Despite Brexit, economic woes, and last but certainly not least, the abolition of tax-free shopping, London has very much retained its stature as a major shopping destination, including in the upper segment. As such, luxury brands have been shifting gear, making investments to further boost their presence. The house of Gucci has just revealed its new flagship store on swanky New Bond Street where it occupies an early 20th-century, Grade-II listed structure by architecture practice Lanchester & Rickards. Originally built for Colnaghi, a renowned art dealer specialised in Old Masters, ancient works of art and drawings, the interior, created by Gucci‘s in-house design team, has been designed with careful consideration for the building’s ornate period features.
Additionally, the design has been executed using LEED guidelines and principles. It’s obvious that Gucci‘s new flagship store is quite impressive, occupying no less than 15,000 sq.ft. (1,394 sqm.) spread across five beautifully appointed floors and featuring a wide range of carefully curated offerings. Elevating the shopping experience, and also as an homage to the building’s original purpose, are a large number of contemporary artworks dot the premises, and that’s quite unique within Gucci‘s global retail network. Opening with a curation by art advisor and curator Truls Blaasmo focussing in particular on Italian artists, geometry, primary colours, and a relationship with text, pieces from world-renowned names.
The lengthy list of artists includes Lucio Fontana, Liliana Moro, Alighiero Boetti, Matilde Cassani, Jonny Niesche, Massimo Uberti, Joshua Woolford and Tim Etchells boldly animate the historic rooms. Also, the works span various mediums, including sculpture, painting, and neon, and more works will be set to be unveiled later this year. Upon entering the store, shoppers find themselves in the expansive ground floor space, indeed, the former gallery space, marked by an imposing column-lined corridor, wooden chevron flooring and a grand curving staircase. Amidst this architectural splendour, Gucci‘s coveted collections of handbags, fine jewellery, women’s apparel, silk, shoes and small leather goods can be found.
Other store highlights include a mezzanine floor dedicated entirely to the Gucci Valigeria travel collection, showcased in a setting that mimics a plush vintage railway train. Shelving is marked by engraved lion’s head details, while the floor is a hand-laid parquet. The Tudor Room sees carefully restored wood-panelled walls, and here, items are on display from the Gucci archive in Florence. The basement section and upper floors, all decorated in an equally sumptuous style, are home to men’s apparel, watches, small leather goods and other categories. It may not come as a surprise that, following openings in Los Angeles and Tokyo, an invite-only Gucci Salon can be found here too, presenting a curated range of unique, top-notch items that reflect the company’s craftsmanship.
Gucci
144-146 New Bond Street (Mayfair)
London W1S 2TR
Telephone +44 20 76292716
Mon-Sat 10am-7pm
Sun 12pm-6pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
