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At a time when experiential retail in Tokyo is having a moment, Kiko Kostadinov is right on the money. The London-based Bulgarian designer who heads up his eponymous fashion label will open his first store in the Japanese capital this Saturday.
Located on the ground floor of a brightly lit building just off Harajuku’s Cat Street, the store is approx. 100 square metres and represents the cult label’s first venture into physical retail. Carrying an equal split of the brand’s menswear and womenswear (the latter of which is designed by Laura and Deanna Fanning), it will feature store-exclusive colourways and materials of product drops, as well as ongoing collaborations and installations with global artists. “The space is designed to be like a gallery,” Kostadinov tells Vogue Business in an exclusive preview of the store.
Kostadinov tapped American artist Ryan Trecartin to design the space; for the first few months it will be spare and industrial — white walls, concrete floors, metal benches and scaffolding for rails. A ginormous concrete wall inside — a permanent fixture that spans the width of the store — was designed by architect designer Yusuke Seki and serves as a partition to hide all of the admin and organisation of the store to keep the front as immersive as possible.
This is just phase one. “In around three months, the space will change completely,” he says. Renderings of interiors by Trecartin will be used to decorate the current space as artwork (“it’s like a vision of the future for the space now”), while a large screen will play the artist’s films on a loop in the store. “There are a lot of layers to the space so that you can kind of get lost in it,” says Kostadinov.
Taking cues from tailoring, techwear and Y2K nostalgia, Kiko Kostadinov launched the brand in 2016, where it quickly rose to prominence among streetwise fashion insiders. Collaborations with Japanese performance brand Asics — notably the Gel-Burz sneakers — have burnished the hype, while the designer has also collaborated as a creative director on premium lines by British raincoat brand Mackintosh. Today, Kiko Kostadinov employs 20 people worldwide; growth is “healthy and organic”, with annual revenue at seven figures, according to the designer.
‘Not as scary as you’d think’
So, why Tokyo? “I would not know how to do it anywhere else at the moment,” says Kostadinov flatly. Compared to the physical retail landscape in London, for instance, where hostile rents make it all but impossible for younger designers to open up a debut store, Tokyo is much less intimidating. The designer mentions having to put down a 10-month deposit but concludes that “overall it’s a way friendlier experience than opening a store in London or in Europe [because] the rent is not as scary as you’d think”. While renting the retail space for a fashion store in central London can “easily be 15k” a month, Kostadinov says his Harajuku store is costing “even less than half of that”.
The designer secured the space in December last year and was “adamant” that it should be up and running within a few months. Whereas construction work in London can often leave expensive retail space closed for extended periods, Japan felt more reliable. “I know it will get done in time because people tend to be more serious about doing their jobs here,” he laughs.
The brand currently has 56 stockists worldwide, including three in Tokyo: Dover Street Market Ginza, GR8 in Harajuku’s Laforet mall, and Ware Mo Kou, a stylish select shop in Shibuya. Kostadinov says they have intentionally kept their wholesale account in Japan on a manageable scale. “There was a moment where we could have opened maybe like 30 accounts in Japan alone, but I didn’t want to fall into this way of working or relying on one particular country as our main customer,” he says.
With the brand currently making 17 per cent of its revenue in Japan, however, Kostadinov hopes the store will bolster this. “Our customer base [in Japan] is very strong, but this space is also intended to engage with new customers,” says Kostadinov, adding that he intends the store as a “semi-destination” for both locals and tourists. Next door is renowned select shop United Arrows, a Chrome Hearts store, and a throng of local restaurants and cafés. “I couldn’t be happier with the location,” he says.
Building on an existing network
Kostadinov’s strategy for the store has worked by leveraging his strong network of working relationships in Japan that the designer has built over the past decade. The aforementioned collaborations with Asics, whose HQ is in Kobe, have meant regular visits to Japan, while long-term Japanese staff on Kostadinov’s design team in London have helped indirectly familiarise things further.
Junsuke Yamasaki, the Japanese PR guru who represents the brand in Japan through his agency MATT., has been instrumental in securing the location and spreading the word of the brand in Japan, along with Hideo Hashiura, founder of influential concept store Laila Tokio. These local connections helped headhunt the four staff members who will run the new store; two men and two women who are already well-versed in the brand. “It’s very exciting to have people who know about the clothes and already wear them,” says Kostadinov.
Beyond the store’s dedicated Instagram, which Kostadinov has already made (“I was just really excited”), the strategy is to keep things physical rather than digital. “We won’t have an online store for Japan, but we’ll probably do orders by phone,” he says. Requests from local stylists can also be more easily fulfilled — while previously the brand didn’t keep samples in Japan, the store means there’s now a space they can offer that.
The designer’s main goal for the space is that it can be a place where the brand’s fans, whether new or experienced, will feel they can immerse themselves in his world. “In London we kind of rush through shopping, and think ‘I want this jacket’ and just go and buy it, but in Japan, I think people appreciate the space and the experience more,” he says. “I can see people coming here and actually enjoying it.”
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Correction: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Laila Tokio (21/3/24)
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