Amazon Opens Fashion Photography Studio in London

Online retailer Amazon is moving up the ranks of the fashion world with the opening of a huge 46,000 square-foot photography space in Shoreditch, East London. The studio is one of the largest of its kind in Europe and is set to help the comapny add more than 500,000 images of clothes to its sites every year as the it pushes forward into offering more fashion for its customers. Model Suki Waterhouse was on hand at the launch as she collaborates with the brand in becoming the face of its first ever fashion advertising campaign. She will join photographer Cass Bird and fashion writer Julia Sarr-Jamois in the Autumn/Winter 2015 collections celebrating “individual style”.

“Our aim is to make Amazon the best place to buy fashion online,” said Sergio Bucher, vice president of Amazon Fashion EU. “The opening of our new fashion studio illustrates our ambitions. Our new studio will enable us to produce more than half a million images a year.” Asked why they chose East London’s Shoreditch area to base the initiative, Bucher explained that it is the “creative heart of London where we can be close to this fantastic pool of talent – models, hair stylists, make-up artists and photographers.” The space is a brick structure that dates to 1850 and was built under the arches of the Hoxton railway line and is leased from Transport for London, the city’s transportation authority.

With Amazon poised to become the world’s largest clothes retailer by 2017, it’s little wonder that the company is doing all they can to grab a piece of the British fashion industry, which is worth £50 billion a year. The company says it has added 100 new fashion brands to its platform in 2014, with brands including Hugo Boss, Gucci watches, Emporio Armani, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, 7ForAllMankind, American Retro, Petite Bateau, Levi’s and Lacoste. In addition to photography, the studios will also have an editorial suite that will include video editing and a library, as well as offices for Amazon’s fashion staff to liaise with advertisers to the platform. The first major event at the new studio will be hosted by Dazed & Confused co-founder Jefferson Hack, who has said he feels passionately about inspiring the next generation of London fashion talents and showing them “anything is possible” in the industry.