A Flight of Fancy Over a World of Possibilities
To keep up with rapidly changing fashion, one must be a true globetrotter, possess abilities of telekinesis, clairvoyance, ventriloquism, sword swallowing, and the skill to turn a pumpkin into a carriage. And have a lot of money. For fashionable travel is by definition not mass, but individual. Or almost individual. And almost always expensive in form and content. Here, you know, you can’t get by with self-made stuff, you need to turn to specialists!
Strange as it may seem, despite the acknowledged lack of wealth in our country, our residents are very susceptible to a love of fashion. They follow it even if they don't have the means. Our women and women in London are two big differences. The former, as expected, have a handbag matched to gloves and a style discernible in their clothing. The latter wear whatever is pulled from the wardrobe: a flowered sundress, winter boots, grandma's cardigan, a football scarf, and a little Chanel coat. And they don't have an iron at all. And it's not a disease, it's just a light attitude to life. So when Molly, a not-at-all poor lady, a servant of Her Majesty, comes from London to Moscow, she is taken for a retired nurse from the provinces. By the way, Molly vacations exclusively by the call of her heart. She likes the city of Prague and the island of Madeira, as well as the year-round Canary Islands. And she couldn't care less about fashion.
Or take, for example, the free city of Amsterdam. For its residents, clothing is a reflection of individuality and inner world, not a tribute to fashion or a demonstration of wallet capacity. Here, a wardrobe is still an X-ray of the wallet and a bank statement. A domestic punk with a green mohawk is a protest against society. A similar hairstyle in the capital of Holland is a sign of free belonging to a free crowd, in which you can find a respectable man with blue hair and a Balzacian lady in "nothing" shorts and leopard boots. Dutch people feel as free on the planet as in their hometown.
Nevertheless, travel fashion in the West does exist. And it influences domestic travel fashion. Ours follows it with some delay. This is clearly seen at international travel exhibitions. For example, at the autumn London exhibition, the largest gatherings of tour operators were observed at the stands of African companies. And at our autumn exhibition, the "Africans" were bored alone.
By the way, it is this aspiration that has led to the latest trends in travel fashion: travel agencies have begun to offer, and people to buy, event tours. For example, time travel. This is not a banal trip to ancient castles, nor even just staying in those same castles. It is a whole performance. The French (of Russian origin) turned out to be ahead of the entire planet here. They organize costume balls copying the balls of the era of Louis XIV or that ball of 1805 that Napoleon gave in honor of Alexander I. They involve actors, carriages, costumes from the film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which were sewn specially for famous historical films.
The second novelty that has appeared on the fashion horizon is "deep tourism". These are more expeditions than trips, where groups of like-minded people go. Like-mindedness turns out to be spontaneous - the theme of such tours is very specific. It is an attempt to look at a country from the inside, from behind the walls of monasteries and shrines, from the provinces or sacred places. "Deep tourism" reflects the absurdist tendencies of fashion, which offers carefully torn jeans, dresses with raw seams, and yellowed lace. Now those who understand, along with ripped jeans, choose a new non-touristic tourism.
Oriental Motifs
There is a fabric pattern called "paisley". And in our language, "Turkish cucumber". It is found everywhere: on Pavlovo-Posad shawls, Finnish stoles, English ties, and Dior dresses. No one knows how old it is. Or thousands of years. Such timeless classics. In tourism, the East is also a classic. It has attracted travelers since the times of Marco Polo and Afanasy Nikitin. And it attracts now.
Fashion for the East is eternal. It was born at the dawn of domestic mass tourism, from the times of Turkish and Chinese "shuttles". Now, of course, being a shuttle is not fashionable. It is fashionable to be the opposite – a guest at the Burj Al Arab hotel in Jumeirah or the super-ecological Al Maha hotel in the Dubai desert, or a riad palace in Morocco. That is, it is fashionable to be rich, like a sheikh or padishah. But it is no less fashionable to be extravagant, curious, and original. This means that the East becomes as far as possible, and a luxury hotel is replaced by a Buddhist monastery or a Japanese "ryokan".
In the West, fashion for all things Eastern became established several years ago. Giorgio Armani makes bamboo handbags, Torrente offers ladies to try on a turban, Dior sends beauties down the runway à la Stravinsky's ballet "The Snow Maiden", Valentino embroiders knitwear with Indian turquoise. As for tourism, it lagged behind design for quite a while. First of all, Europeans flocked to Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam – to luxury resorts in beautiful places. In India, they chose chic colonial-style hotels, explored Malaysia and Singapore.
Now it is China's turn. China is examined thoroughly, not in a hurry. That is, you can, of course, do it in a hurry, but it's not fashionable. In fashion are off-the-beaten-path routes and leisurely travel, during which it is desirable to imbibe the spirit of Taoist sages and Buddhist monks.
But tourist relations with Japan for Europeans somehow did not work out, despite all the other fashion. Ten years ago in central London there was a queue at a Japanese restaurant. A queue for food – it was a sensation! Since then, sushi and sashimi have firmly entered the lives of Europeans. Yamamoto, Mikimoto and Kenzo made millions, millions acquired paper lanterns and tatami. Everyone learned to eat with chopsticks and loved raw cuttlefish, but tourist fashion did not turn towards Japan. Even the thoroughly Europeanized Japanese Haruki Murakami seemed too Asian to many, a little more Asian than European perception allows. But with us, the fashion for Japan blossomed luxuriantly, despite the high cost of these trips. A person who has been to Japan – that sounds proud!
Vietnam has also firmly come into fashion with its natural beauty, luxurious resort hotels and cheap seafood.
The development of Malaysia goes deep – into the depths of the wild island of Borneo, whose shores are still covered by chains of luxurious hotels, into the depths of the warm sea thanks to diving centers on remote small islands.
The most fashionable destination of the East closer to us is undoubtedly Morocco. The fascination with this stunningly beautiful country began with the magical beaches of Agadir and the windsurfing capital Essaouira, with the mysterious nooks of ancient medinas, with the pink walls of Marrakech, with the imperial cities. It became fashionable to stay in luxurious palace hotels or rent small authentic palaces – riads. Riads are located in the historic center of Marrakech, Fez, Agadir, Essaouira. These are historic buildings, mainly palaces of local nobility. Some of them preserve the charming spirit of antiquity in everything, some are updated with the latest technology, equipped with air conditioners and flat-screen home theaters. Mostly these are small buildings with inner courtyards, gardens, fountains and pools. Even a small palace, with only four bedrooms, remains a palace. It exudes oriental luxury in the style of "One Thousand and One Nights": silver and gold-plated dishes, silk pillows, Persian carpets. Everywhere – mountains of fruit and favorite drinks. And most importantly – well-trained servants who treat the temporary master with reverence and awe, appear from nowhere at a clap of the hands or at the thought. Here any whim is instantly fulfilled.
Riads in the elite resort of Essaouira are very popular. The riads D'Essaouira and Dar Mostafa are located in the center of the medina, but close to the beach. And in Marrakech, it is customary to stay either within the walls of the medina, or in the palm groves, where there are both rich villas and luxurious golf hotels.
Prêt-à-porter from pole to pole
Not only countries or coasts are fashionable, but also types of recreation. So you change a hotel for a cruise liner and you get a completely different journey. Or not for a liner, but for a train. Then the main thing becomes not the final destination of the trip, but the trip itself. Such travels also never go out of fashion: cruises and luxury trains are always on the wave. But there is something new here too.
To turn the road into a full-fledged journey and a seamless adventure, you can go on Harley-Davidsons across the USA or on Oldsmobiles across France. An unfading classic of the genre is a trip on a houseboat-barge through the canals of Europe. Forever fashionable are yacht cruises – in the Caribbean, Greece, Croatian and Turkish islands.
So, it's fashionable to go to old places, but in a new way. Fundamentally new are travels on cargo ships, which are becoming increasingly popular among originals. Any traveler can book a place on a container ship. He can choose a route lasting from ten days (enough to cross the Atlantic) to three months (the fastest circumnavigation). Such tours are booked through agencies established by shipping companies. The leader among them is considered the German company Hamburg Sued. The journey can be started at any port, the most convenient are Hamburg, Le Havre, London, Genoa and Barcelona.
On a container ship, a passenger lives in a cabin of about 30 sq. m with minimal comfort. The tour price includes three meals a day in the company of ship officers. The passenger has at his disposal drinks and cigarettes at Duty Free prices, exercise machines, a small pool and plenty of free time. The duration of port calls is from 10 to 24 hours, which allows for independent tourist forays into cities. On a cargo ship, you can even circumnavigate the globe, admiring the ocean through a porthole just above the waterline. Such a trip costs about €100 per day.
The latest "cri de la mode" in luxury travel is comfortable trains. The most luxurious hotel trains are recognized as the Orient Express, Rovos Rail and Blue Train. Routes can be selected for every taste: short and multi-day, expensive and relatively cheap, through Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, South Africa, North and South America. Most of these trains are recreated or restored historical trains. In them, new Hercule Poirots and Miss Marples await luxurious compartments with wide beds, soft furniture and paintings, bathrooms with toilet and shower, a restaurant with exquisite cuisine, well-trained staff. The result is what can be called luxury class relaxation.
One of the hotel trains – the American Aurora Express – was assembled half a century ago from mismatched cars that traveled across the country. Each compartment is decorated in accordance with the tastes of the early last century. They are all different: in one compartment, solid gilding, ornate decor, original curtain design with tassels. In another – almost monastic minimalism: light walls with crucifixes, no carpets. In the third compartment you can find the gaudy luxury of the American West with painted ceilings and crystal chandeliers. And in the restaurant car, the northern lights are painted on the ceiling.
The latest novelty is the American train Grand Luxe, which allows you to travel from the US-Mexico border in El Paso to the Pacific Ocean. This is an amazing journey through Mexico: in the Copper Canyon the train runs at an altitude of 2.000 meters above sea level; one of the stops is at the Aztec pyramids in Teotihuacan, one of the most mysterious ancient cities. This trip is called Grand Luxe Mexico. The train itself is a true work of art. Its carriages, made in the mid-20th century, were bought from private collections and museums in America.
The quintessence of travel for the journey's sake is space flight. Now the fifth person is about to join the ranks of space tourists. Recently, Virgin owner Richard Branson told the world about the plans of the Vigrin Galactic division, which is developing spacecraft for suborbital tourist flights. According to Branson, by 2009 Virgin Galactic will begin regular space flights on a special ship that can carry up to six tourists. The ticket price for a private Virgin Galactic spacecraft will be 100 thousand British pounds.
The flight will look like this: tourists will be lifted to an altitude of about 20 km on an ordinary airplane, to the fuselage of which a spacecraft will be attached. Then the ship's engines will turn on, and it will rise to the altitude of near-Earth orbit. In orbit, tourists will be in a zone of complete weightlessness for four minutes. But that is already a fashion of the future...
Western motifs
In fashion is not only the East. The West, especially not very wild, never loses its attractiveness. True, capricious fashion casts its wing on some even not so much countries as their separate parts. European islands are very successful, first of all Italian ones. It is especially fashionable to go to Sicily. Sicily is forever shrouded in the flair of some mystery, some understatement. In general, Sicily intrigues. And this is very correct: the island is simply stuffed with architectural monuments, and also crowned with a white cap of Etna.
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the largest province of Italy. The ancient Greeks called it the “Island of Three Capes,” or Trinacria. Trinacria is depicted as the face of Medusa or Fortune, from which three legs extend. This funny figurine still remains a symbol of the island. It is considered a talisman, invokes the favor of Fortune, and embodies eternal motion. Sicily indeed was always in motion: it was continuously conquered and reconquered. Moreover, each conqueror built monuments and left a trace in its culture.
For example, the city of Palermo: 3,000 years ago it was founded by the Phoenicians, then it was conquered in turn by the Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, French, and Spanish. From three hundred years of Byzantine rule remain the golden mosaics of cathedrals, from two hundred years of Muslim rule – Arabic motifs in architecture and orange groves. Palermo was the capital of the Sicilian Emirate and the Norman Kingdom; under King Roger II in 1132, cathedrals in the “Arab-Norman” style were built here, which can only be seen in Sicily. The Catalans left behind Gothic, the Aragonese – Baroque palaces and squares with statues and fountains. The main of these monuments are the cathedral, the Byzantine mosaics of the 12th century in the church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio, the round red domes of the church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti, built in the 12th century by the Arabs.
Besides monuments, Palermo is interesting for its unique character, its variegation and dissimilarity to all other cities in the world. This is real exoticism, attractive and beautiful. And all of Sicily is exotic. For example, red “sanguinella” oranges grow here, from which ruby-colored juice is obtained. And Sicilian tomatoes are recognized even by Italians as the best in the world. Even the cuisine of Sicily is unusual, in which the culinary traditions of different peoples of the West and East are mixed. Its morals, traditions, and rituals are exotic. Not to mention the famous mafia, the monuments to its victims, the places of shootings and explosions that guides show.
A special Sicilian exotic is the formidable smoking Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe with a height of 3,340 m. Lovers of living as if on a volcano can easily do so here. The mountain has destroyed cities many times. Seven times it wiped Catania, located 40 km from it, off the face of the earth. Everyone strives to go to Etna. Tourists go up by funicular, ride jeeps, and then walk to feel the hot stones of Etna in their palms, to look into the inferno of its craters. This is truly a stunning sight.
Sicily has lovely old towns and fashionable resorts. Among the former is Cefalù on the Tyrrhenian coast – with medieval streets, a huge Norman cathedral, a fortress, and a fishing harbor. Or Randazzo at the foot of Etna – its houses are built of black volcanic stone. The most fashionable and expensive resort is Taormina on the Ionian coast. The city is stunningly beautiful, it stands on a steep rocky slope of Mount Tauro. There is a Greek theater from the 3rd century BC, medieval towers, Norman churches, and Aragonese palaces. Plus a breathtaking view of Etna. The best view of Taormina itself opens from the resort suburb of Giardini-Naxos.