Patagonia's still more likely to be frequented by backpackers than the upscale hotel crowd, but if accommodations like the recently opened Arrebol Patagonia Hotel keep cropping up, that will change. (Luxurious digs have a way of making even the most far-flung locales seem accessible.) Located in Puerto Varas on Lake Llanquihue, the hotel was designed to interact with its surroundings (the building's facade is made of wood native to the area). As interest in South American tourism ramps up, we're left with only one question: Where will liberal arts grads go to find themselves now?
Camino Ensenada KM2 Ruta 225, Puerto Varas, Region de los Lagos, Chile, +56-65-564924, arrebolpatagonia.com

[Arch Daily via Designboom]

In case you didn't already know, the London Festival of Architecture opens today—an exhaustive series of design-related talks and exhibitions ongoing in the British capital. Speakers include Daniel Libeskind and the festival's president, noted author Peter Ackroyd; he's curated dozens of temporary installations, like the one pictured here. Fresh Flower by Tonkin Liu is a steel pavilion that features an LED-lit rotating stage and will host some of the festival's workshops and discussions—not, as you might have assumed, performances by Widespread Panic.
Through July 20 at various locations, lfa2008.org

Out now: Hedi Slimane's Rock Diary, a collection of the designer's photographs, published in conjunction with his exhibition at Spain's MUSAC. The three-volume set includes a tome of Slimane's snaps from the Spanish Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, one of his shots of British and American rock shows, and one of critical appraisals of his work from The New Yorker art critic Vince Aletti and punk-rock historian Jon Savage. Slimane's got an eagle eye for aesthetically pleasing concertgoers, but what we most like is his ability to draw a rare warmth and vulnerability from the likes of Pete Doherty (pictured), who looks more human through Hedi's lens than you'd otherwise expect.
$95, available at Colette, 213 rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, France, colette.fr

As you can see from the Sartorialist's blog, many of the world's most fashionable men descended on Pitti this week. But that doesn't mean some guys weren't dressing well even beyond Italy's borders. Here, our ten favorite looks from the past week in style—including Perry Farrell's rock-'n'-roll twist on granddad chic.

Click here for the slideshow >

Leave it to the French: Parisian firm 5.5 Designers is offering a "cloning program," wherein furniture and other home objects are designed according to physical data like hair samples and eye colors. (Makes DNA 11's canvases almost seem quaint.) Creepy or practical? A bit of both—the blown-glass eyeball lamps (pictured) are a bit unsettling (to say nothing of the body-hair rug—seriously), but a comb that's based around your hair quantity and style? Useful, and dare we say borderline bespoke.

[Moco Loco]

When it was announced that Belgian avant-gardist Walter Van Beirendonck would be showing at the ultratraditional Pitti Uomo, more than a few eyebrows were raised. Van Beirendonck, one of the so-called "Antwerp Six" (Dries Van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, and Ann Demeulemeester also among them), tends toward the iconoclastic, and his clothes aim to shock and amuse. Well, consider his mission accomplished—even if Explicit was his most restrained collection to date. ("Restrained" being a relative term—the designer's previous collection was entitled Sexclown.) Models wore full-body leotards, some emblazoned with skeletons, some with fleshy muscles and, ahem, appendages. Others came down the runway in T-shirts with cartoonish prints and superhero-inspired tops. But all sported beards meant to look like twigs and leaves (garden-gone-to-seed versions of Van Beirendonck's own). That may have been the provocateur's most wearable look: faux facial hair fit for a wood nymph. Unfortunately for green-minded customers, we don't suppose they'll be for sale.

Ex-Phantom Planet drummer (and actor) Jason Schwartzman is among the latest to join in KCRW's Guest DJ series. As you'd guess, his selections are terrific, running the gamut from Paul McCartney deep cuts ("Ram On") to Harry Nilsson's "Me and My Arrow"—the actor even named his dog after the latter's title character. (Too cute by half? Nah.) And while Padma Lakshmi's appeal remains mostly visual—seriously—it's still fun to hear her describe how Marvin Gaye helps her "open up like a flower." (We should all be so fortunate.) Listen to these, and selections from Danny DeVito, Neil LaBute, and Peter Berg, here.

For the first time, designer (and auto heir) Lapo Elkann produced a full collection under his Italia Independent label. As you'd expect, the clothes are, in a word, vivid: extra-wide-lapel suits that come in a variety of colors (think Froot Loops); blazers made of jersey knit with raw edges and screen-printed pinstripes; and layered hooded sweatshirts with clear exteriors and plaid interiors. He's most successful at items that veer toward his personal style (seen in a relatively understated tux jacket, and his cashmere and Gore-Tex puffer vests), but I'm seriously considering a pair of his green trousers for next year. Nothing says spring quite like lime.

It was the finger sandwiches, fondant fancies, and bone china that clinched it: Against my better judgment—surely only diapered types, from blue-hairs to babies, need bother with between-meal snacks—I succumbed to afternoon tea on the terrace of the Mount Nelson in Cape Town. A century-old pile of buildings in the center of town, the hotel is justly famed for that afternoon tea, set in its enormous, Raj-shaming garden. Big, pink, and unabashedly colonial, the Mount Nelson was recently renovated, and the vibe is Great Gatsby-meets-Out of Africa with a dash of Malawi-era Madonna: surreal, genteel, and not-quite English.

There's the same level of comfort at Duke's Hotel in London, which was also just redone. It has a Bond-endorsed heritage—Ian Fleming's shaken-not-stirred preference was a product of martini-sipping there—and the bar is reassuringly staffed with slick-haired, fortysomething bartenders decked out in Connery-era double-breasted cream tuxes. They'll whip up the hotel's signature rose martini on a tableside tray (although the drink's $32 price tag is gulp-inducing for all the wrong reasons).

Both hotels reminded me how much more white-gloved service, not white-walled minimalism, matters now. Give me a dash of history and some classical music over ripped-from-IKEA ready-mades and generic house beats every time. (A desk clerk in Miami once explained away a chilly shower by saying to me, with an unapologetic shrug, "Well, we are a boutique hotel, sir.") Those hotels are more like art spaces staffed by glassy-eyed gallerinas rather than welcoming homes-away-from-home—refuges for the big-wallet, small-imagination set.

Borsalino, one of the world's finest hatmakers, has been in the business of covering heads since 1857. Three years ago they started covering backs as well, and now this September, the company's clothing will be coming to the U.S. for the first time, carried nationwide by Saks. The collection shown here, called Blue Color, worked with variations on the shade, and included a tux with a double lapel (one black, one midnight blue), a pale blue sharkskin-like suit with wide-peak lapels, and a navy desert jacket with detachable fur lining. The company's fare was striking, as was its hat display (pictured)—bonus points for originality.

Olafur Eliasson's New York Waterfalls, for which he's built four man-made falls in the rivers around Manhattan, debuts next week. Naturally, a handful of companies are offering travel packages for the project. We've listed five of the most interesting below—all of which top the 20 bucks we paid that homeless guy to show us around The Gates.

Who: Classic Harbor Lines
What: A 90-minute tour on its 80-foot wooden schooner
Cost: $40 per person
Bonus: Free Champagne; a 50-passenger limit

Who: Ritz-Carlton Battery Park
What: A room that faces the water and a pair of tickets for the Classic Harbor Lines cruise (above)
Cost: From $480 per couple for one night
Bonus: A telescope in the room; free breakfast

Who: Circle Line Downtown
What: A 30-minute boat tour of all four waterfalls, plus Governors Island
Cost: Free
Amenities: See cost

Who: Circle Line New York (yes, it's different from Circle Line Downtown)
What: A 150-minute harbor cruise, followed by a night in the Presidential Suite at the Westin Times Square
Cost: $10,000
Bonus:Includes dinner at Le Bernardin

Who: Circle Line New York (souped-up version)
What: All the above, plus Champagne by Dom Perignon and Karl Lagerfeld (his 1998 vintage), a box of chocolate truffles, a pair of Tiffany Jazz drop diamond earrings, a six-course meal catered by Daniel Boulud, and a night in the NYC Presidential Suite of your choice
Cost: $40,000
Bonus: Decent views of Waterfalls

Five things worth knowing today

- It's International Surfing Day.
- Boneyards, a collaboration between Stüssy and Neighborhood, kicks off with a party celebrating its new Nike Blazer shoe in L.A.
- POPPED! Fest brings the hipsters to Philadelphia to hear the Pitchfork-iest sorts of indie rock.
- Today in 1963, the "red phone" is established between the U.S. and the Soviet Union following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- And today in 1951, voice actress Tress MacNeille was born. We love the multitude of characters she plays on The Simpsons, Futurama, Animaniacs, and The (dearly departed) Critic, but perhaps none so much as Homer's beloved Plopper (below):