Luxury stores and their immersive, craft-content in-House Experiences

When was the last time you walked into a brick-sand-mortar store? Or Needed to, with the Blinkats, Instamarts, and Amazons Delivering Everything to your Doorstep? But despite the digital convenience, luxury retail is enticing people to step into physical spaces by evolving beyond transactions into sensory, immersive experiences – part atelier, part ateller, Part Shrine to Tradition.

“It’s all about immersion. Today’s Consumer Wants Spaces that Reveal The ‘Why’ Behind What they’re Taking Home,” Says Asstha Khetan, Co-Founder of the House of Things. Once an estered online platform, the brand, as of March 2025, boasts a 25,000 sq.ft. Concept store in udaipur. Here, immersive vignettes and a thoughtfully curved spatial program invite visitors to slow down and saveer the store – from celebrating the richness of pichwai Paintings to Hands-On Engagement with a Tactil Material Library that Includes Everything from Bone Inlay to Textural Wallpapers.

Asstha khetan with the house of things’ Guest Curator Feroze Gujarat

Retail as a moodboard

The mission of highlighting Quality craftsmanship and elevated design through experience experience expiral retail first bloomed in high-end, Exclusive Pockets: NEW DELHI’S Dating back to 1978 and now a symbol of luxury boasting over 65 curved boutiques; Jaipur’s Trendy C Scheme and Civil Lines; And South Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda, which saw entrants such as tarun tahliani’s ensemble as early as the 1990s.

What once Remained Confined to these rarefied spaces is fast becoming a mainstream retail strategy, with brands Across price points and across the country embracing storytegic brand stories. Goder-That-Life Flagship Helmed by Designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee in Cities Such as Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, and Hyderabad is a Maximalist Performance Jewelery. The store’s museum-like wallpaped and tapestry-lined walls are filled to the brim with pichwaisTanjore Paintings, Vintage Photography and Lithography, Mughal Miniatures, and Rare Antiques. Not all of them are for sale. “It’s these enricHing details that make me linger in the store, it makes me want to discover more,” Says Reshma Bombaywala-Lzinska, A Mumbai-Based Jewelry Designer and Content Creator.

Sabyasachi’s maximalist interiors

Sanjay Garg’s Raw Mango Stores Channel The Brand’s Ethos of Constant Evolution Into Pared-Down Design, Redefining Indian Minimalism. The spaces are generally left bare, raw, with no mannequins in sight, enabling key design elements to shine – Such as Garg’s Take on the Gandhian SOFA, the indian baithakWhich has found its way into everything, or in Chennai, The Building’s Art Deco Heritage.

Raw Mango’s Store in Chennai

The dialogue Around Mumbai’s Nilaya Anthology by Asian Paints, One of India’s Newest Immersive Design Landmarks, Has Captured Worldwide Attention. The concept does away with barriers, both physically and metaphysically: spaces flow into one another, with a dual-hengting orange the outdoors indoors; And the lines between gallery, museum, store and experience blur to carve out a sensorial sanctary.

Nilaya Anthology | Photo Credit: Hashim Badani

“I Grew Up Between Chennai and Bangalore, and I Remember Going To Places Like Sundari Silks, Smelling the mallipooDrinking Coffee, and Buying kanjeevaram Saris, “Says Pavitra Rajaram, Design Director of Asian Paints. So, I wanted anthology to be a place of storytelling and experiences, where you come not to consume but to feel part of somenting, which is done this may drive your natural inclination to take You. But that’s not the primary intent. “

Fashion Designer Ritu Beri’s Escape in Goa-With a 35-Foot Portuguese-Style Façade in Vibrant Red and White, A Bar, Restaurant, And Performance Area, Intersed with Goan ARCHITATHATATARAL Elements Such as Cut Laterite Pathways and Limestone Mosaic Floor Tiles – is not just a store but a sancture of soul and story.

Escape’s Portuguese-Style Façade

She recalls a tiny parisian boutique she once visited, with edith piaf humming in the background. Every lovingly curved item came with a handwritten tag narrating its story. “That blend of warmth, currency, and personal touch styed with me,” She reminisces, and is something she brings to escape.

Inside Escape

Craft Meets Commerce

The Global Rise of Experial Retail Heralds Technological Integration – From Augmented Reality (Farfetch’s London Store Linked Online Data to Enhance the offline experience, letting users Their Purchase History and favorite in real time), to the power of social media (as early as 2011, Ikea Invited 100 Facebook Competition Winners for a personalized over a personalized overnight stay at its at itsouse) Recently, AI Integration, Enabling Personalized Service, Hands-Free Shopping Via Via Voice Recognition, Intelligent Product Search, and Lead Generation.

But, in India, it carries unique weight: retail is a site for bot consumption and conservation.For example, renowned jewelery designer Sunita Shekhawat’s Museum of Meenakari Heritage (Momh) in jaipur orchestrates a fascinating dive into the history of enameling from repain Arrival in India. “At the shekhawat haveli, our retail space, we believe that even if someone leaves without meenakari And the Cultural Legacy it represents, “Says Shekhawat.

Sunita Shekhawat | Photo Credit: Kewal Chholak

The by -appointment-only space features four private pods for client interactions, clad in off-white araish Lime Stucco and with Semi-Vaulted Ceilings Embelled With Frescoes Created by artists specialising in miniature painting. “We used the traditional technique, reinterpreted at a scale that is not normally used, to generate narration the flora and fauna of Rajasthan, Fauna of Rajasthan, Grounding It to Eits CONTEXTEX Arora, Founding Principal at Studio Lotus.

Frescoes in the Private Pods | Photo Credit: Ishita Sitwala

Arora and his team also developed the imposing, hand-carved red sandstone façade of momh, which Draws from Jaipur’s Indo-Saracenic roots who offering an ode to Shekhawat. “At the ground level, you enter a space that feels like a museum, [and is] Open to the City, “He explains.” This transforms the space from one where products are sold to one that disheminates knowledge knowledge – a Cultural Destination. Storytelling has become essential in creating a unique and memorable retail identity. “

Museum of Meenakari Heritage’s Hand-Carved Red Sandstone Façade | Photo Credit: Ishita Sitwala

Small but luxe

Today’s Experial Luxury Retail Landscape has Bifurcated ITO Two Distinct Applices: The Grand Spectacle of Massive Flagship stores and the concentrated elegancy of Smallele Boutikues in Premium Enclaves Like New Delhi’s Khan Market and Dhan Mill, Where Stores Like Collectklove and AMPM Prove that Square Footage does not dictate design impact. Muselab’s Design For Sanitaryware Dealer Aquant’s New Mumbai Showroom, For Instruction, is a Veritable Sorbet-Toned Wonderland with Curved Walls That Remind You of Glato Swirls.

Aquant | Photo Credit: Nayan Soni Photography

Or the futuristic, brutalist and layered world of unconventional, The Multi-Designer Store in Kolkata-Where a Large, Black, Floor-to-CEILING SPHERIN SPHERIN SAPHERE SOCOMES THE FOCAL POINT OC Slowly as you walk Around it.

Unconventional | Photo Credit: Niveditaa Gupta

Singular design elements can also be transformative, like the rich zardozi Ceiling at Fashion Brand Divani’s New Delhi Store, Interwoven with Semi-PRECOUS Stones and Nine Tonnes of Shimmering Gold Thread. Tarun Tahiliani’s Bengaluru Store, which opened Doors in December 2022, Draws Footfalls to Date for a Singular Wall that Reinvents The Trompe-L’S Through rich couture techniques karigars From Lucknow and New Delhi – as an ode to his unwaveering committee to craftsmanship.

The new Indian retail is as much about how some is The store is not the backdrop, it’s the protagonist.

An Architect-Turned-Journalist, The Writer Hopes Her Passion for Storytelling Drives An Incessible Cultural Commentary.

Published – June 16, 2025 11:11 AM IST