Scandinavian fashion brand Wood Wood, Berlin-based eyewear retailer Mykita and Italian ceramic manufacturer Florim are all taking stake in new markets. Frank Gehry has developed his first building in South Korea, for none other than Louis Vuitton. And German beauty brand Babor and Canada Goose are thinking more intently about engaging consumer experiences than ever. Dive into this month’s retail Openings for the full scoop.
Photo: Adam Titchener
LONDON: WOOD WOOD
Spacon & X
Successful in its native Danish market, contemporary fashion brand Wood Wood has opened its sixth store – the first international – in London’s Soho. The Brewer Street flagship, designed by long-time collaborators Spacon & X, is inspired by London’s vivid streetwear culture with playful features and stand-out displays. ‘English music and subcultures alongside the English iconic heritage of clothes and fashion have always been a huge source of inspiration for Wood Wood,’ explains creative director Karl Oskar-Olsen. ‘Not only within our collections but also in the way we create the output of our brand mix in our stores.’
Location 1 Bache’s St, Hoxton, London N1 6DN, United Kingdom
Photo: Sergey Melnikov
SAINT PETERSBURG: RADIUS 58
DA Bureau
The founders of new Russian eyewear brand Radius 58 tapped the creatives at local architecture and interior design practice DA Bureau to develop their second showroom. Overlooking the central avenue of Saint Petersburg’s Sevkabel Port, the 70-sq-m store is bright, defined by clean pink and white elements. ‘There is not a single purchased item in the interior, except for the track lights,’ says a spokesperson for the architects. All fixtures and furnishings are custom-made, ‘which adds uniqueness.’
Location Kozhevennaya Liniya, 40, St Petersburg, Russia, 199106
Photo: Yong Joon Choi
SEOUL: LOUIS VUITTON
Frank Gehry Architects and Peter Marino
Louis Vuitton’s Maison Seoul is the result of an exterior-interior collaboration between architects Frank Gehry and Peter Marino. The five-floor curved-glass building – Gehry’s first in South Korea – references the shape of the also-Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and historical Korean architecture such as that of the Hwaseong Fortress. Marino utilized the building’s vast volumes to create contrasting functional areas: ‘The interior spaces were designed with a Miesian rigor,’ he explains, ‘To more strongly emphasize the billowing energetic sculptural quality of Gehry’s exterior.’
Location 454 Apgujeong-ro, Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea
FRANKFURT: BABOR
Liganova
Brand experience company Liganova developed a retail concept for a flagship store of German beauty brand Babor in Frankfurt. The goal? To create a place that customers have reason to visit beyond the appointments they have scheduled there. The six-part experience – thought through to align with the colour-coded architecture of the space – is designed to take each customer on a holistic journey through the combination of science, hospitality, beauty and treatments.
Location Roßmarkt 23, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
TORONTO: CANADA GOOSE
Gensler
Inventory-free, digitally-augmented retail environment The Journey: A Canada Goose Experience is the first of its kind from the Canadian outerwear brand. The immersive set-up brings together the ‘ease of online shopping with the benefit of education and a physical shopping experience,’ according to a spokesperson. Through the façade – surfaced with an LED screen depicting a rocky surface – customers are welcomed into a variety of nature-inspired, audiovisual-activated spaces designed by Gensler in which they can explore the brand and its products.
Location 25 The West Mall, Etobicoke, ON M9C 1B8, Canada
BANGKOK: MYKITA
Mykita’s in-house architectural team describes the interiors of the global eyewear brand’s first Bangkok store – located in a shopping mall in the Thai city’s cosmopolitan Pathum Wan district – as a ‘high-tech urban jungle’. Industrial elements are complemented by custom-designed furniture, mirrored walls and green foliage, all unified by pale green details. A central white wall signature to the Mykita brand displays the most current collection and serves as the cornerstone of the shop.
Location Sindhorn Village, Room C115/2, Soi Langsuan Pathum Wan, 10330 Bangkok, Thailand
Photo: Tom Sibley
NEW YORK CITY: FRED PERRY
BuckleyGrayYeoman
British architecture practice BuckleyGrayYeoman has designed a new flagship for fashion brand Fred Perry in Manhattan. The New York City store – with interiors that combine elements characteristic of the brand’s British heritage and the iconic locale – is a continuation of the retailer and the architects’ ongoing relationship. The practice has also completed Fred Perry stores in Stockholm, Seoul, Munich and Bangkok, as well as its London headquarters.
Location 133 Wooster St, New York, NY 10012, USA
SINGAPORE: FLORIM
Italian ceramic manufacturer Florim bolsters its global presence with an inaugural address in Singapore. Joining locations in Milan, New York and Moscow, the flagship is a two-level store with installations that showcase the wide variety of applications offered by the company’s best-selling products. The retail concept – devised by the in-house design department – embodies Florim’s key values and sets the precedent for the opening of additional locations in international design districts, planned for unveiling in 2020.
Location 63 Mohamed Sultan Road, #01-14 Sultan Link, Singapore 239002
Photo: Genevieve Lutkins
LONDON: OLIVIA VON HALLE AT HARRODS
Sella Concept
After three successful seasonal pop-ups at the iconic department store, luxury nightwear designer Olivia von Halle (OvH) has opted to open a first permanent space for her eponymous brand in Harrods. Tatjana von Stein and Gayle Noonan of the London studio Sella Concept took their favourite silk robe from the OvH collection as an aesthetic starting point for the shop-within-a-shop, channelling Olivia von Halle’s decadent visual language into an on-brand corridor on the first floor of Harrods.
Location 87-135 Brompton Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7XL, United Kingdom
https://www.frameweb.com/news/retail-openings-december-2019