Architects move in on store design

There were probably more, but last Thursday night in London there were at least four parties featuring fashion brands and new store launches to choose from and all of them had their more or less obvious charms. The timing was not coincidental as the majority were intent on benefiting from the halo effect of the run-up to London Fashion Week: the crowds. would be in town and a good time would be had by all.

And as predictable as the rash of corporate merrymaking were the crowds of coiffed and slickly besuited types all air-kissing and determined that everybody would notice their presence as much as the store they were gracing. What it did serve to demonstrate was that in the world of fashion at least, the urge to splurge and party like it was 1999, or pre-Lehmans anyway, was as strong as ever.

There was also the little matter that on the store-opening front there have been some pretty spectacular new shops being brought to market of late, all with their accompanying parties. The highlight last week was, of course, the 35,000 sq ft space on the second floor of Selfridges in London. With more than £10m and two years having been spent on realising this project, a fair proportion of fashion’s great and good had turned up to have a gander.

They would not have been disappointed. This is the world’s largest footwear department with more than 100,000 pair of shoes in stock and 4,400 styles on show. And it looks astonishing, thanks to the in-house team working alongside London architect Jamie Fobert.

The transfer of attention by architects to the realm of the store design consultancy is a demonstration of how tough things have been for those dependent on large commercial design and build projects for their revenues. It also means however that the field from which retailers can choose their store design talent is wider than ever.

And what has been delivered at Selfridges is almost certainly the most glamorous department store shoe shop in the world - a mark of faith in the power of an environment to influence the way in which people shop. The Shoe Galleries party was therefore one of the hotter tickets last Thursday, but there were celebrations of other refurbs and launches at the same time. In short, there is still a lot going on in the world of store design and it’s not necessarily the outcome of work by retail design’s more familiar names.

All good news if you happen to head up a retailer’s store design department, less so, perhaps, if you’re a store design consultancy.