Directory

Retail Directory 2009 

Yohji Yamamoto

Paris

Black is the shade most often associated with Yohji Yamamoto’s avant-garde fashion. But a white box has become the signature look style of his stores, such as the theatrical Paris flagship designed by British architect Sophie Hicks that opened last October at the corner of Rue Cambon and Rue du Mont Thabor. Along the façade, historical moldings frame large windows (some whitewashed), and translucent Japanese Shojigami paper is sculpted into three-dimensional triangles to create a delicate two-story curtain like a flock of birds. Just inside the entrance, these shapes reappear in dark chestnut wood along a passage to a gallery where floating, faceless mannequins model a selection of clothes. The floors are white concrete, flecked with bits of marble on swooping staircases that lead downstairs to the menswear or upstairs to the women’s. Clients can borrow individual rolling racks and fill them up as they browse, with collections from the main line, + Noir or exclusive items like small black wool trenchcoats for the most fashion-forward boys and girls. (A custom bridal service is also available.) Matte white tables display accessories, while a counter by the register allows for the Japanese custom of wrapping purchases in exquisitely folded silk tissue paper – black, of course.

4 rue Cambon
75001 Paris

www.yohjiyamamoto.co.jp