Curating vibes at iconic places: Chateau Marmont, The Kulm St. Moritz, LouLou Paris, Chiltern Firehouse, & more

Welcome to The Stanza’s In The Room interview series, designed to make you feel like you’ve just had a very satisfying and insightful coffee chat with an industry leader. Paid subscribers get access to these exclusive interviews and can request questions for future guests. Look out for the next guest & submit your questions this Friday. Upgrade your subscription here.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast, this is the first podcast episode I've published in several months and I'm so excited that the people tuning in are the most loyal subscribers of The Stanza. Thank you so much for reading the newsletter and for all your comments and DM's - it's such a pleasure creating content for you all.

I'm really excited to share today's guest, who is the ultimate fashion and hospitality crossover. Arman Nafeei spent over a decade as music director for Andre Balazs’ hotels and through his creative agency Studio Neu, is sought after by hospitality entrepreneurs and retail real estate owners to drive physical engagement. In short, he's created a unique career as a vibe curator that has material impact on the businesses he's worked on. His current roster of iconic properties include Le Sirenuse, LouLou Paris, Kulm Hotel St. Moritz, and the Bicester Collection.

Arman also has a podcast called Are We On Air?, which Vogue named as "the coolest music podcast in the world" (favorite episodes are with the founders of The Attico, Jonathan Anderson of Loewe, Nobu Matsuhisa, and Rick Owens), and recently opened a pop up on Sunset Boulevard called the Kiosk-o-theque, an experimental newsstand.

In this episode we focused on applicable insights from his time at the iconic Balazs Properties - namely Sunset Beach, Chateau Marmont, and Chiltern Firehouse - as well as his experience curating spaces for high profile fashion retail clients such as Prada, Moncler, and others.

Interview highlights:

• How Arman began his career as a music curator for Balazs Properties

• Sunset Beach as the hotel that launched his career

• Creating a new space at Chiltern Firehouse from a historical building with patina

• The story behind his media brand, Are We On Air?

• "Secret sauce" for hospitality spaces to keep people coming back

• Advice for fashion brands operating physical retail stores

• Vibe curation as an experiential way to drive revenue

• Why retail operators should think of themselves as hospitality brands

• Arman's honest thoughts about members clubs

• Advice for hospitality operators for unique placemaking

• Observations on why Balazs’ hotels were so successful
  

Get in touch with Arman through his creative agency, Studio Neu

Connect with Arman on IG here

Listen to Are We On Air? here and follow on IG

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