Before circumnavigating the crass and commercialized zone of New York’s Times Square, think twice. A high-fashion concept has landed at the corner 7th Avenue and 42nd Street which has hosted Steve Madden’s outpost for nearly 10 years. It still does, but with a sculptural, bold new design by Ringo Studio. The design practice draws from the brand’s own established identity, as well as its contemporary aspirations and sense of place to retool the 2,700-square-foot store into a strikingly tonal and navigable space, at odds with its chaotic neighborhood.
The project is one of the few collaborations Ringo Studio has done with an international, long-standing brand. To that end, the renovation began with an exploration into the marketing and brand identity of Steve Madden. “We began these conversations in January of last year, first starting with a really big deep dive into all of those technicalities: Who is their customer now? Who do they want their customer to be?” Madelynn Ringo, founder and creative director of Ringo Studio, told AN Interior. Looking into different iterations of the brand’s design, the team came across the clubhouse-like pop-ups the footwear brand used to do in the Hamptons. The features of the pop-up—being both cool and intimate—was an entry point into riffing on the store’s history. Tying in a strong sense of New York’s energy and poppy hues synthesizes the history of the brand with a new, fresh look.
An integral part of this process was reconfiguring the floorplan. Previously, the interior’s expansive 18-foot ceilings and wide open plan made wayfinding confusing. There wasn’t a clear sense of where to walk or find certain items throughout the store. To bring efficiency and accommodate the sheer amount of constantly changing merchandise Steve Madden displays, Ringo Studio broke up the floorplan into nooks, zones, and niches, designated by the use of oak.
An oak-clad colonnade greets the space and sweeps throughout the store cladding walls and framing openings and vignettes. The space carved up is such a way to frame specific views of the store to still create a sense of flow and openness. The view through the entry colonnade is the Steve Madden logo, emblazoned over the check-out counter. “I think something that I always find really impactful in creating narratives in design is when you don’t reveal the entire store right away,” said Ringo. This approach also helped contend with the store’s traffic which can fluctuate between heavy periods during holidays and quieter moments in between. The sculpting floorplan creates a sense of intimacy during evergreen times and allows for efficiency during peak periods.
The color and material palette heighten the sinuousness of the space while adding new energy. Pops of blue, marble, and travertine clash with the warm oak to accentuate the 10-foot-wide display areas alight. Bright green banquettes break up the color scheme. Meanwhile, the space is peppered with interlocking plinths and display tables, featuring steel, buttery yellow, and more marble. The poppy and playful colors recall the energy of Steve Madden’s “big head” ads from the early aughts.
More material and texture come toward the rear of the space in the back lounge, another nod to the brand’s previous clubhouse era. Plush drapes create further textural difference as it backdrops the penny tile used in the flooring. The studio employs the tile with a carpet-like effect, leaving it rough around the edges as if a piece of the floor was left excavated.
“I was inspired by the flooring at Salon 94, which is up by the Guggenheim. They have this beautiful, imperfect material approach which is something that we are after,” said Ringo. “The material palette is intentionally contrasting: bright and youthful and playful, but then also heavy and reflective of an urban experience.” This palette also critically doesn’t overshadow the merchandise itself, whose colors often vary by trend and season.
The store’s sculptural architecture and contrasting color and materials resolves the spatial choreography of the preexisting space while imbuing the store with a fresh spin on the brand’s own identity.