Netted by fluorescent tartan

Architect and designer Fabio Novembre presents the new WP Lavori in Corso showroom in Milan: a twin-level shop window filled with a full-height tartan design made out of colored fluorescent lines. This image from traditional Scottish design is reinterpreted in this contemporary way in the 225-sq. m store located in Via Borgogna, behind Piazza San Babila.

The company is a Bologna-based group helmed by Cristina Calori, who founded it 30 years ago with her father Giuseppe. WP has created an aesthetic and commercial model that has helped redefine people’s understanding of clothing, both in Italy and abroad, giving space to brands driven by a platform of shared values.

Based in Milan yet operating internationally, Fabio Novembre’s studio has created an environment that accommodates and enhances the group’s basket of brands. The design’s underlying concept identifies a common thread between these different brands’ philosophies, in a subtle interplay of cross-references, in which tartan appears in various forms, from the flagship shop window to carpet design. Other themes reprised in WP stores are outdoor sports and runways, both from fashion shows and industrial spaces.

The color palette for the store in Via Borgogna starts with bright colors in the shop window, high-impact in this urban context, and continues with more neutral tones inside, where a selection of brighter surfaces stands out. Light-colored wood has a starring role in both furniture and wall claddings, combined with a white metal staircase connecting the two levels, and continuing on to the balcony. The ceiling is white; the floor is a combination of grays and beige. Carpeting on a portion of the second floor, featuring tartan lines against a red background, provides a splash of color.

Custom-made furniture solutions for the showroom include a high-profile, full-height, fabric green wall, immersing visitors into a climbing forest of mosses, plants and lichens. A large, methacrylate chandelier designed by artist Jacopo Foggini hangs down from the second floor ceiling, lending a touch of elegance and reaching the level below through an opening between the two levels.

In the rest of the store, lighting is from a series of spotlights and rectangular lamps fitted into ceiling fixtures that reprise the tartan motif. The clothes displays are designed as veritable open wardrobes, featuring a central space equipped with a clothes hanger bar, surrounded by two strips, the one at the top dedicated to accessories, the one at the bottom occupied by drawers. Space distribution, including display areas and dressing rooms, is based on continuous visual references between the upper and lower floors. In organizational terms, the interior design allows furniture elements to be easily moved around and flexibly configured, dividing up spaces among the various different brands.

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