FLYING IN STYLE: Delta is getting a little more colorful, as the airline has embarked on a partnership with Missoni.
As part of the collaboration, the Italian fashion house will customize the Delta One experience by providing branded amenity kits and take over the new Delta One Lounge at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, set to open on Wednesday. Missoni will customize the Fireplays Lounge and the Scented Arbor terrace with cushions, books and vases.
Alberto Caliri, creative director of the Missoni Home line, said that “customizing the JFK lounge signifies an important new frontier for our lifestyle approach.”
“We’ve been intentional about creating a Delta One experience — both on the ground and in the air — that feels truly premium and elevated, and Missoni’s elegance and prestige aligns perfectly with that vision,” said Mauricio Parise, Delta’s vice president of brand experience design. “The Missoni-designed amenity kits, along with unique design elements that will be featured in our Delta One Lounge at JFK, offer a distinct, high-end enhancement to our most premium spaces.”
The amenity kits will feature Missoni’s signature zigzag pattern both on the exterior of the textured zippered pouch and inside. The kits will be available in Delta One starting from mid-July on all Delta flights to and from Italy and Paris, before launching worldwide in September.
The partnership marks another evolutionary step of Missoni’s lifestyle strategy, which already saw the brand taking over a series of resort destinations with its fabrics and decor, for example. To be sure, earlier this week the company unveiled its new Missoni Resort Club outpost developed in partnership with the Rocco Forte Hotels’ Verdura Resort in Sciacca, on the southern coast of Sicily. This followed last year’s collaboration with Nikki Beach Costa Smeralda, located in the Cala Petra Ruja bay in the Sardinian luxury destination of Porto Cervo, and previous customizations of the Le Carillon beach club in Paraggi — a gem bay near Portofino — and the One&Only Reethi Rah resort in the Maldives.
In a recent and exclusive interview with WWD, the brand’s chief executive officer Livio Proli said the home category has always been important for the brand, and last year it accounted for 30 percent of total sales, which amounted to 126 million euros.
Missoni has also recently inked several contract agreements, including for example the Missoni Baia residences in Miami with developer OKO Group, a tower of 350 apartments which is in a handover phase. With luxury real estate developer Dar Global, Missoni has provided interiors for the Urban Oasis, in Dubai, a tower of 500 apartments, and for the Marea residential project in the south of Spain, 80 apartments within the golf club of Finca Cortesin, near Marbella, which is being built now. These add to residential projects in Ras al Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, with Durar; in São Paulo with Brazilian developer Gafisa as well as three other projects that are in the pipeline and will be revealed by the end of the year, Proli said.