Rampant Rabbit

Hugh Hefner and Carrie Leigh, by Helmut Newton

There’s nothing like a sexy slice of nostalgia to put a bunny-hop in my step on a Monday morning, and that’s exactly what's happening now the new Playboy Club London opened on Saturday. Launching on what was once the Rendezvous Mayfair Casino at Old Park Lane (just a stone’s throw from Playboy’s previous incarnation), the new club – all Mad Men chic, with red checked sofas and bunny silhouette posters – comprises a cocktail bar, dining room, lounge, smoking terrace and barbershop. But its undisputed crowning glory is the casino, found upstairs, open 24/7 and containing no less than 18 tables on which to splash the cash – American roulette, blackjack and poker included. Naturally, bunny girls shimmy throughout – all dolled up in too-tight satin bodices, collars, cuffs, cottontails and requisite bunny ears – and are either manning gaming tables, serving drinks or entertaining gentleman gamblers with their womanly ways. Naturally, feminists have been up in arms about London's return to full-bodied form, but I think it’s a retro nod to the glamorous days of yesteryear when it was all done in good fun. I haven't been yet, so let me know if you have, just hope it isn’t a trashy flash in the pan.

Some very young Stones and a Bunny