Delvaux creates unique leather suite for Hotel Amigo, Brussels

DELVAUX CREATES UNIQUE LEATHER SUITE FOR HOTEL AMIGO

Brussels - Two established and highly respected Belgian names, the Hotel Amigo in Brussels and luxury leather company Delvaux, have collaborated to create a thrilling and sensuous new suite at the hotel. An existing space has been redesigned to show off the supreme skills of Delvaux’s leather makers, who have turned their hand to creating headboards, cushions, desk accessories and bags, all in the finest, hand stitched, rich scarlet leather. Every leather item in the room can be made to order, in a spectrum of colours, and purchased.

The Hotel Amigo, part of Rocco Forte Hotels, has had a long and fruitful association with Delvaux, founded in 1829 and the oldest luxury leather company in the world. It began three generations ago when the then General Manager of the Amigo and Delvaux’s owner first put a shop window (‘vitrine’) in the hotel and sold carefully chosen pieces of leather ware. Both companies have since modernised, but crucially without losing their sense of history, attention to detail and excellent customer service. Now the craftsmen have made their first ever pieces specifically for a hotel room, which will be named the Delvaux Suite.

Guests who take the Delvaux Suite will be handed their keys in a leather cardholder which they can keep and on which, if they wish, they can have their initials engraved. In addition they will receive a celebratory half-bottle of Laurent Perrier champagne, a box of Belgian Marcolini truffles and a children’s leather animal-making kit – a wonderful invention designed to show children and adults alike how high-quality leather can lace together (no pins to be found) to create an object. These kits are exclusive to the hotel and cannot be bought from a Delvaux store.

Guests will also find in the room an elegant leather shopping bag and silk scarf, both to use while they are in Brussels, and a book written to celebrate Delvaux’s history and heritage – almost a mini history of Belgium pre-First World War: all are available in the Delvaux boutique at the hotel. There are three other Delvaux shops in Brussels, the nearest just 50 metres from the hotel, and a further 16 (six of them franchises) in Belgium and worldwide.

Guests at Hotel Amigo can also take advantage of the services of Linda van Waeseberghe, the best independent personal shopper in town – you name it, she knows it – who will make weekday trips to the Delvaux factory, known as the Arsenal (a former repair depot for military vehicles; closed at weekends) as a starting point, and then reveal more of Brussels’ cultural, historical, culinary and shopping secrets, depending on the interests of the guest.

Delvaux craftsmen are renowned for the time and care they devote to creating pieces of leather ware: the headboard for the Delvaux Suite, for example was made by hand over several days. The company appointed international fashion designer Veronique Branqhuino in May 2009 as artistic director, to oversee not only the leather collection but also jewellery, carves and glasses being created as Delvaux extends its fields of activity.

The Delvaux Suite is available to book now at the concessional rate of Euros 1620 for one night.

www.roccofortehotels.com

For more information and/or images, please contact:

Anna Martin/Ilse van Steen
Rocco Forte Hotels
Tel: 020 7766 3137
Email: ivansteen@roccofortehotels.com

Notes to editoris:

Rocco Forte Hotels

*Rocco Forte Hotels was established in 1996 as a group of luxury hotels in Europe. The hotels have individual styles, each reflecting its nationality and location, but all share Rocco Forte Hotels’s trademark attention to detail, high quality and immaculate service.

* Rocco Forte Hotels comprises: Hotel de Russie, Rome; Hotel Savoy, Florence; The Balmoral, Edinburgh; The Lowry Hotel, Manchester; Hotel Astoria, St Petersburg; Hotel Amigo, Brussels; Brown’s Hotel, London; Villa Kennedy, Frankfurt; Hotel de Rome, Berlin; The Charles Hotel, Munich; The Augustine, Prague; Verdura Golf & Spa Resort, Sicily

* History of Hotel Amigo: the original building was constructed prior to 1522 when it was bought by the city council from a wealthy merchant family and turned into a prison. The Spanish rulers at the time misinterpreted the Flemish term for prison as meaning ‘friend’ and translated this into their own language as ‘amigo’. The irony of this misunderstanding seems to have pleased the people of Brussels and the name has been kept. The building was reconstructed as a hotel by the Blaton family in 1957 to coincide with the Universal Exhibition in 1958. Since the purchase of the hotel by Sir Rocco Forte in 2000, it has undergone a complete refurbishment under the stylish eye of Olga Polizzi, Rocco Forte Hotels’s Director of Design. The hotel has been restored to its former glory, with a fresh, modern interior which retains character and charm, making it the best luxury hotel in the city.  It is a step away from the famous Grand-Place and the Lace Museum, not to mention Brussels’ oldest citizen, Manneken Pis.