The Luxe List 2014: Sofitel So Singapore

Housed in a former telecommunications center built in 1927 by the city’s first architecture firm, the Sofitel So is an enchanting colonial anomaly among the skyscrapers of Singapore’s CBD. A glass atrium connecting a modern wing of smaller studios with the original Heritage wing of larger suites floods natural light into the lobby, gleaming off the glass light-art installation hanging down into vases of the city-state’s national flower, orchids. French-born designer Isabelle Miaja designed every detail—quilted elevator walls, the pop-art portraits of Napoleon that appear in each room—save for those that Karl Lagerfeld contributed himself, such as the Chanel staff uniforms. The hotel forewent a spa in preference of more spacious rooms, whose three-meter-high ceilings are topped out with light boxes rendered with European cupolas, turned off and on via your bedside iPad. And though cocktail bars sandwich the structure on the infinity-pooled roof and in the lobby across from French chef Anne-Cécile Degenne’s Xperience restaurant (go for the foie gras shumai), the most intoxicating virtue is the pervasive aroma: Urban Forest, an exclusive fragrance from France’s Grasse Perfumery.

35 Robinson Rd.; 65/6701-6800; Sofitel So Singapore; doubles from US$250