From interactive experiences and traveling exhibitions to new product lines, luxury brands are deepening customer engagement by creating immersive, enchanting worlds.
Luxury brands are always on the lookout for new ways to engage shoppers and catch their attention. Some of them have leaned into curating lifestyle environments that encompass their design ethos in new ways. These brands have found ways to create fully immersive worlds that span product categories and showcase all of their offerings. In one example, a luxury fashion house could introduce furniture and accompanying accessories to join customers at home.
Giorgio Armani’s collection “Echoes From the World” sampled this concept earlier this year at the Armani/Casa boutique at Salone del Mobile in Milan. The luxury fashion house exhibited a furniture line dreamed up as a cinematic journey through the countries that have most inspired the designer. Whether highlighting a sofa or a console, his dresses were a through line in the presentation—a midnight blue and silver strapless gown stood next to a navy bar cabinet with foliage-embroidered grosgrain fabric door panels inspired by Middle Eastern cultures.
LOEWE commissioned 24 international artists to craft a series of lamps for “LOEWE Lamps,” their showing at Salone del Mobile. One of the featured artists, Kenyan-born British ceramicist Dame Magdalene Odundo, created a suspended lamp using leather curled into sharp peaks—a departure from the rounded forms she is associated with. The aim of the collection was to showcase LOEWE’s dedication to working with and investing in artists, which makes a full-circle connection to the artistry and craftsmanship that goes into its clothing.
Louis Vuitton’s “Visionary Journeys” celebrates 150 years of creativity with a four-part exhibit featuring 96 vintage trunks and iconic artist collaborations, reflecting the growing trend of experiential retail (Photo by Karn Tantiwitayapitak courtesy of Louis Vuitton)
Some brands turn to the latest technologies for their immersive experiences. In 2022, Salvatore Ferragamo introduced a hologram sneaker program at its Greene Street store in New York that allowed guests to design a personalized version of its latest unisex styles. Guests could choose from 40 different variations, including adding initials and selecting desired colorways.
In 2023, watch brand Audemars Piguet partnered with the world leader in immersive virtual reality, Dreamscape Immersive, to create an immersive forest inspired by the brand’s birthplace, Vallée de Joux. Titled “The Clockwork Forest,” participants equipped with VR headsets and motion sensors were transported to this imaginary mechanical world, as avatars, to restore the course of time before the destruction of nature could occur.
Other luxury brands still turn to art. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the serpentine form (its most famous icon) in 2022, Bulgari employed Turkish-American artist Refik Anadol to create an AI-generated artwork that showcased the infinite facets of an ever-changing snake for an exhibit called “Serpenti Metamorphosis” at London’s Saatchi Gallery.
Left: A look from Giorgio Armani’s “Echoes From The World” Collection (Photo courtesy of Armani)
Right: “Gucci Cosmos,” designed by Es Devlin and curated by Maria Luisa Frisa, which unveils over a century of Gucci’s innovation through archival treasures, highlighting how the brand has both mirrored and shaped the times (Photo courtesy of GUCCI)
That same year, Bottega Veneta designer Matthieu Blazy commissioned Italian-born artist Gaetano Pesce to create 400 candy-colored cotton and resin chairs for Blazy’s second-ever fashion show for the house. The collaboration’s success led Pesce to create a line of kelly green Intrecciato bags inspired by the landscapes of his childhood and displayed in a resin-and-fabric grotto at the Milan store.
Innovation doesn’t mean that some brands ignore tradition, however. They lean on their heritage to connect past glories to current status. In 2023, Gucci released “Cosmos,” a traveling archive designed by artist Es Devlin and fashion theorist Maria Luisa Frisa that chronicled 102 years of how the design studio has both mirrored the times we live in and defined them.
The current rendition of “Visionary Journeys” by Louis Vuitton is a four-part exhibit in Bangkok that applauds the house’s 150 years of creativity. The experience includes a tunnel laden with 96 vintage trunks and a look back at some of Louis Vuitton’s most successful artist collaborations, including those with Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami, and Stephen Sprouse.
According to a CX Trends report, 61% of customers are excited about experiences that allow them to express themselves and create positive memories. Judging by the numbers, more and more brand worlds are sure to appear across the retail landscape.
