03 Apr. 2012

DICKIES UNVEILS NEW BRAND AND STORE CONCEPT IN CHINA

British design company Dalziel and Pow has redesigned the brand position and shop design of Dickies China. As part of the storefront design, Dalziel and Pow have also refined the Dickies logo to create a greater visual impact and reinforce the brand’s fashion credentials. The new concept embraces the vintage Americana aspect of Dickies while firmly establishing the brand as a key player in China’s casualwear market.
 
At the end of 2011, Dickies opened its first flagship store on the prestigious East Nanjing Road in Shanghai. The design concept divides the store into three distinct zones for men’s, women’s and a core denim sector. The split creates an intuitively paced series of brand experiences throughout the retail space while the denim-heritage area uses staged structural columns and beams that allow customers to discover different displays and feature walls while exploring the area, which invokes the feeling of an old warehouse. This generates a vintage ambience without focusing too specifically on workwear, which can have negative connotations in China.
 
In contrast to the grittier heritage zone, the perimeter system for men’s and women’s products is based on a scaffold system in shades of lighter and warmer greys. The fully flexible merchandising system is broken up by the use of open stud partitions that can be painted different colors depending on seasons or gender. Large format, environmental graphics reinforce an American lifestyle and lifestyle imagery is placed at eye level along the walls as the final layer.
 
The design’s fixture and furniture elements also embrace the malleability of the layout’s perimeter in a comparable use of basic, raw, construction-like materials to create an ensemble of furniture dispersed throughout the space, allowing for ease of use within any of the retail zones. Dickies’ new store format permits an intuitive roll-out process from season to season, location to location. The new design is a fresh and unique experience for customers along the esteemed East Nanjing Road, offering a taste of the West and a glimpse of the reliable, authentic nature of Dickies.