The geography of the fashion and design industry has been shifting for a while now. Clothes and objects are no longer the ultimate representations of a brand’s creative soul. Often the best way to fully understand a designer’s vision is by checking in to a designer’s hotel.
IMAGE Iberian style in full force at Vermelho Melides. Images courtesy of the hotel.
This month, Christian Louboutin opens his first-ever stay, Vermelho Melides, in the sleepy resort town of Melides, Portugal, which has become the under-the-radar alternative to more sceney Comporta on the country’s Alentejo Coast. Louboutin, along with artist Anselm Kiefer and architect Vincent van Duyson, have purchased properties in Melides over the last few years but this month, Louboutin opens his 13-room property. He designed the hotel— a cheerful blend of hand painted murals, custom- designed azulejo tiles, and inlaid wooden floors— with the help of Lusitanian architect Madalena Caiado and his longtime friend, the textile designer and editor Carolina Irving.
Très Chic in Paris
Thierry Guiller, who owns the brand Zadig & Voltaire, recently turned a former brothel on Paris’s Rue St. Roch by Opera Garnier and the Tuileries into Château Voltaire, a 32-room hotel with an elegant and timeless touch. Guiller worked with fellow fashion tastemakers Franck Durand, art director of the cult magazine Holiday, and Charlotte de Tonnac and Hugo Sauzay of the Parisian design firm Festen on the lived-in details, from the Art-Deco mini bars and Art-and-Crafts fixtures to the old-school mousse whipped up at the hotel’s bistro-style restaurant, Brasserie l’Emil.
