FAMILY STYLE
BREAKING GROUND
Words by Rachel Summer Small
Photography by Simons Pinckney Finnerty
No. 7, Fall 2025
CULTURED MAGAZINE
THE ART OF THE FASHION FLAGSHIP (AND THE FOUR ARCHITECTS GETTING IT RIGHT)
by John Glendall. Photograph of Acne Studios Seoul by Annabel Elston. April/May 2019
“We don’t actually need shops anymore,” says Sophie Hicks of her work designing highly-acclaimed retail environments around the world. The London-based architect is responsible for the spaces of an impressive range of blue-chip clients, including Paul Smith, Yohji Yamamoto, Acne Studios and Chloé, but with luxury brands seeking out her architectural imprimatur, she has taken a measured approach to these commissions.
“It’s so much more convenient to look for clothes online and have them delivered to your house,” she says, explaining why she creates destinations that are more about conveying the essence of a brand than offering endless racks of inventory. In her work with Acne Studios, for example, Hicks wanted to create the impression of Sweden, where the brand and its founder, Jonny Johansson, are based—but she needed to construct that in Manhattan’s West Village, and in the Cheongdam district of Seoul.
“I didn’t really know Sweden at all before I started with Acne Studios,” she admits. In order to familiarize herself, she spent several weeks in the Scandinavian nation walking through neighborhoods, visiting museums, going to restaurants and shops and, perhaps most importantly, spending time with Johansson.
In Seoul, she designed a new building from the ground up, with its concrete structure referencing what she calls the “groundedness of the Swedes.” The inside, meanwhile, replicates the light qualities— “very cool, very even”—of the distinctive Swedish landscape. Sun filters through the translucent panels of the façade, while supplemental light is concealed behind a polycarbonate ceiling, making a cool, even distribution of light throughout the day—“very much like Swedish light.”
Hicks, who early in her career was an editor at Vogue, sees value in new stores, but, as she cautions, “the environment of the store is so important. It has to be something customers can’t get online.”
FRAME
YOHJI YAMAMOTO FLAGSHIP STORE
By Chris Scott
Photographs by Johannes Marburg
May/Jun 2009
SPACE MAGAZINE
AT HOME WITH HICKS
Conversation Skye Sherwin
Photos by Brett Lloyd
November 2015
GRAZIA KOREA
October 2015
GINZA SIX MAGAZINE
ALAIA: EMBEDDED IN THE DESIGN
by Yoshinao Yamada
Photos by Junpei Kato
Portrait of Sophie Hicks by Alasdair McClellan.
Autumn 2022
RIKA STUDIOS PAPER
EDITION No.9, SUMMER 2024
Photography by Johnnie Shand Kydd
Interview by Emily King
IGNANT
ACNE STUDIOS · SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
by Stephanie Wade
Photographs by Annabel Elston and Fabio Ongarato
October 2019
RIBA LONDON AWARDS 2019
1A EARL’S COURT SQUARE
By RIBA
Photograph by Annabel Elston
May 2019
WSJ MAGAZINE
TRACKED SOPHIE HICKS
By Ned Beauman
Photographs by Julia Grassi
December 2018 / January 2019
AMC LE MONITEUR ARCHITECTURE
SOPHIE HICKS, FAÇADE EN PAPIER DE YAMAMOTO
By Maryse Quinton
Photographs by Johannes Marburg
February 2009