As an advanced consumer market, Japan undeniably is a place to watch. The country’s fashion scene especially is known to be evolving at high speed, and top luxury brands from across the planet often launch initiatives here unlike anywhere else. The latest venture of Thom Browne falls into this category. The New York City-based fashion brand is raising its profile in an unexpected way, targeting its female fanbase with a branded shop-in-shop exclusively stocked with merely chocolates. Simply called Thom Browne Chocolate, it’s situated at Hankyu department store in Osaka, and is the first of its kind on the planet. Occupying a designated 30 sqm. (323 sq.ft.) space on the third floor, the chocolate shop sees a white marble-clad counter with glass top displaying various tasty chocolate concoctions, and is flanked by sleek cabinets and shelving.
The area is demarcated by louvered panels reminiscent of the office-inspired aesthetic of all Thom Browne retail spaces. The chocolate merchandise is a collab with Louis Sherry, a renowned chocolatier from the designer’s hometown of New York City, and presents artisanal chocolates in twelve different flavours. Obviously, the flown-in delicacies come at a price, but then again, they’re packaged in fancy Thom Browne boxes: 2 pieces for JPY 2,000, 12 pieces for JPY 5,500 and 24 pieces for JPY 9,500. The chocolate merchandise is presented with women’s bags and small leather goods, such as cutesy coin purses and key holders. High-profile Japanese twins and J-pop icons-turned-models Ami and Aya Suzuki a.k.a. AMIAYA are part of the local fanbase and attended the brand’s runway show in Paris earlier this year. Obviously, they were served as brand ambassadors during the recent official opening party of the Thom Brown Chocolate shop-in-shop.
Thom Browne Chocolate
Hankyu, 8-7 Kakuda-cho, Third Floor (Umeda)
530-0017 Osaka
Telephone: +81 6 63611381
Mon-Thu 10-8
Fri-Sat 10-9
Sun 10-8
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
