New Luxury | Interview TextilWirtschaft Issue Nr. 18, 2024

A dress to match the Egg Chair

How does one create a unity of furniture and fashion?

With her high-end store, Sabine Falkenberg wishes to beautify her customers’ lives in all regards.

An interview with TextilWirtschaft magazine, issue Nr. 18, 2024.

05-2024 /

“We strive to make your life even more beautiful”

 

These are the words that greet us on Falkenberg’s website. And the store, which is located just a stone’s throw away from the hustle and bustle of Munich-Schwabing’s Leopoldstrasse, does indeed offer a refreshing and diverse mix that you will not find anywhere else.

Whether Italian chocolate from Venchi for 60 cents a piece or Tartuffi chocolates from Piedmont, fine teas from Mariages Frères, selected scents from Trudon Trudon, novels or coffee table books. The product range at Falkenberg includes all kinds of charms, among them greeting cards, vases, lamps, coffee machines, vinyl records, rugs, fashion from brands such as Plan C, Marni, Odeeh as well as a wide a range of furniture from genuine design classics like Fritz Hansen, Cassina, House of Finn Juhl, Montana und Louis Poulsen and even art.

 

One thing is apparent immediately: This is not just a fashion store with a few additional products; Falkenberg is a department store with an entire portfolio. Having become somewhat of a destination for all lovers of timeless fashion and furniture design, one can always be sure to find a little surprise.

 

The review’s speak for themselves, with customers raving along the lines of: “At Falkenberg Department Store, I can be amazed and discover wonderful things. It’s so much fun to gather new impressions and choose the perfect object for me with wonderfully empathetic guidance. I always love coming here and being enchanted.” or: “Every visit is a pleasure and we always enjoy coming back. Whether furniture, lamps, art, clothing, chocolate, nail polish, glasses, fresh, long-lasting, fragrant flowers or accessories, you’ll find a lot of special things here – very carefully curated, put together by hand.”

 

Sabine Falkenberg launched the concept alongside her daughter Leandra 13 years ago. “My initial thought was that I wanted to be able to present the right dress to go with the Egg Chair”, Sabine Falkenberg says, describing her approach. Fashion and furniture at the highest level were of equal importance to her from the very beginning. “A great challenge, after all, it is basically two stores in one”, Falkenberg emphasizes. In other words, two worlds which she is constantly involved with and informed on, striving to offer her customers things “that you cannot find anywhere else.”

Feels like Home: The apartment serving as a showroom.

Fashion, furniture, art and interior design – all drawn together by Sabine Falkenberg in her eponymous store.

She describes her style as timeless and classic, but with a modern twist. “There is always an element of something unexpected, surprising”, Falkenberg says. A deciding factor is that the products she offers should be durable and yet changeable, so that customers can enjoy them for a long time. “We have many regulars who have owned a particular dress for many years and then come here to look for something to give it a twist. Our aim is to comb through the masses of products out there to identify the products that have the potential to become classics”, she explains.

 

Selective curation is the essence here. At Falkenberg, you will not find casual wear or stacks of knitted sweaters, but rather select fashion pieces from Marni, Odeeh, Paul Smith und Plan C, which not only meet the highest standards in terms of appearance but also craftsmanship. These are looks that translate beautifully from a day at the office to a visit to the theater in the evening – and that for any age group, from 30-year olds to 80-year olds. While the range of brands is on the smaller side, it is excellent, and includes Johnstons of Elgin und John Smedley. “It is important to make firm decisions on what goes with our concept – we do this very consistently,” says Falkenberg. Which look is the one that suits the Egg Chair the most? “Either a dress by Odeeh or a suit by Paul Smith. You can do so much with these classics – timelessness as well as something unexpected.”

 

Fashion, furniture and interior Design are in harmony here, and give the feel of just visiting friends in their perfectly staged and decorated living room, outside the store as much as inside it. Falkenberg has an area of 700 m2 combined between store and showroom. “There tends to be a bit of a Wow-effect, since you cannot see the showroom area from the outside. This combination of store and apartment is what makes our concept truly special.”, the retailer says. At the back of the store, there is a fully furnished five-room apartment, in which much of the furniture is presented as if it were an in an actual, lived-in apartment – including lounge chairs by Arne Jacobsen, lights by Astep and Louis Poulsen and music systems by Brionvega with high-tech functionality but retro design. This open, approachable form of presentation is unique, especially for furniture classics which can otherwise only be found in typical furniture stores. What’s more, all the pieces on display, be it sofas, sideboards, or the artwork, can all be bought directly and taken home, without the long waiting times otherwise common in the furniture industry.

 

Not least because of this, Falkenberg keeps reinventing itself. Once a piece is sold, redecoration and rearrangement is in order to restore the color harmony – small details change on a daily basis, big rearrangements happen every four to six weeks. However, the Falkenbergs don’t just sell furniture. Rather, Sabine Falkenberg offers an all-around package of interior concepts, in which she takes care of furnishing on request, from choosing the perfect wall paint complete with a color concept, matching rugs, lighting, linens, towels, table settings and artwork.

"Our aim is to comb through the masses of products to identify the products that have the potential to become classics."

Falkenberg can provide a network of suitable and experienced craftspersons and fitters for all services needed. “To us, service means that we make everything possible to the customer’s satisfaction. It is the overall package that we offer that makes the difference.”, says Sabine Falkenberg, who is currently managing three interior design projects ranging from a villa in Upper Bavaria to a house in Münsterland. A close-knitted and trust-based support is essential to the Munich-based store: “It’s about helping the customer make the right decision. When selling fashion, for example, we try to be very mindful of how a customer feels in a certain piece.”

 

This sensitivity has allowed the mother-daughter duo to build up a loyal clientele from Starnberg to Gräfelfing, but also far beyond. “We have customers from all over Germany”, Falkenberg confirms, the youngest being a 10-year old schoolgirl who occasionally treats herself to one of the 60 cent-chocolates. Thanks to its location on Franz-Joseph-Str., which is a direct route to the English Garden, the store attracts walk-ins, despite not being located on the usual shopping streets. The clientele is broadly diversified, with the store appealing to women and men of all ages who appreciate quality and advice.

 

The online store is open to customers worldwide. The greatest distance covered to date was a delivery to Panama. The retailer sees her website primarily as her business card and shop window that customers can use to send an inquiry. After all, no item is sent without prior consultation via email or telephone, which is of particular importance when it comes to furniture.
This means that there are virtually no returns. Falkenberg also sees the development of an online presence and finding the right balance between online and offline business as the most demanding challenge at the moment.

“Every brand in our range is equally important, otherwise they would not be here. All our brands are close to my heart.”

Not least her “meandering” background, as she describes it herself, helps her. After graduating high school, she started out with a part-time role at Breuninger, then studied art history, but switched gears quite drastically after graduating and opened a store with organic food in Schwabing, ‘Der Milchladen’ which offered over 300 varieties of cheese, among other things.
Another turn got Falkenberg interested in the law, taking another complete course of studies and graduating in tax law, which helped her a lot when she decided to become self-employed again. Same goes for the passion she has for all the products she offers. Falkenberg has read nearly all books in her product portfolio, and all recommendations come from the heart. “Every brand in our range is equally important, otherwise they would not be here. All our brands are close to my heart.”

Broadly based: from books to blazers, from candles to dresses.

FOTOS: © Falkenberg
TEXT: © Silke Emig, TextilWirtschaft