About us
Credits. TR: With Nothing Underneath. BL: Tada & Toy. BR, Mejuri
‘House of Bashka is the culmination of years of restless energy to track down lesser-known fashion and jewellery brands, of stumbling upon impossibly pretty hotels and desperately wanting to gather these discoveries and tips together into one enticing space.’
– Editor, Rosalyn Wikeley
What is House of Bashka?
House of Bashka is a curation of insider stays and style. It champions the smaller, and ultimately more beautiful boutique hotels and independent brands through storytelling and shoppable themed edits.
Credit: Quinta da Corte, Douro Valley
It recognises knowledge, stimulation and experience as the new luxuries and promises tried-and-tested reviews of tastefully selected stays, as well as artfully curated visual feasts of fashion, jewellery, beauty and homewares from independent brands.
The online hub’s reviews and curations are underpinned by substance, beauty and community – from family-owned boutique design dens clinging to Douro Valley hills to statement jewellery hand-crafted by artisans in West Country workshops. It sees the future of travel and style as slow and meaningful, with taste over cost, style over trend and quality over quantity.
What makes House of Bashka a cut above the rest is its eminent writers and contributors, whose experience and antennae for extraordinary stays and style make each review and curation worth its weight in gold.
Why Bashka?
Rosalyn’s Great Grandmother, Barbara Child (née Barbara Villiers) was a bona fide style hunter, gracing fashion shows across 1920s Europe to curate beautiful pieces for her London boutique. Bashka, then opposite Claridge’s in Mayfair, was a high society fashion destination, a pocket-sized bazaar that peered into Europe’s sartorial soul during the roaring twenties. This was Barbara’s creative outlet, having married into the formalities and restrictions that accompanied her husband’s career as a Great War General, then Master of The Household to three Kings.
Then World War II broke out, plunging Europe into its darkest chapter and closing the doors to Barbara’s Bashka boutique. Almost a century on and it’s reopening, proverbially and digitally, spurred on by the same fairy dust as before – travel, style and the unbeatable joy of curating.
Meet the founder
Rosalyn Wikeley is a London-based travel and style journalist with extensive writing and editing experience for leading titles, including Condé Nast Traveller and The Telegraph. Specialising in Sicily, Paris, pre-loved style and ski, Rosalyn is a regular contributor for Condé Nast Traveller and The Evening Standard, and her work has been published in the Financial Times, Vogue, The Telegraph, House & Garden, Harper’s Bazaar and The Times, to name a few.
Leveraging her experience managing Condé Nast Traveller’s creative content, Rosalyn collaborates with luxury brands on content, strategy and aesthetic, as well as presenting or leading panel discussions. She regularly edits travel features for The Wedding Edition, and is author of several luxury travel guidebooks for Glimpse Guides.
Rosalyn has reviewed hundreds of hotels from Tasmania to Saint-Tropez, and has developed an eye for discovering style, homeware or jewellery brands before they gain traction. She has been interviewed on her travel writing for podcasts, photographed by newspapers on her destination outfit edits, and asked to consult for new luxury boutique hotels.
House of Bashka is the culmination of years of restless energy to track down lesser-known fashion and jewellery brands, of stumbling upon impossibly pretty hotels and desperately wanting to gather these discoveries and tips together into one enticing space.