There was a time when travelling abroad was an adventurous undertaking; a time when the journey to your destination could take days or even weeks. And at the end of your journey there was usually a hotel waiting for you. These were grand hotels that would apply a hotel label to guests’ luggage – a ritual seen at most of the well-known hotels of the day. This was a sign of distinction, a source of pride, a way of saying “Yes, I was there.” Perhaps this is the sentiment underlying the advertising slogan used in the 1920s by Louis Vuitton which proclaimed: “Show me your luggage and I’ll tell you who you are.” And so it was. One needed only to glance at the labels on a suitcase to know that its owner liked to spend their summers in Capri and spend their winter holidays skiing in Chamonix. The first few decades of the 20th century were, without a doubt, the golden age of travel.

Unfortunately, this custom is no longer practiced in these hotels. But their now vintage labels are enjoying a resurgence among travelling and design enthusiasts alike: each label is a small work of art unto itself, encompassing the graphic trends of the period in which they were designed. A good example of the fascination they inspire is World Tour, a book which presents nearly 1000 hotel labels from the 1920s up to the 1950s from the personal collection of Gaston-Louis Vuitton, an inveterate traveler and grandson of the founder of the emblematic French luggage maker.

EQUIPAJE BCN has its very own collection of hotel labels, albeit a much smaller one – our modest collection features labels from hotels in Capri (Italy), Lake Balaton and Budapest (Hungary), Copenhagen (Denmark), New Delhi (India), Tétouan (Morocco), Stockholm (Sweden), Entebbe (Uganda), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and many others. We love hotel labels because they evoke a lost art and a way of travel that has become a part of the past. It’s also exciting to discover that some of these establishments are still open for business, but with a current graphic identity that has nothing to do with the one used in the past. Thinking of a (luxurious) summer holiday? Try booking a room at the Morgano Tiberio in Capri…