2014 BOY Winner: Small Beauty/Fashion Retail

Picture today’s young urban woman: independent, technolog­ically savvy yet appreciative of handcraft, and stylish, of course—with an edge. Principal Antonio di Oronzo managed to translate those qualities into just 320 square feet, an upscale but offbeat footwear brand’s first shop.

Emphasizing the importance of authenticity, he exposed the 1897 brick walls but didn’t worry about the stray bits of plaster left behind. Creativity and innovation, meanwhile, get their due with his canopy of white neon tubes accompanied by structures surfaced in a combo of sheepskin and canary-yellow vinyl. Tucked inside, halogen ceiling fixtures shine directly on the simple glass shelves bolted to the walls.

Women sit on a bench upholstered in distressed moss-green leather to try on the shoes, then test them by walking across the polished concrete floor. Should a customer decide to pull the trigger, she does so at a cash-wrap counter in acrylic laser-cut to emulate crown molding.

Project Manager: Masashi Kobayashi.