The Florida project: Dolce & Gabbana bring their timeless glamour to Miami

The unveiling of a new Dolce & Gabbana store is never an understated affair. The brand's latest, which opened in Miami in April, was the subject of a two-day celebration incorporating cocktail parties, fashion shows and live concerts. Naturally, its design and interiors are no less of a performance.

For this, the Italian fashion behemoth's 18th store in the US, the designers have teamed up with the French-born, Tokyo-based architect and designer Gwenael Nicolas of Curiosity studio, with whom they have worked on previous projects, including their shops in Tokyo and Milan. His cross-cultural sensibilities have proved a perfect fit for their aesthetic.

'Working with Gwenael was not a casual choice,' says Domenico Dolce. 'We admire the theatricality of his projects and the stories he manages to tell when we work together. He is French but he lives in Japan, and this mix of cultures gives him unique characteristics that have always impressed us.'

In this case, that sense of theatricality was particularly apt, as Nicolas' brief was to create a concept that referenced the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, an opera house much loved by the designers. More than that, his task was to capture the very essence and roots of the brand. 'In all the projects we have developed with Gwenael, we've used different concepts,' says Stefano Gabbana. 'In Miami, we wanted to recreate a trip to Italy.'

Nicolas, who trained at the Ecole Supérieure d'Arts Graphiques in Paris and the Royal College of Art in London, often employs a filmic style in his work - George Lucas's Star Wars was an early influence - which lends itself well to Dolce & Gabbana's love of storytelling. His is not 'the La Scala that everybody sees', but rather 'the invisible part, when you visit the theatre before or after a show. There is a creative energy that is, for me, very similar to the Dolce & Gabbana world.'

To realise that vision, he used a palette of sandstone, marble and a mix of polished and raw travertine, punctuated by shots of pure glamour in the form of oversize baroque mirrors and walnut furniture embellished with polished metal and gold velvet.

'When you visit Italy, it feels as if time has been suspended,' he explains. 'The past collides with the present. It's very different from the feeling of Miami, where everything is new and light.'

The store is located in Miami's Design District, which has been the subject of major regeneration over the past two decades and is now a global design mecca. For Nicolas, this diversity spelt creative freedom. 'The great thing about the Design District is that each building is created with its own philosophy,' he says. 'The notion of style and trend is irrelevant.'

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Nevertheless, the clarity of the light in Florida roots the store in its setting and is integral to its design: as Nicolas puts it, the Miami sunlight 'fuses all the architectural elements in a sculptural composition'.

The double-height, wavy glass fa?ade - a tribute to the curtain at La Scala - both opens it up to the exterior and diverts the eye from what lies within: fibreglass reproductions of neoclassical sculptures and busts on stone pedestals, which call to mind actors about to spring to life and don the clothes and accessories that surround them.

'A world of wonder and magic' is how Nicolas describes the customer's experience of the store. 'You see a different reality through a lens. As you walk in, through the curtain, you feel yourself in the middle of a stage - a place ready for a dramatic performance.' And what could be more D&G than that? 

Dolce & Gabbana, 148 NE 41st Street, Miami, Florida; dolcegabbana.com