Skinmarket

Skinmarket, a Los Angeles cosmetics retailer, focuses on the consumer power of the teenage bracket dubbed Generation Y. The “hang out” store design was created by Toronto-based West 49 Parallel Design Inc.

Designers fashioned an intimate setting: the atypical entrance is glass-free; solid drywall flanks the entrance; and a lone store logo is downlit. The result is more club-like than retail. Designers scrapped the “bowling alley” approach of lining everything up on lanes, and avoided “girlie-girl” icons. Instead, they favored many eclectic elements that could appeal to different types of shoppers. For example, the flooring has an assortment of photo-imaged tiles including grass, asphalt and manhole covers.

Stone and earth tones offset the store's pumpkin-stained maple fixtures and vibrant orange drapery. The latter serves as a backdrop to accentuate the curving back wall. In the spirit of experimentation, Skinmarket features several chaired makeup stations, set up for expert demonstrations or for just messing around. Some are even equipped with a sink, which really says, “Try as many looks as you like.”

Design: West 49 Parallel Design Inc., Toronto – Beverly Moroz, design principal and project designer, Stanley Kedzierski, project coordinator, Grace Tyonos, production Outside

Consultants: Frankfurt Balkind, Los Angeles (in-store and product graphics, logo design); Barone Studio, Venice, Calif. (sculpture, furniture and wall art) General

Contractors: Richter & Ratner, Maspeth, N.Y.

Audio/Visual: Westbury National Show Systems Ltd., Toronto

Flooring: Imagine Tile, Jersey City, N.J. (tile); Specialty Lightweight Concrete, San Bernardino, Calif. (concrete)

Fixturing Suppliers:Three J Display and Woodworking Enterprises Ltd., Toronto (millwork and metalwork); ALU, New York City, and Patina-V, City of Industry, Calif. (floor fixturing); Monarch Block, Petosky, Mich. (butcher block tables)

Furniture: Diva, Los Angeles

Glass Finishes: Bendheim Architectural Glass, Oakland, Calif. Laminates: Formica Corp., Cincinnati; Lamin-Art Inc., Elk Grove Village, Ill.; Abet Inc., Englewood, N.J.; Arborlite, LaSalle, Que.

Lighting Suppliers: Lightolier, Fall River, Mass.; Eurolite, Toronto; Itre USA, New York City; George Kovacs, New York City; Tech Lighting, Chicago; Holophane Lighting, Newark, Ohio

Mannequins/Props/Decoratives: Wm. Prager Ltd., Toronto

Signage: Midtown Neon Sign Corp., New York City; Chino Glass, Chino, Calif. Upholstry: Telio & Cie, Toronto Venetian plaster painting: Randal McAnany Co., Los Angeles

Photography: David Glomb, Los Angeles