Lorenzo Apicella and John Rushworth recently completed a retail space and branding campaign for Essenziale, a new upscale London lingerie and beachwear boutique that caters to both women and men. The goal of the project was to “create an environment and identity that is about intimacy, privacy and elegance” said Essenziale owner Lina Barbara. While at the same time, the interiors and graphics were designed to potentially serve as the basis for a small exclusive retail chain.

The core idea was to produce a “serious, yet glamorous” environment where Barbara, represented as curator, could showcase her well-edited lingerie collection. And the result is a 1,100 square foot store that is a synthesis of fashion, interior and graphic design that creates a sanctuary from Mayfair’s bustling Grafton Street.

The store’s graphic identity revolves around a serious ‘E’ monogram that is delivered through a refined printing technique that gives it a truly glamorous edge. The monogram appears on packaging, store carrier bags and a website and resonates with the store interiors in its approach to communicating an understated elegance that reflects the top European luxury labels the store carries and the values of its discerning clientele.

The retail space and branding campaign utilize a design vocabulary that is rooted in classic, Italian-inspired design. It is based on rigorous geometry enlivened with design treatments calculated to be uplifting and optimistic. Luxurious, yet simple, the store engages refined, modernist principles throughout. Formerly a small shoe shop with a modest frontage and basement storage, the store has been transformed into a long continuous retail space on the ground floor and a lounge and large changing rooms on the lower level.

A palette of warm grays is featured in the glass fascia and continues throughout the interior. This color scheme acts as an ideal canvas for showcasing the garments that punctuate the surfaces with jolts of rich colors. Finishing touches such as polished lacquer planes floating off mirror walls, a limestone floor, high ceilings, and an oculus of white ceiling light draws viewer's eyes away from the street and into the interior of the space.

Accessorizing the environment are custom polished aluminum and clear glass shelves, red leather “coconut” George Nelson chairs, Carrara marble Saarinen side tables, custom cinnabar red wooden hangers and Glo Ball Jasper Morrison lamps.