Glossier Seattle store features mossy mushroom-covered mound

Online beauty brand Glossier has opened a store in Seattle where pale pink furniture surrounds a sculpture that is sprouting artificial mushrooms.

The design of the recently opened Seattle store was based on a 2019 pop-up in the city just four blocks away.

A rock-like sculpture with mushrooms and flowers sprouting is in the heart of the Glossier Seattle store

Located in Capitol Hill and designed by Glossier’s in-house team, the 260-square-meter retail space is four times larger than the pop-up and marks the brand’s largest physical store to date.

“As a digital-first company, Glossier has had the freedom to experiment with retail in ways that beauty companies that are so closely connected to brick and mortar retail don’t,” the brand said.

Minimal pale pink counters are used to display products

A large sculpture in the center of the room is designed to look like a boulder covered in moss and brightly colored mushrooms, influenced by the flora of the Pacific Northwest region.

This is based on a landscape installation that the designer Lily Kwong created for the pop-up, which also shows hills covered with plants and pink-violet flowers.

Beauty products are placed on the fluted countertops

“Mushrooms have an amazing ability to grow and thrive in the most unlikely places, and we wanted to bring this phenomenon to life in our design concept,” said the design team.

“Moss-covered rocks pierce the foundation of the store and huge, Willy Wonka-esque mushrooms sprout through the sleek, minimalist architecture.”

The shinier pop-up shop in Seattle features rolling hills covered in moss and flowers

Around the sculpture are pale pink counters that present Glossier products on corrugated surfaces.

Archways with rounded corners and pink tiled sides separate the central area from the periphery, where, in addition to mirrors, other goods are placed for testing.

A communal seating area is designed to look like a terraced landscape

In addition to the large windows in the shop front, the shape of a terraced hill is evoked by a stack of flat, thin cushions covered with various green fabrics and leathers.

The walls around the shop are covered with light textured plaster, while a checkerboard pattern of beige and dusty pink tiles covers the floor.

An affirmation welcomes shoppers to the store

On the outside, the doors and window panels are in a dark shade of rouge, which matches the Glossier logo and contrasts with the cream-colored masonry of the building.

Glossier was founded as an online beauty brand in 2012, but has since opened several physical retail stores – although all of them closed last year due to safety concerns related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dark red window and door panels contrast the cream-colored exterior

This included a flagship store with pale pink stucco work and a boy brow room in New York, where the company’s headquarters, designed by Rafael de Cárdenas, are also located.

The Seattle store at 1514 10th Avenue marks the brand’s return to physical retail with outposts in Los Angeles and London, both expected to open before the end of 2021.