MIU MIU has opened its first flagship in central China’s largest city of Wuhan, located within the newly opened SKP Department Store. The stand-alone store, which sits along SKP Wuhan’s outdoors retail promenade K Avenue, spans around 5,200 square feet and three stories.
Conceived as a reflection of the Miu Miu “home” concept, the store’s facade showcases pale brickwork and large windows that invite passersby to peek into its intricately curated interior. “Each floor reveals a different world, echoing the brand’s distinctive vision,” Miu Miu said in a statement.
The first and second floors of the store are home to Miu Miu’s full range of collections, including ready-to-wear, handbags, accessories and footwear, while the third floor offers the brand’s most exclusive products within a private lounge setting, which leads to two private salons.
Miu Miu’s first store in Wuhan opened 10 years ago at the storied Wuhan International Plaza shopping mall. The brand counts a total of 24 doors in mainland China. Miu Miu and SKP celebrated the grand opening on Wednesday with a lion and dragon performance, a Taoist ritual meant to bestow good fortune on the new store.
SKP Wuhan is the fourth location of the established Beijing department store franchise, which opened last summer. K Avenue, a riverside corridor that includes 44 properties, has been repurposed by SKP for brand takeovers that extend for about 1.5 kilometers. The SKP section takes up about one-third of the commercial thoroughfare known as “Han Street.”
“The architecture and landscaping were created so that the flagships could ultimately control their own image, amassing in a dense, diverse and rich concentration of branded styles, yet all set within the subtle and expansive guidelines of the SKP branded retail experience,” Torquil McIntosh, co-founder of Sybarite, the London architectural firm and longtime collaborator of SKP, said at the time of the opening.
So far luxury players such as Bottega Veneta, Loewe, Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Coach, Moncler, Balenciaga, Gucci, Prada and more have unveiled stand-alone structures at K Avenue. Imposing hoardings for Louis Vuitton and Dior stand shoulder to shoulder next to the SKP main building, which looks like a radiating lantern from afar.
Bucking the luxury slump, Miu Miu is forging ahead with retail expansion in China. After SKP Wuhan, the brand is slated to open a ground floor shop at MixC Xi’an, a high-end shopping mall that made its debut last December.
In the latest fourth quarter, Miu Miu surpassed the 1 billion-euro mark in revenues. In China, the brand has maintained its “heavyweight position,” recording significant growth on Chinese social media platforms, including Weibo and Xiaohongshu.
