The Retail Planner

Harvey Nichols has revamped its menswear department after a nine-month closure, resulting in a refit that breaks down traditional merchandise categories and creates a new lifestyle retail destination.

Harvey Nichols menswear by Virgile and Partners

The new 28,000-square-foot retail space is designed with a multi-disciplinary, wardrobe-oriented menswear customer in mind and flow between the seven rooms is key to the design by architects Virgile and Partners.

‘Harvey Nichols has moved away from calling itself a department store, now the store is more of a large boutique,’ says head of menswear Darren Skey.  There are now 270 menswear brands spread over two floors, with 50 new brands introduced for the relaunch.  ‘We needed to differentiate from our competitors, so we’ve introduced a series of rooms that act more like individual boutiques, but there are product adjacencies that encourage customers to shop by ‘dress codes’ adds Skey.

Visitors can book complimentary menswear style concierges, on offer for the first time, who will operate within a VIP lounge suite complete with large interlinked changing rooms and ‘modesty cupboards’.

The menswear space will be open early in the morning alongside a new café area and opening hours will be extended to late, with the introduction of a bar and restaurant sitting adjacent to the new Project 109 collaborative pop-up space. With a more experiential, interactive customer in mind, Skey says Harvey Nichols is introducing more collaborative pop-up spaces hosted by media brand partners. Project 109 opens in May and will house guest edits from media brands or retail partners – kicking off with a selection by Hypebeast.

Retail Planner takeouts: Retailers are focusing on concierge services and more entertainment-driven leisure offers, that both encourage dwell-time and create a unique destination retail proposition.

In a total service retail world, the speed of customer service can define brand loyalty. Here retail design creative director Tom Bartlett, co-founder of London-based agency Waldo Works explains the subtleties between fast and slow retail design and how to cater to multi-nationality, luxury customers passing through the new international tax-free lounge at Selfridges or inspire those looking for luxury lifestyle moments at Smythson.

Selfridges tax free lounge by WaldoWorks

Selfridges tax-free lounge

‘The brief for the Selfridges international tax-free lounge, was to identify a community of people that are there to do something quite mundane like tax-free forms,’ says Bartlett.  ‘We needed to make those actions feel special or make those people feel looked after. For example, we decided the VIP area should be hosted by concierge staff and is therefore, like a hotel suite.’

The physical space needed to be imbued with service that says ‘care and attention’, according to Bartlett. ‘We made sure this message was conveyed through the design details across the floor.’ This translated as the lip of a desk curved up for people to lean on it, chairs that don’t scrape on the floor, lighting without glare. ‘There is a sense of privacy, people spend serious money here, we wanted a serious atmosphere,’ he says.

‘It’s a place that borrows from service level in hotels. The space is designed around how these international shoppers move through spaces. This cultural milieu of people from different nationalities, religions and professions, meant we had to consider both very demanding or very subtle service needs – the mix is mostly Chinese and other Asian nationalities, Nigerian, Middle Eastern, Russian and Americans. So there were contrasting fast and slow behavioural service elements: for examples, British people don’t like to be ‘serviced’ too much, where as Europeans like it. Middle East customers like to be serviced well and Chinese only like it when they are spoken to in Chinese. The Chinese don’t like to wait, but the Middle Eastern customers might take all day to do an important service like their tax refund.’

‘We took the approach to stream the slow or fast service areas so everyone – even large groups – can find their own pace. There are two main halls:  east and west, for slow vs fast.

Overall the combination of the two spaces means that when these customers are served, it’s a much richer experience than usual and there are luxury treatments throughout the journey.’

Smythson New York

Waldo Works also designed the new Smythson New York flagship, where the premise is very much luxury hometailing. ‘With the Smythson flagship, you are selling perfect little blocks of colour as lifestyle moments,’ says Bartlett.

Smythson, New York by WaldoWorks

The store is split into departments by different experiences. ‘The Collection room houses bags, the Library houses notebooks and the Den is for technology accessories; the store is compartmentalised by different needs but it’s a journey of discovery. This is not a replenishment exercise, it’s an inspirational retail experience where you are buying into a luxury lifestyle in an aspirational Georgian townhouse environment that says heritage and 200 years of brand history. But it’s about reinventing that heritage for a modern day customer – you have to use contemporary design cues to recreate a modern reason for buying into that heritage DNA. The packaging or visual displays are how you remain current and relevant, and it’s about immersing the customer in subtle contemporary language.’

Technology in stores has come full circle argues Bartlett. ‘Five years ago, the brief from brands was to bring the digital into the store. Now brands are moving away from that. The reality of being in a store and all that it can offer, is more important that replicating the online digital experience you see on a tiny mobile screen. Visiting a store is a time of luxury, brands need to think of that time as how a consumer rewards themselves with a little shopping treat, it’s time away from the screen. You don’t get the same experience from online stores so don’t try to do the same thing – that should be dedicated to convenience based shopping. Visiting a store is a luxury treat and brands need to remember that. Retail should be a memorable, special experience. It’s still the best way for brands to communicate the shopping experience in a physical format.’