MILAN – Galleria Vittorio  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, and Fendi to Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent and Moncler, on the sought-after destination.

Pinko’s store opening on Thursday followed the announcement earlier this week that Chanel will expand its presence on the shopping arcade.

To mark its arrival on 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.

All items available on the shop even have customized labels and dedicated packaging.

“The alternative of opening in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II intends to have fun the worldwide success of the Love Bag: There isn’t a more prestigious setting on the earth than the Milanese shopping [arcade]. But to begin with, there may be 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 within the Galleria among the many city’s most elegant cafés and boutiques together along with her friends and colleagues. I still fondly remember her stories about life in town,” recalled Negra.

To further have fun this bond, and to pay tribute to Milan, every three months Pinko will drop a unique collaboration developed with a neighborhood 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 further amplify the visual impact of the fuchsia partitions.

The corporate has ramped up its retail efforts over the past few months and is ready to chop the ribbon of two other stores by the top of 2022. One is at Westfield shopping mall in Sydney, and the opposite is at London’s latest Battersea Power Station.

Earlier this yr, Pinko tapped Irina Shayk to be its face of 2022. On the time, Negra revealed that the brand’s 2022 communications budget was “the very best of the last five years,” and the investment in marketing increased by 51 percent in comparison with 2021.

Last yr, Pinko reported greater 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, in comparison with the previous yr.