Versace hotel to open in Dubai

Hotel to open doors summer 2014 A sprawling, palatial hotel and residence signed by luxury label Versace is set to open its doors next summer in the heart of Dubai. Specs for the Palazzo Versace Dubai are impressive. Hotel guests and residents will be offered a range of luxury amenities that include a lagoon, sandy beach, waterfront pedestrian promenade, male and female day spa and salon, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and, of course, a Versace boutique.
The property will house 169 condominiums and 214 opulently decorated hotel rooms swathed in rich fabrics and silk, hand-cut marble, bespoke mosaics and hand-drawn, gold-etched vaulted ceilings, all of which have been chosen to evoke European and Italian grandeur.
More than 100 specialists, including top stonemasons and mosaic artists from around the world have been recruited to work on the hotel, 90 percent of whom are artisans based out of the United Arab Emirates.
The building exterior, meanwhile, evokes Greco-Roman art with a Medusa porte-cochere, elegant pillars and a landscape of water fountains, reflection pools and lagoons.
The Dubai outpost will be the label's second luxury property in the world after the Palazzo Versace Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, which opened in 2000.
Meanwhile, Versace joins compatriot luxury brand Roberto Cavalli in Dubai, where the Italian designer collaborated with the Fairmont Hotel to open the Cavalli Club, a lounge and club bejeweled in sweeping crystal chandeliers and waterfalls.
Source: AFP