Prada moves to a modernist Brazilian beat at its new Miami boutique

Occupying a corner spot within Miami’s glittering Design District, where designer boutiques clamour for shopper’s attention, a new Prada concept store is making its presence known.

From the outside, its exterior evokes the precision and rectilinear lines of 1960s design thanks to a series of dense white vertical blades that are clustered over its large windows, providing shade from Miami’s intense sun while also revealing or concealing the interior.

Inside, the collections – including men’s and women’s clothing, handbags, accessories and footwear – are spread over two generous floors connected by a spectacular timber staircase. Here, the Milanese label respectfully nods to the city’s architecture with numerous references to art deco and Latin America, but reinterpreted through the eyes of Prada.

Walls are clad in Prada green bas-relief panels featuring various 3D floral designs taken from the label’s collection prints. The result is an interior that is distinctly Prada, while also recalling the ‘tropical deco’ sugary pastel-painted buildings of old Miami Beach.

Black and white art deco marble chequered tiles inspired by the historic Prada store in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan line the floor in a pleasing contrast to the soft green walls. Throughout the 650 sq m space, small areas of seating, rosewood screens and valet stands provide a touch of the domestic, creating comfortable areas for shoppers to stop and rest.

Furnishings are made using Brazilian rosewood, jacaranda and cabreuva, and include Brazilian mid-century pieces by the likes of Portuguese-born interior designer Joaquim Tenreiro – widely regarded as the father of modern Brazilian design – Carlo Hauner and Martin Eisler, Jorge Zalszupin, José Zanine Caldas, and Sérgio Rodrigues. The vertical slats of rosewood that are used to create the tables, screens and benches subtly echo the vertical slats used across the building’s ceilings and exterior.

Following on from the launch of the Prada365 initiative at the beginning of the year – a multi-channel realignment of the label’s direction – the domestically styled concept store marks a move away from more formal layouts and sets out a distinctive template for what we can expect to see from Prada’s approach to retail design in the future.

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INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Prada website. Follow our live report from Design Miami 2017

ADDRESS

Prada
152 NE 41st Street
Miami

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