The conversation surrounding the Death of Retail exacerbated the industry’s dour mood this year as it confronted the headwinds of e-commerce. Yet, necessity being the mother of invention, the existential threat posed by online shopping has also spurred designers and brands to innovate and think outside the box. Fans of the shoppable apartment witnessed the expansion of the concept in cities around the world, including The Future Perfect’s new furniture bungalow in L.A. and interior designer Sarah Lavoine’s well-edited Paris maison. Another winning strategy for brick-and-mortars: Stocking a custom, available-only-in-store selection of marvels like Designer Moises Esquenazi’s cabinet of design curiosities in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. Meanwhile, the smart luxury fashion houses went to work opening experiential boutiques that have to be seen to believed. Case in point: Paris’s Maison Louis Vuitton Place Vendôme, a stunning art-filled space designed by Peter Marino with two on-site ateliers and special-edition collections. Here, the full list of 2017 debuts worth shopping in.
The Best-Designed Stores of 2017
These 15 retail destinations around the world prove that shopping can be about far more than simply selling a product.
By The Editors December 19, 2017
Waowig Studio, Miami
Bogotá-born interior and product designer Moises Esquenazi’s Wynwood boutique is an experiment in eclectic, imaginative design. Read more »
Casa Perfect, Los Angeles
Set in a house designed by Korean American architect David Hyun in 1957, this by-appointment-only West Hollywood furniture store sets a new bar for interiors boutiques made to feel like home. Read more »
Golran, Milan
The century-old rug company debuts a new flagship from Francesca Avossa Studio in the upscale Brera neighborhood that appears to borrow more from performance art than retail. Read more »
Maison Louis Vuitton Place Vendôme, Paris
The storied French fashion house returns to the site of its original 19th-century workshop with a new space designed by Peter Marino; plus on-site ateliers housed in two 1714 townhouses by Baroque-era architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the man behind Versailles’s Hall of Mirrors. Read more »
EM PTY Gallery, New York
Off White designer Virgil Abloh explores his label’s physical identity with his first stateside store—a concept shop that doubles as an art gallery. Read more »
Compartés, Los Angeles
The boutique chocolatier turned to design doyenne Kelly Wearstler for a hometown flagship inspired by mid-century Continental confectioners. Read more »
Natur & Nicolai Bergmann, Tokyo
Japanese architects SANAA and Copenhagen’s Studio OEO are behind the ethereal design at this gem of a jewelry store. Read more »
Forty Five Ten, Dallas
The fashion mecca’s stunning new 37,000-square-foot outpost in downtown Dallas is a department store fit for the modern age. Read more »
House of Toogood, London
Sisters Faye and Erica Toogood’s boutique and exhibition space is a warren of covetable homewares and fashionable finds. Read more »
Gentle Monster, Los Angeles
The Korean eyewear label’s first West Coast store pays homage to traditions at home with gorgeous, artful installations celebrating the harvest moon. Read more »
Issey Miyake Flagship, Milan
Tokujin Yoshioka retrofits a 19th-century heritage space with contrasting design elements perfectly suited to the fashion brand’s technology-driven threads. Read more »
Maison Sarah Lavoine, Paris
Situated between two classically regal squares in the Second Arrondissement, the stylish storefront is a haven for a well-edited selection of fashion and homewares—and the mindset to go with them. Read more »
Ulla Johnson, New York
For her first brick-and-mortar store, the bohemian designer turned to a group of female collaborators to create a warm and welcoming space downtown. Read more »
Max Mara Flagship, New York
Duccio Grassi Architects overhauls the brand’s Madison Avenue boutique as an homage to the fashion house’s Italian roots. Read more »
Technogym Flagship, Milan
The Italian brand’s clean aesthetics and advanced data tracking are on display inside the new boutique designed by architect and furniture designer Antonio Citterio. Read more »