Is Your Hotel Chic? Check The Label | CNN
These days, no fashion house portfolio is complete without a hotel – or at the very least, a luxuriously designed suite.
Tommy Hilfiger and Karl Lagerfeld are the latest fashion icons to try their hands at hoteling, with Hilfiger recently purchasing Miami's The Raleigh Hotel and Lagerfeld set to open his first branded property in Macau (albeit not until 2017).
They join the ranks of many of the fashion industry's most iconic members, including Bulgari, Armani, Versace, and – until recently – Missoni (the Hotel Missoni brand, alas, is calling it quits).
"From a designer's perspective, a hotel gives you complete latitude to bring their way of thinking to everything, from the draperies to the textures and colors, that's what you sign up for," says Nikhil Bhalla, vice president of equity research in lodging at FBR Capital Markets.
In many cases, a hotel acts as a sort of large-scale designer showroom. Armani Hotels, for instance, are outfitted with furnishings from Armani Home, ball gowns accentuate the décor at Milan's Maison Moschino, and no suite at Bulgari Hotel is complete without the brand's signature silver.
