The Australian skincare brand Aesop – known for its Instagram-friendly shops and cult natural products – opened a new store in the heart of Kreuzberg, on a typically scruffy residential corner. We spoke to Thomas Buisson, Aesop’s European General Manager on his endearingly non-business-like approach to picking the next location to set-up shop.
So Thomas, let’s start with London, you have a store in Redchurch street? The model for urban gentrification…
It’s such a great shopping street now, but when we first opened people told us we were crazy to open a store there! But we always approach picking a location in a really natural way. There was no big ‘urban development’ plan, we just had an office near and we had a great community, like the guys from the Rochelle canteen. We opened the store to use as a sort of ‘laboratory’ to try things out as it was next to the office, and then the crowds came, mostly on the weekend because of Columbia Road Flower Market, then ad agencies started opening and now our neighbours are Versace!
So it really was a group of friends who just happened to be in the same place at the same time?
Exactly. As simple as that. I even introduced my friend Nicholas Brooke at Sunspel (British heritage basics brand) to come down and look at property on the street and he loved it, and now their shop is doing so well and they are opening a new one near our Berlin Mitte store this year!
who suggested to open a store near Kotti?
Yes, the Aseop Mitte store…it’s beautiful. Talk us through how you chose that location?
It was our first store in Germany and it did incredibly well. The German market has been great for us – it’s like a diesel car, you fill it up and it just keeps ticking over. We have just opened in Hannover and of course, the new Kreuzberg store. We always work with local designers and architects, and go from the buildings original use-case. We design shops to last forever. They are all unique, you will never see an Aesop store having a seasonal refit. We worked with the architects, Weiss Heiten – they are locals and suggested the neighbourhood to us. From an outsider’s perspective it was on the wrong end of the street, but we loved the playground next door, and the bakery with all the creative crowd getting their bread for breakfast.
What was the inspiration for the design of the Mitte store?
We took influence from the U-Bahn tiles and Gerhard Richter’s abstract canvases. It was originally meant to be the place we did all the online orders from, that’s why it has a huge back area, but it was so popular with customers we extended and had to open another space for that. That’s the main reason we have opened the Kreuzberg store…
So if the architects recommended you to open in Mitte, who suggested to open a store near Kotti?
It was the store manager in Mitte. She lives on the street and said that’s where most creatives in Berlin actually live. We went down and it felt right. The store is built to accommodate our online stock – that is the main focus, but it still felt right to put it in that neighbourhood. Like the store in Broadway Market – it’s us saying we believe in this area.
Wait? You have a store on Broadway Market – I missed that one?
Yes! It’s deliberately discreet as it is in an area that is sensitive to gentrification. But we have had great feedback and the shop fit works with the street. We strive to get the right balance between enhancing an area, while also respecting its individuality.
Aesop, Forster Str. 47, 10999 Berlin