A store designed to feel like a home, but not your home

The story

DeMellier opens its first physical store in London, designed to feel like a stylish home with vintage furniture and art, aiming to create an intimate experience for customers.

Source: wwd.com

Our reading

DeMellier’s new London store is designed to feel like a stylish home, which is exactly what you’d expect from a brand that thinks of its handbags as ‘collected objects.’ The store’s ‘craft corner’ features a bespoke chest of drawers filled with leather-cutting tools and stitching samples, as if customers might want to learn the art of bag-making during their shopping trip. The idea is that the store should feel like a home, but not just any home — a home where the furniture is by George Nakashima and the art is by a British painter named Susan Gunn. It’s not a place to buy a bag, it’s a place to feel like you’ve been invited into the private world of a brand that’s very serious about its aesthetic. And if you do end up buying a bag, you’ll get a leather key-chain that can be embossed with your initials — because nothing says ‘personalized experience’ like a key-chain that’s basically a luxury accessory for your keys.