The Fashion Plate Magazine

Miami’s design district has been filling space with a string of luxury stores. One of the big markers was the recent opening of a new Hermès flagship. Designed by Paris-based architecture firm RDAI, the boutique is a glass-clad cube surrounded by a grove of steel rods. The rods, which offer a measure of privacy, speak to Miami’s environment.

‘The sunlight is so strong here, so the bars create a vibration and a shadow,’ Montel explains. ‘I was inspired by the roots of banyan trees,’ he adds, referring to the layered effect the tubes create.

Inside, the rods and glass create a brightly lit space connected with the city’s environment. The three-story boutique includes a ground-level space for Saint-Louis, the preeminent European glass-and crystal-making company, and a rooftop terrace, planted with trees. RDAI also included a tree in an alcove on street level, which will provide shade in the store and on the sidewalk.

Hermès marked the occasion of its opening with a parade through the Design District and later with a Flamingo Party that played on Miami’s very colourful cultural heritage and is the theme of the 2015 Hermès campaign.

Hermès 
Miami Design District
175 NE 40th Street
Miami, Florida

Photography: Frank Oudeman