ret to building a multi-million dollar leather goods empire.  The dentists-turned-brand founder duo recalled that what started as a side hustle to pay family expenses became a detail-driven dream business centered on the fine art of craftsmanship. From calf-leather handbags to aesthetically pleasing bag charms, including a limited-edition $11,000 18-karat solid gold charm set with 34 natural diamonds, Maison de Sabré is dedicated to providing its shoppers with the luxurious products and experience that few luxury brands offer today.  “When we boil luxury down, it’s all about creating the purest distillation of an art form that you chose to specialize in, with no compromises,” said CEO Omar Sabré. “Luxury is really like the only type of business globally where you, as an individual, an artist or a creator, can pour 110 per cent of your effort and be rewarded for it. It’s also an industry where you don’t have to take any shortcuts. For us [my brother and I], that was incredibly important. The brand is called Maison de Sabré because it’s really from our house to yours. “When we started on this journey of really crafting the brand, the number one thing that we wanted to ensure was that we were always proud of everything that we put out, as we always stamped and signed everything off with our family name.” From breakdown to breakthrough As the elder brother Omar Sabré told Inside Retail, “The reason we got into this industry was because of a period of hardship.” It began when Zane Sabré, the brand’s would-be co-founder and director, was still in dental school, and several personal tragedies occurred. The Sabré brothers’ father had been diagnosed with leukaemia, and during the course of seeking out treatments, lost his business, which placed the family in a bit of a financial strain.  Omar, a dentist with several years of experience at the time, stepped in to help pay his younger brother’s tuition with his own savings and an idea that would later bloom into a thriving business.  Omar proposed that the two fill in the white space in the luxury market for a high-quality, customizable phone case. As Zane recalled, “At the time, nobody had done a fully leather wrapped phone case with as high a quality of craft and design, aside from Louis Vuitton.” The two decided to go to market with this ubiquitous product while Zane was still in school and Omar was still working as a dentist. In the beginning, the duo promoted this item through influencer marketing as they didn’t have a budget for other methods.  The experience ended up making the brother wear multiple hats, from marketing to product design, which helped give them the best experience firsthand, especially for individuals without a background in the fashion industry. Though in a sense, Omar noted, it was the brothers’ background in dentistry that helped form the fine attention to detail that has helped Maison de Sabré stand out.  “When we think about the way that we’re trained as dentists, and the way that that translates to leather goods,  we’re really taught to look at the micron. In terms of the level of detail that we put in, we think about it at the fraction of a millimeter, for example. “When you drill into a tooth, if you’re off by even three millimeters, you will hit the nerve. So we were used to working at a very tiny scale, and that appreciation for fine detail has translated into what we do every day.” Establishing a lasting legacy in luxury retail  While there are a plethora of brands, from Bobbi Brown to Marc Jacobs, that are named after the founder, that doesn’t make it any less intimidating to name a brand after one’s family. As Omar Sabré told Inside Retail, “For us, that carries a big burden of weight and significance. Because we want to bring a sense of pride to ourselves and to our family as well. Then we also always do the right thing for our clients in our community and our customers as well.” In addition to high-quality products, including limited-edition drops such as an 18k bag charm or a diamond-embellished phone case, the Sabré brothers ensure a luxury feel through a strategic approach to retail expansion.  “The approach that we’ve had to retail has been very selective and very much so handpicked,” said Zane. “The brand has a very clear vision of where we’re going, and we try to take a non-conventional approach to how we look at retail. Rather than opening showrooms and trying to invite buyers. We look at who the top performing luxury retailers in the world are, then we reach out to them and will forge a really special partnership with them that goes above and beyond just being transactional.” For example, the brand’s initial partnership with American retailer Bloomingdale’s, which solely started as an online marketplace option, has transitioned into a multi-location presence.  In addition to Bloomingdale’s, they have partnered with other internationally based luxury retailers, such as France’s Le Bon Marché and Japan’s Tomorrowland.  It’s also not a coincidence that wherever the brand pops up, whether in a temporary activation or a standalone storefront, it’s always located next to a legacy brand, such as Hermès, Celine, or Gucci. Zane noted, “We had to fight extremely hard in the earlier days to get those placements and to be recognized as a luxury name within the industry. What we really want to become is a modern luxury brand that reshapes what luxury means. “For a long time, luxury has always been mostly about heritage. We’re trying to prove a model where heritage doesn’t necessarily need to coexist with building a modern maison. You need to have storytelling skills, a sense of good design and craftsmanship, as well as quality raw materials. I think we’ve been able to achieve all of that in a very short period of time. So, where we see the future and the longevity of the business is going to be with a brand that is probably going to disrupt the luxury industry for the next generation.” Further reading: Why Maison de Sabre is doubling down on the US despite tariff turmoil