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1 week ago | 
countrylife.co.uk | Carla Passino |Amie Elizabeth White |Rosie Paterson
Dead Salmon, Mouse’s Back, Elephant’s Breath. When artist and interior designer the late John Sutcliffe helped Tom Helme and James Finlay develop Farrow & Ball’s colour range, they outdid one another coming up with hilarious monikers (today, the much tamer Sutcliffe Green is named in his honour).
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2 weeks ago | 
countrylife.co.uk | Amie Elizabeth White |Rosie Paterson
In the late 1820s, friends Charles Merivale of St John’s, Cambridge, and Charles Wordsworth (nephew of William) of Christ Church College, Oxford, went rowing on the River Cam. The outing inspired them to found a competition and, in February 1829, the Cambridge University Boat Club sent a letter to ‘hereby challenge the University of Oxford to row a match... each in an eight-oared boat during the ensuing Easter vacation’.
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1 month ago | 
luxurylondon.co.uk | Amie Elizabeth White |Annie Lewis
In the mid-1920s, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel started a revolution. Already established as a fine couturier, known for elegant dresses, chic jersey sportswear and her Chanel No.5 perfume (the scent launched in 1921), it was the introduction of the tweed suit, first revealed in 1925 during a small show in her Rue de Cambon salon, and from 1927 showcased in her new boutique in London’s Mayfair, that put ‘Chanel’ on the lips of British high society’s most fashionable members.
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1 month ago | 
countrylife.co.uk | Rosie Paterson |Amie Elizabeth White
Paint the walls Dibber Paint is not normally headline-making news, but Farrow & Ball, best known for their peculiarly named pigments, has introduced 12 new shades — the first change to their very carefully curated palette (technically, nine new colours and three resurrected from the archive) since 2022. Designed to celebrate ‘unsung heroes in our homes’, colour curator Joa Studholme and creative director Charlotte Cosby looked to everyday household items for inspiration.
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2 months ago | 
countrylife.co.uk | Amie Elizabeth White |Rosie Paterson
The peak of Art Deco design (1910s-early 1930s) coincided with the advent of the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema (1930-1960s) — the former’s striking features and opulent materials creating a visually captivating environment that, when employed correctly, helped push cinema as an attractive and luxurious form of leisure.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
luxurylondon.co.uk | Amie Elizabeth White |Zoe Gunn
If there were an award for the most dramatic rise and fall in favour, absinthe would surely win. Made with wormwood, anise, fennel and other culinary herbs, the spirit began life in 1792 as a cure-all medicinal elixir. During the 1840s, it was dispensed en masse to French troops in Algeria, who brought their newfound tastes back home. By the 1860s, absinthe was served everywhere from cafes to cabarets, enjoyed by all social classes, and 5pm became known as l’heure verte — ‘the green hour’.
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Jun 5, 2024 | 
luxurylondon.co.uk | Amie Elizabeth White |Zoe Gunn
We’ve covered the best spa days in London and have your aches and pains all massaged out, but the impact of modern life – stress, pollution, sleep-deprivation and weather conditions, to name a few – still manages to show on your complexion.
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Mar 14, 2024 | 
luxurylondon.co.uk | Amie Elizabeth White |Zoe Gunn
Caught between cuisines? We’ve all been there. Thai or pie, truffle or temaki, focaccia or fine dining… the options are endless. But among the capital’s crowded food scene lies a genre perfect for the indecisive: fusion restaurants, and of course, London’s chefs are doing it incredibly well.
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Mar 1, 2024 | 
luxurylondon.co.uk | Amie Elizabeth White |Zoe Gunn
There are plenty of awareness days not worthy of our time but British Pie Week, running from 4 – 10 March 2024, is something we can definitely get behind. A staple of British dining since restaurants began, the variations of a pie, both what’s inside and what encases it, are endless (and sure to cause plenty of debate around the dinner table). One thing you can be sure of?
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Jan 22, 2024 | 
luxurylondon.co.uk | Amie Elizabeth White |Zoe Gunn
London is home to countless unique restaurants but, in recent months, one common characteristic has been flourishing in particular: sustainability. It’s an ethos we cannot (and should not) escape, and is playing a huge part in influencing both restaurant menus and where we choose to eat. Thankfully, farm-to-fork, nose-to-tail, zero-waste menus are causing a celebratory stir, and, thanks to the talent of the capital’s chefs, our dining habits aren’t suffering.
