Listening rooms are hot right now 🔥
+ Marketers react to Aimé Leon Dore's £10k espresso machine
Why listening rooms are the hottest trend in brand marketing that you need to know about
Inspired by the meticulous design of Japanese listening rooms, brands like Stone Island, Aimé Leon Dore, and Valentino are unveiling stunning spaces that blend high-fidelity audio with high fashion, creating a dream come true for audiophiles and style enthusiasts alike.
The concept of listening bars originated in Japan during the 1920s, when Western jazz music began to gain popularity. In response, bars known as jazz kissa (Japanese for jazz café) began to appear. These venues offered people a place to experience the new genre without needing to purchase costly imported records.
Fast forward to today, brands, especially in the luxury fashion space, are dabbling in these experiences. Just this week, Valentino unveiled the ‘Atelier Sonore’ in its boutique Madison Square store.
Under the artistic direction of Alessandro Michele, the brand describes the activation as a “space for contemplation,” an immersive experience where “architecture and music are in continuous dialogue,” aiming to evoke a deep sense of “peace and awareness.”
This fusion of design and sensory experience was also evident during Milan Design Week 2025, when Stone Island unveiled a custom sound room designed by Friendly Pressure.
Similarly, Aimé Leon Dore has explored this concept since 2023 through its monthly content series ‘Sound’, which features hour-long DJ sets recorded in the brand’s dedicated sound rooms at its New York and London flagship stores.
Dave Chase, ex-global music lead at Burberry, believes that this trend suggests a “thoughtfulness” coming back into luxury fashion brands and that it enables brands to focus on one client relationship through high-quality physical experiences.
“It’s a message of quality, craft, and personal experience,” he says. “The timing is interesting, as there has been a recent revival in these bars in Japan, aligned to the rising interest in vinyl.” He highlights that Spiritland in London has long-time been a popular listening bar.
“Many creative directors in luxury, fashion, and beauty are real music fans and need their creative visions to be framed beautifully with music,” he continues. “These experiences offer a luxurious opportunity to listen intentionally, while breathing in the essence of the brand around you. If the music has been curated with the specific brand in mind, then the sensorial engagement can be extremely powerful.”
When it comes to recent executions, Chase explains that “every detail matters” and that the music selections must match the “visual beauty”.
“It feels as though it has suddenly hit the mainstream,” he adds. “Whether this trend survives the long-term may be dependent on weathering the storm of more mainstream brands jumping on it, and I’m sure many PR agencies are this week brainstorming their own tactical listening room concepts, which will squeeze the life out of this moment. I hope they are working with thoughtful music specialists to curate the sound experiences.”
David Ogiste, founder of Nobody’s Cafe, specializing in IRL experiences, believes that this recent trend is a conscious move against “digital saturation” and, to an extent, AI.
“We’re craving nostalgia,” he says. “These spaces bring us back to a time where music felt more tangible and real (a time a lot of us didn't even really grow up in, it's more what are parents/grandparents grew up in).”
There’s also a real desire to take part in real life events and activations. “I think we as advertisers and brands, fundamentally forgot what makes people human in pursuit of reaching the masses, and that's community - these spaces are designed to create that community and make people feel like they belong to something, the space, the sound, the brand.”
ICYMI
Aimé Leon Dore and La Marzocco team up on espresso machine.
This coffee machine is the stuff of dreams, and at £10k, for the majority of us it will stay that way. Aimé Leon Dore has a new collaboration with La Marzocco. Focusing on the Linea Micra machine, it merges the worlds of high-end espresso and lifestyle fashion – something I explored in my last newsletter.
It’s another example of how high fashion brands are embedding themselves into everyday rituals and lets face it, it looks gorgeous.
“Rather than chase attention with loud logos or short-term turtle-killing plastic gimmicks, collabs like this one are leaning into functional beauty,” Ollie Patterson, managing director at creative agency Mynt, who count Nike and Timberland as clients, explains. “They are desirable objects designed to be lived with, not just looked at.”
High fashion brands like Aimé Leon Dore are increasingly positioning themselves as curators of lifestyle, not just apparel. These partnerships extend the brand narrative into the daily rituals of their audience, reflecting a broader strategy in which fashion labels aim to shape multiple aspects of consumer life through thoughtfully designed products.
“It feels inevitable, not opportunistic,” adds Patterson. “This is about curating a way of life, one built on values like craft, provenance, material honesty, and cultural nostalgia.”
Another example of this came from French fashion house Jacquemus, who designed bicycles with VanMoof, merging playful minimalism with everyday rituals.
“Physical design serves as a tangible extension of any brand's narrative,” adds Patterson. “It transforms a utilitarian object into a statement piece.”
Ads of the Week
Hermès, Chelsea FC and Hinge released some crackers.
Hermès has once again partnered with digital animation artist Annie Choi, renowned for her whimsical, anime-inspired style. For this latest collaboration, Choi drew inspiration from intricate Japanese puzzle boxes.
In the short film, a hand picks up an object from a Hermès store, which soon transforms into a watch box, unveiling the product within. The soft color palette and playful animation style evoke a dream-like world.
Choi has been making waves in the luxury fashion space, having previously partnered with Spanish house Loewe on its Studio Ghibli collaboration.
Chelsea FC and Nike are promoting the 2025/26 kit launches with a star-studded love letter to the club and London. Featuring a star-studded cast, including rapper and West London native Central Cee, the short is heartwarming and witty.
Soundtracked by Our House from ska/pop band Madness, the short also features lead singer Suggs as a taxi driver in the city.
Hinge unveiled the second instalment of its ‘No Ordinary Love’ brand platform, which celebrates the unexpected twists and turns of real love stories. To bring the campaign to life, contemporary writers Upasna Barath, Hunter Harris, William Rayfet Hunter, Tomasz Jedrowski, and Jen Winston were paired with five Hinge couples to retell key moments of their relationship.
From the different perspectives, the stories offer an intimate look into the mindset of early dating and follow each person’s moments of excitement and even self-doubt. The work hopes to encourage daters to approach romantic connections with an open mind.
The dating app is using the project to connect with Gen Z daters through a five-part weekly series on Substack and will be collaborating with creators on the app to spark different conversations.
Meme of the Week
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