Access all areas: London's hottest parties
The clamour to join the party at London's hottest members' clubs will begin this summer in the departure lounge — not at the velvet rope. Card holders for hot spots such as Raffles, Jalouse and Mahiki will be grabbing their bags and jetting out to St Tropez, Ibiza, the Côte d'Azur, the Maldives and Miami for guaranteed sunshine and a thick slice of international glamour.
Fashionable haunts are now creating one-off international spectaculars. In May, Jalouse threw a party in Cannes hosted by Paris Hilton. Invited members, who were jetted out especially for the event, rubbed shoulders with Lindsay Lohan and Eva Herzigova and were treated to a set by Tinie Tempah.
The promoters will bid to go even better when they throw a party at Ibiza's Blue Marlin club in a fortnight, where Marco Pierre White is being lined up to prepare the food and previous guests include Simon and Amber Le Bon, JLS and James Blunt. To guarantee a smooth arrival, members will be given the use of a concierge and their own bespoke beachwear. Jalouse member Maria Tharaux, 27, from Chelsea, says she is made to feel part of a family. "A lot of clubs do parties but they don't give you a table — with my membership I am made to feel special. I will go to Ibiza and have already been to Cannes. Their attention is intensive, booking your hotel and flights and arranging tables for you."
The club's owner, Fred Achom, says it is about constantly surprising members. "A lot of our members now live in Ibiza, Mykonos, St Tropez and Cannes so we try and bring the party to them. Later in the summer we will also do a takeover at La Caves De Roy in St Tropez for just our gold members."
The trend has caused some one-upmanship among owners all seeking to provide their own unique global event. Raffles owner Patrice Gouty says making sure his members can party while topping up their tans is his first priority, with summer events planned for Miami and Ibiza — and next year he will invite 300 members out to his pad in LA for a private party.
Gouty, a former founding partner of China White, says creating bespoke international events is the future of summer members' clubs. "If everybody has the same idea it becomes boring. An event should be sophisticated but casual — people want easy music, to show off their suntan, get drunk and have a good time."
For those with stamina left in November, Mahiki is offering arguably the most full-on excursion with its £10,000-per- head jaunt to the Maldives. A hundred of Mahiki's most devoted members will be whisked off on a four-day trip to the islands' W Hotel, where guests are rumoured to include Rihanna — who performed at a similar Mahiki celeb event there this year. Club guests will also enjoy an evening ball, helicopter rides around the islands and scuba diving on private beaches — and, most importantly, binge on Mahiki's own range of rums.
"It is not a go, sit down, relax holiday," says organiser Michael Evans. "It is absolutely by invitation only but you can be sure it's boozy. Our motto is save water — drink rum."
