Benetton’s “Art of Knit” NY pop-up store

Sometimes the simple objects that we choose to associate or surround ourselves with, be those clothes or deco objects, can be arranged and presented in such a manner that makes it so aesthetically appealing, that it is hard to pass by. I know that the information offered below is outdated, but the visual impression left to me was strong, so I had to share.

The Art of Knit, by United Colors of Benetton, is a new type of pop-up experience in the heart of Soho, New York City. The Benetton pop-up shop opened this past September and closed at the end of December.

There you would find a world of knit, color and creativity, the definitive story of the Benetton brand. The converted garage space was a vivid mix of retail, gallery and craft workshop knitted together by the creative minds of You Nguyen, the Creative Director and FABRICA, Benetton Group’s Communication Research Center. Once you stepped inside the 2,200-square-foot garage, you realized that though the knit sculptures were the attention-grabbers, the space was actually full to the brim with ingenious objects that offered clever takes on color and wool, created by the young talents at Fabrica (Benetton’s Treviso, Italy based “designer in residence” program).

If you were alive in the ’80s, you know that that DNA tends heavily towards color and knit, so the space was organized in homage to that by hue and unified by an especially enthusiastic devotion to wool — ceramic vases atop customized bobbins, vinyls depicting pinking shears or stitch diagrams, and everyday objects wrapped in the stuff (hair dryers, skateboards, scooters, inner tubes, snorkels, saws, kitchen utensils, basketball hoops, and more). [1]

The idea was also to showcase the various talents at Fabrica. The beauty of the design think tank is that its designers come from totally different backgrounds, are of all different ages, and specialize in different meida. In the shop, this translated to an incredibly array of objects — some 3-D, some graphic, some functional, some conceptual, but all insanely covetable. Here is a video capturing the whole of the creation process. An outdated review can be found here. More photos from the store can be viewed here.

[1] Ref. http://www.sightunseen.com/2012/12/benetton-the-art-of-knit/