2025 will be the year of boutique hotels
And the fashion industry will be taking a big piece of the gains.
Welcome back to The Stanza. This is the penultimate Friday Weekly Digest I’ll be sending this year.
A bit of personal news: I’ve joined Casa Cipriani, and I’m sharing this because several of you have reached out over the past year asking for advice on which clubs to join. Up until now, I’ve said that the only club I’d join is 5 Hertford Street in London if I still lived there, because I know and like exactly what I’m getting, and I enjoy running into familiar faces there every time. Even though Casa Cip has been open for a couple years in Milan now, I only recently started thinking about it after I had my wedding reception there in October. My reasons for joining:
Excellent food & service
My view is that if a members club doesn’t serve good food and doesn’t have great service, then there isn’t a point in joining as almost every visit will include dining at the club. In my years dining at various Cipriani restaurants, I’ve never had a bad experience, which is not something I can say for most hospitality brands. For my wedding reception, I was actually impressed with how generous the club staff were in accommodating us and our guests. They let us stay in the private dining room an hour after our end time, and allowed our little (well behaved) dachshund puppy with us the whole evening, even though technically that isn’t allowed. But above that, the wait staff were gracious and made the whole experience great. That type of hospitality is so rare these days! And of course, the food at Cipriani is consistently good and the variety in their menu makes it easy to dine there throughout the year.
Global institutional brand
I’ve talked about the proliferation of new club brands and while I encourage new concepts, I appreciate that Cipriani has been in hospitality for decades and therefore is always a reliable option, which is what a good club should be. Another big factor is that the other location is in NYC, which is where I’ll be spending more time next year and beyond.
Quality of crowd
Every time I’ve been to Casa Cipriani (in Milan or NYC), it’s a mix of what I would find at an institutional club in London: colorful characters (lol), people I know, and friends of friends. Most clubs cater to a specific group of people, even if they say they don’t, and this dissonance is something that has deterred me from joining other clubs. Considering friends who are members at Casa Cipriani, there’s a nice diversity in age and industry, which I appreciate.
Anyways, curious if anyone else reading this is a member or considering joining. Reply to this email if you are!
In today’s newsletter: a busy deal sheet - Spindrift, LVMH & hospitality real estate, Soho House’ take private deal, Vera Wang & licensing firms, Atlas Card, celebrity VC funds, hospitality SaaS is on fire, new openings in Milan & London, Life House hospitality, Kin Euphorics
VISUALLY INTERESTING
The millennial in me was actually excited to see Gwyneth Paltrow in this Saint Laurent campaign. She looks like she just smoked a cigarette outside some Paris wine bar. I’ve also recently become a big Anthony Vaccarello fan.
INVESTING IN DISTRESSED FASHION BRANDS
Yesterday I published a deep dive reflecting on my experience underwriting distressed fashion brands, and it’s been the post that drove the most paid subscriptions this quarter. Thank you to all the new subscribers here and for the thoughtful messages (especially from those in fashion!).
ICYMI: I wrote about my diligence process, why fashion is uniquely challenging as a start up, key lessons learned from digging into several brands, and approach to structuring these deals.
Read more here, and as always, questions and comments are welcome.
THE STANZA’S DEAL SHEET
Another busy end-of-year deal sheet! Enjoy.