Graduation Project 'Tsumori Chisato Retail Design Project' by Eveline Betschart — IDREIT®

This was a concept store proposal for the high-end Japanese fashion designer Tsumori Chisato. She is known for having a penchant for anything light hearted and colourful. Each collection of hers is based on a new adventure to an exotic locale and charmingly child-like in design. She believes the playfulness, curiosity and joy we experience as children never leaves us but grows with us into adulthood. Her designs are meant to evoke these feelings in her customers and remind them to enjoy life, be more careless and bring out their inner child.

The design of the store was an interpretation of dress no. 47 titled ‘The Nile’ from her 2019 spring/summer ready-to-wear collection. I wanted to bring the unique, whimsical Egyptian world depicted on the dress to life in a physical store and draw out the inner child of customers by offering a one-of-a-kind in-store experience.

I first extrapolated the elements and principles of design that appeared in her dress. Then as I was simplifying them as 3D shapes they reminded me of wooden building blocks. I thought it would be fun to picture adults interacting with life sized colourful blocks, moving them around or toppling them over much like a child would. Therefore I decided to create custom designed acrylic blocks of varying heights and colours to not only display products but to also create a dynamic space, arouse curiosity and encourage exploration. These blocks are both sturdy and modular so the staff are able to easily re-arrange or topple them over to create a new shop layout for each season.

The shopfront was designed to deliberately conceal the interior of the store. I wanted to give passersby’s a small glimpse into Tsumori Chisato’s world and evoke a sense of wonder as well as an impulse to explore a new environment. The colour palette for the store were hues taken from dress no. 47 but muted to maintain an elegant yet luxurious feel that is expected of a luxury brand.

Overall, the intention behind my final design proposal was to effectively capture the brand essence of Tsumori Chisato, introduce her to the untapped Australian market and offer a special in-store experience.