Media & Insights

Bluewater secures debut flagship for sweet fashion concept: Vanilla

1 July 2021

Bluewater, one of Europe’s leading retail and leisure destinations, has announced the signing of a new accessible fashion concept brand Vanilla, for its debut standalone store following the success of its established online and concession presence.

Located adjacent to H&M on Upper Thames Walk, the 3,616 sq ft Vanilla flagship store represents the first time trend-led, well priced fashion labels Blue Vanilla and Pink Vanilla will have a bricks and mortar home to showcase their collections in full. Vanilla Bluewater will exclusively stock a new shoe and accessory collection, not available anywhere else.

Fashion-forward, on-trend womenswear brand Blue Vanilla aims to deliver stylish fashion. The London-based brand operates on a global scale, with their e-commerce site shipping to 150 countries globally, whilst the brand itself can be found in stores such as New Look and House of Fraser nationwide and on e-commerce platforms such as Next, Debenhams and Silk Fred. Pink Vanilla is a young fashion brand targeting the ages 14-24 and offers outfits for all occasions. 

Bluewater has also celebrated the launch of two further specialist brands: Sleep.8, and ProCook. The technology-led sleep brand, Sleep.8 has launched a 4,800 sq ft store on Lower Thames Walk. Sleep.8 Bluewater is the brand’s biggest store to date and functions as the brand’s only flagship space, trading alongside a recently opened store in Chelsea and an outlet store in Romford.  

ProCook, the cookware company, follows suit in trend-led brands selecting Bluewater. The 2,100 sq ft store adjacent to John Lewis on the Lower Rose Gallery features quality cookware, kitchenware, and tableware products, all with an emphasis on outstanding performance and excellence in manufacturing.

Rob Hardie, Portfolio Director for co-owner and asset manager of Bluewater, Landsec, commented: “We are committed to constantly diversifying and building upon our already varied offer at Bluewater, to keep it relevant and appealing to all that visit. The addition of specialist and unique retail brands Vanilla, Sleep.8, and ProCook, is evidence of our efforts to consistently deliver trend-led retail options to our visitors. These brands and other recent openings, such as ZARA’s global concept store, only strengthens Bluewater position as the retail industry rebounds post-pandemic.”

Michelle Burns, Head of Retail Stores at Vanilla, added: “We were very selective when searching for the ideal location at which to launch our encompassed Vanilla flagship store, and Bluewater, with its impressive array of retail names and strong experiential offering, is the perfect destination for us to launch at. We have built up a strong reputation with our Blue Vanilla and Pink Vanilla brands through e-commerce and strong sales through concessions, including Bluewater. We wanted to continue to deliver trend-led, yet affordable options for females of all ages, and we are very excited to be taking the next step into physical retail with our first Bluewater flagship.”  

This news follows the opening of England’s longest and fastest zipwire, Skywire, at Bluewater, which forms the first of nine unique attractions that will comprise Hangloose Adventure, a brand-new large-scale leisure offer at the destination. 

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