Is there a niche in furniture industry today where interior showrooms could earn good money without investing in the product? For the first time in the European market, a unique brand is setting up a limited network of dealers with golden addresses while investing in the development of their customers.
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Luxury furniture industry is undergoing big changes
With rising production costs inevitably changes in the range of products: with the continuous growth of wages, the cost of electricity, rising prices for raw materials, instability of the world economy. These trends are visible in all industries.
These changes do not bypass the luxury furniture industry. If we trace the transformation of collections of even such brands as Fendi, Lamboghini, Bentley and many others, we observe how their products are simplified in design.
Where does this trend lead manufacturers? Firstly, cost reduction and, as a consequence, simplifying the model range, and therefore cutting purchase prices. This may be a way out for the manufacturer, but it is a temporary solution. It leads to a decrease in revenues. It is impossible to ask high prices for a primitive design.
Now let's see then what starts to happen in retail market. Retailers are forced to follow the same path: product prices may go down, but most importantly, retailers have to put up with reduced profits in the meantime.
Everything would be all right if we were only looking at mass production products. But we are interested in the luxury segment, where brands reign supreme.
Look at the transformation of the most famous furniture exhibition in Milan, Salon del Mobile. This trend of the industry slipping towards IKEA-level design, even if expensive materials are still used. More and more primitive forms. It seems that high design, everything that brands used to be famous for, is simply dying.
What about the high-level showrooms where costs are extremely high? Why do they still come to Milan and spend all day searching every pavilion, trying to find products that they could make high margins on. Where is the product they can ask a high price for, the price that is justified by both the quality and the level of design.
This trend leads to primitive and impersonal interiors, where the very concept of interior design is replaced by mere arrangement of furniture, with painted walls. And all this is given out by the market as lifestyle.
Today, luxury today is called such a property, worth more than a million Euros. And it does not matter what kind of interiors there. The interior is replaced by panoramic views. They are now the interiors. Maybe we allow some exaggeration of the issue, but it does not change the essence.
New brands come in, old brands go out
No place is empty. Someone goes, someone comes. Even today, manufacturers are beginning to understand that this situation can't go on for long. Those annoying grey, beige and brown colours are going away. To attract more attention to the many brands' products, they are starting to launch fundamentally different colours. Partly, this is also a novelty. But it does not solve the main task. And this task is to bring the luxury industry back to its former level. Luxury is not for everybody, its products must be fundamentally different.
In order to do high-end design, besides the talent and unusual vision , it is essential to have high-class artisans who are able to translate the ideas of a talented designer into life. And these can't be solo artisans. Otherwise we would just be dealing with gallery exhibits and no true business could be built on it.
One of these breakout brands positioning itself in the market as an ulta luxury brand is one originally founded for billionaires in Asia, where luxury industry is and has been well ahead of Europe.
Launching the business as a niche brand, and working only through its private channels, today it is taking its breakthrough steps into European markets preparing for a major show at the world's most important platform in Milan - Salon del Mobile.
The balance of labour cost optimisation, the availability of a sufficient number of talented craftsmen and an unusual view of design, rising to the level of art, allows a breakthrough trend of art furniture and art objects to be shown on the market.
Altogether these are capable of creating unusual interiors and enabling retail decorators to finally make a high profit with a logical and digestible purchase price at the factory. The visual look and design of the product seems to be much less than the asking price.
Art furniture and decorative art objects - a new breakthrough trend
The concept of Alexander's Collection is to design a unique environment and a special design that is the dominant feature in any interior. It is a mix of furniture and decorative art objects that perfectly complement each other.
The collections are structured in a way so that the rest of the interior space could be supplemented with any upholstered furniture that does not interrupt the basis of the main composition.
These items play the major role in the interior and guide everything else.
The brand has its own identity and its own distinctive characters. The first rule of design is its singularity, breaking stereotypes both in form and colour. Almost all models use precious wood veneer and 24K gold leaf finishing, giving the models a distinctive charm and visually increasing the value of these items.
Many design ideas drawn from nature and transformed into decorative objects by the artist can compete with exhibits in art galleries.
The principal material for production is still wood, where it is moulded into malleable shapes during the production process. In order to get objects of such a high artistic level, only solid wood and precious veneer or solid wood species are used.
To create decorative panels, the ancient techniques of marquetry and hand-carved wood are revived, unexpectedly boldly used for modern design.