Kitana Gets a Speedy Start in SoHo

You know how a store will just suddenly appear without warning. We got that  "where did you come from?" feeling  this week when we discovered that Kitana's first U.S. store had magically appeared in the midst of the Zara-Forever 21-A|X cluster on Broadway in SoHo. They opened up so fast that nobody had time to obliterate the remnants of previous tenant Terranova's signage. Combine that with a black decal sign on the window, and it's hard to notice the name of a new store at all.
Though it sounds like a Japanese name, we are told that Kitana is part of the Teddy Group, an Italian company with nearly 500 stores around the world, including previous tenant Terranova. A switchover has taken place which makes a perplexing debut in an important market for these new labels. As they apparently rushed their opening, we can't say much for the décor, or even that there is any to speak of. We hope that's the reason why. The mezzanine space was full of racks, but closed to the public. As for the clothes, most of it runs in the $50 to $300 range so we are guessing that they wanted to beat Spain's MNG by Mango, their likely competitor, out of the starting gate. Everything we saw had a prominent "Made in Italy" label, which should please customers tired and now leery of merchandise made in China or who knows where else. As such, the designers liberally borrow inspiration form their more famous countrymen with a little Gucci here, a bit of Prada there and generous helpings of Cavalli and Dolce & Gabbana. Another confusing point is that most of the goods we saw had the Rinascimento label. Kitana, from what we could discover on line, is actually the label of the brand's plus sized line, yet the store showcases the "trendy girl's clothing" label. Whatever. Finesse is clearly not this store's strong point. We're guessing they will still do just fine with the throngs of eager shoppers that regularly haunt this section of Broadway.
At some point they may want to fix that sign, though.
Kitana 594 Broadway between Houston & Prince Streets, SoHo