Rising spatial designer Robert Storey has made a name for himself partnering with fashion’s top players to design sets, store presentations, runways and still life shoots in the name of “creating immersive environments”. Storey hails from West Berkshire, England, and grew up in an artistic family. His grandfather, a carpenter, and his father, a furniture design hobbyist, were both highly skilled at making objects with their hands.
Storey studied sculpture at London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. After university, he moved to Brooklyn and eventually began assisting artists and filmmakers the Neistat brothers and working with set designers (and London expats) Janine Trott and Piers Hanmer. At the time, “there was a very young creative scene in London with people who were very encouraging.” So he returned and cut his teeth with another talented set designer, Shona Heath . But after 9 months, he struck out on his own, opening Robert Storey Studio in his bedroom, aged 23. He now leads a team largely made up of architects and designers.
In London, Storey, who is inspired by modernist architecture and art, was able to nurture his conceptual yet effortless aesthetic, characterised by sharp angles, graphic colours and strong lines. This is Perhaps best demonstrated by his geometric, illuminated colour New York Nike Women presentation or his Madelaine Vionnete Autumn/Winter 2017 Paris show set, taking 3 days for the 15-man mission to conceive an intricate paper origami-based backdrop, set in the Jardin de Tuileries, Paris.
After ten years in London, Storey has built a strong body of work, including editorials for i-D, Wallpaper and Vogue as a client base consisting of Hermes, Kenzo, Stella McCartney , Nike, Louis Vuitton and Christopher Kane , among others.
With a well-received Nike presentation on Mulberry Street in New York’s Nolita under his belt, a New York Fashion Week collaboration with Patrik Ervell and curatorialising Matchesfashion.com’s Prada collaboration at its London location, Storey has been recognised by Vogue as the youngest contender on its power list of 2015, and featured in the contemporary interior design book, “Room, Inside Contemporary Interors”, by Nacho Alegre.
