The world’s most famous luxury train brand – Orient-Express – has launched a new line of travel-inspired pieces in collaboration with 18 of the world’s leading design houses and high-end ateliers including Smythson, Bernardaud and Bang & Olufsen.
Items for sale include a branded candle that retails at just over USD100 to a child’s replica sleeping car that reportedly costs over USD100,000.
Orient-Express is best known for the train service – which has transported the rich & famous by rail from London to Paris, Istanbul and throughout Europe for over 130 years. The service, cuisine and accommodations are on par with the finest hotels in the world and has been the subject of films and books including the famous “Murder on the Orient Express” by the British author Agatha Christie.
In 2017, Accor bought a 50% stake in the Orient-Express brand from the French rail company SNCF and immediately announced that it would open a group of international luxury hotels bearing the name. It is expected that the first of these Orient-Express properties will open in Rome in 2023 – a massively refurbished Hotel de la Minerva – which is located in the city’s Pantheon district. Accor hopes to have ten Orient-Express hotels in place by 2030.
To keep followers of the brand excited, Accor has launched Steam Dream – a stunning collection of rail-related items - from luggage to sunglasses - that are the height of craftsmanship. Au Départ has created a luggage trunk with an in-built turntable by B&O, Cire Troudon – candles, Maison Bonnet a range of exclusive sunglasses, stationery by Smythson and books by Albin Michel and Assouline. The entire collection is aiming to evoke the four aspects of journeying – sleeping, travelling, dining, and lounging.
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The Accor properties have no connection with Orient-Express Hotels – rebranded as Belmond Hotels in 2014 and now owned by LVMH. Belmond also runs the Belmond Venice Simplon-Orient-Express Train service.
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