Fashion Brands Give Hotel Guests a Taste of Fashion
TIME TO CHECK IN: Travel is more often than not a key ingredient to fashion, and a few designers are aligning with hotels in different ways.
The Los Angeles-based designer Rosetta Getty recently revealed a partnership with the Belmond Group to develop a hotel on Mexico’s Pacific Coast that is expected to open in 2025. Last month the Karl Lagerfeld Macau, a luxury resort that the late designer collaborated on prior to his death in 2019, started welcoming guests. And Bulgari showed off its new luxury hotel in Rome.
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Lesser-known brands are also tapping into the hospitality sector, too. Why not? Last year direct spending on U.S. travel returned to pre-pandemic levels, reaching $1.2 trillion, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
In time for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the Wheat Collection set up shop at the Faraway Martha’s Vineyard. The Shop by Wheat and an adjoining coffee shop called The Strand are now operating in the hotel. This is the first time Wheat has combined the concept in the same location. The New Hampshire-based fashion label and retailer has partnered with the luxury hotel group before. In May, another Shop by Wheat debuted at the Faraway Nantucket.
The company, which was founded in 2017, has teamed with other hotel groups and now has 16 locations. Earlier this year Wheat introduced three locations on Hawaii — two at the Four Seasons Lāna’i and another one at the Four Seasons Sensei. For the latter, the design and understated product assortment were meant to meld with the property’s neutrals.
The husband-and-wife founders Huw Collins, an actor known for his role in “Pretty Little Liars,” and Molly Shaheen, whose mother Jeanne is a U.S. senator, also design the Los Angeles-made Wheat Collection. There are plans to unveil a Dover, New Hampshire, location in September and a Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, one in March.
Meanwhile, in Savannah, Georgia, Laurel Wolcott, a Savannah College of Art and Design graduate, will have her designs showcased later this month at the Perry Lane Hotel’s luxury boutique Muse. There, shoppers can arrange to purchase existing pieces or custom designs with prices in the $3,000 range.
The inspiration for her collection was the “Eloise” children’s book series from the 1950s that were written by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight. The fictitious character gets into all kinds of hijinx, living in The Plaza hotel in New York City. The premise of Wolcott’s design concept also riffs on The Perry Lane Hotel’s fictitious muse Adelaide Harcourt, a female descendant of financiers who was a world traveler with an ear for literature, an eye for art and a knack for collecting.
The designer photographed her collection in the hotel, a 167-room property that’s part of the Marriott Luxury Collection. For the launch there will be a welcome party for guests at the hotel on July 28. Wolcott’s five dresses will be displayed in the North Tower lobby. Once the fall semester gets underway at SCAD, the Perry Lane Hotel will bid farewell to Wolcott’s styles and replace them with a new creative’s work.
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