Store gallery: Lululemon springs onto Regent Street, London

Until recently, a visit to 187-189 Regent Street involved preppy American merchandise created by a Swedish company – Gant.

It then vacated the building and moved to smaller premises across the street.

Now, in its place, comes Canadian ‘athleisure’ retailer Lululemon, which seems intent on having women and men running, yogaing and doing plenty of hard, albeit healthy, work.

When it was Gant, the store traded from three floors.

Today it is a two-floor affair (ground and first), with a total selling area of just over 5,000 sq ft.

Going big

But the biggest difference is the manner in which the internal space has been dealt with.

Stephen Spencer, director of real estate store development, says that the decision to take on the former Gant flagship was straightforward: “If you look at Michael Kors [along the street], it looks premium owing to the openness. We [therefore] went for the biggest store with the biggest windows.”

The outcome is a store with a long, open frontage and internally, the Dalziel & Pow and Lululemon-designed space makes the two floors feel accessible rather than departmentalised.

Spencer says that the brief given to the internal and consultancy team was not overly prescriptive: “We were going to give them a defined scope, but in the end we actually said ‘start again’ and asked them to look at how they would design one of our stores.”

Men welcome

Lululemon is predominantly a female retail brand – around 80% by sales – and therefore one of the priorities was to ensure that men are aware that clothing is available for them.

This resulted in the men’s offer being placed on the right, as soon as shoppes walk through the door.

To the left of the door there is what is known as the ‘Pant Wall’ – a core part of the retailer’s proposition that is therefore given premium billing.

There are also lots of digital screens showing, among other things, a day in the life of Lululemon ‘brand ambassadors’ – people who do the sort of yoga moves others might find a mite tricky.

It’s about creating an experience, according to Spencer.

The other thing that might be remarked upon is the signage. Much of this is concerned with getting shoppers to head upstairs.

Stepping up

Spencer says that the majority of Lululemon stores trade from a single floor and therefore the “challenge” was working out how to make reaching the first floor a natural part of visiting the store.

The staircase is well lit and, strangely, the handrail, which is recessed into the wall and backlit, takes centre stage, beckoning shoppers upwards.

The square footage upstairs is only slightly greater than the ground floor, but it appears considerably bigger as it is longer and narrower and much play is made of mirrors to enhance the sense of space.

There are departments on this level, but it’s actually quite hard to discern where one ends and another begins.

This is done purposely as there are grey areas between the sort of clothing required for yoga and a casual jog, Spencer remarks.

This is a flagship and it’s on Regent Street, joining the North American retail legion that characterises the offer in this part of the West End.

The street remains a honeypot for those looking to make a statement in Europe, Brexit notwithstanding.

Lululemon kicked off its Europe adventure with a store on Covent Garden’s Long Acre a few years ago. With this one, however, it looks as if it is coming of age.