CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: FLORIAN HOLZHERR; COURTESY OF GIVENCHY; COURTESY OF CELINE BY HEDI SLIMANE ; COURTESY OF STELLA MCCARTNEY; COURTESY OF BALENCIAGA; COURTESY OF VALENTINO; COURTESY OF JACQUEMUS; COURTESY OF SIMON MILLER; FLORIAN HOLZHERR
WSJ. MAGAZINEI
N 2014, Gaia Repossi, the artistic
director of Repossi, tapped archi-
tect Rem Koolhaas’s fi rm, OMA,
to create the Paris fl agship for her
family’s fi ne jewelry brand. She was
looking for something at the intersec-
tion of art, architecture and design,
and OMA delivered a glossy store full
of refl ective metal fi nishes. Recently,
when Repossi turned to revamping
the brand’s Monaco boutique, she
wanted something equally inspired.
This time, she chose to work with
Flavin Judd, the son of artist Donald
Judd and the artistic director of
Judd Foundation, on his fi rst retail
project. The result, starkly diff er-
ent from the Paris store, off ers a sub-
versively spare backdrop for the
brand’s precious wares.
Judd shares his father’s reverence
for a primary palette and geometric
spareness. “I decided from the start
that the shop should have no chrome
or shiny metal, nothing to com-
pete with the jewelry,” he explains viaCREATIVE BRIEFMINIMAL EFFECT
Repossi’s new Monaco store, designed by Flavin Judd, is a prime
example of the jewelry brand’s strong connection to the art world.RISE AND SHINE
From top: Gaia
Repossi, the artistic
director of her
family’s namesake
brand; a jewelry
display at Repossi’s
Monaco store.COOL
COMFORT
Flip-fl ops and slides go from
basic to baller.
From top: Givenchy; Celine by Hedi
Slimane; Stella McCartney; Balenciaga;
Valentino Garavani; Jacquemus; Simon
Miller. For details see Sources, page 160.email. Instead, the walls are beech-
veneer plywood planks, arranged in
angular forms that emphasize shadow
and light. A space at the back of the
store has been painted a cadmium red,
a hue Donald Judd was known to
employ to heighten visual eff ect.
“The jewelry works best on that red,”
Repossi says. “It is strong and simple,
and the whole point is to stage the
jewelry without putting it in the cus-
tomer’s face.”
Trained in fi ne arts, Repossi, 35,
has long appreciated American sculp-
tors like Donald Judd and Robert
Smithson, and she struck up a friend-
ship with Flavin Judd while acquir-
ing some of his father’s furniture six
years ago. Next up, she’s at work
on a collaboration with the Robert
Mapplethorpe Foundation, which
approached her about creating a
precious-metal collection inspired
by the jewelry Mapplethorpe assem-
bled from found objects early in his
career. repossi.com. —Alice Cavanagh