Founded only in 2017 by Chen Hao, a 35-year old American-trained serial entrepreneur, NOME (pron.: no-mi) has emerged as the go-to address for homeware goods, apparel, shoes and other products. Interestingly, the design is executed by a team of independent and also acclaimed Swedish designers. Indeed, given the range of merchandise and distinct design focus, a comparison with Japanese retailer MUJI isn’t farfetched. Based in Guangzhou, the company has gained a huge popularity and has now expanded across the entire, densely populated, Pearl River Delta – mind you, this is the planet’s biggest metropolitan area in the making – with a continuously growing number of outposts to meet the voracious demand of its aspiring middle class demographic. Hao’s latest endeavour, NOME Archive, seems like a further upgrade of not only the brand’s retail operations, but more importantly, the branding. The new design-led concept store can be found at Grandview, one of Guangzhou‘s leading shopping centres. Occupying a triangular 460 sqm. (4,951 sq.ft.) unit on the second floor, it’s actually the site of the brand’s very first retail space.

The chosen aesthetic, designed by Shanghai-based architecture and design practice atelier xy, takes the store’s triangular shape as a departure point, and sees it divided into a central area, and separate areas for apparel and beauty & makeup. The latter two sections are marked by a backlit vaulted ceiling, bare concrete walls, polished concrete flooring, and matching furnishings crafted from metal and wood. The adjacent central area, dedicated to daily necessities, sits below a suspended grid of mesh panels and tubular lights which add a slight futuristic dynamic to the setting. This section of the NOME Archive store sees a grid layout of modular cabinets in a variety of heights and sizes, one side featuring a bright yellow interior, and the other side a light blue interior, both in a variety of configurations. This set-up allows a flexible merchandise display, easily allowing products to be highlighted, but also placing storage features either at the top and bottom of the cabinets. The beauty and makeup area features wall-mounted cabinets clad in shiny metal, in addition to cabinets in a matte grey hue. The newly opened NOME Archive store carries a tightly curated collection of 1,750 products in 15 different categories, including an entire wall with a newly launched line of aromatherapy products.