They say men and women are two different species, and at this second shop from denim vendor Tenue de Nîmes, the designers have approached the task at hand with that very tenet in mind.

The team – architect Pim van Lingen, interiors man Jacob Roeland, art director Joachim Baan and Tenue de Nîmes’ founders Rene Strolenberg and Menno van Meurs – split the shop in half, one for the Martians and one for the Venutians. The ‘Mesdames’ section is light, soft and colourful, while still using a modern look that exploits industrial architectural features. The blokes have been sent to the basement, the shop equivalent of the garden shed, with a more rough and ready aesthetic.

There are lots of other little touches that take a step back from bleeding edge design and make a welcome return to thoughtful functionality. For example, for those of us who equate shopping (even as a passive tag-along) with visiting the dentist in terms of pleasurable pastimes, providing somewhere to sit goes beyond a convenience and becomes something more like a mercy. I’ll be in the corner reading, dear…