The new Paris store for fashion designer Stella Cadente is a tunnel lined in gold.
Designed by French architects Atelier du Pont, the cylindrical shop showcases clothing and accessories within the rectangular recesses of its curved walls.
Gold leaf covers almost every interior surface, including the mannequins.
The theme continues on the exterior, where a glazed facade is surrounded by a gilt frame.
We’ve noticed an increase in golden buildings in recent months and have recently featured both a library and a museum clad in golden metal. See these projects and more here.
Photography is by Sergio Grazia.
The text below is from Atelier du Pont:
Stella Cadente’s Paris boutique
Stella Cadente + Atelier du Pont = fabulous stories
The story of Stella Cadente and Atelier du Pont goes back a long way. It’s a story of a friendship between two women – Stella Cadente, a designer, and Anne-Cécile Comar, an architect – and, of course, of shared adventures, with their complementary professions and points of view.
For a previous concept store in Dubai, Atelier du Pont came up with a design midway between an ice palace and a crystal maze for Stella Cadente. It espoused the brand’s style based on light, crystal, magic and transparent dress. Thousands of stalactites changed colour, creating an impression that the store had come alive.
Now they have teamed up again in 2012 under the skies of Paris. Clothed in glass from top to toe, the boutique stands out from the sober lines of the Boulevard Beaumarchais due to its gilded metal frontage. This new Parisian space breaks with the conventions of usual stores. Inside it is cylindrical, broken into two ellipses. The shop window display stand is out: the clothes are laid out on a large draper’s table, and the soft, practical design makes a mockery of the XXS-sized Parisian boutique. The final radical change is in colour, as the interior is entirely covered in gold leaf.
Architect: Atelier du Pont (Anne-Cécile Comar, Philippe Croisier, Stéphane Pertusier)
Client: Stella Cadente
Location: 102 boulevard Beaumarchais Paris 11th – France
Completion: March 2012
