Kenzo Retail Design

2016

Clients: KENZO, Adjaye Associates

Responsibilities: Brand Analysis, Concept Development, Retail Design, Graphic Design

Collaborators: Interior Designer Tatiana Etienne

Context:

Fashion label KENZO approached Adjaye Associates asking for a redesign of their Paris store.

Challenge:

During the initial design phase, it became clear that KENZO’s multicultural brand was not translating consistently across their stores worldwide, which made delivering a refined and sophisticated concept for the Paris store all the more challenging.

Opportunity:

Responsible for partnering closely with the head of interior design Tatiana Etienne, we pitched an entirely revamped retail design for KENZO. The strategy went beyond the Paris store redesign, instead reimagining how to bring the brand to life across retail stores globally and for pop-up scale events.

Proposal:

A collection of colour and material applications derived from the nine cities Kenzo Takada (founder of KENZO) visited during is boat trip in 1964 from Tokyo to Paris are applied to small, medium and large sized shops. The concept involved breaking down nine coloured materials and concrete textures to apply to the store interiors. Jungle vine inspired shelving systems (that also act as benches) form the consistent feature across all stores. Jungles were a strong source of inspiration for Kenzo Takada throughout the early days his design practice and remain a highly referenced aesthetic throughout KENZO’s collections today. The interiors are represented in unconventional collage style visuals, (examples below). The proposal also explores repositioning the concept of a “non-store” by including additional amenities such as a small library and film screening space.

KENZO’s Creative Directors responded asking Adjaye Associates to redesign their stores worldwide.