Status: Completed 2022
Self-Portrait Store King’s Road / London UK
Client: Self-Portrait
Type: Retail
Using the self-portrait as a central theme, the design emphasizes mirror-like surfaces while relegating all other architectural features into a background layer. Chrome, brushed, and polished reflective materials contrast with pigmented mineral elements, including clay and terrazzo. The mineral textures defer to the mirrored surfaces, which generate different reflections as customers browse the garments. By leveraging minimalism, materiality, and color, the aim was to create a more self-centered experience, filtering out visually distracting architectural clutter that typically overwhelms the retail environment.
The store is tinted in mint green to produce a soothing, immersive atmosphere. Both terrazzo floors and clay walls are bathed in this subtle shade of green, abstracting details while emphasizing textures. The color unifies vertical and horizontal surfaces; at the same time, the rich, pigmented iron oxide tones bring the different materials into soft relief.
Contrasting with these mineral elements, all other surfaces are clad in stainless steel. Different treatments result in different degrees of reflectivity. Depending on its brushed, honed, or highly polished finish, the effect of the stainless steel varies from fuzzy and diffused to sharp and mirror-like. Brushed stainless panels on the fitting room walls generate a muffled reflection. Elsewhere, a mirror-polished clothing rail with an illuminated underside bends in space, producing a floating effect. The rail’s paper-thin presence serves two functions: to hang garments and to light them in an uncanny way.
Reflection and self-reflection are the architectural expression of self-portrait’s brand. Inspired by the way artists use mirrors to paint their self-portraits, mirrors at different scales generate different reflections throughout the store. Mirrors wrap the edges of the windows, blurring the distinction between indoor and outdoor spaces. A mirror door appears open while shut. A cruciform mirror acts like a vanity cabinet. Objects on mirrored shelves seem to hover. Collectively, these reflective surfaces play with notions of vision and self-perception.
