On Saturday A Number of Names* (AKA anon*) launched their first, London flagship-store. The sales, distribution and marketing company – you may know them for Bathing Ape, Billionaire Boys Club, Human Made and Bedwin & The Heartbreakers – is known for its concrete connection with streetwear, primarily through its jack-of-all-trades, creative innovator: Craig Ford.

Voted by Complex as the Most Influential Insider in streetwear, Craig Ford is Founder/CEO of Anon* and has an illustrious past working with presidents of style such as Pharrell Williams, Corrine Day and Terry Richardson.

The store abides by Anon*’s innovative fluency of something luxe, but totally lax – clean and simple. “It’s partly my personal style. I had a white concrete floor in my flat fourteen years ago,” commented Ford on the store’s source of image, “the concept with the store was to have a white-cube gallery space… with the vitrines in the middle. If there are no other distractions it makes you focus on the clothes – like a gallery setting.” This installation-like essence has been injected digitally to their website too – clean-cut, pared-down, white-space goodness.

But with the industry operating, both distributively and socially, via digital gateways predominantly governed by a generation of clued-up kids, then why have a physical presence? “I grew up in a pre-internet time. So I’m all about actually seeing and touching the clothes before I buy. I only buy vintage clothes online. The only new item of clothing I have ever bought was a repeat purchase: a pair of Levi’s 505s,” he explained.

“It’s also a great way to showcase our brands. When you sell a brand to a store you lose control in how it’s merchandised – to an extent. With our store we can present the clothes how we want them to be presented. The shop can also be used for special, brand presentations and installations throughout a modular window-display system, the TV monitors and vitrines.”

Don’t be fooled – this is no knee-jerk reaction to its popularity. Anon*’s growth has been organic and meticulously assembled one part at a time by Ford, leaving emphatic, creative fingerprints on the way. This unstoppable wind of originality now has a gallery-like space acting as a signpost of their continued success. Onwards and upwards.

anon* is at 4 Upper James Street, London W1F 9DG