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    Samsøe Samsøe’s Paris pop-up gallery is a “blank canvas” decorated with clothing artworks

    Danish fashion brand Samsøe Samsøe has launched a pop-up gallery for Paris Fashion Week that features an all-white interior decorated with artwork and furniture made from the brand’s T-shirts.

    The exhibition space was designed to have a pared-down feel in a nod to the brand’s Basic collection, which is launching during the fashion week in the French capital.
    Samsøe Samsøe’s in-house design team created the gallery together with set designer Fatima Fransson to be a “blank canvas” and bring the brand’s vision of “Scandinavian simplicity” to life.
    The minimalist pop-up is located in Paris’ Le Marais area”The overall design is inspired by the way in which our Basic collection is structured,” Samsøe Samsøe art director Jelena Fijan told Dezeen.
    “We took the timeless, long-lasting approach of the product to be central at the space, which gives it a contemporary art gallery feel,” she added.

    “[We wanted] to create a welcoming but abstract feeling for the visitor.”
    It features a central counter covered in white T-shirtsThe resulting space, located in Paris’s Le Marais neighbourhood, has a stark all-white interior punctuated by a central counter partly made from the brand’s clothes.
    “By creating a high-block bar, the installation functions both as an art piece and as a community table for people to connect and talk,” Fijan said.

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    “As this is the central piece in the space, we left some room for the brain to work, and we wanted to create a minimalist and long-lasting feel,” she added.
    The block was made from plywood and epoxy resin, which was then covered in reclaimed T-shirts worn by the Samsøe Samsøe team.
    Grey jumpers were turned into artworks on a concrete backgroundThe space also features artworks made from cashmere knits that were placed in plywood forms layered with a concrete-mixed plaster.
    After Paris Fashion Week ends, the set will be moved to the brand’s headquarters in Copenhagen.
    The space was designed to reference Samsøe Samsøe’s “Scandinavian minimalism”Other fashion stores with a minimalist interior include Swedish brand Toteme’s flagship London store, designed by Halleroed, and Balenciaga’s concrete Berlin store, which references the city’s modernist architecture.
    The photography is courtesy of Samsøe Samsøe.
    The Samsøe Samsøe gallery is located on 16 Rue Caffarelli, 75003 Paris, and will be open 28 February to 3 March. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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    Customers exchange urine for soap at Het Nieuwe Instituut pop-up shop

    Cultural centre Het Nieuwe Instituut is rethinking the archetypal museum shop with a pop-up at Dutch Design Week, designed to encourage more ethical, resource-conscious consumption.

    Instead of offering a straightforward exchange of wares for money, New Store 1.0 gives patrons the opportunity to trade their urine for a piece of Piss Soap and encourages them to place their phones on specially designed fixtures to provide lighting for the venue once the sun goes down.
    Het Nieuwe Instituut has launched its debut pop-up shop at Dutch Design WeekTaking over Residency for the People – a hybrid restaurant and artist residency in Eindhoven – the pop-up also serves up two different versions of the same seabass dish, one made using wild locally caught fish and the other using fish that was industrially farmed and imported.
    The pop-up is the first of two trial runs for the New Store, aimed at helping Rotterdam’s Nieuwe Instituut work out how to design its own museum shop to prioritise positive social and environmental impact over mere financial gain.
    Arthur Guilleminot’s Piss Soap is among the projects on offerIn collaboration with the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) and research consultancy The Seeking State, the second trial will take place at next year’s Milan design week, with the aim to open the first dedicated shop in the museum’s Rotterdam location in 2025.

    “It all started out with the idea that we don’t have a museum shop per se,” Nieuwe Instituut’s programme manager Nadia Troeman told Dezeen. “A museum shop, as we know, has books and trinkets and gadgets. And it’s not really doing well for the planet or the environment.”
    “So we were like, how can we make the act of consuming better? How can we consume differently to help not just ourselves but the environment as well?”
    Visitors are invited to donate their urine via a poster in the toilet. Photo by Jennifer HahnFor the Dutch Design Week (DDW) pop-up, Nieuwe Instituut found the three featured projects by Dutch designers Arthur Guilleminot, Brogen Berwick and Arnout Meijer via an open call.
    The aim was to help the designers trial their ideas for how the exchange of goods could be less extractive and transactional in a real-world scenario.
    This can then be placed on a shelf outside the bathroom. Photo by Tracy Metz”The project is part of a broader institutional agenda of ours to become more of a testing ground,” explained the museum’s director Aric Chen. “It’s part of rethinking the role of cultural institutions as being places that can do more than host debates, discussions and presentations.”
    “So our aim is to take some of these projects that try to think about how we can do less damage, take them out of the graduation shows, take them out of the museum galleries, take them out of the biennales and put them into the real world, with real consumers, audiences and real people to see what we can learn from it,” he continued.

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    Guilleminot used the opportunity to expand his ongoing Piss Soap project, with a poster in the venue’s toilet inviting visitors to donate their pee by relieving themselves into designated cups and discreetly placing them on a newly added shelf outside the bathroom window.
    This can then be exchanged for a piece of soap, made using urine donated by previous participants and other waste materials from human activities such as used cooking oil.
    The soap takes three months to cure and is entirely odourless, helping to break up dirt and grease thanks to the urine’s high ammonia content.
    Those who are eating at the New Store can choose between two kinds of fishThe aim of the project is to find a new application for an underutilised waste material and engage people in a kind of circular urine economy.
    “The idea was to revive the ancient tradition of using pee to make soap, which was done for many centuries, including in ancient Rome,” said Guilleminot.
    “Could I make a modern product using this ingredient and, in the meantime, also change our feelings of disgust about our golden organic liquid?”
    The shop’s interactive lighting fixtures were designed by Arnout MeijerThose having dinner at the New Store can choose between two iterations of the same fish dish.
    The first uses wild seabass that was caught locally by fishers Jan and Barbara Geertsema-Rodenburg in Lauwersoog while the other was farmed in Turkey and imported by seafood market G&B Yerseke.
    Devised by Berwick, who is a design researcher and “occasional fisherwoman”, the project challenges diners to ask themselves whether they are willing to pay the higher price associated with locally caught fish in exchange for its environmental benefits.
    “With the fish, they get a receipt of transparency,” Troeman added. “And one is obviously longer than the other.”
    The shop is open until 29 OctoberDiners were also asked to provide their own illumination as the sun goes down, in a bid to make them aware of our overconsumption of energy and the adverse effects our light pollution has on the natural rhythms of other animals.
    For this purpose, Meijer designed two wall-mounted fixtures inside the New Store that have no internal light source and are simply composed of discarded glass shards topped with wooden shelves made from old beams.
    If they require more light, guests have to place their phone on this ledge with the flashlight on, funnelling light onto the glass shard through a narrow slit in the wood.
    It takes over Eindhoven’s artists’ residency and restaurant Residency for the PeopleThis reflects and refracts light around the space while revealing various crescent moon shapes engraved into the glass in a nod to the circadian rhythm.
    “It’s really about our dependence on the constant supply of energy,” Troeman said. “Can we embrace the dark and hence be more environmentally friendly? It has benefits for everyone and everything.”
    Exploring more circular forms of exchange was also on the agenda at last year’s Dutch Design Week, when designer Fides Lapidaire encouraged visitors to trade their own poo for “shit sandwiches” topped with vegetables that were fertilised with human waste.
    The photography is by Jeph Francissen unless otherwise stated.
    Dutch Design Week 2023 is taking over Eindhoven from 21 to 29 October. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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    Yinka Ilori imbues Courvoisier bar with natural beauty of Cognac region

    A wavy canopy emerges like a fountain from this pop-up cognac bar inside Selfridges in London, designed by local designer Yinka Ilori to mimic the glistening waters of the Charente river in France’s Cognac region.

    The bar belongs to cognac brand Courvoisier and was designed to capture its hometown of Jarnac and the surrounding region, where cognac brandy is made using white grapes from one of six designated “crus” or areas.
    Courvoisier has opened a pop-up bar at SelfridgesIlori wanted to bring this bucolic setting to London’s Selfridges department store, using it to inform the colours and patterns featured throughout the space.
    “I aimed to capture the essence of Jarnac – the warmth of the sun, the rippling of water, the beautiful wildflowers and the natural beauty in the surroundings,” he told Dezeen.
    “The design pays homage to the magic and nature of Jarnac, creating a space that embodies its spirit.”

    The interior was designed by Yinka IloriThe town’s location on the Charente river is the most prominent influence, seen across the pale-blue floors, the sinuous rippling pattern on the walls and, most importantly, in the bar itself.
    Here, a circular counter was topped with a wavy blue canopy that seems to pour out of a central pillar, with the same pattern continuing down onto the base.
    Ilori also designed a limited-edition VSOP bottle for the brand”I wanted people to feel like they were surrounded by water, with it flowing both above and below them, creating a sense of immersion and tranquillity,” Ilori said.
    “The design of the canopy aims to reference the effortless flow of water, making visitors feel as though they are in the midst of a serene river.”
    The bar’s scalloped countertop picks up on the sinuous shape of the waves but provides a colourful contrast thanks to its lacquered red finish.

    Yinka Ilori draws on “unapologetic” architecture of Burkina Faso for debut pop-up shop

    Another reoccurring feature throughout the space is a cartoonish flower shape that nods to Jarnac’s wildflower fields and is found across drinks stands and upholstered benches in the seating area.
    To create a visual connection between the blue waves and the buttercup-coloured flowers, Ilori incorporated a sunset gradient that fades from yellow to soft lilac and envelops several cylindrical display stands as well as the base of the bar.
    “I was struck by the gradients in the sky in Jarnac and wanted to capture this unique visual,” Ilori said.
    A wavy pattern features across the wallsThese three repeated motifs, spanning earth, sky and water, also feature in the limited-edition bottle design that Ilori created for Courvoisier’s Very Superior Old Pale (VSOP) cognac.
    The bottles are available in four different ombre colours and displayed throughout the bar, which will stay open for three weeks until 11 September.
    The same pattern is picked up in the canopy of the barThe project forms part of Ilori’s ongoing collaboration with Courvoisier as the brand’s “ambassador of joy”.
    Last year, the designer created an immersive dining for Courvoisier in New York, designed to transport diners into a surrealist interpretation of Jarnac.
    Ilori’s colourful work is often considered as part of the New London Fabulous movement and includes a colourful skate park in Lille and The Colour Palace pavilion at the London Festival of Architecture.

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    EBBA Architects designs sculptural pop-up shop for Rotaro at Liberty

    London-based studio EBBA Architects has channelled the environmental ethos of fashion rental platform Rotaro for its pop-up boutique at department store Liberty.

    The project aimed to show that beautiful and interesting spaces can be created for temporary use, while still considering the environmental impacts of materials and construction.
    “We are very aware of our environmental impact and we believe design should speak to this, while also trying to make a unique experience for the visitor,” EBBA founder Benjamin Allan told Dezeen.
    EBBA designed a pop-up shop for fashion rental platform Rotaro”Rotaro is all about fashion rental, as a response to waste in the industry,” he added. “Circularity is key to their ethos and we wanted to connect to this, both in the use of material and form.”
    Bringing definition to Rotaro’s space within the wider store, EBBA has demarcated the area with a pair of substantial columns, each with an elongated, semi-circular cross-section.

    “The position and shape of the columns create the sense of walking into an entirely new space within the historic context of Liberty,” said Allan.
    The studio demarcated the area with a pair of substantial columnsEntwining the two columns, a pair of metal rails have the dual function of creating a display area and introducing a sculptural element that further defines the space, with soaring, free-form curves.
    “The two rails rotate and wrap around each of the columns, while also simultaneously responding to the opposite rail, a bit like a choreographed piece,” Allan said.
    Cork is the project’s primary materialContinuing the theme of duality, just two key materials have been used in the space – cork and metal.
    EBBA was influenced by the work of artists Donald Judd and Carl Andre and their elevation of humble materials through detailing and construction.
    A pair of metal rails have a dual function”We always look to push the potential of a project, to make the most impact through the simplest of means and also address the need to be economical,” Allan said.
    “Essentially the design revolves around only two materials which, working together, give a sense of regularity in the layouts of the blocks, combined with the sculptural forms of the rails.”
    Curated garments hang from the railsCork was used as the primary material, cladding the two columns and creating the backdrops that zone Rotaro’s area.
    EBBA aimed to use a material that had an environmental quality, while using the standardisation of the blocks to set parameters for the design.

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    “We chose blocks of a specific dimension that could then be adapted to create both the walls and the columns themselves,” Allan said.
    “The cork is a natural material that has an inherent warmth and depth, while also being incredibly versatile and easily recycled,” he added.
    Texture characterises the pop-up shopBrushed stainless steel was used for the metalwork, with each rail comprised of a single piece of metal that was bent and sculpted to wrap around the columns.
    This rail’s curving form relates to the idea of circularity in Rotaro’s business model, while also bringing an adaptability to the space by allowing the garments to be shown in a variety of ways.
    Brushed stainless steel was used for the metalwork”The primary purpose is to display the continuously updated collection while also adding a sculptural aspect that helps to create a sense of space,” said Allan.
    Within the ornately-detailed Liberty store, the project offers a bold, contemporary response to the interior, while finding common ground with the wider building.
    The rail’s curving form relates to the idea of circularity”The tones and textures in the warmth of the cork, tie in with the timber and natural colours of Liberty’s interior spaces,” Allan said. “Detailing and decoration in the original columns relate to nature and vegetation, which also tie into the use of cork and its qualities.”
    Because the Liberty building has Grade II listed status, no fixings were allowed into the building fabric.
    “The benefit of the lightweight cork material meant we could also adapt the Rotaro space with minimal impact on the wider building,” he added.
    Cork was chosen for being lightweightTo create a plinth that provides a flat surface for displaying objects, EBBA used the same semi-circular form of the columns, but flipped onto its side.
    This element has been given an ultramarine blue coating to add a sense of playfulness and catch the attention of visitors, using one of Rotaro’s key colours to connect with the brand’s identity.
    A semi-circular plinth features an ultramarine blue coatingWhile the space has been designed as a pop-up, EBBA worked – through the quality of the materials and the construction of the walls and blocks – to give it a sense of permanence.
    “All of our projects aim to achieve a quality of permanence through the use of natural materials and the detailing of the construction,” Allan said.
    “We believe that this level of quality helps to create a design that feels purposeful, even for temporary uses.”
    Other recent projects by EBBA Architects include a shop for Cubitts in an old pie-and-mash restaurant and a house extension with brutalist-style materials.
    The photography is by James Retief

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    Kim Kardashian brings poolside vibes to SKIMS swimwear pop-up at Selfridges

    A three-tiered diving board stands next to a metallic palm tree inside this pop-up shop that designer Willo Perron has created for Kim Kardashian’s lingerie brand SKIMS in London.

    The brand’s first physical retail space in the UK, at the Selfridges department store in London, follows the same formula as its debut shop in Paris. Here, surfaces were coated in panels of glossy plastic with gentle thermoformed curves to suggest the shape of the human body.
    SKIMS has opened a swimwear pop-up in SelfridgesBut for this temporary summertime pop-up, Perron abandoned the brand’s typical fleshy colour palette in favour of a pale blue hue reminiscent of a heavily chlorinated swimming pool.
    The resulting plastic panels are so glossy they look almost wet as they form everything from mirror frames and bench seats to wall panels and the shop’s monolithic till counter, which is embossed with the SKIMS logo.
    A three-tiered diving board sculpture forms the centrepiece of the storeA huge replica of a three-levelled diving board stands at the heart of the store, with a stepped base and springboards formed from lengths of the same baby-blue plastic.

    Shiny chrome tubes act as handrails and are repeated throughout the store in the form of gridded partitions and clothing rails, curving around the columns of the Grade II-listed department store.

    Kim Kardashian launches first pop-up SKIMS store in Paris

    Rounding off the poolside atmosphere is a matching metal palm tree sculpture, integrated into the long bench set that runs along the shopfront.
    To display stacks of rolled-up nude-coloured SKIMS towels, Perron also added two smaller freestanding platforms with the same steps and chrome handrails as the diving platform but minus the springboards.
    Thermoformed plastic panels in glossy blue glad most of the interiorTaking over Selfridges’ ground-floor pop-up space The Corner Shop until 8 July 2023, the shop will offer the brand’s core collection of swimsuits and bikinis alongside limited editions and seasonal colourways.
    Customers will also be able to buy ice cream to match their swimwear, stored in baby-blue freezers courtesy of London gelato company Chin Chin Labs.
    A metallic palm tree decorates the store”I’m thrilled to bring SKIMS Swim to London for the first-time ever and take over The Corner Shop at Selfridges with our most conceptual pop-up experience to date,” said SKIMS co-founder and creative director Kim Kardashian.
    “We have followers all over the world,” she added. “As we enter the next phase of SKIMS retail, I look forward to connecting with these customers through innovative shopping experiences on a global scale.”
    A metallic palm tree completes the poolside atmosphereReturning for its second year, SKIMS’s swimwear offering is pitched towards providing various levels of coverage for different body types and modesty requirements.
    This is an extension of the brand’s drive to create inclusive underwear and shapewear that works for people of different sizes and abilities, following the launch of its Adaptive Collection last year.
    Over the next three years, the brand is planning to open a roster of freestanding stores across the UK and EU.

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    Ten pop-up shop interiors featuring memorable designs

    Our first lookbook of 2023 collects 10 pop-up shop interiors from around the world, from a swimming-pool-style store by fashion brand Jacquemus to a playful supermarket stocked with groceries made of felt.

    Pop-up shops are temporary retail spaces created as locations for brands to sell their products, generally installed for only a matter of weeks or months.
    Due to their fleeting nature, these stores often feature statement interior designs to capture the attention of their audiences, especially if their aim is to promote new or limited-edition goods.
    Showcasing a variety of material and colour palettes, here are 10 pop-up shops featured on Dezeen.
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring suspended fireplaces, homes with sliding doors and interiors informed by Bauhaus principles.

    Image courtesy of SelfridgesLe Bleu, UK, by Random Studio and Simon Jacquemus
    Experience design firm Random Studio created a series of pop-up installations at London’s Selfridges department store that served as temporary shops for French fashion label Jacquemus between May and June last year.
    Titled Le Bleu, the surrealist installations included a pale blue tiled space that was informed by swimming pool changing rooms, complete with dark blue lockers and cubicles holding a series of smaller installations within them.
    Find out more about Le Bleu ›
    Photo by Calle HuthA Better Place to Think, Norway, by Snøhetta
    A Better Place to Think was an Oslo pop-up store designed by architecture studio Snøhetta for tablet brand reMarkable, which looked to the tranquility of libraries for its interior design.
    Warm-hued reading lamps positioned on divided wooden desks illuminated curved leather banquettes where visitors were invited to sit and read. A squiggly neon overhead light took cues from the shape and energy of handwriting.
    Find out more about A Better Place to Think ›
    Image courtesy of Lucy SparrowThe Sparrow Mart, USA, by Lucy Sparrow
    Sushi rolls, pork chops and a playful ATM machine all made entirely out of felt featured in a makeshift supermarket installation in Downtown Los Angeles by British artist Lucy Sparrow.
    The Sparrow Mart was stocked with 31,000 purchasable plush renditions of grocery staples, which were arranged along aisles in colourful rows that took cues from 1980s American supermarkets.
    “As a child, I was obsessed with the exotic, turbo-charged technicolour glow emanating from across the Atlantic,” the artist told Dezeen.
    Find out more about The Sparrow Mart ›
    Photo by Gray HamnerSKKN pop-up shop, USA, by Perron-Roettinger
    Design studio Perron-Roettinger adopted a minimalist colour and material palette when creating the first pop-up shop for SKKN, Kim Kardashian’s skincare and homeware brand.
    Located in a Los Angeles shopping mall until the end of last year, the store’s curved alcoves and sculptural counters were clad in raw plaster and cement, which acted as shelving for the reality TV star’s pared-back products.
    Kardashian opened another pop-up shop in 2021 to promote her underwear brand SKIMS, featuring glossy display units designed by Willo Perron.
    Find out more about this SKKN pop-up store ›
    Photo by Jasper FryMugler Bodyscape, UK, by Random Studio
    Random Studio recently dressed the interior of Corner Shop, Selfridges’ ever-changing retail space, with chrome-effect fragments designed to mimic women’s body parts. The pieces formed an installation celebrating 30 years of fashion brand Mugler’s fragrances.
    Called Bodyscape, the striking large-scale fragments were made from painted wood, while a drop-shaped sculptural centrepiece dispensed Mugler scent intermittently, and also produced undulating lighting when visitors approached it.
    “Seen from the street, the sculptural installation forms an abstract side view of a woman elegantly reclining,” said Random Studio.
    Find out more about Bodyscape ›
    Photo by Benoit FlorençonTiffany & Co pop-up shop, France, by OMA
    Pieces from jeweller Tiffany & Co’s 185-year history are currently on display at a pop-up shop in Paris designed by architecture studio OMA, which will be edited throughout this year until its dismantling in May.
    The labyrinthine store includes a dramatic blue rotunda showcasing designs from Tiffany’s extensive archive, which are encased within pyramidal glass plinths mirrored by gigantic images of the jewellery – blown up to give visitors a closer look at the pieces’ delicate features.
    Find out more about this Tiffany & Co pop-up shop ›
    Photo by Jonathan HökkloSelf-Portrait pop-up shop, USA, by Storey Studio
    Luxury fashion brand Self-Portrait showcased its ready-to-wear Autumn Winter 2019 collection at a New York pop-up store in the city’s SoHo neighbourhood designed by Storey Studio.
    An immersive setting was created by hanging drapes of translucent pink-and-white lace that the studio attached to a concentric circular wooden structure, while suspended tubes of LED lighting illuminated the interior.
    Find out more about this Self-Portrait pop-up store ›
    Photo courtesy of Axel Arigato”Upside-down” Axel Arigato pop-up shop, UK, by Avoir
    Axel Arigato footwear is currently for sale at this “upside-down” pop-up shop in Selfridges, designed for the streetwear brand by French studio Avoir to recall an inverted office.
    Trainers fitted with magnets stick to the walls of the space, which features familiar polystyrene grid ceilings and other office-like materials such as strip lighting and exposed wires.
    “The concept was to flip the script both physically and figuratively on what customers expect from a pop-up, turning all elements upside down through an industrial office lens in which the ceiling becomes the floor and vice versa,” said Axel Arigato.
    Find out more about this “upside-down” pop-up shop ›
    Photo by GlossierGlossier pop-up shop, USA, by Studio Lily Kwong
    Landscape designer Lily Kwong looked to the topography of Capitol Hill, Seattle, to create a local pop-up shop for beauty brand Glossier.
    Conceived in collaboration with Glossier, the store contained moss-topped mounds referencing rolling hills and covered with the region’s native plants.
    Pink and purple accents featured throughout the space and nodded to the brand’s brightly coloured make-up collection, which was displayed on white plinths.
    Find out more about this Glossier pop-up shop ›
    Photo by Topia VisionFatface Coffee, China, by Baicai
    Fatface Coffee was a pop-up coffee shop designed by architecture studio Baicai and presented for a month at Shenyang’s Window Gallery in China.
    The focal point was 300 forest-green beer crates forming a central rectilinear bar and cork-seated stools – an installation that intended to blend the city’s fondness for beer with a local coffee culture that is emerging.
    Bacicai opted for this central seating area to create an open space encouraging free circulation and challenged the conventional floor plan of a cafe.
    Find out more about Fatface Coffee ›
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring suspended fireplaces, homes with sliding doors and interiors informed by Bauhaus principles.

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    Random Studio creates “giant fragments of a woman's body” for Mugler pop-up

    Dutch design studio Random Studio has created Bodyscape, a “futuristic” pop-up store, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of French fashion brand Mugler’s fragrances.

    The Mugler installation, which was designed for luxury department store Selfridges, includes sculptural, chrome-effect fragments designed to evoke a woman’s body. These were organised across the ground floor of the Corner Shop, an ever-changing retail pop-up space.
    The pop-up was created to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mugler’s fragrance”For Mugler, we had dreamt up Bodyscape; a giant sculptural installation of a woman reclining, fragments of her body parts breaking the space up into a cluster of retail experiences,” said Random Studio.
    “Amplifying the brand’s surreal fascination with the female body, the hyper-feminised curves, crevices and folds of the installation were to be accentuated by a futuristic reflective material.”
    Sculptural fragments of a woman’s body were installed in the Corner ShopThroughout the space, sculptural fragments were used as walls, partitions and display areas that aim to take visitors on a journey through the chrome-effect-finished body. The interior walls of the shell-like fragments were painted in Mugler’s signature blue hue.

    Pieces of the sculptural body, which Random Studio explained mimicked the form of a woman reclining, were displayed in full view along the street-facing windows of the Corner Shop.
    It was constructed in collaboration with Xylotek”Seen from the street, the sculptural installation forms an abstract side view of a woman elegantly reclining,” said the studio.
    “The curves, crevices and folds of the body are rendered in a reflective material that mirrors the viewer’s gaze, throwing back a distorted image – a nod to Mugler’s sense of humour and seduction.”

    Jacquemus creates surrealist interpretation of his own bathroom for Selfridges pop-up

    Instead of opting to use easily manufactured but less sustainable materials such as fibreglass or metal, Random Studio collaborated with Bristol-based timber company Xylotek to construct the installation using wood.
    Xylotek manufactured the shell-like structures, which were painted across the exterior and interior with a metal-effect finish rather than “higly-toxic” chrome.
    This was done so that the paint could eventually be stripped off and the wood recycled.
    The structures were painted blue and silverThe centrepiece of the installation, encased by the chest and buttocks of the fragmented body, is a drop-shaped object that releases a cloud of fragrance and triggers starry lighting as visitors near it.
    “A polyphonic soundscape of siren-esque voices coaxes visitors into the space and towards a scent sculpture, illuminated by undulating lights,” said Random Studio.
    “As the visitor approaches the drop-like structure, the lights intensify and the sculpture emits a short burst of fragrance whilst a projection lights up the space with stars which slowly transforms into the abstract shapes of heavenly bodies.”
    The curving walls guide visitors through the pop-upEarlier this year, Random Studio designed a series of surrealist pop-up installations at Selfridges for fashion brand Jacquemus that included a luxury-bag vending machine and a swimming-pool changing room.
    Also at Selfridges, trainer brand Axel Arigato created an “upside-down” office-themed pop-up with wall-mounted trainers and polystyrene ceiling tiles across the floor.
    The photography is by Jasper Fry.

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    Yinka Ilori draws on “unapologetic” architecture of Burkina Faso for debut pop-up shop

    Modular display stands modelled on buildings in Burkina Faso feature in the first brick-and-mortar shop that London-based designer Yinka Ilori has created for his self-titled homeware brand.

    Taking over a compact retail space in Shoreditch in the leadup to Christmas, the pop-up shop features a colour-block interior designed to match the products on sale, as slime-green walls clash with pink and orange flooring.
    Yinka Ilori has opened a pop-up shop in LondonThis “more is more” philosophy to colour also extends onto the store’s glossy lacquered product displays, designed by Ilori to reference the construction of mosques and homes in Burkina Faso.
    “I am really obsessed with their design language which is very African, very rich and very unapologetic,” he told Dezeen.
    “There is a recurring use of squares and triangles and you sometimes also see poles sticking out of the structures. I found these poles fascinating. They are structural but also used to make it easy for people to climb up and repair the building.”

    Products are displayed in modular colour-block storage unitsIn the store, these shapes are reflected in the modular storage units, which are constructed from medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and each topped with a stepped pyramid.
    Strategically placed holes can be used much like those on a pegboard to add poles of different sizes and provide storage for a changing array of products.
    Longer rails can be slotted in to hang T-shirts and throws, while smaller pegs can hold umbrellas or prop up shelves for presenting mugs, notebooks and other lifestyle items.
    The units end in stepped pyramidsBulkier items such as the designer’s collection of tableware and limited-edition basketballs are displayed on counters panelled in ribbed MDF that is sprayed in a gradient of colours to emphasise their sinuous shapes.
    At the store’s entrance, six of Ilori’s hand-painted Square Stools are arranged into a towering window display that shows off their stackability.

    “I use colour as a way of starting a conversation” says designer Yinka Ilori

    The opening of the pop-up also coincides with Ilori’s latest product drop. Themed around “memory-making, togetherness and play”, this includes everything from notebooks and basketballs finished in sunny, childlike patterns to a collectible version of the traditional Yoruban strategy game Ayo.
    In line with this idea, the shop will also host different events for the local community, from an Ayo tournament to a tasting of Nigerian palm wine.
    The counters have slatted legs painted in a gradient of coloursOpening his first physical store is “an absolute dream come true”, Ilori said.
    “My public projects are all about interaction both between audiences and with the work itself but I don’t often get to interact directly with people and I feel it’s time for me to do that,” he added.
    “Through the store, I’m able to get their feedback on my work and also see how they interact with each of the products and the stories I’m trying to tell through these pieces.”
    The shop’s floor was finished in a vibrant colourIlori started his homeware brand in 2020 with the aim of reworking “unexpected, functional household items as artworks” by imbuing them with bold colours and patterns that reference his British-Nigerian heritage.
    The products feature many of the same patterns he previously developed for his large-scale installations, such as The Colour Palace pavilion he created for the London Festival of Architecture together with local studio Pricegore.

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