Silicon Valley‘s nifty high-tech territory may be the ultimate location for Gentle Monster‘s fantastical sci-fi infused flagship stores. Guess what? That has just become a reality. The Seoul-based luxury eyewear brand is moving forward with its groundbreaking retail spaces, and its lates outpost has just soft-opened at the heart of this highly affluent corner of the San Francisco Bay Area. Situated at Westfield Valley Fair, an upscale shopping centre in the Santa Clara area of San José, the retail space measures 4,300 sq.ft. (approx. 400 sqm.) and features an interior design created by Gentle Monster‘s lead spatial designer Wonho Moon. Similarly immersive as its other stores, the settings offer shoppers a journey through the eyes of a kinetic life-size robot of an eerily lifelike old lady with an exposed midriff of wires and seated on a bench. Her fantastical surroundings are all a nod to her childhood memories filled with some of her childhood friends. Additional installations include life-scale moving donkeys placed opposite each other on a podium, first introduced last Summer at the Gentle Monster store in Hangzhou, creating the optical illusion of a mirror-image, and a looming kinetic pine tree held up by a giant hand. The immersive installations create a future world where technological advancements can restore memories. The new Gentle Monster store carries the brand’s full range of eyewear collections. The opening is part of a stateside retail offensive which will see new outposts added in the comin three years.
Images © Gentle Monster
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