Tala opens debut store on London’s Carnaby Street

British activewear brand Tala, founded by influencer Grace Beverley, opened its first permanent brick-and-mortar store on London's Carnaby Street on May 24, to act as an extension of the brand’s online and social media presence.

“This store is the greatest reflection of the brand that we’ve created to date, aesthetically and in a visual environment,” Morgan Fowles, chief executive of Tala told FashionUnited during a preview of the store. “That’s the power of a store, versus the online environment. This store is a better reflection of us than our grid or our website.”

Located at 3-4 Carnaby Street, the store spans 2,000 square feet across two floors and has been designed with an elevated, boutique feel, offering store-exclusive products and showcasing the full scope of the brand's activewear and lifestyle offerings.

Fowles added: “Who we are online has helped inform who we are in the store, and now the store is going to inform back to who we are online. They are two very different channels, and the way customers shop them is different.

“We wanted to make our store an immersive, sensory and human experience. She’ll have interactions with store associates, pick and pull things off rails, touch and try on items. Shopping online, it should still be a pleasurable experience, but it’s more transactional, and we want the store to immerse our customers in the brand.”

Inside Tala’s first physical retail store in London

With that in mind, the Tala boutique has been merchandised in collections, such as swim and resort, “so customers can get a feel for the whole product range,” alongside a leggings wall featuring its viral Sculpt Seamless and Dayflex styles, as well as its flared and Skinluxe leggings.

The store is also offering the brand’s new high summer active collection exclusively at Carnaby Street for a week before its online launch, alongside graphic ‘Carnaby’ emblazoned hoodies, one of the brand’s best-selling styles that has been given an exclusive update and will only be available at the store.

"Our flagship is more than just a shopping destination. It’s a strategic extension of our brand and a way to engage with our community in a more meaningful, in-person way,” added Fowles. “Consumer shopping habits are constantly evolving, but our customers have made it clear that physical retail remains a powerful channel for connection.”

Tala is also quick to differentiate itself from within the crowded athleisure and activewear crowd with a calm yet energised space, utilising natural materials, such as a wooden parquet floor and marble, to highlight the open, bright, airy and minimalist space that has been deliberately designed so that "her experience at the store feels like a treat,” explains Fowles.

“It’s an activewear brand at the end of the day, and we really wanted to combine all those elements into the space – so it feels like an organic, open, airy, and calm environment filled with energy,” adds Fowles. “We wanted a space big enough to express the brand without it feeling piled high and packed in. We want her to have a pleasant experience browsing here. It’s a busy street and we can accommodate a lot of people in the space while still having a good flow of movement around.”

The physical store also allows the brand the opportunity to showcase its product expansions over the last couple of years, such as its swim and resort lines for the summer months and come autumn/winter, it will highlight the brand’s outerwear.

“Tala started just as an activewear brand with only activewear products and has expanded into more lifestyle products,” explains Fowles. “But everything we make is designed to be actively layered over activewear and meant to be styled back to activewear or post-activewear lounge. I think broader than that and you start to lose the identity of the brand.”

Tala’s wholesale growth led to debut physical store

The opening is described as a “major milestone” for the digitally native active-inspired brand, which launched in 2019 and follows its wholesale launch in luxury department store Selfridges across the UK last year, as well as its recent pop-ups in the Anthropologie Gallery King’s Road, and its launch with OUNASS in Dubai in April.

Fowles added: “Selfridges was our first foray into physical retail. We learnt a little about fixtures and wall colours, and it gave us the appetite for more as it was very successful. This led to a pop-up with Anthropologie on the King’s Road, which was also successful, and now we’ve moved to a permanent space with them, and we are launching within their Regent Street store in a couple of weeks’ time.”

When asked if another store is on the horizon, Fowles was quick to not rule out further locations, stressing “never say never,” while adding that she feels it is right to see how the debut store is received first.

“Overall, we have good representation around London between physical retail and wholesale. We have a presence on the King’s Road, on Oxford Street, and now own store on Carnaby Street, so we’ve got good coverage,” added Fowles. “At this point, we’ve learned so much about how to get a store built and designed. What we haven't really learned is how she's going to shop the space yet, and so probably the logical thing to do is to take at least a few weeks to see how this trades.”

The opening is part of Tala’s ambitious growth strategy, backed by its 5 million pound funding round led by Pembroke VCT, alongside Venrex and Active Partners in July 2024. The investment is driving the brand’s exploration of retail formats, as well as hiring more senior team members, including the appointment of Rapha’s Darren Read as its new commercial director last month and Jon Wetherall as its new creative director in January.

Fowles adds: “We are a fast growth company, we are an ambitious company, and we will continue to grow and to make smart bets. I don’t think we’ll do one store; learn everything we’ve learned and stop. I think we have a few more learnings to do first.”

Tala halts US expansion but “optimistic” for the future

When it comes to international expansion, Tala’s second biggest market after the UK is the US, and it has also seen good revenue from various countries around Europe, including Germany, France and the Nordics, as well as the Middle East, which Fowles described as a “great market and opportunity” for the brand.

Fowles added: “We’ve always had organic traffic and customers in the US from the very beginning of the brand. The US was our next most logical market for expansion. There have been some challenges there recently with tariffs, but I'm optimistic that that will open up again for us in the coming months.

“We’re fortunate in that while the US is an important part of our business, it didn't cripple us when we had to take off more than 70 percent of our products off the US website. News changed again last week, so we're looking at how we're going to modify that, but it probably will change again in the coming months, and we're lucky that we can be nimble enough to keep reacting as it's happening. I’m confident and hopeful that it'll turn around again.”