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A Passion for Fashion: Close-knit fashion, interior and operations teams are setting a successful new style for couture concepts like Rezidor's Hotel Missoni Kuwait.
By Mary Scoviak
Glasgow’s Graven Images knew when it accepted the commission for Rezidor Hotel Group’s new Hotel Missoni brand that the Italian fashion house would be the one with its name over the door and in the headlines. It was equally clear that the creative work would start in Missoni’s headquarters north of Milan. Rosita Missoni, who cofounded the knitwear/luxury goods legend with her husband, Ottavio Missoni, and her team would be developing “the whole environmental experience,” from the macro elements and set pieces, colors and fabrics, to the micro pieces, such as cutlery and table linen, with some initial introductions from Italian architect/design star Matteo Thun. So, after winning hotel design awards and becoming an overnight sensation (after a quarter-century of work), why would Graven Images take a supporting role—especially in support of a firm that had never designed a hotel?
The main reason, says William Nolan, design director of Graven Images, is that brands like Hotel Missoni are changing the process of collaboration among couturiers, hospitality designers and hotel operators. “The opportunity to be involved in strategic design work, to be part of the establishment and delivery of a new hotel brand, is as good as it gets,” he says. “For me, it’s an overriding sense of anticipation about collaborating with intelligent, creative, energetic people, utterly committed to the quality of their product. In this context, it’s not about where you draw the line; it’s about not being afraid to blur it.
"Normally, we wouldn’t be looking to deliver someone else’s concepts, but we figured we could learn something,” adds Nolan. “It helps that we like what Missoni does. There’s a sense of humor that we always recognized in its clothing and its products for the home. It’s no secret that the fashion industry contains some precious divas and some prickly egos. Rosita is entirely removed from such buffoonery."
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