Van Heusen: My New Age Styling Studio

Brand Van Heusen, the inventors of the shirt collar a century back, has constantly endeavoured to be updated and relevant in offering the market and its customers the latest in fashion and experience. In response to the paradigm shift in the expectations of the new age customer, Van Heusen took up the initiative of reimagining and creating a new concept called the Van Heusen Style Studio. With so many brands and retailers offering apparel in the crowded marketplace, Van Heusen's mission to stand out has been ideated and implemented in the'future ready' Van Heusen Style Studio that deliver a distinctly differentiated retail experience that offers looks instead of products through store design, visual merchandising, omni-channel technology and personalized service. Though most brands offering digital interface with their online stores, the Van Heusen Style Studio offers a truly omni-channel experience that seamlessly integrates the offline and the online. The online store has a 3D walk through of the offline and the offline store uses rich data from the online store to deliver consultative service to discerning customers. Vinay A Bhopatkar, COO, Van Heusen and People emphatically adds,” This initiative by Van Heusen is not a response to e-commerce but to the omni-channel shopping need of new age customers”.

The delivery of the differentiated phy-gital service in the store was a challenge in terms of maintaining consistency in quality and product related content on the omni-channel platform. Explains Bhopatkar, "Since we launch new style collections periodically, developing and updating the digital content every 15 days was a challenge. Also to ensure great  personal service, we had to hire talent from the hospitality industry and train them to suit our business”.

FITCH Singapore was commissioned to reimagine the brand experience concept in the 5600 sft flagship located on the popular fashion high street, the 100 feet road in Indranagar in Bangalore. The store concept is interestingly inspired from the translation of the construct of the VH logo- the 77 degree angle of the slant of the'V' from the horizontal and its complementary angle of 13 degrees. The concept is interpreted in the slanted window visual panels called'success stories', in the herringbone pattern on the floor, the veneer ceiling, the fixtures and slanted bronze strips on the merchandising walls to create a brand proprietary visual language in the environment. The store front is designed in a very bold brand statement that is unmistakably Van Heusen in terms of its color and form. About 2.5 Tonnes of steel was used in the installation of Mild Steel fins in-lit with an array of LEDs to create a spectacular effect in the night.

The store is spread over 2 levels with the ground floor featuring womenswear, VDot, VH Sports and fashion accessories and the first floor offering formals, footwear, accessories and consultative services like the'Style Bar' and the'Digital Table Bar'. The'Style Bar' is the key differentiating concept that is comprised of services like'My Fit Station' which helps personalize fits, the'Style Pro' consultant who offers personal style consultative services and the'Virtual mirror' which helps virtual trials of the VH collections with suggestive coordinated style recommendations. Right at the entrance of the store is a special body scanning booth that scans the customer's form and records it in a software that uses it to give accurate size directions for personalizing the offerings in the store with precise alterations. The trial room, also referred to as'Style Simulators' has a control pad that helps the customer see themselves in multiple setting of lighting and music for different occasions.

The store presentation and visual merchandising concept is based on presenting the store offerings in collection look ensembles across different categories. Each sections features a centrally located high point that was done in a unique lay-down-style coordinated product dislay which visually presents the'choose my style' ethos of the brand.  Stylized mannequins present the full ensembles of the latest fashion trends in strategic locations in the store. Another key highlight in the store is the special Collar Wall installation that celebrates the heritage of Van Heusen.  The installation located in the staircase landing between the two floors adds to the premium and differentiated positioning of the brand.  

The store lighting concept is very specially designed to highlight the key store design features, special services and visual merchandising in the store. The complete store lighting is planned with LED lamps and fixtures. The boutique lighting concept use a combination of fixed and swivel fixtures that allow for changing presentation settings in the store.

The store material palette is a combination of premium wood, marble, lacquered black glass, special textured paints and international styled mannequins and imported signage. Imported monogrammed hangers ensured merchandise presentation was uncompromised. The store conceptualization and realization of the flagship took about 6 month of many agencies working in close collaboration to deliver the customer a total personalized retail experience at the Vah Heusen Style Studio.

Vinay says,"In the last 2 years we have seen a radical change in customer behaviour driven by technology which has become pervasive for many decisions made in their everyday lives. Consumers have very less time on hand and with so much information available at hand, their apparel shopping behaviour has seen a shift”.

Unni Augustine, VM Head of Van Heusen explains, "Not many know that Van Heusen has the unique tradition of being the first brand to invent the built-in collar in a shirt and this installation is meant to dramatize that. The installation of FRP moulded collars was finished in double gloss paint to look like premium porcelain”.

Mukesh Thakur, Head Projects, Van Heusen explains, "Imported marble was procured for the flooring as local materials could not match the design intent samples from Singapore and we did not want to compromise on the quality of materials in creating this concept store”.