The altering face of e-commerce
The past year presented companies with enormous challenges. Brands have had to adapt to brick and mortar store closures in and out, and many restaurants have stayed afloat by expanding to home kits.
The changeover conditions triggered by the pandemic have resulted in some brands quickly getting an e-commerce platform up and running that they hadn't previously offered, while others took the opportunity to completely revamp their offerings and get the boat in Slide out terms of design.
When fashion designer Charles Jeffrey wanted to put his loverboy label online, he approached Yes Studio openly and was determined to create a platform that was not dependent on traditional e-commerce concepts. “He really wanted it to be very similar to his world – he wanted it to be an experience, and he talked about music and movement very early on,” explains freelance designer James Musgrave, previously design director at the studio.
In the first iteration of the website, which was launched last summer, the products were placed in dialogue with Jeffrey's illustrations to create a kind of “dream landscape”. The website design evolved with the latest collection and continued to invite customers into the loverboy world hosted by Jeffrey's fictional character Hamish. The interactive e-commerce platform takes its inspiration from video games and VR, to which the design refers in details such as the landing page button that greets users or the “Choose your player” range.
Above and Above: Loverboy ecommerce website designed and developed by James Musgrave / Yes Studio
"Especially with the lockdown and inability to do shows, there was a real need to do something more expressive, obviously for consumers but also for the (retail) buyers," says Musgrave. "In a way, it's more of a runway show purpose where you see the clothes on models that way." As the brand's first real attempt to set up its own e-commerce platform, the Loverboy website had room for maneuver. "This was a new website for Charles – it was his first e-commerce business, so it was a blank board," says Musgrave.