japanese vintage store’s VIP room showcases clothing in sleek, exhibition-like display

vintage clothing preserved as sustainable entities

TEKI Design’s VIP room, created for LEAD, a retail company located in Hiroshima, Japan, is a space where shoppers can rediscover a sense of value for vintage clothes. In a renewal of the typical cluttered vintage store, architect Tatsuya Nishinaga instead creates a minimal, almost exhibition-like showcase to display and spotlight vintage clothing. In such stores a wide variety of products are often hung haphazardly and tightly together with no space between them, making it difficult to sift through the items and truly appreciate them. This tends to give the clothing the image of being cheap and easy to buy, devaluing them somewhat. TEKI Design aims to reimpose a sense of value with the new method of preserving and showcasing the used, vintage items in a way that they are presented more interestingly and accessibly, almost like works of art in a museum.

all photography by Tatsuya Tabii

teki design curates a museum-like vintage clothing store 

For the concept of the LEAD VIP room, Tatsuya Nishinaga positions ‘used’ clothing as ‘vintage’ clothing – something that is a sustainable entity to be valued, appreciated and preserved. Vintage items, as they are carefully passed down from generation to generation, increase in social value due to their historical background and rarity. As such, the curated display system spaces clothing uniformly along the walls of the sleek room, illuminated by moody directional accent lights and spotlights. The showcase guides an unobstructed route for people as they browse, allowing them to appreciate all of the clothing items relaxedly, at a glance and without the need to touch.

Jackets float delicately from high hangers and jeans are displayed spaciously along minimal shelves in a grid-like pattern. All items are positioned with even space between them, clearly in the direct line of sight of viewers, so that they each have their own dominating presence, like artworks in a museum. ‘Clothing will be treated as a more sustainable entity by being passed on carefully, not just worn out. I hope it will be such a place where we can rediscover the sense of value’, explains the Japanese architect and interior designer.

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project info:

name: LEAD VIP Room
architect: TEKI DESIGN

team: Tatsuya Nishinaga

location: Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan

total floor area: 23.0 sqm

construction: KPW

hardware: KAMO CRAFT

completion: 2022

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