What: Boyner Group's Communité is generating a quarter of its Istanbul store revenue from handbags by favouring emerging, creatively distinct brands over traditional luxury labels, a strategy its merchandising chief calls "new luxury.”

Why it is important: The store demonstrates that buying teams reframed as curators — sourcing 60% brands new to the market — can build a differentiated, high-performing category from creativity rather than brand prestige alone.

Communité, a new Istanbul retail concept from Boyner Group, is challenging conventional luxury handbag merchandising by tilting its assortment toward creative, less expected brands rather than established status names. Chief merchandising officer Sebla Refig Devidas describes the approach as "new luxury," arguing that the spectrum of luxury has broadened rather than disappeared. Since opening last May, handbags have grown into a "growing business" generating 25% of store revenue.

Devidas and her teams scouted showrooms and retail districts across South Korea, Japan, Australia and Denmark, sourcing brands with roughly 60% new to Turkey. The resulting assortment mixes accessible names such as Mansur Gavriel, Naghedi and Vee Collective with pricier entries like London-based Métier, whose bags retail for €2,000 to €4,000, alongside a smaller selection of established designers including JW Anderson and Dries Van Noten. Handbags appear both in a dedicated shoes-and-bags zone and woven into curated lifestyle sections, such as a 1,600-square-foot resortwear area featuring novelty bags from Jonathan Simkhai and Farm Rio.

Devidas points to consumer fatigue with expected, logo-driven "It" bags and a growing willingness, especially among younger shoppers, to buy from lesser-known, creatively distinct labels instead.

IADS Notes: Boyner Group has already tested this curation-led model at Communité, described in BoF (June 2026) as an Istanbul "third space" where the buying team's role shifts from purchasing toward curation, prioritising an evolving brand mix, exclusive collaborations and emerging talent over transactional retail. The pivot away from logo-led luxury toward creativity and individual taste tracks a wider reassessment of the handbag category: the Wall Street Journal (June 2026) reported luxury handbag sales down nearly 10% since 2023 as shoppers turn to vintage and resale rather than repeated logo-driven launches, while a separate Wall Street Journal report (August 2026) found accessible brands such as Ralph Lauren and Coach gaining ground as price hikes push middle-income shoppers away from Louis Vuitton and Gucci. Together, these sources situate Communité's tilt toward more affordable, creative handbag brands within a broader recalibration of what luxury retail assortments are expected to deliver.

Boyner's Communité grows handbag sales through "new luxury" curation