Simple plaster surfaces and grey stone floors help create a gallery-like setting inside the Valextra store in Milan, which has been overhauled by British designer John Pawson.
One of several high-end fashion boutiques on Via Manzoni, the Valextra store is designed by Pawson to merge "minimalism, clean elegance and restrained luxury".

"The space appears rigorous, monumental; this is an all-encompassing, pure architectural project which entirely redefines the scope of the store's interiors," explained the brand, which makes luxury handbags and leather accessories.
"The vision of the intervention is not simply to create a container for the product, but a spatial narrative that enhances the experience of proportion, surface, and scale." Since 2015, Valextra has annually approached a different architect or designer to overhaul the store's interiors ? last year saw New York-based studio Snarkitecture cover the ceiling with billowing clouds of white fabric.

For this intervention, Pawson applied his typically restrained colour palette to form a "flexible canvas" against which the brand can display its products.
Surfaces in the three-room store are entirely covered with pale grey plaster to match the existing Ceppo di Gré stone floors. Plaster has also been used to form platform-style shelves and chunky display tables.
Openings puncture the peripheral walls, allowing passersby on the street to look through to the rear of the space.

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