Briefed to create a playful space with a bold curation of colour, vintage inspired furniture, and iconic styling moments, Carter Owers Studio creates the first flagship Personal Shopping experience for the Selfridges Trafford site. Read more
Building on the success of previous Personal Shopping suites at the Selfridges Manchester Exchange and Birmingham stores, this project marks the team’s tenth collaboration with the iconic department store brand.
Tucked behind an imposing but elegant oak and fluted-glass door, lies close to 2000 sqft of gallery style personal shopping and private events space with characterful furniture, contemporary art and fashion.
As you enter the reception space a dramatically proportioned glass and brass geometric chandelier by Brooklyn based designer Bec Brittain, reused from an earlier project is imaginatively incorporated into the new scheme by recessing it into a large oculus above a sculptural reception desk which doubles up as a bar for customers. The bar’s playful and organic form strikes up a dialogue with the curvaceous 1970s black marble console table by Angelo Mangiarotti positioned in the entrance.
The reception opens into a spacious customer lounge serving four of the dressing rooms. Behind the lacquered, curved reception wall and 5-meter sliding door, the fifth, larger dressing room opens out onto a second lounge and events space. Flexibility was key to the design, enabling the space to seamlessly adapt for in-person and group appointments through to larger private and brands events.
Using a subtle colour palette of pink through to lilac and burnt orange to define the overall lounge space, each dressing room takes on a different colour theme of rose, coral, mint green, pale blue and warm neutral. Joinery and walls blend in tone to achieve a colour-blocked approach to each dressing room, with large mirrors framed in colourful stained timber to match each entrance door. Each dressing room boasts a curated display wall for clothes and accessories, a full height mirror and a private curtained dressing area with characterful furniture.
With a focus on re-use, sofas in the lounge taken from other Selfridges stores were reupholstered in boucle fabric made from recycled fibres, whilst the marble and steel Florence Knoll coffee tables were salvaged from a demolished site. Gallery-style track lighting expertly lights a rotating display of contemporary art on the walls helping to bring vibrance and energy, alongside comfort and expert service to the Personal Shopping experience.
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