Platinum Home
Curated by Wallpaper* in partnership with
The Platinum Card® from American Express
For more information and to apply for The Platinum Card, Click here
If you’d prefer a Card without any rewards, other features or a Cardmembership fee, an alternative is available – the Basic Card. Go to americanexpress.com/uk/basic-card/ for more information. Applicants must be 18 or over. Approval is subject to status and Terms and Conditions apply.
For full terms and conditions of The Platinum Card, please visit americanexpress.co.uk/platinum
Promoter: American Express Services Europe Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Our luxury lifestyle editors
Brought to you by The Platinum Card® from American Express, this project explores the lifestyles of three influential London-based editors: Melina Keays, Wallpaper* entertaining director; Giles Kime, Country Life interiors editor; and Chris Maillard, Decanter editor-in-chief. It offers a glimpse of their homes, their ideas of luxury, their favourite bars, restaurants, and shops, as well as their escapes from the city – all enjoyed with the unique benefits that come with Platinum Cardmembership.
For more information and to apply for The Platinum Card, Click Here
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
If you’d prefer a Card without any rewards, other features or a Cardmembership fee, an alternative is available – the Basic Card. Go to americanexpress.com/uk/basic-card/ for more information. Applicants must be 18 or over. Approval is subject to status and Terms and Conditions apply.
For full terms and conditions of The Platinum Card, please visit americanexpress.co.uk/platinum
Promoter American Express Services Europe Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
The Platinum Card® is the ideal companion as you enjoy your favourite pursuits and pleasures, and make purchases along the way, whether in London or beyond. Maximise your experience with a wealth of travel and lifestyle benefits.
GETTING AROUND
Cardmembers can receive up to £10 of statement credits every month for rides booked with their Platinum Card using Addison Lee taxis and Tristar car services throughout the UK. Travel from place to place in style and save at the same time.
EARNING AS YOU SPEND
Whether you’re shopping for your favourite indulgences in Liberty or Selfridges, paying for gallery tickets, or investing in fine wine, you can accrue and save Membership Rewards® points as you spend. You and your Supplementary Cardmembers earn 1 point for every £1 spent and earn faster with 1 additional point for every £1 spent at American Express Travel Online. Points can later be used to cover anything you've bought on your Platinum Card. Platinum Cardmembers also receive a welcome bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £4,000 in
the first three months of Cardmembership.
STAYING POWER
Get an extra-special welcome at American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts partnered hotels. Cardmember privileges include complimentary breakfast for two, guaranteed 4pm late check-out and room upgrades when available. Or, if you’d prefer a home away from home, book a world-class property through onefinestay.com and receive a $200 statement credit on your Platinum Card for each reservation. Enrolment in onefinestay.com required. .
FINE DINING
Securing the perfect dining spot, whether the private dining room at Pollen Street Social, or a champagne lunch at Coya, both part of the American Express Global Dining Collection, is simple with your Platinum Card. Give Platinum Concierge a call to book one of the specially reserved tables for Platinum Cardmembers.
BEST LAID PLANS
From taking care of your travel arrangements to ordering flowers for a friend, Platinum Concierge is a 24/7 travel and lifestyle service, helping to organise and realise your plans.
WHERE NEXT?
Leaving town? With unlimited access to more than 1,200 airport lounges in more than 130 countries, Platinum Cardmembers flying out of town for their next adventure can relax in style and avoid the crowds before boarding. Travel is covered by comprehensive worldwide travel insurance for you, your partner, your dependent children and your Supplementary Cardmembers for trips of up to 90 days and gap year cover for children under 25. Terms apply.
For more information and to apply for The Platinum Card, Click here
Annual Fee £575. Terms and Conditions apply.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
If you’d prefer a Card without any rewards, other features or a Cardmembership fee, an alternative is available – the Basic Card. Go to americanexpress.com/uk/basic-card/ for more information. Applicants must be 18 or over. Approval is subject to status and Terms and Conditions apply.
For full terms and conditions of The Platinum Card, please visit americanexpress.co.uk/platinum
Promoter American Express Services Europe Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
Wallpaper*
A well-edited home is a happy one for Wallpaper* entertaining director Melina Keays. Here, she shares a glimpse of her London base, reflects on thoughtful acquisition, summer pleasures to come, and using her Platinum Card wisely.
For Melina Keays, Wallpaper* entertaining director, home is velvet cushions, antique Chinese porcelain pieces inherited from her collector mother, vintage coffee table books, parrot tulips and white orchids. Items are sourced from work trips, local stores, and holidays in Singapore. She owns a classic Mies van der Rohe ‘Barcelona’ chair, a 1970s brass and marble coffee table, and an Albert Kahn photograph of a Mongolian horseman. Floors are wood or marble, walls painted in rich, warm shades, and the walnut kitchen cabinets rendered in clean, 1960s Danish style. A smoky ‘Tam Dao’ candle by Diptyque fragrances the space.
It’s a ‘London Indochine’ aesthetic that references Keays’ Asian heritage and keen eye for detail. Just like her, the apartment is glamorous and gently decadent. ‘I am a West End girl through and through,’ says Keays, who prefers to get around town on foot, or by cab. ‘I do my shopping in Selfridges, Marylebone and on Bond Street.’
Keays has been more physically focused too, heading to Kensington Gardens for a Pilates class or a run, and long walks. She has bought exercise apparel – by Alo Yoga, Varley, and Nike – online from Selfridges. ‘I would advise anyone visiting London to head for its big, famous stores first,’ says Keays. ‘We are much more of a department store city than a mall town.’ Keays shops in Selfridges’ Foodhall using her Platinum Card and collects Membership Rewards® points – one for every £1 spent, redeemable with a range of partners – saving them up for a treat, an investment purchase. ‘I like to redeem my points for something special that will last.’ She’s currently in the market for a new bed.
Her West End evenings out over the next few months have been arranged with the help of the Platinum Concierge service, on hand to Cardmembers for reservations and much more. ‘They help me find a good table by a window when I go for dinner, at Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, for example.’
Keays’ home is filled with collected treasures. Among recent purchases using her Membership Rewards points – accrued as she spends with her Platinum Card and saved up for future treats – is a ‘Spiritus Sancti' scented candle, £80, by Cire Trudon, from Liberty (left of centre, with gold label)
Another recent indulgence, ‘Winterthur' cushion, £267, by Missoni Home, from Selfridges
‘Flower Vase No 23’, £114, by Ro Collection, from John Lewis
Keays also treats herself to coffee table tomes, such as Gucci: The Making Of, £65, by Frida Giannini; and Francis Bacon: Man & Beast, £32, by Anna Testar, Catherine Howe, Isabella Boorman, Michael Peppiatt and Stephen F Eisenman, both from Waterstones. ‘Spiritus Sancti' scented candle, as before
‘Key Noir’ candle, £135, by L’Objet, from Selfridges
An addition to Keays’ collected tableware, ‘Oriente Italiano’ platter, £235, by Ginori 1735, from Liberty
Country Life
Period interiors can be transformed with distinctive mix of the colourful and the quirky, says Country Life’s executive editor and interiors editor, Giles Kime.
‘Design that is distinctive, individual and non-homogenous. Things that are attractive with a bit of a story or a connection with the past. A light or a chair that might have roots in an old idea, but will have been reinvented, rescaled, redesigned for contemporary use. That’s the kind of thing I am looking for,’ says Kime.
Nor does owning a period house necessarily mean that people have to live with a colour palette straight from a Jane Austen costume drama, according to Kime, who is currently flying the flag for accents of lime green, orange and turquoise. ‘There’s a really interesting new culture shift, spearheaded by the younger people that are now moving out of town, which is looking to a simpler and less cluttered way of doing things.’ This more minimalist look is all about carefully selected, key pieces and demonstrates that you can live in the countryside in a way that is arguably more true to the original roots of rural architecture and design.
An outdoor dining fan, Kime will be calling on the Platinum Concierge service to get him an open-air table at La Petite Maison in Mayfair, or at Colbert in Sloane Square, close to the interior-designer community’s favourite shopping destination of Pimlico Road. Both restaurants are part of the American Express Global Dining Collection and offer specially reserved tables for Platinum Cardmembers.
‘The last year has been a particularly popular time for garden furniture,’ says Kime. ‘We’re looking to prolong the enjoyment into the cooler months; set up a brazier or a fire pit, enjoy an autumn cocktail or a winter picnic.’
Edible indulgences from Fortnum & Mason are among the items covered by Kime’s saved-up Membership Rewards points, gained as he spends using his Platinum Card. Marc de Champagne truffles, £25; Toffolossus biscuits, £18; Pistachio & clotted cream biscuits, £13, all from Fortnum & Mason
An admirer of craftsmanship, Kime also uses his points for purchases such as this ‘Terra' pot and saucer, £65, by Snøhetta, for Georg Jensen, from Selfridges
‘Nixon' baby alpaca throw, £345, by Jonathan Adler, from Selfridges
Full of garden inspiration, PLANTING THE OUDOLF GARDENS AT HAUSER & WIRTH SOMERSET, £30, by Rory Dusoir and Piet Oudoulf, from Waterstones. ‘Adélaïde’ platter, £165, by Astier de Villatte, from Liberty
Dear Friend and Gardener: Letters on Life and Gardening, £10, by Beth Chatto, Christopher Lloyd and Fergus Garrett, from Waterstones. ‘Nixon’ baby alpaca throw, as before
Decanter
Decanter editor-in-chief Chris Maillard has a view on uncorking wine. ‘A skilled sommelier will show off their expert technique by having the most basic penknife-style corkscrew,’ he says. ‘They would never use anything fancy or mechanical. But most of us need a tool that is nicely designed, easy to operate and very reliable.’
Ergo, Maillard chooses an oversized twin-lever model by Italian engineers Campagnolo. ‘It’s the best one of its type and very well engineered — as one would expect from a company that designs components for Tour de France winners. It’s built to last a very long time, faintly ludicrous in size (it takes up a lot of room in the drawer) but extremely effective.’
Clever, well designed, ergonomic accessories enhance the oenophilic experience, ‘but don’t get in the way of enjoying the wine itself’, says Maillard. And that experience is changing. ‘People are starting to be more adventurous with their choices, more experimental with price, perhaps trying a different version of something they know they like. The Oregon region of North America, for instance, is now producing some really interesting Pinot Noirs.’
Recently, direct-to-consumer activity — new wine clubs and digital subscriptions, online tastings and master classes, virtual cellar and vineyard tours — may have changed our wine drinking and wine appreciation habits forever, Maillard believes. ‘Across the industry, what was expected to happen in the next ten years has actually happened in just one year.’
Maillard rates Riedel ‘Winewings’ glasses, available from Selfridges, and plans to save up his Membership Rewards® points — one for every pound spent — to redeem them on a matching decanter.
He plans to visit the US to hunt out new and exciting wine regions, like Oregon, when he gets the chance. A trip like this can be booked by Platinum Concierge, and Platinum’s complimentary worldwide travel insurance will add another level of reassurance.
Maillard knows a thing or two about wine-related accessories. He uses Membership Rewards points to treat himself to items such as ‘The Mature Wine Decanter’, £125, from the Jancis Robinson Collection, by Richard Brendon, from Selfridges; and ‘Winewings Cabernet Sauvignon’ wine glass, £29, by Riedel
Another purchase covered by accrued Membership Points, ‘Origami' bowl in recycled glass, £35, by San Miguel Recycled Glass, from Liberty
‘Flo' table lamp, £275, by Samuel Wilkinson, from The Conran Shop
An essential companion, Hugh Johnson Pocket Wine 2021: New Edition, £11, by Hugh Johnson, from Waterstones, and an ‘extremely effective’ piece of kit, ‘The Big Corkscrew’, £140, by Campagnolo, from Condor Cycles
Maillard also enjoys treating himself to art. RB M21, 2019, by Ronan Bouroullec, from The Wrong Shop (signed editions sold out, posters, £55)
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