Fewer and fewer stores feel soulful. And those that do — emanating a sense of coziness and calm — tend to be hyper-traditional. Many store openings may hold the spectacle of the new, but few succeed in having a long-lasting, meaningful impact on visitors. A week ago, the new Highsnobiety flagship store on Unter den Linden did exactly that. Since its inception more than ten years ago, this is Highsnobiety’s first physical store. The global fashion and media brand, which could just as easily be called “Hypesociety”, often sells out of its collaborative online drops in a matter of hours. Transferring this concept to the analog world isn’t without risk. But the location manages the balancing act: from street style to luxury, from underground to classic, from the founding era to industry, from spectacle to tradition. The store is intended to function as a filter and become a place of pilgrimage for the fashion and trend-conscious. Jil Sander, Margiela, Lemaire, Jean-Paul Gaultier — the list of labels read mature and set the tone. Find regular events, daring collaborations, and fresh drops on one hand, and subtly interested clientele on the other.
The store’s un-doubtable success is also due to the space. Designed by architecture studio Vaust and in-house designers, the result is a store-like monument. The existing concrete floor has been painstakingly restored with elaborate sanding and terrazzo additions. The walls were partially left with the original tiles, and filigree shelves were cut into the clinker brick. Curved steel mixes with historic mesh glass, mirrors, and aerated concrete. The whole thing is executed with breathtaking attention to detail by the Berlin insider tip agency Hennecke Associates, who also came up with the idea of the concrete-look-paper which covers both the ceiling and walls and swallows 95% sound. The subtle relaxation found here immediately absorbs the stress of the big city. Noisy tourists, demanding push notifications, and pressing deadlines disappear as if by magic into the cracks in the sprayed-on ceiling surface. And you can simply enjoy some leisure time — to smell fragrances, touch luxurious fabrics, and leaf through art books. It’s immediately clear that the new Highsnobiety store couldn’t exist anywhere else but here: On the most famous and traditional boulevard in Germany.
Text: Rosa Weiland / Photos: Highsnobiety
Highsnobiety Flagship Store, Unter den Linden 40, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
@highsnobiety
