London-born Kinnersley Kent Design (KKD) has made its distinctive mark on the Middle Eastern landscape in recent years as the retail design specialists behind super-brands Bateel and Waitrose. Tracey Halliday, an interior designer in KKD’s London office talks us through the most important trends of 2011. First off is handcrafted, which she describes as a rebellion against the uniformity and mass marketing of products.
“We see a trend celebrating all that is local with a focus on community,” says Halliday. KKD’s latest concept for the Jaeger London boutiques picks up on this trend by celebrating ‘Britishness.’
“We specified lighting and furniture made by contemporary British designers like Benjamin Hubert’s pebble stool and Tom Dixon’s wingback chair.” The recession has seen a shift in customer spending – people are still spending, however they are much more selective about how much and what they spend on. A newfound importance has been placed on quality, which gives rise to the trend of handcrafted.
Perhaps snowballing off the desire to turn away from the mass-produced and be more low-key in recession times, underground locations are expected to gain popularity. Senior designer at Kinnersley Kent Design’s London office Rachel Mayes explains: “There seems to be a trend at the moment, and I see this continuing into 2012, to create interior spaces that reflect an old era and are influenced by places like New York. These locations don’t feel the need to shout out loud. By keeping advertising to a minimum and keeping their shop-fronts very vague, word of mouth spreads faster and people believe they are having more of a personal experience and are discovering a secret place not everyone knows about.”
With the recession again playing a factor, this year has seen increased attention paid to pop-up hotels, restaurants, bars and affordable small spaces. “Due to the constraints of the economic climate start-up and emerging retailers have felt that putting their efforts into pop-up shops rather than spending large amounts on new retail stores will target new customers in a more exciting and budget way. More and more collective locations are popping up for fashion retailers and also food retailers in the form of street food,” explains Mayes. “Shared spaces or markets where more than one retailer exists under one roof, but not as formulaic as the shopping mall or department store is evident everywhere. For example, the bookshop with café, workshop with retail offering. What would also be clever is seasonal sharers, such as soup and ice cream,” says Halliday.
Reflecting society’s need to make the most of what it has, is reclaimed interiors. Mayes notes that lots of interiors have been looking to incorporate materials that reuse and recycle. “I believe this is because of the downturn financially. This has also been seen in the home, there has been a trend to ‘make do and mend’ and people are looking back to the times of making and baking.”
Andrew Quin, junior designer, London, agrees. “With vintage fashion being so current it feels fitting that retail design takes the same approach. A sustainable and sophisticated trend is using reclaimed furniture. Without the need to design something new and innovative, it might be beneficial to source something appropriate which might be the best possible solution dependent on the fashion direction of the shop. Reclaimed furniture not only shows a sense of history and perhaps heritage, but conveys a good eye from the designer’s perspective of understanding the scheme and concept.”
Rounding up 2011’s trends, KKD notes that stores are also being designed to be more appealing to the senses in terms of sight, sound and smell. Halliday explains: “With the design of the flagship Desa store [Desa is a luxury leather and fashion house who entered the UK market recently] in Covent Garden we felt it was important to use leather within the interior on touch points, enabling the customer to smell and feel the quality of the handbags and leather accessories on offer.”
Lastly, the iPhone app culture has had an impact on where and how people shop: online connections within stores, style blogs allow instant access to trends, catwalks straight to the high street. “On and off line shopping is becoming much more integrated and everyone offers ‘buy and collect’ services.”
Kinnersley Kent Design in 2012
A big one to look out for in the UAE next year is the new four-floor House of Fraser department store, which is to open at Abu Dhabi’s Central Market in October. The department store, designed by Kinnersley Kent Design, will offer a worldclass shopping experience. The first House of Fraser outside the UK will anchor the new Central Market development. KKD created a new dual language brand and specific experiences to cater for both the Arabic shopper and expats alike. The architecture, each department and branded offer has been individually designed and carefully selected to ensure that House of Fraser continues to offer a contemporary shopping experience in a premium environment. The store will not only reflect this in terms of design and architecture, but also in the lineup of brands and experiences being introduced to the city and region.
Other KKD projects launching during 2012: