Retailers News South Africa

Porsche Design zooms into Hyde Park

South Africa is about to get the second new concept Porsche Design retail store in the world, after Singapore, as the global luxury brand open its first South African store in Hyde Park Corner, Johannesburg in November 2011. Every element of the store is being designed and manufactured abroad to the brand's specifications, before being flown to South Africa for installation.

South Africans will be able to experience the brand's hallmark of classic luxury and stark modernity, with a portfolio of products from watches, sunglasses, luggage, writing instruments, leather goods, electronics, a sports line, men's and ladies fashion collections to yachts and architecture.

The Porsche Design Group founded in 1972, was formed primarily to exploit the potential of the Porsche name in business areas unrelated to the auto industry and to continue the lifework of Ferdinand Alexander Porsche.

In that same year, Porsche established his own design studio where he channelled his passion for functionality believing that "if you analyse the function of an object, its form often becomes obvious," the credo for his classic designs of what he quips to be "all things men consider important," and adds that "design is not simply art, it is elegance of function."

"His lines on paper, his eye for detail, his unmistakable feel for overall effect - all of these things have contributed to his reputation as a world-class designer," says Dr Juergen Gessler, CEO of the Porsche Design Group. The purism demands authenticity and discards anything that is unnecessary or superfluous. "A product that is coherent in form requires no embellishment. It is enhanced by the purity of its form," says Porsche, who firmly believes "good design must be honest."

The Porsche Design studio, based in Zell am See in Austria, has since its beginning received more than 130 national and international design prizes and awards. There are over 111 stores world-wide.

Go to www.porsche-design.com for more of what's to come.

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