“It should be fine,” says Kiko Kostadinov brightly last Friday afternoon — just as the urgent grind of a power drill sounds through the floor of his office. Beneath the new East London studio space Kostadinov and his team moved into in April, his third store is being fitted out. This Friday, 7 November, it will open with a show: the first ever to blend the menswear designed by Kostadinov himself with the womenswear created by Laura and Deanna Fanning.
The space is at 21 Whiston Road, near Columbia Road and Broadway Market. The studio occupies the first floor; the store below (mid-construction as we speak), will be shaped around a reassembled artwork by ongoing collaborators Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch. “It’s really an artwork recontextualized into a store,” Kostadinov says. “It’s exciting to keep the narrative between the three stores, Tokyo, LA and now London, all part of Ryan’s universe.” The installation piece arrives in 10 crates, and has yet fully to be pieced together: Kostadinov is confident of meeting Friday’s deadline.
The London space will complete a loose trilogy of ad hoc Kostadinov flagships that have grown independently. Tokyo opened in March 2024, followed by Los Angeles last November. “Tokyo is sustainable and solid,” he says. “LA is a bit intense; there, it’s a different way of shopping.” Each store operates with local programming and generates content through its own Instagram account. In LA, for instance, the store partners with Rocky Xu’s Rocky’s Matcha to host monthly breakfasts. London will follow a similarly organic rhythm, opening Thursday to Saturday, and maybe sometimes on Sunday to coincide with the Columbia Road Flower Market.