Any Francophile with a taste for good old-fashioned decadence might want to consider a stay at Hotel Alfred Sommier in Paris. The beyond-elegant five-star hotel is a hôtel particulier with a backstory as sweet as it could be. That is, the noblemen behind this mansion made it big in the 19th-century sugar industry.

While Alfred Sommier’s descendants have no remaining interests in what has since evolved to become Saint-Louis Sucre, the heir behind the hotel, Richard de Warren de Rosanbo, has evidently inherited his great, great, great, great grandfather’s head for business.

That’s lucky for us, because this home deserves to be shared around, with its stately position on Rue de l’Arcade, close to the neoclassical Madeleine church, its ironwork, parquet floors, painted wall frescos and the elaborately gilded interior architecture of its salons. Not to mention its two monumental marble staircases and 45 marble fireplaces. Oh, and 70 enormous antique mirrors that will help you acknowledge that yes this is really you and you are really here.

While Alfred Sommier is possibly more famous for having bought and restored the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte just southeast of Paris, he was behind the success of the family business and the building of Rue de l’Arcade.

The facade is exactly as fantasy would have it, Haussmannian in era but 18th century in design. The place is marketed as a ‘family mansion’ and it’s true that familiar warmth emanates from even the most distinguished of corners.

There are 80 rooms in total, including 22 suites and 14 connecting rooms, perfect for families. All enjoy the basic amenity of marble bathrooms. Fifth-floor views take in the Eiffel Tower and the Butte Montmartre.

The dining and meeting rooms are just as palatially appointed. Les Caryatides restaurant takes on the Golden Salon of the Elysee Palace with its Louis XV decor and, when the sun is out, guests can take their meals in the private garden. Chef Franco Miotto’s succinct menu reimagines the food that was served to the Sommier family’s guests back in the day, and to literally experience being a guest of the family, you can even book dinner with the owner himself (if his diary allows).

Within walking distance from upmarket department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, as well as the famous Champs-Elysées, it’s also perfectly placed for a little accidental shopping or a sneaky French confection to celebrate the sweet life.

Visit: alfredsommier.com

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30th Jul 2019

As a kid, making a new friend is as simple as sitting next to someone in the playground at recess. It’s instant and easy. But as an adult, between managing a career, multiple social media accounts and a general basic standard of living (like having enough food in the house to make a meal), it’s hard to find time or even the right social situation to make a new buddy.

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But, it’s not impossible as The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil revealed recently over the phone to Vogue. And it turns out it’s pretty important to have a wide friendship group, with a Galaxy Research study commissioned for dating/networking app Bumble, finding that 73 per cent of Australians who took part in the study between the ages of 18 to 45 “experience feelings of loneliness.”

Jamil is ideally placed to speak on friendship and inclusivity, having just signed on as the face of a new global campaign for Bumble BFF — the app’s friend connecting option — as well as being the founder of I Weigh, a social media movement and soon-to-be fully-fledged company dedicated to, as the Instagram account’s bio says, “radical inclusivity, so that no one feels alone.”

The British-born, Los Angeles-based actress is vocal on her own and I Weigh’s socials about spreading positivity and inclusivity, while also being real that life is not really, as she told Vogue, like the “highlight reel” we all see on our Instagram feed. And it’s that honesty that led her to found I Weigh (which currently boasts 769k followers and counting) in the first place.

“I saw a picture of the Kardashians with their weights written across their bodies,” Jamil divulged to Vogue. “We never write what they [men] weigh, we don’t even know what any man weights, we don’t care. But all we care about it what women weigh, we think it’s the most important thing about them, and that’s what we teach girls, which is why eating disorders [are so high]. Once I’d seen one of those pictures, the more I looked on Instagram, I’m seeing more and more pictures of Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, all these women who are successful, self-made, multi-millionaires, just having their weight written across their body. And I’ve seen the impact it’s having on young people who follow these accounts, and I just thought ‘fuck this!’”

The actress said she couldn’t believe this was still happening in 2018 (when she founded I Weigh): “Like this was happening when I was a teenager,” the actress continued, saying, “And so I write a post about what I weigh… my achievements, my struggles, and the things that I’ve overcome. And that’s what we should all weigh ourselves in. I weigh the sum of my parts. And I posted that out to the world, didn’t expect anything back, got about a thousand back the first day. And about three thousand in the first week and I realised that ‘oh no, it’s like a thing!’ I’ll have to start an Instagram account. I never expected it to last very long. And to think that we’re on our way to our first million.” Quite an achievement, considering that as Jamil noted, there’s no social media team it’s just herself and a friend running the account.

Joining Bumble BFF for their friendship campaign seemed like a natural step for the 33-year-old actress who says it resonated with everything she stands for at I Weigh. “They came to me with their ad campaign and I just loved the idea of it so much, because, that’s very much in alignment with what we stand for at I Weigh, which is community and bringing people together and reducing the stigma of shame. I think people carry a lot of shame around their own loneliness, around friends they have, or don’t have or what sort of social life they have because they feel pressure, because everyone else posts about how amazing their social lives are, even though they are only ever posting the highlight reel.”

“Everyone feels insecure, we don’t talk about it, we just pretend that we’re all living our best lives,” the actress shared. “And that we’re all hashtag #booked and #busy. I meet some of the most famous people in the world, and even they are lonely. So there’s no reason you shouldn’t be too, and if we just start to talk about it and open up to it, and I think once we do we’ll realise everyone feels the same way anyway. We need to all just hang out!”

Jameela Jamil will be hosting a Bumble BFF event in Los Angeles in August and Bumble are offering Bumble BFF users in Australia the chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to the event. The competition runs from Tuesday July 30 until Friday August 9, head to the Bumble app for more information.

Environmental sustainability is one of the fastest growing concerns in the world right now. And with the growing realisation that our world and its resources indeed do have limits, the movement is here to stay. Sustainability has changed the way we buy our clothes, food and resources; and the hospitality industry has been quick to catch on. So if you’re the type to use a keep cup, carry calico shopping bags and say no to fast and disposable fashion, then you might want to consider making a sustainable change to the way you travel by staying in eco-friendly accommodation. Below, we’ve listed a few of our favourites. 

Treehotel, Sweden (above)
Comprised of seven treetop suites suspended high in a pine forest surrounding Lule River in north Sweden, the Treehotel is what happens when you leave architecture in the hands of nature. Boasting cutting-edge design and construction techniques, the hotel is built from environmentally friendly materials so that it remains unobtrusive to the natural environment. True to its name, the ‘Birds Nest’—a 17-metre-square suite accessible only via a retractable staircase—blends into its surroundings with its branch-like form. The ‘Mirrorcube’ is equally impressive, camouflaging with the natural environment thanks to mirrored walls that reflect the woodland surrounds.

For more information and to book, visit: treehotel.se

White Pod, Switzerland
Arguably an advocate for sustainability before the (very necessary) trend filtered its way to the travel industry, White Pod in the Swiss Alps won the First Choice Responsible Tourism Award in 2005 for its forward-thinking approach to design and environmental sustainability. The dome-style accommodation requires approximately 30 per cent less energy to heat and cool the space, and the hotel has also implemented various water-and-power-saving initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint, including restricting transport on site so that guests and staff are encouraged to walk.

For more information and to book, visit: whitepod.com

Proximity Hotel, North Carolina
In terms of LEED certification, there are three levels of standards that apply—certified, silver and gold. But what happens when a restaurant or hotel exceeds these standards? Proximity Hotel in North Carolina is the first hotel in the United States to be awarded a Platinum LEED rating for its sustainable practices, which include more than one-squared-kilometre’s worth of solar panelling to produce the hotel’s hot water. Add to that, energy-saving construction technology, incentives to reduce environmental erosion, use of geothermal energy and unparalleled recycling standards—and you can see why its eco rating went off the charts.

For more information and to book, visit: proximityhotel.com

Jumeirah Vittaveli, Maldives
Proving that a tropical island vacation doesn’t need to compromise on ecological sustainability, Jumeirah Vittaveli in the Maldives is certified as a sustainable tourism destination by Green Globe. In 2013, the hotel installed a water bottling plant as part of an ongoing commitment to reduce its carbon footprint. The plant provides mineralised drinking water to guests and staff, saving up to 100,000 plastic bottles each year. Supporting marine conservation, the resort has a resident marine biologist on site and regularly runs outreach programs that involve clean-up initiatives for the reef and island.

For more information and to book, visit: jumeirah.com

Rosewood Mayakoba, Mexico
This luxury five-star resort in Playa del Carmen is situated along a beautiful lagoon and strip of beach for maximum serenity, but its 129 rooms have been built with the environment firmly in mind. Designed to blend in with nature, it boasts Rainforest Alliance Certification thanks to a waste management program which recycles plastic, cardboard, paper, aluminium, scrap metal and paraffin, and donates organic waste to a local pig farm. Water is sourced from wells and treated by reverse osmosis, and the hotel uses biodegradable products to launder its linen. Furthermore, Rosewood Mayakoba is committed to supporting the local community by buying food, clothing, bags, decorations and crafts from local producers and artisans. 

For more information and to book, visit: rosewoodhotels.com

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29th Jul 2019

22-year-old Argentinian actress and model, Camila Morrone, has been linked to 44-year-old Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio for over a year now, but until recently hasn’t addressed their relationship in any meaningful way. The couple are exceptionally private about their relationship and are rarely photographed together. The model, who is active on social media, has never even shared an image of them together on her Instagram feed.

This all changed over the weekend when the actress posted a slideshow of beautiful photos of iconic Hollywood couple, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, with the caption: “A love like this”.

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Bacall and Bogart famously met on the set of 1944’s To Have and Have Not when she was 19 and he was 45. Bogart was married to his third wife, actress Mayo Methot, at the time but that marriage ended quite soon after Bogart met Bacall. The To Have and Have Not co-stars then tied the knot in 1945, and stayed together until Bogart’s death in 1957 (the couple had two children together during their marriage). Morrone’s Bacall/Bogart photo montage, along with the romantic caption about a love like the iconic Hollywood couple is an unmistakable reference to her own relationship with DiCaprio.

The age gap is similar, with more than 20 years difference between Bacall and Bogart, and from all accounts, Bacall and Bogart’s relationship and marriage was very successful, with the age gap making no difference at all. Morrone clearly considers the same applies to her and DiCaprio, with their 22-year age gap not being relevant to their relationship.

However, Morrone addressing the age gap and indeed acknowledging her relationship in this way, ignited the internet with many Instagram users writing negative comments about the post. One user wrote “you only have a couple more years before he dumps you girl! Collect your bag”, while another wrote “Leo only cares about your body”. 

A number of social media users did post supportive comments and love heart emojis, but Morrone wasn’t okay with any of the negativity, and according to took to Instagram Stories to shut the haters down.

reports the 22-year-old said the following in a video message on her Instagram Story, “Good morning people and happy Friday. I just read some of the comments on my Instagram and…my God, people are so mean and full of anger with people that they know nothing about.” 

The publication reports she ended the video with an upbeat message about filling your life with positive interests and not wasting time on negativity, proving just how very mature this 22-year-old is: “I guess I just hope on this Friday that people learn to live with a little less hatred and place their time and interests elsewhere, because living without hatred feels pretty good.” 

Wedding photographer: Gaby J Photography

It was love at first sight when Barry Baltinas first laid eyes on Rebecca Elyse Frost. On just an average day when Barry was ordering his lunch at a popular Japanese restaurant in Perth, something compelled him to look up, and there stood Rebecca ordering her lunch. “Her beautiful blue eyes just mesmerised me as she stood there waiting for her takeaway lunch. I wanted to walk up to her and introduce myself but was too nervous, my heart was racing,” Barry told Vogue. It was years later when the pair crossed paths again by chance, when a mutual friend brought them together. “When the time was right the universe conspired and brought us together meeting as singles at a fashion show in 2010 and we have been inseparable ever since,” Barry adds.

Less than a year later, Barry got down on one knee in a rather romantic and sentimental way. As Barry was previously collecting charms for a bracelet that Rebecca wears, he always got a charm to symbolise a moment in their love story. “For example a bee, for when I got stung on one of our first dates and almost fell off the back of his motorcycle, a yin and yang symbol representing our love of yoga and meditation and a teapot for our love of tea,” Rebecca says. As the bracelet began to become full of charms it was one last charm that Rebecca was expecting which was a charm which represented the upcoming royal wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – perfect for the royalist!

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One weekend the pair drove up to the beautiful Margret River in Western Australia when suddenly Barry pulled out a recognisable little white box which usually contained the charms for Rebecca’s bracelet. “When I opened the box expecting my royal charm, to my complete surprise it was not a charm but a stunning engagement ring. On one knee Barry asked me to be his wife and I said yes,” Rebecca said in excitement. (Yes, Barry also gave Rebecca the beautiful Will and Kate charm to complete her bracelet!).

Rebecca and Barry decided to wed in a rather different way – by eloping. The wedding took place in the iconic Little White Chapel in Las Vegas where the cherubs were painted on the ceiling and Elvis’s pink Cadillac was parked out the front. “We loved the fact we had only booked our ceremony at the chapel a few days before and we knew we just had to rock up. It really took all the pre-wedding pressure off,” Rebecca shared. The couple didn’t have a particular structure for the day either. “The theme of the day was really us just being ourselves, free spirited, relaxed, and bohemian all rolled together with a rockstar edge.”

The day of the wedding consisted of a calm morning of Barry and Rebecca sleeping in, enjoying breakfast and just lying by the pool. At 1pm Rebecca excitedly met her make-up artist who flew in from Australia, and the three had lunch before they got into business. At 4pm the photographer and florists arrived and then the day became real! “Once my Christian Louboutin’s were on, we were out the door. Walking through the hotel lobbies and casino to get to our car was an event in itself with people cheering and wishing us congratulations as we strolled past them, it was so lovely.”

The couple danced downed the aisle with an Elvis impersonator, and then drove into the sunset of the desert sipping champagne, where they became Mr and Mrs Baltinas.

Scroll through for the rest of Rebecca and Barry’s quintessentially Las Vegas wedding!

The bride’s engagement ring.

“Once Barry returned, he finished getting ready and helped me into my dress.” The bride wore an Ae’lkemi dress.

Rings by Tiffany & Co.

The bride wore Christian Louboutin heels.

Floral arrangements by Sara Lunn of Cultivate Goods.

The bride walking through the lobby before the wedding.

The bridal car was a 1967 Porsche 911S, supplied by Tony Mazzagatti.

The Little White Wedding Chapel.

Mrs Baltinas!

The newlyweds.

“We instantly felt we had a deep connection and it was love at first sight really,” Rebecca said.

Back detail of the bride’s dress.

The groom in the bridal car.

Just married!

The couple celebrating with champagne and watching the sunset.

“My beauty look was very natural and undone. It was very hot in Vegas at that time so nothing too heavy or high maintenance!” Make-up was by Casey Gore of The Future Mrs.

The couple tied the knot on July 11, 2018.

Sharing a quiet moment as husband and wife.

“As we eloped, the day was focused around the two of us.”

“Don’t be afraid to break convention. Enjoy every second of the experience as the day itself is over so quickly. Remember a wedding is one day; your marriage is a long road so start as you mean to continue.”

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26th Jul 2019

“Ain’t no mountain high enough!” reads the slogan on Bally’s new Peak Outlook T-shirts. The first thing that pops to mind is the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell song. (You’re singing it, I know you’re singing it.) There is a serious message here though.

Peak Outlook is the Swiss luxury brand’s new eco initiative, designed to preserve extreme mountain environments. The first phase sees the brand partner with Sherpas to clean the world’s highest peak in Nepal. 

Yep, there’s garbage on Everest. The mission, led by Dawa Steven Sherpa, removed more than one tonne of waste in April and May, half of it from above 8000 metres.

So where does it all come from? Last month, international news outlets jumped on the story of “the world’s highest garbage dump” after a Nepali official told the that the first government cleanup had resulted in 11,000 kilos of trash being removed from the mountain, and flown to Kathmandu by helicopter. 

This matter-out-of-place included “empty oxygen cylinders, plastic bottles, cans, batteries, food wrappings, fecal matter and kitchen waste,” not to mention the corpses of four lost climbers. 

“It’s a double-edged sword,” says Dawa. “On the one hand, we are cleaning the mountains (and they getting cleaner) which is important, but when we say, ‘We just took all this garbage out!’ people think, ‘Oh, wow it must be such dump.’ It’s not like that. However, garbage and climate change are two major issues that are affecting my homeland.”

Image credit: Courtesy of Bally

Dawa runs Eco Everest tours to raise awareness. They began removing rubbish from the mountain in 2008. He’s given TED Talks and travels the world spreading the message. For his community, the mountains are sacred as well as their source of livelihood.

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“Climbing has changed,” he says. “In the older days there were less people, and their impact was not immediately apparent. If you left something there it would get swallowed by the glacier and you’d never see it again. But as more people came, more garbage was left. We can see that quite clearly. What’s also happened is that old garbage is starting to resurface, especially where the glaciers melt. The Himalayas are heating,” he says.

He offers the little-known example of a 1970s Italian army helicopter used to supply oxygen up to Camp 2, rather than getting climbers to carry it up. “It crashed on the mountain. They abandoned it, and it was swallowed up. About eight years ago, it started to resurface. We are finding parts of that helicopter coming out, even today. That is verifiably debris from decades ago.” 

Is there nowhere humans do not sully? Images of a trash-strewn Everest tug at the heart. One feels the same horror as when looking at pictures of isolated beaches littered with plastic water bottles and candy wrappers. 

“This garbage was taken there by people, so it can be taken off by people,” says Dawa. “What Bally is doing in supporting this project is very important. They are a brand born in the mountains [of Switzerland]. This is something they truly care about.” 

Image credit: Courtesy of Bally

He hopes the project will capture people’s imaginations and spur them to take action on behalf of the environment wherever they are. “We can reverse our negative actions. A bunch of mountaineers can’t resolve climate change; that needs action on a far larger scale. But it’s human beings who have to do it. It’s still up to us.”

Bally’s new CEO Nicolas Girotto has been a driving force behind Peak Outlook. “I see this initiative as one that represents our broader commitment to sustainability, as a tool – clearly not a commercial one – to show Bally’s commitment internally. People want to work for companies that make real commitments to positive environmental action.” 

Girotto has been making sustainability a priority since he was announced as Frédéric de Narp’s replacement in May (previously Girotto was COO; de Narp is now vice president). 

“By definition we produce durable products, and we are clearly at the opposite end of the spectrum to fast fashion, but this is not enough,” he says. “We need to be aware that our production and logistics have an environmental footprint, and we need to reduce it.” 

While he is not yet ready to talk detail about Bally’s new sustainability roadmap, he says they’ve “completed a baseline assessment of our footprint” and are establishing “concrete targets and measurable objectives for the short, medium and long-term” to be made public later in the year.

“Working on the supply chain is mandatory, but it can be difficult to communicate,” he says. “There is value in Peak Outlook doing something broader for the environment. For us, this is absolutely authentic. It’s linked with our heritage and history, and there’s more to come.”

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25th Jul 2019

“It’s not for a movie…⁣⁣” wrote Anne Hathaway alongside a black-and-white snap of herself smiling with a visible baby bump on Instagram earlier today.

But while Hathway’s announcement that she and husband Adam Shulman are expecting their second child began on a lighter note, it took an especially poignant turn at the end. “All kidding aside, for everyone going through infertility and conception hell, please know it was not a straight line to either of my pregnancies,” she continued.

Opening up for the first time publicly about the fertility struggles she and Shulman encountered while having their first child—they welcomed a son, Jonathan Rosebanks, in 2016—as well as on their most recent journey to conception, the 36-year-old actress continues to be refreshingly candid about many of the challenging facets of motherhood. Not to mention, she admirably joins stars like Chrissy Teigen, Kim Kardashian West, and Gabrielle Union in being transparent about their personal fertility hurdles.

Infertility is becoming more and more widely acknowledged as an acute health issue—according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 12 in 100 couples in the U.S. have difficulty becoming pregnant—and Hathaway’s revelation goes a long way. She continues to be unafraid to use her platform to address issues close to her heart.

This article originally appeared on Vogue.com.

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