NorthPark Center scored another North Texas exclusive: Italian luxury brand Prada.
The barricades in front of the future store space revealing the Prada logo went up Friday morning. Prada will occupy one of the largest spaces in the south corridor between Neiman Marcus and Dillard’s overlooking the park in the center of the square-shaped mall. It will join luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Gucci, which is building a bigger store at the mall, with its back side facing the park.
The Prada store will be big enough to house its collections of men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel, shoes and accessories.
Recent popups on the first level at Neiman Marcus’ NorthPark store proved the brand’s ongoing popularity in Texas. A popup in Neiman’s last year brought in sales of more than $10 million in two days. Shoe designer Christian Louboutin made an appearance Tuesday at the opening of his brand’s installation in Neiman’s NorthPark store.
The Milan-based brand further solidifies NorthPark and Dallas as a top luxury shopping destination.
NorthPark is a short drive to Highland Park Village with its designer stores and to Uptown’s Stanley Korshak, which is being remodeled.
NorthPark owner Nancy Nasher confirmed that Prada is coming and said it will be a North Texas exclusive for the shopping center. There’s one other Prada store in the state in Houston’s Galleria.
“This marks an exciting milestone for NorthPark as we continue to broaden our distinguished luxury collection with the finest brands from around the world,” Nasher said.
Prada will move into an 11,075-square-foot space just vacated by Nike next to Louis Vuitton. Nike is temporarily closed until it completes a new and bigger concept “Rise” store on the north side of the mall in the former two-level H&M space.
Years ago, Prada operated a store in Highland Park Village. Prada operates 12 stores in the U.S., and its products are sold in some Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue stores.
Prada posted a 25% sales increase to $4.5 billion last year. Sales in the Americas increased 37%. Prada also owns luxury brands Miu Miu, Church’s, Car Shoe, Pasticceria Marchesi and Luna Rossa. The Italian luxury fashion house owns 24 factories and employs more than 13,700 people.
Local Prada asides:
1. When former Neiman Marcus CEO Karen Katz was a Neiman’s buyer early in her career, she was the first merchant to bring Prada to U.S. stores.
2. Prada Marfa is a permanent art installation erected in 2005 in the desert on U.S. Route 90 in Jeff Davis County. It’s one of the first stops for anyone on a road trip in West Texas. (The movie, The Devil Wears Prada came out a year later in 2006.) Prada Marfa stands out — even among the beautiful landscape in the nearby Guadalupe Mountains — as “one of the most photographed locales of the region,” according to the Marfa Visitor Center.
File – The Associated Press
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Twitter: @MariaHalkias
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