Maria Luisa is bringing exclusive designs Hong Kong, "where the women are beautiful and modern"

French style queen Maria Luisa has opened a designer boutique in Hong Kong, her first outside Paris. With a clientele ranging from Nicole Kidman to Cameron Diaz, she hopes to bring to Hong Kong women a stylish selection of the most beautiful selections of the season.

Considered by many as the doyenne of high fashion and luxury retailing in Paris, Maria Luisa Poumaillou is an icon on the Parisian retail scene and a name in many fashionistas' vocabulary.  Since opening her first boutique in 1988 on the Rue Cambon, Maria Luisa today has four eponymous boutiques in the French capital, each capturing a different niche of the fashion scene.

Maria Luisa said that Hong Kong, with its international outlook and cosmopolitan shoppers, provided an ideal launch pad into Asia. A partnership with local brand manager Sideframe Limited made the venture possible.

The door to opportunity

"I have always considered Asia as a modern and dynamic market and was looking forward to doing business there when, as luck would have it, Sideframe offered us the opportunity to make our dreams a reality," she said.

Sideframe, which also operates and represents other brands in the region such as Anteprima and Atsuro Tayama, provided essential local knowledge and market expertise. Sideframe is the retail subsidiary of Fenix Group Holdings Ltd, established in 1972, which operates 33 companies worldwide.

Maria Luisa has brought to Hong Kong her exacting vision in fashion that has, through her stores and selection of labels, created a highly personal style which has been adopted by a worldwide clientele who search for individuality, not trends.

Exquisite and exclusive

"I am very excited and proud to open a store in Hong Kong, where the women are beautiful and modern," she said. "I am confident that my approach to fashion will be understood here. My goal is to bring Hong Kong women a stylish selection of some of the most beautiful pieces of the season signed by talented and exclusive designers."

Labels in her new store include designer names never before available in Hong Kong - among them Zac Posen of New York, Revillon by Rick Owens, and Loris Azzaro by Vanessa Seward. Other collections chosen for their "strong identity, great style and top quality" include the high fashion labels Ann Demeulemeester, Azzedine Alaia, Martin Margiela 4, and Rochas.

Of her store in upscale shopping centre Lee Gardens, Maria Luisa said: "Paris was on my mind the whole time I was choosing for the Hong Kong boutique. Our customer is a very cosmopolitan one who loves our store for its strong Parisian attitude. Hong Kong is an international city and through the years we have had many customers coming in search of this. I believe in being true to myself and can only sell the things that I really love."