Fashion Raises the (Mini) Bar

minibar 1I love to travel. I guess that’s a big, duh, because pretty much everybody loves to travel.

I particularly love the hotel part. Yeah, screw the sharing economy and airbnbullshit: I want room service and my room cleaned. I want a luxurious lobby and large robe. I want cable and candy on my pillow.

And I want the option to pay too much for a Toblerone, Tostitos and tiny bottle of Tequila from the mini-bar.

I love the mini-bar. Over half the time I don’t touch it. But I need to know I can. I need to know that in case of emergency, it is there. It calms me.

So imagine my excitement over this newest addition to the hotel experience: the Fashion Mini bar.

For someone (that would be me) that fashions travel itineraries on visiting malls instead of monuments and boutiques instead of beaches, this is #$%^&* awesome.

The first such mini-bar opened recently in the Banks Boutique Hotel in Antwerp, the fashion capital in Belgium; more Fashion Mini-Bars are soon to open in Paris, Milan and Barcelona. French apparel company Pimkie developed this brilliant concept, offering a selection of pieces based on the weather, location and events that impact your stay and what you may need in the way of clothing and accessories. If they don’t have your size, the hotel concierge will get it for you. And like the classic mini-bar, you pay for your items when you check out.

If you are a fellow fashion freak, plotting your trip around fashion treasures like Dover Street Market, Liberty and Harrod’s in London, Colette in Paris, or KaDeWe and Mulackstrasse Street in Berlin (hidden in Mitte, fantastic block for independent and edgy retailing), is a great way to see how real people live and see parts of cities off the tourist maps. Not only that, the people who run and work in these places know their cities like no other, and can offer great insights on what to do, see and eat during your trip. Staying at a boutique hotel with a fashion mini-bar is icing on the cake.

I suppose it’s one thing to rip open the Pop Chips and Peanut M&Ms after that second bottle of Bacardi; entirely another to walk out with boots and a bag.

Nevertheless, I think I’ll take the cashews, and the shoes!

Safe travels.

xo

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