Case Study · 2023

YSL Pop-Up Store Display with Stainless Steel Cabinets

Custom gold-electroplated stainless steel cabinetry with 3D printing front

Client

YSL (Yves Saint Laurent)

Discipline

3D Printing / PVD

Location

China (Mainland)

Year

2023

01 — The Challenge

Where the project began

This YSL pop-up brief called for storage and display cabinetry that doubled as a brand statement — a mirror-finish, gold-electroplated stainless steel cabinet body with a concealed push-to-open door mechanism and two internal shelf tiers for product, fronted by a panel finished to read as genuine leather rather than printed or moulded plastic.

The cabinet feel like the YSL product it holds — precise, quietly luxurious.

— VM Display Production Team · YSL Pop-Up 2024

Tap to switch

Mirror-polished, gold-electroplated stainless steel forms the structural body of the display cabinet
3D-printed resin panelling was used for the leather-texture front face, chosen because it reproduce a fine, irregular leather-grain surface more precisely and more quickly
Matte soft-touch rubber paint was applied over the 3D-printed panel to deliver the tactile, slightly yielding hand-feel associated with real leather
Electroplated stainless steel logo lettering was produced separately and bonded to the panel face, finished to a true mirror standard rather than a brushed or satin alternative
Push-to-open mechanism hardware was integrated into the door structure internally, keeping all functional hardware concealed from the cabinet’s front face

Leather-texture print calibration — print orientation, layer resolution, and surface post-processing were calibrated specifically to break up the visible print-line pattern that 3D printing typically produces
Soft-touch paint application — matte rubber paint applied over the printed panel in a controlled coat thickness
Mirror electroplating without tool marks — the logo lettering’s stainless steel surface was prepared and polished to remove all pre-plating tooling marks before electroplating.
Fingerprint-resistant mirror finish — a protective coating was applied over the plated logo surface specifically to reduce fingerprint and smudge retention, addressing the practical reality that mirror-finish metal in a customer-facing retail fixture will be touched
Push-to-open mechanism fitting — door mechanism installed and tested for consistent actuation force and clean closure, ensuring the door opens and closes smoothly without a handle while remaining flush with the cabinet’s front face when shut
Two-tier shelf installation — internal shelving fitted to the stainless steel carcass at the specified heights, load-tested before the cabinet was approved for product use

03 — The Craft

The making

Production began with breakdown of the client’s pop-up render into the cabinet’s component structure — stainless steel carcass, leather-effect front panel, logo lettering, and internal mechanism — with specifications issued to the metalwork, 3D printing, and electroplating teams in parallel.

The stainless steel cabinet body was fabricated and prepared for mirror electroplating, with surface polishing carried out in stages to eliminate any imperfection that would otherwise be magnified once plated. The leather-texture panel was 3D-printed and validated against a test sample before full production, with the matte rubber paint coat applied once the printed texture was confirmed.

04 — The Outcome

The final presentation

Both technical risk points identified at the brief stage were resolved successfully: the printed leather texture shows no visible print-line pattern under close inspection, and the electroplated logo lettering achieved a true mirror finish with no visible tooling marks, holding up well against fingerprint marking thanks to the protective coating applied at the finishing stage.

Delivered with production and on-site installation managed end-to-end by our team, the cabinet performed as both functional retail storage and a standalone brand object within the pop-up environment — reinforcing our capability to combine precision metal finishing with additive-manufactured soft-touch surfaces within a single retail fixture.

Internal shelf tiers

Production process lines

100%

Production & installation managed end-to-end

Our Process