DE RODE WINKEL
De Rode Winkel won The Retail Excellence Award 2017 & The Retail Storytelling Award 2018 !!
Iconic denim store De Rode Winkel, located in the picturesque city centre of Utrecht, teamed up with design studio VEVS to create a new retail experience, integrating an intersecting historic alley into the store. Now that a glass roof (architectural intervention by Thomas Kemme Architects) has relocated the alley to the inside, a renewed main entrance lures customers into a contemporary world of denim. VEVS’s playful and sophisticated approach of the interior has created distinctive spaces, each one responding to another consumer need.
VEVS was approached by De Rode Winkel with a multifaceted and unique commission: integrating the alley into the store’s shopping experience, having all 6.500 jeans in the collection on display at all times, building a spacious fitting-room area, a bar and a sewing shop, and expanding the women’s apparel collection. To meet such specific desires, VEVS coordinated a smooth and close collaboration between all disciplines involved. The materials and details, from stretching rubber strings around the sewing shop’s edges to assembling a storage system for the jeans depot, are meticulously balanced and made-to-measure. De Rode Winkel’s appearance now traverses inside and out, past and present, store and depot, hospitality and retail, daylight and artificial light. The result is a spatial and brightly-lit omnibus store, with smart sightlines tying the different zones together. Design studio VEVS strove to visualize the lengthy story of De Rode Winkel (both that of the family business and of the historic building) in a contemporary and vibrant world that provides for many customer’s needs. It seems unnecessary to ever leave this space, but once you do make your way back through the alley, passed the bright red doors, to be reunited with the familiar and historic city of Utrecht, this blissful place will frequently pop back up in your mind.
Copyright: VEVS Interior Design
VEVS projectteam; Rob van Sprang, Elisa Meijs, Danielle Pennock & Thomas Kemme
Architect: Thomas Kemme
Photography: Maarten Willemstein
Interior: FictionFactory
BewarenBewaren