Valentino to open first menswear store in Paris

By

Florent Gilles

Published
Jan 17, 2013

With a new big-budget owner – Mayhoola, an investment vehicle backed by the Qatar Royal family – and Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli as design duo, Valentino is looking to launch its menswear collection via a network of stores in luxury capitals of the world. Paris is the chosen starting point, where the luxury fashion house has its opulent headquarters in the famous Place Vendôme.

According to the design duo, other capital cities will be seeing the arrival of Valentino men’s stores in the future. For the moment, the exact location of the Paris store is yet to be confirmed. According to Women’s Wear Daily, British architect David Chipperfield is in charge of creating the concept for the future stores.

Having never shown the menswear collection on the runway until Pitti Uomo last year, the Roman fashion house now has its place in the Paris Fashion Week calendar. “The Valentino man can now associate with himself with place Vendôme and with Paris,’ says Pierpaolo Picciolo, also stating the same execution will be applied to menswear as it is to women’s ready-to-wear. The show, that took place on Wednesday in Paris, combined extreme luxury with urban features such as camouflage , confirming the strategic importance of the prestigious Paris place in terms of commercial and media exposure. The Autumn-Winter collection 2013/2014 show, held at the Salomon de Rothschild hotel, was streamed live on the web, something new to the brand. ''Florence was fantastic, but Valentino is connected to Paris historically, it's always shown there and we want to offer a global vision of the brand,” said Maria Grazia Chiuri