January 2008
Leading retail design company rpa:vision has collaborated with iconic U.S. brand Brooks Brothers to create a new interior for the launch of its flagship Edinburgh store. The brand launched in the UK two years ago and this prestigious location marks the first step outside London.
Brooks Brothers is America’s oldest (est. 1818) and most celebrated fashion retailer, specializing in business suiting for men and women as well as the smart/casual ‘Ivy League’ style with which the company is synonymous. With the emphasis placed firmly on quality product and customer service, Brooks Brothers has served generations of American families, and dressed every US President since Abraham Lincoln. Stylish stars of stage and screen across the decades include Brooks devotees Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Greta Garbo. Today, sex symbols from Brad Pitt to Ashton Kutcher can be found sporting the Brooks Brothers label.
The new store in Edinburgh’s George Street cleverly mixes the Brooks Brothers brand heritage with the Georgian architectural vocabulary of the building that serves as its new home. The result is a store of beauty and relevance in the bustling George St. which maintains strong visual links with the brand’s US environments but has a distinctly British twist.
In the U.S., Brooks Brothers has undergone considerable expansion over the past few years, with stores now numbering 170, with a further 70 worldwide.
The brand is planning to invest £15m in developing the UK market and its stores over the next five years. Further stores are planned in a number of cities with flagship stores slated for Manchester, Dublin, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Cardiff and a number of smaller boutique stores targeting Cambridge, Oxford, Kingston, Guildford, Plymouth, Southampton and shop in shop opportunities.
John Hind, managing director of Brooks Brothers, comments:
“The UK is a significant development opportunity for Brooks Brothers as part of its International and European development plans.
With our strong contempory Tailoring, Made to Measure, Sportswear and Accessories product ranges proving very successful with the UK customer it is giving us confidence for the development of the brand in this market.
Our customers appreciate and enjoy the high quality and great service for which Brooks Brothers has a world-class reputation, whilst in the style stakes, the label scores with those that want great cut and attention to detail, not this season’s gimmick. An atmosphere to reflect the refined tastes of the Brooks Brothers shopper was the goal and rpa has delivered, cleverly mixing America with the UK and the past with the present.”
Nigel Collett, of rpa:vision, comments:
“The look and feel of the Brooks Brothers stores is a clever fusion of American classic clothes store and the traditional gentlemen’s outfitter that has all but disappeared from our high streets. The interior of the Edinburgh store with it dark wood panelling, antique crystal chandeliers and an assortment of antique furniture draws heavily on the heritage of the brand and works sympathetically with a listed building.”
For further information please contact:
Anton Rush
Zebra PR
020 7228 5500
anton@zebrapost.com
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Read BROOKS BROTHERS ARTICLES on TAXI Design Network
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