Yesterday I was in the Free Trade Zone and noticed that they recently demolished the Villa Moda building. It’s so sad since the whole concept and design was so ahead of it’s time when it opened 20 years ago.
I also noticed a bunch of other buildings had also gotten demolished or were in the process of getting demolished in the area, but most were just regular boring office buildings, nothing like Villa Moda.
19 replies on “Villa Moda Was Demolished”
I found a Scalfaro watch (never heard of the brand) at home, but what was interesting is that it was made for Villa Moda. Tried to get some information for it but nothing was found, which was surprising considering the price I found on the box which was KD 1000+
i worked briefly on the design for refurbishment of Villa moda. The whole place was very beautiful and was looking forward for it to be reopened. But then covid happened. i guess they are building pavillion commercial complex in the same location .
For those who were too little back in the 2000s, Villa Moda was the first lifestyle company that makes it to the stock exchange market in Kuwait. It had the one and only Goyard store in the middle east, in addition to bouques for: Gucci, Prada, Fendi, Tom Ford, YvesSaintLaurent (back then), Dolce and Gabbana, Marni, MiuMiu, Etro, Ferragamo, Bottega Veneta in addition to mens and womens multi-brand departments and a jeans bar. They had a lovely cafe as well. Later they sold Vertu and Aston Martin as well.
They did many collabs, I remember when they sold Kuwaiti dishdasha by Tom Ford.
Lots of memories.
didn’t they face a counterfeit issue with brands? or am I mistaken?
that was fake news, Villa Moda was a department store housing authorized stores. So it’s an actual Gucci store inside not some random shop buying and reselling Gucci products.
It’s funny I still remember what music they played, the shopping bags and the shopping card that you had to use to checkout (pay and collect your items at the front desk).
I was part of the construction team of the VM HQ then was managing the facility for years.
Heart breaking news. 😭
Villa Moda- the end of an era. Sad to see it go.
The only silver lining to a dark cloud is that the Municipality did a good job cleaning up and not let the rubble pile up for days on end as they are won’t to do.
That’s because the company who bought the land is keen to build its new corporate HQ on it as soon as possible
The best thing that used to happen at Villa Moda, were the 50% sale on every single thing in the store
That was always something exciting, considering you probably wont experience something like this anywhere else
Oh yes! Ghazali (60 Road) would be blocked and people would queue to enter the stores. There was an incident that you could still read about if you check the archives of any local paper; 2 ladies had an actual huge fight over a discounted gucci bag.
I also remember that Villa Moda implemented some contol measures to offer a fair experience to their customers during the sale period, they would firstly invite their regulars for a private sale, that is unannounced, followed by mega announcements in all papers (the good old days). If you remember, statement belts were a big deal in the early 2000s, and they were a main target during sale, so Villa Moda offered each customer the opportunity to buy only 1 belt from a given store.
Aside of this, I still miss their club sandwich.
Yeah if you search the blog for villa Moda you’ll find the post about the fight over the bag lol good days
Anything about selling fakes and operating with bogus licenses?
Nope thats just fake news, as i mentioned already, Villa Moda was a department store, so like Bloomingdale or Harvey Nichols. The actual brands had shops inside Villa Moda. Gucci are not gonna sell fake Gucci and Prada isn’t going to sell fakes either.
why did it close?
purchased by a Dubai company, financial crisis hit, that company went broke
I wonder if Villa Moda were a person what would it say right now about it’s premature demis. All that marble and green stone imported from India and Italy gone down the drain. It’s like saying you erect a Zaha Hadid, an Anish Kapoor or a Sir Norman Foster creation first only to have it knocked down in the space of a couple of years. How does that make the architect and designers feel ?
Shame! The building was perfect for a “Museum of Modern Art” and other exhibitions. They could’ve really used the space for something interesting. Unless they are planning on something for that whole area.
With Jaber on that. There was so much potential and scope to re-purpose that space into an art gallery, music academy, carpets museum or even a public library. Would have been tad too big to host a Mclaren car dealership or an Aston Martin showroom but no one would complain. Next time, they think of tearing down a work of art – an architectural icon they might just want to run it past you and your blog to get a sense of the public’s perception.