John Lewis & Grimshaw Architects join forces to create new concept ‘Fashion Pavilion’

Sept. 5, 2011 - PRLog -- Launching on the fashion floor in John Lewis Oxford Street on Monday 5th September 2011, the bold installation will house new private label designer collaborations from a host of designers including Osman Yousefzada, Clements Ribeiro and Tracey Boyd.

After two months at John Lewis Oxford Street, the Pavilion will tour the UK for 18 months adding drama and inspiration to flagship John Lewis stores including Edinburgh, Cardiff and Liverpool.

Comprised of simple cardboard tubes suspended in clear Perspex sheets, the modular panel design creates a flexible and enclosed environment of varying transparency. This flexibility allows for various configurations to be explored in different locations around the UK. A solution is formed with three easily fabricated panel types resulting in an events space which both draws the public in and screens off its surrounding environment, offering a degree of privacy.

The Pavilion went through various incarnations and took the Grimshaw and John Lewis instore design team several months to perfect. The launch of the Pavilion is planned to coincide with New West End Company's High Street Fashion Week and will be in situ in Oxford Street over London Fashion Week and Vogue Shopping Night Out on 8th September.  

Susanne Given, Buying Director of Fashion and Beauty, comments, “Fashion is increasingly about the retail ‘experience’ so we really wanted to add a new, exciting dimension to John Lewis fashion floors, something that would mark us out as a retail innovator. Our brief to Grimshaw was to create an inspirational space that would allow us to showcase our private collections in a market leading way and which could travel and be seen by a large proportion of John Lewis fashion customers. It’s great to be starting our strongest fashion season yet working on such a ground breaking project with the creators of some of the most resognised and cutting edge buildings in the world.”

Kirsten Lees, Partner at Grimshaw Architects, comments “John Lewis approached Grimshaw to provide a temporary exhibit and event space capable of showcasing a variety of designers within their store on Oxford Street. This unique ‘pop-up’ installation called for an innovative proposal which fused exhibition design and architecture, whilst enabling John Lewis to express their brand in an exciting and striking space.”



-   NOTES TO EDITORS –


Fashion Pavilion Oxford Street Activity:
o      5th September – Osman Yousefzada’s sleek capsule collection of coats and dresses launches
o      24th September – Clements Ribeiro’s exclusive Knitwear collection launches for two weeks
o      8th October – Tracey Boyd’s indulgent velvet, diamond and sequins collection launches

The Fashion Pavilion 18 month journey:
•   5th September – Fashion Pavilion launches at John Lewis Oxford Street
•   November - December – Fashion Pavilion launches in Cardiff
•   February - March – Fashion Pavilion launches in Edinburgh
•   April - August – Fashion Pavilion launches in Stratford
•   September - October - Liverpool
•   November - December - Cribbs
•   February - April – Newcastle


The John Lewis Partnership - The John Lewis Partnership operates 32 John Lewis shops across the UK (28 department stores and four John Lewis at home), johnlewis.com and 253 Waitrose supermarkets. The business has an annual turnover of nearly £8.2bn. It is the UK's largest example of worker co-ownership where all 76,500 staff are Partners in the business.
John Lewis - John Lewis, 'Britain's favourite retailer 2010'* and 'Multiple Department Store of the Year 2010' ** typically stocks more than 350,000 separate lines in its department stores. The website stocks over 150,000 products focused on the best of fashion, beauty, home and giftware and electrical items including online exclusives. johnlewis.com is consistently ranked one of the top online shopping destinations in the UK (www.johnlewis.com ). John Lewis Insurance offers a range of comprehensive insurance products - home, car, wedding and event, travel and pet insurance and life cover - delivering the usual values of expertise, trust and customer service expected from the John Lewis brand.
John Lewis is proud to be the official department store provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  
John Lewis and London 2012 - As part of this partnership with LOCOG (The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) John Lewis operates official London 2012 shops within its Oxford Street branch and from September 2011, the new Stratford shop. John Lewis is helping to furnish lounge and reception areas at key Games-time venues as well as offering Partners (staff) the opportunity to support LOCOG in the operation and build-up to the Games. Further to the sponsorship with LOCOG, John Lewis Partnership has developed 'Partners in Sport' an initiative to put something back into the community through sport which includes sponsoring several London 2012 hopefuls as well as funding sports coaches.
* Verdict consumer satisfaction index, January 2011
** The Drapers Awards for fashion retail, November 2010
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