Why not fly Versace, and then cook in Armani

DONATELLA Versace, commander in chief of slit-down-to-there gowns, has a new runway to conquer -- and it’s not the one festooned with flashbulbs, 6-inch heels or absurdly scrawny 15-year-old models. Rather, it is at the airport, where the Milan-based fashion designer plans to sex up the interiors of your private jet.

Giorgio Armani, who taught the world that beige is beautiful -- and later put his minimalist magic touch on chic couches and coffee tables -- soon will be encouraging you to make spaghetti with him, using the Armani/Casa kitchen (pasta not included).

Bottega Veneta, which produces coveted, bank-breaking handbags for the discreetly rich, now has a niche line of furniture that brings the company’s exotic skins and artisan techniques to your dining room console.

Never has the phrase “home fashions” seemed so appropriate. Fashion designers, forever on a makeover quest, cannot help but be drawn to the world of interiors. The entry of Bottega Veneta to the home furnishings market, plus additional product lines and hotel interiors by the likes of Etro, Missoni, Armani and Versace reveal just how savvy these brands are at expanding their empires beyond the confines of clothing.

“We are a fashion group, but Versace is not just about fashion,” says Versace Chief Executive Giancarlo Di Risio. “It’s about luxury in every aspect of life.”

Versace’s plane interiors are appointed in Home Couture, a newly launched line within the company’s home collection. Home Couture is tamer than Versace’s usual gold gilt fare, but the jet interiors’ abundance of leather and fur is decidedly over the top and conveys the rap-star fabulousness that dominates Versace’s runways.

“I love to travel by plane, especially by private plane!” says Donatella Versace, who used a Greek key fret motif, a recognizable symbol for the fashion brand, as a graphic treatment on leather.

The company also is designing a new Versace Palazzo hotel, to open in 2008 in Dubai, where Armani and Missoni also have licensing agreements to open hotels with hospitality partners.

“Fashion designers have become more authoritative in our culture than ever before,” observes luxury product consultant Robert Burke. “They realize that their take and approach is not just limited to fashion. It extends to how they sleep, how they eat, how they dine. It’s much more far reaching.”

This foray into the home is nothing new. Ralph Lauren and Missoni have stamped their expensive labels on high-style bed and bath linens for more than 20 years. But these days a growing number of designers are expanding their presence, quickly gaining ground because they offer something that many longtime furniture companies do not: a famous name and a recognizable aesthetic sensibility to match.

Creating a stylish, consistent “mood” for the home gives them an edge over fragmented furniture specialists who focus on single products by a variety of designers.

“Fashion designers are better at ambience,” concedes Diva owner Philippe Rousselin, who has sold high-end furniture in Los Angeles for 20 years, offering tabletop items and decorative accessories from Missoni and Kenzo next to his B&B; Italia couches and Baccarat chandeliers. “Everyone wants to see a brand name to secure what they spend, especially at the high end of the market.”

SEW a dress, make a couch, and quickly you may find yourself designing an entire hotel. Lodging operators, realizing the marketing power of a well-known fashion name, are pursuing clothing designers, especially those who already have lines of home furnishings.

“It gives people a sense that it’s going to be of good quality and taste,” consultant Burke says.

Armani’s hotel is under construction in the stratospheric Burj Dubai building, whose exact number of floors is secret but rumored to approach 200. It will feature subtle hues and a rigorous, sophisticated environment. In addition to offering who-knew-you-needed-it features such as temperature-controlled sand on the beach, Versace’s Dubai outpost will be as Baroque as the late Gianni Versace’s private residences. At the Missoni hotel, one of a string of global openings, the decor blends the brand’s colorful prints with the streamlined architecture of Matteo Thun.

“The choice of designer is the choice of a lifestyle,” says Missoni co-founder Rosita Missoni. “At the hotels, I hope we will give the lifestyle that people recognize we have: I want people to feel spoiled, greeted and warm.”

Fashion and textile company Etro is working on a new line of furniture that will bow next year at the world’s most prestigious furniture fair, Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan.

“So many hotels have asked us to design suites and even the whole hotel,” says Jacopo Etro, who is trying to grow the $20-million home division, a small slice of Etro’s $293 million in annual sales. “The only thing we were missing was the furniture.”

Even new players such as Bottega Veneta are getting into the hotel game. This fall a 1,700-square-foot Bottega Veneta Suite will open on the seventh floor of the St. Regis Hotel in New York, which blends the St. Regis’ Louis XVI-style furniture with pieces from Bottega’s new home line, such as leather-covered bookcases and leather-woven tables. The whole environment is given a healthy shot of muted, urban cool under the watchful eye of creative director Tomas Maier.

So what is in it for consumers? Another dose of democratic luxury. You may not be able to buy a Bottega bag or an Armani black label suit, but you just may be able to slide into one of their hotel bars, or even stay the night.

WITH or without high heels, the leap from the closet to the living room is a difficult one for designers to negotiate.

“Sometimes they don’t realize that it’s not easy,” says Diva’s Rousselin, citing the greater skills and increased time required to sell on a furniture sales floor. “And we don’t really have seasons in furniture, like you do in fashion. People want to buy a piece that will last for three years or more.” Designers who embrace a new shoe style every six months without a complaint from the consumer now need to assume that a couch may be forever.

Another big challenge is moving from textiles and tabletop goods to large furniture, which requires greater manufacturing skill and quality control. The jury is still out on whether fashion designers are capable of dabbling in such a specialized field.

Armani jumped immediately into furniture in 2000, while Ralph Lauren segued later in his home career. Some, such as Etro, which has focused on textiles and tabletop for 12 years, are just starting.

“I’m not really excited about it,” admits Etro. “Finding the right producer to make the quality good enough and with a price range that’s competitive is really tough.” Sometimes, the Italian says, designers are forced to source or manufacture pieces in Asia -- a taboo in the high-end clothing sector.

Missoni is leaving the furniture to the experts.

“We don’t really ‘design,’ ” explains Missoni, referring to large furniture. “I have too much respect for designers.”

Though occasionally teaming up with experts such as Kartell or Verner Panton to create one-off products, her company primarily focuses on what Missoni calls “pieces of charm or small objects that give a personal touch to a corner of the room.”

“Most of us, we don’t need another couch,” adds Bottega Veneta’s Maier. “But we’re always looking for unique pieces that will change the look of a room.”

Fittingly, the company’s limited collection of home furnishings, launched at this year’s Milan furniture fair and produced using the same carpenters who make the company’s hard case luggage, are meant to complement a customer’s existing furniture while infusing a sense of the brand’s luxury.

“I don’t subscribe to the ‘head-to-toe’ philosophy of designing -- neither on the body, nor for the home,” Maier says.

It’s an approach that wins praise from Rousselin, who saw Versace’s glass collection for Venini fly off his store’s shelves a few years back.

By merely downloading their aesthetic DNA, fashion designers can naturally create home products infused with personality and poised to define one’s personal image. At Bottega Veneta, you can get your bookcase lined in luxurious python or ostrich, just like your handbag. At Missoni, patterned pillows, circular floral motif carpets and colorful fringe curtains are all signature elements that match seamlessly with the fashion collections.

“I fish for fabrics in the fashion collection because I have them there,” Missoni says.

Etro wants to “see Etro in the furniture” he is designing, and he is working on pieces that combine many kinds of wood. “The idea of mixing, it’s funky and fun,” he explains. “That’s the same idea we have with our fashion.”

Similarly, Giorgio Armani’s new sukupira wood kitchen is devoid of bulky cabinet knobs and unsightly fixtures, much like his man’s jacket was stripped of its stiff lining when he launched his fashion career 30 years ago.

“In the end, all kitchens are the same,” Armani said when he unveiled his design at the Milan show last month. “They’re all black holes. The solution has been to try to find a ‘dress’ for the kitchen.” With its woven bronze cabinets and fabric-covered drawers, this dress is the epitome in restraint. The man who gave women the putty pantsuits wouldn’t have it any other way.

J.J. Martin is a contributing editor for Harper’s Bazaar. She can be reached at home@latimes.com.