“We’ve turn out to be a retailer.”

That’s how Rodrigo Bazan, chief executive officer of Thom Browne, described the brand’s positioning now.

With the opening of its 103^rd retail location this week in Boston, a lot of the luxury designer brand’s sales come from its own direct-to-consumer efforts.

Consequently, the strategy is to proceed rolling out retail with a goal to grow to 115 stores by the top of this yr and 150 inside 4 to 5 years, he said. This count includes company-owned freestanding flagships in addition to in-store shops. At the top of the primary quarter, there have been 62 stand-alone stores, in accordance with Ermenegildo Zegna Group, the brand’s majority owner.

Although Thom Browne relies within the U.S., the corporate only operates six stores in North America: in its hometown of Recent York City in addition to Miami; Costa Mesa, California; Vancouver, and Toronto. Boston is the seventh store to open on this continent and follows a unit in San Francisco that debuted in October within the historic Yeon Constructing in Jackson Square.

Bazan said that while the retail rollout plan is aggressive, there will not be currently some other units planned for the States this yr. “But we’re actively looking,” he said. “It’s about finding the fitting opportunity.”

He said that with any location, the corporate strives to ascertain a foothold with local customers before setting down retail roots. That’s what helped lay the groundwork for a successful opening in San Francisco and he’s expecting to duplicate that in Boston, where Thom Browne already has a big client base, he said.

Despite the concentrate on retail, wholesale continues to be viewed as a very important a part of the business, however it’s seen more as a marketing and customer acquisition tool than a profit driver.

“We’re in one of the best 300 stores on the planet, but we don’t use wholesale for volume,” Bazan said. “Last May, we said our aim is to double the variety of clients. And an important option to try this is to show the most important variety of eyeballs to our brand.” And having its brand at high-end retail stores where it may host events and showcase its made-to-measure expertise is a method to that end.

“But that doesn’t prevent us from also opening stores in markets where we wholesale,” Bazan said. “It just means we will grow more in alternative ways.”

He said the brand’s fragrance, for instance, was developed exclusively for its own stores and its eyewear is 50 percent direct-to-consumer with the optical and sunglass range prominently featured in the corporate’s physical locations.

Bazan said that when he joined Thom Browne in 2016, the corporate had only 14 stores. But after the beginning of the pandemic, he unleashed an aggressive retail rollout that increased that number to slightly below 70 by the start of 2020.

Becoming a retailer, nonetheless, means the corporate has a “latest set of responsibilities,” Bazan noted. Key to the success of operating retail stores is to make sure there’s a robust staff in each location and marketing is targeted to the area people. Ditto for the merchandise that should be specific to the shoppers in each location.

That is all a part of the corporate’s Client Value Management approach that’s being executed on a worldwide basis, Bazan said.  

The manager had just returned from Asia and he marveled at how similar the stores — and the shoppers — are all world wide. “The client is identical in China, Japan, South Korea and the U.S.,” he said. “They’re on the lookout for quality and timeless product.”

And having its own stores allows the brand to amplify that message, he said. “It’s fascinating to see how similar the stores are on the East Coast, the West Coast, Dubai, Korea,” he said. “And that helps us to stretch ourselves to serve different climates.”

No matter their location, all the stores are profitable, he said. That’s one reason that the corporate has transitioned ownership of its fleet of stores in South Korea from a franchise model with Samsung to a directly operated retail one, where the stores can be owned by Thom Browne and operated by Samsung. “That can take us to 90 directly operated stores this yr,” he said.

One in every of those is the brand new Boston flagship at Copley Place.

The five hundred-square-foot store at 100 Huntington Avenue, Suite D008, was designed in collaboration with architect Flavio Albanese of ASA Studioalbanese and features the brand’s signature midcentury modern style design.

The shop features slat blind-covered windows behind which is a minimalistic “office” with rows of fluorescent tube lighting, black and grey terrazzo floors, and banker gray Bardiglio and Carrara marble partitions.

The furniture within the space is all from the identical era from American and French designers and includes tables by Jacques Adnet, a desk and chair by Dunbar, and etageres, benches and shelving by Paul McCobb.

The shop carries Browne’s men’s, women’s and kids’s ready-to-wear, tailoring and accessories in two areas, with dressing rooms in between. There are also vignettes dedicated to Thom Browne eyewear and Vetyver fragrances.

Thom Browne was founded 20 years ago and is now 85 percent owned by Zegna. In reporting its first-quarter earnings last week, the parent company reported revenues for Thom Browne product increased 15.4 percent to 113.3 million euros with particular strength in womenswear and kids’s products. Direct-to-consumer sales for the brand rose 25.4 percent to 42.8 million euros, fueled by “sound comparable-store growth and the addition of net 11 stores worldwide in comparison with the primary quarter of last yr,” Zegna said. Wholesale revenue for Thom Browne as well was up 9.3 percent in the primary quarter.