Stüssy To Open London Store Near Palace And Supreme

After setting up shop in the basement of Dover Street Market at the beginning of this year, Stüssy has announced plans for a permanent bricks-and-mortar store in Soho. It will be the first since its original London residence closed its doors in 2009, and, naturally, it’s just around the corner from its much-hyped counterparts Supreme and Palace. And no doubt the southern California label, which established a cult following of surfers and skaters shortly after its inception in the late ’80s, will enjoy the same lines of loyal fans, who queue for hours to pocket the latest drops.

If you’re not familiar with the story of the brand, Stüssy is the brainchild of Shawn Stüssy, a surfer who began screen-printing T-shirts and shorts to sell alongside the surfboards he was shaping for friends in Laguna Beach almost four decades ago. The graffiti-style Stüssy logo that is splashed across the brand’s products today is the same one he scrawled onto his handmade wares in the ’80s and early ’90s.

The secret to the brand’s growth, once he had partnered with accountant Frank Sinatra Jr in 1984, was the founder's mission to seek out collaborators that aligned with Stüssy, and not sell out to those he didn’t respect. He travelled to New York, London, Paris and Tokyo, where he found people who shared the same tastes in music, fashion and culture and, thus, Stüssy began to resonate with those subcultures. In 1991, he opened Stüssy’s first store on Prince Street in New York, with the help of James Jebbia, the future founder of Supreme. His international fanbase of musicians, skaters, DJs and artists followed him.

There have been ups and downs for the brand. Shawn resigned as the company’s president in 1996, which caused sales to fall, but the company retained his signature as the logo and its most valuable asset. And thus, Stüssy‘s identity stayed constant in the years to come when the creatives in charge of its evolution would change.

The new Wardour Street outpost, which the brand calls a “Chapter”, will see Stüssy align itself with the current streetwear success stories - and its new neighbours - that it helped pave the way for.