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Targeting high-spending jetsetters, fashion is cosying up to the hospitality industry at a fast clip. With collections exclusive to hotel chains and full designer takeovers, more luxury brands want to be front and centre in the travel sphere.
This summer was full of brand-hotel crossovers. Givenchy infiltrated the Topping Rose House in the Hamptons; the Fendi Beach Club popped up at Puente Romano Beach Resort in Marbella; Dioriviera descended on Los Angeles, an Instagram-ready preview of their resortwear collection exclusively available at The Beverly Hills Hotel. Venice Beach brand Sunchasers launched a summery collection with W Hotels — a “near perfect brand alignment”, says W’s global brand director Carly Van Sickle.
“Fashion is a major vehicle for discovery of new, local cultures,” she explains. “Luxury consumers are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to engage with their favourite brands, while brands are looking for new ways to reach their customers through a more immersive environment.”
As travel has picked back up, consumers are shifting their spend to plane tickets, hotels and other experiences to make up for time lost during pandemic lockdowns. While beauty and apparel spending has been on a steady incline throughout 2023, international travel bookings are surging, up 200 per cent over 2022 as of April according to US travel agent and insurance provider AAA. By collaborating with hotels on retail space, brands are capitalising on a captive audience with excess disposable income. Social media has also fuelled the fire with travel fomo, as influencers showcase what they wore on recent trips. To some, travel and fashion feel more aligned than ever.
“At the core, fashion and hospitality are about storytelling — whether that story is about your sense of style, a destination or a brand,” says New York-based trend forecaster Kendall Becker. “Both industries rely on this to spark emotional reactions and, ultimately, purchases.”
Luxury resale platform Fashionphile has proved the case, frequently hosting retail pop-ups at the The Beverly Hills Peninsula Hotel or The Boca Raton in Florida with rare or sold-out merchandise.
“What’s exciting about these partnerships is that we share the exact same customer,” says Fashionphile founder, president and COO Sarah Davis. “The type of person who is staying at luxury destinations is looking for something that money can’t buy — an experience — and we also have things that you can’t just walk in [to a store] and buy. Waitlist only? Discontinued? That s our speciality.”
Sleepwear brand Petite Plume has been tapped by luxury hotels since its inception; Hollywood’s storied hotel Sunset Tower carries the brand’s pyjamas, offered to guests in-room. It’s a partnership that Petite Plume founder Emily Hikade believes brings something unique to each hotel’s story, as well as creating a lifelong brand association for guests.
“[It comes down to] recognising a similar customer and marrying the two experiences,” Hikade says. “Both fashion and hospitality offer customers a kind of escape.”
The offline, word-of-mouth marketing facilitated by these collaborations is a rare coup for emerging designers. For unisex clothing brand Sunchasers founder Carola Bernard, this is fundamental for brand awareness across demographics.
“Collaborating with hospitality brands allows businesses to reach customers differently,” she says. “When they are on holiday [and less inhibited], the brand is able to connect more deeply with their heart and soul.”
Then, inextricably tied to travel, there’s also food. The Prada Caffé, a pop-up in London’s tourist hotspot Harrods, will serve Italian treats until the end of 2023. In December 2022, Louis Vuitton opened a cafe in Osaka, on the heels of Japan’s borders fully reopening and travellers returning after pandemic lockdowns. New York brand La Ligne partnered with restaurateur Mario Carbone to launch a menswear brand, Our Lady of Rocco, to get in front of his wide fanbase. In 2022, the brand hosted an activation at Art Basel to ensure maximum attention.
“Following Covid, consumers are craving more unique and immersive experiences,” says La Ligne CEO and co-founder Molly Howard. “By blending fashion and hospitality elements through unexpected collaboration, it brings a level of engagement that is hard to capture through a traditional retail environment.”
“[Despite our different industries], I’ve always found tremendous symbiosis between the two companies,” adds Carbone. “When we’re all together great things happen.”
Fashionphile’s Davis agrees these collabs can help bring something special to the consumer experience. “One way to differentiate is by making an occasion a branded one,” she says. “Fine dining takes on a whole new meaning when it’s at Louis Vuitton’s restaurant. For some people, the Louis Vuitton name means more than a Michelin star.”
For fashion brands, consumers and the hotels or restaurants, these crossovers have proven to be a promotional win. “The most magical thing about travel is that it organically and genuinely touches many different categories: art, design, culinary arts and of course, fashion,” says W’s Van Sickle. “I don’t anticipate the fashion-hospitality trend to slow down, in fact, I think we will see even more intersection for years to come.”
Correction: Our Lady of Rocco appeared at Art Basel in 2022, not 2021. (17 August 2023)
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