HONG KONG — Italian sportswear brand Gas has big plans for Asia, starting with its first flagship here.
“Hong Kong is the door for Asia, for the East, ” said Gas chairman and chief executive officer Claudio Grotto.
He noted that Grotto SPA, which owns the brand, first became involved in Hong Kong 20 years ago when looking for production options. But for the past three years, the hunt in Hong Kong has been for prime retail space. The brand is already sold in a 240-square-foot shop-in-shop at LCX, the youth-oriented division of Lane Crawford, located in bustling Tsimshatsui. That space will be refurbished after Chinese New Year, which runs from Feb. 17 to 20. “We love that store — Lane Crawford has been very good to us,” said Grotto.
Once it was decided to expand, however, difficulties arose, chiefly finding the right space for a freestanding store. Barbara Grotto, who works alongside her father at company headquarters, said that agreements for two other sites fell through.
“But we’re really happy they didn’t work out, because this location is perfect,” she said of the new store, which is located in Causeway Bay, the city’s busiest shopping district. One reason for such enthusiasm is the development of Kingston Street, where the store is located. Previously home to a Japanese department store, some quirky restaurants and a few minor clothing retailers, the street has been redeveloped and is now referred to as Fashion Avenue, complete with major retailers such as Adidas, Replay, Calvin Klein, Atsuro Tayama, D-Mop (a popular multilabel store specializing in young fashion and jeans) and Diesel. Agnès b. and Vivienne Westwood both have stores under construction in the street, as does another popular multilabel chain store, I.T.
The Gas flagship is right in the middle of Fashion Avenue. Its design, by London-based Four IV, is an extension of the concept unveiled at the company’s flagship in Florence. Spanning two floors, the 6,450-square-foot shop features equal amounts of men’s wear and women’s wear. The ground floor is dedicated to men’s wear, with signature metal capsules for displaying jeans, swiveling shelves for footwear and accessories, and racks that boast both hangers and hooks for the clothes. There are flat-screen video monitors embedded in display tables, as well as in each of the dressing rooms. Birch shelves are dedicated to footwear, comprising mostly military-look boots, casual sport shoes and leather sandals.
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Although both floors feature the same birch and concrete flooring, steel capsules and glass display boxes, the materials are employed differently in the men’s and women’s areas. This is especially true in regard to the floors: On the men’s level, the central “runway” is concrete, while the main shopping areas have birch floors. The opposite applies to the upstairs women’s area.
The women’s fashion area also has softer lighting and somewhat more distinct sections for the collections — including eveningwear, jeans, sportswear, accessories and footwear. This floor will be expanded in a year when the landlord redevelops the building. Barbara Grotto said the extra space would come in handy as the line grows. “We are evolving the collection because it’s important for the future,” she said. “We will always do denim, but we are developing other lines as well.”
Between the two levels is a spiral staircase (featuring leather-covered banisters) that showcases a Plexiglas light installation reflecting colored light onto the denim display capsules. Similar Plexiglas signage is used at the store’s entrance.
“Now that we have this store, what I want is an opportunity to communicate with customers. It’s not enough to come and buy one time; I want to develop loyalty,” said Claudio Grotto, adding he hoped the Hong Kong store would make “a lot” of money.
He declined to say how much, but the brand’s sales totaled more that 150 million euros, or $195 million at current exchange, in 2005, 40 percent of which came from international sales. Gas now has more than 3,000 points of sale in 56 countries. So far this year, freestanding stores have opened in Berlin, Stockholm and Tokyo. Stores in India, Monaco and Barcelona are under development.
For now, however, the buzz is all about Hong Kong and its role as a stepping-stone to China. “Five to eight years ago, Hong Kong people were leaving — they were going to Australia and Canada,” recalled Claudio Grotto. “Now Hong Kong is the window to China. In less than three years, it has changed completely. Now, it’s difficult to even get a hotel room here.”