The Estée Lauder division of the Estée Lauder Cos. unveiled a gleaming, brightly lit new counter at the 59th Street flagship of Bloomingdale’s Monday that offers a combination of modernity along with the brand’s heritage.
The crisp lines of the 900-square-foot counter are sleek and modern and set off by a faceted mirrored makeup table that is said to have been inspired by the late Estée Lauder’s dressing table. The table features illuminated makeup mirrors and has seats for six customers with blue suede upholstered chairs for beauty consultations.
John Demsey, one of Estée Lauder’s group presidents, who oversees the Lauder brand among others, pointed to the blue carpeting that evokes the style of the company founder. And he noted the touches of home decor.
The design offers a contemporary interpretation in exuding warmth and hominess of the brand’s inherent personality. Demsey, who was a department manager at Bloomingdale’s 25 years ago, reminisced Monday about seeing Mrs. Lauder come onto the floor to do makeup consultations with customers. By including homey, warm touches, such as the carpet and upholstery details, the overall design is meant to project the brand’s heritage. Demsey added that this personal aesthetic made the Lauder counters “different from everything else and we are seeing a return to that.”
Aerin Lauder, senior vice president and creative director of Estée Lauder, who oversaw the counter design, called it “the perfect blend of luxury, heritage and service.”
In addition, for the first time, Lauder’s Re-Nutriv franchise, the brand’s first high-priced aspirational skin care line, has been given its own area, complete with signage and consultation area that used to be a cash-wrap desk. “The brand has powerful franchises,” Demsey said, “it’s just a question of getting the merchandising and communication.”
Lauder has redone a handful of other counters around the world, most recently in La Rinascente in Milan, but also in two stores in Tokyo and in Macy’s in South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif. In those cases, the special Re-Nutriv treatment spurred a 25 percent increase in treatment sales and “lifted the whole counter.” In the case of Bloomingdale’s, the Re-Nutriv increase could be as high as 30 percent. That section of the counter features platinum-leafed walls with gold accents meant to reflect the upscale quality of the Re-Nutriv packaging. A key factor is the importance of the beauty advisers, who “went to style boot camp,” Demsey joked.
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Thia Breen, president of Estée Lauder Americas and global business development, said the brand’s gift-with-purchase promotion was coordinated with the new counter opening. No one had thought the gwp promotion could hit $500,000, Breen noted, but it came in at $534,000, a 17 percent increase.
She predicted the new counter will generate “north of $4 million” in retail sales in its first year. That would be a 5 percent increase.
Michael Gould, chairman and chief executive officer of Bloomingdale’s, praised the counter as “much more open, substantially more updated and more upscale.” Gould asserted, “it looks more spacious and more livable.” The new design represents a better use of space and better use of lighting — brighter and more pinpointed, he said.
According to Lauder, gold lamps on the showcases were meant to suggest elegance, but elsewhere, oversized light boxes were used to flood the area with clean, crisp white light to give the best color rendition for products. The look is finished off with white lacquered walls for a clean, contemporary effect.
During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Gould underscored the historic importance of the store’s relationship with Lauder and pointed out that the counter is still located at “the corner entrance of our number-one door.”
The new counter appears to be the latest step in what Gould sees of the transformation of Bloomingdale’s into a full-fledged specialty store. He said that less than one-third of Bloomingdale’s sales volume is generated by the kind of merchandise found in department stores. “Two years ago, that figure was over 50 percent,” he added.
Nearby, Bloomingdale’s was getting ready to unveil its first La Mer shop in the 59th Street flagship, an SK-II area, its first Philosophy shop and an expanded Benefit installation. Also, a Stila area has been relocated.