Aesop Corso Magenta: Dimore Studio Reimagines the Milanese Pantry
Aesop Corso Magenta occupies a compact space, but its design has the assurance of a much larger interior. Created by Dimore Studio for the skincare brand in Milan, the shop is organised around a recognisable domestic reference: the pantry. Display, storage and the act of washing become the basis of the room's character.
The store opened in 2016, with contemporary reporting recording an area of approximately 35 square metres. Aesop identifies it as its second Milan signature store and confirms the collaboration with the Milanese practice. The point of departure was the service spaces of Italian villas in the 1930s, interpreted alongside the small neighbourhood shops still associated with the area. The result belongs to a particular urban culture without becoming a reconstruction of an old shop. [1] [2] [3]
Colour gives the room its structure
Aesop's project description identifies glossy teal tiles across the ceiling planes and arches, lemon-yellow corner shelves and display cabinets in a related green tone. Grey linoleum grounds the composition. These decisions do more than establish a memorable palette: they divide the interior into surfaces with different degrees of reflection, emphasis and visual weight.
The bright shelving makes the edges of the room active, while the tiled surfaces create continuity overhead. A quieter floor gives the eye somewhere to rest. In such a small footprint, these shifts help the interior avoid reading as one undifferentiated enclosure. Colour is doing the work that a much larger store might assign to separate departments or rooms. [1]
The cabinet as the main architectural element
Reporting by Architectural Record includes an interview with Dimore co-founder Britt Moran, who identifies Piero Portaluppi's Villa Necchi as a specific point of reference. The same account records the involvement of local craftspeople in making the pastel-coloured display units. Their organisation had to satisfy Aesop's presentation requirements, so the expressive design remained tied to a practical retail brief.
That combination is central to the project. The cabinets provide an ordered framework for a large number of small objects. Curved corners and carefully defined openings keep the joinery from feeling like an anonymous storage system. The products can remain legible while the room retains an independent architectural character; neither has to disappear for the other to work. [3]
A place to pause and try
A stainless-steel demonstration sink anchors the experience of testing products, while vintage chairs introduce the possibility of sitting rather than simply browsing. Two large pendant discs add another scale to the ceiling. Architectural Record documents patterned fibreglass shades and brass rims, giving the lighting both a practical role and a decorative presence.
In a separate interview with designboom, the designers connected the linoleum to the kitchen and pantry flooring at Villa Necchi. They also distinguished the Milan commission from their earlier Aesop store in Paris, explaining that each was approached through its own local references. This makes the material choices more specific than a general appetite for nostalgia: the domestic precedent is used to develop a particular kind of encounter with the brand. [3] [4]
Why the project remains a useful retail reference
The interior suggests that a strong commercial identity does not require every location to repeat a standard room. Familiar products can sit within a carefully researched local setting, provided the display and service rituals remain clear. Here, the pantry is a productive reference because it joins care, organisation, materials and daily use.
For designers working with limited floor area, Corso Magenta also offers a lesson in concentration. A few connected decisions carry the project: the envelope, the cabinets, the washbasin and the lights. The richness comes from their relationship, not from adding more unrelated objects. Dimore Studio makes the small interior feel complete by treating even its functional elements as part of the same story. [1] [3] [4]
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