Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1530892
AT SLOANE, LONDON T he new At Sloane Hotel, in a classic 19th-century red- brick Cadogan townhouse mere yards off Sloane Square, was masterfully designed by celebrated French designer François-Joseph Graf, and I've never seen a hotel quite like it. It feels both timeless in the graphically rigorous Craftsman-style that ushered design out of the Victorian era and utterly fresh, as only a designer with a profoundly fluent visual vocabulary could express. The reception area is a well-appointed library with staff sitting at the massive, handsome table that dominates the room — I thought they were just attractive guests tapping away on laptops — and muscular clusters of astoundingly good reproduction amphorae lend the room the refined quality of a connoisseur's lair. The lower-level bar, located down a gently winding staircase, but also with its own discreet street entrance, has a sexy and dimly lit speakeasy vibe, with a crackling fireplace at the far end. Already cozy, the romantic room also has jewel-box private alcoves for intimate tête-à-têtes. At Sloane's restaurant is a series of small, romantic salons tucked away on the sixth floor with natural light streaming through diamond-leaded windows, illuminating a collection of celadon porcelain evocative of James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room. Visitors with an eye for such details will appreciate the hand-blocked William Morris wallpapers; antique and custom furnishings upholstered with dozens of different textiles from storied French ateliers; masterful trompe l'oeil painted woodwork and mantels; ravishing tilework layered with Belgian carpets; and an aesthete's lifetime collection of decorative accessories and books. In other words, immutable five-star luxury without a lick of gilding in sight. atsloane.com. Pam Sommers JACQUES PÉPION