Aries To Open Multi-Brand Bricks-And-Mortar Store

Covent Garden, or more specifically Floral Street, is currently undergoing a major regeneration. Back in February, it became the site of numerous autumn/winter 2018 fashion shows as Topshop took over a vast venue. In a few weeks, the Shop at the Bluebird will open the doors of its shiny new flagship, having relocated from its former spot on the Kings Road. But before then, on May 10, luxury streetwear brand, Arieswill open its first store with a multi-brand pop-up space, Planet Aries, at 21 Floral Street.

"It was always the plan to have a store. I think there is nothing like going into a store and understanding what the brand is about. When you’re wholesaling or when you're just online I think the experience is restricted," Sofia Prantera, co-founder and creative director of Aries explains over the phone a week before the launch. "Within your own store, the brand is explained and understood in a much more direct way. I think it’s actually really, really important for brands that have online stores to actually create a physical experience as well."

The pop-up space will house Aries collections alongside like-minded brands such as Hillier Bartley, Martine Rose, Blondey McCoy’s Thames and New Balance. As well as clothes there will be an array of products, from pots and magazines to jewellery. "We saw this really great space that was coming up in Covent Garden but realised that the size of it would mean that it would be very hard for us to do it on our own. So it was a question of thinking, we do a mini sort of multi-brand store, and get in and be able to have people that are connected to me in some way," Prantera tells Vogue. "I have always been really influenced by my friends and by people around me and it seemed important for me but also less daunting to do something where others come in and support the whole idea. I wanted it to be simple and easy, I wanted it to be personal and I wanted it to be a shared experience with people who I believe in and believed in me. Some of the product in the store is collaborative, for example, we worked with Hillier Bartley which was a really interesting sartorial process. They created these bespoke garments by combining their beautiful tailoring with our printed tees and jersey which are the perfect fusion of couture and "leisurewear”. Luella and I are friends and we have a similar aesthetic and although our end product is very different our consumer often crosses over, which is what inspired us to collaborate."

The prevalence of streetwear and the influence of skate culture on contemporary fashion is impossible to miss but what does the commercialisation of it mean to Prantera, a true fanatic? "The arrival of streetwear and other brands that have been doing what I do but in a much more in-your-face way actually liberated me, made me think okay, what I do, it’s interesting. I was always apologising for this weird clash that I had between putting a silk dress with a printed T-shirt and all of that. You know, it’s become current. I can’t claim that it’s become current because I’ve done it, but all of a sudden for me I just realised okay, I’ll be doing this, and I can do it and not apologise for it anymore." As Prantera states, Aries seamlessly fuses high and low, offering streetwear that has been beautifully crafted. "I come from quite a high brow family yet I was always interested in trash culture and you know I ended up working in a skate store when I was very young, just out of college, and I think that was definitely a huge influence in the way I developed as a designer. Even though I studied at Saint Martins and I did study fashion design, I think the fact that I went to work for a skateboard store immediately after graduation shaped the way I looked at fashion. I think my approach to fashion is very much a sort of melting pot of different things."

That combination is in part due to Prantera's upbringing in Rome, where she was surrounded by luxury fashion brands. "I think it comes from my Italian background, and there were brands around when I was growing up like Gucci, Versace and Prada which informed the way I developed as a designer. I think what I do... it's streetwear but it’s well made, you know it’s not exploitative, it’s made in beautiful factories in Italy and I think when you see it in the context of maybe those other brands it’s more understandable."

Inside the pop-up, Aries and streetwear aficianados will really be able to immerse themselves in Prantera's world and discover the varied things that excite her. "For the store I went to visit this incredible editor in Italy who’s actually been a huge influence on my work, there was a magazine called Frigidaire which was an underground magazine, in the Eighties in Italy run by this sort of counter-culture, semi-political but also fashion-inspired designers and illustrators. And I found the original editor, of the magazine, and I collected all the magazines, I think they started in the Seventies and managed to get a whole collection of them to sell in the store. In that way, maybe, I think that my role of unearthing these weird kind of subcultures and stuff is where I really find interest instead of going for the obvious things."

Beyond the pop-up, what else is in store for the future? "I’ve always seen a brand as a vehicle for doing interesting things. At the beginning it was very much about clothes but now it’s about building the whole experience of interesting outlooks," Prantera says. "I’m not necessarily about churning out clothes every six months and I think that’s how I see the future of Aries to become this kind of curation of different experiences."