Studio 3A

Maria Sole Boutique in London

Maria Sole contacted us because she was starting her unique leather jewelry brand and had just made a deal with a shop in St. Johns Wood High Street in London, UK. She had this place for only 3 months starting the day she contacted us and wanted to take the most advantage of it as she could. As a start up company the budget was very tight and the timescale was even tighter. Here started the journey of Studio 3a’s first pop up shop.
 
The first challenge was that albeit being in a very well frequented commercial street, the shop was enormous for her to showcase her hand made jewellery. We talked her out of cladding the walls with mirrors which would only make it larger and instead we split up the room into two areas: the gallery/exhibition space and the workshop/proper shop where she could sell her items. We fixed the envelope of the shop and painted the walls in a very dark grey and cladded the floor in black vinyl which could then be reused further on for a different project.
A structure was designed and built in scaffolding inside the first space, which was then fully wrapped with a white cotton ligament we found from a hospital supply manufacturer outlet. This wrapping effect produced lines and voids which mimicked her pieces which are very architectural per se. This space was the gallery/exhibition space where we hung her main pieces with nylon cords as if they’d be floating.
 
The workshop happened in the back space that was created by us. One would have to cross the gallery to find Maria Sole working on her hand made jewellery and only there would you be able to see her entire collection that was for sale in a more intimate environment. The shop was then returned to the owner as if nothing had happened. The scaffolding was returned, the walls were repainted white, the black flooring was taken apart and the cotton ligaments…
She kept them for inspiration.