Glossier is a much-loved and coveted American beauty brand. After the brand’s highly-instagrammable London popup store was a runaway success in 2019, it was a natural decision to open its first international flagship store in the capital.

Choosing the chic Covent Garden for its new home, the store is located at 43 King Street. This 17th-century townhouse in Covent Garden is said to be the area’s oldest building. The spacious and airy townhouse stuns visitors with floor to ceiling marbled décor, countless mirrors and Glossier’s stand out artwork.

Created by US architect Pro Arch and UK architectural firm Lewis & Hickey, the space blends the modern Glossier branding with the historic richness of the building.

Glossier G rosettes are laid into the wood floor, and representations of the logo have been adorned with ornate details to pay tribute to their new home. Custom-made perforated pink metal walls bring the colour and playfulness of the brand, while allowing the original building details to be seen behind them.

A large space has been dedicated to letting customers test and purchase Glossier makeup and other cosmetics.

A stunning lighting design has been delivered for the store by Dot Dash NYC. The lighting was a crucial component of the interior design to expose the historic interiors while highlighting the modern Glossier installation.

The mirror lighting was an important element as it had to ensure customers were well lit in order to get an accurate sense for how the cosmetics and makeup would look with natural skin tones and complexion. Linear LED striplights concealed behind the perforated wall panels transform the mirrors into diaphanous screens revealing the historic interiors behind.

To calibrate the translucency of the perforated walls, product display lighting and a 770mm diameter globe pendant with 20000lm LED core and integrated DALI control was created as a bespoke solution from Optelma to ensure the store felt bright and diffuse while providing optimal face and selfie lighting.

At the store entrance, a backlit tuneable white ceiling changes colour and brightness to match the daylight conditions providing a comfortable transition into the bright store.

To fulfil a number of key elements of the design, Dot Dash NYC specified solutions from Architectural hybrid lighting company, Optelma. These included bespoke surface mounted and plaster-in downlights, as well as Firo Slim mini profile w a 28.8W/m, 4600lm/m LED. This offers superior efficiency of 160lm/w.

Optelma’s Drad mini profile and Angle mini profile, both with the same highly efficient LED have also been used.

Christopher Cheap, President at Dot Dash NYC said: “The Glossier store is a beautiful space, bringing together the highly stylised and impact aesthetics of the brand with the sophisticated building.

“The lighting design needed to embrace this, combining modernity with classic looks to deliver exactly the same balance as the décor and environment. With a combination of fittings, including a number of bespoke solutions from specialists Optelma, we created a lighting scheme that reflects the fun and playful nature of Glossier, with the rich history of the space and the Covent Garden area.”

Jonathan Philips, National Sales Manager at Optelma, said: “Optelma has an impressive portfolio of retail projects, and we are thrilled to have added Glossier to our list of successes.
“The store is classy, inviting and high-quality. Our LED solutions, alongside a number of custom-made luminaires, have ensured the lighting perfectly reflects this.”

Powells was appointed as the main contractor for the project, while the electrical contractors were CBL.