PartnershipDesign AnthologyJanuary 01, 2023Hong Kong

Coming Home: Aesop Fashion Walk

PartnershipDesign AnthologyJanuary 01, 2023Hong Kong

Long-time Aesop collaborators MLKK Studio reimagined a ubiquitous residential building material for the brand’s new Fashion Walk store in Hong Kong

In the heart of Hong Kong shopping district Causeway Bay, Aesop Fashion Walk is a cool, calming reprieve, a welcoming space for a moment of quiet. Shades of powder blue and grey envelope visitors, welcoming them in from the noisy, humid streets outside.

Sitting just a few doors down from the original Fashion Walk store, the new space is a collaboration between Aesop’s in-house design team and longstanding collaborators MLKK Studio. Designer Kian Yam spent four years working as Aesop’s lead architect in Asia Pacific before founding MLKK with three collaborators in Hong Kong in 2016. The studio has designed Aesop stores around the world, from the Philippines to Paris and from Australia to the US, as well as Aesop’s Hong Kong office.

Over the years, the relationship between MLKK and Aesop has deepened through their shared philosophies. ‘We believe design should be for people,’ Yam explains. ‘So, socially meaningful design has been a substantial portion of our work. Putting this in the context of an Aesop store means designing not only for customers, but with deep thought for the consultants who’ll use the store every day, and with a view to enriching the neighbourhood.’

An early project was Aesop’s Harbour City mall store, for which the architects worked with master craftspeople to develop a genuine pebble wash, a material widely used in Hong Kong’s public spaces in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. For the new Fashion Walk store, they once again looked to Hong Kong’s residential vernacular, drawing on their own memories of growing up in the ‘fragrant harbour’. This is driven by an ethos of continuity, a pillar of Aesop’s design philosophy that results in repurposing materials and giving materials and objects a second life. As Yam explains, when an Aesop store makes use of repurposed materials, ‘There’s always a deeper emotional and mindful consideration behind it, which is often about the store’s connection to the past that the community once treasured.’

Here, the architects experimented with a material that was ubiquitous in 1970s and 80s Hong Kong: cloudy pattern board, a household finish known for its durability and low cost. They found dead stock of the panels and the material became the basis for the store, the floor of which is now a handcrafted mosaic that tells a story of the city.

It took the MLKK team ten weeks of experimenting with crushing the panels into chips and then reconstructing them into a mosaic form. Once perfected, it was passed on for production into panels of the new material. The final stage involved a team of craftspeople painstakingly hand-filling the gaps in situ, placing small pieces between each panel so that the entire floor appears seamless.

Above, the blue walls extend to a vaulted ceiling, the curves and arches creating a cocooning sensation. A basin occupies the centre of the room, while an antique 1960s chandelier from the Czech Republic draws the eye upwards.

One corner at the rear is reserved for an en- suite consultation area, its mirror cabinets and sink custom designed to fit the corner position. Niches and holders are incorporated into the steel surface, a subtle detail that enhances the overall sense of restraint and consideration.

In another corner stands a relatively new signature piece: the fragrance armoire, a fragrance display and testing console specially designed for each store. The cabinet tells yet another story of materiality and history, this time through copper salvaged from the original Fashion Walk store. MLKK worked with young local metalsmith Chris Li of Gold Steed Atelier to produce the armoire’s handles, as well as a lighting shield and door pull. ‘We worked in his rooftop studio to make a fantastic transformation, softening the metal with a flame, reshaping it with hammers and welding, and hand-nailing each texture on each handle,’ recalls Yam. ‘It was a beautiful collaboration.’