Corneliani, the high-end Italian menswear brand, opened its first fully-owned flagship store in Shanghai on Wednesday as part of its business expansion plan in China.

The Italian fashion house plans to open 11 more single-brand stores for Chinese consumers in 2013, plus a further 20 boutiques and flagship stores over the coming three years, said Cristiano Corneliani, global sales director of Corneliani.

"The flagship store at Citic Square is the ideal place to present our version of taste to our elegant Chinese customers, people who are more interested in style than showy labels," said Corneliani.

The Far East will play an increasingly central role in the brand's development and international consolidation strategies. It will serve an even more vital function as it continues to evolve at such a fast pace. This huge and very promising market is particularly interested in Italian-made products, he said.

Corneliani's exploration of its ``silk route'' began in 2004 in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang province. This was the backdrop to the opening chapter of its ambitious expansion plan which developed at surprising speed in the following three years.

The company now has 40 stores in the most exclusive shopping malls in 24 Chinese cities with four in Shanghai, said the director.

It will relocate its representative office, which has been located in the city since 2008, into the Citic Square in June 2013 to echo its flagship store.