LONDON — Burberry Beauty Box, a new retail concept that sells the brand’s makeup, fragrance and accessories, has landed in Covent Garden here.
Burberry joins a recent flurry of luxury names setting up shop in the area, and the store is located near Chanel and Dior’s beauty boutiques in the covered piazza. The bijou store is set over two floors, and true to Burberry’s affinity for all things digital, it uses interactive technology to bring its beauty looks to life.
A digital “chandelier” is made up of moving iPad screens suspended from the ceiling. They show seasonal Burberry beauty content, while screens fashioned into the shape of a Burberry check play moving content in the store’s windows.
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Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s chief creative officer and chief executive officer designate, said the Box brings together the brand’s fashion and beauty worlds, “merging physical and digital experiences that allow people to explore and combine Burberry makeup, fragrance and accessories in new, playful and exciting ways.”
The space is fitted with oak herringbone-patterned floors and features an embossed Burberry check motif on the walls. It showcases Burberry Beauty’s full makeup collections in colors inspired by the label’s runway looks.
The label’s fragrances and makeup collections are displayed alongside accessories in exclusive colors that echo the beauty products. Versions of Burberry’s Crush and Petal bags in blush and pink echo the Tender fragrance, while a gold exotic skin clutch chimes with Burberry’s Festive makeup collection.
The Beauty Box Bar has a stylist on hand to advise customers how to combine makeup and accessories purchases, which can then be packaged as gifts.
The store also offers mini-manicures, a fragrance consultation and complementary beauty consultations. Burberry has done away with cash registers, instead having sales associates carry iPhones that process customers’ payments.
The company plans to roll out Beauty Box to more locations. It is the first retail concept to launch after Burberry took its beauty business in-house, acquiring its license rights back from Inter Parfums SA at the end of 2012.