Today, Interior Design Shop wants to share with you the 10 most beautiful retail stores in the world. These beautiful retail stores can teach us a lot about the relation of aesthetic and business efficiency, as well as space management. If you’re traveling in any of these locations, be sure to stop.
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1# Thom Browne Aoyama flagship store, Tokyo
Since the launch of his eponymous label, legendary American designer Thom Browne has experienced exponential growth and popularity with his reinterpretation of business wear, helping to define modern aesthetics worldwide.
The brand now presents a look inside its first flagship location outside of the U.S., located in the Aoyama district of Tokyo. The face of the building is a clean, post-modern exterior composed of sheet metal. On the interior, master designer Masamichi Katayama has created a minimal, though comfortable, setting for Thom Browne’s refined looks.
2# Comme de Garçons Aoyama flagship store, Tokyo
Comme de Garçons Aoyama, at 5-11-5 Minami-Aoyamathe flagship store of the Japanese fashion label headed by Rei Kawakubo, opened in 1999. The storefront’s design, by the British architectural collective Future Systems in conjunction with Kawakubo and interior designer Takao Kawasaki, features exterior wall cutouts at the ground level, with a façade of sloping glass panels printed with micro-patterned blue dots. The interior is portioned with glass walls. The lifesize white elephant that greets visitors was commissioned of British sculptor Stephanie Quayle.
3# Han Kjøbenhavn store, New York
The latest installment of Manhattan’s Scandinavian retail takeover is Han Kjøbenhavn, located at 27 Prince Street in the former home of Ray’s Pizza. The brand is best known for its eyewear, denim, and Danish workwear, which can all be found inside the new Nolita storefront.
Additionally, Danish design books are also up for grabs. The interior of the store is particularly minimal, with jeans rolled up neatly inside stacked fixtures and wooden-framed photographs hanging on the wall just so.
4# Otsuka Gofukuten Cloth, Kyoto
Japanese designer Yusuke Seki plans to bring traditional Japanese dress back into fashion with this modern kimono shop in Kyoto. The concept for the Otsuka-Gofukuten shop is to simplify the process of having a kimono made-to-measure, encouraging more people to wear the historic robes day-to-day.
5# Selexyz Bookstore, Maastricht
The contemporary building interior of the Bookstore Selexyz Dominicanen was designed by Merkx+Girod architects in Maastricht, Netherlands for the Dutch booksellers Selexyz Dominicanen. Merkx+Girod were commissioned by the Dutch booksellers to convert the interior of the former Dominican Church in Maastricht into a modern bookstore.
For the same client, M+G had previously designed two bookstores in The Hague and Almere. The unique location in Maastricht, however, asked for a very different approach. The store demanded 1,200 sq m of commercial area where only 750 were available.
6# Plural Bookshop, Bratislava
Based in Bratislava, Slovakia, here this building designed by Plural and TotalStudio for a property with both a café and a bookstore. When you enter, you have the feeling of finally arriving at a home you didn’t know you had. A staircase structure and a wide library occupying the entire space.
The simple, minimalist design, combining bookshelves and comfortable, spacious reading places makes this bookshop one of those rare places where people can find true peace.
7# Aesop, Hong Kong
Aesop has added yet another store to its extensive retail network in Hong Kong. Situated at Festival Walk, a popular mall in the upscale Kowloon Tong area, the store occupies a unit on the ground floor and features an interior design by architecture practice Nadaaa from Boston. Behind a glass façade, the sleek design beckons with a natural palette and a subtle disregard of the linear.
8# MenScience flagship store, New York
In the wake of HWKN’s awarding winning WENDY for PS 1, the New York firm has designed a flagship store in SoHo for MenScience, a dermatological-grade skincare and nutritional products company.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to physically brand the company and set the tone for future retail locations, HWKN’s interior aesthetic includes a black steel product display set within a locally-sourced, recycled wood plank backdrop.
9# The Story Unfolds Bookstore
The Story Unfolds is a creative retail space that allows customers to publish their own books and sell them right at the bookstore. Designed by Leong Huang Zi.
10# Apple Store, New York
Apple’s second Manhattan retail store opened May 19th in New York City by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and structural engineers Eckerlsey O’Callaghan (glass elements). Located at 767 Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets, the prominent site near FAO Schwarz and Bergdorf Goodman provides views of Central Park. The store occupies the underground retail concourse of the General Motors Building, with entry from the plaza level above.
SEE ALSO – Store Opening Announcement: Zara New Store at Glendale Galleria
Interior Design Shop will continue to share with you fantastic ideas about home stores of the moment, as well as a few of the design world’s most anticipated store openings. Don’t forget to subscribe this blog and to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Pinterest.
