informal manifesto introduction: towards a more fluid, diverse and serendipitous retail
The informal manifesto traces back the origins of the decline of retail spaces and proposes a new way forward by reintroducing informality to shopping. It drafts the intellectual framework underpinning Informal Retail, a startup which installs retail embedded within existing local businesses and stocks them with a rotating selection of brands.
introduction
My interest in imagining the future of retail started back in 2009, while studying architecture at Cornell University. The daunting task of finding and developing a thesis which allowed me to fold my passion for cinema and food into an architectural framework quickly led me to research the birth of shopping as we know it today. The first Parisian arcades and department stores created new urban typologies — cathedrals of commerce, folding in new experimental entertainment, dining and modernity. One and a half centuries later, this was no longer the case. At the dawn of social media, experiential retail, and the image economy, traditional retailers seemed very ill-prepared to stay relevant and to inspire. No longer essential as simply distribution channels, it became obvious that they needed to embrace radical new social and cultural missions which acknowledged their customers’ new existential needs in these confusing and exciting times of change.
I have continued this research — both academically during my Masters at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and professionally through my design and consulting practice. Informal Retail, which I co-founded with Phillip Nelson, has stemmed from some profound insights into the fundamental causes underpinning the state of retail today, and offers a path forward through informality.
The golden age of retail, which came with the daring birth of Parisian arcades and department stores, introduced a trove of innovations which made its customers dream and desire. Amazing products, curated from exotic locations, juxtaposed an air of World Fair to its shopping and hospitality programs. Giant skylights and atriums created visions of unscripted masses reminiscent of relational aesthetics. This context of modernity, of unprecedented architectural and social possibility was the perfect backdrop to render desirable and sell products to the masses.
Since then, much has changed. The spatial format of shopping has not evolved fast enough to resist the standardization brought on by fervent optimization and massive scaling. Whether online or offline, an unfortunate consequence of optimizing for performance is that it tends to formalize experience, to lead it to predictable outcomes devoid of new meaning. As ads on social media feeds attempt to pass for posts of accounts you may already be following, retail shelves follow strict brand guidelines to ensure consistency of message. Doing so, they are also increasingly losing the mystery and authenticity — the quirkiness and spontaneity that initially made them feel relatable and exciting. In an effort to stand out in a saturated market, retail and marketing efforts are doing quite the opposite — they fade in a larger framework of formal contexts.
In the following installments, we will look at the three waves of formality which led to retail’s current predicament — facing an existential crisis — and three ways in which informality can bring new life and possibility to retail moving forward.
Savinien Caracostea
