The recent arrival of Italian womenswear brand Plan C in Tokyo isn’t only indicative of the city’s stature as a global shopping destination, but once again confirms its maturity and sophistication as a consumer market. Based in the Renaissance city of Florence, the brand was founded only last year by Carolina Castiglioni, daughter of Marni founder Consuelo Castiglioni, offering classic silhouettes with distinctly contemporary tweaks and a certain playfulness. Plan C has launched its very first retail space in the Japanese capital’s upscale shopping district of Aoyama in collab with a local retail partner. The boutique occupies 100 sqm. (1,076 sq.ft.) ground floor unit at From 1st, a 1970s mixed-use complex with a striking Cubist-like red brick façade, and rubs shoulders with a string of other high-end fashion and lifestyle stores. Partially encased in glass, the design of the open plan retail space is a collaboration of Castiglioni and Florentine artist Duccio Maria Gambi, and takes cues from Plan C‘s showroom in Milan. The prominent display of pieces from Gambi’s Zuperfici collection – comprising of stone pieces that expose a raw inner core, and a contrarily, also surfaces clad in fabric and tiles – adds an artistic edge to the more polished backdrop of checkered laminated surfaces, coloured carpeting and laser-cut plates, and walls in colourful Mediterranean hues.
The eclectic palette is further boosted by robust concrete sales desks and dressing rooms captured by floor-to-ceiling leather cylinders. The use of plastic-laminated materials and the design of the hanging accessories are in fact inspired by designer and publisher Dino Gavina’s creations from the 1970s. Several of his interior design pieces can be found on the premises, and they’re matched with carefully sourced vintage items Castiglioni herself. Interestingly, all are available for purchase, including the orange armchairs, wood and brass bookcase, and smaller pieces. The newly opened Plan C boutique carries the brand’s women’s ready-to-wear and accessories collections, a series of limited edition styles exclusive to the store, and last but not least, custom jewellery pieces by Aliita, the jewellery brand of family member Cynthia Vilchez Castiglioni. Indicating Japan‘s significance to Plan C is the fact that simultaneously shop-in-shops have been opened in Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo‘s Ginza district, Hankyu department store in Osaka‘s Umeda district, and in Iwataya department store in Fukuoka.
Plan C
5-3-10 Minami Aoyama (Aoyama)
Tokyo 107-0062
Telephone: +81 3 64335528
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Publishers Note
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