Insiders know that Modes is the temple of the Italian avant-garde. Aldo Carpinteri’s concept store is composed of niche labels, such as Amina Muaddi, The Attico and Ganni, and luxury brands, such as Saint Laurent, Blumarine and Maison Margiela. The architecture of their flagships was designed by Judith Haase and Pierre Jorge Gonzalez of Gonzalez Haase AAS.
In Paris, Milan, and Porto Cervo, the stores are simply magnetic. The 314 m2, two-story store is located in one of Paris’s iconic neighborhoods, rue François 1er. The two main materials used to build the space are stainless steel and a silk carpet. Both are evenly distributed on each floor, but their use is reversed as one moves from one floor to the next. The passage between the two floors is via a cyan blue staircase. This inversion of materials challenges our society’s cisgender identity, as with the clothing. The body characteristics identifying men and women are disintegrating. In Milan, the founder also called on the Berlin studio for his most stunning outdoor steel installation. During the Milan International Furniture Fair, Modes became a parallel destination for visitors to the city. Placed along the front of the store, the installation is imagined as a space where one can take time and pause during the city’s fairs. In Porto Cervo, at the Port Promenade, the architects were given carte blanche and were inspired by the port area. Playing with the lush vegetation of the island and its buildings, they were also inspired by the northern climate. This is evidenced by the lighting, the metal fiber curtains, and the neutral gray surfaces covering the floors, walls and ceilings. The 315 m2 store becomes a “shell” inside the village of Porto Cervo, where the colorful “buoys” and their silver surfaces are used to display the retailer’s exclusive clothing.
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Flora di Carlo