Playing it spool inside Annakiki’s thread-stacked boutique
It’s fortuitous that the brain behind Annakiki’s latest boutique in Chongqing, China is the architectural firm Joy Season. Delight is experienced as soon as one enters the sleek, 100 sq m space. In recent months, the firm has been busy, creating a futuristic cloud-like installation at Design China Beijing, crafted from suspended stacks of prismatic acrylic plates and polished steel, and designing the interior of 105 Café in Shanghai, a graphic, warm-hued space, populated with orb-like mobiles.
Spools of thread form the focus of fashion label Annakiki’s latest boutique. The bold and experimental brand, which works from Shenzhen and Milan, has presented at Milan Fashion Week since 2017, and for Joy Season’s Hector Liang, its DNA has been articulated through the use of antithetical, bold tones and textures, like pink marble and stainless steel. Surfaces reflect each other, gloss finishes are juxtaposed against matte fixtures, and post box hued ready-to-wear interacts with the wall-stacked spools of thread.
There’s a refined classicism behind the space, which features a series of smooth arched doorways and symmetrical circular windows, and an industrialism in the mirrored surfaces and the grid-like plinths and light fixtures which are ordered geometrically within the space. Like the spools on show in the store – which nod to the brand's ready-to-wear heritage, the boutiqe poses a new narrative thread for the label's retail output, one which has us on red alert.
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
2F, The Mixc
No55
Xiejiawan Road
Jiulongpo District
Chongqing
China
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Art-filled Embassy House in Buenos Aires has all the right connectionsKallos Turin transforms a former diplomatic residence in Buenos Aires into a private family home with a mission to reconcile past and present
-
Let’s go Deutsch – a date with Berlin’s new-wave dinersIn the German capital, the diner is being reinvented as a contemporary hub for cosmopolitan flavours, conviviality and near-Nora Ephron levels of delight
-
David Kohn’s first book, ‘Stages’, is unpredictable, experimental and informativeThe first book on David Kohn Architects focuses on the work of the award-winning London-based practice; ‘Stages’ is an innovative monograph in 12 parts
-
Chanel heads to Hangzhou, China for a poetic Métiers d’Art 2025 showThis evening in China (3 December 2024), Chanel travelled to Hangzhou’s much-mythologised West Lake, a Unesco World Heritage site, for a show that highlighted the extraordinary craft of the house’s artisans
-
AlphaTauri’s Salzburg HQ is a science fiction fantasyBrowse in-store, buy online: the future-focused mentality of AlphaTauri
-
Water inspires Holzweiler’s Snøhetta-designed Oslo flagshipHolzweiler Platz, the new retail destination of fashion brand Holzweiler in Oslo, is designed by architects Snøhetta as a naturalistic space that unites fashion, art and food
-
Manu Atelier's first boutique nods to Le Corbusier in IstanbulThe cult Istanbul-based label introduces bold, sculptural expressionism into this first bricks and mortar store
-
Louis Vuitton's Ginza Namiki flagship evokes a rippling pillar of waterJapanese architect Jun Aoki creates a water-like facade for Louis Vuitton's Ginza Namiki Tokyo flagship
-
Alternative retail websites for fashionable festive giftingLook to luxury etailers Rêve En Vert, APOC Store and Doda the Store, Aspect and Zero-Living for feel-good gifting options that support emerging creatives and artists, and have a sustainability-focused mindset
-
Aspesi’s upcycled shirt is a winter wardrobe stapleThe Italian brand's Shirt-Jacket 13 silhouette is well padded with eco-credentials
-
David Chipperfield designs Furla's new flagship in Milan's historic Piazza DuomoGio Ponti, Vico Magistretti and Achille Castiglione inspire the brand's newest Milan boutique