Elevated Japanese streetwear brand Maison MIHARA YASUHIRO has recently inaugurated a concept store in the maze of alleyways of Tokyo‘s popular Harajuku shopping district. Called URA, meaning ‘backside’, ‘behind’, ‘opposite’, or ‘reverse’ in Japanese, the store quite aptly occupies a 47 sqm. (506 sq.ft.) space at the back of a five-storey office building erected in the late 1960s. The interior design, created by Hiroto Kubo and Irene Alonso of Tokyo-based interior design practice Insideout, blurs the boundaries between the inside and outside. A broad staircase leads downwards from street level where shoppers encounter a mirrored beam resting on two chunky rocks at either end, one inside, and the other outside, seemingly extending through the floor-to-ceiling glass front.
Inside, a ‘hollow’ glass beam structure, with a pebbles-covered base, is positioned diagonally right below, serving as a display, and two smaller versions are situated nearby. The metal-clad side wall of the URA boutique sees recessed shelving brimming with matching metal pots and a service station. Interestingly, just like conceptual art in public spaces, the ‘irrational volume with no specific function’ and ‘unnecessary margins’ of the store leave the room for flexible and signal its stature as an experimental retail concept. As it happens, URA carries a range of tightly curated products—herbal teas of Teamorrow, a brand of Maison MIHARA YASUHIRO‘s parent company SOSU, the fashion brand’s eco-friendly General Scale sneaker collection, and last but not least, KIGI‘s lifestyle items.
URA
Jingumae Building, 2-17-6 Jingumae , Level B1 (Harajuku)
Tokyo 150-0001
Telephone +81 3 64340026
Wed, Fri + Sat 12pm-8pm
Publishers Note
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