Fashion’s top boutiques have evolved into immersive spaces that say as much as the collections they house. From minimalist sanctuaries to avant-garde playgrounds, these flagship stores around the globe don’t just sell clothes – they tell a story through design. Below, we spotlight ten standout fashion flagships known for interiors that turn shopping into an art form.
Toteme – Beijing (Taikoo Li Sanlitun)
Swedish label Toteme’s first China flagship is a masterclass in geometric minimalism. Designed with Herzog & de Meuron, its facade is a rhythm of pleated white stone, creating a bold monochrome statement on the Beijing streets. Inside, cool metal accents and sculptural forms play off a palette of bone-white and black. The effect is serene yet striking – a calming canvas that lets Toteme’s sleek garments speak, all while feeling like a modern art pavilion devoted to understated luxury.
The Row – Los Angeles (Melrose Place)
Twin designers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen turned a tucked-away Mid-century modern house into The Row’s LA boutique, and it feels like stepping into their impossibly chic living room. A gallery-like interior unfolds around a tranquil courtyard and reflecting pool, complete with iconic vintage furniture and contemporary art pieces casually interspersed among the racks. Sunlight drifts through airy rooms clad in creamy tones and rich wood, channeling California ease. It’s luxurious but low-key – more private residence than retail – perfectly mirroring The Row’s ethos of quiet, curated elegance.
Khaite – New York City (SoHo)
New York’s cool-girl label Khaite revealed a SoHo flagship that reads as a brutalist temple to fashion. The cavernous space – all troweled cement, steel detailing, and austere lines – is warmed by theatrical touches like a shaft of light leading to a live evergreen tree planted in the floor. The raw concrete and polished metal surfaces recall Tadao Ando’s modernist spaces, balancing severity with calm. In lieu of traditional displays, Khaite’s pieces are presented amid monumental artful structures, giving the boutique the aura of an avant-garde gallery where clothing is elevated to exhibit-worthy status.
Aimé Leon Dore – New York City (Mulberry Street)
Step off Mulberry and into what feels like a downtown clubhouse dressed in Queens nostalgia. The Aimé Leon Dore flagship layers mahogany walls, Persian rugs, vintage sports memorabilia, and marble countertops with the same quiet swagger found in its collections. There’s a coffee bar tucked in back, and everything—down to the curated bookshelf—feels intentional. It’s not flashy, but it’s unmistakably ALD: polished, personal, and deeply East Coast.
Jacquemus – London
The young French label’s New Bond Street boutique channels a sun-soaked Provence fantasy within a classic London townhouse. Beige stone floors and hand-applied stucco walls set a serene, Mediterranean mood from the moment you step past the neoclassical façade. The OMA-designed space plays with “stacking” geometries – a bright, open ground level gives way to more intimate curved rooms above, linked by a sweeping Portland stone staircase. Pops of sunflower-yellow in the furniture nod to Jacquemus’s signature palette amid the otherwise neutral decor. Part high-fashion salon, part art gallery, the four-story flagship is sprinkled with modern artworks (think Wolfgang Tillmans photographs and vintage ceramics) curated by Simon Porte Jacquemus himself. The result feels less like a store and more like the designer’s own chic London pied-à-terre – warm, whimsical, and unmistakably Jacquemus.
Balenciaga – London (New Bond Street)
In a rebellious twist, Balenciaga’s London flagship trades luxury tropes for an industrial rawness that’s jarring and fascinating. Art director Niklas Bildstein Zaar’s “Raw Architecture” concept strips the space down to bare concrete, steel and glass, evoking a warehouse or empty parking garage. A gaping crack runs across the concrete floor on the upper level – a deliberate scar filled with resin that stops shoppers in their tracks. The shelves and walls are patinated as if distressed by time, setting a dystopian stage for Demna’s designs. The overall feel is edgy and otherworldly, yet hyper-modern. By rejecting opulence, Balenciaga creates its own form of avant-garde luxury – one that feels like exploring a post-apocalyptic art installation rather than a traditional boutique.
LOEWE – Barcelona (Casa LOEWE, Paseo de Gracia)
LOEWE’s Barcelona flagship is less store, more curated living space. Set inside a 19th-century modernist building, Casa Loewe stretches across 1,000 square meters of parquet floors, cast-iron columns, and softly lit arched ceilings. Designed under former creative director Jonathan Anderson, the space reflects his enduring vision of LOEWE as a cultural institution as much as a fashion house. Architect Pascual Ausió preserved the building’s original bones, then layered in contemporary gestures—bronze staircases, raw stone plinths, and handwoven tapestries sourced from local artisans. Art from the LOEWE collection sits alongside the garments, placed with museum-like care. It’s a quiet, refined expression of the brand’s roots in Spanish craft, and a space that continues to define LOEWE’s design language long after Anderson’s tenure.
Prada – New York City (SoHo)
Rem Koolhaas’s design for Prada’s SoHo Epicenter still feels radical more than two decades on. The cavernous boutique is defined by a sweeping zebrawood wave that cuts through the space, forming a sculptural amphitheater of steps and slopes. Merchandise is displayed sparingly, more like installation pieces than product. Translucent walls glow softly behind aluminum tracks that ferry clothing across the ceiling. It’s theatrical without being loud – a space that treats retail as architecture, and architecture as concept. Cool, cerebral, and quietly iconic – the blueprint for experiential fashion long before it was a trend.
Gentle Monster – Seoul (Haus Dosan, Apgujeong)
Seoul’s Haus Dosan is retail as theater – a flagship where eyewear brand Gentle Monster unleashes its wildest imagination. The multi-story space blends store, gallery, and sci-fi funhouse. Upon entering, you’re confronted with a massive art installation by Frederik Heyman – a crumbling concrete structure suspended in time – that instantly sets an avant-garde tone. Each floor offers a new fantasy: one level features a futuristic lab with kinetic sculptures; another presents a dimly lit dreamscape patrolled by a six-legged robotic creature ominously nicknamed The Probe. Even the café and cosmetics floors are filled with surreal design touches (think elegant sculptures, mirrored surfaces, and sensory triggers at every turn). By prioritizing emotion and exploration over conventional merchandising, Gentle Monster’s flagship feels like a trip to an experimental art museum, where you just happen to also find cutting-edge sunglasses on display.
Alaïa – Paris (Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré)
Alaïa’s latest Parisian flagship, designed by the acclaimed Japanese architecture firm SANAA, embodies the brand’s philosophy of “second skin” through its soft, sculptural forms and signature curves. The store features a curved glass façade that reflects the street, creating an inviting and fluid transition between the exterior and interior. Inside, transparent tubular rooms showcase clothing and accessories, complemented by art pieces curated by creative director Pieter Mulier. The inclusion of the iconic Milanese café Sant Ambroeus on the mezzanine adds a personal and intimate touch to the shopping experience.
