A curved bench and sinuous show rails meander by the interconnected areas of this vogue retailer in Kyiv, Ukraine, which inside designer Katerina Kovalenko has conceived as a relaxing sanctuary for buyers.
Kovalenko’s studio 725 developed the idea retailer for Buddies of Trend – a Ukrainian clothes model that needed its first bodily area to enrich its uncomplicated and chic womenswear assortment.
A palette of pure supplies together with wool carpet and wooden veneer creates a sanctuary-like area that showcases the model’s give attention to gradual vogue.
“The shoppers needed an inside that mirrored their model’s type and philosophy, with a give attention to natural particulars and concord,” Kovalenko informed Dezeen.
“Our purpose was to create an area that not solely highlighted their vogue items but additionally supplied consolation, heat and a way of refuge for patrons – particularly important given the context of the continued warfare,” she added.
All through the shop, the design workforce aimed to evoke the movement of materials, utilizing curved kinds and tender, textured supplies such because the light-weight curtains that line among the partitions.
The textiles and white plastered surfaces are contrasted with obscure wood panelling and stainless-steel hanging rails in among the rooms.
Current architectural options equivalent to an arched doorway between two of the areas and home windows in a cupola above the stairwell helped inform a number of interventions – each externally and internally.
“To keep up the consumer’s price range, we preserved these options and reinterpreted them by arched mirrors, rounded facades and tender, flowing kinds that improve the pure circulation of the area whereas including a recent contact,” Kovalenko added.
For the facade, which appears onto a important thoroughfare in Kyiv’s historic metropolis centre, the studio commissioned a pair of curving glass vitrines which can be positioned on both aspect of the doorway.
Internally, 725 labored with architect Illia Klymenko to develop a number of gadgets of bespoke furnishings, together with an S-shaped couch that gives lounge seating subsequent to the fee space.
Different items that had been specifically made for the shop embody a curved stainless-steel garment rack and a checkered carpet that covers the ground within the becoming rooms.
In keeping with Kovalenko, the continued warfare in Ukraine made it tough to supply manufactured items from native manufacturers as a result of destruction of manufacturing services throughout the nation.
“A lot of the furnishings and decor had been made by Ukrainian craftsmen, as worldwide orders confronted important delays at customs and narrow native stock required us to depend on customized manufacturing,” she stated.
Probably the most eye-catching options is the bespoke cloth suspension lamp within the stairwell, which is mechanised to open and shut like a flower.
“Its natural design, paying homage to a flower opening to daylight, represents hope and resilience – a metaphor for the idea that even in Ukraine’s darkest occasions, the solar will shine once more,” stated Kovalenko.
Buddies of Trend’s slow-fashion ethos knowledgeable lots of the materials decisions by the inside, incuding the emphasis on recycled and reusable parts.
725 was based in 2019 by Kovalenko, who’s presently based mostly in London and describes herself as a inventive designer and development professional, centered on elevating consciousness of Ukrainian inside design.
In 2022, Kovalenko wrote an editorial for Dezeen describing how she was compelled to flee Ukraine when Russian forces began to invade. She additionally produced a round-up of six interiors that signify up to date Ukrainian design.
