When you first read about Etat Libre d’Orange it sounds like a political manifesto, not a perfume brand. With this in mind, it was little wonder that Shed immediately fell in love not only with the story, but potential for the store environment. With a site on Redchurch Street in East London, confirmed for the London flagship, Shed set about transforming the 30sqm site into a thought provoking space that could live up to the intrigues and persona of this cult French brand.
The design of Etat Libre d’Orange is born out of a unique approach to perfume; each fragrance is treated as a personality that can be worn. Part science and part philosophy allowed Shed to play with the idea of a lab for personalities which was manifested in a concept of a tiled ‘shell’ with science stands to display product. Approaching the store very much as an installation, the centre of the room is a tiled lab table where selected fragrances express their personality and a dominant mural to the back of the space brings the sexually charged essence of the brand to the fore.
Fragrance stores don’t get any more unusual and Shed had a lot of fun with a limited space but a client without limits.