3.0 - CONCEPT RE-IMAGINED

I have a tattoo on the inside of my left ankle, it reads 2/8/10, it is an exact copy of a scratch I put into the wall at the back of the store in Dalton, the moment we pushed the button to GO LIVE! That’s almost 14 years ago … you could say that this project means ‘a lot!’.

I co-founded LN-CC in 2010 when a group of talented, driven and passionate friends who worked together for another E-Comm store decided to go it alone! With no money but the backing of a few key brands Rick Owens, Maison Martin Margiela and J.W. Anderson, we went into the market to raise capital. Within 24 months we had grown to around 50 staff and had one of the best reputations in the industry. We were disruptors, we did things differently and this was epitomised in our physical store, which opened in late 2010. Competing with London’s biggest boutiques we built a revolutionary concept store with £40k! The materials used were raw and unheard of and the juxtaposition of the high-end product and the raw, naive, combination of materials propelled us to press heaven! Vogue, The New York Times, Dazed and Confused and a feature on the BBC Culture Show, the space and brand went global!

Fast forward to 2020 and other than a few rooms refreshed back in 2015 the store remained relatively as it was, the pandemic then hit.

In March of 2020 like the rest of the business world, we panicked! We had a lot of stock in the London store and we needed to get it back to our E-comm warehouse in Italy and we needed to get it back there FAST! The plan was never to shut and remain shut, but I think the industry had forgotten we had a physical space when we reopened again earlier this year.

Almost 6 years after I left LN-CC, I rejoined the company in early 2020 as 'Head of Studio + Staff’. With the dedication from Cristian Mursado (CEO) and Reece Crisp (Creative Director) to maintain the original DNA of the brand throughout the new space, I was assigned the 3.0 Store Project working alongside Reece. I reconnected with Gary Card and was involved in every detail from the outset. From the initial contracts, the appointment of the contractors, and the designs and details all the way through to the landlord negotiations and down to the security systems! There wasn’t anything I didn't touch. Working closely with Reece, Gary, Richard and the Dynamic team namely Ben, Nedal and Pete has been a pleasure. As with any project of this ambition we laughed, cried and bled for the cause. A learning curve doesn't do it justice!

To have been as heavily involved and to have been entrusted with such a large and important project has been a career highlight to date!

This is the story of that journey …

Before

Below you can take a virtual tour of the store ‘as it was’ before we ripped it out as well as pretty much unseen images of the space when the founding team first viewed it in summer 2010!

Although at this point there had been a refresh, the bones of the space were as they were originally when we opened back in 2010. A true legend of London retail and rooms and walls filled with many stories, adventures, ups and downs! A really strange feeling to have it back to the shell we started with 15 years ago! (images below)

DESIGN

From the beginning it was essential that although we needed a complete rebuild and rethink of the space, that it maintained the LN-CC DNA and had the same feelings and emotions to it. Gary Card is part of the LN-CC story, a member of the family and it was he and his wonderful late father Chris’s hard work and vision that the original store was born and then became so successful. It made complete sense for us to work with Gary again and for him to come up with the latest iteration of the iconic basement. He brought Richard Wilkins of HQI to work with him on the designs who it has been a pleasure to meet and work alongside throughout.

15 years on and I think one of the key challenges we faced was that we had all moved on, grown up and were no longer hamstrung by a minuscule budget. Part of the charm and beauty of the original store was that it was all done for under £40k, it had to be! Necessity is the mother of invention and certainly materials wise, we had no choice as the raw cheap wood was all we could afford! It was free, it was naive and it was brilliantly innovative! There is a great story Gary tells about how he and his dad Chris went to the woods one evening and just collected branches. The branches were piled into a tunnel shape with wire and then spray painted, this was the first tunnel you came into when you entered the store!

DURING

Above are the designs that Gary and Richard presented after many calls and iterations with Reece Crisp, Creative + Buying Director and I. There would be a few changes to these before finals but we presented and received sign off from our CEO Cristian Mursado. Now with the store now being a clean shell, it was time for sampling!

Original scale protos, materials and colour sampling sign off.

Snagging and design tweaks onsite. Gary Card, Richard Wilkins and Reece Crisp.

It was around this time that I found and contacted Dynamic Resources, a global brand and retail specialist that we instructed as our construction and project management partner. To give some context of their pedigree, Dynamic recently completed an Aston Martin store on New Yorks Park Avenue (see project). Dynamic couldn’t be further away from that £40k budget all those years ago. The first time we met Ben Mareschal their Executive Director, we got it! He got us and the project, we got him and his attitude. This wasn’t going to be a huge multi million pound ultra polished execution but he understood its unique beauty and understood what we wanted to create. To Bens credit they committed to the project and we instructed them to project manage the entire project.

Gary gets excited as progress becomes tangible.

Dynamic then instructed Nedal Khalil as the project manager and as the intensely detailed program was rolled out Nedal and I spoke most days for pretty much the entire process. Having never been involved in a project quite this scale, the details and complexities of the build was extraordinary! Electrical, air flow, alarm systems, fire regulations, space capacity, lighting, sound systems, materials, colours, finishes. The list at times felt endless and I have learnt an awful lot. At every turn there were issues and decisions to be made, budget trade offs, design tweaks and compromises all to ensure that each area stipulated by h&s, design, creative, commercial and financial were balanced and met.

I worked closely with both Nedal and Ben throughout and I can not thank them enough for their dedication, commitment and execution of the project!

THINGS START TO BECOME REAL

The club space has always been an integral part of the store to position it as more than just a retail space, the sound in that club has always been something that’s been important to us. Below you can see a few clips from an initial soundcheck with Sound Services and this was the day it all started to become real! I had a real moment when the music started and the lights were on and being tested, I literally got chills.

WELCOME TO LN-CC 3.0

We did it! This project started in September 2021and finally on Thursday 21st March 2024, 31 months after the discussion’s began, we launched!

The official store launch interiors photographed by myself for FORWARDSPACE.

Below is a film shot by Director, James Barber.

LAuNCH 3.0 : PRESS DINNER

To kick off the opening events there was a VIP Dinner hosted by our CEO Cristian Mursado and President Andrea Ciccoli. Select members of the press and fashion community were invited to view the store before anyone else!

Food by Perilla

Wine by Ancestrel Wines

Cocktails by Burnt Faith

Sound by Teenage Engineering

Dinner captured by Bare Clips