Contemporary fashion brand known for its independent spirit, Stolen Girlfriends Club has expanded its presence by launching its first flagship store in Wellington.
The new store is located at 98 Victoria Street, including a retail space of 150sqm and featuring a black, silver and pink colour scheme throughout.
“The time was right to expand; to capitalise on our growth and direct our energy into creating a new benchmark for Stolen, not just in New Zealand, but globally,” said Stolen Girlfriends Club creative director and co-founder Marc Moore.
The store concept was developed by Moore, with creative director Dean Poole from brand partner Alt Group, architect Jun Tsujimoto, principal at multi-award-winning architecture practice Jasmax, and Anna Hill, head of interiors at Jasmax.
On the well-known fashion corner, three ideas collide: the sculptural shaping of space, art and contemporary fashion. Resembling a blacked-out club, the store materialises as a void punctuated with slot apertures that reveal tightly prescribed interior views, making store renewal and replenishment a curatorial act. While store access is purposefully slowed down, anticipation conversely ramps up as you follow the 20m-long, blacked-out threshold that delivers you to the dramatic, amorphous silver space.
Inside, the bespoke display objects include blade-like shelves of stainless steel that cut through the curving walls, and a sinuous ceiling-mounted garment rail that wraps through the space. A visit to the oversized pink fitting rooms, one either side of an anteroom, reveals the third part of the spatial progression.
Tsujimoto describes the fitting rooms as like a “secret song at the end of an album” – a luxurious space designed for a comfortable and private fitting experience – the opposite of the online shopping experience people have become accustomed to over the past few years.
With its distinctive architectural language, sculptural shaping of space, and art-meets-fashion approach to product curation, Stolen Girlfriends Club is set to make a refreshingly unexpected retail statement in Wellington.
Stolen Girlfriends Club’s collections include streetwear, jewellery, eyewear, footwear, and accessories. In addition to the Wellington store, the brand has two boutiques in Auckland and has products available internationally via Ssense and Farfetch.
