The Australian luxury personal care company made an art out of design as much as out of its formulations, thanks to the clean aesthetic of its signature amber bottles with black-and-cream striped labels and its site-specific retail concepts, which surprise — and draw — customers each time with different interiors in tune with local neighborhoods.
“As always for all our stores, this one responds to the context, too,” Marianne Lardilleux, Aesop’s head of store design, told WWD. She nodded to the proximity to the Cordusio subway station and the city’s first subway line that opened in 1964. “We got inspired by this. Our other stores are very connected to the district where they are. We thought this one will open up new lines of connections between Aesop and the citizens of Milan….
“We’re very much inspired by art, cinema and design. We contacted Nicolas and he was happy to work with us on this installation, which nods to the Arte Povera movement from the late ‘60s and ‘70s, where everyday functional items were used in an expected ways,” Lardilleux said. “So of course he used our soap as a pattern to build this wall all around our new store.”
“What I’ve learned here is how architecture can help to host people and make them comfortable in the space, so how to create an intimate environment where people will feel comfortable to speak about their skin,” Lardilleux continued. She summed up the design ethos of the brand as “harmonious, immersive for the experience we give and non-conformist, because what we do, nobody does it.”