At Serax, Championing Global Craftsmanship and Creative Collaboration

Over its 40-year history, Belgian homewear brand Serax has collaborated with an array of international designers and makers across the interiors, fashion, architecture and ceramics spaces. Such collaborations have facilitated lines in tableware, lighting, furniture and home accessories — from fashion designer Ann Demeulemeester and interior designer Kelly Wearstler to Italian luxury house Marni. This year, Serax is launching a line with jewellery brand Wouters & Hendrix and a debut homeware collection from former creative director of Dior Homme, Kris Van Assche.

Each Serax collection is brought to life by artisans across the globe, from Portuguese ceramicists to marble specialists in India. The brand’s commitment to unique products and craft means that no two pieces are the same — whether that be a handpainted plates designed by chef Yotam Ottolenghi, or handcrafted furniture piece.

The brand’s ethos around craft aligns with the transforming consumer preferences that businesses are witness to this year. BoF’s The State of Fashion 2025 report, produced in partnership with McKinsey & Company, cites a shift in consumer prioritisation on quality, craftsmanship and timeless design over that of mass production.

Consumer appetite to spend on fashion and apparel items is also low on the agenda — instead, individuals are focusing discretionary spend on travel, experiences and the home, which is a sentiment shared across wealth categories. In BoF and McKinsey’s The State of Fashion: Luxury edition, released earlier this year, ultra-high-net-worth individuals expressed excitement to spend more on categories including home décor (71 percent), and travel and hospitality (64 percent), rather than personal luxury goods.

What’s more, consumers are shopping in-store at pre-pandemic levels across much of the world, with heightened expectations around omnichannel retail experiences. This translates to a need for operational efficiency around stock fulfilment, to heightened customer service. To address this need, Serax is focused on redefining the retail experience with its “blended shopping” concept — integrating online fulfilment with physical retail to enhance overall convenience for its consumers.

To better understand Serax’s approach to craftsmanship, collaboration and its evolving retail strategies, BoF sits down with Dries Stuer, Serax’s chief marketing officer, to discuss the ways in which the brand is adapting to consumer shifts and the opportunities that lie ahead.

How is Serax adapting to the evolving consumer priorities in 2025?

We are observing two big trends happening — on one hand, we feel that consumers are really looking for quality and design that is timeless. They consider it as an investment. On the other hand, a lot of consumers are looking for democratic prices — they are shopping within the premium segment, but already have a limit in mind with their spending power.

We have collections that are in the premium segment — where the price point is higher because there is a greater level of craftsmanship and use of raw materials and more limited runs in production. But we also have more entry level designs, ensuring the price is more democratic. This is where we play with our portfolio of different designers, to better serve these two spending patterns in the market today.

One aspect is product development — servicing these two types of customers and spending patterns through our product development. Our CEO, Axel Van Den Bossche, is always looking to create collections that are long-lasting, so even when we are playing into the trends of today, we are thinking about whether the collection will be relevant in 10 years time.

The second focus is the creation of on-and-offline experiences. We see that consumers are willing to spend a bit more if they are engaging with a brand — and you can inspire them, particularly within our line of work, in the physical environment — through experiences in-store like pop-ups, events and through the online visuals we create.

As an example, we collaborate with young creatives who create “dreamtables” for us — a series of tablescapes and design collections. This content is designed to promote collections and can be digitally or physically created using our tableware collections. For example, last year, we worked together with Belgian fashion photographer Marie Wynants, who created a dreamtable for a collection we have with Kelly Wearstler — which was a modern reinterpretation of cookbooks from the 1960s.

How do you work with global artisans and creators when producing collections?

Each time we work with a designer, we start with the material. We look for the right people who have the right expertise to work with that material, as well as the right craftsmanship — people who truly understand our expectations in terms of quality and design.

We see that consumers are willing to spend a bit more if they are engaging with a brand

We choose to do this in a decentralised way — we don’t have just one supplier but work with multiple suppliers and craftspeople, which has allowed us to move faster while being careful in selecting who is best suited to develop a collection for us. Within one collection, we could be working with five different ateliers to develop different pieces of other materialities, which means managing a large logistics process to ensure everything is ready at the same time for launch. But we prefer it this way, rather than relying on one source and facing issues with quality, wrong raw materials or production volumes they simply cannot handle.

How is Serax sourcing products and services responsibly across the value chain?

Like in all industries, we see a growing demand for responsibly sourced products and it’s important for us, as a company, to work with these types of materials. We try to work with glass that is either recyclable or recycled, depending on the design proposed by the designer. The wood we use is ethically sourced. The items we design are not made for fast consumption. These are pieces that you buy today and want to keep for many years — some may even become heirloom pieces, things you could receive from your grandparents. That’s how we aim to make our designs — as products that can stay with families for generations.

We only work specific ateliers when and if they respect fair wages, working hours and working conditions. This is a non-negotiable for us and a fundamental principle.

In 2023, we carried out a full rebranding of Serax — with a new house style, a new logo — and at the same time, we changed all of our packaging. This meant updating the packaging for over 4,000 products to be fully made from recycled materials and fully recyclable. Our packaging was also minimised in terms of its size and tested for maximum occurrence of breakage, which has in turn made transportation and e-commerce delivery much more efficient and allowed us to reduce CO2 emissions when shipping our products.

Why and how is Serax evolving its wider retail strategy?

The time when retailers used to carry large amounts of inventory — making significant investments in stock — is changing. Retailers are all trying to optimise their operations and lower their stock commitments. We have also heard from customers who go to buy design objects for their home, but they can’t drive to stores in city centres anymore and are reluctant to carry heavy items back on public transportation.

The items we design are not made for fast consumption. These are pieces that you buy today and want to keep for many years

Our solution to this is what we call our blended shopping model named “Serax Living Lab.” We work closely with retailers who dedicate space in their store as a shop-in-shop concept for Serax — where we showcase our collections, but only as samples. For example, there will only be one dinner plate, one breakfast plate of different sets to allow the consumer to experience the materiality.

Then, instead of purchasing in-store and carrying the items home, our customers can place their order directly via our website. The logistics are handled by our warehouse, with delivery either on the same or next day. We take care of all after-sales services — whether it’s handling breakages, returns or any customer service needs. Then, instead of the traditional retail model, the retailer does not buy inventory but earns a commission from each sale. The end consumer also earns twice as many loyalty points through shopping at a retailer. So in this way, we are able to support retailers to really get people to buy through them.

It’s a win-win for all — retailers don’t have to carry large stock, keep their client-base and consumers get the convenience of seamless shopping and delivery. And for us, it is an amazing expression of our brand within different retail points — having dedicated in-store spaces that align with our brand image.

What excites you the most for Serax in the near to medium term?

In the mid-term, everything is related to hospitality. There’s so much new construction happening worldwide — from restaurants to experience-driven spaces. With our tableware collections and designs, we can play an important role in shaping those environments.

For example, in the hospitality space, we’re working on large-scale projects with brands like luxury hotel and spa brand Six Senses, One&Only Resorts and Four Seasons, where the experience of a hotel or restaurant is just as important as the projects themselves. These premium partnerships allow us to bring our design philosophy into spaces where every detail matters.

The next big opportunity is direct-to-consumer sales. This is a relatively new project for us — it only started two years ago, and we see a huge opportunity for incremental business growth there. We’re also focused on expanding into global markets, particularly in the US and Asia. For example, in April, we are launching a major pop-up store in Shanghai, and in the US, we’re working with Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s to develop new projects and further establish our presence and brand awareness there.

Then, of course, there’s everything related to digital and technological innovation — how AI will influence design and interiors, and how we can embrace these developments while maintaining creativity.

Finally, we remain focused on our designer collaborations — we want to continue discovering and supporting young and up-and-coming talent by offering them a platform to launch their first projects, while still attracting high-profile, globally recognised designers.

This is a sponsored feature paid for by Serax as part of a BoF partnership.