Design magic at Dubai's new Hamleys store

Few words are more synonymous with child-like wonderment and fun-fuelled fantasy than Hamleys, one of the world’s largest, best-known and best-loved toy stores. So, when it came to recreating the fairy-tale feel of the company’s flagship Regents Street store in the Dubai Mall, Chute Gerdeman Retail, a strategic retail design and branding company, was called in to work its magic.

No stranger to the Hamleys brand, Chute Gerdeman Retail has developed the architecture, graphics and shopfitting design for a number of the company’s global stores. “We are a strategic partner, working with Hamleys to interpret this iconic brand in diverse cities around the world,” said Brian Shafley, president and chief creative director of Chute Gerdeman Retail.

Each store design is born from the same basic blueprint but adapts to the unique character of its location, Shafley explained.

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“All Hamleys stores will start with the same ‘DNA’. However, each will interpret the brand for its local customer base in strategic ways. Special products and design features, like the camels in Dubai, will feel unique to each store. But all Hamleys stores will be about magic and fun,” he said.

The spatial parametres of the Dubai Mall store presented a first point of difference, and a specific set of challenges.

“The large single-storey floorplan is completely different to the original Hamleys London flagship, which has seven intimate floors. Plus, the high-volume ceiling was very difficult to scale down to a child’s perspective. Lighting a large space with drama is always difficult.”

But the 32,000ft² store delivers the expected dose of delight at every turn, he continued. “It’s like being a child, where a sense of wonder is around every corner. The store front and entry were designed to capture the Hamleys Regent Street magic and scale. The doll townhouse an streetscape capture the scale and style of London itself.”

The spirit of Hamleys is also captured in the whimsy of the design elements, which include stars, bubbles, clouds and flowers. A regal palette of reds and golds has been called upon and combined with fun, child-like accents of colour to reinforce a design scheme that is both stylish and bold. 

Most importantly, the project left Shafley with the most enviable and enjoyable of tasks: “working with toys and seeing the world through the eyes of children from different cultures.”