Yohji Yamamoto, Heaven by Marc Jacobs open new London stores

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Mar 14, 2023

Yohji Yamamoto has opened a new flagship in London, just a stone’s throw away from the designer's previous long-standing West End store.

The new location covers a big space on the corner of Conduit Street and Savile Row — the home of London tailoring — in a high-traffic location that’s also not far from either Regent Street or Bond Street.

His previous store was on the opposite corner of Conduit Street.

It benefits from very high ceilings and massive windows with more natural light flooding in. The minimalist design makes the most of the space and the colour white, contrasting with the sombre black of much of the collection on show.

And the opening comes as Yamamoto has two key products initiatives launching. One is on show in the store, his new Power of the White Shirt line, a crisp white shirt being a must-have against the stark black of many of his pieces.

It also comes as Yamamoto launches a new shoe in his long-term link-up with Adidas, the first footwear offering from their experimental new Y-3 Atelier line with the debut of the Y-3 Itogo.

Crafted from only five components, the shoe is made of elastic Strap, a knitted upper, Boost midsole, rubber cupsole and — of course — thread.

The companies said it’s “designed as a provocation to rethink the lifecycle of footwear, and forgoing the use of glue, each component is then assembled using a hand-stitched process – resulting in a silhouette that can be fully dismantled if the owner decides to cut the threads”.

London is seeing plenty of retail development at present with big chunks of some key shopping streets resembling a building site at times. 

There’s a new Gucci development being built on New Bond Street just along from Miu Miu and, in Soho, Heaven by Marc Jacobs has opened its first UK store on Brewer Street. 

The still-young brand (it only launched in 2020) has opened a pink-carpeted space that also features the neon lights for which Soho was once known (after all, it’s located under the sign for the notorious Raymond's Revue Bar).

There’s are posters, retro-inspired furnishings and an exclusive Deftones collaboration at launch with many more collabs to come.