How do you design a store? // North Face x Harry Bertoia // Selfridges retail therapy + more*!
*I also did a lecture and you can pinch my slides if you want.
Designing the original Apple stores
“Together with the team, he had to experiment, explore possibilities, accept some ideas, reject others, iterate, sketch, build models, and test material. In short, the store wasn’t so much a product of his vision as it was something made, constructed, and fashioned in the course of a creative journey.”
Great insight on the design of the original Apple stores - love that Mickey Drexler urged Jobs to rent a warehouse and test at full scale.
The story comes from this book, which sounds like a good read to me - Buchman is is president of the College of Design in Pasadena, California.
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Off the wall: Harry Bertoia in North Face, NYC
This wall in The North Face's 5th Ave store in NYC. WOW.
It’s by legendary furniture designer Harry Bertoia. You know, the guy who designed this chair. I need to go see it when I visit my friend Ravi in early April (all being well). On that note, should you have any must visit stores / bookshops / libraries / small galleries in NYC, please drop me a line (or add to this map).
The wall reminded me of a wonderful story from a few years back - an Oscar de la Renta Paris store refurb that revealed an incredible (and valuable) fresco, covered in issue 2 (when I used to number these. Maybe I should start doing so again…
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Darkstore image by Francis Scialabba via Retail Brew. No reason, just liked it.
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The Collab equation: x = ! = £/$€
Decent Bloomberg look at brand collabs over the years (paywall jump). Enjoyed the bit about royal warrants in particular - worth more study.
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Know thy Selfridges
The recently purchased department store is to offer various services, including couples therapy.
Nearby: really enjoyed reading this from Dutch architects MVRDV on the infamous Marble Arch Mound - honest, passionate. More of this kind of project review, please. Interesting to hear that they had issues with Westminster Council - I worked with them on something c. 2015 and found their representative rude, ignorant and belittling. Feel free to ask me more ;-)
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Never Leave Art School
I spent a fun hour or so with the students on the fashion buying and brand management course at Ravensbourne recently. We spoke about why shopping matters. You can see the slides here.
During the lecture I touched on the transformative power that players like Shopify have for indie retailers. Very interesting to see it (understandably) offering AR.
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The Death of the Department Store / The Future of our Cities
Fascinating, insightful Guardian long read on the demise of the department store in the UK, centred around Sheffield’s John Lewis closing for good (after quite a bizarre, and very un-JL tussle by sounds of it). The bit on Eindhoven and Paris’ La Samaritane piqued my interest; it will be interesting to see what is decided upon for the future of the site.
“the fact that what many dismiss as mere consumerism can be woven through with much deeper human needs and capacities, to do with interaction, self-expression and the way we mark the stages of our lives.” - love this quote. Couldn’t agree more.
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Thrift bundle shopping in Malaysia
Enjoyable NYT piece on vintage sellers in Malaysia. Bundle shops sound like my kinda place.
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Have a great weekend.