Ozwald Boateng measures up new store designers

High-end men’s fashion brand Ozwald Boateng is set to create a raft of interior design opportunities, as it prepares to launch a Sloane Street store this winter and a series of international concessions and standalone stores over the next 12 months.

‘Our Sloane Street property will open in January, and we are in negotiations with various potential distributors in Europe, America and Japan,’ confirms Ozwald Boateng managing director David Crickmore.

‘We are also looking to open freestanding stores in the Middle East in partnership with a local company,’ he adds.

Crickmore says he intends to put each interior design project out to tender, as Ozwald Boateng is keen not to ‘create the same look in every single space’. However, he concedes that the concessions and stores are likely to build upon the retail ‘blueprint’ that was created by Checkland Kindleysides and unveiled at the brand’s first concession in London’s Selfridges last week.

The 39m2 space, situated in the men’s formalwear department, boasts walnut and wenge wall friezes based on Boateng’s signature herringbone pattern and red-stitched ochre leather display panels.

A projection screen embedded into a glass panel at the front of the space shows short films and footage from Boateng’s fashion shows.

‘We wanted to create an environment that expressed Ozwald Boateng’s passion for colour, heritage, modernity and Savile Row etiquette. It needed to feel like a modern gentlemen’s club,’ says Checkland Kindleysides designer Guy Tabberer.

The scheme will offer Boateng’s ready-to-wear collection, as well as a made-to-measure service.

Checkland Kindleysides won the work – worth more than £100 000 – after a three-way, unpaid creative and credentials pitch in March.

Tabberer and principal creative director Jeff Kindleysides were creative leads on the project.