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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
YSL pop up store display 6 scaled
YSL pop-up store display cabinet — stainless steel body with 3D-printed front panel
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.

From sketch to proposal

The push-to-open door mechanism was specified to remove visible handles or hardware from the cabinet’s front face, keeping the leather panel and logo lettering as the only visual elements on the primary viewing surface. Internally, a two-tier shelf structure was built into the stainless steel carcass to organise product storage without compromising the clean external silhouette.

The 3D-printed leather panel sits at the centre of the concept: rather than relying on real leather, which is harder to standardise across multiple units and pop-up locations, additive manufacturing allowed the texture to be engineered for visual and tactile consistency, then finished with a matte rubber paint coating that replicates the soft hand-feel of an actual leather surface.

3D printing YSL leather finish design scaled
The cabinet feel like the YSL product it holds — precise, quietly luxurious.
— VM Display Production Team · YSL Pop-Up 2024
Materials Craft
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  • 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.

Process Large
Process Detail 1
Process Detail 2
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.

2
Internal shelf tiers
5+
Production process lines
100%
Production & installation managed end-to-end
YSL pop up store display 4 scaled
Our Process

How we execute the project

A structured workflow that keeps the brand in control from brief to delivery.

01

Brief & Concept Alignment

References, dimensions, quantity and finish confirmed up front.

02

3D Modelling & Scale Drawing

Full renders and technical drawings shared for client sign-off before any physical work.

03

Prototype & Review

A single sample is produced and documented for feedback and approval.

04

Production & Delivery

Approved units manufactured, quality-checked and flat-packed for shipping.

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