Fashion & Architecture

Architecture has become a powerful tool in the fashion business. Perfectly poised and detailed shopping environments help to launch and build the corporate identities of the most conspicuous and prevalent fashion houses worldwide. As clothes designers diverse into all sorts of product ranges from homeware to sports gear, and expand into the virtual world of e-commerce, the architectural image of built shops is becoming all the more apparent and omniscient. Retails facades and interiors have become potent communicators of brands, as they are relied on not only to hone and articulate the individual identities of named designers, but also to embrace and hold together particular identities. Featuring well-known architects including Rem Koolhaas, David Chipperfield and Din Associates, and fashion designers including Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, and Prada, this next book in the highly successful Architectural Design series, takes a close look at the relationship between fashion and architecture. It examines issues such as what role architecture plays in the formulation of fashion houses' identities, whether the line between fashion and architecture has become blurred, and if virtual shopping environments are intensifying the need to experience architectural space in the high street or the mall. Introduced by Martin Pawley, the book culminates in the question as to whether, in the wake of all these new developments, we should be re-examining all the old hierarchies of urban space in fashion retail. "Fashion and Architecture" is a strong, visual book which features the most exciting fashion and retail projects by international architects.