yohji yamamoto :: retail design :: 2020-2023 :: New York, NY

The Yohji Yamamoto Concept Store, located at the corner of Wooster and Broome Streets in the Soho district of Manhattan, represents a new way of thinking about retail space. In the era of online shopping the physical store has been reconsidered as a small, adaptable space that can be used for selling merchandise and also as an an event space for the Yohji Yamamoto brand. Adaptability of the space is accomplished in two main ways. First, through the use of mobile display fixtures that can be easily reconfigured or completely removed from the retail floor, and second through the visual media environment of the space.

Clothing display fixtures, including hanging bars and shelves, are on wheels and nest into each other. This allows them to be flexibly reconfigured as different collections and different lines within the Yohji Yamamoto brand are featured in the store. For events such as live fashion shows and parties that require a large empty space, most hanging bars and shelves can be nested into each other, rolled into an elevator, and stored in the basement. Other suspended hanging bars can be winched up to the ceiling to clear floor space.

A tilted LED wall running the entire length of the space creates an adaptable visual environment for the store. Depending on the particular clothing line on display, the type of event taking place, the time of day, the season, or any criteria set by Yojhi Yamamoto, the visual content shown on the screens can be changed to give the space a different character. The LED wall can be used to reinforce visual ideas of the clothing collection on display. Or it can be used to show live video from a Yohji Yamamoto fashion show occurring somewhere else in the world. The LED wall is highly visible through large windows lining the long, narrow space, giving this small-footprint store large visual impact on this busy Soho corner.

a/o design team :: Adam Dayem, Kyra Gregoire

multimedia design :: Panoramatiks

architectural consultant :: OSO

LED consultant :: Nova Vision NY

lighting designer :: Gary Gordon

contractor :: ICAM