Menswear Retail’s Minimalist Movement

“Everything has changed in the past five to six years,” says Sergio Mannino, an Italian architect whose eponymous retail design firm creates pop-ups in New York and London. “Men shop in a different way. Men’s stores are now designed and curated like a women’s clothing store. Before, I think men cared less about design, and so now the store has to really step up.” The shift reflects an increasing fluency in luxury brands on the part of American male consumers, who want a fitting backdrop for their expensive purchases, according to Mannino. “Either the stores change and make the design much more upscale or they’re going to have some trouble,” the architect says.

Alan Maleh, the founder of H.W. Carter & Sons and Gentry, noticed this increase in expectations as he was designing the new store that opened in summer 2015. The result is a white-walled space set with plastic Eames chairs, plinths, and rolling racks hung with deceptively simple (and thus deceptively expensive) labels like Visvim, Engineered Garments, and Our Legacy. Read more at Racked.