Browns East, London, UK
Browns Fashion is a well known and leading high fashion retailer started in 1970 in South Molton Street London. Browns has expanded over the years to cover a number of adjoining townhouses on the same street. Recently they have wished to expand across to the fashionable East End of London and they found a site in Shoreditch which they have transformed with retail interior designers Brinkworth. The building is a traditional brick built corner plot over two floors. The interior design is a mix of industrial and luxury with contrasts and colour to give the store an edge. The display units have a sculptural quality to them which add to the retail experience. There are open ceilings with exposed services and custom made industrial hanging rail systems which provide lots of display flexibility. As such the lighting design was also required to be very flexible.
On the ground floor the ceiling and services are painted out black. A suspended lighting track and spotlight solution provides general ambient and accent display illumination. The first floor has a softer feel and the ceiling is painted out in white. For this level continuous linear runs of diffuse LED provide a good general level of illumination to the space and additional display lighting is integrated into shelving and jewellery cases. All mirrors have integrated mirror lighting with supplementary lighting from above. All light sources are high quality, high colour rendering LED and the lighting is dimmable to change the mood for times of day or special event.
The interconnecting stairwell between the two floors has artwork covering the walls and all pieces are for sale. The stairwell and artwork are lit both by a soft backlit Barrisol illumination and secondly with accent lighting to the artwork pieces themselves. A dramatic and interesting volume is created for the customer.
Client: Browns Fashion
Interior Designer: Brinkworth
Photography: Louise Melchior Photography