Gentle Monster is a retail store that sells optics such as sunglasses, anti-glare and UV-protected glasses for people with or without medical eye issues. Combining optics with the future, they want to present their vision in the form of a physical store.
With that in mind, Gentle Monster first opened its concept store, HAUS DOSAN, in Seoul with the idea to bring contrasting ideas under one roof and churn creative juices in the cauldron of technological advances and capabilities. The store showcases displays that are spread across many floors that each have a unique tech story to tell. Its concept store can also be found in San Jose, New York, Los Angeles, and recently in Shanghai.
Video: “HAUS SHANGHAI’S 1st Floor features Nudake with the slogan, ‘MAKE NEW FANTASY! DESSERT OF YOUR DREAMS,’ presenting artistic and unprecedented desserts” (by Gentle Monster)
To cooperate with the COVID-19 safety guidelines, the store has recently uploaded an update stating that its flagship stores in San Jose, NY, and LA, will only cater to customers who book an appointment before visiting. And for the well-being of its customers and employees, the company urges the “visitors to wear face coverings at our stores.” For online purchases, you can contact their customer service team.
The flagship stores
The concept of Gentle Monster’s San Jose store revolves around an old humanoid lady robot who meets her childhood donkey friend. The idea here is to convey thoughts around memory, such as its meaning, retrieving forgotten thoughts, and the meaning of “true memories.”
Video: “HAUS SHANGHAI’s 2nd Floor houses the world’s largest Gentle Monster store. Tenacious yet pliant structures cut through the center, forcing an unexpected flow of traffic inside the space.” (by Gentle Monster)
Meanwhile, the central theme of the artistic New York store located in the SOHO district is a utopian approach to solving problems with the help of technology. The Gentle Monster store is designed around a “metaphorical future” where people from all faiths and beliefs co-exist and create new beliefs and ideas together.
Finally, Gentle Monster’s LA store has art and tech installations that celebrate life and living creatures. It pays homage to evolution and ecological changes that have brought matter into life.
The Shanghai store
The recently opened Shanghai store is Gentle Monster’s play around with the words in its own title. The metaphorical theme says ‘The Giant Who Arrived at the Bird Village’ and has an endearing feeling of having a gentle giant around. The store has already displayed some humanoids in its flagship stores, but their Robotics Lab has come with just a ‘gentle giant robotic face’ that displays movements and emotions, which are eerily similar to human beings.
Video: “HAUS SHANGHAI’s 3rd floor presents a large exhibition space featuring Gentle Monster’s curated media art exhibitions and collaboration pop-ups. At the center of the floor, themed ‘The Giant Who Arrived at the Bird Village,’ lies ‘The Giant,’ a robotic face created by Gentle Monster’s Robotics Lab after a year of research, alongside sculptures and installations depicting the Bird Village.” (by Gentle Monster)
The floor that is catching a lot of attention these days is the first floor, where automated horses on display are taking people’s breath away because of their eery similarity to real-life horses. The second floor has all the glasses and sunglasses for sale. And the third floor has interesting displays and automated models asking the central questions pertaining to ‘man and nature.’
The first thing that a person usually gets to see at an optical store is a mirror. So if you have — let’s say myopia, short-sightedness — and you buy their really expensive but good metallic glasses, you will have a range of things to see to test your visibility. The company also wants people to see things from different technological perspectives.
YouTube: GENTLE MONSTER HAUS SHANGHAI 0 10 10 10 1
YouTube: GENTLE MONSTER SAN JOSE STORE
Photo credit: The feature image is owned by Gentle Monster.
Source: NSS Magazine
