Luxury Hotels Are Fashion Retail's Latest Target

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This summer, guests at a slew of high-end hotels and resorts can eschew the usual gift shop and instead browse exclusive, highly curated offerings from some of fashion's most coveted brands and designers — without ever leaving the property.

At the beautiful Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel on the coast of Orange County, for instance, guests can book personal shopping and styling appointments at the on-site Fifth Avenue Club, an unassuming suite-turned-boutique where all merchandise is curated specifically for each client.

At the beloved Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, visitors can shop a limited-edition Dioriviera capsule collection (one of many recent luxury beachwear capsules) or book a special Dior beauty treatment before lounging poolside on Dior-branded cushions, under Dior-branded umbrellas.

These special shopping experiences are certainly not limited to the west coast. This summer's many hotel-fashion partnerships also include: a new collaborative collection between Sporty & Rich and the iconic Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in the French Riviera; the first-ever Fendi Beach Club at Marbella, Spain's Puente Romano Beach Resort; a Givenchy Plage takeover at Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton; a collaboration between Simkhai and Montage Hotels; and an expanded partnership between Rosewood Hotels & Resorts and The Webster on a series of retail pop-ups and activations. (The Webster opened a permanent store at Rosewood Miramar Beach in Montecito, Calif. back in 2020.) Meanwhile, LVMH has been attempting to expand its own hotel concept, Cheval Blanc.

"The worlds of fashion and hospitality have always been intertwined, however now more than ever," declares Robert Burke, founder and CEO of his namesake fashion and retail consultancy. "It's an exciting new chapter for retail and travel."

There are many reasons for fashion's growing infatuation with hotels. The simplest one? They're cool.

"I think it's kitschy and fun," says Sporty & Rich founder Emily Oberg of the appeal of hotel collaborations. (She also launched one with L.A.'s Sunset Tower Hotel in late 2021.) "I think people want other people to know where they spend time together and what places they like to go to. Hotels are the new night clubs. People go to dinner, have meetings, go on dates, and have their parties at them. They have become key in the social culture of today's generation."

As hotels enjoy growing cultural relevance, they also represent a growing opportunity from a business standpoint, especially post-Covid. "Travel will be a driver for the industry," wrote Business of Fashion and Mckinsey in their The State of Fashion 2023 report. "Domestic leisure travel spending has already surpassed pre-pandemic levels and business travel is projected to recover to 96 percent of its pre-pandemic levels in 2023."

According to Euromonitor, global sales of luxury hotels grew 27% in 2022 and are expected to grow another 17% by the end of 2023. The global market research firm also reported just last week that one of the trends driving the luxury goods market is a post-pandemic "desire among consumers for real-life authentic experiences."

"The trend transcends industries, particularly those manifesting in luxury travel and hospitality as well as other discretionary categories, and is allowing luxury fashion brands to penetrate this space by venturing further into luxury hospitality with branded cafés, restaurants, food and wine pop-ups and of course, luxury hotels being added to their portfolios," wrote Euromonitor's Fflur Roberts.

That's exactly what's happening, and it's likely no coincidence that LVMH is behind many of this summer's big luxury brand-hotel activations: Dior, Givenchy and Fendi stuck to similar formulas: heavily-branded, photo-worthy takeovers of some outdoor part of the hotel property and immersive pop-ups offering a special curation of products, from the Dioriviera line to Fendi's throwback astrology collection.

"Partnering with iconic hotels is a great way [for brands] to reach their customers wherever they may be," explains Burke. "The brand always wants to be in front of their customer, and pop-ups are a way to do this in popular travel destinations."

They're also a way for brands and retailers to enter or test new markets. That's one major benefit of The Webster's partnership with Rosewood on pop-ups as it endeavors to expand its footprint. It's also part of the reason why Saks Fifth Avenue partnered with Mariott International to expand its Fifth Avenue Club personal shopping concept, which previously only existed within Saks Fifth Avenue stores. In exploring ways to take the concept outside of stores, SVP, Director of Stores John Antonini explains, "We began identifying these beautiful resorts that are in some of these key markets where we were not, as an opportunity to scale and come to market quickly. That's kind of how we landed on luxury resorts."

In some ways these hotel-fashion link-ups are a no-brainer, for all parties. "I think when you're traveling, shopping and dining are the most natural extensions of what you do," adds Antonini. "You shop, you dine, you go to the pool. So we see, and especially through this project, we've seen so many similarities in what both industries are going after that there just feels like natural collaboration."

Hotels themselves are also going after these types of partnerships, as they stand to benefit in a number of ways.

“These deals are a no-brainer for the hotels," says Burke. "A property is worth X, but a property with a big [brand] name attached is worth X and a half."

Beyond name recognition, partnering with an established fashion entity is a relatively low-lift way for hotels to elevate their retail offering.

"At Montage, we have recently focused on creating a larger and more cohesive retail experience both online and at our properties," says Azadeh Hawkins, global creative director at Montage International. "We are continuously creating unique offerings, collaborating with designers and finding one-of-a-kind products that we know our guests will enjoy."

While there may be plenty of synergies between hospitality and retail, there are also plenty of differences, and it's not necessarily easy for a hotel to create a retail experience that impresses guests as much as its property and service do. Six years ago, husband-wife duo Molly Shaheen and Huw Collins launched Wheat based on this premise.

"The hospitality retail industry needed revolutionizing," says Collins. Wheat brings customized, curated boutiques to hotels including the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton.

"One of the things that, in my opinion, always makes people successful is knowing what they don't know. I could never in a million years run a hotel. And I think there's a lot of people in hotels that feel that they don't know retail," says Shaheen. "It's not their bread and butter. And to go to the markets, you know, six times a year and to be at the fashion shows and to be in the showrooms is a big job."

Further proof of this reality: Wheat's growth has come primarily via incoming requests from hotels, as opposed to the other way around. "They realize that, okay, we can take this burden off their plate and we can work with people who understand how this all comes together," adds Collins.

Brands are similarly eager to work with a retailer like Wheat (or, now, Saks or The Webster) that's connected to various hotels. "What brand isn't excited about expanding and also expanding into some of the most luxury, you know, exceptional destinations that exist?" notes Shaheen.

While Fifth Avenue Club's expansion is comparatively new, Saks' Antonini echoes these sentiments. "It's interesting, all the hotels start to talk to us about, 'maybe you could operate our retail in the hotel and this.' I'd say what we're a little more focused on is our experiences here. So maybe we don't have a shop in the lobby, but we host a quarterly dinner with a fashion brand," he explains. Brands have already shown interest in getting involved. "I do see that an iteration of this will include branded takeovers or trunk shows or moments in the suites," he adds.

Looking ahead, it's clear that fashion and hospitality are having much more than a summer fling. Burke sees these hotel projects as one element in a broader movement of these two industries growing increasingly connected, with other examples including food and beverage (see: Ralph Lauren's Polo Bar, Gucci Osteria and Tiffany's Blue Box Cafe) and even residences. So, what's next?

"Hotels are certainly on the radar of many of the major luxury brands. LVMH has Cheval Blanc and Bulgari Hotels (operated by Marriott), but I wouldn't be surprised if they expand other brands such as Louis Vuitton and Dior into hotels," he says. And for those looking for a more permanent immersion into a luxury brand's world than a simple vacation...

"There are already a number of players in the branded residence space, such as Missoni and Bulgari, and there will certainly be more brands and retailers entering the market for this."

And with that, fashion brands' race to dominate all aspects of our daily lives continues on.

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