Fashion & architecture - Helen Castle

Architecture has become a powerful tool in the fashion business. Perfectly poised and detailed shopping environments help to launch and build the corporate identities of the most conspicuous and prevalent fashion houses worldwide. As clothes designers diverify into all sorts of product ranges from homeware to sports gear, and expand in the the virtual world of e–commerce, the architectural image of built shops is becoming all the more apparent and all–pervasive.
Featuring interviews with high–profile architects Rem Koolhaas, Jan Kaplicky of Future Systems and David Chipperfield, and covering, among others, Comme des Garcons, Dolce & Gabbana, Issey Miyake, Prada and Yves St Laurent stores, this issue takes a close look at the relationship between fashion and architecture. It examines issues such as what role architecture plays in the formulation of fashion houses' identities, whether the line between fashion and architecture has become blurred, and if virtual shopping environments are intensifying the need to experience architectural space in the high street. Probing and far–reaching in its editorial content, Fashion and Architecture is the most comprehensive and high–quality visual record of current fashion retail.