Aesop Fillmore Street

San Francisco recently welcomed its first Aesop signature store at 2454 Fillmore Street, in a neighbourhood shaped by consecutive influxes of Eastern European, Japanese and African- American residents, and the heydays of American jazz and rock.

The result of a collaboration with Boston architectural firm NADAAA, this space is sibling to another launched simultaneously in Manhattan’s SoHo district. Both stores have been designed around a fascination with pre-twentieth century apothecaries and twenty-first century skin care. The predominant element in each is a tapestry of shelving crafted from reclaimed wooden boxes. Subdivided and pixilated by the varying dimensions of the boxes, the arrangement invites visual and tactile exploration; its dominance is balanced here by a cork wall and ceiling, and dark masonite flooring.