Hong Kong fashionistas are known to love wearing distinctive designs: the signature boucle tweeds of Chanel, the complex pleats of Issey Miyake - and the showy zigzag knits of Missoni. Indeed, the Italian brand - which was founded in 1953 - is known primarily for its high-end, colourful clothing in brilliant patterns.
But Missoni is making a stamp on the home too, offering an evolving line of rugs and throws, couches and drapes, tapping into a worldwide clientele that already loves the look.
The brand was recently in the news for another reason: for many Americans, Missoni was an inaccessible - and perhaps largely unfamiliar - brand, beloved of celebrities and the style cognoscenti but out of reach of everyone else. Then, several months ago, Target stores began selling the brand, causing something of a run on everything from dinner plates to cushions, jackets and T-shirts emblazoned with the signature zigzag print.
In many of the 1,700 stores across the United States where the Missoni for Target line was being sold, lines formed outside from early morning. Inside, the section was stripped within 30 minutes, pieces popping up on eBay the next day for three times the price.
'It was like a hurricane,' said Rosita Missoni, 79, who founded the illustrious lifestyle brand with her husband Ottavio. 'It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.'
Missoni was in Los Angeles from Milan recently with her family to receive the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award. While there, she also took the opportunity to show the brand's burgeoning home line, which occupies a sizeable back space of its Beverly Hills store: the offerings for the house run from deck chairs and tablecloths to candles and coasters, all with vibrant colours and prints as their leitmotif.