Cecil Gee brand redressed by Butterfield and Yang

Menswear retailer Cecil Gee is embarking on a brand overhaul in a bid to rejuvenate its image. It will open a concept store in Lakeside shopping centre late next month. Butterfield Design and Jimmy Yang Associates collaborated to create store interiors, visual identity and packaging, after winning a paid, three-way creative pitch in September.

The refit of the 230m2 store in Lakeside, Essex will act as a trial for the retailer’s dual-branding of formalwear and casualwear. This will see the casual range take on a ‘bold’, yellow visual identity, while formalwear adopts a separate ‘more discerning, discreet’ black look, says Jimmy Yang Associates creative director Jimmy Yang. If successful, Cecil Gee parent company Moss Bros plans to roll the format out to other key stores before updating its 24-store estate nationally.

Yang has also redesigned the Cecil Gee marque, which ‘uses a visual shorthand that focuses on the letter G’. Facias will be updated across the entire estate to reflect the new logo and packaging, according to Julie Cook, retail operations and business development director for Moss Bros.

Philip Mountford, the recently appointed chief executive of Moss Bros, has instigated the programme of change at the Cecil Gee chain. ‘We’re bringing the brand up to date,’ explains Cook. ‘It was very fashionable in the 1980s, then lost its way in the 1990s and became less fashionable. Since Philip [Mountford] came on board the product offering is great, but the stores haven’t caught up yet.’

Interiors at the Lakeside store will employ large-scale graphics and photographs, according to Butterfield Design managing director Nick Butterfield. ‘The larger surface areas are designed to be changeable, giving a flexible palette that can be adjusted with the seasons and collections.’