Cult skincare brand Asop set to open Northcote Road store

Asop, the cult Australian skin, hair and body care company, is on the brink of opening a new store in Clapham after taking over the lease at 71 Northcote Road.

A planning application was submitted to Wandsworth Council in early October proposing a change of use at the site from Class A1 (retail floorspace) to Class E(a) (Display or retail sale of goods, other than hot food), with 71 Northcote Road previously occupied by local butchers A. Dove & Son.

Although Asop's new Clapham store can already be seen on Google Maps, store refurbishments are still underway - and given culture and design are in Asop's DNA, those refurbishments may take some time.

The company dates back to 1987 when founder Dennis Paphitis opened his Melbourne hair salon, Emeis, and started blending hair products from essential oils.

Customers fell over themselves for trial samples and two years later, with the phonetic similarity of "Emeis" to a somewhat more established beauty brand, Paphitis rechristened the nascent company Asop – in gentle mockery of beauty brands' frequently outlandish claims.

Asop joins the growing number of new businesses opening around Clapham and Battersea. Closer towards Clapham Junction, a new branch of Thérapie Clinic is set to open on St John's Road.

Meanwhile in the opposite direction heading towards Balham, the new Pets at Home is open in Clapham South.

Asop loyalists will know the brand's physical retail units are so much more than "shops", though.

With Chief Executive Michael O'Keeffe's emphasis on direct contact with customers, the company now has over 140 Aesop stores in 18 different countries – but only in places that are ready for Asop's holistic, integrity-based approach.

While China is not deemed quite there yet, Melbourne boasts nine (nine!!) boutiques, each with a different design concept inspired by its individual neighbourhood.

"The majority of our designs are with local architects who understand the environment in which a store will trade and therefore will be sympathetic to the light, climate and streetscape, but also how customers shop and use retail spaces," O'Keeffe has said.

Architects are granted a high level of creative freedom, with the common denominator among their briefs being to find new, interesting ways to display products.

In the Nolita, New York, store 2,800 copies of the New York Times were cut into strips, then stacked and bound for wall cladding.

How the surrounding environment of Clapham and Battersea will inspire Asop's Northcote Road boutique is for now, a mystery.

One thing's for sure: it is guaranteed to look and smell stunning.

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