Mulberry's new flagship boutique

The new store design is the result of Mulberry’s two year collaboration with Universal Design Studio. It is an innovative, thoroughly modern, dynamic retail environment that reflects the brand’s aesthetic, its commitment to craft, ecological and ethical concerns, and its ties to the English landscape.

It provides an open and informal layout over 5,400 feet of retail space set on one level. The store reflects many features of a modern art gallery; juxtaposing informal, open spaces and daylightsimulating,energy-conserving light boxes. The vast open space and raw concrete ‘warehouse’ style floor is a visual canvas for the refined, bespoke features such as handmade irregular tiles and the textural contrastsbetween crafted oak, smooth brass and white lacquered surfaces. 

The additions of such furniture as artist Rachel Whiteread’s Daybed, the ‘Zero-In’ table by Barber Osgerby, Universal Design Studio’s sister company, for Established & Sons and the Barber Osgerby Tab Lamp play to the dimensions, space and light of the store and reflect the contemporary resonance of the design concept.

Different materials are contrasted in all aspects of the interiormakeup, for example the brass tablets designed by Jonathan Ellery set into the floor, or in the service area where an 8.7 metre polished brass cash desk is contrasted with the gloss-lacquered panels behind that are designed to reflect light into the narrowest area of the store. There are also sculptured oak timber and textured brass ‘follies’ that break up the store space and offer an intimate shopping environment within the open-plan floor layout.

As well as the construction and design process there are measures in place for ongoing energy monitoring, designed to create an environmentally aware retail space and working atmosphere.