Bulgari, Armani, Versace: why luxury fashion brands open hotels as more get into the game
- Ever since fashion-branded hotels emerged in the early noughties, luxury labels have capitalised on the synergies between fashion and hospitality
- Having a hotel opens fashion brands to a lot of other product categories, and lets them tap alternative marketing tools and create experiential channels
Late last year LVMH made headlines when it announced it was acquiring travel and luxury hospitality group Belmond. While it was not the luxury conglomerate’s first foray into hospitality – it owns and operates its own brand of hotels called Cheval Blanc – it signalled a larger trend that has seen more fashion and lifestyle brands enter the hospitality sector.
“Fashion and hospitality are both aspirational, experiential and a reflection of one’s lifestyle, so there are plenty of synergies there,” says Catherine Feliciano-Chon, managing partner of marketing agency CatchOn. “Being able to have a physical space beyond a conventional retail store is immensely powerful in bringing that brand to life and opens them up to a lot of other product categories, like furniture.”
The fashion-branded hotel emerged in the early noughties when Versace opened its first Palazzo in Australia. Brands including Armani and Ferragamo followed (the latter built its own portfolio of hotels under the Lungarno Collection), while fashion designers started collaborating with hotel groups on interiors and other projects.
“The hotel industry is a very different business from fashion, so not all the brands that started this venture were successful,” says Silvio Ursini, vice-president of Bulgari Hotels and Resorts. “At the moment only a very few ‘fashion’ brands are still present in the hospitality scene.