Beijing’s SKP-S Is Creating The Biggest Pop-up Store Ever!

Beijing SKP recently created a new shopping space called SKP-S, which may be the biggest pop-up store ever with the entire mall and all the brands in it engaged in a bold experiment. Beijing SKP is breaking all stereotypes of luxury retail with even the top luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Cartier, Valentino, and Fendi combining fashion and art on a grand scale!

Not Only a Mall, but also a Grand Art Installation Experience Space

On entering, visitors are greeted by the Gentle Monster’s Future Farm installation in which robotic sheep move and breathe in a lifelike manner. On the other side, metal flowers continuously open and close, simulating photosynthesis to power the mechanical sheep. These two sides symbolize the connection between reality and the future. This is a special avant-garde installation for SKP-S by GENTLE MONSTER.

The theme of the SKP-S retail space is a "Digital-Analog Future", a showcase of an imagined future life of human immigrants to Mars.

In addition to the farm, the whole mall contains numerous thematic installations and works of art, such as a 3D carving machine, Human Habitation on Mars, Mars Rover, Space Capsule, Robots and Human Conversation, Fossils of Human Civilization, Sculpture by the artist, Xu Zhen, Penguins Mirror Installation Work by Daniel Rozin, and sculptures by the GENTLE MONSTER staff. The most popular are the Mars Rovers and Mars scenes, which attract waves of customers who stop to take pictures.

In the future, SKP-S will work with more artists from various fields to build installations with different themes, and constantly update the theme and design of the whole retail space.

Not Only a Mall, But Also a Collective Party of All the Brands

Different from general department stores, in SKP-S, all the brands change into LED signs with red letters on a black background to display their brand logos. Even luxury brands that usually have strict control over their brand image, such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Cartier and Valentino, participate in this program. As well as unifying the image of the entire shopping mall, this is also a bold collective experiment of various brands in a new retail space.

What is even more special is that all the brand stores are different from the general stores in other shopping malls. Each brand has a theme which constantly changes, and coordinates with the adjustment of the store design, display and products.

For example, the Fendi store displays a collection jointly launched by Fendi and Nicki Minaj -- the decorative lighting of the whole store is in the iconic Barbie pink of Nicki Minaj. After the official opening of SKP-S, Fendi stores will be updated to a Christmas limited series, and the overall store lighting and products will be adjusted accordingly.

On the first floor, in addition to its standard offering, Gucci has opened a furniture store and its first beauty experience boutique in Beijing. According to staff, the latest Gucci lipstick series is incredibly popular.

On the second floor, Golden Goose has opened the world's fifth and China's first Golden Goose Lab. In the past, services such as polishing, lettering and gold inlay were only available to VIP customers, but they are now available to Chinese consumers in SKP-S.

On the third floor, Gentle Monster’s 21st global flagship store incorporates a theme of “an imagination of new humankind traveling through a wormhole between Mars and Earth”. Meanwhile, it has also brought the brand's first art dessert store, NUDAKE, to the mall.

Not Only a Mall, But Also a Large Collection of Global Limited Edition Products

From co-branded collections to limited edition products, to products that are not yet on the market, the brands at SKP-S strive to provide consumers with the most unique and personalized product experience and store service.

All the camouflage-themed products in Prada stores are exclusive to SKP-S, and all the products in the Moncler store are co-branded designer collections of the Moncler Genius Project S2, including Japanese streetwear icon, Hiroshi Fujiwara, British designer, Richard Quinn, Valentino Creative Director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, with supermodel/designer, Liya Kebede, and former MSGM and Acne Studios menswear designer, Sergio Zambon. Almost all the products sold at SKP-S are only available there in all of China. In fact, SKP-S is the only place in the world to buy some of these product lines.

In the Cartier store, there is a special exhibition area with the theme of “cheetah”, in which two products that have not been launched anywhere else in the world are displayed. It is reported that Cartier will change the theme and products every three months in future.

Nearly all of the sneakers in the SKP SELECT store are exclusive to SKP-S and cannot be found in any normal brand store.

In addition, SKP-S has a pop-up area on the third floor where the brands are changed every once in a while. A pair of shoes co-branded by NIKE and MMW is currently prominently displayed. It is reported that these shoes have not been on the market anywhere else in the world and more than 20 pairs will be exclusively available at SKP-S.

One consumer told us that she shops here because there are many "limited" products that can’t be found anywhere else.

Conclusion

SKP-S is significantly younger and more stylish, from decoration to products. Breaking the traditional shopping experience model of department stores, SKP-S's exploration of retail space design not only attracts more consumers, but also creates a more innovative retail space for itself and the brands in it.

It is reported that SKP-S will officially open for business on December 12. It may be connected with the original SKP area in the future in order to enhance the passenger flow transit across the north and south regions.