KUON Flagship Store (Harajuku, Tokyo) designed by Kanome — IDREIT®

Kanome has designed KUON Flagship Store, a men's fashion brand appreciating the history and culture of vintage clothes and textiles, in Harajuku Tokyo. They have renovated a traditional two-storied row house into a shop, with space for bespoke services. The designer Takao Kondo said that the two initial requests were to create a space that would welcome visitors from abroad and to express a modern Japanese style.

"Respecting KUON's philosophy of 'New things become old, but beautiful things remain beautiful', we wanted to utilize this old wooden building and create a space that was appropriate for their brand", Kondo also said.

When we asked the reason for using antique doors for the entrance, he replied, "It was a long and narrow space, so I came up with a design concept of a 'treasure house' where the treasure is located at the end of the shop. Based on that concept, we used a sturdy, traditional warehouse door. To make their clothes, they use a fabric called Boro, which is carefully reclaimed by artisans from vintage cloth. We set up a small room at the back of the store with such valuable vintage fabrics displayed on the walls, like a treasure trove".

They left the existing columns and flooring, and the shop was designed to be easy to walk around. Also, some of the columns and floors were finished in a white gradation, retaining the impression of the former white interior.

Kondo said, "For the bespoke space, we created a traditional Japanese room with tatami mats so that overseas guests can experience the Japanese style. Also, inspired by KUON's grid pattern weaving, we displayed their unique textiles on wooden lattices.

The store also features thoughtful details everywhere, like KUON's clothing.

Inspired by the samurai-like atmosphere of the members of KUON, the iron bar for hanging clothes was designed to look like a Japanese sword. Besides, the brand logo was engraved on the door handle screws.

"Although there were challenges due to the old building, we managed to create it with great attention to detail. Based on our sympathy for the brand philosophy, we were able to share our thoughts with the construction team, which led to a positive result," Kondo summarized the whole process.