November 7, 2007

Asia | Indonesia | Bali

Bali Beautiful

By Nicole Cotroneo

Just four private villas form Ubud's hot new entrant in sustainable luxe.

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Let Paris and Milan parade their runway fashions — Bali’s taking theirs to the streets. The island’s seventh annual Fashion Week kicks off November 22, featuring top Indonesian designers in three days of art, style and cultural exhibitions. It all culminates with “FashiON the street,” a nighttime carnival where designers showcase costumes inspired by Trihita Karana, a Balinese philosophy that man is happiest when in harmony with spirit and nature. Balancing inner harmony with outer chic should be easy at Bambu Indah, a new boutique hotel in Ubud by Bali-based, Canadian-born jewelry designer John Hardy. Four 150-year-old teak guest cottages, once the homes of Javanese noblemen, are furnished with Indonesian antiques, copper sinks and rainfall showers. Wide verandas look on rice paddies lining the banks of the Ayung River (a popular spot for whitewater rafting). And nearby, you can visit Hardy’s all-bamboo-built workshop and showroom. A proponent for “sustainable luxury,” the designer plans to use the earnings from his new bracelet collection to plant bamboo on Nusa Penida, a nearly deforested island just southeast of Bali.