Sandra‘s Closet

Let’s Talk Hormones: A Lunch with Sunday Natural at the Club zum Rennweg

Sunlight was falling through the windows of the Club zum Rennweg, the table was laid in white, and for once a Zurich lunch was not about hemlines or handbags. It was about the invisible orchestra that conducts our bodies every single day. Together with Sunday Natural, I had invited a group of wonderful women to an afternoon under the title «Let’s Talk Hormones», and what unfolded was one of the most open and honest exchanges I have hosted in a long time.

Our guest of honour was Dr. Katharina Maria Burkhardt from Vienna, a specialist in endocrinology, who gave us a rare insight into how hormones truly work together. Estrogen and progesterone, thyroid hormones, cortisol and insulin do not act in isolation. They speak to each other constantly, and when one voice rises or falls, the others answer. Stress, for instance, keeps cortisol elevated, which in turn can disturb ovulation and lower progesterone. Thyroid function influences the availability of our sex hormones, and estrogen in return affects how the thyroid is regulated. Little wonder that the majority of us experience hormone related symptoms at some point in our lives, from fatigue and mood swings to irregular cycles and the many faces of perimenopause and menopause.

What I found most encouraging was the professor’s message that we are not powerless. Sleep, nutrition, movement and stress management form the foundation, and where the body lacks certain nutrients, targeted high quality supplementation can support the system in finding its balance again. Which brought us, quite naturally, to our partner for the day.

Me with the lovely Sunday Natural team (from left to right): Clarissa Boeker, Miriam Blendorf-Preusche, Sandra Gehlen, and Stefanie Befort.

Sunday Natural was founded in Berlin a little over a decade ago out of frustration with the quality of supplements on the market. The founder wanted to create the kind of products they would take themselves and recommend to their own families. The result is a philosophy they call the True Clean Label: naturally sourced, bioactive ingredients, gently extracted, laboratory tested, free from GMOs and from the controversial additives, fillers and binders that so many capsules still contain. Even the capsule shells are kept pure. With its own research and development team and a range of more than a thousand products, from vitamin D3 and magnesium to adaptogens and fine Japanese teas, Sunday Natural has become the fastest growing premium nutrition brand in the German speaking world. Clarity, cleanliness and uncompromising quality are the three words I would choose for it, and after this afternoon I understand why so many women in my circle already swear by it.

The menu was created around Sunday Natural products, and it was extremely delicious, proof that conscious eating and true pleasure are not opposites. Between courses, the conversation flowed freely. Women shared their own experiences, asked the questions they had never dared to ask their doctors, and left with notebooks full of ideas and a new sense of ease about a topic that still carries far too much silence.

Thank you to Sunday Natural for a partnership that felt so effortless, to the Club zum Rennweg for the perfect setting, and to every woman at the table for her openness. This was only the beginning of the conversation.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht / Anastasia Diadio @diadio.anastasia
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NEW OPENING: THE VÖLKERS HOUSE
Richard Meier Designs an Extraordinary Country Estate in the Southeast of Mallorca

Between the rolling hills of Campos and the artist-filled lanes of Santanyí, a new kind of refuge has arrived in the southeast of Mallorca. THE VÖLKERS HOUSE, set on a 28-hectare estate, is the realised vision of Christian Völkers, founder of the global real estate company Engel & Völkers, and his wife Ninon Völkers: a modern country estate that brings architecture, nature and Argentine savoir-vivre into an extraordinary dialogue.

Shaped by the designs of Pritzker Prize laureate Richard Meier, the estate unites visionary architecture with the authentic beauty of Mallorca. Light, space and landscape merge into an atmosphere of remarkable lightness. Instead of a conventional hotel experience, guests discover a sanctuary that celebrates calm, privacy and the art of conscious travel.

With just 15 generous suites with oasis-like gardens, spread across four houses, THE VÖLKERS HOUSE remains deliberately exclusive. Days begin with views over the island’s fields, unfold into long lunches al fresco and end in the warm glow of the Mediterranean evening sun. The culinary heart of the estate is its restaurant LA CANCHA, where Mediterranean traditions meet Latin American influences, following a farm-to-table philosophy with regional produce and herbs and vegetables from the estate’s own garden.

Argentine equestrian culture defines the identity of the property and forms the heart of the grounds. With its elegant Equestrian Centre, a grandstand overlooking the polo field and nearly 100 horses, THE VÖLKERS HOUSE continues the tradition of the great country estates and gives it a contemporary interpretation.

Wellbeing comes courtesy of the in-house spa, curated by Celia Forner Venturi, founder of the international skincare brand ALLEVEN. The first spa of its kind, it offers a luxurious menu of treatments for skin and body, complemented by sports and individually curated island experiences, always far from standard programmes and entirely in tune with each guest’s own rhythm.

THE VÖLKERS HOUSE translates the spirit of Mallorca into a contemporary idea of luxury: pared back yet generous in its architecture, close to nature and consistently personal in every experience.

To book or for more in formation, please visit www.thevoelkershouse.com / @thevoelkershouse.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: James McDonald, Harry Weber, Ana Adriana and The Völkers House
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Loro Piana just answered a grey sky in the only way it knows how: with cashmere. The house has released an umbrella made entirely from 100% cashmere, water sealed with its signature Storm System® membrane so the fabric stays soft to the eye while doing serious work against the rain.

The details read like everything else Loro Piana touches. A smooth maple wood handle. A generous 65 cm radius, wide enough to actually shelter a coat worth protecting. Manual opening, no branding shouting for attention, and a matching pouch it folds neatly into once the clouds pass. Made in Italy, available in two colorways Navy Blue/Kummel or Chestnut/Kummel, priced at CHF 1420 / $1,750, and worth every cent for what it represents rather than what it says.

Because that is the point. Nobody needs a cashmere umbrella. That is exactly why it exists. No logo, no fuss, no attempt to convince anyone of anything. Just the quiet certainty that the person holding it knows precisely what they are holding.

This is quiet luxury at its best. Not a trend, not a marketing line, just a very good umbrella that happens to be made of cashmere.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht / Loro Piana
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You Cannot Be Serious! The Mark Serves Up a $500,000 US Open Weekend
(Aug 30 – Sept 13, 2026)

Imagine trading forehands with John McEnroe in the morning, spooning Caviar Kaspia above the rooftops of Manhattan in the afternoon and sailing past the Statue of Liberty on a private yacht as the sun goes down. The legendary The Mark Hotel in New York has bundled all of this into one spectacular package: the Grand Slam Extravaganza.

For $500,000, up to six guests check into the largest hotel penthouse in North America for four nights during the US Open. The itinerary reads like a tennis lover’s fever dream: exclusive tickets to the semifinals and the men’s final, menus by Jean-Georges, a private chauffeur, a sail through New York Harbor on one of the last original Herreshoff yachts in the world and a terrace with sweeping views over Central Park, all wrapped in the iconic design by Jacques Grange.

The true highlight happens on court though. John McEnroe himself gives guests a private lesson at his tennis academy. Whether a legendary «You cannot be serious!» is part of the deal remains, sadly, not guaranteed.

Between matches, there is plenty of time to recover in the private Technogym, take a cold plunge with skyline views or sip Champagne on deck. And because even the most extravagant luxury can do good, part of the proceeds goes to the John McEnroe Tennis Academy, which supports young talent.

Game, set and match to The Mark.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: Courtesy of THE MARK
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The Mark Hotel and Alessi turn a daily ritual into a limited edition. The black and white stripe is one of the most recognisable patterns in New York hospitality. This fall it arrives somewhere unexpected: on the body of a corkscrew.

The Mark and Alessi have produced a capsule collection, and its centrepiece is a limited edition of the Alessandro M., reinterpreted exclusively for the hotel in its signature stripe. Alessandro Mendini designed the original, one of the Italian design house’s most loved objects, built on the argument that even the most practical things deserve character. Dressed in the codes of The Mark, that argument gains a new setting.

The rest of the capsule follows the same logic. A picnic basket set by Marcel Wanders, a sculptural tray by Nika Zupanc, and Ron Arad‘s Babyboop hors d’oeuvre set, each carrying the hotel’s signature M and each available at Le Shop at The Mark and nowhere else.

Consider it the most elegant answer to the question of what to bring your host, or what to keep for yourself.

THE DETAILS

Alessandro M. corkscrew in black and white thermoplastic resin
Height 8.27 in, diameter 2.36 in
$120
Exclusively at Le Shop, The Mark Hotel, New York

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © The Mark Hotel
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Fun fact: I love watching football, and I love dressing for it even more. Football outfits are a category of their own in my closet, and just wait, I will show you.

My Look: Soccer

But first things first. Congratulations, Murat Yakin. The best Swiss World Cup run in years, ended by a refereeing decision nobody will defend. What a tournament, what a team, and the whole country stood behind them. Switzerland already has the best chocolate, the best watches and the best mountains.

Murat Yakin with me

Now the internet has decided we also have the best looking coach. To all the girls worldwide suddenly interested in Swiss football: hands off, he is very much taken, and his wife is wonderful. Proud of this team. Hopp Schwiiz.

My Look: Let’s Eat Cake

And if you are wondering how this photo happened: pure coincidence, he walked in while I was celebrating my birthday with my girls, and since we know each other, of course he stopped to say hello.

Moments like these remind me why I am so proud to be Swiss. A small country with a big heart, and right now, with a team that gave us every reason to celebrate.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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Summer holidays are in full swing, and yet CHANEL almost makes me wish for the first day of school. The house has turned the humble geometry set into the chicest collector’s piece of the season, complete with ruler, compass and protractor, all dressed in its unmistakable codes. I was always rather good at geometry, but with this set, my circles would have come out nothing short of couture. No one draws the line quite as elegantly as Chanel, quite literally. Available for € 1,200. Class dismissed!

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © CHANEL
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Flying High: My First Impressions of SWISS Senses on the A350

There are people who view flying as a necessary evil. I am not one of them. For me, stepping onto a plane is pure joy, a ritual I look forward to the moment I book a ticket. So when I flew the brand-new SWISS A350 to Boston and back to Zurich, I was already smiling before I reached the gate.

The SWISS Senses cabin concept is the airline’s most significant product investment in its history, part of a broader 2.5 billion Euro overhaul across the Lufthansa Group. And Boston holds a special place in this story: it was the very first intercontinental destination the A350 ever served, with flights launching in November 2025. So in a way, flying this route felt like being part of something historic.

The experience begins long before you board. One of the things I genuinely love about flying First Class with SWISS is the ritual of it: dedicated check-in, your own security lane, being driven to the aircraft. It sets a tone. It signals that the next several hours belong entirely to you.

The First Class cabin on the A350 is intimate by design. Just three suites, each a private sanctuary with walls nearly six feet high and sliding doors that close the world away. The bathroom is spacious and offers great amenities.

On my outbound flight I sat in 1K, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The aisle beside that seat sees almost no traffic, which means the privacy feels absolute.

On the return I was in 1A, which sits across from the middle suite. If you are travelling as a couple, 1A paired with the booked middle suite is actually a lovely configuration: you face each other across a natural divide and can keep your doors open to create your own little world within the world.

I would, however, caution anyone against booking the middle suite as a pair without thinking it through carefully. Sharing it means one person must essentially climb over the other to exit. There is only a single screen, so agreeing on what to watch becomes non-negotiable. And the absence of a window makes it feel surprisingly enclosed, almost claustrophobic. Given that it commands a premium over the already premium First Class fare, I struggle to justify the cost unless you are truly content to be in your own cocoon together.

The suite itself is beautiful. Thoughtfully designed, genuinely luxurious in feel. The iPad-based control system is a real improvement over what came before: intuitive, elegant, effortless.

The personal wardrobe with its proper coat hanger is a small touch that makes an outsized difference when you board with a longer jacket and simply do not want to fold it into an overhead bin.

Speaking of which: storage. This is where I must be honest. For a First Class passenger, especially one who travels as I do with a carry-on trolley and a weekend bag, the space is simply not generous enough. The under-seat compartment fits one; the other must find a home elsewhere. On both flights the crew was wonderful and accommodated my trolley in their own storage, but this should not be necessary at such a price point. In Business Class, the situation is even more pronounced because the central overhead bins were removed in the new configuration, creating a genuine shortage of overhead space throughout the cabin. Coats, too, must be managed independently in Business, where there is no equivalent of the First Class wardrobe.

The Business Class cabin is worth a visit, even if only to look. The SWISS Senses concept offers five distinct seat types: the Business Suite, Privacy Seat, Extra Space Seat, Classic Seat and Extra Long Bed Seat, all with direct aisle access. My personal favourite configuration from what I observed is the centre pair with a table on each side. For a solo traveller or a couple who enjoy their own space, it is genuinely excellent. However, if you are travelling as a family or with young children, the layout becomes challenging. Many seat pairings face away from each other into the aisle rather than toward one another, which makes the physical closeness of family travel oddly disconnected. It is one of those things the design did not fully account for.

I also took a brief look at the Premium Economy, and it genuinely impressed me. The value proposition there is real, and I can imagine recommending it without hesitation to someone who wants a step up without the full investment.

The food, as always with SWISS, was outstanding. I will never tire of eating at 35,000 feet. There is something eternally civilised about a beautifully set tray and a glass of wine above the clouds.

Now for two honest caveats. On my return flight, the iPad system failed entirely, which was frustrating in a way that would have been unthinkable in a more established product. We also had overhead lighting that could not be switched off and ultimately had to be covered with tape, which is not quite the first impression this extraordinary aircraft deserves. And the Starlink Wi-Fi, though very much a selling point, dropped in and out on both legs rather than delivering the seamless connectivity promised. These are early days for the aircraft on this route, and I fully expect the teething troubles to be resolved quickly. SWISS is too detail-oriented an airline to let these things linger.

What stays with me is the feeling. SWISS is an airline that genuinely cares about the experience it creates. My SWISS Senator status means I can access better seats without a surcharge and even use miles toward First Class, and I am reminded every time I travel with them why loyalty to a single airline is worthwhile.

The new SWISS Senses on the A350 is not a perfect product yet, but it is a magnificent one. If you have the opportunity to experience it, take it.

And if Boston is the destination, even better: you will be flying one of the most storied new routes in recent European aviation history. Bon voyage.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht
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DRESSED FOR THE TOP: What «Ladies First» Gets Brilliantly Right

Sometimes the most important things happen when you slow down. Over the Whitsun weekend in the English countryside, I made a conscious decision to step away from the noise of social media and work obligations and simply breathe. I read, I rested, and I watched a film that has been dividing audiences since it landed on Netflix: «Ladies First«, starring Rosamund Pike and Sacha Baron Cohen, directed by Thea Sharrock.

Let me say this clearly: I loved it.

I loved Rosamunde Pike’s performance in «Ladies First».

Yes, the critics have been ruthless. The reviews have been unkind. But I found myself completely charmed, not despite the film’s unapologetic playfulness, but because of it. «Ladies First» reminds me of the romantic comedies of the nineties and early two-thousands, films that dared to be funny and warm and utterly unashamed of themselves. In a landscape of relentlessly self-serious cinema, there is something genuinely refreshing about a film that winks at you and then makes you think.

The premise is deceptively simple: a swaggering male chauvinist, played with wonderfully committed physicality by Baron Cohen, wakes up in a parallel world where women hold all the power, and men occupy every diminished, overlooked, and underestimated role that women have quietly endured for centuries. It sounds like a comedy setup. And it is. But beneath the laughs lies something that is, when you sit with it, genuinely sobering.

Because the joke only lands if we recognise the truth it is built on.

The film earns those laughs honestly. When the men are womensplained to in board meetings, when someone is called testerical, when the power lunch happens at Burger Queen, when he has to shop at Cockette, and when, in perhaps the film’s most quotable moment, someone declares «he got us by the ovaries.» I laughed out loud. Genuinely. The kind of laugh that reminds you why great comedy, however cheesy, is never a small thing.

The reality is that women remain startlingly underrepresented at the top of almost every major industry. What «Ladies First» does, wrapped in all its glorious cheesiness, is hold a mirror up to a dynamic most of us encounter on a regular basis and simply accept. The question the film poses, the one that stayed with me long after the credits rolled, is whether women would behave differently if we truly held that power. My honest answer: yes, I believe we would. And I think that is something worth celebrating.

But there is another conversation the film opens up, and it is one I find especially compelling as someone who lives and breathes fashion. In this reimagined world, the visual language of power shifts entirely. Clothes become a different kind of currency, and the film understands, perhaps more than it is given credit for, that what you wear is never simply what you wear.

The power of a good jacket: Power Shoulders

Fashion has always been a form of communication that requires no words. Research has consistently reinforced what those of us who dress with intention already know instinctively. A 2019 Harvard Business Review study found that 85 percent of professionals perceive well-dressed individuals as more competent, regardless of gender. Psychologists describe this through the concept of «enclothed cognition,» the idea that clothing does not merely reflect our state of mind but actively shapes it. When you dress with authority, you think and move with authority. The two are inseparable.

Nothing beats a well cut suit in a great hue: Never Seen Together 

This does not mean we need to borrow from a masculine wardrobe. That conversation belongs to another era. True power dressing today is about intention. It is a sharp, beautifully cut blazer worn with a silk slip skirt. It is a confident colour when the room expects beige. It is structure and precision and the quiet, undeniable statement of a woman who knows exactly what she is doing before she has said a single word. And let us not forget: we also look incredible in a men’s suit. That is our advantage, and it always has been. We can wear everything. Femininity is not the opposite of power. It is, when wielded deliberately, one of its most potent expressions.

One of my favorite suits in my closet that is inspired by menswear: Istanbul Memories

Ladies First may not be the film the critics wanted. But it might just be the film we needed. It is funny, it is generous, and hidden inside its warm, crowd-pleasing exterior is a question that is anything but trivial.

It is powerful to mix female and male elements: Dream More

What would the world look like if we dressed, and led, on our own terms?

I think we already know the answer.

LoL, Sandra

An unexpected combination of color and cut: Oversized Cool

Changing your appearance is a powerful thing to do: Bang

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht and Netflix
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London is having a moment. Galleries are unveiling new exhibitions, restaurant terraces are buzzing with an international crowd, and the city’s royal parks are drawing the global it-set like nowhere else this season. At the centre of it all sits The Lanesborough Summer Picnic, a collaboration with Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé that turns an afternoon in Hyde Park into a masterclass in effortless luxury.

Forget the beach. The most stylish escape this summer comes in a picnic basket from one of London’s most storied addresses. Perched at the edge of Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, The Lanesborough has long been synonymous with Regency grandeur and impeccable service. Its 93 rooms, 48 suites, and signature butler service set the tone before you even step outside.

Executive Chef Shay Cooper has designed a menu that feels as considered as a couture look: smoked London Cure salmon with blinis and capers, burrata with Marinda tomatoes and pomegranate, wild mushroom and truffle filo parcels, and a Sutton Hoo chicken terrine. Scones with clotted cream and fresh English strawberries with vanilla Chantilly cream bring things to a deliciously classic close. Every course finds its match in a perfectly chilled bottle of Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé.

Available daily until 6 September 2026, priced at £295 for two with champagne included. Summer in London, done right.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: Courtesy of The Lanesborough
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