Hotels – global hotel system

Note: Tablet recommends the Couture Suites, a partnership with Maison Martin Margiela.

The fashion world and the hotel world don’t cross over as often as they should. Especially in Paris, which is odd, since it’s the fashion world (and its associated industries) that drives much of the demand for extraordinary hotels in the first place. One imagines the situation is only temporary, though — a few more results on the level of La Maison Champs Élysees and it’s hard to imagine all the big fashion houses won’t be in on the act.

This one, in a small irony, happens to have turned to a Belgian label for its haute-couture inspiration. La Maison Champs Élysées was, and in large part remains, a decently stylish, somewhat minimalist boutique hotel. But for its new couture suites they’ve called in Maison Martin Margiela, and it’s safe to say the results are more than just decently stylish.

It’s a good match — the simplicity of the Margiela look translates well from runways to rooms. Here black, white and blond wood go an extraordinarily long way, and the visual spareness accentuates the size of the suites — an overstuffed Parisian hotel room can easily feel even smaller than it is.

And the Margiela design team has been given free reign in the public spaces as well. La Maison Champs Élysées contains a leafy little patio, a dark and clubby cigar bar, a warmly lit postmodern fantasy of a bar and a lounge that looks like a piano bar in heaven. Add to that a fine little restaurant, La Table du 8, and you’ve got it all: boutique looks, fashion bona fides, and luxe creature comforts, all in Paris’s famed Golden Triangle.