He may be coming late to the party, but Roberto Cavalli has plans to open a store in China, most probably in Shanghai and Beijing. The master of animal print designs and flowing long dresses was in Singapore today to show his collection as part of the Audi Fashion Festival. Speaking at a press conference, Cavalli said he was also hoping to open a store in Singapore. Earlier this year, Cavalli opened its third shop-in-a-shop in a Japanese department store. The House of Cavalli, which had always been managed by the family, abandoned talks last year with private equity fund Clessidra on selling a 30 percent stake, and hired a new management team last September with CEO Gianluca Brozzetti. Revenue at Cavalli declined 22 percent to 174.7 million euro last year, hurt by unpaid royalties from the Just Cavalli line in the first half of the year and a 27 percent drop in sales in the U.S. Just Cavalli is manufactured under license by Ittierre, a unit of IT Holding, which went into government-backed administration last February. Brozzetti could not give a timeline on the new plans, only saying negotiations were now well underway for China. Plans for more Cavalli hotels in the Middle East, which had been put on ice because of the economic crisis, are now being revisited, he said. There is already a Cavalli Club in Dubai. "We're preparing to go into an expansion, but step by step," he said. The designer did confirm he is planning to expand the home line, which would be sold in his Roberto Cavalli stores. A new book on Cavalli’s 40 years in fashion will be published the first week of October.
