Fashion Week, a lesson for our high streets

By Juliana Bentel, graduate surveyor at Lunson Mitchenall.

I recently had the opportunity to attend Paris Fashion Week 2025, and with London Fashion Week 2025 now coming to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the insights the high street can gain from these major moments in the couture calendar.

It is no secret that bricks-and-mortar retail has suffered since the pandemic, but there has been one saving grace for our high streets and shopping centres that online shopping cannot replicate – immersive and dynamic shopping experiences. Fashion Week exemplifies the importance of experiential retail and engaging with customers, offering more than just products on a shelf. These immersive and dynamic ways of presenting new collections are already influencing retail spaces and trends, and the high street would do well to pay close attention.

Throughout Paris Fashion Week, I attended a range of shows, with each designer presenting their new collections in immersive and unexpected ways. From deconstructed ‘avant-garde’ to theatrical performances and storytelling, each designer tapped into the cultural identity of their consumer to shape both their runway presentations and retail strategies. Japanese designer Maison Mihara Yasuhiro’s show was a great example of this. Yasuhiro’s shows transformed the audience to the 90s grunge period with low lighting, an industrial setting and a live rapper sat at a desk at the end of a runway performing live as the models took to the runway. His runway show was an extension of the conceptual stores often seen in Japan, fusing avant-garde aesthetics with streetwear.

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London’s shoppers can continue to immerse themselves in a similar environment to Yasuhiro’s show even now London Fashion Week has ended. Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcon’s Dover Street Market in London speaks to the wider shift in how we shop in an increasingly online world, offering a transformative and evolving art installation, combining retail with art, theatre and culture that drives consumers to return. While we cannot expect brands to replicate Dover Street Market, its success is testament to the need for retail spaces to be dynamic and able to evolve to reflect new ideas and trends, just like the collections they house.

In fact, Scottish designer Charles Jeffrey Loverboy held his show inside Paris’ Dover Street Market, taking an unconventional venue and pushing its boundaries even further. The traditional runway was replaced with a boxing ring and a staged dance performance was used to show off his latest designs. This immersive approach to retail shouldn’t be limited to fashion week alone. Brands should look to creating spaces that tell stories and invite consumers to experience its products in new, interactive ways.

Aesop is a great example of how brands can benefit by going the extra mile to engage with their shoppers. Lunson Mitchenall was recently involved in bringing Aesop to its first store in the North of England in Victoria Leeds. Each Aesop is uniquely designed to blend into its surroundings (the Leeds store draws inspiration from opulent Victorian bathrooms, seamlessly blending into the historic Victoria Quarter) and with low lighting and plenty of areas to sit, Aesop creates a calming ‘wellness’ experience. Additionally with customers welcomed as guests with tea and personalised advice from brand consultants, Aesop has become renowned for their in-store experience, fostering strong brand loyalty and allowing Aesop to rely on word-of-mouth as its main form of marketing.

Perhaps the most exciting example of immersive retail I saw, happened to be following Paris Fashion Week when walking along Oxford Street. Legendary designer Dries Van Noten collaborated with Selfridges, taking over 14 window displays and transforming them into ‘Dancing Drapes’. The installation invited passersby and shoppers to engage in fashion in a non-traditional way – exploring the fabric that makes Dries Van Noten’s rich, textured designs.

This idea of merging art, performance and immersive experiences with shopping isn’t new, but is becoming increasingly important. High-end fashion brands have long used the runway to showcase their creations in exciting ways, but these approaches are increasingly being brought into the retail space. Consumers visiting bricks-and-mortar stores are looking for more than just a transactional exchange. They want to experience brands and be immersed in its story and aesthetic. For our high streets and shopping centres, this means fully embracing the dynamic nature of retail and reflecting this in stores.

The future of bricks-and-mortar retail lies in the power of experience. Just as fashion week shows are no longer confined to traditional runways, retailers need to rethink the role of their stores to keep our high streets and shopping centres thriving.