Inside: A Styling Lunch With Eshita Kabra-Davies CEO & Founder Of By Rotation

On the tenth of June, The Wedding Edition took over the Belgravia Room of The Lanesborough for a spring-summer styling lunch with Eshita Kabra-Davies, founder of By Rotation. Kabra-Davies left a career in investment management to build the platform in 2019; By Rotation has since grown into a peer-to-peer shared wardrobe through which members lend and borrow the designer pieces they already own. The premise of the afternoon followed that of the app: that dressing well and dressing consciously needn’t be at odds.

The Belgravia Room is among the hotel’s prettiest set pieces – pale blue walls, a coffered blush ceiling, crystal chandeliers, tall gilt mirrors down one side. Florist Kathryn Josey dressed the space with a palette of pink and green: a fashion-led reading of summer florals in British-grown cosmos, peonies and sweet peas in blush, dusty rose and raspberry, with green foliage and green glass carrying the brand’s second colour through. A low floral runner broke into soft clusters down the table’s length; behind the talk, the fireplace was dressed as a backdrop, complete with an Hermès Kelly pochette sitting in the centre. The Lanesborough’s luggage trolley was dressed with standout pieces from Hermès, Chanel, Fendi, Manolo Blahnik and Dolce & Gabbana, sorted by Kabra-Davies into four edits for the season ahead – Ascot, Wimbledon, wedding-guest dressing, and a holiday capsule built to travel.

Guests arrived at half past twelve to a Champagne cocktail made with G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge, and time to browse the rails, before being seated for the talk. Kabra-Davies opened on dressing with intention, then took the room through each edit in turn, narrating each piece from the Lady Dior to the Fendi croissant. Photographer Roberta Facchini documented the afternoon throughout. The table was set with Maison Margaux – green scallop-edged mats over a green-and-white printed cloth, fluted cream plates, napkins finished with a green ripple, bamboo-handled cutlery – the menus designed by Henrietta Martindale of The Styled Writing Company, a fuchsia design dotted with flowers, and printed by Leeming Brothers.

Each edit was tied to a course – Ascot and the summer diary with the starter, wedding-guest dressing with the main, the holiday capsule with pudding. The Lanesborough kitchen opened with a Westcombe Cheddar soufflé and button mushroom velouté, followed by roast Cornish sea bass with peas, Jersey royals, mussels and chive butter, and a pistachio mousse with raspberry and white chocolate ice cream to close. The first two courses were poured with G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge en magnum; dessert with Mumm Rosé. Guests left with a Saint Atracura candle – and, for anyone who had found something on the trolleys they couldn’t leave behind, the means to borrow it. Vivienne Westwood’s age-old instruction came to mind on the way out: buy less, choose well, make it last.