El Departamento has created Fake Gods’ first flagship store in central Madrid. Inspired by a contemporary reinterpretation of the Garden of Eden, this store merges digital, physical, and symbolic elements. Technological materials, immersive design and biblical narrative transform the space into the brand’s new meeting point for its growing community.
El Departamento has transformed number 72 on Madrid’s central Fuencarral Street into the ideal setting for Barcelona-based urban fashion brand Fake Gods to make its physical retail debut. This first flagship store has been conceived as a meeting point where digital, physical and symbolic elements merge to materialize the brand’s universe.
Founded in 2017, the architecture and interior design studio El Departamento, led by Alberto Eltini and Marina Martín, has worked with some of Spain’s most influential digital-native brands, including Nude Project, PJ Lobster, HOFF, Lady Pipa and Pompeii. This new collaboration reaffirms their ability to translate major pure players’ digital DNA into the offline world. In this project, the creative team worked around a provocative and nuanced concept: a contemporary reinterpretation of the Garden of Eden, conceived as an immersive space that invites reflection on the relationship between human, divine and digital realms.
A visual concept reinventing Eden’s mythology
The design of Fake Gods’ flagship store stems from an updated reinterpretation of the biblical narrative of Adam and Eve in paradise. Mannequins, encapsulated in glass display cases, become central pieces functioning as artistic exhibits. These vitrines, surrounded by natural vegetation evoking a contained paradise, elevate the space to an almost museum-like imaginary. Inside, neoclassical columns in a vibrant orange tone not only serve as visual support for these capsules but also introduce a dynamic contrast with predominant materials like acrylic and stainless steel. This interplay of elements reinforces the dialogue between organic and technological, eternal and ephemeral.
The acrylic façade, featuring the brand’s backlit new logo, serves as a visual attraction for Fuencarral pedestrians. In this open storefront, a mannequin emerges above a garden composed of stones and plants, symbolizing the temptation to enter this unique contemporary paradise.
Play of perceptions
The store’s interior presents itself as an ongoing dialogue between celestial and earthly, a carefully balanced composition of opposites. The ceiling, treated as an infinite sky, contrasts with continuous flooring that amplifies the sense of spaciousness and anchors visitors to the ground. This conceptual play is reinforced by strategically placed mirrors that multiply perceptions and expand the space’s physical limits, and by stainless steel furniture with acrylic surfaces that reflect light and generate sparkles seemingly dissolving the space into its own universe.
Fake Gods’ corporate cyan blue runs through the main corridor, defining the space from start to finish. This tone is enhanced through carefully designed lighting that reinforces its vibration and generates an immersive, almost celestial atmosphere. Additionally, the color palette is completed by orange contrasts in the columns and shelf fixtures, adding dynamism to the spatial narrative.
Furthermore, El Departamento has introduced bold materials like acrylic and stainless steel that not only contribute to a contemporary and futuristic aesthetic but also speak to the brand’s digital origins. These technological finishes, along with the millimetric precision of the design, advocate for the natural evolution of the brand’s identity and its leap into physical space.
A space for the Fake Gods community
Beyond its exhibition character, the store has been designed as a meeting point for the brand’s community. At the store’s center, an imposing stainless- steel table displays the most iconic pieces from their collections.
In the rest area, velvet sofas are articulated on a curved platform reminiscent of stadium seating with its VIP box. This corner is dominated by a gallery of historic football players’ archive photographs, paying homage to these figures as contemporary gods, reinforcing the link between popular culture, sports and modern mythology.
Thus, Fake Gods‘ flagship store opens its doors in Madrid to explore the boundaries between tangible and digital, natural and technological, eternal and ephemeral. In this project, El Departamento reaffirms its ability to create experiences that transcend the functionality of commercial spaces to become a dialogue between the brand and its community.
