Aquazzura is gearing up for the summer season with a new retail location on the French Riviera.
The luxury footwear label is to open a store in Saint-Tropez next week, in the jet-set destination’s central Place des Lices. The unit adds to the brand’s flagship in Paris, as well as a key presence at prime department stores such as Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché, and further signals the company’s push in the French market.
“Aquazzura itself is very much about the Riviera and celebrating summer This just seemed like the perfect location to keep a conversation with a lot of our clientele, who travel to Saint-Tropez every summer or have homes there and make it their base in Europe,” said Edgardo Osorio, who founded the company in 2012.
“I see an incredible potential in France, not only obviously with the French clients who we work really well with, but also the international one, whether it’s an American, Middle Eastern or European that travels there and shops and spends the summer,” he continued, adding that the brand has been looking for the perfect spot for two years before setting roots on the city’s iconic square. “It’s very visible with a lots of windows,” Osorio teased about the project, revealing that it will mirror the spirit and summery flair of Aquazzura’s store in Capri, rather than the ones opened in the fashion capitals.
To be sure, the new unit was designed in collaboration with Marie-Anne Oudejans, the Dutch artist and creative mind behind the Capri interior concept. The new space channels a seacoast-inspired ambiance with corals and nautical motifs; a color palette hinging on white, aqua and bright coral hues, as well as elements ranging from stripes and rattan details to hand-painted decorations.
Other key elements will include a tented shelving with bamboo and wicker accents, a patterned carpet, ample mirrors decorated with hand-painted seashells and a coral-shaped sculpture standing from a rounded sitting structure, surrounded by aqua-toned pillows.
“I wanted the boutique to feel like a room in a beach house—fresh, summery and happy,” said Osorio, who underscored that at least 30 percent of the assortment showcased in the space will be exclusive to the location. In addition to shoes, the store will also carry the brand’s jewelry line and its handbag collection, which Osorio officially debuted with a bash in Paris last year.
The founder reiterated that Paris has become the most important European luxury city for him and his brand, especially after Brexit. But Osorio is committed in further expanding Aquazzura’s distribution footprint, which currently counts a network of over 300 retailers in 58 countries and standalone stores in top cities including Florence, Milan, Rome, New York, Miami, Doha, Dubai, São Paulo and Taipei, among others.
In particular, Osorio has plans for a further push the Middle East, which is one of the strongest growing areas for the brand. After opening a second store corner in Dubai recently, Aquazzura will unveil an outpost in Bahrain this month, and locations in Kuwait, Riyadh and Jeddah over the summer.
At the same time, Aquazzura will be branching out in the Spanish resort destination of Marbella, after having opened at Galeria Canalejas in Madrid, and make its official debut in India.
The store opening in New Delhi this summer will be strategic for the brand as Osorio sees the market’s potential growing day by day.
“I travel to India every year and I see the country growing and evolving more and more. That client, she might be wearing a sari, but if she’s buying luxury, she’s always wearing a European bag or shoe. So it’s a huge opportunity and we want to be a part of that market early on,” said Osorio, who noted the increasing number of wealthier Indian customers within Aquazzura’s top clients.
“We have a visibility within Bollywood, with local celebrities requesting our shoes all the time. And we do really well with party, bridal and occasion dressing, so just being a part of the incredible bridal market there would be an opportunity on its own,” he noted.
The company’s overarching strategy is to focus on its own standalone stores and e-commerce, embracing a direct-to-consumer approach to secure control on both the narrative and pricing.
Product-wise, collections will have to answer to the needs of the different local markets, climates and overall widening shelf space, as Osorio highlighted how assortment is expanding to cater to customers’ lifestyle not only on special occasion but also for daily use.
“I work together with my merchandising team to make sure that we address all the moments in [clients’] lives… So it’s a much bigger collection than before maybe, but then gets divided by regions according to their needs,” he said.
Ditto for bags, with designs multiplying and the clientele’s feedback encouraging Osorio “to experiment and really go into the DNA of the brand, so for me it’s been a great learning experience.”
For the future, the founder is eying the launch of eyewear and fragrances with specialized partners, while the long gestation of a men’s shoe line – a project he teased several times since the pandemic – is still ongoing.
“I’ve been wanting to do it for a while and it’s definitely something that I would like to do in the next year, year and a half, hopefully,” he said. “I’ve been experimenting with lasts, constructions and different things, and I want to make sure I launch it when I think is the right time. I’m not in a rush. It sometimes needs to sit and hibernate for a while before it sees the light of day, but I’m excited.”
Next on his agenda is the reveal of the brand’s new tableware collection during Salone del Mobile here next week. For the occasion, Aquazzura will add two families to its home line debuted in 2022: a porcelain one defined by Osorio as the new “classic collection, that can be used all year long, in any kind of house,” and a more flamboyant ceramic one, hand-painted by artisans hailing from Southern Italy. Both will be flanked with their own linens and glassware, too.
