PARIS — Accessories boutiques that sell a range of merchandise, from hats to bags, are experiencing a renaissance here as several independent European designers have set up shop.
“I saw it as an opportunity to present my universe and the interrelation between collections,” said jewelry designer Servane Gaxotte, who has been in business for a decade and opened her first store, a 200-square-foot unit, in September in the Saint Germain district.
Business has grown for the designer since she introduced high-end materials such as crystal, onyx and ebony four seasons ago to the line, known for its articulated tin-plated doll pendants.
“Despite having increased my prices by around 40 percent, I landed significant new accounts such as Blue Tree in New York and Bird in Los Angeles,” said Gaxotte, whose jewelry sells for about $250 per item.
“The boutique means I can also present display ideas for my collections,” added Gaxotte, who feels consumers usually only get half the picture behind accessories brands because of the way they’re edited by multibrand stores.
Emboldened by robust sales, approximately 25 percent higher than last year, seven-year-old jewelry brand Corpus Christi opened its first store of about 400 square feet in Montmartre in October. The shop’s candlelit interior, inspired by a Scandinavian hunting chalet, is designed to communicate the mood of the brand. Items such as Corpus Christi’s sculpted coral and silver skull bracelets, around $450, are displayed with antlers, stuffed animals and cuckoo clocks.Founder Thierry Gougenot plans to host special events, such as masked balls, to boost foot traffic.
For Gougenot, the boutique represents a step toward gaining control over distribution. “[Wholesale orders] can be canceled at the very last minute,” he said, “and having a boutique means I can create more elaborate pieces to my own rhythm.”
Gougenot is crafting a luxury jewelry and belt line, for example, for spring. A second boutique is to open soon in Barcelona and a bag line is planned for 2008. The brand, already distributed at around 60 doors in the U.S., including Dernier Cri in New York and Leo in Miami, wants to open a New York unit next year.
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“People are tiring of the whole ubiquitous fast-fashion approach,” Gougenot said.
Leather goods brand Abaco, which was founded in 1987, opened its second boutique here last month, a 300-square-foot shop in the Marais district. Raquel Achache, designer for the brand, said customers are seeking to build a relationship with mono brands once again. She said the mood was a reaction to what she calls the “Kleenex phenomenon,” women buying and tossing accessories like hankies.
Achache said customers are after accessories that stand out from the pack, a trend she credited for a 40 percent or so rise in sales per year since the launch of the artisanal bag line four years ago. Achache, a former makeup artist, developed her own range of leathers dyed in powdery hues for the line.
It’s a creative approach she extended to the boutique’s decor, which features metallic stone slabs, industrial shelving and antique mirrors picked up in flea markets. Achache is creating a lounge space where customers will be able to drink tea.
“It’s about creating intimacy, a departure from generic multibrand environments such as department stores,” she said.
Michel Schwarz, president of Retail Transform, a Paris consultancy firm specializing in distribution strategies, cautioned that there are risks for independents opening stores.
“Brands who are used to only dealing with wholesale often find they don’t actually have enough stock to fill a boutique, or are caught up by the extra costs of hiring personnel or meeting the rent,” he said. “The key is to be able to carefully exploit a retail space.”
He added, however, that opening a boutique is a popular route to greater exposure in a saturated market.
“There’s been such a bombardment of niche accessory brands recently that people can’t keep track of them,” he said. “The result is like having too many candidates at an election: The votes get shared.”
Family-owned Italian hat brand Grevi Mode, founded in 1875 in Signa near Florence, opened a 500-square-foot store here in September just to gain exposure.
“It’s a big investment for us as hats don’t produce as high a turnover as shoes or bags, but it’s an essential way of marking us out against competitors,” said the brand’s fourth-generation owner, Giuseppe Grevi.
Determined to feather-dust the fuddy-duddy stigma attached to traditional hat stores, Grevi called upon architect Angela Ardisson to create a contemporary interior with artisanal flourishes. Modern prints by artists such as Mondrian line the shelves, set off by a mosaic floor depicting lilies, the symbol of Florence.
“Artisanal know-how is our force, and the store has to reflect that,” Grevi said.
The firm has created hats for fashion designers such as Dolce & Gabbana and Jean Paul Gaultier, and the store is a way for the brand to assert an identity under its own name.
“It’s thanks to the catwalk that accessories are flourishing, but it’s essential for independent brands to assert their own take on the market,” said Grevi, whose spring line features easy summer hats made from cotton and straw, priced from $150 to $300. “And what better window for showcasing that than Paris?”