Prada opens a news store in Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates
Prada opens its largest boutique in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in the prestigious “Mall of the Emirates” – the undisputed luxury shopping destination.
The store, designed by architect Roberto Baciocchi, occupies about 1,140 square metres on a single level, and it offers the men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, footwear, bags and accessories collections.
A wide portal in black Marquina marble framing the entrance, that is centrally located to split the storefront in two, characterizes the façade. A luminescent resin screen, interrupted by windows and light boxes, creates an extremely impressive and shiny light effect.
Inside, the store is a succession of symmetrical rooms along a majestic marble and mirror gallery. Precious, tall display cases in burnished metal with a very thin frame and marble drawers stand out on a chequered black and white marble floor – a legacy from Prada’s historic image – which is distorted to become almost optical, with flight lines highlighting the display’s key points.
The oval counters, in burnished metal and crystal on a marble stand, are a modern reinterpretation of the counters found in Prada’s historic store of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
Smaller rooms with different atmospheres open on both sides of the gallery to create two naves: areas totally covered in black marble – that offer eyewear and small leather goods – alternate with spaces coated in green velvet curtains, that display bags. The traditional Prada ‘niches’ also come in the same materials in this store: precious marble and soft green velvet.
Women’s footwear areas are defined by their beige carpeting, green velvet walls and the “Clover Leaf” sofas, also in green velvet, designed by Verner Panton and exclusively reproduced for Prada.
In the ready-to-wear area, soft curtained walls and the supple “Clover Leaf” sofas contrast with perspex display cases, skylights and tables to make the environment seductive, sophisticated and extremely feminine.
