Cueing up future business expansion in the U.S., Yohji Yamamoto on Friday opened a new “concept” store at 52 Wooster Street in New York City.
The 1,600-square-foot unit showcases the Japanese designer’s main collections for women and men, as well as a number of lines including Y’s, the recently relaunched Y’s for Men and Limi Feu.
Also available here is the Wildside project, which features collaborations with the likes of Ambush, Supreme or Borsalino and will branch out beyond fashion.
This marks the return of Yohji Yamamoto to New York. A previous store located at the intersection of Mercer Grant streets opened in 1988 and shuttered in 2009.
Behind the brick facade with an 80-foot-long window, the longline store with high ceilings and an industrial feel also integrates a strong digital component.
A standout feature is the connection with The Shop Yohji Yamamoto, the online retail arm of the company offering the full complement of its brands. Consumers are able to connect with sales staff from the e-shop through one of the Wooster Street fitting rooms.
The store also has LED panels installed throughout that serve as a window into Yamamoto’s world view. For the opening, the panels display images of the fall 2023 men’s collection captured by fashion photographer Takay, a recurring collaborator of the brand.
Inside the Yohji Yamamoto “concept” store on Wooster Street.
Masahiro Noguchi/Courtesy of Yohji Yamamoto
The New York opening comes as the Japanese label steps up its retail development worldwide, with a raft of openings including in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Chengdu and Shenzhen in recent months. Further openings, in Shanghai and Beijing, are slated for 2024.
In Europe, the Yohji Yamamoto store on Rue Cambon in Paris reopened in January after a revamp, and the brand’s London store was relocated and reopened last March. Both retail outposts featured the new Power of the White Shirt line, focusing on his takes on this staple item, for men and women.
The designer also recently launched Y-3 Atelier, a line continuing his long-standing partnership with Adidas that parlays the patterns of Yamamoto’s runway pieces into items that cut closer to his namesake brand than ever.
