We cannot argue that London as a creative hub for contemporary menswear is fast becoming a globally pioneering city – across a number of platforms – the prestige of London Collections: Men, the rise in creative menswear talent, the focus that global brands such as Tom Ford and Versace have placed on the city as the future of groundbreaking initiatives and design so it is unsurprising that every major department store in London has started to rework their business model to cater for this demand – particularly contemporary fashion.
First to the mark is the eponymous Harrods – the forefront of luxury retail. The global icon has just opened the new Contemporary space along with Givenchy’s new shop-in-shop which, at 1,050 square feet, is the largest in Europe – with its inspiration based on the Paris flagship store.
Harrods also unveiled the new menswear ‘Denim Gallery’ also located on the lower ground floor and set within 5, 000 sq/ft offering brands including Diesel, AG Jeans, Nudie, True Religion and J Brand plus 7 for all Mankind, Citizens of Humanity and Jacob Cohen. The Denim Gallery is the final addition to the larger redevelopment of the Lower Ground Floor Contemporary department, which has already seen boutiques opening from Lanvin, DSquared2, Balenciaga, Valentino, Alexander McQueen and Fendi with further shop-in-shops openings from Neil Barrett (designed by Zaha Hadid), Versace and Balmain.
Experiencing the relaunch last night and being talked through the concept and architecture by the buying team who have co-pioneered this vision to equip the store for a new generation of Harrods Man was quite the eye opening experience. Head down to Harrods to check it out and explore more options at Harrods.com