Austin Reed - Flagship store, Regent Street

The brief for Austin Reed was to create customer awareness to new shoe brands. Entice customers from the fashion floor to the shoe and accessory department, whilst displaying merchandising to reflect the high value of the products. However the system needed to be flexible and versatile, allowing staff to re- locate or change product and fixtures quickly and easily without tools.

The challenge came with trying to clad existing walls, columns and staircases. Covering existing recesses with laminated metal, whilst the sheeting retains the electrical fittings. Another factor was to try and install the system overnight with minimum disruption to the sales floor.

This brief was successfully met and a 4-man team arrived on site to begin work at 7.00pm on a Saturday night to complete by 12 noon the following day for Sunday trading. Shoes were displayed on a combination of dark blue and silver acrylic bricks fixed with high powered magnets to adhere to the metal wall surface. The dark blue matched the colour scheme in the shoe department, the brand logos were shown in a vinyl lettering on the mirrored surface and magnetic weight loading peg hooks are used to hang product or mannequin torsos.

The result for this collaboration was that the turnover for shoes and accessories increased dramatically. The system has also been installed in other Austin Reed branches and is continuing to advance with the brand.