Italian shopping drama

IT'S not just clothing that Prada does in avavt-garde style. As much thought goes into the innovative design of its boutiques.

Prada stores

IT'S not just clothing that Prada does in avavt-garde style. As much thought goes into the innovative design of its boutiques, as customers in Sydney are about to find out.

WHEN it comes to fashion, Miuccia Prada likes to do things a little differently, to buck trends.Take men's suiting, an item that changes little season after season. Over the past few years, men's suits have favoured a slimmer silhouette with narrow shoulders and two buttons for the jacket. For her Autumn/Winter 2011 menswear collection, shown in Milan, Prada sent jackets that were boxy with big shoulders and three buttons down the runway. It's a safe bet that where Prada ventured other labels will follow.

So, too, when it comes to business. At press time, the Prada Group, which includes the label Miu Miu, English shoe brand Church's and Car Shoe, was due to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in an Initial Public Offering that, it was estimated by analysts, would value the company at up to $15.6 billion.

Prada's IPO has been postponed five times over the past decade and with a renewed post-GFC appetite for luxury goods (2010 was a record year for the company, which had sales of €2.05 billion ($2.8 billion) ), it will be the first of what's expected to be many listings by Italian luxury brands this year. Moncler SpA and Salvatore Ferragamo SpA have both been given approval to list on the Milan Stock Exchange, although the former has shelved its IPO as investment company Eurazeo has just acquired a 45 per cent stake for €418 million.

By choosing Hong Kong as the place to list, Prada is hoping to tap into China's seemingly insatiable demand for luxury goods. It will open nine stores in mainland China this year and another 11 are expected in 2012.

The Australian market is a mere minnow in comparison but Prada is investing heavily in its network of stores here. "We continue to record significant double-digit growth in Australia this year and we believe we have only begun to scratch the surface of our existing stores' potential," Prada Group's chief operating officer Sebastian Suhl told WISH. In Sydney, he says, 80 per cent of sales are to local customers rather than tourists. "We have major untapped opportunities to expand our directly operated store network," continues Suhl. "Australia is a very important market for us. We have numerous Prada stores in various cities, including two flagships in Melbourne and one in Perth. We also successfully launched Miu Miu in Melbourne last year."

Prada's fastest growing store worldwide is its online store, which offers a full range of leather goods to customers in the US, Europe and Japan. "Based on this success, we are planning a geographic expansion of which Australia may be a part," says Suhl.

Later this month Prada will open its first Miu Miu store in Sydney as well as a new - and much larger - Prada store, both of which are in Westfield Sydney and designed by Italian architect Roberto Baciocchi.

The renderings on this page, provided to WISH exclusively, are a glimpse at what customers can expect. As with most fashion companies, Prada is aiming for a bit of theatre when it unveils its new retail spaces. "I don't want to ruin the surprise," says Suhl, "but the new Prada store will showcase a customised shopfit as well as an exceptional facade."