Luxury fashion brand Self-Portrait has opened a store in London with mirrored surfaces and Cornish clay walls that combine “minimalism, materiality and colour”.
Located on the corner of Kings Road and Duke of York Square in Chelsea, London, the 200 square meter store was designed by Self-Portrait founder and creative director Han Chong in collaboration with New York-based architect Andreas Kostopoulos.
“Inspired by spatial design and the idea of self-reflection, features in a myriad of textures, including chrome and mirror, dominate the interior walls and reflect tonal surfaces in mint green,” Self-Portrait said of the interior.
“Using minimalism, materiality and color, we wanted to create an intimate, sensory and focused experience, free of any interfering or visually distracting architectural features and functions that can typically overwhelm retail environments,” said Kostopoulos.
The shop interior is characterized by natural materials. Mint-pigmented Cornish clay covers its walls and offers a textural quality through its visible markings, reminiscent of limewash.
Custom terrazzo floors in hues of white, gray and mint blanket the majority of the floors while some areas, including fitting rooms, are decorated with soft carpets in matching colors to add a softer touch to the space.
Between the textural clay walls, expanses of mirror panels decorate the vertical surfaces and surround floor-to-ceiling street windows to visually expand and blur the boundaries of the retail space.
“I love the idea of spatial perception, which blurs the lines between inside and outside, vertically and horizontally,” Chong explained.
While using rich and textured materials, Chong and Kostopoulos also sought to create a space that was minimalist and free of distracting architectural elements by reducing the store to its bare essentials.
Overhead lighting throughout was subtlety hidden behind a gridded, drop ceiling that creates a contemporary and modernist look, while also adding a contrasting textural quality.
“I am so proud of the space we have created – it is the perfect blend of art and architecture, providing a serene and minimalist home for our collections,” Chong continued.
“For me, this store has become the perfect physical manifestation of our brand – it’s a contrast of the effortless and the studied, with a focus on quality, materials and craftsmanship.”
Self-Portrait’s ready-to-wear collections were displayed on chrome-trimmed clothes rails in front of windows while accessories were organized on chrome display tables.
Antique furniture is combined with contemporary pieces throughout the store. A Max Lamb chair was neatly placed in a mirrored corner of the shop space, while wooden chairs were scattered throughout.
Self-Portrait is a contemporary luxury brand founded by Chong in 2013 after graduating from womenswear design at Central Saint Martins.
Elsewhere in London, AMO created a terracruda-clad shop-within-a-shop at Selfridges that featured curved display areas and brutalist furniture for French fashion brand Jacquemus.
Design studio Perron-Roettinger recently unveiled its design for a pop-up store for Kim Kardashian’s homewares brand SKKN, which the studio clad in raw plaster and cement.
