HOWARD M WATSON

With over 200 sumptuous photographs, "Fashion Retail" reveals how the world''s top labels (including Prada, Hermes, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Louis Vuitton) have revolutionised fashion-retail design. Since the late 1990s, designers have realised that the perfect showcase for their cutting-edge clothes are inspirational, innovative stores, created by like-minded architects and interior designers. From London, Paris and Milan to New York and Tokyo, shops are being refitted in a whole range of styles from fantastical 1970s-inspired futurism to pure minimalism. Like the clothes, the emphasis is on the ingenious use of both new and classic materials, with surprising angles and unexpected inspirations. With a new preface and 28 of the latest, beautiful, fashion-retail stores designed by architects such as Rem Koolhaas, Thomas Heatherwick, Renzo Piano, Marc Newson, Future Systems and Herzog & de Meuron, this new edition of the highly acclaimed "Fashion Retail" shows how the top labels in the world are continuing to match radical couture with radical architecture and interiors.The new edition also highlights how accessory brands such as Longchamp have come to the fore with adventurous interiors, while department stores worldwide are being redesigned to compete at the highest level. As "Fashion Retail" reveals, the labels and architects are embracing the challenges of the internet by ensuring that the stores are the ultimate, experiential destinations for the customers, whose expectations of stylish shopping environments are higher than ever. Leading international designers are also responding to the blurring of the boundaries between fashion, art and entertainment, while the high-profile success of fashion-retail interiors has led brands to cross over into other areas of cutting-edge design such as hotels.