Edinburgh Woos Versace

Edinburgh is to see a new Versace store, as the institutional designer store closes in its sister-city, Glasgow. Developers have held talks aimed at luring the designer boutique - the outfitter of choice for Glasgow celebrities and power-dressers since 1991 - to the Scottish capital. If they succeed, it would be a tremendous coup for the capital, which has already attracted Harvey Nichols, Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein, Daks and Emporio Armani to the Walk development.

Chris Hunt, a fashion writer and former public relations adviser to Versace in the UK, said: "I am really sorry to see Versace pulling out of Ingram Street because it is a really happening place. "The past few years have been a very stressful time for Versace, which has been producing a lot of different collections and they may well be aiming for different customers."

Sarah Davidson, whose family-run clothes shop in Edinburgh was recently named one of the world's leading fashion boutiques, said she believed Versace had failed to keep up with the times. "Versace was such a ground-breaker. This was the first major designer flagship store in Scotland and it was a very brave decision at the time to launch in Glasgow," she said. "It had a huge following among footballers and was very in touch with what was going on in fashion at the time.