Harry Nuriev’s ‘Transformism’ Explores How Chess and Fragrance Unfold Over Time

Summary

• At Milan Design Week 2026, Harry Nuriev and Clive Christian Perfume present Transformism: A Silver Chessboard, where visitors can engage with a life‑size silver chessboard
• The installation merges fragrance identity with spatial art, exploring transformation through perception and interaction

During Milan Design Week 2026, designer Harry Nuriev of Crosby Studios unveiled Transformism: A Silver Chessboard, an immersive installation created in collaboration with Clive Christian Perfume.

Set within the historic Museo Bagatti Valsecchi, the installation reimagines familiar forms through scale, material, and context. The installation aims to translate the essence of the perfume brand into a spatial and emotional experience, extending the language of luxury beyond a physical product and into a felt atmosphere. Visitors are invited to move across a life‑size chessboard rendered entirely in silver, engaging directly with its minimal yet monumental geometry.

At the heart of the installation, the queens are crowned with motifs inspired by Clive Christian’s iconic perfume bottle, translating a defining brand symbol into sculptural presence. This interplay of object and symbol underscores the installation’s central theme: transformation through perception and interaction. Nuriev draws a parallel between the unfolding of a chess game and the layered evolution of fragrance, both experiences defined by sequence, tension and trace.

Transformism extends the ongoing creative dialogue between Clive Christian and Crosby Studios, following projects such as the brand’s flagship opening on New Bond Street in London. By merging luxury perfume identity with spatial art, the installation demonstrates how brand essence can move beyond product into atmosphere and experience. It embodies the idea that true luxury is not only seen but felt — an immersive environment where chess and fragrance converge as metaphors for presence and transformation.