Glossier Opening IRL in Miami Design District
By Julia Echikson March 22, 2022 9:02 am
reprints
Glossier, the popular millennial beauty brand, is opening a permanent store in Miami’s Design District.
The 2,580-square-foot store will open this Thursday on the third floor of Palm Court, an outdoor event space located at 140 NE 39th Street. A representative for the company declined to divulge the exact length of the lease and the outpost’s asking rent.
The store marks Glossier’s first return to Miami since hosting a pop-up in Wynwood three years ago.
Founded in 2014 by former Vogue assistant Emily Weiss, the high-end beauty company attracted a cult following among millennial shoppers. It also broke ground by selling beauty products — which customers traditionally enjoyed testing in stores before buying — exclusively online.
Like many maturing e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Warby Parker, Glossier dipped its toe into brick-and-mortar retail, opening its first store above its office in New York’s Soho in 2016. It went on to launch permanent locations in Los Angeles and London as well as a string of pop-ups.
But the brand’s foray into physical retail has come under scrutiny.
During the height of the pandemic, it shuttered all its stores, laying off all its brick-and-mortar employees. Black retail staff accused Glossier of mistreatment and hypocrisy after it committed to spending $1 million on Black-owned beauty products amid the Black Lives Matter protests. The retail employees said the company’s leadership had failed to support them following racist incidents in the store. The company apologized in response to the allegations.
Earlier this year, the company once again faced fire when it laid off a third of its corporate staff only months after raising $80 million.
Now Glossier is once again expanding its retail footprint, having re-opened permanent stores in L.A., Seattle, and London over the past few months.
In Miami, the beauty brand selected the Design District, a joint venture between Dacra, led by Craig Robins, Brookfields Properties, and L Catterton Real Estate, which is backed by luxury giant LVMH.
The eight-city-block development has become one of Miami’s hottest shopping destinations, home to ultra-luxury beauty brand Barbara Sturm as well as flagship stores of fashion houses Chanel and Gucci, among others.
Last week, Kim Kardashian made her retail debut in Miami, opening a pop-up for her loungewear brand, SKIMS. Major Food Group, the hospitality group behind celebrity hotspot Carbone, and much-hyped streetwear brand Kith are slated to open an outpost together.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
