SHOTENKENCHIKU
ALAÏA
Editor Saki Kaneko
Photography by Yasuhiro Takagi
Autumn 2022
FRAME MAGAZINE
ACNE’S KOREAN FLAGSHIP HOVERS WEIGHTLESSLY AMID AN ASSEMBLY OF CONCRETE AND STEEL
By Shonquis Moreno. Photographs by Annabel Elston. March 2016
Designer Sophie Hicks’ flagship for Stockholm-based fashion brand Acne Studios in Seoul’s Gangnam district sits – gossamer and luminous – in a bed of wild strawberries, crowned with ductwork and lined with concrete. This industrial-ethereal contradiction reflects the area’s identity, as well as the contrast between Acne’s vocal aesthetic (the name of the label could refer to blemishes but is actually a cheeky acronym for the collective’s primary pursuit: Ambition to Create Novel Expressions) and the more retiring aspects of Swedish culture. ‘Sweden is a culture of light and air,’ Hicks writes, one that values ‘modesty and discretion’.
Inside, two floors of concrete poured in rough timber forms float amid – without touching – exterior polycarbonate walls through which daylight difuses onto freestanding steel garment displays. There is no decoration of any sort and no mechanical equipment, the ductwork that might have threaded the interior having been coiled atop the roof. The consonance of a handful of diverse materials – woodgrain-tattooed concrete surfaces and spiral stair, metal cash counter and displays, and glowing polycarbonate walls – vaporizes into an atmosphere of cool warmth. Hicks, with good reason, calls it ‘otherworldly’. — Shonquis Moreno
MAGAZINES
BOB MAGAZINE
YOHJI YAMAMOTO FLAGSHIP STORE, PARIS
by Lee Eunjung, Photographs by Johannes Marburg
THE MODERN HOUSE
ARCHITECT SOPHIE HICKS ON LIFE IN HER HIDDEN CONCRETE HAVEN IN KENSINGTON
by The Modern House
Summer 2023
NR
SOPHIE HICKS DISCUSSES THE FASHION INDUSTRY AND HER CAREER IN ARCHITECTURE.
by Izzy Bilkus. Photographs by Adrian Gaut, Johannes Marburg, James Drew Turner and Annabel Elston.
Winter 2021
THE NEW YORK TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE
EDIE CAMPBELL ON THE INFLUENCE OF SEOUL
Photos by Mira Heo
November 2015
FRAME
YOHJI YAMAMOTO FLAGSHIP STORE
By Chris Scott
Photographs by Johannes Marburg
May/Jun 2009
RIBA LONDON AWARDS 2019
1A EARL’S COURT SQUARE
By RIBA
Photograph by Annabel Elston
May 2019
ALAIN ELKANN INTERVIEWS
SOPHIE HICKS
by Alain Elkann
April 2023
IGNANT
ACNE STUDIOS · SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
by Stephanie Wade
Photographs by Annabel Elston and Fabio Ongarato
October 2019
FRAME
HOME AGAIN
by Tracey Ingram
Portraits by Andrew Meredith
July/August 2019