PARIS — French accessible luxury brand Ba&sh is opening an elegant new flagship in New York‘s SoHo as it continues its U.S. growth trajectory.
To mark the occasion, the brand is launching a capsule line in collaboration with New York-based designer Maryam Nassir Zadeh. Fronted by a campaign featuring Jessica Stam, styled by Haley Wollens and shot by Brianna Capozzi, the Italian-made collection is called “Elegant Grit.” The store and collection are due to be launched with an official bash Wednesday night.
Bathed in calming cream and neutral shades from interior designer Brandi Howe, the retail location is meant to evoke a “home away from home” feeling, said Desiree Thomas, chief executive officer, North America at Ba&sh.
To that end, Howe created lots of flow, minimal merchandising and plenty of living room-like seating and cozy gathering spaces. It also incorporates New York elements, such as exposed brick and skylights, while keeping the brand’s French roots.
An image from the “Elegant Grit” campaign starring Jessica Stam.
Courtesy BA&SH
The new 2,000-square-foot store also marks a new chapter for the French brand that has been focused on international growth since welcoming private equity firm HLD Group, which took a 70 percent stake in the label in 2022.
“It’s a monumental moment for us,” Thomas said. “We want to be on the map here in North America. You know, we’re six years old [in the U.S.], and we have high hopes that SoHo will help us get there.”
Ba&sh opened its first U.S. store in 2017, which has given the French-bred company time to understand the local market. “We’ve learned a tremendous amount about what works and what doesn’t,” she said.
Armed with that knowledge, it set out to build the flagship with an increased focus on client experience and elevated customer service at a contemporary price point.
Much of that strategy centers around a community table, in the spirit of the family-style client dinners that anchored its first (now shuttered) NoLIta location.
The SoHo table is nestled away in its own section, and will host panel discussions, book signings and poetry readings. The space will also do double duty as a private shopping area for top clients.
Foot traffic at the NoLIta location was about 60 percent tourists, 40 percent local clients, Thomas said. The company expects that mix to be almost equally split in the new location.
“When we think about what really makes our customer tick, we really think about the table, and having everyone have a seat at that table,” she said of the retail and event strategy. “The environment really is very warm and inviting and creates this ecosystem of community.”
Yumi Matsuo Studio / Courtesy BA&SH
“The center of the brand is about creating relationships and going beyond a traditional retail approach,” said global CEO Pierre-Arnaud Grenade.
Hosting events also increases in-store dwell time and strengthens brand loyalty in this “shaky” retail environment, added Grenade.
When HLD Group came on board two years ago, acquiring its majority stake by combining L Catterton’s former 50 percent with the 20 percent of the founders’ remaining holdings, the private equity firm set out to bolster the brand’s international footprint, increase omnichannel sales and launch resale — all of which it has achieved.
At the time, the company also said it intended to double sales within three years from the 300 million euros in turnover it achieved that year. But as market conditions have cooled, that goal has shifted for the time being, Grenade said.
“We are slowing down the growth [targets] and consolidating what we have,” he said. “We are also considering the global environment. There is a lot of instability at this moment. We have to consider [the headwinds] and re-accelerate when things have settled down a little bit.”
The brand will have a total of 15 stand-alone stores alongside 60 points of sale in the U.S. by the end of 2024.
The next two years will add another batch, with a minimum of two openings per year going forward. Fifty-five percent of the brand’s sales are at brick-and-mortar locations, with omnichannel and digital continuing to grow.
Ba&sh also achieved B Corp status in June with a 98 percent rating — the result of a sustainability plan put in place in 2017.
“We were not born sustainable, but we take it very seriously,” Grenade said. “What we don’t say is that [corporate social responsibility] has a cost. CSR is not free of charge. It challenges your margins, requires a lot of energy, time, bandwidth, resources and investment.”
HLD was all in to accelerate the strategy and sees the B Corp certification as “an asset” in its portfolio, Grenade added, despite the challenges.
In addition to cost on the company side, Grenade emphasized that he does not believe the consumer is willing to pay more for a “sustainable” item in the current economic environment.
“When it comes to the price, they almost consider that it is included in the pricing, and especially when it comes to affordable luxury and luxury. So it is our duty to find new ways to do products,” he said.
Yumi Matsuo Studio / Courtesy BA&SH
Ba&sh is also focused on growing its resale program, which is direct-to-consumer on its website in Europe, and operates as peer-to-peer in the U.S. That part of the business is profitable with a 100 percent sellout rate, he said, and the company plans to double the volume of this category.
Based on the success of the European white-label secondhand sales, the company is exploring changing to this model in the U.S. “because we see that there’s a real demand for it,” Grenade said.
The brand is testing new products sourced from regenerative farming practices, such as a new line of wool goods for winter. It has also launched a water conservation strategy to reduce consumption and pollution throughout its supply chain.
Grenade believes the customer will understand water strategy more easily than the conceptual idea of carbon footprint, and the brand will be able to better communicate its sustainability credibility.
Grenade is positive about the company’s growth prospects in China, despite the luxury slowdown there. It has an established presence of 50 directly operated stores in the country. “This is a huge market with huge potential,” he said.
