A Bathing Ape Lands on London’s Conduit Street in Mayfair
LONDON — Japanese streetwear brand A Bathing Ape will open its largest store later this month at 24-25 Conduit Street, on the corner of St. George Street in Mayfair.
The 8,000-square-foot space will open on Dec. 26, the Boxing Day holiday in the U.K. It spans four floors and will carry signature as well as collaboration apparel, footwear and accessories.
The company said men’s, women’s and children’s wear will be on offer with the brand’s cartoonish ape logos, camouflage patterns and motifs from the past 26 years.
At launch, the store will also sell U.K. exclusive, limited-edition items. There are T-shirts with the Union Jack, the London skyline and the Queen’s Guards melded with the brand’s ape logo.
The store will carry Swatch for Bape, and a Carhartt collaboration. The latter is a capsule collection of T-shirts, sweatshirts, a beanie and bucket hat, all of which are exclusive to the London store.
A Bathing Ape has been in international expansion mode: In 2018, it entered Eastern Europe via an exclusive with trendy Moscow department store Tsum, which revealed the brand’s arrival by parking in its windows a Bentley plastered with Bape’s logo and camouflage.
The Japanese designer and music impresario Nigo founded A Bathing Ape 26 years ago. It has been controlled by Hong Kong-based retailer I.T Ltd. since 2011.
The corner site it will occupy in London has housed the likes of Nicole Farhi and Krizia, and has been under construction for some time. A Bathing Ape’s neighbors on the street will include Rigby & Peller, Isaia, Lalique, Vivienne Westwood and Berluti.
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