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Grand steel and micro-cement structures, celestial lighting and symmetrical layouts add a sense of ceremony to the shopping experience within this clothing boutique in Hangzhou, China by Liang Architecture Studio. More
Italian architect Vincenzo De Cotiis has designed Burberry’s London flagship store with mirrored lighting grids and chequerboard tiles that allude to the brand’s signature check pattern. More
Woven grass “Tiki Totems”, timber frameworks and bold geometric shapes that recall surf culture make up Los Angeles-based design studio Perron-Roettinger’s latest store for clothing brand Stüssy in Tokyo. More
Green onyx lines the floors and walls of this fashion boutique in Rome by creative duo Giada Forte and Robert Vattilana. More
Milky resin envelops the windows and furniture within this accessories store in Hangzhou, China, designed by local studio Say Architects. More
Space travel, race cars and the French Riviera are among the eclectic references that informed Snøhetta’s design for the Moniker boutique in Oslo, Norway. More
The minimalist, utilitarian interior of this store in Copenhagen by local studio Aspekt Office provides a neutral backdrop for the colourful clothing and homeware that it sells.Located on Niels Hemmingens Gade where it meets the city’s pedestrian shopping street Strøget, the OCE concept store occupies a building that dates back to 1736.
Products are displayed across white and coral-coloured shelves in the home department
OCE stands for objects, clothes and experiences, in reference to what’s on offer in the lifestyle brand’s roughly 50 Chinese stores and its growing number of European outposts.
Terkel Skou Steffensen and Hans Toft Hornemann of Aspekt Office were asked to create an interior for the brand’s Copenhagen store that would help to attract Scandinavian customers.
The steel storage units blend in with the white walls
“The design requirements for the new store were clear and concise,” said the studio, which has provided creative direction for OCE for several years.
“OCE wanted us to create a Nordic atmosphere and add a Scandinavian look, feel and expression to their brand, to be able to attract Scandinavian costumers. That was paramount.”
An oak-panelled service counter provides visual warmth within the otherwise industrial space
The studio decided to divide the store into different zones, one dedicated to fashion and the other to homeware.
Upon entering at ground floor level, customers are greeted by an oak service counter that provides a warm counterpoint to the all-white interior while effectively splitting the area in two.
Clothing is hung on simple white rails
“In general, we have worked with as few colours as possible to make [OCE’s] colourful products stand out and take the primary focus,” said Steffensen and Hornemann.
“To obtain the essential Scandinavian look and feel, we have worked with carefully selected materials. Scandinavian design is a design movement characterised by simplicity, minimalism, functionality and beauty, and we had to mirror that in OCE’s new store.”
Snarkitecture creates billowing all-white pop-up store for Valextra in Milan
In the home department to the right of the counter, the interior was kept “sterile and raw”, with products displayed on simple white and coral-coloured steel shelves.
On the other side, the fashion department sees clothing hung on white steel rails and changing rooms concealed behind grey wool curtains. A grey linoleum floor, designed to resemble concrete, was used throughout to create a calm and relaxing atmosphere.
Grey wool curtains separate the changing rooms
Several of the shop’s display tables are topped with a speckled, terrazzo-like material that is created from recycled yoghurt pots by UK company Smile Plastics.
“Since the store is very small and compact, we made it our mission to utilise even the tiniest little corner,” explained the studio, which has transformed the previously unused space under the stairs into an exhibition area with built-in shelving.
“In this way, we highlight the stairs of the store and lead people to the first floor.”
A staircase with traditional turned wood spindles was painted white
The store’s minimal white interior was also designed to be respectful to the surrounding architecture.
“The store is located in a pedestrian area, surrounded by historical buildings with bricks facades and stucco decorations,” the studio explained.
“Another common feature of these buildings are the large, high windows that allow in as much light as possible, but also allow you to see the beautiful surrounding edifices,” it added.
“We wanted the shop to have a look that blends in homogeneously, no dramatic pops of colour, no discontinuity with the neighbouring interiors that you can see through the windows. The soft palette blends in with the surrounding environment, the materiality chosen is simple and discreet, yet modern and fresh.”
The oak counter separates the homeware from the fashion department
Other designers who have attempted to capture a Scandinavian aesthetic in a retail setting include Ulrika Bernhardtz, the creative director of lifestyle brand Arket, who designed the brand’s Copenhagen store using an all-grey palette.
In London, architecture firm Farrells conceptualised the interior of a mixed-use shopping and dining development to reflect Japanese and Nordic culture, while the Soho store of clothing brand Eytys references Swedish brutalism and postmodernism.
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Dutch architect Anne Holtrop has remodelled Maison Margiela’s concept store in London adding walls cast in textile moulds to reflect the brand’s garment construction techniques.Located at 22 Bruton Street, the boutique is laid out across 190-square-metres and displays Maison Margiela’s Co-Ed collections, with men’s and women’s ready-to-wear alongside accessories such as shoes, jewellery and eyewear.
Gypsum partition walls separate the retail space
The store features a pale, tonal colour palette in keeping with the Parisian label’s all-white studio, with the plaster walls and ceilings retained in their natural finish and floors and fixtures made from travertine.
A number of the store’s walls and columns were individually hand-cast in textile moulds, leaving behind folds and dents to create the illusion of fabric billowing in the wind.
Floors tables and shelving are made from carved travertine
This unconventional casting method is intended to reflect a garment construction technique used by the fashion house that is designed to disrupt the “anonymity of the lining” and reveal the inner workings of a garment.
Wooden curtain drapes around a lift inside Maison Margiela’s Milan store
“The gypsum casts in textile formwork translate the ‘anonymity of the lining’ concept into an architectural element,” explained Maison Margiela.
“After removing the textile formwork, the imprint of the textile remains visible on the surface of the walls and columns, together with the pleats of the textile and volume of the gypsum that pushed the formwork out. The walls and columns are turned inside out – we look at the lining, the interior of the wall.”
The Bruton Street store houses clothing as well as accessories
Holtrop, who founded Amsterdam-based Studio Anne Holtrop in 2009, installed items of “misfit” furniture throughout the space. Featuring familiar forms that have been warped and skewed, these were designed to lean and fold around the interior.
To lighten the store’s travertine floor and carved fixtures – including shelves, display tables and seats – Anne Holstrop Studio developed a technique that involves filling the stone’s natural indentations with colour-contrasting epoxy resin in optical white.
The gypsum walls are cast in fabric moulds
“Normally the porosity of travertine is carefully filled with an epoxy in exactly the same colour as the stone,” explained the studio. “With an infill of white epoxy, the porosity of the stone adds an accurate drawing, a staining of the material itself.”
The finish was inspired by another of Maison Margiela’s characteristic techniques called décortiqué, where haute couture technicians cut through the layers of a garment in order to reveal its construction.
“All that remains is the skeleton, the core components, which enable you to recognise what the item once was,” explained Maison Margiela. “It entails cutting around the seams to emphasise the structure and detailing.”
Indentations in the travertine were filled with white resin
In contrast to the rest of the store, the walls and ceilings of the fitting rooms are coated in layers of hand-brushed, high gloss paint reminiscent of Japanese lacquer cabinets.
According to Maison Margiela, the store reflects its “evolved visual language” which was developed by John Galliano after taking the helm as creative director in 2014.
Changing room doors are finished with a high-gloss lacquer
Holstrop’s gypsum-cast design was first introduced during the label’s Artisanal AW 2018 show, in which Galliano revealed the structures, interlinings and inner padding of clothes that would normally be concealed.
Photography is by Henry Bourne.
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