Love Affair Between Fashion And Hotels

The transformation of The Savoy Hotel’s legendary Royal Suite into a sumptuous ode to all things Gucci – in the same year that marks the Florentine powerhouse’s much-hyped centennial celebrations – takes the love affair between fashion and hotels to a whole new level, writes Francois Oosthuizen.

- Francois Oosthuizen

A hundred years after Guccio Gucci founded his eponymous luxury label, it’s only fitting that The Savoy Hotel in London joined the celebrations with a special tribute. It is here, after all, where a young Guccio was employed as a luggage porter and lift boy in the late 1890s – gaining direct access to the tastes and needs of discerning travellers as he escorted them from floor to floor. Seeing the luxurious luggage and elegant clothes of guests reportedly proved a major impetus in his desire to start his own leather goods company, shortly after his return to Italy. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ever since its foundation, Gucci has frequently featured, or mentioned, the theme of travel, referencing the iconography of luxury hotels and the jet-setters who populated them in the early decades of the 20th century. It was with irony, pride and self-awareness that Guccio introduced these themes and symbols in subsequent collections, after his first-hand experiences at The Savoy.

The relationship between Gucci and The Savoy first came under the spotlight last April with the reveal of Gucci’s Aria collection, during a very exclusive event hosted at the hotel. The collection and its presentation included numerous nods to the hotel and its role in shaping Gucci’s mythology – even helmets embellished with the words “Savoy Club”.