Faux Fighters
As the U.F.C. lands at the White House this weekend, young men are flocking to Thailand in search of authentic violence. What they’re getting is something oddly Trumpian: part spectacle, part grift, part fraud …
Flipping ’Ell!
Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s attempt to flip a $30 million Cotswolds farmhouse has been thwarted by floods, planning battles, an anemic property market—and the Romans
An Offer They’d Like to Refuse
Dua Lipa and Callum Turner’s Sicilian wedding celebrations are bringing pop stars, private jets, and security cordons to Palermo—but some locals are fingering their knives
Golden Balls
Ticket prices for this year’s World Cup are already sky-high. But some luxury packages—complete with police escorts, cigar rollers, and Tibetan singing bowls—can turn a trip to the game into a seven-figure spectacle
The Womb Boom
Once merely expensive, surrogacy has become a luxury arms race, with private equity snapping up clinics, agencies, and egg banks. Can a new $600,000 white-glove service really be worth it?
Home Away from Homes
Seemingly undeterred by record real-estate prices on the eastern tip of Long Island, the ultra-wealthy are complementing their second homes with … more homes
The Joy of Missing Out
After decades spent optimizing their lives, the affluent are now paying to be bored, silent, and uncomfortable
Where Have All the Teenagers Gone?
New York’s streets and parks used to be teeming with them. Now they’re inside on their phones—and the city’s culture is all the worse for it
Inside the Wiki Laundry
Wikipedia is the world’s most influential information source—and one of A.I.’s key training grounds. No wonder reputation-launderers everywhere are trying to hijack it
Etiquette for Befriending a Friend’s Friend
If you want your friend to welcome your friendship with her friend, it is essential that you follow these rules
Pied-à-Terror!
A new annual surcharge on New York’s luxury pieds-à-terre has the 1 percent crying robbery. But when has a tax ever actually driven the rich from Park Avenue?
Strictly Personal
As the dating world succumbs to the algorithm, a new generation of romantics is returning to the high-effort, low-tech holy grail of 1977: the personal ad
I Post, Therefore I Am
From Substack “think pieces” to A.I.-optimized captions, Camille Charrière examines our new obsession with looking brainy while our brains go offline in her debut column for AIR MAIL
Once upon a Time in Gala-Land
How a midnight dinner for fashion insiders became a multi-million-dollar media spectacle, culminating with this year’s sponsorship by none other than the Bezoses
Pod Save the King!
King Charles III’s recent visit to the United States brought a new ritual to high-society gatherings and, with it, a fresh status anxiety
The Filthy Rich Love to Fish
Once a gentlemanly pastime, fly-fishing has become the latest luxury arms race, with billionaires paying ever more for access to far-flung rivers and that rarest commodity of all—solitude
The Influencers Are Coming!
Hollywood is embracing content creators in a shaky bid to win back Gen Z viewership
The British Are Coming!
Sunday roasts, sticky toffee pudding, and porn-star martinis hinted at Anglomania’s return to New York nightlife. Now the pubs are arriving in force
Bye-Bye, Billionaires’ Row
#floorplanporn hashtags are flooding social media and Rosario Candela books are stacking up on coffee tables as Manhattan buyers turn from super-sleek new builds to historic co-ops. Is the age of condos coming to an end?
The Real Housewives of Rikers Island
On the heels of Taylor Frankie Paul’s Bachelorette blowup and Summer House’s own Scandoval, one writer goes inside the reality-TV franchise that puts them all to shame
The Gentlemen’s Hour
Trendy new members’ clubs are taking over Manhattan, but some young men are opting for the city’s Gilded Age mainstays instead—trading flashy perks for old-school allure
The Bonvoy Problem
Points programs are destroying the luxury-hotel experience. Can anything stop the freeloaders?
A Very English Revolutionary
Meet the marginal but persistent anti-royal activist behind the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
Invasion of the Sororities!
The Greek-life craze that has dominated campuses in the South is creeping northward, with the Ivies and small liberal-arts colleges buying in—and specialized “consultants” cashing in
