The spirit of adventure
Frequent yers will attest to the power of those ruminative moments spent waiting to board an aircraft, so beautifully captured in this month’s soft lu age story, shot by Rosie Harriet Ellis. Others may detect a degree of ennui in the way the models have been presented; but those who recognise their ‘boarding gate gaze’ will know it for what it is: the ineable feeling of being – at last – in that liminal state betwixt leaving and arriving – the essence of what invokes the travel bug in us all.
For our annual Travel Issue, we’ve cast o with a degree of brio re ective of the industry’s ‘return to normal’, compiling a series of journeys that, while considering the impact achieving that sense of freedom involves, oers good reasons why we should never give up the urge to adventure.
So this year’s issue takes us to Ho Chi Minh City, where a turbulent history has given way to a conurbation growing at incredible speed, under the protective gaze of insightful and powerful local voices that re ect its new-found energy. A similar story is spelt out in Adam Štěch’s tour of Caracas’ surprising wellspring of modernist buildings – a vernacular that survives the vicissitudes of the Venezuelan capital’s recent past. Marrakech provides the timeless backdrop to our fashion story, its Moorish architecture blending seamlessly with this season’s most striking silhouettes. Elsewhere, we visit the Comblé Bar by Shiro Kuramata, in Shizuoka, southwest of Tokyo – a city not short of top-tier landmark boîtes – tour the all-new, suites-only Emory hotel in London’s Knightsbridge with its architects, RSHP, and check into Switzerland’s Chenot Palace in search of hot wraps and cold showers – a necessary balm to a life of constant movement.
And for those who lust after the lure of the home from home, we bring you a brace of remotely located properties that uniquely complement their surroundings, whether that’s the canopy of a tropical rainforest or an archipelago in Canada’s northwest.
Finally, and worthy of a ‘ ight announcement’ all of its own, Navigator – a name from Wallpaper’s own storied past – returns as our new back page city guide. For the June issue, we felt it only right to start with Cannes, the Riviera playground where the world’s lmgoers ock each May. Stay warm, travel well and enjoy the issue.