RETAIL
Two retail
environments
reflect their
varied sartorial
scopes – and
the zeitgeist
MANY OF US are familiar with the acro-
nyms ‘SS’ and ‘AW’ in the fashion world: four
seasons consolidated into two collections
per year. But in the age of fast fashion, some
brands are cranking out almost one per
month while others release a mind-boggling
52 micro seasons annually. Without disre-
garding the obvious environmental issues
associated with extreme cases of wardrobe
rotation, even the ‘standard’ biannual cycle
has long presented issues for spatial design-
ers, too. How can retail environments best
cope with radical fluctuations?
For some, a neutral base is the solu-
tion; the changing season’s merchandise
becomes the interior’s evolving palette. But
if you’re facilitating multiple brands, too,
why not throw caution to the wind? Forty
Five Ten and One-Off’s new additions do
just that: they are multifaceted environments
that reflect their varied sartorial scopes. ‘The
designers and artists we stock are the stars,
and we aim to create environments to really
enhance their ideas and identities,’ says Kris-
ten Cole, president and chief creative officer
of Forty Five Ten, whose seventh location
is housed in New York City’s controversial
US$16 billion Hudson Yards development.
‘I want our clients to immerse themselves in
curated worlds: different worlds that warrant
different design moves.’ Developed in part
with Snarkitecture – which was responsible
for the glass-brick storefront à la MVRDV for
Chanel in Amsterdam – Forty Five Ten New
York can be described as a collage, in which
no two zones look alike. Cole is flattered by »Pa
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SPACES 101