Inside Browns East: the iconic retailer's pioneering new store
Browns has today opened its first new bricks & mortar store in 20 years in London's Shoreditch. Browns East is the first incarnation of the "Browns Nomad" project, a pioneering take 21st Century take on semi-permanent retail concepts, and features parent group Farfetch's Store of the Future technology.
The two-storey store is located in a former print factory on the corner of Club Row, just off Redchurch Street, and has been designed to complement the original Browns flagship store on South Molton Street, which was established in 1970.
Browns East is an "augmented retail environment", which it promises will be ever changing and flexible, giving customers a reason to keep returning to the store. The Browns Nomad project is the luxury retailer's take on the pop-up model. This initiative aims to reinvent the retail experience by creating unique concepts that are tailored to the city and neighbourhood in which they are located, with the distinctive Browns DNA at its heart.
CEO Holli Rogers said Browns East was rooted in the retailer's innovative approach to retailer. Since it opened 46 years ago, the store has had a reputation for taking risks on new talent and offering an elevated in-store experience. "In creating the overall Browns Nomad concept and opening Browns East, we’ve gone back to our roots, with innovation at the heart. The store will have new elements that are tied to emotion and identity – it’s truly a sensory experience," Rogers said.
"The moment you walk in you will feel something – through the people, the product, the design, the areas within the space, and the events that will take place. Coupled with this, we are innovating with technology which will make the shopping experience in Browns more personal and convenient for our customers," she added.
Browns was acquired by luxury fashion platform Farfetch in 2015 and part of its motivation was to use the store as a test-bed for its Store of the Future omnichannel retail model. Founder, Co-Chairman & CEO of Farfetch José Neves said of the project: "Holli and the team have done a fantastic job in taking Browns, a renowned brand, and mixing it with the dynamic charisma of East London and creating something very special.
"Browns East is the perfect partner to execute the evolution from multi-channel to augmented retail led by [Chief Consultant, Augmented Retail at Farfetch] Susanne Tide-Frater. Building upon heritage and working with the Store of The Future team to create a pioneering mix of technology and in-store experience that will continually evolve to meet the customers’ needs, and shape the retail experience of the future," he said.
Sandrine Deveaux, Managing Director, Store of The Future, Farfetch explained: “Browns East will feature Farfetch’s Store of the Future technology. In this amazing new retail space, our engineers will work alongside the sales associates to really get to know the Browns East customer, and to see how they are interacting with the products and services. Insights will be constantly gathered by our team to adjust the technology. This iterative approach will allow us to shape the connected store retail experience, where we believe technology is there to enhance and to augment the customer experience in subtle, magical ways.”
Key features of the store include:
The Entrance – A zone in its own right, it will regularly be handed over to independent creatives for their own commercial ventures.
The Café – A marble clad bar, helmed for launch by Fatties Bakery, the London based purveyor of baked goods. Browns East is Fatties' first and only retail stockist.
The Table – An event space where intimate customer-facing gatherings, workshops and Q+A’s will be hosted by partners, brands, collaborators, influencers and inspirations across multiple creative industries. Twin Magazine is the launch partner.
The Focus – This is where Browns activates its "current obsessions", with a brand new look and feel with every new drop. Ksubi x Travis Scott, for which Browns is the exclusive European stockist, is first up.
The Gallery – The staircase is home to a curated selection of artwork that spans the mediums as well as the globe, with launch artists including Polly Morgan, Juno Calypso and Lauren Baker. All pieces are available for purchase at a range of price points while limited stocks last.
The Immersive Experience Room – BeBox will kick off a diverse schedule of immersion takeovers planned for this space, all of which are free to the public. Combining guided dynamic meditations with progressive light and sound technology, the BeBox experience is open to all, whether new or experienced in meditation. Bookings will be open at brownsfashion.com, with drop-in sessions also available.
The project was led by retail designers Brinkworth, working in close partnership with Browns in-house team, led by Holli Rogers, Susanne Tide-Frater and Katie Butcher (Visual Experience Director). The design was treated as a series of installations, with sculptural forms punctuating the open nature of the building. Juxtapositions of materials, finishes and colour are "unexpected, imaginative and bold".
Browns East also has strong eco credentials; floorboards originally laid at the BBC (and walked on by Winston Churchill) have been preserved and utilised in the ground floor space from its previous owner, while fixtures and furniture have been fashioned from 100% recycled plastics.
