LONDON — Ahead of its 10th anniversary next year, luxury handbag brand DeMellier is opening its first stand-alone store in Hugo Boss’ former home on Sloane Square.
DeMellier’s founder, Mireia Llusia-Lindh, tapped the residential architect Nicolas Schuybroek to create a space that felt like a stylish home with vintage furniture, photography and architecture books and original work by female artists.
The 3,230-square-foot space, which opens on Saturday, spans two floors with the ground level meant to resemble a living room. There are fabric-covered club chairs, dark tables made from glazed Italian lava stone, ceramics and books displayed here and there and the bags placed on marble shelves like chic design objects.
Downstairs is more like the dining room, with a long, dark table made from reclaimed wood and chairs by the French furniture designer Pierre Chapo. The plan is to use the space for “dinners and conversations” with friends of the brand.
On the same floor, there’s a “craft corner,” a large, bespoke chest of drawers covered in the same leather as the sleek, streamlined and logo-less DeMellier bags.
Inside each drawer is a story of craft. One contains leather-cutting tools, another curved needles and bits of leather showing the different types of stitching that go into the bags. A film plays on a linen-covered wall nearby, showing artisans at the DeMellier factories in Italy and Spain making the bags.
The store features oak wooden floors, mineral plaster walls, raw travertine shelves, linen accents and furniture by Axel Einar Hjorth, George Nakashima and Lina Bo Bardi. The calming, tone-on-tone abstract paintings upstairs and downstairs are by the British painter Susan Gunn.
In an interview, Llusia-Lindh said she wanted everything to feel warm and tactile and to welcome the women who’ve been buying her bags.
“This is the first time our customers can truly step inside our world. The flagship gives us the opportunity to meet them in person, welcome them into our home and show them a much deeper expression of who we are — from our collections and craftsmanship to the values behind the brand,” she said.
Llusia-Lindh was adamant that the store feel like a home.
“I feel a lot of the retail spaces are quite impersonal — a bit like a museum and very glossy. Instead, I wanted this store to convey our values and to be a place you want to spend time in. I wanted it elevated, but also approachable, which is why I chose Nicolas. I love his residential work,” she said.
Schuybroek said he saw the store as “a sequence of inhabited rooms,” and wanted the handbags to be displayed “within niches, on shelves and pieces of furniture almost as collected objects, discovered gradually as one moves through the space. The result is an interior to inhabit: warm, tactile and quiet, where the architecture and the collection become part of the same domestic landscape.”
DeMellier has built a strong following on the back of its quiet luxury aesthetic and bags that are designed by an all-female team. Llusia-Lindh said she wants the designs to “complement women, not overshadow them, which is why our aesthetic is timeless. That’s integral to the brand.”
The brand has become a favorite of the Princess of Wales who is often snapped wearing the Mini Hudson handle-top bag, while actresses including Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep have been spotted wearing large and small versions of the various styles.
The London-based company closed its financial year at the end of July with 56 million pounds in revenue and is profitable. It is backed by The Equity Studio, which was founded by Anna Sweeting.
DeMellier started as a direct-to-consumer business and still does 80 percent of sales online, with the remaining 20 percent at stores including Galeries Lafayette, Neiman Marcus, Net-a-porter, Selfridges and Mytheresa.
Llusia-Lindh immediately cut out the middlemen, went directly to factories and aspired to make a luxury product while keeping a lid on prices — and giving back. The brand’s leathers are byproducts of the food chain, and it never destroys unsold pieces. Wherever possible, leftover materials are reused or donated to local apprentice schools.
The new Sloane bag, which is made from folded leather with no visible stitching, costs 585 pounds for the large version and 540 pounds for the smaller one. Both styles are made from fine Italian leather, gold-rated by the Leather Working Group, a U.K.-based nonprofit that promotes sustainable standards in the industry. The style is in-store exclusive.
DeMellier also has a charitable angle called A Bag, A Life. The brand donates a portion of every sale to SOS Children’s Villages to fund vaccines and medical treatments for children in need.
At the Sloane Square store, customers will receive a personalized card sharing how their purchase contributes to the initiative. They’ll also receive a leather key-chain that can be embossed with initials at the craft corner downstairs.
Llusia-Lindh said London is just the beginning. The plan is to open stand-alone stores in other major cities, alongside department store concessions. She said the London store will be a learning experience, and she can’t wait to start meeting the customers.