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Barneys COOP prototype makes a splash in South Beach
By Anne DiNardo
![6980-1.jpg](http://vmsd.com/sites/vmsd.com/files/imagecache/Full_gallery/editorial/6980-1.jpg "Barneys calls its new store in South Beach "the first true COOP," one in which all the pieces fell together. Artisan objects create an eclectic environment. The store's apothecary features a curved-wall fixture system and a concrete floor that's been ground down to a raw finish and sealed with a clear coat.")
![6980-4.jpg](http://vmsd.com/sites/vmsd.com/files/imagecache/Full_gallery/editorial/6980-4.jpg "The store makes heavy use of "eco-tech," utilizing a number of recycled and reused materials, including 1950s-era refrigerator doors at the base of this women's denim display.")
When Barneys New York emerged from bankruptcy in 1999, the luxury fashion retailer began searching for new, undeveloped areas to grow its business.
While the flagship stores were too cost-prohibitive to saturate the market, Barneys identified its COOP (as in cooperative) concept - a department for the younger, more accessible Barneys brand with a flair for trendy, hip fashion founded in the early 1990s - as an area of untapped potential.
"We look at COOP as the entry into Barneys," says David New, executive vp, Barneys New York. "We felt it was a vehicle we could take on the road that would have wide appeal."
Thus began a two-year re-evaluation period for Barneys, in which it began strengthening the COOP focus and identity. During that time, it turned the concept into two New York stores, the original Barneys space in Chelsea and a new store in SoHo. But New says the pieces didn't all fall into place until the opening of COOP in Miami's South Beach in September.
"South Beach is really the first true COOP," he says.
Barneys' in-house design team partnered with RGLA/ Robert G. Lyon & Associates Inc. (Schiller Park, Ill.) on the 9000-square-foot store, which is located in a two-story, white, art deco building on Collins Avenue in the heart of South Beach. (A Tommy Hilfiger store formerly occupied the space.)
"People will come from all over to visit the store, so we definitely wanted elements of memorability and surprise," says Kent Wells, RGLA's director, retail planning and design.
Relying on new and creative ways to use utilitarian objects, the store embodies a mix of materials, fixturing systems and artisan objects to create an eclectic store environment, with an emphasis on wacky and fun.
New explains that the COOP brand is structured around three merchandise segments: denim; designer labels, such as Diane von Furstenberg and Marc by Marc Jacobs; and more bohemian, up-and-coming designers, such as Alabama and Alice & Olivia.
To create that one-of-a-kind environment, the retailer strives not to use anything off the shelf, rather relying on its fixture manufacturer to create one-off, arts-and-crafts pieces for the store.
"We wanted a fixturing concept that was unique and different, and something we could use going forward," says Randy Sattler, vp, visual marketing and retail solutions, at RGLA, "but, no two stores will be the same."
