Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga's stylist and the creative director of Mugler and Uniqlo, loves his job(s) so much that he thought he didn't need a holiday -- that is, until he spent a romantic, relaxing week in Ibiza with his boyfriend. Now, he's hooked.
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The great thing about my job is that I get to travel everywhere, but all of my trips always end up becoming work. This year my manager was like, "I shouldn't be saying this to you, but you should take a holiday. You have to just switch off everything. Don't call me." So, a few days after the Paris shows, I went to Ibiza with my boyfriend Chris. We'd been dating for about three months and it was our first holiday together.
It was Chris's first time in Ibiza. He only knew it from that J.Lo song, "On the Floor," where she's like "London to Ibiza," so he was like, "Are we really going to Ibiza?"
The first week in October is kind of a famous week for Ibiza; after that no one's there (unless you live on the island) because the weather is not so great. I used to go to Ibiza almost every year because I lived in London, so it was very close. It's a party island, and definitely not known for being calm and spiritual. People think it's all one big crazy club town, but that's just 10 percent of it. The rest is actually so beautiful. I don't want to promote it too much, because people don't really know that side of Ibiza, and I don't want the word to get out. It was a hippie island in the '70s, and a lot of them haven't moved since then.
We got this cute little villa up in the north in San Carlos that is owned by some old hippie woman. There was no "OK, we have to do this today." It was just go with the flow -- and it was so nice. I haven't done that in such a long time. We just got a car and drove. I cannot drive, which American people are like, "What do you mean you can't drive?" I don't even know which one is the brakes. And do you have to use both legs? I have no idea. Chris is American so he drove. And since there was no frigging Internet in the fucking mountains, I couldn't do anything anyways, so I basically just took pictures and used Instagram. It was very relaxing and inspiring and I actually came up with so many amazing ideas while chilling, reading books, taking pictures and just having fun.
We would wake up really early at like 7 a.m. because we were not tired. We'd have breakfast at the villa and then I'd put on my American Apparel shorts and go. We would have a map and say, "OK, today let's go to the east side," and then we'd stay and have a lunch on the beach and then go to another side of the island. At night we'd stop by Ibiza Town, this beautiful old village and have dinner there. It was usually seafood and tapas. You eat healthy and smoke cigarettes less and then go home and sleep. That's it. Really simple. I love it.
One of the most romantic places is this huge rock in the south of Ibiza and you can stay on the beach and wait for the sun to go down behind it. It's the most beautiful thing ever; you just see how the sky changes from blue to purple to red to yellow to rainbow, and it's incredible. I mean, this sounds a bit wet in the vagina, but when you're there you're just like, "Fuck."
Before my trip I was like, "I don't even care about holidays I travel so much," and what I loved most was to stay at home in New York. I moved here from London two years ago and I never get to stay in my apartment in Tribeca. I love going through books, watching TV and doing nothing, so my holiday used to be staying at home and seeing friends. Then I was talking to someone during the shows and he was like, "Just go because once you're there you get used to it and then you get addicted to holidays." It's totally true. Now it's like, "When am I going away again?" It's like taking vitamins and going to the gym and doing yoga -- you just go and then you're charged for the next few months.
Over the next week, we'll be posting more travel pieces by everyone from British band Is Tropical to '60s supermodel Marisa Berenson. You can read about Sasha Grey's trip to Thailand and Germany here, Twilight star Jackson Rathbone's account of being robbed in San Francisco here and Momofuku Milk pastry chef Christina Tosi's 10 traveling rules here.
The great thing about my job is that I get to travel everywhere, but all of my trips always end up becoming work. This year my manager was like, "I shouldn't be saying this to you, but you should take a holiday. You have to just switch off everything. Don't call me." So, a few days after the Paris shows, I went to Ibiza with my boyfriend Chris. We'd been dating for about three months and it was our first holiday together.It was Chris's first time in Ibiza. He only knew it from that J.Lo song, "On the Floor," where she's like "London to Ibiza," so he was like, "Are we really going to Ibiza?"
The first week in October is kind of a famous week for Ibiza; after that no one's there (unless you live on the island) because the weather is not so great. I used to go to Ibiza almost every year because I lived in London, so it was very close. It's a party island, and definitely not known for being calm and spiritual. People think it's all one big crazy club town, but that's just 10 percent of it. The rest is actually so beautiful. I don't want to promote it too much, because people don't really know that side of Ibiza, and I don't want the word to get out. It was a hippie island in the '70s, and a lot of them haven't moved since then.
We got this cute little villa up in the north in San Carlos that is owned by some old hippie woman. There was no "OK, we have to do this today." It was just go with the flow -- and it was so nice. I haven't done that in such a long time. We just got a car and drove. I cannot drive, which American people are like, "What do you mean you can't drive?" I don't even know which one is the brakes. And do you have to use both legs? I have no idea. Chris is American so he drove. And since there was no frigging Internet in the fucking mountains, I couldn't do anything anyways, so I basically just took pictures and used Instagram. It was very relaxing and inspiring and I actually came up with so many amazing ideas while chilling, reading books, taking pictures and just having fun.
We would wake up really early at like 7 a.m. because we were not tired. We'd have breakfast at the villa and then I'd put on my American Apparel shorts and go. We would have a map and say, "OK, today let's go to the east side," and then we'd stay and have a lunch on the beach and then go to another side of the island. At night we'd stop by Ibiza Town, this beautiful old village and have dinner there. It was usually seafood and tapas. You eat healthy and smoke cigarettes less and then go home and sleep. That's it. Really simple. I love it.
One of the most romantic places is this huge rock in the south of Ibiza and you can stay on the beach and wait for the sun to go down behind it. It's the most beautiful thing ever; you just see how the sky changes from blue to purple to red to yellow to rainbow, and it's incredible. I mean, this sounds a bit wet in the vagina, but when you're there you're just like, "Fuck."
Before my trip I was like, "I don't even care about holidays I travel so much," and what I loved most was to stay at home in New York. I moved here from London two years ago and I never get to stay in my apartment in Tribeca. I love going through books, watching TV and doing nothing, so my holiday used to be staying at home and seeing friends. Then I was talking to someone during the shows and he was like, "Just go because once you're there you get used to it and then you get addicted to holidays." It's totally true. Now it's like, "When am I going away again?" It's like taking vitamins and going to the gym and doing yoga -- you just go and then you're charged for the next few months.
Over the next week, we'll be posting more travel pieces by everyone from British band Is Tropical to '60s supermodel Marisa Berenson. You can read about Sasha Grey's trip to Thailand and Germany here, Twilight star Jackson Rathbone's account of being robbed in San Francisco here and Momofuku Milk pastry chef Christina Tosi's 10 traveling rules here.
