The Moschino Milan store designed by Andrea Tognon Architecture features chequered floors crafted in Botticino marble and dark green stone, lacquered bright-yellow shelves and a sweeping spiral staircase, reflecting the brand’s playful and eccentric style | Photography by Adriano Mura
In this special feature, we explore four retail spaces without merchandise that have emerged from collaborations between architects and fashion designers, where ideas collide and one discipline enhances the other.
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Moschino
In the design capital of the world and the home of Italian fashion house Moschino, Italian architect Andrea Tognon designed a store that captures the brand’s exuberant style in a subtle manner. “The challenge was to harmonise the brand’s loud and baroque visual language with a calm and serene design approach,” Andrea says.
Located on one of Milan’s most historically significant shopping strips, Via della Spiga, the store needed to feel like an inherent part of the city. “Walking through the space, you’ll find marble in-lays of cut flooring and details along a grand staircase that are sprinkled as sweet reminders of the city as the centre of Italian design,” Andrea says.
From the chequered floors crafted in Botticino marble and dark green stone to the lacquered bright-yellow shelves and sweeping spiral staircase, each element reflects the brand’s playful, eccentric and often unconventional approach to fashion. “It is not just a single feature or detail that tells the brand’s story, but rather the coming together of many to create a cohesive retail concept,” Andrea adds.
Photography by Adriano Mura
Photography by Adriano Mura
Photography by Adriano Mura
Courrèges
Drawing inspiration from the historic Courrèges flagship store in Paris, the architect chose to envelop the front of the space in white and introduce an all-mirrored fitting room at the back. The elongated mirrored ceilings dotted with spotlights evoke the atmosphere of a nightclub – a concept dear to the brand’s creative director, Nicolas Di Felice.
Photography by Angela Hau
The Courrèges New York store designed by Bernard Dubois Architects reflects the brand’s minimalist and futuristic style with its all-white colour palette and mirrored ceilings dotted with nightclub-grade spotlights | Photography by Angela Hau
Photography by Angela Hau
Dion Lee
The material palette comprises polished concrete, grey travertine, stainless steel and mirrored glass. “Honest in materiality, elemental in form, minimal in ornamentation; the store offers a retail experience that’s authentically Dion Lee,” Linda affirms.
Photography by Kris Tamburello
The Dion Lee Miami store designed by Smart Design Studio features a dramatic central void punctuated by a helical staircase crafted from stainless steel and travertine. Custom stainless-steel clothing racks flank the walls and open up space in the middle of the store, where sculptural works by Oliver Laric feature | Photography by Kris Tamburello
Photography by Kris Tamburello
Charlotte Chesnais
The wall, appearing like a sculpture within the space, is composed of large, three-dimensional CNC-cut acrylic sheets. “The material possesses a natural texture from the CNC drilling and a synthetic quality due to the presence of acrylic,” Anne explains. As a result, it reflects a blend of both natural and man-made characteristics, creating an interesting juxtaposition of past and present. “The jewellery appears to float within the transparent mass and casts subtle shadows,” she adds.
Passing through the display, a set of stairs leads to an additional room coated in deep-green high-gloss paint. Here, Anne has employed a similar technique as downstairs, displaying the pieces on an acrylic wall that has adopted the colour of its surroundings.
This feature originally appeared in est magazine issue 51: Design Voices.
Photography by James Nelson
The Charlotte Chesnais Paris store designed by Studio Anne Holtrop features a huge freestanding translucent display wall composed of large, three-dimensional CNC-cut acrylic sheets | Photography by James Nelson
Photography by James Nelson