Versace to create interiors for luxury London property development

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Aug 22, 2017

Europe’s first residential skyscraper that's partially "Versace-branded" will be built in London with the signing of a major million deal to site a £590 million 50-storey tower in Nine Elms.

In one of London’s more affluent areas, Aykon London One, designed by architect Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, will have branded interiors by the Italian luxury label.

It will include 450 one, two and three-bedroom apartments, as well as studios (starting price £747,000), and will have communal gardens covering almost 10,000 sq ft that will offer some of the best views of the city.

There will also be four floors of office space, a children’s play area, jacuzzi, gym, indoor swimming pool, a residents’ lounge and a sky bridge between the south building and north tower.

But for those following the fashion sector, it’s the interiors that are the big news. With a commitment to “premium finishes” and Versace on board, the  building reflects a trend for high-end fashion brands to increasingly lend their names and style expertise to prestige building projects from hotels to private residences.

The new building should be completed by 2020 with almost half of the properties inside already sold, according to reports. No other details are available on just what the interior design scheme will be, apart from the fact that it will be Versace branded.

Versace was actually the first major fashion label to add its brand name to a hotel when Palazzo Versace debuted in Australia at the turn of this century. It has since been followed by a raft of other brands getting into the sector including Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld and Bulgari.

But property developers have increasingly been keen to link up with powerful brand names on interior design for luxury apartment blocks too as they seek to differentiate themselves from the many other developers building such blocks in the world’s leading cities.

The formerly-run-down Nine Elms area has garnered a lot of attention in recent years with a large number of prestige developments. The new project is close to heritage building Battersea power Station that is being redeveloped, as well as the new US embassy that is currently being built there.