Even by the standards of a glitzy ski getaway that has long been a synonym for the winter high life, St. Moritz is having a moment in the spotlight across the worlds of fashion, food, art and hotels.
Last weekend, the Italian puffer label Moncler took over the historic Swiss ski town to celebrate the fall-winter collection of the brand’s Grenoble line. Guests such as Kate Moss, Shaun White, Anne Hathaway and Ella Emhoff were treated to a supermodel-stacked fashion show held in a snow-covered pine forest — followed by snowshoeing on the slopes of Corviglia; après ski at Alphütte Clavadatsch, a rustic alpine hut with a view of the Engadine mountains; fondue at Paradiso Mountain Club and Restaurant; and dinner at Langosteria, the Swiss outpost of the acclaimed Milanese raw bars co-owned by Moncler CEO Remo Ruffini. (Ruffini has called St. Moritz his “second home.”)
A week earlier, the “hottest ticket in town” was the Snow Polo World Cup, literally. Slushy conditions from high temperatures made proper matches of polo on the frozen lake surface a no-go.
And the winter wonderland’s cultural calendar is only just warming up, with both the I.C.E. (International Concours of Elegance St. Moritz) car show and roaming art fair NOMAD coming to town later this month.
Call it Alpine Nouveau: Fueled by nostalgia for the golden age of après-ski, a new generation of high-rolling creatives is putting its own stamp on the excesses of winter before it all, well, melts away.
Even the Kulm, the birthplace of winter tourism when the hotel first opened in St. Moritz in 1856, is reinventing itself. The resort has announced partnerships with Mauro Colagreco, the Argentine chef behind the French Riviera restaurant Mirazur; Tom Booton, a Brit who made history as The Dorchester's youngest ever head chef; and the Lima-born chef Claudia Canessa, whose new Peruvian-Alpine-fusion dining venue at the hotel features intimate interiors by British designer Luke Edward Hall. (The decorator’s personal drawings of flora native to Switzerland and Peru framed on the restaurant’s walls.) “This project for me was all about weaving together the mountainous locations of St. Moritz and Peru,” Hall wrote on Instagram.
This sea change in the snow goes beyond just the slopes. Schloss Tarasp, a 1,000-year-old castle about an hour and a half outside of St. Moritz, in Lower Engadine, is now under the stewardship of the Swiss artist Not Vital. The landmark site’s art makeover includes an outdoor sculpture park, a hay barn converted to a Engadin folkloric ballroom and polished bronze casts of Vital’s own body parts. A twisted take on mountainside tradition is in fashion, too, as evidenced by the cult success of the label Annina Dirndl, a high-end line of handmade dirndl dresses worn by the likes of Ella Richards and Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece.
"My family has been coming to St. Moritz for generations," Annina Pfuel, Annina Dirndl’s designer, recently told Who What Wear. "To me, the remoteness is the biggest draw. You can really disconnect from everything once you get here. The scenery is breathtaking, and there is almost always good weather all year round. So you are in a beautiful remote spot in the mountains but have all the amenities that you would have in a bigger city: great restaurants, nightlife, hospitals, supermarkets, etc. It makes it very hard to leave."
