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OBEY Paris

First Worldwide Flagshipstore

Paris | FR
2018

The OBEY store in Paris needed to establish the blueprint. It translates into a physical space the raw and disruptive brand’s take on street culture: you can’t dictate it, but you can create the environment to let it happen. And you can be sure that the coolest kids recognise it when it does. This shop is a hangout, inviting the streets in.

Less about the product, more about the culture; we made space for it. Instead of crowding it with racks on racks on racks of clothes, a highly curated selection of the collection lines the sides of the shop. True to the brand’s street art origins, any wall space above 1.6m is reserved for displaying graphic art.
To showcase the bold OBEY designs with minimal distractions, we designed a modular display system, assembled from honest and sturdy materials that never disguise but always reveal how they work. Recognisable nuts and bolts, echoing the brand’s hands-on, DIY approach, also are easy to dismantle and reassemble according to the shop’s changing collection and needs.

The piece de resistance is the iconic counter. Giant Face’s eyes, visible even across the street, challenge unwitting passers-by to a stare down. Outlined in neon caught between two reflective layers, they create an infinity effect that defies and distorts the function of a mirror. And sure, the counter is for transactions, but at the end of the day, the til gives way to turntables.

Team

Renée Appelo
Inès van Sandick
Lars Goossens

Photography

Lars Goossens