We were approached to imagine the pop up of the future; one that offered fun and shareability, an immersive, innovative and interactive experience that would go above and beyond the expectations of shoppers and passersby in key Karl Lagerfeld stores throughout Europe.
This included a flagship takeover of Regent St, with pop ups in Galeries Lafayette Paris, Alsterhaus Hamburg, Milan and avant garde concept store WOW Madrid.
We designed a full 360 degree experience, using a variety of physical and digital assets to drive hype and engagement. Customers were given the option to participate in the campaign narrative, with gamification used to further personalise their experience in store.
Red hearts were hidden around stores, with scannable codes that take shoppers into a world of augmented reality, where they could see an avatar of Cara Delevingne sporting a range of different outfits from the collaborative collection.
At perhaps the most impressive site for the campaign, the atrium space at Galeries Lafayette in Paris, visitors can get the unadulterated experience, travelling through graphic-wrapped tunnels and into the main retail space.
The internal staircase is covered in textured graphics, with a balcony area that gives visitors a connected and continuous experience. The shop floor is topped by a large, fanned red heart – sitting above the collection and boldly tying everything together under one key motif. This large red heart is prominently displayed across all the other featured stores too, contrasting beautifully with the modern, neutral colour palette used to exhibit the collection.
Gen Z are now the largest consumers of luxury fashion, and this group react well to touch and colour, so this was a key consideration when developing the in store experience. When it came to materiality, our use of brushed aluminium, fluted glass, chrome and neon lighting gave a futuristic feel wherever you turn, helping to elevate the narrative even further.
We wanted to project a feeling of inclusivity, which matched the collection on display; all of the garments on offer are gender fluid and displayed on chrome, gender neutral mannequins, with subtle markers of mens and womens collections shown via rounded or sharp rail ends.
The Cara Loves Karl campaign is firmly grounded in the future – a modern take on the Lagerfeld brand’s history – reimagining luxury retail in a way that gives a glimpse of what is to come for the sector, showing an increasingly blurring line between the physical and the digital.
