The Denim Store Is At The Core Of The Entire Denim Experience. The Store Design Needs To Reflect The Pedigree, Beliefs, Inspirations And The Energy Of The Brand. Restore Solutions, One Of India’s Brightest Talents Has Recently Helped Create Some Iconic Denim Stores. Restore Shares The Journey From Thought To Execution
BOLD & UNCONVENTIONAL
The approach to design Flying Machine Bangalore store started with understanding the essence of the brand. The main design factors were being able to connect the brand language to the youth and creating a space that would be true to the Flying Machine attitude. The store has quite a heavy grunge material palette which gives a distinctive attitude to the space. Taking cue from the New Cool, which is the brand boldness of Flying Machine, the store creates an environment required for experimentation. The store design company, Restore has designed an out of the box experience for the brand which encompasses all of its attributes.
Restore received to the point design brief from the brand to create drama and engage youth with the brand.
Being a youth oriented fashion/denim brand, Flying Machine store needed an iconic language rather a conventional store design. The focus was spread towards building an authentic story for Flying Machine.While taking a look at the key design elements, the store is bold and unconventional, and is inspired from an industrial aircraft hangar. Everything in this store speaks of detailed design process, for say, a cash back has international flags to the concrete grunge walls with slate pattern flooring. The façade of the store is designed using the double height frontage to combine glass and metal girders with a clean visible branding on front. It makes the store stand apart from the crowd.
The customized wall and floor fixtures are eye-catching features. Using black metal mesh as the strategic element language for the space, the shelves are designed with a new look, involving horizontal pieces as well as vertical partition brackets. The caged look on the display highlights the walls. Special treatment is given to women’s wall which is stencil painted with a vintage grunge pattern. The staircase walkway is clad with mirrors leading to the first floor where we find the Blue Label Denim wall which has a much cleaner and classy finish in white texture wall.
While working on the project the design team also faced certain challenges. While the other stores of the brand mainly consist of red brick and white clean walls, Flying Machine wanted the language of this store
to stand out like the unconventional nature of the brand itself. One of the challenges was to make two floors fairly small that are spread over 1,200 sq.ft. The brand wanted the key denim area on upper level– thus drawing customers upstairs. This ensured an engaging experience in the stairwell through the presentation of the various denim fits and great visual merchandising.
FASHION FACTORY
VF Corporation owns three iconic American brands – Wrangler,Lee and Vans. Their store designs represents American feel through symbols of American working and biking cultures. Inspired by the interiors of factories, the industrial feel of the store and the heritage of the brands is emphasised by riveted columns, steel cross beams and exposed painted ceilings.
The process of store design started with a strategy of thorough research. VF Corporation observed stores with similar merchandise and studied the likes and dislike, expectations and aspirations of the customers. Besides this, biking cultures and American work culture from fifties were the inspirations for store design.
Spread over 4,900 sq.ft., the store front had a full height glazing which restructured to give the apprearance of columns with rivets to go with the design concept. Backlit visuals were put in the facade at different heights and sizes as the brand wanted the facade to have a fair amount of see-through. The two-level store was built on the premise of an industrial warehouse.
The interior of the store is highlighted with pine wood as the light colour looks youthful. Rivets are used to adorn the columns inside and the railing of the staircase, and in the lawn area inlarger than life size.
A luxurious red sofa offset the hard look and provides the contrast that defines the ladies section. Also, light feminine touches are added to the changing room to ensure that the store doesn’t lose its DNA.
On the right hand side of the entrance, a heritage wall for Lee going the full height. A similar account of the Wrangler brand is positioned on the loft above the entrance. Skate boards, flags, road signs and motorcycles create the mood for the three brands and their lineage. The cash back wall becomes a brand representation wall with design elements of each brand showcased in pine boxes. The core lighting was a Industrial style approach and track lights, all working to highlight the merchandise only, while keeping the ambient light low within the store.
The team met a lot of challenges while donning the store. One of the major challenges was to manage the space in front of the store. It could be easily vandalised and any element of design was susceptible to the forces of nature. The space was designed like a chess board, with a central passage leading to the stores main entrance. The white squares on the chess board have larger than life rivets with the Lee and Wrangler brand insignias.
