Vera Wang opens in Greece

Designer Vera Wang is opening her first bridal salon in Greece this summer. The boutique in Athens will open in June, followed by an official opening in September. "We had been servicing a number of customers from Athens through our own stores, who had travelled here (New York) to buy our gowns," Susan Sokol, president of Vera Want Apparel Divisions, told WWD. "We did research and found there is a customer in Greece who appreciated Vera Wang's point of view. We felt there was an opportunity."

The bridal salon, which is Wang's core business and how she made a name for herself, will sell bridal gowns and accessories, and eventually her fragrance and home ware pieces. The bridal gowns will retail for an average of EUR4,500. "There are 55,000 weddings a year in Greece," said Sokol. "Of course, we don't expect to address all of those weddings, but we identified terrific partners who are passionate and knowledgeable about the bridal business."

Recently, the company has been aggressively expanding its business internationally. In the past year-and-a-half it has opened bridal salons in Brown Thomas in Dublin; the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore and Shanghai; the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia and in the Shilla Hotel in Seoul, Korea. "We are starting in a focused way to build international opportunities," said Sokol. "It gives us the opportunity to leverage the bridal lifestyle component."