We Are Labels Raadhuisstraat — Amsterdam, Netherlands

Since opening its first store five years ago, multi-brand Amsterdam retailer We Are Labels has become a familiar site when strolling the city’s fashion precincts. With a penchant for small international labels and affordable price points, their menswear, womenswear and accessories collections offer alternatives more interesting yet no less accessible than the usual vertical fast fashion giants. Its latest project is the most ambitious to date, taking over a former bank building on Raadhuisstraat, a major street known more as a thoroughfare than a shopping destination. While a flagship store was planned for 2016, the group jumped at the chance to convert the 1880s site, blessed with six-meter high ceilings, masonry walls and grand internal arches. Restoring the site’s good looking bones and accentuating them further with timber parquetry flooring, large central staircase and mezzanine, an in house design team has created a space that remains relaxed and boutique in feel – a shopping experience more refined than could be expected from a store where the majority of stock is priced at €40 to €80.