Has anyone been to this store yet? Is it actually as cool as the photographs look and the article sounds? "Visitors to the new Jil Sander store, which opened last week on the corner of Howard and Crosby Streets in SoHo, might be surprised to walk in and find the place totally empty." "Not a bag, shoe, or double-faced cashmere coat in sight."

The design "was a collaboration between Raf Simons, who has been the creative director of the minimalist luxury brand since 2005, and Germaine Kruip, a 38-year-old Dutch artist who creates quiet, meditative works using little more than space and light."

"The vast ground floor, which is entered from Howard Street, is anchored at each end with a system of louvers that rotate at regular intervals to enclose the entire space in whiteness or open it up to reflected glimpses of the outside. Kruip refers to this architectural intervention as the creation of a 'mind space.' And in fact, the space functions as a sort of portal—a conceptual air lock that allows you to smoothly acclimate from the borderland of Canal Street to the promise of a world where clean lines are next to godliness. Whether customers are indeed inspired to pause long enough to take it all in, or pass right through to the grand marble staircase and up to the second floor where the various Jil Sander collections are actually displayed, or simply turn around and walk out the door confused—remains to be seen."

Photos and quotes from the New York Times: "It's About…Nothing." Alix Browne. 22 June 2008. Photos by Germaine Kruip.

Jeffrey Barke is senior developer and information architect at theMechanism, a multimedia firm with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa.