After suffering from several nervous breakdowns, he retired in and lived out his final days in a sanatorium for mental illness in Lausanne, Switzerland. Today, the hotel continues to honour Ritz's legacy and remains an unabashedly extravagant, gilded ode to a bygone era, where liveried waiters pour Champagne amid lashings of gold leaf and Louis XVI furnishings.
As a new docuseries on The Ritz airs on ITV, here are 10 lesser-known facts about one of the world's most famous hotels. The informal term, ritzy, derives from the hotel, meaning fashionable, glamorous and expensive. The width of each corridor was designed to enable two ladies to walk comfortably in crinolines petticoats, side by side, while the lighting in the Rococo-style restaurant was chosen to be the right shade for a woman to look her most beautiful.
They brought in Shepard, the man who has been called "the custodian of The Ritz's soul," as managing director. Project architect Stelios Constantine headed the hotel's restoration team, and work was under way.
The hotel never closed, as that would have meant losing irreplaceable staff. The chef continued to cook dinners every night while the kitchen was rebuilt, and the restoration progressed floor by floor. When it came to the bedrooms, the designers worked with what was there in the first place.
Furniture was saved, and new cabinets are copies or adaptations of those they replaced. Original light fixtures, gilt-bronze hinges and marble fireplaces were restored. Ritz liked the beds to face the fireplace, so that is how they are arranged.
Richly patterned color carpets with central medallions were woven by computer to fit each irregularly shaped room. No two are the same. French passementerie and silks were chosen by French decorator Philippe Belloir in four color schemes—blue, rose pink, salmon pink, yellow. Glamour is welcomed back. The gentle pleasures of dinner dances in the restaurant and tea in The Palm Court are hot items. Regulars know to reserve a table weeks in advance.
Elton John gave himself a birthday party here. He likes gold—he likes it a lot. The hotel was recently awarded the Royal Warrant, not, as usual, for supplying goods and services to the palace but because the royals leave their palaces to come to The Ritz for their parties. New ritzy, traditional ritzy—either way, The Ritz offers its masterpiece of design, polished and burnished and ready for another generation to discover the magic of good, old-fashioned glamour.
Explore ad travel. This was a big step in, what was clearly, the right direction. The detail and articulation that has gone into building this structure is remarkable, right down to the fine chimneys and large copper lions standing high up on the roof. The Ritz has always attracted the famous and the fashionable.
We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements. To allow us to provide a better and more tailored experience please click "OK". Sign Up. Travel Guides. Videos Beyond Hollywood Hungerlust Pioneers of love. Places to Stay.
Courtesy of The Ritz London.
0コメント