When demand for the Swedish denim brand Acne Jeans began to swell at London’s Browns Focus boutique, both companies were compelled to do something dramatic.
But instead of simply expanding Acne’s collection at the store, they decided to give London customers what they wanted: an Acne store.
For 10 days, until Sunday, Acne Jeans has decamped to Browns Focus’ South Molton Street store, complete with shop fittings, merchandise and employees. In turn, Browns Focus has taken up residence at Acne Studio, the brand’s store in Stockholm.
“We were having dinner in London when we came up with the idea of swapping shops,” said Yasmin Sewell, director of buying at Browns, the well-known multibrand designer boutique. Browns Focus, located across the street from its big sister, stocks younger, edgier and emerging brands such as 3.1 Philip Lim, Roksanda Illincic and Richard Nicoll.
“We realized the two brands really connect to each other, alongside the fact that Acne is seriously growing here. It’s one of our strongest brands,” added Sewell at last week’s launch of the temporary store.
Browns Focus, with its dark interiors designed by David Adjaye, was transformed overnight into a shop with white vinyl floors, mirrored silver vinyl on the stairs and an Acne Jeans sign out front. Anders Lagerstedt, U.K. sales representative for Acne, which has produced limited-edition jeans with gold stitching exclusively for Browns Focus to mark the occasion, said the venture also allowed them to assess what London consumers’ reaction would be to an Acne store.
“We’re still a small brand, but it’s a great way to test the market here,” he said.
An Acne spokeswoman added that a London store would be next on the company’s agenda. A unit in Gothenburg, Sweden, opens in a month and one in Paris’ Marais district is also planned.
The swap was intended to promote Browns’ relaunched online store, brownsfashion.com. Customers at the temporary Browns Focus store can buy straight from the clothing racks or view the Browns Web site, which will stay up in the store for a month after it has reverted back to Acne Studio.
“We’ve been doing really well here,” said Alexandra Stylianidis, head of buying at Browns Focus, from the store in Sweden. “We have a very different way of selling. We merchandise in stories, which customers here seem to like.”
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Sewell and Lagerstedt declined to give sales projections for their respective stores during the swap. Meanwhile, Stylianidis said the switch had given Browns Focus a wider perspective on its store.
“We’re looking upon the experience very seriously and it’s opened up our minds to taking the brand to another country,” Stylianidis said. “It’s shown us that although we’re a multibrand store, we can operate as a brand.”