At Armani's flagship megastore in Chater House, Central, brand-worshipping Hongkongers have everything at their fingertips: from a florist and a bookshop to clothing outlets and the trendy Armani Bar.
What may have been overkill elsewhere, seems natural in this city, whose residents, according to a 2006 survey by global market researcher ACNielsen, came up top in the world for shopping twice a week just for 'something to do' (93 per cent of us admitted to shopping for entertainment). Tellingly, in the same poll, only one European country made it into the global top 10 ranking for clothes shopping being the 'favourite' thing to do: the Italians.
Italian Trade Commission figures indicate that there are about 300 Italian companies with regional headquarters, branch or representative offices in Hong Kong and Macau. A fifth of those deal with consumer products such as clothes and food.
According to the commission, imports from Italy to Hong Kong grew by 5.6 per cent last year, to US$4.02billion. In this period, clothing imports grew by 8.4 per cent and leather apparel by about 10 per cent. Statistics look even better this year. From January to March, imports from Italy grew by 13 per cent compared with the same period last year, totalling US$1.02billion. Over the three-month period, clothing imports from Italy increased by 10 per cent, leather goods by nearly 16 per cent and jewellery products by almost 29 per cent, compared with the first quarter last year.
Valeria Azario, former general manager of Valentino, who has also done marketing for Salvatore Ferragamo, said, 'Hong Kong people have a fascination with high-end brands and Italian ones in particular. They are in awe of the Italian culture.
'There is an incredibly strong background to Italian products. Most Italian companies are still much smaller than luxury-goods companies from other nations. The craftsmanship is still very much there. I also think that because Italian goods are based on quality and simple lines, they transcend time and place.