The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
NEW YORK, United States — Faith Connexion plans to draw consumers to its first brick-and-mortar store by including them in the design of each piece of clothing.
On-site customisation will be a key feature at the luxury brand's mew flagship, which opens in New York's Soho on Friday, an effort to tap the experience economy and Millennial demand for unique, personalised items.
Chairman and chief executive Alexandre Allard describes the store as “a place where one can distress their jeans [in] real time with our distress creator, ask our local artist to customise their garments, or work with seamstresses to place unique embroidered to a jacket, jeans or a shirt.”
The aim is to offer consumers unique product across menswear, womenswear and accessories — “not another trendy product to dump, a [product] with a meaning." Allard hopes that it will resonate with the brand's “planet-savvy customers.” The store will also champion up-and-coming talent by collaborating with emerging artists and hosting exhibitions.
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“We realised that [opening a store] was the only way to convey our message fully,” Allard tells BoF. “At our store we hope to make our client realise that in a world getting ready for robotic and AI domination, hand made energy will triumph. The digital world is a giant vacuum that will create thirst for physical experiences and human energies.”
The Paris-based brand — which is currently stocked at retailers including Lane Crawford, Browns and 10 Corso Como — chose to set up shop in America because they felt New York best embodied the spirit of its DNA. "Soho is an amazing location where the new Millennials merge with the wealthy traditional from all over the planet," says Allard. "We chose this particular location on Mercer Street because our immediate neighbours are about customisation. Nike Lab 3x1 are inviting clients who like to have something unique. We wanted to contribute and reinforce a special 'made to measure' area on Mercer."
The flagship store comes a time of relatively rapid growth for the company, whose wholesale profits over the past 12 months reached $15 million, a figure the company expects to double in 2018. “The company is developing very organically,” says Allard. “Our tribe is growing. We do not have any particular growth strategy. We just want to make wearable and beautiful products.”
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