Piero Lissoni revamps Benetton’s flagship London store
Benetton’s flagship store on London’s Oxford Circus is to reopen on 19 August, with an interior revamp by Italian architect Piero Lissoni’s practice Lissoni Associati.
Benetton says the store is the second Lissoni has designed for the brand, and follows an outpost in Istanbul, Turkey, which opened last year.
Lissoni will also work on stores in cities including Milan, Frankfurt and Paris as part of the brand’s ‘Opening soon’ redesign initiative.
The Oxford Circus revamp sees the ground floor of the London store housing the women’s collection, the first floor housing women’s and men’s collections, and the second floor housing the children’s collection. The lower ground floor will house Benetton’s Sisley brand.
Lissoni has designed fittings including metal and wooden boxes, and rail, shelf and hanging systems designed to resemble large 1950s-style bookcases. The flooring is beige resin concrete, except for the lower ground floor, which has a dark grey floor area.
A shaded extension of 40 tones runs through the entire height of the store, both on the pillar next to the escalators and on the stairs.
Piero Lissoni says, ‘For the London store, we wanted a clean and refined design using simple mediums: natural light, plain materials, clean lines and shapes, black, white.’
He adds, ‘The materials chosen for the store fittings are deliberately simple, yet exude powerful, sober, tactile and decorative qualities. The use of sheet-metal boxes is extended to the lighting system, with a series of hanging, suspended or flush-set lamps. The same boxes are also used to house the laser-cut, backlit Benetton logo featured in the store window.’
It’s about time! But are you Benetton or Uniqluo!? Too similar store environments-and what is with the white everywhere? Zara, H&M, New Look, Uniqluo, Benetton, etc,etc. It is slightly disappointing that some brands that have the spending power and capitol to make something really unique, pushing the boundaries of design and environments, still stick to the safe/standard options of white, metal, black and a feature wall. United Colours of Benetton really had a chance to reinvent themselves here but instead they are just playing it safe…blandly safe for a Brand that has color in its title.