Hong Kong-based resortwear designer Marie France Van Damme will cut the ribbon on a new boutique in Singapore next month. “It’s a perfect market,” she said. “The climate is resortlike almost 12 months of the year.”
Located in the Takashimaya department store on Orchard Road, the 1,000-square-foot space is her fifth boutique and comes on the heels of the opening of a store in Phuket, Thailand, two months ago and one in London, which bowed last year.
The Singapore outpost will feature a new sunglasses collection and home collection alongside her luxury resort, swim and ready-to-wear pieces. Van Damme projects first-year year sales of at least 12 million Hong Kong dollars, or $1.55 million at current exchange.
The designer is also dipping her toes in the Middle East market. Harvey Nichols in Dubai will start stocking her wares in November and she is currently scouting locations for a future boutique in the city. “We can see in London that we have a very big Arab customer base, therefore we believe that’s going to be a very important market,” she said.
On the horizon is a second store in Hong Kong slated to open in 2016 and new stores in Miami and Los Angeles the following year.