About Carriage Trade

Why the name Carriage Trade?

Carriage Trade is a play on words.  In the Era of the Horse, shopkeepers and other professionals sought the custom of the ‘carriage trade’, an elite, wealthy population of consumers.  Keeping a carriage was a very expensive proposition, especially in the populous cities where a private carriage was both a convenience and a status symbol, but hardly a necessity.  To have a private carriage immediately established the owner as being wealthy enough to fit into this class.  Merchants invented the term carriage trade to refer to those class of people who could afford their own private carriage, because they would arrive to shop (or ‘trade’ in the parlance of the day) at these merchants’ stores in their personal carriage.  Hence, the term carriage trade developed.

When was Carriage Trade formed?

The initial estate was launched on December 21, 2010, as a joint project with FRI CEO Shenlei Winkler working with Sandy Adam to develop the initial branding concept and region design.  Since then, the estate has been fully transferred to Winkler’s capable direction and is a Fashion Research Institute project.

Winkler has since redesigned the estate to reflect her original concept. Elements of the original branding developed by Adam have been retained, including the logo and virtual goods branding.  Storefronts and the shopping experience have been redesigned by Winkler as part of the project redevelopment.  The community structure has been re-engineered to create a more compelling experience for both visitors and residents alike.