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Fashion walk through
Louis Vuitton in Omotesando and Roppongi Architect: Jun Aoki Completed: 2002 (Omotesando), 2003 (Roppongi) Louis Vuitton has 48 stores in Japan, but its largest — and loudest — is on Omotesando Boulevard. Splashed all over the store front in bright neon colours are icons of the brand, including the famous LV monogram. Designed by Jun Aoki of Japan, this temple of luxury resembles a stack of LV’s iconic luggage trunks. Coincidentally, it stands next to a temple of a different sort — the Tokyo Union Church. Aoki, best known for designing the Fukushima Lagoon Museum, also designed the LV store in Roppongi. This has a decidedly more hi-tech feel: With two layers of glass on the exterior and mirrors in between, the elongated façade has the look of a massive, glittering TV monitor.
Tod’s in Omotesando Architect: Toyo Ito Completed: 2004 Japanese architect Toyo Ito has a string of prizes to his name, including the UK’s prestigious Royal Gold Medal, and is known for creating extremely conceptual architecture. He also has a definitive style, as can be seen at Tod’s in Omotesando. When asked to design the flagship building for the Italian leather goods maker, Ito drew inspiration from the tall elm trees lining the four-lane Omotesando Boulevard. The result: A sevenstorey glass tower wrapped in a concrete lattice that mimics the tree branches outside. The Tod’s store is particularly striking at night, when it is illuminated.
Armani Ginza Tower Architect: Massimiliano Fuksas Completed: 2007 It’s dark, glossy and Tokyo’s latest homage to all things Armani. The building’s maestro is Massimiliano Fuksas, who was also chosen by fashion doyen Giorgio Armani to design his flagship stores in Hong Kong, Shanghai and New York. The Italian architect gave the12-storey building an Oriental touch with bamboo motifs on the exterior, while the interior, featuring fashion, home furnishing, restaurant, bar and the world’s first Armani spa, was designed to reflect, in architecture, the essence of the fashion designer himself.
PICTURES: SUNITA SUE LENG
Tokyo
Designed by celebrity architects, the flagship stores of several luxury brands in Japan’s capital city have become showpieces in themselves
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hoes and jewellery are really not my thing and just looking at the price tags of most branded products gives me palpitations. However, on a recent trip to Tokyo, I spent an inordinate amount of precious holiday time checking out some really fancy luxury stores. I spent more time gazing at the outside of these stores than at the wares inside, though, gorgeous as they were. That’s because these are not your everyday stores. These lofty, shiny concoctions of world-famous architects and interior designers are so well-crafted that they have become architectural landmarks. No other metropolis does luxury retailing like Tokyo. This is, after all, the capital of a country that still rules the world when it comes to devouring luxury goods, despite over a decade of tough economic times. From Armani to Zegna, virtually every big name in fashion has set up shop here. At first, they converged in Ginza, home to some of Tokyo’s priciest real estate. But, in recent times, the fashion houses have widened their footprint to tree-lined Omotesando and the pulsating Roppongi, which also boasts three of the city’s best art museums and a high concentration of restaurants and nightspots. There are just too many of these edifices of luxury retailing to cover in one short trip, so here’s a sprinkling of the most eye-catching from all three shopping districts.
Sunita Sue Leng, previously an associate editor at The Edge Singapore, likes looking at buildings more than bags
Maison Hermès in Ginza Architect: Renzo Piano Completed: 2001 This flagship store of Hermès was one of first to revolutionise retailing in Ginza and, like Ginza itself, it now seems a little jaded against the newer shopping hot spots. However, this elegant tower remains a signature architectural work. Renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, who jointly designed the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, meshed thick squares of glass with flexible steel for the façade, allowing passers-by blurry views of Hermès’ legendary scarves and leather goods inside. The glass allows natural light into the building during the day and makes it glow from within at night. The 65,000 sq ft tower also houses a museum and space for artists to exhibit their works.
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