Hotel Vermelho, designed by Christian Louboutin, features custom tiles by Portuguese tile maker Fábrica de Azulejos and decor from local houseware brand Vida Dura.Hotel Vermelho/Supplied
When Louis Vuitton opens its first hotel on Paris’s fabled Avenue des Champs-Élysées in 2026, it will join a trove of other luxury fashion brands – Armani, Bulgari and Ferragamo, for example – that have entered into the hospitality game.
Fashion-fronted hotels have swish amenities and design features aplenty through which they reinforce their elevated ethos – sometimes quite literally, as Bulgari’s London hotel offers private helicopter tours that depart from the helipad on its roof. At Armani Hotel Milano, “lifestyle managers” are assigned to guests to manage their every whim, including customizing treatments at the property’s spa.
If industry trends continue, we’ll likely see even more tony labels lend their names to the marquees of hotels and resorts in years to come.
Global management consulting firm Bain & Company released a report earlier this year, highlighting three categories that accounted for over 80 per cent of the total luxury market: cars, hospitality and personal goods.
Joëlle de Montgolfier, a Paris-based practice executive vice president at Bain, says that fashion companies have “realized that travel and leisure are a really big part of their customers’ spending,” particularly emerging from the restrictions placed by COVID-19 lockdowns. She adds that the momentum of luxury experiences – that is, in-person contact with customers new and established – continues to outpace material items. Yet it’s not only for financial reasons that a high-end house attaches its eponymous clout to a travel destination. “Hospitality properties turn a name into a complete lifestyle brand beyond its original scope,” de Montgolfier says.
But unlike a boutique store, which has set opening hours and high-level protocols strictly overseen by the brand itself, a hotel “has a high exposure to risk” de Montgolfier says. “The temperature in a room, fruit that rots on a plate in a hallway because nobody has cleaned it away – every tiny detail can invoke more of a reputational risk factor than you would typically see in a luxury boutique.”
To circumvent such scenarios, as well as to tap into the increasing desire from customers to feel more of a personal attachment to their favourite fashion stars, some icons have opted to open intimate spaces in less populated places.
The 13-room boutique Hotel Vermelho is in the Portuguese village of Melides, a place fashion designer Christian Louboutin has vacationed in for many years.Hotel Vermelho/Supplied
French designer Christian Louboutin designed the five-star Hotel Vermelho in the Portuguese village of Melides, a destination he’s vacationed in for many years. Operated by Marugal Hotel Management, the 13-room oasis opened in 2023 and has found renown for Louboutin’s creative engagement with local artisans that emphasizes the cultural richness of the area. Traditional tile maker Fábrica de Azulejos de Azeitão developed a custom red design to flaunt Louboutin’s signature colour (Vermelho is also “red” in Portuguese), and the decor is curated by local homeware store Vida Dura.
Additionally, pieces from Louboutin’s personal art and decor collection – dioramas by Spanish artist Carlos Diaz de Bustamente, sofas by Pierre Yovanovitch, an urchin chandelier by Nicolas Cesbron – can be found within the hotel (where a stay during high season costs over US$1,800 a night).
“I didn’t want to create a hotel like a hotel, with standardized bedrooms, et cetera,” Louboutin said via email. “I had in mind more of a maison de famille, the kind of place you host friends and family all summer long, with a very relaxed and warmful art of hosting.”
Conversely, Louis Vuitton and its parent company, LVMH – which owns two hotel management companies, Cheval Blanc and Belmond – are approaching the travel category with grand gestures. In addition to the anticipated launch of the Paris hotel property, LVMH announced this past June a strategic partnership with Accor, which owns known hotel brands including Raffles and Fairmont, in order to “accelerate the development” of the storied Orient Express rail travel company.
It’s a testament to the fact that brands are willing to go the extra mile to showcase their savoir faire and keep clients happy, and that a fashion brand’s esteem goes beyond its product offerings. “Luxury, despite everything going on all the time, is still a category that has so much potential in it,” says de Montgolfier. “It’s always interesting to see what brands and creative people do with that opportunity.”