Men’s Wear Retail Concept Htown Opens in London’s Hoxton
LONDON — Htown, a designer men’s wear store, is opening in East London’s bustling neighborhood Hoxton on Monday.
Founded by Harry Fisher, the store has minimal industrial interiors and will focus on exclusive capsules from designers.
The store is launching with 60 styles from Martine Rose, Y/Project, Mowalola, Ahluwalia, Saul Nash, AGR Knit, Eastwood Danso, Spencer Badu, New Found Form and a new merchandise outing by music project Baad News. Rose and Y/Project’s Glenn Martens offered two exclusive styles for the store.
“We’re investing in styles we believe in with higher units, rather than all the styles and low units, which makes our buys much better for the brands. For me, the buy is about uniform wearable pieces; I want the consumer to be able to wear our products over and over again. Quality and suitability are very important, so that is something that we want the brands to be aware of,” Fisher told WWD
Fisher founded Htown as a brand agency in 2018 to help emerging brands develop the commercial side of their businesses. Before that, he worked at the designer boutique Machine-A as a senior buyer.
Some of the brands stocked in the store are his clients, but Fisher said the store will not exclusively carry agency brands. It’s a happy coincidence. “It just happens that all the emerging designers I love [are the ones I] work with. So I bought them for the store. But this will change and grow each season,” he added.
He also wants to have a positive impact on society and the environment through his offering. The store is opening with a collaboration with young American photographer Drew Brown as part of an ongoing dedication to charitable projects. Two of Brown’s photographs from the Black Lives Matter protests will be hung as part of the gallery space and in the store window. The store will also sell Brown’s “My Execution Might Be Televized” zine, which reflects on police brutality in the U.S.
The store space, designed by Christopher Melgram, emphasizes minimizing its carbon footprint. The majority of the elements were made and sourced in the U.K. The work tops are made of Durat, a 100 percent recyclable material created out of recycled post-industrial plastics, and all of the wood materials used are certified by the Forestry Commissions as sustainable. The packaging for in-store and online purchases is recycled, recyclable and biodegradable.
Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
