e capsule. This collection really is a love letter to our oceans and the reef that inspired it,” says co-founder and creative director, Omar Sabré. Here, we chat with co-founder Zane Sabré, about the business’ philanthropic and sustainability efforts and its physical retail plans for the future.  Have you noticed an increased interest from consumers in terms of sustainable manufacturing process and how is your business responding to it?  We are incredibly responsive to the needs and requirements of our community and are always actively listening to insightful feedback. One of our core initiatives for 2021 is improving the sustainability of our manufacturing practices through using more advanced material technologies and opting for material alternatives where possible.   Tell us about some of the interesting sustainable leather technologies that you’ve got your eye on at the moment.  Our pursuit for pushing the boundaries in leather production have recently seen us partner with an organisation in the Netherlands to produce our limited edition Coral Blue collection. In a celebration of the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef, the new leather is produced utilising only the leather hides that naturally retain moisture, without using a single droplet of additional water in the production process, saving over 25 million litres annually. By the end of 2022, all of our leathers will be using this world leading technology.  How has Japan been tracking business and what are your plans for the APAC region?  APAC is a strong growth region for Maison de Sabré and Japan continues to be an exciting market for the brand. We are constantly looking to trial new regions within APAC and are conducting market affinity testing in China.  You recently opened a physical store in Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, which served as a testing ground for the business. What have been some of the insights that you have gathered from that experience? Our Pitt Street retail store was an incredible experience for Maison de Sabré. We had the privilege of connecting with our customers in so many ways and learnt immensely throughout the process. One of our key learnings was how our customers interacted with our colour collections and this helped us improve our visual merchandising both in store and online. We also learnt immensely about our customer flow through our physical space and are using these learnings for future retail locations.  It set the tone of our future physical developments both domestically and internationally, and we are excited to be announcing further developments in this space within the short-term. While Covid has halted some development, it has allowed our design teams to focus on creating spaces that are completely immersive and interactive.  What are some of the plans for the e-commerce side of the business?  Online shopping has seen immense global growth and as a pure play online retailer, Maison de Sabré will be continuing to invest in our online experience. Blurring the lines between online and offline is our next step through augmented reality shopping which we will be releasing in the near future.  Tell me about your Make Your Mark Foundation and the aim of your business’ philanthropic arm.  The Make Your Mark Foundation focuses on the spirit of empowerment and is an extension of our brand pillars that celebrate self-expression and individualism. From the inception of Maison de Sabré, my brother and co-founder Zane and I had always wanted to be able to give back, and the launch of the foundation allowed us to not only do that, but to also open the door to our customer communities to help support the initiatives that mattered the most to them.  The Foundation is a core element to our business and we don’t treat it as a separate entity. Through the Make Your Mark Foundation, we have been able to not only empower our customers on an individual level, but also help deliver initiatives that contribute to a much larger collective beneficence.