於永康街附近的信義路幽靜小巷內，有一獨特而雅緻的風格建築，外觀即讓人想趨前一窺究竟！工作室內陳列的人體模特兒，及特殊的建材用料，讓主體-「服裝」在此空間內都有彰顯其特質的舞台。這是「洪麗芬工作室」，一間設計感十足、有別於一般服飾店的工作室。

以服飾設計起家的洪麗芬，創立了Sophie HONG品牌服裝，由其獨力開發的”湘雲紗”絲質布料，構成她時裝作品的主體，利用此種布料加上許多精細紋路的設計，讓布料可展現其最本身具有的質感！憑其原創性極高的時裝風格及特殊的布材，使得Sophie HONG品牌躍然跨入國際時裝舞台，洪麗芬的服裝帶有中國文化歷史的風味，從其整體的剪裁、細部的扣鈕、編織等等，洪麗芬從生活中挖掘許多創作的題材，其服飾講求舒適自然，獨樹一格，成為台灣在國際服裝市場的指標！

「衣服主要是以實用功能為主，穿得舒適自在最重要。」洪麗芬說。每個人應該了解自我性格，再視個人需求購買衣服。穿出品味與個人特色才能發揮自我特性。

洪麗芬亦涉獵了多種藝術的領域，畫作、珠寶、裝置等等，美感的互通互融，激盪出優秀的作品。工作室的設計完全出自其手；當初在裝修這個空間時，拆除下來的鋼骨鐵條，正好給了她靈感；不如將之用來作成家具、飾品吧！保留鋼鐵最自然的狀態，加上應用功能性，就成了工作室內主要素材，與服裝的柔性風味正好成了強烈而衝突的美感！服裝還是主體，有了硬調的襯托，空間予人的視覺強度超乎預期！

工作室內澄黃壁面與馬賽克鮮豔的鋪排，令人目不暇給，卻無浮誇的感覺，在質地自然的水泥天地內，最時尚的與最質樸並列，空間即是最好的發聲體！

Sophie Hong should have opened her Paris boutique at the Palais Royal in one of the prestigious commercial galleries that line three sides of the site’s magnificent architectural ensemble ought not to come as a surprise. The Palais Royal, at once a garden, a park and a national monument, is something of an island in the heart of the city. A secret island which could well stand as a metaphor for Sophie Hong’s own island home, Taiwan.

Instead she chose the Galerie de Montpensier at the Palais Royal meant embracing not just a beautiful place but also a tradition going back to the creation of that place in the seventeenth century. Ever since Cardinal de Richelieu decided in 1629 to have it built (work was completed in 1636), the Palais Royal has always been a particularly animated space. Today it it is a classified as a ‘national domain’. Power and pleasure, politics and spectacle have always been a part of its history.

Sophie Hong’s shop, at number 3 of the Galerie de Montpensier, is very small: eleven square metres to be precise. The young architect and scenographer Nelson Wilmotte has reinvented and rethought the interior. He did not touch the the features that create the charm of these establishments: the ancient woodwork and the narrow shop-windows, some 50 centimeters deep, where Sophie Hong plans to display the small objects and jewellery that she also designs.

Nor did he alter the floor of black-and-white tiling, plain and authentic. His main preoccupation was the back wall. A large semi-opaque sheet of glass now shields its entire surface. Behind it is a set of screens onto which images can be projected. Images of model garments signed Sophie Hong. Past parades.

Landscapes. These moving images present a floating world which is never clearly visible but flickers continually behind the glass. In front of the glass are two supports spanning the room, one upright, the other on the floor. The clothes will hang here, a symphony of materials, tones, forms. As for trying those clothes on, the ingenious Nelson Wilmotte has devised a concealable cabin near the front of the shop; it has a double curtain and, when closed, occupies no more space than the pieces of wood furniture adjacent next to it. A black shutter in lacquered wood closes the shop off from the gallery without. The shop is in effect a cabinet of precious woods subtly lit by the play of the projected images behind the glass, the very fine natural light of the Palais Royal, and that of delicate lighting discreetly integrated into the overall effect.