Nick Leith-Smith Architects’ long-standing
creative partnership with Manolo Blahnik
continues with the brand’s largest global
outlet to date in one of the world’s most
celebrated department stores, Harrods.
Designed by the architects in close
collaboration with Manolo Blahnik himself,
the new Manolo Blahnik London is located
within the store’s fifth floor ‘Shoe Heaven,’
a 42,000 square foot salon dedicated to
fine footwear.
The Manolo Blahnik unit occupies an
exclusive space within the store’s west
tower, set apart from the rest of the
floor with its own dedicated staircase
and entrance. The concession has
been designed to resemble the layout
and atmosphere of a grand salon. The
impression is of a domestic space writ
large, evoking the interiors of a grand
fin-de-siècle mansion and inspired
in particular by the architecture of
the virtuoso Austrian architect Josef
Hoffman. Hoffman was one of the leading
proponents of European Art Nouveau
and one of the founders of the Vienna
Secession, a group of artists, architects
and designers who embraced a sensuous
approach to the integration of craft and
decoration into design.