French designer Christophe Pillet has designed the first store for a new fragrance brand on Paris’ prestigious Rue Saint-Honoré, with a royal blue and marble interior and modular fittings .
Solution and interior designer Pillet was invited by the founders of Ex Nihilo to produce their 1st shop with a design and style that would offer you flexibility and set the tone for the perfume house’s future retail shops.
The flagship at 352 Rue Saint-Honoré, which functions a wall of modular shelving and steel worktables suspended from the ceiling, opened in December 2013 and has now been partially replicated in a modest concession at London department retailer Harrods.
Designed by French consultants Sylvie Loday, Olivier Royère and Benoît Verdier, Ex Nihilo intends to provide a modern alternative to standard French perfume houses.
Connected story: Selfridges’ Fragrance Lab attempts to distill your character into a scent
“Perfume is the scene of the moment. In the last yr, there were 300 new launches of niche perfumes,” Benoît Verdier advised Dezeen.
“Luxury brand names want to be niche to be awesome, and niche manufacturers want to be luxury to make income,” he continued. “So the thought was Okay, we are not niche, but we are a new fragrance brand – Ex Nihilo in Latin indicates created from scratch. The idea and the challenge was to be extremely credible and reputable.”
Pillet said the trio have been hunting for a designer who “lacked a bit of maturity” so that the space would not feel old-fashioned.
“Even new perfume companies and new brand names, they are very formatted, related to an outdated fashioned type of Classicism,” Pillet informed Dezeen. “They wanted Ex Nihilo to be traditional, which means not being trendy of the minute. But they also needed to seem like a young, fresh, begin-up. So this was those two lemons with each other. That was interesting to translate.”
The Paris shop is arranged more than two floors, behind a glazed shop front framed in steel. A strip of Greek marble across the front features the brand’s emblem, and the exact same marble is used for plinths and accents all through the interior.
Inside, the ground floor is focused to showcasing the brand’s fragrances. This includes the shop’s “osmologue” – a series of scent emitters created by Pillet exclusively for Ex Nihilo that seem like vases encased in blocks of transparent perspex.
A capsule at the bottom of each block is made up of an alcohol-free perfume sample. When a button is pressed on the front, a jet of air flushes by way of the capsule in direction of the opening at the top, delivering a shot of scent.
These will eventually be created into stand-alone goods offered by the brand, with far more luxurious finishes, in accordance to Verdier, who was previously a method planner for luxury manufacturers.
“We needed to propose a different strategy to testing the fragrance, that would be non offensive, and would maintain a great stability within the boutique,” explained Verdier.
The devices are housed on a steel worktop construction that hangs from the ceiling on the left side of the area, with a constructed-in leading-light that is similar to a photographer’s light box.
The wall behind is fitted with wooden shelving produced up of a series of in a different way sized boxes, which are mounted onto a frame at the back and can be rearranged to alter the display.
“The wood is the classical American Walnut,” explained Pillet. “Quite chic, long lasting, and standard at the same time. It truly is like a black dress.”
A second suspended table forms a counter on the other side of the keep, which consumers can sit at whilst an assistant generates bespoke fragrances.
Each and every fragrance in the selection can be customised with additional notes. The new combinations are designed on internet site making use of professional equipment, which sits on a gold steel counter that runs along the correct-hand wall.
The fittings on each and every wall are mounted on rails and can be moved along to develop distinct arrangements, with glass panels that slide in front of the shelves.
“You can partition the area in different ways,” explained the designer. “There was also this thought of being a bit dynamic, with doors on wheels, opening and finding issues, hiding factors and paying out with the space.”
“The shelving and furnishings is actually like a technical system,” additional Pillet. “We have also 3 varieties of components in our recipe, which is the marble, the metal and the wood. We can mix them and make specific therapies for stores utilizing this program.”
Matching shelving is installed in the upstairs room, which is utilized for personal consultations and the creation of bespoke fragrances making use of raw resources.
Pillet explained the design method was related to a producing an industrial workspace like a laboratory, but using domestic supplies.
All of the metal used during the shop has been finished in a pale gold colour, and the walls are painted brilliant blue to contrast with the steel, wood and marble.
The ceilings are covered with smoked mirror, to partially reflect the blue of the walls and produce the impression of a more substantial room.
“You never have to truly feel like you are caught within this small box,” stated Pillet. “It really is far more like furnishings in a wider area.”
The Ex Nihilo concession in Harrods
The new Ex Nihilo concession in Harrods opened final month and features the exact same shelving and fittings with a layout adapted to a narrower location.
A sampling table for customising fragrances was extra in the direction of the back of the area, with the walnut shelving covering an total wall.
