Architecture is a mixture of form and function, just like fashion. Clothes are supposed to be comfortable and beautiful at the same time but its design can easily turn out to be a vague ornament in some ocasions. However, some of the biggest world firms such as Chanel, Armani or Louis Vuitton are known for enhancing the human beauty that we already have rather than being a  “decorative” element of our body.

This type of program, fashion retail, is very interesting because it reaches a point where function becomes form and vice versa. If the aim of a store is to transmit beauty, to express class and to sell, its function very much depends on its form. Therefore, fashion architecture is the most plastic kind of architecture, getting close to the limits of art and even sculpture.

Here you have a very particular collection of stores. Would you love to shop here?

Click on images to make them larger.

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1. Louis Vuitton
Location: Marina Bay Sands (Singapore)
Architect: Moshde Safdie Architects
Year: 2012
Description: The radical design for a stand alone store has become the first of it’s kind, an “Island Maison”. Louis Vuitton is a world renowned brand know for it’s commitment to fashion, lifestyle, culture, Art + Architecture. It’s not surprising that an innovative concept was envisioned for their South East Asian flagship store. Read more here.

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2. Gyre Shopping Center
Location: Tokyo (Japan)
Architect: MVRDV
Year: 2007
Description: Spectacular design of a box-shaped building, with a magnificent façade and 7 floors. By gradually twisting these floors around a central core, a series of terraces emerge, connected by stairs and elevators that are positioned outside the volumes. Read more here.

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3. Neil Barrett Flagship Store
Location: Seoul (South Korea) and Hong Kong (China)
Architect: Zaha Hadid
Year: 2008
Description: The ‘Shop in Shop’ concept for Neil Barrett is based on a singular, cohesive project that is divided into sixteen separate pieces. Specific pieces have then been selected and installed into each of the four Neil Barrett Shop in Shop’s in Seoul, and also into the Hong Kong shop; creating a unique display landscape within each store. The pieces have been carved and molded from the original solid as pairs that define each other to create an artificial landscape that unfolds multiple layers for display. Read more here.

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4. Prada Aoyama
Location: Tokyo (Japan)
Architect: Herzog & deMeuron
Year: 2003
Description: The shape of the building is substantially influenced by the angle of incidence of the local profile. Depending on where the viewer is standing, the body of the building will look more like a crystal or like an archaic type of building with a saddle roof. Read more here.

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5. Armani Store
Location: New York (US)
Architect: FUKSAS
Year: 2009
Description: The nucleus of the project is the staircase that connects the floors. It’s an element completely indipendent that can be assimilated with difficulty to a simple geometric figure, that originates a whirlwind with a great dymanism, and around of it there are the different levels that receives the Armani’s world. Read more here.

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6. Puma House
Location: Tokyo (Japan)
Architect: NENDO
Year: 2011
Description: A series of ‘staircases’ climb around the existing features around the space like vines. The resulting effect is a strong reminder that we exercise our bodies daily going up and down stairs, and has a visual connection with stadium stairs and podiums too, to bring in PUMA’s important relationship with sports. Read more here.

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7. Siki Im Concept Store
Location: New York (US)
Architect: Leong Leong
Year: 2009
Description: Avant-garde newcomer Siki Im displays the clothing embedded beneath a layer of foam, ‘reinforcing the dichotomy of two environments – public and private, visible and invisible’.  This stand-alone retail installation is the first of its kind. Read more here

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8. Valentino
Location: Milano (Italy)
Architect: David Chipperfield
Year: 2012
Description: Designed to look more like a palazzo, albeit a smartly updated one, than a traditional store has was opened at the 50th anniversary of the Valentino brand.The aim is to make the new flagship store a personal space and not a simple shop. There will be a succession of different rooms, each one will have its own personality and will house the Valentino collections.  Read more here.

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9. Christian Dior
Location: Tokyo (Japan)
Architect: SANAA
Year: 2004
Description: While the box itself is unexciting – though modulated by some variety in floor height, articulated by the bands around the building – the building’s showpiece is its skin. The clean, square, outer skin of clear glass covers a second skin inside, of translucent acrylic. This gives the external facade the gentlest of hints at what is inside (while revealing nothing), and provides a glowing blank canvas for seasonal additions. Read more here.

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10. Maison Hermès
Location: Tokyo (Japan)
Architect: Renzo Piano
Year: 2006
Description: The small tower is entirely wrapped in 13,000 bespoke, 450mm square glass blocks, with special curved blocks on the corners. At night the building resembles a giant glowing Japanese lantern. Every element of the building was designed to withstand earthquakes and absorb seismic shockwaves. The building contains a shop, offices, an exhibition space and access to the underground station below Harumi Avenue. Read more here.

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11. Labels 2
Location: Berlin (Germany)
Architect: HHF Architects
Year: 2010
Description: Conceived to provide showroom space for approximately thirty different international fashion labels.  The design concept responds to the architecture of the adjacent building.  The interior spaces of this historical building are strongly characterized by the repetition of arched windows used in the façade. Read more here.

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12. TOD’S
Location: Tokyo (Japan)
Architect: Toyo Ito
Year: 2004
Description: The seven-storey building continues Ito’s exploration of ideas of surface, the dramatic structure mimicking the shapes of the tall elm trees that stretch along Omotesando Avenue and reinterprets them in its façade as a series of crisscrossing geometric forms. The façade is a smooth blend of concrete and glass and materials are kept simple. Read more here.

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13. Chanel Store
Location: New York (US)
Architect: Peter Marino Architect
Year: 2011
Description: Located in the heart of Soho, was inspired by the artistic feel of the neighborhood, and was designed to reflect its legendary spirit. Its interiors also draws inspiration from signature icons of the house and from materials reminiscent of the brand.. Read more here.

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14. Prada
Location: New York (US)
Architect: Rem Koolhas- OMA
Year: 2001
Description: New York’s Prada Epicenter – an exclusive boutique, a public space, a gallery, a performance space, a laboratory – is part of OMA / AMO’s ongoing research into shopping, arguably the last remaining form of public activity, and a strategy to counteract and destabilize any received notion of what Prada is, does, or will become. Read more here.

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15. Derek Lam
Location: New York (US)
Architect: SANAA
Year: 2009
Description: Its retail environment is minimalist, functional, intimate and warm. This building however, looks very much like SANAA’s style seen at building such as Toledo’s Museum of Art. Read more here.

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16. Mikimoto Ginza 2
Location: Tokyo (Japan)
Architect: Toyo Ito
Year: 2005
Description: Ginza, literally means “place of silver” and has been a commercial district of Tokyo. The building of apparent simplicity comprises a prism perforated by a series of irregular windows. The concept is based on the building is held by its facade, leaving the internal spaces column-free. Read more here.

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17. Puma City
Location: Multiple Global Ports
Architect: LOT EK Architecture and design
Year: 2008
Description: Twenty-four shipping containers are retrofitted and transformed into PUMA City, a transportable retail and event building. The building was assembled and disassembled a number of times at several different international ports. PUMA City is conceived as a three level stack of containers, shifted to create internal outdoor spaces, large overhangs and terraces. Read more here.

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