Back in 2019, the design studio L’Atelier Five had just a few hours to fit out a photo booth, poetry station, bar-style browsing area and music ‘sound shower’ for an immersive pop-up at the Selfridges department store in London. The team had designed the multifaceted space for the Clash de Cartier jewellery collection launch, and the pressure was on. ‘There was no margin for on-site fabrication or problem solving,’ says creative director Saina Attaoui. ‘We pre-built and pre-finished the entire environment in our workshop, down to the last junction and tolerance.’
On the occasion of L’Atelier Five’s tenth anniversary, a new monograph called Contagious Creativity offers rare insight into the design of physical retail, and a window into the creative ingenuity behind memorable installations for Hermes, Alexander McQueen, Pomellato and others. From a freestanding 1,200sqft store-within-a-store for Cartier to a mirrored, polka-dotted optical illusion for artist Yayoi Kusama’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton at Harrods — all, incidentally, completed in the nick of time — the book tells this story of fantasy-building through 33 projects.
Every one of them has required precision engineering. ‘This is what allows a concept to feel effortless in real life,’ says Attaoui. ‘It is the discipline behind the magic… It’s structural thinking, weight distribution, concealed counterbalance, cable management and making sure every element is stable and aligned.’ Perfection matters because, in luxury, the eye reads quality instantly. ‘If something is slightly off — a seam, a shadow, a wobble — the illusion breaks. Precision is what makes an activation feel architectural and permanent.’ Even when it is temporary, freestanding and installed overnight.
Retail has changed dramatically over the past decade and will continue to evolve with shifting consumer habits. With so many of our brand interactions now done on a screen, it takes something more engaging than your standard window display to garner sufficient interest and time investment in real life. Today, physical retail spaces need to earn attention by providing experiences. They need to offer something people will stay for — or, even better, something they will leave their homes to see.
Attaoui reckons the future of successful physical retail lies in creating spaces that will capture the hearts, minds and wallets of real-world customers through experiential pop-ups and sculptural installations. And the more luxurious the brand, the higher the bar. Her book, out this week, illustrates the new rules for a new generation of creators.
‘Today, retailers have to communicate who they are in seconds, not just what they sell,’ she says. ‘They have to give people a reason to stay, to share and to remember.’
