Hodgkinson styles HQHair.com’s off-line venture

On-line hair and beauty brand HQHair.com opens its first flagship salon this week, in New Burlington Street in central London, with interiors by Hodgkinson & Co.

On-line hair and beauty brand HQHair.com opens its first flagship salon this week, in New Burlington Street in central London, with interiors by Hodgkinson & Co.

The off-line retail business is designed to cement the brand’s relationships with its customers and merge the two disciplines, says HQUK director Henry Goldenberg. He denies HQ’s on-line business is suffering and says the website ‘has hardly scratched the surface’ of what the brand can achieve.

The flagship, which opens in two weeks, will sell ‘niche, aspirational’ cosmetic brands, including Cake and New York line Mario Badescu, says Goldenberg. It will also contain a hair and beauty salon and e-commerce facility.

Its interior features a simple ‘white box’ shell with three interlinked, contrasting areas with their own design elements, ‘as in a department store’, says Hodgkinson managing director Andrew Hodgkinson (plan view pictured).

The point-of-sale and make-up units at the front of the store are ‘high gloss, lipstick red’; the salon features overlaid panels in brown shades and the e-commerce area is partially screened-off with a bright red wall.

‘The overall atmosphere is straightforward, busy and fun to attract a mass-market audience,’ Hodgkinson adds.

Hodgkinson & Co was appointed to the project without a pitch. The appointment was made on the strength of a long working relationship with HQ, says Goldenberg.

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