Ripplefit is one of my favorite boutique on Jinxian Lu. Owner, Ken Yu studied in Vancouver and worked as a buyer in Amsterdam before returning to Shanghai to start his own shop with three other designers; Jeffrey Z, Han Lu Lu, and Stena Wong, all of them studied fashion overseas.
This cozy shop has a classical romantic French movie feel to it. Although their price range from 550-1500rmb, but their clothes are original pieces, and not your average leftover-stock-from-foreign-orders shops. Ken the “lao-ban” was extremely nice and patient as he explains their clothes are all designed and made in their Ripplefit studio, therefore sizes and colors are limited.
The store decor is elegant with key furnishing pieces, such as a bath tub next to the window gives you a sense of sophisticated personality. However, from a visual merchandising standpoint the product assortment is a bit of a mess. Nothing really goes with anything besides some sort of a color assortment from light to dark. Instead, if you want to bring out your dark pieces, you could insert a brighter piece in between the black items. This way, people’s eyes are drawn by the bright colors which contrast, and adds a greater value and appreciation for each individual black items, more so if they were hung in a lump of dark colors.
Looking outside their core products, such as this interesting display of drugstore hand-lotions sitting next to a 1,200rmb handbags, which I thought was kinda odd. I’m not sure if their customers often get dry hands after a long day of shopping and flippy through clothes and demand some damn lotion, but it just didn’t quite fit the image of a “designer” brand.
Nevertheless, Ripplefit is definitely a must-visit store if you’re ever down the street getting a latte at Citizen or grabbing a salad at Pier 39 (which is literally across the street). Most of their customers are die-hard fans, literally! I overheard one girl walking in asking for their new items and telling the owner she came straight from the hospital. Hard-core shopoholics!
Storevolution 