From Mykonos beach clubs to Saint-Tropez boardwalks, the Euro summer circuit is an increasingly important playground for luxury brands. But as branded pop-ups in these hotspots have reached saturation, a new model is emerging.
Rather than chasing short bursts of high-season sales, a wave of emerging and independent labels is forging permanent, curated retail partnerships with boutiques in luxury resorts and hotels — turning them into high-value, strategic wholesale accounts. Hunza G’s sales via Agora Six Senses have outstripped those of some of its major New York stockists. Sporty Rich is stocked year round by Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc in the South of France and Le Bristol in Paris. Orlebar Brown’s footprint at Puente Romano in Marbella, Cinta’s presence at Six Senses Ibiza and the roster of brands sold at Palm Heights in the Cayman Islands — from Diotima and Charlotte Chesnais to Christopher John Rogers, Tekla, Marrakshi Life and Bode — all illustrate how destination hotel retail is becoming one of fashion’s most effective distribution strategies.
“Resort boutiques are a really interesting way of breaking into a region without relying on direct-to-consumer or big marketing,” says Hunza G founder and creative director Georgiana Huddart. In the Middle East in particular, partnerships with hotels act as a strategic gateway into a key growth market, she explains. The seasonality is different and, in many ways, more advantageous, too. “European resort boutiques kick off in February, the Middle East stays strong through March, and November/December is huge.”
The global movement of high-spending travellers is one reason hotel retail has evolved far beyond the ‘souvenir shop’ model. Increasingly, luxury properties are curating high-end, fashion-forward assortments that reflect their brand identities and appeal to style-conscious guests from around the world. For fashion labels in a shifting wholesale landscape, these boutiques present a premium sales channel with the potential to build lasting brand equity.
“The hotelier becomes a bit of a cognoscenti — as the concierge is — a reliable, tasteful personal shopper. Luxury shoppers travelling don’t want to bring back luxury goods available at home,” says Marie Driscoll, adjunct professor at The New School in New York and principal advisor at insights firm Rethink Retail. In other words, in an era where global luxury brands are ubiquitous — from flagship cities to airports to other luxury hotels — the true draw lies in discovery. “Like luxury department stores, being in a fine hotel enhances the credibility of still undiscovered brands and provides the consumer with bragging rights along the lines of, ‘I found this delightful little bikini in Marbella, or the fragrance is exclusive to [this hotel],’” adds Driscoll.
For many digital-first brands, this approach also offers a cost-effective alternative to opening flagships or running short-lived pop-ups. “We don’t have physical stores, so this is our way of reaching people and explaining who we are,” says Huddart. “When the brand codes align — clientele, ethos, aesthetic, location — it’s powerful.”
“My only regret is not sending more inventory, because so much sold out in the first few days,” says Shea Marie, founder of swimwear brand Same, on its resort retail strategy.
Making resort retail work
For all its promise, resort retail isn’t simply a matter of placing product in a glamorous hotel shop and watching it sell. “It has a learning curve and is more complicated than typical wholesale orders to department stores and specialty chains,” says Driscoll. Unlike a department store that buys broadly for a season, resort locations require a sharper level of curation — what a guest wants at a ski lodge in Aspen is very different from what they’ll pick up at a spa in New York or a beach hotel in Dubai, for example.
On top of that, the ‘calendar effect’ makes the logistics more complex. Resorts often follow weather or travel-driven cycles rather than traditional fashion seasons, meaning stock needs to be refreshed more frequently and brands must be ready to activate in the right places at the right times.
That’s why Gabriella Khalil, creative director of Grand Cayman’s Palm Heights resort, is constantly updating its roster of brands. “At Palm Heights, retail is a curated extension of our creative world, embodied most vibrantly in Dolores, our in-house concept boutique,” Khalil explains. “We curate limited-edition capsules, exclusive resortwear and drops that feel timely regardless of the season. This flexibility lets us tap into micro-moments — holiday shopping, art residencies, wellness retreats — and ensure that every repeat guest can find something novel. Guests always return to Dolores expecting something new, and we aim to please.”
That commitment to constant renewal has produced a steady stream of high-touch collaborations, from an exclusive Sunset Trunk Show by fine jewellery designer Nina Runsdorf, to a resortwear launch with Emilia Wickstead and an intimate designer pop-up with Nia Thomas, a Mexico-based New York native celebrated for her sustainable, craft-focused fashion.
It underlies one of resort retail’s most powerful levers: exclusivity. In a market oversaturated with globally distributed luxury labels, a ‘you can only get it here’ proposition is a magnet for high-spending travellers. Hunza G has made exclusivity central to its resort strategy, creating property-specific products that double as both mementos and marketing assets. There’s the lime green swimsuit designed for El Silencio in Ibiza to mirror the beach club’s visual identity, a coral hue for Belmond’s Caribbean resort and a sage green style was exclusive for Fouquet’s NYC — the latter selling out online within two days and prompting 150 restock sign-ups.
While resort boutiques currently make up around 20 per cent of Hunza’s wholesale mix, Huddart says their influence is outsized. “The customer acquisition is better and the marketing is more interesting. Traditional wholesalers are more product based — you give them stock, they sell it. There’s less storytelling. With resorts, it’s much more 360.” That 360-degree approach often includes content production, experiential activations and integrated branding. Hunza has shot campaigns at Belmond and hosted curated trips to destinations like El Silencio.
Swimwear brand Same offers items unique to its Saint-Tropez location, like complimentary branded fans for hot days, luggage stickers for travel, baseball caps and coasters in colour palettes inspired by the city. “All these items previously were only for talent staying at the brand house [a pop-up activation in Saint-Tropez last summer], so it made customers feel like they were stepping right into the world of Same,” says founder Marie.
Other hotels focus on ensuring every retail decision reflects the location’s culture and values. At Nobu Hotel Ibiza Bay, general manager José Manuel Molina says the team looks “for niche brands — often independent and hard to find — that share our values of sustainability and authenticity”. He references their recent capsule with clothing brand True Tribe, which was made from recycled and upcycled fabrics. “We also collaborate with local Ibizan artisans to bring the island’s traditions into our Mediterranean resort aesthetic,” he says.
Summer is upon us, and brands are busy setting up shops along beaches and in resorts to make the most of tourist foot traffic. We break down the hot spots.
The best resort boutiques aren’t just about beachwear. “Good hotel stores offer occasion dressing for nightclubs as well as sleepwear and socks,” says Driscoll. “They meet a bevy of needs and in the assortment can introduce new and exciting or vaguely familiar brands.”
This breadth becomes even more important when seasonal shifts change the mood of a property. At Nobu Hotel Ibiza Bay, Molina adapts the offering accordingly. “In the low season, we focus on products that reflect a slower, more introspective pace — loungewear, artisanal home fragrances, wellness items, and activewear that complements our spa and wellness offerings,” Molina says. “We’re building strong relationships with premium activewear labels, as well as niche wellness brands offering mindful living products such as affirmation cards, journals, adaptogenic foods and artisanal teas. These categories complement our slow-living, resort-style philosophy and create meaningful touchpoints that resonate with our guests long after their stay.”
In many ways, resort retail’s evolution mirrors the broader shifts in luxury — away from ubiquity and mass exposure towards intimacy, discovery and deeply contextual storytelling. And for brands, the opportunity is only beginning, says Driscoll. “With traditional wholesale to department stores on the decline, travel retail is a vibrant retail channel providing brand discovery, organic social media moments with the potential to go viral and a new source of growth and profits,” she says.
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