 To
boost accessories sales for flagship Banana Republic stores,
Banana Republic Store Design sought to differentiate an
accessories area. The new design called for two high-end
jewelry fixtures to bridge the gap between the store's
existing visual and the elegant furnishings of traditional
jewelers. "They wanted the look of warm, high-end furniture
with the functionality of practical jewelry displays,"
says Bob Riley, senior vice president and general manager
of Hamilton Fixture West, which engineered and built the
new quad and vitrine fixtures.
Following installation, traffic in the jewelry areas boomed
and sales increased 30 percent. In addition, more jewelry
is now sold at regular rather than marked-down prices;
Mike Tersigni, director of store design for Banana Republic,
credits Hamilton's vacuum-molded reconfigurable drawer
divider system for making stock easily visible. Now store
personnel can quickly find the pieces of jewelry their
customers are looking for. 
Photo
Form and function –
Hamilton's product development services can extend to design; in this case, Paul Hubbell, Hamilton's sales engineering manager, worked extensively with the Banana Republic designers to ensure that their designs met aesthetic, merchandising, safety, and cost criteria. "We responded to technical info from Hamilton as we were designing for aesthetics. If something we wanted would make the fixture vulnerable to breakage, we were able to solve the problem upfront," says Tersigni.
For example, designers originally envisioned the fixtures' solid ash legs tapered, but engineering pointed out that customers were likely to kick them. So Hamilton tapered the insides of the legs only, creating the illusion of complete tapering.
.
For the fixture faces, Hamilton hand selected ash veneers to match the solid wood of the legs. And to show the wood grain while maintaining the dark shades that Banana Republic prefers, an ebony stain with a low-build, medium-gloss finish was applied.
Arriving intact – The showcase integrated into the cashwrap needed to be accessible to staff but look inaccessible-and at the same time not detract from the Wave radio design. The tempered glass window is positioned where the LED screen would be on an actual radio, just big enough to merchandise product. "Prior to Tarrant's coming on the scene, the showcase opened from the top," says Diatelevi. Tarrant was able to design one of the ribs as a handle to pull the glass top forward for easy, undetectable access of merchandise from the front of the cashwrap.
Quad support – To show off the jewelry, the quad was built with 1/2-in.-thick glass with chamfered top edges and 3/8-in.-thick glass on the sides. To support the weight without detracting from the fixture's sleek style, Hamilton built a cold-rolled black powder-coated steel frame underneath. Adding support are wood panels on each side. Store personnel stock the unit from all four sides in drawers nested into each other pinwheel-style. Each drawer set includes a pull-out display shelf as well as a backstock drawer.
This fixture grouping won a special merit award in the 2003 NASFM Retail Design Awards competition
Banana Republic
Accessory Destination, San Francisco
Dimensions: quad: 46 in. long, 46
in. wide, 36 in. high; vitrine: 17 in. long, 17 in.
wide, 6 ft. high
Materials: solid ash wood,
ash veneers, steel, acrylic, glass
Project type: Fixture grouping
in flagship stores
Designer: Banana Republic
Store Studio Design, GAP Inc., San Francisco
Fixtures: Hamilton
Fixture West  ,
Ontario, Calif.
Retailer: Banana Republic,
GAP Inc., San Francisco
Photographer: David Wakely,
David Wakely Photographer, San Francisco
Is your fixture supplier a member
of NASFM?
NASFM is made of up over 450 store fixture manufacturers
with corporate headquarters across the world, and over
800 plants worldwide. Combined, NASFM members produce
about 85% of the store fixtures manufactured through
the U.S. and Canada. When you bid out your jobs, make
sure your suppliers are NASFM members.
The National Association of Store Fixture Manufacturers
3595 Sheridan St., Ste. 200, Hollywood, FL 33021
954-893-7300, fax 954-893-7500, nasfm@nasfm.org
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