Amazon to open fashion photography studio in London

Online retailer Amazon is to open a 4,300 m2 fashion photography studio in Shoreditch, London in 2015. The studio will be one of the largest of its kind in Europe, providing both on-model and off-model imaging for Amazon’s rapidly growing European fashion business.

The site, which is owned by Transport for London (TfL), will see Amazon set up its largest photography studio in Europe. Amazon.co.uk launched its fashion offering in 2007 with a Shoe Store, Jewellery Store and Watches Store, before launching its Clothing Store one year later. In the run-up to Christmas last year, Amazon.co.uk received orders of more than one million fashion items in a single week.

Since the start of 2014, Amazon has signed more than 100 new fashion brands including Hugo Boss and Gucci watches. Other brands include Emporio Armani, Ted Baker, French Connection, Casio, Vivienne Westwood, Puma, Missoni, Moschino, Levis, and Ben Sherman.

In September 2014, Amazon became an official patron of the British Fashion Council and released its AW14 menswear editorial campaign featuring Kaiser Chiefs. In recent weeks Amazon has unveiled two exclusive collections with British based designers - Solange Azagury-Patrirdge, and Osman.

´Fashion is one of the fastest growing businesses for Amazon across Europe and the creation of this new studio illustrates both our ambitions in this area and our dedication to providing a first class customer experience,´ said Sergio Bucher, vice president of Amazon Fashion EU. ´Our new studio will enable us to produce high volumes of top class photography by employing great talent in one of the leading fashion capitals of the world.´

The new Amazon Fashion photography studio will be situated on Geffrye Street, Hoxton, in a former glass factory. Development of the site will commence immediately with the studio to open by summer 2015. Amazon expects to create 35 new permanent roles at the studio with up to 50 freelancers also being brought in as a result of seasonal demand. Together, they will be responsible for producing hundreds of thousands of images every year.

´We continue to invest heavily in London and are delighted to add this new studio to our growing
portfolio of buildings across the capital,´ said Christopher North, managing director of Amazon.co.uk
Ltd. ´By summer 2015, around 2,000 corporate employees will be based in London across three offices
and this brand new studio. We expect to create thousands of new jobs in the capital over the coming
years.´

In 2013, Amazon opened a 4,760 m2 imaging studio in Williamsburg, New York, which supports
Amazon’s US fashion business.