It’s always amusing when fashion houses dabble in things other than making clothes - and it seems to happen rather often. It does, of course, work both ways. Some of us still haven’t scrubbed that stain that was Zaha Hadid’s Melissa shoe from our mind’s eye. And the less said about Karl’s Coke, quite frankly, the better (the less said, the less thought... Perhaps it will cease to exist if we just blot it out our thoughts entirely... Just pretend it doesn’t exist...)

Now it’s Maison Martin Margiela’s turn as they get on an interior tip and ‘revive’ (deface?) the 19th century Maison Champs-Elysees just in time to kick off couture week. Although no strangers to dabbling in interiors, a hotel is a first in MMM's ever-increasing portfolio of obscurities.

We'd have expected big things from la Maison; witty and oh-so subversive touches here and there, but as far as the hotel world is concerned, alas, the look is more Holiday Inn vs IKEA showroom (i.e. bleak; and no, not bleak in any MMM minimalist sense). The shiny hall screams asylum corridor, the rooms themselves, well, can someone say Tr*v*l*dg*...? Given their similarity to the old rooms, what else can we say but, hey, MMM, a new mattress and a lick of your signature white paint doth not a revamp make.

Epically LOLZ. And anticlimactic. At €203 a night, La Mainson Champs Elysees ain't bad, but unless the staff come fully Margiela lab-coated, the bathrobes artfully deconstructed or the complimentary slippers with Tabi toes, we'll be checking in elsewhere...

lamaisonchampselysees.com

Posted on July 04, 2011 at 3:27:18 by Shola Von Reynolds