Completed all the way back in 2003, the Villa Moda department store in the Free Trade Zone was way ahead of its time. The building still stands there today but isn’t currently being used although a few years ago I heard a TV station or newspaper was going to take it over.
The owner of Villa Moda was the fashion entrepreneur, Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah who had a vision for a state-of-the-art retail experience. The exterior was designed by Italian architect Pierfrancesco Cravel who came up with the idea of creating the giant glass shell that mimicked the shipping containers in the port nearby. The 12-meter high steel poles in front of the building represented ship masts while sails were used in the parking lot to protect vehicles from the sun.
When Tyler Brûlé, the founder of Wallpaper* magazine heard Sheikh Majed was developing a new department store for luxury brands in Kuwait, he recommended he work with the London based interior designers Eldridge Smerin.
Eldridge Smerin were responsible for the design of Villa Moda’s main entrance area and lounge, public spaces and staircases, two levels of multi-brand fashion space, restaurant and café managed by @capriceholdingsrestaurants, as well as the landscaping around the building.
Villa Moda opened its doors in 2003 housing brands like Gucci, Prada, Bottega Veneta, Salvatore Ferragamo, Fendi, Etro and more. The total duration of the project from conceptual design to construction completion was impressively, less than a year.
For more photos of Villa Moda click here.
The original Villa Moda is still standing and was also ahead of its time (pictured below). The original Villa Moda was located on the Gulf Road opposite where Chilis used to be. Not sure when it opened but I remember going there back in the 90s.
Update: This post has been updated with more precise information. Also the Villa Moda building has now been demolished.
25 replies on “Architecture Highlight: Villa Moda”
I used to love going to Villa Moda, it was such a cool building to be in and their 50% sales were really something
I still can’t understand what caused it to completely shutdown, if anyone knows?
Sold to a Dubai firm and went bust during the 2008 financial crisis.
Never ever any counterfeit product entered in Villa Moda, I was the one who was responsible for receiving the goods from all the brands.
Once there was some story spreaded by some people but that was not truth.
Anyhow we miss Villa Moda so much.
I heard they were selling counterfeit products, and their discounted sales were a way of getting rid of those products. They were also specifically selling originals to western expats and counterfeits to locals (the reason being that locals wouldn’t notice and western expats could travel to other countries and have those products authenticated). I guess they were eventually caught and had to cease operations. Since then, there’s been standalone stores for those specific brands that they were selling unlike how they were the only ones that sold those brands.
Obviously they were NOT selling counterfeit products, it was just a stupid rumor. Villa Moda was a department store that was composed of different official retailers. So anyone saying Villa Moda was selling counterfeit products was basically saying the official Gucci or Prada stores were selling counterfeit products which is ridiculous.
And just to add, those current stand-alone stores you mentioned are still working with Sheikh Majed as part of 360 Style https://www.instagram.com/threesixtystyle/
That story of selling counterfeit goods is definitely false like Mark stated. I never bought that story because it made 0 sense
I remember you once put about that, Mark, that they sold to a Dubai firm but I didn’t know the 2008 financial crisis caused things to go bad. That sucks
Incorrect,
I used to work there.
The architecture of Villa Moda, Kuwait Free Zone was amazing, still one of my favourite mall interiors anywhere in the world. The interior was jaw droppingly beautiful. The boutiques were all fantastic too. You had Tom Ford’s first store outside of his store in New York, Moynat luggage and bag maker from Paris, many the great Parisian couture brands, Louboutin etc etc. My ex adored it. It was the greatest shopping experience in the Middle East. However its location was terrible. It was down in the industrial port area of the city in the Free (trade) Zone. Tens of miles from any other Kuwait City shopping area. No taxi driver knew where it was. Few expats living in Kuwait even discovered it. This was before internet websites and social media websites, so if you didn’t know, you didn’t know about it! It was a very long drive to get there, in an ugly area. So location, location, location. People went to the wander around malls instead with cafes and impulse bought there instead. The post 2008 recession hit the chain hard as it had expanded within Kuwait, adding shops and to Dubai, Doha, Damascus and Cairo. The pre crash purchaser eventually closed it around 2012. What a shame. It was wonderful whilst it lasted, like a short lived desert bloom.
I remember that cafe had a promotion that if you came there wearing black clothes you’d get a 50% discount(?). There was also another Villa Moda branch at the old Kout Mall in Fahaheel that got torn down.
What happened to Sheikh Majed he used to be active on instagram but disappeared a few years ago, I miss his Instagram stories when he went to Cairo.
I really liked the original location, that was next to the old Mais Al Ghanam Restaurant on Gulf Road. It was more intimate and exclusive. The Free Zone location was really cool design.
I think they tried to open a branch in Fahahel Al-Kout – not so cool.
There were a branch in Salmiya Alfanar mall just where shake shack is now
Villa Moda Bahrain was pretty weird https://www.marcelwanders.com/work/villa-moda-bahrain
oh and Villa Moda Mubarakia was cool. It opened in place of an old bank and if you went to the basement you could still see the large wall safe that the bank had used
https://maybe.at/index.php/nggallery/thumbnails?p=148
Oh you have a good memory I forgot about that one! It was awesome.
Many funky businesses turns out to be a money laundering scheme.
I remember my uncle working on this project when I was younger… I never visited this building but the free trade zone had a lot of swanky offices…
Another thing about Villa Moda was that they had a Goyard boutique! Before it really blew up and became famous to most Kuwaitis like it did recently
They also sold Vertus, and I remember the 3rd floor was the outlet and you would always find awesone stuff
Good times
oh i had no idea about their Goyard boutique!
I remember going there when i was a kid, i felt like i was walking into the real world ugly betty and devil wears prada. They should have made a magazine similar to vogue to promote their goods. I did notice the hijabs and niqabs have been on a steep decline since the early 2000s.
Great memories. Thanks Mark and Nasser. I even saw Dolce and Gabana themselves being shown around the Villa Moda in Al Kout by Sheikh Majed. And someone mentioned the sales! Wow, they were amazing. i still have classic pieces from those ‘good old’ days.
Good ol’ days ❤️ spent almost all my Kuwait years working for VillaModa and 360Style, glad to be a part of it 🥰
Mark may I know how much you paid for your concept 2 rowing machine? Thank you
yeah they bought it back in 2016
https://www.boursakuwait.com.kw/news-details/1123/4