The Armani Group announced today that it will open its first Armani Casa store in Russia this September on Moscow's Tretyakovskji Proezd, as part of a retail expansion programme for Eastern Europe, which will also include the opening of a 320 square meter free-standing Armani Collezioni store in Kiev, Ukraine, this Autumn.
Giorgio Armani, the President and Chief Executive of the Armani Group, visiting Moscow for the first time both to make this announcement and to present his Autumn / Winter 2002 collection in an exclusive fashion show for 600 specially invited guests, said, �Over the last two years, since we launched Armani Casa in Milan, we have received an enthusiastic response to the collection from Russian visitors, so I am naturally delighted to have found such a wonderful location for our first Armani Casa store in Moscow, right next to our existing Giorgio Armani boutique.� Armani continued, �The store openings in Russia and the Ukraine, combined with the limited wholesale distribution we have already started in Croatia and the Czech Republic, demonstrate our commitment to Eastern Europe as a region offering significant growth potential for the Armani Group in the coming years.�
The new 345 square metre Armani Casa store, the seventh in the world, will be located at Tretyakovskji Proezd 1, with its own entrance leading to the lower ground floor of the existing 685 square meter Giorgio Armani boutique, which opened last October. The store will carry the complete home collection including furniture, tableware, lighting, linens and decorative objects. As with the Giorgio Armani boutique, the Armani Casa store will be owned and operated by Mercury SA under a franchise agreement with the Armani Group. The Kiev Armani Collezioni store will be operated under a new franchise agreement with the A. C. Milan soccer player, Andriy Shevchenko, who is also in Moscow with Giorgio Armani as a special guest.
Armani Casa is a comprehensive and significant home collection. It is neither minimalist nor trendy. It is neither decoration nor design, but rather a combination of the two. The collection's roots lie in simplicity and purity, practical shapes, luxury materials and fabrics and craftsmanship from around the world. The idea is sophisticated comfort, which is at the heart of Armani's fashion philosophy.
Giorgio Armani said of the Armani Casa collection, �I undertook a huge project knowing that it would be both risky and personally challenging. I asked myself, #What can I do that is rooted in design yet different. That is modern yet contains references to the past and has my signature?' I found the answer in my fashion philosophy and the beginning of my career as a designer, when I created the Armani suit, which was a classic, basic suit but cut in a fresh, new way.�
The new Moscow Armani Casa store was designed by Giorgio Armani in collaboration with a team of in-house architects. The polished concrete floors enhance the space's loft-like sensibility in which the home collection is presented in small vignettes.
There are currently six free-standing Armani Casa stores world-wide located in Milan, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Athens and Istanbul. Other Armani Casa store openings scheduled for Autumn 2002 will include Hong Kong, Beijing and Zurich.
The Armani Group is one of the leading fashion groups in the world today. It designs, manufactures, distributes and retails fashion products including apparel, accessories, eyewear, watches, jewellery, home interior products, fragrances and cosmetics under a range of lifestyle brand names: Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Mani, Emporio Armani, AJ Armani Jeans, A/X Armani Exchange, Armani Junior and Armani Casa. The Group's exclusive retail network currently comprises 53 Giorgio Armani boutiques, 1 Giorgio Armani Accessory boutique, 10 Armani Collezioni stores, 114 Emporio Armani stores, 65 A/X Armani Exchange stores, 7 Armani Jeans stores, 3 Armani Junior stores and 6 Armani Casa stores in 34 countries.
Contact: Robert Triefus / Isabelle Harvie-Watt
Armani Press, Tel: +39 02 723181
www.armanipress.com