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AZURE - June 2019 - The Workspace Issue - Cover
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Milan designers Foro Studio recently put their multidisciplinary talents to work creating a new identity for Italian beachwear boutique Parah. The studio has created a new look for the brand that characterizes two high street shops in Verona and Forte dei Marmi. These two spaces feature both individual and shared identities, thanks to a diverse materials palette that is made cohesive with its soft, feminine shades of pink and grey.

Both spaces are made to feel more intimate by with padded walls that are upholstered in textural fabrics – Alcantara in Verona and velvet in the Forte dei Marmi location – in soft dusty pink. The treatment comes with inherent acoustic benefits, which helps to create a cocoon-like environment within a room that looks out onto a busy shopping district.

Grey tiles patterned with imperfect white squares lend a hand-painted look to the floors in Verona, while Forte dei Marmi features similar shades in a more formal design. A balancing act of cool and warm, contemporaneity and history, the former store also works in original details, including rough walls that combine stone and brick – a perfect pairing with the new colour palette – and wooden beams. The Verona store gives a nod to the past with arched mirrors whose curves are echoed on the back wall, as well as in the central display counter.

The standout in both shops are the monolithic merchandise and customer service platforms, shaped from Silipol, made from a mix of white high-resistance cement and micro and spheroidal pieces of natural granite, marble and porphyr. Seen here in a mottled mix of the brand’s signature greys and pinks, the material is finished with a velvety, tactile surface that adds to the luxurious appeal.

But it’s neither the colour or materials palette that is the star of the show at either Parah location – it’s the merchandise. Vertical displays stretch from floor to ceiling in both locations, with the ivory-coloured frameworks exhibiting bikinis like artworks, inside pink-lacquered light boxes, at their centre. Drawers, in the same pink lacquer, discreetly tuck away sizes options below.

Foro Studio’s identity for Parah was recently nominated for a German Design Award.

AZURE is an independent magazine working to bring you the best in design, architecture and interiors. We rely on advertising revenue to support the creative content on our site. Please consider whitelisting our site in your settings, or pausing your adblocker while stopping by.