1422 is a luxury retail destination in City Walk, Dubai, that gives clients a unique shopping and lifestyle experience. This ready couture store (the first of its kind) is a collaboration between the Arab Fashion Council (AFC), Meraas and Umdasch The Store Makers, where designers from the Middle East, Europe and Asia showcase their latest collections, and clients can purchase items on the spot or have them made to order. The destination is also home to the AFC and transforms into a venue for Arab Fashion Week.
We were asked by Umdasch The Store Makers to assist in developing the lighting design scheme for the exciting state-of-the-art, fast-track project, taking the store’s concept of three individual spaces into consideration: a retail area, a dark room and a fashion area that includes a catwalk/ runway.
The brief was to create a flexible lighting layout, highlighting the different areas and luxury merchandise through the use of quality LED fixtures with a high Colour Rendering Index (CRI) of 90> (find out why CRI, amongst other things, is important in retail lighting design). One area that needed special attention was the Dark Room, because it’s literally that – a black space, day and night. To create eye-catching contrast within the space and make individual pieces of merchandise stand out, spotlights with narrow beams were used.
The store’s lighting is easily managed via a control system (DALI), allowing the client to set different lighting scenes and levels in different areas – this is particularly important during fashion shows when all areas need to be controlled individually. For the stage and entertainment lighting a more dynamic control system was required (DMX), and the lighting had to be precisely aimed because shadows cannot be seen on models’ faces on photographs or videos.
We completed the project in a tight, four-month time frame and, along with the client, were delighted to see every small detail come together for the store’s grand opening in April 2019.
Client: Arab Fashion Council (AFC) | Design & Fitout: Umdasch The Store Makers | Lighting Design: Studio N | Lighting Supplier: Zumtobel