St. Barts Is Peak Luxury—11 Outfits I Packed to Fit the Island’s Elegant French Vibe

Every person I asked on the four-day trip I just returned from in St. Barts told me that they ended up in the French territory because they wanted to live for a year in a place that always felt like summers do in the South of France. Many had traveled from Nice or Marseilles, planned to stay for a year, and never left. According to them, St. Barts has a bit of everything they love about their hometowns, but on the island, it’s August all year long. And now that I’ve experienced it myself, I know what they mean. From the French pharmacies that carry viral products like Nuxe Huile, La Roche-Posay Cicaplast spray, and Biafine to the tranquil beaches and pastel-colored structures, traveling to St. Barts felt like taking a much shorter trip to the French Riviera from JFK airport, where I started my journey.

Having heard about this ahead of my trip, I knew that I had to pack for the occasion, selecting the same sorts of pieces from my wardrobe that I would if I were heading to Antibes or Villefranche-sur-Mer. I wanted to bring with me all of the colorful items in my wardrobe that don’t always make sense for New York City, especially coming out of a very long winter. In a shocking move for a minimalist like me, I brought only one black clothing item—a simple halter top—with the rest of my carry-on suitcase (the Tradewind flight we took from San Juan to St. Barts had a strict weight limit for luggage, so there were no checked bags for me) containing a mix of pink, orange, and red. Given my limited packing space, I only brought along four pairs of shoes: running shoes, a pair of black Prada slingbacks for evenings, The Row mesh flats, and white flat sandals from Larroudé’s just-launched collaboration with the Rosewood Le Guanahani resort, which just so happened to be the reason I was in St. Barts in the first place. One purse, minimal jewelry, and lots of skincare were the only other pieces that accompanied me on my four-day getaway in St. Barts.

Below, find the 11 outfits I packed for my trip and a full-on photo dump of arguably the most luxurious destination I’ve visited—ever.

Upon arrival at the Rosewood, I was escorted to my suite, where the view from the private balcony showed the sun setting over the lagoon. Every second that I wasn’t in my bed or getting ready for the rest of the trip, I was outside on one of the sun chairs working, drinking coffee, or honestly, taking pictures of this view.

On our first night, we had a pretty low-key dinner at the hotel’s restaurant in the Beach Club. We’d all been traveling since around 5 a.m., so I was more than happy to keep things pretty casual. For the occasion, I slipped on one of my all-time favorite wardrobe items: this Tory Burch sculpted, hook-and-eye minidress from the brand’s S/S 23 collection. I own the matching midi skirt as well but didn’t have enough room to pack it, which ended up being absolutely fine. I like how it looks as a mini, especially in a tropical setting like this.

Early the next morning, I woke up to grab a coffee in the Beach House before our group yoga class down at the water. Usually in hot weather like this, I stick with shorts for working out, but I knew we were doing yoga when I was packing and chose to go with leggings instead. These are from Nike. With the set and a little Aritzia workout jacket, I wore my Adidas Adizero sneakers that I recently got and have been loving for classes and outdoor runs alike.

Our yoga instructor took us to this wooden platform down by the rocks on the ocean for a relaxing vinyasa class with the sounds of the waves as background music. We didn’t get too far here because a quick bout of rain arrived and forced us inside to the spa, where we continued class under an awning. For some reason, the rain just didn’t bother us in St. Barts in the same way it does in the city. It rained on a couple of occasions and usually we just stuck it out because it came and went so quickly. Being so close to the water, though, our mats were getting too wet, so we eventually had to switch locations.

After yoga, once the sun came out, I changed into a swimsuit for a day of working by the pool. I’ve owned this vintage Chanel shirt for about a year now and haven’t figured out how to style it. I didn’t really plan an outfit around it for this trip but knew that St. Barts was a good place to wear it, so I threw it in my suitcase at the last minute. It’s made of a sporty material, so it was really lightweight and breathable on such a warm day. With it, I added one of my favorite floral Tory Burch string bikinis and a white sheer Tibi skirt that I ended up styling in tons of ways throughout this trip.

The whole reason I went to St. Barts was to celebrate the launch of the Brazilian footwear brand Larroudé’s capsule collection for the Rosewood Le Guanahani (the same hotel group that owns The Carlyle in Manhattan). This is one of the pairs from the four-piece collection, which also included a purple pair of the same flats and two pairs of wedges, one in white and another in turquoise blue. The colors were chosen to mimic the hotel’s 66 total colorful suites. Unlike most hotel boutiques, the one at Le Guanahani, where these shoes are all up for grabs, is heavily curated with resortwear staples like Guest in Residence knit sets, Tropic of C bikinis, and Matteau sundresses. Naturally, these seashell-embellished flats fit right in.

This is the view of the infinity pool and the lagoon from the Beach Club, where the hotel’s boutique and restaurant are located. We spent a lot of time down here (when we weren’t on the actual beach) having lunch or just lounging in and out of the pool.

This was probably the look I was most excited to wear when I was invited on this trip with Larroudé and the Rosewood. It’s from the time of my favorite-ever Prada runway collection, S/S 22, and I scored it at Woodbury Commons, an outlet mall in New Jersey. I tried on the skort version that was in the show at a different outlet during my summer trip to Italy, and for some reason, I didn’t buy it, so finding this slightly more practical dress version felt meant to be. With it, I carried the only purse I packed for the trip, a Prada 1995 Re-Edition bag, and wore black Prada slingback wedges.

I wore the look to leave the resort and head to dinner in Gustavia at Bonito, a hillside restaurant with views of the entire island. It’s owned by the same restaurant group that owns Betula in Aspen and is definitely one of the go-to restaurants to visit if you’re ever on the island.

After a quick workout in the hotel’s gym the next morning, I headed to the spa for a 60-minute custom massage. It was a bit wet and rainy, but the sound of the rain ended up being a nice peaceful background for my appointment.

This was after my appointment, thus the messy, oily hairdo. I kept my outfit pretty casual for the spa, choosing a black halter top from Dissh and some new baggy jean shorts from Citizens of Humanity. Once I’d gotten dressed again, I sat for a good hour in a lounge chair in the spa, taking in the surroundings and snacking on coconut water and almonds.

I swear I took this same photo every single day that I was at the Rosewood. The flowers mixed with the aquamarine water and painted suites threw me for a loop whenever I saw it. This was the view as I left my room and walked down to the Beach Club.

Since it was still pretty hot out when we headed into Gustavia, the downtown area in St. Barts, I just threw on an oversize pink button-down shirt from Brooks Brothers and the same white, sheer skirt from Tibi that I wore to the pool a few days earlier. I wore this outfit during New York Fashion Week last September and loved how easy it was, taking the idea from Tibi’s S/S 23 runway show to tuck in the tails of the shirt so that the skirt wasn’t entirely see-through.

When we arrived, we stopped to get coffees at Bar de l’Oubli in town and then started roaming the streets, popping into Prada and Ralph Lauren, as well as the French pharmacy, where we loaded up on hard-to-find French products. An hour in the pharmacy later, we were late to get back to the hotel to prepare for dinner at La Petite Plage, a Mediterranean restaurant that turns into a beach club at the end of the night.

The next morning was by far the sunniest, best beach day of the entire trip, and none of us had anything to do until the evening but sit by the sea and relax. For the occasion, I wore my all-time favorite bikini from Kōraru. This was one of those perfect vacation days when you read an entire book—I read It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover—and eat lunch from your lounge chair.

Next on the agenda was a sunset boat ride, where we had cocktails and bites to the sound of French house music and took endless photos on a digital camera that one of the other editors on the trip brought. I got this Zara Studio Collection dress after the spring line dropped a few weeks ago and have been searching for a good chance to wear it. And what better chance will I have than a yacht at sunset in St. Barts? It’s really beautiful, with a dusty-pink jacquard skirt and a sheer organza overlay. I couldn’t wear shoes on the boat, but I originally added my Prada slingbacks with it, as well as my 1995 bag.

This was our last night in St. Barts, so after the boat ride, we headed to the hotel to quickly change for dinner. The theme of the dinner was Slim Aarons, so when I received this magenta shift dress from Liberowe in the mail just days before this trip, I knew it was perfect for the evening. I get the feeling that I’ll be styling it in dozens of ways when I get home to the city, but for a beach dinner, I loved the way it looked worn completely on its own with just the Larroudé x Rosewood flat sandals.

We didn’t have to leave the hotel until 1:30 p.m. the next day for our first flight, so we all decided that we’d spend as much time in the sun as physically possible before heading back to New York. For the first half of the day, I wore a Tibi scarf top with my favorite swim shorts from Galamaar for breakfast and lunch, and then whenever I was in the sun, I switched the top out with a brown Masarà bikini top.

I bought these mesh The Row flats on super sale at the end of 2023 and haven’t had a chance to wear them given the winter weather in New York, so I was dying to pack them for this trip. I ended up wearing them a ton, and they were just as great as I expected them to be. I even wore them on both of my travel days.