This week, Laura Ashley opened its first hotel. If the name, Laura Ashley The Manor, Elstree, Hertfordshire, rather not trip off the tongue, the manor of mock Tudor 49-bedroom is certainly attracting attention. The company's Design Team worked on many hotel interiors already, according to the Joint COOPERATION, Nick Kalogirou, the project is "a natural progression to take the one step further brand."
Fashion brand hotels are not new. Versace has opened the famously opulent Palazzo Versace in Queensland, Australia, in 2000. Although he could not contemplate couture, you could buy the jeans and surround yourself with household brand on the Gold Coast.
Other Italian houses took the idea: Bulgari, Ferragamo, Armani, Gucci and Missoni – who brought his signature stripes for Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Although the more inviting, for me, are offered to the family Ferretti boutique, Carducci 76 and Palazzo Viviani, in Emilia-Romagna. Now, a brand of hotels is clearly the thing to have. IKEA is currently working on a project with Marriott to create a budget line called Moxy, the first of which will open in Milan.
Somehow, Laura Ashley is bringing the concept full circle, since it was a British name that it did before. Back in 1996 founder Roger Saul opened Mulberry Charlton House, a country populated by colorful Kilim, battered and muddy boots leather. It reflects perfectly his quintessentially English label.
The Manor is a Laura Ashley furnishings showcase (guests will sleep on the beds, read by Laura Ashley lamps and SIP afternoon tea resting on his chairs) but also, above all, archive drawings – reprinted some dating back to the 1950s. More brands might try this.
Imagine a night chez Liberty, or a week-end in an embrace of American Apparel and housewares hip boutique, Anthropologie and little me faster Interior packaging taken Baileys (the Holy Grail of Gloucestershire) would get putting their shabby-hip stamp on accommodation. Who knows what we'll be getting in bed with the next. What makes true see transformed in the Hotel – and that he would never stay in?
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