InsideLux – The Luxury News Authority

As Singapore recovers from it’s worst-ever recession luxury fashion brands are infiltrating the city in droves as it becomes an increasingly trendy playground for Asia super-rich.
Several new malls have or are soon to open in Singapore’s main shopping belt Orchard Road, which already encompasses over twenty malls, alongside two new casino resorts next year. The new openings are aimed at the Southeast Asian financial centre. Where the world’s highest density of millionaires reside amongst the apartments with luxury-yacht berths and six star hotels. Paul Husband, managing director of Husband Retail Consulting and author of a book on luxury trends in Asia, claims “Singapore offers flagship-style stores and strong facades, so it is a good opportunity to present a brand in an important street that hasn’t seen that much new luxury retailers for some years.”
Orchard Road, which already has over 20 malls, opened its latest offering, the Ion Orchard, In July retailers such as jeweller Harry Winston and designer Diane von Furstenberg opened at the Ion Orchard as well as brands including Louis Vuitton, that already have boutiques in the area. Opening in October the Mandarin Gallery mall, will see stores from world-class designers such as Marc Jacobs and Giorgio Armani, while its neighbour, Knightsbridge, will host 8 to 10 luxury tenants when it opens in May next year. New rival outlets the Marina Bay Sands and Resorts Worlds Sentosa will together house over half a football fields worth of retail space when open in 2010.
In his latest book “Succeeding Like Success: The Affluent Consumers of Asia,” economist Yuwa Hedrick-Wong predicts the number of rich households in Singapore to rise to 31,700 or 2.5 percent of total households by 2015, with each estimated to spend close to $150,000 on discretionary, or non-essential, items. Singapore’s is also a magnet for wealthy Malaysians, Thais and Indonesians, whose ranks are increasing. “This is creating a bigger mass affluent market, dominated by well-educated and therefore more technologically savvy and sophisticated consumers,” Hedrick-Wong wrote in the book.
Although the expansion seems vast, it appears that from a retailing point of view, Singapore’s got, and attracts, more than enough local and Asian shoppers willing to spend on luxury goods.