ne of the country’s largest select shops, which is a kind of mini department store. And it’s just one of several retailers interested in selling Maison de Sabré products in Japan.  “We’re in conversation with a lot of others,” said Omar Sabré, who co-founded Maison de Sabré with his brother Zane and is the brand’s creative director and CEO. “There’s some really exciting developments that are happening in the remaining quarters of the year.” Brothers Omar and Zane Sabré (l to r) started the accessories label in 2017. Image: Supplied Foray into bricks-and-mortar Since launching in 2017, Maison de Sabré has grown into a multi-million dollar global accessories business with dedicated e-commerce sites in Australia and New Zealand, Japan and the US, and an international site that ships to customers around the world. While the business is primarily direct-to-consumer, wholesale is an important part of its strategy in Japan.  “For the Japanese customer, the in-store experience is actually really important,” Sabré explained. “[Wholesale] is going to allow customers to come into stores and have a touch-and-feel experience to understand how our leather feels in the hand, what our colours actually look like in real life and what our personalisation looks like,” Sabré said.  This isn’t the brand’s first experience with bricks-and-mortar retailing. At the end of last year, Maison de Sabré launched a pop-up in Showfields in Miami, where it learned that customers have a “hugely different” response when they see its products in person versus simply viewing them online.  “In the most positive sense,” he said.  Another lesson from the Miami pop-up that the brand is bringing to its bricks-and-mortar debut in Japan is the need to continue driving brand awareness through marketing.  “Just because you have a space, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything’s going to move. Brand awareness is the key in any market,” Sabré said. Focus on Asia Asia is an important region for Maison de Sabré, which has a vision to become the largest personalised leather brand in the world.  “One of the trends we can see globally is that Asia holds a very strong position for many brands,” Sabré said. “Especially in the luxury retail sector, China plays a massive role.” But while Maison de Sabré plans to grow its presence in China over the next six to 12 months, that’s not its sole focus.  “Part of our strategy is to ensure we operate in a reduced risk environment, so we’re not just going to be focusing on market expansion into China,” he said.  Emerging markets, such as Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan, present exciting growth opportunities, according to Sabré. The brand also conducted a trial in South Korea last year that proved to be a valuable learning experience.  “Japan has been a huge testament to the growth that we can have throughout greater Asia,” he said. Luxury credentials As evidence of its ambitions, last month, Maison de Sabré welcomed the former CEO of Louis Vuitton Australia, Philip Corne, to its board of advisors. According to Sabré, Maison de Sabré reminds Corne of the early days of some of the brands he has worked with previously.  “The great thing about having Philip on board is that we have a really synergistic relationship, where he brings a wealth of knowledge from traditional luxury and heritage retail, and we combine that with the way we want to do things in the digital realm,” Sabré said. “It brings the best of both worlds together.”