The new 3,000 square metre shoe store is located at the rear of Selfridges’ Oxford Street flagship. The store that houses over 55,000 pairs of shoes from high-end designer to high street brands was opened on 10 September 2010.

The structure was originally intended to be a car park featuring low ceilings and substantial column grids. In order to suit the glamorous front-end of the store, Fobert raised the ceilings by removing tricky air-handling units to the perimeter. Three roof lights are also featured. Abundant day-light penetration has been made possible by breaking a stock room.

The entire retail space has been divided into six distinct rooms or galleries. From the entrance, the customer sees a succession of doorways, and at the end a huge window floods the space with daylight. Each gallery has been designed to give distinctive characteristics to different shoe brands.

Brands with raw aesthetics such as All Saints’ space have been designed with rusted steel and single casts of glass reinforced concrete that are 20mm thick. Tables made of old wooden shoe that were stockpiled over time have been featured in a room that is styled out of solid oak and poured liquid pewter.

Another room features a crystal oval sliced at an angle, which forms the focus of attention. The store also features a dark zone of galleries devoted to evening wear. This space is distinct for cracked clay tables inspired by island houses bordering Lake Titicaca. The final room contains 42 alabaster plinths surrounded by anodised aluminium and pale pink suede shelves. The interior installations in the store are designed to be easily dismantled.

The store is designed to offer customers an experience where, they will feel that they are walking through a series of intimate Bond Street stores rather than being bounded by an endless sea of shoes. The store also features white plaster-clad beams and columns and parquet flooring throughout.

Approximately 4,000 shoes will be on display from around 150 brands, and a total of 55,000 pairs of footwear will actually be held in stock.