the comparison, calling collage ‘one of my
favourite art techniques, and the one I’m con-
stantly inspired by and using in our graphic
approach’. Similarly, Emiliano Salci of Dimore
Studio says he and cofounder Britt Moran
wanted to ‘convey an aesthetic of unfinished,
non-strait-laced spaces’ for One-Off Woman
in the Italian city of Brescia. ‘Each floor has
an unaccomplished feel.’ Salci, though, would
not define Dimore’s design as a ‘collage’ but
as ‘a response to the ever-evolving rapport
consumers have with retail spaces’.
One interpretation of Salci’s senti-
ment is that today’s customers need constant
stimulation. As the question of how to pull
customers into physical stores becomes
this decade’s well-worn tale, retailers are
responding with statement-making spaces.
It’s about capturing attention, and atten-
tion is often borne from surprise. The cash
desk covered in blonde wigs at One-Off? It’s
uncanny – to some, even crude – but you’ve
probably never seen anything like it before.
And that’s the point.
Surprising, inspiring and even diso-
rientating: these keywords are part of Forty
Five Ten’s vocabulary, too. ‘We took this
general approach with all the spaces,’ says
Cole. ‘As a result, they feel truly experien-
tial and – hopefully – fun. For me, retail is
only compelling these days if you can offer
something new and unconventional. I’m in
no way interested in a traditionally designed
shopping environment. Instead, we want
our shoppers to feel like they’ve just been
to a gallery or a museum. We want to make
an impression.’
But when anything can be anything,
how you decide on an aesthetic outcome?
In Cole’s case, she says interior design is
‘so visceral’. ‘It’s about how we want to feel
in a space. At Forty Five Ten New York, we
looked at the five spaces, considered the
merchandise, and decided almost instantlyon the vibe we wanted to create.’ In places,
‘uncanny’ could translate to ‘out of this world’.
The so-called ‘galactic rock display’ is loosely
inspired by Michael Heizer’s Levitating Mass
at LACMA, ‘one of my favourite interactive
sculptures in LA’, says Cole. ‘We had it fabri-
cated in Brooklyn by production designers
who nailed the idea.’
A creative sculpture-filled retail
environment is of course nothing new. Dover
Street Market paved the way long ago for a
legion of multi-brand concept stores to fol-
low, each fusing fashion, art and lifestyle. But
Salci touched on the crux of the matter: such
stores are a reflection of the zeitgeist. The
question is, how extreme can we push them?
How weird and wonderful can we go? ‘When
done well, this niche segment of fashion retail
can do far more than transact,’ says Cole. ‘We
can really create a global connection and a
mirror to our time. That conversation is very
exciting to me.’ – TIFORTY FIVE TEN, NYC
Forty Five Ten New York’s collage-like interior aims to enhance
the ideas and identities of the many brands on display: different
worlds that warrant different design moves.
fortyfiveten.com104 SPACES