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FASHION ROOMS®
Press Report
FASHION ROOM BY ROYAL WINDSOR HOTEL GRAND' PLACE A
FIRST OF ITS KIND IN THE WORLD
The event is of virtually revolutionary proportion for the luxury hotel sector in
Brussels: the ROYAL WINDSOR HOTEL GRAND' PLACE is revamping its top of the
range rooms and, in a departure from established practices, is opting for the personal
approach in more than one respect by enlisting Belgian fashion designers.
A meeting of worlds. Subjective and realistic. Emotional and functional.
Individual and universal. Because if, in accommodation terms, the bedroom is a
universe in itself, the hotel bedroom takes in the whole world. A refuge for the greatest
number of people, men and women with many types of lives, a protective environment
which meets the expectations of each and every one of them, a place of the moment, an
extremely personal space. A place that you like, somewhere you feel at home and come
back to.
Although a private space, the hotel room must also be able to stand up to public
use and wear and tear.
It must also meet safety standards and the essential rules of hotel room layout.
This is one of the keys to success of the essential equation between individual harmony
and a professional hotel context.
Fashion has definitively left the confines of clothing. Far from the catwalks, its
designers are integrating fashion into everyday life. Fashionable life. They are taking
over houses and public places, taking an interest in functional objects and addressing
the being rather than the appearance. Aesthetics are combined with comfort, innovation
and social awareness…
Located in the centre of the capital of Europe, the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand'
Place is establishing itself as a genuine forerunner, claiming the right to integrate this
new art de vivre into the international luxury hotel sector. This formidable showcase of
know-how and creative skills becomes an international ambassador of a Belgian fashion
which, although acknowledged, has still not fully made its mark at the international level!
Twelve good-sized rooms over various floors of the hotel have been placed in the
talented hands of a selection of Belgian fashion designers. Whilst adhering to the basic
rules of hotel room layout, each can give free reign to their interpretation and creative
skills within a standard budget.
Each of the twelve rooms, labelled FASHION ROOM followed by the designer’s
name, thus gives full expression to a unique, personal – even intimate – creation. The
uniqueness of this project comes both from the extremely eclectic choice of designers
and the freedom of expression afforded to them. In no way should the rooms fit in with
the general style of the hotel or the Warwick collection it belongs to. The only rules: the
status of the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place hotel must be upheld and clients must
be offered luxurious rooms with all modern comforts which meet international safety
standards.
The FASHION ROOMS® by Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place will thus be twelve
little gems, more than meeting the needs of a clientele looking for a unique experience
and who appreciate the extra character on offer from a place like no other.
The first four FASHION ROOMS® will open their doors in September 2004. These
bear the signature of JEAN-PAUL KNOTT, MADEMOISELLE LUCIEN, GERALD
WATELET and MARINA YEE.
In 2005, the FASHION ROOMS® will number twelve.
ABOUT THE ROYAL WINDSOR HOTEL GRAND' PLACE
The Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place: 31 years of excellence in the international
luxury hospitality sector. Considered to be one of the most prestigious hotels in
Brussels, the five-star Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place offers its clients personal
service and attention in an elegant, luxurious setting.
The hotel belongs to the WARWICK INTERNATIONAL HOTELS collection, which
numbers 30 prestigious hotels and resorts throughout the world in the heart of the key
cities and seaside resorts in Europe, the United States, Africa and the Asia-Pacific
region. The hotels belonging to the Warwick International group offer personalised
leisure and business services. www.warwickhotels.com
As its name suggests, the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place is located right beside
the Grand' Place in Brussels, in the heart of the historic centre. Its position could not be
better, given that the hotel is also only a few minutes’ walk from the business sector, the
Place Sablon and its well-known galleries of art and antiquities, museums and the
Central Station. A couple of hundred metres away you have the Dansaert district with its
numerous fashion houses and in the nearby Galeries Royales Saint Hubert you will find
all the charm of old-fashioned covered shopping galleries.
The hotel has undergone significant refurbishment over the last few years:
1999/2000: the first and third floors, a total of 100 rooms, were renovated and were
known by the name of “Business Godiva Rooms” in keeping with the style of the
refurbishment, paying homage to Godiva, the famous Belgian chocolate.
2002: the second and fourth floors, a total of 104 rooms, underwent complete
renovation. Like the rest of the hotel, these “standard” rooms were equipped with a new
telephone system (high-speed internet connection, two telephones in each room) and
new interactive televisions.
The hotel has 266 rooms including 16 suites and a Royal Suite. The Royal Suite, a
true private residence within the hotel, comprises a lounge, dining room and private bar,
an office, a huge bedroom, Jacuzzi and sauna.
The Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place offers its demanding clientele top class
services: a Business Centre with secretarial services, express laundry and ironing
service, 24-hour room service, limousine service, private parking, gym with sauna, non-
smoking floors, Conference butler, etc.
With its relaxed atmosphere and colonial-style décor, Chutney’s restaurant-bar
offers a menu which includes French, Italian and Belgian cuisines. Once a top class
restaurant, Les Quatre Saisons now offers the unique privilege of a restaurant available
for private hire for an evening event or a prestigious dinner. Under its rotunda of multi-
coloured stained-glass windows, the former restaurant, now renamed the Salon Grand'
Place, is also a magnificent venue for receptions and banquets.
The Waterloo Bar is a piano bar with a sultry atmosphere where you can sip a
cocktail or an old port whilst enjoying a selection of cigars in the good old-fashioned
way. Afternoons here are given over to Tea Time.
The Duke’s, the hotel’s nightclub, has a relaxing atmosphere which is extremely
popular with dancers.
The Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place offers its clients the use of five conference
and banquet rooms (with a capacity of up to 300 persons) all of which have access to
daylight and can be adapted for all types of functions.
The hotel also has nine meeting rooms which can be adapted to accommodate
groups of around twelve people.
PRESS RELEASE
Made in Belgium
“FASHIONABLE” HOTEL ROOMS
The Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place in Brussels will inaugurate its first
FASHION ROOMS® in September 2004;
expressing the creativity of Belgian fashion designers
and the spirit of innovation of Warwick International Hotels.
Brussels – May 2004. A major event, almost revolutionary in the world of top international hotel
brands: the ROYAL WINDSOR HOTEL GRAND' PLACE in Brussels is breaking new ground
in the deluxe furnishing of its rooms and has opted for extreme personalisation by entrusting the
decoration thereof to Belgian fashion designers. Although the idea is not entirely new – Bulgari,
Ferretti, Versace, Ferragamo, Lagerfeld and other great names in fashion have decorated palaces
in various locations around the world – the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place is being innovative
in more than one way.
The Belgian stylists Mademoiselle Lucien, Jean-Paul Knott, Gérald Watelet and Marina Yee will
design the first four FASHION ROOMS®.
The expression of renewed creativity
Innovation in the premium sector of the international hotel industry is somewhat limited. Of
course it usually focuses on modernisation, on providing luxury in line with the evolution of
society, but a certain uniformity of design and services is still generally the case.
The Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place in Brussels has deliberately dared to create a new
expression for hotel rooms by commissioning the Fashion Rooms®.
Innovation is expressed at several levels. By choosing numerous fashion designers, the hotel aims
to act as an ambassador for a Belgian fashion industry that enjoys worldwide recognition.
FASHION ROOMS® by Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place is much more than a concept. It’s
a real human and cultural meeting that breaks down the barriers between the worlds of fashion,
decoration and premium hotels. Each designer has complete freedom of expression to design his
or her room according to the standards of luxury and comfort guaranteed by their top-notch label.
The first four rooms will open in September, revealing talent and offering a fundamentally
different world of experience to travellers seeking novelty, sensation and exclusivity. Others will
soon follow, resulting from co-operation with other famous names from the Belgian fashion
world. At the end of February 2005, the hotel will be able to offer a total of twelve Fashion
Rooms® created by Belgian designers.
The spirit of “tailor made” accommodation
FASHION ROOMS® by Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place: where different worlds come
together. The subjective and the real. The emotional and the functional. The individual and the
universal. For if in accommodation the bedroom is a whole world, then the hotel room is in itself
the entire world. A refuge for a great many people, men and women with widely differing lives,
but also a cocoon able to fulfil the hopes of everyone and become in the space of an instant an
extremely personal place. A place where one feels good, somewhere one becomes attached to,
and returns to.
Although a private space, a hotel room must also be able to withstand public usage and wear and
tear over time. It must also meet safety standards and satisfy the essential rules of design. This is
one of the key success factors for the indispensable equation that balances individual harmony
and the context of the professional hotel business.
Fashion has definitely gone beyond merely clothing. Far from the catwalks of shows, designers
are integrating fashion into life. And life into fashion.
They are getting involved in houses and public places, are taking an interest in functional objects
and are focusing on being rather than appearing. Aestheticism is being combined with the values
of comfort, innovation and freedom of choice…Located in the centre of the capital of Europe, the
Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place is positioning itself as a real pioneer and claiming the right to
integrate this new art of living into the hotel industry.
Four Belgian talents pioneering a new concept for hotel rooms.
They are Mademoiselle Lucien, Jean-Paul Knott, Gerald Watelet and Marina Yee. They are
Belgian, exhibit their designs in some cases on the international catwalks, express a very different
vision of fashion and share a preference for an art of living that is in harmony with the art of
dressing.
Mademoiselle Lucien
Laurent Uyttersprot and Pascal Di Pietro Martinelli have made a reputation for themselves that
stretches far beyond the borders of Belgium by presenting their first models on the famous Barbie
doll. Using designs created by Mademoiselle Lucien, the young designers have always used
fabrics from the leading interior design houses to showcase their models. Their room, inspired by
the dancer Akarova and by Art Deco, expresses a certain oriental, Moorish feel dating from the
beginning of the century.
Gerald Watelet
Ten years ago, Gerald Watelet was already showing his works in Paris under the patronage of
Philippe Venet and Madame Carven, and the international press recognised this young talent
acclaimed by the “Chambre Syndicale de la Couture parisienne” (Parisian Couture Trade
Association). Always interested in expressing himself in different areas that are however linked
to his artistic calling – volume, shapes, materials, comfort – Gerald Watelet offers in his room a
classical yet modern universe, cosy but not cluttered, using contrasting materials and colours and
committing himself to giving the room a soul.
Marina Yee
An influential figure in Belgian fashion, Marina Yee has a wealth of experience: meetings and
co-operations with other great names in Belgian fashion, shows and competitions in the biggest
cities of the world, designs for theatre costumes and participation in art exhibitions. Marina Yee
has designed an extremely contemporary – almost futuristic – Fashion Rooms® with open
spaces, organically shaped furniture, innovative materials and clean colours – bright red, cream,
dark brown.
Jean-Paul Knott
Formerly the assistant of Yves Saint Laurent, this graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology
of New York has labored to truly explore materials, the way clothes are worn, transgression and
draping. For Jean-Paul Knott, clothes should be as beautiful on the inside as the outside and
everyone should enjoy fashion. Jean-Paul Knott has created a room in which one feels at home,
or rather in his home. There are few decorative elements on the designer furniture, smooth, neat
materials. Matt grey, white walls, leather, books on an immense shelf and, outside the window,
bamboo…
Warwick International Hotels was launched in 1980 with the purchase of The Warwick
New York, a hotel originally built for William Randolph Hearst. The company now
includes more than 30 prestigious hotels and resorts worldwide located in city center and
resort destinations in the United States, Europe, Asia, the South Pacific, and Africa.
Further details can be found at www.warwickhotels.com.
PRESS RELEASE
The Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place in Brussels
and Warwick International Hotels turn the spotlight on Belgian
fashion designers
Brussels, 7 September 2004 – The Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place in Brussels introduces its first
four FASHION ROOMS® designed by Mademoiselle Lucien, Jean-Paul Knott, Gerald Watelet and
Marina Yee – four renowned Belgian fashion signatures.
Considered one of the crown jewels of Brussels hotels, the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place
establishes itself as a true pioneer and adds a new art of living to the capital of Europe’s hotel
industry. The event was announced last Spring: the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place has
entrusted Belgian fashion designers with designing specific rooms dedicated to the occasion.
FASHION ROOMS® : a unique concept
The budding links between fashion and the hotel industry are numerous and the arrival of well-
known fashion designers in this star-studded world has attracted much attention.
Although it is inscribed in the movement to decompartmentalize talents and worlds, the step
made by the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place stands out thanks to a few major points.
“The FASHION ROOMS® reaffirm the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place’s roots in Brussels
and, more generally speaking, in Belgium. Already, in the year 2000, we were honouring the
Belgian art of living and its famous chocolate with the creation of one hundred Godiva rooms.
Warm colours, refinement, comfort with a capital ‘C’… we share so many pleasures with Godiva
chocolate, which is known throughout the world. Over the past few years, Belgian fashion
designers have made a good name for themselves, from Paris to New York, Milan, London,
Tokyo… the idea of being their ambassador in the world of international hotels came to us when
we were discussing renovating twelve good-sized rooms out of the 266 in the hotel, all the more
so since the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand Place is located a few hundred metres from the Belgian
fashion district,” says Paul C. van Wijk, general manager of the hotel.
What is unusual about the FASHION ROOMS®, whose name was made official by the Warwick
group, is that it brings together twelve Belgian fashion designers - all of whom have their own
styles or ways of working - and allows them to express their personalities freely in the room of
their choice. At the very foundation of a designer’s project, the designer and the hotel are totally
connected: in the reinterpreted vision of a hotel room, in the personalization of the creative
approach, in carrying out the actual work, etc. These twelve quasi-confidential Fashion Rooms®
will benefit from a major asset: they are inscribed in the vast network of rooms in Warwick
International Hotels, which comes to 30 prestigious hotels and resorts located in the heart of key
cities and health resort locations in Europe, the United States, Africa and Pacific Asia. The
twelve Fashion Rooms® will be finalized in 2005.
Jean-Paul Knott, Mademoiselle Lucien, Gerald Watelet and Marina Yee sign the first four
FASHION ROOMS®
They share the sense of challenge, the open mind and the passion for their trade that are
necessary to embark on the FASHION ROOMS® venture.
Marina Yee made her name in the famous “Bande des Six d’Anvers” – six Flemish designers
who brought Belgian fashion onto the international scene with a bang in 1982; Jean-Paul Knott
worked at Yves Saint Laurent for twelve years before joining Krizia and also Louis Feraud,
launching his own collections all the while; Gerald Watelet recently moved into the former salons
of the couturier Venet on rue François 1er in Paris; and Mademoiselle Lucien just dressed
Princess Claire for the most recent Belgian national holiday parade.
Each one of the designers shows his/her talent by means of four totally distinct worlds. Each
designer truly appropriated “his” or ”her” Fashion Room to better offer the room to guests. A
generous, extremely intimate step, which highlights the hospitality that is so dear to the Warwick
group.
Light grey like the Northern sky, very pure lines, a leather bedspread and a window looking onto
bamboo give Jean-Paul Knott’s Fashion Room the aura of a light atmosphere that transcends the
notions of space and time.
Gerald Watelet wanted his Fashion Room to evoke a private, very cosy, refined interior where
you finally feel “at home”.
Mademoiselle Lucien’s Fashion Room pays homage to the dancer Akarova and art deco, while
introducing a contemporary orientalism, notably through the presence of a comfortable bench
seat adorned with a superb fabric in shimmering colours.
The main piece in Marina Yee’s Fashion Room is incontestably a piece of furniture with organic
shapes uniting an office space and a bench seat in a very contemporary style.
“The FASHION ROOMS® will offer guests a kind of additional soul, a kind of elegance that
makes a trip, an object or a moment in life different from the rest. I would like to thank Marina
Yee, Jean-Paul Knott, Mademoiselle Lucien, Gerald Watelet and the fashion designers who will
come after for allowing Royal Windsor Hotel Grand Place to fulfil – thanks to their talent – the
desires of clients in search of a personalized stay, whether it be for business, cultural interests or
shopping in the neighbouring Dansaert district. Their Fashion Rooms® will make Brussels an
extraordinary city,” says Paul C. van Wijk.
Press release
FASHION ROOMS®
The Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place does it again:
six Belgian fashion designers take the unusual step of designing a
hotel room!
BRUSSELS – February 2005 : Six new Fashion Rooms® are due
to be opened in the spring of 2005 to create unforgettable nights
at the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place in Brussels.
They will feature artistry by six Belgian fashion
designers representing widely different styles: Haider Ackermann,
Pascale Kervan, Nina Meert, Romy Smits, Kaat Tilley, Nicolas
Woit.
Astonishment was the main reaction to the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place's announcement
last year that it was commissioning 12 Belgian fashion designers to design 12 rooms and suites
(out of a total of 266). Enthusiastic is the best word to describe the reception the most curious
souls and even the most sceptical ones gave the presentation, in September 2004, of the first four
"Fashion Rooms®" (a registered name filed by the Warwick International Hotels group of which
the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place in Brussels is a member).
Jean-Paul Knott, Mademoiselle Lucien, Gerald Watelet and Marina Yee had successfully met the
challenge of this encounter between the world of fashion and the international luxury hotel
industry.
Consequently, far from being a disorderly project, the Fashion Rooms® were at the outset a
unique concept catering to a genuine demand: something exceptional in a world where the trend
is towards the basic and uniform. Each Fashion Room is in a class of its own, like a work of art,
except these items can never be reproduced or give rise to limited editions.
A FASHION ROOM is able to offer an ingenious reflection of the intimate environment of the
fashion designer who envisioned it, while providing an ultra-personalised cocoon of comfort for
the traveller and revealing the creativity and skills of Belgian fashion designers to the entire
world. The Fashion Rooms® are intended for clients who grant priority to uniqueness and
appreciate the luxury (without any ostentation) of a hotel room an artist has designed, mindful of
the client's expectations but also treating the project as if it were the 'artist's own room’. And this
is really the case: each creator has produced what would be the ideal room for him or her! The
initiative assumes all the more importance because the fashion designers are well-known and
often draw attention to themselves on the fashion scene", says Paul C. van Wijk, General
Manager of the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place.
Six new designers were anxious to create their "own" rooms. Haider ACKERMANN, Pascale
KERVAN, Nina MEERT, Romy SMITS, Kaat TILLEY, Nicolas WOIT; four women and two
men. Each hails from Brussels or Antwerp, the two centres of Belgian fashion. As in the case of
Jean-Paul Knott, Gerald Watelet, Marina Yee, Mademoiselle Lucien, these six designers have a
wide variety of social and working backgrounds. They express themselves freely, revealing their
differences without any inhibitions.
The clarity, the lucidity of a fine day full of sunshine and the "face powder" shades of a dressing room
conjuring up the image of a fitting room in a fashion house, frescoes in Nina Meert's room.
Pascale Kervan offers a tone of contemporary distinction with a black rug, off-white velvet, brushed
aluminium, plexiglass and opalines, the hospitality of a bar.
A starry night sky for the magical dimension, a Venetian mirror for refinement, meridian for the
voluptuousness, Schiaparelli rose for the "high fashion" touch, Nicolas Woit has dreamed up a luxury
Fashion Room with precious details.
Three small rooms, three different universes for the Fashion Room designed by Romy Smits: bold
shapes and colours, innovative textiles, blends of styles and influences … all the artistic skills of a
designer with a long track record in interior design and decoration!
Kaat Tilley's Fashion Room produces a fairy tale as imagined by the most artistic designer there is. Old-
looking walls, the outdated atmosphere of a deserted house, powdery and whitish shades of colour – an
unexpected appointment with the Fantastic in its most charming expression.
Haider Ackermann offers us a cross-fertilised vision of the world. This world traveller's Fashion Room
reflects myriad souvenirs the memory has filtered to retain an infinitesimal nostalgia, impressions like a
chain of life. An old repainted tapestry, Indian cushions, embroideries, and the eclecticism of styles
between modernity, ethnic, antique… everything is swathed in grey and "mink" colours to create a
harmonious setting.
The six new Fashion Rooms® by Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place are to be inaugurated to coincide
with the return of the fine weather in the springtime of 2005, to make a total of 10 Fashion Rooms. The
two final Fashion Rooms will be in the news end 2006.
THE LUXURY OF CREATIVITY
There are ten.
Ten unique rooms among the 266 rooms of the
Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place and among the 4,014 rooms that make up the
Warwick group worldwide.
Ten “Fashion Rooms” that illustrate absolute luxury: the luxury of unrestrained
creativity by ten well-known Belgian fashion designers.
The Fashion Rooms concept was launched in September 2004 by the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place
in Brussels, part of Warwick International Hotels.
This unique concept goes hand in hand with an original idea that came into being within the walls of the
Brussels hotel: combine the renovation of 12 rooms with the innovative idea of collaborating with 12
Belgian fashion designers for their decoration. Exclusive, revolutionary even, the Fashion Rooms were
also to be the culmination of a formidable human adventure – from the first meeting between the world of
fashion and the international hotel business, with such different ways of operating, through to that amazing
symbiosis between the designer and HIS or HER Fashion Room.
In September 2004, the first four Fashion Rooms opened their doors and the fashion designers Jean-Paul
Knott, Mademoiselle Lucien, Gerald Watelet and Marina Yee became the pioneers of a completely new
hotel style that quickly proved to be a great success, both with customers and reporters, as well as with
the professional sector.
This Spring 2005, six new Fashion Rooms are once again making the headlines. They are the work of
Haider Ackermann, Pascale Kervan, Nina Meert, Romy Smits, Kaat Tilley and Nicolas Woit.
The last two Fashion Rooms will be finished mid 2006.
Extreme Personalisation
The Fashion Rooms are in perfect harmony with the philosophy of Warwick International Hotels,
which places great importance on emphasising the distinguishing characteristics and talents
within its collection of hotels in some of the most notable cities and countries in the world, while
priding itself on offering travellers elegant, harmonious accommodations that meet all their
personal expectations when far from home. At the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place, this talent
for welcoming guests is echoed in a very special way in the Fashion Rooms concept. Designed by
each fashion designer according to their own tastes, exemplifying their own private world as
much as their creativity and talent in fashion design, each Fashion Room is a unique space.
Imagined, created, produced by the designers as if it were their own bedroom, or rather the ideal
one that they dream of on their travels around the world. So it’s as if hotel guests were welcomed,
not just into the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place, but also into the home of the Belgian fashion
designer, whose history, style, and sources of inspiration can be discovered during their stay.
Exceptional rooms with exceptional service: echoing the creations of the fashion designers, the
close attention to detail in concert with the ultimate hospitality, has been developed to satisfy a
very discerning clientele. Thus, for instance, the adapted selection of mini-bar products, Room
Service with “fashion” overtones, the glass of champagne served on arrival and the personalised
letter introducing the guest to the creator of the Fashion Room.
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With a firm emphasis on retro style, and cultivating a certain nostalgia, Nicolas WOIT
puts his signature to a very glamorous, luxurious Fashion Room. A secret place with
filtered, intimate lighting, deliberately spare, where a sumptuous daybed in Schiaparelli
pink cushioned velvet and an imposing pouffe magnificently take up the main space.
More velvet covers the bed in a high couture bedspread in tones of saffron, orange,
green, brown and bright pink. Sophisticated and delicate with an unexpected mauve
draping the windows. The couturier chose this same tone again for his bed, giving it a
dream-like canopy, illuminated with tiny starry lights.
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A futuristic look for the “Rebirth Suite” which is what Romy SMITS has called her
Fashion Room. An entrance like a passage with scale-like walls in green and silver,
green to exorcise negative emotions, silver which brings quiet and serenity. A space that
somehow purifies, setting the tone of the work of Romy Smits, entirely driven by a
powerful symbolism. The bed nestling against a silvered curved wall. An ovoid and
protective form. A soft wool bedspread in a patchwork of colours. Vermillion red, black,
lilac pink put their message across, as do the works of art, accessories and furniture.
Haider ACKERMANN gives us his vision of a world of many cultures. This avid
traveller sets in his Fashion Room these multiple moments in time filtered by
memory leaving the slightest feeling of nostalgia, impressions like the fabric of
life. An ancient rug with repainted medallions, an Indian bedspread, little
Moroccan tables playing with the light, the eclecticism of the modern, ethnic and
antique genres…and the whole thing swathed in grey and pure white to set a tone
of harmony. And one musn’t forget black, Haider Ackermann’s “cocoon colour”.
Press release 24 May 2005
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FASHION ROOMS by Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place! A concept unique in the world and
very far from run of the mill! Since its origins in the nineties, the concept has identified the hotel
business with designer brands as part of a positioning strategy when developing international
luxury hotels. The Brussels hotel had the great original idea of asking 12 Belgian fashion experts
to design 12 rooms - scheduled for renovation - in line with their most personal inspiration.
To be given “carte blanche” is a sublime luxury, plus the challenge of being asked to go for
emotion and discovery while providing the comfort expected of 5-star accommodation.
The approach focuses on the fact that the “hotel” plays a large part in how much we enjoy our
travel experiences, and the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place has broken new ground by
entrusting this unusual mission to fashion designers, because they have that special vision of life
seen from a “fashion” and aesthetic viewpoint. And they had to be Belgian designers. The hotel
serves as a shop window to display its country's designer talent which has international acclaim
in the fashion scene.
Twelve rooms and suites out of the hotel’s 266 rooms carry the Fashion Room distinction, and
that’s the limit! A path for the initiated in some ways, an avenue for meetings, ambiances,
surprises …
The four initial Fashion Rooms were designed by Gérald Watelet, Marina Yee, Mademoiselle
Lucien and Jean-Paul Knott. Then came six more Fashion Rooms created by Nicolas Woit, Kaat
Tilley, Pascale Kervan, Romy Smits, Nina Meert and Haider Ackermann.
By delivering this optional extra for the soul that creation alone can inspire, with its own
convictions and visions, outside the confines of time, space and conventional codes, Fashion
Rooms by Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place have attained their objective: to provide pleasure
and new sensations, open avenues of exploration for travellers and promote individuality through
that highly intimate bond that links the designer to his or her Fashion Room and to its host. The
“magic” works because all the fashion designers are totally immersed in their mission to the point
where they take over the room, instil it with their talent, and beyond this, with their personality,
desires, expectations ... and who knows, their dreams.
The Xavier Delcour “Jewel Casket” Fashion Room
Xavier Delcour has applied his superlative inspirational fashion know-how together with real
consideration in terms of the art of décor to come up with a room just like a small, perfectly
designed town apartment – if it was one of his suits we might call it "perfectly cut". As with his
clothes, he has left nothing to chance, paying attention to line and detail in the most meticulous
manner. Black and white. Scintillating, extreme. With luxurious hints of silver. Magnificently
staged with a myriad of mirrors, which give a wider perspective and more especially impart
touches of a festival atmosphere that is dear to the creator. A true celebration, like a show, where
pleasure, beauty and sensuality freely mingle. “I wanted the room to be the ideal place in which
to get ready for a celebration, make oneself look beautiful – there is a mirrored dressing room
where you can see yourself full-length, both frontal and back view, a dressing table with lighting
designed especially for make-up, and a bar in case you want to pour yourself a glass of
champagne! And the furniture with Art Deco accents, the walls, doors and interior adjustable
shutters – all the materials add to the rhythmic harmony of the space: matt and gloss paint, satin,
black leather effect, chrome, leather, opaline … and even related to Xavier Delcour collections:
each accessory brings a touch of elegance to the whole, round chrome handles gleaming on the
Pipistrello lamp, standing majestically in a corner of the living room. In Xavier Delcour’s
Fashion Room you definitely stay up all night!
The Christian Wijnants Fashion Room: inspiration born of purity
Everything in the room devised by the designer from Antwerp suggests harmony and embodies a
“Zen attitude” approach with the sources of its inspiration both in the Christian Wijnants 2006
summer collection and his fascination for Bauhaus. From the outset Christian Wijnants, assisted
by architect and childhood friend Hélène Herman, sought to define the new volumes of the room.
Attic space had to be opened up, room space freed and redistributed. From narrow angles came
curved lines, without the slightest severity. “I wanted shapes that were marginally organic,
lightness, no furniture or very little. Hence the idea for utility walls containing the safe, the bar,
the wardrobe,” explains Christian. And in respect for the desire for purity, not a single knob or
handle: the door in the wall opens simply by finger pressure. The double recess shaped ceiling
gently envelops the bed. A central wall mirror imparts the impression of depth while adding to
the room’s fluidity of movement. No purposeless hindrances on the floor, only two wooden
stools have legs: the dressing table, bedside tables and desk are all integrated into the walls – and
the dressing table makes use of an effect of symmetry provided on either side by the mirrored
partition. And the divan: a bench nestles in a recess of geometrical design. The furniture with
simple lines is wood with a warm brown lacquer. Everything is pure, the light gently glides over
tones of artichoke, eggshell, clay and pearly gold ... The only prints: two vegetable cushions and
a still life photographed by Vivian Sassen endowing the bedcover with a bouquet of flowers like
a gift for a hostess, an invitation to travel …
Fashion Rooms by Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place! Daring designer label luxury
Through its network of over forty hotels worldwide the group radiates a philosophy of the
ultimate in customised hospitality. Some establishments have a historical element, such as the
Warwick New York Hotel built in 1920 by William Randolph Hearst and the Warwick Ibah
Luxury Villas and Spa in Bali built by the Ubud Royal Family. Local traditions and tastes are
honoured and naturally enhance hotel guests' stays at each destination. In Brussels, the Royal
Windsor Hotel Grand' Place with its Fashion Rooms offers its guests designer label luxury in 12
rooms. Fashion Rooms by Royal Windsor Hotel Grand' Place invite you to discover designer
talent and ambiances that utterly transform the conventional hotel room. But never without
reason, because each Fashion Room is an act of creation designed to accommodate the gift of
hospitality.
