The playful Elttob Tep store concept, opened little over a decade ago in Osaka as ISSEY MIYAKE‘s very first outpost in the Kansai region, has not only acquired a brand new guise, but now also presents all of its different lines to the local fanbase. The renewed store officially opens today and is now baptized ISSEY MIYAKE SEMBA, named after its location’s in the downtown neighbourhood of Minami Senba, occupies a whopping 828 sqm. (8,913 sq.ft.) spread over the ground floor and basement of low-rise 1980s office building. The interior design by Japanese art director Shingo Noma sees both floors completely stripped, featuring polished concrete floors, exposed ceilings and bare walls dipped in matching demure hues. A large chrome-plated faucet knob adorns the store’s façade and signals the design codes inside, and these are indeed whimsically bathroom-inspired.
In the middle of the space a large circular display cabinet is situated, surrounded by display tables and clothing racks incorporating water supply pipes as a decorative element. Seating comes in the form of soap-shaped benches. The basement section is home to a gallery space, and the inaugural show by Osaka-born illustrator and painter Seitaro Kudaro (1939) presents a series of works inspired by ships, and as an ode to acclaimed designer Shiro Kuramata (1934-1991), a number of three-dimensional acrylic works and a body of new paintings. As said, the ISSEY MIYAKE SEMBA store carries all of the fashion houses lines: ISSEY MIYAKE, ISSEY MIYAKE Men, Pleats Please ISSEY MIYAKE, Homme Plissé ISSEY MIYAKE, HaaT, me ISSEY MIYAKE, Bao Bao ISSEY MIYAKE and 132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE.
ISSEY MIYAKE SEMBA
4-11-28 Minami Senba (Shinsaibashi)
Osaka 542-0091
Telephone: +81 6 62518887
Daily 11-8
Publishers Note
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