Eat, Sleep & Party: Fashion Week Girls Getaways in Europe

From September 13-October 2, fashionistas will take over London, Milan, and Paris for each city’s

Fashion Week. While fashion is the focus, the award-winning restaurants, luxurious hotels, and legendary parties cannot be ignored. Here’s our guide on how to eat, sleep, and party in sartorial style during Europe’s Fashion Weeks this Fall.

Eat at Ametsa with Arzak Instruction at The Halkin in London
Located at The Halkin by COMO, this new Basque restaurant brings the team from Spain’s three Michelin-starred Arzak to London’s Belgravia – a unique collaboration between Elena Arzak (voted Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef in 2012) and her father Juan Mari Arzak, as well as Spanish culinary legends Mikel Sorazu, Igor Zalakain, and Xabier Gutierrez. The menu exemplifies the traditions of New Basque Cuisine, pairing the earthy flavors and techniques of Spain’s Basque region with modern, surprising twists.

Sleep in Couture at the Christian Lacroix-designed Hotel du Petit Moulin in Paris
Nestled in the chic shopping scene that is the city’s hip Marais district on the corner of Rue du Poitue and Rue de Saintonge, the 17-room Hôtel du Petit Moulin offers the perfect base to live and breathe couture during Paris Fashion Week. Each room was individually designed by Christian Lacroix, and the interiors reflect the designer’s vivid imagination and signature palette of vibrant colors. A virtual design kaleidoscope, room themes range from opulent Baroque to spare Scandinavian to a slightly sci-fi lunar look to zebra everything and are even decorated with blown-up sketches from Lacroix’s own notepads.

Party with Barbie at Vogue’s Fashion’s Night Out at Park Hyatt Milan
Vogue’s annual Fashion’s Night Out party may be taking a hiatus in the United States in 2013, but the notorious party will rev up at Park Hyatt Milan on September 17 with a very special guest – Barbie. In collaboration with Mattel, this year’s event will pay tribute to the fashionable doll with a life-size Barbie exhibition and a showcase of the most glamorous Barbies of all time. In true Barbie style, the Park Bar will transform into the Barbie Dream House for the night with everything pretty in pink, from the carpeting to the cocktails.

Girls Getaway to Milan - Shopping & Farewell Dinner

Next to the Duomo, we had to visit the Milanese Galleria (or Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II), which is a shopping area in the center of Milan. The structure is formed by two glass-vaulted arcades intersecting in an octagon covering the street connecting Piazza del Duomo to Piazza della Scala.  Built from 1865-1877, the arching glass and cast iron roof that covers the street was the prototype for larger glazed shopping areas.  The central octagonal space is topped with a glass dome. The Milanese Galleria was larger in scale than its predecessors and was an important step in the evolution of the modern, enclosed shopping mall.  It has inspired the use of the term galleria for many other shopping arcades and malls.  While there, we said hello to Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada. 

After our window shopping at the Galleria, we walked back to our hotel taking in numerous boutiques and galleries along the way.  Our last stop before entering our hotel was Lipstick Vintage that was directly across the street from our hotel.  We all went crazy for the amazing vintage finds from Chanel to Gucci to Versace to Pucci.  This store has incredible things.  Although we tried a few things on, we were exhausted from the day’s activities and went back to the hotel for a quick nap.

After Donna and I served as ‘chiefs’ for the entire trip, my mom and Katie demanded they be chiefs for one night, so Donna and I had to be Indians and follow them around.  The decision on where to eat for our final Italian dinner together (Donna and Katie were leaving the next morning) was an important one.  Fortunately, mom and Katie led us just around the block from our hotel to La Libera.  This quaint restaurant served delicious traditional Italian specialties, seasonal, meat and fish.  Plus we had the most amazing server ever!  She was from Austria and had two young sons.  She said she desperately needed and Girls Getaway and told us to contact her when we head to Australia. During dinner we all stated what our “high” of the trip was and what our “low” was.  For me, the high point was every new memory we created and every time the four of us laughed and loved together.  These moments and absolutely irreplaceable! 

Because the four of us had such an amazing trip together, we had already started talking about where we wanted to travel to together in 2013.  We all started to settle on Istanbul.  To cement our decision, the first book I saw when I walked into La Libera was on Istanbul.  It is fate, and we all had to take our final photo together in Italy with the book.  

Girls Getaway to Milan - Food & Duomo

From Venice, we traveled by train for approximately two hours to Milan (pronounced ‘Milano’ in Italian).  It is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital of Lombardy as well as of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area is the fifth largest in the European Union and the largest in Italy with an estimated population of more than 4.3 million. Milan is recognized as a major fashion and design center, and is home to Milan Fashion Week.  It also is home to important museums, theaters (most notably opera), and landmarks that help the city attract its 2 million visitors annually.  

We arrived at the train station and taxi’d to our hotel, Ritter.  With a somewhat rude front desk person and a charge of $3/one hour of Internet, I will not be staying at this hotel again.  From our hotel, we enjoyed a nice walk through Parco Sempione until we found Ristorante Pizzaria Momus on Via Arco.  Momus was the perfect place for us to stop and eat lunch as we felt right at home with the local businessmen who were enjoying their lunchtime break (with some beer or vino). We all had amazing meals, and Katie enjoyed one of the largest calzones we have ever seen!

Like most cities in Italy, Milan and its surrounding area has its own regional cuisine, which, as it is typical for Lombard cuisines, uses more frequently rice than pasta, and features almost no tomato.  So don’t be surprised if the menus look different from Olive Garden :).

After lunch, we continued walk as we strolled through the streets of Milan to the city’s Duomo (or cathedral).  Dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente (Saint Mary Nascent), it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan.  The Gothic cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the fourth largest cathedral in the world and the largest in the Italian state territory.  It was truly a remarkable site.