A Fabulous and Innovative Retail Design Concept for the Topshop Boutique, Oxford Street

Design Week was buzzing recently about this new retail design created by a Rob Vinall, a student at London’s Royal College of Art for the exclusive boutique area of the fashion brand’s flagship store on London’s Oxford Street.

Topshop’s Oxford Street store is a popular stop for pop stars and celebrities when visiting the capital and the brand is respected and worn by fashionistas from Kate Moss to Kelly Osbourne.

The new boutique design was the result of a challenge set for new students on the Masters in Interior Design programme which includes live retail projects.

Rob’s retail design was selected as the overall winner of the competition with his innovative offering which features a modular triangular ceiling grid which can be suspended in a variety of positions and means that Topshop can alter the look of the boutique quickly and effectively to create new layouts and backdrops for each new collection as it emerges. The designs are not confined within the space of the boutique and trail out into the rest of the shop, creating an inviting space to entice shoppers into the boutique area.

Ab Rogers, head of interior design at the RCA, describes Rob’s work as ‘an antidote to classic retail design’:”The genius of Rob’s design is to hang the merchandise from a suspended grid to remove everything from the floor… where most display systems have large unfilled volumes of space above them. The grid creates discipline and precision, bringing elegance and calm to the Boutique’s interior.

Rob adds:

“The initial concept was an idea of cause and effect, giving importance to the elements of hanging and balance.”

Shop fitters are hard at work installing the new display as we speak and visitors to the store should be able to see the new boutique design before the end of February where, due to the flexible and customisable nature of the design, it should be in place for some time to come.