After launching with seven European retailers earlier this year, the London born label is now expanding into a further seven stores across Greece, Italy and Switzerland, as destination shopping becomes a rewarding route for emerging luxury brands.
Despite a strong DTC following in the UK, with best-selling pieces regularly selling out online, the brand’s retail growth is being spearheaded by international markets, with particularly strong traction in leisure-led destinations like St Moritz, Mykonos, Forte dei Marmi and Lake Garda. Markets where consumers feel freer to express themselves through identity-led fashion, where they’re shopping for who they are, not just for what they need.
The new retail partners secured include Soho Soho in Athens, Alchemist in Mykonos, Wise Boutique in Desenzano, Singolare in Naples, Gente in Rome, Stone Soup in Brescia, and Maison Lorenz Bach in Gstaad. The expansion follows the brand’s recent launch across Modes in St Moritz, and six Italian retailers: Chapters in Forte dei Marmi, SPOON in Modena, Giglio in Palermo, G&B in Parma, D2 in
Salerno and Silvia Bini in Viareggio.
While the growth marks a significant commercial step, the pattern behind it is interesting. These are environments where shopping is less functional and more emotionally driven, shaped by travel, social visibility and a looser sense of identity, and it’s in line with the broader shift across luxury retail.
Recent reporting across the sector shows that consumers are placing greater emphasis on experience, identity and personal values, while physical retail continues to evolve from transactional space into something more cultural and experiential.
Research from Mintel highlights younger luxury consumers as a key driver of future growth, particularly as they start to prioritise brands that reflect who they are and what they stand for. Meanwhile, Savills notes that luxury retail is increasingly overlapping with hospitality, travel and events, as brands look to build deeper, longer-term relationships with their customers
11:11 LUCK was founded by former professional tennis player turned entrepreneur Polina Mikhailova, following her own experience of debilitating burnout and the pressure of highperformance environments. Its unisex pieces feature short phrases such as Depresso, Germophobe, Triggered and “I’m Not Here” (derealisation), putting common but often hidden feelings front and centre. Rather than being purely aesthetic, the clothing is designed to help people recognise and express themselves in what they wear, using humour and a sense of irony to keep it from feeling too heavy.
The brand’s positioning appears to resonate particularly strongly in environments where consumers are already outside of their everyday routines. In destination markets, customers are typically more open to discovery, more willing to experiment, and more inclined to buy into a feeling rather than a function. For emerging brands, these locations offer a lucrative route to market, one that relies less on scale and more on personal identity.
Polina Mikhailova, founder of 11:11 LUCK, said: “Seeing the brand grow in these locations has been really interesting because these are not passive retail environments. People are travelling, switching off, reconnecting with themselves and dressing for a different version of their life. That creates a very different relationship with fashion, and what they choose to wear.”
Polina continued: “11:11 LUCK was built around the parts of ourselves we usually keep hidden, so it makes sense that it resonates in places where people feel more open, more expressive and less tied to the rules of their everyday environment. The growth is exciting commercially, but what matters most is that the message is translating across different cultures and different types of
customers.
That being said, we still have a fantastic following in our home market – especially in London – and I think that says a lot about our mindset here too.” She added: “We are not trying to be everywhere at once with our retail approach.
The focus is on the right stores, in the right locations, with partners who understand that the brand is not just about product. It is about identity, pressure, humour, vulnerability and resilience, all of the things’ people carry with them but do not always have the words for.”
The next stage of growth will include further store announcements, alongside a summer popup in Ibiza with an international retail partner. The activation will be announced in May, for a June launch, and will feature a limited-edition t-shirt designed specifically for the location.
It builds on the brand’s momentum in leisure-led markets and continues to explore the link between fashion, place, identity, self-expression and emotional connection.
For more information, visit the 11:11 LUCK website.
