The Estée Lauder-owned premium fragrance brand, often called “slow perfumery”, Le Labo, has opened its second Beijing store. Like when it opened its fourth Shanghai shop, the brand further explores the culture of the city and has chosen a traditional Beijing-style siheyuan (四合院) courtyard at number 19 WF Central to be its latest home.
The store is located at the restored siheyuan mansion of Prince Pulun, cousin of the last Emperor of China, Puyi. Le Labo spent more than a year designing and refurbishing the space while maintaining its original structure. The store opening on 17 May also included interactive touchpoints such as calligraphy lessons and paper wish writing.
With a theme of “home”, the shop is divided into three areas according to the houses of the courtyard layout. The main house is modelled after traditional Chinese medicine pharmacies with wooden shelves displaying Le Labo products, as well as tote bags, perfumery ingredients, beakers and measuring cups. The east side house is dedicated to personal care, with washing products, hand and body creams. The west side house is designed as a meeting place for guests to feel at home. Home fragrance, lifestyle books and the Le Journal newspaper from the brand are also on display.
The brand has been expanding in China. This June marks the second anniversary of Le Labo’s first store in China, now joined by 12 additional locations across 7 cities. The Le Labo on Wheels pop-up is also ready to make another appearance in the seaside community of Aranya near Beijing this month. The fragrance maker has been deeply localising, or hyper-localising, its offline presence to the cities it opens in and turns them into “cultural spaces” like the siheyuan store in Beijing. Its “one tactic per store” strategy helps provide uniqueness to each location and “emotional value” for both locals and visitors. This gives them an edge against homegrown Chinese brands, from premium ones like DOCUMENTS to “white label”, “affordable substitutes” and dupes.