Owner and operator: Rocco Forte Hotels
Architectural renovation and interior design: Philip Vergeylen and Paolo Moschino
Creative director: Olga Polizzi, Vice President and Design Director, Rocco Forte Hotels
Furnishings: custom made on design by the architects, selected vintage and antique pieces
Lighting: Astro Lighting, Paolo Moschino
Photos: courtesy of Rocco Forte Hotels
The refined and sophisticated soul of the new Milano The Carlton, the tenth Italian address for the Rocco Forte Hotels Group, opened a few months ago in the heart of the Fashion District, looks far ahead. It looks to 20th-century Milan, a cradle of avant-garde culture and glamorous, cosmopolitan stories, and enhances it with personalized touches balancing between Art Deco and contemporary styles.
“The original building had no particular architectural elements to preserve: with the exception of the main facade on Via Senato, everything else was demolished and rethought,” say Philip Vergeylen and Paolo Moschino, who oversaw the renovation under the creative direction of Olga Polizzi, Vice President and Design Director of Rocco Forte Hotels.
In addition to its frontage on Via Senato, the hotel also has an entrance on Via della Spiga, which the designers have filled with light, as brightness is the leitmotif that runs throughout, from the domed courtyard conceived as a winter garden to the 71 custom-made rooms and suites, furnished with vintage and antique pieces, offering panoramic views of the Duomo and the city’s rooftops. The five Forte Suites are a celebration of luxury, featuring precious fabrics, neoclassical details, and bold splashes of color, with studded leather headboards (a tribute to Milanese leather goods) that interpret, while modernizing, the creative language of designer Paolo Buffa.
In the other suites, Milanese tailoring in shades of black, green, and bronze offers custom hand-painted wallpapers and bespoke furnishings inspired by Gio Ponti’s aesthetic. Numerous artworks are present, from the collection of Pierantonio Verga, a student of Lucio Fontana, in The Carlton Bar overlooking Via Senato, to those in Caffè Floretta, which combines botanical décor and architecture under the light filtering through the dome.
In the Spiga restaurant, the domain of chef Fulvio Pierangelini, the discreet and timeless interior (and the color palette featuring shades of green and pink) reflects the philosophy of his ‘legible’ dishes, free from excess. Among the many elements that define the hotel is also the ground floor’s flooring design: “It repeats everywhere, initially in stone, then in wood in the bar, and finally in the fine dining restaurant’s carpet,” the designers specify. Light, color, furniture, bespoke details, and *genius loci*: the concept of luxury by Rocco Forte Hotels, which will soon be joined by the green oasis of the garden, opening this spring.
