Like an opulent dressing room

Parah Boutique, an exclusive international luxury fashion store inspired by vintage dressing rooms in keeping with the brand’s glamourous style, was opened recently in the historic centre of the Tuscan town of Forte dei Marmi (LU). Claudia Oldani, marketing manager at the Milan-based firm Foro Studio which carried out the project with designer Salvatore Ponzo, commented: “The aim of the project was to create an intimate and relaxing shopping experience in the kind of space where this level of comfort is normally not present. Our boutiques are inspired by female dressing rooms typical of old homes, a kind of casket where the products on sale are displayed like precious stones.” The warm and welcoming 55 square metre space stands out for its powder pink tones and surfaces reminiscent of natural woven textures. But the most distinctive characteristic of all is its contemporary spirit, further enhanced by the choice of contrasting warm and cool materials. The customer experience is similarly contemporary, as the architectural elements are perfectly suited to the fashion items and tailored to the target clientele. The aim is to allow the products to take centre stage as the real focus of the storytelling experience. The project also took account of the geographical context: “We thought carefully about both [the brand and the geographical context, Editor]. The boutique is clearly informed by brand identity, while the geographical context is reflected in the references to local culture. For example, in the Forte dei Marmi store we opted for a porcelain floor tile reminiscent of the texture of beach mats, a clear reference to the nature of the location.” The designers rediscovered these natural pasty surfaces in the Fineart collection, Light colour version from Ceramica Sant’Agostino. It is a fine soft-coloured texture inspired by natural fabrics and reproduced by latest-generation digital printing with a slight three-dimensional structure.
These choices were made to convey a clear message, explained Oldani: “We focused on femininity in its most authentic and genteel form, stripped of all superfluous meanings and constructions.” The Milan-based firm, a team of five professionals (Claudia Oldani, project manager, Alessandro Pennesi, product designer and theorist, Giuseppe Ponzo, founder and head of strategic planning, Fabio Romenici, interior and product designer, and Salvatore Ponzo, creative director and lecturer in New Materials Technology at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan), assumed the artistic direction for the Parah boutiques in Verona and Forte dei Marmi and won a number of the most prestigious international awards: the iFDESIGN AWARD 2019, the German Design Award 2019 and the Archilovers Best Project 2018. “We are truly honoured to have received these important international recognitions. Our project is based on a conscious use of materials, colours and finishes. By exploiting these three elements, we have created spaces that reflect our experience in the retail sector. The project is a clear example of our commitment to research and experimentation focusing on materials and human interactions.”