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    “Subtle luxury” defines Shoreditch jewellery store by Hollie Bowden Interiors

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    Interior design studio Hollie Bowden Interiors has created fine jeweller Rachel Boston’s flagship store and showroom in London.

    Located in Shoreditch’s Redchurch Street, the store is split into four main areas – the retail space, private appointment area, workshop and office space for the jeweller’s team of 12.
    The space blends a neutral palette of glass, steel and sycamore wood veneerThe store aims to blend a neutral material palette of glass and steel with sycamore wood veneer and velvet mohair upholstery.
    “Jewellery stores can be read as quite uninviting and exclusive,” Hollie Bowden Interiors founder Bowden told Dezeen. “I wanted to create the opposite experience to that, something that felt open and un-intimidating, yet special and elevated.”
    Bowden and designer EJR Barnes have created bespoke displays from mirror polished steelPlacing the jewellery centre stage was a key objective for Rachel Boston when briefing Bowden’s team.

    “Even though our pieces are striking, they are ultimately small objects by nature, so I didn’t want a huge amount of fussy furniture or bold colours to detract from the experience of customers viewing our pieces,” Rachel Boston told Dezeen.
    In response to the brief, Hollie Bowden created a compact 19-square-metre front retail space “inspired by the concept of a jewellery box that draws your attention into the small, intricate objects within”.
    The store on Redchurch street is split into four main areasSycamore veneer wall-cladding, limestone flooring and lining the display cases with ivory silk combine to create the jewellery-box effect, “emphasising this feeling of being cocooned in the space” Bowden told Dezeen.
    “I wanted to focus on materials that have a quiet beauty about them, that you have to get up close to really appreciate,” she continued.
    Bowden employs a refined approach to materials for this retail project in LondonThis process of refinement has been a hallmark of Bowden’s style since establishing her London-based studio in 2013.
    “Not over-designing projects with too many materials is very important – to give objects the space to sing,” she explained. “I’m always trying to reduce and simplify.”

    Hollie Bowden converts London pub into pared-back jewellery showroom

    Jewellery is displayed in floating window vitrines and a cantilever display desk, designed in collaboration with London-based artist and designer, EJR Barnes.
    Made from mirror polished steel, these bespoke displays introduce a “vertiginous moment that makes the space feel unique,” according to Bowden.
    For these cabinets, Bowden and Barnes drew on the utilitarian design language of archives which “display, protect, and organise what they contain in quite a neutral way”.
    Hollie Bowden’s retail space in Shoreditch has been designed in reference to jewellery boxesRather than using big ornamental gestures more common in jewellery retail, Bowden says this approach “represents a unique and original way of presenting jewellery”.
    “The idea of ‘subtle luxury’ feels like a great counterpoint to retail design at the moment that can feel like you’re in a casino,” she added.
    The frames of the cases are simple and uninterrupted, maximising the display of the jewellery and encouraging guests to roam freely around any area.
    The red cab chair placed at the front of the store is by Mario BelliniA Mario Bellini Cab Chair in a deep wine red, placed at the front of the store, works along the lines of the unexpected-red-theory interior trend, featured in our recent lookbook.
    Through a stainless steel-lined open doorway, the rear space is curtained off for private appointments. This larger 42-square-metre showroom in the back has a more relaxed and intimate feel that mirrors the art-deco style of Boston’s jewellery.
    The rear of the store is reserved for private appointmentsUpon entering the rear space, a brown short-pile carpet and bespoke sofa upholstered in Claremont mohair signals the transition from the storefront.
    “We wanted to create two distinct spaces, independent of each other yet with a subtle link that reflects Rachel’s jewellery,” Bowden said.
    “While the spaces contrast, the continuations of steel and limestone allow for a striking continuity throughout.”
    The rear showroom features a bespoke sofa upholstered in Claremont mohairOther projects by Hollie Bowden Interiors featured on Dezeen include a pared-back jewellery showroom and a London office space inspired by the sultry lighting of gentlemen’s clubs.
    The photography is by Richard Round-Turner.

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      Hollie Bowden converts London pub into pared-back jewellery showroom

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      Lime-washed walls meet aluminium display fixtures in this minimalist studio and showroom that designer Hollie Bowden has devised for London brand Completedworks.

      Set over two floors of a former pub in Marylebone, it provides space for Completedworks to design and display its jewellery and ceramics, as well as to host an array of craft-focused classes.
      Hollie Bowden has designed a studio and showroom for CompletedworksThe brand was established in 2013 and up until now, has largely been sold via high-end department stores such as Dover Street Market and Liberty. But founder Anna Jewsbury felt it was time for Completedworks to have its own brick-and-mortar space.
      “We increasingly had clients asking to come and see our pieces in person but felt that we didn’t have a space that felt considered and reflected our vision,” she said. “We wanted people to be able to enter our world and get to know us, and for us to get to know them.”
      Display shelving was crafted from lustrous aluminiumFor the design of the showroom, Jewsbury worked with London-based designer Hollie Bowden, who naturally looked to the brand’s jewellery for inspiration.

      This can be seen for example in the hammered-metal door handles that appear throughout the studio and directly reference the creased design of the gold Cohesion earrings.
      A modular display system in the showroom is clad in lilac linen”[Completedworks] is known for the beauty of the textural surfaces and flowing almost baroque forms,” Bowden explained. “We developed a display language that played off that, with minimal details and strict lines.”
      Almost every surface throughout the studio is washed in beige-toned lime paint, with only a few slivers of the original brick walls and a worn metal column left exposed near the central staircase.

      Hollie Bowden channels the ambience of dimly lit gentlemen’s clubs for London office

      Bowden used brushed aluminium to create a range of display fixtures, including chunky plinths and super-slender shelving units supported by floor-to-ceiling poles.
      The space also houses a couple of angular aluminium counters for packing orders that include discrete storage for boxes and subtle openings, through which tissue paper or bubble wrap can be pulled.
      Shoji-style storage cabinets can be seen in the officeA slightly more playful selection of colours and materials was used for the studio’s custom furnishings.
      In the main showroom, there’s a modular display island sheathed in lilac linen. Meanwhile in the office, designer Byron Pritchard – who is also Bowden’s partner – created a gridded wooden cabinet inlaid with translucent sheets of paper, intended to resemble a traditional Japanese shoji screen.
      Hammered-metal door handles in the studio resemble Completedworks’ earringsThis isn’t Bowden’s first project in London’s affluent Marylebone neighbourhood.
      Previously, the designer created an office for real estate company Schönhaus, decking the space out with dark-stained oak and aged leather to emulate the feel of a gentleman’s club.
      The photography is by Genevieve Lutkin.

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