Sassy Miss Sixty

Edie Cohen -- Interior Design, 4/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

The quest for cutting-edge interior design rarely ends at the shopping mall. An exception lies in Miss Sixty, a new inhabitant of upscale South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California. When company owners acquired the 3,400-square-foot space, they brought in Borruso & Alessandro Design to create a store as hip as their trendy women's clothing.

The fun begins at an oversize center-pivot door of polished stainless steel—balanced on the pivot to distribute all 900 pounds equally. "It opens with a push of a finger," says architect Giorgio Borruso. Beyond, undulating floor formations usher customers inward. The floor—part python-textured vinyl, part concrete painted glossy red—makes an island of the round cash-wrap topped in satin-finished stainless steel. The same material fronts a built-in case that shows handbags and shoes inside acrylic bubbles.

The swooping ceiling is made of PVC sheets, heated on-site to increase their flexibility, attached to a metal frame left open for easy access to mechanical systems. Suspended from the ceiling are four dressing "rooms," futuristic enclosures made of translucent fire-resistant elastic fabric stretched over aluminum rings. Where better to try on this season's brilliantly colored miniskirts?

From top: For the chain's shop in Costa Mesa, California, the dressing enclosures are elastic fabric stretched over aluminum rings. The display case combines stainless steel and acrylic.

Dressing enclosures: Eventscape. Ceiling system: Barrisol. Pendants: Louis Poulsen Lighting. Concrete floor: Ardex through Floor Systems. Vinyl floor: Lonseal. Uplighting: Special-T Lighting. Fixtures, furniture, signage: Buzzoni. Ceiling fixtures: RSA Lighting (small); Bartco Lighting (large). Door: Chino Glass & Glazing; PRL Glass Systems. Architect of record: PBWS Architects. General contractor: Sneden and Bowers.