Aesop’s Collaboration with Other Matter Arrives in Singapore
A trio of Aesop stores in Singapore pay homage to the brand’s Geranium Leaf Body Care range this month, in an ongoing collaboration with Melbourne design studio Other Matter, coinciding with Singapore Design Week
Concurrent with this year’s edition of Singapore Design Week, Aesop presents another chapter in its ongoing collaboration with Melbourne material innovation studio Other Matter. The studio partnered with Aesop earlier this year for Melbourne Design Week, where founder Jessie French and her team transformed several key stores, exploring the idea of design as an ‘act of repair and transformation’.
‘The work for Singapore builds on what we presented for Melbourne Design Week earlier this year, but with an outcome entirely tailored to Singapore and the celebration of geranium,’ says Jessie French, founder of Other Matter, a sustainable materials studio pioneering the development of renewable, petrochemical-alternative plastics.
The Geranium Leaf Body Care range has been a mainstay of Aesop’s offering for over a quarter of a century now, recognisable by its distinctive green aroma. The body cleanser was the first of its kind in the Aesop stable, formulated around its key ingredient, rose geranium, an easy growing perennial shrub with aromatic leaves. It was this core ingredient from which French drew inspiration. ‘The colour palette for the project was drawn directly from the geranium plant, with its spectrum of translucent tones that shift and play with light,’ she explains. ‘The setting of Singapore added another layer of influence: the city’s remarkable, lush, layered greenery informed the way I approached this work.’
Aesop invites its community to explore the retail experiences at three of its Singapore stores: Aesop Ion, Aesop Ngee Ann City and Aesop Raffles City. Together with the brand, French has designed a series of installations including curtains, complex-cut lettering and window decals, all created with the studio’s pioneering renewable, algae-based bioplastic.
‘Working with Aesop’s in-house teams, we shaped each installation in dialogue with the unique architecture of the store,’ French says. ‘At Ngee Ann City, this took the form of a sweeping translucent curtain; at Ion, subtle green accents; and at Raffles City, an immersive installation combining archival material with take-home gestures that visitors can peel from the window themselves.’
The partnership between Aesop and French is a natural one: both share the goal of a more sustainable future for retail design, and work to subvert the traditional expectations of their respective brands through innovation. ‘I feel very fortunate to work alongside such talented collaborators at Aesop,’ says French. ‘Each store holds its own identity yet always carries a deeply familiar resonance; it’s a tacit DNA unlike anything else on the global high street.’
The installations will be displayed in Aesop Ion, Aesop Ngee Ann City and Aesop Raffles City from 20 August to 21 September. Customers are encouraged to visit all three locations, collecting a stamp at each; a small token awaits upon completion of their journey, while quantities last.
