Boux Avenue sets up shop in Metro Centre

I went this morning to visit the new Boux Avenue store in Gatesheads Metro Centre (green mall) before it was opened to the public. This is Dragons den judge, Theo Paphitis’ latest venture. As a woman I can’t actually remember the last time I went into an underwear store and enjoyed the experience. For me the main players in the industry (you know who I’m talking about) just don’t appeal when it comes to the shopping experience. Infact I think that over the past 10 years the face of lingerie on the British high street has lost its mojo. (did I just say mojo? apparantly so!) So its great to finally see a store which understands and more importantly caters to what women want.

I think that the lingerie market faces one of the biggest challenges when it comes to shop fit and visual merchandising. Mainly because they are selling such a personal product. Lets face it, not everyone feels comfortable and confident striping down to their underwear in front of a total stranger so it really is important that the shopping environment is catering to peoples needs. The store itsself reminded me of the kind of boutiques you find in Paris, think a mix of romanticism from Dior, a sprinkle of atmospher akin to Jo Malone and top it off with the kind of visual merchandising you would expect from a high end dept store like Selfridges. When I spoke to Theo I asked him some questions about coming up with the concept for the store. To realise the design of the store Theo worked with design company Ink and he gave them his ideas on the back of an envelope! He took his inspiration from travelling to New York, Paris and Italy although he allready had an idea in his mind of what he wanted the store to look like. I spent the rest of the morning talking to Fiona who is the head of visual merchandising and she gave me some great insights into the details that she wanted to focus on when creating the store. Anyway if any of you do go and check out the store let me know what you think! I couldnt get any pics of the window because they were covered for the grand unveiling of the store but I will try and get back to picture them over the weekend!