Maison de Sabre has opened its first bricks-and-mortar location on Sydney's Pitt St.
The personalised leather accessories label unveiled the 85sqm pop-up store yesterday, marking its first entry into the physical retail space.
The nature-inspired space opened with all the bells and whistles customers could expect from the luxury brand, including a signature scent, visual projections from Sony, real floral arrangements and a soundscape of the Australian landscape.
Speaking to Ragtrader, co-founder and creative director Omar Sabre said the brand wanted to 'wow' its customers with its first store.
"We had a flurry of new business throughout 2020 and we had a lot more precision when it came to understanding what our customers wanted.
"Everything that we do is quite measured and calculated - we don't really do things just on a whim.
"Physical retail in Sydney was a really strategic move for us, to be able to better connect with our customers.
"The way that we've built out our retail presence is really an amalgamation of our experience through digital and translating the touch points that resonate really well and bringing those to the physical environment," he said.
Helping to bring its digital presence to a physical space is real-time personalisation - a key feature from the website the business wanted to replicate in the real world.
"Essentially what we're really trying to do is deconstruct the traditional retail model and build a true omnichannel experience," Sabre said.
"When we look at our retail store one of the things that we're doing is trying to ensure that we can incorporate some of the elements from our online store to our physical retail.
"One of the most important and crucial elements that is our real time personalisation function that we have on our site.
"So, to bring this in-store, we're using dynamic laser projection to allow us to actually personalise the products both in light and colour.
"This happens in real time without the customer ever having to move away or leave the store - everything will be projected in front of them, as they're shopping and curating their collection of leather goods," he said.
But the label isn't stopping there, taking its omnichannel experience to the virtual realm too.
Maison de Sabre has invested in augmented reality (AR) capabilities, which Sabre said will, for lack of a better phrase, "blow your socks off."
"The top level description is that our customers will be able to experience the Sabre showroom in any sort of living room, open space or office that they have, through the augmented reality experience that we've been building.
"It will be a very personalised shopping experience where customers will be able to interact with product in an interactive environment," he said.
Next on the agenda is continued retail expansion, both domestically and internationally.
The business has signed deals with retailers in Japan and will open standalone pop-ups there later in the year.
In the meantime, Maison de Sabre will focus on offering its customers social events in-store to facilitate reconnection with each other and the brand.
The Maison de Sabre pop-up store is open now until July 2021.