Welcome To The Hypebeast Hotel
Take your pick of reasons why traditional retail is struggling. Stores don’t offer the same comfort as your couch. They can be out of the way and filled with people you don’t feel like talking to, or maybe they’re too crowded, noisy, or inaccessible. So stores are changing. Today’s retailers, like a needy friend, want more of your time than ever: they beg you to come over and play basketball, relax and sip a coffee or, if you’d like, why don’t you stay for supper? The tees on the table are available to buy, but increasingly, so is the table, and the rug you’re standing on. You like the art on the wall? Please, it’s yours. (For a price.) The next wave of retail wants—needs!—to take the customer-store relationship to the next level. Now, that means building out full apartments to go along with a storefront so customers can spend the night. That’s what’s on offer from a new store in Washington D.C. from four-year-old Atlanta-based retailer A Ma Maniére, which offers three floors of shopping—and, directly next door to racks of Raf Simons, Off-White, and Fear of God, rooms that customers can rent out. A Ma Maniére wants to sell space like it’s an item from one of those hyped designers. Read more at GQ.
