Where Wolf?

Where: Thailand! With Who: Vicente Wolf! Yes...we just found out last week that this incredibly gifted designer is offering up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel along side him to Thailand and explore the markets of Bangkok and Chiang Mai where you'll discover first hand his secret antique and furniture shopping haunts. After the success of his last book Crossing Boundaries, Wolf decided to launch a new venture he's calling Crossing Boundaries - The Travel Experience. With the help of luxury tour operators Abercrombie and Kent and also Sterling Brownell Travel, this Interior Design magazine Hall-of Famer will take 10 inquisitive travelers to explore these exotic locations and share his global vision of design in a uniquely experiential way. He will address first hand the five elements of design he talks about in his book - Composition, Scale, Color, Contrast, and Light - and how his travels inspire each of them. The cost of traveling with Vicente is $15,000 per person, which includes one-on-one time with the designer, but excludes the cost of travel fees (approx. $14,000). We've been big fans of Vicente for almost 15 years when we first met him while studying at FIT. This afternoon we had an opportunity to ask him a few questions about this latest exploration:

DT: Vicente, can you tell us how you came up with this concept?

VW: After the success of my book Crossing Boundaries, I realized that people are so curious about my selection process in finding objects. From here the idea sprouted to share my pleasure of travel and the experiences I have gathered through the years, while training peoples’ eyes to seeing the unusual.

DT: And what exactly can someone expect that goes on this trip?

VW: The trip is handled by Abercrombie and Kent (a premier travel organizer), and we'll be staying at wonderful hotels (the Mandarin Oriental in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai) and visiting private homes. Travelers will be able to have one-on-one conversations with the people who live there, going to markets which are usually out of reach for the average traveler and knowing where to go within these markets, walking through the wholesale flower markets of Hong Kong and enjoying the visual feast, going into the dealers that I buy from and having the opportunity to leverage the relationships I’ve built over many years to use to their advantage.

DT: Sounds Amazing! Other than Thailand, do you have any other favorite destinations?

VW: I just came back from Easter Island, which was not a large island, but one with some great visual stimulation. In the same trip I was in Namibia where what at first glance seems like endless desert becomes a cornucopia of color and experiences. Other favorites include Borneo, Peru, Paris, Iran, Egypt and of course my favorite New York.

DT: Lastly, any advice for other travelers on finding inspiration when visiting other countries?

VW: Keep your eyes open, try to step away as much as possible from your normal existence and comforts, which starts to open you up to whatever else new places have to offer.

Sage advice from a seasoned traveler! To learn more about this incredible opportunity contact travel@vicintewolf.com or click here. If you can't make this particular trip but want to learn more about Wolf's inspirational travels click here. Then click here to get a copy of his first design book. Finally, make sure you check out his blog to keep up with Wolf's interior design, furniture design, photograpy, travels, etc. "HOWL" the hell does he do it all? (sorry...we had to!)