Red Valentino

By India Mahdavi

Famed Italian fashion house Valentino recently revealed their long anticipated RED retail concept store (an acronym for Romantic Eccentric Dress) on London’s enviable high-end Sloan Street.

The brand’s creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, commissioned French architect, India Mahdavi to create an emotional and highly romantic theme for the space. “The initial idea, together with India, was to create an intimate space, fraught with feeling,” said Piccioli. “A meeting place that favours dialogue. A virtual and real exchange of ideas.” Mahdavi, who is also the architect behind the interiors of London’s Sketch restaurant, developed an almost harlequin palette of colour and materiality to bring the concept to life. Primarily using bubblegum-pink and mustard-yellow velvet panels for the interior with a combination of chromatic and brushed metallics, Mahdavi and Piccioli aimed to make the space inviting to customers through the space, made visible through the exterior shopfront framed in brass. Inside, the 170 square-metre space features Mahdavi’s signature use of colour, with accents of soft pink and vibrant ochre against a white backdrop. “Colour is fundamental in my work, so is texture,” said Mahdavi. “I use texture like colour, and I use colour to bring light.” The curving white walls are lined with plush velvet panels, and the white terrazzo flooring is patterned with coloured circles.

The whole interior is a celebration of fine detail. The fixtures for example, include clothing rails and light fittings made from brushed brass. Circular mirrors are fixed within the brass frames around the store, and Mahdavi’s 70s-style Charlotte chairs give customers a place to “romantically recline”.