Fashion Designers expanding into different markets: The Hotel business

It seems that over the past five years, some of the best fashion designers in the world have expanded their creative flare and delved into the art of interior design for many hotels in some of the most exotic, luxury destinations across the world. To name just a few, Diana von Furstenberg, Dior, Vera Wang and Ralph Lauren have been known to have designed rooms for exquisite hotels in the likes of Jamaica, Milan, Paris, Australia and Hawaii to widen their global audience and offer aspects of their brand identity across all continents. However, these rooms are not just any typical interior designed hotel suite because many of these luxury designers have intended to allow their guests to really wear a room for the full experience by trading in the generic white and beige room design, which seems to be the standard hotel room setting and replacing it with beautiful colours, desirable textiles and sumptuous furnishings.

So let's have a look at some of the best hotel suites designed by our favourite fashion houses...


Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren's Round Hill Hotel and Villas in Jamaica

All of the rooms at the exclusive Round Hill Hotel and Villas in Jamaica have been designed entirely through the eyes of Ralph Lauren himself. The designer has maintained a colour palette of primarily cool blue and whites to communicate a relaxed ambience among his guests and achieve a real nautical feeling whilst people stay at the resort. Not only is this hotel known for its sophisticated and chilled vibe but it is also the destination where JFK Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy went on their honeymoon and also the place where Rodgers and Hammersmith wrote the musical 'The Sound of Music'.


Vera Wang
Vera Wang's Halekulani Suite at the Halekulani Hotel in Hawaii

Enriched in a colour palette of exotic purples, Vera Wang's décor for the Halekulani Suite in Hawaii, a place which the designer holds closely to her heart, offers an oriental escape mixed with true elite glamour for those looking for a stylish getaway with a tropical landscape.

To fit with her style aesthetic, the suite is adorned with elements from Vera Wang’s specialty home, gift, bath and accessories collections as well as unique and rare furnishings from Hawaii, the Pacific and Asia to create a cultural flare of influences on a global perspective.




Diana von Furstenberg
Diane von Furstenberg's Claridge's Suite in London

As for Diana von Furstenberg's suit in Claridge in London, every aspect of the interior from the rugs to the wallpaper, is a personal representation of Furstenberg's legendary, on trend style. Covered in outlandish prints and bold coloured animalistic fabrics, the designer has opted for a very modern way of translating her brands aesthetic into furnishings. Whilst the bedroom offers quite a nude, muted colour pallet, the main living area makes up for this lack of colour by incorporating splashes of fuchsia, lime green and purple against a monochrome setting to give the high end room a sense of visual contrast, life and boldness.




Christian Lacroix
Christian Lacroix's Hotel le Bellechasse in Paris

Christian Lacroix's Hotel Le Bellechasse in Paris translates his passion for historical and cultural influences upon fashion. Furthermore, his interest in detailed sumptuous patterns and materials within the design of the interior expresses the designers acquired taste for luxury, rich distinctive colours and a retrospective journey back in time to the Elizabethan age and even further historical periods. The 34 bedroom hotel is located in the fashionable and cultured district of Faubourg Saint Germain and is grouped into three different categories which go under the names of Discovery, Original and Privilege.



 Alice Temperley
Alice Temperley's Tipi at the One&Only in Le Saint Geran

Unlike the rest of the designers who I have mentioned already, Alice Temperley opted for an alternative response to the interior of places to stay during a holiday. Instead, Temperley designed this one of a kind tepee on the beach of the One&Only resort in Le Saint Geran, Mauritius. The tepee is adorned with hand sewn, encrusted jewels and an antique chandelier which is hidden inside to symbolise the exclusivity and fortune of the designer. Furthermore, if that was not enough, within the tepee is a treasure chest full of champagne for the guests to relax and enjoy themselves in tranquillity whilst watching the stars in the sky on this remarkable and picturesque beach setting.


Dior
The Dior Suite at the St Regis Hotel in New York

In 2011 it was revealed that the St Regis Hotel in New York had plans to collaborate with the brand Dior in terms of the interior décor of one of the hotel's 1700 square foot rooms which is located on the 12th floor. The room is a direct replication of the Dior fashion atelier which was founded in Paris and similarly to the houses décor, the hotel suite wears a 'whispering grey' colour adorned onto the walls of the room and certain stylish furnishings which also have a Parisian twist. The room offers a glimpse of fashion royalty, chic styling and French glamour to reflect Dior's brand identity and incorporate it into an American destination and allow the visions of Dior to cross the seas and have its influence on another fashion conscious origin.