Sep 12, 2016

Your Favourite '90s High-Street Store Has Just Completely Upped Its Game

We're sure you think of Warehouse as fondly as we do. Throughout the 1990s, this high-street stalwart was our trusted source of going-out tops, party dresses and snappy workwear. True shopping aficionados will no doubt recall their first-ever Warehouse purchase with great clarity: I'm certain mine was a pinstripe pencil skirt—a top choice as a teenager trying with all her might to look entirely sophisticated.

While the store has remained a part of the Great British retail scene, the big changes that have been afoot at HQ over the past few months will put the destination at the very centre of your fashion radar once more. The shift first started when Warehouse announced two key new appointments: Alasdhair Willis as brand consultant (who is also Hunter's creative director and husband to Stella McCartney) and Emma Cook as design director (you will no doubt recognise the name from her eponymous label).

Photo: Courtesy of Warehouse

This look will be dropping in mid-October.

Fashion editors have been practically doing cartwheels and selling their grandmothers to get the new collection into their magazine shoots/online galleries/own wardrobes since we were privy to an early preview a few months back, but now the new dream team's first big step has gone public, with the collection dropping into stores and online as we type. In fact, you'll soon find that every single Warehouse shop looks completely different too: Starting with the overhauled flagship on London's Argyll Street this week, the look is slick and industrial—so fresh, so clean.

Photo: Courtesy of Warehouse

Warehouse V Neck Dress (£99) and Knitted Dungaree Jumpsuit (£49)

So, what's the actual fashion vision? Emma has cooked up directional pieces that many other stores wouldn't be bold enough to debut at this kind of affordable price point—and for that we are grateful. Using her unique play on colours, prints and shapes, there's an individual aesthetic that ticks off some trends but also kick-starts them from within the brand.

Photo: Courtesy of Warehouse

Warehouse Monogram Jacket (£99) and Monogram Trousers (£89). The bag will launch later in the season.

Zebra wrap skirts, gigantic teddy coats, popper trousers, slinky silk dresses worn over matching palazzo trousers, outsized sweaters in unexpected pastel shades… The look is layered, a little bit '90s (but of course!) and uncompromisingly cool—with Emma even daring to go so far as introducing a retro skate-style Warehouse logo that snakes down trousers and across clutch bags. Radical, but really, really going into our baskets right away.