Fiorucci debuts London flagship as brand revival gets serious

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 17, 2017

Fiorucci slipped its comeback into a higher gear at the weekend, swapping its pop-up strategy for the opening of a permanent physical store.

Launched with a party on Friday evening, London Fashion Week’s opening day, it got down to the real business of selling on Saturday as it put on its best clothes and worked hard to attract passers-by on Brewer Street.

Despite a relatively low-key exterior, inside the store has managed to retain much of the emporium feel that Fiorucci’s Milan flagship had in its heyday. It’s a buzzy, colourful store and seemed busy on day one.

"Very pleased with the opening response” was what we were told and it certainly looks like shoppers were buying as well as browsing.

Janie and Stephen Schaffer, joint CEOs and formerly the couple behind Knickerbox, acquired the brand two years ago. They plan to open in New York and Milan, tow key cities for the brand in the past, at some point. And they are heavily backing the idea of the physical retail store as an experiential space that will be able to tempt visitors through its doors, despite the rise of online.

There’s certainly plenty to keep people entertained in the three-storey London space from a giant circular bed in the lingerie department to a cocktail bar. Then there’s the product, mixing apparel and accessories from the popular Fiorucci angels T-shirts, jeans, underwear, quirky phone cases and other lifestyle pieces.

The strength of the Fiorucci name and the appeal of such items has already been proved this year with pop-ups in Barneys in New York and in Harrods and Selfridges in London with the denim and T-shirts reportedly selling strongly.
That has certainly helped get attention for the label with Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner both recently seen sporting Fiorucci, and Georgia May Jagger also being spotted wearing the brand (understandably as she fronts its ad campaign.)

In a world obsessed by designer labels, it’s interesting to see a more affordable fashion line generating such a buzz.
And it’s also interesting to see it opening on Brewer Street in particular. While embedded in Soho and in close proximity to Regent street and Carnaby, it’s still not quite established as a must-visit fashion shopping destination.

But Fiorucci’s opening will help it get closer to being one. And Champion (fresh from its Vetements collaboration) has just opened almost opposite too, so the transformation of Brewer Street really is gathering pace.