Studio 54 was arguably the world’s coolest discotheque, and its success changed NYC nightlife forever. Later, the Morgans hotel in Manhattan opened, and it became the first so-called „boutique hotel.” Both were brought to life by Ian Schrager, the American entrepreneur that doesn’t like to follow rules.
Now, he’s focused on the lifestyle hotel sector. „It’s what excites me. It’s the reason I get up every morning,” he says in a video call from his Manhattan office.
„I want to create something unique.” For the past 14 years, Schrager did just that in partnership with Marriott when he developed the new high-end luxury lifestyle brand Edition. The hotels are inimitable one-offs, standout properties with a certain coolness to them that turned Edition into perhaps the trendiest brand in the Marriott portfolio .
But two years ago, Schrager announced his departure from Marriott to expand his own brand, Public, a less expensive lifestyle hotel focused on inclusivity and uniqueness at more accessible rates than Marriott’s Edition. The timing is no coincidence. “There was a time when New York was more open, more democratic,” Schrager says.
“Now, it’s become too elitist.” The press titled the ongoing proliferation of expensive private clubs a Members-Only Mania , and it is this exclusion of the public that rouses Schrager. “They don’t get it,” he says.
“There’s nothing more boring than being in a room with just one kind of person.” From Exclu.
