As if fashion designers didn't have their imprints on everything these days, they have become hoteliers as well.
In a growing trend on the luxury hotel circuit, the world's best-known design names - Missoni, Ralph Lauren, Christian Lacroix - are bringing their creative processes to the hospitality world, endowing hotel rooms and lobbies with a signature designer sensibility, be that in the brightly patterned bedspreads at the Hotel Missoni in Edinburgh or the gilded formality of the Palazzo Versace in Australia.
Bangkok's newest hotel, the Sofitel So, was styled by Lacroix, whose legendary affinity with colour and luxe touches are everywhere: some of the 238 rooms have dramatic amethyst-hued walls and a single fuchsia pink rose on a table top as an accent. Lacroix worked with noted local architect Smith Obayawat to create individual floors inspired by the elements of water, earth, metal, food and fire.
The project was not the first Sofitel to benefit from a designer's touch; its Mauritius property, Sofitel So Mauritius Bel Ombre, features one-off designs from Paris-based Japanese designer Kenzo Takada. Missoni, the Milanese fashion family whose name is synonymous with zig-zag prints, own hotels under their name in Edinburgh and Kuwait. Three more are expected to open in the next couple of years in Brazil, Turkey and Oman. The family also created a special suite at the Villa Marie hotel in Saint-Tropez, throwing colourful rugs and vividly printed upholstery around black-lacquered bed rests.
Just as the Missoni interiors are about prints and patterns, the Armani Hotels in Dubai and Milan are an exercise in understated elegance. In the Milan property, which opened late last year, every detail of the 95-room hotel was overseen by Giorgio Armani. His signature is everywhere: the sleek couches in shades of clotted cream, the plush silvery rugs, the curved white lounge chairs in the spa area. He managed to maintain the same aesthete in Dubai. For many A-list designers, constructing their own hotels allows them to entertain fellow A-listers in peace and privacy. Alberta Ferretti's Palazzo Viviani in Montegridolfo, less than an hour's drive from Florence, is a magnificent 13th-century hilltop castle that Ferretti restored from a crumbling mess. She was among the first of the designer-turned-hotelier breed, having acquired the palace with some co-investors in 1988; it reopened as a hotel in 1994. The designer infused the eight rooms with her resolutely feminine and delicate aesthete, where many of the traditional frescoes remain.
There's a reason that the likes of Anna Wintour and Michael Kors like to vacation at Round Hill in Jamaica; their friend and fellow fashionista Ralph Lauren has brought his signature American chic leitmotif to the surroundings. Lauren was brought in to renovate the Pineapple House on Round Hill, a series of oceanfront villas with views of the Caribbean. Think high ceilings with louvred windows and pristine furnishings. It helps that Lauren owns a couple of villas at Round Hill for his personal use.
Certainly, most designers are not just lingering in their backyards any more when diversifying into hotels. While the people at luxury jewellery brand Bulgari have a hotel in Milan, they also own the Bulgari Resort in Bali, where the rooms have the bespoke feel of the line - interior walls are made from hand-cut volcanic stone, window and door frames shaped from an exotic Javanese mahogany. And the Palazzo Versace on Australia's Gold Coast is every bit as richly imagined as the name might suggest, all gilt and monumental chandeliers and poufy furniture. Other designer labels are staying closer to home. Cheval Blanc, the ski resort in Courchevel, France, was built by LVMH chief Bernard Arnault and has hosted the likes of Tom Ford and Naomi Campbell.