Aesop’s New York story

In partnership with Aesop

Founded by Parisian Cyril Marsollier and Lima-born Wallo Villacorta, MV-LLC practice designs spaces inspired by existing site conditions, encouraging thoughtful layouts with expressive materials and considered assemblies. The New York-based architects strive to minimise a project’s environmental impact while enhancing its specificity and functionality. 

The team are dedicated observers of the construction process, and the anticipation of demolition, the surprise and challenges of what lies beneath as well as the mechanical and chemical processes that sometimes leave an unintended but celebrated mark on materials all become an integral part of each MV-LLC project.

Aesop’s New York story

Having worked as part of Aesop’s in-house design team back in 2016, collaborating closely with global retail design director Marianne Lardilleux on stores in Tokyo and LA, Marsollier and Villacorta built a deep understanding of the brand’s aesthetic, their subsequent work incorporating and respecting the fundamental Aesop design language learnt internally. 

‘The brand is in a very different position now than it was seven years ago,’ Marsollier told Wallpaper* US editor Pei-Ru Keh. ‘We were still introducing the brand to a new US customer, establishing the basic promises of the store which were somewhat unusual. Now Aesop has a solid US customer base and they are familiar with what to expect.’

In 2023, says Marsollier, through the use of diverse materials and textures, a new Aesop store tells a different story every time, but is still mindful of respecting history, context and location. ‘The design briefs become increasingly complex, which makes for great design challenges every time.’ 

‘An Aesop store is contextual,’ the architects explain. ‘It aims to intertwine itself within the streetscape, and be respectful to its surroundings. The store also touches on activating the senses from the moment you walk in – every detail is really intentional and considered. The focus is really on making sure that it feels effortless.’

The same effortless spirit and respectful process continued with the recently opened Aesop store in Manhattan. Situated on a NoMad corner site at 1165 Broadway, the 19th-century property has a layered history as a former horse stable for an adjacent hotel, then a shoe store and a fashion wholesaler.  

‘When we first walked into the store, most of the intricate details of the architecture were covered with drywall, recalls Marsollier. ‘We immediately conducted probes and decided to work with the existing conditions as much as possible. The process of pulling back layers is central to our work: we try to not be excessive and work with a pretty reductive approach.’

A 2020s renovation of the store’s façade had removed its commercial awning and restored the original cornice work. Now, in 2023, MV-LLC’s new design opted to invert the aesthetic, actually finding inspiration in those same, seemingly mundane awnings that once adorned the building. 

After conducting a study of NoMad’s commercial canopies, taking particular note of the interaction between the steel frame and the canvas, exploring how fabric could be pulled, woven, made taught or stiffened in other ways, the architects found poetry in the contrasts between hard and soft, matte and reflective, covered and uncovered. A rhythm in the repetition and counterpoint of structure and shelter.

‘We took a look back at the history of the building and realised that with every iteration of the stores, awnings were always a part of them. This was an opportunity to celebrate multiple layers of history without a particular polarity to the early 20th century or the more recent wholesale history: telling the story of the city constantly building upon itself. There was also something fascinating about abstracting the two elements that make up awnings - pulled fabric + pragmatic aluminium tubing.’ 

Inside the store, MV-LLC’s design for Aesop NoMad abstracts these industrial qualities further, transforming rudimentary constructions into functional shelving and furniture systems throughout the space, showcasing and shouldering Aesop’s full range of products for the skin, hair, body and home, providing prospects for privacy, and accommodate repose.

Display units are constructed from steel tubes with louvred panels of stretched waterproof canvas in a burnt orange hue that lends warmth to the otherwise pared-back interior. In homage to the off-the-shelf wire structures that are commonplace in the area’s wholesale commercial tenancies, bespoke basins borrow and adapt a language of tightly coiled steel wire that conceals the basin and drain to surprising auditory effect. 

Juxtaposed against the stripped-back shell of the space, which reveals historic elements such as cast-iron columns and original ceiling joists, a polished-steel Fragrance Library offers customers the opportunity to discover Aesop’s world of unconventional eaux de parfum. In this space of resilient canopies and cocooning shade, Aesop’s adroit consultants can recommend formulations best suited to individual needs. It’s a place for New York’s NoMad community to stop and stay still for a while.

Alongside Aesop NoMad, the brand has recently opened three further stores in NYC, Aesop Nolita, Aesop Madison Avenue, and Aesop Gansevoort Street.

Aesop.com