kengo kuma creates enchanted forest pop-up inside valextra's milan store

for fall/winter 2018 valextra invites japanese architect kengo kuma to create an enchanted forest inside its retail store on milan’s via manzoni. featuring raw, sectioned planks of cedar wood alternated with mirrored surfaces throughout the space, the forest is kuma’s answer to the stress of urban life and an aesthetic vision that offers an enchanted experience.

images courtesy of valextra

peculiar flora and fauna enlivens the space using a natural palette enriched with pops of colour and charming details. this forms the back drop for the valextra‘s iconic handbags perched on single shelves and dotted around the store like inhabitants of their own fairytale space.

each room of the boutique features a different colour story based on woodland-inspired colours, which develop from an arrangement of colder hues and into warmer compositions. the metamorphic forest is completed by a series of large-scale illustrations featured on silk scarves created by italian street artist el gato chimney. the pictures represent a series of mythical animals which combine zoomorphic characteristics with esoteric, folkloristic details.

‘this is valextra’s gift to its home city, answering to a desire for natural lightness and celebration of beauty, for a multisensory immersion into a place of childhood memories and magical atmospheres’, valextra said in a statement. ‘this dreamy forest becomes the backdrop for a visual narrative that permeates the fall/ winter collection’.