Valentino’s David Chipperfield Makeover

I love Valentino. This is fairly evident for anyone who reads Interior Monologue, but I thought that I would take a closer look into another side of one of my all time favorite fashion houses: the David Chipperfield designed flagship store on Madison Ave. Opened in 2014, the building’s interiors are designed to evoke a modern palazzo feel, smack dab in the middle of Manhattan, while the new glass and black steel facade pays homage to its architectural forebears like Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Seagram’s building just a couple of blocks away.

Walking into the 5th Avenue storefront the intricate designs of Valentino’s latest colorful collections bounce off the custom grey terrazzo interiors to create a beautiful balance of color and shape. Creative Directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli worked with Chipperfield on the interior concept that “combines old and new in order to generate a Palazzo atmosphere, steering away from the pure showroom and promoting a new architectural format in place of a more traditional retail boutique structure.”

I also love how Chipperfield incorporates the history of the building and the mid-century minimalist design movement into the sleek new facade. The original building was designed by John Burgee and Philip Johnson, and functions as an updated nod to the Seagram’s building, which features Philip Johnson interiors, and happens to be another one of my all time favorite New York buildings.

And the icing on the cake may be Chipperfield’s beautifully minimal clock, which he designed exclusively for Valentino, with the iconic ‘V’ denoting the 5 o’clock hour on the otherwise blank face. It’s the little details like this that define luxury for me; the small aspects that are so easily overlooked, yet when designed and produced right, pull everything together. That, plus some gorgeous, drool-worthy clothes hanging on the racks!