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.
Magnificent Milan
In Italy, a 32,000-square-foot piazza in the heart of Milan’s fashion district is now home to Portrait Milano, a stately hotel from the Lungarno Collection, the hospitality group owned by the Ferragamo family. Taking over a landmark seminary commissioned by the Archbishop of Milan in the 16th century, the hotel made its unofficial opening in September with a show staged by Ferragamo’s 27-year-old designer Maximilian Davis, who is becoming fashion’s next rising star.
The seminary’s vast courtyard has been rechristened Piazza del Quadrilatero and opened to the public for the first time in its history, providing walking access between the neighborhood’s two main arteries. Besides the hotel, it showcases fashion boutiques, restaurants and, beginning later this year, will host art exhibitions, performances and other cultural events.
Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo, the husband-and-wife founders of the Italian label Golden Goose, have entered their hospitality world with The Venice Venice Hotel. Set in the Palazzo Ca’ da Mosto, a 13th century Byzantine palace, the historic property opened last year with painstaking renovations and rooms adorned with modernist artworks by the likes of Giuseppe Chiari, Joseph Beuys and Maurizio Nannucci.
A Design Oasis in Tangier
Later this spring, the British designer Jasper Conran is set to debut Villa Mabrouka, a hotel in the former home of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in Tangier, Morocco. The garden filled with palms, citrus trees, hydrangea and bougainvillea was designed by landscape designer Madison Cox while the pool is carved out of a mountain rock with a natural waterfall, making this a peaceful oasis after a day in the medina.
