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As haute couture and high-end travel become more intertwined, hotels are natural next campaigns for global luxury brands. After all, why settle for fashion week and window shopping when you can live like Louboutin? The French shoemaker’s vie en rouge and other design houses’ iconic lifestyles translate beautifully to inspired spaces at stately addresses. But it’s not just the furniture that’s bespoke; the decor is also handpicked and the artwork original (obviously). These places offer something more exclusive than clothing or goods — they’re all-encompassing experiences. At these 5 properties from Mexico to Japan, haute hospitality is totally in vogue.
Photography by Ambroise Tezenas
Vermelho
With a name that’s Portuguese for “red,” this 13-room hideaway translates Christian Louboutin’s bold and playful approach to high fashion into the sumptuous setting of the Alentejo region. Think contrasting azure and trademark-red azulejos, frescoed walls and ceilings, and precious adornments plucked straight from the Paris designer’s imagination and placed into unhurried village life. The property is a passion project in a corner of the world that has become Louboutin’s retreat over the past decade and counting. When it opened this spring, the hotel ushered in a new era for fashionable digs, in which a sole designer — rather than a brand — shines throughout a space. Louboutin enlisted the help of his favorite artists and makers, and the effect is personal, homey and exquisite all at once, leaving you feeling both inspired and settled.
Photography provided by Bulgari Hotel Tokyo
Bulgari
With nine hotels in operation across the world and three more underway in Los Angeles, Miami and the Maldives, Italian jewelry royalty Bulgari is officially a high roller in the hospitality world. In Tokyo — the first of two 2023 hotel openings, followed by Rome — the 40th floor pool is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows and framed by sparkling mosaic tiles, their fan shapes nodding to the Japanese capital’s emblem and Bulgari’s signature pendant. Higher still, the 45th floor bar appears like a jewel box over Tokyo’s skyline; it’s truly the diamond atop the hotelier’s crown. Three-Michelin-starred chef Kenji Gyoten’s eight-seat omakase is one of the most exclusive hotel dining experiences you’ll encounter, and the palatial Bulgari Suite is the ultimate splurge (and one of the city’s largest guest rooms to date at 4,300 square feet). Book it if top-shelf Japanese whisky and Carrara marble baths are some of your favorite things.
Photography provided by Portrait Milano
Portrait Milano
In 2022, just in time for spring fashion week, a 16th century seminary that had been closed to the public for decades was unveiled in the heart of Milan. Under the direction of the Lungarno Collection by Ferragamo, the building has been transformed into a house of worship of a new order. It’s the seventh hotel under the Italian fashion family’s hospitality arm and the brand’s biggest feat to date — the land leased from the Catholic Church and meticulously restored over the past 10 years to bring the austere stone structure into the modern era. Clean lines, warm woods and rich colors create a handsome yet streamlined sensibility across the 73 guest rooms. The modern feel complements a natural stone patina and historic views over the courtyard, which has served as a catwalk for Ferragamo and is otherwise bustling with shopping, dining and strolling passersby. The Piazza del Quadrilatero is perhaps the most fashionable part of the entire project: a modern-day arcade for runway models, hotel guests and the public — and the perfect spot for requisite people watching.
Photography by William Jess Laird
Maroma
Nearly two centuries ago, a young French trunk maker named Louis Vuitton surely wouldn’t have imagined his handmade luggage being toted across the globe. But today, the designer’s signature monogrammed cases are transported to LVMH hotels from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean. Luxury conglomerate Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton owns more than 50 properties under high-end brands Belmond and Cheval Blanc, including this latest reimagining of a 72-room barefoot-luxe stay along a private stretch of the Riviera Maya. But even with Vuitton behind it, Maroma’s redesign feels more local than worldly. Case in point: Mexican artisans were commissioned for the intricate millwork, wall textiles and painted Saltillo tiles. Don’t miss the bath amenities by boutique Mexican perfumer Xinú and the gauzy caftans crafted by Collectiva Concepción out of Mexico City.
Photography provided by Palazzo Versace Dubai
Palazzo Versace
Versace was an early influencer of haute hospitality, opening its first resort on Australia’s Gold Coast more than two decades ago. When that original opulent hotel shuttered this summer, it left a single palazzo in Dubai to carry on the venerable Versace name. Thankfully, the Emirati version can hold its own. A 215-room behemoth on the Jaddaf waterfront, it combines Italian Renaissance architecture, French Baroque design and a touch of 1980s South Beach style. You’ll notice silken fabrics and chinoiserie patterns, plus crystal chandeliers presiding over gold and pastel palettes. Here, the marriage of brand and destination is a perfectly over-the-top pairing. Forget you’re in the desert for a moment and take your pick from three pools and nine culinary concepts. While the palazzo is situated near the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, you’d swear you were on a bygone version of the European continent.
