Category: Fashion

Back in 2008 I posted about how Missoni Hotel was going to open up here in Kuwait and yesterday I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek tour of the place.

I noticed two things when I first walked into the lobby, the first was the amount of colors that filled the place and the second was the cleaning lady vacuuming using a Dyson. The hotel is full of beautiful summer colors and wild fabric designs that magically seem to all work together. I spent the whole time amazed at how tasteful everything was put together, it’s just incredible the amount of thought and work that went into it.

The second thing I noticed as I mentioned earlier was the Dyson vacuum cleaner but I then also spotted Bang & Olufsen speakers in the lobby ceiling followed by Bang & Olufsen TV’s in the hotel rooms. I even spotted Bodum toasters and very cool looking pots and pans in one of the hotel rooms mini kitchenettes. It’s a hotel that’s design driven, from the typeface the hotel room numbers are written in to the power plug sockets in the wall, everywhere you look you see good design which is very rare to see here in Kuwait.

They have 169 rooms so it’s not a small boutique hotel and the majority of their staff are from Italy so really once you walk into the hotel you could easily forget you were in Kuwait. The rooms had some very beautiful furniture which I right away asked if they were going to be available for purchase (turns out they will be). The hotel launches March 1st and they’re located in Salem Mubarek Street opposite American University of Kuwait in the same building where Symphony Mall is. I shot the pictures in this post but they will be sending me some more pictures which I will add to this post once I get them.

Update: Arabian Business has some more pictures which you can check [Here]

Last week I posted about how Go Sport at The Avenues was strangely selling Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister clothing. Well I was emailed some more information regarding this. Turns out the A&F and Hollister items at Go Sport are 100% authentic. Go Sport was given rights by the host brands to sell both A&F and Hollister clothing. The only thing is that their merchandise is last seasons not the latest. Another thing I found out is that Go Sport falls under one of the companies of Al Homaizi Group. I am assuming they will be bringing both those brands to Kuwait in the near future.

Before my slightly deceiving title gets your hopes up, A&F and Hollister are not opening up at the Avenues, or at least I am not aware of it. But, for some odd reason, Go Sport has a small section of Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister clothing.

Some of the items are on sale and they have stuff both for guys and girls. Weird.

Funny t-shirt and it’s being sold on Amazon. [Link]

Thanks G45

A friend of mine was at Marina Mall today and noticed that Massimo Dutti was shutdown. Now what I am curious about is the yellow sticker which you can see above. Whenever I see a shop closed down it’s usually with a red sticker. Does the yellow sticker mean something else?

Thanks Q

Update: A reader responded with the following bit of information..
The red sticker is referring to a violation of MOI rules
The yellow sticker is referring to a legal case

Audemars Piguet, the manufacturer of high end Swiss watches is launching their new and completely revamped store tonight. The store is located in Salhiya and the launch will be at 7PM.

I found this local online store that sells TapouT clothing and gear here in Kuwait. Whenever I wear my Kenny Florian walkout shirt to the gym I always get asked where I got it from and my answer would be the US. Now though I can buy the t-shirts locally and their prices are pretty good. I haven’t ordered from them yet and I emailed them last week asking them if they had a physical store I could go and try the sizes but I still haven’t gotten a response. Not a good sign but it’s cash on delivery so nothing really to worry about. [Link]

Update: I placed an order on the website and received a phone call the following day asking for my address. The items were then delivered to me the same evening. Turns out they have a 15% discount at the moment so the price of a tshirt came out to KD11.900 which is great. Only comment I would have is now that I bought my first tshirt I wish they had an online payment option.

My friend spotted the banner above at Holiday Inn Salmiya. Seems there is a 95% sale on designer brands taking place at their ballroom. I don’t know how long the sale is there for but according to the banner they’re open from 10AM to 10PM.

Thanks Q

Update: Seems today (Wednesday) is their last day

Since we’re on the subject of t-shirts. A friend of mine is selling I Love Q8 t-shirts based on the famous I Love NY icon. It’s good quality stuff since they’re printed in England. You can check them out on his website iloveq8.com

Personally I don’t find anything offensive in this t-shirt but some people do.

Last night I posted a sneak peek of the new Choowy Goowy Cafe that’s opening up at 52 Degrees and today Nat passed by and was able to send me pictures of 52 Degrees as well. The place so far looks really cool and that has a lot to do with the fact it was designed by the Kuwaiti architect Ahmed Al-Baghli, the same guy behind the beautiful MELENZANÈ. Nat on the other hand created the 52 Degrees identity. You can check out some sneak peek pictures below, they are soft launching tonight.

For those of you who don’t know what 52 Degrees is, it’s basically a department store that will be filled with Kuwaiti products and creations from clothing and accessories to food and desserts.

Wallpaper* magazine featured an article on the Octium Jewellery store at 360 Mall. It’s not the first time Kuwait was featured in Wallpaper*, I know of at least one other time since I posted about it [Here]. Too bad the Wallpaper* article doesn’t really show how beautiful the Octium store really is. [Link]

I noticed Sports Corner in Salmiya has a small section with authentic Red Bull Racing Gear. They had a bunch of their Formula 1 branded gear including Vettel tshirts and Red Bull racing caps and polos. For those of you don’t follow Formula 1, this year Vettel who drives a Red Bull car was the champion.

I am not a huge fan of Romain Jerome watches since their style isn’t to my liking but I do like the concept of their DNA series. The ones pictured above are part of the Romain Jerome Titanic DNA collection in which they’ve used steel from the actual Titanic wreck fused with steel from the shipyard in Belfast where the ship was built nearly a hundred years ago to create the rusted watch bezel. You’re literally wearing a part of history on your wrist. They have other DNA collections like the moon dust series in which the watch dial contains mineral dust from the moon while the steel contains fragments from the Apollo XI spacecraft. They even have a Eyjafjallajokull Volcano DNA watch!

Anyway while I was walking through Salhiya on my way to Leila for lunch I spotted the Titanic DNA series in the display window of a shop called Ghaddah in front of LV. I had only seen them in pictures before so it was cool seeing them live. I went in and asked their starting price and if anyone is interested they start at KD3,800 which isn’t too bad considering. Turns out Ghaddah is also the dealer for Richard Mille, now those are watches I really like…

Last week Danderma posted about this hidden place in Kuwait City that sold fake designer items. She was surprised to why the place hadn’t been shut down yet. Well there is a whole shopping mall in the middle of Salmiya with all the stores in the mall selling fake handbags from the likes of Gucci, Channel, Prada and Louis Vuitton. There isn’t a hidden entrance, or a long winding maze to get to these stores. You don’t need to know the salesman so he could reveal the fake bags in a hidden back room. These fake items are proudly displayed in their main window displays and out in the open.

Why is this being allowed? I am sure this is hurting the business of those brands a lot. Why aren’t these stores being shut down and slapped with a heavy fine? The stores are located in Mounira Complex across the street from ABK near Marina Mall in Salmiya. Same complex that has Eastpak/Jansport and Kwik Kopy.