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  • New York clothing store Nanamica is designed like a Japanese house

    Woodwork form the frame of a gabled house inside this clothing store in New York designed by Japanese architect Taichi Kuma.

    Tokyo-based Kuma designed the store cn the city’s Soho neighbourhood for Japanese clothing brand Nanamica.

    Large mirrors reflect the gabled structure
    Marking its second outpost following another in Tokyo, the store was designed to draw on the brand’s Nanamica, which means house of seven seas. Working with the brand founder, Eiichiro Hommam, Kuma developed the interior design to take cues from a Japanese beach house.

    Shelving is made from matching wood
    The aim is to express “the free and relaxed feeling of the seaside, but with a distinctly Japanese aesthetic sensibility meaning the true highlight is the nanamica products”, according to the brand.

    Shelving and clothing rails tucked outside the wood frame
    A key part of this is a series of gabled structures made from light oak that are intended to outline a house. The frame is slightly smaller that the store to leave space on the outside for shelving for handbags and plants, and clothing rails built on the walls made out of matching wood.
    Wooden shelving for clothing and benches for customers to relax are also arranged inside the house-like structure. The free-standing shelving is backed by a translucent, recycled corrugated plastic matching the wall of the material at the front of the store and the rear, where it shields changing rooms placed behind.

    Corrugated plastic shields changing rooms at the rear
    Two large mirrors are placed on columns that protrude into the space creating the illusion of more room. White spotlighting is arranged along the top of the gable running down the middle of the space.
    Kuma and Hommam stripped back the initial space to create Nanamica New York, creating a bare backdrop for the simple intervention. Walls and ceiling beams are painted white, while the floor is polished concrete.

    Nanamica is located on Wooster Street
    Other recently completed stores in New York City include ONS Clothing store, which features a stage with a green curtain for hosting events, and Los Angeles clothing brand Lunya’s space in Nolita, which takes cues from “upscale New York” apartments.

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  • Linehouse uses typically urban materials inside Xiamen's JNBY store

    Concrete, steel and fluted glass merge inside this shop that design studio Linehouse has created for fashion brand JNBY in Xiamen, China.Chinese cities were a key point of reference for Linehouse, which has decked out JNBY’s Xiamen store with materials often seen in dense urban settings – concrete, glass and steel.
    The interior aesthetic of this JNBY store will be rolled out across all of the brand’s future locations in China – one branch has already opened in Chengdu, and another is set to open in Changsha.

    The JNBY store features a coffered concrete ceiling
    The ceiling of the 100-square-metre store is entirely covered with concrete coffers. Each one is bordered by bright-white LED strip lights.

    A curved, steel-frame screen inset with panels of fluted glass runs around the periphery of the space, set back from the structural walls. The partition balances on chunky cylindrical blocks made from recycled concrete pavement.

    Panels of fluted glass form a screen around the edge of the store
    The urban materiality of the store is interrupted by a couple of ceramic display stands, which Linehouse formed by wrapping convex tiles around steel poles that extend from the floor to the ceiling.
    Some of the stands have been fitted with a metal ring where garments can be hung, while others have small shelves where accessories can be put on show.

    The screen’s glass panels are held within a steel framework
    Convex tiles also clad the front of JNBY’s service counter. When viewed up close, customers will be able to see a myriad of cracks, which Linehouse made visible by adding Chinese ink into the tiles’ glaze.

    John Anthony restaurant by Linehouse is “British tea hall turned Chinese canteen”

    The sculptural bases of the store’s low-lying display tables are made from grainy wood or concrete that the studio has cast against pieces of fabric.

    Convex tiles with subtle cracks clad the store’s service counter
    “The brand sought a modern approach to capture its core values, focusing on material exploration while guiding urban dwellers in appreciating the surprise and poetry of everyday life,” explained Linehouse.
    “So we wanted to contrast the urban represented by the concrete, steel and textured glass with the notion of crafted imperfection represented in the ceramic and timber detailing… they have the qualities of the handmade; variation and contrast.”

    The same tiles form a couple of vertical display stands
    Linehouse was established in 2013 by Alex Mok and Briar Hickling, and works between offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
    The austere material palette of the JNBY store in Xiamen is a far cry from the studio’s recently completed project, Basehall – an upscale food court in Hong Kong. Inside, the venue features walls lined with pink-metal rods, brass light fittings and a blue metalwork ceiling.
    Photography is by Dirk Weiblen.
    Project credits:
    Architect: LinehouseDesign lead: Alex Mok, Briar HicklingDesign team: Cherngyu Chen, Jingru Tong, Celine Chung

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  • Sella Concept brings retro feel to Sister Jane Townhouse in London

    Fringed furnishings and velvet walls feature inside the west London headquarters that design studio Sella Concept has created for fashion brand Sister Jane, which includes a showroom, restaurant and roof terrace.Sella Concept said it drew upon “untapped maximalist style” to design Sister Jane Townhouse, which takes over a prominent corner property on Golborne Road in the affluent neighbourhood of Notting Hill.
    Having outgrown their old studio on the nearby Portobello Road, the fashion brand had been keen to move into a larger space that could offer a more immersive retail experience.

    The ground floor of Sister Jane Townhouse has a restaurant called Cha Cha’s
    The three-storey townhouse incorporates a restaurant, a showroom and an office where employees can plan and design future clothing collections. On the roof there is also an outdoor terrace where visitors can gather for drinks.

    When it came to developing the interiors, Sella Concept sought to reflect the retro style of Sister Jane’s billowy blouses and dresses. The studio’s co-founder, Tatjana Von Stein, particularly found herself referencing the aesthetics of the 1970s.

    Furnishings in the restaurant feature fringed detailing
    “I must admit that I am always inspired by the ’70s forms, shapes and use of space,” Von Stein told Dezeen.
    “There is a movement and warmth in its design history that I love to employ with a contemporary twist.”

    A collage wall in the restaurant displays campaign photos by Sister Jane
    On the ground floor of Sister Jane Townhouse is the restaurant, called Cha Cha’s, which serves up a roster of Latin-fusion brunch dishes.
    The space has peach-coloured walls and is dominated by a huge hexagonal, brass-edged bar counter. It’s surrounded by a series of Deja Vu stools by Masquespacio that boast tiers of mauve, cream and beige fringing.

    Sister Jane’s clothing showroom is on the townhouse’s first floor
    Fringing also skirts the burnt-orange seating banquette that winds around a corner of the room, and runs along the edge of the six-sided dining tables. Mustard-yellow lamps with fringed shades have additionally been dotted throughout as decor.
    Cha Cha’s includes a collage wall which will be plastered with different striking images from Sister Jane’s fashion campaigns.
    The wall runs directly beside a brass-tread staircase – the steps had previously been closed in by a partition wall, but Von Stein knocked this down to encourage diners to explore the showroom on the first floor.

    Garments hang from bespoke walnut rails in the showroom
    Upstairs in the showroom, surfaces take on a pinkish hue.
    Some clothes are displayed within a veiled pod that sits at the centre of the room, enclosed by sheer white curtains. Other garments hang from custom-made walnut rails or are presented on mannequins which perch on a curvaceous platform covered in teal-blue carpet.

    An adjacent showroom will display Sister Jane’s Ghospell clothing line
    A short walkway leads through to a room that showcases Sister Jane’s Ghospell line, which offers pared-back clothes with sculptural silhouettes.
    This space has aptly been given a slightly more minimal finish – walls here are either clad in steel or upholstered with buttery yellow velvet, while the changing room is entirely lined with mirrored panels.
    Wooden flooring that runs throughout the rest of the townhouse has also been replaced here by micro cement.

    Walls in this showroom are clad in steel and yellow velvet
    Above the showrooms are the offices for Sister Jane staff, followed by the roof terrace dressed with comfy cushioned benches and green wire-frame chairs.
    Guests can alternatively relax in the secret ground-floor garden room, which is accessed via a door disguised as an antique armoire.

    The customer changing room is entirely lined with mirrored panels
    “We have a true inclination for concept spaces which indulge in all the senses and offer the design challenge to seam together a variety of experiences and brands,” explained Von Stein.
    “But it was tricky – in essence, we had 2-3 clients on one building.”

    An antique armoire hides a door leading to Sister Jane Townhouse’s secret garden room
    Sella Concept was established by Tatjana Von Stein and Gayle Noonan. Previous projects by the studio include Public Hall, a plush co-working space that occupies the former office of the UK secret intelligence service, and Night Tales, a pink-tinged cocktail bar.
    At the end of last year the studio also debuted its first furniture collection, which comprises a series of curvaceous stool seats.
    Photography is by Genevieve Lutkin.

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  • O shop in Chengdu is a lifestyle store by day and a bar by night

    A series of mirrored panels obscure the cocktail bar that lies inside this shop-cum-cafe in Chengdu, China created by design studio Office AIO.The shop, which is unusually called O, was named by its owner and the co-founder of Office AIO, Tim Kwan.

    Taking the first letter from the word “object”, Kwan and the shop owner felt that O was the “perfect shape representing eternity – it has no beginning nor end, no direction nor a right way round”.

    The looping shape of the letter O also nods to the shifting function of the 68-square-metre shop: by day it’s a cafe that sells and showcases a curated selection of lifestyle items and designer furnishings, while at night it turns into a bar.

    Down one side of the shop runs a lengthy sandstone counter where the cafe’s coffee machine is kept. Just in front is a long wooden table where the barista can prepare drink orders.
    The base of the counter has been in-built with a fireplace, which can be switched on as night falls to evoke a cosier mood within the store.

    On the other side of the store is a silver-metal shelf where products are displayed and a row of fold-down seats upholstered in tan leather.

    Chengdu cafe features interiors inspired by Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel

    The rear of the store appears to be lined with mirrored panels, but these can be drawn back to reveal the night-time drinks bar. Liquor bottles line the inner side of the panels.

    Surfaces throughout the rest of shop O have otherwise been kept simple. A patchy band of exposed concrete runs around the lower half of the walls, but off-white paint has been applied to the upper half.
    Interest is added by a handful of potted plants and a sequence of arched screens that have been suspended just beneath the ceiling.

    The last screen has been fitted with an LED strip light that can be adjusted to imbue the space with different colours.
    “[The screens] bring a sense of character to the store without occupying any footprint,” explained the studio.
    “We hope that this space will encourage quality ideas, objects, and people to interact and exchange, and ultimately reach a wholesome experience that is objectively desirable,” it concluded.

    O by Office AIO is longlisted in the small retail interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
    It isn’t the first day-to-night venue that the studio has created – two years ago it completed Bar Lotus in Shanghai, which boasts emerald-coloured walls and rippling rose-gold ceilings. The project won the restaurant and bar interior category of the 2019 Dezeen Awards, when judges commended its mix of contemporary and traditional references.
    Photography is courtesy of WEN Studio.
    Project credits:
    Designed by: Tim Kwan/Office AIOConstruction: Sichuan ChuFeng Architectural Decoration

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  • Clothing racks move along wheeled tracks in Los Angeles athletic store Reigning Champ

    Vancouver studio Peter Cardew has designed this store in Los Angeles for an athletic wear clothing company to allude to the aesthetic of a gym.The Reigning Champ store at 115 South La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles features walls covered in white glazed tiles, concrete floors and wooden clothing rails – simple materials chosen by Peter Cardew to follow the style of a gymnasium.

    “In order to connect the customer with the product the design of the Los Angeles store obliquely alludes to the domain of a gym, providing an harmonious setting appropriate for the display of athletic clothing,” the studio explained.

    “The choice of materials reinforces the relationship to sporting activity with the use of functional and utilitarian white glazed tile as wall and bench surfaces, polished concrete floors, and display fixtures fabricated using western hemlock, a plentiful economic wood with a straight grain efficiency,” it added.
    “All culminating to convey a functional place of activity akin to any effective sporting milieu.”

    Piles of folded clothes are stored in the base of the wooden clothing racks that are suspended on rails from the ceiling.
    The wooden structures, which are braced with metalwork, have wheels fitted the top of the wooden structures so they can be easily moved around the store.

    “In keeping with this active rather than passive environment the display fixtures are infinitely mobile being suspended from concrete beams attached to wheeled tracks which easily allows for changing seasonal configurations,” the studio added.

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    “In addition, to facilitate yet more changes these fixtures are simply bolted together so that they can be removed for special events, celebrations, or exhibitions.”

    Photograph by Andrew Latreille
    The materiality continues into the changing rooms, whose doors feature an opening with a built-in wooden shelf so customers can swap clothes with Reigning Champ salespeople.
    Reigning Champ spans the ground floor of its building with two large windows offering views and natural light into the space.

    The project, which is longlisted in the large retail interior category of Dezeen Awards 2020, marks the first in the US for the Canadian clothing brand. It is its fifth in total following two in Vancouver and two in Toronto.
    Other shops recently completed in Los Angeles include a marijuana dispensary Commune designed to be airy and luxurious, and a dramatically narrow, runway-like space Bernard Dubois designed as the first store for sneaker brand APL.
    Photography is by Mike Kelly, unless stated otherwise.

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  • Virgil Abloh and AMO design flexible flagship Off-White store in Miami that “can host a runway show”

    Fashion designer Virgil Abloh and AMO director Samir Bantal have designed the Off-White flagship store in Miami Design District to be a fulfilment centre and a multipurpose events space. Abloh, who owns the brand Off-White, and Bantal, director of architecture firm OMA’s research arm AMO, designed the store to rethink how physical shops should operate amid the growing popularity of digital shopping.

    “We’re niche entities, AMO, Off-White, Samir and myself, so we’re able to sort of wear our heart on our sleeve or our brain on our sleeve,” Abloh told Dezeen. “The first slide that Samir sent for the development was like, is shopping relevant?”

    “If we’re able to kind of fulfil our needs by ordering a lot of things online, what’s the role of a physical store?,” Bantal added.

    The idea is that the store is flexible, according to Abloh, who citied the annual Art Basel and Design Miami events that take place in Miami as examples of when it could be used to host a variety of activities, like art and music events, and talks.
    “There might be 1,000 people, you know, in key moments of that year where the shop can host a runway show, it can host a talk, it can host a cafe,” Abloh said.
    “It’ll be a cafe that extends out into the street, it’ll be what the environment needs it to be rather than the betting on, hey, this square footage needs to be used for retail 24 seven,” he added.
    “Who knows, by the time it opens I might turn it into like an Uber delivery of Off-White – that’s the freedom and the fun.”

    In response, the store is stripped back to only provide storage space for apparel on sale so it could easily be used for a variety of activities and cultural events.
    “We played with the idea of translating the store into a fulfilment center,” Bantal explained. “Fulfillment of not only the monetary transaction you do by buying a product, but also fulfilment in terms of like the engagement you have with a brand, or the aura of a brand.”
    “This, of course, being in Miami Design District led to the idea of creating a space that is adjustable and transformable over time,” Bantal continued. “We should be able to kind of compress the retail parts to almost like a storage element in the store, and open the store to a kind of variety of cultural events.”

    Located at 127 NE 41 Street, the two-storey store is fronted with an opaque polycarbonate wall on the ground floor that can be pushed back, squeezing the storage of the apparel to the rear and opening the front to the street.
    “You almost push everything that is retail and compress it in the space behind and then of course, ultimately it ends up in storage,” said Bantal. “While the space in front of that facade is completely open and free and can be used for any function.”
    Above the moveable wall is the word Shop with a red cross in front – a tongue-in-cheek nod to the concept behind the project.
    “This is the first Off White store to have a facade you know, that street level so the expression, the signage, you know, as the words Shop is a shop, but then has like, an X through the middle, and it’s very, like monolithic,” said Abloh. “The face of the concept is expressed on the facade.”

    Inside, the team aimed to continue to the theme of the fulfilment centre through a stripped-back industrial aesthetic – including floors rendered in lightly stained concrete, walls lined in corrugated metal and mesh ceiling panels.
    Off-White apparel will be displayed on either stainless steel shelving or black marquina and white Carrara marble rails. All the furniture is placed on wheels or is collapsible so it can be moved about to accommodate events.
    The pared-back style acts as a backdrop to a series of artworks that will be installed in the store and the bold electric blue stair that leads to the first floor. On this level, the brand intends to host more intimate events like dinner parties.

    Abloh, who is also the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection, founded his Off-White brand as a ready-to-wear streetwear label in 2012. He previously teamed up with Bantal to design Figures of Speech, a retrospective exhibition of his career at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA).
    The store joins a number of fashion flagships in Miami Design District, which Craig Robins transformed from a formerly neglected area into the hub for design boutiques, luxury fashion brands and art galleries.
    Others include Joseph, which London firm Sybarite design with a spiral black staircase, Christian Louboutin, which is covered in tree bark, Dior, which has a boutique sheathed in curved white concrete panels, and Tom Ford, which is housed in a pleated concrete shop designed by ArandaLasch.

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  • Collective installs stage in New York ONS Clothing store

    Architecture firm Collective has inserted a stage with a green curtain for hosting events in the back of the ONS Clothing store in New York City.The flagship location of ONS, a menswear apparel brand, is located on 201 Mulberry Street in New York’s Nolita neighbourhood.
    It is located inside an existing structure situated 1.5 metres below street level that was previously a garage.

    ONS intends to use the stage space for hosting cultural events, such as exhibitions and pop-ups that it says will change regularly.

    Steel railings, ceramic tiles and asphalt flooring are among the references Collective has taken from the streetscape to guide the store’s design.
    To balance the dark colours and textures of the flooring the studio has inserted pops of colour using light blue tiles on the changing room pods and blue and green counter surfaces.

    “The material we used in the store were carefully chosen for the feeling of the street – ceramic tiles, steel ramps, fibre glass objects while their bright array of blue and green colours balance out the crudeness of the black asphalt and steel,” Collective said.
    Pale wood floors and wood panelling cover the walls in the front room of the store, which the studio conceived as a “standalone wooden box”. In the space there are two wood counters for displaying accessories, while rectangular cutouts in the walls to hold clothing racks.

    An asphalt ramp replaced the existing wheelchair lift to create an accessible pathway from the street into the storefront and to the rear of the space where the studio has constructed a large stage.

    Lunya styles Manhattan store like a “glitzy, upscale New York apartment”

    “The ramp allows a natural flow of circulation from a higher point entering the very deep area at the back of the store, and at the same time, its hovering presence performs as an object in space,” the studio added.

    There are several “props” on the stage including blue- and white-tiered shelving units, curved plinths for displaying products and potted plants, added as a decorative element.
    Angular green drapes attached to a steel rack on the white ceiling and wrap around the space to form an adjustable divider. When closed the fabric curtains extend 30 metres forming a backdrop for the retail displays.

    “Together with the rearrangement of the bright colour display props, the back room area of the ONS,” it continued.
    “Flagship is immediately domesticated and activated into a stage for events, with a light touch of living room like domesticity and comfort.”

    Collective is a studio that practices architecture, interiors and exhibition design founded in 2015.
    It is led by Betty Ng, Chi Yan Chan, Juan Minguez and Katja Lam and has offices in Hong Kong, Madrid, San Francisco and New York.

    Los Angeles clothing brand Lunya also has a retail space in Nolita that takes cues from “upscale New York” apartments, while other stores in the city include a jewellery store in SoHo.
    Photography is by Eric Petschek.

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  • Burberry and Tencent collaborate on interactive WeChat shop in Shenzhen

    Visitors to Shenzhen’s Burberry flagship store can use Tencent’s WeChat app to interact with the window display and play their own music in fitting rooms.The British fashion brand and China’s largest social media company collaborated to design a shop that suited Shenzhen’s growing reputation for technology.

    Shoppers use WeChat, a Chinese messaging and social media app, to engage with the shop in Shenzhen’s MixC development.

    Tencent and Burberry have produced a custom mini program that is unlocked via WeChat. Users create a profile and are given a digital avatar in the form of a cartoon fawn that hatches from an egg.

    Through the app, shoppers can book one of the three themed fitting rooms, pre-select the clothes and play their own music while they try them on. They can also use this program to book a table at the in-house cafe and make appointments with stylists and other services.
    To encourage engagement, the program has a rewards system to earn “social currency” that unlocks custom content, such as new characters and outfits for the animal avatar and exclusive dishes on the cafe menu.

    All the products have QR codes, which can be scanned to display more information and visual hints for styling the project – and give the user more points for unlocking content.
    The interactive window display is currently a sculptural recreation of the runway for Burberry’s Autumn Winter 2020 show. Mirrors and screens capture the movement of people as they interact with it, which users can capture and share with their phones.

    “Social media is an increasingly important part of the customer journey and the interaction between social media and physical surroundings is ever more seamless,” said Burberry senior vice president of digital Mark Morris.
    “Our social retail store in Shenzhen is our response to this. It is a space where the social and physical worlds merge, taking interactions from social media and bringing them into the physical retail environment,” he told Dezeen.
    “The tech we use in the store is intended to provide a seamless journey that augments customers’ online and instore life. Therefore, this is not a tech store, but a beautiful luxury store augmented by technology.”

    Burberry chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci turned to the brand’s archive to create a visual look for the themed rooms that correspond to the digital platform.

    Peter Saville collaborates with Riccardo Tisci to design new Burberry logo and monogram

    The Italian fashion designer used the Thomas Burberry Monogram and the fashion house’s fawn print as a recurring motif – the latter being the inspiration for the WeChat avatar too.

    Furnishings, fixtures and plinths throughout the store are made from plywood and mirrors. Tisci used a palette of beige, pistachio, pink and blue throughout the 10 rooms in the shop, each of which has a different theme.
    The three bookable fitting rooms are decorated around the concept of Burberry Animal Kingdom, Reflections and the Thomas Burberry Monogram, and visitors can book their favourite via the app.

    Thomas’ Cafe is decked out in high-gloss beige with chamfered mirrors, animal-patterned wall panels and layers of sandy-coloured curtains.
    Even the tabletops are mirrored, creating a unique backdrop for diners to capture their meal for sharing on social media.

    In the Trench Experience room, digital displays set in the plywood walls show moving images of nature in reference to the fashion brand’s founder, Thomas Burberry, who designed a waterproof trench coat for British troops in the first world war. This room has more opportunities for customers to unlock custom content.
    “I am fascinated by the balance between nature and technology, and the energy that connects the two,” said Tisci.
    “This store explores this relationship, blending the digital and the physical realms in an exciting new concept. I wanted to bring this love of the outdoors to life through all the elements of the store.”

    Burberry previously brought technology to its London shop, where it installed a robot that appeared to chisel sculptures out of polystyrene blocks.
    Tencent recently opened its new headquarters in Shenzhen, a pair of towers designed by NBBJ joined by multiple bridges to encourage staff to meet and interact.

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