Fashion labels Theory and Helmut Lang teamed with Allied Works to create a new design studio in a 1920’s industrial building in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The space brings together workers previously spread across the city, and combines studios, prototyping facilities, and showroom space with new areas for exhibition and client engagement.

A multi-level interior street and cascading stair connects each department and project team to shared resources and informal meeting spaces. Each brand maintains their own identity and control over their process. Within this framework, new ideas are discussed, sketched, fabricated, modeled and marketed within a few steps, and all team members are given new opportunities for interaction—streamlining the production process in a way that speaks to an earlier era in fashion. The proximity and energy allows for unhindered creative development. Within, a bright, simple palette of white plaster, pale wood and brushed aluminum screens provides an ideal stage to take ideas from the drawing board to the showroom floor.