A temporary store for the Italian eyewear company Persol on the Via Fiori Chiari in Milan has opened, marking the official beginning of a collaboration between David Chipperfield Architects Milan and Luxottica. This collaboration will see the opening of a new Persol store this autumn, the company’s first in Europe.
Located within the same space that will house the permanent store, the temporary store was not conceived as a representation of the new identity, but rather celebrates the provisional nature of the space. Constructed in just a few weeks for Milan Men’s Fashion Week 2019, the bare spaces, which were stripped of previous additions, reveal the pre-existing architecture with a variety of gneiss floors, plastered brick walls and granite columns. The only added elements are two continuous and sinuous display tables that widen and narrow to follow the geometry of the walls and pillars. Each has a continuous felt runner that spans the entire length to display Persol products.
This temporary store will only be open for several weeks before construction on the new concept store begins. This will open in time for the Milan Women’s Fashion Week 2019 in September.
Image © Alberto Parise