Interview: Neil Barrett And Zaha Hadid Create Retail Bliss

Neil Barrett's new flagship store opened in Tokyo with the help of a mighty collaborator—none other than Zaha Hadid. Though the world-renowned architect has recently experimented with fashion design, this is her first retail space project. The duo teamed up with Patrik Schumacher to create a shop that shifts between architecture and sculpture, designed to parallel the same folding, pleating, cut-out and fixed-point design ethos utilized in the brand's clothing. On the ground floor, towering, curved display racks anchored in the center of the vast space look like they must have some secret, hidden function. By contrast, the upstairs houses womenswear in a cozy space with lower ceilings, but an equally eclectic shelving system that folds and curves to create a circular, continuing space. These architectural concepts will be rolled out to all of the brand's flagships worldwide. Neil Barrett himself made a rare trip to Tokyo for the opening, where JC Report caught up with him about instinctual design, making it big in Japan and word-of-mouth advertising.

JC Report: How involved were you in the concept of this shop?

Neil Barrett: When we sat down to discuss what we were going to do, Zaha came up with a concept in the first ten minutes. She knew exactly what she wanted to do, and I loved it. read more in our interview »