Fashion is a key category for DFS at the T Fondaco Dei Tedeschi downtown store in Venice.

DFS Group has revealed to TRBusiness it is striving to capitalise on the strong trend towards ‘caualisation’ and ‘younger styles’ across its fashion offer at the T Fondaco dei Tedeshi downtown store in Venice.

According to Eléonore de Boysson, DFS Group President, Europe and the Middle East, the designer sneaker explosion perfectly exemplifies these latest trends.

She said: “In both the women’s and men’s shoe floors, we have multi-brand areas featuring various sneakers from different brands such as Gucci and Balenciaga. Customers have responded to them really well.”

Constantly keeping up with what the new generation are looking at in stores, on social media and across markets is vital. “Our buying team spends a lot of time in the European markets.

TRENDING ITEMS

“The fashion cycle is moving faster and faster. We strive to offer trending items to meet the extremely high expectations of customers who want to purchase what they see from influencers and celebrities. We also regularly rotate new brand pop-ups to keep engagement levels high.”

Eléonore de Boysson, DFS Group President, Europe and the Middle East.

DFS takes it role of reflecting Venice’s long heritage of Italian arts and craftsmanship extremely seriously. It is not surprising, therefore, that fashion is a key category in the T Fondaco dei Tedeschi store.

Boysson said: “Our location near one of the centres of European luxury manufacturing gives us a huge advantage in terms of product choices. Venice has also for centuries been a commercial hub and one of the world’s most important trade routes.

“The Fondaco dei Tedeschi once played an important role as a trading house for Northern European merchants and the rest of the world.”

The retailer also places a strong emphasis on creating a sense of place in-store. “This is very important to today’s world traveller, for whom the experience of shopping is as important as the purchase itself.

“T Fondaco dei Tedeschi is ‘a destination within a destination’ – where the best international, Italian and local brands exist together under one roof and where the building itself stands alone as a must-see item on any traveller’s itinerary.

“Through the fashion offer, we create a sense of place with a distorted offer and selection of the best of Italian fashion, from powerhouse global names such as Fendi, Gucci, and Valentino, to Venetian shoemakers Rene Caovilla and Golden Goose.”

She concluded: “When you think of footwear, ‘Made in Italy’ is synonymous with style and innovation. It was important to have a large footwear salon comprising leaders ranging from Gianvito Rossi and Aquazurra, to Giuseppe Zanotti.”

See the Fashion Report in the July issue of TRBusiness which includes the full interview with Eléonore de Boysson, DFS Group President, Europe and the Middle East.