HAUTE HOSPITALITY

In a world of creative collaborations, fashion, food & experience are coming together now more than ever, reports Isha Mayer

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Luxury fashion’s new favourite route for storytelling? Food and hospitality. The trend has reached new heights in recent months, with international popups taking over beach clubs. For instance, Valentino Red umbrellas and sunbeds dominated Amalfi Coast's Palazzo Avino Hotel's beach club for an exclusive popup dedicated to the Maison’s Capsule Collection Escape 2023. Similarly, Dolce & Gabbana collaborated with the Middle East's premium luxury website Ounass to take over Cloud 22 at Atlantis The Royal in Dubai in January 2024 in tandem with its new Dolce&Gabbana popup store for guests to explore. Fashion houses like Jacquemus have been enticingly using food in their campaigns—from a bread loaf wrapped in a white tea towel as the Fall/Winter 2019 invite to an Al video featuring a branded ice cream truck in the shape of a bag to announce the launch of the Le Chouchou collection in Nice. And then there’s Loewe, who introduced an heirloom tomato clutch, sending the internet into a frenzy.

As high fashion and hospitality increasingly converge, luxury brands are opening restaurants, cafés, and hotels to broaden their brand's experience and invite customers to immerse themselves in their world. While Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren were pioneers in this space, launching the Armani restaurant in Paris and the RL restaurant in Chicago in the 1990s, Versace and Bvlgari ventured into the hotel space in the 2000s. Soon, other brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Dior followed suit, creating a space for new-generation consumers craving experiences over products.