Giorgio Armani doesn’t go to spas. At least that’s what he admitted one October evening last year, just before he officially opened his new 65,000 sq ft, €15m flagship store in Tokyo, complete with the first Giorgio Armani spa.

Designer caught in the act of hypocrisy? Not really. For while Armani doesn’t have the time for luxurious massage treatments (he is too busy having daily sessions with his personal trainer and running his global empire), he does see the relevance of spas and, more importantly, the business opportunity they represent. According to a recent Euromonitor report that forecast the number of hotel/resort spas for 2006-2011, the US market is set to grow 31.7 per cent and the UK 34.6 per cent.

But this is about more than just spa growth – it is subliminal marketing. Armani also launched Crema Nera, its first face cream, last year. How better to emphasise its credibility in skincare than to turn it into a spa-worthy treatment range? The move also helps pave the way for a possible future body care range as well as supporting the soon-to-launch men’s skincare range and creating a spa prototype that can be rolled out in the forthcoming Armani hotels.

“We needed to develop the legitimacy of Armani skincare in luxury,” says Renaud de Lesquen, international brand president of Giorgio Armani perfumes and cosmetics at L’Oréal, about Armani’s move into spas. L’Oréal creates Armani’s skincare products under licence.

“Our feeling was, is, and still remains that luxury skincare is more than a unique product with unique technology and a very innovative point of view; for the future it’s really about exceptional service and experience. I’m talking about the high luxury skincare evolution.

“It’s not easy for a designer brand to enter the skincare market – the women’s market in particular – as it’s a very strong and innovative market,” De Lesquen continues. “I like to say that nobody’s really waiting for you. If you want to be a serious player in the category you have to be good at everything: you need to have a unique story and be innovative.”

Thus, the spa itself is very Armani in its minimalist approach – even Crema Nera is taglined as “One cream for a lifetime”. There are just three treatment rooms and only one treatment, which lasts three hours (it can be broken down into a face or body treatment of 1.5 hours). All products come from Armani’s own, non-retail, spa-specific treatment range.

And Armani is not the only fashion brand seeking to emphasise the validity of its skincare through treatment credentials. Chanel, for instance, has created permanent treatment cabins housed in department stores such as Debenhams in London where its facials – created with the help of specialists, dermatologists and even surgeons – can be performed and tailored to the needs of clients.

“We are a very young brand in terms of skincare – only nine years old – compared to many other companies that are 40 and 50 years old and are our competitors,” explains Marie-Hélène Lair, head of scientific communications at Chanel. “We don’t have a skincare image; we have a fashion image as Mlle Chanel was not a dermatologist. When you want to launch a very special range, like Précision, you have to launch with science for credibility, you have to launch a very complete and comprehensive range that meets all the needs of women, and now you have to launch services. When you speak about luxury, you have to speak about not only products but the whole environment.”

Indeed, the spa environment is becoming increasingly important for brands seeking to emphasise science over trends in the skincare marketplace, which is, says Katharine Sayre, a partner of the Boston Consulting Group, one of the “most competitive markets and definitely not for the faint hearted”. The trend towards fashion designer spas is interesting, she says, because “one of the hardest challenges for designers is getting into skincare”.

“When you talk to consumers they see a very logical connection between designers and colour cosmetics, as it’s all to do with trends and the looks of the season,” she says. “Skincare is something many consumers associate with research and development and it’s hard to establish credibility in the face of competition that has long-standing history in skincare and have established trust in the mind of the consumer. So getting into spas and offering services allows you some ways to bolster that credibility.”

This was, in part, the thinking behind Givenchy’s entry into hotel spas in 1989, a strategy the brand has pursued and which recently resulted in the opening of a spa at the LVMH-owned Cheval Blanc hotel in Courchevel. According to Alain Lorenzo, president of Parfums Givenchy, a brand must first decide “do you want to do skincare or just concentrate on perfumes and make up? Then, if you decide to do skincare and if you are a fashion brand by positioning [not a ‘technical’ skincare brand such as Clarins or Lancôme] and heritage, how do you legitimise your entry?”

At Givenchy “we decided another way to talk about skincare was to talk about spas”, continues Lorenzo, because, “you tackle the issue less by talking about hardline performance and more by talking about the level of sophistication, quality and excellence of treatments”, though he also points out that products must be backed up with scientific research.

Meanwhile, Ann Fontaine, queen of the white shirt, also recently opened a spa, designed by Andre Putnam, in the basement of her new Paris flagship store. It is the only stockist for her organic skincare range, which recalls the house’s fashion history through treatments with names such as L’After Shopping, and products based on cotton and silk.

“Skincare for us is very much a long-term investment,” says Ari Zlotkin, Fontaine’s husband and financial director. “We don’t expect immediate revenues. For us it’s really tomorrow’s business more than today’s, but we think it’s important for a brand to go ahead and think about what will happen.”