High Fashion Luxury Brand Store Architecture

Wrapping fashion through facade design | Best of 2021 | STIRworld — Wrapping fashion through facade design Paradigm: Courtesy of STIR

The new face of fashion retail: the facade design of luxury brands

From Prada to Bulgari: a look back at five mesmerising facades for luxury retail stores that transformed the urban streetscape and showcased brand identity.

by Devanshi ShahPublished on : December sixteen, 2021

Luxury brands and retail outlets faced severe setbacks in the last two years. As the high streets remained empty for the about part of 2020, and so did the luxury stores lining them. In 2021, however, as people began to get back and re-indulge in the experience of high-end style and jewellery, a lot of the brands faced a new dilemma. The ease with which it was possible for many of these brands to transfer their retail to the digital realm, now were confronted with the chore of attracting their clients back to their physical stores. This resulted in some fascinating and mesmerising facade designs that explore non only the impact of luxury as a spatial feel only also confront their urban presence. Ranging from jewellery pattern brands such as Cartier to couture collections by Balenciaga and Prada, the facades of these buildings explore intricate details of the brand's larger vision and aesthetic. Information technology likewise brings upwards the importance of retail design non but as an interior but also every bit an exterior production. Gone are the days of storefront windows existence the principal confront of a make. The following examples from this twelvemonth reveal a far more nuanced approach to the generation of a brand identity.

i. Cartier by Klein Dytham architecture

Located in Shinsaibashi, a high-end shopping district of Osaka, the store occupies the base of an existing building | Cartier | Klein Dytham architecture | STIRworld — Located in Shinsaibashi, a loftier-stop shopping district of Osaka, the store occupies the base of an existing building Image: Courtesy of Cartier

Cartier's storefront in Osaka, Japan, features over two,500 handcrafted Hinoki cypress modules to create a 3D patterned wooden façade continued with both Japanese craft traditions and the French luxury brand's aesthetics. The Tokyo-based Klein Dytham architecture created a scheme that resembled patterns of interlocking diamonds, in a play of diagonally protruding solids and voids influenced by both Cartier'due south classic jewellery and Japanese sake boxes. The Japanese cypress is ofttimes used in traditional Japanese architecture. While bathed in sunlight during the twenty-four hour period, a strategic lighting design fitted with LED lights illuminates the façade at night. The facade distorts the notions of depth and perspective, oscillating between two-dimensional patterns and 3-dimensional relief.

2. Feels Similar Prada past Prada

The first few interventions in Milan modify and multiply their surrounding urban panoramas | Feels Like Prada | Prada | STIRworld — The get-go few interventions in Milan change and multiply their surrounding urban panoramas Image: Courtesy of Prada

Prada's Autumn/Winter 2021 campaign extended beyond the runway to decorate everyday surfaces with the new collection's prints and motifs. As role of the collection'due south promotional strategy, the Italian luxury fashion house transformed the façades of buildings beyond Milan into a canvas for the brands Fall/Winter 2021 hypnotic geometric patterns. The project infused public spaces with an temper that is quintessentially Prada and was an intersection of style design and graphic pattern. The drove was designed by Co-Creative Directors, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons; the centre of the drove celebrates the tactile and sensorial aspects of luxury design, a detail that was incorporated into the graphic art of the animated facades. Prada likewise collaborated with Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to create a digital space for their Fall/Winter 2021 menswear digital show.

3. A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE past Tokujin Yoshioka

The store is housed in a traditional Japanese machiya building | A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE | Tokujin Yoshioka | STIRworld — The shop is housed in a traditional Japanese machiya building Image: *Masaya Yoshimura, Copist; Courtesy of* ISSEY MIYAKE INC

Inspired by the manufacturing technique of Issey Miyake, which fuses engineering with handcrafts, this space expresses the contrast of history and the time to come, housed in a traditional machiya-style structure in Kyoto. Combining the traditional architectural form to situate the iconic Japanese manner brand in the context of the city and district, Tokujin Yoshioka reinterprets the façade and draws an aesthetic reference from the parent brand, with a deep black finish. The retail design for A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE balances a futuristic aesthetic within a colloquial building typology by finding a balance between the two.

iv. Balenciaga'due south 50th Couture collection by Balenciaga

Balenciaga's internal architectural team has transformed Tank Shanghai into a Couture salon and display space for its 50th Couture collection | Tank Shanghai | Balenciaga | STIRworld — Balenciaga's internal architectural team has transformed Tank Shanghai into a Couture salon and display space for its 50th Couture collection Paradigm: Courtesy of Balenciaga

Spanish luxury fashion house Balenciaga brought in their 50^th Couture collection through a façade and interior intervention at Tank Shanghai, China. Tank Shanghai is an art and civilization park by Shanghai-based OPEN Compages and is housed inside a few redundant aviation fuel containers. 1 of these tanks houses Balenciaga's precious Couture collection, transforming the space into a Couture salon, a exhibit, a chiliad hall, and a banquet room for a 5-day schedule of viewings, fittings, tours, and performances. While the intervention is almost entirely internal, the tapestry creates an interesting contrast to the concrete exteriors of the museum.

5. Bulgari by MVRDV

Bulgari Shanghai features a jade façade made from recycled champagne bottles | Bulgari | MVRDV| STIRworld — Bulgari Shanghai features a jade façade made from recycled champagne bottlesImage: Courtesy of

Rotterdam-based firm MVRDV used recycled champagne bottles to create the façade of the Italian luxury jewellery brand'southward flagship store in Shanghai. Crafted out of light-green and transparent bottles, the facade design has been fatigued from two fundamental influences: the design of the portals and cornices of the luxury brand'southward kickoff boutique store in Rome's Via Condotti, and Shanghai'south historic Fine art Deco architecture. With layers of cross-cultural reference, the gold-coloured brass trim gives the façade an appearance like jade jewellery. The façade also alludes to the potential of recycled materials and sustainability in pattern processes, especially in luxury contexts.

About Author

Senior Features Writer

A author, educator, curator and an architect, Devanshi has a Principal's degree in History and Critical Thinking from the Architectural Association, and a Bachelors in Compages from KRVIA, Bombay. Currently she is working on a Diploma in Indian Aesthetics. She has a certificate in Curatorial Studies, and co-curated an exhibition at A plus A Gallery, Venice. She has been an educator for the past three years.

A writer, educator, curator and an architect, Devanshi has a Master's degree in History and Critical Thinking from the Architectural Association, and a Bachelors in Architecture from KRVIA, Bombay. Currently she is working on a Diploma in Indian Aesthetics. She has a certificate in Curatorial Studies, and co-curated an exhibition at A plus A Gallery, Venice. She has been an educator for the past iii years.