All White Now

Forget the Crillon (I know I have). Here are scenes from Maison Martin Margiela’s new outfit, La Maison hotel in Paris adding to the burgeoning collection of fashion hotels from Palazzo Versace on Australia’s Gold Coast and the Bulgari Bali to Villa Laetitia by Anna Fendi Venturini.

Then there’s Petit Moulin in Paris which showcases Christian Lacroix’s art and design. Carducci 76 with Alberta Ferretti. The Armani Hotel in Dubai…

The Italians have a design aesthetic that seamlessly traverses the boundaries of fashion and lifestyle. Who knows, there may not even be a semi-permeable membrane between one and the other for them. Why shouldn’t everything in life be beautiful.

Many of us unknowingly observe what the Japanese describe as wabi-sabi—in not having everything be just so but still finding the beauty in all that’s broken anyway. It happens when you marvel at the rawness of an uncut stone counter top. Get pulled into the lush, full-bodied sound of a centuries-old violin you found at a pawn shop. Reflect on the beautifully flawed asymmetry of your lover’s face or embrace your own unpolished quirks, foibles and scars. Living in the moment means accepting that it’s all too temporal, and so you open the aperture of your soul up even wider to take it all in. The things which make elements of life so ’wrong’ make it so perfect and full of character. Spontaneous beauty has its merits.

But back to the Italians. Fabulous flair, pulled-together style and attention to detail in every aspect of the day-to-day heaped with generous dollops of sprezzatura, well that’s another side of beauty’s coin. Let’s file that under La bella figura, genetics and move on.

Speaking of… because it has become something of a seasonal ritual where I shamelessly fawn over Riccardo Tisci’s couture confections, we have before us the very sumptuous Givenchy haute couture fall/winter 2011 collection. Marry me off or bury me in one of these, I don’t care.