Hotel Unique, like a ship in dry dock, perhaps?
Brazilian Fashion Week USA 2012 hit Boston the third week of August this year – it was organised by Conrad Lamour, who also organises Boston En Vogue and Providence Fashion Week. If you really want to see Brazilian fashion being worn in the right way, however, head for Brazil itself.
Hotel Unique may be one place to see ‘the couture crowd’, especially at times around, say, the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos – this year, November 23-25, 2012. The gal, fortunately, was there at a quiet time.
But she is quite sure that the outstanding concierge, Diago Delfin, would have been just as attentive even if he had a hotel full of fashionistas and circuit-maestros at the same time.
Skye is the highly-popular entertainment area on its rooftop
Hotel Unique is a darned good name for this thing, which is like a giant ship propped up in dry dock, or a whale that is on splints as it struggles for breath. Whatever pharmaceutical heir Jonas Siaulys had in mind when he commissioned the shape from architect Ruy Ohtake is rather unclear. Perhaps Noah’s Ark?
Anyway, Ohtake has made him what most hotel owners would cry in horror at, a hotel with impossibly shaped bedrooms, and not as many of them as you might think.
But Ohtake has produced a cash cow in that the Skye, the indoor-out event space on the top (eighth) floor is so phenomenally successful this is really a community gathering place that happens to have rooms.
The indoor pool, which has a two-floor-high grey water chute, is half yellow-green, half blue
I have been there and seen the long lines outside, down on the ground, of people waiting to be allowed to get into the dedicated elevator to take them up there, to Skye. Once there, they find a dining area that is a bit reminiscent of Sydney Opera House.
This space flows to a light and casual sit-up and sit-down and lounge-around bar, inside but you can move outside, to loungers around a five-foot deep, 75-foot red-lined swimming pool.
Around this outdoor area glass walls stop those inebriated on Coors, or perhaps Hendrick’s with cucumber, from falling over. As one tripadvisor fan writes: ‘I’ve been up to Skye in a busy day (during fashion week) but service was fast.
One of the best sushis I’ve ever had; oysters were very fresh. Nice view of Ibirapuera Park’. Charles Campion, an English writer, says this is one of the ten best bar experiences in the world.
All Unique bedrooms have circular windows…
For those who do not want to swim in full view of the Skye loungers, there is an indoor pool, too. This one is about 70 feet in length, with one yellow-green side, one blue side, and a storey-high grey waterchute comes down in between.
There is also a sizeable Technogym tucked into this hide-and-seek and you might-find-it workout complex. It is fashionable to be seen being beautiful at Unique, not working to achieve that.
Look at the hotel’s own magazine, which currently has a cover with stuck on diamante providing a veil for the cover model.
.. and in 409, a feeling of space was achieved by pushing up the folding glass wall between bathroom, on left, and bedroom
Talking of fashion, it is best not to arrive at Hotel Unique, if you are staying over, with more than three hanging garments. And beside having minimal hanging closet space in some rooms, you might find only one tiny drawer, and that already taken with local tourist material.
In addition bring your own magnifying mirror. That having been said, if you wear only one t-shirt and one pair of shorts and your eyesight is amazing, this, lucky girl, is THE hotel for you. Room 409 is really near the two sexy, dark as night elevators.
A whole-wall screen slides over the four-foot diameter windows, all round, everywhere. You can pull up the glass divider between the very comfortable bed (Trussardi linens) and the bathroom.
Your tub has a sexy clear plastic neck pillow with green feathers floating in it. They match the green tops of the Bulgari toiletries, very fashionable.
Do not miss the chance of another São Paulo room service breakfast – best in the world
And one of the best things of the whole experience is room service breakfast. Do not miss it. Continental, at R$56, results in a table with finest linens, a whole glass of juice and a thermal pot of coffee (both excellent), and yoghurt and cereal and a plate of fresh fruit, and a plate of cold cuts, and fabulous breads and Danish and things.
Forget what I said about over-indulging. Be unique, for once, and eat the lot.
