Mariana Plakhotnaia Wins Creative Retail Concept of the Year for Ana Luisa’s Bleecker Street Store

In a city saturated with jewelry retail concepts, Mariana Plakhotnaia’s work on Ana Luisa’s Bleecker Street flagship doesn’t just stand out — it reframes what’s possible. Awarded Creative Retail Concept of the Year, the space represents a new era of physical retail: one where futurism meets context, and bold identity meets community integration.

Located on the corner of Bleecker and Perry Street in Manhattan’s historic West Village, the storefront is an arresting sight. A high-gloss red exterior slices through the beige-toned landscape of classic brownstones — not to disrupt, but to reimagine. The color choice is visceral. The geometry is cinematic. And yet, it feels right at home. That balance — radical and respectful — is where Plakhotnaia’s genius lies.

Inside, the store continues to subvert expectations. The environment is gallery-like but unpretentious. Custom 3D-milled furniture in glossy white evokes the smooth tactility of ceramics or freshly poured resin. Fixtures float like sculptures. Surfaces reflect soft light in a space that feels part Apple Store, part art installation, and wholly its own.

But beyond the visual impact, the store is deeply functional — and future-ready. Designed with Gen Z’s aesthetic literacy and emotional consumerism in mind, the layout supports fluid movement and tactile discovery. Central to this experience is Ana Luisa’s permanent jewelry service: a ritual of welded, forever-wear pieces that has become a new rite of passage for many. Plakhotnaia created an intimate zone for this — mirrors, display trays, and design lighting — that transforms the transaction into a moment.

“Retail is no longer just a place to sell. It’s where people come to feel something — beauty, belonging, connection,” says Plakhotnaia. “My goal was to build a space that could carry that weight without saying a word.”

The award from UNRTD celebrates not only the store’s aesthetic achievement, but also its strategic edge — a scalable design system that can evolve across locations while remaining emotionally precise. Plakhotnaia, whose past work spans Paris, London (IZIPIZI), and New York, has become a quiet force behind the next wave of retail creatives.

With Bleecker Street, she hasn’t just designed a store. She’s designed a feeling — one that looks like the future and lives firmly in the now.

Photography: Mariana Plakhotnaia
Words: Benjamin Benichou