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.

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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.

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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

[SARA CONDE]