MILAN — An all-fuchsia space marks Pinko’s retail debut in Milan’s storied luxury shopping arcade Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.
The Italian contemporary fashion brand joins a series of high-end labels including Prada, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent and Moncler, at the sought-after destination.
Pinko’s store opening on Thursday followed the announcement earlier this week that Chanel will expand its presence at the shopping arcade.
To mark its arrival at the Galleria, Pinko has developed a dedicated retail format centered on products exclusive to the store, mostly limited-edition iterations of its signature Love Bag, which has a circular buckle embellished with two tiny birds.
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All items available at the shop also have customized labels and dedicated packaging.
“The choice of opening in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II intends to celebrate the global success of the Love Bag: There is no more prestigious setting in the world than the Milanese shopping [arcade]. But first of all, there is an emotional bond that links me to this place,” said Pietro Negra, founder and chief executive officer of Pinko.
“My mother was a seamstress in Salsomaggiore [in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region] and moved to Milan to work with designer Ubaldo Baratta in his atelier in via Borgogna. Every evening, to treat herself after work, she took a stroll in the Galleria among the city’s most elegant cafés and boutiques together with her friends and colleagues. I still fondly remember her stories about life in the city,” recalled Negra.
To further celebrate this bond, and to pay tribute to Milan, every three months Pinko will drop a different collaboration developed with a local company.
For the collaboration that marks the stores opening, Pinko has teamed with the Pasticceria San Carlo pastry shop on a cobranded panettone, the Milanese cake dotted with candied and dried fruits that’s traditionally eaten at Christmas.
Pinko has also developed a virtual store that replicates the design of the Galleria one, which boasts marble flooring in a graphic black-and-white pattern; brass displays, and geometric mirrors that amplify the visual impact of the fuchsia walls.
The company has ramped up its retail efforts over the past few months and is set to cut the ribbon of two other stores by the end of 2022. One is at Westfield shopping center in Sydney and the other is at London’s new Battersea Power Station.
Earlier this year, Pinko tapped Irina Shayk to be its face of 2022. At the time, Negra revealed that the brand’s 2022 communications budget was “the highest of the last five years,” and the investment in marketing increased by 51 percent compared to 2021.
Last year, Pinko reported more than 240 million euros in sales, exceeding its performance in 2019, when it posted revenues of 222 million euros. In 2020, the brand’s turnover decreased by around 25 percent, compared to the previous year.