Mennace: Redefining the House of Streetwear

Location: UK

From the founders of Missguided, Mennace is a menswear brand stocked in several key fashion and lifestyle retailers – from USC and Sports Direct, to ASOS and, of course, Missguided – that looks to blur the lines between smart and casual to elevate wardrobes with a contemporary style.

Mennace sought to test the demand for its collections on the high street by engaging Briggs Hillier to curate a design scheme befitting the brand, complete with a toolkit of furniture that would formulate a premium retail space and determine a brand immersive customer journey.

The Design Brief

It was imperative that the design reflected Mennace’s brand personality with a premium boutique feel, and could be adapted so that each Mennace location carries a slightly different look to the next for a more exclusive brand encounter.

The retail system must also be flexible in its design to utilise, adapt and enhance what can be retained in each unit, require very little on-site installation, accommodate full merchandising and operational elements, be easily transported, removed, re-used, and applied to retail spaces of varying shapes and sizes between 1,000 – 2,000 sq. ft.

Differentiating itself from other streetwear brands on the market, and highlighting the premium aspect of the brand, Mennace expressed a desire for discreet pricing and the majority of its range to be hung. We also discussed omitting campaign messaging, product imagery, and mannequins from the designs for full dedication to the design scheme.

Design Strategy & VM Principles

Before commencing the design stages, we undertook a full interrogation of streetwear fashion stores and boutiques on the high street, from their ‘look and feel’ to their typical clientele and the shopper experience. This included exploring fascias to deliver a store front design that would ensure Mennace held a unique position and visual presentation in a saturated market.

Following the research stage, we explored a considered customer journey guided by several touchpoints, including an alluring window display, perimeter wall and a midfloor display area for discovery of curated collections, a feature wall to anchor the space, two changing rooms, and a single till point.

Using a design-led approach, we further enhanced the VM through the addition of mirrors, rails and shelving fixtures on the perimeter wall. Together with leaning wall display fixtures for an intentionally temporary look, cubed midfloor display podiums with integrated seating and standalone hanging rail systems accommodate a comprehensive range of Mennace apparel.

The Creative

Using the supplied brand guidelines, we refined a ‘look & feel’ via the curation of a series of vision boards presenting a creative direction for the various store furniture and a colour and material palette delivering a magnetic interior design scheme through the simple layering of plush patterns, rich textures, and neutral tones.

A combination of blackened glass, timber and steel, gold accents, large mirrors, hides and skins, terrazzo and concrete creates a flamboyant-‘luxe’ interior resembling a backstage dressing room – redefining the house of streetwear.

Bringing Designs To Life

Combining the strategy and VM principles with the creative direction, we transformed the brief into a refined design concept capable of housing Mennace’s smart-caj streetwear collections in any given retail environment, including a concession space in Selfridges Birmingham.