Located at the corner of 5th Avenue and 43rd Street, the building is clad with 27-foot high glass windows that showcase the interior. Creating an impression of weightless architecture, the building features floating white terrazzo mezzanine and a glowing ceiling. These elements are embellished by an original 70-inch long gilded screen and hanging ‘cloud’ mobile, designed by the sculptor and furniture designer Harry Bertoia.
In contrast with other mass-market fashion retailer concepts, the store is airy, colourful, urban and ever changing. To protect the historic features of the building, none of the shop fittings are drilled into the floor, walls or ceiling. The free-floating, sculptural merchandising systems complement the lightness of the host building.
The new store features custom-designed wardrobes, which can be easily arranged and reconfigured to separate the collections and to break down the space as desired. Each vignette composes a different ‘colour story’ of Joe Fresh’s clothing and accessories.
Designed to transmit light, the wardrobes are crafted from white, powder-coated metal with sandblasted Lexan panels. The store also features seamless monitors, mirrors or backlit billboards. Apart from that, the store also features select number of glowing light boxes in Joe Fresh’s signature orange and video screens, which display contemporary art videos or runway shows contributing to the liveliness of the store and help the merchandise to glow.
Paying careful attention to detailing and proportion, the new Joe Fresh store has been designed with simple contemporary design elements. The display tables are powdercoated aluminum ‘Parsons tables’ with ‘benches’. In order to get the appearance of porcelain and texture of wood grain, the white polycarbonate merchandising cubes are made from wood molds.
