Wang's Luxury Brand Displays Showcased At Beijing's Premium Park Life Mall#
Park Life, one of Beijing's top luxury malls, is home to a number of the world's top brands, from European stalwarts like Armani, Valentino, Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana, Cartier and Hermes to home-grown Chinese newcomers like Qeelin. Now, joining the glittering retail outlets at Park Life, Chinese architect Wang Hui has created a new installation as part of a global art exhibition, "Vogue Magazine Alive," which has also livened up high-end boutiques in Japan since beginning in Tokyo last year.
Hosted by fashion magazine Vogue, it was first held in Japan in 2009. When clothing brand Comme De Garcons founder and head designer Kawakubo Rei was doing up her Tokyo store, exclusively for limited-edition products, Vogue invited Murakami Takashi to do its interior design, and Chanel's head Karl Lagerfield to dress up the shop windows.
Since last May, the store interior has been changed every month, in keeping with Vogue Nippon's fashion pictures. For example, Murakami uses small flowers to decorate the second floor to match the magazine's cartoon-themed photos, giving it a young and girlie look. He also introduces a range of cartoon-themed, limited edition t-shirts.
Later Versace, Marc Jacobs, and Hedi Slimane added their ideas.
Architect Wang Hui was chosen to orchestrate a similar project in China.
"We want to turn two-dimensional fashion photos into three-dimensional installations. That is why we chose an architect. Besides, Wang is fashionable," Angelica Cheung, editorial director of Vogue China, says.
Wang, who has designed Today Art Museum, MIMA Caf and had a role in planning 798 Art District, certainly knows something about fashion.
He compares the shopping mall to a fashion magazine. "Each installation is a page. When you are window-shopping, it's like turning the pages of a beautiful magazine. The only difference is, here the magazine is three-dimensional," he says.
"A lot of Vogue's fashion shoots are photoshop-ed. But when I make them three-dimensional, I can't use the software. So I need to pay more attention to the details. When a customer takes a closer look, he or she will see every little detail of the clothes - the cuts, the colors, and the lines."
The ambience in a shopping mall was another challenge.
"As the shopping mall is colorful and dazzling, it distracts people's attention. That's why I used multi-faceted mirrors as a backdrop of each installation. When customers walk by, their images might attract their attention."
It's an interesting development to see a respected Chinese architect like Wang Hui to be chosen by Vogue to design this project. In coming years, we might see more domestic designers and architects being commissioned by not only high-end malls, but individual boutiques -- particularly as more Chinese luxury brands appear on the scene.