London Fashion Week’s New Groove

Over 150 womenswear designers will showcase SS16 collections at the Designer Showrooms in the brand new London Fashion Week venue – Brewer Street Car Park in Soho.

The Designer Showroom floor has been divided into product categories to ease navigation and flow. Sub-sections include RTW, Emerging RTW, Shoes, Bags, Accessories and Multi-Label Showrooms.

David Collins Studio has provided creative direction for the new home for London Fashion Week. The Studio has worked with the British Fashion Council to stage the 1,600 square metre open space layout and the design of the second floor showroom to showcase the designer collections as well as the HIX Café, the pop up restaurant of Brewer Street Car Park by Mark Hix, which will serve a unique menu designed exclusively for the event with deli classics.

A 70 metre long mirrored ceiling catwalk runs the length of the space and plays with volume, light and reflection, imposing symmetry on the space. This allows for exhibitors to be visible from the central runway, encouraging movement and exploration. Semi-transparent dividers allow designers to exhibit within spaces that are private and yet have a connection with the wider showroom. Floating shelves and showcase plinths bring a subtle uniformity to the space.

Lewis Taylor, Design Director, David Collins Studio said:

“We have worked in the retail sector for many years and now to be able to create an open space for new and established designers to showcase their work is a real privilege. Collaborating with the British Fashion Council, we wanted to embrace the urban nature of London Fashion Week’s new home at the Brewer Street Car Park whilst playing with the rigidity and form of traditional exhibition design to create a functional show space which appears to be very simple, but in fact performs as a mini-department store. Tasked with creating a completely new concept for the face of the event and being able to support British fashion has been an exciting and rewarding journey for The Studio.”

BBH ZAG, the branding and venturing division of BBH, has also developed a short film to celebrate London Fashion Week’s move to Soho which features poet Harry Baker that can due viewed via the LFW website.

FashionCapital editor JoJo Iles adds: “The announcement of the LFW relocation was met with mixed remarks from those in the industry, however Brewer Street car park has been approached as a blank canvas and the descriptions of the fit out sound very exciting, it will be really interesting to see the space transformed next week.”

(Image left from the International Designer Showcase held at Brewer Street car park February 2015)

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