The project is for a Nishijin textile store located in central Tokyo, a minute’s walk from Tokyo Station.

Fashion’s essence lies not in its functionality, such as protecting a body from the cold, but in materials’ uniqueness, like fabric’s shape, color, and texture, and an “illusion” that emerges when such materials are organically woven together. The idea led us to materialize this “illusion” through an architectural approach. The combination of 4-m-tall, 60-cm-deep triangular pillars covered with Nishijin textiles, a glossy baking-finished steel sheet facade, and cool-looking Greek marble weaves an aesthetic equilibrium.

When a human body is covered with clothes, it acquires an imaginary depth and breadth, although, physically, it is simply putting on some fabric. In this store, we incorporated abundant mirrors to amplify the spatial expansiveness and a white polished floor to reflect the natural light entering the space. The mixture of the real world glimpsed through the pillars and the views of these architectural elements creates an “illusion” of a space that does not exist physically, just like clothes do.

https://www.hosoo.co.jp/en/showroom/tokyo/