Muti Randolph Creates an Immersive Experience for SoHo Shoe Emporium Galeria Melissa

“There’s a lyrical quality to my work, perhaps because of my mother,” designer Muti Randolph says of professional classical pianist Clara Sverner. There’s indeed a rhythm at Galeria Melissa, the SoHo boutique he completed for the jelly shoe company that originated in his native Brazil. There’d already been a Melissa store blocks away, but it closed in 2016. This time around, the brand hired Randolph, who has designed outposts in São Paolo and London, to create an immersive experience for the 4,000-square-foot emporium, where emerging-artist exhibitions rotate quarterly among the playful footwear and a green wall backs the cash-wrap/lounge. But the entry sequence—a veritable tunnel of crisscrossing LEDs surrounded by mirrors—is all Randolph. “It draws people in.” Bravo.

> See more from the September 2017 issue of Interior Design