Gianfranco Ferré Inaugurates Ginza Boutique in Tokyo
@ 11:26 am January 31, 2008Filed under: Boutiques
Email This Post
Print This Post
Subscribe to our Feed
4comments
MILAN, Jan 31, 2008 / FW/ — Gianfranco Ferré is on a roll. Within one month, the Milan-based fashion house opened three freestanding stores, the latest being at the heart of Ginza, one of the most exclusive shopping places in Tokyo. A ten-storey futuristic tower spiraling around itself, overlooking Marronier Dori, the maison’s Ginza location is a megalopolis of unremitting evolution, itself the icon of the Gianfranco Ferré’s lifestyle.
Distinctive even in the modern Tokyo skyline, the retail location emits the aura of elegant austerity with its steel and glass façade that bounces references to an urban scenario defined by the striking concentration of architectonic installations.
It is an almost-natural milieu of the sophisticated appeal of the characteristic Gianfranco Ferré style. Ginza is an ideal location, really, for stating the brand’s objectives for the future, the multifaceted vitality of its development strategies, the determination to be the leader on the world luxury scenario.
Gianfranco Ferré’s new Ginza boutique is the corroboration symbolizing all this. It is the first “sign” of a global, renewed, reinforced mission, touching the important Japanese market first, for its traditional rapport with “Made in Italy” excellence.
With a total floor area of 400 square meters, arranged over three levels and connected by an airy staircase in full view, the boutique’s 12 meter-high “fumé” mirror wall with “Mosaïque” motifs is decorated with black/white Men’s and Women’s photographic images.
The ground floor is given over completely to accessories. Upstairs is set aside for women’s wear, with an alcove for eveningwear, and an authentic atelier area, for trying on the garments. Menswear is located in the basement.
The windows that face out onto Marronier Dori light up the entire ground floor, and the upstairs backdrops have a unique feel of transparencies at play with reflected light, achieved thanks to Plexiglas tube panels with satin nuances, lit from below and lined with semitransparent ivory gauffre silk drapes.
The partitions shielding the stairs and the changing rooms create an identical effect, with the quintessentially Italian calculated fusion of hi-tech elements and touches of opulence becoming a real architectonic leitmotif for the interiors.
The same osmosis between HD technology and timeless magnificence is evident in the lighting design criteria: the functional point-of-sale lamps rub shoulders with Venetian blown glass chandeliers, see-through or black, enhancing the areas dedicated to the more pondered purchase, the women’s wear changing hall, or the footwear changing room.
The use of black for chandeliers is one of the color inflections intentionally emphasized in the new boutique, offsetting a critical coherence with the palette already applied in the Florence, London and Rome stores.
For Tokyo, the black has sometimes been used for the ceiling, right in the “grooves” above the suspended parts of the false ceilings, accentuating the impression of floating. Black returns in the polished tops of a unique type of table with “invisible” Plexiglas supports, so they look like magical floating accessories showcases, playing their own role in the hide-and-seek effect of the frosted walls.
A deep, warm, exclusive shade of walnut has been chosen for the travertine flooring – once again, as Italian as can be – valorizing the alternating power contest going on between the black and the ivory. The marble is interspersed with “sectors” in black granite that features also the staircase.
All seating, sofas and poufs are upholstered in Gianfranco Ferré’s own fabrics, combining different materials – silk, velvet, grosgrain –, mixing and matching black and ivory stripes of differing widths, lengths and textures.
GIANFRANCO FERRE GINZA BOUTIQUE
2 – 5 – 11 GINZA�
CHUO-KU, TOKYO
Gianfranco Ferré Opens Boutique in Istanbul
@ 2:52 pm January 30, 2008Filed under: Boutiques
Email This Post
Print This Post
Subscribe to our Feed
1 comment so far
MILAN, Jan 30, 2008 / FW/ — Two weeks after opening a retail location in Tallin, Estonia, Gianfranco Ferré continues its expansion in Istanbul with a 200 square meters boutique in the city’s exclusive ‘Nisantasi’ mall.
A true meeting place of the East and the West, Istanbul is a metropolis with a history that dates back to 5500 BC. Once the capital of both the Roman and Byzantine Empires, the city is quintessentially cosmopolitan. In today’s world, Istanbul is also a place where modernity meets history.
As the new home of Gianfranco Ferré’s monobrand boutique, the retail location will offer women’s and men’s apparel and accessories. Like several of the company’s freestanding stores worldwide, the Istanbul boutique is “variation on a theme” of the label’s store concept. Colors and textures have been furthered refined, yet still reminiscent, even echo the concept that has enjoyed such appeal in Florence, Beirut, Hong Kong, London, Rome and Turin stores.
The walls are in ivory stucco with the inset wood furniture also in ivory and in polished black, trimmed in tone-on-tone leather. The beige highlights the brushed stone floors that “frame” black leather carpets.
The mirrors have lavish wengé frames. The seating is upholstered in Gianfranco Ferré fabrics, combining different materials – silk, velvet, grosgrain – mixed and matched in black and ivory stripes of various widths and textures.
The interior is cadenced in three rooms from the entrance, displaying accessories, men’s and women’s wear, with the latter enjoying the most discreet and intimate area. And thanks to a large double window and an equally large, striking single window, the store offers an entrance via the mall and a great view of the city from inside the store.
GIANFRANCO FERRE BOUTIQUE
CITY’S NISANTASI
TESVIKIYE CAD. 162 – Z-103
34367 NISANTASI - ISTANBUL1
Target Is Not As Chic & Trendy As You Think
@ 12:10 am January 29, 2008Filed under: Focal Point, Market Watch, Op-Ed
Email This Post
Print This Post
Subscribe to our Feed
1 comment so far
DALLAS, Jan 29, 2008 / FW/ — For the retailer that made high-street fashion affordable by collaborating with high street fashion designers like Luella and Proenza Schouler, their ‘chicness’ stops there. It seems that the cheap-chic retailer deems CUSTOMER SERVICE unfashionable.
In an article by the New York Times, “Target Tells a Blogger to Go Away”, wherein the retailer told one of its customers Amy Jussel, who just happen to be the founder of ShapingYouth.org, a blog about the impact of marketing on children that ‘Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets,’ when Ms. Jussel complained about the retailer’s advertising campaign.
The ad in question depicts a woman splayed across a big target pattern — the retailer’s emblem — with the bull’s-eye at her crotch.
And though ‘blogging’ is not really the issue here, but a customer’s complaint, the reaction of Target’s Public Relations department ‘TARGETING’ (pun intended) the blog and the blogger, obviously, the blogosphere did not like this one bit.
Personally, as a customer and an informed consumer, I do not appreciate the PR Department’s response to Amy Jussel either. In the retail sector, Customer Service is a very important aspect.
At Target, when customers come in, they are told they are GUESTS. With this faux pas by the retailer’s PR Department, the company’s efforts to make customers think that Target is a friendly place to shop has come to naught.
And, the irony of it all… though Target told the blogosphere that it is irrelevant, the company’s careless treatment of customer complaint just made the millions of bloggers unite, thus creating a force that they have to contend with.
To borrow from an old saying, the blogosphere is a sleeping giant and Target rudely woke it up!
Store Windows in Paris: A Closer Look at Louis Vuitton
@ 3:29 am January 28, 2008Filed under: Store Windows
Email This Post
Print This Post
Subscribe to our Feed
1 comment so far
PARIS, Jan 28, 2008 / FW/ — A closer look at the Louis Vuitton store window featured yesterday reveals a straight-forward presentation that is elegant in the simplicity of its execution. The signature Louis Vuitton bags are shown in two colors plus the matching wallet and pocketbooks. When the merchandise can speak for itself, as in the case for Louis Vuitton, extra props are not needed to catch a passerby’s attention.
Store Windows in Paris: Louis Vuitton
@ 2:29 am January 27, 2008Filed under: Store Windows
Email This Post
Print This Post
Subscribe to our Feed
2comments
PARIS, Jan 27, 2008 / FW/ — A far cry from its modern and glamorous sister at the Champs Elysée, the Louis Vuitton location at Saint-Germain-Des-Prés is reminiscent of the ‘old world’ Paris that has inspired masterpieces in literature and nurtured philosophical thoughts.
Two open-back windows in a wide storefront that reaches from floor to ceiling, one does not know where the city ends and the store begins. �