Popping in to say a quick hello from the country of Georgia 🇬🇪

I’m here scouting it as an alternative — and more off-the-beaten-path — winter destination for our custom trip planning, especially for those looking beyond the typical European alpine towns. It’s been a packed few days — lots of skiing in the Caucus mountains, natural wine, and homemade brandy out of plastic bottles.​

Learn more about the hotel I’m staying at — the one with the view above — while I’m here, and check out a few of the other places and ideas shaping my thinking lately below.

More soon! xx

Katalina

FOR FUNSY. The visual and sonic references currently informing how I’m thinking about travel.

1. Yes, I’ve watched the Bad Bunny halftime show an unreasonable number of times. So naturally, I’m currently fixated on the Chancla necklace from Valencia-based brand Simuero. In an ideal world, I’d pair it with El Peina de Álvaro — equal parts culturally coded and ceremonial, for the Caribbean, Latin America, and the diaspora.
2. The Winter Olympics are rarely about fashion. This year? Absolutely about fashion. Mongolia and Brazil both showed up with head-turning fits — but Haiti stole the spotlight. Designed by Italian-Haitian designer Stella Jean, Haiti’s uniform carried layered symbolism rooted in resilience. The original concept drew from a painting by Edouard Duval-Carrie depicting Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution and the architect of Haiti becoming the first Black republic. But because the IOC prohibits “overt political imagery,” the figure was flagged. So Jean recalibrated. She removed Louverture but kept the essence of the artwork — most notably the striking red horse, now galloping across a tropical landscape beneath a sky stamped “Haiti.” If you’re Haitian, you likely know the painting. You immediately register what’s missing. The nod is still there. Just quieter. And maybe even more powerful.
3. ​The Las Flaquitas set at 214 Mulberry has been on repeat in the office — a steady rotation of Afro and Caribbean rhythms: reggae, dub, Afrobeat, funk, modern dancehall.
4. The Monde Libre (Free World) tee from Paris-based menswear label Pieces Uniques
5. During my trip to Georgia this time around I chose to stay at the Rooms brand in Tbilisi and Kazbegi, both designed by sisters Nata Janberidze and Keti Toloraia of Rooms Studio. Their work defines a distinctly modern Georgian vernacular — sculptural, textural, rooted in heritage — what they’ve described as a kind of “poetic brutalism” that feels both grounded and quietly radical.

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