MILAN — Pucci’s first freestanding store in Tokyo’s tony Ginza district crowns the brand’s retail expansion in Japan.
In less than four months, the LVMH-owned Pucci also has opened a freestanding boutique in Osaka and two shop-in-shops inside Tokyo’s Isetan and Mitsukoshi department stores.
The etched-metal facade of the new 1,800-square-foot Tokyo store on two levels serves as a clean, modern backdrop for Pucci’s signature colorful and graphic prints.
“Our Japanese customer perceives the Pucci brand as trendy and hot, but this trip helped us explain our history,” said Katherine Vautrin, Pucci’s chief executive officer, in a phone interview from Hong Kong prior to the opening late last month.
Laudomia Pucci, the brand’s image director, also enthused about the feedback from her Far Eastern trip. “Our Japanese customer now understands that Pucci has roots and is a lifestyle brand. This is very important for our global growth,” she said, adding that an installation of tableaux vivants inside the store, representing Pucci’s fashion from the Fifties onward, helped drive the point home.
Japan currently accounts for 15 percent of Pucci’s worldwide sales, a figure Vautrin expects to rise significantly based on market potential. In line with LVMH policy, Vautrin wouldn’t disclose first-year sales estimates, but she noted that sales will be in line with the performance of Pucci stores in Paris and New York.
“The Japanese market is as demanding as it is competitive, innovative as it is challenging, and also very dynamic,” Vautrin said.