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Store Stories: Exploring the History & Design of Retail
The 19th-century department store and its successor, the modern mall, have continually evolved to attract and keep consumer attention for decades. Critic Alexandra Lange and Cooper Hewitt curator Emily Orr examine design’s leading role in the development and cultural impact of some of America’s most impressive shopping complexes. Sharing stories from their recent books on...
Image features a design drawing for a retail kiosk, consisting of a red platform with wheels supporting a black pyramid surmounted by a rectangle with a photograph of fashion designer Willi Smith in profile. A rectangular, black and white banner, proclaiming “WilliWear/WilliSmith” is on a pole at the top. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Radical Retail
In celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, June Object of the Week posts highlight LGBTQ+ designers and design in the collection.  In 1987, artist and designer Dan Friedman was commissioned by his friends and collaborators Willi Smith and Laurie Mallet to design the interior of a new Paris retail store for their clothing brand WilliWear. In...
The It Girl
On February 19, 1927, the film “It,” starring Clara Bow, was publicly released in the United States, instantly becoming a box office success and making Clara Bow Hollywood’s first “It girl.” Later that year, Elizabeth C. Quinlan, co-founder of the Young-Quinlan Co., a prestigious Minneapolis department store, visited Paris in search of her own “It...
Recounting The Genesis of Design Research
On September 21, Cooper-Hewitt and Chronicle Books celebrated the publication of Design Research: The Store that Brought Modern Living to American Homes, by Jane Thompson and Alexandra Lange.     The evening commenced with a touching introduction by Jane Thompson, recounting the genesis of Design Research, the postwar emporium in Boston that introduced advanced designs...