Slim Aarons photographs that capture the world's most exclusive ski resorts: from St. Moritz to Gstaad

No one better than Slim Aarons has succeeded in crystallizing an era. Indeed, more than an era, a true elite dynasty, made up of men and women with sculptural and perpetually tanned bodies, wrapped in luxurious clothes-always perfect and impeccable, almost sewn on-and holding crystal flutes, always overflowing with champagne. The most elite luxury vacations of all time, recounted-and immortalized-by the photographer, the only ‘outsider’ allowed in the circle of billionaires, have gone down in history. We're talking about golden decades when summer forays to Capri, the Amalfi Coast and the French Riviera were the order of the day, just as in winter, putting aside fashionable bikinis, dusting off mink and a fur-trimmed beanie to protect against the cold, people flocked to iconic resorts such as St. Moritz, GStaad, Courchevel, Aspen, Crans-Montana, Zermatt and Chamonix.

‘Food & beverage’ obsessions on the slopes.

Three waiters on skis serve guests on a slope in Stowe, Vermont, 1962. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images)

Slim Aarons/Getty Images

Let it not be said that the elite don't eat to keep their figure, because from Slim Aarons ' shots one senses anything but. Or maybe it will be because ‘cold weather burns fat’ (although dieticians strongly disagree). The fact is that in many of the jet-set photographer's shots, food takes center stage. From the large buffet portraying in the late 1980s the three famous Courchevel chefs at high altitude (Jean Jacob, Michel Rochedy and Albert Parveaux) with a table set on the ice, to the waiters on the ski slopes in Vermont, who in 1962 are intent on a descent - not so free - to bring guests food, menus and - Ça va sans dire - a glacette with champagne.

Team Gstaad versus St. Moritz

Vacationers lounge on the slopes of Gstaad, Switzerland, March 1961.

Slim Aarons/Getty Images

According to the Guardian, ‘it is not possible to understand Gstaad until you have spent a Christmas period there.’ It's during those days that the mountain transforms into a theater of unbridled mundanity: lights, snow, glittering chalets, skiers racing down the slopes and champagne flowing in the wooden bars, where luxury is not hidden but shown in every detail. Here, unlike in St. Moritz, glamour had not yet become a circus of furs, display diamonds and private jets as a backdrop. There was a flashy, almost theatrical elegance in which the true elite knew how to get noticed without lapsing into sheer ostentation.

Among Gstaad's historical frequenters, the names sound like something out of a novel: Greek billionaire Yiannis Latsis, fashion designer Egon von Furstenberg, actor David Niven, Princess Grace of Monaco with Prince Albert and Princess Caroline, who spent Christmas here in 1962. Richard Burton and Liz Taylor spent Christmas Eve in 1970 in the chalet they had purchased, while Peter Notz attracted friends such as Gunter Sachs and Brigitte Bardot, and Maurice Amon organized legendary parties that are still part of local mythology today.