Ritu Kumar store, Juhu

Facing the Juhu Tara road, and a step away from the beach. The new store for Ritu Kumar was made to bring the outside in; Disconnect the viewer from the bustle outside, with a garden entrance that pulls in the visitor, while showcasing garments, and accessories inside the store.

 

 

Once inside, the 800 Sq.ft space has been divided into loosely-bound rooms, that open into a common verandah, the viewer can be lost in this loop that swings around the garments, the outside and the changing room mass. As every store the studio has designed for Ritu Kumar, here also, the garments are given first priority, and every detail is for the display. The store is conceived as an open space utilizing a neutral palette of white and shades of pale green and grey, all serving to foreground Kumar’s colorful garments. The interior space consists of polished seamless natural Kota stone. This stone was brought in a large 4′ square format, special care was taken at the quarry to ensure minimal color variation so as to have a monolithic appearance. All edges are rounded and polished. The walls are rounded at the edges, alluding to the ageless beauty of 1920s Bombay; they don a neutral textured finish. The ceiling is black, and holds a fastening mechanism for brass rods that the garments are hung on. The massing is dominated with the presence of a changing room block reducing the entrance zone into a smaller foyer. To the left is the billing desk, and the right is a loop of clothes on racks. The changing room is a plush, fabric-lined room with replica chintz. The billing desk is set in between two equal masses of the toilet, and store room. A single globe lights up the space, the desk is flanked by two marble doors that let light through.

The studio appreciates the effort and energy put into this collaboration by the Ritu Kumar team who were supportive of our design strategy, and showed great faith in our skill as fellow designers and architects.

Project team: Shweta Chhatpar Shah, Pranav Naik, Rasika Rajagopalan, Neel Davda, Yashasvi Adamane, Ashraf Khan

 

Ritu Kumar Store, Palladium

Palladium is the stage for a new store for fashion designer Ritu Kumar. This store finds a space for itself on the third floor of the mall. Built on former mill land, this space has come to be one of Mumbai’s most coveted spots for retail, and is also one of the most successful. Studio pomegranate envisioned a space that would reference memories of the mill buildings prior to the new golden age of this land. The space itself was non-rectilinear, and was large, but with a small frontage. The idea then would be to have an enclosure of walls, under a night sky with a dramatic sparkle of golden clouds, as one can find on a typical Bombay evening.

The store then was conceived of as an open space utilizing a neutral palette of white and shades of pale green and grey, all serving to foreground Kumar’s colorful garments. The interior space consists of polished seamless natural Kota stone. This stone was brought in a large 3′ square format, special care was taken at the quarry to ensure minimal color variation so as to have a monolithic appearance. All edges are rounded and polished. The walls are rounded at the edges, alluding to the ageless beauty of 1920s Bombay; they don a neutral textured finish. The sky drops down a fastening mechanism for brass rods that the garments are hung on. As one walks through the store, printed fabrics greet the eye, these are 17th century Indian Palampores that once were a highlight in bourgeois’ homes. Most of these are “Tree of life” motifs, two are court scenes and dance scenes from the Deccan. The bridal area is again covered entirely in these fabrics, a large vanity is the centerpiece of the bridal salon. This tree of life pattern was used as a base for the shape of the clouds above. Cables hang down from the ceiling to hold in place the shapes that keep in place a golden mesh in which lights hide, and present a play of light and shade, as clouds do. Three glass orbs were sourced and hung off brass rods to light the billing desk. These elements put together are the backdrop for the garments that adorn the racks of the store. They are also a fragment of a style of building with detail and precision that is being rapidly lost in modern Indian building construction.
The studio appreciates the effort and energy put into this collaboration by Mrs. and Mr. Kumar who were supportive of our design strategy, and showed great faith in our skill as fellow designers and architects.
Project team: Pranav Naik, Shweta Shah, and Arjun Pathak

#ritukumar #palladium #Lowerparel #mumbai #bombay #mills #apparel #design #architecture #store