A rendering of the newly renovated Chanel boutique in Soho; Peter Marino; the boutique’s sunglass section, accented by Alan Rath’s Flying Eyeballs installation
Among the annals of “did-you-know” fashion factoids, Peter Marino imparted a clever tidbit recently: When designing the new Chanel boutique, he incorporated five pieces of art—an homage, of course, to Chanel No. 5. “That’s something [fashion division president] Barbara Cirkva and I cooked up,” he says. “For Chanel there are philosophies [about store design] given to you by management, but this one allows us to have a bit of fun.”
A quintet of works commissioned by four artists will indeed be on view when Chanel opens the doors of its latest retail statement, its refurbished Soho boutique, which debuts with a splashy party this month (Karl Lagerfeld, also in town to accept the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Visionary Award, will attend). Marino, the French house’s go-to architect since 1999, calls the 4,170-square-foot space “a Chanel gallery, something for the art-going public, for the younger person whose aesthetic is pared down, who thinks luxury is rooted in simplicity.”
Marino was eager to once again get his hands on the space, which originally opened in 2000. “Back then I think the landlords were a little wary of a company like Chanel coming in, because Soho wasn’t the mix of luxe that it is now, so they wouldn’t let us do something like change this unbelievably dingy wood floor that was 50 years old,” he explains. “Ten years later, Chanel has turned out to be quite a good company for them, so we can make our changes.”
That wood floor has been replaced with stone, while graphic black and white walls not only signal that this is the aesthetic that Coco built, but also serve as a perfect frame for the installations, which range from Flying Eyeballs by Alan Rath, to complement the new sunglass wall, to a light and rubber-tube installation by Peter Belyi for the store’s watch corner. “It’s a little more young, a little more avant-garde,” Marino notes. “Most of the artists we’re using are pretty young and new, and a little unexpected.” A 10-foot acrylic Chanel No. 5 bottle, meanwhile, will dominate the store’s windows, with inset video screens to showcase the latest runway presentations or works of video art that Marino plans to commission down the road.
He turned 60 this year, but Marino’s schedule shows no signs of slowing: During the first six months of 2010, he was in New York exactly 21 days, he says, with high-profile projects including the opening of Dior in Shanghai, Louis Vuitton on London’s New Bond Street and the YSL retrospective in Paris. Upcoming commissions include the world’s largest Louis Vuitton store in Shanghai and a new Chanel flagship on the Avenue Montaigne in Paris; not unlike the latter’s revamped Soho boutique, each will boast its own unique flavor. “Thank God for me,” Marino says. “I’d never want to do the same thing twice.” 139 Spring St., 212-334-0055; chanel.com
