By Mark Ellwood, Bloomberg News

Top interior designer Kelly Wearstler has been synonymous with a distinctively West Coast glamour — ’70s cool shot through with a liberal dose of Old Hollywood — ever since she established her namesake firm 30 years ago. A member of Architectural Digest’s Hall of Fame, the South Carolina native has overseen the design of hotels (Viceroy Santa Monica, Avalon Beverly Hills) and restaurants (at Bergdorf Goodman in New York), as well as partnering with Serax, the Rug Company, Hummer and other brands. She was the first outside designer tapped to create a new palette for the legendary British paint company Farrow & Ball.

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Wearstler’s latest effort is the Substack-based newsletter Wearstlerworld, in which she plans to share behind-the-scenes looks at her life as well as tips and tricks for travel and decorating.

Wearstler logs around 150,000 air miles annually, pinballing back and forth between the West Coast (she lives in Beverly Hills) and Europe, and vacationing with her husband, developer Brad Korzen, and their three sons, Oliver, Elliott and Crosby, who are 20, 21 and 2½ years old. Her carrier of choice is Air France (but only if she absolutely has to go commercial). “Flying private is top of my list, of course, when it works out, but I really love Air France,” she says. “I just flew La Première to Paris. I was able to get upgraded from Business. You get taken right to the airplane. And in the first-class lounge in Paris, I recently had a six-hour layover, and I got a facial and a massage.”

Here are her best travel hacks (besides fly private, of course).

Checking luggage? Book two cars.

For the last 10 years, I have had two drivers pick me up when I land at LAX. I get off the plane and greet one driver and give him my luggage ticket. I leave, and he then waits to pick up my luggage at the carousel and drives it home. I get right out of there, and he shows up 45 minutes later. Wherever you go regularly and know a driver, you can do that — like in Austin, where I know my driver too.

Don’t mess with Uber et al. when you’re on a trip.

A hired driver is essential to getting around town with no time wasted. I always plan out my day so I’m super-efficient: a gallery, a studio visit with an artist, stopping in at a bookstore, going to museums and maybe a vintage clothing store for fashion. I have bags; I don’t want to lug that stuff around. I can just pop it in the car. And there’s no time f—ing around on your phone calling the Uber. I don’t book one through my hotel, because there’s usually a surcharge on it. There are limo services in every city, so you can just look online and call them.

Avid surfers should book a trip to this far-flung island.

One of my favorite off-the-beaten-path destinations is Nihi on Sumba Island in Indonesia. I’ve been going with my family since 2016 — we’ve been about six times. We fly to Bali to decompress, spend one or two nights, then fly to Sumba. It’s quite extraordinary, and the surfing waves are some of the best — all left breaks, which for me as a goofy-footed surfer is ideal. They tow you out, so you don’t have to paddle out every time you want to catch a wave. It’s effortless.

One pillow is for amateurs. Real pros travel with a full set.

I love to sleep really well when I travel. Six or seven years ago, I started bringing my three Frette pillows everywhere I go: two for my head, one to hug. I could easily get four or five in my carryon. I take out about 50% of the filling, because I want them really soft—I don’t want my face smushed at night. Some pillows at hotels are so hard, they’re like a sausage. These pillows can make any bed feel like my own. I consider myself a seasoned traveler, but I also hold on to my routines, especially on vacation.

Pack your beauty gadgets.

We travel with our red lights, because I do red light therapy on my face every day at home. Consistency, consistency — I’m all about consistency. The company, Joov, makes a travel size too, so I bring that with me, and I do that for 10 minutes before I go to sleep. It’s great in general, and great for your body, and it really relaxes you. I sleep so well. And six months ago, I started using this red light helmet for your hair from CurrentBody — red light for your hair follicles is like exercise.

This is the most stylish hotel she didn’t design herself.

I just had lunch with a friend at the Hotel Costes in Paris, and it’s spectacular. The two sides are so different, and it creates this beautiful tension. There’s the Jacques Garcia side, the old side, which is really beautiful. Then the restaurant sits in the middle. And then Christian Liagre did the other side.

Chartering a boat is the best family vacation.

A yacht charter is the best quality family time. You eat all your meals together, and you’re really, truly in the moment. We play chess, backgammon, we dive off the boat. You wake up together. At a hotel you’re in your separate rooms, but here you’re together the entire time. We’ve done Greece and Turkey that way, and we went scuba diving near Komodo Island.

The best destination for design junkies isn’t Copenhagen or Tokyo.

I have a gallery, and some of my artists are in Amsterdam, and it’s such a great city in terms of design. The Frozen Fountain has all these emerging Dutch artists, and right outside of Amsterdam is Morentz Gallery, in an old shoe factory. They are huge dealers in really great vintage furnishings. I’ve been buying from them for years. For restaurants, I love Cornerstore, because I get to absorb Amsterdam’s local music scene. Try the tasting menu.

Bring a second phone.

Over the last year, I’ve traveled with a backup iPhone. I lost my phone — I left it in a car. And then I had my phone taken. It happened twice, and it’s a hassle, so now I pack a backup one as part of my travel kit. It’s just a matter of getting it turned on. The secondary phone is already set up with my Apple ID and all of my iCloud data, so if anything happens to my main phone, I am able to log in to my service provider online and change the number over to the secondary phone. All you need is the EIN number, which is found in Settings/About on the iPhone, to transfer service over. It usually only takes 5 to 10 minutes to activate, which is so much faster than having to go to the Apple store to get a new one.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Each Friday, City Limits rounds up the latest news on housing, land use and homelessness. Catch up on what you might have missed here.

Homes in central Brooklyn. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Welcome to “What Happened in NYC Housing This Week?” where we compile the latest local news about housing, land use and homelessness. Know of a story we should include in next week’s roundup? Email us.

ICYMI, from City Limits:

The city’s tax lien sale—long criticized for disproportionately impacting communities of color—returns next month. We spoke to Kevin Wolfe of the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, which is offering free counseling to homeowners at risk of having their debt sold, about their options.

Want to know if your apartment is covered by ‘Good Cause’ eviction protections? This website can help.

Advocates are hoping for a state budget deal that includes additional protections and resources for immigrant New Yorkers, including approval of a housing voucher program for low-income households, regardless of immigration status.

ICYMI, from other local newsrooms:

The developers seeking city approval to build a casino at Hudson Yards are increasing the amount of housing proposed for the project, according to Politico (behind a paywall).

The Trump administration has canceled dozens of leases around the city and state as part of efforts to downsize the federal government, according to Lohud.

The city will now bypass the housing lottery process when filling vacant, income-restricted apartments, an effort to fill units more quickly, The City reports.

Lack of housing is keeping young people in the foster system longer, according to Gothamist.

The post What Happened This Week in NYC Housing? April 25, 2025 appeared first on City Limits.

By BERNARD CONDON, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration is loosening rules to help U.S. automakers like Elon Musk’s Tesla develop self-driving cars so they can take on Chinese rivals.

U.S. companies developing self-driving cars will be allowed exemptions from certain federal safety rules for testing purposes, the Transportation Department said Thursday. The department also said it will streamline crash reporting requirements involving self-driving software that Musk has criticized as onerous and will move toward a single set of national rules for the technology to replace a patchwork of state regulations.

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“We’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a statement. “Our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard.”

The new exemption procedures will allow U.S. automakers to apply to skip certain safety rules for self-driving vehicles if they are used only for research, demonstrations and other non-commercial purposes. The exemptions were in place previously for foreign, imported vehicles whose home country rules may be different than those in the U.S.

The decision comes a day after Musk confirmed on a conference call with Tesla investors that the electric vehicle maker will begin a rollout of self-driving Tesla taxis in Austin, Texas, in June.

It’s not clear how the exemptions from National Traffic Safety Administration rules will affect Tesla specifically. The company has pinned its future on complete automation of its cars, but it is facing stiff competition now from rivals, especially China automaker BYD.

The crash reporting rule being changed has drawn criticism from Musk as too burdensome and unfair. Tesla has reported many of the total crashes under the rule in part because it is the biggest seller of partial self-driving vehicles in the U.S.

Traffic safety watchdogs had feared that the Trump administration would eliminate the reporting rule. The transportation statement Thursday said reporting will be loosened to “remove unnecessary and duplicative” requirements but that the obligation to report crashes will remain.

By RAF CASERT, Associated Press

HALLE, Belgium (AP) — Gilles Gui was looking for the magical purple bluebells that raise their heads each spring under the budding beech leaves of the Hallerbos forest, an annual explosion of color that draws crowds from around the world.

And in these times full of stress and anxiety about wars, economic threats and other tensions, he found something else too: a sense of tranquility.

“I notice that there’s a lot of silence in my head when I’m done,” Gui said. “Yeah, it helps me keep some peace in my mind, really just take my mind away from everything that’s going on.”

Bluebells, also known as wild hyacinth, bloom among the trees in the Hallerbos forest, south of Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Spending time in nature, experts have long said, can be a balm in troubled times.

“From a stroll through a city park to a day spent hiking in the wilderness, exposure to nature has been linked to a host of benefits, including improved attention, lower stress, better mood, reduced risk of psychiatric disorders, and even upticks in empathy and cooperation,” a 2020 article of the American Psychological Association said.

“These are extraordinary times,” said Ignace Glorieux, a sociology professor at Brussels University, adding that the under-30 generation in particular is under pressure.

A woman walks on a path with Bluebells, also known as wild hyacinth, in the Hallerbos forest, south of Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

“This is also the generation maybe that suffered most from the COVID crisis,” Glorieux said. “And now they come into a situation where there’s a lot of international uncertainty. So especially this group, maybe more than (the older) generation, is suffering from that and feels very uncertain about their future.”

Gui, 26, knows what Glorieux is talking about. “I do know of people my age who are worried and also with financial situations going on, who try to keep level heads, but it’s very hard for them,” he said.

The bluebell woods offer a ‘big green hug’

During the pandemic, the bluebell woods were closed off for fear that throngs of people would make it a hive of transmission instead of a haven of peace. Restrictions kept some parks under seal and mandated masks in some others.

Bluebells, also known as wild hyacinth, bloom among the trees in the Hallerbos forest, south of Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

“It was a difficult period for everyone,” said Mark Demesmaeker, a former member of the European Parliament, gardening enthusiast and city councilor in Halle, where he has walked the woods for decades. Now, at least, nature is there to welcome those with anxious minds.

“These bluebells — but in other times of year as well, walking here, the forest valleys, the wildlife, the forest streams — you know, they work into your mind all year round. And it’s really a big green hug that you get here,” Demesmaeker said.

A man walks his dog on a path surrounded by Bluebells, also known as wild hyacinth, in the Hallerbos forest, south of Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

That hug from nature is just about everywhere right now. Japan is awash in a sea of cherry blossoms, which mesmerize people around the world. Bluebell season also coincides with the prime tulip season in the Netherlands. The renowned Keukenhof garden there has become a playground for influencers and those seeking that ultimate selfie.

Put down the phone?

The Keukenhof and the Dutch tourism board suggest good spots to “make your image come alive.”

In this long exposure lens zoom effect, bluebells, also known as wild hyacinth, bloom among the trees in the Hallerbos forest, south of Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

To Glorieux, that’s where 21st-century humans push it too far.

“We have to be busy all the time, even in our leisure time,” he said. “We have to perform.”

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Instead, he advised, “Focus! If you go out walking, focus on walking. If you go out jogging, focus only on jogging.”

Such advice was not wasted on Philippe Thiry, 64, a southern Belgian recently retired and ready to embrace the rest of his life. He had no phone as he set off in the sunshine to look for bluebells.

“I don’t want to use it here because I’m here just to relax,” he said. “I mean, just to see the flowers and to see, to listen to the birds.”

“I want to be disconnected.”