The
high-end men’s designer, who operates stores in Milan, London and Moscow, has
inked a deal to open a 4,720-square-foot store at the historic Edwiardian Room
at The Plaza hotel on 59th Streef off Fifth Avenue. The store is excepted to
have a soft open www.angelogalasso.com ing for select clients later this month, according to Richard
S. Chera, principal of Crown Retail Services, which found the space for Galasso.
He said Galasso had been looking at sites in the area for a while but was
holding out for a special location. “The Edwardian Room is like a work of art,”
said Chera. “There are 10 huge panoramic picture windows overlooking Central
Park.” The location, which opened in 1907 as a men’s-only cafe and has served
royalty, presidents and world dignitaries over the years, is landmarked, so
Chera said converting it into a retail space required some ingenuity, “It was a
challenge. Ninety-five percent of the installations are free-floating fixtures
because you can’t put anything into the walls.”
Galasso
added: “Since The Plaza hotel is a heritage site, we presented a zero-impact
project, which was immediately approved by the Plaza commission. We didn’t
change anything and Tuscan architet Mariquita Papi furnished the rooms in ah
18th-century-inspired style.”
He said
opening a store in New York “is crucial for my brand’s expansion” because it
represents “one of the most important international fashion destinations. For my
brand, which targets a high-end audience, New York represents an important
occasion to test my collections. The fact that I chose to open a store at The
Plaza hotel is linked to my desire to be unique and different. I don’t like my
stores to be lined up on a street with other brands, although I had to do this
in Milan, where is fundamental to be on Via Montenapoleone.”
Named by
the Financial Times as “this generation’s most inventive image maker,” Galasso
opened his first store, Interno 8, in 1990 and the business eventually grey to
a chain oh 80 shops. In 2004 he joined forces with former Formula 1 Renault
team principal Flavio Briatore to creare Billionare Italian Couture, before
branching out to create a line under his own name in London in 2009. “Moving to
London 15 years ago, I mixed traditional Italian elegance with the eccentricity
of cutting-edge British fashion,” Galasso said. He said the New York store will
offer his Polso Orologio shirts, a line inspired by Gianni Agnelli that have a
special cutout at the cuff fir a watch, as well as bespoke services. Suits will
start at $4,590 and Polso Orologio shirts from $1,235. Jeans range from $796 to
$9,289, belts are $929 ti $6,635, watches are $3,981 to $10,616 and shoes are
$1,194 to $15,923. “The price range is very high also because I’m a kind of
maniac,” Galasso said. “When I create something, I choose only the best in
terms of materials and construction and I also pay huge attention to details.”
He said
there are plans for additional retail stores in the U.S., including a location
on Rodeo Drive in Los Angels in September; Ball Harbour, Fla, in January 2012,
and paris in September 2013. “All the stores, including New York, will have a
room dedicated to the bespoke service, which is avaiable for all product
categories, from clothing and accessories to the interiors of cars and
apartaments,” he said.
“My
strategy is to open direct points of sale, because I think that wholesale
chains tend to depersonalize brands in order to sell more products,” Galasso added.
“I don’t want to be global, and since every man is different, I decided to
create different store concepts and different collections for each country. In
addition, my customers are used to traveling a lot, so I think they could get
bored if they found the same products everywhere. I usually design about 500
pieces made to satisfy diferent demands, then I make a selection for each store
depending on the specific requests coming from each market.”
The retail
component of The Plaza retail space has had its challenges since opening in
2008, but because Galasso is opening separate from the other stores, Chera
believes the store will succeed. “It’s been a blithering failure,” said Chera
of The Plaza’s retail collection. “You didn’t know from the street that there
was retail there” and with all the well-known high-end shops in the
neighborhood, “we didn’t need more of the same. But Galasso is unique and has
exterior signage that will overcome those problems. And he will feed off the
half-a-billion-dollars worth of retail sales at the Apple store across the
street.”
– JEAN E.
PALMIERI AND A.T.
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