LONDON — Orlebar Brown, the luxury men’s resortwear brand owned by Chanel, is always following the sun.
The brand is expanding its retail operations by 18.8 percent by opening nine new stores in sun-drenched locations such as Mexico, Monte Carlo and Thailand.
The brand is making its Asia-Pacific debut with a store in central Phuket on March 14, followed by two more openings in Bangkok at the shopping malls EmQuartier and Icon Siam. And it will also be venturing into retail in Singapore next year.
The Orlebar Brown hut.
“We had a digital foray into China, Japan and South Korea,” said Trevor Hardy, Orlebar Brown’s commercial marketing officer. But despite that, there are no grand plans or an aggressive expansion strategy for China or Japan at this stage.
Instead, the U.S. market is Orlebar Brown’s top priority as it’s growing, and the brand is chasing American customers who travel regularly to the south of France or Italy.
“We invest in physical retail based on where our customers live and where they go on holidays,” said Hardy.
He added that the brand is heavily investing in California. It opened a store in Montecito last year and two additional units recently debuted in Orange County and Newport Beach. A unit in Palo Alto is in the cards for the coming months, followed by another in Brentwood next year.
Orlebar Brown is expanding in the U.S.’s neighboring country Mexico, too, with stores slated to open in Los Cabos and Cancún later this year. In December 2024, the brand opened a cute hut that could have been plucked out of a Disney cartoon on the beach of the St. Regis Kanai Resort in Riviera Maya.
When it comes to expansion in Europe, Orlebar Brown is doubling down on areas visited by high-earning individuals.
A resort look from Orlebar Brown.
In April, it will be opening a store in Monte Carlo and will add a second store in Marbella at the Kimpton Los Monteros.
Hardy has nearly all continents covered, even the Middle East, which is becoming an increasingly important market for Orlebar Brown, he said. The brand has five stores in Dubai and by the end of the year, will have two stores in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
“We’re looking at other parts of the region, too, and there’s a lot of growth in that market because of the locals and the tourists coming in,” said Hardy.
Even so, the development of the Middle East has been a slow and steady one — taking the brand five years to acheive.
“Dubai has been important because it’s a good holiday destination for British people and they have a local audience that comes to London,” said Hardy.
In London, Orlebar Brown has retail spaces in Chelsea, Notting Hill and Mayfair, and the brand is also stocked in Harrods and Selfridges.
The brand’s rigorous retail plan means that its signature soft colors and patterns will be appearing everywhere and if that’s hard to miss, it has been a constant fashion brand on three seasons of “The White Lotus,” which is on TV every Sunday.
