Latest news with #neo-Renaissance
Tatler Asia
30-05-2025
- Tatler Asia
Retro-Luxe Hotels: 9 glamorous stays that bring back vintage style
One of the world's most iconic retro-luxe hotels, Raffles Singapore, opened 1887, is a time capsule of colonial splendour. Its 1899 neo-Renaissance main building by Regent Alfred John Bidwell featured then-modern powered ceiling fans. The architecture showcases whitewashed walls, polished teak verandahs, marble colonnades, and palm-filled courtyards. Interiors epitomise the Raffles Singapore style: teakwood floors, 14-ft ceilings, mahogany furniture, and Victorian-detailed bathrooms with Peranakan tiles. The legendary Long Bar, restored by interior designer Alexandra Champalimaud and her team at the global design team Aedas, retains its plantation style with palm-shaped ceiling fans and monochrome rattan chairs, offering a taste of historic Singapore luxury. Order the original Singapore Sling, invented here in 1915, and toast to history. Also read: 6 Icons not to miss at Raffles Hotel Singapore, including the Singapore Sling and Long Bar's peanut littering traditio n 2. Hotel Esencia (Tulum, Mexico): a barefoot-luxury hotel with mid-century soul Once the seaside retreat of an Italian duchess on a majestic 50-acre estate, Hotel Esencia offers a masterclass in barefoot luxury with a retro soul in Tulum. Tucked between jungle and sea, its hacienda-style architecture features traditional archways, with the Main House as its historical centerpiece. The design—think Mad Men meets Peggy Guggenheim—curated by owner Kevin Wendle, blends mid-century treasures with Mexican antiques against breezy white concrete interiors accented by bright primary colours, capturing 1950s jet-set nostalgia. Studio Giancarlo Valle incorporated organic forms and traditional Mexican craft, from Guadalajara tiles and Oaxaca rugs to locally carved wood furniture. Designer pieces like Charlotte Perriand chairs and Picasso ceramics enhance this unique Mexican getaway. The spa's carved stone tub evokes ancient Mayan rituals even as hidden speakers provide the soundtrack, perfecting this retro-luxe Tulum experience. 3. The Siren Hotel (Detroit, USA)— a restored Wurlitzer building with vintage Detroit glamour Inside a lovingly restored 1926 Wurlitzer building designed by Robert Finn in Italian Renaissance Revival style, The Siren Hotel in Detroit is a love letter to faded grandeur and new-world creativity. ASH NYC and Quinn Evans Architects preserved original travertine floors and plaster ceiling details, informing the lobby's antiques and mossy green walls. Bold, jewel-toned spaces feature a palette of soft whites, pale pinks, and deep oxblood, with guest rooms in muted pink and burgundy. Art Deco influences shine in its design, with Art Nouveau styled sirens at the entrance. Velvet seating, including pink banquettes in the Candy Bar with its sparkling chandelier, and custom terrazzo bathroom tiles, conjure old-Hollywood energy. This historic Detroit hotel even features an in-house barbershop reminiscent of a Wes Anderson set piece, making for a truly vintage-inspired stay. 4. Hotel Locarno (Rome, Italy)—Art Deco charm in a historic Roman hotel A favourite of artists (like the legendary filmmaker Federico Fellini) since the 1920s, Hotel Locarno in Rome drips with Roman romanticism and Art Deco charm. Its 1925 main building and annexed 1905 palazzo showcase oil paintings, parquet floors, and embellished ceiling stuccoes. Each uniquely decorated room in this historic Rome hotel features antique fixtures, lavish draperies and luxurious tapestries. Suites like the Venezia boast Art Nouveau-inspired coffered ceilings with gilded mouldings and marble terrazzo floors, while the Bellevie suite offers a forest green marble bathroom with a 1920s dressing table. An art-nouveau birdcage elevator, tasseled keys, and vintage bicycles available at the entrance complete the 1920s glamour. The rooftop bar provides aperitivo with a cinematic backdrop, perfect for a glamourous Rome experience. 5. Le Grand Mazarin (Paris, France)—Parisian Elegance with Rococo Revival style Designed by Martin Brudnizki in Le Marais, this theatrical Parisian hideaway, Le Grand Mazarin, revisits French classicism with a modern, whimsical twist, inspired by aristocratic literary salons. It's a riot of rococo revival, where pastel velvets from Maison Pierre Frey and Belle Époque-style chandeliers by Maison Lucien Gau meet fine lacquered paneling. Collaborations with esteemed French craft houses like Henryot & Cie for furniture and Ateliers Gohard for Boubalé restaurant's gilded ceiling ensure authenticity in this luxury Marais hotel. The feel of being in a collector's home is enhanced by bespoke pieces, flea market finds and over 500 artworks, with a hand-painted pool ceiling by Jacques Merle. And while retro glamour runs deep, the service and spa are refreshingly 21st century. 6. The Colony Hotel (Palm Beach, Florida)—vintage Americana and Palm Beach chic come together A candy-coloured gem of old Palm Beach society since 1947, The Colony Hotel embodies cheeky glamour and vintage Americana. Its iconic 'Colony pink' exterior and 'Brazilliance' banana-leaf wallpaper were Carleton Varney additions in 2014. Redesigns by Kemble Interiors feature custom de Gournay monkey wallpaper, scalloped headboards in Schumacher fabric, and rattan armoires by Society Social, defining Palm Beach chic. The lobby shines with Art Deco chandeliers, while velvet, bamboo and wicker abound. The poolside, with its vibrant umbrellas (likely scalloped and pink) and cabanas with Matouk linens, evokes a Slim Aarons world, perfect for a retro Florida getaway. It's his world—and you're just sipping rosé in it. 7. The Hoxton (Brussels, Belgium)—70s design in a Brutalist Brussels hotel Housed in the 1970s Brutalist Victoria Building, The Hoxton, Brussels, softens its imposing structure with retro design by AIME Studios. The vibe is disco-era-Brussel- meets-Brooklyn-loft, blending 70s charm with art-filled modernity. Warm wood finishes and sleek wooden furniture pair with terrazzo and parquet bedroom floors. The lobby features geometric patterns, bold terracotta and burnt orange velvet, dark-wood paneling, and visible raw concrete pillars. Rooms in this unique Brussels hotel boast striped headboards, graphic rugs, curved lamps and Roberts radios. Bathrooms offer a pastel palette with primary colour accents, and bespoke murals add local artistic flair, creating a truly retro-luxe Brussels stay. 8. Château Voltaire (Paris, France)—Parisian decadence in a fashionable boutique hotel An ode to layered Parisian decadence in a 17th-century townhouse, Château Voltaire combines smoky mirrors (implied by its sultry bar) and rich textures (like fringed velvet). Conceived by Thierry Gillier of Zadig & Voltaire with Franck Durand and Festen Architecture, this boutique hotel in Paris mixes mid-century and baroque references with a 1940s-inspired deep-pile black carpet. Expect velvet sofas, velvets in ochre and navy, aged brass, encaustic tiles, creamy plaster walls, handmade glazed ceramic tiles and sultry marble. Bespoke headboards, solid oak wall lights, cubist canvases and custom Art Deco lighting create a sophisticated escape worthy of a Godard heroine, offering a unique taste of Parisian cool design. 9. Grand Hotel Tremezzo (Lake Como, Italy)—Art Nouveau palace with lakeside glamour Perched regally on Lake Como's edge since 1910, Grand Hotel Tremezzo is an Art Nouveau palace that delivers ultimate retro luxury, evoking early 20th-century European high society. Imagine candy-striped loungers—a fitting image for its glamorous pools—a stunning floating water-on-the-water pool on the lake, plus the charming Flowers Pool and an indoor-outdoor infinity pool. Interiors of this historic Italian hotel feature gilded salons, frescoed ceilings (notably in Villa Emilia spa with its original mosaics), plush red velvet furniture and silk wallpaper. Every corridor is an Instagram post waiting to happen. Credits This article was created with the assistance of AI tools
New Statesman
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Portrait of an 18th-century It girl
In a decisive scene in Edith Wharton's 1905 novel The House of Mirth, the luckless protagonist, Lily Bart, is cajoled into taking part in a tableau vivant. This form of Edwardian entertainment required participants to dress up as a work of art: to become a 'living picture'. Lily shrewdly opts for 'a type so her own that she could embody the person represented without ceasing to be herself'. Lily's (or, rather, Wharton's) choice – Joshua Reynolds' 1776 Mrs Richard Bennett Lloyd – now hangs in a shaded corridor of Waddesdon Manor, the neo-Renaissance chateau in Buckinghamshire that was once the weekend residence of Ferdinand de Rothschild. It depicts a young woman clad in flowing, classical dress, etching the name 'Lloyd' into a tree. Its subject is Joanna Bennett Lloyd – my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. I discovered this connection in the summer of 2019, when I was living with my grandmother in High Wycombe while interning in Whitehall. I spent a lot of time that summer with my mother's family – particularly her elder sister (my aunt) Kate, with whom I share the same bookish sensibility. One sunny Saturday afternoon in my grandmother's back garden, she told me what she knew of Joanna's story. I am related to Joanna on my mother's side, through my late Grandad George. My aunt first learned about Joanna as a teenager in the 1980s, on a trip to visit family in the US. My grandfather's cousin – her name was Hilda, but everyone called her Plum – had moved from the UK to Pennsylvania some years earlier. In her home proudly hung a mezzotint of Reynolds' portrait. Plum often pointed to it, telling my aunt: 'We're related to her.' Her words stuck with Kate. Decades later, in the early 2000s, she resolved to go hunting for the mysterious woman in the Reynolds portrait. She learned about the painting, its provenance and whereabouts, and the identity of the woman depicted. But one question remained: were we really related to her? When my aunt told me this story, I was gripped. Together, we uncovered a direct line from Joanna's family in the late-18th century to our 21st-century one. The more we discovered, the more extraordinary Joanna became. Joanna Leigh was born in 1758 to a wealthy mercantile family from the Isle of Wight. She and her three sisters were heiresses to their father's fortune and to Northcourt House, a Jacobean manor on the island. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Reynolds was commissioned to paint Joanna in 1773, when she was 14 years old, to mark her betrothal to Richard Bennett Lloyd. Lloyd, then 23, was an officer from Maryland, in America, whose family owned tobacco plantations. He was a captain in the Coldstream Guards, having purchased a commission in the British Army, as some did at the time to gain rank and social status. We do not know how Joanna and Richard met, but it was likely in London during the season – the annual period in which England's elite would descend upon the capital for balls, dinner parties and matchmaking. Lloyd's regiment was stationed in Westminster; my aunt likes to imagine that they noticed each other while promenading in St James's Park. They married in 1775 at St George's Church in Bloomsbury. Reynolds' painting marked a significant moment in Joanna's life: she was preparing for marriage and her departure from England. I like to imagine that he was moved by this coming-of-age moment. He chose to paint Joanna in an enclosed, lush woodland; a gentle brook runs past her, and warm sunlight peeks into the glade behind her. The setting is inarguably English. Her pose, inscribing her married name into a tree, is a facsimile of a well-known moment in Shakespeare's As You Like It, in which Orlando etches the name of his beloved Rosalind on to trunks in the Forest of Arden. Reynolds depicts Joanna carving her new name into the natural fabric of England, as if she is asking it not to forget her. Art critics have often focused on Joanna's pose – its suggestiveness, its playfulness – and it is true that she seems more at ease than the more guarded, stiff poses in portraits of her contemporaries. The British fashion designer Bruce Oldfield told Country Life magazine: 'Compared with her contemporaries painted by Reynolds – the Ladies Waldegrave and Mary, Duchess of Richmond, for example, fine upstanding examples of the upper echelons of 18th-century British society – the twice-married Joanna [Joanna remarried after Richard Lloyd's death in 1787] Lloyd has all the racy qualities of an 'It' girl.' It is diverting to wonder whether Joanna shared her anxieties and excitement about her impending marriage with Reynolds. After all, they must have spent hours together at his studio in Leicester Square during the portrait's composition. Was the setting her decision, or his? How much say did she have over the way she was presented? Over her dress? Sadly, Reynolds' pocketbooks from 1774-76 (the period when the painting was likely completed), which might offer answers, are missing. Why did Richard choose Reynolds to paint his young bride? As Waddesdon's senior curator Juliet Carey told me on a recent visit, the choice of painter is as significant as the composition of a painting. To choose Reynolds was to choose a more classically influenced style of portraiture, designed by the artist to stand the test of time. Thomas Gainsborough, Reynolds' arch-rival, instead depicted the fleeting domesticities of everyday life. Reynolds was appointed the official royal artist by King George III (although the New Statesman's esteemed art critic, Michael Prodger, informs me that privately, the king preferred Gainsborough). Perhaps this association influenced Lloyd's choice: he took great pride in his commission to the British Army. Reynolds himself was clearly pleased with the portrait. It was exhibited at the 1776 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, alongside perhaps his most well-known painting, the Portrait of Omai. Bruce Oldfield was right to describe Joanna as an It girl. As a newly married couple, Joanna and Richard spent much of their time between London and Paris, mixing in the same circles as the American founding fathers John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Joanna captivated those who met her with her charm and her looks: she was the star of this new American social milieu. Richard was forced to give up his place in the British Army shortly after his marriage to Joanna because of growing tensions between England and America. By 1778, he and Joanna were living in Paris among many other wealthy Americans. France played a crucial role in the American Revolution, and many Americans made a home in Paris. One was Franklin, who became the first American ambassador to France, and a friend to the Lloyds. (One letter, from Richard to Franklin, indicates that, despite his fondness for Britain, he was sympathetic to the cause of American Independence.) Joanna and her husband were invited to a 4 July dinner hosted by Franklin and Adams in Paris. The Lloyds returned to London at the end of that year, taking a house on Hanover Square. By the early 1780s, the Lloyds were living in Maryland and closely involved in the social circle that revolved around Washington and his wife, Martha. A letter from 1782 from Baron von Closen – an aide to the French general Count Rochambeau – describes Joanna as the most beautiful woman in North America. According to Von Closen, Joanna spoke fluent Italian and French, and had 'enchanting' taste in clothes. His letter makes it clear that the couple's decision to live in Paris was Joanna's: Von Closen tells his interlocutor that Richard 'fell in love with her and only obtained her on the condition that he would spend two years with her in France'. The letter concludes resoundingly: 'En un mot, elle est réputée la beauté de l'Amerique' ('In a word, she is the reputed beauty of America'.) Another letter in Waddesdon Manor's collection, passed between two sisters living in Maryland, reveals that by 1784, Joanna was 'more followed and admired than ever she was'. It describes a memorable outfit: 'a gauze apron spangled with gold and black velvet stars and looped with wreaths of flowers'. Adams refers to Joanna as a 'handsome English lady' in his diaries, and Washington wrote to her to express his 'high respect and admiration' for her. That Joanna made such an impression in a country that was not her own speaks of her magnetism and strength of her character. I think I would have liked her. By the time of Richard's death in 1787, Joanna had returned to England with her children. Richard struggled with alcoholism, and lived beyond his means (perhaps the Reynolds portrait was a sign of his taste for opulence). A letter from David Humphreys, an American soldier and diplomat to Washington, written a year before his death, reports: 'Mrs Lloyd I have not seen, she is in the country, her husband I saw one evening quite intoxicated, since which I am told he is in confinement for debt.' After Joanna's death in 1814, her portrait was passed into the care of her eldest daughter, Amelia, who married an English clergyman, John Giffard Ward. They married at St James's, on Piccadilly, opposite the Royal Academy, where Joanna's portrait was first unveiled. In 1869, the portrait was sold to the art dealers Agnews at auction, and then later to the Rothschilds, who hung it at Waddesdon Manor, where it remains to this day. Though my aunt and I have spent hours poring over Reynolds' portrait of Joanna, or catching glimpses of her in the words of her contemporaries, she still evades us: among others' impressions of her life, her own experience of it is lost. I think of Joanna often, whenever I pass the Royal Academy on Piccadilly, or the blue plaque that marks the location of Reynolds' studio, sandwiched between an All Bar One and a McDonald's on Leicester Square. I daydream about her life in 18th-century London, so different to mine, and wonder what of her there is in me. [See more: The first and last New journalist] Related
New York Times
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Plates Full of Beauty and History in Upper Manhattan
It is not advisable to attempt to eat off any of Adriana Varejão's plates. Nor is it wise to ask the artist, one of Brazil's most prominent and audacious, to serve from them. (She once told an interviewer, with a hint of disdain in her normally gracious voice, 'I don't cook.') The curved fiberglass and resin plates she has on display at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in Upper Manhattan — all but one nearly six feet in diameter —are encrusted with sculpted imagery and painted in surreally lifelike colors to convey flora and fauna, cosmologies and legends of the Amazon region. They reveal an artist whose work has assiduously engaged with many different chapters of Brazil's history. 'Each plate is like a universe,' Varejão said cupping her hands in a gesture of gentle explanation. 'I like how they relate to my passion for ceramics, for the decorative arts and their history, and how craft can disrupt artistic hierarchies.' Varejão was seated late last month on a bench facing into the museum's interior courtyard, where the five most recent additions to her acclaimed 'Plate' series are on view through June 22 in 'Adriana Varejão: Don't Forget, We Come From the Tropics.' Her first solo museum show in New York, it was conceived as a dialogue between her barrier-breaking work and the vast historical array of ceramics from Spain, Portugal and their far-flung areas of conquest first amassed by the wealthy American collector Archer M. Huntington. Ardent about the cultures of the Hispanic world, Huntington founded the society and made plans for the museum that would be a part of it in 1904. The neo-Renaissance building he erected to house his wide-ranging collections opened to the public in 1908, with thousands of works of art and artifacts ranging from paintings to ceramics, textiles, furniture, metal works, printed matter, and more. For the exhibition, Varejão's plates — raised on iron stands she devised to show the works from every side — have been placed in a semicircle around a mosaic crest that Huntington had inlaid in the courtyard floor. Emblazoned at its center is the Latin phrase 'Plus Ultra,' meaning 'Further Beyond,' the national motto of Spain since the 16th-century reign of King Charles I. 'It's a symbol of the Spanish empire,' said Guillaume Kientz, director and chief executive of the institution. But the sun has long set on that spin of the globe. Since arriving at the Society in 2021, Kientz has made it his mission to steer the institution into fresher waters, to shake off the rusty grip of colonialist notions, and update the past with infusions of the present, building a relationship between traditional curatorial pursuits and a contemporary art world mindful of the realities at play around it. He has made concerted efforts to connect with the surrounding neighborhood, which is largely Hispanic. Varejão's work is a resonant fit. Inspired early in her career by Brazil's homegrown Baroque architecture and its imaginative adaptation of azulejos — decorative Portuguese tiles — she has also repeatedly cracked open the ceramics' legacy to expose the violence of European conquest, the cruelty of slaveholding, and the persistence of inequality in the country of her birth. She has critiqued its share of military dictatorships, and its insidious colorism. She produced 'Mucara,' the earliest plate in this show, in 2023 for the politically charged inaugural Bienal das Amazônias mounted in Brazil's northern province of Belem. At Kientz's invitation she followed up with the other four. Andrew Heyward, a director at Gagosian, the gallery that represents Varejão in the United States, said, 'It's been wonderful to watch Guillaume revitalize the institution, and Adriana's immediate connection to it.' For Varejão, Kientz added, the plates are a balancing act 'between beauty and danger, history and modernity, nature and artifice.' 'They're both painting and sculpture,' said Varejão, 'and nothing is as it seems.' If the front of Varejão's plates teem with the natural and supernatural life of Amazon rainforests and waterways, their backs mimic designs she found on the ceramics in the Society's extensive collection. From 15th century Spanish lusterware she took a recurring grape-and-ivy-leaf motif; blue-and-white florals came from 18th-century Ming-style pieces made in Spain and Mexico; and stylized fruit had its roots in 16th-century Ottoman Iznik pottery. She has also curated a selection of such pieces as a complement to hers, set shelf upon shelf in imposing glass-and-metal display cases from the Huntington era that now run the full length of the courtyard's rear wall. On an even more dramatic scale is Varejão's interaction with the society's monumental outdoor sculpture 'El Cid.' Opposite the entrance, it was created in 1927 by Anna Hyatt Huntington, the well-known sculptor who in 1923 had become Archer Huntington's wife. By wrapping the equestrian statue of the notorious medieval Spanish knight in the coiled, brightly colored stranglehold of a giant Amazonian anaconda made of fiberglass, Varejão felt she had mounted a challenge, she said, to 'a symbol of masculine imperialism. The snake's open mouth looks like a woman's vulva, and it's about to attack.' An avowed feminist, Varejão likes to joke that she married her second husband, the film producer and gallerist Pedro Buarque de Hollanda, for his mother, the celebrated feminist writer and intellectual Helóisa Teixeira. (Varejão's first husband was the mining magnate Bernardo Paz, whose 5,000-acre art complex Inhotim to the north of Rio includes a pavilion dedicated to larger size Varejão works.) Not often mentioned is that Varejão, 60, spent her early childhood in Brasília, the planned city then under construction as a new federal capital in the still remote Central Highlands. Her father was a pilot in the Brazilian Air Force. Her mother, a nutritionist, frequently took her daughter along as she tended to the children of the city's poverty-stricken immigrant labor force. 'I think my mother connected me to a certain kind of tenderness,' Varejão said, 'and to the kind of openness that can absorb many things.' At university, she would abandon engineering to study art, graduating from Rio de Janeiro's Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage just as Brazil was emerging from two decades of military dictatorship, in 1985. Intrigued by the country's Indigenous cultures, she spent a period researching among the Yanomami, a tribe of the Amazon Basin in northern Brazil. Her work at the Hispanic Society returns her to those earlier explorations. 'Mucara (Opossum)' and its shamanistic depiction of an opossum head atop a woman's round-bellied pregnant body, like the imagery on the other four plates, draws on Indigenous conceptions of animals as receptacles for the spirits of humans. Such creatures also have the uncanny ability to blend in with their surroundings. The turtle of her plate 'Mata Mata,' Varejão pointed out, can be mistaken for a floating leaf by its fishy prey, and by traffickers illegally hunting them. The Ghost Bird or Mother of the Moon on the 'Urutau' plate, considered a symbol of female divinity, resembles a mere tree branch when its wings are folded. The pink dolphins of 'Boto e Aruã' can dart undetected among the colorful shell life of the silt-clouded waters of the Rio Negro. The eerily ocular-looking fruits sculpted onto 'Guaranã' come with tales of children's eyes planted in the forest floor. Varejão doesn't want it forgotten that the plates are messengers from a world at risk from deforestation, industrialization, and climate change. 'Its natural ecosystem is being destroyed, 'she said. 'The Amazon is burning. A way of life is disappearing.' 'There's a constant tension in Adriana's work,' said Kientz, 'between civilization or society, and nature or planet earth. But it gives hope that a balance can be found.'
New York Times
20-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
What Does It Mean to Call Somewhere Home?
Because my family moved so much when I was growing up — nine cities and maybe 20 residences before I left for college — I never associated the idea of home with a physical space. Rather, I thought of details, rooms, pieces of furniture, slants of light, from the many houses and apartments we'd occupied over the years: features and moments that came to stand in for a sense of rootedness. For years, I wished I'd known a home, a single residence in which decades of celebrations, fights, debates and conversations could have unfolded. Then I got older and watched as friends confronted the sale or destruction of their own family homes; they understood that they weren't as much mourning the loss of the structure itself as what it had represented, but that knowledge didn't make it easier. A home — the home — provides the set for all the theater of our lives; without one, we're freer, but also unmoored. This issue visits families with different relationships to home. Outside of São Paulo, a Brazilian furniture designer and her grown children have constructed a compound that accommodates three generations — while allowing everyone some privacy. Over in Italy, an English art dealer decides to recommit to Venice — a city about which he's had mixed feelings — only to realize that his new apartment in a 17th-century palazzo isn't so new after all … but someplace he knew as a teenager. And finally, our cover story concerns the three residences designed by the Swedish painter Carl Larsson and his wife, Karin, north of Stockholm. Since the 1940s (Carl died in 1919; Karin in 1928), their first house, called Lilla Hyttnäs, has been maintained by a group of their descendants. Some of it is open to visitors; other parts are private. The result, a century after the Larssons' deaths, is a home that maintains much of their art, furniture and spirit while also graciously accommodating improvisations and additions from subsequent generations. All this is in keeping with the Larssons' original vision; theirs would be a place free from the constraints of what they viewed as the tedium of bourgeois design of the period, with its dark brown furniture and neo-Renaissance ornamentation. Their house would be a celebration of folk art, of craft, of color and coziness. Not a house, in other words — but a home.
Zawya
04-03-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Istituto Marangoni celebrates 90 years of excellence
On the occasion of its 90th anniversary, Istituto Marangoni consolidates its role as a leading institution in higher education for fashion, art, design, and beauty with three major developments: the relocation of its Milan campus to the historic Palazzo Turati in September 2025, the opening of a new campus in Paris' prestigious 16th arrondissement, and the expansion into Saudi Arabia with the launch of a new campus in Riyadh in August 2025. Completing this evolution is the launch of the Immersive Virtual School, marking the culmination of four years of investment in innovation and pioneering new digital learning formats. To celebrate Istituto Marangoni's 90 years, a series of international events will take place, showcasing the institution's rich heritage. Through archival materials and testimonials from faculty, alumni, and staff, these events will highlight the pivotal role of the 'Marangoni Method' in shaping the global fashion system from the 1930s to the present day. A journey through past and future, emphasizing the latest innovations designed to bridge tradition and avant-garde. Milan: a new home in the heart of the city Starting from the 2025/26 academic year, Istituto Marangoni Milan will relocate to Palazzo Turati, one of the most stunning neo-Renaissance buildings in Milan's city center. Located just steps from the Duomo and the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the palace provides an exclusive study environment where history and innovation come together. Students will have access to extraordinary spaces, including frescoed halls, refined sculptural details, inlaid wooden floors, and a majestic courtyard with granite columns. The new 9,000-square-meter campus will also feature a spectacular panoramic terrace, ideal for events, fashion presentations, and photoshoots. Paris: a new campus in the heart of Fashion and Luxury Istituto Marangoni Paris officially inaugurates its new campus at 15 rue Boissière, in the prestigious 16th arrondissement. This larger, more modern space reflects the school's commitment to providing an inspiring learning environment in direct dialogue with the most influential French and international fashion brands. Situated in a district rich in culture—with the Musée Galliera, Musée Guimet, Musée d'Art Moderne, and the Musée Yves Saint Laurent—and surrounded by luxury houses such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès, and Dior, the new campus offers students an immersive educational experience perfectly connected to the industry's evolving needs. Global Expansion: arriving in Saudi Arabia In August, Istituto Marangoni will open its first campus in Saudi Arabia, becoming the first international higher education group with a focus on luxury to establish itself in Riyadh. This initiative is part of the Group's expansion strategy into key fashion and luxury markets, supporting local talent development and women's empowerment in a rapidly transforming country. Aligned with Saudi Vision 2030 and in collaboration with the Fashion Commission, Istituto Marangoni aims to train a new generation of professionals equipped to meet the needs of both international and local new campus, accredited by TVTC (Technical and Vocational Training Corporation), will offer three-year Advanced Diploma programs in Fashion Design, Fashion Management, Fashion Product, Fashion Styling, and Creative Direction, as well as specialized courses in Fragrances & Cosmetics and Interior Design. Students will have the option of an academic path with a six-month internship or the completion of a Bachelor's Degree at one of Istituto Marangoni's international campuses. Additionally, professional development courses in Fashion Business, Digital Marketing, and Product Management will be available, responding to the growing demand for training in new technologies and digital fashion. This is the second campus in the Middle East, further consolidating the presence in the region after the opening of Istituto Marangoni in Dubai. Digital Innovation: The 12th School in the Metaverse Alongside its physical expansion, Istituto Marangoni is pioneering a revolution in education with the launch of the Immersive Virtual School, its 12th campus. This innovative digital campus redefines the boundaries of learning, combining cutting-edge technology with a collaborative, experiential approach. Designed as an interactive, multiplayer space, the Immersive Virtual School enables students to connect, create, and learn in a dynamic digital environment that reflects the educational excellence of the international network while offering unique experiences only possible in the virtual world. The first immersive Foundation course has already begun, with students attending exclusively online. 'Celebrating Istituto Marangoni's 90 years means honoring a legacy of excellence in education while looking to the future with vision and innovation. With the new campuses in Milan and Paris, the opening of the Riyadh school, and the launch of the Immersive Virtual School, we are reinforcing our commitment to shaping the next generation of creative talents, equipping them with the most advanced digital skills. Moreover, through our archival exhibition, we open a treasure trove of research and inspiration to the public, paying tribute to our heritage while embracing the challenges of tomorrow.' – Stefania Valenti, Managing Director With these initiatives, Istituto Marangoni strengthens its mission of excellence, continuing to inspire and educate the future generations of fashion, beauty, design, and luxury professionals on a global scale.
