On the 12th, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings opened its new men's fashion select store, ISETAN SALONE MEN'S, in Tokyo's Marunouchi district. Located on the first floor of the Shin-Tokyo Building, formerly home to the Burberry Marunouchi store, the store boasts a sales floor area of approximately 900 square meters. Approximately 60 to 70 percent of the merchandise is spring collections. The store, designed with a Japanese-style interior décor, was designed by Hisanobu Tsujimura, a veteran designer with extensive experience at men's stores such as Strasburgo and Kiton. This is the largest store he has ever designed, blending modern materials and technology to create a "Japanese spirit, Western learning, elegance, and rationality" aesthetic. The interior, featuring plain wood fixtures, washi paper, and washed floors, utilizes traditional Japanese textures of wood, paper, and earth, showcasing the sophistication of Edo with Kyoto materials and craftsmanship.
The entrance area, which is designed to resemble the garden of a Japanese house, is filled with Nicolai Bergmann's flowers, fragrances, cosmetics, skincare, and other items featuring water and plants, creating a sense of movement like a pond. The waiting area for tea ceremonies also features a Four Nines (999.9) eyeglasses section, which, along with hats, offers the largest selection of glasses in the Marunouchi area.
Next to it, in a space designed to resemble a tea room, Jean-Paul Hevin has opened a new type of chocolate bar. The world's first chocolat chocolate, made with water instead of milk, is available exclusively here, catering to a "bitter" men's store and offering a "tea time" experience that can only be had here.
The business zone at the back of the store is positioned as a storehouse, with the order counter made of solid cedar and flat tiles, the floor covered in a small patterned rug with hand hooks, and the walls covered in handmade Japanese paper decorated with gold leaf and sand, all of which are reminiscent of a high-end sushi restaurant in Ginza. Compared to women's items, there is an overwhelmingly larger selection of MD, including shoes and shirts, which are presented in an organized and easy-to-see environment. The casual zone, designed as a separate building, has a luminous environment using glass, and features representative items from Thom Browne New York, Maison Margiela, Marc Jacobs, DSQUARED2, Maison Kitsuné, and Japanese brands such as Visvim, N.HOOLYWOOD UNDER SUMMIT WEAR, and Cornelian Tauraus by Daisuke Iwanaga, creating a brand lineup that resembles a digest version of the Shinjuku Men's Store. The façade facing the street features a steel object cut and welded into the shape of leaves, reminiscent of a hedge, decorating the show window. The hats are displayed in fixtures made from branches of Nishiyama trees from Kyoto encased in acrylic, reminiscent of garden plantings, in keeping with the structural style of Japanese houses.
*Next time, we'll be featuring interviews with Tsujimura Hisanobu, President Onishi, and others.
Text: Noda Tatsuya
