When A House Is A Home

With the introduction of a home fragrance series and Southeast Asia’s first Casa Loewe boutique in Singapore, there’s evidently more to Loewe than luxury fashion.

- Asri Jasman

Stepping into most Loewe boutiques in the past six years has been a starkly different experience than before. I vividly remember the look of Loewe’s 2013 flagship at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. It was covered almost entirely in various hues of wood, with a solid dark-wood table placed right smack in the middle of the boutique’s entrance, an assortment of the house’s leather bags neatly displayed on it. And in the background was a wall arrangement of bags floating atop a glass-top display. Step further inside and one would be flanked by more of Loewe’s collection of leather goods, each side dedicated to either the men’s or women’s segment.

Product was the main focus of Loewe boutiques pre-creative director Jonathan Anderson; it is, after all, the reason why physical boutiques exist in the first place. But that age-old concept no longer works in an era where shopping for luxury can be easily done online. A luxury boutique needs to function more than just an avenue to push product and sales, and Anderson fully understands this.

“The idea of Casa Loewe is a living space, it is reflective of the collection. It is a moving space, not something precious like a gallery; it is more of a home landscape,” Anderson tells me.

It’s this approach to a luxury boutique—one that would typically very often seem intimidatingly imposing and elitist—that has softened both the interior and the vibe of each space.