Coming soon: Hermes, H&M and SM Hotels!

Talk Of The Town

We’ve got most of the luxury brands covered in Manila. We have the usual Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Bulgari. They recently opened Marc Jacobs at Greenbelt 4 and Balenciaga at Greenbelt 5. What’s obviously missing are Hermés and Chanel.

Now one of these is opening next year at the site of the Max Brenner chocolate shop in Greenbelt. Take a guess?

Stores Specialists Inc. (SSI) is opening an Hermés boutique very close to the Louis Vuitton shop at Greenbelt 4.

I’ve heard that Max Brenner will be relocated to another site, which is well and good considering the current location is not working very well and we’d hate to see it go.

Can’t wait to see all kinds of Hermés bags sold in the third world. Though my favorite Hermés bags are not the typical Birkins or Kellys. I prefer the simple canvas totes.

We’re getting so spoiled! Now we hear H&M is coming to town. It is already safe to announce that it will happen in the near future. Who is bringing it in? Take another guess. Only SM can  meet the space requirements needed by H&M.

H&M is a very welcome addition to the Holy Trinity of High Street: Mango, Zara and Topshop. What sets H&M apart is its brave collaborations with the likes of Madonna, Karl Lagerfeld and now Comme des Garçons in November. The question is, when is it opening and where? We can’t wait.  — Cecile Van Straten

Have You Seen Rustan’s Gallerie?

When Rustan’s Department Store chairman Rico Tantoco appointed top designer Inno Sotto as consultant for the country’s premier luxury shopping place, Nena Tantoco said: “Inno Sotto will be the Tom Ford of Rustan’s.”

It is now happening. Try visiting Rustan’s Makati and you will be pleasantly surprised to see a new elegant area named Gallerie at the fashion floor. Here, shoes by Manolo Blahnik, Sigerson Morrison and Giuseppe Zanotti, gowns by Nicole Miller, bags by Fendi and Botkier, clothes by Helmut Lang and Vivienne Tam, and accessories by Gerard Yosca are nicely put together, with comfy sofas for shoppers thoughtfully placed between racks.

Inno explains that the Gallerie was conceptualized as “a fashion retail/event area constantly changing visually to enhance merchandise in constant beat with fashion’s evolving style and direction.”

With newly-appointed Rustan’s president
Nedy Tantoco fast-tracking  these exciting changes, we are ready to be stunned by more radical innovations. — Millet M. Mananquil

And Now, SM Hotels By Ed Calma & J. Anton Mendoza

When Tourism Secretary Ace Durano once declared that the Philippines needs 10,000 more hotel rooms to make a tourism boom happen, SM patriarch Henry Sy Sr. surely heard it loud and clear.

This year, SM  is launching in Cebu the first of some 200 SM Hotels rising near every SM Mall nationwide. You do the math: There are only 30 SM Malls at present. So some areas (like the Manila Bay area near Mall of Asia), will surely have more than one hotel. And presumably there will be more SM Malls opening. 

The good news is these hotels will be very affordable. But the best news is that iconic architects
Ed Calma and J. Antonio Mendoza have been tapped by SM to design these boutique-type hotels which target both local and foreign tourists, as well as travelling businessmen. — Millet M. Mananquil