FRAME
YOHJI YAMAMOTO FLAGSHIP STORE
By Chris Scott
Photographs by Johannes Marburg
May/Jun 2009
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.”
DETAIL
CENTRAL AND SECLUDED: SOPHIE HICK’S PRIZE-WINNING PRIVATE RESIDENCE
by Edina Obermoser
Photographs by Annabel Elston and Sophie Hicks Architects
January 2020
PIN-UP
SOPHIE HICKS – THE ALAÏA-CLAD STYLIST WHO REFITTED HERSELF AS AN ARCHITECT
By Emily King
Photographs by Andreas Larsson
Fall/Winter 09/10
VOGUE DEUTSCH
DIE BAUHERRIN
By Ingeborg Harms
December 2016
CORRIERE DELLA SERA – LIVING COLLECTION 2019
ENGLISH REVOLUTION
by Paola Menaldo
Photos by Adrian Gaut
November 2019
NUMERO
SOPHIE HICKS, LA SCIENCE DES VOLUMES
By Clara Le Fort
Photo by Johannes Marburg
September 2016
NOWNESS
IN RESIDENCE: SOPHIE HICKS
Editor Shelley Jones
Film by Nick Ballon
January 2019
CONCRETE QUARTERLY
VANISHING TRICKS
by Nick Jones
Photographs by Annabel Elston and Sophie Hicks Architects
Winter 2019
FRAME MAGAZINE
ACNE’S KOREAN FLAGSHIP
By Shonquis Moreno
Photo by Annabel Elston
March 2016
THE NEW YORK TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE
EDIE CAMPBELL ON THE INFLUENCE OF SEOUL
Photos by Mira Heo
November 2015