If you’re in New York this spring, stop by the D&D Building where The Royal Oak Foundation Collection will be on display in a lobby window.

Fabric Lee Jofa

The Royal Oak Foundation is celebrating the fifth year of its partnership with textile manufacturer Lee Jofa. Over 300 solid colorways, linen floral prints, bold multicolored floral embroideries, elegant silk damasks, as well as velvet printed paisleys, animal patterns, and geometric patterns evoke classic English designs of the 20^th century, reinterpreted with contemporary flair. The second Royal Oak Foundation Collection launched last year and includes Lee Jofa’s single most popular design, Kirby, a floral hand-block pattern named after a loyal Royal Oak Foundation supporter. www.leejofa.com

Furniture Holland & Company

Atlanta-based furniture designer Holland & Company launched the Country House Collection for the Royal Oak Foundation in 2008. The 16-piece collection is available exclusively through the Lee Jofa showrooms and offers a unique line of high-quality furniture that is bench-made in traditional English fashion. England’s finest cabinet-makers, antique restorers, and furniture finishers skillfully craft aged reproductions that look as old as the periods they complement.  The designers, along with local craftsmen, visit National Trust properties for inspiration and to accomplish authenticity in their work. www.hollandandcompany.com

Wallpaper Cole & Son

Since the launch of the Waldorf Collection in 2004, The Royal Oak Foundation Collection has collaborated with Cole & Son, manufacturers of hand painted wallpapers since 1875,  to create bold patterns inspired by the striking design details gleaned from Cole’s archives of original woodblocks. Its most recent launch is the Vintage Glamour Collection, a compilation of 16 hand-printed designs influenced by cultural trends from eras past and evocative of the spirit of the Jazz Age.

www.cole-and-son.com

Home Accessories Katha Diddèl

A name synonymous with fine needlepoint work, Katha Diddèl created a Royal Oak Foundation Collection to reflect the rich tradition of British decorative arts.  The handmade needlepoint and petit point pillows, rugs, footstools, eyeglass cases, and coasters add a touch of English heritage to any room’s ambiance.  Each piece is a handmade, one-of-a-kind creation, using the finest New Zealand wools in naturally custom hand-dyed colors that coordinate with each design.  Katha Diddèl products are available in fine specialty stores and catalogs throughout the U.S. and overseas. www.kathadiddel.org. 

Gayle Warwick Fine Linen introduces a dazzling array of new tabletop linen – embroidered by hand on Irish or Belgian linen, this collection is heirloom worthy, but without the fuss. Your grandmother, were she a mother of three balancing a high-powered investment career with quiet dinner parties at home and chic vacations in the Hamptons, would certainly approve.

(Psssst… heard through the grapevine: a major New York-based department store is picking up the entire Gayle Warwick tabletop collection this September. Stay tuned for more!)

BY THE NUMBERS:

Weight: 750 grams per square meter (compare to Calvin Klein organic towels, which have a weight of 550 g/sq m)

Dimension: 39″ x 70″ (enormous – especially next to West Elm’s 30″ x 54″ bath sheet)

Retail price: $295 – Bath sheet, $150 – Hand towel, $26 – Face cloth, $135 – Bath mat

Walking the Walk

At Anantara Golden Triangle in Thailand, guests can see direct results of the resort’s conservation practices as the hotel actively recycles all organic waste material to use as soil for its lush gardens. Located on 160 acres of natural habitat in the Golden Triangle region, the resort also focuses on local inhabitants of a different breed. Onsite is a camp that provides sanctuary for rescued elephants: the bamboo forest, nature trails, and river banks provide an ideal habitat for 15 rescued pachyderms, and the elephant fodder is even sourced from local farmers and suppliers. Guests are also offered the rare opportunity to learn to ‘drive,’ bathe, and care for elephants in a unique three-day mahout training course. Meanwhile at Uma Ubud in Bali, similar environmental efforts are in place. Not only does the hotel recycle water to hydrate its leafy surroundings, but it looks beyond its perimeter into the local community. The hotel is committed to giving back to the area and its inhabitants: over 25% of the staff comes from local villages. Switzerland could be considered the grandfather of the green movement, with its fresh Alpine setting and lake water clean enough to drink. Park Hyatt Zurich has its own energy conservation committee, which has instituted special sun blinds to cool the building, gas-fired boilers to reduce CO₂ emissions, biodegradable cleaning products, and an air-cooling system that pumps cold, fresh lake water. The Park Hyatt Beaver Creek in Colorado recycles water used in the swimming pool and Jacuzzi; re-used leftover furniture from its recent renovation was donated to the Vail Valley Foundation.

How Green Does Your Garden Grow?

What could be more environmentally conscious than turning to the local terroir as a source of food? Chefs are proving one can eat off the land for delectable dishes instead of flying in foodstuffs from distant locales. In Bhutan, the cooking crew at Uma Paro works with indigenous farmers to find the best ingredients year-round to ensure that the food is as fresh, organic, and varied as possible. The hotel’s outreach goes even further – they provide the farmers with seeds to grow the food and then purchase this produce. In Bali, the COMO Shambhala Estate at Begawan Giri similarly employs community members to procure fresh ingredients, working with a local organization that hires women from the surrounding area and offers flexible hours and steady income. The food at these hotels comes from the local environment in every sense of the word.

‘Product’ively Green

Hotels are taking eco-philosophy indoors, applying it to their products and materials. On Nantucket, guests of the White Elephant find the green theme between the sheets. The hotel has commissioned Gayle Warwick Fine Linen to outfit all 53 of its rooms with her hand-embroidered, organic bed linens. The sheets are made from 100% organic cotton percale, eliminating all the pesticides traditionally used in cotton growing that wreak havoc on farmers and on our environment. With a crisp finish and heirloom quality, these linens prove it really is chic to be green. Luxury spa brand ESPA has a line of 70 naturally effective products that contain only the highest quality of natural and organic ingredients. ESPA is found in more than 100 spas in 24 countries, including The Spa at Gleneagles by ESPA in Scotland and the Victoria Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa in Interlaken, Switzerland. ESPA espouses that using too many synthetic products only creates more problems for our skin, and that plant and marine extracts and essential oils can heal and strengthen at a cellular level.

Casting a Light Footprint

Live the green life in Switzerland by taking full advantage of the legendary train system. The Swiss Rail System is the densest in the world and makes traveling lightly a breeze. Hop from the Eden au Lac in Zurich to the Palace Luzern to the Bellevue Palace in Bern and get an eyeful of the spectacular Alpine scenery on the way. Another alternative to exploring the countryside by car is by bicycle. The Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa has stocked up on Scott mountain bicycles, so guests can journey deep into the Alpine hills or take a leisurely ride around the two beautiful lakes after which Interlaken was named. Guests of the The Wauwinet on Nantucket can do as the locals do and cycle around the island. The hotel’s bikes are lean and “green” and the perfect way to tool around town – a stylish yet practical option for the savvy traveler! Park Hyatt Toronto respects its eco-minded guests as well: the hotel will valet park any hybrid car for free. And speaking of hybrids, any guest driving one to Santa Fe’s Inn on the Alameda will receive some “green for green.” The “Wholly Hybrid” package at The Inn offers guests a crisp new $50 bill upon check-in for filling the gas tank, and another $20 to use at the nearby water-saving carwash, a way of saying thank you from Mother Earth.

Legacy of Conservation

A pilgrimage to a leafy corner of Vermont can teach travelers about one of the first conservation efforts in the United States. Thanks to an influx of settlers in the area, by the mid-19^th century the state had been stripped of its natural resources. Luckily, a legacy of stewardship was instated by three separate families, including the Rockefellers, who donated the land that would become Vermont’s only national park. The Woodstock Inn & Resort still remains a part of the Rockefeller Foundation and provides a perfect home base for exploring all the natural wonders in the area that have been so carefully preserved.

2008 brings good tidings for those in the market for exquisite luxury linens, as British boutique brand Gayle Warwick Fine Linen introduces new collections like a nautical set based on the Ashley Book of Knots and a tabletop line of intricate hemstitch linen.