Previously known as J:Gallery, a hybrid lifestyle concept in Shanghai known to pair retail and hospitality, it has not only taken on a new identity, but also boasts fully revamped premises. Now baptized Blank, it has dropped the restaurant to fully focus on women’s fashion that’s presented in sleek understated settings by Hangzhou-based design studio An. The store occupies a retail space of 500 sqm. (1,640 sq.ft.) spread across two floors at Xintiandi Style, a newer section of the plush Xintiandi shopping district in the heart of the city. The expansive floor-to-ceiling windows on street level reveal a seemingly levitating wall that shields much of the interior.

Inside, an elongated terrazzo table, adorned with a chunk of inlaid yellow glass, takes centre stage, and serves as both as a product display and as bar or table at in-house parties and events. Situated directly behind it, running along the back wall, is a bar crafted from terrazzo and copper, and it comes with faucets and a small sink. The setting is framed by concrete walls, flooring and ceiling that allows the monumental furnishings and fixtures to pop.A sculptural staircase adds more visual drama, and leads up to Blank‘s second floor where the volumes of downstairs are replicated in a different form and configuration.

Serving as both partitions and shelving, they create separate sections for the store’s curated product range. The futuristic sales counter is crafted from polished concrete. Similarly to downstairs, the retail setting is shielded, and here it’s by boards covered in corrugated steel. For the boutique’s most discerning clientele, a V.I.P. salon is readily available across the corridor that separates it from the retail space upstairs. Blank carries apparel, accessories, shoes and jewellery pieces by a string of independent designers from across the planet, including Aleksandr Manamis, Cherevichkotchviki, Marc le Bihan, Empress 47 and Delada.

Designed by An
Photography by Wen Photography

https://superfuture.com/2018/06/new-shops/shanghai-blank-store-opening/