British Label Me+Em Plants Its Flag at NorthPark Center Dallas in U.S. Retail Push
LONDON — Me+Em, whose customers include the Princess of Wales, Amal Clooney, Olivia Colman and Margot Robbie, is pushing deeper into the U.S. with its fourth store opening, and first mall location, at NorthPark in Dallas.
The store measures more than 2,245 square feet, and comes just a few months after Me+Em opened two units in Manhattan and one in East Hampton.
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The Dallas store was designed in collaboration with American architecture and interior design firm Janson Scuro, and is meant to be a blend of British craftsmanship and American design sensibility.
It features plastered walls, and a soft palette of classic pink. There is a bespoke “feature rail” that allows the staff to highlight the brand’s outfit-building approach, while a haberdashery display table showcases the latest accessories including reversible belts, shearling bucket hats and leather bags made in Italy.
Me+Em is also planning curated monthly edits. For December, the edit includes printed silk shirts, cashmere knitwear and the first arrival of Me+Em’s popular cheesecloth warm weather wear.
Clare Hornby, founder and chief executive officer of Me+Em, said the company has ambitious growth plans for the U.S., and is constantly exploring potential locations for new stores.
“Our [expansion] strategy relies on a mix of data, customer feedback and intuition. With Dallas, we knew from the data that we had an existing customer base there, with a high percentage of VIPs. Anecdotally, it was a city continuously mentioned by customers visiting our other U.S. stores. It was our intuition, however, which led us to the NorthPark Center. It felt like the right setting and brand mix for our ‘modern luxury’ proposition,” she said.
Hornby said the Dallas customer has slightly different needs from other Me+Em customers.
“In Texas, in particular, we know that frequent travel — both nationally and internationally — plays into customers’ shopping behaviors. Where we see these nuances in seasonality and categories we will skew our local store buy to cater specifically to local customer habits,” she said.
The Dallas store comes just a few weeks after the opening of Me+Em’s first London flagship at 4-5 Marylebone High Street. The opening took Me+Em’s U.K. retail tally up to 12 stand-alone stores and further concessions at Harrods and Selfridges.
Me+Em is the latest British brand to play to the Dallas customer.
In October, Burberry opened a temporary British park pavilion at Neiman Marcus NorthPark.
The space, which was open until mid-November, showcased a selection of pieces from the latest menswear and womenswear collections, as well as check scarves, bags and shoes.
Burberry’s Heritage trench took center stage, alongside the latest iterations of the coat by chief creative officer Daniel Lee.
The brand also took its hospitality offer up a notch, offering Earl Grey tea and flapjacks, similar to granola bars, at the pavilion’s “tea hatch.”
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