Becoming entertainment: the future of fashion retail branding

We live in a time of overwhelming brand messaging, where even individuals carefully curate their own brands, and traditional communication finds it hard to cut through. This noise has awakened an exciting shift: brands are moving away from traditional advertising and embracing a new brand-entertainment hybrid that is delivering clear stand out.

They’re creating experiences that trade on immersion and emotion – branded films (think Gucci’s The Tiger featuring Hollywood stars and award-winning directors), narrative micro-series (from the likes of Maybelline and Starbucks) and large-scale spectacles (like Vogue World 2025, which turned Paramount Studios into a ‘living film set, blending high fashion with cinematic history’).

This ‘brand as entertainment 3.0’ approach goes beyond the product placement or the YouTube short. Instead, it uses layered, character-driven fictional narratives to build emotional worlds that make consumers feel something.

It’s a shift that holds valuable lessons for mainstream bricks-and-mortar retailers. The UK has seen a huge collapse in fashion retail, with the likes of New Look and River Island struggling in recent years. The high street overall saw thousands of store closures in 2025.

Embracing entertainment and the emotional engagement it encourages could provide a way to turn fortunes around. There is clearly consumer appetite for it. Here’s what retailers can learn from those leading the way...

From staging to participation

The high street is well positioned to lean into entertainment. Retailers have the real-world footprint to offer world-building that entices and delights. The main takeaway from brands embracing entertainment is a focus on emotional depth, not transactional speed.

We’ve seen this in the way pop-ups have evolved over the decades. They used to be temporary spaces, all about product launches or activations. Today, the very best focus on immersion. They serve as temporary theatrical expressions that reinforce storytelling, belonging and community engagement. Earlier this month, for example, Louis Vuitton, opened a hotel-inspired, immersive experience in SoHo, New York. A sought-after travel destination, it doesn’t just offer its iconic bags for sale but shows them off as lived history.

It perfectly demonstrates how products are no longer just about aesthetics, but about character and backstory. It’s a shift in mindset that fashion could look to implement in their stores, curating memorabilia from entertainment moments, rather than just offering products designed in a cultural vacuum.

Designing togetherness

Another reason ‘entertainment 3.0’ is working for brands is that it brings people together around a shared cultural event, while dialling up emotional engagement. Again, this is something retailers are well positioned to emulate. In addition to selling products, they can offer places that people are drawn to and want to spend their time in. Think of Selfridges’ dynamic, ever-changing The Corner Shop that hosts different brands and cultural happenings. It adds another layer to the in-store experience: an incentive to visit.

There is a huge opportunity for retailers to look at their spaces and customer journeys, and recalibrate them for experience rather than conversion. Uniqlo was ahead of the game here, when it launched its Uniqlo Park in Tokyo’s Yokohama district a few years ago. A concept store combined with a public park, it is an accessible and popular spot for family fun. There are other good examples too – like Zara’s Zacaffé opening in cities from Madrid to Seoul.

This also works on a smaller scale. Dedicated ‘micro-stages’, for instance, can turn a single zone (a window or a fitting room corridor) into a rotating ‘scene’ that changes monthly, giving customers a reason to return. Or participation hooks that invite customers to contribute, such as styling walls, message boards, live customisation or limited in-store-only drops. Retailers could also focus on content-ready design to create one highly photogenic, narrative-led moment per store that encourages sharing and extends the experience digitally.

Enhancing narrative through space

This is the key – narrative is at the heart of brands embracing entertainment in 2026. For retailers, this means designing environments that amplify a story. It’s about making customers feel part of a brand universe, not just a buyer of goods.

Design your store in chapters, not aisles, for example. Break the store into story-driven zones with a clear beginning, middle and end. Then introduce pauses (seating, displays, views), so customers can absorb the story, not rush through it. Ultimately, retailers need to think more like set designers: ask what emotion each space should evoke, then design light, scale and texture to support that feeling.

Brands are investing in cinematic storytelling because it creates memorable, emotional connections. With online retailers having won the battle on convenience, struggling high street fashion stores can perhaps steal a march by embracing entertainment and emotion in the same way.

In a world dominated by conflict and economic and political challenges, they can carve out something unique through their stores – escapism, distraction, something uplifting. The future of retail is about creating worlds people want to live in – those that embrace this future might just change the high street for the better.