The Inside Scoop: Dress Code & Etiquette

Il Pellicano has long been a summer anchorage for the best dressed people on the planet (Jackie Kennedy to Kate Moss, and even Russian fashion designer Ulyana Sergeenko captaining a wooden vintage boat and stepping off onto the dock in a turban and flowing gown). So please do Marie Louise a favor, and leave your jeans and T-shirts at home. “The Pellicano is a place to dress up, so whenever I see people not making an effort, it really bums me out,” says Scio, who typically shows up to breakfast wearing one of her grandmother’s vintage, full length dresses and a shiny pair of flat Pierre Hardy sandals. For those who need directives on elegant dress, her rules are pretty clear: Men should never wear t-shirts at aperitivo or dinner, even at the casual bar. “It drives me nuts,” she says of slacker male dressers. “Why can’t they come with a collared shirt – even a polo?” If you know how to work a chic shorts and jacket ensemble (like your fashionable gay friend), great, otherwise, stick to trousers. Scio’s father, for example, shows up to breakfast or poolside drinks in striped linen shirts, blue chinos, navy velvet furlane slippers and a panama hat. Women on the other hand should err on the side of elegance. “Nothing too short,” Marie Louise advises. “It’s not the place.” Also to avoid: see-through kaftans and high heels (especially together). Scio recommends: Missoni kaftans, flat Greek sandals, a long LaDoubleJ Swing dress or the Boy Shirt/Big Skirt combo, a one piece bathing suit and an APC military jacket for chilly nights by the sea. While she would prefer to stay glued to Il Pellicano’s signature white and yellow striped towel-lined lounge chairs — and really, who wouldn’t? — the hospitality scion does of course occasionally leave her perfect sea perch for special spots along her hotel’s hood, from the main town of Porto Ercole to resort havens like Capalbio. Here’s an inside look at her rules for living the Good life at the Hotel Il Pellicano, as well as her favorite places to scoop, stoop, scope, and stretch out her long, bronzed limbs when she’s not fluttering around her hotel like a busy beautiful butterfly.