Gstaad Guy
(Picture: Instagram)When a Londoner known as “The Gstaad Guy” walks through the Place Des Lices in St Tropez or Harrods in London, dozens of people approach him begging for selfies, yet when he walks through Gatwick Airport he is only recognised by a handful - if anyone at all. So who is The Gstaad Guy? And why are the world’s rich and famous flocking to him at elite hotspots around the world? His real identity is a secret, but the rich and famous from Bel Air to Belgravia are splitting their sides laughing at his satires of their opulent lifestyles.
His parody character of choice is Constance, a fusty looking British snob with a cut glass accent, a Loro Piana cashmere outfit, and a penchant for fine wines. Moneyed bon vivants are lapping up the jokes even though they are at their expense. When we meet Gstaad Guy at Juice Baby in Westbourne Grove, he says they love the imitations of their spoiled excesses. Gstaad, he says, has “two really nice hotels, The Alpina and The Gstaad Palace and they're full of the world's most successful and powerful people - a club sandwich is about £70.”
That's just the tip of the iceberg. “The average night at either hotel during high season is about £4,500, with a two-week minimum stay,” he tells us. “During covid, you could only eat at the hotel restaurants if you were a guest at the hotel, so some locals would book a hotel room and not even step foot in the room, just so they could go have dinner in the restaurant. Effectively paying about £40,000 to have a sandwich”. It was from these absurd experiences that The Gstaad Guy drew inspiration for his Gstaad-based character, Constance. And he now struggles to count the growing number of super-rich and royalty as part of his almost quarter of a million Instagram and TikTok followers. They include Princess Olympia of Greece, Elon’s Musk’s mother Maye Musk, LVMH’s Frederic Arnaud, Swiss businessman Ernesto Bertarelli, stylist Jessica Mulroney and her husband Ben, amongst others.
The Gstaad Guy also plays another character, Colton. A spoiled gen-z happy-go-lucky cryptocurrency enthusiast from Los Angeles, he represents the new-money pop-star archetype. He sees character Constance is an ambassador to the old-money aristocracy, while Colton is closer to the world of new money social media fame. The Gstaad Guy recently walked the runway at Philipp Plein’s Spring/Summer 23 fashion show in Milan as his character Colton, receiving congratulations in his Instagram comments from celebrity Colton-types including YouTuber Logan Paul, singer Madison Beer, designer Danielle Guizio, artist Alec Monopoly, and UK rapper Central Cee.
Although the Gstaad Guy’s videos are mostly comedic, he told us that he uses the lens of comedy to uncover the darker sider of the elite too - inspired by Sacha Baron Cohen. He says “Sacha Baron Cohen is my biggest inspiration. Aside from being a comedic genius, he manages to uncover some of the ugliest truths of our societies and world. And I am really inspired by that”. The Gstaad Guy hints that he is currently working on a script for a full-length Gstaad Guy feature film, which he hopes will be his bridge from the smartphone to the big screen.
