Emergence: Morphogenetic Design Strategies

From Political Reportage to Prêt-à-Porter

Fashion Retail, by Eleanor Curtis, is about where fashion and architecture meet. It attempts to capture the exciting and vibrant design activity happening in fashion stores throughout the world. At the high end of fashion, stores are being refitted on an almost annual basis in a whole range of styles, from the purist Minimalism to the fantastical 1970s-inspired Futurism. In addition to the interiors, whole buildings have been conceived by some of the top-name architects for the biggest names in fashion, and to budgets that, only a decade ago, would have suited museums.

The first in a new series entitled ‘Interior Angles’, the book features work by Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron for Prada, Renzo Piano for Hermes, and some incredible work for the Louis Vuitton stores by their in-house architectural team. Interior projects feature sumptuous Minimalist designs by Claudio Silvestrin and Gabellini, for Giorgio Armani and Jil Sander respectively, and cutting-edge designers such as Will Russell for Alexander McQueen and Universal Design Studio for Stella McCartney. The final chapter departs slightly to look at the evolution of the department store, with the new Selfridges in Birmingham by Future Systems as its centrepiece.

Directly following my guest-editorial of Club Culture, Fashion Retail is my third book for Wiley-Academy and, like ...