AMANDA ROSS : FASHIONING HOSPITALITY By M. Astella Saw and Natalie Jones 07 : 06 : 2010 W Hotels : Hotels : Amanda Moss Fashion brands have long dipped their (well-manicured) fingers into various pies. Take British designers Basso & Brooke s labels for Turning Leaf wines, Vivienne Westwood s carpets for The Rug Company, and new hotels from luxury labels Armani and Moschino. Now boutique hotel group W Hotels Worldwide is reaching out to the fashion industry with the announcement of a new global fashion director, the first in the hospitality sector. Following the appointment in 2009 of Michaelangelo L Acqua, founder of music production company Onda, as its global music director, the hotel chain this year assigned stylist Amanda Ross to the role of fashion director, and will rely on her to strengthen its ties with the fashion world. Fashion has moved into lifestyle branding there is nothing designers aren t touching these days, from sheets to candles to books, Ross tells LS:N Global. There is a lot of cross-pollination between art, film, fashion, lifestyle branding, [and] it makes sense for a fashion person to work with a lifestyle brand such as W that is so designorientated. With more than 20 years in the fashion industry, Ross is ready to style the hotel chain s close-up. She worked as a consultant for several designers including Dennis Basso and Elie Tahari, and was wardrobe stylist on the NBC tv series Lipstick Jungle. She was also market director for high-end fashion bible Harper s Bazaar, where she says she had to create a point of view for the magazine, calling her responsibilities at W Hotels an extension of her previous work. My history is about choosing the right thing for a magazine or a tv show, she explains. For a hotel, it s about saying: I think this brand works, and this is why. Part of Ross s remit will be to create a fashion-led point of view for the hotel chain, which has already marked its strong interest in the design world. While W Hotels has previously made excursions into the fashion world the group sponsored New York Fashion Week for almost a decade and a half, for instance the appointment of a fashion director to chart a strategic approach firmly puts the hotel brand on the fashion map. We wanted to move away from using fashion just as a random marketing strategy, to make it more holistic and integrated into the brand strategy, says global brand leader Eva Ziegler, who was instrumental in Ross s appointment. Ross s work will touch on everything from staff uniforms to marketing to city guides, says Ziegler, so it s a 360-degree approach. Like her counterparts in retail and at fashion publications, Ross will, in her work for W Hotels, have to make her stylish mark in a world in which consumers are increasingly attuned to, informed about and critical of fashion. From fashion reality show Project Runway to Mrs-O.org, a website dedicated to chronicling the fashion choices of US First Lady Michelle Obama, the once-set-apart fashion world is continually being democratised and populated by men and women in the street. It is these people who seek cues from the fashion world in the brands they choose to buy, visit and otherwise patronise. You want a certain synergy, says Ross about her work defining and refining W s fashion approach. The same people who live in the hotel want to buy that dress, love the smell of that candle, eat that kind of food it s about offering a lifestyle that s accessible. There s a thread to all of it. Inform : The Big Idea Page 1 of 10
As such, she has been working with the in-house design team on styling new rooms for forthcoming hotels, and selecting designers for the group s fourth Global Glam collection, a range of designer clothing and accessories sold at W Hotels The Store boutiques. A runway show tells a designer s story, Ross points out. In the same way what we curate in the store is an extension of the design aesthetic of W Hotels, she suggests. Global Glam s spring/summer 2010 collection, which was inspired by new W Hotel properties in Barcelona, New York and Hollywood, features exclusive designs by handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff, swimwear label Vitamin A and clothing designer Kim Phan of Yumi Kim. The forthcoming autumn/winter collection, which Ross is now working on, will reflect London, St Petersburg and Vieques, Puerto Rico, where W hotels will soon open. While Ross is unable to mention names, she suggests that local designers will be key to her decisions. For the London range, for instance, British designers are on her list. It was important to keep it indigenous to London, she says. Ross will also reach beyond hotels front doors to nurture relevant brand collaborations for the group. Last month she brought together W Hotels and the New York City Opera for DIVAS Shop for Opera, a fashion-related fundraising event at which designers including Narciso Rodriguez, Betsey Johnson and Carolina Herrera raffled off original illustrations inspired by their favourite opera characters. Ultimately, if fashion is a global language, Ross, as fashion director, will ensure W Hotels speaks the right language to target the right crowd. Fashion is about instinct, Ross explains. There is no right answer, and you have to understand who your readers are in a magazine, who your viewers are on television, and who your customers are in the hotel. Our top five take-outs 1: Bring industry experts into your fold. We all love fashion, but we are not experts, Ziegler tells LS:N Global. Fashion editor Ross will be able to curate W Hotels fashion approach better than someone with extensive hospitality experience and scant understanding of the fashion industry. 2: Harness a shared experience to connect with your audience. Fashion has become more accessible, whereas it used to be a private club, says Ross. Films such as The Devil Wears Prada and The September Issue give the general public an inside scoop into the world in which I have existed for 20 years. People look at shows such as Lipstick Jungle and Gossip Girl for fashion like they did with magazines 10 years ago. 3: Allow your decision-makers to be daring. As fashion director, Ross is championing emerging designers. I d like to introduce designers that might be outside what [the brand directors] might have chosen because I think the direction in which the hotels are going globally is more fashion-forward, she says. 4: Create a unique offer for a unique place. When they travel, people want to feel like they re getting something special, says Ross. W Hotels Global Glam collection offers something that people can only find in a certain place. 5: Collaborate with cross-industry players. That s what makes collaborations interesting you don t just operate in your own little world, you re thinking about the whole world, says Ross. For more news and insights on new and emerging trends in the travel and leisure sector, check out The Future Laboratory s Leisure and Hospitality Futures Report, out now. Inform : The Big Idea Page 2 of 10
W London Destination Bar, Leiscester Square, London W Hotel, New York Times Square Inform : The Big Idea Page 3 of 10
Inform : The Big Idea Page 4 of 10
W Hotel, San Fransisco Inform : The Big Idea Page 5 of 10
W Hotel, San Fransisco Inform : The Big Idea Page 6 of 10
W Hotel, Soel Walkerhill Inform : The Big Idea Page 7 of 10
W Hotel, Soel Walkerhill Inform : The Big Idea Page 8 of 10
W Hotel, Soel Walkerhill Inform : The Big Idea Page 9 of 10
W Hotel, Soel Walkerhill Inform : The Big Idea Page 10 of 10