When you think about it, it couldn’t be called anything else. Vermelho means red in Portuguese, so it’s natural that Christian Louboutin would reference his signature soles in his first hotel, which has just opened in the sleepy Alentejo village of Melides, close to the coast.
Unsurprisingly, flashes of red prevail throughout, from the in-your-face floor vermilion tiling in the flamboyant bar to the more subtle ‘V’ for Vermelho in the decorative cube on the door handles. Scarlet leather coat hangers can be found in the cupboards while the corridor has burgundy shutters and dusk-pink wall murals. And yes, the staff have red-soled shoes, though of the flat variety rather than stilettos.
Possibly the most beautifully stylish hotel I’ve seen, the 13-room property in a low whitewashed building with traditional tiled roof oozes glamour within. Heavy ash doors with geometric patterns open onto rooms where inlaid parquet wood floors meet walls whose lower levels are clad in Iberian tiles.
Those on the first floor are more individual, perhaps with a red bed beneath a wooden ceiling, or a decadent bath on the balcony. Ground-floor rooms are generally smaller but spill out into gardens created by French landscape designer Louis Benech; they only differ from each other in the design of the tiling on the floors and offsetting their Moorish-style baths.
The restaurant, whose exterior started out pink but was changed to blue when Louboutin had a change of heart, is filled with Maison Gatti rattan chairs. Sitting on one of these, I spotted Princess Eugenie’s husband, Jack Brooksbank, who works nearby, as I tucked into an unusual but divine version of gnocchi, made in layers with truffle and veg. There will be no shortage of celebrity clients, even if in general, the food isn’t yet up to the standard of the design.
Outside, Melides feels an unlikely choice for such a stylish property, even if it’s just a 10-minute drive from a dream of a beach. A small fish market, an 18th-century church with blue trim and a dinky pottery museum are the main attractions.
Among a handful of shops is Vida Dura, co-owned by Louboutin, where you can buy some of the products used in the hotel, from the ceramics to the chairs. But while I looked, there wasn’t a pair of red-soled stilettos in sight.
