Designers corner Milan’s luxury hotel market

Fashion designers are moving from the catwalk to hospitality. Milan’s luxury hotels are where they test their ideas.

Bulgari Hotel spa.

Milan has long been Italy’s fashion capital, and the biggest names in design are now setting a new trend in taste, creating hotels, restaurants, bars and cafes to complement their labels and adding a new dimension to this dynamic city.

Giorgio Armani is synonymous with Italian style and his sumptuous Armani Hotel seems an extension of the man’s personal mystique. As soon as you enter the tiny ground-floor foyer, your senses are assaulted by a spicy fragrance reminiscent of an Arabian souk. An express elevator plucks you from the banality of the streets and propels you to level seven, where you find floor-to-ceiling windows that seem to defy gravity and provide a panoramic view of Milan’s rooftops while you check in. The hotel opened in 2011 following the success of Armani’s debut hotel in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, and is a partnership with the UAE property developer, Emaar.

Hidden inside an austere building designed by Enrico Griffini in the 1930s, the Armani is located on Via Manzoni on the edge of Milan’s renowned “Golden Triangle” fashion quarter. Soft beige tones and sleek furnishings give a soothing minimalist look to this hotel and a €40 ($60) glass of Dom Perignon in the seventh-floor Bamboo Bar seems the ideal way to put the scorching summer heat behind you, with glimpses of the Duomo though the louvred windows.

Armani has combined his taste for fine furnishings and uncompromising attention to detail with impeccable service to create a luxurious experience that showcases his brand. “I have concentrated all my efforts on delivering my personal aesthetic vision within a precisely defined ambience of total comfort,” says a statement from the 81-year-old doyen of Italian design. Hotel staff are strictly forbidden to speak on his behalf, but somehow the hotel speaks for itself. Of its 95 rooms and suites, the pinnacle is the 200sq m presidential suite with cocktail bar and terrace, for up to €10,000 a night.

Throughout the hotel creamy brown floors are covered in smooth Asian limestone and large neutral rugs. Muted beige and mushroom-coloured furnishings from Armani’s Casa collection are complemented by Eastern-inspired lamps and tables. Minibars and cupboards are discreetly hidden and guests can close the blinds or check who’s outside their door by pushing a button on the hotel iPad beside the bed. Bathrooms have the finest fittings and one-way glass shower doors give guests total privacy, even from each other.

The entire eighth floor, covering an area of 1000sq m, is devoted to beauty and relaxation, featuring spa treatments and a fitness gym. Downstairs the Emporio Armani Caffé sits inside the designer’s clothing and homewares emporium and is bustling with a lunchtime crowd of fashionistas, office workers and curiosity seekers. With its shiny black furnishings and red lacquered look, the cafe resembles a Japanese bento box and is great for people-watching. The credit cards have had an early morning workout and a procession of Louis Vuitton and Prada handbags pass by in search of a table. Those on a budget gravitate to the bar for what is still one of the most expensive espressos in town.

It was not Armani but the Italian jewellery and fashion brand Bulgari, now owned by the French LVMH luxury group, which first merged design with hospitality when it opened the Bulgari Hotel in Milan’s upscale Brera district in 2004. The hotel is a partnership between the fashion brand and the Ritz-Carlton chain and recently celebrated 10 years with a complete makeover. Bulgari has since replicated the concept in London and Bali. A new hotel is due to open in Shanghai next year and there are others in the pipeline.

Attilio Marro, general manager of the Milan hotel, likes to describe the Bulgari as “a luxury hotel with a contemporary twist”.

“We design our hotels with a vision of contemporary Italian luxury that has guided the brand in the past 130 years of history, using precious materials, great craftsmanship and the unmistakeable creative sensibility that transcends time,” Marro says.

The five-star Milan hotel has only 58 stylish rooms and suites and features a stunning garden cocktail lounge — one of the coolest places to be when the city’s notorious humidity take its toll.

Marro says his clients are “individuals who like to reward themselves with fine things, who own several nice cars and have a city house and a country retreat or beach house, they own or charter yachts. They are used to very good service. They have their own cigar humidors and wine cellars. They collect art. We are not necessarily speaking about the private jet crowd, but about first-class, or even business-class travellers with a different attitude. Their expectations are of the highest level and require exceptional service to maintain.”

The hotel combines contemporary design with a warm, relaxed ambience. Chunky sofas, bulging bookcases and generous bathtubs make you feel at home. There is a subterranean candlelit spa with an iridescent pool you might find in Bali or Bangkok. But the 4000sq m private garden remains one of Milan’s best-kept secrets and an oasis in the heart of the city.

Milan Mayor Giuliano Pisapia says it’s no surprise fashion brands are moving into the sector. “It’s undoubtedly enriching our city and sending an image of charm, elegance and distinction around the world,” he says.

milan.armanihotels.com, bulgarihotels.com/milan