I was invited last Sunday to the opening of a new concept store for men in Beirut: Mr. M.

Founded by my friend Mira Kassar, Mr. M is a 120 square meter store in Downtown Beirut “offering an exceptional retail experience and revitalizing the Beirut shopping scene, while presenting the best in men’s fashion, accessories, decor and gift items”. Mira selects every item with utmost care from different high-end brands around the world including: Pierre Hardy, Rick Owens and Acne.

I am not a big fan of Fashion, but I want to share with you some thoughts about the concept and branding of Mr. M:

First, although this kind of stores exist over the world and despite the fact that I’m not a big lover of high-end product, I believe that having a high-end fashion store for men is a must in Lebanon. Mr. M is the first store in the country that caters exclusively to the lifestyle of today’s upper-class urban man.

From what I see around me, a lot of young Lebanese girls are interested in Fashion and most of them end up designing a line of clothes for women (Mainly T-Shirts) and this is starting to get boring. Mira’s idea was different: She decided to go into men’s fashion and preferred “handpicking” collections from various high-end international brands rather than designing her own products.

Second, I really liked the store design: Modern and simple with a dominant tone of grey which creates a nice and enjoyable high-end atmosphere. You can check pictures uploaded all over this post.

Third, Mr. M, the typical client of Mira’s store, has been clearly identified we’re therefore talking about a well-defined target market and her is how he is described: “Our man is an urban gentleman, a man of style, class, culture, he has an acute sense of fashion and of course he has a bit of swag. Well-fitting clothes made from the finest quality are of utmost importance to Mr. M as he has a discerning eye for detail – a beautiful Italian leather briefcase, a new silk tie, a flawlessly fitted jacket. This is where our man comes here to dress in his s strong good-looking and individual way and where fashion becomes fascinating, extending to every aspect of his life, including food, music, recreation and interaction”.

Fourth, the invitation cards for the store opening had a bow tie attached to it which we were asked to wear on the d-day. The tie is exactly the same as the one on the store’s logo which became Mr. M’s symbol from the very first day: Great idea! (Check the picture of the invitation card below).

Fifth, talking about social media, for now Mr. M has only a very shy presence on Instagram but Mira told me that a Facebook page will be launched soon. I hope and highly recommend that Mr. M will start being active on social media platform very soon.

I invite you all to go and visit Mr. M and let me know what you think about it. Here is the address: Marfaa 128 Building, Tijara Street, Downtown Beirut, Lebanon and here is the phone number +961 1 990011.

This is my second blog-post about the Fashion industry (you can check my first one here).