Digital-native brand Aeyde becomes physical.
Launched in 2015, the Berlin-based accessories label has carved out a loyal niche with its stylish, everyday shoes and competitive prices. Now it's about to roll out a series of temporary pop-ups, starting with one at Selfridges in London on Tuesday.
More from WWD"We really see this as a great opportunity to present the brand in a physical space to direct customers for the first time," said Aeyde's co-founder and CEO Luisa Dames, who described Selfridges as "the perfect partner to kick off this series. ."
"London felt like the most suitable city to run this - and Selfridges, as one of the most innovative doors in the department store landscape, is able to really showcase brands and build their own identity into the little corners that have them in the department store. ."
"We are super excited to welcome Aeyde to Selfridges Shoe Galleries, bringing their architectural Berlin roots and understated luxury with modern design to our customers," said Peter Rodwell, the luxury retailer's accessories purchasing manager. "The pop-up will be home to the brand's chic everyday styles, from sought-after flats to boots."
For the occasion, Dames commissioned London-based interior designer and gallery owner Max Radford to translate Aeyde's signature aesthetic, rooted in the Bauhaus and Brutalism movements and the ethos between form and function, into the installation.
"As a brand, we are clearly very focused on our design language and on the core essences of Berlin," said Dames. "For London, we wanted to work with a local designer who can translate our values into a pop-up experience, but who is also familiar with the values of the country. Max Redford is really talented and also sits between the art space and the more commercial design of retail space, which is something we really liked," she said.
The result is that the sleek design depends on metal elements - with a nod to Aeyde's headquarters in Berlin - but in combination with glass and stone details to create a "slightly warmer" feeling, according to Dames.
The collaboration with local design talents will be adopted for the other pop-ups that the brand will roll out. Following Selfridges, a space at Le Bon Marché in Paris will be unveiled at the end of August, taking advantage of the city's visibility and movement in the wake of the Olympic Games.
Still, Aeyde's shoes are already receiving quite a bit of attention, as they are seen on the likes of Taylor Swift, Sydney Sweeney, Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Anitta, to name a few. The Selfridges pop-up will spotlight the Spring 2024 collection - recently promoted with a campaign featuring Lily McMenamy, photographer and model Nella Ngingo and artist Adina Fohlin - as well as the sleek bestsellers. These include the square-toed Uma Mary Janes, the Gabriella satin ballerinas, the Catrina pointed slingback, the Stina kitten heel mules and the Thekla fisherman sandals.
In addition to the accessible and wide range of shoes, with prices between 225 and 745 euros, the brand also offers jewelry and accessories, such as belts and scarves, with retail prices between 145 and 345 euros.
The brand's cool designs and attractive positioning appeal to a consumer aged 25 to 45, who mainly live in major metropolises such as Paris, Milan, New York and Los Angeles. (Dames said the data is based on registrants through Aeyde's online store.)
She also pointed to TikTok as a tool that has boosted the hype around the brand and generated additional sales after an account reviewed the Uma style. She sees this social medium as an additional platform that expands the brand's audience, she said.
Dames said she wants Aeyde to "remain a digital-first brand and focus a lot on that, also in the coming years," citing "the brutal situation of retail" at the moment.
"I prefer to keep the risk lower and focus on what I'm doing really well internally and on my digital channels, where I can reach my customer directly and build my own customer journey," she says. "From the beginning, Aeyde started with a key distribution, which we work exclusively with [about 100] partners. The brand is still quite a niche market in that sense, it is not too overly visible. As a brand owner you have to find this very striking balance and not go too heavy in terms of distribution."
"Still, we wanted to deliver the excitement to our customers around the world [of really experiencing] the brand, to see it and touch it, and you can only generate this in a physical presence, where you can really bring your values to life and show how you want to present your products," she continued. "When you work with a hundred partners all over the world and everyone is present[s] you different in their shopping hall, the brand doesn't look the same when we see it, so for me [the pop-ups are] really a matter of image. And positioning too, because we are next to brands such as Manolo Blahnik and Bottega Veneta."
Aeyde's distribution includes 118 luxury boutiques, department stores and online retailers worldwide, including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Moda Operandi, Net-a-porter, SSense and LuisaViaRoma, among others.
The wholesale channel accounts for 60 percent of the company's total sales, but Dames declined to disclose this. She said sales increased 60 percent last year, thanks to the combination of a cohesive product offering and compelling communications.
In the first quarter of 2024, the US was Aeyde's largest market, accounting for 25 percent of sales. It was followed by the DACH area - consisting of Germany, Austria and Switzerland - and the United Kingdom, which accounted for 20 and 10 percent of Aeyde's turnover respectively.
"The brand is profitable, which is also a great achievement for me as a business owner," said Dames. "So now it's time to think about how we see it in the next phase and how we want to build on this further."
Dames, who has a background in cultural and economic studies and previously worked at Zalando's private label Executive Shoes & Acc. division, said its approach is always based on a "very long-term strategy" and knowing "where you want to be in ten years."
"I'm building this company [thinking] where do I want to go with this brand, where do I want to position myself, which partners do I want to collaborate with and which ones do I want to exclude," she says. "As a brand, it is very important that you are very strongly rooted in yourself and do not look so much in the market at what others are doing....Especially as a business owner, you should not be afraid to deviate from the trend: you must always create risk and essentially believing in what you do."
Dames' vision is to keep Aeyde an accessories house. While she teased further expansion into jewelry and did not rule out a development in bags in the future, she underlined that there is still a lot of potential in the footwear arena, where she sees a polarization between the low-priced and luxury markets. The former offers "affordable or cheap products but made of terrible quality materials," while the latter is characterized by increasingly high prices, she said.
"That is very much about exclusion [customers] and I want to have a brand that involves a lot of different people," says Dames, who also focuses on unisex styles and hopes to add a men's collection.
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