Four IV group dresses up fashion outlets

Four IV is working on two retail projects for brothers Ofer and Doron Zilkha, who separately run their own retail outlets, Astuces and Laceys Footwear.

For womenswear chain Astuces, Four IV is creating a new identity, aspects of which have just gone on trial. The Laceys Footwear pilot store in London’s Regent Street, possibly the first in a chain, opened at the end of December with interiors and graphics by the consultancy.

“Although we’ve traded for two-and-a-half years, we didn’t stand out enough,” says Astuces general manager Marie Boni, hinting that fresh interiors may be considered later in the year. “The new mauve logo is much stronger,” she adds.

A Four IV spokeswoman says: “We used the letter A as a symbol which could be used on its own. It’s based on the Eiffel Tower, as the clothes are French-made.”

For Laceys the interiors are cool and clean. “We went for white walls and beech floors,” says Chris Dewar-Dixon, design director at Four IV.

In a separate project, Four IV has designed the identity and interiors for Music Music, a one-off music store at Canary Wharf in London Docklands.

It may look like a Sten gun with super-cool shades, but this prototype hand-held camera created by Stuttgart graduate Matthias Bohner has won this winter’s Braun Prize for Young Designers. The end sphere, which houses the camera, ‘floats’ magnetically in its case, allowing the operator to pan, zoom and track without camera-shake. The monitor image is viewed through the glasses.