New wave retail theatre

Showfields opened as a retail meets gallery space in late 2018, in NoHo, New York City, with a self-described mission to “engage and inspire your sense of discovery through revolving experiences with the brands and communities shaping our future.” The 14,707-square-foot, next-generation department store offers independent and online brands—among them Boodles Gin and Nuria Beauty—a backdrop against which to showcase their wares, for a monthly subscription fee. For summer 2019, rather than offering a mere shopping experience, Showfields imbued retail with a dramatic twist.

The House of Showfields is described on its website as “an immersive theater experience that bridges art and retail.” Guests are taken on a tour, which starts by going down a black-and-white striped slide, and are guided around immersive worlds that set products alongside works of art. Actors—including one character named Miss Amelia Showfields—demonstrate the products within this otherworldly environment. At the end of the tour, guests can buy the products they’ve seen at a dedicated shopping space called The Lab.

And the focus is the experience itself, rather than creating an Instagram image. Writing in Fast Company, Katharine Schwab said Showfields “is hoping that the stories behind the brands and the characters will give the fun, immersive show more depth than a flat Instagrammable wall.”

Hudson Yards in New York City, with its cluster of dramatic skyscrapers, is also emblematic of this awe-inspiring form of retail. When Neiman Marcus opened at Hudson Yards in March 2019, the store’s CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck told Forbes: “The reason (to come) is not to say ‘what I’m going to buy’ but ‘what I am going to experience.’” To that end, the store’s services span an in-house aesthetician, a shoe-shine and cobbler, and embroidery, hand-painting, and laser-printing services for garments.