The production of Fifty Shades Darker chose Suki’s Salon on Granville Street for the location of Esclava. In the book it is located near Ana’s Seattle apartment and next to several high-end boutique shops. Suki’s on Granville Street is very similar to this description. The area is referred to as South Granville and home to stores such as Pottery Barn Kids, Anthropology, Williams Sonoma and several shoe and clothing stores. There are also many wonderful coffee shops and restaurants along the sidewalks. I believe the filming at this location was to include Jamie and Dakota doing a “walk and talk” along Granville Street between 13th and 15th. This scene ended up not to be filmed. They did the “talk” on the sidewalk in front of the salon instead.

The day before they filmed Esclava several trucks were in the area and the crew was at work preparing the salon. They brought in new Esclava products and signs and went to work on the salon. While visiting the location I noticed several narrow long mirrored pieces that were taken in along with a very large E sign that later was in view on the back wall of the salon. Several crew people were at work on the front area. When I arrived I first noticed some scaffolding was that set up on the sidewalk. At first I thought it was used to place the new Esclava sign but then one of the talented crew explained to me how they had brought in the wall pieces that were placed to the left side of the front windows. I watched at they placed the new metal looking Esclava sign on the wall piece. He explained to me how the walls were actually made of foam and sculpted to look like cement. They were placed there to cover a neon sign for Suki’s.

Another crew member was working on the cement ledge that was under the windows on the sidewalk. The details that he was working on were quite amazing. He painted the cement and then was working on new edging for it. When it was completed it all looked cleaner and was a bit darker in color.

The lighting crew were busy with erecting a large lighting fixture on the roof that would be used to shine a huge light down on the sidewalk. They were also placing cables and light pieces across the street in the grass and bushes under the trees. They later lit this area up as background. They also renamed the apartments to Puget Place with a new sign. (Maybe a reference to the Puget Sound and Seattle)

The 15th avenue off of Granville was marked with no parking signs for April 3/4. Later in the day the production trucks lined the street. There was also a back alley street behind the salon and this was also full of production trucks. A couple of blocks down the street was a tented area for the many extras who were used in the salon and walking on the streets. One of the business next door was used for the crew and actors.It was fun watching the salon extras walking around with their salon capes on and hair in various stages of being done.

Did you notice the GRAY?  Yes, the building next to the salon had a tiled GRAY at the top of the building. After I noticed it so did several of the crew. It looks like with just a quick A changed to E Christian Grey could have owned the whole block.

More of Esclava filming Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 2