Kith’s first flagship store in the UK arrives at a moment when home and hospitality were top of mind for Kith’s founder and chief executive, Ronnie Fieg.
The two-floor shop, located at 314 Regent Street on the edge of London’s Soho neighbourhood, spans 19,000-square-feet and was designed while Fieg was building out his own personal living space for his family as well as the space for Kith Ivy — the brand’s new wellness club, unveiled in September.
“What it boils down to is just being able to give a lot of attention to detail in the spaces that we open, and I believe London has received the best of that,” said Fieg. “There’s some crossover there [with Kith Ivy] in materiality and how regal the space needs to feel.”
The London store, which opens to the public on Friday and features Fieg’s first full restaurant, Ronnie’s, highlights the expanding ambitions of the New York-based label and caps off a year of significant brick-and-mortar growth for the brand. In October, Kith opened a flagship in Chicago, its first in the US Midwest. It also opened its second Japanese flagship this March in Osaka.
The London location marks the 21st brick-and-mortar outpost Kith has opened since its founding in 2011. The store, situated inside a century-old Neo-Baroque building, boasts various shades of marble, luxurious wood touches and is accented with brass inlays and fixtures throughout. Fieg, who personally picks the colour palette and materials used in Kith’s stores, designed it in collaboration with Ben Porto of Porto Architecture, who also worked on Kith’s other global flagships.
“I treat spaces like products. We go through many different iterations of laying out space, picking out materials and considering different ways to make a flagship flow between men’s, women’s, kid’s and Kith Treats,” said Fieg. “This is going to be the best version of what we have to offer at this point.”
The main floor includes Kith’s women’s offerings and what Kith’s chief web officer, Dan Elmoznino, said during a walk-through of the shop is its largest dedicated men’s space globally. The new space spotlights Kith’s expansive product offering today, including its core graphic T-shirts, activewear and tailoring, which the brand recently presented at its August runway show, its first presentation in six years.
Fieg believes that wide product range is what distinguishes Kith today. On one hand, the brand still addresses younger streetwear consumers with graphic T-shirts and sneaker collaborations, such as an Asics sneaker pack it released earlier this month centred on the “Marvel vs. Capcom” video game series. Yet it’s also addressing a more mature luxury customer through its ongoing partnership with Giorgio Armani and Kith Ivy, which costs over $36,000 to join.
“When we design and think about the purpose of all the products we want, it needs to cover the full spectrum all the way down,” said Fieg. “We work on cereal boxes while also designing BMW cars and speedboats.”
Ronnie’s, the New York-inspired bistro attached to the new London location, took two years to develop and will serve Mediterranean cuisine alongside dishes inspired by Fieg’s favourite eats from around the world. Fieg singled out the restaurant’s burger as a menu item he believes will resonate with visitors as much as its lounge-inspired approach.
The brand has long had a passionate UK customer, according to Fieg. Since 2019, it has operated a shop-in-shop at the London department store Selfridges. The space, which was renovated this year, was Kith’s first international outpost, and Fieg said it’s traditionally been “a pretty significant business” for the label’s e-commerce sales.
While the brand declined to discuss revenue or financial growth, Elmoznino said the brand is currently planning other global store openings. Fieg said the brand will maintain the same organic approach to expansion it has used to date.
“I look at it like a living organism because that’s the tender love and care that you need when thinking about the growth of a business,” said Fieg. “You need to think about it as more than just being transactional.”
Additional reporting by Brennan Kilbane
This story was amended on Nov. 24 to clarify Kith London’s opening date.
