HERBERT LEVINE’S TEMPORARY SHOWROOM
Client: Herbert Levine
Type: Retail
Services: Set design, Layout design, FF&E
Ph: évoque lab
Location: Massimo Bonini, Palazzo Borromeo D’Adda, Milano
THE CLIENT
Herbert Levine is an American luxury footwear maison founded in New York in 1948. Under Beth Levine’s creative direction, it redefined the twentieth-century woman’s shoe with sculptural, experimental designs worn by First Ladies and screen icons such as Marilyn Monroe. Today the brand returns, its history reinterpreted with sculptural refinement, cinematic glamour and surreal elegance.
THE CHALLENGE
Following the Fashion Week installation, the brand asked for a permanent showroom in Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda, furnished with pieces of strong presence and large display capacity, able to host an extensive collection.
THE SOLUTION
We chose not to build display units, but to compose an interior. The pieces were sourced and rented from mid-century galleries, selected one by one to converse with the brand and the palazzo’s rooms: a bookcase by Franco Albini, a chest of drawers by Gianfranco Frattini, a low table by Paolo Portoghesi and a series of Deco pieces.
The shoes are not displayed but inhabit the space: resting on walnut cubes, left in a half-open drawer, lined up in a vitrine, placed on a chessboard beside a deck of cards. Each object relates to the furniture that holds it, building a narrative at once domestic and surreal, faithful to the house’s themes of the diva, the domestic allure and the unexpected elegance.
OUR ROLE
Research and selection of the pieces, spatial layout and installation. One month from brief to delivery.
RESULTS
The brand was very pleased with the outcome, as the space brought its storytelling to life, expressing the values and moods that define its footwear.
