A Bathing Ape & Undercover: Back to Nowhere

15 years after starting their careers in a small store called Nowhere in Harajuku, Nigo of A Bathing Ape (BAPE) and Jun Takashi of Undercover have gotten together to once again open Nowhere. But this time instead of Tokyo, they opened it at Dover Street Market (DSM) in London. A temporary pop-up store was built inside DSM which sells items under the Nowhere label, with graphics on various shirt and crew necks depicting ‘Last Orgy 2′. ‘Last Orgy’ was the title of their column in a fashion magazine around the time they started Nowhere back in ‘93. The column originally written by Hiroshi Fujiwara and Takagi Kan of Major West fame.

People who follow this blog have seen the Undercover office and some of the BAPE stores covered in previous posts. I am truly a fan of their work and the indie spirit they represent. Who would’ve imagined 15 years ago that 2 independent creators would have so much impact in modern street and pop culture. And now that we are once again entering the recession, I hope that we can see more original and creative ideas, instead of the rehashed ones we keep seeing as of late.

Pictures from Nigo’s blog at Honeyee.com

Nike – The Five Video By 13th Witness

In another stunning video for Nike, 13th Witness aka Timothy Mcgurr aka the son of graffiti great Futura2000, shows us glimpse on how Nike products in used in different aspects of life and sports particularly, in an urban environment. This video was released in conjunction with the opening of the Nike Sportswear store in New York City.

Nike has been pushing the Nike Sportswear line aggressively throughout the world for the past few weeks, from big cities such as Tokyo, London and New York to even our own Manila and Asian neighbors Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, among others. This line replaces the Sport Culture line and focuses on products primarily used for an urban casual environment. Some of the products are backpacks, windbreakers and runners such as Air Max 90 model which was initially designed for sport functions, in this case, running, but like most sneakers was adopted by the city culture due to it’s comfort and great design.

As for 13th Witness, I’ve been a fan of his work ever since I came across his site before. He’s a great photographer and is slowly moving towards video as a new medium of work. I’m excited for what else he’s got in store. Glad to see that his work is getting appreciated.

Wonderwall Inc.

Today I want to share another design company. This time we are focusing on interior design. I would like to introduce to everybody, Wonderwall Inc.

Wonderwall Inc. is spearheaded by Masamichi Katayama. It’s the same company that’s responsible for the A Bathing Ape retail store Busy Work Shop in Japan, London, New York and Hong Kong. In fact, Nigo and Bape was one of their first customers and some could say, their claim to fame.

They have since then gone on to design various retail stores as well as restaurants. From APC to the Tokyo Curry House, Wonderwall Inc’s design concepts is all about breaking barriers while still taking in consideration everything that is important in any store. The Japanese are known for their focus on detail, it’s the same ideals for Wonderwall. From the type of lighting, materials, proportions as well as the actual experience of the store, all these elements come into play in their designs.

I felt it was only appropriate that the first masterpiece I should present is none other than the atelier of Wonderwall Inc.

Next up is one of the first projects of Wonderwall Inc.. The Busy Work Shop in Harajuku, it was originally built during 1998, but it has been recently renovated.

BUSY WORK SHOP HARAJUKU

For the Bape store, after discussions with Nigo, we decided to create a store that felt like a town within a building with an American diner flair. However, for the top floor, a sense of playfulness was added with a colonial style resort inspired space.

They also worked on the offices of Ogilvy & Mathers in Japan, as well as the retail store for A.P.C. Homme in Daikanyama.

OGILVY & MATHER JAPAN

These offices are located on the 25th floor of a large office building. A great view of the Tokyo landscape is incorporated into a common space connecting each division which can be used as a lounge, with a variety of randomly placed chairs.

A.P.C. HOMME DAIKANYAMA

Creating an impression of a space that had some big changes to the interior without actually making changes was an important factor in this project. The space has been restructured while revering the fact that it was cherished for a long time, with a garden as the entrance, with different rooms and space each with it’s own scenario of the A.P.C. world.

I felt it was only apt to end with another Bape store. This time we have the Bapexclusive store in Aoyama.

BAPEXCLUSIVE AOYAMA

For this project, Katayama wanted a coexistence of two opposing ideas; minimal and maximum. The ground floor is very minimal; a very controlled space made of pure-white grids of tiles. The second floor is a maxim space surrounded by walls of sneakers and floored with carpeting made of 10 colors. For the stairway which links the two floors, a lighting system and mirrors are utilized to change colors and allow the light to spill down to the ground floor. The conveyer belt for the sneakers on the 2nd floor is enclosed in a glass cylinder. The middle of the conveyer belt is open through the ground floor that allows one to view the rotating sneakers from below via the mirrored ceiling.

Store descriptions and pictures were courtesy of the Wonderwall website. You can see more of their designs and some bonus stuff in their website.

Hope you guys enjoyed this feature, I will try to share more cool stuff in the future.

Under Cover Japan

I’ve always liked looking at nice things, whether it’s girls, drawings, pictures, whatever.

Today, I shall share the office/laboratory of Under Cover in Tokyo, Japan. Now, what is Under Cover? Well those who follow Paris fashion shows should know the brand by now, headed by Jun Takashi. Well, no, I don’t follow fashion shows, but I know Jun Takashi because of his streetwear background.

In the early 90’s, Jun or Jonio as he is called, opened a shop named Nowhere in Harajuku. Together with his partner, Nigo, they sold limited and exclusive shirts designed and printed by themselves. And yes, it’s the same Nigo who is now the head of the multi-million A Bathing Ape label.

Without further ado, here are the pictures of the UC office. Designed by Klein Dytham architecture (KNa). Pictures and text also courtesy of KNa.

Undercover Lab is a building, which is undercover. Not only is it tucked away in the back streets of Harajuku but the site is also very deceiving. A 10m long narrow driveway leads to a 12m x 12m site at the rear.

The building houses a studio, press showroom, and office. A 20m long hanger rail to show the entire collection of one season was required. This is housed in a black tube running along the only 20m straight line on the site, which extends out over the entrance driveway. This cantilevered tube extends the building’s influence to the main street in a strong but stealth way.

The tube was made to look as anonymous as possible, almost like a shipping container where you have no idea of its contents. The tube also conjures up images of telescopes etc, which give the building a mysterious feel _ nobody knowing what quite is going on inside. So much so that some people may feel intimidated just walking under the tube if they are unannounced.