By Terry Trucco
Hotel shops sell a lot more than Band-Aids, bathrobes and bottled water. Many stock amusing, even unusual items you’d be happy to give – or receive.
And here’s the best part. Many offer online as well as in-hotel shopping. So browse what caught our eye. There’s still time! (more…)
By Terry Trucco
Leggy desk.
It takes a certain bravura for a hotel to name its rooms Spectacular, Fantastic and WOW.
W hotels have done this for over a decade, of course. Still, one person’s WOW is another’s meh. And what happens when age sets in, as it inevitably does? Nothing looks as forlorn as a trend-conscious hotel pushing ten without a facelift or, at the very least, fresh clothes and make-up.
A year ago W Union Square perched on this slippery slope. Its restaurant looked worn (we spotted a large rip in a leather banquette). Its guest rooms sported the dark woods and muted trappings that personified SoHo chic, ca 2000. But that was 2011.
To celebrate its 12th birthday this year W Union Square renovated big time – rooms, restaurant, banquet hall, nightspot, the works (the Living Room, aka lobby seating area, still stuck in the millenium, is up next). (more…)
By Terry
We’ve been noticing an abnormally high percentage of rangy, good-looking people around town. That means one thing – Fashion Week is back. More than 200 designers unveil their creations during the Spring/Summer 2012 shows at the tents in Lincoln Center and a host of private venues through September 15.
What are New York’s fashion-forward hotels doing besides gleefully celebrating their full – or nearly full — houses? Hint: think “emerging designers ” – and fashion by association, that hint of glamour that rubs off on anyone around it.
By Terry
A Taipei-inspired dress.
For New York’s most style-obsessed hotels, Fashion Week is a gift. What better way to fill rooms during the dead of winter? W Hotels, a super-savvy marketer, goes a step further and embraces Fashion Week as an opportunity to fill rooms and strut its stuff.
Not only is W a sponsor of Fall 2011 Fashion Week, currently sashaying through its new(ish) Lincoln Center home through February 17, on Thursday night W unveiled its own collection, Global Glam Fall 2011, nine new looks designed to capture the ethos of three new W properties in Austin, Mexico City and Tapei.
Has W acquired a house designer, a Marc or Stella or Project Runway winner, to dream up clothes that complement its carefully honed cool? (more…)
