Tucked in a hutong alley off of Beijing’s famed NanlouGouxiang, WuHao resides in the home that was once inhabited by an important Chinese family. Spearheaded by a French expatriate, Isabelle Pascale discerningly curates seasonal design objects, art, fashion, jewelry and a selection of teas to create a superbly balanced lifestyle found within the confines of traditional, yet modernized Chinese residence; one that can easily be transformed into your own home.
Pascale, working with a small, assisting team, handpicks items to be featured in her seasonal collections. Basing each season around one of the five elements, namely earth, metal, fire, water and wood, as well as a paralleling color, she is able to transform the boutique into a space that takes on the feel of a residential dwelling. The addition of lifelike manequins found throughout the home provides that lived-in feel.
With a list of nearly 100 artists (predominately Chinese although incorporating a few internationals) to date with whom she works, Pascale uses an interesting model, one which combines that of a selling gallery with artists and exhibitions as well as a boutique store that sells a variety of goods. From hand-casted silver rings to a functional set of furniture, designed with the young and consistently moving generation in mind, as all pieces become portable shipping crates, each object and its creator is hand selected to participate in the season’s ‘exhibition’. Further Pascale annually choses a group of young and emerging talent with whom she decides to collaborate and to produce an exclusive line sold only at WuHao.
Although wrapping up its winter-water season, which was experienced while visiting the creative-shop at the end of April, the transition of WuHao into a new summer season, alined with fire and most likely a vibrant red or other brilliant color, will provide the modern and design-conscious connoisseur a plethora of goods to fill their homes and personal wardrobes.
A room of Naihan Li’s movable, crate furniture
Funky hand-made silver jewelry by Su Chun Rong and Serge Thoraval
One of the boutique’s rooms that have become a sleek home office, custom wallpaper to decorate
A few racks of Christopher Raeburn clothing as if in your own lofty wardrobe
The courtyard pond transformed into a mirrored, quite literal ‘reflecting pool’
Old Kang (bed with wood burning stove underneath to provide warmth in the winter) converted into a tea room
Small details around WuHao, including a strange dragon-like swimming lizard
