Ahead of Riccardo Tisci’s debut for the British fashion house, Burberry has opened the doors to its newly revamped flagship store at 121 Regent Street in London.
Re-imagined by Tisci, the store will pose as Burberry’s only brick-and-mortar store to house the limited addition pieces from Riccardo Tisci’s first ever Burberry collection. Scheduled to take place on Monday, 17th of September 2018 at 5:30pm GMT, the collection will be exclusively available to shop on Instagram, WeChat, and at the store following Tisci’s Burberry runway debut.
The store location at 121 Regent Street was a dedicated exhibition space called ‘The New Gallery’, from 1888–1910. Inspired by the building’s history as a theatre, each room is wrapped in draped linen curtains where plush carpets act as a subtle background to a minimalist edit of products. Trench-inspired hues ranging from stone to honey alongside accents of light pink and pistachio, feature throughout the store. Fixtures made from plywood are utilized as contrasting elements for the rest of the space, with over one hundred plinths used to add colour, texture and tone.
The key highlighting element stands out in the 26,000 square-foot flagship is the ‘Sisyphus Reclined’. Stationed at the heart of the newly transformed space, under a majestic domed ceiling, the ‘Sisyphus Reclined’ is a three-floor scaffold immersive and interactive commissioned art installation by British artist Graham Hudson.
“I was excited about Burberry’s commitment to be open-minded about what was possible. I think the fact that London has been a building site since the Romans arrived has been a creeping influence on my work. The scaffold and rubble, it’s also a kind of acting – a façade.”
It features eighty cameras that take 360-degree photos and vinyl record players that play acapella DJ sets throughout every corner of the store. In the centre sits a technologically-advanced robot, which sculpts human forms based on body scans taken on the scaffold’s top level that are afterwards displayed around the installation for the public to view. “The robot is preforming and is always doing something different every time,” Hudson said. “It’s the ultimate modern selfie.”
The installation transforms the store’s main atrium into an exhibition space, serving as a narrative tale in sculptural form combining sound and visual concepts and will remain in the store until 26 October.
Individual rooms have been curated in a manner that celebrates individual merchandise ranging from The Heritage trench to the car coat and a room exclusively dedicated entirely to the Burberry Vintage check.
Changes have been bubbling ever since Tisci replaced Christopher Bailey at the helm of Burberry earlier this year, with the Burberry logo undergoing a complete overhaul and more recently, the fashion houses banning the use of real fur in its merchandise. What remains to be seen is how lucrative these sudden changes prove to be for a brand celebrated for its heritage.
