Designing Your Space
Luxury is changing. For many years, it was largely associated with ownership: exceptional objects, rare materials, recognisable names and things that were difficult to obtain. Today, an object alone is often no longer enough to surprise. Increasingly, luxury is about experience.
This was one of the ideas that particularly resonated with interior designer Yuliya Forrest while completing the INSIDE LVMH Certificate, specialising in Creation & Branding and Retail & Customer Experience.
LVMH, or Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is one of the world's leading luxury groups, bringing together some of the most recognised Maisons across fashion, jewellery, beauty, wines and spirits, hospitality and selective retail. Its portfolio includes globally recognised names such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Bulgari, Tiffany & Co. and Moët & Chandon. The INSIDE LVMH programme provides insight into the luxury industry, its evolving customers and the way leading luxury brands approach creation, branding, retail and customer experience
For Forrest, one of the most interesting ideas was that a luxury experience is rarely created by one element. It is the combination of everything a person sees, hears and feels: the service, atmosphere, attention to detail and the physical environment in which the experience takes place. This is where interior design becomes an essential part of the story.
Consider a Michelin-starred restaurant. Guests naturally expect exceptional food, excellent service and attention to detail, but the environment is also part of that expectation. Lighting, acoustics, the comfort of the furniture, the distance between tables, materials and even the first few seconds after entering the room all contribute to the overall impression.
A beautifully designed interior cannot replace exceptional food or service, but it can significantly amplify the experience. The same principle applies to hotels, private clubs and other luxury hospitality environments.
People do not necessarily analyse every element of an interior consciously, but they certainly feel it. The space becomes part of the memory of a visit and influences how the entire experience is perceived.
One of the most interesting shifts within the luxury industry is the growing importance of experiences. Consumers today are surrounded by products, imagery and constant visual stimulation. Even a beautifully designed object is still an object, and creating a genuine emotional response through a product alone is becoming increasingly difficult.
Experiences work differently. People remember how a place made them feel. They remember a hotel where they immediately relaxed, a restaurant with an atmosphere they wanted to return to, or a shop where simply exploring the space became part of the pleasure of buying.
Interior design has an extraordinary ability to shape these moments. For Forrest, the objective is not simply to create a photogenic interior, but to understand the desired emotion and build an environment around it.
A brand does not stop at its logo, website or packaging. The moment a customer enters a physical space, the interior becomes part of the brand experience.
A luxury retail interior should begin communicating before a member of staff even speaks. A hotel should start telling its story from the moment a guest arrives. A restaurant should create an atmosphere that complements its food, audience and the way the business wants to be remembered.
The strongest interiors do not simply rely on expensive materials. They create a coherent environment with a recognisable character and emotional identity.
This approach has long influenced Yuliya Forrest's work across hospitality and commercial interior design. Each project begins with understanding not only what a space needs to contain and how it needs to function, but how people should feel when they are inside it.
For retail and hospitality businesses, the physical environment is one of the most direct ways in which customers experience a brand.
In luxury retail, the interior can influence the pace of a visit, the way products are discovered and the sense of exclusivity or personal attention associated with the brand. In hospitality interior design, the environment can affect how guests perceive the quality, identity and character of a venue.
This does not mean filling an interior with logos or repeating brand colours throughout a space. Often, the strongest brand environments are far more subtle. Materials, lighting, spatial planning and carefully considered details can communicate a clear identity without saying a word.
The result should feel natural rather than manufactured. The interior becomes part of the experience rather than simply a backdrop to it.
Not every city or region is saturated with exceptional interior design. This creates a significant opportunity for independent hotels, restaurants and hospitality businesses to distinguish themselves through the quality of their physical environment.
A strong interior can change the perception of a business. It can make a new restaurant feel established, give an independent hotel a recognisable identity and transform an ordinary visit into an experience that guests photograph, remember and recommend.
In increasingly competitive hospitality markets, beautiful interior design is no longer simply decoration. It can become part of the customer experience, the brand identity and the wider commercial strategy of a business.
Forrest sees this as one of the most exciting opportunities in contemporary hospitality design: creating spaces that offer businesses a genuine point of difference and give guests a reason to remember them.
After almost two decades working in interior design, Yuliya Forrest remains particularly interested in the relationship between people and spaces. Her work spans hospitality, commercial and high-end residential interiors in Scotland, across the UK and internationally.
Although every project has different practical requirements, the starting question is often the same: how should a person feel in this space?
The answer might be relaxed, intrigued, energised, protected or inspired. The designer's role is to translate that emotion into a physical environment through spatial planning, proportion, lighting, colour, materials and detail.
Completing the INSIDE LVMH Certificate reinforced an idea that Forrest considers increasingly important for the future of interior design. Luxury is no longer defined solely by what people own. It is also defined by what they experience, and the spaces around them play a fundamental role in creating that experience.