The Gallery Experience

Feeling overwhelmed by the crowds in Singapore’s newest and hottest mall? Fashion label In Good Company offers a respite from the crowds of Jewel Changi Airport (see page 140) with a shopping experience akin to browsing an art gallery.

Brands displaying their products like artworks in a gallery is nothing new, but few manage to skillfully do so without putting an arm’s length (both figuratively and literally) between the product and the consumer. Designed by Produce, the In Good Company store manages to engage consumers with the concept by creating a sense of discovery within the retail interior.

The store is set back from the entrance. A portion of this setback houses a counter for Bird of Paradise Gelato (designed by Hjgher) – an example of the increasingly popular practice of brand alliance. Three black-framed, floor-to-ceiling fully glazed doors pivot open to welcome customers into a sculptural landscape that recalls the work of American artist Richard Serra.

Instead of an open-plan store that presents the merchandise in rows of display hangers in plain sight, Produce devised a series of oversized curved walls to create a context for the clothes and accessories. These gently curved walls, some designed with a slight twist that allows for subtle variations of light and shadow, serve as a background for the products.

“The curved walls help to visually isolate the pieces of merchandise from each other, improving the level of focus on the products,” says Design Director and Co-Founder of Produce, Pan Yicheng. They were made with gypsum board and aluminium studs, and finished with stucco and paint. Produce used precise CNCcut templates to guide the curving of the gypsum boards and the placement of the aluminium studs.

The store brings together In Good Company’s womenswear, menswear, kidswear and accessory lines, as well as a curated selection of objects from other brands. The curved walls set soft boundaries between the collections and highlight each of them without eliminating the possibility of chance discovery. And if slow(er) offline shopping isn’t your thing, you can always stop by the gelato counter on the way out. Photo by Lauryn Ishak.