Sandra‘s Closet

Some cars are built. This one was tailored. Rolls-Royce has unveiled Phantom Regatta, a one-of-one Phantom Extended that reads like a love letter to the racing yachts of the English South Coast, and it makes its debut where it belongs: at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed, within sight of the very waters that inspired it.

The Solent, Chichester Harbour, the legendary Cowes Week regatta: this is sailing country, and it is also Rolls-Royce country. Sir Henry Royce himself lived in the coastal village of West Wittering, just eight miles from the marque’s present-day home. Phantom Regatta stitches all of that heritage into paint, leather, wood and metal.

The exterior wears Regatta Blue over English White, a hand-laid two-tone treatment that traces the line where a yacht’s hull meets the water. Twenty-two-inch fully polished disc wheels gleam like the steel winches of a racing boat. Pure nautical glamour, executed with the restraint only Rolls-Royce can afford.

Step inside and the metaphor unfolds like a sail. The front cabin is dressed in Navy Blue leather, the rear suite in Grace White, evoking deep water below and white canvas above. The RR monograms are embroidered in Turchese, a turquoise borrowed straight from clear inshore shallows.

My favourite detail? The picnic tables. Each one is composed of 16 planks of Royal Walnut, bookmatched by hand and separated by a two millimetre sliver of Black Bolivar wood, exactly like the caulked deck of a classic yacht. Around 120 hours of craftsmanship went into the tables alone.

The pièce de résistance is the Gallery artwork named Watercolour, hand-painted across the full width of the fascia by the marque’s in-house artist, who developed an entirely new blending technique over two weeks of trials just to capture the movement of open water. Above it all, a Bespoke Starlight Headliner glitters with 1,307 hand-placed fibre optic stars, arranged to mirror the swirling tidal currents around the Isle of Wight.

And because true luxury whispers, the finest touch stays hidden. Tilt the eyeball air vents forward and you will find engraved coordinates: Goodwood House on the passenger side, the Home of Rolls-Royce on the driver’s side. Two points, barely a mile apart, anchoring this remarkable motor car forever to the coast that created it.

Fashion has its couture ateliers. The motoring world has Goodwood. Phantom Regatta proves the craft is just as exquisite.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Rolly-Royce Motor Cars
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Louis Vuitton has taken its Escales Autour du Monde collection to the icy edge of North America. The new Escale en Alaska pocket watch conjures the Margerie Glacier at night, bathed in swirling Northern Lights, and it is officially the most complex pocket watch ever created by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton in Geneva.

At 50mm, the piece is less a timekeeper than a miniature theatre. Nine animations and 17 moving parts bring the Arctic scene to life: a blue whale raises its head and tail above the sea, an orca opens its mouth to reveal hand sculpted white gold teeth, and families of penguins waddle across a floating iceberg that drifts gently from right to left. Above it all, a gold compass rose spins in a deep blue sky, while the House’s signature trunks open and close to reveal tiny Monogram flowers. A first for the collection: an LV Monogram Star cut diamond, at 0.05 carat the smallest ever created, descends over the glacier like a shooting star.

The numbers behind the beauty are staggering. The manual winding LFT AU14.03 caliber comprises 751 components, pairs a minute repeater with a tourbillon, and required 500 hours of assembly and hand finishing. The dial alone demanded more than 300 hours of enameling across 32 shades and 35 separate firings, blending Grand Feu, champlevé, cloisonné and miniature enamel techniques. Add 160 hours of hand engraving for the animals and another 40 for the case, adorned with sculpted raindrops and snowflakes.

In true Louis Vuitton fashion, the timepiece arrives with leather goods savoir-faire: a bespoke bag, reimagined from a travel design in the House’s archives and finished in a unique matching blue, where the pocket watch can be attached and displayed alongside its gold chain.

A one of a kind masterpiece where haute horlogerie meets métiers d’art, the Escale en Alaska proves once again that for Louis Vuitton, the Art of Travel knows no limits. Not even at the end of the world.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton
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DO I NEED THE CANARY?

There is a little yellow bird that has been keeping me up at night. The JW Anderson Canary Clutch exists in the world, it is sitting somewhere out there in resin-cast, 3D-printed perfection, and I do not own it yet. Which means my personal fashion zoo has a vacancy.

Because that is exactly what my wardrobe has become: a zoo. And I say that with complete pride.

Jonathan Anderson once described his creature clutches as the kind of throw-away and unexplainable items you would find on the dusty top shelf at a garden centre. That is precisely the genius of them. They are absurd. They are hyper-realistic. They make people stop mid-sentence and stare. And season after season, I have been powerless to resist.

My collection currently stands at six: the Pigeon, the Frog, the Hedgehog, the Puffin, the Victoria Sponge, and the Walnut. Yes, the walnut. Each one is sculpted in resin and brought to life through 3D printing technology, so convincingly real that guests at mine regularly lean in for a closer look.

The Pigeon, which started the whole madness back in F/W 2022, opens up at the wing to reveal a polished interior.

Pigeon Clutch
Worn in: My Look: Some Days

The Frog snaps shut with a magnet on the tip of its tongue, flashing a vivid red lining when you open the mouth.

Frog Clutch
Worn in: My Look: First of May

The Hedgehog, with its airbrushed finish and hundreds of tiny resin spines, is the one that fools people most completely.

Hedgehog Clutch
Worn in: My Look: Kinky Boots

The Puffin arrives in that signature black, white and orange.

Puffin Clutch
Worn in: My Look: Fashion Fairy

Victoria Sponge Clutch
Worn in: My Look: Minnie

The Walnut is simply the most elegant nut in the history of fashion.

Walnut Clutch
Worn in: My Look: Dots

I love them all. Each one has its own personality. Together they are a collection that is equal parts sculpture, humour and genuine fashion statement.

But back to the canary. The little yellow bird debuted to considerable fanfare and has been singing its siren song ever since. Does my zoo feel complete without it? Probably not.

Now over to you: which piece from my JW Anderson collection is your favourite?

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht / @georgiashane / Erika Kostialova /Beyza Babacan / @yayhan
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Zurich is melting and my strategy is simple: wear as little as elegantly possible. Short skirt, airy blouse, big hat, bigger sunglasses, wedges to stay a few centimetres above the hot pavement.

The face underneath is bare. No makeup, no apologies, just brim and lenses doing the diplomatic work. Survive the temperatures, look like you meant to.

You know exactly what I mean.

My look: Cropped white blouse with ruffled sleeves, vintage bracelet bag with floral embroidery, logo ribbon sun hat, gold-tone obsidian earrings, and Maxime leather platform wedge sandals, all by Chloé , floral-appliqué denim miniskirt in blue by Magda Butrym, beaded bracelet and Blaze oversized sunglasses, both by Saint Laurent, vintage gold and brown necklace with lion pendant, and vintage snake ring, both by Roberto Cavalli, and cocktail ring with pink stone by Etro.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Anouk Bauknecht
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Few houses have turned a season into a signature quite the way Hublot has. Since 2017, the brand has claimed the Mediterranean summer as its stage, and each year the launch arrives less like a product and more like a state of mind. For 2026, that mood softens. The palette turns to pastel ceramic, sun-washed and quietly luxurious, yet the engineering underneath remains as exacting as ever.

Two Big Bang Summer pieces lead the season, sharing a single dreamy composition of mint, pink and sky-to-sea blue, while their movements set them worlds apart. The 42 mm Unico flyback chronograph, limited to 200 examples, wears a sculpted case in microblasted and polished pink and mint ceramic, crowned by a sky-blue bezel. The dial reads like Mediterranean light itself, all soft matte shifts from sunrise to dusk. Its counterpart, the 44 mm automatic Tourbillon, exists in just ten pieces, its transparent pink sapphire dial laying the mechanism bare for anyone who appreciates depth and mechanical theatre.

Color, at Hublot, is never an afterthought. It is chemistry, patience and control. Since 2018 the Manufacture has built the only true palette of colored high-tech ceramics in watchmaking, the result of patents and relentless refinement, yielding a material up to 300 Vickers harder than the traditional kind and brilliant enough to last. The flyback caliber, evolving since 2010, folds in five patented innovations for smoother engagement and finer precision, while the tourbillon’s HUB6035 movement pairs a dial-side micro-rotor with a 72-hour power reserve. Both invite a wardrobe of interchangeable straps in sky blue, mint and pink, each white-lined rubber on a titanium deployant clasp, swapped in seconds via the One-Click system.

Alongside the Summer duo, Hublot introduces three monochrome ceramics in peach, mint and petrol blue across 33 mm and 42 mm. For the first time, the 33 mm appears without diamonds, letting pure pigment do the talking, dial to case to bezel. The 42 mm Big Bang Titanium Peach Ceramic, powered by the Unico flyback and water resistant to 100 metres, adds a more technical confidence to all that softness.

Soft in tone, strong in character, these are watches built to move from beach to sunset and back again. Available at select Hublot boutiques and on hublot.com, each carries the 5+5 warranty, extending coverage to a full ten years.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Hublot
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Air conditioned by design in the London Heat. The city is at its best in sunshine, and so, I decided, was I.

A dress in neon green and yellow, with no interest in subtlety, different, rounded, sculptural, almost egg-like, it holds its own shape rather than the body’s, which leaves room for air to move. Comfort engineered to look like drama – I like!

My look: Cotton-blend moire midi dress by Christopher John Rogers, Bow Chain embellished satin platform pumps by Mach & Mach, Tro crystal-embellished mini bag by Oscar de la Renta, pearl and crystal necklace, and heart shaped earrings with pearls, both by Alessandra Rich, and neon yellow sunglasses by Versace.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht / Felicia Sewerinsson @feliciasewerinsson
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Standing in front of Fiori, I almost vanish. My ensemble is a field of blossoms, and against Sofia Cacciapaglia‘s monumental Italian flowers it reads as the gentlest camouflage, woman and canvas folding into one bloom. For a moment I am not in front of the painting at all. I am inside it. Cacciapaglia paints women the way she paints gardens, larger than life and veiled in tenderness, and to stand dressed as one of her flowers is to be quietly initiated into that world.

Fiori
Sofia Cacciapaglia
Italy

The memory it stirred took me back to last November, to Riyadh, where I had the privilege of speaking at the Creative Women Forum Saudi Arabia at Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University. The theme that gathered us was simple and quietly radical: Empower, Engage, Sustain. Alongside the conversations, I attended a vernissage that presented a room of female artists from every corner of the world whose work I truly loved and wanted to share it with you ever since.

Flora
Olivia D’Aboville
Philippines

I think of Olivia d’Aboville‘s Flora, woven from Philippine abaca and recovered fibre, the fragility of the ocean rendered as something you want to reach out and touch. Of Sally Smith‘s Ghost Fish, the New Zealand sculptor who trained first as an architect and now works in bronze, coaxing presence out of absence, form out of empty space. Of Elisa Insua‘s Verde Alepi and Nero Marquina, the Argentine alchemist who builds the language of marble and gold from what the rest of us discard, beauty assembled out of excess and asking us, gently, how much is enough. Of Catherine Coady‘s Gold Fever Construction, the Australian eye turned with such clarity onto appetite, image, and the things we are sold.

Ghost Fish
Sally Smith
New Zealand

What threads them together is not a subject but a gesture. Each of these women takes the overlooked, the fragile, the thrown away, and makes it luminous. Cacciapaglia paints her gardens on humble cardboard. Insua gilds the cast off. D’Aboville lifts the sea’s distress into something delicate. The discarded becomes the centrepiece. The invisible is made to bloom.

Gold Fever
Construction
Catherine Coady
Australia

And now, months later, Art Basel has only just closed its doors, the great annual exhale of the art world, and I find myself thinking perhaps that is what the camouflage was really about. Not hiding, but belonging. To disappear into Fiori for a heartbeat is to be reminded that the most quietly powerful thing a woman can do is bloom in good company. From Riyadh to Basel, the flowers keep opening.

LoL, Sandra

Verde Alepi
Elisa Insua
Argentina

Nero Marquina
Elisa Insua
Argentina

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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Walking into the John Madejski Garden on Wednesday evening, you could feel that this one was special. The V&A Summer Party was turning ten, and the museum had pulled out all the stops, throwing open its courtyard for what has quietly become the most coveted night in London’s summer calendar.

With interior designer Pernilla Bennet of House of Bennet

A decade ago the museum turned its annual fundraiser into something far cleverer than a gala. The concept is simple and rather brilliant. Every summer the V&A invites a committee of leading creative voices to shape the evening and, crucially, to bring emerging talent into the room.

One of my favorites and definitely one of the most outstanding talents at the moment: Harris Reed, who officially stepped down as the creative director of Nina Ricci in March 2026, after a three-and-a-half-year tenure, is now focusing entirely on his eponymous namesake demi-couture label that is to die for!

Another designer I adore is London-based Molly Goddard, who is a real sweetheart, and truly deserves the title «Queen of Frill».

This year that committee included Harris Reed, David Furnish, Grayson Perry, Sandy Powell and Yinka Ilori, and the result is a guest list where a fresh Central Saint Martins graduate might find themselves deep in conversation with the patron who goes on to change their career. The party raises vital funds for the museum, but it also does something money cannot buy. It keeps British creativity alive, connected and celebrated.

Opening speech by Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Returning this year carried its own meaning, because the party had taken a break in 2025. In the past the evening often doubled as the curtain raiser for a major new show. When I last attended in 2024, the night marked the opening of Naomi: In Fashion, the museum’s glorious tribute to Naomi Campbell. This year there was no exhibition opening to coincide with the celebration, which personally speaking I missed. Half the thrill has always been stepping into a brand new world the moment the doors open.

The weather, for once, played its part beautifully. Glasses of Nyetimber caught the last of the evening light, Jessie Ware took to the stage, and the garden hummed with that particular energy you only find when fashion, art, music and a little British eccentricity collide all at once.

Performance by Jessie Ware.

I will be honest with you. I did not see everyone. The garden was so full of wonderful people that I spent most of the night lost in the kind of conversations you simply do not want to walk away from. That, for me, is the real luxury of an evening like this. Not the spectacle, but the company.

Photos: @gettyentertainment

The room held its share of icons, too. Mick Jagger, effortless as ever. Ellie Goulding, radiant. Maya Jama, Akshata Murty, Edie Campbell, Olly Alexander and Munroe Bergdorf were among the faces moving through the candlelit garden, alongside what felt like the whole of London’s fashion and art world gathered in one glorious place.

Always fun seeing my friend Mark-Francis Vandelli, who stars in «Ladies of London».

Ten years in, the V&A Summer Party has lost none of its magic. It remains a love letter to creativity, a celebration of one of the great cultural institutions of our time, and proof that the best nights are the ones spent among brilliant people under a perfect summer sky.

Here is to the next ten.

LoL, Sandra

So nice seeing Juergen Teller again with whom we worked so much at Marie Claire Germany many years ago. He is one of the best photographers I know that has a very special language.

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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Flying High: My First Impressions of SWISS Senses on the A350

There are people who view flying as a necessary evil. I am not one of them. For me, stepping onto a plane is pure joy, a ritual I look forward to the moment I book a ticket. So when I flew the brand-new SWISS A350 to Boston and back to Zurich, I was already smiling before I reached the gate.

The SWISS Senses cabin concept is the airline’s most significant product investment in its history, part of a broader 2.5 billion Euro overhaul across the Lufthansa Group. And Boston holds a special place in this story: it was the very first intercontinental destination the A350 ever served, with flights launching in November 2025. So in a way, flying this route felt like being part of something historic.

The experience begins long before you board. One of the things I genuinely love about flying First Class with SWISS is the ritual of it: dedicated check-in, your own security lane, being driven to the aircraft. It sets a tone. It signals that the next several hours belong entirely to you.

The First Class cabin on the A350 is intimate by design. Just three suites, each a private sanctuary with walls nearly six feet high and sliding doors that close the world away. The bathroom is spacious and offers great amenities.

On my outbound flight I sat in 1K, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The aisle beside that seat sees almost no traffic, which means the privacy feels absolute.

On the return I was in 1A, which sits across from the middle suite. If you are travelling as a couple, 1A paired with the booked middle suite is actually a lovely configuration: you face each other across a natural divide and can keep your doors open to create your own little world within the world.

I would, however, caution anyone against booking the middle suite as a pair without thinking it through carefully. Sharing it means one person must essentially climb over the other to exit. There is only a single screen, so agreeing on what to watch becomes non-negotiable. And the absence of a window makes it feel surprisingly enclosed, almost claustrophobic. Given that it commands a premium over the already premium First Class fare, I struggle to justify the cost unless you are truly content to be in your own cocoon together.

The suite itself is beautiful. Thoughtfully designed, genuinely luxurious in feel. The iPad-based control system is a real improvement over what came before: intuitive, elegant, effortless.

The personal wardrobe with its proper coat hanger is a small touch that makes an outsized difference when you board with a longer jacket and simply do not want to fold it into an overhead bin.

Speaking of which: storage. This is where I must be honest. For a First Class passenger, especially one who travels as I do with a carry-on trolley and a weekend bag, the space is simply not generous enough. The under-seat compartment fits one; the other must find a home elsewhere. On both flights the crew was wonderful and accommodated my trolley in their own storage, but this should not be necessary at such a price point. In Business Class, the situation is even more pronounced because the central overhead bins were removed in the new configuration, creating a genuine shortage of overhead space throughout the cabin. Coats, too, must be managed independently in Business, where there is no equivalent of the First Class wardrobe.

The Business Class cabin is worth a visit, even if only to look. The SWISS Senses concept offers five distinct seat types: the Business Suite, Privacy Seat, Extra Space Seat, Classic Seat and Extra Long Bed Seat, all with direct aisle access. My personal favourite configuration from what I observed is the centre pair with a table on each side. For a solo traveller or a couple who enjoy their own space, it is genuinely excellent. However, if you are travelling as a family or with young children, the layout becomes challenging. Many seat pairings face away from each other into the aisle rather than toward one another, which makes the physical closeness of family travel oddly disconnected. It is one of those things the design did not fully account for.

I also took a brief look at the Premium Economy, and it genuinely impressed me. The value proposition there is real, and I can imagine recommending it without hesitation to someone who wants a step up without the full investment.

The food, as always with SWISS, was outstanding. I will never tire of eating at 35,000 feet. There is something eternally civilised about a beautifully set tray and a glass of wine above the clouds.

Now for two honest caveats. On my return flight, the iPad system failed entirely, which was frustrating in a way that would have been unthinkable in a more established product. We also had overhead lighting that could not be switched off and ultimately had to be covered with tape, which is not quite the first impression this extraordinary aircraft deserves. And the Starlink Wi-Fi, though very much a selling point, dropped in and out on both legs rather than delivering the seamless connectivity promised. These are early days for the aircraft on this route, and I fully expect the teething troubles to be resolved quickly. SWISS is too detail-oriented an airline to let these things linger.

What stays with me is the feeling. SWISS is an airline that genuinely cares about the experience it creates. My SWISS Senator status means I can access better seats without a surcharge and even use miles toward First Class, and I am reminded every time I travel with them why loyalty to a single airline is worthwhile.

The new SWISS Senses on the A350 is not a perfect product yet, but it is a magnificent one. If you have the opportunity to experience it, take it.

And if Boston is the destination, even better: you will be flying one of the most storied new routes in recent European aviation history. Bon voyage.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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MEMO PARIS CAP CAMARAT X OLIMPIA ZAGNOLI
A Mediterranean Summer, Bottled.

Cap Camarat smells like summer on the Provençal coast, the pines, the salt, the light that refuses to quit.

For the limited edition, Memo Paris handed the bottle to Olimpia Zagnoli, the Italian artist behind this year’s Milano Cortina Olympic poster. Her colour is everywhere, vivid and unmistakable, and it spills over into a refillable travel case. It looks less like packaging, more like something you’d frame.

The scent opens cool and sparkling, pink pepper against a watery apple, then warms into ylang-ylang, jasmine and vanilla absolute. The dry down is where it gets me: sandalwood, benzoin and labdanum, the smell of a long lunch that quietly becomes evening.

It doesn’t shout. It glows. Wear it with linen and very little else.

Cap Camarat x Olimpia Zagnoli is out now at memoparis.com, in the limited edition and the standard bottle.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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