SEATTLE – There’s letting the merchandise speak for itself (think minimalist white racks that blend into the background), and then there’s the alternative: an interior so over the top that it detracts from the offerings. Monki’s stores come to mind to illustrate the latter.



Interiors like the Hermès concept boutique by London-based StoreyStudio are another breed. In a similar vein to Rafael de Cárdenas’s sculptural store in Au Pont Rouge (Frame 112, p. 134), StoreyStudio’s displays at the Nordstrom Downtown Seattle store could themselves be works of art. But rather than play the sole shining stars, they’re companions to the collection, their colours complementing the merchandise on display. The team also balanced gradations of colour with negative space – large areas of white – to accommodate silk products and other accessories.

The accessory-only boutique – the first of its kind for Hermès – sees each view staged like a mise en scène. The studio ‘allowed the product and space to interact in new ways, readdressing the conventional retail experience into an explorative journey’, says Robert Storey, who (unsurprisingly) studied Fine Art Sculpture at Central Saint Martins. Olivia Kim, vice president of creative projects at Nordstrom, acknowledges how the project ‘revisits the idea of what luxury can be’ and ‘shows a youthful side to our brands’.



StoreyStudio’s pop-up for Hermès at Nordstrom’s Downtown Seattle store will be open until the end of 2017. 

Photos Andrew Giammarco

storeystudio.com