Editor’s letter: why it’s time to raise some cheer

At the culmination of a US election that has held us in a state of interminable suspension, and with news of a Covid-19 vaccine its makers argue will be ready within weeks, I’m feeling pretty joyful at the moment. After months of anticipation and confusion and neurosis, recent days have felt like an opportunity to exhale. And maybe have a drink or three. Or four.

OK, so I’ve hardly needed an excuse to drink in 2020, and neither have our readers, many of whom have been following our drinks writer Alice Lascelles on social media to try out her Insta-cocktail posts. As she writes in this week’s column, the appetite for cocktails in the year of a pandemic was more hearty than she might have been expecting, but, as she has discovered, quarantine has meant more time to hone a great martini, make a mean Old Fashioned and shake up one’s margarita skills. Read about her year’s adventure as a home mixologist in “My Year in Mixology” – she’s also thrown in a few accessories as well.

As we approach the holiday season, thoughts have inevitably turned to social outings and what kind of gatherings we might be allowed to entertain. How to party in 2020, when the guest list is “exclusive” and social distancing applies? Kate Finnigan has talked to two of fashion’s most expansive party givers, Ditte and Nicolaj Reffstrup, of the Danish fashion label Ganni, to offer us some pointers on how to make even the smallest party pop. They’ve got the soundtrack, the cocktail and the menu, but more than anything, their big tip is to relax. 

We’ve also got some ideas on how to spice up your winter wardrobe. In “Superhero Style: The Greatest Capes”, Beatrice Hodgkin talks to designers about this season’s most heroic of accessories, we get a close-up of Richard Mille’s new range of disco watches , while in our main fashion shoot, “Party Dressing – 2020 Style”, the photographer Thomas Manneke and stylist Delphine Danhier reflect on the phenomenon of dressing for the occasion, even when the definition of occasion might still be rather vague. Besides, does it matter where you’re going when you’re wearing a giant frothy Gucci gown? This season should be about doing things that make you feel happy and, at this point, the possibility of putting on a party outfit has taken on such a shiny lustre, I appreciate seeing anyone strutting in their Sunday best. 

Some people celebrate with champagne, some put on jazzy outfits. For others, life’s most significant moments should be marked by lighting fat cigars. To even think of smoking at a time when our days are haunted by the threat of acute respiratory illness requires a certain disposition. To broadcast one’s cigar-chomping sessions on social media might strike some as slightly mad. And yet, when Nick Foulkes, HTSI’s most eloquent sybarite and pleasure-seeker, found himself too little occupied this springtime, he seized the opportunity to corral the male members of the Foulkes dynasty and relaunch themselves on Instagram as the “Kardashians of cigars”. Actually, their engagement numbers are still a little lower than the K-clan’s, but Nick’s account of his adventures in Insta-media, bonding with his sons from his “ancestral hovel” in Shepherd’s Bush, not to mention his cigar evaluations, are brilliantly captured in his feature.

In the meantime, I hope that this issue gets you in the mood for celebrating. After a year of abstinence from party making, it’s high time we raised some cheer. 

@jellison22