Welcome to Setting Up Shop, a series in which we take you around the world to the most dynamic and emerging luxury shopping hubs, introduce you to the customers, and get an understanding of what makes the local market tick.
Atlanta has long been known for its music scene. Over the past decade, it’s emerged as a film and production hub, earning its nickname as the ‘Hollywood of the South’, thanks to Georgia’s film tax credit programme, which was implemented in 2008. The city is continuing to build out its cultural pull, now in the world of sport. In 2026, Atlanta will host eight Fifa World Cup games at its Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will then host the Super Bowl in 2028.
In response, brands are gearing up for more spending in Georgia’s state capital.
With changing industries and incoming residents comes a shift in style. “For so long, the primary thing that a lot of Atlanta wanted was streetwear, or different takes on streetwear,” says Kaegan Gregory, creative content manager and assistant buyer at local luxury boutique Ant/dote. “Now, there is this desire for maturity and a different offering.”
In Atlanta, malls and retail centres are the heart of where many locals hang out. “We’re going up to Lenox; Buckhead afterwards,” Gregory rattles off, referencing indoor mall Lenox Square (which is opposite the other main mall, Phipps Plaza) and outdoor mall Buckhead Village. “It’s such a cultural thing. It’s not a walking city at all,” he says.
Atlanta is one of the most powerful markets for Simon Property Group, which owns both Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza. “It’s a very, very important market,” says Velda Turan, SVP of luxury leasing at Simon Property Group. “Atlanta is powerful for us because of the density of the market, and it’s a vibrant demographic that really appreciates fashion, food, experience — and that’s the perfect recipe when you own shopping centres.”
Atlanta is home to many Fortune 500 companies — including Home Depot, UPS and Coca-Cola — meaning many high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), adds Turan. “Since 2020, the market has exploded from a luxury demand perspective,” she says, adding that there are both extreme wealth and extreme aspirational customers in the city.
With its amped-up film industry (and still-strong music industry), there are also many high-profile individuals, experts say. “You see more celebrities than ever, especially in the mall, just casually chilling,” says Nick Soyemi, assistant store manager at The Webster, who recently moved back to Atlanta after living in New Orleans. (The Webster is located inside Lenox Square mall.)
But Atlanta is also the city with the highest income inequality in America, according to a 2024 study — and white household wealth is 46 times that of Black household wealth, per a 2024 report. The top 20 per cent average income in the city is $384,230; and the top 5 per cent average income is $763,851. The bottom 20 per cent average income is $11,221. This helps explain why so much of the city’s luxury is concentrated around Buckhead, one of Atlanta’s wealthiest areas — and why the city’s sprawl can make it hard for brands to know where to go.
Here, Vogue Business breaks down what you need to know before setting up shop in Atlanta.
The lowdown
If you’re opening up in Atlanta, it’s a safe bet to say you’re heading to the mall. The city’s two main shopping destinations — Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square, both located in the wealthy Buckhead area, about a 20-minute drive from Downtown Atlanta — are both your typical US mall. (The other possibility is outdoor mall Buckhead Village, which was quieter than the indoor malls when Vogue Business was in town.) In this city, convenience is key.
The Atlanta consumer wants an environment that’s easy to navigate, has stores close together, is temperature controlled and hassle-free to park, Turan says.
“I’d rather shop here than Rodeo Drive, because I just like the way the stores are laid out,” says shopper Deborah King, who is fresh from a facial at Phipps Plaza. “I find it very convenient.” Andrew Wallace, who is shopping across the road at Lenox Square while in town for work, agrees. “I think going to New York is great. Fifth Avenue is great, of course, but I have to have the car wait outside, go in and out. Here, you get everything in one place — and it is geared towards the urban style that I like,” he says.
Some shoppers are keen on Buckhead Village, the tree-lined, mixed-use development with a variety of shops, restaurants and housing offerings, for the change of scenery — and the extracurriculars available. “It’s not just about shopping. It’s about what you can do while you shop, right?” says Ashley Small, store manager at Vuori’s Buckhead Village outpost. “You can go grab a French coffee next door. You can go upstairs and get a cocktail and do happy hour. You can go shopping, and then you can just take pictures for Instagram.” Those coming to Buckhead do tend to make a day of it, she adds. “I live in the area, I walk here; I can walk from my apartment. But anybody else, if they’re coming from any other part of Atlanta, the traffic is crazy.”
This can be a win for stores — Vuori recently extended its hours to 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays in response to the post-happy hour rush that they were seeing. “There’s a pop from 5.30pm to 7pm when people who have had a drink come to shop,” Small says. “They were pulling on the doors!”
This all-around pull was enticing for Me+Em founder and CEO Clare Hornby. “The team and I spent a lot of time getting to know the city, as well as the lifestyle of the busy woman that is our customer,” she says. “Where does she go out to eat? What does she do in her free time? Which neighbourhoods does she work in? What does her school run look like, and so on. This really helps to build a picture of who she is and the right location to be in.” Buckhead’s mix of boutiques and restaurants was a winner, she says.
But when it comes down to convenience, malls win out. “I find Buckhead Village to be a little bit less convenient,” shopper King says. “And if the weather’s not great, you’re spending your time in the parking lot.” That said, King has just come from the outdoor mall because she wanted to go to the Theory store, and had to take something back to the Vuori store for her husband.
Lauren Amos, founder of Ant/dote (which stands on its own, an industrial-looking white-washed building on the side of the road in Atlanta’s West Midtown neighbourhood; a destination in and of itself) gets it, even if she isn’t a fan of the mall herself. “You can go from one to another to another to another. And I get it in Atlanta. Maybe it feels safer,” Amos says. “It’s a one-stop shop, but there’s just something about [the] indoor lighting, no sense of what’s happening outdoors. It feels like an antiquated shopping experience.”
Atlantans like to dress up. Part of this comes down to the city not being a walking city, Gregory suggests. “I have a friend who lives in New York, and he’s like, can I wear this and not look like an asshole on the subway?” he laughs. “Here, if you’re driving in a car or Uber somewhere, you roll up and you manage to get out, and then you’re fine.”
Multiple shoppers and retail managers describe Atlantan style as “eclectic”. Tiffany Tankersley, store manager at The Webster, says her clients are “bold, daring and confident”. “They love to make a statement. They’re not afraid of monograms or logos. They know how to make an entrance,” Small says.
Consumers are keen on more niche labels, versus the Louis Vuittons and the Guccis (though these still do numbers in the city, Turan says.) “In Atlanta, they appreciate all the brands. I think they’ve been overlooked for a while,” The Webster’s Soyemi says. “So us carrying Jean Paul Gaultier, Pucci for women, those are things to get really excited about. Learning about Christopher Esber, they fall in love with it,” he adds. “For men, Rick Owens is huge here; Enfants Riches Déprimés is blowing up. All of that.”
Amos has picked up on the same thing, and endeavours to offer locals something they can’t find elsewhere at Ant/dote. “Our customer base is looking for design,” she says. “You can go to the mall and you can go into the Balenciaga store and buy the Balenciaga logo-all-over stuff,” she says. “You’re just not going to find it with us. Our person may go and shop for shoes somewhere else, or shop for a watch or whatever in Buckhead, but they’re coming to us because they’re looking for something different.”
Stylist Xavier Frith, while shopping for one of his clients, says that independent stores have been a win for the city’s retail scene. “Everything isn’t just the big chain stores. I feel like you get more expression in [indie] stores like this.”
This is the goal, Gregory says. “People are so ready for this. They’re already shopping in New York for fashion stuff and wearing that shit. They just need someplace here to buy it,” he explains. “We’re providing people what they’re already looking for.”
Here, storytelling is key. When we speak, Amos is preparing for a Viktor Rolf trunk show the store is hosting for its ready-to-wear. “We’ve invited a bunch of clients, I think they’re really excited,” she says. “They’re going to get to meet the designers and hang out at the store. I feel like there’s more pressure on us to create really special stuff.”
It’s a refreshing break in the way many Atlantans shop, which is online. Multiple shoppers I spoke with said that, if they weren’t in a rush to receive a product, they tended to go digital — it’s where they find a lot of the brand before seeing it in-person. Many Vuori customers say they’ve been shopping the label online for years when they come in, Small says. The Webster opened in Atlanta last year because the city was long in The Webster’s top five e-commerce cities, founder and CEO Laure Heriard Dubreuil told Vogue Business.
Now, many of The Webster’s local clients come in almost weekly, Tankersley says. “A lot of the brands that we have in the store, they’re not readily available in the market and [clients are] looking for the newness,” she says. To meet this demand, The Webster receives new product almost weekly. “It did so well online, and then you offer that in-store experience and relationship — it increases [sales].”
This signals an opportunity for brands — especially independent and contemporary labels — who have yet to open in Atlanta.
Contemporary brands are drawn to Buckhead, with both Me+Em and Hill House Home opening in the coming months. Me+Em’s Atlanta location will be the brand’s sixth US outpost — and its first in the Southeastern region. “When it comes to deciding the location of future stores, we always trust the combination of data and gut instinct,” she says. “We could see that we had a strong existing client base in Atlanta, and, along with customer feedback, we knew that there was an opportunity for a boutique.”
Buckhead is emerging as a go-to for contemporary brands — current residents include Theory and Rag Bone in fashion, as well as Diptyque and Le Labo in beauty. Planned openings signal that the area holds pull for contemporary labels. That said, there’s room for a new luxury offering in Atlanta. Buckhead Village aimed to be this, locals say, but it didn’t quite take off.
Hermès moved from Buckhead Village to Phipps Plaza in November 2024. The relocation was driven by the brand’s need to expand its footprint, thanks to growing business in the city. There were no other viable spaces that met Hermès’s needs. Turan, from Simon Property, says that the Hermès store is already beating expectations.
The mall holds power in Atlanta more so than in other cities, locals say. “Atlanta is one of the few places where the mall still exists,” Amos says. She’s not sure whether it would unanimously be brands’ first choice. “I think people have just done it because it’s easy,” she says. Fashion houses keen to open up outside of the mall have approached her for alternatives, Amos says — but isn’t sure how to answer when asked what she tells them.
There’s room for a new development, experts say. “There’s no other development in Atlanta that has brought in fashion designers,” Amos explains, wondering if developers are gun shy after Buckhead didn’t manage to capture the luxury real estate it had hoped. “Something needs to happen.”
Meet the shoppers
Harper-Knox came to Phipps Plaza to buy a pair of pink and silver Bottega Veneta sneakers she’d been eyeing, as well as a pair from Louis Vuitton. “I bought other stuff, too. It’s just still in my car,” she says. “I only come to Phipps and Lenox when I’m getting a higher ticket item — I’m usually an online girl.” But Harper-Knox couldn’t wait for these to be delivered — she needs them for an upcoming Vybz Kartel concert, adding that she prefers to buy pricier items IRL.
King was the executive director of a charitable foundation in Arkansas (where she met her husband), before moving to Atlanta to retire in 2012. She’s just left the Neiman Marcus inside Phipps Plaza where she got a La Prairie facial. When she lived in Arkansas, she’d fly to New York or Chicago to shop. “I had never been to Atlanta until I met [my husband],” she says. “I realised it has evolved.” King notes how nice people are in the stores. “That’s what I really like, too, because having shopped in different cities, I’ve just found that it’s not always the case. [It depends] if you’re carrying the right bag or have on the right shoes as to whether they’re going to pay attention to you.”
Stylist Frith, who goes by Style by Zay, is at Ant/dote to find some looks for a client who is going to the BET Awards. “I need something edgy, something that’s going to catch the eye of fashion houses for my client,” he says. Born and raised in Atlanta, Frith usually comes to Ant/dote to shop, but also has reps at Neiman Marcus and Saks.
Wallace, who hails from Philadelphia but is in town from Puerto Rico, where he lives, is here for business (he owns a home care agency that provides in-home support for seniors and disabled people). “We’re expanding into the area, so that’s why I’m here,” he explains. Wallace is browsing shirts at The Webster. “I was actually shopping for a watch, but I walked past and got distracted — it looked very pretty.” Lenox Square, where The Webster is located, is also home to Omega, Rolex and watch dealer Mayors. “I think this is one of the best malls in the country,” he adds. “I always bring an extra suitcase.”
City quirks
“I feel like Atlanta’s always been a staple for fashion. We set trends, respectfully,” says Frith. This is a common sentiment among folks shopping around Atlanta’s main hubs, as well as those working in retail. “The Atlanta shopper isn’t just following trends. They’re really setting the tone,” says Vuori’s Small. Because of this, retailers need to stay in close touch with the local scene, Amos says. “People here are like, I’m doing my own thing despite whatever somebody else is telling me. And if you tell me to do it, I’m going to do the opposite,” she laughs.
Atlantans also tend to dislike matching with others, locals add. “What matters the most is being first to wear it, knowing how to wear it in the best way,” Small says. Because of this, retail in Atlanta is very “buy-now, wear-now”, Ant/dote’s Gregory says. “It’s the girls that are going out to just party that night,” he adds.
Day or night, Atlantans like to go all out in the look department. One reason? Atlanta brunch. “Atlanta brunch is such a thing, so you’ll see people in crazy head-to-toe looks at 11am,” Gregory says. And it’s not just brunch. Much of the dressing in the city is driven by occasion, says The Webster’s Tankersley, who adds that this makes for a fun client (who often comes in on the day of an event, or before a flight, she adds). Because so many of the city’s stores — and many restaurants — are centralised in and around the malls, you’ll find shoppers in full looks there, too, Gregory adds. “People dress up to go to grocery stores. People dress up to go to the mall, because so much shopping and hanging out happens in malls here.”
In terms of what’s changed the most about shopping in the city, luxury is no longer for the older generation, believes Harper-Knox. “People were coming into Bottega getting their prom shoes. They’re in high school. My sister has these,” she says, referring to the sneakers she bought. “Designer doesn’t have an age group, you know what I’m saying? People who don’t have jobs, like kids, they still come to this mall and buy this stuff.”
Store tracker
Place your bets
Even though, right now, malls reign supreme, there’s space in Atlanta for luxury development — in terms of brands entering the bricks-and-mortar market, and the real estate developments to house new entrants.
Consumers are keen for more in-person shopping options. One shopper at Buckhead Village came to look at some Theory items that she’d originally seen online (she bought a couple). She tends to shop more online than in-person, she says — but not not because of preference. “I feel like there are a lot more things online,” she says. “There’s not as much supply here, you don’t see as much. I hear in other cities there’s more supply — I think there’s definitely demand [in Atlanta]. There just aren’t a lot of options if you need something quickly, like for a wedding.”
There may be room for development challengers beyond the mall, but for now, Simon Property Group is keen to get into bed with contemporary labels seeking to enter the Atlanta market — another sign that there’s value in opening up shop. “We’re already in conversations,” Turan says. “We should have the Khaites here, the Totemes, those brands that you see in the big streets or [on] Melrose Avenue, even Rodeo Drive. We have the demand here for sure in the customer.”
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