FLAGSHIP FORECAST: New York Is Getting America's First Givenchy Boutique Since 2007

Considering the profusion of designer flagship boutiques in Manhattan, it's hard to imagine that there is a single prominent international brand that has never set up shop here, but there is one holdout that is finally ready to make its grand entrance. Even in the Audrey Hepburn-fueled heyday of its namesake designer, Givenchy has never bothered to open up a boutique in New York*, let alone anywhere else in the United States, but CEO Sebastian Suhl says that's about to change. Next year he will dramatically increase the label's retail footprint by opening 26 boutiques including three U.S. stores. According to WWD, Suhl is "zeroing in" on three locations. Shops at Wynn in Las Vegas and Miami's burgeoning Design District will join an unspecified "uptown Manhattan location" (almost certainly somewhere on Madison Avenue) in expanding Givenchy's network of stores.

Unfortunately, Givenchy's upcoming New York flagship will probably not look like the super-sleek image above which is a rendering of an upcoming store in Seoul, Korea. It's nearly impossible to find real estate in the neighborhood where the store is likely to be that would allow an entirely new building like that to be erected. The design demonstrates, however, that after of period of inconsistency for the brand due to an ever-changing series of designers, the label has finally hit a groove under current Creative Director Riccardo Tisci. Givenchy now has enough traction to propel itself to the level of more commercially established fellow LVMH-owned luxury labels like Céline and Fendi. We will all have our ears open for the store's official announcement, so stay tuned until then.

* We forgot that there used to be a Givenchy boutique at 710 Madison Avenue until 2007, but at that point the label had become so irrelevant that anyone could have been forgiven for forgetting that it existed.

Givenchy Looks to Capitalize on Momentum (WWD)