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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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    Perron-Roettinger clads Kim Kardashian SKKN pop-up store in raw plaster and cement

    Design studio Perron-Roettinger has created a pop-up shop for Kim Kardashian’s skincare and homeware brand SKKN in Los Angeles that showcases its products in a physical space for the first time.

    The minimalist pop-up store, which is located inside Los Angeles shopping mall Westfield Century City, was designed using a limited material palette in a nod to the brand’s pared-back design.
    Perron-Roettinger has created a pop-up shop for Skkn”The SKKN [store] is about raw materials – bold, big blocks of stacked raw material – which is inspired from an inactive quarry that I visited once,” Perron-Roettinger cofounder Willo Perron told Dezeen.
    “All different plaster and cement finishes echo the emphasis on the raw natural materials.”
    The walls and counters are made from concrete and plasterIn the 1,330-square-foot (123 square-metre) space, homeware and skincare products are presented within curved wall alcoves or on top of sculptural counters made from grey concrete and plaster. The room is framed by two large portrait photos of reality television star Kardashian.

    “Just in time for the holiday season, the pop-up will offer customers a luxurious in-person shopping experience with the entire SKKN By Kim collection – from skincare to home decor,” said the brand.
    Skincare items are displayed in alcovesThe use of raw materials references Perron’s partner Brian Roettinger’s packaging for SKKN products, as well as Kardashian’s recently launched concrete homeware collection called Home Accessories Collection.
    All the materials come in varying shades of Kardashian’s signature beige and grey colour palette, which she has used in her home and her shapewear collections.

    Kim Kardashian launches first pop-up SKIMS store in Paris

    According to Perron, the brand’s packaging and the store interior are united in their reliance on simple shapes and raw materials.
    “The throughline idea is materials untouched, most primary and elemental state,” he explained. “Simple geometry is important to add a recognizable component to both the space and the packaging.”
    Perron–Roettinger was also responsible for SKKN’s creative direction, brand identity and art direction.
    The store mirrors the brand’s minimalist packagingThe SKKN pop-up shop is open until the end of the year in Westfield Century City, Los Angeles.
    The longtime collaboration between designer Willo Perron and Kim Kardashian has seen Perron design other pop-up stores for the American reality star’s brands.
    For Kardashian’s shapewear company Skims, Perron created a beige coloured pop-up shop in Paris with chunky display units and partitions.
    Los-Angeles based Perron-Roettinger has also completed other pop-up shops for brands including Stüssy.
    The photography is by Gray Hamner.

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    Three hundred beer crates form furnishings of Shenyang's Fatface Coffee shop

    Bottle-green beer crates are stacked to construct a long counter and matching stools in this pop-up coffee shop in Shenyang, China, designed by architecture practice Baicai.

    Installed in the city’s Window Gallery for a month, the pop-up shop belongs to local cafe Fatface Coffee. Its interior makes use of 300 beer cases to create a central bar and stools with cork seat pads.
    Shenyang’s Fatface Coffee pop-up uses beer crates as furnitureShortlisted in the small interiors category of the 2022 Dezeen Awards, the design hopes to merge Shenyang’s love of beer with its emerging coffee culture.
    “Shenyang is a city beaming with a love for beer,” local studio Bacai explained. “The city’s fondness for beer is expressed in its popularity across the streets and its ever-presence in the daily converse of the residents.”
    “How can the coffee culture respond to the city’s attachment to beer? This pop-up shop aspires to explore the energising dynamics between the two seemingly opposite cultures.”

    Cork was used to form seat pads for the stoolsThe studio says it chose to work with beer crates as they are economical, modular, reusable and help to create a strong visual identity inside the Fatface Coffee shop.
    Custom-made cork seat pads sit on top of the beer cases to form the stools, while a glass panel was cut into shape to create the bar’s countertop.

    Sik Mul Sung

    “The strategy explores the endless possibilities of what a beer case could be: a bar counter, seating of various heights, an exhibition stage or a screen to hide the frameworks for water and electricity,” said Baicai.
    “The project experiments with the confluence between beer and coffee, bridging meaningful dialogues between what is local and what is imported.”
    The bar counter is topped with a glass sheetFatface Coffee’s large central bar was designed to challenge the conventional floor plan of a cafe, and according to Baicai creates a more open, democratic space where baristas and guests can circulate freely.
    Other projects shortlisted in the small interiors category at this year’s Dezeen Awards include a yellow attic conversion in Antwerp and a serene timber and travertine reading room in Shanghai by Atelier Tao+C.
    The photography is by Topia Vision.

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    Axel Arigato opens “upside-down” pop-up sneaker shop in Selfridges

    Trainers injected with magnets climb the walls and polystyrene ceiling tiles line the floor of Axel Arigato’s “upside-down” office-themed sneaker pop-up in London’s Selfridges department store.

    Installed in Selfridge’s first-floor menswear department for 12 months, the topsy-turvy pop-up store is a departure from the stone displays and pared-back colour palette ordinarily associated with the Swedish streetwear label’s retail environments.
    The Axel Arigato shop-in-shop is located in SelfridgesInstead, the design team conceived the store as an upside-down office featuring all of the typical, run-of-the-mill materials and fixtures that you would expect to find in an office, such as ceiling tiles, strip lighting, corrugated metal, exposed wires, pipes and steel beams but all installed to create the impression of being upside down.
    Typical polystyrene grid ceiling tiles are installed across the floor, while shiny vinyl floor tiles are used on the ceiling.
    It was themed around an upside-down office interiorThe sneakers, which include the latest season and popular carry-over footwear silhouettes, are injected with magnets and stuck to the wall while customer’s receipts are dispensed from behind a set of elevator doors that open at the touch of a button.

    “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 the brand, calling the pop-up its most “ambitious and boundary-pushing” to date.

    Bum-shaped sculptures feature in Axel Arigato’s brutalist Copenhagen flagship

    The endeavour was facilitated by British footwear retailer, Kurt Geiger, who provides the footwear offer for Selfridges.
    The store is a continuation of the brand’s co-founder and creative director Max Svärdh’s mission to disrupt the traditional retail module. A digitally native business, Axel Arigato began its life online in 2014, opening its first physical store in London’s Soho in 2016.
    Metal lines the walls of the shop-in-shopFrom the beginning, the brand elevated the status of its products to art by displaying them on plinths in the centre of the store like pieces of sculpture. The concept was in contrast to other sneaker brands at the time, which typically displayed as many shoes as possible across shop walls.
    The brand’s permanent stores are also distinguished by the use of monolithic blocks of stone. In Paris, goods are displayed on blocks of travertine, concrete in Copenhagen and terrazzo in London.
    The photography is courtesy of Axel Arigato.

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    OMA designs Tiffany & Co pop-up in Paris to take visitors on a “journey across time”

    Architecture studio OMA has created a pop-up shop for Tiffany & Co in Paris that showcases an assortment of pieces from the jeweller’s 185-year history.

    The pop-up is located in the eighth arrondissement and functions as a cross between a boutique and an exhibition, spotlighting Tiffany pieces from both past and present.
    Visitors enter the Tiffany & Co pop-up in Paris through a blue rotunda”Tiffany & Co has a rich history both in making jewellery and in product design,” said OMA partner Ellen van Loon. “For us, it was important to showcase that history.”
    “More than an occasion to discover Tiffany’s latest collection, a visit to the store also becomes a journey across time.”
    The room displays archival jewellery piecesUpon entering the store, visitors walk into a deep-blue rotunda where Tiffany & Co is showcasing some of its archival jewellery designs.

    The pieces are presented within wall niches or inside pyramidal glass cases that sit on chunky plinths. Tall screens display blown-up imagery of the designs so visitors can take a look at their finer details.
    A gold-toned room showcases Tiffany’s current jewellery collectionA short corridor takes visitors through to a gold-toned room, where Tiffany & Co’s current collection is put on show. At the periphery of the space, a small seating nook provides a place to rest alongside a couple of pale-pink armchairs and poufs.
    The room is anchored by an antique stained-glass pendant light that echoes the lamps designed by Tiffany & Co’s first design director Louis Comfort Tiffany in the early 1900s.
    In keeping with this theme, faux stained-glass panelling was also added to the pop-up’s facade.
    Stained-glass lamps and pink soft furnishings decorate the spaceA velvet-lined archway looks through to the shop’s final room, where high-jewellery appointments are held.
    This smaller, more intimate space features faceted metallic walls and powder-blue carpet that, in an ombre effect, gradually deepens to a darker blue as visitors make their way back to the front of the store.
    A consultation room lies at the rear of the pop-up shopTiffany & Co’s Paris pop-up will be open until May 2023 and will be subtly updated throughout the year to reflect the brand’s new collections as they are put on display.
    OMA is also currently working on a major renovation of the jewellery brand’s flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue. The project will see a three-storey glass volume added to the building’s roof, providing space for exhibitions and events.
    The photography is by Benoit Florençon, courtesy of OMA.
    Project credits:
    Design: OMAPartner: Ellen van LoonProject architect: Giulio MargheriTeam: Jacopo Bellina, Sebastian Bernardy, Miguel Herreras San José, Mateusz Kiercz, Philippe Le Quellec, Mingda Zhang

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

    French fashion designer Simon Jacquemus has opened a series of surrealist pop-up installations at London department store Selfridges, including a luxury-bag vending machine and a swimming-pool changing room.

    Titled Le Bleu, the installation occupies a number of locations across the store, including its creative retail space The Corner Shop and the Old Selfridges Hotel, a former hotel space that is now being used as a pop-up venue.
    The pop-up installations are located in and around Selfridges on Oxford StreetThe Corner Shop, which functions as the installation’s main retail space, features pale blue tiles blanketed across its interior. In its window, a large transparent tube of toothpaste spills ribbons of red and white gel.
    An oversized bathtub, sponges, shower facilities and sinks were also installed in the space, where they function as display areas for a selection of exclusive Jacquemus products and pieces from the brand’s Spring Summer 2022 collection.
    An oversized glass with a fizzing tablet is among the designsThe pop-up spaces were designed as a “surrealist reimagining of Jacquemus founder Simon Jacquemus’ very own bathroom,” Selfridges said.

    “I wanted to create crazy and unrealistic installations, all related to water and bathroom imagery,” said Jacquemus, founder of the eponymous brand.
    The designer was inspired to create one of the installations, an oversized glass, after seeing a tablet fizzing in a glass of water.
    “I also love how the giant tablet glass would also be very ‘eye calming’, a kind of visual ASMR installation in the middle of the Corner Shop,” he said.
    A 24-hour vending titled 24/24 is located behind the storeOn Edwards Mews behind Selfridges, a life-sized vending machine stocked with exclusive editions of the brand’s Chiquito and Bambino bags can be accessed for shopping 24 hours a day.
    A large circular opening marks the entrance to the space, a square room lined with five-by-five rows of bags and accessories displayed in oversized, deep blue-hued vending machines.
    Le Bleu includes three installationsAt the Old Selfridges Hotel, the final pop-up – a sensory installation titled Le Vestiaire – references swimming-pool changing rooms.
    Visitors are greeted by the now-familiar blue tiles, which cover the walls, floor and furniture of the space.

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    A curved welcome desk was positioned in front of a tile-clad wall that holds a collection of rolled-up towels.
    Blue lockers and changing cubicles line the walls at the rear of the space and include “3D experiences” that draw on the iconography of surrealist French filmmaker Jacques Tati.
    It follows a number of installations that have taken place across Europe’s fashion capitals”Each experience is very different and playful, but my favourite would be Le Vestiaire, as it’s the first time we have invested in a space like this, with 3D experiences and crazy installations with our Jacquemus products,” said Jacquemus.
    “I wanted to recreate an accumulation of lockers with different 3D experiences inside, inspired by Jacques Tati movies.”
    Smaller installations were incorporated within the interior of lockers and behind cubicle doorsThe three pop-up installations are open from 3 May until 4 June 2022.
    The installation is the latest edition of a series of Jacquemus’ vending machine pop-ups located across Europe’s fashion capitals, including Milan and Paris.
    It was inspired by Jacques Tati filmsIn 2019, Jacquemus designed a Parisian restaurant named Oursin that featured whitewashed walls, colourful ceramics and rattan furnishings in an effort to “perpetuate summer”.
    French fashion brand Balenciaga recently transformed its Mount Street store into a temporary faux fur lined pop-up dedicated to its Le Cagole line.
    Images are courtesy of Selfridges.

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