and specificity than a standard shopping centre launch. In other words, the brand is buying into a piece of the city’s memory, not just its footfall. A store designed like a Shanghai garden Inside, Palace and its design partners have leaned hard into Chinese garden references – but as structure, not surface.

Wallpaper* describes the Shanghai space as interpreting traditional Shanghai garden architecture through Palace’s irreverent lens, with: A central pavilion inspired structure, echoing historical garden pavilions that began life as watchtowers. Stone tiles and limestone that evoke ponds, walkways and rockeries.

Mirrored surfaces plus gold and red tones that bounce between local symbolism and Palace’s own graphic world. These elements are woven into the circulation and product displays, so the garden is part of the retail experience itself, not just a themed backdrop.

It makes the store feel like you are walking through a Palace coded Shanghai garden, rather than a generic white box with some Chinese motifs stuck on. From hype machine to neighbourhood player Palace arrives in China at a different moment than earlier waves of streetwear expansion, where hype, queues and rapid…