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Arche celebrates 50 years with travelling pop-up store, new collection
Arche is turning 50. It's a birthday that the French leather company and shoe brand, founded in 1968, will celebrate with a travelling pop-up store called 'Arche68'. The symbolic name encompasses both an itinerant boutique, as well as an exclusive collection.
"Karim Rashid is behind the design concept which will be set up in New York in March, in Paris on rue de Poitou (in the Marais) in May, then Berlin in September and finally, Tokyo in October. Inside, our revisited iconic pieces will be the focus and a personalisation service for boots and ballet flats will also available," explained Catherine Hélaine, who heads up the family-run firm, alongside her brother.
The Arche68 concept will also be replicated online.
"Communication will be at the core of 2018, we want to make Arche known and pay homage to our origins," added Hélaine.
Its origins are rooted in Touraine, where seven out of ten pairs of Arche shoes still come out of its founding factory in Château-Renaud; the rest being made in the brand's Croatian workshop.
Recognised for their asymmetric details and the use of colour, Arche shoes (priced from 170 to 600 euros a pair for women) have for a longtime now been a major export for the brand. The brand makes 75% of sales overseas, not including sales made from its Chinese subsidiary, which opened in Shanghai last decade.
"In China, we have 150 stores under the Achette name, with Arche registered in the country," said Hélaine.
Outside its 450 multibrand retail network, Arche sells its premium collection of men's and women's shoes and leathergoods within 40 namesake stores across the globe, the most recent store opening taking place in the US (a historic market for the brand) on the nation's west coast in Beverley Hills. In France, the brand boasts 16 stores.
In a tense consumer accessories market, the brand recorded a stable turnover of 42 million euros. The goal now is to strengthen in North America and Asia, and to later conquer new markets such as India and Africa.
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