Richard James Flagship Store | Andy Martin Architecture

The new store for the Menswear brand, Richard James is currently the largest retail space on Saville Row in London. It offers customers a more holistic approach to the flagship stores’ design that is articulated in simple, bold and recognizable design features. The client’s brief was to create a space that represented the brand’s ethos. AMA states their aspiration liked in aligning Richard James’ core brand character with a unique design response, respectful of the site’s context, innovative in its material and aesthetic qualities, flexible and durable in terms of its maintenance and overall performance. The extensive open space is delicately divided in two main areas, ‘seasonal’ and ‘classic’, by a translucent screen treated with a dichroic film, which varies in colour, luminosity and reflectiveness. This freestanding screen becomes the central feature of the new space, operating both as a vibrant backdrop to the displays in the ‘seasonal’ area and a circulation distributor, concealing the more ‘private’ areas of the classic and changing rooms. The element that blends the entire unit together is the stretched canvas ceiling, which conceals an adjustable ambient light system, providing a changeable character. The canvas is versatile in that it can be easily changed, reinstalled and decorated seamlessly. The architects identified four main Brand Characteristics in ‘Richard James’ recent collections, from which visual and performative references are drawn of his design. These are Reflected Colour, Colour Casting, Chroma and Translucent Inner Skin. AMA adds – “we derived techniques and effects from the above which are directly translated in the key design features of our proposal. For example, the stretched canvas ceiling system works in direct reference to colour in terms of its reflective and projective qualities, and the central screen evokes the chromatic and translucent related to light, texture and colour blur. AMA also challenged and contemporarised the traditional understanding of shop windows and removed the whole existence of window displays altogether, thereby allowing the passers-by and customers to filter / look into the space directly. Adding another element of twist to the tailor that is known for his bold and innovative approach to design.