It’s news when an international brand opens an outpost here. It should be bigger news when one of our homegrown boutiques breaks ground overseas.

 

Itsie-Bitsie Boutique recently opened its first international store in Hong Kong’s The Repulse Bay.

 

Fashion entrepreneur Ines Delgado-Prieto opened the luxury swimwear and one-of-a-kind ready-to-wear store in the family-owned building in Malate in 2001, selling a selection of brands she handpicks from all over the world, including Tibi, Leilani Bishop, Velvet, Calypso by Christiane Celle, Vix, J Brand, Joie, Melissa Odabash, Ondademar, Mara Hoffman and Manuel Canovas—the same brands that are now in her HK outlet. (She has since closed the Malate boutique; Itsie-Bitsie is now in Joya Lofts and Towers at Rockwell Center, Makati).

 

Prieto told us earlier this year that her customers from HK had long been prodding her to set up shop in their city. Coming from denizens of Asia’s shopping capital, that’s saying a lot.

 

“I envisioned Itsie-Bitsie Boutique to have everything you would pack in a suitcase for a holiday, a vacation boutique offering, everything from the sexiest swimwear cuts in solid color or fabulous prints to beaded caftans, vibrant tunics, colorful silk dresses, wardrobe staples plus unique accessories,” she said.

 

Paolo Giachi, who designed the Louis Vuitton and Fendi stores in Florence, was the creative force behind Itsie-Bitsie’s Hong Kong store design.