If anything screams joie de vivre, it’s Saint-Tropez in July. And at the heart of it all, Byblos. Not only my favourite hotel in the French village, but also the place where I was lucky enough to spent many childhood summers.

Coming back to the Byblos this summer with my family makes me feel both nostalgic and happy at the same time. Happy to be still be able to go there, but also serving as a reminder that life doesn’t wait for you. If there is something you want to do, do it today, not tomorrow. 

Opened in the late 1960s and forever intertwined with the glamorous heyday of the French Riviera, Hôtel Byblos still feels like its own little Provençal hideaway. Terracotta façades in shades of ochre, pink and yellow surround a palm-fringed pool, bougainvillea climbs the walls, and even a majestic resident peacock walks around the property as the unofficial house mascot. But despite its intimate Mediterranean feel, Byblos is also the epicenter of Saint-Tropez’s social itinerary — with Zuma as the latest addition to the hotel’s already lively line-up.

It was also the perfect location I had in mind when I packed a rather colourful companion for this trip: my pink and red Tote LUC8K bag. 

Perhaps it’s the South of France, but to me, Saint-Tropez has always felt like a place where you can get away with a little more. More colour. More personality. Everyone gets dressed up for lunch without questions and wears scandalously oversized sunglasses at breakfast. It felt like the perfect place to combine colours that aren’t technically supposed to “match”. I wore my LUC8K Tote in Aurora Red and Powder Pink, styled with a Zimmermann Como scarf I was gifted for my birthday last summer (which took place in Como, get it 😉 ).

I’ve always seen colour as a way of expressing myself, but the older I get, the less interested I seem to be in playing it safe. To put it frankly, I really don’t want to wear the same Pucci dress like everybody else on instagram. Or the same Loewe beach bag that is supposedly trendy this summer. To me, that’s not a Eurosummer aesthetic, that’s a Eurosummer cliché. There is something strangely addictive about wearing something unique and different and realising you actually feel completely comfortable in it. Empowered, even.

It turns out that idea isn’t far removed from the philosophy behind LUC8K.

When I spoke to founder Karen Olivo ahead of my trip, I asked her how she wanted someone carrying one of her bags to feel. How I should feel when wearing the tote. Her answer was just one word: “Themselves.”

It’s a simple answer, but one that made me think. Because how can you truly feel like yourself in an industry that has spent decades teaching us which labels, colours and style we’re supposed to want. It honestly gets tiring to live in a society where a bag is supposed to be a form of social status, rather than originality, creativity, or a form of self-expression.

LUC8K takes a different approach. The Swiss-born brand is built around the idea that fashion should last, rather than become another seasonal trend.The bags are made to order, which means you choose your design, and then the atelier creates your personalised bag. You can choose your own combination of colours and lucky numbers. There are the classic neutrals, such as monochrome black or champagne, but also the unapologetic yellows, purples, pinks and reds. All colours that are provocative, rather than blending it.

Karen herself talks about moving “from trust in the logo to trust in yourself.” And perhaps that is what I find most interesting about the brand. Luxury doesn’t necessarily need to tell everyone else what you can afford. Sometimes it can simply say something about you.

There is substance behind the colour, too. Karen speaks as passionately about the people making the bags as she does about their design. The leather, the atelier and the craftsmanship are central to how she defines luxury. Each bag is produced to order rather than sitting in inventory waiting for a buyer.

“It’s not a quick fix,” she told me. “You want something that lasts.”

Which brings me back to Saint-Tropez.

Because travel has always influenced the way I dress. Different places seem to bring out different versions of us, and the French Riviera has never exactly hold me back. Against the sun-faded colours of Byblos, my pink-and-red combination suddenly didn’t feel particularly bold at all. It simply belonged.

Maybe that is the best part about summer style: leaving some of the rules at home.

And if there is anywhere to live your colours, surely it is Saint-Tropez.

Hotel Byblos by night

WORDS & IMAGES: LISA VAN LEER