Kidding around

 

Paris Kids 3Following the success of its relaunched women’s fashion offer last year, top Chile department store, Paris, has moved ahead with a redesign of its children’s department for a new store opening in Quillin, Santiago.

The chain turned to UK design agency, Dalziel & Pow, which was responsible for the earlier womenswear overhaul, to take on the task.

The brief was to take what was an uninspiring space and turn it into a modern, best in class department.

The aim was to create an urban, playful, and interactive space to engage not just children, but parents too.

Paris Kids spans 700sqm and the concept is about adventure. The playful architecture and furniture is inspired by childhood fun – camping, treehouses, fun at the fair, skateboarding, beach holidays, and hide and seek. The look and feel of the department is achieved through theatrical sets resembling miniature houses, unfinished room sets, and deconstructed play areas.

The department is divided between fashion, toys, footwear, nursery, and accessories, with each area having its own personality.

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Fashion is split by gender and age, with spaces interlinking with each other through oversized doors and keyholes.

The palette is urban and bright with quirky details, such as a table made of skateboards for boys, and a deconstructed caravan for girls.

The bespoke fixtures are inspired by outdoor adventure – rope, knots, and swings.

The space is easy to shop as a result of its large scale navigation using a hand drawn version of the corporate Paris font.

A series of patterns were developed based on a geometric spirograph, to help further differentiate boys and girls fashion. A softer version of the pattern is used for babies and within the nursery.

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The toy area sits at the centre of the space and is inspired by a toy factory. Toys are displayed on a freestanding six metre high industrial framework, maximising the height of the space. A mezzanine wraps around the area, used as a platform for visual merchandising.

Customers can stand in the middle of the space and get a 360 degree view of the toys, evoking the feeling of being a small kid in a giant toy factory.

The space is now Santiago’s largest toy store, and Paris Kids has become a benchmark – there is no where else in a department store that delivers the same level of experience for kids of all ages.

This article first appeared in Inside Retail Magazine’s October/November 2013 issue. To subscribe, click here.

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