London & South East Premier Retail

AllSaints Brompton Store

AllSaints
Written by Roma Publications

AllSaints – The Brompton Store

AllSaints Opens its First Standalone Store in London’s Knightsbridge

Iconic contemporary clothing brand AllSaints has recently opened a new store on Brompton Road, London, which is set engage a more dynamic customer experience.

Opened on the 17th June, the store houses both men’s and women’s fashion, commencing with ‘The Capital Collection’ handbag line as well as key DNA pieces such as the iconic Balfern Leather jacket. The 3,523 square foot store is situated in Knightsbridge – a prestigious retail destination – and has been seamlessly designed to match the building’s historic location.

The store features exposed walls to reveal the original brickwork and structural framework, which will contrast the natural oak floor boards. In addition the store will also enable customers to browse and shop all elements of the collection via the internally-designed digital pod.

William Kim, CEO of AllSaints spoke to Premier Retail about the project: “In terms of what we’re doing with our business model, it is so dynamic. We want to create a future proof model, which showcases a digitally led consumer experience. We’re also one of the few brands which embrace retail, architecture, construction and have our own furniture research and development lab.

“I think the key thing is we have some of the best real-estate on a global basis and we’re always looking to try and find the right space. For us, it was a unique opportunity, not only when looking at the surrounding area but also the structural pros of the building.

“We look to appreciate the buildings that we use and then we start to construct the industry ceiling of the store. The property ticked all of the boxes and we have a very vibrant business throughout the country and in London. When you look at the location of the store you realise we were missing opportunities in that area.”

AllSaints

William added:

“We are very thoughtful about our store choices, and globally we tend to reject more real-estate opportunities than we take, to ensure we can maintain what we call, ‘the branded experiences’.”

For the interior, it is easy to keep the same configuration across all stores, but in this case William and his team decided to change it, flipping the original idea to create something new.

AllSaints now has 245 stores and a presence in 28 countries including 18 in central London, which highlights a major expansion since they opened for business in 1994. However, this store is set to be the first to embrace a brighter but more minimalistic design and will act as a benchmark for AllSaints’ future ventures.

Despite the incorporation of technology into their most recent stores, William described the fine line AllSaints have had to find in order to ensure these advancements don’t affect customer experiences:

“We as a brand believe that integrated technology should be hidden within the store, it shouldn’t be ‘face forward’ because at the end of the day we’re a clothing collection first.

“For us, we do have these aspects of technology but I think that’s what really helps to differentiate us to help people to have the best experience. It’s subtle but it’s still there and I think that gives us the right balance. It’s all about getting the right balance.”

In addition William Kim also spoke about the positive feedback they have received from customers.

He said: “There are two aspects to what they have been saying; in terms of the palette the vibrancy in the colour has been sensational. As well as this, customers have also commented on the brightness of the store – historically costumers would have found our stores to be a little bit darker.

“There has been a massive change in terms of the ambience of the store and this is a concept we have tested in our stores in Asia and America, but here we’ve taken this to a whole new level.

“As a company, we pride ourselves on our business model which counteracts the inefficiencies of a normal model. Britain should be proud of the fashion talent that we harness and for the lead we take in digital innovation.”

The renowned brand now boasts an amazing 86 locations across the UK and no doubt will only keep expanding both nationally and internationally.

Allsaints

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Roma Publications