Prada, the iconic Italian luxury fashion house, has opened its first "concept store" in the world — and it's in Waikiki.

It's not the first time the fashion leader and innovator, under the direction of designer Miuccia Prada, has made retail-space news. Prada hired avant-garde architect Rem Koolhaas to design the company's flagship New York store in SoHo. In that space, opened in 2001, the merchandise acts as art installation as much as buyable clothing.

Honolulu's two-story, 4,950-square-foot flagship store was designed by Roberto Baciocchi. The Arrezo, Italy-based architect juxtaposes historic Prada features such as a black-and-white marble chessboard floor with a shimmering interior of sea foam green and mirrors reminiscent of the inside of a Pipeline wave.

Waikiki was chosen for Prada's first global concept store because Hawai'i is the source of enthusiastic buyers, said Sebastian Suhl, CEO of Prada Asia Pacific, speaking by phone from his office in Hong Kong.

"Sales, historically, are comparable to a small country's sales," Suhl said. "Also, it's good for our image. Waikiki is an upscale market and an international market."

Cori Mackie, manager of the Prada Waikiki store, also emphasized that Prada treats Hawai'i as a unique and valuable market. "We do our own buy in Milan," she said.

One more reason Prada chose Hawai'i for its first concept store is that Miuccia Prada's husband and business partner, Patrizio Bertelli, visited the Islands recently and fell in love with the environment, Mackie said.

While 90 percent of the store's business used to be from Japanese visitors, the customer mix has been changing, Mackie said. There have been many months when the percentage of Japanese shoppers has been 70 percent or even less.

The Waikiki manager said the store is seeing a distinct increase in local and Mainland customers. This makes anticipating the mix of sizes needed one of the greatest challenges.

So yes, Hawai'i does have a tailored product mix, distinguishing our store's fare from that of, say, New York or Paris.

"We have very large collections that allow us to adapt to each area," Suhl said. "We try to factor in the taste of people and, of course, the weather. Hawai'i now has a wide range of product and all the best of Prada."

Where is Prada going? Suhl singled out the handbags in its PreCollection, due in Honolulu stores next month, including the Tessuto Gaufre collection of big soft leather bags with lots of pleats, and the Tessuto Oro collection, featuring bags in gold with white and other colors.

Shoes, which appeared in the September issues of Vogue and Elle, are extreme platforms in black and metallics with lots of hardware that would be right at home in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward, or Chinatown on a First Friday.

For spring, Suhl said, expect lots of brights and primary colors such as blue, red and yellow.

Prada plans to increase community outreach and to support the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The move reflects the philosophy of Miuccia Prada, whose foundation supports artists in Italy.

Reach Paula Rath at paularath@aol.com.