Underground Carpark Transformed For Fashion Experience

Signs Express Belfast helped transform an underground car park beneath Belfast’s Victoria Square into a 1950s laundrette themed fashion-show environment. With Rebel Events, the three-person team delivered an experiential installation with digitally printed graphics and dimensional fabrications setting the scene.

Challenge
Victoria Square’s seasonal fashion show required a fully themed environment capable of turning part of an operational underground car park into an immersive event space. The installation needed to support the laundrette-inspired creative direction while functioning within the physical limitations of the site. Signs Express Belfast also had to deliver a mixture of scenic graphics, fabricated elements and branded details at event scale, while maintaining a cohesive visual finish across multiple surfaces, structures and viewing angles throughout the temporary installation.

Solution
Working from original concepts, Signs Express Belfast collaborated with Rebel Events to adapt the design for the space and determine how the environment would function physically. Two laundrette-style shopfronts were constructed, one at the entrance and another within the seated show area where models emerged. Metamark Crystal Etch and Metamark MD-100 were used across window graphics and scenic elements, while Foamex panels wrapped with digitally printed graphics created tiled wall effects throughout the installation. Foamex components with MD-100 were CNC-routed in-house, with layered and tactile details incorporated into washing-machine props and fabricated features.

Result
The finished installation transformed a conventional underground car park into a theatrical retail environment designed around storytelling and audience immersion. By combining print, fabrication and dimensional detailing, Signs Express Belfast delivered an experiential setting that extended beyond traditional signage work. The project also highlighted the flexibility of in-house production capability, with routing, print and assembly managed internally by a compact team experienced in delivering complex event and retail graphics installations across Belfast.