Think the Department store is Dead. Think Again!
DASLU: Latin America's retail crown, which has been clothing the city's elite since 1958, has garnered even more attention for its recent move to swankier digs. Its new outpost is a custom-built, $50-million Italianate villa designed by architects Ricardo De Marco and Chinho de Luca.
Customer service is legendary: Spiffily attired porters greet you at the door, each customer is assigned a "Dasluzete," or shopgirl, maids in starched white uniforms serve bottomless flutes of Veuve Clicquot or espresso shots, and golf carts transport you across the decadent marble floor to the various in-store boutiques (there are 40 of them, including Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Chanel). Perhaps Daslu's most notable feature is that a good portion of the store is off-limits to men—the bulk of the space is given over to women's clothing, and since there are no dressing rooms, shoppers disrobe next to the racks. A hi-tech department is filled with everything from Bang & Olufsen audio systems to Aston Martin convertibles.
Rub shopping shoulders with: Fashion-world bigwigs, including designers (Valentino, Stefano Gabbana), photographers (Mario Testino), and models (Gisele Bundchen), plus South American socialites, and loaded, label-hungry Paulistas.
Daslu will definitely be a social fashion explosion during the upcoming Summer Olympics in Brazil.
See it, Love it, Daslu it!
