The Revival Of Retail

There is nothing quite like browsing through a physical store full of curiosities and beautiful things. Is that why we are seeing a resurgence of luxury boutiques?

- Deepali Nandwani

Remember the time when everyone was talking about the death of the stand-alone store? Expensive real estate, especially in the luxury segment, the shifting consumer focus to online retail and new technology threatened the very existence of a luxury boutique store, which, to an entire generation of shoppers, was more than just a mere space to pick up accessories or clothes.

The buzz is that retail never really died; it is reinventing itself in the age of digital disruption. Dilmad Ahmed, CEO, Retail Property Trends, a real estate consultancy firm based in Delhi, says that what is dead is boring retail. “Many stores shut shop in 2017,” he says. “But many opened their doors at the end of 2017 and in early 2018. The ones that have shut shop are the kind that had been sailing in the sea of mediocrity and sameness for a long time.”

Boutique stores are like Aladdin’s caves; you never know what you will find within the treasures they accumulate. We tracked a few stores that have either opened up or reinvented, moved and found new footing over the last few months.

Among them is The Silver Room, an expansive boutique by the grand old man of Indian luxury, Dilip Doshi. This is the gentleman who first brought Mont Blanc to India, when the country hadn’t even woken up to the word ‘luxury’. Located on the second floor of The Trident Hotel Galleria at Nariman Point, the store is dedicated to things beyond silver. Adil Ahmad of The Palace Collection designed it to resemble a palatial living room. It stocks Greggio, a luxurious Italian silver brand dating back to 1882, but also crystal glassware from Moser, which is almost 160 years old, indulgent handcrafted Globe-Trotter luggage, and the Linari fragrance range, sold in pretty glass flacons made from the finest French glass.