Molton Brown extends its reach with two new stores

Molton Brown, the luxury cosmetics company, is working with a raft of designers as it opens two flagship stores later this month to support the launch of a range of home and travel goods.

The products are the first comprehensive brand extension for the company and follow the successful launch of a leather travel range earlier this year.

Launching in mid-October, the range includes cashmere and silk robes, travel throws, porcelain candle-holders by ceramicist Sophie Lowe and handmade triple-fired coloured-glass cosmetics bottles designed by Jo Downs.

Packaging for the range pictured is by Jones Knowles Ritchie. According to Molton Brown director of marketing Alison Jordan, JKR was briefed to create packaging that ‘is aesthetically appropriate to this luxury range, but also secure and practical’.

Interiors at the refurbished 74m2 Regent Street store in London and the new Madison Avenue store in New York have been designed in-house by joint managing director Charles Denton and head of store design Yasuda Avery.

The stores aim to communicate a ‘luxury positioning’, says Jordan. They will feature a ‘soft, understated and sophisticated colour palette and more soft texture like carpets instead of wooden floors’, she adds.

‘Quirky, personal touches’, such as unique light fittings and mirrors, have also been introduced.

‘We’re aiming for a democratic, inviting and easy to shop environment, not an intimidating luxury experience,’ Jordan explains.

Window treatments will be largely graphic, jointly created in-house and by Blowfish, which also designed the catalogue.