When it comes to multi-level boutiques, often each floor of a space can feel segregated from the other, acting as isolated spaces instead of parts of an organic retail whole. Not so for Axel Arigato’s latest Copenhagen flagship – and the brand’s latest 270 sq m store to date – which unites its two floors with a monumental raw concrete staircase, carved from jigsaw like asymmetric steps.
The space is another in Axel Arigato’s Europe-connecting retail puzzle. Just this year, the brand has opened spaces in Stockholm and Gothenberg. The label, which began as an online-only couture sneaker label, launching new styles weekly – opened its first bricks and mortar space in Central London’s bustling Soho in 2016.
On Pilestræde in Copenhagen – a street once associated with Denmark’s publishing industry – regular collaborator, architect Christian Halleröd and creative director Max Svärdh have conceived a monochromatic Brutalist space, the industrial grey shade that swathes its walls and ceiling offset with globule-like podiums. These sculptural fixtures are formed from jesmonite, before being dipped in high gloss cerulean and highlighter green lacquer. Their bulbous forms, alongside products which include trainers and t-shirts are reflected in immersive floor-to-ceiling mirrors and framed by a grid of rectangular LED panel lights, affixed to an exposed black ceiling.
Stripped back and sparse, Axel Arigato’s Copenhagen space resembles a sleek art gallery, a comparison only enhanced by its collaboration with Melbourne-based artist Kiri-una Brito Meumann, who counts A$AP Rocky as a fan. In the space – which carries men’s and women’s footwear, ready-to-wear and accessories, among books and objects – sits ‘#SilverDerriere’, a sculpture of life-size human buttocks, designed to foster human connection.
‘The store is created for the people in our community, rather than bringing sales. This is the future of retail,’ says co-founder and CEO Albin Johansson of the space, which will also play host to special projects and weekly events. Its future certainly looks bright; another space in Stockholm’s NK Luxury Department store in Stockholm, is on Axel Arigato’s raw-concrete covered horizon. §
