Villa Moda is about to launch its seventh luxury fashion emporium, a 1050 m2 space in a new ultra luxury shopping mall, the Moda Mall in Bahrain. Villa Moda Bahrain will feature staggeringly innovative and fantastical designs by Dutch design maverick Marcel Wanders.
Wanders’ resulting designs were created under the theme of the ‘International Souk’.
The façade is covered in giant pearl-like spheres, a reference to Bahrain’s heritage as the pearl stock market of the Middle East. Customers enter a long, narrow corridor that opens into a dramatic, high-ceilinged space with giant patterns in black and white on custom carpeting and overscale wallpaper. “We worked with craftsmen from the region and around the world,” Wanders adds, “but confused them with our way of looking at these crafts; we used their expertise but asked them to do things they wouldn’t normally do.” A striking example is a giant sculptural flower pattern made in plaster covering the wall behind the cash desk. Other specially designed features include walls with Bisazza mosaics and custom-made carpets created in Germany.