Loewe Revamps Tokyo Boutique With Reflective Tiles, a Giant Pumpkin and Picasso
MI CASA ES SU CASA: To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its arrival in Japan, Loewe will unveil on Saturday a grand revamp of its Omotesando store in Tokyo, filled with light, art and touches of nature.
Works from Pablo Picasso and Anthea Hamilton were selected by creative director Jonathan Anderson for the space, as well as Japanese botanical artist Tsubaki and bamboo artist Tanabe Chikuunsai.
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“This store is all about connecting with nature; I love the metallic silver tiles of the facade and wanted them to reflect the changing seasons of Tokyo,” Anderson told WWD.
The silver tiles he speaks of were handcrafted by Spanish artisans, in a nod to the house’s Madrid roots. They cover not only the fa?ade but the interior as well, mirroring the famous tree-lined street outside and bouncing beams of sunlight inside.
The Omotesando store originally opened in 2004, and redesigned by Anderson in 2014.
It was the very first outpost of Anderson’s Casa Loewe concept, in which the brand’s stores were reimagined as the home of a collector, filled with art and objects interspersed among the brand’s clothing and accessories.
The Japanese aesthetic traveled, with touches such as Ikebana flower arrangements transported to the LVMH Mo?t Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned brand’s boutiques around the world.
Another decade on, it is reopening with three stories and 5,000-square-feet of floor space in warm wood and poured concrete floors with touches of arts and crafts as well as Georgian architecture in its grand staircase.
The art pieces read like a gallerist’s dream. Hamilton’s Giant Pumpkin No.7, originally produced for the brand’s fall 2022 show will be on hand, alongside ceramics from Picasso, Bernard Leach and Lucie Rie.
Anderson handpicked the furniture pieces, too, featuring Gerrit Thomas Rietveld’s Utrecht and Steltman chairs, Axel Vervoordt’s floating stone table, George Nakashima’s Conoid chair and Gaetano Pesce’s Feltri chair. A Noguchi lamp also features.
Tsubaki created a botanical arrangement with living hardwood and ferns to reflect an Oyama, or small mountain, while bamboo artist Tanabe Chikuunsai created a boat-shaped flower basket sculpture for the space, titled Funagata Hanakago Amatsukaze.
Loewe’s collaboration with Japanese studio Suna Fujita will be available in the store. The artistic duo behind the label, Shohei Fujita and Chisato Yamano, look to animals and childhood memories in their works, and created a holiday collection including knitwear, bags, sneakers, small leather goods and accessories featuring hand-painted birds and bears.
They’ll also open a specialty candy shop featuring the collab characters just for the holidays, with the pop-up next door to the main store open until Dec. 26.
Omotesando will be the first Tokyo location of Loewe’s new ReCraft concept, with an in-house artisan available to offer care and repair of the brand’s leather goods.
The spring 2024 collection will pre-launch with the opening on Saturday, before rolling out worldwide on Nov. 16.
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