Pentagram’s William Russell has designed Margaret Howell’s first stand alone MHL store in the UK, a converted warehouse in London’s east end.
The Old Nichol Street store is part of a ten year relationship between Russell and Margaret Howell in which Russell has designed the MHL concept store in Tokyo and Margaret Howell flagship stores in the Jinnan-Shinbuya District in Tokyo, Place de la Madeleine in Paris and Wigmore Street and Fulham Road in London.
The latest iteration of fashion designer Margaret Howell’s MHL concept store opened in Osaka, Japan, in May this year. Rolling out this store involved a re-fit of a small shop unit on the second floor of a large mall adjacent to Osaka’s train main station. In the Margaret Howell spirit of good design being about ‘living with thoughtful style,’ William Russell has enlarged the space with natural light, installing a diffuser laminate window at the rear of the store allowing daylight into the fitting room lobby. The store’s storage units and furniture were specially designed and built for the space. The next MHL store opens later this year in Hokkaido with one in London following soon after.
Russell’s previous interior work with the brand includes the design of a MHL concept store in Tokyo and Margaret Howell flagship stores in the Jinnan-Shinbuya District in Tokyo, the Place de la Madeleine in Paris and Fulham Road in London.
Last month saw the opening of a new Margaret Howell concept store in Tokyo, designed by William Russell and his team at Pentagram Architects. The latest product of Russell’s longstanding collaboration with Howell, this is the first stand-alone space for her diffusion brand MHL. The small (43m²) ground floor retail space is in the Daikanyama district and is clad externally with black steel grill panels. The interior features new display units, cash desk and furniture with a warehouse style storage wall behind the counter.
William Russell’s previous interior work with Margaret Howell includes the Place de la Madeleine store in Paris and award-winning Fulham Road store in London.
A look inside the new MHL store after the jump.
Continue reading “New Work: MHL by Margaret Howell Tokyo Store”
Tonight, a special launch event will mark the opening of Margaret Howell’s first store in mainland Europe, in Paris’ Place de la Madeleine. Margaret Howell Paris and the recent refurbishment of an existing store in the Jinnan-Shibuya district of Tokyo are the latest product of a ten-year creative relationship between Pentagram Architect William Russell and Margaret Howell, during which the pair have defined an award-winning interior style that is soon to be introduced throughout the clothing designer’s 66 stores in Japan.
“For the past ten years I have worked with Will Russell on the design of our shop interiors,” says Howell. “Whilst incorporating my ideas, Will always adds something that just wouldn’t occur to me—a special spatial vision—resulting in a rewarding and successful working relationship.”
Continue reading “New Work: Margaret Howell”
William Russell has received two Commercial Architecture Awards for his designs for retail environments for Cass Art Warehouse and Margaret Howell’s Fulham Road store. The Commercial Architecture Awards are an annual prize for work in the UK commercial sector and seek to recognise “…schemes that have managed to achieve the balance between meeting a client’s commercial objectives, while producing the best quality architecture and interior design.”
Continue reading “William Russell Scoops Two Commercial Architecture Awards”
