SND by Various Associates: 2019 Best of Year Winner for Fashion Retail

Chinese consumers dominate the luxury goods market. But in cities outside Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, it can be difficult to access niche designer brands. To address this, three young fashion buyers opened womenswear retailer SND six years ago in their southwestern hometown of Chongqing. The store aggregates international labels such as Antonio Berardi, Ellery, and Elizabeth and James, alongside a selection of top local designers. The latest outpost, by Various Associates designers Dongzi Yang and Qianyi Lin, is 3,100 square feet of austere symmetry.

Occupying a large storefront in a high-end mall, the shop offers a sense of “ceremonial space,” dominated by a central monumental structure: a trapezoidal monolith containing an inner sanctum accessed via a triangular sliver of an entry. Within its sloping gray-terrazzo walls, the form houses a spare selection of spotlit garments, a fitting room, and a service counter; a long jewelry display case peeks out of its far end. Dubbed the “milestone’ by the designers—a metaphorical bridge to international design—the structure has an exterior that is painted a sandy beige, which is also the color of the sales floor that surrounds it.

Project Team: Jingjing Tang.

> See more from the December/January 2020 issue of Interior Design