ORGANIC LUXE IN
JEWELLER’S FLAGSHIP

Emperor 1881 is a pre-eminent Hong Kong watch and jewellery retailer dating back to 1942. Their decision to open a flagship store concentrating solely on jewellery meant that its design had to create a shopping experience that literally sparkled – but in unique ways. Antony Chan collaborated in the development of a new brand logo, and his design aesthetic draws key images from nature to inspire the sense of a royal garden. And this is very apparent in the shimmering reed-like patterns on the curved mirror-steel screen in the main space, and the symbolic ‘greenery’ hanging from the display stands.

The wall of the VIP suite is layered with bold, cut-steel images of trees, flowers and butterflies. Inside the suite, the salon privé aura is amplified by the Romanesque semicircular arch, the gold-painted glass walls, and the delicate pink tones of the carpet, which subtly echo the bolder pink of Emperor 1881’s brand colour.

Emperor’s owners are notable collectors of valuable antique pieces, and so Antony Chan created a mini-museum in part of the retail space, designing unique opaque glass columns with built-in vitrines displaying jewellery from the collection. The display settings for clients follow the semicircular theme, creating an elegant visual coherence for all parts of the retail space. The design of the ground floor entrance sequence makes bold use of glass walls, one of which provides a view into a restored stone tunnel room which is part of Hong Kong’s historic fabric.