66ºNorth opens UK Regent Street store, will be European flagship

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 5, 2022

Icelandic outerwear brand 66ºNorth has officially opened the doors to its UK flagship. The retail store is in the heart of London’s West End, on Regent Street, with a further access point via Soho’s Glasshouse Street. It also serves as the brand’s European flagship.

The 3,500 sq ft/340 sq m location is a key one as it’s the company’s first outside of Iceland and Denmark.

Showcasing the label’s technical outerwear, apparel and accessories from across both menswear and womenswear, the new space also includes a showroom and area for community gatherings and workshops.

Berlin-based architects, Gonzalez Haase adopted an “experiential approach, bringing the light and atmosphere of the brand’s Icelandic homeland to life”. 

There’s an 18-metre-long curved wall by the Regent Street entrance that “starts the customer’s journey as they are transported into this experiential tactile world where light plays against walls clad in rammed earth”. 

Screens and mirrors are inserted between walls as “a connection, division and separation, while carved rammed earth islands positioned to look like earth and magma are tactile, sculptural and uninhibited”.

There’s also a bespoke ceiling mesh lighting system that creates “misty white sky effects reminiscent of the interplay between Iceland, as a static island, and it's forever changing weather”. 

The company said shades of grey “come to life as the light interacts with the natural British clay used on the walls of the space below, evoking a feeling of mysticism”.

The clay is a locally-sourced material and that fact — along with its colour — will “serve as a thread throughout future projects, depending on what is available near each new store’s location”.

2022 has already been a busy year for 66º North, which was certified B-Corp in April. 

It has launched collaborations with German tent manufacturer, Heimplanet and French cycling brand Café du Cycliste and announced a three-year partnership with UN Women Iceland, which is working to support and create job opportunities for refugees fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East. 

CEO Helgi Oskarsson said of the latest store opening: “London is an amazing city: beyond its culture and heritage, it’s home to some of the best and most influential fashion retail in the world. We opened our first store outside of Iceland seven years ago in Copenhagen. Ever since then, we’ve been waiting for the right moment to open a London store. Now, we are ready.”

Oskarsson added that the particular location was chosen as it’s one of the busiest shopping streets in London and the space “was capable of fitting our vision”.