Mackage launches Paris Fashion Week pop-up ahead of flagship store opening – WWD

Mackage, the Montreal-based luxury lifestyle brand, is opening a pop-up store during Paris Fashion Week as it prepares to open its first flagship store in the French capital. The temporary space designed by Crosby Studios will be open from September 26th to 28th at 5 Cité Dupetit-Thouars in the Marais district.

Walls will be clad in a silver foil pattern inspired by the brand’s signature metallic down puffers to create an immersive, tactile experience reminiscent of the weightlessness of jackets. The space will feature a bed, meant to symbolize the comfort, durability and warmth of the Canadian label’s designs.

“We basically wanted to create this digital-looking space,” said Eran Elfassy, ​​Mackage’s co-founder and creative director, saying that he liked the way Harry Nuriev, founder of Crosby Studios, replaced ordinary elements with bold colors and streamlined Design recontextualized, liked. “We liked his simple yet dramatic approach.”

Mackage Chief Executive Officer Tanya Golesic said Crosby Studios captured the sensuality of the puffer fish. “In the US, we don’t call it a pop-up, we call it a puff-up,” she said. “It’s really about the form and how soft and how dramatic the space is to really use that DNA in a design world.”

The pop-up is a prelude to the November opening of a permanent boutique at 418 rue Saint-Honoré, a stone’s throw from fellow outerwear specialist Canada Goose and across the street from Michael Kors. “Obviously Saint-Honoré is synonymous with luxury, so we’re in an amazing neighborhood of world-class luxury brands,” Golesic said.

Designed by Toronto-based commercial interior design firm Burdifilek, the flagship will feature a color palette that contrasts with industrial materials. “We worked with them to create something in the design that we thought would really complement the coats, something that’s kind of neutral at the same time and not too overpowering, so the coats are pretty much what shines in them Elfassy said.

Mackage is enjoying strong momentum in France, where it is available in 85 outlets including department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, Golesic said. “France is one of our leading countries in terms of volume in Europe,” she said.

“Ski also accounts for a fairly large percentage of our business in France. We have also partnered with two of our wholesale customers and will be hosting ski pop-ups in Courchevel and Megève this winter, continuing to demonstrate the luxury and destination of our brand as our customers travel,” she added.

The brand, which has more than 500 outlets worldwide, including 19 standalone stores, has reported strong growth so far this year, although Golesic declined to confirm an earlier target of 40 per cent sales growth in 2022.

“We are very satisfied with our performance. We’re seeing double-digit year-over-year sales increases, in addition to expansion into other countries like Korea,” she said.

Mackage has seen growth in China and Japan, and is benefiting from strong demand in the US to open more locations, including a planned store in Manhasset, New York, in October. It also plans to upgrade its London store to a larger flagship store due to open next year.

As the company works toward B Corp certification, it has yet to incorporate sustainability into its store design.

“There are so many different boxes that you need to tick in terms of regulations that we have yet to hit, so from a business perspective we’re not there yet, but we’re hoping to announce that in the next 12 to 24 months, quite a comprehensive plan for this very area,” Golesic said.