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by ABIGAIL HOLE
The fashion hotel phenomenon is gathering
pace. There are Bulgari hotels in Milan and Bali,
Versace in Australia (where else but the Gold
Coast?), Fendi in Rome and Ponzo, Todd Oldham
and Diesel in Miami, Ralph Lauren in Jamaica,
and Christian Lacroix in Paris. In 2009 Missoni is
opening hotels in Edinburgh, Kuwait and Dubai,
and Armani and Versace also launch their Dubai
hotels. Why are more and more designers turning
hoteliers? Some are selling furnishings or a
lifestyle, while for others it’s a chance to transfer
their haute skills from one luxury business to
another.
For Salvatore Ferragamo,President of
Lungarno Hotels , their intention has always
been to excel in a different area, rather than use
the hotel trade as an addendum to their fashion
business.
TAILOR MADE
Lungarno already have seven boutique, luxury
hotels and apartment suites in Florence, and
have been consultants on Castiglion Del Bosco in
Tuscany. Their latest venture is Portrait Suites in
Rome, a made-to-measure experience that’s unlike
any other accommodation in the capital.
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The very name ‘Portrait Suites’ has been
chosen to convey the hotel’s concept: it’s a
bespoke experience for each individual guest. It
is their ‘portrait’. Elisa Francini, spokesperson
for Lungarno, says: ‘We try to respond to the
needs and expectations of our guests, providing
a personalized model of hospitality that focuses
on individuality, just like in designing a tailor-made
pair of shoes. Instead of transforming the maison’s |
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fashion stylists into interior designers, the Ferragamo family has aimed to transfer the fashion experience
into the hotel industry through the creation of an attitude and a particular sensibility.’
This approach is particularly apt for Rome, a city with workshops in its backstreets, where you still
often receive old-fashioned, personalised service in shops, and where chains are eschewed in favour
of local, individual shops and businesses. Rome is also a year-round destination: Portrait Suites’ high
season runs from Easter to October, peaking in spring and autumn, with another spike at Christmas.
FASHION FORWARD
At Portrait Suites the emphasis is on style and comfort rather than pushing a particular look. However,
the link to the fashion house is more pronounced than at other Lungarno properties. It is part hotel, part
fashion museum.
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There are several reasons for this. First, Portrait Suites is above the shop – the Salvatore
Ferragamo menswear store. And, second, this is fashion central: Rome’s most high-end commercial
district, Spagna, which spreads out from the Spanish Steps, side-by-side gleaming designer stores and
sleek cafes. The building housing the hotel is on the corner of, and overlooks, Via Condotti, a catwalk of
a street – the Roman version of London’s Bond Street or New York’s 5th Avenue.
Portrait Suites has not been designed to feel like a hotel. Elisa Francini explains: ‘The aim is to
make our guests feel as if they were living in their own private suite in the Eternal City, inside a charming,
luxurious Italian townhouse.’ The doorway is discreet, around the corner from the Ferragamo store
entrance. It’s marked by a metal plaque whose modernist Art Deco lettering fits with the styling inside,
as classic as a well-cut suit. Inside the wooden doors, a mustard-coloured circular lampshade is the first
hint of the fascinating chic that lies ahead.
CONTEMPORARY, NOT COOL
Florentine architect Michele Bönan’s design cushions you like a caress. If it were a sound, it would
be a purr. Fabrics and materials are luxurious, their style simple. Elisa Francini again: ‘The design is
contemporary, yet warm and welcoming, far from the excesses of minimalism. Any detail - the selection
of the colour scheme, textures, materials and finishes – is conceived to create a harmonious, coherent,
intriguingly modern mélange.’
The residence is also full of exquisitely presented memorabilia, including black-and-white photos
of the family’s celebrity clientele, shoe designs, and glass-encased shoe maquettes. However, there is
nothing retro or nostalgic about Portrait Suites.
A smiling concierge, dressed in a well-cut suit, greets you at the entrance, accompanying you to
the second floor in the chicest of lifts, boar skin-lined and decked with Ferragamo’s framed style quotes.
The reception is nothing like a conventional reception – lacking counter, desk, and receptionist. It’s
a sitting room, where you are warmly greeted by the charming duty manager and offered a drink while
you fill out the necessary form. This is the type of place where, on a return visit, the staff will remember
what you preferred to drink and what kind of glass you liked it in. As Elisa Francini says, ‘The small
capacity allows the maximum customization of service.’
UNIFIED BY DESIGN
Converted from apartments, the hotel encompasses six floors, and contains eight studios, five suites,
and one penthouse. The floors are linked by the lift, and the stairwells act as exhibition spaces. Thus the
design has created a virtue out of its multi-storeys : it’s worth taking the stairs just to browse.
This being a conversion, the rooms are unique in shape and size. But they are unified by design.
Floors are pale oak, covered in powder-grey pinstriped rugs. Dark-stained oak panels supply a masculine
edge, but overall the feeling is of lightness and warmth – cushions are softly fringed, and hues are soft
and nuanced: ice-blues, powder-greys and rose-browns. Shots of colour highlight the rooms like rays of
sunlight. The materials, from Perspex to boar hide supply richness through texture.
Curtains have a weight and sense of luxury that call to mind a nobleman’s cloak: this is couture
for windows. They are pencil grey, and lined in heavy silk, either in yellow, the colour of a Sicilian lemon,
or a deliciously intense raspberry pink. The only place you will find the Ferragamo logo is subtly worked
into the pattern of this lining. The hotel’s relationship to the brand is as restrained as a whisper. Elisa
Francini: ‘It is a subtle presence, symbolic and almost imperceptible, underlined by the tailoring-inspired
fabrics decking the sofas and armchairs and the curtain linings reminiscent of silk scarves.’
ROOMS WITH A VIEW
All the rooms have vast closets and freestanding, adjustable full-length mirrors, which have a dual
purpose. They both create a sense of space by reflecting the room and the light and are also perfectly
pitched for the clothes-conscious clientele. |
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The level of attention to detail can be seen in the marble-lined bathrooms, where the toilet roll
discreetly folds away into the wall, and mirror-lined swing doors separate the toilet and bidet from the
sink and shower area.
Each room also has an immaculate, sleek, well-stocked kitchenette, hidden behind doors made
of dark-stained oak. The at-home element of the kitchenette is again carefully pitched for the clientele:
business people, fashionistas, shop-till-you-droppers and sophisticated couples who want a home-fromhome
in the thick of the action.
Other little touches add to the feeling of care: classical music on the Tivoli sound system, slippers,
gowns, a cashmere blanket, and a plate of biscotti. Rooms mainly overlook the humming fashion
thoroughfares, but effective double glazing makes each a peaceful haven.
The smallest rooms (superior) are not large, but the artful design means that they manage
to include a sitting area, the free-standing mirror, a little desk, and a 42-inch wall-hung plasma TV.
Deluxe rooms are larger, with a more generous seating area. One has a romantic teak-decked balcony
overlooking Via Condotti and the Spanish Steps. There are four one-bedroom junior suites and a
penthouse on two levels; the upper floor has a living room, master bedroom, and private terrace that
wraps around the building, with spectacular views. The marble-clad master bathroom is on the lower
level – the problem of having this on a different floor from the bedroom has been solved through the
addition of a powder room upstairs.
HOME SUITE HOME
Converting an old building is always complex, and decisions about the layout were additionally influenced
by its concept, as Elisa Francini explains: ‘The main difference between an all-suite hotel and a
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‘traditional’ one is the different distribution of space: in an all-suite hotel there are larger private rooms,
but fewer common areas and back-of-the-house spaces. The investment per room ratio is on a par with
the average in the luxury hotel sector.’
Aside from the small salon-reception room, the only significant communal area is the hotel rooftop.
But, what a rooftop. Views from here sweep across the Spanish Steps, Villa Borghese and St Peter’s. It’s
a sophisticated outdoor living room, teak-floored and furnished. At night it’s lit by Moroccan lanterns and
when there’s a chill in the air guests are warmed by cashmere throws. There’s an eternally burning fire
in the fireplace set behind glass, and potted Zen grasses around the edge. The pared-back, simple yet
luxurious modernism of the design acts as a foil for the Baroque magnificence of the views.
It’s a tribute to the Lungarno devotion to excellence that here potential drawbacks are turned into
positives. Breakfast is served in-suite or on the terrace. There’s no restaurant, but you can order meals
from nearby top-notch restaurant La Buvette. These factors add to the sense of intimacy and privacy,
rather than detract.
This is fashion design as art, and a hotel conceived not as a mere place to stay, but as a bespoke
couture, fitted to its guests. So, where does Lungarno go from here? CEO Fabrizio Gaggio says that
expansion abroad is the next step: ‘After Tuscany and Rome, we are looking with interest to the major
European cities, as well as to new developments in the USA and Asia.’
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ABIGAIL HOLE is a freelance travel writer based in London and Rome. She has co-written Lonely Planet’s
Rome City Guide, Best of Rome, and Italy guides, reviews hotels for www.i-escape.com, and writes on travel
for the Guardian, Observer, San Francisco Chronicle, Wanderlust, Marie Claire and MSN, among others.
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DETAILS:
PORTRAIT SUITES
VIA BOCCA DI LEONE 23 ROME
OWNER: THE FERRAGAMO FAMILY
MANAGER: SANDRO ALFANO
CONTACT: +39 06 69380742
WWW.LUNGARNOHOTELS.COM
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