World class architects, the finest materials and curated spaces. You would
be apt to think we are talking about museums or art galleries, but no, this
is the latest in luxury retail, where brands aim to entice shoppers with a
unique experience not found anywhere else.
Take the new Christopher Kane store on Mount Street, designed by minimalist
architect John Pawson, which features an off-white palette, mirrored
surfaces and transparent display cases. Nothing to detract from the
clothes, in the most luxurious surroundings possible.
At Celine the accessories are displayed like artefacts
A few doors down is the new Celine boutique, all marble, parquet flooring,
sculptured displays. Here Phoebe Philo worked with Danish artist Thomas
Poulsen to design furniture, including lighting and the daybeds. The shoes
and bags seem more like curated artefacts, and the entire space echoes of a
gallery more than a retail environment.
Just a short stroll from Mount Street is Dover Street, where Comme des
Garcons a decade ago paved the way for minimalist, urban retail design.
Founder Rei Kawakubo has called her approach to store curation “beautiful
chaos” and Dover Street Market regularly features exhibitions and
installations throughout the store and in its windows.
Directly across Dover Street Market lies the new Victoria Beckham boutique,
designed by Farshid Moussavi. Moussavi says“the more we have the internet,
the more physical space becomes powerful”. In the case of the store,
Beckham has a successful online business, so her store functions as “a
gallery”. It is a generous series of spaces on three levels, dominated by
grand staircases, diagonal geometry and mirrored ceilings, walls and
counters. The products are almost incidental – a light scattering of bags
greets you on a wall whose shelves are retractable, so that the space can
be used for events. Later you find clothes hanging on a gold-coloured
saw-tooth rack – which stops the hangers sliding irritatingly together – or
on chains hanging from the ceiling.
Consumers don’t just want to shop. They want an experience, they want
brands to understand them, just as much as they want to buy into something
unique. Prada’s long time relationship with Rem Koolhaas is a good example,
who transformed the former downtown New York Guggenheim into a Prada
sphere, which at the time set a new benchmark for store curation: the
sweeping staircase, the glass cabinets of handbags and the rows of
mannequins transformed the way boutiques were designed.
If we look at what luxury means today, it is craftsmanship, time and space.
It is the former and latter that is taking the concept of retail into a new
physical experience for brands.
Images: Victoria Beckham, Christopher Kane, Prada NYC
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