A Gem in the Rough

JEWELRY RETAIL USED to be synonymous with lit glass-topped cases housing valuable items glinting within them. Times have changed and, today, shoppers can expect stores that reflect a jewelry brand, spaces where the design is as intricate as the products and shops that mix modern with traditional. It’s a complex world.

ABOVE: The softly modern Chung Sheng jewelry store in Kunming, China, includes a workshop and private lounge.

Chun Sheng Jewelry, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

Taking an old building, renovating it and in the process creating something that plays the heritage card – while being gently modern – is what the three-floor, 3230-square-foot Chung Sheng jewelry store in Kunming, in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, is about.

As is not uncommon across the sector, this is a jewelry retail space and workshop in combination, with the first floor being the main retail area and the workshop occupying the second level. The third floor is reserved as a private lounge space for high-end clients.

This is quite a large space and yet, in spite of this, the displays have been kept minimalist as the underlying intention behind Chung Sheng Jewelry is showcasing one-off bespoke pieces, rather than any kind of mass production.

THIS IMAGE: Larissa Loden’s Mall of America pop-up shop emphasizes the brand’s bold aesthetic. | Larissa Loden’s MOA activation features brightly hued fixtures that don’t visually overpower the jewelry.

Larissa Loden, St. Paul, Minn.

Jewelry brand Larissa Loden (Minneapolis), which opened an 800-square-foot, temporary shop on the first floor of Mall of America in Minneapolis, has a strong digital presence with a distinct brand personality that needed to be translated in store by Minneapolis-based architectural/design practice Studio BV.

Betsy Vohs, the Founder of the practice – and the “BV” in the studio’s name – says that with the store being relatively close to Minneapolis-St. Paul Intl. airport, the audience for this store is rather more international than might be anticipated in a typical Midwest location. “When we designed the store, there was an impression that had nothing to do with the physical. This was about having it feel like it’s part of the brand.”

Vohs says that the store’s design included painted wood and an interior that was visually bold enough to support the brand’s aesthetic while at the same time “allowing the jewelry to speak.”

THIS IMAGE: Ylang 23’s new Dallas store uses a subtle pink shade for a sophisticated retail space.

Ylang 23, Dallas

Open since the beginning of this year, the Ylang 23 jewelry store in Dallas is both a relocation and an upsizing, from 1900 to 3300 square feet – and it is very pink. However, this is not a teenage-Barbie pink, but rather something far more subtle.

Alysa Teichman, daughter of Ylang 23 founders Joanne and Charles Teichman, says the new store (Ylang has been up and running since 1985) was “an opportunity to rebrand”.

“Pink has always been part of our DNA and this was the chance to examine how it would present itself in our [new] store,” Teichman relates.

The store is, actually, a lot of rooms and spaces linked by arches and pride of place is given to a piece of art acquired from the Dallas Art Fair. The outcome is an environment that is “sophisticated and feminine,” as Teichman puts it.

PHOTO GALLERY (65 IMAGES)

PHOTOS: NA XIN, INSPACE | AIDAN NOVALIS | COREY GAFFER PHOTOGRAPHY, ST. PAUL, MINN.