It’s three weeks into operation at the Gold Coast’s most hyped new hotel and the beautiful people are trickling in. They’re sipping acai-garitas poolside and dirty martinis at the bar. They fill the restaurants – colour matched to the interiors in shades of chestnut, olive and sand – a dusting of salt and pepper among the well-kept blondes. From my sunlounge, it’s too difficult to tell if the chic clientele is turning up the temperature on this scene or if the hotel’s bronzed glow is making everyone seem just a little more fabulous.
The Mondrian brand has always been cool-crowd catnip. It started in 1996 when serial-hotelier Ian Schrager opened the original in West Hollywood as his “after-after party” to Studio 54. By the 2000s, the hotel lobby was a Los Angeles hotspot and its rooftop pool bar was the place to see and be seen. Now part of Accor Group and Ennismore, that Mondrian essence is sprinkled across nine properties worldwide, including this 24-level scalloped glass tower by Fraser & Partners – the first hotel in Australia for the brand.
