Dimorestudio Reimagines the Romance of Rail in La Dolce Vita Orient Express
Milan-based Dimorestudio has infused the newly launched La Dolce Vita Orient Express with cinematic glamour, referencing the golden age of Italian design to transform the train into a rolling homage to the 1960s and ’70s.
The interiors, a richly layered blend of lacquered wood, smoky glass, velvet, brass, and mirror, are less about nostalgic mimicry and more about emotional atmosphere. “The project was conceived as a journey through memory and imagination,” said Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran, founders of Dimorestudio. “Each space was designed to feel cinematic, like a scene suspended in time.”
Traversing Italy from the canals of Venice to the hills of Tuscany and the coastal drama of Sicily, the train offers 31 cabins, each a refined capsule of vintage sensuality. In the dining car, polished brass meets orange leather banquettes beneath gleaming steel walls. The bar car leans more playful, with harlequin prints and undulating velvet seating in faded jewel tones that suggest a 1970s lounge filtered through art-house film.
Throughout the cabins, abstract patterns on upholstery and rich wood paneling create a rhythm of contrasts: intimacy meets opulence, nostalgia meets modern precision. Even the smallest spaces, such as the seven-square-metre deluxe cabins, are sculpted with the kind of thoughtful constraint rarely seen in hospitality design.
Color, too, is used with restraint and flair. Deep burgundies, smoky greys, mustard tones, and burnished neutrals echo the patina of old photographs and sun-faded upholstery. In the 11-square-metre La Dolce Vita Suite, red velvet walls are offset by stainless steel furnishings, a tactile reminder that this is a train as much about sensation as it is about transit.
The La Dolce Vita Orient Express marks the latest chapter in the revival of the Orient Express brand, now under Accor Group. It joins upcoming hotel launches and a fleet of sailing yachts, all built around a single idea: that luxury, at its best, isn’t about excess, but attention.
