Aesop is known for our passionate engagement with the cultural landscape. We respect those who sing, write, cook or pursue any other line of creative expression. We enthusiastically encourage those who attend to the design of all things large and small.

Our stores are unique in the retail landscape and have little in common with one another aside from a welcoming ambience. We regard our stores as showcases for our highly prized products. To make the most interesting use of each space, we collaborate with talented designers and architects. In every instance, we aim to add rather than detract from the existing built environment, taking into account the characteristics of the neighbourhood and the type of outlets with which we share the street. Within each store, we work with objects and materials that offer interesting possibilities because of their colour, texture or history.

In 2004, in the Melbourne bayside suburb of St Kilda, in an underground nook, we hosted our first in-store customers. The space – once a narrow ramp descending into an underground car park – set the benchmark for future structural ambitions, so that when it was proposed we craft the ceiling of Aesop Adelaide from 7560 amber glass bottles, few eyebrows were raised. Nor did we shy away from the architectural challenge of constructing a store with 400,000 sheets of reclaimed copies of the New York Times in New York's Nolita, or 3000 cardboard boxes – the kind used to ship our products – in the assemblage of Aesop Flinders Lane.

Our concern with design applies to our containers, labels and bamboo gift boxes also – all are highly functional and carefully considered objects, modest in appearance but the end result of much thinking. We believe unequivocally that good design can improve your life.