Multi-label Italian luxury fashion retailer Antonia has opened its first store in Asia, at The Parisian Macao in Macau.
Designed by architect Vincenzo de Cotiis, the 3000 sqm store features such brands as Gucci, Rick Owens, Sacai, Saint Laurent, Valentino and Versace.
The store is run in partnership with Modern Avenue, formerly the Canudilo Group. Ten other stores are planned for greater China.
As Macau resorts swing the spotlight from gaming to shopping, designer labels are lining up to open their first stores in the former Portuguese colony.
Established brands have already led the way, and the opening of two major resorts has introduced a broad choice of new retail space.
Both the US$4.2 billion Wynn Cotai Palace and the new $2.7 billion Parisian Macao offer 18,580 and 28,000 sqm respectively of luxury retail space – together, more than 200 shops. However, established integrated resorts are also benefiting from the retail boom, with Swiss watchmaker Omega opening a corporate boutique in Studio City Macau and Paris designer Christian Dior launching its first boutiquein City of Dreams Macau.
The all-new Wynn Cotai Palace is welcoming luxury brands such as Chanel, Chopard and Hermes, while watchmaker Franck Muller is launching the Vanguard Wynn Palace Boutique Exclusive, its third opening in the city. A new boutique inside Wynn Palace is also the third Macau outlet for luxury watch brand Panerai.
Cotai Strip’s newest resort, The Parisian Macao, has set up the Shoppes at Parisian with more than 150 luxury and lifestyle retail boutiques. The shops are housed in different precincts named after some of the most stylish streets and arcades of Paris, including the Champs-Élysées. The fashion on offer includes a mix of both Parisian brands and couture new to Macau, including labels like Antonia, Garel Paris, Herzo, Isabelle Langlois, Sonia Rykiel and Temptation.
To mark the opening of the Shoppes at Parisian, The Parisian Macao is hosting an exclusive designer runway show, Front Row, tomorrow evening. It will showcase crystal looks from Swarovski plus styles from selected retailers. Celebrity guests include China’s first fashion model Xiao Wen, the current face of Marc Jacobs.
There will also be runway shows on September 15 and 16, plus other launch events.
Chinese distributor Modern Avenue Group (formerly Canudilo) has decided not to proceed with its purchase of the luxury Excelsior Milano department store.
Modern Avenue, which owns sport couture brand Dirk Bikkembergs, has not given a reason for its change of heart.
A purchase price of €21.3 million (US$23.7 million) was announced at the end of June for the store, launched in 2012 by Italian group Coin. The deal was to have been finalised this month. With a specific selection of high-end fashion, Excelsior Milano is overseen by Antonia Giacinti, who owns the new boutique collective Antonia.
The Antonia brand was confirmed last month under an agreement with Modern Avenue, with a view to open five franchise stores over the next four years. The first Antonia store will debut next month.
Luxury fashion label Antonia is to open the first of 10 stores planned for greater China in Macau.
Antonia, headquartered in the Italian fashion capital, Milan, has signed a partnership with Guangzhou Canudilo Fashion and Accessories, which has about 300 stores in China selling its own brands in the mid to high-end fashion space, along with 100 luxury monobrand stores in partnership with Armani, Givenchy, Roberto Cavalli and others.
Antonia is the first brand to be publicly announced for the new Parisian retail development, another integrated resort with gaming, accommodation, entertainment and shopping.
The US$5 billion project will feature a half size replica of the Eiffel Tower and 320,000 sqft of retail, housing 150 boutiques grouped in replicas of five famous shopping precincts of Paris, including the Champs Elysees and Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore, as well as 3000 hotel rooms.
Antonia will take a 33,000 sqft space in the complex, according to Canudilo group president Yongfei Lin, who revealed the details during a Milan media event last week marking his company’s purchase of the Dirk Bikkembergs brand.
Just five stores will be opened in China between now and 2020, with a further following.
Antonia was founded in 1999 by Antonia Giacinti, who remains responsible for merchandise selection and store design.
Luciano Donatelli, strategic consultant for the Canudilo group, said the Macau store will be “the twin” of the Milan flagship.