(NEW YORK) – Acclaimed luxury expert and journalist Kristen Shirley announced the launch of La Patiala, an online encyclopedia covering luxury jewelry, watches, travel, food, wine, spirits, style, beauty, and more. Shirley has worked for top publications for 15 years and has conducted hundreds of interviews with designers, chefs, restaurateurs, winemakers, master distillers, and hoteliers, as well as fashion, watch, jewelry, and travel executives, making her a seasoned expert in the category. The website provides readers with insight into what makes certain brands, products, and destinations so exceptional and why. Shirley created the digital destination to ease the apprehension and intimidation often associated with luxury goods, with the aim of empowering readers to travel, shop, and collect with the utmost confidence and enjoyment.
“I saw a major void in the market,” says Shirley. “In a time when there is a surplus of information available, I found there wasn’t one place that carefully curated essential information about luxury. Because of my years of experience as a luxury editor and journalist, I have been a trusted resource to friends, family, and colleagues who would ask me everything from which wines to buy to how they should go about finding the perfect watch or engagement ring. I launched La Patiala to put all this information in one easy and accessible place.”
Unlike most online media outlets, La Patiala is organized by category and keeps the most important information front and center, not lost in the archives. Additionally, an A-to-Z section functions as a table of contents, so readers can quickly locate what they’re looking for and peruse new topics. Further setting La Patiala apart, and in a category all its own, are its long-format deep dives into all aspects of luxury, including easy-to-understand guides, videos, historical overviews, curated shopping recommendations, contemporary reviews, and intimate explorations of the world’s most prestigious brands. La Patiala will unveil new encyclopedias throughout the year, including a dedicated style encyclopedia this summer.
The site’s name was inspired by Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, the ruler of Patiala in British India for the first 38 years of the twentieth century. He was an avid producer of luxury goods and amassed one of the finest collections of jewelry in the world. His most famous piece was undisputedly the Patiala Necklace, which he commissioned from Cartier in 1928. La Patiala is short for “La Collection Patiala,” a reflection of the Maharaja’s embodiment of the global pursuit of luxury.
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