Designer Rafael Prieto has lined tableware store in New York City with wallpaper made from photos taken in the south of France and antique furniture.
Located at 181 Lafayette Street in SoHo, the Gohar World store showcases tableware products designed by sisters Laila and Nadia Gohar.
“Gohar World is a tableware universe that embraces tradition, time, craft, and humour,” said the duo, who founded their brand in 2020.
The space was designed by Rafael Prieto, founder and creative director of Savvy Studio, to capture the varied cultures and crafts involved in making the tableware.
“Because Laila and Nadia work with ateliers all over the world, from Egypt to Italy, Gohar World is inherently a brand that transports you to different places,” said Prieto. “Sometimes, even to your grandmother’s living room.”
“So my idea when designing the store was to transport visitors to another world,” he added.
Using photos he took in the south of France, the designer created a custom layered wallpaper with Wallpaper Projects to cover the walls.
The imagery of crumbling and weathered stonework mixed with scenes from fields and woodland lends an otherworldly atmosphere to the store.
“The outer layer shows monumental stone archways which are torn away to reveal a secret garden, representing Laila and Nadia’s secret Gohar World, which everyone is now invited to step into,” said the brand.
An eclectic mix of antique domestic furniture pieces adds to the surreality of the space, with fabric ruffles surrounding table bases, and sections of Grecian-style columns supporting surfaces and acting as pedestals.
Some of the Gohar World tableware is presented in open cabinets or glass vitrines, while other pieces are laid out as table settings as if ready for dinner.
The storefront is painted a warm cream colour, and white fabric is hung in the lower halves of the windows and glass doors.
Laila is known for her creative food installations and projects that blend design, food and art, which she catalogues via her Instagram account Lailacooks.
Partnering with Nadia to move into homeware design, the aim is to work with global artisans to help preserve “dying and disappearing” crafts, she told Dezeen in a recent interview.
Recently, several brands have opted for a more surreal, eclectic aesthetic for their stores compared to the cohesive, monochrome approach that’s pervaded retail design over the past few years.
The Awake NY store by Rafael de Cárdenas, the Boyy flagship in Milan by Thomas Poulsen and the Tons boutique in Pittsburgh by NWDS are all examples of this.
The photography is by Clement Pascal.
