For the past 13 years, Florence-born fashion label, Patrizia Pepe has offered rich stylistic solutions to its design-conscious customers. In 2007, Patrizia Pepe mono brand boutiques reached 69 stores around the world and the brand supplies 1200 luxury multi brand stores worldwide. After launching itself in Crowne Plaza, Holiday Centre Dubai in early 2006, Patrizia Pepe has gained attention in the region, leading it to open a stand-alone boutique in Dubai Festival City.
The interior design scheme is created by Ronaldo Fiesoli, art director of the Tessilform-Patrizia Pepe and Blue Klein Associates. He has been responsible for the concept design of all the Patrizia Pepe Firenze spaces, including the new stores in Tokyo, Rome, Milan and Paris.
Blue Klein Associates began operating in 1997, dealing principally with graphic design and multimedia in the sphere of contemporary art, architecture and fashion. In this period it came into contact with artists, architects and designers of international fame, such as Enzo Mari, Lilian Lijn, Massimiliano Fuksas and Helmut Newton, for whom it organised and produced websites and cultural events. In 2002, it strengthened its links with Tessilform Spa, and decided to devote itself exclusively to the fashion industry. Thus Blue Klein Associates came into being, and has since contributed to the process of development and the diffusion of the Patrizia Pepe brand all over the world, from the opening of the first flagship store up to the present.
Between 2003 and 2007 Blue Klein has designed and co-ordinated over fifty commercial premises in China, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Turkey and the UAE. It cites as its strongpoint its capacity to follow the project from the store concept through to realisation, and to monitor the process from location consultancy through to cost analysis and control of suppliers, and from the works management through to the co-ordination of the professional studios that supervise the foreign sites. For this Dubai Festival City store, however, it employed the fit-out services of locally-based HDD Interiors.
Fiesoli stresses the importance of a unified brand design concept: “The brand philosophy was of major importance in the genesis of the project. The Patrizia Pepe style is not aggressive, but suggestive, and the concept of the spaces underscores this approach: atmospheres that welcome the customer, soft colours, a light calibrated to the various functions that the store performs.” He opted for emphasising the notorious brand colours: Yellow, blue and red, with bold splashes of colour juxtaposed against a predominantly white background.
“My main objective” declares Fiesoli, “was to give the space positive energy, balance and harmony that could be used by all, by those who have to work all day in the company, and people who just drop in for a brief visit, ensuring that this new-found harmony would be able to ebb and flow freely.”
The broad entrance area with an expanse of blue wall has comfortable seats to view the displayed garments: “It invites the customers to enter an attractive and enticing area in which light and space are the protagonists,” Fiesoli adds: “Beyond the till, the scansion of the display elements becomes more intense and functional to sales. The large olive-wood tables, reference to the Tuscan origins of the brand, link up and unify the spaces.”
Another nod to the rural Italian landscape are the olive branches in the design, which Fiesoli designed to break up the monotony of the 125m² space. Elie J Dib, architect, HDD Interiors, explains that the flooring was sourced from Marble Art and included Iranian white colour marble with beige colour veins running through the stone.
The budget was around AED600,000, and the store fit out took approximately four months. A considerable amount of time was spent ensuring the lighting concepts were perfect for the store and brand. Fiesoli explains: “Light is an essential element in the project because it contributes to define the character of the space, creating authentic itineraries. The approach to the light is diversified, combining halogen lamps with metallic iodide or fluorescent lamps, modulating the level of illumination in a manner that is functional to the display of the product.”
Fiesoli explains the ethos of Patrizia Pepe is that: “Fashion, and shopping in general, are an opportunity to get away from the chaos of the city and devote time to ourselves, expressing choices rather than submitting to them; this is what we strive to bring out in the spaces that we design.”
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