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 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.
Running alongside an edited selection of Comme des Garcons key pieces, items from British designer Christopher Nemeth, shoes from Daita Kimura and made to measure Comme des Garcons shirts - there will also be an exhibition of hand-blown glass objects from Pieke Bergmans; a series of vintage Stephen Jones 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.
A shot of the Trading Museum's entrance, featuring the two Beatles cabinets and Michael Howell's Cactus
A side view of the store's first alley, showing Stephen Jones's vintage cabinet
Stephen Jones's Trading Museum cabinet
A cabinet featuring pieces from Fleet Ilya of London and Christopher Nemeth
A Comme des Garcons Black cabinet, featuring a giant bearbrick standing on tins of apricot nectar
A back view of EGG's two cabinets
The view from back of the Trading Museum, featuring Pieke Bergman's glassware-filled cabinet
Maureen Doherty's EGG cabinet, the first showing of the designer's work outside of London
Maureen Doherty's EGG cabinet
Pieces from the Vintage Comme des Garçons collection
A view from behind of Maureen Doherty's EGG cabinet
Michael Howell's outlandish-looking cactus
ADDRESS
Comme des Garcons Trading Museum
Gyre Shopping centre
Omotesando
Tokyo
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