Italian fashion retailer Luisa Spagnoli has opened the doors of its first UK store at a site on London’s Piccadilly.
The store joins the Italian fashion retailer’s extensive portfolio of over 200 stores across Italy, Russia and the Middle East. Three further London stores are set to be opened in the near future.
The Piccadilly store was designed by Italian architect, Riccardo Lusuardi.
It is the first time Lusuardi has worked with Luisa Spagnoli and the retailer’s export director, Gianluca Sirotti, says there are plans for him to design the other London stores.
Sirotti says the designer introduced new ideas including pine-effect flooring, while keeping elements typical of a Luisa Spagnoli store such as chandeliers.
“It is very warm and not crowded,” says Sirotti. “Here we are able to offer a very personal buying experience – customers come to us not for one single item, but we offer them advice on the total look of our collection we call ‘the combined proposal‘.”
The brand, which is almost 90 years old, considers itself medium to high-end luxury, with a jacket costing around £450 and most products still manufactured in Italy.
Sirotti says this positioning is why the brand chose Piccadilly over neighbouring Bond Street. “The location was selected after a long study,” he said. “We didn’t want to open on Bond Street, and here on Piccadilly there are a lot of career women and offices, as well as tourists from Arabian countries, Russia and the US who already know the brand because of their local stores or when they were on holiday in Italy.”
Luisa Spanoli has also recently invested in its eCommerce site which is run from Italy, with England quickly becoming its second most popular market. The retailer will be launching a click & collect service from the London store next month.
“All our clients can register for a loyalty scheme and we send out a newsletter every ten days with promotions. If customers become loyal they will be sent a loyalty card which gives them a small discount. They continue to be in contact all year long, so every 15 days you see the store has a new collection and new proposal – it’s important to see something new in the store,” says Sirotti.
Luisa Spagnoli
