Escada opens on Grafton Street

The German fashion house, Escada, will open its first outlet in Ireland tomorrow, a flagship store on Dublin's Grafton Street.

Escada (UK) Limited, which specialises in upmarket women's clothes, has negotiated a franchise agreement with Irish businessman Sean Barron, managing director of Flairline Fashions Ltd, which has been trading as Richard Alan at 58 Grafton Street.

Currently Flairline has 14 retail outlets countrywide - six Pamela Scott shops, two Richard Alan shops, five Ashley Reeves shops and one Lisa Perkins store.

Branching out with a new concept, Flairline will open another new outlet, S Oliver, today in Blanchardstown Town Centre. It is expected to appeal to the younger end of the market in much the same way as the successful Mango Fashion Group.

There are plans for a further six shops over the next two years as the group expands its holdings further.

However, it is the Escada outlet which is most important to Flairline. The completion of a £1.5 million (€1.9m) refurbishment in order to bring it in line with the exacting retail standards of Escada has been rewarded, and Dublin will be Escada's first outlet worldwide to display its new retail concept. New York will follow in two weeks time.

Mr Barron's decision to bring an Escada store to Ireland was influenced by his high regard for the group's retailing expertise. "There's an Escada House in every capital in the world, and every time I travelled abroad I was really impressed with them. It's the highlight of my career to bring Escada to Dublin. I felt Ireland needed a luxury brand and now we will have a luxurious shop for a luxurious label," he said.

Flairline took over the Richard Alan shop last year from another Irish retailing family, Richard and Alan Clarke, sons of the founder of Richard Alan, the late Jack Clarke.

The original 5,000 sq ft of space has been divided to accommodate two separate outlets: 3,500 sq ft over two floors will be dedicated to the new venture while the remainder will trade as Richard Alan, with frontage now on to South King Street instead of on to Grafton Street.

Escada currently operates in 64 countries and has over 190 boutiques worldwide. Its collections will include couture, diamond jewellery, accessories, sport, lingerie, eye wear, scarves, ties and fragrances. The Escada label is favoured by many well-known names in entertainment, like Kim Basinger, Angelica Houston, Jerry Hall and Jennifer Lopez.

Founded in Munich in 1977 by Wolfgang Ley and his late wife, the designer Margaretha Ley, Escada was named after an Irish throroughbred racehorse.

The philosophy behind the label has been to offer a high quality of couture at affordable prices. Escada found its market niche but despite a turnover in 1990 that reached over DM 1 billion (Exxxx bn), the company ran into difficulty). A series of unforeseen difficulties and finally a scandal at the Japanese subsidiary created problems for Escada that were consolidated by the untimely death of Margaretha Ley in the early 1990s.

However after several years of rebuilding and refocussing the direction of the company, Wolfgang Ley is back on course with a young board of directors. Part of the rebuilding process is the development of a whole new concept for their retail outlets.

Developed by American architect Stephen Sigel, Dublin will be the first to display Escada's modern image, which involves the use of polished nickel and state of the art lighting.