Louis Vuitton opens 'Townhouse' in Selfridges

Following the opening of the J.Crew flagship store on Regent Street, today French luxury brand Louis Vuitton opened its new multi-leveled shop-in-shop, known as ‘Townhouse,’ in London department store Selfridges. The new shop-in-shop

was designed by interior designer Gwenaël Nicolas to give its customers a true luxury Louis Vuitton experience. The project took over 4 years to be realized and now dominates three levels of Selfridges, looking out over the busy road of Oxford Street.

The new concession offers eight times the amount of selling space than the previous shop-in-shop and combines a variety of materials like leather, stone and glass in a beautiful in-store display. With the additional space, the new Townhouse from Louis Vuitton can now offer its traditional leather goods and accessories on the ground level, as well as the labels women’s and men’s ready-to-wear line on the first and second level.

Nicolas designs unique double glass helix for Louis Vuitton's Townhouse

The key focus of the Townhouse is the new glass elevator, placed inside the one of a kind double helix, rotating glass display case that spans all three levels. The entrances of the new shop-in-shop are also cleverly placed, such as the men’s first floor entrance, which stand across the Tom Ford’s men’s wear concession stand.

The French luxury house previously opened two concession stands, one for leather items and one for accessories, in Selfridges back in 2000. Since then the brand has witnessed a growing demand for its other lines and collections. Anne Pitcher, managing director at Selfridges told BoF, “The Louis Vuitton Townhouse is, ultimately, a true testament to our on-going commitment to pushing the retail boundaries to constantly amaze and surprise our customers.”

The new Townhouse design, with mood lights, vintage décor, plus sized changing rooms and the unique glass lift is sure to draw in a surplus of visitors and its location within the infamous Selfridges will bring in clientèle who may have never thought to visit the Louis Vuitton store on Bond Street.

However there is a missing feature from the new Townhouse; it lacks the traditional handbag bar that is found in almost every Louis Vuitton store and concession stand. In an effort to grow away from the brand past reputation for mono-gram bags, the shop-in-shop opted to offer its customers more personal and cosy shopping experience, with modern touches like a ‘digital atelier’ and sales assistants offering individual services via iPad added in, making this Townhouse one of the main centerpieces in the luxurious Selfridges.

Photos: Townhouse mock up, Department store Selfridges, Interior of Townhouse