Armani Hotel Dubai

Be honest: if we told you there was an Armani Hotel, and that it wasn’t in Milan, your next guess would absolutely have to be Dubai, wouldn’t it? Not just anywhere in Dubai either, but in the towering Burj Khalifa, currently the world’s tallest building, the pride of the city. To say it’s the natural choice for a global fashion brand to set its monument to extravagant luxury would merely be pointing out the obvious. This is the one place where the world lets its consumerist id run wild.

So it’s also no surprise that, as a hotel, the Armani is pretty impressive. The project was overseen by Giorgio himself, who seems to have taken an exacting approach. Not only is every line in broadly the right place, but even the smallest of details in construction and finish are expertly crafted — this is couture quality, not mass-market.

For this you pay couture prices, of course, but it feels earned. The accommodations are expansive and impossibly well-appointed, decked out in Armani’s signature palette of dark greys and neutrals. The views may not be quite as extraordinary as they could be — most of the rooms are on the tower’s eight lower floors, which means you can still actually see the ground, while the Signature Suites and the Armani Suite occupy the rather more rarefied 38th and 39th floors.

And of course it’s quite a lot more than just a bunch of bedrooms. No fewer than nine restaurants and lounges serve townsfolk and travelers in equal measure, many of them drawing on Armani’s Milanese heritage for inspiration. The spa is top-flight, as are the meeting facilities if you’re unlucky enough to need them. And there’s an in-house Armani boutique as well, though the retail therapy need not end there — the Burj Khalifa is part of the massive Downtown Dubai development, which includes the enormous Dubai Mall, as well as an aquarium and an ice rink, included, presumably, just because they can.