Sustainability, design and art for fashion: the COS concept stores

The first concept stores of the fashion brand COS have been opened in Stockholm and Mexico City. In addition to fashion, interior architecture, design and art play important roles there. Concept stores stand for cross-selling. They complement the brand range with other products that also represent the spirit and idea of a brand. Concept stores are geared towards inspiration and experiential shopping, their product range towards the lifestyle of the visitors. Flying visits to COS in Stockholm and Mexico City show this: Even before aesthetics and lifestyle, there are very important sustainability strategies.

The fashion brand COS is part of the Swedish H&M Group and opened its first store in London in 2007. The fashion goods fall into the mid-range price segment and quickly became so popular that by 2022 there were already 259 stores in 47 countries. In its fashion design, COS follows a modern minimalist aesthetic in menswear and womenswear. COS offers ready-to-wear. The focus is not on seasonal trends, but on durability, quality and a high-quality color palette. An in-house sustainability team works every day to find the right solutions. The COS concept stores also stand for this idea, the idea of a more sustainable world. The architecture team at COS works with recycled, local materials and artisan products with a regional tradition. This creates identity, an ideal sustainability factor.

How do COS and its team of architects approach the subject? In principle, COS works like a restorer and preserves as much of the substance and character of an existing building as possible when renovating. The result is an exciting mix of historical architecture and the modern COS style. Even building in existing buildings saves CO2 emissions and is more sustainable than demolition. The principle is retained in the interior fit-out: Local materials or those from the circular economy, products from the region, work by designers and artists from the geographical area determine the interior. The long-term goal of the COS Concept Store is to achieve 100% circular purchasing. Solutions for this include the use of energy-efficient LED lighting and the use of bricks made from denim production waste. There is also the “COS Loop”, a kind of exchange platform on which the store teams can swap items for the store fittings with each other. Art always plays a major role at COS as a source of ideas and identity. Its importance has grown once again in the concept stores. The cooperation projects between COS and artists began a long time ago: in 2012, for example, there was an art project during the Gallery Weekend in Berlin that created a much-noticed scenographic window design. Carsten Nicolai installed his light installation “Schatten Loop” in the window of the COS store in Berlin-Mitte and attracted a large audience during the art weekend.

COS’s first concept store in Europe is a newly renovated old COS store in the lively pedestrian zone of Bibliotheksgatan in Stockholm. New retail concepts and sustainability have been combined here on 566 square meters over two floors. The interior design is largely made from recycled materials: display tables are made from recycled paper, the mannequins are made from used polystyrene and the aluminum rails for hanging are made from 30% recycled aluminum. The furnishings are designed to have a maximum life cycle and therefore low follow-up costs. And in the Stockholm concept store, art is a permanent feature, just like in a gallery. The first exhibition showed paintings by Swedish painter Liselotte Watkins, who also designed an edition for COS – this is not very price-intensive and the editions are affordable for many customers.

In a metropolis with a population of 23 million like Mexico City, a sustainably planned concept store is a real asset. “Air pollution is serious (…) Although modern environmental laws are in place, they are not consistently implemented because there is a lack of awareness of the problem among large sections of the population and the administration,” says the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on the case of Mexico and environmental policy. Following the Stockholm launch balloon, COS has opened another concept store based on sustainability strategies in the Polanco district in the middle of Mexico City. Here, too, a lot of unusual materials, old and used items have been given a new lease of life in the design of the 486 square meters of retail space: The hardwood normally used for interior furnishings has been replaced by bamboo, which has a better growth rate and can store more carbon than hardwood. It is also much more durable in comparison. The floor in the sales area is made of terrazzo tiles, 90 percent of which are made from quarry waste. Yarn waste from the supply chain was used to make the carpets, and panels for various fixtures consist of 60 percent recycled plastic bottles spun into felt.

The COS concept store in Mexico City also focuses on cross-selling and there is plenty of design and art from local studios. There are two auratic stools from the Totem Collection by furniture maker Daniel Orozco, who works in southern Mexico, and the iconic Day Bed by Jorge Arturo Ibarra. The most striking decorations on the wall are not paintings but a kind of modern tapestry. They come from the Caralarga Studio near Mexico City, a company run by women – which is also sustainable, because without female empowerment there can be no sustainable social design. Caralarga specializes in sustainable fashion and wall decorations and has contributed wall decorations using thread weaving techniques to the interior concept of the concept store in Polanco. With their simplicity and reduced design language, they emphasize the beauty of raw materials and also contribute to waste avoidance, as the material they are made of would otherwise have ended up in landfills.

Read also how the Veja brand opened a new store in Madrid and what was important for the interior design.