The brief

To create a stunning finish for use across two high-end male fashion stores in London’s iconic Covent Garden and Marylebone, in the heart of the world-renowned West End. Our design consultancy client Ink Associates required a modern but timeless look to reflect the stylish ‘uptown’ tailoring showcased in the duo of gents fashion stores. Aliva’s brief included a customisation challenge to match its Metropolis finishes to two distressed plaster samples sent from the fashion retailer’s New York HQ.

What we did

The customer selected textured fine finishes from Aliva’s Metropolis Colours range, complemented by colour washes to create an aesthetic that blended perfectly with the cutting-edge gents attire on display at the two stores. Each shop had a bespoke match with the original distressed plaster samples sent from the States. For the larger two floor Covent Garden store, two coats of Old Time Max, a plaster paste specifically designed to create marble type plaster finishes was applied in a subtle grey tone. That was followed by one coat of Italian-inspired Venezia, also in subtle grey, to gain the stucco texture needed to replicate the distressed finished, followed by a black colour wash to finish off the stylish aesthetic, designed to appeal to the male shopper. Meanwhile lighter colour ways were chosen for the smaller Marylebone store, to help create a better sense of space given the shop’s dimensions. Two coats of Old Time Max were applied in two different shades of cream, followed by a gold colour wash to create a sense of style and opulence.

What makes it special

Metropolis’ versatile and sophisticated Old Time Max, combined with luxurious colour washes helped create the exact matches to the distressed plaster samples the retailer sent from the States. The finished aesthetic was so identical, the client could not distinguish between its original sample and the Metropolis match.