Dover Street Market becomes a contender in Paris’s ever-growing beauty market with its inaugural boutique dedicated to the sector. Call Me by Your Name director Luca Guadgagnino and Aēsop celebrate the fruits of their second collaboration, in London; meanwhile, also in the UK capital, Gabriela Hearst reveals her sustainability-minded flagship by Foster + Partners. And, in Manila, Normann Copenhagen opens its first franchise store in Southeast Asia. These are among the ten new retail spaces worldwide we’ve selected for survey.
PARIS: DOVER STREET PARFUMS MARKET
The first-ever Dover Street Parfums Market arrives 25 years after the launch of the original Comme des Garҫons perfume. Nearby Musée Picasso in Le Marais, the Rei Kawakubo-designed space offers a wide selection of fragrances, cosmetics and makeup from various brands. Products live on egg-shaped shelves within a forest of pillars. Otherwise, the interior is bare: there is ‘nothing on the walls or floor, no back drops, no display materials, no logos and no gift with purchase’, according to a spokesperson for the retailer.
Photo: David Foessel
Location 11 bis Rue Elzevir, 75003 Paris, France
GOTHENBURG: ACNE STUDIOS
Acne Studios opens its second Gothenburg store in retail and hospitality destination Magasinsgatan. After entering through a pink hallway, customers encounter an open layout divided by curved steel partitions and floored with brown bricks, a reference to Swedish brick architecture of the 1960s and ’70s. For the decorative features, the brand continued its collaborations with rug design company Kasthall and French lighting designer Benoit Lalloz.
Location Kaserntorget 6, 411 18 Gothenburg, Sweden
NEW YORK CITY: CAROLINA HERRERA
Carolina Herrera’s creative director Wes Gordon sees his first retail concept for the brand come to life with a renovated flagship boutique on 75th and Madison. Built in 1925, the three-storey landmark housing the store has belonged to the retailer since 2000. Its interiors were thoughtfully reimagined over a two-year-long process by the Carolina Herrera team, architect Andre Mellone of Studio Mellone, interior designer Chiara de Rege and architect of record, Spacesmith.
Photo: Bjorn Wallander, courtesy of Spacesmith
Location 954 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10021, United States
LONDON: AĒSOP
Aēsop completes a second store with the studio of film director Luca Guadagnino, following the opening of a boutique in Rome last autumn. The recently opened London shop is positioned at the entrance of the 1920s Piccadilly Arcade. Through rounded windows, passers-by can peer in to see stucco panels styled as mock Tudor cabinets and two boulders that interlock to form a central basin. Mesmerizing stone-tiled flooring nods to the architectural heritage of Greenwich and a hidden staircase ushers visitors into another room entirely.
Location 2 Piccadilly Arcade, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6NH, United Kingdom
MANILA: NORMANN COPENHAGEN
This month’s opening of a Normann Copenhagen franchise store in Manila is unprecedented in the Southeast Asian region; it marks the first time that the company has let an external partner open a mono-brand store. Spread across 200 sq-m and located in the Philippine city’s financial and lifestyle district alongside several global furniture showrooms, the store illustrates Normann Copenhagen’s focus on the Asian market, where it has enjoyed 20 to 25 per cent growth in the past five years.
AMSTERDAM: CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN
French designer Christian Louboutin’s brand boasts two new spaces in Amsterdam’s De Bijenkorf department store. Both – a 67-sq-m corner dedicated to women’s products and a 15-sq-m area for men – were inspired by Louboutin’s first boutique in Paris’s Galerie Véro-Dodat. The combination of multiple shades of velvet and use of generous mirrors imply the feeling of a private boudoir.
Location Dam 1, 1012 JS Amsterdam, the Netherlands
LONDON: GABRIELA HEARST
The warm material palette of Gabriela Hearst’s first London flagship, developed by Foster + Partners, reflects the New York-based designer’s sustainable ethos. Reclaimed oakwood flooring was sourced from military barracks in Shropshire, the majority of furniture was constructed from London Plane timber from a tree that fell during a storm, and linen – a material low in embodied energy – features as wall panelling. The practice also designed custom merchandising units, which were manufactured by Benchmark.
Photo: Nigel Young
Location 59 Brook St, Mayfair, London W1K 4HS, United Kingdom
MILAN: MSGM
MSGM commemorates its 10th anniversary with a brand new Milan flagship. Founder Massimo Giorgetti tapped local architects ML and Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis to transform a 440-sq-m building – once a bank – into a sleek brand space. Colourful translucent resin objects by Marcelis embed old safe deposit boxes once found in the bank’s vault. Rugs, antique glass and furnishings also reference the space’s previous life, while Giorgetti’s passion for Italian design is expressed in custom vases and Taco D70 sofas by Osvaldo Borsani.
Location Via Broletto &, Via del Lauro, 20121 Milano MI, Italy
TOKYO: MANOLO BLAHNIK OMOTESANDO
Tokyo’s Omotesando district adds yet another destination to its retail offering with a two-storey Manolo Blahnik boutique. The space is designed by Nick Leith-Smith, the architect responsible for over 60 of the brand’s stores globally. Inspired by Bauhaus-era clinical spaces, Blahnik briefed Leith-Smith to create a retro-futuristic environment in reference to the work of Walter Gropius. The resulting store is defined primarily by gallery-like shoe display areas constructed with shuttered concrete and brushed-and-polished stainless steel.
Photo: Natalie Dinham
Location 4 Chome-3-12 Jingumae, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
LONDON: MADE THOUGHT
Open until 30 November is an experimental retail space from creative studio Made Thought, in London. Located in the city’s Seven Dials shopping streets, the concept store is hosting a diverse programme of events, talks, launches, installations, experiential retail concepts and brand activations for the likes of Tom Dixon, Fred Perry and True & Co.
Location 27 Short’s Gardens, London WC2H 9AP, UK
https://www.frameweb.com/news/retail-openings-october-2019