The two-story space is specced with light wells, stained-glassed windows, bare concrete, museological displays, stone plinths, and a number eight-shaped door handle. (The eight motif also appears in the Burberry collection.) It reflects Palace’s USP as a culturally curious, luxury-adjacent skate brand. “It’s got that tension: certain bits of iconography that don’t feel like they fit in classic skateboarding retail,” Skewis adds.
The designer of the new store, Steve Oh, has worked with Palace for several years, designing the brand’s spaces in South Korea, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore. Indeed, Palace has ramped up its expansion in the Asia-Pacific region, now counting DTC outposts across Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore, as well as its US locations.
The frontage of Palace’s new store.
Photo: Courtesy of Palace
But how has the brand carried its hyper-London brand messaging and subcultural capital to foreign climes and consumer landscapes as vastly different as East Asia’s? Through meeting fellow skaters and creatives on the ground. “If you’ve skated for long enough, there are natural scenes,” Skewis says. “We’ve got really close friends in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, New York.” In fact, Skewis has known Palace’s strategic advisor for the China region, Stéphen Khou, for some 25 years, acquainted through his travels in France and London’s ground zero for skating, Southbank. “It’s really been an organic approach, and I think that’s kind of what Palace is. We’re not trying to be anything that we’re not.”
The roadmap for the next 10 years? Skewis plays it cool. “If we can continue to do things like Manor Place, put out skate videos, do the things we love… That’s really what we’re about.”
