One of the joys of GINZA SIX is being able to experience the new work of world-class designers. The complex as a whole contains generous amounts of space, and visiting many of the stores feels just like visiting a gallery. Of these, I’ve selected one lifestyle store and one boutique with space designs I’d like to highlight.

Located on the fourth floor, Cibone Case is a Cibone spinoff, originally opened in Aoyama, Tokyo. While deftly incorporating the parent store’s refined aesthetic, the store here at GINZA SIX is rooted in Ginza’s international atmosphere. It offers chairs from Muller van Severen, an up-and-coming designer from Belgium, which are especially appealing for their industrial minimalism and unexpected color combinations. The overall impression is of encountering works of modern art.

The Aura chimes and Playscape mobiles from Brooklyn-based Ladies & Gentlemen Studio are the work of a two-person design team, who combine everyday materials by hand to create inspired designs. The chimes emit a soft ring with a rustic charm when moved by the breeze. Together with the team’s trademark mobiles, they infuse 80s-style forms and colors with the feel of today’s interiors.

This flower vase from the longstanding Danish brand Lyngby Porcelæn has been made since the 1930s. There’s a superb selection of colors and sizes. You can use a number of them together, and they offer a pictorial quality with or without flowers.

Two of the three items I’ve mentioned thus far are more than likely only available in Japan at Cibone at this time. And even overseas, you can find them at very few stores. In this sense, Cibone is ahead of the times. Another unique characteristic of the store is that each item is a type you become attached to over a period of time. In its commitment to uncovering the standards of tomorrow, the store exhibits a wonderful sense of balance.

Cibone Case’s interior was designed by Koichi Futatsumata. The uniquely shaped space offers ample space flowing laterally and is separated informally by voluminous walls and sliding shelves. The materials have been masterfully selected to create a beautiful finish that stays fresh in the eye.

This is the interior of the VALENTINO boutique, which occupies space from the first underground floor up to the fourth floor. When GINZA SIX first opened, it was this store’s space that really impressed me. The UK architect David Chipperfield currently plays a major role in the interior design of Valentino stores around the world, and its style gives off a sense of kinship to that of Yoshio Taniguchi, the architect who designed the exterior of the overall GINZA SIX complex. The boutique’s walls and floors are unified with a homogenous gray terrazzo (artificial stone), while effective use is made of Carrara marble, brass, oak, and other materials.

This space on the fourth floor displays the brand’s men’s shoes. The wall shelves are used throughout the store and are attached at the top to a ledge on the walls. The LEDs that illuminate the products are built into the shelves. I was surprised to learn that they can slide left and right, depending on the layout of the store displays, an example of Chipperfield’s distinctive ingenuity.

This shelf in the made-to-measure area on the fourth floor displays samples of shirt cuffs and collars. Almost all the shelves in the store are made of a brass frame and oak materials, but these shelf boards are wrapped in pure white leather, which accentuates the collars of the exquisite forms, as if they were objets d’art.

The oak furniture pieces are also Chipperfield originals. His distinctive minimalist forms are evident. Here, as you can see, the chairs fit perfectly just under the table. You can sit out here in the made-to-measure area to work out the details of your suit or shirt order.

Even if you don’t have a specific reason to, I recommend trying out the elevator that connects the floors inside the store. Other than the marble floor, everything is appointed in brass, like a golden tearoom. The approach is also made of marble.

This black leather lounge chair is a historic piece presented first in 1963 by renowned Danish furniture designer Børge Mogensen. Within this space of thoroughgoing stoic repose, the chair clearly conveys a perspective of items chosen for relaxation. And, of course, it radiates a consistent feel of quality and class that perfectly harmonizes with the rest of the interior.

One item that represents Valentino’s style especially well is the Camoustar bag, with its star and camouflage design. What I sense in the brand’s products is a true and deeply felt love of fashion and a sense of inquiry, which comes through even to a writer like me, who does not normally approach fashion. For example, camouflage is used by just about every brand, but Valentino’s pattern appears to me to be a highly sophisticated original.

The boutique’s design serves as a backdrop for various items that arrive each season while offering a wealth of architectural pleasures at the same time. Incidentally, while I wasn’t able to fully introduce them here, the all-marble stairs and unified gray fitting rooms are also not to be missed. “God is in the details” is the Golden Rule of modern architecture, and this is an ideal spot to experience the pleasure of its truth.

Author: Takahiro Tsuchida　Photographer: Kaori Imakiire　Editor: Yuka Okada