Fashion and design: a necessary synergy for creating quality beauty. They share the ability to move, inspire dreams and become objects of desire. The Aniye By boutique in Riccione is, in its forms, details and colours, a refined display of beauty.
The Aniye By project concerned the design and creation of the first store for the brand of the same name, located in Riccione just steps from Viale Ceccarini, the city’s social and tourist heart. The space is fairly compact, approximately 60 square metres, yet it benefits from large glazed surfaces and high ceilings.
The client is Ms Marchi, creator and founder of Aniye By, a Made in Italy brand founded in Carpi in 2000. The defining character of the brand, in the words of its own creative soul, is to be “revintage”: a reinterpretation of vintage garments with a modern and contemporary-chic attitude, designed for women who are elegant and sporty at the same time.
Our client wanted a store capable of representing the very soul of the brand, embodying its features and style so that there would be strong harmony between the garments on display and the boutique itself. Thanks to the large glazed areas, the store had to be clearly visible from the outside as well, visually expanding an interior surface that, as mentioned, does not exceed 60 square metres.
The starting concept was to give the boutique the reinterpreted vintage style dear to the collections it contains, drawing inspiration from their hippy and rebellious spirit, with strong echoes of the 1970s while remaining deeply contemporary. The client also wanted to offer her audience a warm and welcoming place, where customers could feel at ease while shopping, in the heart of Riccione’s commercial district and among many stores and boutiques.
For this project, the starting point was the modern and contemporary reinterpretation of a seventies look, but with a chic sensibility. Inspiration was taken from London’s neo-Liberty Biba boutique of the 1970s, then reworked into a personal style suited to embodying the spirit of Aniye By. The idea was to use the predominant materials of the historic London store, namely wood, metal and glass, and reinterpret them in a more modern key, removing the heaviness of the original look in favour of a brighter image that retains only a vintage reference while fitting into a contemporary context.
Starting from the inspiration offered by London’s Biba boutique and from the space intended to host the Aniye By store, compact in size but with high ceilings and glazed surfaces, architect Cristian Carminati together with Studio Design Carminati Interiors created the project with great clarity. The result is exceptional: the store appears bright and airy, able to communicate immediately with the outside thanks to its generous windows, while the interior maintains a strong and recognisable identity.
The materials of the Biba boutique were reinterpreted in a more contemporary key: wood is present, but through light oak herringbone parquet instead of heavy dark-wood furnishings, while the original iron was replaced entirely by brass, capable of bringing light, splendour and prestige to the whole. The mirrored surfaces, golden in the London store, were replaced with a Vienna pink tone particularly suited to expressing the rock yet romantic soul of the Italian brand.
While the London boutique played with contrasts between shadowed areas and points of light, here light was chosen as the dominant element of the entire store: by day through the natural light that floods the whole space and reflects in the mirrors and brass furnishings; by night through the artificial light of the monumental New York chandelier with fifteen spheres and the spotlights evenly arranged across the ceiling.
The result is great brightness, but also lightness. This is supported by the furnishings, dominated by glass and brass display elements that give the boutique a precious and refined atmosphere without weighing it down.
The atmosphere is enriched by the choice of light lace curtains for the fitting rooms, softening the store’s rock allure while preserving its energy and charm. The store furnishings were custom-made and are unique pieces combining materials such as glass and brass with iridescent elements. The impression is that of entering the private wardrobe of a sophisticated, aristocratic lady choosing her outfit of the day among refined looks, posing at every change in front of the mirrors that cover the walls.
Standing outside the store and looking in, one feels almost like being at the theatre, a spectator of a glamorous and chic yet extremely contemporary performance. The choice of white for walls and ceilings also adds light and modernity to a whole that is anything but ordinary: it is a treasure chest of dreams, the magical frame for a modern brand with strong references to a past rich in charm and style.
The context is luxurious, sophisticated, new yet antique, romantic and rock at the same time, in a continuous play of contrasts that only appear to be in opposition, but are in fact fused into a coherent and highly recognisable identity.
Externally, the space is strongly characterised by both luminous elements and mirrors, together with the imposing screen positioned above the entrance, where vivid images from the brand’s advertising campaigns are shown. Brass details are also very present here, creating a strong connection with the interiors and giving the whole great consistency and recognisability in a commercial context where standing out and attracting attention is essential.
We can therefore say that the client’s requests were fully satisfied: the store is the complete representation of the brand’s slightly hippy and gypsy soul, without losing sight of the timeless class and style of contemporary garments, even though they remain strongly connected to a gently rebellious past. It is understated luxury, within reach of every woman who wants to dream and play with fashion.
We can imagine a constant dialogue between these clothes and the past, which permeates them without dominating them, allowing them to be both modern and antique at the same time, as only true beauty can be. The link between fashion and design is therefore not decorative, but structural: one gives strength to the other.