It’s safe to say that in terms of retail design, China is the holy grail, and it’s especially the luxury segment which has seen a steep rise in evocative interiors aiming to entice the country’s swashbuckling shopping elite. The luxury shopping infrastructures of its first-tier cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and to a lesser extent Shenzhen, are already well-developed, but nevertheless continue to spawn alluring new establishments. In the latter category falls La Moitié, a newly opened upscale café and women’s boutique in Wanbo, a leafy southern suburb of Guangzhou. The store occupies 326 sqm. (3,509 sq.ft.) unit spread across three floors at Aoyuan City Plaza, a prestigious mixed-use complex comprising of a mall and several office and residential towers, and features a bold interior design by local practice One Fine Day Studio & Partners. The store’s name La Moitié, French for ‘half’, pretty much gives away the chosen design dichotomy—two visually different spaces, one side captured in pink and full of frills, and the other black and understated. Wacky? Surprisingly not. Upon entering the hall, the two sides are immediately visible, and sees a café section with arches, columns and chandeliers in a Baroque-inspired style, matched by an understated retail section captured in black stone. A spiral staircase, sitting right in the middle, is both pink and black, as if to emphasize the sharp colour divide. A mezzanine floor features two secluded private dining rooms, both entirely black, and which are constructed as such that peeks are given of the pink-infused side of the premises. On the upper floor, La Moitié houses the flagship store of Chinese fashion brand Cheng, and given the store’s different sections, the women’s collections of Chinese fashion brand Cheng are obviously presented in a pink setting with marble flooring and pink-tinted stuccoed walls infused with Chinese architectural elements, whereas the men’s line is showcased amidst walls and flooring clad in black granite, sculptural furnishings and suspended steel clothing racks.