Luisa Spagnoli opens first London store

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 14, 2016

Luisa Spagnoli officially opened its first UK store on October 13. Located at 171 Piccadilly in London’s West End, the new store is part of its European retail expansion programme with plans for a second UK store next year.

The womenswear and accessories company said the store, which is set in a long, relatively narrow space, “respects Italian design while channelling the elegance and minimalism of English taste.” That includes a bright interior cream-coloured walls, pale wood floor, gold accents on the  furniture and crystal chandeliers.

The Umbria-based brand has been adding a number of new international stores this year and has so far boosted its count to 56 locations across the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe. These are in addition to its 151 directly-operated Italian stores. Most notably it launched its first full store in the US this spring, in Palo Alto, California’s Stanford Shopping Center, after a small test store in Florida last year.

It also launched e-commerce last year with an English-language site that services the EU, the Balkans, Switzerland, South Africa, Australia and the US.

The expansion plan is part of its aim to boost overall international turnover. The 88-year-old company generated revenues of €126m in its latest financial but 90% of that came for its domestic Italian market. However, it expects the 10% accounted for by international sales to rise in the current financial year.