- Interior
- Architecture & development
In recent years, Studio Anne Holtrop has focused on designing a concept store for the French clothing brand Maison Margiela. The collaboration shows how creativity with materials can take shape in a subtle yet innovative way.
Fashion and architecture, two domains that cannot be defined by fixed boundaries. When the two come together in perfect harmony, a sparkle of magic often emerges. This case is no different. Since 2018, Studio Anne Holtrop took on the design of Maison Margiela's concept store in London. The project was realised in 2020 and the store is 190 square metres in size. The starting point for the studio was to define the material. The unique DNA of Maison Margiela itself was considered. Central ideas of the clothing brand's philosophy are memories, haste, and a technique called décortiqué, in which haute couture designers cut through the layers of a garment to reveal its construction. The ultimate goal was to use materiality to develop a new architectural identity. 
The first important material choice the studio made was to make plaster casts in textile formwork. In concrete terms, this meant that the plaster was given the texture of textile, which, due to the flexibility of fabric, always produced a different result. The textile imprint remains visible in the material forever, as do possible folds of the fabric. The volume of plaster that pushed out the formwork also remained visible. This interesting technique was applied to the walls and columns, which are the primary elements that define the space here. The intention was to create an interior in which the texture and movement of fabric was echoed. In this way, the studio wanted to reflect on the construction of the brand's garments, an original way to design a shop. 
The studio wanted to reflect on the construction of the brand's garments.
The design also relied on the incorporation of incomplete rectangular shapes reminiscent of paper cut-outs. The intention behind this was to convey imperfection, as this creates a space with character. Several shapes were combined to form a mirror or table, for example, which gives the figures an unfinished dimension. The material from which these pieces were cut is white stained travertine. Normally, the porosity of this material is remedied by filling the travertine with an epoxy (a liquid plastic) that perfectly matches its colour. In this case, a white variant of this plastic was used, which resulted in an exaggerated drawing. In this way, the material appeared to be coloured. The travertine pieces also fit in with the entire interior, as the entire shop is bathed in a light colour palette of white and beige tones.
Through the work of Studio Anne Holtrop, Maison Margiela's concept store is assured of an original design that is close to the brand's core, namely the construction of garments. The light interior also ensures that the collection and its various colours are shown off to their best advantage.
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Photography by Henry Bourne