Every retailer wants its physical spaces to feel welcoming, but the newly redesigned Longchamp store in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood takes the notion of hospitality to another level. From the varied textures and smooth curves of the interior design to the thick, comfortable carpeting on the floor, the store, dubbed La Maison Unique, aims to inspire the feeling of visiting a friend’s home.
“When you have friends coming to your house, you take their coats, invite them to sit and offer them coffee or drinks,” said Olivier Cassegrain, Managing Director at the luxury handbag and accessories brand in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “I want people to enjoy the moment and not feel rushed. If you’re here to enjoy the full [retail] experience, we’ll give it to you, but it doesn’t matter if you’re here to shop or just browse, discover and look.”
Cassegrain revealed why Longchamp chose to work again with designer Thomas Heatherwick — who had done the store’s original design in 2006 as well as iconic New York City public structures such as Vessel and Little Island — and how together they collaboratively rethought the shopper journey in the redesigned space, which is now open to the public.
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Retail TouchPoints (RTP): What design elements of this new version of La Maison Unique are most important for creating warm, welcoming feelings?
Olivier Cassegrain: The previous design had been industrial and a bit on the cold side, but this new one is about texture, color and feelings. We played a lot with fabrics, and the furniture looks more like home furniture [than standard retail furniture]. We also hadn’t had carpeting in the store before; it was a wood floor. The print on the carpet is a proprietary Thomas Heatherwick design — you won’t see it anywhere else. It’s a thick carpet that’s comfortable to walk on; it makes you want to stay.
RTP: Why did Longchamp choose the same design firm that had done the original SoHo store for this redesign?
Cassegrain: Thomas is a very creative artist. He had originally come to us [before designing the first version of the store] because he had a handbag design in mind, and he wanted to know which company would be the best one to partner with, so he chose us for the collaboration on his Zip Bag design — a bag built entirely from spirals of zippers that doubles in size when it’s opened. Once we decided [in the early 2000s] to take over the SoHo store location, we saw we had the perfect designer, one who could envision the space and design for this specific location, because it’s not just a store — it’s a piece of artwork.
The relationship has been great over the past 20 years — Heatherwick has always been involved in updates and other projects. He’s part of us and we’re part of him, in a certain way. Because of that ongoing connection and relationship, we didn’t even wonder [about choosing him] when we did the renovation — it wasn’t even a question.
Another reason we went with the original designer is that if you think about a software update, you would want to use the creator of the software to do it. He knows all the basics as well as why something was done a certain way, so he’s the best one to modernize it and introduce new features. He knew the whole space because he had worked on the concept — it’s his creation.
RTP: Has Longchamp always offered customization and personalization capabilities in this store?
Cassegrain: We do a lot of personalization in the store, including with an embossing machine that we had even when I started, a long time ago. For me, [customization services] are the same as taking care of repairs and other types of customer service, but now we make sure we talk about it more. For example, we’ve done product repairs at our factory in France for 60 years, but we never really spoke about it.
Another thing is that, coming out of COVID, everyone realized that we needed both tourists and domestic clients [to be successful]. At Longchamp we’ve been very focused on the local fan base. Customization is easier to offer to these domestic clients because they have the time to return when it’s ready, while tourists don’t have the same flexibility. So particularly for the domestic clients, we want to make sure they have our full range of services.
RTP: You mentioned the store as a piece of artwork. How does the redesign embody that concept?
Cassegrain: When you think about some paintings, often the painters would paint it and paint it — it could take years to finish a painting. They see things a bit differently and change one or two things, so it’s an ongoing project.
As a company that is into design, we’re also respectful of the artist and his work. And as an artist, Thomas Heatherwick has had ideas of things that he could have done differently [in the original design]. So the store represents a genuine evolution of that original design, with the twist of it being a totally new thing.
