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Hotel gets ahead with hat designerGalway's 'The g' highlights new luxury trend
 Designer Philip Treacy took inspiration from his fashion trade. BUSINESS TRAVELLER
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- In a bygone era, high-class hotels could be austere affairs, relying on sniffy concierges, scary gothic architecture and wallet-worrying prices to prove their upper-crust credentials. Those days are thankfully no more, with a handful of hotels hiring top designers to create a look and feel that recalls the golden age of luxury but offers a distinctly modern edge. Among the more notable new arrivals is Galway's The g The g recruited leading hat designer (and son of Galway) Philip Treacy to shape what is billed at the city's first world-class hotel. Drawing inspiration from his fashion trade and classics of the 1920s such as the London Ritz or New York's George V, Treacy has created a glamorous venue that could not fail to impress even hotel-weary business travelers. Ornate antique mirrors overlook plush, swirling carpets in ultra-chic lounges and bedrooms, producing a look that is both classical and contemporary. Here, Treacy tells CNN Business Traveller the inside story on his unique creation. CNN: As a hat designer, what have you brought to hotel design? Treacy: "My business revolves around shape and form and function so I've been able to bring to the project a little bit of originality, because I wasn't coming from to it with an interior design perspective. "I was coming to it from a glamour, fashion perspective, and I thought it would be exciting to put everything into the hotel that I had learnt since I lived here, because I grew up about 40 miles from here. "I thought it was exciting to put some of the most beautiful images of the 20th century into such an environment to be enjoyed by people from all over the world. CNN: What role do you think your hotel plays? Treacy: "People travel a lot today, they expect a lot from a hotel -- and more importantly, people want to be entertained. So hotels are a form of entertainment for people today. "And I wanted it to be like a little bit like a movie set, like an exciting environment to be in and somewhere to have a good time." CNN: Do you think the hotel industry needs an injection of color? Treacy: "I like hotels with personality. I think that the international traveler today requires so much more from a hotel than generic hotel design has offered in the past. And I would like people to have an enjoyable experience. CNN: What about business travelers? Treacy: "Business travelers probably need it more. Business travelers need to unwind and to have an enjoyable time away from home. "The business traveler or the traveler in general today is discerning because one day they can be in Dubai and the next in Galway. So there is a level of hospitality and service that is expected in every hotel. "And there is a level of environment that is a bonus because these sorts of generic hotel design is commonplace today so the unusual, and the eccentric and the personal and the hotel with personality will become more desirable in the future because we are all attracted to what is different." 
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, a hotel that aims to capitalize on the bohemian west Republic of Ireland city's emergence as a major business destination.
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