Life is a symphony at Claridge’s

The Fashionable Truth has just landed in the chill dawn of London’s autumn. Tonight at the glorious Claridge’s and then to Paris for the Bordeaux train and M. Arnault’s Cheval Blanc harvest festival dinner. A wonderful prelude to next week’s challenging China Strategy workshop in St. James’s. “Fashion is not life, it is what we acquire to better enjoy our life. And the more life we have the less fashion we need. But style? That’s oxygen.” Now sitting back in perfect upholstery in my suite with exquisite coffee. The rising sun is dusting off the beautiful buildings of Mayfair and the porter has carted my creased clothes away to be given a Claridge’s transformation. With champagne on ice and an ormolu clock marking the early morning hours on a grey marble mantelpiece the day feels like the first notes of a Schubert string quartet, something like the D956. Quiet but profound, slight but moving. It’s just music, but it’s sublime, it’s just a room but it’s transcendent, it’s just a morning but it’s forever.

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静的张力

《时尚真理》来到了初秋的伦敦,在华美精致的 Claridge’s 下榻一晚,第二天便要飞往巴黎,坐上驰向波尔多的火车,赶赴路威酩轩老板 Arnault 在白马酒庄举办的丰收晚宴。也算是为下周本人将在 St. James’s 宫殿主讲的“中国区策略报告”做个铺垫吧。“时尚并非生活本身,而是让我们更好地享受生活的辅助。其实,生命的内涵越厚重,时尚就越没有必要;可是个人的风格,却是生命必不可少的氧气。”舒服地躺在扶手椅上,享用着精致绝伦的咖啡或是冰镇香槟,看朝阳的万丈光芒拂过梅费尔的古建筑;门房已经带走了我满是褶皱的衬衫,稍后会还我一个 Claridge’s 管家式服务的惊喜。灰色大理石壁炉上方端坐着一架黄铜自鸣钟,静静地数着清晨流逝的时光,仿佛为这一天标注上了舒伯特管弦乐四重奏里的音符,闲适而畅怀,宁静而深远。舒伯特的音乐虽只是音乐,但却包含了恢弘博大的景致;Claridge’s 的客房虽只是房间,但却涌动着超凡脱俗的气韵;这个清晨虽然只是又一个平凡的清晨,但却有着永恒的静的张力。