Inside Camperlab’s Harry Nuriev-designed Paris store, a dramatic exercise in contrast

In 2023, the New York- and Paris-based artist, architect and interior designer Harry Nuriev – founder of creative practice Crosby Studios – hosted an exhibition titled ’Denim’ at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Paris. In it, items for the home – from vanity table to bed, weights bench to sofa – were crafted entirely from blue denim, gently torn or frayed as if a long-worn pair of jeans.

It spoke to Nuriev’s fascination with transforming everyday objects in often surreal and imaginative new ways, from a stacked ‘fountain’ of overflowing kitchen sinks for a collaboration with We Are Ona to see-through couches stuffed with colourful Balenciaga clothes for the fashion house’s stores, or a ‘bank vault‘ stacked with Jimmy Choo’s oyster-coloured shoeboxes for a pop-up on Paris’ Avenue Montaigne.

Inside Camperlab’s Paris store, designed by Harry Nuriev

Nuriev has dubbed this style philosophy as ‘Transformism’, an approach that continues with his latest project, a new outpost for Camperlab – the anarchic sub-brand of Mallorcan shoe brand Camper – in Paris’ Le Marais neighbourhood.

‘I met Achilles [Ion Gabriel] at my studio, and we immediately connected,’ Nuriev tells Wallpaper*, referring to the Finnish creative director of Camper and Camperlab, who also debuted an eponymous fashion label at Pitti Uomo in 2024. ‘With this project, we saw an opportunity to push the boundaries of design and reinterpret everyday materials.’

As such, the store’s defining design feature is the use of crushed concrete, which in the space appears torn away to reveal sleek, industrial shelves of shoes or rails of clothing. Nuriev says he chose the material for its ‘raw texture’, used to create ‘a striking contrast between the industrial and the everyday’.

‘Camperlab represents innovation and experimentation, which perfectly aligns with my approach to design,’ he says. ‘The collaboration gave me the opportunity to experiment with materials in unconventional ways. The space itself embodies the transformation and movement I explore in my work, making the design both physical and conceptual.’

The store also features a central silver banquette, high-shine metal pillars, digital screens, and a vast recessed ceiling light, giving the store a strange, sci-fi-like sheen. ‘I hope that when people enter the store, they feel a sense of transformation and curiosity,’ Nuriev says. ‘[I want] visitors to rethink their surroundings and the boundaries between object and observer.’

Camperlab, 15 Rue Debelleyme, 75003 Paris, France.

camper.com

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