The Coolest Designer Hotel Suites

Your favorite fashion designers have done a lot more than design clothes.

Jul 22, 2013
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Escape. We all want it once in a while, some of us more than others. Fashion can be one form of escape: you dress up, you escape from reality, escape from yourself, escape monotony. Hotels follow the same principle: escape your world, escape your hometown, escape responsibility. So it only made sense when the high-end fashion design community moved into the realm of hotel design. Some did it better than others—here are The Coolest Designer Hotel Suites.

15. DVF Penthouse at Hayman Great Barrier Reef, Australia

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15. Hayman

Location: Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Designer: Diane Von Furstenberg

Price: $4958.13 per night

Famed fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg was one of the first fashion designers to get her own minted hotel room—her piano suite at Claridge's London hotel is one of the more famous . But this lesser-known suite she designed for Hayman's Great Barrier Reef is equally . Creating design consistent with the location in which they are placed, this room has a subtle outback/safari feel achieved through DVF's signature fabric prints.

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14. FENDI Casa at Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles

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14. Ritz-Carlton

Location: Los Angeles

Designer: FENDI

Price: for sale at $3.6 million

Fans of over-the-top Italian design will be happy to know that famed designer label FENDI has unveiled a new Penthouse modeled and outfitted completely by the brand's interior-decorating branch, Casa. In Los Angele's tallest residential tower, on the 50th floor, sits the FENDI-designed 2,396-square-foot suite, priced to buy at a mere $3.575 million. We figure if you're already buying $2,800 Fendi suits (not to be confused with suites) you might be in the market for this place.

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13. Hotel Missoni, Edinburgh

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13. Hotel Missoni

Location: Edinburgh

Designer: Missoni

Price: from $345.69 per night

Though Missoni is a resolutely Italian brand, their hotel space is situated in Edinburgh, Scotland. Why so many designer labels have decided to branch out into the service industry isn't that surprising—many of these labels have become known more for their lifestyle branding. What is surprising is the ability of a brand like Missoni—typically known for clashing, bright, sometimes-garish patterns—to keep things so chic and elegant while maintaining their signature feel.

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12. Christian Lacroix at Hotel Le Notre Dame, Paris

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12. Hotel Le Notre Dame

Location: Paris

Designer: Christian Lacroix

Price: from $174 per night

Designer Christian Lacroix pushed his redesign of the centuries-old hotel with views of the storied cathedral right to the edge, fusing modern twists with baroque and psychedelic designs, at times verging into the Rococo. Though he was responsible for a complete overhaul of the hotel, the rooms themselves are particularly florid, regal, and bursting with color.

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11. Betsey Johnson Eloise Suite at The Plaza Hotel, New York City

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11. The Plaza

Location: New York City

Designer: Betsey Johnson

Price: $1,395 per night

There exists a children's book called Eloise, a whimsical tale about a young girl who lives on the top floor of the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Using that as inspiration, fashion designer Betsey Johnson created an 18th-floor hotel suite of garish pink and clashing patterns and more pink. Zebra-print carpet? Sure. Chandeliers? Why not. The name of a fictional girl scrawled kind-of creepily on the wall with pink neon? You bet! Comes with bonus insomnia.

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10. Maison Moschino, Milan

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10. Maison Moschino

Location: Milan

Designer: Moschino

Price: $526 for a larger suite

The Italian design house opened its own boutique hotel in Milan in 2011, housed in the city's first railway station. That about sums up this weird and whimsical space, where neo-classical design mingles with fairytale imagery.

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9. Continentale, Florence

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9. Continentale

Location: Florence

Designer: Michele Bonan

Price: from $1,400 for suites

Salvatore Ferragamo is a recognizably, reliably lux brand. But you won't see that name stamped anywhere in this hotel--this is strictly a business venture. The namesake of the space passed the design/architecture baton to Michele Bonan, who, though conservative in his design, managed something both understated and transportive.

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8. Giorgio Armani Signature Suite at Armani Hotel, Milan

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8. Armani Hotel

Location: Milan

Designer: Armani

Price: $3,700 per night

This hyper-modern space, situated within the Armani-designed flagship hotel in Milan, is defined by its sharp edges and neutral pallet.

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7. Karl Lagerfeld Chocolate Room at La Reserve, Paris

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7. La Reserve

Location: Paris

Designer: Karl LAgerfeld

Price: Not Available

High-collared Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld created an entirely edible hotel room from ten tons of chocolate, as part of a promotion with Magnum Ice Cream. The La Reserve Hotel in Paris house the room throughout 2011. It included a chocolate replica of model—and Lagerfeld muse—Baptiste Giabiconi, in repose atop a perfect white bedspread.

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6. Bottega Veneta Suite at The St. Regis, Rome

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6. The St. Regis

Location: Rome

Designer: Bottega Veneta

Price: $7,915 per night 

Tomas Maier, the creative director of Italian luxury design firm Bottega Veneta, took over the design of many suites at the St. Regis hotel in Rome, creating inspiration from the past and the present. He explained: "We were constantly inspired and exhilarated by the art and the history around us. That is an experience I'd like to share with guests who stay in the suite. They should feel immersed in the unique character of Florence and inspired by being at the center of the Italian Renaissance."

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5. Badgley Mischka's Imperial Suite at The Breakers Palm Beach, Florida

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5. The Breakers

Location: Palm Beach, FL

Designer: Badgley Mischka

Price: upwards of $2,400 per night

Couture gown-making duo Mark Badgley and James Mischka designed one of the most expansive suites at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. To deck out this 1,700-square-foot room, the pair stayed at the hotel enough to know what accentuated the space in a way that brought the outdoors in. Their signature palette of just-warm colors—here terra cotta and pearl—refract the blues of the ocean views in a remarkable way.

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4. Oscar de la Renta's Puntacana Resort at Tortuga Bay, Dominican Republic

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4. Puntacana Resort

Location: Tortuga Bay, Dominican Republic

Designer: Oscar de la Renta

Price: $710 - $3,700 per night

The iconic designer Oscar de la Renta took stock of his Dominican heritage and global penchants to create the entire immersive tropical environment at the Puntacana Resort, Tortuga Bay, one of the most well-regarded hotels in the world. "We wanted to have something very much Dominican, but with international appeal," he said of his design, featuring vibrant colors, clean lines, and lots of open space. He designed much of the furniture and the craftsman used local materials and artwork to fill out the space.

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3. Dior Suite at St. Regis, New York City

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3. St. Regis

Location: New York

Designer: Dior

Price: from $3,211 per night

On New York's upper east side, one of the St. Regis hotel's most stylish and eclectic suites comes in the form of one of France's most lux designers: Christian Dior. Completely adorned in Dior French Grey, this 12th-floor room has not a detail overlooked, from the minute floral curtain pulls to the Bill Donovan-painted glam watercolor. To sleep here would mimic the experience of dozing off in a Parisian Dior atelier.

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2. Karl Lagerfeld's Grunewald Suite at Alma Schlosshotel, Berlin

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2. Alma Schlosshotel

Location: Berlin

Designer: Karl Lagerfeld

Price: from $2,631 per night

The classically regal and timelessly elegant Lagerfeld put his touch on the suite named for the borough in which this 100-year-old hotel sits. He actually lived in this suite during the two years he spent restoring the interiors of the entire hotel. But this suite in particular reeks with the kind of opulence the Chanel designer has become known for: antique designer furniture, lush fabrics, and handmade French art-deco bathroom tiles.

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1. Maison Martin Margiela Curiousity Case Suite at La Maison des Champs Elysees, Paris

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9. La Maison des Champs Elysees

Location: Paris

Designer: Maison Martin Margiela

Price: from $890 per night

Descirbed as a "carbon cube" by the designer, this entirely black suite is as sexy and mysterious as you'd expect from the avant Belgian design house. When one Maison meets another, things get quite surprising. Named for the "curiosities case" that fills an entire wall of the suite, this room stays one step on this side of macabre simply with an articulated sense of taste.

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