When entering the Fornarina shop I immediately felt like I was in another world. The ceiling and walls are covered with light blue cloud-shaped plastic blocks which make you feel like you have been sent a few hundred years into the future. Being back-lit with LEDs they are constantly changing colour from blue to a red and then green. The exciting journey continues when climbing up the twisted steel and metacrylic staircase that takes you to another level constantly accompanied by lit up clouds carrying Fornarina products. As you are surrounded by mirrors at every point in the shop you loose any feeling for the actual size of it and everywhere you look the bright Fornarina pink does not let you forget where you are. The futuristic and modern feel is continued throughout with similar abstract shaped furniture and ways of presentation or lighting...and I must say although I was not wearing any form of bright pink clothing, sparkly shoes or pulling a shiny Fornarina suit case I was greeted very friendly by each of the staff members in the shop.
This only UK Fornarina store is located in 30/31 Carnaby Street in Soho, London. It was created by Giorgio Borruso Design who won first place for it in the 2006 ISP/VM+SD International Store Design competition for a specialty store with a sales area from 1500 to 3000 square feet.
Lino Fornari, whose father founded Fornarina in the 1940´s, wants his store designs to evolve from time to time and wants “to make each store a place that creates new relationships and develops new connections”.
The Fornarina range at the Carnaby Street flagship store includes womenswear, shoes, accessories, handbags, purses and suitcases. As they have currently got the autumn/ winter 2010/11 collection in the store the items range from light and heavy knits to fake fur detailed clothes and bright pink down jackets matched up with dazzling accessories. Of course they have also got a broad selection of jeans in different colours and washes for which they have become renown for. The prices range from about 30 pounds for smaller items such as a purse for example to about 200 to 300 pounds for items like a pair of boots or a coat.
On the outside there are four big shop windows which make it easy to get a glimpse at the exciting store design and the trends that according to Fornarina every young woman should be wearing. Muted autumn colours like beige, brown, black are mixed with their typical bright and flashy colours like pink, red or yellow.
The people who shop at Fornarina are definitely young women who like to wear body conscious clothes and bright colours that attract attention and also who apparently want to dress like Lindsay Lohan as she was chosen for their advertisement campaign... twice! Fornarina does not have an online shop but the fact that the homepage is connected to facebook, youtube, twitter and myspace shows that they are directly targeting the younger generation.
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