A hotel to match that dress: Fashion designer hotels
Palazzo Versace, Australia
Donatella Versace may be known for churning out skimpy skin-baring dresses season after season but with the Palazzao Versace, which sits at Australia's Gold Coast, the fashion diva has certainly not skimped on luxury.
Opened in 2000 as one of the first fashion branded hotels in the world, it has lost none of its glitzy hedonistic charm thanks to good maintenance.
The hotel has 200 glass-paneled bedrooms that hit guests with Versace sensory overload -- think bed linens, doorknobs, bath amenities and stemware all etched with Versace's Medusa logo. Staying true to the brand’s bling bling kitsch aesthetic, the beige toned rooms are adorned with bright pops of fuchsia, gold and ultramarine.
People-watching at the Palazzo Versace can be fascinating, according to guests, and there are always supercars parked out on the driveway to gawp at, if the glitz indoors is too much for guest to stomach all at once.
For the true rock star experience, you'll have to fork out A$2,520 (US$2,200) for their top room, the Imperial Suite, which has been graced by the likes of U2 and the Rolling Stones, and is equipped with a walk-in closet, a private dining room, a butler and a massive balcony overlooking the Broadwater.
Bulgari Resort, Bali, Indonesia
The Bulgari brand is all about glamor that is off-limits to the masses, and their Bali resort appears to promise just that. The Bulgari Resort is perched atop a cliff at Pura Luhur Uluwatu, an ancient Hindu site of worship, and consists of 59 villas hovering some 150 meters above the Indian Ocean. Fancy a dip in the water? The resort’s private inclined elevator will take guests down to a private 1.5-kilometers stretch of sand by the sea far, far away from the plebes.
The villas are inspired by traditional Balinese courthouses and are paved with lava stones and thatched roofs. Each villa comes with three bedrooms, a living room, a mini-bar, a mini theater supported by a Bang and Olfusen sound systems, an outdoor meditation pavillion and -- wait for this -- a 20 meter plunge pool.
Reviews of the resort are mixed. While some raved about how gorgeous the hotel was, others complained about “thousand of bugs crawling through the room” and sloppy housekeeping. “Dirty glasses, stained furniture and worse (and the one that pushed me over the edge), a straw of human hair stuck in a comb, courtesy of the previous occupant,” ranted jaunted reader lyh1.
Armani Hotel Dubai, Shanghai and Tokyo
Talk about vaulting ambition. Fashion godfather Giorgio Armani had just opened a hotel on the lower levels of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building and word is he's already planning to expand operations in six more locations around the world, including Shanghai and Tokyo. And let’s not forget this man has dibs in almost everything, from Armani Dolci (his candy shop) to Armani Prive (his nightclub). Both ventures, naturally, make an appearance at his Dubai hotel and will probably pop up at his upcoming hotels as well.
Armani has not yet released the deets of his Asian hotel projects, but judging from their Dubai homebase, visitors to Tokyo and Shanghai have much to look forward to. The Armani Prive nightclub lays claim to having the world’s largest LCD screen, and the hotel has eight restaurants to keep guests well fed. Rooms, staying true to the brand’s discreet, fuss-free aesthetic, are mostly furnished in sleek dark wood with details reminiscent of the brand’s international fan base, such as Italian hand-crafted leather accents on the walls, Japanese Tatami-covered floors, and green bamboo marble from Brazil.
