APL performs with proportions in “dramatic however serene” LA flagship retailer

Sneaker model APL has opened its first retailer — a dramatically slender, runway-like house in Los Angeles with an inside designed by architect Bernard Dubois.

Positioned in luxurious retail space The Grove, the APL (aka Athletic Propulsion Labs) flagship retailer is twice as excessive as it’s huge and ten instances as lengthy.

APL co-founders Adam and Ryan Goldston needed the shop’s inside design to intensify these uncommon proportions, whereas tying in with the model’s minimal, unisex aesthetic.

“Our design philosophy has all the time been easy but extreme, so we created an area that embodies this,” stated APL co-founders Adam and Ryan Goldston.

“The house and design are extremely dramatic however serene on the similar time, which was achieved by taking part in with proportions, colors, supplies and our merchandise.”

The lengthy, slender house made them consider a race observe or trend runway, and given their location within the “Metropolis of Angels”, additionally they needed the shop to recall to mind concepts of heaven.

“The very first thing you discover while you enter is the hanging top of the ceiling, the slender width and the unbelievable depth,” they continued.

“Our final objective with our first flagship is for individuals to step into the house and stroll away with a sense, emotion, reminiscence and connection they may always remember.”

To design the inside, they introduced in Brussels-based Dubois, who has beforehand designed shops for Aesop, Zadig & Voltaire and Valextra, amongst others.

His Aesop retailer in Belgium options yellow bricks distinctive to the nation’s buildings of the 1930s and 1960s, however utilized in a brand new manner.

For APL, he used the position of architectural components to convey consideration to the cavernous 31-foot ceilings, whereas additionally drawing the attention to the again of the shop by means of the repeating placement of Barrisol light-boxes and bench seats.

Bernard Dubois channels childhood reminiscences into Aesop inside in Brussels

“Each web site has particular constrains, traits or generally strangeness,” Dubois advised Dezeen. “As a substitute of preventing them, I all the time attempt to use them as a place to begin for the design.”

“The decrease ceiling on the again and the light-box fascia enhance the sensation of top, in addition to the symmetrical central perspective,” he continued.

He selected white paint for the partitions and silver travertine tile for the flooring and benches, including to the sensation of a heavenly, gentle house.

For all the drama of the 3000-square-foot retailer, which was initially designed by LA architect Peter Hamilton of Studio HT, there’s deliberately little to compete visually with the sneakers themselves.

They’re vibrant and offered within the light-boxes at clients’ eye stage.

APL has launched its first youngsters’ assortment through the brand new retailer, which opened in November 2019. It has additionally designed a store-exclusive TechLoom Bliss sneaker in purple and gold in honour of the launch.

The model goals to broaden its retail providing to a number of worldwide cities by 2022, promising to attract inspiration from every location for his or her respective retailer interiors.

The APL retailer is at 189 The Grove Drive subsequent door to Sephora.