H&M opened its Regent Street flagship store on Thursday.

Located next door to the Nokia shop that opened the week before, the 32,295 sq ft (3,000 sq m) flagship has three floors and features a dramatic back-lit white translucent wall at its rear, designed to draw the eye through the ground floor.

This wall contains mannequins set back in niches and is covered by a geometric wire mesh, extending from ground floor to first. It is fronted by a bank of escalators and, by positioning these in front of the illuminated panels, shoppers travelling up or down them become part of the rear-of-shop scene.

The first floor is split between womens- and menswear, while the ground floor is devoted entirely to women’s clothing and has a series of white centre-floor cages that are used as merchandise display points and also as positions for mannequin installations. The effect is similar to that achieved in H&M’s New York flagship.

The basement – which houses childrenswear – has a lower ceiling, but features the same the grey terrazzo-tiled flooring that is used to provide a contrast to the white fixturing on the other two levels. Also, many of its architectural features have been retained, because of the building’s listed status.

The new store is less than 300m from H&M’s previous flagship store at Oxford Circus and a short walk from Cos, the more upscale brand unveiled by the Swedish retailer in 2007.