CONSUMERS
The Latest Hotels, Paris, Amsterdam & Marrakech
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Big name hotels announce plans to launch new properties as often as every two weeks in China, whilst Starwood puts India at the heart of its strategy A Deluxe Room…
Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
Big name hotels announce plans to launch new properties as often as every two weeks in China, whilst Starwood puts India at the heart of its strategy
A Deluxe Room at the Four Seasons Hotel Marrakech
Whilst luxury openings may have slowed in the past two months, if recent announcements by Starwood and JW Marriott are anything to go by, it won’t be long until the pace picks up again. Starwood have long been established in the Chinese market, with more than 70 existing hotels within their portfolio and over 90 in the pipeline, resulting in one hotel opening every two weeks in the region, for the rest of 2011.
China is now the brand’s second biggest market to the US, with India set to become the third most important by 2015, as they set a target of 100 operational hotels in India and prepare to introduce the ‘St. Regis’ brand to the market.
Similarly at Marriott, the group’s luxury brand, JW Marriott, announced intentions to open 12 new properties by year-end 2012, in India, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Peru, UAE, Vietnam, Maldives and South Korea. Further to these openings, another 13 luxury properties are planned for completion by year-end 2015, increasing the total JW Marriott global portfolio to 77 properties in 29 countries.
Four Seasons Hotel, Marrakech
Across 40 acres of sunlit Moorish gardens, the Four Seasons Hotel Marrakech incorporates a resort and spa within an elegant Moroccan medina, across from the Menara Gardens. The hotel has 140 rooms and suites, five restaurants, two swimming pools, an extensive spa and beautiful Moorish gardens.
Website: Four Seasons Marrakech
Source: Four Seasons Hotels
Mandarin Oriental, Paris
The latest of several Asian firms to enter the French luxury hospitality market, Hotel Mandarin Oriental will open its first Paris branch on June 28, on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. The hotel features 99 luxurious rooms and 39 suites and two restaurants, one bar and one cake shop under the direction of two Michelin starred chef, Thierry Marx.
Website: Mandarin Oriental Paris
Source: Luxuo
Hotel de l’Europe, Amsterdam
Re-opening after over €60 million worth of renovation, Hotel de l’Europe will launch with 111 guest rooms, including 42 palatial suites. Part of the re-launch includes the new Dutch Masters Wing , opened in March 2010, an all-suite annex of 23 uniquely appointed, spacious loft-like quarters each with a different yet exacting replica painting from the nearby Rijksmuseum National Gallery.
Website: De l’Europe
Source: Luxury Travel Magazine
Hilton Bodrum Turkbuku, Bodum Peninsula
Opening on the Bodum peninsula of Turkey, Hilton inaugurated the Bodrum Turkbuku Resort & Spa in Paradise Bay. The 433-room luxury resort features five restaurants and five bars, alongside six pools, including a mini aqua-park for kids with water slides, a sunbathing deck, water sports centre and extensive spa.
Website: Hilton Bodrum Turkbuku
Source: Luxuo
Leela Palace, New Delhi
The first New Delhi luxury hotel to be built from the ground up in many years, Leela Place comprises 11 levels, 260 rooms and some of the city’s largest guest rooms, beginning at 550 square feet in size. Rooms include Murano chandeliers from Italy, hand-woven carpets from Turkey, Bose iPod docks; Sony high definition LCD TVs with Blu-Ray compatibility; mirror television sets and spa mood lighting in the bathrooms. A $5 million collection of traditional and contemporary Indian art offsets a collection 18 spacious suites and the six-room Maharajah Suite, which includes its own private elevator, gym and spa room and use of a chauffeured Rolls-Royce Phantom.
Website: Leela Palace
Source: Hotel Chatter
Creative Strategist, Digital
Sophie Doran is currently Senior Creative Strategist, Digital at Karla Otto. Prior to this role, she was the Paris-based editor-in-chief of Luxury Society. Prior to joining Luxury Society, Sophie completed her MBA in Melbourne, Australia, with a focus on luxury brand dynamics and leadership, whilst simultaneously working in management roles for several luxury retailers.
