Fashion Exchange, Designer Clothing Boutique

Client: CPI Apparels UK

Location: Brick Lane, London

Area: 100 sqm

Value: £75,000

Procurement: Negotiated

Situated on the ever-bussier boundary between London’s East End and City, Brick Lane has a rich and chequered history, often involving clashes of culture that spark imagination and invention. Its recent history has seen it hailed as the heart of London’s design, fashion and art scenes as the area is constantly flooded with pop-up shops and style-seekers.

Fleet were approached by CPI Apparels to create a store for a new clothing retail outlet called Fashion Exchange. The ethos behind the store attempts to straddle the old and new of designer clothes, as the store likewise straddles the old and new of London’s fashion scene in its location on Brick Lane.

The model of retail was inspired by a successful store in Venice Beach, L.A. The main focus of our initial meetings was how to maximise a very tight budget and to convince the client that a West Coast surf aesthetic would not necessarily work on one of the most self aware and culturally knowing streets in Europe. As such we discussed the identity of Brick Lane whilst walking the area, and began to piece together an aesthetic of mass-produced utilitarian products being subverted or combined with ‘precious’ antique pieces.

Located on a prominent corner site of Brick Lane in the shadow of the Truman Brewery, the building has generous display windows within which we have proposed mannequins be posed in the style of classic film or fine art scenes.

Opened Autumn 2010.