Forward Facing

In Beijing’s Chaoyang District, one mall’s vision is resolutely tinted with gentle monster’s future-centric lenses, together changing how we shop and experience retail in artistic new ways

- Gregory Woo

Luxury retail can feel quite vanilla, especially when you go from one mega-mall to the next. Those sprawling, almost gargantuan spaces that have become de rigueur in the region can look like they’ve been designed with a checklist in mind: beige-y marble floorings, soft warm lighting and a wide-open atrium with some kind of pop-up booth in the middle. Shin Kong Place South, or SKP-S, for short, is SKP Beijing’s younger, cooler sibling and bucks the trend by bringing in Gentle Monster’s creative team for a collaboration that’s a first of its kind for the brand.

For those who have wandered into any one of Gentle Monster’s stores, the South Korean eyewear brand’s retail spaces are anything but commercial. The vast, gallery-like spaces are filled with eclectic fixtures that viscerally elicit a second take all for glasses that could realistically fit on a couple of trays. It’s decadent for sure, but this unique approach unquestionably changes the way we interact with the actual products. Customs linger longer, the sunglasses are elevated to the level of art and you leave wondering what on earth you just saw. A giant mechanical worm, a mid-store bathtub, and a laundromat in store? Check, check and check. For the unaware, they could be easily mistaken for pop-up art installations. But that really is the allure of the Gentle Monster experience, entering this world that the creative team has dreamed up, exploring the store as you would an art gallery and perhaps, finding a pair of glasses you like on the way, the whole thing is a very non-aggressive experience, despite the rather assaultive visuals each location puts together.