More and more luxury brands have been dipping a toe into the food industry. Last fashion month, Saint Laurent launched a collaboration with Chef Peter Park of Sushi Park in LA, taking over a location in Paris, where they serve a one-of-a-kind gastronomic experience, charging between €210-260 per head.
Then Prada teamed up with Wong Kar-wai for a new Shanghai restaurant launching today, named Mi Shang. Offering everything from café style beverages to a fine-dining experience, Mi Shang’s menu fuses Italian cuisine with Chinese flavours.
This isn’t a new thing: plenty of high fashion brands have been serving luxury food at restaurants around the world for years. Gucci has four restaurants including Gucci Osteria in Beverly Hills, which was awarded a Michelin star in 2021, and Louis Vuitton unveiled a new café and restaurant in 2024, called LV The Place Bangkok.
Why do high fashion brands seem to want to break into the world of food so badly? It’s partly because of worldbuilding: the brick-and-morter experience is unmatched at creating a sense of the lifestyle attached to a brand. As much as the physical store excels at doing this, cafés and restaurants can offer customers a chance to escape even further into a brand's world.
From Prada’s Mi Shang to Louis Vuitton’s LV The Place Bangkok, these are more than your average restaurants; they’re dining experiences designed to immerse guests in the world of the brand. They’re a reminder that buying luxury doesn’t stop when you own the product: it's a lifestyle you can really live.
Featured image via Prada©
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