‘Welcome to my room!’ Ramdane Touhami opens the doors to his new concept store in Tokyo

‘Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes; that is all we offer you,’ says Ramdane Touhami, the maverick creative director, who has recently opened a retail store of the same name in Tokyo. The name refers to printed media, music, colourful products and meticulously designed fashion collections and this is Touhami’s first outpost, following the opening of a mothership ‘Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes’ in October 2024 in Le Marais district of Paris, the city where Touhami’s creative agency Art Recherche Industrie is also based.

Located in the cosy Nakameguro neighbourhood near the Meguro River, with small boutiques, cafés and restaurants dotted around, the store is nestled among verdant American Sycamores. Spanning 45 sq m, it occupies the ground floor of a three-storey building painted in light green, with plans to open a café on the first floor and a gallery on the second floor. ‘My favourite brands, Mountain Research and The Nonnative, have stores nearby and many of my friends are around here, so when I spotted the vacant building while I was cycling I decided to become their neighbour,’ Touhami says with a smile.

Stepping into the store, visitors are greeted by a hut-like space surrounded with walls made from various types of wood veneer sourced from a lumberyard in Japan. Two massive audio speakers from Altec Lansing (renowned for their use in The Beatles' recordings) are mounted on the 4.5-metre-high ceiling. Music is a signature part of Touhami's spaces: ‘Most audio speakers are placed on the floor,’ he says. ‘But I wanted the sound to shower down like in a cinema.’

The store features Touhami’s original outdoor garments line Dei Drei Berge and rugs he designed for the Hotel Drei Berge, which opened in the Swiss mountains in 2023, alongside tableware used at the hotel, magazines by Touhami's publishing company Permanent Files and the Radical Media Archive-magazine documenting political graphics and propagandas. The curation is united by Touhami himself; he has poured his heart and soul into creating or selecting everything.

Touhami is a champion of Japanese craftsmanship and to credit the quality and provenance, he invests great attention in how his staff tell the stories behind the works for sale. ‘All our garments already have tags explaining in detail where the yarns are sourced, from which area and how the garments are made,’ he explains. ‘The store staff need to offer customers more, bringing to life why we are passionate about the items we sell, just as you talk to your friends about your favourite things,’ Touhami says. Among the 200 items on offer are a cashmere/cotton maximal button hoodie woven in Wakayama Prefecture with a 100-year-old balthazar loopwheel machine; and a multi-pocket blue shirt with intricate stitching made in Gifu Prefecture.

People often credit Touhami with creating a ‘new’ paradigm of shopping experience, but he shakes his head: ‘I'm not trying to create a new shopping experience. I wanted to do a cute little store in my favourite area. Did I need to do something spectacular to wow people? NO! I just wanted to do it perfectly.’ Accordingly, almost everything in the store is designed by Touhami with his office Art Recherche Industrie and made in Japan, from sweatshirts to shoes, and cups to trousers. ‘All the items are the result of tireless discussions and collaborations with Japanese factories,’ he says. ‘The store is a “gallery” for what we can achieve with Japanese people.’ Beyond a place to sell things; Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes feels like a communal space where Touhami's friends and neighbours gather. ‘Welcome to my room,’ Touhami says.

Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes

2-16-7, Aobadai Meguroku, Tokyo

Wcpj.jp