Nov. 12--Here's a riddle: What's soft and hard, modern yet traditional?
If you guessed a boiled egg breakfast, nice try.
But the answer -- if you believe a press release issued Thursday -- is Gucci's revamped flagship Chicago store, a study in paradoxes.
Due to reopen Friday morning after a major refit, the expanded, 10,000-square-foot store adds a second floor at 900 N. Michigan Ave. and creates "understated drama," Gucci says.
That's a reference to the juxtaposition of hard metal and marble surfaces with lush peacock blue and cherry red carpets, and of velvet armchairs and industrial rivets, not a promise that store staff will re-enact classic episodes of "Murder, She Wrote."
The redesign was under wraps Thursday as staff made finishing touches to a look previously unveiled in a Gucci store in Milan, Italy.
Fans of Bravo's "Project Runway," in which up-and-coming fashion designers frequently explain their designs in contradictory terms, will recognize Gucci's description of the way the store combines the "industrial and romantic."
"The mood within the store is one of discretion," according to the release.
Be sure to whisper if you need to ask what anything costs.
kjanssen@tribpub.com
