NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Claus Porto, the famed 131-year-old Portuguese beauty and fragrance house, is opening its first international store outside of Portugal in New York’s Nolita neighborhood.
Conceived by tacklebox architecture under the direction of Jeremy Barbour, the stores design pays homage to Portuguese architecture and craftsmanship with a unique, forty-two foot long freestanding archway that is milled completely out of Portugese cork. This futurist tunnel, with a carved surface of 1,500 faceted diamond “tiles,” is a subtle reference to the curious facade of the Casa dos Bicos building in Lisbon, as well as Porto’s historic São Bento train station with its vaulted interior, arched portals and decorative azulejo tile that line its arrival hall. Claus Porto’s Flagship store is located in Porto, Portugal, with a second outpost in Lisbon, on Rua da Misericórdia.
Cork, a raw material indigenous to Portugal and the country responsible for roughly half of the world’s production, is environmentally friendly, coming directly from the cork tree. Its bark is harvested in a process that does not harm the tree in any way, but is a vital process to the tree’s reinvigoration.
A monolithic washbasin sits at the heart of the space which is a nod to the baptismal font and a celebration of the ritual of daily cleansing. The basin was carved from the same large block of Estremoz marble that gave life to its sister piece in Porto’s Flagship Store. Marble is a natural stone with Portuguese origins that’s very representative of the country’s traditions and craftsmanship.
Located on 230 Elizabeth Street with 550 square foot of retail space, the new Claus Porto store is nestled among the stylish boutiques and charming cafes and coffee shops that define this downtown Manhattan neighborhood.
When entering the store, customers are greeted by a framed diploma certifying that Claus Porto was awarded a gold medal at the 1904 Universal Exhibition in Saint Louis – the first of a series of hand-picked objects that make up the shop’s historic gallery.
These antiques help tell the story of the brand and include elements related to Claus Porto’s tradition as a fragrance house, the evolution of certain products and patterns and the brand’s iconic Musgo Real men’s collection.
CLAUS PORTO IN THE WORLD
Claus Porto is present in 60 countries, sold by the world’s most exclusive retailers, including Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom in the United States; Liberty London in the UK; The Conran Shop in the UK and France, Le Bon Marché and Printemps in Paris, The Corner in Berlin, The Galeria, Belport and Shinsegai in South Korea; 10 Corso Como in Shanghai and Seoul, Space.NK in China; and online at Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter.
JEREMY BARBOUR & TACKLEBOX
Jeremy Barbour is the founding principal of tacklebox architecture, an innovative architecture firm based in New York City with a portfolio that includes retail interiors, commercial office design, single and multi-family residential projects and furniture design. With notable projects for brands such as Aesop, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Kenneth Cole, and Shinsegae, the work of tacklebox architecture has received multiple awards and has been featured in over 75 publications. In 2010, tacklebox architecture was among 7 firms selected as a recipient of AIANY’s New Practices New York Award, a biennial competition that recognizes the best new architecture firms in NYC and in 2018 Tacklebox was named in the Architect’s Newspaper’s Top 50 Interior Architecture firms.
Jeremy Barbour holds a Master of Science degree in Advanced Architectural Design from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University and a Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Architecture + Design at Virginia Tech. Jeremy is an Adjunct Professor teaching architecture at Parsons, the New School for Design and has taught architecture for 12 years at multiple universities including Columbia GSAPP, New York Institute of Technology and Pratt Institute, School of Architecture.
CLAUS PORTO NEW YORK
230 Elizabeth Street, NY, NY 10012
Open: Monday to Sunday, 11AM-7PM
Phone: +1 212-646-609-2922(3)
E-mail: store.nyc@clausporto.com
For more than a century, Claus Porto fragrances and beauty products have captivated customers with their unique aromas, exquisite design and delicate old-world craftsmanship. The brand’s origins date back to 1887, when businessmen Ferdinand Claus and Georges Schweder created Portugal’s first soap and fragrance factory in the historic city of Porto. Today, 131 years later, its scents continue to evoke the rich floral diversity of the Portuguese countryside.
SOURCE Claus Porto
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