Store gallery: Stradivarius plays a new tune for UK fashion shoppers

The day before a store opens is always chaotic as visual merchandisers, fixture manufacturers and store staff all vie to get everything ready on time. With signage still to be put in place, it’s often hard to know where you are, but if it’s the UK and if many of the voices are in Spanish, then it’s a fair bet that the visitor has strayed into an Inditex store. This is certainly the case at 309 Oxford Street, where Iberian vowels are plentiful as Inditex’s new store prepares to welcome shoppers.

Shoppers might expect another of the group’s Zara or Bershka stores but in this instance it is Stradivarius, a first for Oxford Street.

Were it not for the fashion brand’s store in Westfield Stratford, this would be the lone UK outpost for Inditex’s price-conscious brand. It is Stradivarius’s flagship location, which doesn’t really mean a great deal given that there are just these two stores at present. However, another two are scheduled to open later this year in Belfast and Manchester’s Trafford Centre.

Industrial design

For the London shopper who has been to the nearby River Island and made a visit to the Uniqlo flagship next door to this new arrival, it sits comfortably in the existing retail landscape. Standing at the entrance, the view is long and narrow and it is easy to see to the back of the store. The gaze is arrested, however, by an interior display window that sits about a quarter of the way into the store. It is beneath the atrium that reaches up beyond the first floor and is at present unused but destined to house menswear when Stradivarius launches its range in 2017.

“For the London shopper the new arrival on Oxford Street sits comfortably in the existing retail landscape”

In addition to these features giving the shop a sense of space, there is a welcome distraction in the shape of a large screen showing fashion videos and a mock window to either side of it. The latter are effectively high-concept pieces of visual merchandising, and provide a reason for taking a look around the upper level.

It also ensures that the industrial nature of the store fit-out is not overlooked. At the front, the shop has been stripped back to the original brick on which the Stradivarius name has been painted.

The pipework on the left-hand side is functional, rather than a fascia that has been put in place to create a faux rough-and-ready ambience.

The warehouse-like feel is mimicked by the in-store window, which is framed inside black metal.

Into the artist’s studio

When Stradivarius became part of the Inditex brand stable in 1999 it was seen as a “romantic” brand, according to a company spokeswoman, and the interiors were styled accordingly. A rough-hewn interior indicates that Stradivarius has taken a new direction and it seems to work well enough.

This is also a brand that is more price-led than Zara, Bershka et al, and there is a strong sense of the low-key, modular design of the store. The ground-floor perimeter uses a triple-hanging merchandising system, backed by vertical white-neon lighting.

The appearance is striking, with the collections displayed along the wall and the mid-shop space used for basic assortments. A greater emphasis is also placed on accessories than in other Inditex shops. Bags and shoes are given particular prominence.

“There are no limits to the number of garments that can be taken into the fitting rooms. Instead, the number is written on a board, alongside the shopper’s name”

Heading down to the basement via a staircase towards the rear of the floor, there is a distinct change of pace and mood. About 25% of the basement is devoted to a newly launched lifestyle collection (due to be expanded in September), which features items such as scented candles, small plants and woven lanterns displayed on different stands. The floor changes tone from the ground level, featuring patterned ceramic tiles that create a slightly oriental feel.

The rest of the floor consists of more womenswear, with the rails of merchandise broken up by a fake banana palm and, at the rear, a block of fitting rooms.

Another change of pace is made in this part of the shop by a switch to larger, plain, light-grey floor tiles, the colour of which is mirrored by an overhead wooden lighting gantry.

There are no limits to the number of garments that can be taken into the fitting rooms at any one time. Instead, the number is written on a board, alongside the shopper’s name – it’s an attempt at making things rather less formal than is the case in Inditex’s other high-street chains.

Steel pillars dominate on this floor and each perimeter module in the womenswear area is backed by fabric that has been painted an ecru white, intended to reflect the store’s industrial-meets-artist’s-studio environment.

Striking a new chord

Stradivarius is the Latin form of Stradivari, the surname of the maker of fine string instruments in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The only reference to this in the stores is the logo itself, which has the treble clef musical notation immediately in front of the name. As a piece of cultural appropriation, it is curious and bears little relation to the merchandise on the rails. Perhaps it was just a name that appealed to the brand’s founders.

This is a brand that remains virtually unknown in the UK and it will probably be some time before it takes hold, if it is going to do so. That said, the new store on Oxford Street is a welcome addition to a thoroughfare that has a predictability about it that verges on the monotonous. This one may strike a new chord with young shoppers.