Ferrari opened glossy lifestyle concept store

London architectural studio Sybarite has paid tribute to Ferrari’s legacy in the car brand’s lifestyle concept store, which features a scarlet glass wall that recalls a racetrack and a terracotta facade that nods to its Italian heritage.

Fashion and style

The summary of Dezeen was part of the Experience Retail Today the new weekly article collection of Shop! Association, mother organisation of POPAI Hungary. Photography is by Paola Pansini.

The opening of the store will coincide with the launch of Ferrari’s first fashion collection on 13 June, which has been designed under the creative direction of Italian designer Rocco Iannone. Sybarite, which won the project in a privately held competition, was asked to create a retail environment to showcase the fashion direction and serve as a place for Ferrari Formula 1 fans to immerse themselves in the brand.

Red and white

A wall of glass in Ferrari’s signature red sweeps through the store’s interior and is intended to replicate the curves of the brand’s Fiorano Circuit track.

“The ripple of the glass gives the sense of speed and movement, its ribbon-like form is a direct reference to the cars moving swiftly around the Fiorano Ferrari Circuit,” told Sybarite co-founder Simon Mitchell.

A wall of white bricks behind the glass wall serves as a backdrop for the store’s products. These clay bricks represent the clay-modelling process that is used to make Ferrari prototypes before the cars are turned to metal forms.

Elsewhere, cylindrical columns with backlit display cases in coloured acrylic showcase small objects and accessories such as sunglasses and Ferrari models, and a curving metal shelving system, which emerges out of the clay brick wall, expands to become a retail display with shelves and rails.

New shopping experience

An installation of the brand’s Cavallino logo (Italian for the Prancing Horse) sits near the entrance. Made from black metal sheets, it appears to float, separate and come together to create a suspended structure that can be observed as a whole from different angles.

“This is part of a broad strategy for Ferrari – we have created a new shopping experience and a new design concept which embodies the values of innovation, style and performance of the Ferrari,” told Ferrari chief brand diversification officer Nicola Boari.

The retail strategy will be rolled out to the brand’s Milanese flagship store in September, followed by a dual opening overseas with locations in Los Angeles and Miami.