Hospitality Design - January/February 2011 - 53

pro le: andrew morgan

products
By Jana Schiowitz

haute hospitality
After 18 years of creating various apparel lines for high-end names like Saks Fifth Avenue, Burberry, and Bergdorf Goodman, Andrew Morgan decided to switch gears and try his hand at luxury textile design. “Fashion was unidimensional and was always about the persona. Hospitality and product design deals with an experiential quality; it is much more transcendent,” says Morgan, founder of his namesake company based in Mount Vernon, New York. “I really feel I get to share our gifts in a more meaningful way than fashion.” His schooling is as varied as his career. He started majoring in music theory/composition and voice, but shortly after changed majors and schools receiving a degree in art and psychology from Bard College in New York. It was a semester abroad in Italy, however, that gave him “fashion fever,” and prompted him to take graduate fashion courses at Parsons the New School for Design, and eventually start his career at Elie Tahari. “My ﬁrst rude awakening to the fashion industry in New York,” he says. In 2000, wanting to do something that “could address more than the gestalt of a person,” Morgan started his luxury collection of eco-friendly hotel pillows, throws, blankets, bed scarves, bed wraps, and accessories, which are all made from yarn both developed by Morgan and sourced globally. A perfect ﬁt since he grew up in the Miami Beach hotel industry with his uncle who owned the Fontainebleau. Morgan ﬁnds inspiration for his collections everywhere: meditating in Germany, walking through rice ﬁelds in Bali, smelling cardamom in Cairo, being with his wife Jane and son Jesse, and of course spending time with his mistress, fashion. Morgan attends fashion shows, browses the windows of major fashion houses, and still admires fashion icons like John Varvatos, Paul Smith, and Jean Paul Gaultier. “I am a design junkie,” he says. Ten years later, Morgan’s pieces can be found in such hotels and spas as Encore Las Vegas and Spa Merge at West 57th Street by Hilton Club in New York, and stores like Fred Segal and Barneys. “Since I am a clothing designer, this brings an entirely different hand and feel to the industry,” he says. “I was born with a blanket. I never gave it up.” www.morgancollection.com

Clockwise from top left: A pillow stack with the Silky Boa Boudoir in Suede, Winterfruit, and Brown, and Birdfeather Boudoir in Pewter; a bed setting with the Silky Boa Grande bolster in Dried Plum, Dormir Tapestry blanket in Platinum, Wisp, and Casis, and the Prairie throw in Casis; black accents like the Silky Boa throw and Chinioserie Bed Tube contrast white sheeting; one of Morgan’s looks from his days as a fashion designer; an inspiration board for the Dormir collection; and another look designed by Morgan.

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January/February 2011

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - January/February 2011