ALEXANDRA SHULMAN: Dining out? The most important course is the in-crowd

We are the place we eat, not simply what we eat. Which is why the return of uber-restaurateur Jeremy King to London‘s restaurant land, opening Arlington (on the location of his previous Le Caprice), an American-style diner, The Park, and reviving Simpson’s In The Strand, is good news.

Nobody understands higher than King that eating places are a lot greater than merely a spot the place individuals pay for a meal to be served.

restaurant is sort of a membership with no membership price. Regardless of whether or not it’s the native Italian or movie star hang-out The River Cafe, to get you to return many times they need to make you’re feeling particular. Good meals is of course a plus, however it’s not the primary occasion.

Last week a good friend took me to lunch on the House of Lords, which is most positively a membership. On listening to of this, one other good friend, a baroness, commented that she’d by no means recommended we dine collectively there as a result of she did not charge the meals.

But that is irrelevant. In truth, my meal was wonderful, however even when it had been sub-standard I’d have loved myself as a result of it is someplace most individuals by no means get the possibility to expertise.

We pay to eat out with a view to keep away from having to rustle up one thing ourselves and take care of the washing up. But additionally in order to be a part of the scene that may be a fashionable restaurant.

A key factor of Jeremy King’s restaurant philosophy relies on the massive Eastern European cafes designed as egalitarian assembly factors for everybody, from grandees to the native tailor. He loves the concept that anybody can are available in and have a cappuccino on the bar or caviar in a cushty sales space.

But the true cause now we have affection for a selected restaurant is nearly the other to that ideally suited. It is as a result of, by being there, we’re in our particular place with our personal traditions, a favorite dish, most well-liked desk, recognized employees. It’s someplace we really feel privileged to hang around. We are a part of the in-crowd.

There’s no higher proof of this than the prolonged ready lists for Jeremy King’s tables.

A cute distraction in a wierd world

Not fairly in the identical league, however astonishingly fashionable, is the tiny Hello Kitty cafe, which is a part of the Cute exhibition at London’s Somerset House.

The exhibition, about ‘the irresistible pressure of cuteness in up to date tradition’, is a should for anybody on this unusual, barely warped aesthetic – and never solely pre-teen women.

Total disclosure: my son is concerned in a movie being proven in it, however the staggering phenomenon is the lengthy queue upstairs for a Hello Kitty-themed sundae and cake. Many of the queuers look like completely sentient adults.

One click on and I lose my trend sense

You would suppose that somebody who spent 25 years working on the high of the style business would have some sense when it got here to purchasing garments. But no.

My Instagram popped up with an advert for an organization promoting ‘closing down’ inventory of knitwear. It confirmed a pleasant Fair Isle wool knit, for about £30. 

And so, dumb klutz that I’m, I purchased it. Of course I ought to have recognized that it wasn’t going to resemble something like the discount I assumed I used to be getting.

And finally a 100 per cent polyester, moderately nasty-looking sweater arrived with the tell-tale ‘Made in China’ label and Chinese lettering all around the packaging.

It’s not the primary time I’ve been caught out this manner – tempted by Instagram gives that look so beautiful however end up garbage.

If I will be so gullible, with years of expertise behind me, this proves how straightforward a lure social media buying is, and never only for the younger.

Joy of getting the gang again collectively

Talking of buying, final weekend I hosted a classic sale for Laurence’s Larder, a meals help organisation and group refuge. It was, although I say it myself, an enormous success, elevating much-needed funds and giving individuals a chance to purchase a nifty cut price that had been donated.

But aside from all that, the good pleasure for me was working with a workforce once more.

I left Vogue six years in the past, partially as a result of I needed to expertise life as a lone wolf and never run a enterprise with an enormous variety of individuals, and these days I principally work alone. So I had forgotten how satisfying it’s to work with a gaggle of individuals – the camaraderie, the jokes, the shared rigidity.

True, placing collectively a charity sale with volunteers is nothing like operating {a magazine} – aside from the rest, volunteers cannot be bossed across the identical approach as employees – however the expertise jogged my memory that nonetheless a lot I like tapping away at my desk at house, there’s one thing very rewarding about being a part of a workforce.

The blondes are nonetheless having enjoyable at Vogue

Seeing images of the varied groups at Conde Nast posing exterior Vogue House on their ultimate day on this iconic constructing earlier than shifting places of work, I recalled how I used to be criticised for the photograph of my employees I ran in my final version as editor. 

It was mentioned to ‘lack range’ and was used to place the incoming new regime towards the previous, with quite a lot of guff written about how there was going to be a brand new age.

Six years later, there may be not a lot proof of big change.

The images had been delightfully spontaneous data, stuffed with younger, blonde ladies and their purses – and fortunately not micro-managed to mirror some range message.

My bid to toast a Royal legend

Sets and costumes from Netflix’s The Crown are being offered by auctioneers Bonhams.

It’s an astonishing assortment of props. If area had been no object, I’d love the mannequin of Elizabeth II’s funeral procession, however with 500 figures and the accompanying bushes and lamp-posts of The Mall, it will must be housed in a state room.

So as an alternative I’m bidding for one thing smaller – the late Queen Mother’s drinks tray, full with crystal ice bucket and matching tumbler, champagne swizzle stick and a soda siphon – estimate £60-£80.