Luxury Mobile Boutiques

A mobile boutique is a shop built into a trailer that goes to its customers: to a hotel garden, a stockist's parking lot, a market or a food-truck park. The format runs from global luxury retail to one-woman fashion labels, and the reasons for it differ at each end.

Why luxury brands use it

For Mytheresa, a customized Airstream was a clienteling tool. For five weeks in the Hamptons it moved between two hotels, a vineyard and a yacht club, with two days a week reserved for appointments with top clients and one open to the public. The retailer was not saving rent; it was getting closer to the small group of customers who account for a large share of its sales. Of Rare Origin turned the trunk show around, taking an Italian-styled trailer with a spritz bar to six of its stockists, who brought their own clientele. Super Flea Market used an Airstream behind a Porsche as shop, event and sponsorship at once.

Why independents use it

For smaller brands the trailer is a cheaper first store and a test. Nina Berenato sold from a 1959 Airstream Bambi before and alongside her flagship, using it to try new neighborhoods and a new city. Onyx Native went from a minivan to a hand-me-down trailer to a custom one with a fitting room.

Design considerations

The interior is small and often curved, so the edit has to be tight: hanging space, a mirror, somewhere to sit, room for a client and a stylist. Onyx Native found that sales followed two upgrades, first letting customers browse inside, then letting them try clothes on. Mytheresa furnished its trailer with a home-furnishings partner so it would feel like a guest house. The trailer handles touch and fit; the website handles range.