PARIS • Fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld announced on Monday he planned to launch his own branded hotel chain, with the first property set to open in Macau in 2018.

The 83-year-old German-born designer has already collaborated with the Hotel de Crillon in Paris and Hotel Metropole in Monte Carlo, but the new business will see him and his company design entire hotels.

Leading fashion houses from Dior to Diane von Furstenberg have developed a lucrative sideline in designing suites and other interiors for hotel owners.

Lagerfeld intends to follow the example of rivals such as Armani, Bulgari and Versace, which have gone one step further and opened properties in their names.

His first hotel is being built in Lisboa Palace, the new luxury resort complex of gambling kingpin Stanley Ho's SJM Holdings, but the Lagerfeld group is "in the process of studying other opportunities to open other properties around the world", it said in a statement.

The current artistic director of Chanel will also lend his talent and trademark to luxury residences, restaurants and private clubs, the group said, as part of a push into the interior design business.

The Lisboa Palace will include casinos, restaurants and various hotels, notably Palazzo Versace Macau.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE