Four years after launching online, Australian accessories brand Maison de Sabré has opened its first bricks-and-mortar store, an 85-square-metre pop-up on Pitt Street in Sydney that will serve as a testing ground for creative store concepts and services as the brand looks to expand its physical presence around the world. In the past, customers could only purchase the brand’s colourful leather phone cases, wallets and handbags through its global e-commerce sites and retail partners, such as United Arrows in Japan. But now, they’ll also be able to visit Maison de Sabré stores. “Our plan is to really expand our network to have a true omnichannel experience, which will be a collection of on-the-ground physical retail, own retail and an online store experience,” Omar de Sabré, Maison de Sabré’s creative director and CEO, told Inside Retail. While he declined to share many details about the move into own-brand stores, de Sabré confirmed that international locations are on the cards. Outside of the APAC region, the US is a key market for Maison de Sabré. The brand had a pop-up at Showfields in Miami at the end of last year, which helped it identify opportunities to bring the digital experience offline. “We’ve always [been focused on] making our online experience like an offline experience, where we’re giving you a level of service that you would only expect when walking into your favourite store,” de Sabré said. “Now, we’re flipping that on its head and looking at how we bring the online experience into a real-world environment.”Bringing the brand to lifeLaunching on Thursday and running through July, the Pitt Street pop-up aims to bring the brand’s concept of playful luxury to life. “We planned the entire store around three keywords: digital, colour and quality. And we have really put them into every element and facet of the design,” de Sabré said.The first thing customers see when they step inside is an actual flower bed in the middle of the central display. This reflects the fact that all of the colours the brand uses are inspired by nature. Moving further into the store, one wall showcases all of the coloured leathers the brand offers in a veritable rainbow, while another wall displays its signature product, phone cases, floating across an illuminated blue sky.   “It plays into the concept of optimism and the feeling of freedom you have when you’re carrying one of our products,” he explained.Solving the problem with personalised productWhen it comes to digital features, Maison de Sabré has partnered with Sony to create an augmented reality experience that allows customers to fully visualise what a product will look like in their preferred colour and with the monogram of their choosing before they buy it. “One of the problems with having a personalised product in retail is that customers don’t know what it’s going to look like until they purchase it,” de Sabré said.“By having this augmented reality experience where we can project the correct colour and customisations onto our entire product range in front of the customer, they can experience it in real time.” After-hours, the same technology will be used to conduct a lightshow in the store.“For example, you’ll see butterflies going through the store, or you’ll see the store being taken over by flowers,” de Sabré said. The show will incorporate sounds inspired by the Australian landscape and will change each month in line with the brand’s latest campaigns.“There’s never going to really be a dull moment with the store. It’s really going to be the crown jewel of Pitt Street.”Offering in-store eventsBeyond selling products, the pop-up also allows the brand to interact with customers in new ways. According to de Sabré, the brand already has an exciting calendar of in-store events. They potentially include celebrity guests, partnerships with popular dessert brands and classes with floral companies. “It’s about identifying all the lifestyle touch points that our customers want to be engaging with, and then having the dedicated space to be able to provide that for them,” he said.