The Marquise flagship store, located in the Malvern Central shopping centre is a consciously calm, immersive retail space for one of Australia’s oldest baby wear brands. Conceived as an inner sanctum with elements of play and nostalgia, it fosters a true appreciation for the intricacies and pleasures of shopping for baby clothes.
The store design works to showcase these delights – miniature outfits, socks, bonnets and booties (#cuteoverload) – through a series of champagne-hued powder coated fittings, rotating fixtures and custom cabinetry, all designed to fit the full Marquise range. The scale of the fixtures ensures that even the tiniest pieces of baby merchandise don’t get lost in display. Our colour palette of neutrals and peaches was also chosen to complement rather than distract from the seasonal offerings. Muted tones and concealed lighting are complemented by carefully placed pops of colour – cobalt blue wall features, tiled display plinths and a custom coloured acrylic ceiling feature that was inspired by the 1960s toy Playplax.
Needing to appeal to its adult buyers and maintain a level of sophistication, together with Marquise and their graphic design partner Ortolan, we made a conscious decision to be mannequin free and to have minimal internal branding and signage.
The carefully-proportioned point of sale, gifting and display counter with contrasting tile details are constructed as a series of multi-level pieces rather than one long monotone counter. The POS incorporates a gifting station, featuring custom designed gift wrapping, which was a key request from the client and we love that it also brings the idea of celebration and the rituals of new babies to the store experience.
The feature shop window and store facade has a peek-a-boo quality to it, featuring a deliberately imperfect organic curved form. Further child’s play can be found in the façade with Marquise signage placed not at adult eye level but rather at child height over the curved window and up high on tippy toes above the entrance upon a white steel ledge.