Store gallery: New York’s latest store looks

Joe Fresh, 510 Fifth Avenue

The fashion brand owned by Canadian grocer Loblaws opened its Manhattan flagship in March 2012, and it is a statement of intent about the US market and a thing of beauty in its own right. Occupying part of the ground floor and the whole of the first floor of a modernist building that formerly housed a Chase bank (the vault is still on view in the unused part of the ground floor), the spirit of showy corporate life is immediately apparent on a trip to the first floor.

This level is all about women’s and kids’ fashion but, arriving at the top of the escalator, the thing that is most likely to capture the visitor’s attention is an art installation from the early 1950s. A large, gold screen spans almost the whole length of the back wall and is a remnant of the store’s previous life. It provides an identity that the shop might otherwise lack, given the distinctly minimalist nature of the interior.

That said, the ceiling, composed of backlit white rectangles, the large glass windows and the white interior lend the store an austere glamour that is the perfect foil for the brightly coloured stock that seems to characterise the new season Joe Fresh ranges. And, as in all of the Loblaws’ stores, the upscale shopfit belies the value-led nature of the offer.

RRL, 379 West Broadway

Open for a little longer than the 12 months that have elapsed since the last NRF, RRL is the vintage and pioneer/railroad ambience store from Ralph Lauren. And, as such, it is so different from a standard Ralph Lauren store that, unless you knew the provenance, you’d probably never guess the stable from which it has sprung.

This is a medium-sized, single-floor fashion store with a plain black fascia and an interior that replicates the tobacco warehouse that it once was in terms of fixtures and fittings.

Everything from the pressed tin ceiling to the vintage leather furniture combines to create the sense of a store that has been around for a long time. The design, to a large degree, is the same as what is done in the RRL showroom, from which ranges are sold to host retailers.

This sort of thing does not come cheap. A little shy of $5m (£3.13m) was spent creating the interior and the prices of the stock reflect a pressing need to make a return on investment.

Yet even if the prices are unnerving, it’s almost worth it for the staff alone. A theme is chosen every day for the staff to dress to - it may be the inmates of a 19th century institute of correction, a railroad worker, or perhaps a construction worker, but all of the staff, who look as if they have been selected from central casting, dress accordingly.

Macy’s women’s footwear department, 34th Street, Herald Square

Faster, higher, stronger. The Olympic motto might almost be applied to what has happened in the department store world where women’s shoes are concerned. And, until recently, the newly refurbished and extended women’s footwear department in Macy’s, opened in April 2012, was the biggest.

At 65,000 sq ft, the retailer claimed the title when the curtain was raised, although that accolade has now passed to a shopping centre in Dubai where a 96,000 sq ft behemoth opened in October. That, however, is not to belittle what’s been done by Macy’s as part of a $400m (£250m) overhaul of its 34th Street flagship.

The women’s footwear space is long and dumbbell shaped. Wide areas are joined by a narrower isthmus, and the offer is graduated from low(er) price to designer level as you walk through the area.

The retailer claims that at any one time there are more than a quarter of a million shoes on offer across the department and, as in an increasing number of upscale footwear departments, a cafe has been incorporated at the designer end of the space.

Converse, 560 Broadway

This is a real destination store and one that takes the simple Converse All Star shoe and runs with it. From the Stars and Stripes, created by grouping a very large number of Converse shoes on one of the walls, to thebespoke area at the back of the store where shoppers can customise their purchases, this is a celebration of an all-American product in one of the cast-iron framed and pillared buildings that are peculiar to lower Manhattan in general and SoHo in particular.

And, as this is a product that merits the adjective ‘iconic’, this is a store that plays the heritage card to good effect - in much the same manner as RRL, although the shopfit bill would have been considerably lower.

Treasure & Bond, 350 West Broadway

This store also breaks the 12-month rule but what makes it interesting is the way in which it has developed since Retail Week first covered it, just after it had opened, a year ago. Today, the two-floor, Nordstrom-owned rough luxe fashion store has refined its merchandising, got rid of the wooden coffee shack that was at the back of the store by recycling the feature as a display unit and created a more formal coffee shop.

The philanthropic, not-for-profit approach remains at the heart of the enterprise, with takings after operational costs being donated to local children’s charities. New elements have been incorporated as well, including a table with merchandise and the instruction to the onlooker to ‘pick me up’. Follow this command and information and video clips about the item that has been selected are projected onto the space left vacant on the table.

This is Seattle-based Nordstrom’s only presence in the city but it has announced that it will make department store landfall in Manhattan with a 285,000 sq ft, seven-storey building that is to open in 2018.