When I was offered the shop at the Souk Madinat I wanted it to have a modern, futuristic look, so I started to look though my books for inspiration. I’m a huge fan of Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger (better known as the designer of the amazing but somewhat macabre Alien from the Alien movie trilogy) and I’ve always loved his work. Unfortunately I don’t think Dubai was ready for such bizarre design:
Inspiration from HR Giger
I have always hated the conventional straight rails that you see in shops so decided on creating something very different for Dubai. I realised I needed something curved with lots of shiny stainless steel and I recalled the Marni store I used to frequent whilst living in London – even the ceiling is curved which echo’s the circles on the floor:
The beautifully designed Marni store, London
My main influence came from spiral staircases; the simplicity and beauty of the stainless steel staircase, was true inspiration!
Ultimate influence: spiral staircases!
Once I had decided on the ‘spring’ design, I took a small piece of wire to the metal workers, wrapped it around my finger, held it horizontal and said “this is what I want!”. After a few days the steel was twisted into shape and then pulled to elongate the rail and thus the “Louise Harrison Couture Curly Rail” was born!
Our beautiful curly rail!