Do you recall the moment Alexander McQueen transformed the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue, New York, into a dark spectacle of savage beauty to launch its McQueen Parfum in 2016? Digital and silk moths flickered around McQueen apparel against heavy black drapes, giant blinking cat’s eyes opened and closed in succession and vintage decanter fragrance bottles twirled as if by magic on the wall, in a presentation entitled Bloom at Night. Or perhaps the moment Dior turned Harrods into a giant gingerbread house in 2022 is closer to memory? The London department store’s facade became a light installation of stars, roses and other brand references during the festive season, and a series of 44 creative window displays captivated onlookers with miniature dresses and iconic Dior designs, among them the Bar jacket and Lady Dior bag, made from gingerbread. Inside the theme continued with an immersive gingerbread exhibition, café and pop-up shop – a delicious slice of “The Fabulous World of Dior”.

With the stage set, audiences witnessed theatre as they were drawn into the luxury house's wondrous worlds and their story brought to life through visual narrative. “I remember both projects well. I can still smell the icing sugar at Dior,” says Saina Attaoui, the founder and managing director of L'Atelier Five (LA5), a female-led international multidisciplinary design studio based in London and Dubai. “And I have fond memories of McQueen, which was our first takeover 10 years ago,” she says. Back then, her agency consisted of just herself and two other women, working from a small space in London’s Soho.  “It was so surreal for us. We boarded the plane to New York with flowers that we had made not realising it was a takeover, we were so focussed on the execution and the details, and making sure everything was perfect. Sarah Burton was the head at the time. She had a very clear vision.”

Attaoui, a raven-haired French entrepreneur dressed impeccably when we meet at her Mayfair office, is the luxury world’s go-to for retail fantasy. Dream it, and she and her team will help create it. She works with major international maisons from Hermès to Cartier and Fendi, conjuring luxury brand experiences, retail interiors and pop-up activations. “We always start with the narrative,” she says of how her elevated experiences take shape. “If a brand is not so well known, it is about awareness and how we approach it – whether to be playful or to draw people back to heritage. Storytelling, of course, has always been core to luxury brands: it is about provenance and craftsmanship and how we link that to the product. For Hermès, for example, we work with them through art installation, and have developed many windows for the house throughout the world.” The process is always collaborative, Attaoui and her team work hand-in-hand with brands. “Hermès has an interesting way of working because you can take a store with 11 windows, and each window becomes a chapter within a story. You draw people to the first window and through the detail they discover the narrative, which takes them to the next window, and ultimately to the touch point within the store.” But this work is multilayered, involving much more than mere window dressing. “It is about the customer experience,” Attaoui explains. “The success of a brand activation depends on how am I going to attract you and then what type of emotion that evokes. These are commercial spaces and yet you have to fall in love with what is presented – it has to be relevant, personal.”

Occasionally, it is also all-out drama. “For McQueen we envisaged metal branches full of flowers that went through the windows,” Attaoui says, recalling how her company’s first takeover was conceived. “I met this fantastic metalsmith called Tim in Greenwich market who was so passionate about his work and couldn’t stop showing me his clocks. I had no interest in them but his passion absolutely captivated me.”

She asked the artisan to craft the branches for the installation and sent him the drawings. “He had no internet, no email. We sent him a proper letter by post and then we had to go down to Greenwich to finalise everything,” she continues. “He didn’t understand what we were doing, and had no clue who Alexander McQueen was, but what he produced was wonderful –  I just love how craftsmanship transforms a project: the mix of metalwork or 3D printing by one artisan with hand-cut leather by another. The combination of skills is magical.” Attaoui seeks out people who are as devoted to their work as she is. “When passion meets passion nothing can stop you – that’s when you push boundaries, it's alchemy,” she says. “Craftsmanship is about human touch. Whatever we do, it is the human journey that makes us what we are.”

Speaking to Attaoui in her plush Mayfair office, surrounded by framed photographs of projects that are portals into exclusive worlds, one is taken back to learn that her first job after graduating from University in Nice was selling motorbike accessories. “It taught me discipline and that knowledge is power,” she says, candidly. “There was no internet or AI and I was in a male dominated world where, initially, customers didn’t want to approach me. So I took all the catalogues home and I learnt everything I could until I was so confident, I could approach them and say, ‘How can I help you?’” Her tenacity led her back into marketing and design agency work, but establishing her own company ten years ago proved to be another steep learning curve. “I wanted to do something in luxury travel retail, but by then I had a baby boy, no job and had just separated from the father. Luckily two clients that I had worked with at the agency [one of which was Hermès] offered me projects that gave me a year to survive and prove what I could do,” she recalls. “So I said okay, I have one year to make it work. My only plan B was to go back to my Mum and sleep on her sofa.” She has never looked back.

Attaoui has seen trends change over the past decade and her team has become adept in responding to evolving demands. “At first we did a lot of windows and then everyone was talking about pop-ups. Then it was the pop-in, followed by the takeover,” she explains. “Now things are shifting geographically, so we think differently from a cultural point of view and create different types of entertainment, what we call ‘retail-tainment’, always using local artisans whenever possible.” But, she adds, there is also a rethinking of traditional categories. “For the first time we are targeting a generation: Gen Z. They are different in that they are looking for authentic, value-driven and reciprocal relationships.”