Home sweet Juicy

Home sweet Juicy
Juicy Couture brings a stylish sense of humor to its London townhouse flagship

By Erin M. Loewe
March 08, 2010

Jen Fong Photography, Vienna, Austria

In a place where jewel-adorned taxidermy and traditional Georgian architecture cheerfully co-exist with touches of California surfer cool, Juicy Couture Inc.’s new flagship seems to have found some fitting digs on London’s Bruton Street. In summer 2009, the Arleta, Calif.-based design house unveiled the 6,946-sq.-ft. townhouse store, which includes a basement, a showroom, VIP area, company offices and 4,193 sq. ft. of retail space spread over two floors.

Acquired by New York-based Liz Claiborne Inc. in 2003, Juicy Couture is now its parent company’s most profitable brand, according to its 2008 annual report. Brad Lenz, Liz Claiborne’s vice president of shop-in-shop and international brands, says the 18th-century building was a natural fit for Juicy. “We were very lucky to have the traditional architecture to work with,” he says. “If every store could be a London townhouse, we’d be ecstatic.”

Philip Johnson, Juicy’s vice president of store design and display services, says he created the basic design theme around the idea of a rock star and his girlfriend moving into an English manor house (in fact, Juicy co-founder and co-designer Gela Nash-Taylor is married to Duran Duran bassist Don Taylor, and they have a house in the English countryside). “When you’re in the store, you can’t help but laugh and smile,” Johnson says. “It’s about being beautiful, touchable and making the shopping experience truly entertaining.”

Originally built in 1705, the townhouse is listed with preservation society British Heritage, which worked closely with the design teams from Juicy and West Hollywood, Calif.-based Commune Design Inc. The process took about 18 months to get the space up to code, but Johnson says working with the preservation society was both rewarding and challenging, as the team was able to preserve much of the original architecture.

The flagship is also located next to Juicy’s former showroom in the historic Hartnell Building, where Norman Hartnell designed wedding and coronation dresses for Queen Elizabeth II. When purchased by Juicy before the renovation began, the townhouse’s interior was covered in wall-to-wall plasterboard. “The discoveries in the space were incredible,” Johnson says. “We found original marble flooring, an original staircase and a hand-painted ceiling under the drywall on the first floor.”

True to the Juicy brand, tongue-in-cheek touches like graffitied antique portraits, armor-clad mannequins and, of course, the made-up taxidermic animals add irreverent flare to the townhouse space.

Lenz says the design team created custom fixtures by combing function, form and heritage. “In the fragrance area, the antique mirrors look decorative, but they are actually hiding two columns that were structurally necessary,” he explains. “Typically in a mall store, we have more detailed fixtures with scrolls, etc., but this space was already ornate. We didn’t need to add much to the moldings in the rooms.”

The flooring throughout the building varies, blending rectangular parquet (deemed more appropriate for the time period than Johnson’s proposed herringbone parquet), a custom Juicy carpet in the mahogany stairwell and a tartan plaid carpet on the first floor.

Johnson wanted bold colors in the stairwell to draw shoppers to the upper floor. “I found a piece of vintage chinoiserie wallpaper, gave it a red-orange color base and drew into that palm trees, stagecoaches and surfboards coming out of them.”
The carpeting in the stairwell has the same color scheme as the wallpaper, with “Love G&P,” a Juicy tagline that refers to Gela Nash-Taylor and co-founder Pamela Skaist-Levy, emblazoned on it. “Collaborating the carpeting was a challenge,” Lenz says. “The carpet was designed in pieces so it would fall properly on the stairs. We actually laid it out on a computer before it was in the store. It is no accident how the ‘G&Ps’ fell.”

To protect the integrity of the ceilings, Johnson says he researched and found track lights suspended by wires by Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Targetti Poulsen USA Inc. One of the standout lighting fixtures is a huge crown pendant—a find of Johnson’s—that hangs in the stairwell.

Window treatments were created to work into the palette of the store. “All of them have custom embroidery, with different Juicy tags, and the fabrics are in keeping with the architecture of the building, as well as that fun, risqué Juicy Couture branding,” Lenz says. Also in each window are seats topped with custom needlepoint bench cushions.

Although Juicy Couture has been a steady presence in London’s top-tier department stores for years, the new Bruton Street flagship is sure to attract local and visiting fashionistas. “The energy we brought to the street is kind of incredible,” Johnson says. “Just looking in at the custom carpet up the stairway, the crazy taxidermy, the props—there is such an energy when you walk by, you’re compelled to come in.”