Wellness is reshaping the way we live and design our living spaces.
In fact, in an interview with Forbes, Khoi Vo, Executive Director of the American Society of Interior Designers, said wellness is “the most significant trend impacting single-family residential design right now.”
This is good news for Italian luxury furnishings company Gessi, which specializes in creating wellness-focused home and leisure environments with luxury bathroom and kitchen faucets and accessories.
The 30-year-old brand recently opened its first US showroom in the heart of New York City’s SoHo shopping district, located at 214 Lafayette Street in New York.
Gessi currently has six showrooms spread across the globe, which they refer to as casas—a nod to luxury fashion brands’ ateliers, which are also often referred to as “houses.”
At each casa, Gessi works to redefine the hospitality-focused experience its showrooms provide. The new location in New York, for instance, displays a mix of history and modernity, integrating the five-story building’s history and architecture with Gessi’s design-focused aesthetic.
“There are different layers to the space and a storytelling journey that visitors experience as they move from floor to floor. From the outside, you see the building’s neoclassic facade with graffiti on the door, which gives the experience a ‘wow’ factor when you step inside,” said Ilaria Sacchi, Showroom Manager at Casa Gessi New York.
Each floor that makes up the SoHo building’s 13,000 square footage has a purpose in the storytelling journey Gessi aims to create for visitors. For example, there’s a full-sized pool on the second floor, which is being retrofitted to showcase a variety of Gessi’s wellness fixtures alongside the complementary water feature.
On this same floor, visitors will also find a counter experience that mimics a jewelry store experience, where Gessi representatives put on gloves to showcase fixtures up close for customers’ inspection.
The third floor is dedicated to the boutique, with trunks showcasing Gessi’s “haute culture” premium product line. Other floors provide spaces for entertainment, meeting rooms, workspaces, and an outdoor terrace where clients can relax, eat, and sip on a cocktail during their visit.
For the Gessi team, finding the right building in SoHo was no easy feat. The team surveyed 156 different sites across NYC before settling on the Lafayette Street location. “We like buildings with a twist,” said Andrea Portigliotti, Gessi’s Chief Commercial Officer. “So we wanted a space with history behind it, as well as unique architectural characteristics.”
Gessi CEO Gianluca Gessi sees Casa Gessi showrooms as an experiential hub for the company’s faucets and other high-end fixtures. Every Casa Gessi characterizes the brand’s private wellness philosophy with various touchpoints that allow visitors to experience this via video, one-to-one storytelling, and getting hands-on with their product.
214 Lafayette Street embodies that with origins as a power plant; it later evolved into a residential space for celebrities like Coldplay’s Chris Martin and model Heidi Klum, and served as the set for Beyoncé’s 2008 “Halo” music video.
That said, it’s a major investment for Gessi, as Lower Manhattan, where the SoHo district is located, entails high commercial real estate costs. There, the median sale price averages $650 per square foot.
To deepen their commitment to the US market, Gessi also established a US-based supply chain outside their core manufacturing hub in Italy to be able to deliver their products within 24 hours, meeting the expectations of 61.3% of American consumers who expect and are willing to pay for next-day delivery.
Gessi also leverages this space for in-person events and experiences, which taps into the 91% of customers who reported more positive feelings about brands following a memorable experience or attending an event.
These events play into the brand’s experiential retail strategy–from the 500-guest launch party to partnerships with fellow Italian luxury brands to private events like yoga classes on the building’s terrace.
The events aren’t just about showcasing products; they also work to create and build a community hub for Gessi’s NYC-based luxury consumers wherein they can meet and interact with their target demographic.
Looking forward, Gessi has significant expansion plans that include the West Coast, Canada, and Mexico for additional showroom locations. Gessi also plans to open a branded hotel near the company’s headquarters in Italy to demonstrate the many ways the design community can make use of their products.
As Michael Miraflor, Chief Brand Officer at Hannah Grey, noted, “So much about the typical American retail experience has been stripped of human touch over the past few decades. What luxury retail has always done well is the opposite of this trajectory, making the experience warm by ensuring that physical retail feels personal and customer-centric.”
Gessi’s approach leans into this philosophy by creating a luxury retail environment that fosters relationship-building and experiential shopping, which translates into meaningful, memorable buying experiences.
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