Last week Thursday, Fabiani opened their renewed Canal Walk aka Century City store as they have been doing to their chain-stores around South Africa, (
click here for their Sandton store). Excited as I was to see what they had done to the store as I had also been to their V&A Waterfront store lauch last year (
click here ) and was very much inpressed with their decor and displays, I was not dissapointed at all. The decor is beautiful, as you know that a Fabiani man is a gentleman. An infused mixture of black and gold with wood trimings everywhere, as thier floor lights are very much greece inspired with gold trimings. Very spacious and welcoming.
As I had my first glass of G.H.MUMM Champagne, Mandiso decided to be manly and take a straight Chivas Regal whiskey, (by the way, we were also served with biltong and NUTS. NUTS? really, who eats that?! i feel like they were only catering for "men" lol ), we walked around the store to get the new fell and how it connects with their summer range. A very colourful collection with summer fabrics such as linen suits and the new collection as mentioned before is from their MBFWCT S/S14 showcase which is based on a Italian Cafe Society and as it is summer and we all know summer comes with a lot of POLO events, they have also infused the POLO feel on their more casual collection.
A better understanding on a store that you dont usually purchase from, thats me, is to interview the people that actually purchase at the store and probably have more that 80% from their closet from Fabiani. So I scratched my bag for my note pad and pen and started my rounds.
Mr Etv Sport ancher himself, Gershawn Coetzee, was impressed with the store and mentioned that he purchases most of his shoes from Fabiani. Quoted "As clothes are made to aspire a person, clothes are also made to make you feel good" and he believes that Fabiani has that element.
Ade Tokata, a working JHB class man who is in Cape Town for work reasons, mentioned what was surprising to me, that the JHB Fabiani store is more formal than casual and how he wished that they had more casual attire. As JHB is more fast paced and suits are what men wear from day to night, work to actually clubbing so Fabiani is where most men go to.
Ashley, who clearly knows alot about Fabiani, he probably has only Fabiani and G-Star in his closet, gave me a more insight on the brands background and how it has slightly changed. He mentioned that Foschini acquired Fabiani in 2011, which I did not know until today, poor me. He mentioned that at first he was cool with it as he knew atleast the brand will still have its exclusive store and not be sold in the mass produced Foschini stores. As from then to now he mentions mostly about the price drop. (I dont know whats with this whole thing of men wanting expensive clothing) but he does nemtion that the quality is still the same.
The evening was full of selfies and beautiful people from Randall to Generation actor (forgot his name), Jimmy Nevis, my fellow bloggers and The Fabiani team.
Images via: Dropbox
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