Sandra‘s Closet

The Alpina Gstaad x Harry’s Bar: A London Favourite Returns to the Alps

Gstaad is speaking with an Italian accent this summer. From July 18 to 31, 2026, the legendary London private members’ club Harry’s Bar returns to The Alpina Gstaad for its first ever summer residency, trading Mayfair for mountain air and bringing its celebrated Northern Italian cuisine to an al fresco setting in the heart of the Swiss Alps.

This collaboration holds a special place in my heart. As a Committee Member at Annabel’s, which belongs to the Birley Clubs family just like Harry’s Bar, I know first hand the magic these houses create: impeccable food, effortless glamour and that rare feeling of being among friends the moment you walk in. Seeing a piece of this world transplanted to Gstaad, where Harry’s Bar so rarely appears outside its London home, feels like a little gift to the Alps.

Expect long, convivial lunches in the alpine sunshine that melt into stylish evenings under the open sky, with the club’s timeless signature dishes taking centre stage. After a successful winter appearance in February, Club Director Luciano Porcu promises a summer entirely in the spirit of Harry’s Bar: excellent food, even better company. A presto!

When to go:
Dinner is served daily from 7:00 pm to 10:30 pm throughout the residency. From Friday to Sunday, lunch is also available from 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Alpina Gstaad / Harry’s Bar
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Where Fashion Meets Wallpaper:
A Morning at Annabel’s with Martin Brudnizki and de Gournay

Few interiors in London stop me the way Annabel’s does. As a member of the Membership Committee at the club, I spend a fair amount of time on Berkeley Square, and yet Martin Brudnizki’s work hits differently every single time. His studio MBDS created something genuinely unique here: a universe of controlled fantasy, English eccentricity and absolute attention to detail. The kind of space that makes you want to dress up just to be worthy of it.

Last Tuesday, I was at the club for breakfast with Martin Brudnizki and Hannah Cecil Gurney of de Gournay to see a new installation celebrating the English summer, which London, with its characteristic sense of humour, chose to mark with a day of horizontal rain. Inside, none of that mattered. The new de Gournay panels are breathtaking: a sweeping floral composition alive with birds, painted in that unmistakable hand that de Gournay has made its signature. Lush, layered, luminous. The moment I saw them, my mind went immediately to the Erdem collaboration, and for very personal reasons.

Those who have followed my interiors journey over the years will know that my previous home was conceived as a love letter to fashion. I dedicated each room to a different designer, with de Gournay as the connective thread running throughout. My study was entirely devoted to the Erdem x de Gournay collection: chinoiserie of birds and blossoms, handpainted in watercolour, in a design that Erdem Moralioglu and Hannah Cecil Gurney brought into being with a shared obsession for the handmade, the romantic and the rare. I lived inside that collaboration, quite literally. And I dressed to match it.

So when I sat down for breakfast last week, I wore my Erdem x de Gournay Giudita tie-neck belted floral-print silk-voile dress. The only possible choice. It felt like a small homage, and it was received as such.

Over breakfast, Martin and Hannah spoke about something that I think many people do not fully understand about the de Gournay design process: the role of the client. The vision, when it is strong and specific, is not a constraint. It is the starting point from which something truly singular can be made. My own vision for that home was fashion, always fashion. With de Gournay, we translated it into walls, into rooms, into an entire way of inhabiting a space. A collaboration in the truest sense of the word, unfolding slowly, with intention.

I will write more about this process another time, because it deserves the space to be explored properly. For now: a dress that was exactly where it needed to be, a room that understood it completely, and a conversation at the table as beautiful as everything else around it.

LoL, Sandra

With my beautiful girlfriends Marijana Matthäus and Monica Perlman.

Photos: Courtesy of Annabel’s / © Sandra Bauknecht 
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In celebration of London Fashion Week, I was invited by La Perla to a wonderful breakfast and panel discussion hosted by Top Stylist Sophie Goodwin and Chief Design Officer at La Perla Nicole Rendone at luxury member’s club Annabel’s in London. Exploring the brand’s rich heritage and craftsmanship, while highlighting key iconic brand moments, the two ladies indulged in a wonderful conversation how La Perla had followed the evolution of the female body through different fashions and trends becoming the lingerie and beachwear brand synonymous with «Made in Italy». On display we could admire many different and stunning archive pieces.

With Sophie Goodwin to the left and Nicole Redone to the right.

It all started in 1954 when Ada Masotti, an Italian woman full of talent and courage, began the journey towards her dream: creating an atelier of corsetry in the name of the best Italian tradition. Beginning in a small laboratory in Bologna, the Italian town renowned for its solid tradition of silk factories and textile manufacturers, Ada used her talent as a skilled corset maker to create works of art enhancing feminine beauty.

La Perla ’90s, Outwear Corset

We all agreed that lingerie has the ability to make women feeling empowered. For Sophie «putting on her underwear is like the foundation of the house.» It all starts there. For Nicole «lingerie is like autocorrect, it can accentuate, fix or leave it as you want it.»

With lovely Biliana Rangelova, Global Client Engagement Director La Perla Global Management

La Perla 2013: Jean Paul Gaultier Rubans Body Suit

In the ’60s women burnt their bras, in the ’80s they wore cone bras, today it is sexy on another level. Lingerie is like jewelry, you can show it. It is sensuality on another level. The trend of blurring boundaries between public and private has emphasized the gradual ascent of lingerie to the world of fashion. We wear pajamas to go to the nightclub and show our bra lace under a pant suit. Times have changed and so has the Italian lingerie brand.

Left: La Perla 2007, Golden Cage Bustier – Right: La Perla 2014, Paisley Body Suit

La Perla’s ability to transmit the spirit of its creations across each decade is certainly the secret to the brand’s success, proving that what would be considered as a historic brand, can adapt, innovate and transform in the face of competition and the obstacles that affect the societies we live in.

LoL, Sandra

La Perla 2007, Black Label Bodysuit

La Perla 2008, Black Label Collection

La Perla 2012: Jean Paul Gaultier Frou Frou Lingerie Set

Photos: Courtesy of La Perla / Shaun James Cox and © Sandra Bauknecht
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