The Comme des Garcons Trading Museum, Tokyo

Comme des Garcons SIX biblioteca
The Comme des Garcons SIX biblioteca, featuring all eight SIX magazines from the late 1980s and new SIX t shirts, which are available to buy
(Image credit: press)
By Jack Moss
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Whilst the creative minds at Comme des Garcons have never shied away from pushing the innovation envelope, the latest venture from Rei Kawakubo and her team looks set to raise the bar an extra few inches.

Kicking off the much-imitated pop-up trend with the Comme des Garcons (opens in new tab) guerrilla stores of 2005, the Tokyo-based house has since developed a whole host of innovative ways to engage.

As such, this winter, Comme des Garcons have stepped their groundbreaking retail agenda up another gear, with the ‘Trading Museum’ concept store in Omotesando, Toyko.

Taking the well-trod museum format and artfully combining it with a more established Comme des Garcons retail platform - the Trading Museum is set to offer Comme des Garcons customers a unique opportunity to browse curiosity-lined cabinets amid rails of some of the fashion world’s most covetable items.

Designed and conceived by Kawakubo, the space features eight expansive display cabinets on loan from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (opens in new tab).

Running alongside an edited selection of Comme des Garcons key pieces, items from British designer Christopher Nemeth (opens in new tab), shoes from Daita Kimura (opens in new tab) and made to measure Comme des Garcons shirts - there will also be an exhibition of hand-blown glass objects from Pieke Bergmans (opens in new tab); a series of vintage Stephen Jones (opens in new tab) hats and a selection of vintage Comme des Garcons pieces from the past forty years - to name but a few of the attractions on show.

Hailed as a space in which the art of ‘Just looking’ will be encouraged - the evocatively titled Comme des Garcons Trading Museum looks set to see in a welcome new era of retail engagement.

Trading Museum's entrance

A shot of the Trading Museum's entrance, featuring the two Beatles cabinets and Michael Howell's Cactus

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side view of the store's first alley

A side view of the store's first alley, showing Stephen Jones's vintage cabinet

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Trading Museum cabinet

Stephen Jones's Trading Museum cabinet

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cabinet featuring pieces from Fleet Ilya

A cabinet featuring pieces from Fleet Ilya of London and Christopher Nemeth

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Black cabinet

A Comme des Garcons Black cabinet, featuring a giant bearbrick standing on tins of apricot nectar

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EGG's two cabinets

A back view of EGG's two cabinets

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back of the Trading Museum

The view from back of the Trading Museum, featuring Pieke Bergman's glassware-filled cabinet

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EGG cabinet

Maureen Doherty's EGG cabinet, the first showing of the designer's work outside of London

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EGG cabinet

Maureen Doherty's EGG cabinet

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Vintage Comme des Garçons collection

Pieces from the Vintage Comme des Garçons collection

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Maureen Doherty's EGG cabinet

A view from behind of Maureen Doherty's EGG cabinet

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outlandish-looking cactus

Michael Howell's outlandish-looking cactus

(Image credit: press)

ADDRESS

Comme des Garcons Trading Museum
Gyre Shopping centre
Omotesando
Tokyo

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Jack Moss
Fashion Features Editor

Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*. Having previously held roles at 10, 10 Men and AnOther magazines, he joined the team in 2022. His work has a particular focus on the moments where fashion and style intersect with other creative disciplines – among them art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and profiling the industry’s leading figures and brands. 

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