Bureau Spectacular etched their mark into Downtown L.A.'s Arts District with the new Frankie flagship store that opened last Friday, celebrating the relaunch of the high-end streetwear label as well as the firm's first retail store design. Frankie founder Kevin Chen worked alongside Jimenez Lai in designing the store. For starters, Lai created the striking graphic novel-like facade on the building's revamped exterior — but that's where the fun starts.
Inside, the 2,000 square-foot retail space has a room-within-a-room setup that alludes to Lai's earlier works like the “Speechbuster / 99 Chairs” sculpture and the “Briefcase House”.
Visitors will encounter one of Bureau Spectacular's Super-Furnitures, described as “a structure too small to be a building but too large to simply be a piece of furniture”. The nine-piece, 28-foot-long modular staircase is an interactive jigsaw structure that can be assembled into a runway or to provide seating, or disassembled into individual pieces for various retail functions — like displaying Frankie products and other merchandise, fitting rooms, or storage and transactions.
Aside from being the latest hip fashion boutique to move into the neighborhood, part of the store's concept is to grow into a new “CoLAB” space for designers both local and abroad to gather.
You can check out Frankie at 1129 E. 5th St.
All photos by Injee Unshin.
More on Archinect:
Take a look at these installations from this year's Coachella Festival
Art + Architecture: Jimenez Lai's 'Beachside Lonelyhearts' at Jai & Jai Gallery
2 Comments
I love this facade supergraphic SO MUCH!
Yeah this exterior is tight. The variation in display and how the product is hung in voids and niches seems nice too, at least from the photos.
If anyone hasn't yet, get Citizens of No Place - book is damn good. My wife bought it for me, never heard of it until I pulled off the wrapping paper. Wow, interesting enough plot, but the graphics are great. Just like this facade.
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