Alexander Wang’s Flagship European Store gets a Metropolis makeover

A flagship fashion store in Mayfair has had a high-end makeover thanks to a product from Aliva’s Metropolis range.

The Alexander Wang store located on Albemarle Street in London is spread out over three floors and is the designer’s first to open in Europe.

The client and architect involved in creating the store wanted a finish to match stone already contained in the building which was previously used as a post office. The finish was created by using Metrostone, a cement-based coating which can be used on floors and walls to imitate the colours and effects in the natural stone they requested.

The stunning finish, in this case used on the walls covering 350 square metres, was used throughout the store to reflect the designer’s dark, minimalistic store aesthetic.

Wang, who was born in San Francisco and was recently named in the Times 100 Most Influential People of 2015, has his clothing stocked in over 700 stores worldwide. Since launching his first store in New York’s Soho district in 2011, the designer has gone on to open a further 24 shops across the globe.

Aliva’s Tom Kitchener said: “To have our product featured in Alexander Wang’s largest store is fantastic. We have had an extremely positive response from client, David Andrews Construction, and the architect, Vincent Van Duysen, who were involved in the opening of this store. Metrostone is a great product which can be created to look like any stone, but is much more environmentally friendly and a lot easier to work with than the real thing.”

David Andrews Construction explained the challenge of matching the original stone. “We had a stone sample sent to us from the client. To match this we played around with a few options and submissions prior to client approval.

“Matching plaster to stone is always a challenge, but a worthwhile one, when the designer & the client are so satisfied with the results.”

The store opened in August and is located at 43-44 Albemarle Street, Mayfair.