Kiko Kostadinov first visited Tokyo over ten years ago, when he was just finding his feet as a student at Central Saint Martins. ‘I was all alone with my Blackberry, trying to figure out how to locate stores and restaurants,’ he tells Wallpaper*. ‘I felt like I was on a different planet. Coming from London, I thought I was prepared for how hectic and chaotic a city can be, but I was very wrong.’
A decade – and many, many visits – later, and the Japanese metropolis is no longer a mystery to the Bulgarian designer. Now, it’s something of a second home for his cult London-based brand. Kostadinov has chosen the city as the location for his first ever permanent physical fashion store, which opened last week in the heart of Shibuya, just a stone’s throw from the beautiful chaos of the scramble crossing and Harajuku’s Cat Street, where the city’s alternative youth have gathered for decades.
Kiko Kostadinov’s first store, in Shibuya, Tokyo
‘It was a very easy decision to pick Japan as a place to start with a physical location,’ the designer says, explaining why Tokyo, rather than a European fashion capital like London or Paris, is where the brand just laid down roots with its new HQ. ‘In-store experiences are unmatched there.’ Practical reasons also made Tokyo a clear choice. Beyond comparatively affordable rents and quick construction lead times, Japan is home to a devoted Kiko customer base as well as years-long collaborator Asics, alongside which the designer has created innumerable releases of fluid, acridly-hued Asics and Kiko Kostadinov trainers that always sell out in seconds.
All this saw the stars align for Kostadinov’s brightly lit, 100 sq ft store, which was realised in less than a year under the sensitive, minimal hand of Tokyo designer Yusuke Seki. ’We started looking at potential locations last summer,’ Kostadinov says. ’It wasn’t the easiest picking spot due to locations getting rented very quickly, so the current space was decided without me physically seeing it. I planned my Christmas holiday around a site visit and after that we had only two months to complete the initial design.’
In keeping with Kostadinov’s intelligently off-kilter approach to clothing design – matched in equal force by the label’s womenswear directors, identical twins Laura and Deanna Fanning – the space is nothing like your average shop. Merging a retail experience with that of an art gallery, the store comprises two separate components: an austere concrete ‘outer vessel’ designed by Seki and his team, and an ever-evolving inner space that will house transient immersive installations led by a changing roster of artists. The thinking is to ‘pervert the traditional mould’, playing with a new way of experiencing the relationship between art and fashion.
’My brand is in a very free position to explore ideas without feeling outside pressure,’ the designer says, reflecting on the design process and opening a store in Tokyo – a city where beautiful, thoughtfully considered design feels part of everyday life. ’Seki works in many different ways, so it was very exciting to see his way of cutting the space and adding his touch with materials and sharp eye. He uses very subtle gestures combined with something more monumental.’
The first artist that Kostadinov has invited to participate is Ryan Trecartin, whose subversive image-led practice explores the fluid nature of identity and ideas of community. Alongside an exclusive release of apparel created with the brand, Trecartin has created a surreal ’pending place’, where digital rendering plans, scaffolding and other construction materials will be built upon in front of customers over the coming months. Visitors will be able to see the permanent installation take solid form as it is brought to life with the help of local Japanese artisans; it's set to be completed in summer 2024 in a compendium of film, objects and functional sculpture used as rails, tables and displays.
‘I’ve been a fan of Ryan since my student days, so the fact we ended up working together is pretty special for me,’ says Kostadinov of the artist, whom he met through mutual friend Al Morán, founder of Morán Morán Gallery. ‘His relationship with digital and physical space and work is very inspiring, considering how digitally we live currently.’
Though it’s only been a matter of days, the space already operates more like a living and breathing organism than a store. Like everything the Kiko Kostadinov brand produces, it presents an invitation to experience fashion, art and the spaces we inhabit differently – shaking us of the humdrum into a state of conscious curiosity. ‘I hope visitors are interested in learning about the ideas behind the space,’ the designer says. ’About the different areas and proposals – and what the next stage of the space will be.’
Kiko Kostadinov Tokyo Flagship, 2-32-3, Jingumae, Shibuya, Tokyo 160-0001, Japan.
