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What is a “Third Place”? Lately, the term “third space” has been popping up in retail decks and brand manifestos like it’s a newly discovered trend. Like most trends, it's not new, but fashion is making it its own.
We’ve seen the wellnessification of retail. The ritualisation of shopping. But now the third space enters the scene, reframed, rebranded, and recontextualised for a new era of community-hungry consumers. This is about more than merch. It’s about presence. And place.
Retail, Rewritten
We’re past the point where physical stores exist to push products. They serve as immersive brand experiences and increasingly as social hubs - they vibe, they host, and they create culture.
Third spaces have existed long before fashion brands began utilising the term. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the idea of “third places” back in 1989, not as a marketing strategy, but as a way to describe the spaces that live between home and work. It was the café, the barber shop, the spot between work and home where community happened. Now, brands are rebuilding that space with exclusive drops, a DJ booth, and a curated Instagram moment…
The phrase “third places” has risen in popularity over recent months across disciplines. We're seeing a pivot: retail is no longer about the transaction, it’s about the invitation. To belong, to connect, to identify. Experiential marketing taps into this by designing moments that go beyond selling a product; it invites people to engage with a brand through their senses, emotions, and personal stories. In other words—culture first, product second.
When a brand occupies a third space, it integrates itself into becoming a part of someone's lifestyle. Physical retail environments - third places - now double as social venues and creative platforms where customers can connect with the brand emotionally and socially.
No One Wants Your Pop-Up
As Oldenburg described them, third places are great equalisers - spots where regulars of different backgrounds and perspectives can mingle in a location that is comfortable, unpretentious, and low-cost. It can be quite clear to see why this approach to experiential retail is beneficial to brands looking to invest in the community to drive brand loyalty.
In a recent BoF Podcast, How Fashion Brands Build Community in 2025, BoF correspondent Lei Takanashi joined to explore the emotional core of brand building today. Lei Takanashi made a key point towards localised focus for brands in scaling their community authentically. Brands that scale community best don’t chase virality - they go hyperlocal. He pointed to Arc’teryx and Supreme as examples of brands that hire from within, speak the dialect, and earn their place in the scene.
Local First, Always
This local focus is a strong argument for brands but it is somehow overlooked by continuous rollouts of global campaigns and generic pop-up concepts. Consumers swing by, sip the free canned spritz, post a story, and bounce. These mass approaches lack authenticity and assume one size fits all.The fashion industry loves to talk about community, but community isn’t built with guest lists, it’s built by listening. Brands need to stop projecting and start participating.
Localised approaches show an authentic interest in the local community, consumers, and their personal preferences. Brands need to be looking to the community for deeper and more emotional forms of engagement.
Take Jacquemus’ Ibiza beach pop-up as a demonstration of a locally integrated third space. It is a temporary, immersive retail environment on a sun-drenched beach that blends leisure, lifestyle, and shopping. It’s not just about sales, it’s about offering their customers the memorable experience they desire from brands.
Jacquemus understands its audience (affluent, seasonal, selfie-ready) and caters to their desires. They identified the people within the Ibiza area (and as of yesterday, Saint-Tropez too) during this time of year to be those within their target market. Having understood their desires and budget, Jacquemus offers a third place for people to seek out and immerse themselves within.
The Jacquemus Beach is less a store and more a mood board brought to life, it is not Oldenburg’s third place. The branded escapism is beautiful but gated.
Now contrast that with Voo Store in Berlin. A more socially accessible and locally grounded example of a third space. The space blends fashion, design, and community engagement. Beyond a selection of local and international designers, Voo offers an atmosphere for visitors to linger and connect via their in-store café, and exhibitions in their gallery concept Voo Space.
Voo’s prioritising of community interaction and cultural exploration alongside commerce serves as a socially accessible third space, more aligned to Oldenburg and reflective of the local culture.
From Storefront to Story Engine
Third spaces offer tactile real-life advantages, fostering local community ties and real human interaction. These are some points that digital platforms struggle with. However, third spaces and digital platforms should not exist in opposition. Third spaces and digital platforms offer the opportunity to be strategically integrated to amplify one another and increase the reach on both sides.Third spaces become content engines designed for the share and the soft launch. Voo’s industrial interiors or Jacquemus' seaside offer intentionally curated moments; they're viral architecture. Visitors become unpaid ambassadors and storytellers. A collective community is seemingly joined by those extending the reach of the physical space beyond its location. Turning foot traffic into digital visibility.
Meanwhile, digital tools do the prep work. Geo-targeted ads, RSVP links, exclusive event invites - they all drive the right people to the right places. The smartest brands create a loop between digital discovery and physical experience. Brands not only increase footfall but also grow an engaged online community rooted in real-world interaction. Done right, third spaces don't just generate vibes, they generate measurable community.
The Long Game
Third spaces today are where culture converges and commerce quietly waits in the corner. Brands cannot just build concept stores but need to commit to showing up with purpose. Third spaces only work when brands are willing to invest in actually belonging somewhere.If digital and physical spaces are able to feed one another rather than compete, then brands unlock the type of growth that isn’t viral but rooted.
The real question isn’t how brands can show up in third spaces, it’s whether they can commit to the bit long enough to let something real happen there.