Forget the Birkin: MAISON de SABRÉ Unveils The Palais
A bold new era for Australian luxury: MAISON de SABRÉ launches The Palais, a flagship handbag eight years in the making.
2 min
Luxury fashion’s next great icon has arrived, and it doesn’t come from the ateliers of Paris or Milan.
Eight years after reimagining the humble phone case as a luxury object, Australian disruptor MAISON de SABRÉ has unveiled its most ambitious creation yet: The Palais.
The Palais is the brand’s first flagship handbag, a permanent house signature that distils nine of its design codes into a single silhouette. According to Co-Founder and Creative Director Omar Sabré, it is “the most significant milestone in our craft language – an icon of the unconventional.”
Craft, Redefined
Sixteen months of design and six more of material development have delivered a handbag that sets a new standard for contemporary luxury. Each detail, from its sculptural teardrop gusset, first carved in wood, to its floating seam edged with suede, has been engineered with precision.
The bag is crafted from 100% LWG Gold-Rated DriTan™ calf leather, the most premium material the brand has used to date, and lined entirely in sueded leather. MAISON de SABRÉ has committed to a zero-waste ethos, incorporating upcycled accents and trims that marry indulgence with responsibility.
An Investment in Permanence
In a market defined by seasonal trends, The Palais is positioned as a piece of permanence. Built to endure, it has been designed to evolve through attachable charms, eyewear cases, and tech accessories, making it both timeless and adaptive.
The line debuts in two sizes:
Large ($949 AUD) in Cashmere Clay, Pecan Brown, Black Caviar, and Emerald Green
Medium ($749 AUD) in Cashmere Clay, Plum Red, Emerald Green, Black Caviar, Sandstone Brown, and Manhattan Orange
More Than a Bag
Alongside The Palais comes a suite of playful, functional accessories. The Petite Palais Charm, a miniature handbag for your handbag, holds everything from an Apple AirTag to AirPods Pro.
SABRÉMOJI™ Garden Bugs, handcrafted from leather offcuts, nod to nostalgic childhood discoveries, while the Sunglass Sling Case offers sleek utility with its detachable leather sling.
Global Stage, Australian Confidence
MAISON de SABRÉ has built a $100M luxury powerhouse without relying on traditional fashion gatekeeping, and more than 80% of its sales now come from international markets. This September, the brand debuted The Palais at Tokyo’s Miyashita Park alongside Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada, followed by a residency at Paris’s legendary Le Bon Marché.
Co-Founder Zane Sabré puts it bluntly: “Heritage doesn’t guarantee relevance. The Palais proves you don’t need a century of history to create something iconic — you need conviction, execution, and a brand people actually believe in.”
Or, as Omar Sabré quips, “Hermès has the Birkin. We have The Palais. It’s not a comparison, it’s a challenge.”
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Apple’s first foldable, the $1,999 iPhone Duo, combines an iPhone and iPad Mini experience—but its size, weight and price come with compromises.
4 min
As I watched a Netflix show on Apple’s first foldable, the iPhone Duo, I had two surprising thoughts.
The first: Maybe I don’t need my iPad Mini anymore.
The second: Uh oh, am I about to spend $1,999 on a phone?
I didn’t think folding phones were for me. I’ve been testing Android versions from Samsung and Google since 2019, and those early editions came with too much screen and too many compromises.
Fast forward seven years, and the technology has come a long way. Apple—in its very Apple way—has also come up with some hardware and software trickery to make up for some shortcomings of the basic design. My desire for a folding phone before today was zero. After today, it’s a lot more than zero.
I’m not ready to recommend the Duo, which ships on Oct. 23, just yet. Not until I am able to test it more fully, so be on the lookout for that review in a few weeks. But from what I experienced at Apple Park on Wednesday, I could actually picture myself using this new half-phone, half-tablet hybrid.
Crease camouflage
For months, I’ve been using Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8, a similarly squat, passport-shaped foldable that opens up to a larger screen. It’s impressively thin and can easily fit into the infuriatingly tiny pockets in women’s pants and dresses. Samsung did a lot of work to minimize the crease—the dip between the two halves of the big interior display—but it’s still clearly there.
When I held the iPhone Duo open, the crease was barely visible. As I slid my finger across the display, I could feel it, but it’s more subtle than Samsung’s. Most of the time, the screen looked as flat and smooth as the one on an iPad.
Apple employed both software and hardware techniques to camouflage the crease. The matte surface of the interior 7.6-inch screen minimizes reflections to hide it. (Samsung’s Fold 8 screen is shiny.)
And as you begin to open or close the iPhone Duo, the interface shifts the controls and content away from the center crease. If, say, you’re watching a video on the outer screen, you can open the Duo to switch to the bigger display within. A black fade marks the transition. You don’t see the video full screen until the phone is completely flat.
Heavy handed
My second observation was that, when the Duo is closed, in phone mode, it was harder to use one-handed than I expected.
In the keynote trailer and press release, Apple touted how thin the Duo is. It’s marketed as the thinnest iPhone ever—when open.
But it’s actually thicker and heavier than most of its Android competitors. The Duo weighs 254 grams, and is 11.3 millimeters thick when closed. The Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 is just 201 grams, with a thickness of 9.7 millimeters. Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold is 239 grams and 10.1 millimeters.
Because the Duo is also wider than a standard iPhone, I found it quite a challenge to type.
I admit, I do have smaller-than-average hands. So I consulted my colleague Rolfe Winkler, who has a larger grip. He agreed the Duo feels big.
Apple rearranged the interface on the outer screen so it looks different than traditional iPhones. The dock and control center are off to the right to be more reachable. Committing to the Duo as your main device will require adjustments in your handling. You will have to learn a new way to use and type.
Work and play
My most surprising takeaway? I feel a pull toward this device.
I always thought that combining an iPhone and an iPad would mean bigger compromises. The battery life is about the same as the 18 Pro (up to 24 hours of “regular use” on a single charge), though I’ll need to verify that in my real-world testing. And it’s also as durable, with the same IP68 dust- and water-resistance rating as the rest of the iPhone lineup.
There are trade-offs, for sure. Trying out the camera, I immediately missed the 8X zoom in my Pro model. The Duo has just 2X zoom, which wouldn’t cut it for the dozens of pictures I take of my kid every day.
But the dual screens unlock new photo functionality. You can see what your shot looks like from the outside screen. As someone who has tried tirelessly to self-direct a family photo—or a spouse—I am very eager to try this out more.
Foldables, I initially thought, were for classic mobile-warrior jet-setter types, who never sit at a desk and are always on calls. For that crowd, the Duo can run two apps side-by-side.
Me, I’m more of a bed binge-watcher and ebook reader. That’s what my beloved iPad Mini is for.
Watching videos on the Duo is a nice experience—nice enough that you forget the screen is 0.7 inches smaller than the iPad Mini’s. The main screen is also a 4:3 aspect ratio. Very similar, by the way, to the IMAX edition of the Odyssey.
Because I wasn’t able to snag a ticket to one of the sold-out screenings, I will be watching Christopher Nolan’s version of Homer’s epic on the Duo, just as the director intended. (Just kidding! Sort of.)
The Duo costs $800 more than an iPhone 18 Pro, and I’m not sure I want to spend that premium on a first-generation Apple device. But I’m not ruling out the idea that a Duo might one day be in my future. Stay tuned for my full review.
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Mirzaian is a senior director within CBRE’s Development NSW business, operating across the company’s Western Sydney and North Sydney offices
