stella mccartney

one of my absolute most favorite things in the world is when we start a new project in class. i get the same first-day-of-school excitement all over again and would gladly skip all the way to school if it was physically possible. yesterday was one of those days and although the excitement was squashed by an awful workout before class, i woke up this morning oozing happy.

for this assignment we are designing a retail store (the actual site given to us was from a project my teacher did for the natick collection) - which is the direction i wish to go after graduating - so i'm ready to stir up some fabulous crazy design here. to start the project we have to observe a high end women's wear brand, catalog their inventory, visit their stores, see how they merchandise, handle lighting, scope out traffic patterns, etc. after some serious brain searching (trust me, it's a mess in there) i remembered i had seen this flagship retail store design for stella mccartney a couple months ago and the design is right up my alley. needless to say, i'm modeling my project after her brand and the design created for her milan store by london studio APA.
















unfortunately, flying to milan to observe the space in person is a bit out of reach on a graduate student's salary. bummer! the space is quite stunning though. some of my favorite details are the visually textural herringbone flooring, the brass handrails, the sculptural clothes hanging rails, and the bright pops of felt inside the plinths. i would never have thought to pair all of the strong geometrical elements with the delicate fresco ceiling. it definitely gives an air of femininity to the space.

* via dezeen and APA