Just like the brand the store was very understated! I expected to turn onto Bruton Street and see the store instantly. It took me 5 seconds of looking to notice the store! A busy shopper could easily pass the store with out noticing. With articles and reviews mounted on the walls the store looks more like a working artists loft than a London boutique of a major conceptual designer. The sizeable amount of reflective glass and mirror used creates a maze like feel to the store.Televisions are used to show the collections and add to the experience. They are strategically placed behind tinted glass to add to the mysterious annonomous character of the brand.
The empty white walls and undressed manequins add to the minimalist theme of the brand.The staff are dressed in white labcoats reinforcing the brands style. The lack of colour causes the garments to stand out like art pieces in a gallery.
The vast changing room covered in mirrors with white stools and cushions, relaxes the customers so they can concentrate on how the garments make them feel.
Feathers have been carefully placed in perfume bottles adding to the clinical white identity of the brand. Tinted glass layers the blank walls around the room adding to the transparent reflected feel of the store. The glass is printed with light grey text using the same font used in Margiela’s books and advertising.
The text on the walls splits the collections into catergories. The MM6 range were on one side of the room seperated from the other collections. The garments were also seperated into sex’s. As we walked through the female collections we arrived at a seperate room filled with excellent male construction. The third method of catergoration was splitting the ranges into colour categories. This made it an easy shopping experience and all the garments stood out equally.
