Tenenbaums, dark and very funny. It does get pretty dark around the middle, and the conspiracy plot gets a bit much for some, but because of the writing style it was fine for me.

The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin - It Girl

I love Jane Birkin, and had pre-ordered this book months ago. It has been written as a narrative biography, based on interviews and archival research. It’s not an authorized biography, but the first comprehensive one written about Birkin since her death in 2023. It’s chronological starting from her London childhood and the Youthquake ‘60s, first marriage to composer John Barry at 17, the Gainsbourg years (1968–1980), her later relationship with Jacques Doillon, and the cultural afterlife as in the Hermès bag, the aesthetic, her three daughters including Charlotte Gainsbourg. As a piece of writing, I do agree with some critics that it feels dense with names and dates, but because I can learn so much about the life of someone who I find genuinely interesting, I can overlook this fact.

What A Time To Be Alive by Jenny Mustard

This cover is one of those covers which kind of sticks - and I finally gave in and bought this book. The tone is dark, coming-of-age, Sally Rooney comparisons everywhere, sensory and sharp. Sickan Hermansson, 21, friendless and broke, arrives at Stockholm University determined to reinvent herself after a lonely childhood left her unprepared for intimacy. She finally makes friends, then meets Abbe, beautiful, effortless and into her - their relationship becomes the test of how much of herself she would sacrifice to finally fit in.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

I read this because this has been everywhere in the press - and I like to read books which seem to resonate with a lot of people, as that often reflects the state of society. In the same time I usually refrain from reading any books which have social media at their core of the story, I think it’s banal - but I do find the whole tradwife storyline very interesting and the ending of the whole book is so unexpected, it made for a very good read.

The only book I started and didn’t like was The Plunge. It felt like reading Fifty Shades of Grey which I thought was a very simple read. The Plunge also has a lot of sexual references which are so on-the-nose, and the characters are too forced…That’s the only one I do not recommend.

Have a lovely weekend,

LKD

I hope you are doing well and you are enjoying your summer, finally!

I just returned from a short trip to Art Basel which I will write about in the next feature and am already heading off to the next trip, then followed by the next with just a one day break - I kind of didn’t fully realise how close my trips are to one another when I booked them, but not complaining here :)

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Today I will get straight to the point because I would love you to meet Sera Akyazici, an incredibly energizing, fun and really great person.

I met her right at the beginning of my freelance career, when she asked me to curate a market for Soho House during International Women’s Day which was one of my first projects. I loved her from the first second and even though we don’t see each other much, I am very happy to see her making her dream come true, realising her TOURIST community and her TOURIST production company, doing lots of cool things in between, living her life, traveling the world with a great spirit.

Sera went freelance briefly after I did, so I think we both feel very connected to one another: we both found our ways in different directions, that I think feel very authentic to who we are.

Sera is a producer, and creative mind at the intersection of music, art, and culture through event productions. She is a real aquarius mind, I know very, very few people with her energy levels which are infectious! I love people who work on thousand things at the same time and get stuff done - Sera is 100% that, and I think it’s really great to know her. I will hand over to her for an introduction:

Hi, I am Sera! I was raised in Istanbul and started my journey in Amsterdam to study Arts & Culture and minored in art history and gender studies. I then moved to Tokyo to study Japanese art and culture studies, and started to do freelance production work. After my return to Amsterdam, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with my life and which direction to go. So I continued my studies and eventually did my masters in Philosophy in the field of Cultural Analysis. I am quite a nerd when it comes to academia, research, writing so at one point during my Masters I thought of getting my PhD - but then life happened and took me into a beautiful, different direction.

Yasin Müjdeci, founder of the iconic Berlin Voo Store met in Paris during fashion week. He told me that Voo Store was expanding and that he needed support - although we were just chatting and he didn’t even mean me when he mentioned that he needed someone, then and there I told him that I would be the right person for him.

Two weeks later I moved to Berlin which then market the beginning of my Berlin journey. I opened Voo West back then and managed a lot of different jobs. This is where my taste started taking shape, being exposed to beautiful design on daily basis. While this was amazing, shortly after the renovation at Voo, I started at Soho House where I worked for three years - from which then TOURIST was born.

While writing about my journey and how I got to where I am, I realise that the element of ‘fun’ is very integral for me and my work. My close friends would describe me as having a high frequency and positive energy. I try to see the good in things and then turn them into rituals of joy, togetherness and - fun :) Then all the accumulation of network, hard work and heart work, altogether are integral to have gotten me to where I am now.

What is TOURIST?

TOURIST is a creative community platform that showcases creatives from all around the world as well as an event production house. It is a new ecosystem, connecting dots and faces in the creative industry and aiming to bring genuine interactions through events.

It was visually very much inspired also by my ex partner Denis Olgac, as we were mutually drawn into funky and quirky but mainly playful design elements. Eve though I always had Denis’ support, I started TOURIST solo, and of course at times, it feels quite lonely. But I am a very persistent character when it comes to my vision and the way I want things to work so it is ok. Sometimes I wish for a business partner to discuss certain things but then I also enjoy the freedom to make decisions alone, and therefore more quickly.

A lot of people have difficulty defining what TOURIST is which is something I love! I love not being definable and always transform. The other day my friend Julian Aisslinger joked that it would be so good if ten years from now, people still don’t understand what TOURIST is. It makes me think of Socrates: I know that I don’t know and I like that!

How are you managing to build TOURIST without investment?

Even though we obviously need money to survive, I didn’t start TOURIST with an intention to make money. It started as a passion project - more people around me then started to believe in me and my vision, the bigger it got, so this is how it started to grow. To maintain this, I also work a lot for Highsnobiety as a freelancer, shout out to my dear friend Amanda Najem, who hired me as a freelance talent manager at Highsnobiety after I had left Soho House. With this financial security in my back, I am able to have ‘fun’ with TOURIST, without any pressure to make money, only say yes to those things I really want to say yes to. Each day is a new day to learn something, and have a new mission. Luckily I really love what I do every day, so these challenges are great and I enjoy it.

How do you manage fulltime freelance work, building your business at TOURIST and also have a social life?

I get this question quite a lot and my answer is prioritising. I wake up every morning latest at 7am, and do exercise for one hour. By 8.30am, I am at my desk where I start by defining priorities for the day, then delegate tasks to my team, so I know exactly what and where to focus my energy each day. I make the ideas for the concepts and have a team of three employees for my own company: They run the productions and my role is to oversee those from a creative and organisational perspective. Since I started TOURIST, I learned that everything you put your mind into is possible if you work hard for it.

Recently, I was listening to this podcast of the new generation of kids and heard this quote: ‘They see the peak of the mountain but not the mountain itself’ & it is quite scary (yet exciting) what the future of work will be. What I learned is that in order to ascend the mountain, you need to study the mountain, have the right gear and also train for it!

On social media, everything looks so perfect, and people don’t see the hard work, sweat, anxiety, and the self doubt which is often behind a final project. I have been working since three years almost every weekend on my computer in the weirdest spots - from bus stops, in planes and even at security control lines at airports - that’s the price you pay, but I love to pay it :)

My creative productivity flourishes when I can schedule my own time and do not need to be present at the office on strict timings. Remote work is one thing that I enjoy the most as I travel quite frequently, however with time passing, I start to crave for a physical space which is not just an office but a TOURIST community hub space and that is something that I have been thinking about recently, as I would love to create a space for other creatives to come, feel inspired and work together.

What would be your one advice?

Surround yourself with people who push you further energetically. It is true that you are the reflection of the people who surround you, so this has always been my motto.

What is the next step in your journey of building your dream, what’s your longterm vision?

I would like to conceptualise and execute a TOURIST festival. This is a long term 5x year vision of mine, which I can tease more in detail once I plant the seeds further! A side hustle I am working on right now is opening a studio space/gym in Istanbul. Sports is something that I am very passionate about and what keeps me sane in my busy schedule, so I found a gap back home in Istanbul in the fitness world and want to act upon it :)

We are coming to the end of our interview! But we can not end this before you share your favorite spots in Istanbul, please <3

Raised in Istanbul and calling it home, I can still say that Istanbul is one of my favourite cities, its a magically chaotic place to be. My favorite places are these ones:

June: a new listening bar, founded of my friends

Journey: has always been a meeting hub in Cihangir area since I am in highschool, a place you can go day time, night time - any time

Aslan: iconic old restaurant in the old town, I used to go there when I was a baby :)

Yakup2: fish & raki is a big ritual in Turkey & Yakup2 is a great escape for that night drinking & eating.

Cukurcuma Hamami: you cannot leave Istanbul without stopping by a hamam & this one is the rarely gender mixed hanam there is in Istanbul.

Thank you so much dear Sera for your time and sharing your journey. I am so happy I know you!

See you soon!

Love,

LKD

I hope you are doing well.

How is life? I feel like summer has tempted us quite a bit by now, just to then became autumnal again. But I am patient, and am longing for beautiful, long summer days….Where are those finally? I am soon heading off to Art Basel, followed by Hydra where I will hopefully see what the sun looks like again!

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Inspired: Luxury pyjamas

I used to wear pyjamas in my daily life, in no-bed environments and it felt great. It was at a time where my dressing vibe was inspired by “an unspecific retired artist” which again was inspired by the great book What Artists Wear by author Charlie Porter. The book is about the workwear of artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Georgia O’Keeffe to Agnes Martin’s, Nicole Eisenman, and Martine Syms, blending art‑historical analysis with fashion critique and personal interviews. It’s a fantastic book. I don’t remember if anyone in the book was even described as wearing pyjamas only, but it started the thought process!

Someone who actually regularly wear pyjamas and painters suits which feels similar to a pyjama (I think!), is painter and film director Julian Schnabel. Not saying he is my personal fashion icon, for as mentioned it’s sometimes enough to feel the vibe of a certain outfit to inspire me.

Beautiful Swedish brand Tekla just introduced their assortment of beautiful twill homewear, and I received a sateen pyjama from Tekla (thank you). Tekla is one of my favorite brands for pyjamas, and this one made me want to wear pyjamas in non-bed environments again! I have been wearing it out, which is great - if you wear an outfit which comes as a full set, you don’t have to think about it. The pants end very nicely on the ankles, therefore you can wear it also perfectly with shoes - I am wearing my fav Christopher Esber sequin shoes, but I also really like the Esber jelly shoes….I think you need some good shoes, earrings and sunglasses with it, so people understand you did not come out of your bed. Here is the link for the shirt and here for the pants <3

Bought: An iPad mini that is fantastic

I bought the newest iPad mini - initially I was going to buy an older version, but hey, once you enter the Apple universe, it’s hard to resist. What can I say. it’s been fantastic - against all odds, as I have never been into iPads before. I was expecting to only take it on shoots on location so I won’t have to drag around my laptop. The latter did fall into an ocean, once on a shoot which was not to great for it’s lifespan! I am using my iPad all the time. I realised I can install the Kindle app on my iPad to read books on it, also reading Substack newsletters on my iPad is amazing, or doing research on cosmos and Sublime.

Sourcing: A diamond ring so my small finger doesn’t feel lonely

I am looking for a beautiful chunky ring for my small finger, ideally diamonds :) I already have a signet ring from the family of my husband which I love so much, and I am on the hunt for a ring for my other, small finger now, as it looks lonely! Will keep you posted on process.

Visited: Hot new Berlin-intel

I love living in Berlin - there is always a new place to discover, a new restaurant that opens, a new cafe. Here is my list with the most interesting new openings (okay, some opened some weeks ago, but I haven’t featured them, so!)

Andreas Murkudis: tokyo sense

The beautiful Murkudis store in Berlin is opening a pop-up concept in Paris with 29 contemporary Japanese brands spanning fashion, objects, jewellery, books, homeware, and design. It was conceptualized as a hybrid between a multi-brand store, exhibition, and editorial platform, it brings together voices we deeply believe in and who Murkudis has collaborated with for years. The project aims to introduce Japanese brands to a wider European audience while preserving the integrity and spirit that define their work. Feels like colette vibes! Love.

Breda, Kreuzberg

My dear friend Manuel Pinciroli, owner of THE local spot Pinci, opened this new hot spot together with his partners Lu and which I am sure is becoming the next hot spot of Berlin, Breda. The menus were painted by our friend Reiner, love the swans, which are a hint to the swans on the water in front of it. Inside, We came to the soft opening on April, 23rd and of course it was absolutely packed. The vibe is a 70s Italian spot, it’s all orange. We got great PVC spaghetti chairs, great artworks from the owners above the tables. It feels like New York and it feels like a party. Perfect for a birthday, maybe for a first date, but only if you are not from Berlin (otherwise you might meet too many people which you may or may not aim for)…Also it feels like you are sitting in an orange USM Haller shelf, which is a sensation I didn’t know I would encounter but I love it!

Nichigetsu (日月), Friedrichshain

Casual sister of the fantastic Shiori Berlin, Nichigetsu serves edomae sushi with daily futomaki from 12:00 to 14:00. Reservation via dm or email. Friedrichshain is usually one of the areas in Berlin which I avoid, as it’s touristy with people searching parties - not my vibe - BUT I will venture to this place!

Kissabō, Prenzlauer Berg

I love Japanese cuisine so much, and this place is new too! Kissabō calls itself a contemporary tea bar, serving slowly brewed Japanese teas, fresh matcha, mochis, all served in handcrafted vessels, designed to be held and enjoyed. Not sure I can bring the kid, but I might just go and see if I get thrown out :)

Artist Series Volume II:

The Life and Work of Charlotte Perriand

Some moons ago I started The Artist Series to write on the life and work of interesting artists, architects and designers. I started with the industrial designer Jean Prouvé for Volume I. I then never wrote another one, there were just too many other topics I wanted to tackle first plus it really takes a lot of time to do all the research.

But it’s so much fun, and I want to bring the series back now! I love deep-diving on the life and oeuvre of the people I admire. There are so many on my list and I know some of their works, but I want to learn more about them and planning a feature which I publish gives me a good reason to… Donald Judd, Gio Ponti, Lina Bo Bardi, Florence Knoll, Georgia O’Keefe…I will slowly and steadily write on all of them. It could also be a place - Marfa Texas for example is a place I want to learn more about. HOTEL AMORE INC is basically my personal research department, and I am taking you along :) So you can expect a new feature every new moon when I have a bit of time to write it!

Today I am sharing my research on the famous French architect, interior and furniture designer Charlotte Perriand, who lived from 1903–1999. She created some of the most iconic pieces of modern furniture. During her life, Perriand traveled extensively and lived and worked in Japan. She married twice, had one child, moved in circles with artists such as Fernand Léger, and worked closely with architects like Le Corbusier and Jean Prouvé. She is regarded as one of the most influential modernist furniture and interior designers of the 20th century.

She became a furniture and interior‑design collaborator in Le Corbusier’s atelier through a mix of direct application, rejection, and subsequent re‑discovery via her own exhibition work. She sent her first application to Le Corbusier in 1927, shortly after finishing her studies as a furniture designer in Paris. She was reportedly dismissed with a remark along the lines of “We don’t embroider cushions here,” implying he saw her as too decorative for his modernist, functional practice.

He then came across her “Bar sous le toit” (“The Bar under the roof”), exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, an association of artists, non-profit-making. The piece was made of polished metal, glass and leather and left a lasting impression.

Impressed by the rigor and modernity of her work, he invited her to join his atelier as a furniture and interior‑design collaborator; their collaboration lasted for about ten years.

The LC Series: Modern Seating Redefined

One of the most iconic series which was created from the collaboration of Perriand and Le Corbuseier was the tubular‑steel furniture series LC2, LC3, and LC4. Within the atelier, Perriand brought a strong sense of proportion, ergonomics, and human‑scale comfort, while Jeanneret, who was part of the creative trio, contributed technical refinement and structural clarity. Together, they reshaped the language of modern seating, turning industrial materials into elegant, functional forms that today is central to 20th‑century design history.

The LC2, LC3, and LC4 today are produced mainly by Cassina, under the Le Corbusier “i Maestri” collection. They come in a wide but controlled range of colors and materials such as Scottish, natural and extra soft leather. Especially the LC4 is on my wishlist, I would love to have a vintage cow-leather model or this below black-and white one…

The three models have different numbers to differentiate the sizes - below is a description of each model:

LC2: Fauteil Grand Confort, petit modèle

A compact armchair that redefines the “grand comfort” ideal in minimalist form, with a box‑like silhouette, tubular‑steel frame, and comfortable, leather‑wrapped cushions.

LC3 - Fauteuil Grand Confort armchair

The LC3 is the larger version of the famous Fauteuil Grand Confort armchair. Compared with the LC2, it is wider, with a more generous, lounge-like proportion. It’s one of the best-known modern design classics, often sold by Cassina as part of the LC furniture series.

LC4 - Chaiselongue

The LC4 is the famous chaiselongue: It is often called a “relaxation machine” because of its adjustable curved frame and reclining form. Compared with the LC2 and LC3 armchairs, the LC4 is a long recliner rather than an upright seat, so it is the most clearly lounge-oriented piece in the series.

Recent scholarship credits the chaise longue overwhelmingly to Perriand alone. Le Corbusier’s hand extended to little more than an early sketch. In 2022, Cassina acknowledged as much, dropping the “LC4” name that had long blurred its authorship and reverting to the original French titles across the series - the LC4 becoming Chaise longue à réglage continu and the LC2 2 Fauteuil Grand Confort, petit modèle.

Japanese Influences

She moved to Tokyo in 1940 for a government‑sponsored mission, remained in Japan until 1942, and then spent time in Vietnam before returning to France. She became very influenced by Japan and began to favor natural materials like straw, bamboo, and wood. I found an interesting article about her relationship with Japan on WA design gallery - an excerpt below:

“her relationship with Japan can be described as intimate and profound: she selects from tradition to create a new language, thus proceeding to a synthesis of the arts in a permanent game of back and forth, because if she brought her expertise to Japan, the latter transformed her as much as her creations, forever changing her way of understanding spaces and objects. A reciprocity without equivalent. The book “Charlotte Perriand and Japan” by Jacques Barsac (Norma, 2018) analyzed precisely the existing entanglements and clearly underlines this incredible bipartition of influences. Charlotte Perriand’s travels are essential to understand her personality: if Japan remains undoubtedly the country that has most marked the designer, Brazil is not outdone, and the “Rio” coffee table of 1962 is a good example.”

The influence of nature onto her work

Nature generally was a constant inspiration for Perriand. She transitioned from metal and glass to incorporating wood and rattan, often repurposing natural objects like wood, stones, and shells into home sculptures. During trips to the Normandy coast, Perriand and friends collected pebbles, lumps of driftwood, shells, and other beach‑worn fragments, arranged on her furniture or in alcoves, creating organic counterpoints to her wooden modular furniture.She described these rocks and pieces of driftwood as an “art brut” collection, appreciating them for their textures and forms rather than for any overt craftsmanship.

Her work has been the subject of major exhibitions in Paris, most notably Charlotte Perriand: Inventing a New World at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2019, a beautiful retrospective that recreated nine of her most iconic interiors.

Her most famous works

Below you can find a selection of her most famous works, some of them are also just my favorite works :)

Books

There are quite a few books on Charlotte Perriand which are on my list…there is a memoir called Charlotte Perriand: A Life of Creation, published in France in 1998, the year before she died. It’s written exactly as she designed: direct, unsentimental, matter-of-fact, illustrated largely with black-and-white photographs from her own archive. Then there is a four-volume catalogue raisonné Charlotte Perriand: Complete Works by Jacques Barsac’s. Barsac married her daughter Pernette and has spent his life ordering the archive, so it’s as close to definitive as it gets. Then there is Charlotte Perriand and Japan, also by Barsac and fo the coffee table, Charlotte Perriand: Inventing a New World, the catalogue tied to the 2019 Fondation Louis Vuitton retrospective that recreated nine of her interiors.

I hope you enjoyed this excursion into the world of Perriand!

Until next time.

Love,

LKD

I hope you are doing well.

We did a four day trip to the annual Venice Biennale as part of the premium membership offering of the contemporary art gallery Super Super Markt last week. It’s been the fifth premium art trip of this kind - previous trips included such cities as Warsaw, Vienna and Milan. These trips are always so much fun and I come back with a lot of inspiration. The founders, of whom one is my husband, organise the whole trip filled with visits to some of the best galleries and museums, artist studios and more. There are great evenings at some of the most interesting restaurants and bars, which are usually those places frequented by artists and other exciting people. I can’t wait for the next one!

I wrote down my favorite places from this years’ Biennale which you can read more about below. We did bring our son to the Biennale: I want to be transparent as well because it might always look easy. It often is, because he is an easy baby, but it also sometimes is not. I stayed home in the evenings in the hotel, he did get sick from a kita virus at the last day of the trip and our flight got cancelled on the last day which became a stretch for the nerves as we had to stay in an airport hotel. But when my husband and I became parents, we decided we wanted to keep on doing the things we love and bring him with us when possible, introducing him to art, culture and everything we care about early on, creating memories together.

This edition of the newsletter is in collaboration with Vitra at the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Verner Panton - therefore before I will dive into the highlights of this years’ Biennale, I would love to share with you the fascinating story of how the legendary Danish architect and designer created the Panton chair which today is one of the most recognisable and famous chairs in the world.

The story of the legendary Panton chair

Verner Panton was born one hundred years ago, in Gamtofte, Denmark in 1926. As an adult, he studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and went on to work in Arne Jacobsen’s architectural office before founding his own design studio in 1955.

In the early 1950s, Panton began experimenting with the idea of creating a chair from a single material, formed as one continuous piece which would later become one of the most iconic and recognisable pieces of the 20th-century furniture design history winning lots of design prizes. By the mid-1950s, Panton had developed the first designs, and in 1958 the first full-scale prototype was produced. He had difficulties finding the right manufacturers initially, quite a few declined - until he talked to Vitra. Vitra founder Willi Fehlbaum was excited about the idea, but didn’t see how it could come to life. But his son, Rolf Fehlbaum, became so enthusiastic after visiting Panton, and encouraged the project’s further development.

This excitement from Fehlbaum marked the beginning of the collaboration between Verner Panton and Vitra in the early 60s which resulted into the first cantilever chair made from a single piece of glass-fibre reinforced polyester entered production in 1967.

To celebrate the iconic chair design, Vitra is releasing four new colors, launching on June 17th - I received a chair in flash red from Vitra which photographer Jordann Wood shot in my home. Jordann is an incredible photographer, and I felt so comfortable being photographed by her.

Working with Vitra is a great honour, as the brand is one of my favorite brands and chairs are a piece of interior which I always want to invest in.

At the occasion of the anniversary, you can win a Limited Edition 2026 Panton chair. Please take a look here if you would like to participate, the raffle will end on June, 10th.

Small Black Guide Venice, Biennale

I listed my favorite hotels, restaurants and of course art and culture, some I had already listed in my previous guide which you can find here. Pro tip for an iconic Venice arrival - take a watertaxi to arrive into the city.

As our son Cassius came along and we had to stick to his bedtime, I stayed in the hotel with him on almost all evenings. On my side sandwiches from the local bar, a beer and something good to read. I finished two books and can recommend both - Strangers by Belle Burden is a memoir about the heartbreaking end of a marriage, and Prep by Curtis Sittenfield is a coming-of-age novel about an insecure scholarship student navigating class, identity, and belonging at an elite boarding school.

Accommodation: Palazzo Guardi

Palazzo Guardi is a beautiful place if you are looking for old-school, Venetian charm! It’s in the perfect location in Dorsoduro, just five minutes from Peggy Guggenheim and a lot of other great locations. We came here last time, and would come again! Beautiful floors and walls everywhere, would skip breakfast though.

Accommodation; Hotel Flora

I would have loved to stay here too, but it was already fully booked for the time we came. Hotel Flora is an independent family run hotel, since 1965 - it had been recommended to me by many, it seems beautiful and also full of Venetian charm.

Breakfast: Cafe Moro

I love Italy, but unfortunately I don’t always love Italian breakfast - I just need something proper to eat in the morning. On our way to Accademia to see the Marina Abramovic show, we passed by Cafe Moro where we ended up having breakfast too on our last day. They have eggs, granola in greek yoghurt and all one needs after days of brioche and sweet things in the morning.

Lunch: Osteria Giorgione da Masa

I found this place on my fav travel app amigo, and this place was so great and special. Very small, frequented by a local, interesting-looking crowd with very special Japanese-Italian food. It was a very hot day, but it did not feel wrong to eat Udon (we also ordered it cold). Order the tacos, they were incredible!

Lunch: Ristorante Riviera

We came here rather as a last minute decision as we needed to get to the airport and wanted to eat lunch close by our hotel to then get our luggages. Turned out to be so perfect. The area around is not very touristy, and you sit by the water. I had really great spaghetti Vongole, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. place is just by the water. Something a little less assuming with a name which is not telling, but nevertheless great, would come here again for an easy lunch!

Dinner: Palazzo Experimental

We opted for an early dinner at 7pm on our first evening, taking Cassius with us. I had considered this hotel initially to stay as it had been recommended to us, but we now ended up going there only for dinner which was great. You can start with aperitivo, looking out at the open water, and then come through the hotel and have dinner in the garden, looking out onto the small canal. Very good food.

Culture

Negozio Olivetto

This is a must-visit, the beautiful showroom of the iconic typewriter, commissioned in 1957 by Adriano Olivetto and designed by Carlo Scarpa. Placed under the colonnades of Piazza San Marco, right in the middle of the tourist chaos, you could easily miss this inspiring place. Commissioned in 1957 by Adriano Olivetti and designed by Carlo Scarpa, it was built as a showroom for the brand’s iconic typewriters and calculators. You will find a beautiful space with a floating staircase, lots of natural light and colored mosaic floors. The space is now run by the Italian National Trust and also displays rotating art and design exhibitions. Worth coming to despite the Piazza San Marco detour.

Art

Biennale

This years’ 61st Biennale under the title In Minor Keys was based on a concept by the late curator Koyo Kouoh and focuses on overlooked voices and emotional narratives. The main exhibition is presented across the Giardini, the Arsenale and Forte Marghera and has already been heavily shaped by political debates and controversies, which led to a jury resignation and the cancellation of the official opening ceremony.

My three highlights:

German Pavilion - curated by Kathleen Reinhardt, artists Sung Tieu and Henrike Naumann present works exploring East German history and contemporary realities. Architecturally, the pavilion has been transformed to resemble a Plattenbau housing block. I really enjoyed the works of Henrike Naumann, who sadly passed before the Biennale opened.

Japanese pavilion - Grass Babies, Moon Babies by Ei Arakawa-Nash allows visitors carry one of 208 baby dolls through the pavilion, and become temporary caretakers. Arakawa-Nash became a parent to twins via surrogacy in 2024, and the work centers on care as labour, both invisible and political. As a queer artist who no longer holds Japanese citizenship, he says "my work becomes radicalised in the context of the Japan Pavilion."Simple concept, a lot of emotional weight. Probably one of the more viscerally affecting pavilions this year.

Austrian Pavilion - interdisciplinary project SEAWORLD VENICE by Florentine Holzinger: This pavilion has enjoyed a lot of publicity due to spectacular performances, performed naked. A lot of controversy has been surrounding the artist from virality due to her nudity to copying a motif of Hieronymus Bosch. When we were at the Biennale, the pavilion unfortunately was closed because of a technical issue.

If I am being completely honest, the group show ‘In Minor Keys’ felt overhung and was over crowded with artworks hanging and installed everywhere. A pity in my view because there were certain interesting artists on view, but they were overshadowed by this maximilist hang.

Pinault Collection at Palazzo Grassi: Michael Armitage and Amar Kanwar

The Kenyan-British painter Michael Armitage is known for his large-scale works on lubugo bark cloth, dense with East African history and postcolonial tension. The show called The Promise of Change features quite heavy work and feels very intense. We didn’t really see much of the second artist displayed, Amar Kanwar: Co-travellers who brought together two major multimedia installations made twenty years apart. Also his themes were rather heavy, on death and justice.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

One of my favorite places in Venice, and especially great during Biennale when everything else is crowded and chaotic. The Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, also nicknamed Palazzo Nonfinito as it was never built above one storey, on the Grand Canal in Dorsoduro which is Peggy’s former home, and is the permanent collection of the lengendary collector of Picasso, Pollock, Kandinsky, Dalí, Ernst to name a few..

For 2026, the main temporary show is Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector, the first major exhibition devoted to her London years and her first gallery. It brings together about 100 works including pieces by Dalí, Mondrian, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Sophie Taeuber-Arp as well as archival material documenting the climate on the eve of WWII, with figures like Duchamp and Beckett in the orbit. We had a guided tour which I would always recommend, it changes everything.

Sanya Kantarovsky - Basic Failure at Palazzo Loredan

I loved this show: The works were made to fit the Palazzo Loredan, an ancient space filled with old books and include paintings alongside ceramic work and a glass sculpture made in collaboration with a Murano studio. The show figures caught in heightened states, not always clear whether a subject is in distress or ecstasy. Themes cross religion, history, mythology and the body. His work references Gauguin, Matisse and Goya, and some other famous artists. My favourite piece was a glass head with a spider suspended inside, displayed against the palazzo's incredible decorative interior which was genuinely unforgettable.

Fondazione Prada: Helter Skelter - Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince

This years’ show at Fondazione Prada is one the most talked-about shows of the Biennale. Curated by Nancy Spector, the show places the two artists Jafa and Prince in thematic juxtapositions, illuminating shared obsessions and mutual subject matter. It was the talk of the town during preview week which is remarkable, given it’s a privately financed American show quietly upstaging the official pavilions.

Dries van Noten Foundation - The Only True Protest Is Beauty

One of the most talked-about new openings of this Biennale season: After Dries van Noten left his label in mid-2024, the designer and his partner, chef Patrick Vangheluwe, purchased Palazzo Pisani Moretta and turned it into a non-profit cultural foundation dedicated to craftsmanship. Dries and Patrick are now actual Venice residents.

The inaugural exhibition unfolds across twenty rooms and over 200 works ranging from fashion, art, ceramics, glass, photography operating through instinct rather than fixed curatorial logic. My favorites were the jewellery pieces which are all framed around vanitas, mortality, and the passage of time. The centrepiece is Codognato — the historic Venetian jewellery house, whose skull pieces appear throughout, anchoring the vanitas motif that runs through the whole exhibition. Codognato is one of Venice’s oldest and most cult jewellers, beloved by everyone from the Surrealists to Keith Richards, so placing them here feels very intentional. Make sure you visit the terrace, it’s a beautiful view!

Marina Abramovic: Transforming Energy at Accademia

Marina Abramovic is one of my favorite artists, and I have seen her work in so many places. She is the first living female artist to have a major solo exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, with the headline as a statement in itself. The viewers are allowed to interact with the art, which is very classic Abramovic. The exhibition was originally inspired by her and Ulay’s Great Wall of China walk in 1988, one of the most emotional works she made. I have seen many shows of her, this wasn’t my favorite but as it is also part of her oevre, I would always choose to see it.

That’s it on this years’ Biennale <3

I hope it was inspiring for you. I can highly recommend to visit. I cannot wait to come back for the next iteration - I love coming back to different exhibitions at the same places, visit the same restaurants and build traditions over the years, while of course always adding new discoveries. Next trip is Art Basel next week, so maybe see you there!

LKD

I hope you are doing well.

I am good. My son will start to daycare next week and from when he is settled there, I will dedicate more time besides my work to my passion side projects and learning new things such as plans for my hot milk mom community which I started last year. Nothing I love more than finding ways to connect with other interesting women all over the world through something I am going through myself and I am doing that through the interviews which I am doing through the account. Thanks for my friends and collaborators from Studio Chardin Simon, I have a beautiful logo now which feels very fitting to the world that I want to build! I would love to create events this year with the mothers of hot milk. Let’s see.

More plans are learning about how to integrate AI into my work - from making work flows and documents easier, to creating concepts with AI. It is the future and I believe it def makes sense to take ownership of it. I started to create a series for my portfolio, and it’s addictive once you get the gist!

I also want to take more time for visual research especially on hotels and interior, I want to do more on travel - in whatever form that will happen. It is surely happening in the shape of really fun travel plans this year ranging from Nice to Biennale in Venice, Art Basel followed by Hydra and Switzerland, I will share the best intel of course with you. When summer is over, I am going on a production in Mauritius which I cannot wait for! I want to read more, and get back into my books gam!

A Cook Book: Riviera by Melanie Masarin

I am usually not a fan of cook books - since years I only use my beloved NYT cooking app if I do cook (which does happen rather rarely). My husband is the chef in the family: Since my pregnancy, my husband cooks almost every meal for us, usually when I am alone, I either get take-out or make myself an egg with feta, so I am the opposite of advanced.

But: Melanie Masarin, founder of my beloved non-alcoholic beverage ghia, wrote such a beautiful cook book with 101 recipes with only 10 and less ingredients from France and Italy that it will convince even me. I think I will hold it in my hands soon as it is coming via the US, as a bird told me together with some beautiful ghia products! (Gabrielle is an absolute angel!) Available in lots of bookstores, I will show you more once I have it with me!

The Chanel Sport Notebook

I love this! Held together by a sweat headband, a customized and interactive printed book was created for the launch of Chanel’s sport program named The CC League. The CC League by Chanel Beauty is a 2-year mentorship program which is set to launch in 2026, featuring seven elite female athletes to redefine beauty as a transformative force of self-confidence and empowerment. This initiative offers workshops, coaching, and a network aimed at exploring femininity beyond athletic performance. Aside of the programme which I am not that interested in, I do love how the book has been executed visually, with so much attention to detail.

Art direction: Laurent Laporte, graphic design by Juliette Segré, and printer 102Graphic.

Glassware: La Romaine Editions

Crossing corners in the internet and finding this beautiful brand that stocks glassware and ceramics La Romaine Editions. I just love everything which is on display, great colors and shapes. The brand was founded to show beauty and poetry in everyday objects, made by family of friends, craftsmen, artists and designers - I mean that’s the kind of energy I like.

Founder Pauline Vincent was always surrounded by objects, she loves to recall the settings of her childhood, the workshops of craftsmen with her decorator aunt and grandmother, the museums with her curator mother. She has long observed shapes and colors, developing a taste for the talent of some and the know-how of others which is how the brand developed.

And not surprised I also found the beautiful glass jewelry from AGLAGLA in the shop which I featured some time ago.

Deep Dives and Rabbit Holes: From the world of interior, interior design, architecture, and art

I absolutely love when people are obsessed about one thing and really get nerdy about it, need to know everything within the context, and could talk about this one thing for an entire evening. I can very much relate to that feeling - I’m am like this too, sometimes I feel like a kid in the sweet shop once I get a seed of inspiration. Because I love this, I decided to dedicate one feature on exactly that. Someone wrote all captions so passionately - guys I’m actually about to cause a scene - so is anyone else freaking out about this in the same way that I am - it makes me genuinely happy to read and serves also as a reminder on how great and powerful feeling inspired is.

Over the past weeks I tried to gather everything niche within the world of architecture and interior - often those places have been created with the sole purpose of being an outlet to share a passion. The internet offers obviously different spaces than the world of books. Once you find some great accounts, you can easily fall into a rat hole, going from one to the next: from someone who created the sexiest collection of glass tiles, to someone who collect images of great art in ugly spaces - WHAT A NICHE.

Ettore Sottsass

Art + design + homage + research: This account features a lot of great interior design, I guess the owner is just a big Sottsass fan, hence the name. The account is curated by Raquel Cayre, a furniture advisor, collector and curator based in New York. She has a very cool website as well as very interesting additional projects, which are worth checking out! Ettore Sottsass shows interiors from places such as the Ernst Wilhelm Sachs apartment in Rome, 1971, the restaurant georges above the Pompidou in Paris or Picasso’s La Guerre et la Paix (War and Peace) Chapel in Chateau Vallauris, or inside the Palermo post office, designed by Angiolo Mazzoni during the 1930’s.

Furniture Archive

From Maisons Jaoul by Le Corbusier from the 50s in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, the residences Les Abouts by Atelier Pierre Thibault, from 2004 or Residence Wien by Vincenzo de Cotiis, from 2011: You can subscribe for updates online, I don’t know what happens if you do!

Emanuel Sax

I did a feature with Emanuel for HOTEL AMORE some months ago, as I really relate to his love and passion for what he does which makes me excited. He started a series on “Hotels I’d like to develop” and I am here for it! I love his ideas demonstrated on the very old-fashioned Hotel Elite in Bologna, and I can see all he can see - he needs an investor who installs him to guide the changes and the next grand hotel is coming!

Whereismyhotel

For anyone who is passionate about hotels as much as like I am, then this account is a must-follow. Great and very interesting storytelling on the history of architecture and interior, intel and knowledge sharing on details which one might not have on one’s radar. The creator explains: A theoretical frameworks to vanguard design, research, concept & design services. An example for a story on the account is on the great and very sad auction of nearly 500 pieces of the Four Seasons’ iconic interior, where there were for example custom Knoll banquettes by Philip Johnson, bronze-topped Tulip tables by Eero Saarinen, Hans Wegner’s leather-and-teak “The Chair,” Mies van der Rohe’s Brno chairs, and silver tableware by L. Garth and Ada Louise Huxtable, this auction standing for the loss of history and culture.

A Magazine: MacGuffin

MacGuffin is a platform featuring extraordinary stories about the life of ordinary things. In magazines, presentations and collaborations it discusses the numerous and sometimes curious relationships we have with the design that surrounds us. Each edition is based around a single object, exploring the highly familiar or utterly disregarded role it plays in our lives. Thanks for the tip, Lilli!

@givegorg_getgorg

The wonderful woman Toni Nasse, based in Paris, who I haven’t seen for ages who is really such a great person, created @givegorg_getgorg on architectural details which are so interesting and inspire to look at the world around us.

She also create a beautiful architecture diary, available at the bookstore Walther Koenig and IDEA bookshop. 85 pages of modernist, brutal, art deco and mid century, an index with locations, directions and info to every building. She included projects from Tokyo, Cologne, Vienna, London, Cairo, Paris, Milan, Kyoto, Cape Town, Rome, Lamu, Osaka, Jaipur, Hong Kong and rural Japan, Germany and the UK.

@sexyglassblocks

An account which is all about glass, one of the sexiest architectural additions there is. I love how passionate the owner of this account is too, you can feel his admiration for this material through every post.

A Book: Entryways of Milan

I have mentioned my favorite book here previously many times - Entryways of Milan - published by Taschen Verlag. The book collects the most beautiful entryways in Milan, with addresses. I have gone and sourced the entryways quite a few times in Milan which made me very happy, then also shot a fashion campaign there as I think they are so special.

A Book: Elements of Architecture

This book, which summarizes Rem Koolhaas’s widely acclaimed exhibition at the 2014 Architecture Biennale, explores the fundamentals of building—such as doors, windows, stairs, ceilings, walls, fireplaces, and balconies. It presents a rigorous foundational study aimed at understanding essential architectural elements and the underlying principles of structures around the globe.

@artnouveaukathi

All about art nouveau architecture all around the world from an art nouveau lover.

Great art in ugly rooms

Great idea, great name which explains exactly what this account collects.

Sexy Gutters

I am not necessarily into gutters, but I do love when people choose to see beauty in everyday things such as a gutter. Paying attention to the everyday has an aspect of optimism which is a great character trade.

An Series: @openspaceseries

This account with it’s youtube channel is focused on architecture, design and preservation and features an open space series on different iconic houses such as The How House, R.M. Schindler 1925, the Belluschi–Burkes House, designed by Pietro Belluschi in 1948

I could continue this sourcing for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks! But, my friends, I will stop here now. I hope you enjoyed this one. If you know of any more interesting niche accounts, pls share in the comments, we loooove to dig deep!

Love,

LKD

I hope you are doing well.

I just came back from my last shoot in Sicily which was fun! We shot in Ortigia and surrounding beaches which was beautiful. When I travel these days, I usually already check if they would work for a shoot if I think the place is beautiful. I like to conceptualise ideas with a location in mind, of course it’s also possible vice versa and I used to work like that, but I do believe the choice of location has such an impact on the creative, that choosing it first, makes a big difference.

As a team we were staying in a beautiful masseria, close to the old towns of Marzamemi and Noto. It really does something to the team spirit if everyone stays together! Depends obviously on the team but if everyone gets on well and actually likes spending time together, the work will for sure be better. We have been working together about six or seven times in almost the exact team constellation - it just keeps getting better and smoother.

Trust me, I have unvoluntarily worked in non-functioning constellations during the time when I was fully employed and even if the work does get done eventually, it’s a pain for everyone and the opposite of a thriving environment. As I often put teams together for the projects I do today, I put a very high emphasis on team fit and chemistry!

This shoot was the second time I travelled without my son for a total of five days. The first time, when I went to Scotland was the hardest, this second time now it was much easier. Cassius was doing great with my husband and his mom at home. Sometimes I feel nostalgic having surpassed the big milestones…My first nights apart, breastfeeding is now over for good, he will start daycare in two weeks. It’s positive though, it makes me feel like I have my life back a bit more. In the same time it also feels sad - it was sacred to have never left my baby’s side for any night since he opened his eyes and was born into the world. But romanticising this feeling too much is definitely counterproductive in feeling good as a working mother, it just calls for mom guilt, so I am trying to not delve too much :)

A Series on Netflix: Beef Season 2

This series has strong White Lotus vibes - it’s a sharp and dark series, centering on Ashley and Austin, two lower-level employees, as well as Josh and Lindsay, a wealthy but unstable couple tied to the club’s elite circle. A shocking incident pulls both pairs into a chain of lies and leverage, while the club’s powerful chairwoman and her own scandal widen the conflict. At its core, the season is about how money, insecurity, and ambition twist people into making worse choices. We love! The show keeps escalating from awkward workplace tension into a broader web of crime and retaliation, with the country club acting like a pressure cooker for class conflict. Binge-worthy, even though I always need a break as all their tension is also a bit stressful :)

A Book: Famesick by Lena Dunham

I was always obsessed with HBO’s Girls when it was on, so I was very excited for Dunham’s memoir Famesick, very recently published, ten years after her first novel Not That Kind of Girl. Famesick is a nonfiction work about the struggles of a young woman working on making it in Hollywood, making it, but always on her side her decreasing health, coupled with substance abuse. She writes about how her health starts to become very present in her life, often leaving her unable to work. The year 2018, she says now, was “the year that did not exist,” as though she had stepped “through the looking glass” into an alternate reality. “You start to feel like, I’m no longer in the land of the living, and will I ever get to go back there?” I can’t put it down, highly recommended!

Let’s get to the main part of this feature on the Swiss artist duo Fischli & Weiss:

My husband got book of the Fischli // Weiss Glenstone exhibition from 2013-2015 for his birthday from one of his artist friends - such a good rabbit hole to fall into. Leafing through it, I suddenly felt this urge that I need to include their work into HOTEL AMORE INC which is how we got here!

This is one of the reasons why I love having this newsletter - I don’t just write for the readers (sorry :)), I also write for myself, to get deep into studies on people, places and themes that genuinely interest me. I follow my gut what feels right in this space and what doesn’t. Publishing it into the World Wide Web forces me to be on point on research on the theme / biography / a body of work, which in turn often becomes a new source of inspiration for my work as a creative and I usually learn something new. It is a very rewarding practise!

The artists were born in Zuerich, Fischli in 1952, Weiss in 1946. Weiss sadly passed in 2012. The two met in Zürich in the late 70s: They became friends very quickly, shared interests in everyday objects and playful experimentation, and soon began collaborating artistically. Their witty approach to their work is very special and I think, great fun.

Their first collaboration was the 1979 Sausage Series, and their work later expanded across photography, sculpture, video, and installation. The selection of lunchmeat for the series title and its primary sculptural medium was an intentional pun by the artists. In German, the world sausage - Wurst - one could also use to describe amateurish, even nonsensical, endeavors. The contents of these photos seem to follow suit. In one image, gawking cigarette butts witness a collision between two sausage automobiles, while in another, gherkin clients and a carpet dealer peruse a pile of cold cut rugs. This is just amazing.

I have seen their work in different places and countries - their unfired clay pieces, which are among my absolute favorites, I saw in Paris at Bourse de Commerce / Pinault collection, then again in Milan at Fondazione Prada.

In 1981, Fischli and Weiss began Suddenly This Overview, a sculptural series attempting to map all of human history and knowledge using unfired clay. The humble material allowed them to quickly model and revise small, hand-shaped scenes.

Described as a “subjective encyclopedia,” the works range from mythic events to everyday moments, each paired with a title that acts like a caption or punch line, adding meaning beyond the object itself. Many pieces play with “popular opposites,” such as Small and Big or High and Low, humorously challenging conventional binaries.

Since its first presentation in 1981, the series has grown to over six hundred works, forming an eccentric and vivid reflection of the varied nature of human experience. I could revisit these clay pieces again and again, for hours - sometimes the wit only shows itself after you think about it, others are obvious.

At Fondation Beyeler in Basel, you can find their snowman, another piece I really like. The snowman is conserved in a fridge, which they created in 1990. The work illustrates the contradiction between nature and artificiality with the characteristic tendency toward the absurd typical of the work of the artist duo.

Today, the snowman in the refrigerator stands in a different context than at the time of its creation. The image of total dependence on energy that Snowman depicts has gained a new, unsettling dimension in the midst of the climate debate.

In Mexico City at Museo Jumex, I saw the installation Rat and Bear, which shows a lifesize plush rat and a bear, both sleeping and breathing like humans. Rat and bear are recurring

There is also another film which I saw in Paris at Bourse de Commerce - The Point of Last Resistance.

Shot on Super 8, the film follows the unlikely duo of plush animals drifting through Los Angeles, observing the oddities of the art world. A loose, faux-detective narrative unfolds along the way, underscored by a mix of pop and filmic references.The Point of Least Resistance sets the foundation for Fischli and Weiss’s collaborative practice, using the tension of the mismatched pair to explore oppositions between fiction and reality, labor and leisure.

Across the works, Rat and Bear move through everyday situations with a subtle curiosity, attempting to bring light into the darkness and a sense of logic to a chaotic world.

Shortly before Weiss passed away, the duo began work on a commissioned outdoor sculpture in Valdresflya, Norway. The location was so remote and so beautiful that they decided their piece should look as though it could be mistaken for an extraordinary natural formation. Something that might tempt a passing driver to pull over and take a photo.

A similar work by Fischli/Weiss sits in Kensington Gardens in Hyde Park, close to the entrance to the Serpentine Gallery and consists of two large granite boulders, 5.5 metres high, seemingly balanced one on top of the other, oscillating between stability and instability, construction and destruction.

Both works belong to the same project, but differ due to their radically different environments so they must be understood in distinct ways. The two installations invite to reflect on the play of chance in nature and on what has been created by human hands in the park.

I am absolutely fascinated and highly entertained by their works - I hope you like it as well, if you see one of their works I would recommend to see the series of unfired clay works - Suddenly This Overview, it’s my favorite.

What else? I think that’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed the deep dive - I am currently working on finding some great hotels which I want to visit to then share with you <3 Will keep you posted!

Have a lovely week!

Love,

LKD

How are you doing? I hope you are doing well. I am flying to Sicily next week for my next campaign production which I am excited about. Crossing fingers for good weather! Somehow the year feels like it is passing very fast, I have another bigger campaign production booked in September already which means my summer is full, also currently booking new projects for the last quarter of the year which I am obviously happy about, but it just fills up so quickly. I have some plans for personal passion projects which I really want to follow through with this year, so I will have to decline things too which I have to remind myself when it comes to it - I am not so good with saying no to opportunities, but my time is limited, so I will have to.

We spent some beautiful days in England over Easter with my husbands’ family. I love going to the UK always, over Christmas it is always a highlight and highly recommended but also spring season has been absolutely exquisite. We flew to Bristol, travelled with trains between Chippenham and Bristol for three days to visit family, and then continued to Tunbridge Wells in the countryside. This place feels like a movie - think spring flowers everywhere, lush green meadows, old houses with tilted windows, beautiful log fires, wellies, small community and farm shops, fish & chips, dogs and free range eggs.

We booked our accommodation a little too late this time, so the place we initially wanted to stay at, was already fully booked. I am sharing the ones we loved below, so in case you are thinking of taking a trip to the UK around Bath, Cotswolds, Wiltshire, you can keep these in mind:

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The Pig, different locations throughout the UK

The Pig is a collection of nine different small, laid back and very cosy boutique hotels in different beautiful places in the UK. The hotels always have a restaurant at the heart of the house, serving delicacies from local produce. The location in Cornwall in Harlyn Bay looks also incredible, think seaside and lobster rolls!

Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa, Wiltshire

This luxury five star spa hotel in a renovated Georgian manor house near Bath has 42 rooms and suites, decorated with tasteful antiques and collectables. The country estate was built in 1720 and feels quintessentially English - there is the choice between the Michelin-starred restaurant, the walled garden restaurant or a picnic hamper which sounds just perfect. The house also offers a luxury spa with different saunas, thermal cabins, a relaxation lounge, hydrotherapy and beautiful swimming pools with the most incredible views of the surrounding nature.

On our trip this time I also found the below gem while searching for a local restaurant:

Sign of The Angel, Wiltshire, Labcock

I would love to stay at this small cosy pub called Sign of The Angel which is a great name! I found it by chance on google maps, when I was looking for a restaurant, in Lacock which is a National Trust village, at the edge of the Cotswolds and close to Bath. This place is an exquisitely restored 500-year-old inn, with a great focus on food which has been grown nearby and with very cosy-looking rooms. Nothing like a small little pub with a cosy fireplace, a lovely Sunday roast, and only five to eight rooms!

We are currently on the hunt to book a room in one of our favorite pubs for over Christmas this year - I cannot wait to spend Christmas in one of those cosy places. As soon as we have secured our room, I will share the names :)

This time for our trip we also visited two amazing gardens. Most times when we are over in England, we try to visit a National Trust property: A National Trust property is a place of historic or natural significance preserved and opened to the public. If you are in the UK, I would highly recommend to check out the website of National Trust to see what is close - from fairy tale castles, the home of Churchill and world-renowned garden along the coast to lush meadows - there are many different places to discover and get inspired by.

We visited Sissinghurst Castle Gardens two years ago - this is the famous garden created by Vita Sackville-West, writer and close friend and at times lover of the famous author Virginia Woolf, who found in Sackville-West her muse for her novel “Orlando.” The book is often described as the "longest and most charming love letter in literary history." The garden, particularly renowned for its lush flower beds, was a retreat and symbol of their creative bond.

Hole Park Garden, Kent & Sussex

This time we visited gardens and in particular to see bluebells as it is the peak of the season - just the name of the flower itself sounds like a beautiful fairytale. The gardens which were so beautifully cared for, were in full bloom - from tulips, magnolia, incredible cherry blossoms, crocuses and daffodils, nodding fritillaries and common orchids. If I lived in the area, I would love to visit here for Sunday picknick to read my book and hang out in the garden! There is also a small cafe which is cute, you can bring your dog too.

Bowood Gardens, Wiltshire

Another incredible garden property, a “Grade I” listed Georgian mansion within Brown's stunning landscaped park: Bowood House & Gardens in Wiltshire is a very elegant Georgian stately home in a designed parkland with beautiful formal terraces, until today the home of the Lansdowne family. The Orangery, Library, Sculpture Gallery and Chapel can be visited, as well as special rooms such as the laboratory.

I hope this inspires you to go on a trip to beautiful England! I can’t wait to be back.

With love,

LKD

How are you doing? I hope you are doing well.

I turned 38 two weeks ago and I thought to myself again that getting older is a really great thing. Last week I went to one of my favorite boutique studio Hagius to try out their new reformer classes (very spicy!). I always look around as I am very interested in other people, and try to imagine their lives. The woman next to me was probably about 15 years younger than me - even though I feel like to an outsider I must certainly look like a teenage mom, people would think all the time that I must be far too young to have a child. I secretly observed her for a while we waited for class and remembered myself being her age. I suddenly remembered how I felt, remembered the relationship with myself, with friends, work and career, having all choices ahead of me. Not yet having made any big decisions with big consequences (as in: getting married and having a child). I back then probably took work far less serious. I felt so carefree, I could do what I want. I also remembered how I wasn’t sure what I really want in life and how, what kind of partnership, what kind of work and if I wanted kids. All of that, plus probably spending time with people I didn’t really like, probably saying “no” far too rarely. I also wondered if maybe this woman next to me had her life far more together than I back then or maybe she was in reality also 35 years old but had a great 10-step-skincare routine - but you get my point!

I then liked the feeling of leaving the class and being content with being 38, and all the choices I had done and the person I am today…(it was a deep dive into my feelings that class lol). There obviously could have been a thought process going down the feeling where I missed having the look especially the skin of someone 15 years younger (and that sleep!), but I didn’t think about that (ok maybe for one second but then it was okay) and that was a good feeling.

I thought I should share this, because I feel getting older is so often all about appearance, but I think instead it should be about wisdom, experience, knowledge and gratitude to make it that far. Also, forties are the new thirties, which I strongly feel. Anyways!

French fashion brand Sézane released their new spring collection and sent me some iconic pieces, which really got me into a spring vibe. I love the jackets which come in black and white, both have a beautiful button form, feel very 90s. You can also get the wider matching pants which are great too, but I also love sportswear with it.

Earrings and white staple blouse Max are also from the brand, perfect to combine with this outfit or with straight denim.

With Love From Scotland - first work trip without bebe

I flew to Scotland last week for a campaign shoot for which I did the creative direction and worked together with a very talented team. It was really hard work combined with great fun - which is a good combination. Scotland is an incredible place, I have to come back, with lovely people and incredible landscapes. We were located close to Edinburgh not the Highlands this time, which are still very high on my list. Obviously you only see fractions of a place when you go for productions, but it’s great to get a glimpse and a feeling for a place.

I am very grateful for those jobs where I get to travel, it is always a different vibe with the whole crew and the client. You become a little family for the days you work and because of that bond, the collaboration is usually better and stronger - obviously only if the team fit is right. It feels very different if everyone goes to their own home in the evening.

The hotel in which we stayed is worth mentioning for sure as it would be a great destination for a weekend trip too. We stayed at the Marine Hotel in North Berwick, with amazing sea and golf course views. It is old-fashioned in the best way possible, has a small spa with different saunas and steam rooms which gets everyone back on track after 12 hours of working on location in cold and windy conditions to warm up and gather new strength.

It was my first time spending a night without my baby... Leaving was really hard, but once I got busy (and we were VERY busy all of our wake time), I really enjoyed being fully immersed into work. On the day I was supposed to return, the Berlin airport went on strike, so I eventually returned one day late which in total made five days sans bebe - and I am very happy I got through the first trip, and as everyone told me that hardest good bye! Mid April I am flying to Ortigia in Sicily for my next production to art-direct a campaign which I am excited for as well.

Feeling very happy that my clients are looking for exciting destinations and culturally relevant work so that those campaigns are conceptualised destination-first, with the whole story unfolding after we dive knee-deep into location research.

House On The Spree and a beautiful new fragrance by Le Labo

Last week I was invited to a beautiful, intimate dinner for the launch of a new fragrance called Violette, hosted by fine fragrances brand LE LABO and produced by BAM. To get to the dinner destination, we were taken on a boat and eventually arrived at a private house just after the sun set - an incredible architect house, designed by Tanja Linke who also lives in the space with her family. The house is set directly at the lake. It was built between 2014 and 2017 on the former grounds of the Berlin GDR water police.

I am usually not the biggest fan of cement (and the house is mainly made of cement inside) as I find it quite cold - but in this space I was able to appreciate it. I read that to emphasize the condition of the place through an architectural and artistic re-appropriation the architect purposefully wanted to create a designed ruin.

The large living room opens on all sides, with a beautiful view on the Spree, giving the impression of water flowing underneath. The bathroom is tiled with glass, one of my obsessions, especially when paired with wood on the staircase opposite partly left with tree bark, originates from the trees that had to be felled for the construction of the building. I would be thrilled to get a private tour in daylight through this house, it was so special having dinner with that view and fantastic food by restaurant Remi, one of my favorite Berlin restaurants.

If budget allows, I would always recommend brands to find ways to make events special, intimate and memorable like this: With some guests I talked about the last dinner of LE LABO in Berlin, which was maybe two or three years ago at the old location of Ember (IYKYK), everyone remembered it!

About the fragrance: I have always been a fine niche fragrance lover and I knew that the relationship with fragrance during pregnancy changes. But I didn’t think the change would be so tremendous. I suddenly couldn’t stand any of the fragrances that I used to love and even obsess over, which felt like I had lost a one of my senses. I didn’t like any direction anymore.

I kind of expected I could not be that much into Violette 30 as well, even though I love LE LABO fragrances generally and own quite a few. But I got surprised - it smells incredibly soft and powdery, with woody and floral notes and I feel like I have uncovered what I like now post-baby! It is the opposite of the fragrance direction I used to like which were always rather masculine, always rather deep and heavy notes. One of my favorite LE LABO fragrances pre-baby was Patchouli which is still great, but really the opposite. I am so happy Violette has started my relationship with fragrance again, I missed it, thank you LE LABO!

What to See: J.Kim in Berlin

The Uzbekistan-based brand J.Kim recently had a little pop-up in Berlin which I visited and I think their new collection is very worth taking a look at. The brand makes beautiful clothes, shown in beautiful campaigns with beautiful women <3

What to watch: Vladimir on Netflix

We have neither finished Love Story with JFK and CBK or Industry yet, as the new episodes drop every week - so in the meantime we started the series Vladimir on Netflix which is fun to watch. Starring actress Rachael Weisz who I have always liked, who is absolutely fixated on her new colleague, played by Leo Woodall. She finds herself unravelled in hot fantasies in the most impossible situations. It’s sharp, sexy, witty, sarcastic and easy-to-watch - this series absolutely enlightened our evenings.

What to Watch: Interior Motives by Ben Mora

I usually never watch youtube episodes of anything except of obviously Amelia Dimoldenbergs’ Chicken Shop Date, but I recently discovered Interior Motives on Instagram and I think it’s REALLY FUNNY. This show is a room investigation game show where in each episode viewers send a photo of their bedroom, the inside of their fridge and the moderator and two contestants guess their gender, sexuality, age and location using nothing but the clues in the photos. You can tell that this is the kind of show made by someone who just wants to have fun with no brand backing - it’s really hilarious.

Podcast to Listen To: Alexi Wasser at Fashion Neurosis

I became a big fan girl of New York–based filmmaker, writer, and actor Alexi Wasser after listening to this episode with my favorite podcast Fashion Neurosis by Bella Freud! I didn’t know her before, and wow, I am a fan now. Wow, she seems like a fantastic, funny person with an amazing deprecating humour that you just want to be friends with. She also has her own podcast Love, Alexi, which I will now dive into.

What to Read: Expectation by Anna Hope and Hooked by Asako Yuzuku

I wanted to start reading again for a while but as I was so busy with working and then taking care of my baby in the afternoons, I didn’t really have time. I used to be a big reader and as I was going to be on my shoot as well as traveling there, I knew I could sneak in reading time in the evenings and on the flight.

On recommendation of my favorite bookstore Ocelot, I got Expectation by Anna Hope which is a story about three women, their friendships and the decisions they take in life spanning over a decade. It’s definitely a page turner, I read this within four days. I missed so much reading a book which I couldn’t stop reading, and this was great.

I got very motivated to read again and bought Hooked by author Asako Yuzuku in London Heathrow airport (after I left my Chanel bag with my passport and everything in the airport bathroom for ten minutes OMG). Yuzuku also wrote Butter, a novel about a female gourmet chef and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case which I very much enjoyed reading last summer.

I just started, so I don’t know if it’s good or not but so far I like it. The story is about modern womanhood, in which the protagonist Eriko, who on paper seems to have the perfect life but in reality is very lonely, gets obsessed with a lifestyle blogger. She orchestrates a meeting and a friendship with her which eventually brings them both to breaking points which neither of them saw coming. I will let you know how it is!

That’s all I have for this week, my friends!

Speak soon.

LKD

I hope you are doing well. I am good, big spring vibes here in Berlin - sometimes only in my mind, but sometimes also in reality! I am sitting at one of my favorite places to work my brain and also my body - at Becycle and looking forward to enjoy the sun today!

New Series: Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette

We started to watch the new series Love Story by director and journalist Ryan Murphy, a series focused on tragic love stories, with the pilot focusing on the tragic love story between JFK and Carolyn Bessette who got married in 1996 and died in 1999. I read the biography Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by the author Elizabeth Beller last year - the series is leaned very closely onto it. Huge expectations especially in regards to casting and costume - in the course of the production, there were apparently also requests to change the costume designer as “they had gotten it all wrong” - seems that in the end they could resolve this dispute :) I think it’s great to watch, highly recommended!

A Guesthouse - PENSIÓN in Roma Norte, Mexico City

I mentioned this beautiful pension in Mexico City in my CDMX Big Black Book a year ago, they now finished their guesthouse. It looks great, and very special! It is a ten-room guesthouse in Roma Norte, which was started quietly four years ago, above the bookstore Casa Bosques and a chocolate atelier, as a three-room exploration into hospitality by Savy Studio, a design and branding practice based in New York and Mexico City. Every element in the rooms was considered, developed through close dialogue with makers and friends - from the interior design, the furniture pieces and fabrics to become less a hotel, more a lived composition. Beautiful!

Bags, bags, bag

I am still sourcing a Chanel bag, and I am now hunting on eBay Japan thanks to my friend Jade! She’s bought a Chanel on eBay Japan before, so is an expert on professional sellers and customs and so on. I have seen too many fakes on the secondhand platforms, they are sometimes so way beyond expensive and I also want something very special. The below caught our eye, we have been sending each other screenshots, there is SO MUCH to unpack and source. Sometimes it’s almost the hunt more than the actual purchasing that I love hehe :)

A Jewelry Brand: Simuero

I have been obsessed with this Valencia-based brand for a long time since I saw it some years ago for the first time at one of my fav concept stores Jogging in Marseille. Now as my birthday is approaching (I am a pisces girl!) and I was asked if I had any wishes - I remembered that I love this brand, hehe! I especially like the LOS DELFINES collection, the necklace and the earrings, so good!

Let’s get to today’s feature! I would like to introduce you to the great Hannah Dean, Head of Brand & Community at Designhotels.

We met very randomly in Mexico City three or four years ago: I was visiting Casa Gilardi, the beautiful house designed by the famous architect Luis Barragan. My friend had decided not to join me. I am a very communicative person and I was sad I couldn’t share my excitement about the place with anyone. So I turned to the person next to me, and mentioned the beauty of the place - this was Hannah, and she said: I know, you live in Berlin, right? So then turned out we had a million friends in common - had lunch together and that was that!

Hannah always had incredible tips for any place in the world: This woman truly knows how to travel well: So of course she needed to be featured in this newsletter, and here we are!

Name: Hannah Dean

Location: Brooklyn, New York

Occupation: Head of Brand & Community – The Americas, Design Hotels

Hi, I’m Hannah and I’m a brand strategist for all things art, design, and hospitality. I’m from New York originally, but spent much of my adult life between Berlin and Copenhagen. In January of last year, I moved back home (with a slight German accent) to head up Design Hotels’ brand and community efforts in the Americas.

I grew up around a love for art. My Mimi is a painter and a wonderful colorist, who dragged me to as many shows as possible from a very young age. That early exposure and her unrelenting desire to learn, shaped how I see the world.

Later, proximity to the design and food worlds turned into my infatuation. Combining these passions with opportunities to facilitate gathering, community, and exchange genuinely feels like a dream job, particularly in spaces where creativity and commercial thinking need to work hand in hand.

I’ve always traveled a lot, so it makes sense that I eventually turned that curiosity into a career. I lead with exploration, paying attention to the materials, rituals, and practices that define different places, and the shared values that quietly connect them.

Mexico is where you’ll most often find me on the road, and funny enough, it’s also where you and I originally met on a , despite living in the same city.

How do you travel and where do you get inspired for your trips?

Truthfully I have become quite spontaneous with my trips and like to arrive before over-planning what to see and what to eat. My first resort is first-hand experience, luckily I am surrounded by a world of well-traveled individuals who give the best recommendations. I make great maps that I start filling anytime I see something interesting, I love sharing them when someone else is planning a trip too.

Packing, on the other hand, is my weakness. You would think I’d have learned to travel light by now, but I always bring twice what I need and somehow return home with a lamp, kilos of ceramics, and at least one plush wool rug.

What do you believe makes a good hotel and how do you find them?

For me, I love feeling like I’m in someone’s home when I’m at a hotel. I want it to feel welcoming but casual and to feel like I’m participating in something rather than being catered to.

Palazzo Daniele’s mantra is “this house is not a hotel.” – I love that!

When it comes to design, it has to feel locally-informed. There is nothing worse than feeling like I’m in NYC when travelling to Nosara. Of course, Design Hotels is my first source in looking for where to stay, but I also love staying with friends and experiencing a destination through their lens.

Which places in the world are your favorite places to eat and why?

The hardest question you could ask me!

1. In Berlin, I love Julius. That level of cooking is hard to come by and the experience of sitting in that space instantly transports you from your day-to-day.

2. In New York, I have 541 pins saved, so narrowing it down is painful. What I love most about the city is its nostalgia, and places like The Odeon and Brooklyn Inn come first to mind.

3. In Mexico City it’s San Ángel Inn. It’s set in an old monastery and the gardens are an instant reset that I find myself craving time and time again.

What are your favorite places in the world you have travelled to?

1. Veracruz, Mexico – it feels beautifully lost in time in the best way. My friend Elin and I road-tripped down from Mexico City and the light you get on along the way is unforgettable. Maison Couturier by Grupo Habita is also one of my all-time favorite hotels.

2. Maine – I’m still getting used to returning to the US after fifteen years and keep finding myself drawn to childhood memories that I want to revisit. As a kid, we spent a few summers in Maine which holds some of my fondest memories. I’m a sucker for a good cottage and seafood straight off the boat. I would love to go see Norumbega.

3. Ammos Hotel in Crete – I purposely say the hotel and not the Chania, because every time I visit, I have zero desire to leave the comforts of this place. Nikos and his team do such a wonderful job of making you feel right at home. So much so, that Nikos’ carefully curated chair collection is simply part of the furniture for all to enjoy.

Which places are on your wishlist for traveling and why?

1. New Mexico – I’m obsessed with Georgia O’Keefe and want to see her world. I keep joking that I’ll move to Santa Fe someday, but I’ve actually never been

   

2. Buenos Aires – there’s so much interesting art and architecture coming out of Buenos Aires. It’s been on my list for ages and it’s time to tick it off

3. India – I’ve always been drawn to the color, craftsmanship, and depth of tradition. I’d love to visit Gujarat, the Lotus Temple, and Hotel Irada.

What are your three last saved posts on Instagram?

- Frederik Nystrup larsen’s stunning kitchen (kitchens are a common theme for me)

– Louise Bourgeois’ note-taking. I love her! The fact that she completely changed mediums in her eighties still baffles me.

– Casa de Vidro designed by the architect Lina Bo Bardi *adds Brazil to the above list.

Thanks so much Hannah for sharing your favorite places and inspiration <3 I hope everyone got their Google lists out <3 See you soon!

Love,

LKD

I hope you are doing good and life is treating you well. This is the long season of the wet and cold winter-spring which almost nobody likes, with melted snow and less fun outside, but it is what it is. I am longing for sun though and for my plans this year! When the weather is annoying, I try to dress in a way that puts me in a good mood so I feel happy anyways.

I am spending the first half of 2026 focusing on work - I am planning two campaign shoots, the first one in Scotland in a month time and the second one in the South of Italy. I will for the first time since his birth not be with my baby for more than one night which is a big step - probably bigger for me than for him :) I am going to take a little break after those big projects to spend quality time with my son before he will start daycare. We will take a little trip to France together to visit my friend, followed by some days in Nice, then we will fly to Venice Biennale and then Hydra later in the year. I cannot wait!

A Film: Wuthering Heights

Last week I watched Wuthering Heights by director Emerald Fennell in the cinema - she also did Saltburn which was incredible. Wuthering Heights is a very intense film, so many emotions. Obviously the tortured lovers Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie are incredibly hot; there is a lot of kissing in torrential rain, toxic love, riding on horseback into the sundown, a hot affair in the first trimester of pregnancy (highly unlikely lol). The film definitely feels overloaded with characters and story, it’s strange but also weirdly good, incredibly intense.

A New Hot Spot In Town

I visited a great new restaurant in Berlin called Almi - for everyone who has lived in Berlin for many years, it’s located in the old Pappa e Cicchia location. Super good place, it’s a modern European bistro, and the food looks and feels so fresh. I was literally the first guest at 5:45pm together with my son during their soft opening days. They were lovely with Cassius and the food was superb. Highly recommended! I have already made my next reservation.

New Skincare & Beauty

Last week I got treated with a much needed massage at the Susanne Kaufmann SPA at the hotel Das Stue which was great. I am a big fan of the alpine skincare brand Susanne Kaufmann, the products smell great and make my skin feel good - the eye rescue serum with a roller which you can put into the fridge for a great refreshment and the nutrient serum, an alternative to retinol which smell fantastic, are some great additions to my skincare assortment.

I might have told you before, but I am on the eternal quest to find THE perfect nude-coloured lipstick and after my favorite Gucci color was discontinued, I found this one by Tilbury, with the perfect nude color. Not too dark, not too light, just perfect. Thanks to the team who send me my favorite as well as some great surprise products, notably also a great powder and eyeshadow pillow talk - I actually use it as bronzer and it’s great for that too!

I actually wrote this article for quite some weeks, the way it is coming out changed a lot in between.

How to get work done when you haven’t slept since 9 months

It came from asking myself if we - as in us women, could have it all - and how we could have it all. It then changed into the more pragmatic topic of balancing work and baby in the first year and I now kept it a bit as a mix. Every experience, every mom, and every child is different, so obviously all I am writing below could feel different for someone else.

The reason why I even wanted to write this feature is because over the past months I have been asked by quite a few women for advice on this topic. I always respond to everyone with a voice or text message, but now I can share this article in the future.

There are obviously hundreds of stories on this topic already, but I know for myself, the more often I read about something, the more sense it can suddenly make to me and I can identify how I can make it work for myself. Of course what is possible depends on individual set-ups with family support, how you as the mother feel towards work. Someone else might have a very different desire in context to work than me, or the baby is just a baby with different needs. Someone else might feel completely different to me, and that’s absolutely okay.

In Germany the narrative of the working mother is much less heard of compared to Paris, or London. Before I did it, I had no clue on how I could even work, and how to find a nanny, how I would feel to not be with my child all day. Before my pregnancy I was convinced that I would go one year on maternity leave as this is the norm in Germany. Reasons of why someone doesn’t want to take the one year maternity leave could differ. I ended up not getting parental leave money - by surprise - and despite having saved money for this situation, I didn’t want to not have any income for too long. I was also generally eager to work again as I enjoy what I do which is why I decided to get back three months after birth. I can already say for sure - to me, having listened to my gut which told me that I want to work again feels so good. Working and then spending quality time with my baby has been and is the absolute right thing for me and keeps me sane and happy.

For context - this is my situation:

I am a mom to my soon nine month old son Cassius, and I started working again when he was three months old. I work freelance mostly as a senior creative and art director but also consult for cultural marketing, kol and brand strategies, I sometimes also do some headhunting - all in all I do many things :) My husband is co-founder of a contemporary art gallery. I took the first three months off completely, my husband took two - the third month was August where our industries are on hold anyways and we were on holiday together. It was coincidental perfect timing.

I take care of our son for two afternoons and one full day, my husband takes one full day and one afternoon. For the rest of the time we have a nanny who is taking care of him, her hours increased with his age to now five hours a day. He will go to daycare this summer.

I was offered a very interesting project when my son was six weeks old. I am glad I declined it as my gut told me not to. But when I did start work when he turned three months old, it felt right. My first job was conceptualising a campaign to be shot in Milan for one of my fashion clients when Cassius was three months old. We flew to Italy when he just turned four months old. To make this work, my husband and baby travelled with me: My husband did the caretaking during the day, and I did evenings and nights, breastfeeding. During the shoot I was pumping milk, and poured it into the street between cars which felt like a waste but what can you do.

Thinking back at that week I am not 100% sure how I managed these days combined with doing the nights too. It was exhausting with intense and long work days, and after the day I was also waking up about five times in the night to breastfeed. But the female body and hormones are really incredible, I just did it and I would do it again. The reason that it worked could also be that I am stubborn and had a classic millennial upbringing “I am not made of sugar” haha - but you are what you are, and it worked for me then. For future campaign shoots, I will not take my baby anymore, and my husband will take care of him during that time at home. This happens with the support of our nanny and my husbands’ mother who will fly in for longer time periods (I am away for five nights for another shoot).

We divide tasks as much as possible and try to share the mental load. This approach was and is a non-negotiable for me. When I was younger, many years before I decided to have a baby, I didn’t even think about this option: I was raised in a different world, where the mother is the main caretaker and the father is responsible for the income. I don’t think my dad ever changed my diaper. Now. for my adult life, a shared parenthood is the only option how I would want it. What that is for someone else, can obviously be very different, so you have to decide for yourself how you want your parenthood to be - but that’s my idea of how I want to be a parent.

Work now is different - I work 3.5 days per week from 9-2pm. It’s really incredible how much I can get done in this time. But I am now really an efficiency addict: No hanging out on the internet, no chit chat in calls. I really love my work days, and enjoy the time being fully focused on the project I am working on and using my brain cells for something different, even though it is tricky sometimes when I haven’t slept much, I take Creatin and Magnesium to get my brain working - I feel like it does make a difference and as soon as I am in work-mode, I feel fine for some weird reason, even if I don’t sleep. I think it’s the hormones…I also try to make sure to go to bed at 10pm, and switch the nights with my husband, maybe sleep in the morning. Otherwise I couldn’t do it. Sometimes it’s really hard and I feel like I am on a very speedy train sometimes that stops only rarely. But I would do it exactly the same way again, as I am also very happy!

I also love my work-free Fridays with my son: We usually do something nice like going to a restaurant, meet friends with babies, take a big walk or something like that. I always wanted to be a mom who doesn’t stop who she is just because I have a baby, so I try to take my son almost everywhere I go. From the hairdresser, openings of galleries, new restaurants, he even went to his first fashion week the other day. In restaurants I whisper gossip into his ear, he flirts with the waiters, I drink a wine, and he has his bottle of milk. One time we took him into a Spa hotel and we hid him in the spa bag.

Sometimes just taking him with me is not easy at all, even though it might look easy from the outside. This is important to me to share, as it might look effortless, but sometimes there is a missing diaper, a cold, a missed nap time which makes it hard behind the scenes. But for my motherhood journey, this is the way to do it, so I am fine with taking the painful days too as the joy of taking him everywhere and feeling like I still am who I am is bigger. I have quite a few mom friends, who I often spend time with on my free days! They are my village and I would recommend anyone to try and find just this one person as their mom friend, just one person who gets it and who you can vent with on difficult days and celebrate the great days (aside of your partner).

If you do want to work and have a baby, you need the right set-up which is either family, an au-pair or a nanny. This is how I did it for the nanny, as my husband and I don’t have family nearby:

How To Find A Hopefully Great Nanny

For inspiration I found this website opensourcenanny.com which was so helpful to see how other people do, feel okay about outsourcing care when you are surrounded by families who choose not to which can get to you and make you feel mom guilt, speaking from experience.

A good nanny or babysitter you can rely on, is absolute key if you want to work without family or friends (who you would ask) in town. In Germany you could give your kid into daycare from a very young age. For me personally, it felt too early before my son is one year old, but you have to decide that for yourself. Especially in Germany it sometimes is looked down upon when you give your baby to a nanny or someone else for some hours during the day, which I find so strange. If you have found someone you trust, who your baby enjoys spending time with, there is absolutely no reason why that should be a problem, quite contrary, it will most likely make you a better mother if you have a breather in between. You can only care for someone if you put your own oxygen mask on first!

I did my research on an online service, in Germany I was recommended betreut.de - I am sure there are lots of similar websites in other countries. I shared out an ad with my exact specifications of the kind of person I wanted: First aid course, lots of experience with children, available reviews from other families, will also take care of the flat, cook for our son, would go for a supermarket or Vinted run etc. I usually first did a Facetime call, then when I liked them we met in the cafe, then we did a meeting at our home, followed by a 3-hours first test, where I was home as well. Sometimes I had someone in my house for 2-3 times and then realised it’s not right - it’s a lot of work for sure to get used to someone, trust them and develop a rhythm with them. In the end I found someone through someone else (I am a member in a very big mom group with 300 mothers). Our nanny now is very experienced, has been a kindergarten carer before and teaches me a lot too - I really appreciate it! Always ask for the passport, insurances and do thorough background checks, call previous families on feedback and always trust your gut. If someone doesn’t feel right, don’t continue. Sometimes applicants who seemed great at first, suddenly had a different vibe and I never continued then.

For the first times with the nanny I am always home as well to get a feeling for if I feel comfortable with them taking care of my baby. It takes a while until I would let anyone go outside with our baby. With our current nanny who we love very much, my husband and I have a shared Whatsapp group so we both know everything. This avoids all the responsibility on the mother and gives ownership to the partner which is crucial to share mental load. To keep track of timings we have a google sheet, shared with us and our nanny, where I put all the dates and times. This way we don’t run into timing mix-ups or any other difficulties. We go through this list weekly to check-in.

All in all, this is a journey and what works for one person, doesn’t for another. I do hope this was insightful to anyone who is pre-baby, just post-baby or anything else in between who is thinking about how and if there is a way to have both, be a working mother before your baby is one year old. What happens after I don’t know, but I am just going to be curious and see what happens.

With love <3

LKD

Hello my dear Internet Friends,

how has your week been? Berlin has been icy, muddy and grey but also like this:

I am fully back in work mode, which is great and exciting but by now I definitely have also learnt now what mom guilt is. A constant feeling of wanting to be in either places…I really love my work, but I also want to be with my son when I am not with him. I guess this is life from now on…This week has also hit me hard with very little sleep, but somehow my hormones are making up for it and I am fine. It’s hard though but it makes me examine even more who I work with and what kind of projects I say yes to. I feel lucky to have been able to bring together a very talented senior team for a bigger campaign I am currently working on, and it’s really fun. I have manifested more of this for 2026!

I am excited also to take some time off for traveling after these projects end in May/June to spend lots of time with my family: I will travel to Stockholm soon, we booked Hydra and we will also visit Venice Biennale this year again, and of course a big trip to Switzerland, where I am looking forward to visiting a lot of beautiful hotels <3

This jewellery brand!

I have mentioned the handcrafted glass jewelry brand AGLAGLA from Geneve in my newsletter last week - they did actually sent me two necklaces which are even more beautiful in person. I am obsessed with these super special stand-out pieces. I had the hardest time to even decide which ones I wanted to go for…I will show you the second necklace next time - the below is my favorite.

Bottega Veneta Spring Summer 2026

I looooove the new Bottega campaign now under the lead of the new Creative Director Louise Trotter! The campaign imagery are inspired by the brands’ Venetian origins featuring some incredible locations - from the Giardini Napoleonici, the grand interiors of Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfù and Palazzo Contarini Polignac, as well as smaller settings such as the Angolo Fiorito flower shop near Palazzo Franchetti. <3 While I love the campaign, I do think it’s a bit boring that everyone is working with Juergen Teller continuously…

And…Today’s Feature!

A year ago I interviewed Maria Schoenhofer for HOTEL AMORE who recommended me to reach out to her friend Nadine Strittmatter: She is the most interesting person and has travelled to the most special places. I did that and finally now, a year later, we did our feature together which is so inspiring and I cannot wait to share it with you:

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Name: Nadine Strittmatter

Location: Between Paris, Dorset, Switzerland

Occupation: Founder of the bespoke travel agency lavoyageuse

Dear Nadine, so thrilled to have you! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi! I have been working in luxury fashion for twenty years at houses like Chanel and Dior where everything was always bespoke. It was always the best of the very best experiences for the client. I worked with the design teams under Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano on haute couture and prêt-à-porter as their in-house fit model and on all itinerant fashion shows for both houses. I saw first hand how everything was put together from scratch.

When I started my travel agency lavoyageuse, I wanted to take that same philosophy and approach I learned in my first career and apply it to travel: I curate beautiful and exclusive trips for special clients including experiences in special destinations to stay and experience like locals. The trips are crafted like stories in destinations I know well and where I have an extensive network and address book which I can access to make the impossible possible.

Today I am based between Paris, where I have lived most of my life, and now have a pied-à-terre, in Dorset, in the English countryside where my husband and I have a cottage and spend most of our time. We are also seasonally spending some time in Switzerland.

From safaris in East Africa, guided tours to artist studios in Europe, or unique travels to places like Bhutan where you need special permits for certain areas, or precision planned helicopter Himalaya tours - this is the field I work in.

It always starts with a conversation with the client - they have an idea and with that we create an extraordinary trip together that they will never forget.

An example itinerary from an exclusive Patagonia, Argentinia trip from February 2025, ascending a secret glacier trail on horseback, staying at a ranch, cabins and the last night at a fly camp.
Day 1: Arrive at Los Rebeldes Ranch after a scenic drive from Esquel. Experience the impressive agility of criollo horses, specially trained for cattle work and adaptability.

Day 2: Cross the Grande River by boat and embark on a four-hour horseback ride to a stunning viewpoint over Amutui Quimey Lake, followed by a picnic with breathtaking views.

Day 3: Journey to Baguilt Lake for a tranquil picnic after a scenic ride, then return for a cozy evening at the ranch.

Day 4-7: Explore Los Morros, Rincón del Aceite, and Los Glaciares Fly Camp, riding through forests, rivers, and up to the Chilean border, with panoramic Andes and glacier views, and nights under the stars.

As a model I have been working on incredible fashion productions all over the world, in places often inaccessible as they are remote and hard to find: I founded lavoyageuse to be able to recreate some of these trips for others to experience too.

Besides my work as a model I have also worked as a designer for several brands: I have always been obsessed with creating the perfect travel wardrobe. I recently created a capsule collection for the French luxury brand Le Kasha 1918 which is focused on combining incredible materials and the perfect fit for travelling.

We also created a 72-hour travel bag and blue velvet trousers which you can wear comfortably on the plane get off and head straight to a fancy dinner, but they also look and feel as perfect for a three-day road trip through a desert.

What makes the composition of a trip the right one?

A good trip to me should feel a bit like writing a script or a short story. It should have climaxes and swelling waves - intriguing moments, and an ending that ties the entire experience together. The trips which I put together for my clients are created with all the knowledge gathered from my many, personal travels and an always growing network of individuals.

Which are your favorite destinations so far and why?

I love East Africa because of the wildlife: I am specialised in gorilla tracking trips. I’ve tracked them in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. All three destinations are very different, Rwanda, in particular, stands out as a country that has risen into a stable and economically growing society after a devastating history, including the genocide.

The DRC is not much visited and needs to be planned extremely well, it is not always possible to go.

Speaking of East Africa, I also love Lamu, an island in Kenya that is very special.

What was the most beautiful experience so far?

I spent a month in the Orkhon Valley working with horses in a friends’ luxury Camp Lodge. There was no internet - a great detox! We slept in gers, which are traditional Mongolian tents. Around us there were no buildings, no city or any kind of concrete, it was only the valley and the stars at night for an entire month, which was so beautiful. I made me feel very much in touch with the elements and nature: one time I went out for a ride with one of the horses, and suddenly an eagle flew off a cliff right next to me. This experience was truly magic.

Which locations are on your wishlist?

Socotra in Yemen is high on my personal list. The otherworldly alien-like flora and fauna of the area is absolutely fascinating to me. Due to the isolation of the area there is amazing nature which you wouldn’t find anywhere else in the world - the endemic Dragon Blood Trees for example are incredible. It also got the most incredible beaches, caves, and mountains, the old villages look like straight out of a fantasy science-fiction novel. The island, which is far from the conflict-torn main land, is accessible through flights from Egypt and UAE, and has been opening up towards tourists - but it for sure is another destination that needs to be monitored closely because of security threats.

I really want to see the shoebill stork in the wildness of East Africa. I love watching wildlife in their natural habitat and this endangered species is a special one: It is a somewhat prehistoric looking bird, which creates an incredibly scary noise. The bird looks straight out of a comic book, I have been fascinated with it for years.

I would also like to experience the Okavango Delta in Botswana on horseback. Traveling on horseback is still my favourite mode to travel - the most natural and low impact way to navigate special terrain such as this flooded delta. Taking it by horse makes you feel very connected to the nature around and will increase the probability of wildlife encounters on the way as you are disturbing nature much less. You are able to cross areas such as shallow waters and paths that you would not be able to tackle in a vehicle.

How do you put together the travel programme for lavoyageuse?

It’s a symbiotic relationship between me and my clients: They come with a request and they usually trust me that they will get even more than they have ever wanted.

I have a few clients from my time in fashion who have very high standards but also want an authentic experience. They can ask me anything from finding them an incredible house rental for two months in Byron Bay, a horse ride across Patagonia or a Himalaya helicopter tour in Bhutan, or a historic or wine tour of France - it is a broad range.

I want to help people to also leave enough room to roam to let genuine encounters with locals happen and to immerse themselves in the history of a place to really understand it better.

What do you always pack when you travel?

• I pack a book which works with the place to which I am going. I love traveling in airplanes especially as it is undisturbed reading time for me. I don’t really have a favourite book, I love anything from Ernest Hemingway, Joan Didion to Sheila Heti, Miranda July, Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk.

  At the moment I am reading Lamiel by Stendahl, a book about a smart, young beautiful woman. She becomes cynical with the men around her as the world and society tries to constrain her to social norms.

  

  I also just ready Vincento Latronico’s Perfection which I found magnificent and a great satire on our generation.

  

  I have also recently read Rachel’s Cusk’s A Life Work: I am having a baby in February and the book is her account on the first months of becoming a mother. She is very honest about the experience of motherhood, from the good to the bad. I didn’t just want to read “disneyfied sugarcoated” accounts on becoming a mother, so this was great.

  

  Parade by Cusk is next on my list as well as A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst. The latter is about a couple, who set off to New Zealand by sea, in a boat they had built themselves: They get shipwrecked by a whale. The story is a story of their survival and their love.

• I am an aesthete but also want to be comfortable. I want to be able to go to an embassy dinner and be able to wear the same clothes crossing a jungle. Thick beige cotton chinos (think: vintage folded Men’s Ralph Lauren) with a good cut and midnight velvet trousers, linen or a silk shirts mostly always make my list. As do Venetian slippers and hiking boots and…good socks! I love Falke Socks, but also love very silly socks with funny motifs on them. When I met my husband, he was wearing Christmas socks (it was NOT Christmas but spring) I thought that was really funny and cool. I think socks say a lot about people. I despise ankle socks, I find them the opposite of utilitarian, they make no sense to me, and are ugly too.

• I have been gifted a great amount of beautiful clothes from my time when I was working with the luxury fashion houses. But in the end I always loved most to create the clothes which I really wanted myself, which I did sometimes in collaboration with brands and sometimes with factories which I know from my fashion days. Think thick men’s cashmere jumpers that hold up for years, and are a must on a cold flight.

  Whenever I go to Venice I buy several Venetian slippers at the airport. They used to be so inexpensive - I don’t like the fact that they’ve been made into these brands, because essentially they are a piece (the sole) of old bicycle tire rubber (with a velvet top), so the gondolieri won’t slip on when navigating the canals on their boats, it was mostly utilitarian.

  

Which are your last three saved images on Instagram?

• An image of The Ravine Guest House with its reflective pool in Toronto, Canada from 2004: I absolutely love this house.

• An image of the reading list of the Financial Time Chief of Foreign Affairs: I always save other peoples’ reading lists, it’s my way of discovering books.

• A lot of images of show jumping and eventing horses that I find beautiful or that are for sale. One day, I would love to have a horse again - I grew up with horses, and sometimes would exercise three horses before starting my day. For me it was and is the perfect balance to my work. Working with horses is very grounding, the opposite of anything superficial and you forget about everything - you have to be completely in the moment to bond with the horse.

  

  Thank you so much Nadine, this was very inspiring <3

I hope you had a lovely Christmas time and a great entrée into 2026! I am excited to share with you in this newsletter some of the iconic spots we visited in Switzerland over the holidays and on our journey back. Plus: I have a fantastic feature for you with the owner of the beautiful Sathutu restaurant, Lisa Baladurage on travel inspiration and a travel guide on the Himalayas and Bhutan. Get your Google maps saved places list ready - there will be a lot of intel to take note of! This somehow became a longer one, so take your time friends :)

We spontaneously decided to travel to Interlaken in Switzerland with a group of close friends which was really fantastic. I had no expectations, was just looking forward to spending a good time with our friends - it was great in the end <3

As I have written before, my goal since last year is to make every journey also a worthwhile destination, stopping overnight in great hotels, visiting interesting museum shows, making sure to find an iconic lunch spot on the way. I have made big lists on Instagram and Google of beautiful hotels and restaurants in between Berlin and Austria, Italy and Switzerland which are our current main travel routes.

For us it works best if day one is the big travel day, so that on day two, ideally we only have a maximum of five hours of driving left. This time we stopped in Baden-Baden on the way to Interlaken - we stayed in a quite an oldschool hotel called Belle Epoque for the experience - it was definitely quite particular in a fun way. We decided to go to a very normcore Italian restaurant called Ristorante Stromboli - sometimes I like going to places like that too.

We also stopped at Brenners Hotel & SPA as we were curious to see how it looked post-renovation - unfortunately it was fully booked for breakfast, so we skipped this visit to another time.

An Exhibition: Zentrum Paul Klee

On the way to Interlaken we stopped in Bern at the Zentrum Paul Klee with an exhibition of the incredible textile works of Anni Albers - made me want to look into wall carpets for our flat. If you pass by, you should definitively visit! The city of Bern is supposed to be very beautiful too, we will come back next time.

A Great Hotel: Karl August in Nuremberg

On the way back from our holiday we stopped off in Nuremberg where we had a fantastic stay at the boutique and design hotel Karl August: Before our trip I had asked for recommendations for hotels in the area and about 25 people recommended this hotel - after our stay it is pretty clear why! The hotel is beautifully designed, is very central located at Augustinerhof. Loved the cosy lobby where they had quite a few artworks of the artist Olaf Metzel, very good chairs, tables and a great fireplace.

I loved all the Retterspitz products in the bathrooms, I was pretty upset that as it was Sunday I couldn’t go to the Retterspitz flagship store next door…Next time!

The hotel also offers a spa area with a sauna and pool - is there anything better than plunging in the pool and sauna after a long drive?

Karl August also has an attached, fantastic restaurant called Brasserie Nitz - so close that you could potentially leave your kid in the room with a baby phone. The vibe was fantastic and the food was stand-out. I had three non-alcoholic cocktails, and they were all great which is an experience I make rarely…My favorite was the non-alcoholic Paloma <3

The hotel has a video-surveilled parking garage which is great when you are passing with a fully packed car. We now always work with a mini weekender for the stop over with all things to take into the hotel and leave the rest in the car. You can pick up great coffee, matcha, fresh sandwiches and croissants from the attached Café Pique Nique before you continue your journey. So it had really everything!

While you are in Nuremberg, you should not miss the Grand Hotel Martin Parr exhibition at the Neues Museum Nürnberg - so good. I couldn’t believe that this coincided with our stay, I am a longtime fan of Parrs work <3

The design part is great too and Gerhard Richter on display not to miss either!

Another Great Hotel: Scheidegg Hotel Bellevue des Alps

Another hotel which we visited and which needs a mention here is the iconic Scheidegg Hotel Bellevue des Alps. A dream! The hotel is one of the few remaining grand hotels from the 19th century - located at the foot of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau, the hotel lies at an altitude of 2,070 meters amid breathtaking alpine scenery above Grindelwald and Wengen.

You can arrive by gondola, foot or this beautiful train - we did the latter for an incredible price of 60 franks return, Switzerland never dissappoints with the prices :)

The hotel is still run today as a family business with a strong sense of tradition, attached to the hotel is a daytime restaurant with great food - we would come back again anytime, would love to see this great place in summer!

A good Series: Goodbye June on Netflix

We watched this beautiful film this week, directed by Kate Winslet, with a star-studded cast: Helen Mirren, Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough und Timothy Spall as well as Kate Winslet herself. The film is a Christmas‑set family drama about four adult siblings who reunite in hospital as their mother June is dying of cancer, and forcing them to confront old wounds, grief, and love. Over the course of her final weeks, June guides her fractured family toward reconciliation while they try to give her one last joyful Christmas together, even though she is unlikely to live to see the actual holiday.​ I cried for half the film!

That was it from me - let’s get to today’s very inspiring feature with Lisa Baladurage, who is the founder of Sathutu, one of the great restaurant in Berlin. Lisa and I met when we were in the beginning of our Twenties: I shared a flat with her brother in London when I worked for the fashion PR Karla Otto - we met again, almost twenty years later, at the event of The Feeling of Berlin as she was also featured as one of the Berlin personalities. I saw her recent incredible trip to Bhutan and Himalaya on Instagram, and hence asked her to share her experience for HOTEL AMORE which she said yes to: Handing over!

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HOTEL AMORE Travel Guide: Bhutan & The Himalaya

(got inspired from Alma Buddecke for this format <3)

Name: Lisa Baladurage

Occupation: Restaurateur at the restaurant Sathutu

Location: Berlin

Hi, I am Lisa, and I run a restaurant in Berlin called Sathutu. Cooking and hospitality have been part of my life since I was little - my father has run a hotel and restaurant in Sri Lanka for as long as I can remember.

Because of that, this path felt natural rather than planned. I grew up seeing how much food can do - how it can make people feel comfortable, connected, and cared for. That stayed with me. Sathutu is a direct reflection of those experiences.

The name “Sathutu” means “joy,” and that idea shapes everything we do. I founded it inspired by the kind of hospitality I know from Sri Lanka - food that’s meant to be shared, eaten together, and treated as something meaningful rather than transactional. The food is rooted in Sri Lankan cuisine, but it’s not traditional in a strict sense. I’m more interested in reinterpretation than replication.

We work with familiar flavors and spices, but translate them into a contemporary context through seasonality, collaboration, and a modern approach to presentation. Some dishes feel nostalgic, others are meant to introduce Sri Lankan flavors in a way that feels accessible and a bit unexpected. What’s become especially important to me is that Sathutu isn’t shaped by just one voice. Our team comes from many different backgrounds, and that naturally influences how the food and the space evolve. The restaurant is never static - it reflects the world we live in today: layered, mixed, and always changing.

Looking ahead, I want to keep working this way. I’d love to do more events, collaborate with chefs from different countries, and combine my work more closely with travel. Visiting other kitchens, learning how they operate, and exchanging knowledge is something I value a lot. For me, growth means staying curious - learning from others and letting those experiences shape my own work. At the end of the day, my goal is simple: to create food and spaces that feel honest, generous, and memorable - and to keep evolving without losing the sense of joy that started it all.

How do you travel?

I like to see a lot when I travel, but not necessarily the obvious tourist spots. I’m much more interested in the everyday side of a place - its atmosphere, rhythm, and small details. I usually plan my trips around recommendations from friends, locals, and my own research.

For me, the planning already brings a lot of joy and energy. Researching beforehand, collecting tips, and finding little gems is part of the experience. At the same time, I always leave space for spontaneity. I don’t like over-scheduling my days. Slowing down, walking without a plan, or allowing for lazy days where nothing is planned at all is just as important to me as discovering new places. Often those unplanned moments are the ones that stay with me the longest. I travel in a way that allows me to really feel a place rather than consume it. Whether it’s sitting somewhere for hours, observing daily life, or returning to the same spot more than once, I prefer depth over quantity. Travel, for me, is about inspiration, curiosity, and coming home with a sense of having truly been somewhere, not just passed through it.

How do you research?

I usually find places through personal recommendations - from local friends or people I trust who have been there before. On top of that, I like doing my own research online and tend to return to a few platforms I really trust. One of them is urlaubsarchitektur.de.

What I appreciate most is how rigorously curated it is, the focus is on architecturally thoughtful places, often independent, often rooted in their surroundings, and never generic. It’s not about luxury for luxury’s sake, but about atmosphere, proportion, materials, and how a place makes you feel once you’re actually there. The selection feels consistent and carefully edited, and I’ve never been disappointed by a stay I found through them - which says a lot.

I also really enjoy Roadbook for similar reasons. It feels personal and well-edited, very experience-driven, with a strong eye for places that have soul rather than just visual appeal. I also have places tied to childhood memories that I keep coming back to. Returning to those places feels grounding and familiar, and they still inspire me in a different way than something completely new.

And if I really want to spoil myself, I choose Aman. It’s one of the few hotel brands where I know it will always deliver. Everything feels thought through - from the welcome and architecture to the service, food, and connection to the local culture. You arrive knowing that you’re in good hands and that the experience will be calm, considered, and special. That level of consistency and care is something I really admire.

Which are your favorite places in the world to travel to?

I’m most drawn to places where culture, food, and nature come together in an honest way, and where daily life is clearly shaped by landscape and tradition.

Sri Lanka holds a special place for me, not just as a destination but as my second homeland. Its cuisine has shaped my palate from an early age - bold spices, layered flavors, and a careful balance of heat, acidity, and freshness. Beyond the food, Sri Lanka is an incredibly diverse and beautiful country, both in its landscapes and in its atmosphere. Within a short distance, you move from long, palm-lined beaches to rolling tea plantations, national parks, and dense jungle. The island feels compact, yet constantly changing, which makes traveling through it especially rewarding.

The coastline is one of its strongest features - wide, long beaches, warm water, dramatic sunsets, and a relaxed rhythm that immediately puts you at ease. Whether it’s the south coast, the east, or the quieter stretches further north, the ocean is always present and shapes daily life in a very natural way. What really sets Sri Lanka apart are the people. There’s an openness and friendliness that feels very natural and unforced. It’s this combination of varied landscapes, beautiful beaches, rich culture, and human warmth that makes Sri Lanka such a special place to visit.

The Swiss mountains of Graubünden carry a very personal meaning for me. They offer a sense of clarity and proportion - a reminder of what truly matters. I associate this region with childhood holidays spent with my grandmother, long days outdoors, and a slower, more deliberate pace of life. Long hikes, fresh mountain air, and simple, honest food create a quiet kind of richness. There is humility and authenticity in how people live and work there, and that restraint - doing less, but doing it well - is something I find deeply inspiring.

For rest and a different kind of inspiration, I am especially drawn to the South of France. The appeal lies in its light, landscape, and understated elegance. Food there feels intuitive rather than elaborate, rooted in quality ingredients and time spent at the table. Design and architecture blend naturally into the surroundings, and long, unhurried meals become part of everyday life rather than an occasion. It is a place that values ease, balance, and pleasure without excess - a mindset that feels both restorative and creatively stimulating. Together, these places shape how I see food, travel, and hospitality: grounded in culture, respectful of nature, and centered around shared moments.

Which places in the world are your favorite places to eat and why?

My favorite places to eat closely reflect the places I love to travel to, as food and food culture are central to how I experience a destination. I am drawn to places where cuisine is deeply connected to culture, seasonality, and everyday life rather than trends or show.

Sri Lanka stands out for its bold, layered flavors and its instinctive generosity around food.

A place that captures this particularly well is Smoke & Bitters, located on the beachfront in the south of Sri Lanka. The restaurant is shaped by fire, smoke, and fermentation, creating depth and balance while staying rooted in local produce and techniques. Sitting directly by the ocean, watching the sun set while sharing food, the experience reflects everything I associate with Sri Lankan hospitality — relaxed, generous, and deeply connected to place. In France, particularly in the south, eating is inseparable from daily life. Local markets, seasonal produce, and a respect for simplicity define the cuisine.

Places like Le Canon in Nice express this perfectly — unpretentious, ingredient-driven, and relaxed, with a very thoughtfully curated wine list. The menu changes constantly, so every visit feels new, yet the dishes are always recognisably Le Canon. It’s the kind of place where good food and good wine are naturally embedded in the rhythm of the day.

One of my favorite places to eat in the world is La Colombe d’Or in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. It’s a restaurant, but also a beautiful hotel, and the two really belong together. The garden is what makes it so special — long tables under the trees, often filled with French families celebrating, talking, and spending hours together. The food is traditional French cuisine: classic, straightforward, and without any need to be modern. You don’t go there for surprises, but for a certain feeling. The art, the history of the place, and the simple design are always present, but never loud.

Artists like Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, and Léger stayed there regularly, often paying for food and rooms with their art. The walls filled up over time, not as a planned collection, but simply because life happened there. It was always a place to eat, drink, celebrate, and sleep, not a museum or a concept. That feeling is still very present today.

In the Swiss Alpine regions, food feels deeply comforting and grounding, shaped by the landscape and a strong sense of place. At Palazzo Salis in Soglio, the setting is inseparable from the experience — whether sitting in the garden with views of the surrounding mountains or inside the historic room by the open fireplace. The cooking is pure comfort food, made with exceptional local and seasonal produce. Nothing feels complicated or overworked, yet the quality is unmistakable. It’s exactly the kind of food you want after a long hike or a day on skis — warming, nourishing, and deeply satisfying. Soul food in the truest sense, rooted in the region and prepared with care and confidence.

Who do you follow on Instagram?

WSAnyc inspires me because it’s not an influencer account in the classic sense. It doesn’t revolve around individuals, products, or self-promotion, but around a shared ecosystem of arts, culture, food, work, and community in New York City. The project is built around a single high-rise tower, conceived as a kind of vertical neighborhood.

Within one building, cafés, restaurants, workspaces, studios, events, and cultural gatherings coexist and overlap. The idea isn’t to separate work, leisure, and culture, but to let them inform each other naturally throughout the day. What I find especially strong is how intentional everything is - from the interior design to the programming. The spaces are beautifully designed, but never decorative for the sake of it. There’s a timeless restraint to the architecture and interiors, which allows the people, conversations, and activities to take center stage. The account documents this everyday life inside the building: shared meals, talks, exhibitions, informal encounters, and collaborations.

@lailacooks inspires me because she approaches food as a form of expression rather than something purely functional. Her work sits between cooking, art, and design, turning everyday ingredients and shared meals into carefully composed moments. Her eye for composition, table settings, and storytelling around food is intuitive and human, and it’s a constant reminder of how food, when handled with care and creativity, can bring people together.

@giz.akdag I find giz.akdag inspiring because her work is highly considered across image, composition, and sound. The visuals are bold and surreal, but never chaotic - there is clear control in color, light, and framing. Many images read almost like cinematic stills from a constructed world rather than spontaneous snapshots. What stands out is how consistently the music supports the imagery. Sound deepens the atmosphere instead of competing with it, creating an immersive experience where image and music are inseparable. Her feed remains cohesive without becoming repetitive. It moves between nature, architecture, fashion, and human presence, yet everything is tied together through a distinct visual language and rhythm. That clarity of vision, and the discipline to maintain it across different subjects, is what I find most inspiring.

Three last saved posts?

@tadantadantadan - for thoughtful interior design inspiration

@weareona - for culinary experiences and inspiration

@tuba.club - a place I’d love to visit next

Let’s get to your travel guide to the Himalayas and Bhutan <3 Can you share more how the idea came about to travel there?

The idea for this trip came from a deep need to pause and share something meaningful together as a family. We gifted this journey to my mother for her 70th birthday, wanting to create an experience that felt thoughtful, grounding, and truly memorable. The Himalayas - and Bhutan in particular - felt like the right place for that. The landscape, the altitude, and the strong presence of Buddhism shape a way of life that naturally invites stillness, reflection, and perspective, which deeply fascinated us.

The trip was intentionally slow. We spent our days hiking through nature, visiting monasteries, and learning more about Buddhist traditions. Mornings were calm, meals were simple and nourishing, and the focus was less on seeing everything and more on being present together. This kind of journey is ideal for people who value depth over pace, who enjoy nature, and who are curious about different ways of living and thinking. It’s perfect for those seeking perspective and meaningful shared experiences. It’s probably not the right choice for travelers looking for nightlife, or constant stimulation. But if you’re happy to slow down, spend time in nature, and really share the experience with the people you’re traveling with, it can be very special.

What should one know about the country?

Bhutan is a small Himalayan kingdom known for its strong Buddhist roots, dramatic mountain landscapes, and a deep respect for tradition and nature. The country follows a unique philosophy that prioritizes Gross National Happiness over economic growth, shaping daily life, politics, and culture in a very tangible way. Buddhism is present everywhere - in monasteries, prayer flags, rituals, and the quiet rhythm of everyday life - and strongly influences values such as mindfulness, humility, compassion, and balance.

What stands out immediately is the level of respect with which people treat nature, one another, and animals. Care for the environment feels deeply ingrained rather than performative. Bhutan is one of the few CO₂-negative countries in the world, and this commitment is visible in how landscapes are protected, how waste is handled, and how development is approached with restraint.

Tourism is intentionally regulated to preserve culture and the environment, resulting in fewer visitors and a slower, more meaningful travel experience. It’s refreshing to experience this, as it has become increasingly rare to travel somewhere and not feel like one of millions. Life moves at a different pace: meals are nourishing but simple, nature is ever-present, and there is a strong sense of community and responsibility toward the land.

Many visitors find themselves unexpectedly and deeply inspired by the way people live - by their relationship to time, to work, to spirituality, and to one another. There is a quiet dignity in daily life, reflected in the vivid colors of traditional robes, the serenity of temples, and the country’s almost untouched inner landscapes, rich with forests, wild flora, and open valleys. It is easy to fall in love with this way of living, where presence and care seem to matter more than speed or status. One surprisingly powerful aspect is the absence of advertising. There are no billboards, no visual noise competing for attention. Only once you experience this do you realize how exhausting constant advertising really is - and how much calmer and clearer everything feels without it.

Bhutan encourages reflection, perspective, and a deeper connection to what truly matters, simply by how it chooses to exist.

What should a traveller consider when planning a trip to a place like Bhutan?

Planning a trip to Bhutan requires a bit more structure than most destinations, but that’s also part of what makes it special.

You usually reach Bhutan via a flight into Paro, the country’s only international airport, with connections through places like Dubai, Doha, or Delhi. Flights are limited and should be booked well in advance, and weather can occasionally affect schedules, so it’s wise to allow generous time between connecting flights.

Travel in Bhutan has to be arranged through a licensed local operator. A visa is required, and visitors pay a daily Sustainable Development Fee, which supports conservation, education, and infrastructure. Independent travel in the classic sense isn’t possible, but itineraries can be very personal and well tailored.

Altitude plays an important role in how you experience the country. Many valleys, including Paro and Thimphu, already sit well above sea level, which you notice especially in the first days. It naturally slows your pace and makes it important to plan a bit time to adjust.

The best times to visit are spring and autumn, when the weather is mild and visibility is good. Temperatures vary significantly depending on altitude, with warm days and cool evenings in the valleys, and much colder conditions in higher regions — especially at night.

Accommodation ranges from simple local lodges to very high-end options like Aman or Six Senses.

Where you stay makes a noticeable difference to the experience, as comfort levels can vary quite a lot. Travel between regions is mostly by car with a driver and guide, and journeys take time — distances may look short, but the roads are slow and scenic. I would plan at least a week, ideally closer to ten days, to avoid rushing and to adjust to the altitude. Bhutan is not a place to move quickly through; it rewards time and patience.

In terms of cost, Bhutan is not an inexpensive destination. Even a relatively simple trip adds up, mainly due to the daily fee and guided travel structure.

What were your Travel Highlights in Bhutan?

The first impression of Bhutan starts with landing in Paro. The airport is small and quiet, surrounded by mountains that sit very close to the runway. Everything is orderly and calm, without the usual rush or noise. It becomes clear quite quickly that things simply move differently here.

The drive to our lodge in Paro Valley continues that feeling. The road winds through hills covered in mist, and the altitude naturally slows you down a little. Sitting above the valley and surrounded by trees and open space, it’s simple and peaceful, and the quiet feels so natural - a place where you settle in easily.

What I loved most about our lodge is how understated everything is. The architecture is calm and traditional, clearly rooted in local building traditions and respectful of the surroundings. Nothing feels over designed, yet everything is extremely comfortable and warm. Built with local materials and drawing subtle references from dzongs and monasteries, the focus always remains on the landscape, while the interiors feel inviting and lived in.

The next morning starts with yoga. The light comes in slowly, the mountains still partly hidden, and practicing at this height makes you more aware of your breath and body. It’s a gentle way to arrive.

Later that day, we hike up to Tiger’s Nest together as a family. The path climbs steadily through pine forest, with prayer flags marking the way. It’s a demanding walk at times, but it’s done at an even pace, with pauses, conversations, and encouragement. Reaching the monastery doesn’t feel like checking off a sight, but rather like sharing a moment - being there together, taking in the view, and understanding why this place matters to so many people.

Back in Paro, we gathered for a family-style dinner outside by an open fire. Wrapped in blankets and heavy jackets, we sat together in the cold mountain air, sharing a Bhutanese curry feast served in small pots. The food was warming and nourishing, often spicy but carefully balanced. My favorite dish was ema datshi, the traditional chili and cheese curry, along with their dumplings - simple, comforting, and exactly right after a long day.

There were also quieter rituals woven into daily life: sound healing, tea ceremonies, a cold plunge filled with fresh Himalayan water, and one of the most calming spas I’ve experienced. None of it is excessive or staged - it was simply there, ready to be used or ignored.

From the moment we arrive, Bhutan unfolds quietly. Nothing feels overwhelming or attention-seeking. It simply gives you the space to slow down, notice your surroundings, and experience it together. For this trip, Aman felt like the right way to experience Bhutan, especially within a relatively short six-day timeframe.

We visited three of the five lodges - Paro, Thimphu, and Punakha - and moving between them made the journey feel surprisingly complete. Each sits in a very different setting, and you notice the change immediately as you travel through the country. Altitude, temperature, and landscape shift constantly, offering a new perspective each time. What stood out was how flexible the experience was. Days could be shaped around what we needed - sometimes more active, sometimes slower and quieter.

Long hikes and full days out were balanced with afternoons that had no plans at all. That rhythm never felt forced; it unfolded naturally. Punakha brought an immediate shift in atmosphere. It was warmer, greener, and more open, and after the cold evenings in Paro, we suddenly found ourselves hiking in T-shirts and sitting by the pool. The landscape softens here, with rice fields, rivers, and wide valleys that invite a different kind of slowing down.

Aman Punakha feels deeply rooted. Centered around an old main house with real history, it carries a sense of depth and continuity. It doesn’t feel like a hotel placed into the landscape, but like something that has always belonged there. The lodge has its own farm, run by locals, and much of the food comes directly from it - a connection you notice in every meal.

Days in Punakha unfolded easily. Gentle valley walks, crossing the suspension bridge, time by the river, and long hours at the lodge blended together without any pressure to do more. One morning, we hiked up to a small temple and had breakfast afterwards with a surreal view back onto it - quiet, simple, and incredibly special. Being outside felt just as important as being inside.

Then there is Punakha Dzong. Sitting at the meeting point of two rivers, its scale and presence are overwhelming. Walking through its courtyards and halls felt almost unreal - powerful and calm at the same time. It leaves a strong impression, not through excess, but through clarity and presence.

Punakha stays with you quietly. It’s less dramatic than Paro, but deeply grounding and memorable.

Thimpu, by contrast, is more urban and offers a clearer sense of everyday life in Bhutan today. Ministries, schools, small shops, cafés, and monasteries sit close together, and you see how people live and work on a daily basis. Traditional dress is part of everyday life, not reserved for special occasions, and modern influences are present without taking over.

Visiting monasteries, town centers, and public spaces helped put everything into context - how tradition and contemporary life exist side by side. We also spent time with local designers who work with traditional Bhutanese clothing and textile techniques, translating them into a more modern language. Seeing that craftsmanship up close made it clear how much care and knowledge sit behind these pieces, and how cultural heritage continues to evolve rather than stand still.

Thank you so much Lisa for this incredible guide to the Himalaya and Bhutan, so inspiring! See you soon at your restaurant I hope.

Love,

LKD

I hope you are doing great and can hopefully enjoy the holidays.

December 26th marked the two-year-anniversary of HOTEL AMORE INC with 93 published newsletters including this one up to today. I want to use this occasion to thank you for reading all my letters which means a lot! Sharing my inspiration has always been and in this shape has now become one of my biggest joys for which I somehow always find time no matter how busy life gets. This newsletter has become my place where I can put all the inspiration I find in the corners of the internet and the real world which I want others to know about too, share features with interesting people (doing that has become the best reason to reach out to anyone in the world who I think has a special point of view), sharing research on nerdy topics that my readers care about as much as I do and it’s a place I love to be at. THANK YOU!

Together with the big summer holidays in August, Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Nobody writes emails, everyone is off work and hopefully can enjoy time with family & friends, spending days doing nothing, just eat, exist and hangout, watch films and let the days go by without knowing which day of the week it is. With a small baby you will kinda still have to get up early, but we also go to bed early, so sometimes it feels like sleeping in because we went to bed at 9pm. Major life hack - except of the night wakes, those def don’t feel like sleeping in haha.

I am working on an exciting travel feature by a very interesting restaurateur on Bhutan and Himalaya which is coming in January - I cannot wait to share it with you!

In the meantime I thought I’d send off a quick newsletter in between the holidays because I would love to share with you a great hotel resort & spa I stayed in over Christmas.

Die Bleiche, Spreewald

We spent four nights before and after Christmas in the beautiful spa-resort hotel called Die Bleiche, which is 1.5 hours by car from Berlin. I was initially a bit hesitant, as some of my friends had mentioned over the years that the staff is a tad unfriendly and that the place feels a bit old-fashioned. Having spent four nights there now, I have to disagree: we had a great time, and most of the staff was exceptional.

Nothing I love more than staying more than a couple of days in a resort spa hotel, having breakfast, lunch and dinner in a closed space always with the same group of different people of different generations, families, lovers, married people, making up stories, analysing everyone’s relationship, observing other family dynamics from the sauna to the festive Christmas dinner. Why are they not sitting next to each other, is he the boyfriend or the brother? Did they have a fight. Do you think they just met or have a longtime affair. Is he famous or just tries to look it? What is their family constellation - who is who? Very Sorrentino Youth vibes which is my absolute favorite film! Trailer below - if you haven’t watched it, please do. I have watched this film over seven times and I won’t get sick of it.

The Bleiche has just recently been ranked as one of the 300 best hotels in 2025 (here is the list - it’s a good list to have on hand to source good hotels, we will make sure to visit some more such as the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne which won with 97,6 points overall). Bleiche has amazing suites but also generous double and single rooms. We had a cosy double room which were really spacious and great, but I am very keen on the suites with en-suite saunas - image below!

The hotel is pretty big and it never felt crowded, there was always space in the different areas around the fireplace room, the pool. I also loved that we didn’t feel like “intruders” as we brought our baby and it wasn’t a family-focused hotel - everyone was really lovely and the waiters even prepared him scrambled eggs in his own little bowl at breakfast.

Our stay had breakfast, lunch and dinner included, and there are about four different restaurants so you don’t get bored. For lunch you can head to the spa area for a daily soup, bread rolls, and cake, with a great view to the outside garden. We also took a canal boat ride which was a nice and a kind of pensioner-type activity (the other participants were all pensioners lol) - but we enjoyed it :)

The hotel offered five-course dinners every day: Personally I do prefer á la carte - but not complaining here, food was generally really good. The hotel also has a famous cheese and a sausage room which you can visit during breakfast and dinner, which we obviously did every time.

I loved the stay at this hotel and would like to come back in summer! They even have childcare for kids over four years old during the day.

Another, New Hotel: Chesa Marchetta, Sils Maria

Another hotel I would love to visit is a new hotel owned by the contemporary art gallery Hauser & Wirth in Sils Maria. The hotel only has thirteen rooms and a small restaurant which is already open for dinner reservations - the hotel will open on January, 2nd. Each of the bedrooms has been designed by architect Luis Laplace, furnished with traditional Engadin furniture and artwork by local artists and artisans. It looks incredibly cosy, and Sils Maria is also an beautiful destination, so very worth to go!

Tomorrow we will drive to Interlaken, Switzerland where we will spend New Years and the days around with some of our very good friends. It’s a long car ride for just three days but we think it’s going to be really nice, so it will be very worth it. I want to adapt this mindset even more in 2026, not thinking in how much effort something costs me, but how great the experience will be. I feel some people, especially when having kids become people who are scared of any effort - mostly in regards to traveling - and they then miss out on shared experiences with friends which might not have been as complicated as they seem. Our approach to the 11 hour car journey is to make the journey the destination, spending nights in nice hotels to split the drive into half. This time we are stopping in Baden-Baden when we are driving to Switzerland and on the way back, we will stay a night in Nuremberg. I will report back, I don’t really know anything about either city. We would love to pay a visit to Brenners Park-Hotel and SPA in Baden-Baden, I hope to stay here next time to see what the hotel looks like after the renovations. Please dm me if you have any secret intel on either city that could be worth checking out! Sadly the museum Frieder-Burda in Baden-Baden is closed…

A Jewelry Brand: AGLAGLA, Geneva

I stumbled across the beautiful glassware brand AGLAGLA from Geneva - I LOVE the colorful necklaces, bracelets and earrings! The brand was founded by artist & jewelry maker Lyla Marsol and stylist & creative director Anouck Mutsaerts. They handcraft their creations working with a curated selection of vintage, and contemporary glass beads. I will get a necklace I think, but I already know it will so hard to make a decision which piece to go for?

That was it from me in 2025 <3 I am looking forward to sharing the Bhutan feature with you soon, as well as the intel of a bespoke travel designer on how to travel well!

Have a great start into the new year <3

Love,

LKD

I hope you are doing well. For the first time in my life I purchased a Christmas tree, and wow, it makes me happy! Something about adapting this tradition from what it means to you into your own family makes this process so beautiful and wholesome. Having a kid for sure pushes the desire to have a proper tree, but I realise I should have gotten a tree also pre-kids era! It’s so great!

I had rather little sleep this week (teething…IYKYK), but I also got spoiled by natural cosmetics brand Team Dr. Joseph with a treatment in a spa. I cannot explain how incredible it felt to lie down without interruptions for 1.5 hours (!!!) and not only that, also getting a facial and massage with the products from Team Dr. Joseph. Really enjoying this brand - I have the advent calendar and every day I am opening the door to a new great product that I can use.

I thought again last week of one of my fav art works by the artist Mika Rottenberg called “Cheese” inspired by a story of the as called “Seven Sutherland Sisters”. The sisters lived in the early 1900s and were known for a commercially very successful hair tonic brand called “Hair Fertilizer”. With their extremely long hair they advertised for the product which made them become millionaires. They advertised the products by shaking their hair around the world. So fun and really inspiring to become a springboard for a big idea! Waiting for the right thing to come along.

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The amazing photographer Martin Parr passed this week which is very sad. He was one of my favorite photographers, we once visited his studio in Brighton, where we missed meeting him by an hour - but at least we got a signed copy of one of his photography table books <3

Do you know this website iconichouses.org? The website could look better design-wise, but in terms of content it is great: Over 200 iconic houses all over the world which you can visit. So good!

I would love to introduce Alma to you today! I met Alma many years ago through our common friend Lydia, then we saw each other every now and then in Paris where Alma is based now. She started her Substack this year, and I love her writing - it’s very sarcastic, witty and smart and saw how amazing her LA trip looked - so I asked her to be part of the HOTEL AMORE INC world which she said yes to.

In her main profession Alma works as a screenwriter and director. You can watch her work on the series Pauline, now streaming on Disney+. Alma says, if you’re up if you’re up for some German supernatural coming-of-age vibes, then this is for you!

Thanks for having me. I’m Alma. I live in Paris, and I write and direct for the screen. I’m 29 now, and this past year will go down in my personal history as the year I discovered traveling by myself. Not traveling for work — but actual tra-ve-ling. Going to new places all by myself, just to explore and yolo.

Somehow I managed to avoid this my entire life, and it took a rough breakup for me to discover: I’m fine spending a lot of time by myself for days and even weeks; I can drive a big car in a foreign country; and I won’t cringe sitting in a restaurant, eating dinner alone. In fact — I love all of it.

Is it giving major Eat Pray Love vibes? One hundred percent. Cliché maxxing. Guilty as charged. I couldn’t recommend it more. It was a dream — and it was necessary. I’m so lucky I had the freedom to do it.

This summer I also started writing on Substack. I mostly talk to lovely people — like Amy Francombe from Vogue Business and creator Michelle Li — about how they make business.

Sometimes I share my own fun adventures, like realizing my economic dependency after getting cheated on (the reason I started the Substack), or visiting my 91-year-old email friend — the reason for my two LA trips this year: the first one in summer, to meet him. The second one in fall, to say goodbye at his memorial. It’s one of my most precious stories and the source of some of my favorite weeks this year — maybe ever. LA girl unlocked. Tbc.

Alma’s LA Guide:

Best breakfast places

Gjusta, Venice:
It has a really chill courtyard where you can eat outside and also get some work done in the morning. Seasonal food, perfect for breakfast or lunch. I love me a granola bowl.

Farmers Market, Brentwood:
Great for breakfast produce shopping, or grabbing a little pastry and coffee. I could stroll around there forever. It feels like the whole neighborhood shows up — friends bumping into each other, chatting—you can really cosplay LA life for a minute.

All Time, Los Feliz:
There can be a line, but at least they gave us free rosé while we waited. Also, there’s a cute little ceramics and book shop attached if you get bored waiting.

Best lunch spots

Beverly Glen Deli, Beverly Hills:
The drive up to Beverly Hills is already dreamy. The food is not for foodies, but I’m not a foodie, so I don’t mind. I just loved the crowd there. Especially the Beverly Hills ladies above 60 who lunch together, gossip, talk business and seem to have a great life. Obsessed.

The Oaks Gourmet Market & Cafe:
Sweet for a quick smoothie or easy lunch. Also it’s a cute neighborhood market.

Best dinner spots

Pace, Laurel Canyon:
I love it for the coziness. If I lived in LA, I’d go there every Sunday for dinner. It’s an Italian place tucked away in the Canyon, and feels very romantic and cozy. I asked the waiter what music they had on and it was this song by Labi Siffre. Cuuute.

Musso & Frank Grill, Hollywood:
While I was in LA, I read Eve Babitz’s Slow Days, Fast Company and found out she used to go there all the time. So naturally, I’m gonna have my Bloody Mary where Eve Babitz had her Bloody Mary.

Bars

We go classic on this one: Sunset Tower and Chateau Marmont.

It’s a vibe– the rumors are true. Let me continue my Eve Babitz coded LA fantasy.

Art

I went to Pace Gallery and David Zwirner. Next time I really want to go to LACMA.

Architecture

I loooved the Schindler House: Rudolph Schindler and his wife Pauline built this house in the 1920s as a communal living space. They constantly had many guests going in and out, like Richard Neutra. Living concept of dreams imo.

Next time I’m back in LA, I also want to check out the Eames House, the Hollyhock House, and the Philosophical Research Society, which my friend Gila recommended.

Cultural Places!

• Go see a movie, eg. at the Aero Theatre. I love going to the cinema when I visit a city abroad.

• Let me hold your hand when I say this: EREWHON. Yes. When I die they will return my soul to Erewhon. I’ve spent very, very stupid money on snacks there — and I’ll do it again next time.

• Drive Mulholland Drive at night with a good Lynchian playlist, so basically anything by Angelo Badalamenti. (If you want a playlist hand-selected by Badalamenti himself, Balenciaga made him do it.) I got car sick on Mulholland Drive–slightly inconvenient since I was driving by myself–but it was still amazing. You won’t regret it.

  

• Go on a hike and enjoy the view. You spent so much time sitting in a car in LA, I was desperate to walk at some point. And I saw coyotes.

  

  

• Take a trip to Santa Barbara: On my second visit to LA, I fell in love with Santa Barbara. It’s only 2 hours when traffic is bad, so a day trip is possible. Driving the 101 between LA and Santa Babbs with music on during sunset is beyond.

Thank you for this great LA guide, I need to know how you drove when you were carsick and I also want to go to Erewhon and buy stupid snacks!

As I got you here now and you live in Paris - I am sure everyone would be thrilled to also hear your favorites places in town <3

Toraya or Tomo

Japanese tea houses, the sweetest. They have the prettiest Wagashis too.

Localino

Best for a weekend lunch date on Rive Gauche.

Pinault Collection

The curation is always on point, and Tadao Ando is my favorite architect of all time, so I always love being in one of his buildings

Jardin du Luxembourg

Sometimes I watch my friends (or strangers) play tennis there. It’s so cozy, and I go there, when I want to feel like I live in a 2000s romcom — or Gossip Girl. Which is…often.

What else:

Favorite Instagram accounts to follow?

• Werner Herzog is a recent follow — he’s new to ig since August. Idek how to explain his content. You have to see for yourself and lean in.

• Dimepiece: I’m not into watches at all, but I recently got into this account all about watches. Total side quest, but now I know that Zohran Mamdani wears a silver Casio watch… so there’s that.

• People’s finstas

Last three saved images on Instagram?

I barely save anything on ig — usually only posts from my friends’ brands. If I want to remember something I screenshot and then delete it the second I don’t need it anymore. Obsessed with keeping my camera roll very tidy. I save a lot of things on TikTok though :)

• Recently, Addison Rae wore a headband from my friends’ brand Merrma as a blindfold at LAX. Instant save coz iconic.

  

• My friend Alex asks people the same question via ig dm and then posts their answers. Always wakes up my brain mid-doom scroll.

• I saved a video of a woman explaining the Monty Hall math problem on tt — you know, the one about why it’s mathematically always better to switch your door on a game show when the host gives you the option.

  

• My friends’ vintage store Somehau – always at the top of my saves (remark LKD: This shop has been co-founded by Gila Bonakdar - here is her HOTEL AMORE INC feature)

  

• And finally, saved a tt of a parrot getting a flight diaper change. First I thought: wow we are so cooked. I didn’t know such things existed, but then I guess, if it means the parrot gets to fly around the house instead of sitting in a cage… why tf not.

  

  @worldwide.newzThis parrot is cooler than me getting a diaper change. Flight diapers: Genius idea for bird freedom (and clean houses!). #ParrotLife #BirdDiaper #PetHacks #SmartPets

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That was great! Thanks, Alma. See you in Paris!

Love, LKD

I hope you are doing well. Christmas is fast approaching, and my days feel so full at the moment. There seem to be thousand events, I want to write this newsletter, I have work, need to find a new nanny, take care of boring admin and also want to spend quality time with my baby, husband and friends. But I am planning to not work in May and June (or at least not take on board bigger projects in that time), and in order to do that I decided to go into full-speed mode for now.

I found a very nice new winter jacket - I got really into vintage Moncler Grenoble down jackets. I found mine in a vintage shop in Berlin called Yummy Vintage, where you can find a great selection of Italian designer vintage. Down jackets so difficult as here in Berlin everyone has kind of the same North Face jacket and there is a thin line between a cool and a tacky down jacket. If you like the Grenoble route - there are great colors, vanilla, turquoise in the world wide web! Just make sure the jacket is not too vintage as the material sometimes they get thinner and are not as warm anymore.

Humble brag: I was pretty excited to see that my newsletter was ranked globally #2 Rising in Culture on Substack this week - seeing that all the love I am pouring into this is starting to pay off feels pretty great. I also had people come up to me in the street in the last two weeks, telling me they love to read my newsletter. That is nice, so thank you!

On other news…Did you see the new Chanel Métiers d’Art film in New York and the show obviously? SO GOOD!

It was very clear that Blazy was going to create a modern vibe for Chanel, and it’s fun to see how he and the team now unravel all the different activations and expressions for the brand from the show to now the first short film by the iconic French director, Michel Gondry, featuring Margaret Qualley and ASAP Rocky. The way it was directed feels in a typical Gondry way - very fresh, playful, and at the same time aspirational but relatable. For a fashion house to bring in a cult-film Director to direct a short whilst not new (see Prada x Wes Anderson), it felt very special and I’ve been longing to see a collaboration like this for ages now. Important question: How can I get her jacket?!

Milan Intel

We just spent some beautiful days in Milan for a weekend for the community of the premium membership of Super Super Markt and it would feel wrong to not share the new spots we visited here. I love the SSM art travel trips! Rory (my husband) and Julius, his business partner, regularly organise an amazing programme for a weekend in an always different European city focused around visiting galleries, artist studios and smaller, more niche museums which you would only know if you are an art expert - often with a guided tour by the owner or gallery director which makes such a difference to the experience. In the evenings they organise visits to great restaurants and bars, from OG places with only locals, to the hottest new restaurant. We previously took trips to Venice for the Biennale, Vienna as well as Warsaw which were all superb, and I cannot wait for Venice Biennale in 2026 with SSM! If you want more information on the premium membership vs. the classic membership for 75 EUR per year, you can email rory@rorykirkduncan.com. Lucky me to always join in <3

Milan was great again, we had to laugh as our six month old son has already been there three times. Well, good to have him see the hot spots early on - teach them early! Here is the update on Milan intel:

Starting with something exciting which I missed when I was in Milan - this great panettone which Laila Gohar created in collaboration with The Luxury Collection for Casa Brera Hotel! I love Laila’s work and this cake is beautiful.

Accommodation

STRAF Hotel

This time we stayed at the beautiful four star STRAF, which is a member of Design Hotels. It was such a throwback for me, because when I lived in Milan, we often went to Bar STRAF which is next door on Friday evenings to live music…and now I came back, 13 years later. STRAF is really perfectly located in the middle of the city behind the duomo and just 21 minutes (!!!) by train from Linate (!!!) This is the speed and convenience in which I want to arrive from an airport! I will never travel from Bergamo again if possible!

The hotel was designed by Italian architect and artist, Vincenzo de Cotiis who was allowed to use the 18th century historical building as a blank canvas for his ideas - he created an art installation within the 64 rooms, so every room is unique which I love.

STRAF also has a small spa which feels like heaven after a long day in the city pre-dinner which is great (well - if you don’t have a baby, lol) with a steam room, a sauna, a small pool and a relaxation area.

I am usually very critical with Italian breakfast, as mostly it’s more sweet things like small cakes, brioche croissants and a general cookie vibe rather than muesli and healthy stuff - after all, I am a very German breakfast eater, but the breakfast at Straf is great, you can also press fresh juices which I love. Also everyone was incredibly sweet about Cassius, he even got a stuffed bear from STRAF with his name stitched on the bear’s jacket which was very cute of them.

Art

Milan has so much to offer in terms of art, it’s a fantastic place to explore. From museums like the Pinacoteca di Brera, Fondazione Prada to galleries both established to emerging, there is a lot to see!

Fondazione Prada

I won’t explain Fondazione Prada to you as it is so famous anyways and you probably know it already. I love the building though and Bar Luce, designed by Wes Anderson, is always beautiful to visit. This time we had a guided tour which made for a better experience after having visited several times before unguided. One of the current temporary exhibitions was by the artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss which I had already seen at Pinault in Paris - I love love love this body of work, it’s playful, humorous and is just one of those exhibitions that stays with you, one you don’t forget.

As I have been so many times to this location, it’s really interesting to see how the area has developed and is developing over the years. Milan is a tiny city, and it really looks like the surrounding land outside of the Fondazione will become a design village with all the major houses opening retail outlets there. These outskirts are also being developed into more accomodation after the Winter Olympics take place in-part in Milan next year. When we were at the Fondazione, Miuccia was there too as were told by our guide, but sadly we missed her in the restaurant! God Bless Miuccia.

Giorgio Armani, Milano, per amore at Pinacoteca Brera

At the celebration of fifty years of creativity, the famous Pinacoteca di Brera exhibited it’s first show dedicated to Giorgio Armani with a curated selection of 120 iconic pieces which were integrated into the space with the existing art works in a very tasteful and beautiful way. As with all of his work whilst still alive, he played a big role in the curation of the exhibition and it was superb.

This exhibition was so worth seeing and a great reminder what Armani created impeccable garments which stand the test of time and they are beautifully integrated into the space. Made me want to raid Vestiaire for vintage Armani!

Giò Marconi

This gallery is located in an an incredible space which spans over four floors, incredibly high ceilings and multiple rooms. The current exhibition displayed a juxtaposition of the works of the Canadian artist Allison Katz and her 96 years old grandmother Edna…So good! Make sure you don’t miss the big work in the backyard where you can see Edna, photographed by Allison. Loved it.

As a special treatment - because we visited with Super Super Markt, we were able to see the collection of works for the upcoming Man Ray exhibition in February of 2026 in the basement. Very special to get an insight into how the exhibition is put together, and what pieces will go in…

Massimo di Carlo, gallery

Massimo di Carlo is a gallery with spaces in Paris, Hong Kong, London and Milan: I haven’t been to the other ones yet, but the Milan one is in such a special building. If I ever get to design my own house or flat, my dream would be to find a location which feels like that space. Designed by the legendary Piero Portaluppi (who also designed Villa Necchi), I am in love. Look at those doors, the details, all the rich marble, the floor, the windows…We were lucky to also allowed to visit the office of the gallery team, which I always love - usually these spaces are really special and full of personality.

The current exhibition was well worth visiting - it’s called Old Vessels, New Spirits and is a group exhibition which brings contemporary artists into a conversation with masters of the 19th and 20th century. I always love juxtapositions: a work gets new interesting angles when paired with another work from a different time.

Pirelli Hangar Bicocca

I have visited this space many times, it’s really worth the longer journey as it is quite far outside the city. But you can get here and park with Share Now (car rental). Hangar Bicocca is a former industrial plant which has been converted into a non-profit institution in 2004 for producing and promoting contemporary art. There is always the very impressive, permanent installation of The Seven Heavenly Palaces (2004-2015) from Anselm Kiefer, inspired by the ancient Hebrew Sefer Hechalot as well as temporary exhibitions - currently there were two on display, This Will Not End Well by American photographer Nan Goldin and the other by Yuko Mohri.

My favorite work of the Goldin exhibition was Stendhal Syndrome from 2024: a slideshow in which the artist pairs images of classical, Renaissance, and Baroque masterpieces with portraits of her friends and lovers. The structure is inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, casting close friends and lovers as mythological figures such as Galatea, Orpheus, and Hermaphrodite, alongside music by Mica Levi. It was SO good, and I would love to see it again, as I felt seeing it for a second time would make the experience even better.

The other work which I deeply felt was Fire Leap (2010–2022: Maybe it was especially emotional for me because it showed all the children of Goldin’s friends accompanied by the song Major Tom, sung by children (video below, minute 8:16): while I was watching the slide show, my son was falling asleep in the carrier on my chest while I danced slowly to the song - a very touching moment!

I know I will remember both works for a long time, and hope to be able to see them again.

Lunches and Dinners

Of course we went to the favorites, La Latteria San Marco and A Santa Lucia as I am a loyal soul to places I love, but also made it to some new spots. My forté was lunch, as we only did one dinner with Cassius once as we learned that otherwise a sleep during dinner does not turn into a long sleep but instead a power nap lol - and that’s a good night sleep gone (well, a relatively okayish sleep gone - just to be clear here).

Sant Ambroeus

I have wanted to go here for ages, I knew about it from when I lived in Milan: The place was also featured in a campaign from the fashion brand The Attico in 2022 (below). Nadine Choe from The Stanza Media (you can find her HOTEL AMORE Milan interview and guide here) had highly recommended it, so I really wanted to go.

We now even went twice, I loved it. Perfect place to hang out for a long lunch before your flight back home and especially cosy during winter season. Great people watching! Best is to reserve, as the place is really popular, but you can also have coffee at the bancone. Really loved my choices - I had a great sandwich with Vitello Tonnato (ahhh thinking about it makes me want one right now), and Risotto Milanese. Also the panettone and the affogato - so good.

Sandi

I was so keen on coming here for quite a while, but never managed to get a reservation in time - but now we did finally. Such a good crowd, vibe, and the food is fantastic.

Rosticceria da Giacomo

I love both Da Giacomo’s, but have never been to the rosticcheria which is more easy-going. Reservation is a must, especially on Sundays! Italians love family Sunday lunches, so the city is booked out. We had half a chicken and wine, which was fantastic. The garden is great in summer, coming back!

Pasticcheria Sissi

Really cute OG place for breakfast and coffee, with amazing Italian sweets and fun people-watching!

Bars

During the bar visits I was on baby duty in the hotel, which meant me eating on the hotel bed and watching Working Moms on Netflix (sounds boring, but I had a great time!) - the group went to great bars and the feedback was top notch :) Bar Minerale and Bar Nico.

Shopping

Officine Universelle Buly

One of my favorite places for gifts as you can engrave presents such as brushes, combs, lip gloss and more. I love the place, the staff and the uniforms of the staff. The best. My son was charmed by them, they were charmed by my son, it was a beautiful situation.

Vintage Delirium

This place is a long-standing favorite of mine - it’s a huge shop with two floors and a great fashion archive from 1985, especially a lot from Gianni Versace. I bought a pair of 90s costume jewelry - if I could choose I an era from which I want all the jewelry, it would be the 90s. Great place to hunt a bit, not necessarily for bargains, but you come also to enjoy the great fashion expertise and passion of the owners.

That’s it for today! Next week I have an exciting LA guide from a very talented Paris-based film director.

With love,

LKD

I hope you are doing well. The week went by so fast, I feel like Christmas is approaching with major steps, and therefore also proper winter. I love the beginning of this season, planning cold-sunny walks on the weekend, followed by cosy lunches with friends - that is fun until mid January arrives and things go sour haha. We are soon going back to Milan again, can’t wait!

To sweeten the season even more I got a beautiful advent calendar from the beauty brand Team Dr. Joseph. I haven’t gotten an advent calendar for some years, and this is going to be fun! I prefer beauty advent calendars waaaay over chocolate calendars. The Dr. Joseph calendar has a value over 600 Euros and is filled with 25 beauty products. I have already finished the miracle oil I got from them, so I am crossing fingers to get a new one in the calendar - combined with the spray I feel my lack of sleep is far less visible in my face than when I didn’t use it…

My friends at Design Hotels launched the table book Designed To Stay with the beautiful publisher gestalten. They celebrated the launch at do you read me and at our favorite place Pinci which was fun! Lots of good people, great food and a beautiful book which I cannot wait to dive into.

I finally managed to get a spot to an incredible Omakase lunch experience called Otsuka together with my friend and my baby. The restaurant is tiny, only for six guests and hidden inside a Bio Supermarket near Nordbahnhof in Berlin. It is an intimate experience by the incredibly sweet and talented chef Daisuke, the fish is next level amazing and fresh, it melts in your mouth. One of the best experiences I have had in Berlin, you can also do dinner, it’s omakase and 69 Euro per person. Reservations via Zenchef - you have to refresh daily, that’s how you get a table - he told us the opening hours are dependent on the fish he gets.

Now, let’s get to this week’s feature! I am excited to introduce to you Anahita Sadighi, a contemporary art gallerist with her own gallery, based in West-Berlin.

She has been featured in different magazines such as AD, monopol, Kaltblut and Elle, she has recently worked on a collaboration with Noah, steering the creative direction and being the face of the sofa “Torio”. Anahita also did a podcast with Women Authors of Achievement on pushing boundaries in the contemporary art community.

Dear Anahita! I am very happy to have you. Could you introduce yourself?

My name is Anahita Sadighi, I am a gallerist, curator, and cultural producer. I grew up in West Berlin with Persian roots and have always lived between cultures and disciplines. Through my work, I create spaces where art, design and music intersect, driven by a belief in the transformative power of creativity and its ability to positively shape communities.

For me, multidisciplinary artistry is not a concept but a way of life. I am drawn to formats that cross boundaries – between genres, disciplines and cultural contexts. These in-between spaces are vital: they allow new forms of expression and understanding to emerge. As our social and artistic environments grow more complex, I see it as essential to build frameworks that both reflect and nurture this complexity with care and intention.

How did you get into art? What do you love about art?

My father’s lifelong fascination with art has deeply shaped me. As a child, when someone you admire dedicates themselves to something with such passion, it inevitably leaves an imprint.

I often played in my father’s studio, sometimes even with friends, and engaged with the objects there in a playful, creative way which I am sure informed my own creativity.

My parents never hid their collection but deliberately shared it with me. I’m very grateful for that, because it allowed me to develop a natural, almost organic relationship with art. I spent much of my childhood on shimmering nomadic carpets – I was especially drawn to the Gabbehs. These playgrounds of floral motifs, borders, and mysterious symbols nourished my imagination. My father, who dedicated decades of his life to this art form, would tell me stories of tribes, landscapes, and journeys – the objects became vessels of those narratives. These textiles are more than works of art; they are sensory experiences – you see them, feel them, even smell them. Many people long for this immediacy, as it reconnects us with our own physicality. Kilims and Gabbehs were both functional and symbolic: their patterns served as signs of protection and strength, inspired by mythical creatures. This intersection of myth, craft, and philosophy continues to fascinate me.

This way of living with art is something I believe is worth cultivating – it holds so much promise. Art allows us to cultivate a life for ourselves – a contemporary one. Rather than distinguishing between art and life, I want to encourage an understanding of art as part of life’s reality.

What role does your heritage play in your taste in art?

My relationship with art began in childhood, surrounded by ancient Persian, modern, and contemporary works that shaped my sense of beauty, memory and cultural continuity. As a child, I was fascinated by how objects – a textile, a ceramic, a painting – seemed to hold memories and stories. Over the years this relationship deepened and today I see it as a vital link to my heritage and an ongoing source of inspiration in my practice.

Iranian culture has always been a strong influence and a source of fascination for me. From an early age, I grew up with mythical and epic tales such as the Shahnama by Firdausi, the Persian Book of Kings, and I strongly identified with them.

These stories deeply shaped me: they nurtured my creativity, my thirst for adventure, my passion, my willingness to take risks and inevitably also my sense of melancholy.

What role do you think art should play in society?

Art is a distinct form of thinking. It asks questions where language reaches its limits and opens spaces where ambiguity doesn’t need to be resolved. Within society, art enables intercultural and interdisciplinary dialogue. It can reveal realities, interrupt them, or reassemble them in new ways. Its strength lies not in providing answers, but in shifting perception and awakening imagination. Especially in times of war, isolation, and social division, this openness is crucial. Art can make identity tangible without fixing it, mediate without unifying, and remind us that contradiction, ambiguity, and difference are not deficits but essential conditions for cultural vitality.

I believe art should be more than representation – it can actively shape social processes and renew society’s capacity for empathy. It has the power to question power structures and to imagine other futures. For me, curating is also a political practice: not only to exhibit, but to intervene, to open spaces for reflection, connection, and transformation. In today’s overstimulated visual economy, art can slow things down – an act of resistance in itself – and invite new ways of thinking, feeling, and relating.

Who are your favorite artists?

I have many favorite artists, but these definitely belong among them: Hieronymus Bosch, Sandro Botticelli, Pablo Picasso, Utamaro, Daniel Butcher and Kamal ud-Din Behzad, the great master of Persian miniature painting.

Where do you buy art?

I buy art in many ways: directly from artists in their studios, through galleries, or at auctions. When selecting works for my collection, my decisions are often deeply personal and intuitive. Each piece tells a story, and it’s that narrative that makes it compelling to me. The works I collect come from different cultures and centuries, and it is important to me to preserve this diversity for future generations. I want my collection to remain versatile – shaped by the creativity of various traditions and eras and open to constant inspiration.

For me, collecting art is also about attitude. Art creates spaces of encounter, where new images and symbols emerge – ones we can engage with and even identify ourselves through. That’s why understanding the history, cultural context and provenance of each work is essential.

Whose artists' work do you have at home?

Some of the first artworks I lived with were Persian nomadic pieces and lithographs by Picasso and Matisse. Over time, my collection has grown to include lithographs by Philip Guston, Fernand Léger, and Karel Appel, paintings by Daniel Butcher, photographs by Yumna Al-Arashi and Kalpesh Lathigra, Ukiyo-e prints by Hiroshige, ceramics by Franky Jimin Hopp, sculpture by Dieter Detzner and of course the works of my father, Hamid S. Neiriz.

I also feel a deep connection to the art of Persian nomads – my great-grandfather was a nomadic prince, so this heritage is very close to me.
My collection is never static, I often rotate works and bring in new ones. It’s important to me to stay in motion and to let the dialogue between artworks evolve over time.

Which pieces are your most treasured pieces and where did you get them?

One of my most treasured pieces is a female Bedu mask from the Bondoukou region in Côte d’Ivoire. Bedu masks were created by the Bafana, Kulango, and Degha peoples, usually in male–female pairs. Although the tradition is relatively young, it spread widely throughout the region.

What fascinates me about this mask is that it demonstrates how African art has never been static but has constantly evolved, with new traditions emerging over time. Bedu masks are generally associated with protective qualities, and the ideas connected to them – such as fertility and health – highlight their particular significance for women. I acquired the work from a gallery in Brussels.

What importance does design have for you? How do you decide on design and where does your influence come from for example for the sofa Torio?

My interest in design evolved organically out of my curatorial practice. From the beginning, it was never just about exhibiting works but about creating spaces for dialogue and connection. Design became a natural extension of that practice, especially during the renovation of my gallery with architect PJ Gonzalez. It deepened my understanding of interiors as places of identity and storytelling. Today, I approach interiors as curated experiences in which art is always the starting point. For me, art and design are inseparable – a shared language that shapes how we live, think and connect with the world.

With the sofa Torio, I was inspired by the idea of the home as a sacred space, a place where emotional, cultural and aesthetic worlds quietly converge. I wanted the installation to feel like an offering: intimate, thoughtful and full of presence. The two paintings by Wenxin Zheng, Earth and Heaven, became emotional anchors for the entire campaign.

Around them I built a palette of colors, ancient ceramics from my collection, delicate floral gestures and natural materials that carry quiet beauty and layered meaning.

You don’t just have a great taste in art, you also have a great sense of fashion. Therefore we definitely have to talk about fashion as well - what are your favorite three outfits?

Thank you! I have many favorite outfits, so it’s hard to choose, but my current top three are:

A top by Jacquemus, pants by Karl Lagerfeld and shoes by Aeyde - worn during the exhibition of Bakuba & Mbuti – Living Patterns

A shirt from MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), pants by Sunnei and Scholl shoes –

A kimono by Rianna & Nina

As a West Berliner: Which are your top three favorite places in Berlin?

1. Savignyplatz has been part of my daily life for years – it’s where I grew up and where I still live and work. The mix of galleries, old bars, bookshops, and cinemas gives the area a sense of continuity that’s rare in Berlin. I often stop by Bücherbogen or the Autorenbuchhandlung – timeless places that reflect the literary and intellectual spirit of Charlottenburg.

2. And of course Haus der Visionäre with the adjacent Sonnenraum – where Berlin’s club and art scenes converge. Its open architecture and immersive acoustics create a unique setting for sonic rituals and collective experience.

3. The Hard Wax record shop is a true Kreuzberg gem. Its long history in electronic and underground music reflects the city’s creative soul. Browsing through its vinyl collection always sparks new ideas and connects me to Berlin’s cultural heartbeat.

As you are also a music lover - if you have a playlist you’d like to share, please do!

Yes, with pleasure. Music is central to my creative process and last year I started DJing as well. Here’s a recent set I recorded together with my partner in crime, Mike D. Together we are Loft Radio. Enjoy!

Thank you Anahita!