Unique luxury hotels, fashionable travel and much more

The piece I wrote a couple of weeks ago about luxury hotels becoming design icons has been borne out by work going on at the prestigious Claridge’s Hotel in London.

Claridge’s, known for its Art Deco opulence, hired the fashion legend Diane von Furstenberg (think wrap dress) to revamp 20 suites. It was something of a labour of love because she’s been going there as a guest for 30 years and declares it her favourite hotel in the world.

Time magazine asked her what made a luxury hotel room appealing: “It’s always about comfort. When you come to a hotel room, you want it to be grand, functional and beautiful. But you don’t want things that are not useful. Sometimes you go to hotels and there are all these frames and pictures of people you don’t know and you end up hiding everything in the drawer and then housekeeping come and put it out again.”

Did she think luxury remained relevant in these hard times? “For me the real sense of luxury is space. Luxury is silence. Luxury is nature. What I hate is when people think of luxury just as expensive and useless. Yes, a luxury hotel is expensive. But, God, sometimes it feels so good.”

Of course, we at Luxique are inclined to agree and we can help you book a room or a von Furstenberg-designed suite at Claridge’s.

by Andy Moreton, with acknowledgements to Time magazine

I read this week that luxury hotels are now so stylishly presented that guests want to copy ideas for their own interior design plans.

Amy Popp, of the Four Seasons luxury hotel chain, says it’s not uncommon for guests to fall in love with a chair in the lobby, a duvet cover or something even more outlandish. “One of the most unusual requests we’ve had is for the door going into the executive office … someone wanted to buy the door,” she said.

It’s a fact that luxury hotel chains hire the best interior designers with cutting-edge ideas, so people look to hotels to see what’s fashionable. Each location is styled individually, capturing regional charm.

If you do see something in your luxury hotel that you can’t live without, ask the manager about it. You might be able to do a deal, or he/she could tell you where you could order it. However, many pieces of hotel furniture tend to be custom-made and one-of-a-kind.

The Four Seasons soon cottoned on to the trend and, after receiving multiple requests, began selling a complete bedding package including beds and linens — right down to the pillow.

by Andy Moreton, with acknowledgements to Delaney Seiferling of the Toronto Sun.

“Back in the good old days, it was enough for a billionaire designer at the top of his or her game to own a super-yacht, a private island, a Manhattan penthouse, a Tuscan villa and a chalet in Gstaad. Not any more. To be truly a 21st century, global lifestyle superstar you need to own a hotel as well.”

Those were the words of the Daily Telegraph’s Fashion Director, Hilary Alexander, as Giorgio Armani opened his luxury hotel in the world’s tallest building – the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. He follows in the footsteps of Missoni (Edinburgh), Moschino (Milan) and Versace (Dubai and Australia’s Gold Coast).

Armani – whose business is worth about £1.58 billion ($2.4 billion) a year in sales –set up a partnership with Emaar Properties, the Arab world’s biggest listed developer, in 2005 to develop a series of luxury hotels, resorts and residences in key cities around the world.

At first glance, Dubai and Armani doesn’t look like a match made in heaven: a city of excess (‘Las Vegas in the desert’) and a minimalist designer. “I am a minimalist, less is more … and when I looked at what was happening here it was the opposite,” said Armani at the hotel launch. “But he [Emaar Chairman Mohamed Alabbar] wanted me and I wanted him.”

The 160-room Armani Hotel Dubai, occupying six floors in the Burj Khalifa, is said to have been designed with ‘an understated palette of cream and earth colours’. It has eight restaurants.

A standard room (with not a single picture on the walls) costs around 4,000 dirhams a night (£718 / $1,089), while the best suite has a price tag of 40,000 dirhams (£7,180 / $10,890).

Armani’s next luxury hotel development with Emaar will open in Milan next year.

by Andy Moreton

The Armani is competing with a host of luxury hotels in Dubai. Luxique has a selection of the very best.

Missoni is the latest designer name to go into the hotel business.

The Italian fashion house signed a deal a couple of years ago with the big hospitality group, Rezidor, which already has around 330 hotels in 51 countries, including the brands Park Inn, Regent and Radisson SAS.

The first two hotels from Rezidor’s partnership with Missoni will open next year – in Kuwait City and Edinburgh. “We believe that hotels are a natural extension for our core brand and that they will work with, and complement, our fashion business,” said Director, Vittorio Missoni.

Since 2000, more than a dozen designers have either set up a partnership with a hospitality company to co-brand a new property or signed on to redesign the interiors of an existing hotel. They include Armani, Versace and Lagerfeld.

Lucian James, founder of the Paris-based brand consultancy, Agenda, said: “In the past five or ten years, fashion designers have begun to understand that the best way they can increase business is by recreating themselves as lifestyle brands. They have to find other ways to build revenue in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.”

Designs for the Kuwait and Edinburgh hotels are being kept secret, but the Missoni team will be heavily involved in creating the look, so expect the signature zig-zag print on curtains and cushions. And the branding is likely to extend to other areas such as tableware and furniture.

by Andy Moreton