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CHANEL Boutique in Kiev, Ukraine - a testimony of how greed can destroy a legendary luxury brand
News 28 March 2010
CHANEL is unique. It is one of the top most respected, admired and envied luxury international brands. It not only has a huge heritage connected to the Goddess of fashion Coco Chanel but is also a testimony that an independent luxury brand can remain independent.
CHANEL is a luxury brand which is included in a category of its own. It can't be even compared with brands such as Hermes, let alone Dior which, after the death of its founder, like all major other brands have become ''luxury companies within large corporate groups''.
That is why, it has come as a shock to ''discover'' a CHANEL flagship boutique which is a disgrace and a shame to everything that the CHANEL brand stands for. This boutique is in Kiev, on the groundfloor of a lackluster early '90 shopping center (not even a mall) called ''Mandarin Plaza'', downtown the Ukrainian capital. The boutique has a corner location with huge windows which follow the architecture of the building and the CHANEL logo posted on some plastic boards makes it look like an outlet shop. The store is huge, over 300 sqm and apparently, market sources, including media, say that Chanel entered the Kiev market with a directly operated store ''thanks'' to the very low rental it received from the owners of this shopping center. Another reason which is widely laughed at in VIP circles is that ''someone'' was hugely rewarded... Was that someone in Chanel or in Ukraine ?