Gramicci store in east London revolves around jumbo pair of stripy shorts
Creative agency Steep Learning Group wanted to emulate "a giant doughnut outside a doughnut shop" when creating a playful 2.5-metre-tall sculpture of a pair of shorts to act as the mascot for clothing brand Gramicci's east London store.
The painted sculpture anchors the split-level interior of American climbing brand Gramicci's second London shop on Netil Lane, minutes from London Fields.
Steep Learning Group modelled the jumbo blue-and-white striped shorts on a real pair of the brand's bouldering shorts, complete with the oversized webbing belt that is typical of the brand, established by climber Mike Graham in 1983.
"It linked nicely to the world that shaped Gramicci in its formative years in 80s and 90s California," said agency co-founders Filip Tyden and Erik Hedman.
The duo told Dezeen they hope the shorts evoke the same feeling as "a giant doughnut outside a doughnut shop, or a hotdog stand shaped like a hotdog".
They began by sketching pairs of shorts to figure out the rough shape and size of the sculpture, before working with set designer Ellen Wilson to bring it to life.
Wilson and her team hand-crafted the 2.5-metre-tall object by glueing large blocks of styrofoam together and finished it with Jesmonite, a plaster and resin composite material. After this, the shorts were painstakingly hand-painted with stripes.
"Ellen worked tirelessly on doing texture and paint samples and really managed to capture the right level of detail and cartoonish-ness," said Tyden and Hedman.
"We like that you can see and feel that the shorts were made by hand and have some imperfections, far away from a rendering or 3D perfection."
The agency conceived the rest of the interiors with local designer Dom Johnson, who created bespoke wooden furniture on wheels to fit the needs of a space that is constantly changing for different events.
When crafting mobile display plinths for the store, Johnson was informed by the familiar style of stackable Euro containers. The designer used Douglas fir plywood, overlaid with pine batons, to mimic the recognisable crates, which are usually rendered in plastic.
The largest of these plinths houses the till, while another can be used to exhibit clothes and other products and was stained a distinctive shade of cobalt.
Johnson explained that the plinths were created to be flexible and can act as benches, display cabinets or even a bike stand.
The designer selected materials connected to the temporary structures often used for climbing and skating, referencing Gramicci's origins in the surf-skate scene of 1990s California.
Johnson said he chose Douglas fir because "its grain is beautifully pronounced and inconsistent – a reminder that plywood does come from a tree – whilst still behaving as a furniture-grade sheet material".
"It resembles the shuttering ply we might find in skate parks or at pop-ups, but with an elevated finish," he told Dezeen.
The shop's mezzanine level features a bright blue angled climbing wall that can be used to try bouldering clothes before buying, and nods to Gramicci's Yosemite roots.
"Knowing that the space might transform from a cinema to a retail space to a climbing workshop within one given weekend, we wanted to create a family which was practically agile and visually consistent – a big 'Tetris system'," said Johnson.
The designer used leftover wood to create leaning wall panels as additional displays for Gramicci products, to "reiterate this feeling of the temporary or momentary".
Steep Learning Group also sourced a cluster of Monobloc plastic chairs for the store, which can be rearranged depending on the event, as well as a bright blue plasticky curtain that delineates the back-of-house space behind the shorts sculpture.
Just around the corner, designer Nicola Weetch recently renovated the interior of listening bar Bambi "to feel lived-in".
Elsewhere in London, designer James Shaw previously created a giant foot-shaped sculpture for footwear brand Camper's Regent Street store, which functions as a till and a bench for trying on shoes.
The photography is by Michael Bodiam unless stated otherwise.
Project credits:
Creative direction: Steep Learning Group
Furniture: Dom Johnson
Furniture assistance: Pat Forde
Shorts production: Ellen Wilson
Climbing board: Rise Climbing
Producer and events coordinator: Tiz Wz
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